Nordic Myth – Chapter 9

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

A heavy voice from somewhere echoes through the atmosphere.

Black cavalry began to emerge from the shimmering space.

At the same time, the cavalry, pouring out four at a time, charged towards the orcs as soon as they emerged from the space, wielding spears nearly 5 meters long.

With a single swing, the enemy’s neck or arm is cut off.

Due to the overwhelming difference in force and skill, the orcs were instantly killed.

The cavalry continued to pour out.

Cavalry golems, 2.4 meters tall, wearing iron armor and horse armor, with the best defense and charging power.

A total of 212 golems. If the quantity of anything exceeds 100, a unit can be created.

Since this was the first time I summoned them here, a new window would probably appear.

And when they all emerged from the space, as expected, a system message appeared.

I decided to use the name ‘Ironclad Knights’, which I used in Greek and Roman mythology.

The word “knight” was unfamiliar there, but here, it’s a common word.

When I created the unit, I received a new title, ‘Knight Commander’. It was the first title I got here.

It wasn’t a useful title right now.

Anyway, the cavalry that came out spread out throughout the castle.

“W-what are these?”

Kvasir was flustered by the sight of them sweeping away the orcs with truly outstanding force.

Seryu briefly said, “They’re my subordinates,” and walked ahead. As Seryu walked, the paper swords floating around followed him like baby birds.

Seryu walked to the women who had been raped by the orcs, cleansed and healed their bodies with magic.

And he took out a long, thick cloth from his inventory and covered them. One, two – whenever he saw a woman on the street, he approached and repeated the same action.

The inventory seemed to be a magical item, as the cloth kept coming out. Kvasir, who was watching, muttered, “What is this?”

I came here determined to help the castle – things are going too smoothly.

No, rather than saying it’s easy, a powerful solution appeared to the point of being absurd.

The experience points earned by the Cataphracts were directly transferred to Seryu.

I don’t know how many hundreds are, but the system message is being updated almost non-stop.

The experience points went up and up, raising the level. The increase in experience points was significant, perhaps because the level of the orcs was higher than I thought.

The women who were rescued all cried out loud, saying thank you.

“….?”

Cataphracts were damaged? Can that be?

It’s a minor damage, not a big one, but for a golem with Master Knight-level skills and a body made of hard metal to be damaged.

Honestly, I couldn’t understand and thought it was a bug. But it was too early to conclude that it was a bug.

I turned my gaze. One Cataphract entered a back alley. The Cataphract shifted his spear to his left hand, drew the katana on his waist, and slashed the hiding orc.

It was unbelievable that these guys, who were being slaughtered without any resistance, were damaging the Cataphracts.

I frowned in wonder and activated the mini-map, and the location of all golems was visible.

Among them, I saw red marks appearing continuously. I move my steps in that direction.

Kvasir followed, seeing me walking somewhere without helping the fallen women anymore.

“Where are you going?”

“I have something to do.”

On the way there, I heard a roar that was too loud to believe it was an orc.

Kraaaaaaaaaaah!

And the moment I saw him, Seryu was amazed.

He was three times the size of other orcs and had a hideous face that gave a considerable sense of pressure.

His reddish muscles were bulging as if they were about to burst, and he was holding a battle-axe befitting his size.

Finally, a black aura was wriggling around his body.

The aura, wriggling slowly like seaweed in the sea, was unpleasant just to look at.

Seeing that, Seryu knew that he had a fragment of Jinmara.

That aura was similar to the power that the leader of the gnolls, Kanon, whom I met when I started this world, had.

I was wondering how they were damaging the Cataphracts, and it was cumulative damage from the curse of Jinmara’s fragment.

But even with Jinmara’s fragment, he is being thoroughly toyed with by two Cataphracts.

He swings the huge battle-axe wildly, but the Cataphracts lightly block and deflect it.

Then, in that gap, another Cataphract stabs his body several times with that unique long spear of 5 meters and retreats.

I could see that Rikchak, the King of the Outcast Orcs, was getting tired.

“W-where are you going?”

“Why are you asking the obvious? I have to go catch him. Just watch.”

It feels like stealing the last hit, but that guy Rikchak has what I want.

To get Jinmara’s fragment, Seryu told the two Cataphracts to retreat.

-Yes, My Lord.

With complete obedience, the two Cataphracts readily retreated.

Rikchak, who saw them retreating without attacking anymore, breathed heavily and looked puzzled, but then he tightly gripped the battle-axe again when he saw a human approaching.

During that short time, the large and small wounds on Rikchak’s body were healing quickly.

“That’s an amazing recovery ability.”

Kreuuk!

He bared his gums and revealed sharp teeth.

Seeing the faint red light in his eyes, he seemed to be going into a berserk state.

No, maybe he’s already in it – he’s maintaining his sanity well even in a berserk state.

“Well, what the hell. ‘Spread’.”

Crack!

The ground around Seryu began to freeze, and in an instant, a radius of 20 meters was frozen solid.

A sharp chill that stings the skin rises from the frozen ground.

The surrounding objects that came into contact with the chill immediately began to frost.

Rikchak flinched at the coldness felt as the ground froze.

The chill is slowing down his body movements. Annoying, angry.

Because he was simple, that’s why he could be strong, Rikchak shouted his anger.

K-Kraaaaaaaaaaah!

“Track the heart, First Frost Sword.”

Ten swords were created and flew straight towards Rikchak. At the same time, the paper swords made from the grimoire that were following behind were also fired.

The analogy of flying like bullets is not false. There’s just no sound of bang!, they fly like silent assassins and instantly reach Rikchak.

But the moment the swords reached Rikchak, he moved. He swung the huge battle-axe heavily and accurately deflected all ten frost swords that were fired first.

His movements were very fast. After deflecting the frost swords, he deflected the paper swords that poured in secondary with the wide surface of the battle-axe.

“Fall, Second Frost Spear.”

Kreuuk!?

I activated the second magic while he was blocking the frontal attack.

Ten frost spears fell on Rikchak’s head, which couldn’t move.

The sharply pointed spears pierced through Rikchak’s skin and muscles, but couldn’t pierce through and inflict a fatal wound.

At the same time, the black aura flowing from Rikchak’s body seeped into the frost spears that pierced his body and instantly disrupted the magic power in the spears.

As the magic power dissipated, the frost spears that maintained their shape melted away.

Now it’s my turn, Rikchak, emitting a fierce gaze, moved his feet.

No, he tried to move. But his feet wouldn’t move.

The chill rising from the frozen ground clung to his feet like a living creature and sealed his movements.

Rikchak put strength into his feet and broke the ice.

Seryu frowned as he watched.

It’s disappointing that even though he chanted the spell, it didn’t show proper power.

Even orcs with a level difference of 5 or more would die with one frost sword, but I can’t even damage Rikchak.

I felt disappointed in the power of magic, but it’s not over yet.

“Surround, bury. Third Ice Pillar.”

Ice pillars rise around Rikchak.

With a clear sound of crack, crack-, the ice pillars rising from the ground are spreading a cold chill around them.

Before he swings the battle-axe, before the black aura seeps into the ice pillars, I chant the next spell.

“Explode, be buried in the fragments.”

The ice pillars reacted to Seryu’s magic power and exploded inward like grenades, pouring out fragments.

Tens of thousands of ice fragments like glass shards hit Rikchak’s body like a storm.

In the tremendous pain felt throughout his body, Rikchak finally lost his mind.

Kraaaaaaaaaaah────!

So what, I scoffed at Rikchak, who was enraged and completely lost his mind.

“Blow, freeze. Cut. Fourth Whirling Blade Wind.”

The wind blowing from behind moves forward and transforms into blades.

However, it collided with the black aura emanating from Rikchak’s body and disappeared, offsetting each other.

“Oh?”

I used the First Frost Sword, Second Frost Spear, and Fourth Whirling Blade Wind again, but unlike before, they don’t work at all.

On the contrary, they melt as soon as they approach him.

What is Jinmara’s fragment that it strengthens monsters like that? Really. It’s worthy of being an item related to the end.

Rikchak, running threateningly with a thud, thud-, swung the battle-axe from bottom to top. With one hand!

When the sharp blade made a whooshing sound, Seryu immediately stretched out his hand and activated his magic power.

Hundreds of hexagonal crystal-shaped membranes gathered like honeycombs in front of him, forming a protective shield.

Kwaang!

The protective shield lasts for about 1 second and shatters and collapses.

Along with that, status ailment messages appear one after another, perhaps because Jinmara’s curse has covered my body.

“You’re not the only one who can use curses.”

-Magic Eye 2nd Awakening.

-Jinmara’s Curse.

Seryu’s eyes split left and right, and pupils emerge from within.

The status ailments that covered my body due to the same Jinmara’s curse are released one after another.

With the effect of the first awakening, dynamic vision and body reaction speed increase, and my body feels lighter.

Then, the precognitive ability to see 3 seconds into the future, the effect of the second awakening, and an additional effect were activated.

Rikchak’s body, who lost his mind due to the unique aura emitted by the Magic Eye, flinches.

Kraaaaaaaaaaah!

He drives away the fear with a roar, and with the confidence of breaking the protective shield, he swings the battle-axe with all his might.

However, thanks to the Magic Eye, which can predict the future 3 seconds later, Seryu nimbly avoids the axe blade.

With a hair’s breadth, he avoids all attacks with minimal movement, leisurely steps back, and activates magic.

Twenty frost swords are fired, and thirty frost spears rain down from above.

There’s still no effect. I might have been able to do something if I had awakened the third eye, but up to the second awakening, there is no stat increase except for strength.

Clicking my tongue, I teleported about 10 meters away.

Kraaa!

As the distance widened, Rikchak growled and ran, lightly jumped and landed, and bent his knees.

And when he was about to jump into the air with all his might, Seryu clearly saw the future 3 seconds later.

No, it was a pattern that could be predicted even without seeing the future. But what I wanted to see was not the attack pattern, but the location.

Rikchak jumps into the air, grabs the battle-axe tightly with both hands, and raises it above his head.

Seeing him roaring fiercely, as if to split him in half like a watermelon, Seryu also raised his hand above his head.

Blue particles gather in his palm.

If you look closely, you can see that they are ice crystals.

The ice crystals gathering at a tremendous speed transformed into a single katana in about 1.5 seconds.

The katana, with a blade about 1.2 meters long, is transparent and bright, perhaps because it’s made of very pure ice crystals.

“Gather.”

Again, ice crystals gather and cover the blade.

The 1.2 meter length increased to 2.4 meters, and it was repeated, and in a short time, it became a long katana nearly 8 meters long.

“I’ll send you to the underworld for sure.”

The katana was slashed down smoothly and quickly.

Before Rikchak could bring down his axe, the katana was already swung.

When the blade touched the ground, the 8 meter long katana could no longer maintain its shape and turned into crystals, scattering into the air.

Rikchak, whose body was cut by the ice katana, was neatly divided into two pieces and fell to the ground.

The body fell with a thud. Regeneration?

There’s no way he can regenerate in that state.

The muscular body disappeared, leaving only bones.

Inside Rikchak’s ribs, there is ‘Jinmara’s Fragment’, emitting an ominous aura.

When I approached and picked it up, it was absorbed into the Magic Eye like before.

I collected all the paper swords, made them into a grimoire again, and held it in my hand.

Holding two thick grimoires in one hand is very inconvenient.

And the cavalry, which had spread out and completed their mission, returned one by one with a dignified appearance, as if on cue.

When the 212 Cataphracts gathered in one place, the quite wide road was filled.

“A-amazing. Are you okay?”

Kvasir approached Seryu and asked.

I’m not hurt. Rather, it was fun.

Kvasir scanned Seryu’s entire body up and down several times, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

And then she looked at the Cataphracts nearby.

“But who are these? Covered in metal…”

Her mouth slowly opened as she spoke.

And her eyes turned close to astonishment, and she approached the nearest Cataphract and reached out her hand.

As she approached, the other cavalry tried to point their spears, but they stopped at Seryu’s gesture.

Her eyes trembled as she reached out and stroked the horse’s armor and touched inside.

It couldn’t be, but perhaps it was ticklish, the horse snorted and neighed.

“Oh my god, this is, Seryu, my eyes aren’t wrong, right? This is a golem…isn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

“I can’t believe it. How, such a sophisticated golem, how on earth…”

It’s like a living creature. Its movements are natural, and it’s literally moving as if breathing.

Does a being who can make a golem with such tremendous completeness really exist in this world?

Even the dwarves, who are called excellent craftsmen, wouldn’t be able to make this.

And what is Seryu, who owns this, who is he to have such a golem and possess such power?

The 8-meter ice katana he showed at the end was magic that even Kvasir was surprised by.

It looked so simple on the outside, but the magic power concentrated in the katana was truly beyond imagination.

Maybe he’s a god playing around? But if he’s a god, one of the blessings given to her should have reacted.

Then maybe it’s one of the giants who transformed.

But looking at his actions, he’s not a giant.

“Who are you? You….”

“You seem to have forgotten again. I told you to find out yourself. If you really can’t find the answer and want to know, try to seduce me.”

“You were serious about what you said then. I thought you were joking.”

“Of course. I don’t often say empty words.”

I laughed off the conversation with her and looked around.

Due to the arson committed by the orcs, the flames are spreading everywhere, so there is a lot of smoke rising from the castle. It doesn’t seem easy to put out the fire unless it rains. It seems that the fire is being extinguished after the orcs were dealt with, but it seems like it will take quite a long time.

“If it’s because of the fire, don’t worry. I’ll take care of it this time.”

“Can you?”

“It’s because I haven’t done anything. As you can see, I’m good at using rune magic.”

She activated rune magic, and soon, rain poured down from the sky. The raindrops that began to fall patter turned into a downpour, and Seryu took out an umbrella from his inventory and opened it. I think I’ve done enough.

“Now, what’s left is to visit the lord?”

“The lord? I don’t think we need to visit him. He’s coming.”

In the pouring rain, a group of people are walking towards us, as Kvasir said, between the cavalry neatly lined up on the roadside.

Wearing light leather armor, not heavy armor, they looked dispirited like defeated soldiers.

They also seemed to be injured, with traces of first aid all over their bodies.

The one presumed to be the lord came forward, knelt down, and bowed his head.

The knights following him and Seryu and Kvasir, who were watching, looked a little surprised by his sudden action.

“I greet Lady Kvasir, whose reputation is widespread across the continent. And thank you very much for helping our castle.”

She seems to be really famous.

Anyway, the lord raised his head again and looked at Seryu.

“Are you the lord of these knights?”

“That’s right.”

“Thank you very much for helping the castle.”

He expressed his sincere gratitude.

“Kneeling is not something you can easily do.”

“Compared to saving our castle in crisis, kneeling is nothing, isn’t it?”

“Not bad. Why don’t you get up? It’s burdensome if you keep doing that.”

At Seryu’s words, he got up.

And the lord said he would guide us to the inner castle and treat us with utmost hospitality.

Is there really a need to be treated?

Actually, this castle is not in a valuable location.

It’s not like it’s geographically well-connected and commercially developed, and it doesn’t seem to have any special products.

Besides, how much can I get from this castle?

I already have an overflowing amount of gold and silver treasures in my inventory.

I’ve even collected a considerable amount of food and emergency supplies, so I wouldn’t be satisfied with ordinary items as a reward.

So I just declined. The lord made a disappointed expression.

“Ah, but I have a question.”

“Tell me. I’ll answer anything if I know it.”

“Is it true that the orcs came down from the western forest?”

The lord nodded. The orcs have been coming down from the western forest for months.

And before I knew it, they were roaming in groups, and today they attacked.

Anger and defeat overwhelm him as he recalls the absurdly breached gate and the devastating defeat.

If it weren’t for these people in front of me, the residents of Kajark Castle would have been in a terrible state.

“Lord?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. The orcs have been coming down from the western forest for months. Adventurers say that they saw a mysterious spear unit driving the orcs out of the western forest. The orcs were horribly killed, and they didn’t even try to resist, so they just ran away as soon as the spear unit appeared.”

“Spear unit? You mean there’s an army in the western forest? Then, what was it? The land of gold?”

I don’t remember the name of the castle that became the basis for the name western forest for a moment.

Kvasir, who was next to me, answered instead when I hesitated.

“Nibelungen.”

“That’s right, Nibelungen! Couldn’t it be their army?”

“…No, there is no spear unit in Nibelungen. If there is a country with a spear unit around here, it would be ‘Eisenstein’ across the sea.”

“How can you be sure that there is no spear unit in Nibelungen?”

“A long time ago, an envoy from Nibelungen visited our castle, and I heard it from them then.”

Do you really believe that?

The envoy from Nibelungen could have lied.

Or they could have created a new spear unit recently.

It could change depending on how long ago ‘a long time ago’ was, but it was hard to understand the lord who easily believed that.

But I had to admit his next words.

“The envoy from Nibelungen was an elf who told the truth, their country has so much gold that all units have gold-plated armor. No, was it that the gold itself has sacred power, so they wear armor made of gold? Anyway, I heard that the Golden Knights, wearing shining armor, are the main military group. So it’s not Nibelungen.”

The quest was not mandatory.

It’s something you can do or not do. I didn’t know what the reward was either.

Maybe there’s no reward. It seems like there will be new quests depending on the progress, but since the quest has appeared, I decided to continue until the end.

“Wait, are you asking this because you’re going to the western forest?”

The lord seemed to want to dissuade me, but he glanced at Kvasir next to me and the cavalry around me and closed his mouth.

Yes, if I leave it to them, the matter could be resolved without shedding a drop of blood.

“Where should I go to get to the western forest?”

“I’ll guide you. Do you need any supplies? I’ll do anything I can to support you.”

I shook my head. As I said before, I have everything I need in my inventory.

“Just tell us the direction, and we’ll go ourselves. We can’t take the lord, who is busy settling the chaos in the castle and rebuilding it, with us, can we?”

At Seryu’s words, the lord looked around and sighed.

And he explained the location.

After hearing the explanation, Seryu returned the cavalry.

The cavalry blurred like mist and disappeared without a trace, and everyone except Seryu looked as if they were possessed by something.

In that silence, Seryu grabbed Kvasir’s hand and distanced themselves from the lord and the knights. Then he threw the grimoire in his hand into the air.

As when we first came here, the pages of the grimoire tore and formed a cylinder.

“Wait, what’s your name, my benefactor?”

“Seryu.”

“I, the lord of Kajark Castle, and my knights will remember your name, benefactor. If you ever need help, please come to our castle anytime.”

“Thank you for that.”

Seryu seemed to like the lord’s words, so he stroked his chin and took out a pouch from his inventory and threw it to the lord.

It was a pouch filled with gold coins and jewels.

“I hope the castle will be more developed when I come next time. That way, I can be treated lavishly, right?”

Haha, he laughed and activated the magic.

And with a dazzling light, Seryu and Kvasir disappeared from the spot.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇