Chapter 342 - Asura’s Curse
Chapter 342 - Asura\'s Curse
I was sure it was Asura. He is a true monster. He has a huge amount of first-hand skills and a lot of fancy titles.
“Well, his ability is right up there with the Beast King.”
Crushed from left and right by an unseen force, the corpse of the flattened demonic beast slowly fell to the ground. The ground shook, bringing Mea and Guendalfa to their senses.
From their point of view, what happened in front of them was shocking. So shocking that even though it was only a matter of seconds, they had exposed themself defenseless in the hostile territory of the dungeon.
Kiara grabs Mea’s shoulder tightly as she tries to advance. Seeing the serious expression on her face, Mea remembered what the other person was like.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. But you’re going to stay here for a while.”
And only Kiara steps forward.
Fran and her team lowered their weapons to show that they don’t have any hostilities toward him. Meanwhile, they lightly tipped their center of gravity forward so that they can move at any time. The only one thing to do is to avoid antagonizing him.
Apparently, Fran and the others became more aware of how dangerous the situation was when they saw the man who had mysteriously crushed the huge demonic beast to death with his mysterious power. Kiara hides her nervousness and speaks to the demon in a carefree manner.
“Asura, long time no see.”
“Haa? Are you ―― isn’t this Kiara? You’ve become a hag!”
“Hmm. You haven’t changed.”
“Wahahahaha! It’s because I’m a demon.”
“Hmm, okay for now…… All of you, come here!”
Seems like Asura is not in a situation where he is losing sight of the situation. Kiara beckons Fran and the others to join her.
“What is this? Are you leading a field trip?”
“They may be little girls, but in their own way, they’re promising little girls. Well, I’m sort of like a chaperone for them.”
The great sword on the back of Asura, who was conversing with Kiara, was unusually large. The crimson pattern alone might be nearly a meter long. The sword was about to scrape the ground even when being strapped at an angle on the two-plus-meter tall Asura’s back.
I couldn’t take my eyes off that sword. It’s not just big. It has a colossal presence and an intimidating feeling that radiated from within. I had to struggle to keep myself from trembling.
” ……This is that sword huh……”
Name:Earth sword?Gaia
Attack Power:2000
Magic Power:6000
Durability:10000
Magic power conductivity: SS
Skill:
Grant Holy Land, Earth Magic Strengthening, Earth Magic Granting, Earth Disabling, Maximum Magic Recovery, and Magic Power Control.
Without realising it, I already appraised it, and it was astounding. Even if you were to compare just their simple offensive power, it would completely overwhelm others. Moreover, as he specialized in the power of manipulating earth, with the boost given by the power of his sword, his ability soared tremendously.
Is this what they called a divine weapon? I’ll admit its strength is immense. But I had a feeling that with a few good sorcerers, I could compete with it. But how did it become ground sword ? Gaia? Wasn’t it the earth sword? No, like Lind, his power may not have been fully released. I’m suspicious of the divine sword release that was in Asura’s extra skill. If that’s the case, then it will be even stronger than this when it is released.
As I was thinking about this, Asura’s eyes turned to me.
“Did someone appraise it?”
I was impressed. How do you know that if you don’t even have an appraisal detection skill?
“It’s- It’s making me feel sick. My gut tells me what to do. And I feel like I’m being watched.”
“I’m sorry. We teach them to be vigilant in dungeons.”
Mea and Guendalfa are surrendering to Asura’s words. However, Asura’s laughter, which rose immediately afterwards, softened the hard atmosphere of the place.
“Hahahahahaha! It’s fine! I’m not mad at you. I was born with this face so it can’t be helped. But I was simply checking. But still, I’m more surprised that that mad dog - no, that mad tiger-like Kiara - bowed out for someone else! You’ve become so well rounded!”
“I don’t need to hear from you, who has never grown up.”
“You said it! Well, it’s true! I’m just saying, we don’t change that easily.”
“Haaa……”
There’s something about Kiara and Asura that makes them understand each other. I wondered what kind of monster he was, since he look so threatening before, but he was just a regular old foul-mouthed guy. Maybe it’s because he is also a demon, but it somehow reminds me of Donadrondo from the Alessa Guild. Well, Asura has a bigger body and horns than him though.
Mea ask a question after the tension has been released.
“What do you mean by “never changed”? What does Lord Asura mean I wonder?”
“Well. I’ve been doing a lot of digging to break the curse.”
“A…Curse…?”
Mea tilts her head. I appraised Asura first, too, and I don’t think there was any particular notation of a curse or anything like that in the state.
“Oh, it’s a blessing and a curse. I have certain unique skills. “Demonization”. I’ve been going around the country trying to shut these skills down.”
“What skills are those?”
“When activated, some abilities and skills rose several times, and resilience is increased by an order of magnitude. In terms of combat power alone, I’d say several times that.”
“Eh?……Then”
“But do you think there’s no downside to such powerful skills?”
After Asura says that, he sits down with a thud on the platform he made by raising the floor. It was Kiara who continued to speak in place of Asura, who continued to smile to himself. There is an air of pain in her eyes as she looks at Asura.
“It’s automatically triggered by repeated combat. What’s more, you can’t choose when to activate it, and when it’s activated, you will go berserk and lose your mind making you unable to distinguish between friend and foe. And yet, his wisdom on combat stays without a problem, spreading destruction. It’s definitely a curse for this guy.”
Still, after years of experience, he can sense when it was nearly time and he acts as if he is retreating to go to the frontier where there are no allies, so he could rampage around unnoticed.
It is indeed a curse. No matter how great the skill is - no, it’s too great. But that… Just seeing his title…It just too painful… It’s just a reminder of how much he has killed his fellow member. But this skill, I can make it go away, can’t I?
I can take it away with a skill-taker skill. But then I have to equip it… If it turns out I can not un-equip it though, that would be the worst.
But you’ll soon see that my thoughts quickly turn out to be useless.
“Wasn’t there an adventurer who could obliterate a skill?”
“Oh. Rank A adventurer, Maleficent the Black. It has a skill called Skill Eraser, which eliminates the opponent’s skills. Of course I tried.”
“Was it… no good?”
“It worked. His skills have been disabled for a year or so, but my unique skill, “Demonization,” is gone for… two days.”
“Eh?”
“Inherent skills are the ones that are most tied to a person’s existence. Whether it’s erased or taken away, it’ll come back to life over time. I’ve tried skill-eliminating skills and the ability to take away skills and stuff like that but the results are always the same. Which means it’s only a matter of time before it came back to me.”
“I got this skill when I was an ordinary demon warrior, but for some unknown reason I was mutated into an evil demon.”
“A mutation? Isn’t that an evolution?”
Asura answers Fran’s question. He still looks like a good-natured old man.
“Evolution is about advancing to new heights when you reach your maximum level. A mutation is when something other than the level is met and changes into something different. Well, they’re both similar, but it’s generally accepted that the mutation has a smaller pretense of ability.”
“But the evil demons are a bit special. They are a phantom mutant whose existence has been questioned even by demons. A demon of misfortune who loses reason and destroys everything. I never thought I’d be the one to acquired it. However, considering my ability to become a mad demon, I guess that means the lore was right.”
Moreover, he is now the owner of the divine sword. The rumor that the army had been eradicated was rather cute. Because the country could have been destroyed.
“Well, that’s why the mad demonization doesn’t go away even a little bit. In a way, it’s a skill that’s like the very definition of the existence of a demon of misfortune. You can also use the method of mutating again to erase the skill. Unfortunately, demons can only mutate once in a lifetime. So I’m looking for a way to lock in my skills. Of course that only works for a short period of time. But what I’m looking for is a way to permanently seal your skills.”
“Did Lord Asura come to this dungeon in search of that method?”
“Well, dungeons are places that are out of this world’s way. So It is possible. I’ve been to dungeons all around the country, not just here. Besides, I am doing a request.”
“What do you mean, Asura?”
Kiara asks back. It is a request? In other words, you came to this dungeon at the request of someone? But who?
“Well, if it’s Kiara and her friends, I guess it’s fine. It’s the gods.”
“What?”