I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 22

Chapter 22

“No, how in the world did I deflect something like that?”

After clearing the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman, I struggled to move the cavalryman’s spear onto my horse. I was thinking of using this giant spear and the severed horse head as proof of subjugation.

It was quite amazing to me that I could deflect it without any problems, just pushing my body back a little, when it wasn’t just swinging such a vicious weapon, but swinging it with full force while riding a horse.

If this were reality, the moment I got hit by this, wouldn’t I have flown through the air with my weapon, deflect or not?

The horse was standing still in the spot where I had tied the reins, waiting obediently for me. After stroking its mane a few times, I hung the weapon next to the saddle. I tied the severed horse head to the other side.

Even though both were heavy enough for me to struggle to carry, the horse didn’t seem to mind at all.

‘Well, one down.’

I jumped onto the horse and grabbed the reins. Although I had cleared the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman, it wasn’t yet time to return to the Knights. I still had something to do before that.

Finding the item to lure out that lord bastard.

I drove the horse towards a nearby mountain. This time, it also took nearly a full half-day just to travel.

When I departed, the sun was clearly high in the sky, but when I arrived at my destination, it was setting beyond the horizon with a crimson sunset.

I tied the horse to a nearby tree again and approached a giant rock. Behind this giant rock was the entrance to the dungeon I was looking for.

If you were to play the game the conventional way, figuring out the secret behind this rock would happen after the story reached its midpoint. Before that, there was no reason to come here in the first place, story-wise.

Unless you just kept doing side quests without progressing the main story, that is.

However, if you already knew the secret, getting inside was simple. I took out a round stone from my pocket. It was an item dropped by the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman.

This was the key to unlocking the dungeon entrance. A wild horse, while grazing, happened to swallow this along with the grass, and became possessed by its power, giving birth to the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman.

Carrying it, I walked behind the rock and rummaged through the thick grass growing around it. In the game, you had to burn this place with fire magic to reveal the secret, but now I could remove the grass without setting a fire.

When I cleared all the grass, something was revealed from beneath the dirt floor. It was a stone slab with a round hole in the center and some complex characters engraved on both sides.

The characters written on both sides of the stone slab were a warning. To summarize, it said something along the lines of ‘If you can read this, do not break the demon’s seal.’

‘It won’t be of much use, though.’

In the first place, those who would come all the way to a place like this, located at the very edge of the empire, to explore something, wouldn’t back down after seeing such a warning.

I inserted the item dropped by the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman into the round hole of the stone slab. The item fit perfectly without any gaps. Then the stone slab emitted a faint white light.

I stepped back a little and observed the rock. The rock vibrated with a rumbling sound, and cracks began to appear on its surface. The cracks that started from the bottom grew larger and larger, soon spreading to the entire rock.

Not long after, with a loud crashing sound, the rock crumbled. Broken pieces of rock rolled down the mountainside. Dust and dirt rose into the air nearby.

‘Finally.’

I waved my arm to scatter the dust. In the spot where the rock had collapsed, I could see the entrance to the dungeon, just big enough for one person to enter. The item I was looking for was inside.

After confirming that there were no monsters nearby, I returned to the horse and took out a torch from the saddle.

In the game, you could just put it in a quick slot and take it out by rolling the mouse wheel, and it would come out lit, but of course, that wouldn’t be the case now, so I had to light it myself.

Since it was my first time using a flint, I managed to light it only after some fumbling.

‘We have air conditioners, fans, and even fluorescent lights, but why don’t we have lighters?’

Is it because it’s a world where fire magic exists?

With a torch in my left hand and the Bloodstained Sword drawn in my right hand, I stood in front of the dungeon entrance. I also tied a bag filled with food around my waist, just in case.

In the game, it was a dungeon of a reasonable size, but now, there’s no telling how big it might have become. Just like how the time it took to reach the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman boss field had significantly increased.

I slowly stepped inside. The musty smell unique to old spaces wafted over me.

‘The difference from the game… doesn’t seem to be there.’

I wasn’t sure if there would be any differences inside, but at least outwardly, it looked exactly the same as the game. I continued walking inward along the passage.

This was a place where, a long time ago, the priests and paladins of the Holy Kingdom fought a b*oody battle with a certain demon, ultimately failing to subdue it and, as a last resort, sacrificing their lives to seal the cave itself.

That was also the reason why the warning not to break the seal was engraved. Because if a demon powerful enough that even the Holy Kingdom failed to subdue were to be released into the world again, who knows what kind of catastrophe might occur.

But there was one fact that the Holy Kingdom misunderstood about that demon. It was that the demon sealed here had also suffered tremendous damage while fending off the attacks of the priests and paladins.

Although it succeeded in repelling the priests and paladins after its flesh was torn to pieces and scattered throughout the dungeon, and its body was purified by divine power, the wounds the demon itself suffered were also severe.

Most of its power had been scattered, reaching a level where it couldn’t recover naturally, which was why it couldn’t break the seal even when a wild horse swallowed the key to the seal.

Therefore, it had no choice but to wait for someone to come here and break the seal, dwelling within a book, in order to prevent it from being annihilated and returning to H*ll.

If the Holy Kingdom had known that, they would have clung on to the end, even if it meant making more sacrifices. It was a pity.

‘…I can hear that story later.’

And it’s directly from the demon that was sealed here, no less.

It was another one of the characteristics of Brightest Darkness 4. A single quest could be cleared under various conditions, so multiple playthroughs were essential to see all the stories.

ㅡGroooan…

A heavily deflated groan could be heard from the depths of the cave. I aimed the Bloodstained Sword. Now it was beginning.

Something came limping from afar, making groaning sounds. With its flesh all rotten and decayed, wearing rusted armor, and wielding a sword with all its teeth missing.

It was the corpse of a paladin who had fought the demon here in the past. Pieces of the demon’s flesh, scattered here and there, had attached themselves to the corpses, resurrecting them as undead.

As if to show off the fact that it was once a paladin, even though it was now a rotten corpse, the undead limpingly took a stance.

I also momentarily leaned the torch against the floor on the right side and gripped the Bloodstained Sword with both hands. The paladin undead raised its sword high above its head and lunged forward, leaning its body.

I rolled to the right to evade the attack and swung the sword at its side. At the same time that the undead’s worn-out sword collided with the floor with a clang! echoing through the cave, its side burst open.

As if it didn’t care at all that its side had been cut off, the undead turned around and attacked again. This was the annoying thing about undead-type regular mobs. They didn’t flinch at all even when hit.

Unless it was a massive attack that sent the entire body flying away, like a great hammer or a greatsword, they didn’t flinch from any normal weapons.

It was like they were permanently in a super armor state against normal weapons.

ㅡClang!

‘But parrying works.’

After exchanging a few deflect and counter attacks, I saw the undead’s movements slow down and took out a small shield in my left hand, deflecting the swung sword.

With a light clang, the undead’s body staggered, and I thrust the Bloodstained Sword into its neck and twisted.

Crack, the head rotated 180 degrees, and with the sound of flesh tearing, it spun around and was ripped off. The headless body flailed its arms and collapsed, and the disembodied head chattered its teeth from afar.

I wondered why the undead, who were already corpses, accumulated ‘battle fatigue’, but I didn’t want to dwell on pointless questions. I would just use it because it worked.

I picked up the torch I had placed beside me and nudged the corpse with my foot to see if the item I was looking for had dropped. But there was nothing particularly noticeable.

‘Tsk, a miss.’

It seemed like I would have to wander around here for a while. If I was lucky, the first two I encountered would each drop one, allowing me to go straight to the book.

I could hear more sounds of corpses moving from afar. Well, it was fine. I only needed to collect two in total. I could get two in just a few minutes if I put in some effort.

Back when I was trying to get achievements and had to collect all 100, I almost threw my mouse, but compared to that, this was nothing.

ㅡGrooooaan…

This time, two undead wearing priestly robes walked out. I put the torch down again and held the Bloodstained Sword with both hands.

The basic principle of all gacha is to keep pulling until you get it.