Chapter 16

016.

The stench of blood rode the night wind and struck us.

“Stop!”

The kids at the village entrance stood with sharpened eyes, spears pointed forward.

The state of those emerging from the darkness was miserable beyond description.

Their leather clothes were in tatters, and their hair was disheveled.

Most of all, there was the sticky blood on the axes they carried, not yet dried.

‘Bloodstained weapons.’

As Zakan and I approached, the wary kids opened a path to either side.

“I am Huku, warrior of Volcano! I ask the warriors of Rock for help……!”

The red-haired warrior hurriedly shouted when he saw us approaching.

Huku? What kind of name is that? He’s not a dog.

Anyway, the voice of the man who introduced himself was trembling badly, and the man he was supporting was, just as the children had said, Burta.

Burta, chief of the Western Volcano Tribe.

The giant warrior who had displayed overwhelming strength during the last Red Moon battle was now covered in blood and gasping for breath.

“What happened?”

Zakan asked quietly with a hand resting on the hilt of his greatsword.

Ready to draw at any moment.

“D-danger…… dangerous!”

Half out of his mind, Huku could not answer Zakan’s question and kept looking anxiously in every direction.

“Explain properly.”

Just as Zakan’s voice sank even colder.

Burta, leaning against Huku, barely lifted his head, spat out blood, and gave a bitter laugh.

“……I look pathetic.”

“W-we have to run! It is nearby right now!”

Huku cut Burta off and shouted frantically.

What the hell was out there?

I looked over his shoulder, but saw nothing except thick darkness.

Even so, Huku desperately pleaded, his anxious eyes constantly darting around.

“First…… first let us inside! I’ll explain inside. Burta…… Burta is badly hurt!”

“Ghk…… I-I’m fine.”

Trying to preserve a warrior’s pride until the end, Burta forced himself to speak loudly, only for his legs to buckle.

If Huku had not been supporting him, he would have fallen face-first onto the ground.

Zakan slowly looked the two men up and down, then stared at me.

What should we do?

That was the question in Zakan’s eyes amid the silence.

‘It doesn’t look like they’re lying.’

The wounds across Burta’s abdomen and shoulder looked fatal at a glance.

These were not wounds inflicted by weapons.

They looked like deep scars carved by an animal’s claws.

There was no reason for a chief in this barren frontier to injure himself just to put on an act for us.

Although the Western and Northern Tribes had been distant for a long time, hadn’t we formed a fairly friendly relationship during the last Red Moon battle?

After a brief thought, I gave a slight nod, and Zakan turned his body sideways in a gesture telling them to enter.

“Th-thank you!”

As though afraid we might change our minds, Huku hurriedly stepped through the fence with Burta.

The moment we supported them and took one step into the village.

“Sniff, sniff…… Hmm? There’s a strange smell.”

Malko, who had been walking beside us, suddenly stopped and twitched his ugly nose.

His gaze turned outside the village, toward the wasteland swallowed by pitch-black darkness.

I inhaled as well, following Malko’s example, but all I could smell was the metallic scent of Burta’s blood.

“Over there. The smell is coming from over there.”

“What are you talking about? I smell nothing.”

Just as I was puzzled by Malko’s nonsense.

One of the kids with the sharpest eyesight climbed onto the watchtower and screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Huh? I-it’s true! Something is coming from far away!”

“D-dangerous! It’s that thing! Everyone has to hide!”

Huku was the first to react to that voice.

Practically throwing Burta onto the ground, Huku stumbled backward.

What remarkable loyalty.

“What the hell is coming?”

“You can never stop it! Hurry……! We have to run!”

Just as Huku shouted with a deathly pale face at Zakan’s demand.

“Graaaaaaaaah-!”

With a tremendous roar that seemed to tear apart our eardrums, something huge charged at terrifying speed and slammed into the village’s wooden fence.

- Booooom!

“Aaaagh! What is that!”

“M-monster!”

With a thunderous crash, the rotten wooden posts shattered like toothpicks and flew into the air.

The beast’s hideous form appeared beneath the moonlight.

It was a grotesque monster with the skeletal frame of a wolf and something resembling a bear’s hide stretched over it.

‘That’s…… a Varg!?’

I recognized it instantly the moment I saw it.

An infamous tracking-type monster that blindly hunted its prey to the bitter end once it smelled blood.

Why was a named monster that normally appeared in the middle to later stages of the game already showing up in the frontier?

This was not something these barbarians, who had yet to properly grow, could handle.

“Burta. What exactly did you bring here?”

Zakan frowned deeply as he drew his greatsword toward the beast.

Burta lowered his head as though ashamed, but still grabbed the axe that had fallen to the ground and staggered to his feet.

“I-I’ll stop it……!”

“Stay back. Right now, you will only be a burden.”

Zakan coldly barked and shot forward.

- Boom!

When Zakan’s greatsword collided head-on with the Varg’s forepaw, the impact sent a thick cloud of dust swirling through the air.

“Attack! Help the chief!”

Malko and the other teenage warriors charged at the monster’s flank with spears and axes.

But…….

‘The difference is huge.’

Unlike S-rank Chief Zakan, the inexperienced kids’ pathetic old weapons repeatedly bounced off without piercing its tough hide.

Instead, every time the beast went berserk and swung its claws, they were sent flying like leaves in the wind.

Burta was so badly injured that even standing seemed difficult, let alone swinging a weapon.

And Huku was too terrified to attack properly.

In effect, Zakan was fighting that crazed monster alone.

Kang Jin-ho. Think.

What was the Varg’s weakness in the game?

‘Its abnormally developed sense of smell and respiratory system.’

Because its defining trait was extreme tracking ability, its excessively large respiratory mucous membranes were exposed directly to the outside.

‘If I block its airway, I can create an opening for Zakan!’

I quickly threw myself toward the bonfire in the center of the village.

A large pile of white ash.

I scooped the ash into a dented bowl lying nearby and sprinted toward the Varg’s flank.

“Zakan……! Move!”

At my shout, Zakan reflexively deflected its attack with his greatsword and leapt backward.

At that moment, the Varg turned toward Zakan and inhaled roughly.

- Whoooosh!

Its airways were wide open right now!

With both hands full of ash, I hurled it with all my strength toward its gaping mouth and snout.

“Grrrr……! Khaaagh! Cough!”

The fine ash was instantly sucked into its eyes, nose, and windpipe.

As foreign matter filled its abnormally developed respiratory system, the Varg went berserk, erupting into violent coughs.

“Graaaagh! Keh-hehk! Cough, cough!”

Zakan was not one to miss that opening.

Leaping into the air, Zakan swung his greatsword through the air and buried it into the Varg’s side.

“Kieeeeeek!”

Red blood sprayed like a fountain.

Mortally wounded and unable even to breathe properly, the Varg screamed in agony.

Unable to endure any longer, it slipped through the broken gap in the fence and vanished into the darkness in an instant.

“…….”

All that remained in the village were the shattered fence and wreckage of the watchtower.

The dark red blood spilled by the monster…… and the acrid smell of ash.

.

.

.

A little while later.

“……I think he has passed the worst of it for now.”

I disinfected Burta’s wounds with boiled water, then crushed medicinal herbs brought by the kids and applied them.

The wounds were deep, and he had lost a lot of blood.

==========

【Target Information】

• Name : Burta

• Race : Barbarian (Western Volcano Tribe Chief)

【Basic Stats】

• Strength : 5(▼75) / Agility : 2(▼30)

• Constitution : 3(▼72) / Intelligence : 13

【Potential】

• Overall Rank : A (Indomitable Toughness)

• Growth : 89%

==========

‘There was another monster right here.’

Burta’s stats, which I had briefly peeked at earlier with my skill, were beyond imagination.

His values had dropped tremendously due to his severe injuries, but his original Strength was 80.

A crazy number more than twice Zakan’s.

For now…… his stats had fallen significantly, but he probably would not die.

He was A-rank with Indomitable Toughness, so his life force should be extremely tenacious.

After tightly stopping the bleeding with clean cloth, Burta’s ragged breathing eased somewhat.

“Explain what happened.”

Zakan, standing beside me, asked in a frightening voice. Burta endured the pain and slowly moved his lips.

“……It was something Karga’s hunting party was chasing.”

The moment that name came out, Zakan and I exchanged glances.

Karga, second-in-command of the Volcano Tribe. The man with those somehow sinister eyes.

“He got greedy. He wanted to kill a monster he had never seen before and earn glory as a warrior. But as you saw, that thing…… is not on the level of monsters we knew. The hunt failed, and Karga barely returned alone with his life. We lost five warriors.”

In other words, after suffering mortal injuries, Burta had been forced to flee to our tribe, the closest one.

“So you, the chief, tried to clean up the mess?”

At Zakan’s question, Burta clenched his fist.

“……I was no different from Karga. And if your shaman had not created an opening, you would have been the same.”

“…….”

Burta looked at me as though he had many questions.

But given the situation, he did not open his mouth unnecessarily and remained silent.

Quite fitting for a barbarian with Intelligence 13.

“I owe you…… yet again. I am sorry.”

After saying that, Burta leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, apparently exhausted.

“You should rest.”

“……Thank you, Zakan.”

We gave Burta and Huku a tent, then Zakan and I walked outside.

We had driven the Varg off for now, but we could not relax.

That thing was a relentless tracker.

“Zakan.”

“Speak, Izak.”

“We need to prepare a hunt. That thing will definitely return.”

A Varg that had tasted blood never abandoned its target.

Zakan slowly and heavily nodded, understanding what I meant.

_____________

Early the next morning.

I had stayed awake all night.

How could I possibly sleep while knowing that enormous bastard might leap out from somewhere around the village at any moment?

The rotten fence had barely been useful to begin with, and even that had been smashed apart in several places during last night’s collision.

The one fortunate thing was that it had not appeared while I took turns standing guard with the kids throughout the night.

Well…… it had spent several days fighting the Volcano Tribe and had even gotten its side sliced open by Zakan’s greatsword, so that monster probably needed time to rest too.

“Izak! Finished digging!”

“You need to dig more here. Deeper.”

“Understood! I am good at digging.”

The kids had to be tired from keeping watch all night, yet they were still sweating heavily as they dug deep into the ground in front of the broken fence.

My admirable kids.

‘This should at least catch its ankle once.’

But honestly, I could not guarantee how effective it would be.

I had only fought this thing in a game!

In a world where the game had become reality, all I could do was dig a hole and make a crude trap from broken wooden posts sharpened into stakes.

My plan was for the S-rank Chief to land a counterattack and finish it off while it struggled in this blind trap.

‘The Varg…… is not easy.’

It was a monster that had forced even Burta, whose stats were twice Zakan’s, to flee with mortal wounds. We had no choice but to fight after creating the most advantageous conditions possible.

“We really are smart barbarians!”

As I worried while sharpening stakes, Malko, who had been diligently hauling dirt, suddenly shouted.

“That’s right! Catching monster by digging ground. We are smartest in world.”

“Volcano guys are big, but not smart like us.”

“We ate lots of Izak potatoes, so we became smart.”

“V-Volcano is smart too……!”

Huku, who had been helping beside them, snapped at the kids.

Sir, please don’t take the bait.

“Bwahahahaha! If Volcano is smart, why did you run to us?”

“……Ugh.”

Those brats and their mouths.

A laugh escaped me at the children’s innocent behavior.

Even in such a serious situation, their uniquely optimistic barbarian nature made my tense heart relax.

After completing all our preparations, the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon.

.

.

.

Night descended.

“It is coming.”

My heart dropped at Zakan’s flat voice.

Given the situation.

We held our breath and gripped our weapons tightly as we stared ahead.

Inside the pitch-black darkness.

Beyond the wasteland…… two gleaming beast eyes appeared.

‘Can we kill it?’

My palms became drenched with sweat.

Surely I’m not going to die here……?

All I wanted was to farm and live an easy life. Why is surviving so damn difficult?

Just as I swallowed dryly and stared at the thing slowly approaching the trap.

“Aaaaaaaagh! Die, monster!”

Malko, who had been lying beside me, suddenly sprang upward and thrust his spear.

We’re screwed.

“Malko! Don’t get excited! I told you to wait until it reaches the trap!”

Startled by his sudden action, I reached out to grab the back of Malko’s neck.

“Eeeeeeeek!? Wh-why, why, why, why are you doing this!? What are you doing!?”

Huh?

That voice sounds familiar.