35 – Settlement and Farming, and ??? (1)
A warm and soft sensation envelops my entire body.
It felt like something plush was resting on top of me.
There was a subtle weight pressing down on my body, but strangely, it didn’t hurt.
It’s slightly different, but if I were to put it into words, it’s as if I were in contact with clouds…
That soft something carries a faint warmth, and just being in contact with it brings comfort to my heart.
‘Could it be that I’ve died…’
Thanks to this, I briefly entertained that thought.
Though my position might be a bit unconventional, after all, clouds are a part of heaven.
Considering the intense battles I’ve been through, it wouldn’t be too surprising if I were really dead.
Even so, they rolled out the red carpet to heaven for me…
With such thoughts in my mind, I opened my heavy eyelids. I needed to assess the situation.
The first thing I saw as I opened my eyes was the figure of a saintly girl sleeping above me.
She was using my chest as a pillow while peacefully resting. Her golden hair gently brushed against my skin.
She seemed quite tired; there were faint dark circles under her eyes.
What I had perceived as warmth turned out to be her body temperature.
‘Hmm?’
At this moment, I couldn’t help but be a little bewildered. Why is she sleeping here?
No matter how tired she is, it would be incredibly difficult for her to end up in this position by chance.
However, despite the questions forming in my mind, my body continued to assess the situation.
What I thought was soft turned out to be her skin, and something cloud-like was her huge, huge…
“Oh, sh*t.”
Realizing this, I quickly distanced her from my body.
I gently lay her on the floor, supporting her back and shoulders, so she wouldn’t wake up from her sleep.
Instantly, a shiver ran down my spine. Curiosity or whatever wasn’t important right now.
For a moment, a base desire rose to the surface, but I quickly suppressed it.
For now, I had to conceal this scene itself.
Swiftly getting up from my spot, I heaved a sigh of relief.
“That was a close call…”
It’s a relief that neither she nor the other party members woke up first.
To me, it might have just been an accidental mishap, but to them, it probably wasn’t.
I can already imagine it. The party members who just witnessed the scene berating me.
– Ahh! This crazy pervert!!
– Hero! Don’t you have any sense as a human being?!
– Yuris, Yuris, are you okay?!
– Disgusting, truly disgusting…
“Oh…”
Just imagining it makes my head throb.
Is this what they call a mental attack? Just by imagining it, I can feel the stress building up. There’s no doubt it’s an incredibly powerful mental attack.
Ahhhhh…
While thinking about that, a cloud of ashes floated by from the side.
It’s the decaying corpse of a burnt-out utensil, disintegrating and flying away. Utensils born from the garbage disposal can’t leave even a corpse behind in this world.
The sight of it soaring into the sky, riding on the wind, is almost beautiful. I felt a slight sense of regret as I watched it.
“I guess I can’t farm those.”
Even though it’s my third time being alone, I was hoping to gain something. But if there’s no corpse left behind like that, there’s nothing I can do.
“Ugh…”
“Ungggh…”
As I stared absentmindedly ahead for a moment, one by one, the girls started waking up. Adel, Lily, Camilla, then Yuris, holding their throbbing heads.
They all looked groggy.
“Hmm! What about Chungwon? What happened to Chungwon?”
“···? Ah, that’s right!”
Then, as if suddenly regaining their senses, they looked around with anxious expressions.
“Ah…”
Afterward, they spotted the body of Crown Prince Chung and let out a sigh of relief, looking quite relieved. It was quite an amusing sight from the side.
“I’m sure I saw something before fainting…”
“Yes, there was definitely some ominous magic circle…”
Then, suddenly, they recalled their last memories.
They must have witnessed the activation of the ominous magic circle and fainted when the ceiling collapsed.
So they had no idea about the situation afterward.
From Noble mtl dot com
I observed their appearance for a moment.
“Could it have been a natural disaster…?”
And in response to the following words, I could only slap my forehead.
“It’s entirely possible. As ominous as the magic circle was, given its size, there was a high chance of failure.”
“Or maybe it was meant as a real threat!”
“Or maybe what came out of the magic circle was far worse than they thought.”
“Crown Prince, for all his stubbornness, ended up going down in a pathetic manner.”
I couldn’t help but think to myself.
“They’re making a big fuss for nothing…”
What?
After going through all the trouble of saving them, their words seemed weaker than I expected?
The magic circle didn’t activate? The summoned entity was feeble?
These idiots were spouting nonsense just because they didn’t witness it. They didn’t even know who was responsible for saving their lives.
Fortunately, it seemed I wasn’t the only one flabbergasted by their words.
“What are you all talking about?”
When Yulris stepped forward like this.
“Really, you don’t remember anything…? I mean, you didn’t see anything?”
“Hmm? What are you talking about?”
“No, like a giant worm coming out, and then…”
She talked for a while about what she had seen.
Starting from the ancient disaster emerging from the magic circle to their fainting, and the intense struggle that had taken place.
The story was quite specific and verbose, but unfortunately, they didn’t seem to believe it.
“… Is it real?”
“Did that warrior really work that hard?”
“Hey, even so, how could he catch the ogre in that state? In some ways, he’s more of a monster than the king.”
“It’s really true…! Wow, it’s hard to prove when the body evaporates like that…!”
Yuris sighed in frustration.
I just looked at her with a detached expression.
“Do it a hundred times.”
Will they listen?
In fact, this was also one of the effects of the curse.
The curse of achievement.
When I raise my achievements, the chances of people confirming it decrease.
After all, raising achievements is the best way to gain people’s trust.
So they completely block it in advance.
Well, I don’t know who made it, but it was truly a malicious curse.
Nevertheless, Yuris explained earnestly. She pleaded passionately to believe that it was true.
In the end, she was able to elicit nods from her colleagues.
“…Hmm.”
“I see…”
Whether the sincerity was conveyed through those nods, I didn’t know.
But sometimes, even though I knew it was because of the curse, I couldn’t help feeling a strange sense of discomfort.
How can a person’s thoughts flow so flatly? It’s as if someone deliberately distorted them.
“…”
Of course, this was a problem that had no answer no matter how much I thought about it, so I decided to quickly move on.
Rather than that, it’s time to settle accounts.
What did I gain from this battle?
During the fight, so many notifications popped up that I ignored more than half of them. Some of it was because the fight was intense and I was too focused… But still, there were so many notifications that appeared.
Naturally, there had to be some expectations.
[May luck be with you in the future]
The first notification that appeared was this.
Upon seeing this, a thought crossed my mind, “Has this kid lost his conscience?” and although I complained for a while, it was just a trivial matter so I let it pass.
In terms of growth, he has achieved remarkable growth.
———-
Name: Luke
Lv: 79
[Skills]
Mana Control Lv5, Bright Ryu Swordsmanship Lv5, Battle Concentration Lv5, Multicasting Lv4, Pain Resistance Lv8, Poison Resistance Lv10, Blood Flow Acceleration Lv4, Painful Memories Lv3, Blood Exchange Lv3, Blood Drain Lv4, Fireball Lv5, Indomitable Lv1, Owner of Poison Lv1, Piercing LvMAX ······
———-
When I opened the status window, I could immediately see that many things had changed.
First of all, the levels of Mana Control, Battle Concentration, Multicasting, Pain Resistance, and Poison Resistance had all increased by 1.
Painful Memories and Blood Exchange had even increased by a whopping 2 levels. It’s only the first time I’ve used them today, and I’ve only used them for about 40 minutes. It’s impressive that they have increased this much.
It must have been thanks to Cheonmuji Che.
And there were even three new skills.
Derived from Poison Resistance, there was “Owner of Poison,” and “Indomitable” obtained after the fight, as well as the quest reward “Piercing.”
“I’ve already tried Owner of Poison, so that’s fine…”
I immediately checked the detailed description of Indomitable.
+
[Indomitable]
Your body responds to your amazing mental strength!
As your stamina decreases, your physical abilities increase. Additionally, your mana efficiency also increases.
+
“Oh.”
I lightly exclaimed in admiration.
In simple terms, it was a self-buff skill. Simple, but powerful.
And it seemed to go very well with self-harm black magic.
After this fight, I definitely felt that my character’s direction had become more solid. I can say that it’s growing as I want it to.
Close-quarters combat with Blood Flow Acceleration and Bright Ryu Swordsmanship.
And the wounds from close-quarters combat are healed through Blood Drain and Regeneration.
And the accumulated damage is reversed through Painful Memories and Blood Exchange.
From now on, it will be truly possible to have a selfish DPS exchange. While we hit each other, I recover, and on top of that, I can reflect damage back.
The skills are being acquired well in line with the concept.
If I were to pick something that doesn’t quite fit, it would be “Combat Instinct”…
“Well, this alone is good enough.”
Honestly, with just Combat Instinct, you can overpower characters of most concepts.
Did you not see it today? How frightening that Balkan guy, who controls insects, can become.
I may not be able to use it to that extent, but the fact that I acquired an incredible skill remains unchanged.
“I’ve maxed out my skills, too.”
With that in mind, the party members began to move slowly.
“More importantly, what about getting up now? We need to investigate the surroundings and find the lost bag. There’s a lot to do.”
“True. There’s a lot to explore.”
It seems they’re starting to clean up.
As Camilla said, there was a lot to do.
Anyway, no matter what, it’s still a boss monster, so there might be something valuable.
Settlement is enough for now, so it’s time to start farming.
There are still plenty of items to collect.