“What a moron…”

  The redhead dwarf fainted when she realized that she was going to die. At least that would have made a painless death. Still, now I had to finish off an unconscious person.

  “Grrr…”

  “Are you sure that you are my conscience taking physical form?”

  Gcien didn’t respond, not like she could deny or confirm that. In any case, my bad habit of showing leniency to others was back, but at least this one was too cowardly to deal with anything and, for whatever reason, she didn’t alert the others about me here.

  “I guess she decided to deal with me because she feared that a lot of people could die in a fight. There is also the chance that no one else could be spared to come after me… well, it doesn’t matter, she will have to be tied up until I leave the byrinth.”

  I felt like she deserved a bit of mercy since she made me save a lot of time by telling the truth about the byrinth. Her sense of duty made her follow me to kill me, but Gcien didn’t warn me of the danger… probably because she had decided to follow me, but she didn’t make her mind about finishing me off. Or maybe this was all just an excuse that my lizard brain came up with to avoid taking a life here.

  Gcien didn’t mind carrying the girl, but I made sure to tie up her hands and arms. I considered covering her eyes as well, but that probably would make things harder after. If anything, perhaps I can use her to get some information about the situation from the dwarven side.

  Since Gcien wouldn’t be able to fight like this, I changed my pns a bit and then used Cursed Imbuement in my arrows to weaken the defenses of the silver golems as much as possible. It was a lot more effective than I had expected… three arrows made the beasts fall apart.

  “Maybe just like silver is good against undead, these kinds of debuffs could also be pretty good against beings like this.”

  Before the next monsters could show up, I checked the things that the dwarf girl had and I found, aside from the crossbow and silver bows, a magic bag filled with tools that dwarves would use. Perhaps I should take these in exchange for her life… not like I would throw them away, even if I killed her. I wished that this could work as some good PR for my reputation, but I shouldn’t bet a lot on it.

  While I was thinking about that, I noticed the girl waking up. That was good since Gcien would be free to help in the fights. I just had to keep her tied up, but would regur ropes keep her tied?

  The girl woke up and then looked around in daze. She was probably the type who takes her time waking up. Still, she soon woke up when she saw me in her field of vision.

  “Good morning. Are you going to try to kill me again? You are going to be punished for pointing a weapon at my back two times already, and that is already too much leniency coming from me. There won’t be a third time. You will die the next time, very painfully.”

  The dwarf girl began to sweat a lot and then fell from Gcien back when she tried to run away. She tried to get up, but the ropes kept her locked in. It didn’t help the fact that my ropes had been enchanted with earth magic and seed extra hard. In any case, I helped her get up.

  “If you try anything, I will have my friend here eating you bit by bit. Are we clear? Gcien, show her your teeth.”

  Gcien looked away uninterested. She finally betrayed me as well. Well, I wouldn’t have liked it if someone used my appearance to scare someone else either, so perhaps I shouldn’t have done that.

  “Anyway, who are you and why are you following me?”

  “... Andrea.”

  “That is only half of the answers that I wanted.”

  “... I have come to stop you… from destroying our nd.”

  *I think it would be pretty hard for me to destroy mountains. Is there anyone around that can actually do that?”

  I knew deep down that there would always be someone stronger, an undeniable fact of life. But understanding it in theory and experiencing it in practice were two different things. The world was massive and expanded now and then, and the odds of running into someone vastly superior to me while randomly walking around seemed wasn’t that high. After all, it wasn’t like such individuals were standing on street corners waiting for a challenge.

  This belief shaped my perspective and dulled my sense of danger. Without the immediate presence of overwhelming threats, it was easy to fall into a false sense of security. I didn’t actively seek out danger, nor did I often find myself in situations where my strength was truly tested against someone leagues ahead of me.

  This messed up my judgment. I wasn’t reckless, but I wasn’t particurly cautious either. It left me walking a fine line, assuming that most challenges I encountered could be overcome without meeting a force capable of utterly overwhelming me.

  “What do you mean by destroying your nds? I might have caused some mayhem wherever I passed, but I didn’t destroy anything… not that I remember?”

  “... We received information about the half vampire of the empire who would eventually come here and destroy our cities. The empire would use you as a distraction to subjugate us.”

  “Who exactly gave you that kind of information?”

  “... I don’t know.”

  The girl began to sweat cold again since it was clear that I wouldn’t like this kind of answer. It was true, but I wasn’t that ruthless to kill her on the spot just because of that.

  In any case, it seemed that I was a bit te considering some PR campaigns to improve my infamy. Some people were walking around and spreading snders, apparently. I had no idea who hated me that much, aside from the people of my family, but would they come this far to snder me?

  “Well, it doesn’t really matter. If you behave yourself, then I will let you go, eventually. However, I will take your stuff as an annoyance fee. Last question: why did you come here alone?”

  “... The rumors said that you kill the entire families of those who cross your path and that you get stronger the more you drink blood. I didn’t want to take any chances.”

  “Maybe I should go on another quest for revenge. This much snder is unacceptable.”

  The girl shivered after hearing my words. I was half-joking, but her reaction struck a nerve. The more I thought about it, the more it started to piss me off. Being hated was one thing, but this level of revulsion? It was exhausting.

  I could live with the fact that people wanted to kill me for who I was. That kind of hatred, as twisted as it was, at least made a certain brutal sense in a world like this. But spreading lies about me? Twisting the truth to paint me as something worse than I was? That crossed a line.

  It felt like no matter what I did or how much I tried to push forward, someone, somewhere, was hellbent on dragging me down. And now, watching her reaction, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of those lies pressing down on me, heavier than any bde or blow.

  “Anyway, you will be my prisoner for a while. If you don’t want to end up in Gcien stomach, then don’t try anything.”

  “Grrr…”

  “If you don’t want to scare her, then you will have to follow her from behind to make sure that she won’t do anything.”

  Gcien did just that and I sighed. It looked like my battle pns would have to continue the same way for a while longer. I resumed the hunt and had to focus a bit more since I wouldn’t have Gcien support and those spots where the monsters emerged were starting to get easier to find the deeper in the byrinth I went.

  My mana was still holding up, so it wasn’t a problem, but I was using more mana than stamina, and that was backwards for my pns. Perhaps I should make some arrows using the ores of the previous section, but then I would have to use the Ethereal Smelter… I had no idea how to purify ores like that. Was that even purifying or just smelting?

  I considered asking the girl for some tips, but I didn’t want to make her betray other dwarves, even if she only gave me basic knowledge about forging.

  ‘Maybe I will learn with practice… besides, the skill should grant some knowledge about that as well as it levels up.’

  My necessity to min-max efficiency was back at full force again, but it was a necessity given that I could only count on Gcien.

  While I was thinking about that, we reached the final part of the second section. Since I had to keep an eye on back attacks too, I noticed that the condition of the dwarf girl was slowly worsening. She fainted before and stayed out for a while, but it looked like fainting didn’t do much for her stamina. She had to run for a while to catch up with us and she also had to fight as well.

  “I guess we should take a break here… when was the st time that you ate something?”

  “... Yesterday morning.”

  “Not very smart, are you? Going after me with an empty stomach. Didn’t you know that when people are fasting, their blood becomes sweeter? Maybe you’re pnning to entice me like that…”

  “... I didn’t know that.”

  “I don’t know it either. I am just making up stuff. Anyway, let’s eat the food that you brought with you.”

  I wasn’t doing much for my reputation of being that shameless, but I couldn’t care less.

  WritingMachineGun