Is It Bad That the Main Character's a Roleplayer?

Chapter 31: The Consequences of One’s Choices (6)

I pulled out my Longsword with my freed right arm. I wanted to break the other chains binding me, but those Demons were too close to me.

I first pierced the neck of the Sammokgu about to bite my throat and quickly threw it to the side. A Skeleton hit by the corpse fell backward.

However, I had missed the other Sammokgu. I gritted my teeth as I felt pain in my calf—an act, of course, as I had lowered my pain level again so these things wouldn’t hurt so much—before stabbing the mutt right between its eyes.

Slash!

Stab!

At that moment, I felt a foreign object strike my back. The Skeleton, its teeth clattering, cut me from behind. Stab! Then, an ax lodged into my shoulder. It gave a powerful tingling sensation.

Beeeeeeep.

Ringing caused by tinnitus, something I only heard when seriously stressed, filled my ear.

However, I would never give up because of something like that… I was a die-hard gamer, after all.

Clang!

I perfectly deflected the rusty sword approaching me from the front and gathered Arcane Power to use a skill. I couldn’t avoid getting hit because of it, so I just let it go. It was also a strategy to prevent the next attack.

Energy gathered in my legs, and I managed to break the chains winding around them.

“Die…!”

My neck and waist were still bound, but removing those chains wasn’t as immediately urgent right so long as I could turn around. I had only allowed something to hit me in the back because I couldn’t turn my body.

I twisted backward while checking my HP bar, which had dropped to less than half. The sword I had dragged along as I spun delivered a horizontal slash to my enemy.

Crack!

The vertebrae of two Skeletons behind me were completely broken, separating their upper and lower bodies.

Stab!

At that moment, I was stabbed in the stomach by the smallest Skeleton. I wondered whether I would be fine getting wounded by rusty swords but then decided it wouldn’t really matter.

No matter how realistic a game was, I had never seen a game implementing something like tetanus.

Crack!

Anyway, I didn’t want to get stabbed more than once, so I smashed the skeleton's skull. Furthermore, I smoothly deflected the last Skeleton’s attack after breaking the smaller one’s head.

“…Do it!”

However, those damn Demon Contractor bastards with black veins covering their faces used magic on me. Dark red energy seeped into my wounds, from which I could feel a strange sensation.

It didn’t hurt… But it felt like my flesh was being gnawed at, especially around my abdomen. Something seemed to be kicking within the stab wound left behind by the dagger, eating away my internal organs.

“Urgh…”

Although I didn’t want it to happen, blood flowed from my mouth. It was a very strange sensation.

How could a game recreate fatigue, drowsiness, even tinnitus and coughing up blood? This really was far too realistic.

It would be nice if they just removed those useless things, though.

“Please die, you monster…!”

That… Was it because I kept moving even though my fatigue level had reached 100? Or was it because my HP was very low?

The edges of my vision became blurred. I couldn't see clearly in front of me. My head, already muddled from fatigue, became even heavier due to the amount of blood loss.

“Demon Knight!!”

However, just when I thought I might have to do all of this again, I regained some strength I thought I didn’t have.

I swung my sword as I heard a loud shout. The last Skeleton’s head fell off, and I was forced to fall to my knees.

「Activating [Indomitable Spirit]!」

“Damn it!”

“Th-that’s actually rather good! Our sacrifice—!”

“Face judgment, you vile traitors!!”

I stared at the Window that indicated a previously selected skill had been triggered. What kind of skill was it?

「[Indomitable Spirit] │ A strong warrior doesn’t give up, even in a fatal crisis. Escape death once.

Effect: When one dies, instantly recover 5% of your HP once.

Cooldown: 1 hour (00: 59: 56)」

Aah, I remembered upon looking at the Window. It was the final skill of the skill tree branch increasing Defense and Strength. I had rushed to select it because of its effect of annulling death.

I never thought it would show its uses right here.

I glanced at my slightly refilled HP bar and lowered my eyelids for a second. My vision momentarily went black.

“—!”

Not too long after, I heard something buzzing in my ear.

“—Knight!”

It was a familiar voice. As we had traveled together, I had become quite used to it…

“Demon Knight!”

Was it an auditory hallucination?

“Come to your senses!”

Ah, ah. Was it real?

“Demon Knight!”

A loud call finally woke me up. Only then did my head seem to clear a bit.

It was as if my head had been forced underwater and taken back out right when I could no longer breathe. However, that irritating scratching around my throat from lack of oxygen was rather annoying.

“Demon Knight!”

That familiar voice penetrated my dull ears. A few moments later, I realized who the voice’s owner was.

“You.”

“I’m trying to stop the bleeding! Even if it’s hard, you must return to your senses.”

I had thought it was just a second, but it seemed more than a minute had passed after closing my eyes. Suddenly, the Inquisitor appeared before me.

“Please hold on.”

Ah, yeah. Okay. That should be… That was how it should be…

I lay on the floor and gasped.

Cough, cough. Blood kept pouring from my mouth. As my pain sensitivity settings were set very low, I couldn’t feel any pain, but the blood was quite a hindrance when trying to speak. I coughed and spat it out.

“Please, just hold on a little more. You just need to be patient for a bit longer.”

Was the Archmage also there? Those two almost always appeared as a set, after all.

With such idle thoughts going through my mind, I briefly checked my HP bar. Clear numbers were much easier to understand than the Archmage’s words, after all.

I noticed my HP fluctuating constantly as I lay on the floor. It seemed I had narrowly avoided death.

In that case, the moment my bleeding stopped, my recovery rate would increase, so I at least didn’t have to worry about dying.

“Not… here.”

“What?”

Good. As long as I survived, that would be fine. So, I decided to say what I had to say.

「? The Truth Behind the Curtain

? Search the Sewers

? Thwart the Demon Worshippers’ plans

? Optional - Demons eliminated: 221 / ??」

“Outside.”

Even the Quest updated, so that had to be the case.

“Not… here. Outside… Cough.”

Urgh. Talking was so hard because of the blood pooling in my mouth. My head was still a mess, so it was also hard to string together the words I wanted to say.

Still, I felt like if I didn’t say anything, I would have to start over again.

I just moved my tongue without even knowing if I was talking properly.

“Their plan.. was to… draw us here.”

“Pardon?”

“What do you…”

“The real thing is… outside.”

Urgh, this couldn’t go on.

I wondered why this game couldn’t just restore someone’s HP out of combat with a few seconds of treatment, but I had similar complaints every time I played a game, so I let it slide.

I opened my Skill Window before my blurred vision.

「[Treatment] │ The basics of combat start with being able to treat one’s injuries.

Effects: Enables one to use healing items.」

「[Formal Treatment] │ Being able to treat more severe injuries makes survival easier. One becomes more skilled in treating wounds.

Effect: The effect of healing items increases by 10%」

[Treatment] was a skill I had acquired long ago, and I got [Formal Treatment] immediately with the points I had earned through leveling up in the previous battle.

Since I urgently had to stop the bleeding, that was the best way to increase the effects of bandages.

“The real thing is outside…?”

“…Inquisitor, get out of this underground cave immediately!”

“What?”

“There aren’t enough corpses! The number of victims has to be at least in the hundreds, but there are too few corpses here!”

“…!”

However, what was even the point of getting that skill? My arms didn’t seem like they wanted to move.

I clenched my teeth and put my hand into my inventory, pulling out the few remaining bandages.

“I’ll take care of the Demon Knight, so go ahead!”

“Yes!”

* * *

* * *

Well, I was glad those two were pretty smart. However, considering what those guys said, it was probably already too late.

However, since that matter was entirely out of my control, I just tried to put those bandages around me.

“I’ll do it.”

No, if he did it, the skill effect wouldn’t apply.

Grab.

I was helplessly robbed of the bandages. I couldn't get them back, not with my body unable to move. It was just so frustrating.

“I—Cough.”

“Say no more.”

Even if I wanted to talk, I couldn’t because of the blood that kept coming up. Shit, if that kept up, I might die from choking on my own blood. Why did that game even implement these types of things?

My eyelids fluttered as I watched herbs and ointment be applied—or poured on, rather—to my wounds. To be honest, I just wanted to sleep.

‘I guess I'd die, then, though.'

Right. So, even though it was hard, I had to stay awake. Though, if I could log out upon dying, I'd do so a hundred times over…. However, since when did the world just go as I wished?

“Life, fill our wounds and connect our energy."

As I pondered, the Archmage chanted another spell. The light flowing from his hand became brighter, and the area around my wounds started to itch.

“I won't ask why you went in here without consulting us first."

At that moment, my HP bar started slowly filling up. It had reached a stable area.

“Just know that if we had arrived just a bit later, if we had been just a second slower, you most likely would have died."

Well, he was right. If the Inquisitor and Archmage arrived even a bit later, I would have died.

However, was that really because the dungeon's difficulty was too high? I just went through a serious crisis because I didn't know its pattern or the existence of that trap. Objectively speaking, this dungeon wasn’t too difficult for me to clear it on my own.

If I had to do it again, I most certainly wouldn't get hurt even once. I could just kill them from outside the magic circle, after all.

However, while it was weird to consider that, if this were actually real, I wouldn't have had any choice but to act like I did.

No, if this was real, I should have done even more. I wouldn't stop just to save myself, after all.

“…Or was your goal to die here?"

No way. I did this because I wanted to live, you know?

However, I couldn't just tell him that. Maintaining my character was essential for my survival, after all, which was extremely frustrating.

Grind.

How much time had passed? When my HP bar filled to about half, I could hear the sound of teeth grinding against each other.

It was almost a pleasant sound.

“Did they come here because they smelled blood…?"

My body was a mess, but that didn't mean I could just neglect the long-ranged dealer’s safety.

While it was true that melee dealers needed the protection of a tank, they weren't as squishy as long-ranged dealers.

“You shouldn't move around already!"

“…I don't need more rest."

I forced my heavy body to rise. The wounds all over my body felt a bit tight, but I was somehow able to stand.

That was a bit weird. Fatigue was one thing, but shouldn't my wounds at least recover when my HP rose?

Would I only get better after a full treatment or something? Or did this game have some setting where wounds recovered separately from HP?

Huff, huff.

Also, that heavy breathing sound. I had been wondering about it for a while now, but it seemed it was coming from me.

I had been startled by the sound of my own breathing. Anyone would react like that if they were breathing like a terminally ill patient despite not feeling the slightest pain.

Still, I couldn’t afford to just focus on changing my breathing.

I picked up my sword.

The sword, which had felt extremely light to me up to this point, now seemed incredibly heavy. Even though I had already put away my Zweih?nder and only drew my Longsword, it still felt that way.

Urgh, my HP was steadily recovering, so it probably wasn’t because of that. Could it be due to my fatigue? I couldn’t move properly since my fatigue had hit 100.

“You’ll die!”

“I won’t die.”

It was true that I felt a bit dizzy, but I wouldn’t die unless my HP hit 0.

However, I went even one step further beyond the meta reason. Suddenly, a Sammokgu came running out of the darkness.

“Never.”

Did I seriously just lose my balance by taking a single step?

“Demon Knight!”

Thud!

I somehow managed to regain it before the Archmage could grab me. I managed to keep myself from falling by forcefully putting strength into the legs that had been about to give out.

Crush!

I managed to swing down at the Demon dog rushing toward me at the same time, cutting it into exactly two halves.

“If you got that… just follow me.”

Sigh. If that Demon Dog hadn’t appeared, I would have been able to rest for a while longer.

So what if I was in extremely bad shape right now? My character settings wouldn’t allow me to just sit around after noticing I could move around.

Well, I didn’t necessarily move just because of the character setting. Even if not for that, we needed to reach the surface as fast as possible.

Even if we sent the Inquisitor ahead, I still had an incredibly bad feeling.

I went through all that trouble to come this far, so what if the city still ended up collapsing without me even seeing it, leading to a GAME OVER and me having to retry the game?

I would seriously cry. I wouldn’t even know what caused the collapse if I stayed here. I would feel even more pissed off and wronged!

“If you fall behind, I won’t wait for you…!”

So, even if I decided to rest, I would do so on the surface! I had to go up to get a grasp on the situation!

* * *

There was no power in the world that didn’t demand a price. The Divine Power given by God was no exception.

“Oh, almighty God.”

Some dilettantes claimed it was a power gotten just from catching God’s eye without having to put in any effort.

They weren’t completely wrong. As long as one managed to draw God’s attention, one could gain Divine Power just by saying one’s morning prayers, and by showing sincerity, one would gain even more.

It was a power that went against any fairness, solely relying on God’s standards.

“Please make me your tool.”

However, anyone who had ever wielded Divine Power was aware of certain facts.

“Make me your weapon.”

There was no power as fair as Divine Power in the world, and there was a reason why God only ever granted it to a limited number of people.

“As such.”

They had no other choice but to become aware of those facts.

“Please let your will be known here.”

As if to show that the price a mortal must pay for wielding God’s power was a heavy one, pain would constantly gnaw at their body, and their insides would feel as if they were burning up, and they could never show it.

Baaam!

The Inquisitor endured the familiar pain while gritting her teeth and raising her mace. The Demons, whose number had significantly decreased from when they had first entered, screeched and scurried into the darkness.

She would have liked to track down and kill every last one of them, but she didn’t have time for that now.

She followed the trail of corpses they had left behind. However, without using a {Tracking} spell, finding the exit wasn't that easy. This place was simply too big.

“Huu.”

However, no matter how massive the place was, it was only a matter of how fast she could run. Someone had cleared out this whole place on their own. It was impossible for her to even begin fathoming the hardships he had gone through to achieve that.

There was someone who had fought until his body was in complete shambles, and even then, he didn’t forget to provide her with information in that state.

Baaam!

The Inquisitor, slightly dazed, kicked a Demon that was in her way into a wall. The real purpose of those evil people. Outside. Those fragmentary clues were floating around her head, urging her to move forward.

“Please, I hope I’m not too late.”

However, would it be the case if she just prayed like that? She had already fallen for their deceit and wasted too much time. Was there any way for her to turn the situation around?

“Miss Priest!”

Even if she had the means, would she be able to figure out those vile people’s true purpose all on her own?

“Y-your companions…”

The Inquisitor held her breath as she looked at all those people standing outside the sewers.

It was impossible. There was little she could do on her own. Even if she had the Hero’s Stigma engraved on her, she could only wield some Divine Power. She was still just an ignorant and foolish servant of God.

She couldn’t even help the Demon Knight in the slightest.

“They are still inside. They will come up in a little bit. They are fine.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“Rather, is there anyone among you who can help me?”

So, she decided not to be complacent. Moreover, didn’t God say so as well? She alone wasn’t enough.

If she couldn’t do something on her own, she just had to borrow the help of others.

“How can we help you?”

“All those who were hiding in the sewers have been eliminated. However, we have yet to determine what their true purpose on the surface is…?”

The Inquisitor stopped climbing up the river bank and turned her head.

“That’s…?”

Very thick smoke was rising from one side of the city: a fog mixed with red and green.