Chapter 107 - PK (3)

First, I checked outside the passage.

"Aaagh!"

"Don't run away! Hold your ground, nyah!"

Misha and Karlson were busy dealing with the orc. If they could simply kill it, they would have finished in no time, but my orders ruled that out.

'I won't have to worry about them for a while.'

I swiftly stripped the unconscious Jenssia of her equipment: a leather top made of tier-two material, boots that sprouted blades while I was taking them off, wrist guards with grooves that launched concealed weapons when I pressed them, and so on.

On inspection, every piece was designed more for fighting people than monsters. I couldn't help smiling as I glanced over them and stuffed them into my backpack.

'I could just give a few of these to Misha. That'll save me some money.'

Jenssia's equipment was quite good. The crowning jewel was her sword—a longsword that looked expensive from the hilt onward.

'No, wait... Isn't this a Numbered item?'

I stopped putting it into my backpack and examined it closely. The blade had a greenish sheen.

If I was right, this was No. 5991, Venomous Viper's Fang. It had no activated effect, but gave a large bonus to Penetration and doubled the poison damage inflicted through the sword.

Well, I would need an appraisal to be sure...

'Looks like I've picked up something valuable.'

Venomous Viper's Fang was a core item. It wasn't quite an endgame weapon, but a poison build could easily keep using it into the mid-to-late game. Naturally, it commanded a high price regardless of its number.

'If this really is Venomous Viper's Fang, I'll have Misha use it until we sell it.'

With that thought, I stood up. Now that the looting was done, it was time for a conversation. I had a few questions, after all.

First, though, I needed to get things ready for our talk.

THUD!

I brought my mace down, aiming for her ankle. With all the equipment worth money safely collected, there was no reason to hesitate.

"Ugh, gaaaagh!!!"

The instant her slender, pale ankle was crushed, Jenssia's upper body shot upright as though she had been electrocuted. I pinned her down with my foot on her upper chest.

Then...

"N-no...!"

THUD!

I did the same to her other ankle. I had already taken care of one wrist earlier, so that left only her left wrist.

As I shifted position, my eyes met Jenssia's. Had she done something similar herself? She seemed to know what I was about to do.

"S-stop... Please... Y-you don't have to do this. I'll do anything..."

Really?

"Then stay still. We'll talk once I'm finished."

I raised my mace overhead.

"D-don't...!! I won't fight back! So please, let's just talk—!"

I'm telling you, just wait a moment.

THUD!

"AAAAAAGH!!!"

Jenssia's scream rang out loudly once more, and at last, we had a suitable setting for a conversation. All four limbs were crushed, and I had stripped off all her equipment.

Now I could safely...

Oh, had I not taken everything?

"Use [Armament Swap]."

It might only be beginner gear, but the bitch still had her alternate equipment. At my demand, however, Jenssia merely stared blankly at me, even her pained groans falling silent.

"How... did you know...?"

What did she mean, how? Was there another skill that changed all your equipment in an instant?

Instead of answering, I raised my mace. Jenssia turned even paler. She must have realized that the only thing left for me to crush with it was her little skull.

"I-I'll do it!"

A new set of equipment soon appeared on Jenssia's body. Ordinary gear, worth perhaps five hundred thousand Stones altogether. I stripped that off too and put it in my backpack.

Now, on to the main business.

"I have some questions."

"A-anything!"

First, I asked Jenssia which Essences she possessed. There were four in total: the Iron Knight's [Armament Swap], the Dinictis's [Beast Step], and the Saint Assassin's [Revenge].

'And [Poisoning]...'

I had been wary of a possible self-destruct skill, but her last Essence was the hobgoblin's [Poisoning], which Misha also had.

All told, she had absorbed two rank-six Essences, one rank-five, and one rank-seven. She had put together quite a solid build. A shame that she was using it for plundering.

'Actually, maybe she found exactly what suited her?'

Judged as an explorer fighting monsters, Jenssia was only about rank six. Against people, though, she was certainly above rank five.

"Um, is that all...? I would have answered if you'd just asked—"

What was she talking about? We were only getting started.

I moved straight to the next question.

"Why did you attack us?"

"The Explorer Guild has circulated information about me. So I needed to silence you..."

"So you intended to kill whoever came in."

Jenssia squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. By this point, she might well have given up and told me to just kill her, but she never said anything of the sort.

Not that it would change anything.

"Then why did you open the rupture? You don't seem to have any Essence slots left. If you hadn't come in at all, you wouldn't have needed to silence anyone."

"Because of the Heart of Frost. I heard that item only drops here."

Ah, so that was why.

"Besides, I wasn't worried about silencing anyone. I thought whoever came would be rank-eight explorers at best—"

As I listened, the last loose thread falling into place, Jenssia suddenly clamped her mouth shut. Her eyes widened, as though she had realized something enormous.

"You even knew... that I opened the rupture?"

... That had been a slip of the tongue.

"What are you talking about?"

I answered casually, digging in one ear, but Jenssia wasn't fooled. After a prolonged silence, she finally arrived at the answer.

"Don't tell me... You're a Player too?"

From the look in her eyes, denying it would probably be pointless... But that didn't mean I needed to confirm it.

"Player? Are you an evil spirit?"

Despite my question, she stared blankly into space. Then, apparently coming to her senses, she wriggled over and pressed her face against my leg.

I looked down at her without moving.

"Mister, please spare me..."

Hope.

"I want to go home. I can't die here. Not in this fucking place... Do you have any idea what I went through to survive? Please. I'm begging you..."

Anguish.

"Oh, I haven't apologized, have I? I'm sorry. I-it was my fault. I thought you were NPCs. If I'd known, I never would have done it. W-we're real people... We're people, aren't we? That would be murder, wouldn't it?"

Desperation.

"Please... Say something. Please? Fuck! Say something! Sob... You son of a bitch..."

Despair.

I simply kept watching Jenssia's face as all those emotions and more swirled across it.

THUMP.

Surprisingly, my heart was calm. I felt not even a shred of pity, let alone sorrow.

[Dungeon and Stone] had no PK. It wasn't an online game, after all. But you could kill NPCs instead. I, too, had enjoyed playing as a plunderer that way.

But...

'You killed them because they were NPCs?'

This wasn't simply the inside of a game. Much as I wanted to believe it was, there was far too much evidence forcing me to accept otherwise. And she probably knew that perfectly well too.

So I gave a short answer.

"You are an evil spirit."

An evil spirit. A being that didn't belong to this world, yet had no choice but to become part of it in body, mind, and soul to survive.

Yes, what did it matter whether someone was a Player or an NPC? Nothing changed. Whatever label she wore, this woman was nothing more than a plunderer—and a dangerous one who had realized I was a Player.

"You son of a bitch!!"

So I raised my mace, thinking that, as two people who had fully adapted to this place, we would surely have done the same with our positions reversed.

My grip slowly tightened around the mace.

Jenssia no longer begged for her life. She merely stared at me with venomous eyes, as though determined to remember my face and curse me even in death.

"Hhh, hngh, haaah..."

With every ragged breath, her rounded chest rose and fell rapidly. Even without putting my ear to it, I could sense how fast her heart must be beating.

I realized something. She might have seemed to have nothing left but spite, but one other thing remained.

Fear.

Soon, Jenssia closed her eyes. She let go of her hatred and finally began to find peace.

What was she seeing beyond those tightly closed eyelids?

"M-Mom..."

I brought the mace down before I heard the rest.

THUD!

Blood and flesh splattered. Each small convulsion of her fallen body sent blood welling from her nose and mouth.

Of course, it didn't last long. Before long, her body lay completely still.

I released the breath I had been holding and turned away.

「Achievement Accomplished」

Condition: First Player Kill

Reward: Mental permanently increases by +1.

I had killed a Player for the first time. Still, I forced aside my feelings about it and took a step.

THUD.

Whether it had been easy or hard. Whether the blood and flesh had stirred excitement in me instead of fear. Whether I felt disgusted with myself for nevertheless hoping that, when she opened her eyes, she would be in the place she had seen beyond her closed eyelids. Or whether the sight of myself, growing ever more corrupt inside this barbarian's body, had struck me anew as wretched.

My feelings didn't matter.

THUD.

It had to be done.

'...'

On the first day I opened my eyes in this barbaric world, this was the path I had chosen to walk.

* * *

"What took you so long, nyah! I thought something terrible had happened, nyah!"

Misha scolded me as I left Jenssia's corpse behind and emerged into the chamber.

Hmm. I had wrapped things up as quickly as I could. Only about three minutes had passed.

"H-help me!"

With Misha distracted looking at me, Karlson cried out urgently as the orc drove him back helplessly. I remained a spectator, however.

"Misha, you can finish it off now."

"Oh, I can, nyah?"

"Yes. While you're at it, try your new Ability."

"Huh? I haven't used it even once yet, nyah..."

That's why I was telling her to try it. The mafia member was gone now, wasn't she? And an Ice Orc was the perfect test subject.

"Ugh! I-I can't hold out any... Hngh!"

While Karlson blocked another axe blow with his dented shield, Misha closed her eyes and activated a skill.

「Misha Karlstein has cast [Enhancement].」

A faint white light appeared over her hand. It was the active skill of the rank-seven monster Bitol. Normally, Misha's standard combo would have been to follow it with [Poisoning], but...

「Misha Karlstein has cast [Cold Concentrate].」

Blue particles separated from the air and seeped into Misha's body.

「Cold Affinity increases greatly.」

Apparently sensing that it had worked, Misha opened her eyes. Then...

WHOOSH!

She swung her sword fiercely, slashing the wrist of the orc as it tried to attack Karlson.

SHNK!

Perhaps cutting all the way through the bone in one blow had been too much. The orc's axe-wielding hand dangled half-severed.

But my attention was elsewhere.

["O-oink!!"]

The sharp blade had opened a gash across its wrist, yet no blood flowed. The flesh around the wound had frozen red and crusted with frost.

'So it registers as frostbite.'

The Cold element prevented bleeding. That alone might sound like a drawback, but it also prevented regeneration, making it quite useful against certain enemies. Restricting their movements was another advantage.

["O-oink!"]

Of course, with the Ice Orc's high Cold Resistance, only the area around its wrist had frozen. An ordinary mob would have fared differently. The ice would have spread beyond its wrist to its elbow.

Hmm. A monster with negative Cold Resistance might even have been inflicted with Freeze. And Misha hadn't even finished putting her build together yet.

With that in mind...

"Misha, aim for its neck this time."

"Huh? Okay, nyah!"

Misha's sword lodged in the orc's neck. Well, orcs had high Bone Hardness, so severing it in one blow would have been difficult.

But as its neck froze, the orc stopped moving and began trembling where it stood. Apparently, the cold had reached its brain too.

CRUNCH!

Having seen everything I needed to, I charged forward and smashed the orc's skull with my mace. At the same moment, the chamber shook, and powdered ice began raining from the ceiling.

The roar we had heard before reverberated once more.

["GRAAAAAAH!!"]

"W-what is it, nyah?"

What else? It meant we were on to chapter four.

「Tyrant Tarunbas, awakened from his long slumber, has recovered all his strength.」

With that unplanned bit of PK out of the way, it was about time to kill the boss and leave.