When Victor regained consciousness, his mouth was full of sand and his armor was soaked with seawater.
His whole body ached, his nerves disturbed by the dragon-slaying lightning. His head ached, and his ears struggled to distinguish sounds from his newfound tinnitus.
[Last Question] Activate! You survived with only 1 health point, but due to the powerful [Illusion] effect, your body looks like death!
[Troll Reply]Activate!
You have obtained the [Restoration] status! [Master's Shield] is activated!
That person did not mess up.
What about Vankel? His own [Darwinism] skill protects him from [Dragon Slayer]'s extra damage, but the dragon must suffer it head-on. If sheer force could knock Victor to the ground - and without The Final Question, he could have killed him with one shot - he couldn't imagine what the dragon would have endured.
Whatever signal was received from his body, he lay face down on the beach, beaten by waves and rain; his scythe was within reach, but his legs were buried in the ground. He must stand up and find his friends...
"Is he dead?" a female voice asked.
Here they are. Right next to him.
Victor lay quietly, showing no sign of survival.
Skill check successful!
"I guess so," the other woman answered, her voice cold and slightly Swedish.
Yes!
"Is the body still warm?"
……No.
No, no, no!
"Why? Your Majesty Wotan said you are not allowed to desecrate the dead."
"But we were never happy during our time together!"
Charisma check successful! [Horror] Negated!
"Stop talking nonsense, my Valkyrie." King Wotan's thunderous voice boomed down from above, and lightning crackled in the air. The man was obviously full of impatience. "Did you find Nightbane's body?"
"No, Your Majesty!" Victor managed to move his head just enough to glance at the attacker. As expected, two heavily armed Valkyries stood over him, ready to impale him. His vision was so blurry that he couldn't even activate [Monster Insight].
"The current must have swept him northward to the sea," Captain Wotan mused from above. "Valkyrie, collect! The hunt will not continue until I strap the dragon's skull to my horse!"
The two women muttered something about being overworked, then blew sand into Victor's helmet with their wings. He heard them fly away, the sounds of thunder, wind, and lightning growing fainter.
Victor waited a long time, until the thunder became a distant sound and his wounds had healed enough for him to move his legs out of the sand.
You have recovered half of your HP!
The minister stood up and observed his surroundings.
From the looks of it, he's stranded on an island of sand and rocks, barely able to sustain a few palm trees before a storm turns them into torches. A drizzle kept falling on him, washing away the sand from his armor.
Hundreds of electrified fish lie on the beach, victims of the apocalypse; unfortunately, Victor notices several dwarf crew members among them. Unlike him, they weren't pretending to be dead.
Thankfully, he'd also noticed the [Black Chalices] he'd left on the shore, so he might have picked them up, but damn... the remnants of one of the piggy bank's flanks were testament to the unstoppable savagery of the attack.
On the distant horizon, Victor could see violent thunderclouds moving toward the sea. Wherever he goes, the storm follows him as he relentlessly searches for Wacker. They've moved far away, but Victor can't promise they won't come back.
He had to find Winkle as soon as possible.
Where is he? Precursor thinks the electricity dragged him away, but the [Master's Shield] requires close range to activate. Victor immediately guessed what was happening and cast a spell on the shore. "[Naglfa
]!"
Hundreds of pale, corpse-like hands appeared on the beach and began digging into the sand. After a few minutes, the tips of Winkle's horns began to emerge, and the dragon was buried under his nose.
"Check! We were attacked!" Victor tried to contact her through [Stealing Skeleton], but did not receive the sound quality. "A Study in Vermilion."
we are very sorry. This mortal is unavailable now. Please leave a message, or try again after remote calling, teleportation, and communications are no longer affected by field effects.
What kind of field?
Field: [Devil's Triangle].
Also known as the Bermuda Triangle.
Very good. That would be nice! At least he knew he was north of the Dagger Coast, but if the legends about this place were true in Ortmund... Come to think of it, Wotan must have ambushed them here on purpose, in a place where they couldn't A place to connect with allies.
He and Winkle could always fly back south, escape the Triangle, rejoin civilization, and bring back reinforcements. He needs to collect all the surviving supplies, free the dragon, raise the dead if possible, and get out of here before the precursors return for a second turn.
wait.
There was something else on the plane, something he cherished.
"No!" Victor panicked and flew to the island to look for her, but came back empty-handed. "No, no, no! Marinette!"
His bazooka!
She was on the plane when Wotan shot it down! These bastards drowned out his bazooka! His loyal weapon with which he had threatened dozens of people, killed vampires, and caroused with so many!
"Murderer!" Victor collapsed on the beach and patted the sand with his hands. "She's too young! Too young!"
cursed the minister, his eyes looking upon the boundless, unforgiving ocean where his beloved weapon would forever be anchored. Burial at sea.
The system has never registered their names before, probably because they have no souls. Why is this “Wota
King" appears on his screen and notifications? Maybe because it's not real but another creature pretending to be? How could he possibly be powerful enough to destroy Vai with a single attack
queue
, even though it's optimized to damage dragons?
Unless...maybe...
Intelligence check successful!
A shiver ran down the Prime Minister's spine as a terrifying possibility formed in his mind. This is a very strange idea, unless he analyzed Wota with Monster Insight
, otherwise he could not confirm this idea. But if that's correct, then the Cuckoos' troubles have only just begun.
A new thing interrupted his train of thought. Victor slowly narrowed his eyes and noticed a figure on the sea. He was worried about Valkyrie for a while, but then realized that wasn't the case.
a ship.
A large ship is getting closer! Its crew even sends a small boat, manned by two men, to rescue Victor. They must have seen the smoke from the burning palm trees and mistook it for a distress signal.
The vizier temporarily canceled his [Nagel's Law] so as not to disturb the newcomers, and Winkle dug up enough to look like a whale buried in the sand. In his experience, it's better to gradually introduce new people to the dragon's way of thinking rather than overwhelming them with alarming information. Still, he grabbed his scythe in case his savior was unkind.
The boat soon reached the beach and Victor was able to see its passengers. The first is a bird, a humanoid parrot with brilliant emerald feathers and a round hat, and the second is a one-eyed orc. Both men carried sabers and muskets in their belts.
"Well, well, well, look at this mess," said the parrot, climbing out of the boat, followed by his fellow orcs. His eyes fell on the remains of the piggy bank's wing. "What kind of shipwreck is this?"
"Hello," Victor greeted them as they noticed him. "It's nice to see a friendly face. I'm Victor, Victor Dalton."
"Hello, I'm Jea
-Miche
g robbery," Parrot Skin nodded jokingly at him. "This is my first mate Maurice Ranson. Always willing to rescue survivors. If you can come with us, we can introduce you to Mr. All Things. "
"That would be great-" Victor paused, understanding the not-so-subtle meaning. "Oh, wait, I understand."
"Very good," the orc scavenger added. "Good. Give me your underwear too."
"He collects them," added his companion. "You don't want to know why."
"Unfortunately, I have a date with that bitch lady from the island, so I have to say no"
"Oh, look at that," Birdie said in a more sarcastic tone than before. "Another member of the 'you're so smart' family. This is so cute."
"I guess we'll have to introduce him to my cousin Sarah Slavery soon," the orc added. "She was mean and never let go."
"But she pays you well, especially for a half-ghost bastard like you. She might even cut off your tail; I hear devil's tails are great aphrodisiacs."
Victor sighed at these stupid liars. "My friends, I am a winged half-dragon, wearing armor made from the souls of loan sharks and wielding a weapon with [i
s -death] function of the scythe. There was sand in my boots and I was pissed. So for your own sake, go for it. Throw it away. "
"Isn't that scary?" Both men drew their muskets and aimed at Victor's head. "You have scythes, we have guns."
"I have a dragon."
The two exchanged glances. "I don't understand the metaphor either," the Orc admitted to his companion.
[Vai
queue
K
ightsba
e recovers all of his HP, and so do you!
"You will," Victor said as the shore moved of its own accord around them.
The two would-be pirates took a few steps back as Winkle's neck was completely exposed from the beach and he was covered in sand. They immediately fired at him with their muskets, the bullets ricocheting off his scales.
"Minions...why are you so noisy?" Winkle complained, clearly struggling to wake up. He didn't even notice the attack.
"Obviously angry locals," Victor deadpanned, pointing his scythe at the pirates. "They offered to take us to the mainland on their ship."
"Ah, the new minions." The evil dragon narrowed his head at the two liars. The orc fell wet into his lap, and the bird was too frightened to fly away. "From what I understand, you started your new tenure job by threatening my chief of staff. Do you have any coins on you?"
"...Really?" Niaoniao replied. "Really?"
"Give them to me. Give me all your money."
The two would-be snatchers exchanged surprised looks, then reluctantly tied the wallet to their belt and threw it into the sand. Victor would almost feel sorry for those two if they didn't trick him first. Call it karma.
"There's no better feeling than my treasure getting bigger and bigger in the morning," Winkle said, before glancing at the large ship nearby. "Is that your ship over there?"
"The left side of the equal sign? The orc cleared his throat. "Yes. "
"Give it to me too. I ask to be spoiled." The dragon shook himself and shook the sand off his scales. "You see, Manlin Victor, this is how you talk to uneducated strangers. You beg them to give you all their possessions in return for extending their short lives a little longer."
"Then you give them sweetness and bring them civilization?" Victor replied sarcastically.
"Of course not. It's the duty of little people to give back to society. Dragons only accept things from the universe." The dragon scraped the sand off his horns. "Friend Victor, why does my head feel like it's bare?"
The minister looked up at his master's head and winced when he saw a broken crown between the horns.
"Slave? What's wrong?"
They all lost something valuable today.
