¡Ba-dum!
Although my heart began to race, my mind stayed completely still.
Corpses.
They were human corpses. And as he showed me this pile of corpses, the boss stood right behind me and told me all about them in his usual emotionless tone. These corpses were the biggest secret of his village.
¡Ba-dum!
As a cold sweat began to run down my spine, I did my best to stay calm and regain my sanity. The boss could have simply told me that he didn't want to show me what was inside the building, but he had done everything he could to bring me. Which meant he probably wasn't going to turn around and declare that I knew too much and had to die now.
«What are these corpses?» I asked, with a firm voice.
«You are calmer than I expected».
«There has to be a reason you would show me this».
Of course, there was still a chance that he had lured me here to kill me. However, my gut told me that was not the case.
«You are quite intelligent. And correct. I thought if I showed you this place, I might clear up some of your misunderstandings.»
«Misunderstandings…»
I took another look at the basement. It was really filled to the brim with mountains of corpses. However, something was wrong. In particular, the numbers didn't add up. Not even killing everyone in the Silver Lion Clan would get so many corpses.
«So who are these people?»
"No lo se.
«...What?» I blinked, silently asking him what the hell he was playing.
«Actually, you are not the first adventurers to come to this island. Others appeared here before you».
«But then why act like we're the first ones you met?».
«Ah, I must clarify one thing first. That wasn't a performance».
Was he playing with semantics?
I frowned, but the moment I was going to reply, the boss added: «You were the first living adventurers I met».
«What does it mean?
«Exactly what it sounds like. These corpses were already like this when I found them. Their bodies were mangled, and their arms and legs were tangled. And no matter how much time passed, they didn't rot. It was as if time had stopped for them».
«So you collected these corpses during the rainy season?»
«No. 'Picking them up' is not inaccurate, per se... Their fall from the sky is not related to the rainy season. The intervals between each fall are much longer». The chief leaned down and picked up the head of one of the corpses from the ground, staring at its half-rotten skull with his usual expressionless gaze. «At its shortest duration, the cycle is ten to fifteen years, but can be thirty to forty years when it is long. Corpses like this fall from the sky according to that approximate calendar. And I suspect that this phenomenon could be related to dimensional collapses».
«Dimensional collapses?»
«That's right. The cycles are similar, and one of the diaries we recovered from one of these bodies had something written about a dimensional collapse».
He took a diary out of his robe and handed it to me, explaining that I only had to read the last page. Apparently, the other pages were so damaged that it was almost impossible to distinguish anything from what was written.
I opened the book to the last page and read what was written there.
The whole world is crumbling and twisting around me. I think I understand why so many labyrinth veterans call this a calamity. 'Disaster' doesn't do it justice.
Mulk died. Illiya died. Sir Swalki died, and Lady Kwiliane died too. And I probably won't last long either.
No, I will definitely survive and come home. I must convey the last words they left.
It was the last and determined entry in the diary of an adventurer who probably died shortly after writing it.
He could see why the boss opted for dimensional collapse as the most likely culprit. The fact that the last entry in the book was about one was a pretty powerful clue.
Of course, that was a completely different topic.
«So why did you put all these corpses in this basement?» I pressed. «And why did you hide it from us?»
«That part of the story is a bit long». The boss waved his hand, and the warrior monsters following us obediently retreated to make room for us.
They don't even speak our language, so why did he send them?
Despite the question that was on my mind, I didn't ask him.
«These corpses meant a lot to me. Through their existence, I could know that time was passing in the outside world, and through the records and diaries that sometimes appeared with them, I could also learn about some of the things that were happening outside.»
«¿Y?»
«I started investigating. Trying to find out if they had the slightest clue to escape from this damn place. However, I was disappointed. I tried everything I could, but these corpses were nothing more than normal corpses. The only special thing about them was that they seemed frozen in time».
And so, when his last attempt to send these corpses back to the first floor to make their presence known to the outside world failed, the boss completely stopped his investigation. So he collected all the bodies and stored them down here.
He had given up for the moment because he had lost motivation, but he put them away in case one day he could find a use for them.
«And then, you all arrived on the island, right after I had almost completely given up. You were my last hope».
«So you decided to hide these bodies from us?»
«You already distrusted us because of our monstrous appearance. If I also showed you corpses, I was worried that your misconceptions would overshadow your reason. Even if I had to tell you someday in the future, I would have done it as carefully as possible.»
However, Amelia had ended up infiltrating that place and seeing what was inside, and ended up having to tell me the whole truth.
That was the essential thing.
«Did that answer your question?»
«Who knows».
His story was not entirely incredible. However, I also couldn't deny that there were some parts that didn't satisfy me. The fact that he wasn't surprised when I told him about the outside world, the fact that he already knew that time passed before I even told him... If this story were true, then most of the questions he had had about it would be resolved here and now...
But it seems as if the pieces fit together enough that they barely made sense.
On second thought, there was one fundamental principle that seemed to hold true in all worlds: the best way to hide the whole truth was to tell bits of it.
His answer didn't answer my most important question either.
«So you have nothing to do with the disappearance of the Silver Lion Clan?».
«That's right. After all, what reason would we have to hurt them?».
Hmm... and now what?
This would have been a lot easier if he had stabbed me in the back. Then I could have responded with a «I knew it» and fought him to the death.
On the other hand, things had become quite complicated.
Should I trust him or not?
I had to think about it for a moment, but the answer came quickly.
There is no way I can trust him.
You couldn't trust anyone in the world except your comrades.
Very good, well that's all.
What I had to do next was also clear to me.
«Since we also hid this from you, I will not ask you to take responsibility for your ally breaking the village rules or for the mistake you made as a result. What do you think?»
I responded to the boss's attempt to smooth things over with a loud laugh.
No, to be more precise-.
«What a relief. I'm glad we were able to fix everything».
«Yeah. It's a good thing your misunderstanding was... Huh?»
With a smile, I swung my hammer.
¡Bang!
An intense shock echoed through my hand as the hammer hit him in the head.
The wound created made him bleed everywhere.
Finally, an emotion broke the boss's indifferent facade.
"...¿Por qué?"
He was too calm for me to call it rage, but also too encouraged for me to call it apathy.
He looked at me with eyes full of questions, so I decided to answer him.
The fact was that there were many parts of his story that I couldn't trust, and it seemed to me that he was buying time. And something inside me told me that if I gave it that time, I would end up using it to stab myself in the back.
But there was no reason to give him such irrational arguments.
After all, just one sentence was enough.
«I don't like the way you look, that's why I hit you. Do you have a problem with that?»
A barbarian needed no more reason than that.
***
Was the boss my ally or my enemy? If he was an enemy, what was he up to? Of the things he told me, which were true and which were lies?
There was no longer any need to worry about such complicated issues. With a single swipe of my hammer, this whole complex situation became much easier. The boss and I couldn't go back to the relationship we had before. So I would kill him here and now, and if he failed to do so...
My allies and I would leave this village.
It was a simple and elegant solution.
However, the boss kept looking at me like he couldn't follow my logic at all. «There was no reason for you to do something so extreme».
«¿In series?»
«You care a lot about your allies. Putting them in danger like this is not like you».
I didn't know what he was basing that statement on, considering he hadn't even known me that long, but I had no intention of staying to find out.
«Behel-aaaaaah!» I shouted my war cry and struck again with my hammer.
¡Bum!
Unfortunately, the boss was prepared this time and managed to block my hammer with his sword. However, it seemed that that blow had finally made me understand that he had finished speaking. «You will pay for making the wrong decision», he swore, in a deep and cold voice.
Man, that phrase didn't sound very good coming from someone with a fish head. Maybe he needed to look in the mirror before going around pretending to be important.
I decided to do him a favor, I pouted and imitated him with a nasal tone. «Wah, you'll pay for making the wrong decision».
For some reason, his response came a little late. «...You've lost your mind.»
Hmm, well, I could flatter myself all I wanted, but that didn't mean I was going to be soft on him. Grabbing my hammer with both hands, I put more force behind my thrust, and the boss's sword began to recoil.
As I push him back when we both use both hands, he loses strength in front of me.
Perhaps coming to the same conclusion, the boss put an end to our stalemate and tilted his sword to deflect my attack to the side.
¡Bang!
The hammer fell to the ground with a dull thud. At the same time, the boss's sword began to glow with a white light.
¡Vwoong!
This was the attack that killed a Hipramajent with a single blow. From what I could see, it was similar to an aura.
But there are too many skills in the maze like this.
As a result, I had no way of knowing for sure what skill I was using, but to be honest, that was the least of my worries right now.
[You have launched Iron Fortress. The Evolutionary Shell effect has increased 1.5 times].
[You gain 75% resistance to blade weapons.]
It was still just a sword weapon in the end, right?
¡Clang!
The sword that had cut off the Hipramajent's head like tofu was blocked by my shield and deflected. And as for the shield...
I take it you have a little dent now?
Yes, as always, there was no opponent more fearsome than one's own imagination. Now that he had experienced his attack firsthand, he could tell that it was quite manageable. Well, of course, that didn't mean it was all a piece of cake.
¡Vwoong!
His Agility seemed to be much greater than mine, as none of my attacks, except the first one, fell on him.
[You have cast Eye of the Storm.]
Even using the Eye of the Storm, which was especially effective in a small space like this, he only had a 30% chance of getting it right.
¡Boom!
And when I managed to hit him, he didn't take much damage.
I think his Stamina is pretty low... Although it seems like his Regeneration is pretty good.
The biggest wound, the one I gave him with the first attack, was already completely healed. When I realized it, I quickly rethought my strategy.
I can't kill him here one on one.
I gave up trying to kill the boss by myself and changed tactics.
«Boss, do you know the two best ways to make someone angry?». First I asked a question that had nothing to do with interrupting his thoughts. He stared at me, bewildered.
Destroy!
Just as I was trying to figure out what the hell I was talking about, I took out a Molotov cocktail from my subspace and threw it over the mountain of corpses.
Fwoosh. Correr.
Then, I left the burning pile behind and ran up the stairs.
«Behel-aaaaaa!»
It seemed like the basement was pretty soundproof, as there wasn't a single warrior monster waiting for me on the stairs, and I made sure to burst the ceiling as I ran to block the boss's path.
¡retumbar, return!
This city was not going to win any awards for its architecture, that was clear. I only had to hit it a few times and the entire underground chamber began to collapse in on itself like dominoes.
¡Bum!
I shook off the debris and rocks falling on me and moved on.
Pum.
Thirty seconds later, more or less, I went through the trapdoor and escaped to the surface. In the first floor living room, I found the monster warriors on alert with my allies, waiting for me to reappear.
«Something must have happened down there! We have to go down...»
«(We have to check if the boss is okay-)»
Both groups stopped talking as soon as they saw me and were speechless. The first to regain his sanity was Versyl.
«Hey... Mr. Yandel? What is happening right now...?».
What, you can't tell just by looking?
He had destroyed everything he could in the basement, but he was sure the boss would come up at any moment, so he didn't have time to explain.
Either way, anyone with a functional neuron would be able to understand what was happening in a second.
¡Un crujido!
I hit the head of the nearest warrior monster with my hammer and shouted: «We will leave this village right now!».