Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha

Episode Four: The Loneliness of a Bone Man

Now, I've defeated the Bone Man (Skeleton), okay, but now I'm even one step down the path to existential evolution?

I'll pick up the demon stone and then check my body while I tear through the bones of the falling boner (Skeleton)...... has anything changed?

I don't feel like it...

I think, all of a sudden, something like a blurry light erupted from the skeleton (skeleton) wreckage that knocked him down, and he turned to my body.

Still alive?!?

For a moment, I was in a hurry, but nothing could be done because it was a light with no offensive atmosphere, and it hit my body shortly after I tried to avoid it.

But that concern didn't mean at all that my body could be hurt by that light, but rather, it felt like something was coming out of it.

As the light absorbs more and more into my body, so does the power of the mind that I should have consumed earlier, and the magic and holy spirit. It's kind of just a little bit, but I even feel like it's increased.

What if this is the guy called Evolution of Demonic Beings?

It didn't take that long to figure that out.

That said, the power does flood, but it didn't seem like it could have been a corpse-eating ghost (ghoul).

Rather, it seems that the appearance has not changed.

Because of the lack of mirrors, I'm not sure about the area around my face, but if I look at my hands and feet and the visible parts of my body, it hasn't changed anything, so probably so is my face.

However,

Well, that doesn't make any sense!

I didn't think so.

Because I didn't expect existential evolution to be as capable of defeating just one, a fellow demon.

This is also the knowledge I gained from reading demonic studies, but that's what it said in the book as a guess.

This is a convincing story, because if you say that demons can only evolve in existence if they defeat one of their own, it would be odd if more and more superior demons were born and the world wasn't in a state of hell for people.

Of course, there are still many demons and many that pose a threat to people, but there are still basically demons that can be crusaded, and peace can be maintained to the extent that cities and villages can be built and lived.

It was my guess in the study that such a large number of demons could not have evolved.

In other words, existential evolution is not something that can be done so easily, but something that cannot be done without defeating a corresponding number, or a very strong existence.

In that sense, I am still only defeating a weak demon, so even if I can't evolve, it's natural.

Now, I can say that this is rather unfortunate because I can feel as much of an increase in my abilities as I think I may have become a little stronger.

Every time you defeat one demon, you can be a little stronger.

That is, because it has been established that fighting becomes easier with each fight.

Of course, it's possible that this doesn't always happen every time, but that happens to happen because it was the first one...

Well, I don't know about all this unless I've defeated the demon a few times.

First, let's do it.

That's why I decided to continue my search for the labyrinth.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

In conclusion, it still seemed true that every time I defeated a demon, I could be a little stronger.

Because since then, I've met several demons, bone men (skeletons), and defeated them, but after defeating them, the absorption of power, like in the beginning, happened in the same way.

And it was also clear from the fact that the absorption of that force had made the body move considerably better than at the beginning that it was not because of the increased ability.

A blow I cared about was also a little more powerful, and when I was the first boner (Skeleton), it was powerful enough to crack my head open, which was now enough to smash my head bones apart if I really did it.

Maybe it's time for slime to go too.

I feel like I could have been strong enough to think so.

Slime, because they are typical of weak demons usually alongside bone men (normal skeletons), but they are still never insulted because they are amorphous liquid demons.

By its very nature, a physical attack is difficult to work with, and it is said that it is easiest to use magic in order to defeat it.

That said, that's not the only way to attack it, and it's also possible to defeat it with a physical attack.

There are two main ways to defeat it, and in the slime there is a part of the animal that is called the nucleus, but when you crush it precisely, the whole thing disintegrates and leaves only the demonic stone to die.

But this is not so easy, and requires swordsmanship and skill in precisely shooting through the parts of the nucleus that constantly move around, and the technology to that point cannot be worn without strength to such an extent that it crosses the bronze middle.

I was a lower bronze adventurer, and naturally, I couldn't do that.

Therefore, I could only defeat it by taking the other way, which is to scatter the liquid-like bodies that make up the slime into pieces that cannot be regenerated.

This was very easy and possible for me, but instead, it only takes a little while.

Because the slime is liquid, and even if scattered, it quickly moves back and forth to stick to the biggest mass and regenerate.

In order not to let that happen, the only thing I could do was scatter it all at once with considerable force or far away at high speed, and as far as I wasn't so confident in speed, I had to choose to scatter it all at once with a blow of my mind.

I mean, hunting slime was the limit one day at a time.

Weak.

Well, a copper lower adventurer is such a thing.

Besides, I did it solo without partying.

Slime, normally, is an easy demon to defeat, even if one person at a party doesn't say as much as a real magician, but someone with enough magic to use low-ranking magic that said firebomb (Fotia bolivas) or dirt arrow (Gi Velos).

A minority of adventurers do inefficient things like me.

Instead, there were a good number of boners (skeletons) and goblins that could be defeated, so making money wasn't so bad as a copper inferior.

Now, that's my lodging enemy, Slime, but if it's my condition now, it could be pretty easy to defeat.

I'm starting to get a lot of arm strength without the help of my mind, and this doesn't seem like I need to worry about distracting Slime's body.

- You want to go?

That's how I decided to go for the compartment where Slime was before I became a boner (Skeleton).

I had already knocked him out when he was coming, but now that it seems like enough time has passed, he's probably re-emerging (repopping).

That, unless someone else was hunting, should still be there.

If you keep diving into the labyrinth, the air in the labyrinth will somehow tell you the time zone.

The labyrinth with many people has a stronger smell of blood and iron, and more sensations of vibrations coming through the walls.

Especially since I've been diving all over this labyrinth, I can tell the time slot pretty accurately.

And from the time I derived from that feeling, it seemed that not so many objects in this labyrinth are now hunting in this time period.

This is not the only labyrinth around the city malt, because there is another major labyrinth, the Labyrinth of the Crescent Moon.

All the labyrinths over there have not yet been explored and there is an untouched hierarchy.

Thus, most of Malt's adventurers went over there, and hunting here was either so bigoted or solo adventurers who couldn't party and challenge the labyrinth.

I am the latter.

If it's true, I wanted to try The Labyrinth of the Crescent Moon, but unlike the labyrinth here over there, there are many demons and few attacks with multiple bodies.

Solo, and for me as a bronze junior adventurer, that means instant death, so I really had to hunt here.

It's a lonely story to think about again.

Why I was a solo, it was also a lonely story, simply because there was no such thing as an adventurer to work with me.

Because being an adventurer for ten years and still only being a copper inferior is evidence of fallout.

It doesn't matter how talented you are, it's something that can go from medium to top copper in a decade.

But I...

Well, the more I think about it, the sadder it gets. Let's just put that story aside.

More than that, it's slime now.

Just as it seemed to have reached its intended location, there was an indeterminate demon as clear as a moving crystal in front of it.

It is a slime.

I set up my sword and approached the slime.