Chapter 15 – Heading South (1)

The quiet night passed, and morning arrived.

The chirping of birds announcing the dawn was not heard.

It was to be expected.

With the death aura left behind by the Demon King permeating the surroundings, there was no way normal birds could exist.

This was something I had felt during years of fighting the Demon King and undead.

While many humans died in the battle against the Demon King, the natural environment was destroyed even more.

Wherever the Demon King and undead settled, death aura inevitably spread.

Plants and trees exposed to the aura withered, while birds, animals, and even monsters slowly sickened and died, only to become undead.

Though I couldn’t confirm the numbers, the battle with the Demon King must have devastated a third of the continent.

“Tsk, I didn’t expect to see this even after coming to another world.”

Just before sunrise, Hoffman clicked his tongue at the sight of the gray mist covering the field.

I agreed with his words.

The gloomy morning mist we were looking at was not ordinary fog,

But death aura. Mist mixed with the mana of death.

When people saw this mist, they had to pack up and evacuate immediately.

Those without mana couldn’t withstand the death aura.

They couldn’t keep holy water on hand like soldiers or receive help from priests.

“It’s the mist of death. How many brothers and sisters have died in this mist…”

Zahina frowned uncharacteristically as she looked at the mist.

She waved her hand, sprinkling mana into the air.

Whoosh.

A gentle breeze blew around her, pushing back the surrounding mist.

“Could it be a safe zone?”

Hoffman was greatly surprised at the clearing where the mist had retreated.

A safe area that only bishop-level priests or holy maidens could barely create.

I heard they were installed in the imperial capital and a few strongholds, but could this elf woman possess such power?

“It’s different from that. I just temporarily pushed back the mist and death aura by stirring up wind and mana. Moreover, my power has weakened, so I couldn’t push it far. This will return to its original state as soon as I withdraw my mana.”

While Hoffman was disappointed by her words, I was surprised in the opposite way.

Looking at what she had done, I hadn’t thought it would have an effect similar to a safe zone.

But this was a kind of mobile safe zone.

Although there was the limitation of having to be next to her, and mana had to be continuously consumed, it was still an amazing ability.

An ability that powerholders without mana would want to keep by their side even at the cost of a fortune.

Zahina seemed to be a much more important person than I had thought.

Could it be that I’ve gained a new master?

I felt I may have saved her unnecessarily.

Moreover, if this was the effect in this place where her abilities were weakened, how amazing must the effect have been in her own world?

Surely she couldn’t have protected an entire city or something like that?

In any case, thanks to Zahina, it seemed we could have a comfortable breakfast.

Unlike last night, Hoffman took charge of preparing breakfast this morning.

Though Hoffman prepared it, it wasn’t particularly different from yesterday.

It was brick bread and a soup close to slop with various things thrown in.

After finishing the simple meal, we left the trench.

Looking around, Hoffman tapped the trench wall with a curious expression.

“It’s not magic, and it doesn’t seem to be carved from stone. It’s a strange method of construction.”

Well, that’s because it’s a cement concrete trench.

Zahina placed her hand on the wall at Hoffman’s words.

Mana visibly flowed from her hand and along the wall.

It was a strange sight.

To see mana so clearly.

Was it because she was an elf from another world?

Or was the mana in this world more visible?

It was incomprehensible, but not a bad thing, so I decided to let it pass like yesterday.

Ignoring my questions, Zahina examined the wall and spoke.

“This wall seems to be processed earth. Like the weapons the undead had, the technology here seems more advanced than in your world or ours.”

Contrary to her words, cement walls didn’t require extraordinary technology.

They were just reinforced with rebar inside, and limestone was abundant, so it was easily used here.

“Then, is this like bricks…”

I shrugged at Hoffman’s words.

It was a bit different, but there was no problem understanding it that way.

We finished preparing to move and left the trench, but we didn’t leave immediately.

I led the group to a clearing a little away from the trench and took out the items I had packed yesterday from my magic bag.

“Could it be that you can use that weapon?”

Hoffman asked in a surprised voice when he saw what I had taken out.

“I didn’t pack it as a souvenir.”

“But when I saw it last night, it looked very complicated… I was really surprised that you could disassemble and assemble it, Sir Knight.”

I inserted the magazine into the gun while listening to Hoffman’s fuss.

As I told Hoffman, I hadn’t packed a perfectly good sniper rifle for nothing.

If I didn’t know about my past life, it would have been a useless item, but I was a discharged soldier who had served in the military in my previous life.

Although it was a North Korean sniper rifle I had never used before, and I wasn’t particularly recognized for my marksmanship in my past life,

There was no reason not to use a useful long-range weapon I had picked up, especially in a situation where there was no mage in the party.

Moreover, since I had become a knight who could handle mana, there was a high possibility that my skills had improved compared to my past life.

I put my eye to the scope, then aimed the gun at a tree about twenty meters away.

Then I held my breath, fixed my body with mana, and gently pulled the trigger.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The bullets hit in a row to the left of where I had aimed.

Fortunately, the bullets didn’t scatter in all directions but formed a group impact point in one place.

This was enough to zero in.

As I was zeroing in, Hoffman said,

“You really can use that weapon.”

“I’ve been watching it being used throughout the fights.”

The truth was that I had used it in my past life, but there was no need to tell the truth.

Hoffman continued to examine the gun with curious eyes.

“It’s still an amazing weapon. It’s not magic, but it fires small metal sticks much faster than arrows… If there were many weapons like this, we might be able to produce unlimited powerful archers.”

Maybe it was because of his long military service, but Hoffman’s guess was sharp.

After all, guns are weapons that can mass-produce soldiers capable of long-range attacks with minimal training.

A Demon King leading an undead army armed with guns.

Moreover, judging by the traces where the hero died, they hadn’t just used guns.

Since even the hero had died, it was inevitable to worry about how to stop the Demon King.

‘But it’s not like I can do anything about it.’

A new hero would appear anyway.

All I had to do was gather information about this world before the gate opened and pass it on to the people who came over.

‘And I need to find a way to get out of the military as quickly as possible.’

I had saved quite a lot of money so far, and if my predictions were correct, there would be ways to make more money in this world.

Gold and precious metals were items that could be used in both worlds.

In fact, if the Demon King hadn’t come over, living in this world would have been much better,

But since the Demon King had come, this world without priests would be much harder to survive in than our world.

Actually, if the Demon King hadn’t come over, I wouldn’t have been able to come here either,

But for this world’s sake, it would have been much better if the Demon King couldn’t come over.

Damn that hero.

I couldn’t help but curse the hero who had let the Demon King escape.

After zeroing in like that, we left the trench.

Unlike Hoffman, who had made a fuss, the elf woman had been quiet all morning, but she kept staring at the gun while I was zeroing in with the sniper rifle.

She seemed to find this gunpowder weapon very fascinating as well.

* * *

Although I had made the excuse that we needed to head south to avoid the Demon King and his army, now it seemed that excuse had become the correct judgment.

This was because we didn’t encounter any undead or the Demon King’s soldiers armed with guns as we headed south.

That’s not to say that the death aura disappeared or that we didn’t see moving corpses.

It’s just that those corpses weren’t the Demon King’s regular troops, but naturally occurring undead due to the death aura.

As we headed south, we would encounter one or two undead from time to time, but once we came across about a dozen undead.

On a hill as we left the mountain range and entered the plains.

Creak.

Skeletal undead rushed towards our group.

“Undead wild dogs?”

“They’re small for wild dogs.”

When I spoke upon seeing the approaching undead, Hoffman tilted his head.

Well, the approaching undead were large bony wild dogs that came up to a person’s waist, but to Hoffman, who had seen the wild dogs of the continent, they would have seemed small.

Unlike the animals here, the beasts of the continent were quite large due to the influence of mana.

Even ordinary wild dogs were larger than the wolves here, so Hoffman’s words weren’t wrong.

These skeletal creatures running towards us now could be considered young wild dogs in that world.

Perhaps because of this, there were quite a few undead dogs rushing at us, but Hoffman wasn’t tense.

Naturally, I wasn’t tense either, and instead of drawing my sword, I took out the sniper rifle from my space expansion bag.

Click.

Standing, I raised the gun, shouldered it, and aimed the muzzle at the head of the foremost undead dog.

I had thoroughly cleaned the gun last night, and zeroed it in when we set out, so now it was time to test it in actual combat.

I firmly fixed my body with mana and aligned the center of the scope with the head of the approaching undead.

I held my breath and fired.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out, and I saw the undead’s head explode through the scope.

As its head burst, the undead tumbled forward.

Okay!

I immediately moved the muzzle to aim at the next undead.

Bang!

Bang!

I continued firing at the approaching undead like that.

And I swung my sword at the undead that came close.

As expected, they were insignificant enemies.

A fight where Hoffman and the elf didn’t even need to help.

However, I couldn’t help but click my tongue as I looked at the fallen undead.

“Perhaps because it’s a long-range weapon, the weapons of this world seem to have a weak effect on the undead.”

Hoffman said to me as I clicked my tongue after examining the undead with shattered heads.

It was disappointing.

I had hoped it might be helpful, but as expected, guns weren’t of much use against the undead.

Even the undead whose head I had smashed first tried to get up and rush towards us again,

And the undead with holes in their bodies didn’t seem to even notice they had been hit by bullets.

They just staggered slightly from the impact. The reaction was even weaker than when hit by arrows.

Moreover, the bullets just grazed through the spaces between the bones of the skeletal undead.

“I guess it’s difficult with bullets after all.”

It seemed there was some stopping power if the head was properly smashed, but it looked difficult to stop the undead with bullets that didn’t contain mana.

“Even in our world, there weren’t many archers who could imbue arrows with mana. And there were even fewer priests who could bless arrows.”

Since even in our world, weapons without mana couldn’t properly destroy the undead, it would be difficult to smash the undead with the ordinary bullets I had fired.

It wasn’t easy for me to imbue arrows with mana either, so it was impossible to imbue mana into these small bullets.

In the end, it seemed the gun should be used against living animals or people.

As I was looking at the gun with disappointment,

“May I try using that weapon?”

The elf, who had approached without me noticing, held out her hand to me.