Confession Necklace (3)
Confession Necklace (3)
The Confession Necklace blindsided me. I never expected it to drag my inner thoughts out like that.
Some chilling words had slipped out along the way, so I was afraid I might've earned Ellia's resentment.
...I cautiously gauged her reaction, but fortunately, nothing happened—aside from Ellia ordering a warm milk for me.
I sipped it, doing my best not to let the thought that it tasted awful leak out.
After that, with Ellia's help, I practiced until I could manage some degree of control.
Though at this point, all I could really do was switch it on and off.
Strangely, keeping my unfiltered thoughts from spilling out was the hard part.
Ellia's grandfather supposedly mastered it in one go without any trouble, so what the hell is my problem...
'Hard...'
[Hard]
The moment I grumbled inwardly, the Confession Necklace activated. I scowled at its flat, androgynous voice.
That's basically how it works.
It irritated me for no good reason. I grabbed the necklace and shook it a little.
Honestly, it wasn't a bad thing.
With my voice sealed by the Curse of Silence, the Confession Necklace let me bypass one entire curse.
Not through absurdly difficult methods like the Curse-Lifting Jewel or a Tower wish ticket, but with a single mid-to-low-grade artifact.
It's definitely a gain, but since I can't handle it properly yet, it feels a bit... off.
[Cadet Lee Ha-yul, authenticated.]
The dormitory door slid open with the same mechanical voice as always.
Normally I'd authenticate with my smartwatch, but for now I'm using the hologram projector instead.
The hologram projector was a tool I already knew well.
It's basically a smartphone with a built-in hologram function.
Not many people these days are unable to use a smartwatch, but the product exists for those niche cases.
I took off my shoes at the entrance and trudged toward the living room.
I swept the dormitory with Observation Authority.
The entrance I'd passed through.
The living room and kitchen. Three rooms, a bathroom, a storage closet, a veranda.
Nothing had changed from how I last remembered it.
No clumps of failed scarf-thread piled in a corner of the living room, no signs of anything particularly messed up.
The furnished appliances barely showed signs of use.
In fact, there was no reason for them to show any.
I'd spent very little time in the dormitory before.
Mornings were for general lectures, and in the afternoons I got beaten senseless during major-specific training.
After that, I kept pushing my body further, or buried myself in the library reviewing and previewing material in a haze.
When you live like that, time flies whether you like it or not.
Even when I did return to the dormitory, it was always past midnight, and I'd pass out immediately. Most other nights, I sat in the library until dawn.
So I don't really remember using the dormitory facilities.
When I first arrived, I did inspect everything closely, thinking I'd be living here for years anyway... but looking at the state of things, I doubt I'll use them much for the rest of my time either.
[Sigh]
[Disappointed]
[Hungry]
[Don't want to eat]
[Lonely]
'Ugh...'
[Shi—]
The moment my attention wandered, the necklace went haywire again. I silenced the chattering necklace and plopped down onto the sofa.
The plush softness hugging my rear hadn't changed either.
'Mm...'
A fair amount of time had passed. Most of what I'd resolved and planned when I first entered the dormitory had been accomplished.
The minor schedules, including dungeon practice, had gone smoothly enough.
I'd studied hard too. Though the material I'd missed while convalescing in the recovery room had piled up like a mountain range... I'd just have to suffer through that myself.
My training went well too. Might be self-flattery, but I'd guess I'm roughly in the mid-upper ranks among the first-years now.
The precise results would be decided at the midterm evaluation.
I'd also gained plenty of what I set out to obtain.
I achieved genuine growth at the Tower of Growth.
And I'd obtained the most crucial thing—the Origin Egg. I'd also acquired the Sky Wing Feather artifact, which would carry me through to the mid-game anyway.
'When is that thing going to wake up?'
The Origin Egg was resting soundly at one end of the sofa. It took up quite a bit of space, given its size.
The Origin Egg was a Hidden Piece with a heavy random element, but it was still a generous prize that reliably delivered value.
Not just decent—every Origin Egg in past iterations had produced something genuinely useful.
Mainly rare things that were hard to obtain even in the later iterations.
'Especially the 11th Iteration.'
11th Iteration «Diamond Warrior»
The iteration that was, without a doubt, the most outstanding in terms of sheer martial force.
The 11th Iteration left behind staggering exploits: invading Siyoram and half-leveling it, breaching the Floating Island's defenses where the Tower of Knowledge was located and breaking in, ransacking the Three Great Families and other factions, and smashing the Association Headquarters to pieces.
It was also the iteration capable of directly clashing with a Tower Master head-on.
I'd been lucky. Everything in the early stages had flowed smoothly, allowing me to extract maximum growth.
I'd made the right choices, too. I threw away virtue and focused solely on elevating my personal martial power, premised on sacrifice.
One of those smooth-turning gears had been the Origin Egg.
The Origin Egg of the 11th Iteration produced the Elixir of Polarity.
Its effects were simple.
Expansion of stat potential and an increase in growth speed.
Simple, but at the time, it was the best possible result.
For Diamond Warrior, who had branched into the extreme martial-artist path, and especially for the 11th Iteration, who had just begun riding the growth curve, nothing could have been more ideal.
'Maybe something similar for me...'
I had high hopes. Without hiding those expectations, I gently stroked the Origin Egg.
Elixir of Polarity? Even now, with me dabbling in various fields on the premise of being an All-Rounder, it wouldn't be bad.
If an armament or artifact I could use to the very end came out, like the 8th Iteration, that'd be great. Or I'd welcome an artifact that added one extra Unique Ability, like the 3rd Iteration's somewhat makeshift solution.
Anything would be fine. Considering how it worked in the original story, something helpful was bound to come out.
'Hmm...'
What I'd planned. I'd obtained the Origin Egg, and I'd handled all my other schedules too.
...I'd stumbled more than a few times and jumped rope with the line of death while obtaining the Confession Necklace, but so far nothing had seriously derailed.
I'd completed all the plans I'd drawn up early on.
Now it was time to draft a new plan.
The goal was similar to the beginning.
Lift the curses. Lift the Curse of Short Life first, and if there's leeway, lift the Sense Seal too. The Curse of Silence... I probably won't be able to break that one.
Along the way, I'd also added the notion of saving others if it was within my reach.
A few more objectives had been added.
Ultimately, martial power was what mattered. Whatever happened, the initial framework of the plan had to focus on the growth of my own combat strength.
I traced back through the original story's memories.
Since I'd occasionally had the mental bandwidth to think while stuck in the recovery room, I'd already drafted a rough plan.
'The Lake of Illusionary Dreams.'
A Hidden Piece discovered in the 8th Iteration... though calling it a Hidden Piece was a bit ambiguous. It was more just the location of a hidden dungeon itself.
But the existence of that dungeon alone massively boosted the player's combat stats.
It was, as the name suggested, a lake. A small dungeon containing a beautiful lake that looked like something out of an illusory dream.
The peculiarity was that it was ordinarily insufferably hard to find, and the mana inside boasted absurd purity and density.
Just sitting there absorbing mana made your magic stat skyrocket.
Thanks to that, starting from the 8th Iteration onward, I'd stopped worrying about mana and gained the reserves to pour out attacks without pause.
There was one other thing I was considering, but I was hesitating a little on this one.
'The artifact, Proof of Protection.'
A Hidden Piece discovered during the utter-disaster route of the 9th Iteration. A peak-grade artifact nearing the highest tier.
The reason it came to mind first was that the artifact called Proof of Protection is a prosthetic arm.
And not an ordinary prosthetic, but a peak-grade artifact with an inherent Unique Ability boasting tremendous defensive performance.
...The Status Window had told me that. I'd never actually used it myself.
Because Proof of Protection was a finicky artifact that chose its owner.
Back then, the 9th Iteration—which was riding the worst malicious route in history—had only discovered it, never even managing to make proper contact.
That's why I hesitated. Even if I went through the trouble of obtaining it, would I actually be able to use it? It supposedly judged the user's disposition, and I felt like I'd be rejected.
Also, if I discovered it only after recovering my arm... just to use it, I'd have to cut off a perfectly good arm.
Me, being riddled with cowardly hang-ups... no. At minimum, a normal person doesn't consider cutting off their own arm...
[Ugh]
A sigh escaped on its own. Ever since earlier, the necklace, occasionally chiming in with commentary by reading and venting my thoughts, had been getting on my nerves.
I'd have to spend some time getting this thing under control.
Bypassing the Curse of Silence was good, but letting my inner thoughts spill out as it pleased was basically another kind of curse.
- Ding!
That was when the alarm rang.
I furrowed my brow.
Wondering if it was some unidentifiable hallucination alarm, I checked the hologram projector.
Fortunately? Or unfortunately? It was a normal incoming mail alert. One chat room stood out amid the flood of well-wishing messages.
[121st Ipchun Class Chat (103)]
▶Liana Bellus: [Notice!] This is to inform you that next week's general lecture will be 「Understanding Spirits」! No materials needed! Please all gather at the Second Nature Park without delay! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (Today 15:03)
The sender was Professor Liana.
I'd heard she visited a few times while I was comatose, but I hadn't actually seen her since regaining consciousness.
I'd considered paying a visit today, but I didn't want to bother her on a weekend for no reason, so I hadn't gone.
Besides, judging by her message, it looked like I'd be seeing her all through the coming week.
Next week's general lectures were packed entirely with Professor Liana's courses.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Liana Bellus
●●●●●●○○○○(65/100)
｢Affection｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Kind Adult｣
[｢Curse of Silence｣ release conditions not satisfied]
[｢Curse of Solitude｣ release conditions not satisfied]