Chapter 72
Chapter 72
Ch. 72 .｡.:✧ The Transcontinental Train (2) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“…This. Keeps, moving.”
Undecided handed over the box.
The box containing the black mana stone, Kali’s dead soul, kept shaking incessantly.
Even though his head was spinning, he felt nauseous and couldn’t think straight, he had a strong intuition that the black mana stone could solve this situation.
“Ugh. Open it.”
“…Okay.”
Without time to deliberate, he ordered Undecided.
The moment Undecided unlatched the wooden box, the black mana stone sprang out with a thud.
Even after falling to the floor, the mana stone continued to vibrate like an electric motor.
He had never seen anything like this before.
Out of curiosity, he reached out to touch the mana stone.
A system window popped up before his eyes.
⚙ System Notification ⚙
› Large-scale accumulation has begun.
“…!”
Black energy began to creep up from the train floor.
Demonic energy.
It was the demonic energy that had been used to cast the curse and exert its effects.
That demonic energy crawled up and swirled in the air.
Then it was suddenly sucked into the black mana stone all at once.
Like a black hole.
The demonic energy flowing from the entire train entered the mana stone at once, and then the vibration stopped.
At the same time, his headache and dizziness disappeared completely.
His foggy mind cleared.
Along with the thick demonic energy, the curse’s effects had completely vanished.
“Haaah…”
He could finally breathe properly again.
After taking a deep breath,
To make sure, he placed his hand on the floor again and used Inspect.
[Transcontinental Train]
› Status: Aged
› A large passenger train that operates from Gallia in the southern continent to Palana in the northern continent.
The word “Cursed” had disappeared from the status field.
It seemed the curse had been lifted as the demonic energy was sucked into the mana stone.
Swallowing nervously, he touched the mana stone and saw:
Accumulation: 2,850/62,500
The accumulation amount had noticeably increased.
It was definitely 80 last time, so it had increased by about 2,800.
‘This thing doesn’t just absorb mana, but demonic energy too.’
Come to think of it, the mana stone’s description hadn’t specified that only mana would accumulate.
He had just assumed it was only mana because that was all he could accumulate immediately.
He never imagined it could be charged with demonic energy too.
Then again, considering this mana stone was born from the condensation of Kali’s mana stone, perhaps this was a natural result.
‘As much as 2,800…’
This was an enormous amount.
It was a quantity that would take over ten days of pouring in mana amplified by Guardian Knight to accumulate.
Of course, mana and demonic energy couldn’t be equated one-to-one, but that was a rough calculation.
“Well done.”
“…Peace.”
As if she had been waiting for praise, Undecided immediately flashed a V-sign with her usual expressionless face.
He roughly patted her head and stood up.
Glancing at the compartment, he saw passengers who had been collapsed like corpses just moments ago now getting up, looking bewildered.
‘So it can be used like this.’
This black mana stone.
He had been wondering if there was a way to fill up the accumulation amount in large quantities.
But he never imagined it could be filled while neutralizing a curse.
‘Who on earth could it be?’
Generally, curses didn’t necessarily require the caster to be present at the scene.
Of course, they could cast directly, but it was common for pre-installed talismans or totems to spread the curse.
But in this case, he strongly suspected the curse caster was still on this train.
‘It wasn’t a life-threatening curse. They only intended to make people lose consciousness.’
Although it was a powerful curse that could knock out all the train passengers, it wasn’t enough to take lives.
They probably intended to sell the unconscious passengers as slaves, or harvest their organs alive, planning to deal with them afterwards.
“The curse caster is still on this train.”
So the caster must also be on board.
That was his conclusion.
The problem was how to find them…
“Tsk…”
Even looking around the compartment, he couldn’t tell who looked suspicious.
It would be nice if he could use ‘Inspect’ on people too.
Unfortunately, that was impossible.
Then how should he find them?
There weren’t just one or two compartments to search, but over a dozen.
‘There’s not much time.’
The moment the train arrived and stopped at the next station,
They would jump off and escape right away.
So he had to find them before reaching the next station…
“Ah.”
He figured it out.
He might not know where they were now,
But it was obvious where they were heading.
The engine room.
The train was still running at full speed.
The only way for the curse caster to escape was to get off when the train stopped.
And there was a way to stop the train right now.
They just had to hit the brakes in the engine room.
If he had thought of this method, the curse caster must be thinking the same thing.
“They’re going to the engine room. Follow me.”
“…Okay.”
Taking Undecided’s hand, he hurried to the very front of the train, heading for the engine room.
He had to arrive before the curse caster.
To hit the brakes on a perfectly running train, they would have to subdue the railway staff.
If the curse caster arrived first, there could be casualties.
“Vice Captain. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. What on earth happened…”
Passing through the noisy dining car, past the regular compartments, through the first-class compartments.
Soon they encountered a locked door.
This wasn’t the end.
Beyond this was the freight car.
They had to pass through the freight car to reach the engine room.
“It’s unlocked…”
But the lock was just hanging there, already unlocked.
When he turned the handle, the door opened without resistance.
It meant the curse caster had already passed through here.
“Ugh!”
The moment he flung the door open, a strong wind from outside hit him.
This happened to be on the bridge crossing the strait between the southern and northern continents.
Being over the sea, the wind was quite fierce.
As he tried to open the door to the next car, the freight car,
“What? Why won’t it open?”
The door wouldn’t open.
Was it locked from the inside?
No. That couldn’t be.
If they were the type to lock doors thoroughly, they would have locked the door he just opened too.
Then the direction the curse caster headed was narrowed down to one.
Upwards.
“Undecided. Get on my back.”
“…Okay.”
With Undecided on his back, he jumped high.
As he climbed up the wall, he saw one person precariously standing on top of the train.
“Got you, you rascal.”
“…?!”
It was a woman wearing a black nun’s habit.
As she turned around, her pale face was revealed.
Was she a curse caster disguised as a nun?
The Benevolent God’s religion strictly forbade curses, treating them as evil magic.
This was quite a serious offense.
“Raise your hands high and get on your knees. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to cut you down.”
“…”
He put Undecided down and placed his hand on his waist.
As he grasped the bag hanging at his waist, it gradually transformed into the shape of a longsword.
When he drew the sword and pointed it at her, the curse caster glared at him with a vicious expression, grinding her teeth.
“So it was you. The one who broke the curse.”
“You’re quite terse. How old are you?”
“You dare talk about age, you mere human? I wonder which of us is truly ill-mannered…”
“I don’t care what race you are. Quickly raise your hands. Before I open a blood fountain in your throat.”
He couldn’t let his guard down just because the opponent was a woman.
She might be in disguise.
There’s a saying in fantasy worlds to be wary of the elderly, women, and children, right?
Oh? Was that not it?
Anyway,
“Hehe…”
Contrary to his expectations, the nun slowly raised her hands.
Was she surrendering?
But it was too early to relax yet.
‘I should use Weak Point just in case.’
Judging by how she talked about age, she seemed to be an elf.
Still, to be thorough, he activated the Weak Point trait.
The weak points on her body should be highlighted in red, but…
‘What? What’s going on?’
No weak points were visible.
In the view through Weak Point, she was just entirely gray.
Not a hint of red was visible.
This couldn’t be right?
Every living being had vital points.
Even Undecided, who was a corpse, had visible weak points, so what was this creature?
“An opening!”
“…!”
In the instant he blinked, the nun’s body surged forward, flying at him.
She was fast.
Not just fast, but insanely fast.
However, it wasn’t enough to defeat him with his stats boosted by Guardian Knight and his body preheated with mana control.
She was already inside the attack range of his longsword, so it was too late to swing it.
He blocked the nun’s chopping hand while simultaneously drawing his dagger and thrusting.
“Ah!”
Thunk!
A short scream of agony burst out as the dagger’s tip sank deep into the nun’s abdomen.
He felt the sensation of the blade piercing skin and tearing through internal organs.
It had struck true.
At least this meant she wasn’t a puppet doll.
“Ah, ah…”
The color drained from her face, turning pale in an instant.
And fear gradually spread across her expression.
The nun’s pupils shook as she couldn’t take her eyes off her own abdomen where the dagger was embedded.
As strength left her body and she was about to fall backwards, he wrapped an arm around her waist to support her.
“Am I… Am I going to die?”
The nun asked him, her body trembling.
Her previously arrogant attitude had completely vanished.
Only a woman afraid of accepting death remained.
“Can you stop acting now? You’re really bad at it.”
“…”
…is what he thought he’d never say.
This was a woman with no vital points on her body.
She wouldn’t make such a fuss from getting stabbed in a non-vital area.
“How…”
As expected, the nun’s expression twisted, showing her displeasure.
To be honest, her acting wasn’t bad.
If it weren’t for Weak Point, he might have been fooled.
She was just unlucky to run into him.
“I’m going to restrain you. If you have any complaints, sort them out with the police when we reach the station. For now, just quietly-”
“…Behind you!”
At that moment, Undecided’s sharp voice rang out.
As he turned his head, he saw tentacles growing from the nun’s ankles, climbing up his blind spot and aiming for his head.
“Ugh?!”
“Kyahahahaha! I could have killed you! What a shame!”
He managed to dodge the fiercely striking tentacles, but…
In that moment, the nun shook off his arm and escaped while letting out a chilling laugh.
Even as he immediately reached out to grab her again, all he caught was air.
In front of him, only an empty nun’s habit fell to the ground, with her nowhere to be seen.
“What?!”
He thought she might have used 9th tier magic like Teleportation, but a black form crawled out from under the nun’s habit.
It was a black centipede.
A centipede almost as large as Undecided.
“Farewell!”
The centipede leapt off the train roof.
He thought it would fall into the strait below and escape, but
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“…?”
The centipede’s body floated in the air.
Despite frantically moving its numerous legs, it just flailed uselessly in midair.
Unable to fall, it was quickly pulled back right in front of him.
“Eh? Huh?”
It was 5th tier non-attribute magic, Telekinesis.
A basic spell.
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