Dark Fantasy’s Extra

“Ah… I’m sorry. Because of me….”

Hilde said with a face that looked like she was about to cry.

“It’s fine. No one’s hurt, just one tool broke.”

Though I said that, it’s quite a troublesome situation.

The difference between having a rifle or not can be a matter of life and death.

Normally, I would have retreated back to the Order without hesitation in this situation.

But the problem is time.

There’s less than ten days left until Rusalka’s invasion.

And it takes about a week for Zepetia to make equipment from Beast specimens, and considering possible delays, there’s no time to spare now.

Just going back and forth to the Order from here would take more than a full day.

I need to make a decision.

“For now… let’s keep going.”

“What? But the rifle…”

“I still have a gun.”

I showed her the pistol at my waist.

“And I don’t just know how to use rifles.”

I picked up the strange spear dropped by the Deep Sea Folk.

Though oddly shaped, the spearhead was extremely sharp with a keen edge.

It could be used for thrusting, throwing, and even cutting.

“Not having the rifle is definitely regrettable. But we can’t always fight in optimal conditions. Sometimes we have to improvise and push forward somehow.”

I took the lead again.

“Follow me. The hunt isn’t over yet.”

Having come this far, we can’t return empty-handed.

It’s clearly a gamble, but there’s enough chance of success.

Not having the rifle in hand led to anxiety, but not enough to be terrified.

As I showed Hilde earlier, I still have the pistol and plenty of silver bullets.

We went deeper into the cave again.

Deep Sea Folk appeared several more times after that, but I could handle them well enough with the pistol.

Though weaker than the rifle, I could overcome that with the pistol’s rapid-fire advantage.

But that also meant silver bullet supplies were depleting quickly, so we mainly fought in close combat.

“This cave, how far does it go?”

Hilde asked.

“Who knows.”

The locations that existed in the game were similar to the places that actually exist here.

I could recognize the features meant to mark gimmicks or hidden things.

But the size is completely different.

The spaces in reality are several times larger than in the game.

“By the way Senior, aren’t there too many spears?”

I had several spears taken from Deep Sea Folk on my back.

“Better to have too many than too few.”

I think there was a saying like that in my previous life, but I can’t remember clearly.

Anyway, since the rifle broke, we need to gather whatever firepower we can to face what’s at the end of this cave.

Though I didn’t practice spear throwing that often, the boss is quite large so even rough throws should hit.

As we kept walking deep into the cave, a terrible stench gradually grew stronger.

There was only one path so we kept going forward, and the stench grew worse.

Then after walking a bit more, we found the source of that stench.

It was a room that seemed artificially expanded, probably scratched out with their own claws.

In the corner lay piled corpses of both humans and creatures, not discriminating between them. Though they looked old, they hadn’t rotted and collapsed.

They were probably being “aged” through some method.

This must be like a dining room or kitchen for the Deep Sea Folk.

“Ugh…”

I could feel Hilde shrinking behind me.

“Be careful.”

“What?”

“Soon there’ll probably be a boss here, or something dangerous will appear.”

“How do you know?”

Because that’s how it was in Blue Paper Moon.

This is the kitchen, and in the next room is some creature that the Deep Sea Folk are raising.

It’s huge, and since the Deep Sea Folk cherish it, they don’t just feed it raw food but prepare it specially.

Though I didn’t delve deep into the lore about Deep Sea Folk food culture, that’s just my guess.

Of course, it’s difficult to explain that to Hilde.

“All the ones we’ve met so far were just small fry. It’s better to assume there’s a boss or something. And what’s there is probably food being prepared for that boss.”

“Food…”

“In the end they’re Beasts. The only difference is whether they eat humans raw or cooked.”

“But having enough intelligence to cook makes them more dangerous, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then we definitely need to destroy them here.”

We opened the last remaining door and went inside.

The first thing that caught our eyes was a massive monster.

It had a shark-like head attached to a human body, and around its neck were several iron stakes chained together like a collar.

It looked exactly as I remembered Kenken.

‘Fallen Kenken’.

Long ago, Kenken was a behemoth called the Tyrant of the Sea, but drunk on his own power, he rebelled against Little Mermaid Rusalka and was subjugated.

And where failed rebels end up is always in the depths.

Kenken lost not only his power but also his freedom and even both eyes, falling to become livestock for the Deep Sea Folk.

According to the backstory, the Deep Sea Folk here were transporting Kenken on orders from the mermaid princess who was partially unsealed when they got stranded.

In the game, there was even a quest to find and bring him back if you hadn’t killed him before when siding with the mermaid princess.

“Not a boss but a slave… maybe?”

“Certainly looks that way. Probably a creature they use for fighting. Either way, we still need to destroy it.”

Originally when entering here, there would be a cutscene of sleeping Kenken grabbing and eating alive a Deep Sea Folk who was filling his food trough, but looking around, there was no one.

Kenken was just sleeping as if dead.

Still, we have to fight.

The area where Kenken is isn’t very wide, but his leash restricts his movement too.

In phase 2 he breaks the chains and gets more range of movement, but perhaps because forcing the chains off drained his strength, his patterns become simpler.

If anything, the early patterns are what we need to watch out for.

Kenken often attempts grabs, and if caught, you get eaten like the Deep Sea Folk in the cutscene.

It deals so much damage it’s basically an instant death move.

Naturally, in reality if your head gets bitten by such large sharp teeth, it’s instant death.

“Here we go.”

If he keeps sleeping, we might as well strike first.

Kenken’s weakness is his head.

When he tries to eat something he lowers his body, creating an opportunity to attack his weak point, the head.

Otherwise it’s hard to target the head with melee weapons due to his large size.

So we need to stab firmly when the chance comes.

I took out one of the Deep Sea Folk spears and threw it at Kenken’s head.

The spear thrown with magically enhanced strength flew with a sound of tearing air and lodged deep into his eye.

Moreover, luck was on our side as it seemed to pierce a weak spot in the bone, with the spearhead coming out the other side of the head.

A perfect first strike.

“…”

“?”

Nothing happened.

Kenken showed no reaction.

I threw another spear at Kenken.

This time too the spear easily pierced through his nose.

But Kenken didn’t get up.

“Senior…”

“…Right. This probably means… he’s already dead.”

At first I thought he was sleeping.

But looking more carefully, there wasn’t even the subtle movement characteristic of living things.

“What in the world happened?”

“How did you get here in the first place?”

Just then, a voice spoke from behind us.

“!”

We turned around in surprise to look in that direction.

A human corpse was standing there looking at us.

Not entirely certain, but it seemed to be one of the human corpses from the kitchen.

“Hunters? Just two of you came to a place like this? What’s your purpose?”

The corpse spoke.

“Does a hunter need a reason to hunt Beasts?”

I said while pointing a spear at it.

“Hmm, strong words… But what an incredible coincidence this is.”

“What coincidence?”

“Hehehe, you don’t know. Anyway, those Deep Sea Folk here… well, if you made it this far, they must all be dead already. I killed that big one over there though. Sorry for stealing your kill.”

“If you’re sorry, reveal your identity first.”

What kind of situation is this?

I don’t know this story.

This dungeon was just meant to have stranded Deep Sea Folk and Fallen Kenken as an early-mid game boss.

I came here many times in the game, but there was no story about corpses in the kitchen coming alive.

A corpse that talks… Though someone came to mind immediately, there’s no way they would be in a place like this.

“Hahaha, you say amusing things. As if I would tell you that.”

That manner of speech and voice.

It’s definitely in my memory.

But, but why really?

Why are they in a place like this?

I threw a spear at the corpse to check.

The spear pierced through the corpse almost disappointingly easily.

“Oops, you have bad manners. Well… that part of you annoyed me when I first saw you too.”

The corpse spoke while pulling out the spear as if completely unaffected.

“First time? Do you know me?”

You know me?

“Oh my, a slip of the tongue. That person would be displeased if they knew…”

That person.

Has the ability to control corpses, and is someone’s subordinate.

There was exactly one such character in Blue Paper Moon.

But they weren’t meant to appear until late in the story.

This could be unique to Hilde’s story rather than Noah’s, but I’m not certain.

“Hmm… you’re lower-ranked hunters right? At best 8th or 9th rank… Truly small fry. Too bothersome for me to kill myself. Kill that woman with your own hands. If you do that, I’ll let you live.”

He pointed at Hilde.

“What?”

“It’s a kind of entertainment. I want to see a hunter kill another hunter. Then out of appreciation for amusing me, I’ll let just you go quietly.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I’ll have to kill you both.”

“I refuse.”

Not even worth considering.

I threw another spear and hit the corpse’s head.

“Ugh… Don’t be like that. Isn’t it quite a good deal?”

But even the spear piercing the head didn’t seem to have much effect.

“Think about it carefully. Do you think you’ll get another chance like this?”

Some strange feeling came over me.

Though they say they’re just controlling a corpse from afar, the opponent is a high-tier Beast.

They could surely kill us with just one ordinary human corpse, so why specifically tell me to kill Hilde with my own hands?

They said it was just entertainment, but even after I clearly refused they’re not taking action.

The atmosphere is clearly one of being troubled.

A high-tier Beast serving a behemoth.

Yet not trying to kill me.

The puzzle pieces fit together in my head.

“…Charmol.”

“!”

He flinched at the name I spoke.

“H-how do you know that person’s name…!”

“And you’re Yorick.”

“H-h-how…!”

Yorick, subordinate of behemoth Charmol.

He has the ability to control corpses and possesses intelligence no different from humans despite being a Beast.

“You! How did you know! Tell me right now or I’ll tear open your mouth and make you speak!!”

As Yorick shouted, the terrifying killing intent of a high-tier Beast enveloped us.

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