58 – I Will Carry – 3

The werewolf’s name was Gin, nineteen years old this year.

He said that he had been living with his family in a forest village where trees towered densely, preventing the moonlight from entering well.

“No moonlight?”

“When werewolves receive moonlight, they not only transform into wolves, but their wildness is also amplified. To maintain our humanity as much as possible, we have no choice but to avoid the moonlight.”

“Then why are you here now?”

“Uh, that is, I came out to find food, but I got caught by those guys earlier…”

Although Gin was a pure-blooded werewolf born between werewolves, his parents were said to be cases who were originally humans but got infected after being bitten by a werewolf.

Hearing up to that point, Hervunt added in a cold voice.

“As expected, it is a Vrykolakas. Lycanthropes are not strengthened by moonlight, and decisively, they do not possess the ability to infect.”

“Y-yes, that’s right. We are Vrykolakas. But we are different…!”

Having been dominated by their wildness and having fought in the Vrykolakas army, they had managed to regain their reason through a certain incident, and fled together with like-minded individuals to escape the rule of the Vrykolakas—finally reaching this ruin.

“Why this ruin? It is a place filled with the energy of the moon.”

“That was the will of the one leading the pack. He declared that he would definitely become stronger to take revenge on the Vrykolakas who turned him into a werewolf, and so he found a ruin where we could hide secretly and grow our strength, leading everyone here.”

“Did your parents not think that way at all?”

“Well… yes. My parents said they just wanted to escape the state of running wild like wild beasts. Since escaping from those guys immediately was urgent, they cooperated with Quinodon, but…”

Quinodon, that was the name of the leader of the werewolf pack that had entered this ruin.

Since they were a race that boasted longevity alongside vampires, he would surely be alive and well, so the legendary-grade boss of this ruin likely referred to Quinodon.

Even while Gi-jun quietly muttered that name, Gin’s explanation continued.

For a while after entering the ruin, there were no problems, but the faction supporting Quinodon’s revenge began to oppress the passive faction and those who opposed it.

In the end, those who disliked fighting, like Gin’s parents, hid deep in the forest to live quietly, or researched ways to become human to somehow escape the destiny of the Vrykolakas.

“Ha. Oh, it’s just funny.”

At that part, Armilka snorted, and when Gi-jun looked at her, she stepped back with her arms crossed behind her head as if it were nothing.

Noticing that she had laughed at him, Gin continued speaking in a much quieter voice.

“But they won’t let us go. They want to drag us out somehow to use us as soldiers, and if they can’t control us, they’ll just turn us into obedient livestock to order around.”

“Livestock?”

“They make us into wolves who can only think of blood and combat. By using t-that.”

Gin raised his hand and pointed at Hervunt.

To be precise, it was a tiny stone that Hervunt had picked up and was examining at some point.

Receiving the gazes of the members all at once, he flusteredly held out the stone to Gi-jun.

“It was rolling around near the dead werewolf. To me, it seems to sparkle exceptionally as if it received moonlight…”

“That’s right, that is the Moon-Welcoming Stone which exerts power by accumulating moonlight! It strengthens werewolves even further, but it erodes their reason at a rapid pace. M-moreover…”

As he held out the stone, the werewolf, who closed his eyes while backing away by that distance, stuttered as if he were too afraid to speak in detail.

“If one were to swallow it… there is no turning back, they will become a monster that completely loses its mind and runs wild.”

Everyone fell silent for a moment at those words.

Gi-jun thought that the statement “losing their reason and degrading into mere beasts,” which he had checked in the ruin’s information earlier, might not be a change caused by time alone.

“How scary, when it’s this pretty. I can have this, right?”

“No.”

Gi-jun was not the only one who thought this ore was the core of this ruin.

He replied immediately to Armilka, who was reaching out to him, and stored it in his inventory.

“From now on, I will manage all the Moon-Welcoming Stones. Once we leave the ruin and its value is revealed, we will divide it fairly then.”

“Aren’t you just saying that to keep it all for yourself, Leader—?”

To Armilka, who spoke with pouting lips as if she liked the Moon-Welcoming Stone quite a lot, Gi-jun snorted and replied.

“I have no reason to covet this.”

“If it is a dangerous item that makes werewolves go mad…”

In also spoke up in a firm voice, agreeing with Gi-jun.

“It would be best for the leader to gather and manage it. Even considering the time to divide it later, doing so is better.”

“That… is true. Just wait and see if you don’t give it to me later.”

“That will not happen.”

Hervunt also nodded, seemingly satisfied with Gi-jun’s clear handling of the matter, and asked as he turned to him.

“Jun, it seems we have heard most of the story, so what will you do now? Honestly, I don’t know how keeping them alive will help us.”

“Hic!”

“But there’s no need to kill them either.”

“Phew…”

When Gi-jun firmly shook his head and replied to those words, Armilka chimed in from the side and shouted.

“Are you kidding? If we kill them, they become experience points!”

“Hic!”

“The experience points probably won’t be much, Swordsman. What’s more important is their reason and will to converse.”

Fortunately, however, the staff specialist In also had the same thought as Gi-jun, taking his side and arguing with Armilka.

“Even if they belong to the dark faction, if they possess intelligence and have no hostile intentions toward the light faction, isn’t there a need to observe them for now?”

“Sigh…”

Seeing how he reacted to every single discussion among the party members, it truly hit home that this werewolf was young.

Gi-jun clicked his tongue, turned his head toward Gin, and asked.

“You said you are researching ways to become human, right?”

In truth, that had been bothering him since earlier.

Opposing races within a confined space, those struggling to throw off the destiny of being werewolves…

What if they intervened in that dynamic and could bring about some kind of change?

There was no guarantee that a quest wouldn’t trigger just because the opponent belonged to the dark faction.

“What? Y-yes, that’s right!”

Gin nodded his head frantically while looking at Gi-jun’s eyes burning behind his helmet.

His gratitude toward Gi-jun for recognizing their efforts had overcome his fear of him.

“With my parents at the center, the village elders have been researching for decades, declaring that they will return to being humans no matter what…! They said they would make sure that at least I, who was born as a werewolf without any choice from birth, could enjoy a human life without being swayed by wildness. Really, I… toward such parents…!”

“Leader, do you seriously believe that foolish story?”

Armilka interjected in a disgusted voice.

Although he had roughly guessed it from the moment she snorted at Gin’s words earlier, she seemed to feel immense disbelief at the idea of a werewolf returning to being human.

“A change of race isn’t something that can be caused as easily as flicking a switch on and off. Once you become a werewolf, that’s it. It’s the same as vampires. Once a human becomes a vampire, they can never return to being human again, right?”

“It will be a high-difficulty quest.”

“Oh my goodness.”

Armilka pretended to have a headache as she pulled out another chocolate from her bosom and bit into it.

She did not forget to ask Lora in a soft voice if she wanted to eat one.

“The probability of success won’t be high. But there will be no loss. In the end, by moving with Gin, we will be able to achieve our purpose for entering this ruin.”

“What does that mean?”

“Ah, indeed.”

To Armilka, who asked back while munching on her chocolate, Hervunt answered instead of Gi-jun.

“A pursuit party is coming. It seems this fellow is quite popular.”

“Ugh, ugh…”

“There’s something you haven’t told us yet, right?”

Hervunt’s cold gaze swept up and down Gin.

Gin bowed his head, trembling as he clenched his two fists tightly.

“That is… they…”

—Found him!

—Grrr… other guys are with him!

Soon, the figures of those guys came into the view of the rest of the group.

There were easily over ten of them, and their attire was similar to the ones they had disposed of earlier.

Indeed, since they had been conversing in the open without even thinking of moving locations, it was only natural for them to be discovered if there was a pack that moved together with the werewolves they had slain earlier.

—Inform the other wolves! He brought humans from the outside—urgh!

Hervunt shot the small crossbow he pulled from his bosom like lightning, piercing through the neck of one of them.

Confirming the sharp tip of the bolt that flashed pure white as it tore through the sky, Gi-jun widened his eyes slightly.

“Is it silver?”

“You are sharp. That’s right. I tend to be quite thorough in my preparations.”

As if it were a crossbow with a rapid-fire function, Hervunt continuously shot bolts with silver tips, neutralizing the werewolves as he replied casually.

Vampires and werewolves shared a single fatal weakness, and that was silver.

Seeing how their fur fell out in clumps and the smell of burning vibrated through the air every time a bolt hit, the effect was indeed clear.

—Damn it, it’s a silver arrow!

—It’s too fast—!

At that moment, as the werewolves panicked and scattered their formation under the bolts that poured down like rain, to exaggerate slightly.

Letting out a chuckle, Armilka kicked off the ground and leaped to close the distance with them.

“Hup!”

—Sliiiip.

In no time, she charged at the enemies with the sword that had leapt out of its scabbard—moving with boundlessly light movements, drawing a zigzag path as she slipped through them.

Lightly flicking the sword once in the air, she sheathed it without even looking back, a sight that was truly arrogant and alluring.

—Cough!

—Kegh!

The next moment, all of those that lay within the trajectory of her movement vomited rotten blood and collapsed on the spot.

It was total annihilation.

Swiftness, and on top of that, a certain kill.

It was a chilling skill that easily allowed one to guess why she had become a mercenary who made a name for herself in the big cities.

“These must be grunts, right? There’s no feedback at all. Moreover, dog fur.”

Turning back and confirming that the werewolves had left nothing behind in the place they died, Armilka returned to the group in disgust.

When the older sister who had been clinging to her all this time showed a surprisingly cool display, Lora’s thoughts about her also seemed to change slightly as she clapped quietly.

“How was it? Am I cool?”

“Really incredibly fast… Ah, by any chance, are you hurt anywhere? I can heal…”

“No, I’m completely fine. There’s no way I would get hurt dealing with things like that.”

Gi-jun quickly averted his eyes from Armilka, who was smiling creepily, seemingly delighted by the attention she received from Lora.

He turned to look at Gin, who had been restrained by Hervunt in the meantime and was wearing an extremely tense expression with a silver arrowhead aimed at his neck, and threw a question.

“So, what did you hide?”

“That is… those guys are targeting me. Out of all the werewolves hiding from Quinodon, especially me…”

“Right, seeing them pursue you in groups like that, I can gather that much. But why?”

“Hold on, Jun. This is strange.”

At that moment, Hervunt raised one hand to stop Gi-jun from approaching Gin.

“Normally, when a werewolf comes into contact with silver to this degree, they are bound to get burned or have their transformation partially undone. Yet this fellow is excessively fine.”

“I-I was just about to tell you that… I mean…”

The hesitating Gin nudged his neck slightly and scraped his own skin directly against the silver arrowhead.

Hervunt, who also had no intention to kill, pulled back the arrowhead in surprise, but to their astonishment, Gin only sustained a minor scratch and showed no further change.

Looking around at the dumbfounded group, he spoke in a hesitant voice.

“I told you that we are conducting experiments to return to being human, and although it’s incomplete, I achieved some results.”

“…Achieved results?”

Hervunt’s expression turned serious.

The fact that the other party members, including Armilka, hardened their complexions suggested they had come to think that the quest Gi-jun spoke of might not be a mere delusion.

“I no longer get hurt by silver… but the problem is, now I can’t undo the transformation even when there is no moonlight…”

“So instead of returning to being human, you ended up overcoming the weakness you possessed as a werewolf.”

“Ugh.”

“Wow—daebak! This is huge, Leader!”

Armilka hopped up and down on the spot and cheered.

“If we can just extract useful information here, all of us will make a fortune! I’m so glad we didn’t kill him, the Leader is a genius! A genius!”

“Ha.”

At the sight of Armilka, who had been criticizing Gi-jun’s actions as if she couldn’t understand them, instantly changing her attitude like flipping her palm, Hervunt exhaled a sigh of genuine contempt.

Only then could Gi-jun be sure that Hervunt truly had no interest in Armilka.

“Tell us more, Gin. How does your acquisition of new potential as a werewolf relate to the attack of those guys?”

At Hervunt’s questioning, which sounded a bit sharp, Gin clenched his fists even tighter.

“That is… I don’t know the details either, but they said those guys are also conducting research.”

“Research to become human?”

“Research to surpass the Vrykolakas.”

“Pfft.”

Armilka sneered this time as well.

“No matter how much they grow, hybrids who can’t even surpass the pure blood of a Vrykolakas are doing what? Surpassing the primordial wolf that turned them into wolves?”

“You know quite a lot.”

“I detest werewolves, so since they are enemies, I must analyze them all the more thoroughly! Speaking as such a werewolf expert, for those who became werewolves by being bitten by a Vrykolakas to say they will surpass the Vrykolakas makes about as much sense as a werewolf saying they will return to being human!”

“They, too, are said to have found a method.”

“Oh?”

To Armilka, who wore a suspicious expression, Gin spoke with a look of firm resolve.

“It’s… cannibalism. Specifically, the heart.”

“…I listened for nothing.”

“Indeed.”

The party members grimaced all at once.

This meant that Gin was currently being targeted as a sort of elixir by the werewolves who wished to take revenge on the Vrykolakas.

One thing was certain: if they kept this fellow with them, there would be no need to search around for prey in this ruin.

* * *

Deep inside the dungeon, Ye-min’s party was battling the boss of the “Gnolls,” muscular humanoid monsters with heads resembling hyenas.

There were two bosses in total, a Gnoll Centurion and a Gnoll Guardian defending that Centurion, and besides them, there were nearly dozens of Gnolls of various classes attacking the group in a further strengthened state under the Centurion’s orders.

First, Ji-hye’s wide-area magic nearly wiped out the Gnolls, and then they charged; Eun-shin and Ye-min quickly cleaned up the remaining ones and advanced to mark the Gnoll Guardian.

Mok-su blocked the Gnoll Centurion to prevent him from doing anything unnecessary, while in the meantime, Ji-hye attacked the Guardian with her precise and powerful sniper-use magic, “Lightning Spear”—and finally, Ye-min’s longsword mercilessly executed the Guardian, whose opening had been exposed.

Now, only the Gnoll Centurion remained, but even though it was a boss monster, its vitality was transcendentally tough, causing them a lot of trouble.

“Kieeeek!”

“Ah, seriously persistent!”

Eventually, a giant flame shot by Ji-hye as she shouted roughly engulfed the fellow’s head.

A dagger thrust with all of Eun-shin’s might lodged itself into the heart of the fellow who was holding out while letting out a blood-curdling scream.

Subsequently, the sword swung by Ye-min succeeded in slicing the fellow’s neck and sending it flying into the air.

“Pant, pant…”

Confirming that the fellow had died and the experience points had entered, Ye-min sat down nearby, showing signs of exhaustion which was rare for her.

Eun-shin also crouched down on the spot upon realizing that the battle was completely over, and let out a sigh as he muttered in a complaining voice, which was rare.

“It was incredibly tough. Wasn’t its grade alone around Legendary?”

“You saw the message pop up; it wasn’t Legendary, it was Unique… Didn’t they say the boss of this dungeon was definitely Rare grade? Did the guild seriously deceive us like this because we are humans?”

“No, even so, it makes no sense for the guild to deceive its own members, Noona… Couldn’t a grade evolution have occurred by chance? They said there were no recent clear records.”

Amid Ye-min and Eun-shin conversing in low voices, Mok-su, who had endured the Centurion’s attacks alone until the long battle ended, also managed to put down his hammer only then as he let out a sigh.

“Fuuu…”

“Uncle Su!”

Worried about Mok-su, Ji-hye scurried over to him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine, though I had a hard time because the attacks were incredibly heavy. But this bastard kept biting so much, despite not even being a wolf.”

“It bit you?”

Since a Gnoll had the head of a hyena, it could perform biting attacks as much as it wanted.

It could do so, but… hearing Mok-su’s words, Ji-hye somehow grew a bit anxious.

“Uncle, let me see the wound.”

“Oh! No, this girl, the saying that boys and girls should not sit together after the age of seven—”

“Stop imitating a useless old-timer and take it off already!”

Upon finally stripping off the leather armor Mok-su wore and checking the wound, Ji-hye’s face hardened.

To prepare for any contingency, she pulled out holy water she had bought at a high price from the temple, and meticulously applied it to Mok-su’s wound.

Then, with a sizzling sound, black blood welled up from the wounded area and burned away.

Only then did Mok-su also realize that his bite wound was nothing ordinary, and his expression turned grave.

“…What was that?”

“A vampire.”

Ji-hye muttered in a low voice.

“The Gnoll Centurion, the dungeon boss, had become a vampire. Secretly, without anyone knowing until now.”

It was the moment when Ye-min’s party also obtained a clue about the invasion of the vampires that had started from the other side of the country.