Priest

"..."

However, he chose none of those.

With a wave of his burly arms, a putrid wind began to manifest inside the warehouse.

Swoosh!

Moving all the monster corpses in the vicinity, this wind current, now turned into a gust, gathered all the organic matter it found in the center of the warehouse.

CHACK!

Suddenly, with a sharp jerk, the giant grabbed his left arm and ripped it completely off, dropping a large amount of green, slimy blood on the floor.

Without so much as a wince, he then flung the arm into the wind in the center.

By this point, the wind had begun to increase its speed, spinning so much that little by little, the remains of monsters began to get smaller, being torn apart and staining the whirlwind.

Now a shade of brown, the whirlwind then focused all its attention on the giant's arm, breaking it with ease and taking it in, further increasing its speed.

For a while, the wind continued to rampage through the warehouse, all under the watchful eye of the giant, who waited anxiously for it to end.

Until finally, the whirlwind began to dissipate.

In the middle of the warehouse, lying on the floor was a robust humanoid being, measuring approximately two meters and with a skin of a strong scarlet color.

Although it seemed weak due to its position, this quickly changed when it began to move, starting to emanate an aura appropriate of a being whose origin was the combination of corpses and blood.

Its head, unexpectedly, contained hair and ears, looking much more like a human than the average monster, though perhaps thanks to the material used in its creation.

Its face lacked eyes, possessing only a nose and a mouth from which two protruding fangs could be seen at each corner.

Staring at the giant, this being did not prostrate itself or show fear like the other monsters did, merely paying attention to it.

Whether this bothered the giant or not, he did not show it in his behavior, merely giving it a direct command.

With a wind crashing into the scarlet being's face, a quantity of information was forcibly inserted into its head, containing, among so many things, the last location of its treasure and a general understanding of the mirror world.

"GRO!"

Without saying anything or acknowledging the giant's words, the scarlet being walked out of the warehouse calmly, his mind working to assimilate the information but with a clear objective.

"..."

Watching the figure of his newest creation leave, the giant's movements began to become more awkward, a product of the fatigue this situation had caused him.

Mainly from having created a new priest, a being in which he had imparted a part of himself to do his will.

As strong as the giant was, in the face of the inhuman fatigue he felt, being that he was limited to his current position, he could do nothing but sleep.

Surely, by the time he awoke, his treasure would be in front of him, ready to be used by his priest.

---

Leaning against one of the kitchen cabinets, Noah was resting after feasting on cookies and juice, for that was the only thing he could think of in his current situation.

Due to his lack of medical knowledge, Noah was unable to give an accurate verdict on his physical state beyond the fact that he was better than before when he was tired and bleeding out, something he attributed to the most recent grace he had received.

From the moment the unknown entity shared his vision with him, Noah had already made his preparations in the house, such as barricades, but he had also prepared himself, praying to the system.

As a reward, what he received was a grace called [Ferreous], the effects of which he could only verify after he faced all the monsters and suffered with his body.

The effect of this grace was simple and in this specific situation, quite useful, as it caused his wounds to close to the point of no bleeding after a few seconds.

It wasn't something miraculous like a regenerative factor as the wounds were still fragile and fresh, but it was something that had kept him from bleeding out completely, something he was very thankful for because of all the cuts he had on his body.

Still, the damage was already done, he had lost quite a bit of blood, which added with the tiredness he was feeling, made Noah not in his best state even after eating and resting.

Luckily, it wasn't like the other time where he couldn't resist sleep, but now he had more control.

Examining his arm, Noah could see that it bore the ugly bite wounds the last monster had left on it, which although not bleeding, still looked bad.

It was a big and painful wound, like several others on his body, but if one took into account that all he had received were cuts while facing more than a dozen monsters, while all of them had ended up dead, he had undoubtedly come out on top.

Thinking about it, a question then popped into Noah's head, just how was it that he had achieved something like that?

For he alone, on his own, had managed to wipe out more than a dozen mirror-world monsters.

Was he more dangerous than the monsters?

"...I don't think so."

Slowly, the young man known as Noah was beginning to have doubts about himself, and to notice changes so subtle that other people wouldn't even notice.

He didn't know why this was, but he could only attribute it to the system, and more specifically, to the permanent grace he had received before, the [Third Eye Perception].

Its name didn't give him much of a clue, but when he put it together with the fact that he now seemed to be able to pick up changes not only on himself, but also on his surroundings and other beings, he seemed to understand the effect a little bit better.

However, noticing them did not automatically mean knowing whether these changes were good or bad, as only the passage of time would be able to reveal this.

"Ack, I still hurt all over."

Picking himself up off the floor as he could feel his train of thought going in a dangerous direction, Noah headed back towards the living room, but not before hiding his backpack in a kitchen cabinet.

He had been worried about more arriving for a while, but after waiting attentively for half an hour, nothing else had happened.

Now, the only thing left to do for today was to go back through the mirror gate and cover it with something after he left.

Looking at the ground, the broken handle of his knife caught his eye, getting a pitying look from Noah.

Thereupon, Noah picked up his battered hammer that seemed to be on the verge of breaking.

"...Looks like it's time to change them."

While getting others wouldn't be that complicated, he couldn't just take things from home again as his mother would definitely notice.

So what he had to do was buy others with his own money, his savings would have to suffer again after the purchase of the new backpack and belt.

Several options for better tools began to cross Noah's mind, making him wonder if he had enough to buy high quality hammers and knives.

"!"

Suddenly stopping dead in his tracks, Noah turned as fast as he could in the direction of the door, his skin bristling to the extreme.

Though he heard nothing, he was feeling a horrible sense of danger like never before, worse than all the monsters he'd encountered so far combined.

And having a system message arrive just at that moment, containing information and terms he didn't know, didn't help at all.

__________________________

[Warning: [Priest (???): Crimson ???] has been detected in the vicinity of the "Host", fleeing is strongly recommended].

__________________________

Knock knock

Without giving him time to really do anything, someone then knocked on the door of his house.

---

Despite the knock on the door, Noah stood completely still, not only not wanting to open the door, but even feeling an urge to flee that was not entirely due to the system's warning, but to himself.

Knock knock knock

Again, someone knocked at the door, its desire to enter the house becoming evident in the way it knocked, which was more urgent than before.

This was repeated a couple of times before whoever was knocking apparently lost patience, grabbing the doorknob and turning it sharply.

By this point, Noah was gripping his weapon tightly despite knowing that the door was the point he had secured the most on the ground floor.

While it might seem like this would be complicated by the lack of materials, Noah managed to make what he had on hand work well.

Breaking down furniture and beds, he obtained boards and nails, from there, boarding up the windows and door were easier tasks to deal with.

For the windows, Noah used three boards, while for the doors he used five, both top and bottom.

The reason for this was because the doors were larger, meaning that with the size of the monsters, they could fit in by the truckload.

The windows, while large enough for the monsters to enter, they would have to climb to do so, giving Noah the advantage to intercept them before they entered.

While in the end things had worked out so that he didn't have to resort to this, that didn't mean he hadn't taken steps in case things didn't go as he planned.

BAM!

With a loud bang, the door then broke, the boards on the sides barely presenting any resistance.

Entering the house, a tall, sturdy figure stood before Noah, its scarlet skin creating a contrast to the gray surroundings of the mirror world.

If he felt fear before, now Noah was being overcome by a terror he couldn't explain in words, his body trembling to a point that was even painful.

He had seen monsters before, he had killed monsters before, but even so, it was as if he was facing a completely different kind of monstrosity.

Despite its human appearance, Noah was able to sense how the level of danger emanating from this creature went far beyond what it seemed.

Swoosh!

"!"

Suddenly, the scarlet monster moved toward Noah, its speed being such that it took only a step to reach the young man.

Unexpectedly, even with all the fear he had in his body, the young man managed to swing his hammer in the direction of the monster.

Unfortunately, a sound that immediately managed to diminish his hopes of fighting this being was heard.

Clang!

The hammer and the monster's forearm made contact, but instead of flesh, both the sound and the touch seemed to indicate to Noah that he had struck a metal surface.

BAM!

"ACK!"

With a single blow from the scarlet monster, Noah's body shot backwards, slamming into the wall with a force that seemed to threaten to break a couple of Noah's ribs in the process.

Needless to say, the young man was unable to resist this in the slightest, as he was already weak and tired to begin with.

And even without that, it was incredibly doubtful that he would be able to stand up to a being like the one in front of him.

Due to how hard and sudden the blow was, the young man had dropped the hammer, with it falling back onto the ground.

Advancing towards him, the scarlet monster passed through the hammer, stepping on it and breaking it into several pieces.

Crack!

As for the fact that it was made of metal, it didn't seem to care in the least.

With Noah still trying to recover from the damage he had sustained, seeing the monster approaching, he began to crawl towards the stairs.

Of course, this was merely a futile attempt to flee, as the scarlet monster caught him without difficulty, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him into the air.

"...A-ah!"

For a moment, Noah thought this monster would take the opportunity to do what it seemed all monsters had wanted to do to him, eat him.

However, for better or worse, what happened next was not what he expected.

BAAM!

"GAKH!"

The scarlet monster gripped Noah's neck tighter and threw him against the ground, with such power that the young man's body released several cracking sounds.

Now without the strength to do almost anything, Noah was barely able to maintain consciousness, his body being flooded by a sea of pain that seemed to get worse as time passed.

Though he could taste and smell certain traces of his blood before, now that was the only thing he could feel.

"...Ha...ah..."

Trying to breathe despite all his pain, Noah couldn't help but let out a few grunts of pain, feeling the life drain from his body.

Meanwhile, the monster, with its attention focused on the young man, determined that he was no threat at all, and that by this point, his fate was already sealed.