Chapter 170: A Story Only I Don't Know 5
TL/Editor: Raei
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I've heard all sorts of phrases like 'feeling so good I could fly' or 'as if my body had been reborn'.
Frankly, I believed such talk to be nothing more than exaggeration.
That's why I made the mistake of dismissing the notion of my body being imbued with the 'Blessing of an Unknown God' and went about my usual business.
"...The sky?"
I swung my warhammer with the concentration of mana that I usually do, as if the weapon, which had endured ten years alongside me, was indestructible.
Suddenly, the world turned topsy-turvy, and my senses jumbled.
A buzzing in my ears, a fog in my head, and the mana encasing my body trembled unsteadily.
Where there should have been a sticky mud swamp and pale tentacles, now a gloomy ashen sky stretched open.
So at this moment
"Am I flying? No, falling?"
It appeared I had been buoyed into the air by the recoil from striking with my warhammer.
I tensed my back and twisted in mid-air to adjust my posture.
Looking down from the sky, the mass of pale tentacles that had been below me was gone.
The mud swamp, the poison pit, the cluster of ashy treeseverything around me had disappeared.
The silver lining, though, was the white protective shield on the chaotic ground below, still staunchly holding amidst the rain of paralyzing mud, poison, and vine fragments.
It hadnt shatteredperhaps because it was struck by soft mud and poison rather than hard fragments.
...But it was cracked all over, like a window on the verge of breaking.
"Ro, Roland?! You're okay, right?!"
-No, f*ck lol, you were supposed to wipe out the tentacles, not the entire area
-Is this stronger than the lightning magic that cleared the 20th floor?
-Paladin's holy magic (physical)
-Rotate the camera, there's nothing left here.
-Cracks on a 5 shield just from splash damage? Looks like itll break on touch
Soaring into the air, then slowing and beginning to fall, I corrected my posture and snuck a glance at Han Se-ah's streaming window in the corner of my view.
A small blue dot floated in the void beyond the chaos and cracked shield.
It seemed I had severely miscalculated my strength.
The blessing in my body must have also boosted the efficiency of physical enhancement via mana.
...During the battle with the Full Moon Wolf, I had flipped the ground, creating a wave of dirt, but my weapon-enhanced body wasn't supposed to be launched away.
It felt as though a grenade in my hand had turned into dynamite.
"Roland! Arent you overdoing it a little?!"
"Is this the might of a senior, no, a top-rier adventurer...?"
As I landed heavily on the mucky, poisoned earth, sinking knee-deep, my companions rushed over.
To them, unaware of the unknown gods blessing, it seemed my actions were intentional rather than a mistake.
As they dashed forward, the ground suddenly gave way to a sunken quagmire, causing my companions to sway unsteadily.
It was then that Han Se-ah quickly took stock of the situation and deftly employed Earth Control to forge a slender, winding path through the mire.
"Ugh, this ground... How about we get off it and then talk?"
"I didn't even touch it, but my ankles feel all tingly. Does the mix of poison and swamp intensify the toxicity?"
Filled with the desire to escape the commotion, Grace and Katie, who had stumbled in the bog, now stood on the dry path, vigorously shaking out her ankles and muttering complaints.
I'm a little embarrassed.
I hadn't anticipated becoming this powerful.
My physique was already exceptionally robust and strong, and now with the added boost in mana efficiency, it's hard to keep control.
It's like a college student who, after gaining superpowers from a spider bite, accidentally breaks a door handle.
...Although, admittedly, the scale of my blunder is incomparable.
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Raei Translations
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I struck with all my strength.
Like a person doesn't pass out from exhaustion after hitting a punch machine, my mana wasn't drained to the point of making adventuring impossible.
"Ahem, I thought they were sticking to absorb the divine energy. I couldn't possibly smack them one by one, so I intended to just blow them away with the aftershock..."
"You thought they were stuck to the barrier?"
"And the ground turned out to be weaker than expected."
It was as if a missile had hit; mud and poison splattered everywhere, and the ground was hollowed out.
I just meant to use the shockwave to send them away, yet not a trace of the tentacles remained.
I never expected to be buoyed into the sky.
The sight of me rising through the mud seemed to amuse my companions, as their faces were free of fear or dread, only voicing complaints about the mud clinging at their ankles.
Trying to pass off my lack of control as a ground issue, I managed to contain my embarrassment as my companions nodded in understanding.
Grace glanced around and, spotting something, grinned at me.
"It seems we've achieved our goal, haven't we? There's a bit of a ruckus and signs of life in that direction."
"It definitely seems we've drawn more attention than the divine energy could! Maybe my brothers?"
Irene, all smiles, clung to Grace, peppering her with questions upon hearing about signs of life.
A pang of guilt stung me, but right now, the priority was the unknown survivors stranded on the 35th floor.
As Irene's urgency grew, Han Se-ah swiftly created a straight path through the marsh with Earth Control, guided by Grace.
[The 35th floor, cut off from contact, was eerily silent]
[A strange scene where not even monsters were visible, let alone adventurers and priests]
[Vines that don't react to mana but absorb divine energy...?]
During my ascent into the sky, the quest window had updated, and now she was freely using her mana.
Maybe she thought I could handle the rest or she disliked the idea of the quest failing due to delay, I couldn't tell.
This earned Han Se-ah a slew of new nicknames from the viewers.
-A solid performance following a shining one, wow
-Is she a mage or a construction worker?
-After lighting comes paving... a community-friendly worker... reliable God-Se-ah!
-If Roland destroys, Han Se-ah builds? What a redevelopment combo, this isn't even a contracted service
-Oh look at her using mana so freely...
"What redevelopment combo? If we took a detour, youd foam at the mouth saying, 'Why, why not just go straight ahead?' Yet now-"
[Top-tier stoneworker Han Se-ah donated 10,000 won!]
If you ever get stuck at a floor, you should team with Roland and play territory tycoon.
"How do you expect me to clear the game playing like that?"
It seemed Katie and Han Se-ah were also quietly thrilled by the destruction that had unfolded before them.
Unlike Irene, who was excited out of concern and hope for her siblings, these two were fidgeting for different reasons, and only Grace managed to keep her cool amidst the party's unrest.
There, using mana freely, we found a temple knight battered to near death.
"Brother!"
"Ugh..."
More precisely, a temple knight battered to shreds surrounded by injured adventurers.
The temple knight lay on the ground, half-conscious, while the adventurers stood around him, weary and staggering.
Oddly, they were in a very wide clearing.
Could this have once been the safe zone?
"Sister, you mustn't use divine energy here!"
"Step back!"
As I mused, startled adventurers hurried over, trying to restrain Irene's wrist before retreating under Katie's menacing glare.
They didn't seem to be attacking Irene out of malice; real fear was evident.
Irene, discerning something from their reaction, gracefully lowered her hand.
Instead, Han Se-ah offered an adventurer a health potion from her inventory.
"...Um, I haven't used a potion before, is it for drinking? Or do you pour it on?"
-How have you played the game till now?
-How is this different from that politician* who asked if the bus fare was 50 won?
-Forbes' #1 streamer known for creating content with just a sentence
-Aren't you a mage and an alchemist? LOL
-Alchemist (doesn't know how to use potions)
Her muttered remarks left me amused.
I thought she had grown enough to not need any hand-holding, but it seems there's still a way to go.
When Han Se-ah offered the potion while talking to the viewers, an adventurer snatched it up, removed the temple knight's helmet, and poured the potion into his mouth.
It was a low-level potion purchased in advance, not very potent, but it should be enough to restore some vigor to someone half-conscious.
As the white helmet came off, it revealed brown, tousled hair and a simple countenance.
Ignoring the viewers who were disappointed that the knight wasn't a beauty, Han Se-ah approached the knight, whose face seemed to belong in a rural vegetable shop, and asked,
"Brother, what has happened here?"
"The creatures, they kept coming, endlessly... eating away at the sanctuary..."
"Rest now, knight. We will handle the explanations."
As if the word 'brother' was a trigger, the half-awake temple knight attempted to speak but was gently pushed back down by the adventurers.
Still, just from his few words, I could roughly guess what had happened.
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