Bang—!!
A single slug round was fired.
The tremendous physical force contained in that one shot shattered the monster bull’s horn and smashed straight through its skull.
Crack, crunch!
“Mwooooooo!!”
The monster bull let out its death cry and collapsed on the spot.
Shraaaak—!
Because it had fallen while charging, the monster bull slid all the way to a stop right in front of Park Dawi’s nose.
“Holy fu…!”
Dawi nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of the monster bull’s face stopping inches before him.
Then, after confirming that the monster bull was dead, he poked its face a few times with his shotgun.
Even then, when the monster bull showed no reaction, Dawi finally let out a long breath.
“Phew… I thought I was dead.”
Clack!
Dawi broke open the barrel.
Pshhk—
With a puff of smoke, the spent slug shell popped out.
Thud.
It fell to the ground and soon turned to dust, disappearing.
Dawi loaded one buckshot shell and one slug round into the respective barrels.
Clack!
Then he examined the monster bull closely.
“…If I’d had enough time, I could’ve killed it with buckshot too.”
Buckshot did not have enough power to smash the creature’s skull, but it was strong enough to pierce its hide and lodge deep inside.
“…If it had been birdshot, I’d have had to keep blasting until its whole body was drenched in blood.”
Thinking that birdshot likely wouldn’t see much use in this world, Dawi moved on.
‘Whether it’s humans or some otherworldly race, I hope there are living beings with civilization who can communicate…’
As Dawi wandered through the forest, he discovered a clearing that appeared out of nowhere among the trees.
“This place is…?”
In the middle of the clearing stood a pyramid-shaped structure, surrounded by green moss.
It was unmistakably.
“A trace of civilization…!”
Dawi hurriedly ran toward the pyramid.
When he got closer, he saw that it was quite large. About the size of a small villa.
Dawi was about to examine the pyramid more closely when,
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
The pyramid began to vibrate, and part of its wall lowered.
A passageway appeared.
‘No way, no way, is there a person inside…! Or maybe even a different race, like elves…!’
However, there was also the possibility that whatever was inside the pyramid might be hostile to him.
Dawi raised his shotgun in front of him and cautiously entered the passageway.
Step, step.
Dawi’s footsteps echoed through the passage, walled on every side.
There was nothing separately illuminating it, so the farther he went, the darker the passage became.
‘Should I go out and make a torch or something…’
The moment he was thinking that.
Clap—
The sound of clapping rang out, and blue light spread through the passage.
“Wh-what the!”
Startled, Dawi gripped his shotgun even tighter.
“!@$#%#%#…?”
Standing in front of Dawi was a white-haired old man.
Looking at the old man, Dawi thought,
‘Gandalf…?’
He was reminded of the archetypal wizard from a certain fantasy film.
“@##$@$#? @#$#$#$…”
Dawi could not understand the old man’s words.
When Dawi continued to react as though he did not understand, the old man let out a deep sigh and snapped his fingers.
Snap—
Then the light that had filled the passage abruptly went out, and darkness fell in an instant.
“What the…!”
As Dawi flinched and was about to pull the trigger,
Thap—
Something covered Dawi’s face.
It was the old man’s palm.
At that moment, Dawi felt a terrible pain, as though his brain were being scorched by fire.
“Aaaaaaagh!!”
And so Dawi fainted in agony.
.
.
.
“Ugh…”
Dawi woke up, clutching his throbbing head.
He could feel heat in his palm.
His head was burning hot.
“Have you come to your senses?”
At the sound of the old man’s voice, Dawi snapped fully awake.
Whoosh—
Dawi raised the shotgun that appeared in his right hand and aimed it at the old man.
“Wh-who are you!”
“I am Merlin. People call me the Archmage.”
“Archmage…? Then this place really is…”
“To use a term you can understand… yes. It is another world.”
“No…”
Then Dawi recalled the pain from earlier, as if his head had been seared.
“You, what did you do to my head!”
“I forcibly stuffed the language knowledge of this world into it. Since we could not communicate at all… and while I was at it, I also absorbed knowledge of that place called ‘Earth.’”
The thought that the old man had read his mind, and even manipulated it, sent chills down Dawi’s spine.
“And so, I also know that the thing called a gun is useless if it is not loaded. Stop wasting your strength and lower it.”
Because Dawi had newly summoned the shotgun, it had no shells loaded.
“…”
Dawi slowly lowered the muzzle of the shotgun.
“From what I can see, it seems a change occurred when you first came into contact with mana… You can summon that gun and those shells, and your physical abilities have improved as well, have they not?”
“Physical abilities…?”
Dawi looked down at his own body.
Now that he thought about it, his protruding belly had disappeared.
Dawi discreetly lifted his shirt.
What came into view were clearly defined abs.
“Ooh…”
The old man looked at him as though he found the sight pathetic.
“At any rate, I should apologize first. I am sorry.”
“What are you sorry for…”
“You came here because of me.”
“What do you…”
The old man let out a long breath and began to explain.
“One day, a disease spread. We called it the zombie virus. Because it turned infected people into zombies.
The zombie virus infected two-thirds of the population of this continent. Fortunately, one-third were immune to the virus. Judging by appearances, you, who came from Earth, seem to be immune as well. Or perhaps you were never a target of the zombie virus to begin with.”
“What does that have to do with me coming here…”
The old man cut Dawi off and said,
“I was not immune.”
As he spoke, the old man rolled up the sleeve of his robe.
Then Dawi saw the old man’s rotting left arm.
“Fortunately, I was able to use magic to halt the progress of the infection. The problem was… after becoming infected, my mana no longer recovered at all.
The moment my mana was exhausted, I was certain I would become a zombie. Thus… I began researching a way to fill my mana, or a way to cure this virus, but I could not find one on this continent.
So I decided to look into other worlds… and forcibly opened a dimensional gate.
Unfortunately, you were caught up in my dimensional magic.”
At the old man’s words, Dawi was momentarily enraged, but at the same time, he felt hope.
“Th-then with that dimensional magic, you can send me back too, right?”
But the old man shook his head.
“I am sorry, but that is impossible. Unfortunately, Earth… is a place with no mana whatsoever.
Because of that, the magic collapsed, and I could not cross through the dimensional gate. Just as I was about to give up, I discovered you. A living being that had crossed over from Earth.”
A hint of madness flashed in the old man’s eyes.
Dawi swallowed without realizing it.
But that madness soon subsided.
“However… you had no way to solve this virus either. I could not extract antibodies… Well, the changes that occurred when you came into contact with mana are worth researching, but that is not what matters to me right now. Still, to my great gratitude, one piece of knowledge inside your head gave me hope.”
“…Are you talking about something like a vaccine?”
The old man shook his head.
“That would be a vaccine for another disease or virus, not a vaccine for the zombie virus. To begin with, it is a disease that does not exist on Earth… But Earth, it seems, does not have only one continent.”
Madness began to gather in the old man’s eyes again.
“I thought, perhaps… this world may have more continents as well. To think I considered other dimensions but failed to consider other continents, hahahaha… And so, when I cast a large-scale observation spell… would you believe it, there was land detected at the edge of the great ocean?
If I go there, I may be able to find a way to solve this virus, or a way to restore my mana. Therefore, I am now going to travel to that continent.”
As the old man spoke, he drew a magical formula.
“Wh-what? Wait! Then what about me! What happens to me!”
“Hmm… Dimensional magic consumes far too much mana. And I cannot recover any as it is…”
“Hey, you old geezer! You still have to send me back!”
“I do not even know whether you, who have already accepted mana, can return to a manaless Earth…”
“Hey, you bastard! Stop the magic!!”
Dawi got to his feet and approached the old man, but,
Thoom~
He was blocked by the old man’s shield magic.
“What the? You son of a…!”
Clack—
Dawi broke open the barrel and loaded two slug rounds.
“I am sorry… Still, with that ability, you should be able to ‘survive’ well enough.”
Whoosh—
At the same time the old man’s body disappeared, Dawi fired both slug rounds at once.
Bang, bang—!!
Dawi felt pain in his shoulder and fell backward.
The two slug rounds, with their tremendous physical force, shattered even the Archmage’s shield.
Crash—!!
But before the slug rounds could reach the old man, he vanished.
Shwoosh—
Along with the pyramid.
“Ah… nooooo!!”
Dawi’s scream echoed through the empty clearing.