Chapter 68

Chapter 68 – The Quest Isn’t Done Yet (3)

The humans were in a heated battle at the port.  They were trying to stop the advance of monsters that were coming out from the ocean.  No one was the wiser when they left the city to head towards the mountain.  No, there would be one person within the city, who would notice.  Etna knew he had left, but she didn’t follow after the party.  It seemed she was going to behave  by waiting at the inn.

“I think we are far enough.”

When he reached a large clearing, Artpe took out the corpse of the Kraken from his Dimensional Pouch.  He had taken off a lot of parts for Mycenae, yet the corpse was still enormous.  After butchering the tentacles and body of the Kraken, the corpse was at a size where the dissection of the corpse wouldn’t be too great of a challenge.

“We are almost done with the body…..  All right.  Let’s put that aside for now.”

“You are going to use it on the barrier wall?  Right, Artpe?”

Artpe couldn’t help but laugh at Maetel’s sharp insight.  For some reason, she became unusually smart regarding any work related to Artpe.

“That right.  I’m going to dry the Kraken’s body, and I will grind it into fine powder.  It’ll become a great ingredient that will allow me to Reinforce various materials.”

“As expected, Artpe is too kind.”

“I’m just trying to restore the barrier wall, so they can’t use it as a talking point against me.”

No one believed the bullshit Artpe was spouting. Artpe simultaneously activated several magic as he spoke.  He let out fire, wind and Mana Strings.  He dried the body of the Kraken, and he  minced it into fine powder.  After putting away the powder inside his Dimensional Pouch, the only part left was the Kraken’s head.

“Hoo-ooh······ Let’s do this.”

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the head was the most important part of the Kraken.  Artpe let out his Mana Strings, and his movement became more careful.

“First, I’m going to split open its head, and I have to carefully extract the ink sac.”

“The sac is pretty small compared to the enormous size of the Kraken.”

“If the sac is capable of producing a lot, it doesn’t have to be large. Here it is······.”

Then he added something special to it.  It was something only Artpe could do.  He Reinforced it.  He Reinforced it twice, and the ink sac went through a transformation.  Its size decreased to a point where Artpe could hold it with one hand.  Of course, the ink within the sac was also Reinforced.

However….

“Huh..”

“What’s wrong, Artpe?”

He had a hunch that he would be able to Reinforce it one more time.  When he had this feeling, he tilted his head in puzzlement.  Normally, he was able to Reinforce an item once or twice.  It was a limit that couldn’t be surpassed without the support of ingredients like the Magic Stones.

‘Did my skill evolve thanks to the fight with the Kraken?’

It was as he suspected. He had to rampantly use his Reinforcement skill in the fight against the Kraken, and it allowed him to acquire some kind of an Achievement.  When his EXP was being tallied, his Reinforcement skill had grown.

As a result of this venture, Artpe’s Reinforcement skill had reached level 51.  When he arrived at Frate, his skill level had been 43.  He had gone through an amazing burst of growth.

No, the skill level wasn’t the important part right now.  The important part was the fact that he could use Reinforcement three times on his party’s equipment without the need of Magic Stones.

“Hey, you guys should come here too.”

“Yes!”

Artpe immediately Reinforced the ink sac.  Then he Reinforced his boots and the other equipments of his party members in one fell swoop.  The effect was amazing.  His boots had already boasted cheat-like abilities, but the equipments of his companions were close to reaching its shelf-life.  Their equipments were perfectly restored, and they had evolved into something better.  He was satisfied with the result.

“Oppa!  Oppa!  The hammer can store and release vibration now!”

“Finally, the true power of that metal type will be revealed..”

“Wow.  I can shoot my Beam twice in a row!”

“Yes, let’s just call your move as the Beam from now on.”

If he had his way, he wanted to Reinforce the Demite Gemstone.  However, the Demite Gemstone had  a sense of self, so it was like trying to Reinforce a person.  It was impossible to do for now.  However, it also meant that he would be able to Reinforce it some day in the future…..

‘I’ll worry about it when I reach that point.  The more important thing right now is in front of my eyes.’

Artpe shook his head from side to side as he stopped churning his thoughts.  The completed ink sac was the perfect size for portability.   He hung it inside his robe.  Even if the Kraken slammed its body into him, Artpe’s bones would be crushed, but the ink sac wouldn’t burst open.  Aside from the ink sac, most of the remaining organs became food for Roa.  He gave her parts like the liver.  These were organs that possessed strong Mana, yet it was poisonous for human consumption.

[Nyaa, nyaaaaaa.]

“All right.  Since you are going to eat all of this, you have to spit out the other items later on.”

[Nyaaa.]

The loot given to the nobles were fake.  The true Artifacts containing the Kraken’s Record and Mana was within Roa’s stomach.

It seemed the innards of the Kraken prepared by Artpe was pretty good.  Roa didn’t think too much on it as she readily nodded her head.  Artpe scratched the underside of her chin as he continued the butchering.

After a short amount of time had passed, the head was completely dismantled.  The only thing left was its enormous stomach.  When she looked over it, Maetel’s eyes turned round.

“Artpe, there’s something alive inside!”

“You should unsheathe your sword.  Be ready.”

“······yes.”

The meaning behind Artpe’s words were simple to discern..  There was a living being inside the Kraken’s stomach, and it was a monster.  Maetel didn’t dig too deep into the subject.  She unsheathed and gripped her sword.

“All right.  Here I go.”

When Artpe confirmed that she was ready, he controlled his Mana Strings to carefully split open the stomach.

From within it, a beauty with dazzling white skin and ocean-colored hair appeared.

“Koo-ooh······ Hoo-oohk······.”

She had a very distressed complexion, and she was gasping for air.  There was no vitality or magical energy remaining within her body.  She would have died within a day or two if she had remained inside the Kraken.

Moreover, the Demonic gene had invaded deep into her body……  It was obvious that she had been a sacrificial lamb for the Demonification experiment.  It wasn’t a coincidence that she was inside the Kraken’s stomach.  No, if he considered the worst case scenario, she had been allowed to be swallowed by the Kraken as part of the experiment.  This might all be interconnected.

“Eeeeeeeeek!”

However, Maetel didn’t care about the deep implications of all of this.  She didn’t care about the condition of the woman.  The only thing that mattered was the fact that the woman was naked.  Maetel grinded her teeth in anger as she pointed her sword at Artpe.

“Now I will use this sword on Artpe’s eyes!”

“Calm down.  I didn’t rescue her, because she’s a woman!”

“Unni, this monster is suffering under the same symptoms as me.  I’m sure oppa was able to identify this.”

“Oohk.”

She was barely able to put away her sword when she heard Sienna’s words.  Artpe let out a bitter laugh as he spoke.

“Mermaids possess above average intelligence compared to other normal monsters.  If I’m able to converse with her, I can acquire information from her.  This is why I’m trying to keep her existence a secret.  That is the reason why I’m trying to save her.”

“What are you going to do after you extract the information?  ······Will you kill her afterwards?”

Maetel had once declared that all monsters were her enemies since they all did bad things.  However, it seemed she didn’t have the courage to point her sword towards a mermaid groaning from weakness.  Artpe was inwardly relieved by this fact.  He shook his head from side to side.

“I won’t kill anyone that will help me.  I’ll make a similar arrangement as the one I made with Deyus, so you don’t have to worry about it. ”

“Yes, I understand.  However, it would be great if we can clothe her as soon as possible.”

“Jeez.  She’s a monster.”

“However, her body is amazing!  This isn’t good for Artpe’s eyes!”

It was true that she was a monster, but the mermaid looked exactly like a human on the outside.  It did feel weird to stare at her naked body.  Artpe quickly placed a cloth over her naked body.

[Nyaa?]

“Yes, you know your stuff.  I’ll leave it to you.”

Roa sensed that it was her turn, so she trotted off of Artpe’s shoulder.  She hopped onto the mermaid’s stomach, and she opened her mouth wide.

[Nyaaaaaaaaahng.]

That was all she needed to do.  The Demonic gene, which was dominating the mermaid, was sucked into Roa’s mouth.  It was a clean extraction.  Artpe knew she possessed this talent, yet he couldn’t help but be surprised when he witnessed it in action.

“I’m glad that the Chaos Egg absorbed the Obsidian of Greed….”

“It really is an absurd ability.  If we had Roa from the beginning, neither I nor oppa would have suffered.”

At one point, Sienna had been in the same situation as the mermaid.  She had been reborn as an Evil Reflector through Artpe’s hands.  It seemed the sight of the all of this was leaving behind a fairly deep impression on Sienna.

If she hadn’t become an Evil Reflector, she wouldn’t have had to live a life full of battles.  Was she sad about this fact?  Artpe had such thoughts for the first time as he watched Sienna.  She was always laughing, so he might be under a misconception.  Maybe she……

“However, I’m able to travel with oppa and unni thanks to what happened.  I prefer my current situation, oppa.”

“Are you learning mind reading skill with Maetel?”

“Heh heh.”

He couldn’t even have his own thoughts around his party members. Artpe grumbled as he retrieved Roa.  She let out a playful yawn.  She had completely disposed of the curses and Demonic gene that had been dominating the mermaid’s body.

Aside from the weakened state of the mermaid’s body, she was fine.  Basically, she went from a critically fatal state to a normal fatal state.

“Sienna.”

“Yes.”

Sienna put down her hammer, and she approached the mermaid.  Sienna extended a hand towards the mermaid.  Her warm magical energy flowed into the mermaid’s body.  The mermaid immediately opened her eyes, which was ocean blue.  It was the same color as her hair.  She let out a groan.

“Koo-hoohk, hoohk?”

Artpe let out a bitter laugh as he opened his mouth.  The words that flowed out of his mouth wasn’t the language of the humans.  It was the language of the monsters.  It was specifically a language that would allow him to communicate with underwater monsters like the mermaid.

[You regained consciousness in one go.  Since the Demonic gene was fostered within you, you should be in pain right now.  However, your body is being purified right now, so you should endure it.]

“Kahk, keh-hoohk!”

How great would it be if one could endure pain just because someone told one to endure it?  Sienna’s magical energy spread towards the entirety of the mermaid’s body.  It bolstered her vitality, and her wounds were being healed.  However, the mermaid couldn’t endure the pain of the healing process, so she screamed continuously.

It might have been better if she hadn’t regained consciousness.  She suffered, because she had immediately regained consciousness.  Fortunately, Sienna’s Mana was specialized.  She was able to bolster the magic within the mermaid.  She was able to finish the healing in short order.

“Kah-oohk, hee-koo-ah-oooooh······.”

Sienna took back her hand, and she backed away.  Her treatment was finished, yet it seemed the mermaid was still in the throes of pain.  She intermittently let out a moan as she crawled up into a ball.

There were tears in her pure eyes, and one could see fear towards the humans surrounding her.  Artpe shook his head as he spoke to her.

[You’ll be fine now.  The wounds, curses and Demonic gene are no more.  You won’t die if you obey my words.]

It was such a sinister statement that he would have been worthy if he was chosen to be the Demon King.  The slender mermaid shook in fear when she heard his words.  If Maetel was able to understand his words, she would have been angry with him.  Unfortunately, she didn’t know the language of the monsters.

However, the answer that was given by the mermaid was unexpected.

[I…I understand.  You rescued me from overwhelming danger.  I’ll will serve you as my master.]

[Huh? ······ah.  So that’s how it is.]

Even amongst the humans, there was a debate as to whether mermaids were monsters or a kindred species.  They were one of the races where the opinions were split.

When the Luatic Wave approached, they lost some of their sense of reason.  They appeared alongside the normal monsters to fight the humans.  This was why the popular opinion was that the mermaids were monsters.  However, they were also unique in the fact that mermaids of high intelligence were able to escape the effects of the Lunatic Wave.

Moreover, the ones with the high intelligence were famous for repaying their debts no matter the cost.  If the debt was small, they repaid the debt through gems from the ocean.  If the debt was large, they dedicated their lives to the person they were beholden to.  They became subservient.

‘Normally, people interact with mermen and mermaids as enemies.  Therefore, it is very hard for them to incur a big enough debt where they will dedicate their lives to you.  This rarely happened in history.’

If Maetel found out about this, it would become a huge headache.  Maetel didn’t care if she was a monster or not.  Maetel considered all pretty female to be potential enemies….. Still, he had saved her with the aim to mine information from her.  He would just release her from her debt after things resolved itself somewhat.

Artpe easily turned the page of his thoughts as he spoke to her.

[You probably have a decent idea of what this mess is all about.  I’ll get straight to the point.  Someone purposefully got close to you guys, and a curse was spread amongst you all.  Am I right?]

[Yes, someone did do that.]

[Why were you inside the Kraken’s belly?]

[The bastard captured me, and he gave me to the Kraken as food.  The Kraken was too powerful to control through brute force.  This was why they placed a curse on me, and the curse was passed onto the Kraken when it ate me.]

Mmm.  As expected, these were sons of bitches of the highest order.  Artpe nodded in a solemn and dignified manner as he queried her.

[Is he still within the ocean?]

[He is still there.  He has taken over the deep sea mermaid kingdom of Anaid.  He is making the curses there.]

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[Do you know his name?]

[I do.  He is a man named Madelrude.]

When he heard her answer, he felt a sense of incongruity.  He tilted head in puzzlement.  He had heard this name before.  Soon, he came up with the answer.

“Medelrude was the name of the previous duke of Diaz…..?”

He realized the truth that he hadn’t finished his first Quest yet.  Artpe was barely at to realize this fact.