The guard’s knight squad turned their backs and built a defense line.

“What, what is this?”

“Why is the monster coming out inside the palace? There, there’s a gap, isn’t there? Someone call for backup now!”

“There! It’s broken through again. It’s at the 6 o’clock direction!”

It was a lizard that burst out from beneath the ground.

“Lizard tails are those living by filthy wells, aren’t they! Why are these mad creatures lurking here? Block them. Risk your lives to stop them! Don’t let this monster outside!”

The lizard, its back bristling with bone, clawed at a tree with its tail.

The ground was deeply gouged by the claw marks.

It was larger than a bear’s paw.

Beneath the claw, juice dripped drop by drop. The sight was grotesque.

‘Grrr?’

The lizard twisted its head 180 degrees. Its eyes flipped upside down.

“Captain! The night market is still in full swing. If we let it out like that, the nearby area will become a battlefield!”

“Someone, someone call for reinforcements. If we stay like this, we’ll all die!”

When the monsters opened their mouths, a rotten stench emanated.

‘Kyah!’

It was a fishy smell. Moreover, those monsters lived in a rotten well.

“Wrap aura around your bodies to protect yourselves! Those who can’t, hold your breath. If you don’t want to be corroded by the poison, shut up and endure it for now!”

The knights wrapped aura around their bodies for protection.

“They, they look strange. Do lizard monsters usually look like that?”

Flesh melted and dripped from their tails.

“High, highranking monsters are said to look like that, but… how, how come, why is a highranking monster appearing in the city!”

All the flesh that touched the bone corroded. When the poison seeped into the ground, the soil boiled.

“Ru, run……!”

A moment of silence passed.

The monster attacked the knight, wrapping it with its tail, and impaled it on the wall.

‘Grr?’

The guard’s knights collapsed on the spot.

They were venomous, and from their fangs flowed a dark red liquid.

The ground gradually corroded from the poison.

The soil turned black, and the surrounding weeds withered and twisted.

‘Kyaaah.’

Someone mumbled as if entranced.

“We’re going to die.”

It was when they tightly shut their eyes.

“What are you doing, sticking your neck out in front of the monster? If you intend to shove your head into its mouth, better to die by plunging your nose into a plate of water. What kind of pathetic death is this?”

Sharp criticism was poured out. Benjamin Visennov mounted the lizard’s tail.

“Cut off the tail.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“If you take a direct hit from their tails without protection, your ribs and all will be crushed. Protect your body with aura. Those who can’t protect themselves, step back. You’re getting in the way.”

The sword, wrapped in aura, mercilessly struck down the creatures’ tails.

“Burn all the monster’s poison with aura!”

The reptilian monster had thick scales.

The monster rolled its eyes backward and twisted its neck grotesquely again.

‘Kyaaah!’

The poison burned with aura, and dark red smoke erupted. It was spicy and sharp like the smoke of a bitter cigarette.

“I found it strange that dark magic was being detected, but why are these creatures lurking here?”

Benjamin Visennov cut off their tails and slapped them on the ground. The severed tails twitched on their own.

“That was close. We would have all been corroded by the poison if we had been a little later.”

Benjamin took off his hooded robe and narrowed his eyes.

“What were you doing here?”

Among the monsters, there were those guys. They were the guards.

“It, it wasn’t us! It was some drunkard. He stabbed a passerby with a knife and was running away, and when he broke some glass bottle, those creatures crawled up from the ground!”

“It looks like this glass bottle, Your Highness.”

The guard captain found a shard of glass under the brick debris. The shard was sparsely corroded by poison.

“It looks like a bottle for storing poison.”

“The quality is a lowgrade product. Even though it’s cheap, it’s strictly banned in the empire. I’ve been lax recently. Why are things that should not be outside the market freely roaming the streets?”

The ground was slimy with the poison coming from the monster’s corpse.

“Then is it lowgrade poison?”

“With lowgrade poison, you can’t summon monsters like these. Lowgrade is just a slightly stinging level of poison.”
Benjamin Visennov picked up a shard and pulled out the venom. His skin was corroded by the venom, turning black and rotting away.

“Now, with venom like this that rots the flesh, it can’t be handled by such lowquality goods. The container must have broken even before containing the venom.”

“Your, Your Majesty, I understand what you are saying. Just, please take better care of your body. Who else would handle venom with their bare hands?”

The captain of the guard collected the shard with a grimace.

“Do you think your body is made of iron?”

Benjamin narrowed his eyes.

(This is a time separator.)