NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: (2)
No matter how overpowered the gamer was, Kaiyan wasn’t strong enough to take down a medium or a large monster with his current power.
If the Evelyn hadn’t been struck in the eye by his sword, there was no telling how things might have turned out.
“Luck or whatever, you did well to defeat the monster, keep up the momentum!”
“…I’ll try.”
“Then let’s go, we’re almost there!”
Uncle Max was right, the distance to the commander’s group was now only about 30 meters.
If they could take down a few more monsters between them and the group, they could join them.
‘That’s not the problem, it’s the soldier that died because of that a$$hole…’
Kaiyan looked around and realized that the number of soldiers was much lower than when they started.
At first glance, at least half of the soldiers were dead or wounded.
The 7th Special unit, which had started with 800 soldiers, had lost more than 400 which were dead or wounded in just over an hour of fighting. All because of that guy.
‘I can’t believe that guy is in command….’
Part of him wanted to feed him to the monsters right now.
Not all humans were the same, and he was the kind of person who harms others just by existing.
“Noble….”
The Special unit felt the implications of being a victim of the Noble’s recklessness.
“Waaaaaah, we did it!”
“Everyone worked hard!”
“We took down the big monsters!”
As Kaiyan was mulling over his anger, the soldiers shouted with great joy, as if they had won a war.
Because they had finally succeeded in joining their stupid commander.
He sighed and stepped toward them, and the adjutant knight who had brought him and Uncle Jeff to the shouting soldiers took a step forward.
“Quiet!”
The knight’s voice rang out, silencing the soldiers’ uproar.
“Soldiers of the 7th Special Unit, we’re retreating! Protect your commander!”
“…What? What do you mean retreat?”
“….What does that mean?”
The sound that came out of the adjutant’s mouth was a retreat order that was out of place on the battlefield.
When Uncle Jeff questioned the ridiculous order, the knight frowned and opened his mouth again.
“Make a path!”
“Ah, yes, sir.”
“Retreat!”
It was a ridiculous situation, but Kaiyan was forced to join the knights in their hasty retreat.
In the military, the orders of the superior, or rather, the privileged, were absolute.
He took one look at the center of the battlefield and sighed as he walked away when Uncle Jeff pushed his way through the crowd.
“Haa..”
“Kaiyan, are you hurt anywhere?” asked someone.
“No… I’m fine, are you okay?” replied Kaiyan.
“Dude, I’m Jeff Kallein, the Orc Slayer, you look for someone else to worry about,” said Uncle Jeff, whose whole body was covered in monster blood, looking very cool.
Kaiyan wondered why Uncle Jeff was only capturing orcs with such skill. With his abilities, he should be able to hunt medium-sized monsters with the help of his soldiers, even if large monsters were difficult.
“Haha… I never wanted to risk my life like this again,” said Uncle Jeff.
“Still, thanks to you, Uncle Jeff, fewer people died. If it wasn’t for you, it would have been difficult to rescue that bas-rrr… commander,” Kaiyan said, managing to hold back harsh words as he remembered Uncle Max’s advice.
As Kaiyan walked backward across the battlefield toward the main camp, he heard soldiers from other units whispering in his ear as he passed by. “…The only unit to retreat after an hour of war. It would be one thing if only the wounded were retreating, but the sight of an entire unit retreating is a very alien sight on the battlefield.”
The men of the 7th Special unit, including Kaiyan, headed back to the main camp with their heads down, hiding their burning faces through no fault of their own.
“Disperse, everyone,” the adjutant ordered them to disperse back to the main camp. He had indeed given notice that he was no longer participating in today’s battle.
“Adjutant, let’s go,” said Tarien.
The young noble commander didn’t say anything in shock as he returned to his knights.
“Ha… does this really mean that the battle is over for today?” thought Kaiyan.
A sigh escaped Kaiyan’s lips.
“How am I supposed to take this ridiculous situation?” he thought to himself.
Anger welled up in Kaiyan’s stomach at the fact that half of his soldiers had disappeared in just an hour and that he hadn’t been able to capture the monster even though his health was still at full strength.
“Who the hell is going to avenge the soldiers who died in vain?” he muttered aloud. “If it was Tarien’s fault that their allies were killed by the monsters, he should be paying them back many times over.”
As Kaiyan clenched his fists in rising anger, Uncle Jeff stroked his hair with a gruff hand as if he understood how he felt.
“I’m glad you retreated quickly, though, or you’d probably be… mostly dead if you tried to push through there.”
“That’s… true,” Kaiyan conceded.
But unlike himself, who kills monsters for leveling and revenge, the soldiers have nothing to gain from killing them. They may, contrary to his assumption, want to preserve their lives by fighting as little as possible.
“Phew… Ah! Uncle Jeff, but what about the monster’s ears?” Kaiyan asked, as his anger subsided.
Kaiyan’s first experience with the central battlegrounds was that they weren’t large enough to allow for a separate collection of monster ears. Moreover, the size of the ears of medium and large monsters was beyond his imagination.
Fighting monsters like that? That’s just asking to die.
“Kaiyan, don’t worry about that. We get paid according to your unit’s achievement. The higher the specialty, the more money you get. Monster ears are useless on the central battlefield,” Uncle Max next to him answered his question.
“Right… Ah! Uncle Max, your shield is….” Kaiyan noticed that Uncle Max’s square shield was a little dented, probably because he had blocked the Minotaur’s attack instead of his earlier.
“It’s not a big deal, it’s fine.”
“Uncle Max… thank you so much for blocking the minotaur’s attack earlier,” Kaiyan thanked him from the bottom of his heart.
Even though he was injured at the time, he might have died if Uncle Max hadn’t blocked the attack. The minotaur’s strength was terrifying.
“Hehe, I’m rather sorry, I should have gone sooner, but I’m getting old and my stamina has diminished,” Uncle Max chuckled.
“Thank you very much, and I look forward to seeing you again,” Kaiyan replied gratefully.
To be honest, when Kaiyan first met Uncle Max during the Gnoll hunt, he was a little worried about him because of his age. But today’s battle proved that worry is a luxury, and Uncle Max truly showed his strength as an old man.
“This kid, don’t trust me too much. On the battlefield, you have to trust only yourself,” Uncle Max warned.
“Yes, Kaiyan. Think of your safety first and foremost,” Uncle Jeff chimed in.
“Yes. I’ll keep it in mind,” Kaiyan nodded.
Meeting these two uncles on the battlefield was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. If he hadn’t met them, he would have died on the battlefield before he had a chance to awaken as a Player.
Kaiyan bowed his head slightly in gratitude to the two of them, and Uncle Max waved his hand embarrassedly.
“Well, I’m tired, so I’ll take my leave. See you all tomorrow!” After Uncle Max left, Kaiyan and Uncle Jeff headed straight for the barracks, since they were unharmed, unlike the other soldiers.
After a short walk, they arrived at the barracks and were greeted by silence, as if to remind them that there were only two of them.
“Uncle, you’re resting. I’m going to practice my swordsmanship and go inside,” Kaiyan said.
“Okay. Don’t overdo it,” Uncle Jeff warned.
Kaiyan watched Uncle Jeff enter the barracks and headed for the clearing next to the barracks.
“Status window.
.
Name: Kaiyan / Age:15 / Occupation: Player / Title: None
Level: 9 / Strength: 17 / Agility: 8 / Stamina: 10 / Intelligence: 9 / Free points: 4
When Kaiyan brought up the status window, he saw that he had reached level 9.