Chapter 5: Cleanup.
Hwarrrk…
“No, fck, my house!!!!”
[The Greatest Old One “Cthugha” awkwardly scratches the back of her head.]
My house that I had somehow managed to reach by walking.
But that place had somehow been half-destroyed from the aftermath of the terror.
No.
Maybe it was still intact.
My house was an apartment.
The part that had flown away was the upper floors, not the lower floor where I lived.
Creeeak.
“…It smells a bit burnt, but it’s fine.”
The house I opened and entered was blackened here and there, and a lung-irritating burnt smell came out, but it was still enough to hold out for a day.
I first hurriedly threw my body onto the bed in my room.
I had to sleep even one more minute to be able to live through tomorrow again.
[The Greatest Old One “Cthugha” clasps her hands as if she had momentarily forgotten and hands you a gift.]
“I’ll check later…”
[The Greatest Old One “Cthugha” makes a sulky face.]
[The Outer God “Nyarlathotep” sends a message to Cthugha saying “Idiot lol.”]
[The Greatest Old One “Cthugha” spews fire at Nyarlathotep.]
“…Haa.”
Like that, I fell asleep while listening to the ringing status window sounds.
“Guild Master!!”
Bang!
A certain man kicked open the door with an urgent-looking face and entered the office.
Because his face was thick with the atmosphere that something that should not have happened had occurred, the guild master also answered with a surprised expression.
“…What is it.”
His identity was the vice guild master of this guild.
The owner of an iron mental strength who wouldn’t even twitch an eyebrow at ordinary matters was currently this flustered.
The guild master, who was a woman, began doing her best to predict what words would come out of his mouth.
Had an A-rank dungeon break occurred?
Had a promising prospect they had expectations for died?
Or had a villain group stolen an artifact?
But the answer that came out of his mouth was beyond imagination.
“Th-the cult ‘Cthugha Cult’ has moved!”
Thud.
She was so shocked for a moment that she dropped the pen she was holding.
‘Cthugha Cult.’
They claimed to serve some god, but their true identity was an unknown villain group.
Led by an S-rank cult leader, A-rank executives, and cult members of at least B~C rank.
Talents who would each have taken a position if they had come out into society had all fallen for some god and become villains.
Currently there were not many organizations of that scale in Korea.
Moreover, the destructive power that came from their overwhelming flame-type skills was so enormous that it made one forget their ranks.
Based on that power they had turned a local area into a wasteland ten years ago and then disappeared…
‘Those guys have moved again?’
“…Monitor the situation.”
With a serious expression the guild master strode toward him and spoke.
“…But there is a more serious problem.”
“What?”
Tiiik.
The vice guild master thought showing once was better than speaking a hundred times and immediately turned on the tablet to show the situation.
“Crazy.”
And the guild master who was already surprised couldn’t close her mouth from the shock.
It was a monster.
A monster that screamed with thousands of mouths, and between them black tentacles like sea urchins twitched.
It was hanging as if bound to some giant pillar, and it screamed and writhed its body to escape from the pillar that suppressed it.
-K-kuaaaagh!!
-Our god… kuaaaagh!!
And the ‘Cthugha Cult’ that was shooting fire toward it.
But it didn’t take even a slight scratch and only spat out rough tentacles to swallow the believers.
‘At least mid-to-high A-rank.’
There were no members who looked like executives.
That meant all of them were believers.
To unilaterally massacre like that the average rank of believers, B~C rank level, it had to be at least A-rank.
Just what was the identity of that thing…
-Kieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!
Crack!
“Keuk!”
The moment it screamed, the tablet’s speaker burst and went dead.
“…Dispatch heroes and investigate quickly!!”
“Y-Yes!”
The guild master shouted at him with an expression full of fear.
And for a while, she could not forget that scream that was filled with resentment toward everything in the world.
“No, so the fireball just went like this…”
“Yes yes, I understand. A restoration-type hero will come within a day at the earliest and proceed with the recovery work, so please endure the inconvenience for the time being.”
Morning came and I was suffering from a headache because of various statements.
It seemed the only place in this apartment that had suffered damage yet remained intact was my house.
‘Cthugha, you crazy btch.’
Moreover, it seemed there were quite a few casualties because of this terror.
Even if human lives were like flies to the gods, wasn’t this going too far?
Fortunately, all of them were in intact condition so the best S-rank healer in Korea called ‘0%’ could revive them.
I had heard the explanation that the Saintess’s skill ‘Declaration’ was a skill that temporarily exerted the power to bring the dead back to life.
That was a relief.
Honestly, if many people had died, I would not have been able to look at Cthugha the same as before.
[The Greatest Old One “Cthugha” makes a gloomy expression.]
“I don’t particularly care about what you do to me, but don’t touch other people.”
[The Greatest Old One “Cthugha” nods vigorously.]
[The Outer God “Nyarlathotep” says “Contact me on the computer” and forcibly severs the connection.]
[The Greatest $@# Old One #@#@ spews fire $@#!]
“…”
I knew the two of them didn’t get along, but when they were stuck together like this my mind was so distracted that my SAN value felt insufficient.
“I’ll be heading back now.”
“Yes~ Take care.”
The moment the statement taker left the house I immediately turned on my phone and checked the messages.
[Academy Closure Notice]
[Due to the terrorist act directed at the city, the academy will take three days from now for reorganization.]
[Students, please attend school starting next Monday.]
“…”
The closure period included the weekend.
This felt exactly like having a public holiday on the weekend but no substitute holiday.
Still, since I got to rest for today, I didn’t know whether to be happy about this or not…
‘Should I train for the first time in a while?’
Ever since I gave up on promotion I hadn’t particularly trained.
But.
‘There’s possibility now, right?’
As long as I had contracted with two things that were similar to constellations… even if they weren’t, I could now aim for a higher stage.
‘I also received a new skill.’
[Unquenchable Flame (A)
Your flame is alive.
A living flame tries to burn forever as long as its own life does not go out.]
The explanation was a bit vague, but to put it simply it was literally an ‘unquenchable fire.’
Moreover since it was an A-rank skill the power was worth expecting.
‘But the SAN value consumption…’
As everyone knows, after contracting with Nyarlathotep my mana value had been replaced with the strange thing called SAN value.
The problem was that it was a worst cost-performance stat where fatigue rushed through the entire body even if only 20% was used.
The performance of the skills was all outstanding, but the body for using them was too frail.
Ding.
[Nyarlathotep : Open the status window and look at your level.]
“…How did you know what I was thinking?”
[Nyarlathotep : I see through your inner thoughts clearly. When you played a game with Cthulhu last time the lust you harbored as well…]
“Status window!”
I turned off her message while looking at it and shouted status window.
[<Kim Hyunseong Lv.21>
[Potential : Weak]
[Contracted Constellations : Nyarlathotep, Cthugha]
<Strength : 13>
<Stamina : 13>
<Agility : 13>
<SAN Value : 100>
Remaining stat points : 20
[Skills : Plausible Story (A), Avatar of Chaos (S), Unquenchable Flame (A)]
]
“Level 21?”
Level was a method for awakeners to become stronger other than training.
If you killed monsters or other awakeners you gained experience points, and when those piled up you leveled up and received one stat point.
But the higher the stats the better it was to raise the level, so first-year academy students did not hunt monsters.
The modern efficient strategy was to raise physical stats as much as possible through training first, then raise the level and invest the stats.
[Nyarlathotep : Put everything into SAN value. Anyway all of your combat power comes from SAN value.]
“…That’s true.”
When I transformed into the avatar I displayed combat power almost like Lü Bu.
It was power that no one could block regardless of stats.
“But I can’t just transform into that whenever, can I?”
The problem was that I must not transform into this appearance in the academy unless absolutely necessary.
Not only was the appearance too grotesque, but because of the overwhelming combat power it could severely attract public attention.
[Nyarlathotep : I have a plan, so for now put all the stats into SAN value.]
“Tsk, fine for now.”
<SAN Value : 120 / 120>
One SAN value per stat point, huh.
‘So damn stingy.’
I wished it would give about 10 at a time.
[Nyarlathotep : Then turn on the computer now. I found an amazing game…]
Ding-dong!
-Kim Hyunseong, are you there?
At that moment, someone pressed the doorbell of my house.