Chapter 49

Chapter 49. The First Hero (43)

Demons stood in a circle.

At the center were numerous Wild Pigs, foaming at the mouth and violently shaking their heads.

Every Wild Pig trapped inside the circle had swallowed a Fear Mana Stone.

Surprisingly, these were Wild Pigs that had resisted the demons' commands.

"You gathered only the Wild Pigs that resisted four times, right?"

"Yes, Commander."

"You really have to do it four times before you get any useful ones, don't you think?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Don't you have anything to say besides 'Yes, Commander'?"

"They'll fight well once they become demonic beasts."

Legion Commander Lee Seolhwa was dissatisfied with the demon's answer.

She had driven her six tails into the ground, using them like a chair.

From that position, she looked toward another demon.

"What's happening at Tolkan Village?"

"They're killing every Wild Pig we send."

"That's because you keep sending them in without any strategy."

"Ah!"

One of Seolhwa's six tails reacted to the demon's foolish response.

Slash!

The demons standing nearby were sliced in half and collapsed.

"That's better. Much quieter now."

Drip. Drip.

Blood dripped from the tail that had cut the demons apart.

A spearhead was attached to its tip.

Swish. Swish.

Seolhwa shook the blood from her tail before driving it back into the ground.

"But, Legion Commander Seolhwa..."

"Huh? Go ahead."

Seolhwa hadn't killed everyone.

Some demons had recognized the incoming attack and dodged in advance.

If she'd truly wanted to kill them all, she could have.

But she'd deliberately swung her tail in a way that gave them a chance to escape.

Weak demons die.

Idiots who see an attack coming and still fail to dodge deserve to die.

Those who move instinctively survive.

Demons who can act on instinct are worth keeping alive.

Seolhwa considered instinctive movement extremely important.

Whoosh!

Her tail moved again without warning.

The demon who'd spoken dodged it before continuing.

"Why does it have to be four times?"

"Oh, my tail moved on its own again."

Seolhwa looked at him.

"Right. Why four times?"

Why had she decided on four?

She tried to remember.

But searching her memory felt like wandering through complete darkness.

She frowned.

One of the tails planted in the ground shot upward.

"Damn it! Why would you ask me something like that?!"

"Don't you know she attacks everything around her whenever she has to think about something complicated?!"

"Ah! All the new demons are dead! How long is it going to take us to recruit replacements?!"

That was the end of the conversation.

Every demon still standing nearby was sliced apart by Seolhwa's tails.

Even after everything became quiet, her tails continued moving wildly.

They gouged the ground, struck the corpses, and tore the already-dead demons apart again.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! WHOOOOSH!

The tails whipped through the air indiscriminately.

Gradually, they lost momentum.

Eventually, they stopped.

"We do it four times because that's what we're supposed to do. Does there need to be some deeper meaning?"

Seolhwa looked around.

"Huh? Everyone's dead."

Without realizing it, she'd been gripping both of her horns.

She released them and planted all six tails into the ground again, forming a chair.

"Squeeeal! SQUEEEAL!"

Most of the Wild Pigs had lost much of the life in their eyes.

But one of them suddenly regained its focus.

It had successfully resisted the fourth Fear Mana Stone.

It immediately charged toward an opening.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

A demon kicked it in the side.

The Wild Pig rolled over.

"Squeal!"

The demon planted a foot on its side.

The Wild Pig struggled to escape, but all it could do was thrash beneath the demon's foot.

"If you want to live, eat it."

"SQUEEEAL! SQUEEEAL!"

The Wild Pig couldn't understand human speech.

Yet it shook its head so violently that it almost seemed to understand the demon's words.

It desperately tried to escape.

Every time the Wild Pig regained its senses, the demons had forcibly pried open its mouth and fed it another Fear Mana Stone.

Once it swallowed the stone, it had to struggle against the uncontrollable urge to rush toward Tolkan Village.

Going there meant certain death.

How could it possibly obey?

It had resisted the demons' commands again and again.

Now it saw the source of all its suffering lying directly in front of it.

The demon had thrown another Fear Mana Stone onto the ground.

"Squeal?"

"Eat it yourself."

The demon removed its foot.

The Wild Pig immediately tried to escape.

But the demon kicked it again.

It rolled across the ground.

The demon stepped on it once more.

When the Wild Pig finally became too exhausted to struggle, the demon placed the Fear Mana Stone in front of its eyes again.

"SQUEEEEEAL! SQUEEEEEEEEEAL!"

The Wild Pig cried out with desperate fury.

The demon was about to step on it again.

Then it stopped.

The Wild Pig had swallowed the Fear Mana Stone of its own accord.

"You should've done that sooner."

Fear Mana Stones had several different uses.

First, someone who was forced to swallow a Fear Mana Stone became subject to the control of the person who had administered it.

Second, someone who swallowed a Fear Mana Stone voluntarily could die while writhing in terrible pain.

But the demons hadn't spent all this time trying to make the Wild Pig voluntarily swallow the stone simply to kill it.

The Wild Pig's body began swelling.

Two horns emerged, one on each side of its head.

"Huh? Two horns?"

"SQUEEEEEEEEEAL!"

There was a third effect.

A monster that voluntarily swallowed a Fear Mana Stone and endured the resulting pain would become a demonic beast.

The Wild Pig, now reborn as a demonic beast, released a roar so powerful that it seemed to shake the sky.

Then it charged at the demon that had tormented it.

"Uwaaaah!"

The demon screamed and flailed its arms.

A moment later, the enormous Wild Pig's foot crushed it.

CRUNCH!

The demonic Wild Pig was about to release a victorious roar.

Then its body began trembling.

"You're a demonic beast now. You should know how to sense demonic energy."

Streams of purple mana poured outward.

Under the pressure of Seolhwa's demonic energy, the Wild Pig flattened itself against the ground.

"Tell the Wild Pigs to eat the Fear Mana Stones."

Seolhwa took out a Fear Mana Stone and pretended to put it in her mouth.

Becoming a demonic beast didn't automatically mean the Wild Pig could understand the demons' language.

"SQUEEAL!"

"Quietly."

Seolhwa gently surrounded it with demonic energy.

The demonic Wild Pig nodded as though it understood.

"Squeeeal..."

Despite its enormous body, it began communicating with the other Wild Pigs in a surprisingly quiet voice.

The Wild Pigs that had been resisting the demons' commands started swallowing the Fear Mana Stones.

Kang Tae-sik and the Rice Ball Guild members were stationed on the palisade surrounding Tolkan Village.

For some strange reason, Wild Pigs kept arriving without interruption.

But they weren't particularly threatening to Tae-sik and the other guild members.

They treated the attacks as opportunities to practice their vertical sword strikes.

After some time, one of the guild members apparently grew tired of the situation.

"Why are we the only ones standing on the walls killing Wild Pigs?!"

He turned toward Tae-sik.

"Kang Tae-sik, explain! Why us?!"

"Hey! Why are you suddenly giving me a hard time?"

"If I don't complain to you, who am I supposed to complain to?"

"Find the reason in yourself! In yourself!"

"Because I followed Kang Tae-sik. Because I believe in Kang Tae-sik. Because Kang Tae-sik is so handsome and impressive."

Tae-sik nodded approvingly.

"Just keep repeating that last one."

"Kang Tae-sik is incredibly handsome! Amazing! So unbelievably impressive that even the way he poops is impressive!"

"Hey! Why did you have to make it disgusting by bringing up poop?!"

Tae-sik and the guild member continued exchanging ridiculous remarks while killing Wild Pigs.

The sixth attack.

The seventh.

The eighth.

It was as if the Wild Pigs had decided to overwhelm the village today.

"Hey. When do you think it'll come?"

"What do you mean, Kang Tae-sik, whose runny nose is also incredibly impressive?"

"Stop that already!"

Tae-sik frowned.

"I'm talking about the Wild Pig that roared loudly enough to shake the sky. It's been hours, but we still haven't seen it."

"Isn't that a good thing? Maybe it attacked the Fossick Kingdom instead."

"Haa... Can you really say that while we're being attacked by this many Wild Pigs?"

The guild member looked completely confused.

He clearly had no idea what Tae-sik was trying to say.

Taylor stepped between them.

"Fortunately, we prepared exactly as Seongchan instructed."

He bowed slightly.

"We'll withdraw now."

"Huh? Why are you leaving?"

"Stay quiet if you don't understand."

Tae-sik looked toward Taylor.

"We'll hold them back as long as possible. We won't let the villagers suffer if we can help it."

"Thank you."

The other guild member blinked.

"Kang Tae-sik, what are you talking about?"

"Haa... Didn't I tell you to be quiet?"

Tae-sik pointed beyond the walls.

"Something's coming. You'll understand when you see it!"

The guild member continued killing Wild Pigs despite his confusion.

Before long, he understood exactly what Tae-sik had been worried about.

"SQUEEEEEAL!"

A Wild Pig with a single horn appeared.

It was on a completely different scale from ordinary Wild Pigs.

The demonic Wild Pig was so enormous that the palisade looked almost adorable beside it.

"How is something like that possible?!"

The guild member stared in disbelief.

"The wall barely reaches its legs!"

"Shut up! It's charging, so cut it down and prepare for the impact!"

"Understood! Everyone heard that, right?"

"Everyone except you understood it already!"

The guild members remained relatively calm.

A single demonic Wild Pig was still something they could handle with the people stationed here.

"It's coming!"

Tae-sik and the Rice Ball Guild members swung their aura-covered swords downward simultaneously.

The demonic Wild Pig died before it could properly use its strength.

But its enormous body continued forward and smashed into the palisade.

BOOOOM!

As the wooden wall broke apart, Tae-sik and the guild members stepped onto the dead beast's body and jumped aside.

The enormous Wild Pig plunged into the pit they'd dug in advance.

THUUUD!

The creature disappeared into the hole.

Not even a trace of it remained visible from above.

"Looks like all that digging was worth it."

"You. Put that demonic Wild Pig into your inventory and move it to the broken section of the palisade."

"Then couldn't we have put it in our inventories as soon as we killed it?"

The guild member asked the question with complete innocence.

The moment he finished speaking, he looked as though he'd just come up with an excellent idea.

Tae-sik became irritated.

"You can't put a monster into your inventory until thirty seconds after it dies! Go! More Wild Pigs and demonic Wild Pigs are coming!"

The attacks on Tolkan Village now included demonic Wild Pigs alongside the ordinary ones.

The guild member Tae-sik had singled out tried to put the demonic Wild Pig into his inventory.

It didn't work.

THUUUD!

Meanwhile, another demonic Wild Pig fell into the pit.

"What are you doing?!"

"I think I've exceeded my inventory capacity!"

Every hero possessed an inventory.

But the weight and number of items it could hold depended on the hero's abilities.

"Anyone with plenty of free inventory space, move those demonic Wild Pigs and use their bodies to defend the broken wall!"

"Understood!"

Several guild members immediately followed Tae-sik's orders.

They stored the dead demonic Wild Pigs that had fallen into the pit and moved them into position.

Using the corpses as a defensive barrier proved extremely effective.

Ordinary Wild Pigs couldn't attack easily.

When living demonic Wild Pigs tried to use their horns to push the dead ones aside, the guild members killed them with their swords.

With the situation temporarily under control, Taylor approached Tae-sik.

His face was flushed with excitement.

"Everything's much easier thanks to Seongchan."

"Right. I don't know how he knew we needed to dig that pit."

Tae-sik looked at its enormous size.

"But isn't it a little too big?"

"Seongchan specifically told us to dig it this large."

"Really?"

Taylor's answer made Tae-sik uneasy.

"SQUEEEEEEEEEAL!"

That uneasiness immediately became reality.

A demonic Wild Pig appeared.

It was much larger than the single-horned demonic Wild Pigs they'd fought until now.

And it had two horns.

The boss demonic Wild Pig began running the instant it came into view, as though it could barely contain its excitement.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

As the boss demonic Wild Pig charged, the ground shook.

Even the corpses of the dead demonic Wild Pigs began bouncing from the vibrations.

"Aaaaaah!"

"Uwaaaaah!"

People lost their balance and fell.

Their bodies were thrown from side to side.

Stones and debris scraped their skin, drawing blood and leaving bruises.

"Stop it! Stop that thing!"

Tae-sik hurried into the boss demonic Wild Pig's path.

The guild members followed him.

Gulp.

The moment Tae-sik stood face-to-face with the enormous creature, regret flooded him.

Can we kill it?

If he didn't have to worry about the villagers, he probably could.

But that wasn't an option.

I've spent too long avoiding situations like this.

Guild Master Park Seokdu had prevented the guild from helping villages outside the Terk Kingdom's capital.

And Tae-sik had never stood up against him.

Was he going to run away now too?

He couldn't.

"Put everything you've got into killing it!"

"Uwaaaaaah!"

United in purpose, Tae-sik and the guild members swung their aura-covered swords at the boss demonic Wild Pig's hide.

The instant his blade made contact, Tae-sik realized something.

Why is its hide so tough?

One strike won't even hurt it properly.

The aura-covered sword failed to penetrate.

It barely left a shallow scratch.

"SQUEEEEAL!"

The boss demonic Wild Pig charged deeper into Tolkan Village.

It headed straight toward the area where the most people were gathered.

Then it fell into the pit.

"SQUEEAL! SQUEEAL!"

The creature gathered strength in its legs.

It jumped straight out.

As it rose into the air, it looked down.

Everyone below was staring in disbelief.

The jumping power of the mountain-sized boss demonic Wild Pig had surpassed every expectation.

"SQUEEEEAL! SQUEAL!"

The creature was delighted by the prospect of devouring the people beneath it.

Because it was looking down, it failed to notice someone flying toward it.

"Silnyang, let's go!"

"KYAOOOO!"

Riding Silnyang's wind at full speed, Na-ye drove her Wind Lancer straight through the boss demonic Wild Pig's stomach.

The attack pierced its body and emerged from the other side.

THUUUD.

The enormous creature went limp and fell.

Na-ye stepped onto its stomach as it crashed to the ground, then descended safely.

She looked at the enemy standing before her.

"Well, if it isn't Lee Na-ye."

Legion Commander Lee Seolhwa smiled.

"You left Terk Castle undefended to come all the way here? How convenient."

Na-ye looked directly at her.

"You're right. Just as Seongchan said, there's someone I truly want to defeat standing right in front of me."

She pulled a round dish wrapped in silver foil from her inventory.