Wielding Extra Impact

I FOLLOWED THE LARGE HUNTING PARTY from a distance. My

reasoning was simple: I wanted to see how the twenty adventurers fought

together. At the same time, I had to make sure they didn't spot me; in my

cloak and skull mask, I was the very portrait of suspicious. If the

adventurers caught me following them, they might view me as a monster

and try to attack.

All the same, I wanted to see the party in action with my own eyes. I

wanted to see teamwork between people who covered each other's

weaknesses and boosted each other's strengths. I was always doing

everything by myself, so I hoped this would teach me something.

Observing the adventurers in action would also be a chance to train

Gluttony's endurance. I needed to make sure I could resist my Gluttonous

urges when a monster was right in front of me. It felt a little like training a

dog by putting food in front of it, except in this case, the food belonged to

someone else. I was a little worried that Gluttony might go mad with rage at

being denied, but I was also confident I could handle it. I was only in a halfstarved state, after all.

The night was dim and gloomy from thick cloud cover, but the

adventurers walked on without a single torch. There was no way all of them

had Night Vision, so what was going on?

"It's like your skull mask," Greed said. "They're probably decked out

in magical equipment. There's no small number of nocturnal monsters out

there, and hunting them requires Night Vision or other similar skills. Vast

amounts of magical equipment were crafted thousands of years ago in

Galia, and now all that junk's just floating around out in the world. Because

the crafting methods have been lost to time, they're considered high-quality

goods, so they're not always easy to get hold of."

"I guess it doesn't matter for me, since I'm constantly adding to my

skill collection," I said, "but for ordinary adventurers, getting the right

equipment must be essential. They must really burn through their budget."

When I thought about it, the entirety of my battle equipment was the

black sword Greed. The only reason I wore the skull mask was to hide my

identity.

"You think I should get more equipment, Greed?"

The black sword laughed. "Don't bother with trinkets. You have

Gluttony, so you can hoard all the skills and stats you want. Other

adventurers can't do that, so they have to rely on magical gear."

In other words, it was stupid to buy gear to strengthen myself when I

could devour the soul of any monster with a useful skill to claim. I had to

agree with Greed. That was sound logic.

At the same time, collecting an assortment of magical gear struck me

as pretty cool. I tried to explain this to Greed, but he snorted and laughed.

"So, you want to travel the lands with a collection of useless

garbage? It'll just get in your way. All you need on your journey is me, the

mighty black sword Greed!"

It was true that I couldn't imagine losing Greed, especially now that

I'd unlocked his Second Level. But I wasn't about to admit that to the

weapon himself. Praise would go straight to his head…so to speak.

I touched my sole piece of magical equipment: my skull mask. I had

to take care of it, because I'd be hiding my identity from here on—

especially in front of Lady Roxy. If I reunited with her in Galia, it would be

as the adventurer Corpse.

To get to Galia, I'd consume every monster in my path. There was no

other way. But I didn't want Lady Roxy to see me as a ravenous killer. If

she couldn't accept me… If she shunned me… Would any of this be worth

it? I couldn't fight with the weight of her disdain on my shoulders. So, I hid

it all behind the skull mask.

"If you lose yourself to the mask, Fate, you'll create a rift in your

heart that Gluttony will seize. The only thing you can truly count on is me,

the mighty black sword Greed!"

"All right, all right, I get it," I said. "I'm counting on you."

The black sword laughed. "Stand tall when you say it, boy!"

I just hoped I wasn't standing on quicksand. Greed had a bad habit of

talking big. When I unlocked the Second Level, he'd told me that the black

scythe could eliminate anything. Then it turned out to only work on skillbased phenomena. Although that was powerful in its own right, the point

still stood: if I just believed everything Greed bragged about, I'd pay for it

later in pain.

I continued to tail the adventuring party at a distance while Greed's

laughter echoed in my head. As we marched onward, the ground beneath

our feet gave way from tawny grasslands to coarse desert sand.

"This place is big," I said. "It's all desert as far as the horizon."

"The sandmen have spent many long, long years expanding their

turf. Another thousand years and they'll probably turn this whole area into

desert."

A thousand years… The scale was hard to wrap my head around. I'd

be long gone by then. But I was excited to visit the desert for the first time.

As I knelt in the sand to make a few piles, the adventurers readied

themselves for battle.

"It's starting, Fate," said Greed.

I stood, abandoning my towers of sand to time. "Let's see what these

guys are made of."

I watched the adventurers at work and soon realized they had built

their party around magic. The core group consisted of five fire-magic

spellcasters. Fire spells were how they brought down the sandmen. The rest

of the party was made up of ten shield bearers who herded the sandmen

together, and a group of five sword and spear wielders drew the attention of

any sandman that acted unexpectedly.

The party fought like a well-oiled machine. They herded the sandmen

into a cluster, then set them ablaze with fire magic. From my vantage point,

they made it look easy, but it only looked so clean because they were so

skilled. They wasted no movements, intimately familiar with the rhythm

and flow of their work.

As I looked on in awe, Greed's yawn cut through my Telepathy.

"How very dull," he said. "They just repeat the same thing over and over. I

can't stand it."

"What would you suggest instead?"

"That we just blow this whole place sky-high, sandmen and desert

alike. Boom!"

How stupid. It made me think back to destroying the valley at the

Hart family estate. I'd annihilated the entire place, then had to deal with all

the aftermath. How would blowing the sandmen to pieces help me develop

control over my half-starved state?!

"What happened to the sword who was nagging me about building

endurance? If we go over the top this early, we'll satisfy my Gluttony in one

go."

"All right, cool down," said Greed. "It's just my preference. I wasn't

saying we should actually do it. In any case, isn't it about time we started

on our own sandman hunt?"

Greed didn't want me to hunt the sandmen like I usually did goblins.

Instead of pursuing them one after another, he suggested that I leave a gap

between each kill. Hunt a sandman, then wait, endure, and control the

pulsing impulses of half-fed Gluttony before I hunted another.

Even now, standing and watching the adventurers at work, I felt the

waves of Gluttonous hunger nearly wash me away. I supposed it was about

time for me to hunt my first sandman. I left the adventurers to their fiery

harvest and walked off into the desert. After crossing a few sand dunes, I

discovered a sandman on its own and used Identify on it immediately.

Sandman, Lv 30

Vitality: 1,760

Strength: 890

Magic: 1,330

Spirit: 1,760

Agility: 100

Skills: Spirit Boost (Medium)

The sandman was a touch stronger than a gargoyle noa, and its sluglike movements already told me everything I needed to know about its

abysmal Agility. As long as I didn't screw up too badly, the sandman

wouldn't be able to touch me.

As for a plan of attack, I'd already seen the hunting party use fire

magic to take sandmen down, so I guessed the monsters were weak against

fire. That made this a good opportunity to try out the Fireball spell I'd

consumed from the gargoyles.

I had a feeling I was still out of range, but all the same, I held my left

hand out toward the sandman and muttered the spell's incantation.

"Fireball!"

As soon as I uttered the word, a crimson ball of flame gathered in

front of my palm.

It seemed that spells took a little while to cast. When the fireball

stopped growing, I aimed it at the sandman and fired.

"Huh?!"

Greed burst into laughter. "Oh, man… Fate… That's the worst aim

I've seen in decades! There's nothing over there!"

My fireball hadn't even reached the sandman, not even close. Instead,

the fireball flung itself off into the dunes. Empty sand burst into flame as

the fireball landed well to the side of both me and the sandman. The

sandman noticed my miss too, and turned to begin its slow crawl toward

me. Still, the monster was slow enough that I had time to try casting again.

"What's wrong, Fate? So hungry that you can't aim straight?"

"Go on, laugh if you want. I don't care. This is my first spell ever.

Ever. Mistakes happen. But I'll get him this time…"

Greed must have noticed something in my voice, because he stopped

laughing. "Hm. Let me help you out. Change me into the magic bow."

I transformed Greed into the black bow and aimed it toward the

sandman.

"You want me to fire at it like this? The same way we always do?"

"No. Cast Fireball before you release the arrow."

I pulled back on the bow and watched as an arrow formed upon the

string. Usually, I would fire it at this point, but Greed had recommended a

new step. I formed the incantation fireball in my mind, and the head of the

black arrow burst into flame.

"Whoa. This arrow…is it a fire arrow now?!"

"You can imbue the arrows of this bow with your magic. In other

words, you can use elemental attacks based on the skills you acquire."

Also, this flame manifested far more quickly than the one I had

conjured in my hand. In other words, I could fire elemental arrows in quick

succession—no wizard could do that. I released the arrow, and it flew as

true as they always did, guided by Greed straight into my target's head.

"How's that feel?"

"It's amazing!" I cried. "And a bull's-eye!"

As I watched the sandman disintegrate into flame before me, I

decided there was no need for me to use magic like a traditional spellcaster.

From now on, I'd just wield magic using the black bow—a far better fit for

me.

Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +1,760, Strength

+890, Magic +1,330, Spirit +1,760, Agility +100. New skill added: Spirit

Boost (Medium).

I closed my eyes as the tiny sliver of sandman soul satiated my

Gluttony. Now, it was time to take a break from the hunt and try to endure

the hunger. Control it.

If I managed this—and if I did it again, over and over—could I really

train myself to fend off the ravenous, berserk rage that overcame me

whenever I failed to feed myself in my half-starved state?

For now, I had no choice but to put my faith in Greed's advice.