The monkeys use the knives in their hands to dismantle the woman. They thinly slice her skin and put it in their mouths, then open her abdomen and pull out the contents inside.
“Kk-eu…… heu-eok…….”
The woman no longer screamed.
No, she couldn’t. The skin of her face had long since been completely peeled off, and her tongue was rolling around on the floor. She was still alive, but probably not for much longer.
‘…The next turn is probably the man on the right. After that, the highest possibility is me, sitting across from them.’
His heart was pounding like crazy at the cruel sight he was witnessing for the first time in his life, but Ian forced himself to think as calmly as possible.
The current situation was clearly a supernatural phenomenon.
The identity of the urban legend was probably the Monkey Dream.
In the original text, it wasn’t monkeys but little dwarves that appeared and killed people, but what was before his eyes right now were unmistakably monkeys. They looked more like chimpanzees, but they were primates nonetheless.
If so, then the knife that kills primates should be properly effective.
According to what was written in the grimoire, primates die instantly the moment they are touched by the knife, before they can even do anything. Simply grazing their skin would be enough to slaughter them.
However, he couldn’t just leap up right then and charge at them.
First of all, there were too many of them. On top of that, every single one of those many monkeys was even holding a blade. If he launched a surprise attack, he could kill a few, but killing them all would probably be difficult.
So he would wait for an opportunity.
When they came at him to kill him, he would recreate two of them and slash down the remaining three with the knife. Then he could eliminate all the monkeys currently in this compartment.
He wasn’t sure about the situation in the other compartments. But he wasn’t thinking optimistically. It seemed best to assume the worst possible scenario and act accordingly.
It would be best if killing these things ended the situation, but if not, he might have to go all the way to the driver’s cabin.
His head was already aching, but Ian steeled his resolve and waited for the monkeys to approach.
“Uh-uh, aaaargh!!!”
The turn after the woman’s death.
The man who had been sitting in a daze immediately came to his senses and started screaming as the knife plunged into his body. Ian inwardly made the sign of the cross and prayed that he would go to a good place.
He felt no guilt watching the man die.
‘I’m not a hero. I’m a wizard.’
If he could save someone, he would, but in a situation where he couldn’t, he didn’t bother harboring thoughts that would only shake his resolve.
Because that would increase his chances of survival.
[Ukkiik!]
A short while later, after neatly carving up the man as well, the monkeys giggled and turned their heads toward Ian. Ian half-closed his eyes and quietly watched them approach.
…Squeeze.
His hands gripping the grimoire and the knife tightened involuntarily. Feeling the soft texture of the grimoire’s cover, Ian waited until the monkeys thrust their knives at him.
Then, the moment they slowly reached out their hands.
Whoosh!
Ian’s eyes flew wide open as he swung the grimoire in his hand roughly. With a sharp crack, the head of the monkey at the very front twisted around backwards.
[Ukkiik?!]
[U, ukkiik!]
The sudden event threw the other monkeys into confusion. Without missing that opening, Ian carelessly tossed the grimoire aside, then tapped two of the monkeys’ bodies with his fingers and carved knife marks into the bodies of the other two.
The two cut by the knife died on the spot.
The monkeys touched by Ian’s fingers finished their judgment and contorted their faces, but Ian was faster than the swing of their knives.
“Be born anew.”
Cr-crack!!
As soon as he uttered the words, the monkeys were compressed on the spot. Looking down at their forms, which had transformed into small cubes, Ian wiped the sweat from his forehead.
[U, ukkiyiik… Ukkiik…]
One monkey that had been smacked by the grimoire and sent flying floundered on the floor, unable to regain its senses. Ian cleared away the knives that had fallen around it and poked its leg with the blade.
That was the end. Ian roughly shook off the thick blood clinging to the blade, then picked up the compressed cubes and put them into his bag.
‘I got two more materials. Not bad.’
Even without having gone out looking for supernatural beings, he had already collected three materials. At this rate, it might be worth trying more alchemy at the workshop.
Ian nodded to himself inwardly and picked up the fallen grimoire.
Fwip.
As soon as the grimoire was in Ian’s hand, it opened its pages by itself.
[Caution!!]
[This grimoire is not a weapon. Under no circumstances should it be used to physically strike something or be used as a tool.]
Reading the contents on the page, Ian let out a bitter laugh.
It seemed the grimoire was displeased at having been swung as a weapon.
“Sorry. I won’t do it again.”
When he apologized with sincerity, the grimoire vibrated once and then showed him a different page.
[Once you become a wizard, getting caught up in supernatural phenomena from time to time is inevitable. In such cases, one method of resolution is to calmly observe the nature of the mystery and formulate a strategy, but there exists a more primal and simpler method.]
[That is annihilation.]
[If you kill more than half of the beings constituting the supernatural phenomenon, the phenomenon will eventually lose its power and collapse. So, if you cannot think of a way to overcome it, simply eradicating everything while you think is also a good option.]
Whether its anger had subsided or not, the grimoire presented a way to escape the current situation. Ian quietly read the written content, then let out a humming sound and closed the grimoire.
“So, kill them all.”
As the grimoire said, it was the easiest way. The problem was that Ian’s physical ability was not particularly outstanding.
There were no more monkeys in the compartment where he was currently standing. Yet the supernatural phenomenon hadn’t ended, which surely meant similar things were happening in the other compartments.
Going around to find and kill each one would be a difficult task.
Walking openly through the aisle meant surprise attacks wouldn’t work like before, so he would have to face more than five monkeys head-on… That didn’t seem easy. Even if he succeeded, he’d probably end up with a stab wound somewhere on his body.
But what could he do? He had to do it to get out.
The urban legend called the Monkey Dream had no method of escape in the original text to begin with. If this were a dream, he could have tried something, but this was unmistakably reality. The typical resolution of waking from a dream was unusable.
Therefore, annihilation was the only solution. Ian roughly swept his sweat-soaked hair back and opened the grimoire to see if there was a useful spell for the current situation.
Understanding its master’s intention, the grimoire immediately showed him a recorded spell.
[Spell to Lull the Mysterious]
[Imbues a specific object with a fragrance. Mysterious beings that smell the fragrance are overcome with extreme drowsiness and enter a sleeping state on the spot.]
[Materials: A magic circle drawn with the blood of a supernatural being, an object to be imbued with fragrance, incense or perfume (more than 25ml), 100ml of female blood, ether.]
The materials were somewhat complicated, but the effect itself was the most optimal for the current situation.
The problem was how to obtain the materials…
“…Ah.”
At a sudden thought, Ian moved his feet and stood before the dead woman.
A horrific sight. Her form, having died without even being able to close her eyes, was so grotesque it was nauseating.
She was probably a person who would have lived peacefully if only she hadn’t been caught up in this supernatural phenomenon. It was truly unfortunate.
‘I hope you’ve gone to a good place.’
Ian inwardly prayed for her soul as he carefully opened the backpack she had been clutching tightly.
“It’s here.”
Fortunately, there was perfume inside.
A little more than half a bottle of perfume.
Since the total capacity of the bottle was 100ml, it was more than enough to use for the spell.
Ian immediately took the perfume and settled in a corner, drawing a magic circle with monkey blood on the inside of the padded jacket he was wearing.
He poured the perfume over it. He adjusted the amount by intuition, then filled the now-empty perfume bottle with the woman’s spilled blood and carefully poured it around the magic circle.
With that, the preparations were complete. Ian placed his hand slightly above the magic circle and chanted the incantation.
“I gift you peaceful rest, so I pray you enter a pleasant and happy slumber.”
The incantation ended. A strong scent of perfume began to waft from the padded jacket.
Ian immediately put on the magic-infused padded jacket and let out a long breath.
‘No one saw me use magic, right?’
Even though he had moved quite conspicuously, the people sitting in their seats remained utterly motionless. It seemed they only moved when the monkeys directly stabbed them with their knives.
Still, just in case, Ian moved to the next compartment and shouted in a loud voice.
“Hear me, thou dastardly byproducts of evil! The servant of the great Lord shall judge you; receive the spear of judgment with joy!”
These were people already exposed to the supernatural. If their ears and eyes were open, they would have realized that urban legends truly existed.
If so, there would be nothing strange about an apostle acting in the name of God. It was an excellent cover identity to use.
Ian dredged up his meager knowledge of Christianity from his mind and made the sign of the cross like a believer dispatched from the Vatican.
Sensing his intent, the grimoire scattered pure white light around him.
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen! Crusaders, join me!”