NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31: (2)
To maintain the speed of his leveling up in the future, he needed to think of ways to hunt as many monsters as possible without attracting too much attention.
“Darn it… I can’t even hunt monsters as I please.”
“Haah…”
An absurd chuckle escaped Kaiyan at this ridiculous situation. To think he had to be cautious while hunting monsters on the battlefield.
If only he hadn’t bought the aura manual at the store. If he hadn’t, Kaiyan might have become a knight to learn aura.
‘…No, if I had done that, it would have taken longer for me to become as strong as I wanted. I wouldn’t have achieved my goal of surpassing knights before the war ended.’
“Kiyaaak! It’s a lizardman!”
“That creature knows how to use weapons, so its attack range is quite long! Be careful!”
‘Lizardman?’
Following the soldiers’ shouts, Kaiyan saw a monster with scaly skin and a slender spear in the place they were pointing.
“Captain, what should we do? Should we engage it first?”
“…Perfect. I’ll take care of that guy. The rest of you, handle the other monsters for a moment.”
Appearing before me without hesitation in this frustrating situation where there were no clear answers.
‘And it’s just a lizardman.’
According to Uncle Jeff, lizardmen were medium-sized monsters that primarily inhabited swamps.
But honestly, Kaiyan didn’t understand why they were considered medium-sized monsters. They were only slightly bigger than orcs, and they didn’t have any special abilities.
‘People say things are different in the swamp, but… I’ve never seen it for myself.’
What was certain was that they were far from being a formidable opponent on flat terrain.
“Kiyaahh!”
“Calm down. I’ll kill you soon enough.”
Swoosh!
The lizardman swung the long spear it had picked up from somewhere, as if telling him not to underestimate it.
Despite easily evading its attacks, the lizardman seemed bewildered and swung its spear blindly.
Whoom!
Using his peripheral vision, Kaiyan calmly avoided its attacks by slightly retreating to the right.
‘Monster attacks are so straightforward. It doesn’t really help with swordsmanship training.’
“Kiyaah? Kiyaaah!”
Perhaps because Kaiyan was evading its attacks too easily, the lizardman swung its spear recklessly, appearing somewhat confused.
Whack!
The creature’s attacks amounted to three in total.
“…A spear isn’t swung like that.”
Stepping back, crouching forward, and taking a step forward, Kaiyan avoided all of the lizardman’s spear attacks and came to a stop within its close range.
“Penetrating Stab!”
Swish!
The creature writhed in pain, it collapsed to the ground as if its life had left its body. Kaiyan pulled his sword out of its heart and took a moment to survey the battlefield. The soldiers who had cleared the surrounding monsters approached him.
“Captain, the area is clear! What should we do now?”
There were 90 people remaining, excluding Kaiyan.
These were the soldiers who had been with him since the first day of in the 7th Special Unit.
‘It’s a little unfortunate.’
From what he remembered, there were more than 100 of them initially, but now he could only see 90.
That meant the rest had either been injured or killed by the monsters.
“Well… I guess it’s time to join the main unit.”
**** ****
“Kaiyan!”
“Tell me honestly, did you secretly eat something good?”
When they joined the main unit with the soldiers, Uncle Jeff and Uncle Max greeted Kaiyan warmly. In the past, they would have checked each other for injuries, but seeing them joking around, it seemed like both of them had changed a lot. Or maybe they just came to trust Kaiyan too much.
“Yes, Uncle Max, how did you know I secretly ate something good?”
“This guy!”
And most of all, the one who had changed the most was Kaiyan.
A gloomy expression and a face filled with venom. That was how he looked when he wandered through the outskirts.
In contrast, now he had an ordinary face of a person who occasionally smiled. Of course, the venom directed towards monsters hadn’t disappeared. He simply hid it internally without showing it on the outside.
“Centurions! Both of you, come here. Tarien-nim is calling.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
When they heard that Tarien called Kaiyan and Uncle Jeff, their bodies began to tremble, and their hearts started beating rapidly.
If Tarien called Kaiyan, it was probably to give orders for the final assault, if not 100 percent, then at least 99 percent.
‘He’ll catch the ones he couldn’t catch yesterday.’
Following the subordinate knight, Kaiyan headed towards Tarien. With an imposing expression, Tarien looked down at them from his horse.
“Tarien-nim, I brought them.”
“Good, we are going…”
‘Yes, tell us to advance to the center.’
“We’re retreating.”
“Understood… Excuse me?”
Unexpected words popped out of Tarien’s mouth, which was insane considering his usual behavior.
Unknowingly, Kaiyan stared at Tarien, wondering if he had lost his mind.
But it seemed like Tarien had no intention of retracting his words as he issued an order to the subordinate knight.
“Subordinate, have the soldiers retreat first.”
“Yes! The 7th special unit will return to the barracks!”
Without a chance to say anything, the subordinate knight spoke to the soldiers, and the bewildered soldiers quickly smiled and headed back to headquarters.
“Why the sudden retreat?”
“Yeah, it’s a good thing, but… Haha!”
“Let’s go, everyone! We have higher achievements than other units, so even if we rest enough, no one can complain!”
‘Right… Entering the center was only a good thing for Tarien and me. But why?’
It would be understandable if it was someone else, but why did Tarien give such a foolish order?
“Haah….”
“Kaiyan. And Jeff, please stay here for a moment.”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
I thought of giving up and following the soldiers, but the subordinate knight stopped me and Uncle Jeff.
After a while, when the soldiers had left, Kaiyan, Uncle Jeff, and Tarien walked towards each other. Tarien spoke, looking at Kaiyan with a smirk.
“Hmm… Curious why I didn’t go to the center?”
‘I really want to… punch him.’
That arrogant expression and the tone that seemed to mock him, whether to let him know or not.
He felt an urge to punch that arrogant expression right now.
“Yes. I’m curious.”
But contrary to his thoughts, he asked with the most curious expression he could muster.
‘it’s my fault… it’s because I’m a commoner.’
His rank had to rise to that of a noble like Tarien or become as strong as an elite unit using the player system. Until then, he had no choice but to accommodate himself to Tarien’s whims.
Whether Tarien was pleased with his answer or not, he smiled and continued.
“Hehe! This is partly thanks to you, Kaiyan. Thanks to your accomplishments in slaying the Orc Lord, my unit was selected!”
“Yes?”
What on earth did he mean by it being thanks to him? And why was he feeling uneasy about his smile?
“We’re going on a break now and tonight!”
Gulp. He couldn’t predict at all what words would come out of Tarien’s mouth.
“We’re going to Panielun.”
“….”
And Tarien didn’t disappoint that expectation.