Chapter 37 – LV.Five Priest Seo Yun – [Two]

Seo Yun was so dumbfounded she stood there blankly for a moment.

Suddenly, she remembered something she’d heard somewhere. Something about how in the neighboring village, they determine seniority based on a Level 1 difference?

It seemed that village had that kind of culture too. Maybe every village except Happy Village had that culture.

“Are you insane?”

At Seo Yun’s words, the man retorted.

“You wanna start something?”

As the two were having a staring contest, Seong Juri spoke up.

“Hey, this kid is Chief Oh Haengbok’s younger brother.”

It seemed the man knew that orc’s name too. He raised one eyebrow.

“Oh Haengbok? The Orc Warrior?”

“Yeah. He’s from our Happy Village. You know if guys from other villages start trouble, our Chief will beat the crap out of them, right? Unless you’re Level 13, watch your mouth.”

At Seong Juri’s words, the man seemed to shrink back a little, but he didn’t exactly back down completely. He growled.

“This is the military. What does it matter where someone’s from?”

Kim Ak was also about to say something. A boy’s voice cut in.

“Hey, shut up.”

“What?”

“I said just shut up.”

Seo Yun was surprised to see who the voice belonged to. Han Siwoo was sitting leaning against some building.

Come to think of it, wasn’t that guy’s Level 4 too? But why is he only acting like he knows me now?

“And you, why are you…”

The man seemed flustered that someone of the same Level had intervened.

In the midst of this, another boy spoke up. Seo Yun saw it was the boy from the neighboring village who had been captured with them.

“He’s a Priest. Don’t Priests get an extra 2 Levels counted?”

As a fellow boy from a neighboring village, he seemed to be trying to help out, citing their brief encounter, but Seo Yun wasn’t particularly grateful. She was just horrified.

Good grief, it seems they have some special rules among themselves.

The more terrible thing was that the man nodded at those words.

“A Priest? Right, Priests get an extra 2 Levels. So he’s the same Level as me…”

The man began to mutter. If he’s a Priest, he should have said so earlier, why say it now? Anyway, Happy Village folks are all trash, so dealing with them is annoying…

Then the man went back to where his comrades were. Kim Ak muttered, looking genuinely bewildered.

“Are we the abnormal ones?”

Seong Juri picked up the conversation.

“Well, if their Level is higher, they must have been fighting longer than us, I guess. Since they’re seniors, maybe they want to be treated as such?”

Seong Juri spoke as if it was somewhat understandable, but Kim Ak didn’t seem to think so.

“Even so, how can they use game Levels… Isn’t that just really cringey?”

“But if your Level is higher, you’re actually stronger too, right?”

“There’s hardly any difference between Level 2 and 4?”

Meanwhile, Seo Yun sympathized with Kim Ak’s feelings.

If the man had claimed seniority based on having been here longer, she might have just accepted it. Organizational culture is inherently somewhat irrational, isn’t it?

But how can they do that based on game Levels? How can they use that damn number, which isn’t even education or wealth?

From what Seo Yun saw, that man just now wasn’t even acting high and mighty because he was stronger due to a higher Level. The man acted as if Level was some kind of real-world status.

‘Seriously, insane…’

And thinking further, the thought that even relatively normal Happy Village might actually have that damn game culture seeped into reality drove her crazy.

‘Park Taeyang bossed Lee Jongho around because he claimed to have the Priest profession, right? How can they use a game profession…’

That’s insane too. It’s like doing in real life what you only did in online games.

So far, she had never used her game profession to boss others around or discriminate against anyone, and she must continue not to do so.

Repeating this to herself anew, Seo Yun looked at Han Siwoo. Since his sharp retort earlier, the guy had said nothing. With his head hung low, he looked lonely, without even a fitting companion around.

‘Guess he’s feeling down being separated from the chimpanzee.’

Seo Yun approached Han Siwoo.

Han Siwoo seemed to be trying to ignore her. He didn’t even turn his head, keeping it bowed.

Seo Yun patted his hunched shoulders and spoke.

“Did you just help me? You little brat, good job.”

“Don’t touch me.”

“Is that an order from the exalted Level 4 Lord? Must I obey?”

“Ah, damn…”

Only then did Han Siwoo look at her.

Seo Yun asked.

“What about Gaeulbi? Were you the only one caught?”

“For now, yeah.”

“Where did you sell off that bracelet? I heard if you wear that, your movement speed doubles. Did you get caught even wearing that?”

“I gave it to Eulbi while running from the soldiers.”

Seo Yun stared at Han Siwoo for a moment. For a different reason than before, she patted his shoulder and muttered.

“Really good job, you little brat…”

“I said don’t touch me.”

“I don’t see that bag either. Did you give that to her too?”

Han Siwoo answered in a gloomy voice.

“I was carrying it, but they took everything when I got here.”

“That’s… too bad.”

They were killing time with this and that conversation.

Seo Yun felt something welling up inside her. She knew what that feeling was.

The feeling of a used Spell recharging. It seemed three hours had already passed.

“Juri, you go eat.”

Leaving Juri behind, she hurried back to the Medical Corps. The Nursing Officer was eating dinner. It was unbelievable how she could do that amidst the overwhelming stench of blood.

As Seo Yun hurriedly began healing the injured, the Nursing Officer said.

“You should eat too.”

“I’m fine without eating. Ah, it’s not that I’m showing enthusiasm to work even while starving.”

After finishing her prayer, she briefly explained about the 11 Health points, and this was the reaction.

“You can survive without eating?”

“Well, that’s about right.”

“That’s… really enviable. In this world, something like that…”

About ten minutes later, she had healed the injured using about half of her Spells.

The critically injured patients seemed to have roughly passed the crisis. She was thinking she could now heal them slowly.

The world shook. Along with it, a deafening roar loud enough to hurt the ears reverberated.

It was a sound she’d only heard during her military days. The sound of artillery fire. Thunder rumbling on the ground.

Even though she hadn’t seen it directly, it wasn’t hard to figure out what was happening. ‘Dangdangdangdaeng…’ The alarm bells signaling an emergency were also ringing out.The enemies were shelling. Seo Yun quickly looked at the Nursing Officer, but she was calmly eating her meal. As if this wasn’t the first or second time she’d experienced such a thing, she only furrowed her brow slightly.

The Nursing Officer, who met Seo Yun’s eyes, muttered.

“It’s fine. There’s some distance between here and the battlefield. They won’t come this far.”

But Seo Yun was not fine.

Seong Juri? She had left her there to eat.

She hurriedly ran. The scene of the battle came into view.

The soldiers of the Dawn Corps had set up a barricade blocking the massive road and established a position. Soldiers were hiding behind machine gun emplacements and all sorts of cover.

And towards them, some white things were charging. Their forms were so distinct it was impossible not to recognize what they were.

White bones charging without a single strand of muscle.

Skeletons. Monsters she had already faced before.

But unlike then, what they held in their hands was not the somewhat mystifying ethereal weapons, but guns.

Assault rifles. She wasn’t particularly interested in military matters, so she couldn’t tell exactly what kind of guns they were. Still, she knew they were items captured from either the North Korean or Chinese armies. The Skeletons’ attire gave it away.

Both the soldiers and the Skeletons were firing at each other.

Gunshots echoed from all around. Screams mixed in intermittently pierced her ears.

The Meteorite had not yet turned this world into a complete fantasy world. Because of that, the Meteorite’s work to change this world was still ongoing.

The Meteorite creates things that fit a fantasy world and destroys things that do not. Modern buildings that don’t fit a medieval fantasy are removed by sending Gutworms.

The targets of such ‘removal work’ are no exception even if they are people.

If someone does not act like a proper fantasy world resident—that is, if they act too much like a modern person—the Meteorite considers that someone an impurity that does not belong in the fantasy world.

The Meteorite’s creations are imprinted with the command to remove such impurities.

The actions of monsters, usually unseen, also emerge when they encounter impurities.

That is why even monsters use modern weapons when facing soldiers who wield weapons that are not medieval fantasy-like, i.e., modern weapons. It is the Meteorite’s command to remove the impurities more easily.

Gunshots continued to echo. The clattering of bones mixed in, tickling her ears.

Skeletons wielding assault rifles continued their charge. They were likely Skeletons created by the Centaurs’ Mages or Priests of Beauty.

Those bony bodies had no muscles attached, so their strength was only at a Level 3, equivalent to an adult woman. Because of that, they were originally easy enough enemies for Seo Yun to take down several by herself, but not now.

Now that these Level 0 expendable Skeletons had been given guns, they had transformed into fearless, hard-to-kill superhuman soldiers.

The Skeletons charging now seemed more threatening than living soldiers.

Those bony bodies had no vital organs like internal organs or brains. Even if the Skeletons took a bullet or two somewhere in their bones, they didn’t fall but kept charging.

While the soldiers’ gunfire could barely stop their charge, machine guns spewed fire relentlessly, barely managing to destroy those bony figures.

A few machine guns couldn’t destroy them all.

The Skeletons, having finally closed the distance, spewed fire from their gun barrels. Each time, soldiers hiding behind the barricade screamed, clutching bleeding hands or cheeks.

Amidst this, the cannon roars from over there still didn’t cease. Even though their allies were charging, those allies were nothing but lifeless bones. It seemed they felt no need to be sorry if they got caught in their own artillery fire.

Artillery shells fired from over there continued to rain down. The scattered mush of flesh and blood around was likely caused by that.

In this hellish scene, Seo Yun spotted a familiar face.

“Are you okay?”

Seo Yun approached Seong Juri, who was trembling, having dropped her rice ball.

Seong Juri also saw Seo Yun. In a trembling voice, she barely managed to speak.

“I, I’m okay… but Team Leader…”

“Mr. Kim Ak? Where is he?”

In the distance pointed by Seong Juri, Kim Ak was there.

He was clutching his stomach behind a collapsed barricade. Looking at the growing pool of blood beneath him, Seo Yun thought.

He must have been hit by shrapnel from an artillery shell. Was he alive? Looking closely, he seemed to be twitching.

As Seo Yun moved her steps towards him, Seong Juri muttered.

“If you go now…”

Bullets were pouring down, and Seo Yun spoke briefly.

“My Health is 11.”

After taking a few more steps, Seong Juri’s voice reached her.

“Together, I’ll go together…”

Seo Yun looked back at Seong Juri. The plump girl was trying to follow on trembling legs.

There was no leisure to praise her for being brave, nor to scold her to be careful.

“You have a crossbow, right?”

“I do, but why…”

“Cover me with it from here. That’s better.”

As Seong Juri nodded, Seo Yun alone hunched over and ran.

As she chanted a Blessing Spell along with it, adrenaline surged. So, she couldn’t tell if she was hit by bullets while running or not.

But somehow, she reached Kim Ak. His chest was definitely, moving.

Seo Yun hid behind the half-collapsed barricade and prayed. The pool of blood, which had been swelling as it drank new blood, calmed down, and Kim Ak muttered.

“Seo… Yun?”

“Can you move?”

Even in excruciating pain, he seemed to know the situation was urgent.

“Just… a moment.”

Kim Ak tried to move but flinched. A scream came from the ally side. Not a scream of pain, but the scream unique to someone facing a horrific situation.

Glancing back, Seo Yun’s eyes widened.

The Skeletons had finally neutralized the machine gun emplacement. With the machine gun silenced, the Skeletons now charged almost without being destroyed. The soldiers didn’t even try to hold their ground and retreated.

And there is a class of soldier ideal for hunting retreating enemies. Cavalry.

The sound of hooves echoed from beyond the barricade. That sound was so loud and distinct it could be recognized even amidst the unceasing gunfire.

The speed at which that sound approached was terrifyingly, terrifyingly fast.

It seemed they had finally reached this far.

“Seo Yun!”

Seong Juri from behind warned of the danger. Seo Yun also looked where she was looking.

And thus, she saw the Eastern-style Warrior atop the barricade.The upper body of that oriental-style warrior was clearly human. Yet the lower body belonged to a horse. Through the collapsed gap in the barricade, the legs of a horse were visible.

A Centaur. A monster with a Challenge Rating of 5. And Centaurs are considered an intelligent Race. So, like human Players, they possess not only a monster grade but also class Levels.

What Level is that bastard? It looks high at a glance. The Armor he’s wearing is so thick it couldn’t be worn without considerable Strength. That alone proves his high Ability Scores and Level. The heavy Machine Gun in his hand also…

My eyes met the Centaur’s. He was wearing a Helm, so his expression was unreadable. But for some reason, he faltered.

“Goddess…”

At the moment his mouth opened to say something, the sound of something cutting through the wind was heard.

An arrow. It seemed Seong Juri had shot it. It bounced off the Centaur’s upper body Armor, failing to wound him, but it had the effect of diverting his gaze.

Seo Yun did not miss that opening. Flames erupted from the swiftly drawn sword, and she thrust it. Where?

While the upper body Armor was thick, the horse barding on his lower body was relatively thin.

The burning sword plunged into the horse’s torso. The fire melted the iron plates of the barding, but it still lacked force, requiring a vicious thrust.

The Centaur’s hoof kicked her in the chest. Seo Yun’s body flew backward.

The kick of a Half-Human Half-Beast carried enough force to kill a person and then some. Seo Yun couldn’t move most of her body, but she lifted her head to see the dying Centaur.

Amidst the Centaur’s agonized scream, the smell of burning flesh, gunfire, and Kim Ak’s voice chaotically intermingling, a sensation of something seeping in pushed all those thoughts aside.

Level Up.