Tenshi Translations

Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 2

 

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You can grab the PDF here.

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A certain night several days after the the start of the hunt deep inside the Wraith Plains found Shin and his party still inside the Seal.

“Wai-, oi, Shin! A Pecker Hollow is coming this way!”
“No helping it, let’s retreat for a bit, then.”

The two who sensed the approach of the monster first made sure that Rashia and Yuzuha had safely gotten away before also stepping out of the Seal themselves. Apparently, one of the functions of the wall of the Seal made it so that monsters within would not be able to sense people outside, even if they were standing right next to the wall. Every time they took advantage of this function, the monster that got near seemed to lose track of them. After aimlessly wandering around the vicinity for a while, it would eventually head off somewhere else.
This time, the monster that got close was a level 541 undead called a Pecker Hollow. It was a large monster that looked like many vengeful spirits melted together. Its compound eyes and sickle-like arms gave it the appearance of the top half of a praying mantis growing straight up from the ground. Though it looked that way, it was not a monster with simple insect parts. Its compound eyes were actually made of a large number of human eyes, and its sickles were actually human bones gathered together in bundles. Human faces, hands, and feet protruded from all over the monster’s body, giving it a very horrific appearance overall. It was understandable why the majority of female players refused to step inside any fields or dungeons where Pecker Hollows would spawn in.
The most annoying thing about Pecker Hollows was the fact that they could use the skill【Dead Man’s Howl】. The damage from this skill was not much, but anyone caught in its range would be afflicted with several debuffs at the same time, including Confusion, Distraction, and Curse. Furthermore, all debuffs were at least level V or higher. Shin and Wilhelm were one thing, but Yuzuha or Rashia could easily be hit with the maximum level debuffs.
There was no merit in taking the huge risk of such an outcome, so they decided to take refuge outside the Seal instead of confronting the monster.

“Is it gone yet?”
“Let’s wait a while longer just in case. It’d be annoying if it’s still close enough to hear the sound of us fighting and came back again.”

These past few days, the number of monsters that they had defeated numbered over two hundred, if they included the trash mobs. By Shin’s count, there was only one monster left between Rashia and【Purification】.

“Rashia and Yuzuha, how are the both of you doing?”
“I don’t know how else to put it, but I’ve come to terms with how life is full of hardship ......”
“Kuu!”

Shin smiled wryly at the strangely philosophical answer from Rashia and Yuzuha’s energetic bark while probing the immediate area for presences. He was able to confirm one level 343 Jack class Skull Face, two level 158 Gray Orcs, one level 177 Gel Bison, and four level 249 Ein Jackals.
Gel Bisons are basically bison skeletons enveloped with a gel-like substance. When the monster gets close to someone, it uses the gel like a whip to immobilize its enemy, which it then dissolves and absorbs.
Ein Jackals, on the other hand, are monsters that eat rotten meat. As a result, they themselves are also undead. They look like simple purple-colored jackals, but their bodies are actually 2 mels in length. Though their levels are relatively low, they have an evil eye that can cause the Paralysis debuff.
Both are monsters that even low level adventurers that had gotten used to the game found difficult to handle.
The Pecker Hollow in question was no longer within detection range. It has been a while since it had left detection range, so it was likely safe to assume that it was truly gone.
Of all the nearby monsters, the Skull Face was the closest to them, and all of the others were just barely within range.

“There’s a Skull Face near us, but there’s something weird about its level.”
“What you mean?”
“What is the matter?”

Wilhelm and Rashia responded with questions to what Shin said.

“It’s level 343. I’ve told you guys about the King class Skull Face from before, right? I think that this guy is likely a similar case.”
“Although it’s true that this place is slightly irregular, I’ve never heard of something like that spawning here. But then again, it’s been more than a month since I last went back to the Kingdom. It wouldn’t be strange if something had started happening in that time.”
“...... Speaking of which, Ragnal-san told me that there were several incidents of powerful monsters attacking villages in Beiroon recently.”

Hearing the level of the Skull Face, Rashia drew out the piece of information from the depths of her memory. At the time, she did not think it very relevant to herself, so it had pretty much gone out the other ear as soon as she heard it. Beiroon was on the opposite side of the Wraith Plains from the Berylricht Kingdom.

“These powerful undead might be related somehow. By the way, who’s Ragnal-san?”
“The master of the bar that I took you to. He’s the one you met that time.”
“Ah, that guy.”

Shin recalled the man who had left without saying a word. At that time, Wilhelm had indeed introduced the man as his adventurer comrade.

“Let’s leave that conversation for another time. How should we proceed now? It doesn’t feel right to just leave it alone.”
“How strong is it, exactly?”
“My personal assessment is that you should expect it to be as strong as its level indicates. It will use martial arts-like moves that you normally wouldn’t imagine from a Skull Face. The one that I fought before had pretty tricky movements.”
“Then we’ll take care of it with just the two of us. No point exposing Rashia to unnecessary danger.”
“No, I am coming too!!”

As it was an opponent stronger than the average enemy, Wilhelm suggested fighting it together with Shin only. However, Rashia was perhaps filled with confidence from all the leveling up, and was adamant about coming along.

“What do you think? I don’t mind, to be honest. Since she still has the item that I’d handed her before, she wouldn’t get hurt anyways.”
“Good point. Oi Rashia, you sure about this?”
“You bet I am! I won’t be able to go back with my head held high if I merely let myself be protected the entire trip!!”

As a result of all the fighting from the past few days, Rashia had already gotten to the point where she wouldn’t lose her composure even when facing monsters above level 200. Though monsters outside the Seal were generally not as strong as Skull Faces, most of them were higher than level 80. Rashia, however, was now strong enough to fight them single-handedly and win. This was the product of Shin and Wilhelm’s Spartan training. She was still a young girl at a tender age, but unfortunately, she was not cut any slack because of it.

“Let’s do it, then.”
“Just make sure to not get in front of us too often.”
“I’ll show you I can do it!”

Shin and Wilhelm continued to worry about Rashia while heading towards the Skull Face. Due to the difference in speed, they gradually pulled ahead of her, but since she wasn’t supposed to be meleeing anyways, they only left Yuzuha behind to accompany her.
The Skull Face this time was not wearing any obviously strange equipment. However, the way it was holding its sword and shield was exactly like the one that Shin had encountered before.

“This one is clearly the same type as the one that I’d fought before. Its stance is the exact same.”
“Either way, what we have to do doesn’t change. Oraaa!!”

Wilhelm had the longer reach, so he launched the preemptive strike.
The Skull Face deflected the attack aimed at its core with the curved surface of its round shield. Wilhelm had intended to pierce through even the shield, but right before his spear tip found the purchase on the round shield to do so, the Skull Face moved it just enough so that the spear’s trajectory was altered instead.
In the same motion, the Skull Face brought its sword around in a counterattack. Without flinching at the sparks flying around like fireworks, the sword swung downwards, accompanied by the sound of it cutting through the air. Wilhelm quickly withdrew Venom to meet this attack.
The clash of metal resounded throughout the Plains in the night. The Skull Face had added the force of its twisting motion on top of its brute strength, causing the attack to pack so much power that Wilhelm was forced to lower his stance and plant his feet firmly on the ground.
Just when the Skull Face was about to slam its shield into Wilhelm to send him flying, Shin darted in from behind Wilhelm. Sensing the incoming attack, the Skull Face promptly leaped backwards, bringing its shield up.
However, the moment it landed, a “kin” sound rang out, and it found that it had lost both the shield and the left arm that was holding the shield. If it had been a split second slower, it would have lost the entire left side of its body. The decision to sacrifice one arm to minimize the amount of damage received was unthinkable for any normal Skull Face.

“I see what you mean. This guy really isn’t your run-of-the-mill bone bastard.”

Having seen the Skull Face’s movements, Wilhelm bared his teeth in a ferocious grin.
As long as a Skull Face’s core was intact, it would not die even if it lost all its arms and legs, so there was no need for the two of them to hold back against it, even though they were aiming to leave it alive for Rashia to deal the final blow.
Apparently the Skull Face’s skill had ignited Wilhelm’s fighting spirit.

“Don’t forget our goal, alright?”
“I won’t, so let me enjoy this a while longer.”
“I think you’ll be fine, but if I see things get dicey, I’ll join the fight again.”
“Fine by me. I’m going to have this guy continue being my practice board as long as it’s still standing.”

Laughing with wild abandon, Wilhelm readjusted his grip on Venom.
He dropped his center of gravity, crouching to half his normal height. He held Venom slanted, with the spearhead pointing slightly towards the ground.
His right hand held the butt of the spear, while his left hand was stretched forward as support. His stance bore a striking resemblance to a bow right before release. The fighting spirit emanating from Wilhelm almost seemed to make creaking sounds like that of a bow with its string stretched to the limit.
In response, the Skull Face fixed its posture once again. It withdrew its right foot slightly, and tucked in its sword to right beside its head, with the blade pointing straight up towards the sky. The flickering aura around the Skull Face began to converge upon its body.
Seeing the Skull Face take a stance that seemed like that of a knight, Wilhelm’s fighting spirit burned even fiercer.
Man and monster stared at each other without even the slightest movement, as if the very air was frozen. The silent scene was like that of a keg of gunpowder with a lit fuse at the very instant before it explodes.

“Wil!!”
“!!”

Having finally caught up, Rashia’s voice shook the frozen air.
Like the strike of a bell, it served as the signal for the two figures to begin rushing towards each other.
A red flash slicing through the darkness met the Skull Face’s beheading strike. The two weapons clashed for only a split second.
The next moment found the Skull Face’s head and torso hitting the ground separately, behind which was the figure of Wilhelm standing still after riding the momentum of his attack to dash past the Skull Face.
In human terms, the Skull Face was on the verge of death. The single attack from Wilhelm had pulverized its arms and legs and left innumerable cracks on its core. A single touch would be enough to make the core completely fall apart.

“Rashia, don’t just stand around and deliver the final blow already.”
“This is all the fighting I get to do?! What am I supposed to do with all the resolve that I had mustered back there?!”

Rashia was understandably disappointed that the fight had been reduced to being the exact same as all the others before it. It was as if her heartfelt resolve from just now had been voided of all meaning.

“It can’t be helped. There was no room for you to join in.”
“Uu~. God, is this perhaps one of Your trials ......”

Looking slightly wilted, Rashia turned around to Heal the core. The spell that she cast enveloped the core, extinguishing the final flickers of aura emanating from it and completely destroying the Skull Face.
At the same time, a golden light flared all around Rashia.

“Wha-What is this?!”
“Rashia?!”

The sudden occurrence threw Rashia into a state of confusion. Wilhelm also didn’t know what was going on, and so could not move carelessly.

“Don’t worry!! This is the effect from learning a new skill after clearing the requirements!!”

Shin raised his voice to calm the two of them down. Shin’s count had apparently been correct, and the Skull Face that they had just defeated was indeed the 200th one.
The light disappeared almost right after Shin’s explanation. It revealed Rashia staring off blankly at space.

“Oi, Rashia! Are you okay?”
“Fue? Ah, un. I’m okay.”

Rashia gave a listless answer in response to Wilhelm frantically tapping her shoulder and calling out to her.

“You look so out of it, are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I was just surprised at the information about the skill suddenly flowing into my head.”
“Did it feel different from the time with the Books of Secrets?”
“Eto, let’s see. The Books of Secrets gave a “sutto” feeling, and this time gave a “dotto” feeling. I’m afraid I really can’t explain it any better.”

It seems that there was indeed a noticeable difference.
Hearing this, Shin’s interest was perked, as it proved that there were distinctly different ways to acquire skills. Rashia was clearly unharmed, so there was no cause for further worry, but it’s just that Shin couldn’t get a good grasp on how it felt. Information suddenly flowing into someone’s mind is normally impossible in the first place, so it was understandable that he had no experience with it.

“Well, at any rate, it appears that you have successfully learned【Purification】. Congratulations.”
“Yea, you did good.”
“Kuu!”
“Thank you very much. With this, we’ll be able to help the orphanage pull through.”

Now that she had acquired【Purification】, the orphanage was out of danger. When she realized that, Rashia started tearing up while expressing her heartfelt gratitude.

“Alright, let’s return to the base then. We’ll sleep till the morning, then quickly get back to Berylricht.”
“Good idea. No point in staying here any longer than we have to.”
“Yes, let’s go.”

They headed outside of the Seal, with a huge smile on all of their faces. There was no presence of any enemy in the vicinity of the group of three people and one pet.
The request was fulfilled. All that was left was to return to the Kingdom. Everyone present thought so.

Until that happened.

 

 

 

♦♦♦♦

 

 

 

Then that suddenly happened.
Shin heard the sound because the Wraith Plains was an extremely silent place, as no insects nor wild animals lived there. Yuzuha, who was lounging on Shin’s head, also picked up it up with the extraordinary hearing unique to animals and sat up with its ears standing straight up, initiating a survey of the area.

“Nn? What sound is that?”
“Kuu?”

It was similar to the rustle of the wind. If it was just the sound of the the nearby grass being ruffled, then it wouldn’t have caught Shin’s attention.
However, at the same time, there was a “gushari” sound like that of a living creature being squashed. Instead of looking at his map, Shin turned around instead, and stopped in his tracks.
Right before his eyes was an unbelievable scene.

“What on earth ...... is that ......”
“Kuu ......”
“Nn? What’s wrong, you ...... guys ......”

Noticing that Shin had stopped, Wilhelm also turned around. He saw the exact same thing that Shin was staring at.
Back where the remains of the Skull Face lay, a black sphere that had not been there before was floating in the air. That sphere was in the middle of sucking up a Pecker Hollow. That part of the map at the edge of Shin’s vision had been empty just now, but there was now a large red marker alongside the white and green markers that represented Shin and his party.
The three of them stared speechlessly as the 30mel-wide sphere ate up the Pecker Hollow. The sizes were obviously disproportionate, but the “gishiri” and “gushari” noises that they now heard told them that the Pecker Hollow’s body was being compressed even while it was being sucked in.
However, the Pecker Hollow was not raising a death cry, nor was it offering any resistance. Rather, all of the faces on its body were smiling. It was almost as if it was delighted at what was happening to it.

“What the hell is going on? What is that thing?!”
“Uu, looking at it makes me feel sick ......”

The scene of human faces being slowly stretched out before being crushed understandably caused Rashia to press her hand to her mouth and squat down. Wilhelm ran over to her, and Shin stood between the black sphere and the two of them.
In short order, the Pecker Hollow was completely eaten up. At that moment, a great tremor began rocking the ground.

“Ugh!”
“Uwah?!”
“Kyaa!”
“Kuu!?”

They had to quickly adjust their posture to prevent falling over. They didn’t know what was happening, but a quick glance around the Wraith Plains showed purple light rising up into the sky from several different places. 
A twinkling pillar of light was also rising up from the place where they had defeated the Skull Face.

“So pretty ......”

The unexpected scene looked fantastical and beautiful.
Shin would have been able to enjoy it too if it wasn’t for the mysterious black sphere. They did not have the leisure of staying there to admire the sight.
He turned his vision slightly to the top, prompting the ingame map to open up. He realized that the red marker was gone.

“This is ......”

Looking back away from the map, he activated the【Long Sight】skill and strained his eyes to look at the places where the map was indicating other red dots, all while remaining wary of the black sphere. As he did so, he saw purple light being sucked out of Gel Bisons and Ein Jackals. The glittering light bore strong resemblance to the effects from back during the game that indicated the death of an undead monster.
After a short while, the monsters with light being sucked out of them lost their form, seemingly dissolving into thin air.
Then the extracted purple light flew in a parabola towards the black sphere and was absorbed.
Seeing this, Shin and Wilhelm both moved to cover Rashia. While remaining wary of their surroundings, they focused the majority of their attention onto the sphere in front of their eyes.

“It’s sucking up all the magical power.”
“Magical power?”
“Yea, that purple light is the magical power that enables the undead to move. Without it, they couldn’t maintain their forms anymore.”
“So that’s how it is.”

The black sphere very quickly sucked up all the magical power in the atmosphere. Then it whirled up into the sky, stopping at roughly ten mels off the ground. At the same time, the sphere began releasing a dusky black aura. Gradually, the aura took on form, until a gigantic Skull Face stood before them. It was covered head to toe with jet black armor, and the aura could be seen between the skeleton and the armor. All this took place within the span of ten seconds.
In no time at all, the figure of a Skull Face more than ten mels in height was looming over Shin and the party.
The armor was so detailed and ornamental that they wouldn’t have believed it was made from aura if they hadn’t seen it themselves. If it wasn’t for the skull at the top, the figure seemed quite knightly.
However, an ominous aura was coming off from its entire body. That was the definite proof that this was an undead monster.
Then Shin and the rest, all of whom were frozen with tension, saw a light come on in its face.

——— Skull Face Lord, level 804.

【Analyze X】activated to give Shin the monster’s name and level.
That level was considered within the higher tiers even back in THE NEW GATE.

“Kururuuu!!”
“Its level is 804. Is it the dungeon boss?”
“Oi, you sure about the level that you just said?”
“Yea, no doubt about it.”
“No way ...... that level means it’s strong enough to wipe out entire countries!!”

Yuzuha raised its voice menacingly while Wilhelm and Rashia tried, and failed, to hide their shock at the unbelievable number. After the Dusk of the Majesty, if the monsters living inside the Holy Lands were not counted, the strongest monster recorded in history did not even reach level 600. And that monster had actually erased several countries.

“B-But there’s the Seal, so it can’t get out, right?”
“I wonder about that.”

As Shin was answering Rashia’s worry-stricken question, the Lord finally moved.
It bent one arm, which looked several mels long, and made a fist of its hand. It then bent its knees slightly, then jumped up into the sky in the form of an uppercut.
A dry “gashari” sound was heard when its arm finished extending. The falling traces of magical power indicated without a doubt that the barrier that had surrounded the area was completely shattered. The devastation was reflected in the eyes of Shin and company.

“I guess that’s that for the Seal.”
“Yea, that single attack took care of it.”
“Thi-This can’t be ......”

Rashia fell onto her butt in the face of enough power to smash through a barrier supposedly designed to hold back high level monsters.
While sucking up even the magical traces from the remains of the barrier, the Lord turned its attention towards Shin and company.

“*gasp*”
“Kuu ......”
“It’s looking this way, oi.”
“It sure is.”

The Lord didn’t have eyeballs, but there was no doubt in the minds of everyone present that the Lord was currently focusing on them. The enormous pressure turned Rashia’s face ashen and she began trembling uncontrollably.
Seeing this, Wilhelm held her in his arms, and got ready to start running away.

“GuuuuUUUUUU————GaaaAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!”

The Lord’s roar almost seemed to be threatening them to not run away. The sheer volume of the sound was such that all four of them felt physical weight to it. Shin braced himself, Yuzuha curled up into a ball, Wilhelm fell to his knees, and Rashia cowered on the ground while covering her ears.

“Guh, it’s telling us not to run away?”
“No, that’s wrong. Look around!”

Shin’s shout drew their attention to the white bones thrusting out of the ground
Though the sizes were different, all the bones were clearly the arms of humanoid monsters. One by one, the arms clawed at the ground and pulled out the rest of their bodies.
All the monsters that came out turned out to be skeletons wearing crude armor. Needless to say, they were all Skull Faces. Ranging from Jack class to Queen class, with even one King class thrown into the mix, they crawled up from the ground one after the other. All of them were about twice the normal height for their class, such that the King class towered at about eight mels in height. Their numbers seemed to cover the entire surface of the Plains, looking very much like an army.
The aura released from all of them mixed together, causing the surface of the entire Plains to be dyed completely black.
The emergence of the Skull Faces seemed to be occurring all over the Wraith Plains, the surroundings of Shin and company already teeming with them.

“Wil!! Oh, Wil, what are we going to do?!”
“Calm down! It doesn’t help to get all flustered. Oi Shin, let’s break through and run away right now!”
“Hmm? Nah, I’m going to stay.”
“Aah? What are you saying, you bastard. You got a death wish or something?!”

Annoyed at how calm Shin still was, Wilhelm grabbed his shoulder. However, when he pulled the other in expectation of making him turn around, it felt like he was grabbing onto a gigantic rock that refused to budge even an inch.

Turning slowly to face them, Shin quietly deactivated【Limit】.

“Uwah!”
“Kyaa!”

Shin’s released power rushed through Wilhelm and Rashia in a torrent, turning their eye in shock.

“I can’t leave this guy alone. I’ll open the way, so Wilhelm and Rashia, you two turn back towards the Kingdom first.”
“All this power ...... Who on earth are you ......”
“I’ll explain everything another time. I also have personal business with this guy. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to get you guys involved, so please get away as quickly as you can.”

So saying, he began gathering magical power in his hands. It became so concentrated that chills ran down the backs of the other two.

“Tch, no helping it. I’ll take care of Rashia and that fox, then. You want me to gather back up the items at the base?”
“It would be great if you would. However, it wouldn’t be much of a loss to leave them behind.”
“Then we’ll be off right now. When we get back, I’m not going to let you go until you explain every single detail to me!”
“Okay, okay. Alright, I’m going to cast some buffs on you to make you faster than usual. Just make sure you don’t trip!”
“Hah! Who the hell you think you’re talking to? Dammit, your fox isn’t letting go.”
“Ow ow ow ow! Oi, Yuzuha! Stop pulling!”
“Kuu!! Kuu~!!”

Yuzuha refused to let go, as if it was saying that it didn’t want to leave. It clung on with all its strength, expressing its refusal to let Shin stay back by himself.

“Oi, now what?”
“Yuzuha ......”

Yuzuha’s emotions flowed into Shin through their contract. It was sending through its powerful desire to stay by Shin’s side.

“............ Haa, no helping it. Don’t you ever let go then, okay?”
“Kuu!!”

Yuzuha purred from on top of Shin’s head. It was full of motivation.

“Then that’s that. Come on, quickly.”
“Right, sorry for the wait. Here goes!”

Shin cast the promised buffs on Wilhelm, then turned to release a skill in the direction where their base lay.
What he used was the Lightning-Type Magical Skill【Lightning Bunker】.
Two prongs of lightning, each several mels in diameter, shot into the Skull Faces deployed behind the party, turning all of them to charcoal in an instant. Shin maintained the skill while sweeping left and right, burning a hole through the encirclement.

“Go!!”

At the signal of Shin’s shout, Wilhelm kicked off the ground. Due to Shin’s strengthening buff, Wilhelm shot through the opening, leaving only afterimages in his wake, every step so forceful that it left cracks in the ground.

“Kyaaaa!!!———— — — — — – – – – –”

Rashia couldn’t help screaming at the incredible speed, but her voice soon faded away. When they were together, they had made sure to not stray too far from the edge of the Seal, so it didn’t take very long for Wilhelm to break through the encirclement at his current speed. There were a lot of swords and spears thrown onto the ground by the Skull Faces that had perished, but Wilhelm’s speed brushed them all away.

“They’re gone.”
“Kuu.”

Shin released the skill after confirming that he could no longer see the other two. He had also destroyed several tens of Skull Faces with that attack, but as soon as he let up, a large number rose from the ground to plug the hole back up.

“Well then, let’s get started too, then.”
“Ku—!!”

The enemy was the Skull Face Lord, who had Jack class, Queen class, and King class summons.
The Lord that was glaring at them had not looked away even during Wilhelm and Rashia’s escape, giving Shin its full attention the entire time.
Shin had never heard of a monster named Skull Face Lord. There was no monster higher than level 800 that Shin did not know of. In other words, it was an entirely new monster. It was clearly not an opponent that he could afford to gauge by its level alone.
However, a new monster might be a key for Shin to return to his own world, as there was a possibility that it might give up some relevant item or information. As long as that possibility existed, running away was not an option for Shin.
While feeling Yuzuha’s steadying presence, Shin readied his katana, then began running towards the large army of Skull Faces.

In one word, it was a massacre.
Any normal person would have been speechless in the face of over a thousand Skull Faces, but the reason for their speechlessness would be completely altered upon beholding the current scene.
Bones were broken, swords were snapped, and armor was dashed to the ground like so many pieces of scrap iron.
Cracks were running into the ground and trenches were being dug, all so deep that no one would believe it was done without any magic whatsoever.
All of it was being carved out by Shin alone. Only Shin and his sword.

“Shi!”

Without using skills, Shin merely brandished his sword. Just a single swing sliced the cores of more than ten Skull Faces in half, reducing them to magical traces that faded into the air.
Merely the wind pressure after a swing was enough to smash both swords and armors.
The moonlight shining upon the Plains illuminated the many arcs being drawn in midair that were obliterating scores of Skull Faces like a sand castle being pulled down.
Even the King class, which would require several tens of adventurers to take on with the resolve to die, proved to be no more than a slightly more durable wooden doll.
Skull Faces were being casually mowed down like only so much overgrown grass.

“KuooOOO!!”

Of course, Shin wasn’t the only one attacking. From its position on top of his head, Yuzuha was also spitting out bursts of bluish-white fire that reduced Skull Faces to piles of ashes.
It was using the monster-only skill【Fox Fire】. In the case of normal fox partners, it would be a red fire, but apparently Elemental Tails were different in this aspect. In its full form—the level 1000 one—its many tails would release a multi-colored attack. However, it was not strong enough for that yet. Each of an Elemental Tail’s nine tails corresponded to Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, Holy, and Dark-type magical skills, physical damage, and God-type skills, making any opponent feel like they were fighting against nine different enemies at the same time.
The tail that Yuzuha was currently using was the God-type one, which provided an extra elemental multiplier. This skill was not one that players could use, so all of Shin’s understanding of it was coming from Yuzuha in the form of images.

“Seriously, there are so many.”
“Kuu.”

Shin and Yuzuha had already destroyed more than a hundred Skull Faces, but they had not made much actual headway. The numbers stood for itself, but every one of the Skull Faces had an above average body physique—or in their case, bone physique?—such that every opening created was refilled in a matter of moments.
It felt like an endless task as repetitious and meaningless as trying to dig beneath a mountain of sand with bare hands, watching sand fall back in to fill up any progress.
The Skull Face Lord, which was most likely the boss, decided to retreat into the center of the Wraith Plains after producing the large number of Skull Faces. The Plains stretched dozens of kemels from one end to the other. Shin was still quite near the edge of the Plains, so the Lord was no longer within his line of sight. It was at least smart enough to make the decision to retreat and let Shin wear himself out on these adds when Shin had been busy helping Wilhelm and Rashia escape.
It wasn’t clear whether the Lord had simply retreated to wear him down first or whether it was also preparing something else.
Shin swung his katana and Yuzuha spat its fire, both of them thinking the entire time of a way to make their opponent come back out. Within the Plains that had been dyed with the black aura, the immediate vicinity around Shin was the only place where the bare ground was visible.

“Don’t overexert yourself, okay?”
“Kuu!”

When seen from the side, the scene looked like one in which the man and pet were almost going to be swallowed by a black tide. In the midst of such a situation, the two of them were still leisurely chatting with each other.
A few more Skull Faces had fallen to slashing attacks within the time it took for their exchange, and it looked like the tide was being pushed back for a change.
The deeper they progressed, the more hemmed in they were. However, none of the monsters present were strong enough to break through the barrier. All of them displayed exemplary footwork, sword mastery, and skillful techniques, just like the one that Wilhelm had fought, but all of that only bought them a tiny bit more time before they too were cut down.
It was pathetic how there was absolutely nothing they could do.

“This isn’t working. The area where they’re spawning is too large.”

Shin combined detection skills to gather information about the nearby area. Due to the ruckus he was creating, most of the Skull Faces on the Plains were crowding towards himself, but a few were ignoring the battle and wandering off towards the outside.
One of them was a large red dot that Shin suspected was a King class.

“I’m going to bring it up a notch. Hold on tight!”
“Kuu!!”

So saying, he released a powerful swing that cut down numerous Skull Faces around.
Taking advantage of the opening that he had caused, he used his left hand to take out a new weapon, at the same time bringing his right hand back in a throwing position. An incredible amount of lightning incomparable to anything before ran through Akechidori’s blade. The red lightning enveloping the blade was so dense that it gave the impression that the sword itself was fiercely shining. The intermittent sound of metal creaking was the sword protesting from the sheer amount of magical power being poured into it. Clearly, Legend grade weapons were not strong enough to bear Shin’s full strength after the boost to his stats.
Feeling the intense concentration of magical power, the Skull Faces hesitated to approach.
That hesitation gave Shin the rest of the time that he needed.
He activated the Sword-Type Lightning-Type Combined Skill【Hien • Raisei (Flying Swallow • Lightning Cutter)】.
It was a combination of a martial skill and a magical skill. That single powerful attack shot out from Shin’s hands.
After being thrown with a physical strength beyond human capabilities, Akechidori easily flew through the air. It tore through everything in its path and left a powerful shockwave in its wake, with the Skull Faces unable to offer up any resistance whatsoever.
Right after leaving Shin’s hands, the red lightning from Akechidori forked out into several branches that reduced Skull Faces to ashes with a mere touch. They looked like the heads of a hydra. The sight of the sword’s passage, combined with the forks of lightning, gave the impression of a red hydra parting a black sea at superspeed. It was as if the Skull Faces were offering themselves up to the forks that raked through the air.
In the wake of its flight, Akechidori left behind a path about 10 mels wide, and the resulting shockwave gouged out the ground in a straight line.
Shin dashed through the path in one go.
The intended destination was the heart of the Wraith Plains, where the Skull Face Lord was.
His expectation was that it would take the death of the Skull Face Lord or the destruction of the dungeon core to settle the entire incident.

(If Schnee was here, then I could handle it in a different way, though.)

There was a certain skill that he could use if she was present, but Shin conceded that there was no point in obsessing over the ‘what-if’s. All he had to do at the moment was what he could do by himself, and that would have to be enough.
He took out a different sword and unsheathed it, resting it on his shoulder while still running forward.
What he was holding was the Mythology rank oodachi『Hamon Hirumaki』. Based off of the best oodachi from Japan, it measured more than 3 mel from tip to handle. Its blade glittered brilliantly with reflected moonlight, almost as if it would cut through darkness itself. The name was a bit unique, and some people might think of『Nenekirimaru』when they hear of it. True to that comparison, Hamon Hirumaki was indeed a very high level anti-undead sword. In addition, its length, and its subsequent weight, gave it both the power and reach of a spear.

“Fu!!”

It was the same mowing attack as before. However, the scale was on a completely different level.
In the first place, Hamon Hirumaki was a sword that required at least 800 STR to wield properly, as it weighed enough and was sharp enough to slice off the head of a low level dragon with its weight alone. There was no limit to the amount of power that could be drawn out when it is wielded by a player with fully maxed stats.
The blade sliced through the air, creating a shockwave that shredded everything to pieces. There was absolutely nothing that the Skull Faces could do in resistance. That was how great the difference in power was. For the Skull Faces, it was as if they were facing a natural disaster, something like a gigantic storm, earthquake, or flood. Something of such absolute violence that no one—not even if they all banded together—would be allowed to defy.
In his current state, that was exactly what Shin was.
He now pushed forward over the gouged out ground at a pace that made his previous efforts seem like he had been standing still.
The Skull Faces tried to refill the path that had been created with【Hien • Raisei】, but this time Shin’s progress was so fast that simple numbers was no longer enough. Every swing of the blade was accompanied by a roaring that was not supposed to be there, smashing everything in its path into dust.

“Scatter!!”

While he was at it, Shin decided to activate a magical skill too.
It was the Wind-Type Magical Skill【Air Barrett】.
The skill creates a mass of air about 3~40 cemels large freely launchable from any direction, having enough force to shoot down a flying monster. However, what Shin was using was no longer on that scale. Flying in all four cardinal directions around him, airballs more than 2 mels large were easily blowing away Skull Faces together with their armor. The Skull Faces flying through the air no longer possessed even a shred of the dignity that they had previously demanded as the world’s image of terror.
While heading towards the center of the Plains, the damage that Shin was inflicting on the surrounding area attracted all the Skull Faces to himself, until the map at the edge of his vision became swamped with red dots, indicating that there were so many of them that he couldn’t even count them anymore.
He continued running, all while watching the red tide threatening to overwhelm the single white dot that was himself. What he was actually thinking about was the black sphere that had sucked up the Pecker Hollow. The Skull Faces that were being spawned by that were indeed strong. However, it was not that rare for a boss to have the ability to summon and strengthen adds. What was currently going on was probably the most terrible thing that this world could imagine, but in terms of scale, Shin had been part of even larger scale events. That was why Shin was actually feeling slightly let down while brandishing the oodachi, thinking that at this rate he was going to resolve everything without much resistance.

(It won’t hurt to stay cautious.)

He made sure to reserve some strength while obliterating the enemies. He had the leisure of doing so because his stats were now so much higher than they had been back in the game. Shin was now really strong. However, it’s just that sometimes quantity is enough to overwhelm quality. Though all his stats were maxed, he was by no means invincible, nor was he immortal.
If he was killed, he would die.

“————————————————————!!!!!!”

A high-pitched scream reverberated throughout the Plains. As if it was a signal, innumerable white hands thrust up from the ground.
The source of the scream was the Skull Face Lord. The reason why the number of Skull Faces never went down despite how many Shin cut down was because of that scream. As long as it kept ringing, Skull Faces would continue springing out from the ground.

“Again?”

Shin felt that he was drawing closer to the source of the roar. There were so many enemies around that he was sorely tempted to use a wide area annihilation magical skill, but he made a conscious effort to push the feeling away.
Unlike back in the game, the power of magical skills were no longer bound by arbitrary numbers. With Shin’s stats, even a beginner magical skill employed without proper control could easily cause as much devastation as an upper mid tier skill. One could only imagine what would happen if he went full out with a high tier wide area magical skill. Many of these skills could only be used in large scale guild wars, but such restrictions were no longer in place. Shin was not yet familiar enough with his current strength to use such skills freely. It would be no joke if he erased an entire forest with a simple slip up.
The effect of his newfound strength was that he was now fighting while chained down by such worries.

(I would be more willing to try things out if I was alone here, but ......)

While staring at the green markers on his map, Shin activated another magical skill.
What he used this time was the Fire-Type Magical Skill【Impel Flame】.
A large number of fireballs appeared above Shin’s head then fell onto the the Skull Faces between Shin and the green markers. Instead of exploding, the fireballs simply turned extremely hot whenever they were touched, such that all the Skull Faces that came into contact with one were killed by being turned into a beehive.
There were very few sparks flying around, as he was firmly reining in the flames, and the air remained free of dust as there were no explosions going on, so Shin was about to accurately aim for even targets that were quite a distance away.
The green markers on the map were most likely supposed to be his backup. Green markers indicated neutral players or NPCs. In other words, there were currently still other people in the Plains.
Though Shin didn’t know it, those markers were actually the adventurers and knights deployed to keep an eye on the Wraith Plains. They had, completely by chance, encountered a Skull Face that was about to leave, and thus decided to engage it in combat.

“This isn’t good.”

Due to the large physique of the Skull Faces in his way, Shin could not see who it was that was fighting. However, based on the movements of the markers, it appeared that they were putting up a pretty good fight. They were at least as strong as higher rank adventurers, and had the fortune of having come upon a level 353 Skull Face, which was among one of the weaker ones. However, a level 500 was approaching quickly. It would be a different story if those people were just running away, but if they were truly adventurers, they might not allow themselves the luxury of that choice because of their pride in who they are. Or perhaps they have yet to realize that there are an enormous number of Skull Faces on the Plains.
There was a limit to how much Shin could do, even with the use of magical skills. The green markers were simply too far away. By applying detection skills in combination, he had an accurate understanding of the situation, and realized that it would be really difficult, if not outright impossible, for him to reach the group in time. It would be so much easier if he could just fly through the sky, but THE NEW GATE have no flying options. He can「Jump」, but not「Fly」.

“Why on earth are they heading this way?! Do they not hear the roar?”

Wrapped in the gale of violence created by his blade, Shin pushed on towards the markers on his map. He didn’t know who they were, but he was not going to simply let them become sacrifices if he had anything to say about it.

“Kuu?”

Yuzuha was asking “Are you going to help them?”, to which Shin replied “As long as I don’t die before reaching them.” He continued spamming magical skills to mow down the enemies in his way. However, the green markers kept on heading deeper into the Wraith Plains. Shin watched the red marker that they were fighting with disappear, but in its place appeared several more nearby.

“Tch, please let me make it in time!!”

To save the surrounded group, Shin began gathering magical power in his hands.
Right before he was going to release a magical skill, blue lightning flared at the edge of his vision.
It was the Lightning-Type Magical Skill【Lightning Bunker】, the exact same one that he himself had used to help Wilhelm and Rashia get away.
The skill wiped out the Skull Faces surrounding the group, almost grazing them with how close it was. However, it did not look like they had suffered any damage from the skill.
Shin had no time to be relieved at the development, as there was a new marker that had appeared on his map, which was labeled with a name that took his breath away.
The marker’s color was blue. That color indicated an ally.
The displayed name read【Schnee Raizar】.