Netherborne [An OP Monster Isekai]

Chapter 35. A Unique Friendship

A creature from the void has recognized you as valuable.

Do you wish to accept an upgrade to your class and become a Tool of the Void?

“No,” Alice said as she moved the blue screens to the side. Then, before Victor could reply, she put her hands on her hips and proclaimed, “You still think of me as a tool, don’t you?” She smiled. “And that is understandable. We haven’t talked all that much, after all. It’s like back in Eshnar when I worked for my dad’s auction house. He made friends with many Archmages because he would provide them better seats at auctions.” She raised her finger at Victor. “But what would happen to their friendship if my dad lost his job or fell ill? Would the Archmages that called my father a friend come and visit him at the hospital or help support his family like a true friend? No. They are friends due to business, and that’s not real friendship.”

Victor was left stunned. Whatever the screen had told her was right.

Although Victor wanted to become friends with Alice, it was done with a business mindset. He wouldn’t have considered a potential friendship if she had ceased being useful to him. I don’t know anything about Alice, nor much about her personality, likes, or dislikes. Yet I declared during our first full conversation that I wanted to be friends with her? How shallow of me.

Alice paused and watched his reaction. Then, seeing he was silently floating there, she continued. “I don’t know why but the System seems eager to hand out class upgrades so long as I hang out with you. But why do I need a class to tell me I am your ally? Instead, we should foster that relationship organically.”

To say Victor’s opinion of Alice had skyrocketed would be an understatement. He knew nothing of her life before she stumbled into the forest as nothing but a skin-and-bone slave. A part of him looked down on the locals of this world; although Victor had never seen this world’s civilization, he had assumed it was beneath Earth, and therefore everyone here was inferior. I didn’t realize it, but I had been looking down on Alice all this time, and why? Because she has fewer levels? Less life experience? She’s from a lower developed world? So I let my ego cloud my judgment, and while justifying friendship in my mind, I was just trying to rope her in to be a glorified pet.

“So?” Alice shouted as she combed back her hair. “What do you think, mister void? Friends?” She struck out her hand and let it hang there.

Victor never expected the power that came with an offer from the other party. When he asked to be her friend, it came from a higher power position. It almost felt like giving sympathy, but as Alice stood atop a zombie dragon and demanded an ancient creature from the void to become her friend, Victor felt her determination. He didn’t know her aspirations or dreams, but now he wanted to know.

Victor used some stat points to condense his body into a smaller size. He never saw a need to before, but this seemed like a good occasion. With the power dynamic between them reversed, he felt silly looming over her like some deity and wanted to speak to her more personally. However, as he made his body denser, the rate of mana loss increased exponentially to over ten a second. He became a ball of black smoke that rose to the sky.

Alice watched the transformation through her Void Eye skill, which removed the smoke from her vision. Even with his condensed form, Victor stood at around three meters, but it was far more reasonable than his previous height, allowing him to tower over trees.

He reached out a claw, making sure the blade was pointed at the floor. “Friends?”

“Friends.” Alice clasped her hand around the offered limb and carefully shook the claw.

A creature from the void has recognized you as an equal.

Do you wish to accept an upgrade to your class and become a Friend of the Void?

Alice tapped the screen with a grin. This was a far more desirable outcome. Although she didn’t need the System to acknowledge her relationship, the fact she had been upgraded from a tool to a friend in the System’s eye was good enough for her. And if I take the class, maybe I will get some cool new skills to foster our friendship? she thought as she summoned the party screen. She wanted to know if her friend’s name was still listed as UNKNOWN.

[Name: Alice]

[Race: ???]

[Level: 52] (level up!)

[STR: 70, DEX: 82, CON: 89, INT: 152, WIS: 146]

(Slave) (Dulled Emotions)

[Name: Victor]

[Race: Netherborne]

[Level: 307]

[STR: 59 million, DEX: 59 million, CON: 59 million, INT: 59 million, WIS: 59 million]

(Lifeforce Unstable - 16388 hours) (Mana Sickness)

[Name: Terry]

[ERROR: CONNECTION LOST]

“Netherborne…” Alice looked up at Victor. He had reverted back to his original form and towered over her. “I have heard of your kind before.”

“Oh?” Victor replied with interest. The goddess told him Netherborne were the most powerful undead in existence when he picked the race. However, he knew nothing of its history or reputation. “What do you know about the Netherborne?”

“Well, Victor,” Alice answered cheerfully after discovering his name,” tales of the Netherborne are told to us as bedtime stories and proclaimed at church services.” She stroked her chin while looking at Victor. “Netherborne are portrayed as the ultimate evil and the epitome of destruction. But they are exactly that, a simple idea, a concept. Nobody has witnessed one and lived to tell the tale.” She used her Float skill to fly up and somewhat match Victor’s head level. “So I must be the first person in history to see your kind. And I must say, although you look the part of a continent-annihilating monster, you don’t quite match the stories, but they are stories, after all, can’t believe everything we are told…right?” She flew around him in circles while evaluating him.

“Continent annihilating?” Victor tilted his head to follow her. How could that happen? With the presence of dragons like Hyveth Arcspace and that Hacker, surely his kind could never go so far as annihilating an entire continent?

“How was the Netherborne stopped in the stories?” Perhaps if he could know how his ancestors perished, he could avoid a similar fate.

Alice chuckled. “They weren’t. Every few hundred years or so, a cult would succeed in summoning a Netherborne to the mortal plane. They often did it in a location filled with monsters to allow the Netherborne to feast to avoid the chance of it being dealt with early on.”

So that’s why I appeared in the middle of the cursed forest surrounded by a summoning circle and death cultists. But the location seemed long abandoned…so why did I appear there?

“It happened again.” Alice narrowed her eyes as they became swirling abysses and tracked the wave of energy from above. “What were you thinking about?”

“The bizarre nature of my arrival here,” Victor said with a sigh, and his many blue eyes shifted around. “Anyway, how did they die if they weren’t killed?”

Alice rubbed her stomach. “They starved, since everyone fled to the oceans and waited for months on large boats. Although some nobles and kings had thought ahead and their families had control over a few islands.”

“And the Netherborne didn’t follow them across the ocean?” The idea baffled Victor. He could easily float over water… Was that something he could do that other Netherborne couldn’t?

“Well, I don’t know if you are unique or different, but Netherborne, like many other corrupted creatures from the void, have an endless hunger for slaughter but also have the intelligence to match. So long as we escaped far into the ocean, the Netherborne never thought or knew how to follow. They would wander the lands, kill everything, and eventually die from starvation, or at least that’s what the church taught us.”

“What about the Hackers or dragons? Couldn’t they stop a Netherborne if they worked together?”

“Yep, they can.” Alice nodded her head. “The reason even I know so much about Netherbornes is that they basically went extinct and are now a legend. Nobody has worried about them for over a thousand years. Ever since the arrival of the first Hackers a millennium ago, the church formed an order called the Hackers guild, and they have dealt with corrupted entities ever since with ruthless efficiency. So, my void friend, don’t go pissing them off, okay?”

Victor chuckled. “Call me Victor…”

“As you wish.” Alice activated her skills, and void magic coated her form. She flashed him a grin. “So, friend, wanna see the new spells I got from my new class?”