༺ Marie Dunareff (3) ༻
According to the original plot, after meeting John Doe, the ❰Murderer of the City of Fog❱ – an important character who appeared at the latter stages of the 1st Arc, Marie would attack her roommate and go berserk.
In the previous iteration, we had been waiting underneath Marie and Isabelle’s dormitory immediately after the event so we were able to respond in time, but Park Sihu had intentionally let go of her.
The members of the previous iteration were Park Sihu, Yuel the Druid, Dorron the Mercenary, the Golem User Kranel and me. It was a 5-man party.
Thanks to having hidden pieces and the game knowledge, Park Sihu and I were fully prepared and could defeat Marie even without the help of Alicia, who was a strong early-game character.
But what about now?
All the freshmen members were pretty much unable to fight.
And the saddest part was that I was the one who caused everything. But honestly, who could have guessed that an event that was supposed to start 3 weeks later would be happening this early?
There wasn’t much time. I had to gather people as soon as possible.
Alicia wasn’t an option. Her bones were crushed because of my eight trigram palm strike, so she would have trouble even running.
The Golem User Kranel was also practically non-existent because the most important golem core had been broken.
The only ones that could somewhat move were Yuel the Druid and the mercenary, Dorron Warsky.
I did think about Hua Ran for a second, but leaving aside whether it was even possible to persuade her or not, I wasn’t confident in predicting how things would turn out if she was to join the party.
If Hua Ran’s restrictions were to be broken during the fight against the awakened Marie, then that would immediately lead to ‘Game Over’.
Power too big to control would only be a hindrance.
“Hello.”
Dorron, who was training by himself at the very corner of the training rooms, threw me a glance before minding his own business again.
– Shhiiik…! Booboom!
With one glance, he manipulated the swords as they fiercely shredded the target apart. I turned to the flying swords and noticed that the three magic swords that I had destroyed were nowhere to be seen.
“What is it? Korin Lork.”
“Hmm… I don’t remember telling you my name though.”
“It is normal to remember the names of every capable person of the Academy.”
The fight at the hunting grounds appeared to have left quite an impression. It seemed that Dorron had looked up my name in his own time.
“I want to hire you as a mercenary.”
“50% down payment. I can take an item as a mortgage if you don’t have money.”
That was what I was waiting for. I immediately took out the Soul Dust that I got by letting Sebancia Duke ascend in peace at the library.
“This…”
“It’s for the mortgage. Unique Grade Soul Dust. Not a single speck of the soul lost due to a fight. A 100% pure and perfect item.”
“May I ask what you are after, Boss?”
Dorron changed his attitude in an instant, which was a plus considering how easy it was to talk to him.
“We will be looking for one person. Me, you and the other party members will have to subjugate that person without killing her.”
“And how difficult would it be?”
“Unique Grade.”
“Crazy.”
He clicked his tongue as if that was absurd, but he didn’t turn the offer down straight away.
“The rule for mercenaries is to not bother with hopeless battles.”
“If you’re scared, you can use only the flying swords at a safe distance.”
“You see, I only have two swords left. You should know that better than anyone else.”
Yes. I did, because I was the one who broke them. The only remaining magic swords were a normal magic sword that had no special abilities and the heavy iron sword which could only strike down from above.
“All you have to do is occasionally draw the eyes of the enemy and act as a sub-dps. I’m not expecting anything more than that from a mercenary.”
It was easy to form a party with Dorron Warsky. All we had to do was give him money.
However, he was a mercenary. Trying to use him more than the ‘money’s worth’ would always lead to a backlash. A firm line had to be drawn to make use of him.
“Good. The price would be 20 gold coins. If you can’t pay the money…”
“I’ll sell the mortgage if I have to so don’t worry.”
“What a nice employer to have.”
Dorron didn’t ask anything else. He didn’t ask who the Unique Grade was, nor raise any doubt on where I obtained that information.
He was someone who considered following the given commands without bothering about anything else. The code of mercenaries.
After deciding to meet at the entrance of the hunting grounds in 2 hours time, I looked for the next target.
****
Most of the locations of the NPCs in the game were fixed. It was to make sure players didn’t have to go around everywhere when looking for specific NPCs, but there was a particular reason behind them in this real world.
An example was the Druid of the Avelorn Forest, Yuel. She spent most of her time at the library.
‘Papers are disgusting! Nature is the best!’ Even though that was what the druids screamed out all the time, there was a reason why Yuel was always at the library filled with papers.
“You mean you want me to cooperate?”
“Please.”
“…Why should I?”
The girl with a light green shade of hair asked an obvious question with a discontent look on her face.
As someone who could read the aura of nature, she must have realized how pathetic my aura and my mana was. She must have found it laughable for someone as weak as me to suddenly ask for cooperation on defeating a Unique Grade demi-human.
“Ogham Alphabet.”
“!!!”
“That’s your traditional alphabet, right? The letters that were lost when Avelorn was burned down by demonic beasts.”
“You… How did you…?!”
“I heard of the great fire at the Avelorn Forest a year ago, and why else would a druid from that forest suddenly come to Merkarva Academy?”
I told her the rest was easy to deduce, and Yuel was convinced despite the uncomfortable look in her eyes.
She was from the ancient tribe that detested papers for being made by cutting wood, with only one person from the generation allowed to know about the traditional alphabets.
During the attack of the demonic beasts, the previous druid in charge had been killed and the alphabets that were carved on the walls were also all lost due to the fire.
The reason Yuel, the Druid of the Avelorn Forest, had come to Merkarva Academy was in hopes that its Great Library with so many pieces of information would have some clues about the Ogham letters.
“I’ve read something related to that. I can’t really remember the title of that book but…”
I grinned while tapping on my head.
“It’s all in my head.”
“What a shrewd person…”
Yuel frowned after understanding my words.
“ᚑ (Onn). I think that’s enough for the proof. Right?”
I said while writing down an Ogham letter as Yuel quickly wrote that down on her notepad with a pale face. Just by looking at how she was using a paper notepad as a druid who befriended nature, it was extremely clear how desperate she was.
By the way, the book I read was called 〚Exploring the Wild by the Adventurer, Vorahlmer〛which was written 80 years ago. Due to introducing the culture of pagans, the Old Faith banned it as a taboo and this Great Library was thus the only place that possessed a copy of that book.
In the game, it was something that was found by progressing the rapport event with Yuel, so it would take a long time for her to find it by herself.
“More…”
Her face that was eager for more letters gave off her desperation.
“You don’t need to be in a hurry. I’ll tell you everything once this is over.”
“It’s… a promise.”
“Yeah. I’m not asking for much either. I’ll do all the dangerous stuff myself so just support me from the back.”
“…”
I left the library after making a promise with Yuel.
The sub-dps and the support were all in place. The only things that now had to be done was fill up the numbers – so we could stand our ground during the 1st phase.
“Can you say that one more time?”
“Uhh… I think I’m hearing things.”
The two people who loved going to the training rooms these days – those owls who were slowly enticing Kranel Luden into their grasp were shocked after hearing my words.
Grade 3 Knight, Jaeger Hinzpeter.
Grade 5 Mage, Lark Buhgman.
These guys that I knew from way back were just side characters and single-time villains whose roles were preassigned by the main scenario back when it was a game, but now they were different.
“I’m looking for a party. It’s difficult, low reward, extremely dangerous and we might even die against a strong Unique Grade demon, but we can gain tremendous honor and recognition if we succeed.”
“…”
“…”
The boy wearing glasses with unkempt hair and the typical delinquent-looking guy with short hair turned to each other.
People that loved efficiency were like this – they would use a calculator to calculate their chance of victory and the efficiency, to see what would be the most beneficial for them.
However, the true alpha men were different.
“That sounds super retarded but…”
“Let’s do it.”
Because alphas never care.
That was why humanity was able to conquer the South Pole.
****
When we arrived at the forest in time, the sun had already set over the horizon, and the woods with not a single presence of students was as dark and unfathomable as the abyss.
“Is she really in this forest?”
“Senior Marie, right?”
Jaeger, Lark, Dorron and Yuel had each prepared themselves for the upcoming fight.
“Boss. I know what the goal is, but how are we going to find her?”
It would take years for us to search through this whole forest with just the five of us. That obviously wasn’t my plan.
“We don’t need to look for her ourselves. We can just ask. Right?”
“…Seriously. How do you know so much?”
This was our second conversation. With a puzzled look on her face that showed her befuddlement, the druid lowered the antique staff onto the ground and closed her eyes.
“O spirits.”
Even though the druids were known to use the power of the forest for themselves, this was nothing like magic where they had to spend their own mana. They were the protectors of the forest that grew up together with nature. A single sincere request from them was able to move the forest.
In the dead of the night, the forest greatly fluctuated. Judging based on the cheerful reactions of Lark and Jaeger, it seemed that many spirits of the forest were responding to Yuel’s call.
“Yes. I beg you. Please find her. Please lead us to her.”
Although this wasn’t a part of the game, we had greatly relied on her in the previous iteration.
Most of the spirits of the forest were low-grade elementals. They were useless in battles but when it came to searches, their overwhelming numbers were incredibly overpowered.
As long as we were in the forest, druids were pretty much almighty. This was why I had taken in Yuel as the support.
No-one was able to run away from the eyes of a druid in the forest.
“I found her. At the depths of the forest… where the demonic beasts are. That’s where she is.”
Where the demonic beasts are, huh… I had a rough idea of why she would be there, but Marie’s instincts should be telling her that their blood wasn’t enough.
I trusted myself. There was enough evidence to support my hypothesis, and that was why I was shoving my head into such a dangerous matter.
– Kiieeeekk—!
A chilly howl echoed across the woods. The demonic beasts of the hunting grounds were creating a ruckus even though it was rather late at night.
“…”
“Dude. This…”
Jaeger seemed to have noticed it as well and glanced at everyone while inquiring with his gaze whether his prediction was correct or not.
“……The spirits are frightened.”
“It is not any different for the demonic beasts.”
“Have you seen anything like this, Dorron?”
“A few times. There is only one reason why predators would be terrified.”
– The appearance of an even bigger predator.
The demonic beasts at the top of the food chain in the forest were so horrified by the appearance of the powerful being that they were wailing in fear.
It was natural for them to be scared and terrified. That wasn’t something as simple as powerlessness and fear towards a stronger being.
The demonic aura exuding out of Unique Grade demons – those unfathomable monsters – had something like the fear-inducing aura of the dragon race.
– Clomp clomp!
– Clomp clomp!
Those shrieks of the beasts subsided more as we approached the center of the forest. From fear to powerlessness, and from powerlessness to obedience. Such was the way of the ecosystem.
At one point, the only source of sound became the rustling leaves beneath our feet, and that was when our eyes spotted something different.
– Krrghk! Kurrgk!
In an open plot of land with dozens of demonic beasts stood a girl that appeared extremely out of place.
Her water-coloured hair that used to be both neat and tidy was tainted with blood and her everlasting smile was replaced by stiff clots of blood.
– Kuruk, kurrugk…!
An owlbear had its neck bitten by the girl who was less than a quarter of its size, but was staying still without even dreaming of fighting back.
The fangs that were digging in through the thick leather around the neck formed a pathway for a one-sided blood transfusion. Despite being aware that it will be sucked dry till death, the owlbear and the demonic beasts surrounding them were unable to dare fight back.
Those beasts had their brutality repressed by the demonic aura of a Unique Grade, and retaliation wasn’t even an option for them.
A scene that was completely outside of his expectation made Lark take a few steps back in horror.
“Hiik…”
“Kurrh…!”
His unconscious gasp made the vampire turn its head in a flick. The golden eyes that used to be as bright as the sun were now vertically slit like the pupils of a reptile.
Vampire.
The King of demons.
One of the most powerful demi-humans.
“Get ready. Yuel and Lark – go to the rear. Dorron and Jaeger – take a step back and focus on support. I’ll take the lead.”
“…”
I felt mana fluctuating behind me. It was probably the spirits and Lark’s ghost knight being summoned.
It was none of my business considering my inability to perceive spirits due to the Restriction – the 2nd line of my Precept. However, what was important was—
『3rd Precept』
Marie Dunareff: Relation – C
Backup: 50% Increase in Stats
Aura: { Low (1,480 + 740) }
Mana: { Very Low (920 + 460) }
Strength: 26 + 13
Agility: 26 + 13
Vitality: 26 + 13
Aura: 26 + 13
Mana: 26 + 13
｢Regeneration of the Tenacious Warrior｣
When your HP falls below a certain level during a fight, your HP Regeneration speed will increase tremendously.
+ 50% Regeneration
❰I will save the world❱
– Either kill or save Marie Dunareff and take the first step in saving the world.
｢There is a conflict with the 1st Precept, ❰I will not disregard the misfortune of the good.❱｣ ｢Save Marie Dunareff. Wish you all the best, Hero Korin Lork.｣
Marie’s fate and the effect she will have on this world.
The backup I received was after a calculation of the ‘effect this would have on the world later on’, instead of considering this as a one-time event of the 1st Arc.
Besides, considering my 50% additional damage to physical existences, my current physique at this moment was pretty much at the level of a Grade 2 Knight.
“Kuwoooo—!!”
“Kweeekkkkk—!!”
The demonic beasts sprinted forward while roaring out loud. Starting from owlbears to mat boars and horned rabbits, those monsters began flooding us with their brutal natures which had been suppressed by Marie’s demonic aura.
“Right. A beast is a beast. Easy for them to know who the weaker one is, I guess.”
A Unique Grade demon behind them and Grade 2 randoms in front. There was no need to even think at that point on who they should attack.
The 1st phase of the boss fight with Vampire Marie Dunareff was the battle against demonic beasts and spirits that were under her control. We had to come out victorious in this little skirmish and pass through the 2nd phase.
『Main Quest: Marie Dunareff』
※ Difficulty: S
Our current party was about half of what we were in the previous iteration. But even so—
“Everyone. Get ready.”
We will win.
We will overcome every adversity and hardship to achieve victory.
