Calling it human collection sounded nice, but I knew well enough that it was a crime. But what if I used it on enemies who were trying to kill me?
I get stronger, and my enemies disappear.
Once I reached that conclusion, the Lava Golems approaching from afar no longer even registered in my eyes.
“I could beat those things for a hundred days... but putting one person of similar skill into my collection is the right answer, isn’t it?”
I had imagined something I should not have.
Because I simply could not shake it off, I had no choice but to leave the Gate for the time being. I knew that when my thoughts grew too complicated, I needed a change of pace.
When I came out of the Gate, I wondered if Jea might still be there, just in case, but she had already disappeared somewhere.
Well, how many people would sit around waiting for hours?
After leaving the Gate yard, the place I headed for was my house. It was late, but more than that, I intended to rest a little and sort out my thoughts.
Unlike my intentions, however, the situation was not so simple.
“Hey. Are you Isan?”
A guest had come looking for me. I swept my gaze around, and since this was a forest path, there was no longer anyone passing by. If I walked another ten minutes or so, the manor would come into view, so I had climbed fairly deep into the mountain.
And someone had come looking for me in a place like this? I doubted it was for any good reason.
“What business do you have with me?”
“There have been quite a few rumors about you lately. Did it not occur to you that you were standing out too much?”
The man slowly approached while drawing his sword. But he was not alone. Three in front of me, five behind. I figured there were fewer in front because they were the more skilled ones.
Yet rather than feeling fear, the thought that the imagination I had entertained in the Gate might become reality kept rising in my mind.
My expression twisted on its own from the complexity of it all, but the man approaching from the front seemed to think I was frowning because I was afraid, and sat there grinning in delight.
I supposed he could laugh like that only because he did not know his own fate. So, thinking I would subdue them first without killing them, I let my spear hang low and said,
“If you don’t want to regret this, you should run.”
“Run? Kh, khkh. In that case, you’ll have to run to the afterlife.”
“Well, you’ll understand once you experience it.”
The clash began. The first to charge at me were the men in front, swords drawn. Their movements were clearly no ordinary thing. No doubt they had considered my friction with the Third Prince, analyzed what happened then, and sent people of suitable skill.
They must have judged that someone with mediocre ability could do nothing to me, and the opponents before me felt strong enough to match that judgment.
But that was all.
Since I had no intention of killing them, I faced them with the shaft of my spear, not the blade.
Swords sliced through the air and came cutting sharply toward me. Their keen edges, so chilling they made my chest ache, and the thick intent of men who sought to kill me constricted around me.
How often in life does one truly think someone is trying to kill them? Unlike monsters, an opponent filled with the will to kill felt different from the very start.
It made me a little tense. But the fact that their speed was more manageable than expected gave me certainty that today was not the day I would die.
Clang, clang! Deafening sounds rang out in succession. The moment I blocked a blade coming for my neck, another sword was already digging in to stab my solar plexus.
That was not all. When I quickly moved to avoid the blade aimed at my solar plexus, another sword came slashing toward my leg to take away my mobility. It was truly a seamless coordinated assault with no room to breathe.
“You scurry around well for a rat!”
Anger surged at being called a rat, but I had no room to speak. They had finally begun moving from behind as well.
At this rate, I would be stabbed somewhere and sent straight to my grave. I began to focus. Cold sweat chilled against my skin. Over it, a cool tension settled, gradually stimulating my instincts.
Most of the talents I had been given were things even I did not know about, but perhaps I had wanted an environment like this, one that made my flesh tremble.
Once I focused, I slowly began to see and feel my opponents’ movements with clarity.
First, my head. I lightly took one step back and narrowly avoided it. Then my arm. It seemed they intended to cut off my arm so I could no longer use my weapon, but I blocked that as well by tilting the spear shaft at an angle.
A clear clang rang out. And splitting through that resonance came a thrust near my solar plexus. If it landed, it would pierce my solar plexus and heart in one go.
The one attacking was the captain who had led them here.
As expected of their captain, his skill was outstanding. But that was all.
I deflected even that by lifting the spear shaft, then immediately raised my leg and kicked the enemy captain in the thigh as he closed the distance.
With a heavy impact, the enemy captain crumpled with a look of bewilderment. After that, I knocked away the remaining chain of attacks without much difficulty and swung my spear shaft.
I could have cut them down with the spear blade, but these men had to become sacrifices for my experiment, so I had no intention of killing them.
With their captain out of the fight, the others were struck by the spear shaft and scattered through the forest as though flung away. After confirming that they had gone limp without a sound, I walked toward the enemy captain, who was struggling to rise.
Then he limped backward with his sword held out in front of him and asked,
“Wh-what the hell are you?!”
“Isan. The person you tried to kill.”
That was probably not the answer my enemy wanted. Even if I had wanted to reveal some impressive identity, what I had said was all there was, so I had nothing more to add.
So I adjusted my grip on the spear and said,
“They say regret always comes too late. That’s a well-known truth. You’re regretting it now, aren’t you?”
“I, I...”
I had no intention of exchanging any more words. I quickly closed the distance between us and swung my spear. The enemy captain raised his sword to block it. But when the two weapons collided, the far sturdier spear shaft shattered the enemy’s sword and slammed straight into his chest.
Just like what had happened to the prince’s guard, the enemy captain was sent flying pathetically and collapsed.
I swept my gaze around. Then I sharpened my senses, just in case there was any presence hidden nearby. But in the forest filled only with the sound of leaves fluttering in the wind, all I perceived was silence.
* * *
I roughly dragged the unconscious men over and laid them out in a visible place. They had collapsed from the impact, so they supposedly would not be unconscious for long, but there were seven of them, and I was curious whether their condition had fallen below 20%.
So I approached the enemy captain, who was in the worst condition, and said,
“Collect.”
But as expected, nothing happened. Right. They had merely been knocked unconscious after taking a hit. It would make no sense for their health to fall below 20% from that alone.
So the method I chose was beating. Thinking I would beat them only until just before they died, I began striking every one of the collapsed men in turn with my spear shaft.
Each time, the chilling sound of bones breaking rang out here and there, and I repeated the process of smashing the heads of those who tried to regain consciousness from the pain, knocking them out again.
If someone saw this, they might curse me for being cruel, but I felt so wronged that I wanted to ask whether they would still call it cruel if I were the one who died.
Repeated violence. And now, the mental fortitude of the ambushers, who had begun to endure it surprisingly well. They all groaned and tried somehow to resist me, but with their movements, they could not escape me.
Moreover, since I had broken all their shinbones in advance, running away was impossible to begin with. The most they could do was cry out for me to spare them, but perhaps because of their pitiful noble pride, they did not beg for their lives.
I almost wanted to praise them for having some backbone as they endured my violence, so I said,
“You’re holding up well, aren’t you?”
“K-kill me. Do not disgrace me!”
At the enemy captain’s words, I looked at his subordinates and asked,
“Do the rest of you think the same as him?”
At that, they all looked back and forth between me and their captain with wavering eyes. It was laughable. In a situation where an answer should have come immediately, their hesitation was plain to see.
“I have no intention of sparing those who tried to kill me.”
“Murder is a grave crime. One day, this will come to light! And you will be punished!”
“That’s right. A mere commoner dares try to harm a noble, you bastar—”
Since he was babbling about nobles, I punched him square in the face, then, just in case, looked at the man collapsed and dazed on the ground and said,
“Collect.”
At that moment, with a cry of “Ueok?!” the man began shrinking right where he was.
Faced with a situation so unbelievable and unrealistic, both I and the men who had ambushed me had no choice but to fall silent. But after looking at the shrunken human figurine, I managed to come to my senses first. Then I looked at the remaining ambushers, gave a cruel smile, and said,
“It works.”
They looked at me fearfully, as if wondering what worked. But now that it had come to this, I was certain that no one would even be able to find evidence that I had done this to them.
The beating began again. Then came the collection. In the end, I was able to turn even the last remaining enemy captain into a figurine.
Seven figurines lay on the ground as though discarded.
Unable to readily pick them up, I scratched my head and said,
“Collection.”
The display case quickly rose from the earth. I hesitated for a moment as I looked at the figurines lying on the ground, then picked them up at once and placed them inside the case.
But at that moment, new information surfaced in my mind. As if it had been waiting for this very instant.
Additional Collection - Human Collection: Collects humans. By collecting the same species, the possibility of becoming their superior predator opens. Adds 10% of the collected target’s abilities to the Collector’s abilities.
It was the moment a new change occurred in my life.
But it was also a truth I could not reveal to anyone. This was an ability that would unquestionably be rejected.
Because it was no different from going beyond killing the enemies who tried to kill me and absorbing them instead. In that sense, one thing was certain: I had obtained a rather dangerous ability.
And I could clearly feel the fact that 10% of my enemies’ abilities had been transmitted to me. The sense of abruptly increased strength, and a mind that felt somewhat clearer, made me begin to think thoughts I had not had before.
For a moment, I wondered whether someone else’s thoughts might have a bad influence on me, but I soon realized it was not that kind of thing, and I was able to smile.
“I could use this in a good direction too, couldn’t I?”
After all, the ability came with the premise of being either physical or mental. Whatever it was, if the target’s condition was bad, I could place them into my collection. So if an ally was on the verge of death or in a situation where they might die, then perhaps the Collection could help in a new way. My thinking shifted in that direction.
And so, it was the day I absorbed seven “enemies” all at once.