Chapter 39 – LV.Five Priest Seo Yun – [Four]

The small sun providing illumination shone ahead. The soldiers’ hiding places were concealed in darkness.

Thus, the soldiers could not easily spot the monsters descending upon them from the sky right above.

The attackers were Mothmen. Usually monsters that slash with sharp claws or wield weapons, but this time the ones attacking carried guns and grenades in their hands.

The Mothmen descended silently from the air in the pitch-black night. And they detonated grenades at each machine gun position. Only by the light of those explosions could the soldiers finally realize they were under attack.

So the battle began with the machine gun positions silenced, putting the soldiers at a disadvantage from the start.

“Open fire!”

Skeletons charged from that darkness. Magical light illuminated their bony bodies and the assault rifles held in their bony hands.

Gunfire erupted from all around once again. The Skeletons were just blindly firing their guns as they charged, yet the exchange ratio was unfavorable. Just from the screams, one could tell soldiers behind cover were falling one by one. They weren’t holding back the skeletons’ advance well.

Finally, the Skeletons closed the distance in an instant. New illumination was needed.

“…O Sun!”

As the Sun Priest conjured a new small sun, the wounded ahead were revealed. Soldiers with major and minor gunshot wounds, and Players.

And Seo Yun began to walk. Towards the battlefield ahead.

“Where are you going again?”

Looking back, it was Han Siwoo. It felt awkward to ignore him, so Seo Yun answered quickly.

“To act as a medic.”

“Don’t go. No one even told you to, why would you…”

Seo Yun gave a wry smile.

“It’s fine.”

“What’s fine about it?”

“I said it’s fine.”

With those words, Seo Yun resumed her advance. The gunfire around her drowned out Han Siwoo’s voice continuing to protest from behind.

Taking one step forward, a bullet grazed past her ear. Seo Yun flinched slightly and kept going. The wound that just formed on her ear healed in an instant.

Taking another step, she repeated to herself.

The words she just said to that loser about being fine weren’t a bluff. She wasn’t even displaying some kind of holy spirit of sacrifice right now.

She genuinely didn’t care if she died. Because this current life wasn’t very enjoyable, and even it wasn’t fully her own to begin with.

And for good reason. Firefighter Seo Yun had already died. She definitely died several years ago, only to awaken after a year had passed since the world changed.

So Seo Yun did not experience the world’s transformation together with others. She did not live through the times when people froze or starved to death.

In a world that had already turned into fantasy about a year prior, after people had finished adapting to the changed world, only then did Seo Yun open her eyes.

Since then, Seo Yun often wondered. If she had endured the difficult times together with other people, would she be more satisfied and happy now?

Instead, having woken up abruptly in a suddenly changed world, from Seo Yun’s perspective, this entire situation was an unexpected fall.

Even looking at basic necessities proved this. When she opened her eyes, people were gratefully eating meals consisting of potatoes and turnips. Having lived through times of starvation, they seemed thankful even for such food, but Seo Yun couldn’t feel that way. By her standards, not long ago she had been eating chicken and cola whenever she wanted.

And now she was supposed to eat turnips? She’d rather not eat at all.

By the same logic, when others found joy in the mere fact of surviving this upheaval, she felt no joy. On top of that, this new body felt like a mass of fantasy created by some shut-in otaku, making it hard to feel any attachment.

Perhaps that was why she alone felt depressed in Happy Village, a place everyone publicly declared as happy.

Still, dying felt pointless, so she kept living. And on the day she changed her Class to Priest, Seo Yun met a Goddess in a vision.

The Goddess of the Hearth spoke to her at the scene of the incident where Seo Yun had died.

‘Fulfill your role, Angel.’

The vision she saw then hinted that the Goddess had resurrected her. Meaning she had been granted a new life for some purpose.

And Seo Yun wondered. What exactly did the Goddess bring her back to do? To benefit the world? To light fires and warm people?

Or perhaps, to restore the world that had fallen into chaos?

She didn’t know. She simply couldn’t know.

But she did learn one thing. Until then, she thought her resurrection was just one of the countless fantasy phenomena occurring in the world, but it wasn’t that ordinary. She realized then that this new life was a special gift granted only to her. After all, she had never heard of any precedent of a dead person coming back to life other than herself.

Along with that realization came the understanding that she must pay the price for receiving this special gift.

Just as one should reciprocate upon receiving a birthday gift. Just as a firefighter who receives a salary must rush into fires. This second life handed to her by some supernatural being had to be expended for some purpose.

In Seo Yun’s view, that didn’t seem too difficult. Since this life wasn’t enjoyable to begin with, she could give it away entirely.

‘Just as one can share food they don’t like not out of kindness but because they don’t mind parting with it, I too…’

So it’s fine if she dies like this. In fact, that seems the most comfortable outcome.

She doesn’t know what the Goddess wanted, but anyway, isn’t she doing her part right now? If she dies in the process, it would count as paying the price for the gift.

Bullets continued to rain down, but she advanced without stopping.

A Player bleeding and sprawled out lay ahead. The one who was supposedly Level 4.

“I… I…”

The guy who made eye contact reached out a hand. Seo Yun approached him, stopped the bleeding, and wrapped bandages. She didn’t use a Healing Spell to conserve Spells.

Instead, she cast a Spell on herself.

The Heroism Spell, a Spell that adjusts the target’s Strength to 8 points.

Finishing the prayer, unknown strength surged into this body that anyone could see lacked muscle. Using that strength, she dragged the roughly treated guy. Even though being dragged must have hurt, the guy seemed relieved just to be alive.

“Noona…”

After placing the guy where the soldiers were, she advanced towards the front again.

A soldier lay collapsed ahead. His condition looked serious, so she approached and prayed.He too carried the soldier to where the others were. When he brought back the wounded comrade, the soldiers there rejoiced.

“Well done!”

That joy was likely not simply because their comrade had returned alive, but because they could now leave this dangerous place and head to the rear for the purpose of transporting the wounded. It was of no concern to Seo Yun.

Seo Yun was in the midst of approaching another wounded soldier. Amidst the gunfire, the faint shouts of soldiers could be heard.

“Come here!”

She didn’t realize that call was meant for her.

“I said come here!”

So Seo Yun belatedly turned to look back, and upon seeing the soldiers retreating once more, she bit her lip.

Ultimately left isolated here alone, Skeletons came charging this way. Seo Yun reflexively covered her head and heart, but the feared hail of bullets never came. The Skeletons didn’t shoot at Seo Yun and instead ran past, chasing after the soldiers.

Seo Yun stared in astonishment at the soldiers and Skeletons moving away from her. She couldn’t understand this situation, but it seemed best to just finish what she had intended to do.

Seo Yun finally reached the wounded soldier. She knelt before the soldier who was blinking and staring at her.

While taking out bandages and praying, the sound of hooves was heard. This time too, it was clear Centaurs were charging. In the urgent situation, she somehow managed to finish her prayer.

“Grace.”

The sound of hooves stopped right in front of her.

When Seo Yun looked up, a Centaur was approaching right before her.

The Centaur spoke. The voice wasn’t one used against an enemy, but rather like soothing a child.

“Stay, still.”

Seo Yun looked around, but here there was only the wounded soldier and herself.

So it seems he’s talking to me.

“Stay still, girl······”

From the mouth of the Centaur wearing Eastern-style Armor and having a Mongol-like face, English spilled out.

It wasn’t strange. It’s because Immortal Kingdom is an American game. In media made by Americans, isn’t it the norm that whether they’re different Races or aliens, they all speak English?

Thanks to that, she could roughly understand what he was saying.

“I swear to Goddess of Beauty······”

The Centaur swore by the Goddess of Beauty that he wouldn’t harm her, that he would take her to their Lord. That thereby she would receive the Lord’s favor, enjoy his grace, and live happily. So that she could live a life befitting that beauty.

Listening to those insane words, Seo Yun opened her eyes wide.

Only then did she understand the sudden cessation of gunfire she experienced today. It seemed even this assault wasn’t accompanied by artillery fire, likely for the same reason.

‘It seems they took those measures to capture a woman with 10 points in Charm unharmed.’

This time it wasn’t a baseless speculation by the Axe Soldier. The Rulebook also wrote that Centaurs are crazy about beautiful women. It was written that Centaurs were originally a Race that prized reason, and the Vampires, who are servants of the Goddess of Beauty, especially like beauties, so it’s even more so.

Also, the royal family of the Centaurs are Vampires. She seemed to recall reading a setting that a Centaur Warrior who presented a peerless beauty to their Great Khan, who is a Vampire Lord, could become a Vampire based on that merit alone.

Does that bastard also want to become a Vampire by offering me?

“Will you get on my back?”

Seo Yun pretended to listen to those words while whispering to the soldier she had finished Healing.

“You should be able to move your body now, run away quickly.”

“You······”

“I said run. He seems only interested in me.”

The soldier looked back and forth between Seo Yun and the Centaur, then did as told. The Centaur didn’t chase the fleeing soldier.

His attention was indeed focused solely on her.

Even the Centaurs who arrived here subsequently were the same.

Three, or three Centaurs, were staring at her. Seo Yun moved her hand to the sword hilt and said.

“Come at me. You horse-fucker.”

He probably couldn’t understand what she said, but he likely understood it was a provocation.

The Centaurs laughed. They probably already received reports that their comrade met his end at these hands, but seeing they still found it amusing, this small body must look incredibly laughable to them.

Sure enough, the Centaurs didn’t have weapons in their hands capable of killing a person.

One Centaur threw a net. A net meant for capturing humans, the kind used in gladiatorial games.

There was no avoiding the net unfurled right above. Seo Yun was instantly trapped beneath the netting.

The Centaur approached with a suppressed laugh. And then fire erupted from the sword Seo Yun drew.

The flames instantly burned through and tore the netting apart. Freed, Seo Yun charged at the Centaur.

“Shit?”

The Centaur thrust out his staff with a flustered expression. A staff with just a pole, no blade.

Even that seemed to have its strength controlled. The speed wasn’t particularly fast, so with her augmented Strength, Seo Yun could easily grab the approaching staff.

And when she pulled on the staff with all her might, though the Centaur wasn’t pulled forward due to the weight difference, this small body shot forward as if launched. With the sword tip aimed at that Centaur’s neck.

“Motherfuc······”

The Centaur hurriedly raised his hand to cover his neck, but it was useless. The Burning Sword pierced through both hand and neck simultaneously.

This time, there wasn’t even a death rattle.

The Experience Points flowing into her mind announced that death. Since she killed it alone without anyone’s help, a massive amount of Experience Points seeped in.

It wasn’t a situation for rejoicing.

‘Fuck······’

Seo Yun saw other enemies.

Two Centaurs were staring this way with wide eyes. Their mouths were also agape, seeming surprised by their comrade’s death, but they showed no actual regret over the fact their comrade had died. They only seemed interested in the beauty they would present to their Vampire Lord.

However, having directly witnessed the killing of one comrade, they didn’t just throw a net and rest easy without a plan.

As Seo Yun stood her ground holding her sword on guard, one Centaur thrust out his staff.

When Seo Yun blocked with her Burning Sword, the staff burned and was cut. But there was no chance for a counterattack.The centaur beside it thrust its staff repeatedly, piercing Seo Yun’s chest. Gasping for breath, Seo Yun stumbled backward and swung her sword again, cutting through that staff as well.

Somehow managing to assume a swordsmanship stance, she glared at the centaurs.

The centaurs took another staff from their backs and gripped it in their hands.

It seemed they intended to employ some kind of wheel formation. They planned to prevent her from approaching while exhausting her, then capture her.

Even defeating these two wouldn’t be the end. In the distance, more centaurs were approaching. There seemed to be about six of them, and all appeared to be coming here with the same purpose. Each one held staffs or nets, and instead of charging at the soldiers, they were all staring only at her.

Seo Yun gritted her teeth and thought.

She understood how Oh Haengbok had reached Level 13. He must have survived countless crises like this to achieve that.

Perhaps she too could…