Chapter 8
At last, I was clashing with the troublesome undead horde... and its boss, the Ghoul Head.
The horde consisted entirely of Wights, the most common monsters in 〈Magic World〉.
They were rotten corpses revived as monsters after tainted mana took hold of them.
There were nearly thirty of them, but they were all Wights—no other monsters among them.
I was relieved, for the moment.
In 〈Magic World〉, it was common for a troublesome monster to be lurking unnoticed among a group.
And then there was the boss, the Ghoul Head.
“Gwoooooooh!”
It was a gigantic green zombie head with legs and thick arms sprouting from it.
Its appearance was almost comical, but its ungainly shape only heightened my disgust and revulsion.
“...The club it’s holding doesn’t look like anything special, either.”
I checked the club the Ghoul Head was carrying, just to be safe, and felt relieved.
Sometimes monsters like that possessed ridiculously rare items, albeit at a low probability.
In a game, that could be chalked up to the developers’ sense of humor, but this was different.
Being wiped out by some freak occurrence like that was the last thing I needed.
“All right, Tail, Paul! Come with me as my vanguard! The rest of you, just thin out the Wights as best you can!”
Goutan said, then charged forward with his axe ready.
Tail, the Red Mage, and a swordsman who seemed to be Paul followed him.
...Watching Goutan’s slapdash command made me uneasy.
Well, I’d get to work reducing the number of Wights.
I didn’t want to fight the Ghoul Head at my current level, and I’d only get in Goutan’s way.
“Let’s take out that big face’s minions as quickly as possible.”
I said that to the adventurers around me.
“A-Are we really going to charge into that many monsters? Even if they’re Wights, they’ll get a hit in if they catch us off guard. I thought Goutan-san would scatter them, but it looks like he’s going to focus on the boss...”
One of the adventurers said to me hesitantly.
Ah, so that was why they seemed so reluctant...
This was everyone’s first time facing a horde of monsters.
Especially undead, with their creepy appearance—and their commander had charged ahead without giving proper orders. I could understand why they were hesitant.
There were seven of us here.
Still, I wanted to operate independently.
“It’d be best to split into two groups of three. If you cover each other’s backs, you shouldn’t have much trouble against Wights. I’ll work alone and draw their attention, keeping as many of them as possible from heading your way. How does that sound?”
“O-Okay. We’ll do that...”
None of the adventurers objected.
The others, like Tail, had looked down on me on the way here, but seeing how calm I was now, they must have wanted to rely on me.
“If anything unexpected happens, let your companions know right away. I’ll come help, too.”
We charged into the Wight horde.
I was on my own, so I was quickly surrounded by Wights, but they were low-level monsters to begin with.
On top of that, undead tended to be slow, with many making large, exaggerated movements.
“〈Parry〉! 〈Parry〉!”
I darted around, parried their blows with my sword, and threw them off balance.
I’d thoroughly studied the timing of Wight attacks in 〈Magic World〉.
And I had the swordsmanship to make full use of my 〈Magic World〉 knowledge.
In this world, a family’s authority was tied to the personal strength of its head.
For all that, I had once been the next head of the Count Edvaughn family.
Deflecting Wight attacks was nothing.
“Good... 〈Parry〉 is working even better than I expected.”
The defensive skill, 〈Parry〉.
It was powerful, but it required you to read your opponent’s attack timing perfectly, so without the knowledge and skill, it was difficult to use properly.
Whether someone could use 〈Parry〉 perfectly made a huge difference in how Heavy Knights were evaluated.
I used 〈Parry〉 to throw the Wight off balance, then struck it with 〈Disarm〉, lowering its Attack.
After that, as usual, I took the hit on my armor and countered.
“〈Rampart Reversal〉!”
The Wight’s right arm, which had swung at me, burst apart and was sent flying with ease.
【You gained 11 experience.】
【Your Level increased from 12 to 13.】
【You acquired 1 Skill Point.】
Yes...!
I wanted to keep leveling up at this rate.
Foes of this level were efficient to hunt in these numbers.
In that respect, this quest was a jackpot.
I kept dodging and parrying their attacks, then landing 〈Rampart Reversal〉.
Before long, nearly ten Wight corpses had piled up.
In 〈Magic World〉, the experience you gained dropped sharply once there was a large level gap, but even so, I was able to level up plenty.
【You gained 4 experience.】
【Your Level increased from 15 to 16.】
【You acquired 1 Skill Point.】
Nice, nice. Things are going smoothly.
That brought my Skill Points to 【5】.
I was looking forward to spending them.
With fewer Wights around me, I checked 〈Status〉.
――――――――――――――――――――
【Edvaughn Elymas】
Class: Heavy Knight
Lv: 16
HP: 29/47
MP: 14/19
Attack: 13+5
Defense: 34+5
Magic: 15
Speed: 15
【Equipment】
〈Low-Rank Soldier’s Sword〉
〈Iron Armor〉
【Trait Skills】
〈None〉
【Normal Skills】
〈Rampart Reversal〉 〈Disarm〉
〈Parry〉
【Titles】
〈The Immovable〉 〈F-Rank Adventurer〉
――――――――――――――――――――
Good, good. I’m leveling up steadily.
“That guy said he was going to draw the Wights’ attention, didn’t he...? He’s taken out most of them by himself.”
“He was a Heavy Knight, right? How’s he parrying them with such agility... and knocking them away with that ridiculous power?”
I heard the other adventurers whispering as they pointed at me.
My stats weren’t especially high compared with adventurers of the same level.
But the Wights were slower, with broad, easy-to-read movements, so I was probably making myself look fast by anticipating their actions and moving precisely.
Even 〈Rampart Reversal〉 was just a skill for farming weak mobs.
It only looked impressive because of the huge Defense boost from 〈Oath of Heavy Armor〉 in the early game.
“...He’s dependable, but now I’m more scared of him than the Wights.”
Hey, I can hear you...
Even so, to be honest, I’m still barely making use of the Heavy Knight’s strengths.
I want to get my Level high enough that I can allocate Skill Points with a little more freedom.