Beastman of Farum Azula

Lu Mingfei tipped the empty Flask into his mouth, but not even a single drop of dew touched his tongue.

Trembling, he hung the bottle back at his waist, pressed his back against the damp rock wall, and panted heavily.

I thought I'd gotten stronger...

But I still nearly ended up as dog food.

Just dealing with the pack of wolves had drained much of Lu Mingfei's strength, and while exploring the tunnel, he had nearly had his throat bitten through by a gray wolf lurking in the darkness.

Still, making it here alone on one life could barely count as... progress, right? He tugged at the corner of his mouth in a self-mocking smile.

Unfortunately, he was already out of ammunition and supplies.

If he returned to the Site of Grace to replenish his dew, this place would reset as though time had rewound, meaning he would have to fight his way in all over again.

"Then wouldn't all that suffering have been for nothing?"

Lu Mingfei muttered as he turned his head toward the firelit cave.

Was this what Godrick's soldiers had been hunting—or imprisoning—all this time?

It really... gave him a bad feeling, as though something terrible would happen the moment he stepped inside.

Well... he was already here. He might as well see what was inside.

At worst, he would die.

It sounded heroic enough, but coming from Lu Mingfei, it seemed somewhat absurd.

Lu Mingfei slowly rose to his feet, put away his torch in storage, equipped his small round shield, tucked several beast-bone throwing knives into his belt, and gripped the single-edged knife that had accompanied him for so long, its blade now chipped.

Once he had made every preparation, Lu Mingfei took a deep breath and stepped into the cavern, uneasy and apprehensive.

A bonfire burned in the spacious cavern, while large patches of old brown blood had dried across the ground.

The figure standing in the firelight made Lu Mingfei's breath catch.

The monster stood a full two meters tall. Its humanoid body was covered in blackish-gray fur, the ends of which were clotted with old brown blood. Its face resembled a mixture of a wolf and other wild beasts, with a protruding snout and sharp canine teeth like curved daggers, all smeared with bloody foam.

Blue-faced and fanged, it was hideous beyond description.

Most terrifying of all was the bloodstained, bizarre greatsword in its hand. Its jagged blade was grotesquely intimidating, like an executioner's cleaver.

The bonfire cast its shadow onto the rock wall, stretching it long, long into the darkness.

Beastman of Farum Azula.

The moment Lu Mingfei saw the monster, its name surfaced in his mind.

Beastman was a fitting name. It looked both human and beastlike.

Farum Azula? What was that? A place name? Was there such a place in the Lands Between? Galle had never seemed to mention it...

The pressure the beastman gave off was on an entirely different level from ordinary soldiers, demi-humans, or wolves. Its strength might rival the Godrick Knight before Gatefront Ruins—no, perhaps it was even stronger.

Was he really going to fight an enemy like this?

Maybe I should just slit my throat. It'd be faster, and probably hurt less...

Though he thought that, Lu Mingfei still took a deep breath and tensed his body. His blood began to race, feeding every muscle so he could unleash his full strength at any moment.

After so many battles and so many deaths, Lu Mingfei had finally, barely, begun to look a little like a warrior.

At the very least, he no longer ran at the first sign of danger.

What did those edgy guys call it again? Ah, the heart of a warrior.

No, I'm just so afraid of pain that I don't dare die casually anymore...

Death was painful. Death was terrifying. So every death had to bring the value it deserved.

That way, he could die a few fewer times later.

The flames flickered.

"Roar!"

A harsh howl rang out, carrying the stench of rot and blood.

The savage, bloodthirsty beastman swung its greatsword, tearing through the air as it wildly thrust toward Lu Mingfei!

Slash—

The approaching edge of the blade reflected in Lu Mingfei's pupils, but his body had already dodged before his mind could react.

This death... at least I need to see its moves clearly.

Lu Mingfei lay sprawled beside the Site of Grace, the shadow of the rocks reflected in his empty eyes.

Heart of a warrior, my ass...

I'm just an ordinary college student. Why the hell should I risk my life against a monster like that?

Do I really think I'm some S-rank hybrid?

Never mind that frightening thrust of its—even just swinging that three-meter greatsword had overwhelming momentum. In close combat, he was completely outmatched.

Even worse were its repeated slashes, like a raging storm, which had directly cut his limbs apart in sprays of blood and flesh.

And it had the strength of a calf. The small round shield could not block it at all!

Worst of all, the single-edged knife that had accompanied Lu Mingfei through countless days and nights had finally broken.

Of course it had broken...

It was only an ordinary iron weapon, after all.

This was simply adding insult to injury.

The single-edged knife was light, quick, and easy to use. It also possessed some strange trait: after repeated slashes, it caused enemies to bleed heavily. It was truly an essential tool for home, travel... murder, and robbery.

But now, he did not even have a replacement.

The soldiers' remains contained only clumsy longswords and war picks.

Repair it?

The smithing table at the church was covered in thick dust and rust.

He could barely swing a hammer properly. How could he possibly use a smithing table?

Galle could make arrows and carve bone knives, but repair a weapon?

That was even more ridiculous than asking a high school student to save the world, damn it!

Did he have no choice but to change weapons?

Tch.

The most ironic part was that this broken knife was the only weapon he was good at using.

A powerful urge to give up surged in Lu Mingfei's heart once more.

I want to run...

Run back to the Church of Elleh, then wait there day after day for the little devil to save me and take me back to the civilized twenty-first century, far away from this bloody, savage world.

The moment the thought emerged, he crushed it.

He had tried doing that before, only to be driven mad by loneliness and isolation, forcing him to leave the church once again.

"What the fuck kind of life is this?"

Lu Mingfei muttered to himself.

"What the fuck kind of life is this?"

Lu Mingfei suddenly sprang up and drove his fist into the rock wall.

"Bang!"

Fragments of stone rattled down.

"I've had eight lifetimes of goddamn bad luck," Lu Mingfei said, raising his middle finger at the cavern ceiling. "Being a loser in my old world was bad enough. Why do I still have to suffer every damn day after transmigrating?"

"Chu Zihang said I was S-rank!"

"Caesar said I had potential!"

"And what happened?!"

Lu Mingfei viciously hurled the broken knife in his hand to the ground.

"Fuck you! I lived like a dog in my old world, and now I have to be a dog in the Lands Between too?"

A beastman's roar came from afar.

His neck instinctively shrank back, only for him to forcefully stiffen it again. The motion was ridiculous.

That movement suddenly made Lu Mingfei fall silent.

How similar. How much like the person he had been when Zhao Menghua bullied him—the Lu Mingfei who wanted to hide but did not dare to.

"Fine."

He shakily stood and tucked the broken knife back into his belt.

"At least this time, nobody's saying, 'Lu Mingfei, drop out. Don't hold our class back...'"