The effect of Lich Elder's active ability, Soul Extraction, was simple. If someone had acquired the skill through an essence, or an Elder Lich that you were in an ordinary zone, was casting it, you simply lost consciousness.
[You have fallen into a state of Unconsciousness].
This was not a wide-ranging skill, but one designated for certain objectives, and could be countered with Mental Stamina, Mana Stamina, or a variety of other skills.
[You have been exposed to Chill of Hate. Additional effects will be applied to all status effects cast by the Cariathea Glacier Mage.
[The Maga Cariathea Glacier guides the extracted souls to the Punishment Box].
Flash!
When I opened my eyes again, I saw the Crystal Cave and a man illuminated by a soft purple light.
«Hello», he said, holding a hammer covered in Goblin blood. «Are you looking for a night companion?» Was human. I estimated him to be about thirty years old. He was a little over six feet tall and had a good-natured and friendly air.
...His feet were big for his height.
So this was what it looked like. My memory of his appearance had faded, but now that I saw him again, I could remember him.
The man laughed and revealed his name. «Oh, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Hans».
He was Hans A, the first of the Hans, and the man who had taught me the kind of mindset I would need to live in this world, which I was grateful for. I had also given a stranger like me a hammer, a compass, a canteen, and shoes to help me go from barbarian to civilized man.
«Why did you kill me?», he suddenly asked with a demonic look. Blood flowed from his red, bloodshot eyes. But so what?
«I don't know, why did you deserve it?».
«You could have forgiven me».
«Forgive you, huh?»
«He had a daughter and a wife.»
Sure that...
«I know.» How could I not know? I had seen the portrait of his family in the bag I took from him. In it was a girl who looked about three years old and a wife who looked a few years younger than him.
«When you saw it... Did you regret killing me?».
I responded without a moment's hesitation. «No.» It was the pure truth. Why would I regret it? «Even if I went back in time, I would still kill you. I wasn't the first person you looted. Do you think those people didn't have families?»
And even if they didn't have them, it didn't matter. There was no orphan in the world without a sad story.
«Don't worry. You can survive well without a mom and dad. Your wife and daughter will too».
My test? Mine. So you can trust it to be true.
¡Crack!
There was no point in continuing to chat, so I immediately jumped forward and hit him on the head with the Demon Crusher.
«...You have changed. You weren't like that then», Hans A stammered calmly, even though the only thing left on his head was his chin.
«…¿Eh?»
But what...? This is scary.
Has Soul Extraction always worked like this? I thought it was only when all the characters you had killed until then came out to attack you. This was a level of drama I had never seen in the game.
«Changed? What do you mean?»
He was curious to know what he was talking about, but when I asked him, he chuckled. «You were shaking when you killed me».
«Yes, so what?»
«Now it's like nothing to you».
«Ah».
«I'm sure you will be even worse in the future. Even if you had to kill someone's precious parents and their children, and destroy an entire family, you would do it. Just because the target was your enemy».
Gosh, tell me how you really feel, why don't you?
I wondered if it had been a waste of a question, but at least I had learned one thing.
«You already know that, right? That you are turning into a monster». This guy was able to read my mind and hit me where it hurt most with pinpoint precision. «Of course, until now, your targets have been all your enemies so you could fool yourself into thinking you're not a monster yet».
¡Crack!
I hit his chin with the hammer, but the voice didn't stop.
«But...»
«Gosh, you're a tough guy».
«If it's not an enemy, if the person you have to kill to survive is someone who hasn't done anything wrong... No, if it's a comrade you want to protect more than anyone else, how would you feel then?».
I didn't answer. I knew it was useless because that voice came from inside me.
«You're a monster now...
To survive, I pushed these doubts and anxieties deep in my heart and ignored them completely.
«You are no different from the monsters you have killed so far. You are already from this world». With that, Hans A disappeared in a burst of light.
***
My uncle had been useless, a gambling addict who couldn't keep a job. When I won money, he gave me a good amount for my pocket, but when I lost money, he got violent and used me as a punching bag. But as the saying goes, even a broken watch is right twice a day. My uncle was the same. Of course, it wasn't the kind of wisdom you should impart to an eight-year-old whose father had passed away less than a year ago.
«If you have to roll the dice anyway, do it on a board created by you, not one created by someone else».
This advice had stuck in my mind and been of considerable help to me while I lived in this world.
Step. Step.
I walked through the Crystal Cave. It wasn't a real space. It was an imaginary place that Soul Extraction had dragged me to.
I didn't know the setting would be the Crystal Cave.
In the game, the scenario was always different. It was the Rock Desert on the second floor, the Tower of Heaven on the fourth, and the Great Sea on the sixth. I woke up once in the palace. How did you choose where you would go?
Perhaps it is the place that left the greatest impression on the target.
It was a reasonable hypothesis. This was the place where I had almost died after stepping into a trap, I met Erwen and killed someone for the first time. And I also couldn't forget the hardships I went through when Berzak, the Lord of the Abyss, appeared here.
Still, my stamina and PM recovered upon entering the Punishment Box, so it's not that bad. That means those bastards will recover too.
Grifo.
While I was taking stock of my physical condition, I turned when I heard something behind me and saw three familiar faces: a mustachioed man with a shield in his hand, a blonde spearman with a great physique, and a woman dressed as a priest who was laughing with her head half sunken.
«Kiheeheehee!», (Old) Elisa cackled in Half-Head Mode.
«Wow, how long?».
Unlike Hans A, these guys started attacking immediately without even starting a conversation.
¡Smash, smash, smash!
They all turned into light in ten seconds.
Do you know what level I am at and how many essences I have now?
The enemies I encountered here even had the penalty of possessing only half their original strength, so they were virtually no different from goblins at this point. They could be knocked down with a single blow.
«Ugh... so how many are left now?».
I tried to count the number of enemies I had killed since I first woke up in the Crystal Cave, but I wasn't sure. How could you remember all the pieces of bread you had eaten, right? I couldn't tell you how many people I had killed so far because working as an adventurer meant killing people left and right.
... I think I used to remember it.
Hans A's words gained more weight. Actually, I didn't even remember his face until I found him here. To be exact, I had completely forgotten about it.
«Elisa. I remember her because she left an impression on me...»
What was the lancer's name? Taser gun? Dyson? It was something like that...
I was trying to remember the names of the trio I had just defeated when I grimaced in pain. I remembered the mustachioed man's name.
«Hans Argo».
His Hans code was C.
«Maldite sea».
Now that he thought about it, he would have to meet all the Hans he had killed so far. A chill ran down my spine.
What is this, Hans' hell? How many Hans have I killed so far?
Luckily, looking back, there weren't many. The last one I killed wasn't that recent. Hans E, whom I ran into in the sewer system while tracking Elisa, was used as a meat shield when a trap was activated. Hans J, who betrayed us on Farune Island, ended up being killed by Erwen. I met the rest in passing and they separated from me alive, except for one person.
«My name... is H-Hans Chrisen...» It was the evil spirit and summoner that he had killed in the Doppelganger Forest.
Wow, he came out right away. Better to tackle the music quickly, I guess.
«Why... did you kill me? We were both players...». Hans G, who appeared at one of the intersections with his fellow Archer Elf, was speaking strangely for some reason. Was he stuttering because that was how he best reminded her of that day? It had been quite a shocking and memorable moment. «I didn't even betray you! It's because that guy exposed me as an evil spirit...!»
¿And?
Break, break!
I broke his head before I could lengthen it too much. It was a barbaric way of living that made my life much easier. Later, when I wandered through the cave again, the people I had killed appeared to me in the form of reconstructions derived from my memory.
«Now you know! Why did I have to become a looter! I had to do it to survive in that damn place!», shouted Jencia Nephrin, the player I killed in Glacier Cave. However, at the time, I didn't know. No, I had no idea there were players starting out at Noark.
«I said it was an honest mistake, but that's the only reason you...! Die! I said die!» That was the religious trio that was tricked by Elisa, Karui's priestess, into attacking the Half-Wit team. He had killed them when we met them again in the Witch's Cabin. Killing them made me realize something. The more I shed the skin of a modern man, the more I could live as a real person here.
¡Aplastar, monkey, monkey!
Aside from that, numerous looters I met appeared in the maze, each expressing their resentment. I broke everyone I met at the beginning's head in one fell swoop, but the ones in the second half were different.
¡Poppp!
There was the Guardian of the Lighthouse of Orcules.
¡Whooom!
The gentleman I met in Noark twenty years ago.
«I was just trying to help you!», said Pyke Neldine, who was executed on charges of treason during the expedition.
None of them were scary individually, but as more of them attacked me at once, the weight on me grew. It was very similar to the weight of my sins.
«¿He.… killed so many people…?»
It had to be at least a few hundred. And those were just the lives that I took myself directly. But...
«Yes, this is a good thing.»
If someone who led a robust lifestyle like me faced so many people, how bad would the Order of the Rose or those bastards at Noark have it? I used other people's misfortune as motivation to move forward in this dark cave with no end in sight.
Step. Step.
Sin fin.
***
[Your last enemy has been defeated.]
[Your unconscious state has risen.]
[The Glacier Wizard will punish vengeful spirits who did not achieve their goal. A random penalty will be applied until the maze closes.
When I opened my eyes, they were dragging me. Someone was holding me by the legs and my back was touching the cold, sharp ground.
«Ugh...! This guy doesn't even carry equipment, why does he weigh so much?». It was the voice of Sven Parav.
So you're the one dragging me. Since we're not in Glacier's Eye, I guess the plan worked...
I looked around as they dragged me and found a strange sight, never seen before.
«¡Uhhh...!»
Huff… huff… huff…
In a surprising change, priests and magicians struggled to carry muscular, unconscious adventurers on their backs. After staring for a moment, the first thing I did was check the watch on my hip.
About fifteen minutes...
That was the time since Phase Two began and I fell unconscious.
«Parav, let me go now».
«Hey? You're awake?»
«Sí.»
I didn't want to be a burden anymore, so I quickly woke up and stood up. I instructed Sven Parav to take someone else.
«Priest Orman! Great job. From now on, I will take them. Please help others. It will be easier if you carry them together».
«Ugh... Sorry. I'm sure you're fighting too, Paladin Parav.»
«Haha, this is nothing».
I soon got up, blinked to remove the spots from my sight, and quickly observed our surroundings to understand the situation.
Two priests, three mages, two special ability users, a melee damage dealer, two paladins, and an archer.
A total of twelve people, including me, were awake. There would have been plenty of people if everyone was able to carry another person alone, but things hadn't turned out that way, so some warriors were carried by two or three people. However, that made sense. There was a reason he considered the Soul Extraction pattern to be a risky bet.
Erwen and Amelia are still asleep...
I took care of the two inert women and placed them on each of my shoulders. I then headed towards Jun, who was being carried by Futa Rickerburn.
«Jun.»
«...Ah, you're awake». As I approached, Jun raised his head, looking embarrassed. «Unfortunately, I am unable to use one of my legs».
A penalty was inflicted on those who regained consciousness. This penalty was totally random, and if you were lucky, it was something small like not being able to taste anything. However, when it was severe, it could render the target - like Jun, incapacitated. This was probably the case for everyone who was conscious but still transported.
«Yandel, are you okay?», he asked.
«For now... nothing seems out of the ordinary».
«I'm glad you're okay. Really».
«When did you wake up? I want a status report».
«I am the fifth.»
«That's sooner than I expected».
Jun laughed bitterly at my words. «The number of royal priests of Karui that I personally killed while working as an inquisitor was not many. Most of them were ordinary people without any real power. Thanks to that, it was easy to deal with them in there».
«I see...» He didn't seem to be looking for comfort, so I quickly got to the point. «I want to hear what happened while I was unconscious».
«The first person to awaken was Priest Orman, followed by Periton Eriabosti. It seems like they don't really have a drop of dirty blood on their hands».
Well, you never know. How many opportunities does a priest have to deliver the final blow? Even when we fought in Ojo de Glaciar, it was always others who dealt the last blow.
«But since the two of them couldn't move us all, they waited and only started moving once enough people woke up.»
«How long did that take?»
«Eleven minutes.»
«Was anyone awake then?»
«Nobody from Noark or the Order of the Rose when we woke up, but I don't know now».
So it is so...
«Yandel, you were right. I tried to attack them just in case, but the ice around them was so frozen that it didn't move».
I was not particularly disappointed with the report that followed. When hit with Soul Extraction, all targets were immediately trapped in the ice, making them immune to attacks during the second phase. Not even Cariathea attacked then. The battle against the boss resumed about thirty minutes after Soul Extraction began. Anyone who did not return sooner would die. The same thing happened if they died within the illusion.
Erwen will be fine, but Amelia... will she be fine?
He was very worried, but all he could do was trust her. Leaving aside problems that couldn't be resolved immediately, I focused on the conversation I was having.
«But... how did you know what was going to happen?». Jun cautiously expressed some suspicion. The matter was missing, but he knew what he was wondering.
I must have been asking about that.
The only ones who were trapped in the ice and became invulnerable due to Soul Extraction were the enemies. No one from our squad froze. That's why those who woke up earlier were able to take away those who were still unconscious.
«The fact that such a phenomenon can be resisted using the Spark of Life is information that even the Tovera Church is unaware of».
«¿In series?»
«How the hell did you know? The same as the method to summon that evil lich...».
The answer to that question was very easy. Once you took down that bastard Lich a hundred times, you naturally learned his attack patterns and how to summon him. At first, I thought his appearance there was a mistake, but after experiencing it firsthand, I realized there was no such thing in Dungeon and Stone. I was sure it would be like that here, too.
This part always bothers me.
Since I couldn't tell him the truth, I made up an excuse. It would be strange to say that I had heard it from the marquis when it was clear that he had abandoned us, so...
«I heard it from the chief».
Yeah, there's no way Jun can refute that, right?
«¿The chieftain… of the barbarian tribe?»
«Yeah. While talking about the old days, he mentioned that he experienced something like this». Jun's reaction to my excuse was unclear. To be exact, his expression was unreadable. I quickly changed the subject. «Anyway, how are the others?»
«Ah... I'll tell you now».
As this was an urgent situation, Jun put aside his suspicions and began to hand over his report. According to him, there were a total of three people who had suffered great hardships. Jun was paralyzed, Archer James Calla was blind, and old Didi's right hand had turned gray and hard as stone. I didn't know what penalties the unconscious members of our squad would wake up with, but for now it was.
So... What is mine?
What penalty had been imposed on me? I did some tests while walking, and soon my jaw dropped.
Of all the penalties, I had to receive this one.
[Your use of active skills is restricted.
Was this the curse of all the Hanses I encountered in the cave?