Chapter 7

Ruon immediately stood up from his seat, tightening the straps of his protective gear, and Ransel, who watched him check over his equipment, was taken aback.

"Are you going right now?"

"Is there a reason to delay?"

Ransel, who had been dumbfounded, nodded in agreement. Yes, it would be better to finish quickly.

"Your guide will be a man named Evel. He's in charge of supplying the monastery, so he knows the mountain paths best."

"Where is he?"

At that moment, the door opened, and a man entered. With a somewhat puzzled expression, he scratched his head and spoke.

"...I'm Evel. I was listening from outside, and it seemed like you were talking about me."

Ruon glanced at the awkwardly standing Evel and clicked his tongue.

"Lead the way."

***

The mountain path was quite rugged. The overgrown path clearly showed that people were not accustomed to treading on it. In the first place, Evel, the hunter, was the only one who ventured on this path from the village. Even now, he was moving forward on a path known only to himself. However, there was one difference from usual—there was a large man following behind him.

Evel, who was walking ahead, glanced back and cautiously asked, "Are you okay, mercenary?"

"Call me Ruon."

"Oh, yes, Ruon. Aren't you tired?"

Ruon shrugged his shoulders. "No problems."

Looking at Ruon's face, which didn't even have a trace of sweat, Evel remarked, "You have incredible stamina. When I pass through here, I often find it difficult to catch my breath, but you seem completely unaffected. I guess it wasn't just idle talk when you suggested taking a shortcut, regardless of danger."

Ruon smirked. "I thought a hunter would have at least one path that only he knows."

Despite his imposing appearance, when Ruon continued the conversation quite well, Evel decided to ask about the one thing he had been curious about.

"Um, Ruon, can I ask you something?"

"I don't see why not."

"Well... Are you really a mercenary?"

Evel added, trying to dispel any doubts, "It seems like you came because you heard rumors about demons appearing, not just because of mercenary work."

"Because I looked like a lunatic wanting to die?"

"Oh, no, it's not like that. I mean, I thought maybe you're not someone who moves for money."

Surprised, Evel clapped his hands, and Ruon's smirk widened. He was quite perceptive.

Ruon said, "When I started the game, there were demons in the opening scene. I thought there might be a clue here."

"Game? Opening... What is that?"

"Hopefully there's something here..."

Unable to ask any further, Evel urged them to keep walking. Ruon's eyes, following Evel, grew even colder. Demons...

During the days when he poured everything into survival, demons were beings he couldn't even imagine getting involved with. However, with the accumulated time and his own formidable power, Ruon began to consider demons as a part of his journey.

The first time he had such thoughts was after leveling up in Grungrad.

Seeing the first level-up he had gotten in nearly three months, Ruon accepted that he could no longer grow through ordinary battles. He decided to confront the beings he'd been avoiding.

This visit to the monastery was the starting point. Of course, he had come here based only on the songs and rumors of the bards, so he couldn't confirm their accuracy. However, he would soon find out.

"Ruon, we've arrived."

Evel wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

Ruon, leaving Evel behind, opened the lid of a box. A nauseating stench filled the air as he looked at the rotting food inside. After alternately gazing at the dark gray monastery and the box, he spoke.

"You can go back."

"Ah, can I really?"

Evel hesitated. He seemed quite frightened.

"When you go down, just follow that main road over there."

Ruon didn't mention anything about taking the shortcut.

"See you later."

"Please take care."

After Evel left, Ruon, who was left alone, approached the entrance of the monastery. When he reached the large iron gate, he placed both palms on the gate, shoulder-width apart. Then he firmly pushed his palms forward.

Pushing a locked door like that!

If someone had seen him, they would have thought he was crazy, but the scene that unfolded shortly after was astonishing.

Creak, creak.

The iron chains hanging on the opposite side of the gate screamed. As the veins on Ruon's palm and arm, resembling wriggling earthworms, throbbed, the desperate screams grew louder. The deeper Ruon's toes dug into the ground, the more the gate resisted, but he never backed down.

Creak, creak, bang!

The iron rings surrounding the gate could no longer withstand the tremendous force exerted by the contracted muscles.

Ping, ping, ping!

Doing something so reckless was not due to a lack of options. He could have broken a window to enter, or since it was a fairly large building, he could have found another entrance besides the main gate.

However, Ruon chose the loud method of destroying the gate, wanting to feel his increase in power after recently investing experience points in strength.

People who handle power are sensitive to changes, even if they are small. The result, as expected, was quite satisfying.

Ruon, holding the door handle, pulled and opened the now liberated door. The first thing that greeted him as he entered the building was the earthy smell typical of stone structures.

'It's like the setting of a horror movie.'

Despite not giving off any signs of life, the building exuded an eerie atmosphere that made Ruon mutter to himself. According to rumors, this place was a building where more than twenty people, including nuns and monks, lived. Even if they were playing hide-and-seek, it didn't make sense that it was this quiet.

Ruon placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and cautiously moved forward. As he reached what appeared to be the kitchen, he furrowed his brow at the scene that unfolded before his eyes.

Crimson blood was splattered everywhere. When he saw the broken dishes and shattered objects, it was clear that something significant had happened here. The strange thing was that despite so much blood spattering, there wasn't a single corpse in sight.

An ordinary person would have screamed and fled, but Ruon was no ordinary person. He was a warrior with such formidable power that he couldn't even remember when he had been ordinary.

Ruon calmed his breathing and slowly awakened his senses.

'Suddenly, an indeterminate presence attacked those who were having a meal. In an instant, two fell victim to it. A third person was then attacked. They desperately resisted with a kitchen knife, but quickly succumbed to death after their carotid artery was severed.'

The vivid sequence of events was a fusion of Ruon's heightened senses and imagination. In other words, it was the process of materializing what had occurred with Ruon's keen intuition.

That's why Ruon didn't particularly trust this ability.

It was simply imagination. It was far from the ability to perceive situations like a cheat code, where clues would glow red and the protagonist would understand the situation at a glance just by right-clicking the mouse.

Still, Ruon chose to follow the traces created by his imagination.

Rather than wandering in search of the perfect answer, Ruon's consistent approach over the past few years had been to confront things with what he could immediately use.

Disregarding partially open or closed doors, Ruon boldly pressed forward. Soon, he entered the lobby where the central staircase was visible. There, he found something that stopped him in his tracks.

Right in front of the staircase stood a man wearing torn and tattered monk robes, staring at Ruon with a vacant expression. The hazy, unfocused eyes above his pale face sent shivers down Ruon's spine.

The man approached slowly. Ruon tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

"If you come any closer, I'll strike you down."

Despite the sharp warning, the man did not stop. Instead, an ominous light flickered on his forehead. At that moment, the man's mouth opened wide.

"Grrraaahh!"

With a scream, the man rushed forward. Without hesitation, Ruon swung his sword horizontally. The man's head flew through the air, splattering blood droplets, and landed on the stairs. The headless body staggered for a moment before collapsing.

Approaching the fallen head, Ruon rolled it with his foot and examined the man's forehead. Upon seeing the symbol engraved seared into the skull, Ruon murmured softly.

"Indeed, a demon."