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The center of the waterway that stretches underground.
There is a large hole in the center, and water from various sources is sucked into it.
Above it were several iron structures, erected for the use of workers cleaning and repairing the canal.
It was a crude steel bridge built with extreme frugality, as it was too expensive to build a proper bridge.
It was a bit of a problem whether it was right to call a narrow piece of steel bar that was so narrow that it would be difficult to stand on with both feet together a bridge, but the fact that the structure was much weaker than expected was very welcome from Dojin’s perspective.
‘I was worried it would be hard to break down, but I didn’t know it was made so that people could die.’
While the enemy took the wrong path and wandered, Dojin prepared for battle in the center of the canal.
They move up and down slippery ladders covered in moss, and plant a lot of magic stone bombs in the center as well as along the enemy’s expected entry route.
It will be a battle boasting a crazy cost that is worthy of the word ‘crazy’, but Dojin spared no expense in emptying his inventory and made the entire center of the waterway his territory.
This battle was the most difficult crisis he had ever faced since returning, and Dojin intended to use everything given to him as weapons to overcome it.
Literally anything you can write.
“Wow… …! This is the first time I’ve seen a structure like this in my life! Building a facility like this on top of a naturally formed hole and utilizing it in this way. The Central Continent people really have amazing adaptability!”
Whether Dojin was preparing for battle with a solemn resolve or not, Elder was busy sticking his head out from a cliff and watching the black hole swallowing water.
Although he had recovered a little, he was so absent-minded that he could only move his head and crawled around on his chin, keeping one eye open.
“I told you to please be quiet.”
“I’m so quiet, huh? Oh! Look at this! I can move my neck this much now!”
Elder moves his head back and forth while saying, “Look at this.”
Dojin, who saw the bizarre sight of the body lying there motionless from the neck down, but only the head moving violently, just gave up.
‘… I’m a fool to expect a child who ran away from the floating continent to the central continent to be well-behaved.’
Even in the old days, there was a vampire who went up to the surface of the floating continent to look at the sky and almost died while sunbathing.
From that kid’s perspective, crawling on his chin might be considered very well-behaved.
Let’s finish the quest quickly and send him back home. Then he can go back to enjoying his quiet and happy virtual reality life alone.
It was when Dojin had that thought with a liberated expression.
“oh!”
The elder, who had been craning his head to look at the city drain, pricked up his ears.
“I think the person with the annoying laughter has found the right way. He’ll be coming this way in a bit!”
“How much is left?”
“It’ll probably take about a minute? I think it’ll take about that long!”
Dojin crossed the steel bridge and climbed the ladder.
The tunnel through which the enemy would approach had already been specified by Elder.
We are also thoroughly prepared for battle.
“Hey, be careful! I don’t mind falling down there, but for normal people like you, it would be very dangerous if you fell down there!”
“Don’t worry. If you get separated from me, don’t panic. Just hold on for an hour and whatever sun addiction you have will be cured. Then you can go home.”
At Dojin’s words, Elder’s eyes filled with a sense of bewilderment that had never been seen before.
* * *
When did it start? I began to desire peace more than life.
Karin couldn’t remember much anymore.
It’s been too long since I’ve wanted rest.
In the novel of the Central Continent it was written like this.
‘Vampires are monsters that do not age.’
If you look at the author who wrote the book, Karin really wanted to say this.
‘There are some errors in the author’s sentences.’
Vampires certainly don’t age, but that’s limited to their physical body.
The mind is clearly growing old, crushed by the ever-increasing weight of time.
Moreover, the duchy is a place where the heart and emotions have become faint as death has become distant.
Living in a place like that for over a thousand years, I didn’t have many opportunities to express my feelings or emotions.
A heart that is left unused accumulates dust in proportion to the time it takes for it to accumulate, and before you know it, your heart becomes buried in gray dust and difficult to find.
Karin’s heart was like that too.
She hated that.
Even though I became a being called an immortal monster, I still wanted to remain human at heart.
So, I had a hard time obtaining books from the Central Continent and reading them.
Because I want to be like humans. Because I want to learn.
But it wasn’t enough.
Perhaps because I grew up in such a dry land, I couldn’t understand or empathize with the emotions felt by the characters even when reading the text.
Karin realized then that she had never had feelings for anyone as a human being.
It was vain.
So I went up to the ground and just looked at the sky.
I looked at the sun and looked at it.
‘Maybe I’m human. Then I can look at the sun and not die.’
… a vain wish.
And it was an action mixed with a bleak self-abandonment that was okay even if this life ended in destruction.
When I first set foot on the Central Continent, a priest who should have regarded vampires as his mortal enemy approached me with a smiling face and offered to help me, and I responded with the same thought.
If it’s true, that’s fine, but if not, then this life is over. I thought that way and followed him with a bright smile.
‘A quest to break the vampire curse? Hypocrisy. I just needed a reason to live. A reason to stay alive until I found the ‘something’ I’ve never had.’
The contradiction of thinking that you could disappear at any time while simultaneously finding a reason to live.
The worries that had been going on for over a thousand years had become so tangled that even Karin herself was no longer recognizable.
But now, for the first time, she felt like she had a clue as to what she had been searching for.
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“Don’t worry. If you get separated from me, don’t panic. Just hold out for an hour and whatever sun addiction you have will be cured. Then you can go home.”
By the words of one person.
It’s as if we’ll never meet again.
Karin was perplexed at the thought that he might suddenly leave.
It wasn’t that I was pretending to be embarrassed, it was that I was truly embarrassed.
“Wh, what are you saying? Are you really going to leave me behind? Of course, if you, sir, decide to take care of your own safety even now, I welcome it!”
Karin, who was talking, thought, “Oh no.”
I hastily added my words, thinking that saying this would make it sound like it was okay for me to leave.
“If you leave me behind, I won’t be able to properly thank you, teacher?”
While doing so, he searched for the reason why he was embarrassed and why that person was embarrassing him.
‘You still help me even though you know I’m a vampire that everyone hates?’
That’s right. That’s why. But then what about the priest I encountered as soon as I arrived in the Central Continent?
‘He lied to me. It was obvious. The difference is that he had no intention of using me! He didn’t even ask for my name. He never asked for anything in return for saving me.’
He’s not kind. I can tell he’s secretly harassing me. But he still saves me in the end. I can always feel that he cares more about my safety than his own.
When I looked for the reasons, there were so many. It was difficult to list them all.
‘You’re the first human who treated me, a vampire, with no concern. I may never meet someone like you again.’
Why didn’t I know this simple fact? It had been there all along. Why did I only realize it when it was about to disappear from my sight?
“Thank you?”
Dojin’s questioning voice blew away Karin’s complicated thoughts in an instant.
“Yes! I didn’t even get to thank you properly!”
Dojin smiled and asked her earnest words.
“Thank you?”
“Of course! You saved me!”
“Okay then. You did it now. Say thank you. That’s enough.”
Karin’s pupils grew so big that they looked like they were going to roll down.
“Ah! Then no thank you! No thank you at all!”
I tried desperately to get a refund, but it was a futile attempt.
Dojin’s eyes were already staring into the tunnel.
An eerie laughter pierced Karin’s ears.
* * *
“Is it you?”
The Doomsday Stalker asked from the other side of the tunnel.
Dojin sighed.
“It’s disappointing. ‘Is it you?’ It’s such a cliche question.”
The priest laughed.
The laughter that started small grew into a roar, and soon died down to laughter.
“I wondered what he was thinking, interrupting my great and sacred ritual… but he was simply crazy. He must have lost his mind to dare to answer my question in such a disrespectful way.”
The priest’s appearance is calmer than expected.
Dojin thought as he opened and closed his fingers that were shining a pale golden light.
‘You only get one chance. You only get one chance to create that opportunity. You have to make the most of it.’
To do that, you have to match the rhythm.
“You. I ask just in case, but did you know about our existence and interfere? If you answer right away, your path to death will be a little shorter, so it would be better to think carefully before you answer.”
“Us? What would I know? I went to crack down on slave traders and found something even more brutal, so I brought it out. But what did you, a priest, plan to do with that?”
Dojin deliberately pretended not to know the other person’s identity.
Because if the Cult of Destruction finds out that their true identity has been revealed, there’s no telling what they might do.
I would like to kill him here if possible, but I had to give him the impression that he had stumbled over a rock rather than revealing his ‘religion’ in case I failed to kill him.
As if Dojin’s intention had been successful, the expression on Hexley, the priest of the Church of Destruction, became noticeably relieved.
“Hahaha, that’s right. A swindler like you wouldn’t know how this world works. That was a stupid question. I apologize.”
Because he looks down on Dojin so much, he doesn’t even doubt what he says.
Dojin laughed inwardly when he saw Hexley like that.
Because, Dojin’s favorite enemy was someone who looked down on him.
“Unfortunately, there is no use for you now. Die slowly and regret your foolishness, you idiot.”
Hexley waves the bell with a gesture of blatant disregard.
In response, the monsters standing around him moved simultaneously.
Almost at the same time, Dojin’s fingers snapped.
Pufufufu.
A chain of explosions occurred, accompanied by blue currents.
The magic stone bomb that Dojin had placed in advance exploded.
Over 15 dregs of monsters were swept away by it and were destroyed at once.
“this person……!”
Hexley, who believed that there were not one or two, but fifteen, would be too many for the worm to handle, let out suppressed anger.
Thud.
The anger reached its peak when the pure white priest’s robes were covered in the filth left behind by the dead.
“This parasite is worse than a cockroach, you little bastard!”
“A cockroach? That’s a bit harsh.”
Dojin accepted it nonchalantly and bowed to the floor.
And then I unleashed the order I had been preparing for a long time.
《Flashlight》
A strong light poured into a space that was lacking in light.
The single ray of light that had flown away shattered uselessly.
It was a cross-section that showed a remarkable difference in level.
But up to this point, Dojin had expected it all.
The flash lance was merely a substitute for the slightly more powerful flash grenade, and was merely a decoy thrown to close the distance with the enemy.
《Fireball》
Dojin, running desperately, created a large fireball in his right hand and swung it around like a fist.
“This is ridiculous.”
In response, Hexley waved his hand wildly.
The power contained in the hand that was swung as if catching a fly struck not only Dojin’s magic but also his body all at once.
“Cough!”
The fireball disappeared immediately.
Dojin’s body swayed, and the gap thus revealed was fatal.
“Looking at you, you’re not even as good as a mosquito, so calling you a cockroach is an exaggeration.”
Hexley’s hand grabbed Dojin’s leash.
“Ugh, ugh… … !”
Hexley shook his head as he watched Dojin groan in pain.
“It’s not enough. The groans that come from that level of pain aren’t enough. You need pain and death that suits you better.”
Hexley prepared the curse.
The most painful curse you can create.
That was when.
Dojin’s hand moved in a flash!
Sigh.
“… … ?”
Hexley looked at the area where he felt a stinging pain.
It’s the side.
The reason I felt pain was because of the dagger.
Haha. Now I’m laughing because it’s so ridiculous.
A wizard is in danger of death, so he swings a dagger around so shamelessly?
Anyway, what a bunch of trash. Now there’s more reason to put a little more effort into the curse…
Hexley raised his head in thought and felt a chill run down his spine.
It was because the bug that had been caught by the leash was smiling very contentedly.
Hexley realized something was wrong, but it was too late.
Before he could do anything.
“You idiot. You should have killed him right away if you caught him.”
《Black Dragon’s Fang》
This is because Dojin used the activation skill of an S-class weapon.
