1035: Changes in Master
「Divine punishment……? Why me!? I have committed no sin! It’s the dragonkin who are to blame! I was just trying to rid the world of those pests! It’s the G.o.ds’ fault for creating those lizards in the first place! Why is killing them a sin?! I have done nothing wrong!」
Now she’s even s.h.i.+fting her blame onto the G.o.ds. Did her temporary death cause her to turn defiant?
Amidst the endless rant, the G.o.d of Vegetation spoke again.
「Let men judge the crimes of their fellows. Your sin is abuse of the Abyss Eater.」
「Then what about Georg?! Bring him back to life and punish him too!」
「Georg was given the role of the missionary by a fragment of the Evil G.o.d. Borrowing its power proves no issue.」
「Trismegistus then!」
「That man is bonded to the Evil G.o.d Fragment. Thus, he has committed no sin.」
「Hah? Him? Bonded to the Evil G.o.d? Even though he’s the one constantly attacking it?」
「Indeed. The Evil G.o.d Fragment entrapped within the Abyss Eater desires freedom. Therefore, it may sometimes bestow power to those wis.h.i.+ng for the monster’s destruction, such as Trismegistus and Georg.」
I see. I had equated the Abyss Eater with the Evil G.o.d Fragment inside of it, but I guess that’s not the case.
Now that you mention it, most people would go out of control after getting power from an Evil G.o.d Fragment. Maybe that’s the reason why Georg started behaving so unnaturally.
Meanwhile, Trismegistus was one of the most powerful men in the world. That allowed him to resist domination.
Unconvinced by the argument, Meltritte continued her rant to the G.o.d.
「In the first place, it’s called the “Evil G.o.d”! Literally evil! What’s so wrong with abusing its powers?! You guys are the ones who took it down in the first place!」
「The Evil G.o.d is still a divine ent.i.ty. A mortal’s wrongful transgression into any G.o.d’s domain becomes sin. Sinner, accept your punishment.」
「Why, why!? This is bulls.h.i.+t! Why should I――」
The G.o.d left abruptly after its last statement, ascending to the heavens at an incredible speed. Maybe their home is somewhere up there? I guess the myth about the G.o.ds living on the moon had some truth behind it.
Meltritte also disappeared while everyone was still stunned, probably teleported somewhere. Perhaps Trismegistus’ castle?
If so, that’s one more reason I don’t want to go back. Well, not that we can since it’s still in pieces right now.
But Trismegistus disappeared a while back. That means the area around the throne room, the place of his return, may have been fixed.
No one spoke for a while, until Izario broke the silence. Jayne and Mea were the next to speak up. Maybe the divine sword users maintained a stronger resistance to the divine energy.
「We can’t just stand around here forever. Gotta decide what we’re gonna do next.」
「Now we have to check the castle.」
「Don’t forget about transporting the wounded.」
After that, we divided into two groups.
One for scouting the area around the castle, consisting of Izario, Seliadot, Jayne and the demonkin, along with a few of the dragonkin elites.
The rest will be the returning troops, for rescue, medical support, and transporting the wounded. The dwarves took charge as the transport experts. Mea and her Beast Kingdom members, as well as Hilt and the Dimitris style disciples were to escort the return party.
Meanwhile, we joined the group headed for the castle.
I’d really rather join the return party, but I couldn’t bring myself to ignore Trismegistus. I also wanted to see if Fannabelta was seriously gone for good.
I asked him if he had a spare and he denied it. However, maybe Fannabelta gets resurrected alongside Trismegistus without needing any spares? His clothes and stuff gets restored along with him, so maybe Fannabelta comes back too.
I needed to make sure.
We all trudged through the wilderness.
None of us were enthusiastic despite our victory, probably because of the numerous casualties. Besides, there were many shocking events, namely Trismegistus revealing his horrifying plan and Meltritte’s divine punishment.
Everyone walked in silence without any small talk. No wait, Jayne was chatting happily with her subordinates.
Surprisingly, not too many people had their eyes on us. I thought I might become a bit of a spectacle, but I guess I was just some fancy magic tool when compared to the giant antidemon or divine swords.
（Master, you okay? After absorbing Fannabelta too.）
『Yeah, for the moment at least.』
I was worried about taking on Original Sin Envy, but that didn’t happen. Unlike my magic stone absorption, cannibalism doesn’t absorb all of my target’s skills perfectly.
However, I didn’t get away unscathed. I found myself with the skill “Shard of Envy”. This was a pa.s.sive skill giving me a bonus to perception and appraisal, in exchange for enhancing my jealousy. Am I supposed to feel more envy after looking at other people’s stuff or something?
Fannabelta’s torrent of emotions was extremely powerful. I expected something like this might happen, but that doesn’t mean I’m fine with it.
The effect seems to be incredibly tiny, so I doubt it’ll change much. At the very least, I didn’t notice myself getting more jealous yet.
『I also got stuff from devouring the cross-sword too, so it’s hard to tell which change came from what.』
Since my last upgrade upon absorbing Overgrowth, my attack increased by 110 to a total of 1612. Seems a bit small after taking in the power of the cross-sword, the Bringer of Hope, as well as Fannabelta.
Especially since Overgrowth alone increased my attack by 150. No wait, perhaps Overgrowth was special? The blade had absorbed a ton of antidemon power beforehand.
Meanwhile I got about +5000 to mana +700 to durability. Such a huge boost to mana is very helpful. I’m pretty much at the level where I can take on unreleased divine swords now. I did eat a lot of failed ones, after all.
Unfortunately, mana conductivity didn’t increase. As for the most important part, the skills……
『Aside from Shard of Envy, I got two more normal skills: “Data Processing” and “Devotion”.』
Data Processing was a skill for thinking about multiple things simultaneously. Seems to be a weaker version of Parallel Processing. However, this new skill should a.s.sist in activating multiple spells and skills at the same time. A pretty useful boost to my combat abilities.
Probably came from Fannabelta? She was supposedly a very calm and calculating person before obtaining Original Sin Envy. Oh, but it might also contain a part of the Bringer of Hope. She was kinda like Announcer-san too.
The Devotion skill was a bit weird. The description said it gives me more energy and motivation as long as I’m focused on working for someone else’s sake.
So I guess I get a small bonus when I fight for Fran? Well, it seems like a decently useful skill.
Also my Ice Magic skill got boosted from Lv1 to Lv3. This must be from cannibalizing Fannabelta, a renown ice mage.
『And this other one was probably the result of taking in Evil-Eater’s abilities.』
My “Golden Formula” skill transformed into the “Golden Hue” skill.
The antidemon slaying power remained the same, but it apparently gained the ability to temporarily charge my blade with the mana of defeated antidemons. I could use the mana drained from antidemons to take even more of them down.
A skill only useful against antidemons. To be honest, we’re planning to leave this continent soon, so I doubt it’ll have much of a chance to s.h.i.+ne.
『Finally, this one.』
The “Evil Domination” and “Evil Torrent” skills had vanished from my skill list, and a new skill, “Evil Conquest” was added. This change was probably caused by my cannibalization of Falldown.
All these evil-related skills were integrated together. The effect allowed the manipulation, amplification, and removal of evil energy, as well as communication with the Evil G.o.d. Basically a superior version of all the evil-related skills I’ve obtained thus far.
Oh, and of course my name. My stats listed it as “Human Blade, Master”.
『Human Blade, Master…… It still sounds lame!』
I know I’m repeating myself, but was there really nothing better?!
（That’s not true. It sounds super cool.）
『……Really?』
（Nn! Perfect for Master, who is both a sword and a human! Super duper cool.）
『Y-You really think so?』
（Nn!）
I’ll always be myself, but I’m also Fran’s sword. I have to respect her will too.
（Almost as good as Hyper Powerful Super Cool Blade, Master.）
『……I-I see.』
（Nn!）
I guess I can leave it at that if Fran’s happy with the name.
Author Notes
Here are the current stats of Master:
Appraisal Information
Name: Human Blade, Master
Wielder: Fran (Fixed)
Race: Intelligence Unique Weapon
Attack: 1502→1612
Mana: 20460→25460/25460
Durability: 16560→17290/17290
Mana Conductivity: SS
Skills
Appraisal: Lv Max, Appraisal Blocking, Morphing, High-Speed Self-Repair, Self-Evolution (Rank 18, Magic Stone Points 28/17100, Memory 50, Points 44), Self-Alteration (SP Upgrade), Telekinesis, Telepathy
s.p.a.ce-Time Magic: Lv Max, Skill Sharing, Wielder Stat Boost (Large), Wielder Recovery (Small), Heavenly Eye, Seal Nullification, Magical Beast Knowledge, Blessing of the Chaos G.o.ddess, Blessing of the Wisdom G.o.d, Magic Supply, Spirit Perception, Shard of Envy, Data Processing, Devotion
Unique Skills
Principle of Falsehoods: Lv5, Dimensional Magic: Lv4, Evil Crusher, Divine Energy Manipulation, Spirit Hand, Golden Formula→Golden Hue, Transmission, Sorcerer→Arch-Sorcerer, Evil Conquest (Evil Domination + Evil Torrent)
Extra Skills
Evolution Camouflage, Divine Dragon Form
SP Skills
Skilltaker SP, Multi Body Double SP, Magic Regulation SP