Chapter 137: Golden Coin Dolls
“Four of them died instantly.”
“Tsk. Useless bastards. And the others?”
“They’re still breathing, but…”
Shredded pieces of blood-soaked fabric were scattered across the ground. It was the remnant of the blood-red cloaks—the emblem of the Nest—that had been torn apart in heaps.
Arrows imbued with blue light had pierced through the barrier and struck without warning. Four had perished, and five others were gravely wounded, their lives hanging by a thread.
Caspello frowned at the report and quickly inspected the core totem planted at the center of the clearing. The totem, made of rough-hewn wood, flickered ominously like black flas.
All of the totems embedded in the clearing were currently active, as indicated by the signals they emitted. Caspello’s expression softened slightly at the confirmation.
The death of the shamans was of no concern to him.
What mattered was whether the totems had been successfully activated. Fortunately, it seed the ritual had gone as planned.
Clatter—clatter—
Caspello shook his staff and approached the shamans groaning in pain.
The aftermath of the arrow attack was devastating. Those who had rely lost limbs could be considered lucky. Since the shamans he brought were specialized in curses, there was no one capable of performing healing magic.
Caspello silently watched the shamans writhe in agony, begging for their lives. Without a word, he reached into his robe, pulled out a handful of gold coins, and scattered them over the bodies of the wounded shamans.
The sudden downpour of gold coins caused the surviving shamans to instinctively step back, while the expressions of the shamans hit by the coins turned pale with terror.
“Ca-Caspello, sir! What are you doing?!”
“You’ve served well until now. Burn everything for the sake of our lord, until the very end.”
“Please spare us!”
Caspello chanted a spell as he waved his staff. The gold coins began to tremble and soon burrowed into the bodies of the injured shamans.
Horrific screams erupted from their throats.
Their faces, torsos, and limbs twisted grotesquely, and then, with lifeless white eyes flashing eerily, they slowly rose to their feet.
The missing limbs had miraculously regenerated, and the bleeding stopped as if it had been a lie. However, a foul tallic odor began to emanate from their bodies.
Leaving the vacant-eyed shamans standing where they were, Caspello turned toward the wooden totem, placing a letter and a small golden insignia at its base while muttering an incantation.
The letter bore the scent of Alex Marcia, while the golden insignia was the personal crest of Lochter Felice, which he had carried his entire life.
Caspello finished his spell by stabbing his staff into the ground before the totem.
“With death as the price, I demand death in return.”
The surrounding area darkened under a black veil. This space was a rift created for a transaction with an absolute being.
A mont later, a pair of gleaming white eyes appeared in the void and curved into a crescent smile.
The re presence emanating from the void made the remaining shamans swallow dryly.
It was Jess Milo, the King of the Dead.
An absolute being who reveled in gas of death.
“Your targets are Alex Marcia and Lochter Felice. Golden Coin Dolls, answer my call.”
The mont the letter and the insignia in front of the totem disintegrated into ash, the vacant-eyed shamans let out bizarre shrieks and began dashing off sowhere.
Their speed was unimaginable for shamans.
Kwaa-jik! Kwaa-ji-jik!
Their hardened bodies were so powerful that they ripped apart trees and boulders with ease.
As the remaining gold coins scattered across the ground, the other shamans hurriedly fled.
The Golden Coin Dolls—souls corrupted by Jess Milo’s greed—had awakened and begun their hunt within his domain.
“It's weakened!”
“Only a million gold away! Push harder!”
Lochter wiped the blood trickling down his forehead. Both of his hands, clutching his sword’s hilt, were trembling uncontrollably, with no strength left in his fingers.
“Kugh… huff… huff…”
His breathing remained harsh and erratic.
Throughout his training, he had always pushed himself to the brink—until he could no longer lift his arms, until he could no longer grip his sword, until he lost consciousness. His relentless training had accumulated like drops of sweat, enabling him to endure the battle thus far.
He was relentless.
He was strong.
That was why the hunters, though barking fiercely like frightened dogs, dared not charge recklessly at him.
Lochter leaned on his sword for support.
As he examined the stabbing pain in his body, he noticed several arrows lodged in his shoulder and thigh. He cut off the shafts of the arrows with his sword and slowly straightened his back.
‘I’m exhausted.’
Death lood so close that even keeping his eyelids open felt like a trendous effort.
Today was one of the rare days when he felt genuinely fatigued. No, it was the most exhausting day of his life.
A pile of corpses lay before him.
Yet, beyond the corpses, more enemies were encircling him.
Despite all the killing, his path forward remained long and treacherous.
“How much longer can I endure?”
He recalled the man who had given him this trial.
[Just hold on until I bring the Karl.]
It was Arthur Clayton, the man who had gifted him hope.
Because of that, Lochter held on like an unyielding rock, waiting for Arthur.
He endured the hunters' fierce attacks, rolled and crawled across blood-soaked ground, and held his ground through sheer willpower.
Slowly lifting his broken sword, Lochter prepared himself.
“Charge!”
“Uaaaaah!”
The surroundings darkened.
It was a sudden shift, and no one seed to notice.
Their focus was solely on the million gold within arm’s reach.
They only thought of killing and stealing.
The hunters’ eyes burned with greed. But that greed attracted sothing else, not Lochter’s death.
Screeeeaaach—!!!
An abnormal phenonon unfolded before their eyes.
A shriek rang out, so grotesque and chilling that Lochter paused mid-swing and instinctively stepped back.
“...What?”
Like waves crashing down, hunters began collapsing en masse from behind. Amidst the fallen hunters, golden objects glittered as they scattered across the ground.
Hundreds, thousands of gold coins spilled onto the floor.
“It-it’s gold!”
“Out of the way!”
So of the hunters turned around and dashed toward the fallen coins to collect them. Seeing this, others also frantically began picking up the scattered gold.
But it didn’t last long.
Kuk!
It started with a hunter coughing up blood and collapsing. One by one, the hunters standing nearby began to fall powerlessly to the ground.
“What the…?”
Even Lochter, who was unshaken by most things, felt his pupils tremble.
None of the hunters who had threatened him were left standing.
From veteran hunters who had led the encirclent to those lurking at the back, they had all been wiped out in an instant.
Complete annihilation.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Rattle—
Suddenly, several gold coins rolled toward Lochter. As he watched them approach, they sprang into the air and attacked him.
Kakakakang—!
Lochter deflected dozens of gold coins and took a few cautious steps back.
He hadn’t been cut.
They were too solid.
Grrr…
Gueaaagh!
Belatedly, screams erupted from all directions.
The gold coins, now behaving like living creatures, bounced erratically and burrowed into the bodies of the hunters.
The hunters’ reactions were the sa across the board—
Horrifying screams,
Twisted spasms, And then, silence.
They collapsed, face-first, into the ground, unmoving, as if dead.
The fierce battlefield had transford into a desolate graveyard.
At that mont, Lochter sensed a presence behind him and instinctively swung his dagger.
“Lochter! It’s !”
The blade stopped mid-swing.
Turning toward the voice, he saw Arthur standing there. For the first ti, relief washed over Lochter’s face as he slowly lowered his weapon.
The one he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Lochter’s gaze landed on the Karl dangling from Arthur’s shoulder.
“You found the Karl.”
“There’s no ti for talk! Let’s move!”
“Sothing’s wrong.”
“I already know!”
As I gestured urgently, Lochter groaned and collapsed to the ground. The tension had finally broken, and even his muscles gave out. His legs refused to support him.
While I hastily tried to help him up, the forest began to stir, and dark silhouettes erged.
As soon as I saw their gleaming white eyes, I summoned the Ring of Blood Drain without hesitation.
“Damn it, these tin-can bastards!”
Three arrows infused with piercing power flashed forward and struck the charging figures squarely in their chests.
Tang—!
A dull tallic clang rang out as the arrows hit.
The dark figures stumbled and rolled across the ground.
But only for a mont.
Soon, the fallen figures twitched and slowly rose to their feet. Their chests were unscathed.
Even arrows imbued with piercing magic had failed to penetrate.
They seed tougher than solid steel.
“Ha, why does this situation keep getting worse?”
Surveying the fallen hunters, I moved quickly to hoist Lochter onto my back.
There was no ti to waste.
Lochter grimaced in resistance, unwilling to be carried—it was a matter of pride for him as a knight.
“I can walk on my own.”
“Do you want to pass out like the Karl did?”
“…Surely not…”
“The last guy who refused to be carried ended up unconscious.”
Without further argunt, I roughly slung Lochter over my shoulder.
Now, with the Karl dangling on my left and Lochter on my right, I was carrying both.
It wasn’t sothing I would normally do, but—
[Jess Milo’s presence grows stronger. Run.]
Reto had been warning repeatedly to flee. He spoke with such certainty, as if getting caught would an certain death.
It had to be because of those things.
“What are those things?”
“Golden Coin Dolls. I’ll explain later.”
At my words, Lochter turned his gaze back and let out a low groan.
Grrrrrrrrr—!
The fallen hunters, now one by one, began to stagger to their feet.
Dozens, no, hundreds of them.
Their white eyes glead ominously as they turned to Lochter.
Unintentionally, Lochter swallowed dryly.
“Run.”
“…Pardon?”
“I said, RUN!”
“Finally, you’re making sense.”
Clicking my tongue briefly, I started sprinting forward.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The thunderous sound of countless heavy footsteps striking the ground echoed behind us.
There were so many of them that it felt as if the earth was quaking beneath us.
Damn it. This is a complete disaster.
Sure, this world’s concept was all about survival, but how was anyone supposed to survive sothing like this?
“You son of a bitch!”
“…?”
I cursed at so unknown god as I sprinted.
Soon, the light filtering through the forest began to fade, and the colors around us darkened, forcing to slow down.
It was pitch black.
I could barely see anything anymore.
To make matters worse, my sense of direction was thrown off in this place.
It felt like we had fallen into an entirely different world.
With vision blurred, losing one’s way was all too easy.
And if we lost our way, we’d be surrounded by the swarm of Golden Coin Dolls, leading to an inevitable death.
‘I should have suspected sothing when Elton told about their forces.’
I should have realized sothing was off when I heard about the unusually large number of shamans.
I never imagined Kal Blazer would summon the Territory of the Dead here.
A transaction with Jess Milo, King of the Dead, who grants death in exchange for death.
And among the results of that transaction were the Golden Coin Dolls.
Once they set their sights on a target, they would never stop.
‘Looks like I’m one of their targets.’
Given that Lochter was also likely a target, Kal must have intended to eliminate him for good.
Golden Coin Dolls…
I recalled how they were described in the novel.
They were zombie-like monsters with durability as tough as gold coins.
“There’s no winning if we engage them head-on.”
For starters, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.
With only the current group relying on physical force, it was the worst possible match-up.
To deal with such a large horde, I needed a power that countered darkness—light.
My attribute, Divine Power, wasn’t the sa as light.
Divine Power stabilized chaotic energy, but it wasn’t effective against absolute darkness.
Besides, the Golden Coin Dolls were tough enough to endure even piercing arrows.
“Reto!”
[Focus on escaping their territory. You can’t win here.]
“And once we’re out?”
[Find the light. You better hope for a full moon.]
Golden Coin Dolls were composed entirely of concentrated darkness, making them vulnerable to light.
While sunlight was the best counter, moonlight could also weaken them.
By the ti we escaped, it would likely be night.
“I really hope there’s a full moon tonight…”
First, we had to get out of here.
I closed my eyes tightly for a mont, then opened them wide again.
There was one person who could guide in the right direction—Fenry Chaser.
Activating Keen Sight, I searched for Fenry’s divine aura.
There!
I adjusted my course and sprinted with all my might.
Soon after, the eerie howls behind us began to echo from all directions.
Were they trying to encircle us?
Should I use Burst Strike?
No, I only had two uses left. Burst Strike was a last resort.
Gritting my teeth, I propelled myself forward with everything I had.
Before long—
“Ugh! We made it out!”
The once-dark space brightened, revealing a forest bathed in twilight.
Night had fallen.
“Put down.”
Ignoring Lochter’s words, I looked up at the night sky.
A soft, silvery light shone down.
A cold, clear light.
“At least it’s not the worst-case scenario.”
What greeted was the icy-blue glow of a full moon.
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