Part Eighty-One

Gods, this is complicated. It’s still nowhere near as bad as that disgustingly complex Ritual though. But still, twenty-three glyphs? That’s more than I had to carve for Kalia’s Ritual! And I need to sacrifice a Gem of Hatred too. Hm, but if I can pull it off, then I’d get a familiar. I can think of several uses for even an F-Rank familiar, let alone a B-Rank one. So, this’ll be my goal for now. I need to train my Grudge Magic up to the point where I can use this spell. It’s good to have concrete goals.

With a game plan decided on, I had some pep to my step as I left the infirmary. While I’d gotten one of my loose ends tied up, I still had a few to deal with. I wanted to get through as many of them as possible since we had a large amount of downtime.

Okay, now I’ve got to go find Cameron. I’d like to figure out what’s up with him before we fight the Dungeon Boss, since that’ll probably be the most dangerous fight we have in here.

I wandered the fort, looking for my target. Cleanup from the battle was still on going, and the NPCs were hard at work clearing the rubble from the portal. The state of the Anti-movement Array worried me a little though. If it stopped working, we could be swarmed by Shadow monsters again, and I did not want to go through that unexpectedly again.

Though when I queried one of the nearby NPCs, he said that while the Array went down temporarily, it was now operational, albeit only at two-thirds capacity. It worried me a bit, but the NPC assured me that it was still protecting the fort.

I feel like this should be a bigger priority to me right now, but there’s just been too much happening lately for me to care. If the NPCs say it’s fine, then it’s fine. I’ve got more on my plate than I know what to do with. I need to focus on finding Cameron. He wasn’t in his room, nor is he on watch duty. I’ve got no clue where he got to. Maybe I should ask someone if they’ve seen him.

Though even if I wanted to do that, it didn’t mean it would be easy. For some incomprehensible reason, most of the other mercenaries were going out of their way to avoid me. A few even went so far as to scramble into nearby alleys when they saw me. It made it pretty hard to ask questions.

Those that didn’t straight up run away, usually gave me wary looks, making me wary of asking them. Talking to people practically oozing hostility wouldn’t get me anywhere. I needed to find someone I could have an actual conversation with. Though, someone found me.

“Hey, there you are! I’ve been looking for you!”

“Serena? Oh, well what do you want?”

“Hehe, no need to be so glum! Here, I made this for you!”

Huh? A pillow? Wait a minute, didn’t she say she was gathering the Baculths' wool to make pillows or something? Oh boy.

“I think it came out really well! It’s so soft and fluffy!”

It wasn’t anything special, just a small throw pillow, but I had to admit, it was quite fluffy. Wait, how the heck did she do this? I’m pretty sure you need to process wool before you can use it for anything. Even if she just used it as stuffing, it would still need some sort of treatment. So how on earth did she make this so fast? I don’t even smell any blood.

“Ahaha, it’s a Skill, that’s how I did it.”

“Huh, what?”

“You’re wondering how I made this so fast, right? Well I have this Skill that lets me use my mana to refine materials. Oh, take another look at the pillow! I think you’ll be very surprised!”

I’d been so surprised by the pillow itself, that I’d completely missed the fact that I could Analyze it.

Baculth Pillow

Rank: E

Description: A pillow crafted from wool taken from Baculths. Though it doesn’t possess any special properties, it is extremely comfortable due to its expert construction.

“Expert construction?”

“Ehehe, I’m not the one who made the description. But I did make the pillow myself! It came out much better than I thought it would too! Ah, but I can’t talk much longer though. I need to find Edwin and mister gas-mask, and give them theirs! Byyyeee!”

“……She sure is something. I feel like I was just hit by a typhoon.”

***

[Alicia’s POV]

“Phew, they’re all finally starting to recover. Thanks for the help Alicia.”

“It’s okay. I don’t think I did all that much, but you’re welcome all the same.”

Kalia had finally managed to remove whatever taint was leftover from the Wyvern’s spell, and [Soothing Aura] was now finally healing their burns, albeit slowly. It would still take some time before they could get out of bed, but it was a definite improvement over their previous situation.

“So, what do we do with all of these things? I can’t imagine what good they’ll be, if any.”

A pile of little red gems sat on a nearby table. Each one was created after Kalia had finished expelling the taint from the burn victims. Each was the size of the eraser nub at the end of a pencil, and sported a bright reddish shine, similar to a ruby's.

Gem of Flames

Rank: Special

Description: A Gem made of crystallized Fire-mana. Due to their minuscule size, they have limited uses, but an experienced mage may be able to use them with a little ingenuity.

Despite the fact that the gems were too small to serve as the catalysts for spells, they did still have potential uses. One could use them in crafting weapons, armor, or stronger catalysts. Though, you’d need the relevant Skills and knowledge to do that.

“Maybe we should just let Brad and the others decide what to do with them. After all, they did come from them.”

“Oh, good idea. Now we just need to wait for them to wake up.”

“Yep, yep! So, we’ve got some time on our hands. Is there anything you want to do?”

“I’ve got more than a few questions about magic, so let me pick your brain.”

“Aha, go easy on me?”

***

[Leland’s POV]

Bite, rip, chew, and swallow. This was the sequence he did mindlessly for hours. The amount of food a newly-born Revenant needs is nothing to scoff about, it’s one of the most critical factors in their lives. Most never manage to get past this stage, their unending hunger driving them insane. Luckily, there was plenty of flesh lying around, though eating human meat had sickened him at first. But his Undead nature quickly broke his will to resist, and he began to gorge himself on everything he could find.

It was while he was consuming the last of a group of particularly large Beast-type monsters that it happened.

::Individual has acquired Normal Skill: Monstrous Strength Rank F.::

The monsters he’d been eating were known as Mastivs, and were known for their proficiency in strengthening their bodies, particularly their physical strength. Mastivs were C-Rank monsters, and were usually kept as pets by Demi-Human races that naturally rose to B-Rank during their growth phases. And while there were monsters that could strengthen or toughen your body just by eating them, Mastivs were not one. So why did Leland suddenly get this Skill?

It was all due to the Racial Skill: Feast on the Dead. By eating the Mastivs, their knowledge of physical strengthening was gradually absorbed by him, until he could use the Skill every bit as well as they could. Suddenly, he realized that if he ate more monsters, then he could gain their Skills too, and it lit a fire, and a hunger, within him.

Even in just his immediate vicinity, there were hundreds of corpses. So just how many were there in the entire city? A city where hundreds of thousands of people and monsters had fought and died? The possibilities caused him to begin salivating.

***

???........

Something moved through inky shadows, passing through the streets of a city long deserted. Well, not completely deserted.

“”“KSSSHHAAAAA!”””

The thing in the shadows came across spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. There must’ve been thousands of the monstrous arachnids, each baying for the thing's blood. Such a large swarm was hard to feed, and their Mother had decided that the time was ripe to move in search of new hunting grounds. But they would never make it.

“Nehehehe.”

The thing simply lifted its arm and swung it inelegantly, but hundreds of spiders were torn apart in a single moment. Then it repeated the feat with its other arm, killing just as many.

As one, the spiders, which shared a telepathic network, turned to face the thing in the shadows. With a single command from their Mother, every single spider flung itself at their enemy. One would expect that the sheer mass of thousands of spiders would crush them, but this was no mere creature they’d stumbled across.

“Nehehehehehehe.”

The thing leaped over the tide of spiders, finally leaving the shadows and entering the moonlight, revealing their appearance. Or lack of one. For the figure was covered in fabric from head-to-toe, preventing anyone or anything from seeing it.

Still, with how the figure was now stuck in the air, any observers would expect for them to be torn to pieces once they fell into the waiting swarm below. But the figure had other plans yet again. It drew one of its arms back, before thrusting it towards the ground. Something shot out of its sleeve with tremendous force, burying itself into the ground before drawing the figure downwards.

And yet again, it looked like the figure would be immediately swarmed by the spiders once it landed, and yet, it defied expectations once more. It kicked off the ground once it drew near, and used whatever was anchoring it to pivot. Then, it made the same thrusting motion it had before, but with the opposite arm. Something else flew out of its sleeve with the same tremendous force as before, ripping the spiders apart as the figure pivoted.

Within seconds, the spider swarm that numbered over ten thousand, was reduced to nearly zero. The figure’s rather simple attack was like a blender, reducing the spiders into a thick paste. Only a few stragglers had avoided the attack, and they wasted no time in fleeing..

“Nehehe. So boring.”

A threat that could’ve wiped out multiple countries was just unceremoniously called boring. One could barely imagine the level of power needed to do this so casually.

***

Gaah! I can’t find him! What the hell's going on!?

I’d spent the better part of an hour looking for Cameron, but gave up when I’d been unable to find him. I’d already known I was going to have a hard time doing so, but I hadn’t expected him to actually be hiding from me.

He hadn’t been in his room, or on watch duty, so I had no idea where he could be. I’d even gone to see if Alicia had seen him, but she hadn’t obviously. Though she had reacted rather oddly when I’d suddenly turned up. She’d even seemed happy when I left quickly.

You don’t think she and Kalia are up to something, do you? Hm, maybe it’s just my imagination? Hm, eh probably not. But seriously, where the heck is Cameron? It’s not like him to just go somewhere and not tell one of us. I hope something hasn’t happened to him again.

***

“So, we’re doing this? We’re really doing this?”

“Isn’t it what’s best for them? It’s what we’ve decided on.”

“I know. I just don’t quite feel right doing this to them. It feels, dishonest.”

“It is a little. But with what happened last night, this may be the best thing we can do for them.”

“I see. It’s gotten that bad for you?”

“Yep. I’m certain a few of them will try something soon. And if not, then they’ll try after the Dungeon. I’d like to head them off now, while I still can.”

“Hm, it won’t be easy, but it should be manageable. Partners?”

“Partners.”