Chapter 396: Side 12: A Pool of Blood in the Color of Defeat

I'm running a survey? in the activity report.

About a week earlier.

Vigilance's half-baked astronomy role-play had fumbled, leaving Rust and Mold lost in the vast jungle. They somehow survived crisis after crisis, and then——

???: "Here, Mold. A potion."

Mold: "Doesn't this look way too awful from a humanitarian standpoint...?"

Over the past few days, Mold had been running shuttles between life and death even more than a certain bird-head who had stuffed every ounce of recklessness and stupidity under his mask. He muttered gloomily as his HP recovered.

Once his HP was fully restored, a sickly-colored hand took Mold's. His freshly recovered HP immediately started draining away, and within seconds he was back on the verge of death.

Mold: "Am I the only one doing this? Isn't that unfair, you two?"

Vigilance: "Fair or not, I'm already on this side."

Rust: "...My HP is low, so using items on me would be a waste."

Mold: "Ugh..."

???: "Um... am I causing you trouble?"

Mold: "Ah, no. Don't worry about it."

At her nervous, trembling question, Mold hurriedly reassured her. In front of him, holding his hand apologetically, was a woman who had apparently once been an elf. She looked even more woebegone than the elves' naturally timid disposition would suggest.

This was a hidden village of the Dragon Blood Demon Clan (Vampires), located in the northern part of the vast jungle that covered roughly one fifth of the New Land. A refuge for fugitives had formed at the roots of a great tree whose pitch-black bark and twisted branches looked utterly withered amid the moss, earthen walls, and jungle trees bursting with life.

The trouble had begun after Vigilance's half-baked astronomy got them lost. The culprit then made a strange claim: "I feel like something's pulling at my thoughts." Since they were already lost by then, Rust and Mold had simply stared at Vigilance with half-lidded eyes. But it apparently wasn't a misunderstanding or imagination; there really was a game-system sensation of being "pulled." They hid and slipped past an obviously dangerous three-headed T-Rex, an individual with red scars that could brush it aside, and all sorts of other monsters—some far too dangerous for three people to take on, some not. They climbed trees, dropped into holes, pushed through branches and leaves, and eventually arrived here.

At the roots of that grotesquely twisted black tree lay a crude settlement. Its residents came from many races, but all shared one thing: they had undergone "Dragon Blood Demon-ification." There were slender, long-eared elves; stocky dwarves with metal arms; beastmen with animal traits; and, among the rarer cases, even Gigants—huge people at least three meters tall. Every one of them had the same sickly skin and unnaturally long canine teeth.

Rust and Mold had been met with suspicion at first, but the presence of Vigilance, one of their own kind, eased that suspicion and led to the current situation.

???: "We... cannot quench our thirst with our own blood... blood tainted by dragons..."

Mold: "Huh? Then how have you survived until now...?"

???: "This forest is overflowing with life... so we hunt creatures that haven't been tainted by dragons. Or else..."

The Dragon Blood Demon elf who had introduced herself as Meltynare pointed ahead. Several boar-like monsters were munching away at a mountain of moss. Their tusks had been broken, the fur around their bellies was gone, and the exposed skin was covered in scars—probably from having their abdomens cut open again and again for "transfusions."

Meltynare: "Throttle Boars can naturally recover even from near-fatal injuries as long as they have food... But creatures that haven't been tainted by dragons are precious, so we can't keep very many."

Mold's cheek twitched at how much harsher the Dragon Blood Demons' lives were than he had imagined. Unlike players, for NPCs, death was the end. Their blood supply was literally a matter of life and death. Even after being cast out by their former kin, these outcasts still clung to life at the roots of the twisted great tree.

The sickly color of their skin probably wasn't only a racial trait.

Mold: "Did Noirlind do this to all of you...?"

Meltynare: "No. Blockentreed did this to me."

Vigilance: "Mine was Deuredhowl."

???: "Mine was Bryleinyego... Ahh, why did I ever try to take it on alone...?"

As if Meltynare's words had set them off, voices rose one after another, naming what had turned each of them into a Dragon Blood Demon. The already dim, clammy hidden village seemed to grow even damper.

Rust: "......What a downer."

Mold: "Rust, shh!"

Rust's blunt mutter, delivered with half-lidded eyes, was—fortunately or unfortunately—carried away by the wind rustling the branches and leaves before it could reach the Dragon Blood Demons. Rust and Mold had chosen Nephilim Hollow as the home of their souls and had a move to a new world ahead of them, but that didn't mean they had never played other games. They had seen more than enough NPCs with miserable circumstances. The painfully realistic moping produced by SLF's realism had left both of them somewhat fed up. However—

Vigilance: "...Hey, you two. Players wouldn't have a problem with Dragon Blood Demons, right?"

Here was one player who had taken a direct hit from pure empathy and sympathy.

Rust: "...I don't think they'd mind. You could probably drain them dry until they died and they still wouldn't get mad."

Vigilance: "Tottori the Shimahne led the elves to the frontline base. Couldn't we do the same?"

Mold: "Huh? But that's..."

As a player action, the proposal might be fine. But as an action by Wolfgang, it might not be such a good idea, Mold thought, breaking into a cold sweat. The plan to subjugate Siegwurm the Sky Ruler, set in motion by Akitsu Akane, basically meant making enemies of the great majority of players.

In reality, most players were still waiting to see what happened, unable to decide which side they would attack when the time came. If Dragon Blood Demons—the Color Dragons' victims—were brought there, what would happen?

Sure, they were ordinary victims. But precisely because they were ordinary victims, hostility toward the Color Dragons would definitely rise.

Rust: "...Recklessness is dangerous. From what I've heard, Tottori Whatshisname led the elves only after careful investigation and taking every possible precaution. Acting on impulse could wipe out not only us, but the Dragon Blood Demons too."

Rust had only heard the bare basics of Tottori's name and accomplishments. In other words, everything about careful investigation was a complete bluff she had made up on the spot. But here, where nobody had any way to check, it sounded convincing enough to persuade Vigilance.

Vigilance: "I see... You've got a point. Never thought I'd live to regret barely bringing any map items..."

Mold: "T-they say regret always comes too late! Yeah! We can spend a mon—ow!"

Rust: "...At the very least, stocking up on items is urgent. Even if we save here, even if it takes some time, we should prepare properly."

Vigilance: "You've got a point... But are you two sure? This is basically just me being selfish. I dragged you into this..."

Rust: "...I don't mind. But I have one condition. Don't release any information about the Dragon Blood Demons yet... I have the same ordinary desire as anyone else to keep a Unique all to myself."

Vigilance: "I feel like outside help is actually going to be necessary... but I can't say I don't understand how you feel."

The two nodded. Leaving Vigilance to explain things to the Dragon Blood Demons, Mold and Rust silently nodded to each other.

[Wolfgang]

Mold: So, that's the situation...

Mold: What should I do?

Pencil Warrior: Wanna assassinate him?

Oikatzo: Wouldn't secretly disposing of him be the better move after all?

Sunraku: It's fine. Scarlet Scar-kun will definitely do him in.

Rust: No matter how you look at it, we asked the wrong people.

The so-called Tottori hero complex. Even players who act all cool often want NPCs to fawn over them.