Chapter 131: Next One, Sister
Fwoosh!
[Sa · Yeom · Hwa] was injected into the body of a freshly killed corpse.
“Uuugh, aaah….”
The outlaw from the Hyena Guild slowly rose as an undead.
Its appearance was neat and intact, hardly any different from when it had been alive.
“Oh ho….”
Pierre stroked his chin as he looked the freshly made, still-warm dead man up and down.
“How fascinating. It is undead, yet how does it retain such a perfectly intact appearance?”
“That is all thanks to a secret technique.”
As a professional cultist, the field I had spent the most time on was analyzing how to make use of the Mysteries bestowed by Lady Leria.
Among the Evil God’s Mysteries, these in particular seemed poor in performance at first glance, but if studied deeply enough, every single one of them had effects that were more than useful.
“Sister, next one please.”
“……”
Rosalia immediately stabbed her dagger into the next outlaw’s heart.
Another death arrived without even a scream or a groan.
《Now!》
The moment Jinshil gave the signal, I immediately released [Sa · Yeom · Hwa] into the corpse.
The red flame flickered weakly for a moment, as if it would burn the dead outlaw’s body, then quickly seeped inside.
“Uuuh….”
Soon, a new dead man was born and slowly stood up.
Like the predecessor who had become undead first, its appearance was no different from that of an ordinary person.
“If you turn them into dead men immediately after killing them like this, you can create undead that retain their appearance from life exactly as it was, full of vitality.”
Abel, who had been standing beside me, tugged at the hem of my clothes.
“If a dead man in this condition were offered as a sacrifice, it would practically be no different from a living sacrifice, would it?”
“That’s right. On top of that, it adds a unique flavor you cannot get from an ordinary offering. It tastes somewhere between a living person and an undead.”
This was the know-how of a professional cultist.
The principle was not exactly the same, but in the sense that it added a unique flavor and extended preservation time, it had something in common with smoking meat.
Fwoooosh.
Just as I was about to turn the last remaining outlaw into a dead man—
《Not particularly congratulatory: Growth-type Mystery, [Sa · Yeom · Hwa] has reached Fourth Tier!》
I had used it diligently all this time, and at last the tier of [Sa · Yeom · Hwa] had risen.
Squirm.
The snake tattoo coiled around my prosthetic arm swayed its head.
Lady Leria, now shining with “four followers,” was extremely pleased.
“Now there is only one left.”
Pierre, who had been watching with his arms folded, glanced at the final remaining outlaw.
Brownmane, the horse beastman vice guild master whose crown had swollen badly after being struck by Rosalia’s axe kick, hung limply.
“My friend Pierre, if you evaluate that man while excluding traits like ‘trash outlaw,’ what would you say of him?”
“As far as skill goes, he was not bad, my friend.”
Picking up the whip the vice guild master had used, Pierre continued in a dry voice.
“His only problem was his pathetic nature of preying solely upon the weak. Had he possessed the resolve to target the strong as well, I might have spared him.”
“So in simple terms, you mean he is underhanded, but capable?”
“That is so.”
It was an assessment that matched my own thoughts.
At high levels, Brownmane was someone you never got to meet, but if you ran into him at a low level, he was effectively the worst kind of enemy—one against whom you could consider yourself dead.
“Then it should be fine to make use of him as needed. Sister?”
Right after Rosalia stabbed Brownmane’s heart and pulled the dagger back out, I placed my left hand on Brownmane’s head and poured flame into him.
Enough to consume more than half my Mental Energy.
“…Aaah.”
Soon, the horse beastman vice guild master slowly rose to his feet.
“Sir Brownmane, are you coming to your senses?”
When I stood in front of him and asked softly, the outlaw looked into my eyes and spoke haltingly.
“What… happened to me….”
Unlike the previous dead men, intelligence could be felt in both his voice and manner of speaking.
That was the additional effect granted to [Sa · Yeom · Hwa] once it had reached Fourth Tier.
The dead retained the memories and ego they had possessed in life.
“Congratulations.”
I met his gaze while holding both shoulders of the horse beastman dead man.
“If you continue receiving my help regularly from now on, you have gained a body that can enjoy immortality.”
“……”
The horse beastman dead man looked down at his own body and flinched.
Then his entire body began to tremble.
“Ah, ahh….”
“Are you really that pleased?”
Well, immortality was the eternal wish of all long-lived hopefuls dissatisfied with the lifespan they had been given.
“Sister, I have a request.”
Turning my eyes away from the dead man, who was twisting about, unable to contain his joy, I spoke to Rosalia.
“If I die later, please take my corpse to a renowned black mage.”
“……?”
“I have a modest wish to continue exploring labyrinths forever as an undead with my intelligence completely preserved.”
“……”
Rosalia thrust both clenched fists toward me.
Since the gesture carried an excessively terrifying implication, I brought Abel over and put him in front of me.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The terrifying assassin waved her hand repeatedly, meaning for him to move aside, but fortunately our Abel did not betray his patron.
“…Patron, shouldn’t we slowly resume the exploration about now?”
“I suppose the time has come.”
By now, Team 1 might already have found the clue to clearing [Tower of Trials].
They might even have already finished the conquest and withdrawn from the labyrinth.
“Shall we all move together?”
The end of this conquest was near.
I led my companions, the dog beastman outlaw, and the legion of dead men one step closer toward the stinking underground lake full of foul water.
Saaaa.
As if it had been waiting, the final enemy appeared in the center of the underground lake.
A fishman drenched in water and reeking horribly.
It was a cultist with countless cephalopod legs attached to its torso.
《Revolting Deep-Sea Cultist (Level 5)》
《A cultist who once served Nadeu’saf, an Evil God that had been quite powerful in the past. It has been recreated just as it was in those old days, tenacious and vicious, so caution is necessary.》
If this had been the present, it would have been little more than an enemy on the level of an octopus, but back at this point in time, it was an opponent that could never be underestimated.
But even so, it was still only Level 5 in the end.
If we could somehow block the cephalopod tentacle assault, Rosalia would be able to turn it into sliced boiled seafood with ease.
“Dead men.”
For this moment, I had brought dependable reinforcements.
“Advance.”
The moment I gave the order, the outlaw dead men rapidly unleashed long-range attacks with their respective weapons.
“…Do not come any closer.”
When concentrated fire from the legion of dead men poured down on it, the cultist wildly lashed its tentacles.
It was the preparatory motion before the indiscriminate assault pattern began.
“Sir Pierre, please protect these precious dead men. We need to offer them as sacrifices, so it would be troublesome if they were damaged.”
“Understood. My body had been feeling stiff anyway, so this works out nicely.”
Pierre readily agreed and pulled out a cage reserved for the Beast Tamer class from the subspace gem attached to his necklace.
Clank.
The cage door opened, and a large animal sprang out.
Woof!
Wuff!
A two-headed dog, each mouth carrying frost and heat respectively.
Abel’s eyes widened.
“…Iceflame Orthos?”
《Iceflame Orthos (Level 5)》
《A ferocious magical beast whose two heads each possess their own ego. Since it can use both ice and fire, it is troublesome enough to turn explorers of the same level into dog food.》
It was an ultra-rare magical beast whose pup could be adopted through a Hidden Piece in a certain D-Rank labyrinth.
Its entire coat gleamed beautifully, proof that its owner, Pierre, had cared for it devotedly, feeding it well and letting it play well.
So he really did keep it with him.
Just like Bartimir, it seemed Pierre too had grown exactly according to the training method I had laid out.
Shrrrack!
Soon after, the cultist’s tentacles all came flying in at once.
“Lulu, Riri.”
At Pierre’s low command, hand axe in hand, the Iceflame Orthos blasted flames and frost from its mouths.
A bizarre sight unfolded as half the surging tentacles ignited while the other half froze.
It was enough to show roughly how much it had held back when we met it in [Cherry Cherry Orchard].
“…You dare!”
The cultist, enraged, dipped one thin tentacle strand into the lake.
At once, all the tentacles that had been burned and frozen were restored.
“It has quite the regenerative ability.”
Pierre, a handsome broad smile hanging at the corner of his mouth, swung his hand axe through the air.
“I shall defend. Dispose of it quickly.”
“Understood. Sir Brownmane?”
At my call, the dead Brownmane slowly turned his head.
“…Why.”
“Together with Sir Pierre, block the tentacles that used to be under your command.”
“Understood….”
“Polite speech.”
“Understood….”
Slice!
Rosalia cut through a tentacle flying toward me.
After briefly fawning with my whole body to show my gratitude, I conveyed my instructions through telepathy.
Sister, the moment I give the signal, close in immediately and cut off its head.
At this point in time, the Revolting Deep-Sea Cultist could revive as many times as it liked as long as there was polluted water nearby.
Each time it did so, it consumed Mental Energy, so later on it would go completely mad, a limited form of immortality.
In any case, in a place overflowing with foul water like this, it did not die easily, so we had to use a careful strategy.
Shrrrk!
The cultist’s tentacles surged without pause.
Slice.
Slash!
Pierre’s hand axe and Brownmane’s whip moved without rest, protecting the dead men.
Just a little longer.
It was not time yet.
Woof!
Wuff-wuff!
Iceflame Orthos, Lulu and Riri, excitedly kept firing flame and frost from their mouths.
To block that many tentacles so effortlessly, it was a level of strength that made me look forward to meeting it as an enemy in the future.
“…These bastards.”
The cultist, having attacked without pause, ground its teeth and tore one thick tentacle from its body.
At the same time, it plunged an extremely thin tentacle sprouting from its forehead into the lake.
Now!
Rosalia immediately hurled herself forward.
Thud!
She ran while stepping on the thick tentacle charging this way like some sort of acrobat.
“……!”
The cultist’s eyes widened as it hastily tried to withdraw its tentacles, but it responded too late.
It had already allowed the red assassin to approach.
“If you spare me—”
Slash.
Rosalia cut off the cultist’s head before even letting it finish speaking.
Caw!
Then the Blind Crow flew over and snatched the head before it could fall into the lake.
“So if that happens, it cannot regenerate?”
“That is correct. It is its only weakness.”
That was the flaw of the Revolting Deep-Sea Cultist.
As long as its head and torso remained separated, it could not display its infinite regenerative power.
“…But isn’t having one’s head cut off a universal weakness shared by all intelligent beings?”
“That is true, but for an immortal being, it is a fatal flaw. Even a long-lived elf becomes short-lived if it suffers a mortal physical injury, does it not?”
The Blind Crow returned and handed me the cultist’s head.
The body left behind sank beneath the water’s surface soon after.
Chijing.
When the twentieth and final enemy was defeated, an entrance-exit gate appeared.
Bubble, bubble.
A shabby box appeared on the lakeshore amid bubbling foam.
When I opened it at once, I found three rotten four-leaf clover badges turned upside down inside.
《Masterpiece — Corrupted Mark of Trial》
《When worn, it raises the speed of all forms of training by about ten percent. Over time, it crumbles and disappears.》
Its performance was an inferior version of the reward obtained from [Tower of Trials], and it was time-limited to boot.
But unlike [Mark of Trial], this one stacked.
If I wore all three, that meant my training speed would be amplified by thirty percent.
“I am a frugal expedition leader, but just this once, I shall become a greedy villain who monopolizes the rewards.”
There was not long left before I reached Level 5, so I decided to keep them all.
“I am fine with that. I hardly did anything in this exploration anyway.”
“…Do as you please.”
With Abel and Rosalia’s permission, I put all the [Corrupted Mark of Trial]s into my subspace.
Now that I had thoroughly secured the rewards, it was time to return.
“Shall we go?”
C-Rank Hidden Labyrinth.
[Trial Sewers].
Cleared without incident.
“Sir Brownmane. From this point on, there are a great many things you will have to confess.”
I placed a hand on the shoulder of the dazed Brownmane and whispered softly,
“If you do not behave obediently, you will be buried underground forever with your mind perfectly intact, so think very carefully.”