Final Build

I sharply twisted the sword I had plunged into the boss’s neck. With a *crunch*, its neck twisted sharply, and the Vampire Impulse activated, refilling my HP.

I pulled out the Wingless Nightmare. The boss’s corpse fell backward with a *thump*. Since this one was also just a palette-swapped variant, I felt no particular emotion. I skipped the main body since it wasn’t necessary to catch it.

As I had told her, Nyx, who had been quietly watching the boss fight from a distance, came scurrying over.

“*Kih-hee-heet*, is that it? Is it over?”

“I suppose so. I just need to acquire this. Then what I spoke of will be finished.”

Nyx handed over the staff she was holding. I took it and gripped it in my right hand.

Since black magic isn’t used with a separate medium like a magic staff or a holy catalyst, but rather with bare hands, its purpose was singular.

Rune Dispel Magic.

‘I was so well-received that it became embarrassing.’

When I put on the ring Minerva-nim gave me and visited the mages in a nearby city, I received a similar reaction to when I wore the Pope’s brooch and met the Holy Knights.

They were struggling desperately not to displease me in any way. It was to the point where I wondered if these were truly the same mage NPCs who were famously rude in the game.

They seemed ready to uproot their entire workshops and offer them to me if I said one wrong word, so after receiving just one staff and the Rune Dispel Magic, I immediately fled, and this was the second place I headed to.

A Rune Dungeon for the final build of a Dark-Light Mode melee character. Colloquially known as the place to obtain the ‘Life Force Conversion’ rune.

I had already stopped by the first location and acquired the rune that allowed me to ignore the ‘Battle Fatigue’ debuff. It was so simple that it felt almost anticlimactic, considering I had made the plan long ago and put it off until now.

‘Though Nyx did all the work getting here.’

If there were no teleportation, wouldn’t it have taken at least several months just for travel back and forth? I was once again grateful that Nyx, Minerva-nim, and the Pope sisters were here.

“*Kih-hee-heet*, why?”

As if she felt my gaze, Nyx looked up at me with a gloomy smile.

“Huh? No. Just that you worked hard. Using teleportation.”

“Then, what about my reward?”

“Reward? What kind?”

“Just one thing is enough for me. *Kih-hee-heet*.”

Along with her gloomy smile, her slender finger tapped my right hand.

I switched my grip on the staff, then raised my right hand and placed it on her head. As soon as she felt the warm touch, Nyx purred and clung to me.

Whether it was the informal Nyx or the formal Nyx, both of them loved being petted so much that even I, the one doing the petting, found it fascinating. It was unknown what had happened to make her personality like this.

After petting her for a long time, I took my hand away, approached the rune monument, and raised the staff. I infused mana into it according to the knowledge in my head. Then, its tip began to glow blue.

The tattoo etched on the back of my hand also glowed as if resonating with it. As I was about to remove the Mana Enhancement rune like this, a sudden thought made me pause.

‘……Now that I think about it, what happens if I dispel a rune?’

In the game, there’s a separate UI for storing runes, but not here.

In the first place, such magic or specific devices are only required when dispelling runes, and equipping runes could be done easily from the inventory window that appeared by pressing ESC.

But I wondered what would happen if I dispelled a rune here. Because the only UI I had seen since possessing this body was the stat window that appeared from the Ability Check Orb.

‘Well, it’ll work out somehow.’

Anyway, I don’t need it anymore, and according to the lore, if a rune’s user disappears, it immediately reappears somewhere in the world. Even if the rune were to vanish, a new rune dungeon would surely appear.

I focused on the back of my hand again. The tattoo was still glowing. As I shifted my gaze to the tattoo, the type of rune each tattoo represented came to mind.

Without hesitation, I dispelled the ‘Mana Enhancement’ rune. It wasn’t particularly needed from now on.

The black tattoo disappeared as if absorbed into the back of my hand. Nyx, confirming the magic was finished, held out her hand. I entrusted the staff to Nyx again.

The long wooden stick was tucked between her breasts.

“…….”

To be precise, she just hugged it to her chest, but because her breasts were so large and her attire was what it was, it naturally ended up tucked between them.

Nyx, as if completely unaware of how she appeared, looked up at me with her usual gloomy smile.

‘……Right. She wouldn’t have done that on purpose.’

If Rije or the Pope sisters had done something like that, it would have been 100% intentional. However, I thought that Nyx might genuinely have done it without realizing.

Because I couldn’t really imagine Nyx deliberately trying to seduce me like those three. Even if she did act that way, I’d probably think she was cute rather than lewd or sexy.

Probably.

“Why? *Hee-heet*.”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I tickled her chin a few times, then placed my hand on the monument. Closing my eyes, I concentrated my mind, focusing the power that had begun to surge throughout my body onto the back of my left hand.

A tingling sensation spread across the back of my hand, and by the time that pain faded, I opened my eyes. The spot that had been completely emptied when the rune disappeared was now filled with a new tattoo.

‘This is truly the end.’

Thinking that I had finally completed the final build, I felt a strange sensation.

It took less time than I expected. I thought it would take at least several years to travel across the entire continent. The help from Nyx and Minerva-nim, especially Nyx’s help, was significant.

The name of the last rune I obtained here was ‘Life Force Conversion’. Its effect was to change the resource cost of black magic from HP and mana to pure HP.

Black magic originally consumes a small amount of HP along with mana. However, this rune allowed black magic to be used with only HP consumption, without mana.

Instead, the HP consumed changes from a fixed value to a percentage of health. Therefore, it was a rune not generally used, as even a slight increase in the Health stat would lead to higher potion costs.

‘That’s only if the Health stat is high, though.’

The fact that HP is consumed as a percentage means that the lower the Health stat, the higher the efficiency. There was no need to even mention it in my current case, where my Health stat was only 1.

The HP consumption value changed by the Life Force Conversion rune varies greatly, from a minimum of 7% to a maximum of 30%, but for a character with a Health stat of 1, it was nothing.

Because my maximum HP was merely 100.

Even if 30% of that was lost, it would only be 30, so even if I used the black magic with the highest consumption, the Vampire Impulse’s 50 HP recovery would be more than enough to cover it.

This was the final build for a Dark-Light Mode melee character. Now, all I needed to do was prepare a counter-strategy for boss fights where the Vampire Impulse couldn’t be used.

“Is it really over now?”

The rune monument, having completed its task, crumbled with a *crackle*. Nyx, who had been looking at me with the staff tucked between her breasts, approached with quick, short steps.

“Finished. Now we should go back.”

“*Kih-hee-heet*. I understand.”

I had no desire to test the rune’s performance here. What’s the point, when I’ll be doing it to death anyway?

Nyx used teleportation as she always did, and we returned directly to my room at the top of the castle. She said she had used teleportation here so many times that she could even specify such precise coordinates.

“Huh?”

“Ah.”

As soon as we entered the room, we encountered someone completely unexpected.

It was Lana.

And she was on my bed, swaying her hips by herself.

Lana, who had been lying on the bed swaying her hips back and forth by herself, turned pale as soon as the two of us appeared with a black light. Her fingers gripped the blanket as if to tear it, and her lips were tightly pressed together.

At first, I thought it was because she had been caught in such a strange sight, but seeing her expression grow increasingly serious, I realized a moment too late that Nyx was the cause.

Nyx, seeing Lana, immediately disappeared with teleportation. As soon as that happened, Lana’s pale complexion returned to normal. I felt a little sorry for making her run away again as soon as she arrived here.

It seemed I would have to pet her more vigorously later.

“Good evening, Delta-nim.”

As if she had calmed her emotions in that short moment, Lana, who had raised her upper body as if nothing had happened, greeted me with her usual blunt expression.

“Good evening or whatever, why are you lying on my bed? And what was that just now?”

“It was a duty I naturally had to perform as a maid for my Owner-nim.”

“Your Owner-nim, you mean Aurora?”

“That’s right.”

*Nod*, Lana nodded. Saying it like that made it even stranger. What did her recent actions have to do with Aurora-rang?

As if she had read my expression, Lana continued calmly with an unperturbed expression.

“Isn’t it possible that my Owner-nim might lie down here someday? To prevent her from straining her back then, I was testing the mattress condition of the bed in advance. She will have to lie down for a very long time, and if she were to do so on a hard surface, her back would surely give out again.”

“…….”

I was at a loss as to where to even begin pointing things out. So, what she was saying was that she had tested the mattress in advance in preparation for me and Aurora-rang to ‘mix bodies’ here.

‘Is that right?’

“If you are curious how I tested it, I will show you directly.”

Lana, who had lain back down on the bed, bent her knees and pulled her thighs up to her sides. In that position, she spread her thighs wide, and then her waist-

“That’s enough.”

“Yes.”

Lana rose as if she had been waiting for me to say that. *Tuk-tuk*, her white-gloved hands straightened her wrinkled maid uniform. Her expression remained blunt.

“……Did you learn that from the Lord-nim too?”

“I taught myself. My Owner-nim is not in a position to teach me such jokes. It’s all because of Delta-nim.”

“Me? What did I do?”

Somehow, it sounded like something I’d heard from the Popes.

“Whether my Owner-nim still hasn’t forgotten the pleasure from that time, she’s busy every night playing with her fingers-“

“Stop right there, and tell me why you’re here.”

“I understand.”

I barely managed to shut her mouth, which was about to spill all of her Owner’s private life. She definitely wasn’t like this before, but somehow, she was changing more and more with each passing day.

“A guest has arrived at the Imperial Palace. That is why I have come to escort Delta-nim.”

“A guest? Who?”

Rije had just visited a short while ago. Was there anyone else who was supposed to come?

“They said their identity was a secret, but they told you to think about what Delta-nim sent to the Imperial Palace. Then you would easily be able to guess who has arrived.”

‘……It’s Minerva-nim.’

It seemed to be because of the scroll. Had the Crystal Scroll research already finished?

“I understand. Can we leave now?”

“Yes. I have brought a carriage, so I will escort you.”

Then Lana, who was about to walk out the door, paused for a moment and looked back.

“Anyway, between seeing you ‘mix bodies’ with Owner-nim, this level of joke is light-“

“Are you going to be like this until the very end?”