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Chapter 11

For that reason, I had picked a landing spot while I was still hanging on to the boulder.

After rising into the air, I made sure to land on the spot I had picked out and immediately began running.

The path on the cliff shook from my impact and began to crumble. 

Rumble...!

This path had clearly been unstable from the start.

“It’s collapsing!”

Only now did they realize what my previous shout had meant, and they began to run after me.

“R-run!”

I didn’t even need to turn around.

I could feel the path starting to crumble under us.

It wasn’t a landslide, but the scale wasn’t small either. If anyone was swept up in it, we wouldn’t even be able to find their bones.

I could feel them really close behind me. They seemed to be quite frustrated.

“Can’t you run a bit faster?!”

“No. This is my max speed.”

“Keuk...”

Seeing these knights get so flustered made me feel pretty good. Even though I was panting, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh as I ran. 

Behind me, the knights and Arzan quickly followed. Like this, we continued to run for our lives until we were off the cliff path.

***

The various attributes of the Strongest Technique in History each had their own strengths and weaknesses.

For example, Eldest Senior Brother’s Burgeoning Forest Technique was a very simple martial art.

Its specialty was its directness; just like a huge tree that shoots upward, it was strongest when it could ignore all the small branches and focus on one thing.

But that was only one type of technique.

The Dark Steel Demon Prohibition Technique that Second Senior Brother had learned and the Thousand-Faced Indestructible Technique that Fourth Senior Brother had learned each had their own specialties as well.

So what was the greatest strength of my Strongest Fire Technique?

It was my recovery.

One could ask what fire had to do with recovery, but I had heard before that fire represented the revival of one’s soul... or something like that.

In any case, just by learning this technique, my regeneration speed had increased greatly, and this regeneration didn’t just apply to healing wounds.

It showed the greatest effect during physical training: because it amplified my metabolism, my exhausted muscles rapidly recovered, meaning the time it would take me to train this body was greatly reduced.

That was why I was climbing the mountain without using internal energy.

Of course, it wasn’t without drawbacks.

Firstly, the pain that my body had to endure was beyond imagination. It was honestly better while moving; every time I stopped to rest, a side effect of the rapid regeneration was that my entire body felt like it was being ripped apart.

Secondly, my food consumption was increased. I scratched my head as I thrust my plate toward Osel.

“Another one.”

“...I believe you have eaten enough.”

“I’m in a growth period, so I need to eat a lot.”

“We need to conserve our food supplies.”

“Why? If we run out, we can just hunt wild animals.”

Hearing that, Osel let out a sigh.

“...Young master, we are knights, not hunters. And do you think hunting wild animals is that easy? In a way, it is much harder than killing monsters.”

“...”

Although I didn’t like his tone, he wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t an easy task to hunt mountain beasts at all.

Also, this mountain was riddled with monsters. The animals that lived here were probably much more observant and sensitive than normal beasts.

I guess I’ll have to pick some fruit or something if it gets to that point.

But that was a bit...

For recovering energy, meat was perfect. But given Osel’s reaction, I didn’t think I would be able to easily get more food from him.

I held on to my regret as I chewed on a piece of jerky.

“Also, you said that there would be monsters around the entrance as well, but it’s quieter than I expected.”

Arzan, who was standing next to me, nodded in agreement.

“That’s true. We might be able to finish this entire trip without seeing a single one.”

“Ah.”

If you say that—

Roar!

Suddenly, out of the brush, a monster appeared in front of us.

* * * * *

* * * * *

The obstacle one encountered most while living as a mercenary was not humans but monsters.

Of course, as someone who had lived as a mercenary for a few years, I had fought a lot of monsters.

The one in front of me right now was among them.

With an unintelligent-looking face and primitive clothes, this monster, known for its regeneration, was considered somewhat high-ranking among green skins.

A troll.

In all, five trolls appeared before us, and as I came face to face with these monsters, I realized why the Gem Mountains were a forbidden area.

These things are huge.

The word “normally” generally shouldn’t be used to describe monsters, but at least for trolls, they “normally" didn’t exceed three meters in height.

These trolls looked at least 50 percent bigger than the ones I knew.

Now, 50 percent might not seem like much, but if trolls were normally three meters, that meant these were four or five meters in height. There were monsters the size of houses running around.

“Prepare for battle!” Osel loudly shouted, and the knights took their formation.

Maybe because they sensed our battle spirit as well, the trolls decided to charge toward us.

Roar!

I want to fight against one of them as well.

Even though my body was thoroughly exhausted, I could still take at least one of them.

My body was itching because I wanted to use the White Sun Form, but I figured neither the knights nor Arzan would allow me to fight, so I decided to just enjoy the fight as a spectator.

This was an opportunity to see the famed Fang Knight Order in action.

Blue energy surrounded the knights’ swords.

Fschwoo!

That was a mana blade. Anyone who called themselves a knight could use it.

However, the intensity of the blue flame that flickered around the blade showed their level. The flame grew more transparent the denser the mana was.

“Make fewer unnecessary attacks! We’ll finish this in one strike!”

I was a little surprised by Osel’s order. It was quite difficult to kill a troll in one strike.

Of course, as a high-ranking monster, their leather was thick, and their bones were dense as well. Their regeneration made it all the more tricky.

However, difficult didn’t mean impossible.

Just like any other living organism, even a troll would die if an attack struck its brain or heart.

Osel’s order was difficult but precise.

But...

Despite his precise order, I noticed a weakness in the knights’ formation. Maybe they hadn’t noticed due to the intensity of the battle?

Suddenly, a troll pushed through that weak point and broke the formation.

“Oh no!”

“Be careful!”

As the knights shouted in embarrassment, I saw the troll running at me while roaring.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something swiftly move forward.

Slash!

I saw a flash of steel, and the troll stopped moving.

Although its outward appearance showed no change, I could see a small hole had appeared in its throat.

“Grrk...”

The gurgling of blood could be heard.

Looking to my side, I could see Arzan holding a very thin dagger.

“Butler, you’re pretty good?”

“I am not deserving of such praise.”

I wasn’t being sarcastic, I was genuinely impressed, but I ended up needing to say something as I saw her put her dagger back.

“But it looks like your experience only comes from sparring.”

“Pardon?”

“A troll won’t die from just that.”

Roaaaar!

As the troll got up and charged toward us again, I spun the ring on my middle finger. It was the artifact I had brought from the mansion, the Ring Sword.

As dim light surrounded the ring, it quickly changed into a clean sword. 

I took a big step forward and stabbed the sword into the hole in the troll’s neck, into the wound created by Arzan.

Blood flowed out of the troll’s neck once more. Its eyes became bloodshot as it stared me down before blood started to pour out of them as well.

But since it had been attacked in a critical spot two times in a row, there was no way it could hold on. The troll fell to the ground.

Boom!

One shouldn’t become complacent when facing a troll. There was the possibility that it could be a mutant, so I stabbed it in its weak point several more times, ending the fight for sure.

As I was cleaning off the blood that had splashed on my face, the knights finished up their battle.

Belatedly, Osel ran toward me.

“Young master?”

He looked genuinely worried and rushed.

“Ah.”

I remembered what had happened on the cliff path before this fight.

The path had collapsed suddenly.

Even though I had been tired, it wasn’t to the point that I would lose my footing.

It wasn’t odd that Arzan hadn’t been able to catch me, but what about the knights behind me?

They would’ve seen me stumble, and they hadn’t been that far away from me either. If they’d wanted to, they probably could’ve grabbed me before I fell.

Of course, I hadn’t been certain, so I’d held on to the thought because I could’ve been wrong.

However, something similar had happened again: the weakness in the knights’ formation.

Compared to the knights’ rapid response, the opening had been too obvious.

As I’d stated before, I had an annoying habit: I always expected the worst. At this moment, a seed of doubt sprouted as a face appeared in my mind. 

Fourth Senior Brother was a master of dirty tricks, plans, schemes, all sorts of underhanded things... including psychological warfare.

I remembered a phrase that Fourth Senior Brother had said a lot: “Smile for your friends, and smile more for your enemies.”

Osel finally reached me. “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding shocked.

Following my senior brother’s advice, I smiled.

“I’m fine.”