Chapter 78: Vessel

Chapter 78: Vessel

“― ― Ha!?”

I woke up with a start. It was still dark, so my eyes were fine opening instantly.

“Momokawa Kotarou, adherent of mine.”

A skull face was right in my face before I knew anything.

“Aaaaaaaahhh!?”

The first thought that crossed my mind was a sudden invasion of Skeleton mobs, but I did in fact know this particular skeleton face. He was an ally, or actually, he was my patron God.

“Ah, eh, um, I mean... Ruinhilde-sama, I uh... have I perhaps, um, died?”

I was in this God’s dimension.

Seeing his face first thing after waking up really knocked the drowsiness out of me, which was when I started remembering everything.

We were moments close to finishing off the Basilisk when its fumes shot out from those gill slits. I should maybe consider myself lucky to have died instantly from that. When Gomas got hit by its gas, they always screamed in extreme agony before inevitably dying.

“Well done, for you have realized the second truth. And for this, I shall praise you.”

“Eh? What, I mean, thank you, my lord...”

Excuse me, but rather than the usual deep and mystical lecture, I’d really like to know if I’m still alive or not please. Still, it’s not often that I get praised by a God, so I think something good might come from this.

“First, know that the star of another realm that you traced is not a thing to be considered a true magic circle. Yet, it is also true that what you made contains part of the Truth.”

“Um, do you mean, the Hexagram Eye?”

My patron God nodded. So since hexagrams were a concept from Earth, I guess they really were from another realm in Ruinhilde-sama’s perspective.

“I had believed to grant this to you much time later, but you have shown me agreeable growth―― It is yours, Momokawa Kotarou.”

Ruinhilde-sama raised a bony finger and a poison bog-like pool started bubbling up in front of me. This pool quickly formed into a jet black lump.

“Um, what exactly is this?”

“A vessel of chaos. With endless possibilities, it garners man’s hope, yet, is trifling. The holder makes its use.”

“I see, so it will depend on how I use it.”

I just responded appropriately, but I honestly didn’t want to have to do anything with this Vessel of Chaos thing. I just stared at it, and had absolutely no desire to get my hands near any of that black, goopy whatever.

Well, from the looks of it, the lump appeared like a large soup pot.

The inside of this pot was a swirling black that seemed to go on for eternity, churning chaos as if it would be able to grant any and all desires.

Quite the curse-like effect I must admit, but, huh, I think I’ve seen this before.

“This is... just like Mud Doll.”

“Its uses are many. Use this Cauldron as you will, proliferate your Curse.”

I see, so it was similar to Takanashi Kotori’s Upgrade in that I could make stuff by adding the right ingredients. So a production type Curse.

“My utmost thanks.”

I do hope I can get a Curse strong enough to one-shot something like a Basilisk one of these days. But it’d be very rude to say that so I didn’t.

Anyway, from the way this conversation was going... didn’t it mean that I was actually still alive?

“Second, the Mud Doll does indeed have a soul.”

“Ah, so Rem does have her own personality!”

Now with this topic, I caught on right off the bat.

But then again, the description does kind of hint at getting something out of the poisons other than immunity, so it might actually have hidden effects.

“Nope, I really don’t want to find out after all.”

I’ll just settle for the new anti-venom passive skill. No, it’s not like I’m dissatisfied, Ruinhilde-sama. I’m simply admitting that whatever offensive boosts this Venomic Vessel can provide, I’m not yet worthy to make use of them.

“B-better luck next time I guess.”

But then, as if I was being irritating with my disrespect, another piece of info popped into my head.

Witch’s Cauldron: The pot of a witch is not solely for meals. It is a vessel of chaos that can birth magic, curse and concoctions, healing and poison alike.

“Wait what? Did I just get 2 Curses at once?”

Huh, wow, I did, didn’t I.

This one was a lot closer to the thing Ruinhilde-sama showed me back there. My guess is that if I used this Curse, I’d get a pot like that Vessel of Chaos I saw.

If this thing is as powerful as Upgrade, it should be very useful for any upcoming fights. In fact, since I could now easily hunt down small numbers of Gomas and Red Dogs, I could actually gather the parts and ingredients to use in making whatever it is I would eventually make.

“So with this I should be able to make my meds a lot better. No, it says poisons too... Oh yeah, if I can do poisons, I want to lace our weapons with them.”

It was a big step forward, but not something I could test right now. Takanashi Kotori’s Upgrade seemed to expend a lot of mana after all.

I’d gotten a nap just now when I went into God’s dimension, so I could walk around fine, but my mana hadn’t recovered quite as much.

“I should teleport out of here already. I can think about the rest at the Fairy Square.”

I wasn’t going to be waiting to be attacked now when I’m still tired from the Boss fight. I started quickly gathering up all the Basilisk bones I could carry and made swift preparations to warp out.

I still had a lot of extra weapons and things gathered up at my Fairy Square base in this zone, but they weren’t so important that I would go out of my way to get them now. I’d already used most of the better quality weapons in this fight, which ended up being lost in the bog.

Well, the fact that Rem saved the Red Knife from that flavor of doom was something to be glad about. Otherwise I’d be really depressed having lost a valuable magic weapon.

“Any time now――”

Me, Rem and #2 all now stood on the transfer circle platform that the Basilisk used do laze around in all day.

I just need to hold this core up and the rest should be automatic. And this time, there wasn’t anyone going to push me off either.

“――Mh!”

Shrouded in blinding white light, I teleported to the next zone.

“Ah, it feels like I finally did it.”

I opened my eyes to a scene I could call home, a Fairy Square. I’m glad we get transferred to one of these every time without fail. The frog Boss, the Orthus, and now the Basilisk too. It’s home sweet home to a Fairy Square right after a tough battle.

“Man, I’m tired!”

I needed some well deserved shut-eye. I threw down the Basilisk’s skeletal loot to a side and laid down on the soft, grassy bed that was the ground.

I closed my eyes and found myself quickly becoming sleepy, and soon I’d be in the land of dreams――

“―― Look what we have here, Momokawa, ya little git. Still haven’t kicked the bucket eh?”

If that voice didn’t reach my ears. If that familiar tone didn’t absolutely destroy my drowsiness.

“I’m actually kinda impressed ya made it this far. Y’know, with that lousy Job of yers.”

My eyes fell on his mocking smile. His dyed brown hair, his piercings, and that extra gaudy way he wore his uniform. But I know all too well. That behind that frivolous attitude hid nothing but malice.

“Yo, looks like ya came to. Guess I should say it’s good to see ya again?”

I would never forget the name of my mortal enemy, the first person I met in this world and by whose hand I’d suffered the worst humiliation. With hate welling out from every pore in my body, I spoke his name:

“Higuchi, Kyouya...”

This chapter was sponsored by Nolan N.