ALL NOVEL Chapter 22
Chapter 22 – Trial (2)
‘It’s an enemy.’
An enemy so powerful that it cannot be compared to any encountered thus far. As soon as Riena laid eyes on the Elite Monster, she felt her instincts and senses going haywire. The instinct of a warrior manifesting in a life-or-death situation.
Just this morning, hadn’t she experienced something like this? The Soul Devourer that stood before them was a sufficient threat, even if not as formidable as the bugs they had captured with the villagers.
“We… we must fight!”
Yet, she shouted that with a desperate face. A skeletal figure in a black robe extended its hand, pulling the soul of an immobilized hat into its sleeve.
She couldn’t just stand by and watch. They were complete strangers to her, from a different world and race. But witnessing the soul of the hat, which died an unfair death, get violated stirred something within her.
At that moment, the images of her mother and siblings—whom she couldn’t bury properly—flashed through her mind.
[Opportunity…]
But then, in the stillness filled with tense anticipation, a chilling and cold voice echoed. It wasn’t a sound produced by vocal cords but a sort of telepathy directed straight into her head.
She widened her eyes and trembled involuntarily.
[I shall give you an opportunity. Leave, nameless knights; then I shall not pursue.]
The skull gleamed with red light as it spoke in a soul-chilling voice. Upon hearing those words, Riena was taken aback by her frozen body.
Regardless of how desperately she struggled, her body remained immobile. Her heart pounded madly, spreading mana throughout her body, yet that mana refused to flow freely and was trapped within her body like ice.
‘W-why! Move!’
She panicked in this unprecedented situation. It was unfathomable for her to believe that her fear as a warrior had rendered her completely immobile.
In truth, she was under the influence of one of the passive skills of the Elite Monster, the Soul Devourer: Fear Induction. But as a still-innocent warrior, her only experiences were battles against the beasts of the grasslands and hostile tribes.
Since moving to this world, she had fought monsters from the game, as well as glitches and bugs, but this was the first time she had been engulfed by a power so overwhelming that she couldn’t muster resistance.
[Do you not heed the warning?]
“I-I…”
The expressionless skeleton seemed to be mocking her, glaring at her as if laughing at her desperate attempts to respond, even though her teeth were chattering.
Even as the Soul Devourer raised a massive scythe to swing at her, Riena, consumed by the chill, could not bring herself to lift her sword to block it.
[!!!]
“This can’t be…”
Ultimately, the scythe of the Soul Devourer did not strike Riena. Someone had overcome the aura of fear being scattered around and charged towards the Soul Devourer, swinging their sword.
Riena watched in a daze as the figure executed a forward roll followed by a jump, simultaneously unleashing a powerful attack while in the air.
There was no hint of hesitation in his movements as he attacked the horrifying skeleton. It was as if fear could not impede him in the slightest. His movements had slowed a bit due to the Fear Induction effect, but that was all.
[How dare a mere human knight defy fear! How!]
The Soul Devourer shrieked in a chilling voice as its scythe crashed down upon him. Instantly, the striking sound was akin to nails scratching metal, and the monster staggered back, sustaining damage.
Yet he didn’t cease his attack. Mistaking the stagger of the bewildered Soul Devourer for a moment of fear, he continued to swing his sword as if death didn’t scare him at all.
In a real game scenario, the Soul Devourer would be a foe far beyond his current capabilities. Still, he charged forward with determination to inflict as much damage as possible.
[How dare you!]
The Soul Devourer howled as it swung its scythe dramatically. He raised his sword to guard, but was caught off-guard and knocked into the air before crashing down with a thud.
He quickly pulled out a potion to restore his health, but the following onslaught from the Soul Devourer came faster than he could consume the potion.
[Know your place!]
The Soul Devourer swung its scythe, about to finish him off. As it fixed its gaze on him, its face concealed beneath a mask, it smirked. It was a careless statement, but it wasn’t wrong for a being limited to acting within its defined skills, levels, and equipment.
[!!!]
However, that statement only applied to him.
The Soul Devourer was slow to realize that someone had found the courage to leap off the ground and charge at it.
“Die… wicked spirit!!”
With bloodied teeth clenched, Riena shattered the ground as she leaped several meters toward the Skeleton, swinging her sword emitting light at the skull that had momentarily looked shocked to see her coming.
HP values as exact figures don’t actually exist in reality. There are no hearts, no precise calculations of damage dictated by a program. Fail to block, and injuries will ensue; hit in the vital spots, and it’s instant death.
[No…]
Before it could say anything, the skull shattered as her sword struck it, exploding spectacularly. The Elite Monster, the Soul Devourer, had been subdued by mere villagers despite its supposedly superior status.
“Ugh, are you alright?”
Fallen to the floor, Riena limped as she twisted her ankle. Yet, forgetting the pain, she hurried towards him.
He was already up and looking at her, appearing completely unharmed.
“Ah.”
She numbly accepted the HP potion he extended towards her. Soon after, she understood his intent and opened the potion to drink it herself.
It was a mysterious potion that healed injuries and restored health, the warmth that spread through her body was undeniable. She closed her eyes, absorbing it into her body, and then smiled.
Having been struck by the enemy’s skill, she had been rendered helpless by terror, but now she could move again thanks to the determination he had shown without needing to utter a word.
He simply moved his character to charge in to save her, but that sight had acted as the most effective medicine of all for Riena.
‘Where is he going?’
At that moment, he passed by her, heading somewhere. She followed his gaze, stunned to see the souls of the boy who had called them here and what appeared to be his mother watching them.
“…Safe travels.”
The two bowed their heads as if expressing gratitude before vanishing into a bright light. She watched them with a vague smile and murmured.
When you think about it, she had only defeated one enemy and saved two souls. Yet for her, this was enough, realizing that she had accomplished something after struggling at her limits until now.
“Hmm?”
But that wasn’t the end. While reveling in a sense of achievement and satisfaction, Riena noticed that he was doing an incredible amount of squatting at rapid speed.
If she followed even for a moment, it felt like her thigh muscles would burst. From what she had learned, this hyper-speed squatting typically serves as a way to draw attention or express positivity.
“W-what is this?”
Riena was startled to see what he pointed at. Two orbs of light were hovering in the air where the two souls had just vanished.
[Celestial Blessing: Light of Protection]
She couldn’t comprehend the name of this item that shouldn’t exist at this point in time and could only wait for his reaction.
*
[Initial Status of Soul Devourer: 800P]
“Seriously, how tangled up is this? Or was it twisted from the very beginning?”
He took a moment to detach his hands from the mouse, tearing at his hair while laughing in disbelief.
All the bosses in the game Dark Blood that I was playing with Riena were Demon Lords. So naturally, there would be a celestial power to assist the protagonist.
The Celestial Blessing was one of those items. It wasn’t just a piece of equipment or a consumable potion; it was a blessing that granted permanent benefits when attached to a character.
Of course, this item does not appear in Chapter 1, where we were currently playing. A quest to obtain it only emerged beginning in Chapter 2, when the real game starts.
Hastily researching, he found that the in-game setting for the Celestial Blessing – Light of Protection was for those who had truly faced and overcome fear to earn their light. Unsurprisingly, the related quest story mirrored that theme.
It was one of the blessings essential for advancing in the game, and the strategy videos I had been watching emphasized it. However, how much help such videos would provide at this point remained to be seen.
‘Did Riena’s actions just now meet the conditions? How did the sub-quest snowball like this?’
Thinking back to the Soul Devourer spewing nonsense about fear, which was outside the original game script, he moved his character to collect one of the two Celestial Blessings.
Surprised, Riena mimicked him, reaching out to grasp the small orb of light.
The blessing absorbed into her body. Riena stared in astonishment at the empty space where the orb had been, then looked back at him.
‘Now the mental debuffs and attacks won’t work against her nearly as well. What happened earlier won’t happen again.’
The effect of the Celestial Blessing: Light of Protection was to drastically increase resistance to various debuffs emitted by enemies. It was a fitting reward, given that she had successfully endured and overcome a skill instead of merely relying on data.
‘That’s enough for today.’
Even though she received a good reward, he was concerned and checked her status with a capture app, finding it less than favorable. After confirming that Riena had taken quite a hit in the previous battle, he simply decided to exit the game.
Considering what happened that morning, he determined it was best to end things here for today and take a break.
However, unlike Riena, who would head to the village to rest, he immediately opened another game window without pause.
In the sandbox game world where residents were busy working, he needed to put some care into it since he hadn’t been able to tend to this place properly while focusing on other things over the past few days.
‘I’m just a crazy gaming addict.’
If anyone saw him delaying household chores and meals, spending every free moment cooped up in his room gaming, what would they think?
No matter how he looked at it, he really looked like a gaming addict.
But what could he do? There was a real world inside the monitor!