Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Black Star's Sacred Relic (2)
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*Swoosh!*
With a squelching, viscous sound, a black object shot out at high speed.
“Hah!”
I took a sharp breath and slid backward.
Thrusting the spear in my hand forward, I identified the object that had shot out from between the stalactites.
‘Tentacles?’
Black tentacles, dripping with sticky slime.
Following the tentacles with my eyes, I saw a slime-like monster hidden in a gap between the stalactites.
A slime with a sticky, amorphous body, like a glob of tar, was writhing and spitting out tentacles.
“…What is that.”
It was a monster the likes of which I’d never seen or heard of before.
[What a disgusting creature.]
“It doesn’t look particularly strong, though.”
It looked hideous, but its movements weren't particularly threatening.
*Crackle, crackle!*
The Stigma on my left chest glowed, and blue lightning flared to life.
I lightly dodged the surging tentacles and thrust my spear toward the black slime.
*Boom!*
“Dammit!”
The black slime’s body exploded, splattering viscous fluid everywhere.
I quickly pulled back, but some of the fluid got on my collar.
*Sizzle!!*
Like hydrochloric acid, the fluid on my collar began to burn away, emitting a pungent smoke.
‘This thing is more trouble dead than alive.’
Still, it wasn’t hard to deal with as long as I was a little careful.
*Gurgle, squelch!*
“It wasn’t just one.”
Whether drawn by the sound or not, black slimes were writhing toward me from all directions.
Oh-jin twirled his spear and lowered his stance.
‘If they explode when they die…’
The basic strategy was to fight while keeping as much distance as possible.
Instead of thrusting his spear directly, Oh-jin took out the black slimes one by one by firing bolts of lightning from a short distance.
‘Maybe this is a good chance to try that skill?’
Oh-jin’s eyes gleamed as he sidestepped in a Z-pattern, evading the tentacles shot by the black slimes.
A long-range attack with a wide area of effect.
‘Azure Lightning.’
He wanted to try using the skill he could only use with Vega’s blessing, but with his own power.
“Haaa. Fuuu.”
Breathing low and long.
He bent at the waist, pulling the spear in his right hand as far back as he could.
*Wooooong!!!*
The Stigma blazed with blue light.
He poured all the overflowing mana in his body into the Stigma.
[…What in the.]
Vega, who had been watching the fight, widened her eyes.
*Crackle, sizzle!!*
Blue lightning coiled around his body like a roaring flame.
The mana in his Stigma burned away rapidly, like fuel set ablaze.
He didn’t care.
‘After all.’
I have more than enough mana.
‘I don’t need efficiency.’
Proficiency is meaningless.
I can make up for my lack of skill with a brute-force amount of mana.
*Kooong!!!*
He stomped his foot hard and thrust his drawn-back right arm forward with all his might.
[Activating 《Azure Lightning (蒼雷) Lv1》.]
As if unleashing a leashed beast, he released all the lightning gathered at the tip of his spear at once!
*KRA-KA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM!!!!!*
The blue lightning swept forward in a fan shape.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Fragments of exploding slimes scattered everywhere.
“Hah, hah!”
He stabbed his spear into the ground like a staff to steady his trembling legs.
‘I did it.’
It was clumsy and practically forced, but…
…he had succeeded in using a skill that was previously only usable with a ‘blessing’.
[Hah… I can hardly believe my eyes.]
Vega, watching Oh-jin fight, let out a gasp of admiration.
[I knew you would learn quickly, but I never imagined it would be this fast.]
She herself knew best how difficult the Lyra Stigma was to handle.
Wasn’t the reason she hadn’t been able to create an Apostle until now because no human could handle the Lyra Stigma?
‘And yet, in just a few days.’
He had manifested a skill that she had to bestow a blessing upon, despite the restrictions, for it to be used.
Even if he had experienced it once before, it was an unbelievable speed.
“It was half-forced, you know.”
[Hmm. True. There is still much to refine.]
He had succeeded in manifesting 《Azure Lightning》, but in terms of polish, it was frankly terrible.
It was like using 100 units of power to forcefully accomplish something that could be done with 10.
It was incredibly inefficient, and its power didn’t even match the original.
[But for now, the fact that you managed to use Azure Lightning at all is enough.]
《Azure Lightning》 was a skill of intermediate difficulty among those usable with the Lyra Stigma.
Even for a regressor, it was a difficult skill for someone who had just Awakened.
“Haha. I’m glad to hear you say that.”
[I shall teach you other skills later. Ah, but on second thought, you must already know them all.]
“No, that’s not the case.”
Oh-jin shook his head and continued.
“Some parts of my memory became hazy when I regressed. The skills of the Lyra Stigma are among them.”
[Hazy?]
“I don’t know. It’s like a film that’s been cut; I just can’t remember that part clearly.”
He didn’t want to make such a flimsy excuse, but…
‘…she might suddenly ask me to use a skill I know nothing about.’
That wasn’t a problem he could talk his way out of.
[Hmm. A regression from the Star’s Covenant shouldn’t result in memory loss. This is truly strange.]
Vega looked at Oh-jin with a questioning gaze.
Even under her suspicious gaze, Oh-jin continued speaking naturally, without a hint of panic.
“I think it might be a kind of restriction.”
[What kind of restriction?]
“Don’t Constellations also face restrictions from the Laws? I think, by a similar principle, some transcendent power might have partially interfered with my memories.”
Anyone else would have frowned and dismissed it as nonsense, but…
…for her, who was actually bound by the restrictions of a transcendent power, it was a different story.
[Indeed… that is not an impossibility.]
Vega touched her lips pensively and nodded.
“Well, I haven’t forgotten the important things, so you don’t need to worry.”
[The important things…?]
“For example, my memories of you, Lady Vega.”
He looked at her with a bright smile.
[Eek!]
*Flinch.* Vega’s body trembled.
[There you go again, saying such embarrassing things!]
The goddess’s blushing face was adorable.
[A-Ahem. Anyway….]
Vega nodded, then turned and flew over to where the black slime corpses were.
She narrowed her eyes, looking at the stalactites covered in sticky fluid.
[Hmm… I sense an unsettling aura.]
“An unsettling aura?”
[I find it difficult to describe accurately. It is just a feeling.]
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes and cautiously approached the shattered remains of the black slimes.
If Vega felt an unsettling aura, there might be something more to it.
‘Hmm? That’s…’
Oh-jin’s brow furrowed as he searched through the fragmented slime corpses.
Among the remains were black gems the size of a fingernail.
‘A variant… Stigma Stone?’
They were definitely the same variant Stigma Stones he had found a while ago.
And not just one, but several.
‘What is this?’
More variants?
‘These shouldn’t be something you can find so commonly.’
There was a reason variant Stigma Stones were so expensive.
Their numbers were significantly lower than normal specimens, which was why they were valued at several times, or even dozens of times, more.
“Lady Vega. Do you know anything about these black Stigma Stones?”
[I do not know.]
Vega shook her head and continued.
[Have your memories of these black Stigma Stones also disappeared?]
“Yes. I have no idea…”
Ah.
“…I have a guess, but I’m not certain yet.”
It seemed better to leave some room for ambiguity, suggesting he had a hunch, rather than claiming to know nothing at all.
‘It wouldn’t make sense for a regressor to be ignorant of this and that.’
In any case, even Vega didn’t know why so many variant monsters were suddenly appearing.
‘For now, I should head deeper inside.’
Oh-jin flicked the black slime off his spearhead and ventured deeper into the cave.
But the deeper he went, the more he felt like he was just going around in circles.
‘I have no choice.’
He didn’t want to use it in front of Vega if he could help it, but there was no other way.
Oh-jin activated the ‘Canes Venatici Stigma’.
All sorts of smells flooded his hypersensitive nose.
“Urk!”
[What is it?]
“It’s… nothing.”
He shook his head and focused his mind.
‘The scent of the black slimes from before.’
He followed the trail of the unpleasant, sticky smell.
After passing through a complex, maze-like network of caves, a wide, open cavern appeared.
“Phew.”
It seemed he had found the right place.
He deactivated the Canes Venatici Stigma, and the pungent smells assaulting his nose vanished.
[This place is….]
Vega surveyed the large cavern with narrowed eyes.
[The unsettling aura I felt before has grown stronger.]
“The Sacred Relic should be around here.”
Oh-jin walked into the cavern, looking around.
‘Now, where could it be?’
His heart pounded like a child who had just reached the destination on a treasure map.
And then.
‘That’s…’
At the far end of the cavern stood a giant stone statue.
Something glinted in the center of the statue’s forehead, which had its hands politely clasped as if in prayer to a god.
—A black chalice, shimmering with an ominous dark aura.
The black chalice, slightly larger than a fist, was embedded between the statue’s eyebrows.
‘I found it!!!’
It was a little different from the Sacred Relics he’d heard about, but it was undeniably a Sacred Relic, imbued with a mysterious power.
‘Kuh! This is insane!! How much is that thing worth?!’
Seeing a Sacred Relic, which he had only heard stories about, right before his eyes made his body tremble as if struck by lightning.
‘A Sacred Relic!’
A real Sacred Relic!
—Holy shit.
A thrill so intense it went straight to my core.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would leap out of my chest.
‘If its ability is useful, I’ll use it. If it’s so-so, I’ll sell it.’
Either way was fine.
“Puhahaha!!!”
Ah, damn.
I can’t stop laughing.
[Is that the Sacred Relic?]
“That’s right.”
Oh-jin walked toward the statue with a bright smile.
*Gurgle. Gurgle.*
Just then, the squelching sound of viscous fluid echoed through the cavern.
[Those disgusting things have come again.]
Vega frowned and, with a little *zip*, flew through the air to land on Oh-jin’s shoulder.
“Hehe. I already knew this would happen. Don’t you worry.”
He gripped his spear and walked toward the horde of black slimes.
From the moment he started tracking their scent, he had expected to find a horde of slimes here.
‘Are they some kind of guardians protecting the Sacred Relic?’
Using such weaklings as guardians.
A dry laugh escaped him.
‘I’ll just wipe them out quickly and take the Sacred Relic.’
A smirk played on his lips as he walked toward the black slimes pouring in from all directions.
*Squelch. Gurgle. Guuurrrgle.*
About fifty black slimes were gathering in the center of the cavern.
It was a daunting number, but he didn’t think he couldn’t handle them.
Honestly, each individual slime was weaker than an Ant-horn.
‘I just have to be careful of the explosions.’
That much wasn’t difficult.
*Gurgle, gurgle, guuurrrgle!!*
“Hm?”
But what are these bastards doing, not attacking?
“…Huh?”
Oh-jin, who had been walking toward the black slimes, stopped in his tracks.
The fifty or so black slimes gathered in the center of the cavern.
The slimes extended their tentacles, rubbing against each other and tangling together.
*Squelch!*
With a disgusting sound, a slime’s body burst and merged with the one next to it.
“Wait a minute.”
Oh-jin’s expression hardened.
An ominous premonition flashed through his mind.
And then.
*Guurrrrrgle!! Gurgle!! Squelch! Gurgle, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrgle!!!*
The dozens of black slimes.
‘Combined’ into one.
“Hey, hey, hey. Hold on.”
The slimes had merged into the form of a giant, a full five meters tall.
The monster made of black slime beat its chest. *Thump! Thump!*
“KRRRAAAAAAARGH!!!!”
A terrifying roar echoed throughout the cavern.
‘Uh, shit?’
What is that thing.
It looks fucking strong.
[Huhu. As expected, you knew this would happen.]
No.
I didn’t.
[Just as you said, I shall watch without worry!]
What do I do.
“Haha!! Just leave it to me, Lady Vega!!!”
I think I’m screwed.