Chapter 189 – Final Build
I twisted the sword stabbed into the boss’s neck sideways. Crack, with a sound, his neck suddenly twisted, triggering the blood-sucking impulse that filled my HP.
I pulled out the Wingless Nightmare. The boss’s corpse fell back with a thud. Since it was just a palette-swapped version, it didn’t feel thrilling at all. The main body was one of those I didn’t need to catch, so I just skipped it.
As I said, Nix, who was quietly watching the boss battle from a distance, came running over while making a tap tap tap sound.
“Kihihit, is that it?”
“It’ll probably end like this. I just need to obtain this. Then what I mentioned will be over.”
Nix handed me the staff she was holding. I took it and gripped it in my right hand.
Dark magic isn’t something you use with a wand or a sacred catalyst; it’s something you use barehanded, so its purpose was singular.
Rune Release Magic.
‘I can’t believe I’m being treated like this.’
When I went to find the nearby city’s wizards wearing the ring Minerva gave me, their reactions were similar to when I met the Holy Knights wearing the Pope’s brooch.
They were doing everything they could to avoid crossing me. I was almost questioning whether these were the same wizard NPCs notorious for being rude in the game.
One wrong word and they seemed ready to uproot the whole workshop to offer me, so I quickly took a staff and Rune Release Magic and fled to my second destination.
The Rune Dungeon for the final build of the Darkest Light Mod melee character. Referred to as the place to obtain the ‘Life Exchange’ rune.
To disregard the debuff of combat fatigue, I had already dropped by first to obtain that rune. It felt absurdly simple, as if everything I had planned long ago was pointless.
‘Nix did all the heavy lifting to get here, though.’
If there hadn’t been teleportation, it would’ve taken at least months for round trips. I was thankful once again for having Nix, Minerva, and the Pope sisters around.
“Kihihit, why?”
Noticing my gaze, Nix looked up at me with a creepy smile.
“Huh? No. Thanks for your hard work. For the teleportation.”
“Then what’s the reward?”
“Reward? What for?”
“I only need one thing. Kihihit.”
With a creepy smile, her delicate finger tapped my right hand.
I adjusted my grip on the staff and raised my hand to place it on my head. Feeling a warm sensation, Nix curled up and clung to me.
Whether she spoke informally or formally, both versions of Nix loved being petted to the point where I found it amusing. I couldn’t fathom what had happened for her to develop such a personality.
After petting her for a while, I pulled my hand away and approached the Rune Stele, holding the staff. I infused mana into it according to the knowledge in my head, and the tip began to shine blue.
The tattoo on the back of my hand also shimmered in resonance. Just as I was about to remove the Mana Enhancement Rune, a sudden thought caused me to pause for a moment.
‘…Come to think of it, what happens when you release a rune?’
In the game, they had a separate UI for storing runes, but not here.
The special device or magic required was only needed when releasing a rune, while equipping a rune could be simply done through the inventory screen that pops up when you hit ESC.
But what happens here when you release a rune? The only UI I had encountered since my possession was the stat window that appears with the ability confirmation gem.
‘Well, it should work out somehow.’
After all, it wasn’t needed anymore, and according to the setting, when a rune’s user disappears, it immediately reappears somewhere in the world. Even if a rune disappears, a new Rune Dungeon will likely spawn.
I refocused on the back of my hand. The tattoo was still glowing. When I switched my gaze to the tattoo, I recalled the type of rune each tattoo represented in my mind.
Without hesitation, I released the ‘Mana Enhancement’ rune. I didn’t need it anymore.
The black tattoo disappeared as if absorbed into the back of my hand. Nix confirmed the magic had ended and reached out her hand. I returned the staff to Nix.
The long wooden staff was nestled between my chest.
“……”
To be exact, I just hugged it, but with the size of my chest and the attire I was wearing, it naturally got pulled in there.
Nix looked up at me, letting out her usual eerie smile, as if she had no clue how she appeared.
‘…Right. She probably didn’t do that on purpose.’
If it were Lize or the Pope sisters doing that, it would definitely be intentional. But with Nix, I thought it was possible she might genuinely be oblivious.
I couldn’t imagine Nix trying to seduce me like those three. Even if she did, I would probably find it cute before thinking of it as lewd.
Probably.
“Why? Hehe.”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
I tickled her chin a few times and placed my hand on the stele. Closing my eyes and concentrating, I began to focus the energy swirling around my body into the back of my left hand.
I felt a tingling sensation in the back of my hand, and when that pain disappeared, I opened my eyes. The area that had become hollow after the rune disappeared was filled with a new tattoo.
‘Now this is really it.’
I felt something strange realizing I had finally completed the final build.
It had taken less time than I expected. I thought it would take at least a few years to traverse the whole continent. Thanks to Nix and Minerva’s help, especially Nix’s, it went smoothly.
The name of the rune I had just obtained was ‘Life Exchange’. Its effect changed the resource cost of dark magic from HP and mana to pure HP.
Dark magic originally consumed a small amount of HP along with mana. But this rune allowed me to use dark magic at the cost of only HP without consuming mana.
However, the HP consumed was not a fixed value but changed proportionally to the health stat. So, if the health stat increased even a little, it could end up costing more potions, making it a rune not commonly used.
‘Only when the health stat increases, though.’
The fact that it consumes HP in percentage means that the lower the health stat, the higher the efficiency. Not to mention, with my current health stat being only 1, it was needless to say.
The HP consumption value that changed with the Life Exchange rune varied greatly, from a minimum of 7% to a maximum of 30%, but for a character with a health stat of 1, it was nothing significant.
My max health was only 100.
Even if 30% was deducted, that’s just 30, so even if I cast the highest consuming dark magic, I could easily recover that with the blood-sucking impulse of 50 HP.
This was the final build for the Darkest Light Mod melee character. Now I just needed a strategy for boss fights where I couldn’t use the blood-sucking impulse.
“Is it really over?”
As I finished my task, the rune stele crumbled into pieces. Nix, who had been watching me while holding the staff between her chest, approached me with light steps.
“Finished. We need to head back now.”
“Kihihit. Got it.”
I had no desire to test the rune’s performance here. I would be doing it indefinitely in the future, so why bother.
Nix used teleportation as usual, and we soon returned to my room at the top of the castle. It seems using teleportation here so often allowed me to specify such precise coordinates now.
“Oh?”
“Ah.”
As soon as we entered the room, we came face to face with someone we had not expected at all.
It was Lana.
And she was shaking her hips on my bed all alone.
The sight of Lana, who was shaking her hips back and forth alone on the bed as we appeared in a black light mass, left her pale-faced. Her fingers clenched the blanket tightly, and her lips were pursed shut.
At first, I thought she was caught in a weird scene, but as her expression deepened in seriousness, I realized that Nix was the reason behind it a moment too late.
Upon seeing Lana, Nix disappeared in a flash of teleportation. Instantly, Lana’s pallor returned to normal. I felt slightly guilty for making her flee the moment we arrived.
I would have to pet her more vigorously later.
“Good evening, Delta-nim.”
Having collected her emotions in that short moment, Lana raised her upper half with her usual stoic expression to greet me.
“Good evening or whatever, but why are you lying on my bed? What was that a moment ago?”
“As a maid, it is only natural for me to test the state of the mattress in case my lord lies here.”
“Your lord would be Aurora?”
“That’s correct.”
Lana nodded. Saying it that way made it even more unsettling. What did her previous actions have to do with Aurora?
As if reading the expression on my face, Lana continued, unfazed.
“Isn’t there a possibility that my lord will lie here someday? If so, you shouldn’t hurt your back, so I was testing the state of the bed’s mattress in advance. You will need to lie down for a long time, so if it’s on a stiff surface, your back will surely go out.”
“……”
I found myself overwhelmed with where to begin with the critique. So what you’re saying is, to prepare for the possibility of me mixing bodies with Aurora here, you tested the state of the mattress?
‘Is that right?’
“If you’re curious about how I tested it, I will show you directly.”
As she lay back down on the bed, Lana bent her knees and pulled her thighs up to her side. In that position, she opened her thighs wide and—
“That’s enough.”
“Yes.”
Lana rose up just as if she had been waiting for me to say that. Tap tap, her white-gloved hands straightened her wrinkled maid outfit. Her expression remained stoic.
“…Did you learn that from my lord?”
“I taught myself. My lord isn’t in a position to teach me such jokes. It’s all because of you, Delta-nim.”
“Me? What did I do?”
It sounded like something I had heard from the Popes.
“I suspect that my lord has yet to forget that night of pleasure and has been busy playing with his fingers every night—”
“Let’s stop there, and tell me why you’re here.”
“Understood.”
Lana barely managed to clamp down on her mouth that was about to spill my secrets. She clearly wasn’t like this before; each day, she felt like she was changing more and more.
“A guest has come to the Imperial Palace. That’s why I came to escort you, Delta-nim.”
“A guest? Who?”
Hadn’t Lize just been here a moment ago? Who else could be visiting?
“They said it was a secret, but I was told to have you think about what you sent to the Imperial Palace. Then you should be able to guess who it is.”
‘…It’s Minerva.’
It probably had to do with the scroll. Had the research on the crystal scroll been completed already?
“Got it. Can I leave now?”
“Yes. I brought a carriage, so I will escort you.”
As Lana turned to walk out the door, she paused briefly and looked back.
“After all, if you’re going to mix bodies with your lord, a light joke like this is trivial—”
“Are you really going to say that until the end?”
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