Chapter 6

My gaze stopped on a place where people dressed in a way that reminded me of the medieval era lay dead. They had old swords hanging from their waists, and the chain mail they wore was certainly not something you would see in the modern world.

It was as if a scene from a movie was right in front of me. Anyone who saw this would realize that this was not the world they knew.

Among the bodies, one particularly stood out—a woman dressed unusually lightly amidst the armed people. Her light attire, unlike the others who held swords and shields, made her especially noticeable.

She was a young woman, wearing a thin robe and holding a staff. The staff did not look like a weapon, and the robe seemed to be an outfit that would hinder movement.

She was probably a priest class character.

It seemed she had been killed quite brutally; her body, covered in the thin robe, was torn and showed signs of rape. The thick white liquid inside the robe—was it what I thought it was?

Her end was not a good one. It was impossible to feel any mercy from the adventurers. It was as if the Germans viewed the Jews during the Nazi era.

Despite the horrific bodies of the dead, my gaze was emotionless. I didn't feel much. After all, they were all just illusions created by the fairies.

Perhaps it was a real tragedy that happened long ago. But it was an old story, and I didn't mourn for it, just as I wouldn't for something that happened long ago.

What caught my eye now were the items they carried.

Though stained with blood and damaged, some usable armors caught my attention. The chain mail was the most tempting. It was uncomfortable, but if it could save my life, I could wear it. The crossbow lying on the ground also caught my eye. It wasn't given at the start of the tutorial.

It was a special weapon that could only be obtained here. Not many people would bother to pick it up.

Most importantly, I was concerned about the compass and map the bodies might have. I didn't expect the children, who were busy running away, to have taken the items properly from the bodies.

They would probably search for the bodies to get the compass and map when they realized the reality later. But that was a story for another day.

However, before I could recover the items from the bodies, there was an event I had to go through. Just seeing the bodies wouldn't make the players who had just arrived in this world fully understand the reality.

So, the fairies had prepared an event for this place.

"Again, huh."

I knew what it was, but I felt it was hard to avoid. As I sighed and was about to give up, a pale smoke rose from among the bodies and rushed towards me.

I knew it wasn't an attack that threatened my life, so I didn't resist. A message window appeared in front of me.

A fragment of memory. I hadn't experienced it much, but peering into it meant peering into the memories of those I had killed. More precisely, it meant experiencing what they had experienced just before they died. It was like a dream, but not a pleasant one.

After all, no matter how it was packaged, it meant sharing the experience of dying. Experiencing the sensation of death was not something I enjoyed. If I did, there was something wrong with me.

As the fragment touched my body, I felt a terrible sensation of losing my sense of touch and floating in the air.

But I didn't resist the sensation and accepted it. Soon, I found myself in a battlefield filled with screams. It wasn't real, but it wasn't a lie either.

"Don't run! If we don't deal with them here, they'll keep coming! Fight!"

A man, whose body was stained with blood, shouted with a sword and shield. The people around him, who looked exhausted, lifted their heads at his voice.

Their bloodshot eyes showed how long they had been without sleep. Their cheeks were gaunt, like skeletons. The man's shout seemed to boost their morale, but it didn't seem like it would make a big difference.

"The goblins are too many. Leader!"

"Hold on! Just hold on!"

Dozens of goblins surrounded them. They blended into the darkness of the forest like skilled assassins.

Swords clashed, and shields were raised to block the arrows that flew from all directions.

But the relentless rain of arrows finally brought one man down. The balance of the stalemate was broken, and the fight quickly tilted in one direction.

A gap appeared in their formation. A fatal gap. The goblins took advantage of it and began to torment them even more cruelly.

"Aaaah!"

The goblins, moving stealthily, killed the humans one by one. They were skilled adventurers who had chased the fleeing humans for days, and the humans were too exhausted to fight back.

A fight that started unfavorably. The tide couldn't be turned by one person, and the end was inevitable. The leader watched his party members die, his face contorted in anguish.

Seeing his dying comrades, the leader was more sorrowful than angry. The death of his comrades came before his anger.

"A...Aaaah!"

The leader, now alone, trembled with sorrow.

Finally, only the leader remained. The goblins, now confident in their victory, revealed themselves without hiding.

The goblins looked at the crying man with mocking eyes.

- Did you think you could escape from us? Stupid humans.

- Kiriik. The bounty on their necks is 100 gold, leader.

- Quite a few of us have died at the hands of this human. He could have become a named character.

Their casual conversation and the mocking smiles on their faces as they looked at the man showed their overconfidence. There was no chance for a reversal.

Dozens of goblins rushed at the man. He tried to fight them off one by one with his shield, but it was a futile struggle. Daggers pierced his arms and legs, and multiple arrows hit his back. The man finally knelt. The fight was over.

The memory ended with the man, spitting blood, looking at the bodies of his fallen comrades.

"Still not a pleasant memory."

My body ached as if I had experienced the fight myself. My back shivered with cold, and my trembling fingertips. I let out a hollow laugh and began to recover items from the bodies.

First, I took the chain mail from the dead man and put it on. Then I searched the bodies for the compass and map.

While searching, I found a potion from the priest who had been raped and killed by the goblins. It wasn't a high-quality potion, but it could give me the strength to move one more time in an important battle.

The players who had discovered this place before me must have seen the memories and quickly moved on to another place. They didn't even bother to recover the potion. As I continued to search the bodies, I frowned.

I couldn't find the compass and map. They should have been on the bodies. The fairies wouldn't make a mistake, so there was only one answer.

'Someone took them.'

I clicked my tongue and stood up from my crouched position.

Click.

The heavy sound of loading the crossbow echoed through the forest. I scanned the area. I felt the goblins might jump out from the darkness of the forest at any moment.

...Was it because of the memory I just saw?

But the forest was still quiet. There was no sign of anyone moving stealthily in the underbrush. The forest maintained its eerie silence.

"Let's keep following them for now."

Muttering to myself, I slung the loaded crossbow over my back and left. I decided to chase the children a bit more.