The sound of metal colliding with metal. Screams of pain and roars of anger. And a fountain of blood that covered my vision.
Pshwoo!
«Ack, my eye!»
I quickly wiped the blood from my eye to regain my vision sooner. Once I did, I took a look around. As in the coming-of-age ceremony, I didn't have time to close my eyes and organize my thoughts.
This was because he was in the middle of a battlefield.
«Ack-!»
«Stop them! Make them back up! They will all die if you let them pass!»
The monsters fell on us like waves, and the hundreds of humans contained the monsters.
What the hell is this...?
I hurried to analyze the situation. I had entered what we assumed was the crack in Basement One Plant, and when I opened my eyes, it was there.
The village chief, the archbishop, Gahuin, Erwen... The allies I had entered with were nowhere to be found, and only the sight of dying humans filled my vision.
I needed more information.
It happened when I came to that conclusion and I was assimilating more of my surroundings.
«Bjorn Yandel...! Wake up! Is this how you're going to die?!»
The man whose eyes I met shouted at me as he drew a sword from a monster he had stabbed.
I could communicate with him.
That part was surprising, but something else surprised me even more.
«Bjorn...Yandel...?»
This guy knew my name.
What was that about? At least I could tell he wasn't my enemy, so was he an allied NPC? But I've never seen a crack like this.
«Damn, you don't even know your name anymore...!».
The man frowned as the monsters pierced the gaps and charged towards me.
«Control yourself! Do you want to die here?», he shouted before standing between me and the monsters.
Thanks to that, my mind began to clear.
It seems like it's an NPC friendly.
Humans were not my enemies.
Shortly after, I realized what I had to do.
«What are you doing with that big body you have?! Move your hammer now...! Kill those monsters and save our allies!»
I needed to kill those monsters first. I could try to learn something else after that.
Like, for example, what I had to do in the future.
«Behel-»
Oh, maybe I shouldn't do that? Just in case?
«Uwaaaaaah!»
Instead of the barbaric battle cry, I simply screamed as loud as I could and ran forward. Since the monsters didn't seem high-ranking, I didn't use gigantization on purpose.
Crunch!
Still, the Troll's head was crushed with a single blow from my hammer.
«What the hell...!» The man, who was holding back his own Troll, looked at me wide-eyed in surprise. «You... Were you hiding your true strength?».
His words conveyed fear and respect. Honestly, I felt something similar.
...did I shoot him dead?
Feeling that something was wrong, I hit another Troll next to me with my hammer.
Crunch!
This time too, the Troll exploded in one fell swoop like jelly. The truth is that it surprised me a lot.
What the hell...?
Why was he so strong?
No, are they weak?
Trolls usually didn't die that easily. Even if their heads were crushed, they were monsters that could regenerate with Super Regeneration. Of course, it was possible to overcome his Super Regeneration with overwhelming instant damage...
I don't think that's possible with my statistics.
So what was happening?
As I continued to hit the waves of monsters with my hammer, the answer came naturally.
It wasn't that the Trolls had become weaker. They still had enough strength to throw at a normal-sized man, and could still use Super Regeneration when his head was damaged.
Crunch!
It was just that I had become absurdly strong.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The monsters fell like autumn leaves with each blow of my hammer. However, that power did not come without a cost.
«...Blood.»
Blood flowed from my barbarian warrior body that had been reinforced with multiple different layers of defense.
Of course, as long as he was alive, he couldn't help but bleed. Furthermore, the blood he was spilling was no more and all he could feel from them were slight pricks.
...Am I bleeding because a Troll bit me?
But a serious problem had occurred with my body.
[Your assigned role is Mercenary. All attack statistics triple, but defense statistics decrease by 70%. Regeneration will increase in relation to lost HP].
I was screwed.
Not just fucked, but mega-fucked.
That was the first thing I realized after checking the changes that had occurred in my body.
Fuck!
In exchange for my damage increasing significantly, my body's resistances also decreased significantly.
«Kyaaaak!»
He couldn't tell what the exact numbers were, but the second phase of Evolutionary Shell, which should be activated by having 350 Physical Resistance, was not activating.
[Your Physical Defense stat is above 70. You gain 50% resistance to sword weapons].
It wasn't just physical resistance either. Even when I used Scale of Greed, I didn't go into Barbarian-Dragon mode.
Simply put, my mana resistance had also dropped quite a bit.
Damn...
The abilities my defense stats used to boost themselves worked at less than half their capacity. Still, I figured I should be grateful that they weren't completely useless.
Run.
My warrior body, which had been much slower compared to that of my allies, moved with much more lightness and agility.
[You have launched Balancing.]
[Your strength is greater than 1200. Deal double damage to enemies with over 90% HP].
With each throw of Swing a great shock wave was created. I realized that its effect had been unlocked.
I'll think about it later.
After finishing my superficial investigation of the changes in my body, I focused my attention on the battle against the monsters.
At this rate, he didn't think it was too difficult to cleanly sweep the monster out of here.
But I don't know what can happen, so let's try to keep as many humans alive as possible.
I fought more actively to protect more NPCs, and my incredible strength came out of my hammer towards these monsters.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The refreshing texture of the clean, powerful blows I hadn't been able to feel while feeding my shield barbarian ran through my hand.
...Maybe he's not so screwed.
I haven't become a useless character like I thought. Still, having to worry about attacks I would normally ignore was starting to build up stress.
Dude... It's a pain, but also something comfortable...
«It's done...!»
«We are alive, we are alive...!»
«SIIIIIIIIIII!»
Just as I was beginning to get used to the body and the battle here, I came to and saw that all the monsters had died and the humans were shouting victoriously and cheering around me.
And now what?
It seemed like he had killed everything he had to kill, but I couldn't get an idea of how this quest would continue. So I didn't meet up with the others and preferred to observe them from a distance.
«Yandel...! Yandel! You're OK?»
A man walked over the corpses of the monsters and approached me. He was the man who had cared about me and tried to protect me when I first opened my eyes here.
Slowly, I replied: «I'm not too badly hurt».
«Okay, that's fine!» The man checked my body before letting out a sigh of relief. However, it seemed like he belatedly had a question for me. «By the way, what was that strength you exhibited before? You're a pretty big guy, so I thought you'd fight well... but I never expected it to be that way!».
«Hey...» How should I respond to him? Should I give him any excuse?
The man seemed to hold back when he saw my hesitation before lowering his head. «Ah... sorry. There must be a reason for someone like you to work as a mercenary».
«Thank you... for your understanding».
«Let's go. Although I want to rest now, we'll have to help clean up if we don't want to look bad in front of those imperials.»
Although our conversation was short, I got two more pieces of information.
Mercenary... and an empire...
What story was this crack trying to tell?
Since I didn't know anything, I followed the man and moved with him. The place we were in looked like the center of a ruined city.
«Priest! This way, Mr. Priest!»
The roads were filled with corpses of humans and monsters. Soldiers were taking the wounded to different places, and someone was walking the streets, desperately shouting for an ally.
«That man...!»
«It was incredible then».
«Even those gentlemen weren't as good as him...»
Although the street was chaotic, just walking down it made them look at me.
I guess it was to be expected considering my performance during the battle... I still didn't know what my decision to keep as many people alive as possible would lead to.
«What are you doing? Start lifting! We have to remove the debris from the road so the horse carts can get in and out! Ah, I guess with your skill, you don't need to worry about what the Imperials think.»
«No, it's okay. Let's work together...»
«A young man with a deep heart. You will become great in the future.»
I didn't know this man's name yet, but I stayed alert and followed his advice to help recovery. During that process, I learned a few more things.
One: We were both mercenaries hired by the empire.
Two: Today was the first time we saw each other, and we shared our names before the battle began.
Three: Fortunately, this man talked a lot.
Simply put, it became much easier for me to obtain information.
«Hah... I haven't worked as a mercenary for long, but this is the first time I've seen such a strange event. Monsters, forming groups to attack the city like this... I don't know what this world is becoming».
«Hey, do you know what year we're in?»
«Hmm? Let's see... Since last year was the year of the moon, this year is probably the year of the sun».
However, although he talked a lot, unfortunately he didn't know much.
«Do you know any more details?» i told. «Like how many years of the year of the sun have been».
«...What kind of mercenary goes around remembering something like that? We are not one of those nobles who take history lessons».
Unlike the old vampire, this mercenary didn't even know what year it was today.
«So what about the emperor's name? You know?»
His alarm silenced him for a second. «Silence! Silence! Do you want to die?»
«No. So you know?»
«Of course, there's no way I didn't know something like that...!»
Okay, so I didn't know. I had the feeling that the other soldiers would respond the same, so I decided to focus on something else. It would be strange if I kept trying to probe him about that.
After working quietly clearing the debris for a while longer, I tried to bring up another topic naturally.
«Do you know how the war against the witch is going?».
At my investigation masked as trivial talk, the man tilted his head in confusion. «Witch? What a witch? Are you saying there are witch women waging war in some other territory?».
«No, I thought I heard something similar. It's okay if you don't know».
It seemed that this period predated the appearance of the witch. If not, it was impossible for him to confuse a witch with a normal magician.
I continued to help with the cleanup and got more information.
«Everyone, stop for a moment!» A knight wearing the mark of the imperial army on his chest suddenly caught the attention of the mercenaries.
A mercenary from the crowd murmured: «Isn't that the guy we saw in the morning?».
«Didn't you know? That guy is already dead».
«Ah, so that's why a new commander... Oops, I'll stay quiet. I don't want them to mess with me at random».
The hundreds of mercenaries closed their mouths and watched in nervous silence as they felt the pressure of the empire.
And then the knight continued saying: «I'm looking for a mercenary named Bjorn Yandel! From what I've heard, he's defeated hundreds of monsters by himself! Has anyone seen it?»
Why are you looking for me?
I instinctively took a step back, but I didn't have time to run away or anything like that. As soon as the announcement was made, everyone's eyes fell on me.
«Ah, so it's you. Could I talk to you for a moment?»
«...Of course.»
I felt a little uncomfortable at the sudden summons, but on second thought, it wasn't something I had to avoid. Since this was a knight, he would probably know more than mercenaries. I was thinking of talking to him to get more information.
«You are a mercenary, correct? I'll tell you directly. I have a request that I wish to make to you».
I couldn't continue with my plan of using small talk to get information naturally.
«Escort a girl. Help her get to her destination».
The moment I heard the knight say those words, the world suddenly turned black.
Hey, what's the point of even asking that question?
I didn't even say I would accept the request.
***
Plip, plop, plop...
He was in a dark cave where the sound of dripping water echoed. Before I could open my eyes, I felt a terrifying presence next to me. Not only presence, but with the intention to kill.
Fwip!
Something swayed in the darkness. The estimated target was near my thighs. Even in the darkness, my barbarian body instinctively clung to what had been thrown at me.
My heavy hands grabbed a thin doll.
«Eup...!»
It seemed that what he had grabbed had caused pain to the other being. I could tell that the sound had been made by something very young.
My location changed after accepting the escort request... So I guess this is the escort's goal.
After quickly coming to that conclusion, instead of retaliating, I tried to speak as calmly as possible. «Calm down. I won't hurt you».
I felt the doll shudder in my hands. And then, after a long moment of silence, a voice was heard again.
«...Eh?»
Did your arm hurt or something?
Once I let go of the doll, a very young voice echoed from the darkness. «Um... Are you S-Sir?»
It was a young voice that sounded several years after puberty. However, both that voice and the words he spoke were very familiar to me.
«Are you Erwen...?»
«Yes! It's me!»
«I don't know what happened, but it's great that we grouped together like this. It's already dark, so let's check the surroundings...»
«Ah, wait. I will do it. But... Sir, you can't be surprised, okay?»
«Surprise me?»
«I just... Yes...»
With those words, a flame too small to illuminate our surroundings appeared from the darkness.
Fwoosh!
I lowered my chin enough to look down and see, then stiffened like a rock when I saw it.
Under the flickering light, Erwen looked at me.
Erwen, in the form of a little boy who looked to be about eight years old.
«You... What about...?». I stammered. «Why do you look like that?».
«I don't know! When I opened my eyes, it was like this...».
It was quite interesting. So this was what she looked like when she was a little girl. But his nose was quite high even when it was...
«Sir...!»
Maybe he was looking at her too much?
Erwen... No, to be precise, Erwen-returned-to-her-childhood... Hmm, that was too long, so we should shorten it to...
«Don't look at me so much!»
Baby Erwen covered her face with her two little hands.
***
[Field-feature effect is in effect.]
[The role assigned to Erwen Fornacci di Tersia is Girl. All statistics are at 10%. All healing and regeneration effects are decreased by 90%. Monsters will not attack this role].