Chapter 17. Mercenary (3)
When I absorbed the purple energy from the dead Dark Elf boss, the whole world had turned red for an instant.
That red energy settled inside me.
Back then, I hadn't known what it was.
It had only felt ominous.
But now I thought I understood.
Death had clearly told me.
[The deaths you harvested are yours.]
Exactly 7,282,998,103 deaths.
That was what Death had given me.
That must have been why the Special Division Hunters feared me.
To them, my presence probably felt exactly like what they called me.
The Massacre.
And when I raised my killing intent and the Dark Elves all collapsed...
That must have been because of this red power too.
Then...
It should work again.
“Chwik?”
Red light slowly began flowing out from my body.
In an instant, the entire world was drowned in crimson.
“CHWEEEEEEK!”
The Orcs attacking the party suddenly froze and screamed.
Then...
Thud. Thud.
Every single one collapsed.
Just like the Dark Elves.
SPURT!
I picked up the sword I'd thrown earlier and began cutting the fallen Orcs' throats one by one.
I could simply stab their hearts.
But this was a habit I couldn't break.
Slice.
Even though these creatures wouldn't come back as zombies.
Slice.
Eventually, every Orc except one had lost its head.
The only one remaining was...
“Ch-Chwik... chwiiiik...”
The special-looking Orc.
It stood completely frozen.
Now I could see it clearly.
The red light pouring from me was wrapped around the creature like chains.
“Chwiiiik...”
The Orc's terrified eyes trembled violently.
I...
Slice.
...removed its head too.
At last, every Orc was dead.
Then I turned around.
“Ah.”
Every member of the party had collapsed unconscious.
So it affects allies too.
Maybe if I became more skilled with it, I could control the range.
I pulled the red light back into my body.
It felt strange.
Almost as though I'd grown a new arm.
As the red light slowly returned to me, the Orc corpses began drying out.
As if something had harvested them.
“Hey! Hey! You awake?”
Choi Yoon-seo slowly opened his eyes at the sound of a party member's voice.
“Haaah!”
He remembered the mine collapsing.
The Orc ambush.
The Orc Warrior that had been too powerful for them to handle.
And finally...
“Gasp!”
The porter.
That ridiculous dream where the porter suddenly appeared and slaughtered the Orcs.
“A dream! It was a dream!”
Choi Yoon-seo shouted in relief.
The fact that he was alive proved it.
It had been a horrible nightmare.
A C-Rank Gate suddenly producing an Orc Warrior was already bad enough.
But being saved by that irritating porter?
Impossible.
“What dream?! Wake up!”
“Huh?”
“If you're awake, get down already.”
Choi Yoon-seo realized he was lying on a party member's back.
He stepped onto the ground.
“Urgh!”
Pain exploded throughout his body.
My body hurts?
Then...
“Don't tell me... it wasn't a dream?”
“Stop talking nonsense!”
Kim Yu-bin finally snapped at him.
Only then did Choi Yoon-seo look around properly.
The party members were in terrible condition.
And...
“H-Hyung-sik?”
Their companion Jo Hyung-sik was covered in blood pouring from his head.
“Hyung-sik!”
“He's alive.”
“Haaah... haaah...”
Choi Yoon-seo gasped.
“But we need to hurry.”
“How... If that wasn't a dream, how are we alive?”
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon saved us.”
Kim Si-hyeon.
The porter's name.
“The porter?!”
“Did you call me?”
“Haaah!”
Kim Si-hyeon suddenly appeared beside him.
Choi Yoon-seo nearly jumped out of his skin.
Every party member was watching Kim Si-hyeon carefully.
“There are Orcs ahead. Wait here.”
Leaving the newly awakened Choi Yoon-seo behind, Kim Si-hyeon walked alone into the dark cave.
“What the hell happened...”
“Exactly what I said. Hunter Kim Si-hyeon saved us. If it weren't for him... we'd all be dead.”
“That porter... really...?”
The moment Kim Si-hyeon disappeared from sight...
“Haah.”
The party members collapsed and released rough breaths.
“What the hell is that person?”
“I don't know.”
“My legs are still trembling. Honestly, I don't even remember how we got this far.”
The party was just as confused as Choi Yoon-seo.
“...Choi Yoon-seo.”
Kim Yu-bin looked at him.
“What the hell did you bring with us...?”
What did she mean, what had he brought?
He had simply hired a confused D-Rank porter from a mercenary office.
A rookie who didn't even know what contribution-based distribution meant.
“I-I fainted too, so I didn't see everything properly. But that was killing intent, right? How powerful does killing intent have to be to completely freeze an Orc Warrior? It felt like... time itself had stopped.”
“Did you see the dead Orcs? I woke up and saw them. Every single one had its neck...”
Then...
“Gasp!”
Choi Yoon-seo remembered.
Since he was close to B-Rank, he had remained conscious slightly longer than the others.
Just before the overwhelming pressure knocked him unconscious, he'd seen it.
Kim Si-hyeon slowly walking among the Orcs and cutting off their heads.
Shake. Shake.
Choi Yoon-seo began trembling.
“Killing intent that strong... doesn't belong to an ordinary Hunter.”
Hunters capable of using killing intent were rare.
Usually, only A-Rank Hunters or above could release even a little.
And even then, it was something they gained only after taking countless lives.
“Yoon-seo, you should know. How much killing would someone need to have done to possess killing intent like that?”
“...”
Choi Yoon-seo had once belonged to the Baeksu Guild, one of the country's top ten Guilds.
