“Pft! Did you climb the Himalayas or something?”
As soon as I returned, Loretta’s snickering greeted me. Setting aside how Loretta knew about the Himalayas, I sullenly turned my back to her.
“I’m going.”
“Ah, wait! I’m sorry, wait! I’ll wipe your hair!”
Loretta quickly took out a towel, took off my hood, and wiped my hair that was hanging like icicles off the eaves. In the process of her wiping my hair, her body naturally grew closer to my own. In order to ignore the flowery fragrance tickling my nose, I frantically sang the national anthem in my head.
“Huu… There, all done.”
After she finished wiping my head, Loretta backed off with a slightly flushed face. Her breathing was a bit rough too. Just how little did she move, that this much exercise made her gasp for breath…? She seemed to hesitate in that state, then asked me carefully.
“Y-You’ll catch a cold… Would you like to come in? You’ll feel better once you take a warm bath. I can get you a change of clothes.”
“Uh… That’s…”
Something felt strange. Although I couldn’t explain it, I felt like I shouldn’t do as she suggested. Even though there couldn’t be anything dangerous in her house, I felt my body was in danger. With a worrying feeling that something I had been protecting would be lost, I shook my head.
“No, I’m fine. I might as well take this opportunity to check out my house. I’ll return to the dungeon afterwards.”
“It can’t be helped then… Tsk.”
Loretta clicked her tongue. It was very scary. Putting the towel back in her bosom, she changed the subject and spoke with a brighter expression.
“Congratulations on forming a contract with a new elemental. I didn’t even imagine that the elemental would have matching wavelengths with Shin-nim.”
“Do you know what happened to the Elementalist that made Ruyue go mad?”
This was something I wanted to confirm for certain. Even if it wasn’t now, I wanted to make him pay for it somehow.
“He was the Elementalist who was an owner of one of the other Special Mansions. He obtained the qualification to enter Fairy Garden from a quest reward, but he was punished for making an elemental go mad, losing his qualification to be a dungeon explorer.”
The answer was something I didn’t even consider. This was the first time I heard one could lose his qualification as a dungeon explorer. I asked again.
“Then?”
“He died. Along with him, his world completely fell to ruin.”
Because Loretta’s voice was too light, I felt fear from it. It was different than when Ellos was talking about his lost comrade. Loretta’s voice was completely emotionless, as if what she described was completely normal. Something that she had seen many times, something that was happening even now, and something that would continue to happen many times. She seemed to be describing everyday happenings.
Because I felt like I would come to fear Loretta if she continued, I tried to say something. But no matter what I wanted to say, I couldn’t say it, because I was afraid of how Loretta would respond. In the end, this was what I chose to say.
“If… If I couldn’t see Loretta again for whatever reason, I think I’d be really sad.”
Loretta screamed.
“Wait, wait! Why do you always say important things like that when I’m not ready to record you!?”
“Yes?”
“Alright, say that again! Now!”
While hugging a strange crystal ball she took out of nowhere, Loretta requested while flapping her long ears. Could all elves move their ears freely? Or was it a special right as a Queen Elf?
The answer didn’t matter. Thanks to her reaction, I felt much more lighthearted. At the moment, she wasn’t scary at all. It was the usual Loretta.
“Then I’m off, Loretta. Thanks for everything.”
“Aaaaaah! You have to repeat what you said before you go, Shin-nim! I’ll give you 10 million gold! 10 million gold!”
Inside the mansion, the bath was the first place I visited.
“It’s huge.”
[Huge.]
[Huge.]
Although only one person needed to go in, it was as big as a swimming pool. Not to mention, it was full of all sorts of decorations. Across from its large window, I could see the mansion’s garden, letting me enjoy its scenery while taking a bath.
When I got in the hot bath, my body that had grown cold from the Event Dungeon instantly loosened up. As I would get electrocuted if Peika went in the water, she held back for today, and only the materialized Ruyue, who was big enough for a person to ride on, had followed me into the bath.
[It’s warm.]
“Yep, who says an ice elemental can’t take a bath? It’s not like your body is made of ice.”
[I feel like I’ll melt.]
“Try not to.”
After washing my body, I picked one of the bedrooms in the mansion and slept soundly. As even the bed was enormous, I couldn’t relax. Thankfully, I was able to relax with Ruyue and Peika with me.
Only then did Ruyue become stable. Perhaps because she had stayed materialized for so long, she instinctively refused to dematerialize herself. After taking ample rest and relieving the built-up tension, she dematerialized before I noticed.
In truth, I was troubled, since she had been draining my mana since we left the Event Dungeon. Although it wasn’t an overwhelming amount, having a materialized elemental did drain more mana. I couldn’t be freely leaking mana like that.
“We’ll stay like this for a day, Ruyue. Starting from tomorrow, we can fight together.”
[Okay!]
Just like the dematerialized Peika, the 20 cm Ruyue was very cute. Because she was too cute, I kept patting her, and because Peika sulked, I had to pat her as well.
Now that I had two elementals, fighting the Skeleton Knight became even easier. After each of us destroyed a group of skeletons, we charged at the Skeleton Knight and crushed him before he could summon more skeletons. When Ruyue materialized, I could ride her into battle, and thus was no longer jealous of the Skeleton Knight’s skeleton mount.
“Ruyue, let’s go!”
[Aooooooo!]
Ruyue answered with vigor and kicked off the ground. I felt sorry for Peika who only just learned to materialize, but when fighting the Skeleton Knight, it was better to infuse her into my spear with Spirit Aura than to materialize her. It seemed elementals liked to materialize, as Peika’s dissatisfaction with the newcomer Ruyue was growing.
[Die, Skull Breakeeeeeer!]
“Ruyue, Ice Breath!”
[Kuaaaaa!]
A breath that froze everything came out of Ruyue’s mouth. While the Skeleton Knight hurriedly blocked it with his sword, the skeleton mount, who was fully exposed to Ice Breath, couldn’t move as the frost filled up its bones.
In that instant, I struck my spear down vertically. When I pushed my spear in from the frozen skeleton mount’s head to its groin, then pulled out, the skeleton mount crumbled and disappeared into particles.
After falling on the ground, the Skeleton Knight held up his sword and shouted predictably.
[Kuaaaa, Skull Breaker!]
[Skeleton Knight uses ‘Undead Roar!’ Those with living bodies are slowed to 5 percent of their maximum speed!]
[Kuaaaang!]
The moment he activated Undead Roar, Ruyue roared and struck down his sword from his hand. Even if materialized, elementals were spiritual! Undead Roar did not affect them. Meanwhile, I used Divine Speed and Orc Lord’s Warcry to cancel the Undead Roar. Holding my spear on Ruyue’s back, I grinned as I aimed it at the Skeleton Knight’s head.
“Let’s see how many blows you’ll withstand today.”
[Kuk, 2 versus 1. It’s unfair!]
“I don’t want to hear that from you who had 200 skeletons!”
After eating the third Heroic Strike, the Skeleton Knight shattered. Just like always, it disappeared into particles.
“You got yourself another elemental. That one isn’t the elemental you usually have with you, right? Your elemental wasn’t visible before.”
Lin said as he stared at Ruyue who I was riding on. After rubbing her head softly, I answered Lin.
“Peika can materialize too now, but… this child came from a hidden area in Fairy Garden. Her name is Ruyue.”
“Ah, that sealed… Amazing, really.”
[A draconian! I can smell Fairy Garden’s scent from him!]
“Eh? Did that child say something? I can only hear barks.”
“So you can’t hear her voice even if she’s materialized. Lin, you’re a Fairy Garden member?”
“Yeah, I’m the vice-guild master.”
“… Vice-guild master?”
“Yeah.”
What are you doing here!? At my inquisitive eyes, Lin answered half-heartedly.
“Well, whatever position with the word ‘vice’ is always the most leisurely. Vice-chairman, vice-class president, vice-representative, vice-president… While enjoying my no-working-happy-life, I tried to take some water from the elemental spring to ferment some snake wine, when noonim caught me. So here I am.”
Wouldn’t a draconian fermenting snake wine be considered killing one’s own kind? Lin ignored my worry and asked.
“By the way, why do you keep repeating the 30th Floor Master raid? Haven’t you finished collecting the Skeleton Knight Set by now?”
“It drops Bone Strengthening Elixirs. I’ve collected them all from the 5th floor on, so I can’t skimp out of them now.”
At my words, Lin froze.
“… Did you just say strengthening elixir?”
“Yeah, strengthening elixirs.”
“… Haa. I see. With just a single Party Member Scarecrow, of course a strengthening elixir will appear. Hahaha, hahahaha.”
Lin laughed wholeheartedly and left his seat.
“Where are you going, Lin?”
“Mm? Ah, just wait a bit. Just going to shake noonim by the throat a little.”
“Don’t go. Lin’s going to get beaten up instead.”
“… Thanks for stopping me.”
As I had personally experienced Loretta’s Second Bullet of Destruction, I advised Lin against his actions. Lin simply sat back down. Poor Lin. It seemed he had been hit before. A sense of shared pain flashed between our eyes. We, who were only connected by our bets, began to feel a sense of camaraderie.
Three weeks after that, I completed my Skeleton Knight grinding.
[You consumed a Bone Strengthening Elixir, strengthening your bones to the peak! Your strength and constitution both increase by 3. It seems consuming more of this item will have no further effect.]
[You equipped the Skeleton Knight Set. Your strength and constitution increase by 15. When the Skeleton Knight Set is equipped, you can use ‘Undead Roar’ once per day.]
Of course, I instantly extracted Undead Roar and stored it in the 6 o’clock position. Although I wondered if I would ever need to use this skill, I realized I could use it in urgent situations. Then, I could use Orc Lord’s Warcry to get out of the status effect, or use Dragon Skin to endure hits while leaving the battle to my two elementals. As such, I decided to store the skill into the pocket watch.
[Name: Kang Shin Race: Human Sex: Male
Class: Elementalist (Sub – Skill Collector) Title: Skeleton Knight Slayer Rank: Silver 6
Level: 31
HP – 12,540/12,540 MP – 7,150/7,150
Strength – 106(+41) Dexterity – 87(+22) Constitution – 90(+34)
Intelligence – 20(+12) Magic – 81(+12) Charm – 58(+12) Luck – 21(+12)
Normal Skills – High-rank Martial Arts (Lv 3), High-rank Spear Technique (Lv 5), Low-rank Crossbow Marksmanship (Lv 5), Mid-rank Heroic Strike (Lv 5), Mid-rank Provoke (Lv 4), Divine Speed (Lv 3), Return (Lv 2), Mid-rank Dash (Lv 2), Peruta Circuit (Lv 5), Deific Manifestation, Death Counter, Riding.
Class Skills – Mid-rank Spirit Mastery (Lv 4), Mid-rank Spirit Aura (Lv 2), Mid-rank Elemental Control (Lv 2), Mid-rank Elemental Contract (Lv 2), Mid-rank Elemental Tempest (Lv 1), Thunder Beast (Lv 2).
Subclass Skill – Endow Skill, Spirit of the Collector.]
[Equipment:
Power Earrings (Strength +2)
Flesh Golem’s Second Finger (Strength +7, Constitution +7)
Skeleton Knight Set (Strength +15, Constitution +15)
Arachne’s Black Earthen Spear (Strength +5, Dexterity +10, Poison damage on all basic attacks, inflicts poison status effect.)]
[Collector’s Pocket Watch:
1 o’clock: Orc Lord’s Warcry
2 o’clock: Vengeful Spirit’s Wail
3 o’clock: Dark Thunder Explosion
4 o’clock: Dragon Skin
5 o’clock: Diehard
6 o’clock: Undead Roar]
[3 Event Dungeon clears, 1 Event Raid clear, accumulated bonus stats: 6]
[Current skill points: 11]
[Seven title-effects: (Orc Lord Slayer, Wraith Queen Slayer, Dark Ratman Slayer, Giant Ghoul Slayer, Skeleton Knight Slayer, Lizard Knight Master, Hermes). Accumulated effects: All stats +12, 15% speed increase, increased affinity to all elements, affinity to wind element greatly increased, can summon Talaria once per day.]
[Contracted Elementals
1. Lightning elemental Peika
2. Ice elemental Ruyue]
While I was grinning as I looked at my stats, Lin severed the cigarette in his mouth as if his appetite had fallen.
“You tenacious dog, this is the first time in 900 years that I’ve seen someone consume strengthening elixirs to the limit.”
“You’re a lot older than I thought, Lin!”
“Uh, what? If you look at Loretta noonim… No, no. Forget I said that.”
“…”
When I stared at Lin fixedly, he dodged my gaze and spoke.
“Hey, don’t tell her I said something about her age… Noonim will kill me. Really.”
“Lin…”
“Hurry up and go to the 31st floor. Damn, there’s only a bit over two months left. If you want the cape, you better hurry!”
Lin shouted as if he had already given up. I smiled lightly and answered him.
“If someone was watching, he’d think you really wanted to give it to me. Regardless, I’m not going to the 31st floor right now. I have dinner soon, so I’ll come back tonight.”
“Mm? You aren’t going to the 31st floor now?”
“Ah, you see…”
Putting my spear back in my inventory, I continued with a trembling voice. Today, I would have to face someone more fearsome than the Skeleton Knight.
“Today’s the day my tests end. My friend will probably ask me to go out for fries and beer… Please wish me a safe return, Lin.”
“… Eh? You said friend just now, didn’t you?”
The only friend I made in college, Su Ye-Eun. I was scared of what would happen when I met her this time!
Comments