Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

A Grove of Duskstone 

THERE WAS NO MISTAKING IT from her reaction. Lady Roxy had seen my eye. Gluttony’s piercing red eye. She was surprised, but her expression remained serious. 

“Your eye…” she said. She seemed startled, but unafraid. “What in the world…?” 

I stood without answering. Her words sounded hollow, far away. I only heard what my hungering Gluttony told me, and it said that a delicious soul approached. 

I took the black sword from its sheath. “The chimera. It’s coming.” 

“What? But I still can’t feel its presence!” 

All the same, Lady Roxy unsheathed her own sword and dropped into a battle-ready stance. She doubtless remembered that the chimera had caught her by surprise on the surface as well. Unlike other monsters, chimeras had the power to mask their presence. I understood that, now that the half-starved state of Gluttony heightened my own senses. 

“Stay here, Lady Roxy.” 

“But I can fight! Hey, wait!” 

I sprinted away, leaving Lady Roxy behind. My ability to control Gluttony’s starvation was nearing its limit. By following the flow of magical energy, locating the chimera was simple. I headed directly for it. 

“You don’t want her seeing you fight a monster like a monster?” laughed Greed. 

“Shut up!” 

The words—mocking and true—stung, enraging, but I had no choice. I had to fight. In the darkness of the cavern, I saw the chimera advance. I leapt up high and transformed Greed into the black scythe. When the chimera noticed me, it reared back and hastily summoned another wall of fire in a pitiful attempt to stop me. My blade cut right through the flames. 

I used the momentum of my landing to slice through one of the chimera’s front legs, cutting it off. The chimera let out a bellowing shriek as I cut off its remaining front leg, the stumps bubbling with its slow attempt to regenerate. Then, as I moved in to strike a killing blow to the high orc fused to its center, the chimera raised its two arms, both as thick as logs, to shield its core. 

“Your defense means nothing to this hunger…” I growled. 

I cut through it all—the arms, the core. However, I miscalculated, and the slice wasn’t as deep as I hoped. I failed to sever the high orc’s head. No issue. I readied another attack to silence the abomination once and for all. But as I raised the black scythe high above my head, I froze. The high orc, still struggling to attack me despite its mortal wounds—it stared right at me, its wild eyes stained a bright, monstrous red. 

Perhaps it only looked that way because of the bloodlust in my own eyes. But reflected in the piercing gaze of that high orc, oblivious to its condition as it scrabbled toward me, I saw my own fear. 

I cried out in rage. “Stop it! Don’t look at me! Don’t look at me with those eyes!” 

I used my Strength Overload skill, and my strength immediately doubled. I split the chimera and its high orc core entirely in two gory halves that fell to the cavern floor. I put so much power into the blow that the ground itself shook. I didn’t stop. Strength Overload was effective for about ten seconds, and I pummeled the chimera for all of them. 

I don’t remember where or how I struck the monster, only the haze of anger and fear. When Lady Roxy’s voice finally brought me back to my senses, the chimera was in quivering pieces scattered around my feet. 

This had never happened before. Through my fury, I hadn’t even heard the metallic voice inform me of my stat increase. I’d lost myself completely to the violence. Devouring the chimera’s soul had, at least, calmed Gluttony’s hunger. The emotions that drove my frenzy were now silent, and all that remained in the aftermath was a feeling of deep helplessness and self-disgust. 

Lady Roxy didn’t speak a word, only stared at me silently. I couldn’t meet her gaze. Couldn’t look at what I’d rendered the corpse of the chimera into. I took a deep breath to still my heaving chest. 

Just as my presence of mind returned, we heard a rumbling crack. The ceiling crumbled, and the earth, rocks, stone monsters, and even trees from the canyon above began to collapse into the cavern. 

Lady Roxy and I retreated into the more stable depths of the cavern for cover and waited for the landslide to pass. We sat together in a heavy, awkward silence. As the rumbling quieted, and the dust settled, the cavern filled with light. We stood to look at the remains, and the sight captured our eyes. 

“This is…” 

“It’s beautiful!” Lady Roxy cried. 

Clusters of duskstone crystals spread out before us, shining a gentle purple in the light of the sun. So, this was where they were. I’d spent all my time searching above ground, and it hadn’t once occurred to me that they might be hidden underneath the canyon. There were so many crystals of all sizes and arrangements. 

In shock, I stared at the glimmering purple formations, their light sparkling against the steep walls of the sunken cavern. 

“Duskstone forms on the bodies of monsters?!” 

Lady Roxy nodded as she gently touched a cluster of crystals. I examined the shape of a monster I’d never seen before, a beast with the long tail of a snake. It had completely turned to stone centuries before, and a dense crop of duskstone crystals sprouted from its back. It looked as though the duskstone used monsters as nourishment. 

“You were looking for duskstone, but you didn’t even know where it came from?” Lady Roxy asked, though she sounded like she was going to laugh rather than chide me. “If you’d asked, I could have just told you! Granted, this is the first time I’ve ever seen duskstone in person.” 

The clusters of crystals were not only beautiful, they were something of a blessing for me. Though they didn’t completely conceal my deed, they drew a temporary curtain over the annihilated chimera and my crimson eye. Exactly how far that curtain was drawn, I wasn’t sure; only Lady Roxy could say what happened in her own mind. But for now, as we marveled at the duskstone crystals, I felt she had left the curtain as closed as possible. That was just her sort of kindness. 

“This much duskstone could keep us stocked for more than a hundred years. It’s just as they say: in the darkness of disaster shines the light of hope.” 

Lady Roxy’s smile in that moment was the smile of a job well done. I took only as much duskstone as Jade had said was necessary for Greed’s scabbard, tucking it carefully into my pockets. 

“With this,” I said, “I’ve got what I came for. How about you?” 

“Yes, we’re done, though it’s unfortunate we couldn’t save the prior expedition.” 

“I’m sorry…” 

To say there was nothing Lady Roxy could have done felt too light. I could only commiserate. 

After we’d separated and before the chimera ambush, Lady Roxy and her troops had found the canyon’s outpost. The encampment was burned to the ground, the entire place little more than ashes under smoking corpses. Lady Roxy had ordered that the fallen be given a proper burial, and Northern volunteered to take care of it. Then she left a group of men with Northern and headed out to find whatever monsters caused the fire. At that point, the three chimeras had attacked her. 

I still felt there was some ulterior motive underlying the chimeras’ attack. It was as though they’d had a strategy for which they were prepared to sacrifice their lives—a far cry from usual monster tactics, to say the least. It felt similar to the incident with the salamanders. I returned once more to the fallen chimera, looking for something that might give me some clue. 

“What’s wrong?” Lady Roxy asked, following me. 

Although she deserved better, I couldn’t give more than a vague answer. “I’m just curious about something. Call it a hunch.” 

I checked over the head and shoulders of the fallen high orc’s body carefully, and I found what I was looking for. Just as with the salamanders, some kind of seal had been branded onto the high orc’s neck. I had a feeling that if we checked the orc chimeras on the surface, we’d find the same marks. 

Was Lady Roxy being targeted? Having come this far, it was hard to think it could be anything else. 

I thought back to Eris, the bearer of Lust, and what she’d told me at her saloon. How, by harnessing the phenomenon of hate in humans instead of monsters, a new generation of people with incredible skills could be born. How the hate building up in the common folk of the kingdom, their anger at their oppression by the holy knights, was nearing its limit, and needed only one last push to bear its new fruit. And how that last push…was Lady Roxy’s death. 

The salamanders had attacked her on the way to the canyon. It seemed the chimeras had been released with her destination already in mind. Was I overthinking it all? Or was this what Eris had tried to warn me about? 

“Mr. Corpse, look over there.” 

Lady Roxy had moved away from where I was lost in thought. She waved to get my attention and pointed south, where she’d found a way back to the surface. When the ceiling had caved in, the fallen debris, monsters, and trees piled up on each other, creating a makeshift staircase. I walked over and tested the base with my boot. 

“Seems stable enough to climb,” I said. 

“Right? What good fortune. Let’s head back to the surface.” 

The two of us slowly and carefully made our way up the landslide and out of the cavern, climbing the debris by testing each step to be sure it could carry our weight. Not long after we made it back to solid ground, we heard Miria and Mugan shouting for us. We called back, and their familiar faces appeared. 

I was relieved to see that Mugan now looked to be in good health. Fortunately, his injury hadn’t been as dire as it first appeared. Lady Roxy was also relieved to see him safe. 

“Lady Roxy! Lady Roxy!” Miria was, naturally, the louder of the two. 

“Sorry for worrying you both,” Lady Roxy said. “Thanks to Mr. Corpse, we’ve taken out the last monsters. But what about the two chimeras still here on the surface?” 

We’d only killed the chimeras’ cores, and Lady Roxy was concerned about what happened to their shells. 

“They’re over there,” Mugan said, pointing. “But, well, something strange happened to them just before we found you. They disintegrated.” 

“How unfortunate…” Lady Roxy sighed. 

She had wanted to investigate them. Unfortunately, if the chimera bodies on the surface were now dust, it was likely the minced chimera in the cavern had suffered a similar fate. Lady Roxy wasn’t entirely out of luck, though. I told her about the chimera without a core I’d seen, which was still buried in the eastern cliffs. Mugan took some soldiers to check it out. Lady Roxy began to follow, but her troops halted her. Her exhaustion was clear to everyone. 

Lady Roxy knew just how volatile chimeras were, and she turned to me. “The chimera at the eastern cliffs, is it dangerous?” 

“It’s fine. Only the creature’s face is visible. The rest of it, including the core, is buried in the rock. It has no monster to power it, and I wouldn’t expect it to move any time soon. If you’re worried, I can go with Captain Mugan and destroy it.” 

“Would you do that for me?” she asked. “I don’t want that monster functioning ever again.” 

“Very well.” 

I headed straight to the eastern cliff in pursuit of Mugan and the other soldiers. When I caught up with them, I informed Mugan of Lady Roxy’s desire to have the inert monster destroyed. 

“I was just thinking the same thing,” said Mugan. “But do you mind giving me a few hours to study it first?” 

“Take your time.” 

“And…” He hesitated. “I’m sorry. You’re not even a soldier, and we’re relying on you for so much.” 

“We’ve come far enough together to put such apologies aside.” 

“Thank you.” 

Now that I’d saved the kingdom’s army from the salamanders and the chimeras, they saw me in a more favorable light. The soldiers working under Mugan chatted with me while they analyzed and documented the half-buried monster. They thanked me for fighting the chimeras earlier, and, a bit embarrassingly, grilled me about my relationship with Lady Roxy, because it looked like we’d really hit it off. It was simple and mostly pointless conversation, but since putting on my skull mask, I’d rarely bantered with people. I enjoyed it. As I watched over and talked with Mugan and his men, the hours passed in moments. 

“Well, looks like we’re done,” said Mugan. “These chimeras are ancient Galian tech, right? I’d love to bring one back to Seifort for the Military District researchers to take a closer look at. But we can’t know when the rest of the rock will crumble and reveal the core, and we sure don’t want any other orcs hopping in to take it for a spin.” 

“I’m impressed. Just a couple of hours, and you already have a thorough understanding of chimeras,” I said. “Do you know a lot about Galian technology?” 

“Yeah…” Mugan scratched the back of his head. “It’s a little embarrassing, but it’s been my family’s main point of research for generations. My father studied it, and my daughter does now. I, uh, I’m no good at desk work. It doesn’t really suit my personality, so I joined the armed forces instead. But getting up close with old Galian technology like this just excites me… I can’t explain it.” 

“I guess it’s in your blood. Does your daughter work in the Military District of Seifort?” 

“Indeed she does. She’s not like her father at all—she’s actually got a brain in that head of hers. Wait a second, are you angling for a date with my daughter?!” 

“No, no, I wasn’t asking because of anything like that! I was just curious.” 

“Oh. I see. It’s just rare for you to show interest in others, Corpse. Since you joined us, you’ve always kept a firm distance.” 

He was right. On top of hiding my true identity, I was worried about getting too close to anyone. 

“Not that I mind, anyway,” said Mugan. “If you ever decide to take that mask off, I’d be happy to introduce you to my daughter.” 

“If only it were so simple,” I said. 

“Hah! I thought you’d say something like that.” Mugan laughed. “All right, Corpse, the chimera’s all yours.” 

I unsheathed the black sword from its worn scabbard and stood facing the monster buried in the cliff face. 

“This should put an end to things for the time being,” said Greed. 

“Not quite yet it won’t,” I muttered. “We still don’t know who’s after Lady Roxy.” 

“Your best course of action is to get back to Eris as soon as possible and strangle the information out of her.” 

“She already told me everything she could. I can’t go betraying her kindness like that.” 

“I see. In that case, I guess we’ll just have to do things your way. The slow way.” 

I charged the black sword with my remaining strength, and when the flow was right, I engaged the tech-art Sharp Edge. It was a quick double-slice strike with high attack power, widely used by a range of adventurers. I didn’t call on it often, and with good reason. Sharp Edge left the user stuck in a recovery state for a long time. For someone like me, who almost always fought solo, being trapped in recovery mode was far too dangerous. The attack was best used as the finishing blow on the last remaining enemy in a group. This situation felt like a safe opportunity to finally try it out. 

I was using this tech-art for another reason, too. I’d just used Strength Overload, and my strength stat had dropped to ten percent of its norm. It would take a day for it to return to normal. I had to make up for that lost power. 

With the first slice, I lopped off the chimera’s head. With the second, I sheared through the rock face entirely, halving both the jagged rock and the chimera’s body. I quietly returned the black sword to its sheath as I looked over the long horizontal cut stretching across the cliff face before me. The metallic voice in my head recited the litany of my increased stats. 

I’d successfully destroyed the last chimera. I turned my back to the monster and returned to Mugan and his troops. 

“An impressive show of strength, Corpse,” Mugan said. “Amazing to think that you finished off such a beast with a commonplace tech-art like Sharp Edge. Those chimera hides are tougher than steel.” 

“You speak too highly of me,” I said. “I still have a long way to go.” 

“You? You still have a long way to go? What on earth are you looking to get in a fight with?! The gods themselves?!” Mugan burst into laughter. 

I wanted to laugh along, but he wasn’t far off the mark. I couldn’t tell him that I needed to be ready to face the Divine Dragon. At my current level, I was no match for it. Before I could fight a monster of that strength, I needed to reach what Myne called the Domain of E, and I didn’t have the slightest idea how. 

Mugan placed a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry, but I think you’re doing just fine. It might be the bumbling old man in me when I say so, but nothing good comes from living life too fast, you know?” 

“Yeah…” 

Mugan looked a bit awkward when he saw my troubled face, and he quickly apologized for speaking without knowing my situation. I didn’t take issue with what he’d said, I just didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t have any answers. Frankly, Mugan’s words were exactly on point. Rushing was dangerous, not to mention exhausting. However, Myne had said that getting to the Domain of E would take me ten years. I didn’t have that much time. 

We headed to the western side of the canyon, toward the outpost, to regroup with Lady Roxy. There, we found the graves for the missing soldiers. There must have been a few hundred at least. The gravity of the loss only sank in then. 

I searched for Lady Roxy. “Ah, there she is…” 

Even now, completely exhausted, Lady Roxy was at the front of a group, directing the burial preparations. She looked as majestic as always, golden hair and white armor glowing as she worked under the light of the setting sun. This was the Lady Roxy I had come to know so well. 

I wasn’t aware I was staring in admiration until a familiar, smarmy voice called out to me. 

“Why, hello there, Corpse!” Northern said, trotting over. 

“Northern. Shouldn’t you be out there working instead of sitting on your thumbs?” 

Unlike everybody else, who was covered in dirt and mud as they worked to bury the fallen, Northern looked practically pristine in his polished armor. 

“I didn’t come here to get my hands dirty doing that ,” he said. “Also, would you kindly stop poking your head into the kingdom’s affairs? It’s getting to be a real nuisance. Since I’m nice, I’ll give you one warning. Mind you, there won’t be a second.” 

Northern didn’t wait for my response, walking off once he was done with his so-called warning. Even though he’d specifically volunteered to handle the burials, he left all the work to his troops. It was weird to me that Northern didn’t seem to care about these fallen soldiers. He was the one who’d alerted Lady Roxy to their absence. In a way, Lady Roxy’s expedition was entirely his doing. 

“What do you think?” I asked Greed. “Of Northern’s callous attitude, I mean.” 

“There’s definitely something fishy about it. And, you know, he’s actually a highly skilled holy knight. I can tell by the way he holds himself. I’ve kept my eye on him since we started traveling with the kingdom’s army.” 

“Are you saying he’s hiding his real power?” 

“Exactly. At the very least, power like his would have no problem handling a chimera.” 

“He’s no ordinary holy knight, then. And the air of danger I felt when I first met him…that wasn’t a mistake either.” 

The mysterious holy knight, Northern Alistair… As I watched him walk away, I felt a strange growl from the depths of Gluttony. It was as if it saw Northern as a delicious morsel, a filling meal it wanted nothing more than to devour. 

I returned to Lady Roxy’s side and helped the soldiers bury the fallen. The burials took a while. By the time we finally finished, dawn was breaking. The canyon was quiet with the stalking chimeras gone, and the sunrise over the great canyon was breathtaking. It illuminated the cracked earth we had marched over to get here, a stark contrast with the verdant green of nature within the canyon. Sunlight filtered through the mist and trees, reflecting off the leaves. It was hard to believe we were still in Galia. 

However, we would soon leave this idyllic environment. Now that we had finished burying the fallen soldiers, we would take a short rest, then trek back to Babylon. 

I retired to a tent prepared for me by the soldiers, where at last I could relax and sleep. I was grateful to have the chance to be with Lady Roxy for a little longer. It reminded me of the time we’d spent together back in Seifort. 

“Thank you, Lady Roxy,” I whispered to the silence of the tent.