Will I End Up As a Hero or a Demon King (WN)

Chapter 229

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Chapter 229 – Proud of My Skills

The guild master’s room was in the corner of the Hunter’s Guild in Lowenfort.

Grom-san and I were standing across from Adila-san, the guild master.

At first, I wondered how much the guild knew about the situation.

I knew I was giving off a tense vibe, but after hearing the guild’s verdict from Ria via Oracle, I felt a bit calmer.

“I’m sorry. Loki arrived in this town and at the Entonia Fire Rock Cave about a week ago. Grom arrived about three weeks ago, right? In that case, it’s only natural that you wouldn’t know about this situation. I am very sorry that the guild was not aware of this either.”

According to my information, this is the fourth time this has happened. This means that it is highly likely that melee classes suffered damage in the previous three incidents as well. To be honest, I felt that this was a case of habitual negligence.”

“That’s true. It seemed as if they were taking it for granted, watching the spectacle unfold around them and letting people die.”

“Some staff members have heard rumors about a boss raid organized by Fidel where all the melee classes were wiped out. We’re currently gathering information from B-rank hunters, so we should be able to uncover more details in the future, including the names of the organizers.”

“I see. What about the families of the melee class members?”

When the topic turned to this concern, Adila-san clenched his lips and shook his head.

“We’ll have to work with the town mayor and the guards who know the town well.

I suppose that’s the only option.

Given today’s events and the level of civilization here,

They probably don’t have any registration information, so they’ll have to start by investigating to see if there are any surviving family members.

Announcing the names of the deceased and asking for people to come forward would flood them with fake relatives, which would be a disaster.

From here on out, we’ll just have to leave it to the town administration.

Gong, gong…

The evening bell rings out.

The raid that started this morning has been inefficient. There were unexpected encounters with villains, and two rounds of boss fight with Grom-san and the boss’s transport. It’s already pitch black outside.

The boss’s material calculations are supposed to be finished by tomorrow morning, so the two of us will drop by again around noon. We leave the guild master’s room.

Adila-san had been mumbling something the whole time, but…

He gave off an aura that said not to touch the subject, so how Fidel and the others were killed will remain a mystery.

Thankfully, hunters don’t pry into each other’s abilities.

Hah…

The reception lobby… It’s the same as always.

Despite nearly 50 hunters going missing, it was as noisy as ever.

This town has a particularly high turnover rate of hunters.

Besides Fidel, there were two other raid organizers, and since the raids were held every year and a half, it was hard to keep track of everything.

Large-scale events like raids often result in multiple deaths.

The guild master listed these reasons, but I think the tolerance for death, which doesn’t exist in Japan, makes it even harder to understand.

Ultimately, unless you’re close to someone, you don’t care if someone who was there yesterday disappears. That’s how the people of this world are.

I knew this from experience.

Still, as I looked around the lobby, confused by this feeling I couldn’t get used to, someone tapped me on the shoulder in a low, deep voice.

“Loki, I want to thank you properly, so can I have a moment of your time? I’ll work around your schedule, of course.”

“No, you don’t have to thank me. I was saved by Grom-san’s shield, after all.”

I’m not being modest; it’s the truth.

If I had been attacked alone, I wouldn’t have lasted that long. It was only because I could accumulate damage and conserve my magic that I could use the attack that allowed me to achieve my maximum DPS.

I don’t know about now, but before the battle started, I knew it would be extremely difficult to defeat the boss alone.”

“Even so, I don’t intend to take up much of your time… Please.”

“…I understand. In any case, I’ll be visiting the guild tomorrow afternoon regarding the boss materials. Would that be okay?”

“Of course. See you tomorrow.”

As I watch his unusually large back disappear, I think to myself,

I’m the one who should be thanking him.

I want to share the boss kill loot with the deceased melee class members.

I brought this up, so it’s my personal selfishness, in a way.

It’s also a calculated move to prove, if only a little that I didn’t kill Fidel and the others for money despite my lack of credibility.

Yet Grom-san agreed without hesitation.

It would clearly reduce his own reward.

On the other hand, the ranged class, including the leader, no longer exists.

He seems to accept this mysterious situation, so maybe he thinks his reward has increased after all.

Or maybe he has some other purpose unrelated to his reward.

Well, whatever.

I’ll investigate as much as necessary, but unnecessary investigation is a waste of time.

Ria should be coming down soon. If I stay here where everyone can see me, it’ll be a disaster.

Come to think of it, what does Ria like to eat?

With that on my mind, I hurried back to my room at the inn to prepare for the descent.

About 30 minutes later…

I was lying in the bath, sweating profusely, when Ria suddenly appeared right next to me.

As soon as I saw the swirling clouds, I knew it was too late. Then, 0.5 seconds before the descent, I was kicked in the crotch. After this extremely unreasonable incident, we headed out into town.

First, we needed food.

Ria wears a white dress even in winter, so I lent her my coat.

We’re about the same height, so it fits her perfectly. Now, however, I’m freezing to death.

This is exactly when I wish I could use my Ignite skill.

“How’s it going? Found anything you want to eat?”

“Hmm, not really.”

“Come on, the store will close soon!”

We could have gone to the restaurant inside the inn, but Ria seemed determined to find something she liked herself.

I wonder if she can tell what she likes without trying it. But she’s a goddess, so I guess she can.

She probably doesn’t have normal sensibilities.

“Ah, that looks good.”

“Hmm… Is that tomato?”

She pointed not at a food stall but at a specialty shop selling vegetables and fruits.

Most of the items had already been sold, but she pointed at the few remaining ones, one after another.

“Should we just buy everything that’s left?”

“No, I don’t want that one.”

“How do you tell the difference between these?”

I have no idea. I’m just a retainer.

Since buying everything she asks for is also my way of showing my gratitude for today, I obediently do so while also buying my own dinner at the food stall.

At Ria’s request, I fly up to the roof of the inn.

This seems to be where we’ll be eating today.

This is important, so I’ll say it again: I’m cold and want to use Ignite on myself right now!

“Hmm, light!”

When I imagine lighting up my fingertips, the area is illuminated by a soft glow.

I’m not sure if I’m using it correctly, but it’s fine if it’s brighter.

“Oh, looking closely, this meal is quite colorful.”

Looking again at Ria’s meal choice, I see that it is all red, orange, and yellow.

All bright, primary colors.

“Do you like such bright colors?”

“They just looked delicious.”

“You prefer vegetables and fruits to meat. Wait a moment… Water!”

“?”

“The ones on the table are dirty and unsanitary. At least I’ll rinse them off. Here you go.”

“Hmm… It’s sweet and delicious.”

“That’s fruit, so it’s fine as is. The tomato—here’s some salt. It brings out the sweetness. Use it if you like.”

Before I knew it, she had finished the unfamiliar fruit that looked like a fig and was now chewing on the yellow vegetable that looked like a carrot, starting from the tip.

It seemed a little different, but if she was satisfied, it was probably best not to say anything.

Everyone has their own preferences. I’ll just eat the steak I bought.

Five slices for 1,500 beeke. It’s quite expensive.

“Oh, right. Munch, munch… Ria, you probably like books, right?”

“I might like ones about magic or skills.”

“Oh, that’s a coincidence. Two of the books I have with me might be to your taste, so take a look when we get back to the room. I thought they were really interesting and educational.”

“How many are there?”

“There are four in total, but I don’t think any of them are worth reading. It’s a history book about a country where Ria’s punishment took place.”

“Hm, I’ll read them all later, then.”

“All of them at once?” I’m tired from everything today, so I’m going to bed. Oh, you can take a bath if you want.”

“Like before?”

“Yeah. Fill the tub and jump in. The three goddesses are already in, but Ril probably isn’t up yet. Why don’t you ask Feeril and Riste what it’s like?”

“I already asked. They bragged about it a lot.”

“Fufu.”

It’s not like I’m mentally exhausted, depressed, or anything like that.

In addition to being a hunter, I’m also a mercenary who earns rewards from the country for defeating villains, so this is nothing new.

Still, I think it’s important to take breaks like this every now and then and relax.

If I get too into it, like I do with games, I feel like my perspective narrows.

After that, I’ll continue buying books as if I’m collecting them.

The expenses for transporting the equipment today will also be used for that purpose.

As I gaze at the town lights, I talk about how I’m steadily gaining interesting skills from monsters.

“What happens if you use Insight and Sleepy Eyes on me?”

“Eh, if I use Insight on a goddess, it would probably break my heart. Sleepy Eyes… If you accept it, you might fall asleep. But if you resist, it probably won’t work because of Intelligence and Magic Defense.”

“Should I sleep?”

The other skills I got from Photolsheep are a bit mysterious.

Sleepy Eyes Lv3: Activating this skill while looking into the target’s eyes puts them to sleep. If you explain the ability to the target and they agree, it will work 100% of the time. If you don’t explain the ability, or if the target doesn’t understand it, the success rate is determined by a combination of your skill level and the target’s resistance. Mana cost: 9

In Grom-san’s case, he agreed to be put to sleep, so the skill was 100% effective.

As explained, the success rate when the ability is not explained is unclear.

There are things like “Sleep Resistance Increase,” “Status Abnormal Resistance Increase,” and “Steel Heart,” which prevent mental attacks. I expect the success rate to be too complex to easily quantify.

Additionally, skills like this probably follow a standard pattern of being harder to activate against higher-level opponents or completely ineffective if there’s a significant difference in ability stats.

It was so crowded that I retreated after only one day. For now, though, I think skill level 3 is sufficient for this subtle skill.

“Ah, but…”

“?”

“These skills are interesting.”

With that said, I set the grilled chicken in my right hand on fire.

“!?”

“Didn’t someone get burned in front of Ria today? That’s the original skill.”

“It looks delicious.”

“That one!?”

It’s red, but that’s not what I meant.

“Then let’s make it white! White Fire.”

“Ah, it suddenly got hot.”

“Yeah. The person using it doesn’t really notice, but I think it’s pretty hot. And then…”

I extinguished the Ignite spell, thinking this would be enough, and used a smaller version while looking up.

—Fire Breath—

Cough!

“!!?”

Ria’s surprised face is rare and cute.

I saw something good!

A curtain of flames is dancing in the night sky.

It disappeared quickly, so it shouldn’t cause an accident.

“And there’s more! Even if I do this, my mouth won’t get messy!”

“…”

“Fufufu, isn’t it nice? My dream came true. Breath~. Fufufu.”

“I want to try it, too.”

“…Huh? How?”

“I don’t know. Look it up.”

“Oh…”

A sudden quest?

How am I supposed to accomplish something that even the gods can’t do?

Well, ancient magic spells seem quite versatile. With a little practice, it might be possible.

Or maybe…

Does Ria have the Soul Armor skill? The one that comes with Champion?”

“Yeah, it’s a low-level skill, but I have it.”

“I see. Actually, I was thinking of telling Ril about it once she recovers since she seems to like this kind of thing. Do you think we can do it with Soul Armor?”

“Is that what that skill does?”

“Hmm… From what I’ve tested, it seems like you can use it that way. Oh, no… Actually, statistically speaking, that’s probably the main way to use it.”

Soul Armor Lv2: Absorbs the soul of a monster you’ve killed and transfers one of its abilities to you. Maximum Soul Armor: 2

Mana Cost: 5

The important part of this description is the term “ability.”

During the Sea of Trees verification, it was discovered that in addition to the eight stats, such as “Strength” and “Intelligence,” the skills possessed by each monster are also included in these “abilities.”

These include common skills, such as Swordsmanship, that humans can use; white-text skills, such as Charge, that are monster-specific but usable by humans; and gray-text skills, such as Shed Skin, that are exclusive to monsters and cannot be used by anyone.

These all appear with a lower probability than ability stats. It is known that monster-specific skills in the “Other” category, regardless of text color, have an extremely low probability of being selected.

However, this rare element, which should have been something to celebrate, was unnecessary for me.

While using Soul Armor to defeat Flame Rock to obtain a high “Defense” stat, I accidentally obtained “Combination” by chance.

In the end, even through Soul Armor, the gray text remained, and the skill was unusable.

On top of that, even if the skill was extracted, the skill level itself did not exist. Since there was no skill level, the bonus ability stat was 0. This was immediately apparent when comparing stats, so I lost all interest in choosing skills from Soul Armor.

For everyone else in this world, though, it would be different.

If someone becomes the world’s sole Champion, they can use monster-exclusive skills that should only be usable by monsters.

I still consider myself superior because even though I don’t receive the Champion occupation buff, my monster skills are on par with theirs.

“If it’s the Fire Breath skill from earlier, you could probably learn it by using Soul Armor at the hunting ground we went to today and defeating lots of red salamanders.”

“Oh.”

When I tell her that, Ria is unusually eager to hear more.

“But I think it would be extremely difficult to kill thousands or tens of thousands of them without being seen by other hunters…”

When I point out the obvious practical problem, she slumps her shoulders in disappointment.

It’s an insurmountable problem.

If anyone found out that there was a girl with just Soul Armor, it would be more than a disaster.

“I understand you want to try breathing fire, so cheer up. I’ll let you know if I find a monster with that skill in an area where there’s no one else around. Maybe there’s one deep in Palmera.”

“Okay, got it. It’s a promise.”

It was cold after that, so I finished eating everything I had bought and hurried back to my room.

Wrapped in my blankets, I sat in a chair and watched Ria read a book with a serious expression. Before I knew it, it was morning.

On the desk were neatly stacked books.

If she’s this dedicated to studying, I thought to myself, there’s probably a point to collecting books. I headed to the cafeteria for my daily cup of hot coffee.

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