Chapter 59 - Rules for Survival (2)

What matters most in a disaster?

Water? Food? Stamina? Tools?

Well, all of those are extremely important... but if I had to pick just one, I would choose mental fortitude.

"No... I can't die like this, I can't, nyah! I've fought so desperately to survive, and now it ends so pointlessly... nyah!"

"Misha, calm down."

When you find yourself in a shitty situation, you need the courage to accept reality calmly instead of denying it. Only then can you assess things objectively.

So I set aside all my questions.

'It doesn't matter what happened over there.'

An unusual monster might have appeared, or that bitch Elisa's group might have pulled off some ingenious ambush in those few brief moments. Every possibility was on the table.

But none of that was what I needed to focus on right now.

'Think.'

I was separated from the group. I had one Therianthrope companion beside me. Unfortunately, she was a warrior type who could only deal physical damage. And the chances of our missing companions coming back here seemed vanishingly small.

Yeah. In a word, we were fucked.

This place, overrun with monsters immune to physical attacks, was also known as the warriors' graveyard. A barbarian and a Therianthrope warrior making it through on their own was next to impossible.

On top of that, we had pursuers hunting us. That was actually the biggest problem. If the two of us ran into them, it would be an instant game over.

But unless I planned to bite off my tongue and drop dead, I needed to think. Not about how fucking awful our situation was—

'So what do I need to do right now?'

What actions should I take next? Even if it amounted to nothing more than a desperate struggle, what did I need to give up, and what should I prioritize to survive?

Simply put, what was my best option right now?

"... Let's move."

"What, nyah? But even if we do—"

"Even if we can't find our way, we're better off leaving this spot."

Once I assessed the situation objectively, I could see things that needed doing even under these terrible circumstances. I decided to prioritize them and work through them in order of importance.

First things first.

"It's dangerous here."

Leave this spot.

The reason was simple. I knew nothing about whatever the dwarf and the others had encountered nearby, except that it was dangerous enough to stop them from coming back for us.

"If that bitch pulled something, they'll find us eventually too."

"But wouldn't they have shown up already if that were the case, nyah?"

Well, maybe we'd simply fallen down their list of priorities. Perhaps the dwarf had fled in the opposite direction, forcing them to follow him.

Of course, I had no intention of debating it at length. The first things you had to abandon to survive were intangible values like kindness and consideration.

"So what will you do? The choice is yours."

I wasn't going to drag dead weight around just because she was a companion. Something like that couldn't even be called a companion in the first place.

I drew a firm line.

"If you don't like my judgment, we go our separate ways from here."

"W-what are you saying, nyah!"

"Answer me."

I wasn't going to waste time arguing. Yes or no?

After silently staring into my eyes, Misha bit her lip and made her choice.

"... I'll follow everything you say from now on, nyah. I'm injured anyway, so there's nothing I can do, is there, nyah?"

An excellent answer, delivered with a precise understanding of what the questioner wanted. I hadn't thought it of her, but she seemed pretty quick on the uptake.

Whatever she usually acted like, there was a reason she'd been an explorer for five years.

"B-but that was still too cruel, nyah...!"

When I relaxed my stern expression, Misha began whining as if I'd hurt her feelings. But this much was... well, whatever.

I didn't care, as long as she followed my instructions.

"Drink this."

I opened a bottle of potion and handed it to her. She slowly drank it with the expression of someone receiving a cup of poison.

Then she began to moan. Not the suggestive kind. Potions simply didn't work that way.

"Hhhrgh, guuugh!!"

Judging by her agonized noises, the potion seemed to be working properly. So I slung Misha over my shoulder.

It was only a sprained ankle, so the pain would fade and she'd be able to walk in five minutes... but if I could save even that time, all the better.

"Urgh, bleegh! P-please, slow down! No, walk more gently, nyah!"

As I settled into a proper jog, Misha wailed and pleaded with me. Apparently she was getting motion sickness.

But there was only one thing I could tell her.

"Just bear with it, however bad it feels."

Sorry, but right now I was a psycho barbarian who'd forgotten all about kindness and consideration. With our survival in jeopardy, efficiency came first.

A little motion sickness wouldn't kill anyone, right?

THUD-THUD-THUD!

Anyway, as I charged aimlessly through the forest, Misha began frantically pounding my back from where she hung over my shoulder.

"Put me—gah! P-put me down, nyah! I'm a-all healed, nyah!"

"Don't lie."

"It's true, nyah! I-I swear by my clan's guardian deity, nyah!"

"Hmm. Then why does your voice sound so weak?"

I pointed out the logical flaw in Misha's statement.

For some reason, though, I got yelled at.

"How could it not, you thickheaded barbarian idiot, nyah! Just put me down already, nyah!"

"All right."

Seeing her smacking my back, I figured she had enough presence of mind to move around, so I obediently set her down.

"Uwaaah, I really thought I was going to die, nyah!"

What a drama queen.

She looked fine, but I asked just in case.

"So is your foot all right now?"

"As you can see, nyah."

"Give me a proper answer. Does that mean you can fight right now?"

"For now... yes, nyah! But why are you asking, nyah?"

Because we had a fight on our hands, obviously.

"Good. There's a monster over there."

Misha turned her head in the direction I pointed. There, a huge tree was moving with its roots sunk into the ground.

A rank-8 monster, a Snatree. It was a nasty creature that ambushed explorers with branches that writhed like tentacles.

For reference, along with the Half Troll, it was one of the few ordinary monsters inhabiting Witch's Forest.

In other words, we could kill it with physical damage alone.

"But do we really have to kill it, nyah? It's so slow it couldn't follow us... nyah. Oh! I'm not saying I won't follow your orders, nyah!"

Well, good to hear.

Still, the question itself was reasonable, so I gave her a short answer.

"It might drop an Essence, mightn't it?"

"An Essence, nyah?"

Misha tilted her head as if the word had come completely out of left field.

Understandable. If not for our situation, I wouldn't have come up with a plan like this either.

"Every monster in Witch's Forest has Attributal powers."

Except the Half Troll, to be precise. But I'd skip it rather than fight even if we encountered one, so it didn't count.

Misha soon grasped the gist of my plan and stiffened.

"Don't tell me that's why you're going to kill it, nyah?"

Yep. And not just this one. Every one we saw.

We had to get our hands on an Attributal power somehow. We could only keep avoiding spirit monsters for so long. As things stood, we couldn't even sleep properly.

Of course, if we happened to find a way out of the forest while wandering around, none of this would be necessary...

'But a miracle like that would never happen to me.'

Granted, the Essence drop rate was just as abysmally low. But in a sense, this was no different from a side quest. I had absolutely no intention of staking everything on this plan.

If one dropped, fantastic. If not, there was nothing I could do. That was about the extent of it.

'Besides, the moment that bitch Elisa's group finds us, it'll all be pointless.'

Once their Scout finished off the dwarf or lost his trail, they'd start looking for us. When that happened, all this effort would have been for nothing.

But... that wasn't a reason to stop struggling.

"Anyway, get ready to fight."

"Got it, nyah!"

Misha drew her weapon.

"Grrrgrgrgrrrk!"

Then she charged the Snatree as it crawled along the ground on its roots.

Rule of survival number one:

To live, you have to fight.

* * *

「You have defeated a Snatree. EXP +2」

* * *

I was walking through Witch's Forest without a Scout. If someone asked me how that felt, I knew exactly what I'd say.

Like wandering around an amusement park's hall of mirrors all day.

Incidentally, this hall of mirrors came with nonstop background music.

["Just kill her! Or have your fun with her! Why are you being so nice to that useless bitch?"]

["Keeheehee, keeheeheehee!"]

["It's all your fault! If only it weren't for you!"]

Was it just me, or were the Auditory Hallucinations getting more detailed?

No, I didn't think I was imagining it. The Hallucinations were more vivid than before too.

["Hansoo, why were you the only one who survived?"]

Unlike before, when they'd merely taken the shapes of monsters, people etched into my memories were appearing.

People I could never meet in this world.

["It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!!"]

["When are you going to kill that girl? When are you going to kill that girl? When are you going to kill that girl? When are you going to kill that girl?"]

Every so often, those people appeared as hallucinations and spewed fucked-up shit at me. At some point, the visual and auditory hallucinations had started merging.

'The field effect couldn't have suddenly gotten stronger. Have I just gotten weaker?'

I assessed my condition dispassionately. But that was all I could do.

I'd stayed up all night. I'd fought intense battles in the midst of it. I'd nearly died from curses, and now I was wandering lost in a hopeless situation.

Of course my mental endurance was bound to hit its limit.

But what was I supposed to do about it?

'All I can do is hold on.'

That was what life had always been. For me, at least.

Hold on, hold on, and keep holding on. Don't dwell on what I can't change. Do what I can.

"Misha, use this instead of your dagger."

"Hmm? I've never used a spear, nyah..."

After killing the Snatree, we took a short break, and I checked the Expanded Backpack. Then I handed Misha the spear that had belonged to Tayson.

We'd agreed to sell it and split the proceeds once we returned to the city, but this wasn't the time to worry about that.

"No complaints. If I tell you to use it, use it."

"Aww, all right, nyah..."

Until now, I'd held my tongue out of respect for her individuality and accumulated experience. But I'd always maintained that the longer a weapon was, the more practical it was.

Even in the fight against the Snatree earlier, she might have been able to reach deep enough to destroy its core in one strike if she hadn't been using a dagger.

"Ugh, this feels awkward, nyah! Can't you give me a sword instead, nyah?"

No.

I didn't know which was easier to handle, a sword or a spear. But the spear was definitely much longer. It would also make it much easier for her to support me from behind when I formed a wall with my shield.

"You've never used either of them anyway, have you? Just use that."

"Aww, nyah."

What was with all the whining?

I wished she'd stop throwing these little tantrums and draining my energy. Whatever she thought of me, I didn't consider us that close.

Ultimately, we'd known each other for less than two weeks.

'This... I should use this myself.'

Misha wasn't the only one getting an equipment upgrade. I was too.

「Your character has equipped Steel Plate Greaves.」

「Total Item Level increases by +45.」

First, I strapped Hans C's greaves around my calves. They were lined with leather on the inside and covered in steel on the outside.

Thigh armor would have been nice too, but unfortunately, those pieces seemed to be in the dwarf's backpack.

「Your character has equipped War Boots.」

「Total Item Level increases by +38.」

While I was at it, I changed my footwear too. These had also belonged to Hans C.

They were fairly nice-looking leather boots, with the unusual addition of steel plates over the tops of the feet. Pointed spikes, at that.

'Explorer bastards are only practical when it comes to things like this.'

I kept looking, but there wasn't any more equipment that Misha or I could use.

Instead, though, we found something unexpected.

"Huh? Bjorn! Isn't this holy water, nyah?"

"... It appears so."

After one disaster after another, was our luck finally turning around?

This made me incomparably happier than any equipment could. With holy water, we could enchant our weapons.

「Holy energy imbues your equipment.」

「Attacks against evil-element monsters deal additional damage.」

Additional holy-element damage.

In other words, we could now beat the crap out of spirit monsters even without the Attributal powers we'd been so desperate for.

It only worked on evil-element monsters... but most spirit monsters in Witch's Forest were evil-element anyway, so that wasn't much of a concern.

'The problem is that we only have five bottles.'

Holy water didn't have a time limit. Its effect simply disappeared once you'd dealt its fixed allotment of additional damage.

How many monsters could we kill with five bottles?

Well, whatever the number, it certainly wouldn't be enough to use freely until the third floor closed on day fifteen.

'... I'd better use it sparingly whenever possible.'

Still, it was the first good news we'd had in a while. So I searched the backpack thoroughly once more.

Things had been so hectic earlier that I hadn't properly checked the exploration supplies. There might be something else that could help.

"Hmm? Bjorn, nyah!"

As we rummaged through one bag each, Misha called to me.

"I found something unusual. Do you know what it is, nyah?"

It was a pendant bearing a peculiar symbol.

And I recognized that symbol.

'Isn't that the symbol of the Church of Carui?'

Unfortunately, that was all I knew. Beyond its connection to the Church of Carui, I had no idea what it was used for.

'Anyway, I think that's everything checked...'

I put the items back and organized the backpack. Then, with holy water now a factor, I reviewed the rough plan I'd put together.

Initially, I'd thought of three options.

1. Ask any explorers we happen to encounter for help.

Witch's Forest was enormous. Its peculiar terrain made encounters with other explorers rare, but if we kept moving, we'd run into someone eventually.

Any explorer would be tempted if we offered our equipment as payment.

'The problem is, we can't trust them.'

Plenty of explorer bastards were efficiency freaks.

Why bother helping when they could just kill us and take everything?

Some of them might think that way.

'Besides, she is a woman...'

I glanced at Misha, who was stuffing her face with jerky, apparently hungry, and continued thinking.

2. Keep wandering until we reach the edge of the forest or the fourth-floor portal.

This approach relied entirely on luck. So I decided there was no need to make it our ultimate goal. Like it or not, we'd have to keep moving through the forest anyway.

Wishing for it wouldn't make it happen. Not wishing for it wouldn't stop it from happening either.

Anyway, next.

3. Focus on survival and hold out until the floor closes.

We had enough food and drinking water. And now that we'd secured holy water, we could ensure at least a minimum level of immediate safety.

If an Attributal Essence dropped along the way, our chances of surviving this goddamn forest would improve dramatically.

'All of that assumes those bastards don't find us, of course.'

I let out a long sigh.

It was only our fourth day in the Labyrinth. That meant far more of the journey lay ahead than behind.

Considering everything we'd been through in these four days, it was hard to expect the rest to go smoothly.

'I doubt an Essence is going to drop. If I'm going to do it anyway, I'd better do it now.'

And so I made my decision.

"Misha, are you married, by any chance?"

"Huh? Why so sudden, nyah?"

Misha flinched at my question, still chewing her jerky. She clearly had no idea what I was talking about.

Still, she'd said she'd listen to me, and she did give me an answer.

"Well, no, I'm not, nyah..."

Okay.

I asked another question, more directly this time.

"Then do you have any beliefs about not letting a man who isn't your husband see you naked? Anything like that?"

"I-I, uh, don't think I have anything like that, nyah..."

"Good."

"W-what's good about it, nyah? Eek! S-stop! D-don't come any closer, nyah!"

This was an option I never could have chosen if I hadn't spent nearly ten years playing [Dungeon and Stone].

It was a shame to use that item already, but...

4. Awaken Misha.

This really was the best option.