With Vecna gone, a weight is visibly lifted off our chests as Niol plops onto his chair, facing the ceiling while covering his face with his hands. "W-Who was she?" My question was met with wry laughter as Niol glanced at me. "I don't know… I'm just thankful to be alive." While I agreed with his sentiment, my question remained unanswered.
Staring at the clearly shaken Niol, I raised my hand, forming a [Fire Ball] as I melted my ichor, staining the wooden floor, erasing any clues of my blood; of course, Niol had already seen my ichor, but currently, he was too preoccupied with regaining his composure to care. "I-If that's everything, I'll take my leave."
Once the remains of my ichor were burnt away, I turned around, approaching the door, though just as I grabbed the handle, Niol called out to me. "I'll be raising your rank to an A-class Adventurer. After the battle, you deserve it." "Thank you." Nodding at Niol, I turn back around and exit his office, leaving with a missing left arm.
Rubbing my head, I took the same path Niol and I'd taken when we first arrived, and after walking down a flight of stairs, I exited from the back, entering the public lobby of the Guild, where nearly every Adventurer resided. Though as I walked through the lobby, several friendly colleagues stopped me, after all, I'd entered with both arms, and now I was missing one.
"Alex! What happened!?" Roose, arm wrestling an adventurer, quickly stopped what he was doing and approached me, concern plastering his face."Yo! What the hell happened!?" Chammy, a spider-type demon who was flirting with one of the attendants, widened his eyes as he neared me. "Alex! You okay?" Caroline, an older, laid-back human missing an eye, lowered her drink and stood up, trying to stop me.
Seeing them, I forced a smile while waving my hand, trying to calm their worry. "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry… My head's hurting, so I'll leave first, sorry, see you guys another time." Nodding to them, I gently squeezed past them as I headed towards the entrance of the Guild. While positive rumors were flying around at full speed, I exited the Guild and stepped back into the city; taking a breath of the fresh air, I walked down the street, heading back home.
'Why didn't you use Dragon tongue, Master?' 'Oh yeah, Sister's right! How come you didn't use it!?' Hearing Zartha's curious voice and Trina's confused one, I glanced back at the Guild before turning left, exiting from the main street. 'I thought about it, but I couldn't.' 'Did Vecna somehow prevent you from doing so? That shouldn't be possible, even a God wouldn't think a human knew Dragon tongue.'
While Zartha veered off in her own assumption, I shook my head, stopping them. 'That's not it, Zartha. Dragon tongue works by using your vitality or life force as fuel instead of mana; that's why I assume it's so powerful.' 'We understand that, Master! With your skill, that shouldn't be a problem; you could just spew out words non-stop!' I would've chuckled at Trina if it didn't feel like someone was constantly hammering my brain.
'Yes, usually, Trina, but my skill technically doesn't grant me an infinite amount of vitality. Think of my body like a lake; whenever my vitality is siphoned away, the skill [Rebirth] will rain and fill it up. But it's not instantly.' Probably wasn't the best analogy for Trina, but I was at least confident Zartha would understand what I was getting at.
'Are you suggesting that to use Dragon tongue on Vecna it would've required more vitality than your body currently holds at once?' Faintly smirking, I slowly nodded; I had infinite vitality, but I didn't have immediate access to it, so if I used it up too fast, I'd die. Now, I didn't know for sure if that would happen with Vecna, but whenever I thought about using Dragon tongue, my heart rate would rapidly spike, forcing me to close my mouth.
'I don't know for sure if that's the case with Vecna, but my heart intensely warned me whenever I was about to use it; I didn't intend to take that risk unless my life was in immediate danger.' At my words, Zartha went silent, though it was only briefly, as I asked her a few questions regarding necromancers while Trina hummed softly in the background.
After several minutes of navigating through the bustling streets of Cassandra, during which I learned all I could about Necromancers from Zartha, I arrived back home, causing me to wryly smile. "Haa, they're going to be worried." Sighing, I grabbed the key from my pocket, unlocked the door, and entered. Just as I closed the door, I heard someone behind me, causing me to force a smile as I turned around, though it wasn't one of my wives, but Vanimo.
"A-Alex, your arm? W-" Seeing none of my wives nearby, I stepped forward and quickly covered his mouth. "First off, I'm fine, don't worry. Secondly, my head is killing me, so please keep your voice down. Thirdly, where is everyone?" Staring into his eyes, I waited a few moments before slowly removing my hand from his mouth and backing away.
"U-Um, okay, i-if you say so, Alex." Nodding with a quiet voice, I lowered my guard with a soft sigh. "Everyone is in the backyard right now. Yuki challenged Vanye to a fist-fight." Listening to Vanimo, I raised an eyebrow in confusion and surprise. 'Who gave Vanye the balls to fight Yuki in a fist-fight?' Hell, even I wouldn't have accepted that challenge. It seems Vanye understood my next question, given the confusion on my face as he responded.
"Yuki and Vanye got into an argument over which stat was better, Vigor and Endurance, or Agility and Dexterity. Eventually, they decided to fight to prove the outcome as neither could come to a conclusion." As if they'd rehearsed for this, the instant Vanimo finished speaking, I heard Vanye and Yuki's voices.
"Hmph, you can't even touch me, you slow mountain. What's the point of all those muscles if you can't land a single hit?" "Grr, shut it, you stick figure! Go ahead, hit me all you want, your weak punches won't even leave a bruise, I don't even need to block." Leaning to the side, I looked down the house past the sliding glass doors in the back and glanced at the figures of Yuki and Vanye.
Although I had a butt-load of questions, I saved them for later and walked past Vanimo, heading upstairs. "I'm going to take a nap. You can tell them I'm home, but don't mention my left arm." "O-Okay." Waving at him, I entered Michelle's room, as it was the closest, and closed the door before plopping onto the bed.
It may have only been a short amount of time, but a lot had happened within that time, enough for me to fall asleep within just a few moments of resting my head on the pillow. 'Ahh, sleep, my old friend.'
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My nap wasn't uninterrupted, no, Michelle happened to wake me up when she entered her room, and her voice alerted everyone in the house. Thankfully, I was in good shape to sustain the headache I knew was coming; after I finished explaining what happened at the Guild to everyone, I was treated like a terminally ill patient.
One of them would always stay with me; food was brought to me, and my desires were always satisfied. It was overkill, but since this treatment wouldn't come often, I just decided to accept it. Besides, it wasn't like I disliked it, no, I loved it, especially when nighttime came.
However, after about a week and a half, my skill went off cool-down, allowing me to regain my arm. This prompted the skill to go back on its three-week cool-down immediately.
Currently, we are at Phenoman, the capital of the Roswald Kingdom. Why were we in the capital city? Well, Duke Gorgan had personally visited me to inform me that the King would like to meet me and to reward me for protecting Cassandra; I could already imagine a bunch of political things I'd be roped into, but it wasn't like I could exactly refuse the summons of the King, especially since I live in this kingdom.
Most of us were spread about, exploring Phenonman in small groups or by ourselves, since, surprisingly, it was actually our first time visiting the capital; however, I didn't have the luxury of exploring. I'd be meeting with the King, and according to Jasmine, I needed to look 'high-standing', and I had no clothes like that.
"So, what about this one? I think it looks good." Holding a suit before Jasmine, she gave it a once-over before dismissively waving her hand. "Maybe for a normal meeting, but this will be your first time meeting the King, so you need to look your best. First Impressions are important, Alex. Put that away." "Haa, yes." Pouting, I returned the suit to the rack.