Clearing the Game at the End of the World

Chapter 142: Star Fall (25)

Warrior, sir, cant you come with us just for a little longer? If you can come only just past the ridge to the side the Empire manages

I have already told you in advance. I also wish to help the Gold Geyser, but I carry the mission of the church.

Mmmmm

Because Roman reached a perfect understanding of how to build the airship, we decided to split off with the merchant guild a little earlier. It wasnt like I needed the Gold Geyser anymore now that we had an airship, but since there was someone that needed to walk back the way we came, I decided that it would be better to part ways before we went any deeper.

It is an incredible, incredible shame! My friend! It felt like I would have been able to find even more outstanding inspiration had I traveled around the world with you! It just feels like it!

I-is that so? Well how shameful it is that we need to part ways now, Roman!

I wasnt lying. That line was a sign that if I recruited him as my partymate, then he would continue to make more inventions! Since he made the airship, if that famous mana particleization charging station came out next then you would be able to make a semi-permanent infinite power airship that can recharge and recycle the magic stones it uses. Even if it wasnt that, then just any relatively good magic cannon would enable them to have magical cannons shooting down from the sky, just like in Star Wars!

Schlurrrp!

Ahhh, I want to take him so badly. Just once Just one more jackpot, then clearing the world is easy as pie, and all Id need to do from then on would be to farm successors, which meant slaving away the Hero Units with high potential and making them into unrivaled heroes and just go around and assassinate any of the danger factors that looked like they would become a big problem in the future! And I wouldnt even need to go find the appropriate enemy for the heroes! I could just pop up as the Crimson Mute, just like in Tobrune, and be the bad guy!

Warrior, sir? Whats making you make that creepy expression?

N-nothing. Nothing at all.

Thanks to Lucilles voice that came from our partys cart, I was able to escape the happy thoughts in my head that were growing like poisonous mushrooms. Even Lucilla barely made the cutline, so taking a pure non-combat unit would just make them die faster. Dont do it. You dont have to!

Then its time to say goodbye.

Hahahahah! It is only a momentary goodbye! Isnt that right, Guildmaster, Professor?

The group was separated into three teams. Roman, who is returning to the main guildhall in Teldrat to start the full-size airship production, and a few mercenaries to escort him.

The Gold Geyser guild, continuing straight down the Ray Line path over the mountain to the Empires territory.

And our group going to the inner region of the Blue Line mountains to the Exiled Elven Village.

One odd thing, though, was that the girl called Lucilla was part of our group.

Because of their decrease in members, the guildmaster had a small amount of luggage as he came to shake my hand.

Please take good care of Lucille, Warrior, sir. Shes young but has a quick head and useful abilities, making her the perfect attendant for a journey at her age. She should not become a burden to you.

I dont know. I did see that she was a talented merchant but wouldnt it be much safer to select a place to meet up again instead of sending her to us?

Its impossible. As you can see, we are currently moving with a number of goods with a worth that is hard to even calculate. So who knows when an ambush is going to come from somewhere and ruin our plans? So we use a method where we split the load with our guild members who are already in the Empire for preparations, and when there is a new trade that is arranged, we use our emergency communication line to gather to that spot.

Mmm how incredibly complicated.

Hahah. You dont need to be nice. It is a crude method, but without our current lack of enough escorts, this is the best we could do. When the time comes, we will contact you through Lucille, Warrior, sir.

I guess it cant be helped then.

For these reasons, Lucille is now part of our group.

Leader. This kid doesnt look that strong. Are we really going to take her?

Ah, that parts fine. Ive checked. They said she wasnt going to be a burden.

But this isnt just anywhere. This is the Blue Line Mountains, and she can take care of herself? That young girl?

Hmph! Youve been discriminated against all of your life for your looks, and youre underestimating me just because I look young?

Im not underestimating you. Its just that Im worried?!

Just when Borka was about to persuade her, Lucilla dug into the pile of luggage on the cart and disappeared into it. I nudged the flustered Borka on the side and asked him.

See. Can you sense where she is?

This is a quite interesting talent. I saw her go in there with my own two eyes, but I cannot smell or sense her or even see a trace of her.

Plop!

Tada! Merchants have their own sets of skills, too!

Seeing Lucilla pop out of the opposite side she entered from, Borka couldnt help but nod his head.

She would have been a wonderful assassin.

Its a little different from that. Thats a survival skill unique to merchants.

I was just about to explain it to Borka when the Gold Geyser Guild signaled that they were going to depart first.

We cannot get caught up in the distraction that you create, so we will be departing a little beforehand.

Alright. Then see you at the Empire.

Mmm, may your hands be blessed with fortune.

We are also leaving now! Let us meet next time, not on the ground but up in those skies!

Yeah. Go make one big and beefy enough for an entire army to ride on and break down castle gates.

Hahahah! A boat that can break down castle gates I dont know if theres that much high-quality wood left in Teldrat! Hahahah!

And so when Roman and the merchants both got further away on each side of the Ray Line, our group started to walk into the thick forest toward the center of the Blue Line.

I was carrying the cart with Lucilla riding on it, and the others were looking at her with uneasy and worried eyes.

Well, I shouldnt need to explain it to them separately. Theyre going to learn that shes not deadweight when we go into battle anyway.

Slasshhh!

Every time the werewolfs sharp claws swung out, several black heads that belonged to ghouls tumbled to the ground. Shaking off his throbbing hand, Borka kicked away the ghouls body as hard as he could.

Gwarrrgh!

Skrahhh!

The pained sounds of the undead rang out as the ghouls hard, heavy body collided with them. It wasnt really pained sounds to be accurate. The undead responded to everything, every time, with that cry.

Just as he was about to use the moment where all of the undead collapsed to take a breather, he saw dozens of yellow eyes glint from the depths of the forest. The breather turned into a sigh.

Captain! I cant take all of these on by myself!

Im struggling with mine, too! Aldrich! Cant you do the same thing as before with these undead? That Turn Undead thing?

It may have been at sundown, but at midday like this, it is impossible!

Xan Makara! Mashar! GRAAAAAaaaaa!!!!!

Slosh! Spwoosh!

Notum can do it! You useless old man!

I do not want to hear that from a half-baked water bucket without a single attack magic spell! What Notum is using is already beyond the normal spectrum of Spellbinding!

Although they continued to squabble, Professor saw Ottman and Aldrich work together to push away the undead.

Borka and I were dealing with the fast and strong ones in the front, Notum the ghost-type ones, and the two mages pushed away the rest of the low-ranked undead.

When Aldrich extended his hand, a small white hand from the cart popped up and tossed a bottle of holy water and fruit wine exactly into his hands. After Aldrich mixed the two together at lightning speed, he added his blood and spell to create it into a liquor used for spirits imbued with soulbinding magic, then

To thy who hath shared promise! Come with me to travel the world! [Ottman Bodlairs Ocean Footsteps]!

Gurgle

Like a ripple, Ottmans water, with the liquor laced thinly over it, swept away the undead. The liquor imbued with soulbinding magic made the undead fall into a sluggish, powerless state as if they were drunk.

A combination of magic. And not just any, but ones with completely different elements of magic, was an advanced skill that the ordinary person could not pull off.

After successfully pushing away the undead that they were assigned to, the group all simultaneously rushed to the supply cart.

Professor! We have pushed them away!

Get ready! Their dominance got weakened, so another waves going to come!

Its been a week since they entered the central region of Blue Line.

On the first day, we pushed forward through undead that were a little bit stronger than average, and on the second day, we ran away all day from fish-people and drowned that came endlessly out of a stream we barely managed to find.

Third day, we continued running but accidentally took a wrong turn and met the named Undead Three Ghost Knights, which was recorded even back in World 2, which was 70 years ago. I ultimately used my bloodlust mode and was basically torn to shreds in order to throw him beyond the mountain ridge and ran away. On the fourth day, after barely managing to revive my body that had dried up as a cost of using my bloodlust without any mute blood using holy water and Notums troll blood, we ran away all day.

And after managing to recover, two more days were spent traveling all night facing the undead army that was oddly persistent in chasing them, and finally, we managed to get close to the main body that was controlling the undead.

Meeeeeeeooooowww

In the emptied clearing after the undead were taken care of, a black cat landed lightly on its feet. With torn ears, one blind eye and one front paw cut away, the scarred black cat had something that made a person get the shivers just by looking at it.

Its coming!

Everyone, cover your ears! Its an instant death spell! Youll be a goner if you hear it properly!

You will get cursed if you look at its eyes! Look at its shadow! The shadow!

Hold your breath! There are flies holding curses!

Just like the Three Ghost Knights, this undead was a Named that was in records 70 years ago, the Cat With One Last Life. The spirit animal who had once protected the Church of Fertility lost eight out of its nine lives during the battles against the undead, reached a perfect understanding of death while having the strongest will to live among all living beings, and was thus turned into an absurd mutant of a wild monster dark mage.

Meeeeeoooww

Gah, arrggggh!

Hold on! Youre going to die the moment you let go! Think of your kidnapped children!

Grrrrrwaaaarrr!!!

With a disturbing roar, the shadows from the Wild Cat were just about to envelop the group when

Snap!

From the cart that the group was surrounding, a small white hand popped out and pressed on the hook of the Handful of Light it was holding.

Close your eyes! Flash grenadehap!

Crack, cr-r-r-ack!

Fwooosh!

The glass bottle in the girls hand started to crack into countless pieces, then shattered to let out a light that brightened the dark forest clearing that was dark even during the day.

Hiiiisssssss! Mewwww

The light full of holy power removed the Wild Cats curses, warded away the aura of death that was filling up the space, and even did direct damage to its main body.

At the same time, the wounded Wild Cat dissipated into thin air, and the undead surrounding the clearing all collapsed like puppets that had their strings cut.

Now!

Professor opened his eyes and picked up the entire cart. Notum carried Aldrich and Ottman, and Borka ran ahead with the map.

Run like your life depends on it! The great dark kitty cat is very protective of itself, so it will hide for a while if it gets hurt! Our only chance is now!

How much time do we have?

Uh

==========

- Jokass : Based on Rabbit Princesss World 2 official playthrough, it took 270 mins for the evil kitty to come back after being doused with holy water.

==========

4 and a half hours!

What? Damn it! Can we not just kill it? You said it was wounded!

We cant! It gets several times stronger the more wounded it gets, and if it feels endangered, it sprays out dark mana and calls together all of the undead around! And it even has the Immortality trait!

Damn it! We shouldnt have come here!

To Borkas frustrated comment, as he switched his gaze between the sun and the map and speeded up, I nodded aggressively inside.

Goodness. Who knew the Blue Lines ancient masters were so strong? I thought that if things really went from push to shove, then I would have just started Bloodlust and pushed through all of them like a tank and somehow made it to the Exiled Elven Village, but forget push, I barely managed to kill just one of the Three Ghost Knights.

==========

-Soygaybar : dis guy is nothing if it isnt against mutes.

- takealook : If its not a mute fight, its gonna be hard to consider him a Warrior until he collects at least enough mana to use a full body of Blood Armor.

- Mukaba : Thank Ro-Haram that the Great Lucilla was with you. If she wasnt there, then you guys wouldve been the newbie mutes A,B,C,D,E to the Blue Lines.

- Noru_is_druig : Damn right. Who knew the merchant skill could be used like this.

- Speedwagon : Its definitely worth looking into. Merchant companions havent been properly researched yet.

- Soygaybar : For that reason, let us take a moment to praise the cute girl~

- takealook : Im gonna prioritize looks first when I choose teammates from now on. Those Heroic Points really be doing their job.

==========

The chatroom was filled only with messages about Lucilla. That was pretty understandable, though, since we really would have been dead without her.

As I followed behind Borka with my body still a little heavy from lack of recovery, I tapped the cart with my fingers, and from the pile of supplies, Lucilla poked out her face.

What!

How many flash grenades do we have left?

Three! Maybe four! Five, if we push it!

I asked for a number, but Lucilla replied with an estimate. It was not an answer that fit a merchant who was always sharp with numbers, but this was the result of the effects of Lucillas traits.

~~~~~~

Companion : Lucilla Aedran

Gender : F

Age : 19 (Assumed)

Class : Gold Geyser Guild Member (previously Attendant)

Traits :

Crouching Fawn : Decreases presence when hidden Cannot move

Dandelion Steps : Noise reduction / Current prediction / Increased chance to avoid danger

Late Bloomer

Merchants Counting (Expert)

Teldrat Social Speech (Advanced)

Down to the Last Drop : Increased chance to not consume a consumable item when used

Great Merchants Eye (Intermediate)

Long-Distance Trade Experience (Intermediate)

~~~~~~

The NPCs stat page can be checked after the opponent has revealed their name and been taken in as a companion. On the other hand, it meant it was impossible to check before they became companions.

At first, when the Gold Geyser told me to take Lucilla with me, I turned them down, telling them she would hold us back, but after Lucilla came to me, huffing as she listed what she could do, I changed my mind completely.

A prospect of the number one merchant guild in the world being different is what that means.

Sure enough, when I took her in as a companion and opened up her stat page, she had every single skill that a peak merchant would have, to the point that I almost had the thought that she might have been an abandoned character from a secret multiplayer function in GG. The Crouching Fawn trait that all Player merchant characters considered a must-have was famous enough in the Community to be nicknamed Bambi, and each and every one of all the other traits were precious traits for merchants.

It was all great, but I especially had my eyes on the Down to the Last Drop trait, which already had an odd name, to begin with.

Down to the Last Drop

As a pinnacle penny pincher, you have awakened the extremes of saving and are able to scrape together the leftovers of used products to use like a new product!

Applies a chance for the consumable item used by the user to not be consumed.

Applies a chance for the consumable item used by the user to not be consumed.

I told them that Id go with her the moment I saw this. The things packed in the cart right now were mostly extremely high-priced consumable combat supplies that the church stored for the coming war. But if I take Lucilla with me and make her use the consumables instead of me, is it an extra consumable? How can you say no to that? And that was why she was with us here.

Eriiiigh! You said you were a strong Warrior! You said you were the official Warrior from the Lights Order! Were you a fake?!

Im not a fake! Dont you see this relic? Its just because were up against the undead and spirit animals right now! If we were fighting mutes, then there arent that many guys that could fight better than me!

That means youre just for conditional use! You junk! Garbage! Rotten hay of a!

Meeeeeeooooooowww

Kyaaaa! Its already here! I thought you said we had four hours!

Holy water and a flash grenade must do different amounts of damage!

Pointless Warrior! Racketeer! False advertisement! Defect!

Ill listen to the rest of it later, so just throw for now!

Arrhhhh, the fact that I need to throw these expensive things like this! Close your eyes!

With the shivering cold aura, the sentient shadow bounded through the forest, and between the unlucky cats voice, I could see Lucilla taking out a flash grenade.

Clench!

When I closed my eyes, my other senses heightened, and the cursed aura that was approaching them at an unbelievable speed became even more apparent. In between the dark, terrifying dark magic that felt too desperate to be an attack came a sharp, refreshing breeze Breeze? Refreshing?

Huh?

Shnk!

The moment Professor felt something off while running with his eyes closed and opened his eyes to check, with sharp pain, an arrow stabbed itself into his body up to the arrows tail feathers.

Arrow?

Darn! Captain!

Its an archer! There are enemies in the front, too!

Damn it, were surrounded!

This is why I said we should have killed that crazy cat before coming!

Borka cursed out loud as he checked Professors state. For some reason, though he had an arrow pierced directly in the stomach, Professor was grinning ear to ear. Seeing that, Borka couldnt help but think back to his clan members when they had eaten a mushroom with hallucinatory effects. His cousin, who was grinning just like Professor, almost died.

I-its poison! Captain was poisoned!

Stand back! The sun is setting, so I will wipe out those vile arche

Dont do anything!

Professor quickly stopped Aldrich when he opened his soul jar and stepped forward. Attacking right now? Not a chance.

Professor grinned as he swallowed down the blood regurgitating from his punctured stomach.

Mewww, myaaaa! Meowwww!

The Wild Cat seemed angered, but it wasnt coming any closer for some reason.

There was nothing that could be seen in its eyes or even in Borkas sharp eyes, but an arrow flew to them from nowhere.

Above anything else, the arrows shaft currently piercing his chest was not made from wood but was grown directly into that shape by nature.

Even an idiot would be able to know the owner of the arrow with this much.

Professor raised his hands high as if surrendering and shouted loudly as he walked to where the arrow came from.

Do not shoot! We are allies! We are an innocent Warrior part

Flwoop!

Pwoot! Schpwoot!

Captain! The arrows!

Cough! I-its okay! Elves are naturally cautious. Were here to get their help. If we dont threaten them, then theyll definitely take us i

Sp-p-pwoot!

Professor! Your legs!

Arghhhh! Non-violence! Gandhi said it! Those who want peace must first put down their weapons and walk forward! Then the opponent will surely

Pwshht!

Thud.

[Aaaaaaaaghh! Whyd you wake me up? Whats happening!]

Captaiiinnnn!

Professor!!

I suddenly went unconscious, and when I was back, Hyde was letting out a string of curses. My back was on the ground, and the forehead and the back of my head were both wet.

It was the head this time.

These bastards?

Inside the dizzy head, the Gandhi, who was demanding non-violence, slowly started to take out some corn and anti-tank missiles.