CH 31.1

Anyone who has ever played a serious game will have experienced trying to find an Easter egg at least once.

I also had that experience.

It was only slightly different.

When you reach the true ending of the game ‘The Hero’s Party’, you will fight against either Gis or Lorian depending on the choices you have made earlier.

When I started fighting these lopsy guys, I was suddenly curious.

The ntr has already been done and the game scenario has reached its climax. What would happen if I defeated them in such a situation?

Will there be any hidden Easter eggs?

Isn’t there supposed to be atleast one true happy ending?

So, I executed the level-up maniac strategy to confirm. Reaching the max level, with matching equipment of highest prefixes. The specs of the newly acquired colleagues were also raised to the point where they could no longer be raised.

In that state, I started the challenge in earnest only after fully memorizing Gis’ fighting pattern.

While applying excellent buffs to allies, debuffs were poured onto enemies.

Gis’s lethal skills faced skills countering them at correct time, meanwhile my strong skills were released at precise timing to reduce the chance of getting successfully blocked.

After trying so many times, I finally knocked down Gis.

And here I thought—I had finally knocked down this twerp for real.

Until, that bastard, Gis suddenly tore off his top and maniacally laughed out loud.

The naked man’s body was full of black tattoos.

They were the glyphs he had received from the orcs.

That guy actually apologized for not taking us seriously and for not using his real power, then he said that he was going to start for real and asked us not to die too easily, for it would lessen the fun.

With that farce, Phase 2 began.

Phase 2, which started like that, was literally followed by thrashing.

After using some blah blah blah glyph, my party’s buffs disappeared.

That guy didn’t even use a debuff, but his strong aura pulled my team into a strong debuff state.

For those who know it, in case of turn-based RPGs, if something goes wrong once, it leads to a snowballing effect and then everything goes to hell.

It means that the characteristic of this genre is that we should pray that the boss monster will not use any skill made by some developer without basic human compassion.

However, Gis used every such skill that fitted the above description.

Faced with such a situation, I was honestly left speechless.

I ended up leaning on cheats…

That too failed.

It was because there was no f**king way one could overcome that f**king glyph skill combo even by raising one’s f**king stats to the maximum. I was supposed to be beaten for 10 minutes, but I ended up being beaten for an hour.

At that time, I wondered why the balance was like that—so totally f**ked up, but now that I got the ogre’s glyph, I have a different opinion.

‘You have face the soul’s overtaking.’

Glyphs are created by absorbing souls.

So where do the absorbed souls go?

The answer is, ‘It enters the body and settles down in the same place as body’s soul.’

It’s like having two souls in one bowl.

So, of course, the two are bound to collide constantly, and in reality, the ogre’s soul is trying to steal my body in real time and make this body its own.

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way. Last time it was around when Richie tried?’

I was sick for several days and nights back then.

With a grin, I weighed down the capering ogre’s soul. It was crushed like a scrapped car and then thrown into a corner.

It won’t cause anymore troubles.

But if there’s still some follow up trouble… then there’s nothing else I can do.

Have to get rid of it.

‘By the way, this guy managed to enliven quite a big glyph.’

Is his soul that strong?

If it wasn’t for remembering Gis at that time, I would have nearly ignored. Maybe, it had eaten some souls before.

That was when I was just contemplating about it.

“Cloud, are you fine?!”

Frillite ran through the dust. She asked while examining the presence of injuries with her restless eyes.

It was a little too burdensome gaze for me, so I nudged a step away.

“I’m okay. There are no injuries.”

“That’s good… I’m glad. What happened there? The ogre suddenly fell?”

Frillite turned to the now dead ogre and found the ogre’s severed heel tendons. She opened her eyes wide with a look of surprise, with her mouth slightly opened.

…what, it’s really that surprising?

“Cloud, this… did you do it?”

“I told you, I’m not that bad myself.”

“No, it’s not that. I can’t believe that you severed the ogre’s tendon. This is something that should be only possible for the now reclusive Sword Master.”

She said so with a serious face.

…I see.

No wonder Lorian was not aiming for its tendons and was looking all frustrated.

There was such a thing.

I thought this level of show would be acceptable, I even simulated it countless times in my mind, but…

…f**k.

I can’t attract attention until I get the big root plant.

Yeah, excuse.

I have to make an excuse! A big, fat lie!

I kept a calm expression and nonchalantly shook my head to Frillite.

“Haha, Frillite that’s even too big for me. Cutting the ogre’s tendon? How can I do that now, I just used a magic artifact.”

“Magic artifact? What kind of magic artifact can sever even an ogre’s tendon?”

“I also want to show it to you, but unfortunately it is a consumable item, so…”

“Oh, that’s all right. If it’s a consumable item, it’s definitely worth it. Once used, it loses its effectiveness, but this one-time ability is also great.”

Fortunately, Frillite was convinced.

Now there is only one problem left.

“I have a favor ask, is it okay?”

“Favor? It’s all right, as long as it’s not too much. Do you have anything to ask of me?”

“Let’s do it, you alone defeated the ogre.”

Frillite frowned at that.

“What do you mean by that? Even though you used a consumable item, it was you who severed the ogre’s tendon. I have no intention of usurping other people’s merits. Even more so if it’s your’s.”

Agh, stubborn girl.

“Who said you are usurping it? I’m giving it to you because I don’t need it. The ogre subjugation’s completion is too burdensome for me to handle right now. I need calm and peace for this while.”

“Calm and peace… I see. Sorry. I forgot about your situation.”

Frillite nodded her head.

Great. With that I have covered up all the worries and now it’s time to go find what I need the most!

That was the thing that nowadays occupied my mind.

“…What happened?”

The dust scattered and the almost forgotten person appeared.

Eri.

She had an expression, quite difficult to describe.

* * *

When Cloud ran towards the ogre.

Eri thought he was doing something unreasonable.

Maybe… his pressed feelings, his inferiority complex exploded, and he thoughtlessly rushed to the ogre, with a mentality of facing death.

But it wasn’t.

Frillite couldn’t see properly because of the ogre’s legs blocking her view, but Eri could see it clearly.

Cloud evaded the ogre’s fist with light footwork.

After that, she couldn’t see very well because of the dust, but when she saw the ogre fell down shortly after, she knew, he had done something.

And that was impossible with the common sense that Eri knew.

“…What happened?”

As the dust scattered in all directions, only Cloud and Frillite could be seen.

Eri looked at Cloud and asked.

It was a very abstract question.

But, she couldn’t help it. Because she couldn’t even organize her thoughts by herself.

Cloud is weak. Expectations for growth are not high.

He cannot be strong all his life.

It was the conclusion Eri came to after seeing him grow while traveling together.

But how does it matches with what just happened? What the hell was that skillful movement that easily dodged the violent ogre’s attack?

No way…

“Did you deceive us..? D, Did you..deliberately pretended to be weak during the journey?”