abcnovels
Chapter 298: Holy Sword and Duty 3
Chapter 298: Holy Sword and Duty 3
Chapter 298: Holy Sword and Duty 3
TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
Join the discord! Here
The quest window suddenly told me to use an awakening skill.
It made me reflect on the game terms I knew.
It’s common gamer knowledge that the terms users and the game’s guides use differ.
The most powerful techniques that characters can use are sometimes called by users as finisher, ultimate, or ult.
However, the official term in Heroines Chronicle would be ‘ultimate skill.’
'What the f*ck is an awakening skill, just spouting sh*t only you know.'
As far as I knew, there was no such thing as an 'awakening skill' in Heroines Chronicle.
Just basic, first, second, third, passive—skills are just named in the order of their icons on the UI, and any very powerful skill with an initial cooldown is called an ultimate skill.
I tried to focus as much as I could with my slow-working brain, quickly crushing an attacking one-horned mountain goat and a screeching harpy as I dredged up memories from 11 years ago.
And then it hit me.
The term ‘awakening’ in Heroines Chronicle was used for star upgrading.
Roland was the first-born 6? character, and he is one of the rare few... actually, one of only three characters who could awaken to 7?.
F*ck, you mean to tell me that not only did they give a 6? character both mana form and divine energy form, but now if he awakens to 7?, an 'awakening skill' will newly appear?
'I should’ve f*cking read the notes.'
If the new character is going to be overpowered, I’ll just keep pulling until I get them~
I wish I could beat my past self, who didn’t read the notices and had a fit after drawing a male character, to death.
Why did I feel a strange pride in spending money and acting like a fool, leading me to this situation?
If my guess is right, recalling the direction of this sh*tty game company... then this 'awakening skill' is likely an overpowered, balance-breaking skill only the first 7? character would possess.
That means I need to reach 7? before confronting the boss on the 50th floor.
…Our entire party just achieved 5? awakening at the 40th floor, and you’re telling me to hit 7? before the 50th?
Make some damn sense.
---
Raei Translations
---
Han Se-ah was overwhelmed by a pregnancy scare, Irene by the thought of becoming the second wife, and I by the prospect of reaching 7?—our party's atmosphere was utterly deflated.
Grace and Katie were so confused that their faces were visibly twisted.
“Uh, Roland? What’s going on?”
“Hmm... I feel like I’ve hit a wall. It’s great that I got the holy sword, but it feels somehow stifling.”
“Ah, right. Unlike us, Roland has been at a higher level for quite some time.”
Fortunately, I can slightly tweak the reason for my grim look.
It's more plausible to say I've hit a wall in my training than to complain about the sh*tty quests the guy who extracted my soul here has given us.
Grace and Katie nodded at my words.
In a world where training mana can elevate a human to superhuman status, struggles to reach higher states are an acceptable excuse everywhere.
Once they understood my situation, the remaining issue was these two: Han Se-ah, who was caught off guard by the pregnancy attack, and Irene, who was embarrassed after talking big only to regret it later.
“...So, Roland, do you know why those two are acting like that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hmm, what were they talking about yesterday?”
Han Se-ah, usually lively for her streams, and Irene, usually smiling warmly, had both become quieter.
It seemed that three out of the five of us were lost in thought, quieting our exploration.
Regardless, as we fended off a cluelessly charging horned mountain goat and a shadow leopard, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
“But, something’s weird.”
“What is?”
“Aren’t there too few flying harpies?”
“...Right?”
At my comment, Grace quickly raises her head to look at the sky, realizing it for the first time.
It seems her attention was too focused on Han Se-ah and Irene to notice earlier.
Thinking back, things had been odd even before Irene launched a pregnancy scare at Han Se-ah.
A shadow leopard was waiting on a winding path, a herd of one-horned mountain goats was rushing in, and another shadow leopard was crouching in a rock crevice...
At some point, the patrol of wild black harpies that used to circle overhead had disappeared.
With neither black nor red harpies around, only fragmented clouds floated in the sky.
Surely, since the emergence of the harpy kingdom and the appearance of wild red harpies in the tower, things had changed.
We had even managed to sell a talkative harpy prodigy girl to the queen and converted her.
But from the edge of the 47th floor onwards, the harpies had suddenly vanished.
“When was the last time we saw a harpy?”
“At the beginning of the 47th floor, the harpy that attacked Roland was the last one.”
“Now that I think about it, that’s strange too. Why would a harpy that usually lurks around suddenly attack Roland?”
Grace nodded at Katie’s muttering.
It was indeed strange that a creature, which should be avoiding Grace's arrows, had directly charged at me.
I had dismissed it as insignificant at the time since I was preoccupied with awakening skills, but it was clearly abnormal behavior.
And if something unusual was happening in the tower, it was usually related to mid-bosses or bosses.
From suddenly appearing orc warriors to golems and even swamp and underground bugs.
Information gained through firsthand experience is hard to deny.
“What, you’re saying harpies haven’t been showing up?”
-Damn, didn't even not thanks to mommy's mind attack
-Those saying they noticed usually are the ones that didn't
-Facts
-But what’s the big deal if they’re not showing up? Just hurry up to the 50th floor
With the three of us talking about it, Han Se-ah finally showed interest.
It seems her viewers, too, aren’t keen on dragging out the same topic for two straight days and quickly join in.
A very significant number follow Han Se-ah’s stream, which has grown alarmingly thanks to the novelty of the first ever virtual reality game.
It felt like just last week she broke through the hundred-thousand barrier, but with the pregnancy gossip rolling, it was ballooning...
Viewers were increasing exponentially.
With virtual reality's ethical issues being mentioned on public news, viewers increased by thirty thousand in one go. A bizarre phenomenon.
Some watch streams for Irene, pretty streamers, female characters, out of curiosity about virtual reality games and some to get game strategies.
And when the number of those coming to watch exceeds a hundred thousand, the chat's opinion is instantly swept away by public opinion.
“Ah, you're slow. It’s because you were all rolling around useless gossip that you neglected other matters. Had this been the 20th or 30th floor, you’d be squinting at orc warriors doing this~ golems doing that~ giving unsolicited advice, but now all you do is talk about who will be Roland’s third wife.”
'Wow… now that’s scary.'
It felt like just the other day when I thought how can fifty thousand people watch an internet broadcast~ but now it seems the real-time viewer count will soon exceed five hundred thousand.
Maybe it's because Earth 4 has virtual reality games, or maybe because I’m a gamer who doesn’t know much about internet streaming, but the numbers floating in the hologram window just don’t seem real.
Han Se-ah, naturally chatting in front of hundreds of thousands of people, grinned.
“So to prevent any controversy, I’ll settle this. Watch.”
She’s a natural-born streamer, truly.
---
Raei Translations
---
The exploration of the 47th floor passed uneventfully.
In this eerily quiet layer, we couldn't find a cave connected to an underground city.
It was unclear whether a mid-boss had swept through and left it in ruins or if it was located in an unexplored corner like the harpy kingdom.
There were no caves, no black harpies, no red harpies, and no suspicious clues or triggers found.
However, the viewers did not seem to have any complaints.
At the entrance to the 48th floor, Irene and Han Se-ah, acting as if nothing unusual was happening, started a fire and began preparing dinner in a cave.
Han Se-ah then declared, with a look, that she would counter Irene’s pregnancy attack.
Perhaps due to her experience as a fitness and game streamer, or her instincts as a born streamer, she declared a straightforward approach.
Han Se-ah, who was staring at the sizzling meat wafting a rich buttery aroma, poked Irene and called her outside.
"...What are those two talking about?"
"They were talking about the temple; maybe it's related to hero duties?"
"Um... Well, since they're trying to hide it from us, it might be a secret of the hero. They haven't even told Roland."
The secrets of the temple are indeed secrets, but they're not what you would imagine.
Thinking this, I moved to the front of the pot to ensure the base ingredients for the stew wouldn't burn, pretending to stir, then I turned away from the corner to which Han Se-ah and Irene had moved.
Naturally, this was to sneak a look at the stream.
In a shadowy spot untouched by the light of the campfire, Han Se-ah, half her face hidden by flickering light as if plotting something, lowered her head and whispered softly.
“Irene, I've been thinking a bit.”
“Thinking... about what?”
“About, you know, what the temple is thinking.”
Their whispers could have been mistaken for those of a demon king’s closest confidants plotting a conspiracy.
The flickering shadows perfectly obscured her expression, whether by precise calculation or by the position of the camera and Irene.
“Then, with Roland…?”
“I’ve been thinking... what if you, Irene, go first? I trust you if it’s you.”
"...Hanna, what?"
With a wicked smile, professional streamer Han Se-ah concluded things with a frontal strategy.
-Ah lol I don’t know, just do it wife
-That’s right, Mommy should be Mommy, who else would be the official wife
-Calling her 'sister' was just a buildup?
-Is this a women's group? Is this a women's group? Is this a women's group? Is this a women's group? Is this a women's group? Is this a women's group?
-Female language, too hard to understand, sob sob
It would be more acceptable to show NPCs marrying each other rather than an internet streamer sleeping with an NPC.
Both for appearance on the stream and for maintaining the party... and also for her secret hobby.
In the flickering light of the campfire, the corners of Han Se-ah’s mouth curled upwards.