Chapter 94
C-Calm down! I gained some Skills with dangerous-looking names, but that's all! That's all it should be!
It should be fine, right? I should check... Let's see. First, 【Evil Eye of Death and Chaos】 seems to be a Skill granted upon becoming the 'Messenger of Death and Chaos.' Its effect makes Abyssal Magic more likely to affect a target I continue staring at. At level 0, staring for ten seconds raises the chance by 1%, with an upper limit of 10%.
It seems that both the amount of the increase and its upper limit rise along with the Skill's level. I should make active use of it.
The other one, 【Divine Descent】, is a Skill that allows me to call down a portion of the power of Iefa-sama, the 'Goddess of Death and Chaos,' into my body. Its effects are an increase to all stats and an enhancement of Abyssal Magic. It is a slightly milder version of 【Dragon Factor】, but unlike that Skill, I can activate it whenever I want, even when I am not on the verge of death. That greater flexibility is a major advantage.
Of course, powerful Skills like these come with restrictions. Once I use either one, it has a cooldown of one real-time day, or four in-game days. Apparently, the game won't let me spam them.
"Hmm... I had a different purpose in mind, but... oh well. Let's see, what about 【Healing Arts】...?"
Huh? 【Healing Arts】 isn't in the list of Skills I can acquire! W-What's going on? Before I changed Jobs, 'Messenger of Death and Chaos' was at the very bottom of the priest-type Jobs!
Could it be that 【Healing Arts】 is difficult for Undead to acquire? Like 【Light Magic】 was? If so, this Job change will have been a complete failure...
"No, could it be this...?"
However, I found something strange among the listed magic. It was an incredibly suspicious-looking Skill, but I suspected it belonged to the 【Healing Arts】 family.
"【Soul Arts】...?"
Though confused by the unfamiliar name, I read through the Skill's details. According to them, damage to the body also damages the soul, and 【Soul Arts】 was a method of healing that wounded portion of the soul.
Since it healed the soul rather than the body, it seemed to restore health gradually, little by little, unlike 【Healing Arts】, which restored it instantly. In exchange, its total healing was greater, and it apparently offered a wider variety of ways to cure status ailments. Each had its advantages and disadvantages.
"Hmm, this won't damage my image!"
I wanted to remain a 'mage,' but I had been forced to choose a priest-type Job because I needed a way to recover. The Job I chose didn't even sound very priestly by name, and on top of that, its healing method was 【Soul Arts】—a set of spells perfectly suited to someone like me, who was well versed in all manner of evil arts. The required 10 SP was rather steep, but there was no reason not to acquire it!
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You acquired 【Soul Arts】 by spending SP.
You learned the new spells Minor Soul Heal and Poison Heal.
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Minor Soul Heal and Poison Heal, huh? So that's the basics of health recovery and status ailment treatment? There were certainly plenty of poisonous monsters, so they would surely prove useful in all sorts of situations.
At last, I had finished checking my skeletal body modifications, evolution, Job change, and new Skills. A lot of unexpected things had happened, but everything had turned out in my favor, so I would call it a success.
All right, it should be about time for everyone to return. Once someone comes back, I'll take a break too. A lot had happened, and it had left me mentally exhausted despite everything. I needed to log out so I could organize my thoughts as well.
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I logged in. Taking a break had cooled down my overheated head. Even so, this evolution and Job change had been nothing short of an anomaly. From now on, I intended to return to the Abyssal Mage line as originally planned, without straying into other Job types.
"Oh! You're back, bro."
"Yeah."
Jigoro was the one who welcomed me after I logged in. It seemed the others had already returned as well, but Iris was doting on Kar, while Ruby was receiving some light sparring practice from Genjuro. Huh? Could Ruby be one of those types too?
"Oh, Isam."
"Then I suppose our training is over."
Seeing me return, the two of them stopped their practice. I felt a little bad, as though I had interrupted them.
"Now that I'm back, let's set out. ...Iris?"
"Ah! Yes!"
"Grrrr..."
Iris had been so absorbed in doting on Kar that she hadn't noticed I was back until the very end. At the sound of my voice, she hurriedly turned around. She must have been completely engrossed in pampering Kar.
She wasn't merely stroking him with her countless tentacles; she had also been brushing him with a brush she must have made at some point. Kar seemed to have enjoyed it too, looking disappointed when Iris's tentacles and brush pulled away. I was a little shaken to see how astonishingly close one of my companions and my tamed monster had become without my knowledge, but we began our exploration nonetheless.
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Rather than a staircase leading underground, we walked down an escalator that had stopped working. I had wondered whether it might start moving once we stepped on it, but that didn't happen. It seemed the power source for this ruin had died.
No, the truly strange things were the 'Ancient Moving Tower' and the teleportation device in 'The Ancient Spring,' which had continued functioning. They were probably relics of the same civilization, but perhaps those places had undergone special treatment to preserve them in working order.
At the bottom of the escalator leading underground, an underground shopping district spread out before us, just as expected. Its state of preservation, however, was close to the worst imaginable. Every shop was battered and decrepit, and signs had fallen off everywhere. In many places, the entrance or ceiling had collapsed, making it impossible to enter.
"Hmm! Everyone, something's coming."
As we observed the devastation around us, Ruby sensed something approaching almost immediately. So, what would appear for our first encounter down here...?
"A robot?"
What emerged from around the corner was a single cylinder. More precisely, it was a cylinder about one and a half meters tall, gliding smoothly along the floor. I could tell it was a robot because part of its outer armor had peeled away, revealing the intricate machinery packed inside. This was turning out to be unexpected in all sorts of ways.
The robot turned toward us and began blinking the sensors lined up near its top, along with the lamps that appeared to correspond to them. After a while, the lamps settled on a fixed red glow. ...I had a bad feeling about this.
"Bzzzt... Monster presence confirmed. Beginning elimination."
"!?"
Just as the emotionless mechanical voice echoed through the underground district, the robot's upper end opened soundlessly. A small gun emerged from inside! Was this another case of a bad feeling coming true?!
"M-Magic Circle Deployment, Holy Shield!"
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
The sound of bullets ricocheting off the Holy Shield I had hastily cast rang out. G-Good! Apparently, they didn't have enough power to destroy my Holy Shield, which was a relief.
"GROOOOOAR!"
Perhaps Kar had judged that the bullets weren't very powerful, because Kar charged toward the robot with an angry roar. I wondered whether Kar would be all right, but that concern proved groundless. Kar's sturdy scales deflected the bullets as though they were nothing more than pea shooters.
"GRAAAAAH!"
Kar rode the momentum of its charge into a swing. Its short, knife-like claws not only sliced effortlessly through the robot's armor; they sent its entire body flying.
The robot spun through the air about three times, showering sparks, before being slammed into the wall. And hey, Kar, haven't you gotten rougher in your fighting style since becoming a Lesser Dragon?
"Grrrrr♪"
Having destroyed the robot, Kar returned to me in high spirits. It rubbed its head against me with a growl that sounded almost affectionate.
"Hahaha, you're still just as much of a needy little thing as ever."
"Looks like it."
I gently stroked Kar's head as it sought affection. Kar narrowed its eyes and looked blissfully content. There, there.
"It's fine to spoil Kar, but why don't you finish harvesting it first?"
"Hmm? Oh, right."
Oh, no! At this rate, I would have kept doting on Kar forever. Ruby was right, so we should get the harvesting done quickly.
I approached the robot, which was still intermittently spitting sparks from its damaged sections, and plunged my harvesting knife into it. The resistance I felt was completely unexpected.
"Huh? It won't pierce it?"
A harvesting knife is an essential item for players: by plunging it into a defeated enemy, they convert the corpse into a drop item. It has no direct offensive power whatsoever, but it is indestructible and can pierce the corpse of any monster. So what on earth was happening if even this excellent harvesting knife couldn't pierce it?
"Then... 【Appraisal】."
I decided to try 【Appraisal】. I normally used it before battle, but Kar's headlong charge had made me forget, and I only remembered now.
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Security Golem α-Type Quality: Junk Rarity: C (Common Class)
A mass-produced Golem developed to maintain public order. It is heavily damaged and cannot move in its current state.
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A Golem! Golems were a staple of sword-and-sorcery settings, but seeing the results of 【Appraisal】 left me so shocked that it overwhelmed even my excitement at the fact that Golems existed.
"Could it be... that this robot—or rather, this Golem—is treated as an item!?"
I had once appraised a monster's corpse out of curiosity, and at the time, its Race, Job, and Skills had been displayed just as they were while it was alive. However, the appraisal result for this robot—now identified as a 'Security Golem α-Type'—was identical to that of an item.
In other words, the 'Security Golem α-Type' was not a monster. Judging from the description and the fact that its Quality was listed as 'Junk,' I hypothesized that it had been treated as an item-like object from the very beginning, which was why it couldn't be harvested.
"No, if it's an artificial construct, treating it as a monster would be stranger. More importantly... can we create them ourselves?"
This fact stimulated my curiosity. If Golems were artificial creations, then we should surely be able to make them with our own hands. And in this city, Golems had apparently been common enough to be used for guarding the underground shopping district. If so, there was a good chance that clues about how to create them were hidden somewhere nearby.
Finding a way to create Golems. Let that be one of our goals for the exploration ahead!
"Isam, what's wrong?"
"Actually, I made an interesting discovery..."
Beep... Clank... Bwee! Bwee! Bwee!
As I was about to tell Iris about the appraisal results and the predictions I could derive from them, a warning sound that seemed vaguely familiar began ringing somewhere. It was coming from the ceiling, so it was probably playing through speakers in the underground district.
'Monster, g-g-g-g, i-i-i-intrusion... Repe-e-eat...'
In addition to the warning sound, we heard a mechanical voice very similar to the one the robot had produced. This one seemed to have malfunctioned from years of deterioration as well, but its meaning was clear. It appeared to have judged us to be a threat.
'K-k-k-k-k repeat... Monster intrusssssion... Bzzzt... eva... cu... ate... st... op...'
The warning sound and announcement finally cut off after leaving behind what seemed to be evacuation instructions. The deterioration must have been severe. It couldn't even play a single announcement properly.
"This is troublesome. The fact that this announcement played means..."
"Yeah... they're coming, bro!"
As though answering Jigoro's excited voice, we heard multiple sounds like tires rolling from the depths of the underground passage. Just as the announcement had said, forces had been sent to eliminate us—the monsters that had intruded.
"Good grief. Apparently, whether we're aboveground or underground, we can't escape fighting."
"Ho ho ho! Excellent! Excellent!"
"G-Grandpa's saying something like an evil magistrate..."
"Hah-haah! Let's rampage to our hearts' content!"
"L-Let's do our best!"
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!"
Despite all our chatter, we immediately took up battle stances as the enemies approached. And so, immediately after entering the underground shopping district, we found ourselves fighting an army of Golems.