TTOB 02

Chapter 2

Ernolf (2)

Ernolf felt a sharp pang of guilt. However, with his life on the line, he couldn’t afford to be picky. The threat wasn’t just the Red-Spotted Spiders. He needed to escape this place before something far more terrifying appeared.

“Get on my back.”

“It seems you have no intention of abandoning me.”

“Shut up and just get on already.”

“Is there a cart or something? My body is stiff, so it might be difficult to piggyback.”

“You really are something.”

The boy spat out a brief response, abruptly stood up, and headed somewhere. As soon as he left, Ernolf stimulated his Mana Heart once more. Reclaiming his magic was his only hope. How much time had passed? The boy brought a worn-out cart from the end of the shaft, huffing and puffing as he loaded Ernolf onto it.

“Just as expected from someone who always saved his food for his younger brother because he’s the ‘older brother’. I told you to eat it yourself, so why didn’t you listen? If you’d eaten well, you wouldn’t be this weak!”

After loading Ernolf, the boy pulled the cart while venting his anger nonstop.

‘So the owner of this body was that kid’s older brother.’

It seemed that even in such a harsh environment, the older brother had cared for his younger brother with deep affection. Though it was clearly exhausting, the boy seemed to have no intention of leaving his brother behind to flee alone. Contrary to his harsh exterior, he was surprisingly warmhearted.

“Save me!” “Who’s there? Take me with you!” “Hey, over here!”

As they struggled up the slope, people whose lower bodies were paralyzed by the spider venom cried out desperately for help. Judging by their voices, they sounded like middle-aged men. The boy stopped the cart and walked toward the sound. Ernolf thought he was going to rescue them, but that was a misconception.

“Kugh!”

A short scream echoed from the direction the boy had gone.

“If you weren’t going to save them, you shouldn’t have killed them. What grudge could you possibly hold to go out of your way to kill them…?”

“Plenty of grudges. Besides, leaving them alive wouldn’t help us anyway.”

The boy answered, as if he had heard Ernolf’s muttering. Even after that, whenever the boy sensed a presence, he would go over, kill them, and return. It was as if he didn’t view any human other than his brother as a person.

“It was practically a served feast. They were all paralyzed by spider venom just like you, unable to move a muscle.”

The boy smirked, saying he didn’t even need to exert effort to overpower them—he just had to plunge his blade in.

‘Stop the pointlessly killing and just hurry up and escape.’

Ernolf wanted to scold him, but because his chest muscles were paralyzed, he could barely breathe. He had no choice but to let the boy be.

‘They say the most ruthless ones on a battlefield are child soldiers who lack a concept of good and evil…’

Even as he panted for breath while hauling the cart uphill, the boy did not stop killing.

‘Three minutes after breathing stops, the brain suffers damage. Double that time, and death occurs. There’s no time.’

Entrusting his life to the young murderer, Ernolf closed his eyes. He no longer had the luxury to pay attention to external matters. The boy was as thin as a dried reed, likely from long-term starvation. Pulling a cart loaded with a person up a steep incline with such a body was an arduous task, even for an Aura user. Yet, despite gasping for air, the boy never gave up on his brother.

“Look over there, Tiri! It’s the exit!”

Sunlight streaming through the entrance of the mine illuminated Ernolf’s face as well.

“Just a little further and we’re outside! Now you can get out of here too!”

Finally, an escape. But Ernolf could not share in that joy. The boy turned his head to look at Ernolf.

“Hey!”

When Ernolf didn’t respond, the boy dropped the cart and violently shook his shoulders. His face, pale and sickly from being trapped in the mine shaft for so long, looked hauntingly ghastly.

“We made it! I told you we can get out of here! Open your eyes! Getting out of here alive was your dream!”

Just then, accompanied by a massive tremor, the sunlight disappeared, and the surroundings were instantly plunged into pitch darkness. It was the exact moment hope turned into despair.

“Grrrr!”

Blocking the exit was a monster that looked like a house-sized lizard. It puffed up its massive body menacingly.

“Gurok!”

The fully puffed skin beneath its jaw suddenly deflated, and a yellowish liquid shot straight toward the boy. The boy quickly rolled out of the way to dodge it. The liquid splashed directly onto the cart.

“Tiri!”

Having dodged instinctively, the boy looked back in shock. The shaft filled with a fishy, foul stench, making it painful to breathe.

Sssssss…

The countless tentacles attached around the monster’s jaw trembled violently as it puffed up its lower jaw once more.

“Damn it! We were so close!”

The boy quickly shoved the cart upward. Along with the yellow liquid, Ernolf’s body slid and fell out. The boy flipped the cart over to cover Ernolf’s body, then charged straight toward the monster.

“Stay here! I’ll save you in a second!”

“Gurok!”

The monster spat liquid once more. The boy kicked off the wall, leaping and spinning in midair to evade. The moment he landed on the ground, the lizard’s tongue shot out like a spear, impaling the spot right above his head.

Swish-sh-sh!

With a loud noise, the lizard retracted its tongue. Not missing that split second, the boy shot forward like an arrow.

Flash!

Although he was an Aura user, he could not yet manipulate Aura proficiently. He simply moved like a wild beast out of raw, primal instinct. The dagger in the boy’s hand carved a fierce arc right beneath the lizard’s jaw.

Clang!

The whiskers of tentacles under its jaw rose terrifyingly, knocking the blade away.

‘Ugh!’

A stinging pain shot through his wrist. Simultaneously as it deflected the blade, another tentacle lashed out at the boy’s neck. Dropping his dagger, the boy backed away, barely protecting his throat.

“Tch…”

As the boy moved to turn toward where his dagger had fallen, the lizard’s eyeballs tracked his movement. Its wide, split mouth seemed almost to mock the boy. The boy quickly rolled across the ground, snatched up the dagger, and readjusted his stance.

“Kyahaak!”

All of the lizard’s tentacles extended toward the boy at once. Sharpened teeth and long spikes protruded from the tips of the tentacles. The boy tilted his body sideways. However, due to the confined space, he couldn’t completely dodge the attack. Just as a spike was about to pierce his shoulder, a pitch-black object flew from deep within the shaft, slamming violently into the lizard’s forehead.

BOOM!

“Kueeeh!”

Struck directly in the forehead, the lizard let out a screech of agony.

‘A cart?’

The object that had struck the lizard was the crude wooden cart. Tearing its eyes away from the boy, the lizard extended its tongue toward the direction the cart had flown from.

Swoosh!

As if distance didn’t matter, the monster’s tongue elongated with terrifying momentum.

“Tiri!”

Startled, the boy whipped his head around toward the mine shaft.

BOOM! Crack!

The lizard’s tongue, as thick as a main support beam, slammed into an invisible shield and snapped sideways. Shattered rocks deflected off the tip of its tongue, spraying in all directions.

“Brother…”

The boy stared at Ernolf with a stunned expression. The person who had frightened him by remaining motionless like a corpse just moments ago was now standing perfectly fine—holding flames in his hand.

“Remember this. Where Red-Spotted Spiders gather, their natural predator, the ‘Retchaka,’ will inevitably appear.”

Clad in rags over a frail, scrawny frame and drenched in yellow liquid, Ernolf muttered. As he spoke, the flames rising from both of his hands condensed into the shape of arrows.

“I will create an opening, so run.”

Fire arrows flew in rapid succession from Ernolf’s forcefully extended hands.

“Gu-aaaak! Kuaaa!”

Its head repeatedly battered, the Retchaka shrieked and writhed violently. Every time the creature struggled, the shaft shook as if an earthquake had hit.

“Now!”

A gap opened between the thrashing Retchaka and the exit. An ordinary person wouldn’t dare attempt it out of fear of being crushed by the flailing monster, but the boy was an Aura user. Ernolf was confident the boy could escape.

“Run!”

As Ernolf struck the Retchaka’s flank once more, the boy threw himself forward without a moment’s hesitation.

Through painstaking effort, he had managed to restart his Mana Heart, but the amount of mana he could currently use was far too meager.

‘If I don’t manage my mana efficiently, I’m going to end up in deep trouble.’

That was why he had told the boy to run, but far from escaping, the boy lunged forward and stabbed the Retchaka in the leg. Stabbed in the leg, the Retchaka attempted to trample the boy.

“You damned brat, listen to me! I told you to run!”

Anxious, Ernolf screamed at the boy while firing another flame arrow. One of the Retchaka’s eyes exploded upon taking a direct hit.

“Gu-waaaaak!”

The Retchaka shrieked and thrashed wildly. In the middle of the chaos where the ground shook and the ceiling crumbled, the boy grabbed a severed tentacle with one hand and hacked frantically at the underside of the Retchaka’s jaw with the dagger in his other hand. Dark, bluish-black blood sprayed everywhere following his frantic stabs.

“Guwok, gu-waak! Gwack…”

The Retchaka went even wilder. As the boy lost his grip on the tentacle and fell to the ground, the Retchaka’s broad front paw lunged down to crush him.

“Damn it!”

Water-attribute magic and poison were virtually ineffective against a Retchaka, while fire- and ice-attribute magic worked wonders. Seeing the boy in peril, Ernolf instantly fired an ice-attribute spell. Encasement in ice brought the Retchaka’s leg to a halt midair.

“Dodge…!”

Before Ernolf could even finish telling him to dodge, the boy quickly rolled away, slipping out from under the Retchaka’s foot. His survival instincts were extraordinarily sharp.

“What was that just now? Was that magic? Brother, can you use magic?”

Having narrowly escaped death, the boy shouted at the top of his lungs. His voice sounded oddly excited.

“Yes, it’s magic.”

“Since when…”

“Just recently.”

“Whoa…”

Deeply stunned, the boy gaped at Ernolf with a dazed face. Then he raised a hand to point at the Retchaka.

“Can you beat this thing with magic?”

Because he had only just Awakened and his Mana Heart was still immature, he couldn’t use high-tier magic yet. However, if he didn’t win, they would die. To the boy’s question, Ernolf gave a silent nod. Just then, the Retchaka let out a bloodcurdling roar and shattered the ice, breaking free.

“Grrrrr…”

Recognizing that its opponent was formidable, the Retchaka growled low and took a wary stance. Keeping his eyes locked on the creature, Ernolf scraped together every bit of mana he had.

“Gu-waak!”

The Retchaka sprayed yellow poison in all directions. It was an expected reaction. Ernolf cast a fire-attribute barrier to incinerate the poison. The moment it blocked the attack, the barrier dissolved. Being a lowest-grade shield, it couldn’t be helped.

“I will create another opening, so run.”

The situation was too dire to fight while worrying about whether the boy might get caught in the magical crossfire.

“If you want to run, you run.”

Hearing the boy’s response, the corners of Ernolf’s lips curled up. The fact that this selfish, cruel, and rude brat cared so fiercely for his older brother’s life alone was somewhat endearing.

“Fine. With a mage and an Aura user here, there’s no way we’re dying to a mere Retchaka.”

Ernolf took a light breath. Due to using magic, his energy drained at a terrifying rate, leaving his legs trembling. He had to end this battle as quickly as possible.

“I’ll make it expose its belly pressed against the ground, so plunge that right in like you did earlier.”

Leaving behind those words, the boy charged forward without fear. Then, having spotted it earlier, he scooped up a longsword lying beside a corpse in the corner. Leaping high over a puddle of accumulated venom, he slid straight toward the Retchaka’s underbelly.

Slash!

The boy flanked the creature, swinging the sword. Following the arc of the sword, the Retchaka’s scales were ripped away. Green scales showered onto the ground.

“Gu-waak!”

Its flank gouged, the startled Retchaka raised one front leg and one hind leg as if burned. Not missing the opportunity, Ernolf launched a fire arrow.

Fwhoosh!

A mass of fire—so long and powerful it was more fitting to call it a spear than an arrow—pierced into the Retchaka’s belly.

“Kkku-aaaak!”

Its abdomen impaled, the Retchaka screeched, thrashing violently against the shaft. The ceiling, already cracked, could hold no longer and collapsed.

THUD!

The thrashing Retchaka collapsed with a heavy thud. Watching rocks rain down onto the fallen Retchaka, Ernolf slumped down onto the floor as well.

‘Damn it. What on earth is this mess…’

He had possessed a trash-tier body, gotten paralyzed by spider venom, poisoned by Retchaka venom, and overexerted his Mana Heart by forcing it to activate. Honestly, it was a miracle he hadn’t died.

‘Either way, I survived.’

The moment he let his guard down, Ernolf lost consciousness.