Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 84

Chapter 84
The next day, Leon and Karen were crossing the forest, following closely behind the two giants. Unlike yesterday, there was no darkness blocking their view. The mana density was so thick that the vegetation absorbed that power and gave off a bluish light, replacing sunlight itself.
The two humans, not being mages, didn’t think much of it, but if anyone who knew its true worth had seen it, they would have fainted on the spot. Where would anyone find grass glowing
with mana just like that?
One would only ever see something like this in a potion made by a truly skilled alchemist. And if even common weeds were like that, then imagine what a mana herb like mandragora would be worth here.
There was no need to brew it into a potion—just chew and swallow it, and the full effect would hit straight away. However, neither the two giants nor Leon and Karen knew any of this.
They also had no idea that the flower Urga’s huge foot crushed was worth dozens of gold, or that the mushroom Zulu smashed with his elbow could’ve bought two enchanted swords.
There really is something to that old saying, “Ignorance is bliss.”
Only El Cid let out a dry comment, watching the quiet tragedy unfold.
—Good thing your party doesn’t have a mage...
Huh?
—You don’t need to know... I guess a hero picking herbs for pocket money wouldn’t be a great look.
It didn’t matter anyway. Gathering those herbs would have meant nothing. Leon and Karen knew nothing about alchemy or herbology, and there were likely no skilled alchemists or merchants in a Titan village to trade them for money.
It was better to just enjoy the scenery and keep walking than get frustrated about money they’d never touch. Thankfully, Leon didn’t push the topic further.
“
Woah
!”
Karen suddenly leaped back, snatching up her daggers when she spotted something past the giants’ shoulders. Leon reacted at almost the same moment.
A pack of ten wolves appeared.
“Dire Wolves!?”
On their own, each one had a danger rank of C+, but when acting in packs they were classified as B-ranks. Their size alone rivaled tigers and bears, and they could use the mana in their bodies to accelerate themselves or trigger magical effects.
Among the strongest of them, a horn would sprout from their foreheads—and that’s exactly what these wolves blocking their path had.
“All ten of them have horns...”
Karen broke into a cold sweat without realizing it. Anywhere else, the horned one would be the pack leader, but in these mountains’ inner depths, that was the baseline.
If it had been just the two of them, these wolves would’ve been a brutal challenge. Urga and Zulu, on the other hand, only let out a small chuckle at their reaction. Even though they were facing a Dire Wolf pack where each monster was a serious threat on its own, they strolled forward without the slightest hint of tension.
“
Shoo, shoo
.”
Urga lazily swung his spear shaft from side to side like he was swatting away flies. Leon and Karen were dumbfounded by that defenseless posture and then were completely stunned by what happened next.
The Dire Wolves whined like puppies needing to pee and cleared a path.
According to the records, these monsters didn’t flinch even at the charge of a knight in full plate armor, baring their fangs to the end. Monsters that could shred iron with one bite were now lowering their tails and backing away with pathetic whimpers.
Leon couldn’t hide his disbelief as he muttered under his breath, “They’re not supposed to be the type to back down this easily...”
Karen silently nodded, sharing the sentiment, but El Cid answered with a bored tone.
—There’s no creature more loyal to the law of strength than monsters. Titans are the apex predators of these mountains. On top of that, there’s still drake blood in the air too. Of course, these random wolves would just back off.
Titans were strong. Every single one had the same physicality as an Ogre—an A or A+ ranked monster—with an added flair of martial skill and intelligence. They were all warriors and hunters by nature, capable of exterminating anything below S-rank by themselves.
And even S-rank monsters weren’t safe. If a Titan Chief Warrior stepped up, they could slay them alone. So even the monsters of these depths had no choice but to shrink back.
“
Haha
! Surprised, are you?” Urga asked and grinned when he saw their stunned faces. “Even monsters are no different from beasts at their core. Show them who’s stronger, and you can avoid pointless fights.”
“Those wolves were smart, at least.” Zulu naturally joined in, “Wyverns, though—leave them alone for two months and they forget everything, come right back for more. But these wolves? Years now, and they still whine and tuck their tails the moment they see us.”
And indeed, the Dire Wolves had the right idea.
Titans were proud to be hunters and warriors. They had no interest in wasting strength on monsters that rolled over and showed their bellies without a fight.
Those half-baked tough monsters like Wyverns didn’t get that, so they kept picking fights and got wiped out every few months.
Still makes no sense though...
Leon thought all of this was absurd but didn’t show it on his face. Titans themselves were already beyond normal reason. There was no point arguing about it. Both Leon and Karen just closed their mouths and silently accepted the culture shock.
Even after the Dire Wolves, more monsters appeared along their path, but not one bared its fangs or growled at the Titans.
Well—there was that one troll that tried. It got smacked around by its own kind for daring something so stupid, flailing pitifully with no idea why it was getting beaten.
“W-wow, the view’s nice.”
“Y-yeah.”
With blank smiles, Leon and Karen turned their eyes away from yet another scene of common sense being shattered.
The infamous depths of the realm of demons felt more like a scenic hiking trail. Any adventurer who’d ever turned back at the foot of the Titan Mountains would have wept tears of blood to see this. That’s how much of a cheat it was to have Titan guides in these lands.
Thanks to them, Leon’s group reached the heart of the Titan Mountains—the home of the giants called Titans—in just three days.
***
“Open the gates! Urga the Spear Wielder and Zulu the Axe Wielder have completed their mission and returned!”
When Urga shouted in front of the massive gate, a giant poked his head out from atop the towering wall. The wall was over twenty meters tall, making even his large frame look small from that distance.
The giant looking down at them tilted his head in curiosity and asked, “Urga and Zulu? You’re a bit late. I thought you’d be back yesterday.”
“We got into a bit of a fight!” Zulu, standing next to Urga, bragged loudly, “Got into it with a drake from another region! Haven’t felt my stubborn heart nearly stop like that in ages!”
“A drake?! Really?”
“I’m telling you! Let us inside and we’ll tell you everything—just hurry up and open this door!”
“
Ah
, alright then. Hold on a second.”
The Titans were creatures made for battle from the very beginning. Blessed by the Goddess, they hunted monsters with their mighty strength and the wisdom granted to them.
For them, the purpose of life was simple: find ever-stronger foes and claim glorious victories. So a monster like a drake—an S-rank monster—was a prize that would make even a seasoned Titan warrior’s blood boil.
The massive gate, bigger than most castle gates, swung open, and a giant carrying a huge bow on his back came out to greet the two.
“Come in, come in! Man, meeting a drake while out on patrol—you two really have all the luck.” Paruku the Bowman said with genuine envy in his voice.
Titans who used bows were rare, so most of them served as sentries. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d gone out on patrol himself.
“Yeah, you could say we were lucky in a lot of ways.”
As Urga stepped through the gate, he stepped aside just enough. Behind him, Leon and Karen came into Paruku’s view.
“
Hm
? Humans? You two brought them?” Paruku asked with a puzzled look.
“Yup. They fought with us against the drake. The one who gouged out its eye is this human right here—Leon.”
“
Hoh
...”
Paruku, who had been about to show caution, instead lit up with interest. It meant Leon had the right to be welcomed as a guest of the Titans.
There were only two conditions that granted that status: prove your strength or fight alongside them. Leon and Karen had done the second.
If a guest wished to enter the village as a comrade-in-arms, even the sentries were obliged to open the way. Already curious about their battle with the drake, Paruku laughed and gestured them in.
“Good! You two come in as well. If you’re Urga and Zulu’s comrades, then you’re my guests too.”
“Thank you.”
Leon dipped his head once in gratitude and stepped through the massive wall built of towering logs. Karen followed him over the threshold, and soon the heavy gate swung shut again behind them. It was so big and solid that even a battering ram wouldn’t budge it if the Titans didn’t want it open.
It was truly a structure every bit as big and sturdy as the Titans themselves.
“Paruku.” Inside the wall, Urga said, “Sorry, but could you talk with Zulu for a while? I need to take these two to see the chieftain.”
“What, why the chieftain?”
“I’ll explain everything when I get back.”
“
Hmm
...” Paruku hesitated for a moment, then nodded and replied, “Alright. You two aren’t the type to pull tricks anyway.”
“Thanks.”
“No need for thanks. Just buy me a barrel later.”
And that was where Zulu’s part of the escort ended. He waved a huge fist once each at Leon and Karen, then walked off with Paruku. The axes strapped to his wide belt clanked in rhythm with his heavy steps.
Leon watched him go, then suddenly asked a question, “What did that fist gesture mean just now?”
“It means, ‘May the fortune of war be with you.’”
“
A-ah
, I see...”
It was a truly Titan-like farewell.
They only hesitated for a moment before they fell in behind Urga and walked on, glancing around as they went. They were still some distance from the village proper, but what lay beyond the wall was more than they had imagined.
Everywhere they looked, monster corpses and remains littered the ground. At least B-rank, some looked like A-rank, and here and there were even parts that could only belong to S-rank beasts.
Cockatrice... Basilisk... Kurd... Twin-Headed Troll...
It was an absurd sight. A single one of these could devastate a small territory—and yet here were dozens, maybe over a hundred, dead and discarded. No doubt they were monsters the Titans had hunted themselves.
In gold alone, they could have bought up several castles—yet these high-grade monsters lay around like goblins behind a village fence, not even properly sorted as if it were nothing special.
“That pile tells us that those monsters are an everyday thing here...” Karen murmured, thinking the same thing Leon did.
A-rank monsters alone could reign terror over entire regions as living disasters. The Titans hunted them and didn’t even bother salvaging the byproducts like ogre tendon, troll blood, basilisk hide, or kurd bones.
It meant that they were things they could gather whenever they wanted.
Unbelievable...
Leon felt it once again. With each step closer to the village, the powerful presences grew thicker. Each one at least A-rank, fighters so strong you couldn’t be sure of victory even staking your life.
The chilling certainty that he’d lose against most of them made his neck prickle. He’d thought Urga and Zulu were incredibly strong, but there were dozens of Titans here stronger than them.
Just then, Urga shifted direction.
“
Hm
, looks like he’s in the training hall. Follow me. I’d like to show you the village first, but seeing where we Titans train won’t be a bad experience either.”
“The training hall...?”
“It’s the place where we hone our bodies and skills. Our days are simple. Other than basic needs, every moment is spent fighting or training. If we’re going to repay the grace the Goddess gave us, we can’t afford to waste a single second.”
Leon was a little taken aback by the devotion. The Titans weren’t the Holy Church, and they probably hadn’t even read a single scripture. Yet here was a faith as deep as any cleric’s, a devotion so pure it bordered on reverence.
Perhaps the Goddess had granted them mercy because she saw that in them. After all, they’d spent centuries secluded in this dark, vast mountain range, risking their lives to fight monsters, all to repay that blessing.
“We’re here.”
Urga stopped at the entrance to an enormous cave. Huge, just like everything else the Titans used—so large and deep that you couldn’t see the back at a glance.
Leon and Karen heard the screams coming from inside.
“KRAAAAGH!”
“GRRAAAAAAH!”
“KYEEEAAAH!”
All of them were Titan voices. A race born as warriors, who wouldn’t so much as grunt when their flesh was cut or their bones were broken, were now shrieking.
Urga, on the other hand, didn’t look concerned at all. He just gestured for them to follow and walked inside, meaning there was no danger. So, Leon cautiously stepped in after him.
They walked for nearly five more minutes before Leon and Karen finally saw what lay within the cave.
“
GRAAAAAAH
!”
A giant rose to his feet with a ridiculously massive lump of iron on his back. Thick veins bulged across his neck, and his thighs looked like they’d burst any second.
“
KIEEEAAAH
!”
Another one, lying flat on a bench, let out a pig-like squeal as he pressed up an iron weight. His bare, heaving chest quivered with muscle that looked ready to explode. The sheer weight was tearing their muscle fibers apart, but even as they screamed in agony, they didn’t loosen their grip.
They knew enduring that pain was the only path to greater strength.
“W-what is this place...?”
Karen’s voice shook at the sight, and Urga grinned, gesturing at the cave.
“Welcome. This is our Titan training hall—the Hell’s Club.”