Sertiphs's Face Grew Ever More...
Sertiphs's face was growing ever more haggard. By the time Yujun reached the tent to collect his reward, the commander was all but spent.
"You're here. The matter was resolved safely, I trust?"
"Is there truly no way to kill the Lord of the Forest?"
"None. Ukria might know, perhaps."
Ukria again. He hadn't expected even Sertiphs to bring her up.
"Famous among the Hardline players too, I take it?"
"There isn't a soul in Heaven who doesn't know her. Famous hardly covers it. Even mercenaries of other races, come from other worlds, rarely fail to know the name Ukria."
"That well-known, then."
"If something else puzzles you, you may ask."
"I'm good. Just hand over the reward."
"...Greed is brimming in your eyes."
"Nobody stays detached in front of a precious item. You did say you'd give me three things better than a griffin's brain, didn't you? If this turns out to be some kind of wordplay, I might draw my sword before I even realize it."
"...Are you threatening me? I am a commander, and you are a mercenary."
"Yes. A mercenary. I'm not sworn to anyone, so if this goes sideways, I could always just flip the table."
"Your threats are certainly formidable. Even so, you have nothing to fear. I have not spoken falsely."
"I'll judge that after I've seen them."
Reading Yujun's expression, Sertiphs produced three items without delay, quick enough that he might have had them ready in advance.
"I held firm faith that you would resolve this matter successfully."
"Not interested. In that."
Yujun took the items and checked their information first.
◈ Upon consumption, designate one skill or trait in your possession and raise that skill or trait's grade. All stats also permanently increase by 10.
◈ Among all stats other than Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Magic, one stat chosen at random increases by 100.
◈ Evolves a summon. What it evolves into cannot be known, and may be influenced by the summon's combat style and stats to date. This effect applies only if the summon's total stats exceed 3,000.
All three were satisfying. Sertiphs hadn't been confident for nothing. Items of this caliber were hard to come by anywhere.
"I like them. Got anything else for me?"
"Not at present. But the time may come when I need you again."
"Call me then."
"Very well."
Yujun left the tent at a brisk pace. Having seen the options, he couldn't sit still. He made for the tent where his companions were quartered and looked the items over again, more slowly this time.
First, the Fruit of Evolution. So I got another one.
There was no need to belabor just how fine a consumable the Fruit of Evolution was.
Trouble is, I don't have a skill or trait worth using it on right now.
He did want to feed it to Swordsmanship, already at EX++—but it felt faintly wasteful. The trait's grade was so high already that the fruit might do nothing more than nudge it up a single step, and that wasn't a choice to make lightly.
I'll shelve the Fruit of Evolution for now. Real efficiency meant spending it on a good skill of a lower grade, and he had no such skill. Everything he owned was already high-tier.
Next, the Attribute Amplification Pill. First time I've seen one of these.
A consumable he had never once obtained.
If it raises something other than the basic stats... does that mean Chaos goes up?
Yujun had always been parched for Chaos. The stat sat at a respectable 376 now, but because it received none of the percentage increases applied to all stats, it still lagged well behind the rest. All the more reason the pill was welcome.
I'll take this one now.
A pill that raised a stat by a flat hundred. No point in hesitating. He swallowed the Attribute Amplification Pill and opened his status window.
◈ Chaos:476
Thoroughly reassuring.
Last was Goriathra's Stone—and, as luck would have it, an item bound up with summons.
It evolves a summon?
The condition wasn't even what he'd call strict. Put the item in a summon's hands, and clearing a combined stat total of 3,000 would be no trouble. In Paranet's case, even without extra gear, Horidan's ring alone had already pushed his total well past 3,000.
This should go to Paranet, not Tapagol.
A growth-type summon's potential was limitless, and Paranet stood a cut above most of his kind. Give him Goriathra's Stone, and he would more than earn his keep.
Lately it does feel like I haven't been looking after Tapagol much. Even so, he couldn't force a summon into work that wasn't needed. He'll be fine. Tapagol was a golem; a lack of attention wouldn't leave him sulking.
All-in on Paranet, then.
Yujun called Paranet at once.
"Master! Of late, it seems you summon me rather often."
"Why are you grinning like that? It's creepy."
"How could I not be glad? You may feign neglect, Master, but I know full well that in your heart you find me most commendable."
"..."
Suddenly he didn't want to give him the stone.
Catching Yujun's expression, Paranet smiled with obsequious haste and rubbed his hands together.
"Entrust me with anything at all! As I stand now, I am confident I can see it through to perfection!"
"You're awfully worked up."
"My stats shot up not long ago, you see. Heheh..."
"Ah. The title."
A Transcendent-grade title had raised every one of his summons' stats by eighty percent. Paranet had clearly noticed the benefit. It would have been stranger if he hadn't. Even ten percent was something you could feel, and this was a full eighty.
"I've got another gift for you."
"T-truly?"
"Yeah."
"You aren't lying?"
"You trust me that little?"
"Perish the thought! The master's word is always right!"
"Eat this."
Deadpan, Yujun held out Goriathra's Stone. Paranet accepted it carefully in both hands, as if receiving a sacred treasure.
"What is this? I am meant to eat it, yes?"
"Eat it, and your appearance might change."
"...How so?"
"That, even I don't know. What's certain is that something will change."
"That sounds ill-omened."
"If it feels ill-omened to you, you'll probably turn into something that looks ill-omened."
"..."
"Just decide it feels like a good thing. You'll have to rationalize it somehow if you want to feel any better."
"Understood."
Paranet swallowed the stone without hesitation. Yujun folded his arms and quietly watched for whatever would follow.
A low hum rose from the summon. Wuum. Wuum. His body began to shudder, and the tremor only grew, until the massive frame could barely hold itself upright. For a moment Yujun wondered whether that body of nothing but bone might simply burst apart.
Then pure white smoke erupted from Paranet. It was hot enough to pass for steam, and Yujun put a little distance between them. The mishap he had feared, however, never came. The shuddering body soon stilled, and the smoke cleared just as quickly.
Doesn't look like the evolution failed.
Nor was there any reason it should. Paranet was far too strong now; he had blown past the stone's stat requirement by a wide margin. Yujun had never expected failure—only wondered how much stronger the summon had become. He studied the changed figure closely.
He was still a skeleton. The baleful blue-green light in his eye sockets burned fiercer than before, and shoulders that had already been broad had grown immensely so. His waist, even under armor, stayed comparatively narrow, which only made the spread of his back more imposing. His height had swollen to something absurd as well—five meters, easily. Yujun had to crane his neck a long way up to see Paranet's face, and when Paranet looked down, the pressure alone was enough to feel.
Enough to put your average boss monster to shame.
He hadn't come from a boss monster for nothing. Paranet's potential rivaled a human's—greater, if anything. Bulk swelling this fast was unrealistic no matter how you looked at it, and the equipment he wore had resized to match, making him look larger still.
"Looking sharp."
"I-is that so?"
Glossy black armor, set with shining gold, only heightened the effect. The sword's design was plain, and for that very reason it carried an even stronger air of a death knight.
At least I know how to gear someone. Paranet cut so fine a figure that if Yujun ever went back to Earth and sat down to an RPG, he thought he might want to play a skeleton.
"Might I borrow a mirror?"
At the request, Yujun cast a Water Ball and let it reflect the summon's image.
"Ooh..."
"You like it?"
"But of course! At last I shall be fit to serve as a proper summon. Heheheh..."
Pleased with what he saw, the smile refused to leave Paranet's mouth.
"I went to a lot of trouble to get that."
"My thanks! I shall repay you with all my heart and soul!"
"Yeah, yeah."
Smiling, satisfied, Yujun returned to his companions.
He had no particular plan beyond that, but the odds were high that Sertiphs would try to hire him for the decisive clash with the Moderate Faction. Item rewards aside, if he took part in the war, a mercenary like Yujun stood to gain more than he stood to lose. Mercenaries commanded steep coin and precious items precisely because they staked their lives—but so long as that life wasn't actually lost, it amounted to taking no loss at all.
He had no intention of leaving Heaven just yet. Nowhere, he thought, offered faster growth than a Heaven already at war. Dokgo Minsu, Kim Yohan, and even Do Jiyun were of the same mind.
"Dangerous it certainly is... yet one grows strong only by driving oneself to the very limit. I shall stand with you, Shin Yujun."
"Oh, come on. You're not just latching onto Mr. Yujun because he's strong?"
Dokgo Minsu kicked him.
"Ghk! Now you're hitting me with no warning at all. Why are you so spry, Grandpa?"
"And just how vast an age gap do you imagine lies between us?"
"Still, twenties versus forties is a pretty big difference."
"For a player, a gap of that size may as well be meaningless."
"Not even a little. I bet even elves could tell our wrinkles apart."
When Kim Yohan kept needling him to the bitter end, Yujun cut in to shut it down.
"Let's not talk about age. Manuela's right here."
"...Yujun. Why are you suddenly dragging me into this?"
"I thought hearing it might bother you."
"Sorry, but mentioning me bothers me more."
Manuela said it with a perfectly straight face.
"R-really? Got it."
"What importance has age? Being a witch will hardly see her die any sooner. Appearance matters more. Frankly, she looks the youngest of anyone here."
At Dokgo Minsu's words, offered with Manuela in mind, Kim Yohan nodded in vigorous agreement.
"Right? Coming from a mister who looks even older than his years, that's extremely credible."
"Cease your antics. I genuinely wish to kill you."
"...Yes, sir."