Chapter 192
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Kingdom - Lv. 463 Blanche (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Skills are powers that transcend cognition, bestowed by the Labyrinth itself.
Their mechanisms are utterly unrealistic, producing results without any context or rationale.
Spear techniques are skills honed in the body. Archery is a skill. Magic is a skill.
Even things like preparing for the cold, conserving calories, or crafting gear require understanding the principles and executing them properly.
Skills, on the other hand, simply deliver their preset conclusions without room for adaptation—just the raw outcome.
Based solely on the variables defined within them.
A game is reality simplified.
The Labyrinth is that game turned back into reality.
Like text run through a translator from Korean to English, then back to Korean—awkward and unnatural.
That's what a skill is.
The Goddess's temple hadn't strayed far from its old hospital guise.
Purple lanterns symbolizing chaos had simply been hung in spots throughout.
The moment I passed through the doorless frame, the sanctuary's signature holy aura enveloped my body.
The atmospheric holiness was markedly denser.
I scanned for people.
Unfortunately, with our Henry the priest and Remy tied up, I ended up seeing the old doctor who manned the place.
"A follower of the Goddess? If you're here to pray, it's over there."
This was my first time meeting the old doctor. I'd deliberately kept Uncle, Hiu, and the kid out of sight.
He spoke those words, then went right back to suturing the patient's split-open skull.
The sight gave me a faint sense of unease.
I'd heard he was a surgeon who'd invested stats for the surgical bonuses, but this felt like more than that.
Considering the various exile archetypes the game had implemented and stationed inside the kingdom back in the day...
Whatever. Not important. Moving on.
This hospital was now fully the Goddess's temple—and her sanctuary.
The pure tank our youngest had been was chosen as the Goddess's Holy Knight, gaining the corresponding Mind Map corrections.
His Strength branch was already sprawling far beyond the requirements, so he just needed a slight investment in Intelligence.
The odds of Holy Knight class skills emerging depended on faith.
In the Labyrinth made real, it wasn't some numerical value—it truly followed the heart.
The youngest became a Holy Knight with absurd ease.
Declaring a sanctuary was straightforward for any Holy Knight class skill holder, with a god's aid making it simple.
I spotted the altar he'd meticulously built. Aside from the lollipop jammed into it, it was neat and proper.
The gravestone endlessly shifting through rainbow hues reminded me of the second floor.
The kid went up to it and offered a prayer.
In her own sanctuary, the Goddess could perceive her followers' every corner more intimately than ever.
A short while later, the Goddess let out a groan and addressed me.
「This child... she naturally has [Archmage]...」
'Something more, I bet. Otherwise, she couldn't be picking up magic at that impossible pace.'
「She also has the unique skill [Eye of Elements].」
'...That's NPC-exclusive.'
I hadn't considered that.
She'd learned too flawlessly for it to be normal. I'd chalked it up to my great teaching.
It was a curse-not-curse that let her see the world not through normal vision, but mana sight alone.
It clicked into place. Her initial near-autistic state, her original mismatched demeanor—it all fit.
With that skill, normal daily life was impossible.
On the flip side, I turned my head. So how was this kid casually looking at my face right now? At Hiu's?
「There's one more. Unique skill [Aspired Target]. I don't know this one—anything ring a bell?」
'...'
I didn't know it. More precisely, as a player, I wasn't supposed to.
Indie devs' unpredictable roadmaps leak all the time.
This was a skill slated for a version I hadn't played yet.
Nearly a century later, and I still remembered the patch notes vividly. It was ridiculous.
Definitely... it was on the list of new NPC-exclusive unique skills being added.
I didn't know the effects. Just the name.
And NPC-exclusive skills were usually added for specific encounters.
To create particular scenarios.
I glanced at Hiu.
She noticed and met my eyes. Holding the gaze, she broke into a beaming smile.
From the second floor on, we'd half-expected this. Things I didn't know could keep cropping up.
Had the Labyrinth been patched?
Or... was this the real one?
Truth be told, even back in the game days, Blanche couldn't be recruited as a companion.
Maybe, against my assumptions, reality had forced divergences from the game.
The Labyrinth came first, and the game was the afterthought.
The thought struck me suddenly.
Trdongt knew exactly how to spot Blanche.
She wouldn't still be rocking that initial beauty spa look.
Eight whole years had passed. She'd changed her appearance somehow, no doubt.
But human race was most likely. Using her card would revert it.
No point in changing if she reverted, so she'd stick to human form.
Working Hard Rock's slums as a fixer didn't call for anything fancy anyway.
So when a fixer named "Bandage" approached, Trdongt clocked it instantly.
It was time to weed out the riffraff. The bounty drew every slum rat and beggar claiming they could handle it.
Anti-mage prejudice might've played a part too.
Trdongt himself was playacting as an old warrior who couldn't stomach mages.
But Trdongt was a seasoned shaman. Years of experience had granted him Labyrinth blessings nearly rivaling a full Mind Map.
Plenty of spells could roughly gauge an opponent's strength.
Most fixers who'd come knocking were idiots not worth a punch.
But this gender-ambiguous bandaged freak slipping in via the West King's referral? Undeniably the real deal.
A chilling killing intent stabbed skin-deep.
Those eyes peeking through the bandages were icy as frostfall.
After eyeing her height, her quiet entry into the room...
Trdongt was convinced: this was the Blanche he'd only heard of in tales.
Circumstantially, among the "real" contenders, only an identity-less Blanche would leap at such a shady gig first.
A remote hut on the slums' outskirts.
Built in the kingdom's more prosperous days, now an abandoned ruin—but the interior was tidy.
Unlike the North King, a martial powerhouse, the West King relished schemes and plots. He approached the slums like a business.
His efforts meant any decent fixer or merc in the slums now answered to him.
Bandage didn't sit.
She stepped in from the entrance and leaned against a crumbling wall edge.
Positioned for an instant escape.
Trdongt spoke first.
"You look capable. Got the skills for it."
"Target intel you can provide. Payment method."
Not even a proper reply. Just demanding the necessities.
Trdongt pulled out gold bars and stacked them.
One, two, three, four... fifteen in total.
Enough for a full suit of rune-forged steel armor.
"Advance. Rest in gold upon completion."
"This much? No intel needed. Accepted."
And that was it.
The bandage-wrapped freak vanished. Not even sure what weapons she carried.
Her record stood vouched by the West King's documentation.
Not the slums' top fixer, but a name anyone would know.
Trdongt rose.
He skipped the guild house.
Stayed in a discreet safehouse the guild had set up.
Bandage tailed him awhile longer before finally peeling off.
Trdongt sighed and got moving.
I told the kid about her skills.
She countered with a puzzled question of her own.
"So how do others see the world, then?"
"Let's learn that next. How to turn off mana sight."
"...Is that even possible?"
"Might be harder than any magic. But what did you say our faces look like?"
"Um... Can't explain it. Just... eyes, nose, mouth."
[Eye of Elements] was a talent and a curse.
I'd seen one other case: a human hero from some run who'd had it.
Even if true sight differed wildly, being born that way let learning bridge the gap.
But viewing the entire world as globs of light woven from mana threads? No good for the psyche.
Most would go mad.
The kid seemed to have started that way. She confirmed as much.
How she lived normally now was the mystery.
"I wanted to learn magic. Saw Dad doing it back then. It was so cool, amazing. Er, anyway."
Was virtual Old-Timer that impressive?
After some thought, I opted for pride.
Praised the kid too.
Told her it was an incredible talent.
She twisted shyly. Her face lit up with a full smile—fascinating.
She couldn't have learned expressions visually.
"Practiced in the mirror a ton. Youngest Uncle and Gramps helped loads. Studied what 'smiling' looks like."
The kid confessed it now with embarrassment, and Hiu's face fell as she listened.
"I've... lived in such a blessed environment."
"Don't say it like that. Everyone struggles in their own way. Makes me embarrassed."
The kid just grinned, innocent as ever, not getting it.
I sighed, and that's when Gramps returned.
With good news.
Hearing about the fixer using "Bandage," I nodded too.
"Near certain at that point. Probably burned her face beyond recognition. Everyone would know her otherwise. Anyone."
It wasn't coincidence I'd tapped Gramps to hunt Blanche.
Goblins under the gods of war and savagery had few paths: assassin was one.
As Great Shaman, he'd seen countless.
How they hid, moved, thought.
Shamans commanded Greenskin legions.
Just feed him Blanche's habits on facts he already knew, and identification was easy.
Capable assassins inevitably develop personal routines.
Too many coincidences don't happen.
"Now we need to figure how Blanche feels about that music box grudge. Gotta pry her mouth open good."
"No clue on eight years' emotional shifts? That safe?"
"Can't track psyches precisely, even me. But the events she went through? I know roughly. Any veteran exile does."
Saying it in front of NPC Gramps felt a tad off, but hiding it now was silly.
"This kingdom's got records up to server 46. About 460 years."
Gods' testimonies put it way longer. Even stable kingdoms often fail invasions midway.
Guild systems collapse then.
Back to lawless wilds.
That's "kingdom" spaces for you.
"In this kingdom spanning estimated thousands of years, how many Blanches do you think reached it?"
"Tons. A ton."
Gramps laughed bitterly.
Fixed named NPCs don't respawn in a kingdom if the server doesn't close.
If 46-server Blanche doesn't die, no later servers get another.
"Blanche almost always reaches the kingdom. And as an irreconcilable named..."
"She'd get rejected similarly."
"And meet a similar end. All Blanches live alike. Extra so as hated nameds."
Snag her first.
I had a connection other exiles lacked.
What thoughts had filled her eight years?