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Chapter 294: The Vile Rat that Pollutes the Seas (11)

What have you done?

Ketal closed his mouth and thought in response to that question.

‘What did I do, huh?’

The answer was simple.

He had completed a quest.

At first, the quests were relatively simple, but at some point, they began to get increasingly difficult.

Quests started to appear that even Ketal couldn\'t easily clear.

And Ketal saw this as an opportunity.

The fact that the difficulty had suddenly risen meant that a reward of equal value was waiting.

Perhaps it was a chance to escape the frozen wasteland, so he put all his effort into clearing the quests.

And in the end.

Ketal saw something.

Something strange that he had never seen in the frozen wasteland.

But he still didn\'t know what it was.

The reason was simple.

The moment he saw the strange thing, a quest appeared.

[784th Quest.]

[Respond to the being in front of you.]

[Information: Completing this quest will allow you to leave the frozen wasteland.]

The moment Ketal saw the quest, his mind went blank.

All he could think of was that if he dealt with the strange being in front of him, he could leave this accursed place.

That one thought completely consumed his mind.

He didn\'t bother to analyze his opponent and simply threw himself at it, ready to kill.

"Hmm."

‘It said something, but I should have listened more carefully.’

He ignored whatever it had been saying and just charged at it to kill.

The only thing he remembered was its final words.

Thinking about it now, he regretted it.

Not that anything would have changed even if he had listened.

[It seems like you have some guesses, judging from your thoughts.]

"I do, but I have no reason to tell you."

[Fair enough.]

The rat didn’t seem to expect anything different and just accepted it.

"Anyway, so the big ones won’t come out."

They could force their way out, but they had little interest in the outside.

Those that were interested were too busy with their own internal conflicts.

The smaller ones might come out, but the beings outside could handle anything on the level of the white creatures.

"I get it."

Ketal nodded as he finished assessing the situation.

"Alright then. Get lost."

The rat’s eyes widened in surprise.

[You\'re really letting me go?]

"Do I look like a liar who breaks promises?"

[…Now that I think about it, you didn’t lie inside there either. I thought this place would be my grave, but I’ve been granted an unexpected mercy.]

The rat staggered to its feet, half-destroyed and having exhausted all its powers.

But the rat was still the rat.

Even in such a state, it could return to the white frozen wasteland without issue.

[It’s a shame I’ll never be able to leave again... but I’ll just change my goal. I’ll work on polluting and corrupting the entire frozen wasteland.]

"That’s your business. As long as you don’t come out again, it’s fine by me."

Whatever happened inside wasn’t Ketal’s concern.

The rat began to move away.

[Thank you for your mercy. I’ll offer you a service in return.]

"I don’t need it."

[Oh, but you will.]

The rat snickered.

[You deliberately avoided asking one question.]

A question that, in some ways, was more important than all the trivial ones he could have asked.

[You don’t want to know the answer, do you? If you knew, it would make you sad. That’s why I’ll tell you of my own will.]

The rat shared one piece of information.

Ketal’s face twisted as he heard it.

“…That’s definitely something I didn’t want to know.”

[But it’s also something you needed to know. Consider it a gesture of gratitude for your mercy. Don’t thank me.]

“Disgusting creature.”

Ketal clicked his tongue.

The rat chuckled and threw itself into the vast sea.

The rotting creature began to leave this world.

[Goodbye, monster. I hope we never meet again.]

The rat was gone.

Ketal watched it go for a moment, then started walking again.

Soon, he came across an object.

It was the rat’s severed forepaw.

It was discarded on the ground.

Ketal picked it up and stored it in his spatial pocket.

Along with that, a system window appeared.

[789th Quest Complete]

[The reward will be granted.]

* * *

At that moment, the battle outside had come to an end.

The fierce battle that had been raging was forcibly brought to a close.

The reason was simple.

The monsters that the rat had corrupted and polluted could only move within the rat’s domain.

But to face Ketal, the rat had drawn in all the pollution from its domain.

As a result, the pollution that had been corrupting the world disappeared completely.

The monsters also vanished naturally.

People were left in confusion at the sudden turn of events.

And then, moments later.

Shhhaaaa.

Ketal emerged from the sea.

Bayern quickly approached him.

“…What happened?”

“That creature will never come here again.”

At those words, Bayern’s eyebrows twitched.

Bayern was smart.

He fully grasped the meaning behind Ketal’s words.

But Bayern was also wise enough to know what he needed to do at this moment.

He turned to face the people.

“We have won!”

His cry, filled with mystery, echoed across the battlefield.

Bayern shouted again.

“The vile creature that dared to pollute our land has been slain! By the mighty warrior, Ketal!”

“O, Oooooo!”

“Ketal!”

“We have won!”

“Waaaaaaah!”

The people erupted in cheers.

They raised their axes, reveling in the joy of victory.

They shouted Ketal’s name.

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* * *

A victory celebration began.

The barbarians gathered in the city, tearing into sausages and drinking beer.

It wasn’t just the barbarians present.

Even the believers were partaking in the celebration.

Those who were always shunned were now awkwardly enjoying the festival with the barbarians’ hospitality.

But Ketal was not there.

He was staring silently at the sea.

The land and sea that had been tainted with malice.

The poison had been so thick, like a swamp, that even with divine power, it would have taken at least a few years to purify.

But the land was now incredibly clean.

That was because the rat had gathered all the pollution for its final attack.

And Ketal’s mystery had swallowed all the poison.

No one had noticed, but it was fortunate for the world.

If Ketal hadn’t cleaned up, the poison would have erupted like a volcano, sending toxic rain across the entire north.

But to Ketal, such trivial matters were of little importance at the moment.

He was gazing at the sea.

Beyond it lay the white snowfields.

"The seal\'s broken."

Though it had been forced open, the fact remained that a monster like the rat had appeared outside.

If pushed further, monsters of the same level could also emerge.

“And if there are monsters more powerful than that, they’ll come out even more easily.”

Judging by the case of the White Beast, it seemed that monsters weaker than the rat could emerge without much difficulty.

Though no new reports or quest updates had come from the world yet, meaning nothing else had appeared, the situation couldn\'t be ignored.

Monsters could emerge.

And things that were not monsters could, too.

"How annoying."

Ketal clicked his tongue.

Even after coming out, he still had to worry about the things inside.

It was terribly exhausting.

"Should I start preparing?"

"There you are."

Behind the deep-in-thought Ketal, Bayern appeared.

Bayern, too, was looking in the same direction as Ketal.

But what they saw was entirely different.

Ketal was looking at the white snowfields beyond the sea.

Bayern, on the other hand, was staring at the split sea.

\'...The sea is split.\'

A long scar ran right through the middle of the rolling sea, creating a gap from the ocean floor to the surface.

Ketal\'s blow had cleaved the sea in half.

\'What in the world...\'

Bayern knew that warriors of Hero-class strength could influence the world.

After all, he was one of those heroes.

And precisely because he was, he could see it more clearly.

Their interventions in the world typically commanded or altered its concepts.

But this was different.

It wasn\'t a gentle force.

It was as if the world itself had been torn apart.

Bayern swallowed.

"You’ll be busy soon."

Ketal spoke.

Bayern snapped out of his thoughts.

"I’ll certainly be busy for a while."

Cleaning up the damage, accounting for casualties, restoring the ruined areas—there was a lot to do.

Post-war cleanup was always the hardest.

And with barbarians, who were as reckless as they were strong, it made the task even more difficult.

"Still, things are better now than before. We have the believers."

The believers had done what the barbarians could not: they purified the land.

They fought monsters at the risk of their lives.

They were one of the main contributors to the war effort.

As a result, the influence of the church had grown significantly in the north.

Now even the barbarians couldn\'t disregard the believers.

"We can communicate well with the believers. We’ll get their help. It’s a good thing."

Bayern muttered in satisfaction.

"The north will change."

Finally, the existence of the church had been recognized in the north.

No longer would it be a land solely for the barbarians.

The will of the gods would also descend upon this land.

It was a good thing for Bayern.

"Of course, there will be conflicts for a while."

Hundreds of years of accumulated hatred wouldn’t be resolved in a single moment.

Controlling that would be his role.

"And what will you do after that?"

"Once the north settles, I will lead the barbarians and the believers to move out into the world."

They would help the world in chaos.

In that process, the barbarians would become part of the world.

By supporting and being supported, they would break down the twisted structure of rejection and exclusion.

Making the north, and the barbarians, a part of the world—that was Bayern\'s ultimate goal.

"A noble goal. It won’t be easy."

"That’s true. But I am their king."

Bayern would lead them as their king.

Ketal nodded.

"Impressive. I wish you success."

"It’s all thanks to you. What will you do now? Are you planning to stay in the north?"

"No."

Ketal continued to gaze beyond the sea.

The white snowfields.

In them were monsters.

But there were also things that weren’t monsters.

"I have my own preparations to make."

The rat’s final words flashed through Ketal\'s mind.

Ketal frowned.

Just recalling them twisted his expression.

[Congratulations, barbarian.]

The rat had giggled as it spoke to him.

[Your followers are looking for you. They are trying to come out to find their leader.]

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