Ch.1211A Long Rest

======[ Haschal ]======

Those who prefer the sickly beautiful Daffodil Goddess Haschal might find it somewhat disappointing, but my injuries had mostly healed after about ten days.

Perhaps it was because my body’s regeneration speed increased in proportion to the recovery of my depleted strength.

Thanks to that, I was able to escape my half-paralyzed state—where I couldn’t even eat by myself—in just ten days.

Though I’m not completely healed yet and occasionally feel slight tingling in my limbs, that’s hardly an issue as long as I don’t need to fight right away.

‘As for my power recovery… perhaps I need to wait a bit longer.’

While my body was healing rapidly, my strength wasn’t returning at the same pace.

[ It can’t be helped. You unleashed your divine nature and used powerful techniques one after another. ]

As Hersella said, perhaps because I had consumed an enormous amount of power in such a short time, my energy was replenishing painfully slowly. Even after ten days, I still felt completely drained.

How should I describe this unpleasant sensation? Like being forced to wear a fur coat soaked with rain and sweat, damp and heavy, all day long? That unpleasant weakness had persisted for ten days straight.

The pain from my wounds had almost disappeared, and the maddening hunger had subsided, but this weakness showed no signs of improvement.

It was so irritating that the pain and discomfort from my injuries seemed “trivial” in comparison.

‘Still… there were definitely results.’

I nodded with small satisfaction as I looked down at my right hand, which I was diligently wiggling as part of rehabilitation.

The battle was grueling, and the rehabilitation process was frustratingly unpleasant, but looking at the results, the suffering was certainly worthwhile.

Repeatedly engaging in life-threatening battles is the shortcut to becoming stronger.

You know, as the old saying goes: what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger… something like that.

In reality, while this battle temporarily thwarted the allied forces’ advance into the central region, those who survived the fierce battle could become much stronger than before.

Of course, the nagas and rock monkeys don’t accumulate Karma to grow stronger like humans do, so they didn’t grow dramatically… but we’re different.

At the very least, the existing hero-class forces, including Nigel, had clearly grown stronger from the rough battles in Naraka and this bloody conflict.

Nigel and Ophelia seemed just one step away from reaching the level of the Great’s Twelve Knights.

They probably acquired small fragments of divinity. Too small to awaken, and without knowing how to awaken divinity in the first place, they couldn’t reach the realm of demigods, but still.

Jahan, in particular, had accumulated so much Karma power from his valiant efforts that the duration of his Tale of Heros had nearly doubled, by his own estimation.

Lena, who had always been almost saint-level in her healing miracles, was now beyond that. Her healing speed was so impressive that even Lacy would have to acknowledge her superiority.

And Ophelia….

– I wonder what would happen if I made a homunculus with this. I’m excited.

– How did you manage to collect the corpse in the midst of all that…?

…Ophelia was just being Ophelia.

Everyone must have been desperately fleeing, yet somehow she had managed to collect the Spider Queen’s corpse through some magical trick.

Although it didn’t contain the creature’s divinity, the corpse of a being that had been a demigod was still immensely valuable even as an empty shell.

Especially for someone like Ophelia, who manipulates souls and corpses—no, she’s not a witch yet. What was it? A pseudo-witch necromancer.

Lastly, Leonore had apparently crossed the threshold she’d been approaching and fully reached the realm of heroes through this battle.

As a result, her previously incomplete Tale of Heros had evolved into a more powerful and threatening ability.

Compared to those who had already reached the upper limits of herohood, she had just overcome the first hurdle, but the fact that she had crossed the threshold was significant in itself.

The stagnation caused by hitting that wall was now over, and from now on, she could grow stronger in direct proportion to her efforts.

Apparently, she crossed the threshold not toward the end but in the middle of the battle, and afterward, she achieved rapid growth by cutting down multiple Arachnes.

Since I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’m slightly skeptical about whether she really grew that strong… well, she claimed it herself, so I should probably believe her.

—-

Anyway, my companions achieved rapid growth like that.

Of course, it’s not enough to catch up to my growth rate, but that’s inevitable given the vast difference in the level of enemies we defeated.

Killing over a hundred Arachnes might not equal defeating a single demigod.

Since the latter is hundreds of times more difficult and dangerous, it’s only fair that the reward is proportionally greater.

In other words, for others to catch up to me, it’s not enough for them to work to the point of death; they’d only have a chance if I were lazing around while they were working hard….

…Well, that’s not what’s important right now. My thoughts wandered a bit.

What’s important now isn’t my prediction that my companions probably won’t catch up to me, but that I’ve grown strong enough for such thoughts to become certainty.

‘The increase in divinity is about 60%…? The loss rate is higher than I expected… but once I fully recover, it should be impressive.’

[ …Indeed, this is already power that shouldn’t exist in the mortal world. ]

I can feel it. My power—or more precisely, the vessel that holds my power—has achieved remarkable growth.

[ The youngster who couldn’t even use his own Karma and was on par with a mere entry-level master has now become nothing short of a monster. What a dramatic change. ]

The assessment that I was a half-baked being who forcibly awakened divine power in an incomplete vessel is now ancient history.

My vessel is now perfectly complete, and with pure power alone—without any added blessings or divine protection—I was already surpassing the demigods I had faced until now.

Of course, what matters isn’t the size of power but how one wields it, so this alone doesn’t guarantee victory against all demigods….

…But still, in one-on-one fights, I could probably win against most of them? That’s the level of confidence I could now entertain after such rapid growth.

However, I was still somewhat disappointed that despite the ordeal of killing three demigod-level powerful enemies in succession, my power had increased by only 60%.

Of course, killing a demigod doesn’t mean obtaining all of their divinity intact, and some loss during the process of assimilating it into my own power is natural, but….

Even so, isn’t 60% too little? At this rate, almost one demigod’s worth of divinity has completely vanished into thin air.

While Hubrisia’s divinity suffered double loss since I took it from the Fallen Angel who had already devoured it, where did Caljarat’s divinity go?

Is that orc bastard still alive? No, that can’t be.

Although I didn’t see it with my own eyes and only sensed it, I definitely confirmed that his heart had stopped and his head was crushed, completely dead.

Even if I suspected that the wolf inside me had diverted and devoured all that divinity, Vanirgand, whom I met again in my dreams these past few days, clearly wasn’t that much stronger.

He had indeed grown stronger and more vigorous, but not to the extent of having swallowed a demigod’s divinity whole.

In terms of power increase alone, I was actually superior, able to withstand a bloody battle with him for quite a long time, unlike before.

– Have you still not realized? Your struggles are meaningless.

– Ha, well… we’ll see about that…!

Though the outcome didn’t particularly change… as long as I’m alive, what matters more than the result is the process leading to it.

Just being able to inflict meaningful wounds on him, unlike before, gave me the will to endure this recurring nightmare.

– See you next time, you bastard…!

If I continue fighting like this, someday, someday I’ll be able to defeat him—that belief, or what might colloquially be called “hope,” had emerged.

—-

Several more days passed peacefully.

A recovery period where I began to look beyond physical healing toward the restoration of my power.

Since Nagaraja and the naga priestesses, along with Leonore, took full responsibility for handling complicated and headache-inducing issues like reorganizing the allied forces, I could focus solely on resting and recovering without any worries.

“Please do some work, some work! You’re our representative, after all!”

Leonore, who had to handle paperwork while finding time to train her newly acquired power, exploded in frustration at the sight of me lying on the office sofa, munching on snacks….

“No, this kind of thing should be left to experts. Resting is my job right now, you know?”

Why would I voluntarily take on such pointless labor while my body was still recovering?

Even if I personally stepped in to handle the paperwork, I couldn’t finish the job as efficiently and quickly as she could.

“You’re so shameless…!”

Leonore glared at me with rebellious eyes at my brazen—yet factual—response, but what could she do? It was the truth.

Besides, when you open your eyes like that, you look exactly like your mother.

Blood doesn’t lie, that’s for sure. The upturned corners of her eyes dripping with ferocity made her face resemble a witch to anyone who saw it.

Of course, if I shared such observations, a hero-powered quill and inkwell might come flying at me, so I kept those thoughts to myself.

—-

Anyway, during such leisurely rest, I came to realize that Caljarat wasn’t actually dead but merely pretending to be.

More precisely, such suspicions had grown to near certainty.

The somewhat ambiguous growth in power after supposedly defeating him, Turankai who still hadn’t returned or even sent word.

The field of Arachne corpses, seemingly sliced by a giant blade, reported by the naga scouts who risked danger to reconnoiter the collapsed hideout.

All circumstantial evidence was telling me:

Caljarat was surprisingly still alive, and Turankai wasn’t delayed in returning but had crossed the river of no return, defeated by him.

…I suppose once my power recovers, I should find him first.

So I resolved to find and tear Caljarat apart as soon as I recovered. Not because my heart ached or intense hatred welled up.

Honestly, Turankai wasn’t exactly my friend or loyal servant, and his cooperation with me was, when you think about it, due to his own ambitions and for the prosperity of his race.

We weren’t close enough for me to feel bitter about his death in battle. Even with more time, I don’t think we would have become that close.

…Still, he was nominally my subordinate, wasn’t he?

So it seemed right to at least avenge him. That way, he could rest in peace.