Chapter 22: This Is a Nightmare!

  'What kind of hellish world is this?'

  After being killed for the Nth time, Alex sat silently by the campfire, utterly speechless.

  He had now fully felt the deep malice this world had in store for him.

  Initially, Alex thought this was a seemingly ordinary world, but now he no lohought so.

  If being killed by the knight the first time could be chalked up to his carelessness, the subsequent times, even when Alex was fully prepared, he was still ruthlessly beaten down.

  However, these efforts were not in vain. After several attempts, Alex found that the "parry" skill he previously thought useless was uedly effective.

  After mastering this teique, he successfully blocked and tered the knight's attacks, then seized the opportunity to stab the knight in the chest.

  Alex initially thought it was over, but before he could pull out his sword, a dark, eerie liquid suddenly emerged from the knight's back, twisting and densing into a massive snake-headed mohat lu him.

  At that moment, Alex's spirit was crushed. At first, he thought this was a normal, post-apocalyptic world.

  Thehought it was a world with formidable bat. But now... what oh was this monster?!

  Did he really have to fight these enormous, inhumaures with just a sword and shield? This world was too despairing!

  Though the dark world also had monsters, at least it had protective skills!

  But here, all he could do was roll, block, and ssh? No skills, no magio artifacts, and not even any teammates?

  His mentality was instantly shattered! This was nothing short of a nightmare!

  Fortunately, Alex remembered that his purpose in ing to this world was to train his swordsmanship and awareness.

  Otherwise, he might have chosen to end it all. Surviving in this world required more than just a stro.

  Luckily, in this grim world, there was at least a small sanctuary. After arduously defeating the knight, Alex passed through the gate aered a pce called Fme Shrine, where he met a blindfolded girl who called herself the Fme Keeper.

  From her, Alex learned about the situation in this world.

  This world was inally chaotic, but one day, a fme called the First Fme was born. People found Lord Souls he First Fme and used the power of fire to defeat the a evils.

  After that, the Age of Fme began, and humans built a glorious civilization. However, fme eventually fades.

  To keep the fme burning, powerful heroes used themselves as kindling, prolonging the fme's life.

  Now, everything was ing to an end.

  The ied fme had go, the bell had tolled, awakening the a Lords of der from their slumber.

  However, they had forsakehrones. His duty was to defeat these Lords of der and rekihe dying fme.

  After talking with the Fme Keeper, Alex finally uood the general "setting" of this world. It was like a bohat had once burned brightly, bringing light and warmth.

  But now, it was just a pile of ashes. His task was to find enough kindling to rekihe boherwise, everything would be over.

  This was indeed a world filled with despair.

  But luckily, at least there was the gentle Fme Keeper to soothe Alex's tormented soul. She was far better than the muscle-bound bcksmith and the old e.

  pared to her, those two were like trapped undead—oh, and the guy sitting oeps, muttering to himself all day long, with a sword in his p, who knows what he's talking about.

  After the previous tough battle, Alex felt he had finally grasped how to survive in this world.

  fidently following the Fme keeper's guidance, he used the boo teleport to Drakemoor's walls, ready to begin his adventure. Initially, the monsters on the walls posed no threat to Alex.

  Even the undead wielding massive axes were easily parried and executed by him.

  This infted Alex's fidence immensely... Well, perhaps not that extreme, but at least he believed he had mastered the essence of bat.

  That was until he entered a Drakemoor Knight.

  This knight, like the previous one Alex had faced, was impeccably armored but pletely ununicative. As soon as the knight saw Alex, he charged with a roar.

  Alex was no longer surprised by this. He had realized that, aside from the few people in the Fme Shrine, everyo outside was like a mindless beast, attag on sight.

  So, Alex readied his shield to parry and execute the knight once more.

  But things didn't go as phe Drakemoor Knight charged forward, raised his shield, and bashed Alex, stunning him.

  Before Alex could recover, he saw the knight's sword swing down… and with a swift cut, it was over.

  Alex realized he was still a novi melee bat.

  Previously, his victories, like defeating Stone, relied on the Royal Cross Swordsmanship and the special effects of his skills.

  Although Stone had pointed out that Alex cked a deep uanding of swordsmanship, Alex had been somewhat dismissive.

  He thought he had other battle teiques at his disposal. For instance, he could have used invincibility and then unleashed a Holy Storm on Stone, which would have ehe battle quickly...

  Not to mention, if he ever faced a strong enemy iure, couldn't he just rely on his soul stones?

  But now, in this world, Alex realized how powerless he truly was.

  Without the soul stones and uo use Padin skills, he was surprisingly weak!From the moment he arrived at this wall until now, how many times had he died?

  Sitting by the bonfire, Alex frowned deeply. If he had any fiden his strength before, this experience had shattered it.

  Refleg on his past battles, he realized that in his first fight after transmigrating, he had only survived thanks to the power of the soul stones.

  In the Dark World, he had also relied oo defeat Medusa. These were all gifts from the system, not his own true strength, but rather a crutch.

  Had he already begun to lose his way?

  If his initial goal upon arriving here was to train, now Alex was seriously residering his previous mi.

  Should he rely on the system's help for his entire life? While the system indeed provided great support, if he didn't grow stronger himself, what was the point?

  "I was too careless..."

  Shaking his head with a bitter smile, Alex stood up. Before his transmigration, he wasn't a warrior, although he had received some training.

  Alex had never experiehe bloodbath of a battlefield, so face-to-fabat was unfamiliar to him.

  inally, he didn't see this as a problem, but now, he realized what he was g. Perhaps, this was why the system chose this world for him.

  With this in mind, Alex gripped his sword tightly and walked to the edge of the ptfazing down at the ruined city below.

  He could hear the howling wind, the hoarse, chilling growls, and the heavy footsteps of those wandering, zombie-like creatures, still roaming the city, wielding ons, attempting to kill any life they entered.

  Alex didn't know who these creatures inally were, what they had done, or why they fought. But now, ohing was clear to him.

  Aanding in his way was his enemy.

  With this resolve, Alex tightened his grip on his sword and marched dowairs.

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