[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 65
At Zeke's words, Felix immediately began searching for a suitable campsite.
Once they found a spot, they were able to set up a surprisingly comfortable camp using the equipment Zeke pulled from his inventory.
Felix, who had fetched water, built a fire under the soil and boiled the water.
Then, he added the jerky and spices Zeke provided, along with mushrooms he had gathered nearby, and created a rather impressive meal.
"Sir Zeke, it's ready. Please have a taste."
Zeke slurped the soup Felix handed him.
Even if it was poisoned, Zeke's poison immunity could filter out most toxins, so he put the soup in his mouth without hesitation.
Fortunately, it wasn't poisoned, and the soup tasted good.
"Your skills are excellent, Felix."
Felix gave a sheepish smile and said,
"Haha, I worked in a restaurant for a while, so I'm quite confident in my cooking."
"Good. There's no better companion in the field than a good cook."
Then Felix said to Zeke,
"Sir Zeke, you seem quite accustomed to the field. I guess Valhalla provides this kind of training separately."
"Well, something like that."
Zeke vaguely answered and focused on eating the soup.
After finishing their meal, the two decided to take turns keeping watch.
"I only need to close my eyes for a bit, so wake me up in two hours. I'll take the next watch."
Zeke, who had the infinite stamina passive skill, didn't need to sleep, so he just lay down and rested.
While doing so, he closed his eyes and checked Felix's movements, but there was nothing unusual.
Two hours later, Zeke woke up and kept watch, guarding the surroundings.
He thought about the beast that had sucked all the bodily fluids from its victims.
'A beast that can absorb bodily fluids without a trace.'
Zeke had seen a similar corpse in his previous life.
He and his teacher had followed and tracked it for days, but eventually lost it.
It was very difficult to catch because it was intelligent and cautious.
Zeke compared the traces of the beast he had seen back then with the footprints he found by the fence and continued to ponder.
'The traces don't match that beast. Perhaps another species of beast has appeared at the same time.'
It wasn't common, but it wasn't entirely unheard of.
Zeke considered all possible scenarios and thought about how to track the beast.
It was then.
Crack!
He heard the sound of a tree falling beyond the forest.
Zeke immediately got up and checked the direction of the sound.
'2 kilometers west.'
He woke Felix up.
"Felix."
"Hmm! Yes? Yes, Sir Zeke!"
"There's something beyond the forest. Stay here. I'll be back soon."
Leaving those words with Felix, Zeke dashed towards the western forest.
Wheeik!
Zeke, who ran with Gale Force, arrived at the location of the sound in an instant.
He hid behind a tree and observed the situation.
And he encountered a race he never expected.
'Is that a barbarian?'
Barbarians lived deep within the Giant Mountains.
They resembled humans in appearance, but their physical strength was unmatched.
Said to be descendants of the giants who were once the masters of the mountains, the barbarians' physique and strength surpassed even ogres.
Such a barbarian warrior was fighting something.
"Graaagh!"
A beast, its form difficult to discern in the darkness, swung its tail at the barbarian.
Wheeik!
The barbarian rolled to avoid the beast's tail.
Then he uprooted a nearby tree and swung it at the beast.
Whoosh!
The beast quickly dodged the tree, the barbarian swung and retreated.
Seeing the beast's movements, Zeke realized it was the same one he had failed to catch in his previous life.
'Master called that one "Gaguk".'
Among the beasts, there were special ones like Gaguk.
Zeke's master called such beasts "Ancient Species" and warned him to be especially careful.
They were strong and intelligent beyond comparison to ordinary beasts.
It was fast and cautious, moving like a monkey.
And if one touched its long, tentacle-like tail, their life force would be sucked out.
They would become a mummy in an instant, just like the corpse he found earlier.
'It seems the barbarian took the livestock, and the Gaguk took the people.'
He had grasped the general situation, but he couldn't figure out why the barbarian and the Gaguk were fighting here, so he decided to observe a little longer.
"Kyaaaagh!"
The Gaguk bared its sharp teeth, threatening the barbarian.
Then, its neck suddenly bulged, and it spat something at the barbarian.
Shhh!
What shot out of its mouth with incredible speed was a sharp, skewer-like tongue.
The barbarian warrior crossed his arms to block the skewer.
Thud!
But the Gaguk's tongue pierced through the barbarian's tough flesh, through his stomach, and out his back.
Thump!
The barbarian collapsed to the ground.
The Gaguk, seeing the fallen barbarian, let out a gruesome laugh, its mouth splitting wide open.
It slowly started to approach the barbarian.
As it got close and was about to wrap its tail around the barbarian to absorb his life force,
Flinch!
The Gaguk, as if sensing an unseen danger, retreated.
Then it raised its head and started looking around the forest.
But it seemed to find nothing, and soon tried to approach the fallen barbarian again.
At that moment, Zeke's sword, hidden in the shadows, grazed the Gaguk's neck as it approached the barbarian.
"Kieeek!"
The startled Gaguk quickly fled, blending into the darkness.
Zeke was disappointed to see the Gaguk disappear in an instant.
"Damn, it's fast."
Even when he and his master joined forces in his past life, they couldn't catch it.
Although it was smaller than the one he remembered, it seemed even more sensitive.
"Ugh..."
Zeke looked down at the barbarian warrior lying on the ground.
His face was pale, as if poisoned.
After a moment of consideration, Zeke hoisted the barbarian warrior over his shoulder.
Carrying the barbarian, who was over two meters tall, he entered a nearby cave.
Then he examined the barbarian warrior's wounds.
"Hmm."
The area where the Gaguk's tongue had pierced through was turning black.
As expected, it was venomous.
'It's a dangerous one, all right.'
Zeke took out his dagger, heated it with the power of fire, and stabbed the barbarian warrior's wound.
Sizzle!
Black blood gushed from the wound.
He took out an antidote from his inventory and poured it onto the barbarian warrior's wound.
"Ugh!"
The barbarian warrior, with his strong endurance, writhed in pain.
It was thanks to the barbarian's strong physique that he was still alive. If it were an ordinary human, they would have already melted into a pool of poison, that's how deadly the venom was.
Zeke took out another bottle of antidote and poured it evenly over the wound.
Bubbles started to form as the antidote neutralized the poison.
The poison seemed to be neutralized to some extent, so Zeke took out a healing potion and poured it into the barbarian's mouth.
Strangely, however, the healing potion didn't work on the barbarian.
"Is it because he's not human that the potion doesn't work?"
Even if the poison was neutralized, if he was left alone with his vital organs damaged, he would likely die of shock.
After pondering, Zeke decided to use a skill he had never used before.
"Area of Effect Buff skill... I wonder if this will work."
Zeke placed his hand on the barbarian's wound and used the Area of Effect Buff skill.
[Which skill would you like to cast as a Area of Effect Buff ?]
Zeke chose the Healing Factor.
A bright light spread widely from Zeke.
Swoosh!
Golden waves swept through the surroundings like waves, and at the same time, the barbarian's body in front of him began to glow gold.
Then, the barbarian's wounds gradually began to heal.
"Oh, it works. It has a similar effect to when I used Healing before."
In his previous life, he could use Healing not only on himself but also on others.
In this life, with the system, and with the skill changed to Healing Factor, he had forgotten that he could heal others.
Perhaps because the barbarian warrior himself had high regenerative abilities, his severe wounds were almost completely healed, leaving only scars.
Zeke pressed on the barbarian's wounds, checking to see if his organs had also recovered.
"You were lucky. You would have died if it weren't for me."
It was then.
"Ugh!"
The barbarian warrior regained consciousness, perhaps because the Healing Factor had taken full effect.
However, it was practically impossible for him to regain consciousness so quickly even with healing mana, so Zeke flinched, then nodded.
'Ah, well, barbarians are beyond common sense.'
In his past life, the barbarians Zeke had seen also did things that were unthinkable for humans without a second thought.
Suddenly, the barbarian warrior's eyes flew open.
He jumped to his feet, looked around, and spotted Zeke.
"Graaagh!"
He let out a war cry as a threat and immediately backed away, wary.
Zeke calmly spoke to the barbarian warrior.
"Calm down."
The barbarian warrior was surprised that Zeke spoke his language.
"You... understand?"
The barbarians' language was very simple, so it wasn't very expressive.
Zeke nodded and replied,
"Understand. I saved you."
The barbarian examined the wound he had received from the Gaguk.
He had clearly been pierced and poisoned, but the wound was cleanly healed.
The barbarian was surprised and approached Zeke.
"You saved me?"
Zeke nodded.
"Yes. I saved you."
The barbarian warrior, with tears in his eyes, suddenly hugged Zeke.
"Thank you."
Once the barbarian warrior calmed down, Zeke asked him,
"My name is Zeke. What's your name?"
"Me Big Fist. Nice to meet you, Zeke."
"Nice to meet you, Big Fist. Why are you here? Your home is that way."
"Me on warrior trial."
"Hunting?"
"Yes. Must succeed in hunting to become a warrior."
Zeke was surprised to hear the barbarian warrior's words.
He was so big that Zeke assumed he was already an adult warrior who had passed the warrior trial, but it seemed he hadn't reached adulthood yet.
"How old is Big Fist? Thought you were already a warrior."
"Me sixteen years old. Stronger than village warriors."
"Me seventeen. Older brother."
From what he gathered, Big Fist, who was already stronger than the warriors, was given the trial of hunting the Gaguk, a powerful beast even in the barbarians' territory, as a suitable test.
The problem was that although he was stronger than adult warriors, he hadn't yet learned the tricks of hunting.
So, although he had driven the Gaguk away, he couldn't catch it, and ended up coming all the way down to the Duchy of Troy while chasing it.
'He came all the way from the barbarian territory to the Duchy of Troy just by climbing the mountains.'
As expected, barbarians were beings beyond the realm of common sense.
Just then, Big Fist made a gloomy expression.
"Hunting is too difficult. Me likely to fail."
Zeke said to Big Fist,
"Want help with hunting?"
Big Fist was surprised.
"Really?"
"I want to catch that thing too."
Big Fist, with tears in his eyes again, hugged Zeke.
"Zeke, thank you."
Zeke patted Big Fist on the back and said,
"I'm your older brother."
"Ah."
***
Zeke, who had decided to hunt the Gaguk with Big Fist, first returned to the campsite where Felix was with Big Fist.
Felix, who had been waiting for Zeke, was startled when he saw him bringing a giant over two meters tall.
"S-Sir Zeke, t-that...!"
As Felix reacted intensely, Big Fist was about to let out another war cry, but Zeke quickly stopped him.
"He's my subordinate."
"What's a subordinate?"
Barbarians were all equal warriors, and there was no hierarchical relationship except for the chieftain.
Zeke pondered how to explain "subordinate" in the barbarian language.
But since there was no suitable word, he just said, "Foot-washer?"
Big Fist seemed to understand and nodded.
Zeke briefly felt sorry for Felix, who instantly became a foot-washer, but since there was no better word, he let it slide.
Big Fist started rummaging through the campsite, looking for something to eat.
Seeing this, Zeke took out jerky from his inventory and gave it to Big Fist to eat.
However, the amount was too small for a barbarian, and it was gone in an instant.
'No wonder he came down to the village and stole livestock.'
Felix, who had approached Big Fist, looked pale and said to Zeke,
"S-Sir Zeke, i-is that a b-barbarian?"
"Yes."
"Oh my god, a barbarian. I-Is it alright?"
"I saved him from dying to a beast, so he's following me well. We decided to hunt the beast together."
Felix looked bewildered by Zeke's words that were beyond common sense.
Zeke closely observed Felix's reaction.
'When he first saw the barbarian, he didn't draw his sword but froze. If he's acting to that extent, he must have received some special training.'
If it weren't for the aura he sensed, Felix would seem like an ordinary guide.
'Am I being too sensitive?'
Zeke became even more curious about Felix's identity.
Just then, Big Fist suddenly stood up.
He said to Zeke,
"Zeke brother. Smell."
Zeke asked Big Fist, who was suddenly talking about smells, "What smell?"
Big Fist's eyes gleamed with madness.
"That thing's smell."
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]