I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 75
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 75. Eliminating the Source
[You have defeated Helheim’s employee, Iblia!]
[You have defeated Helheim’s employee, Meraia!]
I stuffed the Succubus’s corpse—now reduced to an item—into my inventory and scanned the System Messages.
‘So these bastards were backed by Helheim, were they?’
Helheim was a bank operated by demons, a faction that appeared in the game’s main storyline.
It held considerable significance—one of the three powers extending a hand to the bankrupt Nidst with offers of assistance.
Since they were the type I’d planned to betray in the game anyway, their scheming wasn’t particularly surprising.
‘The problem is figuring out which one orchestrated this.’
True to the Dark Tower’s evil faction, Helheim housed an enormous number of demons.
With over a hundred executives alone and a constantly rotating bank director, pinpointing the culprit proved difficult.
I considered keeping the succubi alive to extract information, but time was too precious, so I abandoned the idea.
With barely nine hours remaining before the Quest failed, dealing with the plague’s source took priority.
“Is everyone all right?”
I checked my party members’ conditions first.
【How could I find that monster endearing? Ugh…】
Malorik remained dazed, struggling to shake off the side effects of the charm—effects that weren’t really side effects at all.
I felt somewhat wronged.
‘As if I wanted to charm a middle-aged man with a belly!’
It was simply the easiest way to counteract the charm. What could I do about it?
【Ugh, something feels wrong. Sparkly Lord’s mood is bad.】
While not as severe as Malorik’s condition, Vlad also seemed to be suffering from the side effects, his mood clearly soured.
How exactly had I appeared to them to cause such a commotion?
Fortunately, Rohengreen was unaffected.
In fact, he was so unaffected that he was handling the recovery of the unconscious vanguard alongside the adventurer who’d guided us to the source.
Since I’d rushed in the moment I understood the situation, none of the adventurers who’d had their vitality drained were in critical condition.
After administering potions and pouring healing magic over them, they all recovered enough to stand and walk on their own.
“You’ve done well. Withdraw with your companions.”
After sending the vanguard back, I opened the map window from the system.
Everything beyond the path we’d traveled was pitch black, and true to the game’s abysmal user convenience, it didn’t even mark Quest locations—but that didn’t matter.
I had the entire Underground Sewers map memorized.
‘From here it’s a straight path, and it took 60 turns to reach the sewers’ end, right?’
At a walking pace that was 60 turns, so running would get us there in under 30 minutes.
I gestured toward Solandir.
Perceptive as he was, he summoned the sylph again, sent it down the corridor to scout, and reported back on its findings.
“The traces of plague appear roughly 50 footsteps ahead.”
“Good.”
Since it seemed we could push forward, I ordered Malorik, who was still retching.
“We move immediately. Get yourself together.”
“Please, I’m begging you—don’t come near me… Ugh, how could someone like you, my Lord, seem so endearing…?”
Unable to hold back, Camilia was about to say something more when Vlad, watching from beside her, suddenly kicked his rear end.
“Ugh!”
Wondering why he’d done that out of nowhere, I looked at him, and Vlad stared directly back at my face. Then he spat out his words.
“Lord Camilia.”
‘…? What? Is this insubordination?’
It was absurd, but Vlad himself seemed to realize his words were ridiculous, making a displeased expression as he muttered under his breath.
“No, that’s not it.”
‘Then what exactly isn’t it?’
In the game, once the charm effect wore off, NPCs would simply spout their default dialogue scripts as if nothing had happened, but reality was far more complicated.
‘I should avoid using charm on my allies if possible.’
Having made this firm resolution, I mounted the amphibious summoned creature.
“Everyone, move out. Rohengreen and Solandir, take the front.”
The party resumed their advance with the sturdy tank and the disease-immune elf leading the way.
Before long, the demonized land corrupted by the plague’s source came into view.
I had seen it many times in the game and was mentally prepared, but encountering the demonized land in person was far more horrifying than I’d anticipated.
The edges of the corridor were covered in mycelium and grotesque vegetation, while the stagnant sewage water below held decomposing beast carcasses and unidentifiable insects floating about.
The worst part was the overwhelming stench that permeated the entire corridor.
‘Wow, the stench debuff really isn’t there for nothing.’
I’d thought it ridiculous that the smell could cause someone to lose consciousness, but experiencing it firsthand made it perfectly clear.
If a person could remain sane while continuously breathing in this reek, that would be the real abnormality.
As I frowned and covered my mouth and Mina’s moist pink nose, Zehar Al Rashid, running beside us, quickly chanted a spell.
Lavender-scented air spread outward from him, enveloping the entire party.
He didn’t stop there—summoning an orb of electricity, he wrapped it around the summoned creature I was riding, incinerating every flying insect that dared approach.
It was perfect support that seemed to cry out, ‘Shouldn’t you take me to The Tower after this?’
Thanks to his efforts, I could now assess the situation with peace of mind, and I thanked him with a glance before surveying our surroundings.
By this point, enemies should normally be emerging.
[Grrrrrowwwl….]
[Shrieeeeek….]
Sure enough, dog-shaped demons covered in pus and spores came crawling out in succession.
The hellhounds I’d seen when fighting the Succubus were swarming here in abundance.
Just before they could charge at us, I shouted to the vanguard.
“Break through and charge straight ahead!”
Rohengreen accelerated the moment my words left my mouth, using his shield to shove the hellhounds aside.
Malorik and Vlad, precisely exploiting the gap he created, ground through the hellhounds and widened the corridor.
While the rear guard ran through the blood-soaked path, Solandir, an archer and spirit mage, covered our backs and kept our momentum from faltering.
It was a rapid advance, pure and simple.
“Is it really alright to keep going like this!? What if we get surrounded from both sides!?”
Uncertain about my strategy, Malorik complained again.
I joked lightly to reassure him.
“Don’t you trust your beloved lord?”
“No, wait! How can you crack such a terrible joke at a time like this!?”
[Malorik Bancroft’s favorability has decreased.]
Even though he’s a middle-aged man, his dad jokes don’t land—how particular of him.
Camilia grumbled inwardly before responding.
“Once I harvest the source, I have a means to dispose of it immediately. Don’t worry.”
“But plague sources don’t burn in fire, right? Can’t we just use magic—boom! Like that?”
“There is no one in this world who has encountered plague sources more than I have, so spare me the lectures.”
Just as Malorik closed his mouth, a grotesque flower filling one side of the dead-end corridor came into view, dispersing spores everywhere.
It was a plague source.
Camilia tickled the chin of the tricolored cat nestled snugly in her arms and asked.
“Are you ready, Mina?”
Mina, who had been purring reflexively, suddenly snapped to attention and answered vigorously with a sharp “Meow!”
“Vlad.”
At her soft call, Vlad understood immediately and slipped backward through shadow travel, leaping onto his summoned beast.
Then he scooped up Mina and placed her on his shoulder.
“Ready.”
Camilia gestured to the elf archer in the rear.
Solandir answered not with words but by pushing off the corridor and charging forward.
[Shrieeeeeek!]
The source, sensing the intruder’s presence, convulsed as it spread its petals and unleashed a torrent of spores.
It was the skill “Plague Spores,” which caused random infections.
Even with preventative medicine, it was a troublesome attack skill that infected victims with one or two diseases at a high probability.
‘But elves are immune to disease.’
The high elf, who casually negated a skill that would normally require sacrificing an ally, summoned wind and water spirits to push the spores in all directions.
Thanks to this, Vlad and Mina reached the source without taking any damage, harvested it root and branch, and made their escape.
‘Good.’
The moment her part was torn away, the source began convulsing, and Camilia swept her gaze across it and the monsters rushing in from behind, murmuring to herself.
‘Inventory.’
With a soft pop, a 36-slot inventory window materialized.
The item “Blessed Water (99)” filled all remaining slots except for the Succubus corpse and a few scrolls and potions.
Now, time for the holy water cannon.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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