This counts as two chapters since it"s double the length of usual..
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Everyone at the direction of the voice at the same time. It was Lucille together with Clyde. It looks like he had another way to go to her side without the need for Felicia teleporting him.
"Ah, it"s the lady who kidnapped me!"
"I"m your technical Ancestor so it"s fine."
"Eh? Is that so..."
"Ah, Cole! Perfect timing!"
"Lucille. My hearing is perfectly fine you know."
Lucille acted as if she had just seen Cole and was pleasantly surprised at their timely meeting.
"It"s time for Black Hollow"s first official mission!"
Cole stared at Lucille"s face. Despite his intense gaze, Lucille was able to keep her composed appearance. Ah, it looks like she had finally been able to get some rest since the bags under her eyes were no more.
Cole could only sigh at her lackl.u.s.tre reaction. He would see how she would react if he looked at her like she was a creature some other time.
"Lucille, I told you that I"m planning to turn it into an information agency. During my discussion with you just yesterday."
"And that you have. But you still have to do missions."
Lucille beckoned Clyde over and he had another box with him. Cole felt that every single time he had seen Clyde today was him with a box.
Lucille opened the box in front of Cole and handed him the contents.
"Here, a portable smart.w.a.tch so you can give people their information any time, anywhere."
Cole was planning to just stay at home most of the time and manage Black Hollow"s information networks which were why he hadn"t requested for a smart.w.a.tch. Unfortunately, it looks like he"d still have to do missions once in a while.
He could try to refuse. There was a high chance that he would be successful in doing so but he decided that once in a while would be fine. There was also no place he had to go today but he would absolutely refuse if it was another one like the〈Huaxia Zone〉
He still had a lot of things to sort in the lab.
Cole put the watch on and scanned both his retinas and his fingerprints. He was planning to add his blood as well later.
"Now, what"s my mission?"
"Might as well get done with it now."
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Lucille excused themselves from Zuben and Eschmali and had led the team outside of the building. It hadn"t even been an hour yet and they were already back outside again.
They were also back at the edge. With the black void in front of them. Eva had not a single problem left though. She was satisfied with knowing that her beloved Sir Lucas would vanquish the monster in the book.
Lucille pointed down towards the void below the piece of land〈S.T.EL.L.A〉was built on.
"Slay the monster down there."
"..."
"..."
"..."
A weird silence enveloped the area. The family"s eyes became blank as they stared at Lucille. Cole looked at her as if he was angry that the information that she was providing him was very incomplete (It was).
Felicia looked at her as if she should go get checked by one of the doctors she had seen pa.s.sing by in〈S.T.E.L.L.A〉while Eva just looked at her like she was a lunatic.
"Wait, Kupakulu is real? Does that mean Santa is too?"
Immediately, Eva"s eyes changed. Her opinion of Lucille had changed from a weird kidnapper to a holy prophet. She thought of every single possible bad thing she could"ve done the past year although it had just begun.
"Oh no... I accidentally spilled a gla.s.s of milk on the carpet yesterday!"
But another thought had entered the young Mechanica"s head.
"Wait, if Kupakululu is real then Sir Lucas is too!"
"Felica! Felicia! We have to go to St. Claris! Where Sir Lucas"s home town is!"
"Eva... I need exact directions."
"Tch."
Eva clicked her tongue in disappointment and angrily plopped herself on the ground.
"Felica, give me my uniform."
"Ah, okay."
It seemed she was in the middle of thinking something as she was a bit late to respond. She pulled out Cole"s uniform and handed it over to him.
Without a single shred of embarra.s.sment, he unb.u.t.toned his shirt and took it off. As he was doing so, he couldn"t help but notice Felicia intensely staring at him. He continued to change but her eyes seemed to be blinking at quite the fast pace.
"Why are you blinking so much?"
"Screen Capture."
Cole could only deal with her thirsty stare and finished changing his upper wear. He enjoyed its extremely comfy feeling. He started to wonder if he should find a way to make it have auto-clean functions or just have 5 of the same set.
"So, are you done?"
"Yes. Give me a quick rundown of the monster dwelling down there. Make it as quick as possible, I don"t have anywhere to go today but I have a lot of things to do."
Cole"s eyes turned a bit frosty as he said that. Lucille surprisingly felt gooseb.u.mps despite her long life and lengthy experience. She began to grow curious about Cole"s real battle potential and couldn"t wait for him
"All I need to tell you would be... Ah! That"s it"s like fighting with a poisonous octopus."
She let out a devilish grin befitting her status and didn"t speak any further than that.
"The drop"s about 300 m deep. You"ll probably be fine if you grapple hooked the ground like in a game."
She still had the sn.o.bbish look on her face. Cole couldn"t find out the reason why this was so. To be honest, he felt like punching her, right in the face. He wasn"t worried about Lucille fighting back, what he truly was cautious of was Clyde standing behind her.
His eyes always looked to be staring at something distant. They looked a bit blurry and unclear, it was only when he was gazing at Lucille would his eyes gain clarity.
He never had a good feeling about Clyde. But that wasn"t something he had to look into today or ever.
Cole decided not to waste any more time and climbed into the void, but as he did so, he sent a quick wave to Felicia and Eva and continued his freefall.
Lucille had conjured up a chair and was staring into the pit. While you wouldn"t normally be able to see anything in the darkness, she looked at it with an excited gaze as her eyes shined brightly with a golden glow.
"By the way, Your Majesty."
"Yes, what is it, Clyde?"
"I nearly forgot to inform you but, Sir Cole"s〈Chaos Magic〉has apparently "upgraded" itself into〈Hollow Magic〉"
Lucille paused. Her body stiffened. There were thousands of questions that instantly started bouncing around in her head, but the only thing she could utter out was...
"Eh?"
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*TAP*
A light tap resounded out as Cole landed down on the ground. He had extended out metal wires and embedded them into the walls to slow down his speed and had even played with them as if he were using them as a grappling-hook like in a game during his descent.
He could only see pure black with the way his eyes were right now.
"Steward, Night Vision."
〔Got it.〕
Cole kept his eyes open. His eyes would be going through a quick change. He could feel a few liquids being secreted at the back of his eye and then being absorbed by his retina. After a few seconds, Cole blinked his eyes a few times and then tested his eyesight.
He could see for about 50 metres away but the scenery was barely any different from when he couldn"t see in the dark.
But Cole kept it on, it was best to be prepared anyway.
There was only one path present and that would be the one right in front of him. Having no other options, Cole walked forward. He had said he was in a hurry but based on the size of the chasm on the surface as well as the total span of the land above, he could roughly estimate "Kupakululu"s" (or whatever the monster"s name was) position.
He also had〔Keen Sense〕and〔Reader (Foresight〕.〔Keen Sense〕as a skill was something he always used pa.s.sively. As for〔Reader (Foresight)〕, he didn"t really like using it.
However, he did want to experiment with it more.
Cole"s walking pace was actually quite fast and after a while, he could sense a presence in the distance. He walked a bit closer and he started seeing a big black bob and a splash fluorescent green colour.
He had finally reached the monster.
The monster glowed green like the toxic colour of the poisonous waste humanity brings to the world. Its black skin was filled with warts and toxic gas bubbles. It possessed such a hideous visage because it represented humanity"s sins and ugly desires--
Wait a second, this is familiar.
"Kupakululu? So, Eva was right? Does that mean Sir Lucas really exists?"
"Maybe I should try and find the dude for Eva"s birthday... Though it"s still in April."
Cole couldn"t help but mutter to himself.
Cole examined the monster from up to down. It was just like the one in Eva"s picture book. If Cole had to liken it to an exiting animal, it would be an octopus. The only difference would be that it was super ugly and looked like factory waste and sewage garbage combined.
He didn"t make any advances towards Kupakululu. He fought with an octopus or at least something that resembled one and he knew it was best to keep his distance.
Cole picked up a small pebble by his foot. He tossed it up and down to check its weight and then threw it far enough just so it would reach the ground nearest to Kupakululu.
*SQUELCH*
Instead of the sound of the pebble hitting the floor, Cole heard a squelch.
*SQUELCH*
He heard it once again. It felt disgusting to hear and it made the listener feel dirty and as if they were covered in filth. Cole didn"t need to look far for the source of the sound. In fact, it was staring right at him.
*SQUELCH*
*SQUELCH*
*SQUELCH*
Kupakululu opened up the numerous eyes on its body with the movement causing the sound. They rolled back in their sockets but then focused on their sole target.
〔Ah, it woke up. I guess you were too loud. Hahahaha〕
"No body for you if you don"t continue being quiet."
〔...〕
Cole"s eyes sharpened and quickly became the dead-like stare he would carry on the battlefield. He only had one target. And that would be the back of Kupakululu"s head.
「WWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!」
Kupakululu let out a high-pitched scream that would tear the listener"s ears asunder and shot its tentacles right after Cole.
*SHING*
Cole made black spikes emerge from the ground to pin Kupakululu"s tentacles in place. He hopped on the outer part of the tentacles and ran full speed to the main body.
「UUUUUURWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!」
Kupakululu let out another scream and severed its own tentacles. With the loss of his footing, Cole jumped off before it fully collapsed and summoned a sword and pierced it deep into the ceiling. He magnetized the ceiling and the soles of his boots.
The severed parts of the tentacles melted and slowly started to dissipate into green, poisonous gas. It quickly started rising towards the ceiling, if you were on the ground, you would have been engulfed by the smoke in seconds.
"Sir Lucas had prepared numerous kinds of antidotes in case, but looks like I won"t have to do that..."
"Steward, mask form."
The metal frames on Cole"s face extended until it covered the lower half of his face like a gas mask. It looked more like a dust mask than anything but it served its purpose all the same.
With that, Cole started sprinting towards Kupakululu while on the ceiling. He constantly activated and de-activated his ability so he would be able to run. Kupakululu had no intention of letting that happen, it extended its tentacles towards Cole once more.
But it seemed to have already learnt from earlier. Warts on its body exploded and shot out towards Cole.
*FWOOSH*
Cole dodged one of the shots but he continued running. He peeked out of the corner of his eye to see the damage done and it had melted through the rock ceiling and had already started to drip onto the floor.
"〔Hollow Sword〕"
Cole muttered out and the pure black sword that had only made its debut this morning had appeared once again.
*SHING*
Cole cut away the tentacles that came racing after him one by one as well as any of the other toxic b.a.l.l.s. His movements were smooth and practised and there was not a single break between each swing. However, the tentacles severed away this time didn"t melt away into gas like the previous ones.
They fell onto the ground and the once meaty tentacles only had the rubbery outside remaining. It was as if it had been hollowed out.
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〈Hollow Sword〉: COST: ???
► Form a sword out of Hollow Mana. Is not restricted to only swords. May form into different kinds of weaponry as long as the intent is directly stated. Has a chance of inflicting the status effect〈Hollow〉
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"So by "Hollow", it meant literally? Mentally could be possible but I"ll have to do that some other time."
「URWEH?」
Kupakululu let out a sound in confusion. Cole realized that it was in the end, still a monster. He had some hopes for when it had corrected its mistake the first time around but it looks like it was just a fluke.
He jumped off the ceiling and propelled himself right on top of Kupakululu. He had to be careful with how much strength he was suing, there was still a building on the surface.
More toxic b.a.l.l.s and tentacles came flying his way but Cole cut them all.
「UUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!」
Cole landed on top of Kupakululu"s head but he didn"t strike then. Kupakululu screamed once again. More warts on its body burst out, but instead of acting like more poisonous cannonb.a.l.l.s, what came out from them were black blobs.
They formed into humanoid figures about the size of a child and had blades for arms and charged towards Cole.
"〔Hollow: Blaze〕"
Cole hopped on one of them and muttered out. He was also using the fight as a kind of experiment or research material. He wanted to at least see what he could do with his newly upgraded magic
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In an instant, orange flames arose from the tip of Cole"s sword as well as the area around him.
He slashed the figures with his burning sword. Even though they were cut in half, it just made them multiply but before they had the chance to fully form back, the fire ate at their bodies.
Cole left the flame burning on top of Kupakululu and jumped at its behind. It shrieked once more knowing that his opponent was at its weak spot. It was too heavy to move its main body and could only send more of its attack. But it was futile, no matter what came after him, Cole cut them down mercilessly and effortlessly.
"〔Influence〕"
At that instant, the ground beneath Kupakululu started shaking. The ground raised Kupakululu up, revealing an opening behind its head.
Cole threw his sword at the opening and let it penetrate deep.
「EEEERRRRRWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!」
Kupakululu screamed and squirmed in desperation. It could no longer focus on Cole due to the searing pain it was feeling inside of it. Its insides continued to burn and roast slowly, causing Kupakululu to feel tortured.
Finally, after a few seconds, it stopped moving.
"Mission Complete.
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Okay, so minor change. I"m gonna make it so that whenever Cole utters out magic, skill, or it is mentioned, the brackets used will be like this: 〔〕
:〈〉is used when others shout out magic, or skills, and is sometimes used to emphasize something possibly important.