Chapter 22
“Mmm…….”
Just a moment ago, I’d been heading to the bakery to watch Historie munch on a chocolate bun and drop crumbs onto the Knowledge Pouch.
Then my vision suddenly flipped completely.
The lively sights of the imperial capital vanished without a trace.
What I could see was
a bleak landscape, as if a heavy gray filter had been laid over it.
Wild grass stripped of every trace of green, bare and withered trees with not a single leaf, and collapsed, ruin-like buildings.
What is this.
This background looked like it only needed a little color added before Nuka-Cola would pop out of it.
It felt like someone might pop out at any second, whispering, ‘But it’s not as bad as the settlers here, who are being terrorized by raiders,’ and then ping the map.
It was that unreal a scene, so I should have been flustered, but
I was calmer than I expected.
Probably.
It must be thanks to Hector’s Courage, the skill that keeps me composed no matter the situation.
As the old saying goes, even if you’re dragged into a tiger’s den, you can survive as long as you keep your wits about you.
Still, there was one regret.
If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve kept Nureongi’s callus better.
There was no way to dispose of it right away, and since it was a gift, it felt a little wasteful to just toss it anywhere, so I’d put it in a zip bag and left it in the freezer, which now felt a bit regrettable.
Next time, I’ll just carry it around.
Maybe I should make it into a necklace and wear it.
There will be a next time... right?
To reassure myself,
I put my hand in my pocket, took out the die, and rolled it.
Fortunately, I hadn’t used it today,
so I should be able to peek at my future a little.
My decision was ‘to get out of this place alive.’
I checked the result.
“Not bad.”
A five wasn’t great luck, but I could at least call it small fortune.
With a much lighter heart, I looked around and kept walking.
.
.
.
After starting from where I first entered this unfamiliar space and walking a wide circle to take in the surroundings,
all that stretched on was the same ashen scenery,
and, as expected, there was no sign of life.
This was probably a demonic wasteland.
There had been a rift nearby before I got teleported, so I was sure of it.
I never even touched the rift, and yet just getting close enough to it sucked me in like this.
So I’d picked up one of the sturdy, solid gray branches lying around and held it tight.
Though because I’d spent it on skill synthesis, Hercules’ staff technique had already slipped out of my hands.
But from actual combat then, and from swinging it for exercise afterward, I’d learned well enough which trajectory was the ideal one.
Even without borrowing the power of a skill
if I returned to Earth in this state, wouldn’t I become a genius batter who could conquer KBO?
I’d pass on the Giants, though.
That’s a team even Ohtani couldn’t save.
Whoosh──
Whoosh──
I kept taking home-run swings to add a bit of tension to my body, gradually extending my range farther and farther.
And then, at last.
“──!”
“Ugh.”
A black shape that looked like a bear, and clearly extremely hostile to humans, suddenly emerged.
The secret recipe for dealing with bears.
First: maintain a threatening posture and slowly, very slowly, sneak backward.
“──!”
“Ah, shit.”
Failure.
As if armed solely with the resolve to tear me into ㄱ/ㅣ/ㅁ/ㅇ/ㅠ/ㄹ, the bear let out a thunderous roar and started charging at me.
I’m fucked.
There was no angle to run.
And there was nobody who would catch the bear for me.
So...
“Haaah!”
Calmly, I aimed squarely at the head of the charging bear.
and brought the bat down vertically with all my strength.
At that moment,
I felt a surge of vitality in my body, a strength and muscle I’d never had before writhing awake.
It felt as if I could tear a bear apart with my bare hands, not even needing a club.
And then.
“────!!!”
I didn’t feel any impact, but the bear’s head, which had been about to tear me apart and eat me, was crushed into shapelessness.
The headless bear body didn’t go rolling and tumbling around in some goofy way.
It simply melted away as if it had never existed in the first place,
“Ugh.”
and I felt the vitality that had overflowed through my body quietly fade away.
I had already experienced this phenomenon before.
It was exactly the same sensation as when I’d first tried applying Hercules’ staff technique against those punk friends of mine.
[……You will be able, when facing anyone one-on-one, to display capabilities that transcend the utmost potential you possess.]
“I worship you, Lord Hector…….”
I etched into myself the vow that, once I got out of here, I’d do three intense workouts a day, then walked on and on.
until I reached a place that looked even a little safer.
.
.
.
“Agh, shit…….”
I got tossed around like a dog.
Of course, I hadn’t run into anything like the mythical monsters Seraphin had faced, such as Hydra or Talos.
Things that resembled all kinds of beasts, and sometimes even things that resembled humans, sprang out and attacked me.
Fortunately, I hadn’t been hurt anywhere, but every muscle in my body was complaining.
Still...
It was a relief that I’d been working out hard lately.
I even hauled out the indoor cycling machine I’d been using as a clothes rack, endured the glares Historie kept shooting me, built up my leg strength, lifted dumbbells with all my might, and did push-ups too.
Jogging every morning, and sometimes even going out for late-night jogs, I could feel the reward of improving my stamina.
“──!”
“Ah, shit. You startled me.”
I cracked the head of the wolf-like shadow that rushed at me again.
And what I clearly felt was this.
Hector’s Courage was a highly volatile skill.
Against a bear, it made me strong enough to beat a bear.
Against a wolf, it made me strong enough to beat a wolf.
My body got stronger exactly in line with level scaling.
And on top of that, my strength wouldn’t increase unless it was a one-on-one situation.
When I was chased by two wolves earlier, I really thought I was dead.
Anyway,
after all sorts of hardships and adversity, I’d started to get used to this demonic wasteland little by little,
and at last
“Oh.”
A somewhat promising-looking ruin came into view.
Surely there wasn’t some ancient robot sleeping inside, or a mimic or something.
Even so...
My stamina had now reached its limit to some extent.
The branch club that had been my reliable friend was also just about to snap.
And I hadn’t managed to farm any other weapon to replace it.
So.
I needed to take cover there for a moment and observe the situation around me.
As I trudged deeper into the ruins, which oddly gave off a vibe similar to Greek architecture,
[Ἀπόλλων]
As if to confirm my guess, a stone stele engraved with Greek letters came into view.
Unfortunately, my major had been East Asian history, not Western history, so Greek wasn’t on my list of nine languages and I couldn’t read it.
If it had been Latin instead, I would’ve read it perfectly. Tsk.
Beyond that, I drooled over the broken statues that looked like they might have some archaeological value and kept walking deeper in.
“A person...?”
On top of a throne that had completely crumbled, sat a handsome blond man who alone still retained his radiance in this ashen world.
His closed eyes opened.
“Τραγουδήστε την τέχνη.”
“…….”
With a bright smile reminiscent of a golden sun,
he fired incomprehensible alien words at me.
Perhaps having seen my bewildered expression,
“O one imbued with the will of a faithful human. Sing the forgotten memories through art, and the sun shall rise again.”
The golden-sun man whispered those hard-to-understand words in a rather archaic tone.
The moment I opened my mouth to ask something in return,
his body was swallowed by a bright halo and disappeared.
What?
Was that a hallucination?
As I blinked in confusion,
“Uh...?”
bright light began spreading from where the man had vanished.
And then,
white, dark brown, teal, blue.
The shades that had vanished from the world began to color the landscape little by little.
* * *
The road leading to the Great Rift, to return from the demonic wasteland to the imperial capital.
“──!”
“────!”
“I thought I’d definitely taken care of all of them...”
Since there were still a few mana beasts roaming around, more than expected, he kept swinging his sword to cut them down over and over,
he ran on endlessly.
.
.
.
Seraphin had been sprinting full speed for well over two hours, but
“Uh...?”
he found himself forced to stop in his tracks without even realizing it.
Seraphin’s eyes were clouded with suspicion.
Not far from where the Great Rift was,
the place he had tactically designated as the ‘ruins,’ where he had slain the giant serpent that had dealt with every attack with the precision of someone who could see the future.
When he arrived at the place that, like the other demonic wasteland landscapes, should naturally have been dyed gray,
his eyes beheld not gray, but a picturesque landscape tinged with natural color.
Wondering if he had somehow crossed the Great Rift without realizing it, he turned his head back, but the ashen demonic wasteland was still spread out behind him.
Since this was the first time he’d seen such a sight in over three years of roaming the demonic wasteland,
Seraphin unconsciously walked, step by step, as if bewitched, toward the center of the ruins.
And then,
At the center of that vivid natural color,
“Oh! Hero! It’s the hero...!”
Seraphin,
met Kim Yul, who greeted him with an expression far too delighted.