Ch.151Remaking the NPC (6)

In truth, wasn’t I reincarnated to stop the indiscriminate and corrupt seed-sowing of these bastards in this world?

Maybe I should just let everyone die except for Ira and our children, and kidnap Miho, Chikuyo, and the elder here to hide all those with player professions.

Perhaps the right answer is to ask a demon to scorch the continent once. I’m seriously starting to think that way.

Some purple bald guy halves the universe’s population just because he’s strong and smart and thinks he’s inevitable, but I’m smart and high-level, aren’t I? Isn’t it similar?

So it’s okay if I let everyone die, right? It’s not like I’m personally halving the population, just subtly tripping them up?

While listening to the highest-level spirit tell me truths that could make my head explode, my mind eventually moved toward considering joining hands with demons. After an internal conflict with White Jack saying, “No matter what, joining hands with demons crosses a line, doesn’t it?” I finally stopped my train of thought.

Right.

-SPLASH!!

“ARGH?!!”

[Pull yourself together. What are you spacing out for?]

I remained frozen until the chieftain splashed water on my face to bring me back to my senses.

…Ah, I really didn’t want to know any of that. I hate myself for asking.

[So. Are you finished with what you wanted to say?]

“Huh? What was I saying?”

[…Has your memory flown away? The shock must have been considerable.]

“You were talking about how elves tried to sell beastkin through human trafficking to use as breeders, and how they tried to foster hatred against humans.”

“Ah.”

I’ve learned everything I needed to know, and I don’t particularly want to hear more. No, if I hear any more, I might truly turn to the dark side, so let’s stop here.

Even though I can see status windows, it doesn’t seem like this spirit and the elder want anything specific from me.

I ended up explaining to them what I planned to do next.

Namely, taking the heads of the elven leadership.

[…I see.]

“Hmm.”

After hearing my explanation, both of them closed their eyes as if in contemplation.

Well, it wasn’t a difficult story, was it? Now that they know I’m here, the elves will soon come to pressure the beastkin, and if they can just buy me some time, I’ll break all the necks of their leadership.

Miho’s testimony alone should be enough, but if we brought all the victims from Aigram, there would be more than enough. There must be clear evidence too.

Even in the game, the Great Elder’s Tree, where the Great Elder resided, contained evidence of thousands of years of fostering hatred.

However, despite hearing my explanation, neither of them nodded immediately, and I waited for their response…

-Flinch.

“…Huh?”

[Hmm?]

“What’s happening?”

While waiting, with nothing else to do, I checked my Veteran Ranger’s detection at its limit, 5km away.

I turned my head toward the sensation of ‘two people’ coming to this beastkin village, and the two who didn’t understand the meaning of my action tilted their heads in confusion, but I had no time to worry about that.

“…What is it?”

Green Doll, and the other is an elf I met before, Salt Non. But this is…

“…Excuse me, I need to step out for a moment.”

[……]

“Where are you going? Our conversation is not yet…”

“This is more urgent than our current discussion. The rest can wait until I return…”

[-Profession: Spirit Magic Nation Elf Elder- Level: 401 Name: Green Doll: 4008 years old. (Status Severely Injured: Left Arm Amputated.)]

[Profession Elf Spearman: Level 244 Name Salt Non. (Status Severely Injured: Excessive Bleeding.)]

I tried to finish speaking urgently, but couldn’t complete my sentence. The condition of the two people detected at the edge of my range was literally a mess.

‘…What is it, what’s going on? Green Doll? Is that really Green Doll?!’

-Tap tap. Grab!!

“What are you doing?! I told you it’s urgent…!!”

“Judging by your expression, I think it’s right to stop you.”

“No! What’s wrong with my expression…?!!”

The moment I tried to run, the elder intercepted me despite my detection and reaction speed, grabbing my arm, and I tried to shake her hand off…

[Send him here.]

-Whoosh!!

“Huh?!!”

-Splash!

Suddenly I felt my body floating in the air, and before I could even process it, I was submerged in the highest-level spirit’s body(?).

What the hell?! What’s this all of a sudden…!!

[Now I understand the meaning of the revelation that said if I didn’t bring you here at this time, you would die. The place you’re trying to go to now is a death trap.]

“Your expression just now was desperate and urgent, twisted with anger, like someone who had found their parents’ murderer.”

“No!! That’s not what matters right now! Let me go!! What kind of nonsense is that?! I already came here at the time according to the revelation you received…!!”

[Quest.]

“…What?”

W-what did she just say?

[Among the tens of thousands of revelations I’ve received over the years, it was the only one I couldn’t understand. The revelation instructed me with such wording. To save your life.]

“Wait a minute!! Quest?! Are you saying your revelation gave you a quest?!”

“…Seeing that you understand those words, it seems I was right.”

The elder nodded as if she finally understood something, but I was becoming even more confused about the current situation.

More importantly, I tried to struggle out of the highest-level spirit’s watery body, but this wasn’t ordinary water. It’s incredibly heavy!!

And why can I breathe and speak underwater?!

[It’s exactly as I said. Even I, who have lived for tens of thousands of years, have never received such a revelation before. If I recite the revelation exactly as it came to me…]

[(!)Quest – Pass through the Highest-Level Spirit’s Trial.]

[Reward: Your chances of survival will increase.]

[Failure to clear the quest will result in penalties!]

[Penalty – The continent will perish within 3 months.]

[Penalty2 – Green Doll. Miho. Chikuyo. Highest-Level Water Spirit, Spirit King. Spirit Number. Confirmed Death]

[I shall give you a trial…]

“You saw a trial being given to me, and if I don’t pass it, Green Doll, Miho, Chikuyo, and you, the Spirit King, and Spirit Number will die. Is that what you saw?”

[It seems you saw it too. Yes, and the continent will perish…]

A quest that appeared almost three years after the Ragni rescue quest. I don’t understand why it’s appearing before me only now.

But still.

-Crack…!!

“I may not care about the continent’s destruction, but I understand that people who shouldn’t die will die. Give me the trial right now, so I can finish it quickly.”

[I will…. I see. You’ve already made up your mind.]

I thought she might scold me for cutting her off again, but she said nothing more and simply took me into the pond while keeping me within her body.

Shit, shit, shit…!!!

[Perna.]

“Yes.”

[Go outside and see what’s happening out there…]

“Elves are coming. It’s someone I know. His name is Green Doll.”

Interrupting the chieftain who was speaking to the elder without looking back, both of them turned to look at me.

“In terms of strength, he’s similar to my level. And such a person is now…”

I don’t want to believe it, but the Green Doll that appeared in my detection is not in a normal state. Yes.

“…approaching with severe injuries, including a missing arm. Please send a medical team and people to protect him. I’m begging you.”

Green Doll with his left arm amputated, and he’s not even Shanks.

Honestly, I want to rush out right now, but this damned quest and trial are telling me that if I don’t accept them now, he might end up not like Shanks but like a fire human burned to death by magma.

And not just Green Doll, but too many precious people connected to me.

Damn it, plague, hell!! If I had come out earlier, if I had ordered movement sooner!!! If I had just moved last night…!!!

“And please tell Green Doll that I’ll finish the trial quickly and take care of everything I promised. Tell him to hang on just a little longer.”

“Alright, I understand. Leave it to me. I’ll protect his life even if it costs me my own.”

I’d prefer if it didn’t cost a life, but I didn’t raise any unnecessary objections.

After confirming that I had finished speaking, the highest-level spirit took me down to the bottom of the pond.

I had no time to enjoy the strange experience of being able to breathe and speak underwater.

[There’s no way to explain how the trial works. It’s different for each person, each living being, each existence.]

“It doesn’t matter. I’m in a hurry anyway, so just quickly…”

-Plop!

“Gasp?!!”

I was expelled from her body and pushed into a cave at the bottom of the pond.

As the highest-level spirit grew distant, looking at me with an expressionless face that might have been concern or complete indifference, I sank down into the cave.

‘…This trial isn’t a breath-holding contest, is it?!’

The moment I was expelled from her body, like a normal human who can’t breathe through gills, I started to suffocate and struggled.

‘Wait, this is…!! Damn, breath!! Air!!!… W-water!! It’s hea… vy…?!!!’

And with that, I lost consciousness at the bottom of the seemingly endless underwater cave.

*

“It’s truly a pity. I had no intention of letting him go, yet he managed to escape from me with his own abilities. Green Doll, you’ve truly achieved growth beyond my expectations.”

-Slice.

“It’s always humans that are the problem, humans. If time had flowed normally and he had grown, that child could have led the next generation of elves. What a shame.”

The blonde elderly elf, the Great Elder, lightly swung the sword in his hand to cut up the fallen, ownerless arm on the ground, making it unusable again, and then started walking.

-Tap tap.

“Ugh, ah?”

“Knight Commander. How can you be sleeping in a place like this?”

“Ah, gasp!! G-Great Elder!! B-big trouble…!!”

“Tsk tsk. Pull yourself together. Green Doll, who defeated you, has already fled.”

“…W-what?!”

The Knight Commander, who had been knocked down by Green Doll, jumped up in surprise at the Great Elder’s words. The Great Elder shook his head at the Knight Commander and began issuing orders.

“Gather all combat-ready forces immediately.”

“Y-yes!! I’ll summon all the knights…!”

“Aish. You fool.”

-Bonk!!

“Ack?!!”

The Knight Commander, who screamed at the old man’s light punch, blinked in disbelief at the Great Elder’s touch, and he clicked his tongue and began giving orders again.

“From now on, we begin ‘punishment’ for the escaped Green Doll and the elf he took with him, as well as the beastkin village that hid the human who killed elves. I’ll say it again, gather all forces.”

“Ah, yes!! I’ll gather all forces including the knights!!”

The Knight Commander, finally understanding the Great Elder’s words, ran at full speed to begin gathering all forces, and the Great Elder clicked his tongue at the blood on his body and decided to change clothes in his room.

And thus revealed on his body was.

-Thump, thump.

“Hehe, I understand why one would sell their soul to a demon. When I thought my lifespan was nearly over, I made a deal with the Demon of Wrath, and when the results started to show, I was in despair. But to think things would turn out like this.”

Something like the flesh chunk of the high-level demon that Jack had killed before was pulsating near the Great Elder’s heart, creating a scene as if the flesh itself was replacing the elf’s heart.

“I don’t know how that Seven Deadly Sins demon died, but this is a very good situation. Like this, while I can still move, I can uproot humans and everything related to them.”

In his previous physical condition, it would have been impossible to block Green Doll’s first sword swing.

He had inserted a high-level demon’s flesh chunk into his heart and made a deal with the Demon of Wrath to extend his lifespan, but was gradually losing his sense of self as he was being eroded by wrath. However, for some unknown reason, the Demon of Wrath had died, leaving him only with the benefit of being able to move as in his prime, no, even better than in his prime.

Yes, he had become even stronger than when he had created and mastered the elven secret sword [Wind Riding].

In fact, even Green Doll, a genius who had mastered the same swordsmanship, was no match for him, so there was no reason not to be pleased.

“Now, I must personally take care of the aftermath of my child who left home and returned dead. And…”

[-Elf Great Elder- : Level 896]

-Flutter.

“Beasts who don’t understand despite being told for thousands of years should indeed be ruled with the whip. Yes, as the child said, let’s ‘scorch it all.'”

The old man, having changed his clothes and raised the corner of his mouth, began to advance with only a sword at his waist.

And his eyes, which would have originally been blue like an elf’s, began to look at the beastkin village with dark red wrath.