Chapter 79: Grudge

Chapter 79: Grudge

The destruction of his dungeon’s innards caused the lich to flare up in rage.

It was kind of weird. His face was well, literally just a skull, but I could still somehow tell he was angry.

『He’s probably got a few more openings now that he’s gotten weaker.』

「Nn!」

「What’s with that look on your face? Are you truly so foolish that you would even consider defeating me to be a possibility? Very well, I shall crush your hopes immediately. Use that appraisal skill of yours and behold.」

The lich’s status page warped as he deactivated a skill and allowed me to properly appraise him.

_______________________________________________________________

Basic Information

Race: Lich

Undead

Magic beast

Dungeon Master

Lv. 71

Stats

HP: 4863

MP: 7467

STR: 934

VIT: 737

AGI: 666

INT: 2369

MGC: 4312

DEX: 1207

Skills

Skills

Incantation Shortening: Lv Max

Wind Magic: Lv 7

Appraisal Jamming: Lv 5

Dread: Lv 9

Fear: Lv 7

Regeneration: Lv Max

Space/Time Magic: Lv 7

Cursed Words: Lv 6

Instant Regeneration: Lv 4

Spirit Control: Lv Max

Hell Magic: Lv 8

Ghost Magic: Lv Max

Resistance to Mental Abnormalities: Lv 9

Life Energy Detection: Lv 6

Life Energy Absorption: Lv 7

Water Magic: Lv Max

Greater Water Magic: Lv 3

Close Quarters Combat: Lv 7

Earth Magic: Lv Max

Greater Earth Magic: Lv 3

Mind Reading: Lv 4

Poison Magic: Lv 8

Fire Magic: Lv 6

Magic Detection: Lv 7

Magic Absorbtion: Lv 7

Dark Magic: Lv 5

Ignore Incantation

Resistance to Abnormal Status

Undead Strengthening

Unsealable

Magic Manipulation

Unique Skills

Grudge Absorption

Grudge Conversion

I begin to focus on the lich’s movements as Jean raises his staff to the sky once more.

「Aidoneus’ Blessing, commence activation!」

「That staff again? It won’t work on me. Are you planning to use it to annihilate the skeletons? Please do, I’d like for you exhaust all your life energy. Your corpse will be in better condition that way.」

「Aidoneus’ Blessing, grant peace to those unable to achieve salvation!」

『Skill Taker!』

Foock yeah, it worked! I managed to steal his Lv 7 space/time magic!

「Sing them a melody of love, hate, and resentment!」

「It’s pointless I sa—w-wait! What!?」

The lich started to panic as his body was enveloped by the staff’s light.

「Impossible! Impossible I say! I refuse to fall in a place like this!」

The lich screamed in agony from within the light; it had yet to vanish.

「Guaaaaaaaahhh! I’m getting purified!! My urge to exact revenge... is fading away! Arghhhhhhhhhhh!」

The lich was as strong as expected, it was taking quite a bit of time to ascend because of how strong it was... Or at least that was what I’d thought.

A bit of time passed, and the light faded away.

But the lich did not.

『Sheet! The bastard managed to hang on.』

In fact, there was something strange going on with his body.

「Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!」

An incredible amount of magical energy was flowing into the lich from its surroundings, likely due to the fact that it was a dungeon master.

「Something’s... wrong?」

「He’s absorbing grudges from the undead spirits around him.」

「Meaning?」

Jean was too busy lying flat on the ground to answer Fran’s question; he was completely out of breath. Though we gave him another stamina potion to down, he still didn’t seem all that well. And so, Stephan had answered the question in his place. The fact that he was basically fluent made me feel as if he really was a human being.

「The Principle of Impurity is allowing him to absorb the malice bore by undead spirits around him and convert them into power. I personally am not affected as a result of my resistances, but I can’t say the same for any of the other undead, nor what remains of the Furnace of Malice.」

The Furnace of Malice that Stephan was referring to was the thing he destroyed earlier. As implied by its name, it used malice produced by the undead as fuel and converted it to magical energy. The malice that the furnace ran on didn’t really end up going anywhere after the furnace had been blown up, so it was pretty much just drifting around the dungeon.

Absorbing all that malice had managed to stop the lich from being purified by Aidoneus’ Blessing, as the two effects basically ended up counteracting each other.

The lich’s unique and extra skills allowed it to convert all of the absorbed malice into its own power.

「KUKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAAAA!」

『So uh, is it just me or does he look a bit weird right now?』

「My guess would be that he absorbed more than he could handle. All that malice ended up turning into what is effectively a ball of nothing but fury and bloodlust. The lich itself has probably even lost the ability to think altogether.」

That seems just a bit bad. I mean like, won’t he end up going berserk or something?

『All we need is one more push with Aidoneus’ Blessing.』

「That’s an impossible request. My lord’s life wouldn’t last.」

『Can’t you use it or something then?』

「Named items can only be used by those that they approve of. I’m afraid my lord is the only one with said approval...」

Sheet, so only Jean can use it? God damn.

Given no other choice, I try firing a bit of magic in the Lich’s direction, but it ends up getting repelled by a black, miasma-like aura.

「Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!」

Ooookay, this isn’t looking good. All the hatred and curses that the lich sucked started to leak out of its body and overflow. Its black aura began to expand even further. I can tell at a glance that we were in a pretty bad spot.

「The malice he’s gathered is so concentrated that it’s began to take physical form. Be careful not to get swallowed up, any living things that do will likely perish immediately.」

Don’t have to tell me that. Sheet, what do I do? The Warp Feather wasn’t going to work. Space/time magic probably wasn’t going to work either. The Lich was unsealable, so I probably couldn’t just dump him somewhere sealed off with space/time spells.

Stephan hurried over to where Jean was and lifted him up off the ground.

「I’ll take care of My Lord, though I can’t say I’m capable of doing the same for you...」

『Come on! Lend us a hand here!』

「Sorry.」

Both Jean and the Corpse Eater were swallowed by the dark miasma as the Lich’s malice continued to surge and grow.

『Fran, deploy your magic barriers in front of you at full strength! Make sure you double layer it with purification magic!』

「Nn!」

『Shapeshift!』

I change my form to that of a large shield. The material that it’s made of is rather thin because I had to stretch myself, but that didn’t matter. I needed to make sure none of the miasma touched Fran. After changing forms, I overboosted the sorcerer skill and immediately created a magical barrier with all my strength behind it.

『Guuuuhhhhh!』

The magical barrier creaked under the force of the lich’s malice; it looked as if it was about to break at any given moment.

My durability rapidly began to plummet as the barriers warped more and more out of shape.

「Mas...ter!」

『Fran!』

The malice was far too powerful. Fran’s barrier was slowly being twisted out of shape as well; there was too much pressure on her for her to last. At this rate, she was going to end up getting swallowed up by the miasma.

Sheet, what do I do? I still have a few points remaining, so I can probably throw them into something right now. But what? Do I point physical barrier? Purification magic? Foock, what do I do!?

Wait, I still had a skill I’d yet to use, a skill that’d strengthen both my barriers and ability to purify.

『Foock it, let’s go! Latent Potential Release!』

A huge wave a magical energy suddenly surged from within me.