#113 Party Disbanded (2)
Harley dashed through the forest at high speed.
Unlike when he had come, not a single monster charged at him, making for an utterly pleasant mountain trek...
Partly because he had already hunted down the monsters in the vicinity, and more than anything, because the overwhelming madness radiating from his body instilled in them a sense of kinship.
“Mm! I like this!”
Crunch, crunch.
—Harley diligently chewed away even as he ran.
Now that he had become a dragonkin, his storage capacity had increased greatly as well, so he was devouring meat with the intention of filling himself to the brim with energy while he was at it.
One peculiar thing was that he was not using either of his hands right now.
“We’re almost there. Then shall I have just one more piece?”
Having finished all the meat floating before his mouth before he knew it, Harley smacked his lips and took another chunk of meat out of his subspace magic tool.
Immediately afterward, a green flash brushed past his left eye.
The large chunk of meat left his hand and fixed itself in midair.
Up to this point, it was not particularly different from before, but this ability did not end there.
Sizzle—
The temperature of the dragon meat rose sharply, and soon it began to brown appetizingly, giving off a mouthwatering aroma.
The newly evolved 「Gem Eye: Coercion」 was not simple telekinesis, but a power that, in conjunction with the 「Mad Dragon’s Heart」 synchronizing with the surrounding mana, forced phenomena into being.
“Wahahaha—! A civilized man ought to cook his meat before eating it! This is honey-sweet!”
Harley the barbarian warrior laughed in satisfaction and once again devoured the meat fixed in the space before his mouth.
‘It really is convenient in all sorts of ways.’
An ability that could be activated by will alone, with output that could be raised at will.
But of course, this too had its drawbacks.
It was not a refined method like magic, so the phenomena it could manifest were monotonous, and above all, its energy efficiency was not very good.
In other words, Harley was currently using energy to grill meat in order to replenish energy.
‘...Still, if I want to get used to it, I have no choice but to use it often. If I improve the efficiency going forward, it’ll get better.’
Also, his immediate energy supply situation was not particularly bad.
After all, it was dragon meat filled with life force to begin with, so the energy contained within it was abundant.
Not long after he had finished eating even the newly taken-out meat like that.
Harley, whose equipment had been reduced to tatters from the battle with the dragon, finally reunited with the companions he had parted from.
***
A spacious garden surrounded by high walls, and a three-story house built in its center.
This place, located in the outskirts of Seoul, was my new home.
There was plenty of space and plenty of rooms, so I had filled each room with all kinds of necessary facilities.
Exercise equipment, entertainment facilities, and the like—enough to enjoy leisure life without needing to go outside.
‘I can go out as I please now, but maybe because I’ve gotten used to it, this side is more comfortable.’
Was it because I had spent all that time holed up at home?
I decorated the house like I was setting up a hideout, cramming it full of the romantic ideas I had only been thinking about until now.
‘If I use 「Individual Projection」 as Harris about once a week and make use of natural power, managing the garden shouldn’t be a problem.’
Handling this much nature was nothing to Harris, an elf, so no matter how wide the garden was, there was no problem.
Since it was an outlying area, the air was not as bad as downtown either, so it was bearable to a certain extent.
‘I should install plenty of security devices too, just in case. I’ll set up everything I possibly can.’
Of course, that included not only electronic devices but also magical barriers.
Since I could borrow the powers of various capable individuals like Hans, Heinz II, and Heinrich, there was no reason not to use them.
I could just pick out the things I needed from among them and put them to use.
“Up we go.”
While organizing the luggage I had brought from the underground storage room, I straightened my back and looked to one side.
In truth, since the preparation period had been long due to setting up the facilities, I was in the middle of being busy despite having only just moved in...
But now, something had briefly come up.
Rustle—
At that moment, a figure quietly appeared before me, who had been alone in the silence.
A cold-looking handsome man with red eyes, pale skin, and a black tailcoat.
It was Heinz II, the vampire who had just returned from another world.
“......”
Heinz took the dwarf Zaonic’s beloved pickaxe, “Elinne,” from his subspace bracelet and handed it to me.
Without saying much, I naturally accepted it and slowly examined it.
The metal, which carried a bluish sheen, was covered in countless tiny scratches. As one might expect from something said to have been cherished for many years, it had a deeply worn-in feel, but perhaps because it had been maintained well all this time, it did not feel old.
It was more like a well-kept antique.
‘I feel bad for Zaonic. Still, well, he’ll have to think of it as the price of his life.’
By just about then, on the Aulterica side, Harley was in the midst of rejoining the group.
Seeing Zaonic, who had seen Harley return in tatters and hurriedly searched for his pickaxe, only to finally slump down on the spot, did prick my conscience, but...
Thanks to Harley, they were able to return safely, were they not?
From what I had heard, he seemed to be a bit less attached to it than to the equipment in the forge. If not for me, he would never have seen those again, so this was a win-win for both of us.
“Ahem...”
Having forced myself through that rationalization, I subtly ignored the situation over there and cleared my throat lightly.
‘Let’s see. I can have Heinz help with things here a bit, then send him to Heterosis.’
Heinz had already gone outside quietly and was in the middle of installing barriers around the garden using 「Blood Mystery」 and 「Concealment」.
If useless energy leaked outside, it could draw unnecessary attention, so I strengthened security while thoroughly emphasizing stealth.
‘Hans’s bone dragon isn’t much of a problem either.’
Originally, a bone dragon needed a dragon heart to serve as its core, so it was true that I had been a little worried, but as expected, there was no such thing as impossible for our dear Hans.
「Heart of Immortality」, 「Wicked Wisdom」, 「Forbidden Knowledge」, 「Path of Magic」, 「Eye of the Abyss」, 「Mana Dominion」...
Since every skill he possessed was directly or indirectly related to black magic, if he set his mind to it, twisting necromancy a little was nothing.
Taking inspiration from the lich method of remotely transmitting dark mana from an extracted origin, he had connected himself and the bone dragon Heratos even more tightly.
So that he could supply the necessary energy himself in place of a dragon heart.
To put it simply, Hans himself had become no different from Heratos’s origin.
‘In exchange, the two of them can’t move far apart anymore, so it’s difficult for it to act alone, but in cases like that, I can just send the others, so it shouldn’t matter much.’
He could use Heratos as Hans’s personal vehicle instead of Entracio.
“Then shall we begin the settlement!”
In order to make a new avatar, I needed to strengthen my unique skill and increase the number of avatars I could possess.
To do that, I needed an enormous amount of karma, but I was not particularly worried about that part.
There had been quite a few major events all this time, after all.
‘It hasn’t even been that long since I last obtained 「Individual Projection」...’
First, Harris had successfully planted the seeds of change in the Elven Kingdom.
The new music and instruments he had presented at the festival gave great inspiration to the elves, who had unknowingly been mired in inertia, and made it possible for them to attempt new things.
Like a single stone dropped into a calm lake creating ripples, that influence gradually grew in scale and affected their culture as a whole.
And that returned to him as karma.
‘It’s still a modest amount for now, but it’s encouraging that it’ll continue to increase steadily in the future.’
And Heinrich became the master of the holy sword through the trial and was acknowledged as a saint after receiving a Great Blessing.
Since becoming the saint of the Main God Church, one of the greatest powers on the continent, was an event significant enough to be recorded in history books, this too was more than enough to become a major achievement.
‘Also, after the Abyss opened, Hans clashed with the Main God Church and engraved his name once again... Then afterward, he collected the Immortal King’s legacies that began to appear across the continent.’
On top of that, the chaos caused by this must have been known as Hans’s doing as well, so there was no need to even mention his influence.
The most recent events were Harley’s northern expedition and the hunt of the dragon Heratos.
Naturally, hunting an existence on the level of a Mad Dragon must have become quite a considerable achievement as well.
‘So, the karma that’s gathered all this time is...!’
『Karma Shop』
『Unique Skill Enhancement (1,000,000)』
『Status Enhancement
–View Details』
『Karma Possessed - 1,608,961』
“Oh!”
Less than a week had passed on Earth time since I obtained 「Individual Projection」, yet my karma had increased by over a million.
‘As expected, numbers are everything.’
Since multiple people were going around causing huge events to erupt here and there, I was sweeping up karma, which was said to be so difficult to gather, this easily.
‘Phew, how is one supposed to get through this harsh world with just one body? They don’t say ten bodies still wouldn’t be enough for nothing.’
In that sense, even I, with seven bodies, was still far too lacking, so I needed to make it ten bodies as soon as possible.
More than that would be even better.
And this was the key that would become my eighth body.
I gripped the pickaxe, Elinne, and stared at it quietly.
I could feel 「Customization」 reacting fiercely, telling me that I could use this item to create a new avatar.
“Surely ‘Increase in number of avatar units’ won’t fail to appear again this time.”
Of course, the 「Individual Projection」 I obtained last time was a decent ability, but if the number of avatars did not increase again this time, I felt I would be deeply disappointed.
Though there would be no way to express that to anyone.
“Then... enhance.”
Thus began an enhancement costing a full one million points.
And the result.
《The avatar’s potential rises. The individual’s learning ability is further improved.》
《The unique skill grows and blossoms into possibility. You have acquired the special skill 「Avatar Cloud」.》
Along with a headache, I felt as though something had opened up inside my head.
And the increase in the number of avatar units that I had wanted so badly was...
“It worked!”
That information sat proudly in a corner of my mind.
That I could use it at any time to create a new clone.
Along with that, my mental strength and thinking ability increased by leaps and bounds.
Even taking into account that the number of avatars would increase by one, it seemed the amount of mental power allocated to each individual would be greater than before.
‘Mm, so far, so good. Then the additional things I obtained are...’
Now that I had obtained the result I wanted, my attention turned to the contents that had appeared in the system message.
As for the avatar’s potential increasing, I had long since passed the point where I could say much about it now.
‘If I fought one of my clones, I’d lose a hundred times out of a hundred.’
That was true even when compared to Hubert, who had no special combat power.
Of course, since I had 「Individual Projection」, prioritizing the growth of my avatars over strengthening the main body was the right thing to do, but...
‘Eh, what’s the point of acting like this is new? How often was I ever stronger than my avatars?’
At most, maybe just after creating an avatar in the early stages of entering another world.
Now that those children were each heading toward the summit in their own positions, I was not even in a place to dare compare myself to them.
‘More importantly, shall I check the newly obtained skill? 「Avatar Cloud」, huh.’
Cloud.
It was a word that referred to a database that could be accessed from anywhere through the internet.
And 「Avatar Cloud」, which seemed to have taken its name from that, was...
An ability that allowed avatars to share necessary items with one another without distance restrictions through a small shared subspace.
‘Oh! I was thinking it’d be nice to have something like this. As expected, the enhancement effect is solid.’
With this ability, there would be no need for avatars to meet face-to-face one by one to exchange items as they had until now.
‘Now I can finally give the origin of the Arch-Lich Dwell that Heinrich was holding to Hans.’
Even though I had gone to the trouble of preparing a gift, given their respective positions, the two of them could not easily meet.
Since the transfer array had a cooldown, I could not use it as I pleased, and it had been awkward to use another avatar as an errand boy.
‘An ability that’s perfectly appropriate came out at just the right time.’
Also, most ordinary items could probably be supplied immediately through the merchant Hubert, so now I could feel at ease even if I was dropped in the middle of nowhere!
‘I’ll have to experiment through Heinz to see how much Earth stuff I can send to Hubert. There must be a limit to the amount that can be transferred.’
It was a satisfying enhancement in many ways.
Of course, there was still one main event remaining.
I immediately picked up the pickaxe and used 「Customization」.
Now it was time to make a real dwarf.