They left the nearby village behind, shouldered their gear, and set off on foot.

The ruins only appeared gradually, dilapidated silhouettes rising out of the distant horizon, the first signs of human architecture they'd seen in a while.

Because of what had happened earlier, Roxy had been carrying a few quiet doubts about Banxia.

But over the course of the journey, the young man had kept one hand on his hilt the entire time, scanning his surroundings at regular intervals, never letting his guard down.

That vigilance put her at ease.

Maybe Mr. Banxia was simply on his first long-distance mission and hadn't known to rent horses from the merchant guild. She really shouldn't have entertained such rude suspicions toward a professional warrior of his caliber.

"Mr. Banxia." She stopped and raised a hand to halt him. "Just ahead is the Old Quarter. Roaming goblins could turn up at any moment, and there are goblin archers hiding in the shadows. Please be careful."

"Mm." Curt.

Roxy didn't mind.

This was the first time she'd ever partied with a warrior of this level. The calmer he was right now, the safer she'd be. He'd been observing their surroundings since they left, by now, he'd surely mapped every threat in the area.

Rustle—

A strange noise from the roadside grass snapped both their gazes sideways.

A dark green lower leg poked out from between the stalks. The color was nothing like human skin.

Half a body was more than enough.

"Goblin." Roxy's brow furrowed.

Bad luck right at the start, a monster before they'd even reached the Old Quarter.

She raised her staff, aiming the tip at the grass. Mana began to gather along the shaft.

A large hand came in from the side and gently caught the shaft before it could descend.

Roxy looked at him, puzzled.

Banxia shook his head and drew his sword.

"...I see. Even the weakest spell makes far more noise than a blade — it could alert more enemies. I understand, Mr. Banxia." Roxy nodded, earnest.

"..."

He didn't explain. He just strode forward with his sword in hand.

Up close, the reason for the goblin's bizarre state became clear. Its head was clamped inside a leather treasure chest, its whole body thrashing uselessly.

Hit them while they're down.

The blade fell. The edge wasn't particularly sharp, but the top-tier foundational swordsmanship behind it was more than enough. Clean. Decisive.

[Ding! Normal goblin slain. Total lifespan: 25 years. Remaining lifespan: 13 years. Absorption complete.]

[Retained Time: 21 years.]

The moment the goblin died, the chest clamping its head went slack. It dropped to the ground with a clatter, lid bouncing open a crack before slowly pressing shut again, as though that vicious clench had been nothing but an illusion.

"Is this the mimic I've heard about?" Banxia eyed the chest warily. Someone at the tavern had brought it up once.

Still, first time seeing one in person.

From the outside, it looked exactly like an ordinary leather chest. Nothing threatening at all.

But that image of the goblin stuck fast, thrashing and helpless, wasn't going anywhere. And from what he'd heard, these things could solo an experienced elf mage. Better not get careless.

"A mimic would actually show up out here?" Roxy stepped forward, surprised, and got a look for herself. "A mimic... should only appear inside dungeon traps, shouldn't it?"

She sounded uncertain.

"Could the goblins have dragged it out of a dungeon?"

"...Not impossible. There's a small dungeon in the mines not far from Damuro."

Strange, but not out of the question.

"Then let's head to the Old Quarter." Roxy turned away.

"Hold on — don't mimics have treasure inside?"

"...Not guaranteed. The odds are extremely low." She continued, "At least, I've never heard of anyone around here pulling anything useful out of one. And a mimic's whole thing is how tough it is. Actually opening one is a serious hassle."

"Is that right..."

"So let's get moving."

Before she finished the sentence, silver flashed in front of her eyes.

The leather chest split cleanly in two.

[Ding! Mimic slain. Total lifespan: 15 years. Remaining lifespan: 3 years. Absorption complete.]

The mimic's remains crumbled into black sand and disappeared, leaving a single book sitting on the ground.

A flicker of pleasure crossed Banxia's eyes. He'd just done it on a whim, didn't expect anything to actually drop.

"Something really did come out of it..."

The blue-haired girl glanced over at him with mild surprise. "Mr. Banxia, your luck is quite something."

"Maybe I used up all my bad luck in my last world."

He said it offhandedly, already focused on the book in his hands.

[, A Knight Does Not Die Empty-Handed,]

[Creator: The Great Warrior Roland]

[I hope the adventurer who obtains this manual will inherit my mantle and become an equally great warrior.]

[During my decades of adventuring, I realized the single most crucial truth: a warrior separated from their weapon suffers a drastic drop in combat power...]

It opened with this whole block of text. Roland must have been quite the talker.

Banxia skimmed the gist and flipped past the introductory page.

[To this end, I labored for the better part of my life and finally created this combat skill,]

[Execution Hand Blade.]

[A special technique that refines and condenses the vitality of the entire body into the hands, achieving effects far surpassing ordinary bladed weapons.]

[With this skill, even a warrior who specializes in arms will not be helpless when their weapon is out of reach.]

[However, prior to training, one must soak both hands in gale wolf saliva for two hours each day, continuing for three years, then utilize...]

"Gale wolf saliva? What's that?"

Just the prerequisites had Banxia lost, and he was an outsider to this world. The abstract text and children's-level illustrations that followed didn't help. Roland must have been a great warrior who gave an entire lifetime to the adventurer's path.

"It's a combat skill. Want to take a look?"

Roxy shook her head.

She watched the young man tuck the book away and turned back to the road. They'd agreed before setting out that anything found along the way was his to keep as compensation. And she was a mage, she had no business learning martial techniques.

"Let's keep moving."

"Mm."

Roxy gave a small nod and looked toward where the fading light fell.

Ordinarily, Dusk Trees looked no different from common trees, the untrained eye couldn't tell them apart. Only at twilight did they reveal what they were, giving off a glow unlike anything else. That was where the name came from.

An exceptionally rare material for staves.

The merchants in the city said Dusk Tree branches hadn't appeared on the market in nearly ten years. Priceless, and no supply to speak of.

The only lead they had was a claim from an adventurer who said they'd spotted an orange glow resembling a Dusk Tree somewhere in the Old Quarter, seen from a distance.

➤ Next: Execution Hand Blade

Chapter 12 - Execution Hand Blade

The campfire flickered.

Banxia and Roxy had already retreated from the old district, finding a relatively safe spot in the nearby woods to make camp.

The outcome went without saying: an entire afternoon had yielded no sign of a Twilight Tree, nor had they encountered a single lone goblin.

Completely fruitless.

Yet judging by the calm on the blue-haired girl's face, Banxia knew this was simply the everyday reality of being an adventurer. The wondrous encounters in heroic tales were just stories. An adventurer's journey was uneventful most of the time.

"Mr. Banxia, I'll leave the first watch to you." Roxy yawned and pulled a simple sleeping bag from her pack.

Even as a capable magician, her body was still that of an ordinary person. After an exhausting day, she was thoroughly worn out.

"Mm."

With that, Roxy settled her mind and drifted off.

Before long, Banxia heard the steady, rhythmic breathing beside him, weaving into the unbroken chorus of insects all around.

Warm firelight danced before him. With nothing else to do, he picked up his longsword.

Several nicks of varying sizes pitted the blade — the largest about the size of a fingernail, damage from hacking at the mimic that afternoon. Even with his superb swordsmanship, the weapon had still taken considerable punishment.

Then again, it was only a standard-issue blade handed out by the Church. One could hardly expect too much from it.

Half a month of brutal training, daily knocks, and zero maintenance. This sword was already on the verge of being scrapped.

With that thought, Banxia pulled the parchment scroll from inside his tunic.

At first glance, it looked like childish scribbling — pure gibberish scratched onto the page. But in this era, Roland had chosen to pour a life's work onto expensive parchment rather than let it vanish. There had to be something of value in it.

And even if it turned out to be fake, so what? It wasn't like Banxia actually needed to spend years of his own life verifying that.

[Held Monster Time: 24 years.]

Neither a lot nor a little.

Banxia kept his breathing steady. He'd burn ten years first and see how it went.

The moment he opened the manual, ten years of Monster Time dissipated.

[Year One: You thoroughly study the written script of this world, ensuring you have not misread the methods in the manual.]

[Year Two: Following your inquiries, you learn that Gale Wolves had already gone extinct on the Southern Continent decades ago. You are in deep despair.]

[Year Three: You do not give up. Instead, you locate a medicine with effects similar to the recorded Gale Wolf saliva and formally begin practicing the Execution Hand Blade.]

[Year Seven: Your hands are no longer those of an ordinary warrior. Their hardness fully rivals standard-issue weapons, and after using the secret method to condense your blood and vitality, their sharpness can slice through iron.]

[Year Nine: Your combat skill has reached the level Roland recorded in life. In fact, due to differences in physique and technique, the Execution Hand Blade you wield is now far superior in power to what its creator ever achieved.]

[Execution Hand Blade lv.0 → Execution Hand Blade lv.1.]

[Year Ten: You vaguely sense this combat skill holds the potential for even greater mastery. But with time running short, that elusive flash of insight remains just out of reach.]

"This is hardly an ordinary combat skill anymore, is it."

Banxia opened his eyes and stared at his hands.

Vast strength, reinforced by tough skin, he could tear through any body of flesh and blood with ease, completely beyond human limits. The Basic Sword Technique and Basic Dodge he had drilled before were focused on technique, and had raised his physique to the peak of what a mortal body could achieve. But this was different.

The [Execution Hand Blade] was built around tempering the flesh itself. The effects only showed in his hands, but in actual combat, a sudden strike from these hands that had surpassed the limits of the human body was a finishing move, plain and simple.

"Sure enough, you can't underestimate anyone in this world. Even an unknown warrior could create something this lethal."

Banxia nodded and turned his gaze back to the deduction panel.

The potential for even greater mastery. In other words, if he had enough time, he could push this skill further?

He glanced at the ten years already spent, then at the fourteen still remaining.

He had already sunk in this much. If it could get even stronger, why wouldn't he?

Ten years produced this. What would twenty-four look like?

Watching the remaining time begin to drain away, Banxia waited with full confidence.

[Year Fifteen: Your hands grow increasingly hard.]

[Year Twenty: That elusive flash of inspiration never reappears. Your progress slows to a crawl. The hardness of your hands hits its current ceiling.]

[Year Twenty-Four: You still ponder in vain, unable to find a way toward the next step...]

Banxia: "Huh?"

He clenched his fingers. They hadn't strengthened by much at all.

Where did all that time go?

Spent before he even had a chance to properly feel it?

"..."

He took a deep breath, stood up, and scanned the surrounding darkness. Right now, he would have welcomed a goblin ambush.

But under the full moon, only the insects answered him.

Roxy had set up minor magical trinkets around the camp before sleeping, anything ordinary getting too close would trigger a warning. Nothing had.

"I'm so annoyed I actually got hungry," he muttered, rubbing his empty stomach. He dug a piece of black bread from his pack and started gnawing on it.

"I really want meat."

Maybe because his body was growing increasingly formidable, his appetite had multiplied several times over. Especially on a day like today, staying at high alert the whole time, the hunger had set in faster than expected.

If he hadn't accepted the traveling couple's thanks yesterday and eaten a proper meal, relying on cheap black bread alone might have caused his strength to take a serious hit by now.

...

The next day, the two packed up their gear and set out.

The Twilight Tree could only be identified at dusk, but a full daytime wasn't something they could afford to waste. The old district was deserted and had long been overrun by goblins, which meant the items left behind from the wartime era, and the medicinal herbs that had been growing untouched for years, had never been found by anyone.

With enough luck, turning up one or two valuable things would make the whole trip worth it.

They drifted through the crumbling walls and ruins, stopping and starting, and before long most of the day had slipped by.

Inside a room with open sightlines, the two were preparing to leave empty-handed.

"Oof—"

Petite Roxy couldn't stop in time. The tip of her nose collided straight into the young man's back as he suddenly halted.

Banxia crouched down and pointed ahead.

"There's a goblin that looks a bit different."

"Hmm?"

Roxy leaned against the edge of the broken wall, puzzled, and stood on her tiptoes to peer over.

Sure enough, a tall goblin was rummaging through the rubble for something. Unlike its kin, who wore nothing but a tattered scrap of cloth, this one had squeezed into an entire suit of old armor a size too large, frantically turning over stones and debris.

Roxy hopped carefully off the broken wall and crouched back beside him. "It's probably a mutant guard. Normally, guards like that stay beside a goblin priest at all times..."

"Is that so?" Banxia considered for a moment. "Then it'd rank pretty high even among goblins."

"I suppose..." Roxy looked at him, uncertain. "What are you planning?"

"Look at how frantic it is — it definitely lost something valuable. If we follow it, wouldn't that mean..."

Roxy saw the grin spreading across his face and felt a sinking sensation. "Wouldn't that be too dangerous...?"

Goblin guards existed to protect priests. Their strength wouldn't fall below that of a human Bronze-rank adventurer. Worse, they almost never acted alone, spot one, and there were likely at least five more just like it nearby, plus a high-level priest, and an unknown number of ordinary goblins.

"Is it that dangerous?"

Roxy: "..."

He was clearly very strong. But the past two days had already gotten her somewhat used to these questions of his, the ones that would sound outright idiotic coming from any normal adventurer.

She paused, then walked him through the dangers carefully.

Banxia nodded. His tone was clean and decided.

"You make a fair point. Never mind, then. I was thinking if there really was treasure, I'd split it fifty-fifty with you."

In life, one had to know when to stop.

"...Eh?"

Now it was the blue-haired girl's turn to freeze.

She had expected him to drag her into a long back-and-forth. They were adventurers, who still flinched at a little risk? If the sight of danger was enough to make you turn back, you might as well go home and farm. Let alone talk about a fifty-fifty split.

Not that the fifty-fifty split had anything to do with it.

She simply wanted to do her part in wiping out humanity's natural enemy.

Besides, with a level-eighteen warrior vanguard right here, a careful ambush on one goblin priest's entourage shouldn't be much of a problem.

Seeing that he genuinely had no intention of pressing the matter further, the blue-haired girl found herself the one who couldn't hold still. A note of urgency crept into her voice.

"How about... we follow along and see what's there first? There might really be something good."

"Won't it be too dangerous?"

"If we're careful, it should be fine..."

That was enough. Banxia said nothing more.

He slipped silently after the tall, hurried figure disappearing into the ruins.

Roxy fell in close behind him like a little tail.

Together, the two crept through the rubble in silence, keeping that careful, unhurried distance between themselves and the goblin guard the whole way.

➤ Next: Chantless Water Magic