Chapter 15: Black Star's Relic

Chapter 15: Black Star's Relic

Swoosh!—

A black-tinted figure shot towards him at high speed.

"Hmpf!"

Taking in a short breath, he took a step back.

Holding out the spear, he got a better look at the figure that had been fired from between the stalactites.

'A Tentacle?'

A black tentacle with sticky mucus trickling down.

At the base of the tentacle, a monster similar to that of a slime could be seen.

It had a sticky body similar to clumped-up tar and wiggled while scattering out tentacles.

"...What's that?"

It was a monster with an appearance he had never seen before.

[What an unpleasant organism.]

"Though it doesn't look all that strong."

Even though it looked horrific, it didn't seem that dangerous when he observed its movements.

Bzz, Bzzzzz!—

The blue lightning blazed as his stigma shone.

Easily avoiding the flood of tentacles, he jabbed out his spear towards the black slime.

Bang!—

"Fuck!"

Mucus spread across in all directions as the black slime exploded.

Although he backed up in a hurry, a little bit of mucus ended up on his collar.

Sizzleeee!—

Like hydrochloric acid had been poured; a pungent smoke arose as the mucus melted away.

'This one's trickier dead than alive.'

In any case, it was a monster that wasn't hard to eliminate with a little bit of caution.

Gurg, Gurgle!—

"So it isn't just one."

Was it because they heard the sound? He could see the black slimes wiggling towards him from all directions.

Twirling his spear around, Ohjin lowered his stance.

'If they're enemies that explode on death...'

Keeping as much distance as possible was the most important factor.

Ohjin started to reduce the number of black slimes one by one by shooting lightning at them from a close distance.

'Should I use this opportunity to test that?'

Ohjin's eyes shone as he dodged the black tentacles in a Z-shaped pattern.

An attack that could be used at a distance and had a wide area of effect.

'Blue Lightning.'

He wanted to use the skill which he could previously only use with Vega's blessing with his own personal strength.

"Haa. Fuu."

Long and steady breaths.

Bending his back, he pulled back the spear grasped in his right hand the farthest he could.

Owoooong!!!—

The stigma blazed in blue light.

He directed the mana that was overflowing around his body into the stigma.

[What...]

As Vega was observing the fight, her eyes opened wide.

Bzz, Bzzzzz!!—

The blue lightning ferociously twisted across the surface of his body.

Like an oil fire, the stigma's mana burned at a frightening speed.

He didn't pay it any mind.

'I have overflowing mana, after all.'

'I don't need efficiency.'

'I just need to cover my lack of proficiency with overwhelming amounts of mana.'

Bang!!!—

Grounding his feet, he launched the spear with all of his strength.

has been activated.

Releasing the pent-up lightning at the tip of the spear all at once—

CRACKLEEEEEE!!!!!—

—the blue lightning swept away everything in a wide cone in front of it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!—

Fragments of slime exploded everywhere.

"Huff, huff!"

Ramming the spear into the ground, he calmed his trembling legs.

'It worked.'

It was sloppy and closer to a half-forced method, but he succeeded in using a skill that he could previously only use in a 'blessed' state.

[Wow... It's hard to believe, even after seeing it.]

After observing Ohjin's fight, Vega let out an exclamation.

[Even though this lady knew you would become proficient quickly, to think it was to this extent.]

She herself knew best just how hard it was to handle the stigma of Lyra.

The reason she couldn't make an apostle in the first place was because there was no human capable of handling the stigma of Lyra.

'But in just a couple of days...'

He had manifested a skill that was only possible to use with a blessing Vega had endured the restrictions to grant.

Even if one had experienced it before, it was still a speed that was hard to believe.

"Well, it was half-forced."

[Hmm. Well, It did seem that there were many parts that could be polished.]

Though he had succeeded in manifesting the , the level of completeness was terrible.

You could say that he had succeeded in carrying something that normally needed 10 energy by forcefully using 100.

Putting inefficiency aside, it couldn't even match up to its original strength.

[However, being able to use the blue lightning is more than enough right now.]

Even amongst the skills of the stigma of Lyra, was a skill around mid-level difficulty.

It was a difficult skill for a Regressor, let alone for him—who was no different from having just Awakened.

"Haha. I'm glad you put it that way."

[This lady will show you her other skills as well at a later date. Ah right, now that I think of it, you probably know all of it already.]

"No, that's incorrect."

Ohjin shook his head.

"There are a couple of sections of memories that became blurry during my regression, the stigma of Lyra's skills is one of them"

[Blurry?]

"I'm not sure. It's like a film that was cut off midway; I can't recall the memories from that section clearly."

Although he didn't want to use this clumsy excuse—

'She could suddenly ask me to use a skill I'm not aware of.'

—that wasn't a problem that could be solved by talking.

[Hmm. How strange, there shouldn't be any memory loss from a regression caused by the Pledge of Stars.]

Vega gazed towards Ohjin with doubt.

Even while receiving the gaze of doubt, Ohjin continued naturally with not an ounce of panic.

"I believe it to be a kind of restriction."

[What kind of restriction are you talking about?]

"In the case of celestials, don't they receive the commandment's restriction? I believe it holds a similar principle and took partial involvement in restraining my transcendental power."

If a stranger heard of this, they would furrow their brows while asking what kind of nonsense he was talking about, but the story was different in her case, as she had her transcendental powers restricted in actuality.

[Certainly... It does sound plausible.]

Softly touching her lips, Vega nodded her head.

"Well, it's not like I lost anything important, so you don't have to worry about it."

[Anything important...?]

"Well, for example, something like the memories of you, Lady Vega."

Smiling brightly, he looked towards her.

[Eh!]

Vega's body flinched.

[Y-You are saying those embarrassing words again!]

The appearance of the blushing Goddess was cute.

* * *

[C-Cough. Anyways...]

After facing away, Vega floated towards the location of the Black Slime corpses.

Her eyes narrowed as she observed the stalactites covered in sticky mucus.

[Hm... This lady feels a somewhat unpleasant aura.]

"An unpleasant aura?"

[It's difficult for this lady to express it precisely. It's just a feeling.]

Ohjin narrowed his eyes and cautiously headed towards the shredded Black Slime corpses.

If Vega herself said that she felt an uneasy energy, it was worth checking out.

'Hm? That's...'

Rummaging through the shredded Black Slimes, Ohjin's brows furrowed.

Black gems the size of a fingernail could be seen amongst the corpses.

'A mutant's... starstone?'

It was most definitely a mutant's starstone, the same as he had discovered weeks ago.

Not one, but several at that.

'Huh? A mutant appeared again? They shouldn't be able to be found so commonly.'

A mutant's starstone wasn't expensive for no reason; their value was several times or even up to several dozens of times more than regular starstones since their numbers were so few in comparison.

"Lady Vega, is there anything you know about this black starstone?"

[This lady doesn't know either.]

Vega shook her head.

[Have your memories about the black starstone disappeared as well?]

"Yes. I have no id..."

'Oops.'

"...there are things I have assumptions about, but I'm not entirely sure yet."

Rather than saying that he knew nothing, saying that he had some grasp on the situation would create more leeway.

'Since a Regressor not knowing anything would make no sense.'

Anyways, not even Vega knew why there was a sudden increase in the number of mutant monsters.

'Should I start by heading deeper inside?'

Ohjin shook the black mucus off of the spear's blade and moved deeper into the cave.

However, the deeper he moved into the cave, the more he felt as if he was just going around in circles.

'This can't be helped.'

Although he didn't want to use it in front of Vega if possible, there was no other method.

Ohjin activated the stigma of the Hunting Dogs.

Through his sensitive sense of smell, uncountable different kinds of odors flooded in.

"Urgh!"

[What's wrong?]

"It's... nothing."

Shaking his head, he focused his mind.

'The smell of the Black Slimes from before...'

He moved towards the trace of the sticky, unpleasant smell.

Passing through the complex maze-like cave, a wide-open cavern appeared.

"Phew."

It seemed like he had come to the right place.

[This place...]

Vega narrowed her eyes and observed the wide-open cavern.

[The unpleasant aura from before has gotten thicker here.]

"The star relic should be around here."

Ohjin looked around while walking into the cavern.

'Now, I wonder where it is.'

His heartbeat escalated as if he were a child that had arrived at a treasure map's designation.

And then—

'That's...'

—a massive stone statue could be seen at the end of the cavern.

The stone statue had its hands together in a praying motion; something could be seen shining in the center of its forehead.

—A black drinking glass radiating an ominous dark aura.

The black glass, slightly larger than a fist, was embedded on the middle of its forehead.

'Found it!!!'

There was a bit of a difference from the star relics he had commonly heard about, but in any case, it was still a star relic that contained a mysterious power.

'Wow! This is insane!! Just how much is that thing worth!!'

Looking at the star relic he had only heard about with his own eyes, his body trembled.

'Star relic!'

'A real star relic!'

Goosebumps—

An electrifying thrill stretched out the wrinkles on his balls.

His heart felt like it was going to pop out of his mouth.

'I'll use it if the ability is useful, and if it's iffy, I just need to sell it.'

Whatever the case, it was good news.

"Hehehehe!!!"

'God dammit.'

'My laughter won't stop.'

[Is that the star relic?]

"Yes."

Ohjin walked towards the stone statue with a bright smile.

Gurg, Gurgle—

[These unpleasant things have come once again.]

Furrowing her brows, Vega floated through the air and sat down on Ohjin's shoulder.

"Hehe. This is something I already knew about. There's no need to worry."

Grasping the spear, he walked towards the group of Black Slimes.

When he had tracked the smell, he had already predicted that there would be a group of slimes.

'Are they like some sort of guardians that protects the star relic?'

'To have these weaklings as guardians...'

He couldn't help but laugh.

'I should hurry up and wipe them out.'

He smirked while walking towards the Black Slimes pouring out of every direction.

Stick, Gurg, Gurgle—

The Black Slimes that gathered in the cavern numbered around 50.

Although it was a frightening number, he didn't think he would be incapable of facing them.

Each slime was weaker than an Ant-horn.

'I just need to be careful of the explosion.'

It wasn't all that hard.

Gurk, Gurkle, Gurkleeeeee!!—

"Hm?"

'Why aren't these fuckers charging in?'

"...Huh?"

The Black Slimes that were heading towards Ohjin stopped in their tracks.

Around 50 Black Slimes were gathered at the center of the cavern.

The slimes stretched out their tentacles and began rubbing and entangling each other.

Stick!—

The slimes' bodies popped with an unpleasant sound and combined into one.

"Wait."

Ohjin's expression stiffened.

An ominous feeling passed by his head.

And then—

Gurgleeeee!! Gurk!! Stick! Gurk, Gurkleeeeeee!!!—

—the Black Slimes that numbered dozens,

combined into one.

"Hey, hey, hey... Wait a second."

The slimes combined into the form of a giant as tall as 5 meters.

The monster consisting of black mucus smacked its chest.

Bang! Bang!—

"Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!"

A frightening roar echoed through the entire cavern.

'Holy shit, what is that?'

'Why does it look so fucking strong?'

[Fufu. Indeed, so you knew this would happen.]

'Nope.'

'No, I didn't.'

[As you have said, this lady shall observe without worry!]

'What should I do.'

"Haha!! Trust in me, Lady Vega!!!"

'I think I'm fucked.'