-Cheolgeureok.
Across the street, I began to hear the familiar sound of armor. I looked up. Knights in silver armor were walking toward me, their torches lighting up in a yellow and orange hue.
Familiar looking armor and familiar looking weapons.
It was Iris, Rize, and Erica. The one in the front was Rize, and the ones standing on either side of her seemed to be Iris and Erica. The weapons they were holding were like that.
Lize, who was standing at the very front, noticed me and spoke to me from behind. Then she quickly strode towards me. I also got up from my seat.
Lize had her weapon strapped to her waist and removed her helmet. Her long, blue hair, tied in a ponytail, flowed out. One eye, uncovered by her hair, looked at me meaningfully.
I waved my hand in greeting.
"You came earlier than expected?"
"Is that the first thing you said when you met?"
I smiled awkwardly. But Lize didn't smile. Her stinging gaze was directed at me.
Judging from his eyes and expression, he didn't seem to be really angry with me, but it didn't seem like he was in a situation where he could just let it slide. I could feel his strong determination to hear a clear answer.
"I don't really have anything to say besides this… … Heuk."
The gauntlet grabbed both of my cheeks and pulled me close. Lize's face was right in front of mine. I tried to move away, but I couldn't move because it was firmly held in his palm.
"I have a lot. Right, newbie?"
"I was joking. Sorry. So, can you let this go?"
Lize stared at me for a while, her face almost touching mine, then let go. I collapsed to the floor. Her blue eyes looked down at me.
"Why didn't you tell me in advance? You were going to do this on your own. You could have just told us first."
It was a question I had been pondering the answer to the whole time I was sitting here. Lize was looking at me with eyes that seemed to tell me not to even think about giving a half-assed answer.
The most fundamental reason was that if several people attacked at once, the aggro of the rock civet might not be concentrated on one person but spread out here and there, but it was something that could not be said directly.
There was a chance that the Knight Commanders might interpret this as an attempt to interfere with my actions. It might be an exaggeration, but I didn't want to give them even a chance to think that way.
Absolutely not, and I don't intend to. Rather, it would be helpful if it were, how could it be a hindrance? Unless it's a boss that I absolutely have to defeat, I plan to leave the subjugation to the knight commanders.
Of course, in the beginning, the amount of experience gained by defeating bosses is quite large, but from the middle of the game, when the experience of all mobs increases, the gap can be easily overcome through grinding.
Moreover, in the case of builds that are commonly used in the Bella mode, if you just have a moderate amount of divine power and magical power, it doesn't really matter whether you level up or not up to a certain point.
This means that if you have the control to overcome the gap in level and specs, you don't have to feel bad about spending the experience points from defeating bosses in the early stages.
"Can't we just let it slide by saying there are circumstances like that?"
"Do you think it will work?"
Before I knew it, Iris and Erica had come over and were looking at me with eyes similar to Lize's. Having two more pairs of gazes, which would have been burdensome even if there was only one, was incredibly intimidating.
But just like Lize, Iris and Erica didn't really look angry at me.
While Lize was complaining about why they weren't told in advance, Iris and Erika seemed to be revealing a bit of reprimand in between their complaints.
"So, what's the answer?"
I gave the second reason, and the most obvious answer.
"I didn't want to hurt you guys."
"...?"
At that moment, Lize's eyes widened. She had an expression on her face, wondering what she had just heard. Iris and Erica, who were behind her, also had expressions that were no different.
"Wait a minute. What did you just say?"
"I told you, I didn't want to hurt you."
"… … Are we hurt? We?"
"Then who else is here? You guys, of course."
His blue eyes were spinning around. He seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.
"Newbie, are you worried about us right now?"
"Even if you were them, if you had fallen from that height you would have died instantly. I think it's strange not to be worried."
"How high is that?"
Lize's face turned pale.
They had to pretend to be angry, but they seemed quite happy that I was worried about them, so the corners of their lips kept twitching. Thanks to that, they had a very mysterious appearance overall.
"I think I fell for about 20 seconds. Can you give me a rough idea of how long it was?"
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Except for a few special NPCs, all NPCs were not immune to falling. Of course, due to the nature of the game, it was impossible to kill a boss by falling, but this was the result of tests conducted by some users.
Since the damage proportional to maximum health is continuously added at certain heights when falling, if it was as high as this cave, death was certain.
So you have to chew through the falling dam with a falling attack.
"So you mean you, the newbie, could have been okay?"
"Of course. It's alive and moving here."
"I won't teach you how to do it."
"It's not that I don't teach, it's that I can't teach. I also do it based on instinct, not knowledge."
I'm still not sure if Iris, Rize, or Erika can do a drop attack.
It can't deflect enemy attacks, and although it can roll, it doesn't have invincibility while rolling, and it can't activate the special abilities of weapons other than its own.
It really felt like they only knew what NPCs knew. It was even stranger to think that they could do a falling attack when they couldn't even bounce or roll.
Before coming here, I asked them if they knew how to use enemies as stepping stones to land unscathed when falling from a high place, but all four of them just had question marks above their heads.
I just tried it and it worked? I'm not in a position to teach anything because of my level. How would I know why the invincibility time only applies to my rolling?
"No matter what, that's too much to worry about, Mr. Shin. There's no need for Mr. Shin to worry about us—"
"Why do I have to worry about you?"
"...yes?"
Erica blinked, speechless at my answer.
"It's not like you won't get sick or die. If you get hit, it'll hurt, and if you get hurt, you might die. So why are you telling me not to worry?"
When dealing with the rock civet, I was planning on explaining all the patterns. You never know what happens with people. I will continue to explain them to you whenever you entrust me with subjugation.
Right now, these guys are so tough that if they get hit by a giant boss, they'll get infinitely stiff and start crying until they die. The gap between attacks in Bella mode is much shorter than in vanilla, making it even more dangerous.
And most importantly, if the knight commanders up there hadn't escaped first and stayed with me, I would have fallen to my death.
These guys can't chew up fall damage. Of course you should be worried.
"We are knights, newbies. If we must die, we are ready and must do so."
"You are human beings before you are knights. You may die someday, but it cannot be today. It cannot be in the future. I will not let that happen while I am here."
There are so many monsters that you have to subdue in my stead in the future, and I absolutely cannot tolerate you falling to your death here in vain or being killed by a rock raccoon or something.
Their lives are my life, so I can't let that happen.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you in advance. But it was the best I could do in that situation. I didn't want to get you involved in something I could have solved myself."
"Newbie… … ."
As I finished speaking, Lize's eyes sparkled for some reason, and Iris and Erica were also looking at me with eyes that had clearly changed.
'Is it done?'
I don't know where he succeeded, but it seemed like he got through it safely. I let out a sigh of relief. I was glad that it ended better than I expected.
"So what happens next… … Hey, are you listening?"
I tried to explain to them what patterns the rock civet had, but somehow they all seemed to be lost in their own thoughts and not listening to me.
Even if that's because Lizey is always like that, why do Iris and Erika act like that?
'A peculiar guy.'
It was a thought that occurred to both Iris and Erica at the same time. They could only describe him as a truly unique guy.
As a new recruit who had just joined the Knights Templar, he not only single-handedly subdued monsters that even the Knight Commander had failed to subdue, but also went on to wipe out nearly a hundred additional monsters over the course of several days.
As a new recruit who just joined the Knights, he not only acts without any hesitation, but always produces the best results.
Now, even though he is a new recruit who has just joined the Knights, they are worried about him and treat him like they are, having been trained harshly as a knight since childhood.
This was something that could not have happened originally. Who on earth would worry about whom? Even he himself is in a situation where he cannot fully use his natural abilities due to the curse. He is in no position to worry about others.
'I feel strange.'
But strangely enough, I felt a tingling sensation in my heart when I was worried about the newbie.
I have always lived a life that was far from that. As a knight, it was considered right to stand in front of everyone and fight, and death was always by my side.
The emperor was the same. He was considered the strongest being in the empire, so he had no reason to care about a mere knight.
There were many members who were sacrificed to demons. However, no one was worried about dying, even though they mourned and feared death.
The fear of death is natural, but dying is also natural. There was no reason to worry or to accept it. If I die, then my life ends there. That was all I thought until now.
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'Before being a knight, I was a human, Ira… … .'
But this man was different. He was saying the obvious as something that wasn't obvious. All of this was a first.
It wasn't even a hypocritical remark that hid his true feelings. There was sincerity in his eyes. He was truly worried about the knight commanders who were much stronger than him.
You can be dumbfounded and say, "Who cares about whom?" You can scold them and tell them to grow up a little and talk about it. You can laugh it off as a light joke and move on.
But no one did. No one wanted to.
For some reason, I had a feeling that it wasn't too bad.