NSE-Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Normally, an Orc Royal Guard’s Level reaches 250.

Just counting the Stats from Level alone, that amounted to 250 in every Stat.

On top of that, true to Orcs who love fighting, they tended to fight tough and well.

‘On top of that, these guys.’

They were far stronger even than the ordinary Royal Guards he knew.

He had a guess as to why.

The Orc Hero pressing Cedric.

Just as that guy was probably tremendously powerful, some kind of correction must have been applied to these guys too.

‘Level 300? Seems to be around that, probably.’

He lightly deflected the incoming glaive with his sword. After taking it with far less force, he immediately swung his sword.

The Orc, eyes widened, hurriedly raised one arm.

Slash!

The blade lodged slightly in the guy’s solid bone.

A fountain of blood shot up.

‘Shallow.’

His Stats had risen considerably from doping.

But the weapon wasn’t good.

It cut through the skin but couldn’t sever the bone.

Meanwhile, the glaive lunged in.

Letting go of the sword, he rolled across the floor.

The Royal Guard’s body, about to kick in a fury, staggered.

‘I didn’t boost my Magic Power for nothing.’

Skeletons are summoned from the ground up. The hands of the Skeletons that rose that way were gripping the Royal Guard’s legs tightly.

Graagh!

The Royal Guard, eyes reddened as if annoyed, stomped on the Skeletons.

Against the overwhelming Level gap, the Skeletons shattered helplessly.

But the Skeletons being summoned were far more numerous.

[Opening the Spatial Ring(Mid-Tier)!]

Equipment that burst out of the ring was scattered all over the floor.

Skeletons that quickly grabbed weapons charged in from all sides.

With the overwhelming Level gap, even using weapons they wouldn’t deal major damage, but.

Still, it would sting all over.

Stabbing all over the body, thrust after thrust, and.

On top of that, Skeletons clung tenaciously to the hand holding the glaive.

Before he knew it, Min-woo’s hand held a hammer he had taken out of his Inventory.

‘Try blocking this too.’

He brought the hammer down on the guy’s face with all his might.

The Orc instinctively raised its arm.

That arm already had the sword lodged in it.

The hammer smashed down cleanly on the sword.

Clang!

The sword sank in with a thrust, and one of the Orc’s arms was cut off.

Graagh!

Normally it would clutch the severed arm in agony, but this one-armed Orc was different.

Instead, eyes turning bright red, it stepped forward and swung its glaive.

He blocked in front with the hammer.

Clank!

Sparks flew and his body was pushed back.

‘This is why Orcs are tough.’

Even when wounded, they never stop.

‘But that’s actually good.’

Because their movements are easy to read.

Behind the guy’s back, Skeletons were already jabbing their weapons in, thrust after thrust.

With it in a completely defenseless state, the damage would land quite well.

Even so, true to an Orc, its gaze was fixed only on him.

He deflected the attacks several times.

‘Slowly.’

In battle, the hasty side loses.

Like that Orc.

The Orc, charging like a bull, flung the glaive.

He twisted his face away.

The glaive flew off viciously, slightly grazing his cheek.

In the meantime, the Orc, arms spread wide, leapt in with all its might.

A good judgment.

It must have figured that fighting against weapons was troublesome. So it was probably trying to grab him first.

‘But, you know…….’

[Using Evil Eye of Terror(F)!]

[Using Haste(F)!]

Just an instant.

The Orc, flinching slightly at the evil eye.

And on top of that, his own speed, slightly faster.

That razor-thin difference decided the outcome. The brutish grip brushed past by a single finger’s width.

He drove the hammer down onto the Orc’s bewildered face. A blow with the momentum of its leap added to the force of his own swing.

The Orc’s face was properly crushed.

‘I can read all of it.’

Did it think he had only fought Orcs once or twice until now?

They’re regular Gate monsters, after all.

On top of that, Kim Min-woo right now was at his ‘best.’

That horrific talentlessness was gone.

Skeletons swarmed over the Orc wailing mournfully. After a few weapon strikes, the strength drained from its body.

[You have won a battle against a monster with an overwhelming gap!]

[You acquire the Title ‘Hunter of the Strong’!]

That was the moment.

Graaaaaaagh!

[The Orc Hero casts ‘Gap in Caliber(EX)’!]

[Overwhelming Presence!]

[Your soul is greatly shaken!]

Thud!

The bodies of the Undead nearby collapsed in an instant.

The bodies of the Death Knights and Liches grew faint.

The body of Cedric, who had been doggedly facing the Orc Hero, staggered badly.

The Bone Dragon’s body crashed down onto the ground with a thud.

It wasn’t only the Undead who were shocked.

Thump!

Kim Min-woo. His heart was also pounding wildly. He was feeling with his body what it meant for the soul to shake.

‘Crazy…….’

No strength would go into his body.

It was a Skill that fit the term gap in caliber perfectly.

‘After the Dragon Lord, that’s the second.’

A being that uses EX-grade Skills.

Could there be some kind of connection?

* * *

Cedric.

Staggering, he looked at the Orc Hero before his eyes.

A battlefield repeating for an eternity within regret. He couldn’t even remember how many times he had fought that monster.

The result was always the same.

He lost.

The spear in his hand trembled.

He had once been a knight.

It was a common story.

He was betrayed, and he died.

He became Undead for revenge.

The Death Lord.

As one of the four Legion Commanders under him, he had swept across the continent.

For his entire life he had no rival.

Until those guys appeared.

Even the Death Lord was no match for them.

The four Legion Commanders too were thoroughly crushed, one by one.

Cedric was the same.

The Orc Hero.

The guy had let him live, as if handling a toy. Again and again, continuously.

Being Undead didn’t mean having no emotions.

They were merely faint.

‘Since when was it?’

That the competitive spirit turned into fear.

He was overwhelmed by that guy.

The Battle of Hrulunif.

Here, he had met his eternal rest.

He had regretted it until the very moment he closed his eyes.

What kind of knight, what kind of Legion Commander, was he!

He was nothing but a coward desperate to flee, at best.

And yet, on the other hand, he had thought it fortunate that he was no longer being chased by the guy.

Unfortunately, his wish did not come true.

At some point he awoke again, and.

After that, time repeated infinitely.

For as long as an eternity.

‘Lord, why…….’

Only when the first participant appeared did he understand.

That this hell where he couldn’t enter eternal rest was the Death Lord’s Arrangement.

After that too, participants came into this Eternal Battlefield from time to time.

The results were mostly similar.

They fail to hold out and die.

After that, their souls are preserved like specimens in ordinary Skeletons.

They are swept up in this Eternal Battlefield forever.

Very, very rarely, a participant succeeded in holding out.

Then they choose.

To stay on this stage longer, or to escape.

Even when they escaped, the battlefield kept repeating.

But even if they stayed…….

‘They die.’

Without fail.

And their souls are preserved.

This time too, he would fall to the Orc Hero.

And at some point he would take part again in the repeating battlefield.

He couldn’t overcome it by himself.

Everything repeats as if the result were predetermined.

To Cedric, this place was no different from hell.

The Orc Hero approached.

The glaive was raised high, as if carrying out an execution.

A predetermined ending.

Cedric stared blankly at the Orc’s weapon.

Just then.

“Don’t give up! You bastard!”

A human charged in, and.

Boom!

The glaive brought down missed Cedric’s head by the barest margin.

His eyes opened wide.

* * *

Regret.

He finally felt he understood what Cedric’s regret was.

An EX-grade Skill was certainly strong.

But it wasn’t to the degree that a being like Cedric couldn’t even resist at all.

Even so, he was far too helpless.

As if crushed by fear.

‘No wonder he regrets it.’

Cedric is a strong knight.

His ego must be considerably strong.

He had roughly figured that out from when they talked.

On top of that, since he commanded so many Undead, he must have been doing pretty well in his day.

And yet he dies so pitifully like that?

It was no wonder regret lingered even after death.

What would it take to settle that regret?

One thing was certain.

The Orc Hero about to execute Cedric.

He had to stop that guy first.

Regret too can only be overcome if one’s alive first, isn’t that right!

‘Please just move, for crying out loud!’

Even amid dizziness that felt like it would make him retch, he tenaciously gathered his mind.

He strained with all his might to move a body that had stopped like that of someone in a vegetative state.

Just slightly.

His lips trembled.

He moved his teeth and bit into the inside of his lip.

The pressure grew steadily stronger, and.

Blood began to burst out inside his lip. The salty taste woke his mind a little.

His cold body gradually warmed.

Sensation was gradually returning to his fingers.

‘I can do it.’

The talentlessness that had bound his body had long since vanished.

He focused his mind.

A thousandth.

A ten-thousandth of a second.

Those fleeting instants.

It was because he had focused every single moment, at least inside the game, that he had been able to become the best. Even though this place was reality, not a game.

‘That doesn’t matter.’

No matter the situation, he clears it without fail.

That was precisely Kim Min-woo, the gamer.

[Incomprehensible Willpower!]

[Your soul begins to transcend caliber!]

He took one step forward.

The second step came easier.

And at last…….

His body flew up.

Toward the Orc Hero’s glaive!

[Your soul did not yield at any moment!]

[You acquire the Title ‘Indomitable Soul’!]

The glaive coming down slowly, as if savoring this execution.

That was fortunate.

Clang!

[The weapon is destroyed!]

Even if the sword broke, he had been able to save Cedric.

“Don’t give up! You bastard!”

Grrr…….

The Hero, his enjoyment interrupted, narrowed his eyes sharply.

“Even someone weaker than you is moving this vigorously, and you’re going to give up?”

―…….

Cedric stayed silent.

The Orc Hero approaching.

‘Damn it.’

How many seconds could he last?

‘Just avoid instant death.’

The Hero’s glaive was swung.

He had definitely seen it.

And he thought he had dodged, but.

Spurt!

A fountain of blood shot up from his chest.

A speed he could see but couldn’t dodge.

A searing pain was felt.

[The armor is destroyed!]

His breastbone was cut away cleanly.

It was a great stroke of luck that his heart hadn’t been cut.

He barely managed not to fall.

The Hero, seeing that, tilted his head.

A trivial bug.

He had tried to kill it.

But it didn’t die.

Clatter!

It tickled like downy fuzz.

Skeletons were gripping his body.

Thud.

With a single stomp, all of them turned to dust.

Meanwhile, Kim Min-woo hurriedly kept splashing Potions onto his chest.

The bleeding barely stopped.

His gaze met the Hero’s.

The guy’s eyes turned a little serious.

―You.

The guy said.

Strangely, he could understand the words.

―Warrior.

An Orc Royal Guard threw his own weapon on the floor.

―Pick it up.

Damn, this guy.

He’s a big-hearted one.

He gripped the glaive in place of the broken sword. Since the Level requirement wouldn’t match, he might not receive the additional effects, but.

It was a situation where he should simply be grateful to be able to use it as a weapon.

―Here I come.

The glaive closed in in an instant.

The trajectory was a course that would split his body in exactly two.

‘I’ll give it up.’

He twisted his body with all his might.

Slash!

The arm not gripping the glaive was cut off.

In exchange, he cut the guy’s forearm……

Clang!

The glaive touching the Hero’s forearm let out a noise as if it had struck steel.

Damn……

The plan had been to give up bone to carve out flesh.

Apparently the Stat gap was so dismal that he couldn’t even carve off flesh.

“…….”

His eyes met the Hero’s.

Fortunately, the guy threw a question instead of an attack.

―Why?

The Orc asked with a puzzled face, as if wondering why he struggled so hard.

Kind guy.

He decided to repay the guy’s kindness a little.

“Protect. Reason. Need?”

Grin.

The Hero smiled, seemingly having roughly understood.

The guy’s yellow teeth glinted.

Soon after…….

Bang!

His body was sent flying far away by the guy’s kick.

[Orc Hero Mutakta uses ‘Destructive Strike’!]

[You have taken massive damage!]

[All equipment is destroyed!]

He frantically summoned Skeletons at the landing point.

Boom!

Even so, his body was slammed into the floor with a tremendous impact.

“Cough……!”

His chest, where the kick had landed, was crushed. Blood streamed out of the missing arm.

His body didn’t so much as twitch.

‘Potion…….’

His eyes felt like they were about to close.

[Caution!]

[You have suffered a fatal injury!]

[The ‘Indomitable Soul’ effect is activated!]

[Your soul is enduring the death of your body!]

[Your Soul Value begins to fall!]

[Soul Value (46/50)]

[Soul Value (42/50)]

[Soul Value (38/50)]

‘Am I dying right now?’

It seemed so, one way or another.

Once that hits 0, it’s obviously going to stop being fun.

Every second felt like it was flowing very slowly.

Slowly.

The Hero, who had approached before he knew it, asked with a glaive pressed to his neck.

―Good. Warrior. Me. Mutakta. You. Name.

[Soul Value (34/50)]

His lips moved slightly.

Screw you.

[Soul Value (30/50)]

―Screw you. Remember.

[Soul Value (26/50)]

Geez, how thoughtful.

The glaive approaches.

Little by little.

Little by little.

[Soul Value (22/50)]

Just before it touched.

Crash!

A familiar spear knocked the glaive away.

‘You son of a bitch…….’

[Soul Value (18/50)]

Cedric.

The guy had finally gotten his heavy ass off the ground.

―……Do not touch him any longer.

[Soul Value (14/50)]

The world turned gray.

Within the stopped time, a message appeared.

[Perfect Escape Condition!]

[Cedric has overcome his regret!]

[You have won the heart of the one who was both a Legion Commander of the Death Lord and known as the Dragon Knight!]

[Cedric will now fight for you!]

[The Death Lord’s Authority, Summon Cedric(SSS), is activated!]

[You acquire the Title ‘Master of the Dragon Knight’!]

[You acquire the Title ‘One Acknowledged by Mutakta’!]

[You acquire the Title ‘One Who Stopped Eternity’!]

[The Eternal Battlefield slowly fades.]

[You leave the battlefield.]

Ha, he made me suffer this much?

I had only meant to work him moderately, originally.

That won’t do.

‘When I summon you, you’re dead meat, seriously.’

He firmly resolved.