The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 85

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Fire

Where Taraka’s golden tears had poured, only deeply gouged ground with a dark blue tint remained. It seemed to be poisonous.

But that had nothing to do with me. As long as it entered the golden circle within a 20-meter radius around me, at least amorphous monsters would die without being able to touch even a thread of my clothes or a single hair.

As I approached, Taraka seemed to sense something ominous and hesitated before backing away. Its pitiful lower body, disproportionate to its torso, stumbled backward making thunderous sounds.

As soon as I approached the place where the tears had fallen, the dark blue energy in that ground disappeared and sprouts began to emerge one by one.

Taraka slowly runs away from me, making thunderous footsteps.

Huh? This wasn’t how it used to be?

It was an aggressive creature that would attack first as soon as you entered its range. Just moments ago, it was trying to devour us like eating late-night cup ramen.

But now it was running away from me.

“Why are you running away…?”

I said that, but honestly, this is fortunate for now.

No matter how much combat power I have, if the opponent keeps their distance, my abilities are almost useless.

It’s not like I can swing a sword imbued with Sacred Relic Power, and I don’t have any long-range attack methods.

I’m just a somewhat sturdy healer with a wide-area healing field that can heal and purify those within sight.

But if I let Taraka escape here?

That thing will definitely cause casualties somewhere else. And then people will ask what the Saint was doing. There’s no need to damage the carefully built image of the Saint.

Why else would I bother coming to this sweaty, dusty place?

What I want here is just one thing. Overwhelming achievements. And people’s support.

To get that, I need to catch that Taraka stylishly. Not just defeat it. ‘Style’ is what matters!

Originally, I planned to heal the wounded in front of all these watching people while catching undead one by one, saying pretty words and acting like a Saint, but the first button is already messed up.

Thud. Thud…

Taraka was still keeping its distance from me at this point.

Ugh… But I can’t do something frivolous and undignified like running in front of people…

I must maintain my dignity… It’s an urgent situation, but in times like this, composure is even more important.

I pretended to walk slowly following Taraka while treating those who had fallen around me. People everywhere began saying “It’s the Saint!” with reverent voices.

The gap with Taraka hardly narrowed. Even if it did narrow, it was obvious that trying to beat down that giant body would look quite unseemly.

‘Since it’s come to this, I’ll have to lure it somewhere out of people’s sight to catch it.’

Then I felt a movement stirring inside my body.

“Kyu.”

Ife cried out briefly.

But the meaning that entered my mind was as follows.

-{How ridiculous. It seems you don’t understand what ‘anything’ means in ‘can do anything.’}

For some reason, what was just a simple cry was translated and heard in my mind.

“…?”

What?

Did I… hear wrong?

Looking around, there was no one who had said those words.

“Kyuu.”

Right. There’s no way Ife with such a cute face and cute voice would say such things…

-{I’ve been talking like this all along, haven’t I? Since you bought that skill, you’ve been able to perceive my words, but nothing else has changed. I’m glad you can finally understand what I’m saying, human!}

That’s a liiiiiie!!!

Give back our cute Ife…!

Since it was a baby spirit, the Ife in my head had a cute voice. Why is there this deep male voice that would come out of a martial arts novel…

Don’t games like this usually have cute character voices?

Where did the tradition of open-world RPG games go!

The moment I stopped in bewilderment, Ife squirmed and moved to my wrist.

“Kying.”

Ife rested its head on my wrist and tilted its head.

-{Don’t you like my voice? I mixed the voices of those I’ve met around here appropriately to make it. Is the way of speaking the problem? Unfortunately, since it’s already set to this configuration, just give up obediently.}

To have such a voice with that cute tilting face.

It’s… shocking… What kind of middle-aged cool character voice…

“Kyu!”

-{Is this the time to be shocked about my voice? You need to catch Taraka!}

“B-but I don’t know how to catch it right now.”

I stuttered ridiculously. Fortunately, there were no people around.

“Kyuung.”

-{That luring strategy you thought of earlier was really garbage.}

“You speak more harshly than I thought…?”

“Kyu.”

-{Hmm, I’ve barely been alive for a month, so please understand. Don’t older individuals usually understand newly born ones?}

I ignored it and continued speaking.

“What’s your plan then?”

“Kyuu~”

-{Is there really a plan? It’s just something so simple that an individual born less than a month ago could think of it.}

It seems like it’s indirectly mocking me for not knowing something so simple that an individual born less than a month ago could think of.

“Kki!”

Oh, this is annoying…

-{Indirectly mocking! You’re my first friend and soul companion after all.}

Soul companion… Well, we did make a contract so that’s right, but your words and actions are a bit…

“Kyukyuyukkyukkik.”

-{I’m only a month old so please understand! Really, just being able to talk is amazing and you don’t even know this… Ah, that fruit we ate back then was really delicious, couldn’t you buy it again? I think you chose the name Ife well! I’m really glad you didn’t use those other candidate names from before. And while using me as a Sacred Relic substitute was unavoidable, if you keep neglecting me I’ll sulk. Please recognize that I’m a baby spirit not even a month old- Oh wait. This isn’t the time for such talk.}

Quite a talkative child… it was.

Having a deep elderly cool character voice say things like “Oh wait” is strange, but… the content itself was so scattered that it really gave the impression of being a ‘young child.’

“So what is this less-than-a-month-old spirit thinking?”

“Kyu!”

Ife lifted its head very confidently and flicked its tongue. That raised head seemed full of confidence.

-{A very simple application of Sacred Relic Power and the power you newly recognized, skills!}

*

Kalebrin sat still and chanted sorcery. Now this area would probably be relatively safer than other places for a while.

‘Relatively, at least…’

Since I cast a Recognition Reduction Spell, that monster will be more interested in others than us.

‘First of all… it’s not an opponent we can fight…’

Both herself and Yelena, who was trembling beside her… we weren’t meant to be enemies of that thing.

She could endure because she had experienced various things since childhood and had higher Mental Barriers than others, but Yelena wouldn’t be the same.

Against humans with no mental training… just looking into those eyes for 3 minutes would burst their brains and they’d die with blood streaming from their nose and eyes.

However… she wasn’t worried about the Ascetic.

Wasn’t he someone who carried much heavier things inside his body that couldn’t even be compared to ‘such things’?

Probably things like Brainwashing or hallucinations… so-called mental interference wouldn’t work on him. Even if it was cast by a non-human monster.

In fact, Yelena probably didn’t see it, but Kalebrin saw clearly.

While he was hiding with a somewhat anxious expression, the moment he touched the flesh thrown this way, his expression changed to something like ecstasy.

This time too, the Ascetic will find a way. He’ll keep finding ways to return my forest, family, and all the village residents…

No. He must. Because he promised me. Wasn’t that the relationship between us?

So I’m not anxious.

“Hey, just… wait quietly…”

“But the Ascetic is…”

Yelena was restless.

When she heard that I had never properly visited a city or even an ordinary village and dragged me around here and there, she acted reliable and dependable like the village’s eldest, but only became weak at times like this.

That aspect wasn’t bad either.

Well, that cursed forest as it’s called has no people at all, only the villagers who have become white bones.

The warm presence and gentle words of people always made one feel good.

So to someone with such a warm heart who tried to share that warmth, Kalebrin could be a little more lenient…

“The Ascetic is… fine.”

Yelena’s anxious expression lessened after hearing her words, but she still looked restless. It wasn’t unreasonable though. Just hearing one person’s words wasn’t enough to feel at ease when the Ascetic commonly came back injured from here and there.

Thinking he’d be fine and leaving him alone, he’d come back from somewhere saying “Oh my, my leg is broken.” Or sometimes he’d cough up blood…

He answered everything else well, but when asked about his physical condition, he never gave a proper answer.

It was behavior that made even Kalebrin, who had no interest in others and didn’t want to show interest, burst with frustration.

At least after she pointed out his neglect of soul and body, his reckless wandering decreased somewhat, but his non-human-centered way of thinking, treating his own body like it belonged to someone else, remained unchanged.

‘I suppose that can’t be helped…’

It would be hard to call him human, after all. Kalebrin thought this and nodded her head.

The Ascetic had some conversation with that annoying spirit he’d been carrying around since the World Tree, then quickly drew out from his hand what could be called an ‘orb’ – a source of power.

He wasn’t used to it yet, so even from this distance she could see it looked unstable and ready to collapse at any moment… but knowing the Ascetic, he’d quickly adapt to that power and find various ways to apply and use it.

“What is the Ascetic doing?”

“Probably… w-work to make his p-power a bit more efficient… and u-usable, I suppose.”

“Right now?”

“Mm-hmm… well.”

Since he seemed to be conversing with the spirit, the spirit must have given him some kind of clue.

Kalebrin considered telling Yelena about the spirit but held back. Regardless of her own fondness for Yelena, she didn’t yet completely trust the Ascetic…

“Just watch…”

The Ascetic looked at that golden sphere and quickly transformed it into a simple rod shape. The flashing rod looked like gathered lightning.

That rod soon transformed into a very basic ‘staff’ form.

With a curved end and an orb floating inside. But it had no ornaments, just a staff made of glowing light.

The Ascetic lightly spun the staff in his hand. Light afterimages remained, drawing a circle around him before disappearing after a few blinks.

He aimed the curved tip of the staff at the monster.

At that moment.

Pure white light shot silently toward the monster.

A round hole instantly pierced through the pitch-black monster’s head. Even the clouds in the sky where the light passed were pierced, letting sunlight slant down to the ground.

“Grr-aaaah…”

The monster couldn’t even let out a proper roar and melted down to the earth like sticky pudding.

The staff in the Ascetic’s hand had returned to that familiar light and disappeared as if it had never been there.

He waved at us with a smiling face, his long hair fluttering. Yelena beside me muttered.

“He’s not human…”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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