Chapter 94 – LV.Fourteen Orc Vampire Oh Haengbok – [Seven]

The paladins ran toward the Sun Ship. Desperately pushing and shoving past the village warriors as they moved.

“Get them!”

The village warriors also gave chase after the paladins. They pounced on fleeing paladins to knock them down or pursued them from behind.

And even in this pursuit, Oh Haengbok was overwhelmingly dominant. Charging like an enraged beast, he struck the fleeing paladins and sent them flying. And the paladins were too busy fleeing to even think of casting divine spells or doing anything else.

The battle seemed already won.

Seo Yun decided to focus on healing the fallen. One warrior who had been lying down regained the strength to speak after receiving her healing.

“Did we… win?”

“Yes.”

“Well… that’s good. But earlier, it looked like you alone took down about three…”

“Four, actually.”

“Damn impressive…”

The warrior laughed, then lost consciousness as if his tension had finally released.

Seo Yun was smiling faintly when a rough voice came from behind her.

“Heal my body too.”

It was the troll’s voice. Turning her head toward it, Seo Yun struggled to maintain her composure.

The golden mask was broken, revealing the troll’s bare face. Seeing that face up close now, Seo Yun thought: Here is a creature that a meteorite had fully unleashed its creative talent to make hideous.

Though her eyes ached with the sight, Seo Yun nodded with a calm voice.

“Of course. Thank you for fighting, really.”

As the troll groaned, Seo Yun cast a healing spell on its body while groaning inwardly. Even upon second look, the face was undeniably horrifying.

Covered in bumps or boils—hard to tell which—the troll’s face was also pockmarked with scars. Its tiny eyes were buried in flesh, barely visible, and not even symmetrical. The swollen, bright red strawberry nose looked like a symptom of some serious disease.

If it had looked completely different from a human, all of that could have been seen as character, but the troll race’s appearance closely resembled humans, so he was just purely ugly.

‘I’ve only seen a face this ugly once in my life…’

She tried not to focus on that face, worthy of a Charisma Stat of 1. Seo Yun asked,

“If you’re a troll, shouldn’t your minimum Health be 10? Can’t you regenerate on your own?”

“I was, stabbed by the Commander-in-Chief’s sword. After that, regeneration doesn’t work.”

“He stabbed you even with time stopped?”

The troll mage nodded. Then, despite being a troll—the very symbol of hyper-regeneration—blood dripped steadily from the wound.

“He must have been wearing a Haste bracelet or something in preparation for Time Stop. Pretending he couldn’t move in the stopped time, then ambushing me. I used up all the spells I had prepared, even the spell scrolls I had in reserve, just to barely take him down. Considering my Level dropped by at least 1 from writing those spell scrolls, it’s a huge loss…”

Whether he wanted to boast about defeating a powerful foe or emphasize how hard he fought, the troll’s explanation was excessively long. After listening, Seo Yun asked,

“Anyway, you won against another Epic Level opponent, right?”

“For now.”

“‘For now,’ you say?”

“Even though I knocked him down now, if left alone, he’ll resurrect.”

Seo Yun’s eyes widened.

“Resurrection?”

“Paladins who have acquired Divinity have the ability to resurrect on their own. Moreover, there are several priests on the Sun Ship who can cast resurrection spells.”

So the troll was saying the crisis wasn’t completely over yet. If the paladin could resurrect so easily, then the paladins on the Sun Ship still had the means to fight again later.

“You didn’t properly dispose of the corpse, did you?”

“Couldn’t. I was in a situation where I was about to die myself.”

After healing the troll, Seo Yun stood up with a hardened expression.

The village priests had already rushed over and were healing the remaining fallen warriors. She decided it was better to leave the healing to them.

Seo Yun ran toward the Sun Ship. She needed to relay what she had just heard to the village warriors.

By the time Seo Yun arrived, the pursuit had already ended. It seemed some paladins had managed to successfully take refuge inside the Sun Ship.

“Come out, you bastards!”

The village warriors were gathered in front of the Sun Ship’s entrance. One paladin was guarding the entrance, preventing the village warriors from entering.

Amidst this, where was Commander-in-Chief Lord Cairo?

Seeing the corpses of the paladins the troll had taken down in front of the Sun Ship, Seo Yun bit her lip.

Just as the troll had warned. Lord Cairo’s corpse was nowhere to be seen.

‘Did they already take it inside the Sun Ship…’

Seo Yun approached the village warriors and asked,

“What are you all planning to do now?”

Oh Haengbok, standing at the very back of the warriors, looked toward her. His expression wasn’t visible since he was wearing a helm, but he was probably grinning. His voice was cheerful.

“Oh, our pretty… Seo Yun. Did you come to help?”

“Yes. Are you planning to breach inside?”

Oh Haengbok nodded.

“If we don’t finish this, there’ll be repercussions later. Whether we like it or not, we can’t just send them off peacefully.”

“Then why aren’t you just taking down that paladin and going in right now?”

“Ah, that. See how intense sunlight is blasting from the bottom of the Sun Ship over there? It’s not like you burn to death immediately if you get close, but your strength drains rapidly and you can’t even keep your eyes open… I’m waiting for the others to break through, then I’ll enter.”

Amidst this, it was unclear why the Sun Ship wasn’t taking off. The village warriors were so fired up, ready to breach in at any moment, so why hadn’t the Sun Ship just left this village? Was it low on fuel? Or perhaps…

“Huh?”

The paladin blocking the Sun Ship’s entrance stepped back.

And from that entrance, a much larger, more massive paladin walked out.

The giant paladin blocked the Sun Ship’s entrance. Hearing that paladin’s voice, Seo Yun bit her lip.

“How dare you covet the Ship of the Sun.”

It was Lord Cairo Simon. The Commander-in-Chief of the Crusaders who had died earlier had already resurrected.

The reappearance of an Epic Level paladin was enough to intimidate the village warriors. His size alone was daunting; although the illustration in the Rulebook depicted a slender, handsome man, now clad in the paladin’s distinctive armor, Cairo looked almost as massive as Oh Haengbok.His physique alone was worthy of being called Epic Level. While the village warriors seemed overwhelmed and took a step back, only Oh Haengbok growled, holding his hammer.

“What? You guys invaded our village as you damn well pleased, but we can’t do the same?”

Of course, Lord Cairo did not understand Korean. Lord Cairo merely glanced at Oh Haengbok, who was shouting like that.

And as if angered by being ignored, Oh Haengbok, gripping his hammer, emitted an eye light. It seemed ready to burst forth immediately, be it sunlight or whatever from the bottom of the Sun Ship.

Seeing this, Seo Yun was startled. Was that orc vampire getting angry again and about to cause trouble?

“Do you really intend to fight?”

When she asked, Oh Haengbok answered in a calm voice. It was unexpected.

“Of course.”

“That’s an Epic Level. I heard the troll has already used up all his spells.”

So the question was, if you want to fight, you’d have to fight alone, but can you win? And Oh Haengbok explained.

“He’s probably not Epic-level right now.”

“Why not?”

“The Rulebook says there’s a temporary ability score reduction as an aftereffect of resurrection. That bastard’s physical abilities probably aren’t normal right now. If we want to take him down, now’s the only chance.”

Seo Yun nodded. It seemed he wasn’t just blindly wanting to fight out of anger but had gone through some rational thought.

Oh Haengbok continued to glare at Lord Cairo. It seemed he was ready to charge immediately if any opportunity arose to approach the Sun Ship, even if he couldn’t right now.

Seo Yun was also drawing her flaming sword to fight alongside him if that happened.

A familiar voice speaking English was heard.

“As your defeated opponent, my advice is… how about negotiating…?”

Seo Yun turned her head in that direction and blinked.

“Mr. William? And…”

She saw Sir William, held by both arms by two boys. And Park Taeyang with a gloomy face, Kim Rayeon, and Gaeulbi were all together as well. The captured teenagers and their watcher had returned with their positions reversed.

Seeing the bruise on Gaeulbi’s face, Seo Yun asked.

“Eulbi, what happened to your face?”

Gaeulbi proudly pointed at William and answered.

“I knocked my teacher down.”

“Mr. William?”

“With these two fists! But I got hit back too, so my face is swollen, right? Heal me too…!”

Seo Yun healed her as requested while thinking. Did this kid beat a Level 10 Paladin?

It’s true that the ability score increase per level for the Paladin class is about half that of the Warrior class. Sir William, who is already small in stature, has relatively low ability scores for his level, but still, to lose to a chimpanzee?

Meanwhile, William looked around. He seemed to be looking at the corpses scattered before the Sun Ship. Then, looking at the corpses beyond as well, he sighed.

“Quite a lot have died. Both my comrades and your side… I didn’t know the fight would be this tough.”

“Are you mocking us now?”

When Oh Haengbok roared, William shook his head.

“No. I’m saying that because so many have died, the Sun Ship has no choice but to accept negotiations.”

“Come to think of it, you just said to negotiate. What kind of negotiation are you talking about?”

William spoke in a small, whisper-like voice so Cairo wouldn’t hear.

“Propose to return the corpses.”

“Why the corpses?”

“Because if they want to resurrect the corpses, they need to retrieve them first… They’re in a desperate situation too… With this many knights fallen, they can’t just abandon resurrection and leave. So, before they start a fight to retrieve the corpses… you offer to return the corpses first. They’ll definitely accept.”

It took quite some time for people to understand his words.

The resurrection of the dead—a concept unfamiliar in reality, though perhaps not in games. Even though the game has become reality, it’s especially so now when there’s no Level 15 Priest capable of using resurrection spells.

After a long while, someone asked.

“We’ve lost this many, and we’re just supposed to allow their resurrection?”

And then Sir William said.

“Make that a condition of the negotiation too. The resurrection of this village’s fallen warriors.”

“Resurrection?”

“Demand that they resurrect the warriors who died in this fight. And have them swear in the name of the Sun God that they won’t seek revenge for this incident.”

For someone who was captured after being defeated by a seventeen-year-old chimpanzee, he was remarkably eloquent. Seo Yun suspected that this paladin might have deliberately gotten himself captured to give this advice.

Why, William had seemed ashamed of his comrades’ excessive focus on plunder and conscription. Moreover, he had grown close to the villagers while training them. He clearly felt reluctant to fight these village warriors. Even within the Crusaders, despite being relatively high-level, he didn’t join the battle and was in charge of watching over the captured boys.

Perhaps William is somewhat satisfied now that the Crusaders’ attack has ended in failure.

Oh Haengbok muttered.

“A vow not to seek revenge and the resurrection of the fallen…”

Oh Haengbok, who had seemed brimming with the will to fight even before an Epic Level paladin, wavered at the possibility of the fallen being resurrected. Perhaps thinking that he, a vampire, wouldn’t be helpful in negotiations, he stepped back and whispered something to Oh Haengun.

Oh Haengun stepped forward and relayed the Chief’s words to Lord Cairo.

“We have several demands. If you agree to them…”

Despite facing an Epic Level, Oh Haengun’s voice was filled with strength. After all, they were the victors now. There was no need to show weakness.

And Lord Cairo did not ignore Oh Haengun’s words, which sounded almost arrogant. Seeing him quietly exchanging words back and forth with Oh Haengun, it seemed some negotiation was progressing.

Soon, Oh Haengun, having finished the conversation, approached them. He spoke to Seo Yun.

“Seo Yun? That gentleman says he wants to talk to you.”

Seo Yun’s eyes widened.

“Why me? It’s been exposed that I’m not the leader here.”

“But he says if he’s to negotiate, he must do it with you…”

It was understandable why he made such a demand. Clearly, as William said, they needed to negotiate, but it seemed his pride wouldn’t allow him to accept a vampire as his counterpart.

Seo Yun looked at Oh Haengbok. And when Oh Haengbok nodded, Seo Yun stepped forward.