Chapter 164: Just This Once
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 164: Just This Once
Come to think of it, I had acquired a new skill. I wasn't quite sure what it did yet, but since I didn't feel any major abnormalities in my body, I figured it wasn't a curse.
"Shouldn't you check your skill?"
At Father's suggestion, I decided to have Ravi appraise me while she was in her cat form. She had been flying through the sky on Walter’s back and refused to come down, so I’d had to paralyze Walter with my Evil Eye. I managed to catch them both before they hit the ground.
"I almost died..."
"Then why didn't you just come down?"
"It’s because Walter wouldn't listen to me...!"
Ravi, the grumbling cat, climbed onto my back and began kneading various spots on my body with her light paws.
"I don't think it's on your back. Shall we move to your legs?"
"Check around his face first, young lady," Father suggested.
"His face?"
Following Father's advice, I rolled over on the bed to face the ceiling. Ravi began trotting around my head.
She’s shedding.
After a moment of silence, Ravi suddenly jumped three times her own height in surprise.
"I found it! It's a new skill!"
"Really?"
Surprisingly, the skill was engraved in a unique location, stretching from the edge of my face down toward my cervical spine. To get a full view of it, Ravi spent a while pacing across my chest and inspecting both sides of my face.
"Wait, what was it? I can't remember..."
"Hmm."
She claimed it was a skill she definitely knew, but she couldn't recall the name. I wondered if her brain had shrunk along with her body in cat form, but I kept that thought to myself.
After a long moment of racking her brain...
"It's Ultimate Instinct!"
"It's Adrenaline Break," the two little ones said simultaneously.
"What? It's definitely Ultimate Instinct!"
"No, it's Adrenaline Break."
"Father! I'm an appraiser, you know! I learned this for a fact! This skill is called Ultimate Instinct!"
"I'm sorry, little lady, but this old man is a twenty-five-year veteran explorer. I know someone who has this skill."
"Then isn't that an old memory?! I only learned this three years ago!"
As their conflicting opinions clashed, Ravi, lacking physical leverage, transformed back into her human form and growled at Father. Father showed no sign of backing down either, glaring back at her with a deeply furrowed brow. Even so, Ravi was slightly taller.
Watching the two red-headed squirts bicker right next to me was starting to take a toll on my eardrums. My ears were going to burst over this petty squabble.
"Both of you, calm down. Regardless of the name, let's hear the skill description first. Father, you're the eldest, so you go first."
I sat up and pried the two apart, finally bringing some order to the situation. I started with Father's explanation.
"It's Adrenaline Break. It's a type of thought acceleration that temporarily boosts overall physical abilities and grants physical power by burning the mana within the body."
"Hmm, that's strange. That's the same as the ability I know..."
"The name is Adrenaline Break."
"I'm telling you, it's Ultimate Instinct..."
* * *
Was the name of my new skill Adrenaline Break or Ultimate Instinct? The answer wasn't something I could just look up. Instead, I had a living archive of ancient documents: Iris Albresto.
"Both are correct."
"Huh?"
"Adrenaline Break is the name used in Hechituk. It wasn't seen for nearly four hundred years after that, and Hechituk is quite stingy with sharing information. After it was rediscovered in Roanmarie, it was given the name Ultimate Instinct."
"So they were both right."
"I-is that how it was...?"
"I see..."
"If you've completed the Academy curriculum within the last fourteen years, you'd know it as Ultimate Instinct."
With Iris's clear answer, the two squirts shared a reconciliatory handshake. That aside, how did Iris know about the recent Academy curriculum? Did she actually attend the Academy or something?
But more importantly...
"What brings you to the inn?"
"I came to find you because I thought you might have forgotten me."
"I visited you once after returning to Calax."
Iris Albresto, the fixture of the magic item shop, had actually crawled out into the world. She finally made it outside. I wasn't exactly waiting for her to come out, but it was certainly a sight to see.
It was already late, and dinner was long over. Unfortunately, Tresha had already gone to bed. I asked if I should wake her, but Iris shook her head.
"There's a child here with a unique constitution."
"Whoa, look at her changing the subject."
"...It seems she's already completed a monster contract as well."
Iris Albresto spoke while staring intently at Sera, who was awkwardly drying dishes in front of us. Surprisingly, Iris was exactly the type of person Sera found difficult to deal with.
A kind, gentle, normal person is the natural polar opposite of an eccentric who doesn't listen to reason.
"You have large breasts."
"Pardon?! Oh, uh... thank you...?"
"Hey now, young lady, what are you saying to my daughter?"
Father spoke up, poking Iris's hip, and Iris turned to look at him. She scanned Father's tiny frame from head to toe before giving a slight nod.
"A daughter. Must have been a difficult birth. Because of the breasts."
"She was small when she was born. And I didn't give birth to her. My wife did."
"Is the wife a woman?"
"That's right. The most beautiful woman in the world."
Iris scanned Father's body once more.
"A virgin birth. How interesting."
"What are you talking about? I'm the one who put the seed—"
—Clang!
"Stop talking nonsense and clear the dishes."
"Ouch... that hurts..."
"And this is a dining hall. It's a problem if a guest isn't ordering food."
Before Father could say anything else inappropriate, Auntie split his crown with a ladle. She then began giving Iris the side-eye for taking up a seat without ordering anything.
"You heard her, Aven."
"Why are you dragging me into this?"
"...Today, I'm on an errand."
There she goes, changing the subject again.
"It's not for a human experiment?"
"No. It might be something you need."
"Hmm, what is it?"
Iris suddenly reached out and placed her hand over my left chest. Sera, watching from the side, gasped in surprise. Ravi, who had been quietly observing, also sucked in a breath.
"Take it out."
"Take what out?"
"The Lich's Mana Core."
"...How did you know about that?"
"A L-Lich?! A Lich, Yoo Eon?!"
I hadn't even mentioned it yet; she really had a mysterious ability. She had vaguely sensed it when I consumed the Skeleton Mage's arm bone before, but this time she was certain. Since Ravi was hearing this for the first time, she started hopping around in excitement.
"I got it during this last labyrinth run. I wasn't intentionally keeping it a secret."
—Vroooom...
"Hieeeek!! He turned into a Lich!"
When I activated the skill, the Lich's green Mana Core settled inside my thoracic cavity. Ravi looked like she was about to do a backflip out of sheer shock. I didn't feel anything particularly different, and perhaps because there were no corpses around, it didn't seem to be generating a noticeable amount of mana.
"You're suppressing it with your own mana."
"What do you mean?"
"In this state... you won't be able to use the Lich's abilities."
"Is there something I need to do?"
Other than manifesting the Lich's Mana Core, I hadn't really used its abilities yet. Even when fighting the Megido Serpent, the abilities I considered were more like gambles.
There was no way the Lich's mental attacks would work on a berserk Megido Serpent. There's no point in using a skill that drives someone mad on something that's already lost its mind.
"You almost died. Fortunately, you didn't."
"Do you have any intention of making your explanations a bit longer, Iris?"
"You must have used the mana core of a necro-type monster with a grade equal to a Lich before. One with a relatively moderate personality."
"...Probably."
I assumed the equal-grade necro-type Iris was referring to was the Haunted Centurion Armor. While the Lich was a Great Labyrinth boss and relatively strong despite being on the 2nd Stratum, the Haunted Centurion Armor was from the 3rd Stratum.
"Good job. Since you consumed the Lich's Mana Core after your body had developed some resistance..."
"Since I consumed it?"
"You'll need to consume a necro-type monster powerful enough to suppress the Lich's lingering will. One with a moderate personality."
"Tsk. I understand what you mean. I need to do that so my head doesn't spin when I use the Lich's abilities."
"Exactly."
She said the Haunted Centurion Armor wasn't a very attractive option since it was only equal in grade to the Lich. But wasn't a Lich supposed to be the strongest among the undead?
Then again, being stuck on the 2nd Stratum was a bit underwhelming. According to Iris, a Lich, much like the Haunted Centurion Armor, was only at the 'Centurion' level among the undead hierarchy.
Ravi, who had been listening to the explanation, stared at Iris with sparkling eyes.
"That's amazing...! How did you know all that?!"
"Know what?"
"The reason his mind stays stable even when using the Lich's Mana Core...! To check Yoo Eon's history without any magical examination! You're incredible! Are you a super powerful mage? What kind of staff do you use? A staff? A wand? A cane? Or maybe... the orbs and biblios that were popular long ago?! I bet you'd be good with anything! Where did you go to the Academy? You're so cool! Are you a 2nd-grade mage? Or maybe even 1st-grade?! You certainly seem like it! What kind of studies did you do on necro-type monsters? A criteria for grading them! That's something I haven't learned yet! Did you say you were Tresha's master? Could I be your disciple too? Have you ever studied the language of the Demon Species? Do you know what an Imp's fireball burns? Can a Demon Species become a necro-type when it dies? Then what would it be called? A Demon-Necro? A Necro-Demon? A Demon-Wraith-Necro-Species? What branch of magic do you use? Your magical knowledge seems vast! What do you think is the best among elemental magic—"
"Wait."
Iris cut off Ravi's barrage of questions in an instant. She remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.
"I'm embarrassed. Stop praising me."
Wow, Ravi is something else.
To think that Iris, who didn't even stop her 'happy time' in front of a strange man, would feel embarrassed. Was she weak to praise?
"O-oh, I understand!"
The perfect counter to Iris, whom even Sera found difficult to handle, was surprisingly Ravi Sateria. Look at those eyes full of expectation and admiration; they were too much for Iris, who usually just spent her time masturbating in her shop. Iris was actually the one avoiding eye contact.
"Anyway, Iris. So, what do you want me to do?"
"There are two options."
Iris raised both hands and held up her two long, slender middle fingers toward me. As far as I knew, there were no insults involving the middle finger in this world, but Iris was recreating an otherworldly insult through sheer eccentric energy.
"One is to consume the 5th Stratum boss of the Melbatos region."
"I don't even know where that is."
"The other is to escort me back to my shop."
"And I don't see the point of that one."
Sera was stealing glances from the side. It was already late at night, and Iris, who looked like a beautiful woman on the outside, was asking to be walked home.
"Whew. Sera, I'll go kick this weirdo out and come back."
"Huh...? O-okay. Don't be too long... I'll stay up and wait for you...?"
"Understood."
"I'll go too!"
"Ravi, you stay here."
"Can't I come with you?!"
Ravi sent a longing look toward Iris. Iris gave Ravi a quick glance and then...
"Yes."
"Thank you!"
"No."
"Aww..."
* * *
"Aven."
"What is it now?"
"I've used up all of today's steps."
"Sigh... this person has a unique way of being annoying. What do you want me to do?"
Iris's pace began to slow step by step, and after only thirty steps, she was more than ten meters behind me.
"Here."
"What?"
When I approached her, Iris stood still with her arms outstretched.
"Hold me."
"...Just this once."