Part 7 of 8
Even with super-elite forces and humanity’s strongest mage, there’s no way anyone could defeat a monster like that.
We should withdraw now.
But my judgment comes a moment too late.
The nightmare incarnate teleports right in front of us.
The spider monster appears before the corpse of the arch taratect.
Compared with the huge arch taratect, it’s rather small.
Its entire body is black, except for a white pattern on its back.
Terrifyingly, the pattern looks just like a skull.
Of its eight legs, the two in the front are bigger than the others and taper off into the shape of scythes.
And its eight red eyes are glaring right at us.
My body instinctively cowers away at the sight.
I can see the men in front shaking in their boots in spite of their orders to be “ready for anything.”
But I can’t blame them.
How could anyone help trembling when a thing like that suddenly appears before them?
The monster looks like a monarch, ruling over everything around it.
Just a glimpse of it is enough to set you trembling.
It’s just like the reports said.
Even without Appraising it, I could tell in an instant.
That’s not the kind of monster the likes of us can do anything about.
“O…ooooghhh?”
Hearing a strange moan, I turn to my right to see Master Ronandt staring at the monster with wide eyes and trembling intensely.
So even he’s fallen victim to the fear this monster brings?
The terror that creature inflicts on us isn’t just due to its appearance.
It must have an Intimidation-related skill, but I’m still shocked even someone as powerful as Master Ronandt wouldn’t be able to resist it.
“Master Ronandt?”
“How… How can this be? Such power, such power… Impossible. What is this creature?”
“Master Ronandt!”
“…Yes, yes. I apologize.”
“What’s happened to you?”
“That monster…it seems relaxed, yet it has a truly immense amount of skills activated all at once. Impossible…”
Master Ronandt must be able to see the monster’s active skills in a way I cannot.
From the way he’s muttering to himself, he doesn’t seem to be in his right mind.
It doesn’t appear to be an effect of the Fear condition, but it still does not bode well.
Because the spider monster, which seemed calm enough at first, is starting to look angry.
This is bad. It’s getting ready for a fight.
And the soldiers, sensing that anger, automatically ready their weapons.
It’s no use. At this point, I don’t see any hope of befriending this creature.
Suddenly, a strange sense of discomfort overwhelms me.
Is this…Appraisal?
But who?
Could that monster be Appraising us?!
How is that possible?!
I have never heard of a monster that can use Appraisal.
To confirm, I use my own Appraisal Stone.
But the results of the Appraisal astound me.
Absurdly high stats.
A vast number of skills.
We don’t stand a chance of defeating something like this.
“What?!” Master Ronandt shouts.
Apparently, he activated Appraisal at the same time I did.
His mouth hangs open in shock.
“H-Height of Occultism?!”
Master Ronandt seems to be particularly taken aback by one of the skills held by the monster, the “Ede Saine.”
Personally, I’ve never seen or heard of that skill.
But that isn’t all.
The Ede Saine has multiple skills I’ve never seen before.
In addition, there are several I am familiar with that are very high-ranking.
And that still isn’t the end of my shock.
It happens as I’m partway through looking at the skill list.
Suddenly, the Appraisal results disappear, replaced by the phrase <Appraisal Blocked>.
Appraisal…blocked?
I’ve never heard of such a thing.
“W-wait! Show me more, more!”
“Master Ronandt!” I exclaim urgently. “Please, come back to your senses!”
The mage seems to have gone mad.
At the same time, I shout to the men.
“Retreat! We can’t beat this thing! Retreat at once!”
But the cry comes too late.
The eight soldiers at the head of the group collapse.
I don’t know what happened to them.
The Ede Saine didn’t seem to be doing anything.
It was just standing there, staring at us.
And yet, that was enough to cause eight men to fall without a moment’s notice.
What sort of skill is this?
Since I wasn’t able to look at all of the creature’s skills, I have no idea what’s causing it.
But either way, the monster isn’t stopping there.
The Ede Saine begins to do something strange.
It’s like it’s peeling off its own skin.
This bizarre sight terrifies the soldiers.
One of the soldiers, overcome with fear at seeing his comrades fall, charges at the Ede Saine.
But his sword never reaches the creature, instead breaking on a wall of earth that rises from the ground.
Wait. From what I saw of the skill list, the monster didn’t seem to have Earth Magic.
There was a kind I’d never heard of, Abyss Magic, but I believe I saw all of its other magic skills.
And Earth Magic definitely wasn’t among them.
“What?!” Ronandt bellows. “It created magic from scratch without using a skill?!”
I can’t believe my ears.
Is that really possible?
Even the strongest human mage alive is clearly disturbed.
No, this can’t be something normally possible.
This is no time to be stingy with my skills.
I have to bring out all my trump cards if I have any hope of surviving.
Even then, I’ll consider myself lucky if I make it through.
Summoning. My Summoning skill is at level 4.
In other words, I can summon a total of four monsters to this place.
My best hope is to use the monsters to buy time for the soldiers to escape.
But how long can I hold off a beast like that?
My summoned monsters appear.
Kirekock, a bird monster.
Rock Turtle, a tortoise monster.
Feveroot, a tiger monster.
Suiten, a water wyrm.
All of them powerful monsters, which I would never normally use lightly.
I’m sorry, all of you. Go!
As I order my summoned monsters to attack, I once again shout at the soldiers to withdraw.
Kirekock’s Wind Magic lands a direct hit on the Ede Saine.
This surprises me at first, but when the dust kicked up by the magic attack clears, I understand why.
The Ede Saine is unharmed.
For that monster, Kirekock’s magic wasn’t even worth dodging.
Still, it bought us some time.
Thanks to Kirekock’s leading attack, the slow-footed Rock Turtle has reached the front lines.
Rock Turtle’s high defense is its selling point.
With the shield in place, the other three monsters commence their attacks.
Kirekock’s Wind Magic swoops down from the sky, while Suiten’s Water Breath brings a burst of scalding steam.
Feveroot attacks directly after the first two shots land.
Its excellent speed and high attack power are on display as it jumps at the Ede Saine.
An earthen spear rises out of the ground to meet it.
Unable to react in time to its sudden appearance, Feveroot is impaled by the spear.
Immediately after that, Kirekock falls out of the air.
As quickly as if something had struck it down.
It crashes violently into the ground, emitting an unpleasant sound as it sinks in.
What’s going on?
Just like that, Kirekock is crushed by an invisible force.
Meanwhile, Suiten continues to unleash Water Breath.
But the Ede Saine seems utterly unconcerned.
It slowly turns toward Suiten and fires a Wind Magic spell.
First Earth, and now Wind?!
As I look on in shock, the Wind Magic blows away the breath attack and Suiten along with it.
Only Rock Turtle remains.
But it isn’t moving. It can’t.
Appraising it to determine the cause of its strange behavior, I discover it now has the Paralysis status condition.
Not only that, but all of its stats are rapidly decreasing.
Its HP, too. In just a few short moments, the tenacious Rock Turtle is reduced to a husk.
My summoned beasts, who have overcome so many trials with me, have all been slaughtered.
And yet, it is not sadness nor anger that rules my mind right now.
It’s fear. Shameful, and inexcusable toward the poor beasts that died for me.
But even knowing that, I can’t seem to resist the fear that wells up from deep within me.
I want to run away from this place right now.
However, as the leader of the force, I cannot flee before my subordinates can get away.
My soldiers started to evacuate in the short time the summoned monsters bought for them at the cost of their lives.
But not quickly enough.
They’ve struck Master Ronandt over the head to bring him back to his senses, and he’s begun preparing large-scale teleport magic to evacuate the troops.
Still, it will be a little longer before all the troops fall back into the range of the Teleport spell.
Just a few short seconds remain. But in those seconds, a nightmare unfolds.
Earth and Wind Magic fly about wildly.
They seem to be shooting off at random, yet each shot takes another soldier’s life.
Other soldiers suddenly collapse without being hit at all.
It’s the same mystery attack that took down Rock Turtle.
An attack that was able to drain even Rock Turtle’s high HP in an instant.
Unable to withstand it for even that long, the soldiers collapse one after another.
Magic flies toward Master Ronandt as he prepares the teleport magic.
Knowing that my MP will soon run out, I summon more monsters to shield Master Ronandt.
The magic attacks come again and again.
Each time, I summon another monster.
I drink an MP recovery potion, then another.
I summon as I drink. My MP gradually recovers.
However, the amount consumed is higher than the amount recovered.
A spell, a summon, a spell, a summon.
After countless repetitions, I finally run out of beasts to summon.
And yet, the magic attacks don’t stop.
On the contrary, there are clearly even more than before.
As I look around for answers, I find that Ronandt and I are the only two left alive.
“Master Ronandt.”
“We have no choice. I will at least bring the two of us back alive.”
Ronandt tries to activate the Teleport spell, but the Ede Saine appears directly before him.
“Master Ronandt!”
“Eh?!”
A jet-black spear shoots toward him.
It’s full of a horrifying amount of magic power, making those Earth and Wind spells look like child’s play.
And it’s headed straight for Master Ronandt.
Ronandt is too focused on constructing his own spell to avoid it.
And I’ve used up all my summons, so I have nothing left to use as a shield.
The rest happens in the blink of an eye.
I use my own body to block the dark spear.
My body seems to burst open.
The black spear pierces right through me to attack Master Ronandt behind me.
Master Ronandt’s right arm and part of his flank are blown away.
Throwing myself in its path must have altered its trajectory just a little.
Master Ronandt looks anguished as he activates the Teleport spell.
The world around me warps. I close my eyes instinctively, and when I open them, we’re not inside the labyrinth anymore.
“Huh?”
People gather around us in shock.
“Someone, bring healing items or magic,” Master Ronandt commands, his face twisted with pain.
This must be the empire’s magic research lab, then. Immediately, there’s a clamor all around us.
“You must hold on a bit longer.”
Master Ronandt uses Recovery Magic on me.
“Nearly half your upper body’s been destroyed. I’m amazed you’re alive.”
“Guh…”
I try to say something, but all that comes out of my mouth is blood.
My body slowly begins to recover.
My HP creeps out of the red as well.
As Master Ronandt ignores his own wounds to heal me, other healers rush over to treat him.
I breathe a single sigh, completely exhausted.
There were a great deal of sacrifices, but we survived.
“What good is it being the ‘strongest human mage’? I couldn’t do anything, not a thing…”
As my consciousness fades, Ronandt’s bitter voice echoes unpleasantly in my ears.
I STILL DON’T KNOW THE STUPID NICKNAME OF “NIGHTMARE OF THE LABYRINTH” THAT I GOT THAT DAY
I’m currently conspiring to defeat Araba to rave reviews.
Today, I’ve returned to the place where I first encountered Araba, the bottom of the huge pit with bees buzzing around.
To do what, you ask? Why, to exterminate the bees, of course.
See, I’ve been thinking. If I set foot on the ground to fight Araba, I don’t stand a chance.
This isn’t a complicated metaphor or anything. I literally mean that if I touch the ground while fighting Araba, I’m going to lose.
Because the ground is one of Araba’s weapons.
Can you imagine earth spears and junk suddenly popping out of the ground underneath you?
Not only that, but it can also block attacks using walls of earth and stuff like that.
So I decided I wouldn’t feel safe unless I stay off the ground.
I know, I know, what are you gonna do then? Well, I’ll just stay in the air! Duh.
Lucky for me, I have the Dimensional Maneuvering skill, which lets me run around freely in the air.
With this skill, I can hold up a respectable air battle even without wings.
And what better place to engage in that sort of battle than in the center of a spacious area where I can keep my distance from the walls?
This pit is wide enough that I can keep a decent amount of space between the walls and me, effectively negating the threat of Araba’s Earth Magic.
It’s the perfect place for our fated battle.
However, there’s just one little problem.
Yep, you guessed it: those stupid buzzing bees.
The last thing I need is for these idiots to try to interfere while I’m focused on my battle with Araba.
So, with the double purpose of eliminating a nuisance and earning EXP, let’s start exterminating some bees!
JAB!
Uh, ow?!
I’ve been stabbed?!
In the back, I’ve been stabbed in the back?!
Excuse me, the starting bell didn’t ring yet, asshole!
Ow, ow! Thanks to Pain Mitigation, it actually doesn’t hurt that much, but it’s bringing back some real traumatic memories of the time I got stabbed like this before and almost died!
I tie up the bee on my back with thread and yank it off.
Ugh. What a pain.
Now you’ve gone and done it, pal.
Who would’ve thought a stupid bee would pull off a surprise attack on me, even with my Detection skill?
Although that being said, my HP barely went down, and it’s already healed back up with Auto-Recovery.
Pretty crazy that this almost killed me before, huh?
It opened up a nice big air hole in my back, and since I didn’t have HP Auto-Recovery back then, my only chance at survival was leveling up and molting. That brings me back…
JAB!
Again? Seriously?!
Since I have Pain Super-Mitigation, too, now, it hardly hurts at all, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying!
It’s a pain to keep throwing them around, so I just use Thread Control to slice it up this time.
Man, but if it happened twice, it’s totally gonna happen a third time, huh?
How are they even getting to my back without setting off my Danger Perception anyway?
Oh, maybe because they’re not actually registering as dangerous?
I guess it’s not technically doing any real damage, so I’d be hard-pressed to call it “danger.”
Ah, in that case, maybe the bees aren’t even registering as enemies to me anymore?
I mean, they really are just fodder to me now, so I guess that’s not wrong…
JAB!
Cut it out already!
Seriously, this is kinda weird, right?
How can they sneak up on me so easily without even having Stealth or anything?
Sure, I might be kind of an idiot, but this is still weird.
Come to think of it, aren’t bees the natural enemies of spiders or whatever?
Is there some kind of hidden advantage outside of the regular system at work here?
No, that can’t be… Right?
Anyway, damage or no, it’s still pissing me off.
Sure, I’ll admit it takes some guts to come at me like that in the face of my Intimidation-plus-Fearbringer combo, but still, this is on them.
So let’s get on with the extermination!
I hop through the air with Dimensional Maneuvering.
I fire magic at every bee in sight and use my scythes to slice up any that get too close.
Wow. I used to need a whole web setup to take these guys on, but now I’m taking them down like nothing.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Behold! These bees are like garbage before me!
Oh? I haven’t seen this kind of bee before.
According to Appraisal, it’s called a general finjicote.
Oh-ho-ho. This must be the next rank above the captain bees.
Looks about as strong as a snake, maybe?
Well, it’s no match for me as I am now.
Thinking back, when I first fell into this hole, most of my stats were barely halfway into the double digits.
If this guy had shown up back then, I might’ve been in trouble, even with a home base set up.
But tough luck for you, pal! I’ve advanced light-years beyond the weakling I was before!
Specifically, my stats are about a hundred times stronger!
Seriously, just looking at my stats alone, it’s crazy how much stronger I’ve gotten.
If you take my skills into account, too, it might even be more than a hundred times.
Pretty impressive growth rate, if I do say so myself!
So, I’m sorry to ruin your dramatic entrance and all, but I’m gonna have to shut you down right there, Mr. General.
Oh, wait, here’s another one.
I guess I must be getting close to the hive now, huh?
I do see some kinda object up above me.
Actually, it’s more of a building than an object, huh?
I guess that makes sense, since the bees that live in it are almost ten feet long.
It’s waaay huge.
I wonder if there’s a queen bee–type of figure in there…
Well, I’m gonna knock down the whole damn nest anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.
Do your thing, Black Magic!
The beehive collapses, taking the surrounding bees with it.
As it goes down, I mercilessly rain more magic on it for good measure.
Boy, am I good or what?!
Now, all this destruction might draw Araba’s attention, so I better get outta here.
I’m not ready to fight it just yet.
I return home from the pit with Teleport.
And when I arrive, I find a bunch of humans milling around.
Excuse me?
Uh, where did all these guys come from?
Don’t tell me they knew I was going to teleport here and were lying in wait?!
No, apparently not.
They’re all totally freaking out now, after all.
Man, what’s the deal here?
Oh, they’re dressed sorta like those knight dudes I saw before, so these must be their friends or something.
Are they all knights from a certain country or something?
Huh?
Wait, how did they even get all the way here?
Didn’t I set things up so they’d have to get through my webs to reach this point?
When I dealt with the spider army, I took down my thread to lure them inside, but I know I put them back up after that.
Wait a sec.
I’m getting a bad feeling about this.
Activate Clairvoyance.
My home is… Aaaaah?!
It…it…it’s BURNED?!
Oh boy. Ohhhh boy.
It’s gone.
The home I worked so hard to build.
It’s been reduced to ashes.
I don’t believe it.
Even with Flame Resistance added to the thread, I guess it’s still weak to fire.
Damn it! These guys have a lot of nerve to do this to me!
I flash back to when I was still weak, when my home was burned down for the first time.
All the frustration comes rushing back.
At the time, I was weak.
My beloved home was taken from me, and I could only run away.
But things are different now.
I’ve gained enough strength to protect my pride.
And while I was out, these guys trampled all over it.
It’d be harder NOT to get angry in this situation, right?
Plus, after burning down my home and trespassing inside, now these guys are trying to oppose me.
The knights have drawn their swords, holding them out toward me.
Back in Japan, this would definitely constitute legitimate self-defense, right?
I could totally say these guys tried to attack me, and I just did what I had to do, right?
There is a total of thirty-four of them.
Their stats are higher than the knights I saw before, too.
On average, they’re around 400.
Some of the higher ones even go past 500.
And there are two individuals who are way stronger.
At a glance, I’d say one’s a warrior type and one’s a mage type.
Oh, but the warrior guy has the Summoning skill, huh?
It’s an advanced form of the Creature Training skill that makes monsters obey you.
The user can summon trained monsters from a long distance and even use Teleport to a limited extent.
He’s got Cooperation and Command and stuff, too, so he might be more of a monster tamer or a summoner than a warrior.
The mage-type guy is definitely a mage, though.
His skills and stats both totally scream, “I’m a wizard!”
However, his stats are much higher than the other humans’, and he’s got a pretty expansive skill set.
He kinda looks like he’s teetering on the verge between middle and old age, but I guess he might actually be pretty strong after all…
Hmm? What’s this unpleasant feeling?
Just as a strange sensation washes over me, I notice something in my status.
“Appraisal in Progress”?
The message suddenly appears above my stats.
Looking at it, even my skills are flashing red.
Ah, does this mean they’re being Appraised?
So the strange feeling I’ve been getting is what being Appraised feels like?
Wow, gross.
Quit peeping, you perv.
If the flashing red text indicates what’s being Appraised, the perpetrator must be pretty high level.
Hmph. Activate ruler’s authority. Appraisal rejected.
<Use of ruler’s authority confirmed. Blocking effects of [Appraisal] skill.>
I didn’t expect to have to use my ruler’s authority like this.
Since it uses my divinity field, I prefer to avoid it as much as possible, but I don’t like the idea of someone else looking at my status.
Destruction of property, trespassing, and now peeping, too.
How much more do you have to keep rubbing me the wrong way before you’re satisfied?
For now, I’m gonna lock and load Cursed Evil Eye in all eight eyes.
And activate it starting…now.
As soon as I turn it on, people start dying.
…I know that sounds hard to believe, but trust me, I don’t know what happened, either.
They weren’t just a little bit weak or fragile.
All it took was a single glance.
I mean, hang on a sec. How are you guys this weak?
Huh? For real?
I, uh… Hmm.
It’s just, you know, um.
I didn’t actually mean to kill anyone, okay?
Even I have a little scrap of a conscience, you know.
Huh? Wait, or do I?
Hmm. Come to think of it, I do understand morals and all, but even in my old life, I obeyed the law only because it seemed like breaking it would be a pain.
I knew the rules, and I followed them because it didn’t seem worth the trouble to do otherwise, but I guess it’s not like I was doing it because of my own conscience or anything.
Oh, also, it looks like I leveled up from that. Twice, in fact.
Really? These weaklings give out that much experience?
I accidentally killed eight people just now, but each one of them gave out more experience than a greater taratect.
Um, wow.
They do have a stupid number of skills, so I figured they’d maybe give more EXP than their weak stats might indicate, but I didn’t think it’d be THIS much.
Oh man. Humans’ experience value is way too tempting.
And since I already killed a few, I’m kinda starting to feel like a few more wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
They attacked me first…and it’s not like I was really that worried about it in the first place…and I am a monster, after all.
What’s the big deal if I murder them?
Look, my biggest goal in life is to live with pride.
Anyone who stomps all over that pride and tries to threaten my life is an enemy who needs to be soundly defeated.
In this world, even my own parents and siblings are my enemies, so it doesn’t make any practical sense to hold off on killing humans simply because I used to be one.
Plus, the humans are the ones who started being hostile in the first place.
I’m just trying to live my life, and they come in here and burn my home.
If they’re going to threaten my life and step on my pride, then human beings are my enemy.
So I might as well just throw away any stupid sense of morality from my old life.
First, let’s get out of the skin I just molted.
If you think about it, doesn’t that make this kind of like a strip show?
Yeah, right.
Ah, while I was distracted by that stupid thought, another idiot came charging toward me.
I could just finish ’em off in the usual way, but maybe I’ll use these guys as guinea pigs for a little experiment instead.
I start constructing magic.
The magic I saw when Araba fought the giant snake a while back.
I rely on my memory to re-create the spell.
Then I activate the completed magic.
The Terrain Magic spell Terrain Wall.
Even without the skill, I can still invoke the spell if I know how, huh?
It’s just that having the skill means the system will assist you, so it’s a lot harder without it.
If I had to compare it to something, I’d say it’s like walking instead of taking a train.
If you’re walking, you reach your destination of your own accord by checking the way as you go, while taking a train gets you there automatically.
Obviously, if you had to say which one’s easier, it’d be the train.
But it’s not impossible to get there by walking.
Getting a magic skill means automatically attaining the ability to construct that magic.
Then you just have to create the construction you’ve already got.
In other words, if you know the construction, you can do the same thing by hand.
At least, that was my thought process. Turns out it really works.
Maybe this is thanks to Height of Occultism?
Mr. Knight gets carried into the air by the wall that appears below his feet.
Wow. He ended up in the kinda state you can’t really describe out loud. Rest in pieces, buddy.
Now that I’ve crossed the line once, I don’t really think anything of killing people, huh?
Kinda makes me the worst type of person, if I’m being honest.
But I’m not a person anymore, so it doesn’t really matter.
The summoner guy is shouting now.
Oh? Looks like he’s summoning something.
A bird, a turtle, a tiger, and a dragon?
Whoa. It’s probably just a coincidence, but this is a really Four Gods–esque lineup.
Though I gotta say, if that is the intention, it’s pretty far off base.
The bird’s black, for one thing, and the turtle kinda just looks like a big rock. Plus, the tiger is highlighter pink for some weird reason, and the “dragon” is just a water wyrm that looks more like a puffer fish than anything.
Talk about a bunch of knockoffs.
I guess they are kinda strong, though.
Based on stats alone, they’re stronger than the guy who summoned them, even.
The higher stats among them are over 800.
They have way less skills than the humans, though.
The bird starts using Wind Magic.
Whoa, it can use magic?
Maybe being tamed by a human means it gets a little smarter?
I don’t have the resistance skill for wind, and it probably won’t do much damage, so maybe I should let it hit me so I can pick up the resistance…
Ouchie. That hurt a little.
I guess just one hit isn’t enough to get a resistance skill, huh?
Now Wind and Water attacks are flying at me at the same time.
I don’t have Water Resistance, either, so I’ll let that hit me, too.
Oh, here comes the tiger.
Letting this guy hit me won’t give me any skills, so he’s useless to me.
I use the Terrain Spear spell I saw Araba use.
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Earth Magic LV 1].>
Huh? What?
I’m using Terrain Magic, but the skill I got is its lesser form, Earth Magic.
Oh, so I guess using Terrain Magic still just accumulates Earth Magic proficiency?
Hmm. The fact that re-creating magic I haven’t acquired from scratch earns proficiency is a useful discovery, but I guess the skill you get from it is the lowest magic from that system.
Well, whatever.
Being able to get a magic skill without using skill points is still a big plus.
Having the skill certainly makes construction easier, and it’ll be stronger and more precise too.
Ooh, in that case, I should copy the bird’s Wind Magic, too.
I’ve seen it a few times now, so I get the basic idea.
If I learn to use Wind Magic, I don’t need to bother with getting the resistance right now.
Which means you’ve outlived your usefulness, my feathered friend.
I knock it down with Repellent Evil Eye.
Then I test out the Wind Magic on the puffer fish.
Ooh, it worked.
If I keep using it, I can probably get the skill in no time.
So the rock turtle there is all that’s left, right?
Its defense power certainly is high, but compared with the earth dragon’s…
It has stupidly high SP, too, so I start stealing it away with Jinx Evil Eye.
Thanks for the snack, guy.
While I was busy with the four gods (LOL), the knights have started trying to escape.
I’m not letting you get away, my precious EXP.
I use mostly Earth and Wind Magic to take them down, earning proficiency while I’m at it.
At the same time, I use my Evil Eyes to reduce their numbers.
Hmm? Is the mage trying to teleport or what?
And isn’t that the advanced spell Large-Scale Teleport?
Trying to escape with the whole group, huh?
Out of range of my Evil Eyes, huh?
Guess I’ll snipe ya with magic, then, huh?
Oh, the summoner’s blocking my shots.
Well, aren’t you special?
The summoner desperately summons one monster after another to block my magic.
Then he drinks something, and his MP starts slowly recovering.
Is that an MP recovery potion, then?
I didn’t know such a handy item existed.
Boy, human beings sure play dirty.
I finished off all the knights, but these two might actually escape.
Maybe instead of wasting my time with sniping, I should take ’em out with one big shot.
I break into a run. At this distance, a quick dash is faster than teleporting.
I stop right in front of the summoner and the mage.
Activate Black Spear.
This isn’t just proficiency grinding like I was doing before.
I’m using the highest-level magic available to me right now.
First, I’ll finish off the mage with this.
Then I can take care of the summoner at my leisure.
Oh wait, the summoner’s using his own body to protect the mage.
The black spear pierces through the summoner and injures the mage, but they barely manage to escape with Teleport.
Aw, man.
They got away.
Well, no big deal.
I marked them already, so I can take care of them whenever I feel like it.
Plus, aside from the two who escaped with Teleport, it looks like four people managed to escape on foot.
If they’re running away, that must mean they’re heading for the exit.
If I let these guys go, they’ll head straight to the labyrinth’s exit, won’t they?
Well then, I’ll just let them lead me right to freedom.
It’ll probably take a few days to get there, but it’s still faster than just wandering around at random on my own.
It’s been a long time coming, but now I know where the exit of the labyrinth is.
Which means I can finally get out.
Though honestly, after this little encounter, I think it might be impossible for me to have peaceful contact with humans after all.
Still, this time was only because these guys rubbed me the wrong way. It’s not like I’m gonna go around killing people indiscriminately.
Even if they do give me lots of delicious EXP.
If they don’t start anything with me, I won’t do anything to them.
If you attack me, I’ll attack back, but if you treat me with respect, I’ll do the same for you.
I don’t know how likely I am to get any respect from humans, but let’s not worry about that.
Either way, nothing’s gonna happen if I don’t at least try going outside.
But before I go out, there’s something I have to do.
Now that I’ve leveled up a bunch, it’s the perfect time to take on the challenge.
To challenge my trauma, earth dragon Araba.
TO THE HOME OF THE ELVES
It’s been a few days since we rescued Leston and the others.
After the rescue, they all woke up without a problem, but we’re having them rest just to be safe.
I may have resurrected them, but the truth is that they were absolutely dead for a short time.
There’s no telling what sort of side effects there might be.
Still, maybe thanks to the fact that they’re taking it easy, there haven’t been any signs of trouble yet.
In the meantime, I finally removed Anna’s brainwashing.
It had been slow going before we rescued everyone, but over the past few days, it finally started to work quickly.
Now, if I Appraise her, I don’t see any status conditions.
As soon as the brainwashing started to come undone, she completely returned to her senses.
Even the strongest brainwashing seems to fall apart as soon as the victim starts to suspect that something is wrong.
However, with the brainwashing solved, another problem has emerged.
“I’ve wronged you so horribly, Master Schlain…”
Now Anna is deeply depressed.
Just like with Katia, she still has all her memories of the time she was brainwashed.
Even knowing she was forced to do it, she nevertheless harbors feelings of guilt over the things she did under Hugo’s control, and she spends all her time brooding about it.
There’s not really anything I can do about that.
I can only assure her that it was Hugo’s fault for brainwashing her and that Anna has nothing to feel guilty about.
It’s the truth, but saying it only seems to make her feel even guiltier, so she’s stuck in a vicious circle of depression.
All I can do now is watch over her and hope she’ll recover on her own.
Ms. Oka also finally woke up.
And at the same time, we received information that Hugo has dispatched an army to the forest where the elves live.
All of us are now meeting up in the conference room of the mansion.
We have to have a serious talk about what we’re going to do next.
“Now, let’s discuss our plans from here on out.”
Katia’s father, the duke, is in charge of the proceedings.
“Firstly, regarding the current state of the kingdom, the queen seems to have taken control of the administration. Cylis is officially stated to be bedridden with illness, which is why he hasn’t made an appearance. Most likely, he has yet to recover from the state you all witnessed him in.”
It’s possible Cylis would go back to normal if the brainwashing were removed.
But considering it took almost half a month to cure Anna of her brainwashing, I’m sure it would take them even longer to remove it.
Even if they could, I don’t know if Cylis would ever recover from the broken state Hugo’s extreme brainwashing reduced him to.
“The queen’s future plans are unknown, but it has apparently been decided that Sue will be marrying Prince Hugo of the empire. I am certain the empire will use this as a foothold to essentially rule our kingdom.”
That’s right. Hugo brainwashed Sue and has taken her away to the empire.
As his fiancée, no less.
“Starting with Leston, just about everyone here is a fugitive of the law. However, not all the nobles in the kingdom have fallen into the hands of Hugo or the queen. We must begin to secretly gather allies and take action toward eventually restoring the kingdom.”
Only some particularly influential nobles have been brainwashed by Hugo.
He left others alone, like certain neighboring lords who nonetheless have power in the kingdom and nobility in the capital without much influence.
Apparently, the duke, Leston, and others intend to persuade these nobles to help slowly regain their status.
“But that still doesn’t address the root of the problem.”
Leston looks at me as he speaks.
“Now that Hugo has taken control of even the Church, it’s safe to say his aim is to conquer the entire world. However, we cannot overlook that even as he attempts to throw humanity into chaos, we are in the midst of a war against the demons. Our own kingdom is important, of course, but if we leave humanity to take care of itself, it could easily create an opening for the demons to take over.”
My brother Julius lost his life in that battle.
If Hugo throws the whole world into chaos, Julius’s sacrifice could end up being in vain.
That’s one thing I refuse to allow.
More than anything, there’s no way I can ever forgive Hugo for everything he’s already done.
“Shun. As the true hero, will you step forward to defeat Prince Hugo, enemy of our kingdom and all humanity?”
Most likely, Leston is speaking not only for himself but for everyone here.
I feel the same way as all of them.
I have no reason to refuse.
“Of course.”
After the meeting, Katia, Hyrince, Ms. Oka, Anna, and I all gather in a different room.
The five of us, together with Fei, are going to head to the elves’ village to stop Hugo.
Apparently, Hugo himself is heading up the invasion.
With the help of Ms. Oka’s connections, we’ll meet with the elves and strike back against Hugo’s imperial army.
Since there are few soldiers in the kingdom who can currently be deployed, and we don’t know who might be in the hands of Hugo or the queen, we decided to go in the form of a small, elite unit instead.
Fei, Hyrince, and I were all a given, as well as Ms. Oka as our intermediary with the elves, but there was a bit of a quarrel over Katia and Anna coming along.
Katia is the duke’s daughter.
Her father was against sending her into danger, and he demanded that she stay.
Katia flat-out refused, and a parent-child quarrel broke out.
It took all day, but Katia finally talked her parents into allowing it, so now she’s coming with us.
“I ended up telling them I was going even if I had to use force, so that finally shut them up.”
So the duke didn’t actually agree, but he knew he couldn’t stop his daughter if she got serious.
My condolences, Duke and Duchess.
Your daughter has grown into a terrible delinquent who won’t listen to her parents.
As for Anna, she ended up facing down all our protests.
She says she wants to come to atone for her sins.
To be honest, I can’t say I’m in favor of her coming with us.
Anna is strong enough to have served as my and Sue’s maid-slash-bodyguard, but she’s still not on the same level as the other members of the group.
On top of that, Anna is a half elf.
Elves are deeply prejudiced against any mingling of their bloodline with other races.
They hold no fondness toward any such child.
Anna was born in the elf village and cast out.
I don’t know the details of that past, but it’s obvious she doesn’t have good memories of the elves.
And yet, we’re about to bring her back to that same place.
I don’t think any good can come of that.
Still, leaving her behind would be worrisome in its own right.
Since recovering from her brainwashing, Anna has been emotionally unstable.
She’s spent a lot of time brooding, the crimes she committed while brainwashed weighing heavily on her.
To the point where I’m worried it might become permanent psychological damage if left alone.
So, I am hopeful that bringing her outside will have a positive effect on that mood.
And since I’ll be worried about her either way, I decided it’d be better if I can at least keep an eye on her, so we agreed to take her with us.
With our members thus decided, the next question is how we’ll get to the elf village.
Unlike our kingdom, which is on the continent of Daztrudia, the village is on the continent of Kasanagara.
And there are only two ways to cross between those continents.
One is to use a teleport point, like the one that was in the castle.
However, most teleport points are similarly located in places like the royal castles of various kingdoms.
The only people who can use them are royalty, high-ranking nobles, and the like.
We might meet that condition normally, but right now, we’re on the most-wanted list.
It’s doubtful anyone would let us use a teleport point.
The only possibility I can think of is the kingdom my older sister, whom I’ve never met, married into, but unfortunately, that kingdom is quite far away.
Which leaves us with only one choice.
To pass through the largest labyrinth in the world, the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
You might think we could just cross the ocean, but that’s not an option.
The ocean is the domain of an enormous water dragon that will sink any ship attempting to cross it.
It might be possible to go by way of the sky, but even Fei would have difficulty with such a long-distance flight between continents.
Because of all this, despite the immense danger of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, people still come and go through it quite frequently.
Incidentally, there was the question of whether Fei’s large body would fit inside the labyrinth, but she’s assured us it won’t be a problem.
“The real issue is whether we’ll make it in time once we get through the labyrinth.”
“Not to worry. Once we reach the other continent, the elves have a hidden teleport point we can use. By my calculation, we should be able to get to the elves’ village before the imperial army attacks.”
With that, Ms. Oka has solved the last of our problems.
Now we just have to make sure we reach the elf village safely.
“Before we leave, there’s something I must talk to all of you about.”
Our teacher’s expression is grave.
True enough, I do still have a lot of questions for her.
About Sophia, about Hugo, about what the elves have been doing…
But her next words stop all my questions in their tracks.
“Before I tell you everything, let me say this. This world was created as part of a game among gods.”
THE RULER AND THE YOUNGER SISTER
“How do you do, Little Sister?”
“What do you want?”
“I just came to see how you’re doing, of course.”
“Well, you’ve seen me, then. Please leave.”
“Oh, don’t be so cold. Couldn’t we talk a little first?”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Is that so? And here I thought you would need comfort, sobbing away about pretending to be brainwashed so you could betray your beloved older brother.”
“Hmph! That’s none of your concern. You’re just a god’s hunting dog!”
“Oh? Aren’t you in the same boat now? That’s why you betrayed your brother, I believe.”
“That’s not true! I haven’t betrayed him!”
“But you are obeying our master. That makes you an enemy of the human race, my dear.”
“Ngh!”
“Ah, there it is. That face. That’s what I wanted to see.”
“You’re horrible.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.”
SPIDER VS EARTH DRAGON ARABA
I’ve made up my mind to challenge Araba.
Now I’ll just check my status one last time.
<Ede Saine LV 26 Nameless
Status: HP: 3,592/3,592 (green) + 1,700 (details)
SP: 2,413/2,413 (yellow) (details)
Average Offensive Ability: 2,392 (details)
Average Magical Ability: 11,158 (details)
Average Speed Ability: 7,440 (details)
MP: 12,110/12,110 (blue) + 1,700 (details) (blue)
: 2,413/2,413 (red) + 1,700 (details)
Average Defensive Ability: 2,363 (details)
Average Resistance Ability: 11,004 (details)
Skills:
[HP Rapid Recovery LV 7] [Height of Occultism] [SP Rapid Recovery LV 1] [SP Minimized Consumption LV 1]
[Destruction Enhancement LV 6] [Cutting Enhancement LV 8] [Status Condition Super-Enhancement LV 1] [Magic Divinity LV 2]
[Magic Power Conferment LV 7] [Mental Warfare LV 9] [Energy Conferment LV 5] [Dragon Power LV 7]
[Deadly Poison Attack LV 6] [Rot Attack LV 4] [Heretic Attack LV 6] [Poison Synthesis LV 10]
[Medicine Synthesis LV 7] [Threadsmanship LV 8] [Utility Thread LV 6] [Thread Control LV 10]
[Telekinesis LV 1] [Throw LV 10] [Expel LV 2] [Dimensional Maneuvering LV 8]
[Stealth LV 2] [Camouflage LV 1] [Silence LV 8] [Tyrant LV 1]
[Concentration LV 10] [Thought Acceleration LV 9] [Foresight LV 9] [Parallel Minds LV 7]
[High-Speed Processing LV 6] [Hit LV 10] [Evasion LV 10] [Probability Correction LV 7]
[Wind Magic LV 4] [Earth Magic LV 10] [Terrain Magic LV 1] [Heretic Magic LV 10]
[Shadow Magic LV 10] [Dark Magic LV 10] [Black Magic LV 2] [Poison Magic LV 10]
[Healing Magic LV 10] [Spatial Magic LV 10] [Dimensional Magic LV 4] [Abyss Magic LV 10]
[Destruction Resistance LV 5] [Impact Resistance LV 5] [Cutting Resistance LV 5] [Flame Resistance LV 2]
[Wind Resistance LV 2] [Earth Resistance LV 8] [Heavy Super-Resistance LV 1] [Deadly Poison Resistance LV 3]
[Paralysis Resistance LV 6] [Petrification Resistance LV 5] [Exhaustion Nullification] [Acid Resistance LV 6]
[Rot Resistance LV 7] [Faint Resistance LV 5] [Fear Resistance LV 9] [Heresy Nullification]
[Pain Nullification] [Pain Super-Mitigation LV 2] [Five Senses Super-Enhancement LV 1] [Perception Expansion LV 5]
[Night Vision LV 10] [Clairvoyance LV 8] [Jinx Evil Eye LV 6] [Inert Evil Eye LV 5]
[Repellent Evil Eye LV 1] [Annihilating Evil Eye LV 3] [Celestial Power] [Ultimate Life LV 3]
[Instant Body LV 7] [Endurance LV 7] [Fortitude LV 2] [Stronghold LV 2]
[Skanda LV 7] [Demon Lord LV 3] [Perseverance] [Pride]
[Wrath LV 2] [Satiation LV 7] [Sloth] [Wisdom]
[Conviction] [Hades] [Corruption] [Taboo LV 10]
[Divinity Expansion LV 6] [n% I = W]
Skill Points: 0
Titles:
[Foul Feeder] [Kin Eater] [Assassin] [Monster Slayer]
[Poison Technique User] [Thread User] [Merciless] [Monster Slaughterer]
[Ruler of Pride] [Ruler of Perseverance] [Ruler of Wisdom] [Wyrm Slayer]
[Fearbringer] [Dragon Slayer] [Ruler of Sloth] [Monster Calamity]
>
That’s a whole lot of growth, but my magic-related stats are especially crazy.
They’ve broken into six digits now.
Height of Occultism is terrifying.
To be honest, though, I’m still not positive I can break through the earth dragon’s staggering magic defense.
The spider army was a good matchup for me, but with those scales that obstruct magic, dragons are a really bad one.
But with these insanely high stats, I’m sure I can at least do some damage if I just keep casting magic.
On the defensive front, I’ve been smacking myself around with Earth Magic to acquire and improve my Earth Resistance.
I mean, my defense is so low that it kinda feels like trying to put out a wildfire with a water gun, but it’s got to be better than nothing.
Then there’s my new Sloth skill.
As you can probably guess, it’s another one of the Seven Deadly Sin skills, like Pride.
This skill is gonna be my trump card in my battle against Araba.
Pride is a support skill that’s pretty much useless in battle, and Perseverance is a defensive skill.
By the same token, the Height of Occultism skill I got with Wisdom is helpful for attacking, but Wisdom itself is still a support skill.
Out of all the broken, OP skills I’ve gotten, I think Sloth is the first one that’s a proper attack skill.
With this broken skill, I can penetrate Araba’s defenses.
In fact, without it, I don’t think I could challenge it at all.
I spent quite a lot of time in the Lower Stratum raising my level, but even among all those powerful enemies, the strength of earth dragons is still a cut above.
And among those earth dragons, Araba is the strongest by a long shot.
I don’t think I’d stand a chance without all the preparations I’ve made.
Part 7 of 8