As I approached the passage, I noticed a thick layer of dirt covering the ground.
Suddenly, I stumbled backwards, feeling the pain of an overworked spell.
Although it should heal with some rest, I was relieved that there was no damage from my recent encounter with the undead.
Without hesitation, I commanded my team to attack Kyler.
Kwazik!
Kwagakak.
As expected, Kyler was alive.
When the dust cleared a bit, we saw Kyler, who looked so bad we didn't even know how he was still alive, barely blocking Nickel's attack.
"Hmph. Ha."
Coughing up blood, Kyler raised his head and glared at me.
"This isn't over."
"I know."
Kyler's patterns and phases I've already seen in the game.
Perhaps we're about to enter the final phase.
Boom-boom-boom!
The shadows didn't spread out as widely as before, but hovered around Kyler.
And the shadows that had been passively blocking my undead attacks soon began to cling to Kyler's body.
Kyler's final phase.
Shadow armor.
In that state, Kyler was quite difficult to deal with in hand-to-hand combat due to his potion-enhanced body and the shadows surrounding him.
'I'm only a wizard.
I wasn't about to lose to a guy who hadn't learned how to fight systematically and was relying solely on his physical abilities. If anything, I was looking forward to this final phase.
"Hmph. Hmph!"
Of course, that mana explosion doesn't catch me off guard at all.
I just literally can't afford to lose.
Kyler pushed my undead aside and ran straight for me.
His speed is quite intimidating, despite the fact that his body is covered in shadowy armor.
Bite-!
Shadowy nails sliced through my body, threatening to tear me apart.
'Bad matchup.
My thoughts were directed at my opponent.
My talent is combat.
In such rudimentary movements, I could dominate.
No matter how physically gifted they were, I could read their every move, unless they were too strong for me to recognize.
Crash.
Whip!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
The shadowy claws, like the beast's, kept swinging, but they couldn't reach my body. Then my opponent became impatient and made more and more violent movements, which only made his moves easier to dodge.
"Uh, why, why, why can't you reach me!"
The moment he said that, I had an opening.
I didn't miss the opportunity and immediately stabbed my sword deeply.
"Shifting Sword.
The same single-point concentration as when I broke through Grace's shield before.
With that, I fused fire magic, enduring the pinging of my head again.
Boom, boom, boom!
The stabbing sword overcame the tremendous repulsive force and pierced through the opponent's shadow.
Simultaneously, the auror's black flames burned away the shadows in a metallurgical manner.
"Kirk."
Kyler struggled and swung his weapon-like hands at me, but Nickel and Timur, who had been watching, blocked his arms.
"Die."
Hwoargh!
I increased the power of the flames as I felt my mana drain away.
Then there was a horrible scream, accompanied by the smell of something cooking.
"Put it out!"
Kyler screamed in agony as the black flames engulfed him.
At the same time, Ludo, who was now behind him, raised his huge greatsword with great force and brought it down.
Quang-quang!
That was it.
I was reduced to a puddle of blood beneath Ludo's greatsword as it swept past me.
No, not blood, but ashes.
'If it was any other character, I wouldn't have been able to beat him alone, and I would have struggled in the final phase.
Necromancers who can do it all by themselves are a scam.
Besides, the Necromancer's forte was large-scale warfare, not small-scale skirmishes like this, so I've said enough.
After confirming Kyler's death, I summoned the undead back.
In retrospect, I realized that I ended the final phase too quickly, and Kyler didn't even have time to try to escape.
Once the undead was gone, I looked over to where Kyler had been and saw something glowing.
Digging through the blackened corpses, I finally found the shards of Greed.
"What the hell, he had them all to himself?
There were four gems in his possession.
He didn't need to return to Muriel to investigate Greed's whereabouts later.
"In the game, I thought the Coven was in possession of the Greed, but now I realize that Kyler must have escaped and fled to the Coven.
But now it was gone.
With all the sets of Greed collected, I reached into the space expansion bag I'd left with Nickel and gathered up the shards of Greed.
Five gems and a crown in total.
The gems were all the same black-red color, but instead of being dull, they were dazzling.
"If I put these together, it will be a name grade item.
My only worry was that I wouldn't be chosen as the owner, but it was a waste not to create the greed that had been gathered anyway.
'I'm not afraid of any character right now.'
Believing in myself, I assembled the Greed.
I held the blood-colored gem to the crown and it stuck to the empty spot like a magnet.
Soon all the gems were attached to the crown, and the black crown began to emit a strange pulsation.
[Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 2, Charitable Greed]
[Always absorbs atmospheric mana]
[+66% Mana Cost, +200% Potency when using Black Magic]
[+15% Success Rate for all Magic with Precious Metals as a Medium]
[Mana storage function]
[Item is cursed when possessed (Curse list: Greed, Lethargy, Wound Decay, Low Energy)]
[Built-in Skills 'Melody of Greed', 'Charity']
[Skill 'Melody of Greed': Hear hints of valuables in the environment].
[Skill 'Charity': overcomes the transcendent emotional state 'Greed'].
The specs were as flashy as any I'd ever seen.
It didn't matter if he was cursed, as long as he was recognized as the owner.
"The question is, can I be the owner?
The original sin lurking within me reacted first to make such a thought irrelevant.
['Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 0, Pure Original Sin' detects 'Charitable Greed'].
['Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 2 Charitable Greed' is bound to the host of 'Pure Original Sin'].
The throbbing of greed stopped.
The branches of Original Sin that had been hiding inside my body sprang out and began to devour the crown of Greed.
"Hey, what if you eat it?"
['Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 0 Pure Original Sin' temporarily possesses 'Charitable Greed'].
['Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 0 Pure Original Sin' begins to grow].
I was embarrassed by the original sin that had suddenly consumed the crown.
It didn't happen with Nickel, and I'm still not sure about Original Sin.
The only good thing was the power it gained by growing.
I guess I shouldn't worry too much about greed, since it's a temporary possession.
"I'm like a kid who just got a toy.
I could feel the feelings of the original sin in my heart.
['Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 0, Pure Original Sin' has finished growing].
['Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 0: Pure Original Sin' has been linked to 'Charitable Greed'].
[Base Power enhancement]
[Additional skills created]
Like last time, the growth was quick.
The increase in mana was noticeable.
His entire body had become a reservoir due to the nature of the vessel, and the sticky mana seemed to overflow from his body.
'I shouldn't have to worry about running out of mana in the future.
I looked at the stats of the Grown Original Sin.
[Codex Apocalypse: Chapter 0 Pure Original Sin]
[222% increased Mana Recovery - Idleness, Greed].
[Mana Sensitivity increased by 77% - Sloth, Greed].
[Grants access to a Special Skill once every 6 days (Currently stored Skills: Sloth, Greed)]
[Mana quality increases over time].
[Mana quality darkens over time].
Not much has changed.
It's mostly performance improvements and the addition of Greed as a special skill.
'If Original Sin spits me out again later, I can wear the crown and use the special skill.
It appears that the Charity skill on the crown is designed to prevent any emotional outbursts related to special skills.
For instance, if I had a Sloth skill that required diligence, the Charity skill might prevent me from experiencing any negative consequences, such as choking, while using it.
'Still, I can't use it recklessly, the aftermath is another matter.
The possibility of dying without being able to fight properly was gone, but the possibility of dying from the aftereffects was still a possibility.
"It's better than nothing. It's an unexpected reward.
I hadn't expected such a reward when I chased after them just to be sure.
Speaking of rewards, I remembered Kyler's hideout in the back of the room.
In the game, you don't get a Greed Shard for missing Kyler, but instead, you get a reward for defeating the boss in his lair.
"It's a game, after all," I thought to myself, "and you should be rewarded for killing the boss.
For now, I roughly cleaned up Kyler's body, which was shattered beyond recognition.
I wish I could have summoned him as an undead, but he was too damaged to be of any use after Ludo slammed him to a crisp. It's a shame, because I had a chance to get a magical undead.
Now that I'm inside the lair for my reward, I notice that something feels different.
"This isn't what I remember.
In the game, there were only a few items available for players to collect.
However, there were no documents, books, or research tools to be found.
It felt like something was missing and something was missing at different times.
Now that I'd made my discovery, I took a closer look at the hideout and found something unexpected.
"Kyler's black magic book?
* * *
A frozen land of pure white snow.
A black carriage, completely out of place in such a landscape, was being driven slowly by a horse-like monster.
Inside the carriage, which had an old-fashioned feel to it, but was made even more grim by the bone decorations dangling here and there, was Heigel, who had been reading a book for some time.
"Well?
Hazel, who had come out to find the sins of the North, was suddenly drawn away from her book by a surge of mana. He opened the window of the carriage and looked out into the blizzard.
Through the falling snow, he could faintly make out the mountains of the northern border.
Beyond them lay the Rodlen Empire.
"Something happened."
A sensation from a moment ago.
It meant the death of a subordinate he had planted in the Academy.
"Kyler Schutzman. He wasn't going to die so easily.
This was the second time.
It was unusual to have two deaths in such a short period of time, even though he had been on this floor for quite some time.
"Is the kingdom on the move, or just a coincidence?
It was troubling that it had happened right in the middle of my search for sin.
Losing a mole in the academy was a big loss, especially when you had one planted there.
"Come to think of it, Kyler reported recently that he'd found an item linked to greed.
The more she thought about it, the more her head spun.
Finally, Hazel picked up the magical communicator in the carriage.
There was a brief connection, and then the other party picked up.
-Hi, hello!
"Luna Pendragon."
Hazel spoke into the maddening voice over the comm.
"I have a favor to ask of you."