episode_0046

The forest northeast of the Kingdom of Zeoph.

It was a place where people normally wouldn’t go, but for some reason, people were walking along the unpaved dirt road.

Their demeanor was far from that of herbalists or lost people.

Two men in shiny armor and one woman in a revealing, light outfit.

They were dressed in holy armor and white robes, and they were the knights dispatched by the Church of Hedon and the saintess Angela.

“This forest really··· has too many monsters.”

The knight walking ahead grumbled and roughly pushed away the bushes.

As the knights were classified as priests, their speech and actions were somewhat rough, but this was unavoidable as they roamed the forest dragging their heavy armor.

No matter how much you train your physical abilities, you can’t avoid feeling uncomfortable or tired.

“If you’re tired, would you like to take a short break before leaving?”

Angela asked with concern, but the knights shook their heads.

“It’s okay. I’ve come this far anyway.”

“It would be better to finish the search quickly and go back. After all, we have the saint.”

“No, I’m the one who needs your help.”

Angela’s words were not empty words, they were sincere.

Divine magic had excellent abilities such as defense and healing, but had no offensive capabilities.

That’s why, when something dangerous happens, you need the power to use weapons like a paladin.

Even though she could unleash the most powerful divine magic in the sect, she had a hard time hunting down even one weak monster on her own.

“If a monster appears, leave it to us. We’ve been training for this moment.”

“No matter how many there are, stupid monsters are no match for us.”

The knights were confident.

Although they were only recently appointed as knights, they were proud to have been given the important task of guarding the saintess.

But looking at them, Angela felt a faint sense of unease.

‘No matter how strong the knights are, it will be difficult if an enemy appears that is difficult to defeat with a sword…’

The attitude of the knights was closer to arrogance than courage.

Angela knew it, but couldn’t bring herself to point it out.

In any case, if such an enemy appeared, there was no choice but to run away, and the defense and survivability of the paladins were so excellent that even minor mistakes would not be a problem.

Moreover, the advice that Angela, a pure priestess, could give to those who were closer to warriors was only boring.

“More than that, there’s something strange about this forest. Even if it’s inevitable that there are monsters everywhere, the types of monsters that appear are strange.”

“It definitely seems like only strangely strong monsters appear. Even in a forest where it’s hard for ordinary people to survive, this is severe.”

The knights’ opinion was correct.

Even though they had relatively little experience, they generally knew which monsters were strong and which were weak.

The monsters they’ve encountered so far have been relatively strong enough to survive by preying on other monsters.

Although there were areas that were mainly populated by strong monsters, the government also closely monitored and managed those areas.

But the forest they were walking through was merely a warning to nearby residents to be careful.

“It seems like something has happened. I hope it is resolved quickly so that the residents can sleep comfortably.”

The knight walking behind Angela’s worried face began to tell her whatever came to mind.

“Considering that all the guys that have appeared in nearby villages so far have been strong, isn’t it simply a lack of food? It’s too dangerous to eat each other, so they’ve moved out of the forest instead.”

“Certainly… That could be possible. But why is there suddenly a shortage of food?”

“That is··· Hmm··· I guess I’ll have to look for it now?”

The Paladin and Angela let out a small sigh.

Eventually, I had no choice but to wander the forest on foot to find the reason.

“What···! Over there···!”

“What’s wrong? What’s going on”

The paladin walking in front let out a surprised sound, and the paladin and Angela following behind looked in the direction he pointed.

There was an ordinary-looking cave, with two orcs and a goblin watching the net with sleepy faces.

“Orcs and goblins… They would normally be common monsters, but it’s the first time I’ve seen them in this forest.”

“I wonder if it has something to do with those guys standing over there?”

“They’re weak anyway, so let’s just destroy them and go inside to check!”

“Ouch···! Wait···”

Before Angela could stop them, the two knights were already charging forward confidently.

This was a conclusion reached based on the judgment that the crude weapons of the orcs and goblins could not cause damage to them, who were armed with heavy armor.

But the result was completely different from what they expected.

““Kueee―!””

“Kkiiik―! Kkiik―”

The monsters’ choice was to run away.

In the case of normal monsters, unless they were extremely large or overwhelming in terms of atmosphere, most of the time you would fight them head-on.

So the guys’ reaction was obviously strange.

But the knights who were already excited and rushing forward had no time to think about that.

“Don’t miss it!”

“I know!”

The two followed the monsters into the cave.

That’s why Angela had no choice but to follow them.

“Kkiiik―! ”

“Geuk··· Ugh···!”

When Angela met the paladins again, a goblin and an orc had fallen to their swords, and they were so excited that the joy of victory could be seen leaking out through their visors.

“Saint! Look here! It looks like the entrance to the dungeon!”

“I think we found the cause! Let’s go inside and check it out!”

For a moment, Angela hesitated.

As they said, there was a high possibility that the recent events and the dungeon were related.

But for some reason, a sense of unease made her feel ominous.

‘Hedon-nim… please protect us…’

In the end, she was left with only one choice.

Since we had originally come to find out the cause, backing down was not acceptable.

“Let’s go down and investigate. Be careful not to get separated, because you never know what might happen.”

Angela took her first cautious steps towards the dungeon.

However, compared to her cautious movements, the knights’ movements were full of arrogance.

‘I hope nothing happens.’

For some reason, the more she walked, the more the damp air of the dungeon seemed to envelop her.

*****

“Ugh··· Should I drink some water?”

As I got up from the bed, Aisha, who was lying down, made a small sound as if she was sleeping.

It wasn’t too much, since we were intertwined from last night until this morning.

I carefully left the room so as not to wake her, who seemed to be having a sweet dream.

“··· eon··· ga··· gandogganim···!”

As I was walking to get a drink of water, a familiar yet urgent voice came to my ear.

I turned my head in the direction of the sound and saw a face I had seen many times running towards me.

The one with the highest intelligence among the orcs stopped in front of me as if he would die at any moment.

“chi··· Intruder···! D··· came···! The other··· is··· dead···! ”

“Intruder?”

Since Amet had taught the language of security in as much detail as possible, it wasn’t that difficult to understand the meaning.

The problem was that an intruder had appeared.

No matter how powerful a monster is, it will fall into a trap once it enters a certain dungeon and die before long.

That meant the intruder was a pretty tricky guy.

“What kind of monster is that···”

“Ma···Right··· Ah···! Wrong···? This··· human···!”

Human. The words the guy spoke sounded ominous in my ears.

The fact that the intruder was human was in itself alarming.

“Are you saying that there’s a kid who comes into a dungeon like this in a forest where no one comes in?”

“The Paladin··· Hedon··· said···!”

“Fuck… why is a religious person coming here. ”

The situation was more serious than expected.

Hedon, a religious group in the Kingdom of Zeof that I had heard about from Aisha before.

It was clear that the local knight had invaded.

“Haa··· But since Aisha and Ahmet are here, will things work out somehow?”

I sighed and rolled my head. It was still not like there was no chance of winning.

A high elf with excellent magical abilities and a dragon hybrid with weakened but still powerful powers were powerful cards.

In addition, the fact that it was inside a dungeon built for defense also played a part.

“So how many people came in?”

“That··· That··· Man··· Man···! Woman···!”

“A woman? Then I guess I’ll have to put in some effort.”

As I moved my legs, the air of the dungeon felt pleasantly brushing against my skin.