CHAPTER TWO: Unfortunate Rebirth

Three Months Later. 

On the outskirts of Ashcol Duchy,

Ethania.

…

Clyde Kim Seong-ho had always been an astute and diligent person. At age five, he had been hailed as a genius by all around him. Art, music, arithmetics, sports and even social life, none managed to prove challenging for him. Although Clyde would never willingly claim the title 'genius', which everyone he had ever met seemed to want to confer upon him, he still managed to get himself admitted into Stanford at the age of fourteen.

Fast-forward four years later, Clyde graduates from the prestigious university with a degree in psychology and immediately returns to Korea to complete his mandatory military service. Afterwards, he returned to Seoul to take over his late father's conglomerate firms.

Still, Clyde wasn't content.

Although the life of a CEO was convenient, Clyde felt somewhat constrained by it. So after three years of stabilising the conglomerate, he stepped down for his younger brother to take over before deciding to return to the US for his Masters. He returned two years later and, on the spur of the moment, joined the Korean police force.

In under seven years, he began his illustrious climb to the position of Senior Inspector. His record was impeccable. He was at the precepts of being one of the youngest and most accomplished superintendents of the Korean police force…

But yet, why? Clyde asked himself as he parried an attack aimed at crushing his skull. He pulled back his short sword as he struck at a monster's unprotected belly.

[You have dealt 157 base damage and inflicted 118.2 effective damage]

[You have inflicted Bleed status on target | Target will lose health at a rate of 5pts/sec]

[Target has resisted | status effect reduced | Target will lose health at a rate of 2pts/sec]

[Status effect induced]

[You have disembowelled a juvenile bonehound]

[You have inflicted lethal damage | Target has resisted]

[You have inflicted disembowelment status | Target will lose health at a rate of 10pts/sec]

[Status effect induced]

Ignoring the prompts that flashed in his vision, Clyde leaned away as he dodged another swipe from the dying monster. Why? he asked himself again as he turned on the sole of his left foot before dashing out of another pounce.

The transmigrator skidded to a stop just a few metres from running into another Yeoman's fight. His fellow soldier was struggling somewhat to deal with his monster, and his situation was making Clyde very worried.

Clyde wasn't particularly concerned about the fellow's well-being, but the prospect of having to deal with another monster after the Yeoman's death bothered him a lot. Thankfully though, his luck seemed to take a turn for the better as the injured monster that was assaulting him suddenly slumped over.

[You have killed a juvenile bonehound.]

[You have gained experience]

Once more ignoring the prompts, Clyde immediately turned his attention to the other monster. Raising his sword, he swung downwards at the bonehound that pinned the other Yeoman to the ground as it tried to rip the poor fellow's throat out of his body.

[You have beheaded a juvenile bonehound | You have inflicted lethal damage]

[You have killed a juvenile bonehound]

[You have gained experience]

Momentarily pausing to catch his breath, Clyde looked down at the man dressed in leather armour and wielding a short sword as he lay on the guano-covered floor. The fellow looked to be in his mid-twenties and had a respectable moustache. He wasn't particularly handsome, but neither could one say he was ugly.

"Thank you, son. For a moment there I thought I was going to die―" the fellow began as he stood up only to be interrupted as another monster pounced on him from behind. Before Clyde could even raise his sword, the bonehound had already ripped the unnamed fellow's head from the rest of his body.

The monstrous creature looked up to glance at Clyde with the fellow's skull trapped in its jaws. The man's face was frozen in an eerily thankful expression as blood dripped from his severed neck. Well, that was until the monster crunched down, splattering blood, bits of flesh and brain matter all over the place.

Ugh…

Clyde's gaze hardened as he stared at the monster in front of him. Just like the other bonehounds, it looked like something between a wolf and a mole rat, but sadly for Clyde, there were some notable differences between this and the others he had seen before it.

For one, this specimen was larger, and its wrinkly hide appeared even tougher than his previous assailants. Also examining the odd glint in its eyes and the short trail of Yeomen bodies behind it, Clyde was certain his current assailant wasn't as clueless as the rest of its smaller, less capable brethren.

This fight was gonna be a tough one.

But as the two squared off for an expectedly deadly confrontation, an armoured figure suddenly charged into their fight, bludgeoning the monster out of the way with a jousting shield. The beast was thrown about five metres into the air before it crashed into a wall, falling limp to the ground a split moment later. Dead.

Startled by the sudden interruption, Clyde did a double take as he turned his attention to the figure dashing away. Sir Justin, the transmigrator thought with a glint in his eyes. Unlike Clyde, the knight was dressed in a full suit of armour and wielded a longsword. His stride was long yet powerful, and with every swing of his sword or shield, monsters met their demise.

Yet, for some reason, the knight's face was an expression of panic.

Clyde's gaze lagged slightly behind to notice a woman in a hooded robe running behind the armoured man, as she held to her bosom a strange wooden staff.

Miss Nai? Clyde wondered with a frown.

Why would the knight and the mage that were meant to supervise this expedition flee… unless!

Clyde didn't wait to finish his train of thought as he immediately ran after them with his sword in one hand and a lit torch in another. As Clyde was not the only one to notice the abnormality, there four other men were running alongside the transmigrator. Three Squires and a Yeoman.

Normally, it would have been hard for the weaker group to catch up with a mage using [Haste] and a fully-fledged knight, but ironically the monsters that were trying to kill them also slowed the duo down enough for Clyde and the rest to catch up.

It was then Clyde heard the knight and mage quarrelling.

"Do it!" the knight shouted.

"If I do that, they will all be trapped and killed!" Miss Nia shouted back The entire expedition would be lost!"

"There is no hope of saving them anymore! Those men are as good as dead!" the knight shouted as he swung his sword at another monster that tried to pounce at him, splitting the creature in half along its length. "If you refuse, you would be putting the entire province in danger of these monsters! This is the only way!"

The mage fell silent as she clutched harder onto her staff.

"Please Nia," Sir Justin begged. "Please!"

And so a confused Clyde watched with dumbfounded eyes as the mage resolutely raised her staff and began to visibly gather mana at the tip. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked towards the ceiling and began to mutter a spell.

"Don't you dare!" Alarmed, Clyde threw his short sword at the mage with a yell. But, before the weapon could hit its mark, the knight somehow moved to intercept the airborne weapon with his shield.

[You have dealt 157 base damage]

[You have inflicted 6.28 effective damage]

[Target has resisted]

The short sword fell to the floor with a clang.

From behind the knight's visor, his and Clyde's rage-filled gazes, illuminated by the burning torches and Nia's glowing staff, met. Above the group, a fireball materialised before shooting upwards towards the ceiling.

"Feuerwirbel!"

The spell detonated, causing the ceiling to collapse and seal the tunnel. Skidding to a stop, Clyde and the rest of the men barely managed to avoid being crushed by the falling ceiling.

"..."

Then a solemn silence descended, shrouding the small group of men in a baleful aura. They slowly turned around towards the end of the tunnel. There, they could faintly hear the heavy thudding of numerous running footsteps.

Moments later, a figure appeared from the darkness. Another bonehound, the largest Clyde had ever seen. Standing at about two-and-a-half metres in height, its muscular shoulders covered in short bony spikes faintly scraped the ceiling while long sickle-like claws on its forearm clinked on the stone floor. The bony blades glinted dimly in the dark as fresh blood dripped off their tips.

There was a bleeding gash about forty centimetres long between the monster's neck and left shoulder, as well as multiple smaller wounds littering its body. Large portions of its thick leathery armour were covered in scorch marks, but that did not make the monster look any less intimidating. Especially not with the pack of lesser bonehounds slinking hungrily behind it.

The pack's sights were locked on Clyde's group, causing the transmigrator's hairs to stand on end.

"Oh, fuck…" he muttered depressingly.