Montblanc's Test (3)

The communal cemetery of Tipun Village held seventeen burial mounds in all. And that deranged bastard Jeffrey, who hadn't so much as a speck of respect for the dead, had gone and dug every last one of them up.

Not that he'd done it because he'd actually lost his mind. The son of a bitch had carved a network of mole tunnels beneath the cemetery, fashioning himself a stage where he could put on his finest performance.

Whish—!

"Kh!"

A razor-sharp presence flared at my side. I bit down on my lip and threw myself forward. A poison-slick dagger sliced through the air where I'd been standing a heartbeat before.

"Shit."

I barely managed to check my momentum — I'd launched myself like a sprinter off the blocks — and snapped my gaze toward where the dagger had come from. Jeffrey was nowhere to be seen. The kind of situation that made you swear on instinct.

I pulled a shield from my inventory and swept the area, every sense on edge. In this situation, a shield was worth far more than a sword.

A thief popping out of burial mounds like a goddamn mole. Booby traps strung between the graves. Poison flying at me whenever the mood strikes… Fuck, this is a nightmare.

Fighting on an enemy's home turf when they'd had all the time in the world to prepare was about as disadvantageous as it got.

Hey! I was a ranker in my past life, you hear me? A ranker! You think you can just ignore a ranker's cred?!

But overcoming bad odds and putting the enemy in the dirt — that was what being a ranker meant. If a disadvantage automatically meant defeat, you'd never make ranker in the first place.

And of course, a plan for turning this around was already taking shape in my head, piece by careful piece.

If he's using the dark, I'll use the light!

Jeffrey's attribute was Dark. Unfortunately, I didn't have a Light attribute to counter it.

I'd killed a fair number of enemies by now — and not a single one of them had Light? Ah, right. I could only steal an attribute by killing someone stronger than me, couldn't I?

Not one Light-attribute bastard among the ones I'd put down. Fate had a nasty sense of humor.

Then again, that also meant opportunity. If I succeeded in killing Jeffrey, the Dark attribute I already possessed would evolve. The bastard was a higher level than me.

Come on out already.

The moment he popped up and ducked back into those underground passages — that was my window to strike back. I couldn't hesitate even a tenth of a second.

And before long, the moment I'd been waiting for arrived.

Jeffrey surfaced atop a burial mound as silently as a ghost and flung a dagger from behind me. My agility stat had spiked so hard I could barely keep my own speed in check — but the flip side was that my senses had sharpened to a knife's edge, and I felt the dagger coming from my blind spot.

I spun and thrust the shield out in front of me.

Clang—!

You son of a bitch.

A vial mounted on the dagger's tip shattered, and poison sprayed out in a burst. If I'd swatted it aside with a sword instead of blocking with the broad face of a shield, I'd have been doused in the stuff. My fury at Jeffrey — who was so utterly intent on killing me — stacked itself away in my chest like deposits in a savings book.

The attack having failed, Jeffrey vanished back into the mound. And I, who had been waiting for exactly this instant, sprinted for the nearest burial mound.

This one's been quietly overperforming.

Tiny lights bloomed around me and poured into the tunnel where Jeffrey had hidden himself.

I didn't stop there. I kept casting Firefly, flooding not just the tunnels but the entire cemetery with light. Each individual glow was feeble — but clustered together, they grew bright enough to make your eyes water.

Jeffrey's eyes were adapted to the dark. A sudden blaze of light like this wouldn't be something he could adjust to easily.

The same went for me, of course — but unlike him, I'd come prepared.

Sunglasses, baby. Absolute cheat code.

I'd been researching my skills without rest. Until I found ones I actually liked, I had to kill monsters and put enemies in the ground with what I already had.

So I'd studied endlessly how to apply the skills I possessed in ways that would deal lethal damage — and this was one of the results.

Zero lethality. But it could steal one of an enemy's sensory organs: their sight. Most opponents fought with their eyes. Taking that away was an enormous achievement in its own right.

On top of that, Firefly was a skill so ignored and looked down on that almost nobody used it. Meaning almost nobody would have a counter ready the instant someone like me started casting it.

"Heh heh heh."

I surveyed the surroundings and smiled, thoroughly satisfied. Jeffrey, who'd been popping out of mounds like a mole and hurling daggers, still hadn't reappeared. The light packing those tunnels had clearly thrown him.

Next up was Wind ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Arrow. The maximum number I could generate was twenty-four, and there were seventeen burial mounds. I formed one or two arrows per mound and trained them on each.

I'd seized the initiative with a method he couldn't have seen coming — but Jeffrey would adapt soon enough. A higher level meant that much more combat experience. A bastard like that wasn't going to go down quietly.

If I waited just a little, he'd come at me again. And the instant he burst from a mound to attack, a Wind Arrow would blow his head apart.

That was my strategy for cracking Jeffrey.

How long did I wait? A chilling sensation crawled across the nape of my neck. Just as I'd predicted — the bastard had popped out.

Fire!

I covered the back of my neck with the shield and loosed every Wind ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Arrow I'd been holding at the ready.

Thud—!

"Ghhhkk?!"

Jeffrey's groan came from behind me. A Wind Arrow had punched clean through his body. I wasn't about to let a chance like this slip.

Wind Arrow! Wind Arrow! Wind Arrow!

I cast as I closed the distance.

Thud-thud-thud—!

The sickening sound of flesh being pierced kept coming. I could see Jeffrey sprawled atop a burial mound, bleeding out.

Wind Arrow.

Thud—!

Just to be sure, I generated one more and drove it through his throat. The upper body of the man lying face-down shuddered — then went still, like a machine that had lost its power.

The windows floating before my eyes confirmed the bastard was dead. Having finished him off for good, I finally dropped Firefly as well. Darkness swallowed the cemetery once more.

Status window.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh."

Checking the status window, I burst out laughing at the character that had changed behind the Darkness attribute. After Dark came Black, huh…

Is there a next stage after this too?

The fact that attributes even had higher tiers was something I'd only learned after coming to this world.

Tsk… shame I don't get the full mileage out of the attribute effects, though.

An attribute was a precious ability that granted buffs by its mere existence. Simply possessing a counter-attribute meant +20% damage dealt and −20% damage taken. Effects that rare even among high-grade traits.

Come to think of it, I hadn't even checked what the evolved attribute actually did.

"Broken as hell."

Attributes really were a cheat code.

Somewhere in that cemetery, Jeffrey Isaac's weapons, poisons, and valuables were surely stashed away — but I didn't collect them. More precisely, it wasn't that I chose not to. I couldn't.

"G-good heavens! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The graves have been dug up!"

"Everyone watch out! There are traps set up!"

"What kind of psycho does this?! Who the hell did this?!"

"Look over there! Someone's dead!"

"Ugh! His head's been cut off?!"

The people of Tipun Village had come running to the cemetery.

I'd blasted Firefly light everywhere — bright enough to see from a long way off. On top of that, Jeffrey's booby traps had gone off, kicking up a racket of explosions.

The blasts had jolted the sleeping villagers awake, and the sight of the cemetery blazing like a lantern had sent them sprinting over in a panic. Some of them knew my face, so as much as it pained me, I had to abandon Jeffrey's belongings and get out.

Circling around the long way, just as I had when I'd entered, I slipped back into Tipun Village unseen and spent the night at the inn.

"Ahhhhh, SEX!"

Maybe it was the brutal fight catching up with me, but I slept like the dead. I rose from the bed stretching, working the knots out of muscles gone stiff overnight. Hmm… the most knotted muscle of all was my dick. The thing was a club all by itself. Heh heh heh!

After a full night's rest, I left Tipun Village just as it was buzzing with commotion.

Two targets remaining. Twenty-two days left on the clock.

Budgeting ten days a head, I'd taken down the first target — Jeffrey Isaac — in eight. If the remaining two went anything like this, I'd be a happy man.

The next village I made for was Ventis, six days out from Tipun. It was the last place the second target — Eric Karun — had been sighted.

I'd been turning over how to track him down here, but as luck would have it, things fell into place beautifully.

"You would be Master Alan Han, yes?"

"…And you are?"

I'd barely set foot in the village when a mild-faced older woman approached and addressed me with careful courtesy. She knew my name.

"Hngh-hngh-hngh~ I'm Hazmo Iril, dear~"

"…"

The woman spoke in a peculiar nasal lilt. She leaned in toward me and dropped her voice to a whisper.

"You're here to deal with the traitor Eric Karun, aren't you? Word came down from above three days ago. Said to help Master Han catch Eric Karun."

"Above? And which 'above' would that be?"

It could have been a trap, so I played dumb.

"The one who passed along the message was Master Bailey, but… her master is Crow, you see~"

I had no idea who Bailey was. First time I'd heard the name. But Crow, I knew. In that case, Bailey was probably Montblanc's fairy — or one of her subordinate Masters.

"…"

I studied Auntie Hazmo with a suspicious eye for a moment, then let it go. Come to think of it, she knew both my face and my name. I'd only just joined Palos's Bird; there was no way a hostile organization would already be aware I existed.

"You said you'd help. In what way, exactly?"

"Hngh-hngh-hngh~ No sense talking out here. Come along to my place first, dear~. I'll fill you in on all the details~"

With another burst of that odd nasal giggle, Auntie Hazmo turned and started walking.

What's with the way she talks, though?

That little flourish tacked onto the end of every sentence made me want to punch her in the nose just to knock the nasally right out of her. But she was offering to help, so I'd have to grin and bear it for now.

I followed Auntie Hazmo toward her house.