NOVEL NEXT Chapter 65
Chapter: 65
“How can you attack me?!”
“Maybe because you’re sloppy?♡”
You, being an existence in a game, wouldn’t understand.
Even though I’m a Holy Knight, I’m still weak.
It’s normal not to deal proper damage to a Necromancer with such a huge level gap.
But a veteran gamer is someone who exploits those gaps.
The boss of this place, the Necromancer, should normally be immune to any physical attacks.
However, the mechanism for evasion isn’t immunity; it’s nullification.
There’s a big difference between those two.
It’s not that I don’t take damage at all, but rather, I receive damage and then nullify it.
Not long ago, I defeated the poor Senior Year 3 and obtained the skill “Underdog.”
This skill delivers true damage when there’s a level gap of more than 20, allowing me to deal damage to a Necromancer that I normally couldn’t even touch.
So what if the physical attack is nullified?
The fixed damage doesn’t change!
Purrgh.
My mace hits the Necromancer again.
The Necromancer has the outrageous skill of physical nullification, which means its basic specs are relatively low compared to other bosses of similar level.
With the skill levels I’ve stacked up to their limits now, I could easily overwhelm it.
It’s not like the Necromancer has just been sitting idly, though.
As the master of the dungeon, it’s done its best to resist.
But I wasn’t the only one participating in this battle.
As a knight of the Allen Family, Karl, who had experienced numerous battles, created an environment perfect for me to attack by blocking all of the Necromancer’s attempts to fight back.
He dropped the spells the Necromancer tried to cast, dealt with the corpses crawling out of graves, and prevented the bursts of magic too.
In a way, he was even more of a tank than a tank.
“I… I’ll take care of it…”
After that one-sided violence, the fight ended, and the Necromancer vanished.
However, I didn’t feel any relief at all.
I had experience getting ambushed in similar situations.
Fortunately, this time, a proper way out appeared, and I felt strength returning to my body.
Thank goodness.
sigh This Agra’s Curse is so annoying.
Back when it was a game, I cheered whenever Agra got involved, but now I have to be scared.
I want to get stronger quickly.
I even hope something will emerge from this curse.
The variables arising from Agra’s curse are above the level of the dungeon, so it gives decent rewards.
Well, that’s a story for later.
What’s the reward I got from this dungeon?
As I examined the table that appeared in front of the door, there was a black orb.
This must be a trace of the Necromancer, right?
When I checked it, a message window popped up in front of me after using my emotion reading.
[Trace of the Necromancer]
[An orb filled with the vengeance left behind by the dying Necromancer.]
What is this supposed to do? It’s an item only useful for playing as a Necromancer.
This is completely useless for me.
I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t swap the reward I received.
For now, I just put that item into my pocket.
“Karl…”
“Sloppy. Let’s go back.”
“Yes, Young Lady.”
Once we stepped outside the dungeon, where it was drizzling, I could feel that I had become waterlogged.
My uniform was in a state that looked like it had been soaked and pulled out, and my hair was heavy with all the moisture.
Ugh. This is annoying.
I wanted to get back to the dorm and take a shower as quickly as possible.
But first, I needed to take care of some things.
As the dungeon was cleared, the door that had blocked the way into the room vanished.
I created light again to illuminate the dark room.
It was a sort of storage space.
Was it blocked due to the dungeon?
Things stored in there were quite old but still relatively intact over the years.
“Here…”
“This is stuff that the sloppy people who lived in this old, run-down mansion stored away.”
As expected of a storage room used by people who lived in a pretty large mansion, the items stored here were quite valuable.
If I sold everything in here, I could easily make ten gold coins!
But my aim wasn’t the wealth in this place.
To me, being the sole heir of the count’s family, riches are just objects that can be used anywhere.
Standing at the entrance while looking around inside the storage, I found the item I was searching for and stepped firmly inside.
I heard Karl’s hesitant voice from behind, but I ignored it.
That coward’s words were not worth listening to in a situation like this.
If it were genuinely dangerous, Grandpa would have said something.
Picking up a ribbon, covered in dust from one corner of the storage, I spoke to the void.
“Is this what I’ve been looking for? Take it away.”
As soon as my words ended, the ribbon turned to ash and scattered without a trace.
– Thank you.
As that voice rang out, several message windows popped up in front of me.
[Quest Clear!]
[Rewards have been given.]
[Skill: It’s no longer necessary.]
Nice. Just like in the game, it has been resolved neatly.
The skill “It’s no longer necessary” is simply one made for major necromancer battles.
It has various functions such as damage reduction when facing a necromancer, increased damage inflicted, and so on, but the true essence of this skill lies elsewhere.
It blocks curses below a certain level.
From now on, when I face Agra, I’ll probably have to deal with various curses.
Without this skill, I might end up being victim to some absurd accident.
Feeling pleased to have acquired the desired skill, I turned to leave when I saw Karl’s pale face.
“Ah… Young Lady. Just now… The voice from earlier…”
This guy is really super timid.
*
After returning to the Soul Academy with Karl, whose legs were so weak he could barely walk, the next day.
I immediately looked for the attendant Young Lady after class.
Why do I call that NPC the attendant Young Lady? Because I don’t know her name.
Even if I asked, she probably wouldn’t respond.
So I decided to refer to her as the attendant Young Lady, just as the Mesugaki skill would.
After all, what would be the use of knowing the name of an NPC unrelated to the favorability system?
The attendant Young Lady immediately bowed her head and pretended to sleep when she saw my face.
It was clear that her fingers, hidden beneath her arm, were fidgeting nervously, hoping that I would just disappear.
Her wish went unfulfilled.
I had come to meet the attendant Young Lady.
As I sat across from the attendant Young Lady, her shoulders flinched.
Did she really think I’d believe she was sleeping?
“Hey.”
“Attendant Young Lady.”
No response.
Hmm. Is that how it’s gonna be?
Let’s see how long she can hold out.
“Hey. Wake up.”
“Attendant. Wake up.”
This time, her shoulders twitched slightly.
But still, the attendant Young Lady didn’t lift her head.
“Attendant♡ Was it an absence of presence rather than no ears?♡ Wake up♡”
Finally, the attendant Young Lady lifted her head.
Her face was flushed, clearly embarrassed from my provocation.
“What’s the matter?”
Yet, she couldn’t curse me out, showcasing how infamous Lucy’s reputation truly was.
She must have figured out she would only suffer if she poked at me, so she held back her frustration.
I bet she’ll grumble with her friends once I leave.
After all, she called me the sloppy Young Lady when she met Karl, so it’s no surprise.
“Lady Allen?”
“I came to give you this.”
I revealed the item that the attendant Young Lady had asked Karl to find along with the key to the mansion.
The attendant Young Lady looked at the two items with a frown, examining my face.
“…This is something I asked Karl for.”
“It’s a delivery.”
“Can’t you just tell I’m here, Attendant? It’s a delivery.”
Honestly, I just came to say a word to the attendant Young Lady.
“Lady Allen, how do you know Karl-sensei?”
She looked at me with curious eyes, clearly having many questions, but I didn’t answer her inquiry.
Instead, I just spit out what I wanted to say.
“Take care, Necromancer. And don’t gossip about others too much.”
“Take care, Attendant. If you gossip again, you know what will happen, right?”
The change in the attendant Young Lady’s expression was dramatic.
She went from angry to confused and now pale.
I wondered if I could create a traffic light with her face.
Fumbling around, the attendant Young Lady tried to come up with some excuse, but I ignored her and stood up from my seat.
Having warned her that I had captured her weak point as a Necromancer, she shouldn’t gossip anymore, right?
*
That evening at the Soul Academy.
With the Academy students having the freedom to roam the streets, Visi Bell stepped into a mansion located in an alley.
Because of the rumor that ghosts lived there, almost no one visited the mansion, which was quiet as usual.
When Visi Bell opened the mansion’s door and entered, the wood creaked.
– Visi! You’re here?
Suddenly, a voice came from behind her.
Given the lack of any sensory presence, it was shocking to hear a voice, but Visi Bell remained unfazed.
“Why not greet normally?”
– That’s boring. You’re too dull, Visi.
“You’re not good at surprising people, huh.”
Only after Visi responded did something translucent descend from the ceiling.
It was in the form of a girl wearing tattered pajamas.
– No! I’m really good at startling people!
“Really? That’s quite convincing, Adri.”
Adri, the ghost residing in the mansion and one of the former inhabitants, puffed her cheeks in protest.
– I’m telling you! I scared someone to death yesterday!
“Whoever it was, they must have been a huge coward…”
“Yesterday? Wasn’t that when that despicable sloppy Young Lady came to visit?”
“Hey, was that girl with the annoying pink hair?”
Oh, so that arrogant sloppy young lady was a girl after all?
Seems like she’s afraid of ghosts?
– Nope! The one who was scared was the blonde knight!
A blonde knight, huh.
Could it be Karl-sensei?
So he did come after all, following my request.
Imagining the shaking Karl frightened by Adri made Visi laugh uncontrollably.
Even such a cool person has a weakness.
– The girl who came with him didn’t show any fear of me at all!
“You mean the pink-haired girl?”
– Yup!
So those two visited this mansion together yesterday.
What is the relationship between them?
Considering they came to such a secluded place together, they must be close.
Well, now that I’ve captured the weakness of the Necromancer, it won’t matter if I find out about their relationship.
“Adri, did you tell that girl anything about me?”
– Nope! I didn’t talk to her even once!
Well, that makes sense.
It’s unlikely for a non-Necromancer to speak with a ghost like Adri.
Then how the heck did she find out I’m a Necromancer?
“Adri, can you tell me what happened here yesterday?”
– Of course!