Chapter 35. One Requires Healing for an Aftereffect
The Mercenary Guild, which was in charge of guarding the auction house of Bing Caravan, was on emergency.
Lairo’s magic which could not be detected by anyone in this place, where there were many upper crust of political and business present in, was revealed and the whole auction house turned into a chaos.
The Mercenary Guild made an effort not to escalate this incident.
Khea hurriedly tried to calm the situation and went to the dormitory amidst the chaos. She was worried that her undercover identity would be discovered.
I heard that the truth of the incident was revealed only the next day.
It was said that Lairo prepared explosion magic to kill the people in the upper class at the auction house, and that was why somebody casted an undetectable barrier skill in order to stop Lairo and the explosion to prevent bigger chaos.
And obviously, that wasn’t the truth.
Lairo casted a barrier to convince me, a chess piece needed for his revenge, and the source of the explosion was the items I had.
However, the quick reactions from the mercenary guild had already closed the case, and turned this into an average turmoil.
So the clash between Lairo and I ended up being just a small commotion that happened yesterday for many people living in the Bing Caravan.
I heard all these from Khea as I lied down dead, feeling like being locked in a cement wall, and a grief in my heart.
I felt the languid and fragrant smell of spring on the luxurious silk duvet. However, the scent of spring never managed to linger no matter how deeply I breathed.
Lairo, who was filled with hatred to the extent that he longed to destroy everyone in the world, left two drops of tears of regret in the end.
I just couldn’t forget the fight against him yesterday.
Ironically, if his hatred had been even a little weaker, if each of the terrible tentacles that sprouted from his body weren’t considered and individualized as monsters, I would have died right there and then.
Because his hatred was beyond my imagination, I was able to activate the effect of the legendary item with miraculous luck.
Really, I moved my body with only my survival instinct.
And after that instinct, everything ended in vain.
Then I realized.
In this virtual reality ‘game’, which many people thought was filled with only limitless adventure, experiences, and fun, there were NPCs with ‘hate’, ‘sorrow’ and ‘resentment’ enough to destroy a person’s emotions.
The residents of <Circuit> were defined as NPCs in the name of the game, but they were still people, people of this world.
And the emotions that they possessed made me cry, angry, and even fall apart.
This meant something more.
This wasn’t just a mere feeling of frustration from the extreme difficulty of the game.
It’s not an aftereffect that one experiences after playing through a game with a very sad story.
I’m talking about the harsh and sharp emotions that people and people in the real world leave in each other’s hearts after an intense fight.
I never thought that the weight of virtual reality would be this heavy and vivid.
Seeing me in a depressed state, Khea silently provided water and soup at every meal for me. She too was an NPC.
No, that name was nothing more than just a word that we, players, used to arbitrarily define them. She was a person of this world.
I didn’t even look at the food until evening, but suddenly I woke up in the middle of the night and drank the soup Khea had given me.
It was hot. Hot enough to burn the ceiling of my mouth. But thanks to the necklace I was wearing, the pain disappeared like melting snow.
The soup was delicious.
The soup with a strange creamy flavor that was different from any grain in real life,
It was very sweet.
The next day, I woke up from bed early. Intense sunlight was shining everywhere inside the huge tower, from one open outer wall of the tower.
I’m no more than just an ordinary person. I am not a superhuman who could overcome all suffering just overnight.
I decided to just hide this feeling like everyone else, and hold it in my heart for a long time until it melts or weathers away or gets buried by something else.
Now that the day was bright, I have buried it deep inside my heart.
Though I didn’t know when it would lift its head up again to give me a sore pain.
But I tried to smile.
Remembering the sweet soup and Khea, who brought me food, showed me a different side of her yesterday.
***
After a while, the door swung open and Khea entered the room. Then, she looked at me standing in the middle of the room, and smiled faintly.
Khea hadn’t heard anything from me yet. She must have a lot of questions, but she was much more adept than I was at handling emotions.
The agony I had to go through may be much less than the incidents she had to go through in the past.
However, Khea was being very understanding for me.
We boarded onto the giant airship after we got out of Bing Caravan. Only a few words were spoken between me and Khea, who were seated next to each other.
Instead, I started looking at the changes I’ve gone through. This also worked as the only way to remind myself that I am playing a game after all.
[Lee KiHo]
[Nickname: Mose]
Class: Adventurer
Trait: Lucky Ruiner
Lv: 58
Vitality: 3680 / 3680
Mana: 720 / 720
Strength: 94
Health: 65
Speed: 75
Intelligence: 46
Luck: 5
Fame: 35,681
Abilities:
[Polorun’s Star] – Health regeneration per second +101
[Polorun’s Star] – Health regeneration in party + 43 (Form: Aura, Max range 250M)
Contract Magic: Sharma
Seal of the Sworder – +14% increase in melee attack
A lot of things in my status screen have changed since the battle against Lairo.
The stats were almost at three digit numbers since I was equipped with legendary items. Other noticeable changes being the increase in luck stat and the trait that seemed to be the cause of it.
It seemed that my stats have gone through many changes along with me who went through many changes also.
I also took a look at the skill menu I newly unlocked.
[ Skill Window ]
[ Disastrous Flame: Solar Storm ]
Class: Active
This skill can only be activated when equipped with Attoria’s Stigma. If ‘Attoria’s Rising Sun set’ is present within the skill caster’s inventory, it is automatically equipped as the skill is activated.
Summons an intense flame storm.
(Range: 250m radius within the caster)
Attack damage: 14,245 ~ 15,561
1,226 damage per second to the enemies touched by the flame
(Duration: 100 seconds, up to 3 stacks)
(The flame can only be cleansed by ‘holy’ type based skills)
[ Lucky Ruin ]
Level: 1
Class: Active
Can be activated through consuming 1 luck stat.
Objects found in ancient ruins and dungeons can be turned into itemized cores. The rank of the items made into cores is increased depending on the level of the skill.
Cooldown: 72 hours
This was the new skill I earned through the new trait I acquired from the battle against Lairo. It was a skill that can turn objects earned in specific areas, such as dungeons, into a core item. I have never seen a skill with such an unconventional effect.
This reminded me of Lairo. This skill was where he got all his items from to give players chances in order to find a strong player that can assist him in achieving his vengeance.
And that was why the Sworder with baggy eyes that chased after the case of Disappearance of the Langerus Cavalry was killed.
And then the next one,
[ Ruiner Mix ]
Lv. Max
Class: Active
Allows the caster to keep the core in the inventory.
The kept cores can be combined as long as they are the same rank. (Max 3 times) Combined cores have maximized rewards.
However, there is a certain chance to spawn monsters from the combined core.
MP required: 800
Cooldown: 48 hours
It was a skill that allowed me to store the ever fragile cores that would drop items even at the lightest touch into the inventory.
Not to mention that I could even combine the cores that are at the same rank in order to maximize the reward from them. I couldn’t help but drop my chin reading through the unconventional effect of this skill just like the last one.
Usually, if I learned skills such as these, I would be shouting in excitement running all around the room, but I didn’t do that this time since the process of acquiring these skills weren’t as cheerful and all.
It rather felt like a legacy that Lairo left behind. But after a while, I promised myself that I would use them to the best of my ability. The rewards I got after a bloody battle against him meant more to me than anything else, so I swore and vowed to face it without any doubts.
After confirming the changes that had happened to me, I looked carefully at Khea, who was sitting next to me.
She had been staring at me for a while.
“We will get a long break now. So you wanna let me know what you will be doing?”
She gave out a cheerful voice when our eyes met. It’s been a while since I heard her like this. She’d been waiting for me to break the silence.
“Well, I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing. What about you?”
I too tried my best to keep a cheerful tone.
“I plan on going back to my hometown for a bit.”
“Hometown?”
She gave me a playful look after my reaction. I couldn’t help but let out a small smile when I saw her face.
“What, you thought I don’t even have a hometown?! How rude!”
“Sorry, I never heard you say anything about it. Where is your hometown?”
At my words, she smiled for a moment, then nodded her head slightly and answered me. Her black silky hair slides down her shoulders as her head lowers naturally.
“It’s a place far away from here. You’d have to take the bullet-airship and it will still take 3 whole days. My hometown is the continent ‘Azharus’ under the brightest star in the western sky.
Although it’s called a continent, there are only free cities with small towns distributed within it. There aren’t even any spacial crystals so you can’t take portals to get there.”
She rested her pointy chin on her palms as she said that, and stared into the air with happiness in her eyes.
It seemed that, to her, Azharus was quite literally the place she visits to relax.
After staring at her for a while, I turned to stare into the air and opened my mouth just like she did.
“I also want to visit your hometown if opportunity finds me, that is.”
Hearing my words, she blushed slightly and fixed her posture. After a while she thrust one of her crystal balls at me.
“If you ever do, I will gladly explain about everything that the light of Bellica reaches within Azharus.”
I was able to put a genuine smile on my face while looking at her. I accepted her crystal in my hand.
“Can you hear the sound of my heart, the hand connected to my heart is grabbing you.”
I whispered.
And the crystal answered, with a sparkle,
< You have been engraved. >
This was the response I got because the crystal belonged to Khea. It took a very long time for us to reach the dock of Asparagan, even after she and I had many conversations about many things.
After we got off the dock, Khea and I exchanged glances and parted away.
There were some strange regrets that I couldn’t quite explain, but I couldn’t rely on her and pour all the emotions I had now.
I tried not to look back at her, who was also going about her way from behind my back.
I had a hard time lifting my feet off the ground, weighed down by the feeling I couldn’t easily break away from. I tried my best to not dwell on that feeling.
It’s been a long time since I felt this empty feeling that I felt when I graduated from school or when I was discharged from the military. I walked around the lively downtown of Asparagan for a long time.
As soon as I entered the plaza through a large crowd, the contact crystal ball hanging from my waist began to glow distractingly.
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I hurriedly wrapped it around it with both hands, a pleasant and familiar voice began to be heard from the ball.
“Wow! I finally reached you! How have you been? It’s me! Sharan! Do you remember me?!”
____