episode_0024

“Abel, today was fun!”

“Yeah. Me too. And thanks to Uni, I think I’ll do well on the exam. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing! Besides, teaching you helped me too, you know?”

In the late afternoon, after finishing their study at the library, the two were returning to the academy.

Of course, they weren’t just stuck with their books the whole time; they also ate together in between, looked around, and sometimes, unintentionally, created a strange atmosphere with their skinship.

All in all, it was a satisfying day.

Abel and Uni walked side by side down the tranquil city streets.

It was at that moment.

“Move! Move!”

From the road beyond, a large carriage came hurtling roughly.

It must have been carrying heavy objects; the rattling sound was loud even from this distance. It seemed to be pushing itself too hard.

As worried, an accident quickly occurred.

*Crack!*

The wheel of the running carriage hit a stone on the road, bounced up, and then shattered upon impact when it came back down.

In the end, the carriage tilted, and the large object loaded onto it fell to the ground.

*Thud!*

A cloud of dust billowed up, and the tarpaulin covering the object flew into the sky.

What was revealed was a giant iron cage.

And a bizarrely shaped frog-like monster.

It was a Boar Frog.

The Boar Frog squeezed out of the bent iron cage, damaged from the fall, and looked around.

“A-a monster?”

“R-run away!”

People passing by on the street, seeing the monster, all ran for their lives.

Monsters are usually used as sacrifices in the Coliseum. Providing monsters there requires very legitimate procedures, and mercenary groups must be hired without fail to ensure safety.

So, in other words, the coachman was an illegal merchant.

*Gurgle?*

The Boar Frog, watching the fleeing people, inflated its vocal sac greatly and then followed after them.

No, it tried to follow.

“Stop!”

“Ah, Abel!”

If the two young man and woman hadn’t blocked its path, that is.

Abel stood facing the Boar Frog and spoke to Uni.

“Uni. If we leave it like this, there will definitely be great damage. We have to stop it.”

“But…”

“It’s alright. We can do it. It’s not that strong. So, will you help?”

The Boar Frog hadn’t managed to escape on its own before the cage bent. So, the two of them should be able to handle it.

This was Abel’s thought.

Uni, who had been looking between the Boar Frog and Abel’s face, soon nodded.

“Alright! I’ll help too.”

“Thank you. Then I’ll hold it back, and you attack with magic, Uni.”

“Okay! Just a moment!”

Without a shred of doubt, Uni entrusted her safety to Abel and began casting.

With a calm yet dignified flow of magic, fire condensed in her hand. The Boar Frog’s gaze immediately fixed on Uni.

It judged her to be a threat.

Meanwhile, Abel immediately swung his sword to keep its attention.

*Thwack!*

Flesh and sword collided with a squishy sound.

The Boar Frog’s elastic skin had the power to repel even sharp blades.

Thanks to that, the Boar Frog’s attention shifted from Uni back to Abel.

“That’s it. Over here! Look at me!”

If the Boar Frog had been a high-ranking monster, it probably would have ignored Abel. But it was a low-level monster with low intelligence. It tended to prioritize only the enemy right in front of it.

*Gurgle!*

The Boar Frog inflated its vocal sac greatly and charged at Abel.

*

“Deborah.”

“I know. I’ve already laid down magic around, so don’t worry.”

“Good. If you see anyone suspicious, tell me right away.”

Reassured by her confident reply, I looked down at Abel through the window.

Currently, I was on the third floor of an empty building put up for rent. The security wasn’t very strong, so Deborah’s magic easily bypassed it and we got in.

As a bonus, I also got an earful from Deborah about doing something she never signed up for.

“Is it about time now?”

Five minutes had passed since the fight began.

During that time, Uni’s magic had struck the Boar Frog a few times, and Abel had also been knocked down by its tongue, tumbling on the ground.

Roughly, from a game perspective, it was the timing for phase 2 to begin, with about half its health remaining.

*Gurgle!*

Just then, the precursor appeared.

The Boar Frog inflated its vocal sac to an incomparable size, then spat out sticky eggs from its belly.

The eggs plopped onto the ground and *cracked!* open, and tiny tadpoles burst out.

Strangely, they had both front and hind legs right after hatching from the eggs.

They all swarmed towards Abel.

“Whoa!”

“Abel, watch out!”

Abel, startled by their grotesque appearance, calmly swung his sword to deal with the tadpoles.

At the same time, he had to keep the Boar Frog’s attention and dodge its tongue, so naturally, the burden doubled.

It was an even tougher fight, but Abel continued to grow in such circumstances.

‘That’s actually quite a sweet pattern, you know.’

Those tadpoles are very annoying, but they have the advantage of allowing for infinite leveling.

In the game, some users would purposely only defeat tadpoles to grind levels, even when they could kill the Boar Frog after reaching level 100.

Later, a patch prevented leveling beyond 110, so it was only used briefly in the early stages.

Thinking about that, it seems whoever brought me here paid quite a bit of attention to the game.

It was while I was lost in my own thoughts.

“I found it!”

Deborah, who had been searching the surroundings using magic, cried out excitedly.

“You found it?”

“Yes. You can’t see her from here, but there’s someone on the rooftop of the building at 3 o’clock. She’s a cat beast-human. Cream-colored bob cut and amber eyes—”

“Ah, I know her, so don’t worry about her.”

“Huh?”

“I already know that kid. Is there anyone else besides her?”

“…Not yet.”

“Then keep looking. There must be someone else.”

“Alright…”

Deborah pouted and lowered her head at the words “already knew,” just when she thought she had finally shown some results.

I felt bad for treating her so coldly from my position as her employer, but I didn’t have the luxury of dedicating time to her right now.

*Thwack!*

“Ugh!”

“Abel!”

Abel, who had been dealing with the tadpoles, was hit by a tongue flying from a blind spot and sent flying.

He clutched his side, suggesting something was wrong with his ribs.

‘This isn’t good…’

In games, being hit by an attack would only reduce the HP bar, so combat power wouldn’t decrease, but reality was different.

Abel’s movements became sluggish, and the destructive power of his sword had decreased.

The balance of the fight was increasingly tipping to one side.

I prepared to intervene using Deborah if it came to that.

But very fortunately, the worst-case scenario was avoided. The problem was that it was different from what I expected.

“Abel! Move!”

“Huh? Ugh!”

Suddenly, Uni’s magic density, which she was casting, seemed to rise even further, and a blazing Flame Spear appeared above her head.

Fourth-tier magic, Flame Spear.

It’s a magic spell that mages can use when they reach level 100.

However, its size was extraordinary.

The Flame Spear, which should typically be around 2 meters, was nearly 3 meters in size.

Its power was also too exceptional to be considered merely a freshly attained fourth-tier spell.

‘Did she gain Flame Affinity?’

When one reaches level 100, they gain a new unique skill in addition to increased stat efficiency.

Uni would normally choose between Flame Affinity and Flame Burst, but it seems she opted for the former this time.

The important thing was that Uni was incomparably stronger now than just a moment ago.

The Flame Spear instantly passed over Abel’s head and embedded itself in the Boar Frog’s mouth.

*Whoosh!*

*Screech!*

The heat condensed in the Flame Spear instantly spread throughout its body, incinerating the Boar Frog.

It let out a cute scream, unbefitting its size, rolled frantically on the ground, and eventually burned black, its life extinguished.

It was an utterly anticlimactic victory.

“Uni, that was amazing! Did you achieve an awakening?”

“Yeah! First, let’s take care of the rest of the monsters!”

Watching Abel and Uni defeat the remaining stragglers, I was engulfed in anxiety.

‘Abel didn’t awaken.’

Starting from Chapter 2, there will be far more battles than now, and I don’t know if he can keep up in this state.

In my mind, only the scene of Abel rashly collapsing in vain kept replaying.

‘Damn it.’

At that moment, as I muttered curses inwardly and devised countermeasures.

“Bald wig!”

Suddenly, Deborah blurted out a bald-hating remark.

“…What? What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”

“A bald man wearing a wig, who was watching the fight from the alley, drew his sword as if he was about to intervene, then clicked his tongue and walked away as soon as the Boar Frog died!”

“You should have said that first! We’re chasing him immediately. Lead the way!”

“Ah, yes!”

We immediately rushed out of the building and ran to the alley where the bald man had been.

“Where is he?”

“Just a moment.”

Deborah placed her hand on the ground and used magic to trace for tracks.

Soon, she stood up and shook her head.

“I’m sorry. There are no traces.”

“No traces? Is that even possible?”

“…It’s certainly possible if their magic skills are superior to mine. But that person was a swordsman… Could they have used some special artifact?”

“An artifact, huh…”

I don’t know exactly what method they used, but there are ways to erase traces.

‘Could it be a Transmigrator?’

If it’s a Transmigrator’s information, items to erase traces can be obtained easily. I can think of at least two right now.

The problem is the lack of certainty.

The Boar Frog seemed to be intended for supply to an illegal private arena, so perhaps they were involved.

“Deborah. How old did that man seem?”

“Huh? Ah, I think he was around our age.”

“Then, an academy student…?”

A bald swordsman wearing a wig, an academy student. There’s no clearer clue than this.

‘I should investigate immediately.’

Who are you?

*

Meanwhile, at that time, Pernia, who was watching Abel from the rooftop of the building, frowned.

“What? He didn’t awaken?”

She had arrived an hour early and waited to witness the first highlight scene of Abel’s Chronicles with her own eyes, but what she saw was Abel being protected by the heroine instead.

Her disappointment as a game fan was one thing, but her other worries were even greater.

“Can I even see the ending this way?”

Pernia, the cat beast-human.

Her other name was Chiara Ancelotti.

A former pickpocket from a mafia family in Italy, she wanted an unconditional return.

Because her Oppa was waiting there.

For her, abandoned by her parents and raised as an orphan, her Oppa was her only remaining blood relative and pillar of support.

That’s why she went out of her way to befriend Abel, even using cat-like speech patterns that didn’t come naturally to her, but the outcome of all that effort had become uncertain.

“This won’t do.”

She couldn’t keep trusting only Abel and waiting indefinitely.

If that’s the case, there’s only one way.

‘I have to do it myself.’

It’s about getting stronger herself and moving towards the ending. To do that, she must mobilize all the knowledge she currently possesses.

And if necessary, she’ll have to use the protagonist’s party too.

Pernia stared at Abel.

“I just had a good idea.”

She had put it off until later because it would be difficult alone, but since she decided to remove the restrictions, she would use this opportunity to test it out and gain some benefits.

In her mind, the plan was gradually becoming more concrete.