Chapter 29

Chapter 29

I took out the club.

There were five zombies in front of me.

The most important thing to watch out for when facing zombies was not to tremble.

[Cool] scoffed.

Just five zombies would not even register a difference on my current body.

"Huff, huff."

I checked on the other students.

Talleon was fine.

The experience of taking him to Triden had instilled confidence in him.

On the other hand, the other two were trembling.

[Gavinu Moiran]

Status Ailment - Fallen into Stage 2 Fear.

All abilities are reduced by 40%.

[Tania Rainwood]

Status Ailment - Fallen into Stage 1 Fear.

All abilities are reduced by 20%.

I used [Analyze].

The two were afflicted with status ailments because they felt fear.

The experience in the dormitory was still not enough.

"Each of you take one. I will handle two."

I placed my hands on their shoulders.

A warm, yellow light flickered at my fingertips and was absorbed by the two.

[Serenity]. It was a spell to calm the mind.

"......My mood feels a little,"

"It became easier to breathe!"

Their complexions brightened noticeably.

Tania, who felt the magical power, signaled to me with her eyes.

I avoided her gaze.

I wanted to implant the recognition in them that they had overcome their fear on their own.

"Thank you."

Unfortunately, she, a mage, was not fooled.

She expressed her gratitude in a low voice.

The next thing I would test was another spell.

There were a total of three spells I learned from the scriptures I obtained in Triden.

The first was Analysis.

The second was Healing.

The third was Blessing (Strength Enhancement).

I called up the spell circle in my mind and cast the spell on the two apprentice knights.

A red light flashed.

"Huh?"

"My body feels powerful all of a sudden."

The reaction of the two boys was immediate.

There were not many zombies shuffling around.

Now was the opportunity to test the ability.

"Let us move."

I stepped forward before anyone else.

I approached a zombie from behind and swung the club towards its head.

The bastard tumbled forward.

Another attack before it could regain its posture.

The zombie's flesh and brains smeared onto the swung club.

[Cool] signaled that it was finished, and I turned my attention to the other one.

It rushed towards me.

Its eyes were rolled back, drool flowed from its mouth, and it screamed from its throat.

Calmly, I attacked its knee with the club.

The zombie fell to the ground.

I aimed for the back of its head before it could stand up again.

With every strike of the club, chunks of flesh flew out everywhere.

'How are the other children doing?'

I finished the zombies I was supposed to handle and looked around.

Talleon stepped forward.

He slashed the zombie's arms and legs with the axe he was holding.

Splat!

The zombie lay on the ground, floundering like a fish out of water.

"How was that?"

Talleon turned around with an excited expression.

"Fail."

I frowned and quickly pulled out the bat from my back.

Then, I struck the head of the still-living zombie.

Its flailing hand stopped.

"They do not die just from having their arms cut off."

"......I am sorry."

I turned my gaze and checked on Gavinu.

The boy took down one zombie and approached me.

"The sword cuts through smoothly, like it is brand new."

"Is that so."

The effect of the spell was satisfactory.

The attack power of the two boys had visibly increased.

'I am getting a sense of how to use Holy Magic and how to raise Joshua.'

A character I had never played before.

A type of magic I had never used before.

Therefore, research on Joshua was necessary.

I had achieved Originality Level 2 and had mostly grasped this character's structure.

The method for spending the accumulated coins was also decided.

"Is it similar to my sister's Tailwind?"

"Yes."

Tania, the mage, asked, her eyes shining.

A burned zombie was visible behind her.

"I heard that imbuing a spell circle into another person is extremely difficult. I heard my sister barely succeeded only after months of strenuous effort."

Imbuing a spell circle is difficult indeed.

If starting from the bottom, it could take years, not months.

Even then, many fail and give up.

"How much did you practice, Senior?"

"It just happened when I tried."

"Huh?"

She did not know.

What kind of education I had received in the modern world.

The history of the mathematics she learned and the mathematics I learned was different.

"Are you saying you self-studied equations!"

"Something like that."

Tania's eyes widened.

There are various equations, but the one she was talking about was at the middle school level.

'Middle school math is classified as advanced math in this world.'

If I had known this, I would have paid a little more attention to mathematics.

"I heard Light Attribute also has magic to heal wounds. Are you capable of that too, Senior?"

She continued to ask questions.

I was reserved in my answers.

Holy Magic definitely included healing, and I had learned it.

However, I neither used it recklessly nor admitted that I could use it.

"It is difficult for now. I hope I can do it someday."

The ability to heal wounds without the aid of tools.

She did not know how great the value of that was.

'If I had met such a comrade during the game, I would have definitely sought them out. In some cases, even beaten them up for it.'

I planned to reveal it when it would benefit me.

Until then, I would remain silent.

Tania backed away, as if her interest had waned.

The next person to speak was Gavinu.

"Is it possible that the informants were mistaken? They could have fabricated stories, you know."

Gavinu, who was always suspicious, questioned the information this time as well.

"Do not worry. It is a place I also know."

"Are you sure about the direction? It seems difficult to find based only on the vague description of 'northwest'."

"You will see if you follow me."

Each academy professor had private facilities for training or research purposes.

Training grounds for the swordsmanship instructor.

A laboratory for the magic professor.

The place we were heading to was the laboratory of the professor named Gordon.

"How much further do we have to go?"

Talleon asked, wiping away the sweat that was dripping down.

"If nothing happens, it will take about three hours, but be prepared for it to take longer."

One hour later.

The most dangerous section on this path appeared.

The sticky groaning of zombies could be heard from all around.

Tension filled the air.

The atmosphere tightened.

[Steady Nerves] helped prevent my body from freezing up.

"Seven on the right."

"There are ten on the left."

"There are many behind us too."

My comrades, who had maintained their formation, reported the number of enemies.

Including the zombies in front, more than 30 surrounded me.

"What should we do?"

"It would be better to gather our strength and escape through one direction......"

They trembled anxiously, waiting for my command.

"If we stay like this, we will all die."

"Huh?"

We had faced a group of over 30 at the cathedral before.

However, the situation was different this time.

This was outdoors, not indoors, and there was no reliable knight like Lucille.

"Then are we all going to die here?"

Tania asked tearfully.

Gavinu was equally nervous.

"I only said that if we fight, we will die."

"Then?"

"If we do not fight, the problem will be solved."

I needed to lure them elsewhere before they became interested in us.

There was a usable bait nearby.

A large, old dead tree next to us.

And something dangling from a branch.

"We will light a fire and chase them away to another location."

I took out the oil from my backpack and picked up a piece of firewood from the ground.

I held it out to Tania.

Although there was no specific instruction, she realized her role.

She quickly spread her hand and lit the fire.

Whoosh!

I handed the burning piece of wood to Talleon and said.

"Throw it with all your might towards that direction."

The boy acted according to the command.

He swung his arm without even checking what was in the direction he was throwing.

The piece of wood traced an arc and collided with the object hanging from the old dead tree.

It caught fire.

"......My goodness, is it not burning too well?"

Talleon said, looking at the burning tree.

Just as he said, the fire was stronger than necessary.

The surrounding zombies all rushed towards it.

"A person."

"Huh?"

"I am talking about the identity of the thing hanging from the tree with a sack over its head."

The three people gasped in horror and stared.

They were obviously unaware of it.

That was understandable, as they were focused on guarding their surroundings and had no time to look at the tree.

"There is a place blocked by rocks on all four sides up ahead. Just hold on until we get there."

Tania was astonished.

In the dizzying situation, his instructions were not wrong even in the slightest.

He had guided the monsters away, and that was just the basic action.

He even led them to a resting place that was not even visible.

"Huff, huff!"

They arrived at the rock crevice he had mentioned.

The inside was quite spacious.

All four of us could enter and still have room to stretch our legs.

However, there was something even he had not foreseen.

"......Mmmph!!!"

It was someone's corpse.

Tania, who spotted it first, suppressed a groan.

Joshua examined the corpse with an expressionless face.

One side of the head was completely crushed.

In that state, there was no possibility of it coming back as a zombie.

I searched through the clothes it was wearing.

I had to check if there were any usable items left.

"One chocolate and the outer garment is quite thick."

My hands searched the corpse without hesitation.

"Anyone want to wear this?"

Joshua's hands held the clothes he had stripped from the corpse.

Talleon and Gavinu kept silent.

"This man is an adult, but he is not very big. The size should fit you too."

Talleon, putting aside his discomfort, spoke.

"Do I have to wear it?"

"It is bear fur. This is a valuable item. Normally, I would not give it away for free."

"I-I will wear it."

Gavinu stepped forward and took the coat.

He draped the coat over the academy uniform he was wearing.

It was surprisingly warm.

"How is it?"

"It is very good."

"Really? I should have taken it first if I had known."

Talleon regretted it belatedly, expressing disappointment.

Joshua threw the corpse, which was no longer of any use, towards the entrance we had come through.

"How can you touch it so skillfully?"

"What are you referring to?"

"T-The corpse, I mean."

"I just got used to it. Like a habit or a custom."

Talleon's complexion turned pale.

"Is touching a corpse really something you can get used to?"

"Yes. If you count the corpses that have passed through my hands so far, it would easily exceed ten thousand."

Joshua answered with a smile.

The number of corpses I had checked while playing the game was too many to be simply called ten thousand.

"Y-You are joking, right?"

"Believe whatever you want to believe."

The three people exchanged glances with each other.

No one thought his words were sincere.

"From here, it is about an hour to the laboratory."

"Then we are almost there!"

"Yes."

Joshua divided the chocolate he had just obtained from the corpse into four pieces.

He handed a piece to each of the students and bit into his own.

"Senior, how did you know that was a person?"

Tania asked, only staring at the chocolate.

"Because it was too big for a tree fruit. Is this the first time you have seen a person die?"

"No, it is not."

It was easy for people of this era to witness someone's death.

In a world where fists were closer than the law if someone did not like something.

If need be, they could just kill them.

In a situation where the country was in chaos, all devices that restrained murder were disabled.

"Why do you think they were hanged?"

"I don’t know. Maybe they became unnecessary, or were in the way, or perhaps they simply were not liked. The reason can be anything you attach to it."

"It is a brutal world we live in."

"It was crazy here even before it became this mess."

Joshua answered the girl's question curtly and stood up.

The fire he had started on the old dead tree had reached its peak.

"It’s time to move."

Talleon lowered his head regretfully.

"We only rested for 10 minutes."

"I doubled the original 5 minutes of rest, thinking of you guys."

"Really?"

Talleon looked at him with a touched expression.

"Yes. And once we reach the laboratory, there will be plenty of time for rest."

Joshua checked the outside and stepped onto the road by crossing the brush.

From there to the laboratory was the blink of an eye.

That was the reason I chose the center path.

If the dangerous section could be overcome, the number of zombies noticeably decreased.

"I see it!"

The laboratory was visible.

When we arrived, Roden's group was nowhere to be seen.

"We won!"

"I really did not think we would win."

Talleon jumped up, and Tania froze with her mouth open.

Joshua did not revel in the victory.

It was what he had expected.

If there was only one part he had not anticipated.

'I wonder, how many will return alive.'