Chapter 59
Chapter 59
Chapter 59 Friend of the Elves
Naturally, I killed all the elves who had attacked me. It wouldn't make sense to let these bastards live.
Thanks to that, I gained the potential of elves and my aptitude for spirit arts increased considerably.
"Are there any more elves who have the same thoughts as the guy who just died?"
"No!"
The other elves all shook their heads or denied it in unison. Even if they harbored the same feelings, they would never show it.
'This is really ridiculous. Damn knife-ears.'
I never could have imagined that the treatment of a war hero would only amount to this much.
It's actually comedic that the dwarves I directly defeated treated me much better than this.
Although I had no choice but to kill them due to the nature of the trial, if I were to encounter dwarves on the upper floors of the tower, it seemed like we could become good friends.
Each and every one of them was transparent inside and out, without pretense.
Just being with them would lift your spirits with their overflowing energy.
On the other hand, these elf bastards—I have absolutely no intention of associating with them wherever I meet them.
If they treat a war hero like this, what would it have been like if our relationship had been ambiguous?
They're truly a race you never know when they'll stab you in the back.
"You there, elf."
"Yes!"
When I called out to an elf, the one closest to me answered in a rigid military posture like a soldier at attention.
"Why did the war between the dwarves break out? Who attacked first?"
I had a pretty good idea of who attacked first without even looking, but I asked just in case.
"...Even though we told the dwarves to stop their acts of destroying nature, they only restrained themselves slightly and continued to damage nature. So the Council of Elders urged Iraniel-nim to go to war with the dwarves. The moment permission was granted, we immediately attacked."
'So they did restrain themselves somewhat?'
If they had completely ignored the request that would be one thing, but the fact that they took action meant there was room for dialogue.
Yet these bastards declared war and launched a preemptive strike without any discussion.
I'm curious just how much they destroyed nature to warrant declaring war.
"What specific acts did they commit to destroy nature?"
"They destroyed parts of the forest to mine ore, and cut down trees to make fires. Oh, they also generated smoke that worsened the air quality."
'What? Those are just things they did to survive. You crazy knife-ears.'
I thought the dwarves had been setting forests on fire, building highways through mountains, and actively destroying nature, but all they had done was slightly damage nature in unavoidable cases while going about their daily lives.
I can't even imagine what kind of reaction they'd have if they came to Earth and saw how humans destroy nature.
"...I see. Oh, but what was the name of the elf who made me drink poisoned alcohol?"
"Brutus."
Even his name made it strange that he wouldn't betray someone.
Since talking any more would just give me a headache, I left that spot and went to the World Tree where Iraniel would be.
"Hero-nim. Did you enjoy the party... huh..? That blood is..."
She was making a welcoming expression when she saw my face, but then showed a surprised expression when she saw my hands soaked in blood.
"I was just attacked by elves at the party. They attacked me asking if I had betrayed them to the dwarves' side. Do you... think the same way?"
She shook her head vigorously.
"How could I harbor such impious thoughts toward the hero who saved the elves? If it's to prove my purity, I would gladly offer this body...!"
Iraniel suddenly started taking off her clothes again.
"I'll trust you, so stop there."
'Why does she try to solve everything with her body?'
It's not that I'm not interested in women, but I didn't want to do anything just looking at a body without any particular feelings.
If it had been Estelle in front of me, I might have immediately.
"Yes..."
Iraniel reluctantly put her clothes back on, looking disappointed. She really was an unpredictable woman.
"A guy named Brutus did that as a representative. He also said something about how the World Tree's fruit was originally supposed to be his. Is that true?"
She nodded.
"Yes. The sacred tree's fruit is distributed in order to the young people of families belonging to the Council of Elders. This time it was Brutus's family's turn to receive it, but..."
If that's the case, I can understand why he harbored resentment toward me.
Of course, understanding it doesn't mean I accept it.
"But if the elves lost the war anyway, wouldn't it have been meaningless? I don't think he would have won the war even if he had eaten the fruit."
I don't know much about spirit arts properly, so I can't assess it accurately, but judging by the power he was using, he was barely at the beginning stages of transcendence.
Even if he could absorb the World Tree's fruit with maximum efficiency as an elf, wouldn't his limit be around the extreme level of transcendence?
Even if he really somehow surpassed that limit and grew to the beginning level of Harmony, it would have been impossible to change the tide of battle.
There are limits to what a superhuman with outstanding ability in only one field can accomplish.
For an individual to change a massive flow, they need to show master-level abilities in multiple fields like me, or at least have Manifestation-level skills in that field.
"You're right, Hero-nim. While Brutus's qualifications were decent, he wasn't talented enough to lead the war to victory even if he ate the sacred tree's fruit. It seems jealousy toward you clouded his eyes and ears."
Probably a delusion that he could have performed similarly to me if he had eaten the fruit, mixed with antipathy toward the dwarves and feelings toward Iraniel, led him to cause trouble.
"Well, it's fine now. He wasn't much of a threat anyway, and not all elves are like that. Still, I can't just let it slide... Who among the elves is the best at using spirit arts?"
Just as I learned knowledge about blacksmithing from the dwarves, there was something worth learning from the elves.
"I'm not sure what the standard for 'best at using' is, but if the grade of contracted spirits is the criterion, then I, Iraniel, would be the elf who uses spirit arts the best."
Even though I didn't provide clear criteria, she gave an answer I liked.
The fact that she had contracted with high-grade spirits meant she was specialized in contracts, and all spirit arts exist under the assumption that contracting with spirits was successful.
Being good at contracting was no different from having solid fundamentals in spirit arts.
"Then you teach me about spirit arts directly. I'll forget what just happened in exchange for that."
Spirit arts, like black magic, was a skill that didn't exist in the tutorial. Knowledge of new fields always excited me.
"Would that really be enough...?"
I don't particularly want anything more than this. Considering the average knife-ear, I should hope they at least teach spirit arts well.
"Yeah. So teach me properly."
"...Yes!"
With the potential related to spirit arts gained through Predation, and having two traits related to growth speed in all fields, learning spirit arts wasn't difficult for me.
Of course, it seemed I succeeded quickly because the one teaching me was Iraniel, who claimed to be the best spirit master.
[Skill: Lowest-Grade Spirit Arts (Lv.1) acquired.]
"To learn spirit arts this quickly... You truly are the hero."
Along with praise toward me, she now taught me a lot of knowledge about spirit arts.
Spirit arts can be broadly divided into two types.
One is general contracts, where you randomly summon spirits that meet certain conditions, temporarily contract with them, and borrow their power.
And exclusive contracts, where you select the spirit you want, permanently contract with them, and borrow their power.
With exclusive contracts, the mana needed to maintain the contracted spirit decreases dramatically and the power of abilities increases, but the mana cost for general contracts increases significantly.
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, so unless you've summoned a spirit really worth making an exclusive contract with, using general contracts would be much more helpful.
Naturally, having just entered spirit arts, I was also using general contracts.
Since I can only summon Lowest-Grade spirits right now, making an exclusive contract would be very disadvantageous.
[Lowest-Grade Spirit Arts level increases.]
Learning spirit arts was more interesting than I thought.
It felt very different from the powers I had been handling so far.
'At least the convenience passes.'
In the case of ordinary magic or divine arts, you have to directly create formulas and implement them, but spirit arts were different.
Mana consumption is greater than magic, but instead, spirits handle the use of abilities for you.
So all that's needed to handle spirit arts is high affinity, contracting ability, and the amount of mana.
Even the Fly magic I was thinking about before—you just summon a wind spirit and ask it to lift your body into the air, and that's it.
Feeling that overwhelming convenience, I frantically learned spirit arts and quickly accumulated proficiency.
[Lowest-Grade Spirit Arts level increases.]
[Lowest-Grade Spirit Arts proficiency has reached maximum.]
[Lowest-Grade Spirit Arts is promoted to Low-Grade Spirit Arts.]
In the early first round, even learning Lowest-Grade skills was difficult, but now I've become someone who can promote skills in less than a day.
"Hero-nim is truly amazing... To think your spirit arts would advance to the next stage already. You're completely like an elf."
'That's quite harsh to say.'
Being told I was like an elf sounded more like an insult than a compliment to me.
And with that blasphemous remark, time ran out.
[Remaining time: 0 hours 0 minutes]
A blue portal appears before my eyes and the world begins to collapse.
I've gained many things, and now it's time to leave.
"I should get going now. Take care, Iraniel."
Although my antipathy toward elves is still strong, at least Iraniel, who gave me the World Tree's fruit and diligently taught me spirit arts, wasn't so bad.
"We can meet again, right? Hero-nim?"
'Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about meeting again...'
Since I'd sucked out everything there was to suck out, I wanted to end my connection with the elves here.
But she kissed the back of my hand as I was about to leave, forcibly engraving a pattern there.
[Trait: Friend of the High Elves (B) acquired.]
"This is a gift for the benefactor of the elves. With this, you'll be treated as an honored guest and friend of elves wherever you go. Please... may it help you on your journey, Hero-nim."
It was truly an unexpected gift—no, a brand.
'Why are you making me a friend of the elves on your own?'
Because of her, I've now become an inescapable friend of the elves.
Damn it.