I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents-Chapter 10: Siege Warfare (2)

As I descended the stairs, the man ahead of me suddenly came to a halt.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of potion bottles, extending them toward me.

"Take these. The commander told me to give them to you."

There were five potions in total.

"If it's not enough, either find me while you're still breathing or return to the fortress on your own."

"Understood."

Unlike Resellin, the leader of the Lucerna Mercenary Corps, this man spoke bluntly without hesitation. However, I didn't find it unpleasant or offensive. He simply seemed to be taking the situation very seriously.

[NPC - 'Lucerna Mercenary Corps Attack Captain' Ed]

Ed handed me some bandages as well.

I opened my mouth to speak.

"Do you think we can drive them back?"

From a rough estimate, there were at least one hundred and fifty orcs.

Ed, whose right eyebrow bore a noticeable scar, responded with a dispassionate tone.

"For them to advance with such a number means that the Orc King intends to completely overrun this Kicrev stronghold. This isn’t just a probing raid for minor pillaging. In a situation like this, it's not our job to wipe out the entire orc army."

He lowered his voice slightly as he continued.

"Our job is to hold the line with hit-and-run tactics. Killing every last one of them and beheading the Orc King—that's the knights’ job when they arrive."

I couldn’t entirely agree with his words.

Because there was one thing that neither Ed nor any other soldier here knew.

This was Pandemonium Mode.

I had finished arming myself.

From the side, Resellin's voice reached my ears.

"Our role is to endure. Just like always. Yuseong, let’s maintain our formation and hold the line together."

Her words were almost identical to Ed’s.

It was a rational choice.

"I'm sorry."

But rationality wasn’t the right answer for me.

"I'll do it my way."

"What?"

I walked past Resellin, who stared at me in confusion.

The answer I had chosen was battle.

I stepped forward with force.

What the Sparring Golem Mk.2 had given me wasn't just pain.

It had erased my fear of this situation.

It had wiped away my hesitation.

I pulled a throwing spear from my inventory and gripped it in my right hand.

KROOOOR!!

I swung my arm and hurled the spear toward the head of the foremost orc.

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The spear pierced straight through the center of its forehead. Its massive body collapsed to the ground.

An instant kill.

That was one.

Shing!

I drew my straight sword and charged forward.

Fast enough to slice through the wind.

[Focused Enhancement Lv.2 – Skill Activated.]

Swish!

An orc swung its axe downward in a vertical arc.

I dodged by shifting my body sideways.

As I slipped under its guard, I saw the momentary panic in its eyes.

I drove my sword deep into its throat.

Slick!

Then I yanked my sword free and kicked the orc’s abdomen.

SPLASH!

Blood sprayed in a wide arc.

That was two.

Nearby orcs all turned their attention toward me.

I channeled the small reserve of mana sedimented at the bottom of my Manaheart throughout my body.

Two orcs rushed at me simultaneously.

Their thick, muscular legs and massive arms moved like battering rams. Their exposed, hardened chest muscles served as armor in their own right.

Monsters.

And I had to hunt every last one of them.

[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.1 – Skill Activated.]

Power surged through my entire body.

There was no reason to hold it back.

WOOOOOOO!!

The two orcs roared in unison, their cries bursting forth like thunder.

A spear’s trajectory flashed toward me, while an axe sliced through the air.

THWACK!

I twisted my foot and contorted my entire body in an instant.

A maneuver made possible thanks to my Mana Body Enhancement.

For a moment, I exceeded the limits of my physical abilities.

Blind Spot.

I had entered an angle where neither orc could properly respond.

I extended my sword-wielding right arm.

Dragon Slayer Sword Technique.

Second Form.

Hjartagnyr.

The straight sword stabbed into the abdomen of the closer orc.

As I withdrew the blade, I swept it horizontally in a slash.

A deep diagonal gash opened on the first orc’s body.

The second orc’s head—along with its right arm—flew into the air.

That was four.

KWAARRRGH!!

Another orc had already closed the distance.

I hadn’t seen it.

I had been too focused on the two I just killed.

A streak of silver flashed before my eyes.

CRACK!!

An axe slammed into my right shoulder.

Even through my armor, a surge of pain exploded in my mind.

My right arm went numb.

But my body reacted instinctively.

I twisted my position as I crossed paths with the orc. Its massive frame staggered slightly.

I switched my sword to my left hand in an instant.

Then, I struck.

The orc was hit with a horizontal slash before it could react.

I turned my body and drove my sword into its heart.

And then, I pulled it out.

[Level Up!]

[Lv.4 → Lv.5]

[Strength increased by 5.]

[Agility increased by 4.]

[Endurance increased by 6.]

[Mana increased by 2.]

In an instant, the exhaustion vanished.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

The pain that had been gnawing at my shoulder completely disappeared.

The rule was clear.

When you level up, all wounds heal.

I exhaled deeply.

The lifeless bodies of orcs littered the ground.

Puddles of blood had formed, staining the battlefield red.

"......"

The surrounding orcs had come to a standstill.

...Wait.

Were they afraid?

***

Resellin, the leader of the Lucerna Mercenary Corps, was dumbfounded.

Since arriving at Kicrev Fortress, an autonomous city of the Ermein Empire, everything had been an endless series of absurd events.

First, reinforcements still hadn’t arrived.

Second, the enemy—an orc force numbering close to one hundred and fifty.

And third, the young man who had just hurled a spear through an orc’s skull and impaled another through the heart had casually told her he would be fighting on the frontlines alongside them.

He could very easily die.

His name was Yuseong.

A youth who looked to be around twenty had introduced himself to her with that name—a name that sounded fake no matter how she thought about it.

Yet, after seeing him calmly throwing spears from atop the fortress walls, skewering orcs through their hearts and heads with precision, she had decided to set aside her doubts and welcome him.

And then, he broke formation the moment the battle began—and started slaughtering orcs on his own.

With remarkable skill, no less.

At first, the orcs had charged at him mindlessly. But now, all of a sudden, they had come to a complete stop.

As if time itself had frozen.

"They’re intimidated by Yuseong’s momentum."

Resellin swallowed hard and adjusted her grip on her sword.

KROOOOAAAAA!!

The silence was shattered by the thunderous roar of a massive orc.

It wasn’t the Orc King, but it was clearly the commanding ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) officer of the battlefield.

"The Orc Legion Commander."

She recognized him.

A warrior who carried a red banner, earning him the title "Red Legion Commander."

The instant he let out a deafening battle cry, the stunned orcs snapped back to reality and resumed their charge toward Han.

Yet he showed no signs of exhaustion.

With a sword in his right hand and a spear—one of her own spears—in his left, he met their charge head-on.

"Everyone, attack! CHAAAAARGE!!"

At Resellin’s command, the mercenaries raised their weapons and rushed toward the orc army.

She had never planned for a full-scale battle.

The goal had simply been to hold the line until the knights arrived.

But now, that lunatic named Yuseong had stirred up the battlefield far too much.

For the first time, Resellin considered a crazy thought—that maybe, just maybe, they could actually win this fight.

【 Transcendent Gallery 】

Meanwhile, most of the Transcendent Gallery users were still caught up in a heated debate about one pressing issue:

"Who the hell was Delisa’s husband?"

Title: There's no way Delisa’s husband is Corbin, right?

Author: Anonymous

- There’s no way I lost to some half-assed knight, right? No f*ing way.**

ㄴ Absolute Monarch) No way it’s Corbin... It’s gotta be one of the Seven Heroes. Either Voltas or Greven.

ㄴ No, think about it logically, Monarch. If she married one of the Seven Heroes, would she have made her daughter the mercenary leader? Be realistic.

ㄴ Spear King) That... actually makes a lot of sense. So it really might be Corbin or Fordran...

ㄴ Are we really about to witness a monarch getting NTR’d by some random-ass knight?

ㄴ LMAO

ㄴ At least he’s a knight. Imagine if it was just some random villager A.

ㄴ Gutter Swordsman) No, no, the more I think about it, the more pissed off I get. Feels like all my years of training were for nothing. Let’s just drop this.

ㄴ Damn, even Gutter Swordsman’s having an existential crisis lmao.

ㄴ Bro’s actually spiraling.

ㄴ Pioneer) Yeah, this discussion’s getting kinda pathetic. Let’s move on.

ㄴ Climber) Nah, someone needs to ask about this. If we don’t get an answer, we’ll just keep spiraling into endless speculation.

ㄴ We need a hero to break the infinite cycle of delusions.

Of course, other topics were also floating around.

Title: How to get the #1 score on the Floor 2 stage as a Climber?

Author: Archmage

- Breaking the time record is basically impossible on Pandemonium Mode, so the only way is to rack up kills.

ㄴ Sword of Light) Yeah, kill count is the way to go.

ㄴ You lunatics are talking about rankings when people are out here dying.

ㄴ You can’t understand hardcore completionists with a mere mortal’s mind.

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) More importantly, once the cooldown on Climber’s interdimensional trade resets, we should decide the next trade partner in advance. First come, first served. And since I’m the one who brought this up, I get top priority.

ㄴ ...Wow, is this really Heavenly Demon? You sound broke as hell.

ㄴ Shrine Maiden) Hawawa, I don’t think trades are limited to just floor lobbies! The cooldown will reset after the social event, so we should wait until Floor 3 to decide what to exchange!

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) ...Why the hell are you suddenly making sense? That doesn’t suit you. First come, first served.

ㄴ Archmage) Shrine Maiden’s got a point. We’ll go with that.

ㄴ Ice Queen) FROZEN! I’ll be watching for my chance to help Climber!

ㄴ Dragon King) Hueeuh, Beltui—I've awakened from my winter slumber... What’s going on? The gallery’s more active than usual...

ㄴ Sword of Light) Go back to sleep.

ㄴ Dragon King) Beltui—So nice to see you again, Sword of Light, but you’re scary... I won’t sleep.

ㄴ Sword of Light) Die.

And so, another peaceful day passed in the Transcendent Gallery.