Ch. 79 Bloodfinger

What poured out from that cave was the smell of blood.

It was like someone was holding a blood-soaked cloth over your nose and mouth, rushing straight from the nostrils to the throat.

“Guh…” Mia subconsciously covered her nose and mouth.

Patches’ expression immediately changed.

The Spirit Wolf Lappland gave a whimper and sneezed.

This kind of smell certainly didn’t mean anything good.

Wilden turned back and locked eyes with Mia.

After seeing the latter nod, the Soldier responded with the same gesture.

Then, *shring*, Mia also drew the golden longsword from her waist.

One after the other, the two bypassed Patches and walked toward the dark interior of the cave.

“Hey, hey, hey, wait!”

Patches suddenly called out to them. “What are you doing!”

“Going to see what happened inside, of course.”

Mia looked back and tilted her head.

Patches’ reaction was somewhat unexpected, so she didn’t know at all what kind of expression she should use to respond:

“Don’t go, don’t go! This looks very bad inside!”

Patches grabbed the two of them, shaking his head desperately.

Trying to make them ‘return from their lost path.’

Mia slapped away Patches’ hand that was gripping her wrist with a *pia*.

This display made her feel a bit annoyed again.

“Are you kidding me! Wasn’t this your territory before? Don’t you want to see what happened here?”

The cave where Patches himself once hid now emitted an ominous aura.

As the former leader of the bandit group, wasn’t he worried at all about what had happened inside?

Mia looked at Patches with dissatisfaction.

Don’t be such a coward.

“That’s true,” Patches nodded vigorously, “but what will I do if something happens to you?”

“Heh,” Melina gave a light laugh. “Then come inside with us. That way, you won’t have to worry about having no one to protect you.”

Patches was stunned for a moment, wanting to criticize her harshness, but after a long while, he couldn’t say a single word.

In the end, he could only show a fawning smile and say to Mia, “Even if I want to go with you, I don’t have a weapon.”

“Well, now you do.”

Wilden threw the spear from his right hand sideways toward Patches.

Then he drew his other straight sword.

When it came to weapons, neither Mia nor Wilden was lacking.

Clearly, Wilden also couldn’t stand Patches’ shrinking back at the critical moment.

“Ah, this…” Patches hurriedly caught the spear.

Since he had been forced to follow Mia, the only thing he had held until now, besides a rice ladle, was probably just that wooden stick he used for carrying loads.

This was Mia’s method to prevent Patches from backstabbing them.

Although Patches had behaved exceptionally well while eating and living with them,

she still hadn’t relaxed her vigilance against him…

Well, never mind; in this situation, depicting someone as resourceful and calculating would be quite against my conscience.

The reason Patches never had a weapon was actually just that Mia had forgotten about it.

After all, they hadn’t experienced any more battles since dealing with the monsters at the Waystation Street Ruins.

“Alright, keep up.”

Mia urged, leaning on her stargazing staff with one hand and holding the golden sword in the other.

A few beads of sweat trickled down Patches’ smooth, hairless face…

He originally just didn’t want to encounter danger, and the ultimate goal of all the excuses he’d made was simply to escape…

But he hadn’t expected that Mia would happen to have the means to restrain him.

“Well… about that… I’m good with spears and tower shields. Now that I only have a spear, it’s hard for me to fight…”

“Here!”

A Royal Army Greatshield with a scorched surface was tossed out by Mia.

Remember the first Royal Army soldier Mia killed?

That Royal Army Soldier in the Cave of Learning, who was wielding a spear and shield, when he charged at Mia with his greatshield raised.

Mia had used Ignite on the shield; the Ignite overflowed from the edges of the shield and burned his face, and then he was finished off by Mia with a short spear.

This was the shield left by that Soldier, and it still bore the scorched marks from being burned by fire.

Originally, after Wilden’s greatshield had been hacked to pieces by the Beastmen of Farum Azula, Mia had intended to give this shield to him.

But Wilden hadn’t accepted it.

So, this greatshield had remained in Mia’s storage space all this time.

Faced with such a smooth little combo of moves.

Patches no longer had any excuse to avoid the fight.

“Since you have both a weapon and a shield, go ahead and scout the situation inside the cave.”

At this moment, Melina added another verbal blow to Patches.

“I-I-I, I’m going in front?”

Patches looked at Mia, the leader, with a long face.

“Hehe,” Mia chuckled. “No need for that. Just follow us.”

If…

Tormenting Patches was treated as a form of entertainment…

That would be quite nice.

Mia thought mischievously.

Patches stood hunched behind the two of them, in front of Melina.

Alright, looking back into the Mongliu Cave, from which a faint smell of blood drifted.

Earlier, after pushing aside the grass hiding the entrance, the foul odor had instantly surged out.

After that, the smell dissipated quite a bit.

‘Starlight!’

Mia raised her staff, and a white starlight appeared above her head.

Well, this was something she had tinkered with during the journey.

Compared to the cool-toned blue light, white light was much more friendly to a 21st-century Soldier like Mia.

Looking at blue light too much causes nearsightedness (Delusional).

The starlight hung over Mia’s head, sufficient to cast light forward even with Wilden walking in front, passing over his tall head.

“You guys wait outside.”

Mia said to the Spirit Wolves.

Then, the group entered the cave.

“Don’t pull any tricks.”

Mia said to the re-equipped Patches.

“You saved my life; how could I possibly screw you over?”

Back then, Patches, who had been beaten until he bled from his eyes and ears by the Pumpkin Head Soldier, had only been able to survive under Mia’s protection.

“I, Patches the man, value loyalty and friendship. If I say I treat you as a friend, I will absolutely never break my word.”

“Is that so?” Mia snorted. “I’ll reserve judgment.”

Inside the cave, the smell of blood naturally grew stronger rather than weaker.

“Be careful.”

Mia warned Wilden up ahead.

“Mm.”

The Soldier nodded.

The group cautiously observed their surroundings as they carefully made their way deeper along the cave’s tunnel.

Mia walked behind and to the side of Wilden; the tunnel wasn’t as narrow as it had appeared from the outside.

Mia’s gaze could pass Wilden’s side to see a slightly more spacious stone chamber ahead.

A faint glow appeared in the darkness.

‘Is that a grace?’

Mia couldn’t help but think.

Then, rounding a corner, the stone chamber appeared before them.

Besides the tunnel leading deeper, there was something else in the stone chamber.

It was that glowing thing—a translucent white spirit.

Wilden slowed his pace.

“Can you see him?”

Mia asked.

“I can,” Wilden replied.

“And you?” Mia turned back to ask Patches.

Patches’ eyes also reflected the light from the spirit.

Clearly, he could see it too.

As they moved toward it, Wilden held Mia and the others back.

He stepped forward first.

At the spirit’s feet lay a corpse.

In the light, they could see a mangled mass of flesh that hardly looked human anymore, though it could barely be discerned that it had once been a Soldier.

The spirit had long forgotten its memories of life; it saw someone approaching.

“Blood, it’s blood… the red-fingered villain.”

The spirit’s voice was shrouded in an ethereal echo.

“Don’t ever come back, Boss Patches.”

“Everyone… is cursed.”

The spirit uttered Patches’ name.

Mia instinctively looked back.

“Patches?”

So, this was a member of the former Bandit Gang?

Killed by someone, or something…

Was it the work of a Bloodfinger?

Bloodfinger Nelius, who appeared before Mengliu Cave in the game to block the player, was crazed with blood and constantly hunted Tarnished lives.

A follower of Mohg, Lord of Blood.

Patches, holding his spear and greatshield, walked over without a word.