Chapter 30: I'm fine with being the Prophesized Holy Son
The Undead Titans' recollections of what happened after the[Divine Spear of Ice]Mikhail joined the attack on Talosheim were full of holes; they had never known the exact details up until now.
These were the events of what happened when they were killed, what happened before they became Undead and what happened right after that.
They only knew the historical facts, such as that Talosheim had fallen, that the heroes had been defeated and that Mikhail had attempted to destroy the goddess Vida's treasure that existed below the royal castle but was heavily wounded by Vida's legacy, the guardian Dragon Golem, and forced to retreat back to the Mirg shield-nation.
『I… Jeena, Zandia-jouchan and I, the three of us, ambushed that bastard in the audience chamber. The Adventurers' Guild branch that had been built in Talosheim back then told me that I was an A-class adventurer. Jeena was promoted to A-class before the war, and though Zandia-jouchan was still B-class, it was said that she would definitely become an S-class adventurer in the future. Even though that guy had a legendary-class Magic Item, he was an A-class adventurer, just like me. I thought we could do it.』(Borkus)
Two A-class adventurers and a B-class adventurer, a total of three people, fought a single A-class adventurer. The odds were clearly in the favor of the former, and they should have succeeded in defending the chamber.
But Borkus continued speaking.
『In the end, things turned out as you know. I was called the[Sword King.]I had no intention of losing. I received supportive spells from the other two, and with this magic sword, I used my signature move[Dragon Slayer]to try and defeat him. But my magic sword… The magic sword that took the head of a Dragon in one attack was smashed by his spear. Damn it, how dare you - I shouted something like that as I tried to swing a punch at him. But I couldn't. Heheh, it's no big deal, I just lost my dominant arm and my magic sword together.』(Borkus)
Adventurers are divided into classes from G to S. This isn't based purely on fighting strength; adventurers' success rate in completing requests and their normal conduct are also taken into consideration, and Jobs and possessed skills can have an effect as well. However, there are no overwhelming differences in strength between two adventurers of the same class.
But at that time, Borkus had learned the hard way that the A-class and S-class are exceptions to that rule.
The A-class is the realm of extraordinary people. Something like slaying a Dragon was nothing to them. But large differences in power could exist between A-class adventurers.
People of the B-class are beyond ordinary people but aren't quite extraordinary. An ordinary person with extraordinary qualities, just a little beyond those of the B-class. That is what the[Saint]Jeena was.
Undoubtedly an[extraordinary person]and a hero, but still an extraordinary[person]in the end, unable to break free of the restrictions of being a person. Falling short of being one of the inhuman figures in myths that were said to be able to reach the domain of the gods who fought against the Demon King's evil gods. That is what the[Sword King]Borkus was.
And Mikhail was a truly inhuman individual; an A-class adventurer possessing powers worthy of the S-class.
『Because of that, I ended up kissing the floor. And the next thing I knew, I had become an Undead. Then I turned around, and Zandia-jouchan was there. Only one part of her.』
With these words, Borkus pushed open the door of the audience chamber that he had guarded for two hundred years.
Chilling, cold air came from beyond the door.
There wasn't a single ray of light in the audience chamber, but with their[Dark Vision], Vandalieu and Nuaza could see inside, clear as day.
The first thing they saw in the audience chamber was a hole, and a pillar of ice covering it. This hole was likely the entrance of the passage that led to the goddess's treasure beneath the castle.
And frozen inside the pillar of ice was a severed wrist that seemed to belong to a woman judging from how thin… judging from its shape.
「This is…! I had always thought that we had never seen their remains during these two hundred years because you had buried them, Borkus-dono. But this, could it be…!」(Nuaza)
『That's how it is. Their dead bodies are probably on the other side of this annoying block of ice. Judging from the size of this hand, it's probably Zandia-jouchan's. There's no doubt that she kept fighting that bastard even after I got killed and chased him underground with Jeena, even after losing her hand. And so I'm sure she was killed on the other side of this ice.』(Borkus)
The magical spear, the legendary-class Magic Item that was the origin of Mikhail's Title, contained powerful ice Mana. It was said to be able to freeze its enemies' souls, trapping them for eternity.
『I don't know what was on the other side of this ice. All I know is that there's no way to melt it. Even if I try to smash it, I can't make a single crack on it, and pouring oil on it and setting fire to it doesn't even leave a single scorch-mark. So, can you melt this ice?』(Borkus)
「I can melt it.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu nodded immediately. He had been examining it while Borkus and Nuaza were talking, and he could definitely feel Mana in the ice.
It seemed strangely different to a curse, but it was similar. If he extinguished the Mana, it was likely that the ice would melt in an instant and open up the entrance leading underground.
『I see. Then please do it. I don't know if their bodies have become Undead on the other side of this ice, and even if they have, they might have lost their sanity. But I'll never feel at ease until I say something to apologize to them.』(Borkus)
「I understand.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu released death-attribute Mana that absorbed other Mana, and the ice began melting right before their eyes, as if it were being exposed to some extreme heat.
In a matter of minutes, Zandia's hand had been freed and the passage underground had been opened.
「What do you think, Holy Son?」(Nuaza)
「… I don't see any shadows that might be their spirits. Please wait a moment; I'm going to see if I can figure something out by looking at this hand.」(Vandalieu)
『Hmm? Is this that forensic science thing? I heard that Zakkart had been aiming for that occupation in his original world.』(Borkus)
Apparently the champion Zakkart had been striving to become a forensic scientist when he lived on Earth. He seemed to have been quite the intellectual type.
「No, this is something more occult.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu raised Zandia's hand whose brown skin had received much love from the sun, though it was now as cold as ice.
『It would probably be bad if I were to say it's huge or heavy.』(Vandalieu)
The hand and wrist of the[Tiny Genius]was large.
This was not because Vandalieu was an infant, but simply because Zandia had been a large person.
Of course, as her Title suggested, she was probably small. For a Titan, that is.
The average height for an adult Titan was 2.7m for men and 2.5m for women. It was likely that Zandia was still a young girl, judging from the fact that Borkus called her「jouchan」, but wouldn't she still be over two meters tall?
So it was difficult for Vandalieu to say that it was thin or small.
『Well, leaving that aside, let's try to find any residual thoughts.』(Vandalieu)
Death-attribute magic allowed Vandalieu to read a person's residual thoughts from a part of their dead body. But he could only read such thoughts from corpses, and even if he could read them they often made no sense, he hadn't had many opportunities to use this ability up until now.
Vandalieu pressed his forehead against Zandia's cold palm and closed his eyes.
He saw a man thrusting a distinctly sharp spear. Behind him was another man collapsed onto the ground, covered in blood and still clutching the handle of a broken sword.
Zandia collapsed. She was stabbed repeatedly by the spear, as if judgement was being brought down upon her. In the corner of her eyes, she saw another brown-skinned woman who had already been defeated before her. And just before her vision turned dark, she saw a man descending underground.
The man with the spear was Mikhail, while the defeated man covered in blood was Borkus. The other woman was likely to be Jeena.
However, if these residual thoughts were correct, Zandia and Jeena had died here in the audience chamber after Borkus was killed. They hadn't descended into the underground passage beyond the ice as Borkus thought they did.
But then why were their bodies not here? Even if one assumed that their bodies weren't trapped in the ice other than this one wrist and thus weren't preserved, at least their bones should have remained. And Borkus had been revived as a Titan Zombie long before his body turned into just a skeleton. There was no way that he wouldn't have noticed Zandia and Jeena's bodies if they had been present.
Had someone taken them away? Had they been disposed of in a way that didn't even leave the bones? But then why had this wrist and, more importantly, Borkus's body been left alone?
… Contemplating on his own would yield Vandalieu no answers.
「I saw in the residual memories that the two of them died before Mikhail went underground.」(Vandalieu)
『What?! What do you mean?! So those two aren't underground?! It's true that there were no signs of them coming out, but…』(Borkus)
「Then where could the two of them be?!」(Nuaza)
Borkus and Nuaza, who had been peering into the hole leading underground as if expecting Jeena and Zandia to emerge from it, turned around in surprise. But Vandalieu's reply was,「Who knows? I have no idea.」
「What I saw were the residual memories at the moment that this wrist was cut off. She might have been confused at the moment that this happened, or maybe what I saw isn't what actually happened, but an envisioned, hopeless future that burned itself into her mind. And even if what I saw is what really happened, it's still possible that they got up after that and chased after Mikhail.」(Vandalieu)
『So in other words, we won't know until we go down and have a look.』(Borkus)
「Yes. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know what might be beyond this point -」(Vandalieu)
『No idea. It's a sacred place, after all.』(Borkus)
「As I thought.」(Vandalieu)
「However, we have no choice but to descend into it to find out what happened. Let us go, Borkus-dono, Holy Son.」(Nuaza)
It seemed that there would be no problem entering the passage below the castle, even though it was a sacred place. Was that because it no longer mattered after Mikhail had set foot into it, or because Vandalieu was the Holy Son?
Peering down into the hole, Vandalieu saw rods of stone protruding from the wall, forming a spiral staircase.
With a Lemure leading the way, Vandalieu, Nuaza and Borkus descended the spiral staircase. At the bottom, there was a passageway that somehow seemed like it was part of a temple.
There were no special traps or trials waiting to hinder them. It was impossible to say whether this was because the goddess had utmost confidence in the Dragon Golem, or because Mikhail had already destroyed every obstruction besides the Dragon Golem.
However, they were surprised to see that there was a door, frozen solid in ice.
「The story I heard is that Mikhail was heavily wounded and barely escaped with his life, but could it be that he actually wasn't so desperate?」(Vandalieu)
To think that he would seal off the passage with ice in the middle of escaping.
Even as Vandalieu said that, he drained the Mana out of the ice to melt it. It wasn't very difficult work, but he would grow tired of it if he were to have to repeat it dozens of times.
「He might have been worried that the magic spear that he left behind would be stolen, or someone would finish off the Dragon Golem that he had half-destroyed and take the treasure.」(Vandalieu)
『Hmm? Now that I think about it, this ice and the ice that was in the audience chamber were made when that bastard ran away, wasn't it? How did he make it? Didn't he throw his spear at the Dragon Golem and run away?』(Borkus)
「Ah, now that you mention it…」(Vandalieu)
The ice that Vandalieu was melting right now was magic ice that wouldn't melt even if exposed to the red-hot hellfire. It was difficult to imagine that it had been created through a spell of one of the normal attributes of magic.
And this magic ice was something that could only have been created with the magic spear that had been the Mirg shield-nation's national treasure.
So then how had Mikhail, who had lost his spear and made an escape, sealed this door and the entrance to the passage in magic ice?
『I know it's strange for me to say this considering that I never noticed this for two hundred years, but isn't that strange? What does this mean?』(Borkus)
「What do you think of the theory that this ice was not created through the power if the magic spear, but is the product of a special spell that Mikhail devised himself?」(Nuaza)
「Or maybe the owner of the spear can freely pass through the ice, and he simply created it from the other side to make sure his enemy didn't follow him and then ran through it?」(Vandalieu)
Nuaza and Vandalieu came up with some theories, but they didn't seem to fit.
「In any case, the ice has melted, so let us continue. Incidentally, I do not see the spirits of those two.」(Vandalieu)
『Yeah. I'm sure they've probably gone off somewhere.』(Borkus)
Leaving the theories and guesswork aside, the three of them continued on. Their objective wasn't to find out what had really happened back then, but to find the Undead Zandia and Jeena or their corpses and spirits.
There was no end to the questions that piqued their curiosity, but thinking about them could come later.
『By the way, have you taken a liking to that?』(Borkus)
Borkus asked a question as he looked down at Vandalieu, who was clutching Zandia's wrist in both arms.
「Rather than having taken a liking to it… It would have been bad to just leave it up there.」(Vandalieu)
He couldn't stand the thought of abandoning it on the floor that was dirty with dust and whatever else, and Borkus and Nuaza had shown no signs of interest in taking it, so he had simply stopped its decomposition and brought it with him. There wasn't any particular meaning to it.
But Borkus didn't stop talking.
『So you don't like it?』(Borkus)
Vandalieu came to the realization that only yes and no were the acceptable answers, so he turned his gaze towards Zandia's hand and examined it.
The brown skin was smooth and it was a graceful-looking hand at first glance, but there were several calluses on it. They were certainly from Zandia holding a staff in her hands as she fought. The sweet fragrance of blood coming from the severed wrist tickled his nose, even after two hundred years.
「If I had to say whether I like it or not, I'd say I like it, I suppose.」(Vandalieu)
『You don't like the part around the wrist? She was always complaining that it was too thick or its shape wasn't nice.』(Borkus)
「Thick? Shape?」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu looked at the wrist again, but… even if it were thick or unattractive in shape, there was no way for Vandalieu to tell. To begin with, the size was too different from what he was used to.
「It doesn't bother me.」(Vandalieu)
『Ooh, is that so, Jouchan liked older men, but she'd be happy to hear you say that! Well then, take good care of her.』(Borkus)
「… I'm sorry?*」(Vandalieu)
What was this guy talking about?
『Ooh, I'm happy to hear such a good response.』(Borkus)
「No, that's not what I meant, I'm asking you a question in return. What do you mean, take good care of her?」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu got the feeling that he'd had this conversation before. Feeling a sensation of déjà vu, he looked at Borkus, asking for an explanation.
『Well, see, you still don't see their bodies or spirits even after coming all this way, do you? I'd be happy if they somehow miraculously made it out alive, but it's possible that somebody somewhere just carried their bodies out of here.』(Borkus)
The two of them were heroes, and Zandia was the Second Princess. It was definitely possible that the Mirg shield-nation had taken their bodies back to put their heads on display. Vandalieu hadn't heard such stories from Kachia, but it was possible that stories about the remains of enemies being put on display simply hadn't been passed down to the modern age.
『Which means, you're going to find their bodies for me, right?』(Borkus)
「… Well, I think that will take a considerable amount of time. I don't plan to return to the Mirg shield-nation for a while.」(Vandalieu)
Borkus's request had been to release the two of them from the magic ice. Since Vandalieu had indeed melted all the ice, he had the feeling that he could consider the request complete, but Borkus's eyes were saying,「I'm not satisfied with that.」
And since retrieving the corpses of the two heroes from the Mirg shield-nation didn't seem like a bad idea, Vandalieu agreed to it. The end of the remaining half of Borkus��s lips rose in a smile.
『Yeah, I'm fine with that. With that in mind, I think an extra reward would be appropriate. So once you get Jouchan's and Jeena's corpses back, you can make them yours.』
「I'm sorry?! Are you telling me to turn them into Undead?!」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu's surprised voice echoed against the walls of the passageway. However, he was the only one who was surprised by this.
「Oh, what a wonderful idea. I would expect nothing less of you, Borkus-dono.」(Nuaza)
Nuaza was supposed to be a priest, even though he was just an apprentice. But for some reason, he was trembling with emotion. There was no doubt that tears would be coming from his eyes if his body still had water left in it.
「Zandia-sama is Second Princess of Talosheim, and Jeena-sama is the leader of the Church of Vida. A marital union between them and the Prophesized Holy Son will surely bring prosperity and glory to us as foretold!」(Nuaza)
「Err, aren't you mistaking this with a political marriage or something?」(Vandalieu)
There was a high probability that both of them were already dead, and Vandalieu was currently holding Zandia's severed hand.
『There's no problem, right? That hand is the left hand, too.』(Borkus)
「Ooh, even an exchange of rings would be possible.」(Nuaza)
「It might be possible, but what are you trying to say?」(Vandalieu)
That he could marry them? Vandalieu remembered that there had indeed been a culture in Japan, though only for certain families, where unmarried and widowed relatives would be forced to marry. Had Zakkart introduced that culture to this world?
But Nuaza wouldn't listen.
「If Jeena-sama and Zandia-sama could become companions of the Holy Son and one day help defeat the Church of Alda and its followers, I am sure that they would glad to be revived as Undead.」(Nuaza)
『Hahaha, then it's a rematch between the three of us and the Mirg shield-nation!』(Borkus)
「Wait, wait, you've got a lot of things mixed up. Even if the goddess's prophecy is true, the prophecy of the Vampire founder has nothing to do with me.」(Vandalieu)
Could it be that because their ears were so high up, these two weren't able to hear the words spoken by a child?
「What I was trying to ask is, do you not consider that to be desecration of the dead, or tainting of the heroes' honor?」(Vandalieu)
Even if Vandalieu ignored the values of Alda, the God of Law and Fate, on Earth and Origin there had been a strong notion that reviving dead people as Undead would be defiling them, an act against the will god.
There were no actual Undead on Earth, but there were plenty of myths, legends and folklore where they were considered a religious taboo.
The same applied in fiction. There were countless works where attempts to revive the dead not only failed, but also brought ruin upon the one who was trying to revive them. Even when a villain said to the protagonist,「I'll bring back the people most important to you」, the protagonist might give it some serious thought but always push that temptation aside in the end, looking towards the future.
The protagonist would never reply,「Are you serious?! Please do!」
Since magic and Undead did exist in Origin, that trend was even stronger. Creating Undead was outlawed; even experimenting with them was considered a crime.
The researchers of the military nation who had treated Vandalieu as an experimental animal had a broken sense of ethics in that regard.
And in reality, Vandalieu had no hesitation in creating Undead. If that wasn't the case, he wouldn't be trying to revive his mother, nor would he have created Bone Man and the other Undead.
However, he hadn't forgotten that other people might dislike the idea of creating Undead.
That was why he had thought that the Nuaza, who had been a priest, and Borkus, who had been Jeena and Zandia's companion while they were alive, would be against raising them as Undead.
Vandalieu hadn't even thought about doing so because raising them as Undead against their will would worsen his relationships with Nuaza and Borkus. Though he would have recruited them if they were already Undead.
And so he was surprised as Borkus said the exact opposite, and Nuaza not only agreed with him, but happily recommended that he do so.
『Oi oi, just what are you trying to say about Undead?』(Borkus)
「That's right. The goddess herself raised the fallen champion Zakkart as an Undead, did she not?」(Nuaza)
「Ah… Now that you mention it, you're right.」(Vandalieu)
But it was true that this was told in the myths. It seemed that the goddess Vida was open-minded towards Undead… though the followers of Vida here were Undead themselves; there was no way of knowing how open-minded Vida's living followers would be.
Well, Vandalieu would just have to carefully ascertain these kinds of things after he left Talosheim and entered human society.
「Well, if you're fine with it then I don't have any complaints.」(Vandalieu)
If not only the[Sword King], but the[Saint]and[Tiny Genius]were to become his allies as Undead, he could ask for nothing more. As long as they themselves were happy to do so, Vandalieu had no reason to refuse them.
『See, doesn't it motivate you when you think about how you can get some nice women if you put some effort in? That's just how men are.』(Borkus)
「I'm not even three years old, though.」(Vandalieu)
『I suppose you could say that whether you're three years old or a hundred, your soul stays the same.』(Borkus)
「… That's different from the saying that I know.」(Vandalieu)
「Don't say that. The two of them were both very beautiful individuals, Holy Son.」(Nuaza)
No matter how beautiful they were, there was a high chance that there was nothing left of them but bones now.
Vandalieu thought of pointing this out, but he knew that anything he said to these two would be pointless, so he decided to keep quiet.
It is said that heroes enjoy sensual pleasures, but could pale colors still be considered sensual?
As they quietly proceeded through the passage, they came across a door that was enormous even for a Titan like Borkus. Of course, it was sealed off by ice, but one part of the door had crumbled and they could see what was beyond it through the ice.
『That's the Dragon Golem, huh. As to be expected from something that was able to chase that monster away, even though it only managed to wound him. I'm getting chills just looking at it.』(Borkus)
On the other side of the door was a space so vast that the audience chamber above them would fit inside it dozens of times over. There was an enormous Dragon made of iron standing in its center.
At a glance through the ice, it looked pitiful. Its once-magnificent head and half of its supple, whip-like tail now lay broken on the floor as nothing but lumps of metal. Its right arm was broken off as if it had been gouged out from its shoulder, and there was a spear protruding from the center of its chest.
There were deep cracks all over its body; it looked as if it would collapse at any moment.
「Yes, we should give up on going inside. If I melt this ice, we're going to die.」(Vandalieu)
However, that Golem was still functioning. And that almost-destroyed Golem was capable of killing all three of them.
If Vandalieu melted the ice on the door, he would die. His[Danger Sense: Death]was telling him that.
「What is the likelihood that the two of them are beyond this point?」(Nuaza)
「If they turned into Undead, I think that the Golem would have destroyed them.」(Vandalieu)
『If they're corpses, they might be inside the ice.』(Borkus)
It seemed unlikely that the almost-destroyed Golem wouldn't attack Titans who had become Undead, and because the battle between it and Mikhail had occurred within this chamber, there was ice everywhere inside. The corpses of Zandia and Jeena could be inside any of those masses of ice.
「Has there ever been a known method of entering this place without being attacked by that Golem?」(Vandalieu)
「If I recall, I believe the King knew of a way, but…」(Nuaza)
Nuaza shook his head. It seemed that the King had either never become an Undead, or had returned to dust in the two hundred years that had passed since the war.
Even Vandalieu couldn't talk with the dead if their spirits didn't exist.
「Well then, let's postpone searching this room until we've become strong enough to defeat that Golem.」(Vandalieu)
『Right. It��d be impossible for me as well, since I've lost my dominant arm and my magic sword.』(Borkus)
Even if they were to defeat the golem, there was a high chance that the corpses of those two wouldn't be inside the chamber. But if they could confirm whether they were there or not, then they could think of the next place to look.
『Well, if their bodies aren't there, we could use the goddess's treasure to make them in advance. As for their souls, since you're a Spiritualist, you'll be able to summon them using Necromancy, right?』(Borkus)
「I'm not a Spiritualist, so summoning spirits that I've never seen before would be impossible, even with Necromancy. By the way -」(Vandalieu)
「Is that really true?! You seemed intimate with Undead like us, so I had believed that you possessed the Spiritualist Job, Holy Son!」(Nuaza)
『Yeah, that's a real surprise. Then how come you can see spirits and read Jouchan's memories from her hand?』(Borkus)
「More importantly! … What did you mean by making their corpses with the goddess's treasure?」(Vandalieu)
『What did we mean, you say… The goddess Vida's treasure is an incomplete device that resurrects the dead, so what else could we mean?』(Borkus)
Long ago, the goddess Vida had attempted to revive the deceased champion Zakkart in order to give birth to the race of Vampires. However, even though she was the goddess who governed life itself, it wasn't easy to bring the dead back to life.
The goddess performed a significant amount of trial and error for this purpose. The treasure that was here, below the city of Talosheim, was the result of one of those experiments.
She used this resurrection device to try to build a new body and bring back Zakkart with the same appearance that he had while he was alive. But though the body was successfully created, the soulless body was nothing more than a mass of meat, unable to receive Vida's power.
The only thing that this device was capable of was creating an unwounded corpse of the person that one wished to resurrect. Coming to this conclusion, the goddess sealed the device away. Even though it was incomplete, she believed that it might be of use to her children one day. She personally breathed life into a Golem to guard it so that it would not be misused by the remnants of the Demon King's servants.
「That's what's on the other side of that Dragon Golem… That's wonderful.」(Vandalieu)
A device that created an unwounded corpse of the person that one wished to resurrect.
If that was true, if Vandalieu were to place the spirit of the person inside the body created by this device, wouldn't that be a complete resurrection?
「Nuaza, I���m fine with being the Prophesized Holy Son, so can I use that device?」(Vandalieu)
He would obtain it at any cost.
And then he would revive his mother!
Name: Nuaza
Rank: 4
Race: Lesser Lich
Level: 100
Passive skills:
Dark Vision
Superhuman Strength: Level 2
Physical Resistance: Level 2
Spirit Body: Level 1
Mental Corruption: Level 3
Augmented Endurance: Level 3
Active skills:
Life-Attribute Magic: Level 2
No-Attribute Magic: Level 2
Mana Control: Level 1
Club Technique: Level 3
Shield Technique: Level 2
Armor Technique: Level 2
Masonry: Level 2
"Lich" is a generic term used to refer to any Undead that is able to use the exact same magic that it was able to use while it was alive as soon as it turns into an Undead. Thus, the term refers to both mages who mastered the secrets of magic and willingly transformed themselves into Undead, and others who became Undead by coincidence while retaining their memories, abilities and Mana that are only capable of casting beginner-level magic.
Nuaza is one of the latter, an apprentice priest-warrior in life, but he has not spent all of his time since becoming Undead on training and research. As a result, his abilities are largely same as they were when he was alive.
This makes him an unusual Undead who is stronger when using weapons in physical combat, despite being a Lich.
As he has been mummified, he is covered in wrinkles and looks like an elderly person, but he was in fact a young boy in his mid-teenage years when he died. Thus, the other Undead of Talosheim sometimes refer to him as a youngster.
Incidentally, the[Masonry]skill is something he obtained after his death. After becoming an Undead, he learned the skill while spending the past two hundred years repairing the Church that had been destroyed by the Mirg shield-nation.
To increase in Rank, a Lesser Lich must possess a level 4 skill in a magic-related skill in addition to the generic level requirement.
Chapter 31: Forced to be white. What's resting, again?
Submerged in water, Vandalieu's fatigue faded away and he was enveloped in warmth.
He closed his eyes, stretched his arms and legs out and felt completely at ease.
It had been more than twenty years since he had taken a bath like this, but it reminded him that he really had once been a Japanese person.
『How many decades has it been since I soaked myself in a bath again? The last time was when I was a kid on Earth, I guess.』(Vandalieu)
Answering his own unimportant question, Vandalieu remembered what had happened after he learned that there was an incomplete resurrection device below the royal castle.
First, he had made a new arm for Borkus. Using[Golem Transmutation], he gathered Borkus's broken bones that were lying in the audience chamber and restored their shape. After that, he placed the bones against Borkus's shoulder and poured Mana into them with the image of restoring the arm in his mind.
And then flesh sprouted and expanded from Borkus's shoulder and his arm was restored!
『UOOH, this feels disgusting!』(Borkus)
He received this kind of overreaction, however.
It seemed that death-attribute magic was capable of restoring not only the bones that made up the bodies of Bone Man and the other Undead, but flesh and skin as well. He decided to name this ability[Corpse Healing.]
But the right half of Borkus's face couldn't be restored. This was possibly because holding an image in one's mind was important when using magic, and the image of Borkus's half-skull face had already left a deep impression in Vandalieu's mind.
『I don't understand the theory behind it, but don't worry. My right eye can still see even though the eyeball is missing, and I won't have any problems fighting now that I have my right arm. And I look sexier like this anyway, right?』(Borkus)
「Certainly.」(Nuaza)
『Shut up! The one I'm talking to is this brat!』(Borkus)
Though a little angry that Nuaza had agreed with him immediately, Borkus was very pleased. He was happy that his arm had been restored, allowing him to fight as he had done while alive.
Vandalieu was a little shocked to learn that there were people like Borkus,『good people with bad mouths.』
Up until now, he had only known『bad people with bad mouths.』With this, he would possibly be more tolerant towards any bad-mouthed people he might meet in the Orbaume Kingdom… At least, he wouldn't immediately assume they were enemies and attack them.
After that, he decided to go over the Magic Items and materials that had been left in Talosheim one more time.
Even with Borkus's arm restored, he didn't get the feeling that they would be able to defeat the Dragon Golem underground; in fact, he got the feeling that they would be slaughtered if they tried. There was now a genuine need to build up fighting strength.
The really important items had been taken by the First Princess when she escaped the city, and most of the other notable items had been plundered by the Mirg shield-nation; not even the legendary-class and upper-class Magic Items that were Talosheim's national treasures remained.
「The only things left are 5th-grade potions and low-class Magic Items that you can find anywhere. Well, even if there were better things remaining, they'd be rotten and rusted by now.」(Vandalieu)
『Well, it's been two hundred years, after all.』(Borkus)
The only other things left were the items that the Undead Titans were wearing, but Vandalieu wasn't interested in making them hand those over.
『There's no other choice; I guess I'll go and get some from the Dungeons. Nobody's entered them since we died, right? Even the D-class Dungeons should be rolling in Magic Items. Oh yeah, what happened to the Adventurers' Guild?』(Borkus)
The Adventurers' Guild had been prepared for emergencies with large quantities of Potions in storage. Among them, there should have even been some Potions that temporarily raised the drinker's attribute values, but Nuaza shook his head.
「In the Adventurers' Guild, there was a battle between the enemy and the adventurers who bravely stayed in Talosheim and shared its fate. All of the Potions were consumed and every Magic Item was plundered. The only thing that was left undamaged was the Job-changing chamber.」(Nuaza)
「Eh? What did you just -」(Vandalieu)
『Tch, those outsiders really pushed themselves… I should have bought them more drinks.』(Borkus)
「You can still treat some of them to drinks. They have become Undead as well.」(Nuaza)
『Oh yeah! I forgot about them because I've been holed up in the royal castle for two hundred years! Ah, but there aren't any bars left.』(Borkus)
「Hahaha, that is true as well.」(Nuaza)
「Umm, is it true that the Guild's Job-changing room is still usable?」(Vandalieu)
Job-changing rooms in branches of each Guild were facilities that existed in every society. This was something that didn't change even if one journeyed from the Amid Empire to the Orbaume Kingdom or, of course, Talosheim.
And so the Mirg shield-nation hadn't bothered taking the time to destroy it, and it had simply been abandoned. In fact, Borkus, Nuaza and the other Titans were no longer people, but monsters, now that they were Undead. Since they couldn't undergo a Job change, it was now a useless facility.
「Then the Ghouls and I can use it, right?」(Vandalieu)
However, this was good news for Vandalieu and the Ghouls, who had never been able to enter human society to use a Job-changing room.
To be more precise, it was definitely good news for the Ghouls. Though society had branded them as monsters, they were people of a race created by Vida. They could possess Jobs. Tarea and Kachia, who had transformed into Ghouls while possessing the Jobs that they had while they were human, were living proof of that.
Vigaro and Zadiris had been improving their skills up until now without Jobs. If they were to acquire Jobs and receive the Job-related bonuses to their attribute values and skills, they would certainly become significantly stronger.
However, in Vandalieu's case, he was under Rodcorte's[Cannot learn existing Jobs]curse so there was a high chance that he wouldn't be able to undergo a Job change even with the use of the Job-changing room.
But he had decided long ago that he'd try as hard as he could. The probability of him obtaining a Job wasn't zero.
And so Vandalieu returned to the Ghouls with a spring in his step, intending to share this good news with them, but a shocking announcement was waiting for him.
「I order you to rest until your birthday, boy.」(Zadiris)
After consulting everyone, Zadiris had decided that Vandalieu wouldn't listen if asked to rest in indirect ways, so she simply announced that he would be taking a rest.
「No, but the resurrection device, the Job-change!」(Vandalieu)
「It would defeat the purpose if you were to collapse before dealing with any of that! Your endurance is dangerously close to its limits, boy!」(Zadiris)
『That is right, Bocchan! This is a condition that will cost you your life!』(Sam)
『I'm begging you, please rest, Vandalieu! If you don't rest, I'm just going to go back to the circle of transmigration!』(Darcia)
Vandalieu's words fell on deaf ears.
While they were contemplating on how to make Vandalieu rest, they had looked outside the window to see the usual hollow-looking Vandalieu approaching them, running in a strange way that they had never seen before. This sight had apparently made them think,『This is bad! We must make him rest right now!』
It seemed that Vandalieu had no talent in skipping with joy.
However, his pupils were always like those of a dead fish, so he didn't think that they needed to be so alarmed. Though he pointed that out and protested, it didn't change the fact that they were forcing him to rest.
They begged him in tears to give his body some rest, so he was unable to refuse.
Well, the Job-changing room wasn't going to run away and Vandalieu found it hard to imagine that they would be able to defeat that Dragon Golem right after undergoing the Job changes, so it might have been a good idea to recuperate his strength during the ten days leading up to his birthday.
And it wasn't as if he was being forced to rest without doing anything. He was still doing Alchemy training for an hour a day to make sure his skill didn't deteriorate, and he was doing a lot of other things to rest.
Repairing this public bathhouse, for instance.
Talosheim once had public bathhouses. Perhaps because of Zakkart's influence, the Titans were a race that liked bathing; there were five bathhouses in the city and there was even a large bathhouse in the royal castle.
However, the baths weren't cypress baths1, but stone baths like the ones used in thermae2 in ancient Rome and the saunas were western-style rather than Japanese-style.
The bathhouse hadn't been damaged too heavily. Though the Mirg shield-nation had attacked viciously, it seemed that they hadn't had the time to destroy bathhouses that didn't have temples or any facilities that would be useful for defense in a battle. There were Magic Items that created small fires and some money and goods inside, but the Mirg troops had probably carried back as much as they could, taking things of even more value than these.
But after having been abandoned for two hundred years, all of the bathhouses, including the one in the royal castle, had been in a terrible state when Vandalieu first saw them.
Out of the city's five bathhouses, the three that were towards the edges of the city had been collapsed by the trees growing out of the Devil's Nest, and one of them had been hit by a stray spell and turned into a mountain of rubble.
The mushrooms had been growing all over the one that was intact. They weren't ordinary mushrooms, but monsters such as the Walking Mushrooms that had arms and legs growing out of them and the Poison Mushrooms that released toxic spores.
They weren't particularly strong monsters; they turned out to be very delicious once defeated and roasted. The Walking Mushrooms had a good consistency, similar to king trumpet mushrooms. The Poison Mushrooms were like shiitake mushrooms, perhaps?
In the end, he decided to repair the bathhouse in the royal castle. Well, even this bathhouse had its baths turned into ponds by leaks from the ceiling and several Skeletons had been soaking themselves in them, enjoying the water.
Using [Golem Transmutation], he repaired the leaks in the ceiling and the cracks in the walls and tiles, and began to clean the bathhouse up. As to be expected of the royal castle of the Titans. With just that, the bathhouse became usable again, two hundred years after the war.
The Ghouls, who had never experienced anything other than washing themselves in cold water, took a liking to the culture of hot baths as well, and now they were lining up every day to wash away their fatigue in the royal castle's bathhouse.
『Once I finish resting, I'll have to repair the other bathhouses. Not matter how big the royal castle's bathhouse is, it gets packed in here. I only ever had showers in Origin, so this feels good… Hmm?』
As Vandalieu got the feeling that he could hear a deep-sounding scream, someone grabbed his head firmly and lifted him out of the water.
「Vandalieu! Were you drowning?!」(Vigaro)
「No, I was just putting my head underwater to warm it up.」(Vandalieu)
It would have been different if it was a bathhouse built specifically for members of other races who had migrated from the Orbaume Kingdom, but the bathtubs in the bathhouse of the royal castle that was built for Titan use were very deep.
It was a bathtub that a 2.5m-tall Titan woman would be able to use while standing up, so if the almost-three-years-old Vandalieu were to stand up inside the bathtub, his head would be well below the water's surface.
Well, when he had repaired the bathtubs, he had built stairs to create shallower regions as well, so he wouldn't drown unless he was careless or was trying to drown himself on purpose. Vandalieu had been submerging his head in the water on purpose.
「I was thinking of putting my head underwater and counting to a hundred.」(Vandalieu)
「You'd die, you know?!」(Vigaro)
「No no, I'll be fine for up to five minutes.」(Vandalieu)
Thanks to the his[Status Effect Resistance]skill, he would take over five minutes to die of asphyxiation. Using death-attribute magic, he could survive underwater even longer.
「Still, stop that; it's scary to watch. What would you have done if my heart had stopped?」(Vigaro)
「Oka~ay.」(Vandalieu)
Bathing by submerging his whole body underwater, officially prohibited.
After Vandalieu finished bathing, he was deep in thought.
『Now then, what am I going to do to rest?』(Vandalieu)
There were still several days until his birthday. He was contemplating what to do to rest during that time.
Sleeping all day would be unhealthy, and spending the whole day eating was out of the question. Staring into space and sitting completely still to meditate… He wasn't interested in that.
When he tried to remember how he had passed the time up until now, he got the feeling that he just did things and time just passed before he knew it.
Training his No-Attribute Magic and Alchemy, making sauces with walnuts and herbs, crushing acorns into powder, polishing the bones of Bone Monkey and the other Undead. When he had been in the Devil's Nest forest, time would go by while he was doing these.
However, he was resting now, and he wasn't allowed to do tasks like these.
So he thought that he would pass the time by amusing himself, only to realize that there weren't many things that amused him.
Vandalieu didn't have access to the gaming consoles, PCs, televisions or smartphones that had existed on Earth. Toys and board games should at least exist in this world, but he didn't have those, either… Well, now that he thought about it, he didn't have access to many of these things while he was on Earth.
The survival-of-the-fittest lifestyle in the Ghoul village hadn't allowed for much room to develop such ways to amuse oneself. Even though the Ghouls had stripped the corpses of dead adventurers of their belongings, there weren't any odd-minded adventurers who would bring toys and board games with them into a perilous Devil's Nest.
… There were several books, but they were either spell tomes or manuals that described the ecology of monsters and the correct methods of dismantling them, and he had already read them multiple times.
He still had some books that he had taken from bandits before arriving at the Devil's Nest forest, but those were all practical manuals that he had already skimmed multiple times as well.
『That makes me wonder, how do the people of this world amuse themselves?』(Vandalieu)
Feeling curious, he went to ask Kachia who had once been an adventurer and Nuaza who had a good memory of details before his death, and they answered him cheerfully.
「Ways to amuse yourself other than board games and reading? Hmm, drinking, watching plays at a theater, watching street performers and stuff? If you were rich, you'd attend concerts… Ah, you could also listen to minstrels perform. And shopping, of course.」(Kachia)
Kachia's answer included the pastimes of the Mirg shield-nations' commoners as well as an example of what the richer members of society might enjoy. But the outdoor theaters of Talosheim were breeding grounds for monsters, the street performers were currently busy picking up their own bones and the city had no musical performers or minstrels to begin with.
「Other than the things that Kachia-san has mentioned, perhaps things like singing songs and gambling on things, such as whether a tossed coin will land on heads or tails? And praying to the gods at the Churches.」(Nuaza)
Vandalieu didn't think that the last item that Nuaza mentioned was a pastime.
Incidentally, Vandalieu intended to wait until he became an adult before drinking or gambling. He considered himself to have the kind of personality that made him easily fired-up and not suited to gambling, and even if he were to drink alcohol now, his[Status Effect Resistance]skill would turn it into a training exercise rather than a leisure activity.
「Err, then…」(Vandalieu)
「Then you should play with us for today.」(Kachia)
「Eh?」(Vandalieu)
「It's fine, just come.」(Kachia)
After that, Vandalieu passed the time by having Kachia and the other former adventurers teach him about the Adventurers' Guild, and teaching them how to play rock-paper-scissors in return.
And then he checked up on Bilde and the other pregnant women as well as the Live-Dead, did his alchemy training and the day ended.
The rock-paper-scissors that Vandalieu had taught Kachia and the others quickly spread throughout Talosheim, and one day, it would spread across the entire Bahn Gaia continent.
The next day, Vandalieu visited the Black Goblins, Anubises and Orcuses in search of amusement.
Last night, before he went to sleep, he had thought,「That's right, I should play with the other kids now that I have free time.」
Since they developed quickly, their bodies were already larger than Vandalieu's, but they were the only minors in the community.
Vandalieu was sure that they would be playing tag and hide-and-seek, and they would gladly let him join in.
On Earth, his behavior had been unusual because of his uncle, so he'd had no friends. This would undoubtedly be a great opportunity to forget that lonely childhood.
… Though his heart would be broken if he were to be rejected.
Talking to Kachia and the others had been fun, but children playing together would be something different.
『Listen up, this is how you use a short sword!』(Borkus)
「Take good aim at your target! Good, now fire!」(Basdia)
「This is the club technique martial skill,[Skull Bash.]If it hits, even a head made of stone will have its contents crushed, but it creates a big opening on yourself so be careful when you use it!」(Vigaro)
So he had thought, but everyone was busy training.
They would one day have to go hunting in the Devil's Nest for themselves and for the others in the village, so they had to receive training from a young age and become strong.
It seemed harsh, but considering the lifestyles and cultures of other monsters, they were very blessed.
Monsters such as Goblins and Kobolds gave their children almost no education. They only taught the most basic of rules to maintain their groups, such as the rule of not disobeying their bosses.
They were expected to gain techniques and knowledge by observation or learn it themselves, and they had to either make or steal their own equipment and tools.
Goblins and Kobolds reproduced quickly, producing large numbers of children in a short amount of time. Even if two-thirds of their children died, it was sufficient if the surviving one-third made it to adulthood.
If the individuals with the ability to gather food on their own and the knowledge to build equipment or the luck to find it could survive, that was enough.
They didn't bother spending the effort needed to educate the inferior members of their race.
As for Orcs, many individuals only barely possessed the intelligence needed to use tools.
The concept of providing all of the Orcs with equipment as Bugogan had done was only possible because he was a Noble Orc, a member of a superior race.
Practice equipment had been given to the children and they could learn fundamental martial skills to build up their strength from the Ghouls and the Undead Titans.
And once they became adults, they would be provided with high-quality equipment created by Tarea and the other smiths using monster materials. They were in an extraordinary environment compared to normal monsters.
「Three threes are nine. Three fours are twelve.」
「Four fives, twenty. Four sixes, twenty-four.」
The Orcuses were learning the multiplication table. Though some might consider this unexpected, races like Ghouls who lived as monsters were all capable of basic arithmetic. At the very least, their abilities to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were flawless.
The reason for this was because they were necessary when calculating Vitality and Mana values. How much more damage could be taken before running out of Vitality, how many more times spells and martial skills could be used before running out of Mana. It was impossible to survive without making calculations like these.
And so it was only natural to be teaching these to the Orcuses as well.
Incidentally, the multiplication table was something that Vandalieu had spread amongst the Ghouls. He had thought that even if the Ghouls didn't know about it, the multiplication table would at least be known in human society, so he had been surprised when Kachia and the others told him that humans, at least those on this continent, didn't use it.
It seemed that Zakkart and the other champions hadn't managed to spread all of their knowledge that they had brought with them from other worlds. Well, there had been a fierce war against the Demon King going on back then, so they probably had no time to spend teaching children.
Even the champion Bellwood who had been dead-set against the knowledge and culture of Earth being spread and established in Lambda wouldn't have gone around executing people for knowing about paper-scissors-rock and the multiplication table.
「Hmm? Are you free now, boy?」(Zadiris)
Zadiris had been teaching the children how to write using clay tablets instead of notebooks but it seemed that her lesson had just finished and she was now approaching Vandalieu.
「I will tell you in advance that I do not need any help. Making these Clay Golems for us is more than enough.」(Zadiris)
The Clay Golems that Zadiris was pointing at were the clay tablets that she and her students were using.
In Lambda, paper was considered a luxurious item; parchment made using sheepskin wasn't easily obtainable for the Ghouls living a primitive lifestyle in the Devil's Nest or the Undead Titans of Talosheim, nor could it be made.
Vandalieu had tried making paper from the fibers of suitable plants, but… he found that it was impossible to make paper using[Golem Transmutation.]He was planning to try again after his skill increased in level, however.
And so he had turned clay obtained from digging holes in the ground into Clay Golems to use instead of notebooks. Wooden sticks were used instead of pens to etch characters into the clay, and once they were full, Vandalieu would give an order to the Golems and they would become clean, flat tablets once more.
Vandalieu had wondered if he would be able to make porcelain items using this technique in the future, but… it would be another matter if he was simply making porcelain for his own use, but if he was planning to make high-quality items to sell, he would have to worry about the quality of the clay and he would need to construct a furnace to bake the pottery, so he hadn't put any work into trying that.
Apparently porcelain had once been made here in Talosheim, but the city's only porcelain craftsmen had been the boss who was destroyed by monsters after turning into an Undead and his inexperienced son who escaped with the First Princess to the Orbaume Kingdom.
「No, I wasn't thinking about helping. I was thinking of playing with my fellow children.」(Vandalieu)
「Fellow children, hmm?」(Zadiris)
「Yes, my fellow children.」(Vandalieu)
「Well then, you will have to wait a little longer. Ah yes, why not play a board game with me?」(Zadiris)
「A board game?」(Vandalieu)
「Yes, it was gathering dust in a corner of a play room in the royal castle.」(Zadiris)
In Lambda, board games were considered a pastime of upper-class and intelligent people. Many board games had many pieces and the rules were difficult to understand; they weren't something that commoners could enjoy.
「Well, the board was apparently too heavy to move. There are fifty different kinds of pieces, and the players choose eleven of them to begin with.」(Zadiris)
The board games of Talosheim were no exception.
「Have you already learned the rules?」(Vandalieu)
「No, I have not been free enough to do so.」(Zadiris)
It seemed that she intended to learn the rules while playing. Wasn't there a rulebook to be found with the board and pieces?
「Well then, shall we play a simpler board game?」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu turned one of the countless pieces of rubble that could be found anywhere in the Devil's Nest ruins of Talosheim into a Golem and began transmuting it.
「Hohoh~」(Zadiris)
It seemed that using magic for recreational purposes counted as「resting」by Zadiris's definition, and she watched what Vandalieu as making with great interest.
First, he made a game board with small squares carved on it and thin, circular pieces from white stone. He made the same number of similar pieces from a black stone, attached them to the white ones and he was finished.
「This is a game called Reversi*.」(Vandalieu)
Indeed, it was the game of Reversi, made using a stone board and pieces.
「But it seems that there is only one kind of piece?」(Zadiris)
「Yes, that's why you can quickly learn how to play.」
There was only one kind of piece used in Reversi, and the rules were far simpler than those of shogi and chess. It was also far easier to create the necessary pieces using[Golem Transmutation.]
Most importantly, Vandalieu was skilled at Reversi. When his uncle's family went on family vacations and left him at home alone, he would secretly play with the Reversi set that belonged to his cousin. He had also played it over the internet.
He only knew how the various pieces moved in shogi and chess, and as for playing it… He had played it when taking IQ tests in the research laboratory in Origin. Of course, he had not found it fun at all.
「This is a game where you flip the pieces that are between your own pieces, changing their color. The winner is whoever has more pieces of their own color.」(Vandalieu)
「I see, this is quite…」(Zadiris)
The stone pieces rattled as Vandalieu enjoyed his first game of Reversi in over twenty years with Zadiris. The stone pieces were heavier than the ones sold on Earth, but both of them were strong, so it didn't bother them.
Of course, Vandalieu won the first match, but…
「It seems that whoever takes the corners first has the advantage.」(Zadiris)
Zadiris noticed after one match what Vandalieu had taken years to learn.
After that, the matches were even from the second match onwards.
「Even though I was undefeated when I played by myself…」(Vandalieu)
「…」(Zadiris)
「Umm, please don't look at me like you're looking at some pitiful child, and if you feel sorry for me, don't take the corners.」(Vandalieu)
「This and that are separate matters. Competitions are cruel things, boy.」(Zadiris)
And as the two of them became engrossed in their matches -
「King, I want to play too!」(Black Goblin)
『Playing something interesting over here, aren't you? Let me in on this!』(Borkus)
「Oh my, a board game. How elegant! Might I ask you to teach me how to play, Van-sama?」(Tarea)
Before they knew it, the Black Goblins who had finished their training had gathered around them, and even the Ghouls and Undead Titans who were teaching them were watching curiously; Borkus and Tarea had gathered around as well.
And so Vandalieu ended up creating almost twenty Reversi sets today.
「So today was a fun day as well… Did I manage to rest today?」(Vandalieu)
『If you had fun, then it's fine.』(Darcia)
Vandalieu had the strange feeling that he ended up doing some work anyway after mass-producing Reversi sets, but Darcia gave a smile as if she didn't mind.
In fact, even though Vandalieu had spent a hundred thousand Mana, it wasn't even one percent of his total Mana pool. It was an amount that would quickly recover even if he didn't rest.
『And Reversi is quite fun, isn't it? Ah, put my piece there.』(Darcia)
「Oka~ay. Well then, I'll play my piece here.」(Vandalieu)
The stone pieces made a pleasant, rattling sound.
『There were no simple, interesting board games like this one in the Mirg shield-nation. Ah, Saria, are you going to take the corner that I was aiming for again?』(Sam)
『Father, competitions are a cruel thing, you know?』(Saria)
『Nee-chan and Father don't have any bone or flesh, but they're waging a war of bone and flesh?!』(Rita)
「Hahaha, Borkus-dono. It seems that it is my victory once again.」(Nuaza)
『UOOOOH! Why, why can't I win?!』(Borkus)
『That's… because Master Borkus doesn't take the corners, I suppose?』(Titan)
「He said something like, "How can a man do such small-minded things?" and refuses to put his pieces at the ends.」(Titan)
『Shut up! Nobody asked you!』(Borkus)
「You cannot win if you get too agitated, Borkus-dono.」(Nuaza)
Even while Vandalieu and Darcia were sleeping, the rattling of stone pieces against the stone boards and the voices of the Undead Titans enjoying the game of Reversi could be heard throughout the city of Talosheim.
If one were to hear rattling sounds in Talosheim, it was possible that they would not be the sounds of the Skeletons' bones moving against each other, but the sounds of Undead playing Reversi nearby.
Name: Borkus
Rank: 9
Race: Zombie Hero
Level: 5
Title: Sword King
Passive skills:
Dark Vision
Superhuman Strength: Level 7
Physical Resistance: Level 5
Strengthened Attack Power while equipped with a sword: (Large)
Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with non-metal armor: (Medium)
Intuition: Level 3
Mental Corruption: Level 5
Active skills:
Sword King Technique: Level 1
Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 7
Archery: Level 7
Armor Technique: Level 7
Surpass Limits: Level 5
Dismantling: Level 5
Commanding: Level 2
Coordination: Level 4
Teaching: Level 1
Status Effects:
One-Armed (Status Effect removed)
An A-class adventurer, the[Sword King]Borkus who has become an Undead. As the original person's soul is inhabiting the original person's body, his Rank and the levels of his skills are high, but as he has not fought any battles after becoming an Undead and has simply been guarding the audience chamber, his level is low and he is weaker than he was when he was alive.
The Undead of this world do not necessarily become stronger than they were when they were alive. In fact, it is more common for them to become weaker.
In addition to this, Borkus was in a pitiful state after having lost his dominant arm, his sword no longer being of use after having half of its blade broken and even his armor having being torn to pieces. He was in a condition where he could not use his[Sword King Technique]skill and his passive skills[Strengthened Attack Power while equipped with a sword: (Large)]and[Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with non-metal armor: (Medium)]were not active.
Because of this, despite being Rank 9, he was only as strong as a Rank 7, in a state where he might have even lost a battle to the Noble Orc Bugogan. Since Borkus is proficient in a fighting style where he slays his enemy with a single attack, Vandalieu would have found Borkus to be the more difficult enemy, however.
But Vandalieu has now restored his dominant arm and given him Bugogan's magic sword, so his fighting strength has returned to a level that corresponds to his Rank.
As he possesses tremendously powerful skills, he is likely to be able to display fighting strength beyond his Rank once he becomes accustomed to being an Undead.
It is said that Zombie Heroes are monsters born when a person with a Title shows no sign of betraying the honor of that Title right up until the moment of their death. Their Ranks can vary; at present the lowest-Rank examples that have been confirmed are Rank 4, while the highest is Rank 10.
Individuals who have become other types of Undead generally cannot become Zombie Heroes by increasing their Rank.
The Church of Alda, the God of Law and Fate, teaches that defeating these Zombie Heroes is the greatest way of honoring the hero they once were. When a Zombie Hero is sighted, many adventurers aim to defeat it in order to gain honor and fame.
Zombie Heroes often carry the valuable equipment and personal belongings that former bearers of honorable Titles would have, and their bones and other parts are often considered high-quality Alchemy ingredients due the Mana they contain. Thus, adventurers would gain not only fame, but wealth as well from defeating these Undead.
Skill explanation:
[Sword King Technique]
This is a superior version of the Swordsmanship skill. When the Swordsmanship skill reaches level 10 and continues to gain experience, there is a chance that it transforms into a superior version.
It has been confirmed that the superior versions of the Swordsmanship skill include the Holy Sword Technique, the Sword Emperor Technique, Sword God Technique and Magic Blade Technique.
As few possess these superior skills, it has not been accurately confirmed just how much they vary in their special characteristics and power and which skills are superior to the others.
It is said in the Amid Empire that the[Holy Sword God Technique]possessed by the legendary champion Bellwood is the greatest skill of them all, but that is for political and religious reasons - It is not even certain that Bellwood's skill was named the[Holy Sword God Technique.]
Superior versions of other skills such as Spear Technique, Axe Technique and Unarmed Fighting Technique also exist; individuals who possess such skills are A-class at minimum.