39 – Overflow – 6

The knight clad in full-body armor was indeed unrivaled in both defensive and breakthrough power.

Larger than even most orcs, he continuously swung his broad, long greatsword to clear the path ahead; any enemies he failed to catch and let slip were flawlessly dealt with by Gi-jun shooting flames.

“That flame is truly strong! It will be a great strength in a situation like this!”

“Thank you. You are strong as well.”

Gi-jun bluntly replied to the compliment, in which the knight’s hearty nature could be felt, and looked back at Chabanvesh as if to ask if the latter knew anything about the man.

At that, Chabanvesh, who had been staring at the knight’s back with an admiring expression, felt Gi-jun’s gaze and snapped out of it to speak.

“Tolchi is a knight directly under the Lord! He is famous for his overwhelming might and his chivalry that never looks down on the weak!”

“Haha, that is an undeserved evaluation.”

The knight who was leading the way laughed awkwardly at those words, pretending to scratch the back of his head, which he could not even touch because he was wearing a helmet.

Even so, he did not forget to sweep away the lunging monsters by continuously wielding the greatsword in one hand.

“I simply felt pity for the weak who lose their lives unjustly without even getting a chance to grow, so I only helped them a few times.”

“Even now, he came to rescue us! Tolchi is a true warrior, just like Jun!”

“Thank you, my orc friends. But let us talk about the rest once we arrive at the castle!”

The knight, called Tolchi, nodded at Chabanvesh’s compliment and turned his gaze forward.

Thanks to the active roles of Tolchi and Gi-jun, the fortress city of Turis, located on top of the hill, had become close enough to see with the naked eye.

The problem was from here on out.

The slope of the hill, which was highly effective in blocking enemies, and the monsters densely packed upon it were blocking their way.

“If you do not keep your wits about you, you will die.”

Tolchi spoke in a solemn voice and pointed forward with the greatsword in his hand.

“I will run. You said your name is Jun, right? I leave the ones I miss to you.”

“Anytime.”

“Then—do not die, warriors! Hah!”

Tolchi stomped hard on the ground and began to run.

As he dashed forward, ruthlessly swinging his greatsword with physical strength that he was certain reached at least Unique-grade, even the monsters running wild under the influence of the overflow’s mana did not dare block his path and were flung aside.

Even then, hot flames burned and blood-red fangs tore into the heads of the monsters that still could not regain their senses and targeted the humans.

—Kieeee!

“You are doing well, Ur.”

Patting Ur, who grew happier the more flames it spat, he wrapped flames around his shield once again.

By the time they frantically followed Tolchi’s monstrous breakthrough power, they had already crossed nearly half the hill.

“Are you keeping up, Chabanvesh?”

“Of course! We will never die!”

“We will survive and fight together!”

Encouraged by Tolchi and Gi-jun’s lead, Chabanvesh and the other orcs gained immense courage, letting out war cries as they swung their weapons.

When it came to orcs, they were indeed all about strength.

Sticking tightly together to swing their weapons and shoot arrows, those whose strength alone made one wonder if it had reached the Rare grade were already racking up a significant score even before entering the castle.

“We are almost there, stay strong!”

The knight encouraged them and charged once again with his greatsword raised.

Could this be considered fortunate?

The overflow had only just begun, and the siege network of monsters surrounding the fortress city’s walls was not yet that tight.

They chose areas where the monsters were sparse to break through as much as possible.

“A strong monster! Please handle one!”

“Understood.”

While Tolchi rushed at the elite monster to clear the path, Gi-jun also took charge of one.

Judging by the fact that Gi-jun’s Limit Surpasser did not react, it was probably Rare-grade.

A blue-skinned monster wrapped in something like a turtle shell rushed toward Gi-jun and inflated its body.

At that moment, poison-coated spikes shot out from various parts of its shell.

No, this guy was a pufferfish, not a turtle!

—What about a barrier?

‘Still, I do not need it for something like this.’

Boom! Along with a loud explosion, at least thousands of highly toxic spikes rained down on him, but Gi-jun skillfully swung his shield—which had momentarily expanded its surface area with the addition of light and flames—blocking and deflecting all of the spikes.

He had protected not only himself but also the orcs following behind him so that they would not be hit by the spikes.

He then finished off the flustered, lunging turtle-pufferfish by tearing its head apart with the fangs.

‘It was strong compared to its grade. In the sense that it had a lethal move.’

—Although the Contractor would not be affected by poison anyway.

‘If I can block it, it is better to block it.’

Before long, the castle gate was right in front of them.

“Open the gate!”

At the knight’s ringing shout, the gate slowly began to open.

The knight immediately turned around and shouted vigorously.

“I will hold them off! Everyone, go inside first!”

“Tolchi, the honorable knight of the Lord! I will repay this favor by fighting on the battlefield!”

“Same here!”

The orcs did not refuse the words of Tolchi, who was stronger than them.

Only Gi-jun hesitated for a moment, but seeing the knight stand firm and reliably, he nodded and came inside.

“The survivors have returned!”

“I am glad you all made it back alive! But I am sorry, I need you to go up to the walls right away. Those bastards will climb up!”

While the territory’s soldiers were all clinging to the inside of the walls, busy carrying arrows and stones and arming themselves,

a young man, who was running around with documents held to his chest to supervise and deploy troops other than the regular soldiers, ran toward them and shouted.

At that, Chabanvesh said with shining eyes,

“We must pay back our debt to the Lord’s knight Tolchi, so we will go up and fight. However, mercenaries must be paid when they fight. Surely there is a commission?”

“Of course. The Lord said he would pay rewards according to the number of monster heads severed. Since the Guild is also involved, though I do not know for sure, high-grade enemy heads might even fetch gold coins! So, if you want to make a lot of money, make sure you collect the heads, okay?”

“Gold coins!”

The eyes of the orcs, who were honest in showing their greed, were dyed a golden hue.

The orcs, who only a moment ago had faces ready to meet their graves, now began to whip their exhausted bodies with the greed to make money.

“Jun, I will make a ton of money and treat you! We are going straight up to the walls!”

“Sure. By the way, who is this person?”

“He is a Mercenary Guild staff member!”

“General manager, it’s the general manager! Memorize it already, you ignorant orc bastards!”

The man known as the general manager of the Mercenary Guild, who had sent the orcs up the walls, stared intently at Gi-jun—who had everything above the bridge of his nose covered by a half-mask, whose eyes were burning fiercely, and whose red-dyed skin was even emitting a shimmer—and spoke.

“So, who are you? No, seeing you get along with those orcs, I know you are not a bad person, but it is my principle to be wary of anyone I meet for the first time.”

“Jun. Second year, Flame Human.”

“As I thought, you are not an NPC.”

Unlike the orcs, who had made a huge fuss upon hearing Gi-jun’s words and asked if he was a civilization representative, the general manager only nodded as if he understood.

This was probably because he knew that the world was vast and that countlessly many races and civilizations existed.

“Not an NPC? That means…”

“Of course, I am also a summoned one. Although I am in a position now where I am not much different from an NPC. It would not be strange for a recruitment proposal to fly in at any moment.”

The man, who smiled bitterly as he said that, looked no different from a human in other aspects, but upon closer inspection, the tips of his ears were slightly pointed.

“Hmm? Ah, were you curious about my race?”

Feeling the gaze, the man touched his ear and said,

“I am a Half-Nymph. It was quite common in our civilization. Just like how Flame Humans like you were common in your civilization.”

Gi-jun felt a needless sense of guilt at those words, but he tried his best to ignore it for now.

The man tapped the folder he was holding and continued,

“So, it seems you have something you want to say to me? I am sorry, but I am also quite busy right now, so unless it is something important—”

“Are you in a position to pass a message to the Lord?”

“Of course. I do not know where you have been all this time, but the Mercenary Guild of Turis cooperates quite closely with the Lord.”

“Then tell the Lord. There are undead.”

“Ah—”

The man pressed his forehead, immediately pulled out a Letaphone from his chest, and tapped it rapidly.

Soon, the man put it away and let out a deep sigh as he spoke.

“We had kept the possibility in mind. Since there was an unconquered dungeon nearby famous for no one ever coming out alive, we thought that maybe undead would pop out from there… That was also why we said we would only pay rewards if you sever the monsters’ heads. Usually, undead cannot be made without a head.”

“But,” the man asked him,

“how did you know that? If you lied, you could get into trouble later.”

“Because I encountered them. To be precise, the one who attacked us was an undead.”

He had encountered human bandits and repelled them, but their leader had ambushed them that night, and when he killed him, the leader turned into an undead and escaped using teleportation magic—

Since there was no time to drag out such a story, he only delivered the core details, and the general manager smacked his lips before speaking.

“Do you happen to have any proof?”

“I do not know if it will serve as proof, but it is an item I obtained from that undead.”

A pouch enchanted with sub-space magic had the disadvantage of not being able to be placed in the inventory.

So Gi-jun had also kept it hanging from his waist, and when he untied it to show the man, the man narrowed his eyes, sniffed, and waved his hand as if there was no need to look any further.

“The stench of decay is piercing my nose. Moreover, isn’t the energy of black magic no joke? The situation is going to get bigger than imagined, sigh.”

Did he seriously figure it out just by the smell?

When Gi-jun showed a surprised expression, the man let go of his serious expression and let out a chuckle.

“I told you, I am a Half-Nymph. It might sound like boasting, but those with Nymph blood running through them have an amazing sense of smell. In addition, our ability to judge good and evil is quite useful.”

“That is why I am acting as the general manager of the Mercenary Guild,” the man boasted slightly, and narrowing his eyes, he scanned Gi-jun’s entire body before adding,

“Thanks to that, I also quickly figured out that you are not a bad guy. I am just grateful that a reliable ally came at a time like this. By the way, did you register as a mercenary somewhere else?”

“I did not. Can I not accept commissions if I am not a mercenary?”

“It is not that, but a fee will be deducted. However, this time, I will waive the fee as a general manager privilege, so go wild without worrying about getting ripped off. See you!”

“And as a bonus, I will also reward you for the report on the undead—” the general manager added as he turned around.

At that exact moment, someone placed a gauntlet on Gi-jun’s shoulder, and it was none other than the knight Tolchi, who had guarded the front of the gate until Chabanvesh’s group and Gi-jun entered.

“Tolchi… I am glad you are safe.”

“Of course. More importantly, I heard what you just said. You saw undead?”

“Yes.”

Gi-jun replied, brushing Tolchi’s gauntlet off his shoulder.

He ground his teeth and slammed his greatsword against the ground.

“Accursed bastards. Those who desecrate the dignity of life must all have their heads severed.”

“…I agree.”

Recalling the woman who had crawled on the floor even after her waist was severed, Gi-jun quietly nodded.

Tolchi pulled out his greatsword, slung it on his back, and made a proposal to him.

“Let us go up and fight together, Jun! If you achieve military merits with me, the Lord will also take notice of you!”

“I will gladly join you.”

No, did he already get a chance to get noticed by the Lord like this?

Without even a moment’s hesitation, Gi-jun promptly replied and climbed up the walls with the Lord’s knight.

At that moment, what filled his vision was the presence of monsters densely packing the hill, unlike when they had broken through the path to enter the city just ten minutes ago.

There were so many monsters that it felt suffocating just to look at them.

“An overflow is truly a terrible disaster. Because it sweeps away everything, regardless of who or where they are. In times like this, the first to die are the weak, who have to fight with only a single sword in hand and not a single piece of armor to protect their bodies.”

Indeed, who would have thought that he would experience such an overflow on his third day in Leta?

Unlike Gi-jun, who only lamented inwardly, Tolchi lamented outwardly and tightened his grip on his greatsword.

“On top of that, if the undead start to mix in, the corpses of those who died miserably will be desecrated once again. I can never forgive that.”

Gi-jun suddenly became curious.

Was this man truly an NPC?

“To protect the weak and never yield to the strong is my chivalry. Jun, will you help me?”

“I respect your chivalry. And I also have my own will.”

Gi-jun reached out his hand, lightly shook the man’s gauntleted hand, and let go.

“I will fight for that will. Let us both do our best.”

“You are a truly reliable warrior. I can trust you with my back.”

The two warriors checked their armaments and raised their mana.

Near Turis, the wave of monsters overflowing from at least ten dungeons was rushing into the city all at once.

—Sudden Quest Triggered! Protect the small city of Turis from the overflow!

—Rewards will be distributed differentially based on performance; if you achieve great merits, there is a possibility of receiving a special proposal from the Lord, and the taxes you must pay this year will be reduced.

—Sudden Quest Triggered! Protect the small city of Turis from the overflow!

—Rewards will be distributed differentially based on performance; if you achieve great merits, there is a possibility of receiving a special proposal from the Lord, and the taxes you must pay this year will be reduced.

And so, the battle began.