-Knock, knock.

Erich felt something trickling down his cheek. He opened his eyes at the bothersome sensation.

"What is this?"

But he couldn't grasp the situation at all. There was only pitch-black darkness. Then, a sudden thought struck him.

'Am I dead...?'

But no matter how much he thought about it, he still felt alive. He could move his hands and legs just fine. It was only that he couldn't see ahead.

Pain started to flood through his whole body. And then he recalled what had happened.

In the place where he had sent Frederick, Erich had endured alone for almost an hour.

He cut down the dead who charged at him, over and over.

But to cut down all the endlessly swarming dead, he still wasn't strong enough.

'If I'd had more time... No, that's just an excuse.'

He had already endured as long as he'd calculated he had to. Anyway, in the end, Frederick and the other soldiers must have made it out alive, so he'd done what he had to.

"Phew."

Erich sat right there and folded his legs in meditation. After that fierce battle, there wasn't a single part of his body that didn't hurt.

The pain reminded him of when he first got dragged into the Watch and went through the initiation beating.

He didn't have the strength to activate his eye, let alone stand up.

Thus, he closed his eyes and focused deep within his body. Just like he had when he faced the elder last time. But this time, he didn't need nearly that much strength.

'Just a little will do.'

Erich used his aura to increase his heartbeat and boost his blood flow. A gentle warmth started to circulate through his body.

A rapid blood flow helps in battle, but if used in moderation, it also aids in recovery. He knew that from experience.

― Thump. Thump.

For now, he needed to focus on recovery. So he sat still, trying to recall how he had come to this place. It was all so urgent then, his memory was hazy.

'... Did I just charge north blindly?'

To get as far from the things as possible, Erich made sure to avoid overlapping routes with the soldiers he'd sent ahead.

But since the battle had been so chaotic, he wasn't sure he'd managed it perfectly.

His blurry memories continued. Erich had climbed over the Great Wall and fought precariously atop the ramparts, then fell below.

But even then, they chased after him, so Erich had no choice but to keep heading north.

At some point, he realized he no longer had the strength to run. But for some reason, as he desperately searched for a way out, faint footprints appeared to his eyes as if following a trail of light.

He instinctively realized back then that he had to follow this path.

There was no basis for this. But like a baby bursting into its first cry after birth, it simply felt natural.

Besides, he didn't have any other options.

At the end of the path Erich followed, a cluster of white light rose up. From there, he felt a warmth as if it were only natural to go that way.

Erich rushed toward it. Countless dead chased him from behind. And just before their hands reached him, he leaped into the cluster of light.

But then—

'Damn it, it was a cliff, wasn't it.'

Erich slowly opened his eyes. By now, his body had mostly recovered. Perhaps his lifespan had shortened a little, but now wasn't the time to be concerned about that. He held his forehead in his hand.

'What was I thinking, jumping into a place like this?'

In Erich's opinion, jumping in here was the most baseless, foolish choice he'd ever made in his life. Such things shouldn't happen, no matter how urgent the situation.

Of course, he survived in the end...

― Tssk tssk.

Erich took a flint from his pocket and struck it. He intended to light a torch, which the members always carried. After a few more tries, light flared up around him.

― Fwoosh

Then—

"Shit, I'm startled!"

For the first time since he'd awakened his 'eye', he recoiled in fright, withdrawing backward.

Because all around him, countless dead were arrayed, staring at him.

As he fumbled at his waist, he realized he'd lost his sword when he fell.

'Nothing I can do.'

But then, a question flickered through his mind.

'Why didn't these things attack me?'

Considering his lowered body temperature, he must have been unconscious here for quite some time.

In other words, it wouldn't be strange if he'd already ended up inside their bellies.

He slowly opened and closed his eyes. His pupils turned crimson.

Then, he was even more startled, his face contorting in astonishment.

'What is this?'

Behind the group of dead visible in the light, there was an even greater multitude.

But that wasn't the only problem. His eyes turned to their skin. Experience told him their characteristics immediately.

'These ones must be centuries old.'

The dead grow stronger the older they are. The older they get, the tougher their flesh becomes, like ancient ice that never melts.

After hundreds of years, their necks couldn't even be cut—they'd deflect a blade.

And here... the place was swarming with them.

'And what is this, now?'

But they didn't move. Looking closely, there was a thin wall of light between Erich and the dead.

Apparently, the things couldn't cross this wall. Erich racked his brain to find a way to confirm this hypothesis.

'The only way is to check directly.'

He nervously swallowed, then stretched his hand out toward them.

― Kraargh!

But as soon as he crossed a certain threshold, they sensed it and tried to bite his hand.

Erich quickly withdrew his hand. Then, as before, they returned to their positions, letting out guttural screams.

With this, he was sure. These things couldn't cross a certain range.

'But I can cross it.'

Now, what did that imply?

'I need to check.'

He picked up a large stone from the ground.

Then, extending his hand beyond the barrier to lure a dead's head,

― Graaah... urk!― Thunk!

He smashed it with the rock.

With a dull cracking noise, blue blood spurted from its head.

If he hit them openly like this, would they still be unable to attack him?

He watched, a bit tense.

Other dead nearby glanced over briefly when the blow landed...

But soon turned away, seemingly uninterested.

In other words,

'This works.'

Erich grinned in satisfaction.

After that, things progressed rapidly.

Once.

― Thunk!

Twice.

― Thunk!

Their hardened heads didn't break after just a few hits. But there's no tree that never falls after being struck ten times. The stone swung with Erich's brute strength was mightier than most hammers.

― Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thud.

After the creature fell, it toppled toward Erich, as if the wall between them no longer existed.

With this, he discovered a second rule.

'Those that are dead are unaffected.'

It's almost funny to call an undead dead, but whatever.

Erich removed a worn helmet from the fallen thing's head.

"Time to return to being a corpse."

Then, gripping the helmet like a club, he proceeded to smash the heads of the rest in the same way.

― Thunk! Thud!

Erich stripped the relatively intact equipment from the dead as he broke their heads. As he peeled off their iron armor, he muttered,

"They say the persistent ones will even strip a corpse. The old saying isn't wrong."

He wasn't thrilled about using gear pulled off of creatures that had rotted for centuries. But he couldn't smash those tough skulls with his bare hands either.

He had no complaints. Normally, he would have had to risk his life to defeat dead of this level. In fact, they might have been trickier opponents than the shoddy death knight he'd faced recently. But to handle them so easily now—far from dissatisfied, he was almost elated.

― Thunk!

With the last dead's head smashed, and after stripping the equipment, Erich turned away coolly, then paused.

'Since I'm stripping them anyway, is there anything more to take?'

He looked over the fallen again. Thanks to the cold weather, their preserved flesh still glistened. Soon, Erich was scraping fat from the faces of the dead.

A little while later,

He held a torch, wrapped in moss and slathered with fat scraped off the rotten corpses.

As he hummed cheerfully to himself,

"They say there's such a thing as a tree that gives everything."

Some things are more useful dead than alive. For once, Erich felt genuinely grateful to the dead.

But gratitude was one thing.

― Wham! Roll.

His foot mercilessly kicked a dead's skull.

"But the only good dead is a dead dead."

Then he turned away in satisfaction.

"Well then, let's see where this goes."

As time passed, the cavern gradually widened. The farther he went, the stronger the stench of rotting dead.

Following the path, the traces of battle caught his eye. Barbarian and dead corpses, strewn about.

'...! Barbarians. And these are fairly recent signs.'

Erich shined his torch to check for usable equipment. But, as expected, most of it was of no use.

Barbarian equipment didn't fit ordinary humans, after all.

But he was able to gather jerky and a canteen from the bodies, so it wasn't entirely futile.

Still, Erich circled the bodies warily. There was one unresolved question.

'Is this... the barbarians' territory?'

It was possible. After all, he'd come quite a distance to deal with that barbarian shaman who controlled the golem.

He'd fallen here after his fight with the dead. Even if this was the barbarians' domain, it wouldn't be strange.

'Hmm, this isn't good.'

Among the barbarians, head hunter-level individuals could threaten even him, regression or not. Especially without a weapon.

In that case...

'For now, I need to find some kind of weapon.'

Erich swept the area with his torch, looking for anything that might gleam.

What caught his eye was—

"Hm."

A longsword whose blade was still relatively intact.

But his interest in the longsword was brief, for he felt another sense of discomfort from the body he'd found.

Unlike the other barbarians, this dried, mummified corpse lay against the wall. A large spear was impaled in its chest. At a glance, it was just an old barbarian corpse—

But that wasn't what shocked Erich.

'That's a Watch cloak, isn't it?'

Erich's eyes filled with confusion.

A barbarian wearing a black cloak?

The black cloak was both the symbol and standard issue of the Watch. It shouldn't have been on a barbarian's body.

He picked up the barbarian's longsword and read the ancient imperial script engraved on the blade.

- Even in death, guard the Great Wall.

It was the motto of the Watch, with a history a thousand years old, and written above the gates of the Watch's headquarters, the Black Citadel.

'.......'

Why was this inscribed on a blade held by a barbarian? Did they perhaps murder a Watchman and loot their gear?

He wasn't sure of the details, but he put down his iron boots and reached for the barbarian's longsword.

At that moment, he sensed something off.

'What is this?'

The warmth and gentle feeling he'd felt from the light—he was getting it now from the barbarian. Erich hesitated for a moment, then used his 'eye' on the barbarian.

"... Whoa."

Erich squinted. The barbarian was shrouded in a cluster of light, and above it floated something strange—condensed from that light. It almost seemed to invite Erich to touch it.

He hesitated. Was it safe to touch this? Was it dangerous? However, the aura he felt from it was the complete opposite of that from the dead. Contemplating, Erich reached his conclusion.

'If it feels dangerous, I can just pull back right away.'

Erich finished thinking and reached for it. Suddenly, the whole world shook.

'... Maybe I should've thought a bit more.'

― Rumble rumble rumble.

At last, the world was swallowed by white.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Erich finds himself in a random excursion...【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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