Transmigrated to Game World with SSS Wife-Chapter 74: Avarice
[Quest: Retrieve the Key of Avarice completed]
'Retrieve the... when did I do that?' Nick thought as he stared at the system message right in front of him.
Unless he remembered wrong, his current quest was supposed to be killing the necromancer. After doing that, the guy at the mansion was supposed to give him this [Key of Avarice] thing.
Maybe the game or system or whatever decided to just skip that part? Some games did that, where they would skip more menial tasks within a quest to further streamline the experience.
However, knowing this game that definitely wasn't the case. If it wasn't actively trying to screw him over 95% of the time, then he would be extremely worried for its health.
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on freeweɓnøvel.com.
And even for that 5% of the time the game was nice, it wasn't this nice.
Nick was all but certain that this was leading to something catastrophic.
[Receive reward?]
[Y/N]
'Par for the course I guess.' Nick sighed as he selected yes.
[Received insignia: Key of Avarice]
[Key of Avarice: For every 10,000 enemies you kill from this moment forward, you earn 1% more experience perpetually.]
'10,000?!' Nick gasped at such a large number. Of course, it was a game world so a grind was to be expected. However, that didn't make such a large requirement any better.
With every passing moment this game seemed more and more like a JRPG, one of those where you would literally grind for 10 hours a day just to stay competitive. Except in those games, all anyone had to fear was losing a spot on the leaderboard. Here, the price of failure was death.
'1% more experience perpetually is pretty good though.'
Especially considering the fact that every transcendent level greatly increased the experience needed to level up.
Speaking of...
Not even the boss gave him any experience points. He was pretty close to the second transcendent level, just 2,000 experience. However, after killing all of those enemies he definitely should've already gotten it.
"Wow... you killed him like it was nothing... Could you..."
Elise's sudden voice both cut through his thoughts like a diamond-lasered sword and then trailed off like a soft, secret whisper.
"Could I what?" Nick asked, already piecing it together. She was the only girl who seemed to have her own emotions. It was obvious that she was like a second-in-command to the mansion's owner.
An unsettling silence fell over darkness as the elf wondered how best to answer the Progenitor's question. She had never expected to meet such an existence, one that could actually challenge the demons.
...
[532 years ago]
"Elise... what's going on? Why have you been acting so strange lately?!" Terra asked again and again, unable to understand this sudden and vile change in her sister.
Sure, they had both just witnessed immense death and loss. However, they were still elves. They still held life in high regard.
So then why would she become a student of the necromancer? What good could come from defiling everything their race stood for?!
Terra could hardly hold back her tears as she watched her sister stand in the doorway, silent as ever. She had lost mom and dad and now... it felt like she was losing big sis too. Whatever a necromancer was teaching it couldn't be good.
Elise lowered her head for a second before saying, "I do love you. Never forget that."
Then she left Terra alone.
Due to the deadly silence, Terra could hear each crack and ripple as the demon army threw themselves at the necromancer's barrier. An unbridled anger formed within her as she wished that barrier would fall and rip him to shreds.
The greatest gift to anything was life. This included each of its facets, even death. By bringing the dead back to life, a necromancer was basically stripping them of their right to the fundamental cycle of existence.
Ever since before she could talk, her parents taught her all of this and more. All the beauties of life, the waterfalls and butterflies and cute little animals; all the ugliness of life, the rain and spiders and carnivores. No matter which side they were on, they all fell under the same canvas of life.
Therefore, they all had value.
'Then my desire to kill the necromancer was wrong...' Terra thought, and thus her gem continued shining brightly and the lie persevered.
...
"Life is but a tool. It is not something to be respected, but rather it should be molded to your whims. You understand, don't you?"
Elise nodded as she mentally recited the spell they were practicing. "Yes. Even though I'm an elf, I understand."
The necromancer chuckled as he shook his head. "I was not attempting to imply that your race would impede your understanding, young necromancer."
"You didn't need to. Your eyes betray you, master."
As Elise spoke, she was subconsciously reciting the curse he was teaching her. Next to them was a small cage with 3 different rodents. One second, they could all see each other and knew that the cage was only filled with friends.
The next, a curse of blindness struck 2 of them while a curse of madness struck the last one. Now that they were blind to anything besides danger, each of the rats killed the other. Within seconds, the cage was filled with 3 corpses and a puddle of blood.
"I never would've thought killing would come so natural to an elf." The necromancer smiled as he saw the fruits of his labor right in front of him. Out of every student he'd ever taken in, Elise was by far the best.
It almost felt like fate had caused that horrible demon attack, bringing her to him. Of course, untold struggle had to have occurred to forge her into this heartless, perfect killer that she was now. But struggle was just a part of life, was it not? Why would that matter to him in the slightest?
"When will you teach me how to raise the dead?" Elise's cold, calculated voice cut down his triumphant thoughts with little care.
He sighed, knowing that she was entirely uninterested in these little circus acts. No, little Elise was only concerned with one thing: how to raise the dead.
This made no sense to him, because even the best spells wouldn't bring her parents back. They were far more than dead. They were maimed, defiled, ripped to shreds, etc.
The best spells he knew were for simple tragedies, like heart attacks or maybe being stabbed in the back. What she wanted was impossible.
'Though, the word impossible doesn't mean much to a broken heart now, does it.'
Shaking his head, he said, "Oh well." Then he raised his hand to the dead rats, and a second later they were alive again.
Except they didn't chirp or play or do any of those things that living beings do. That part of them was gone forever. Even if Elise could replicate this spell, it would do no good. Once a being dies, they couldn't come back, not the way they were before—
"I see. So, the dead won't feel the pain of their past then either?"
She would still continue down this path? 'Doesn't she see the rats? Is that how she wants her family to live on? A dead, empty husk-'
"I'm glad. I would've gone through with this either way, but at least now I don't have to feel like a monster. I'm sure you lived a good life, master."
With a flick of her right hand, a knife slit is throat. Before his vision could even darken, he saw her small child's hand raised just like he had for the rats. She... was going to kill him? And then raise him? For what?!
"I know I had lived a good life. Right until the demons showed up."
She didn't wait to see if her resurrection spell would work, as she already knew it would. Her affinity to magic was even greater than the most devout elf's connection to life.
The necromancer was the first of many civilians the demons had demanded as a sacrifice. A small tear fell down her otherwise cold face as she left the cellar, activating the death curse on every person she saw.
Her carnage wasn't just limited to soldiers or even men, as demons didn't discriminate. Anything that breathed deserved to die–unless their life benefitted the demons.
That's why they were going to free her sister. For some reason, the demons wanted something from this town.
It had something to do with this 'Progenitor' thing. Some race of people that were even stronger than demons. Elise didn't care about the specifics too much.
All she knew was that the screams surrounding her had to be silenced. The demons demanded it. Somewhere in the distance, she knew Terra was fighting against the binding curse right now.
A stream of tears fell down her face at that thought, though it was dry when she had been slaughtering even children.
She really was greedy, to even make her sister suffer just for some idea of peace.
