Chapter 40: Waterboarding the Undead

Exitra moved the Undine.

He hadn’t forgotten the mission.

“Water Ball.”

Saying a rather convincing skill name, he used the Undine’s power.

Splash!

A huge drop of water formed in the air.

Exitra dropped it right onto the Goblin Warrior’s head.

“Kiiek… glug glug!”

— [Huh? What’s that…?]

— [Wait, is he… trying to make it drown?]

— [Do undead even breathe?]

“What a fool.”

Alfredo, standing beside Exitra, sneered.

“Undead are dead creatures. They don’t breathe.”

“Your method might work on ordinary living beings, but it won’t work on the undead.”

He was wearing a slightly smug expression.

It seemed pointing out a flaw in Exitra’s actions had put him in a good mood.

There was also a hint of petty revenge for being nitpicked earlier.

Even the Goblin Warrior seemed entirely unbothered by this attack.

“Glug… glug~”

Was it just Exitra’s imagination, or did the Goblin Warrior’s lips curl into a grin?

It might not have been his imagination.

Exitra just shrugged at the reactions from Alfredo and the Goblin Warrior.

“Relax. You think this is all there is?”

Undead did not breathe—that much he knew.

Of course, some higher-tier undead could breathe, but this thing was basically a zombie.

Such a creature didn’t need to breathe, so his current action was meaningless.

But—

“This changes things~”

Exitra used a skill.

It wasn’t one he’d received from Chronos.

It was a skill he’d acquired in Molgahub.

That skill was—

“Heal!”

Vwoooom!

“Glug?! Gluuuurgh!!”

— [Oh?!]

— [Ahhhh! I get it now!]

— [So that’s the trick!!!]

— [Wow… why didn’t I think of that the moment I saw the Undine?]

“Impossible…”

Unlike before, the Goblin Warrior began to suffer.

“Heal carries the power of purification. I don’t need to explain what happens when an unholy being like an undead comes into contact with purification, do I?”

Sizzle!

“Glug! Glug!!”

Severe burns spread across the Goblin Warrior’s body.

Its corpse, sustained by unholy energy, couldn’t withstand the purifying force.

“Glugglug!!”

The Goblin Warrior tried desperately to escape the water drop, but Exitra simply controlled it to follow its every move.

Their coordination was flawless.

If the Goblin Warrior moved left, the water moved left.

If it moved right, the water followed right.

Even when the Goblin Warrior moved erratically to shake it off, Exitra perfectly matched its motion.

“Glug!”

— [Wow, it’s stuck to him like glue!]

— [What is that…?]

— [Crazy… how are they in such perfect sync?]

— [They’re a perfect duo…]

The Goblin Warrior, in agony, tried scooping the water away with its hands.

But water could be contained—it couldn’t be grabbed.

It was pointless.

No matter how hard it tried to push it away, it made no difference.

“Glugglug!!”

“Come on now~ water is good for you, right? Drink up~ good boy~”

Exitra grinned as he watched the Goblin Warrior suffer.

He even helpfully guided the water infused with healing power straight into the Goblin Warrior’s mouth.

It had no say in the matter.

“Kiee… kieeeeeek!!”

The water covering its face poured down its throat and into its body.

“Water’s healthy, you know? They say you should drink at least two liters a day…”

“Kieeeek!”

The Goblin Warrior writhed in pain.

— [Well, sure, water’s healthy… but force-feeding it straight down someone’s throat? Anyone would suffer from that…]

— [Why does the Goblin Warrior suddenly look pitiful?]

— [That’s gotta be burning him from the inside… that’s brutal…]

— [That’s just evil…]

“Come on, it’s a Goblin Warrior. An undead, no less! What’s so pitiful about that?”

“Kiiing…”

The Goblin Warrior collapsed weakly.

There was no dramatic battle.

The purifying force had worked from within, leaving the Goblin Warrior with no way to resist.

Thud!

It fell in a disappointingly anticlimactic way.

Normally, it wasn’t the type of monster to die so easily.

But the opponent was the problem.

‘Could the Goblin Warrior have ever imagined that Exitra would know every possible strategy against it the moment they met?’

Not a chance.

“It’s over.”

— [Wait, he killed it that easily?]

— [Honestly, without the Heal skill, that would’ve been a nightmare fight.]

— [Yeah, for real.]

That was true.

The method Exitra had just used could only be pulled off by someone with a healing-related skill.

If he hadn’t acquired the Heal skill when rescuing the merchant, this wouldn’t have been possible.

‘That would’ve been a real headache…’

It was an undead Goblin Warrior.

It had plenty of weaknesses, but Exitra’s available methods were limited.

He’d killed it easily because it was him—anyone else would’ve struggled.

[You have completed the emergency quest, ‘Lingering Resentment That Won’t Disappear.’]

[You have earned 20 points.]

[Achievement unlocked: ‘Water Torture.’]

[Achievement unlocked: ‘Purifying Light for the Undead…’]

[Achievement unlocked: ‘Cruel Water Torturer.’]

[Achievement unlocked: ‘More Wicked Than the Undead.’]

“What the… what’s with these achievements?”

— [I mean… you did waterboard it.]

[MissionMan has donated 200,000 won.]

[Chairman has donated 1,000,000 won.]

— [What?! I lost again?!]

— [But seriously, no one could’ve seen that coming.]

The viewers were all dumbfounded.

When the Goblin Warrior had appeared, they’d thought, ‘Finally, Exitra’s gonna have a tough fight!’

But what was this?

If anything, it was the Goblin Warrior that had suffered.

[Chuunibyou has donated 100,000 won.]

— [Pfft, true.]

— [So many embarrassing moments created today~]

— [That was a nice mission.]

— [I love missions like this~]

***

After that, the donation spree began.

When all the amounts were added up, the total came to about 3.4 million won.

“Hey! You said it was a king-level asset!!”

“I’ve been tricked!”

“If my wife finds out, I’m dead… ᅲᅲ”

“These suckers, lolol.”

“Everyone, you’re not going to export me shouting out skill names… right?” Exitra asked just to be sure.

However—

“Ah, I already exported it.”

“Hey~ you should’ve said so earlier~”

“If you’d said something, I wouldn’t have done it~”

“What the!!”

He never imagined they would have exported it already.

“Already?!”

“About twenty people have circulated it so far?”

“Exports like this are always fast.”

“Also exporting the Goblin Warrior hunt…”

“Don’t worry! We’ll edit it to look cool~ Just trust your viewers!”

Exitra’s brow furrowed in distress.

He had created a permanent black mark in exchange for money.

“Sigh…” he let out a small breath.

Still, the satisfaction of earning money remained.

“Well then… huh? Why do you look like that?”

***

When Exitra turned his head, Alfredo was standing there, looking at him with a subtle expression.

‘Was he thinking about something?’

He seemed slightly dazed, but then suddenly his face twisted in frustration.

“Tch!”

Alfredo clicked his tongue as if something displeased him.

Exitra tilted his head.

“Did I do something wrong?”

— [???: Oppa, do you really not know what you did wrong? How could you?!]

— [Exitra’s definitely in the wrong.]

— [Yeah.]

— [Just apologize first…]

“Why should I apologize for something I didn’t… hey?! Wait! Come back!!”

“Hmph, I’m going ahead!”

Alfredo quickly returned to the territory.

Watching his back, Exitra muttered quietly.

“Is he already going through puberty?”

He figured it was possible.

***

“Damn it…!”

On his way back to the territory, Alfredo suddenly stopped in place.

He recalled the moment Exitra killed the Goblin Shaman and the Goblin Warrior.

“Shit!”

He hadn’t been able to do anything.

All he had done was protect Exitra from getting attacked.

Beyond that, he could only stand there, powerless.

“Big Brother could do it, so why can’t I?”

They were brothers.

If Exitra could do something, then Alfredo should have been able to do it too.

But he couldn’t.

Against the Goblin Shaman, the best he could do was block attacks, and in the end, Exitra was the one who finished it.

It was the same with the Goblin Warrior.

None of Alfredo’s attacks had worked.

He’d even almost died that time.

If Exitra had been a little slower to defend him, Alfredo’s head would have been smashed in on the spot.

“Sigh…”

A deep sigh escaped him.

He was the one who caused the trouble, yet Exitra was the one who cleaned it up.

What made it worse was that when the heavy rain first started, the first person who came to Alfredo’s mind as someone who could solve the problem was Exitra.

“….”

That thought didn’t sit well with him.

He had trained desperately to grow stronger and had indeed become stronger.

But he still couldn’t even reach Exitra’s toes.

“How did Big Brother become that strong… why?”

And that last moment when Exitra defeated the Goblin Warrior…

He instantly recognized that the enemy was undead and came up with a perfect strategy to counter it.

That insight and observational skill were downright chilling.

“Does this mean I’ll never be able to catch up to him…?”

Alfredo looked down at his own hands.

‘Am I just too weak…?’

“Sigh…”

Another sigh slipped out.

What he hated even more was that, in that moment, Exitra had looked cool.

The brother he despised and looked down on… in that instant, it was as if he had been struck by Cupid’s arrow—Exitra seemed dazzling.

Dazzling enough to make him lose focus for a moment.

“No!!”

Alfredo shouted loudly.

Exitra was someone he had to surpass.

In order to inherit the family name and succeed to the title, Exitra was nothing more than an obstacle.

Someone he might have to remove someday.

‘And yet he had been captivated by such a person?’

‘I can’t let that happen. I have to keep my promise to Mother…’

In his final moments with his mother, he had made a promise.

That he would become the head of the Raiders family.

He had sworn it, and to do so, Exitra had to be eliminated.

“…Mother, I will keep my promise.”

Alfredo steeled his resolve.

Suppressing his true feelings, he began walking slowly toward the territory.

***

Exitra returned to the territory.

The heavy rain had stopped.

Naturally so—after all, the Goblin Shaman who had caused it was dead.

But then something unexpected happened.

“Hahaha! Water!”

“Look at this! The fields are soaked. We can start planting soon.”

“Seems like there won’t be any problem farming now. Hey, merchant! Sell us some seeds!”

Because of the downpour, the land had absorbed plenty of water, restoring the fertility of the fields and making farming possible again.

“Wow.”

Even Exitra hadn’t thought of this outcome.

— [That guy…]

— [He ended up doing someone a favor…]

— [He brought the rain for revenge, but now it’s like this??]

“The Goblin Shaman… he was a good guy after all.”

Exitra thought back to the Shaman, who had come at him, drooling like crazy.

He had thought the creature was evil, but maybe it had been good all along.

If the dead Shaman could hear this, it would probably roll on the ground in rage and grief.

[Manleptokki has donated 1,000 won.]