Chapter 56 - Witch's Forest (3)

A priest of Carui.

A hidden class you could only advance to after reaching at least the fifth floor, loaded with all sorts of combat spells and curses unlike ordinary priest classes.

"What the heck, nyah! She got away, nyah!"

I'd considered the possibility of a total party wipe in the worst case, but in the end, we'd overcome this danger without any losses.

How had we managed that?

Looking back calmly, there were several reasons.

"A priest of Carui... Just as terrifying as the stories say. Bjorn, we'd have been in real trouble without you."

We'd confiscated their weapons early on.

A sword, a shield, a spear, and even Elisa's staff. I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but taking that staff had been a tremendous stroke of luck. Without it, she couldn't have cast spells as she normally would.

Though the decisive factor was something else.

"Nothing beats a dependable barbarian, nyah. When that woman said she was a priestess, I wondered if Rotmiller had made a mistake, nyah. But you just smashed her in the head, nyah!"

"I-I felt the same. Bjorn, when you swung your weapon, goodness, my heart nearly stopped..."

A blow neither friend nor foe had expected.

With her skull crushed by that single strike, Elisa had been forced to revive herself by absorbing her companions' life force. But she hadn't come back in perfect condition.

How could her body possibly be fine after having her brain smashed and coming back to life?

'She was probably speaking in those broken fragments like an idiot because she hadn't fully recovered yet.'

We'd had plenty of advantages.

Yet that realization brought both relief and a shiver of dread. What if we'd fought with both sides at a hundred percent?

Well, our odds of winning would probably have been fifty-fifty. Assuming at least two people died, regardless of who won.

It would certainly have been a fierce, close fight. They must have known that too, which was why they'd tried that whole stranded-survivor act.

'So being evenly matched actually worked in our favor?'

Having finished reviewing the encounter, I briefly checked my condition.

It was awful. No further examination necessary.

「[Energy Decrease] remains active.」

「Stamina recovery rate is reduced.」

「[Lesser Decay] remains active.」

「Injury recovery rate is reduced.」

「[Tracking] remains active.」

「The character's location is transmitted to the caster.」

「[Vengeful Spirit's Step] remains active.」

「The character experiences slight pain when moving.」

「[Virility Reduction] remains act...」

Fuck, this is driving me insane.

My eyes ache, and my head feels like it's been lightly pickled in salt. For some reason, I can't muster any strength down below, either.

Seriously, how many fucking curses did she dump on me alone?

「Warning: The character has 15 or more stacked curses. Without treatment through Divine Power or magic, the character's physical capabilities may suffer permanent deterioration.」

I'm in terrible shape.

A complete mess, you might say. Honestly, it's hard even to explain exactly where and how I feel awful.

Still, I'm not too worried.

We have a mage on our team.

"Dwalki, cast Remove Curse on me."

"R-Remove Curse?"

Why are you so surprised?

You're making me nervous.

"Didn't you say you could use curse magic?"

"Well, yes, but..."

Yes, but what?

I stared at him, prompting him to continue. Dwalki averted his eyes and spoke.

"I said I could cast a few curses, not that I could remove them...?"

Huh?

"What kind of bullshit is that?"

"It couldn't be helped, since I taught myself rather than joining the Magic Tower. I'd also heard there was rarely any need to remove curses during explorations..."

Dwalki launched into a long string of excuses.

Boiled down, it was a very simple story.

"In short, you didn't have the money."

When I summed up the situation in a single sentence like a proper barbarian, Dwalki nodded with a disgruntled look.

"That's right. I thought it better to prioritize learning what I needed most."

Right. This was the sort of team we were.

What good would pointing fingers do now?

We were all in similar circumstances. Complaining any more would only make me look petty.

Forget dwelling on what's impossible. Let's do what we can right now.

"Rotmiller, is there any way to track that woman?"

"... Unfortunately not. I've been looking for a way, but I haven't found even a starting point."

Hmm. Just as I thought.

This was a little... No, quite a headache.

Though some of us still didn't seem to grasp that.

"What's your opinion? How dangerous do you think this is?"

"Hard to say just yet. But one thing is certain: we need to leave this place immediately."

"Leave... But where to?"

"Wait! What on earth are you two talking about?"

Dwalki interrupted my serious discussion with Rotmiller.

I wanted to tell him the adults were talking and to stay out of it for a moment...

But he was a mage, after all.

Discussing it might yield a good idea, so I gave him a quick explanation.

"Didn't you hear what she said as she fled? She'd never let us leave alive. She's bound to come after us again soon."

"Of course, but if she returns, can't we simply fight her off like we just did?"

You think it's that easy?

Was it because this was his first time in the Labyrinth?

For a mage, his judgment seemed even worse than Misha's.

"This really is serious, nyah! If she ambushes us from behind while we're fighting monsters, we'll be in trouble, nyah!"

An unseen enemy was more frightening than a visible one. That was common sense everywhere.

What's more, by the time she came seeking revenge, she was certain to have recovered most of her strength.

'And she'll get to decide when to ambush us, too.'

As my own success with the strike-first approach had just demonstrated, the side that initiated a fight usually had the advantage.

Once Rotmiller kindly explained this, Dwalki clamped his mouth shut, thoroughly frightened.

"A priest of Carui hunting us from the darkness... It seems our journey has hit quite an obstacle! Hahaha."

The dwarf, our team leader in name only, laughed with forced nonchalance and patted the rigid Dwalki on the shoulder...

But the tense atmosphere didn't ease in the slightest.

Well, having just fought her five against one, they knew better than anyone what a pain in the ass priests of Carui were.

As the unease gradually mounted, I spoke.

"Given how things stand, I think we'd better reach Witch's Forest as soon as possible."

I proposed the only solution to our current situation.

Rotmiller asked a brief question.

"Why?"

"Once we're there, she won't be able to track us. It'll solve the curse problem, too."

My answer left a great deal unsaid, but it was enough. From his expression, he seemed to understand everything I meant.

"Using the terrain characteristics of Witch's Forest... A sound decision."

Rotmiller nodded.

But perhaps one thing still puzzled him.

"But didn't you say this was your first time on the third floor?"

Yes, that's right.

So please, Mister, figure things out and get moving before I have to say anything.

"... I studied at the library."

"The library?"

Rotmiller tilted his head at my not-quite-an-excuse.

But I wasn't particularly worried.

There happened to be a witness right beside me.

"Surprising as it may be, it's true. Bjorn goes to the library every day to read."

"Wow, a barbarian who reads books, nyah?"

"No wonder. Even the way you speak is extraordinary compared to other barbarians."

They stared at me as if I were some oddity.

Enough attention, thank you. I'd rather we made a decision and got to work.

"So, what does everyone think?"

"I'm in favor of your plan."

Once Rotmiller backed my proposal, the dwarf and Misha added their votes of approval, quickly settling the matter.

But there was one thing left to do before we hurried away.

Looking at 'Hanson,' who had collapsed like puppets with severed strings the moment Elisa fled, I spoke.

"What are you all doing? Aren't you going to strip their gear?"

No matter how rushed we were, we had to take what was ours.

We were explorers, weren't we?

Slayers of plunderers and monsters.

* * *

"Selling all this should bring in well over six million Stones."

Was it because they were third-floor plunderers?

The loot 'Hanson' had dropped was on a completely different level from the guys I'd encountered before.

Of course, divided five ways, my share would be roughly the same as last time.

"Really, nyah! Doesn't that mean over a million Stones each, nyah! I was barely going to scrape together this year's taxes, so that's a relief, nyah!"

"With that money, I can learn several more spells! Ah, I'll be sure to learn Remove Curse this time!"

Having come into a fortune in an instant, Dwalki and Misha happily pictured their futures.

But Rotmiller, the dwarf, and I merely offered awkward smiles and kept quiet.

After all, however much you earned in the Labyrinth, what did it matter unless you returned to the city alive?

"We'll sell all the spoils back in the city and divide the proceeds then."

For the journey, we decided to split the loot among the three of us who owned Expanded Backpacks.

No one could predict what lay ahead. Someone might die during the expedition, a backpack might be lost, or someone might even try to run off with it all.

One thing about this process surprised me, though.

'I knew about the dwarf, but Misha owns an Expanded Backpack too...?'

Contrary to the impression she'd given me, was she actually the frugal type who diligently saved up?

Maybe Misha was more sensible about money than I'd thought.

"Let's get moving, then."

After collecting the loot, we packed up camp and hurried away.

Rotmiller led the way, while the rest of us followed, alert for a possible ambush. Using his Smell to avoid monster encounters wherever possible, we focused entirely on traveling.

How much time had passed?

「Warning: The character's stamina is continuously decreasing. Unless promptly addressed, permanent...」

I feel like I'm going to fucking die.

Traveling at nearly a run for about five hours with curses hanging all over me has left my body a wreck.

If not for stats like the Mana resistance and Darkness Defense I'd gained from the Vampire, I'd probably have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

"Bjorn, are you... all right?"

"I can keep going. Don't worry about me."

I pretended to be fine in response to the dwarf's concern, but honestly, I was anything but.

Unlike the others, who had a measly two or three curses each, that crazy bitch had hurled countless curses at me alone.

And she'd only cast this particular one on me.

'Fucking Energy Decrease...'

Energy Decrease.

A goddamn skill that drastically reduced recovery of stamina, which was consumed whenever a character moved or took an action.

Incidentally, stamina was separate from HP, so however high your natural regeneration was, it did no good.

'In game terms, maybe I've got about thirty percent left?'

In the game, characters stopped moving when their stamina gauge fell below ten percent. NPCs often whined, even saying they'd rather you just killed them.

But I wasn't that far gone yet.

Sure, this was insanely hard. But not hard enough to kill me.

I could still hold on through willpower.

Which meant I still had plenty left in the tank.

「Achievement Accomplished」

Condition: Stamina falls to 5% or below.

Reward: Mental permanently increases by +1.

Yep. Definitely.

I couldn't hold on unless I believed that.

Let's just focus on the positives.

I'd pushed myself a little, but our destination was almost within reach, wasn't it?

"Judging by the moisture in the soil, we should arrive in another ten minutes."

After a journey of roughly five hours, we reached Witch's Forest without a single attack, contrary to our fears.

'If we've come this far and she still hasn't shown up, she must not have recovered yet either.'

It had been worth pushing ourselves to hurry.

At least, I didn't believe there was any chance that bitch had given up on us.

After all, she'd even revealed the dark god's power in front of us in her desperation to survive. If we witnesses returned alive and well, she'd be in serious trouble.

"We've arrived."

At Rotmiller's words, I shook off the thoughts filling my head.

Whew. Letting your mind wander really was the best way to get through a hard time.

I'd managed to skip a whole ten minutes, hadn't I?

"So this is Witch's Forest... For some reason, it gives me the chills."

"For some reason, every mage who comes here for the first time says that."

"It feels as though ominous mana is throbbing throughout the entire forest."

Withered thorn trees.

Vines wrapped around them like coiled snakes.

"W-Wait! That tree just moved!"

A place where all those things lived and moved.

Witch's Forest.

「The character has entered a special area.」

「Field Effect - Witch's Forest is applied.」

「The status ailment [Directional Dyslexia] is applied.」

「The status ailment [Auditory Hallucinations] is applied.」

「The status ailment [Hallucinations] is applied.」

「The status ailment [Pain Enhancement] is applied.」

The moment I stepped inside by torchlight, cool air washed over my skin.

「All status effects other than field effects cease to function.」

Ha. Now I feel alive again.

* * *

「Bjorn Jandel」

Level: 3

Physical: 199.1 / Mental: 106.3 (New +1) / Ability: 152.4

Item Level: 699

Overall Combat Index: 631.55 (New +1)

Obtained Essences: Corpse Golem - Rank 7, Vampire (Guardian) - Rank 5