Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 94

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TL: ALT

Chapter 94 – What I Missed Was…

Clovis trembled.

Not like frightened or anything.

It was like a fish that had washed ashore and jumped―or a shrimp that had been exposed to a strong electric current.

“W-what’s going on?”

He should be stuck in a knocked-out state of incapacitation!

“Yuto-san! Get away from him!”

Following Haruka-san’s words, I jumped away from Clovis.

Clovis was white-eyed and foaming at the mouth.

A large amount of bodily fluid was pouring out of his entire body.

In such a state, his body repeatedly convulsed, jerked, and twitched.

Every time this happened, fresh blood spurted out from the arrow wounds I had made.

“Damn it, should I kill him?”

But there is a risk that Clovis’ death will make things worse.

There’s also the possibility that he’s trying to lure me into killing him.

“Mm? There’s something here!”

It was Kudave who noticed it first.

Something like a white worm appeared from inside Clovis’ ear.

Dozens of white, thin tentacles…

White, blobby tentacles also spilled out of Clovis’ eye sockets, nose, and mouth.

“A-aagghhh…!”

Clovis groaned.

No, he was not supposed to be able to speak while in a state of inactivity.

What came out of Clovis’ mouth was not a voice but a strange sound.

The sound must have escaped as a result of the spasm of his mouth and throat.

“Hyiii…”

Haruka-san gasped.

…What the hell is that?

The grotesque sight made me shudder as well.

But I have an evaluation, don’t I?

If I don’t know what it is, I’ll just have to find out.

I used the Appraisal on the white tentacles.

Status──────────────────

Brain Eater

Level 1

HP 2/9

MP 26459890/10

Attack Power 1

Defense 1

Magic Power 20

Mental Strength 4

Agility 1

Luck 1

・Acquired Skills

Parasitism 5, Dormancy, Host Manipulation, Postmortem Egg Production 5, Self Regeneration 1

7 experience gained when defeated

2 SP gained when defeated

96 mana coins (converted to yen) gained when defeated

Drop Item: Cordyceps Sinensis, Brain Eater Dried Egg, Pyrethrum

────────────────────

Skill──────────────────

Parasitism 5

A parasite that lives on the body of its host, absorbing nutrients and MP. The stored MP can be used to advance the parasitic state. As the parasitic state progresses, the skill level of this skill increases, and more nutrients and MP can be absorbed. The skill level of this skill cannot be increased by consuming SP.

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Skill──────────────────

Dormancy

Suspends activity while maintaining minimal vital signs.

It is deactivated in response to a lack of food, reproductive opportunities, or a life crisis.

────────────────────

Skill──────────────────

Host Manipulation

Controls the brain of a host parasitized by the Parasitism skill to manipulate the host’s emotions, body, behavior, etc. Depending on the level of the Parasitism skill, it is possible to force the host to use the skill.

────────────────────

Skill──────────────────

Postmortem Egg Production 5

Replaces some of the somatic cells with eggs when the host’s HP reaches 0. The percentage of somatic cells replaced by eggs is (S.Lv x 2)% of the total cells. If you have the Parasitism skill and the egg is attached to a parasitic organism, you can parasitize it without waiting for it to hatch.

────────────────────

“A parasitic monster…?”

Why is there such a thing in Clovis…!

It’s weak as a monster, but the problem is that it parasitizes Clovis.

The Parasitism level is 5.

The parasite is quite advanced.

This white tentacle-like thing is eating Clovis’ brain.

It would be easier if I could just burn Clovis.

I’m guessing a blast of Advanced Fire Magic.

The only thing left to do is to burn the eggs produced by Postmortem Egg Production as well.

The problem is that I can’t kill Clovis right now.

But I don’t think I can leave this parasite alone, either.

I don’t know what the parasite will do when it wakes up.

Nor do I know how clearly this parasite has a sense of purpose.

But since it emerged from the body of the dormant Clovis, I suspect it will try to abandon its host, Clovis.

The Dormancy has been lifted by the life crisis, and it is trying to find a new host.

If the old host is abandoned for this purpose, what happens to the one being abandoned?

Perhaps Clovis dared to plant the parasite on himself in case he was defeated, setting up the final trigger of the ritual to be pulled by his own death.

Like an assassin planting poison to commit suicide if he falls into enemy hands.

…But it feels strange.

Would this man, who only wants the best for himself, do such a thing by feeding himself to parasites?

While I was lost in my answer, I heard a small sound of water.

The source of the sound―inside Clovis’ skull.

The sound quickly became a gurgle.

And then,

Gurgling, gurgling…!

The sound changed to the sound of something being violently swallowed.

“Uppi, akaka, kuhyu…!”

What comes out of Clovis’ mouth is no longer a human voice.

“Uh, ah…!”

Was it Haruka-san or me who let out a voice?

However, there was only one strong ally in this situation.

“Hey, you can’t just stand there like that, Yuto!”

Kudave’s warning finally restored my ability to think.

I can’t kill Clovis.

But if I don’t, Brain Eater will kill Clovis.

If I try to kill Brain Eater, I will kill Clovis.

So what do I do?

It’s obvious.

“Knock Out―Blaze Lance!”

I fire my Advanced Fire Magic, and it pierces Clovis’ head.

If I can’t kill him, I can neutralize him so that he won’t die.

Since I have a skill called Knock Out, it’s ideal for this.

It’s my partner’s skill, an excellent companion for Escape for a long time.

My sidekick did exactly what I expected.

Clovis and Brain Eater were down to 1 HP, and both were out of action.

Now, all I have to do is get them out of the dungeon and put a stop to these guys.

It is worth keeping Clovis alive as a valuable source of information from the other world and for the full scope of this series of events.

I’m also concerned about the fact that he saw the ghost of Junko Tozaki earlier and said, “You should be dead.”

I’m also concerned about the other incidents that caused simultaneous flooding in a number of dungeons and objectified the Association’s skilled explorers who went to quell the floods.

The scale of the activity is too great for Clovis, an otherworldly man, to have done it alone.

But can the Brain Eater be plucked from Clovis?

Even if it could, would Clovis still be conscious?

Both are highly doubtful.

If I can get Clovis to tell me what is going on, Summoning Heroic Spirits might be even more promising.

If Clovis can be summoned like Junko Tozaki.

However, Junko also seems to have lost a lot of her personality before she died.

It would be difficult to make him talk…

As for the causality that God warned me about, I still don’t know what it is.

Am I right in assuming that I could have prevented it by deactivating the Brain Eater?

And then I felt something ‘shake’ in my Item Box.

This is the first time I’ve ever felt something coming from inside my Item Box.

At first, I thought that the explorers who had been turned into cubes by Clovis’ Human Objectification were trying to become human again.

But I was wrong.

I was taken completely by surprise.

I thought the battle was over, and I thought about the aftermath.

It was Kudave who blew my naivete out of the water.

“Yuto! It’s not over yet!”

“Eh?”

By the time I reacted, it was too late.

A white tentacle, hanging helplessly like a squid’s leg washed up on the beach, pierced Clovis’ shoulder.

The tentacle used the shoulder as leverage to pull something out of Clovis’ ear.

Blob, blob…!

A piece of Clovis’ temporal bone bursts out, mixed with brain fluid.

The brain fluid is like amniotic fluid, and what emerges is a… intricately wrinkled, gray blob with numerous white tentacles growing out of it.

All that remains of Clovis’ skull is a large cavity…

“Shit!”

Convinced I’ve missed it, I release Blaze Lance with Chantless.

The Brain Eater’s stats are low.

Even with the less powerful magic of Chantless, it burned up in a single blow.

If anything, even the Fire Arrow I used when I first killed the slime would have killed it.

That thing is a weak monster.

And yet,

“H-how could it move?”

That thing should be incapacitated at 1 HP.

I checked the monster’s status using the Appraisal function.

Its status is inferior to even the lowest slime.

There’s nothing special about it that would cancel the Knock Out…

――No, wait.

…Slime?

I realized my fatal oversight.

“Self Regeneration 1!!!”

Shit, I missed it!

Brain Eater has the following skills: Parasitism 5, Dormancy, Host Manipulation, Postmortem Egg Production 5… and Self Regeneration 1.

I was so distracted by the other horrible skills that I missed the Self Regeneration 1 skill, which is tacked on at the end of the list.

The skill level is 1.

A known skill that I have.

It is also a known skill of Slime, which is said to be the weakest monster.

So I didn’t realize the significance of this thing having that skill.

…Do you know what I mean?

Knock Out is a skill that makes a target inactive, leaving it with only 1 HP; when an attack is made that reduces the target’s HP to 0.

Self Regeneration is a skill that regenerates S.Lv% of maximum HP every second.

Enemies who are knocked out are unable to take any action until their HP is restored.

They cannot cast healing magic on themselves or use recovery items.

Therefore, a foe disabled by Knock Out cannot come out of the inactive state on its own.

But what would happen if there was a Self-Regeneration feature that automatically regenerated HP?

Of course, the moment the HP reaches 2, the inactive state is lifted.

Brain Eater’s maximum HP is 9, so he recovers 0.09 HP in 1 second.

Fractional stats are always rounded down.

In fact, when I used Appraisal, the HP stayed at 1.

But the fractions generated by Self-Regeneration should be cumulative.

After taking 12 seconds to recover 1 HP from the Knock Out, the Brain Eater was able to get out of the incapacitation state.

It then put the finishing touches on the host―Clovis―who was still in a state of incapacitation.

I do not know the significance of killing the host in this situation.

But whatever the Brain Eater’s intentions, Clovis died as a result.

Something is shaking in my Item Box.

I know what it is now.

It’s a sacred treasure.

The sacred treasure is ringing in anticipation of the coming causality.

Clovis is no longer here.

The Brain Eater is also gone.

Mizuchi, the master of this boss room, is long gone.

And yet, something tremendously heavy filled this boss room, which was modeled after an above-ground dam.

The cascades, dragon veins, spirit pools, and the haunting causality that resides in the dam… all of these things that I should not be able to feel directly are obstructing my breathing with an intense feeling of pressure.

“It’s coming! Get ready!”

The dungeon shook violently.

The concrete-like floor rose up in a mess.

Debris, larger than a car, rained down from the ceiling one after another.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Haruka-san!”

I jumped on Haruka-san and held her in my arms.

I kicked at the crumbling steps that were swallowed by the water of the dam,

“Voice of Heaven! Invite Haruka-san to my party!”

‘You invited Haruka Shinozaki to your current party.’

“Haruka-san, come to my party!”

“W-why now…!”

“Just hurry up!”

“A-alright! I accept your invitation to the party!”

‘Haruka Shinozaki has joined your party.’

I used my Martial Arts and Parry to smash the falling debris,

“――Evac!”

I used my skills to escape the dungeon.

The moment my vision changed,

‘Lake Okutama Dungeon has collapsed.’

The Voice of Heaven, clearly announcing the apocalypse, rang in my ears――