9
My Villains Chapter 9
3. Elemental Mage (4)
Looking down at my naked body, my irritated mood vanished instantly.
"...This is insane."
Even when I was a senior soldier eating and just working out at the gym, my body wasn't this good.
I thought Blood Knight had a lean and lanky build, but stripped bare, it was an extremely well-trained body like a gymnast.
My height seemed to be in the upper 180cm range.
That's tall even by modern standards, but in this world it was almost giant-like.
Come to think of it, on the way from the port to the inn, most people seemed about a head shorter than me.
After feeling my body for a while, I took off my pants.
"...Wow, shit."
I had some idea when urinating on the ship, but - I'm at a loss for words.
While I was writhing in satisfaction and happiness, a chilling thought suddenly occurred to me.
What if the character I had been raising just before falling asleep on Earth wasn't a male Blood Knight, but something else?
If I had woken up as a white-haired old Necromancer, a bald male Martial Artist, or a female character - ugh, it was horrible just to imagine. I felt newly grateful for the body I was given now.
After washing up, I helped Ellen bathe. Well, by helping, I just meant keeping watch while she washed her body in the cone-shaped tent.
Still, the city atmosphere was so dangerous that we had to be especially careful. Moreover, Ellen, a half-crippled magician who couldn't use magic, was even more at risk.
The next place we headed was the guest room, but... It was truly the worst. I doubted if it could even be called a guest room.
First of all, you could stay in the communal room for three coins, or in a 4-person room for eight coins. Those were the only two room types available. Since the price difference was three times, we chose the cheaper communal room.
I prided myself on not being picky about accommodations or sleeping arrangements, and Ellen said she didn't mind since she had been traveling for two months already.
At the mention of a communal room, that is, multiple people sharing one room, I recalled the dormitories I stayed in while traveling Europe for the experience.
Mingling with young people from all over the world wasn't a bad experience.
I thought this inn would also be a good opportunity to meet strangers from another world and gather various information.
...Why on earth did I have such a foolish thought?
The reality was the worst. In the large room used as a communal room, there were about a dozen low beds spread out, covered with straw and cloth scraps wrapped in blankets. You just pick one of those and lie down to sleep.
The rats running on the roof, the centipedes as thick as my thumb, the smelly straw and damp blankets were all terrible, but the worst were the other guests.
The bastard innkeeper, unable to count numbers or something, let in six or seven additional guests even after all the beds were full.
The funny thing about the latecomers was that if there were no beds, they should have gone out and complained to the innkeeper, but they just lay down on the floor. I thought they were crazy.
Of the guests, thankfully about half had washed properly, while the rest reeked terribly.
Among them, a couple of mercenaries just lay down on the beds looking like street hobos or beggars.
I really felt like kicking their asses.
And of course, as if it were natural, this crazy inn was mixed-gender.
I was very worried about Ellen, but her brown-robed figure clearly showed she was a magician, so everyone kept their distance. That was somewhat fortunate.
As I lay down on the bed, I couldn't help but curse.
"Haa-"
It's truly a tearfully depressing night. Should I say it's similar to the first night at boot camp? No, it seemed even worse than that.
Ellen, curled up in the corner covered with a blanket, keeps tossing and turning, seemingly uncomfortable. I thought I heard the sound of sniffling.
Well, it's understandable to be scared when dropped in an unfamiliar place practically naked.
Moreover, according to the scenario, she was in a situation of being falsely accused and chased. Her prickly attitude was probably a defense mechanism to hide her vulnerabilities.
The sniffling sound grew a bit louder, with small trembling added.
I wanted to comfort her, but in my experience, it's best to just leave someone alone at times like this.
...It definitely wasn't because I was annoyed and tired that I ignored it.
Really.
Anyway, I thought I had already shed my rose-colored glasses about this new world, but staying at this inn made me realize it again.
This world was a shittier place than I had imagined.
The next morning, I was surprised by three things.
One was the fact that I had slept one of the best sleeps of my life.
"Ughhhh!"
I stretched with a loud groan. What is this crazy refreshed feeling? Until just before falling asleep, I felt like my head would explode from stress, but now I felt refreshed and energized as if my brain had been washed in a washing machine and put back in.
My body felt light as if it could fly. Considering the amount of blood I lost the day before and the poor meal, it was an inexplicably healthy body.
The second surprise was that both Ellen and I were safe.
Looking out the window, the sun was already high in the sky. Ellen must have been tired too, still sound asleep. Even our weapons and bags were intact.
Somehow, it's rather shocking? Maybe I had some misunderstanding about this world?
I found out later that there had been a massive public execution a few days ago. They hanged all those who caused disturbances in the city or committed robbery.
Thanks to that, even though there weren't many guards patrolling the streets, crime had decreased quite a bit.
It's probably a temporary effect, but I was grateful. A moment of silence for the dead criminals.
Lastly, what surprised me was... The dream I had last night.
We took a seat at the most corner table in the inn's hall. I asked Ellen, who was busy chewing with her small mouth, eating oatmeal.
"Hey, really nothing changed?"
"I told you, nothing."
"That can't be..."
Looking at Ellen's grumpy face, she didn't seem to be lying. Although we've only known each other for a day, she doesn't seem like someone who could act so nonchalantly.
"Strange..."
"Stop chattering and just eat. Can you really eat all that?"
"Hey, of course. I can eat twice this amount, you know?"
Saying that, I gulped down the oatmeal bowl and all, then started tearing into the grilled fish. I bought three fish as big as my forearm, and this is already the last one.
Ah, I bought the grilled fish from a street vendor near the port. It's two coins per fish, which is expensive, but compared to other food items, it's practically free.
Although the port is blockaded and they can't cast nets, they can still fish, so there's a small but steady supply, they say.
We only ordered one bowl of oatmeal each from the inn's meal service because it's small in portion and expensive. But even that costs four coins. Damn it.
The reason we're earnestly filling our stomachs with this tasteless meal is because we planned to check ourselves today.
I will check not only physical conditions like stamina or strength, but also skills. I was thinking of checking Ellen's status as well...
"You have to tell me if anything seems to have changed, okay?"
"I got it, so shut up and just eat that."
To talk about the dream again, what I saw in my dream last night was a character sheet.
Even now, if I close my eyes, the character sheet comes to mind.
But that was just checking my status, not being able to distribute points.
However, the window I saw in my dream was different.
I could move my hand to distribute points.
And the character sheet was divided into Tab I and Tab I overall.
Tab I showed my sheet, and Tab II showed Ellen's.
In other words, in the dream I could distribute not only my skills and stat points, but also Ellen's! Of course, I distributed as many points as possible.
Phoenix didn't have any separate points saved up. So all I had were 1 skill point and 5 stat points gained from killing the pirate bastards and reaching level 11.
I used that to strengthen the passive skill 'Flowing Blood' and increased health by 2.
The reason I could only increase health by 2 even though there were 5 stat points is because of the Dark World's stat system.
In Dark World, the stat points needed to strengthen stats differ by range. For example, if the stat is 10 or less, 1 stat point is needed for strengthening. But in the 10s it's 2, in the 20s it's 3, in the 30s it's 4, in the 40s it's 5 stat points needed, and so on.
So my current stats, excluding item effects, are Strength 20, Agility 16, Health 18, Magic 1. In reality, 30 points have been invested in Strength, 22 in Agility, 26 in Health, and 1 in Magic.
With 1 spare point left. The reason Magic is particularly low is due to the characteristics of the Blood Knight class.
The energy that forms the basis of Blood Knights is 'Blood Qi'. As the name suggests, it's the energy dwelling in blood, so it's affected by both Health and Magic.
To explain precisely, the amount of Blood Qi is 25% of the Health score plus 100% of the Magic score. In other words, my current Blood Qi is 5 points. 5 points might sound very low, but 'Blood Blade' and 'Blood Shield' only require 1 Blood Qi to use, and even 'Blood Thirst' only requires 2.
This means that even with 5 points, there's no major hindrance to using skills. That's why Magic is relatively less important for low-level Blood Knights.
There are no skills with Magic coefficients yet, and Blood Qi also increases if you just focus on increasing Health to improve survivability.
Anyway, my Health has increased by 2 now, but I don't feel it right away. My condition feels great, but there's no way to know if it's because I rested well or because my Health score increased.
On the other hand, Ellen had an enormous level of numerical changes. From what I checked in the dream, Ellen was currently level 12.
She had 11 skill points and 35 stat points left, and after much deliberation, I distributed all the points.
For skills, I invested 3 points in 'Flame Arrow', 1 point in 'Burning Weapon', 3 points in 'Cold Spray', 3 points in 'Wind Fist', and 1 point in 'Spirit of Dance'.
The reason I chose the three attributes of fire, ice, and wind is because it's a stable combination that can consistently exert power both during growth and later, and has high versatility.
It's pretty good for boss fights, PK, area damage, single target damage, and especially good for survivability.
For stats, I invested 7 points in Strength, 9 in Agility, 10 in Health, and 9 in Magic.
As a result, it became Strength 10, Agility 13, Health 15, Magic 23. I distributed it efficiently without any leftovers.
Just looking at the numbers, Strength, more than doubled, Agility nearly doubled. Health also increased a lot.
This level of change should show almost a complete transformation...
Why is there no change at all? Was it just a silly dream? Sensing my gaze, Ellen chewed on her white cheek where blue veins were visible, then slightly furrowed her brow.
"What do you keep looking at?"
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing."
Suddenly feeling anxious, I decided to wait a little longer.