Become My Squire (4): The Hidden Piece and the Skeleton Professor
“You shall become my squire.”
There were exactly four hidden pieces to be found in this dungeon. To be precise, the system was designed so that the items dropped would change depending on who the protagonist of the current playthrough was. I remembered that Isabella would get a staff, Iris a necklace, Angelica a sword, and Dolnesia some sort of material. It was set up as a byproduct of an experiment to combine spirits with objects—a failed creation discarded in the dungeon by Dottore. Regardless, that was the system, though I had no idea how it would function now that the number of protagonists had increased from one to four. Would it drop just one at random, or all four? If it dropped all four, I’d be grateful, but it would likely be random.
I personally hoped for Dolnesia’s material. The necklace was a hidden piece with performance so high it could be used until the mid-to-late game, but given Iris’s personality, she wouldn’t want to use it. The sword was so poorly optimized for a hidden piece that I could understand why Dottore had discarded it. The staff, on the other hand, had decent enough performance; it was a good item to obtain if you lacked a primary weapon, usable well into the mid-game. But the material was different. Unlike the other items, it was something that could be used all the way to the ending.
If it was going to be one of the four at random, I really wanted the material.
The room of the hidden piece opened the moment Kafka pressed the button. Inside was a laboratory of sorts. Green lights flickered, and the room was covered in cobwebs, smelling musty as if it had been abandoned for a long time. And on the desk sat a flask containing something. Seeing that flask, I cheered inwardly. I had beaten the one-in-four odds.
[Spirit That Lost Its Heart]
A spirit that has lost both body and heart to someone. It is in a state of suspended animation; to awaken it, it seems one needs what the spirit loves most, and to rouse it, something to replace its body.
◈ Grade: Unique
A Unique-grade item. The material I had wanted most was right before my eyes.
“That is….”
“It’s a spirit,” Kafka replied to Dolnesia’s words.
“Judging by the fact that it’s in a flask, it seems it hasn’t been combined with anything yet.”
Kafka answered calmly, as if she were used to such things. However.
“This is too….”
“From Dolnesia’s perspective, this probably isn’t a very pleasant sight.”
Dolnesia was, how should I put it, furious. Iris seemed to have realized it too, as she was biting her lip slightly. It was understandable, as.
“That thing is, for all intents and purposes, dead…!”
The spirit inside was practically dead. It must have been a shocking sight for Dolnesia, a spirit summoner who communicated directly with spirits, and for Iris, who was so sensitive she was practically a human capybara. But it wasn’t exactly dead—it was in a state of suspended animation, and there was a way to make it move. As the item description stated, I just had to make it a body. Of course, I couldn’t say this with my own mouth.
‘Please, do me a favor.’
‘Understood.’
I spoke through Kafka’s mouth. “It’s fine. There is a way to save it.”
At Kafka’s words, the faces of Dolnesia and Iris began to brighten. Kafka relayed the content I sent via telepathy to the group exactly as it was.
“Hmm. We just need to find something to replace this little one’s body.”
At Kafka’s words, Dante’s face crumpled slightly. “That won’t do. Increasing the number of victims just to save a spirit is….”
Dante trailed off, looking at Kafka with sad eyes. It seemed he was worried about creating a second Kafka. However.
“The ‘replacement body’ I’m talking about is a bit different from what you’re thinking, Dante.”
“Different, you say…?”
“It means we don’t necessarily need to use something living to replace its body.” She looked at Dante. “Do you happen to know what a Living Armor is?”
“You mean a golem in the shape of armor?”
Kafka nodded at Dante’s words and continued. “Exactly. Think of it as the same principle. Like that Living Armor, we’ll use the spirit as a core and replace its body with armor to make it move.”
“Is it that simple?”
“Wait a minute. Isn’t that too strange?” At that moment, Haede suddenly interjected. “If it’s that simple to make, why didn’t they make it and instead leave the spirit here?”
“That’s a question I have as well. Leaving behind something that could easily become evidence would be a dangerous move for their side….”
Dante and Haede’s questions hit the nail on the head. ‘That’s true, there’s no reason to leave this here….’
Hearing their words, Kafka seemed curious too, so she asked me via telepathy. But.
‘Do you happen to know why they discarded it here?’
‘No, I don’t know that much.’
I didn’t know either. The game just said it was discarded in the dungeon; neither the art book nor the game ever explained what Dottore was thinking when he hid this hidden piece here. ‘Well, that man was such a freak that he was impossible to predict. He wouldn’t have left it here for no reason, but… it might be a pointless reason.’
Kafka thought to herself that that was just like Dottore, and continued, “I don’t know that either. The Doctor was quite the eccentric. Perhaps he left it here for show, or just out of curiosity.”
“If that’s the case, that Doctor person is terrible,” Iris said, looking at the spirit in the flask with sad eyes. I handed the flask containing the spirit to Dolnesia.
“Since you’re the spirit summoner, it’s best if you hold onto this.”
“Then, this spirit….”
The moment Dolnesia, who had received the flask, looked at me and tried to say something, she had no choice but to shut her mouth. The spirit that had been inside the flask had disappeared right through the tips of Dolnesia’s fingers.
“It disappeared?” Iris watched in astonishment, while Dolnesia, the person involved, shook her head as if that wasn’t the case, though her expression was bewildered.
“No, it didn’t disappear. It went into my shadow, like Sancho.”
“Can you bring it out like Sancho?”
“I’ll try….”
As Dolnesia channeled her spirit power with a bewildered face, the spirit revealed itself from her hand. It looked exactly as it had when it was inside the flask.
“It woke up….” Kafka opened her mouth in a dazed tone. As she said, the spirit couldn’t move, but it flickered with light as if it were responding, though that only lasted a moment.
“It disappeared.”
It was reverse-summoned almost immediately. It seems that to keep it out for a long time like Sancho or Rocinante, I’ll have to build it a body, just like in the game.
“But why did the spirit….” Iris wore a look that asked why. She seemed curious about how the spirit woke up and why it was absorbed by Dolnesia. Even if Dolnesia was a spirit summoner, it made no sense by common standards to wake a spirit in a state of suspended animation. But there was a hidden backstory here. The reason Dolnesia could wake the spirit lay in that.
In truth, the information I had relayed to Kafka was a fabrication I had made up to add some plausible substance to an empty story; Dottore had never actually succeeded in making armor that moved using a spirit. To be precise, it wasn’t that he didn’t, but that he couldn’t. I remembered reading in the descriptions of other items that he had tried to make armor that moved on the same principle as Living Armor, but failed. He had succeeded in inserting it into the armor, but he had to wake the spirit inside to make it move, and it failed because no matter what he did, it wouldn’t wake up. That was why he was limited to making mere staves, swords, and necklaces. I hadn’t expected him to go beyond items and start putting them into magical beasts, corpses, and even people, though.
Anyway, the condition to wake the spirit that Dottore couldn’t find was Dolnesia’s exclusive stat, ‘Spirit Affinity’—or more accurately, it was for Dolnesia, who had awakened that stat, to acquire the ‘Spirit That Lost Its Heart.’ It didn’t matter if she hadn’t awakened her Spirit Affinity yet; as long as she had it in her inventory, the event would trigger immediately upon awakening the stat.
“As Kafka said, if it doesn’t have a body, it seems it can’t be kept out for long like Sancho or Rocinante.”
“Then, we should hurry and make it a body.”
No sooner had Dolnesia finished speaking than—
[Quest: Crafting the Heartless Tin Knight]
Craft a body for the Spirit That Lost Its Heart.
◈ Helmet (0/1)
◈ Armor (0/1)
◈ Boots (0/1)
◈ Gauntlets (0/1)
🎁 Reward: ???
A second quest window appeared. The quest content was the same as in the game, but unlike the game where the reward was a spirit contract, the reward here was marked with a question mark. Since the spirit contract would likely be made with Dolnesia anyway, it seemed the reward had been replaced with something else.
Having obtained the hidden piece, there was no longer any need to stay here. We walked toward the exit. However, every step I took, my entire body screamed in agony. It seemed eating an apple while my internal organs were all damaged was a bit much, as my stomach felt terrible. My physical condition was at its worst, to the point where I could barely walk without leaning on Kafka. Still, going to the infirmary was a bit much. I could already see myself getting docked points the moment I stepped foot in there. I had the ‘Dragon Strength’ trait, so I figured I’d be fine if I just slept in the dormitory, but Dolnesia was glaring at me with eyes that suggested she would drag me to the infirmary no matter what, so that didn’t seem likely.
“Are you really going to drag me to the infirmary?”
“I told you. The moment we get out of here, I’m dragging you straight to the infirmary.”
“Then what about the penalty points?”
“Penalty points are the least of our worries right now!”
She tried to hit my back, but Dolnesia caught her own hand with her other hand, barely suppressing her anger. Well, I had managed to reach level 30, which had been my goal. I suppose I’d have to accept that I wouldn’t be able to go out or stay out overnight for a while. We kept walking and walking until we reached the exit, and finally, when we stepped out—
Clack!
“My, my. So, did you enjoy your trip?”
We were met by a snow-white skeleton with its arms crossed, blue light burning in its eye sockets. It was today’s duty professor, Luke Eaenril.
Hmm. I’m screwed.
Of all the times, to be caught by a professor immediately, without even a chance to hide Kafka. Or wait, is he a gag character? Maybe if I play it right, he’ll just let it slide? But wait, that skeleton is level 90, same as the Chicken Coop. The blue light burning in the professor’s eye sockets was directed at Kafka.
“It seems you’ve made a new friend, Ian.”
“Haha, Professor. I can explain everything.”
“That seems like a more meaningless endeavor than making bone broth out of my own shinbone.”
Then, after scanning me up and down once, the skeleton professor sighed and revealed his snow-white, gaunt, and slender bony fingers. “Now then, Ian.”
He then curled them into a fist. It was a fist made of gaunt, slender bones that didn’t look like it would hurt, but for some reason, I felt an incredibly ominous sensation.
“It will sting for a moment. You’ll be spending some time in the infirmary, but well, isn’t that just reaping what you’ve sown?”
Excuse me? I didn’t even have time to react. The skeleton professor closed the distance that should have taken several steps in just one, as if using a shrinking-step technique, and lightly tapped my chest with his bony fist. That was all he did. But my vision went black immediately.
A strange ceiling. When I opened my eyes, I saw a snow-white ceiling. Curtains were drawn on both sides, and seeing that I was lying in a bed, it seemed I was in the infirmary. I didn’t expect to be knocked out by a single tap of that bony fist. It must have been a critical hit.
Just as I was having the trivial thought of taking another nap because my whole body still ached, something flashed through my mind. Kafka, what happened to Kafka? I had been about to explain Kafka when I passed out. Could they have already dissected her?
Filled with ominous thoughts, I pulled back the curtain and froze on the spot.
“My stomach is aching like it’s got a hole in it, and I’m in big trouble since I’ve run out of stomach medicine.”
“There shouldn’t be any narcotic ingredients in stomach medicine, should there?”
“Shut up, please. 80% of my stomach is currently thanks to you.”
“If you’re so bothered, you should try being a skeleton too.”
Professor Silves, the elf with a grimacing face, and Professor Luke, the skeleton who was being a nuisance beside her.
“Ah, are you awake?”
And sitting there, peeling an apple, was the Dean of Lumia Academy, Ash Bell Draig.
Holy shit, what a hell of a lineup for a hospital visit. Can’t I just close the curtain and go back to sleep?