Clearing the Game at the End of the World
Chapter 79: In the Name of Honor (13)

Professor awoke early the next morning, as he always did, to the sun rising, which could be seen through the large gaping hole in the base’s wall. He greeted the mages that were gathered outside the house on the grass for some reason, but they only seemed to flinch away.

“That sure is a wide hole. That person must have been hella strong. Thinking about it, back when I made that bag with the curtain and this time when I made this entire mess, the things I do somehow work out pretty well in the end.”

Watching the sunlight slowly brighten the remains of where Borka was thrown, a thought popped into his mind.

‘That’s a really nice hole.’

It appeared to be a large hole made by some sort of majestic ancient weapon, such as the Holy Lance, based on the remains. Although the reality was that it was from just a punch.

Now that he thought about it, he didn’t really have any special intentions at the time he shoved that void stone into the mage tower, but when you look at it from afar right now, it looks a little bit like a modern art piece. The mage tower was in ruins, and a glowing purple mana stone was stuck in the side of it.

[Trait : Sparkling Eyes – The world looks a little more beautiful in your eyes. Bonus effect to art-related activities.]

This could be the only reason why. An artistic bonus. If something is created from my actions, this trait bonus naturally makes it more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.

‘I don’t know what this will be useful for yet… But it’s worth keeping in mind. Up until now, the hidden effects of a trait have never been bad.’

Let’s stop thinking about traits for now. There are still too many things to do to be dilly-dallying around thinking about an art trait that doesn’t even help at the moment.

First, now that he had implanted a purpose into his party members, it was time to divide formations based on pure combat power.

“Let’s see… Is Mage Matralin at Level 2?”

“Y-yes! I’ve gained the awakening of flow and fluidity!”

“Flow and fluidity… the standard ones.”

“I-I’m sorry!!!”

The first thing he needed to do was organize the mages’ levels and awakenings, as well as record what kind of magic they can use.

“…Andler, Level 3. Your awakenings?”

“I-I have the awakenings of f-flow, change, and pressure.”

“Oh! Change and pressure are for destructive magic! Pretty good.”

“Kyaaak!”

Professor complimented them, pleasantly surprised, but it seemed like the mages were even more afraid of him than last night. Seeing that they were flinching and screaming at his every small action….

‘Hey, did something happen last night?’

[Hm? Ahh, hehehehe. Yup. The mages were staring at your hand grow back while you were sleeping. Did you know that you sleep with your eyes half open? I was able to see a little thanks to that. Although I was only able to see the shape of their feet because a lot of the view was obstructed, it was the mages for sure.]

My goodness. No wonder they were sensitive about my hands. They saw that.

[So I wrote to them. ‘Whatcha looking at?’]

…Huh?

Professor repeated Hyde’s comment in his head to make sure he heard it right. Wrote? In front of the mages, with his left hand?

‘You wrote to them?’

[Yeah, with a finger. Wait… ah, here it is. Look.]

A video popped up with Hyde’s response.

The group of mages was looking at his regenerating arm with what seemed like half fear and half curiosity, and his left hand was crawling around as if it were alive. Like a scene from a horror movie, his hand was writing something on the ground in front of the people who were pale from horror—

[I-it’s a curse!]

[The hand! The hand is moving!]

[Eeeeeep! It’s a monster!]

[It was watching us! It was pretending to sleep and observing us!]

[W-we’re going to die!]

[Water! Find water! We need enough to protect our bodies!]

And the mages were as shocked like children discovering Santa wasn’t real.

[Ah, that was fun.]

‘For you, yeah. What did the mages do to deserve that?’

I was wondering why there were a lot of mages up earlier than me, but they just didn’t fall asleep.

Looking at the alert mages with a sympathetic look, Professor completed the records he was writing.

=========

Light’s Order Death Squad Members.

1. Professor: Tanker with high durability. Proficient at close combat. Commander with no risk of being assassinated.

2. Reedflow Academy Mages, 5 members including Ottoman Bodlair: one Level 5, two Level 3, and two Level 2. Ottoman is closer to an academic mage, but the two Level 3 mages have some useful destruction magic. Weak stamina. Limited long-distance travel. Limited supply sources. Garbage.

3. Borka Dalrune: Werewolf. High health. Able to win just barely without Blood Lust mode activated. Lacks utility, but excels as a fighter. Considering tracking ability with a hybrid’s sense of smell and night vision can be used in assassination operations. Obedient after a beating.

4. Notum: Hero unit. Gotta keep them alive even if the mission fails. Traditional close-range tanker. Also has high durability as a troll. Strong muscular strength is the main weapon. Smart for a troll. Might speed up growth if taught well?

5. Dark Mage: —

=========

“Our tanker lineup is pretty decent. Everyone heals on their own. I have my ways, werewolves have their unique health trait, and you can make potions out of troll blood.”

Pap pap pap pap pap.

Just as Professor was about to call the dark mage, he could hear footsteps approaching the death squad’s base from the church.

Light footsteps and a white robe could be seen from afar.

Senadis. Tobrune’s bishop of the Light’s Order.

When Senadis entered the building, she briefly glimpsed at the remodeled wall, then returned her gaze forward and slightly bowed down, completely unfazed.

“Latura, Ro-Haram. I hope the night bode you well, warrior, and to everyone else.”

“Ah, yeah. It was fine. Considering that I was captured by the church, I still have all of my fingernails and my ears aren’t bleeding out.”

After an uncomfortable silence, Professor replied rather sharply as the representative of the death squad. He did tell them that he was anointed as a warrior by the church, but if it looked like he was too friendly with the church’s people, the hostility they have towards the church was going to be all directed towards me. In the future, there will be a need to act a little colder.

‘Senadis should be smart enough to notice and play along. She’s clever enough for that.’

As if she read his mind, Senadis caught on and responded to Professor’s comment with the same sharp tone.

“If you want, I can always relocate you to the basement. That cold, dark, and humid place. I believe the mages should be rather familiar with that.”

“You can quit the small talk. Why don’t you tell us why such an almighty person took their precious time to visit this place in the early morning? It must be something pretty important if the almighty priest even skipped morning prayer for it.”

“Correct. I have news that even heretics would be shocked by.”

After taking time to collect her breath, Senadis continued with a somber voice.

“I did want to provide you with more time, but you will need to leave right now. Last night, the Church of Hebrahim, known for their mercy and clemency, announced ‘No Mercy’ until the mutes were completely exterminated.”

“Hebrahim…. announced no mercy?”

The Church of Hebrahim was the representative religion that served Hebrahim, the god of mercy and clemency. Even during the War of the Nobles, they just went, ‘Everything must have its reasons,’ when the troops invaded and looted the temples, but those people declared ‘No Mercy,’ a holy war…?

“Wait, exactly what happened for those pushovers, ahem, incredibly kind people to get that pissed off?”

To Professor’s question, Senadis replied with a rather conflicted expression.

“That is…. the White Flash, Edeorna, kidnapped Hebrahim’s priestess.”

“…S***.”

‘I was wondering why it was so quiet… Are they slowly starting to make their move?’

A sudden change in the situation. That meant that the mutes, who had been gathering more troops, started to take action once again.

A few hours later, Professor and his party left the church with a mountain of supplies.

“Uh… Warrior, sir?”

“You can just call me Captain, Borka.”

“Ahem, hm! Then Captain, is there a reason why we’re taking this much food with us? We’re still something of a Light’s Order squad. Won’t we be able to receive food from churches or residents on the way?”

“Normal food, yes. But dried fish from anywhere other than Tobrune is difficult to come by.”

In response to Professor’s comment, the mages that were following behind flinched.

“We’ll get local supplies along the way, but the more supplies we bring the better. Besides, it’s just a bit bulky, not heavy.”

“Grwuh. Crunchy fish. Delicious.”

“Ahhh! Notum! You can’t eat that!”

No wonder I heard rustling behind me!

When Professor yelled at her to stop, Notum swallowed the dried fish in her mouth and shoved the handful of dried fish in her hand back into the bag, then looked out into the distance, pretending as if nothing happened.

“Taste bad. Crunchy fish. Don’t eat.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t eat it… Notum. Do you see the people in the back following us?”

“Grwuh. I see. Blue clothes human. Very skinny. Will die soon.”

They did look a little pale, but water-type mages were active for a mage, so they were on the healthier side, but it still must have looked like they were close to death’s door from Notum’s perspective. There really isn’t a reason for me to correct that.

“Yeah. Those blue clothes are weak and sick humans. They’re so sick that they can’t eat anything other than fish. So let’s give the dried fish to those people and eat something else.”

“Grwuh. Group of weak beings. Will take care. That is a good and strong leader.”

It was already Notum’s fifth time patting his head. Looking at his, no, her pleased face, Professor became nervous once more.

- professor : is it really not that? for sure?

- Speedwagon : Positive. Troll’s heat starts in summer, and has to be over 32 degrees even if it isn’t summer. There aren’t any records that they can feel lust for other species to start with. If there isn’t a single record about it for the past 11 years GG has been out, then you can say it’s basically impossible.

- Soygaybar : Aw man. It definitely looked like a troll in love though.

- professor : you mother****er.

It was a relief that they said that wasn’t the case. But just to be sure, when he asked Notum why she was so obedient to me, an unexpectedly normal answer was returned.

“Big small human. Uh… Professor? Professor. I like.”

“Huh?!”

“When alone in forest, hunt. Walk around. Look at sunset. Sleep. Don’t talk. No one to talk. But after out of forest. Talk a lot. Many more beautiful things than the setting sun. Many more weird things too. Many hard things, but fun.”

Pat, pat—

“Professor, easy to talk to. Comfortable human to be around.”

“Pheww. You meant it in that way. Then the reason you stick around me….”

“Comfortable. Human can’t talk to, want to kill. Kicked out of the stone nest if kill. Already here because killed.”

It basically meant that she liked the first interaction she had with humans, but there were a lot of uncomfortable situations wandering around, so she decided to stick with Professor, who she was able to communicate with and was already comfortable with.

- Speedwagon : Ah, after the breeding season in the summer, in the fall, female trolls’ maternal instincts become incredibly strong. If they don’t have children, they attack nearby trolls to steal their children. That’s probably another reason why Notum is following you like this.

It’s fine. I don’t really want that kind of information. I could already kind of tell from the way she always happily watched me or patted my head whenever she had the chance.

Ba-du-dump, ba-du-dump!

“Clear the way!”

“Neiiiiigh!”

There was a commotion in the distance, and not long after, a knight on a horse was dashing through the path at full speed. Lightly armored with a small flag from Tobrune. A messenger.

Looking at the messenger passing by, Professor spoke up.

“It looks like the battlefield is starting to get some action as well. Seeing how much the messenger is rushing.”

“Captain, then where are we going?”

“Hm…. I was planning to follow the river in western Kingsland, but since the buddies in Hebrahim decided to announce ‘No Mercy,’ we’ll need to make a change of plans. Since the main troops of the Church of Hebrahim are in western Kingsland, the Paladins of Mercy from there are going to put incredible pressure on the western front.”

“Then isn’t that even more of a reason we should take the western path? It should be safer and easier to go where allies are….”

Listening to Borka’s opinion, Professor took out the map he got from the Moon Shadow on the way here.

“That’s normally the case if it were normal reinforcements that came to strengthen the frontline. But the paladins from Hebrahim came out in the first place because the mutes triggered them. So it was planned by them to begin with.”

The timing was impeccable when he thought about it again. Thanks to my actions as the Crimson Mute, the kingdoms and mage towers of each nation were on high alert. However, there were no obvious damages to the churches, and because Hebrahim was especially known for their healing and purification, much of the church’s manpower was dispatched to the battlefield in preparation for future damages. Just before the entirety of humanity went into preparation for war, they took their last chance and kidnapped the priestess Anna Maria, who was known as the Representative of Mercy.

‘Darn it. It’s hard to hold back the wave in the final scene without that field healing.’

Anna Maria was a hero unit that specialized in healing massive amounts of allies with continuous wide-area healing and purification, as a priestess of a church specializing in healing and purification should be. There wasn’t really a need to make her an ally since she participated in the war anyway, but her importance was close to number one.

Anyway, so this was a plan that knew how to make sly traps. He could bet that if they went to the western frontlines, things were going to go south really fast.

“Even if we are on the stronger side, we’re just pawns in a large-scale battle like this. And it’s a battlefield where the opponents are ready too. We’ll die like flies if we go there. But there is one good thing if the western lines become that strong.”

“What is it?”

“The troops. Since they’re all gathered there, I don’t know about the central area, which is close to the west, but the northern side is going to be wide open.”

It might not have been the case for a normal player, but in the world that Professor was playing in, there was an extreme shortage of troops. If the troops were all concentrated in one area like that, another place was definitely going to become weaker.

‘That might be a reason why they’re rushing so much. If they gave us a bit more time here, then Rodrick, the Shandalla City Alliance, the Fel Heim Empire, far eastern desert countries, the elves, and major hybrid clans could all participate and pressure the mutes with numbers. The aftermath of the battle in Touran has brought the situation to this point!’

Since their first gamble rush was a complete failure, the mutes’ position was that they needed to inflict some sort of damage on humanity’s side using all of the elite troops and other troops that they had gathered.

“This might actually be our chance. We… just might be able to shove a knife into the Mute Queen’s stomach!”

Using a small piece of charcoal, Professor drew a line from Tobrune that passed through Touran, then Pellas, then northward.

“We’ll go to Pellas. It won’t be completely empty, but if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to work together with the military forces there that are preparing for battle to create an opening to reclaim the city.”