Chapter 225 - [A Mountain Of War And Death] 10/?: Reconciliation And A Small Break
-----
(Veronica)
??
[You acquired the [Construction: Level 1] Skill!]
[Construction: Level 1/10]
A Skill acquired by those who had attained an expert level of the construction of any kind of item, object, or building. This Skill enhances the ability and masterfulness of the user's capacity to construct anything while giving a small, fixed amount of greater quality enhancement.
[The Levels of the [Shield Technique; Level 6], [Armor Technique; Level 6], [Charge; Level 7], [Artillery Technique; Level 6], [Spirit Magic; Level 6], and [Dead Spirit Magic: Level 1], [Space Expansion; Level 2], [Comfort Maintenance; Level 2], [Rough Road Travel; Level 2], [Precise Driving; Level 2], and [Mind Attack: Level 1] Skills have increased!]
(Ervas)
[You acquired the [Phantom Clone: Level 1] Skill!]
[Phantom Clone: Level 1/10]
A Skill acquired by someone capable of creating multiple clones of its own Phantom. It enhances the number of Phantom Clones that can be created, while also increasing the amount of power that can be shared between each Phantom Clone.
[The Levels of the [Phantom Clone: Level 1], [Dead Spirit Magic: Level 1], [Plant Binding Technique: Level 1], [Artillery Technique: Level 1], and [Mind Attack: Level 1] Skills have increased!]
After Ervas, Veronica and the rest finished defeating the last of Undead while destroying the last grave, the group finally settled down while grouping the wounded Bear-kin, alongside calling back those that had escaped, and regrouping them with the wounded.
There were also a few dozen that had died in battle, however, Ervas and Veronica managed to revive them by healing their corpses, infusing them with Life Attribute Magic, and then putting their respective souls (which were flying around them due to their Death Attribute Magic) inside of their respective bodies.
Instead of being completely 'revived' they still became something called 'Live-Undead', similar to how Nick's race was called, gaining Ranks while losing their ability to acquire Jobs (Not as if they had any before anyways), although they felt as alive as before dying.
Ervas and Veronica began to wonder what the true meaning behind this could be, as they were not able to completely revive people, and instead, they turned into a new type of Undead Monster.
Even when their physical bodies were reanimated and alive, while also having their souls inserted inside, they should clearly be alive again… yet they were alive and not at the same time.
Perhaps this was something related to the Death and Life-Cycle Skill, or so the two assumed.
"Ah… I am… back to life?" said a young Bear-kin man, who glanced at his body. The last time he saw it, he had burst into pieces due to overusing his Surpass Limit Skill and also Berserk Mode. But now, he was back to life without any issues… despite having quickly realized that his status showed his race was 'Live-Undead Bear-kin Beastmen' with the 'Rank 3' instead of Jobs, which were empty anyway.
"Hm? Why did my race change… Ah, where are my manners? Thank you very much, my lords, for saving me…" said the bear-kin man, who already knew Ervas and Veronica since he saw them as a dead spirit, due to their help, he was able to come back to 'life'.
Both Ervas and Veronica stood at the man's side while gently smiling.
"No need to thank us," said Ervas.
"Actually, we are a bit sorry, we didn't expect the race change… Now you will not be able to grow strong through Job Changes…" said Veronica.
"Ah, well, that doesn't matter much, as long as I am alive again… Or dead? Well, it might seem as if I in between… Ah, anyway, thanks a lot. We were not able to change Jobs, to begin with, so it's nothing much, my lords. I can grow strong by ranking up as a monster, that seems more interesting, to be honest…" said the bear-kin, as he went back to his family, which was his wife and two little bear-kin toddlers, which cried a lot after seeing their father again.
"Dear… I am so glad…"
"Daddy! Buaaaahhh…!"
"Never leave us again!"
"I am sorry… I will not… Never again," said the bear-man, hugging his family entirely with his enormous log-like arms.
"And that's the last one…" said Ervas.
"Hm, we did a good job, it seems, now we have to deal with the kids…" muttered Veronica.
"My lords, why don't you take a break?" asked Ozgeth, as he emerged from within Veronica's shadows.
"I guess we should, we already applied some healing to them so they can wait a bit, right?" asked Ervas.
"I guess so, let's go back then," said Veronica, as both she and Ervas walked out of the tent, as they were greeted by large bonfires around the almost destroyed village, the people that survived were actually celebrating with a big feast, as large monsters such as Demon Boars were being roasted for everyone to eat tonight.
From the crowd, the biggest bear-kin that Ervas and Veronica had ever seen in their lives approached them, the man was Ragdaz, Gaius' father.
After being completely healed by Ervas both in Health Points and on the inside of his body through a very sudden surgery that Ervas did with his Phantom Tentacles, Ragdaz was back to his prime, and he had even stated multiple times that he felt younger due to this treatment.
"Ervas-sama, Veronica-sama… How is everyone doing?" he asked with a gentle voice.
"Ragdaz! They're doing fairly good, we managed to revive everyone without many complications… Aside from them… turning into a new race of… well, monsters," said Veronica.
"…I-I see, well, as long as they're back to life and health, it is fine," said Ragdaz.
"They said that they felt even stronger than before, so it might even be a plus," said Ervas.
"I see, well, because I didn't die, I remained as my race, I suppose…" said Ragdaz.
"How was your talk with Gaius, Ragdaz? Did you two managed to get reconcile?" asked Ervas.
"Oh, my son, yes, I was very surprised by how much he had improved both in strength and well… on his mentality. Even after lacking all of his limbs, his strength far surpasses my own, even without his armor. The powers he has developed seem like those fitting of a Champion, I am no match for him. And his cooking had become wonderful as well… I… I have committed many mistakes in my life, but I am grateful to have such a talented child… I was a bit surprised that… he forgave me so easily… even after… being such a bad parent…" said Ragdaz, as he glanced at the ground while enormous tears began to pour down from his eyes, he was an immensely masculine man packed with muscles, yet he was crying like a young child.
"H-He's very expressive, isn't he?" said Veronica.
"Don't cry, now that things are all settled down, we have to celebrate and be happy over it, Azra is yet to recover, but he should get better later. We have managed to heal a bit of the encroachment on his mind and that of the other younglings through Mind Attack," said Ervas, referring to how he and Veronica overloaded the kid's minds so much that they made them unconscious through the Mind Attack Skill.
"That's not really healing… I mean, what we did… Ah, anyways, I am starving, let's go back with your son, okay, Ragdaz?" asked Veronica with a sweet smile, as she patted Ragdaz's enormous back.
"Ooh… Y-Yes, I can't wait to taste my son cooking again…" cried Ragdaz, this time they were tears of happiness.
"Hm, he's an amazing chef, perhaps in the entire Kingdom," said Ervas.
"Kingdom…?" asked Ragdaz.
"Well yes, the Kingdom we built up in the Devil Forest, there are many other races of Beast-kin and even Demons there, you're all welcomed to join us as citizens, three meals a day, a house, and many other things for your daily lives are guaranteed, and there isn't any tax either, as we are still figuring out a monetary system… But don't worry, whenever we get to it, people will also have man ways to earn money, without the necessity to risk their lives nor stress too much," said Ervas.
"Ah… T-That's… Impressive… everything, just for free?!" asked Ragdaz.
"Yeah, it's not hard to hunt for meat in a Devil Forest filled with monsters everywhere. Vegetables can be produced easily through our vast amount of Plant-type monsters, buildings can be easily made out of stone through our Golem Transmutation Skill, and other things can be done with magic, such as the creation of water, light, and so on," said Veronica.
"But still… That is just… Incredible by itself, Veronica-sama…" muttered Ragdaz.
Although what Veronica explained seemed incredibly simple, everything that they did to make life easy at the Igni kingdom was a feat by itself. Such as hunting monsters constantly without breaking a sweat through Veronica's Clones and many of the available hunters of the kingdom, plan-type monsters producing edible vegetables, which should be impossible, to begin with, because not many beings in the whole Kritias can even tame plants, and the creation of buildings through Golem Transmutation is also quite impossible to accomplish for anyone else than Veronica and Ervas.
Perhaps the creation of water and other things through magic could be achieved in other nations, but people often relied more on wells, as more than 80% of the population was mediocre at magic and had never specialized much in fighting nor magic.
There was also the whole Mana cost that surpassed the millions, but thanks to Ervas and Veronica's Mana Training and also Mana Transfer, no one in the city ever lacked Mana to do their daily tasks. There were also many buildings where Veronica's clones would teach magic to anyone interested, awakening people's magic talents every day.
"Ah, is that so? I guess…?" laughed Veronica, as the three joined with the rest of their party.
-----