Day 28 – The dungeon, The lowest floor.
Dark, pitch-black, Stygian shadow?
Simply black, dark, darkness. Yes, humanoid-shaped darkness.
It’s not simply black, it is a darkness that absorbs all the light.
Though if I, who is wearing a mantle with a hood, were to call it suspicious, it probably would get angry.
I mean, people always get angry at me, so that’s kind of expected at this point.
So the shadowy person will probably get angry.
「Appraisal.」
Name: —
Race: Dullahan, Lich, No Life King.
AGE –
Lv 27
Job: Emperor of the Faraway Labyrinth
HP –
MP —
ViT １７９
PoW ２５９
SpE ２９１
DeX ２９７
MiN ２９７
InT ３１５
Luｋ ９９
Martial Arts: ？？？？？？？？？？
Magic ？？？？？？？？？？
Skills: ？？？？？？？？？？
Titles: ？？？？？？？？？？
Unknown: ？？？？？？？？？？
Equipment: ？？？？？？？？？？
I can appraise it? Both the name and the job. Wait, it has a job? Even though I don’t? And on top of that Emperor. Emperor Class?
I can tell that it is strong, it’s only level 27, but it’s extremely strong.
Both PoW and ViT are not at the level of a goblin emperor, but everything else is overwhelming.
On top of that, it has three races?
The elemental attribute is surely Darkness.
Dullahan is supposed to be a kind of a headless knight. On a horse. But it has a head?
Lich is a mage-type job. So something like a Magician or a Sage or even more than that.
No Life King is an undead king. Undying.
And the worst part is Question Mark-san.
I can’t see his martial arts, magic, or skills.
And it even has titles and Unknown.
Smells of cheat abilities.
Probably, even together the geeks wouldn’t be able to win. It is simply the strongest.
Not in a way of Cheat Hunter like Whatever-kun, but actually strong.
It’s not like it is strong because of this or that. It’s just strong.
It’s strong just as it is, but it also has 「?」.
My 「Staff?」is the same. Even with high-level appraisal, it gives 「?」.
In other words, his skills, magic, techniques, and equipment are all super strong.
And what is the most troublesome, is that it can fight but at distance and in close combat, is fast and has wits.
And for a finisher, it is also agile and has luck.
Well, my luck is still stronger, but that’s how it always goes. This one is strong……
Even so, I walk.
I haven’t stopped since I opened the door.
I approach it.
It has characteristics of Lich and No Life King.
I obviously will lose in a ranged battle.
I’m almost certain that it has some kind of immortality and magic immunity!
Though I also don’t feel like I can win versus a dullahan.
But I at least will be able to fight.
Even if it has immunity to physical damage, I’m sure I will be able to club it to death.
Merely looking at it standing with a sword in hands, I can tell that it’s strong. Its strength is in another dimension to mine.
It’s scary and looks like a grim reaper itself, but at the same time, its standing figure has beauty to it.
Walking all the way up to it and looking into the eye sockets of the skull, I see nothing but darkness.
As we were staring at each other, the distance between us completely disappeared.
A slash so fast that even 『God Eye』managed to catch only the afterimage. Simply fast, and absolutely beautiful.
No wind-up, no pre-motion, no excess, no wavering, nothing useless or extra, a simple movement.
Just a slash.
Nothing other than that, a cutting attack with nothing extra to it.
This is what is called an extreme speed.
Because there is nothing but a slash, only its end result.
When it began moving the cut was already finished.
There is no beginning, no motion, only the end of it.
The start of the slash and the end of the slash happen exactly at the same time.
『God Eye』probably can see the future.
Just a little bit.
Just a tiny bit.
And with that very little, I counter the slash.
Since I can’t see it.
Since when I can see it the slash is already over.
I just keep swinging.
Swinging to fend off the attacks.
Since it is the No Life King, it must have an infinite time.
So we keep endlessly exchanging blows, eternally crossing the weapons, perpetually parrying, there is probably no end to it.
I don’t even know how much time passed already, but it doesn’t matter.
Because the now stretches without a limit.
But unfortunately, I am limited.
Eventually, I will run out of stamina.
Eventually, I will run out of mana.
Eventually, my mind won’t be able to hold.
Eventually, I will lose consciousness.
But until then I’m limitless.
I parried so many times that I lost count.
I don’t even have time to blink.
An eternity of clashing swords.
An instant that those clashes last.
But there is an eternity in that instant.
There has to be.
My physical strength doesn’t matter at all.
I slash the moment I think about it.
I slash the moment I feel that.
It’s not the speed of my body.
It’s the speed of thought.
An impossible speed.
If I used my muscles then I surely wouldn’t be able to keep up with this speed.
Pull my own strings using the speed of thought.
My speed has nothing to do with this.
My speed is limited only by the speed of thought.
As I kept endlessly exchanging blows, I noticed that this skull has no thirst for blood.
Meanwhile, we continue our endless exchange.
The source of this bloodthirst must be the darkness, the slashes come from it.
Meanwhile, a perpetual fight continues.
This skull should have been able to kill me. Easily. Many, many, many, many times. Any moment it wanted.
Meanwhile, I unceasingly exchange blows.
The darkness is fading away?
Just a bit.
Just slightly.
Just a little.
But it surely does.
Is it the wooden staff? Scraping and shredding it off, the staff is absorbing it?
It’s scraping off the darkness attribute of undead? Does it have a Holy attribute?
But as we exchange blows.
As our weapons clash.
As we slash.
As we cross our weapons.
As we attack.
Eventually, and I don’t know how long it took,
But it completely disappeared.
I survived the darkness, but.
I won’t be able to withstand a slash from the skull.
The slash from the skull is…… Eh?
・
・
・
I finally understood it.
The skull was waiting here all this time for someone to come and kill it.
It was waiting so that sometime, someday, someone will come and put an end to it.
Otherwise, I would’ve been decapitated without being able to put up a fight at all. Even though it was manipulated by darkness, it didn’t submit to it and kept resisting the darkness.
It kept struggling all this time, waiting for someone who will be able to kill both of them.
「……Tame.」
The skull had no intentions to attack since the very beginning.
That’s why I could contend with it.
Because the skull didn’t want to fight.
That’s why I was able to match its blows.
Because the skill had no will to live.
That’s why……
I tamed it.
I didn’t want to kill it.
For some reason, I thought that I shouldn’t kill it.
It was finally free from the darkness.
So I at least would like to let it out from here.
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