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“Thank you, my lord.” The guard was still dazed.
Field reached out and pulled him to his feet, then thumped a fist against his shoulder.
“Training a proper soldier isn’t easy.
I’m counting on all of you to shed your slave status and become real warriors.
Knights, even.” The guard’s blood ran hot.
He’d always taken Field’s promises as empty talk, the kind of dream a noble dangled in front of commoners for a laugh.
But standing here now, he felt it.
Field was different from the others.
“Charge for Lord Field!” The fervor spread through the group like wildfire.
They swung their halberds and cut through the Rotten Corpses with abandon.
The ones drawn in by the noise were wiped out quickly.
Field did a rough count: over 70.
He started to draw a breath, then immediately regretted it.
The stench hit the back of his throat like a fist, and he snapped his mouth shut.
He muttered to himself: Did the winery really need that many workers?
And when the Empire decided to unleash the Death Smog, why didn’t anyone tell the North to evacuate?
Forget it.
Not my damn problem.
He put the useless questions away and pushed deeper into the winery.
After a while, he found the main brewing room.
He’d been hoping for raw ingredients — rock sugar, wheat, something useful.
What greeted him instead was a bat-woman corpse, eyes locked open, split from neck to groin with brutal force.
The organs were gone entirely.
“This barley’s wasted.” Field noticed what could still technically be called “barley” scattered across the floor.
Ten years had passed, ten years of corruption, and now the grains moved.
Just barely, a slow, crawling twitch, but they moved.
He stared at it with genuine curiosity.
“Maybe corruption isn’t a devil’s curse.
Maybe it’s some kind of special radiation.” “Radiation?” Asina’s brain stalled.
She stood there with a blank, earnest expression, quietly turning the unfamiliar word over in her mind.
Then her face changed.
“Watch out!
Something’s closing in — fast!” Fast enough that Field almost missed the skull icon blinking onto his mini-map.
CLANG!
The guard at the front lurched, eyes snapping to the ceiling on pure instinct.
In the same instant, his shield exploded into fragments.
He flailed at the air and was launched backward. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Where he’d been standing, a monster crouched — something like the Licker from Resident Evil, with a long, whip-like tail and an elongated nose.
Those were the only things left that said rat.
It shrieked and drove its claws straight at Field.
Field felt the gust before he saw the strike.
The claws filled his vision, growing larger by the second.
“Don’t even think about it!” Asina was already moving.
She wrenched the Dragon-seed Wolf between Field and the attack, curling its massive body to cover him completely.
Sparks.
A machine-gun burst of crackling impacts.
The Dragon-seed Wolf took the full strike on its scales and didn’t make a sound.
The monster stared at it, momentarily dumbstruck, then looked down at its own claws.
Those claws had never failed it.
Today, all they had to show for it were two bloodied scales.
The Dragon-seed Wolf raised a paw and batted the Rat Monster flat.
Wildcat and the others piled on immediately, waist knives and halberds rising and falling.
It didn’t matter.
The Rat Monster’s hide was like leather plate, it took the hits, bled a little, and shook them off.
It swung its long limbs in a wide arc and sent seven or eight guards sailing through the air.
These were men in full armor.
Lamellar plate wasn’t light; man plus gear ran over 150 jin.
The creature threw them like they weighed nothing.
“Everyone pull back!
This thing is way out of the normal range.” Field ducked behind his shield and found a corner to crouch in.
“Forgot the damn crossbow.
Against something this thick, ordinary soldiers can’t break through without crossbow bolts.
Leave it to Asina.” The Rat Monster climbed to its feet and reached for the nearest guard, casual as picking up a snack.
“Not happening.” Asina flooded power into her spear, and the air around her surged.
The spear tore through the Rat Monster’s body like a knife through paper and lodged deep in the bone.
If the terrain hadn’t forced her off the Dragon-seed Wolf, that thrust would have punched clean through.
She didn’t have the room.
The Rat Monster screamed and both claws came down.
BOOM!
The Dragon-seed Wolf hit it like a freight train, dead center in the chest.
The attack stopped.
The monster flew back.
Its guard cracked open.
A third-tier Corrupted Creature.
In confined terrain, killing it required a third-tier human with Combat Aura or magic, or a city-defense ballista, at minimum.
Asina’s first-tier Chosen combat power was more than enough to take it apart.
“Glacial Piercing Spear.” Her first time using her Divine Skill.
Starlight pooled in her hands.
A spectral spear took shape, deep blue and roiling, like a river dragon coiled and ready.
She poured everything she had into it, then threw her whole body into the motion: legs to waist, waist to arm, and released.
The Divine Skill hit the Rat Monster dead-on.
Blood erupted.
Bones cracked.
Chunks of flesh tore loose and plastered the wall.
“Phew.” Asina’s face had gone pale.
She was breathing hard.
“Finally.” It had been over in seconds.
But the danger had been very real.
Field let out a long breath.
“Good thing you were here.
That last venison steak is yours.” “Long live the Lord!” Asina’s tail whipped back and forth at full speed.
A thin line of drool escaped before she could stop it.
Every trace of the cold, fierce warrior from moments ago had vanished.
She caught herself, patted her chest, and declared generously, “I only need half.
My lord works hard too.” Field felt genuinely warmed by that.
The mini-map showed the winery was nearly clear.
Just a handful of small skull icons scattered here and there.
To be safe, Field pulled the wounded out first.
He got them patched up, gave the team time to rest, then brought them back in for a thorough sweep.
It was 9 in the evening by the time they reached the final steps.
The winery was a ruin.
Cave-ins everywhere.
Wind leaked through cracks in the stone and stirred up gray dust.
The one thing worth being grateful for: the structure itself was still standing.
They’d turned over the first and second floors completely and found nothing of value, just blackened, rotting timber.
Usable for sheds, maybe, or firewood.
“Below is the wine cellar, my lord.” A guard stepped forward and hauled the heavy cellar door open without bothering to wipe the thick dust off the handle.
A dark staircase dropped away beneath them.
Field swallowed.
He rubbed his hands together, nerves working.
Bodhisattva, God, whoever’s listening, please let there be something useful down here.
In the gloom below, rows of oak sherry barrels were stacked in the dark.
Some had been crushed by cave-ins.
Dried stains covered the floor, and the marks of rats were everywhere.
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