Sunset fell over Root Village.
It was the hour when everyone finished their work and either stopped by the tavern or headed home.
Yet for some reason, the village was stirring in disorder.
“What happened?”
I headed toward the place where people had gathered and were murmuring.
It was none other than Ritak’s—no.
My recovery shop.
“Urgh......”
A sticky, fishy stench churned my stomach.
The front of the wide-open shop was in a dreadful state.
Chaotic footprints, blood soaking the dirt and grass.
It was a sight that could not help drawing onlookers.
“Agh! This isn’t animal blood?”
“They say bandits came through.”
“I heard someone died?”
A bandit attack had passed while I was away?
Then, for now, I had avoided my death flag.
‘But they said someone died.’
I could not simply stand there and watch.
I pushed through the crowd and approached the shop.
“Wait, let me through......!”
Though the people murmured, once they checked my face, they opened a path.
As expected, the inside was a complete mess too.
The display cabinet had fallen over, and most of the flasks were broken.
But there was a more important problem than the state of the shop interior.
Wer opened his eyes wide and shouted.
“Th-there! Someone really is dead!”
I saw a person leaning against the wall with his head hanging low.
How much blood had he lost?
The wooden plank floor was soaked scarlet.
‘John Doe!’
I hurriedly ran to him.
The cave insect I had been holding had long since been thrown aside.
I carefully shook his limp shoulder.
“Hey! Get a hold of yourself.”
“Ugh. Ri... tak......”
John Doe clenched his teeth and wrinkled the bridge of his nose.
I let out a small sigh of relief.
‘For now...... he’s alive.’
But what was this guy’s real name?
He called me Ritak.
It was a blunt tone, but the way he addressed me sounded like we were fairly close.
Maybe it was because of the setting I had roughly written into the story, that we were childhood friends.
But I had no choice but to call him something like John Doe.
That was the name assigned if the player did not enter one.
It was not as though I could exchange introductions at this point.
‘This isn’t what matters right now either.’
For some reason, the sight of him covered in wounds did not feel real.
Maybe that was why my thoughts kept drifting elsewhere.
My stomach churned.
I wanted to run out of the shop.
But I clenched my fist tight to steady myself.
‘First...... I’ll save him.’
I looked around.
Glass shards were scattered everywhere.
But quite a few intact flasks remained.
The material pouch beneath the bar counter was still there too.
“Medicine Crafting!”
Ding!
-Medicine Crafting skill activated. Please select mat—
The moment the skill activated, I rattled off the words like a rap.
“Vitality Fruit, Tasty Water, empty flask. Use all quantities on hand.”
The materials were depleted in an instant.
The number of Health Recovery Potions I crafted was nine in total.
-Medicine Crafting skill level increased by 1!
It was good news in the middle of this shitshow.
The skill definitely had a level attached to it.
If I raised the level, I should be able to make more effective medicine.
‘I just hope the recovery medicine I made now will be enough.’
I had neither the presence of mind nor the time to go gather materials.
I poured the Health Recovery Potions over John Doe.
“......Whew.”
In an instant, the cut surfaces of his skin joined together, and the bleeding began to stop.
It was an utterly unreal sight.
Before long, all the externally visible wounds had healed.
Yet he was still grimacing.
‘Is he still feeling pain?’
He had been dying in a horrific state until just moments ago.
Perhaps he had not escaped the mental agony.
Leaving him there felt far too uneasy.
“......Good grief. Fine. Since I’ve already gotten involved.”
I picked up the cave insect I had tossed aside.
It felt as if I was buying trouble, but it was a material I had to process anyway.
“Why the insect corpse now?!”
Wer recoiled in horror.
“You hate insects?”
“Do I look like I would like them?”
“Then keep your eyes tightly shut.”
I hated them too, but there was nothing I could do.
Cave insects had many uses.
First, I separated and stored the thin legs, which looked as if they might crumble.
I filled an empty flask with its bodily fluid.
“Blech......”
That was why I told you to close your eyes.
I clicked my tongue and searched the shelves.
The item I found was a flat tube.
The recovery shop was equipped with most basic materials.
“Medicine Crafting. Materials are 10 ml of cave insect fluid and one small container.”
FLASH!
What remained where the bright light passed was a round cream jar.
When I opened the lid, a faintly light-green ointment gleamed inside.
“Appraisal.”
-Paralysis Ointment Lv2. Inflicts the Paralysis status ailment on the applied area for 10 minutes.
It was exactly the effect I had expected.
I spread the ointment over his fairly healed wounds.
John Doe, who had been groaning while unconscious, finally grew quiet.
“Did he get through the crisis......?”
Now there was no chance he would die.
However, there was a problem.
I searched his pouch, but the jewel was nowhere to be found.
The bandit gang must have taken it.
‘The calamity may already have awakened.’
An awakened calamity grew stronger and stronger as time passed.
That was why, when the calamity awakened, I had intended to make John Doe fight it as quickly as possible.
But he was badly injured and unconscious.
If I waited until he regained consciousness, it would be difficult to predict how large the calamity would grow.
In that case......
‘......Do I have to deal with it myself?’
I had planned to hand him medicine that would become the key point in the boss strategy, then cheer him on from behind.
My plan had gone wrong, truly and properly wrong.
‘It’s been years since I could even exercise properly because I was working overtime every damn day.’
No matter how well I knew this world, and no matter how fully I knew the strategy, actually holding a weapon was a separate issue.
However......
‘If it isn’t me, there’s no one who can stop the calamity right now.’
The first calamity was relatively easy, at least.
And right now, I had obtained Wer, my shield.
‘The more time passes, the harder it’ll be to handle.’
I tightly grasped the hilt of the greatsword rolling on the floor.
It was the weapon John Doe always carried on his back.
“I’m borrowing this sword, all right?”
There was no answer.
***
The bandit gang’s hideout deep within the Root Mountains.
It was a place one could reach only after climbing the mountain for a long while and seeing through several false signposts.
“Huh? Someone’s here.”
“Isn’t that the guy who sells medicine in the village? He sure managed to bring that big sword all the way here!”
“Don’t tell me he’s planning to fight us with that.”
The bandits perched in the trees cackled.
They were making a fuss when they were not going to come and carry it for me.
‘Well, I basically dragged it here, but still......’
No matter how hard I tried, the greatsword would not budge.
Thanks to that, I had consumed two Strength Increase Sticks on the way here.
‘But why are they alive?’
It was something I could not bring myself to say aloud.
If I openly picked a fight, there was no telling what might happen.
But originally, these bastards were supposed to be dead.
‘How is the story unfolding?’
In the tutorial story, the player got into a dispute with a party member who tried to monopolize the dungeon rewards.
The Seed of Calamity looked crude, but in any case, it was a jewel.
Since it was also an object containing mighty power, it would not have been strange for someone’s eyes to go mad with greed.
The problem was that the party member was actually a member of the bandit gang, and he had reported the incident in the dungeon to the boss in detail.
The boss led the bandit gang to the village, killed the owner of the recovery shop, and stole the jewel.
The player then traced the bandit gang’s trail from the murder scene to the Root Mountains.
And there, he would encounter the boss monster that had slaughtered the bandit gang and taken over the hideout.
‘This is exactly where I’m supposed to face the calamity.’
It was part of the early story, so it was an event that progressed no matter what.
Yet the bandit gang continued to cackle away, perfectly fine.
“Look at that bastard. He’s so frozen he can’t say a word.”
“Why don’t you put down that sword and get lost! We’ll let you live if you just pay us with the weapon.”
It did not look as though they planned to harm me right away.
Should I attack first?
After hesitating, I opened my mouth.
“If you want to live, you should leave the jewel you stole and get out of here.”
I decided to show mercy.
They were villains, but they were still human.
There was no reason for me to dirty my hands unnecessarily.
“You bastard!”
The bandits rose one by one.
I had warned them out of goodwill, but their reaction was poor.
The man sitting at the very back while fiddling with the jewel put weight into his gloomy voice.
Judging by the way he gave orders, he seemed to be the bandit gang’s boss.
“Leave only his mouth intact. So he can scream until the very end.”
“Waaaah! Get him!”
The bandit gang charged.
Wer bounced on my shoulder.
“That was splendid provocation, Ritak!”
“......Right.”
It was not what I had intended, but still.
I quickly took out a Strength Increase Stick and chewed it.
Once the medicine took effect, the greatsword felt like a light stick.
WHOOSH!
I swung the sword at the bastards rushing toward me.
At the sword blade I swept broadly sideways, they hurriedly retreated.
“Wh-what? How is a frail bastard like him swinging a greatsword so lightly?”
“Did he swallow a bear or something?”
The boss gave another order.
“Don’t back down. He can’t use a sword anyway! You can tell by his stance.”
That was a sharp analysis.
After all, in all my life so far, I had never had reason to hold a sword.
“Charge him together and get inside his reach!”
“Yes, Boss!”
The bandits charged with a shout.
There were seventeen of them.
‘I can’t believe I’ve ended up fighting seventeen against one in my life.’
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
I swung the greatsword wildly.
I was merely waving my arms left and right in place, but it was enough as a deterrent.
“D-damn it. We can’t get in!”
“You fools, if you can’t get close, grab bows or something! Shoot him!”
The boss gave the order through gritted teeth.
Then the hesitant bandits quickly grabbed bows.
WHIZ! ZIP!
No matter how fast I swung it, a greatsword was still a greatsword. I could not knock away arrows.
But it did not matter.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The arrows that poured down like rain bounced in every direction along with a crimson light.
Wer had stretched out his forelegs and spread a barrier.
“Graaaagh!”
One bandit clutched his arm.
It seemed he had been struck by an arrow that bounced off the barrier.
A few of them sucked in sharp breaths.
“Boss, this is insane!”
“Isn’t that guy a mage?!”
As if.
They were overestimating me far too much.
“What the hell are you talking about? Why would a mage be selling medicine in a backwater village?!”
That was an accurate analysis.
It would have been better if he had used that head for good deeds.
Or at least used it faster and run away right now.
“Shoot! I said shoot!”
The boss swung his fist through the air.
Between his fingers, faint but unmistakable black smoke was flowing out.
“......What is that?”
The bandit beside the boss muttered.
At that moment.
Thump!
Suddenly, a heavy pulse rang out.
It was an ominous presence, enough that even the bandits forming a ring around me began looking around.
Thump! Thump!
The source of the pulsing was their boss.
The dull jewel was beating in the boss’s hand.
“Wh-what is this?”
What else would it be? A calamity.
The jewel, which had swelled until it was soon the size of a fist, cracked.
CRACK! SPLAAASH!
The black energy leaking from the fissure attacked the nearest human.
The boss’s scream echoed throughout the mountain.
“Graaaaaagh!”
The black energy did not stop, but entered the boss through his nose, mouth, and ears.
Then the boss’s face began shriveling in an instant, as though all vitality had left it.
As if he had aged several decades.
Twitch! Twitch!
The boss convulsed with his mouth gaping open.
He could not even properly resist.
The black energy vanished completely into the boss’s body.
“B-Boss?”
“Are you all right?”
It would be better not to get close.
I had already retreated far backward.
To avoid being swept up in the calamity.
“......”
The boss—no, the calamity—slowly twitched his hand.
At the same time, the jewel burst, and black energy poured toward his subordinates.
Thump!
The bandit gang collapsed without even making a peep.
They looked as though every trace of vitality had been sucked out of them, just like the boss.
The energy that had taken dozens of lives in an instant slowly seeped into the ground.
The plants began slowly turning ash-gray.
‘It’s no different from a disaster.’
At the moment a calamity germinated, it used the surrounding lives as nourishment and created its domain.
Within it, the calamity could freely unleash its otherworldly power and control monsters.
A calamity’s goal was to expand its domain and create a foundation where it could run rampant.
In other words, to completely encroach upon the world.
“Be careful!”
Wer shouted as he burrowed between my hair.
But as long as I avoided the moment the calamity germinated, I would not die a dog’s death without even being able to resist.
‘Because that bastard poured out all the power he had in one go to create the domain.’
Someone who did not know that fact would not dare set foot inside the domain.
After all, they would have witnessed a calamity sweep away its surroundings with a single gesture.
“Ritak, how about we withdraw for now?”
“Withdraw?”
“After one more time, I will no longer be able to squeeze out the power to protect you. I can recover once time passes, so let us return later.”
One in the cave, and one against the bandits’ arrows.
Just as he said, only one shield remained.
But was there anything more foolish than withdrawing here?
The calamity’s germination had been later than I expected, but if I thought about it calmly, it was actually an even better situation.
“What are you talking about, Lord Wer? We have to deal with it right now.”
“Do not act rashly!”
“I’m not saying this recklessly. That thing is alone right now, isn’t it?”
The first calamity, freshly awakened.
Its domain had only just formed.
Naturally, it had not yet dominated even a single monster.
The calamity’s main body should be considerably weakened too.
“E-even so...... It should be safer to make every possible preparation.”
Wer kept saying frustrating things.
Right now, this was a situation where all I had to do was run in and kill the boss monster.
Was it not a fight I could win practically for free?
“Thanks for worrying about me.”
“You bastard......”
A small sigh sounded.
Even so, I had no intention of retreating.
Because dealing with it now was the safest option.
Step, step.
I entered the domain.
Dry, brittle leaves scattered black with each step.
In the game, when you entered a calamity’s domain, sinister background music played.
After a cutscene of the boss writhing and rising, the entry message appeared.
[First Calamity, Akedia.]
It was the beginning of the boss fight.