Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

234 – The demon of Envy and the demon of Wrath

About one year has passed. There’s been much progress in that year.

The surveillance system at the elf village is in the process of being perfectly completed. I’d never expected, that so many reincarnators would be gathered. I realise that the elves are going about securing the reincarnators, far faster than I am able to. Also, I realise that sensei is being used. No matter how many excellent magicians the elves might have, no matter what kind of underground operations they might have, for them to have gathered this many reincarnators is next to impossible. With the exception called Ruler Authority. I don’t think that Potimas can use Ruler Authority, so I think sensei has acquired some sort of Ruler skill, and is then using the skill search to infer the reincarnators’ locations. And that by using that information, the elves are gathering the reincarnators,

As to the reason why the elves are gathering the reincarnators, I only have a vague guess. I think the elves want to keep them permanently useless, so that they don’t develop. The reincarnators who are born by nature with a huge amount of skill points, their development potential is in the cheat class. That is, not something that the elves approve of. To keep them pruned back from becoming enemies. They’re not being killed immediately to satisfy and keep using sensei, or if not that then perhaps they’re uncertain of D’s true motives and are hesitating. Alternatively, maybe it’s to threaten Kuro somewhat. That’s all I can think of.

I’ve fallen far behind in terms of securing the reincarnators. Currently the only reincarnator I have is the vampire girl. Certainly I have marked some persons who are like that, but the only remaining ones are hard to get children from royalty or high status or under the protection of the Divine Word Religion. It seems that the same can be said of the elves, as the ones they’re obliquely monitoring, seem to be rejecting direct contact. It seems there’s some reincarnator-like people amongst an oddball mercenary band, having run into an elite demon group. So that those children don’t die, just in case I’ve recently dispatched Mera and some clones to look out for them.

The other one who caught my eye, is an ogre who appeared recently. There’s only been rumours so far, since I haven’t seen the actual one, but it appears to have some abilities that are unthinkable for a normal specimen. Rumours state, when it glows it achieves full recovery. Rumours state, its fighting ability shows sudden drastic spikes. Rumours state, it possesses multiple magic swords.

For the first one on full recovery, that’s, the level-up recovery, right? For the second one, I also have an idea about that. The System’s Wrath feature has been unlocked. That is, something that someone who has gained Wrath can do. Wrath explosively raises one’s status, but in exchange the Divine Area is quickly eaten away, so it has a really awful downside. For a fool to acquire such a booby-trap skill, or rather, for a fool to have the specs to be able to acquire it, it’s gotta be a reincarnator. It’s pretty much that hard to acquire a Ruler skill. But, for reincarnators who have excess skill points, they can just purchase it forcibly. Though I’ve no idea why anyone would want such a booby-trapped skill. And finally, the magic swords. For a skill that can create magic swords, it wouldn’t be surprising for a reincarnator to have it.

So there we have it, the likelihood of that ogre being a reincarnator is extremely high. So let’s try contacting him then. Well, I dispatched clones to try, but unfortunately they weren’t able to find him. Next thing, a group of knights from the Empire got the jump on me and rode out to subjugate the ogre it seems. Not only that, the one leading that lot was the magician apprenticeship applicant. When I saw him last he had the impression of being almost an old man, but he’s totally an old man now.

That old man, was one step away from cornering the ogre, but it was able to escape from the area. Just when he’d been shot through the head with magic, with that rumoured full recovery he endured, and was allowed to get away it seems. Close shave! You were so dead. If it’s as I suspect, and that full recovery is due to the special level-up that reincarnators get, then ogre-kun sure was walking the tightrope there man. To get a level-up that actually timed with being on the verge of death, you got amazing real world luck there. I’d like just a bit of that luck.

However, perhaps due to his survival instincts kicking in when about to die, it’s like he activated Wrath when escaping. This is bad. From my investigations, ogre-kun, you’ve been using Wrath quite a lot. It might not be long until you lose your sense of reason. If possible I’d like to secure him before that happens, can I find him? I have my clones search the area.

While pursuing ogre-kun, I have a little problem to deal with. The vampire girl. I raised her on a whim, but when I think of what I’m trying to do, making her gain skills is like really bad you know. The way things are going won’t my plan kill the vampire girl dead? What’s with raising her then killing her? I have to think of some kind of countermeasure, to devise some method to allow the vampire girl to live.

Regarding that problem, that vampire girl has made the problem even fucking worse all by herself. Almost simultaneously with Wrath, Envy has been unlocked. The culprit, is someone close by. Indeed, a clone doing proper test firing for skill training actually witnessed it. Vampire girl, she’s the one who fucking acquired Envy!

Are you dumb? Are you an idiot? Wanna die? Man, gimmie a break. Didn’t I tell you that the Ruler skill is one that mustn’t be acquired first thing, so why did you actually acquire it then I wonder. I’m in no place to say this though since I previously owned several.

The Ruler skill, that is, a broken ability super-powerful skill while simultaneously being an unquestionably booby-trapped skill that gnaws away at the possessor. I was lucky. Since I had Heresy Nullity you see. The Ruler Skill’s soul contamination wasn’t able to spread that far. But, the vampire girl doesn’t have that option. At this rate vampire girl is gonna become an Envy maniac!

For now, let’s ban her from using the skill as a temporary remedy. That way, the damage should be restrained as much as possible. I gotta ask her why she has such a skill anyway, so I guess I better go and talk to her at once.