novelraw Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Chapter 117
A single burn mark cut through the pitch-black world.
Smoldering embers and a vivid red line of destruction.
At the beginning of it, Finger Man lowered the hand he had raised.
At some point, the dark flames that had covered him had vanished.
But the burn marks left on his skin remained.
The dress shirt he wore was made from typical material bought at Uniqaro, so by now it was in tatters, with the sleeves half-burned away.
The only saving grace might be that his pants survived.
"Ultimate Spear Excalibur... hmm, so it's completed."
Finger Man muttered to himself and curled his lips in satisfaction.
His natural "vibe" was now even more intense.
Around the center of the burn mark, particles of light lingered, unable to go anywhere.
Finger Man clicked open his Zippo lighter.
The particles of light gathered and were stored inside the lighter.
────────────────────
'EXP Lighter Lv3'
This is an era when experience is stored.
1,350,100,007,56 / 99,999,999,999,999
────────────────────
Up to this point, Finger Man had defeated four silver apostles and two Dark Apostles.
(Each one gives about 50 billion XP... huh, I've saved more than I thought. Maybe that black assassin-type was a high-value monster too?)
It gave him a similar feeling to a part-timer discovering their bankbook was more bourgeois than expected.
"Should I just use it now...? No, but if I wait until the next Platinum member tier... still, who knows when I'll rank up..."
"Guh... ah, aah"
"Hm. Naked Man, you're still alive?"
As Finger Man debated, he heard a groaning voice in pain.
He rushed quickly to the silver apostle leaning against the wall.
Finger Man pulled out 'Blue Blood Lv5' from the pouch at his waist.
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'Blue Blood Lv5'
A medical tool once used by ancient sorcerers.
Charges with 1 MP. Restores HP when used.
Conversion Rate MP1:150
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Finger Man loaded about 300 MP into the syringe and jabbed it into the silver apostle's neck.
"Waaauuugghhh! Gyaaaaahh!"
The silver apostle's eyes bulged so wide they nearly popped out as he resisted, gripping Finger Man's arm with all his might.
Finger Man didn't seem to care and injected the blue liquid.
The silver apostle writhed in agony.
His face turned bright red, veins bulged across his body, and he convulsed violently.
"Aaah...! Hah, hah, haaah...!"
"Such an over-the-top reaction for a naked man."
Finger Man calmly put the syringe away as if nothing had happened.
The silver follower glared at Finger Man with a look that screamed "What the hell are you doing to me!" Even though his body was drenched in cold sweat, his desperation was clear.
"Gii (Translation: A drug-type healing potion. That anomalous substance... seems too stimulating for humans.)"
"Finger Man, are you trying to kill me...?!"
"You're alive because I lent you 'Adolphene's Holy Shroud,' remember?"
"Tch... saved my life again, huh..."
"I went out of my way to heal you."
"Huh?? ...Ah, yeah, the wound that bitch shot me with is closed now... So it's a drug-type healing potion, huh..."
"Pretty effective, right?"
"Finger Man... don't tell me you use that healing potion regularly..."
"These days I've got the auto-recovery skill 'Blue Pulsation Lv2,' so I don't use it much. I think it recovers like 1 HP every 5 seconds or so?"
Finger Man opened his status to check.
────────────────────
Akagi Hideo
Level 201
HP 54,730 / 101,741
MP 17,120 / 21,123
Skills
'Finger Snap Lv6'
'Phobia Syndrome Lv8'
'Single Strike Lv6'
'Steel Spirit'
'Probability Time: Coin Lv2'
'Super Metal Assault Lv8'
'Blue Pulsation Lv4'
'Black Swamp's Severer'
'Super Catcher Lv4'
'Until the Very End Together'
'Silver Shield'
Equipment
'Blue Blood Lv5' G4
'Proof of the Chosen One Lv4' G4
'Labyrinth Conqueror' G4
'Bloodstained Comrade' G4
'Metal Trap Room Lv3' G4
'EXP Lighter Lv3' G4
'Traces of a Dream' G4
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(Huh? Did Blue Pulsation-kun just level up?)
──────────────────
'Blue Pulsation Lv4'
Proof that you've accepted the blood of something inhuman.
A new life now flows within you.
Recovers 2 HP per second.
Unlock condition: Blue Blood infection progresses.
──────────────────
"Oops, I meant 2 HP per second."
"...Per second? (What kind of broken skill is that...?)"
The silver follower shuddered at Finger Man's absurdity.
There may be many explorers in the world, but few are as dangerous to turn into an enemy as Finger Man.
"What the hell... is your body made of?"
"Nothing special."
(Skills are just selfish mysteries forced upon us. Even if someone has the talent to awaken them, they're not calibrated for a human body. And auto-recovery? If a skill directly affects physiological functions, it could seriously harm your everyday health.)
A 2 HP recovery is said to be enough for an average person to go from bedridden with anemia to running 1,500 meters.
In Finger Man's body, that level of super-recovery was happening constantly.
"Auto-recovery 2, huh..."
"It's not that impressive. If a battle healing skill restored 600 points every 10 seconds, then yeah, that'd be SUGEE. You could tell some punk, 'No matter how long you attack me, you'll never bring me down.'"
"...... (Finger Man isn't even satisfied. He's saying 600 in 10 seconds is just the baseline. What a high-aspiring explorer. If I can't keep up with this scale, there's no way we can defeat the foundation. Damn, was I too naive...?)"
"Looks like you're good to go now."
Finger Man stood up and walked along the fevered burn marks.
Dozens of meters ahead lay a charred, humanoid corpse.
"Gii (Translation: It's dead.)"
"That's obvious, Gii-san."
"Followers of Darkness, to lay me low with but a brush of the sleeve... Finger Man, I hadn't planned to warn you, but from here on, you may want to steel yourself."
"What do you mean, Naked Man?"
"That woman's words, and her power... Hmph, I suppose we'll find out soon enough."
The silver follower kept a composed face and began moving down the grand corridor. "Let's go. The ritual chamber is just ahead."
After walking for a while, they arrived at a tall, cylindrical space.
Statues stood in a circle along the edge of a circular plaza near the wall, and a pale white light poured down from the ceiling into the center.
Amid the Dark Mist, that light, though faint, undeniably pulsed with life.
In the center, illuminated by the pale light, sat a hulking black silhouette.
Finger Man and Naked Man slowly approached.
The hulking shadow moved.
It was huge.
Even from 20 meters away, it radiated a suffocating presence.
Its height was easily over 8 meters.
The ominous aura it emitted came from a body that no longer resembled a human.
No—there were still faint traces of humanity clinging to it.
Its grotesquely mutated form glistened wetly, constantly dripping a viscous fluid.
At the end of its long neck, its head resembled a soaked wolf.
Tentacles swayed and twisted into six arm-like shapes, one of which gripped a thick, black spear.
The black cloth wrapped around its waist like a skirt was, on closer inspection, a dress of rot and death stitched from human parts. Arms barely holding together were pinned in place like stakes.
"They're still alive... What a vile monster. So this is Darkness? Hahaha, disgusting! It's the embodiment of bestial corruption! Are you saying the silver dungeon was defeated by fools who worship such a hideous creature? Ah, what utter disgrace!"
Naked Man stomped the ground in fury.
Finger Man continued his slow approach.
His gaze was fixed on the silver figure being held by the black monster.
It was a deformed form, thin and frail like a starving orphan.
Compared to the black monster, it looked pitifully weak.
"That is..."
Finger Man asked.
"The Silver Priestess (Lusas Osas). The life of this dungeon, once the dungeon boss... the gospel of revival for Metania, or perhaps Merunya itself."
"Hmm."
"Gii (Translation: A priest who consumed the holy body of Meta-Lunyneia. She was also a priest-class offering, used to nourish the Knight of the God-Eater, Systeri Noteria.)"
The black monster opened its mouth wide and bit off the head of the Silver Priestess (Lusas Osas). Then, it gulped down the rest of her body in one smooth swallow.
The pale silver light that had been pouring down started to fade.
With the death of the Silver Priestess (Lusas Osas), the faint grace of the ruler that had barely sustained this place vanished completely.
As the ritual chamber was consumed by Darkness, the black monster—Knight of the God-Eater (Systeri Noteria)—grabbed one of the decaying humans sewn into its skirt. Tearing it free ripped the arm off, and a faint cry of pain, "Vu, oh," could be heard.
"It's still conscious? How pitiful."
Finger Man murmured dispassionately.
Any ordinary person would've already lost their sanity by now.
"Vu, ohh, ahhh, I smell it, I smell it, it still smells silver! And this... yes, the scent of heretics, of humans, da, da..."
"That is..."
"It seems to be using humans to vocalize its intent... How abhorrent. So this is the ancient monster, the Knight of the God-Eater (Systeri Noteria). Finger Man, I suspect you already knew. That thing is a mythic beast resurrected from antiquity—one steeped in the thickest blessings of Darkness."
"Hmm. Of course. (※He has no idea.)"
"Ugyo, oovoooh!"
The Knight of the God-Eater (Systeri Noteria) forced the decaying human to scream, and then let out a roar that shook the entire ruin.
Dark Apostles began to appear from the surroundings.
Four in total. Melting into the darkness, they lunged toward Finger Man and the others.
"Two trillion experience points. Absolute Sword Excalibur."
——Snap
Finger Man snapped his fingers and sliced his arm sideways.
Following the trajectory traced by his hand, a massive explosion erupted.
The intense heat and shockwave unleashed by an ATK of 30 million obliterated the Apostles.
The darkness vanished in an instant, taking the Knight of the God-Eater (Systeri Noteria) with it, and the ritual chamber knew daylight once more.
────────────────────
'EXP Lighter Lv3'
This is the age of stored experience.
1,550,110,841 / 99,999,999,999,999
────────────────────
Finger Man closed the lighter and put it back in his pocket.
From the center of the collapsing ritual chamber, the mythic beast pushed aside the fallen ceiling and crawled out, locking eyes on Finger Man.
"U, uu, ah, ah, Tree of Blood... da... looks tasty."
"Relax. You look tastier."
Finger Man gave a calm smile and snapped his fingers with a pop.