Volume 6 Chapter 3 Part 3 (1/2)

Around the time Wilhelm was heading over to meet Millie.

s.h.i.+ns party was inspecting the interior of Palmirack, as they were looking for a certain room.

”This one is closed too.”

They were looking for Cain's Palmirack's master room.

Cain was extremely fond of gimmicks, a pa.s.sion reflected by the great number of hidden doors, pa.s.sageways, and armories throughout Palmirack that would normally go by unnoticed.

Among them was a hidden pa.s.sageway that led to the room housing Palmirack's core. It was located in Cains room, the room with the most dangerous gimmicks in all of Palmirack, as proof of its special status.

But as long as they found the room, s.h.i.+n's party would have broken through. Once inside the room they would fully activate Palmirack's core and take back control of Palmirack: Millie's location would then be crystal clear.

Thus they kept searching for Cain's room, but the sheer number of closed part.i.tions was making their search a difficult one.

If they could find the pa.s.sageway, they would have already entered the room and activated the core.

”Being a room of top importance, it's probably designed to not let anyone inside.”

”It could be. I'm also concerned that Wilhelm's not answering our messageslet's look one more time. If we don't find anything, we're breaking through.”

s.h.i.+n nodded at Schnee's words and decided their next course of action.

They didn't do so from the beginning because most of Palmirack's walls and part.i.tions were made of chimeradite, a material with incredible properties.

It wouldn't be too hard for s.h.i.+n's party to simply break through, but destroying a 20-cemel thick chimeradite wall without anyone noticing would be impossible.

An attack of considerable strength would be required, and the resulting sound and vibrations could alert the surroundings.

If only a few people were present in the Church, it was possible for nothing to happen, but, unfortunately, many resided within Palmirack's walls, especially figures of high rank; like the pope and cardinals, priests in training and the senior priests instructing them. In addition, there were many knights stationed to protect the church.

The priests in training were also in charge of cooking and cleaning, thus always on the move throughout the building. If loud sounds or vibrations occurred, they would learn of it immediately.

”It's not here either.”

s.h.i.+n's party had moved past a hallway blocked by a dead end, returning to the previous doorway, but found their progress once again opposed by a part.i.tion.

Nothing else to do, they decided. We must break through.

At first they sensed the surrounding presence, waiting for as many people as possible to be far from their location. At the same time Schnee activated ”Silent Domain”, a skill disrupting the surrounding sounds. The probability of anyone noticing sounds caused by them thus dropped significantly.

s.h.i.+n confirmed the skill's activation, pulled out a card from the item box and materialized it. From s.h.i.+n's hands then appeared one katana.

Resting within a candid sheath decorated with red petals was Hakuramaru, a katana of Ancient grade.

s.h.i.+n calculated the timing when the least people were in their surroundings and prepared to unsheathe Hakuramaru.

As the skill activated Hakuramaru's hilt became a blur and three silver streaks ran across the wall's surface.

The katana martial skill ”Iai Hiengasane” (Iai Flock of Swallows) accelerated the slashes which drew an imperfect triangle on the wall.

Without relaxing his guard, s.h.i.+n placed Hakuramaru in its sheath and pushed the wall with his right hand, causing part of the slashed part.i.tion to fall on the side opposite to s.h.i.+n's party.

The falling metal caused a large vibration upon hitting the ground.

However, thanks to ”Silent Domain” the rumbling sound was not heard by anyone.

Also because of the distance, the people present near s.h.i.+n's party did notice the vibrations but did not make a ruckus about it.

”Let's go.”

”Yes.”

s.h.i.+n and Schnee pa.s.sed through the opening in the wall and stepped into Palmirack's inner quarters.

In the off chance someone pa.s.sed nearby, they put back part of the fallen part.i.tion where it originally was. After returning the wall to its former state, all light penetrating from outside was shut out, making it hard to see anything.

s.h.i.+n and Schnee both activated their detection skills to their maximum capabilities and proceeded quickly along the dark corridors. What they were wary of the most were the traps set around Cain's room.

If s.h.i.+n was registered as Cain's comrade there would be no obstacles, but if that had been revoked it would mean stepping foot in Palmirack's most dangerous trap zone.

s.h.i.+n, partly involved in the creation of the traps, absolutely did not want to fall victim to their effects.

”.no traps, apparently.”

”Yes, I do not perceive any danger either.”

s.h.i.+n and Schnee proceed onwards, with the utmost care possible. No matter how much they advanced through Palmirack, no traps seem to activate.

Taking advantage of such an opportunity, they quicken their steps towards Cain's quarters.

Even though the map function was unusable, he had visited that place many times in the past. s.h.i.+n proceeded with confidence and stopped before a certain door shortly after.

Confirming the absence of any traps, s.h.i.+n was preparing the keys, when a rattling sound reached his ears.

”The lock opened?”

”Probably.”

Schnee nodded to s.h.i.+n's question.

Putting strength in the hand holding the k.n.o.b was enough for the door to open without any resistance. It appears that the lock had been disabled simply by s.h.i.+n's presence.

”My registration is still active, then.”

s.h.i.+n still remembered that function. If someone registered in the system simply touched the k.n.o.b, the door would open automatically.

The room was as s.h.i.+n remembered it: a round table and chairs, cupboards, kitchen and other furniture, in the same arrangement he was used to, lying quietly in the darkness.

One difference was the dust piled on all of them. The room's environment control system was not active.

Not only s.h.i.+n, but any visitor could have understood that the room had not been in use for a long time.

”let's go. The secret pa.s.sageway is in the back.”

”.yes.”

After a brief pause in the silent room, s.h.i.+n walked towards the back. Schnee followed after softly replying to him.

The room in the back was only about 30 square feet: dust completely covered the desk and chairs within.

s.h.i.+n drew closer to the bookshelves and pushed on the 4th book from the left of the 4th shelf from below. This caused the shelves to quietly slide to the left, showing a type of door that opened left and right from the center.

That door too opened automatically as s.h.i.+n went closer. It concealed a so-called elevator.

The doors closed on their own after s.h.i.+n and Schnee stepped past them; the elevator then started descending.

After roughly 10 seconds of that floating sensation, the elevator stopped and its doors opened to a dimly lit hallway.

One minute later, s.h.i.+n and Schnee had already reached Palmirack's center, the room housing the core.

The room was shaped as a cube, with each side measuring 10 mels. At its center floated a black sphere of 50 cemels of diameter.

Innumerable geometric symbols were engraved on its surface, while streams of light ran periodically through the thin ca.n.a.ls etched on the object.

Those lights, however, were extremely faint.

”What's this?”

s.h.i.+n, after checking once again for the presence of the traps, walked towards the center of the room and the core.

”Is there anything wrong?”

”The core looks different than what I remember. The lights running on its surface used to be brighter and even though my data should still be registered, it won't respond to my presence.”

Originally, the interior control menu was supposed to be displayed in midair whenever a member of the Rokuten approached. However, this was not the case this time around.

”s.h.i.+n, there are traces of miasma in this room!”

”Miasma!?”

As s.h.i.+n walked forward for a closer examination, Schnee raised her voice suddenly, looking shocked.

Surprised, s.h.i.+n focused on his surroundings and felt the unmistakable nauseating presence of miasma.

”Are you serious? I hadn't noticed.”

”I suppose your resistance is too strong, thus its effects were nullified without you noticing. I do not possess a resistance as strong as yours, that's why I could notice, I think. Nevertheless, what could this mean?”

s.h.i.+n was now extremely resistant to all types of abnormal status effects. The miasma in the room was just enough to cause an ordinary person to feel sick, so it did not have any effect on s.h.i.+n.

Schnee's resistance, also because of her race's characteristics, was greatly inferior to s.h.i.+n's, thus she could notice the miasma's presence.

”It doesn't look like it's penetrating from outside.”

”A possibility is that the miasma mixed within the atmosphere acc.u.mulated over time, I suppose.”

Miasma is present wherever living beings are. In a place like the kingdom's capital, a ma.s.s of all sorts of entangled emotions, it was possible for miasma to acc.u.mulate without anyone knowing.

Of course, even if such a thing had been done deliberately, it was not possible for it to acc.u.mulate enough to cause something serious. The quant.i.ty in that room was that small.

Palmirack operated its interior by absorbing the surrounding magical power. Thus, while gathering magical power it had also absorbed the miasma mixed within it, or so Schnee thought.

”Could be. It's too little to be caused by a Demon.”

s.h.i.+n could not deny the possibility that after 500 years, some effect would be expected. He nodded while purifying the miasma.

After the miasma disappeared, the lights streaking over the core regained their brightness. At the same time, the Palmirack control menu appeared before s.h.i.+n's eyes.

Without wasting a second, s.h.i.+n searched all individuals present within Palmirack. Narrowing down targets using categories such as level, race and gender, he found only one applicable result.

”Underground, huh. There are 4 other responses nearby?”

He found a response in one of the rooms underground. It was a relatively large one.

Together with the response thought to be Millie, there were 2 others in front and 2 behind her.

”.!? This is!!”

s.h.i.+n operated the menu to display the room in question. The screen s.h.i.+fted to show Millie running, a black blade in her hand.

Before her, Wilhelm was clas.h.i.+ng against a man with a red great sword. Millie was running towards Wilhelm, but her facial expression seemed to lack focus.

”Schnee, we're jumping!”

”Yes!”

This is bad.

s.h.i.+n felt it instinctively. He operated the menu at high speed and activated the short-distance teleportation function within Palmirack.

s.h.i.+n and Schnee had been transported just in front of the room where Millie and the others were. Thinking it troublesome to open it, s.h.i.+n let his strength take control and punched the door open.

The doors opened in a V-shape and flew with a booming sound towards the man with the red sword

s.h.i.+n had found the location of the people inside the building with the menu and his detection abilities, while seeing the red sword was enough to let him understand that the man facing against Wilhelm was Eline.

s.h.i.+n flew into the room right after the door did.

There, he found Wilhelm kneeling on the floor, with the knife protruding from his back, and Millie staring blankly at her b.l.o.o.d.y hand.

To s.h.i.+n's eyes as player, Millie's status was clearly shown as ”Submission”.

The visual seen in the core room and this status window were enough to let s.h.i.+n know what had happened in the short time they employed to teleport.

”Wgwah!!”

With the same skill-powered fists that had broken the door in two, s.h.i.+n pounded mercilessly on Eline's face.

Leaving the sensation of broken bones on s.h.i.+n's hands, Eline spun in midair. After flying for several mel he crashed on a wall and slumped down on the floor.

He would not die; the skill was used to prevent it.

There were things s.h.i.+n needed to ask: and no matter how enraged he was, he would never kill someone on the spot.

It was a completely different question if being left alive would be pleasant for Eline, though.

”I made it just in timeor was I too late?”

Looking at Wilhelm clenching his teeth and Millie's still vacant expression, s.h.i.+n realized his voice was still imbued with anger. He grabbed Exvaine with the hand that had sent Eline flying.

”Schnee, heal Wilhelm. I'll take care of Millie.”

”Understood. What shall we do about that?”

”Our first priority is this. I paralyzed him, so he can't use teleportation.”

The skill s.h.i.+n had used on his fists was the bare-handed martial skill ”Nonfatal Fist”.

A common element of RPGs and battle-focused VR games, this technique leaves the opponent with at least 1 HP.

This technique also had the effect of paralyzing the opponent and preventing the usage of skills for a set time. Among similar skills there are ”Willow Throw” and ”Nonfatal Blade”, previously used against Barlux.

s.h.i.+n saw clearly from Eline's HP gauge that he barely had any left. s.h.i.+n's attack had landed cleanly. If it wasn't for ”Nonfatal Fist”, Eline would be mincemeat by now.

After confirming that he had been inflicted with paralysis, s.h.i.+n decided that they could ignore him for a while.

Schnee nodded at s.h.i.+n's words and cast healing magic on Wilhelm.

s.h.i.+n made sure Wilhelm's HP gauge was increasing and turned over to Millie.

”.”

Even with s.h.i.+n standing before her, Millie didn't show any response. She simply stared blankly into s.p.a.ce, hollow reflections filling her eyes. As the displayed ”Submission” status clearly showed, she had to be equipped with a submission item.

s.h.i.+n focused on observing Millie and noticed a kind of black mist emanating from her right arm.

”Let me roll up your sleeves a little.”

Rolling up Millie's right sleeve exposed a round item with the same golden characters present on Hermie's collar.

Submission items were generally shaped like collars, but this allowed them to be equipped on the arms or legs of children like Millie.

Even during the game, believing in stereotypes like ”collars are always equipped on necks” caused players to be caught by surprise from time to time.

Not knowing that the item would be effective even if equipped on someone's arms, Hermie and the others did not consider the possibility that Millie could have been manipulated too.

”I'm going to release you now.”

Probably thanks to his ability as ”Liberator”, s.h.i.+n knew how to destroy the item.

s.h.i.+n focused magic power on his left arm and grabbed the bracelet. The focused magic power scattered the black mist away and the loud noise of something cracking could be heard.

As s.h.i.+n released his grip, the bracelet, now reduced to bits, vanished in a puff of smoke.

As the ”Submission” status display vanished along with the bracelet, strength left Millie's unconscious body. s.h.i.+n caught her as she slumped to the floor, then faced towards Hermie.

”..I will remove the collar. Please come closer.”

”Please.”

Hermie was slightly wary of the man who had abruptly appeared in her quarters, but relaxed after witnessing how he punched Eline, healed Wilhelm, and freed Millie.

Hermie came closer and s.h.i.+n stretched his magic-powered hand, just as he had done with Millie. The collar visibly cracked at s.h.i.+n's touch, dissolving in the exact same way as Millie's bracelet did.

”It's really disappearing”

Unlike Millie, Hermie did not lose consciousness; She touched her neck where the collar used to be, as to make sure it was really gone.

”My name is s.h.i.+n, the woman tending to Wilhelm's wounds is Yuki. Lilis.h.i.+la requested our help. You are a Holy Woman, is that correct?”

”Yes, I am. So you are the allies Lilis.h.i.+la talked aboutmy name is Hermie Schultz. I am deeply grateful for your help.”

”We had our own reasons to do this, so please don't worry about it. Could I ask you to take care of Millie? I'm afraid things will turn quite b.l.o.o.d.y from now on, thus, it would be truly helpful if you headed with Yuki to where Lilis.h.i.+la is, milady.”

s.h.i.+n spoke to her because he didn't think what would likely happen next was something for women to witness.

While saying those words, s.h.i.+n emanated a completely different aura than when he asked Hermie to take care of Millie. His expression and tone of voice were calm and collected, yet Hermie felt a chill so severe that her whole body trembled.