Chapter 42: Let's Give It a Try
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 42: Let's Give It a Try
“This place is...?”
“Is this your first time outside the Northeast?”
“Not exactly, but... I don’t come to places like this often.”
I suppose there’s no reason for an explorer from a major clan to visit a remote back alley like this. This is Hwagae Market, a place that straddles the line between the Southeast and Southwest districts.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s a very mediocre spot with little foot traffic, but since I told her we were going to the appraisal office I frequent, there was no helping it.
That aside, why is this woman so restless? She’s acting like someone who’s never been outside before. Does she have some kind of social anxiety skill?
“We’re here.”
“Sateria Appraisal Office... It has a very... hm... mysterious feel to it. I didn’t know there was an appraisal office in a place like this.”
“Go on in first.”
“Me? Alone? More importantly, is it even open? It’s five in the morning.”
“It’s open. If the owner is asleep, just give her a little shake to wake her up.”
“Um... alright.”
I nodded. Since Ravi rarely has customers, her business hours are whenever a customer actually shows up. I heard she sleeps when there’s no one around, which would mean she sleeps over twenty hours a day.
Even with customers, she probably only sees people for maybe an hour a day, so she must be awake long enough to eat and study.
“O-Owner? I’m coming in.”
When there was no response to her knock, Delbaheim looked back at me. I simply gestured for her to open the door and go in. She nodded and stepped inside.
Creeeeak—
Silence...
Thump!
About three minutes after letting Delbaheim in, she flung the door open and came rushing out, looking startled.
“It’s an emergency! The owner has lost consciousness!”
“Oh boy, again?”
Since Raya is a celebrity, I figured letting her in alone would get a funny reaction, but I didn’t expect her to actually faint. Stepping inside, I saw papers covered in writing scattered all over the floor, and Ravi lying unconscious on her cot.
“Ravi? Ravi? Wake up. Are you okay?”
“Ugh... Eon...? Is that you...?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
Ravi slowly pushed aside the blanket covering her stomach, clutched her throbbing head, and lightly hopped down from the high cot. She rubbed her tiny eyes with her small hands and mumbled something.
“Ugh... I had a strange dream....”
“What kind of dream?”
“A dream where a super famous explorer came to the shop...?”
“Raya Delbaheim?”
“H-How did you know...?!”
“She’s right there.”
“Hiyak!”
I pointed my finger at Raya, who was standing behind me. Ravi jumped in surprise as if she’d seen a ghost and clung tightly to my back.
“T-The Ice Lotus of Calax...!”
“Ice Lotus?”
“Ahem. Shopkeeper. You don’t need to use such an embarrassing epithet. You may simply call me Delbaheim.”
So Raya’s epithet was the Ice Lotus. It seemed to suit her, yet not quite at the same time. I suppose that’s her public image. Or maybe it’s because of her skill—she did have one that turned living things into ice.
“H-How could such a distinguished person come to such a humble place...?”
“Not at all. This shop is quite... a-atmospheric.”
“Anyway, I’m the one who brought her. This is Ravi Sateria, the owner of this shop. I assume you already know who Delbaheim is.”
Only then did Ravi’s eyes sparkle with curiosity as she stared intently at Delbaheim. She was still hiding behind my back, of course, but what can you do?
Once the introductions were over, a slightly awkward atmosphere settled in.
First, I needed to get my skill appraised. And since Ravi had probably prepared various things for her research, I wanted to check on those too.
“Ravi. I got another skill.”
“What?! Really?! S-Should we check it right away?”
“I think it’s called Bleeding Berserk. Let’s confirm it.”
“D-Did you go to another appraisal office?!”
“No. Delbaheim said it’s a skill she’s seen before.”
“Ah, I see.... Phew, alright then. Hurry up and lie down on the cot! So you already know where it’s engraved?”
According to Delbaheim, the circuit was on the left side of my chest. I guess I have to lie face up this time.
I took off my shirt and lay down on the cot. There was a faint scent of baby formula in the shop; I wondered what it was.
“Heeuk....”
“What’s wrong, Ravi?”
“T-That... first, let’s cover your face a bit....”
Ravi suddenly took the wide-brimmed witch hat she was wearing and pressed it down over my face.
‘So this was the source of the baby formula smell.’
“The left... c-chest! Got it!”
With the hat over my face, I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel something small and busy moving around restlessly on my chest.
“This is... yes! I’ve seen this in a book! It’s my first time seeing it in person! So this is what the color actually looks like...! This part goes like this....”
The circuit must have revealed itself, as Ravi was chattering away busily beside me. Judging by the sound of breathing, Raya seemed to be sitting nearby as well.
“By the way, who names these skills? Some have names, and some don’t.”
When I asked my question, Ravi answered.
“Mmm! It’s random! Most powerful skills tend to have names. If the effect is simple or common, the effect itself becomes the skill’s name. Skills that famous people had also tend to get names!”
“I see. What’s the case for Bleeding Berserk?”
“It’s the latter! That famous... famous... Gasp! Come to think of it...?”
Ravi suddenly fell silent as if she’d realized something.
Wondering what was going on, I brushed aside the hat covering my face to see Ravi staring blankly at Delbaheim. Delbaheim nodded as if she had no choice and spoke.
“That is correct. My father... Sir Hamyent Delbaheim, was the most famous user of Bleeding Berserk during his lifetime.”
“...What. Is that how it is?”
“Yes.”
So there was that kind of backstory behind her liking Bleeding Berserk. Whether it was a skill engraved in her father or not didn’t matter to me.
Right now, it was embedded in my chest, and I could use it well. It was a skill that suited me perfectly.
Ravi brought over a book, sat next to the cot where I was lying, and chirped away about the effects and precautions of Bleeding Berserk...
I already knew most of it, but I didn’t interrupt and listened until the end. She looked like she was having fun.
“I see. You’re very smart, Ravi.”
“Ehehe, I’m glad I could help!”
“Is there anything else we can try with my skills?”
“Ah! There’s so much! Why did you come so late!”
Ravi smiled broadly and looked through the papers on her desk one by one before picking one up and handing it to me.
“There’s a lot more now.”
“Because there are so many things I want to try!”
“What is that?”
“Oh, this.”
As I looked at the paper with Ravi, Delbaheim, who was standing nearby, asked out of curiosity.
“I have a skill that was discovered for the first time. We’re experimenting to see just how far this skill can go.”
“A first-discovery skill? That is truly a cause for celebration. Moreover, it seems to have excellent effects.”
“Yeah, except for the part where it unintentionally triggers other people’s curse skills.”
“Ugh....”
Ravi looked at us with wide eyes, wondering what had happened, but I gently took her cheeks and turned her head back toward the paper as if it were nothing.
“Mmm! Shall we start with this?”
“What is it?”
“If this experiment succeeds, Eon, you could become unimaginably strong!”
“Ho, let’s do it then. Tell me about it.”
Ravi was full of anticipation, hopping and laughing as she held the paper. Was it really that exciting?
“You mentioned it before, right? When you first used the skill, your right arm turned into a steak!”
“Yeah. It did.”
“Which means, not just the muscles, but the skeletal structure itself disappeared!”
“The skeletal structure... That’s true.”
The memory was so shocking that my brain seemed to have instinctively suppressed it, but thinking about it now, that was exactly what happened. Every bit of muscle and bone starting from the elbow joint had vanished, and a steak was suddenly dangling there.
I cried so much back then, thinking I’d have to live with one arm for the rest of my life. If Auntie hadn’t dragged me out and forced me to eat, I might have collapsed from malnutrition while crying.
“And?”
“You made your right forearm disappear. This means you can use the skill to delete an existing organ!”
“Hmm, I see. Which means....”
“Exactly...! If you can use the skill to remove an existing organ, it means you can also create an organ that wasn’t there before!”
“Huh, would that really work? And what would be the benefit of that?”
Ravi thought for a moment and then gave several examples.
“For starters? Um... right. You could eat a fish and grow gills! Or eat a bird and grow wings!”
“Wings... that would be incredible.”
“Right! Let’s try it right away! First... starting with deletion! It’ll be easier with a part you’ve done before, right? Think about it! ‘Right forearm... disappear!’ Like that!”
“Hmm. Alright, I’ll try.”
Beside me, Ravi was watching with an extremely excited expression. Delbaheim, having grasped the context and deduced the nature of my skill, also watched with interest.
Ever since I gained proper control over the skill, I’ve been applying its effects only to specific areas by focusing my will. When I first tried it, I thought I’d gained some badass offensive skill, so I kept focusing only on my right hand.
As a result, my entire right forearm really did turn into a steak because of the skill.
Let’s think carefully. No need to change it into something else. Just... remove all the organs below the right elbow. I also know I can undo it afterward.
I’ve already done it before.
Alright, here goes.
“Sigh... Phew....”
I concentrated my mind and focused on my right forearm, and soon the skill activated.
“No way, wow... this is.”
“Incredible. This is astonishing.”
“It worked! Success! It’s a success! It’s perfect!”
With the forearm gone, the sleeve of my white shirt fluttered. When I pulled back the sleeve to check the cross-section, it looked as if the wound had healed and closed up at a single point, like an injury from a long time ago.
“This feels... really strange.”
“But I’m so happy! Now that we know it’s possible to remove an existing organ, the next step is to try creating one that wasn’t there!”
“Creating an organ that wasn’t there....”
That was something I needed to think about more deeply. Of course, the idea of creating a new organ was very appealing. Growing wings and flying through the sky? That would be amazing.
Creating gills to breathe underwater was also an incredible prospect. But the problem wasn’t that simple.
“Those wings I grow... would I even be able to use them?”
“Um... I’m not sure about that...?”
Living creatures have nerves connected throughout their bodies. For the brain to send a command and for an organ to perform an action, there must be nerves for that command to travel through.
Let’s say I managed to eat a large pair of wings. And let’s even say that, through some miracle, they sprouted from my body.
What about the bones? I know humans have shoulder blades, but those aren’t the skeletal structures that were originally connected to actual wings. To use wings, I wouldn’t just need to eat the wings themselves; I’d need powerful muscles to connect them to my body.
Furthermore, I might need to create a new type of bone that never existed before to link my skeleton to the wing bones.
And even the cartilage to make those bones fit together and move flexibly.
“It seems like a difficult task.”
“Umm... maybe I made it sound too easy....”
Raya, who had been quietly listening, clapped her hands together and spoke up, saying she had a good idea.
“I have a good idea.”
“A good idea? What is it?”
“Everything Aven said just now is perfectly correct. It would be difficult for wings to suddenly sprout from a human’s back.”
“Ugh....”
“I am not blaming the shopkeeper.”
“Then what should we do?”
Delbaheim turned around and suddenly stuck her butt out.
‘What is this now?’
“Delbaheim. Did your skill trigger again?”
“Q-Quiet! What I want to say is... the tail. There are traces in the human skeleton that a tail was once attached.”
“Aha! A tail!”
“Precisely. Skills that sprout wings are extremely rare, but skills that sprout tails have been reported many times. The ‘Beastification’ skill is one such example.”
“Beastification....”
“It’s as if a tail grew on a Human Species that didn’t have one. Yet they handle their tails as if it were nothing. It is an organ that, while no longer found in humans, is quite familiar to the race.”
“That makes sense.”
Delbaheim placed her hands on her hips and nodded, looking to see if she had been helpful. She seemed quite proud of herself.
“Alright. A tail, a tail... I don’t know if it’ll help in combat, but it’s worth a try.”
“I agree! And you know what? A tail will definitely help in combat!”
Ravi said, wiggling her hips.
“Like this! Whacking the opponent with a thick, heavy tail! How about that?!”
“Hmm, I wonder if there’s a creature with a tail that powerful.”
“I cannot say if it would be powerful, but for such an action, a reptile’s tail would be more suitable than a mammal’s. How about a Lizardman?”
“Ah.”
Those guys existed. Come to think of it, they were right. Didn’t they feel like humans with tails? If this experiment succeeds... I can become even stronger than I am now.
“Alright. Let’s give it a try.”