Chapter 71

Many changes occurred while Muyoung was away from his territory .

Under Baltan’s direction, wooden buildings were built and they earned necessary items from exploring the dungeon .

Although there were less than 100 people, they were united for survival .

They might have had the thought that they needed to figure out how to survive by themselves .

‘There was no other choice . ’

Irene placed her leather armor on a drying rack with the most sunlight as she shook her head .

She needed to prepare for the worst case scenario when the Lord didn’t return .

They were able to protect the village to a certain degree with the undead left beside by the man but she couldn’t be certain that this would continue .

Also, there was no way to know when a strong monster would invade the village .

These factors made the people worry .

Although this did help provide motivation to be united, that was only a desperate struggle to live .

Irene looked at Baltan standing firmly in front of the entrance of the village .

‘Baltan . ’

He hovered between life and death after being poisoned by a murloc .

But, he became a knight of the Lord the next day .

However, Irene knew the truth which the village people were unaware of .

‘Baltan… died . ’

Irene was the first to notice that Baltan was dead .

But when the Lord returned, Baltan’s consciousness came back to life .

When Baltan reopened his eyes, he became more quiet and stronger .

Incomparable to the past .

She thought he might have been turned into an undead but his memories were still intact .

His attitude towards other people including Irene didn’t change greatly .

He desperately tried to protect the village and even risked his life for the people .

It was clearly different from the time when Heidegger became a completely different person .

‘Are you really Baltan?’

A question she couldn’t bear to ask .

Even now when few weeks had gone by, she wasn’t able to ask him this one question .

She couldn’t find the right timing and had kept delaying it .

Irene tightly bit her lips .

Today, she was going to ask for sure .

However, as expected, she couldn’t ask him .

This time, it wasn’t due to an internal factor but an external factor .

“The village, move it! Then your lives, will be saved . ”

Fifteen lizardmen came to the village .

The ones that walked on two feet with the face and the body of a lizard .

They looked around the village with greedy eyes .

It seemed like the newly created buildings stimulated the greed of the lizardmen .

Baltan who was guarding the entrance slowly placed his hands on his waist .

Swoosh!

Baltan held his sword up high and sliced off a lizardman’s head .

Grrrrrrr!

The lizardmen bared their teeth .

The claws that seemed like they could pierce through everything became longer and their heads turned red .

It meant that they were prepared for combat and that it was impossible to settle this with words .

Thud . Thud .

However, half of them fell to the floor before they made their move .

The undead hidden inside the shadows .

It was because the Avengers who Muyoung left behind appeared behind the lizardmen .

Kyaaaah!

The rest of the lizardmen shook their bodies and started to attack .

“While I’m here, no monsters will invade our territory . ”

Baltan and the undead fought against the lizardmen as if they were a single entity .

The Guardian of the Territory, Baltan!

Through Muyoung, he was born again and was specialized in defending .

The problem started the following day .

The fact that these lizardmen weren’t the only ones .

“You guys, are confined . I will slowly, starve you to death . ”

The next day, the one that introduced itself as the ‘lizardman king’ appeared . It was a huge monster at least twice the size of other lizardmen and brought 500 lizardmen to the village with him .

Did they need to thank them for not pouncing on them from the start?

After the lizardman king left, the expressions of everyone in the village stiffened .

“Damn it, they are telling us to just die . ”

“What should we do? With just us, we won’t be able to handle so many . ”

“The lizardmen have very keen senses . If they are determined, it would be hard to leave the village . ”

“First, let’s try to find the people who can fight against the lizardmen . We can’t just stand here and suffer . ”

However, they didn’t give up .

They didn’t have a way to run away either .

This was the Demon God’s Territory .

A land too barren for them to live on .

Another fight began and Baltan continued to show off his abilities .

Cry of the Guardian .

The effect that increased the ‘toughness’ of allies which made people think more realistically .

They divided themselves into groups; first, people who could fight one-on-one with the lizardmen formed a group and the rest were divided up into supporting roles according to their abilities .

The lizardman king tried to create disunity by frightening them but everyone cooperated even more than before .

They couldn’t just lose the sanctuary they finally gained .

“Let’s think of a way . ”

“Let’s make a trap . ”

“We have the murloc’s poison . ”

“We still have some leather left . Don’t you think we can plan some sort of disguise tactic with them?”

“Since they don’t seem like they will invade us right now, let’s work the fastest we can . ”

The lizardman king’s scheme wasn’t going as he had planned .

Abnormal for monsters, he was playing mind games but that actually gave them an opportunity .

If he suddenly charged in with 500 monsters, they wouldn’t have been able to hold them off and would have been annihilated instantly .

However, now that they had a day, they had the chance to make a last-ditch effort .

Kyeeeek!

The next day, 100 lizardmen raided the village .

However, no matter how keen the lizardmen’s senses were, they couldn’t avoid the skillfully made traps .

As they stepped inside the village, ten lizardmen were trapped inside holes or were poisoned by a strong poison .

And arrows rained down .

Ting! Tinng!

However, the skin of the lizardmen was tough . There was no way for a wooden arrow to pierce through them .

The lizardmen flicked their tongue .

Although they were skillfully made traps, if they experienced it once, the story changed .

They concentrated on the ground to avoid the traps .

Arrows? They didn’t care . If they were careful of their eyes, they thought they wouldn’t be afflicted .

However, that relaxing attitude didn’t last long .

Blaze!

Suddenly, the normal arrows were changed to flaming ones .

“Quickly! Quickly roll the oil tanks!”

“Like we practiced, roll the oil tanks to the places we’ve designated!”

The oil they extracted from murloc corpses had many uses in everyday life .

However, they were also useful in defending the village .

Keruk? Keeeruk?

As their surroundings were instantly covered with fire, the lizardmen became flustered .

It wouldn’t be easy for them to overcome their instinctive fear of fire .

In reality, there were a few lizardmen that were painfully being burned to death .

“Now is the time! Attack!”

Now . Baltan didn’t lose this chance .

Around 50 people held their own weapons and started to attack the lizardmen .

Most of them were weapons Lord Muyoung left behind but they weren’t bad .

At least, they were enough to pierce through the scales of the lizardmen .

Slash!

Clash!

All kinds of battle sounds filled up all around them .

As their spirits collapsed, the lizardmen ran about in confusion .

Shortly after, they started to run away in retreat .

The people cheered as they raised their weapons up high .

“We won!!”

“Don’t ever come back, you damn lizards”

“Kyaaack! Ptui!”

Victory was always sweet .

As the people were drunk with that word, they shouted out their feelings, embraced each other and danced .

However, they couldn’t always feel the sweetness of victory .

There were about 500 lizardmen in total . Even if they reduced their numbers by a few tens, they were still over 400 left .

And as the numbers slowly increased and they were getting used to their tactics, people were getting nervous .

Even though they were still holding on, people secretly knew that they would be at their limit soon .

‘Is there no way?’

Late at night . Irene was preoccupied .

‘Like this, it will be difficult . We won’t last long . ’

It wasn’t just the lizardmen that died .

More than 10 people had died already .

It was obvious that within time, the rate of deaths would increase .

However, no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t think of a way to solve this .

‘I’m… powerless . ’

Irene hung her head .

She could only guard the entrance, make traps and use a bow .

At most, 2 people’s worth of work .

With just that, she couldn’t turn the current situation around .

At that moment, Baltan, who was sitting with a few men near a fire, stood up from his spot .

“Baltan?”

“The enemies are here . ”

“Enemies…?!”

Zing! Zing!

Irene quickly shook the small bell-shaped item on her neck .

It was an item she earned from the murloc dungeon and if she shook it, it would produce a loud sound .

The people who were asleep hastily gathered .

About 70 in total .

However, everyone was completely exhausted .

It was because, for the last 3 days, they weren’t able to sleep well .

“A lot of enemies . Standby . ”

However, Baltan didn’t order for them to attack unlike before .

Soon, hundreds of red eyes sparkled in the darkness .

In the middle, the lizardman king showed its huge presence .

“It finally came . ”

“Damn it…”

People clicked their tongues bitterly .

Their only hope was for it to make a miscalculation .

However, it seemed like that last hope disappeared .

About 400 lizardmen and 70 villagers .

There was no need to compare who would out on top .

Their only choice was to negotiate .

Baltan walked forward with heavy steps .

“Lizardman king, face me one-on-one . Let’s end this as representatives from each side . ”

This was their only option .

For Baltan and the lizardman king to fight .

Of course, the probability was very small .

Baltan could hold him off for a long time as his stamina was high but it wouldn’t lead him to victory .

“N, O . ”

Thump!

However, it even refused to talk .

The lizardman king lifted its tail and smacked Baltan .

Baltan’s body lifted up into the air and crashed down near them .

“Baltan!”

Irene went to look after Baltan but he raised his hand and stood up from his spot .

She could feel his will to protect the people and the village until the end .

Irene burst out into tears as she watched him .

“Baltan, it’s too difficult . From the start, this was a fight we couldn’t win . ”

If they were a bit stronger .

This was also something that had occurred because they weren’t strong .

If they had strength, the lizardmen wouldn’t have been able to threaten them .

For survival, they combined their strength but this was their limit .

To be honest, you could say they were amazing to hold them back for this long .

But, Baltan shook his head .

“No, we can win . ”

“What do you mean we can win? How?”

“He’s here . ”

He?

Baltan was looking towards a faraway place .

Following Baltan’s gaze, Irene turned her gaze towards the location and immediately, her body shivered .

You would have to call it ghastly .

Chills ran down her spine .

A fierce dusty wind blew and from afar, many things were approaching .

Lizardmen were able to feel it as well .

They turned their heads and couldn’t help but stiffen their bodies .

Before they knew it, tens of thousands of dokkaebis had encircled the lizardmen .

And in the center, a person who Irene was familiar with appeared .

‘Ah…’

She now realized who he was .

At least at that moment, she couldn’t be happier to see him .

The lord who left them had returned .

Within the darkness, his eyes were sparkling with an especially red shine .

“What are you lizards up to?”

The lizardmen didn’t reply .

That was why Muyoung spoke coldly .

“Kill them . ”

“Oom has ordered us! Kill all lizardmen!”

As the blue skin colored duaxini yelled, about 20,000 dokkaebis started to move .

A massacre occurred afterwards .

No other words were necessary .

The lizardman king felt that the situation was dangerous as the dokkaebis suddenly barricaded them from behind .

“King, of dokkaebis! Fight me, one-on-one!”

“No . ”

Swoosh!

Anguish made a quiet sound .

From his body, thousands of black specters soared out .

Everyone trembled at the sight .

In just one month .

The lord returned as a king .