Chapter 36 – Ghoul (2)

A ghoul was an undead zombie-type creature with all its skin peeled off, exposing muscle.

Unlike zombies, the exposed muscles were due to enhancement after becoming undead.

Even normal zombies had decaying skin hanging off them, so there was no way the skin could withstand the pumped-up muscles.

In the other world, people who died from corruption would occasionally turn into ghouls instead of zombies.

It was an extremely rare case, but here I seemed to understand why ghouls transformed.

When a natural awakener becomes undead, they become a ghoul.

In the other world, even ordinary people could become ghouls – was the situation different here?

Or were they originally meant to be natural awakeners?

‘The nobles must have known?’

While those at the top might have known this, it was new information for me who had never seen a natural awakener become undead.

‘Indeed, this annoying medieval fantasy world.’

There were many inconveniences, but the monopoly and absence of information felt especially frustrating at times like these.

I’m not even thinking about something like the internet, but shouldn’t known information be shared?

With all information tightly sealed and known only to nobles and high-ranking officials, it sometimes made me want to start a revolution.

Of course, since it’s hopeless, I just leave it as a thought.

Either way, my curiosity was satisfied.

Thanks to the community leader, I could confirm what happens when a natural awakener in this world becomes undead.

He was perfect for experimenting on, since he had to be killed anyway.

Moreover, thanks to the thorough torture, he came looking for me right on time.

I heard some high-intelligence undead seek revenge from their past life – was he like that too?

But seeing the community leader ghoul rush at his siblings first, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Unlike yesterday, today four out of five of the community leader’s siblings had gone out for supplies.

And while four people had followed me to find the community leader, only three were still alive now.

The man who had asked if I killed the community leader died first, crushed by the falling ghoul.

His head was smashed by the ghoul’s fist as it fell downward.

Seeing this, the siblings present were stunned looking at the ghoul, and the ghoul didn’t stop, rushing toward the siblings.

I also ran at the ghoul.

“Get away!”

I pushed aside the people blocking the way and stood in front of the ghoul.

The ghoul saw me blocking and swung its fist, which I blocked with my gauntlet.

Bang!

When I blocked the flesh fist with my metal gauntlet, it sounded like metal poles colliding.

My arm vibrated, and I could see the gauntlet that blocked the punch getting dented.

As expected of a ghoul.

Both its speed and strength had increased several times compared to when the community leader was alive.

Was it because it had broken free from human limitations?

While its speed was still lacking, its strength seemed to rival that of a knight.

It was a remarkable transformation.

However, saying it rivaled a knight meant there was no reason for my strength to be inferior to the ghoul’s.

I didn’t give an inch against the ghoul’s punch.

While I could have returned the attack with equal force using my fist, there was no reason to do so.

That’s because my other hand wasn’t empty.

“Die!”

I swung my sword forcefully with anger.

My anger wasn’t for any other reason.

‘Do you know how much this armor costs!’

It was a proper magic armor made by a master blacksmith with enhancement magic cast by a wizard.

How dare it damage such armor.

Of course, armor can get damaged, and this armor wasn’t without other scratches, but the problem was that this was Earth.

There was no way to repair magically enhanced armor in this world.

The magic on the armor mustn’t break…

I swung my sword with such thoughts.

Slash.

Dried blood sprayed up, and a red line appeared on the ghoul’s chest.

It would have been a life-threatening wound for a human.

‘Too shallow.’

But for the undead ghoul, it was just a shallow wound.

The ghoul had managed to somewhat dodge the sword I swung right in front of it.

If it had been a zombie or skeleton, it would have been cut clean through, but with a ghoul, it wasn’t so easy.

However, there was no need to regret not finishing it in one strike.

After all, the ghoul wasn’t an ordinary undead that could be ended easily.

Unlike zombies that charge in regardless of damage, the ghoul kept backing away avoiding my sword.

I kept pursuing while swinging my sword.

Thanks to this, I could create distance from the community leader’s siblings who were frozen in place.

This was somewhat intentional too.

Actually, there was no need to save these men, the community leader’s underlings.

Having killed the community leader, there was no reason to save the thugs who had killed people with him.

If there had been no witnesses, I would have let the transformed ghoul kill them all.

But unfortunately, someone had followed us.

‘Lee Jun-ho,’ whose life I had saved, was lying prone at the end of the escalator watching this scene.

I couldn’t understand why he had followed later. I still don’t know why he’s watching the fight instead of running away.

Anyway, with someone watching, I couldn’t just let people die.

While it could become troublesome again if handled poorly, fortunately I didn’t need to put on much of an act.

Because actors who could deal with them in my place had just appeared.

“There are skeletons!”

Skeletons revealed themselves from the darkness.

The ghoul wasn’t the only one that had followed me.

The ghoul had made the skeletons that killed it into subordinates and brought them along.

“Block them!”

“No! We can’t kill skeletons!”

“We need to run!”

“Where to?”

Whether because time had passed or they had come to their senses at my words, the men started moving around frantically at the sight of the skeletons.

But they had nowhere to go.

They were in front of the shuttered main entrance, and the skeletons had appeared between the escalator going down and the main entrance.

The skeletons moved toward the main entrance where people were gathered, ignoring the escalator where Jun-ho was hiding alone.

Shouts and screams could be heard, and flashlight beams wavered wildly.

While the community leader’s siblings were desperately moving to survive the skeletons, I could face my opponent with ease.

I kept driving the ghoul back while swinging my sword.

The ghoul wanted to break away from me, but that was impossible.

Though our strength was similar and it seemed as clever as a human, having hidden the skeletons, that alone wasn’t enough to escape from me.

While our strength was similar, I was faster, and with my sword, I had longer reach.

And experience was different.

With barely matching strength, how could an undead that had just become a ghoul and hadn’t even finished adapting to its body match a knight who had fought undead for years?

While it might be like a grim reaper to ordinary soldiers, to me, a knight, it was just good practice.

The ghoul’s wounds increased with each sword swing.

While it managed to prevent its arms or neck from being cut off, the ghoul’s muscles kept getting sliced.

As muscles were cut, the ghoul’s movements gradually slowed.

The legs that had easily jumped over human height and kicked off walls to hang from the ceiling were now bloody and barely moving.

The fists that had shattered concrete walls and damaged my gauntlet were now half-cut and couldn’t even make a proper fist.

But the ghoul didn’t give up until the end.

Because it still had subordinates to help it.

“Kwaaaaak.”

After the final scream was heard, the sound of bones running this way could be heard.

At the same time, unlike before, the ghoul moved violently.

It seemed to be trying to prevent me from noticing the skeletons running from behind.

It was a decent plan, but unfortunately, it was already exposed.

Moreover, I hadn’t been giving it my all either.

I too had been waiting for the skeletons’ fight to end.

“You were like the giving tree.”

I swung my sword while expressing gratitude to the community leader turned ghoul.

Unlike before, my sword, now several times faster and filled with mana, glowing brightly, passed through the ghoul’s neck.

Slash.

The ghoul’s head shot up into the sky.

A few drops of blackened blood sprayed up, and the headless ghoul’s arms tried to grab me.

Moving despite having its head cut off – indeed, undead were damn persistent.

However, an undead with its head cut off couldn’t move properly.

I methodically cut up the flailing ghoul’s body.

Cutting off both arms, cutting off the legs, piercing the heart – only then did it finally quiet down.

Just then, the skeletons arrived, so I swung my sword to finish them off too.

While skeletons were difficult to kill without mana, to my mana-filled sword they were no different from zombies.

Bones with severed necks poured onto the floor.

At the same time, the corruption energy released from the bones scattered into the air.

The death energy that flows out when defeating undead.

‘Will it purify like this? Or will it go to the Demon King?’

If it went to the Demon King it would be like cooking porridge for a dog, but that didn’t mean I could not kill them.

As I watched the corruption energy scatter in the air, I soon had to furrow my brow.

Swoosh.

Because I saw a strand of the scattering corruption energy flow into my body.

I definitely hadn’t seen this phenomenon in the other world.

I hadn’t seen it when killing zombies here either.

Actually, when killing zombies, so little corruption energy flowed out it was hard to confirm.

‘I should have checked properly when killing the corpse golem.’

While it would have been difficult to confirm since it was made of combined zombies and little corruption energy flowed out, if I had looked carefully then, cross-verification would have been possible.

‘Surely I, a knight, won’t become corrupted?’

Even in the other world, there were cases of knights becoming undead.

The so-called Death Knights were such undead.

However, those Death Knights were knights that the Demon King’s army had resurrected as undead after death.

There had never been a case of a knight becoming undead while still alive.

‘There weren’t any knights who absorbed corruption energy either.’

No, can others see corruption energy like me?

Everyone could only see materialized corruption energy like morning fog.

I was no different.

In the other world, I couldn’t properly see corruption energy either. I just sensed it a bit better than others thanks to mana detection.

‘Is this another thing that changed after coming to this world?’

It seems I had let my guard down because everything that changed after coming to this world had been good for me.

‘I need to stay alert.’

There was no way only good things would happen after coming to another world.

It seemed I had something I needed to check first.

I moved toward the escalator with a hardened expression.