Chapter 210 Part 3

Arnold had carried Sabrina over to a nearby inn and rented one room where she could rest.

It had been an hour so far. He was so immersed in the book he received from Sceptim that he didn't even know how long it had been since he removed Sabrina's curse.

· System Learning has added [Aura's Charge] to Arnold's skill tree.

· Aura Charge – use Aura Polymorphing to manifest three large horns on whichever shoulder its wielder desires. It cannot be applied to both shoulders however. Attack power is doubled when attempting a charge but defense and agility is cut by 30%.

Arnold learnt another skill from reading through the book. It's been a while since he continued reading the book, picking up where he left off at the Ascension Pill section. Due to the new feature "System Learning", he can add every skill to his Skill Tree regardless if he tests the skill out or not. Of course, it's important to memorize skills to get a better understanding of them and increase proficiency to allow skill evolutions.

Instead of using the skills himself to see what they look like, he can rely on the Choreograph A.I that he got from Luxtivin. It's just as fast as him so it should be able to use the skill to their fullest potential.

The only issue is that Arnold doesn't know if its skills will affect the environment around him. For example, will an Aura Blast cause the same damage as he would if he used it himself? Or do the attacks just pass through physical objects which would prove it's just a hologram with the sole purpose of copying all his strengths and skills?

Maybe the AI can fluctuate between manifesting its physical body and staying an illusion?

He hadn't tested it yet. It would be best to test it outside combat before attempting to use the AI for anything other than fooling his opponents with illusions.

Sabrina suddenly began to stir. He had taken the liberty of putting her clothes on himself since she couldn't just lay in front of him defenselessly. Of course, that was before he carried her to this inn.

She groaned and let out a soft moan before opening her heavy eyes.

"…Nh… My body feels so heavy…"

Arnold, who was sitting beside the bed, closed the book and put it away.

· Condition: stable, drowsy

'The curse is completely gone. Good.'

Of course, that doesn't eliminate the fact that someone else is now afflicted by the curse (possibly)

"Hey—Uhm, Arnold?" 

Sabrina sat up on the bed. The bags under her eyes were gone but her complexion was still pale.

"Hm?"

"…Uhm, I know this is a weird question to ask but did you… When you… My clothes…" She averted her eyes while hugging her body.

Even with her stuttering, he could tell what she wanted to ask.

"All I did was put on your clothes. I didn't grope you. But you don't have to take my word for" Arnold stood up and headed over to the window, pulling the curtain aside and letting the sunlight into the room.

Sabrina hugged her knees on the bed while looking at him as he stared through the window.

One wouldn't be able to read her expression even if you were good at reading other people's expressions.

'Arthur and Shirley's signatures are moving farther away from my location. Where are they headed?' he noticed another familiar signature which was actually getting closer to the inn, 'Professor Castacia… Is she looking for Sabrina?'

Arnold glanced back at Sabrina. She hurriedly averted her gaze.

"Does anyone know what caused your illness?" he decided to ignore Castacia who was probably walking around restlessly looking for Sabrina. He'll be heading to the other inn later anyway.

Sabrina shook her head.

"I see…" he sat on the edge of the bed, "Did you guys ever encounter special undead or necromancers during your journey?"

"Ah, yes, we fought necromancers one time who summoned skeleton knights and archers that fought us on a bridge… We stumbled upon a relic tomb that had an ancient elven city inside it. There were strange monsters inside the tomb called Blight Things. An insectiman told us about them."

"Blight Things…" Arnold's eyes narrowed.

'The Insectiman they met must've been the one who was supposed to give you the Soul King's extermination quest.'

In order to start the quest, you'd have needed to gain his trust which would've motivated him to show his defiance to his ruler and creator. The way to gain his trust would be to eliminate the four Special Organs first.

'Not just the Blight Things but an elven city inside a relic tomb… It must be related to the Soul King's extermination quest. Fuck, I missed my chance to get his armor and weapon.'

The insectiman was the one who would've granted him those rewards since he was a trusted advisor of the Soul King and could grant one access to many of the riches the Soul King gathered over thousands of years. One such reward was the hide of a divine beast, the White Drake. It's a monster with tougher skin than even the Dragon Lords given its birthright and the environment it grew up in. Arnold could've used its scales to craft Legendary-grade armor and its fangs to craft magic daggers (which could've been given to Elora).

He sighed inwardly. It can't be helped. It's said that the relic tomb is locked down by powerful magic once the Soul King is slain. Unless he returns to the dungeon world after retaining his Sorcerer Build from the game, it'll be impossible to break the magic. Another option is to just find the Insectiman advisor but he's unsure if the insectiman is still alive.

"I'm familiar with the Blight Things. I know for a fact there isn't a necromancer powerful enough in the Soul King's army that can cast a Group Curse of this calibre."

It had to have been a Lord class monster hidden among them.

It couldn't have been the White Blood Cell Knights since they can't use magic at all. There are several of them scattered throughout the relic tomb, each protecting valuable treasure. Alas, despite being Lord-Class enemies, they should be ruled out due to them being knights.

Then could it have been the "Special Organ" monsters? While none of them are necromancers, it shouldn't be ruled out that one of them has some bizarre special curse arts that Arnold had never heard about. He'd seen far weirder things in the game—like cursed martial arts.

[Poisoned Palm] is one such martial art that can drain a target's lifeforce upon touch and cause significant debuffs.

It wouldn't be strange for there to exist a special curse magician subclass or the like. Forbidden curse arts is a thing as well.

Back to the Special Organs: Arnold knew they existed in the game but have little to no knowledge of them. There are apparently four of them—Heart, Lung, Brain and Stomach.

He knew from surfing the internet that [Brain] was the most dangerous out of them all. In rare instances, Brain was said to kill the other three and absorb their powers for itself to become an even greater monstrosity—Cursama, a manifestation of all the Special Organs. He recalled seeing a guide on how to clear the Soul King quest which advised all readers to kill the Brain first since it can absorb the other three.

Each of them possessed frightening abilities so fighting them was a chore. Taking them out one-by-one was the advised strategy. They're stronger than most of the mini-bosses you can find halfway through the main story.

"Has anything strange happened lately after your encounter with the Blight Things? Besides your situation, of course."

I can rule out that Sabrina was the first to be infected by the curse, he thought.

The system would've notified him that the curse had been vanquished. However, it instead warned him that the curse is still very much alive.

Sabrina looked down with folded arms.

"Ah…" her frown grew deeper, "A member of the rescue party, Pedick, received strange injuries this one time when we were resting in a cemetery outside the city's cathedral. It looked like someone was peeling his skin off like paper. We thought that he was being attacked by an invisible monster at first with dark magic attributes so I cast a divine spell, which somehow managed to stop what was happening to him. But several days later… It got even worse... Lady Daraia ordered a small squad to take him back to our world using the teleportation device you mentioned."

"Oh? You managed to figure out how the machine works?"

"Yes. The professors found many books that helped us understand how to insert coordinates and how to use the machine."

'I knew it. The ancient academies are still there.'

"How long did it take for you to fall ill after this Pedick guy was taken back to our world?"

"Uhm, about three days? We managed to cross twenty floors in that time period before my symptoms stared appearing."

"What… Seriously?" Even Arnold was taken aback by this.

How the hell did they make it through that many floors in just three days?

"Yup! Arthur became super sensitive to the energy that portals are made from which made it easier for him to detect them."

"…He's growing stronger by the day, huh…"

He didn't just become sensitive to portal energy. He is now able to pinpoint signatures like Arnold but unlike Arnold who can only differentiate humanoid and monster signatures through his Warrior Sense, Arthur can detect both spatial distortions and energy signatures. He obtained a talent known as [Hero Sense].

It was initially only meant to detect demons in the human world and even differentiate real humans from shapeshifting demons. Using Hero Sense, Luke was able to find multiple demon hideouts and strongholds scattered across their world. 

This is also how he managed to detect a Greater Demon infiltrating the academy during the School Arc. Its motive was obvious: blending into society to find the hero and kill him while he's still in the infant stage of his power.

Arnold made a mental note to tell the vice principal to put divine magic seals around the academy to delay the demon's plans.

"We should assume that the curse has a limit to the range of its effects since you became affected immediately after Pedick left the dungeon. Either that or…"

Or he died on the way back, eliminating the distance explanation.

"Yes… I know…"

"Are you strong enough to stand on your own?" Arnold asked, "I'm going straight to your main camp to speak with Arthur but first, I have to get to that inn you guys stayed at to speak with everyone. If you're not ready to leave then I'm leaving you here."

"I-I'm fine." She quickly got off the bed, "Nh, my legs feel a bit wobbly… Uhm, can you give me a hand?"

"Haa…" Arnold stood up and went around the bed, offering his hand to Sabrina.

 With a small smile, she thanked him.

'Hm, this must be the first smile she's shown to me. I'm used to her frowns and glares.'

In any case, it was good that he had one less enemy. From what he knows, Sabrina doesn't have a death flag so her hatred isn't the kind that would want him dead.

◇◇◇

The two of them left the inn and made it onto the street.

While Arthur's signature was significantly farther away now, Arnold could still pick up some other familiar signatures close by. Castacia's signature seemed to have gone back after a while. It seems she gave up on her search or was convinced that Sabrina would come back on her own.

'Hm, I can sense Flora coming this way.'

She probably sensed him too seeing as how she was moving so fast towards him.

"H-Hold on." Sabrina stopped walking and let go of Arnold, "Haa… Haa…" she panted and sat on a nearby bench.

"I suggest you rest for a whole day once you're back with the others."

"Y-Yes, I know…" she took deep breaths, "I hope they don't plan on going to the dungeon without me…"

"Dungeon? What dungeon?"

Arnold asked, wondering why they'd need to look for a dungeon when the holy sword was their priority.

"Uhm, I'm not too sure about the details but Arthur said that we'll find a god's temple inside a closed dungeon somewhere on this world. The sword is apparently in the same dungeon."

"…And where did he get this information from?"

"A tall knight lady, who helped us in the relic tomb, went asking around if anyone knows where she can find a god's temple."

Tall Knight Lady…?

"Is this the Lady Knight that Rafaela mentioned before…?"

"Ah, yes. I believe it's the same person. She's incredibly strong. So strong that she could defeat the knight that we were struggling against."

There weren't any knights in that relic tomb other than the White Blood Cell Knights whose sole duty was to get rid of intruders just like the white blood cells in a human's body fights foreign bacteria and so on.

"Arthur believes that the temple could be buried beneath a closed-off dungeon."

"Hmm…"

There should be over four closed dungeons in this world from what Arnold knows. During his playthrough as Luke in the game, he used the dungeons on this world to level up to meet the requirements for fighting the world boss on the final floor. But he had never discovered the locations of the closed dungeons.

During his time as a solo adventurer in the game, he had run into several instances where he fought through hordes of monsters to get to a dungeon they're surrounding only to find out that the dungeon was already closed off. Adventurers and explorers wouldn't risk their lives just to explore an inactive dungeon (a dungeon that don't grow magic crystals or pump mana into the atmosphere).

Either their cores ran dry of mana (which is nearly impossible for B-rank dungeons and above given the sheer size of their cores) or all bosses were defeated.

Dungeons are treated as resources in many worlds so you rarely get fief lords of guilds ordering soldiers or adventurers to clear the dungeon completely. They can mine the crystals and other precious ores for profit. If necessary, they'll get rid of a few bosses that pose a danger to their workers but they mainly leave the monsters alone unless the monsters enter the working areas.

Closed dungeons are the perfect "hide in plain sight" locations.

'Where there's a temple there are Divine Titans. From what I know there should be about six temples spread across the realms that Melis personally instructed her disciples to build.'

Each temple had a Titan to defend it. Since one died out many years ago, one of the temples should be unguarded.

That would've been the case, however, seeing as how every Titan is gathered in one place means that five out of the six temples are now unguarded, with the titans prioritizing the security of one temple.

Arnold smirked, much to Sabrina's confusion.

The treasures in the other five temples will be his for the taking.

The reason why the Divine Titans should be gathered in one place is simple: they have to protect the holy sword from those wanting to misuse its power. It is the most prized treasure of the divine realm so that must be why the gods did not punish the Titans for leaving their assigned places.

It is their destiny to protect the holy sword and choose who will inherit it.

"What is the plan for finding out which dungeon to look for?"

Even with all the knowledge in his head, he could not recall one instance when he heard where the temple could be located.

Sabrina looked around and leaned forward from her sitting position. She held her hand over her mouth and said:

"They want to sneak into an information guild tonight to steal the Dungeon Archive."

"I see. That's much better than checking out all the dungeons which would just waste time. Some dungeons aren't even available to the public, either for safety concerns or to monopolize the dungeons."

While Arnold was aware of there being three closed dungeons in this part of the country, he had no idea where to look. 

'Haa, if I had the full system then I could've just entered the search function in-game to pinpoint dungeon locations. Real life is never that easy, is it? Anyway, don't they need a plan and more information on what to look out for when sneaking into the guild?'

Maybe they have sufficient information already. It will most likely be in the Guild Master's office.

Sabrina suddenly sniffed the air.

"Ah, my sense of smell is back!" She exclaimed excitedly but then she frowned before she lowered her head to sniff her armpits.

"Eek." She hurriedly lowered her arms with a blush.

"You smell it too, huh. While our clothes don't smell as bad, the residue from the curse is sticking to our upper bodies like sweat."

"…" Sabrina squirmed with a nod. 

The two of them looked across the street.

· Mixed Baths for Women and Men!

-was written on a certain building sign.

The two looked at each other. Sabrina hurriedly looked away with an even redder face.

"—Well, well, well. If it isn't the bastard young master. I am once again graced by your presence no matter how unsightly your face may be."

Arnold heard someone's snide remark.

He turned his head to see a familiar face.

· Name: Flora III von Luthial

· Level: 53