.｡.:✧ Chapter 9 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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The creature’s height reached 3 meters, but due to its hunched back and low posture, it appeared lengthy rather than tall. It had four arms, and the tips of its hands were curved sharply like hooks.

The fur covering its entire body stood on end like a porcupine’s quills rather than actual fur. Its large, hideous jaw and palm-sized teeth far exceeded the level of regular wolves. It crawled forward, supporting itself on its four hands between the trees. Yellow eyes glowed from within the dark shadows.

Valian tensed up. This was different from the werewolf he had seen in old advertisements. This seemed to be a veritable demon-level monster. He felt a slight sense of dread.

The wolf-like demon spoke.

“You are a formidable warrior. You have killed many of my children.”

What the hell? Did that thing just talk?

“I am curious about your name, warrior.”

Unlike its vicious appearance, its voice was quite soft, deep, and slightly husky, almost like a woman’s voice. Unknowingly, Valian responded.

“…Valian.”

The werewolf’s face twitched. He guessed it was smiling.

“Valian. Yes, Valian. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am called Amilia. And I am a lady who fancies warriors like yourself.”

What the hell? What kind of nonsense was this monster spouting? Valian was confused, wondering if this was some new form of spell. His bewilderment must have shown on his face.

“You must be perplexed. Well, it would be difficult to feel any desire looking at my current form. But if you wish to live, you will have to stand at attention with the object between your legs.”

Valian’s expression contorted as he failed to comprehend her words for a moment. The sudden increase in wolves. Wolves which are far from ordinary. The villagers whose bodies were never found. Faina’s lover. Lover.

“…How fucked up. To be devoured and killed by such a repulsive bastard?”

The werewolf’s face twitched again. This time, there was no need to guess. The monster’s expression turned hideous with rage.

“You are a handsome warrior. But your mouth is foul. It’s alright. The more ill-mannered ones are, the greater the pleasure when I force myself upon them. I look forward to the gallantry of the children born from your seed.”

Valian clenched his jaw and prepared for battle. He discarded the hand axe on the ground. Its blade was in poor condition and could break if used further. He raised his sword in front of his face. The sword’s condition was also poor, and it could break if used much longer, no different from the axe.

So, Valian quietly recited the incantation for his skill.

“Val-tazar.”

A faint light emanated from the notched and chipped blade. A mysterious rune was engraved on the part of the blade closer to the hilt. It was the skill ‘Ancestral Blessing’ of the barbarian warrior class from the Armenian RPG.

This skill allowed the magic-less barbarian class to combat formless entities like ghosts and demons. It was Valian’s only skill and, simultaneously, a confirmation that this world was a discounted game world, along with his ability to perceive status values visually.

The werewolf growled.

“An unpleasant light, Valian.”

“This light will do far more unpleasant things to you.”

Valian took a deep breath and tensed his body. The strength he had gained from his recent level-up pulsed roughly. It had been a long time since he had faced such a monster. Would a manticore compare to this thing? He felt he would only know by engaging it.

“Surrender meekly and become my husband!”

The werewolf charged at him while spouting insane words. Normally, one would flee when a 3-meter muscular, four-armed monster charged. What human could fight such a demon?

Of course, Valian charged right back at it.

Long, hooked claws swiped at Valian’s face. Despite calling him handsome, it didn’t seem to care much for his face. He dodged to the side and slashed at its forearm. There was considerable resistance. Black blood spurted out.

The werewolf let out a sound, whether a scream or a roar was unclear, and swung its remaining hooked claws at him. Valian’s sword swung rapidly three times. More black blood gushed out.

The werewolf’s arms didn’t slice off as easily as the wolves’ corpses. The flesh split, and blood flowed, but it moved them unhindered. Its four arms bombarded Valian like a storm.

Valian gripped his longsword with both hands and lowered his stance, just like when he killed the elf swordswoman in Noife.

He didn’t retreat at all. He parried all the arms trying to tear off one of his limbs. This time, a definite scream erupted. It was a miracle made possible not only by Valian’s exceptional senses and strength but also by his sword reinforced with his ancestral blessing, preventing it from breaking.

His sword still emitted a faint blue light.

“Vali-an!”

Despite writhing in pain, Amilia the werewolf didn’t stop. This time, instead of swinging her arms, she charged with her entire body, trying to pin him down.

Valian momentarily lunged forward, thrusting his longsword into her side and withdrawing. A large gash opened on the werewolf’s flank.

However, the werewolf acted as if it wasn’t a significant wound and turned to try tearing into Valian again.

“It hurts, Valian! If you keep doing this, I might just kill you!”

“Please do, your attention is a burden to me.”

The hooked claws reached out to grab Valian once more. He sharpened his senses and focused strength into the hand gripping his sword. From the previous sword strikes, he could gauge the thickness of the werewolf’s hide and roughly estimate how much force would be needed to slice through it. He could cut it. Trusting the senses and strength of this body, Valian swung his sword down.

The werewolf’s severed right hand rolled across the ground. When its wrist was cut off, the werewolf stumbled back.

“No, this, what is… My hand…”

“Yes. It’s been cut off. Now I’ll take your head.”

This time, Valian charged first. The werewolf instinctively charged back, but after losing its second left arm and sustaining a dangerously deep gash in its chest, it retreated.

“You monster.”

The wolf monster Amilia spat out those words and fled, with the handful of remaining wolves following her. And Valian gave chase. There was no reason to let her live.

Amilia fled at an astonishingly rapid pace befitting a 3-meter werewolf. With each step, she covered several meters.

Valian pursued at an equally remarkable speed. While running, he retrieved the discarded axe and reapplied his ancestral blessing to the dimmed longsword. An unexpected chase unfolded in the dark forest.

The fleeing wolves couldn’t keep up with Amilia’s speed and fell behind. Valian struck them down with a swing of his sword as he passed by. The wolves let out a cracking sound and collapsed dead on the spot.

Although Valian’s stride was incredibly swift, Amilia eventually distanced herself. Her large stature allowed her to cover far more ground with each movement. Amilia disappeared into the trees, grass, and shadows.

Valian didn’t panic. The blood trail left by the werewolf had already become a marker for him. He continued forward without significantly changing his pace.

A small waterfall flowed with a “shoosh” sound. Beside it, a dark opening gaped like a mouth. The werewolf’s trail led into that cave.

Valian paused briefly. The gaping cave entrance resembled a wolf’s maw. Having a torch would have been preferable, but Valian didn’t carry such things. He trusted his exceptional senses, which could allow him to tightrope walk even in complete darkness, as proven in Noife’s sewers.

Suddenly, he realized he had a substitute for a torch. When he raised his right hand, the chipped and toothless longsword emitted a faint blue light.

“…Yeah, better than nothing.”

Valian swung the sword a few times and entered the cave.

The cave was only spacious at the entrance; it was a rather small cavern. It was hardly large enough for a 3-meter monster to crawl through while thrashing in agony. Moreover, the black blood trail Valian had been following gradually became lighter in color until it turned into a vivid red.

Although perplexing, Valian reached a rough conclusion.

“The transformation wore off.”

While the werewolf’s appearance differed slightly from what he knew – aside from having four arms – he figured such beings could have their transformations dispelled.

From the point where her transformation wore off, Amilia the werewolf left chaotic trails on the cave walls and floor, as if she had repeatedly collapsed. It seemed her anguish and sense of loss were palpable. Of course, Valian had no intention of sympathizing with a human-devouring monster. If she disliked pain, she shouldn’t have committed such acts. Valian continued following the blood trail.

Abruptly, the narrow cave opened into a vast space, not a dead end.

The cavern was spacious enough for a 3-meter monster to rampage madly. It contained a wooden table, food items, a hanging pot over a campfire, a bed, a wardrobe, and even a bookcase lined with books along one wall. However, more eye-catching than those items was the moonlight streaming in through a hole in the center of the ceiling and the stone altar beneath it.

Leaning against the altar sat a brown-haired woman missing her right wrist, with wounds on her side and chest oozing blood.

“…Welcome, warrior.”

She was trembling and shivering.

“If I had seduced you with that face, I might not have had to point a sword at you.”

“…Are you joking? Or are you serious?”

“Serious. I am a barbaric woman lacking in chastity.”

Amilia laughed with a hoarse voice. Despite the blood spurting out, her laughter was hearty. Valian asked her.

“So, werewolf Amilia. Why did you take the villagers? Did you really devour and kill them all?”

“Yes, I devoured and killed all but one.”

“One?”

“I haven’t killed the most recent one I captured yet. His seed seems promising.”

Faina would be delighted. Valian slowly approached her while continuing the conversation.

“Then secondly, why did you do it? Were you planning to breed a pack of giant wolf pups and establish a kingdom?”

“…To defile the sacred seal.”

Valian tilted his head in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”

She seemed to nod towards the altar she was leaning against.

“…There is a sword slumbering here. This stone slab is the altar of the moon goddess Rofina, and long ago, one of her great warriors hid his sword here. While studying ancient texts, I learned of this. It was undoubtedly an ancient holy sword, an incredible relic. So, I immediately abandoned the magic I was studying and rushed here. But look at this.”

Her face looked dejected.

“When I tried to desecrate the altar, Rofina placed a curse on me. I immediately turned into a wolf monster. And as a monster, I lost my sanity and started abducting men.

I brought them here and diligently… well, you know. But when I regained my senses after being diligent, it was truly absurd. What kind of insane curse is this? Turning into a werewolf is one thing, but why abduct men? And why do more pups keep being born at night? In a single night, a dozen children were born to me?

And those children weren’t human but stinking mutts? That bitch moon goddess must definitely mate with dogs every night. Damn it… And I was once a promising student at the mage academy…”

“…So, defiling the sacred seal means?”

“…I wanted to take revenge on Rofina, but there was nothing I could do. So, I just did it on top of the altar. As an act of defiance. But doing that only seemed to strengthen the curse? I grew extra arms, became much larger, and the sacred seal inscribed on the altar began to weaken. As I continued my deeds and devoured my victims on the altar, the sacred seal weakened faster…”

Valian stood before Amilia. She looked up at him with a pale, lifeless face and hollow eyes.

“…I had planned to remove the holy sword once the seal disappeared, sell it, and donate the money to the church to lift the curse…”

Valian was expressionless.

“…But now I wonder if I really needed to go that far. I didn’t have to devour anyone… Did the curse drive me insane? But that flesh tasted so delicious…”

Valian swung his dimly lit sword. Amilia’s head was severed, and her blood defiled the altar.

He raised his head to gaze at the moon through the ceiling’s opening. A faint crescent moon shone bluish. Was the moon goddess watching now? If she were watching, what about Val-tazar? The ancestor spirit of the Aynakians? Had he been watching over me as well? Did he know I wasn’t originally from this world? Why am I here?

Valian gripped his sword with both hands, raised it high, and swung down with all his might, shouting.

“Val-tazar!”

The sword and stone altar collided with a resounding “clang.” After that single loud ring, the altar split in two. And Valian’s blessed longsword crumbled to sand. Inside the split altar, now hollow, lay a single sword.

Apart from the wolf-head pommel at the end of the hilt, nothing seemed particularly unique. Like Valian’s now-shattered sword, the blade was broad and thick, and the hilt’s length was generous. Without hesitation, Valian retrieved the sword and swung it with both hands.

The large, long blade ominously cut through the air. It was a rather satisfactory sword. A mysterious rune was engraved on the blade. What could it mean?

Was it some kind of enchantment befitting an ancient holy sword? He sheathed it in the original scabbard, and it fit perfectly, so he wouldn’t need a new one.

Valian, now unclothed, searched Amilia’s bed and bookcase for anything of value, as well as to find Faina’s boyfriend. He found a few coins and Amilia’s diary, which appeared to chronicle her descent into madness due to the curse. After skimming through it, he tossed it aside. There didn’t seem to be anything else worth money.

Beside Amilia’s bed was a dark corridor. Beyond an iron-barred gate, a severely emaciated man lay on the ground.

“Kun?”

The man’s condition was horrific. Both his arms and legs were missing.

“…Who are you?”

“Faina has been searching for you. No, mourning you, I suppose.”

“…Faina? …Mourning?”

Valian gripped the iron bars with his hands and applied force. The steel bars, clearly sturdy, bent like twigs. He entered and approached Kun, realizing his condition was even more severe – he was also missing both eyes.

“…Perhaps I killed that bitch too easily.”

“Bitch? You killed Amilia?”

Kun’s tone suddenly became composed. He turned his head toward the sound, as if he could see by doing so.

“Tell me. Did you kill Amilia?”

“Yes. I killed her.”

Kun remained motionless for a moment, still as a statue. After a while, he spoke again.

“Why did you kill her?”

“What?”

“Why did you kill her! Why did you kill her! Why did you kill her?!”

The limbless and eyeless Kun writhed like a crazed larva, spitting as he shouted loudly.

“You bastard! Goblin-like bastard! A lifetime of eating shit, you bastard! Your jaw will fall off, you bastard!”

Valian was slightly bewildered. Had this guy gone insane? Why was he acting like this?

“Bring her back! Bring Amilia back!”

Valian was genuinely perplexed.

“What kind of insane nonsense is this? Don’t tell me…?”

Kun, who had been cursing, now began to sob loudly. Since his eyes weren’t cleanly removed, no tears flowed.

“Amilia! Amilia!”

Valian, who had been crouching to observe Kun, stood up. He wore a troubled expression.

“…This guy has gone mad too. To prefer the woman who mutilated him

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