The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 87

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Fire

“Hmm.”

No matter how I think about it, I’ll have to go hunting. If I just catch a decent deer or bear, there would be more than enough to feed everyone here.

The problem is that those undead from earlier caused such a ruckus that not only bears and deer, but even rabbits and mice all fled without leaving a single one behind.

The only food available would be the monsters dwelling in the nearby dungeons.

If we eat unverified monsters, the people I worked so hard to save might die from food poisoning. Of course, I could heal them, but well, ahem…

Ah~ So I have no choice but to enter a ‘dungeon’~? That must be it, right?

‘Thump thump…!’

Actually, ‘food’ itself wasn’t really a problem.

After all, I could function to some degree without eating, and people wouldn’t be in serious trouble if they starved for a few days.

Assuming an adult male reduces his activity, one potato would be enough to last about 3 days.

Since we’ll all be staying together anyway, we could just quietly wait for rescue while keeping food consumption to a minimum.

It’s not like we have no food at all, so surely we can last just 5 days.

However.

I threw such calculations aside.

‘I can go to a dungeon myself…!’

How exciting this thought is!

Isn’t the north in typical RPG games usually barren? And this world I’m currently possessing faithfully follows that pattern – the north is extremely barren.

Thanks to that, there are many dungeons too.

Gamers gathered in the north in large numbers for various purposes like experience points from those dungeons, monster byproducts, quests, stories, and so on.

Right. Centa, where I am now, has very developed nature and incomparably more dungeons than the Empire!

So what I’ll do is enter a dungeon that has become reality under the pretext of hunting dungeon monsters for food…!

‘Since I can’t do anything for 5 days while waiting for rescue anyway, I should be able to enjoy this small hobby.’

Since the unrealistic thing of entering a game world has happened, it would be unfair if I became a gamer but never entered a dungeon once!

I’d probably be upset even after death, right? Oh my! I came into a game world but couldn’t even enter a real dungeon once!

I’d probably become a ghost monster that appears in cemeteries, unable to rest in peace.

So I gathered the deceased’s scabbard and sword. I probably won’t have to wield it myself, but since I’m entering a dungeon, it would be better to bring it along. If I had known this would happen, I would have brought my custom sword (Swordy).

While I’m at it, it would be an interesting experience to deliver the finishing blow to monsters that Yelena and Kalebrin beat up thoroughly.

‘Especially since there are restrictions on my personal safety, I need to enjoy myself during times like this….’

With reliable Kalebrin and Yelena by my side, safety is okay too!

The dungeon I have in mind isn’t that difficult either – it’s a beginner dungeon. Really, this is content I can only enjoy now.

The excuse is also ‘to obtain food,’ which fits the image of a holy and benevolent ascetic.

In other genres, eating monsters might cause severe disgust and avoidance, but that’s not the case here, so that’s quite fortunate too.

Mm mm… Right. Dungeon, is it a dungeon!

After a long time, the blood of a veteran adventurer is boiling!

I smiled subtly and made a proposal to Kalebrin.

“…Therefore, I would appreciate it if you could accompany me.”

“Alright….”

I also went to Yelena, who was helping with body recovery, and made the proposal.

“I plan to go to a nearby dungeon to obtain food. Would it be possible for you to accompany me?”

“A dungeon? You personally, Ascetic?”

“I can’t tell someone who just recovered from injuries to enter a dungeon. And with me there, it will be a safe dungeon conquest.”

“Well… that makes sense too. Which dungeon will you go to?”

“There should be a Frost Cave where Pugru live in this vicinity. Ah, do you know about Pugru?”

“No. I don’t know about them.”

Yelena spoke somewhat reluctantly while wiping her hands with a wet cloth someone brought her.

“Pugru are wild boars with grayish-white fur. They have round lumps on their backs where frozen mushrooms grow. Those can be used in soup to add sweetness. And if you properly refine Pugru fat, you can make oil, and their hide can be used as insulation without any special tanning. They’re useful monsters in many ways.”

“You know this really well too, Ascetic.”

“It’s just basic knowledge.”

Yelena picked up the halberd she had set up nearby.

“So how many hours will we have to walk?”

Hmm, in-game it took 5 minutes flying, but here we’re walking… roughly within 30 minutes, I’d say.

Assuming we get a bit lost on the way there, 1 hour?

“It should be within an hour.”

“Let’s go. There’s no reason to hesitate. And they said a frost storm is coming soon. We need to repair the shelter and gather food and firewood to survive the 5 days until rescue.”

“Is the frost storm very cold?”

It wasn’t that bad in-game. No wait, was that just because I was wearing artifacts?

“They say your skin freezes quickly if you’re not next to a fire.”

I guess it’s convenient to think of it as dry ice blowing. Since it’s cold air, it would probably affect me too, right?

So far, the only time I directly felt ‘cold’ was at that spring I entered to obtain the healing relic when I met Kalebrin, so if it’s above a certain degree, I’ll probably feel the cold.

Ugh, I don’t like it.

Kalebrin seems to have finished preparing in the meantime. Well, there probably wasn’t much to prepare anyway.

Yelena also had nothing except her halberd and a sword at her waist that could serve as a secondary weapon. Of course, it was a sword from the war dead.

She, who was acting as a quasi-captain, consulted with the original vice captain to establish rules for when she would be absent.

I waited patiently for her to set up the regulations while comforting the defeated soldiers who came over to me with silly grins.

“Won’t we need someone to carry the Pugru?”

Mm, that’s true. Since there’s no inventory system here, we’d have no choice but to carry the caught Pugru.

As expected, the reality patch brings quite a few inconveniences. Though it’s nice that I can enjoy those aspects too.

Anyway, it won’t be me carrying it awkwardly, but the physical type Yelena!

I nodded. Yelena selected and recruited a few people to serve as porters.

“Shall we go then?”

*

The path to the dungeon was easy if you could call it easy, and difficult if you could call it difficult.

First, we encountered one more Taraka on the way and easily defeated it, and we met field monsters Snow Rollers and Frigrants.

Snow Rollers are rabbit-like non-aggressive mobs, so Yelena found them very cute and passed by.

Frigrant was a hybrid of bear and snow leopard, which bared its teeth at us and died gloriously after receiving Kalebrin’s curse and Yelena’s axe. The porters didn’t even have a chance to step forward.

“Should we leave it at the dungeon entrance and take it after hunting?”

Yelena poked the Frigrant with her long sword. In terms of level alone, it would be twice as high as Pugru.

‘Of course, monster levels don’t show up…’

To Yelena who was considering whether to take it, I told her.

“That meat is too tough to eat.”

Kalebrin muttered.

“Hide….”

“Taking two Pugru would be more profitable than bringing that one.”

“Mm-hmm.”

The two were convinced and left the Frigrant behind. Snow gradually began to fall.

Fortunately, our feet weren’t sinking deep, but I don’t know what will happen after conquering the dungeon.

Yelena, who heard from the porter soldier, approached me at the front breaking the path with alarm.

“We need to hunt quickly and return. The frost storm seems to be coming earlier than expected.”

With just the three of us it might be different, but with more people, it’s true that our speed slows down.

Right after being injured, they had eaten almost nothing and were essentially marching without military gear.

I simultaneously activated the power of both the healing relic and purification relic to boost the stamina of those nearby.

“Now, everyone, this will be a difficult journey, but please gather your strength for just a short while.”

Then a Centa soldier walking beside me asked.

“Ascetic… why do you help us this much even though we’re enemies…?”

Unlike his clean appearance without a single wound, his eyes were dim and hazy. He probably saw terrible things before I arrived.

“Before suffering, aren’t allies and enemies irrelevant? My mission is to wish that all people in the world don’t suffer, so there’s no problem in helping you.”

“Ascetic… is that really enough for you? Really?”

He asked with a truly incredulous expression. Honestly, I didn’t want to play the role of a saint either! Where in the world would you find such a person?

However, if I wanted to do the cult leader = God act, I had no choice but to be like this!

“Well, I’d prefer if the people I help were good, of course. But my mission is for all people to not suffer. Before achieving such a grand purpose, distinguishing individual good and evil is unnecessary and inefficient.”

He pondered my words and finally managed to say one thing.

“Ascetic… you seem like you’re not human.”

What, calling someone not human. Am I supposed to be a dog or something?

Kalebrin, who had approached at some point, nodded in agreement with his words.

Why are you agreeing? What exactly about my words didn’t seem human?

Hmm… Even though I created the character as the ‘benevolent and holy Ascetic’ role, it would be troublesome if I seemed too inhuman.

At least I need to appear human to evoke feelings of kinship and sympathy.

“Me?”

“What person would dedicate their life like that to help others?”

That’s true. But does that really make you feel like I’m not human?

“And it’s not even just helping casually.”

Isn’t that too harsh a thought?

“And there’s that unique… atmosphere about you, Ascetic.”

Ah, there was Divine Aura. I forgot I had it on since it’s passive.

I got a lot of help from this in the beginning, but at some point I started feeling like… someone was adjusting it for me, so I forgot about it.

It’s probably the system.

The system isn’t perfect either. I’ve felt this before…

Anyway, this is something I should take note of.

I gave him a gentle smile.

“Is that so?”

“…Yes.”

That’s how the conversation ended. Between the cracks of the cliff, I could see blue light visible due to the concentration difference of accumulated mana.

“Now everyone! Let’s quickly hunt and get out!”

The hunt was easy. In fact, Yelena didn’t even have a chance to step in. The monsters had no Curse Resistance or anything like that.

The boars with pure white and bluish-white fur died to Kalebrin’s sorcery, and the few boars that escaped were finished off by Yelena’s hand.

Catching more would have been a problem. We had no way to carry them. And probably even clearing the dungeon wouldn’t give us loot or anything. Since it’s been reality-patched.

I enjoyed all the fun and even got the killing blows nicely.

“It’s hard to carry all of this, so let’s butcher them appropriately!”

The mushrooms growing on the boars’ backs all fit into one potato sack I brought.

The heads are just heavy and useless, so I cut them off. That gave us a total of 12 boar heads.

Yelena carried three boars on her back. They must weigh several hundred kilos, but she didn’t look strained at all.

Well, she’s a superhuman who can blow away buildings with her Halberd Technique.

“Let’s go out!”

We finished farming and headed outside. That’s when it happened. I heard a familiar fanfare.

[Lv. 10 Achievement Reward!]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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