“Haah...”
It was a situation that made me sigh automatically.
My second day since returning to the world of Adenia. Now I really had no choice but to accept it.
The fact that a sweet five-day vacation on Earth had really meant fifty years had passed in Adenia.
“If this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have gone on vacation to Earth, you crazy status window.”
I’d gone out of my way to stop the dark fantasy ending, and this was the final reward it gave me; I wondered if it had lost its mind.
And besides the fact that fifty years had passed, there was another problem.
“...Status window.”
[ User: Evan ]
Strength: 20 (Restricted)
Agility: 20 (Restricted)
Mana: 20 (Restricted)
Life: 20 (Restricted)
Mind: 20 (Restricted)
Fantasy: Currently unavailable.
Divine: Currently unavailable.
[ Traits ]
- Unavailable trait -
- Unavailable trait -
- Unavailable trait -
* Status Effect: Drift
All stats restricted to 20.
Special stats unavailable.
A-rank or higher traits unavailable.
Inventory restricted.
Unique-rank or higher items restricted.
Legendary-rank items unusable.
Remaining Time: ???
“Why is the Drift status effect showing up now? I’m going crazy.”
All the stats and traits I’d built up trying to stop the bad ending were locked away.
It was all because of the Drift status effect.
Originally, it was a status effect intentionally created by the game company in the game Star of Adenia to prevent exploits when in a dimension other than the current one.
But why the hell did they include it in the prequel game too?
“You crazy bastards, if I saved the world, shouldn’t you remove this kind of status effect?”
Fury shot through me, and I raised my middle finger.
The status window showed nothing but red letters of restriction, unmoving.
“Hoo... Fine, forget the details.”
I endured it because the Drift status effect didn’t last forever anyway.
I had already experienced ‘Drift’ when playing the game, Star of Adenia.
I remembered that back then, it had lasted for half the time I’d spent in the outside world.
It would probably be the same here. After spending roughly 25 years, it would disappear. I could glimpse the developers’ malice.
And there was one more malicious aspect of Drift that imposed all sorts of restrictions.
It wasn’t treated as a disease, so it wasn’t targeted by holy or life-category spells. But it wasn’t treated as a curse either, so I couldn’t receive help from black magic or curse mages.
Unless it was a special case, the intention of the Drift status effect was to make me grind it out with nothing but time.
“Still, it’s fortunate that it’s not completely hopeless...”
I knew ways to reduce its duration rather than dispelling ‘Drift,’ or special methods to ignore status effects altogether.
The problem was that I couldn’t use either of those two methods right now.
Using an Elixir or a Philosopher’s Stone could reduce Drift’s duration.
I had obtained both items because I’d tried my best to achieve the happy ending. But they were in my inventory, and thanks to the restrictions, I couldn’t take them out.
“...”
And obtaining a new Elixir or Philosopher’s Stone was difficult.
Only an alchemist with skill around the level of an arch-witch could craft those two substances.
How could I meet an arch-witch-level alchemist now, fifty years later, with nothing? It was impossible.
“As for the other method... I guess it’s just meeting them and getting my items back.”
If there were items I’d lent to my comrades before vacationing on Earth, all of Drift’s restrictions would become meaningless.
“I know the solution to the problem. Tsk... but not having a way to contact them is another problem.”
I obviously had means to contact my comrades. The problem was that those means happened to utilize traits, which I couldn’t use.
To fix my status window, I needed to meet my comrades. But to contact my comrades, I needed my status window’s traits.
“...Shit.”
I rubbed my brow, irritated by the situation.
I wanted to hear rumors about them, but all I could see was forest.
For the two days since returning to Adenia, I hadn’t found a single trace of people.
I needed to get to an inn or an adventurer clan in the city to ask around.
Nothing was going well. Why the hell did this happen?
“I want to meet someone, anyone...”
Gruuuuargh—!
— ....!
A familiar, grating sound tickled my ears.
“Oh.”
It’s a person.
Finally, I can get out of this damn forest.
I restored the tension in my lax body and tensed my muscles. I sharpened my senses to the extreme.
Even though my status window was restricted, the experience of preventing destruction hadn’t disappeared; it had become ingrained in my body.
My body naturally switching to combat mode caught the unpleasant presence.
With sharpened senses, I caught the direction of a faint scent of blood and dashed toward it.
The closer I approached, the clearer the sounds became.
A dissonance that didn’t come from a human. The sound of saliva and stomach acid churning, and crude metal weapons.
Monsters.
Fifty years had passed since I stopped the Abyss’s forces, but the world of Adenia still had many troublemakers.
I was almost there. The unpleasant mana unique to monsters could be felt on my skin, and a blurry figure appeared before my eyes.
“Kyaah! Get away!!!”
“Krhghghgh...”
I used a technique to channel mana into my eyes. The blurry figure grew larger and clearer, as if I were using binoculars.
I saw a girl with blue hair sitting on the ground and one orc.
I could see traces of mana around her; was she a mage? But it made no sense for a mage to be unable to kill a single orc.
I might understand if it were an orc elite soldier, but the drooling orc before the girl was the kind you could see anywhere in Adenia. No, its condition was even worse than that.
It seemed starved for so long that its muscles had withered, and the potbelly characteristic of orcs was gone. Saliva dripped endlessly, and its yellow eyes gleamed with gluttony.
The crude iron axe in its hand was completely mismatched with the orc. It looked like something stolen from a passing goblin.
It was in such a state that even a rookie sentry could easily kill it, but the mage was in a panic.
‘Did she use too much mana...? Still, this is strange.’
Even a mage out of mana was strange. To survive in the world of Adenia, a mage’s basic competence included handling simple staff techniques with a staff or carrying a sword at their side.
“Huuuuk... no... Professor... what do I do... kyaah!! Don’t come near me, monster!!!”
But the girl sitting on the ground aimed her staff at the approaching orc and wailed.
‘Could this not be the world of Adenia?’
An ominous thought crossed my mind for a moment, but my body moved naturally, as if accustomed to this.
I approached the orc close enough to feel its terrible stench. The orc was so preoccupied with devouring the girl before its eyes that it couldn’t pay attention to what was behind it.
Then it had to die.
Even with stats restricted to 20, killing one starving orc was easy.
“Kyaah!! No!!!!”
“Krhghghgh...”
I struck the laughing orc’s hand. As the crude iron axe it held fell, I snatched it.
“Krhng?”
The bewildered orc hurriedly turned its body.
“Too late, bastard.”
Without hesitation, I buried the stolen axe between the orc’s brows.
The orc died without even being able to counterattack, collapsing backward with its eyes rolled back.
Thud—!
“Kyaah!! Huh...?”
The girl, who had been sitting with her eyes squeezed shut, opened them narrowly and looked at me.
She blinked as if unable to believe the current situation. I held back a sigh at how slow she was to grasp the situation.
“Hey, little miss, aren’t you a mage?”
“Hic-! Y.. yes!! I am...”
The mage girl nodded without stopping her hiccups.
“Then why couldn’t you catch one orc?”
“... Th.. that’s... I used up all my mana...”
The girl averted her eyes, trailing off as if lacking confidence.
“Then use a sword. Or swing your staff.”
“... Y-yes... huh?”
The girl stuttered, as if she couldn’t understand what I was saying. Her tear-filled eyes alternated between her staff and me.
“Wh.. what do you mean... by tha-!”
The mage girl made a strange sound, as if she had bitten her tongue.
“Kid, this is Adenia, right?”
“Y.. yes..! It is..!”
“Unbelievable.”
Honestly, I was bewildered.
To think that the world of Adenia, fifty years after I destroyed the Abyss, had become a world where such a feeble mage could survive.
“A mage being such a crybaby...?”
“Hnng... I’m sorry.”
What I’d been thinking had slipped out of my mouth.
The girl began shedding tears again, as if hurt by my words.
“I’m sorry.. I’m a useless mage, hnng.. I’m sorry for being a failing student.. hic-! B.. but. I-I'm blue hic-!”
“Hey, don’t cry like that.”
She did seem like one, but that wasn’t important anyway.
“Huuuung if I knew.. if I knew this would happen.. I shouldn’t have come here.. hic-! Professor.. I’m sorry... hnng.”
It wouldn’t be bad to comfort the little miss, but my situation was important too.
“Little mage, calm down. So, do you know where this place is?”
“N.. no I’m sorry.. hic-!”
The little mage just kept apologizing while crying. Why was a mage’s self-esteem so low?
Being able to use spells itself should merit special treatment in Adenia. Or not? Maybe in this world after fifty years, magic had become commonplace.
“Huuuung I want to go home.. hnng.. no.. then the tuition... hnng—!”
The girl was answering her own questions and crying about them.
“Hmm...”
The more I looked at this girl, the more something bubbled up inside me. I wasn’t sure, but was it the urge to torment a small pet?
“Hey, little miss. But why are you so defenseless?”
“Hic-! Y.. yes?”
“I just killed an orc, but what if I were a bad person?”
“...?”
The mage girl looked up at me with a tear-filled face. She looked like someone I wanted to bully.
Jokingly, I lifted the iron axe and took a step toward the girl.
“Hieeeek—!! No!!! Hic-! *growl*—!”
The mage girl fainted with foam at her mouth.
“Wow. She fainted at that.”
I’d only given off a light bit of killing intent, and she fainted at that? Adenia had become a much nicer place to live after fifty years.