bookpower Chapter 300: Evil Spirit (4)
Chapter 300: Evil Spirit (4)
Chapter 300: Evil Spirit (4)
The memory of the first day suddenly came to mind.
[An ‘evil spirit’ has possessed the soul of Orm, son of Kadua.]
The chieftain had beheaded the nameless player next to me with his terrifying axe, and that was when my days of survival began.
Of course, I didn’t know back then.
That the whole world was my enemy, and I had to be wary of everyone I met.
[I thought they were NPCs. I wouldn’t have done it if I knew.]
Just like Zencia, who considered everyone as NPCs.
I couldn’t understand their hatred.
But...
Clench.
...I could now accept it.
[It was you...]
The pity in the chieftain’s eyes as he looked at ‘Orm, son of Kadua’ was sadness.
[Isn’t it disgusting? To pretend to be human when you’re an evil spirit.]
The anger the citizens expressed when they executed the evil spirit was fear.
It was only natural.
For an evil spirit to suddenly possess the body of a loved one and turn them into a completely different being...
Could there be anything more horrifying?
It’s natural for them to hate us.
Even I would feel suffocated if Misha, Raven, the bear-like man, Erwen, or Ainar was possessed by an evil spirit.
“Bjorn, it’s time.”
“...It’s already that time? Okay.”
I slowly got up from my seat in the corner.
I still felt like a rock was weighing down on my heart.
But...
‘What’s the point of being sentimental now? Nothing will change.’
Emotions are just emotions.
Right, so...Nôv(el)B\\jnn
Crack.
Let’s just finish what I have to do and get out of here.
______________________
Rumble.
The stone door, which hadn’t budged, finally opened, and we continued exploring the rift.
White Armored Guardian, Green Armored Scout, Silver Thread Prophet, and so on.
A new type of monster appeared in each room, and my experience points kept increasing.
And essences also dropped occasionally.
But could it be that I hadn’t memorized all the hundred or so essences obtainable in the Hundred Colors Temple?
“Do you know what ability this essence has?”
Kalton and his two companions asked for our advice whenever an essence dropped, and Amelia surprisingly answered kindly.
“It’s the Blue-White Palace Judge’s essence. It has a high Strength stat for an archery or projectile-related essence.”
“Hmm, I see. Aimburn, what are you going to do?”
“Strength... I wanted to increase my bow’s draw weight, so this is good. I also like the ability. I think I can use it well. I’ll take it.”
Aimburn took one this time.
And Kalton and Jarku had each taken one earlier.
They had already absorbed three 6th-grade essences just by following us, but I wasn’t jealous.
I didn’t need them in the first place...
“Haha! Thank you! This is so easy thanks to you guys!”
“...You’re welcome.”
...and they wouldn’t be enough to repay me anyway.
After all, it wouldn’t change the fact that he would die in the labyrinth someday.
“By the way, it seems like this is the last one.”
We reached the boss room after clearing the rift for a while.
The jewel in the statue’s hand wasn’t glowing, so we must have been the fastest.
“But how do we open the door?”
“Move aside.”
Amelia smashed the statue.
It wasn’t a sudden outburst, but one of the fastest ways to progress.
The door would open with an angry voice.
‘Who did she come here with to know this?’
I was suddenly curious about Amelia’s past as the stone door started to open.
[This is the resting place of noble sacrifices.]
[Intruders will pay for their sins with blood.]
What the hell, you’re just a 5th-grade monster.
It was an intro I had seen countless times in the game, so I just listened while munching on jerky.
“Ca, can we go in?”
“He, he just spoke! Is, is he not a monster?”
Kalton and his two companions looked nervous.
Well, it was understandable.
The Guardian of the Hundred Colors Temple was a ‘High-Grade Variant’ with a random essence on top of its 5th-grade level.
‘High-Grade Variants’ rarely appeared below the 3rd floor, so they probably hadn’t experienced a monster talking.
“Bjorn, how long are you going to stand there?”
“Ah, I was just thinking.”
To be precise, I was suddenly reminded of the ‘Crimson Fortress’.
The Vampire I met back then was also a 5th-grade ‘High-Grade Variant’.
And I met him when I didn’t even have a single essence.
Ah, but this boss was much stronger than that Vampire.
We were cursed, and this boss had various buffs stacked on it.
‘I wonder what essence it has.’
The stone door closed behind us with a thud as we entered.
“A forest...?”
Unlike the previous rooms, which were made of marble, this room had grass and trees with fruits growing on them.
But it wasn’t the outside world.
It was a large dome-shaped room with an artificial garden.
There were five doors on the circular outer wall, including the one we came through.
Grab.
I grabbed his fist and then hugged him tightly, like a wrestler.
And...
Thud.
...Amelia finished him off with her dagger.
Swaaaaaaaaaa!
The Knight of Doom disintegrated into particles of light without even a last word.
It was a moment that always made me nervous.
I stared ahead without blinking.
‘Please, drop something.’
Contrary to my expectations, there was no essence floating in the air.
Thud.
There was no rift stone either.
But I saw a piece of equipment on the ground.
“A Numbered Item...”
I froze as I saw the hammer.
No, what the hell.
‘...Crazy, this dropped here?’
I was momentarily stunned, and then I quickly ran over and picked it up.
I didn’t know about the grip.
But I was certain after seeing its manly color and rough design.
No. 87 Kraul’s Demon Crusher.
A Double Numbered Item that was so expensive that you could only see it at the Sky Auction House in the Imperial City...
...and the weapon I had planned to use as my graduation weapon after absorbing the Ogre essence.
But it dropped from a 3rd-floor rift?
It was beyond a jackpot.
‘Damn it.’
If only this wasn’t twenty years ago.
______________________
Although I felt a bit disappointed as an efficiency freak, it was still a lucky break.
But my mind was racing as soon as I grabbed the hammer.
‘Damn it, how do I take this back? Should I bury it somewhere and hope it’s still there twenty years later?’
But what if someone took it?
Then I would be screwed.
Should I just sell it?
Yeah, I could just sell it and use the money to buy an expensive essence at the auction house before leaving.
That’s why I had been saving up equipment...
“Congratulations. It’s a shame that an essence didn’t drop, but that’s just our greed.”
Kalton and his companions approached me and congratulated me as I was lost in thought.
“I actually feel relieved! I’m glad you got something!”
Uh, it’s a bit much to call this ‘something’.
It’s better not to tell them.
It seemed like even Amelia didn’t realize it was a Double Numbered Item.
I decided to think about it later.
The portal had just opened.
Whoosh!
Kalton asked, looking at the portal that had appeared in front of the hut,
“Then what are you going to do?”
“We’ll leave later. We’re going to look around for a bit.”
To be precise, there were a few things I had to take with me.
But did they already know?
“You’re looking for Gavrilius’ Arrangement?”
“Yes.”
“Then what about those white fruits on the trees? They look strange.”
Ah, those...
It was a hidden piece, but it was more of a joke item.
How should I tell them not to eat it?
Amelia answered for me.
“They’re called ‘Hundred Fruits’. If you eat one, the stats of one of your essences will change randomly.”
Her explanation was brief, but accurate.
The ‘Hundred Fruit’ changed the properties of an essence.
The skill remained the same, but the base stats would change to random values within the essence’s grade.
It wasn’t something you would eat if you were sane.
There were thousands of detailed stats in this game.
There was a high chance that good stats like Strength and Agility would be replaced with useless or low-value stats like Greed and Obsession.
“So what are you going to do?”
“We’re leaving now. Our companions are probably waiting for us outside.”
“I see.”
After saying goodbye to Kalton, the fairy archer approached me.
“Thank you. We wouldn’t have been able to get here without you. It would have been much harder.”
“You were just lucky.”
“Lucky... well, it’s true that it’s rare to meet explorers like you in a rift. Please understand why we were wary at first. We’ve been through a lot recently.”
“What do you mean a lot?”
“It’s a bit hard to explain. It’s not like anyone made a mistake, but things just kept going wrong.”
Hmm, really?
I had a hunch.
I hesitated for a moment and then spoke.
“You said you had a Hans on your team, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Get rid of him. Then your luck will improve.”
The fairy archer looked at me with a blank expression and then laughed awkwardly.
“Haha, you’re joking.”
Hmm, I was being 100% serious.