Chapter 3

GRRR...

A low growl came from outside the cave. Despite the tension, Raoul actually sighed with relief at the sound.

"Thank goodness. Gray wolves."

'... He can see them?'

Woojin looked toward the cave entrance where Raoul was staring, but he couldn't see anything. Even so, he knew what sort of monsters gray wolves were. They were among the low-grade monsters inhabiting the Dark Forest, the beginner area outside Moretti. Lower-level than goblins, they were prey for beginners, along with slimes.

"... I'll help."

He had killed a few in the game, too.

"Stay here for now. Best to thin their numbers before they get inside."

Perhaps it was his nerves. Seeing Woojin awkwardly draw his sword, Raoul gave his shoulder a light pat. Then he pulled a dagger from the leather strap slung diagonally across his chest.

WHOOSH!

He threw the dagger without hesitation.

YELP!

A cry rang out.

'Throwing?'

Woojin looked at him in surprise.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

In the meantime, Raoul threw two more daggers.

CLANG!

One missed and struck the cave wall, but the other buried itself squarely between a wolf's eyes.

'Just as I thought... Similar to the game, but different.'

In [Evil Tale], warriors were the sword-wielding class. Throwing was a rogue-class skill, and rogues couldn't equip the longsword Raoul was using. Seeing that game mechanics like class restrictions didn't apply reminded Woojin once again that this place was real.

"Five left. I can leave one to you, can't I?"

Before he finished speaking, he drew his sword and swung at a wolf.

"Hup!"

His face tense, Woojin gripped his sword.

WHOOSH!

Keeping his eyes fixed on the wolf, he concentrated and brought the blade down with all his strength.

THUD!

The wolf stepped back with ease, and Woojin's sword struck the ground pitifully.

'It's heavy.'

The moment he drew the sword from its sheath, he had been taken aback. [Evil Tale] claimed to maximize realism, but thinking about it now, plenty of things had been adjusted for the players' convenience.

His wrist throbbed. He had only swung the sword a few times, yet it already ached.

'... Ngh!'

He had never felt this kind of fatigue in the game. If the game had been like this, he would have collapsed before he even started hunting.

"Hah... Hah..."

The sword he had easily wielded with one hand in the game suddenly felt far heavier. Even with a death penalty, the game couldn't compare to a real battle with his life on the line. Extreme tension weighed down his entire body.

"Hup."

Woojin let out a short, ragged breath. The wolf slowly circled to the side, as though looking for an opening.

BOOM! CRASH!

Raoul was fighting the wolves with practiced ease.

CRUNCH!

His sword struck the back of a wolf's neck. His swordsmanship flowed like water, and Woojin found his gaze drawn to it despite himself.

GRAWR!

It was a mistake. The wolf didn't miss that split-second opening.

"Ngh!"

Woojin hastily raised his sword, but the wolf twisted its body and sank its teeth into his shoulder.

"AAAAARGH!"

The wolf's teeth dug into his flesh. Woojin screamed and writhed, the pain nearly knocking him unconscious.

GRRR...

The wolf sprang down and put some distance between them. Red blood stained its bared teeth.

"Hah... Hah..."

Clutching his throbbing shoulder, Woojin pointed his sword at the beast, his face pale. The tip of his blade trembled like a leaf.

This was real. The pain proved that he wasn't in a game, but in actual reality.

'I really have... come to another world.'

There was no point doubting it. The blood running down his arm was real, and all that mattered was the monster in front of him, still intent on taking his life.

The wolf lunged. It wasn't about to leave its exhausted prey alone.

"AAAAH!"

Woojin threw himself toward the charging beast. Rolling across the ground, he narrowly evaded its attack and slashed with his sword.

GRRRAH!

As if mocking his attack, the wolf gave a strange roar, arched its body like a bow, and sprang backward.

THUD!

At that instant, Woojin slid low and grabbed the wolf's leg.

SHUNK!

The sword he drove into its underbelly burst out through its flank. Blood and entrails spilled onto Woojin's face beneath it.

"Urgh...!"

Woojin hurriedly shoved the wolf's carcass aside and got to his feet.

"Urp...! Bleurgh!"

The fresh entrails didn't smell as foul as he had expected. Instead, it seemed to be their lingering warmth that turned his stomach.

"... Hah, hah."

His vomit mingled with the spilled blood and entrails in a ghastly sight. Yet even then, the wolf opened its jaws at him, apparently not quite dead.

SHICK!

A silver flash streaked before Woojin's eyes.

"Don't let your guard down. Low-grade or not, it's still a monster. If nothing else, they're stubbornly hard to kill."

The growling wolf's head was cleanly severed and fell to the ground.

"Th-thank you."

Had gray wolves always been such vicious monsters? Looking sickened, Woojin nodded at Raoul.

'Huh?'

That was when he noticed Raoul's sword. The flash that had severed the wolf's head hadn't been his imagination. A faint light enveloped Raoul's blade.

"Don't tell me... Aura Blade?"

"Ah, it's nothing special."

Raoul spoke casually, but Woojin couldn't contain his astonishment.

'Aura Blade is the very last skill in the warrior's fifth-advancement skill tree...'

"... You're quite remarkable."

"Heh heh. I may not look it, but I'm a first-class hunter."

Seemingly rather pleased by Woojin's genuine amazement, Raoul showed him a small black feather ornament hanging from his belt.

'Come to think of it, I kept thinking this world was like the game... but when a monster actually appeared, I froze and never even thought to use my skills.'

He might only be level 10, but he still had two skills: [Power Strike] and [Sprint].

'But...'

How was he supposed to use them? Could he even use them at all? This wasn't an easy world where all he had to do was register a skill and perform its activation motion.

'In the game, I could learn skills automatically as I leveled up...'

This was reality. Woojin gazed at Raoul.

SHUNK!

Just then, Raoul slit a wolf's belly with the dagger in his hand.

RIP...

"Lucky us."

Raoul took something from the wolf's belly and showed it to him.

"What's that?"

It was a small fragment resembling a red pebble.

"A rune."

"... A rune?"

"Lowest-grade, but still quite useful. Red runes increase your strength."

An unfamiliar pattern shimmered on the fragment.

'It's real.'

Woojin stared at the rune in amazement. It was unbelievable.

'How could a rune... come from a gray wolf?'

Runes existed in [Evil Tale], too. According to the information available, they could be obtained as reward items for defeating the Lizard King, the boss of the Labyrinth Tower's fifth floor. Monsters summoned from the sixth floor onward were said to have a low chance of dropping lowest-grade runes.

Yet here was one from a mere gray wolf that respawned in a beginner area.

"Try eating it," Raoul said, placing the rune in Woojin's hand.

"... Are you sure I can have it?"

"Of course. There's a limit to how many runes a human body can absorb. For lowest-grade runes, it's twenty of each attribute. I've already had enough."

In [Evil Tale], where players were still attempting to clear only the tenth floor, runes were so rare that there were none to be found for sale on the marketplace.

'So it's similar to the game, but different... is that it?'

Unlike the game, where players were only tackling the tenth floor, this was a future where the ninety-ninth floor had been cleared.

'This is a difference I can welcome.'

CRUNCH!

The rune broke more easily than he had expected.

"Oh...?"

Something like the fragrant scent of grass filled his mouth, and his throat grew hot when he swallowed.

"This is... amazing."

Woojin felt vitality brimming throughout his body.

'Red means... a strength rune, right.'

WHOOSH!

Perhaps that was why his heavy sword felt a little lighter.

'I'm not sure about skills, but the runes definitely seem to work.'

GRRR...

Just then, Woojin turned toward the sound of monsters outside the cave. Glowing red eyes crowded together too densely to count. His rising spirits abruptly cooled.

"... So much for our good fortune. Persistent beasts."

At Raoul's words, Woojin tightened his grip on his sword, his expression hardening.

But this time was different.

*'One, two, three...'

He wasn't afraid of the monsters, though there were too many to count.

'Could I get more runes?'

At the thought that this might be an opportunity, his eyes shone within his grim face. He was beginning to see this place a little differently.

* * *

YELP...!

The wolf's agonized cry didn't last long.

SHUNK!

As its head fell to the ground, light began slowly filtering through the cave entrance.

"... Morning already."

Leaning on his sword like a cane, Raoul thumped his stiff lower back.

"How many were there? Age catches up with you, doesn't it? Whew, I'm tired. Utterly exhausted."

He was covered in blood. But none of the blood pooling across the floor belonged to either of them.

"An agility rune."

The stench of blood filled the cave, but Woojin spoke calmly as he cut open the last wolf's carcass, unbothered, as though his nose had already gone numb.

"Ho ho, you adapt quickly. At first you were retching and making quite a fuss."

'Five strength runes, six agility runes, eight vitality runes, and four dexterity runes.'

Those were the runes he had obtained hunting monsters overnight.

*'In game terms, each lowest-grade rune increases its corresponding stat by five points...'

In [Evil Tale], each level gained awarded five stat points.

'One rune is the same as gaining a level. If this were the game, this last one would make twenty-four levels in a single night.'

It was an incredible achievement, but he couldn't simply rejoice. This wasn't a game where he could resurrect. If he died, that was the end.

'I have to survive, no matter what.'

"Yes. If there's a way to grow stronger, I have no reason to turn it down."

Covered head to toe in monster blood, Woojin spoke as he casually chewed the agility rune.

"But this isn't enough."

'... Hmm?'

Seeing the hungry look in Woojin's eyes, Raoul's expression turned intrigued.

"Could I learn it, too?"

It was strange. His very existence had vanished from reality. As if being trapped in a game hadn't been enough, he had now fallen into another world. He was at the very bottom of the abyss. No one could have blamed him for giving up.

Yet his eyes were shining all the brighter.

'Maybe this is an opportunity.'

This was reality, with no level restrictions. Looked at another way, that meant there were no prerequisite skill trees to learn a skill, either.

*'It would be absolutely impossible in the game...'

But here, he could learn it.

"Aura Blade."

A master skill unlocked at level 99. It was a realm no one in the history of [Evil Tale] had ever reached.