Book 1: Chapter 6-2: Raid
My body was enveloped in light.
My inherent magic 【Samsara Recursion】 activated.
The light faded and my body was enveloped in a set of steel armor and a helmet. I had changed into the form of an armored knight with a two-handed sword.
Inherent magic was unlike generic magic…you couldn’t define it using logic or reproduce it using normal means. Even I myself didn’t know what spells to combine together to achieve a similar effect. It was a function of my soul deeply embedded within that was able to manifest itself.
「What a nostalgic body…」
My sharp elf ears had become rounded and my blue eyes and blonde hair were both dyed black.
My form looked similar to that of a soldier from the empire.
「Level 14 beginner equipment huh….I guess this is as best I can manage with the magic power I have now. The time limit should be around 48 minutes. That should be enough.」
I checked my bodily condition.
I had turned into Deet around level 14.
In that game-like world I had raised my power to the level 99 limit, but I couldn’t reproduce that much. If I attempted that with my magic power now, I would dry up in an instant and die. For that reason I had called a more reasonably leveled Deet.
Deet is convenient in that respect. My other selves didn’t have easily identified weak periods.
「Let’s set off.」
I grinned fearlessly as I set off running.
Deet’s stats conformed to the standards of a game-like world. His level 14 body contained physical abilities, attack power, and defensive power that were five times more powerful than a normal human.
However, he had a big demerit. His control over magic power was even weaker than that of a normal human’s. When using his body I would be unable to control magic properly.
I ran with all my power and smashed through the iron gate.
A heavy iron gate that couldn’t be lifted without twenty people was easily burst through using my enhanced physical abilities and full speed.
「What!? An intruder! What about the gate!?」
Originally the iron gate should have contained any threat allowing the watchmen to fire arrows and alert the rest of the supply base, but now the soldiers were simply looking over frozen and dumbfounded.
As they stood there I was dashing deeper into the base.
After several seconds he finally remembered his job as he began violently ringing the watchman’s bell. It was probably the alarm for the entire base.
「The gate’s been broken through!」
「An intruder.」
「The number?」
「There’s only one.」
「A single person can’t open the gate! Give me the precise number.」
My reinforced body easily picked up the guards’ conversation.
I wanted to use 【Perception Expansion】 as well, but Deet’s body had bad compatibility with wind mana. That coupled with his poor control meant that there would barely be any effect if I tried.
「I don’t have much time so I’ll choose the shortest path!」
I yelled and dashed straight towards the food storage.
I didn’t think about the troop density or danger of being caught by enemies. I just concentrated on pushing forward.
「Hiiiii」
Every so often a soldier in my way would cry out in fear and surprise at my speed.
I would use my sword that I held at my hip to cut the soldiers.
My sword’s large mass and my highly enhanced bodily power allowed every swing of my sword to easily split them in half.
If you used a normal sword like this then it would get chipped and at worst it would break. However, the game specifications of my sword were reproduced here. It did not chip, it did not break, and it did not even allow any blood to remain on the blade.
The soldiers’ corpses released blue light particles that were sucked into my body.
「Sorry guys. My body lacks magic power right now. I’ll need you to make up for it.」
This was one of the reasons I chose to use Deet in this situation.
The world that Deet came from allowed you to gain experience from defeated enemies and level up.
My inherent magic allowed this phenomenon to be recreated here as their souls became mine.
Magic was the power of souls. Mostly you would not be able to improve yourself beyond the disposition you were given at birth. If you did special training you might be able to improve slightly, but not by much.
However, Deet’s 【Soul Eater】 allowed you to strengthen your magic power by devouring an opponents soul.
Unfortunately this method did not allow me to pass along the magic power gained in this form to another one. However, no matter what world it is this power was a convenient one.
「Second, Third, Fourth!」
I cut through every soldier that got in my way.
It was a one sided massacre.
My movements were too fast and they couldn’t catch up. However, I was able to move quickly while cutting them down in a single blow.
Furthermore, the more I killed the stronger I got.
The pleasurable feelings that flooded my brain made me feel like I was almost drowning in them.
The reasons I decided to stand out and attract danger were twofold…
Firstly, after attacking this place so flashily the missing soldiers from the Elf Village will more easily go unnoticed. After this base was so devastatingly attacked, a few missing soldiers wouldn’t be much of a problem. Countering the intruder would take priority.
The second reason…I was angry. I wanted to clear some of the lingering regrets from our elf brethren who had been sacrificed. Especially Lucy’s grandma who had raised us and Lucy’s little sister Rikka. I couldn’t forgive the ones who had killed them for their magic stones. For that reason I ran around and ate their souls and turned them from hunter to hunted!
「Hiii, what is this monster!?」
「We can’t win….」
「Run! Take your distance and attack with bows. If we surround and shoot him he can’t dodge it!」
I couldn’t help but say ‘correct’ in my mind.
Certainly if I was besieged from all sides I wouldn’t be able to dodge.
Up til now the lookouts who had refrained from firing so they wouldn’t hit their allies all pulled their bowstrings back and fired.
I dodged what I could and cut down plenty of arrows, but I still couldn’t stop all of them. Some arrows still hit me.
I was unlucky and a single arrow hit me in the eye.
The eyes were one of the parts of the human body that couldn’t be trained to be tougher.
「We did it!」
One of the soldiers in front of me couldn’t help but say that.
I smiled as I leapt upon him.
「No you didn’t.」
I split him in two and stole his soul. Then I did a whirlwind motion that cut everyone around me in half.
「My current body is really tough you should know.」
「Th-that’s impossible! An eye can’t deflect an arrow!!」
「There’s no way such a creature exists!」
「A demon, he’s a demon!」
My body had high defenses and hardness to begin with, combine my defenses with the armor I was wearing and it was difficult for anything of that level to harm me.
Furthermore Deet’s own unique ability made it so his body didn’t really have any weak points.
Normally no matter how hard you trained your temples, heart, and eye would cause immense damage or death when hit.
However, for Deet’s body any attack would be converted into the concept of damage but wouldn’t leave any physical wounds. The only thing that would happen was his HP value decreasing.
If I lost all of my HP then I’d die, but up until my death my movements would remain unaffected. No pain, no fatigue.
It would look like I was invulnerable to my enemies.
Against weak enemies Deet was practically invincible.