Tale Of Unknown: Hero From Zero

13. Victory and Funeral

Duaghh!!

Braakk!

Struck by the slash from the logs, Riyan crashed into the wall of the labyrinth. He fell to his knees while turning his back, the monster. True, he was still alive, and right now the young man was trying to stand on both feet. It was fortunate that he had managed to dodge the attack from the troll which gave a certain death.

'I thank you, General Faleon, for training me to avoid this deadly attack.'

A moment after standing up, he immediately kicked the floor and moved away from the loathsome creature.

How did he survive? It was because in the final seconds, his survival instinct rose and defeated the fear within him. With his pretty good reflexes, he immediately turned around to fend off the direct attack using the sword that was still in its sheath.

Feeling quite far away, Riyan stopped and pulled his sword from his back, then formed fighting horses. His cold sweat was still flowing profusely, fear was also overpowering his body, but for the sake of surviving on the sixth floor of this labyrinth, inevitably he had to fight once more.

'I don't know how big the impact of the indirect attack was, but the good news is I'm still alive. All right, let's ignore that first, now I have to fight.'

While keeping his concentration towards the troll, Riyan took the blue-colored status enhancing pill and swallowed it so that his status doubled. He breathed a lot, then exhaled strongly so as not to panic. He knew that he was very unworthy to be on this floor, but after all, Riyan Klaint had to live.

He lowered his body, then darted as fast as possible towards his large-bodied opponent. Trolls do have terrible defenses, but that status is inversely proportional to their reflexes and unusually low intelligence. Therefore, Riyan uses the weaknesses of trolls as his superiority.

'If my speed stays like this and plus [Distract], in a long-term fight I will be the winner.'

When it was 2 meters away, the monster again swung its wooden weapon towards Riyan, but it was able to dodge it. Seeing the response as well as the movements from his opponent, Riyan was slightly surprised, then realized that the [Albtraum Troll] was different from his race. As he had read in the book, this type of troll had intelligence and reflexes above most of his race.

"Oh, it looks like this is going to be very troublesome."

Muttering that, he picked up a pebble from below, then threw it behind the troll while activating [Distract]. As soon as his opponent looked back due to his distraction skill, Riyan raised his empty left hand and pointed it forward, then concentrated.

"[Where Burst]!"

As soon as possible, while his attention was distracted, Riyan immediately attacked. A mana attack instantly shot straight from his hand with the target head.

Blaarr!

The explosion from Riyan's [Mana Burst] was so small, far different from the previous one. That's because the mana is insufficient. Although his mana parameter increased to touch the number 75, he only used 15 points for this attack. Wh why? Reasons skimp.

[Albtraum Troll] was very different from [Chimera] who had a fairly slow response, their reflexes were on par with humans who had practiced martial arts for 2 years. This situation is very difficult for him who loses in all aspects. The skills he could rely on right now were only [Mana Burst], [Distract], and [Mana Slash]. This is why Riyan reduces the use of excess mana.

Thin gray smoke was visible on the troll's face, but unfortunately the monster did not collapse, not even kneeling. At the same time, he froze. It looks like he's in shock or stun. Seeing this opportunity, without any hesitation, Riyan kicked the floor and shot towards his opponent.

When the distance was sufficient, he immediately pushed his sword into the stomach of the monster deeply. He knew that this was the only chance he had to steal mana from the creature, so he wasted neither chance nor time.

Zleebb!

GROO!!

Suddenly feeling pain in his stomach area, the troll roared loudly accompanied by a sense of suffering from the prick of a human who should be his prey. Riyan who heard the roar panicked instantly. He pulled out his sword and jumped back as far as possible.

He landed on the floor a few steps away from his opponent. [Albtraum Troll] was holding his stomach while continuing to grimace in pain as if hoping not to feel the pain of the open wound on his stomach. A moment later, he looked forward to confirm the existence of the human, but unfortunately, his prey had disappeared from his sight.

"[Where Burst]!"

Blaarrr!!

From above, Riyan fired a small [Mana Burst] at the monster, more precisely at its head. He knew that all those trolls were basically just mindless creatures that were very stupid, more stupid than shrimp. In fact, [Albtraum Troll] is not as stupid as it is written in the book, this type of troll is a little smarter. Yeah, just a little.

Besides being stupid, trolls also do not have the ability to maintain concentration and panic quickly. Riyan took advantage of the opportunity when the ugly creature looked down at the wound on his stomach, and jumped as high as he could to outwit and panic his opponent. Sure enough, the troll panicked and did not know where his prey was. Whereas just by raising his chin by approximately five degrees, Riyan can be seen.

NGOOAA!!

The troll again shouted out the pain he received. On the other hand, Riyan did not waver at all and continued to advance following the gravity that pulled him down towards the monster. Because of his jump earlier, his body moved forward, aiming at his opponent. Instead of fear or panic, his eyes seemed to focus more and more. His sword he raised until it was parallel to his right shoulder, then waited for the right moment.

"Now! [Where Slash]!"

Zraat!!

When he felt fit, he swung his sword while exerting one of his attacking skills with all his might. The slash cut through everything that came face to face with him, including...

The zrrss!

...The head of the [Albtraum Troll], one of the guardian monsters of the sixth floor of the Hexaphilia labyrinth.

Zraakk!

Riyan landed perfectly behind his opponent while dragging a step so as to raise the dust contained on the floor. He immediately fixed his standing position, then put his sword into the sheath on his back after cleaning the blood of the ugly face.

Moments later, his head fell to the floor, followed by his large body and a torrent of blood like a small fountain. Fortunately, the creature's body fell forward, instead of backwards on the exhausted Riyan.

"Huh. huh... Just barely... If the fight continues any longer, I'll lose."

While saying that, Riyan was bowed while panting heavily due to the effects of the status enhancing pill that had just been exhausted. Therefore, his stamina was reduced drastically without the slightest warning. He smiled as his time did not miss.

After making sure no monsters approached and his breathing began to calm down, he turned his head back to look at the lifeless body of the [Albtraum Troll].

"Absolutely unbelievable. I just defeated a high-level monster? What a miracle."

Seeing the corpse of the creature once again, he again said 'impossible' in his heart many times. How not? Someone like him, the lowest status among all humans, managed to kill a high-leveled monster like the [Albtraum Troll]. Well, although at first he did know that no matter how strong the status of living things, if the vital part is paralyzed, even gods will not be able to survive.

Riyan breathed a sigh of relief because he survived. To him, this is luck. Somehow, he himself did not understand too much about the system in this world. The system in this world uses a system that is similar to RPG games, but the rules are the same as the real world. For example, if the neck is slashed, then a person or a monster will die immediately.

"By the way, is there any change to my status, huh?"

Intrigued by that, Riyan opened up his own status and watched him closely. When he opened it, the first reaction he let out was surprise. Wh why? This is due to a significant change in status.

Riyan was silent when he saw her status. It closes the hologram screen displaying its state for a moment, then opens it again to confirm if there is an error or bug. But when he opened it, there was no change from his status that he had seen a few seconds ago.

"What's this!?"

***

A few days after the fall of Riyan into the abyss in the labyrinth finally Tifania woke up from his stupor. Perhaps due to the shock mixed with the loss of energy, the girl was unconscious for several days. Hearing the news of Riyan's death from Rizu and Layla accompanying him the entire time, this healing classy girl roared while shedding tears on the laps of her two best friends.

Gilbert and Johan were outside, only helplessly hearing the cry of a girl. There was nothing they could do to ease Typhania's cry. Gilbert feels guilty, for not being strong enough as someone classy hero who is supposed to protect everyone, especially his own classmates. Johan also felt guilty, considering himself ignoring Riyan in such a way.

To them, the ones responsible for Riyan's death were themselves, for their inability to face the [Chimera] monster, that was, though they were one of the strongest among the summoned disciples from another world.

A few minutes later, Layla opened the door and exited the room, leaving Typhania to Rizu. This of course leaves Gilbert and Johan shocked to death, but they can overcome it. Concerned, Gilbert asked Layla.

"How is Typhania, Layla?"

"Now he's back to sleep because he's crying too much."

"Is that okay?"

Johan interrupted with a look and tone that was as worried as Gilbert.

"Yes, I think it's okay. We must wait patiently for what his heart says. If he refuses, then we can't force him to accept this. After all, Riyan is our friend who studies together every day at school."

The two men nodded confidently in response to Layla's words. They can only move on with the situation now. If this concerns one's conscience, then no one can interfere, except himself. They handed Typhania over to Rizu, one of his closest friends.

Elsewhere, Remia performs her usual duties while harboring the pain she receives from regret over the news of the death of her only friend. Such a deep regret, for his treatment of Riyan on their last day together. Drop by drop tears fell into the laundry, fusing with the puddles of water inside.

A week after the day that Riyan fell into the abyss to save the group of heroes from another world, a tomb with a tombstone was made on it, to remember that Riyan Klaint had once lived.

The tomb is located under a glendia tree, a large, shady tree that Riyan frequents in his spare time, not far from the palace, only about 70 meters away. There was held the highest final royal honours ceremony, followed by mourning songs. All the inhabitants of the palace were present, including Typhania and Remia. They were crying there.

After the funeral, Tifania and Remia prayed in front of the tombstone. The two of them apologized for all the wrongs they had done to Riyan thus hurting her heart. Remia was the last to return from the tomb, having been truly sorry for her actions.

***

A few days after the funeral, Faleon gathered all the students in a room, with Alestein's permission. Not only the disciples, Remia was told to come into it. Since there were no chairs, they all sat on the floor, including Faleon as well.

"Today, I want to say something to you guys, about Riyan."

Subjectedly staring at the floor with a sad expression, Faleon said that as loudly as possible so that it could be heard by everyone in the room. He took a breath, then exhaled it as if it were hard to say.

"I know this breaks my promise to him, but you have every right to know. No, let kuralat, you should know."

Once again, Faleon took a breath and exhaled strongly. He knew that he had promised, but the promise had been lost due to the death of one of the parties.

"On that day, on the day that he ransacked the teacher's room in your world, it wasn't his fault."

Hearing that, all the disciples present there were shocked, including Remia. At first Remia did not know what exactly was the reason why Riyan shunned her friends, but she asked Faleon about it. Knowing the reason, the servant girl did not believe it at all.

"Sorry, general, have you also been brainwashed by him?"

Rei raised his hand up and asked that with a wry smile. In a moment, all the attention was on him, causing his guts to shrink like a chicken in the middle of a pack of hungry wolves.

"Do I look like someone who can be brainwashed by someone as low as himself?"

Hearing the back question from Faleon, Rei was completely unable to reply. The general only sighed, seeing that many of these heroes had no confidence in what he said.

Later, Faleon recounted everything that Riyan had told him in the library. Furthermore, the day that Typhania wanted to tell this to Gilbert, Johan, Layla, and Rizu, but was denied by Riyan himself. He said the reason why Riyan denied Typhania's words, and when only the two of them were left, Riyan cried.

Typhania and Remia, suddenly shed tears. Not only them, almost all of the disciples were crying. They were simply unable to reply to what Faleon had said earlier, as his expression truly portrayed deep sadness as well as disappointment.

"So...everything he does is....for our sake?"

Tifania tried to wipe and stop the flow of tears, asking that while sobbing. Faleon simply nodded to answer the question from Typhania. In the end, all the disciples regretted their mistreatment of the man whom they considered to be deceased.