Chapter 187 - Carried by Gear (2)

The Shadow Altar.

In this chapter, the doppelgänger acts strictly in pursuit of two goals: making the expedition waste its Stones of Truth, or, failing that, continually stirring up trouble to reduce its numbers.

In that light, there was one prime suspect.

["Which city are you from?"]

Kailman Parteian. The mage on Hans G's team who had split the expedition in half with a single question.

At first, I thought he'd accidentally stepped on a land mine. After all, neither Hans G nor anyone else on the mage's team seemed to know that the dwarf's group was from Noark.

But...

["Dwarf, are you the doppelgänger?"]

I had relentlessly gone after the dwarf's group. Where had they gotten the equipment in their backpacks? What exactly had the official said when they received their identification tags? I'd bombarded him with questions he couldn't answer, steering things so that he would look suspicious.

There was just one thing I hadn't considered then.

How would the doppelgänger have viewed a dwarf struggling to answer such easy questions?

'It must have seemed strange. Then it would have wondered why.'

It had managed to possess an intelligent mage. From the questions the dwarf couldn't answer, the doppelgänger must have arrived at the truth: Noark.

It probably got greedy, too. Its host happened to have just the right item... and, used properly, the situation would make concealing its identity easier.

["H-he's dead."]

The doppelgänger bastard knew how to play dead. I'd fallen for it plenty of times in the game, too. Unless you killed it outright, the damn thing would enter hibernation, sustaining itself while making a fool of the Player.

Just like this.

"SKREEEEEE—!!"

The doppelgänger convulsed the instant the potion poured over it. If I hadn't known about this mechanic, I probably would have had no choice but to use a Stone of Truth on Raven, even after beating every other suspect to death.

"It's the doppelgänger!!!"

Finally cleared of suspicion, Raven shouted more joyfully than ever. Meanwhile, even through its screams, the doppelgänger's first instinct was to deny it.

"N-no! Hey! I'm! SKREEE!!"

Just how stupid did it think we were?

It was ridiculous, but arguing with a monster would be just as absurd. I simply grabbed it by the neck and walked toward the altar. The closer we got, the more violently it struggled.

"H-how...!!"

Finally giving up on excuses, it voiced its bewilderment.

I smirked. In truth, something else had been the decisive clue.

'At least put on a convincing act.'

A mage's greatest weakness was close combat. Yet it had dodged the dwarf's axe, which had been poised to split its skull, and taken the blow on its shoulder instead. That would have been impossible unless it had anticipated the surprise attack.

Besides, the idea that the blow had killed it instantly was laughable. Bleeding to death, sure—but it had stopped breathing before the Guide girl could even give it a potion?

「You have successfully discovered the Usurper possessing an expedition member.」

As I rammed the doppelgänger's head into the altar, pure white light began spilling out. At the same time, the forest shook as though an earthquake had struck.

"SKREEEEEE—!!"

Something shaped like a shadow was pulled out through the crown of its head and darted between the trees, letting out a horrific shriek.

Then...

"Oh! It's getting away!!"

It vanished off in one direction.

There was no need to panic. It only meant the third chapter was over.

「Stones of Truth used: 1.」

「Seal release rate: 10%.」

「Hurry and pursue the Usurper. Defeat it before it regains its sealed power.」

Now it was time for the final boss battle.

"Bjorn, let's go after it!!"

"Stop. There's something we need to do first."

First, I calmed Aynar down and checked Parteian's condition.

Well, Raven did the checking, not me.

"How is he?"

"His injuries have mostly healed, so shouldn't he wake up soon?"

"I see."

Raven, who had hurried over at my call to examine Parteian, finally sagged. Now that her scattered wits had returned, it seemed all her strength had drained away.

"Whew..."

The melee sisters and Mister Bear approached, looking sheepish, and each offered a few words.

"Wow, so he really was the doppelgänger, nyah..."

"That's what I told you. It wasn't me!"

"Ahem. A mage is a mage after all, eh? Thinking someone might still be alive in a situation like that."

"Ha. Seriously, what would you have done if I hadn't...?"

"Aruru! You know I believed in you, right?"

"Believed in me, my foot... No, more importantly, where did you even get Aruru from?"

"Huh?! Don't tell me you don't like Aruru?"

Aynar drooped, looking hurt. Of course, that wasn't going to work on Raven.

"Why would I like it? Allua Raven! First name or last name, please just say it properly. I absolutely hate this sort of—"

"I-I wanted to call you by your first name, but it was hard to pronounce..."

As Aynar hung her head, Raven's irritated tirade came to an abrupt halt. Then she asked cautiously,

"What do you mean, you wanted to call me by my first name?"

"You're a human and a mage, but you're a precious teammate."

True to her barbarian nature, Aynar delivered that embarrassing line without so much as a change in expression.

"Ha. Honestly, that pronunciation of yours..."

Raven sighed in disbelief, then sharply turned her head away.

"Fine. Call me whatever you want."

"Really?!"

"Yes. They call me something similar at the school anyway, so it'd be silly to get angry over it, wouldn't it?"

"Thank you, Aruru!"

It was a heartwarming scene: teammates overcoming adversity and deepening their friendship.

Watching them, I realized that, despite appearances, Raven was weak to this sort of thing.

'I'll have to use that next time I mess something up.'

After making a mental note, I wrapped up the brief conversation and began our preparations. We had a mountain of things to do before the boss fight.

"You two, stop standing around and come here."

First, I called over the Guide girl and the blunt-weapon warrior, who had regained consciousness.

"You've heard what happened?"

"... Yes."

His eyes were vacant, apparently deeply shaken by the revelation that Hans G and the elf archer had been evil spirits.

"Pull yourself together. Everything else can wait until we get out alive."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Start by telling me what you can do."

First, I assessed the blunt-weapon warrior's combat capabilities: which Essences he had absorbed, what kinds of fighting he could handle, and so on.

Normally, he would never have shared such personal information with an outsider. Given the circumstances, though, he cooperated with me very meekly.

"I see. And you?"

"I-I won't be any help in combat, aside from finding the way. I'm sorry."

One rank-six warrior and one unranked Guide.

"Still, Master Parteian should be a great help to you. He's a rank-five mage, you know."

"What? Rank five?"

"Yes. Though his specialty lies elsewhere, rather than in attack spells. He usually handled more tasks than anyone else on the team. You should ask him for the details when he wakes up."

I was genuinely surprised. Raven was still a rank-six mage, after all. How the hell had that bastard Hans talked such a valuable talent into joining him?

'So we'll have to take down the Guardian with seven people total, including a rank-five mage...'

The picture still wasn't coming together. I didn't have enough paint to put what I wanted on the canvas.

So, while waiting for Parteian to regain consciousness, I thoroughly searched the loot left by the dwarf's group.

"Check everything, down to the last item. If anything catches your eye, have Raven examine it. We need to use everything we can."

Hans G, the elf archer, the Therianthrope swordsman, the dwarf, the spellcaster, and the priest of Carui.

The archer offered to the altar had turned into a soul, so we'd have to wait until we cleared the rupture to loot him. I skipped him.

"Aruru! What about this, nyah?"

"I can sense mana. But I can't read any spell formula, so it probably isn't a magic device... It's most likely a Numbered item."

"Ooh! These boots fit me perfectly!"

"They're made from Half Troll leather. They've also been enchanted with Haste. They're expensive, so be careful with them. We have to include them when we divide up the loot later."

As befitted people who had all reached the ranks of seasoned explorers, every bag we opened yielded something useful. It felt like opening a treasure vault.

"Raven, could you check this, too? I can tell it's made of litinium, but why make a necklace out of it?"

"Because of its mana conductivity. It changes the efficiency even when you apply the same enchantment. Now, let's see. This necklace..."

As though she'd found her true calling, Raven appraised item after item at a terrifying pace. Even so, it took longer than expected, and before we knew it, Parteian had woken up.

"Uh, ah..."

The middle-aged mage stared in confusion at his teammates' corpses and the forest full of assorted equipment. I sent the blunt-weapon warrior to explain things for me.

"A d-doppelgänger was inside my body?"

"Noark... Yes, I did think it suspicious that their bags were full of equipment they didn't use. That makes sense if that's where they came from."

"Young Krissen and Miss Meirin were evil spirits...?"

The longer the explanation went on, the paler the mage became. Yet, perhaps owing to his disposition as a mage, even in that situation he came over to thank me.

"Thank you. If not for you, something truly terrible would have happened."

"If you're grateful, go help Raven. We don't have time to take it easy."

"I will."

Once Parteian joined in, things picked up considerably. Surprisingly, this sort of thing was his specialty.

"... Appraisal magic? Are you from the Narman School?"

"Come to think of it, we haven't introduced ourselves. Yes, I am."

"I'm Allua Raven of the Altemion School."

"Haha, I know. There's only one school that embroiders such a splendid emblem on its robes."

"Our master can be a bit embarrassing..."

A mage of the Narman School, capable of specialized appraisal.

With Parteian's help, we could now identify not only the Numbered items but also everything else we hadn't been able to pin down.

Some time passed.

"Looks like we've found everything useful. Let's stop there. Everyone, gather round."

Having finished sorting, we gathered in one place to begin a provisional division of the loot.

"Let me make this clear first. We'll record everything you take now and properly settle up later. If you want to keep using something, you'll have to pay for it then. Understood?"

"Understood!"

"All right, Aynar. Come here."

Consulting the organized list, I handed out our spoils one person at a time. There was only one criterion: who would get the best use out of each item?

"Take off those boots and give them to Misha."

"H-how could you! They won't fit her anyway!!"

"Don't worry. We've confirmed they have a size-adjustment enchantment."

My decisions could be a little heavy-handed, and there was some grumbling, but surely this was exactly what a leader's authority was for.

"Aynar."

"Fine. I'll give them to her..."

Starting with Aynar, the others claimed useful pieces of equipment, ranging from one item each to as many as four or five.

How much would all that sell for?

Every time I fought explorers, I couldn't help understanding, deep in my heart, why so many people made a living by plundering.

"That settles that."

We divided the remaining loot between Raven's subspace and mine. It wasn't just for security. There was simply that much of it.

I grinned.

Looking over my newly added equipment, I just couldn't stop smiling. So this was the law of Hans's equal and opposite reaction?

「The character has equipped No. 2988 Guard Corps’ Symbol.」

「Total Item Level increases by +1,485.」

「The character has equipped No. 8667 Outlaw of the Barren Lands.」

「Total Item Level increases by +315.」

「The character has equipped Idium Gaiter.」

「Total Item Level increases by +400.」

That doppelgänger bastard was so fucking dead.

* * *

「Bjorn Jandel」

Level: 5

Physical: 555 (New +5) / Mental: 198 (New +15) / Ability: 191

Item Level: 3,068 (New +2,200)

Overall Combat Index: 1,731 (New +570)

Obtained Essences: Corpse Golem - Rank 7 / Orc Hero - Rank 5 / Ogre - Rank 3 / Manticore - Rank 5 (New)