Tutorial Area – 4

Including the charge pattern that was always used during the first encounter, the remaining four patterns appeared alternately during the boss battle, and the last one was what was about to begin now.

This was the so-called “last resort,” activated the moment the Human Butcher’s HP dropped below 10%. If you saw this pattern, it was practically as good as cleared.

The Human Butcher would draw blood from its own body, turn it into bombs, and hurl them at the player. Even just dodging them would cause your HP to drain automatically, right until your HP was precisely 1.

Once its HP dropped to 1, it would collapse from exhaustion, and the Human Butcher boss battle would end just by approaching it and lightly touching it with your bare hands or anything else.

Of course, as the phrase “practically cleared” implied, complacency was absolutely forbidden until the very end.

In the vanilla version, it would end after just a few rolls, but in Darkest Light Mode, it was a pattern that required desperately running and dodging every single projectile until the very last one.

ㅡKuaaaaaaak!!!!!!

The monster let out a long roar and then threw its blunt weapon to the ground. Then, it stomped its way to the center of the clearing and raked its body wildly with its sharpened claws.

Black blood streamed from the wounds torn by its claws. As another roar erupted, the spilled blood droplets began to coalesce near the monster into masses the size of a human head.

In the vanilla version, you only had to dodge about 9 to 10 projectiles, but in Darkest Light Mode, you had to dodge nearly 49 to 50. Instant death if even one hit you was just a bonus.

Furthermore, that, you couldn’t dodge it by rolling. Because you’d get hit by a bomb flying in during that brief post-delay while preparing for the next roll, and then you’d just drop dead.

After confirming that the blood droplets had coalesced into the shape of a human skull, I retreated to the wall of the clearing. Sticking close to the wall and circling counter-clockwise was the most reliable way to counter it.

The Human Butcher looked up at the sky and roared. The spherical blood bombs, coalesced into human skull shapes, were launched towards me, using that roar as a signal.

‘Counter-clockwise.’

Based on the Human Butcher’s position, the bombs on its right-which was my left-were fired first. So, to increase the impact distance even slightly, it was definitely correct to move counter-clockwise.

You could dodge them by moving clockwise too, but the impact distance of the bombs was infinitesimally shorter than when moving counter-clockwise, so sometimes, if you were incredibly unlucky, you’d get hit.

Taking such risks was out of the question.

Behind me, blood bombs slammed into the ground with thuds, creating massive acidic explosions. Black liquid spread everywhere, melting the walls and floor. I could easily imagine what the scene behind me looked like.

As I had almost completed one full circle of the clearing, I noticed the silence behind me and stopped. The Human Butcher, having exhausted all its strength, slumped to the ground, panting heavily.

I slowly approached, not letting my guard down. This was why I had mentioned 9 or 10, or 49 or 50 projectiles.

Sometimes, in this slumped state, it would launch one final blood bomb as a true last resort. If it launched it, it was 10 or 50 projectiles; if it didn’t, it was 9 or 49.

And as I feared, a sphere in the shape of a human skull once again appeared above its head.

‘As expected, there’s no harm in being careful.’

I saw the direction it was coming from and prepared to roll in the opposite direction. It was perfectly possible to dodge one projectile with a roll.

However, the last bomb didn’t fly towards me.

The blood bomb soared high into the sky, flew to the very top floor of the prison, and caused a massive explosion there. With a loud KWAANG! sound, half of the top floor was blown away.

The Human Butcher, having finished its last resort, seemed completely exhausted, slumping to the floor and panting. Now, all I had to do was approach it and lightly touch it with my bare hands or anything else, and the boss battle would be over.

“……What the-?”

But at that moment, I had no time to think about such things. Dumbfounded, I alternated my gaze between the Human Butcher slumped on the floor and the half-destroyed top floor of the prison.

This had never happened in the game.

As I stood frozen in shock at the unexpected situation unfolding before my eyes, a knight in armor leaped down from the top floor of the prison, piercing through the dust cloud.

Clink, the knight landed in the clearing with incredibly light movements, making only a faint metallic sound, and then stood up.

The silver armor, which should have been shining brilliantly, was covered in black blood and was melting, emitting smoke. It was heavily corroded in many places, having almost completely lost its function as armor.

Judging by its blood-soaked appearance, it seemed to have taken a direct hit from a blood bomb, yet its limbs were still intact. So, even if it was going to break, the armor had fulfilled its original role.

It was armor I remembered seeing, but somehow its appearance was quite different. As I tilted my head, feeling an unknown sense of incongruity, the knight walked towards me and muttered to themself.

“I never thought the last attack would fly this way. My mistake.”

A gender-neutral voice flowed from inside the heavily rusted and dirty silver helmet. Not only was the armor different from my memory, but the voice was also different from my memory.

Something was strange. Very strange.

“Did you defeat that thing alone?”

As the same question from the game came out, my mind snapped back. If this were the game, there would be options like “Yes” or “No,” but now I had to open my mouth and answer directly.

“That’s right.”

“……Remarkable.”

The knight observed the Human Butcher, which was slumped on the ground, panting and exhausted, then turned their head back towards me.

“It seems to still be alive. Aren’t you going to kill it? Since you defeated it, finishing it off must be your task.”

“Ah, yes. I will do it.”

I picked up the sword I had thrown to the ground. The monster showed no reaction even as I approached right in front of it. The knight stepped back a few paces and gave a slight nod.

I plunged the sword deep into its belly. The blade entered easily. The Human Butcher, having received the final blow, let out a dying roar, then swayed and toppled over diagonally.

In the game, when you killed an enemy, its corpse automatically disappeared and items dropped. I stared intently at its corpse, wondering if it would be the same here.

Bubbling, the area around the Human Butcher’s head began to melt, emitting bubbles and smoke. Underneath the corpse, liquefied flesh and black blood spread.

In the gaping hole left by the melting flesh, something sparkling was visible.

‘Is this how it works?’

I casually tossed aside the now useless steel sword and, being careful not to touch the flesh, gripped the sparkling object and pulled hard. It came out surprisingly easily.

What I held in my hand was a sword with a menacing red blade. I felt a sense of relief at its familiar appearance.

‘Now I can rest easy.’

This was the weapon I absolutely had to get. I had worried about what if the item didn’t drop, but it was an unnecessary concern.

The reason this weapon, called the Blood-Soaked Sword, was considered a cheat code for the early game was simple.

Despite being a weapon obtainable in the very early tutorial area, its damage was in no way inferior even when compared to weapons obtained in the mid-game.

As a trade-off, its stat correction values and enhancement growth rates were significantly lacking, making it less efficient over time. However, precisely because of this characteristic, its reputation as an early-game cheat code was even higher.

Anyway, you couldn’t properly enhance weapons in the early game, and character stats were at rock bottom, so a weapon with high raw damage and base stats was several times more advantageous.

You could cover your attack power with this one weapon, and redirect the stats you would have invested in strength to other main attributes. This single point alone drastically changed the stability of early-game builds.

Of course, considering stability was limited to the vanilla version. In Darkest Light Mode, where even being hit by a random mob on the street could kill you in one shot, this point was irrelevant.

As I turned back to the knight in silver armor, who had been observing the entire process while I held the Blood-Soaked Sword, a gender-neutral voice once again flowed from inside the helmet.

“That weapon-“

Before the knight could finish speaking, a loud crack echoed from the precariously holding helmet, and a large crack appeared. It seemed to have fulfilled its purpose by saving the wearer’s life and had reached the end of its lifespan.

The breaking of this NPC’s armor was something that hadn’t happened in the game, but it didn’t really matter. If I were to nitpick, I’d have to retrace everything from the last blood bomb flying in a different direction.

Anyway, the broad outline of the story didn’t seem to have changed. I could just consider it as realism being added, like the stab wound on the Human Butcher’s belly or the floor shattering when it stomped its foot.

The knight clicked their tongue, then grabbed the helmet, which was about to split in half, and tore it off directly. The half-broken helmet piece clattered and rolled across the floor.

Hidden inside, long, silver hair cascaded down, flowing freely.

‘……Wait, what? Long, straight hair?’

As I paused for a moment, taken aback by the unexpected sight, my eyes met the knight’s.

Silver eyes, the same color as the hair, and a face of beauty that could objectively and subjectively be called flawless, gazed back at me.

Yes, inside the armor was a young woman.

Not a middle-aged man, as in my memory of the NPC.