That Unique Monster Who Just Got the 'Consciousness' Passive Skill

Scoffing, I joked with them. "I'll collect 'your' heads." But it was obviously just that—a joke. That concluded our business together. Using Quick Pace again, I left them all behind and appeared closer to the frontline. It was to get back at it, now. Kicking off the earth, I darted onward and would soon blend with the action.

Where I priorly stood was on the edge of the battlefield. At the outer edge of it, there wasn't much of any fight raging on. Naturally, the deeper you went through the battlefield, the more numerous the enemies were. So what about the frontline? Orcs and humans clashing against one another, like waves of two different seas meeting at one same point. Forming long lines, some waves were bigger than the others.

Mostly, the human team's waves won over that of the orc team's. And so, the frontline had been pushed farther away as it bit away at the orc's land. It seemed to me they were losing, the orcs. The humans were painfully stronger. They were more numerous and their weaponry, when compared to the orcs' shabby fighting gear, was leagues above it.

The frontline was pushed and pushed again, by the humans' clashing waves. It was like this at the beginning, but after ten long minutes of messing around with my own little friends on the battlefield, the land the humans occupied grew even larger.

By the frontline, most of the fighting was taking place. That's where I was headed. For both the completion of the quest and my old man's instructions. Using my Quick Pace skill some more times, I got to the frontline rather swiftly.

Oh so many times, I had used it. A lot of times. I really got used to moving around using that quick-paced skill movement, now that I think about it. I could always run, but thanks to the black swordsman who killed me on my first day, I obtained such a skill. The two miles separating me and the action were cut short in less than five minutes. My head was tilted forward, and from what people called the rear, I followed along the battlefield, with the wind blowing past my hair, finally getting to my destination.

Then, my breathing was ragged. At the time, I didn't have any idea why. It was simple enough: my mana nearly ran out. Thankfully, I'd just arrived at the frontline, but I was still located on the edge of it. Forming a long line, there were two ends, and I happened to take a short break by one of these two ends.

My hands fell on my knees as my shoulders heaved up and down. Steadily breathing, it was the first time in my life I needed to pause and do that, so I frowned a little, wondering why I was so out of breath. "The old man calls it an assessment… huh," I spoke to myself, huffing. "Let's rather… Huf… Call it funnying around." Deciding I'd keep my mouth shut and concentrate on catching my breath, I rested. Thankfully, the oh-so-numerous humans wouldn't attack me, I think. Still, I must have looked like a fool, being so out of breath in the middle of the action.

And this was the battlefield. Seen from this up close, man, that was something else. It had nothing to do with the regular little fights I usually saw. In a few words, the scale of it was so tremendously bigger. And so, getting a good hold of that scenery, my eyes quickly wandered around, being as round and shiny as silver plates.

What initially tore my eyes away from my hands and knees, as I huffed less and less, was a 7 feet tall orc's devastatingly earth-shaking shout. That shout seemed so over the top, in both the uproar it rose and the dramatically desperate sound of its voice, that my eyes couldn't help but go up to heed the large creature's terrifying wail. If I were to type it with letters, it'd be something like "OAAARRRGH!"

Clenching both his fists—he had just lost his weapon—he rushed onward. Headed toward one group of three measly humans, driven by what I recognized was the eruption of the beast's rage, he would now show brute strength. With an enormous shoulder brought up in front of himself, he busted the three humans all together, just like he was a giant laying waste to barely-standing and meager buildings in his way.

The three humans were demolished. No, they hadn't seen that coming. Yelling like the titan he was, he let the earth know exactly when to shake and when not to. Yes, it shook again, and three soldiers answered the tarnished earth's plea.

They were another group of three. With eerie-looking spears and little shields, they circled the beast at once. And now, they would yell, too. Three "Hah!" rang out, and the orc was stabbed on every side. Shouting one last time, the large demi-human was brought down easily enough. The life escaped from the beast, and he fell down.

In my heart, I felt different, then. On my first day, when I'd been taught I was nothing more than a weak monster that couldn't even fend for itself, I thought I'd been baptized already. But no. I mean, I was definitely changed back then, if I wasn't already a monster, and was pretty much taught how to live alone… but now… That was it. War. Fight.

The place where people met with one another, to decide who would get to survive and who wouldn't. The place that bathed my ears and eyes in an utterly devastating waste of no suitable descriptions. That was war. And now, yet again, I felt something changing in me. That something told the monster, me, that the place I saw was where I belonged. If I were to explain that to my old man, he'd laugh at me with conflict of sorrow and amusement, and say that I was well too stuck-up with the way I understood life.

Namely, that all I needed to ever ensure, in life, was to be strong enough to survive and not be wronged. To the old man, such a way of seeing life was all too sad. But to me, it was the fruit of the very first lesson I got to learn on my first day. It was a precious lesson. It kept me alive, and I wanted to live. The powerful overcomes the weak—that was living in a sentence. And seeing all of the war, my resolve to attain superiority was firmer than ever.

Whatever 'it' was, it wasn't over. It was the first time I saw such a hideous creature. A female orc. If a man ever married that, he was sure to aim at producing muscular children rather than beautiful ones. She was as ripped as the male version. And oh how ugly she was.

That female orc… in a clash of beauty, she was dead before the fight even started. In a clash of strength, however, jeez, she had something going for herself. Tightly seizing her long sword with both hands, she came swinging it around the four shielded soldiers, bringing all her enemies down, and she soon passed herself.

That was the sample of action which was offered to me. I liked it. My two hands were placed on each of my knees; I was being passive, stowed to the side, as my chest still huffed, albeit ever-so-slightly. I had grown bored of it. Of just standing by. It wasn't good enough. And who was I to stand by anyway?

My hands parted with my knees, and I brought them in the air, holding them out around. I certainly didn't know where it came from, but laughter escaped me. It went "Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!" but, don't worry, I didn't look one bit like the hysterical and evil villain part, I promise. There was far too much noise around me for anyone to pay attention, not that I wanted any guy to witness my moment of folly anyway. At any rate, that laughter was more forced than natural. Maybe I wanted to tough it out, I don't know.

After I was through laughing, my expression grew listless, I paused for a second, and after my hand clenched my sword, I first greeted the people: "Here I come." And in this setting of blood and blade, I did join in. As usual, with my head tilted onward, I gave a push with my legs, and I was blasted off.

A handful of grass and dust went flying under the impact of my foot. With tempered senses rather than dull ones, my ever-moving eyes were ready. I was relaxed all over, it seemed to me but focused. This was my entrance. With another Whoosh, some more grass flew under my feet, and in no time, I blended with the frontline's players.

The stage was broad. I could do that just fine. Oh, and it sure went quickly. It was super sudden. I just entered the action, and I'd already bumped into an enemy. Gripping more fiercely onto the hilt of my sword, I unleashed it and slashed at the enemy. The foe was only one orc who'd been unfortunate enough to cross paths with me right from the get-go.