TRPM 139

chapter 139

I checked the Cleaner Guild members around the sinkhole.

They were only preventing the orcs from climbing out of the sinkhole—they weren’t doing anything beyond that.

Given the situation, creating a blockade like this to stop the monsters from escaping was the best course of action.

‘But they managed to surround them even with so few people?’

The Cleaner Guild showed exactly why, despite being a small elite guild, it had become the third most influential guild in Korea.

When you talk about a blockade, you need a lot of people to cover all the gaps.

And the opponents weren’t ordinary humans—they were orcs, whose physical abilities surpassed humans and who even used tools. Blocking them required skill as well.

Yet the Cleaner Guild, despite having relatively few members in Jeju Island, was perfectly preventing the orcs from escaping the sinkhole.

“Ssssss…!”
“Uaaah…!”
“… Stop making noise and get lost!”

Bang!

Each Cleaner Guild member was handling at least twenty orcs at a time, either pushing them down into the sinkhole or killing them.

Not officers, just regular guild members.

‘Even the members of the Iron Blood Guild are skilled enough to do that overall, but their specialty is dealing with criminals rather than monsters…’

I warmed up while watching the battle between the Cleaner Guild and the orcs.

For now, the Cleaner Guild was holding them back, but if even one member got exhausted and made a mistake, the blockade would collapse and chaos would ensue.

…For example, if I, the cursed spirit summoner, got involved.

“… Tear them apart…!”

Shhhh…!

Fortunately, she was also slaughtering the orcs, though sweating and struggling.

But that wouldn’t last long.

“Teacher, can you hide here?”
“Huh? Uh… sure… I’d just be a hindrance, right?”
“If you’re confident you can handle more than ten orcs alone, help us; otherwise, just stay hidden.”
“I’ll hide.”

Our homeroom teacher nodded and concealed herself.

Seeing that, I loosened up my hands and leapt.

Fwoosh…!

Ogichungso (御氣衝溯).

Using my inner energy to defy gravity, I soared through the air faster than a bullet.

“…Grrraaaah…!”

One orc saw me rising and roared—but it was already too late.

Cheongunchu (千斤墜).

If Ogichungso makes my body surge upward, Cheongunchu does the exact opposite, plunging me downward.

And my falling speed far exceeded my upward speed. If I was faster than a bullet going up, imagine falling even faster.

Kaboom…!

Upon hitting the ground, the kinetic energy was transferred to the surface, causing such impact that the surrounding terrain was displaced.

Moreover, the shockwave from my fall swept through the orcs.

Hoo….

The combination was enough to annihilate the orcs around the impact site.

‘The sinkhole is pretty big, so I couldn’t kill them all.’

Of course, if I had fallen faster—or used more inner energy with Cheongunchu—I could have taken them all out.

But then it wouldn’t have been the orcs causing the problem—it would have been me, turning the city into a wasteland. So I adjusted accordingly.

“…”
“…”
“…”

While I was catching my breath, the surroundings fell silent.

Something felt off, so I looked around…

“Uh… uh-buh-buh….”
“…Sssss…”

The Cleaner Guild members holding the orcs at the sinkhole…
The orcs trying to break through the guild’s blockade into the city…

Everyone was staring at me, mouths agape, unable to process fighting.

Yeah, what I did just now must have been shocking.

‘Still, it would be a shame if they were impressed by just that.’

I muttered, placing my hand at my waist—preparing to draw a sword.

…Of course, there was no sword at my waist.

The Subspace Artifact was in the arm of my doll back in the U.S., and today, on the school trip, I hadn’t brought a sword.

‘… Well, doesn’t really matter.’

I grabbed something off the ground with my hand.

‘There are plenty of swords around.’

The orcs I had swept up during my fall had been carrying swords.

They were enormous swords, hardly suited to my frame, but enough for temporary use.

‘The first weapon I used after regressing wasn’t even a proper sword—it was a broken wooden staff. And that alone was enough to kill orcs.’

Compared to back then, this was much better.

With that in mind, I held the sword and surveyed the orcs staring blankly at me.

The orcs then…

“…”
“…”
“…”

Shied away from my gaze and began stepping back.

“…The orcs are scared…?”

One Cleaner Guild member muttered this.

Even aggressive orcs can sometimes be afraid.

Orcs are intelligent—they use tools and form ranks under a warlord, so it’s not strange for some to be scared.

But an entire tribe? That’s unusual.

‘I’m used to this sight…’

For others, it would be completely alien.

“…Uaaah…!”

Suddenly, one orc roared.

It had overcome its fear of me to rally its subordinates.

‘Not a chieftain… maybe a grand chieftain?’

A grand chieftain outside a dungeon likely meant there were warlord-level orcs inside.

‘And yet this mere grand chieftain dares roar at me?’

How cheeky. I glared at the orc that had roared.

Then…

Crack.
“Sssik?”

First, a sound came from its shoulder.

The orc didn’t understand what was happening.

Crack crack.
“Sssiiiik?!”

Then the same sound came from its legs and spine.

The orc felt the sudden, overwhelming pain and knew something was terribly wrong.

Crack crack crack crack.
“%&@#(!%%#$”

But it was too late.

Its entire body shattered, tore apart, and collapsed.

It screamed, feeling the full extent of the destruction.

‘I wasn’t even using the Divine Eye—just focused all my killing intent, and this is the result…’

Being back in real combat made me realize just how much stronger I had become compared to before regressing.

And my condition wasn’t even optimal.

“…”
“…”
“…”

The orcs and Cleaner Guild members, unaware of my thoughts, stared dumbfounded at the corpse of the orc whose body had twisted and broken as I had just fallen from the sky.

To them, it must have looked like the orc died on its own after I merely glared.

“…Sssss…”

One orc, alternating between the corpse and me, seemed to make up its mind.

Clang!
“?”

It discarded its weapon.

I was puzzled. Even after seeing many orc types, I had never seen this.

Thud!

The orc then knelt.

Slide…

It went down fully, pressing its forehead and elbows to the ground—Prostration (Ochetuji).

It looked clumsy due to its physiology, but the intent was clear. It was surrendering.

“…Sssss…”
“…”
Clang!
Clatter!

Other orcs began dropping their weapons and kneeling one by one.

They were surrendering to me.

‘Huh… seriously…’

I couldn’t hide my astonishment. How orcs knew prostration is one thing…

‘Orcs surrendering at all…’

It’s not unheard of for monsters to surrender to humans.

Especially unintelligent monsters often instinctively submit to strong humans and serve them.

‘If I could store living creatures in my Subspace Artifact, I could try taming them…’

Knowing that, I had wanted to tame the intelligent wyverns.

But as far as I knew, orcs had never done that before.

‘So I’m probably the first…’

This might be troublesome if word spreads, but with many witnesses, I can’t hide it.

Ah, by the way…

Shhhhk!

I swung my sword once, beheading all the surrendered orcs.

They probably thought surrendering would save their lives… but why should I bother?

‘No need for me to clean up after them.’

Some eccentric people collect tamed monsters as pets—but that’s not me.

‘Alright then…’

I surveyed the bodies of the orcs filling the sinkhole and checked the gate they had likely emerged from.

“…Unbelievable…”

A Cleaner Guild member muttered.

Even for the guild that had conquered countless dungeons, what Jae-Su Yeon did was unprecedented.

“When I got pushed outside the dungeon because I couldn’t fully focus on fighting… I had prepared for the worst-case scenario, which was death…”

All eyes turned to Jae-Su Yeon.

Today, her condition wasn’t great, causing problems as a spirit summoner.

This dungeon contained warlord-level orcs, but the present members could clear it with some time and effort.

Yet since Jae-Su Yeon had to keep reducing the orc numbers and couldn’t focus, the Cleaner Guild had been pushed outside the dungeon by the overwhelming numbers.

“…Sorry.”

She had no idea she was cursed, so all she could do was apologize.

“Considering your condition, fighting outside the dungeon wasn’t bad.”
“…”

One member asked, but Jae-Su Yeon stayed silent.

Others considered whether to press her, but…

“…By the way, do you smell something weird?”
“Isn’t it the smell of corpses?”
“No, something… metallic…”

One guild member looked at Jae-Su Yeon.

“…Weren’t you stuck in the bathroom before coming out to work?”
“…”

She couldn’t respond. Others realized why she had regained some condition and what the smell was.

“…”
“…”
“…”

The guild members tried not to say anything to preserve her dignity—but that consideration only ended up hurting her.