YM778.TV Chapter 604 - Pit digger
Chapter 604: Pit digger
“…I guess it’s something like bragging in a bar while everyone’s drinking, such as a tale about killing off an entire nest of goblins on an adventure.”
In a way, Donatis had trusted the wrong person. While Adam was indeed an outstanding warrior, he definitely didn’t have anything like a so-called warrior’s honor or a knight’s pride. He was purely a rural boy from a tiny village. The only adventuring team he had ever joined was led by someone like Roland. How could Adam possibly have the mysterious sense of pride that noble knights and warriors would always have?
He would fight if he could win, and instantly run away if he couldn’t. Fighting to the death against a powerful opponent that he couldn’t defeat for the sake of pride and honor? While nobles may believe in such romanticism, Adam had always been a freelance mercenary. Any mercenary who was so idiotic would become nothing more than sacrificial cannon fodder, the favorite type of mercenary that employers loved since even the employment fee could be saved.
Back when Adam was younger and weaker, he had lied, pretended to be a good boy, or pretended to be pitiful quite often. Now that he was far more powerful… even though his enemies were also far more powerful now, Adam still had the same personality.
Perhaps he would sometimes show he had a warrior’s honor, but it would never be for the sake of an enemy.
“No matter how slow Roland is, he should be able to get here and reinforce us in ten minutes…”
“Then, should we pretend to talk about something during this time?”
“Yeah… Yep, if Roland still can’t arrive in ten minutes, let’s just say that we’re waiting for reinforcements and ask Donatis to wait a little while longer.”
“Will he really agree?”
“Nobody else would, but I think he will. Just look at him, he even agreed to wait for us to discuss a strategy to defeat him. To use Roland’s phrase, acting suicidally arrogant is the classical right of all major antagonist bosses.”
“Doesn’t Roland also love to act suicidally arrogant?”
“Yeah. He also said that if an antagonist boss constantly acts suicidally arrogant but doesn’t die, that’s no longer a boss, as that would be… a main character.”
Alright then, a certain person’s twisted logic had already corrupted many previously normal people. And, right now, the mage dressed up as a female thief was mysteriously excited at being able to soon meet Roland again.
It was just that Roland probably didn’t want to see her one bit…
But sometimes, plans would always swiftly change according to the situation. After only a short three minutes, a tremendous pillar of light told everyone that something had fundamentally changed on the battlefield.
“Holy Light? In this city? Who died? A devil?”
Donatis was no idiot. Before he agreed to wait, he had already confirmed that all the members of the Holy Knight group trying to stop him had collapsed, and that his target was still probably within this city.
However, that tremendous pillar of Holy Light reaching the skies was the best evidence that there was an extremely powerful Holy Light user here in this city. In all the countless dimensions, there would be extremely few Holy Light users capable of using such pure Holy Light…
“Roland…”
From a certain standpoint, although Roland had just entered the middle of Myth rank, he was indeed one of the strongest Holy Knights in the world.
Any strong power would have its own unique traits, and the powerful light pillar had its own unique colors. Donatis had already seen this strange and pure Holy Light with the miraculous power of the Light of Salvation back in Hell. He knew that it was likely that only Roland would possess such a Holy Light.
His previously sculpture-like expression started changing. First, he was delighted to the point of frenzy, but then he seemed rather hesitant.
It was unexpected for him to meet with Roland here, as well as a pleasant surprise. However, Roland wouldn’t be that easy to deal with. Although Roland’s power level wasn’t even at SemiGod yet, the Chaos War God viewed his danger level on par with any Main God’s. More than one Main God had already suffered when put against Roland.
The first thing Donatis thought of was whether this was a trap targeted at himself. The next instant, he thought of the sudden appearance of “Dick’s adventuring team” before him, and finally realized that the situation was wrong.
“Red Lotus Hero, Adam Han?”
Information on Roland’s allies was no secret, and it would be impossible to keep secret. Adam’s fiery red hair was like his personal signature. While Donatis hadn’t thought of Adam as there was no reason to, of course he would realize that this warrior was Adam when he thought of Roland.
“Margaret? Ein Mezus?”
With all the connections made, Donatis also realized who else was with Adam. Now that Donatis realized he had been fooled, and that the people who fooled him were close allies of the one he hated, Donatis’s expression became quite ugly.
“Damn, we all underestimated him. Roland has yet to come reinforce us, but he already pushed us into a pitfall.”
From a certain standpoint, Roland had now successfully made a new achievement—pushing his allies into a pitfall without even personally appearing.
The Holy Light pillar not far away was busy dispelling Chaos. Even the War God paid close attention to the “strange” Holy Light there.
The gigantic Donatis stood up once again. He viciously glared at Adam, who had a foolish grin. This time, Donatis would no longer hold back.
…
“I’m going to have to ask you all to die. Your information is far more important than your lives.”
Just as Casio’s adventuring team was celebrating how they had survived against the devil general Salor, I made such a statement right as Casio was recovering from the impact of my Holy Light and Aivla was still trembling from the aftereffects.
The next instant, all members of their adventuring team picked up their weapons and looked at me with great vigilance.
“…Did I not explain myself clearly enough? All of you can see that big guy over there as well, right? He’s Donatis. You should all know quite well how powerful and difficult to deal with he can be, and he came here to chase you all down. In that case, he’ll naturally treat things as mission completed as long as you all die in front of him. He’ll then return to his own Divine Kingdom. Of course, I need you all to give me your information first…”
Alright, this time, everyone truly started pulling out their swords and magic staffs, while preparing spells for combat.
“That’s why you’re going to sacrifice us? As a servant of my God, returning to her embrace after completing her mission will be the greatest honor. However, as a member of this adventuring team, and as a priest, I refuse to allow my allies to die right in front of me!”
The previously smiling bearded dwarf priest now had a completely angry expression. The dwarf kept twirling around their black iron cudgel, although their techniques were truly unimpressive.
The elf mage didn’t say anything. However, a softly whispered magical incantation told me all I needed to know.
“Is this my fate, after all? I couldn’t escape it in the end, as expected…? Come, take my life. Since this is my destiny, at least my death will have meaning…”
Fallen angel Aivla was the first to reply to me as she struggled to stand up. Her face was filled with despair. But, her trembling words had resolution and expectation within them.
“Stop being so foolish. His Highness Roland isn’t someone who’s like that. Let him finish speaking.”
Casio, who was the only one among them that knew me well, understood me much better.
I nodded as I snapped my fingers.
“Youngsters these days are so impatient… Harloys, give me some of your clones.”
I walked over, picked up the tiefling warrior’s head, and placed it back on his corpse.
After that, black death magic poured into the corpse as the tiefling warrior’s body regained the ability to move. Right after that, several dozen slimes combined with each other as if they were putty, creating humanoid forms. Finally, the slimes ended up resembling Casio and his team exactly.
It was far too easy for Harloys to create some clone copies of Casio’s team as she had the ability to change her form at will… Actually, I would have used this ability of hers to make money if it hadn’t been for her strong objections… Hey, I wasn’t going to do anything illegal, as I only intended to sell free labor. Did some of you readers think dirty thoughts?
“If they’re all fake, Donatis will suspect things. I will have ‘all of you’ die with such shattered bodies that no complete corpses will be left behind. However, the tiefling warrior’s corpse will appear in front of Donatis. All of you need to find a place to hide yourselves, and definitely can’t come out until this incident is resolved. It’s fine for you to carry the important information with you.”
I left those words behind as I directly turned around and left. The tiefling warrior corpse and the group of slime clones followed after me.
“You spoke that way on purpose, didn’t you?”
Although Harloys didn’t say it directly, both she and I knew that I had intentionally tried to make Casio’s team misunderstand my words.
Harloys knew that I must have done so intentionally. She wanted to know why.
“Of course. My eloquence isn’t that lacking… It’s easiest to tell what a person’s foundational nature is like in life and death situations. I still have some trouble on my hands, as well as some benefits. However, that will depend on their luck.”
“It seems that you’re quite satisfied with the results of testing them?”
“The test didn’t go badly at all. If they had been willing to abandon their companions so easily, it probably would have been a good idea to just kill them. Everything I said was the truth. The information they carry is far more valuable than their lives.”
“…You should prepare some extra sentences like that on how much you value your companions. You’ll need them soon.”
“What?”
“That’s because your companions are almost about to explode with anger because of you. They’re all cursing the nutcase Roland who’s so slow and deserves to die…”
[Congratulations. Your professionalism in making your allies suffer has received the recognition of your System and Fate itself. Which of the following titles do you prefer? ‘I’m a professional three-hundred-year-old pit digger’ or ‘So what if I’m an elementary school student? Give me mid lane or I feed!’]