by Yuu Tanaka
We have to take him down! He’s right there! Come on!
No. Attacking the Lich now would release all the malice stored inside him. Probability of a malice explosion is eighty nine percent.
Oh. Really? I’ve changed my mind.
Using EP to advance Skill Taker 10. Skill Taker SP acquired. Cooldown for Skill Taker has reset. Activating Skill Taker SP-Success. Acquired Seal Immunity.
What an underhanded skill. I guess Skill Taker SP could take Extra skills now.
Activating Spacetime Magic: Dimension Jump.
I see! We could bypass the room’s teleportation seal now that we had Seal Immunity!
The P.A.’s spell casting echoed in my head.
Oh no, the malice was coming right for us again!
Just as I was about to attempt to fend the crawling malice off with Telekinesis, we were gone from the hall.
Byuoooo.
Are we… off the island?
Buffeting winds greeted us out of our teleport. We were in the middle of a freefall from a place higher than the clouds. We had successfully made our escape.
How was Fran doing? I checked Fran’s status as she was still wrapped up with my blade.
Good. She was unconscious, and her health had dropped by half but she was otherwise alright. There was nothing alarming about her complexion and there were no notable wounds on her. I cast Heal and some Purification spells on her just in case.
She hadn’t regained consciousness but her life was no longer in danger.
Jet?
“Woof.”
Jet was doing alright, too, since he had hidden in Fran’s shadow. This new Heavensight, though… It allowed me to see Jet and Identify him even as he remained in the shadows.
He, too, had lost a lot of health, but was otherwise in fine shape. I gave him a Heal.
Time until Specimen Teacher’s destruction is thirty-five seconds.
Thanks, P.A.! You saved us!
Halting the effects of Unleash Potential. Scope of Placeholder P.A.’s functionalities will be limited once again.
P.A.’s voice grew distant the second she cut off Unleash Potential. She sounded like a radio whose dial I had turned in the opposite direction.
Wait, so does that mean you’ll be going back to the way you were before?
Yes. Placeholder P.A.’s functionalities will be limited to Translation and Notification.
But there’s so much I want to ask you! Would this happen again if I used Unleash Potential?
No. Parts of my system have been corrupted due to breaking through of limits. Odds of Placeholder P.A. reasserting authority during a future Unleash Potential are two percent.
What? So I won’t be able to meet you like this anymore?
Yes. Odds of recovering corrupted systems are zero percent. Time until shutdown: fifteen seconds.
W-wait, wait! I have so many questions!
I thank you, Specimen Teacher. The gods did not suffer me to exist, and the craftsman deleted my name. Though I was only to live as a vessel, I was glad I could serve you, my master, if only during my last moments. May the God of Wisdom guide you.
P.A.! P.A.?
---
P.A.? Hello?
She can’t hear you anymore, you know? She’s gone.
I see… There were so many things I wanted to ask her.
She was a remnant of an existence long gone. Unleash Power just happened to bring that personality forth again. Even that remnant is gone now, taken as the price for going over your limits.
I really can’t see her anymore? Even if I used Unleash Power?
There’s no way.
I guess I can’t ask P.A. for advice anymore.
That’s about it. Also, check your crystal stores.
Yeah… wait, who are you?
The conversation had naturally carried on but… who? And how? Was it through Telepathy?
I think I’ve heard your voice before.
That’s right. On the day I was reincarnated, I heard the mysterious voice of a man call out to me in my head.
Hey, who are you?
Well, I was planning to reveal my identity to you later down the road, but… we’re scheduled to meet in less than a month, you know. At least our minds will.
Aww, come on. There’s no need to put on airs now. You could just tell me now and it’ll be just as good.
You’re taking this very much in stride…
Because you don’t seem like a stranger to me.
That was it. I had felt a sense of familiarity akin to friend or family with this man. It was the whole reason why I carried on talking to him in the first place.
Alright, then. I’ll tell you. My name is—
“Teacher!”
Huh? Oh, it was Stefan. He was cradling Jean in his arms as we continued our freefall. The rate of his fall was quite slow; he must have had Float. Still, I was glad they were both alright.
But the timing…
Hey, are you still there?
“—”
Aaand he was gone. Without leaving so much as a name.
Who was that? Was there someone else living inside me? Did I have multiple personalities? Was it another spirit? It wouldn’t be strange if there was another soul in my sword body. I didn’t even know who made me and for what.
And the P.A., who was she? She didn’t feel as much of a soul as she did a machine, very much out of a sci-fi novel or flick. I imagined her to be an android or a support AI. She had said something interesting, too. The craftsman deleted her name, and the gods did not suffer her to live.
Aaah, it bothered me so much! I don’t get it! So I had to stop thinking about it!
Not that I would understand even if I hadn’t stopped thinking about it. Shelving these questions was my best way forward if I wanted to stay mentally healthy.
The man hadn’t seemed hostile. He said we would meet again so I’ll ask him when I saw him. I needed to stop thinking about it now.
“Are you alright?”
Stefan drew close to us, and I saw that Jean was all right. It was surreal seeing an adult in a child’s arms.
Somehow.
“And Fran?”
She’s just unconscious—
Boooom!
Whoa!
I looked up in panic. The sound had been loud enough to split eardrums. I looked up toward the floating island and saw that it was now split in two. Black light poured from the island’s foundation. Malice had flooded the entire dungeon, and it was no longer isolated to the floor where the Lich was.
We would’ve ascended too if we had failed to escape the dungeon. There was nowhere to run even after we had beaten the Lich. I had the P.A. to thank for saving our lives.
Grrrrgggg—
Huge crags fell from the remains of the ruined dungeon. The exploded foundation had produced boulders which were now falling through the sky. The sight reminded me of the final scene from Laputa.
“The rampage of malice must have destroyed the dungeon core in the process. The dungeon will disappear in a little while.”
“Disappear? So those giant boulders won’t do any damage?”
“No, only the things created by the dungeon will disappear. The island was already there before the dungeon came about.”
That sounded bad. If rocks of those magnitude hit the ground… it would bring disaster to any nearby villages.
Jet.
“Woof!”
Jet came out of Fran’s shadow and gently set her on his back. His natural fur pelt must feel comfortable. He was practically a bed, given his size. With Jet’s Air Hike ability, Fran was in good hands.
I plunged down through the clouds and surveyed the landscape. Good, there were no cities or villages in sight. I overlooked the foot of a mountain. The kingdom of Raydoss should be just over it.
Still, the falling crags could still do some severe damage if it fell in the forest or the mountains. Worse, I had noticed a river flowing below me that looked like it branched out
to several different streams. If the flow of the river was blocked off by one of the crags…
What should I do?
There were two gigantic boulders right now. One of them looked like it was going to fall right in the middle of the forest in the mountain, and the other was on a collision course to the river on the mountain’s surface.
I have to save the river somehow.
Not that I could move such a massive rock with Telekinesis. Destroying it wouldn’t reduce its volume, either. It might even increase the area affected by the falling rocks.
No, wait a second. If I did that and this… Okay, this just might work.
I figured something out. If my plan went well, I might be able to divert this crisis completely.
Let’s go! Inferno Burst!
I charged towards the rock foundation and fired my spell. My brand new Inferno Burst drilled several holes into the rock which I then widened further with Earth Magic. I used Wind Magic to pressurize the rock mass from the inside and—
The giant crag split in four.
Take this!
I pelted them with more spells to split them up into twenty smaller pieces. Granted, the smallest above the boulders was still twenty meters in diameter.
That should do it.
I then deployed the Pocket Dimension, storing up all the broken rocks I could get my hands on.
Store. Store. Store.
Heheh, there was still plenty of room in my Pocket Dimension! It seemed that learning Spacetime Magic had actually increased its size. I still had an auditorium worth of space left after storing the boulders away.
I just needed to figure out some way to sort out all the rubble in my inventory. That could wait.
We were taking the sea route, after all. I’d just dump it in the ocean then.
The river should be safe now.
The other rock mass had crashed into some plains in the distance, sounding off a loud roar in the process. It kicked up a huge amount of dust and sand as it crushed part of the forest.
“Woof, woof, woof!”
“Teacher, are you alright?”
Jet and Stefan had landed. I should get back on land as well. I had earned a well-deserved break.
I could ask you the same thing. Did you get hit by any of the falling rubble?
“I’m alright… huh?”
Uh, Stefan? You’re kind of glowing. Are you sure you’re okay?
A faint blue light had enveloped Stefan.
“It looks like my time is up.”
Huh? Why?
“I am a dungeon monster, after all. When the dungeon disappears, so will I.”
Destroying a dungeon core or defeating a dungeon master eliminated all the monsters within a dungeon. Fair enough, but was Stefan a dungeon monster?
I thought you were under Jean’s charge.
“Yes and no. This body was created by the dungeon master, you see.”
Stefan’s fingertips were beginning to go transparent. It soon spread all over his body as a light shone on him as if beckoning him into the sky. The event was a replay of what had happened when Jean cast Ascension on Andy. He was disappearing.
So why was he smiling as he was fading away?
Shouldn’t he be afraid if he had human thoughts?
“Take this.” He held a small bundle out.
Is this a diary?
“Yes. You’ll understand once you read it.”
Whose is it?
“Read to find out. Aaah, I can finally rest in peace…”
Stefan, wait!
“Teacher, please take care of my other master… Thank you for setting us free.”
Stefan gently caressed the unconscious necromancer.
“Good night.”
He disappeared then, peacefully without a sound.
All that he left behind was a satisfied smile.
Stefan smiled until the end.
“Arf…”
To vengeful spirits, ascension was their salvation. Things couldn’t have worked out better for the Wraith turned Ghost Eater. He ascended after laying his life down for his master. To grieve him now would be to miss the point.
Well, no use standing around here. Let’s go wake Jean and Fran up.
“Bark.”
Jet began licking Jean’s face, and for some moments I worried that the Direwolf might drown the necromancer with his slobber. Don’t overdo it, now.
There was one thing I wanted to check in the meantime—my crystal count which the mystery man had mentioned earlier.
Um… Excuse me?!
Evolution: [Rank 11; Crystals: 2061/6600; Skill Capacity: 100; Free EP: 18]
Where’d all my crystals go?! What?! Seriously?
My rank and abilities had not gone down but my crystal count was drastically reduced. Why? Was it the cost of using Unleash Power? It did mention something about exacting a different price depending on who’s using it. I guess crystals were my additional cost.
Not that I was going to complain, since it did save my life. It saved my life so no complaints here, nope! But God… my next rank up felt like an eternity away…
“Pfft! What is all this sticky stuff?!”
Jet had successfully woken up Jean, albeit in the worst way possible.
I should go wake Fran up before Jet assaulted her with his slobber.
We made our way back to Jean’s research lab after narrowly escaping the dungeon with our lives. Casting Nether Lord’s Blessing twice was taking its toll on Jean. He lay down on the floor immediately after some small talk. A good night’s sleep was supposed to fix him up but a night had gone by and he was still down for the count. He had trouble just getting out of bed.
I was in the middle of teaching Bernard how to make curry when Jean called me to his sleeping quarters.
How are you feeling?
“Fuhahaha. Better, really. There’s something I want to ask you.”
Jean wanted to know what happened the other day after he passed out, the subject naturally progressed to Stefan’s final moments.
“So Stefan is gone now.”
Yeah.
Jean looked relieved and nodded.
“I see… He still looked after his foolish master who left him in that place for so long… I am eternally grateful.”
He looked quite happy to go, you know?
“Then I am happy as well. Indeed, that is the best thing that can happen to an undead.”
Jean and I continued our conversation as he lay in his bed.
We talked about how we were going to split the items and reward money. As a result, I got 500,000G for selling off Death Gaze, which was more than I expected.
We had gotten several more items from treasure boxes but had no use for most of them. We decided to sell them off since they were useless to us. Death Gaze was very strong as well.
Name: Death Gaze
Attack: 880; MP: 600; Durability: 400
Mana Conductivity: B+
Skill: Death (3% chance of inflicting Death on an enemy)
Its raw attack power outclassed me.
I-I wasn’t upset at all! I still outclassed it in every other facet!
“Teacher.”
What?
“Have you read the diary Stefan gave you?”
I had not.
Stefan had entrusted me with his diary, but I thought it’d be better if Jean read it first.
“I see. May I?”
We both know you should. I can read it once you’re done with it.
“Thank you.”
No rush. I was planning on resting here for a few days, anyway.
“Very well.”
Take it easy.
I floated the diary over to Jean. He carefully held it and slowly flipped through its pages. I doubted he could finish it all in one day.
How should I spend the next few days?
I guess I could experiment with my newly-acquired skills. I asked Bernard if there was any place I could use and he pointed me to the empty field
behind the lab.
First, to look over the changes made to my stats. As for the crystal… I’d have to pretend that didn’t exist.
Name: Teacher
User: Fran
Race: Intelligent Weapon
Attack: 527; MP: 3550/3550; Durability: 3350/3350
Mana Conductivity: A+
Evolution: [Rank 11; Crystals: 2061/6600; Skill Capacity: 100; EP: 18]
Skills: Identify 10; Identity Protection; Transform Shape; High Speed Self Repair; Telekinesis; Telekinesis Up (low); Telepathy; Attack Up (low); User Status Up (medium); User Recovery Rate Up (low); Heavensight; Seal Immunity; MP Up (low); Skill Capacity Up (medium); Bestiary; Skill Sharing; Mage
Unique Skill: Essence of Falsehood 5
Superior Skill: Skill Taker SP; Complex Doppelganger SP
Fran had also vastly leveled up. The skills listed below reflected her raw state without me equipped.
Name: Fran
Age: 12
Race: Beastman. Black Cat Tribe.
Class: Blademage
Status: Contract (Swordmaster)
Level: 33/45
HP: 406; Magic: 327; Strength: 215; Agility: 209
Skill: Stealth 3; Royal Etiquette 4; Presence Sense 3; Sword Arts 4; Sword Mastery 6; Flash Step 4; Cooking 1; Insect Killer; Spirit Manipulation; Goblin Killer; Cool Mind; Demon Killer; Expert Carver; Determination; Sense of Direction; Night Vision.
[NEW] Undead Killer
Class Skill: Focus Mana
Special Skill: Black Cat Blessing
Title: Veteran; Insect Killer; Disassembly Expert; Healing Mage; Skill Collector; Goblin Killer; Assassin; Dungeon Raider; Boss Killer; Fire Mage; Demon Killer; Master Chef
[NEW] Undead Killer; Skill Maniac
Equipment: Black Cat Set (Black Cat Armor; Black Cat Gloves; Black Cat Boots; Black Cat Earring; Black Cat Cloak; Black Cat Belt); Bracelet of Strength +1; Bracelet of Sacrifice
She had gained eight levels in total, reflected in her drastic stat increase. Fran herself had not gained a single new skill, but her Sword Mastery went up quite a bit. She was growing up fast. All the EXP from fighting strong enemies was proving their worth.
