Chapter 96: The Impoverished Viscount’s Second Son Searches for the Eyes 18
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Drim’s body vanished from before my eyes.
Seeing Drim get half his body shaved off and blown away, Maricia’s face twisted, and I barely managed to catch Drim—whose torso and lower body were just barely connected—from behind in mid-air.
It was too sudden, without any warning.
It had simply swatted its arm as if brushing away a gnat, turning most of Drim’s body above the stomach into mincemeat, and roared, its Physique covered in black jewels—revealed as if shedding its skin from beneath the crystals—trembling.
Blackening, Berserk, or sarcastically, “Jackpot”—there are various names for it, but for adventurers, it boils down to this one phrase.
“There’s a limit to how unlucky you can be.”
To think I’d draw this for the first time ever here—a probability terrifyingly lower than a damn rabbit dropping a ‘Priestess’ Eye’—and after striking out countless times with those damn rabbits.
I cursed my own luck for being far too ironic.
No, I’ll resent that later. It’s Beardy, the Bearded Man.
Having caught the Bearded Man in mid-air, I poured all my strength into casting Healing Magic.
While cursing myself for being bad at magic, I prayed it would be in time.
Don’t give up, I mentally pleaded with Drim while focusing on the Healing Magic.
Healing Magic isn’t omnipotent.
Even if your lower half gets blown off, a skilled Healing Magic user can restore it completely.
But only if the person receiving the magic hasn’t given up.
If they accept death, it’s over. Even if the body is restored, they’ll die.
Don’t you give up, Beardy.
Adventurers (We) are known for clinging stubbornly to life, right?
You quit being a carpenter because you admired us for that, didn’t you?
So don’t you dare give up.
His face wasn’t surprised, nor was it contorted in pain.
I mentally pleaded this to Drim, whose face looked as if he were gazing somewhere far away.
I was aware that the intensity of my Physical Enhancement was dropping because I was concentrating my consciousness on the Healing Magic.
But the trade-off was well worth it.
Drim’s body began to recover rapidly.
It connected. At least he wouldn’t die because of the physical damage.
I think I achieved the fastest and greatest effect in my personal history.
“Keep calling his name until he wakes up!”
Shouting that, I twisted my falling body and threw Drim’s body towards Maricia.
Dammit.
Without waiting to see the result of the throw, I twisted my body further.
Perhaps because I’d forced myself to do something I was bad at—casting Healing Magic on someone else—my Magicka pressure wasn’t returning.
Dammit.
A choice between two things—I steeled myself.
The Jewelhead Dragon that had leaped up—no, since it had undergone Blackening, maybe Jewelhead Dragon Noir?—struck me with claws it swung down as if to smash me.
It was fortunate that there was no one where I was slammed down.
Well, I was experiencing the sensation of my spine snapping like a dry twig, so I didn’t really have the presence of mind to notice.
“I won the gamble.”
I spat out the words so as not to lose myself to the pain.
About twenty percent was bravado, but the rest was genuine.
Realizing I wouldn’t make it in time to raise my Physical Enhancement to the necessary level, I prioritized increasing the Physical Enhancement applied to the equipment I was wearing.
It had even withstood the fist of an Ogre Knight; I had steeled myself with the thought that it should reduce the damage more than enhancing my own body.
I won the gamble, dammit. It really hurts.
I pushed off the ground with my still-moving hands, bouncing up as if punching it.
If it ended with just my spine and a few minor fractures, that was less than what I’d braced myself for.
I’d been prepared for my upper body to be flattened.
Don’t think you can kill me with just this!
By the time I landed from the bounce, I reconnected and healed my spine.
I grit my teeth against the pain of the rib piercing my gut; becoming mobile again comes first. Dammit, it hurts!
I could tell the surrounding adventurers were confused, but I ignored them.
Or rather, I didn’t have the leeway to pay them any mind.
It seems its nature doesn’t change even with Blackening.
The Jewelhead Dragon directed its hatred towards me, the one who had hunted the most damn rabbits.
A jaw covered in slick, wet-looking, lustrous black jewels closed in on me.
Fast—or rather, this Magicka, is it magic?!
Like the Ogre Knights, the kings of Monsters, did its movements gain magical assistance?
Dodging almost entirely on Guts, I finally managed to raise the intensity of my Physical Enhancement.
Knowing it would have no effect, I delivered a Kick to the side of the Jewelhead Dragon’s face and used the recoil to gain five feet of distance.
The Sword I drew from its sheath briefly spurted Azure Flame from its blade, but I ignored it; as long as it could cut, there was no problem.
Just as I felt my broken rib return to its proper place, a presence behind me sent a chill down my spine.
An adventurer whose name I didn’t even know was frozen there, dumbfounded.
Then, at the thick Magicka Thread piercing towards me, I mentally spewed every curse I could think of.
What are you doing? a calm part of me laughed.
Why aren’t you dodging? it sneered.
He’s an adventurer you don’t even know, right? What’s the problem with abandoning him? it laughed at me.
Hey, hey, me. Myself.
That’s not something you say while looking like you’re all “I’m gonna do it!”, right?
My Theory (Erica) wouldn’t affirm such a thing.
Within my warped sense of time caused by Physical Enhancement.
I raised my Sword high and smiled.
Since I could do it once, I can damn well do it a second time.
I swung my Sword down towards the Magicka Thread that felt lethal.