The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 174: Those who pass through the gate and those who cannot even stand before it

The 68th floor’s trial. The challengers would split into two groups and each encounter a chamber with a Rank 13 Orichalcum Devil Statue, a Golem in the form of a Demon.

The two Orichalcum Golems had to be defeated within ten seconds of each other, in other words almost simultaneously. If the challengers failed to do this, the Orichalcum Golems would regenerate endlessly.

It was thought that this was a trial based on one of the powers that Solder was given by Peria, the goddess of water and knowledge. This ability was one that allowed her to unify and share her consciousness, knowledge and experiences with those of her companions. According to records in Vida’s Resting Grounds, this ability not only allowed Solder to share her knowledge and experience to help with technological development, but also helped her command her allies in battle.

Of course, even without the same ability as Solder… if the challengers were able to defeat the Orichalcum Devil Statues in both rooms over and over, their timings would eventually line up and they would be able to pass through the trial.

“It’s finally here, the Orichalcum Golem Battle! TIME TO RETURN THE FAVOOOOOR!” Borkus bellowed.

“OOOOOHN!” Knochen groaned.

“JYUOOOOH!” roared Bone Man.

The three of them had once fought a difficult battle against the Orichalcum Dragon Golem that had been guarding Vida’s relic.

“I’m telling you, that’s a different statue!” Eleanora reminded them as she joined them in the fierce assault on the Orichalcum Devil Statue.

The Orichalcum Devil Statue was considerably inferior to the Golem that had been created by the goddess Vida; its movements were slowed down as Knochen covered it with bones, and then Bone Man’s blades and Borkus’s and Eleanora’s Demon-King-fragment magic swords cut it into pieces.

“Now,” said Vandalieu’s clone who was standing and watching from behind them, right before the Orichalcum Devil Statue’s functions ceased completely.

“Please defeat it within ten seconds,” said the real Vandalieu.

“Allow me to slow its movements,” said Bellmond, restraining the Orichalcum Devil Statue’s movements with threads made from the Demon King’s fur.

“La-la-la~?” sang Yamata, unleashing a sound wave attack.

“Magi… cal!” groaned Rapié?age with a swing of her Death-Iron-covered fist.

“This is for back then!” roared Vigaro, unleashing a reckless attack with his newly-made Death Iron axe.

His axe returned to liquid form, split into four in an instant and each fragment was grasped by one of his hands.

“Death Burst Axe Blade!”

Vigaro activated a Death Lion Axe Technique martial skill and charged in.

“Uoooh…”

Unable to withstand the fierce attacks coming from every possible direction, the Orichalcum Devil Statue fell to pieces and stopped functioning.

“It won’t regenerate, will it?” said Eleanora in the first room, sounding uncertain.

“UOOOOH! We won!” Vigaro roared triumphantly in the second.

The physical and spirit-form Vandalieu, one of whom was in each room, nodded.

“Now then, shall we gather the Orichalcum and proceed?” said the spirit-form Vandalieu.

“If I’m not mistaken, the corridor ahead of this room should join with the corridor from the other,” said the physical Vandalieu.

His spirit-form clones constantly shared the same memories and consciousness as him. Thus, it hadn’t been difficult to line up the timing.

The trial on the next floor, the 69th, was one that tested the challengers’ mental strength. The entirety of its wall, floor and ceiling surface was covered in decorations that induced hallucinations of the mind and twisted the challengers’ sense of direction. The challengers would hear a harsh, echoing noise that caused fear and irritation, and even the air was filled with a tormenting scent.

And the entire floor was built like a labyrinth, with mindless Golems blocking the challengers’ path.

This was likely a trial based on one of the abilities given to Ark by Ricklent, the genie of time and magic. It was the ability that rendered her immune to any external effects on her mind, including those caused by illusions and poison.

Even without possessing the same ability as Ark, it was possible to clear this trial with mental resistance Skills and Magic Items.

“The labyrinth is troublesome. Shall we go in a straight line?” suggested Saria.

“The Golems are annoying. It smells, too,” Rita complained. “Bocchan, can’t you do something about it?”

“I can move the walls with my Labyrinth Creation Skill, but I don’t know where this floor’s exit is, so there’s not much point. It seems that the exit won’t appear until we proceed past a certain point,” said Vandalieu. “As for the smell, the smell returns quickly even if I use Deodorization, so I thought that it’s rather pointless.”

As the Living-Armor-type Undead Saria and Rita had senses that were different from those of humans and Vandalieu had a different mental structure as well as the Grotesque Mind Skill, this was nothing more than a labyrinth with Golems in it.

The labyrinth wasn’t particularly large, so they managed to reach the exit in less than an hour by proceeding through it while keeping their left hands on the wall.

The trial of the 70th floor was an arts-and-crafts trial.

When the party entered the room, an image was projected, presumably through light-attribute magic. The image depicted a person who appeared to be a craftsman using creation-related Skills to carve a statue, make a clay jar and repair a pot with a hole in it.

Challengers had to carry each of these tasks out in a separate room with the materials provided. Failure would result in them being forcibly teleported to the supply area, and they would have to face the false image trial all over again.

This was a trial based on the ability granted to the champion Hillwillow by Botin, mother of the earth and goddess of craftsmanship. This ability allowed Hillwillow to learn any creation-related Skill he saw within a single day.

This trial was another trial that could be cleared without the champion’s ability; it just required several challengers with high-Level creation-related Skills.

“Well then, shall we go to the next floor?” said Vandalieu, who possessed multiple creation-related Skills that had fused with the Golem Creation Skill.

“That was less difficult than I imagined it would be,” said Tarea, who normally waited in Sam’s carriage but had been of great help on this floor.

The trial of the 71st floor was farming.

Challengers were required to take a large pot full of grain seeds, plant them and reap the harvest.

Among the seeds, there were some that were weaker and would produce less grain. Challengers would have to use their knowledge, intuition and life-attribute magic to determine which seeds these were and find a way to encourage their growth.

This was a trial based on the divine protection that the champion Zakkart received from Vida, the goddess of life and love. This divine protection granted Zakkart more acute senses and a greater affinity for the life attribute.

This was the simplest trial of the trials since the 68th floor. It could be cleared by an expert in life-attribute magic or a master of time-attribute magic… As this was a Dungeon to find the successor to Zakkart, it was only common sense to include a member who was an expert in life-attribute magic.

As for Vandalieu, he used Detect Life to pick out several seeds that had a relatively strong reaction, absorb them into his body and use Plant Binding Technique, a part of his Group Binding Technique Skill, to rapidly accelerate their growth.

“… This grain, is it an original strain of rice? Let’s take it with us,” said Vandalieu.

Deciding that the grains were precious reference materials and could be useful in selective breeding of the rice cultivated where the Scylla lived, he carried them with him inside his body as he moved on.

And now, the party was on the 72nd floor. This was the floor decorated with statues of those who seemed to be the fallen challengers from outside the Boundary Mountain Range.

The enormous, beautifully-polished stone gate bore an inscription reading: “Those who have chosen worthless heroes and prayed to worthless gods, as a reward for reaching this place, burn into your memory the fate of your predecessors.”

As the inscription said, there was a countless number of stone statues around the gate. And the gate and walls were decorated with statues consisting only of torsos, heads or limbs, as if sculpted into the wall surfaces.

Every single statue had elaborate detail. If one examined the heads closely, they would see the earholes and the tongues and teeth inside the mouths. And above all, the faces twisted in fear and anguish made it difficult to believe that these were mere creative pieces.

It was as if the dead had been petrified at the moment that life slipped from their bodies.

“This is likely a stage created by Gufadgarn to break the wills of any mistaken followers of Alda who made it this far,” said Luciliano, observing and drawing sketches of the statues that looked as if they would cause mental illness in those who looked at them for too long. “But what has caused them to turn into stone? A Petrifying Demon Eye should only work on living creatures; is it a curse or earth-attribute magic? Or could it be that these are simply stone statues made to look exactly like the corpses?” he murmured to himself, sketching the statue of a person whose abdomen had been ruptured, exposing their internal organs.

“It doesn’t look like they scare you, Luciliano,” said Pauvina, looking down at the back of Luciliano’s head.

“Nobody’s… scared,” Rapié?age groaned.

It wasn’t just Luciliano that showed no fear at the sight of the statues of the corpses; almost everyone was unfazed. Being one of Vandalieu’s companions made them accustomed to corpses; some of them were Undead themselves. They had long since stopped being shaken by the sight of the dead.

“Maybe I feel a little sorry for them. And the one with half his face crushed is a bit gross,” said Privel with a pale face, not completely accustomed to corpses.

“… Whenever I see human and Elf corpses, they look like powerless civilians that have been slaughtered to me,” said Gizania, who had grown up inside the Boundary Mountain Range, where humans, Elves and Dwarves were generally non-combatants.

“So, Danna-sama, what do you think?” Bellmond asked Vandalieu, who was trying to determine whether the statues really were petrified corpses.

It seemed that despite having let out a surprised scream when a crab’s pincers caught her tail, Bellmond felt nothing when looking at these stone statues.

“I’m ninety percent sure that they’re petrified corpses,” Vandalieu replied, his arm turned into spirit form with Spirit Form Transformation and feeling around inside one of the statues. “It’s not just the wounds; the internal structure of the unharmed parts of the bodies are elaborately preserved. The bones, the brain and even the blood vessels. It’s possible that magic was used to elaborately recreate the bodies, but there’s no reason to go that far to make fakes… even with my Golem Creation Skill, it would be an immense task to recreate the capillary vessels.”

“That is indeed overthinking the details. Are there any other reasons why you are only ninety percent sure?” Bellmond asked.

“If these stone statues really are corpses, there should be spirits haunting this area, but there’s not a single one,” said Vandalieu.

Judging from the statues, these challengers had lost their lives in gruesome ways to the monsters and traps of the Dungeon. With that being the case, it was unnatural for there to be no spirits haunting this place, regardless of how poorly their memories and personalities from their past lives were preserved.

“Really? There’s a whole swarm of them around you, kid.” said Borkus.

“Like Borkus-san says, all of these spirits have been floating around near you since we entered the Trial of Zakkart,” said Darcia.

“Borkus, Mom, those are the spirits that were with me since before we entered the Dungeon,” said Vandalieu.

The Undead Borkus and Darcia, who was a spirit herself, could see spirits. But there was always a countless number of spirits around Vandalieu, so it seemed that they were unable to tell whether they were from the petrified corpses or not.

“Now that you mention it…” Borkus murmured as he thought back. “It’s true that I haven’t seen any spirits other than the ones around the kid.”

“Really? I do remember seeing quite a few monster souls,” said Saria.

“Nee-san, those are the spirits of the monsters we defeated,” said Rita. “I haven’t seen a single spirit after entering a new floor before fighting monsters.”

“But Rita, isn’t that normal for a Dungeon?” said Saria.

Even in Dungeons other than the Trial of Zakkart, each floor contained a large number of monsters. These monsters would begin killing each other if their numbers grew too large, but they often did not form strong feelings of hatred or a lingering attachment to life, so their souls quickly returned to the circle of transmigration. This was especially true for monsters created by Dungeons, as their minds were under the influence of their Dungeons.

Thus, it wasn’t rare for challengers to not encounter a single spirit haunting a Dungeon unless there were other challengers up ahead or monsters had killed each other immediately before.

“Saria, so many challengers have died, so I don’t think it would be strange for their spirits to be haunting this place,” said Vandalieu.

The stone statues were countless in number, and as many of the dead challengers’ corpses were not intact, there was no way to know exactly how many there were. But it looked like there were about a thousand of them.

Unlike monster spirits, it was easy for the spirits of people to form strong feelings of hatred and a lingering attachment to life, so there were cases where they haunted the world for hundreds of years without returning to the circle of transmigration. These were challengers who had lost their lives while they were trying to achieve their dreams, so their lingering attachment to life would certainly not be insignificant.

“But Vandalieu-sama, surely that does not apply for those whose heads are destroyed in a single blow and those who are taken by surprise and fatally wounded by a single attack?” said Isla.

“Ah, that’s possible,” said Vandalieu.

As Isla pointed out, those who died before they even knew would return to the circle of transmigration without forming feelings of hatred or a lingering attachment to life. Looking at the statues, it was clear that a significant number of them had died instantly.

“But the items in the supply area had such strong feelings of hatred left on them; it’s hard to imagine that all of them died that way,” said Vandalieu. “Well, it is possible that all of their feelings of hatred were left on the items they were wearing and then their spirits returned peacefully to the circle of transmigration.”

“… I don’t really like that,” said Isla.

“If I could do an autopsy, I’d be able to tell whether they died instantly with a single blow or not, but that’s hard when they’re petrified,” said Isis, one of Legion’s personalities. “Even if that’s the case, isn’t it unnatural that there isn’t a single spirit? I thought that this might just be a place where the corpses are kept rather than the place they died, but there’s not even an insect spirit to be seen here.”

“If that’s the case, maybe Gufadgarn-san has gathered the spirits in another place or purified them because they’d get in the way of the trials if they became Undead. In any case, we can’t do anything about them not being here,” Darcia said in conclusion.

Indeed, there was nothing to be done.

“So, Bocchan, what will we do? Should we search for the statue of the Elf woman named Martina?” Sam asked, bringing the discussion back to the main topic.

The reason Vandalieu had been interested in the place where the challengers’ corpses were kept was because he wanted to make use of the corpse of Martina, the female Elf spirit-user who had once been a member of the Five-colored Blades. And there were about a thousand stone statues that had once presumably been corpses here.

“… This is my personal opinion, but it seems unlikely that we will find her,” said Zadiris. “There are many statues with no heads, after all.”

As she said, there were many statues of corpses that could be either human or Elf with no way of telling due to the damage to their heads.

Elf women who became adventurers were relatively uncommon, and they were clearly distinguishable from Dwarves and Beast-people. They could even be distinguished from humans without a detailed autopsy, even if their bodies from the neck down were missing.

Human, Dwarf and Beast-person men were the most common adventurers in the stone statues here, in that order. It wouldn’t be difficult to narrow the search down to less than twenty corpses.

“Yes, it seems difficult, so let’s give up on finding her body here,” said Vandalieu.

There would still be a problem after narrowing the search down to less than twenty corpses. There were almost no other criteria to narrow down their search.

“If I recall, Your-Majesty-kun, you’ve heard her voice but not seen her face, right?” said Zandia.

Indeed, Vandalieu had heard the female voice that he presumed to be Martina’s through an Undead insect once, but he had never seen her face!

“That’s right,” said Vandalieu. “I have heard descriptions of her appearance, but… they were things like ‘hair like flowing gold,’ ‘blue eyes like gemstones,’ ‘skin like porcelain,’ ‘slender limbs’ and ‘voluptuous body.’”

“Descriptions, especially ones written by royals and nobles, are pretty useless. She’d be pretty scary if she really did have slender limbs and a voluptuous body,” said Zandia.

Indeed, such descriptions were of no use as a reference. The only useful detail in the descriptions was the color of her hair and eyes.

“And even the color of her hair and eyes isn’t of any use. They’re all stone-colored now,” Basdia sighed.

“It’s impossible to tell them apart by their personal belongings, too. The Guild cards hanging from their necks have been petrified as well and are stuck to their skin,” said Orbia in disappointment as she looked at a petrified, almost half-naked Elf woman.

… It was clear from the supply area above that contained the equipment of the dead adventurers; the stone statues had had all of their equipment, accessories and belongings stripped from them.

The statues weren’t completely naked; the light clothing and underwear beneath their armor remained.

Perhaps even Gufadgarn had disliked the idea of stripping them naked, or perhaps he had hesitated to put the challengers’ undergarments, which were not Magic Items, on display in the supply area. The possibility that he had found it too bothersome couldn’t be denied, either.

But unless Martina had her name embroidered on her underwear, it was probably impossible to tell her apart from the others.

Everyone turned their gaze towards Luciliano, who had once worked as an adventurer in the Mirg shield-nation, but he frowned and shook his head. He had apparently never seen Martina in person, either.

“Well then, I suppose I’ll try one final test,” said Vandalieu.

He extended a hand towards one of the statues at random and tried to use Dark King Magic to undo the petrification and return the statue to its original corpse form. The part his hand was touching gradually turned from cold, hard stone into what was still cold, but undeniably soft flesh.

His companions’ eyes grew wide and they let out noises of surprise, but after a certain point, the reversal of the petrification stopped and the flesh turned back into stone once more.

“Muh, it seems that the curse petrifying them is applying its effect constantly. There’s no guarantee that the curse will be undone even if I turn the whole corpse back to its original form, so let’s give up on this,” said Vandalieu.

“I see. Should we load some of them into my carriage?” Sam suggested.

Even if there were a few dozen candidate corpses, it was possible to carry them in Sam’s carriage.

“Let’s not do that,” said Vandalieu. “They’re heavy, bulky and it’s a pain. Let’s take them with us on the way back if we can.”

It would take a considerable amount of time, so he decided against it, opened the door and proceeded onwards.

And on this floor, there was a trial of having to fight against Phobia Demons, who were constantly shrouded in an aura of fear, inside thick fog, but… the Phobia Demons were annihilated by Vandalieu and his companions in no time.

The aura of fear had almost no effect on Vandalieu, whose mental structure was unlike those of ordinary people, and his Undead. In fact, the Aura of Fear Skill being active just made them easier targets by making the Demons’ presence clearer in the fog, equivalent to shouting, “I’m over here!”

Heinz and the other members of the Five-colored Blades were waiting for the Trial of Zakkart in one of the Devils’ Nests in the Farzon Duchy.

They had already finished their preparations.

Their Item Box that allowed almost unlimited storage of items contained food, daily necessities, spare equipment, Potions and magic crystals, as well as cold-weather gear and Magic Items that would be effective against the Dungeons’ harsh environments.

They had about a year’s supply of food and water; they weren’t worried about struggling in that regard like the last time they entered the Dungeon.

Of course, they had been improving their skills in order to be able to clear the Trial of Zakkart, and they had been gathering knowledge and wisdom so that they would be able to make it deeper into the Dungeon than they had last time.

At the time, Heinz’s party had consisted of four members and been reduced to three with the loss of Martina, but it had gained new reliable members, and now there were five members in total. They even had the power to seal Demon King fragments that had gone rampant.

If they were to fight the Pure-breed Vampire Ternecia all over again, they would likely be able to defeat her. They were certain of that.

As for their wisdom and knowledge, they had used the Mages’ Guild, the Church of Alda and the archives of the Orbaume Kingdom to learn about not only Bellwood and the other heroes who defeated the Demon King, but Solder, Ark, Hillwillow and Zakkart as well.

They had learned surprising truths, such as the fact that Farmaun Gold had founded the Adventurers’ Guild and spread the methods of utilizing monster materials, but the discovery of these methods was largely the achievement of Ark and the other creation-oriented champions.

However, among the legends regarding the ‘fallen champion’ Zakkart, there were almost none that described his achievements. Heinz and his companions still believed that the purpose of the Trial of Zakkart was to defeat Zakkart and become Bellwood’s successor; they simply wanted to know more about the foe they were to face.

“Everything’s ready… or it’s supposed to be, but who knows,” Heinz sighed, standing beneath a hot summer sun.

He looked at the Magic Item in his hand, the Trial Seeker that detected the next place where the Trial of Zakkart would appear.

As usual, it was pointing to the surface of the valley.

It hadn’t changed for about two months, since the beginning of summer.

“Well, we have no choice but to wait, don’t we?” said the martial artist Jennifer’s voice from behind Heinz. “And we have to be careful to not get rusty. You’re not going to tell me that you’ve gotten tired of waiting and want to quit, are you?”

“Of course not,” said Heinz, turning around to see Jennifer’s face and the party’s improvised campsite behind her. “You’d probably punch me if I said I wanted to quit after dragging you around this far.”

“I won’t punch you, but I’ll give you a good kick,” said Jennifer. “It’s not like that Trial Seeker is broken, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve checked it multiple times over the last few months. It’s functioning correctly,” said Heinz.

“Then we just have to wait until the Trial of Zakkart appears, just like we have done until now,” said the Elf priestess Diana as she joined the conversation, drying her wet hair. “Summer baths are quite pleasant. Perhaps you should wash off your sweat, Heinz? Delizah and Selen are using the bath at the moment, however, so you would have to wait until they are finished.”

“… You even built a bath,” Heinz murmured. “If we’re here for another month, you’ll probably cultivate the Devil’s Nest and begin some real construction work.”

At first, the campsite had been a small one, just enough for Heinz and his companions to stay while waiting for the Trial of Zakkart to appear.

But during their two-month wait, people had come to stay in the campsite to support Heinz’s party and travelling merchants started coming to keep their connections with them because they were honorary nobles, causing the campsite to gradually expand.

It was already bigger than a small village, even though this was a dangerous Devil’s Nest where monsters roamed.

“That might be a good idea. It’s not a big Devil’s Nest, and there aren’t any Dungeons,” said Jennifer.

“And the monster numbers have been reduced quite a lot because of you and the the others hunting them to pass the time,” said Diana.

As they were doing nothing but waiting, Heinz and his companions had an abundance of spare time and had returned to the city multiple times, but being away from the Dungeon for long periods of time made them anxious, and they were hesitant to take other requests and go into other Dungeons in this state.

Thus, they had been hunting the monsters of this Devil’s Nest to pass the time. The monsters in this Devil’s Nest were Rank 5 at most and had no chance of defeating Heinz and his companions, so their number had decreased drastically in no time.

Thus, this temporary campsite was peaceful despite being inside a Devil’s Nest. Even so, unintelligent monsters like Goblins would come attacking once every few days, but these were exterminated by Heinz’s supporters and the criminal slaves that had once been radical followers of Alda.

“Duke Farzon may already be forming a plan for cultivating this place. It is possible that he is already in the preparation phase,” said Diana.

“Once we come out of the Trial of Zakkart, this place might be a fully-built village instead of a Devil’s Nest,” said Heinz.

“Heinz, about that…” Jennifer began.

“I don’t need you to tell me… I don’t know where the Trial of Zakkart is right now, but there is someone else facing it. And they’re at least as skilled as we were when we survived inside the Dungeon for over a month, or even better,” Heinz muttered.

The Trial of Zakkart Teleported to a new location approximately a month after its appearance if no challengers were inside it.

In other words, it would stay in the same place for as long as there was a single challenger inside it.

The next location for the Trial of Zakkart to Teleport to would be the surface of this valley, but the fact that it had not done so for over two months meant that someone was facing it right now.

“To think that there are others who are as reckless as us. Even though I heard that there are almost no other challengers after you and the others warned everyone about it,” said Jennifer.

“I wonder who it is. If they are adventurers who are B-class or higher, they would have started some rumors,” said Diana.

“Diana, B-class isn’t enough. They’ve been in there for over a month, so they have to be A-class or above,” Jennifer pointed out. “Isn’t that right, Heinz?”

“… I think so. And it’s over a month, at the very least,” said Heinz.

The challengers could have survived inside the Trial of Zakkart… clearing it, for over two months, perhaps almost three months.

If they had survived for that long, perhaps they had reached the 42nd floor, the snowy mountain on which Heinz’s own party had turned back. Complicated emotions ran through Heinz’s mind as this thought occurred to him.

“… I want us to be the ones to clear the Trial of Zakkart. But I don’t want to wish for the failure… the deaths of the ones who are facing it now,” he said.

The Trial of Zakkart appearing before Heinz and his companions would mean that the ones who were facing it now were no longer inside it. There was a high chance that this would mean the challengers had died.

“Don’t worry about it; those guys would have been prepared for that. And you guys made it back alive, so it doesn’t mean that they’ll definitely die, right?” said Jennifer.

“That’s true, but… yeah. Let’s pray to Alda that they make it back alive,” said Heinz.

“Yes. I am sure that Alda desires that as well,” said Diana.

The three of them offered a short prayer for the safe return of the challengers that were out there somewhere, but… they would never have suspected that neither Alda nor Vandalieu’s party would be happy about this prayer.

In fact, they would never have imagined that Vandalieu and his companions had already passed the ice field floor that was below the snowy mountain one, and had reached the lower floors.

Heinz and his companions continued waiting for the Trial of Zakkart that could appear at any moment.

Name: Rapié?age

Rank: 9

Race: No Life Chimera Zombie

Level: 0

Passive skills:

Dark Vision

Rapid Regeneration: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)

Deadly Poison Secretion (Tail): Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)

Physical Resistance: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)

Magic Resistance: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

Superhuman Strength: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)

Enhanced Physical Ability: Entire body: Level 3 (NEW!)

Increased Attribute Values: Creator: Level 5 (NEW!)

Active skills:

Electrify: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

High-speed Flight: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)

Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)

Whip Technique: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Surpass Limits: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)

Coordination: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

Long-distance Control: Level 4 (NEW!)

Sewing: Level 1 (NEW!)

Armor Technique: Level 1 (NEW!)

Unique skills:

Dead Encroachment (NEW!)

■ァ■■■■’s Divine Protection (NEW!)

Note: The katakana is ‘a’

Monster explanation (Written by Luciliano):

【No Life Chimera Zombie】

A monster who has gone from being a Neo Patchwork Zombie to a Rank 7 Great Patchwork Zombie, then a Rank 8 Absolute Patchwork Zombie and then reached Rank 9.

The race title presumably refers to a composite Zombie made by combining multiple lifeless corpses.

Rapié?age has not simply become stronger. She has acquired the ‘Enhanced Attribute Values: Creator’ Skill, which increases her Attribute Values when she is around or acting under the command of Master, who is her creator. She has also acquired the Unique Skill ‘Dead Encroachment,’ which allows her to encroach upon any dead that she touches and use them as a part of herself.

The targets for her Dead Encroachment Skill are corpses that have not been processed (Thus, leather products and food products are not targets). It seems that Undead and equipment made of monster bones or skin are also not valid targets, but foes defeated by Rapié?age can instantly be turned into remote parts of herself that she can control using the Long-distance Control Skill.

However, I cannot determine whether she is becoming more like a magical girl or less like one.

She has apparently acquired a divine protection, or a Unique Skill that is like a divine protection. But it is unclear as to which god has given it to her; she says that she cannot read it.

Name: Yamata

Rank: 9

Race: Orochi

Level: 0

Passive skills:

Dark Vision

Superhuman Strength: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

Deadly Venom Secretion (Fangs): Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)

Magic Resistance: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Underwater Adaptation

Dragon Scales: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

Rapid Regeneration: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)

Body Extension (Neck): Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)

Enhanced Attribute Values: Creator: Level 5 (NEW!)

Active skills:

Singing: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Dancing: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Parallel Thought Processing: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

Scream: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

Long-distance Control: Level 6 (NEW!)

Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 4 (NEW!)

Surpass Limits: Level 7 (NEW!)

Aura of Fear: Level 5 (NEW!)

Mana Control: Level 1 (NEW!)

No-Attribute Magic: Level 2 (NEW!)

Multi-Cast: Level 3 (NEW!)

Unique skills:

■■ン■■■’s Divine Protection (NEW!)

Note: The katakana is ‘n’

Monster explanation (Written by Luciliano):

【Orochi】

Yamata has increased her Rank and become a race whose title is a part of ‘Yamata no Orochi,’ which is mentioned in the documents left by the champion Hillwillow. It is not a Yamata no Orochi, but Yamata is an Orochi.

According to Master, the Yamata no Orochi of Earth’s folklore and Yamata have different shapes and a different number of heads. Well, I do not imagine that the gods in charge of Statuses are knowledgeable about the folklore of other worlds, so perhaps the shape and number of heads, and the fact that Yamata is an Undead, are negligible errors to them.

Yamata possesses nine heads that unleash sound wave attacks with the Scream Skill and the Aura of Fear Skill that mentally attacks those who look at her. Recently, she has become able to use No-Attribute Magic. In addition to that, she has acquired the Enhanced Attribute Values: Creator Skill like Rapié?age… the one who originally created her was the Pure-breed Vampire Ternecia, but she underwent reconstruction after that, so Master is apparently now her creator.

It is possible that this is because Yamata simply does not remember Ternecia, however.

As she can use magic, she may be the closest to a magical girl after Zadiris among those who are using transformation staffs. But just what are magical girls?

Like Rapié?age, Yamata has also acquired a Unique Skill that seems to be a divine protection, but… she cannot read it, so it is unclear as to which god gave it to her.