Golden Experience-Chapter 238: “Service”

“──Welcome back. Good job. The fact that you’ve come out from there means you’ve won, it seems.”

“! Who the hell are you?”

In the underground of Hugelcup, facing Bambu and the others who appeared in front of the artifact, I spoke.

Appearing here means they used the magic circle, which means they defeated the Archangel and made the return magic circle appear.

Bambu is wary as he looks at me.

Certainly, Mare was the one escorting Bambu a while ago. It was me inside, but that couldn’t be known from the outside.

However, I am currently dressed in the familiar white robe, and the hood is also pulled deep.

Also, with a cloth mask covering the mouth, it should be difficult to discern any features from my appearance.

“Who? I’m Rare. We became friends just earlier, didn’t we?”

“No, no, no, your voice is totally different!”

Mare’s and my appearance are similar. I thought it might not be known if I didn’t say it, but it seems our voices are quite different. Since one’s own voice is hard to really perceive, this was a blind spot.

“Well, I guess that’s true. But there’s no mistake, I am Rare.”

<Look, we can do friend chat, right?>

“Oh!? Oh, this is friend chat. No, seriously, is this really you? What’s going on…”

“For now, someone might come here. How about we settle down and talk at your place?”

*

“Now then. What should we start with?”

“Yeah, that’s right. First, let’s talk about why you followed me and came here. With [Summon], you should only be able to jump to the location where your subordinates are. In this forest, I have so many subordinates that I can naturally jump. But you can’t do that. Moreover, didn’t you already arrive here before I jumped to my subordinates in the forest and walked to this log house? What’s going on?”

“About that… But first, let me apologize for burning your house when I visited here before. I didn’t mean any harm, but it ended up burning. I’m sorry.”

“Tch! That’s already in the past. As you can see, I rebuilt it more splendidly.”

“I see. So that’s how it is. You’ve become smaller and more dexterous than before, but your STR hasn’t decreased, so the result is that your work efficiency has gone up.”

“Yeah, but that’s not the point here. Answer my question.”

“Oh, right.”

I walked to the edge of the square and sat on a rock partially buried there.

“About that time. Did you notice anything different before and after the house burned down?”

“It changed so much that I didn’t even have the luxury to care.”

“That’s right. That was one of the goals too. Now that we’ve become friends, and since it’s not good to keep secrets, I’ll tell you.”

I stood up and shifted slightly to the side. The rock I had been sitting on made grinding noises, and rocks emerged from below the ground, forming arms, and the rock stood up on two legs.

“When I visited last time, I secretly left a subordinate golem here. In case something happened, I could come immediately.”

“…Seriously?”

Bambu was astonished. Since such reactions are rare, I became a little amused.

“Now, what’s the next question?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s about your voice, or rather, your appearance. I don’t doubt that you’re Rare. But your appearance and voice were completely different just a while ago, and when you burned down my house last time, it was different too. What’s going on?”

“That’s right. It would take a long time to explain, but in the simplest of terms, I have a way to do incredible disguises. What you saw earlier was like a costume of sorts. You might be able to do that too someday, too. If you can’t, I’ll tell you a bit more when we get along a bit better.”

“…If you really plan on getting along better, at least take off that hood.”

“Oh, sorry.”

I attempted to lift the hood but stopped and took off the entire robe, including the mask covering the mouth.

“As a first-time friend registration service, I’ll show you more than just my face.”

“More than just your face!? Hey, what’cha takin’ off! Is it that, like that kinda service!?”

“[Release: Wings], [Release: Horns].”

Ignoring the flustered Bambu, I released my wings and horns. Six pure white wings sprouted from my waist, and golden horns grew from my head.

“This dress is designed not to interfere with my wings, with a large opening from the back to the waist. Of course, without the wings and robe, being in just this dress outdoors feels a bit uncomfortable.”

“What… is that…”

“I didn’t expect you to think I belong to the regular human race, right? I told you, we’re more or less in the same position.”

“…So you’re like some dungeon boss or something?”

“Precisely. Well, with that said, I believe we can exchange information, cooperate, and get along well. I’d be happy if you’d continue to treat me kindly.”

“Uh, sure…”

I dispelled the horns and wings, putting on the robe. Initially, I intended to leave the horns out, but if I planned to hide my face with the hood of my robe, horns would be a significant hindrance. It’s fine to have them when there’s no need to hide the face, but during covert operations, I decided to keep them off. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“…Information exchange, you said. I asked you about the [Summoning] earlier, but sorry, I don’t have any information I can share from my end. After all, that goblin king from earlier is stronger than me, and among the information I have, there’s nothing you’d find satisfying─.”

“No, that’s not true. At least, I don’t know a thing about that race called Deovoldraugr. And before that, you were a much larger goblin, right? I think it was something like ‘Necro Revival’, the skill you used to resurrect. The existence of the Deovoldraugr and the fact that a skill that allows resurrection are information I don’t have. It’s very valuable.”

Then, Bambu looked somewhat taken aback and began talking as if it were something completely trivial.

“What, is that all? That was back when I was still a goblin──”

“──I see. Considering the situation, that makes sense. The acquisition conditions for ‘Necro Revival’ are having [Undead]. And probably, the avatar’s death count needs to be a certain amount, or is involved. In this case, it’s natural I didn’t know. It’s almost impossible for an NPC to fulfill these conditions. So, naturally, one wouldn’t run into such a thing.”

“That’s right. But even among naturally existing NPCs, there are those who have [Subordinate] like your goblin king, right? If it’s their subordinate, there might be a possibility of meeting the conditions, don’t you think?”

“Of course, as you say, that possibility is not nonexistent. However, in that case, it becomes a question of why the NPC, the master, would have allowed such a situation. There are two possible scenarios. First, they knew about the skill unlocked by the death count and intended to have the familiar die multiple times for that purpose. In this case, if the conditions were met, they would naturally allow the acquisition of the skill and the resurrection. But in the first place, to know about those conditions, you would need to have seen someone who fulfilled them and reincarnated somewhere. It’s impossible to reach there on your own, especially for an NPC. And the pioneer who did that can say the same thing, creating a dilemma similar to the chicken and the egg. So honestly, it’s hard to imagine.”

“…Well, that makes sense.”

“And the other possibility is that the master is simply incompetent and is causing the subordinate to die somehow, or they have sadistic intentions and are causing the familiar to die just because and without any specific purpose. In this case, even if the familiar meets the conditions for acquiring the skill, would the master actually let them acquire it? If the master is incompetent, they might not even consider it that far, or if they’re a master who just wants their familiar to die, they wouldn’t bother enhancing that familiar. So, there is some logic to it.”

“…I see. That makes sense too.”

“In other words, in such a case, it’s practically unlikely for this skill to be acquired unless the player does it themselves.”

Taking a deep breath, I took a cup from my inventory, magically produced water, and drank.

“…Hey, you talk crazy fast sometimes. I dunno, it’s a bit endearing, it kinda made me warm up to you. Honestly, you were quite the enigma, both your looks and skills were on a level that felt intimidating, but you really have a human side after all.”

What a rude guy.

(T/N note: the next update may take a while, I’ll try to do a double drop on the last week of february)

Like Loading…