Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The City Without the Sun (3)
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"The murkies are evolving!"
"What?!"
Ariana Astraea was the first to react to the attendant's words.
The moment she heard the news about the murkies' evolution, she sprang up from her seat, kicking off the chair.
Abyss followed up calmly.
"How exactly are they evolving?"
"I-It's said that torches barely affect them anymore now. And furthermore..."
"Furthermore? What's else is there?"
"They've grown eyes..."
"Eyes?"
The murkies' evolution had finally begun.
Murkies lack eyes, noses, or ears, but they possess a third sense that detects presences in the darkness.
Because of this, the instant they step out of the darkness, they can't detect something right in front of them, and they only truly 'sense' things within the shadows—making them slow to defend against attacks.
But now that they've developed eyes, they've secured vision. They might not handle ambushes well, but they'll be able to defend against frontal assaults.
I explained this to Ariana and Abyss, and the two immediately put on grave expressions and sprang into action.
"Is, let's go!"
"Alfred!"
Ariana signaled for us to head out right away, while Abyss called for Alfred.
"I'll go on ahead! As for the lord..."
"We'll spread this information as quickly as possible! So, I leave it to you!"
"Yes!"
After receiving the details from the attendant, he leaped out the window, and I scooped Ariana into my arms as I thought to myself.
'I can still handle them for now, right?'
Even if the murkies had evolved, they'd only just adapted to torches.
They were still manageable in a fight.
'The problem is that this isn't the only stage of their evolution.'
I concluded it was still within my ability to handle, but things might start getting tough from here on out.
With those thoughts, we quickly arrived at the location where the murkies had appeared.
"Grrrrk!"
"Ugh! These bastards, gnawing off my arm like that!"
"Zayli! The holy power around your sword is running out!"
"I'm sorry, brother...! But I can't..."
"Damn it, those eyes must be the problem...!"
Five knights and one cleric struggling against three murkies.
One of the knights already had his arm torn off amid the onslaught from the murkies with their massive eyes. Probably bitten clean off.
Even the cleric in the back looked to be in bad shape. If we'd been even a little later, they all would have died.
"Saintess, as you know, I can't heal wounds like that."
"Yes, so you'll handle the murkies while I treat them?"
"That's right."
"Got it. I'll finish as fast as I can, so hold on just a bit longer?"
"Yes."
I accelerated, setting Ariana down beside the cleric, then charged straight into the fray between the staggering knights, swinging my shotel wrapped in holy power toward a murky's eye.
-Whoosh!
"Grk?!"
The murky spotted me and tried to raise its arm, but the me from before might have struggled—now, infused with a good amount of the hero's holy power, no lowly once-evolved murky could match my speed.
-Stab!
"Graaaaaahk!"
In an instant, black liquid like blood erupted from the stabbed eye, and the murky screeched, staggering back.
"Grrrk..."
"Grk?"
"Grauk!"
The other two murkies clutched their eyes and locked onto me as their target.
They planted both arms on the ground, assuming a stance, then charged straight at me—arms up in a guard position to protect their eyes.
But it was a pathetic ploy.
"Hup!"
I poured more holy power into the shotel, enlarging it.
I'd already taught Ariana everything she needed to know, and the only change was that they could see and defend better now. Nothing more for me to teach.
So, time to end this quickly.
The holy power enveloping the shotel expanded it to twice its original size.
And using all that holy power...
-Stab!
I swung straight at the murkies' arms.
Thanks to them charging side by side, my attack pierced both pairs of arms at once.
"Graaak!"
"Griaak!"
Both murkies' arms were severed clean off.
All that remained were two defenseless murkies exposing their eyes, arms gone.
As I raised my shotel to bring it down, the first murky—the one whose eye I'd stabbed—lunged at me.
"Graaaahk!"
Seeing that, I thought...
'Perfect timing.'
And grinned in satisfaction.
-Slash!
Letting me cut them both down in one go.
The murkies, impaled through the body by my shotel, collapsed almost simultaneously and melted away.
"Hoo..."
Still no match for me.
Afterward, Ariana finished her healing and showered me with praise for wrapping it up so fast. Embarrassed, I scooped her up and bolted back to the mansion.
...It was embarrassing.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ From then on, the murkies continued to evolve bit by bit.
After the first-stage evolution with eyes, even more changes occurred.
Second-stage: Individuals with ears appeared.
Third-stage: Individuals with even stranger forms emerged.
Fourth-stage: Most grew larger and showed some resistance to holy power.
Day by day, the murkies grew stronger, and eventually...
"Kurrrk!"
-Thud!
"...Ugh."
"Is!"
Even I started feeling the strain.
It was largely due to the fourth-stage evolution's 'holy power resistance.'
One-on-one was manageable, but since they traveled in packs, even I was overwhelmed.
"Kurrrururu..."
The murky before me now was one of the stronger ones among the fourth-stage evolutions.
Its head sprouted horns like a deer's, with a massive eye vertically slit in the center of its face, the sclera glowing yellow.
Below the neck, it resembled a gaunt human, standing at least four meters tall.
But the key feature was the red orb pulsing prominently in the center of its body.
That was the source of the murkies' resistance to holy power.
'Just need to smash that, but it's too tough.'
To maintain balance, the game adds a weakness with each evolution.
For eyes, stab them. For ears, loud noises cause pain. Third-stage is just cosmetic. Fourth-stage, that central core is both strength and weakness.
With the core, they resist holy power to some degree—but destroy it, and they die.
Balanced, somewhat.
The issue? I couldn't reach this one's core.
"Is! Are you okay?!"
Ariana rushed over frantically as I was sent flying by its kick.
I quickly cast Shield of Faith behind her.
-Clang!
Because the murky had thrust its sharp foreclaw at her back.
"Kyaa!"
"Saintess, I'm fine. Worry about yourself first."
"S-Sorry... But this is the first time Is has taken a hit from a murky..."
"It seems this evolution granted them 'holy power resistance.' Not complete, but enough to make them a handful."
Traces of other fourth-stage murkies melting away littered the surroundings, but this one was different.
'Elite specimen.'
A bit late to notice, but this was one of Solaria's elite monsters in the City Without the Sun: 'Darkness Hunter Murkidea.'
"No choice but to burn holy power—"
"No!"
I tried to resort to my last measure, burning holy power, but Ariana shot it down.
"I'll infuse you with holy power, so use that!"
"Ah, right, that works."
I'd forgotten I could just receive it from Ariana.
She grabbed my shoulders and channeled holy power into me. I felt an indescribable pleasure from the massive wave flooding my body.
-Flash.
My vision flashed briefly, then cleared.
The moment I resolved to crush the murkidea before me...
"Solar Swordsmanship, Chapter One! Light that Cleaves the Heavens!"
-Spurt!
"Kurrruruaak!"
With an inexplicable sound, a blade pierced through the murkidea's core from behind.
Someone had stabbed it in the back while its attention was on me.
The murkidea knelt and melted away, revealing its killer before our eyes.
"Darkness can never defeat the sun!"
White robes over chain mail.
A yellow sun emblem in the center.
A great helm concealing the face.
"I am Solad! I have descended here to reclaim the sun!"
...Isn't this guy from another game?