21 New World 4

Carne Village is a frontier village located at the border between what was the Re-Estize Kingdom and Baharuth Empire, settled south of the Azerlisia Mountains and next to the Great Forest of Tob. Carne Village is located approximately 10 kilometers from the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Screams could be heard all over the village at this moment, horrifying a young blonde hair girl who was running for her life, with her little sister in her hands.

She was at the edge of the village near the forest, they were so close, but the sound of metal clanging never left her ear. and to her horror, there was a night running after her. She was just a little village girl, already out of breath, yet she couldn't outrun this knight covered in head-to-toe armor.

If she was running alone, she was sure she would have given up. but the fact she had her sister pushed her, giving her the strength to push past her struggles. her heart which was raising nonstop, her legs which were shaking due to how tired she was... but she kept running, she had to.

Enri held her sister, gritting her teeth and fighting off those thoughts that were telling her to let go of Nemu's hand. maybe if she let her go, she could make it, after all the knight wasn't catching up, with less of a burden, then she should outrun that knight... but she couldn't do this, her parents were just killed before her eyes, how could she just leave the last family member she had?

But Enri was already out of breath, what about Nemu? She was only 10 years old and was already pushing herself to keep up with Enri. Nemu tripped, almost falling, but she didn't as she was holding Enri's hand, but this sent Enri off balance.

They tried to regain their balance and continue running, but Nemu's leg had cramped up, and this moment was more than enough for the knight to catch up to them. Enri quickly moved to protect Nemu, while she stared down the knight who was covered in blood, maybe it was her father's blood, maybe someone else, she didn't know.

"There is no point in running." The Knight said with an indifferent tone, which enraged Enri. it was like the knight was saying no matter how they ran or what they did, it was all pointless as their end was set in stone.

Fueled by this rage, Enri stepped forward just as the Knight was raising his sword. faster than the knight could swing the sword Enri's fist slammed into the knight, sending the knight stumbling backward, along with the sound of bones shattering on impact.

"Let's go!" Enri yelled as a way to help lessen the pain she felt at the moment, she grabbed Nemu and wanted to run for her life, but the feeling of a burning hot blade cutting through her back. She cried in pain as she fell to the ground, she turned to look at the Knight whose sword was now dripping with her blood.

"You little!" The knight was enraged, how embarrassing was it for him, a trained knight to be hit by a little village girl? he was of course enraged. He raised his sword, ready to cut Enri down. Enri looked at the blade that was going to take her life, realizing there was nothing she a village girl could do... she would die... but what about Nemu

She watched as the sword came falling, seemingly coming down in slow motion. Maybe it was the fact she saw death coming, causing her brain to go into overdrive to try and find a way to survive, maybe it was an illusion. but she moved, shielding Nemu with her body. this was all she could do for her little sister, and for that small chance for Nemu to survive, she was willing to give her life...

"I have broken down this world language, from what I could tell, this here is called Carne village. Their job is to draw out someone called Gazef Stronoff, who is something like the strongest warrior from the Re-Estize Kingdom and King Ramposa's bodyguard." Standing before both players and NPC, behind me stood mirrors that currently showed the slaughter happening in Carne village, and another one showing Gazef and his man who were on horseback, running towards Carne village.

[Image of Gazef group]

"From what I can see, Gazef knows he is running into a trap, but he cares more about saving the villagers. So, let's do this." I said while looking at both NPC and Momonga and the others.

"Who would go play hero? I want to use Carne Village as our gateway into this new world. I also want to use them as a way to study the ways of this world. so, I don't want someone who would be cruel, I want someone who can befriend them, and not be so cruel, so someone like Ulbert is not going." I said calmly, making Ulbert feel offended, yes he was taking joy in seeing those humans be killed... okay, maybe he wasn't the best person.

"Momonga, Herohero, Peroroncino, and Bukubukuchagama. One of you can join me, although Momonga would have to hide his face. I of course have to go since I'm the only one who knows this world language." I said calmly, knowing damn well that through magic or something, we can still understand this world language, although I did learn this world language from simply reading lips and not hearing them speak.

"Peroroncino should go..." Herohero wanted to speak, but Bukubukuchagama threw him a glare, causing his voice to die down. Perorncino sighed helplessly, he thought he was the best person to head out, but his sister seemed to want to go hearing she wouldn't be alone.

"As the best tank in all of YGGDRASIL, adding you being the best attacker, it's clear it should be us two going," Bukubukuchagama said to which I nodded in understanding,

"... forgive me for speaking out of place. but I can't let you go out there into danger without any extra protection." Albedo said to which the rest of the NPC looked at us, with a serious look, 

"Have those who specialize in stealth follow, but they are not to act unless I give them the go-ahead," I said calmly, to which Albedo hesitated as they might not be strong enough, she looked towards Shadow, wanting him to at least go.

"Allow shadow to come with you," Momonga said to which I nodded slightly, I had shadow enter Bukubukuchagama shadow, and not mine. Shadow was a kind of shadow monster, a unique race Momonga managed to create when playing around.

With that out of the way, I opened a portal while looking towards the mirror which showed a scene of a father speaking towards the mirror, as if speaking towards us. I smiled slightly, shocked at how things were playing out pretty much the same way, but with my next move, things should start taking a sudden turn...

The 10th tier Spell Gate, Summons is a portal, that allows travel of a large number of people over great distances. It has no limits on distance and a 0% chance of teleport mishaps. It is considered to be the highest tier of teleportation magic. I of course learned this spell,

Bukubukuchagama and Myself stepped through this portal and arrived before a scene where a knight was about to cut down a little girl. one was blonde who should be the elder sister, and the other had red hair, who should be the little sister. 

The night had frozen when the gate had opened, leaving his blade just hanging in the air, and looking into the portal with fear slowly swallowing him. he had never seen anything like this, not even the dungeons he had entered gave him such a dangerous feeling. it was like what was on the other side of these portals were monsters, monsters that were nothing he could comprehend.

But the first thing to step out of that portal was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, he couldn't begin to measure how this woman's charm destroyed his understanding of what beauty could be. how on earth was he to love another woman after seeing her?

But his worldview on male charm was also destroyed when a handsome red-haired man stepped through the portal. Although this man only had on simple clothing, nothing too outstanding like the woman who had on clothing meant for battle, he felt the most danger from this person.

"..." Bukubukuchagama looked towards the two girls who were looking at her, fear and hope in their eyes. seeing the blood running behind Enri's back, she gritted her teeth slightly. not out of rage towards the fact someone harmed these two kids, one was 16 while the other was 10, but the fact she felt disconnected. it was like she wasn't looking at someone of the same race, a part of her felt pity and heartache, but not to the same degree she would have felt if this was someone of the same race.

Meanwhile, I just felt disdain towards the Knight. What was the point of fighting the weak? I guess as a dragon I had no interest in playing with ants... and I didn't mind such thoughts. although I pity the girls, it wasn't to the point Bukubukuchagama felt. If Momonga was here, he would have felt nothing. Mononga would have only helped them because his human side told him to, Bukubukuchagama's humanity was far more than Momonga and mine, so she valued these kids' lives more than me at the moment.

But I wanted to see if she would make the first move. I had timed everything out, up to the point I arrived here to save the two sisters, now I would just let Bukubukuchagama act however she wanted, so long as she didn't slaughter the villagers.

Bukubukuchagama moved, using the 6th-tier spell Acid Dragon Arrow. countless dragon arrows formed behind her, before they all shot towards the knight, the acid easily burning the man and the arm at a high speed, that the Knight barely made out a cry before his whole body disappeared into the hole in the ground as the acid continued to melt through the ground.

"So weak..." Bukubukuchagama was caught off by how weak that Knight was, it was overkill, she looked towards me, just to see me holding the acid in my hands, watching how it struggled to burn through my flesh, but my resistance made me immune.

"Are you alright? you just took a life?" I said softly, making Bukubukuchagama look at her palms for a moment... she felt slight guilt, but it wasn't mostly towards taking a life, but the fact she didn't swallow it, and devour that lifeform. So, she slowly shook her head, while turning her head towards another knight.

She used a 3rd tier spell, Fireball. She pointed forward, and with a flash, a huge fireball shot forward, swallowing the knight. A huge explosion went off, destroying the nearby houses, trees, and the ground. Again, she felt regret as she saw the dust slowly disappear.

"They are too weak," Bukubukuchagama said in shock, yes that attack could kill some level 90 players, and badly injure even a level 100 player if the right conditions were met... but this... they were a bit too weak. But she ignored this and asked me to summon something to go slaughter the knights. I just summoned a death knight. Although I could have summoned anything else, I picked it as I knew it wouldn't slaughter all of the knights, and it was too lazy to summon anything stronger.

"Are you two alright?" She asked to which Enri nodded slightly, charmed by Bukubukuchagama's beauty. Bukubukuchagama wasn't much of a healer, but she had learned a few spells to heal herself and her teammates if the moment called for it. So, she was about to use a healing spell, but I instead gave her a potion to drink.

"B-blood!" Enri said in shock and fear seeing the potion that was handed towards her.

"It's not blood... do you not know what a potion is?" I asked calmly, although I knew the answer already.

"y-yes, I have a friend who makes them... but they are not red," Enri said with a confused look, to which Bukubukuchagama gave her a confused look. what else could the color of a potion be?

"You have nothing to worry about, that Potion would heal you right up," Bukubukuchagama said in a soft gentle voice, to which Enri although easily nodded, it was easier to trust beautiful people after all. So, she opened the potion and went on to drink it, and to her shock, she felt her bones and back heal up. he reached behind her and even felt that her clothing was no longer damaged 

"Well, we will go save the rest of your village. take these horns, they should be more than enough to protect you." I said while throwing her the Horn of the Goblin General.

"blow them when you are in trouble, it would summon a group of Goblins that are completely loyal to you," I said while she caught the horns, leaving Bukubukuchagama confused as they had far better horns that summoned far more powerful monsters. But I had her follow me while I explained.

"this world is weak compared to us, let's not bring out things too powerful. Plus, I want to see if the horns would work the same way as In the game. She also grew stronger after this event, that girl is special, and I don't want to baby her. given the right push, she should grow to become someone special." I said causing Bukubukuchagama to look back while casting a spell to allow her to see someone else level, only to see Enri was at level 2.

"She was at level 1 before everything took place, I want to see how far she could go," I said while remembering in the story, how in just 4 months from now, Enri would be around level 6. It was noted that she leveled up fast for someone who didn't go around training or killing monsters. I wanted to recreate that to study

"I see..." Bukubukuchagama said softly,

"w-wait!" the two sisters called out, wow oddly on their knees, as if standing before two god-like existences. We stopped and looked at them in confusion.

"We are grateful that you saved us... but may we know the name of our saver?" They asked to which I thought for a moment. Should I go by Alex or Igneel? Bukubukuchagama was also having a similar problem, what should she be known as in this new world?

"I'm known as Bukubukuchagama... but call me Bukubuku for short." She said casting away her old life, this one was far better anyway. 

"i'm Igneel," I said with a nod towards them, before walking off. Just to arrive at the center of the village where all of the villagers stood, surrounded by the knights, who were fearfully looking at the Death Knight slaughtering the other knights

"Enough Death Knight, you have done your job," I said causing the Death Night to come to a stop and look towards me, waiting for its next order.

"I find it interesting that I can just send it off like that. Do, you think it would remain in this world?... Buku?" I asked, to which Bukubukuchagama turned to glare at me. She wanted to pick another name for herself,

"Never realized it before. Chag ma? What are you chuging?" I asked with a smirk, making Bukubukuchagama shake her head quickly.

"Thats not where I got the name, I got it from Bunpuku Chagama, a Japanese folklore about a shape-shifting tanuki." She explained quickly, just to realize I was just teasing her, she glared at me before just ignoring me and headed off to deal with the knights. 

"Don't kill all of them, I want to use them to get information," I said to which she said nothing back while easily knocking out all of the knights.

"Are you all alright?" Bukubukuchagama asked while going over to the villagers who were looking at her as if they were seeing an angel for the first time. A few were injured which she helped, I didn't care to heal them, as I went on to study the lifeless bodies of the knights, seeing if I could find any information on them.

'Smart.' I thought as I could find nothing but the armor linking them back to their kingdom, but even that was misleading. But the armor wasn't normal as I found it to be enchanted and holding magical enchantment... which was off as I was sure nothing like this happened in the story. or was there something like this, but the Author of the story never spoke about it?

'they have the same organs as those back in my world, are every verse out there the same or what?' I thought calmly, only to come back to reality as Bukubukuchagama called me over as the villagers began asking her questions, and she thought it was best I do the talking. She had answered the simple ones like why she saved them, but they just kept talking which began annoying her.

"Our work isn't free, but we don't need gold and such things. As for the price, I would like to speak with the village head personally on that matter." I said calmly, to which the village head lowered his head as he realized I wasn't as friendly as Bukubukuchagama was.

"Understood." So, we went to a private room, allowing the other villagers to get ready to bury the lives bodies left behind. but as the Village head began talking about money, I stopped him.

"I don't care for money, the price I want is knowledge. Tell me, what do you understand about magic?" I asked while sitting before the village head, while Bukubukuchagama was outside, helping the villagers out... although now she was just doing it, because she felt like she should, and not because she wanted to.

"not much..." the village head said in embarrassment, to which I nodded in understanding.

"Well, me and my friend are magic casters who have been studying magic for hundreds of years now. so, we have been cut off from the outside world. What I want is information on what happened in the past 500 or so years. what major events have happened?" I asked stunning the village head that the seemly young man before him was far older than him.

"w-well... I remember hearing that dungeons started appearing about 600 years ago." He said causing my eyebrow to raise, as dungeons were not a concept that should appear in this new world.

"Dungeons are strange gateways that lead to another dimension filled with all types of powerful monsters. they began appearing 600 years ago, and ever since, every 10 years a new dungeon would appear.." He said to which I nodded lightly,

'How? Is it because I used the world items to link all of the dungeons in the game to Nazarick? So, Nazarick coming, meant that the dungeons are coming? but shouldn't all of the dungeons appear with Nazarick? how do these dungeons even work in this new world? shouldn't the world be stronger thanks to these dungeons? No, I can't forget about human greed, and I'm sure humans of this world just don't level up from killing monsters. So, these dungeons should only offer stuff like resources that they could use. the armor from those men did have greater defense capability while also being lighter, it even increased those Knights's capability somewhat. So, everyone should remain as strong, but with just better gear.' I thought with narrowed eyes.

'Since this world remains stable, it should either mean the stronger dungeons are yet to appear... or those who enter the dungeon can't leave. I wonder if the dungeons are the same as Solo leveling? Would the dungeon respawn everything that was used up after a said amount of time?' I thought before going on to ask a few more questions to get a good grasp on everything.

the dungeons were something that ran on a clock, pretty much people had to enter them and slaughter what was within said dungeon, or else the dungeon would open up, allowing what was within to come into this world. but within this dungeon were many mines, and with it came many powerful monsters, which the strongest people of this world had to work together to kill, such as the dragons.

the village head didn't have all of the information, but I did go on to catch up on everything such as the many empires there were, and they seemed to be the same as the original overlord. So, with everything done, I thanked them and even joined them in watching how they buried those who died before they could turn into undead

"Should we bring them back to life?" Bukubukuchagama asked softly while looking at the people crying below, from on top of the hill we were on. I shook my head at her words.

"Although we could, it doesn't mean we should. I took a big risk by saying we are 500 years old and didn't know a thing about this world, but that risk was to allow us to see if anything huge and shocking happened. If the world finds out that we have the power to bring the dead back to life and easily take it, we would be like gods... that births arrogance, arrogance leads to mistakes, and mistakes lead to one's downfall." I said to which Bukubukuchagama nodded slightly.

"You need not force yourself to be kind to them, that would build up annoyance, which would one day explode... and who knows, you might just slap an old lady to death. but don't let go of your humanity, have a good view of good and wrong, and not just throw away everything you know." I said while putting my palm on her shoulders, Bukubukuchagama didn't say anything as she was lost in her thoughts.

But it didn't take long for more problems to arrive as the village head informed us of how more shoulders were heading towards the village. So, with Bukubukuchagama, we went to go meet them at the entrance of the villagers, where Gazef's eyes landed on me and Bukubukuchagama, but mainly on me due to how unease I made him feel.

"I'm Royal Warrior Gazef Storenoff, the king has ordered me to stop the knights that have been attacking the surrounding villagers," Gazef said his eyes never leaving me, 

"Greetings general Stronoff." The village chief said, making me roll my eyes, this guy said nothing about this guy, yet he seemed to know of Gazef's existence. 

"Are you the village head? who is this man next to you?" Gazef asked, to which I just let the village head explain, while my head was lost elsewhere.

'wasn't Gazef around level 30? he is at level 44.' I thought calmly, I knew the general level of most people, and I had searched for the information online before the game reset. Gazef was stronger than he should be, most likely due to the dungeons, plus he didn't even have his full set of gear on... 

But my attention was brought back to reality by Gazef who got off the back of his horse and went on to thank me for saving the village. Which I waved off as it wasn't anything too big.

"Captain, a large number of soldiers of unknown origin are surrounding the village as we speak." A soldier said