Logging out is too Hard
Episode 3
[croak.......]
A low growl comes from the front of the cave.
It was a tense moment, but Raoul breathed a sigh of relief when he heard it.
"Thank goodness, it's a grey wolf."
'......Do you see that?'
Woojin looked at the mouth of the cave he was staring into, but saw nothing.
Even though he couldn't see it, he still knew what a grey wolf was.
One of the lower-level demons that inhabited the Dark Forest, the beginner's area in front of Moretti Village.
It was a lower level demon than a goblin, and along with the slime, it was the prey of beginners.
"......I'll help too."
I've killed a few in-game.
"You stay here for now. It's good to thin the herd a bit before we go in."
But maybe it was nerves.
Raoul patted Woojin on the shoulder as he drew his hip-holster sword.
Then he drew a dagger from his leather strap, pointing it diagonally across his chest.
Shuck-.
Without hesitation, he threw the dagger,
[Kegeng-!!!]
A scream erupted.
'Throwing?'
Woojin looked at him in surprise.
Shu-shu-!!!
Meanwhile, Raoul threw two more sacks,
Kang-.
One of them missed and hit the cave wall, but the other one landed right in the wolf's forehead.
'So... it's like the game, but different.'
In [Evil Tale], the sword-wielding class is the warrior.
Throwing was a rogue skill, and rogues couldn't equip the long sword Raoul is using now.
Seeing that in-game settings like class restrictions didn't apply, Woojin felt that this place was real once again.
"Five of them. You don't mind if I ask for one, do you?"
As he finished speaking, he drew his sword and swung it at the wolf.
"Whoop-!!"
Woojin nervously caught the sword.
Boom......!!!
Without taking his eyes off the wolf, he concentrated and slashed the sword from top to bottom with all his might.
Puck-!!!
As the wolf leisurely stepped back, Woojin's sword struck the ground with a heavy thud.
'Heavy.'
The moment he drew his sword from its scabbard, he couldn't help but panic.
''It's said that [Evil Tale] maximised realism, but if you think about it, there were a lot of things that were modified for the player's convenience.
Throbbing-.
He swung the sword a few times, and his wrist was already sore.
'......cough!!'
I've never felt fatigue in a game before.
If the game was like this, I'd be stretched out before I could hunt.
"Omg..... Omg....."
A sword that was lightly held in one hand in the game suddenly felt heavy.
Even with a death penalty, it doesn't compare to a real fight where your life is on the line.
The extreme tension.
It was weighing down his entire body.
"Hoop."
Woojin let out a short harsh breath, and the wolf slowly moved to the side, as if it was trying to take advantage of his weakness.
Bam-! Kwagagangang--!
Raoul was fighting skilfully against the wolves.
Kwajik-!
His sword slammed into the nape of the wolf's neck.
Woojin was distracted by his flowing swordplay.
[Kaang-!!!]
It was a mistake.
The wolf hadn't missed the opening.
"Ugh!"
Woojin quickly raised his sword, but at that moment, the wolf twisted his body and bit his shoulder.
"Kaaaagh---!!!"
The wolf's teeth dug into his flesh.
Woojin screamed and twisted his body in agony.
[Crrrr.......]
The wolf leapt down, closing the distance between them.
Red blood dripped from between its bared teeth.
"Hmph...... hmph......."
Holding his throbbing shoulder, Woojin pointed his sword at the creature, his face pale.
The tip of the sword wobbled like an aspens tremor.
This place is real.
This pain was proving to him that where he was now was not a game, but the real world.
'Really...... I'm in the otherworld.'
It was pointless to doubt.
The blood running down his arm was real, and the only thing that mattered was that there was still a demon in front of him that wanted his life.
Paat-!
The wolf was not about to leave its exhausted prey alone.
"Aaaaahhh!!!"
Woojin threw himself at the charging creature.
Rolling on the ground, he narrowly avoided the wolf's attack and slashed at it.
[Ka-ling-!!!]
However, as if to mock his attack, the wolf let out a strange roar and recoiled backwards with a bow.
Puck-.
At that moment, Woojin slid down and grabbed the wolf's leg.
Fuuk-!
The sword that had been stabbed into the wolf's lower belly pierced through its side.
The wolf's intestines spilled out along with blood onto Woojin's face, which was under its belly.
"oof......!!!"
Woojin hurriedly pushed the wolf's corpse away and stood up.
"oof......! oof!"
The living entrails weren't as fishy as he'd expected, but the residual warmth seemed to make his stomach twist.
"......hhhhhh."
It was a gruesome sight, his vomit mingling with the spilled blood and guts, but the wolf opened its mouth at him as if it hadn't been cut off from breathing.
A spatula-.
At that moment, a flash of silver flashed in front of Woojin's eyes.
"Don't let your guard down. It may be lowly, but it's a demon, and its life force is tenacious."
The snarling wolf's head was severed cleanly and fell to the ground.
"Go, thank you."
The grey wolf was such a vicious monster.
Woojin looked at Raoul with a fed up expression and nodded.
'Huh?'
It was then.
Woojin's eyes caught sight of Raoul's sword.
The flash that had cut off the wolf's head a moment ago.
It wasn't an illusion.
A pale light surrounded Raoul's blade.
"Could it be...... an Auror blade?"
"Alas. It's nothing."
Raoul said as if it was no big deal, but Woojin was stunned.
'If it's an Auror Blade, it's the very last skill in the Warrior 5th skill tree.'
"......You're a great man."
"C'mon, I'm a rank 1 hunter."
As if he didn't hate Woojin's genuine surprise, Raoul showed him the small black feather ornament around his waist.
'So, I thought it was a game-like world...... but I didn't think to use my skills because I was frozen in front of a monster.'
Although he was only level 10, he also had two skills, [Strike] and [Dash].
'But.......'
How does he use them?
Can I even use them in the first place?
It wasn't an easy world where you could just register a skill and perform the activation motion.
'Only in games do you automatically learn skills as you level up, but.......'
This was real life.
Woojin stared at Raoul.
Fuuk-.
At that moment, Raoul slashed the wolf's stomach with the dagger he was holding.
Zzzzzzzzzz.......
"You're lucky."
Raoul pulled something out of the wolf's stomach and showed it to him.
"What is this?"
A small, red, stone-like piece.
"A rune."
"A rune?"
"It's the lowest grade, but it's useful. Red runes are supposed to increase strength."
The carving glowed with an unrecognisable symbol.
'It's real.'
Woojin stared at the rune in amazement.
It was unbelievable.
'How could the rune...... come from a grey wolf?'
Runes do exist in [Evil Tale].
You can get them as a reward for hunting the Lizard King, the boss on the fifth floor of the Labyrinth Tower.
After that, it was said that the summoned demons from the 6th floor onwards would drop the lowest-ranked runes at a low chance.
The rune was from a grey wolf that spawns in the Beginner's Zone now.
"Try it."
Raoul said, placing the rune in Woojin's hand.
"May ...... take it?"
"Of course. There's only a certain amount of runes a human body can take. Up to twenty of the lowest-grade runes of the same attribute. I already have enough."
In Evil Tale, which was only on its tenth floor, such runes were so rare that they could not be found for sale on the exchange.
'It's like a game, but different.......'
Unlike the game, which was only targeting the 10th floor, this was a future that had reached the 99th floor.
'Such a difference is a welcome thing.'
Wagjak-.
The rune was easier to break than I thought.
"Oh......?"
Something like fragrant grass tasted in his mouth, and his throat heated as he swallowed.
"This...... is interesting."
Woojin felt a surge of vitality through his body.
'If it's red, it's...... a rune of power.'
Boom-.
The heavy sword felt a little lighter.
'I'm not sure about the skill, but the rune definitely seems to work.'
[Crrrr.......]
It was then.
Woojin turned his head at the sound of a demon outside the cave.
A dense red glow that was too dense to count.
His slightly excited mood turned cold.
"......Not good, you persistent bastards."
At Raoul's words, Woojin stiffened and sheathed his sword.
But it was different than before.
'One, two, three.......'
There were more demons than he could count, and he wasn't afraid.
'I wonder if I can get another rune?'
Woojin's eyes lit up in his stony face as he realised that maybe this was a chance.
This place was starting to look different.
* * *
[Kegweng......!!]
The desperate wolf's scream didn't last long.
Fuuk-.
The moment the wolf's head hit the ground, light slowly began to shine in from the cave entrance.
"......It's morning."
Raoul gripped his sword like a cane and patted his stiff back.
"How many were there? I can't lie about my age. I'm tired. Exhausted."
He was covered in blood.
But not all of the blood that soaked the floor was theirs.
"Agility rune."
Woojin said nonchalantly as he picked at the corpse of the last wolf, his nose already numb from the smell of blood.
"Hehe, you're a quick learner. At first, you were just nauseous."
'Five strength runes, six agility runes, eight health runes, and four juggling runes.'
That's how many runes he'd gained in one night's hunting.
'In game terms, each lowest-tier rune increases the relevant stats by five points.......'
In [Evil Tale], you get five status points for every level you gain.
'That's like a 1-up per rune, so if this were a game, that's 24 levels overnight.'
It's a huge achievement, but it's not something to celebrate.
This is not a game with respawns.
You die, you're dead.
'You have to survive no matter what.'
"Yes. I have the means to become stronger, so why not?"
Woojin, armoured with demonic blood, chewed on his agility rune casually.
"But it's not enough."
"......Hmm?
At that moment, Raoul looked at Wu Jin's hungry gaze and made a curious expression.
"Can I learn it too?"
It was a strange thing.
His own existence had disappeared.
Not only was he trapped in a game, but he had fallen into the otherworld, and this situation was the end of the world.
It wouldn't be strange to give up.
But his eyes were shining.
'Maybe this is an opportunity.'
This was a reality where there was no level limit.
Conversely, it also meant that there was no skill tree to learn skills.
'It would never be possible in a game, but.......'
but you can learn it here.
"Auror Blade."
A master skill that unlocks at level 99.
It was a realm that no one in the history of [Evil Tale] had ever reached.
TRANSLATER NOTE
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