Around midnight the first pair switched places with the ones sleeping. Do-Yun and Byung-Ho entered the two tents and took out their own sleeping bags to get some rest. The other two kept watch in the meantime, rather only Eun-Young did. Ethan once again said that there was no point in doing so.
‘No point in making a big deal about this.’ Eun-Young watched over the road from a nearby tree.
When morning came, she woke up the other two and after a short breakfast left with swift speed. The march continued like yesterday, but after a few hours on the dirt road met a stoned street. Although grass peeked out of unmaintained and cracked stones mired with yellow moss, the hoof-like prints on the moss were evidence that they were on the right path.
With increased vigilance the three in the front moved with their ears perked up. But, rather than beasts that they expected, the three found a patch of reddish-black substance on the road that connected with the one they were on.
“…Is that…” Byung-Ho’s eyes widened as Do-Yun knelt and touched it.
“It is dried blood.” He confirmed. His eyes landed on the trail of dried blood that led further down the road. Almost like someone had been dragged after suffering a serious injury.
Without any words, they walked ahead. And soon the forest thinned out into flat fields with destroyed barriers and scorched soil. To the north was a huge snow-capped mountain range that pierced the clouds, and at the foot of this mountain range was a mid-sized Town.
“An undefended town, huh.” Do-Yun saw the destroyed wooden gates in front of him.
Unlike the image they had of a town with stone walls nestled within the mountains, the town in front of them was but a shadow of that. The outer stone walls had several holes in them as the Gate had fallen to the ground reduced to scraps. A broken path led them inside the town where houses with caved-in roofs and battered walls lined the destroyed streets.
Byung-Ho looked around like a child in an amusement park, to think they’d see such a place within the Tower. The Gates had been nothing but an underground tunnel system. However, inside the Tower, they saw forests, new animals, even the sky above their heads, a sun just like their planet shown above, and finally they reached a town.
‘It is like those fantasy novels.’ Byung-ho thought that he had found himself in another world altogether.
The door frames were twice their height and the houses were enormous for any human to live in. The answer came to them quick. This was the city of the Orcs they faced. They had arrived at the stronghold of their enemy.
“Is it fine to go around like this?” Eun-Young showed her concern while checking the alleyways and vantage points nearby.
If their enemy had any bow users they would become sitting ducks.
“It is fine, there aren’t any beasts above.” Do-Yun said. If there were they’d have attacked them already.
Orcs, though physically strong, weren’t well versed in complex strategy, and they especially despised sneak attacks. However, the reason they haven’t faced any more of them till now was because they had gathered 500 meters underground.
‘It was a good idea to extend the range to a full circle when I entered the Tower.’ The mental strain did double, but nothing he couldn’t handle. If anything he wanted it to become more challenging as the growth would reflect the challenge.
“Let’s go and meet our targets.” Confused the three followed him down the road.
They walked into the heart of the city. Along the way, they tried to look through the pile of rubble and houses for anything to find some clues. However, they didn’t find anything. The only thing other than rubble was dried monster blood in the color of purple. It looked like a considerable amount of time had passed since the incident, but they didnt find a single corpse in sight.
“It is like someone ransacked the place. They didn’t even leave clothes or scraps behind.” Eun-Young muttered walking out of what seemed like a destroyed shop to join Byung-Ho who also didn’t find anything of worth.
Passing by a dried-up well with a missing pulley, they entered a half-destroyed manor in the northern part of the town. Unlike the normal houses of the city, this place was double in size, from hallways to the rooms. They entered through the doorless entrance and noticed the destruction inside. Even if a manor, it was built with stone and wood in a way that it had robustness but also rough in construction.
There was no such thing as furniture in the house and the rooms that seemed like a bedroom had stacks of hay piled up as beds(?). Nothing of use could be found in this place. Soon Do-Yun opened the trapdoor beneath the hay in the largest room.
A set of stairs led down the pitch-black hole. They could see the stairs using the torch he lit up. Preparing it didn’t take much besides a wooden stick, cotton cloth, some wire, and alcohol—all of which he carried in his supplies for such moments.
Under the light of the torch, they descended with Byung-Ho and Do-Yun at the front as the other two tailed behind.
An earthy smell came to their noses with a mix of oil and burnt flesh as they reached the basement floor. Looking around they found nothing of note here aside from another trapdoor in the corner of the area as big as the manor. Hidden below an empty stone shelf that was stuck to the wall, a place hard to find unless one had high-level sensing skills. With a swift swing of the pole, Do-Yun broke the shelf into bits along with the sealed trapdoor.
The moment the debris of the metal trapdoor struck the floor, Byung-Ho’s nose scrunched up.
‘I can feel my stomach turning.’ Eun-Young didn’t want to go inside. A strong repulsion rose in her chest, but they had to go inside.
“It is a twenty-foot drop.” Do-Yun estimated looking down the Hole.
He entered first and they followed after, as soon as their feet landed on solid ground the nauseating smell got thicker almost sinking into their lungs. Eun-Young thought that it was like a sewer on a hot day, just ten times worse. They pushed on and arrived in a tunnel a little further away, it was as wide as the highways on Earth.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Rows of torches lined up the tunnel that stretched ahead of them in a straight line. But, before they entered the tunnel, their eyes went to the chamber on the left. Trails of dried blood came from the other end of the tunnel and converged here. The source of the revolting smell was in front of them.
Do-Yun walked over with the torch in his hand, the chamber was dark with a slick floor. The air stained with blood went down his lungs. Under the illumination, he saw five decapitated bodies hung from the ceiling by hooks in their heels.
All the blood had been drained out of their bodies in the piled-up buckets. The skin had been taken off like their clothes and thrown in the corner. Next to it, their heads were huddled in a pile. The bulging eyes still open showing the vivid terror before they died.
‘So, this is the Chinese raid party.’ Do-Yun had told the two about the Chinese raid team and what happened to them the night before entering the Tower.
But, telling them alone wouldn’t have prepared them enough to see such a scene. A scene where their fellow humans were treated no different than livestock. And it wasn’t like he saw this coming either.
“Ugh…!” Byung-Ho couldn’t stop his turning stomach and threw up. His heart pounded like a drum as he felt light-headed.
Eun-Young averted her eyes from the scene with her forehead scrunched up. This scene wasn’t something she could stomach either, but she calmed herself even with the use of her skill. However, her eyes noticed the other two men in her group.
Do-Yun and Ethan weren’t affected in the slightest. Neither of their faces even twitched a muscle before they walked out of the chamber.
“The Orcs are waiting for us ahead.” He said patting Byung-Ho’s back.
The medicine to ease his stomach was in the inventory, and he had to take it quick. Although this wasn’t the plan Orcs made, watching the bodies had affected two of their members. Soon they would start their attack.
“S-Sorry Hyung……” Byung-Ho coughed trying to regain his bearings.
“Don’t worry, I am not asking you to fight. Just be sure to not get caught.” Do-Yun understood his situation.
He too had such a reaction when he saw something like this for the first time. It was during a cult hunt in the previous tower. That cult kidnapped young children and bled them out for the advent of some god. They even went as far as skinning the children and using their meat together offerings, or using the kids for sexual pleasures using their God as justification. Watching that, he wasn’t able to sleep for days, even eating a bite of food became hard for weeks.
‘That was so far back that I can barely remember.’ Do-Yun sighed.
A group of fifty orcs came around the corner. Their muscular bodies covered in rags as their snout blew out hot air. They marched forward with broken swords and shields. As soon as their bloodthirsty eyes landed on the four, droll tricked down their mouth as their breath quickened.
The combined force of fifty rushed towards them like rabid dogs.
“Chhik! CHHIK!” They chanted like demons possessed as tremors passed through the tunnel because of their mad dash.
[The Main Skill Adaptation (EX) has started to adapt to Blue Moon Script (C+), progress 2%....]
“What are they saying?” Do-Yun asked. It would still take some time before he could understand them.
“Food. Food.” Ethan translated. And it wasn’t far from what he thought.
“You heard him, get ready to face them.” Do-Yun glanced at Byung-Ho and Eun-Young.
Sure, he too wasn’t able to sleep for days after he saw what the Cult was doing. But, that didn’t mean that the world stopped for him. He had been through worse, but he still moved forward.
‘The world stops for no one. Even with skills such as mine, I have to move forward knowing that I can’t change things.’ Do-Yun rushed forward, he held the pole at the end dragging it along the stone floor, ‘Knowing that no matter how much I regress, the ones who have died won’t come back. I ones I have fought with, the ones I have lived with, the ones that I cared about. They are all gone. I have to live with that every day.’
‘What makes this easy is having a goal that I want to achieve. That is the only reason I wake up every day.’ Do-Yun lunged, with a spin in the air swung the pole covered with aura at full force at the orc wave.
The pole struck the orcs in the front that tried to reach for him. A splash of blue blood flew across the sky alongside 10 upper halves of the orcs. A second swing claimed the lives of ten more. The blood splattered onto the faces of the Orcs behind to take their sight. They tripped on the lower bodies of the dead orcs. The mad dash of over 50 orcs stopped dead in its tracks.
Standing in the middle of those bodies and struggling bodies, Do-Yun turned to face Byung-Ho and Eun-Young. They still hadn’t moved from their place yet.
“I thought you two had important goals. Is that the extent of your determination? If so you can turn back, stay by the statue and it’ll protect you till I clear the Monsters. Then you can leave.” Do-Yun threw them the map smashing the head of an orc with his foot.
Eun-Young gritted her teeth. The reason she stayed behind was because Byung-Ho still hadn’t recovered from the shock.
She didn’t blame him, but she had to defend him in case Do-Yun let a few Orcs through. However, there wasn’t a way to refute him. Seeing human corpses like that did affect her mentally too, she wasn’t sure if she could fight at max efficiency, and even with her skill she had a tough time blocking the effect.
‘That is why Byung-Ho needs more time to recover.’ She understood that, but he got to his feet.
“You can go ahead, Miss Kim… I… I am fine now.” Byung-Ho wiped the vomit off his lips and spat to the side.
'I can't freeze up every time I see blood. I won't be able to do anything like that.' Byung-Ho clenched his hands.
He was shaking but Eun-Young rushed ahead. He activated his skill, the orcs stood up like mindless corpses and rushed to Byung-Ho. His eyes burned with an orange glow as a square barrier formed around him and Ethan.
‘He regained his bearings, now I need to make sure mine are in order.’ Eun-Young fist blasted an orc through the air, it crashed onto the ones behind him and slowed the charge down.
But, they were just a few, fifty more orcs rushed from the other side of the tunnel and beelined for Byung-Ho. His skill’s range was larger than she estimated. Among the twenty-five alive, half of them had already surrounded the barrier. Now fifty more rushed towards them?
‘The barrier will break soon if that many attack it together.’ She groaned as Do-Yun stood in the corner to let them pass. But, she understood the reason behind that.
However, Byung-Ho’s barrier wasn’t unbreakable, and even if he could repair the damage it cost him Magic energy. If the barrier broke completely he’d need to reconstruct it, but in close quarters that would be fatal. On a normal day this wouldn’t be an issue, she had seen Byung-Ho reconstruct the barrier without losing an a few inches.
‘But, his mind is still shaken. If he is mentally strained he’d make mistakes.’ Eun-Young turned back after dealing with the Orcs in front of her.
She had succeeded in stopping 10 from the second wave, but in front of her eyes the remaining numbers gathered around the barrier, they attacked like their lives depended on it.
She rushed forward to thin out the numbers, but soon her feet stopped. Her gut told her to not move forward. In the next instant, the orcs around the barrier were flung through the air.
They crashed with force a few feet in front of her, but her eyes were fixed ahead. Many orcs were being crushed between the tunnel’s walls and the orange barrier. With a splash of blue the barrier retreated to its original size. Pieces of smashed meat and internal organs slid down the walls dripping on the floor.
Using the compact tunnel and his skills he achieved an impossible feat. Without a single attack skill, Byung-Ho had taken out more than 30 of the Orcs by himself in one move.
“Miss Kim, I can’t do this again for a while, so please cover for me!” Byung-Ho shouted recasting the Aggravate skill on the Orcs.
“You don’t have to tell me that.” Eun-Young sprang into action to whittle down the mob of noisy Beasts.
“Looks like your goals are worth something after all.” Do-Yun smirked watching the two handle the situation, “Now then, I better do something to avoid getting an earful.”
“You’ll help me with that, won’t you?” He turned to look at the orc double the size of the normal ones walking towards him.
His bluish gloves shone under the yellow light as his steps sent tremors across the tunnel. With a huff of hot air from his nostrils he locked his gem-like blue eyes with Do-Yun.
“CHIIIIKKKKKKKK!!!!!” With a roar, he jumped into action.
[You have found the First Floor Boss. Kaibat, The First Prince of the Blue Moon Kingdom.]