Chapter 9: Chapter 9. Knights
"Aaaaaahhhhh!"
The woman woke up screaming, her left side burning intensely.
"Where am I?"
She held her head as she tried to remember what had just happened.
She was chasing one of the escaped cultists to Dis's lowest level, where she fought against them.
As they were fighting, the cultist used something that made her body burn.
After that, nothing.
"Damn it. I was unprepared."
"++++++"
She heard the voice of a man speaking to her.
She slowly turned her head, noticing an individual in a black coat and a hat sitting next to the wall, holding one of her arrows in his hands.
"+++++++"
The man continued speaking in a language that she shouldn't understand.
"I am sorry I cannot. Are you a for-"
As she was about to ask the individual if they were a foreigner, it hit her. All people in the dungeon could understand each other, thanks to a translation feature in the system. The only thing they couldn't understand were the languages of monsters.
"You are a hyuman, aren't you?"
She tensed up involuntarily. She had heard stories about human-looking monsters living below the clouds, who basically worshiped hunters, believing them to be angels of their many gods.
Yet, as far as she was aware, these monsters just looked like humans and could attack hunters.
As far she could tell, she was in this individual's house and was being treated by them.
Why? What do they want from me? Is he someone who worships us? No, he doesn't look like one. Then what is he-
The figure stood up and started walking towards her.
"Hey, wait a minute. What are -"
The guy just threw a bundle of clothes into her lap, said something, and just left.
"...That scared me."
*****
I sat down on the bench near the door to the hunter's room, holding my head.
"This is annoying."
I could understand that woman.
I could understand what she was saying, but when I spoke, nada.
Is it because of the difference in race? She and the square called me hyuman, maybe meaning that there are different types of humans. One that has magical powers, humans, and one that doesn't, hyumans.
But what about me? I gained powers, does that mean I went from hyuman to human? Even if that happened, I would still be an Awakener, the lowest class.
"The lowest in the human race. Damn it."
I felt pissed off about this.
I felt like after I got out of the streets and became Awakened, I was at the top of this world. Now there is a possibility that I was not even in the middle.
"The ritual. I need to do it."
I must become able to use magic. I must become stronger.
"Is your hand okay?"
I looked up at the nun who came out of nowhere and then at my hand. It seems like I had tightened it so hard that I made my nails dig into my skin and bleed.
"I am fine. Was just thinking about not-so-pleasant things." I coughed. "She is awake."
"Oh, my goddess!"
She rushed into the room, and I could hear the sound of the nun speaking quickly, which I can only guess were praises and words of worship.
"Seriously, I don't understand why she is like this."
I had been sitting with her for hours, but she didn't seem all that impressive. She just looked like a regular human to me.
As I waited, the nun quickly came back, her face glowing with excitement and joy.
"Is our patient alright?"
"Her knighthood is fine. I will immediately send a letter to the church; they will certainly come in a matter of days."
"So, what, are we going to keep her entertained? Do you even understand what she is saying?"
The nun proudly put her hand on her chest with a look of superiority on her face.
"I, as a student of fate and divinity, can understand the esteemed knights' words perfectly by their intention alone."
"...So you just do guesswork?"
"...That's not important! Rather you will need to go to work."
"Why?"
"We have a body that died three days ago, and I finished cleaning. And now you need to start digging."
*****
Layla pushed her clothes off her face a little flustered. The hyuman nun was speaking non-stop while she was kneeling before her, making her feel very uncomfortable.
It even made the coldness of the man feel quite better.
When she was dressed up, she quickly took out her phone and dialed the number.
'Hello?'
"Dave, it's me."
'Layla? Where have you been? We haven't heard from you since you left for that bounty.'
"Things went south. I am currently in Dis. I don't know where exactly, and I am wounded, but I should be safe."
'We are going immediately! Do you need anything else?!'
"No, just get me out of here! Also, be careful. They might have helped me, but… they are still monsters."
'Don't worry. We will take care of them.'
*****
"I hate my job, I hate it, I really hate it."
I kept digging into the muddy ground, my clothes sticking to me due to the rain.
It was just my luck that the nun got the body of someone with a family who had saved up enough money to bury their dead relatives and not burn them.
Still, it was not for nothing.
As I dug, I activated my special vision, which I had started calling Dead Eye in my head and murmured an incantation.
"Spirits of the ancient, ghosts of the new, hear my words and listen to my wish. Show yourself before me and speak to me of your time of old."
This was a chant I had seen in the book that I had on me, in the necromancy section.
It was meant for communication with deceased spirits and receiving guidance from them.
In my limited knowledge and abilities, I couldn't use it since it required mana, but it didn't matter. Because it had another effect.
Each time I finished the chant, I could see more and more spirits gathering around me, some were even varieties that I had never seen before.
There were the normal ones, the angry big ones, the ones that were nothing more than black balls with shining blue eyes, and the ones shaped like animals that had glowing yellow eyes.
When I felt like I had dug deep enough, I climbed out from the hole and looked at the group of spirits that had gathered around me.
"Spirits of the ancient, ghosts of the new, hear my words and listen to my wish. Show yourself before me and speak to me of your time of old."
As I said that, I reached out to one of the animal-looking spirits.
One that was shaped like a bird, flew to my hand and landed in my palm.
It was strange; I could see the spirit clearly, yet I could feel the weight of its body.
"Spirits of the ancient, ghosts of the new, hear my words and listen to my wishes. Show yourself before me and speak to me of your time of
old."
As I repeated the chant, I reached with my other hand to touch it.
As I was about to, the spirit quickly flew away, followed by the majority of the spirits, leaving me with the usual bunch.
"Too early? Probably too early."
I turned my power off and looked at the grave I had just dug.
It was seven feet deep, and the rain had started to fill it with water.
"Just once, I want a day without rain."
I grabbed my shovel and headed to the nun to dump the body in with her.
As I crossed the bridge that connected the graveyard to the church, I saw a blinding light suddenly lighting up near the church entrance.
"What in the hell?"
I ran over to the light.
From that spot, two figures walked out.
One was big and bulky, with muscles rippling through their bodies that were very visible through their brown skin.
Also, he had a mohawk. Like a solid one-meter-long black mohawk.
The guy looked incredibly stupid.
The other one was a scrawny dude, with dark green hair, and a blue scarf wrapped around their neck.
At first, I thought they were bandits or something like that, but I noticed that they had similar weapons and equipment as that hunter girl.
"Knights? So quick?"
The big guy took a few steps and shouted.
"LAYLA!"
The nun immediately ran out from the church and when she saw them, she immediately threw herself on the muddy ground and bowed before the knights.
"Oh, holy warriors, I welcome you to our poor abode!"
The bigger knight turned to the smaller one.
"What is she saying?"
"It's not important. Layla is inside; let's just grab her and leave this place."
The knights headed towards the church as the nun kept on praising the knights.
If that was the only thing, things would have gone smoothly.
Yet, the bigger one stopped and looked at the nun.
"She is annoying."
"Then shut her up; she is just a hyuman."
Said the smaller one and opened the door as he spoke without looking back.
As his hand was about to hit the nun, I rushed between them and grabbed it.
The knight looked at me puzzled, while his friend looked at me with cold eyes.
"Who the fuck are you?"
As we faced each other, I unconsciously activated my Dead Eye.
In this gray world, I could see them.
The people this bastard killed.
There were maybe seven of them, all big and screaming as they flailed at the knight, who didn't even notice them.
"You killed so many and yet you call yourself a knight?"
"Hey! What is this bastard saying?"
"No clue. Just kill it. We have stuff to do."
The knight clenched their fist and as they threw their next punch, I lifted the shovel up and swung at it.
There was a loud crashing sound as his fist and the metal collided, the force was so great it made me shake a little.
"Hehe, you can't scoff off hyumans. This is a strong son of a bitch."
The knights started making a golden spark appear.
"Sadly he is not on my level. Bazooka Hook!"
His next attack was way faster than the previous one, his attack only registering in my head when I felt his fist hitting my left side and I started to slide on the wet ground, hitting the wall of the church.
As the shock spread through my body, I coughed while trying to stand up.
I wasn't too sure, but I could tell that at least some of my ribs were cracked and the collision with the wall really hurt my back.
"Bazooka Hit!"
As I was getting the feeling back into my body, the knight somehow arrived before me and gut-punched me, giving me the feeling as if he blew a hole through my body, followed by the sound of breaking rocks.
As I fell forward, my body twisted, making me see the wall of the church.
It was cracked.
The wall where I was punched was covered in cracks and where he just hit me was the imprint of a fist in the bricks.
"F***in…hells…"
I looked up at the sky as I started coughing, a metallic taste in my mouth.
The knight looked over me.
"Shouldn't have bothered us."
As he said that, the other one walked over and dropped a pouch near my head.
"Might be late, but here is a reward for saving our friends. Buy yourself something pretty, hyuman."
The two of them walked away from me as the rain fell upon me.
"Not…again…"
I closed my eyes and breathed slowly while holding my stomach as I tried not to cough up more blood.
When I felt that my breathing was slowly getting better, I tried to get up.
"...No."
I tried again.
"No.nonononononNO!"
I tried again and again, but I couldn't stand up.
I…
I couldn't feel my legs.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone