Chapter 4:
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
A few days had gone by since our dungeon raid.
Fran and I were on the outskirts of the city to see what Elemental Sword could do. For a skill I used out of desperation to save Fran, it seemed far more versatile than we initially thought, and we were in the middle of exploring its functions.
Let’s start with Flame Element.
“Okay.”
This was the one I had used in the spider’s nest. It covered my blade in flames; it was able to not only leave burn wounds on the outside, but also burn an enemy from the inside.
Is it too hot?
“I’m all right.”
“Awoo.”
Fran looked cool despite swinging around a red-hot blade. She wasn’t merely putting up with it, either. Jet looked like he was sweating, though. I guess the heat didn’t affect its main User.
Now, what would happen if I used the Mage skill to overload it with mana? I charged a small amount of mana into Elemental Blade.
How about now?
“Hot.”
Jet whined in agreement while taking a step back. Fran grimaced from the superheated blade. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead.
She wouldn’t be able to properly wield me in this state. I guess I could only use this form with the Catapult. Too bad.
Let’s try the other basic elements.
Water and Earth were so-so. Both increased attack power, but it was more in terms of impact damage. They were more suited for bludgeoning weapons.
Wind proved excellent, however. It vastly increased the sharpness of my blade. It wasn’t as flashy or destructive as fire, but it was a straightforward attack buff.
What about Dark? How would that even work?
“I’ll give it a shot.”
Darkness enveloped my blade. It looked so cool! I could feel my sharpness increase, but I couldn’t tell if it had any other particular effects…
Jet, do you know anything about this?
“Woof.”
Jet was more versed in Dark Magic than we were, so we hoped he might be able to give us a clue, but it seemed that he didn’t know, either.
Jet sniffed me, then let out a whimper. What are you doing, buddy?
Jet!
In my panic, I looked at his status to make sure he was okay. His Mana Pool count had gone down. It wasn’t much but it was enough to be significant after multiple hits.
“Aroo…”
You okay?
“Arf…”
We wouldn’t have been able to figure out Dark Blade’s effect without Jet’s blind sacrifice.
Moving on.
“Let’s try Thunder.”
Here we go.
Electricity crackled down my blade. Fran slashed a nearby tree to see what it would do.
With a spark, currents of electricity ran through the tree trunk and cooked its insides. A thin wisp of smoke rose up from the gash. This was definitely going to prove useful.
A light dose of electricity would act like a taser. A strong dose would be able to fry the enemy from the inside out. Electricity was difficult to counter, too. This would come in handy against any organic monsters.
“Thunder Blade’s the coolest.”
You like it, Fran?
“Yeah. It’s all sparky and cool.”
“Woof!”
Fran pointed my galvanized blade towards the sky. The static electricity I gave off caused Jet’s fur to stand on end. He looked like a canine hedgehog, and they both looked like they were having fun with this element.
I moved on to the Special Elements: Healing and Support. Neither of them seemed to activate Elemental Blade, however. The skill seemed limited only to the basic elements, Light and Dark, and the Compound elements.
Okay. Let’s try out your new Class Skill.
“Right. Focus Mana.”
Focus Mana was the new skill Fran acquired when she got promoted to Blademage. It wasn’t included in our Skill Sharing list. She was on her own with this one.
Focus Mana: Increases the strength of Magic and Weapon Arts at the cost of increasing mana costs.
It was similar to Mage skill, Overload, judging by the description.
Be careful, now.
“I will.”
Fran fired off an ordinary Fire Arrow to start, letting loose a volley of five flaming bolts. This was the spell she was the most used to, so it would make a great basis for comparison.
And now, the Focus Mana version.
“Fire Arrow.”
Foom!
Whoa! That was great.
The bolts were much larger and more numerous. She fired them at a nearby tree, and they burned through its thick trunk, leaving a sizable hole. Each bolt was far stronger than the usual Fire Arrow, too.
Can you be more precise with it?
“I’ll try.”
We experimented and figured out we were going to get a lot of mileage from Focus Mana. Fran could manipulate her mana input so as to fire off a single bolt of greatly increased strength, or fire off twenty bolts without a drop in attack power.
However, it did consume three times her regular Mana Pool, which wasn’t going to be a problem since Fran could pull from my Mana Pool. To my great relief, Focus Mana didn’t seem to take a great toll on Fran. It wasn’t like when I overloaded myself with mana using the Mage skill. My attack power was raised to the point where I was beginning to damage myself.
Fran’s Focus Mana wasn’t as strong as a Mage’s, but it did allow far greater precision with her mana output. I expected nothing less from the Class Skill of an Advanced Class.
Which reminds me, there’s something I want to talk to you about.
“What about?”
I’ve been thinking about our last dungeon run.
Our raid made me understand that we needed more than raw attack power to finish a dungeon. We needed exploration skills, detection skills, and a whole cavalcade of versatile spells. There were some skills I wanted to level up now.
“Same here.”
We’ve been increasing the combat-related skills like the magic skills and Sword Mastery, but what do you think of leveling a different skill?
“Go on.”
Unlike fighting in an open field, there wasn’t much space to maneuver in a dungeon. We would need a myriad of different skills to survive. With that in mind, I decided to spend my Evolution Points into these skills:
Speedcast 1; Sense Danger 1; Sense Presence 2; Blink 1; Abnormal Status Resistance 3; Mana Barrier 1; Sense Trap 1
I chose Sense Danger, Sense Presence, and Sense Trap to avoid any unnecessary encounters with monsters and traps. Speedcast would allow us to cast our spells faster. Blink, Abnormal Status Resistance, and Mana Barrier were great for survivability and getting out of a sticky situation.
I had 41 Evolution Points left. I could either max out one of my new skills, or evenly spread the points across three of them. I was leaning towards one of the detection skills. Since we would be doing more dungeon runs from here on out, Sense Trap made the most sense.
What do you think, Fran?
“Hmm.”
After a discussion with Fran, we decided to put Sense Presence, Sense Trap, Speedcast, and Blink all up to Level 5. We bumped Abnormal Status Resistance to Level 6.
We weren’t going into a dungeon right away, so I thought of leaving some points over in case of emergency, but we ended up spending it all. We tended to be stingy with our Evolution Points expenditure; we would save EP just in case a shiny new skill came along. This time, we decided to spend all of our EP on necessities.
Now we would be able to traverse dungeons more safely. Although, it did knock our EP count all the way down to 5.
Now we won’t have to worry so much when we go on raids.
“Yeah.”
“Woof.”
But don’t get careless.
“Of course.”
“Arf!”
They were so reliable. All we needed to do know was go to Garrus’ shop to pick up Fran’s armor, and we would be all set to go for Ulmutt.
A few days had gone by since our night out at the bar, and we were now at Garrus’ smithy.
“Is the armor ready?”
“Yep, it’s good to g—God, that thing’s huge!”
It had been a month since we arrived in Alessa. Today was our appointment.
The sight of Jet surprised old Garrus. The Direwolf was in his smaller form, but he was still gigantic compared to the dwarf.
“Ruff!”
“Your familiar?”
“Yeah. His name’s Jet.”
Fluffy dog aside, how’s the armor?
“Gahahaha! It’s perfect! My finest work, if I may say so myself!”
Now you’re exaggerating.
We had given Garrus C- and D-Rank materials to work with. Nothing to scoff at, but a Magesmith of Garrus’ calibre should be used to handling higher rank materials.
“Hey now, this ain’t a job where you can just make the toughest thing you can think of and call it good.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you know… You gotta put your soul into it. And I put my heart and soul into each piece of gear that I make. But every once in a while, there’s a piece that comes across my anvil that’s just pleasing to work on.”
His words were difficult to grasp but I saw his point. They were the thoughts of an expert craftsman.
“The little lady’s gear is one such a piece. I’ve put my heart, soul, and originality into crafting hers into existence.”
Sounds like we can expect a lot from it.
If Garrus was bragging this much then we were sure to get spectacular armor. I couldn’t wait to see it.
“Damn right. Hell, even God approves of this armor set!”
“God?”
What was that supposed to mean? We looked confused as Garrus retreated to the back of his shop to retrieve Fran’s gear.
“See for yourself.”
He came back lugging a huge chest. He took out each piece of equipment and set it on the table with confidence. I didn’t need to Identify them to know that they were loaded with magic.
“Here’s your new gear, little lady!”
Name: Black Cat Armor
Defense: 100; Durability: 600/600
Skills: Deep Sleep; Deodorant; Cleanse; Mental Abnormal Status Resistance Up (Medium)
Name: Black Cat Gloves
Defense: 70; Durability: 600/600
Skills: Physical Resistance Up (Medium); Strength Up (Medium)
Name: Black Cat Boots
Defense: 65; Durability: 600/600
Skills: Jump; Agility Up (Medium)
Name: Black Cat Earring
Defense: 15; Durability: 600/600
Skills: Poison Resistance; Sonic Resistance; Elemental Resistance
Name: Black Cat Cloak
Defense: 85; Durability: 600/600
Skills: Cold Resistance; Heat Resistance; Self-Repair
Name: Black Cat Belt
Defense: 15; Durability: 600/600
Skills: Magic Resistance Up (low); Abnormal Status Resistance Up (low); Item Bag (small)
W-wow. They were far and away stronger than the armor Fran currently had on her, and that had cost us 150,000G. The defense values were leagues above, and the skills were splendid. All that while being lighter than her current equipment? How did that work? And what did Garrus mean by the armor being “God approved”?
“I present to you my greatest work, the Black Cat Armor Set!”
“Good name.”
Sounds cute coming from you, old man.
“Woof.”
Fran had liked the ring of the Black Cat set, but for old Garrus to name it that himself was a little surprising.
Pfft.
“Shut it! I didn’t choose the name myself, all right?”
“Then who did?”
“Like I said, God did.”
“?”
“Aroo?”
What do you mean?
Did a name come down from the heavens?
“You don’t know? This is what we call Named Items.”
Named Items were special items which the gods had seen fit to name. When a blacksmith forged a piece of equipment with all his heart and soul, a god might see fit to rain down their blessings on it.
You could also find Legendary Named Items within labyrinths. They were items which had the gods’ divine protection attached to them. Their strength was easily inferred.
“Having your work be approved by the gods is the greatest honor a blacksmith can achieve. I appreciate you giving me that chance. Everyone involved in this production was so happy they were moved to tears.”
That was our line. They all must have put their heart and soul into crafting this set if the gods approved of it.
We should be thanking you for crafting such strong gear.
“Gahaha. The gods reinforced the sturdy composite material with divine blessings. This here set can give equipment made with B-Rank materials a run for their money.”
Wow.
“And they’re powerful blessings, too.”
Wait, I thought the Resistance skills were the blessings.
“Just put it on and see for yourself.”
“Alright.”
We borrowed the back room so Fran could put on her Black Cat Armor.
Did she need help putting on the armor, you ask? Well, she did have trouble putting on her pajamas, so of course I helped. I was her appointed guardian, after all, and it’s not like I had any capacity for lust ever since I became a sword. It couldn’t be helped. Bear with me.
I used Telekinesis to assist Fran with her armor pieces.
Fifteen minutes later, Fran had fully donned her Black Cat Set. The base color of the armor was black with green and white accents. It looked good on her. The main piece of the set, the Black Cat Armor, had a cute boyish look to it. It came with a skirt which had a hole for her tail to pop out of. Her top looked like a cross between a large collared shirt and a bustier. Jewels decorated the clasp of her chest, adding to the feminine look of the armor. Her midriff was left exposed, but it still looked adorable on her.
She wore fingerless gloves and boots that went up to her calves. Her belt looked like a gunbelt and looked like it had room to conceal a dagger; it came with a Small Item Bag, too, which meant she could store up to five emergency potions in it. Her silver earring looked like an animal ID tag by itself, but on Fran, it looked stylish.
Her cloak, which covered her entire body, looked more like a raincoat than a full blown mantle. It was light and supple, and didn’t get in the way of her movement.
“I didn’t use much metal in making that. Lemme tell ya, reinforcing cloth and leather ain’t no small feat. I took the Tyrant Sabertooth leather, Doppel Snake skin, and the Blast Tortoise shell, and cured them in a special solution. Then I further reinforced it by applying the Gluttony Slimelord’s fluids all over it. This is a masterwork of composite material.”
Just the way you explained it sounds amazing.
“We had a string of failures along the way but it was well worth it. We managed to make a fine weave of composite materials, much stronger than any old metal. Lighter, too!”
Lightness was an important aspect of the armor as Fran relied on her agility in combat. This really was the best armor she could get.
I Identified it again and noticed something new.
Black Cat Blessing?
“You spotted it, huh? That’s the divine blessing I was talking about earlier! It increases all its user’s stats by 10. Also grants protection from Instant Death. However, only Black Cat Beastmen can wear it.”
You got a set bonus just by wearing it, too? That was amazing. A flat +10 to all stats might as well be an overpowered title. The armor was no match compared to heavy plate mail, but once you added the stat bonuses and lightness of it, the Black Cat Set was far and away stronger.
“So cool.”
It’s strong and it looks cute!
“Right? Toldja it’s my masterwork. Gahaha!”
Are you sure we can have this for free?
How much would this cost if we were to pay for it? We wouldn’t have enough money for it, that’s for sure.
“Yep, that was our deal. I took whatever materials I had left over, so I’m not making a loss or anything. Besides, I’m thankful that you let me do this work for you. I couldn’t accept your money if you shoved it in my face. Just, one thing, though.”
“What is it?”
“There’s something you gotta be careful about with this armor. This is a fine piece of armor and because of it, repairs are gonna cost you more than a pretty penny. You’ll need Mana Spheres, the good kind, too. The repair fees are also gonna be quite high…”
The better the armor, the more expensive it was to repair.
How much?
“100,000G for the first round. It’s only gonna get more expensive from then on.”
Oof… That’s rough.
“It is, but remember the cloak has Self Repair on it. That extends to all the other pieces of armor as long as she’s wearing it. It’ll take a few days for everything to get into tip-top shape again but so long as you’re not pressed for time…”
That helped. We might never need to bring the set in for repairs as long as we’re careful. That was a relief.
All that’s left now is Jet’s gear.
“The dog’s?”
Yeah. I mean he has to equip his Familiar Identification Tag, anyway. Don’t suppose you can outfit him with actual equipment?
There was another problem. I explained to Garrus how Jet had the ability to manipulate his size. He was far bigger in combat, and his equipment needed to accommodate that. No amount of money would be enough to replace his gear if he broke his collar every time he shifted to his original size.
“There’s a lot of armor pieces that come with the Size Adjustment skill. I’ll just fix one of those for your pupper there.”
“Really?”
“Arf?”
“You betcha. Give me two days.”
Thanks.
“Awooo!”
Jet leapt happily. He tackled Garrus and started licking his face.
“Hey now!”
Welp, there goes Garrus.
So how much do we owe you?
“R-right… Give me 50,000G and I can have a whole assortment ready.”
“Please and thank you.”
“Yep—Will you quit it?!”
“Arf!”
Garrus snapped at the Direwolf. He didn’t mean it, of course, and Jet figured that out, too. He got off the dwarf and backed off, waiting for another opportunity to pounce at him.
Jet turned back into his original size so Garrus could get accurate measurements of his size. He licked Garrus in the face so hard that it flung the old blacksmith to the wall of his shop. The same thing happened when Garrus was trying to measure his hind legs with the Direwolf wagging his tail at the dwarf.
It was a good thing Garrus made it out in one piece. Any ordinary blacksmith would’ve needed several life potions by now. I admired the old man for his extraordinary Defense.
I made a note to myself to teach Jet to take it easy while he was “playing”. He might actually put someone in a hospital at some point.
“So where are y’all headed next?” Garrus asked while wiping his face with a rag.
“Ulmutt.”
“I see. It’s about time I got a move on, myself. Ulmutt’s a good destination as any for my next stop.”
Ooh, do you want to come with us, then?
We would love to have the old Magesmith in our party. He was strong, and knew of our special circumstances.
“Which route are you taking?”
We’ll head west for Dars, then take a boat down south to Bulbola. Then we’ll foot it all the way to Ulmutt. It’s a bit pricier compared to a land route, but it’s faster. I also want to show Fran how much fun it is to be on a cruise.
“Do you want to come with us?” Fran asked, a faint glimmer of expectation in her voice. Amanda couldn’t accompany us on our journey. Having Garrus around would make things livelier.
“I’d love to, little lady… but I can’t.”
Why not?
Garrus sighed, scrunched his face. “We dwarves are mountain people, you see…”
“Uh-huh.”
“We don’t get along with water. Put simply… I can’t swim!”
I see. It was a very dwarven excuse. With how heavily built Garrus was he’d probably sink right to the bottom of the ocean.
“Oh. That’s too bad…”
“Sorry.”
I guess we’ll see you in Ulmutt.
“You betcha!”
“Okay.”
Fran shook Garrus’ hand, promising each other they’d meet again.
It was the day after we got the rest of our gear from Garrus. We had finished preparing and were ready to depart for Ulmutt.
“I’ll miss you!”
“Good luck out there!”
“Meet you in Ulmutt!”
“Come back any time!”
“See ya!”
Amanda, Donadrond, Garrus, Randell, and Delt sent us off at the gates of Alessa. Amanda was blowing her nose into a handkerchief and looked like she was crying. Everyone else had encouraging smiles on their faces.
What a great town.
I didn’t know what the other towns of this world were like.
But I was glad Alessa was my first.
“Yeah.”
Let’s keep heading west. Next stop, the port town of Dars!
“Woof, woof!”
Dars was a port town located to the west of Alessa. We would take a ship there and head south to the city of Bulbola, Alessa’s Gateway to the Ocean. From there, we would travel eastward on land and it was a straight shot to the Dungeon City of Ulmutt. At least, that’s what the books said. I had no idea what any of those cities would look like.
Our immediate goal was to get on a nice boat. A ferry would be ideal, even if it would end up costing more than a cargo ship. If we didn’t have enough money to get on one, we would simply have to earn more once we got to Dars.
I wasn’t too worried, though. We weren’t lacking in potions and we still had a cool 1,000,000G in our purse.
It’s all you, Jet.
“Woof!”
Jet knelt down, and Fran hopped on top of him.
Hang on tight.
“Yeah.”
Fran held on to the reins attached to his collar. Garrus had sewn in short straps into Jet’s collar for Fran to use. Jet could now run at full speed without having to worry about Fran falling off. Good job, Garrus.
Jet’s forelegs were now fashioned with black metal anklets. They came with Strength Up (low), Agility Up (low), and had the ability to adjust to its user’s size. Jet could shrink and expand without having to worry about the anklets breaking. Garrus had made these, as well. It only took him two days, too. It underscored how much of a master he was at his craft.
“Let’s go, Jet.”
Fran pumped her fist and pointed it onwards, filling Jet with energy.
“Awooooo!”
Jet let out an elated howl and dashed westward. He was so fast that the surrounding scenery was reduced to a greenish blur.
Before long, Alessa was nowhere in sight.
Keep going, Jet!
“Arf, arf!”
Jet accelerated at my command. His tail wagged happily, a sure sign of his excitement.
There was a girl in our party whose spirits were gradually getting dampened, however. That girl was, of course, Fran.
“My eyes hurt.”
She couldn’t open her eyes. Jet was going too fast, I guess. I used Air Current Manipulation to divert the headwind from her eyes.
How about now?
“Yeah. That’s better.”
Good. Fran squinted her eyes and enjoyed the fresh wind on her face.
“What’s that? I’ve never seen that before. That mountain peak’s white.”
By the looks of it, Fran was now enjoying her ride.
Things looked different when you were on top of a Direwolf running at top speed. Said Direwolf wasn’t slowing down, either. Even when there were obstacles in the way, Jet nimbly navigated through them, allowing us to speed past mountains and rivers in a straight line.
Oh, are those monsters over there?
“Where?”
In those trees.
“Let’s go.”
“Aroo.”
We ambushed the monsters and took care of them in no time. There weren’t any strong monsters here so a single attack from Jet was enough to do them in. I absorbed their crystals, stored away their meat, and let Jet have his fill of the innards and bones. No wastage here.
Jet couldn’t run at top speed forever, though. As powerful a Direwolf as he was, he still got tired and hungry after a while. He’d been constantly using Air Hike to hop around the terrain so his mana was depleted, too.
No problem. We’ll go on foot for now.
“Good job.”
What about you, Jet?
“Arf!”
Jet barked before sinking into Fran’s shadow.
Jet possessed the skills Shadow Lurk and Shadow Walk. Shadow Lurk allowed him to, well, lurk in the shadows, but Shadow Walk allowed him to move from shadow to shadow. The latter cost much more mana compared to the former. It cost a bit of mana to use Shadow Lurk but it didn’t use any more mana once he was in someone’s shadow. All this meant that he was able to recover his mana while shadow lurking.
He didn’t have to expend any effort to move with Fran’s shadow, either. It was a useful skill to have.
Let’s take it slow.
“Sure.”
We were in no hurry to get to our destination, after all.
We continued on foot as Fran performed some parkour to get around some obstacles once in a while. Eventually, Fran’s stomach let out a cute rumble.
“I’m hungry.”
I guess it’s about time for lunch.
Fran’s stomach was the most accurate timepiece we had.
Let’s set up camp here. Do you want me to make a table?
I could easily fashion some basic chairs and tables using Earth Magic.
Fran shook her head, however, and pointed straight ahead.
“I wanna eat there.”
She was pointing at a large boulder, on top of which we would be able to look at some nice scenery.
“Mm! It’s so good.”
Fran stuffed her cheeks with curry as she sat on top of the three-meter-high rock. She gazed at the surrounding scenery as she dangled her feet playfully.
She never had the chance to enjoy the sights around her when she was a slave. The scenery was a new and enjoyable novelty to her.
I would show her even more sights from here on out.
After her meal, Fran laid on the rock and relaxed. She set me beside her, and we watched the sky together. Clouds rolled slowly past us overhead, and we took pleasure in this quiet moment together. After a good thirty minutes, we were on the road again, riding Jet since he was already at full mana.
Our surroundings began to change after two days of travel.
The forests thinned out and eventually disappeared, replaced with wide open grasslands. Unlike the Direwolf Plains, however, there were more rocks and boulders in addition to the savannah-like brush. It actually looked quite barren.
The change in scenery underlined how far we were from Alessa. Jet sure could travel fast.
I considered summoning another Direwolf to switch places with Jet when he got tired but… I couldn’t. That is, I couldn’t summon any more Direwolves. When I looked at my summon list, they were all greyed out. I guessed that I was out of vessels.
I didn’t look into it too much at the Guild’s Reference Room but you needed something called a ‘vessel’ to form contracts with summoned monsters. A monster’s ‘capacity’ determined its strength. A ‘vessel’ was just that: a vessel. ‘Capacity’ could be thought of as water that would fill a vessel. Stronger monsters needed bigger vessels to accommodate their capacity. When a vessel was full, you wouldn’t be able to form contracts with additional monsters.
Jet was a Unique C-Rank Threat. It made sense that summoning him was enough to fill up my vessel to the max.
I guess we’ll just have to rely on you for now, Jet.
“Woof!”
I didn’t need Telepathy to understand Jet’s bark. He was saying that we could count on him. I was so blessed to have such a motivated pet!
I would have to fluff him up later (with Telekinesis, of course).
I looked up at the sky and saw something which made me gasp with surprise.
Whoa! Wh-what the hell is that?!
“Hm?”
That thing over there!
It was difficult to point without fingers. I had to telekinetically tilt Fran’s head towards the sky so she could see what I saw.
“Which one?”
The thing next to that cloud!
“That’s a Sky Isle.”
Sky Isle? That’s straight out of a fantasy novel!
It was an island suspended in the open sky. A Studio Ghibli fan would freak out at the mere sight of it. Then again, so would any fan of fantasy fiction.
So why was Fran so calm about this island in the sky?
Just looking at the floating isle filled me with great excitement! How did anybody get there? Did inhabitants use a stone imbued with flying powers? Maybe a bit of Wind Magic would do the trick. Perhaps some other fantastical method was necessary. I wanted to see what was on there!
Saaaay… are those commonplace here?
Fran wasn’t the least bit surprised, so I thought they were as common as regular islands in this world.
“Hm. You see them from time to time.”
Really!
I had no idea! In the two months of inhabiting this world I didn’t even think there was such a wonderful place!
Wait a second, if these floating islands were commonplace here, there might be an easy way to get there.
I wanna go there!
“Not happening.”
Huh, why not?
“Too high up.”
We needed some special magical gear to even get to that altitude, the price of which was appropriately sky-high. Fran didn’t know the details, but going there was too expensive for regular tourism. It reminded me of space tourism in my previous life.
But I still wanted to go!
Is there no other way?
“I heard stories of mages flying there on their own.”
I see.
Well, what if we used Jet’s Air Hike? It would take all his effort, but maybe…
How about it, Jet?
Jet whined sadly and flopped his ears. I guess that wouldn’t work. The island was way up in the sky and he wouldn’t have enough mana.
What if we just used Float to get there? No. I just remembered that Float had an altitude limit; you stopped ascending after a certain point. Even if I were to break through it with Telekinesis, I still wouldn’t be able to maintain my altitude. At best, it would soften my eventual crash to the earth.
Do you think I can reach it with Telekinesis?
It would be possible if I were the only one flying up there.
“No fair, Teacher.”
What?
“I wanna go, too.”
You do?
“Of course.”
“Bark!”
“No leaving us behind.”
And then I understood: Fran was used to seeing the floating isles from the ground, but she wanted to see what it was like up there. All of us would have to go.
Wait a second. I got it!
All right, let’s try something out.
I flew out of my sheath and hovered in front of Fran, the flat side of my blade facing the ground.
Hop on!
“You want me to what?”
It’s called surfing—not that you’d know, I guess. Anyway, try standing on me.
“Okay…”
Fran carefully stepped on to my blade and distributed her weight.
“You all right?”
Yep. It’d make things easier for me if you activated Float, too, and use Air Current Manipulation so the wind wouldn’t knock you off balance.
“Got it.”
Jet, you lurk in Fran’s shadow.
“Woof!”
I used Float and Telekinesis and levitated upwards. Fran rode me like some kind of metal surfboard.
“Ooh, we’re flying.”
It worked! I called it the Telekinetic Air Ride!
I moved horizontally to start. I had telekinetically reinforced Fran’s feet to my blade so she was doing alright. I slowly accelerated, moving up, down, left, and right.
No problems so far.
Fran was getting used to balancing herself on top of me. There was no danger of her falling off me now if she leaned in any direction.
Buckle in.
“Yeah!”
“Let’s go!”
I ascended through the sky, drawing an imaginary spiral staircase as my path. No amount of Telekinesis could help Fran if I went fully vertical; it would knock her straight off.
“Wow. Teacher, this is great.”
Fran looked to be enjoying herself as she surfed through the air currents. I looked down to see that we were gaining more and more distance from the earth. I can’t help but cry out.
Woohoo!
It worked! We were closing in on the floating island. What was once a black dot from the ground grew to the size of a fist as we flew closer. It looked like we were going to break through the high clouds soon, but the Sky Island was located even farther up.
The foundation of the island was plain old rock. Although seeing the bottom peek out of the clouds like that was enough to intimidate the wariest traveler. I couldn’t wait to see what was up there!
Wait, what? Where did the wind go?
A strange feeling overtook me as we got close to the island. It felt like we had pierced through a thin membrane of magic. The raging winds had come to a halt; proof that I wasn’t just imagining things.
I looked around, anxious to see if I could find the cause of this phenomenon.
“Teacher.”
What is it?
“There.”
Hm? Whoa! What is that?!
Fran pointed towards the anomaly.
A Skeleton Knight was flying through the air.
I couldn’t believe my eyes either, at first. But the sight of the armor-clad skeleton, riding through the sky on his skeleton horse, wouldn’t go away.
“It looks like it’s leaving the island.”
Was the Skeleton Knight the island’s guardian?
It charged downwards towards us from the floating isle.
He’s coming for us, isn’t he?
The skeleton let out a rattling cackle as if in response.
Seriously?!
He drew his sword and started slashing.
Urgh!
I managed to dodge his attack, but the bone knight wasn’t stopping. He turned around on his skeletal steed and continued his assault.
I could only dodge while in surfblade mode!
Fran, fire off some spells at him!
“Fire Arrow!”
“Kaaah!” the Skeleton Knight shrieked.
What the hell?! He deflected Fire Arrow with a bat of his hand! I had suspected this was no ordinary skeleton, but he was far stronger than I thought. He had an excellent sword arm as well. It’d be dangerous for us to keep fighting here!
Come out, Jet!
“Bark!”
Fran, get on him!
Fran hopped off my blade and onto Jet’s back. Now we could fight back! Still, Jet couldn’t use Air Hike forever. We would have to settle this while Jet had mana to spare.
We took to offense, and slashed away at the Skeleton Knight, but his guard proved too tough to penetrate. True to his name, he was an expert horseback fighter.
“Teacher, I have an idea. Distract him for me.”
All right. Flare Blast!
“Grrr!”
“Kah!”
Fran slashed at the skeleton knight as he was distracted by Jet and my spells.
“Kah?”
Fran had fought awkwardly while riding Jet so she jumped off him and took the fight to the bone rider. Every time they clashed swords she would use Air Hike to regain her footing and try again. She fought like she was on solid ground. Even the Skeleton Knight found Fran’s barrage difficult to keep up with. She finally landed a hit on him.
Yes!
Unfortunately, her long awaited direct hit connected with the Skeleton Knight’s yellow plate mail. Her deep slash which would’ve left a deep gash in a fight with a human opponent was only rewarded with a hole in the skeleton’s armor.
“Kukakaka!”
Dammit! Keep going!
“Yeah!”
They clashed swords again. The skeleton steed proved to be more dangerous than I thought. One wrong move could lead to a devastating counterattack. The undead felt no pain, either. No matter how many times we cut them open, they wouldn’t care about it the way ordinary organics would.
To make matters worse, the bone rider and his steed wasn’t our only problem.
“Aroo…”
Shit! Fran, get on me!
I cried out frantically, noticing that something was wrong with Jet.
“Hm?”
Come on!
Jet’s mana was nearly depleted. Letting Fran ride him while fighting in the air by constantly using Air Hike had proven too much for him. The drain on his mana was far greater than we thought.
Jet had shrunk to the point that Fran was able to hold him. She caught him, and sat him on top of me.
Jet, you can go back to Fran’s shadow now.
Jet retreated to Fran’s shadow with an exhausted whine. I hoped he would be alright.
“Kukakaka!”
God, you’re persistent!
I looked for a path to get past the bone knight and his steed but it was impossible. Even if I could, it wouldn’t take long for them to catch up. As we carried out our deadly game of aerial tag, I eventually ran out of mana, too.
It was difficult for me to fly with Fran on top of me. The load was different compared to overcharging myself with mana and exploding into Telekinetic Catapult, but it was a load all the same.
We had only been flying for a total of fifteen minutes, and that included training time. Even if we forced ourselves to fight the Skeleton Knight our time in the air was nonexistent.
If we got out of this in one piece, we’d at least get a new mode of transportation out of it. We could go pretty fast, and we could bypass dangerous obstacles. It was a perfect getaway car.
Sorry about this, Fran!
The Skeleton Knight pursued us as we began our descent and slashed at us with his sword.
“Kuh!”
We were able to deflect his sword in time but as a result it blew Fran away. She sped to the ground in a nosedive.
The Skeleton Knight ceased his pursuit once we had gained enough distance from the floating island. He really was a guardian appointed to annihilate all who entered the island’s vicinity.
He watched us quietly as we fell to the earth.
It was a good thing he didn’t gave chase, but the floating island was currently off-limits to us.
“Too bad.”
Dammit! We’ll get there someday, I’ll show you! That’s right, I’m talking to you, bonehead! I screamed at the undead knight as we fell through the sky.
“We’ll win someday.”
Soon, the floating island and its guardian were nowhere in sight.
We weren’t out of the woods, though. We lost the Skeleton Knight, but now the ground was growing closer and closer. Jet and I were both out of mana, and Fran was our only ticket out of this mess.
Fran, I’m counting on you!
“Got it.”
We should be all right if she used Float to slow us down and Air Hike just before she hit the ground to soften our landing.
If only it were that easy.
Why is there a house in the middle of nowhere?!
There was a cottage erected in the middle of this wilderness. It looked as ordinary as the houses in Alessa.
I still had a bad feeling about it. Why would that be?
“We’re gonna crash.”
Now was not the time to think about that!
F-F-Fran, can you move around it somehow?
Our current trajectory would make us land us squarely through the middle of the house’s rooftop. Fran shook her head during our descent.
“There’s too much momentum. I can’t stop.”
We fell from too high an altitude for Float to be of any use to us.
Seriously?!
“Haa!”
Fran perfectly timed Air Hike just inches away from the rooftop. She couldn’t nullify the momentum though, and we crashed through it, anyway.
You all right, Fran?
“Yeah… I’m good.”
Heal.
“Thanks.”
Thank god she was okay. We really made a mess this time, though!
I looked up at the hole our crash had left behind. I looked around the interior of the house and finally realized the reason behind my earlier feeling of unease.
There are no windows in this place.
That’s right. There wasn’t a single source of external light in this house; the hole in the rooftop was now our only light source. It didn’t look like a good place for someone to live in…
The interior was strange as well. There was no flooring in this house; the floor instead being exposed earth. The ground was tended to, as well. Grass grew at regular intervals to the height of a man’s hips. This place was some sort of grow house, not abandoned property.
Was this grass really able to grow in complete darkness, though? Remembering how some plants could be cultivated with similar methods back on Earth, I supposed it wasn’t completely out of the question… The leaves of the plants were green with red splotches; the mere look of it spelled poisonous. Very suspicious, indeed. I wonder if they were used in some kind of drug.
Fran, do you feel funny or anything?
“I’m fine.”
She fell right in the thick of the grass, after all. Her face had blotches of purple sap, and it was easy to imagine the stuff getting into her system through the scratches all over her body.
I identified the plant to discover that it was called Necroweed. It wasn’t poisonous, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
We made quite a mess of the indoor garden, though, and we weren’t sure what to make of it. We had stumbled upon an indoor plantation after crashing through the roof of this shack. I didn’t know if anyone lived here at the moment but—
No, I feel it… Someone’s here.
“Hm? Where?”
There was a faint presence coming from a corner of the room. We turned to it, and saw a man standing there in tattered gray robes.
We instinctively took to our battle positions the moment we saw his silhouette.
Fran!
“Hm!”
Fran readied me in her heads, while Jet leapt out of her shadow to follow suit.
“Awooo!” Jet crouched, ready to pounce. We were ready to settle this in one strike. No quarter.
Aim for the torso. That’s where a Skeleton’s crystal is!
“I’ll finish this in one strike.”
Our opponent was no human. A bleached white skull peeked out of the hood. It was a Skeleton. What a monster was doing in someone’s house, I had no idea, but it was better to end him before he could get the jump on us.
What was with all the undead today?!
Don’t let your guard down! Remember what happened with the Skeleton Knight!
“Hm!”
Fran made a great leap forward and swung me. Jet followed suit, a trail of darkness following him as he pounced.
The Skeleton tried to move out of the way but it was too late. Struggle all you want, undead scum, it’s no use!
But none of us could predict what the creature would do next.
The skeleton didn’t draw his sword, or start casting spells, or even make any attempt to dodge. Instead, it curled up into a ball and covered its head.
“Hyaaa! P-please, spare me!”
Wait, what?
Wait! Fran, Jet, stop!
I sent out an emergency message right into my companions’ minds and they halted their attack. We all gazed curiously at the shivering skeleton.
“T-take anything you want! Just don’t kill me!” he wailed in a quavering voice.
“?”
Fran looked perplexed.
“Oh! Great Lord of the Underworld, save me!”
“Um.”
“Aieee! P-please don’t eat me! I’m all bones! I don’t have any money, either!”
I felt genuinely bad now.
Amanda had told us that Necromancy was not evil in and of itself. Even adventurers made no particular effort to avoid Undead Necromancers. Naturally-occurring undead attacked people and therefore were to be exterminated. But the ones who were familiars made for useful pets and support. Even Jet was welcome in Alessa despite being a monster.
So was this Skeleton a familiar?
“I-I’m a good Skeleton, I promise.”
You looked like an evil undead to me, buddy. His statement didn’t trigger Essence of Falsehood, however. I didn’t know if the skill worked on the undead but I was going to defer to its judgment.
“Good Skeleton?”
He might be someone’s familiar.
“Yes. I am a good Skeleton. Who might you be?”
“I’m Fran.”
“I am Bernard.”
His magical strength was much higher than the Skeletons I had run into in the Plains. Despite his lack of vocal cords, he was able to speak through the Vibration Manipulation skill. All this led me to believe that he was a Unique.
“What on earth happened to you?” Bernard asked.
We explained to him what had happened to us while remaining ambiguous about our finer circumstances. Especially the fact that I was a talking sword.
We told him how Fran had ridden Jet to go to the floating island but was blocked off by a Skeleton Knight. The recent encounter had left her jumpy about skeletons, which was why she had been ready to break Bernard into pieces. We laid the blame squarely on the Skeleton Knight’s bony feet.
“I see. My goodness, that must have been awful.”
Bernard didn’t seem upset, in any case. We’d had conversations with other adventurers about close calls before, and he dismissed our misfortune with a brief, yet polite statement. He really didn’t think the way humans did.
“What is this place?”
“This is my master’s laboratory.”
Master. So he really was under the charge of a necromancer. He must have been one hell of a necromancer if he managed to summon a skeleton with this much Magic and Intelligence, one that could talk to boot.
“This place is a laboratory?”
“Yes.”
Fran asked the question I was about to ask. Aside from the lack of windows, and the interior which looked like a little farm, the house itself looked perfectly normal from the outside. It didn’t look like the laboratory of a powerful necromancer.
“Dingy.”
“My master does not care that you think it is so.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha. He is correct!”
“!”
“Grr…!”
A voice had come from outside before the door swung open with a bang. The presence barged in without forewarning, which was odd considering we had capped our detection skills. Even Jet didn’t see it coming.
When did he get here?!
We hadn’t sensed any presence outside the house, either.
Hmm.
Woof.
They hadn’t felt the presence, either.
Fran drew me, and she and Jet proceeded to take their battle stances. I charged myself up with mana just in case.
“Who are you?”
“Where are your manners, girl? Shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?”
“I’m Fran… Who are you?”
“I’m terribly sorry.” Bernard hastened to make introductions. “That is my master.”
So this was the necromancer we’ve been hearing about!
We would’ve cut him down where he stood if we ran into him out on the road. The hem of his black robe was ragged from years of being dragged on the ground. Skull ornaments hung from his neck. His skin was a pale, sickly white. His hood covered most of his face, but I could make out slivers of silver hair and a smile which looked like a crescent moon.
I thought he was a guy, but there was no way of telling for sure.
One thing was for sure though: he looked suspicious. Like a textbook evil necromancer. If an incident happened in the area, you’d knock on his house first. The necromancer seemed completely oblivious to our suspicion, and he boomed out his introduction.
“Mwahahaha! I am the great Jean du Vix! Master of the Undead!”
I didn’t want anything to do with him if possible. We needed to get out of here as fast as we could and get back on track. The necromancer was as suspicious as he was obnoxious.
Name: Jean du Vix
Age: 49
Race: Magi
Class: Nether Mage
Level: 45
HP: 180; Magic: 616; Strength: 91; Agility: 119
Skills: Shadow Resistance 6; Speedcast 4; Identify 8; Summon Minion 8; Staff Mastery 4; Ghost Manipulation 8; Necromancy 10; Dagger Mastery 2; Apothecary 7; Poison Resistance 3; Venomology 7; Fire Magic 3; Nether Magic 5; Herbology 4; Dark Magic 5; Total Presence Concealment; Frenzy Ghost; Friend of the Dead; Mana Manipulation; Magic Up (medium)
Unique Skill: Soul Sight
Titles: Natural Assassin; Undead Creator; Butcher; Necromancer; Ghost King
Equipment: Dragonbone Staff; Tattered Robes of the Ghost King; Devil Shoes; Death Bracelet; Bracelet of Sacrifice
What caught my eye was his Total Presence Concealment. That must be why our detection skills hadn’t worked on him.
He was strong, though. His physical stats might be low but he was a master at magic. He could give Klimt, our Guild Master, a run for his money with a few extra levels. His Total Presence Concealment synergized perfectly with his Necromancy. He could send his minions after you and you’d never know where he was. I didn’t want to get on his bad side if at all possible.
And a Magi… It was my first time seeing one. Was he really a non-hostile?
“Magi?”
Fran noticed what the necromancer was before I could tell her.
The robed figure tilted his head and smirked. “Aaah… You know what I am?”
She didn’t need to Identify him to know that. You could make out the faint shape of a horn poking against his hood, not to mention the claws and the fangs.
“It’s obvious by looking at you. The horn, the claws, the fangs. And your skin is white.”
“Hah! You are well learned, little girl. Yes, I am a Magi!”
“I haven’t seen one of you in a long time.”
“You don’t find many of our kind on this continent. One would have to travel further east.”
Fran didn’t seem hostile to the man. Jean himself didn’t sound alarmed when Fran guessed what he was. There must have been no particular enmity between Magi and mankind.
It was a good thing we didn’t start attacking him earlier.
“Now, what do you want? To what do I owe the honor of this peculiar visit?” Jean said while casting a glance at the hole in the roof.
“Sorry about that. Some stuff happened.”
“Indeed? Very well. Anyway, let us hear your story. Come.”
“Please, right this way.” Bernard bowed as he gestured for us to follow Jean.
Jean descended the staircase that was tucked in the corner of the room. I couldn’t say I wasn’t suspicious of his invitation… What should I do?
As I was contemplating my options, Fran had already followed him downstairs. No helping it then, I would have to be on guard instead.
Stay on your toes, Jet.
Woof!
The room at the bottom of the stairs was disappointingly normal.
“Ha ha ha! Welcome to my abyssal laboratory of darkness and death!”
God, couldn’t he shut up? So this was his laboratory. It looked normal at first glance, but perhaps there was a switch he could throw that would unveil the most advanced in magical technology…!
No, probably not.
The basement was spacious, but that was about it. There was some leftover bread and salad set on the table, and an open book resting atop a chest.
It looked like an ordinary, lived-in living room.
“Laboratory?” Fran wondered aloud about the same thing.
“Indeed! My experiments are known to be dangerous so my real lab is further downstairs; wouldn’t want to wake the neighbors, you know. Would you like to see? I warn you, there is a reason why they say that ‘curiosity killed the dragon’… Heheheh.”
I could tell that he was telling the truth because I had been getting a weird mana signature from downstairs. I was conflicted about wanting to see it, though. Inconspicuous as the house seemed, it was still a necromancer’s laboratory. I didn’t think it was a good idea for Fran to see something like a slaughterhouse at her tender age.
And god, was he loud!
“Tea?”
Bernard set teacups on the table. He had begun wearing an apron at some point. For an undead, he sure seemed human.
“Thanks…?”
The tea looked poisonous. There was reddish-purple goo at the bottom of the teacup. Was Fran supposed to drink this?
Our host, Jean, took the cup into his hand and downed it all in one gulp.
“Aaah. Such a fragrant aroma and complex flavor. Truly a wonderful cup.”
Really?
Sense Danger hadn’t alerted me to anything so I guess it was safe to drink. Besides, Fran had Abnormal Status Resistance in case anything bad happened.
“Quite the manners you have there.”
Fran drank her tea, and set the empty cup on the table. She could make anything look delicious. I’d give her some good food to fix her palate later.
“Bernard, would you mind explaining what happened?”
“You see—”
Bernard told Jean about the day’s proceedings.
“I see. So we lost some of our Necroweed.”
“Yes, sir. About a third of it.”
They were talking about the plants we had crashed into earlier.
“Argh, this is awful news,” Jean said while casting glances in our direction. It didn’t look good for us. It was true that we had broken into his house and destroyed some of his plants in the process.
“Do you know how much Necroweed you wasted by your crash landing? They are a very valuable type of Spirit Grass.”
They were valuable enough for the necromancer to cultivate in his own home. There was no way they grew on the side of the road.
“Are those plants important?”
“Indeed. Necroweed is a type of Spirit Grass you don’t normally find in the wild. They can be made into Necro Potions which can do a great deal of damage to undead with a mere sprinkle. If you manipulated the variables during its concoction, you can use it as a catalyst for Necromancy. Necromancers would die to get their hands on this potion. Also, the Necroweed I grow is first class.”
I remembered seeing a Necro Potion in Randell’s store. It was a third class Necro Potion and that already cost 300,000G. I doubted we could pay Jean if he asked us to compensate him for damages.
A-ask him if he could still use the damaged plants in his potion. We’ll help any way we can!
“What if you used the damaged herbs to make your potions right now?”
“Impossible. Once touched by the living, Necroweed becomes tainted with life. One could still make ordinary potions out of it but they wouldn’t suit my purposes.”
Essence of Falsehood detected no deceit in Jean’s answer. Necroweed was a valuable plant which must not be touched by the living. There was nothing we could give him in exchange but I doubted he would be satisfied with a simple apology.
“Now, judging by Bernard’s explanation, you falling through my roof was something of an Act of God, so I shall not press charges.”
“You won’t?”
I couldn’t tell from looking at him, but this necromancer was generous!
“Indeed… However!” Jean suddenly raised his voice and grinned. His manner was impossible to predict.
“Uh.”
It scared even Fran!
“I cannot say the same about the ruined Necroweed. You must understand.”
“Hm…”
“Act of God that it might be, you still damaged my valuable Spirit Grass. Justice demands an act of recompense. I’m not talking about bowing your head and apologizing, either.”
Aah, I figured. What was he going to ask us for? Money? Or maybe he wanted to use us for drug and magic experimentation. Either way, we might be in for a fight.
Fran sat up in her chair and stared at Jean.
The tension in the living room was palpable.
“Little girl. Would you mind going on a quest for me? You shall be rewarded, of course. 200,000G. What do you think?”
That was a lot of money in completion fees. We weren’t going to jump on it immediately, though. The reward was an indication of how difficult the task would be.
Ask him about the details, Fran.
“Hm. Depends on what you’re asking.”
“I won’t force you. You’d be doing more harm than good if you did it reluctantly.”
“Nothing illegal.”
“Of course. I am an adventurer myself, you know.”
Whoa, seriously? He sure didn’t look like one. He looked like a creature who would be waiting for you inside a dungeon than a man who raided dungeons.
“Really?”
“Indeed. B-Rank, at that!”
He took out a silver guild card out of his robe and showed it to us. It said B-Rank Adventurer on it. He was our great senior!
“Before we move on…”
“Hm?”
Jean smiled in a way I could only describe as sinister. Was he finally going to show his true colors to us? I was getting worried, despite Danger Sense not triggering.
“Would you mind introducing yourself?”
What was he talking about?
As I puzzled over Jean’s redundant question, he pointed his finger toward Fran.
“I’m talking about you, Sword.”
Rather, he pointed his finger at me.
Did he want to get his hands on an enchanted sword?
“You’ve been so quiet, I do wish you’d start talking to me.”
“!”
“Heheheh. I’ve known all along about the fact that a soul inhabits that blade of yours! How you’ve been communicating with Telepathy! Now, reveal yourself! Bahahaha!!!”
He saw through my Telepathy? How?!
Fran, don’t say a word.
Hm.
“…”
“…”
“You’re giving me the silent treatment now? You will not fool me with such petty methods. For I possess the great skill of SOUL SIGHT! I can see souls wherever they are! Even your Identity Protection is no use against it, a mere vanity of vanities!” He cackled, obviously smug at catching me off-guard.
What?! So his method of identification could pierce through Identity Protection?! The same thing had happened with Garrus. These Mystic Eye people were a pain!
Dammit! What now? Do I keep my mouth shut? No, stay calm!
As I became metaphorically drenched in cold sweat, Jean merely rested his chin on his hand and nodded carelessly.
“My, but what a rare sight this is! You are an Intelligent Weapon, are you not?”
He knew. There was no point in keeping quiet now.
“I can see that you are quite strong and capable. With your powers combined, you might just be able to carry out my request!”
Request?
“Aah, so you’ve finally decided to talk to me. It’s not every day I get to converse with a sword! Brilliant, brilliant!”
I was beginning to get tired of Jean’s boisterous speech.
“Now, allow me to explain the thing I want you to do for me.”
Hmm? He didn’t seem interested in having me for himself. In fact, it looked like was only curious to see whether I could talk.
You know I’m an Intelligent Weapon. Is there anything else you’d like to add to that?
“What do you mean?”
You don’t want me for yourself?
“If I did, would you give yourself to me?”
No.
“And that settles that argument. I’m not the least interested in you, anyway.”
“You really don’t want him?” Fran asked.
“Not in particular, no.”
I used Essence of Falsehood but again couldn’t find any untruth in Jean’s words. He wasn’t the slightest bit interested in me. I was disappointed, but relieved at the same time.
“Are you satisfied? May I move on to the details of my quest?” he chortled.
All right, let’s see what impossible errand you have in store for us.
Disturbing words like Live Experimentation and Assassination danced across my mind.
“You are to help me explore!”
That was… absolutely pedestrian.
“Explore what?”
“Yes. It pleases me that you seem eager to assist. Our destination is not far from here. With my help, we can get there in a little under thirty minutes.”
This dungeon must’ve been pretty close to Jean’s house. I hadn’t seen any on the way here, though, and I didn’t remember any mention of dungeons in this area during my research in Alessa. What Jean said next confounded all my expectations.
“We are going to the dungeon called Undead Lair.”
What?
If a dungeon was nearby, there was no way we wouldn’t have heard about it back in Alessa. What was he talking about?
Fran voiced my thoughts. “We didn’t hear anything about it in Alessa.”
“Of course not.” Jean’s answer was nonchalant. “I am the only one who knows anything about it.”
Considering how big dungeons were, I was confused as to how anyone could miss it.
So you’ve kept information about this dungeon to yourself?
“That’s right. We are under no obligation to inform any party about any dungeon we might find on our travels. We are urged to inform the authorities since doing so would help prevent future calamities, but keeping quiet about it is not a crime in itself. Not in this country, anyway.”
“Didn’t know that.”
“You get a handsome reward for informing them that a dungeon has appeared. In any case, the dungeon I speak of does not fall under the jurisdiction of this country, or any other country for that matter. Therefore, I am under even less obligation to make a report.”
“Not in any country?”
What do you mean?
A place which isn’t under the dominion of any kingdom? Was it located in some kind of DMZ? Either way, it sounded like trouble.
“Haha! I see you are rattling your puny brains about this.”
I’d like to hear where this dungeon is located, if you don’t mind.
“Now, now. Where would the fun be if I just told you?”
I was all right with a straight answer, actually.
“Let me tell you the story of how I came across the dungeon! Stay a while and listen!”
“Hm.”
It’d help if you kept it short and simple.
“You ask for the impossible!”
And so Jean began his animated tale.
“Ten years ago… I heard tell of an undead outbreak in this area. Their numbers were growing so rapidly they outnumbered the local monsters.”
Really? This place isn’t even a Haunt.
“Indeed! It was an odd phenomenon, to be sure. Reports of undead raiding nearby villages came flooding to the guild. The Guild had sent out countless investigation parties in response to this threat.”
“I see.”
“I was a young Necromancer, then. I came to this land to deepen my knowledge of the undead magicks. I’ve carried on my research for ten years, and though my heart broke and was sorrowed countless times, I rebuked it that I might increase in knowledge!”
“Wow.”
Jean carried on his story like an actor in a stage play. Fran, you really don’t have to clap for the Magi.
“And then I made my discovery. A massive accumulation of mana! In multiple spots!”
Accumulation of mana?
“Indeed. The phenomenon was caused by naturally occurring mana gathering in one location. This stagnation of mana causes monsters to spawn.”
I see.
“Now, the mana accumulation I had discovered had a distinctly Undead element to it. The element of these masses of mana were influenced by the surrounding environment. For example, in places like a volcano where fire is plentiful, these mana hoards would spawn fire monsters, and the oceans would spawn water monsters.”
So you get wind monsters in a place with strong winds?
“Yes. The only element I can’t quite figure is the Fiend element. One hypothesis states that Fiend-type monsters appear where in areas which contain the seals of the God of Evil. There seems to be truth in this hypothesis, seeing as there are no Fiends around these parts. There must be a reason behind their concentrated spawning.”
Wait, seriously? There were a lot of Fiends in Alessa, and the Direwolf Garden had been teeming with orcs and goblins, as well. Was the God of Evil sealed off in those places? That was a scary thought.
If this hypothesis were true, wouldn’t we have found the seals by now? All you needed to do was look to the center of Fiend populated areas.
“Some of them actually look for the seals that way. You’ve heard of the Evil and the Dark Uniques?”
Yeah. I ran into an Evil Goblin once.
“The Evil Uniques seem to have the blessing of the God of Evil himself. When they’re around, you can be sure that there is a seal of the God of Evil nearby. One of the adventurers actually found one of the sealing grounds that way.”
What happened then?
“Not much, thankfully. The adventurer informed the guild, and they locked down the area.”
Even if someone had found one of the sealing grounds, not much could be done about it. Legend has it that the gods, upon defeating the God of Evil, divided him into parts before sealing him away. It was impossible for man to undo the seals of the gods. At least, that was what I learned.
But when I pondered this aloud to Jean, he shook his head. The process wasn’t as straightforward as I thought.
“No. There have been times where the seals were broken. Although the forces maintaining the seals are strong enough to keep the Evil God in bondage, they are prone to outside interference.”
What? But the gods created those seals, didn’t they? Wouldn’t they have some protection on them so the seals couldn’t be tampered with?
“There are barriers to prevent Fiends from tampering with them but there doesn’t seem to be any special protection against humans.”
Why not?
“Think about it. The gods have promised not to interfere with the works of Man. Wouldn’t that be reason enough?”
Did that mean the gods were unable to violate a single iota of their laws? Wouldn’t that leave the seals vulnerable to abuse? The people of this world had more faith in their gods than I initially thought, so perhaps the gods here were more involved than I was used to. At least they were involved enough that Jean believed they wouldn’t break their promises.
Still, man is a creature who is easily led astray, whose heart is easily tempted by evil. No wonder some of them managed to break the seals.
“It goes to shows you how much the gods value mankind.”
They were gods, after all. They weren’t concerned with every little detail like we were, and who knew the thoughts within those infinite minds?
But wouldn’t that mean that the forces of the Evil God are leaking into this world if Fiends exist?
“Perhaps, but I don’t know for sure. It is outside my area of expertise. I cannot know for no Fiends spawn around these parts.”
Not even one?
“Nay. I’ve never seen one myself. This place is mostly home to the undead.”
That’s what we were talking about earlier.
So you were saying about finding massive accumulations of Ghost mana?
“That is the conclusion I have come to after residing in this place for many years. I’ve been wanting to resolve this anomaly for a long time.”
So the undead were spawned out of that accumulated Ghost mana?
But how were you supposed to resolve the mana accumulation if the Undead element didn’t occur naturally? Was this place an old battlefield, once upon a time? Perhaps it was an execution ground?
“Correct. But this is where the tale becomes strange.”
How do you mean?
“These fields have never been anything out of the ordinary. I looked through the records and found nothing that would indicate any instances of mass slaughter above ground. There are no records of massive tombs below ground, either.”
Jean had obviously done his homework.
“I’ve studied the mineral structure of the earth and every plant life I could find, none of which amplify or add to the strength of the undead element. Why then, is there an accumulation of undead mana?”
“Hmm?”
Huh?
I didn’t know how Jean expected us to answer something even he didn’t know.
“Any guesses?”
He stood up, and started pacing around the room. His gestures grew grander than before as he became more excited.
“Someone’s adding it on purpose,” Fran said.
“Yes! That is what I initially thought, as well. I suspected the northern kingdom of Raydoss of being up to one of their diabolical schemes.”
Judging by your tone of voice, your speculation turned out false.
“It is impossible to manufacture a mana accumulation or inject mana into a locale. Many researchers have dedicated their lives to it; all have failed.”
“I see.”
“And so I looked at the similarities between mana accumulations. That is when I made my discovery!”
Jean swung around, and pointed his finger at us in a grandiose gesture. He was like a detective who had finally solved the mystery of the day.
“Your discovery?”
“Yes. Do you know of the floating island above this field? Ah, but of course you do. That’s how you ended up in my lab in the first place.”
We saw the island firsthand – part of it, anyway.
“Objects would fall from the floating island from time to time. Sometimes it would be plants, other times, boulders.”
So you’re saying these falling objects are the cause of the undead outbreak?
“I can’t believe you just… ugh…” Jean cringed. “Yes. The accumulations of mana are located in the same place as the fallen objects.” He slumped his shoulders and sulked back into his chair. He really must have wanted to make the announcement by himself. He was grumbling under his breath now, and I couldn’t decide which of his two moods was more annoying. “I investigated the suspicious suspended island and found a dungeon on top of it,” he finished, spirits completely dashed. At least it made him quiet, though, even if it didn’t completely shut him up.
So why are the fallen objects imbued with undead mana?
“Because the dungeon is an undead dungeon. That is the reason why everything on that floating island is imbued with the undead element. They retain their element even when they’ve fallen to the earth.”
Which means the Skeleton Knight that attacked us was…
“Likely to be one of the dungeon’s monsters, yes.”
I didn’t expect to run into a dungeon this early in our trip.
“Do all floating islands have dungeons on them?” Fran asked. I was interested as well. If all floating islands housed dungeons in this world, wouldn’t that make them dangerous? We could have stampedes since no one would be able to conquer them.
“No. I posit that the dungeon on our floating island was created out of a Dungeon Core that spawned in the air next to it, or one that spawned on the island itself. That is the only floating island I know of to have a dungeon on it.”
I had thought that Dungeon Cores could only appear on land, but they could show up anywhere, it seemed. There was a lot about the Cores that I didn’t understand. “Would a Core break upon hitting the ground if it spawned that high up in the air? I know it would have a magical barrier protecting it, but would it be able to absorb the impact from a drop from such a high altitude?” I asked Jean.
“No. A mysterious force operates the Dungeon Cores, and therefore they would only spawn in places that were viable for a dungeon. They can’t be moved from their original spawn location, barring special circumstances. If one were to appear in the sky, it would remain afloat. If one appeared in the ocean, it would not drift along with the tide.”
“Special circumstances?”
“One such circumstance is our floating dungeon. Also, the records say that long ago there was once a giant golem whose insides housed a dungeon. This golem could move around, of course. Why these extraordinary cases exist, one can only guess.”
The Chaos God worked in mysterious ways. This world housed many mysteries.
“How do we get to the floating island?” Fran wanted to know.
“With my level of magic, we have several options.”
Is the floating island under no one’s jurisdiction?
That’s what Jean had mentioned earlier. I thought we were still on Granzell soil.
“The island’s route circles around the edges of Raydoss and just about straddles Bellios. The kingdoms are still fighting over who gets to own it. That is why no one has sent troops to claim the island and the dungeon remains hidden.”
If one of the kingdoms had tried to claim the floater, that might be interpreted as an act of invasion which could lead to all-out war.
“It is quite troublesome, however. As dangerous as the dungeon is, it also lays golden eggs. The dungeon itself doesn’t pose much of a threat to the continent. If the kingdoms figured this out, they would do everything in their power to get their hands on it. They might even send in the army.”
And it’s okay for us to go there?
“As long as no one finds out.”
Don’t get caught, huh? Jean’s plan was beginning to sound fishy.
“Now, I shall restate my request. We shall go to the island together to investigate the dungeon.”
How much are we investigating? Do you want to clear the dungeon or is there something else you have in mind?
“Indeed, clearing the dungeon would be our goal. We can then destroy the dungeon once we clear it. Perhaps that would ease tensions between the kingdoms.”
Destroying the dungeon would nullify all possibility of war breaking out.
Was Jean, the Necromancer… actually good…?
“The difficult part comes with capturing and returning with a certain monster. The beast’s name is Ghost Eater. It is an undead monster which eats other undead. Threat Level B. Even if we can’t finish the raid this time, returning home with the Ghost Eater will make it easier for me to conquer the dungeon another time.”
B-Rank Monster, huh?
“I was going to make my attempt with several batches of Necro Potions but working together with you will prove far more effective.”
It was dangerous for sure, but might be worth the risk. We’d get to go to the floating island, too.
Fran?
I wanna hit the dungeon.
Of course she did. I did, too. No one had ever stepped in this dungeon to boot.
We can get payback, too.
Yeah, we have a score to settle with that numbskull.
Arf, arf!
I guess you’re in too, Jet.
We might be able to get revenge on the Skeleton Knight if we went with Jean. After discussing the matter with Fran, we decided to accept Jean’s offer.
“Wonderful! I’ll be in your care! Mwahahaha! My word, I can hardly wait!”
Likewise. We really appreciate you taking us there.
“Leave that to me. Now, let us reintroduce ourselves! I am Jean du Vix! Master of things which lurk in the dark! Lord over the abyss and all that is dead!”
I guessed that meant he was a scholar in Necromancy. As much as I hated to admit it, I was getting used to Jean’s language.
“I’m Fran. A Black Cat. My favorite foods are curry and pancakes. This is Jet.”
“Woof!”
“It’s my first time seeing a Darkness Wolf. He would make a fine minion if he were undead.”
“Aroo…”
Jean looked dead serious. Jet tucked his tail between his legs and cowered in fear.
“No.”
“Hahaha!”
That’s not funny, please stop.
“Worry not. I won’t waste a single drop of blood.”
Dude, seriously! Anyway, I’m the Intelligent Weapon, Teacher. Fran named me that.
“I see. So Teacher is your name?”
Was it impossible to ask this guy to read the room? If he insulted Fran’s naming sense she would—
“What an eccentric name! Hah! I like it!”
I’m glad he’s a weirdo.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Hm.”
The Blademage and the Necromancer shook hands.
Before we set off, we decided to change the terms of our agreement.
“You don’t have to give us that much in reward money.”
“Oh?”
In exchange, we want the crystal.
“Crystals? So you want that instead of gold?”
Yeah. Would that be too much to ask?
“Not at all, but what are you going to use them for?”
Well, uh…
Of course he would ask. I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable with telling him all the details, though.
“Hmm… I see, I see.” Jean closed in on me as I hesitated. He was looking intently at me.
What? Why are you looking at me like that?
“A crystal counter…”
“!”
“Does absorbing crystals make you get stronger?”
He nailed it in one guess!
“How do you know that?”
“Heheheh. There is nothing hidden from my Soul Sight! Teacher here has a Crystal counter on his status screen and he wants crystals as payment… It doesn’t take a genius Necromancer to put two and two together!”
Damn it, he had such amazing deductive reasoning despite being so obnoxious! He saw right through me! I didn’t think Identify could even see that much information. I underestimated his Soul Sight!
“Heheheh… Looks like I hit the bullseye. I see your status is now: Frustrated.”
Y-you can see that, too?!
“Bwahahaha! I jest! But it seems I was right again!”
Dammit! I completely fell for it!
“Arf…”
Jet, stop looking at me as if you felt sorry for me! I know what you’re thinking, you overly-expressive wolf! Take this!
“Ruff!”
How do you like getting your fur ruffled in the wrong direction? I bet it feels uncomfortable!
I stopped with the awful realization that Jean was rubbing off on me. Was Fran going to follow his example, too? Jean might teach her his evil-sounding laughs.
“But a magic sword which consumes crystals… Interesting. Do you gain the skills of the crystal on top of the mana?”
!
How did he keep getting it right? His guess was so sudden I couldn’t gasp in surprise. I wanted to ask him how he knew more than anything else.
How did you—?
“Am I right? Mwahaha! I am a genius!”
I didn’t think you’d see right through me.
“Shocked? It was all a matter of deduction. First, I looked at your skills and found them to be far too similar to each other. Teacher has a skill called Skill Sharing, which must mean that the skills you have transfer over to Fran, as well.”
I see.
“Those skills must therefore belong to Teacher. Still, your skill selection proves too diverse even for the most legendary of blades. Which leads me to believe that you have another way of learning skills.”
He saw right through everything. We couldn’t let our guard down around him.
“Also, your skill composition is absolutely baffling. I deduced that you didn’t gain them through leveling up the prerequisite skills.”
Prerequisite skills?
“What?”
Under normal circumstances, Shadow Magic could only be unlocked if you had the highest level of Dark Magic. Despite that, our Shadow Magic was already at Level 2. Another such oddity was Instant Regen without Regeneration. You only needed to look at our skill composition to notice something was wrong.
“I suspected you used some strange skill like Skill Taker to fatten your skill portfolio, but it seemed wrong to me. The cooldowns didn’t work out.”
Such perfect reasoning! Were we that easy to figure out with a little bit of knowledge and deductive reasoning? I’d have to be careful about Mystic Eye users in the future.
Well, no use hiding it now. We told Jean everything and asked for his help in gathering crystals. We would do most of the heavy exploration in exchange.
Jean’s response was a booming, “Agreed! Hahaha! All right then! So all I need to do is gather up the crystals which have the skills you don’t already have, yes? Then I just feed them to Teacher?”
“Yeah.”
“Worry not, for you are in good hands!”
He was as loud as he was suspicious but his necromancy was the real deal. He would prove useful in an undead dungeon.
“Also, I know of a monster who would have a skill that would be perfect for you.”
“Perfect?”
“Awoo?”
“Indeed. It is an undead monster, so there is a high likelihood of us running into one once we get to the floating island.”
Uh-huh. What’s it called?
“It is called a Mimic. An E-Rank undead monster.”
“Never heard of it.”
Fran shook her head along with Jet. I had never heard of it, either.
“As its name implies, it changes its shape and lies in wait for prey to walk past it. And then, it strikes. It isn’t particularly strong but you do have to watch out for its ambushes.”
So what skills does this Mimic have?
“It has the Mimic skill, of course. It also has an interesting skill called Identify Jammer.”
As its name implied, Identify Jammer disturbed Identify. It was weaker than Identity Protection, but when maxed out it prevented one from a lower-level Identify.
But we already have Identity Protection.
“Is Identify Jammer a good skill?”
“No, this is just the setup!”
Then why are you wasting our time…
“Because I felt like it!”
“…”
This was what we were dealing with.
“Now, now, if you’d just let me finish, you’ll see where I’m going with this. There is a D-Rank monster called a Counterfeit which is sometimes confused with the Mimic, as they look very similar. I recommend that you slay the Counterfeit!”
“Why?”
“Counterfeits possess a Unique Skill called Fake Identity. This skill does not block Identify. However, it allows you to create false information about your stats and skills!”
So you could trick someone into thinking you’re weak by purposely putting up small numbers?
“Yes, that is what makes this skill so deadly. In a way, it is far more powerful than Identity Protection.”
Identity Protection protected your information by preventing your opponent from casting Identify on you. Seeing as you had something to hide, your opponent would invariably become wary of you.
But what about Fake Identity? Showing your opponent false information would make them think that you had no reason to hide your stats. They would let their guard down and be easier to fight, provided they believed the false information. It was more useful in an info war.
“You could even pair it with Identity Protection. Even if anyone managed to get through your Identity Protection, they would still have to deal with your complete fabrication of stats and skills! A terrifying combination, indeed.”
“I see.”
“Identity Protection is also a Unique Skill. That means it can go up against most Mystic Eye skills such as my Soul Sight!”
“I want it.”
Yeah, we’re definitely gonna need it.
I was just in the middle of mulling over how we were supposed to ward off Mystic Eye users.
“Mwahahaha! Leave it to me. On my last expedition, I found an area where Counterfeits love to spawn!”
“Wow. That’s amazing.”
As expected of a Lord of the Dead! So dependable!
“Bark, bark, bark!”
“Hahaha! Don’t be so straight with me, now! You’re making me blush!”
Don’t let us down, Jean!
The necromancer was also very susceptible to praise. His pale white cheeks actually seemed to flush. He was always used to boasting so he wasn’t used to the idea of people complimenting him.
So wise and powerful and smart!
“Smart.”
“Woof.”
“Mwahahaha!”
With our encouragement, Jean puffed out his chest and let out a shrill guffaw.
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