My Demons

My fury surged through every strand of my hair as the helmet, armor, and sturdy leather boots were effortlessly brushed off by a perfectly aimed blow. A roar of anger escaped my lips.

“You insane…!”

“I-I apologize…!”

Before the girl could finish her apology, the dung beetle emitted an eerie noise and raised its body. Its mouth, filled with razor-sharp teeth, widened right before my eyes.

“Ugh.”

While I knelt on one knee, recovering from the blow of an iron, I thrust my sword with all the strength in my arm. Though my stance was unstable, the thrust was fueled by my boiling rage.

Pwoof!

“Ugh!”

With a powerful impact, fluids splattered across my face.

The thrust had accurately pierced the creature’s mouth.

Squeak, squeal!

Even with the sword tip obliquely lodged in its throat, protruding into the air, the dung beetle squirmed as if it hadn’t lost its vitality. It wriggled madly, resembling a worm set ablaze.

The strength of its movements caused my upper body to sway.

Ugh, it’s creepy!

I swung my sword with a grunt.

As the creature fell to the ground, spewing fluids, I swiftly rose, tightly shut my eyes, and stomped on its head.

Crunch.

“Ugh, [email protected].”

A disturbing sound reverberated, and a vivid sensation traveled up my leg.

Ugh, my body trembles involuntarily.

But a greater problem lay ahead. The dung beetle wasn’t alone.

The hub we stumbled upon was littered not only with the corpse of the person we had seen but also with the bodies of rat men and cats, large and small. As many dung beetles as there were bodies were reveling in their feast, and they all pounced on me once I killed one of their kin.

However, I had already surmounted the immense wall of disgust. They were no match for me.

I regained my composure and dispatched them one by one—

“Eeek, it’s disgusting!”

…What composure? I momentarily lost my sanity and unleashed my rage. I couldn’t tell if it was an outburst of youthful energy or an instinctual response.

“Ah! You vile creatures!”

I cleaved them in half with the edge of my shield, crushed them underfoot, slashed with my sword, kicked them into the wall, and obliterated them…

After eliminating countless dung beetles, I hurriedly pulled a water bottle from my waistband and cleansed away the fluids they had sprayed.

As the dung beetle fluids washed off, I couldn’t help but grimace.

“Oh…oh…oh…”

Ah, I’m still weak. I’ve slain dozens of humans in the arena without batting an eye, yet I tremble at the sight of mere bugs!

“Ugh, it’s creepy. Oh, right. You there.”

As I brushed off my shoulder and turned around…

“What… what is it?”

Ellen stood still, a large bag hanging from her back, her lips pressed tightly together. Tears welled up in her eyes…

Ah, that’s the expression my sister wears just before she gets scolded.

“…I haven’t even said anything yet.”

Ah, is this the legendary tactic of “first to cry wins”?

Regardless, my anger was diluted by the repulsive disgust.

I could feel a bruise forming on my buttock, but thankfully, it seemed the bone was unharmed.

…Wait. So, did this girl accurately strike between the bones? Even in that chaotic and dark situation?

“Hey, that’s a talent in itself. How do you manage to hit so precisely? Were you aiming for that?”

“Uhh… I’m sorry.”

“For heaven’s sake, when you apologize, you shouldn’t say ‘Uhh… I’m sorry,’ you should say ‘I apologize!'”

Ellen rubbed her eyes and furrowed her brows, saying,

“I did apologize, didn’t I?”

“When?”

“Right after you got hit.”

“…Did you?”

It seemed like she did.

Ellen bit her lower lip for a moment before speaking softly, “Anyway, I’m sorry. I was a bit nervous and made a mistake.”

Hmm. It’s uncommon for her to apologize so readily.

Well, I should graciously accept it like an adult.

“Alright, that’s enough. Just be careful not to aim too close to me. It was fortunate this time, but in a more urgent situation, it could have been a fatal mistake.”

“…Yeah, I understand. I’ll be more cautious with my shots.”

After receiving Ellen’s assurance, we continued our search of the hub.

Water from various sections had collected in the hub and was flowing southward. Four canals extended in different directions, each blocked by ankle-high iron bars, filled with corpses and debris obstructing the water’s path.

Upon a cursory examination, there didn’t seem to be anything valuable.

Just a heap of decaying bodies and useless trash.

Well, I can’t expect to strike gold on our first try.

I retrieved a map from my breastplate. It was a map of the second floor of the sewer that I had purchased from Oleg.

Our goal for today wasn’t to delve deeper but to thoroughly explore the second floor.

Although I would typically charge forward without a plan in the game, in reality, it was wiser to have a clear understanding of the area before proceeding.

After consulting the map and moving to the next hub, we encountered wandering corpses.

“Urrghhh-“

“Zombies.”

As Ellen murmured, pointing her crossbow, they turned out to be the lowest-ranked undead creatures, zombies.

Zombies, born from forsaken bodies cursed with an unfortunate fate and an aura of evil, were not formidable opponents. Their decomposing bodies prevented them from exhibiting any significant physical abilities.

Of course, the sight of their tongues hanging down to vital organs, eyes bulging with attached optic nerves, bloated bellies due to rotting flesh, and grotesquely peeled-off skin was utterly repulsive.

Still, I found it easier to face zombies than dung beetles. Perhaps it was due to my successful debut as a killer.

Ha, it’s strange how I’ve become accustomed to corpses in just ten days in this world. What a grim reality.

As I set down the lantern and drew my falchion, Ellen declared as if making a statement, “Wait. I’ll shoot first.”

She carefully aimed her crossbow at them.

…Wouldn’t it be easier to aim if they had some sort of target board on their heads? I had a random thought for a moment.

Thump!

The bolt shot from the crossbow struck the neck of the leading zombie. With a gruesome sound, the zombie collapsed, its neck broken.

“Oh.”

“Huh.”

After letting out a small sigh, Ellen quickly reloaded. Thanks to her hemp-woven gloves, she could pull the string forcefully and reload swiftly.

Once again, the bolt struck the forehead of another zombie with precision.

“Urrghh-“

“Urrrghh.”

While she shot the crossbow twice, they had approached within a distance of 2 to 3 meters.

Dragging their legs, they started to rush forward, as if stumbling.

Now it’s my turn.

“Hey, put away the crossbow.”

“I got it.”

After ensuring that Ellen had lowered her crossbow, I charged towards them, my foot kicking the damp floor.

Zombies felt slightly tougher, as if their skin had hardened a bit, but they were mostly unclothed and sluggish, so dealing with them wasn’t too difficult. After deflecting or evading their grasping hands with my shield, all I had to do was sever their necks.

When I finished dispatching the remaining four zombies by severing their necks, Ellen wore a satisfied smile.

Ha. It’s quite something to see a pretty girl smiling joyfully after smashing walking corpses.

It’s a scene that could fit perfectly in a B-rated zombie movie, so I let out a small chuckle.

She didn’t say anything, but her sapphire-like eyes sparkled as if a light had been switched on.

Her expression seems to be expecting some kind of response from me… I should just ignore it.

The rest of our search went smoothly.

The only monsters lurking on the second floor of the sewer were zombies and dung beetles, and no matter how many there were, they posed no threat to me.

Ellen would shoot them with her crossbow to thin their numbers, and I would finish them off. In this way, we systematically eliminated the zombies and dung beetles one by one.

As I started to feel a slight hunger, we had successfully explored all the hubs, passages, and staircases on the second floor.

I sat down on a makeshift backpack seat and began eating my second biscuit when Ellen, looking bored, asked,

“…Is it tasty?”

“Huh? Well, it’s edible.”

As I said, the biscuit… or should I call it hardtack or a cracker?

Either way, the food I purchased from The Drunken Horse was merely edible.

It lacked flavor and resembled hardened grain flour, but it was bearable when moistened with saliva in the mouth.

Well, all preserved food is like this, isn’t it?

As I chewed, I glanced at the biscuit in Ellen’s hand.

She had barely taken a bite.

“Why? Can’t you eat?”

“Of course, I can eat. But do you really have an appetite in a place like this?”

With scattered zombie remains not far away, sewage flowing continuously, and deep darkness… Yeah, it’s not exactly a delightful dining environment.

“Hey, do you eat for the taste? I’m just eating to keep my strength up.”

“Ew, I can’t eat. My jaw hurts, and I feel like I’ll just end up vomiting it all out.”

Saying that, she wrapped the food back up and stuffed it back into her backpack.

…She doesn’t even know proper table manners.

I refrained from saying anything for fear of sounding like an old man. It’s not right to force her to eat when she doesn’t want to.

Besides, there’s no concept of lunch here in the first place. You have breakfast and dinner, maybe nibble on an onion if you get hungry in between?

Ha, I was shocked when I saw the innkeeper munching on a raw onion like an apple. Isn’t it spicy?

Anyway, carrying a heavy backpack and wandering in the dark sewers would definitely burn more calories than usual…

Yeah, she’s in her prime, right? Skipping a meal won’t do any harm.

But for me, it’s a different story.

I chewed my food slowly until the last crumb and rinsed my mouth with water. Regardless of the taste, my stomach was satisfied.

Phoenix’s body seems to require several times more food than Kim Seung-soo’s. Of course, considering the vast difference in physical abilities, it’s not an unreasonable ratio.

“Well, let’s consider our next move.” Ellen glanced at a peculiar hourglass to measure the time, and six hours had passed since we entered the sewer.

We encountered a significant number of dung beetles and zombies, but we dispatched them much faster than expected since they were relatively easy opponents.

“So… How are you feeling? Not too exhausted?”

“What do you take me for? I’m not that tired.”

…I see you as a crossbow holder, you goof. You were groaning just yesterday.

And if you’re not tired, there’s no need to exaggerate!

I barely suppressed the urge to punch her in the face and asked with a calm expression, “That’s good to hear. Should we head back the way we came? What do you think?”

“Well, we’ve achieved our initial goal, so we should head back, but…”

Ellen, who had been refilling the oil lamp, trailed off with a pensive look.

I could easily guess why she responded that way. The problem we faced was… we had no earnings whatsoever.

“Ha, all we’ve done is clean the sewers.”

I sighed and began putting my gloves back on when my attention was drawn to the rings on my hand.

The ring on my left hand resembled jade, a magic item. I couldn’t recall the exact enchantment it possessed. It might have been magic resistance or attribute resistance. It was just a common item, insignificant whether I wore it or not.

Now that I think about it, how do we obtain magic items or rare items?

In the game, when you defeated dung beetles or zombies, they would often drop money and various items abundantly.

But this disappointing reality was far from that.

Monsters, when slain, only left behind their lifeless bodies. They weren’t generous entities that randomly spewed out items.

So, in reality, acquiring items meant scavenging equipment dropped by defeated enemies or collecting by-products from their bodies.

Yet, all we had encountered while wandering the second floor were repulsive dung beetles and nearly naked zombies. There were no equipment or by-products to speak of.

As I pondered about equipment, my gaze naturally shifted to my right hand.

A thick ring made of an unfamiliar material with a crimson aura. In fact, it was so sizable that it would be more fitting to call it a finger guard than a ring.

And regardless of its appearance, this ring far surpassed the jade ring on my left hand.

I inherited it from ‘PkApplyMemo’…

Is it something like an inheritance?

The name of the ring is ‘Seal of the Dragon Slaughterer,’ or in other words, ‘The Seal of the Dragon Slayer.’

It was a unique item I obtained by chance when I defeated a black dragon while playing the expedition—a dimension-traveling content enjoyed with a character who had cleared the campaign.

The ring boasted remarkable enchantments: a 30% increase in fire and poison resistance, a 15% boost in accuracy, and a 3-point increase in agility and strength.

By the way, the increase of 3 points in strength and agility was a fixed enhancement. Truly a cheat-level enchantment.

If you’re wondering what’s so great about just a 3-point increase… you’ll understand once you review the stat system of Dark World.

To put it simply, the higher the stat number, the more stat points you need to increase it.

For example, ‘PkApplyMemo’ had a strength stat of 50 and an agility stat of 52.

Both stats were in the 50s, requiring 6 stat points for an increase. In other words, even if you invested all 5 points earned through leveling up, you couldn’t raise it by 1.

But what happens when you wear the Dragon Slayer’s Ring?

Strength and agility both reached 53 and 55!

In other words, the ring’s two enchantments alone had the same effect as investing a staggering 36 stat points.

36 stat points. That’s an amount that can’t be obtained even after leveling up seven times.

Because of this, options that fix stats at certain values shine brighter as the equipped character’s stats increase.

However, despite the presence of such a cheat-level enchantment, the final enchantment of the main character’s ring was too detrimental to use regularly. It was kept as a backup item for specific situations rather than being worn consistently.

But it was precisely because of that final enchantment that this ring became a scam item.

The sixth enchantment of the ring was none other than “wear restriction relaxation.”

And it was an incredibly potent wear restriction relaxation, to the extent that even a low-level warrior like ‘NeuclearWarStarter’ could benefit greatly from it.

Ah, the saying “Don’t trust humans in anything” is so true. Just looking at this enchantment alone while playing the game would bring tears to my eyes.

If the wear restriction relaxation had been life steal or increased critical hit chance, it would undoubtedly have been a top-tier ring. It’s disappointing to think otherwise.

…Wait a moment.

After the PvP ended, didn’t the Trickster old man return all the equipment items?

The armor, shoes, belt, and the six accessories. No, except for the Dragon Slayer’s Ring that I’m currently wearing—five in total.

I distinctly remember carefully placing them all in the character’s inventory for ‘NuclearWarStarter’…

Where could they have possibly gone?