Chapter 69
"Huff... huff..."
Heavy breathing echoed through the air.
After escaping the forest, Dantalian spoke.
"This expedition was a failure."
Though a smile still lingered on his face, the atmosphere was far from pleasant.
Blood continued to drip from his severed ear.
Even as a demon, he seemed to feel pain - his eyes twitched visibly.
First Seere, now this - it felt like every time they met that human, demons lost body parts.
At least unlike Seere, it was just an ear this time.
While inconvenient, it wouldn't affect combat ability at all.
"There are truly many powerful ones in the human realm. I never expected someone of that caliber to be living in such a forest."
"... Indeed."
Harold nodded slightly in agreement. Then he briefly recalled Yor's final form - that crimson spear and the thick killing intent he radiated.
His opponent's demeanor when facing a life-or-death battle was like that of a fierce beast.
Even Harold, who prided himself on his difficult life experiences, had flinched momentarily at that pressure.
The fact that he could wound a demon was proof enough of his skill.
Of course, they could handle him if needed.
"What shall we do? Gather more forces? For altar-related matters, other branch leaders besides myself would lend their strength."
"No need. Given how things turned out, we'll put searching for the altar in the forest on hold for now."
There were too many variables. Thanks to Andromalius's arm they had a rough direction, but that was it.
They didn't even know if it was inside that cave or beyond it.
Better to find it later. They couldn't commit too many forces in such uncertain circumstances.
Losing them would be quite troublesome.
The interesting thing was that this thought came from Dantalian, not Branch Leader Harold.
The demon was actually worried about troop losses.
Harold found more than a few things puzzling.
"Lord Dantalian. Pardon my presumption, but why did you allow the stream to be turned on?"
"Why, for publicity of course."
His face shifted and writhed. Even with one ear severed, the transformation didn't stop.
Though that wouldn't regenerate the ear.
"Though it played out differently than I intended... originally I planned to show your group to gather more followers."
"I see... But we already have many followers. There's no need for you to go to such lengths, Lord Dantalian."
"No. We need more. Far more than we have now."
Harold observed Dantalian for a moment. A strange fervor burned in his eyes.
Harold carefully asked.
"What exactly are you planning...?"
"I intend to build a kingdom."
Dantalian's black eyes grew unfocused, as if gazing at something far beyond what was before him.
"So that when my king descends one day, he can easily claim this world. A kingdom that humans cannot easily challenge."
"......"
Harold silently nodded. Though an ambitious dream, it wasn't impossible.
It wasn't a bad idea even for him, who desired immense power.
"Let's go. Other altars will appear soon anyway. We have much to do until then."
With that, they leisurely returned to their hideout.
*
As mentioned before, the NPC called Yor was quite famous on the internet.
His outstanding looks, the fact he was "male", and his considerable combat ability.
He was someone who could draw attention in many ways.
But that alone doesn't fully explain his notoriety.
The real reason he attracted so much attention was quite simple.
It was the fact that an able-bodied "male" lived in that dangerous Forbidden Forest.
Why was an NPC there? Why didn't he enter the city?
Why live in the dangerous, uncomfortable forest instead of enjoying comfortable city life?
From the moment he appeared in the game, people raised countless questions and made numerous speculations. Many were quite plausible.
But without the person himself speaking up, they remained just hypotheses.
Then suddenly, the answer popped up in a stream.
The fact that he was a Manifestor with demon's blood.
The stream was already trending in communities because of Dantalian.
Viewer counts were rising rapidly. They spiked even higher when Dantalian and Yor faced off.
They peaked during the actual battle.
By the time the stream ended, viewers had reached nearly 30,000.
That's a number that usually requires multiple big streamers collaborating.
Though the stream was forcibly ended by her superior, it was incredibly successful.
Sure, over half were probably trolls because of her Lemegeton background... but still, those were impressive numbers.
With so many people watching, naturally the communities were filled with talk about Yor. After all, beyond just the "demon's blood" revelation, this stream had shown quite a lot.
Without exaggeration, the entire Evil Gallery community seemed to be discussing him.
+
[I knew his level was high but]
He's seriously insanely strong
How the hell do you even go toe-to-toe with that demon bastard...?
+
[He even pushed him back at the end wow]
[At that level isn't he seriously Knights' Order Commander tier?]
[ㄴ You think a Commander looks like a joke? lololol]
[ㄴ Then you think Yor looks like a joke?]
[ㄴ Well he is a dick.. lol]
+
[What was that technique where he coated his spear with clumped blood?]
That's seriously the first time I've seen anything like that in this game, what even is it?
How the hell did it pierce that shield that dozens of users couldn't break?
+
[I'm a mage and it seems similar to some black magic]
[ㄴ If I learn that magic can I do that too?]
[ㄴ But that's just moving blood, I don't know about strengthening and coating with it;]
[ㄴ Stop getting my hopes up]
+
[This gif looks so badass though]
(Photo)
His flesh got torn by magic but he still counterattacks wow
Does he not feel pain...?
+
[Oppa is so tough, so cool]
[True man approved]
[It's kinda brutal to watch but damn he's got guts, how did he think to push in there?]
[ㄴ I fell for him again today..]
The first comments were about the battle scenes.
They were the most visually striking and direct.
By now, users' levels had caught up to NPCs.
But that didn't mean they could compete with superhumans. That realm was still far out of reach.
That's why battles between powerful beings made for great content. Beyond just being impressive, there was much to learn from analyzing them deeply.
+
[Isn't this basically revealing Dantalian's weakness?]
The magic is annoying but if you can just break through that, he's got nothing
That seems pretty doable
+
[You think YOU can break through?]
[ㄴ The important thing is we know HOW to catch him now, idiot]
[ㄴ I won't do it, other people will catch him]
Posts like these.
But ultimately, the most common topic was about the "demon's blood".
Users now knew about "demon's blood". There had been enough events and casualties by now.
They knew how dangerous they were, and how NPCs viewed them.
To Gaians, Manifestors were criminals who deserved immediate death. They were like ticking time bombs.
Since there was no way to cure them.
For humanity's safety, eliminating Manifestors on sight was considered natural.
Some with extreme views didn't even see them as human. They just saw them as demon spawn or minions.
I understand.
Their lives depend on it. Medieval mindsets probably played a role too.
But unlike them, those who could view the world from a step back.
And those who could see different perspectives through the internet could feel something different.
+
[So Yor's been hiding in that forest his whole life?]
Living in the city would mean death if discovered
So he's just been surviving quietly in the forest?
Wow... that can't have been easy
+
That something was sympathy.
*
Maybe it was because this was the third time burning down that goblin camp.
The goblins' intelligence seemed to have increased noticeably. Who would've thought they'd coat the outside of their wooden houses with mud for fire prevention.
It caught me off guard at first. Their determination to not fall for the same trick three times was palpable.
But that wasn't enough to escape the hands of an experienced arsonist like me.
If mud makes it hard for fire to catch, then just scrape off all the mud before setting the fire.
Fortunately, the half-witted goblins didn't have the technical skills to build a complete mud house.
Working secretly at night took some time, but I was able to set their camp on fire again.
Seeing the absolutely furious goblins was a bonus.
I felt a bit sorry for them... but this would help them notice danger more easily.
"Phew..."
And so security was tightened.
After that, what I did was thorough preparation.
I still couldn't leave home.
I should leave right away, that's true, but there was too much to prepare.
I hadn't finished organizing everything in storage yet, and finding new lodging would be work too.
Of course, if a raiding party suddenly stormed in I'd have to run... but not yet.
The waning moon was only days away, I couldn't just move randomly.
Two days passed like that.
It reminded me of when Im Ha-neul first discovered my identity.
I heightened security severely then too. Now wasn't much different.
It had been quite nerve-wracking two days.
Even sleeping at night, I had to worry about someone breaking in. Thank goodness for the heightened hearing the unicorn gifted me.
Time passed like that, and finally someone came to the forest.
The first visitors since Dantalian left.
Step, step.
Hearing approaching footsteps, I raised my guard to the maximum.
Fortunately the numbers seemed small. Two people at most.
I tracked them to find out why they came.
What I found were two female Otherworlders.
Both faces I'd never seen before. But I didn't sense any hostility towards me either.
"...What do you want?"
The odd thing was, they looked ready to cry as soon as they saw me.
Like they were looking at something pitiful. Exaggerating a bit, it seemed like they might shed tears if I so much as touched them.
Then the two women held something out to me.
"Please take this."
It was bread. Modern-looking, savory sausage bread at that. Various other breads were packed in a paper bag too.
"Sniff, We brought it since you seemed to like bread. Stay strong, okay?"
With those words, they turned and went back the way they came.
They didn't ask anything or try to harm me. As if giving me bread had been their only purpose.
"...What was that?"
I stared blankly in the direction they'd disappeared.
For some reason, it left me with an oddly unpleasant feeling.