ED: Sorry for the hiatus, I’ve been struggling with allergies for a couple weeks, and then had to catch up with regular work. On another note, Blank had to go back to his own projects, so we have a new designated translator.
Someone in the comments pointed out that my notes break up the flow too much, so I though I’ll try something else. I’ll put a [1] whenever I have something to add, that you can click to go down to the notes section, or just hover your mouse over it to read the note (or just ignore them and keep on reading).
Translation: Lurk
Editor: Zioming
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Chapter 63 – An Immortal King and a Champion
Day 4 of free activities.
No more fishing for today. Satisfied with catching the lake’s guardian spirit (Maple), I’ve decided to stop for the time being. We still had some time left in our schedule, but I probably wouldn’t catch anything bigger anyway.
Picking up from where we left off yesterday, the plan for today was to ask Maple to lead us to an old and powerful monster.
However, unlike yesterday, today’s goal wasn’t to tame. It was to subjugate. It turned out Maple knew quite a few dangerous monsters who liked to kill humans, so I was thinking of subjugating those as we go along. Even I wouldn’t want to tame monsters who kill people for fun.
Accompanying me today were a total of six people: Dora, Maria, Sara, and the three monster girls. Since it wasn’t good for me to always be the only one fighting, I intended to let those who wanted to to try and do the subjugating.
The first one to volunteer was actually Sara.
“It finally came… The moment I can let everyone see me fighting prowess…”
“I’m sorry that it’s taken so long.”
Sara had been asking for a chance to show off her skills ever since I purchased her. However, she never got a chance to battle a strong opponent by herself until now.
She was eager to subjugate a monster in order to demonstrate her skills in a solo fight. Honestly, I was feeling a bit sorry for her.
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Right now, we were flying through the sky, heading for an abandoned village in the mountains. It got destroyed by the monster we were after over a hundred years ago, but given its secluded location, no one knew what had actually happened, and it’s been left like that ever since.
“It’s super creepy, so it stands to reason no one would want to go there without a good reason.”
“The Immortal King, huh… This mistress has heard of it before, but never thought of trying to approach it. It’s calling itself a King after all, so we wouldn’t be very compatible.”
As Chocolate said, the monster we were going to battle with was known as the Immortal King.
It was known to be a powerful undead monster with a <Necromancy> skill, that let it turn the dead into zombies, and command them. It also used a range of other magic skills, so Sara should be a good match for dealing with it.
Plus, if it has the <Undead> skill, I could just steal it for an instant kill. Although I really didn’t have any intention of doing it this time around… [1]
By the way, when Sara declared that she was going to participating in the battle, Mio initially also raised her hand, saying she wanted to come as well. Apparently she wouldn’t be able to continue their restaurant tour on her own, so she wanted to come watch the fight to kill some time. But as soon as she heard we were going to an abandoned village to subjugate the Immortal King, she immediately put her hand down. Yep, Mio’s still weak against spooky stuff.
Since it couldn’t be helped, I let her stay behind with Nino and the other maids. They said they were going to look into cooking with harpy eggs. Their taste was different from the regular chicken eggs, so they intended to try and find a light seasoning that would go with them better.
Looks like we can look forward to eating something other than just rice topped with eggs tomorrow.
Putting that aside…
“As far as I’ve heard, the original villagers have all been turned into undead, right?”
“Yup. The last time I went there by myself, there were zombies wandering around in the abandoned village. It was super creepy.”
“Unlike in the dungeon, these zombies were once real people… I don’t really want to kill them.”
While there were zombies in Estia Kingdom’s dungeon, they were monsters created by the dungeon, so they were zombies since the beginning. These zombies however were humans who had been murdered and turned using the <Necromancy> skill. Even though none of their humanity remained, they were once living beings who led normal lives.
“Then, do we avoid the zombies and focus only on defeating the Immortal King? Sara can do anything if she sets her mind to it.”
It just couldn’t be helped that we had no problem killing thieves, but not zombies who were originally villagers. I didn’t intend to make anyone kill what they didn’t want to.
“No, I’ll kill them. Nothing good will come from leaving them as they are anyway…”
<Necromancy> had two basic effects. The first one was to turn the dead into zombies, while the other one let one command them. These 2 effects were independent from one another.
As such, even if the <Necromancy> user got killed, the zombies would still remain.
Plus, they didn’t need nutrition to move (Law of conservation of energy? What’s that? Is it tasty?), so if we let them be, they’d just wander around the abandoned village forever. Even I pitied them, so I was already thinking of finishing them off, if there were any left after Sara’s fight with the Immortal King.
“There sure are many evil monsters in this country…”
Sara’s face twisted into an unhappy expression.
That was actually another reason why I was so determined to subjugate the monster this time around. As it turned out there were quite a number of powerful monsters, who were hostile to humans, in the Atto Union. As I kept listening to the conversation between Maple and Chocolate, I couldn’t help but worry about the country’s future.
Of course, there was a reason behind this. Basically, Atto Union used to be a group of small countries who kept warring each other. As such, they didn’t have enough manpower to spare for dealing with the monsters harassing their citizens.
The heroes who got summoned to this world in the past also seemed to avoid conflict-filled areas, which resulted in the whole region being dotted with powerful ancient monsters.
And, there were many evil ones among them. While Maple and Chocolate could also be classified as ancient, there were ones even older than them around. I mean, monster who’d lived for over a thousand years were a pretty common occurrence here.
Since that fact was pretty well known, it looked like many people came to challange them to try and test their skills.
Still, if we could take care of them for the Atto Union… no, they probably wouldn’t reward us anyway, so let’s not.
“Wow, that hurt…”
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything bad about the two of you.”
“I don’t really mind, but it’s not like it’s completely unrelated to me…”
“Got it. I’ll try not to say anything too high-and-mighty.”
According to the pair, Maple had never killed a person before, but Chocolate had apparently killed an adventurer once.
However, it was someone, who, upon entering her territory and getting blinded by greed after finding a harpy egg, proceeded to kill their fellow adventurers, so it’s not like I could really blame her.
As long as they didn’t go around killing indiscriminately, and just took care of some random intruders, I wouldn’t really complain. To begin with, both of them lived in pretty secluded places, so it seemed like they hadn’t met many humans before.
Maple did say that I was only the third person she’d met so far. Basically, since she had spent most of her time either flying through the sky or idling at the bottom of a lake, she couldn’t have been expected to run into people very often.
After flying for a while, we’ve arrived at a forest near the abandoned village the Immortal King lived in. As usual, the girls paid attention not to go ahead of me.
“We’re here.”
“Wow, the air’s incredibly stale…”
“It stinks~!”
Was this what they called miasma? The air in the forest seemed somewhat heavy, from the way the trees slumped over, causing us to hesitate to enter, with its putrid smell.
According to Alta, this was a result of the forest being polluted by the <Curse Magic> over a long period of time.
It appeared to be affecting the entire ecosystem, as there didn’t seem to be any beasts or monsters living inside.
“Jin-sama, lets raise <Poison Resistance>.”
“Ah, right.”
Just to be safe, I set everyone’s <Poison Resistance> to 10 for the time being. Is there no other skill I can use against miasma? [2]
A: Maria’s <Barrier Magic> will be effective.
The <Barrier Magic>, that Maria obtained after her <Hero> skill reached level 6, could either be used on another person, or to create an invisible wall in a three-dimensional space.
It looked like the first effect could nullify miasma.
“Maria, please use <Barrier Magic>.”
“Yes, right away.”
Maria immediately cast <Barrier Magic> on the entire group.
We proceeded into the forest.
The magic seemed to be working, as we didn’t feel the unpleasant stench any more.
“Much better~!”
“Ah, having a hero around is super convenient!”
“I wasn’t of much use, until Jin-sama removed the <Seal>…” [3]
“So, is it the hero, or the master, who enabled her to be so useful, the amazing one?”
“I think it’s Honey☆.”
“No objections here.”
“Yes.”
“It’s Jin-sama after all.”
“Right?”
Could we please stop this trend of attributing all the extraordinary things to me?
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Having finished our preparations, we advanced until we reached a point where we could see the abandoned village.
Here and there, a single zombie could be seen.
“The zombies are really just walking about.”
“Even though they’re in shreds, it’s super weird to see them wearing human clothes…☆”
Sara and Tiramisu muttered as they watched the zombies wander around the village in the clothes they’d been wearing when they were still alive.
To make it worse, their original forms were left untouched enough for their human features to be recognizable. Just from looking at them, we could tell that everyone had been transformed into zombies regardless of their age or gender. The unpleasantness of the situation reached its limit when we saw zombified babies crawling around.
If you’re going to revive them, do it properly! Don’t do a half-assed job!
Somehow, I feel like that’s not the part of the situation that a normal person would get angry at… I’m overthinking it, right?
“Let’s get this done and over with. While we did expect it to some extent, it’s honestly disgusting.”
“Understood. I’ll give it my all, right from the get-go.”
“Good luck~!”
Sara looked really motivated.
There was no way I’d even consider taming a monster that created this disgusting sight.
We entered the abandoned village just like that, but the zombies showed no reaction and just continued wandering around. I was sure that they’d attack us on sight…
“They aren’t attacking.”
“Yeah. They attacked us immediately back in the dungeon…”
“This happened when I came alone last time as well.”
As we were talking, a black fog that looked like mist began to gather, and took the shape of a person.
Strictly speaking, while it took a human shape, it wasn’t a person, but a skeleton draped in a black robe. Without a doubt, it was the Immortal King.
Immortal King (Rare)
LV99
<Dark Magic LV6><Curse Magic LV6><Necromancy LV8><Illusion Magic LV6><No Chant LV8><Float LV8><Undead LV8>
Note: The Immortal King that has transcended death. Controls the dead and kills the living.
Yep, you could tell just from a look at its status that it was a very powerful monster.
Wasn’t it stronger than the Soul Reaper in the dungeon? Though I haven’t really properly fought against Soul Reaper back then.
Also, it did have the <Undead> skill. If I stole that, it’d be an instant kill. Maybe I’ll just do it since it’s so gross… No, I’ll let Sara take care of it since she’s so into it.
“Screeeeeech…”
The unpleasant sound of a nail scratching a blackboard resounded around us. It appears that this is how the Immortal King communicates.
“It’s saying ‘Hmm, it seems like some foolish humans have arrived’.”
Maple translated for us, as it made more sounds.
“Scr, screech screech screech?”
“That means ‘Oh, is that the sea serpent who came to this village before?’ Yup. Sorry, but we’re here to subjugate you.”
“Screech. Screech, screech.”
“It said ‘Very well. If you’re threatening my kingdom, take me on in a fight’.”
Apparently, this abandoned village was the Immortal King’s kingdom.
What are you, a naked emperor…? This place is barren.
Also, it was getting more and more troublesome to have Maple translate for us every time. Maybe I should ask Sakura to create some translation magic…
“Screech, screech screech!”
“That’s ‘Forward, my little servants!’”
At its command, the zombies who were previously ignoring us came rushing towards us.
“I’ll leave it to you, Sara. We’ll deal with any runaways.”
“Got it. I’ll try my best to keep them contained.”
Sara went ahead, raising her voice as she brandished her legendary class weapon, the Guardian’s Greatsword.
“Argh!”
Since zombies weren’t capable of thought, they didn’t even try to avoid her attacks.
With a single slash of Sara’s sword, 10 zombies were instantly reduced to dust.
Although their bodies were already rotting and falling apart, it was undeniably also the case that Sara was simply really strong.
And while zombies could still move, even after getting split into two, there wasn’t anything they could do after getting pulverised.
“Urgh!”
With each slash of her sword, several more zombies got destroyed. Sara headed straight for the Immortal King.
“Screeeech, screech. Screeech.”
“It’s ‘Mm, you’re surprisingly capable. Looks like I’ll have to fight as well’.”
While the Immortal King was just floating without doing anything until now, its robe opened as it said those words, and it started to move. Flying past Sara, it headed in our direction.
“Screech screech screech, screech screech screech? Screeech, schreech, screech.”
“It’s saying ‘You’re all hiding behind her because you’re weaker, right? It’ll be good if I can make you my hostages, but even if I don’t, it only makes sense to aim for the weaker ones first in order to preserve my strength.’ I think we should show it mercy.”
“What an idiot…”
“It sure made the worst possible choice☆”
“Ugly〜”
The monster girls (including Dora) all sent the Immortal King a pitying look. Its move would have been the right one to make under normal circumstances. After all, there’s no way that someone would come here just to test their strength, right? And, you wouldn’t think that the ones standing behind them were the real monsters, right? Just saying it makes me feel sad for it.
“Sorry! I let it get past me!”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll send it right back.”
Sara, who continued trampling on zombies, said apologetically.
The Immortal King tried to use its magic mid-air.
It was “Demon’s Blade”, a level 6 <Dark Magic> spell. Plus, it had the <No Chant> skill at level 8, which allowed one to use magic spells of up to that level without chanting.
The darkness formed into a huge sword that came slashing down upon us… until I used Nosferatu to fly into the sky, and split it in two.
My “Spirit Sword – Tangerine” has the effect of cutting through magic, so the “Demon’s Blade” got easily dispersed.
“Screech?”
“That’s ‘What?’”
“Go fight with Sara over there!”
The Immortal King made an astonished noise as I kicked it away, sending it flying back to its original position.
It crashed to the ground, bouncing several times and knocking down a couple more zombies on its way.
While it wasn’t moving, it was fine, since it wasn’t dead, judging from its status. I was nice enough to leave it with about half of its HP.
“My turn then…”
Sara let out a slightly sad voice, but it was her fault for letting the Immortal King get past her in the first place. I did tell her that we’ll deal with the ones that try to escape… Even if it was actually the boss itself.
“It hasn’t been defeated just yet.”
“Ah, right!”
The slightly shaken Immortal King floated unsteadily back into the air.
It looked a bit wobbly despite having the <Float> skill. Seems like I’ve dealt it more damage than I initially thought.
“Screech, screech screech…”
“That’s ‘I can’t believe that the ones standing behind are the stronger ones…’ Looks like it finally realised that.”
“Is it an idiot?”
“Right♪”
The monster girls’ scathing assessment.
“Screech screech, screech!”
“It’s saying ‘As you wish, I’ll start with this one!’”
The Immortal King proclaimed as it faced Sara. It seems like it realised that it would be impossible to defeat me instantly in a battle.
“Looks like we scared it off.”
“It ran away♪”
The monster girls’ scathing assessment.
The Immortal King began to cast <Dark Magic> in rapid succession. An incessant storm of magic spells was released due to <No Chant>.
…and got completely nullified by Sara’s innate <Hostile Magic Immunity> skill. The moment the magic spells hit Sara, they all disappeared as if they had never existed in the first place.
Yup, I knew that would happen.
I’m sure Sara could easily just stay on the attack, yet, because I had already dealt the Immortal King a lot of damage with my kick, she decided that just defeating it like that wouldn’t allow her to showcase her abilities, so it seems like she used another one of her unique skills to create a chance for herself to show off.
“Magic doesn’t work on me!”
Sara proclaimed grandly. Surprisingly, that was actually kind of cool of her.
“Screech, screech screech screech screeeech?”
“That’s ‘Wh-What did you say!?’”
Sara smiled smugly as she looked at the shocked Immortal King.
“Screech screech!”
“That’s ‘In that case, how about this!’”
New zombies appeared from below the Immortal King as it said those words.
“Screech screech screech. Screech screech, screech screech screech!”
“That’s ‘These are the adventurers who came to this village. I didn’t like the sight of some non-villagers wandering around the village, so I buried them underground for the time being, but their combat abilities are much higher than villagers’!’”
Just as it said, the 17 new zombies that appeared were all equipped with some form of weapons, unlike the zombie villagers.
“Oh? I did wonder what happened to all the people who came here before. Looks like they’ve all become zombies…”
“That’s disgusting!”
“Screech screech!”
“That’s ‘Charge!’”
The zombie adventurers (provisional) rushed towards Sara.
While they were definitely moving much faster than the zombie villagers, zombies were still zombies. I don’t think any hero would feel threatened by beings without intelligence.
Sara began to slaughter the zombie adventurers one by one.
In that sense, wasn’t the dungeon in Estia Kingdom using zombies in the right way? Without paying too much attention to their individual strength, they tried to overwhelm us with sheer numbers.
Sara quickly took care all the zombie adventurers (provisional).
“Is that all you have?”
“Screech screech. Screech screech…”
“‘That’s impossible. You defeated my army so easily…’”
It looked like the Immortal King didn’t have any other cards to play.
Sara kicked off from the ground and headed towards the Immortal King with a tremendous force.
“It’s my turn to attack now! Haaaaa!”
“Screech!”
“That’s ‘Damn it!’”
Did it use <Illusion Magic>? Its figure grew faint, disappearing.
There’s no way we were letting it go. As long as it didn’t teleport, it was basically impossible for it to run from the map’s display. While only taking a glance at it, Sara swung her giant sword at an empty space.
“Argh!!!”
“Screech, screech screech!?”
“That’s ‘Why, urghhhh!?’ It died.”
The Immortal King’s HP become zero after it took a direct hit. Adding the damage dealt by Sara’s unrivalled destructive power on top of it’s health already being reduced by half, it was a complete overkill.
“It’s my victory!”
Sara proclaimed as she held up her sword. It would have been quite a cool scene if it hadn’t been for the Immortal King coming at me halfway though the fight. Yet another moment ruined by my overpowered existence…
Afterwards, we cleaned up the remaining zombies.
There wasn’t much resistance.
We burned all the corpses, and buried the ashes in one place. While the miasma that filled the village dispersed along with the Immortal King’s death, it’ll still take a while for this ecosystem, that has been stained with it, to return to its original state.
I thought about erecting a tombstone, but I stopped because I though it would just be for my own self-satisfaction. As a funeral service, we placed the adventurers’ weapons upright in the ground as a replacement for grave markings. Considering the development level of this world’s society, it probably wouldn’t be possible to identify their owners, even if we were to bring them back to the guild.
Well, that’s that. Rest in peace.
“Still, I’m ashamed of myself.”
“Oh, you did good though.”
“While there were some complications, I’m glad I could be of help. Also, I’m glad we stopped that sort of monster from continuing to do as it pleased.”
Sara said as we used “Portal” to return to the mansion.
Apparently she was going to participate in Mio and the maid’s cooking research. She likely got tempted by the idea of trying out the new egg dishes. Dora seemed to want to go as well, but it looks like she chose to stay with me in the end.
“Staying with master~!”
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Our next contestant was Maria. Unlike Sara, she said that she wasn’t doing it to show off, but simply because she wanted to test her strength.
“To protect Jin-sama, I need strength that can rival his. I cannot lose to the likes of a Silverwolf Lord.”
“Your enthusiasm is amazing!”
“Right☆”
And the next opponent was a wolf monster called Silverwolf Lord.
It was at the peak of all the wolf monsters, like the fangwolves and the silverwolves. While big blackwolves could sometimes rival boss monsters when in a pack, it just wasn’t the same. To begin with, Silverwolf Lord didn’t create a pack. The level disparity was so big, the other wolves would just get in its way.
The reason this particular monster couldn’t be subjugated for so long was due to its speed and its habit of not staying in any one place for an extended period of time. Even if one tried to subjugate it after it harmed humans, the chances of it remaining at the site were extremely low. Even if you encountered it, it was strong enough to make subjugating it difficult, and on top of all that, it had a habit of running away whenever it was about to lose.
In fact, since it hardly ever appeared, in the areas it frequented, people feared encountering it like a scourge, saying things like “Your luck must be terrible to actually run into it”. …I remember receiving a similar evaluation in the past. (ED: not sure what he meant here, maybe something some adventurers gossiped about him in the past)
Actually, most people didn’t know that it didn’t stay in any one place for too long. Rather, it seemed to have a habit of always sleeping in the same dwelling and always hunting away from it. Unfortunately for it, out guide Maple knew exactly where that dwelling was.
It was located in a forest in one of the northern nations of the Atto Union.
“The place is known as the Forest of Illusion, since it’s difficult not to get lost if you enter too deep. I also didn’t enter. I just happened to see the Silverwolf Lord go inside.”
The Forest of Illusions, huh? Fantasy geeks would probably love it.
The Silverwolf Lord of the Forest of Illusions. To be honest, it’s got a nice ring to it. But, as it too was already condemned for subjugation, like the Immortal King, taming it was not an option.
Below is the conversation with Maple we had on the topic this morning.
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“The Silverwolf Lord said it killed people for fun. It smugly said, that if it were to go overboard, a large subjugation unit would be sent after it, so it intentionally spread out its kills.”
“Silverwolf Lord is a pretty cool name, but the way it acts is just the worst…”
That was the moment the Silverwolf Lord’s stock in my mind crashed.
“In addition, it kept looking at me like a pervert.”
“Huh? At a Sea Serpent?”
“Yup. I think its idea was that “any female hole will do”.”
“What’s up with that piece of shit…”
Silverwolf Lord’s stock continued to plummet.
“When it attacks humans, if its victims happen to be female…”
Maple said with a look of disgust.
While I was listening to her talk, she did proclaim very strongly, that while they knew each other, they certainly weren’t friends.
“OK, it’s an enemy of all humanity. There’s no need to tame it.”
“Sorry Jin-kun… I do not want to meet this monster either…”
“Same here.”
“Right, I think that’s for the better.”
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Sakura and Mio both had their reasons for not coming with us this time around. The Immortal King and the Silverwolf Lord were both tough opponents for girls with modern Japanese sensibilities.
I was already decided to subjugate Silverwolf Lord based on that discussion. Even without any additional circumstances to consider, it was pretty clear it was harmful to humanity.
If it’s the fast and agile Maria, the nimble Silverwolf Lord will make a suitable opponent.
If the highlight of Sara’s fight were her unparalleled attacks against the zombies, the highlight of Maria’s fight will definitely be the battle of speed against the wolf.
In line with Silverwolf Lord’s preferences, Maria will certainly tear him a new hole or two.
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ED Notes:
[1] Taking the ‘Undead’ skill turned the enemy into a regular corpse. They used it a lot in Estia’s dungeon.
[2] Jin could freely transfer skill points between his subordinates, so he just borrowed some from the ones who stayed behind.
[3] Although the ‘Hero’ skill was very useful, increasing one’s stats and skill acquisition rate, and even granting new extra skills at each level, people born with it also had a ‘Seal LV10’ skill completely blocking all of their skills.
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