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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: To a New World
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Gundika gazed at the Black Wolf Tribe village burning red with flames, a satisfied smile playing on his lips.
While Breda had left to hunt Munjuk, he had broken their agreement and launched a surprise attack on the Black Wolves.
"Attack! Burn everything!"
The Blood Axe Tribe allied with three other tribes formed a massive force.
They overwhelmed the Black Wolves, who lacked their chief, in an instant.
Gundika could sense that the day his ambitions would be fulfilled was drawing near.
"You bastard, Gundikaaaa!"
Separate from the satisfaction coursing through his mind, Gundika licked his upper lip as he watched one Black Wolf warrior who hadn't lost his fighting spirit despite the dire situation.
Gundika knew his name.
"Why not give up now, Okhtar? If you come to me even at this point, I promise to use you well."
"Shut your mouth, Gundika! A great Black Wolf warrior never betrays his tribe, even in death!"
"Pity, but no help for it."
Gundika gripped his axe.
"I'll grant your wish."
Gundika's axe flew toward Okhtar.
His skill was several levels above Okhtar's.
Moreover, Okhtar, who had exhausted himself fighting countless Blood Axe warriors, wasn't even in peak condition.
"Krahaha! What's the matter? Is the great Black Wolf warrior you boasted about only great with his tongue?!"
Okhtar fought valiantly but couldn't turn the tide.
Unable to withstand Gundika's relentless assault, Okhtar's two-handed axes flew into the air.
In that moment, the figure that flashed through Okhtar's mind was…
"If only Attila were here…!"
Not Munjuk, but Attila.
Amazed by that realization, Okhtar laughed.
He drew the hand axe from his belt.
"Come at me, Gundika!"
Gundika's strike came rushing in.
There was no way a hand axe could succeed where two-handed axes had failed, but Okhtar threw himself forward without regret.
That was when it happened.
A massive blade came flying like a gale and clashed against Gundika's axe.
"Krgh…!"
The blade had aimed for Gundika's throat.
But sensing the terrifying killing intent directed at him, Gundika twisted the path of his swinging axe to block it.
Or so he thought he had blocked it.
"Gaaargh…!"
Blood spurted from Gundika's head like a fountain.
His axe had succeeded in colliding with the mysterious blade, but it couldn't absorb the impact. The brutish force pushed through, splitting Gundika's forehead before embedding into the ground.
And it was a weapon familiar to Gundika as well.
"The Dragon Jaw Axe! Munjuk survived?!"
Gone was the confidence he'd felt moments before. Gundika clutched his forehead and turned his head toward the direction from which the Dragon Jaw Axe had flown.
Through his blood-soaked vision, he saw a hulking man carrying Munjuk on his back, swinging another axe toward him.
"This guy is…!"
Gundika mustered every ounce of strength he had left to block it.
But the monstrous attacks that shook his entire body continued two, three times, and finally on the fourth strike, Gundika's axe flew from his grasp.
Despair flashed across Gundika's face.
"You bast…!"
His body split in half, spilling crimson entrails everywhere.
* * *
With Gundika's death and Attila's fierce exploits, the tide of battle shifted dramatically.
The chiefs of the three allied tribes surrendered one after another.
Even the Blood Axe Tribe, which had continued resisting, soon threw down their weapons.
"We surrender unconditionally."
And so the war ended.
Munjuk held the three tribe chiefs accountable, and bolstered by Attila's sudden claim, he ascended to the position of great chieftain over the five tribes that had joined the war.
"Long live Great Chieftain Munjuk!"
"Great Black Wolf Tribe, be eternal!"
Once everything was settled, Attila left the tribe.
With the power of five tribes now, the Black Wolves would not fall easily.
* * *
"Hoo…"
Walking along the forest path, Attila let out a long sigh upon seeing the shadow standing far ahead.
In the end, what had to come had arrived.
"…Can't you just go back?"
"You know better than anyone that's not possible."
"I don't know."
Attila looked at his sister with an expressionless face.
"I thought it was strange from the start. Uncle's plan to lure the grizzly only worked because he knew Father and I were heading there and when we'd arrive."
Ilek said nothing.
"I was thinking about it the whole time—while killing the archers, severing the grizzly's neck, and finally tearing Uncle's body to shreds. And when I saw his mangled corpse, I had to accept it."
After a brief pause, Attila continued.
"That you were in league with Uncle."
"…Not from the beginning."
"I know. Probably after I came back to life and tore three bears apart with my bare hands."
Ilek didn't reply, but Attila knew that silence meant affirmation.
"Did you want to be chieftain?"
Ilek had dreamed of becoming chieftain and was indeed one of the candidates for next in line.
She was a silver-belt warrior now, but she was confident she'd earn a golden belt within a few years—and that she'd surpass both Okhtar and Uncle Breda.
But.
"That day, I saw with my own eyes a being I could never surpass, no matter how hard I tried."
"I had no intention of becoming chieftain."
Even as he said it, Attila knew it would sound like an excuse.
To possess that level of power and not covet the chieftain's seat—such a thought was impossible for a Black Wolf warrior.
It's because I'm only half a one. Sister.
"Father will be saddened."
"Father will be even more saddened that you're leaving the tribe."
To Attila—or rather, Kim Do-hyun—before falling into this world, memories of his father were faint.
Just as Munjuk enjoyed conversing with Attila.
He too had been happy with his life alongside Munjuk and Ilek, who had filled the role of the mother who died in a hunting accident while chasing rabbits.
"Besides, I already helped someone who tried to kill Father. Even if it wasn't by my will."
"There are ways to leave the Black Wolves."
With a faint smile, Ilek drew her axe.
"I am an eternal Black Wolf warrior."
Attila gripped the Dragon Jaw Axe.
Ilek closed the distance in an instant and swung her hand axe like a flash of light.
Her speed and power were incomparable to the bear hunt.
In that moment, Attila sensed that her skill had finally reached the level of a golden-belt warrior.
And the Dragon Jaw Axe swung.
Ilek's body crumbled as it grazed Attila's stationary shoulder, and a beat later, her head rolled across the ground.
"I knew you were there."
With a rustling sound, a large shadow emerged from the bushes.
The shadow approached Attila step by step, looked down at Ilek's corpse.
"Will you seek revenge?"
Instead of answering, Okhtar picked up Ilek's body and head.
He closed her wide-open eyes, tidied her disheveled hair, and gazed at her face for a long while before turning back toward the village.
Attila followed silently.
* * *
After several days of travel, the forest's edge came into view.
Leaving the forest meant completely exiting the lands of the barbarian tribes in the southwestern continent, comprising over a dozen tribes.
Confirming the rising moon overhead, Attila finished preparations for his final camp in the savage forest.
"How long are you going to follow me?"
Watching two rabbits roasting golden-brown over the crackling campfire, Attila spoke.
"I'm leaving this place tomorrow. You should go back to where you belong."
Well, I'm the one who took away your home.
"You haven't eaten properly for days. At least take this."
Attila tossed a well-cooked rabbit over his shoulder.
It didn't hit the ground.
Instead, the cute crunching of it being chewed echoed.
"You eat well."
Attila picked up his rabbit and crunched into it.
It would be a lie to say he didn't miss kimchi stew, pork belly, hamburgers, and such, but thanks to the original owner's memories, Attila didn't mind this either.
After devouring a whole rabbit bones and all, Attila grumbled.
"Damn. Shouldn't have given it away."
Having eaten only one when he usually had two or three, it was no wonder he wasn't full.
There was a rustling from behind, and then half-eaten rabbit was slyly placed at Attila's feet.
A tiny bear cub looked up at him with sparkling round eyes atop it.
"Don't look at me like that."
Ignoring him, the cub panted with its tongue out as it stared at Attila.
Then it nudged the half-rabbit toward him and sniffed at the thick, short sword—Muhul—hanging from his waist.
"Yeah. It would smell like Mom here."
Attila recalled the day he first met the cub.
When he tore off the grizzly's arm and severed its neck to execute his uncle with his own hands.
The severed head had spoken.
- Thank you for lifting the curse.
It had also told him to search its body and take Muhul.
It had swallowed the arrow before the curse could fully spread.
Attila did as instructed.
And what he found inside wasn't just Muhul.
Kiiing…! Kiiiaong…!
On the way back after dealing with Breda, he had left the cub in the grizzly's cave.
Even as its cries echoed behind him while he ran to the village carrying Munjuk, he ignored it.
After the war ended, he brought food to the cave.
It ate heartily, and within days, it was healthy enough to hunt small squirrels.
After that, Attila didn't visit the cave.
"You like Mom's scent that much?"
The cub was asleep using Muhul as a pillow.
As soon as morning came, Attila erased the traces of the camp and set off.
The cub panted to announce its presence, but he didn't look back.
He just said indifferently.
"If you don't come, I'm leaving without you."
The cub bounded after him excitedly.
Attila picked up the one that reached his feet and placed it on his shoulder, then stood at the forest's edge, gazing at the new world.
And he thought.
That perhaps this world unfolding before him was his reality.
The moment he took his first step toward the new world, a status window appeared.
[ Tutorial has been completed. ]
[ Settling all accumulated experience points. ]
[ Level up. ]
[ Level up… ]
Just as he was falling into the delusion that this world might be real, the refuting messages made Attila burst into laughter.
He took one step, then another.
Feeling as if countless digital signals and pixels were reconciling with reality and melting into the world, Attila finally broke into a run.
On his shaking shoulder, the cub let out tiny roars of "Pyaak! Pyaak!"
* * *
A dark room.
Someone was peering at them through a crystal orb.
"Hmm. A savage warrior strong enough to ignore the curse arrow. Where did such a stylish guy pop up from?"
A woman with snow-white skin, clad in a red robe with the hood pulled low.
Her eyes widened as she murmured unintelligibly with her hand on the crystal orb.
"What? Even Warrior God Ares doesn't know his identity?"
Her blood-red lips, revealed in the shadows, curled up slyly.
"This is getting interesting."