Volume 5 Chapter 3 - The old man wields the divine sword. (2/2)

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After inquiring Luna about the monster’s location, I hung my black magic sword and Dainsleif on the sides of my waist and ran in its direction. Even if I appraised the item, in its sealed condition, only its name as well as its sealed state would be revealed.

I immediately sharpened my senses as I felt a wave of bloodlust crawl around my body.

Looking at the direction of the bloodthirst, I saw it. There was a monster hiding behind a gigantic tree.

Judging from it’s black mottle fur and level, this was a monster I was familiar with.

[It’s a Darkhorn Deer. A huge one.] (Yuuya)

It was level forty two and among the deer-type monsters, Darkhorn Deers was the strongest although it’s size wasn’t the largest. It mainly went after prey which stumbled into its range of Presence Detection and erasing its presence. The moment its prey shows an opening, it would rush forward with its horn while using Horn Crush, gouging its prey and finishing its prey in a single hit.

It also possessed exception attack power and agility making it an extremely dangerous monster. Parties that lacked a Thief capable of using Presence Detection often have accidental deaths due to this as it would be easy for a common person to walk past it unknowingly.

I expected the Darkhorn Deer to approach me as I proceeded into its range alone.

Utilising its overwhelming leg strength, it jumped from left to right so as to avoid being detected while closing the distance.

Three jumps until it was within my attack range.

It’s time to see if I possessed the qualification to pull the sword.

With my hand on the handle, I began to wiggle my finger as the blade slid out of the sheath smoothly without any sound.

It was a beautiful but ominous blade. Just like the black magic sword, it was a curved sword that specialises in cutting. However, it’s special feature was its red pattern engraved into its silver blade as if the blade possessed its own blood vessels.

Suddenly, its red pattern began to shine.

[GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!] (Yuuya)

Its bloodthirst overwhelmed me as I screamed in pain.

I hate it… I wan blood… I want to kill..

The red vessels in the blade began to extend to the handle and to my arms as negative emotions began to fill up my mind. Even though it felt like my mind was overtaken, I felt strangely conscious.

It was as if the fiery passion in my mind and my rational will was in perfect harmony.

My enemy suddenly approached me as it used its Horn Crush one step away from my range and approached me without any preliminary movement.

With my current status, I couldn’t dodge it at this distance as I adjusted my stance to deflect the attack.

However, rather than following my battle pattern, my body jumped to the side as it followed my natural instincts. As a result, I dodged an attack that shouldn’t be possible.

The Darkhorn Deer was a cowardly monster as it began to run the moment it realised it couldn’t win the battle. After it’s Horn Crush missed, it continued to run at full speed without losing any time. The Darkhorn Deer’s specialty was its agility and attack power, with both values being drastically higher than mine making it impossible to run after it.

However, my body didn’t listen to my voice of reason as I ran after the monster, quickly catching up to it. Then, a thrust utilising the full momentum of the rush sunk into the neck of the beast. The beast’s shriek echoed throughout the area as my wrists continued to turn rapidly, widening its wound.

[GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH] (Yuuya)

I let out a war cry as I felt my primal urges become stronger and stronger. Even though the enemy was killed and the blade was soaked in blood, the bloodthirst wasn’t dissipating at all.

As I let out the war cry, I saw small bird perched onto the tree branch as I kicked up the trunk of the tree and began running vertically towards the bird and swung my blade, slicing it into two. Immediately afterwards, I scanned my surroundings to look for the next life as I found a small mouse, jumping off the tree and thrusting my blade forward.

My body wasn’t listening to me at all.

I could reason and think as much as I wanted, but my body was dominated by my instincts, following the urge to take every single life around me.

This can’t go on, at this rate..

If the girls came to find me because I was late, they’ll all get killed.

No matter how hard I tried, all my willpower amounted to, was just grinding my back teeth…

But that alone was a matter of life or death.

Behind my molars was a special item that could recover any abnormal status effect, an Elixir.

As a solo adventurer, the moment you are inflicted with any status abnormality in a dungeon, whether it be paralysis, a curse, petrification etcetera, you will die without a doubt. In the event that occured, I prepared the Elixir behind my teeth and made its container easily chewable so that they could be ingested without any effort.

Just as that happened, the fiery heat in my body began to dissipate as the red vessels eroding my arms began to disappear and I began to regain control of my body.

Thankfully, my condition was considered an abnormality as I stabbed Dainsleif into the ground with all my strength.

[Just, what in the world is this.] (Yuuya)

I sat away from the blade which lost its ominous red glow standing in the ground.

[Sigh.] (Yuuya)

Suddenly, I heard a dull sound as my bones began to break and I began vomiting blood.

A sharp pain began to run through my body from my knees as I began to scramble around, quickly chugging down a recovery potion. Afterwards, I quickly took out the appraisal item from my magic bag and looked towards Dainsleif. Previously I couldn’t read any information besides the fact that it was sealed, but what about now?

[I see, so that’s what it was.] (Yuuya)

I finally understood the mystery that was Dainsleif.

Firstly, the reason why none of the knights before me from the Laluzulu Kingdom could unsheath it was because you required both high physical and magical stats in order to pull it out of its scabbard.

Putting aside the physical requirement, for knights whose profession resulted in a decrease in magic power, it was a value that they would never be able to reach unless they cleared the Tower of Trials and reached the upper level limit.

Secondly, Dainself itself had such a high performance that even god-tier equipment wouldn’t have the same raw stats that it had.

Lastly, it provided a special effect.

Status Infliction:Berserker.

All stats are tripled until every living thing in the area is destroyed. Condition will be removed once everything is killed. Once the effect ends, damage proportional to the duration of Berserker will be inflicted.

[It is practically useless… No one would use it even if it was implemented into the game..] (Yuuya)

Until all life in the vicinity is snuffed out, the user would continue to attempt to kill it with all of its strength regardless of its will. Just like before, I killed not only the monster, but even the birds and mice in the area. I’m glad that Luna or Til didn’t tag along as I’m sure that even your own allies would be designated as a target.

If that was the only downside, then solo players would use it but the backlash from the Berserker state wasn’t something to laugh at. Based on the damage I took earlier, it seems that I would take about one percent of my health in three seconds, which meant that it would be an instant death if it didn’t end within three hundred seconds. Furthermore, there was no way of surviving this damage by using a recovery item…

Although, tripling all stats was extremely attractive. Even magic enhancements couldn’t perform any buffs to this extent.

[… It may be a good thing if I never have to pull out Dainsleif. It’s far too unfriendly to use.] (Yuuya)

In exchange for a tremendous power boost, the blade can’t be put into its scabbard until it has shed sufficient blood. More specifically, in exchange for tripling your stats, the abnormal status will continue until all surrounding life is killed and the amount of backlash received is proportional to the duration of the condition.

As for its usage, the blade can only be used in a situation where everyone but me is annihilated. Or when everyone has escaped the vicinity with a Return Stone.

Both are equally difficult to think about.

[Looks like this will be the absolute last trump card. Until then, it’ll stay in my magic bag.] (Yuuya)

After making my decision, I put Dainsleif back into the bag and replaced it with my treasured longsword that I kept in my bag the entire time. Looking towards where the Darkhorn used to be, I saw its item drop, the Darkhorn. It was a popular ingredient for conducting medicine.

It’s about time for me to head back.

I’m hungry and I’m sure everyone is worried about me.

… After returning to camp, I told everyone that I couldn’t pull Dainsleif out of its scabbard. Even though she didn’t know anything, I’m sure that Selene would deeply regret gifting me such a dangerous item.