Chapter 300 - Evil Spirit (4)

Suddenly, the memory of my first day came back to me.

["An evil spirit has taken root in the soul of Orm, son of Kadua."]

That day, the chieftain beheaded the nameless Player beside me with his terrifying axe. That was when my struggle to survive began.

Of course, I hadn't understood back then. The entire world was my enemy, and I had to be wary of everyone I met.

["I thought they were NPCs. If I'd known, I never would have done it."]

Like Jenssia, who had regarded everyone as NPCs, I hadn't had the luxury of understanding their hatred.

But...

My grip tightened.

Now I could accept it.

["So it was you..."]

The pity in the chieftain's eyes as he looked at Orm, son of Kadua, had been grief.

["Isn't it disgusting? An evil spirit going around pretending to be human."]

The anger of the citizens gathered in the square for an evil spirit's execution had been fear.

Of course it was. One day, without warning, an evil spirit could possess someone you loved and turn them into someone else entirely. Was there anything more horrifying in the world?

It was only natural that they hated us. Even I would find myself unable to breathe if an evil spirit possessed Misha, Raven, Mister Bear, Erwin, or Aynar.

"Bjorn, it's almost time."

"... That late already? All right."

I slowly rose from the secluded corner where I'd been resting. It still felt as though a stone lay over my heart.

But...

'What's the point of getting emotional now? This won't change anything.'

In the end, feelings were just feelings.

Right. So...

I gritted my teeth.

Let's finish what we came to do and get out.

* * *

RUMBLE

When the time came, the stone door that hadn't budged no matter how hard we pushed opened, and we resumed exploring the rupture.

White-Armored Guards, Green-Armored Scouts, Silver-Threaded Prophets, and more. Each room brought a new type of monster, and the EXP kept piling up.

Essences dropped now and then, too.

Apparently, though, they hadn't memorized all hundred or so Essences available in the White Temple.

"Would you happen to know what abilities this Essence has?"

Whenever an Essence dropped, Kalton's trio asked us for advice. Surprisingly, Amelia kindly explained whatever she knew.

"That's a Blue-and-White Bow Arbiter's Essence. If I remember correctly, it gives a high Strength bonus, which is rare for an archery or projectile-related Essence."

"Hmm, there you have it. Aimburn, what do you think?"

"Strength, eh...? Good timing. I've been wanting to increase my bow's draw weight. I quite like the Ability, too. I think I'll get good use out of it. I'll take it."

One for Aimburn now, and one each for Kalton and Jarku earlier.

They'd already picked up three rank-6 Essences just by following us around, but I wasn't particularly jealous. We didn't need them in the first place. Besides...

"Haha! Thank you! You're making this easy for us!"

"... No need to thank us."

This wouldn't make up for anything anyway. It wouldn't change the future in which he eventually died in the Labyrinth.

"At any rate, I believe we're nearing the end."

After continuing our run for quite some time, we finally reached the boss room. The gem held by the statue wasn't lit, so we seemed to be the first ones there...

"But how do we open the door?"

"Step aside."

Amelia promptly smashed the entire statue.

This wasn't some impulsive outburst. It was one of the fastest ways forward. Do that, and the door opened to the sound of a pissed-off voice.

'Who did she come here with to learn all this?'

Just as I found myself growing even more curious about Amelia's past, a deep, resonant voice rang out from beyond the stone door.

[This is the resting place of the noble sacrifice.]

[Intruders shall pay for their sins in blood.]

Big talk for a lousy rank five.

I'd seen this intro countless times in the game, so I listened without much interest, chewing my jerky. Before long, the stone door began to open.

"C-can we go in?"

"It just spoke our language! I-is it not a monster?"

The voice had thoroughly intimidated Kalton's trio, and they were visibly nervous.

Well, I could understand. The White Temple's Guardian was a rank-5 Advanced Mutant variety with a random Essence on top of that. Advanced Mutant varieties almost never appeared on the third floor or below, so they were unlikely to have encountered a talking monster.

"Bjorn, how long are you going to stand there?"

"Oh, I was just thinking."

More specifically, I'd suddenly remembered the Blood-Tinted Castle. The Vampire I'd met there had also been a rank-5 Advanced Mutant variety.

I'd faced that bastard back when I didn't have a single Essence.

Of course, this boss was still much stronger than that Vampire. We'd accumulated curses on our way through the Labyrinth, while the boss would have all sorts of stacked buffs.

'Speaking of which, what Essence did it roll?'

We stepped through, and the stone door slammed shut behind us.

BOOM!

"A forest...?"

Unlike the previous marble chambers, this room's floor was covered in undergrowth, with fruit hanging from trees scattered throughout. That didn't mean we'd stepped outdoors, though.

It was a massive domed chamber containing an artificial garden. There were five doors around the circular outer wall, including the one we'd entered through. Presumably, if we failed to kill the boss, another door would open and another team would get a turn.

Well, not that that was going to happen.

"You three stay back."

"It is a Guardian, after all. Will the two of you be all right...?"

"I'll call if we need you."

"... Very well."

Okay, that settled that.

Having seated our passengers for their free ride, I headed toward the cabin at the center of the forest with Amelia.

Had we triggered a proximity sensor?

BOOM!

A mounted knight in gray armor dropped from the sky, barring our path.

Its name was the Knight of the End.

Despite being mounted, it wasn't the sort of monster classified as large. It had ordinary human proportions and looked to be about 1.8 meters tall. Much smaller than the colossi we'd encountered earlier.

But it wasn't to be underestimated. In most games, the higher the level, the more dangerous the little guys became.

WHOOSH

The mounted knight showed off by swinging a weapon somewhere between a spear and a greatsword through the air.

"Greed-ridden curs of the empire. Today, I shall deliver your punishment."

Still spouting incomprehensible nonsense, I see.

"Emily, do you know what it's talking about?"

"No idea."

Right, then.

I took a heavy step forward, first using [Gigantification] to even out our sizes.

At that very moment...

NEIGH!

The knight's mount, a rank-7 beast-type monster called a Spirit Steed, snorted and charged.

Normally, a Spirit Steed was trash I could kill with a single [Swing], but...

'Its stats get inflated here.'

Inside the boss room, the Spirit Steed shared the Knight of the End's stats. In short, it wasn't something I could kill in a hit or two.

Besides, I couldn't even use [Swing] right now. Of the various curses we'd picked up on the way, one had happened to seal that skill.

Of course, that was a minor issue. Why bother dealing damage myself when I had a much more efficient damage dealer?

BOOM!

With that in mind, I caught the mounted knight's spear thrust on my shield.

It packed quite a punch. I could see why cavalry had been considered the strongest force in the Middle Ages.

They hadn't had superhumans who could use [Gigantification] back then, had they?

"I can take it."

Without being pushed back an inch, I called out from where I stood.

"Emil—!"

Oh, she was already flying in.

SLASH!

Before I could finish, shimmering blue Aura sliced the horse's head off.

And that was it.

'Aura really is broken.'

The Spirit Steed slumped, dissolving into light as it fell.

THUD!

Time for phase two.

* * *

The Knight of the End had three phases.

In phase one, it rampaged around on a Spirit Steed summoned with the active skill [Servant]. Then, once the Spirit Steed was dismissed, the battle continued on foot.

Starting in phase two, it also used skills from a random Essence of rank five or lower, but...

'... Why isn't this bastard using any skills?'

No matter how long I waited, no Essence skill appeared.

So we simply fought it normally until Amelia drove her blade into its neck, triggering phase three.

"Immortality is a will, and a promise."

The Knight of the End revived with that pompous line, courtesy of its Passive Skill, [Chivalry].

It was a high-risk skill that destroyed all equipped gear upon taking fatal damage, restoring HP in proportion to how long the gear had been worn.

'At first, I wondered what the hell kind of skill that was.'

Without its equipment, the Knight of the End became weaker in phase three. Usually, though, the same went for the Players.

With roughly equal stats, you'd finish phase two covered in injuries and out of MP. On my first attempt, we'd ended up in a messy brawl, trading basic attacks until my party wiped.

Well, for us now, it was a meal served on a silver plat—

"I cannot lose."

Huh? What?

The Knight of the End's body suddenly swelled.

I was a little dumbfounded.

'Of all things, [Gigantification]?'

Hah. I'd never imagined its Advanced Mutant variety trait would give it an Orc Hero Essence.

'No wonder it wasn't using any other skills.'

Now I understood why it hadn't used the skill in the previous phase. Normally, [Gigantification] couldn't be used while wearing equipment.

In exchange, though, the stat increase was enormous.

"I must not lose...!"

Having used [Gigantification], it started charging at me, thrashing around like a fucking lunatic.

Of course, that wasn't going to help. So what if you got bigger? Your stats and size still fell short of mine.

I seized its incoming fist and locked it in a tight wrestler's embrace.

Then...

SHUNK!

Amelia's dagger delivered the finishing blow.

SHHHHHH

It scattered into particles of light without even getting out a final line.

No matter how often I experienced it, this moment always made me tense. I stared ahead without blinking.

'Please, drop something. Anything.'

Contrary to my hopes, no Essence floated into the air. Nor was there the little clink of a Rupture Stone falling.

Instead, I spotted a piece of equipment lying there.

"A Numbered item drop—"

Then I saw the hammer on the ground and froze.

What the hell was this?

'... Holy shit, this drops here?'

After that brief jolt, I rushed over and picked it up.

I wasn't sure how it felt in my hand yet, but its rugged, masculine look and beautifully rough-hewn design left no doubt.

No. 87, Kraul's Demon Crusher.

A double-digit Numbered item so expensive you couldn't even get a look at one outside the imperial capital's Sky Auction House... and the very weapon I'd picked out as my endgame weapon once I obtained an Ogre Essence.

And this thing dropped in a third-floor rupture?

Calling it a jackpot wouldn't even do it justice.

'Fucking hell.'

If only we weren't twenty years in the past.

* * *

As an efficiency junkie, I couldn't help regretting that, but this was unquestionably good news. A stroke of luck, after so long.

Yes, there was no doubt about that.

Still, the moment I gripped the hammer, my thoughts grew complicated.

'Ha... How do I take this back? If I bury it somewhere nobody would look, will it still be okay twenty years later?'

No, what if someone took it? Then I'd just be screwed.

Hmm, should I sell it instead?

Right. I could sell it and use the money to buy an expensive Essence at auction before we left. That was why I'd been collecting equipment in the first pla—

"Congratulations. It's a shame no Essence dropped, but I suppose that would be greedy of us."

As one thought led to another, Kalton and his companions approached to congratulate us.

"I'm actually relieved! I'm glad you two got something as well!"

Uh, this was far too valuable to call just "something."

Probably better not to mention that. From the look of it, even Amelia hadn't considered that it might be a double-digit Numbered item.

I decided to think about the problem later. The portal had just opened, too.

WHOOOOSH!

Looking at the portal that had appeared in front of the cabin at the forest's center, Kalton asked,

"What will you two do now?"

"We'll stay a little longer before leaving. Have a look around while there's time."

More precisely, there were a few things I wanted to take with me.

Had he figured that much out without being told?

"I take it you're looking for what Gabrilius left behind."

"That's right."

"Then what about those white fruits on the trees? They certainly look unusual."

Oh, those...

They were a hidden piece, sure, but closer to a novelty item.

How could I explain it so they wouldn't eat them?

While I was thinking, Amelia explained for me.

"They're called whitefruit. Eating one randomly changes the stats of one of your Essences."

Her explanation was brief, but accurate.

Whitefruit changed an Essence's properties when eaten. Its skills stayed the same, but its base stats were replaced with random values appropriate to its rank.

Nobody in their right mind would eat one. This game had thousands of individual stats. There was a very good chance that useful stats like Strength and Agility would turn into nearly useless or low-value stats like Greed and Fixation.

"So what are you three going to do?"

"We'll leave straightaway. Our companions must be waiting outside."

"I see."

After I'd said my goodbyes to Kalton, the elf archer approached me.

"First, let me thank you. We surely couldn't have made it this far on our own. We'd have had a much harder time of it, too."

"You just got lucky."

"Lucky... Indeed, meeting explorers like you in a rupture is exceedingly rare. I hope you'll understand our initial wariness. We've had too many bad experiences in a row lately."

"Bad experiences?"

"It's a little difficult to explain. Nobody did anything wrong, but whatever we tried, bad luck kept making things go awry."

Hmm, really?

I did have one possible explanation.

After briefly debating whether to say it, I spoke.

"You said you had someone named Hans on your team."

"I did, yes."

"Get rid of him. Your luck will improve."

The elf archer stared blankly at me, then gave an awkward laugh.

"Haha, very funny."

Hmm. I'd been one hundred percent serious.