Chapter 4 : Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Aggro Range
He stared at the corpse’s rolled-back eyes. Yellowish pus had frozen beside the sockets, making that already swollen face look even more hideous and revolting.
Cyril lowered his stance slightly, keeping his body as relaxed as possible so that his stiff knees would not interfere with his movements.
He did not know whether a monster’s aggro range in reality was exactly the same as it had been in the game. According to the La Rochelle Soldier’s Handbook in Road of Radiance, walking corpses were highly aggressive toward anything moving within two meters of them, could respond to disturbances within five to eight meters, and had an alert range of five meters for living beings.
For a Rogue, remembering a monster’s aggro range could help avoid a great deal of unnecessary trouble when exploring in the wilderness.
Unlike Paladins, who charged howling at the sight of any dark creature in the name of justice, or Mages and Rangers, who could easily kite monsters from a safe distance, many Rogues spent their days combing through ruins in search of treasure chests. Pulling even one extra monster could ruin an entire plan.
Cyril remembered the aggro range of walking corpses clearly. Yet after making a rough estimate, he realized that the nearest one was already within five meters of him, but it showed no interest at all in Cyril, who was standing right in front of it empty-handed.
It seemed they had simply been drawn over by the pillow Caroline had thrown down.
That left Cyril at a loss, but he had no time to dwell on the reason. Less trouble was always better than more. He slowly crouched and moved over to the corpse he had killed. The broken Silverblade Knight sword, which had fit his hand so well, was still deeply lodged in the hardened, thick neck bone of the walking corpse.
Gripping the hilt, he lifted his head and checked once more that the other two corpses had not shifted their attention to him. Only then did he press a hand against the corpse’s cold head and yank the sword free with all his strength. The grinding scrape made his skin crawl, but fortunately the sound did not disturb the corpses.
When the blade came free from the gore, it was still bright and clean, though a small nick had appeared on its edge. While Cyril clicked his tongue at the toughness of a corpse’s reinforced flesh, he also felt a slight pang of regret.
Still, the two corpses in front of him remained a barrier he could not cross.
True, relying on this inexplicable aggro range, Cyril could remove himself from danger and even leave Tarp behind in style.
But the future Twilight Shadow, the current little blacksmith’s daughter Caroline, was still inside that house. If he did not take her away—or simply kill her outright—then there was a high chance Caroline would still walk the same path she had in the game and become the Twilight Shadow after all.
She might even end up hating humans even more because Cyril had abandoned her.
A fresh wave of pain throbbed through Cyril’s head. If only he could still use some of the Rogue skills he had possessed in the game. Even a clumsy, unpracticed Stealth would have been enough to win him an overwhelming first-strike advantage.
But now, all he could do was stand there cautiously with his sword in hand, two meters away from the zombies, watching the broken banner not far behind them sway in the freezing wind—
And the blacksmith shop’s wooden door slowly begin to open.
Creeeak—
The sound of the door was sudden and drawn-out. To the walking corpses, it was like a signal hound answering a hunter’s call. The two corpses twisted around almost at the same moment and faced Caroline, who stood timidly by the doorway clutching an iron rod she had found from somewhere.
For an instant, Cyril’s breathing nearly stopped.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not have imagined that Caroline would run out on her own. And the girl did not even seem satisfied with the noise from opening the door. Gripping the iron rod as though it were a mage’s staff, she cried out,
“Ah!”
There was no elaborate incantation, nothing at all like the rippling waves of death that had spread outward whenever the necromancer in his memories opened her mouth. It was only the timid sound of a brave soul forcing herself forward, and at the same time, the countdown to her own death.
Like the toll of a bell startling a flock of crows at dusk, both corpses locked onto Caroline at once and began to move toward her on their stiff legs—
But only one of them actually reached her.
Cyril hesitated for only the briefest instant before hurling himself forward with all his strength. Two meters vanished in a flash. The corpse with its back to him had no chance to turn and deal with the sudden attacker. This time, the broken standard-issue sword of the Silverblade Knights bit cleanly into the back of its neck, smashing through it and lopping the head off in one stroke.
Kicking the still-stiff corpse’s body to the ground, Cyril looked at Caroline, who had stopped in front of the remaining corpse, seemingly so terrified her legs had gone weak. Cyril shouted for her to run and tried to catch up to the corpse, but it was obviously already too late—
This body had been the strongest of the three corpses. It had belonged to the blacksmith’s apprentice, and after swelling into a walking corpse, it had become huge, like a snow-ogre giant of the northern lands. No one could doubt the force carried by a swing of its arm.
Cyril could not help closing his eyes.
He could not stop the corpse’s attack. At this moment, all he could do was mourn Caroline in advance and pray to the stars above that, as an undead once awakened by Caroline, his own newly regained life would not simply end the moment hers did.
But just as he thought Caroline’s life was already no more than a guttering candle in the wind, he vaguely sensed a surge of mana sweeping through the street. Even his own lunging step faltered for an instant.
The corpse’s movements stopped completely as well. Its raised arm froze in midair, as though time itself had been halted—
Had Caroline’s talent awakened again?
That thought flashed through his mind, but Cyril’s body did not pause for even an instant. A motionless corpse was even easier to deal with than the previous one. With the feel of that earlier strike still fresh in his hands, this blow came even more naturally, and he hacked straight through the corpse’s swollen head.
Even as he rushed past it, Cyril did not dare relax. He immediately swept his gaze over the surroundings, afraid that Caroline might have awakened several more corpses.
Only when the hulking body behind him crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom, rotten flesh and blood splattering over half his body, did Cyril finally become certain that no new enemies had appeared. He lowered the broken sword and looked down at Caroline.
The girl was still clutching that long rod, which posed no threat at all to a walking corpse. Her arms were trembling like leaves in a storm, and even her eyes were squeezed shut. Leaning against the wooden door, she had poured all the strength in her body into that single support.
She had truly been terrified beyond words. No one would ever have guessed that she had just forcibly stopped a walking corpse in its tracks.
Cyril could not imagine what had driven this girl to come out and face the walking corpses, to deliberately pull aggro for him. He could not even decide whether it had been the act of a hopeless liability or a miraculous play.
And now was not the time to judge it anyway—
He let the sword fall from his hand. Gently, he placed a hand on the girl’s silver, disheveled hair, feeling her trembling gradually ease, and in a softened voice still rough with hoarseness, he said,
“It’s all right now, Caroline.”
“May the starlight shine upon you.”
Behind him, pale green orbs of light rose into the air and sank into his body.