Around the time I was on my way to the Black Tower.
Professor Eponine Roche, the metallurgist, posted a message on the gallery.
It was an interim research report on my dagger.
To summarize the contents in three lines:
1. Magic also operates within the bounds of common sense.
2. In that regard, Python’s awakening skill and its results are incomprehensible.
3. Therefore, since further research is necessary, you bastards lining up for the dagger can go fuck off.
—that was the gist of it.
Honestly, I thought that was about right.
Because everything I had experienced recently was beyond common sense.
A person who could mathematically prove that the existence of subspace did not violate the laws of the universe and people from a world that had yet to even prove the principles of awakening couldn’t possibly share the same common sense.
In a world already beyond common sense, something slightly more beyond it didn’t feel particularly significant.
[You have entered the 1st Floor of 「Nightmare」 difficulty.]
[Clear Condition: Slay 20 demonic beasts.]
[Failure Condition: Total annihilation.]
[The safe zone will be maintained for 30 minutes.]
[If even one climber returns to the designated area after the safe zone dissipates, all climbers will be expelled outside the tower after 30 minutes.]
[Expelled climbers cannot remove any loot obtained on that floor.]
If there was a place this absurd, what was the problem with a dagger having bizarre options?
“Haa… I’m fucked.”
I leaned against a nearby tree and sat down.
Dragged into Nightmare difficulty out of nowhere. Time to draw up a new plan.
The target kill count was 20. Considering Hard difficulty was 10, it was roughly double.
‘Should I just ask the metallurgist to return the dagger….’
No, that’s pointless.
Whether holding a dagger or a hammer, close combat was still burdensome.
I’d move by engaging at long range as much as possible.
I checked the weapons I’d brought again.
One pistol. Thirty-six rounds in total.
And a stupidly heavy warhammer.
Theoretically, if I spent 1.5 rounds per kobold, it should be enough.
If I took them out individually, it wasn’t impossible.
“I shouldn’t be too greedy about scrap iron.”
Survival was the top priority for now.
Kobold scrap iron would just be a bonus if I managed to get some.
“Uph—”
Grunting, I climbed a nearby hill.
To scout the surroundings.
To the east stretched a dense forest; to the west rose low mountain ranges.
“Well, at least this is the same as Easy difficulty.”
Fortunately, it seemed the terrain didn’t change just because it was Nightmare difficulty.
If I went to the forest, I’d find goblin villages. Conversely, I could find kobolds in a mine somewhere in the mountain range.
They said you could see hippogriffs if you went deep south to the cliff area, but I didn’t particularly want to.
I hadn’t wanted this much freedom to begin with.
Anyway.
The place I needed to go was the western mountain range.
One hour of walking west.
At the entrance, I discovered several massive buildings.
Seeing the long railroad leading into the mountains, this place seemed to serve as a warehouse.
As I approached the buildings, I heard signs of life inside. It seemed at least two or more kobolds remained.
I could probably suppress a few kobolds with gunfire.
But I shouldn’t rush. There might be more.
After waiting a moment, a mine cart approached from afar.
As the mine cart entered the far building, kobolds began emerging from the nearer one.
Two in the front, one following behind.
Was that all three of them?
I didn’t sense any other signs of life.
There might be kobolds remaining inside the building, but it seemed to be just a small number.
Even if there were more, now was the perfect time to infiltrate while their numbers were split.
I attached a suppressor to the pistol and crept toward the building.
Entered through the open door.
I surveyed the interior.
The interior was warehouse-like, divided into sections by massive pillars and shelves. Here and there, I could see bench-like rest facilities.
It seemed to double as a kind of waiting room.
Using the pillars as cover, I explored the warehouse.
Tap-tap-tap-tap. Tap.
A sound like a dog walking across vinyl flooring reached my ears.
Not far away.
It seemed to move somewhere and then stop.
I poked my head out slightly from behind the pillar.
‘Getting ready for work?’
A kobold in front of a locker, putting on a hard hat and grabbing a pickaxe.
The ornaments hanging all over it were being stored back inside the locker. The dark glint made it obvious they were woven from kobold scrap iron.
Fancy that, kobolds making all sorts of things.
I calmly aimed my pistol.
No other presence could be felt nearby.
Fire.
“Kek…!”
The kobold with a bullet in its back let out a death rattle and collapsed.
It seemed to flail for a moment, but by the time I approached, it had completely stopped breathing.
I’d worried about whether I’d need to fire another shot. Good thing I didn’t.
I took all the ornaments it had put in the locker.
As expected, they were made of processed dark iron.
After looting all the dark iron from the other spots too, my bag had grown heavy before I knew it.
This was enough to make a few test artifacts.
‘Couldn’t I just go home now?’
If this were Easy difficulty, I’d be escaping right about now…!
I felt like shit all over again.
Well, what could I do? I had to finish hunting kobolds.
I confirmed there were no more kobolds in this warehouse.
What remained nearby were the three that had gone to the far building and possibly a few extras.
I returned to the building entrance.
I took out a hand mirror and checked outside.
The three kobolds from earlier were returning from the far building.
Should I jump out and snipe them right away?
I adjusted the mirror angle and scanned the surroundings.
Nothing unusual besides the kobolds.
But that building they had entered and exited.
The entrance was wide open, but the interior was pitch-black and obscured—too unnerving.
I had the feeling something was going to jump out at any moment.
I hid my body for now.
The kobolds would definitely return inside the building.
They’d find their comrade’s corpse before long.
The plan was to ambush them while they were panicking.
“Kerk! Kurrung!”
“Kek! Kek!”
As expected, the bastards were thrown into confusion beside the dead kobold.
Now I just had to calmly aim for their backs.
“Ken? Kokok!”
“Kerk! Kerk!”
Ah, fuck.
Caught.
One of them looked around and discovered me.
Bang! Tadang—!
Without hesitation, I fired and dropped one.
But the other two charged at me with pickaxes.
If those things cracked my skull, it’d hurt like a bitch, right?
“Fucking die!”
Since I didn’t want to have my skull crushed and die on the 1st floor, I pulled the trigger like crazy.
“Why won’t you fucking hit…!”
Just how many shots had I fired? I finally managed to drop one more at mid-range.
Only one kobold remained now.
Or possibly more.
I worried that the sounds of combat might draw others, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.
Bang—! Bang bang—!
Shoot first, think later.
Perhaps because I was tense, the muzzle kept shaking.
But if they had closed to a distance where missing was difficult.
Bang!
At least I could take it down easily.
The kobold that had approached point-blank range collapsed, bleeding.
“Phew….”
I really thought I was going to die.
I kicked the pickaxe away and poked the body.
No reaction whatsoever.
Looked like a confirmed kill.
I collected the ornaments made of kobold scrap iron.
I took care of the next one in the same order.
Remove the pickaxe, check.
Loot the ornaments again.
This one didn’t have much.
Just as I was about to go back to the last one.
“Kerk!”
This bastard grabbed my ankle, of all things.
“Startled me.”
Had it been playing dead? Or had it been knocked out and woken up from me poking it?
Either way, it didn’t matter.
I aimed the sights at the kobold’s forehead.
Click, clickclickclick.
“Kek?”
“Ah.”
Hey, you fucking retard, get a grip.
Thud!
The kobold sprang up and body-checked me.
My body flew several meters and rolled across the ground.
All sorts of things burst from my backpack and scattered across the floor.
That little runt packed a hefty shock for something that called itself a demonic beast.
“Kurrrung…!”
When I came to my senses, I saw a second kobold that had already picked up its pickaxe again and assumed an attack stance.
Its gaze was directed not at me, but somewhere else.
‘My gun?’
The pistol had fallen somewhere between me and the kobold.
Perhaps because it had seen the muzzle flash earlier, the bastard kept alternating its glare between the gun and me, growling.
Suddenly, I was locked in a standoff over the gun.
In this situation, one thing was certain.
The one who moved first was halfway to victory.
The moment I assessed the situation, I lunged for the gun.
It too leaped into the air, assuming a posture to bring its pickaxe down.
Now the action I needed to take was brake.
“……Kkyek?”
I immediately reversed direction and ran toward the warhammer pocket.
Crack—
The sound of something breaking could be heard.
It was likely the sound of my pistol dying, crushed by the pickaxe.
I undid the pocket and took the hammer in hand.
A heavy weight came over me, like lifting a dumbbell.
The next sensation was the kobold’s presence behind me.
I rolled away again, avoiding its leaping approach.
The standoff returned.
The difference was that both sides now held weapons.
What it held was a pickaxe as big as its body.
In my hand was a stupidly heavy hammer.
Now it was one hit for you, one hit for me.
“Huuf.”
I’d fucking killed a troll before; there was no way I couldn’t kill a kobold.
We charged at each other simultaneously.
This time, the kobold attacked first. Just like before, it raised its weapon high to strike down.
The pickaxe’s trajectory was clearly visible to my eyes.
It seemed slower than I had expected.
I twisted my body to avoid it and smashed its wrist.
The kobold dropped its weapon and tumbled across the floor.
Without giving it an opening, I charged in.
A follow-up two-handed backhand.
I fed the hammer properly to its dog-like snout.
The kobold fell flat on its back without even managing to scream.
“Haa…. I’m dying.”
Do I seriously not have any active skills or something?
Killing one fucking mob is so goddamn hard.
**
Another peaceful day at the Artisan Gallery.
As always, the bickering between customers and artisans and meaningless chatter continued.
However, the atmosphere was slightly different.
There was a somewhat tense energy mixed in.
[Why hasn't the newbie shown up?]
Author: BladeMaster
They said Easy difficulty is just killing one.
Is he making kobolds to kill?
└Underdressed: Ah;; that's crazy;;
└DidntBuyShield: If you're not used to close combat, kobolds aren't easy either. If you were ambushed….
└└NorthStationExit3: That's right…. Kobolds are surprisingly tricky…. But the newbie will make it through!
└Metallurgist: No, my grad student…!
└└Yoiyoi: Acting like nothing's wrong, but how hurt must you be. I know everything.
└└DaggerLord: (Nods….)
└Smiles: Tsk tsk, you should've mastered hammer combat from the start. Just fiddling with a gun trying to take it easy, that's why you can't exert strength when it matters!
└└Metallurgist: Is it time for you to really die, old manㅡㅡ Get a clue and shut up.
It was because the newbie's return was later than expected.
If a hunter who went out hunting doesn't return, there's only one reason.
As time passed, ominous imaginations slowly crept up.
Unlike the Sword Master Gallery, which seemed to pride itself on ever-increasing stab wounds, the members of just the Master Gallery weren't very accustomed to death and parting.
And just as their hysteria reached its peak.
A post went up.
[Fighting a life-or-death battle with kobolds.]
Author: Python
So far, killed 3 with a gun and 5 more with a hammer.
Gun's shattered so I have to use only the hammer.
Need to kill 12 more so I can't take questions.
└Metallurgist: Hey!!! What the hell are you doing!!!