5. Good News (5)
5. Good News (5)
- 1 -
The interrogation of Lemia and Jack, excluding the wizard who wouldn't wake, concluded.
I took the hammer the Skeleton handed me.
It was Jack's weapon, one he'd used in his previous skirmish with the goblins, yet it was remarkably clean, with no bits of flesh stuck to it.
Well maintained. They'd had their basics down, at least.
Unfortunately, since they couldn't transcend the limits of rookies, they would die here like this.
"You said you'd let us live—!! Then why did you treat us like this!!"
A shout, screamed with no thought for the strain on her voice, struck my ears.
Bound on the other side, Lemia was thrashing with her whole body.
Since I had shown consistently positive reactions, she must have been seized by her own confirmation bias. The act of divulging information to humanity's enemy must have been committed under that rationalization.
But... I never said that, Lemia.
"...?!"
"If I let you leave here alive, the humans won't let me live, will they."
"I won't tell! I won't say anything...!!"
"Too bad."
Peok—!!
The first weapon I had ever swung in my life.
It cleanly crushed the head of Jack, who had awoken and was glaring at me.
Fittingly (缘, Fate)—but the result was anything but clean. Because the strength contained in my body was too powerful, the head shattered in one blow, but the blood and flesh that burst out like a smashed watermelon soaked the hem of my dress.
I figured a dagger would require stabbing multiple times for no good reason, and I didn't want to borrow the Skeleton's weapon again, so I chose the hammer.
If I'd known it'd be this messy, I should have just borrowed the longsword.
'Huh.'
I definitely thought my clothes were wet, but for some reason, they didn't feel heavy.
It wasn't that my strength made them feel light—they genuinely hadn't gained any weight.
Finding it strange, I looked at my dress, and the garment that should have been stained with blood and filth was clean. As if such a thing had never happened at all.
I had questions, but it was a trivial matter for now. I decided to check later and move on.
"Why...! Why!!!"
"In life, there's no such thing as 'what if,' Lemia."
"Aaaaack—!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you—!!!"
Listening to her scream, I waited a moment.
A person who was once human had killed a human. Then there should be a backlash, fittingly (缘, Fate) returning.
And then—my body shook briefly with a nausea that surged up from within.
This negative emotion that seized and rattled my soul was unmistakably guilt as a human and the shock of a person who had deviated from society.
That was it.
Fortunately, I didn't show a reaction like collapsing on the spot, something that would look contemptible to the victim and their comrades.
But a great shock had definitely come.
That didn't mean I could stop here now, though.
'I'm sorry. I hope you won't forgive me for the cruelty I showed you beyond necessity.'
I closed my eyes briefly and mourned the one I had killed, and the ones I would soon kill.
- Dalkak.
'Don't. This is what I have to do.'
- Dalgeurak...
The Skeleton approached me, gripping its sword hilt as if offering to do it.
I expressed my intent to stop it and halted it.
Its sulking demeanor was a little pitiful, but...
'I have to get used to killing.'
There probably wouldn't be any time in the future to grow accustomed to slaughter—especially killing humans—so easily.
In 'Milden 1', the time between waves was set at about two weeks to a month, but there was no way the game-turned-reality would strictly follow that rule.
I had to delay people realizing the dungeon's danger as much as possible and use that time to adapt.
'Is it fortunate, then, that this is the world of Milden 2?'
If these humans had come through an officially designated guild request, I would have detained them first and looked for another way.
Because it made no sense to specifically designate a request and then not monitor the ones carrying it out.
But in this era two hundred years later, the perception that dungeons were easy targets popping up everywhere saved me and simultaneously allowed me to make another choice that cut resource consumption.
The time it took them to get here, including travel and infiltration time, was about four days. Dungeon exploration, recovery, and return would have taken a week.
If I assumed no one else was paying attention to them,
killing them all to prevent information from leaking would buy at least a week. Using another scheme to confuse the information could be expected to buy two weeks.
Therefore, keeping only one alive was enough.
"..."
"You goddamn demonic bastard, unfit for either hell or heaven!!"
The candidates were the still-unconscious wizard Sonia, or Lemia, who was shrieking, shouting, and cursing.
I deliberated briefly, but ultimately decided that Sonia would be the one to live.
Because a signet of the Mage Guild's apprentice rank had been found on her person.
A wizard affiliated, even as an apprentice, with a guild rather than wandering alone. If someone with even slightly more connections spread wild rumors, people would be more easily swayed.
And above all, she still didn't know my face, so it would be easy to deceive her. I also had a curiosity about the mana boiling and overflowing within her.
"Break Sonia's legs. Cleanly, so they can be treated in the near future."
- Tak!
Seeing the Skeleton nod at my command and approach the wizard, I now gripped Lemia's dagger.
Because the corpse I would make this time had to be killed as cleanly as possible.
For the 'harvest'.
Somehow it turned out that each was killed by their own weapon.
"Hhuuuhg... huuuhg..."
The woman bowed her head, looking completely drained, not even having the strength to shout anymore.
I grabbed her hair and toppled her to the ground, exposing her body.
After I pressed her torso a couple of times to confirm the heart's location, I stabbed it in one motion. It was my first attempt, but that one was enough.
Puk...!
"Kkuuuuhh—!!"
The sensation felt by my hand, far more sensitive than my original body, was horrifying.
The eyes of the victim, steeped in resentment and never taking her gaze off me until death, were terrifying.
Reflected beyond her widely dilated brown pupils were vivid purple eyes. The cold gleam flickered in those eyes, and at the same time, a face that seemed somehow both cold and fatefully fragile was visible.
『Dungeon Level has risen. Lv.1 ▶ 2』
『Demon Lord Candidate 'Libertas's Dungeon Lv.2』
Fortunately, I wasn't wearing a smile or anything.
- 2 -
"It's alright."
I said that to the Skeleton—who had left Sonia somewhere else—without much thought, but the worried feeling it conveyed didn't lessen in the slightest.
Of course, I'd said something unconvincing, since my gloomy mood must have been conveyed to the Skeleton as well.
Still, the world's clock would never stop for an individual's depression, so I couldn't postpone what needed to be done now.
Especially if doing it faster yielded higher gains. Like, say, necromancy, where the corpse must be intact to create a good summoned creature.
"Alright, let's begin quickly."
I tried to speak as brightly as I could, but perhaps because what I was about to do wasn't a bright task at all, a sense of discord settled in my heart, unavoidable.
- Dalgeurak.
The fellow seemed to sense it too. The way it tilted its head to the side, as if asking, 'Is that right?'
But I still had to do it. What could I do.
'Well, first...'
『Congratulations, Demon Lord Candidate!』
The first thing I had to address was this message sparkling before my eyes, about handling the first intruders or deciding their Fate.
『You have successfully handled the first intruders! Brutal yet elegant handiwork. A fine start for one destined to become a noble!』
It was something I'd been sensing little by little before, but this message was apparently being sent by a living entity.
One watching this place... perhaps the very entity who sent me here, someone who made me abandon everything I had in reality.
Thinking that, my stomach twisted.
- Dalkak.
"It's alright."
I stopped the Skeleton as it approached, sensing my discomfort, and continued reading the message.
『From now on, Lord, you may view your summoned creatures' information!』
'Yeah. Finally.'
Seeing that message, I felt a clear sense of anticipation.
In Milden 1, the summoned creature information screen hadn't shown much, so it was a strange feeling to have, honestly.
Even though their specialization fields differed based on the weapons they held or their physical state, the specs of mass-produced summoned creatures were ultimately all similar.
So the information for common summons like Skeletons was displayed all at once in a standardized window.
You'd roughly estimate their current abilities by finding and comparing their information and titles.
For special summons pulled from gacha, or heroes with the setting that a demon or Dungeon Lord had successfully corrupted them, they had personal status windows, but even that was just... stats, skills, and background explanations at best.
In Milden 1, where the only growth element for basic entities was 'classing up' by gathering experience, that had been enough.
'But now, it's different.'
If the information was brought over from Milden 1 exactly as it was there, I would have been truly disappointed.
First, since it had become reality, such fragmented and unclear information made it hard to formulate tactics.
And because I also had knowledge of necromancy, which could strengthen summoned creatures, stored in my head.
『Title/Entity Name - 'Perfect' Skeleton 'Swordsman'』
『Title - Perfect : A title bestowed upon an entity that is perfectly excellent in all aspects compared to the base entity.』
『Title - Swordsman : A title bestowed upon a base entity that possesses the trait of sword handling.』
'It was real.'
Fortunately, there was no need for such worry.
What floated before my eyes was unmistakably a single entity's information window. As I had expected, no, beyond expectation.
I had anticipated 'Perfect', but I couldn't have predicted that an additional trait had been attached to the Skeleton.
Because I had no experience of it.
『Attributes - Physical Strength 12 Technique 15 Endurance 10 Magic Power 12 Resistance 13』
"Good heavens."
Beneath the name and titles, the secret to why my Skeleton was able to overwhelm ordinary adventurers was revealed.
For reference, when I was playing the game, the initial stats of the first 'Perfect' zombie I'd ever encountered were Physical Strength 11, Technique 9, Endurance 12, Magic Power 6, Resistance 11.
In the case of ordinary zombies and skeletons without any titles, all stats were 5, at most below 7.
Since you couldn't view each summoned creature's individual information back then, it was only an estimate, admittedly... but it came from comparing countless samples from other players, so the margin of error shouldn't be more than 1.
Later, after repeatedly classing up, that zombie had become a top-grade entity called 'Gluttony' that helped my comfortable 'Milden 1' playthrough, but my current Skeleton was stronger.
That wasn't all.
『Traits - Specialization: Swordsmanship, Necromancy』
『Swordsmanship - Receives a bonus to all actions utilizing a sword.』
『Member of Necropolis - This soldier is under a special blessing from you. Increases the two highest stats of the entity.』
Here, 'Member of Necropolis' must have been that 'modest benefit' from before.
Upon checking, my current Skeleton was receiving bonuses to 'Technique' and 'Resistance'. Exactly 1 each.
I wondered if it would get better as things progressed.
It was a good trait that strengthened its strengths. Though I didn't feel like saying thank you.
What was notable was Swordsmanship.
In Milden 1, traits were granted to each individual entity, so when you pulled up a summoned creature's information window, they were one of the few visible elements alongside entity name and title.
But such traits appearing on a basic entity like a Skeleton was something that, at least in my memory, had never happened.
Even that 'Perfect Zombie' hadn't had such a thing.
"You really were an incredible one, weren't you."
- Dalkak!
The Skeleton's cheerful clattering echoed in reply to my admiration.
The fellow was becoming more and more reassuring.
It even raised the rational suspicion that maybe this guy was the price for all the wealth and connections I'd lost in reality.
I doubted it, but if that were the case, I thought I might feel just slightly inclined to forgive them.
『Name - Jack Miller』
『Name - Remiah Olas』
So, using this material for such a fellow was only too fitting, wasn't it.
My gaze moved toward the first harvest.