Chapter 122

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Translator: MadScientist

Chapter: 122

Chapter Title: Mental Strength (2)

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Crunchhh───!

Akane's spell crushed down on my body. But it wasn't a spell that directly manipulated gravity itself. No, it had to be grand magic.

Probably a spatial spell pulling objects downward through this apartment as the medium.

"......Urgh."

Partial immunity to mana interference. I didn't know exactly how much that 'partial' covered, but it clearly wasn't omnipotent.

Of course, the force pulling on my body itself could be mostly neutralized or ignored. But I couldn't resist it 100%, and the weight of the 'air' pressing down was still there.

The spell's intensity grew worse the closer I got to Akane. Every time I lifted my foot and planted it again, it felt like every joint in my body was twisting.

If I were a normal person, all my joints would already be pulverized.

Now I understood why Gerkken had collapsed.

He must have crawled.

Enduring this insane gravity with his whole body, pushing all the way that far.

His mental strength was truly superior to anyone else's.

Or maybe he just had a mental illness.

I walked. I didn't crawl. I stood on my two legs and advanced step by step.

......Thud.

An echo rang out from my footprint. With strides like that, I passed Elise.

The weight bearing down on me now was probably equivalent to one or two adult gorillas.

......Thud!

I moved my limbs, which grew heavier with every step. I bore the weight of a body that didn't even feel like mine.

Thud!

As I drew closer, Akane's expression slowly hardened.

The face she'd made while treating me like a lunatic was gone now.

Instead, there was interest. Like someone who'd found a useful item in the mud.

Thud──!

Three more footsteps, and I was level with Gerkken. The gravity had reached its peak. It truly felt like an elephant stomping on my shoulders.

Was I going to collapse here?

I managed to lift my knee. Prepared my next step while enduring the gravity.

Thud──!

Exactly one step.

That overtook Gerkken, and my entire body blazed red.

Pain or heat, I couldn't tell. My body burned like it was melting.

Even in that searing heat, one final step.

Thud.

At Akane's feet. In my lowered gaze, I saw black slippers and gray socks. Slippers with socks? That combo was a bit much.

I raised my face.

Akane was there.

Right in front of her nose, I met her crimson pupils.

"......"

I couldn't say a word. I didn't even have the strength to move my lips.

Instead, she scanned me up and down. Licked her lips slightly as if amazed.

Then she let out a hollow chuckle and nodded.

"First place. Paradoxically, you've got a useful body......"

After that, my memory cuts off.

I must have fainted or passed out or something.

When I opened my eyes again, there was a white ceiling. Lying there, I blinked vacantly. My whole body ached dully, and my brain was still loading.

─You're awake.

A voice flowed into my right ear. My left ear couldn't hear. Vacantly, I turned my face left and right.

A space like a infirmary. Akane sat in one corner. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dressed in a gown, she was dripping liquid into a reagent bottle with a pipette. Looked like some kind of research or pharmacology.

I asked her.

"......The evaluation exam. Is it over?"

─Three days ago.

My ears were still muffled. I shook my head.

"Pardon?"

"You've been asleep for three days."

Fortunately, my eardrums recovered quickly.

"The other seniors have already left. I'm stuck doing overtime because of you. Unpaid volunteer work."

Clink clink─

Akane shook the reagent bottle. Staring at the mixing liquids inside, she asked me.

"Who do you want to kill?"

"Pardon?"

"You asked for deadly poison."

"Oh...... uh. Yeah, plenty of people I want to kill."

Plenty. A whole lot. They're everywhere.

Probably going to kill quite a few from now on.

Akane smirked.

"Killing people you want dead is easy. Facing the corrupted self after the kill─that's the hard part."

She transferred the liquid from the reagent bottle to a tiny glass vial the size of a fingernail and tossed it to me.

"Catch. Or you'll die."

"Ack!"

I cupped my hands and caught it. My heart nearly jumped out.

"Deadly poison. Neurotoxin classification."

The color was ordinary. The amount minuscule. Barely 3g?

"That amount could kill 1,000 elephants."

1,000 elephants. Brutal words, but the one I planned to kill, Growl─the 'S-rank monster'─was on a whole different level from humans or any extant animals.

"I'll take it. But...... is it okay to give a senior something like this?"

"The creator merely creates. After that, it's up to the user's moral standards and judgment. Even if you kill someone with the prosthetic arm I fitted, I wouldn't care. Of course, given it's a deadly poison and you've already stated your intent to kill, there might be implicit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠intent......"

Akane paused and stared at me blankly.

"Humans must take responsibility for the path they choose. Whatever you do is none of my business."

She took a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. I pocketed the deadly poison.

"Oh. Do you do appraisals too, by any chance?"

"You ask for a lot. You mean relics?"

"......You knew?"

Akane furrowed one eyebrow. The cigarette smoke wriggled like an earthworm.

"I'm the designer. I know everything that happens in this labyrinth. You lucked out and snagged two."

"Did you deliberately──"

"Ask if I'm insane instead. Do you know how much those cost? The labyrinth design only covers structure and concept. Obstacles are lured from the original dungeon inhabitants. The relic from the snowy mountain, the one from the snowfield─none of that was me. It's the 'rift's' will."

If I'd known, I'd have taken them. Akane smacked her lips and added.

"Then......"

I pulled the relic from my inventory. Akane's red eyes flickered slightly.

"Seems like a killing or combat-related relic. C-grade should be plenty useful."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Now go."

Akane waved her hand.

Grrrrrr───!

My hand gripping the blanket trembled, and the space shifted.

"......"

I staggered to my feet.

Looked around blankly.

It was the harbor.

Outside the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠labyrinth, where the rift portal was visible.

Nothing was there. The seniors had already left; the place was deserted, with just one small fishing boat moored.

"Student! You're finally here! Hop on!"

The crewman on the boat shouted. I hesitated a moment before replying.

"......Go on without me."

"What're you saying? We got paid to bring you back once you came out."

I stood with my back to the pier. Gazed at the still-shimmering portal.

"Student!"

The crewman shouted. I waited silently. Fingering the deadly poison in my pocket. My hair whipping in the sea breeze.

5 minutes──

15 minutes──

30 minutes──

"Yawwwn."

Still boring enough to yawn.

Well, I'd probably fight today. Or maybe the fight was happening right now?

If it was an S-rank duel, I'd feel it even from outside the passage.

"......Hey, student! We're really leaving if you don't come?!"

"Yeah."

I checked my wristwatch. An hour had already passed.

Grrrrrr......

Right on cue, a faint vibration rippled through the ground.

I looked up. Some kind of wave burst from inside the portal outward.

"Wh-what is this?"

The fishing boat grew hectic. The crew hurried about. They hauled up the anchor and turned the bow.

"Student. Last chance......"

──────────!

The shock swallowed the sound. The portal shook like it was exploding. Shards of mana sprayed everywhere like a shattered glass window.

The boat had already turned. They fled, but I advanced in the opposite direction.

———!

A second tremor.

The portal rocked violently again. Part of it fragmented and slammed into the ground. The portal itself visibly shrank.

——.

A third tremor.

This one was more like an aftershock. No significant reverberation.

"......Is it over?"

Duels between masters rarely last long. The density of each moment is so high that they exchange hundreds of blows in an instant. That's an S-rank fight. The aftermath is like a mana nuke, though.

"......"

I waited quietly, but it stayed calm.

Silent.

"......Phew."

I sighed. Pulled the relic from my inventory.

A gleaming, radiant C-grade relic.

Implanting an unappraised relic was a gamble, of course. But it wasn't without benefits. 'Appraisal' just peels off the relic's outer layer, and that layer is still part of the relic.

In other words, appraisal slightly reduces the relic's performance. In exchange, it eliminates the risk of 'relic collision' and makes it easier to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grasp usage.

But the Treasure Hunter I'd implanted had almost no chance of colliding with other relics. Its attribute was 'lifestyle' after all.

Plus, I probably wouldn't get another C-grade or higher relic for years......

I attached the relic to my left arm. Implanted it just like that. Heat rose, but it was bearable.

"Haaaa......"

Deep breath. Then I re-entered the portal.

......The interior was already hell. The vast space that held the hospital, snowy mountain, labyrinth, apartment─it had shrunk endlessly, and crimson-black ashes surged in like flower petals.

I activated the SZX-9500 Mana Optics Microscope.

A massive crater like one from a meteor impact. In its center stood the monster 'Growl'.

He'd already lost his human form. His limbs had decomposed into black dust, and his head was mashed against his gut mid-regeneration from an attack.

Yet he survived.

Clearly still breathing.

"......"

Tension gripped me.

He was definitely unconscious. But even his subconscious was a threat to me now.

I walked toward him.

......Humans overestimate how complex they are.

I recalled the day I faced him before my regression.

......In truth, they're simpler than any beast. The more you consume, the clearer it becomes.

His dark, fishy tone echoed in my ears.

......Humans ignore their origins. They say they were born simply because they were born, rationalizing that delving into a short life is too heavy.

Growl.

He was a stone monster.

A naturally occurring monster.

He'd never been human, never a beast. Just a mere 'rock'.

......The origin isn't on the continent. Not in the universe. The origin is within me. My genesis is my origin. My causality is my origin.

My legs stopped.

Roughly 1.5 km.

The minimum distance where even a fatally wounded him couldn't detect me. This was as far as I'd go.

......I explore myself. That's the only reason I cooperate with Libra's Jedric......

I drew Akane's deadly poison. Infused it with Perion.

I wondered if neurotoxin would work on a rock, but he was a lump of stone that had mutated all his veins into 'nerves'─mana circuits.

A cannibal monster who'd fixed his existence as human by consuming humans.

At minimum, as a monster 'human', it would definitely work.

I hurled the deadly poison high into the air. Calculated the landing and trajectory perfectly for the most precise strike.

Whiiiish───.

The glass vial traced a rainbow arc, slowly descending toward Growl.

Growl reacted instinctively. He deployed a 'barrier' to block the pathetic falling vial.

Ting─!

The vial shattered. The neurotoxin seeped through the barrier into his body.

The very next instant.

──────!

Growl's body convulsed. Crimson-black mana erupted grotesquely. In a flash, it formed dozens of different shapes in spasms.

And that's when he spotted me.

─■──■──■─!

He thrust mana toward me. It surged like blades at my neck and waist, trying to shred my body......

Whoosh.

It lost form.

Like sand, oxidized into dry, fine particles and poured onto the ground.

"Hah, hah......"

I clutched my heart. Only then did the relic react belatedly.

The relic on my left arm. The freshly implanted relic sucked in Growl's withered mana. Absorbed it.

"......What kind of reaction speed is that."

If you're gonna do it, do it sooner.

I looked back that way.

Where Growl had been was now just crimson-black sand. He'd crumbled. I'd killed the guy who survived to the bitter end before my regression, over ten years early.

So, yeah, he's dead? Let's not say it like that.

"Nearly died there."

I stood. Looked around for Akane. Scanned everywhere with the SZX-9500.

"Ah."

There.

Quite far from the crater.

She lay as if hiding, but it was gruesome.

As good as dead already.

Her body was reduced to her head, chest, and right arm─barely 1/4─but her survival was entirely thanks to that right arm.

Jet-black like coal.

The monster arm that made her a monster connected her nerves, functioned like organs, and forcibly pulsed her heart. Even that seemed faint now, though......

I suddenly wondered.

Could this half-remaining corpse survive on its own?

"......Three days."

Akane had delayed the fight three days because of me.

What if Growl had used those three days to recover more fully?

Or if Akane had let her guard down even a little?

Couldn't be helped.

I scooped Akane up in both arms. With only part of her body left, she was light.

"Let's go."

Whether human or monster, I could handle nursing or healing above average.

Like I always say, I've done everything in the underworld.

I stepped through the ashes and left the dungeon.

Pour───

Outside, rain was falling. A downpour. Numerous ships approached with lights blazing.

I hurriedly hid my body.

Ran into the forest─opposite the lights.

Of course, the continent despises monsters.

That's the safety education Edsela citizens─no, continental citizens─learn from age two.

Laws on handling monsters.

Just hiding one gets you 10+ years in prison.

Exactly my lifespan, but whatever.

If you don't get caught, you're innocent.

Crashhh─

I wove through the island's grass and trees, delving deep into hiding.