Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: N-Part Yor #7
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In my opinion, humans are holes.
Holes that can't be fully filled no matter what.
「Crescent Moon Crown」
「Statue of the Tomb Lord」
「Radiant Eight-Colored Jewel」
Today, too, I stuffed my bottomless pit with desire.
Nothing could be better in this world!
But the idol Kroom noticed my touch.
Snatching three of his items at once was a bit much, huh!
The scale-covered muscular brute turned around, and his ominous glare met mine.
"Hehehe, hello!"
Aren't friendly greeters popular with everyone?
So I waved cutely, but the monster's face twisted even more hideously.
He seemed utterly furious.
Well, of course—he was bound to be after I stole his stuff.
When I came to, I was running for my life.
All I could think was that I had to escape from here.
If he caught me, I'd suffer something horrific—.
That thought kept my feet pounding nonstop.
"Agh! That hurts, you bastard!"
Felix, slung over my shoulder like baggage, grumbled.
But I had no time to worry about his comfy ride.
「Crescent Moon Crown」
「Statue of the Tomb Lord」
「Radiant Eight-Colored Jewel」
「Night Flower – A flower that blooms brilliantly in darkness so deep not even the faintest starlight can penetrate. Among all flowers, it emits the most intoxicating fragrance.」
"Got it! We're good!"
I'd nabbed everything worth taking.
Just escape like this, and we're done!
"That scaly freak can't come outside!"
Kroom was a level 37 monster, but sunlight was his weakness.
So if we bolted straight for the outside?
He'd just stomp around helplessly in this pitch-black tomb!
If he followed us into the sun, it'd deal him fatal damage anyway—either way, a satisfying sight.
"Ah, fuck! We're screwed!"
Then a grim thought flashed through my head.
"Felix, I forgot your arm!"
Felix's severed right arm.
I should've grabbed that too!
Honestly, no time for it!
"Hah, fuck, what the hell! Is my arm the problem right now? Those bastards! They're chasing us!"
I could feel the pissed-off snake people hot on our tails.
Thieves' stats are all-in on agility, so I figured they couldn't catch us.
But my pockets were stuffed with ether and treasures already, and hauling Felix was slowing me down more by the second.
"Hey, hey! Yooooor! Ditch some ether! We'll get caught like this!"
Felix was freaking out.
Telling me to toss the ether in my pouch?
"Felix, I'd sooner ditch you than the ether!"
Spit out what I'd shoved in my mouth?
I'd die first!
Of course, I couldn't actually die here.
Death meant losing all my hoarded cash.
Besides, having died once before, I knew better than anyone how horrifying that empty void of death felt.
Like dropping everything you owned.
The bitter resentment of letting go of everything clutched in your fists.
My unused bank balance!
Argh!
Yeah, survive first, worry later.
"You goddamn snake bastards!"
Clink-. Shhhrrrr-.
I had no choice but to drop the jewels, rings, gold coins, and other valuables I'd swiped from the treasure vault earlier.
Losing the sandbag made my body lighter—and made me want to die even more.
'Survive.'
That was all I could focus on.
But a level 37 monster wasn't that easy.
Snap-.
Then I heard someone flick their fingers.
And my throat clamped shut.
"Wha!?"
Snap-.
With a loud crack, the space in front of me split open, and a brutish hand shot out.
It grabbed my nape like a vise—reminding me of dangling from the gallows, thrashing.
"Grraaah!"
Fuck, we're done for!
Kroom popping out of thin air like that?
Some kind of teleportation magic!
A level 37 monster—yeah, probably.
"Grk-."
Choked by the grip on my throat, I couldn't breathe.
My vision turning red—capillaries bursting in my eyes.
"Urk!"
Felix hit the ground too, stomped under Kroom's foot.
A truly desperate situation.
Swish-.
Worse still, Kroom shoved his palm into my mouth.
Shluck-.
His massive arm plunged into my gut, sending waves of vomit-inducing nausea through me that I couldn't expel.
And in that moment, I knew exactly what he was doing.
'This bastard's trying to take over my body!'
Like flipping me inside out to wear me like a skinsuit.
'No way, fuck!'
'That thing's too big to fit!'
"Nnggaaaah!"
I finally got what it felt like for women forcibly overpowered by thugs.
"《Angrath's Flame Orb》!"
Then a blazing fireball slammed into Kroom, hot enough to sear my skin.
Whoosh-!
Kroom was engulfed in flames, and I seized the chance to wrench free of his grasp.
"Buddy! You okay?"
Hermit rushed over, blocking our front.
So reassuring—yet my head felt like it might split open.
"Hey! We agreed you'd wait outside!"
"Looked fishy!"
From running hard?
Hermit was panting raggedly.
Mana circuits glowed vividly on her face.
Kroom, meanwhile, was relaxed.
The fireball tormenting him snuffed out in seconds.
Did it even do damage?
"Buddy, this next one might be... my last spell in life...."
Hermit steadied her breath.
Kroom was an opponent her earnest magic couldn't touch.
Still fighting? Like a bee stinging an elephant and dying!
"—《Mystic Arrow》!"
Hermit's staff targeted Kroom.
Kwaaaa-.
A beam of light shot from her hand toward him.
But it grazed his shoulder—didn't even hit.
'Fuck, it missed?'
Pure despair.
Twinkle-.
Then a faint light caught my eye.
'Huh? Light?'
Far wall—where Hermit's final mystic arrow had embedded.
Light leaking from there—.
"—Aaaah!"
A brilliant idea hit me.
I gripped a throwing knife, infused it with thunder power, and hurled it with all my might.
Fwhoosh-.
My attack grazed Kroom again too.
"You—idiot!"
That would be his fatal mistake.
I wasn't aiming for Kroom anyway!
Flash-!
My throwing knife lodged in the crumbling ancient bone.
The spot Hermit had weakened with her mystic arrow.
Crack, craaack-.
Something split, and a rift of bright light formed.
Rumble-.
The bone wall finally collapsed, revealing the jungle.
The setting sun beyond glowed an intense red.
So beautiful—it made the treasures I'd clung to seem faded.
The light I'd spotted on the wall was the sun peeking through a round gap!
Boom, boom-.
Screams and wails like bombs exploding right in front shook my skull.
Kroom's death throes.
Gone was his dignified air—Kroom writhed, smoke rising from his black scales.
Didn't expect sunlight to hurt that bad, but his reaction felt so damn satisfying.
「Kroom Kruahi Lv.36」
「Kroom Kruahi Lv.35」
「Kroom Kruahi Lv.34」
「Kroom Kruahi Lv.33」
..
..
.
His absurdly high level was dropping steadily.
The fall of the mighty—such sweet screams!
"Scaly freak! Black-ass bastard! Dickless wonder!"
Gloating, I hurled insults at him.
Kroom reached for me.
Crunch-.
My neck vertebrae felt like snapping.
"Aaaagh! I-I take it back! Take it back! Long live Kroom! Agh!"
Kroom shoved his hand into my mouth again.
Crack—my jawbone shattered, throat stretching unnaturally.
Like using my body as a raincoat against the sun.
Then something squirmed inside me.
Whip-.
It blocked his arm like a living parasite.
As Kroom tried to speak.
Ruuuumble-.
The ground twisted like an earthquake.
Rumble rumble rumble-.
The world around us shifted.
More precisely, the snake bones—Sabrannik's bones—moved.
The colossal serpent, towering to the heavens, uncoiled.
The massive snake skull boomed like thunder.
Then it whipped—too fast to follow—and snatched Kroom in its jaws.
The giant bone serpent Sabrannik bit Kroom and stretched toward the sun.
Exposed helplessly to the sunlight, Kroom screamed.
I couldn't understand the language, but the hatred and resentment hit hard.
As a living being, terror gripped me—my legs buckled on their own.
Flash-.
Dark light exploded.
Sabrannik's massive skull vanished like erased from a canvas.
"Huh...?"
Silence enveloped everything.
Then an aftershock blast roared in, toppling every jungle tree.
Kwaaaa-!!!
Like a nuke dropping point-blank.
As I thought we were goners, firm forepaws gripped my nape.
Stone Dragon Isidore—.
Baring his orderly pillar-like fangs, he grinned.
Hammer rode on his back.
"Everyone alive? Say you're alive!"
Never so glad to see them.
Then someone shouted from under my foot.
"...Yor-leg! Take me too!"
Grand Duke Erdarri.
What was his name again?
Fuck if I know!
Not important now.
The grand duke looked tense facing the storm raging from afar.
"Take me with you!"
"Eat shit, you prick!"
"You little bas—."
Whoosh-.
The stone dragon soared sky-high.
The next instant, pitch-black scorching aftershock blanketed the jungle.
Isidore asked as he let me onto his back.
Hermit and Felix lay there groaning—somewhere he'd picked them up.
"N-Night... Flower...."
Crackle-. Zzzzt-!
Hermit's mana circuits overloaded—she looked in agony.
She wanted the Night Flower too.
Even Sabrannik whispered in my ear.
Oh, fuck! The real trouble started now!