***
‘Trolls? Isn’t that too much for ten some-years-old children?’
That’s what Eugene thought when he met it.
It was not a real troll. It’s just an illusion. It’s not like he was being attacked. He may feel pain, but it was also just an illusion.
If he could overcome this fear, his opponent was not impossible to defeat. Bear the pain, dog in, and once it attacks, counters it.
‘It looked like the real deal.’
Eugene looked up and down at the Troll and was amazed. He knew it was just an illusion, but one can think it’s actually the real one.
Not only the movement but also the unique body odor of a troll was present.
‘But I guess he has some conscience.’
Its size was not the same as the originals. It looked like a youngling that was not yet taught of hunting and fighting, it was still unable to stand on its own feet, and It doesn’t even have that common club trolls usually have.
Even so, it was still much bigger than the 13-year-old Eugene. Eugene slowly walked towards the Troll with a shield.
‘I’ve beaten Orc or Goblin to death. This would be my first time dealing with a medium-sized monster with this body.’
He didn’t want to have a rough fight just because it was easy prey.
His body was very excited about the fight that was about to happen. It’s been a while since he entered the labyrinth, and after walking so many hours, he thinks he has gone a long way. He didn’t feel any crisis on his way here.
So he needs to warm up.
Eugene slowly and boldly narrowed the distance between him and the Troll.
The Troll over there only looked at him and didn’t come at Eugene right away.
He wasn’t surprised about their reaction. The monsters he faced earlier didn’t come over him first unless he was within a certain distance.
This must be considered by the Mage considering the age of the participating children.
When Eugene pushed his foot forward, the movement of the Troll changed accordingly.
He jerked around and turned his head toward Eugene.
Saliva flowed between large teeth.
A face ugly enough to scare the kids.
However, Eugene felt joy instead of fear.
‘It looks like Moron.’
There were a few monsters that looked like Moron.
Trolls, Ogre, cyclops, etc. All Human-type ugly monsters walking on two feet is what Eugene thought as a look-alike of Moron.
Moron has never denied the fact that he was ugly. He knows it.
Eugene kicked the ground to gain speed while recalling his old colleague’s ugly face.
As the distance narrowed in an instant, the Troll reacted.
It was easy.
Kagagak!
Eugene’s sword cut the calf of the Troll.
After slashing between the Troll’s legs, Eugene quickly turned around and took the sword back. And without hesitation, he swung the sword at his feet.
The cut was swallow and didn’t affect the Troll much.
Nevertheless, it still let the Troll taken back.
After several cuts, the Troll’s skin started tearing apart and revealed some bones amidst the Dark green blood gushing out.
Eugene didn’t want to dirty his body, so he covered himself with the shield.
With his foot receiving immense damage, he started losing his footing.
He screamed while staggering to balance he bide. His large hand falls over
Eugene’s head.
The shield covering his body was now above his head.
Smack!
The attack was quite heavy for a 13-year-old kid.
He might be training excessively, but it was still impossible to dodge the Troll’s attack.
Using his entire shoulder and arm together while the shield is slightly tilted, the attack’s power was reduced.
It would have crushed his arm if the timing were a little off, but Eugene didn’t even think that he would fail.
His defense was perfect.
The Troll swings the other arm helplessly. Eugene swung the sword with one hand.
Paak!
The skin from the Troll’s arm was cut, and blood was gushing.
Eugene dug his sword more by spinning his sword deep to his bone.
Quagak!
The Troll opens his mouth and screams. The pain of being stabbed till his bones were spreading throughout its body and it paralyzed the Troll’s body.
‘He didn’t have to make it more realistic by adding bad breath.’
Eugene swung the shield with such discontent.
Bam!
The shield cracked open the lower jaw of the Troll. At the same time, Eugene pulled out a sword stuck on the Troll and put it between the Troll’s ribs.
Quagak!
He poked the Troll’s lungs.
The skin was so thick that it barely reached the lungs between its rib.
Eugene slashes the sword horizontal to cut open its chest. Then, he cuts the lungs entirely and pulls out the sword as soon as it touches the sternum. (Sternum is the front bone that connects a pair of ribs)
The Troll was no longer able to raise its arms, and he was drenched in blood.
If It were a regular monster, it would not have to fight anymore. However, trolls are famous for their strong regenerative power. Eugene didn’t wait for it to regenerate.
He pushed the sword hard enough that it resisted.
Eugene tore the Troll’s body apart, and poked his heart five or six more times and stabbed his neck with the sword. He skillfully wielded his swords and avoided its bones.
“Whoa.”
After killing the Troll with all the utmost effort, Eugene looked at its corpse with satisfaction.
Robertian and Guillard saw the scene from beginning to end. With his mouth wide open, Robertian wondered what kind of opinion he should say.
Even if it’s an illusion… It’s still a troll.
Far from making a frightening noise at the sight of the Troll, a 13 year-old-child tore the Troll apart overwhelmingly.
“… That’s cruel. He didn’t have to do that…” Robertian muttered.
Guillard, looking at the screen with equally blank eyes, soon shook his head with a smile.
“It’s a well-made illusion, he may think is real.”
“Yes, but…”
“That’s great, that’s great… I don’t think he has ever met a troll. Far from being overwhelmed by fear, he butchered the trolls boldly and neatly…”
Guillard could not find fault with Eugene’s swordsmanship. To point out, it was more of a form of slaughter and annihilation than sword art.
But what does that have to do with anything?
Eugene still killed the Troll with great merit.
“There were no signs of traps in his paths.” .
Robertian looked at Eugene and spoke his thoughts.
“He never got caught in any other trap except for the first time.”
“When I saw him act, I thought he was used to it.”
“Where is the boy from?”
“Countryside.” .𝒎
“I don’t think there are any unknown towers there…”
Most resourceful towers are used as hiding places for wizards. Then, sometimes, after the owner of the tower, the wizard, dies or leaves, the tower will be found by adventurers.
If you are lucky, you may find treasure in the tower. After they pack everything they need to pack, the tower, without treasure, it will be transformed into a tourist destination.
“…even if he frequented many towers, he couldn’t have possibly known how to avoid traps skillfully. Maybe he learned it from a book.”
“The average 13-year-old will not indulge in reading books related to the traps.”
“He doesn’t look like a normal kid. And maybe it’s not about knowledge. It’s about the senses.”
“…hmm. It’s a labyrinth made for children, but… Just by the senses… I didn’t make it that easy to avoid traps…”
“No matter how young a child is, wouldn’t he be able to do that if he was born to be great?”
Robertian knew precisely what that kind of child he should be called.
‘Genius.’
Now Guillard no longer put his eyes on Cyan, Ciel, and Ioken.
He watched Eugene face the center of the maze with joyful eyes.
When facing a monster, fighting and knocking it down is not the only answer. Trolls were such monsters in this place. A large build with slow responses… Rather than fighting upfront, they could have avoided it and breakthrough.
Only Gargis and Eugene fought against the trolls.
***
“Argh!”
Gargis let out a furious roar. Although his whole body was hurting, the brave Gargis eventually knocked down the Troll. Gargis took the bayonet from Troll’s chest and shouted again.
He celebrated his victory with another roar.
He sat down with all his strength.
‘I’ve been hit so many times.’
He maybe have big muscle, but the Troll’s attack was powerful. He didn’t know how many of his bones are broken.
“It hurts…”
Gargis gritted his teeth and spit it out. It hurted more than when he was hit by an arrow or when he was pierced by an iron bar. He knew that all this pain was just a magic trick, but being in pain is still painful… Gargis came down from Troll’s body, holding back the tears that were about to came out of his eyes. Then, he stumbled through the wall.
‘Cause I’ve been beaten this much. The others….’
He knows that the Dira is strong. Eugene is stronger than her. But he doesn’t think they are stronger than a troll. How can their poor bodies deal with a giant troll…
Contrary to his worries, Dira was fine. She succeeded in passing by the Troll without fighting it head-on. It was the same with Cyan and Ciel.
(TL: Gargis is a type of person with brawns but no brains lol.)
Cyan and Ciel joined on the way. From there, Ciel did not take the lead, but rather coaxed Cyan into being the first on the road. It was very easy for Ciel to persuade her brother.
“Oppa, which way should we go?”
“Don’t you know that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You idiot. Why don’t you know when we’ve read a book together? Look at what I’m doing.”
Cyan has never felt inferior to her younger sister, who was born a few seconds late. Rather, he thought he was superior to her younger sister, and always wanted to show off in front of his younger sister.
It is still like that. From the moment the word “I don’t know” came out of her mouth, Cyan judged that it was an opportunity to let her sister see his greatness. Just a few days ago, he was humiliated in front of her, so he thought he should restore his crumpled honor in this event.
“Don’t fall behind and follow me. This labyrinth is made by the Red Tower Lord.”
“Why?”
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. A monster might suddenly appear in front of us. Maybe something strange will fall from the ceiling.”
“Like a ghost?”
“You fool, at times like this, you should say undead, not a ghost. Do you know what undead is?”
“It’s like a zombie but bones.”
“That’s it. It’s in the book we saw. A summons made by a wicked black wizard, from the tomb of stupid adventurers blinded by treasure! The black wizards of the old days made undead or chimera out of dead adventurers back then.”
“But the Red Tower Lord is not a black wizard.”
“That’s true, but maybe it’ll come out as a surprise.”
“I hate ghosts because they’re scary.”
“I’m not scared at all.”
In fact, Cyan was afraid of ghosts too.
When they were young, both siblings shared the same room. The two of them can’t sleep at night so nannies read them stories, so they heard a lot about this and that. Sometimes the nanny told scary stories, Cyan would not fall asleep all night and he would always be conscious of what is under the bed or inside the wardrobe.
But he couldn’t express his fear in front of his sister.
‘Why are we talking about ghosts all of a sudden?’
Cyan glanced at the ceiling, grasping all the tremors. The “weird thing” that he imagined would fall from the ceiling was a spider or that kind of monster. He never thought of Ghost.
Of course, Ciel deliberately brought up ghost stories. She knew well that her brother was afraid of ghosts since she was young, so she wanted to take the lead and pick on his proud brother.
‘I hope you’ll be surprised if something comes out.’
Ciel followed Cyan with naughty thoughts. From some point on, there were no traps in the road. But it wasn’t necessarily straight, they were many blocked paths. Whenever that happened, Cyan was overly wary that something might pop out from the side.
As his brother rarely screamed, Ciel slowly became bored. She’d rather poke him in the back, then his brother will make a surprising sound. But how? He’s on guard now.
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