Chapter 94
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: The Variant Naga
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Abel was about to open his mouth again out of frustration when the voice rang out once more.
-Why do you have that power?
“That power?”
Abel echoed in confusion. But what came back wasn’t a kind reply.
Taak-!
Suddenly, the opponent charged forward with sharp claws leading the way.
* * *
The distance closed in an instant.
Abel reflexively threw himself aside.
Whoooosh!
The sound of air slicing through rang out right beside him.
Abel broke out in cold sweat.
The opponent’s claws might as well have been lethal weapons.
‘If it even grazes me once, I’m done for.’
A scratch from those wouldn’t just wound—it would dull his reactions from the pain.
In other words, to get through this crisis, he had to dodge every single attack.
The opponent closed the gap again, swinging its arm in a menacing arc.
Whoooosh!
The attack missed by a hair’s breadth.
Abel dodged one after another, like some kind of acrobat.
As he kept evading, the opponent seemed to grow enraged and suddenly pulled back, crouching down.
Seeing this, Abel hurriedly spoke up.
“Why are you attacking me?”
-Power….
Grgrgrk!
The opponent’s body emitted a bizarre noise as if it were about to reply, then suddenly swelled up.
Its frame now looked at least twice as large as before.
Kwaaaaang-!
Right after, its body shot toward Abel like a cannonball.
Roaring savagely all the while.
-Hand it over!
Abel, who had prepared for this, activated Shadow Step.
Sssslip-.
His body slid sideways like it was gliding.
Kwaaaaang!
The opponent smashed into the spot where Abel had just been, missing by a narrow margin.
It had clearly swung its arm down at the ground, but the sound alone made it seem like a bomb had detonated.
No—the result was about the same.
A small crater had formed right there.
From Abel’s perspective, it was an attack so brutal that “terrifying” didn’t even begin to cover it. But it wasn’t all bad.
‘They must have noticed the intrusion by now.’
There were knights standing by inside the mansion for Hena’s safety.
There was no way they hadn’t heard that massive boom from moments ago.
All Abel had to do was hold out until they arrived.
That was when the voice rang out again.
-You won’t escape this place.
“What?”
-No one is coming to help you.
The opponent didn’t seem interested in conversation. It just kept barking its one-sided declarations.
But Abel couldn’t just ignore it.
‘No way…?’
He tensed up, scanning his surroundings.
Sensitive to mana as he was, Abel quickly noticed something.
‘There’s a thin membrane.’
A massive dome stretched out around them, centered on Abel and the opponent.
Based on what the opponent had said, he could easily guess its purpose.
‘Blocking out sound and vibrations?’
If his guess was right, simply waiting around wouldn’t solve anything.
Even as this went through his mind, the opponent crouched down again, its body swelling just like before.
‘What do I do?’
The membrane was too far away to just charge through it.
If he tried to flee, the opponent would chase him down even more easily.
His escape path would become a straight line.
‘Wait.’
As Abel’s mind raced, a good idea suddenly flashed in his head.
Grgrgr-!
The noise came from the opponent’s body once more.
Abel first leaped to the right.
Kwaang-!
With an explosive sound, the opponent barreled toward him.
That path itself was blatantly straight.
If he just watched carefully, dodging wouldn’t be hard.
Kwaaaaang!
Once again, the opponent’s attack slammed into empty ground.
But the opponent wasn’t stupid—it immediately charged at Abel the moment it missed.
Sssslip!
Abel promptly took a step, dashing toward one side of the circular dome.
-Kraaa!
Spotting this, the opponent went berserk and started charging after him.
The distance closed rapidly.
Even with his skills, the opponent’s speed was overwhelmingly superior.
But what Abel was aiming for wasn’t a straight escape to the outside.
“So, think you can catch me?”
Abel deliberately taunted it while dodging this way and that.
He could feel the opponent growing more and more agitated.
Its trajectory was simplifying by the second.
‘Just a little more!’
Abel desperately dodged and weaved, running toward the edge.
Even as he did, the distance kept shrinking, until finally it was down to about ten paces.
That was when Abel came to a stop and simultaneously raised one arm.
He could see it.
The opponent’s chest, completely exposed as it focused on the attack.
The excited glint in the predator’s eyes, right before seizing its prey.
It didn’t seem to have even considered that it might be the one in danger.
Pajijijik!
At the same time, brilliant light burst from the dagger in Abel’s hand, lightning exploding outward.
The moment the lightning took on an elongated, spear-like form, Abel thrust his arm forward.
[Thunderbolt Spear]
The spear of lightning sliced through the air.
Kwarururung!
Kwaaaaang!
With a deafening thunderclap, the opponent’s chest split wide open.
What happened next was astonishing.
Even after taking such a massive wound, the opponent didn’t stop—it kept charging.
At this rate, Abel’s body would be torn apart by those claws.
The fortunate part was that Abel’s moves didn’t end there.
Pajijijijik!
[-Chain Strike!]
Lightning formed into a spear once more in Abel’s empty hand.
He aimed it precisely at the split-open chest.
More accurately, at the small, glinting ‘core’ shining between the gap.
Kwaaaaang-!
Finally, with a massive boom, light as white as day lit up the night sky.
“Huk, heuk.”
Abel immediately collapsed to the ground.
In that instant, he had depleted every last drop of mana in his body, bringing on symptoms of mana exhaustion.
It was his first time chaining Thunderbolt Spear with a double attack, and the mana drain was far worse than expected.
‘Got lucky.’
The plan had plenty of room for failure.
For one, the core being exposed right away from the first strike was pure fortune.
‘Bipedal types usually have their cores near the heart, but…’
He hadn’t picked the spot entirely at random, but cores could be anywhere.
Some had them in random places like arms or legs.
“Well, good’s good.”
In the end, he’d repelled the enemy without a single scratch.
He could put off reflecting on the fight for now.
Abel looked up at the sky.
The circular dome that had enveloped the area was slowly fading away.
‘That’s a dangerous ability.’
A barrier that blocked sound, vibrations, and possibly even light, all without warning.
In truth, that power was far more dangerous than the opponent’s raw strength.
When he factored in how it had dragged him out here with an invisible force from the window, it sent chills down his spine.
If the fight had dragged on even a little longer, Abel would have been the one in trouble.
“Kuh.”
Abel dragged his throbbing body to its feet. Just as he moved to inspect the corpse—
[The Sentence reacts.]
Light suddenly poured from where his tattoo was engraved, and messages scrolled up one after another.
[Absorbing some abilities of the variant ‘Naga’.]
[Physical abilities slightly increased.]
[Acquired skill ‘Enhanced Recovery’.]
[Acquired skill ‘Iron Scale’.]
Abel’s eyes went wide in shock.
Not because of the stat boost or getting two skills at once.
‘Variant?’
Variant.
It was definitely a term from the game.
But it only appeared in the mid-to-late game—far in the future from now.
They were generally depicted as highly intelligent, allied with humans on the Gigadeus’s side, but their true nature was unknown.
‘There were rumors it’d get detailed in a later DLC.’
Abel stared down at the Naga’s corpse with a grave expression.
Tadadak!
“Over there!”
That was when voices rang out from the distance.
It seemed the mansion’s residents had finally sensed something was wrong and come running.
Abel first calmed his complicated thoughts and looked toward the approaching group.
The long night was finally coming to an end.
* * *
The villa was in an uproar.
This wasn’t just any mansion—it was the Del Kior family’s villa.
A Naga, known to be just shy of mid-tier kin, had appeared there, so it was only natural.
And to top it off, it had attacked a guest Hena had personally brought along.
“Abel, are you really okay?”
Hena asked with a worried look, gazing at Abel as he lay on the white bed.
It was the fifth time she’d asked.
Abel gave her a reassuring smile.
“I’m fine. It’s just mild mana exhaustion.”
“But…! You fought a Naga barehanded!”
“I got lucky.”
Abel replied calmly to her concern.
It wasn’t even a lie.
Aside from the mana exhaustion, his body was unscathed.
“I’m okay, so you should go rest too. You’ve been up almost all night.”
“I’m fine…”
“I’m not.”
When Abel spoke firmly, Hena hesitated.
In truth, this was already the third time he’d suggested she rest.
That was when—
Squeak-.
The door to the treatment room opened, and someone entered.
“Hena-sama.”
It was the butler.
He gave a slight bow to Hena and spoke.
“Abel-sama needs rest right now, so wouldn’t it be best if you rested a bit as well?”
“I-is that so.”
Unable to ignore the butler, Hena hesitated a moment before turning to Abel.
“Then I’ll rest a bit. Call a servant if you need anything.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
With that, Hena withdrew.
The butler approached in her place and opened his mouth.
“First of all, allow me to sincerely apologize to you, Abel-sama.”
“Pardon?”
“Our lax security caused you great harm, and we have no excuse. We will administer fitting punishment to those on guard duty at the time.”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
Abel spoke up hastily.
“As I said earlier, no one noticed because of the barrier.”
Worried the butler might say more, Abel added,
“If you punish them harshly, it’ll only make me uncomfortable.”
“…Is that so.”
When Abel put it that way, the butler bowed his head again and continued.
“In that case, we’ll start with a pay cut as punishment.”
“Yes. Please do.”
Refusing any punishment at all would be insulting the butler—and by extension, Hena’s family.
Ending it like this was the reasonable choice.
But the butler had more business, immediately speaking up again.
“We’ve processed and preserved the fragment corpse you defeated, Abel-sama. We’ll have it ready for you to take on your way out.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
The variant’s corpse was recognized as Abel’s property.
He had caught it entirely on his own, without any help.
It was fortunate, since Abel had wanted to examine it more closely anyway.
Abel thought the conversation was over, but the butler pulled something from his pocket and spoke once more.
“And this is a token of apology for the incident.”
It was a small box.
Abel accepted it, puzzled though he was.
“It’s a modest item, but I would be grateful if you’d accept it.”
“Understood. I’ll accept it gratefully.”
Refusing something like this would be rude to the other party.
Honestly, he felt half burdened and half excited about what it might be.
“Then please rest well.”
With that, the butler finally seemed to be done and bowed before withdrawing.
Abel waited until the door closed, then carefully opened the box.
“Huh?”
His eyes immediately widened in surprise.
Inside was a disc the size of two palms put together, and engraved on its surface were the words:
Jane & Wesson.
It was the name of a brand famous for crafting top-tier artifacts.