Chapter 22
Oho?
Ohooo....
Hmm...?
I was currently inspecting the black Revolver that had popped out of my chest, turning it this way and that.
The familiar, not-at-all-strange weight and the satisfying grip that wrapped perfectly around my hand was so moving I could almost cry.
-Click!
I pulled the Lever located on the left side of the ink-black Frame with my thumb and gave the gun a light flick, popping the Cylinder out.
'It looks exactly like an S&W series, but it's a six-shooter... This is a weird one, isn't it?'
-Whir!
The cylindrical Cylinder began to spin smoothly as I applied pressure with my fingertips. I fell into thought for a moment while watching it.
'I never thought I'd end up using a Revolver.'
In
A trash Weapon for conceptual play, used only by Weirdos cosplaying as western Gunslingers. That was exactly its reputation.
And for good reason; this thing called a Revolver has an average ammo capacity of about six rounds, which is quite low.
And, above all else. Reloading is inconvenient.
When crazy bastards are screaming and chasing after you. Who has the time to open the Cylinder and insert bullets one by one?
Some crazy guys say you can just use a Speed Reloader. But if you're going to do that, it's much better to just use an Automatic Pistol equipped with a fifty-round Drum Magazine.
It's simply not a good Weapon for stopping those Meatball bastards that jump out from all directions the moment a single gunshot rings out.
However.
In an uncivilized Medieval Fantasy World where people eat with their bare, bacteria-covered hands or a Knife that's been used to dig through human Organs instead of a Fork or Chopsticks, it's the most lethal Weapon imaginable.
Sword Saint or Archmage, bring them all on.
I'll send them to the Goddess's embrace before we even make eye contact.
But. There is one very minor problem.
'Where is the ammo?'
If you just toss me a gun, what am I supposed to do? What, do you want me to put a Pill Bug in it and fire?
'Besides. Why did this come out of my chest?'
Did I actually change my Class to a gun locker instead of a Plague Doctor?
Hmm.
It would probably be better to just check the Patch Notes. Worrying about it alone is just a waste of time.
-Click!
I don't know how well-oiled it was. I pushed the endlessly spinning Cylinder back in to stop it, then quietly summoned the Patch Notes so as not to wake my Party Members.
"Patch Notes."
-Jingle!
Along with a cheerful ringtone that only I could hear. The empty air split open, and a translucent window filled my vision.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1.1 Bastion Saga Patch Notes!]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New Class: Plague Doctor! Out now!
The city of romance and adventure! A new rising star has emerged in the Dungeon City of Bastion!
The best Healer of
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'What is this?'
I was a bit surprised because it was much more formal than I expected.
A transparent window displayed in a page format, rather than the usual Chat Log style.
Unlike before, when my eyes would throb as the type cascaded down frantically like a rainstorm, this was definitely easier on the eyes.
'Anyway, I didn't expect it to directly mention Terraforming.'
I had roughly guessed it, but so the Goddess really does know where I came from?
But. 'The best Healer of Terraforming!'? Me?
Since when was I ever that.
I let out a small scoff and tried to drag... but stopped my Finger at a sudden question that slipped into my mind.
'Why am I dragging with my Finger?'
It's not like this is a Smartphone.
When I looked yesterday, Shion and the Contractor seemed to be controlling the UI with just their willpower. Can't I do that?
To resolve this question, I slowly lowered the hand I had held out in the air. Glaring at the transparent window, I gathered my Concentration.
'Next.'
-Swish.
As I earnestly wished to move to the next page. A new story greeted me, accompanied by the sound of a turning page.
'This actually works?'
It seems I won't be misunderstood as a crazy Demon gesturing into the empty air anymore.
Although it feels a little late for that.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Character Introduction]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New Class: 'Plague Doctor'
"You tiresome bastards. I'll exterminate every last one of you."
The Plague Doctor is a very special Doctor who favors a custom-made Revolver instead of a thin, sharp Scalpel.
Even if he suddenly aims the Muzzle at you, do not avoid it!
His long, black Revolver exclusively prioritizes removing the 'Plague'. Only the remnants of pain will be left for the Patient.
Do not be afraid. No, be afraid!
After long research, he has succeeded in developing a new treatment method utilizing fear. If you wish to escape the terrible Plague, you must fear him!
The greater your terror, the more perfect his treatment will become.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'Wow. What is this now?'
A character setting that even I don't know about. It couldn't be more fascinating.
Goddess. You have a talent for storytelling, do you not?
But. Um... that line is a bit.
'You tiresome bastards. I will exterminate every last one of you.'
When did I ever say something like that?
I have no such memory. Really.
Well, since the setting or behind-the-scenes story is not that important. I will just move past it.
Rather than some useless setting even if I knew it, I am more curious about what happened to the 55 Traits I worked so hard to Collect by cutting back on my sleep.
Even if the Goddess, who suffered all night writing the story and setting, gets disappointed, it cannot be helped. I am a pragmatic Demon.
'...Surely she did not scrap all my Traits?'
Seeing that the Magpie is fine, it does not seem like it. But I am a little worried.
Chirp?
Shut up, I did not call you.
Ah, right. Come to think of it, I asked you to block the pain for me. And you just watched?
Chirp chirp!
What? You had a reason you could not help? What is it?
Chirp chirp....
A secret? Since when did we have secrets between us?
This damn bastard, did you really go and meet a female Magpie or something?
Chirp chirp!
A misunderstanding? What misunderstanding. Haa....
Fine, considering our history, I will let it slide just this once. If this happens again, we are done that very day. Understood?
Chiiirp~
You even know how to sigh in relief now, even though you are just a Magpie? Did the Goddess Update your AI or something?
Chirp!
'Really?'
"Tsk."
'...What am I even doing right now.'
The one-man, two-role play I put on for the first time in a while to celebrate the return of the Magpie came to a grand end, accompanied by a belated wave of self-shame.
Still, it is true that the emotional expressions of the Magpie feel a bit more varied.
I have a feeling there might be some Update details related to the Magpie.
'Next.'
-Swish.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Skill Introduction]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Active Skill]
Active Skills are Skills that the Adventurer can use directly!
[Surgery] [Class Exclusive]
Equips the exclusive Weapon for the Plague Doctor: Injector.
-Equip.
[Filling] [Class Exclusive]
Fills the Injector with fear.
-Charge.
[Call Out] [Class Exclusive]
Summons your loyal Assistant.
-Summon.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'So this guy is named Injector?'
My gaze, which had been on the Patch Notes, naturally shifted to the Revolver I was holding in my hand.
I slowly lifted the Revolver called Injector to check it a little more closely.
A pitch-black body that did not allow a single reflection of light, and a long, imposing Gun Barrel.
'I really like the way this guy looks.'
The problem is that based purely on the description, its performance seems a bit crappy.
'Fills it with fear, huh.'
In other words, it means firing fear instead of Live Ammunition.
Is that not just.
'A Blank?'
It is useless except for threats or warnings, is it not?
What am I supposed to do with firing fear....
'No, wait.'
-I want you to teach me the emotion of fear. Then, I will let Raven stay for a night whenever he wants. Hm? How about it?
...Could this actually be useful if I do it right?
Did I not just happen to have a customer with a peculiar taste who wants fear?
Even for someone who cannot feel emotions, would she not be able to feel it at least a little bit if I shot fear directly into her Head?
Normally, I can just use it to chase away dangerous Beasts or guys picking fights.
'Come to think of it, it is not that bad?'
It felt a bit weird, like I had acquired a Weapon for a Demon of Fear cosplay, but as I thought of the applications and places to use it one by one, it felt better than I expected.
'Anyway, I want to try using a Skill.'
I wonder if I can use this with just my willpower, like the System UI controls?
'Skill activation reload, no, Filling. Skill activation Filling. Skill activation. Filling. Filling, Filling.'
I stared intently at the Injector and strongly wished in my mind for the Skill to activate.
Then.
[Please enter the capacity to inject.]
[0]
[MP: 31,622,400]
In the top left of my vision, the System UI appeared.
Ah. Like this?
I wondered what Charge written in the Injector's description meant. So it was this?
MP. In other words, the more Magic Power I inject, the greater the fear inflicted on the opponent.
'Not bad?'
Looking at it now, my Mana Capacity is also much higher than I imagined.
I remember that it uses Substitution to turn the Bio-Energy I have collected so far into Magic Power.
I didn't know there would be this much. To think it's over thirty million!
'I guess so. I did eat a lot of Meat Pies in preparation for the Boss Battle.'
But.
[Please enter the capacity to inject.]
[0]
[MP: 31,622,389]
Why does it look like my Magic Power decreased in that brief moment?
[Please enter the capacity to inject.]
[0]
[MP: 31,622,388]
"This is crazy."
It's actually decreasing? No, wait, what did I even do?
I'm just keeping my eyes open and breathing. Magic Power is decreasing by 1 roughly every 5 seconds.
Now, Magic Power is no different from Bio-Energy. Thinking about it, my lifespan is being chipped away by 1 second every 5 seconds.
Watching my lifespan decrease in real-time was quite novel, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.
'I should only use Active Skills when I really need to.'
When Shion wakes up, I should ask her how to replenish Magic Power. It's a fantasy World. There must be something like a blue Potion.
'Hmm... Still, I should probably try firing it once for practice, right?'
After all, I can't inject a Patient with a Drug that hasn't even gone through a Clinical Trial.
Trembling my hand, I imagined I would Charge the precious Magic Power that was no different from my life.
'Charge. 1.'
[Please enter the capacity to inject.]
[1]
[MP: 31,622,370]
Oh, the number went up!
'But. Is 1 too small?'
No. As expected, it would be best to experiment with the minimum capacity at first.
I can just gradually increase the amount.
-Click!
To check. I opened the Cylinder and looked inside, and I could see an ominous black Bullet that seemed to swallow even light loaded in it.
Mhm. Preparation is complete.
Then, shall we begin the first Clinical Trial for the fear Vaccine?
-Click.
With a flick of my Wrist, I popped the Cylinder back in and aimed the Muzzle at my Head.
This way, even if a round of Live Ammunition with a physical form is fired, I'll be able to avoid a major injury.
After all, my Mask is classified as an indestructible object.
Out of habit, I bent my index finger that was kept straight, placed it on the Trigger, and slowly pulled it.
Now then. It's time to feel 1 Magic Power's worth of fear!
But. In a way, this is also a gun, so will it be loud?
Suddenly, that thought flashed through my mind.
"Ah?"
However, it was too late.
Because the Trigger had already been pulled.
Click.
"Damn-"
-BANG!!!
A deafening roar that threatened to tear my eardrums apart echoed through the heavens and earth.
The recoil from the Muzzle forcefully snapped my Head to the side.
Crack!
For a moment, my eardrums burst and my Head felt dazed as if I had a brain hemorrhage, but the Magpie must have finally started working, as I became completely fine in an instant.
It feels like the Regeneration speed has gotten faster.
However, the real problem was elsewhere....
"Unyanyanyang!!!"
"Eeehh!!?"
-Holy shit! What the hell, is that noise!!!
-Kyaaaak!!!
-Nyanyanyang!!! It's an attack by Bomb Flies, nya!!!
-...What in the world is this noise? Did Lightning strike somewhere?
My Party Members started flopping out of bed like freshly caught Live Fish, accompanied by a feast of diverse screams echoing from all directions.
Thump, thump, thump!
-...Open the door, Raven.
-Crow Oppa? What kind of crazy stunt is this so early in the morning? I was so curious I didn't even change clothes before coming, you know?
And finally, the thick murderous intent felt from outside the door....
Somehow, I had managed to properly draw massive AoE Aggro.
"Damn."
Still, it should be good for mob hunting.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Charge] - Phonophobia
: The fear of sudden or loud noises.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read more at https://noveldex.io/series/novel/i-became-the-demon-of-terror-in-the-dungeon-city