BXBX NOVEL Chapter 181 – Stepping Out into the World (3)
Chapter 181: Stepping Out into the World (3)
A creature resembling a monkey, not only with white fur but also white eyes, and long claws.
Ketal knew what it was.
It was a monster from the White Snowfield.
Ketal had been trapped in the White Snowfield for an incredibly long time.
Only after an incalculable amount of time had passed did he finally fulfill the conditions to come to the fantasy world he had longed for.
Having been there for such a dreadfully long time, he had no intention of getting entangled with the White Snowfield ever again.
Yet here he was, encountering a monster from the White Snowfield once more.
It was a very strange feeling.
‘Why is that thing here?’
“That’s dangerous, Mr. Ketal. It’s hard and fast. Although it resembles a demon monkey, it’s a completely different entity.”
Aquaz tried to quickly explain about the creature.
But Ketal spoke as if he already knew.
“I know what it is.”
“…What? You know about it?”
“Yes. I know it very well.”
“How…”
Aquaz’s eyes widened.
It was an extremely alien creature.
There couldn’t be another one like it in the world.
It seemed impossible for Ketal to know it.
Then a piece of information flashed through Aquaz’s mind.
The barbarian in front of her was not a barbarian of the continent.
“No way.”
“That’s a monster from the White Snowfield. I don’t know why it’s here, though.”
“Is… is that really true?”
The White Snowfield.
A massive Forbidden Land in the center of the continent.
In the past, an emperor who sought to conquer the continent tried to subjugate the White Snowfield but failed and returned as a broken man.
Since then, countless adventurers and strong individuals have challenged the White Snowfield, but most never returned.
Now, a creature from that place stood before them.
“W-wait. What do you mean?”
Baker, who had been quiet, asked with a startled face.
“A monster from the White Snowfield? That thing? Wait a minute. How do you know about it?”
“Oh. I forgot you didn’t know.”
Baker didn’t know that Ketal was a barbarian from the White Snowfield.
As Baker’s face slowly turned to shock, his eyes moved to Ketal’s gray hair.
“…You. No way.”
“As you guessed.”
Ketal smiled faintly.
Baker swallowed hard.
“I’d love to have a leisurely chat about this… but it seems we don’t have time.”
[Waaaargh.]
The monster considered Aquaz and Baker as mere prey.
So it lunged at them without caution or observation.
But against Ketal, it maintained a wary distance, eyeing him cautiously.
It didn’t see Ketal as prey but as an enemy.
Ketal looked at the white creature quietly.
“What is that exactly?”
“As I said before, it’s a monster from the White Snowfield. It lives in the depths of that place.”
“Is that so?”
There was indeed a sea in the White Snowfield, and Ketal had ventured there before.
He just didn’t acknowledge the sea in the White Snowfield as a real sea.
The sea of the White Snowfield.
The depths of that place.
A very deep place.
A place so deep that even the currents didn’t move.
The monster was one of those living there.
“We call it Whitey.”
“Excuse me?”
Aquaz’s eyes widened at the unexpectedly cute name.
“Well… I didn’t see it much. As it lived in the deep sea, its activity area was different.”
Yet now, such a creature had come here.
Ketal looked around.
Nearly a thousand monkey corpses were decaying.
“It seems that thing crawled up and killed them all. No wonder they seemed too weak.”
Indeed, a thousand monkeys would have been quite a threat.
About fifty were barely surviving survivors from Whitey.
They were like refugees.
Ketal examined the monkeys’ corpses.
The bodies were piled up as if they had tried to escape but were blocked by something.
‘Was the restriction lifted later than in the White Snowfield?’
It seemed that not all Forbidden Lands had their restrictions lifted simultaneously.
The monkeys had appeared outside a month ago.
If Whitey had come here before that, it made sense that the monkeys had been massacred.
“With its power, there would have been no problem. I had some trouble with it in the Snowfield, after all.”
“…You, Mr. Ketal?”
This incredibly strong barbarian had trouble with it?
Aquaz looked at the creature in disbelief.
[Waaaargh.]
The monster cried as if displeased with the gaze.
It was an unsettling sound, like a child mimicking a cry.
[Aaaargh!]
It roared.
The shockwave shook the surroundings.
Aquaz and Baker barely held their ground.
Clear hostility and killing intent were directed at Ketal.
Ketal smiled.
“You don’t know me. Well, since you live in the deep sea, it’s true we wouldn’t have met unless I came looking for you.”
[Waaah!]
The monster charged.
Water exploded as its body accelerated in an instant.
Ketal casually turned his body.
Boom!
The claws slashed through the air.
Even without direct contact, the impact left scars on the ground.
Baker grabbed Aquaz and pulled back in fright.
“R-retreat!”
“Y-yes.”
They quickly distanced themselves and watched the battle.
Explosions echoed all around.
The monster darted in all directions, seeking Ketal’s openings.
Even for those of superhuman ability, it was hard to follow its speed with their eyes.
And yet, Ketal just looked ahead nonchalantly.
At a glance, it seemed like Ketal couldn’t keep up with the monster’s speed.
Baker swallowed hard.
“Uh… isn’t this dangerous?”
“……”
Aquaz groaned.
Ketal was undoubtedly a monster himself.
His power was beyond their comprehension.
But so was the monster’s.
Both possessed power beyond their understanding.
Ketal had said he had trouble with this monster, so it could be dangerous.
Help was needed.
As Aquaz decided this and desperately tried to gather the remaining divine power.
[Waaah!]
The monster finally found an opening and bent its legs.
Its muscles swelled significantly and it accelerated.
The wall of the seabed cave it used as a foothold shattered.
With a deafening noise, the monster flew towards Ketal at high speed.
And Ketal reached out his hand.
Thunk.
Ketal lightly leaned back.
The claws slashed through the empty air.
He extended his arm and grabbed the monster’s arm.
Crunch.
He twisted the captured arm.
The monster flailed and resisted, but he overpowered it with greater strength.
He then slammed the twisted arm down.
Boom!
The monster was slammed into the ground.
Ketal lifted his foot.
The monster groaned in pain.
[Waaah!]
Crunch. Crack.
Ketal applied more pressure with his foot.
The monster’s abdomen began to make a strained noise.
Boom!
The ground, unable to withstand the force, shattered.
Momentarily freed, the monster scrambled away.
Ketal clicked his tongue.
“You’re lucky.”
“…Huh?”
Aquaz, who had been gathering power, had eyes wide open in surprise.
Not only had Ketal counterattacked the monster’s strike, but he had also nearly finished it off.
There was a clear disparity in strength.
“Mr. Ketal, didn’t you say you had trouble with it…?”
“I did. This thing lives in the deep sea. That’s why it was hard to catch.”
Whitey was quite useful.
Its hide, which withstood the deep sea pressure, was extremely tough, and its sharp claws were perfect for making weapons and tools.
So he occasionally went down to catch it, but it was always tough to catch it in the deep sea.
“Oh.”
Aquaz realized something from those words.
The monster was a creature of the deep sea.
Saying he had trouble with it meant Ketal had gone into the deep sea to catch it.
‘…Wait.’
Without the blessing of a mermaid or the help of divine power, he caught a deep-sea creature with his bare body…?
She was speechless.
Ketal leisurely raised his fist.
“In the White Snowfield, there was no way to move freely in the water, so hunting was tough, but not anymore.”
Ketal took a step forward.
The monster screamed and flung itself.
Boom!
From then on, the battle was one-sided.
The monster began to scream and flee.
But Ketal relentlessly struck, kicked, and swung it.
“Wow, wow…”
“What kind of strength is this…”
At first, Aquaz and Baker watched the battle in awe.
The monster that had overwhelmed them was being mercilessly handled by Ketal.
It was a dominating sight.
But at some point, their expressions hardened.
“Uh…”
“Uhm…”
Crunch.
Ketal grabbed the monster’s arm and slammed it into the ground.
Then he swung his other fist.
Huge dents appeared in the monster’s flesh.
[Waaah!]
The monster struggled and resisted.
Ketal tightened his grip on its arm.
With a tearing sound, the monster’s arm began to break.
In extreme pain, the monster stopped resisting.
Ketal then stomped on the monster’s chest.
Crack. Crack.
The sound of breaking bones echoed from the monster’s body.
The monster let out a scream of pain.
[Waaaah!]
A scream that instinctively made anyone who heard it shiver.
But Ketal paid it no mind.
Annoyed, he covered the monster’s mouth and then shattered its jaw with his strength.
“Uh…”
Baker slowly backed away.
Ketal possessed a power beyond their understanding.
And humans tend to fear what they cannot understand.
However, they didn’t greatly fear Ketal.
This was partly because they knew him, but also because Ketal treated his power with such a casual attitude.
In every battle, Ketal was always somewhat relaxed and leisurely.
His movements were incredible but full of openings, so he never felt too distant.
His varied emotional expressions also played a part.
In the end, they saw him as a very ordinary human wielding immense power.
But Ketal’s appearance in this battle was different from any they had seen before.
Now, Ketal was purely trying to obliterate the monster from this world.
There was no hint of mercy.
It was pure killing intent with no room for other emotions.
That overwhelmingly intense resolve washed over them.
Ketal stomped on the monster and muttered.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
This place was his world.
The fantasy world he had longed for.
An unpleasant monster from the White Snowfield dared to defile such a place.
Ketal could not accept that fact.
He smiled a chilling smile.
How dare.
How dare a creature from that place invade my world.
That can’t be allowed.
The White Snowfield is not a fantasy.
It should not be a fantasy.
It must remain a horrific prison.
The creatures from that place should not appear here.
You should be confined there.
“You should not exist in this world.”
His voice was so cold it gave anyone who heard it chills.
The twisted emotions of stubbornness and obsession weighed heavily on the space.
Ketal reached out and grabbed the monster’s head.
One hand on its head, the other on its jaw.
The monster tried to resist, but being nearly dead, it could only feebly struggle.
Ketal applied more strength.
Snap.
With a breaking sound, the monster’s body went limp.
[788th Quest Completed.]
[Rewards will be given shortly.]
Ketal looked down at the monster’s corpse expressionlessly.
Then, he turned his head to look at Aquaz and Baker.
Ketal smiled.
The two of them flinched reflexively.
The smile wasn’t strange or menacing.
It was a peaceful smile, like that of a person enjoying a journey around the world.
“It’s over. Are you both okay?”