Chapter 15
Splashing rusty water.
The pouring blue rain finally stopped after a long while.
Tap, tap-.
I folded the opened Umbrella and put it away.
Fortunately, my sleeves hadn't caught a single stain.
"Ahem."
"...."
The silver-haired girl was still held tightly in my arms.
Her red eyes stared blankly in one direction.
The spot where the Master of the 70th Floor had stood just moments ago.
The guy who had now become a Mas/ter.
"Princess."
"...Oh my god."
A corpse that had been perfectly sliced in half.
Rotten guts spilled out from between the missing chunks of its body.
I hadn't realized it until now, but it was a truly grotesque death.
Carmilla blankly muttered a few words.
"You blocked it? A Dragon's Breath...?"
She probably couldn't comprehend the scene unfolding before her.
"Victor...."
"Yes, Princess."
"H-how did this happen? You took that Breath head-on, without a single scratch...."
"Yes, I blocked it head-on. Without a single scratch."
"And on top of that, with just a s-snap of your fingers...."
"I killed it."
"...."
I replied nonchalantly.
Carmilla looked dazed, as if her mind couldn't keep up with the situation.
Her red pupils trembled.
"H-how...?"
She must be so confused.
Since she didn't know about the Bug, it must have looked even more bizarre in Carmilla's eyes.
I had simply snapped my fingers once, and half of the Dragon's body vanished.
Blocking the Dragon's Breath without a scratch was just a bonus.
The Princess was at a complete loss for words.
"...."
A heavy silence fell for a moment.
The girl stayed in my arms for a while before muttering in a trembling voice.
"Victor."
"...."
"It suddenly occurred to me.... H-how glad I am that you are my Retainer...."
"Hehe, of course. I am Victor, your highly capable Retainer. Forever and always."
"Yeah... I can't even begin to fathom just how strong you are. It's far beyond my level to measure."
"I think you might be overestimating me, but thank you for the compliment."
No.
I really am weak.
'Well... I guess that's not something I should say after tearing a Dragon to shreds.'
Once again, I had no choice but to let the misunderstanding deepen.
Had her shock finally subsided a bit?
The girl hesitantly looked around.
She kept glancing at the Dragon's corpse, as if unable to believe it was really dead.
"To be sliced so cleanly...."
A Lump of Meat.
Its oppressive presence had dissipated, leaving only a foul, rotten stench in the air.
Even sliced in half, it was easily over a dozen meters large.
It reminded me once again just how monstrous this creature had been.
"...I thought I was dead for sure."
"Didn't I tell you? I said it would be fine."
"I'm sorry. My trust in you was too shallow. The Barrier I deployed with all my strength was torn apart like wet paper, and the hidden weapons I forged with Blood Manipulation couldn't even leave a single scratch. I thought it was an opponent we could never face. And yet, you blew away such a being with a single flick of your hand...."
"It's all thanks to you lending a hand, Princess."
"Huh? I feel like I didn't help at all, though...."
"You bought me time. Thanks to that, the plan was a success."
I meant that sincerely, without an ounce of flattery.
If it hadn't been for Carmilla's Barrier, I would have been turned into a Lump of Meat a long time ago.
I would have been torn to shreds before I even had the chance to prepare a Clipping Bug or anything else.
"As expected of you, Princess. To successfully defend against a Dragon, and multiple times at that."
Considering we were still at the very beginning of the original story, her stats were overwhelming.
A normal person would have fainted the moment they made eye contact, let alone tried to defend themselves.
I had pushed forward with this plan because I trusted Carmilla from the start.
Which meant there was absolutely no need for her to feel intimidated.
I gently patted the girl's head, just like I did when she was in her Bat form.
"You did incredibly well. Thanks to you, I'm safe too."
"U-ugh... don't just, p-pat my head so casually...."
"Please consider it a sign of my gratitude and respect."
"H-how insolent! It disrupts my pride as a Pureblood."
"Ah... my apologies. Then should I refrain from doing it in the future?"
I deliberately sounded a bit disappointed.
When I let out a slightly sulky tone, Carmilla hesitantly glanced in my direction.
"N-no...."
Such a sweet Princess.
I knew she would fall for it if I acted like this.
The girl grabbed my hand and placed it back on top of her head.
"Princess?"
"I shall make a special exception.... Just this once, because it's V-Victor...."
"Is that so. Hehe."
Stroke, stroke-.
The silver hair softly untangled beneath my fingertips.
That faint, gentle sensation brought a smile to my face.
"W-what an insolent Servant...."
"I sincerely apologize."
The girl's cheeks were flushed with heat.
Even as she pouted her lips, she didn't actually pull away from my hand.
The previously intimidated atmosphere had completely recovered.
"I'm going to look around for a bit. It seems another door has appeared over there."
"That's probably the passage leading to the 71st Floor. Please don't get too close."
"Understood."
While Carmilla stepped away for a moment.
I opened my Status Window and checked the pile of messages.
'There sure are a lot.'
Just from a quick glance, there were over ten of them.
All of them were messages notifying me of completed quests.
Since I had cleared one massive objective, it seemed the side quests had been completed all at once alongside it.
'Should I just check the important ones first?'
I brought up the screen.
Ding-!
[You have defeated the Master of Purgatory's 70th Floor, 'Undead Dragon'.]
[You have completed the Main Quest 'Conquer Purgatory's 70th Floor'.]
[You have acquired the Exclusive Weapon 'Dragon's Scale x1'.]
These three were definitely the most important.
They included the reward that was my original goal.
As I clicked the screen, something appeared above my hand.
Plop-.
"Oh."
It's light.
It was a thin plate with a rather heavy-looking appearance.
However, contrary to how it looked, it was incredibly light.
I could barely feel its weight, as if I were holding a feather.
Ding-!
[Dragon's Scale]
-Category: Exclusive Weapon
-Rank: A-
-Status: Contaminated, Unrefined
-Description: A contaminated Dragon's Scale. It might become quite useful if it undergoes a refining process.
"Nice."
It was exactly as I had seen in the original work.
A Dragon.
No matter how much it had been degraded into an Undead, its original prestige wasn't something easily erased.
The scale of a species considered the absolute strongest and rarest among countless creatures.
It was a rare item with very few acquisition routes even in the original work.
'I shouldn't just look at its rank.'
The rank was A-.
Probably because of the and attributes.
But if you weighed its true value, it was an item that surpassed S-rank equipment.
'Contaminated, Unrefined... I just need to erase those two attributes.'
As I stood there quietly fiddling with the scale, Carmilla, who had returned to my side at some point, asked me.
"Is that a weapon? The one you, Victor, said you were looking for?"
"Yes, that's right. I entered the 70th Floor to get this."
"Hmm... It doesn't look like a weapon no matter how I look at it."
"Then what does it look like to you?"
"To my eyes, it looks like a scale. A rather gross one, mixed with murky energy...."
"It looks that way to me too. Though it will change once it's processed."
"Processed?"
Carmilla tilted her head in confusion.
"You're saying you will process a Dragon's Scale?"
"Because it's a bit much to call it a weapon as it is."
"So it will undergo a refining process. The scale itself was a material, not a weapon."
"To put it simply, yes."
"But it makes me wonder. A Dragon's Scale is no ordinary item. Wouldn't it be difficult to refine it so carelessly? You would also need to prepare the skills and materials required for refining. And those would be incredibly hard to obtain too...."
"You don't need to worry about that part."
Because I had already prepared them.
I opened the other quests that had been cleared as a byproduct.
Ding-!
[You have completed the Mini Quest 'A Little Courage'.]
[You have completed the Hidden Quest 'The Important Thing'.]
[You have completed the Hidden Quest 'Veteran Champion'.]
[You have completed the Hidden Quest 'Purification'.]
.
.
.
A massive pile of notifications.
It was still the beginning of the story, and my Stats were fixed at E-rank.
Yet, with such a body, I had cleared the 70th Floor without a single scratch.
In addition to the Main Quest, countless Sub Quests were completed alongside it.
'I can solve everything with the rewards from these.'
The materials needed to purify and refine the scale.
They were provided as rewards from the quests above.
Ding-!
[You have completed a total of 13 quests.]
-Rewards: Holy Water x8, Thin Mist x1, Unrefined Scream x4
The rewards were stored in my Inventory.
With these, refining the scale would be done in a single touch.
By mixing these with the scale, it would be reborn as a complete weapon later on.
'Although it will take some time to complete....'
In my current situation, there is no weapon better suited for me.
Just like the other rewards, I also stored the massive scale into my Robe.
My primary objectives had all been achieved.
It was a pretty clean harvest.
"Should we start heading back now?"
"That is music to my ears. Perhaps because I consumed too much blood, it is starting to become difficult to even stand...."
"You did great. Let's replenish your blood once we return to the Dormitory."
The completely trashed landscape of the 70th Floor.
Right as I was about to leave the underground with that behind me.
"...Hmm?"
"Victor? Why did you stop all of a sudden?"
"No, it's nothing. I just felt like someone was watching me...."
"Watching you?"
"Yes."
"Isn't it just your imagination? We made sure there was no one else around."
"I suppose so."
I agreed awkwardly.
Being in such a gloomy place must have put me on edge for no reason.
I tore my gaze away from the empty space I had briefly looked up at, and continued walking.
***
Meanwhile.
The Girls' Dormitory.
"Hic, hiiic...!"
Tearful blue eyes.
Black hair draped over the bed.
A girl was trembling, her shoulders shaking violently.
She had pulled the Blanket all the way over her head, looking absolutely terrified.
"W-we made eye contact...! H-how? That has never happened before...."
Jagged breaths.
Unintelligible words.
"H-he noticed me...! I'm going to die, I'll be murdered, he'll, he'll silence me...."
Alice, shedding heavy drops of tears.
"Sniffle, w-what do I do...."
The girl's trembling didn't stop for quite some time.
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