Chapter 57: Dungeon & Dumbass

"You notice the plain drape over the lord's shoulder wasn't even a cape at all, but a grafted sheet of undead skin. You have an inkling that his idiotic servant mustn't have the slightest clue of the faker pretending to be his lord."

"I cast a fireball at the servant," Verina said, preparing her dice.

"And what is your reasoning behind that action?"

"The servant does not err when he speaks and can still properly function as a servant, and thus, he is not really idiotic." Verina dramatically pointed her index finger forward. "He is an underling who works under the same banner of that faker."

"The servant immediately revealed himself to be a shapeshifting devil as he disrupted your casting concentration. Following him, the fake lord transformed into a brute giant of hulking muscle. Turns out, the servant has been the mastermind all along. He laughs at how foolish you are to hastily confront him alone and secluded from everyone else in the town."

"Huh, now I regret not saving the knight that is coming with me."

"You killed that knight by intentionally casting fireballs at him for absolutely no reason."

"I should have picked necromancer as a class when making my character board…"

After the commotion with the Faceless Gaze and the Traumatizing Clay, I introduced Verina to Dungeon and Devil.

We had been in a single player campaign for the last half hour with me acting as the dungeon master, and it had been enjoyable so far.

"I think we have regained enough composure to maintain our consciousness throughout the Ordeal," I said as I packed the dice and models away from the board. "Calamity Object is starting to appear once again."

"Tch, we're getting to the good part," Verina voiced her discontent, albeit still fairly poker-faced.

—

[The Silent Bell]

[Description: The Silent Bell is an enormous apparition suspended in the air by unseen forces, swaying gently, though it never makes a sound. Despite its size, the Bell is impossible to ring. However, once in an ordeal, it emits a deep, bone-shaking vibration that disrupts all noise for miles around, plunging the land into total silence]

[Hint: While under the influence of the Silent Bell's vibration, communication is impossible. However, during these periods of silence, creatures that hunt by sound are rendered harmless, and stealth becomes much easier. If destroyed, the Bell leaves behind Silent Fragments, it that can be used to craft weapons or tools that generate no noise, perfect for stealth operations]

—

Huh, I didn't expect for the hint section of the information screen to just outright tell me that I could utilize parts of the Calamity Object if I were to destroy it.

It was either a rare thing or my luck with the Calamity Object encounter yesterday was not the best at the time.

"Ah, I remember this one," Verina proudly puffed her chest as she rested her hands on her hips. "This thing rang at the most crucial moment where the bastion is fending up an enormous snake that throws thunder at us nonstop, plunging the whole world into disrupted silence for two hours, and we can't communicate with each other through voices anymore."

"Should we destroy it then?" Sёarᴄh the nôvel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Can we even destroy it?"

"So you're saying that your former bastion basically ignored this Calamity Object until dawn arrived?"

"In our defense, we are afraid that the bell will ring once again after it disorients the whole bastion, so we just leave it be. It disappeared the moment we reached the horizon of dawn."

As such, we decided to gun it down with Fortcracker Mk II.

The bell cracked and began to deconstruct itself slowly into numerous pieces.

We acquired a good chunk of Silent Fragments because of that.

"I can't believe this," Verina said with baffled hand motion. "What, what?"

"In this case, we can preemptively destroy it before it can do anything." I chuckled. "Just don't expect that the rest of our Calamity Object interaction can end this smoothly."

"Knowledge is power, indeed…"

After dealing with the bell, we were hit with another Calamity Object manifestation not longer after. Thankfully, it wasn't anything with the severity and difficulty as the Faceless Gaze.

—

[The Coalborn]

[Description: A horde of sentient embers swirls into the shape of a humanoid figure, formed from the ash and soot of countless extinguished fires. The Coalborn roam the land after large forest fires or any kind of fiery incident, feeding on the remains of burnt wood and cinders, sparking new blazes wherever they go]

[Hint: The Coalborn can be lured away from the colony by offering freshly cut wood or controlled burns. Upon dispersing them, they leave behind Charstone, a strange, blackened relic that can keep fires burning endlessly, but burns uncontrollably if not carefully managed, risking a blaze too large to contain]

—

The hint had already given us a suggested method to deal with them, but their threat could easily be dispersed by Verina's spells attached to the ammunition of my Fortcracker Mk II.

After bombarding them with flame-retardant spells, their existence was no more, and there wasn't even a large fire that was left in their wake because I had already deforested enough for none of them to catch on fire.

"The Ordeal is drastically different with and without the Hollow Star, huh," I expressed as I stretched my muscles. "However, I wonder if the Withering Sentinel also affects the spawn of the Calamity Objects in some way."

"It is possible," Verina opened her Potion of Thirst-quenching, which was used to contain a refreshing sanitized water. "Though, I'm an Ohrtender, and not really a Librarian to know everything about the event of the Ordeal."

"Despite living for so long?"

"Hey, I'm only 50 years old."

Which was older than me, even if I brought my ages from my past life as Lothair.

"Is all kilnalan this young-looking and attractive?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Whoa, I'm not used to this ego-stroking, but yes, we aged slower than the average human."

"What is the number for the oldest kilnalan ever to live?"

"Around 200 years or so."

"I see."

"How about you, Narcissus?" Verina asked. "You asked my age, and so I shall ask yours."

"Around twenty-ish," I said, technically not a lie. "Or maybe two thousands, who knows~"

"Well, I expected that kind of answer." Verina snapped her finger, turning it into a gun-gesture. "Regardless, I doubt that someone with that motherly-hips of yours is any innocent, if you know what I mean."

'"Fun fact-"

"I'm sorry! I accidentally slipped!"

It seemed like fun facts were not enough to fully deter this pervert from playing with fire.