The legion’s blacksmiths had poured their souls into forging the cooking tools.
Over those cooking tools a colorless, odorless liquid flowed down.
‘I will have to wash the dishes properly later.’
In any case.
The newly armed cooking tools rose into the air again.
I did the same.
I followed the [Assistant Chefs] who had rejoined the fight and closed on the monster.
Slash.
I swung at the ankle, the only place my blade could reasonably reach.
‘As expected, shallow.’
As before, I cut cleanly.
However, I could not reach bone or major blood vessels.
Due to the shortness of the weapon, I could not inflict a mortal wound on a creature of that size.
“Sergeant Shin!”
Perhaps because they had seen how I was fighting, a few soldiers approached and called out.
“That thing does not match well with Sergeant Shin.”
“We will handle this area somehow, Sergeant Shin. For now move to a safe position.”
They were legion soldiers for a reason.
They had a well developed eye for the battlefield.
They understood that my cuts meant little to that massive monster.
It was a sound assessment.
But.
“Wait just a little longer.”
“...Yes?”
I ignored their attempts to stop me.
I swung at the ankle a few more times.
After a few seconds.
Kooooong.
The massive monster that would have required my blade to tear its torso open had one of its legs kneel and collapse.
“...!”
“What the hell is this?”
To be precise.
The very leg I had been cutting—
“Did Sergeant Shin do that?”
“No, you did not feed it anything. How?”
The answer to that question was simple.
[Soul-Melting Poison (Nepenthes)]
This was the thing I had received recently from a friend who worried about my weak constitution.
‘When I observed that beast on the [Combat Power Meter] it showed a deep green color.’
And this was the same for the flower that lived on my wrist.
Alraune, the ruler of the forest.
Alraune had bloomed a powerful specimen to protect herself.
In particular, Nepenthes has no other combat abilities, yet the single, potent toxin is enough for its role.
No matter how giant or powerful a monster is, unless it is an inanimate thing entirely immune to poison—
Kooooong.
“It is collapsing!”
Yes.
It had no choice but to collapse helplessly.
‘The larger the body, the slower the poison takes effect, apparently.’
Still, saying that does not mean a single cut produced this result.
While I sliced into the creature’s leg and injected poison,
the flying cooking tools that carried toxin also sliced here and there and injected poison.
That combined effect was why the results manifested now.
Grrk.
The monster that had seemed impervious to any blade now struggled to raise its fallen mass.
I thought to myself.
‘This poison matches me extremely well.’
My profession is chef, yet by circumstance I often join fights.
When I do go into battle, my fighting style is less like a warrior and more like an assassin.
I am a noncombat Awakened, so I lack combat-related traits.
That means my offensive power is weak, but it also means my defense is weak.
In plain terms, I am fragile.
If I dope properly with combat rations I improve, but without that enhancement one well-placed cut from a foe like the [Green Manes Rider] could split me in two.
Therefore my fighting method has been to rely on others to draw aggro while I use [Environmental Assimilation] to strike from behind.
‘It was not a perfect combat style.’
The problem was that even if I managed to stab the back of an enemy, if I failed to deal a fatal wound then the enemy would notice me and a counterattack could put me in grave danger.
‘Not anymore.’
It no longer mattered if I could not kill or deliver a mortal wound in one blow.
If that one strike carried a lethal toxin, the situation changed.
Because of the poison I had acquired recently,
the effect of a single ambush had grown exponentially.
‘It is not only my blade.’
The [Assistant Chefs] were the same.
They share only stats with their master, not traits.
Given how much stat sharing there is, they were serviceable, but their attack power was clearly limited.
That problem was half solved once the toxin was applied.
They still lacked other combat traits, but so long as we were fighting living creatures, our attack capability had become more than sufficient.
‘This is why friends are useful.’
When Alraune handed me Nepenthes she said the poison would pair well with my cooking.
Whether she meant it as consideration for this fighting method I cannot be sure, but a good gift is a good gift.
I intended to make good use of what I had been given.
“What are you doing!”
The poisoned monster had collapsed to the ground.
I strode toward it and shouted.
“That thing is still kicking, but it is intact. Finish it!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Understood!”
The monster had been strong enough that it might have appeared blue on the meter had it been slightly more powerful.
Even while down, it resisted for a long time.
Crunch.
The result was inevitable.
A soldier’s greatsword sliced through the monster’s head.
A warm flow filled my body.
[You gain experience points.]
A peculiar satiation flooded me.
A significant amount of experience seeped into my body.
“Good job!”
“All right.”
The soldier who finished the monster called out energetically.
Then I felt the soldiers’ gazes turning toward me.
“Se-Sergeant Shin?”
“What on earth did you do just now?”
“Oh, it is nothing special.”
Because I had not had the toxin long, I had not had time to explain it to the soldiers.
There was a risk they might misinterpret my cuts as the reason the monster had been forced to kneel.
I intended to at least briefly explain the poison.
But then.
“No way.”
Someone who had watched the fallen monster muttered that it was unbelievable.
“What the heck.”
“Was that thing still alive?”
The creature we had been fighting.
Its summoner was the culprit.
Of the suspicious five who had been here moments ago, four had already turned entirely to dust, but this one had been a bit stronger.
His lower body was gone and only his torso remained. He lifted his head and watched the fight.
“You did not take everything from me and my comrades as payment!”
“...?”
Yet blood tears streamed from his eyes.
He bit down so hard that his teeth cracked and shouted.
His shout was not directed at our unit.
“He promised to send a minion that could topple those soldiers!”
The dried voice from his withered throat was hoarse.
Even the remaining upper body slowly turned to dust.
When even the minimal organs that maintained life turned to dust,
the man whose eye focus had vanished muttered in a dying voice.
“Could it be that even the Great One....”
He extended a trembling hand toward the air.
He was drenched in despair, his face leaking blood tears.
“Was not a true god.”
“......”
The hand reached toward the direction—
the direction where the immense something I had sensed earlier had been located.
Plop.
The man’s hand, which had trembled without strength, fell to the ground.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Primate — Human corpses]
[Freshness — Lowest]
The man had become a complete corpse.
His body soon turned to dust and blew away on the wind.
“.......”
The enemy that had attacked us.
We had been attacked by a human we had never met in our lives.
Naturally, I did not feel good about that.
I felt nothing but ill will toward him, but.
‘A pitiful death.’
Watching someone else die is never pleasant, no matter who that someone is.
If the death had come after a fierce fight, if the person had resisted and finally been defeated, I would not have felt this way.
But.
‘He did not die of natural lifespan, and he did not die in battle either.’
He had given his body and soul to the something that had appeared over ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) our unit.
That something had caused his death.
Even more.
He had hoped that by sacrificing his life we would die.
Even that wish had gone unfulfilled.
“A demon, was it called.”
Whether it was alien or truly divine I could not say, but that unknown creature—
dared to play with human lives.
This was a bit.
What could I say.
“I am very annoyed.”
I frowned and turned away.
I headed to the radar at the highest point of the unit.
“I am returning.”
There were many questions I had to ask my comrade stationed there.
****
“What happened to those guys?”
When I returned to the radar post, my comrade sat where he had been.
Sergeant Park Taejun came out to greet me.
“There were about five of them. I disposed of them for now.”
No.
To be exact.
“You could say they were disposed of by their own actions.”
“What do you mean?”
“I tried to capture them alive but failed. They committed suicide in a somewhat special way.”
“Hmm. Is that so.”
Demons.
And Demon Contractors.
‘I had a lot I wanted to ask those bastards.’
The name alone was intimidating.
If we had properly interrogated them, important information might have poured out, but.
‘Now they are dust.’
They left not a single corpse.
It would be difficult to ask anything now.
Frankly it was regrettable, but now was not the time to waste regret.
Therefore I asked Taejun.
“You would know. Why did they come here?”
Park Taejun’s job is Astrologer.
He was the one who had warned me those people would arrive.
He might know something about the dust that had been those men.
“The dead ones said they were not the only ones.”
“That is probably true.”
Those five were the ones who died immediately, but they seemed to have many comrades who shared their will.
If so,
those five might not have been the only ones to come to the base.
I recalled the words the men had prayed seconds before they were discovered by us.
They had pleaded at the last moment.
“Release the shackles on the monsters occupying this place!”
If I had not misheard.
Those men had posed as if they could liberate the monsters occupying the base.
“I do not know the specifics, but if they said that, it is likely possible.”
At that answer I could not help but frown.
“They can do that?”
“I do not know the exact method. I only vaguely know it is possible.”
The monsters occupying the base.
Those creatures are overwhelmingly strong compared to ordinary monsters.
‘Normally they should be sealed like the beastmen in the Gates.’
They are bound by shackles.
Ordinary humans freeing such shackles.
On reflection, such cases are not absolutely impossible, but—
Impossible.
A voice in my shadow answered.
The Night Noble waiting there was Ariella Karstein.
