Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Second Awakening VER.P.NULL
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Now's the time to use my head.
Splash!
I filled the wooden bathtub with hot water after stuffing it full of stamina-boosting Roquilin herbs.
[You look like you're feeling good, Dun.... Hehe....]
"Tiarin made this for me. The smell is amazing."
[Epic] Shallutem Crystal Bath Aroma
Description: Greatly weakens your strength while you're in the water.
I pulled out the aroma that Tiarin had made during her ongoing research at Dabosuk.
She said it was the result of her tireless work with the elves.
The deep navy-blue, shimmering liquid was contained in a faceted glass bottle. I uncapped it and inhaled deeply.
A refreshing yet sweet fragrance wafted out.
She'd made it from various flowers and jewel trees of the Dabosuk world, plus miscellaneous things gathered from the Night Forest. It was pretty satisfying.
Drip, drip. I dropped a few drops into the water, and it solidified like a solid before shifting into multifaceted crystals.
But when I reached out to touch it, it flowed like sparkling liquid between my fingers.
[Ability Utilization Rate: 40%]
With the Roquilin herbs boosting my stamina and the bath aroma lowering my strength, my ability utilization rate shot way up.
'Montghel's items sure have a lot of debuff-related stuff....'
It felt like I'd partially unloaded the sandbags I always carried, so I lounged back languidly in the tub.
The faint blue glow from the bathwater was pretty intriguing.
Dun picked up the 'Night Music Box' from the windowsill and wound it up.
[Rare] Night Music Box
Description: A black ghost knight's music box. It reads your soul's wavelength and plays a melody matching your current emotions.
It was the music box I'd gotten after beating the crap out of the black ghost knight before.
Being a mental-type monster, it had given me a real hard time.
It showed you countless traumas, and the moment you wavered even a little, it'd exaggerate those memories, invent stories that never happened, and shatter your mental state. A vicious bastard.
Creak, creak.
As the spring turned, a rather melancholic music box melody slowly flowed out.
When Dogpoo sang along in a voice like a xylophone played by a street performer, it sounded even better.
With the song and the warm water temperature calming my mind a bit, Dun leaned back against the wooden tub, closed his eyes, and sorted through the current tasks in his head.
'The raid is about three years from now.'
The groundwork for the rebellion preparations was mostly complete.
Now I just had to wait for the various seeds I'd planted to grow tall and strong, rivaling the weapons the Emperor possessed.
There was nothing new left to create, but there was one thing that still needed preparation.
That was dealing with the unexpected support from the 'Monster Boss.'
The Emperor had once handed Prim over to the Monster Boss.
I didn't know what the price was, but it was clear they maintained some kind of friendly relationship.
Dun could have ended the rebellion by flipping the imperial palace with raw force, but he hadn't.
Separate from his wish for Prim to succeed the rebellion with her own plan, he intended to draw out clues about the Monster Boss through the Emperor.
No telling how that overly cautious, deeply hidden guy would react, but so far, using Prim's rebellion was the most effective way to lure him out.
If he succeeded in luring the Monster Boss, he'd have to be ready to handle the powerful monsters under his command.
Dun opened his skill window and checked the description of the 'World Transfer' skill.
[World Transfer lv.3]
Description: You can move to a pre-created Dabosuk world. Targets in physical contact with your body can transfer with you.
I'd been using World Transfer a lot lately, so its level had gone up.
No new abilities until a certain level, apparently—no change in the description even after leveling.
"Isn't there a convenient way to summon creatures?"
To call the creatures currently in Dabosuk to this world, I had to go to Dabosuk myself, touch the needed creatures, and activate the skill.
Super inconvenient.
Wondering if a creature-summoning skill had appeared without me noticing, Dun scrolled through his skill window for the first time in a while.
There were surprisingly many useless skills piled up.
Dishwashing skill, floor-sweeping skill, laundry-folding skill....
Why do I even have skills for stuff I do with my eyes open?
After digging through the skill window for a while, Dun clicked his tongue.
"Nope, nothing."
Dun stroked his chin and pondered for a moment.
Suddenly, he remembered how he'd given Rahee the job of 'Children's Educational Comic Artist' last time, and his past self the job of 'Vomit Master.'
Maybe he could create skills too?
"Creature Summon!!!"
Nope, no dice.
No change in the skill window, no new ability notification.
[Summon would be nice....]
Instead, Dogpoo paddled over splashily and rubbed against his arm.
"Good job~."
Dun patted Dogpoo's flower and placed it on his head.
Completely deflated, Dun submerged and sighed, blowing bubbles.
Looked like there was no easy way to summon Dabosuk's monsters.
Magic circles were tricky since it was another world. Even if he made one, it'd still be inconvenient.
What to do?
[Cannot create skill.]
[No permission.]
[Permissions lacking for abilities:
: Soul Transfer
: Soul Extraction
: Soul Duplication
: Soul Fusion]
Suddenly, delayed notifications poured in.
"Hm?"
Dun shook his face and resurfaced to check the notification window.
He scowled at the system window dumping incomprehensible info, furrowing his brow for a while.
"Dogpoo, you know anything about soul transfer, extraction, duplication, fusion?"
[Soul extraction, duplication...? ......I know, I know....]
"Ooh, what is it?"
<.......>
"It's okay, it's okay. Don't cry, stop. It's fine if you don't know. I don't either. You're cute even if you don't know, Dogpoo."
Dun chuckled and patted the Dogpoo on his head.
The now-green Dogpoo draped gooily over Dun's head, covering it.
'Does Prim know something?'
He recalled how Prim usually answered questions about this world's lore smoothly.
Asking the Bachinum Prim might give him a clue or two.
* * *
"...So that's why I came to ask if you know anything."
It was currently Prim's sword training time.
Dun leaned against the training ground wall and told Prim about the info the system window had thrown at him yesterday.
Prim, who had been diligently swinging her sword in a diagonal slash, plunged it into the ground.
She wiped her sweat with the towel around her neck and caught her breath for a moment.
"Everything about souls is the domain of the gods. 'No permission' makes sense in that context, doesn't it? I don't know much about your system window, so I can't give definite advice."
Prim, gulping down the water she'd brought, suddenly widened her eyes as if a good piece of info had come to mind.
She roughly wiped the spilled water on her training uniform sleeve and spoke.
"Tell me that list of abilities it said no permission for again."
"Soul transfer, extraction, duplication, fusion."
Prim swung her sword while muttering the abilities Dun mentioned. One of them felt extremely familiar.
"Ah! Come to think of it, I can say something about soul transfer."
"O, really?"
"You said you escaped Montghel and had that dream, right? You drew the magic circle from the dream, and adventurers appeared from there. The dream was so vivid I wrote all the info in my autobiography, and among the explanations for that magic circle was the term 'soul transfer.'"
"Can you still draw that magic circle?"
Dun looked at Prim with admiring eyes.
At Dun's rare reaction, Prim nodded her head dozens of times.
Forgetting for the moment that she'd been bedridden for three straight days after drawing it.
"I can draw it, but it takes an enormous amount of mana. Still, if you want it, I'll draw it even if I shrivel up like a dried carrot."
"It's fine, do it!"
"Haha, I'm glad you're responding to me like this."
Prim tossed her sword into the corner and sat on a nearby rock.
"How did I draw it...."
Prim pulled out a small sheet of paper and began drawing the magic circle from memory.
It was a strange magic circle.
He didn't really get the inner patterns or the operating principle, but it sucked up mana like crazy.
She'd drawn it so many times trying to figure out the secret behind summoning adventurers that she'd memorized the complex structure.
Even though it wasn't a full adventurer-summoning circle, her mana was already starting to run low, so Prim frowned.
"Dun, put your hand on my shoulder and supply some mana."
"My mana?"
"The more mana, the faster the circle completes. Maybe because I just finished sword training, my stamina's lacking for squeezing out more."
At her request for mana, Dun scratched his cheek a bit flustered.
"Uh.... well.... I can give some.... Tch, I'll give it a shot."
Dun stood next to Prim, who was drawing the shaky magic circle with trembling hands, and placed his hand tentatively on her shoulder.
"Tell me quick if it's enough."
"Haha, why does giving mana look so solemn?"
"You really need it? That much?"
"My mana's almost gone—if you don't give now, I won't finish."
At those words, the hesitant Dun loosened a bit of the mana he'd been keeping on a tight leash.
Veins bulged on Dun's arm.
Whooooom!
Suddenly, an enormous amount of red mana burst from Dun's hand and engulfed Prim as she drew the magic circle.
Dun grimaced at the fiercely pouring mana and tried his best to control it.
"...Uh, Dun! That's enough! Cough, that's enough!"
"Yeah?"
Dun wiped the nosebleed trickling down and looked at Prim. Prim had a bit of a nosebleed too.
Her hair, infused with the overflowing mana, rippled easily even in the slightest breeze.
Prim stopped drawing the circle midway, reached out, and felt her body.
With the mana overflowing, her body felt incredibly light and refreshed.
"I haven't lived that long, but this is the healthiest I've felt in my life."
"You look full of energy, good."
Dun pulled tissues from his inventory and plugged his bleeding nose.
Once he released mana even once, blood kept flowing for a while.
But his mana control had improved—he was glad no blood came from his ears this time.
"Gasp, Dun! You okay? Why, why the blood? First time seeing you bleed."
"Looks like you're good at mana control. Usually, even a little mana makes me vomit blood, nosebleed, bloodshot eyes, bleeding gums—total chaos."
"Naturally, from maximizing what I have.... No, Dun, more importantly, you okay?"
Dun nodded as he swapped the already fully red-soaked tissue.
"No biggie."
Seeing him injured for the first time, Prim fussed worriedly, checking his face.
She looked cute even in the panic.
Maybe because of Dun's image, she looked like a kid who'd hurt herself digging her nose and stuffed tissue in.
"I wondered why a guy with so much mana doesn't learn magic— this why?"
"Yeah. Magic use turns into a mess."
"Huh.... You're a strange one. Anyway, how to stop the nosebleed? I want your blood gone from my sight ASAP."
Prim pulled out a handkerchief and kept pressing it to Dun's nose to staunch the flow.
"It'll keep bleeding for a bit even with pressure, so finish the magic circle."
"No.... Fine. Drink this."
Prim handed him a top-grade healing potion and continued drawing the magic circle Dun had requested.
When she finished the final line, the circle began emitting a vivid red light matching Dun's mana color.
"Done here. Take a look."
Dun picked up the small paper with the magic circle.
Then, a flood of notification messages.
[[Bridge Between Two Worlds], Soul Transfer Magic Circle acquired.]
[Can edit detailed settings.]
[Soul Transfer Route]
[dc143c-T → dc143c-G]
[Location Reset]
[Transfer Direction Edit]
...
Dun stared blankly at the notification messages.
"Ah, what's this now, again."