Back to Garden
“You have proven your absolute purity. The Pure White Radiance acknowledges you.”
Amidst the blinding light that illuminated the darkness of the underground waterway, I was the only one who could look around normally.
“Ugh—I can’t open my eyes...”
“W-what is this light? Argh—”
Unlike me, my party members were writhing in agony, covering their eyes with both hands. Was it always this bright? It was practically a solar flare. I hurriedly retracted the light, but everyone remained dazed and stumbling for a while.
‘That flashbang was insane.’
The artifact had acknowledged me, but I didn’t want to accept it. Purity? Me? Are you crazy? I was a man originally. Even though I’d possessed Estelle’s body by some twist of fate, this was just wrong. There was no way a golden unicorn would like me. It shouldn’t like me.
‘Wait, don’t you need to meet some kind of triple-threat criteria of mind, body, and spirit to pass a unicorn’s standards?’
Sure, let’s concede for a second that the body is clean. It’s surprising that a Lich who has lived for hundreds of years has never even held a man’s hand, but it’s not entirely impossible. But that’s not the point. My mind is already rotten. I’m not the pure little girl the unicorn wants. Hey, unicorn, you’re being deceived. I’m not that kind of person.
Pure White Radiance welcomes its new master.
Despite my vehement denial, the bracelet clung to my wrist and showed no signs of letting go. White light shot into the air like fireworks, dancing around my body. It was absolutely ridiculous.
“It seems Estelle has really taken a liking to that bracelet,” Wagner said, rubbing his eyes, perhaps still seeing the afterimages of the light.
“Yeah, kid, you keep it. I thought I was going to go blind for a second there,” Mitchell said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
The situation had naturally flowed into me keeping the Pure White Radiance, but... why did my heart feel so uneasy? A unicorn’s stamp of approval. I didn’t want a label like that. But I couldn’t exactly go around ruining my body on purpose, either. This is driving me crazy.
Three days had passed since we returned to the Garden frontier. Our party spent those three days disposing of the loot we’d gathered in the dungeon. It took longer than expected, but there was no helping it. Right now, Dawson, the leader of the vigilantes, was obsessed with controlling the hunting grounds. If we sold off a massive amount of monster byproducts in this atmosphere, we’d definitely be caught by the vigilantes. Moreover, some of the loot included vigilante equipment. If they asked where we got it, we wouldn’t have a good answer.
There was no need to take unnecessary risks and rush. We had to be as cautious as possible and avoid drawing unwanted attention. Once we finally finished disposing of the loot, we gathered at a tavern to hold a small celebration.
“Hehe...”
“Heh. This is all money.”
“Ahem.”
We exchanged secret smiles in the corner of the tavern with our money pouches laid out in front of us. Being happy in secret isn’t exactly easy.
“We sold the monster byproducts for a total of 37,400 gold. And the vigilante gear for 40,500 gold... This is incredible,” Mitchell whispered quietly, suppressing her laughter.
“Now we have to split this money fairly. The distribution is as we agreed, right, kid?”
“Yeah.”
Fairly split N ways without any complaints. However, Wagner decided to take a set of the vigilante’s steel armor, and in exchange, he would receive less gold. The vigilante armor was high quality, rivaling Imperial Guard armor, and it even had a Size Adjustment rune imbued in it, so Wagner’s decision was quite clever. Normally, I would have had to pay for the Pure White Radiance artifact, but since I took on the burden of processing the monster byproducts, we called it even. In the end, my share came out to a whopping 23,000 gold.
“I’m rich now!” Flora laughed brightly. “Where should I spend all this money? What should I buy first?”
“Oh, you’re pretty excited, aren’t you, missy? Then buy us a round of drinks!”
“Sure! It’s on me today!” Mitchell egged her on, and Flora fell for it immediately. Sigh. That girl...
“Is there anywhere else I can spend money?”
“Lend me 20,000 gold. I’ll triple it and pay you back.”
“Understood—here you go—”
“...Senior, put that money away.”
I couldn’t watch anymore and intervened. She’s so gullible. This is why I can’t leave her alone. She’s like a child left by the water’s edge.
“Mitchell, don’t play those kinds of pranks. Senior will actually believe you.”
“Ah, damn it, I told you not to do that! It’s bright!” Mitchell grumbled when I shot the light from the bracelet at her eyes as a reprimand.
“Ugh, seriously... I got this useless bracelet for nothing.”
I’d been practicing shooting the light since we returned from the underground waterway, and I was getting pretty good at it. I hadn’t decided on a name for the technique yet. Flashbang Beam... didn’t sound cool. Virgin Ray... was too direct. Maybe White Light would be better? Actually, the name didn’t really matter.
“Looks like you’ve learned how to use it quickly,” Wagner said, interested as he sipped his drink in silence. “If you use it well, it’ll be a big help in combat.”
“Right? And I can do other things, too. Want to see?”
“Hmm. I’d like to see.”
The Pure White Radiance wasn’t just a flashlight substitute. Depending on how you used it, you could create various variations of the same light. I manipulated the light to create small particles and scattered them over the table.
“This is possible, too.”
“Oh—”
“That’s amazing.”
It didn’t end there. The light particles bounced around the table as if they were alive, then slipped right into Mitchell’s nostrils. Bright light leaked out of the elf’s nose, and Flora and Wagner burst into laughter in unison.
“Ah, damn it. Stop it.” Mitchell shook her head repeatedly and blew her nose hard. Later, she even stopped caring about her dignity and stuck her fingers in to dig around. But even then, the light particles wouldn’t come out unless I pulled them out.
“Stay like that for a while. It suits you.”
“Ugh—kid, do you want to die?”
“It’s because you tried to scam Senior.”
“Who said I was scamming her? No, seriously, I can triple it—just trust me.”
“Trust you? If you’re going to lose money, do it with your own.”
I made more light particles and this time put them into Wagner’s nose. Then, I manipulated them so the light that popped out would move into Mitchell’s nostrils. From nose to nose—
“You son of a—!”
As expected, Mitchell cursed in disgust. But the light particles that came out of Wagner’s nostrils kept going into Mitchell’s nose. No matter how much she shook her head or blocked her nostrils with her hands, the formless light kept digging through. Mitchell, unable to take it anymore, jumped up.
“I can’t stay here, it’s too gross. I’m leaving.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got money now, so I’m going to go gamble.”
Mitchell grinned, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together. “We’re all going to prepare individually before the next expedition, right? Let’s meet then.”
Thump, thump. As she walked toward the tavern entrance, Mitchell suddenly turned around and approached the table again.
“Ah, damn it, take this out of my nose. How long do I have to keep it in?” Mitchell asked, her face contorted in a pout.
In a secluded part of the village, in front of the Orc Shaman Yurka’s tent. I was waiting for Yurka alone. Yurka was nowhere to be seen, likely out on business. ‘Well, he’ll come back if I wait.’ I sat in the chair Yurka usually used and opened the Book of Blood. It was a grimoire that would be a great help to me in the future, just as much as the Pure White Radiance artifact. However, this picky grimoire didn’t give up its magic easily. True to its name, it was a nasty thing that was only satisfied when it harvested the blood of living creatures through slaughter.
You have collected a sufficient amount of blood. The Book of Blood expresses deep satisfaction with your cruel and ruthless slaughter.
You can now learn the Level 1 spell, Raise Corpse, from the Book of Blood.
I was able to easily meet the quota for Level 1 by killing the vigilantes and Max. I didn’t hesitate to learn the magic. Raise Corpse. It was the absolute foundation of necromancy, but it was a spell whose utility could never be underestimated. I looked around. Was there any corpse I could test it on? Outside Yurka’s tent, I saw the corpses of rats strung up on a rope. They were probably dried for meat, but it wouldn’t hurt to use one.
I focused my mana on my hand and caressed the dead rat.
Casting Raise Corpse.
Lost experiences vaguely come to mind. You receive a talent bonus.
Your aptitude for necromancy is excellent. You receive an aptitude bonus.
Ominous mana, completely different from ice magic, flowed down my hand. Dark purple mana, dripping like a mortician’s chemicals. The mana wrapped around the rat’s body and began to flow into its system through its eyes, nose, and mouth. Then...
—Twitch.
The tip of the rat’s whiskers moved. Soon, it twitched its nose, shook its tail, and then stood up and scurried to my feet. Even though it had been dead for a long time and its fur was discolored and brittle, if you only looked at it moving, you’d mistake it for being perfectly alive.
“It really moves. Hey, Ratty, uh... do a spin.”
When I gave the command with hesitation, the rat spun around in place just as I said. This is amazing. Not only could it move in all directions, but it could also easily carry out complex commands that a normal rat could never do.
“Hey, champion, you can do it. Let’s show them. Come on, step, step. That’s it.”
The rat, standing on two legs, stepped with its short legs and threw one-two jabs. It was so fun playing with the rat that I was engrossed like a child for a while. I ended the test by finally imbuing the rat with the light of the Pure White Radiance. A glowing rat, a.k.a. a Light Mouse. I know. It’s childish. But it was truly fun.
After moving for a while, the mana I’d planted ran out, and the rat returned to being a corpse. Having played with it for that short time, I felt a strange sense of attachment, and my heart ached a little. ‘The future looks promising.’
The power to move the dead. For now, it was just a rat doing tricks, but in the future, my necromancy would become a secret art that could command an army of the dead. There were few in the world of Nine Stars who could handle necromancy skillfully. That meant that countermeasures against necromancy weren’t widely known either. This power would become my greatest weapon.
As I sat there, satisfied, the Orc Shaman Yurka finally returned.
“Oh, little girl—you’ve come.”
His bumpy, wrinkled face twisted strangely. He looked menacing, but he was actually smiling. However, two other Orcs were with Yurka.
“I was waiting for you. I was determined to make up for my mistake last time. This time, it’ll be different.”
“Who are those people?”
“Ah! You can look forward to it. I’ve brought in experts.”
The Orcs, covered in feather decorations as flashy as Yurka’s, nodded solemnly. Oh, this guy really prepared for this. Yurka laughed with a confident face.
“Now, from here on out, we will mobilize all the visions of Orc Shamanism to strengthen you.”