The Bloody Valkyrie

With his options limited, he chose to work as a member of the “Death Spreading Brigade”. But in truth, any mercenary group would have suited him just fine.

He had only one goal.

To wipe clean his past shame, to turn his defeat into victory.

In order to gain the strength to accomplish his goal, he needed a weapon. He was willing to throw away everything else for the weapon of his desires.

Magic weapons were expensive, but the one he truly wanted wasn’t any ordinary magic weapon.

Further south, past the Kingdom—was a city in the middle of a desert. Amongst the goods that occasionally flowed out from that city was a weapon that, even unenchanted, far surpassed the cutting ability of ordinary magic weapons. It had a price to match, so much so that people’s eyes would pop out of their sockets upon seeing it. That was the weapon he wanted.

And then, he had finally managed to obtain a 「Katana」.

When he closed his eyes, even now, he could see it clearly, the image of Gazef during their great duel.

He had easily dodged Brain’s attack that no man before him could, and counterattacked with four simultaneous strikes.

He could no longer remember his own appearance the moment he lost. Instead, what burned in his memory was the image of the victor who defeated him.

As Brain approached the entrance, the smell of fresh blood hung heavily in the air. He could no longer hear the screams, meaning that those who had been fighting near the entrance had all been killed. It had only been two or three minutes.

The ten men stationed near the entrance were given the task of focusing on defense, to buy time for the rest to make preparations for the battle. To kill these men so quickly—

“If there are really only two of them, they must be as strong as I am.”

Brain’s face broke out into a grin.

He continued with quick steps and drank one of the potions in his belt pouch. A bitter, strong liquid flowed down his throat and into his stomach. He then downed another bottle.

He could feel the heat from his stomach spread out to every inch of his body. In response, the sound of his muscles expanding and growing stronger reached his ears.

The rapid change was due to the strengthening effects of the potion.

The first one he drank was a potion of 「Lesser Strength」, while the second was of 「Lesser Dexterity」.

It wasn’t necessary to ingest the potion directly for it to work; just spraying the correct dose on the body was enough. But Brain always thought that drinking it seemed more effective somehow. Of course, it could simply be his imagination, but imagination could sometimes draw strength where there was none.

He then drew his katana, and applied oil to the blade. The oil emitted a faint light, and soon disappeared, as if it was absorbed into the katana. The oil was called 「Magic Weapon」, and although the effect was temporary, it infused the blade with magic that further boosted its sharpness.

“Activate 1, activate 2.”

The keywords triggered the necklace and ring he had equipped and a faint magic wrapped around his body.

「Necklace of Eye」, as the name suggested, protected his eyes when activated. Resistance to blind status, night vision, light filtering. A warrior who couldn’t land a hit was useless. Hindering one’s field of vision, or creating distance and attacking with ranged attacks are all common tactics used by adventurers. Brain had once lost to adventurers who used such tactics.

「Ring of Magicbound」 allowed its wearer to bind a low level spell to the item and invoke it with the ring as the catalyst. His ring carried 「Lesser Protection Energy」, which allowed him to block elemental damage.

If there really were just two enemies, then this much preparation was necessary. It would be too late to regret not activating the effects beforehand later on.

With this, the preparations were over.

He gathered the overflowing heat emanating from his body and expelled it in one large breath.

As of this moment, with his strengthened physique, Brain had most likely achieved the peak of human strength. With the arrogance that could only stem from absolute confidence in one’s ability, Brain thought in his head with a sneer.

Since I went through this much trouble, they’d better be worth it.

With each step, the smell of blood grew stronger— and finally, he spotted two shadows.

“You two seem to be having fun.”

“Not at all, I think they were too weak. I can’t fill my blood pool too well.”

It was a response that seemed completely unwary of Brain’s sudden appearance, as if they already knew that he was coming. Brain didn’t make any particular effort to conceal his presence either, so he wasn’t surprised.

He scowled slightly as he looked at the two intruders.

“They told me it was two women, but one of them is just a kid… and she’s wearing a dress…?”

He immediately tossed aside such thoughts. Floating above the girl whose beauty seemed to be without equal, was a sphere that looked as if it was made of blood.