Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai - Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Vessel

“― ― Ha!?”

I woke up with a start . It was still dark, so my eyes were fine opening instantly .

“Momokawa Kotarou, adherent of mine . ”

A skull face was right in my face before I knew anything .

“Aaaaaaaahhh!?”

The first thought that crossed my mind was a sudden invasion of Skeleton mobs, but I did in fact know this particular skeleton face . He was an ally, or actually, he was my patron God .

“Ah, eh, um, I mean . . . Ruinhilde-sama, I uh . . . have I perhaps, um, died?”

I was in this God’s dimension .

Seeing his face first thing after waking up really knocked the drowsiness out of me, which was when I started remembering everything .

We were moments close to finishing off the Basilisk when its fumes shot out from those gill slits . I should maybe consider myself lucky to have died instantly from that . When Gomas got hit by its gas, they always screamed in extreme agony before inevitably dying .

“Well done, for you have realized the second truth . And for this, I shall praise you . ”

“Eh? What, I mean, thank you, my lord . . . ”

Excuse me, but rather than the usual deep and mystical lecture, I’d really like to know if I’m still alive or not please . Still, it’s not often that I get praised by a God, so I think something good might come from this .

“First, know that the star of another realm that you traced is not a thing to be considered a true magic circle . Yet, it is also true that what you made contains part of the Truth . ”

“Um, do you mean, the Hexagram Eye?”

My patron God nodded . So since hexagrams were a concept from Earth, I guess they really were from another realm in Ruinhilde-sama’s perspective .

“I had believed to grant this to you much time later, but you have shown me agreeable growth―― It is yours, Momokawa Kotarou . ”

Ruinhilde-sama raised a bony finger and a poison bog-like pool started bubbling up in front of me . This pool quickly formed into a jet black lump .

“Um, what exactly is this?”

“A vessel of chaos . With endless possibilities, it garners man’s hope, yet, is trifling . The holder makes its use . ”

“I see, so it will depend on how I use it . ”

I just responded appropriately, but I honestly didn’t want to have to do anything with this Vessel of Chaos thing . I just stared at it, and had absolutely no desire to get my hands near any of that black, goopy whatever .

Well, from the looks of it, the lump appeared like a large soup pot .

The inside of this pot was a swirling black that seemed to go on for eternity, churning chaos as if it would be able to grant any and all desires .

Quite the curse-like effect I must admit, but, huh, I think I’ve seen this before .

“This is . . . just like Mud Doll . ”

“Its uses are many . Use this Cauldron as you will, proliferate your Curse . ”

I see, so it was similar to Takanashi Kotori’s Upgrade in that I could make stuff by adding the right ingredients . So a production type Curse .

“My utmost thanks . ”

I do hope I can get a Curse strong enough to one-shot something like a Basilisk one of these days . But it’d be very rude to say that so I didn’t .

Anyway, from the way this conversation was going… didn’t it mean that I was actually still alive?

“Second, the Mud Doll does indeed have a soul . ”

“Ah, so Rem does have her own personality!”

Now with this topic, I caught on right off the bat .

“You appear to be quite fond of it . ”

“Sure am . Rem’s really great . ”

I mean, she still looks like a Skeleton, but she always listens to me, works hard, and even ends up saving me a lot of the time . Rem’s such a lovable little thing .

“Very well, it seems I have no need to speak to you on the way of Dolls . Do well to use your Mud Doll as you are . ”

It’s not often that Ruinhilde-sama spoke this directly . And since I was in complete agreement with his words, I honestly agreed with a ‘Yes . ’

“Now be off, Momokawa Kotarou, for you have already opened the gates of possibility――”




 

“… Ah, damn, I’m alive, I’m really alive . ”

I muttered solemnly . I mean, I always felt relief wash over me after an intense life or death struggle, but this sense of achievement was something I hadn’t had since that first Armorbear way back when .

“And I actually beat the Basilisk . ”

In front of me laid a giant lizard type skeleton . There was no trace of the Rotten Bog and the ground had returned to its usual cold, dry mud . Which meant that this huge skeletal frame had to be from the Basilisk .

“Ah, good, the core’s still there . ”

I could clearly see the red, glowing core through the mass of bones . I suspect that Rotten Bog continued working even after I passed out and completely melted down the Basilisk’s flesh . I didn’t know if cores just didn’t melt, or the Rotten Bog itself was being a nice guy and didn’t melt it for my sake, but I’m glad it didn’t . Otherwise, this whole ordeal would’ve been for nothing .

“Oh, that’s right, hey Rem, good work back there . ”

“GAGA!”

Rem, who was of course standing stock still by my side till I woke up, bobbled her skull happily at my words . This action was also followed by #2 who was standing beside Rem .

“If you hadn’t jumped on the Basilisk, I doubt we’d be able to take it down as fast as we did, if at all . ”

I patted her head . Rem’s current skull head was covered in an insect shell helm, so it wasn’t a point of whether it felt good to pat or not, but more like I needed to be careful since some parts of the shell were pretty sharp… Well, I’m thankful to her so I’ll take the small risk anyway .

If I had to guess, shooting it’s toxic breath through those gill slits must’ve been a sort of last resort for the Basilisk too . Under Rem’s mounted assault, my restraints and the bog still melting it to the bones, it must’ve felt desperate enough to warrant such a tactic . Something like a cornered mouse situation .

“That reminds me, how come that last breath didn’t do anything to me? I’m sure it hit me directly . ”

Anyway, I didn’t feel any pain or other abnormalities with my body . Plus, I already knew from my observations that the Basilisk’s breath had no effect on any of my clothes or items .

“Huh, should I just consider it an extra service from Ruinhilde-sama…?”

I thought jokingly, but then I was suddenly confronted with some new information in my head that seemed to deny that possibility .

 

Venomic Vessel: Chaotic innards that repel a hundred poisons . A Curse that tramples on venoms, providing truth to pain insurmountable .

 

“Eh, huh, innards… like, wait, doesn’t that mean my organs are really fucked up now!?”

That’s human experimentation, Ruinhilde-sama! The forbidden arts!! I felt like shouting to the sky as I started quickly patting all over my body to see if anything was weird .

That being said, it wasn’t like I could feel these inside differences from the outside . I at least knew it wasn’t like an extra heart since nothing other than my original one was beating .

I was guessing that Ruinhilde-sama gave me an extra organ that looked like that swirling lump of chaos he showed me .

“Wait wait, calm down, yeah . It’s not like I lost anything . This is a plus . ”

I mean, surely he didn’t do something like replace one of my kidneys with it, right? I should try to look at this in a more positive light, like a Passive Skill that neutralizes any poison .

“So basically, if even Basilisk breath won’t affect me, I guess I don’t need to worry about most poisons . ”

I still didn’t want to put it to the test by eating a redshroom though . I didn’t have the guts for that .

Yeah, as always, the vague flavor text didn’t help . But if it turns out that this is what saved me from that breath, than I’m all for it . If I end up getting hit by any poison attacks in the future, I’m hoping Venomic Vessel will show its worth .

“Also, this Curse’s name, I guess it refers to Gu, that super venom thing where they put a whole bunch of poisonous insects in a pot in a sort of battle royale . Where the last one surviving is said to have the most potent venom…”

Nope, nuh uh . I was NOT going to be testing that out . Like, won’t that mean I’d have to swallow live poisonous bugs to add them to Venomic Vessel? Like seriously no . I’d rather risk a redshroom than eat one of those creepy crawlies .

But then again, the description does kind of hint at getting something out of the poisons other than immunity, so it might actually have hidden effects .

“Nope, I really don’t want to find out after all . ”

I’ll just settle for the new anti-venom passive skill . No, it’s not like I’m dissatisfied, Ruinhilde-sama . I’m simply admitting that whatever offensive boosts this Venomic Vessel can provide, I’m not yet worthy to make use of them .

“B-better luck next time I guess . ”

But then, as if I was being irritating with my disrespect, another piece of info popped into my head .

 

Witch’s Cauldron: The pot of a witch is not solely for meals . It is a vessel of chaos that can birth magic, curse and concoctions, healing and poison alike .  

 

“Wait what? Did I just get 2 Curses at once?”

Huh, wow, I did, didn’t I .

This one was a lot closer to the thing Ruinhilde-sama showed me back there . My guess is that if I used this Curse, I’d get a pot like that Vessel of Chaos I saw .

If this thing is as powerful as Upgrade, it should be very useful for any upcoming fights . In fact, since I could now easily hunt down small numbers of Gomas and Red Dogs, I could actually gather the parts and ingredients to use in making whatever it is I would eventually make .

“So with this I should be able to make my meds a lot better . No, it says poisons too… Oh yeah, if I can do poisons, I want to lace our weapons with them . ”

It was a big step forward, but not something I could test right now . Takanashi Kotori’s Upgrade seemed to expend a lot of mana after all .

I’d gotten a nap just now when I went into God’s dimension, so I could walk around fine, but my mana hadn’t recovered quite as much .

“I should teleport out of here already . I can think about the rest at the Fairy Square . ”

I wasn’t going to be waiting to be attacked now when I’m still tired from the Boss fight . I started quickly gathering up all the Basilisk bones I could carry and made swift preparations to warp out .

I still had a lot of extra weapons and things gathered up at my Fairy Square base in this zone, but they weren’t so important that I would go out of my way to get them now . I’d already used most of the better quality weapons in this fight, which ended up being lost in the bog .

Well, the fact that Rem saved the Red Knife from that flavor of doom was something to be glad about . Otherwise I’d be really depressed having lost a valuable magic weapon .

“Any time now――”

Me, Rem and #2 all now stood on the transfer circle platform that the Basilisk used do laze around in all day .

I just need to hold this core up and the rest should be automatic . And this time, there wasn’t anyone going to push me off either .

“――Mh!”

Shrouded in blinding white light, I teleported to the next zone .

“Ah, it feels like I finally did it . ”

I opened my eyes to a scene I could call home, a Fairy Square . I’m glad we get transferred to one of these every time without fail . The frog Boss, the Orthus, and now the Basilisk too . It’s home sweet home to a Fairy Square right after a tough battle .

“Man, I’m tired!”

I needed some well deserved shut-eye . I threw down the Basilisk’s skeletal loot to a side and laid down on the soft, grassy bed that was the ground .

I closed my eyes and found myself quickly becoming sleepy, and soon I’d be in the land of dreams――

“―― Look what we have here, Momokawa, ya little git . Still haven’t kicked the bucket eh?”

If that voice didn’t reach my ears . If that familiar tone didn’t absolutely destroy my drowsiness .

“I’m actually kinda impressed ya made it this far . Y’know, with that lousy Job of yers . ”

My eyes fell on his mocking smile . His dyed brown hair, his piercings, and that extra gaudy way he wore his uniform . But I know all too well . That behind that frivolous attitude hid nothing but malice .

“Yo, looks like ya came to . Guess I should say it’s good to see ya again?”

I would never forget the name of my mortal enemy, the first person I met in this world and by whose hand I’d suffered the worst humiliation . With hate welling out from every pore in my body, I spoke his name:

“Higuchi, Kyouya…”