Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Ruby
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Raise Your Hand If You Think You're Going to Die
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"Wh-why...?!"
The gravekeeper clutched his nose, which was gushing blood, and staggered backward.
His face showed he couldn't understand why his magic hadn't worked.
But weren't humans originally foolish animals?
Even after confirming with his own eyes that mind control didn't work on me, the bastard repeated the same mistake again.
"This can't be!"
"It can."
He reached out his hand and attempted to mind-control me once more.
However, something that didn't work once wasn't going to work a second time.
I snorted and tore off the tree roots that had been binding my left arm.
Crrrack!
With my left arm freed, I also released what had been restraining my right arm.
Snap!
I walked forward.
Thud.
"Hi, hiiiek!"
His confidence turned to fear in an instant.
The superiority that had been on the bastard's face had already disappeared long ago.
'Right. These guys are exactly at this level. That's why they fell for the devil's temptation.'
If someone was truly strong on their own, would they have sold their soul so easily?
Diaz too had hit a massive wall and lost her most precious friend.
Yet hadn't she endured?
Hadn't she risen from that and eventually become an unrivaled demon hunter?
Without selling her soul to a devil.
That was why her soul shone so brightly.
On the other hand, the level of bastards like this was obvious.
Even if things got just a little difficult.
Even if things got just a little painful, they couldn't endure it and collapsed.
At that moment, when the devil appeared with sugar-coated words, they handed over their soul without even knowing how valuable it was.
Everyone lived with difficulty.
Even if each day was dirty and petty.
Still, they endured.
That's what made them respectable.
And that was why devils seemed so disgusting to me.
Those bastards who dug into that weakness and tried to corrupt people into cursed lives.
And I also found disgusting those bastards who fell for the devils' temptation.
Those bastards who completely fell for that temptation which everyone else endured, then spouted excuses.
"Bastards like you backstab people for a few pennies, extract their livers and gallbladders and discard them, and even kill to gain one benefit for yourselves. But now that you're on the receiving end, you're scared?"
The gravekeeper's neck veins bulged.
"Yeah, you fuck! So what! What's wrong with killing to gain a little benefit for myself! Everyone lives that way, don't they? Huh?"
"Cut the bullshit."
"That's the instinct of the wild. Isn't it survival of the fittest? The weak are going to die anyway, so I'm just plundering a little faster and killing a little faster! Because I'm the strong one! That makes it okay!"
I raised my fist.
I had no desire to hear any more of the bastard's filthy excuses.
"Get hit, get hit... and raise your hand if you think you're going to die. Then I'll stop for a moment. I need to hear who's backing you before I kill you."
"Uh, uhhh... w-wait...!"
Whaaaam!
Thud.
"...Huh? Hey. Breathe! Breathe! Hey!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After quite some time had passed.
The gravekeeper came to his senses.
"Huff, huff!... W-was it a dream?..."
No, he still seemed to be a bit out of it.
I decided to help the bastard come to his senses properly.
Smack!
By slapping his cheek.
"Aagh!"
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, he seemed to come to his senses in one blow.
The bastard quickly realized he was tied to a chair.
"Wh-what exactly are you?"
"...What, you say? Haven't you been hit enough? You're speaking informally?"
"...Wh-what are... you."
"From now on, I'm the one asking questions."
"..."
I explained the simple rules to him.
"Answer properly. If anything seems even slightly off."
I showed him my left arm slightly.
"You get hit one more time."
"...Huurk!"
"That ominous power. Where did you get it?"
"I-I made a contract with a devil."
"Made?"
"...sir."
"Where can I find the bastard?"
"I don't know that..."
I raised my fist again.
"N-no, I really don't know! I really don't know, sir!"
He really seemed not to know...
But I couldn't give up just like that.
"Then what were you doing here?"
"I-I was paying the price for receiving power, sir."
"Price?"
"Yes. There's a giant's remains at the center of this underground tomb, and I was asked to restore it."
A giant's remains?
He seemed to be talking about what I had seen on the way here.
"Why?"
"That, I also don't..."
A sigh escaped me involuntarily.
"Haah..."
When I sighed, the bastard flinched.
What exactly did he know properly... tsk.
"Then where did you smuggle the other bastard off to?"
"Th-that bastard isn't my subordinate..."
"You don't know again?"
"...Yes."
"You're utterly useless."
"Well... Ah! I do know that, sir."
"...?"
"What I heard in passing was something about molding souls... and restoring the giant's remains was also to extract the soul sleeping within those remains, they said."
My eyes flashed when I heard those words.
'The one who molds souls!'
Because that bastard made a move, this city was plundered.
I understood.
The chief of staff of the necromancer legion.
High Lich, Horaik'dun.
He was a human who had become obsessed with black magic and voluntarily entered the demon legion.
He was also a monster who had become the chief of staff of the demon legion after his demonic talent and lunatic temperament were recognized.
That talent was a perverted ability to gather human souls, mix them together, and create his own evil spirits.
Simply put, he could be called a lich who created chimera soul versions.
He could also be seen as one of the most successful humans, in a bad way.
'Because bastards like that appeared, humans who aimed to become high-ranking demons kept popping up.'
Hmm, but still, this could be considered a significant harvest.
Because I had at least learned the opponent's identity.
Then I could also discern what type of magic the gravekeeper had used.
Since he received Horaik'dun's help, it was surely soul brainwashing-type magic.
'Then if I just kill this guy, the brainwashed humans will all be freed anyway...'
I finally asked the gravekeeper.
"I heard devil's items are circulating, what are those?"
"Ah. That? That's nothing special. There's that subordinate I mentioned earlier, right? That person brings them periodically, and I distribute them. It's simple, sir. It's a contract that unlocks potential, but takes the soul when they die. Somehow it got distorted and became rumored as items."
It was absurd.
"It's potential they originally had, but you take their souls for making them able to use it?"
"Yes. Yes. Devils aren't gods or anything. How could they create something from nothing? Everyone just lives giving up even though they have such abilities, but when you just create an opportunity, they jump at it eagerly. It's really funny. Not even knowing it was originally theirs. Kekeke."
"Of course you also don't know where those contracts come from?"
"Naturally, sir."
"Is there anything else?"
"...That's it now? So will you spare me now..."
I looked at the bastard with disbelieving eyes.
"You, how many people have you killed so far?"
"Hmm. So far roughly... seems like a little under 20?"
"..."
"Haha..."
"What would you do if I spared you?"
"Well, wouldn't I run away to the countryside and kill just a little less?"
"You sure have the nerve to ask to be spared."
"I suppose that's too much to ask?"
I nodded.
Slice.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Revarsen, who had witnessed the gravekeeper's head being cut off, clicked her tongue as if disappointed.
"In the end, we couldn't find out who was behind this."
"No. I found out."
"What?"
"He told us, didn't he. The one who molds souls. Then there's only one."
She stared at me blankly.
"What's wrong?"
"No... I'm just surprised, surprised. It's amazing that you could figure it out from just that."
Then she looked down at the gravekeeper's head.
"To even find out who was behind it... I struggled so much while tracking... and you solved it in one day."
Her face was somewhat deflated.
I comforted her in my own way.
This was because I knew the future and had seen the devils in the original work and knew them well, not because she had done anything wrong.
"You did well enough."
"Haha. That's not comforting at all?"
"..."
Well, fine if it wasn't.
Right now my mind didn't have the capacity for such trivial consolation.
'If the opponent is Horaik'dun... phew. This gets complicated.'
I had a gut feeling that my plan to delay the great invasion wouldn't be easy.
The one who molds souls.
Naturally, the bastard's main weapon was undead specters created by patching together souls to his liking.
What was the problem with this?
'It means I'll need special weapons...'
Horaik'dun was truly a troublesome named enemy.
The characteristic of being a specter was the root of all problems.
To put it briefly, it meant normal physical attacks didn't work.
In other words.
Not only my most powerful attack method, spatial cutting, but also the giant soldier's left arm would be useless.
To face that bastard, I needed anti-undead specter specialized attack weapons, not the items I normally wore.
Or there was a method of detonating silver powder bombs to temporarily make physical attacks work...
'But the situation where I have to obtain various items is already exhausting.'
And the strategy of facing him with consumables was a method I didn't want to use now that the game had become reality.
'Because if I miscalculate even slightly, I could use up all the consumables and get beaten to death one-sidedly.'
In the original work, I often took risks to save as much money as possible.
But now this was reality where I couldn't restart, wasn't it?
I had no desire to risk my life adventuring.
'The remaining direction is that I need to obtain a weapon that can deal damage to specter-type monsters... haah. This isn't easy.'
Money wasn't the problem.
The obstacle was that people who could make such things were rare in themselves.
Basically, if you made a weapon from silver, its durability dropped tremendously.
But the opponent was at the level of legion chief of staff?
It meant ordinary quality wouldn't even come close.
To face a bastard at chief of staff level, neither durability nor power could be lacking.
This was why it was giving me a headache.
Even if I played as a Paladin, it would be exhausting without the powerful unique skills that appeared in the late game.
The skills I currently had were at most...
'Hmm?'
At that moment.
An idea flashed through my mind.
Normal Skill: Golden Spear (Mythic Class Only) - Summons a high-temperature golden spear that melts even evil souls and hurls it.
It melts... souls?
And specifically, specifically evil souls.
Oh-ho?
'If this works out well...'
I might be able to compete with him through type advantage... I thought.