Ch.7War Clouds

The forest returned to silence. All that remained was the muddy ground soaked with water and the Minotauroso standing there.

The pain of flesh being pierced and the shock to my bones had been terrifying at first. But whether it was because I’d become tougher since becoming a monster, or because the adrenaline from battle had made me forget my fear, I was able to fight through the pain.

If I had been an ordinary minotaur, I would have died instantly when his Jet Stream technique pierced my head. He might have been a chuunibyou, but his skills were the real deal.

The party that came a few days ago couldn’t even move properly when hit by my Fear, but this guy managed to hurt me and even threaten my life.

‘Thankfully he was an idiot.’

If his mental state had been more stable and he’d thought things through even a little, I would have been the one in his stomach instead. If he had disabled my legs from a distance and kept using his Jet Stream technique, I wouldn’t have had much to counter with—I would have been a punching bag for that little man.

As I was reviewing the recent battle and thinking about how to fight enemies who only attack from a distance, a voice came from the sky.

—Ding!

—Confirming the death of Play of the Gods participant ‘Achilles Paramount Leonhardt’. Activating roulette for the victor, ‘Minotauroso’.—

With those words, something fell from the sky.

Swoosh—

Despite falling from high in the sky, it landed without making a sound. Something like a schedule made by children dropped in front of my eyes.

“Muuu? (What’s this?)”

As if hearing my question, the voice from the sky spoke again.

—The victor, ‘Minotauroso’, can obtain one of the following from the deceased participant ‘Achilles Paramount Leonhardt’, hereafter ‘Achilles’, through the roulette: stats, attributes, skills, or unique trait.

—Beep—. Condition change. Since the victor ‘Minotauroso’ is a monster-type participant and cannot receive skills, the skill option has been removed from the roulette. Instead, the probability of receiving an attribute has increased.

With those words, the roulette began spinning. It rotated at such an incredible speed that even with my enhanced monster vision, I couldn’t make out the text. The rapidly spinning roulette continued ferociously, as if it wouldn’t stop until I told it to.

“Muuu…? (Stop…?)”

As soon as I said that, it gradually slowed down. The decreasing speed eventually came to a complete stop.

—Result. The victor ‘Minotauroso’ will randomly select one of participant ‘Achilles’ attributes.

—Wastefulness

—Self-absorption

—Mana Affinity

—Hand Seal Incantation

—Outsider

—Laziness

I sighed as soon as I saw the options. What kind of life did this bastard live?

Wastefulness, self-absorption, and laziness were complete penalties. Hand Seal Incantation was that ninja-like hand movement from earlier, but I’m not a magician so I don’t need it… And what’s Outsider? Am I supposed to rap or something?

The only one that seemed useful to me was Mana Affinity. If I could handle mana with this powerful body, I could defeat anyone. I desperately hoped for Mana Affinity, but—the world isn’t so kind.

The result from the roulette spinning once more was the worst possible outcome.

—Result. You will inherit ‘Laziness’ from participant ‘Achilles’.

As soon as I heard that, a ball of light from the roulette headed toward me. I tried to twist my body to avoid such a terrible attribute, but the light ball emitted a flash that paralyzed me and entered my body.

Having completed its task, the roulette rose into the sky, emitted light, and disappeared.

—Ding!

—Attribute ‘Laziness’ has been applied.

【Laziness】: Drowsiness comes whenever you train. When training, your strength and agility stats temporarily decrease by 10%, and with continued training, training efficiency decreases by 50%.

Killing this chuunibyou might have been the worst decision of my life.

* * * * *

A week after receiving Laziness. The unbearable drowsiness that occurred whenever I trained was the worst penalty for me as a monster.

My instincts were already stronger than my reason, and being forcibly made sleepy was unbearable.

For the past three days, I kept falling asleep whenever I tried to train. The only fortunate thing was that the penalty didn’t apply when I was moving around looking for food. If Laziness had penalized all movement, I might have starved to death.

By the fourth day, I could withstand the overwhelming sleepiness. The penalty still came just from thinking about training, but after three days I had become somewhat accustomed to it and could move my body while enduring the drowsiness… but now training efficiency was the problem.

The description said “continued,” so I thought it would be fine for at least 4 hours, but no. The training efficiency decreased after just 1 hour of movement. That chuunibyou who became strong despite carrying such a penalty suddenly seemed impressive.

Aren’t magicians supposed to be the most diligent people? In novels, they experiment for days on end.

I thought magicians were like fantasy engineers, but I don’t know how this guy became one. Or maybe since he was a participant, his unique trait was overpowered?

I don’t know what his unique trait was that made him so strong, but all he left me was this garbage attribute called Laziness. With no training efficiency and having to forcibly endure sleepiness every time, I continued to train.

They say attributes can develop and change through effort, so I kept training despite the Laziness penalty, believing that someday it would change into a good attribute.

* * * * *

Inside a building.

A man stared at documents with a serious expression. His face looked as grave as someone reading a military draft notice. While he was examining the papers, someone came to see him.

— Knock, knock, knock

“Come in.”

With those words, the door opened and a female employee entered carrying some documents. After receiving the small stack of papers, the man’s expression went from serious to looking as if he’d seen something that shouldn’t exist, and he stared at the woman.

“Is this true? That idiot still hasn’t returned?”

“Yes. The Gold Class party, Blood Hammer Group, went missing two weeks ago while on a mission in the Demon Forest. Someone was sent to search for them a week ago but still hasn’t returned either.”

“That idiot loves women despite pretending to be a man. Are you sure he’s not just rolling around in some brothel?”

The female employee shook her head at his words. She had checked with the gatekeeper who confirmed there was a record of him leaving but no record of him returning. No matter how much of an idiot he was, he still somewhat listened to the elf slave beside him, so if he had returned, it would have been recorded by the gatekeeper.

“No, damn it. Wasn’t that guy Titanium Class? I always call him an idiot because his mental state is no different from a child’s, but his skill level is Titanium Class. Aren’t there no dangerous monsters in that forest except for minotaurs?”

The woman nodded at his words.

“Yes, Guild Master. The original mission of the Blood Hammer Group in the Demon Forest was to subjugate a minotaur. But when they didn’t return, we assigned the search mission to him, who is Titanium Class, but…”

“So you’re saying a Titanium Class was defeated by a minotaur? The slave who accompanies him is also a Gold Class-level fighter from what I know. A Titanium Class and a Gold Class were defeated… by a mere minotaur?”

Minotaurs, with low intelligence and great strength, are monsters that fight using only their innate power.

They’re monsters that try to solve everything with brute force because they’re so strong, despite being able to figure things out with a little thought.

Even a Titanium Class can easily defeat one with preparation, and Gold Class fighters can also defeat them if they form a party and prepare thoroughly.

But now a Gold Class party has gone missing, and the guy who went to search for them—an idiot but with Titanium Class skills—has also been defeated. This fact implies…

“The appearance of a variant…”

“Yes. And a minotaur-level monster at that. Variants have been steadily increasing over the past 5 years, but this is the first case of an A-rank monster variant being discovered. I think we’ll need to call in at least a Titanium Class party to subjugate it, but…”

The Guild Master shook his head at her words. Where would they get the money to call a Titanium Class party? The guild was already chronically in the red.

“If a minotaur variant has appeared, the lord can’t ignore it either. Let’s report to the lord first and ask him to organize a subjugation force, rather than trying to solve this at our level. Could you prepare a report? I’ll meet with the lord myself.”

The female employee nodded and left, while the Guild Master looked at the documents again with a serious expression. His face was filled with undisguised concern.

* * * * *

“It’s true, I tell you! I really saw light shooting up into the sky and then boom—!! It exploded! I’m telling you there’s someone who killed what you call a participant!”

Inside a carriage, a fairy kept trying to convince her male companion to believe her.

“I got it already. Let’s first go to that area and check if anyone notable has died recently.”

“You finally believe me!? Hmph—Finally Kal is starting to believe me! At first you wouldn’t believe me no matter what and were always too busy swinging your sword and running away!”

A new storm was approaching the Demon Forest.