Chapter 10: Resolve (3)

I definitely used the skill, but there’s no reaction.

I was wondering if I should withdraw the hand I had extended out of confusion.

“Hmm…?”

After about 30 seconds, a change finally occurred in the Gnoll corpse.

Crack

The Gnoll’s belly hide split a little.

Then, a small lump of blood suddenly popped out.

“Huh?”

Jang Ho-seop, startled, craned his neck.

Thump

The piece that popped out was drawn into my hand.

It had a hard texture.

After wiping off the green blood, it really did look like a stone, just as Jang Ho-seop had said.

“Is this a Magic Stone?”

“Probably… I’ve never seen one in person before either.”

“What’s it used for, and how do you use it?”

“That depends on the setting…”

Only questions filled my mind.

I don’t even know why I got a skill like this.

“Anyway, this came out of the monster’s stomach, right?”

“Yes.”

“Should we cut open its belly? Can’t we get it even without the skill?”

“Huh? You’re right. That might be possible.”

“Exactly. Let’s cut it open.”

Jang Ho-seop stared at me blankly.

I gestured with my chin towards his small knife.

“Huh? Ah… Ah, yes.”

Jang Ho-seop went over to another Gnoll corpse, his face deeply scrunched up.

We were moving around wearing disposable masks and gloves.

It’s because the paths are dirty, and the smell is unpleasant.

We also have gas masks, but there aren’t many, so we’re saving them.

“Ugh. Gaaag.”

Jang Ho-seop cut open the Gnoll’s abdomen and immediately stood up and ran away.

He turned his back to me, gagging as if he was about to vomit.

“Don’t throw up.”

I said to Jang Ho-seop’s back.

Right now, even vomiting is a luxury for us.

“Boss…”

I also took out a small knife and positioned myself in front of the Gnoll corpse.

Jang Ho-seop barely suppressed his vomit and spoke to me.

“Now’s the time. I think we need to wear gas masks.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“No, really, it felt like some kind of gas hit my face.”

No visible gas was actually leaking from the corpse.

After a moment’s thought, I took out a sports towel.

I wrapped it over my mask like a bandana.

Then, I cut open the Gnoll’s belly hide.

“See? I was right, wasn’t I?”

I covered my nose and mouth tightly, enough to make breathing uncomfortable.

Even so, an indescribably foul stench assaulted my nostrils.

‘The skeletal structure is similar.’

Ignoring Jang Ho-seop, I observed the corpse.

The Gnoll’s bone structure was similar to that of common vertebrates I knew.

‘Ribs… this is the pelvis. There are no separate bones encasing the abdominal organs.’

When I used ‘Magic Stone Extraction’, the Gnoll’s belly hide had torn slightly.

In human terms, it’s the area below the solar plexus.

I cut open a similar area by rough estimation, but nothing was immediately visible.

“No, Boss? Are you okay? Ugh?!”

Jang Ho-seop came next to me, caught a whiff of the smell, and recoiled in horror.

“Haa. What’s with him? Is it because he’s so tough?”

Then he muttered as he stepped back.

“This looks like the stomach. Could the Magic Stone be inside an organ?”

“Uh… wouldn’t it be separate?”

“Probably, right?”

Two bulging sacs were visible.

Both seemed to be the Gnoll’s digestive organs.

Taking Jang Ho-seop’s opinion into account, I rummaged through the inside of the corpse.

It was hard to see, so I applied more force and cut the Gnoll’s belly hide wider.

Stab Rip

As I tore the peritoneum, murky green organs spilled out.

I diligently searched for the Magic Stone, pushing aside those organs with my knife.

“Nngh… Retchhh.”

Jang Ho-seop finally vomited.
It truly was an unbearable smell.

Still, as a result of diligently searching the Gnoll corpse while grimacing.

“Found it.”

---

Together with Jang Ho-seop, I cut open three Gnoll corpses.

All of them were adult female Gnoll corpses, and they all had Magic Stones.

“Boss… I’m sorry.”

Jang Ho-seop suddenly apologized.

He was completely intimidated.

“For what?”

“Aren’t you angry? Because I threw up…”

“I’m not angry. It’s a physiological reaction.”

Despite struggling, Jang Ho-seop diligently searched the Gnoll corpses.

As a result, he found one Magic Stone on his own.

“It’s just that you kept frowning… and you weren’t saying anything.”

“Because the smell is terrible.”

“Ah… Yes. So you’re really not angry?”

Although his speed was slow, I wasn’t angry about that.

I think Jang Ho-seop is working hard and doing well.

“I told you I’m not.”

“Yes, sir! But about the Magic Stones we extracted manually.”

When I answered no again, Jang Ho-seop’s tone of voice became more animated.

Then, looking at the four Magic Stones that had been wiped clean of blood and laid out, he spoke.

“Don’t they seem a bit small?”

“You’re right. They are a bit small.”

The Magic Stone extracted with the skill is slightly larger than the other Magic Stones.

“Boss, your new skill seems amazing too!”

Jang Ho-seop chattered excitedly.

“Using Magic Stone Extraction is so much cleaner. And the Magic Stone is bigger too.”

“I get that it’s cleaner… but isn’t the Magic Stone size just a coincidence?”

“It’s not certain yet. But if the Magic Stones obtained through extraction are consistently larger than the manually collected ones… that would be truly awesome.”

The fact that it can cleanly extract only the Magic Stone in 30 seconds.

The fact that Magic Stones obtained through extraction seem larger.

Jang Ho-seop prattled on about these advantages, almost as if worshiping them.

However, for that to be an advantage, one precondition is necessary.

“The skill is only useful if the Magic Stones are useful…”

“I’ll use a Magic Stone for the next information check. But it’s obvious. Magic Stones are definitely going to be useful.”

Jang Ho-seop was confident.

After saying I understood, I went to the Gnoll cub’s corpse.

Magic Stones are small in size and light in weight.

So, even without knowing their use yet, collecting Magic Stones themselves isn’t difficult.

“Boss?”

I extended my hand over the Gnoll cub’s corpse.

But I couldn’t utter the command.

“It’s not working.”

I felt like I couldn’t use the skill.

“Huh? Ah… Do Gnoll cubs not have Magic Stones?”

“Well… I’m not sure.”

After a moment’s thought, I decided to check directly.

I told Jang Ho-seop to open up the Gnoll cub’s corpse.

“Okay. Phew…”

Then, I headed towards the area where human corpses were gathered.

‘Will this work?’

Even if Jang Ho-seop’s guess was true, I still wasn’t very pleased with my second general skill.

Magic Stone Extraction is merely convenient.

Because it’s possible to obtain Magic Stones even without the skill.

Also, even if the Magic Stones extracted using the skill are genuinely larger than those collected manually, the difference might not be significant.

So, I really hope my thoughts are correct.

“Magic Stone Extraction.”

I extended my hand over a man’s corpse and said it softly.

I felt a sensation similar to when I used the skill on the Gnoll corpse.

“Boss? What are you doing?”

A moment later.

“Wha—? F*ck…”

Amazingly, the corpse’s abdomen split open, and a small Magic Stone popped out.

It was much smaller than a Gnoll’s Magic Stone.

“So it works.”

My Fundamental Skill says I can gain experience from all enemies.

And humans are included in ‘all enemies.’

It’s the same for Magic Stone Extraction.

It said I could extract Magic Stones from all enemies, so I tried using the skill on a human corpse, and a Magic Stone really did pop out.

“No way… This can’t be right. Magic Stones are like monster cores…”

Jang Ho-seop was confused.

Listening to his murmuring, I tried the skill on the remaining corpses.

“Looks like there are conditions?”

From this large pile of corpses, I only managed to get three Magic Stones.

“It seems they only come from Awakened people, right?”

I said, looking at Jang Ho-seop.

“Huh? Uh… I think so?”

Jang Ho-seop looked at me, then hastily averted his gaze.

“But you’ve only cut open one so far, huh?”

I walked towards Jang Ho-seop to help with checking the Gnoll cub corpse.

At that, Jang Ho-seop jumped back in surprise.

“B-Boss! No! I’ll do it quickly…”

While tightly covering his own solar plexus with both hands.

I was dumbfounded.

---

Jang Ho-seop really seems to be a peculiar guy.

‘It was because he was afraid I might use the skill on him.’

He said he freaked out thinking I would use Magic Stone Extraction on him.

I told him the skill couldn’t be used on living people.

Even so, he still occasionally glances at me warily.

I don’t know what he really thinks of me.

‘Is it me… No, is it the skill itself that’s scary?’

We’ve left the Gnoll habitat and are currently on the move.

We came down from the Olympic Expressway.

‘Walking there is more comfortable.’

Moving between collapsed buildings is much more physically demanding than walking on flat ground.

You have to watch your step, and there are many instances where you need to get over obstacles.

The Olympic Expressway has less of that burden, but instead, the view is wide open.

Our movements would be easily spotted even from a distance.

‘There are no people wandering around at all either.’

So far, I haven’t met a single person moving about.

I’ve made eye contact a few times with people hiding in intact buildings and looking out the windows.

And it’s the same for monsters; they aren’t roaming around either.

Is it because they don’t need to hunt for food right away?

“Boss.”

While walking and surveying our surroundings.

Jang Ho-seop called me in a low voice.

“Use Invisibility and follow me.”

“Okay.”

I found our primary destination.

A police substation.

The pharmacist had told us about the main facilities in the vicinity.

We chose the local police substation among them as our primary destination.

Fortunately, the police substation building hadn’t collapsed and was intact.

‘Monsters… Are there none?’

It was a small, single-building police substation.

I circled the building, following its walls.

Even from outside, I could sense presences inside the building using Target Detection.

“No one’s here.”

I entered the police substation building.

Jang Ho-seop deactivated his Invisibility and appeared.

“It looks like something happened here, though.”

There were no people or monsters, but the inside was a mess.

The glass door was broken, and the circuit breaker was bent, halfway down.

Bloodstains were also left in various places.

“Do you think there are any weapons left?”

“We’ll have to look.”

The reason we chose this place as our primary destination was to secure weapons.

Handguns, Tasers, batons, etc.

I expected there would be many useful things at the police substation.

“Boss. I think it’s here.”

I found a steel door that anyone would recognize as an armory entrance.

The building itself was small, so we found it quickly.

The door was open.

“Ooh.”

Jang Ho-seop exclaimed in admiration upon entering the narrow armory.

It was because the storage lockers were also open.

“Wow… So this is what it looks like. It’s my first time seeing it in real life.”

Several handguns and live ammunition remained in the steel lockers.

Not only that, but there were also gas guns and Tasers.

It was well-organized, and a few spots were empty.

Together with Jang Ho-seop, I examined the handguns first.

The handguns stored here were revolvers and held 6 bullets.

Click

It was my first time seeing a handgun too.

Still, loading it wasn’t difficult.

It had an intuitive design where you could pull a lever to open the cylinder.

The ammunition, live rounds and blanks, were also well-separated.

“Ah~ like this. Boss, are you going to try firing it right away?”

“Because of the sound.”

“Ah, right. The sound will be really loud, won’t it?”

Monsters might come if they hear the gunshot.

“Let’s try the other things first.”

“Okay.”

I wasn’t sure how loud the gas gun would be.

After discussing it, we decided to try the Taser first and struggled with it for a while.

“Boss. Don’t you think this is broken?”

“Maybe. It seems like we inserted it correctly.”

“The light at the bottom isn’t turning on either.”

Neither of us had any knowledge about Tasers.

Even so, it didn’t seem like a particularly difficult item to handle.

“Wow, d*mn. None of them are working?”

“Let’s try firing the gas gun.”

Following the Taser, the gas gun also wouldn’t fire.

After some thought, I tried firing the handgun out the window.

Click

“Boss. This… somehow…”
“Yeah.”

Not a single weapon we found at the police substation was in working order.

---

The conclusion Jang Ho-seop and I reached was this.

‘Penalty.’

There’s a chance all the firearms we found in the armory were broken.
But what were the odds of that?

Jang Ho-seop had once asked what it would be like if electricity disappeared.

It seemed the penalty didn’t end there.

We believe one of the penalties against humanity is the restriction on using weapons.

“It’s a relief we at least found clean clothes.”

Jang Ho-seop, who had changed into a blue police uniform.

He said he liked it because it had many pockets and even put on a vest.

He even found and wore a hat.

Same for me.

I found a police uniform in my size in the locker room.

I just discarded the clothes dirtied from battle and also packed a spare set of cleanly laundered sportswear.

“Ah, but wearing this on my waist, it’s surprisingly heavy.”

We didn’t just change clothes.

We also took items like handcuffs and a multi-purpose utility belt.

We also took the handguns and ammunition, just in case, preparing for any possibility.

“Phew… This is our last lunchbox.”

After finishing our scavenging.

Jang Ho-seop and I sat side-by-side eating cold lunchboxes.

The contents were all mixed up.

Even this was something to be grateful for.

“What are we going to do for food from now on?”

So far, I haven’t seen a single working refrigerator.

Naturally, food will spoil quickly.

“We’ll have to endure as long as possible. With long-lasting foods.”

“Yes… We have to. But it just feels so hopeless.”

Thinking about the future, it was incredibly bleak.

Nevertheless, suicide, despite the hopelessness Jang Ho-seop expressed, was not the answer.

“If it really comes down to it, we’ll have to resort to eating monster meat.”

“Huh…? You’re right, Boss… Phew. But the smell is so bad. Just imagining it is tormenting.”

After finishing our meal, Jang Ho-seop and I shared a lukewarm canned coffee.

The jumbled lunchbox was merely a means to replenish energy, but the canned coffee was surprisingly tasty.

---

Late afternoon.

We arrived before the sun set.

Our destination was a 10-story building.

Its large signboard read:

Ssuk Ssuk Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Postpartum Care Center.

It had withstood the earthquake well, without collapsing.

Gulp

Jang Ho-seop swallowed dryly, his expression stiff.

Because this was the workplace of his mother.

“Let’s go. Stay sharp.”

“Okay.”

We entered through the main entrance.

The first-floor lobby was filled with dried blood.