73 – Episode 73. Transcontinental train (3)
“Uh, oh?! What’s this?”
The creature’s voice continuously exclaims with confusion as it hangs in mid-air.
Even though it’s as big as a dwarf.
The way it speaks like a human while flapping its many legs in the void is hardly amusing.
“What are you going to do with this.”
Speaking spider……
I searched my mind for settings but nothing comes up.
Even worse, it’s a spell-using, talking spider.
Questioning if such an evil creature should exist in this world.
‘Is it a shaman’s alter ego.’
The most likely hypothesis is that it’s an alter ego of some named shaman.
Then it makes sense for it to have not shown any weaknesses when I use a weak point.
There is no concept of death to an alter ego, so there shouldn’t be a weak point.
I wonder if a shaman disguised a spider in human form to hide their identity.
That possibility is quite high.
“Please, save me!”
“Why should I save something as hideous as you?”
“But when it was in human form it was quite……”
“Look at your current state. Would you think of a giant spider every time you see a human, or not?”
“……”
Monstrous, dangerous, and even repulsive?
Had it been an enticing nine-tailed fox or a cute dragon, there would have been a chance it could pass as a special pet.
“If the monster is hideous, it’s not even worth it.”
“It tried to eat hundreds of people. What part of that seems attractive to you?”
“It wasn’t trying to eat them!”
“Enough with the excuses. Reveal where your true form is.”
“…?!”
The monster’s elongated body shudders and trembles, and the movement of its sizzling legs ceases.
Though its expression is invisible, it appears to be taken aback.
It must be wondering how I knew this was an avatar.
How many years do you think it’s been since I’ve dealt with a shaman?
“There’s no choice…”
At that moment, the monster’s body grotesquely twists and bulges, as if it’s about to explode at any moment.
A common final attack of toxic monsters.
A poison explosion.
If you couldn’t predict this, you’d be disqualified as a gaming addict.
“Mijeong.”
“…Yes.”
At my soft call, Mijeong snaps her fingers.
Then fire transfers onto the monster’s body, and it is enveloped in flames.
It’s a first-degree magic, ignition.
“Ahhhhh!!!”
Legs crumble from the monster’s body and thump to the ground.
Soon, its mouth melts and drips.
Its whole body starts to burn and shatter into pieces.
There’s no chance of regenerating now.
As soon as I release the telekinesis, it still screams with a body divided into ten pieces, and then it plunges under the legs and into the strait.
“The torch works wonders.”
“Peace…peace.”
Mijeong, forming a V with both hands.
I ruffle her hair roughly, then lift her in my arms.
Because the wind is fierce, I feel like she might fall.
“First-tier foundational magic doesn’t perform badly.”
The foundational fire magic, Ignition.
At first glance, it might seem no different from the attribute-less magic, Spark, but they are distinctly different.
Spark only produces sparks and nothing more without anything to ignite.
Ignition, however, is capable of creating fire even in a void without any fuel or oxygen.
As a result, even a single use of Ignition produces quite powerful flames.
Disappointingly, it can’t do much against objects full of moisture.
But it wouldn’t make sense if foundational magic had no drawbacks.
“But I can’t even learn this kind of attribute magic.”
The problem is, I can’t learn even this foundational magic that is starting from tier one with a strong basis and excellent performance.
Telekinesis could be good in its own way, but…
It doesn’t have any impressive features.
There are no special effects, either.
Objects just move in the air and that’s it.
Honestly speaking, it doesn’t seem to be of great help in battle.
Could you possibly block the enemy’s movements with telekinesis? I wondered.
However, using telekinesis while also swinging a sword in battle is nearly impossible because it consumes a lot of concentration.
Not to mention, telekinesis doesn’t have the power to crumple and annihilate enemies.
It’s feasible for an ordinary weak person to overcome and advance under the use of telekinesis.
In many ways, it is an ambiguous magic.
“Well, never mind. It’s not like I can learn magic easily.”
Ruminating about it only results in sighs, so I end my complaints and drop down from the train’s roof.
There were times when I considered myself completely incapable of performing magic.
Compared to that, should I not be grateful for even being able to manipulate attribute-less magic?
Although attribute-less magic is flawed beyond question, I should be satisfied.
Strictly speaking, even the healing magic used by Jill is attribute-less.
The effectiveness of attribute-less magic has been acknowledged by the saintess, so I can use it with peace of mind.
“It’s time you come down. “
“…Upset. No praise, Eugene. I will make it…difficult.”
Even after returning to the passenger carriage from the roof, Mijeong in my arms doesn’t seem to intend to let go at all.
Even if I let go, they hang on, wrapping their legs around my waist and supporting themselves.
I feel like a mother koala.
“Alright. Do as you like.”
Does this qualify as praise in the ‘Torch performance is killer’ category?
This brat becoming more and more mischievous day by day.
I had raised him as a multi-tool, now he treats his master with utter disrespect.
It seems to be a pitiful attempt at making me embarrassed by clinging like this.
But it does not affect me.
In the end, it looks like I’m just carrying a misbehaving younger sister.
I am confident.
“Mommy, look there.”
“Boys are just embarrassing. Why would he behave like that.”
“What’s the age difference? Such a trashy kid.”
I, I am.
Confident.
***
“Ah, ahahhh······!”
Inside the dark cargo hold.
From within, a girl’s painful moan echoed.
The girl in a nun’s outfit twisted her body, her face paling from the extreme pain, was only able to calm down after letting all her breath out.
“Haaa, haaa!”
The pain that set her body ablaze like dry firewood.
She had to fully experience that pain.
Until the moment her nerves, one by one, were burnt and the connection with her body was severed.
Her nerves were as tenacious as lifelines.
Her body might be torn and fractured, but the nerves would survive, struggling.
Therefore, she would have to fully feel the pain until her whole body was completely turned to ashes.
“Damn human beings!!!”
The girl gritted her teeth and muttered.
Great druid Cali died for reasons unknown.
It had been a month since her escape from the dungeon.
She was of a monster lineage, but unlike her kin, she was born with high intelligence.
Thanks to this, she quickly learned the art of doppelgänging and even met a Beastman Master, from whom she learned the skills of a shaman.
Her innate ability was ‘Mitosis’, a characteristic that allowed her to split her body and create a clone.
“I was going to sip some potion when an intruder has the nerve to disturb me!”
This time, too, she had secretly set up a totem using her doppelgänger and intended to replenish some of her energy from sleeping individuals by activating a shamanic spell.
But things had gone awry.
She could somewhat accept that the spell might have been undone because the totem was destroyed.
Or, the spell may have failed from the beginning.
From Noble mtl dot com
Unlike with magic, even skilled shamans often failed with their spells, after all.
But this time, none of that was the case.
The spell… was cancelled mid-casting.
The totem was unscathed, and the caster was likewise unaffected.
The magic spreading the curse disappeared in an instant, undoing the spell abruptly.
“How did he remove my curse? What kind of method did he use? Who does he think he is?”
Even for a skilled shaman, dispelling an abruptly encountered spell would generally require quite some time.
But that man managed to dispel the curse within merely about five minutes.
She had no explanation for this strange situation.
Although she had only recently learned shamanism, she was proud enough of her talent, having already surpassed her master just ten days into training.
A curse of hers was dispelled so easily.
The more she thought about it, the angrier and more frustrated she became, causing her body to tremble.
“Just what makes him so great? Looking down on me just because of my appearance!”
Moreover, he even scorned her real appearance with a look of contempt.
As if an inferior species incapable of mitosis could comprehend a superior being like hers.
In an attempt for consolation, she forced herself to think this way.
“Argh! When will I recover from the damage I took this time!”
But soon, her anger spewed forth again, leading to another bout of roaring.
The more power you share with your clone, the stronger the clone becomes and the weaker the original body becomes.
And if the clone is destroyed while in a divided state, all the power that was given is completely extinguished.
The power poured into the clone this time was roughly half.
It all disappeared.
It melted away neatly, down below the strait.
Moreover, if you lose your vitality, even your physical age regresses.
Due to losing half, the stature became significantly shorter, ending up with the appearance of a child.
With this small body, there would be more than one or two inconveniences.
“Ugh! It’s annoying, so annoying!”
The more she thought, the more annoyed she became.
To gather the power she had painstakingly built up, how many people’s vitality will she have to absorb….
It was overwhelming.
Especially now, when the chief Druid, Callie who used to provide her with fresh humans, had disappeared.
Since she had to replenish her vitality alone, the speed was bound to slow down considerably.
Do not just let the one who hurt me go.
Thorough revenge is a must.
That was the teaching of the chief Druid.
“Are you avoiding sh*t because it’s scary? No, you avoid it because it’s disgusting. Pah! So disgusting that I avoided it.”
A teaching that was shattered in a second.
The girl still vividly recalled the sensation of burning alive, trembling.
This is not running away.
This is a tactical retreat.
A counterattack.
Thinking so, the girl opened the cargo door.
The train was now crossing the strait and entering the northern continent.
“He won’t follow me, right? He’s human, after all. There’s no way he would go the city of Dwarves… I should head to the Clockwork City!”
There’s no way that human would go to the Clockwork City.
With a giggle, the girl jumped off the train.
She had succeeded in evading the human.
…At least, she believed so.