Chapter 58: [Arc 2] Chapter 15: Welcome to the Demon’s Parlor

I looked at the six targets through my binocular from the top of one of the crate towers that made up the building. Glad this one didn't reach the ceiling.

They have gathered by the entrance of the crate labyrinth, with two older guys giving out instructions to the remaining four. 

From their appearance, I can see that the four consist of a swordsman with a one-handed sword and high attitude (great work making that visible from this distance), a mage-like guy armed with a staff, a female scout with double daggers, and for some reason, a mohawk dressed with shoulder pads and armed with a knife. From which end-of-the-century world did he escape from?!

The two giving orders are an elderly magician dressed in blue robes and a middle-aged guy in green clothes and a green hat with a brim. The last guy doesn't look like he fits on the battlefield. He's even got a walking stick. Kinda gives the feeling that he's a janitor for some reason...?

They're probably the brains here but let's not get reckless. If [Magic Sight]'s not failing me here, then those two are the ones I need to be wary about.

It seems like it's the junior group that's gonna search the facility while the two elders are gonna stay guarding the boats. Tch. Here I wanted to sabotage those boats...

Guess it's plan B then. And since it looks like they're not searching together, it seems like plan C's turning useless here. 

The swordsman, the mage, the scout, and the mohawk, each chose their separate passage and started to explore the crate labyrinth. Time to move!

---

Case 1: The scout.

The female scout tiptoed silently through the corridor, only relying on her [Nightvision] skill in the fear of someone, or something, noticing her if she used a lantern.

Despite being a scout, there was one thing this lady cannot handle... ghosts. She would flee the moment anything even seeing relatively "haunted" in fear of it being a ghost, be it strange spots on the wall, the wind blowing eerily outside, not to mention: abandoned facilities.

The scout kept on sneaking through the layers of crates, completely forgetting to look through them as her mind was paralyzed by fear. 

"...Hii!" - Scout

Suddenly, when the scout reached a T-junction in the labyrinth, she heard a skittering sound from the path to the left. Fearfully, she turned around and was met with the sight of...

Spiders. Tons of little spiders, small enough to fit in a child's hand. They crawled across the floor, the walls, even the roof! All of them aiming towards the same location.

Towards the scout. No hesitation, confusion, nor mercy, shown in their march.

"------!!" - Scout (soundless scream)

The scout tried to escape, only to find even more spiders coming from the path she had arrived from. Seeing the spider armies closing towards her, the scout fled to the right. The spiders, as if exited over the scout fleeing from them, picked up their speed and chased the scout.

After escaping for a while, the scout ended up at a dead-end. Because the road in front of her was blocked by some sort of tape... and another battalion of spiders.

The scout stopped dead in her tracks but then remembered the chasing army. Like how a mouse bites the cat when cornered, the scout drew her daggers and jumped at the spiders blocking her way... only to freeze while in mid-air.

The scout was confused over this strange situation, which quickly changed to dread when she figured out the secret of the trick.

Extremely thin, but durable, spider threads were set up in the area right in front of the spider blockade. The dread quickly escalated into pure panic as she noticed the spiders climbing up the threads. 

She shouted and screamed, but her voice didn't leave that corridor as the spiders climbed all over her body...

---

...Oooookay? That was too easy. Here, ladies and gentlespiders. Your reward.

I left the huge armor fishes that had flown my way when Mira and Ice-guy fought them earlier today. I stored them just outta habit, but who would have known they would come in handy this way? As for how I got them to understand my intent... hurray, [Language Addaption]!!

I targeted the scout first since she's more difficult to locate than the other three that's practically yelling "I'M HERE!" with their lights. But for her to freak out that much from some itty-bitty spiders...

The Silence Barrier Tape I had bought from the magic item shop on the island was damn useful. They have EVERYTHING there except stuff like television! This stuff is damn useful if it hadn't had the outrageous price of 88,000 Sol. Pocket money for me~.

I dumped the scout in some random box, bound her limbs with my threads, and slapped some of the Barrier Tape across her mouth. There... should I strip her?

*Please wait for a little while*

Now, to the next goon... offer!

---

Case 2: The mage

*Squeeeaak*

Here he comes, here he comes~.

The magician guy entered the lab while lighting up the place with his magic light. He's not gonna notice me who's hiding between the camouflage carpet I made though~. 

As soon as he closed the door, I used [Thread Control] on the thread leading outside to seal the room with the Barrier Tape. Now, onward to the show~!

"There's nothing in here... whoa!?" - Mage

At the corner of the room, where one of the desks is placed, a skeleton, dressed in a mage's outfit and having one of my handmade comforter on it, sat on the chair, resting its head on said desk.

Relax. It's not someone who died here. I just did a little necromancy to make a false former researcher of this facility.

It is a Skeleton Assassin that I made using ALL the Materials I have on hand. A true Cheat Skeleton! Not even the mage will see through this guy when he's playing possum!

The Skeleton Assassin holds a cloth drenched in the best sleeping poison I could find on the market. Get close mage. Get closer to the Skeleton~. There's a bottle of sludge that you want there~-

"Yikes. Was he left behind..." - Mage

The mage did just as I wanted and came closer to the Skeleton. A little closer... and the mage kicked the Skeleton off the chair.

Wait, whyyy?! Was the cover busted? The Cheat Skeleton didn't move, even when it was kicked off since I never gave an order to do so, but if the mage saw through the act, then we've gotta get down and dirty.

The mage then retrieved the chair and sat down by the desk after making a pillow outta his robe. Then he started snoring...

Seriously?

I came out of my hiding place out of pure astonishment for the mage's lack of danger. When I got closer, I saw that his eyes had dark enough rings under them to make him look like a panda sub-species. 

As for his stats...... no [Sleep Resistance]. And his condition is... "Deep Sleep", "Overworked", and "Sleep-Depraved"... those even exist?

Cheat Skeleton, take your revenge. But limit yourself to the Blunt Edge art only. 

---

Case 3: The swordsman

After leaving the minced mage locked up in the lab, I started to search for the remaining two grunts. And I found one of them pretty easy. I mean, he's breaking the crates like there was no tomorrow. 

I guessed that it was the mohawk, but it turned out to be the swordsman. Hey, are you some kinda hero that walks into people's homes and smashes vases to find money or something?

After cracking the crates open, the swordsman took the bottles that he could find and threw them into his bag without any consideration for the bottles' brittleness.

Hey! Are you trying to cause a disaster here!? That goop is made of one at least!

Better take care of this guy fast before he really does cause one. But what can I do against someone like this guy? He's obviously stupid, so maybe a trap... but for some reason, I fear this guy is so stupid he'll not notice the traps and pass them by.

Hmm... what's his stats anyway? Let's see... Phht!? INT at 74?! That's the lowest value I've seen a humanoid have! 

Yeah, this is a guy that's so stupid that traps won't work on him. Wait, isn't his other stats, like, really high? His physical stats are around Ice-guy's level. His magic-related ones are rock-bottom though...

Indirect frontal assault it is then.

I drew my dagger and started to use a skill I really don't like to use. [Shadow Dive].

Its effect is the simple, but awesome, ability to dive into shadows, travel through them, then appearing out of any shadow you can reach.

There are some catches though. First, its MP usage is awful. And since it's Shadow attribute and not Darkness, I've got close to nothing to reduce its costs.

Also, the environment in the shadow world, as I call it, horrible. There's no light, so you can't see a meter in front of you. That world's got no ground either, making it like being in the middle of the ocean, not knowing up from down, and it's damn cold. I hate the cold! 

In conclusion, [Shadow Dive]'s a skill strictly limited to the Rogues out there so talented that they can even stomach that world's "natural laws".

I may have a nice Skill List, appearance, and personality, but I can't have everything, right? However, with this dagger of mine, I can use the skill to certain limits.

This dagger, Carnwennan, is nicknamed "Shadow-Threading Carnwennan" by Armveil.

I don't know whether it's because it's made of the Wild Hunt Lord's greatsword or not, but this dagger has the same Auto-Growth ability as the Thaumaturgy Revolver, among many others. One of them is the ability to "thread" into shadows.

It's basically the same ability as [Shadow Dive], but when I use both abilities together with each other, I'll know where the connections between the shadow world and the real one are. Also, I can walk on solid "ground". The only thing that didn't change is the cold... and that you feel like the only living thing in the whole world. That one's damn depressing...

The swordsman looked like he was gonna move again, so I used [Shadow Dive] and went into his shadow...

Hey, what if I could use the Evil Eye from here? Wouldn't that be like, a one-sided attack from a different dimension? Ooh, let's try that!!

...No results. Tch. Maybe magic will work, but I've got my doubts.

Back to plan A them. I grabbed the swordsman by his ankles and dragged him into the shadow world. The MP consumption was HORRIBLE, but once the swordsman entered the shadow world, it was his MP that got drained.

FU-HA-HA-HA! The swordsman flailed his arms and legs helplessly in hope of finding the ground. Not that he can see me, or anything at all. His lantern's still in the real world after all. 

But, at this rate, I won't be able to knock him... what?

Before I knew it, the swordsman's eyes rolled back, he started to foam around his mouth and got ejected out of the shadow world. What gives?

I exited the shadow world myself and examined the swordsman. He's got the "Coma" ailment, but nothing else seems... ah! His MP is bone-dry!

Did the shadow world spit him out because he didn't have any MP left? Then, it's not that the [Shadow Dive] skill consumes lots of MP, but rather that world itself drains the MP of whoever's in there?

...I got some valuable information there. Also regarding what happens to those who reach 0 MP. And... urgh!? Assassin is at Lv.8 now! That skill's damn usable for proficiency grinding, but in this situation, I'm not happy about it! 

I left the swordsman in a crate after stripping him off for all his valuables. Battle, victory, hand over the stuff! It's a package deal, get it?

I'll go and take care of that last guy... but first... I gotta pay the price of entering the shadow world... m-my stomach...bleargh...

---

Case 4: The mohawk

The last man standing. That mohawk should be proud of himself. The old men are not counting.

He was a pain to look after, but I found him at last. It was only to follow the trail of the opened and emptied crates. 

I made sure of having my stealth skills on, despite being dangerously close to Lv.10, but I found the guy before too much proficiency had built up. 

He's roaming through all the crates he can get his paws on, searching through all of them diligently, while taking notes of where he found the bottles, the amount found each time, calculating the probability of locating the next bottle...

You! What are you doing, despite being a lowly thug?! What would your mother say if she saw you right now!?

He's at least doing all his diligent work while shooting incomprehensible stuff like "GYAHAAA!" all the while. Don't tell me, a Role-player!?

Whatever he is, he's soon to get knocked out like the rest. I've already placed the Barrier Tape in the path we arrived at, so thanks to the support of the new Cheat Undead, we've got this guy cornered.

The mohawk kept on walking through the passage made by the crates. It's built with enough room for a carriage to squeeze itself through, with several crates striking out that can be used as hiding places.

Then, the mohawk noticed something coming towards him from the front.

"GYAHAA! Bro, did you reach this place too? ...Bro?" - Mohawk

He must think it's one of his friends. He's half-right.

Out of the darkness came a wobbly figure, dressed in the equipment of the swordsman from before. A nauseating stench emitted from the figure, while it made unintelligent sounds as it walked.

Introducing, Cheat Zombie~.

"G-GIYAAAAAAHH!!" - Mohawk

"-come... here... come ov...er... here..." - Cheat Zombie

"N-NOOOOOO!!" - Mohawk

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The mohawk dropped everything in his hands and started to flee from the Cheat Zombie. Then, he came to me who was hiding in the shadows of the crates, and tumbled. What a disaster~. It's almost like someone tripped him~.

The mohawk made a solid crash head-first into the ground... and the force was so strong that he bounced up from the floor, then crashed into it again, then bounced again...*CRASH!* and we've reached the final station. Everyone off! Jokes aside, is he still alive?

"...urrrrrgh..." - Mohawk

He is!? Talk about thug-power! They don't die even when you kill them! But, he's looking a lot like the Cheat Zombie now...

Let's do him a favor and keep his clothes on. They look cheap anyway. Just wanna take this...

Alright! Now for the last bosses!

---

Case 5: The old farts

Hm-hm-hmm~. A labyrinth is no match for someone who has grown up in a real Dungeon~.

Even without [Auto-Mapping], it was a breeze to get back to the entrance. I looked at the last two remaining enemies from outside the magic light's range. They've started on a board game. Looks a lot like chess, but at this distance, I'm not sure...

Now, what to do? The four grunts were easy to take care of, once I found them, but that was because they were moving around. I could set a trap and simply wait for them to step into it. 

The old men, however, have rooted at the spot, occupied by their board game. One would think they would be easier prey than the grunts since their concentration is solely on the game, but [Magic Sight] tells me that's wrong.

There are tons of magic-produced alarms all over the place, invisible to the naked eye. One false step and I'm the one getting assaulted. 

Seriously, what to do? I need to figure a way to take out the elder magician, the most probable culprit for these alarms, without getting caught by them...

Wait. The problem here's not to get caught in the alarm, but rather to beat the magician so the alarm turns off, without getting in a bad enough situation! Then, I can...

---

The preparations are done. The target is in sight. Class levels are... 8 and 18. Still got a shot! Then, FIRE!

*ZOOoomm!* *CRASH!*

The crate that I'd launched with [Thread Control] and [Shooting] struck the magician head-on. If you're the boss of the mohawk and the mage before, then you should withstand this much pain without dying!

"......Frank? Frank!?" - Middle-aged guy

The magic lights went out along with the alarms and the magician's consciousness. Hope it wasn't his life...

A-anyway, charge! 

I ran as fast and silently as I could over to the remaining middle-aged man, hoping to take care of him before he... crap!?

A sort of forcefield came out of the middle-aged man. I couldn't see it, even with [Magic Sight], but that's exactly why this is bad news! 

I fired off as many Gloom- and Glow Bullets as I had the time before the barrier arrived, then... I collapsed.

And that shitty geezer, he dodged all my bullets! With style even! Then he threw some kinda magitech up in the air, creating a new light to replace the ones that disappeared alongside the elderly magician.

"Well, that was unexpected. Sorry lass, but this is as far as you go-ooooiiii!" - Shitty Geezer

Damn, almost got him! The "playing possum"-strategy didn't work. I threw the knife I'd taken from the mohawk at him, but without [Shooting]'s assistance, it's difficult to get enough speed behind the throw. 

As for why [Shooting]'s not working, it's due to this guy's barrier. It negates ANY skill inside it, even that of the skill holder! Ah, then it's ANY skill except itself. And some exceptions. Only skills that affect whatever's in the barrier.

Worst of all, the skill holder can reduce the stats of anyone within the skill's AoEArea of Effect by the number of skills that are blacklisted! 

So, I simply turned all the skills that could get negated, so there's no stat reduction! ...Except, I have to turn off all the Ability Skills. 50 points down on average for all my stats hurts...

So, why am I in the knows about the damn geezer's special moves? Because it's one of the Seven Virtues skills! I've researched all of them, and the Sin variants, even if the Skill Encyclopedia is as good as clueless about them, except for [Kindness], [Wrath], and [Pride]. I had to rely on the Kigal-Note for the other 11. Including the one that I'm facing now.

"That's dangerous! You could hurt someone when you throw sharp stuff like that." - Geezer

That's the point! And don't go and tell me off when you're ready to bash my head in with that staff... hey! That's his walking stick! It doubled in length somehow. 

That is one way to fight while negating your own skills, I guess? Getting this guy's [Humility]-skill requires you to spend several years without using Skill Points, so you need a battle plan not that different from if you were on Earth.

I barely dodged the old geezer's rod attacks that came at me with gusto. Thank god that most of the Passive Skills aren't a target for [Humility]. Only [Language Adaption] and [Surprise Attack] are affected by it, so my mental abilities didn't drop due to it. 

Other than that, it's only the Perception Skills that didn't get offed. But the barrier is negating the magic power that emerges from one's body, so [Magic Sight]'s as good as useless! It did give me a hint that he had the skill back when I first saw their group, so no biggie.

Not being able to use threads is damn depressing and frightening, but since that guy's in the same situation, I'll just have to suck it up and fight.

The geezer seems to get used to my speed now. Rather, isn't he a little too slow? Is it his age that tears on his back? Anyway, he's getting dangerously close! Time for secret plan A!

As the old geezer tried to go for the kill, I threw a certain something towards his face. The geezer tried to knock it away, but his face cramped when he saw what it was that he was smacking away.

A handmade bomb. Practically a bag with a fuse attached. However, this ain't something I've made. 

The bomb exploded the moment it got smacked by the rod. I made a quick escape from the blood-red fumes that came out of the bomb.

"?!?! IT BUUUURNSSS!!!" - Geezer

MWA-HAHAHA! Taste the wrath of the Flarchili-bomb! Another item I bought from that Magic Item shop alongside the Barrier Tape! Just hitting it with enough force will make it go boom, so it can be used even for those without access to fire-starting skills! It was also cheap due to that.

The geezer swung his staff wildly while his nose, mouth, and eyes were on fire. I was told at the shop that Flarchili fruits have more destructive power than even Crackerberries. And they explode when you touch them the wrong way!

Since he had so many openings, I wanted to throw some attack at him, but the geezer was tedious enough to keep the anti-skill barrier alive. 

Therefore, I'm gonna rely on items.

Kukuku. You shouldn't have used that magic light item of yours before, geezer. That revealed you cannot negate the effects of items! 

I gave him a few shots from a distance with the Thaumaturgy Revolver, all loaded with [Aura of Darkness] bullets. But that damn geezer dodged those as well! His evasion abilities are not from skills!? Oh, [Evasion] is passive. It's also possible he got [Probability Correction] as well.

I didn't give the geezer time to breathe and fired all the bullets I had stored, not caring about how long it would take to replace them. While the gun was reloading with bullets from the ring, I threw more Flarchili bombs at him. Those that didn't explode were subjected to the next rain of bullets, painting the geezer chili-red.

!? Crap! When the geezer seemed to be at his last leg, he suddenly charged at me! Works for me.

Due to his half-blindness from the bombs, the geezer didn't notice that I had prepared a shadow-snare, compliments from Carnwennan's shadow-manipulation. The geezer tripped worse than the mohawk had and rolled all the way to the wall. The landing wasn't any prettier than the mohawk's either.

Oh, [Humility] got turned off. Nice~.

I walked over to the geezer, who hadn't been knocked out despite the nasty accident. I pointed the Revolver towards him and said:

"Is this good enough, General of the 'Cleaners', Royferd Springwood?" - Garami

"...Ah, dammit. Blot wasn't wrong when he recommended you." - Royferd Springwood (Geezer)

Phew! Glad my theory was right. Calling it "embarrassing" wouldn't be the least of my problems if I was wrong here.

I mean, finding a secret warehouse filled with stuff made from a Disaster isn't something my LUC alone can do. That the evil organization wanted to test my skills made it more plausible... but I only figured that part out when I saw the group when they disembarked. 

The geezer, rather, one of the organization's ten Generals, rose from the ground while knocking off the dust on his clothes, acting as if the chili powder didn't affect him anymore. Well, it is, but someone of his caliber can probably withstand it with pure willpower. 

"Then, when did you notice?" - Royferd Springwood

"...The mage before could use Earth Magic. Good enough to break the path I was on. The elderly magician had the aura of a Water-user, that's something I can guarantee for. And it was Ice-guy... Alf, who dragged me along the fishing trip, which means he could have had a part of it as well. Also, Armveil once mentioned you to me, including that you had [Humility]. One of my skills saw that you didn't emit any mana, so I figured it was because you had this skill at a semi-active state, ready to be used at any time." - Garami

"Damn, so there's a skill like that..." - Royferd Springwood

"Not to forget that those armored fishes that attacked us are a type that flocks together whenever they smell some prey nearby. You probably threw some bait in the water close by, to make me separate from Ice-... from Alf and Mira, then you used the elderly magician's Water magic to lead me to this place.

"I guessed that you found this place at some point later, and before you 'Cleaners' got rid of the stuff, you decided to test me here. Is that correct?" - Garami

Damn... I talked too much...

"Hmm... 98%. You didn't notice that the lottery where you got the new fishing gear was our work too." - Royferd Springwood

So close! Damn, these guys accounted for Mira's gambling streak as well...

"Even so, you pass the exam!" - Royferd Springwood

"...On which part? Discovering the plot and sparing your subordinates? Not falling for the greed of taking the goop? Battle prowess?" - Garami

"All of the above! Ah, but unfortunately, the brass didn't seem to be that worried about the four that went into the labyrinth. The test was for how well you could fight even when exposed to Waning. Those guys may not look like it, but they are some of the strongest newbies we have! ...Except for a few small weaknesses..." -  Royferd Springwood

Hey, hey, hey! Those weren't "small" at all! But, status-wise, they were pretty strong. Their total stat average was between 150 to 200. But their weaknesses were too fatal. If they had worked together, then maybe they could have covered their weaknesses...

"...Didn't tell them to work as a party?" - Garami

"That was their job to figure out. This wasn't a test solely for you. Ah, they are still alive... right?" - Royferd Springwood

"......Probably... physically..." - Garami

"Phew, that's-hey, what was that last part for?" - Royferd Springwood

"...Not to change the subject-["Seriously, what happened to-!?" - Royferd Springwood]-but what would happen if I lost this fight?" - Garami

"Who isn't changing the subject... Well, nothing. You looked so eager to fight, that I couldn't disappoint you." - Royferd Springwood.

Then I didn't need to waste all those bullets and items before!! Damn... but that's my own damn fault, I guess... And this geezer even limited his own skills to make it a more fair fight. [Humility] can select who gets their skills negated after all...

"Shall we return then? We of 'Cleaners' will take care to dispose of this place afterward so that the Ariens will feel less threatened from now on." - Royferd Springwood

...? What's Bearman and co got to do with this? My face must have betrayed my thoughts, as Royferd started to explain:

"Wait, you didn't know? The plant that the criminals from five years ago wanted the Ariens to cultivate is a key ingredient to raise the quality of the grey sludge that is stored here." - Royferd Springwood

It's what!? 

"...Are you planning on using the plant and sludge yourself?" - Garami

"Perish the thought! If that sludge is handled without care, it could turn into a second Disaster of Life!" - Royferd Springwood

"...That's bad. And the Disaster is..." - Garami

"...Not many people on this continent know about it, so I can't blame you for not knowing... The Disaster of Life is a type of parasitizing living mud that preys on anything alive and many-multiplies without pause. It almost destroyed the Luxuria continent, making one-third of the continent of it uninhabitable to this day." - Royferd Springwood

...Freaaaaky. I don't wanna use that, no.

"Then... 'death by fire'?" - Garami

"That's the plan. Despite being called mud, it's closer to fungus. But let's get out of this place already. To be honest, I want a shower. This stuff stings..." - Royferd Springwood

Whoops, the chili. I gave him a nod of consent and went to find the three grunts... where did I place them again?

Description:

One of the Seven Virtue skills, [Humility]. A skill that can only be one of in the whole world, and a derivative imitation of [Raphael - Lord of Humility], which is the keepsake of the Guardian Angel of the Humilitas continent, Raphael. 

[Humility] can only be obtainable by those who have obtained the [Modest Hero], which can only be obtained when one has 5 to 15 skills in total, and one has not used a single Skill Point for a total of 10 years. Another requirement is to be humble by nature, similar to the other Seven Virtues skills that require the user to be compatible with their Virtue.

[Humility] is also known as "Skill Slayer". It negates absolutely any skills within the range of its effect, except for Passive Skills that does not affect anything outside the skill holder, and Perception Skills. Some of the latter types, the type that takes the information from the outside like [Intuition] or [Identification], cannot be used. Also, the barrier prevents any form of aether energies to be observed, making Perception Skills for those energies useless.

The second power of  [Humility] is to weaken those who have had their skills negated. The more skills that are negated, the higher the weakening of their stats. This can be evaded if one does not have any skills that are negated, in other words, turns off the skills while being in the barrier of [Humility]'s first ability. 

The final ability of this skill is to drastically improve the effect of stealth-related skills. Some suggest this may be due to the act of staying humble is the same as keeping themselves out of people's view. No proof is yet to come up with.

Garami's comment: This skill is like a mortal enemy for anyone who likes collecting skills...

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