Surviving as a Knight in a Trash Game

Chapter 161

After the first Knight Grand Tournament held in the Arthur Domain, the reputation of the Arthur Domain soared to unprecedented heights.

In particular, the domain's architectural technology and prosperous economy were such that many visitors came to the domain to study and learn.

Along with the interest in the domain, it was a matter of course that stories about the Lighthouse Knights and Lord Karl Meyer were talked about all over the continent.

“Hey, Timmy, how is it today? Did you catch anything?”

Timmy, a fisherman in Russellve, a port city at the northern tip within the Arthur Domain's sphere of influence, had been spending hectic days lately trying to meet the order volume coming in from the Arthur Domain.

“If every day was like these days, life would be great!”

Recently, Timmy and the other fishermen of Russellve were experiencing full hauls every day.

“I’m envious, so envious. By the way, I heard other fishermen are also getting full hauls these days?”

“It’s a bit strange, but it seems like fish are overflowing these days. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any East Continent fishing boats lately.”

The sea of Russellve was like a borderline where fishing boats from both the West Continent and the East Continent came out to fish.

Usually, around this time, the two groups of fishermen would draw an implicit line and conduct their fishing without encroaching on each other's territory.

However, recently, fishing boats from the East Continent had not been seen at all.

“Come to think of it, I think Jacques mentioned something like that too.”

Seafarers were sensitive to the state of the sea, such as waves, wind, and rain.

As such, observing the environment had become a habit, so they were quick to detect strange signs.

“It’s strange, I tell you. No matter how I think about it, it’s strange that those East Continent fellows aren’t seen.”

Timmy sorted all of today’s fish, received a hefty payment, and then had a large drink.

“Yeah, what’s there to be strange about. It looks like some kind of trouble happened over there. If it’s strange that I’m having good fishing luck every day, isn’t that even better.”

Timmy, who had drunk a bit too much, felt uneasy about the thoughts he had during the day and shook his head vigorously.

Having lived as a seaman for nearly 30 years, Timmy would unknowingly walk to the harbor when he got very drunk, so that day too, he walked, completely intoxicated, to the front of the harbor where his boat was.

“Lisa’s red underwear sets my heart on fire.”

Humming a rather low-quality song sung by seamen, he took another sip of the strong rum he had bought a little earlier in front of the harbor.

“Kugh…”

Although it was cheap, the aroma of the rum lifted his spirits, and the entirely black sea calmed his mind.

In front of the harbor where only the quiet sound of waves could be heard, Timmy tilted the bottle for a long time.

Chwaaaaak!

The sound of the waves echoed across the sea, and Timmy’s eyes fixed on the incoming waves.

Chwaaaaaak!

“Hmm…?”

While staring blankly at the waves and drinking, he noticed an object that looked somewhat like a ship approaching from the sea.

“…!?”

The ship approached the harbor at high speed.

Its shape was not that of the West Continent; anyone could tell it was an East Continent ship.

Seeing their ship, with its slightly elongated hull and slender build, approaching the harbor, Timmy felt the alcohol that had been rising in him just moments before completely evaporate.

“Why are those East Continent bastards here?”

It was only one ship, but its size was quite large.

Timmy quickly got up, lay flat on his own boat, and hid himself.

Kuuung!

The moment the ship approaching the harbor collided, what a tense Timmy saw before him was a single ship, motionless and stuck in the harbor.

Gulp.

Timmy, who had been hiding in his boat in a state of high tension and watching the East Continent ship for a long time, cautiously disembarked when he felt no sign of human presence even after some time had passed.

Noticing that the ship could not drop anchor or dock, Timmy brought a rope from nearby and tied it down.

Kkiiieek!

Hearing the sound of wood creaking, Timmy slowly climbed onto the ship.

Gulp.

When a very tense Timmy swallowed dryly and climbed onto the hull, he barely managed to suppress the vomit rising at the sight that unfolded before his eyes.

“Ugh…!”

On the deck, corpses with gruesome wounds that did not seem to be inflicted by humans were scattered everywhere.

Timmy realized that this ship had been attacked by some enormous monster.

Numerous legends existed about the sea, and sometimes, legends manifested as reality.

As Timmy slowly walked across the deck, he heard the sound of something moving.

Tuduk, tuk.

Timmy’s gaze slowly followed the signs of movement on the ship.

Grrrrrrr.

A strange cry, neither animal nor human, was heard.

Ppudeudeuk.

With the sound of wood breaking, a monster with dark green skin, almost black, and slightly larger than a human, revealed itself.

Its hideously distorted appearance and brightly shining red eyes stared directly at Timmy.

“Aaaaaargh!”

Screaming, Timmy quickly turned and ran madly towards the lower part of the ship.

The moment he fled, the green monster quickly launched itself into the air towards Timmy.

Chwaak!

As Timmy was desperately running away, he momentarily felt a burning sensation on his shoulder.

At that moment, a part of Timmy’s left shoulder was torn off, and his whole body tumbled to the ground.

“Ughhh…”

Without even a moment to deal with the searing pain, Timmy abruptly stood up.

The fear of having to escape from here somehow made him forget even the pain.

‘I have to live! I have to live!’

He couldn’t die like this.

He couldn’t die yet.

The moment Timmy frantically got up and was about to run again, he was so startled that he had no choice but to collapse on the spot.

‘Ah… God…’

Seeing the monster that had suddenly blocked his path, Timmy instinctively knew this would be the end.

It was when Timmy, having given up on everything, tightly closed his eyes.

Peok!

With the sound of a head bursting, thick blood covered Timmy’s entire body.

He wiped off the sticky, unpleasant-feeling blood and slowly opened his eyes.

“Is this… the West Continent… right…?”

The common continental language spoken with an awkward accent was heard, and Timmy realized a man holding a curved sword was standing before him.

It was when Timmy, nodding his head repeatedly, was about to offer his thanks to the man.

Kuung.

The man who had decapitated the monster collapsed on the spot.

***

Sharif Alkan was a Mamluk from Saraban, an island located between the East Continent and the West Continent.

Mamluks, in West Continent terms, were like knights, referring to masters of East Continent combat arts.

They learned a comprehensive range of martial arts, including swordsmanship, spearmanship, horsemanship, and hand-to-hand combat.

They, who wielded Chakra, a power similar to the West Continent’s Aura, also possessed power comparable to knights.

“Ughm.”

Until recently, he had been living a peaceful life in Saraban, but one day, he was swept away to the West Continent by a disaster that struck very suddenly, and he opened his eyes.

Looking around, it seemed to be a castle where a West Continent noble resided, and judging by the presences felt nearby, people wary of him were surrounding the area.

‘What in the world are those things.’

Everyone here was human.

However, everything Sharif had encountered on the island were monsters.

Goblins, monsters with dark green skin and slightly taller than humans.

Uruks, a combatant race that looked like a cross between a pig and a human.

In addition, creatures like Direwolves, which looked like wolves but had bodies several times larger, suddenly appeared on Saraban Island.

At first, their numbers were small, so the Mamluks and Saraban’s forces could adequately defend against them, but soon after, they were insufficient to stop the rapidly increasing number of monsters.

‘If only support had come from the mainland.’

He had requested support from the East Continent, but the reply from a nearby great lord was a single line message: fend for yourselves.

“Let’s ask the West Continent for help. I’ve heard that Lord Karl, the lord of the Arthur Domain, is called a Saint, the Knight of Salvation, and so on in the West Continent. If it’s Count Karl, perhaps he might help us.”

“…We are people of the East Continent. There’s no way he would help us.”

“We have nothing to lose, Sir Sharif. You go to the West Continent and ask for help. I’ll assign some men to you, so you must secure reinforcements somehow.”

“…I will do my best.”

Sharif also knew very well that if things continued like this, everyone would soon die at the hands of the monsters.

So, he set off on a long sea journey with a few Mamluks, including sailors, and soldiers.

While traveling to board the ship, Sharif had to face a considerable number of monsters, and in the process, he had to lose many comrades.

Even after boarding the ship, due to a desperate struggle with the horde of monsters that had chased them, all his accompanying comrades died, and only he managed to survive.

‘….’

He too was a proud Mamluk.

He could not return home alive alone with no achievements.

It was when Sharif regained consciousness and looked around.

The sound of someone’s footsteps reached his ears.

Dubuck. Dubuck.

The moment he thought the footsteps were getting closer, the door opened, and a man he had never seen before walked into the room where Sharif was.

The man who entered the room had black hair and black eyes.

He, who possessed a body trained to the extreme at a glance, strangely did not exude any sense of presence or energy.

‘….’

Even though the man did not intentionally project any aura, Sharif felt his breath catch in his throat just by looking at him.

‘Karl Reitz Arthur Meyer…’

It was the name he had constantly memorized on his way here.

Pitch-black hair and utterly indifferent eyes.

He was the man exactly as described in the rumors.

‘No… he’s more than the rumors. Khan-grade… perhaps even higher.’

By East Continent standards, Sharif was a Turk-grade Mamluk, equivalent to Superior-grade, and Khan-grade Mamluks were on par with Master-grade Knights.

“I greet Your Excellency, Count Karl Reitz Arthur Meyer, ruler of the Arthur Domain and Margrave of the northern West Continent.”

Sharif was a well-trained, typical nobleman.

His greeting, though not following West Continent etiquette, felt sufficiently formal.

“What brings a Turk-grade Mamluk from the East Continent all the way here?”

Sharif, who found it surprising that Karl knew about Mamluks, soon shook off his stray thoughts and got to the main point.

“I was a Mamluk from an island called Saraban, a short distance from here.”

From the moment Sharif began to speak until he finished, Karl did not interrupt him even once.

‘Amazing, to think he can listen so intently to the story of someone he’s never met before.’

It was surprising that a figure of a great lord’s stature could listen so attentively to a stranger’s story.

“What’s the approximate number of those things on Saraban?”

“Based on what I gathered before I left, there are at least 3,000 individuals, and at most, it could be 6,000 to 7,000.”

Karl quietly closed his eyes and organized his thoughts.

The events on Saraban might also have occurred due to the changed environment as Karl progressed through the game’s story.

No, it wasn’t a matter of ‘might have.’

That was the truth.

‘I need to make a move.’

If the island of Saraban fell, the next place the monsters would head to was already determined.

The moment his thoughts were organized, a system window popped up in front of Karl’s eyes.

[Mission: Rescue Saraban.]

“I will help.”

“Really!?”

Along with Sharif’s surprise, that evening, Karl and 200 members of the Lighthouse Knights boarded a ship bound for Saraban.