Chapter 23: It’s You! Fiery Chick
Chapter 23: Chapter 23: It’s You! Fiery Chick
A blinding light, a deafening roar, an unimaginable heat...
When Gillis and Sadi scrambled up from the mud and looked in terror toward their target’s location, all that remained was a massive, charred crater with its edges still steaming, and a fireball that still burned, radiating astonishing heat.
Other than that, there was nothing.
Their three companions, men they had spent every day with, along with the entire carriage and the bodies of those damn guards, had all vanished in an instant under that incomprehensible, terrifying Power, not even leaving a speck of ash behind!
"W-What is this unholy power?! Is... Is this the work of those Mages?"
Gillis’s voice was filled with uncontrollable fear, and the hand holding his bow shook like a leaf.
Though terror still lingered in Sadi’s eyes, a deeper despair was driving him into a frenzy.
He glared fixedly at the crimson-gold fireball in the crater, spitting out a mouthful of bloody slush.
"Pah! Cut the crap! Who cares what kind of sorcery it is! The girl has to be inside that fire!"
"Get her! Or we’re both dead! Don’t forget the Count’s orders!"
The words struck Gillis like a bolt of lightning.
’That’s right... if I fail the mission... what the Count will do... and my wife and children...’
At the thought of that terrible outcome, he shuddered violently. Forcing down his fear, he raised his bow and, alongside his companion, advanced with heavy steps toward the blazing inferno.
About ten paces away, the searing heat was already making their skin sting.
The two exchanged a glance, each seeing the hesitation on the other’s face.
’Should we attack this fire?’
’What if we end up killing the person inside?’
’But if they didn’t attack, how could they possibly overcome this Power?’
After a moment’s hesitation, it was Sadi, the more frenzied of the two, who finally roared.
"Together! Let’s try shooting an arrow at the edge first!"
"Alright..."
Gillis agreed through gritted teeth and steeled himself to nock an arrow and draw his bow—
However, before he could raise his hand, a short, strange grunt was suddenly forced from his throat.
"Urk!"
Startled, Sadi whipped his head around, only to see his companion a few paces away crumple forward as if boneless, a dark iron nail bizarrely protruding from the side of his neck with only the head showing.
Blood was gushing from his neck. He wasn’t going to make it.
"Enemy attack!"
Alarm bells rang in Sadi’s head as his body moved on pure instinct!
He twisted his body, nocked an arrow, and drew his powerful bow!
Under the immense pressure, he felt his reactions become incredibly swift, his vision as sharp as a falcon’s!
He clearly saw a blurry but agile figure dart out from behind a thicket!
"TWANG—!"
The bowstring hummed. The arrow flew from the string, straight toward the figure’s head!
However—
"CLANG!"
The crisp sound of metal on metal rang out.
The figure swung its left arm across, and an Arm Shield firmly blocked the powerful shot!
’Crap!’
Sadi’s heart seized with terror. He immediately dropped his bow, his right hand reaching for the dagger at his waist.
But his opponent was faster than he had imagined!
The muddy ground seemed to have no effect on his stride; the instant he deflected the arrow, the figure closed to within five paces!
Sadi had only managed to draw his dagger an inch before an icy killing intent washed over him!
Before he could even think, a ferocious roar filled with a terrifying Power assaulted his eardrums!
"Kneel!!"
The man felt an indescribable, icy terror explode from the base of his spine and shoot straight to the top of his skull!
His mind went blank, his limbs grew rigid, and the motion of drawing his dagger froze instantly!
His vision was filled with nothing but his opponent’s young, iron-cold face and the raised blade in his hand, which was wreathed in a faint blue glow!
The blade fell in a flash!
A crimson line streaked across his throat, and his grotesque head flew high into the air.
The headless corpse stood rigid for a moment, blood fountaining from its neck, before it collapsed like a heavy sack.
A bitter wind blew across the battlefield, and the scent of blood began to fill the air.
The young Hunter flicked the blood from his blade, his expressionless gaze sweeping over the two cooling corpses.
’No Experience Points—just as I expected.’
’On this continent, players receive no experience rewards for killing NPCs, unless their target is designated as a "monster."’
’But what truly surprised him was that this was his first time personally killing someone, yet he felt very little discomfort.’
’None of the nausea, the trembling hands, the weak knees—nothing.’
’A part of that was surely due to being somewhat desensitized from killing so many humanoid monsters in *Yino*.’
’But more than that, it was probably because he had long ago come to a certain resolution—the resolution to take another person’s life.’
’To get home, I must become strong. And to become strong, I can’t avoid getting blood on my hands.’
’This is a path filled with thorns.’
Thinking of this, Jon felt a strange sense of melancholy.
’I wonder... what kind of person will I become...?’
But he didn’t dwell on the feeling. Instead, he expertly knelt and began searching the bodies of the two enemies he had killed.
’Even though killing people yields no Experience Points, their equipment is perfectly intact—a benefit you don’t get from killing monsters.’
Jon first retrieved his Flying Nail and examined it carefully.
——
[Flying Nail (Ordinary-Throwing)]
[Physical Attack: 25-50]
[Current Poison: Concentrated Sword-leaf Grass Poison]
[Durability: 25/25]
"A despicable weapon, but success is neither noble nor base. —Assassin Mentor"
——
’As I thought, the enhancement from Magic Mastery also applies to throwing weapons. Both the accuracy and throwing speed are improved, though the power boost seems to diminish with distance...’
’But that’s not a huge problem. It was never a proper ranged weapon anyway, just a hidden weapon for sneak attacks...’
Having confirmed this, he deftly stripped the two corpses of anything that looked valuable and stuffed it all into his sizable cloth pouch.
Then came the gloves, boots, cloth cape, dagger, bow, arrows, quiver, and other pieces of equipment he still lacked.
’I need to be fully equipped.’
As for looting corpses, that posed no psychological burden whatsoever for a player.
Once he had finished all this, he slowly rose and turned his gaze to the golden sphere of fire still burning intensely in the center of the charred crater.
The flame was pure and powerful, radiating an aura that was both sacred and dangerous.
But Jon wasn’t in the slightest hurry, nor did he try to break through it.
Because he understood this Divine Technique.
If cast by a proper Advanced Level Sun Priest, a Solar Flare Shield could last for over half an hour. The protected individual’s ability to cast Solar Domain Divine Techniques would be greatly enhanced, and it would inflict continuous burn damage on nearby enemies. It could truly be called "overpowered."
But what was here now was just a lite version activated by an item. The fact that it could be maintained for even a few minutes was already quite impressive.
The Sun God himself didn’t have time to keep his eye on this place forever.
If he wasn’t mistaken, the flame should be disappearing any moment now.
Sure enough, just as Jon finished putting on his new boots and gloves and was about to don his new cape, the blazing fire quietly vanished.
A shapely body, as dazzling as white jade, was revealed before the outlander’s eyes.
And that delicate, peaceful sleeping face, that hair as brilliant as fire...
All of it made Jon’s eyes widen abruptly.
"It’s you! Scorch!"