Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A Certain Request

The next day, I went to the guild.

Why, you ask? Simple: I planned to test out the new sword I’d picked up from Clope yesterday in the Water Moon Dungeon, and since going without taking any jobs would be kind of a waste, I had come to find one that would let me kill two birds with one stone—the birds in this case being testing out my new weapon and earning some coin in the process.

I wondered if I’d ever shake off my thrifty personality. None of the progress I’d made so far had caused it to change...

“Two liters of slime fluid... Three skeleton magic crystals... Mmm, one of these will probably do.”

The monsters that spawned in the Water Moon Dungeon were all bottom feeders: slimes, skeletons, and goblins. There were other types too, but those were the main ones, and it was thanks to them that I’d been able to earn a living back when I was human.

Since I owed them, in a sense, a small part of me wondered if using them as the inaugural opponents for my sword was bad karma or something, but I didn’t have much of a choice. That was just the kind of job that adventuring was. Besides, leaving them alone to multiply would just lead to problems.

Depending on where you went in the world, you could find goblins interacting peacefully with humans, but almost every specimen that you encountered in dungeons attacked people on sight. There was no need to show them any mercy...though I would feel pretty bad if any of them turned out to be like I’d been at the start of my monster life.

I wondered how likely that was, and whether any of the monsters I had ever killed had been like me. That line of thought put a damper on my mood though, so I decided to stop pursuing it any further.

“I guess I can take this... Ah.” I didn’t particularly mind which job I accepted, so I went to take one for collecting slime fluid, but another adventurer beat me to it.

“Sorry...” he apologized, after we stared at each other for a moment.

“No...it’s fine,” I said.

From the look of things, he had taken the job first and only noticed my outstretched hand after turning around. That being said, it didn’t look like he was willing to go as far as handing it over—he promptly strode away to reception.

I supposed I had no choice now. My camaraderie with skeletons from being members of the same evolutionary line had stayed my hand from proactively using them as a money-making resource, but that courtesy only stretched so far. I reached my hand out for the commission slip...

“Huh?”

“Oh, sorry, mister. We’ll be taking this one, so...”

“R-Right...”

This time, it was a party of three women who beat me to it. Since I didn’t recognize them, I gave them a cursory glance: their equipment marked them as students of the Academy.

Since they’d based themselves in this town to survey the dungeon, more than a few of the students had probably taken up adventuring in the meantime, even though it wasn’t their main profession. I’d heard that a decent fraction of the Academy’s students registered as adventurers and went out on jobs while they were still enrolled. They were rather valuable too, since all of them were mages. As a result, the guild gave them a warm enough welcome. Still, compared to people who were adventurers as their main trade, they were lacking in some respects. That was why the people from the Academy hired local Maalt adventurers when foraying into the dungeon for their research.

The party of women left without a backward glance and headed toward reception. I was at a bit of a loss now that the jobs I had been eyeing had been taken. It didn’t help that I’d left the house somewhat late in the day since I hadn’t been particularly desperate for a job—testing my new sword out on monsters was my primary goal.

There weren’t many commissions left on the board, and the ones that were there didn’t match what I needed. They were all jobs along the lines of “I need flowers that only grow on the cliffs of Gist Gorge.” And while you could find monsters in all kinds of places, I was fairly sure I remembered that the ones in that area were mostly of the flying variety, and not the skeletons that I wanted to try my sword on.

It was difficult for undead to spawn in the Kingdom of Yaaran in the first place. That was actually a major reason I’d so easily accepted the explanation for it that I’d been given in the royal palace. Dungeons weren’t privy to such restrictions, of course—undead spawned in the Water Moon Dungeon on the regular.

Still, undead did still show up occasionally throughout the kingdom, which was something I would have known even if Her Royal Highness the princess hadn’t told us about it. I encountered them outside of dungeons decently often, such as when we’d run into zombies stumbling out of the woods on our way to my hometown of Hathara.

I toyed with the idea of heading out in that direction for a moment, but they’d already all been wiped out to the last, and it was so far away too...

I supposed it had to be the dungeon after all. My inner coin-pincher protested at what a waste it was to go there without taking any jobs, but sometimes that was just how things worked out. But then, just as I was about to surrender the issue...

“What? What do you mean?! This amount was fine before! How am I supposed to raise it on such short notice?!”

I heard a raised voice from over by reception. When I turned to look, I saw Sheila and a young man who looked to be pleading with her. He was considerably roughed up, his clothes torn; I wondered what had done that to him. Curious, I stayed around to listen to their conversation.

“You’re certainly right...but that was the case before a new dungeon formed in town,” Sheila said. I could hear from her tone how much she sympathized with the young man. “Maalt’s adventurers are currently in rather high demand, with all the commissions from the Tower and the Academy coming in. With this much as your offered payment, I doubt any adventurers will accept the job. The guild is still happy to process it, of course, but I’m afraid you’ll need to temper your expectations when it comes to whether anyone will take it...”

Maalt was way out in the sticks—we didn’t have that many adventurers. Despite this, we’d suddenly found ourselves in circumstances where a great many of us were needed. In short, demand was high, and supply was low.

Currently the guild was relatively deserted, as the majority of adventurers were out on jobs. Before the new dungeon had formed, it hadn’t been unusual to see adventurers sitting around here in twos and threes, drinking themselves blind.

Some clients would feel the effects of that change firsthand and find themselves unable to afford the hike in the market rate for a commission fee—and it appeared that this young man was one such individual.

I had the option of just ignoring him...but, well, the timing was convenient. I’d been unlucky too, having my commissions taken, so maybe it wasn’t a bad idea for birds of a feather to lick one another’s wounds...

With that in mind, I walked over to where Sheila and the young man were.

◆◇◆◇◆

“I couldn’t help but hear all the fuss,” I said, my expression feigning innocence. “Did something happen?”

“Rentt...” Sheila looked like she had already figured out that I’d been listening in.

The young man, on the other hand, turned a suspicious eye on me, but that melted away when he saw my skull mask and cloak. “Are you...an adventurer? Please, you have to hear me out!”

I was actually impressed that he’d managed to pin me as an adventurer so quickly, given my appearance...

Well, come to think of it, a guy who looked like me loitering around in a guild probably couldn’t be anything but an adventurer, huh? A lot of us did wear masks and all.

That aside, the young man seemed rather desperate.

“Master Rivul,” Sheila chided gently. “As a rule, adventurers have the right to decide which jobs they do or do not accept. Please don’t try to strong-arm them.”

Sheila’s warning probably would have been stronger if I hadn’t approached of my own accord, but she seemed to recognize that I had come over with an idea of what was going on.

While clients were an indispensable fact of life for adventurers, that didn’t give them the right to command us to do any task or push us into accepting any job. On those grounds, it was an established rule that clients could not coerce adventurers, and the guild protected us from them to a certain degree.

That protection had its limits, of course, and it was always judged on a case-by-case basis, so things often got hazy. In a sense, though, that was very guild-like.

With all that said, Maalt’s guild was reputable in that regard—probably because Wolf was the guildmaster. It was a blessing to have a capable boss. If only he didn’t send strange jobs my way every now and then...

I could save the contemplation for another time though—right now, I needed to focus on what the young man—Rivul, according to Sheila—had to say.

“Well, I just so happen to have found myself with some free time,” I said. “I got beaten to the commissions I wanted to take...but it doesn’t feel right to leave without any either. I can’t make any promises, but I can hear you out at least.”

Rivul’s desperate expression relaxed a little, and his grin lit up the room. “Really?! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

◆◇◆◇◆

Rivul and I moved to a new location, taking a seat at one of the tables in the tavern that was attached to the guild. Sheila had told us to call her over if I decided to accept his job and went elsewhere to start on some other work. It seemed like she had mainly been on reception duty today, but while in the old Maalt she wouldn’t have needed to do much else, that just wasn’t the case these days. There were piles of work to get through, and it was the responsibility of any free hands to assist, regardless of their department.

No wonder Wolf was trying to enlist my help too—and were those dark circles I’d seen under Sheila’s eyes earlier?

I decided to forget about all of that. Any further thinking in that direction felt like it would result in me deciding to help them out. I offered a silent prayer that the guild employees would be able to get time off soon...

“So, Rivul, right?” I began. Since I hadn’t heard the specifics, I figured that would be where I’d start. “What kind of job do you want done? It sounded like Sheila—uh, the guild clerk turned it down, or maybe said something about nobody accepting it.”

Rivul gave me a strained smile. “Ah, you heard? Yes, that’s essentially what she told me. I’m looking to hire someone to eliminate the skeletons that have appeared around my village. I thought I’d find somebody right away, but it looks like I was mistaken...”

Skeletons.

My heart stirred a little. They were just the opponents I had been looking for to try out my new sword. It was a good chance to find out what would happen if I tried to cut them with a divinity-charged blade. I’d hate to find out it had no effect...but if that happened, all I’d be able to do was throw my hands up. At least I’d learn that it was pointless.

In any case, Rivul’s story sounded like just the right thing for both of my needs: trying out my new sword and taking a commission. I knew that it wouldn’t have sounded so favorable to other adventurers though—skeletons weren’t particularly lucrative targets. They were bottom-rank monsters that could always be found in the Water Moon Dungeon, and all you could get from them were magic crystals and slightly tougher bones. There was no real reason to travel any farther out to hunt them.

Still, someone likely would have accepted the job...if it had been before the new dungeon formed in Maalt, that is. Even if it wasn’t a sizable profit, the commission payment Rivul was offering was still much more than what simply hunting skeletons and selling their materials on your own would give you. For a low-ranked adventurer, his job had plenty of incentive.

In Maalt’s current state, though, even the low-ranked adventurers were benefiting from the profitable jobs offered by the Tower and the Academy. What would have been a perfectly decent commission in the past just wasn’t as attractive now. I didn’t think this state of affairs would go on forever, but for the time being, Maalt’s adventurers were experiencing a small economic bubble.

As a result, even if Rivul put his commission up, nobody would give it a second glance.

“Well...you were just unlucky,” I consoled. “Days like these happen. I’m having something of one myself, really. Just a few minutes ago the commissions I was going to take were all snapped up by other adventurers one after the other. That usually never happens, but that’s life for you.”

“Maybe you’re right about that,” Rivul agreed.

We shared a moment of downcast commiseration with each other. Afterward, though, I raised my head. “Still, it has to be some twist of fate that us fellow victims of bad luck met today. That was why I figured I’d hear you out. See? It’s not all bad.”

“Oh, is that why? In that case, um...”

“Rentt.”

“In that case, Rentt, I guess I need to thank your bad luck...though I’m not sure if you’ll accept my request or not yet.”

“It’ll depend on the details. Just knowing it’s a skeleton hunt doesn’t tell me much. Could you give me the full story?”

“Of course.” After a moment, Rivul launched into the beginning of his story. “The village I live...well, lived in had nothing special going for it, but it was peaceful and quiet...”

◆◇◆◇◆

According to Rivul, although his village didn’t have much, they weren’t utterly destitute either. They always had stores prepared to get them through winter or a poor harvest, and while they never experienced any drastic improvements in their lives, they were happy. Their population numbered fewer than a hundred, and the village only consisted of not even twenty small houses, but they had still been able to get by because of the relatively low rate of monster appearances in the region.

“Where is your village, by the way?” I asked.

“Crask Village is about a day’s travel west from Maalt, along the Neris River... Yes, around here.” Rivul nodded and pointed out a spot on the map I’d unfurled while he’d been speaking.

I knew most of the villages and towns around Maalt off of the top of my head, but not this one. “I haven’t heard of a ‘Crask Village’ before,” I remarked. “And I try my best to stay updated regarding the nearby villages on a regular basis...”

“Nobody from the village really ever goes to Maalt,” Rivul explained, after a moment’s consideration. “We handle the trade of all of our produce and local specialties through traveling merchants too, so I doubt anyone’s really heard of us. We have everything we need, so...I guess we never really dealt with others much. Maybe a little bit with one of the nearby towns, but...”

“Fair enough.”

Essentially, they were insular. It was no wonder I’d never heard of them—I was hardly capable of noting down the locations of villages nobody ever talked about.

I was surprised by how close it was to Maalt, but there were towns in that area that were closer, so it made sense that no one from Crask had ever needed to come out this far. Plus, there were plenty of villages out there that were known only to their inhabitants. You couldn’t hide a whole town, but a small village deep in the forest? That was another matter.

It was a good thing I’d learned about the place. I made a mental note of it as a possible rest stop if I ever had business in that area.

“I’m impressed you managed to avoid getting browbeaten by traveling merchants in a situation like yours,” I said. “The fact that you didn’t have to worry about your supplies meant that you managed to cut some pretty fair deals, right?”

Because of the knowledge gap that often existed between small villages and traveling merchants, it was easy for them to fall prey to predatory contracts and unfair prices. So long as no other traders came by, the ones that did had a monopoly on business. The lucky merchants who had several such villages in their grip would then be able to save up enough capital to establish their own company somewhere.

It wasn’t exactly a praiseworthy strategy, but the world was a harsh place. In such situations, it was seen as the villagers’ own fault for their ignorance, whether it was willful or not. After all, at any given time they could travel outside their village and learn the market prices, trade with other traveling merchants, or go to a large town and sell their goods there.

Nevertheless, it was surprising that the people in Rivul’s village hadn’t wanted for much, even if their circumstances hadn’t quite reached abundance. Most communities in a similar position ended up as pickings for the aforementioned merchants, which was why I’d asked my question.

“The merchant who came to us was very honest,” Rivul explained. “We aren’t exactly fools either, so we only discussed prices and conditions after checking the market rates and other things in town. Even taking that into account, the conditions we were offered were quite favorable for us.”

“Hmm. Sounds like you were pretty lucky.”

Well, you did run into people like that every now and then—ones who were honest to a fault. That was why you sometimes saw one-copper jobs being posted in the guild.

“So...” I said. “Your village was attacked by monsters? Skeletons, you said?”

“Yes. At least, the ones I saw were skeletons. It was only the one at first, and volunteers from the village took up arms—er, farming tools, I should say—and managed to kill it, but we soon learned that there were more of them...and before we knew it, it was too late. There were five in the last group we saw—too many for simple villagers to handle no matter what anyone did, so we decided to abandon our homes. The women and children are taking refuge in nearby villages and towns right now, while the men are keeping watch on Crask from afar.”

Rivul’s story was a common one. There were many species of monster where if you spotted one, you could assume that there were more. Goblins were one such example, and skeletons were another. It was different in dungeons, but that was the way it worked in the outside world.

The reason was that goblins naturally formed packs and increased in number, while skeletons were undead—that is to say, they were the type of monster that only occurred when conditions were favorable in the first place. Therefore, the existence of one was a strong indicator that more were to come.

I couldn’t know why without seeing for myself, but evidently, somewhere in the vicinity of Rivul’s village, those conditions for creating undead had lined up.

They should have posted a commission at the guild as soon as they spotted one skeleton, but still, it had been a wise decision to abandon the village before things got any worse. In most cases, villagers proved unable to take that step, choosing to band together to fight the threat off instead—which usually resulted in them being massacred. Even simple villagers understood how fearsome monsters were, of course, but they often couldn’t bring themselves to abandon the land of their forebears. Human behavior was dictated by more than pure logic.

By comparison, Crask’s decision to abandon their village was smart, and so was their choice to evacuate the women and children. They likely anticipated that should the worst come to pass, they could simply settle permanently in the places where they had taken refuge.

As for the men...well, they probably couldn’t let go of their home so easily. They had likely staked their last hopes on sending Rivul to the guild as their representative.

Regardless, I had gotten all of the important details at this point. The request was specifically to eliminate the skeletons occupying the village, but the issue was that there was a high chance there were more out there. I’d have to investigate the root cause and cut them off at the source...as well as make a mental note to call for help if it turned out to be more than I could handle alone.

That wouldn’t be easy with how busy the guild was, but I could always count on Lorraine, even when all else failed.

“All right, Rivul. I’ll accept your request.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“We should get off here, right?” Rivul asked, bringing the wagon to a stop. We were in a town to the west of Maalt that was apparently the closest one to Crask Village. From here, though, we would have to walk—my idea, not Rivul’s.

The road to Crask was wide enough to fit a wagon, but with skeletons around, it was better to travel by foot, lest we risk losing it or the horse. I could keep Rivul and myself safe, but I was less sure about the whole wagon and the animal with it. He had told me that some of the men keeping watch over Crask were young, so the benefits of leaving the wagon behind likely still outweighed the drawbacks.

“It’s just half a day to the village by foot, right?” I asked.

Rivul nodded. “Yes, but...surely you don’t mean to go now, do you?”

I’d accepted his request yesterday, and we’d departed soon after, spending the night beneath the stars. Currently, it was just past noon. If we left for Crask now, we’d arrive there in the evening. It wasn’t a good idea to fight the skeletons at night, so the best decision would be to spend the night in town before departing tomorrow...or at least, that was what common sense dictated. I made the exact opposite choice.

“Yeah, I do,” I confirmed.

Rivul looked taken aback. “But it’ll be dark by the time you get there...”

Are you going to fight like that? was left unsaid, but the question was written on his face.

My answer, of course, was a resolute “yes.” After all, my eyes saw far better in the dark than an ordinary human—better than living creatures in general, in fact. Fighting at night was actually more favorable for me as a general rule, since it meant that most living creatures would be basically blind.

That wasn’t my plan this time around, though. I had a different reason for wanting to reach Crask as soon as I could.

“There are still men keeping watch over the village, right?” I explained. “I need to get there quickly and make sure they’re safe. Well, I’m not sure how reassuring that sounds coming from me alone, but I am a Bronze-class adventurer. I figure that’s better than nothing.”

Rivul seemed moved. “You’d go that far for us?! Thank you! Let’s leave straightaway, then!”

“I know it was my idea, but how’s your stamina? If you don’t think you can do it, we can always leave tomorrow...” I wanted to get there as quickly as possible, but it never paid to be reckless.

Rivul shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I’m safe and sound here; everyone else must be much more exhausted. I want to hurry to them and tell them that everything’s going to be okay.”

He had to be feeling some fatigue, but he wasn’t putting up a front—it did look like he had more than enough stamina left to get to the village.

I nodded. “All right. Let’s go.”

With that, the two of us left the town.

◆◇◆◇◆

“They should be around there somewhere...”

Rivul pointed toward an area a little below the small hill that overlooked the tiny village. It had been a good several hours since we had left the nearby town, and a veil of darkness was beginning to draw over the sky. The world was dyed a sharp orange by the setting sun, invoking fear and a vague sense of homesickness.

The spot Rivul had indicated was out of sight of the village—they probably used the hill for surveillance. We approached quietly, and soon enough I saw a group of five men seated near each other. Their clothes were tattered like Rivul’s, their faces were stained and grimy, and they looked utterly exhausted.

One of them noticed us—well, noticed Rivul—as we approached and turned toward us. When he recognized Rivul and then saw me, his expression relaxed into a small, tired-looking smile of relief.

When we were within talking distance, an older man—the oldest in the group, it looked like—stepped up and clapped Rivul on the shoulder. “Rivul...you made it back. Excellent work.”

Rivul nodded. “I did. I managed to bring an adventurer with me too. You can rest easy now, everyone.”

That was my cue. “My name is Rentt,” I said. “I’m a Bronze-class adventurer. I’m here because I accepted your request to eliminate the skeletons occupying your village.”

The old man who’d spoken to Rivul gave an impressed-sounding hum. “I’m Jiris, the headman of Crask,” he said. “Bronze, you said? Thank you for coming. A person from the nearby town told us about Maalt’s adventurer shortage, but Rivul had already left by that point. I was worried when I heard that the amount we provided him likely wouldn’t be enough to hire even an Iron-class adventurer.”

Although they had been keeping watch here, they must have periodically sent someone to the nearby town for food and other supplies. It would have been a tough ask for them to sustain themselves completely off only what the forest had to offer.

It sounded like all their information had gotten to them late though, which explained why the amount of money that Rivul had was the going rate from before the new dungeon had formed in Maalt.

“We wanted to gather up as much coin as we could, but most of it is still in the village,” the old man continued. “We gave Rivul almost all of what we had on us, and that was all it amounted to. Yet you accepted and came anyway. You have my gratitude.”

“Well, Rivul seemed rather desperate...” I said. “I was just in the right place at the right time to notice. But please rest assured that I’ll do everything I can to rid you of those skeletons.”

“Such a courteous young man... Rivul, you’ve brought along an excellent adventurer indeed. But you must be tired too. You should rest. You as well, Master Rentt...or will you be commencing your hunt at once?”

“I’m afraid not. The sun is about to set, and since the undead have excellent night vision, it would leave me at a disadvantage. I plan to spend tomorrow morning and afternoon clearing out the skeletons.”

That wasn’t actually a problem, since my night vision was particularly good, but I didn’t want any skeletons straying away from the battle and coming for the villagers. If it came down to that, it was best to do it when they had enough light to escape the monsters.

“Sound reasoning,” Jiris agreed. “Then, when you begin, we shall join you and lend you our assistance.”

I shook my head. “No... I’ll be going alone.”

The other villagers around us started forward. “But it’s our village! We have to do something!”

I could tell from their expressions that they weren’t coming from a place of overconfidence, but rather something closer to self-sacrifice. They wanted to be of use to me somehow, even if only as a shield.

I, however, had every intention of having all of them survive. That being the case, I wanted them to stay put here—but from the look of things, I’d need to think of a way to convince them first...

◆◇◆◇◆

The next morning, we formulated our battle strategy over a breakfast of preserved foods. Since we were quite close to the village and its current inhabitant skeletons, a bonfire would have been a bad idea; undead, myself included, could see heat sources. The villagers had been able to remain hidden since they’d stayed at a distance and hidden behind the hill, but a bonfire would have created smoke, which was not exactly the easiest thing to conceal.

The villagers appeared to have understood this, which was why all of their food supplies consisted of things like jerky.

I was impressed that they were willing to suffer through watch duty when they could have easily had hot meals any time they wanted simply by returning to town. It wasn’t uncommon for a village to be overrun or destroyed by monsters, but in most cases the residents of smaller locations abandoned them entirely and dispersed elsewhere. Not many committed to the effort of taking back their home. Given the financial cost and risk to their lives, it was easier to give up a small village for lost. Nobody could fault such a decision—indeed, it was often the rational one to make.

“Now then, I know you all want to participate in the fight...” I said, broaching the main issue as though I were the chairperson of an assembly. “But...”

“Yes,” Headman Jiris said firmly. “It’s our village. We cannot stay back and let others do everything—we must make a stand!”

The problem was, if they were capable of that, the situation wouldn’t have devolved into this in the first place. I didn’t want to sound harsh, but the simple fact was that they lacked the strength to accomplish what they wanted. The reason they were bringing it up now, though, was because an adventurer had come along. They wanted to improve their chances of taking back their village no matter what, even if it meant serving as human shields for me.

However, I didn’t want them to be so self-sacrificing, and neither was there any need to be—which was why I had put thought into what it was that they could do.

“I understand how you all feel,” I said. “But, being completely honest, if you took up arms and fought at close range, you would only get in my way.”

First, I had to get them to understand that part. Being someone’s shield was easier said than done—you needed to step in at the right time or it’d be pointless. I doubted any of them had that level of skill, which meant that they would only be obstacles for me. There was even the chance they’d step in between my sword and a skeleton, resulting in nothing but a meaningless death.

I had done nothing but point out the truth, but it must have sounded quite harsh to Jiris and the others. Even so, they were doggedly persistent.

“But...we have to do something...!”

I could understand how they felt, however—which was why I had an idea.

“I see you have bows there,” I remarked. “Do you all know how to use them?”

I didn’t know if they were for protection or hunting, but there were bows at their feet, next to the selections of hoes and other farming implements that might have served as makeshift weapons.

“W-We do, more or less...” Jiris answered hesitantly. “Especially Rivul and Zutga there; they’re expert hunters who contend over being the best in the village.”

I was surprised to hear that Rivul was a good hunter, but then again, he had been the one they’d chosen to send to Maalt. His stamina and good sense of direction had made him a good pick for the responsibility.

I nodded at Jiris. “That’s good to hear. What about everyone else?”

“We can, yes. Our village...doesn’t really deal much with the outside world, you see. Since we need to be ready to secure our own food in case there’s a need, hunting is an indispensable skill. It’s nothing grand enough to slay monsters, of course...but we can all use a bow, to an extent.”

That made sense—it was hard to be a specialist in a village with such a small population. It was common for everyone to be at least capable of everything, if not necessarily skilled in it.

That quirk of small village life would come in handy today.

“In that case, could I ask everyone to fire arrows at the skeletons from afar?” I asked. “In a group, if possible.”

“From afar...?” Jiris questioned. “But would that really be of any help to you, Master Rentt? Our resolve is true; we can fight against the monsters from the front!”

He was probably thinking that I was giving them that job because I was worried about them, or maybe doubting their courage. Honestly, that was exactly right—but if I said as much, I’d only be met with resistance...so I gave them a different reason.

“Please don’t misunderstand me—I don’t doubt your resolve for a moment. However, as I mentioned earlier, fighting alongside those who are unfamiliar with combat would impair me. Still, I know that you would not even balk at death in order to take your village back. I took that into account when thinking about what you could do...and I believe becoming decoys is the best option.”

“Decoys...?”

“Yes, decoys. Though skeletons do not possess much in the way of intelligence, they have a rough sense of how dangerous nearby creatures are and can tell whether an opponent is weak or strong. Furthermore, they tend to target the easiest kills first...although that’s generally true of all monsters. Of course, you’re all aware of this, aren’t you?”

“Y-Yes...”

The violent topic was taking some of the wind out of Jiris’s and the others’ sails. I would be fine if they ended up getting cold feet, but with what they’d said already, I doubted they were going to take it back, so I continued.

“If I charge into the skeletons, it’s highly likely that they’ll all come for me at once. However, that would make the fight...a little difficult. You said there were five of them, correct? Fighting while trying to dodge all of them at once... I can’t guarantee that there’s no chance I’ll lose. But if a few of their number are distracted, then the fight—and the hunt overall—would be dramatically easier.”

“So...you’d like us to fire arrows from afar to draw the skeletons’ attention? And what about the grouping up?”

“That’s to make sure the skeletons all focus in a single direction. It’s easier for me to eliminate them if they have their backs to me. This goes without saying...but this strategy puts you all at an exceedingly high amount of risk. There’s every chance you could die. Even so...will you do it?”

No deaths would be happening at all on my watch, of course, and I was confident I could handle a mere five skeletons at once, but it was true that the amount of risk wasn’t zero, so I truly didn’t mind if they refused. The answer that Jiris and the others gave, however, was pretty much what I’d expected it would be.

“Of course we will,” Jiris said. “Let’s do this, everyone!”

At his words, all of the other villagers nodded firmly in agreement.

◆◇◆◇◆

Although I’d already taken a brief glance the previous night, morning could have brought changes to the situation, so the first thing I did was examine the state of the village from atop the hill. I knew that Jiris and the other men had alternated watches through the night, but in the end, they were simple villagers; even if they had some experience as hunters, that didn’t make their night vision any better. I needed to confirm everything with my own eyes.

Just as Rivul had informed me, the entirety of the village comprised fewer than twenty houses with a bit of space left between each. From atop the hill, I could see white figures with sunken eye sockets wandering through the gaps between the buildings. The sight of a village populated only by shambling constructs of bone felt empty, frightening, and surreal. It was like watching the end of the world, or perhaps experiencing a terribly sad dream.

Giving myself over to sentiment wouldn’t get me anywhere though. First, I counted the skeletons: one, two...three, four...and five. I managed to find the reported number quite quickly. However...

“There’s definitely more than five...” I mumbled to myself. “A bow wielder, a spear wielder...and ordinary skeletons scattered around.”

All of this was new information. Jiris was lying prone beside me watching the village too, and when I pointed out my discoveries to him, a look of surprise came across his face.

“You’re right—there they are!” he agreed. “But why...? They weren’t there yesterday. Everyone was keeping a close watch.”

“They must have shown up within the last day... If we leave them be, it’s highly likely their numbers will only grow.”

“Th-That would be awful! Is there anything we can do?!”

“Regarding the skeletons over there, all we have to do is eliminate them according to plan. The ones wielding the bow and spear are skeleton soldiers, but that’s all right. They’re more formidable monsters than ordinary skeletons...but they shouldn’t pose much of a problem.”

Now those were words my past human self never would have been able to say. Back then, I’d been weak enough that just a group of skeletons would have forced me to flee. These days, however, I could say something like that and it wouldn’t be a lie. That didn’t mean I would let my guard down, of course.

“Since there’s a bow wielder, though...” I added. “The risk you’ll all be undertaking will be even greater. I’ll attempt to prioritize that one first, but I can’t make any guarantees.”

“Of course. We understand.” Jiris turned to the villagers behind him, all ready for battle. “You heard him, everyone.”

I hadn’t accounted for the skeleton soldiers, especially the bow wielder. Ordinary skeletons only ever used rusty swords or daggers, and their skill with the weapons was low, which made their fighting style monotonous and easy to read. Skeleton soldiers, on the other hand, sometimes fought with rational thinking similar to human beings, were reasonably decent with weapons like spears and bows, and had the ability to command lesser skeletons. In essence, they were like party leaders.

A group of five skeletons with two skeleton soldiers was a much more formidable foe than a mere ten skeletons, for example. We would need to proceed with caution.

If I’d been alone, I could have simply charged my way through them all, since I’d be able to survive and recover from any fatal wounds I happened to suffer, but I couldn’t do that with Jiris and the others watching, let alone participating like they were so eager to do. I really had to stay on my toes for this upcoming fight...

In any case, I had a good grasp on the enemy’s makeup now, and as far as I could see, there were no more out there.

“All right, let’s go,” I said, taking the lead as I set off. “Stick to the strategy, everyone.”

The villagers followed after me quietly, muffling the sound of their footsteps. As one might expect of people who lived their lives in the forest, they were skilled when it came to that kind of thing.

◆◇◆◇◆

I entered the village alone.

Jiris and the others were keeping an eye on my movements from their position a short distance away from the village, so that they were ready to fire arrows if skeletons jumped out to attack me.

That said, I wanted to try and clean this up without involving the villagers at all first. Despite everything they’d said, that was still the best option in my opinion. Fortunately, the village had a lot of nooks and crannies that served as hiding spots.

I didn’t know if they had been ordered to do it by the skeleton soldiers or were doing it of their own volition, but the skeletons were scattered around town, making patrols. If I played my cards right, I could take care of them all one by one.

I hid in the shadows of a house, waiting for the first one to approach.

Rattle-clack.

Soon enough, I heard the distinctive sound of bones rattling as they came closer. A quick peek around the corner revealed a skeleton slowly heading my way. It didn’t seem to have noticed anything. I could make my move as soon as it appeared in front of me.

Since I needed to kill it in one blow without making too much noise, I channeled spirit into my sword, since it was what gave it the best cutting edge. I could get it just as good with mana, but took a larger input, so if sharpness was all I was going for, spirit was the most logical option.

A little closer... Just a bit more...and...now.

I stepped out from the corner of the house where I’d been hiding and moved behind the skeleton, making a clean sweep of my sword into the back of its skull. The blow connected with its magic crystal inside—the source of the power that animated the monster—and with a swift jerk, I pulled it out. Immediately, the skeleton came to such a dead stop that it was hard to believe it had ever been moving, then fell to the ground in a shower of disconnected bones.

That was easy...

I’d made barely any noise. Unlike the pavement of a town like Maalt, the ground here was bare soil, which muffled the rattling. Still, if I just left the bones here, one of the other patrolling skeletons might come along and discover them...

I channeled mana into my sword and used it to manipulate the earth, making quick work of burying the skeleton’s remains. I kept it shallow though, so that I could find it later; there was no point in letting usable materials go to waste.

I didn’t particularly have a need for them, and they wouldn’t sell for that much even if I lugged them back to Maalt, but they could maybe serve as decent construction material to rebuild the village. My walk through the town had revealed that the skeletons had torn it up somewhat. There were several houses that would need rebuilding, and one could never have too many materials when it came to that.

“Right. Onto the next one...”

I hid myself again and headed off to find the next target in my quest to secure more building materials.

◆◇◆◇◆

I was happy with my second find—as far as I could tell, it was patrolling far away from the other skeletons, which made it the perfect prey. As for what it was perfect for, well...that would be for testing my sword, of course.

The first skeleton had been plenty useful as an assessment of how I could use spirit with my new weapon, but the reason I had taken this job in the first place was so that I could see what effect channeling divinity through my sword would have on the undead.

Since I’d encountered several unexpected interferences like the villagers’ enthusiasm, I’d thought that I wouldn’t be able to try it out for fear of the additional risk it invited. Against a foe this isolated, though, the other skeletons wouldn’t notice even if I made a little noise.

I channeled divinity into my sword and waited for the skeleton to approach. The moment it passed in front of me, I leaped out and swung my weapon with enough raw strength to kill the monster even if the divinity ended up doing nothing.

What actually happened was that my sword swept through the skeleton’s body with much less resistance than I’d expected...probably because the parts of the monster that it had made contact with were reduced to ash.

When I’d completed my swing, the end result was that the skeleton had been split vertically in two. The bone adjacent to the cut gradually turned to ash too, the effect spreading, and after a few seconds, all that remained of the skeleton was ash floating on the wind and a single magic crystal.

That was a slight issue, since I’d wanted to use the bones as materials, but since that was more of a bonus to my main objective, I figured it was fine.

It seemed like channeling divinity into this sword resulted in a potent blessing that was highly effective against the undead. I wouldn’t be able to say that for sure until I tested it on undead other than skeletons too, and the potency likely varied depending on my opponent, but taking this commission had already proved to be worth my while. After all, I had successfully destroyed a skeleton without making a sound. It had been so effective that I was starting to think I should have used it to begin with.

“I guess things won’t play out that smoothly though, will they...?” I muttered to myself quietly. I could tell how much divinity I had expended, and it wasn’t shaping up to look like an effective power source in terms of what I got out versus what I put in.

If annihilating a single skeleton took this much, then I doubted I’d be able to use it with much frequency.

I didn’t have a large amount of divinity to begin with, and what I did have felt like it was growing slower than my mana and spirit were—although to be fair, those were making relatively good progress.

It was a difficult problem to solve. Perhaps the correct decision was simply to base my fighting style on mana and spirit, while only breaking out the divinity for undead and similar foes.

Whatever the case though, I planned to use my divinity to clean up the rest of the village. The fact that I could use it to take out my foes all but silently made it my best option, and I wanted to try out my sword in a multitude of different ways for the experience it would provide me.

I temporarily withdrew my divinity from the sword, sent a signal to the villagers in hiding, and set off in search of the third skeleton.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Ahhh!”

From the sound of the scream in the distance behind me, it seemed that the third skeleton had unfortunately found the villagers before I’d found it.

Since they had been rather far away and I’d instructed them not to enter the village if at all possible I had thought they would be fine, but evidently I hadn’t been careful enough.

Still, from what I could see of the situation when I turned, they didn’t look to be in too much danger. While the villagers had been discovered, they were still a good distance away from the skeleton. They had enough time that they were making a clumsy attempt to nock their arrows and fire.

While they were doing that, I ran toward them and forced my way in between a villager and the monster. It looked like it had wandered in from the forest rather than coming from out of the village—I could tell because the only direction that wasn’t being blocked off by somebody was behind it, and none of the crude, person-sized wooden stakes covering the village had been destroyed.

My suspicions that the skeletons had a source nearby was all but confirmed. Wherever the origin was, it was outside of the village, not within it.

Making a mental note to investigate the direction the skeleton had come from after all of this, I channeled divinity into my sword and swung it.

Since I was striking from the front this time, the skeleton tried to fight back, slowly raising its rusty dagger—but there was no way that I was losing to a regular skeleton in speed. My horizontal cut went through the arm it had just raised as well as its clavicle, decapitating the monster. As expected, the parts of the skeleton my divinity-charged blade made contact with crumbled to ash immediately, and the effect spread across its entire body.

Yet again, all that was left behind was its magic crystal, which plopped to the floor. After picking it up, I turned to the villagers.

“Sorry I’m late,” I said.

The villagers stared at me blankly, only just having finished nocking their arrows.

“N-No, we let our guards down too,” Jiris said. “We’ll be sure to do better next time...”

“There’s no need to force yourself to do the impossible,” I said. “Your priority should be keeping an eye on your surroundings. Even if you don’t manage to defeat your foe, as long as you have your life, there’s always a next time. If you die though...that’s that.”

That hadn’t been strictly true for me—I’d died and still gotten a next time—but it took an extreme amount of bad luck to go through the kind of thing I did. Or good luck, maybe? It was difficult to pin it down as either, but in any case, barring very special exceptions, death was final.

Naturally, sometimes you had to put your life on the line when it mattered. But right now wasn’t that one of those times for these villagers. It was essential that they take their village back, yes, but I would handle that part. Their duty was to protect their own lives; backing me up came secondary to that.

If I could fully have my way, I would’ve refused their assistance wholesale, but that was where human emotions complicated things. I didn’t want to disrespect their desire to act. That didn’t mean, however, that would let them do anything reckless.

The slight remonstration in my words so soon after their encounter with a life-threatening situation must have had an effect, because Jiris’s shoulders slumped.

“We’ll take that to heart...” he said. “We’re truly sorry...”

◆◇◆◇◆

After ensuring the villagers had regained their calm, I had set off to find the next skeleton, but...

“Looks like I’m just going to have to go in there...”

In the center of the village there was an open clearing, likely used for their festivals and gatherings. The villagers and I were currently hiding behind a nearby house, peeking out at the five skeletons that were occupying the clearing. Three were regular skeletons—the ones mentioned in our older information—while the remaining two were the skeleton soldiers that I had spotted this morning.

Just like they had been earlier, the skeleton soldiers wielded a bow and a spear respectively, and they were warily scanning the surroundings. The regular skeletons surrounded them in a protective formation and were equally on alert, if a bit more sluggish in practice.

It wasn’t hard to see why they had formed up like that: it was because of the three skeletons that I had stealthily killed. I doubted that it was the buried bones or leftover ash that had tipped them off, since I had taken measures to ensure they wouldn’t be found easily, but it seemed that they had realized regardless.

They had probably done it the same way a human patrol rotation would have. If they had decided their routes beforehand, that would mean they knew roughly when the patrollers were expected to return—and then they hadn’t. What’s more, it hadn’t happened just one time, but multiple times. The obvious conclusion was that there was outside interference.

There was a large variance in how intelligent individual skeleton soldiers could be. While all of them had a certain degree of martial ability and enough mental faculties to issue commands, whether they were capable of making strategic decisions like setting patrol routes depended entirely on the skeleton soldier in question.

It seemed that the skeleton soldiers we were facing today were of the smarter variety. That tended to mean that their individual combat ability was high too. It was another mark on the “proof that Rentt really is plagued by bad luck” tally. The weaker type of skeleton soldier was much more common...

Still, grumbling about it wouldn’t change anything. And besides, facing stronger foes would make for good experience. Since my body could absorb my opponent’s strength, the stronger they were, the more improvement I would see.

The problem, of course, was the villagers... I’d have to take out the bow-wielding skeleton soldier as fast as I could. While the one with a spear and the skeletons with swords could always throw their weapons, even common skeletons understood enough to know that their ability to fight would suffer if they disarmed themselves, so it didn’t seem like an option they would take.

It was definitely the bow wielder that posed the biggest danger to the villagers. The problem was how to deal with it. In exact accordance with textbook combat strategy, the archer was in a rearguard position, and since they were in an open clearing, it would be hard to circle around and sneak up behind them.

I thought of just leaving the fight up to chance, but that carried too great a risk—not to me, but to the villagers.

Given the situation though, it seemed like the only option...at first glance. Since it had come to this, I figured that it was time to try a method that I was less familiar with, but thought could work.

The truth was, when I had channeled divinity into my sword earlier, I’d felt a slightly peculiar response—one that had given me an idea. As a test, I passed divinity through my sword again...and the feeling returned. I was pretty sure I could do this.

It would definitely be extremely draining though, so it would be an all-or-nothing maneuver. But that was fine—if I failed, I just had to be prepared to go back to the default plan of cutting my way through the skeletons as fast as I could.

I gave the signal to the villagers behind me that I was about to charge in. Once I saw them nod, I stepped out of hiding and ran straight for the group of skeletons.

◆◇◆◇◆

Their wariness hadn’t just been for show—the skeletons noticed me at once and turned my way, readying their weapons. The bow wielding skeleton soldier in particular was quick to nock an arrow and fire it at me. It was pretty skilled...but Lorraine’s spells were much faster.

Recently, I’d been asking her every now and then to fire point-blank Fotiá Volídas fireballs at me while I practiced dodging or parrying. Compared to that, this was nothing.

Measuring the right moment, I swung my sword when the arrow was directly in front of my face, deflecting it and snapping it in the process. I was at the point where I could parry spells now, to a certain extent. A regular arrow was...not exactly child’s play yet, but it was something that I could comfortably deal with.

I reached the group of skeletons before the bow wielding skeleton soldier could nock another arrow. They moved to bring their swords slashing down, but before that could happen, I channeled divinity into my own weapon and thrust it as hard as I could in the direction of the skeleton right in front of me.

My aim was true, and the blade sunk into its neck with such ease you’d think it was pulling me in. The skeleton’s head went flying.

Normally, I would have then pulled back my sword to make my next move. This time, however, I pushed the thrust yet further—toward the bow wielding skeleton soldier. I wanted to kill two foes in the same maneuver.

Yet the length of my sword wouldn’t be enough to close the distance. The skeleton soldier seemed to realize that, because it calmly continued on with nocking its next arrow. The scary thing about skeletons was that they never panicked or seemed to feel fear, even when things became really bad.

The most terrifying thing in the midst of a chaotic fight was losing your composure to the point where you couldn’t move as you usually would, but that couldn’t happen to skeletons. Sometimes a lack of skill or a disruption in the mana that maintained the connections in their joints made them drop their weapons or fall, and that made it appear like they were panicking...but on an inherent level, they simply didn’t possess the capability for such emotions.

Then again, that was just adventurer theory. For all we knew, they really were terrified on the inside. After all, I’d been capable of emotion when I had been a skeleton. It was entirely possible that other beings like me would be the same.

Still, I was fairly certain the skeleton soldier before me wasn’t one of those individuals.

The monster finished nocking its arrow, but a handful of seconds before it could fire it, the tip of my sword—which never should have been able to reach my foe—pierced through the skeleton soldier’s skull.

◆◇◆◇◆

It must have appeared strange to an onlooker. After all, the part of my sword that stabbed into the skeleton soldier wasn’t a physical blade. Despite that, the thrust was a fatal blow through the monster’s skull, causing its entire body to crumble to ash.

The explanation was simple. I had created a blade made of divinity.

This was the method I had wanted to try: extending the reach of my sword with divinity. I hadn’t even considered the possibility when I’d been testing the weapon out at Clope’s shop; I’d only conceived of it a short time ago. The moment I tried it out though, I knew that it was going to work.

Since I often saw Lorraine do something similar with mana, it hadn’t been a huge leap in logic to wonder if I could do the same with divinity. It really wasn’t that far-fetched of an idea—I had even seen Capitan, my teacher in spirit techniques, achieve a similar effect with spirit back in Hathara.

With divinity, it had been as simple as testing it out to see if it worked—and it had.

I wasn’t at the point where I could do it with spirit yet, since I couldn’t manipulate the shape of that energy as freely, but now that I was capable of doing it with mana and divinity, maybe it was just a matter of time before I got the hang of it and completed the trio.

It would be extremely difficult—since spirit used a person’s inner life energy as a foundation, just trying to separate it from your body was hard enough. But I figured it was worth putting in the effort. I’d have to set aside time sooner or later to practice it.

Maybe at a time like this, it would be a good idea to travel to Hathara and ask Capitan himself. He actually could do it, so he’d probably be a great help.

Even as those thoughts ran through my mind, my body didn’t stop. After confirming that I had taken out a skeleton and skeleton soldier, I decided to pull back a little...which didn’t stop me from taking a swing at a skeleton that was still within the reach of my sword as I backed off.

Using divinity was draining, and unfortunately, I was already almost out, so I had switched to spirit for my strike. However, that was still more than enough against a regular skeleton. After all, using spirit had even given the old human me enough strength to smash through a skeleton’s skull.

Using old techniques like that was nice. They had a certain reliability to them.

Incidentally, I hadn’t struck the head this time, but the chest. There wasn’t a problem with that though, because that was where this skeleton’s magic crystal was, tucked away as though it were a heart. A skeleton’s magic crystal wasn’t always in its head.

I recalled Lorraine mentioning once how animal-type monsters generally had theirs in the same places because they possessed flesh, and the location of their internal organs was fixed to a certain degree. However, that restriction didn’t apply to skeletons—since they didn’t have any internal organs in the first place, it had been her conjecture that their magic crystals could be anywhere they had open space.

It was true, though, that it was most often in the head for them. Maybe even monsters had an instinct—or perhaps just a general sense—that their most important organs should be placed in the sturdiest parts of their bodies.

But of course, that was all just conjecture.

As the skeleton fell apart in front of me, I stepped back to create more space—but the last skeleton and spear-wielding skeleton soldier advanced, closing in on me. The former aside, the latter’s speed wasn’t half bad.

However, as if to deter them from their path, a pair of arrows—far from the most destructive of weapons—flew in from the side. But despite the fact that they met their mark and struck the skeleton’s head, they simply bounced off with a clang, as though they’d collided with a metal shield.

That didn’t mean they’d done no damage, however: they’d left chips in the bone. Jiris hadn’t been boasting when he’d said their village had good hunters.

The skeleton seemed to recognize that it had been harmed. Its head spun with a rattle-clack in the direction the arrow had been fired from—that is, the direction where the group of villagers were standing, bows at the ready. It glared at them with its terrifying empty eye sockets and changed course, preparing to head straight for them at a run.

It wasn’t difficult to figure out that it intended to take the villagers out first. It wasn’t the most tactical of decisions, honestly—they didn’t represent much offensive capability at all. As the one who could kill skeletons in a single blow, I was the greater danger.

The skeleton soldier, on the other hand, didn’t need to have been hit by an arrow to understand that the villagers were a lesser threat compared to me. It kept its gaze fixed on me, not tearing it away for a moment, and even gestured for the skeleton to turn back.

However, the skeleton’s decision-making ability was poor. It ignored the order and turned its back to me.

I wasn’t about to let such a large opening pass by, of course. I immediately dashed forward and brought my sword down on the skeleton’s defenseless back, cleaving it in two. The monster’s movements froze as though it was unable to comprehend what had happened. Finally, it twitched its head in my direction—but that was all it could manage before its body collapsed into a jumble of bones.

In the meantime, the skeleton soldier had advanced on me. It tried until the very end to assist the skeleton, but after the lesser monster crumbled in a single blow, the skeleton soldier did an about-face, putting some distance between us.

I doubted that the skeleton soldier had attempted to help the skeleton out of any kind of affection or camaraderie; it had probably just wanted to avoid a reduction in fighting strength. Since it had failed, though, it was now going to come down to single combat, which was why it had fallen back.

The skeleton soldier was exceedingly composed. I wondered if it had been a warrior of some skill in its previous life. There were many reasons why skeletons came to be, but a common one was the bones of a creature that had possessed a higher-than-average amount of mana when it was alive gaining new life somehow as an undead. That was why it was dangerous to leave the bodies of adventurers without a burial, why the guild kept accurate life-and-death records, and why they collected the licenses of dead adventurers and rewarded those who found them.

A prime example was when a person of considerable strength died holding on to a profound grudge or regret. It wasn’t unheard of for people like that to turn into undead of formidable strength.

The idea that I was one of those types crossed my mind on occasion, but those who were reborn as undead didn’t retain their memories of their previous lives—they became new existences entirely.

I wondered what, exactly, I really was. The answer to that question forever escaped me no matter how much thought I put into it. All I could do was keep battling the monsters before me, and one day return to being human...

If the skeleton soldier I was facing had a consciousness like I did, maybe I could have asked it for advice. Whether that was the case or not, though, it was still a monster that preyed on people.

Without a shred of mercy, I enhanced my strength with spirit and ran at the skeleton soldier—the last monster in this village. I threw myself at it with all of my remaining strength, and, unable to react to my slash, it could do nothing as I severed its head from its body.