LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 17
Chapter 17 – Ruin Guard Request (4)
—–CROW—–
“Anyway, I’m glad we won. Good work, everyone.”
I walked towards my companions, dusting off my fists. Goblin blood dripped onto my mana hide.
“We won easily thanks to you. You’re incredibly strong.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Nord, you’re ridiculously strong. I misjudged you.”
Est said, clicking her tongue. As she spoke, she stabbed the fallen goblins in the neck with her short spear. A thorough confirmation kill.
“It’s more thanks to this magic than my own strength.”
I wouldn’t have been able to win this easily against 20 motherless brats wielding knives if it weren’t for the magic. Even earlier, I was almost hit by an axe because I let my guard down.
“That? What kind of magic is it? Or is it even magic?”
Paragon asked admiringly, wiping his staff.
Ah—he didn’t know. This place was full of half-baked people.
“It was once… called a curse.”
“A curse? It’s not dangerous, is it? Did you push yourself too hard because of us…?”
Francesca worriedly stroked my mana coating. It was surprising that even though she was touching the mana, it felt like she was directly touching my skin.
“It’ll probably be fine. More importantly, this is magic I found on the stone tablet I excavated with Francesca.”
“Huh?”
“Stone tablet? You got it from this ruin?! Where?! Where, where?!”
Est, finished with her confirmation kills, rushed over at my words.
I briefly considered hiding the source due to her enthusiastic reaction, but I changed my mind. Someone from the archaeology community would come to investigate this ruin soon anyway.
There was no guarantee that only I knew about this magic. It was possible that the Mages Guild had already figured it out. It seemed like Ulster magic. So, I just told them.
“It’s this way. I’ll show you. But I don’t know how to undo this magic.”
“Isn’t that also a type of magic? It should be released if you cut off the mana supply to the magic.”
“I don’t know how.”
“…How did you use magic if you don’t know how to handle mana?”
“I just read the words, and it activated on its own.”
The phrase “Pray to the Sky God” or whatever it was, was the cause of this transformation. The moment I read the phrase, a change occurred in my body, and the power of an Earth warrior dwelled within me.
“Ah, was the writing on the tablet the magic spell?”
“Only high-level magic can be activated with a simple spell. A short spell can’t produce such a powerful effect.”
Paragon asserted, like a priest who handled spells. But now, figuring out how to undo the magic was more important than its origin.
“Cut off the mana… cut off…”
I muttered, focusing on sensing the mana. I tried to feel the Qi, like in the pseudo-scientific version of traditional medicine.
Swoosh— swoosh— swoosh—
I closed my eyes, and I immediately felt something. No, it wasn’t just a feeling, it was a distinct presence. I easily recognized something flowing through my body, different from blood.
Even with my eyes open, I could clearly feel it. It felt like thin catheters, used in surgery, were wrapped around my body, and nutrients were being circulated through them.
“Shit! This feels weird!”
I screamed, willing the catheters running through my body to stop.
“Begone, spirit of Ungnyeo!!!”
Swoosh—
Hiss. Click!
At my command, the catheters disappeared from my body.
No, they didn’t disappear. They just shrunk, like a penis retreating. It was a very strange sensation, like I could feel every single nerve in my body.
“Huh?”
Trembling!
Not only that, but my legs were also shaking. It felt different from the muscle pain after leg day.
It felt like the muscles in my legs had evaporated and flown away, going *poof*. I couldn’t feel any strength in my trained, muscular thighs!
“Nord! Your legs are shaking!”
“Is that so? Thanks for the play-by-play. It’s my body; wouldn’t I know? I guess this is it for me. *Keok-keok* (dying sound).”
“Nord!”
Francesca supported me as my legs gave way and I collapsed. Paragon clicked his tongue and looked at me.
“Why such an overreaction? It’s just mana exhaustion.”
“Mana exhaustion?”
This was because my MP was depleted? My leg muscles, which had always kept up even when I was doing heavy squats, were now saying, “Ebebebep, your mom”?
“From what I can see, you don’t seem to be a wizard.”
“Of course not. I’m wearing armor and using a sword.”
“I see. You’re not a wizard, and you probably don’t usually handle mana, so your mana capacity must be low. That’s why you ran out of mana after using excessive magic.”
“Oh my.”
If Paragon’s words were true, then I was in this state because I had very little mana.
I was a mana premature ejaculator! It was so sad that I almost cried.
“Is this what usually happens when you run out of mana?”
“I know from experience. Your mind is clear, and you can speak fine, but you have no strength in your body, right? It’s a very common symptom.”
“Ah… so the magic has some side effects.”
“Side effects? Just mana exhaustion?”
Paragon’s eyes widened in disbelief as I fretted.
“On the contrary. I don’t know how strong you originally were, but for someone who’s never used magic before, you managed to use it for a long time, and all that happened was a little mana shortage? It’s actually quite remarkable magic.”
He said, wiping the sweat from his hand holding the staff.
“I’m very curious about the nature of that magic. Let’s go take a look.”
I had become like a deflated balloon, like a plastic doll that had died after a vigorous dance.
“Oh! Then I’ll carry you!”
“Huh?”
Francesca, who was supporting me, suddenly scooped me up in her arms. It was absurd to be carried by someone more than 20cm shorter than me.
“But, Francesca, you know the way, so you can just go by yourself.”
“I can’t read the characters on the stone tablet.”
“Ah, damn, that’s right.”
Then there was no other way. I resigned myself to being carried.
It definitely wasn’t because I was tempted by the large breasts touching my arms. The leather armor was thick, so I couldn’t feel much anyway. It was quite regrettable.
Sweep.
Carried by Francesca, I arrived in front of the stone tablet. The same characters as before remained on the excavated base of the stone tablet.
“Huh? This is writing? Ah, you’re talking about this?”
Est pointed at the inscription written in cuneiform. I offered my condolences to the Ogham script, which wasn’t even considered writing.
“Yes. That’s the writing of an ancient civilization.”
“Characters from the Golden Age. We have an artifact in our church with similar writing.”
“An artifact? Really?”
Francesca, filled with anticipation, put me down. She peeked at my face and her eyes sparkled.
“Nord, Nord. How do you read this?”
“It’s ‘yáǵeswō deiwōm dyeus.’ It means ‘Pray to the Sky God.’”
“Ya, yauges… w-what?”
Est stammered, struggling with the pronunciation. I read it again, clearly and slowly.
“‘To the Sky God (deiwōm dyeus), pray (yáǵeswō).’”
“‘To the village idiot, one glans penis!’”
Mr. Village Idiot, here’s the glans penis the lady sent you.
I wanted to pretend I didn’t hear that.
“Francesca? I think Est is going to be struck by divine punishment soon, so let’s stay away from her.”
“W-what did I do?! That’s right! That’s the pronunciation!”
“Let’s just say it is. Ah, and don’t come near me.”
—Crawl, crawl.
I crawled away to distance myself from Est. I didn’t know what kind of god this Sky God was, but he might shoot lightning from the hole in the ceiling.
“Yau. Yauges. Yage? De? Deiom? Worm? Ouch!”
Francesca bit her tongue trying to imitate my pronunciation. Despite being a dwarf rogue, it seemed her tongue didn’t rely on dexterity.
“Ow… I can’t pronounce it… It’s too difficult…”
“Is it that difficult?”
Well, differences in pronunciation between languages were inherently difficult to overcome. I also struggled with English pronunciation when I was on Earth.
Whew—!
At that moment, Paragon, who had been mumbling to himself, whistled. Then he said,
“—‘Pray to the Sky God (yáǵeswō deiwōm dyeus).’”
It was quite accurate pronunciation. As expected of a priest. His experience with reading showed its effect, even among newbies.
After he successfully pronounced the words, we waited for the result. Would another Vectorman companion be born?
…
…
…
“…Nothing happened.”
“Huh?”
What the hell was this? I tilted my head in confusion as I saw no change in Paragon.
“Paragon, don’t you feel anything? You should feel like well-cooked pasta noodles are spreading through your body, and spinach sauce is gushing out from them.”
“That was a very striking analogy. I would have been happier if I could have experienced it myself.”
His voice was laced with disappointment. Panicked that I might be seen as a lying, scamming, shepherd master’s degree holder, I hurriedly said,
“But it worked on me.”
“Hmm… I have an idea why. This is definitely not a simple spell. It’s closer to the Prayer of Consecration that we priests recite.”
“Prayer of… what? Damn it. You’ve been saying things I don’t understand.”
Est, who had been quiet, grumbled as she wiped off the goblin blood. She seemed to have given up on pronouncing the inscription on the stone tablet.
“Prayer of Consecration. It’s a prayer that bestows blessings.”
“Does that mean it’s divine magic?”
It was rather funny that the miracles performed by priests by borrowing the power of gods were called “magic,” but that was the closest translation, so there was nothing I could do.
The ominous image that “magic” or “spells” held in the Sinosphere didn’t apply to the mystical powers of this other world.
“No, it seems different from typical divine magic.”
Paragon said, stamping his staff on the ground.
“If it were divine magic, my mana of abundance should have reacted. Because it would be magic using divine power. But there was no reaction at all.”
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know either.”
What the fuck, you damn monk. You’re acting all important, and that’s all you have to say?
“I’m not a wizard. If you really want to know, find a learned wizard. Or you can request an investigation from the Mages Guild.”
“Damn it, I just want to try pronouncing it properly, regardless of the principles.”
Est flopped down on the ground, and Francesca tilted her head, resting her chin on her hand. She was even resting her elbow on her chest and her chin on her hand. Amazing. How was that even possible?
“Hmm—maybe there’s special magic embedded in this stone tablet, and it only grants that magic to the person who reads the inscription for the first time?”
“I don’t think that’s the principle. If that were the case, the Gold-class adventurers would have guessed it. They’re more sensitive to mana than we are.”
I agreed with that opinion. The sensation I felt when I recited the inscription on the stone tablet was closer to mana boiling from within my own body.
“Why did you say it was a Prayer of Consecration?”
“Because of the spell. Didn’t you say the inscription on the stone tablet means praying to a god?”
“Pray to the Sky God.”
Francesca said. It wasn’t the pronunciation of the ancient characters.
“That’s right. If your interpretation is correct, Nord, the magic that grants power by worshipping a god is a primitive Prayer of Consecration.”
“Primitive…?”
I read the inscription at the base of the stone tablet again.
[—The ancient magic, the primal mystery, the druid’s secret art that grants humans the power of beasts—]
Primal mystery.
That’s what was written on the stone tablet.
The person who wrote this was probably from the ancient civilization of Erin. In other words, the magic called “Beast Regression” was a spell with a history so deep that even he—or she—described it as a “primal mystery.”
Of course, it must be incredibly old. It could be magic from thousands of years ago.
“Before faith was established among humans, even before the Golden Age of ancient civilizations, there was no distinction between magika and faith.”
Paragon said. The primal age he was referring to was the time when otherworldly people were Homo Otherworldicus.
“If it’s faith from the primal age… it’s animism or totemism.”
“What’s that?”
“If I could move, I’d punch your jaw.”
The conversation wasn’t flowing. It was like a rally where we only hit smashes at each other.
Come to think of it, this bastard’s way of speaking was typical of otherworldly people. Saying only what they wanted to say and showing off their knowledge.
The more advanced assholes here even went as far as selling helpful knowledge at exorbitant prices.
“So! Humans worshipped not only gods, but also monsters and other powerful beings indiscriminately!”
“Ah, you’re right about that.”
Damn it. It felt like having a medical discussion without using any technical terms. Why did I have to explain every single term?
“This magic seems to be a remnant of that time. Some of the misguided faith from that time has led to the current worship of evil gods.”
“Wait, what?! This is evil god worship magic?!”
“Eek! Nord, are you going to be dragged away by the Inquisition?!”
I was shocked to the core by the shocking truth.
Shit, I was screwed! Magic of pagans! In this uncivilized other world, the even more uncivilized, stubborn religious fanatics from Romania would come to kill me!
“N-Nord? I think it would be better for you to bite your tongue and die right now…”
“S-should I? Suicide would be less painful than torture, right?”
Francesca worried about me with her kind heart. Even a three-year-old would know that suicide here would be better than being dragged to the torture chamber of those crazy bastards.
“Ah, don’t misunderstand. Didn’t I say? This isn’t about receiving power by praying to a god. It’s magic that strengthens oneself by imitating a god, so it’s just like any other magic.”
“…So?”
“It’s not pagan, evil god worship magic.”
“You son of a bitch!! Why did you even bring up pagans then!! You just wanted to show off your knowledge!!”
“C-calm down! Nord! Calm down!”
I forgot about my mana exhaustion, got up, and rampaged in anger.
This damn monk was playing with my emotions. Now, I almost had a heart attack because of a guy, not even a beautiful woman. It was infuriating.
“Tsk, tsk. Anyway, it’s a blasphemous act.”
“What the fuck is blasphemous? What you’re doing?”
“Not that. I’m talking about the primitive people who tried to imitate gods.”
Paragon clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“Most ignorant primitive people wanted to possess the power of the beings they worshipped. Among the spells created for that purpose, I wonder if this spell was born by chance as a spell to worship the true god, the Sky God Uranus.”
“I-if it’s the Sky God, isn’t it Odin?”
“It’s Uranus.”
“Oh…”
“Uranus.”
“Hmm…”
I watched the otherworldly people’s argument—or rather, one-sided attack—with my mouth shut. This kind of fight was about beliefs, and interfering would only get me cursed.
In this other world with multiple gods, gods gave the impression of being dictatorial but undeniable kings or politicians.
In short, they were the otherworldly Putin and the fantastic Mao Zedong.
In the same vein, the argument between the dwarf and the priest of the Goddess of Abundance could be seen as Mao Zedong vs. Putin.
—–CROW—–