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Roggo, an employee of the Adventurer’s Guild Belgana Branch, was an excellent scout who specialized in Labyrinth. His natural sense of smell hadn’t changed after his employment as a guild employee, and he had an excellent sense of politics within the guild and was skilled at sniffing out danger. For this reason, he joined the faction of the Vice-Guild Leader, whom he knew had a twisted character, and acted obediently.
Now the intuition of sensing danger rang the alarm bell in his head louder than ever. And at the sight of the exploding Vice-Guild Leader, it was clear what had happened.
“Are you kidding me? Why are the ghosts, now of all times…?”
On “that night”, Vice-Guild Leader Raffaele was implanted with a bomb, which was frequently used during the Unification War. Not long ago, the bomb exploded, leaving him with only a few organs to survive for a very short period of time. The materials were fire-breathing lizard organs, black water, and some poison or metal shards, depending on the preference of the maker. And this time, the venomous fangs of the Hydra buried by the Republic were used for the bombs.
Roggo, who knew the history of the Labyrinth City, realized that this method corresponded to the tactics used at the end of the Unification War.
In the first place, the Labyrinth City was on a loathsome land where a mighty dragon vein flowed. If negative factors overlapped, it could easily become a Demon Territory.
What was happening right now, must be a conspiracy between the ghosts of the Gundor family, a prestigious family of necromancers that once ruled the Labyrinth City, and the Republic. And considering the monsters that swarmed within the castle walls, the plan must have taken more than a few years to complete. It must have been built several decades, or worse, since the end of the Unification War. The families of those who were involved, whether intentionally or not, would definitely not be forgiven. These were what Roggo speculated.
So, Roggo thought that he should leave the country as soon as possible. After all, there was no way the Republic, which inherited the blood of the vindictive giants, could be satisfied with only this much.
Running with a rough breath, Roggo felt a dull pain in his chest and looked down at his chest.
“What, is this?”
There was a mark on Roggo’s body. It was a pattern he had never seen before, but it couldn’t be unrelated to this turmoil.
Roggo tried to figure out what the effect was, but it was no longer necessary. The ghouls that were devouring the citizens around him moved their glare at him. It wasn’t one or two. Now, he realized why he wasn’t chosen as a human bomb. He had been chosen as an attractor for the monsters, whether he liked it or not.
“Piece of sh*t, you made me a live bait for the dead, huh?”
Quite a few former adventurers were involved in running the guild. Roggo also acted as a scout inside and outside the Labyrinth. A monster of this level? He had encountered it many times.
Roggo drew a machete that hung on his waist and accelerated.
The thick blade decapitated the undead’s head along with its neck. Then Roggo slashed his machete from above, crushing the skulls of the ghouls that approached in rapid succession.
“Sh*t, are the dead citizens turning into undead? There’s just no end!!”
Thinking not to get surrounded, Roggo slashed the undead that wanted to hug him on the knees with his machete and slipped past. Taking a lower stance, he slammed his shoulder into the chest of a ghoul that stood in his way. The pushed ghoul reluctantly reached for his clothes, but he shook his machete vertically. The ghoul’s thumb was severed and he was free.
Quickly, Roggo jumped into the alley at full speed, avoiding a large number of confrontations from many directions.
It didn’t take long for the narrow alley to be filled with blood.
The blood pooling on the ground worsened Roggo’s footwork like a curse. But as long as the enemy was within reach, he could survive. His judgment wasn’t wrong. Supposedly. But there were more than ten undead approaching from both sides of the narrow alley, and that changed the story.
Even if Roggo cut off a hand, shattered a knee, or blinded an eye, the hordes of the dead didn’t stop running. Cold sweat poured incessantly from his forehead, and his breathing was disrupted. It was too much for a body that had grown accustomed to calculations and schemes and not a battle since he had left the line of the Labyrinth. Had he been continuing further in diving the Labyrinth, he would have remained calm, but that wasn’t the case. His mind and body clearly couldn’t bear it any longer.
Being driven into a corner with no place or space to escape, Roggo screamed.
“Damn, it, don’t, come, no, nooOOOOOO!!!”
In a frenzied state, Roggo threw his stance and battle experience away and swung his machete recklessly. Trying to survive, he scraped off the fingers, skin, and some of the flesh of the undead, but the hordes of the dead didn’t stop. The blade dulled by fat and blood dug into the muscles and flesh and couldn’t be pulled back.
Countless arms and teeth approached.
“Let me goooOOOO!!! ah, aaaAAAHHH!!!”
Outstretched arms tore his clothes, and claws dug into his skin. Followed by a stench of rot and saliva dripping from the undead’s open jaws.
Roggo shook the undead limbs violently, but that only prolonged his life briefly.
Death was waving at him ―― nothing but a string of nonsensical words spilling from his throat in reply.
Roggo was chaotically grabbed all over his body.
At that hopeless moment, a hot wind blew down the alley just before his limbs were torn apart. The heat hit the undead’s whole body.
“……uh, hah, ah, what, happened?”
An overwhelming amount of heat burned death, sending it back to hell. The aftermath caused Roggo to sob and had his exposed skin burned.
Amidst the hordes of dead sinking into a blue sea of flame, a lone man stood as if taking a cold bath.
“Y-you are…”
Roggo knew the man. He was a mercenary who served as a porter for the Conqueror’s party, and his name was Walm. Immediately after this mercenary joined, the stagnant Trimagitack conquered the Labyrinth. Besides the suspicion of his origin, there were also voices that doubted his abilities due to the lack of information, but who would dare to raise a critical voice after seeing the same scene in front of Roggo?
“Thanks. You save―― “
Roggo held his breath and stopped his words of gratitude halfway.
The man’s passionate eyes shifted from the monster to Roggo. His muddy golden eyes narrowed vertically. Not very human eyes indeed.
A hot wind rushed through the alley.
Roggo instinctively sensed danger and began to run.
The man burned everything in his path and caught up with Roggo in no time.
Just like that, Roggo was slammed against a wall and was forced to expel the air from his lungs. The hands grabbed him so tightly by the throat that he was suffocating.
“Stop moving.”
Roggo felt the intent of the heat emanating from the man’s fingers and shut down all resistance.
“Answer me. Who did this? You were the only one who was frightened while everyone else was confused. And the one who exploded was your beloved Vice-Guild Leader. And what is that mark on your chest? The undead seem to like it a lot. It can’t be irrelevant.”
“Ah, I…”
“Tell me what I want. Then, I’ll help you. If you refuse, I’ll burn your limbs and let the monsters eat you. Your life is until the fire in the alley goes out. Choose.”
The muddy golden eyes swayed irregularly, staring at Roggo.
Direct. Not even a threat. Surely this type of person would do more than just spatting words. That was what Roggo thought.
Roggo threw away his dignity and spat out all the information he had. Who had invited him “that night” and where the enemy’s base might be? Everything he knew, including the guesses he made.
When the fire went out, the mercenary, finally satisfied, released his grip.
“So, what are you going to do?”
Asked Roggo, but the reply came quickly. A fire was lit on his chest, instantly burning his skin. He curled up like a baby and cried out in the face of the pain that throbbed directly into his nerves.
“Ah, aaah, aaAAAAHH!!! Damn it, why? I, answered…”
“I burned the mark.”
Shaking with severe pain, Roggo lowered his gaze to his chest, while the stench that burned his skin lingered in his nostrils. From his eroded skin, the mark was burned out. He couldn’t even protest against the rough treatment.
“Get out of the alley. After that, do as you please.”
“What are you going to do?”
Suppressing the pain, Roggo asked the mercenary.
“I’m going to cut them down.”
The mercenary spat it out so naturally. Not even pretending to be haughty or that it was a joke. Indeed, he was serious.
Roggo thought that the unfathomable mercenary could really do it.
Although Roggo had escaped death, he was so exhausted that he couldn’t move his body.
A horde of undead was surging again, but was flung away like dust by the mercenary’s halberd and blue flame.
Getting free from being a target for extermination, Roggo thanked the mercenary from the bottom of his heart.