Click. Click.
Inside a dark room, I moved the character on the glowing computer screen with my mouse and keyboard. The Jar Warrior trudged slowly through the dark map.
Why was he so slow?
Hurry up.
Was the game lagging?
“GROOOOAR.”
With an in-game sound effect, the Jar Warrior broke free of his restraints and charged at the green monsters. Game logs scrolled across the bottom of the screen, but I couldn’t read what they said.
Well, when had I ever played while reading that stuff?
The Jar Warrior rushed the goblins on his own and swung his fists and blade like a madman.
“No, what the hell is wrong with this game?”
The background abruptly changed into a forest.
Now he stood beside an NPC companion. The female Druid next to a black cat kept coughing, and a status-effect icon appeared over her head.
What kind of Druid couldn’t even control her own familiar?
She was using the buff spell meant for her familiar on herself.
And where had she found that ball of fluff?
It didn’t even look useful as a meat shield.
This was ridiculous.
She was the most pathetic Druid I had ever seen.
Still, she shot arrows well.
Though she was still worse than an ordinary Archer charac—.
SLASH.
While I was distracted, the Jar Warrior slaughtered the mutant goblins that appeared before him. Just as he was about to finish the last one, a green truck appeared and sent him flying.
The screen focused on the driver of the truck that had struck the Jar Warrior.
Was that a Golden Goblin behind the wheel?
“What kind of bullsh—”
HOOOOONK—!
At the sudden blare of a horn, I turned my head. Headlights blinded me as something bore down on me.
***
“…up. Wake up!”
“YOWL-!”
I frowned at the cat’s cry beside my ear and opened my eyes. My shaking vision gradually steadied.
What was happening?
The urgency of reality and the pain throughout my body erased the dream I had just been having.
‘It was probably just a fucking nonsense dream.’
Rion aimed the Hand Crossbow forward with one hand while using Green Magic to heal me with the other.
So she knew a recovery spell in addition to the Purification Spell.
She secretly knew more than she let on.
Mana repeatedly burst from the tip of her staff. Green particles of light touched my body and sank into it. Each time, my condition improved slightly.
After she repeated it about twice, the Mana at the end of her staff faded, apparently because she was running low.
I rose and identified what had sent me flying.
It was a goblin covered in sackcloth.
However, even while hunched over, the mutant Hobgoblin was around the size of an ordinary person, and its entire body was packed with muscle. Its legs had reverse-jointed knees, and it appeared to move on all fours.
Seeing in four dimensions the creature I had only ever viewed as pixel graphics on a computer screen gave it an overwhelming presence.
I knew this monster.
Because of its low intelligence, its only attack was a body slam. But in this place, that alone was more than enough.
It wasn’t nicknamed the Tank Grinder for nothing.
It simply crushed low-level tanks together with their shields.
At the moment, it was stroking a trembling goblin and trying to calm it. Yet every time its hand touched the Shieldbearer Goblin, the creature shook even harder, as though it might suffer a seizure.
“W-We’re in trouble.”
The light flowing from Rion’s staff went out when I stood.
Ah, she could’ve healed me a little more.
My back was still stiff.
A spirit made of gray wind appeared beside Rion again, then vanished with a rush.
“Right. We don’t even have a proper tank—”
“No. That’s not it. We’re being surrounded.”
Rustle. Rustle.
At Rion’s words, I looked around and saw moving shadows. When I concentrated, I heard countless noises.
Bushes and branches shook as though wind were blowing through a reed field.
The good news was that it was happening in the distance.
The bad news was that it was coming from the direction of the portal.
“Goblins are closing in on us from the portal and the Canyon’s side path.”
The mutant turned toward us.
It looked ready to charge like a bison at any moment.
What if we fled to the observation post to escape the creatures surrounding us?
It would catch us immediately and put on a show of tearing off our limbs with those brutal hands.
Even if we succeeded, I had a feeling this life would end with us trapped up there, unable to do anything until we withered away.
If we ran now, dozens of goblins and that mutant would chase us.
But if we fought the mutant immediately, could we win?
I doubted I could defeat it without suffering serious injuries.
And if the encircling goblins arrived during the fight, we would simply die like dogs.
What if we killed it quickly and fled?
Could I do it even if I used every magic jar I had left?
Without a system window, I couldn’t estimate their power.
The only way to find out was to use them and see for myself.
“Grrrrrrk.”
The mutant growled in a voice that seemed to rise from the bottom of a cave.
“Rion.”
“…Yes.”
As expected of a different race that kept its promises.
She didn’t flee even in this situation.
If she had eyes, she could surely see my legs trembling.
Wouldn’t a human NPC have already abandoned me and run?
‘Running away would’ve been the better outcome.’
A human NPC probably would’ve put a bolt through my leg with the crossbow in their hand before fleeing.
How did I know?
Experience.
Though it had happened while I was playing the game.
“Use Wind Path one more time.”
“Wait, my Mana—”
“Grrrrrrk.”
The mutant braced its hind legs against the ground and raised its rear. At the same time, it lowered its upper body and scraped the earth with its forelegs.
“Please!!!”
“GRAAAAAH-!”
The mutant roared and charged us. Several meters vanished in a single bound.
I pulled a jar glowing with an ominous ink-black light from my crossbody bag. An ornament shaped like a human skull had been carved onto its surface.
Whooosh.
A faint gray current followed the [Curse Jar] thrown from my fingertips.
Tap. THUMP. WHOOSH.
The mutant jumped sideways to avoid the jar falling near its feet, then immediately planted a foot against the side of a tree. Its thighs swelled until the veins looked ready to burst.
What felt like two seconds—but was actually only a fraction of one—passed before the mutant kicked off the tree.
CRASH—!
The tree bent as though it might snap, and the creature shot toward us like a cannonball.
SMASH—!
However, the brief moment it had spent taking off gave the jar time to curve along the Wind Path and strike the mutant.
The jar exploded.
Wrapped in black mist, the creature became paralyzed and fell, scraping across the ground.
Yet its enormous body continued hurtling toward us.
“Damn it.”
I shoved Rion aside and thrust a blade toward the creature.
CRACK.
GRRRRRIND.
I drove a dagger I had collected as loot into the mutant’s chest. I pushed against it with both arms, but I was the one being forced backward.
I held my ground while carving a trench roughly two or three meters long.
The moment I stabbed it, I understood.
If I fell here, it would crush me to death.
“C-Crazy.”
I had survived its charge, but I couldn’t celebrate.
The mutant wasn’t dissolving into light.
Only its paralyzed eyes moved, glaring as though they wanted to kill me.
Before long, its body twitched.
It was already breaking free?
From the [Curse Jar], made using the Cursed Bone Awl, which was practically an Artifact?
How high was this bastard’s Magic Resistance?
“Just die already!”
STAB! STAB! STAB!
I drove the dagger, hand axe, knife, broken spearhead, and other weapons hidden in my bag into the paralyzed creature’s body.
Yet it continued glaring at me.
‘This isn’t going to work.’
“Run!”
I grabbed Rion’s hand and sprinted toward the Canyon.
***
We ran.
We ran without looking back.
If we hesitated even for a moment, we would be crushed.
That wasn’t merely a feeling.
CRASH! SPLINTER.
A tree we had just passed snapped and fell. Beside it, the mutant advanced with its eyes glowing, dragging streams of dark, dead-looking blood.
We ran blindly.
I didn’t know where to go.
How were we supposed to survive this?
‘The Orcs? Should we go to them?’
Forget it.
The Orcs were only at war with the goblins. They were still monsters that killed humans.
They would kill the goblins along with us.
I abruptly changed direction and ran away from the road. Although this wasn’t as dense as the forest, plenty of rocks and trees stood here and there.
“GROOOOAR-!”
The weapons I had collected as loot over the past several days were visible in the roaring mutant’s chest.
Every weapon I had driven into it was buried all the way to the end of its handle.
Then the creature swelled its chest and pulled the weapons out with its own hands.
Its horrifying vitality confirmed it.
I had been uncertain, but it really did seem to be that monster.
‘Why the hell is that thing appearing here out of nowhere?!’
That creature appeared in another region of the main dungeon.
Was it Region 1-4?
In any case, even there, it was a Named Monster rarer than higher variants or mutants.
Its name had probably been ‘Test Subject No. 47.’
It was a monster with some setting about being one of a Dark Mage’s discarded experiments that had, unusually, evolved on its own.
‘Why is a monster from the field on the exact opposite side appearing here?’
It made no sense unless someone had deliberately brought it here.
It was a relatively simple-minded creature, so if you handled it well, you could recruit it and use it as both a tank and damage dealer while roaming hunting grounds.
THUD.
Dark, dead-looking blood erupted from the mutant’s chest, and it collapsed. Perhaps the bleeding had finally triggered, because the savage light in its eyes rapidly faded until they resembled those of a dead fish.
“Haaah—”
Ah, fuck.
Phase 2.
The mutant’s eyes turned cloudy, as though covered by cataracts. Its fangs and molars enlarged, and saliva streamed from lips that could no longer close.
GRRRRIND.
Parts of the mutant’s skin tore open as its limbs lengthened.
Phase 2 never activated when it was an allied NPC companion.
It was also known as Death Mode.
When its vitality fell below thirty percent, its Stress rose dramatically, but its Attack Power increased as well.
It was a Revenge Mode.
THUD.
The mutant launched another body slam.
Rion shoved me aside and fired the loaded bolt. The bolt buried itself in the mutant’s eye, but it continued charging.
THWACK.
Rion was sent flying by the body slam.
“KIEEEEK-!”
The creature’s head smashed into a rock. It pulled itself free and made a grotesque noise.
Unable to see, it turned its head to listen and thrust its ears forward.
Its ears swelled to nearly three times their original size.
That was fucking terrifying.
The genre had abruptly turned into creature horror.
“HISS!”
Miyu leapt from Rion’s arms and placed herself between the mutant and her master.
Was she trying to protect her?
Stop.
You’ll die.
The little ball of fluff exposed fangs that hadn’t fully grown and raised every hair on her body.
“Ugh.”
Rion groaned but failed to regain consciousness.
Should I use her as bait and run?
The desire to survive tempted me powerfully.
-Let’s run. We can’t die here. Are you planning to die for some woman who might be nothing but a fragment of data? For a Druid with a fur allergy and a kitten that doesn’t know its place?
THUD.
Contrary to the voice in my head, I had already thrown a large stone at the mutant.
The rock struck with a dull sound.
Blood ran from its split forehead.
Damn it.
I threw too well.
Would something go wrong if I missed for once?
“KRYAAK!”
The mutant charged me.
In the time it took to blink, its gaping mouth and brutal hands filled my vision.
‘Haven’t I been in a situation like this before?’
Was this my life flashing before my eyes?
The first fight I had experienced after waking in this world flashed through my mind.
I remembered the psychopath who had said he would kill me painlessly in a single blow because I hadn’t killed any of his allies.
He had charged me like this too.
The mutant was much faster than that man, but it had more openings.
What had I done then?
“AAAAAAAAH-!”
I released a battle cry closer to a scream.
Lowering my body, I grabbed the mutant by the collar with my left hand and dug the fingers of my right into the torn skin of its thigh.
Then I used its own momentum to hurl it into the ground.
CRASH—!
“K-Krrk.”
The mutant’s neck bent at a ninety-degree angle. It vomited black blood as its limbs trembled.
Then it dissolved into glowing dust.
HMMMM.
Where the creature had disappeared, a fist-sized lump of silver and a white will-o’-the-wisp displayed their brilliant forms.
***
[‘Test Subject No. 47’ enters Phase 2. Intimidation +50, Attack Power +40]
[‘Test Subject No. 47’ roars. Characters who hear the roar feel Fear. Stress +60]
.
.
.
[The character’s Stress has reached its limit.]
[‘Mental Breakdown: Betrayal’ acti—.]
[Hero’s Courage!!!]
[A hero never abandons a companion! In a moment of crisis, you refuse to flee and sacrifice yourself for your companion.]
[All abilities temporarily increase by 30%.]
[A new skill has been generated through repeated success.]
[Passive Skill ‘Throw’ generated. Grappling techniques receive a correction.]