Chapter 18
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The Black Mage (4)
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"Revere. Worship. Offer."
In the bandits' hideout, where their leader had fallen.
There, Yutenia was performing the ritual of offering.
An altar had been created by drawing all sorts of complex patterns on the floor, and in its center were gathered those to be sacrificed.
The area around the altar was densely inscribed with phrases of praise, glorifying the god.
Witnessing a proper ritual for the first time in his life, Loan watched from beginning to end with fascinated eyes.
The chance to observe a complete ritual of offering to a god was not one that came easily.
Even for Loan, who had lived for decades as a black mage, this was his first time encountering such a ceremony.
"Sing the hymn of life."
As Yutenia's final prayer, declaring the end of the ritual, concluded, the sacrifices on the altar vanished in a flash of pure white light.
Loan, who had been watching the ritual, clapped his hands without thinking.
A great being had revealed a fragment of its presence to accept the offerings made to it.
It was the most wondrous sight Loan had ever encountered in his life.
What miracle in the world could be more astonishing than this?
It was only natural for a gasp of admiration to escape his lips.
"That was truly incredible, Apostle."
"Receiving applause is a little embarrassing."
"Not at all. Merely witnessing such a ritual fills me with the sense that the great one is watching over me."
"Is that so?"
"Of course."
Peter, witnessing Yutenia's ritual for the second time, wore an equally disconcerted expression.
He had glimpsed a trace of something beyond human reach.
It was not something one could get used to, no matter how many times one saw it.
However, he cast an uncomfortable glance at Loan, who was praising Yutenia's ritual.
A black mage and an ordinary village youth.
Between the two of them lay an unbridgeable gap in perception.
No matter how much time passed, Peter would never be able to understand the black mage.
"Now that the ritual is over, I'd like to have a look at your laboratory."
Having finished the ritual, Yutenia, hugging her book, brought up the subject and looked around.
In Yutenia's eyes, only six people remained.
Four of the surviving bandits had converted, following Loan.
While it felt like they had surrendered impulsively to save their own lives, their eyes had changed after the ritual.
With a little more instruction from Loan, they might even become devout followers.
Of course, Loan, who would be teaching them, was showing more fervor than anyone else present.
"Then, shall we go in and have a look?"
"Is that alright?"
"Of course. For you, Apostle, anything."
Loan, who had been furious when the bandits entered, was now more proactive than anyone in guiding Yutenia.
If he had a tail, it would likely be wagging furiously.
Step. Step.
Yutenia followed behind Loan with a leisurely pace as he walked toward the tent.
Peter also followed Yutenia toward the tent.
Passing through the tent set up on one side of the hideout, they found Loan's laboratory, filled with all sorts of magical tools.
"So this is your laboratory?"
"It's humble, but it's a lifetime's collection."
"There's an odd-looking cauldron, and I see a glowing stone."
"Ah, that's a lightstone. Once charged by a mage, it can be used for about ten hours."
Yutenia's intrigued gaze slowly swept across the interior of the tent.
Loan's tent contained all kinds of magical items.
A large cauldron placed in the corner.
Various kinds of animals, preserved through magic.
Loan's research notes, written in neat script.
And on a corner of the bookshelf, a few grimoires.
It looked shabby, but for an inexperienced mage, it was a place filled with valuable items.
Magical supplies were all quite expensive, even if one tried to procure them in the city.
"There are grimoires here, too."
A hand extending from Yutenia's shadow plucked a book from the corner of the bookshelf.
Loan flinched upon seeing the shadow hand.
Yutenia, ignoring Loan's reaction, turned the pages of the grimoire she had taken from the shelf.
Flip.
Her calm eyes began to scan the contents of the grimoire.
The name of the spell detailed in the grimoire was 'Lightning Arrow'.
It was a spell that shaped lightning energy into the form of an arrow and shot it at a target.
It was also the spell Loan had used on the bandit leader when he first encountered Yutenia.
As Yutenia looked at the grimoire, the image of a lightning bolt she had once seen flashed through her mind.
As Yutenia began to read the grimoire, Loan, who had been watching her, spoke up.
"Ah, that spell is..."
"A spell called Lightning Arrow, I presume."
"Yes, that's right."
"Interesting. He might like it."
The Lightning Arrow in Yutenia's hand was a low-tier spell.
Nevertheless, Yutenia sensed numerous possibilities from the grimoire in her hands.
The magic her master used was on a different scale from conventional spells.
The more complex a spell, the more difficult it was to cast on a massive scale.
The precision required of the incantation changed depending on the scale at which the caster used the magic.
Therefore, higher-tier spells that affected a wide area required more complex and numerous variations.
However, Yutenia realized that such things were meaningless to her.
Complex incantations were, in the end, nothing more than a desperate attempt to slightly increase the range and reduce mana consumption.
Yutenia Hi-Lost. She was an anomaly who directly received an ocean of mana from her god.
Mana efficiency was a factor Yutenia didn't need to consider.
As Yutenia read through the grimoire, her eyes gleamed with a peculiar light.
"The great one... is also interested in magic?"
"It was His will that I learn magic in the first place."
"...I see."
"Could you leave me for a moment? Seeing this book has suddenly made me want to read."
A hand moved from beneath Yutenia's shadow, bringing a chair to her.
Yutenia sat on the chair brought by the shadow and began to calmly turn the pages.
At Yutenia's declaration that she was occupying the tent, Loan looked at Peter with a questioning gaze.
But Peter merely met his gaze and nodded.
The two men eventually left the tent with awkward expressions.
Inside the tent, Yutenia's time alone began.
As you go through life, there are moments when you have to deal with urgent problems that suddenly pile up.
For me, yesterday was one of those moments.
My schedule filled up so quickly that I didn't even have time to launch the game yesterday.
Considering I'd logged in almost every day since I started, it was quite an unusual occurrence.
"Ugh..."
As I sat up, clutching my groggy head, sunlight streamed in through the window to greet me.
Ten in the morning. Or maybe it was around eleven.
The sun was already nearing its zenith.
I picked up the glass of water from my nightstand and wet my throat.
Gulp. Gulp.
The lukewarm water slid down my esophagus.
My parched throat finally felt some relief.
"Hah... I feel alive again."
My body still felt a bit sluggish, but I felt like I had mostly come to my senses.
I reached out and picked up the smartphone that was by my pillow.
I wanted to check if I'd gotten any messages overnight.
As I operated my phone and checked my messages, the game icon on my home screen caught my eye.
Right, I didn't play yesterday.
Who knows what might have happened in the game while I was away.
Ever since Yutenia started moving on her own, hasn't it basically become an idle game?
I tapped the game icon, launching it for the first time in a while for a mobile game.
"I wonder if anything happened overnight."
Lately, I'd been leaving Yutenia to her own devices, hunting on the opposite side of the map from her.
I was excited to see what kind of trouble Yutenia had gotten into in the meantime.
I scroll down to check the logs that have appeared over the last day.
Did Yutenia get up to a lot last night?
Today's message log was longer than I expected.
- Apostle: Yutenia Hi-Lost has performed an offering to you.
- Sacrifices offered to you: 17
- The effect of Scales of Karma: Offering activates.
- Your Karma has increased by 34, proportional to the number of sacrifices.
The first thing that popped up was the offering message.
It seemed Yutenia had offered more sacrifices.
Is it because she has the Fanatic trait?
She was being quite proactive about making offerings.
Looking at it this way, I started to think I'd pulled a pretty good character.
"Huh? What's this...?"
And below that, an unexpected message had appeared.
A message had arrived stating that I had received a new grimoire as an offering from Yutenia.
I opened my inventory and checked the item's name: Grimoire: Lightning Arrow.
Since I had no memory of getting a grimoire from a gacha pull, it was definitely something I received as an offering from Yutenia.
So you can even acquire new grimoires as offerings from an Apostle.
This was quite unexpected for me.
"I can get spells without doing gacha pulls?"
You can acquire grimoires without a 10-pull.
Realizing this, my opinion of the game changed slightly.
I started to think that maybe it wasn't such a pay-to-win game after all.
Of course, considering this was the first time I'd gotten one, the drop rate didn't seem very high.
Tap.
I tapped my inventory and selected the grimoire.
I was going to use it to learn a new spell.
- You have learned Lightning Arrow (Lv.MAX).
- You can now use the Lightning Arrow spell by consuming mana.
The name of the new spell was Lightning Arrow.
Similar to the Lightning spell I used before, it was a spell that shot a bolt of lightning at a target.
When you get a new spell, it's only natural to test it out.
I hurled the spell at a nearby village.
KRA-KOOOM!
A heavy bolt of lightning struck the village, inflicting damage over a wide radius.
It looked less like an arrow and more like a javelin.
"Oh..."
Crackle. Sizzle.
Tiny sparks flew around the area where the spell had made a direct hit.
The damage dealt to the enemy by the Lightning Arrow I just used was 30.
That was a whopping double the damage of Lightning.