NABC Chapter 98
Chapter 98
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 98
The instigator stepped in to stop her.
“How are you supposed to beat Vance without even using aura or mana with that small body of yours?”
“Hey, listen! There’s no need to doubt— the artifact didn’t react, did it?”
“No, that’s not it...”
Of course, the crowd wasn’t entirely on their side.
“There must be some factor that conceals the artifact...”
“If you’re not going to believe anything anyway, why even hold an event like this?”
Luna tilted her head and asked.
The instigator gave her a bitter look and sighed deeply.
“I’m dead if the steward finds out...”
Then he handed her the jewelry.
“A promise is a promise, so take it. I won’t ask you for anything more, but tell me—was it really just pure strength?”
He tried to ask in a way others wouldn’t hear, but when he looked at her figure hidden under her robe, he flinched.
Luna, however, didn’t pay him any mind and answered nonchalantly.
“I’m strong without needing to use aura.”
Her simple answer left the instigator staring at her with a dazed look.
Ignoring him, she ran up to me with the jewelry, then placed it on my head.
“Hey, this is a women’s accessory.”
I ended up with something fit for a noblewoman on my head—completely out of character for me.
Why did she put this on me?
When I asked, baffled, she silently looked me over and took it off again.
“It doesn’t suit you.”
“Of course it doesn’t.”
“Too bad.”
She then threw the jewelry back at the instigator without hesitation.
“Uh... huh?”
“I don’t need it anymore.”
She really had no material desires.
The first day of the festival flew by.
Luna roamed around as if she had been waiting for this moment, disrupting everything that required physical prowess as if she were an invasive species.
At this point, it was impossible not to notice.
The count’s domain must have paid certain people to host various events.
It made sense that the arm-wrestling vendors had high-end artifacts on hand.
Then, when the sun fully set, the streets lit up with magic stones, and the night sky sparkled brightly with stars.
As I was making my way to our lodging, my steps were forcibly halted by an unusual phenomenon.
Crack... creak!
The sky began to shatter, and a gloomy light flowed out like dry ice.
“What is that?”
“Huh?”
At the same time, the bustling city in the count’s domain fell silent.
Was this what Saintess Nadia had warned about?
A thick fog spread rapidly, pouring to the ground and enveloping everyone in the area.
“Uh... ahhh!!”
Screams erupted from all directions as the fog spread and quickly engulfed everything.
This wasn’t just being surrounded by fog.
It was as if people were being sucked into a subspace.
The fog expanded at an almost unavoidable speed and quickly swallowed the entire count’s domain.
And when the fog slowly cleared...@@@@
I found myself alone in the outskirts of the city.
Most of the lights were out, except for a few dimly lit magic stones scattered here and there.
And although there was less fog than before, a significant amount still covered the area.
A ghost town.
There couldn’t be a more fitting term to describe the city now.
What was going on?
What was the cause?
Someone’s consciousness?
Or a monster with this kind of power?
With the dense fog obscuring everything, the only option was to search manually.
Melissa at least had a Death Knight with her, and Luna was strong, so they should be able to hold out for a while.
Still, there was no room for delay.
There weren’t many bugs to spread out through the fog labyrinth, but that didn’t matter.
I could always increase the numbers now.
Watching the incoming swarm of bugs, I drew the cursed sword Elekstra.
"I’m not a fan of seeing corpses.”
Specters don’t have fixed forms by nature.
I can overlay a slight form, but the essence doesn’t change.
“Come at me.”
Slash!!
I decapitated a mantis-like bug that flew at me and immediately turned it into an undead.
Then I began increasing their numbers like a zombie apocalypse.
A necromancer has limits on how many undead they can control.
The higher the quality of the undead, the fewer they can manage.
For a typical 6th-circle necromancer, just forcibly turning these unknown monsters into undead would have consumed a lot of power.
The actual consumption of necromantic mana was far more significant than expected.
Still, it didn’t matter.
I had an abundance of necromantic mana.
It regenerated naturally faster than it could be consumed, so I had no worries.
While running for a while, I started feeling like I was looping around the same area.
“Librarian.”
[Confirmation. You are circling the same terrain you passed earlier.]
It’s some kind of barrier magic, with a few extra twists.
I reached into the air, attempting to interfere with it.
It’s a unique style.
Not quite like typical magic.
If it were necromantic magic, it would be easier, but it’s not.
The specters I spread are likely also lost somewhere in this space.
I tried breaking it with force, but the Librarian dissuaded me.
[The barrier is spread over a large area. The effects are unpredictable.]
“Librarian, can’t we transfer memories from the archives related to mages? There should be something.”
[Selective memory transfers from the archive are not allowed under the system.]
The Labyrinthos had safeguards to prevent madness, but there’s nothing like that here.
For now, I’ll keep moving.
I killed every bug monster I encountered and turned them into specters.
When the number of specters I created surpassed thirty, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
“With this many people in the city, it doesn’t make sense that I haven’t encountered a single person despite scattering randomly.”
Although my specter undead were also lost in the barrier, some had broken free from its confines.
Yet they had only found a few people.
Most remained missing.
Without any magical knowledge beyond necromancy, I currently lacked a safe way to interfere with this barrier.
While running again for a while, I finally encountered someone.
“This way!”
It was a man fleeing with five other people from a swarm of bugs.
“P-Prince!”
Prince?
If there’s a prince of the empire here...
[It is undoubtedly Prince Dorn Lu Pascalia, who is set to marry Lilia Berner.]
“Just a little farther, and we’ll reach a safe spot! Hang in there!”
“Ahh... Ahhhh!!”
Of course, no human can outrun a giant bug.
A massive grasshopper pounced on a helpless civilian, opening its grotesque jaws to devour the person whole.
In that instant, Prince Dorn charged forward, unsheathing a silver sword and cutting down the bug.
“Haah... I’m alive.”
“Are you alright?!”
“Thank you! Thank you, Your Highness!”
“Get up quickly. There’s no time. The noise will attract more of them.”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]