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Chapter 704
“This letter is a warning, and an introduction.” The skeleton let out a rough exhalation.
“You have no lungs… and also I can’t stress enough how the arrows all missed. I do not understand why you are dying.”
“Not… all damage can be seen on the surface.” He gasped.
I guess that made sense. They had to have some kind of mana or spiritual body since their physical body wasn’t enough to keep them going. Those attacks must have been more than just physical. I needed to be more careful in the future.
“That doesn’t explain the breathing though…” I thought out loud.
“Will you just come here and take this!” The skeleton cried in annoyance.
I looked at him cautiously and then sighed, reaching out to grab the rolled-up message in his hand. As soon as my fingers wrapped around it, his other hand shot out and grabbed my wrist tightly. I cursed, as I felt some kind of energy entering me. I tried to rip my hand away, but his eye shone with intensity as my wrist started to burn. Only after some struggle did I finally pull away. When I looked back at the skeleton, the light within his eye sockets had burned out.
{You have been inflicted with karmic debt. You now must assume the role of Drakus Lightking.}
Just when I was wondering what he had just done, those words popped up in front of me. However, I had no clue what they meant. What was karmic debt? Whatever he inserted inside me felt a bit like miasma. I had a feeling that if I still had my blessings, that there was no way that this attack could have worked. It said I had to assume the role of some person. Was this skeleton that person? Did that mean that for the sake of this dungeon, I would now be seen as this messenger, Drakus?
I already started to feel some kind of compulsion. It was like a need to continue to deliver that message. Was this what happened to other people who became absorbed by dungeons? Was that another way that souls were claimed? I cursed myself for being so careless, but I had never experienced anything like this before. I had never heard of anything like karma being a thing in this world, and dungeons being able to inflict Dungeon Divers was something I didn’t expect. Furthermore, I was a White Mage! How could I be so easily taken over by some miasmic curse?
That was right! I was a White Mage! I immediately equipped the job and started going through the list, desperately looking for anything that might enable me to overcome this curse. Every second I had it made me feel even more compelled to just go along with the narrative. I should pass this message along. I had to protect the princess. The princess was what was important!
My eyes finally landed on a skill that sounded useful. “Ablution!”
Level 40 White Mage spell Ablution. I had no clue what this spell did. I had even cast it once and seen nothing happen, so I had more or less forgotten about it. However, now, I thought I had an idea. Once I scanned it, the feeling of needing to deliver the message went away, but even without that, I knew I had succeeded.
{You have manipulated karmic debt. You have unlocked the job: Mimic.}
{Karmic Espionage has been unlocked.}
“Now, that is kind of interesting.”
Chapter 705
I had a feeling that what I had just done was not something that happened often. It was probably pretty rare that someone was inflicted with karmic debt. Otherwise, I would have heard about it happening more often. Then, you would need to resolve that karmic debt through a magical means, which only exists in a high-level skill. That meant White Mages or Priests. I imagined Priests probably had their own version of Ablution.
Now, I had some kind of mimicry job. Perhaps, the fact that I was frequently changing my face and had been hiding my identity for the last few months also contributed to this unique job being unlocked. I decided to just count my blessings. I gave up Hero for a bit and equipped Mimic instead. The rest of the demons were fairly low level, but with the bonuses, they were enough that Hero went up to 21, and Demon Knight was up to 3. They’d be higher if either of these jobs had been support skills, but I couldn’t afford to concentrate on support right now.
By the time I finished looking at this new stuff, the skeleton had already turned to dust, becoming one with the dungeon again. Since he inflicted me with his karmic debt, I had a feeling he’d never respawn again. Since I was karmically selected as the messenger, I wondered how this dungeon would warp if I didn’t fulfill the role assigned to me.
As I was considering such things, I felt a nudge on my arm. I looked to my side to see the skeleton horse. He had seemingly returned and was now acting affectionate like we were long time friends. That’s when it dawned on me.
“You think I’m your Master, don’t you?”
I had taken on his Karmic debt, so now I appeared to be Drakus Lightking to anyone in this dungeon. I wondered if I looked like a skeleton to them. They seemed to be conscious that they were skeletons, although they were fighting on with the desires they possessed when they were humans. I cautiously touched the horse. He had no hair, and like his master, glowing white orbs were the only thing that indicated he was living at all. At least he had a saddle, so sitting on him wouldn’t be a problem.
I grabbed the reins and pulled myself up onto the horse. I had rarely ridden horses, and it had always been a disaster before. It was to the point where I was terrified of them and avoided them when I could. Now, I didn’t have any of that fear. That didn’t make me a better rider, but first of all, this horse was paired to me and attuned to me as its rider, and second, the horse was dead. I didn’t have to worry too much about things like kicking it too hard when it didn’t even have much of a body to kick.
We moved down the trail, unconsciously heading in the same direction that the skeleton had been heading before the attack. When I reached a break in the trees, I glanced at the distant castle. That was a castle that belongs to the Demon Lord Aberon. I didn’t find it a coincidence that Lord Aberis was the man who sent me there and Lord Aberon was the demon I needed to fight. The two demon lords had to have some kind of relation to each other.
“You said I needed an army, Drakus,” I muttered. “Then, let’s see about that.”
Chapter 706
Interested in seeing how this supposed dungeon story played out, I rode the horse in the direction that he had been going. It seemed like he knew which way we were heading, so I trusted it. Perhaps, my horse was still bound by karmic debt, unlike me.
Along the way, we were attacked many times. It turned out that the Sabertooth Feral had kept other monsters at bay. A horse didn’t intimidate them as the beast did. Maybe it had nothing to do with fear, and monsters just left monsters alone. The Feral might have just been covering up my stink or something.
As a result, I couldn’t move forward for more than thirty minutes before I ended up encountering something that wanted to stop me. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any more demon ambushes. Those might have been too powerful for me to handle safely. However, a few wolves or a shambling undead that didn’t appear to be part of any army were pretty simple to deal with. Since Mimic was such a low level, it went up to 5 fairly quickly. As for Demon Knight, it gradually increased to 6.
Mimic unlocked Disguise, Change Voice, Charm Up, and Copy Behavior. Meanwhile, Demon Knight unlocked Dark Slash, Dark Barrier, and Dark Light. Did they think just tossing Dark in front of the name of everything made it sound more demon-like? I seriously wanted to chastise whatever god came up with this world’s naming convention sometimes.
Finally, after a long day on horseback, I came before the fort we were heading to. At least, it was another fort guarded by the undead who wore the same colors as the last fort. This one was a bit bigger than the last one, and there was no chance I could approach it unseen. It was getting dark though, and I had a feeling the random encounters I was experiencing now would triple once it got dark. I didn’t think I could get any rest out here.
I just had to trust in this supposed Karma. After considering my options for another few minutes, I got off the horse and approached the fort slowly, giving them plenty of time to see me coming. I was very conscious of the arrows pointed at me, but I kept going as they didn’t immediately start firing. Once I reached the front gate, I stood there in silence for nearly a minute before there was a call.
“Who are you?” A voice called from the wall.
It was too dark now to see any faces up there. Plus, there were torches on the door that blinded me. Taking a deep breath, I called out.
“It is I, Drakus Lightking, come to deliver an urgent message!”
I decided to leave it at that. This would either work or it wouldn’t work. They’d either see me as a soldier like them, flesh or no flesh, or they’d see me as some kind of enemy. I fought the urge to close my eyes as I waited for a response.
When the door started to open, I let out a breath of relief. It looked like I was Drakus Lightking in their eyes. I had guessed right. Now, it was time to see what could be done about this dungeon!