Chapter 71

Spoils (3)

The Concept Skill, Infinity[M].

If my guess was right, this was the Sovereign of the Abyss's Authority—an ability I hadn't been able to consume with Predation[S+] in my previous life.

◆Infinity[M]

: A state in which a concept is infinite and has no end. The player may attempt to combine this skill with a specific concept based on their [Understanding of Infinity]. Doing so converts the state of the combined concept to infinity.

Its assessed grade was [M], for Myth—a grade higher even than [L], for Legend.

This was also a skill I'd absorbed by consuming Avarus with Predation[S+]. Judging by its description, I could see how he'd been able to use infinite stamina and mana.

In short, an ability couldn't get more broken than this. But...

'A Concept Skill?'

A Concept Skill.

I'd never obtained that type in my previous life. Naturally, given that it was the Sovereign of the Abyss's Authority. Perhaps that was why I couldn't tell exactly what sort of skill it was or how to use it.

But to draw on the knowledge of the Archmage, one of the allied army's heroes...

["A concept is an umbrella term for abstract ideas, philosophy, language, psychology, logic, and the like, 'generalized' inductively from concrete facts."]

As expected, I couldn't make heads or tails of that explanation or that memory.

Still, if I forced myself to dredge up the memories of my previous life...

["As a simple example, there are countless kinds of dogs included in the species classification [Dog]."]

Big dogs, small dogs, vicious dogs. Purebreds, mutts, hunting dogs, military dogs, yellow dogs, and so on...

["But we ignore all those specific traits and differences and simply call them [Dogs]."]

We extract only their genetic similarities and 'generalize' them into the species classification [Dog].

["In this way, a generalization of a group of things is called a 'concept.'"]

This wasn't limited to things that physically existed. It also encompassed invisible things, such as human thoughts, time, gods, and transcendent entities.

["In that sense, the word 'concept' is itself already a concept."]

In light of that, the Concept Skill Infinity[M] could be described as the abstract concept of 'infinity,' generalized and made into a skill.

So I used Infinity[M]...

◆Error: The player's current understanding of Infinity is insufficient to combine it with the concept of 'Strength.'

... For some reason, it wouldn't combine.

Apparently, simply knowing the concept of infinity wasn't enough. I had to 'understand' it.

It was the same principle as how calling something a [Dog] told you nothing of its specific traits—whether it was big or small, a purebred or a mutt.

Perhaps that was why...

◆Error: The player's current understanding of Infinity is insufficient to combine it with the concept of 'Agility.'

◆Error: The player's current understanding of Infinity is insufficient to combine it with the concept of 'Stamina.'

◆Error: The player's current understanding of Infinity is insufficient to combine it with the concept of 'Mana.'

... Somehow, none of them worked.

Never mind infinite strength and agility—I couldn't even apply it to stamina and mana like Avarus had. Apparently, the range of applications varied with my [Understanding of Infinity].

It wasn't called a 'Concept' Skill for nothing. It seemed I had to improve my 'understanding' of the skill rather than my proficiency.

'So I can't use it just yet?'

It was a tempting prize beyond my reach, all show and no substance.

Still, there had to be a reason its grade was [M], for Myth. Just reading the description made it sound ridiculously overpowered, didn't it?

I'd find a way to use it in time.

'Definitely different from the Sovereign of Beasts.'

The Inexplicable Terror of the Unknown—the Sovereign of the Abyss.

Its Authority was just as inexplicable. Absorbing that Authority had been no easy task, either.

To put it bluntly, I would have died without Ian's ability, Player's Will[EX]. Regeneration[B+] didn't work on mental fortitude, so there was nothing I could have done about it.

Now I understood why the messages had made such a fuss. Player's Will[EX] didn't grant complete immunity, after all.

Fortunately, my mind hadn't collapsed, but it had still been dangerous.

Those whispers had kept eroding my mind, as if they knew the weakness in Player's Will[EX].

Which brought me to the person in the vision. I hadn't been able to see what they looked like, but...

'They said Hero.'

That person had called themself a 'Hero.' To be precise, the people in the vision had called that person a Hero.

And as far as I knew, there was only one person called the Hero.

'Ian.'

That would mean the voice I'd just heard and the central figure in the vision were Ian, but...

'... No way.'

That made no sense.

For one thing, it wasn't Ian's voice. And the nuances, the presence, the way of speaking—not one of them matched him.

In the first place, I'd heard that voice after using Predation[S+] on the strange entity called Z’thulonak. In other words, the whispers and the vision came from the Sovereign of the Abyss's Authority.

If the person in that vision was Ian?

That would mean Ian was the Sovereign of the Abyss.

'Ridiculous.'

Granted, nobody in the allied army had ever seen the Sovereign of the Abyss in person, but...

'There's no way.'

Of that, I could be certain. It was a theory I didn't need to entertain for even an instant.

Even so, the fact remained that the person in the vision had been called a 'Hero.'

'I think Ian might know something.'

Ian was the only person who had confronted the Sovereign of the Abyss directly. He would surely know something.

One more reason to join up with him as soon as possible.

Having sorted through my thoughts, I looked around.

Kai stood right beside me, blank and motionless as a deeply rooted tree. He was staring at me with a stunned expression, as though he were looking at something impossible.

"Weren't you... dead?"

He was saying exactly what Seraphia had said last time. Anyone watching would think those two were the siblings, not me and her.

"I came back to life."

"What? W-what...?"

Kai questioned me as though I were talking nonsense, but I casually ignored him. Honestly, I couldn't explain it any better than that.

I moved past him and continued looking around.

What you might call the main course had turned out to be a tempting prize beyond my reach, all show and no substance, but...

'I'd better scrape up every last leftover.'

Avarus, the Caster of Greed.

As his epithet suggested, the bastard was greedy through and through. If he'd made Veneron viscounty his base, there was almost certainly a 'secret vault' here.

He'd probably hidden it away behind layer upon layer of magical barriers.

With mana sensitivity approaching zero, I couldn't even detect them, but my Agility now stood at a whopping 111.8.

My senses no longer merely mimicked ESP; they were nearly its equal. Honed to a razor's edge, they didn't miss a single scrap of information my five senses picked up.

'Let's see...'

I carefully surveyed the ruined manor.

* * *

Adrian had flopped about like a fish dragged onto land.

As Kai watched him, his eyes held confusion, astonishment, and a touch of fear. He tried to accept the reality of this inexplicable return from beyond death, but he simply couldn't come to terms with the unbelievable sight.

Really...

"I came back to life."

He couldn't understand the man called Adrian. Only the explanation 'because he's Adrian' let Kai make any sense of it.

Just as he was trying to settle his bewilderment...

"It should be around here somewhere..."

Adrian suddenly began looking around for something.

"What are you looking for?"

"Dessert."

"... Pardon?"

"I've finished the main course. Time for dessert."

What was he talking about now...?

No, he was going to eat more after all that?

After he'd actually died from carelessly picking up—no, tearing off—something strange and eating it?

"Ah, over there?"

Adrian abruptly strode forward. Kai's gaze naturally followed him, but...

There was nothing particularly distinctive there. All he could see was wreckage.

But when Adrian cleared the rubble—

CRUNCH!

Or, more precisely, tore out the entire wall along with the rubble—

CRASH!

Space rippled and warped with the sound of a barrier shattering.

Gradually, the distorted space returned to its true form: a dark underground entrance and a spiral staircase descending into it.

Kai's eyes widened of their own accord as the hidden space revealed itself.

... He'd had no idea.

"How did you know?"

"Just did."

Adrian answered offhandedly and descended the stairs into the darkness.

But he soon came back up.

As Kai watched, puzzled, Adrian's body remained submerged in the darkness below, with only his face peeking out. He looked like a ghost with nothing but a face floating in midair.

"Kai, come over here and give me some light with your aura."

Kai gathered his scattered wits and drew his sword.

* * *

They descended with the blue aura on Kai's sword serving as a torch, only to find a thick door blocking their way.

One glance was enough to tell it was no ordinary door. Adrian gave it a quick once-over and spoke.

"It's made of runesteel."

"By runesteel, you mean..."

Runesteel.

A special kind of steel imbued with magical power. Its strength and durability weren't particularly high, however. As far as Kai knew, it was only slightly harder than steel.

But runesteel's true worth lay not in its strength or durability, but in its 'resistance to mana.'

Aura and magical power—both forms of energy rooted in mana—met with tremendous resistance from it. In fact, it went beyond resistance and could temporarily 'nullify' them.

In short, runesteel was a metal even Kai couldn't cut.

"If they made the door out of solid runesteel, there must be something pretty valuable in here."

Especially if it was solid runesteel—

CRUNCH!

The runesteel tore like paper.

Kai's mind went blank again.

Runesteel, his ass.

CRACK! CRUNCH!

Adrian was simply ripping it apart like a paper door.

... Was that man even human?

Yet Kai found himself accepting it with the explanation, 'Adrian has always been like that.'

... Apparently, Kai was gradually going mad too.

Having torn away the entire runesteel door in moments, Adrian strode inside.

Then he promptly came back out.

"What are you doing? Get in here and give me some light."

Kai barely managed to gather his scattered wits and went inside. When he illuminated the interior with his aura...

"Th-this is...!!"

Mountains of gold and silver coins and glittering jewels filled the room from floor to ceiling.

The mingled gold and silver shone even in the darkness, with expensive jewelry and relics laid atop them like decorations.

Tens of millions of gold, at the very least.

Kai's wits deserted him. This wasn't merely an enormous fortune, but an astronomical one, the likes of which he'd never seen—and would never otherwise see—in his lifetime.

No wonder the vault's location had been hidden behind every kind of barrier. No wonder even that hadn't been enough, and its door had been made of solid runesteel.

CLINK.

A sudden clinking reached Kai's ears. He looked toward the source of the sound to find Adrian... scooping up gold coins?

He was shoveling them into a large sack. With every handful, the coins clinked as they slid inside.

Where had he even gotten that sack?

"..."

Try as he might, Kai simply couldn't understand Adrian.

* * *

The coins piled in the secret vault looked to be worth tens of millions of gold at the very least.

I scraped them into a sack, determined not to leave a single coin behind. Even so, there seemed to be no end to them.

'I wish I could put all of this in my Inventory.'

To put it crudely, I had a desperate itch to use my Inventory.

Unfortunately, my Inventory had a weight limit: [Strength stat x 40 kg].

My current Strength stat was 87.4.

◆Your current Inventory weight limit is [3,496 kg].

That was a considerable capacity, but still.

The mountains of gold and jewels spread before my eyes made it clear why Avarus had been called the Caster of Greed. A mere 3,496 kg wouldn't even come close.

As I diligently shoveled the coins into the sack by hand, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

'Would Infinity work on my Inventory?'

Without giving it much thought, I used Infinity[M].

◆Combining the Concept Skill Infinity[M] with Inventory.

The translucent message flashing before my eyes jolted me to attention, but only for a moment.

◆The Inventory weight limit is being converted to '∞ kg.'

... That actually worked?