Chapter 2 …

E-Rank Dungeon: Hideout of the Stalker Ghoul Pack (1)

《Useful Information for You #1: A Stalker Ghoul’s claws are sharp enough to slice a frail human body into perfectly bite-sized pieces with a single swipe.》

I brushed away the worthless text that kept blocking the right side of my vision and continued running.

I couldn’t stop—not even for a moment.

The drunken mercenary was unintentionally buying the rest of us time, but he wouldn’t last long.

Ten seconds at most.

Stalker Ghouls were monsters renowned for their absurd speed. With the running ability of a Cultist and two children, there was no chance we could outrun them.

“Intruders—!!”

Apparently the drunk had finally been dealt with.

The ghouls soon began chasing after us at a terrifying pace.

Their nauseating stench rapidly closed in.

Had we all started running at the same time, they would have caught us already, and we’d be attending their dinner table as the main course.

I was too busy running to look back, but I could tell how much the distance had shrunk just by watching the changing expressions on the tiger beastkin siblings’ faces whenever they glanced behind us.

《Useful Information for You #2: Human lungs don’t burst that easily, so feel free to keep running!》

“Huff… Y-Yeah… thanks…”

Still fleeing, I continued scanning the surrounding trees.

Almost there.

The unnaturally oversized trees were gradually returning to normal.

That was proof we were heading in the right direction.

“…How much longer are we supposed to keep running?!”

Marlin, the tiger beastkin girl who was running ahead of me with her brother, looked back.

“They’re almost on top of us!”

“Why are we acting like cowards?!”

Abel shouted at his sister through clenched teeth as he sprinted.

“There’s only two ghouls! If all of us attack together, we might be able to beat them!”

“…”

Marlin looked into my eyes.

Apparently she thought her brother had a point.

Can’t we just fight them? her gaze seemed to ask.

After watching a muscular orc’s chest get ripped open in a single strike, how could anyone still suggest fighting head-on?

A beastkin’s fighting spirit truly was something else.

《Useful Information for You #3: Accept the opinions of those imitation beasts. If you wish to become the ghouls’ next meal, it isn’t a bad choice.》

I swept away the line—whether it was advice or mockery—and shook my head.

“No. We can’t win.”

“We tiger beastkin aren’t like humans our age!”

“I know. It still won’t work.”

“If we just keep running, then eventually we’ll…”

Marlin suddenly stopped speaking.

Her eyes widened before she hurriedly faced forward again.

“Heeheehee…”

“Come here—!”

The two ghouls had already caught up.

“Abel! Faster!”

“…!”

The tiger beastkin siblings burst into a full sprint.

The distance between us, already considerable, grew even wider.

The ungrateful little brats.

I smiled to myself.

At such a young age, they already understood how to survive in desperate situations.

They probably wouldn’t die young wherever they went.

“Intruders—!!”

Naturally, the ghouls’ first target was the slow, pitiful Cultist.

《Fatal Attack Incoming: The ghoul’s claws are rushing toward your back.》

The instant the black text warned me—

I threw myself into a forward roll.

My clumsy tumble sent me rolling pathetically across the ground, and the ghoul’s claws sliced through the air just above me.

That had been incredibly close.

Had I reacted even a fraction of a second later, I would have been reunited with my two deceased companions in the afterlife.

《No need to thank me ;)》

“…It dodged?”

Perhaps the ghoul’s pride had been wounded after its weakest-looking prey avoided its attack.

Its hideous face twisted in anger as it raised its shoulder for another strike.

The middle of my back throbbed where it had slammed into the ground during the roll.

There was no way I could dodge the next attack on my own.

But that was fine.

I’d rolled this way because I’d already calculated everything.

Smash!

A rock flew in from the front and slammed squarely into the ghoul’s ugly face.

“Get lost!”

Abel.

The stone, thrown with the natural strength of a tiger beastkin, crushed the ghoul’s nose.

Dark, filthy blood streamed down its face.

The creature’s incredible regeneration healed the injury almost instantly.

But wounds disappearing didn’t mean the pain vanished as well.

As another barrage of stones forced both ugly undead monsters to stagger backward, Marlin rushed over and hoisted me onto her back.

“Are you okay?”

“Why did you come back? You could’ve died.”

“How could I just leave someone behind? Even if you’re… a Cultist…”

She’d risked her own life to save someone she’d only just met instead of continuing to escape.

The warmth I’d felt toward her survival instincts disappeared.

What a pity.

She should’ve run without looking back.

That was how someone became a truly capable person in this insane world.

“I’ll get moving. We just keep going, right?”

“No need.”

“…You’re telling me to leave you behind?”

“No.”

“We’ve already run far enough.”

I looked up.

The oppressive forest canopy that had cast everything into darkness had finally ended.

Above us stretched a brilliant night sky, illuminated by a full moon.

“Ghouls are weak under moonlight.”

Crack!

Another stone from Abel struck a ghoul in the chest before smashing into its knee.

Ordinarily, such an attack wouldn’t have affected it in the slightest.

But instead of counterattacking, the ghouls merely staggered in confusion.

Then, at last—

They turned and fled.

《Reference: Ghouls were once a race of elves. However, after betraying the God of the Moon and Hunting, that petty deity cursed them for their treachery.》

《Thus the unfortunate elves became undead and developed a fatal weakness to moonlight. Surely this is living proof that the so-called benevolent gods are nothing more than hypocrites, fools, and petty cowards!》

Marlin stared blankly at the retreating ghouls before gently setting me down.

“…Are we safe now?”

Only someone who didn’t fully understand their situation could ask that.

“Don’t relax.”

“Get ready to move.”

“The real danger hasn’t even started yet.”

We were inside a Labyrinth.

The defining feature of Nightmare Dungeon.

Once you entered, you found yourself inside a completely isolated world, cut off from the outside.

Even seasoned veterans could die meaningless deaths if they let their guard down.

And no matter how powerful you were, you could never leave unless you fulfilled the dungeon’s completion conditions.

Marlin’s chin trembled.

“…But you said ghouls are weak under moonlight. Then… if we stay here until morning, won’t we be able to get out? The labyrinth priest told us that’s how it works.”

The official strategy for clearing Hideout of the Stalker Ghoul Pack was simple:

Survive for eight hours.

The objective itself wasn’t especially difficult.

The problem was that the labyrinth’s environment was never on the explorers’ side.

“Morning will arrive soon.”

“The nights in this labyrinth are incredibly short.”

“…What?”

“Ghouls are only weak under moonlight.”

“Sunlight doesn’t hurt them at all.”

“In fact, they rather enjoy sunbathing.”

“…”

The siblings turned deathly pale.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

They simply tried to steady their ragged breathing.

Even though she herself was terrified, Marlin gently rubbed her little brother’s back to comfort him.

“Mister…”

“What do we do now?”

“What else?”

There was only one thing I could tell them.

“We survive.”

No matter how difficult it was, this was still only the tutorial.

It was never designed to be impossible.

It was merely an E-Rank labyrinth.

The lowest possible difficulty.

If I couldn’t clear something like this after pouring twenty thousand hours into the game…

What had all that time been for?

“…You’ll help us?”

“I will.”

Marlin nodded.

Abel looked reluctant, but after glancing at his sister, he nodded as well.

“Then… what do we do first?”

There was one task that had to come before everything else.

“We need the corpses of the dead explorers.”

The siblings quickly scattered across the grassy plain surrounding the forest, each carrying out the instructions I’d given them.

About five minutes remained until sunrise.

If we hurried, we’d finish everything before the moon completely disappeared.

I’ll just stick to the usual route.

The strategy for this path—where you teamed up with the beastkin siblings—had been perfected through countless failed attempts.

I could confidently say there wasn’t a safer method.

There were more reliable ways to survive if I truly made up my mind…

But making up my mind required a decision far beyond ordinary resolve.

I wasn’t eager to go that far.

《Most Important Advice: Sacrifice the two imitation beasts. Clearing this labyrinth would become considerably easier.》

“Be quiet.”

《If you do not wish to receive information, simply cover your right eye with an eyepatch. However, your Eye That Sees the Truth will be deeply saddened, so please consider your decision carefully.》

The floating text possessed a mind of its own.

It talked far too much and constantly blocked my vision.

Still, the ability to detect danger and warn me in advance made it invaluable.

《Information for the weak-hearted soul who refuses to trample children in order to survive: If you stab them through the heart with the dagger you possess, they should die relatively peacefully.》

“Thanks for the helpful advice.”

As I continued my one-man performance of talking to my right eye, approaching footsteps echoed in the distance.

“Mister Cultist.”

Marlin jogged over and lowered the things she’d been carrying on her shoulder.

Three rotting corpses.

《Explorers who died on the plains. They managed to discover that ghouls feared moonlight, but never learned that sunlight wasn’t actually their weakness. In the end, they were hunted down and killed.》

“Just like you said, there were bodies scattered everywhere.”

“They’re probably explorers who entered before us…”

“Good work.”

《Making children look at rotting corpses! Though your identity remains uncertain, you are undoubtedly a proper Cultist.》

Perhaps because I’d asked her to do something that bordered on child abuse, Marlin’s expression had darkened.

Of course, if she had been an ordinary innocent child, I never would’ve given her such a task.

Covering her nose, Marlin said,

“I’ve been paid to dispose of bodies outside the slums before.”

“They aren’t that badly decomposed.”

“I’d say they’re… about halfway rotten.”

Watching her calmly flip the corpses over and analyze their condition, she looked more like a professional medical examiner than a fourteen-year-old girl.

This was why early education mattered.

Teach children while they’re young and absorbent, and they develop impressive analytical skills like this.

“So… what now?”

“First, line them up neatly.”

The corpses of the explorers—each bearing deep puncture wounds in the neck, chest, or heart—were laid side by side on the ground.

“But what are you planning to do?”

“What do you think a Cultist needs corpses for?”

The alpha and omega of worshiping an evil god.

The essential lesson every proper Cultist had to master.

“We’re going to offer them to Ridney.”

It was time…

For a human sacrifice.