-You are our end.
It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but I managed to take down the corrupted fragments of the God of Death, hiding in there with the Grim Reaper.
Just like that, the white-colored world began to crumble.
A fading sense of reality. As if this space never existed, the fading reality suddenly crashes back in.
The outline of the Fourth Floor landscape emerges beyond the hazy vision. Through the buzzing, a familiar voice penetrates.
“…Me! Jonah! Get a grip!”
“Hmm? Ellie?”
As I rubbed my eyes, feeling like I’d just woken up, I let out a sigh of relief once Ellie relaxed.
Beside me, Benny melted with Shadow, showing every bit of relief.
My mind was a bit foggy, but the remaining memories helped me snap back to reality quickly.
“It seems we took down the Grim Reaper… How long was I out?”
At my words, Benny, who had just sealed Ellie’s mouth, spoke in a serious tone.
“Don’t freak out, Jonah. You just opened your eyes after 20 years…”
“Come on, Benny, say it with a bit more flair. My equipment is intact, and the people and scenery around me haven’t changed. There’s no way it’s been 20 years. More like 20 minutes, right?”
I tilted my head in confusion, and Ellie shrugged after freeing Benny’s hand from her mouth.
“Actually, it was about 20 seconds. There was a flash of light, and you were lying where the Grim Reaper was. And now you’re awake.”
“Aha! Thanks, Ellie! Will you marry me?”
“……At this time?”
“No, it’s just that a lot has happened in the blink of an eye. So I wanted to say it after all this time.”
It used to be an obligatory proposal I made every day, but I’ve been slacking lately.
Still, I gave it a shot, and surprisingly, it had a good effect.
The lingering negative feelings washed away, leaving me with the sense of being present in this place, with these people in this world.
In simple terms, it meant I was fully alert now.
“Oops!”
As I lifted my fallen body, I noticed the gazes of the surrounding adventurers.
Sighs of relief, admiration, envy, jealousy, and a hint of longing, as always.
I could somewhat guess what they were thinking.
Having just arrived on the Fourth Floor, this character who’d only heard rumors suddenly thrust themselves into a boss fight against a floor guardian.
Accompanied by two high-ranking adventurers, they didn’t just summon undead with reckless abandon but took down the Grim Reaper, a monster known for its strategy of wearing down opponents with a long battle.
It’d be bizarre if they didn’t find it strange.
After taking a moment to bask in the adventurers’ gazes, I raised the corners of my mouth in a smirk.
“Hey everyone, I hope you’ve all filled your contribution points!”
The murmuring in the group of adventurers fell silent all at once. Moments later, they began to respond in their own ways.
Some spoke aloud, some nodded silently, and others maintained a silent gaze.
There were many different methods, but the meaning was all the same: positive.
No one here failed to contribute to the floor guardian hunt.
In fact, it was only natural. While I drew the aggro, they were getting free hits, after all.
If they had struggled to meet their contribution points despite defeating the Grim Reaper without interruptions, then that just meant their skills weren’t up to par.
It wasn’t about how much damage you caused, but how much you contributed to the strategy that mattered for contribution points.
Finally confirming that everyone there had been acknowledged for their contributions to the floor guardian hunt, I squatted down on the ground.
Among the trinkets of the Grim Reaper made of mana stones, robes, and scythes, I reached for the scythe that looked the most valuable…
-Jonah. The robe’s more important.
I switched to grabbing the robe at Benny’s whisper.
“Alright, let’s just enjoy this easy victory today! As promised, I’ll return all the mana stones from the monsters I summoned as undead, and I’m thinking of taking this one item from the Grim Reaper’s spoils… Any objections from the ladies?”
The group hesitated a bit, knowing the robe was the most precious, but remembering that this floor guardian hunt was entirely thanks to me, they began nodding one by one.
“It’s a rule that the top contributor has priority.”
“But couldn’t you have defeated it alone even without us?”
“Ah, that’s not really the case. …Right?”
“Ladies… hehehe…”
There was one odd bird at the end, but nobody seemed to have real complaints, so I tossed the robe straight into my subspace pocket.
“But Benny, what’s the effect of the robe that made you tell me to get it first?”
“The scythe and robe have some of the abilities the Grim Reaper used in life. Of course, they are inferior copies.”
“Heh. How so?”
“Well, the scythe can no longer slice through to the heart, but can now create wounds that normal healing methods will find hard to mend.”
“What do you mean by ‘normal?’”
“Natural healing. By the way, potions forcefully enhance natural healing, so actually most potions, except the top-grade ones, become irrelevant.”
Just for reference, the top-grade potions can heal even someone with a severed head if treated quickly. They’re exorbitantly expensive for that reason.
“Seems really powerful… but not as good as the robe?”
“Yep. The scythe’s power comes with one condition. The healing obstruction effect only works when you use it as-is. If you try to melt the blade or use it separately, that effect will drop to half.”
Indeed. It sounds like an equipment that lacks versatility.
How many people wield a scythe as their weapon? It’s pretty foreign for most adventurers.
By the way, that was just a pun, so everyone laugh.
“So what’s the robe’s effect then?”
“It’s simple. It reduces all damage. Not completely, and it’ll shatter if the damage exceeds a limit, but… you can either wear it directly, wrap it around yourself, or even cut it up and layer it with your gear, and it’ll still activate.”
“That sounds… too good to be true?”
Adventurers often face a single remarkable foe, but more often than not, they have to slay several monsters of similar strength.
So, naturally, damage-absorbing gear seems far more enticing than something that can’t be healed.
There’s a thought that perhaps, instead of adapting my combat style around the scythe, I’d be better off focusing on my armor.
But remember, nothing comes for free.
“There must be some serious downsides or restrictions, right?”
“Yeah, there are. First off, the total absorption capacity isn’t that impressive. If you get hit with a really strong attack, you’ll have to sacrifice part of the robe along with it, splitting in half.”
So if I rashly charge in, relying blindly on the robe, I’d end up as a chopped-up Jonah.
“And you can’t transfer it to someone else. If anyone wears it once, it’ll have zero effect for anyone else.”
“That doesn’t matter since I’ll be using it myself, so binding is okay. But is that all there is to it? Then it sounds like nothing but benefits…”
“If only that were the case. There are other issues, like sometimes hearing ominous sounds from your own bones, or being disturbed by your heartbeat, or having nightmares, which isn’t something to overlook.”
“What is this, a curse set?”
Isn’t this just begging for a nervous breakdown?
But anyway. Choosing the robe is clearly the right decision.
My weapon is already sufficient, so it makes sense to worry about defense instead. Less time getting used to a new weapon too.
“Thanks for the info, Benny. And Ellie?”
“Hmm?”
I stood on my tiptoes, puffing out my chest toward Ellie, who was watching us from a half-step back.
“Ahem. Do you think this is enough for us to go together?”
“……Sure. But just to be safe, make sure to cut the robe nicely and layer it with your gear before heading out.”
“Sure!”
Not my eyes, but the slight protrusion of my chest. Thanks to that, Ellie couldn’t take her eyes off the highlighted collarbone.
I faked covering my collarbone and pulled up my lips in a smirk.
“Pervert.”
“Wha…!”
As Ellie flustered in the background, I was about to place the gathered mana stones that I piled up before distributing the Grim Reaper’s mana stones.
Boom!
Suddenly, gray hues began to surge from my hand where I was holding the mana stones.
“Uh-oh?”
In that moment, all eyes turned toward me. I nearly dropped the mana stones in shock, but thankfully, Shadow caught them instead.
As Shadow handed the mana stones to a suitable adventurer, I noticed something on my hand starting to get marked with an unknown script, or rather, a sigil.
One, two, three.
A dull gray sigil made of three strokes. It felt like it was scratched on my skin.
A wave of ominous dread washed over me.
“The Soul Master…!”
Absolutely not! I can’t explain it in detail, but I refuse!
For a brief moment of trembling inside, just as I expected, I began to etch information about the power of the God of Death into my mind.
The Mark of Mortality.
Once, it lets you impose a fateful disaster upon your opponent using the mark etched on your hand.
And while retaining it, your luck slightly decreases.
“Wha.”
It’s consumable, but it’s powerful enough to turn the tide in a dire situation. It’s probably in the 4-star category if drawn from a gacha. But honestly, I couldn’t feel happy about it.
“So my luck decreases…?”
Stop rigging the odds!!
