He is the one who moves alone in a world where everything has stopped.
But his sword is dull and powerless, so he can’t strike.
*
Hans blinked. He thought there was no way the trial in the ruins could end this easily. But he was wrong.
The trial imposed by the ruins was to overcome oneself. Facing oneself is harder than facing a strong opponent. However, what the ruins read was Hans’s body.
To be more precise, it was the body of future Hans that should have originally existed. But Hans was in a state where his soul had swapped, and no matter how much the ruins tried, they couldn’t read that far.
Thanks to that, they could only read Hans’s vessel. And of course, if the soul hadn’t changed, the future Hans would have appeared as the Time Stop uncle.
But Hans couldn’t even think that far; he was just utterly bewildered. When a human’s thoughts can’t keep up, they instinctively find a compromise.
‘It seems the difficulty of this ruin was lower than expected.’
Of course, the setting book says that the ruins themselves are precious treasures. But settings and games often have a gap. Especially if the first ruin is ridiculously difficult.
The players could get worn out and drop out, so naturally, the developers adjust the difficulty accordingly. Thinking about that, this might actually be a low-level ruin.
With that thought, Hans felt like everything was aligning quite well. Now the only remaining problem was that sword on the ground. Hans thought. It’s better than nothing.
In his experience, the equipment obtained from low-level ruins would inevitably be replaced later on. It might be usable in the beginning but sometimes there were traps among the ruin’s weapons.
Indeed, there were definitely some pieces of equipment that were worse than not using them at all. Hans himself tasted a bad ending after recklessly using one back in his newbie days.
‘I’ll have to learn about this weapon slowly.’
For equipment that leads to self-destruction, it would depend on the situation, but using it in a truly dangerous moment could lead to disaster. Hans slung the sword over his back.
Typically, swords are strapped to the waist, but he strapped it like a burden on his back. Perhaps feeling displeased about that, the sword on his back vibrated loudly.
But Hans didn’t notice. The trial of the ruins ended, and the forest, which no longer had any reason to exist, soon regained its form. Hans looked up. The forest reappeared.
But it wasn’t the terrifying forest he had seen at first. It had simply become an ordinary winter forest. Just as Hans was relieved, he soon realized a serious problem. I don’t know the way.
That’s right.
Hans had just flown here on a wyvern. He hadn’t asked Dezra for directions. This was because Hans’s thoughts were fully concentrated on the Warrior’s Festival.
“Holy shit. Is this really happening? Seriously?”
Hans couldn’t hide his astonishment. Indeed, after overcoming the massive mountain of the Warrior’s Festival, he didn’t expect to be stuck on the relatively low mountain of finding a way.
But what could he do? The water had already been spilled, and now Hans had become a stranded person who had to find his way. Coming to terms with that fact, Hans moved on.
Finding food and water was the immediate priority. At least, fortunately, he still remembered where the wyverns headed. That winter mountain range over there.
The wyverns mostly headed towards the winter mountain range. This meant that there was, at the very least, a village of orcs nearby. And the winter mountain range would be visible if he climbed the trees.
‘I didn’t expect to use this like this.’
Hans had learned how to move through the forest from Cluna. It was a lesson he learned to navigate the Dwarf Republic or the elves’ forest. And it was quite helpful.
If it weren’t for that, he might have gotten lost in the forest and become stranded. So being a commander was secondary; he was in a position where he had to worry about survival first. Thank goodness it didn’t come to that.
Even though Hans couldn’t implement all of the Mountain Wind Steps he learned from the elf 100%, just awkwardly managing to implement some of it was enough to lead him out of here.
Stepping on the thickly piled snow with the cold winter wind, Hans kept moving without rest. The sword vibrating behind him didn’t register with him at all.
“Finally arrived… huh?”
Just as Hans made it to the winter mountain range after dashing through the forest, his ears were pulled by a booming explosion. Flames erupted from the center of the mountain range, rising with smoke.
Could it be a monster attack? He briefly thought that but soon shook his head. If monsters appeared, the mountain range wouldn’t be this quiet. There would have been some traces.
Thanks to that, he quickly concluded. My teammates caused some trouble again. Before it gets worse, I need to rush up and do something about it. Motivated by that feeling, he bolted forward.
If it weren’t for the avalanche pouring down in front of him, Hans would’ve probably reached without much difficulty. The massive avalanche cascading down the mountain seemed like the mountain range was unleashing its fury.
“Ugh.”
Meanwhile, at that moment when Hans was wrestling with the avalanche, as he predicted, the teammates were exploding in anger. To be precise, the moment Hans fell, everyone noticed, but astonishingly, all of them swallowed their anger at that moment.
Because it really seemed like they would kill all the orcs. But if that happened, it would complicate matters for the commander. So they tried to avoid murder. Yet Dezra added fuel to the fire.
As soon as they arrived in the village, Dezra said one thing to them.
“Hans, did you leave a last word?”
The orcs, including Dezra, don’t know the meaning of consideration. They were far removed from it, and doing so in such a dangerous place could risk getting them all killed.
So, they keep communications short and to the point. Ironically, that was how it sounded to them. It was only natural for the commander to die. So, did you leave a last word?
But that didn’t trigger the explosion. Perhaps Hellea and the other members wouldn’t know, but there were Cluna and Yuren, who somewhat understood the characteristics of orcs. They were bound to feel anger.
However, it was another orc who ignited the oil that was poured. Among the orcs were those who felt sexual desire towards other races, and that added to the problem mentioned earlier.
“What if he’s dead? Do we need a man?”
“What?”
“What does that mean?”
“Stop. Nothing is predetermined.”
That was a question absurd enough to even make Dezra, the orc chief, intervene. Of course, in Dezra’s case, it meant not to speak nonsensical delusions.
But it was sufficient for those who had been separated from Hans and had their mental state destabilized to be triggered. The one who first erupted in anger among them was Yuren.
The reason she hadn’t returned to her original form was due to the very thin thread of reason that remained. However, not a single orc hit by her fist was safe.
Certainly, the backlash caused an avalanche, but because the orcs lived in an internal cave located on the mountainside, it wouldn’t affect them much, and that would be more accurate.
Dezra glanced and turned her gaze. She saw her tribesman, completely crumpled and broken. After staring at it for a moment, Dezra moved her eyes back to her.
“Do you have anything to say?”
“None. Approaching someone else’s woman is a sin.”
“Then you’ll just leave it alone?”
“Willingly. A proper punishment.”
As Dezra nodded, Yuren retracted her anger. Soon the flames that had been radiating around her disappeared in an instant. Other orcs cleared away the broken remnants of two.
Even though all of them were angry, it was because Yuren stepped in that they couldn’t erupt any further and calmed their anger. Hellea looked at Yuren and clicked her tongue.
While visibly showing anger and warning the orc, she also managed to control their rage. In that brief moment, she acted on instinct and ended up gaining more than she expected.
‘Surely, I need to be most wary of that woman.’
The commander was a commander for a reason. While Yuren erupted with her anger, she also calmed everyone and sent a warning to the opponents. Thanks to that, Hellea’s wariness intensified.
“Wait a moment.”
“Hmm?”
“That voice…?!”
Just one word. Merely one word. But with that single word, their anger vanished instantly. The voice they wanted to hear reached from above.
All their gazes turned to the sky. There, the figure of the commander was confidently descending from the heavens. Literally, Hans, who had leaped into the air, landed on the ground.
Seeing that scene, Dezra was astonished. She had definitely dropped him into the forest as usual. Yet, none of the ones who returned had come back. She never expected him to return.
When everyone’s emotions were focused on Hans…
‘…I sprained my ankle.’
In reality, that was all that was on Hans’s mind.
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