Chapter 85 – LV.Three Warrior Kim Ak – [One]

Kim Ak had a certain illusion about Mental Stats—the belief that the higher one’s Mental Stat, the more mature a human they were. The existence of a priest girl with a Spirit score of 9, who had been on the same team until not long ago, had solidified that belief unbreakably.

However, upon encountering the warrior girl before him, that belief was now shattering.

Looking at Kim Rayeon, Kim Ak thought:

‘I think her Mental Stat was around 6, right? And she has higher mental strength than me with my Spirit of 5?’

Kim Rayeon, who had joined the team not long ago, caused trouble again today. Under the guise of sparring, she violently tormented Jeon Sangguk. Even after the outcome was already decided, she kept stabbing and swinging her sword, thoroughly beating him up.

In the end, Kim Ak called her aside separately and asked why she did that, to which the reply came back that it was out of pity. She felt the need to discipline him as a fellow team member because someone like Jeon Sangguk, with low Ability Scores, wasn’t even putting in effort.

“If the kids need scolding, I’ll do the scolding. So…”

Kim Ak’s words were cut off as Kim Rayeon retorted.

“Why is it only the Team Leader’s business if the team members aren’t putting in effort? If they stay weak because they don’t try, I suffer losses too.”

“Sangguk is also putting in his own effort by running every day and receiving swordsmanship lessons.”

“Is drinking every day considered effort?”

Damn it, she wouldn’t concede a single word. Kim Ak sighed.

“I’ll tell him to cut down on the drinking. So you go and apologize too.”

“Why?”

As she said this, Kim Rayeon made her characteristic expression. It was a look that said, “Go ahead and talk, I won’t listen anyway.”

Kim Ak wanted to slap her across the face, but he couldn’t. Not because he was particularly non-violent, but because he had no confidence in dealing with the aftermath. Wasn’t she the girl entrusted to him by an Epic Level Troll Mage who asked him to raise her?

Enduring once more, Kim Ak spoke.

“We’re going to have to fight together soon, right? Is it good or bad to be fighting in this situation?”

Indeed, trouble shouldn’t arise in the team now.

Kim Ak and his team members were about to embark on another adventure soon. And in another country, a place almost like a fantasy world.

Chief Oh Haengbok gathered the Players and said that many personnel were needed to bring the Frenchmen. The current personnel alone were insufficient.

So, they selected more members to join the Dimensional Gate expedition. Kim Ak’s team, who had volunteered before but were filtered out once, were finally chosen this time.

The Players heading beyond the Dimensional Gate gathered in the village square.

‘Look at those old guys, their appearance…’

Among the village’s elite warriors, Kim Ak couldn’t remain composed. Kim Ak himself had always been large-framed, but being among burly, thug-like warriors made him feel intimidated without even realizing it.

He found it laughable himself. A few months ago, he had faced giant half-human half-beast Mongol warriors, yet here he was getting scared by mere Mister warriors?

Truly, there was no point in having been dragged into the military and even shot. After experiencing such an astonishing event, one would expect at least some mental growth, but he didn’t seem any better than before. Perhaps the idea that a single event can dramatically mature a person is just a fantasy from movies or novels.

A fierce Senior warrior tapped him on the shoulder and grinned.

“Ah, Kim Ak! Our village’s True Leader…”

The story of Kim Ak charging at soldiers for the sake of his fellow team boys had spread as a kind of heartwarming tale. Since then, he had been called True Leader, half in praise, half in teasing.

‘Can’t even control one crazy girl, what True Leader nonsense.’

Unable to say it out loud, Kim Ak grumbled internally and asked.

“Our Party Members’ Levels are relatively low, will we be able to do well? They’re all young too.”

“Well? I do feel a bit uneasy about taking kids to a dangerous place, but strangely, I didn’t feel like opposing it. Honestly, I wonder if we’ve all become too accustomed to making kids do dangerous things. Starting with her, she’s way too advanced compared to adults…”

Saying that, the Senior warrior looked at a small priest girl. The girl was with two friends.

As Kim Ak also looked in that direction, Seo Yun noticed him.

“You’re here?”

Seo Yun bowed her head first to greet him. When Kim Ak awkwardly returned the greeting, he felt a bit relieved. As an adult nearing thirty, he didn’t know how much he owed that little girl. He thought it was embarrassing as an adult, but there was nothing he could do. Acting one’s age isn’t exactly easy.

‘Maybe I’ll never manage it in my lifetime…’

Kim Ak smiled faintly.

“Come to think of it, that kid Seo Yun did well there too, right?”

“Even if we didn’t pick anyone else, that kid Seo Yun is absolutely essential. Even though she’s tiny, she fights incredibly well, she heals, she detects ambushes from enemies using Invisibility…”

Meanwhile, Kim Ak’s team members were also having their own conversations.

“What were your Ability Scores again?”

In response to Seong Juri’s question, Kim Rayeon answered proudly.

“Strength 5, Agility 7, Dexterity 7, Health 7!”

“Definitely on the high side, but even so, compared to that kid Seo Yun, aren’t you not even at the level of a lower-tier substitute? Especially since she’s a Priest, yet hers are much higher than yours, a Warrior.”

“Right? She’s really amazing. So for me…”

The voices of Lee Jongho and Kim Jihyeok were also heard.

“Now you can light the fire at your mom’s house. So, is that good?”

“Not really…”

Meanwhile, it seemed their conversation was bothering someone. In the middle of giving various instructions, Oh Haengbok shouted.

“Don’t chat once you enter the Dimensional Gate! Don’t even speak Korean, got it? And Kim Ak, you, can’t you keep the brats quiet?”

Kim Ak was startled and nodded his head vigorously. Somehow, that Orc Chief’s shouting felt increasingly terrifying as days went by…

A short while later, everyone passed through the Dimensional Gate. As heard, a gray snowy plain appeared, and Kim Ak’s eyes widened.

They stopped before a fortress wall village across the snowy plain. As they waited quietly, twenty-six people walked out from the main gate.

They were the Frenchmen who had agreed to cross the Dimensional Gate. Seeing their faces, Kim Ak shrank back with a different meaning than when he saw the elite warriors earlier.

‘They really look like corpses. Walking corpses.’

The expressions of those Frenchmen were utterly inorganic. As if their facial muscles had frozen solid in the harsh cold. It seemed like they had never smiled or cried in their entire lives.

Now, the Players from Happy Village just had to escort those corpse-like individuals back to the Dimensional Gate.It should have been an easy mission under normal circumstances, but the Mage Oh Haengun warned everyone not to let their guard down. One never knew what might happen.

“Any monsters using Invisibility or hiding somewhere?”

At Oh Haengun’s question, Seo Yun checked their surroundings.

“No. I don’t see any.”

Then they all walked toward the Dimensional Gate. Each person assigned a direction to watch, they advanced while scanning not only their flanks and front and rear but also the sky. They had to be wary of Wyverns, Mothmen, and the like.

“The moon…”

When someone muttered, they all stopped walking and looked up at the sky.

Kim Ak also looked up and his eyes widened. A purple hue seeped into his vision.

“A Purple Moon?”

The moon, which should have been obscured and hazy within the Ash Cloud, was now distinctly clear. That sphere in the sky glowing with a purple light.

What phenomenon was this now?

Purple Moon. A natural phenomenon symbolizing the Goddess of Beauty.

When moonlight passes through the layer of ash, it sometimes scatters bizarrely for unknown reasons, causing it to glow purple. He had seen that setting in the Rulebook. It was roughly that kind of content.

Looking at that Purple Moon, people are reminded of the Goddess of Beauty. Because the ash covering that sky was brought about by the meteorites she summoned. That fear also being a form of Faith, the Purple Moon is imbued with the Magic of the Goddess of Beauty.

The Goddess of Beauty is also the Goddess of the Undead. Thus, beneath the moonlight, corpses rise.

The Goddess’s twisted taste—moonlight that enslaves the dead.

He had heard that this phenomenon occurred once in Incheon too. When the moon glowed purple, the remains bathed in that moonlight rose with murderous intent, and several people were killed or injured, wasn’t that it?

After that incident, all remains near Happy Village were cleared away, but once you left the village outskirts, Skeletons were still scattered all over Incheon.

Then what about here in France?

No scattered remains were visible. Had they all been cremated or something?

No. It seemed they were all buried under the snow.

Skeletons were revealing themselves from within the snow.

From the piled snow here, from the piled snow there, bony hands stretched out with slow movements. From this snowfield too, a skeletal hand shot out and grabbed a Warrior’s ankle.

“Ahk!”

The Warrior hastily swung his weapon, smashing that bony hand and body to pieces.

Continuously, Skeletons in the surroundings, or far away, rose to their feet. Their bodies here and there were covered in gray snow. In each of those gaunt bony hands, ethereal weapons materialized.

Kim Ak looked at the Skeletons.

Though considered the weakest among Monsters, Kim Ak couldn’t underestimate them upon seeing them. Those Skeletons he had faced when conscripted into the army were more dreadful than anything…

The empty eye sockets of the Skeletons turned toward them. The number of vacant stares kept increasing.

From what Kim Ak could see, it seemed all Skeletons within a radius of about one kilometer had risen. Skeletons numbering easily over ten thousand were all staring in their direction at once.

“Fuck…”

It seemed the Skeletons’ skin and flesh had been eaten by monsters, but the clothes they wore remained somewhat intact. Perhaps many had died long ago, as most Skeletons wore modern clothing.

Among them, clothes of excessively bright colors stood out conspicuously.

A small Skeleton wearing some yellow clothes came clattering forward.

One Frenchman seemed to recognize who that Skeleton was.

“Chloé…”

Was it his daughter? The Frenchman’s eyes wavered as he looked at that small Skeleton with its crushed skull.

Other Frenchmen also seemed to find someone they knew among the Skeletons walking here. All stared with wide eyes, unable to look away from specific Skeletons. Only then did expressions resembling actual expressions appear on their faces, but it was not a good thing. Absolutely not.

Gripping his weapon, Kim Ak wondered. Had they appeared as some kind of Vengeful Spirits? Probably not. Kim Ak also roughly knew from hearing why this mission could be dangerous.

‘They probably said there’s no guarantee the meteorites would let people leave the village en masse.’

Now it was clear they had no intention of letting them go peacefully.

Some Frenchman muttered something in English. Oh Haengun listened and translated for Oh Haengbok.

“He says we must return to the village.”

“Return?”

“Yes, he says they are cursed. It seems they shouldn’t leave this place…”

Oh Haengbok also looked around and nodded. Indeed, with the meteorites showing their displeasure, it wasn’t something they could ignore.

“Alright, let’s send them back.”

However, returning the way they came immediately seemed difficult.

The area where Skeletons had risen the most was around the Fortress Wall. From the moat dug around it, Skeletons were still crawling out. They were blocking the path back to the walled village.

Had they been throwing the dead into the moat below the wall instead of burying them all this time? Believing they would be buried in snow anyway, so their forms wouldn’t even be visible?

There was no leisure for idle contemplation.

“They’re coming!”

The Skeletons aimed their ethereal weapons and began walking toward them. Among them, the Skeletons standing still weren’t ones without intent to attack; they were the ones preparing to shoot arrows.

“Form a defensive formation! Formation!”

Following Oh Haengun’s command, they formed a circular formation with the twenty-six Frenchmen at the center.

Their training paid off, as everyone’s movements were swift. Oh Haengbok kept shouting.

“Drop the spears, draw swords! Drop the spears, draw—”

And the Skeletons charged. The sound of clattering filled all directions. Their numbers were excessive, overwhelmingly so. To the point where the forward view was entirely blocked by bones.

A wave of Skeletons surged from all sides.