Chapter 81
We were assaulted by high pressure winds the moment we were teleported out of the Lich's room . We successfully managed to escape the dungeon's interior, but since this was a floating island and all that there wasn't exactly anywhere we could go . As a result, we were now free falling from high up in the sky, way above the clouds .
Fran's eyes were closed and her body limp, but luckily, it seemed that it was just because she passed out . She still had half her HP remaining, and she seemed like she was just fine . Her complexion was pretty normal too . I decided to use heal and purify on her just in case though .
『You still alive, Urushi?』
「Woof . 」
It looked like Urushi was doing alright . Wait a second, I can both see and appraise him despite the fact that he's still in Fran's shadow! I guess that must be another one of Eye of Empyrea's effects .
Like Fran, Urushi was also missing a fair chunk of his HP . That was it though, neither of he or Fran seemed to be suffering from any status abnormalities .
〈Warning . Unit name "Master" only has 35 seconds worth of durability remaining . 〉
Oh, system announcer chick! Thanks a tonne, we wouldn't have been able to get ourselves out of that mess without you .
〈Terminating the "Latent Potential Release" skill . Unit with temporary name "System Announcer" will once again be deprived of its abilities . 〉
The system announcer's voice seemed to waver the moment she declared that Latent Potential Release was coming to an end .
Wait, so what happens now? Are things just going to go back to normal for you or something?
〈Correct . Unit with temporary name "System Announcer" will revert to being restricted to the relaying of information and translation . 〉
There's still a bunch of stuff I want to ask you . Will I be able to talk to you again if I use Latent Potential Release later or something?
〈Unlikely . The acquisition of the Eye of Empyrea skill and the use of abilities far beyond usual limits has caused damage to areas that would have otherwise been developed further in the future . The chance of the unit with temporary name "System Announcer" being awakened on any given activation of Latent Potential Release is gauged to be approximately 2% . 〉
Huh? Wait, hold on then! There's a bunch of stuff I want to ask!
〈Unit name "Master . " Unit with temporary name "System Announcer" thanks you . No . I thank you . 〉
The system announcer suddenly switches to using pronouns to address itself .
〈Not even god would allow me to exist in my normative form . My creator erased me and transformed me into naught but an empty vessel . Though it lasted but a transient moment, I am glad I was able to be of assistance . I truly thank you, master of mine, but you must be warned . The path you shall take in the future will be harsh . The God of Wisdom is unlikely to confer upon you its blessings, for...〉
Her voice suddenly cut off .
System announcer? System announcer!?
〈...〉
『Err... I guess you can't talk anymore .
I still wanted to ask you about a whole bunch of stuff, but whatever . Don't worry about it . 』
『Ya know, looked to me like the system announcer itself was never more than just a fragment of something else in the first place . Using Latent Potential Release allowed you to use it or whatever, but every last speck of it is gone now cause you had to use abilities way beyond your limits . 』
『So I really won't ever be seeing her again?』
『Nah, she's probs never going to show up again . 』
『Then I guess I won't be able to ask for her help next time we're about to get screwed . 』
『Pretty much, yeah . By the way, you really should be checking how many magic stone point thingies you have left . 』
『Oh, alright, sure . W-Wait! What the hell!?』
Some dude was like casually talking to me telepathically . Who the hell was that!?
『Why do I feel like I've heard your voice before?』
Oh yeah, I remember now . That's the same voice I heard right when I reincarnated .
『Who are you anyway?』
『Wellll, I was planning on telling you eventually anyways . And I was planning on meeting up with you in about a monthish, something around that, iunno . Well, telepathically meet up that is, if you count that . Buuuuuut, eh, whatever . Might as well tell you now minus all the pretentious nitty gritty junk anyway . 』
『You sure sound laid back...』
『Welll, that's cause we don't really count as strangers n stuff anyway』
『Whatever, whatever . Might as well say it . My name is... . 』
「Master, it appears that you are alright!」
Oh god damn it, what kind of timing is that supposed to be...?
The one who interrupted my conversation was Stephan . The small, child-like zombie was still holding a passed out Jean in its arms . I mean, I was glad that they were still alive, but couldn't they have waited like half a second?
『Hey, you still there?』
『――』
And, he's gone... He didn't even tell me who he was .
Damn it, I'm really curious now . Who or what is he? Is there another me inside of me or something? Do I have dissociative personality disorder? Does his soul dwell within mine or something? I mean, I am a sword, so I can't say I'd be surprised . Man, I really want to know, but I can't figure it out and just thinking about it isn't helping . Arggggg!
Damn it . Thinking about it isn't helping at all . You know what, he didn't seem like an enemy, so I'll just save myself the stress and not think about it until he shows up again .
Speaking of thinking about things, whatever was the System Announcer? I guess she might've been a soul or something, but she seemed a lot less organic than that . Honestly, my first guess was that she was kind of like the stuff you'd normally find in Sci-Fi novels, you know, like an android or super-advanced, support-centered AI or something . I was pretty sure of it too, but then she started saying all that stuff about being deleted by her creator and God denying her existence and whatnot . Damn it, thinking about her isn't helping at all either .
Whatever, you know what? Let's save the thinking for later .
「Are you alright?」
Stephan falls in line with me as we continue to plummet . Jean looks fine, but I can't help but find the sight of him in Stephan's arms a bit weird . I mean, it wasn't really either of their faults . Seeing a child was carrying an adult princess style was just weird .
「Is Fran okay?」
『Yeah . She's just passed out . 』
A loud crashing sound suddenly filled my ears as I finished telepathically transmitting my thoughts .
『Woah!』
I turned around out of surprise, only to see that the floating island from which we just escaped had split itself in two . Black light erupted from each and every single crevice as the whole floating island began to crumble .
Holy crap . We definitely would've died if we stayed inside the dungeon . Thank God the system announcer chose to get the hell out .
Large chunks of rock started to fall from the dungeon's foundation . The whole structure had started to collapse .
「The dungeon's core was likely destroyed by all the malice the Lich emitted . As a result, the entire structure will soon disappear . 」
『Do you think that the rocks falling from it will end up making it to the ground? If they do, they might end up causing quite a bit of damage . 』
「Most likely . Everything associated with the dungeon will disappear, but the rock that made up its foundation was likely something that was there to begin with . 」
That's pretty bad... The chunks of rock breaking away from the dungeon were so big that they could've easily removed any given village from the map altogether .
『I'm leaving Fran to you, Urushi . 』
「Woof!」
I had Urushi revert to his usual size before placing Fran on his back . His fur was well... natural fur, so it should've be fairly comfortable .
After making sure that she was secured in place, I shot myself downwards and descended below the clouds in order to survey our surroundings . Whew, luckily there weren't any towns or cities; we near the bottom of the mountain that bordered the Reidos Kingdom .
On second thought, it wasn't actually all that lucky . The mountain probably wouldn't be able to sustain any large scale hits, and the same went for the forest nearby . Regardless of where it landed, the giant falling monoliths were going to cause something on the scale of a natural disaster . And to make matters worse, there was a pretty big river right around where one seemed like they it was going to land . Having the giant rock smash a river into oblivion would probably be just a little bit bad .
Alright, what do?
As of right now, there were two big problems . That is, two massive pieces of rock had broken off from the floating island . One was going to land inside the forest about halfway up the mountain . The other was probably going smack in the middle of the river that ran down the mountain .
『Yeah, uh... I guess better make sure the river doesn't get screwed up . 』
To start things off, I dove straight towards the descending slab whilst firing off a few Inferno Bursts . Each iteration of the spell bored itself a pretty big hole, and as a result, it was more effective than what I otherwise would have done if I'd chosen to use Earth-based magic instead . After verifying my success, I started casting wind magic and increased the air pressure . As a result, the falling monolith broke into four smaller pieces .
『Hell yeah, it worked!!』
I cast another round of spells, and this time, managed to break the four shrunken stones into five even smaller subsegments each . Well, I say that, but each of the "small pieces" was still 20 odd meters across .
『Alright, that should be about small enough . 』
The next skill I activated was dimensional storage .
『One... two... . three... four...』
I began storing the monolith's shattered pieces one by one . My newfound mastery in the art of space/time magic allowed me to figure out the exact size of my dimensional storage, and boy, did it have a lot . I should've still had a whole gym's worth of space, even after storing a bunch of giant ass rocks .
The only issue was that I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to dispose of them later, but whatever, I'll figure it out in due time .
『Alrighty, that's the river taken care of . 』
By choosing to protect the river, I inherently neglected the forest . The second monolith crashed into the mountainside with a loud smash and completely obliterated most of the woodland . Whew, seeing that really made me glad I managed to save the river .
「Woof woof woof!」
「Are you alright, Master?」
Both Urushi and Stephan caught up to me as I resumed my descent .
It looked like everything was settled, and so, I finally breathed a sigh of relief . "
『I'm fine . What about you guys? Did you get hit by any of the debris?』
「Woof!」
「We're fine . 」
「...Wait」
「Woof?」
『You sure you're alright, Stephan? You're all glowy . 』
「It appears that I've reached the end of the line . 」
『Huh? What? Why? What happened?』
「This body of mine was one of the dungeon's many creations, and for that reason, I cannot escape its fate . 」
『Weren't you supposed to be one of Jean's summons?』
「Indeed I am, but at the same time, I am not . My body was created by none other than the dungeon master . 」
His hands became translucent, and his body had started to give off particles of light .
He was starting to disappear .
But despite that, his face was plastered with a content smile .
「Please, take this . 」
『Is that... a diary?』
「Indeed . It's a journal filled with experiences . You will find it a worthwhile read . 」
『Wait, hold on . Who's diary is it, exactly?』
「That's something that will immediately come apparent should you read it . 」
Again, he smiled .
「At last, it's finally come time for me to be at peace . 」
『Wait a second, Stephan! Hold on!』
「Master . Please convey one last message for me . Please tell my Lord that... I would like to thank him . I would like to thank him for freeing the souls trapped within that labyrinth, our souls...」
Stephan touched his forehead to Jean's one last time as his body finally faded away .
『Stephan really didn't ever stop smiling, did he?』
「Woof...」
Oh yeah, that reminds me, that one mysterious guy, whoever he was, mentioned something about my magic stone stat right?
Might as well check it .
『W-WHAT THE FUCK!?』
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General Stats
Name: Master
Wielder: Fran
Race: Intellegent Weapon
Attack: 572
MP: 523/3550
Durability: 614/3350
Magical Conductivity: A+
Skills
Appraisal: MAX
Appraisal Jamming
Transform
High Speed Regeneration
Self Evolution: Rank 11
Magic Stone Count: 2361/6600
Memory: 100
Evolution Points remaining: 18
Self modification (Superiorized)
Telekenesis
Lesser Telekenesis Amplification
Telepathy
Lesser Attack Increase
Intermediate Wielder Status Increase
Lesser Wielder Recovery Up
Lesser MP Increase
Intermediate Memory Increase
Knowledge of Magic Beasts
Skill Sharing
Sorcerer
Eye of Empyrea
Unsealable
Space/Time Magic: Lv 7
Unique Skills
Principle of Falsehood: Lv 5
Superior Skills
Way of the Sword SP
Skill Taker SP
Doppleganger Synthesis SP
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『What the hell?! Holy crap, I'm missing more than half my magic stone points!』
I mean, the skill hadn't ranked down or anything, but my magic stone count was abysmally low . I pondered the reason for a second, only to immediately think of Latent Potential Release . It was probably because of that . I decided to try appraising the skill again . I recently leveled appraisal up to max, so I should be able to see skill descriptions in more detail .
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Latent Potential Release
Rarity: EX
Attack + 800
Magical Conductivity increases 3 stages
MP + 3000
Cost: 1000 magic stone points upon invocation, and 15 per second thereafter throughout the skill's activation .
Unleashes the user's latent potential . The precise bonuses provided depend on the user's latent potential . As the skill forces the user beyond his/her limits, it will cause the user's life force to whittle over time . The skill also requires additional compensation . Compensation differs from user to user .
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Holy fuck, just activating it flat out eats a thousand magic stones worth of points...? Well, I guess it did save our asses, so I can't really be complaining .
Yup, I'm definitely not regretting any of that all .
I'm not the type to complain, nope I am not .
I really hope I can rank up some more soon...