Chapter 163: The Knot (3)

[You have purified the contaminated area.]

[The area’s purification process has begun.]

[If the forest is fully restored, the forest spirit will hold a baseline Affection toward you.]

[Your contribution will affect the estimated recovery time and may increase the spirit’s Affection.]

[Estimated time to restore local ecology: 51 years, 101 days, 14 hours...]

A contaminated area... purified?

Before leaving the capital, I remembered something Naneow had told me. This place used to be a forest where death row inmates were discarded after execution. Over time, the accumulation of corpses turned it into a swamp, and a wraith was born.

Maybe I’ll try cultivating a forest when I’ve got nothing else to do.

I couldn’t restore the contaminated soil and vegetation all at once, so I could only truly do that if I had all the time in the world. Just like the message said, even if it didn’t take exactly fifty years, it would clearly take a long time.

In any case, this wasn’t something I had to deal with now. I had no reason to consider the crocodiles and bloodsucking mosquitoes of the swamp inferior to whatever creatures would be born in a restored forest.

Hmm.

As I looked at the remains of the dead Swamp Wraith, the system window I had been expecting finally appeared.

[Calculating Hero Points!]

[C+++ Rank Encounter Clear: 205 points]

[Difficulty bonus: 820 points]

[You’ve earned 1025 points!]

I confirmed the exact number of Hero Points I gained from defeating the Swamp Wraith.

[Calculating store access privilege.]

[Access level upgraded!]

[Reward selection pool expanded!]

[You are now recognized as: High Apprentice.]

— Next rank: 1968/2048

[Please select one of the three rewards.]

[Warning: You will no longer be protected once past the Apprentice tier.]

[Scanning abilities...]

[Scanning player...]

No longer protected? When did they ever protect me in the first place?

Regardless, my tier ranked up instantly. I’d move beyond the apprentice tier if I earned just a few more points. It seemed laughable to still be called an apprentice after defeating a C+++ rank boss so easily.

I skimmed through the floating system window.

[Begin selection.]

[Available points have exceeded 1000 for the first time.]

[Rare rewards are now unlocked!]

[1. Darkness Resistance

— You can hold onto light even within nets of darkness. Your resistance to dark-type attacks increases by 60.

2. Swamp Adaptation

— You have cleared a swamp encounter boss without falling into the swamp even once. Movement penalties in swamp terrain are reduced by 75%.

3. Spirit Suppression (Rare)

— You have subdued a manifested wraith for the first time. Now, go suppress or destroy other evil spirits across the world. Your attacks deal 1.3% effective damage to spiritual entities.]

Whew...

The rewards were generally powerful. Compared to what I got for clearing the Webslinger in the Spider Den, these were objectively on another level. The ability to reduce swamp penalties or gain resistance to darkness both gave high percentages and extremely attractive effects. If I chose Swamp Adaptation, I could turn a place most avoided into my strategic stronghold. If I picked Darkness Resistance, I’d be able to fight Demon King minions more efficiently.

Hmm...

I didn’t hesitate long, because the answer was neither of those.

[Selection complete!]

[Spirit Suppression (Rare) acquired!]

[All of your attacks will now affect incorporeal beings.]

[— 1.3% of your attack power applies.

— In some cases, elemental attacks may deal additional effects.]

The ability to suppress spirits was in a completely different category from the abilities I’d gained so far. I didn’t know how durable these incorporeal beings were, but even if the bonus was minor, I had a good reason for picking this reward.

It was because of Isaac. I could still vividly remember when he first invaded my physical skeleton. I never wanted to experience that filthy feeling again. Although I wasn’t sure how effective this new perk would be, I figured it was at least a first step toward defending myself against possessions and spiritual attacks.

Besides, it was a rare-tier perk. Resistance to darkness and terrain adaptations felt like things I’d naturally acquire over time anyway.

As soon as I made my selection, the blue window disappeared, and what remained was the large, broken remnant of the boss.

I didn’t leave it alone. I looked around and, as expected, spotted something catching the light—a faint black glow.

I reached out and grabbed it. It was a jelly-like substance, just the right size to store in one of my empty Lurium bottles.

[You’ve acquired Resentment of the Condemned (Rare)!]

[This liquified substance contains the lingering resentment of unrepentant sinners. Bring it to the Cult of Yemera to use as proof of purification and increase Affection with the cult.]

Hmm...

It seemed like a quest item. Of course, I had zero intention of getting on the Cult of Yemera’s good side, let alone improving relations with them. I didn’t even want to be anywhere near them.

If the priestesses of Yemera, the Goddess of Atonement, realized my existence, they’d try to purify me by branding me with their heated iron.

So... yeah, I’m definitely not going to them.

I examined the item closely. It looked like it could be used as a crafting material. However, it would need to be appraised.

And I can’t exactly ask the Slime to appraise it for me...

The ridiculous thought crossed my mind for a second. For now, I had no choice but to just store it. Several other miscellaneous items had dropped, such as an executioner’s axe, a wanderer’s dagger, and a shoulder plate stained with blood. All those were junk compared to the weapons I had now. But maybe because Rena crossed my mind, I instinctively pocketed them all.

I’ll probably toss them along the way.

It took me another three hours to exit the swamp, which was slated to be restored to a forest in fifty-one years.

***

I walked through the pitch-black night as a barren wasteland unfolded before me. Wastelands lacked life, and that brought me peace. There was no conquest or pillaging here—no scent, no desire. The wasteland was clean.

Pale dawn began to seep in from the east. As the sky brightened, I found a road built by humans. The sign indicated the path to Aman.

Aman was the city that housed Daliac, a temporary peace zone for high-level informants and assassins. I had obtained information about the marquis’ death in that city. Above all, Anan seemed to be connected to the name that kept nagging at me: Kevin Ashton.

When I had asked about Kevin Ashton, the broker in Daliac shut it down immediately, refusing to listen anymore. In the end, a lack of power was the problem. Storming into the Imperial Secret Archive or forcing information about Kevin Ashton out of Daliac wasn’t possible at my current level.

I still have a long way to go.

I felt overwhelmingly powerless in this massive world. Even Leandro, one of the Empire’s Four Swordmasters, had fallen. The image of his corpse was still fresh in my mind. I had stumbled upon fateful opportunities through multiple deaths, but I was still woefully weak to get involved in this world.

The reasons to grow stronger emerged with every step I took. Glancing between my map and the surrounding area, I kept walking.

Lost in thought, I didn’t realize I had entered a remote mountain path until I was already there. I climbed and climbed. The winter sunlight, filtering through the bare, thorny trees seemingly bracing for snow, felt cold.

Frozen soil from the night before crunched beneath my feet. I heard the stream of a valley not yet frozen over. Mixed with that sound came a human’s desperate scream. I could hear someone threatening to gouge out eyes, giggles of amusement, and the sound of someone being beaten.

Three people were hunting one person in a corner of the mountain path. I couldn’t see it, but I had sensed it for a while. My Detection skill wasn’t even active, but even in my normal state, I could sense the details of their presence from afar.

The screams rose, then faded. Maybe the boy realized no one would come to help, and that his screams only heightened his captors’ pleasure. They didn’t kill him. Instead, they bound him and dragged him away.

Are they slave hunting?

I kept walking without a care and passed by them at a safe distance. The three men flinched at my sudden appearance but seemed relieved when I silently walked past. However, just as I was about to move on, the boy quickly hid behind me.

Whump!

Even with his neck and limbs bound, he had rolled and slipped behind my back in an instant. The boy had decided to take a gamble while the three men were momentarily distracted by me.

"Please help me!" the boy exclaimed.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The three men tensed again at the sight of me. "..."

I completely ignored them and asked, "Why should I?"

His attitude of demanding rescue as if it were natural sparked a bit of curiosity.

"Please, please help me!" the boy begged.

Instead of answering, the boy repeated himself like a parrot, with a rope looped around his neck. "They’re bad people! They’re slave hunters!"

Of course, that wasn’t an answer either. I tilted my skull in confusion. Seeing that I wasn’t walking away, the three men looked a bit flustered.

The black-haired one holding a club studded with nails leaned over and whispered, "That armor doesn’t look great. That massive sword scared me, but it’s probably just for show."

"You sure?"

"I apprenticed as a blacksmith before I got into this business."

Finishing their brief conversation, the leader exhaled threateningly and said, "

Haaah...

Damn... Look, we’re in the middle of business, so why don’t you move along?"

"We’re with Necron, you know," one of the other men added.

"Necron,

huh?

" I said.

Maybe this was a good place to dump junk.

"Yeah! If you don’t want to make this a big deal..."

Thunk!

I pulled out the executioner’s axe from my bag and hurled it. The axe pierced the fat one’s gut cleanly and flew further, embedding itself into a tree trunk.

"Does this count as making it a big deal?" I asked.

"

Aaaaaaaagh!

"

Next, I pulled out the armor I picked up earlier and crushed the shoulder of the one threatening me in a single blow. His bone and flesh splattered in all directions. The steel pauldron had torn off his entire right arm and buried itself deep in his chest.

I hadn’t used any techniques, but the strength I had built up so far was enough to accomplish that. The man rolled along with the pauldron, choking in silent agony.

I turned to the last one.

The guy backed away, trembling, desperately trying to figure out where to run. "

Aaaaah,

please, n-no—!"

I threw the dagger at his ankle.

Blood spurted from the severed limb. The area, once filled with cries of pain, fell silent much more quickly than the boy’s earlier scream had faded.

Damn.

All three died quickly from shock. I had been dealing with irregular enemies for so long that I had forgotten humans were supposed to be this weak.

I wasted time and gained nothing in the end. Had I left them alive, I could’ve at least tortured some information out of them about Necron. Nevertheless, I had smashed them impulsively.

I decided not to retrieve the three junk items I had obtained from the Swamp Wraith. They didn’t seem worth claiming. Still, I rummaged through the corpses just in case there was anything useful.

I found three red identification cards.

They really were from Necron.

They weren’t fake cards, but they were small fry.

Even if they died here, who would come looking?

One of them had a rather thick notebook tucked away in his clothes.

This notebook... feels familiar.

Each page had a person’s name at the top left, along with a grade like A or B and a price. Then, a peculiar sentence caught my eye.

Rena — currently on the run...

Bounty: 10 seirons.