Episode 376
I went outside ambitiously with a piece of stone. However, thinking about it, I wasn't sure where to go. The labor camp was absurdly big. More than that, I couldn't wander wherever I liked.
Listening to Stonegan, I'd found out that there were several blocks in the labor camp, and it seemed that each block had its own area. In other words, it could become troublesome if I, a member of Block 107, stepped into another area without permission.
Of course, if I was Luan, I would've just moved as I pleased, regardless of anything. The lizardman Luzard couldn't do that. These restrictions sometimes felt really annoying, like hives were about to break out all over my body. But sometimes, I thought it wasn't a bad idea to go down a path I would've never taken.
The incident at Sandstorm Hill had given me that insight. If I had acted as Luan instead of Luzard, the basic result of saving the dwarf craftsmen would've been the same. However, I wouldn't have been able to win their goodwill.
In this way, events sometimes intertwined in areas that couldn't be calculated by people. It sometimes produced completely unexpected results. I hoped that would be the case at this labor camp. After all, between Gustav, the demons, the Golden Lord, the Iron-Blooded Lord, the lesser races, and even the Dark Pope, the situation here was already beyond the realm of my calculations.
"Where should I go?" I mused to myself, standing still with nowhere to go.
Just then, I saw activity in front of a building. I squinted and saw the director shouting, "Get ready! Jump out quickly, you bastards!"
Immediately afterward, a loud bell rang throughout Block 107. Then prisoners poured out from inside the buildings. They looked disciplined enough to rival most soldiers. Everyone was ready to fight.
The director checked their number before saying without any explanation, "Okay. Let's go."
I figured I could just follow these guys. There was just one problem: It was difficult to sneakily follow them in this open space. There were no landmarks around and Luzard was so large that I couldn't hide myself. So I was forced to show up directly.
The surprised director glared at me, saying, "You lizard bastard..."
This bastard called me a bastard every time we met. For some reason, I felt Luan inside me twitching every time I saw him.
"Why did you crawl out here?" he continued.
"I heard that a demonic beast has appeared. I will give you a hand," I answered.
"What? Haha!" The director burst out laughing. It was an exaggerated action like he was acting in a comedy.
The laughter soon spread. Prisoners everywhere looked at me and even pointed at me.
"Is it because he is a monster that his intelligence is low?"
"A monster bastard who doesn't know his place wants to help? He doesn't even have a weapon."
I told them, "If you are talking about a weapon, I have one."
I shook the stone in my hand, the remnant of Stonegan's body. That caused the director's smile to vanish.
"Well, okay. You want to die on the first day, so I have no intention of stopping it. Instead, I will keep an eye on you. If you join the subjugation team, I will discipline you using my authority as director if you refuse to fight or run away." As the director spoke, his gaze lingered on the collar. That confirmed my suspicion that certain conditions had to be met to use his authority.
I nodded and said, "Yes."
The director snorted and called out, "Let's go, you bastards!"
The group of prisoners started to move with Ailak at the forefront. They looked like a mercenary group heading to subdue a giant demonic beast.
I decided not to blend with the group, but to move away from them. However, one of them suddenly broke out of the group and rushed toward me.
"Brother! Are you insane?" came the figure's rather frivolous voice. It was Michael, the fairy I hadf met earlier. It seemed this guy was also assigned to Block 107. It was a strangely persistent connection.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Just now, with your bare body alone, you joined the demonic beast subjugation team! No matter how skilled you are, it is suicidal to deal with them without weapons."
"You sound like you've been here for years based on the way you talk. Didn't you just arrive here with me today?"
"Uh, they explained it to me?"
How considerate that they had given him a full explanation. I wondered if it was favoritism due to him being one of the seven races. I couldn't tell why these bastards were so childish.
"In any case, that isn't the point. Why don't you ask Director Ailak to go back now? The monster that appeared this time might be centurion-class based on the vibrations!" he told me.
It seemed the director's name was Ailak. Anyway, I asked, "What is a centurion-class?"
Generally speaking, a centurion referred to a leader who could command a hundred soldiers. At first glance, the term didn't match the labor camp at all.
"It is a term that is only used here. The monsters that appear are classified as decurion-class, centurion-class, and legion-class." Michael continued, "If it is a decurion-class monster, it usually means you can somehow defeat it with ten prisoners."
"Then a centurion-class needs one hundred?" I asked as I looked around.
The number of prisoners wasn't small, but it didn't reach one hundred. At most, it was around forty. That would mean they weren't enough to deal with a monster that required one hundred people to defeat it.
"That isn't the case. Once it takes dozens of people to bring one down, they just lump them together and call the monster centurion-class," Michael explained.
That made sense since it was probably more slang than official classification. The power level wasn't measured using precise standards, just rough estimates made by prisoners. In that sense, it felt more natural.
Michael added, "So for different centurion-class monsters, the power is vastly different."
That most likely meant a weak one could be defeated by dozens of people, but a strong one wouldn't back down even against one hundred people.
At that momentβ
"Prepare for battle! It is a monster!" Ailak shouted from the front.
Already? I thought as I looked ahead with a stone in my hand.
The monsters that appeared had a very impressive appearance. Each one looked like a moth with arms and legs, but was as big as me. That meant they were at least over two meters tall.
"Is this a centurion-class monster?" I asked.
"I don't think so. They are too small and there are too many of them," Michael answered.
Actually, I thought the same thing. The monster looked weird and quite strong, but it didn't seem to be able to handle a hundred people. Maybe it was a subordinate that had appeared with the centurion-class monster.
In any case, the prisoners fought quite well. Perhaps they were used to fighting insect-type monsters, but they took down the moths with surprisingly organized movements despite them being trickier than ordinary monsters.
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"U-Uhh?"
Suddenly, Michael next to me made an exclamation of shock. Two moths had spread out their wings and were flying straight toward us.
I glanced over and saw Ailak's mean smile, realizing that he'd let them go on purpose. I laughed. Somehow, it reminded me of a memory from a very long time ago. In the Jewel Mountains, the church members disguised as knights had deliberately let the trolls attack me.
I don't know if Arjan is doing well, I thought. I had entrusted her with a difficult task, so I expected her to be struggling. Still, it was a bit unexpected that I had never seen her when I was back at the main house.
I thought about this and that while squeezing the piece of Stonegan's head. Then I took a stance and threw it at the moths.
Bam!
The two moths flew through the air with dazzling movements. The moment they overlapped, the stone precisely shot through them. The heads of both monsters were pierced in an instant and they fell down, right above the director's head.
"Ugh, shit! What is this?" Ailak cursed. He avoided the falling bodies, but he couldn't avoid the bodily fluids pouring from the moths' corpses. His body was instantly covered with sticky fluids, causing him to glare at me.
I ignored him and turned to Michael, saying, "I just killed two of them. How many points did I earn?"
"Uhh... These little ones probably give one point each," he answered.
"Then a decurion-class must give ten points. Is the centurion-class worth a hundred points?"
"Yes, as long as artifacts appear properly. For a centurion-class monster, they say that one will appear roughly one out of two times."
That meant if someone was unlucky, their hunt could be in vain.
I understood now. Currently, Ailak's score was 107 points. On the other hand, my room only had three points. There was a gap of 104 points. It meant that just taking down one centurion-class monster and a few little ones would be enough to reverse the score.
"Wait, Brother! What did you just do?" Michael suddenly exclaimed.
"I threw a stone," I replied.
"I saw that, but how can you kill those monsters with just stones? There were also two at the same time!"
"Because it is a special stone."
"Ah, really? It definitely looks different from an ordinary stone."
It was a by-product of a rock tribe person's head, so that wasn't wrong.
In any case, Ailak just glared at me and gritted his teeth without imposing any direct punishments. On the contrary, as I stared at him, I felt like he was avoiding my gaze.
That guy was clearly scared of me. I didn't know the reason why. I hadn't even laid a hand on him yet. Then again, it wasn't strange to be scared when seeing Luzard. From the start, I had set up Luzard to be cold and composed on the outside, but warm at heart.
I put on a solemn expression and said to Michael, "Let's continue for now."
***
Looking at it, the Rahild labor camp really was a very large place. There was nothing but weathered buildings, so the landscape seemed even bigger. I thought that if it was this big, it would be difficult for the guards to manage the camp. That made me understand why the director had more power than expected. From their perspective, having a middle manager would make it easier to manage prisoners.
On the way toward the source of the vibrations, insect-type monsters appeared just often enough to be annoying. Apart from the moths we encountered earlier, there were also spiders, ants, mantises, bees, centipedes, beetles, and grasshoppers.
The number was quite large, so it took a while to kill them. Sometimes, a few even approached me directly. Still, they weren't difficult enemies.
Is this why weapons are needed? I wondered. Dealing with these dirty bugs with my fists was harder than I thought.
I looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon, but there was nothing suitable in this barren land. However, I didn't think the prisoners would easily lend me weapons.
"Brother, do you want to use this?" Michael suddenly asked as he handed me something. It was a dagger that wasn't very big.
"This?" I replied.
"I bought it for self-defense before. It is cheap, but I haven't used it before. It shouldn't be damaged."
"It is broken."
"W-what?"
"You bought it and never took care of it. This can happen if you leave a blade unattended for a long time."
"T-then is it useless?" Michael sounded tearful.
I told him with a grin, "No. It is enough to use. I will use it well."
"Hahaha! Right?" Michael recovered in an instant and burst out laughing.
The more I saw him, the more I thought he was a rare fairy who was good at expressing his emotions. Most of the fairies I knew were gloomy, cold, arrogant, and didn't like to interact with others. Then again, those were just the characteristics of the Badnikers.
In any case, I got a suitable weapon and felt better.
Suddenly, the prisoners from Building 107 in front of me stopped moving.
Michael narrowed his eyes as he looked ahead, saying, "I think the scouts have returned."
As a fairy, he seemed to have good eyesight. Of course, I could also see it if I focused my vision.
"Wait. I'll listen to the conversation." Michael listened carefully.
I wondered why he was acting so close to me. It felt like the gazes of those in front of us had become harsh just because he was hanging out with a lesser race. Of course, I could fully understand it if he liked Luzard's appearance and wanted to get to know me.
Just then, Michael said with a somewhat stiff expression, "The situation seems to be more serious than I thought."
"What happened?"
"The previous scouting team reported that the monster that appeared this time is a centurion-class monster."
"How would you know without actually testing it?"
"It is the size of a building."
In general, the strength of a monster was proportional to its size. If it was an insect the size of a building, it could have the strength to smash through a hundred mercenaries.
I also listened to the conversation ahead like Michael.
"What should we do, Brother? Judging by the size, it looks like one of the stronger centurion-class ones. It would be hard for us to handle. Even if we succeed in the hunt, our numbers will be greatly reduced," a prisoner said.
"It would be meaningless. Fuck. It can't be helped. You guys wait here for a moment," another replied.
"Huh? What are you going to do?"
"I will go to the director of Block 106."
The prisoner who had just made the report was surprised, asking, "I-is it okay?"
"What can I do if it isn't okay? If a dish comes out that one person can't handle, you call someone else to help. If we get sick from eating it, we are all finished."
"But it won't look good for us if we are the ones bowing our heads first."
"I know, you bastard. Still, it should be fine if it is Block 106. That guy will be satisfied if you throw in a few lesser races."
"Oh...! As expected, Brother!"
The whole thing was bullshit. The pathetic prisoners laughed among themselves.
Once again, I felt a fierce shaking.
"W-what now?"
Those ahead of me panicked.
Then the ground turned upside down and a monster of immense size appeared. It looked like a dragonfly larva, but it was ridiculously big. It seemed even larger than the scout's report, which had compared it to a building. There also wasn't just one. No, there were three of them.
The monster appeared with a roar and attacked the group of prisoners with its entire body.
Baaang!
Shockwaves spread across the sandy land. Three prisoners were crushed to death by a simple headbutt. Their bodies were completely destroyed.
"R-run away! Run away!" Ailak dodged while muttering something that was either a command or self-hypnosis.
I'll be punished if I run away, I thought. I smiled inwardly and drew my dagger, saying, "Michael."
"U-uh?"
"At this size, all three of them should be centurion-class, right?"
"What are you going to do...?" Michael trailed off and stared at me in a daze. "Don't tell meβ"
"You will be my witness."
I immediately threw myself toward the centurion-class monsters. Michael's scream erupted from behind me.