【Raise the Dead】
THUUD─!
I stamped down and crushed the earth beneath my foot. A red wave spread outward from beneath my sole, licking across the clearing’s soil.
At that moment, the strength drained from my entire body.
It must have been my mana being consumed. I tensed both legs to keep myself from staggering.
The pack of wild dogs sprawled across the clearing slowly rose to their feet.
When I swept my finger downward, the newly risen creatures simultaneously pressed their bellies and hindquarters against the ground, as though they had agreed beforehand.
I pointed toward a tree.
The wild dogs immediately rushed forward and tore it to pieces.
CRAAASH-
The tree fell, sending clouds of dust and leaves billowing into the air.
I infused my voice with mana and intoned,
【Release】
The pack of wild dogs collapsed in a heap.
They looked like a crumbling sandcastle.
With that, my test of 【Raise the Dead】 was complete.
‘Can I consider this a success?’
It was difficult to say.
I had just controlled ten wild dogs in total.
I felt that I could control a few more if I pushed myself, but even then, the number of corpses I could command was clearly lower than the female Player’s.
Why?
The female Player had been Lv 23.
My Lv was 25, two levels higher than hers.
To be clear, Raise the Dead was not a skill whose mana consumption changed according to the type of corpse being raised.
‘Does that mean Lv is not everything?’
There was still a mountain of things I did not know.
At this rate, I would soon be hunted down.
I needed more information.
However, the Guide was hardly trustworthy.
It always answered my questions without resistance, but it was not helpful. Its answers were always based on the assumption that I already possessed some understanding of this world’s laws.
In other words, its information was overly summarized and filled with terms I could not understand.
‘Perhaps it is actually trying to torment me…….’
There would be no end to it if I began considering possibilities like that.
‘The Guide is not enough.’
I needed help from an existence other than the Guide—one that possessed a thorough understanding of this world.
It was time to use 【Necromancy】, the skill that bound a soul to my side.
However, wanting to use it was not enough.
I first had to satisfy its conditions.
Simply put, there were two.
First,
The soul I wished to bind had to possess a lower Lv than me.
Second.
I had to be less than 1m away from the soul.
I had given some thought to how much distance ‘m’ represented. Judging from its shape, perhaps it was roughly the width of two knees pressed together.
‘An existence with a lower Lv than me that is practically right beside me.’
There happened to be wild dogs nearby.
I approached one of them and allowed droplets of mana to fall onto its corpse.
At that moment—
【Would you like to summon the soul? Y/N】
A message appeared indicating that I could make the Monster my Familiar.
However, it would probably be incapable of speaking properly, so there was little reason to summon it.
‘Ultimately, it needs to be capable of conversation.’
That narrowed the possibilities to humans or similar beings.
Should I summon a Player?
Aside from how sickening the idea was, a Player would be the ideal target.
Unfortunately, I had realized something the moment I learned Necromancy.
Players could not be tamed.
I did not know the exact reason.
Perhaps the System had prohibited it.
‘Then should I summon an NPC like myself?’
The idea was tempting, but there was a problem.
I had been unable to summon the old man’s soul.
I could guess the reason. Although he was only an empty shell, his physical body remained intact.
‘That means I cannot summon an existence that died after the patch began.’
The target had to have died before then.
“…….”
I swallowed and turned my head.
A small flower bed filled with rosemary came into view.
It was the grave where Aunt Mari’s soul rested.
‘……I am only going to check.’
I stood before it and let red mana drip onto the flower bed as though I were watering it.
【Would you like to summon the soul? Y/N】
……It worked.
As expected, Necromancy could be used only on those who had died before the patch began.
Now that I had confirmed that fact, I should have stopped.
So why could I not look away from the screen?
‘What if Aunt Mari helped me……?’
I could not rid myself of the thought.
Of course, I knew what I was considering.
I would be disturbing Aunt Mari’s rest.
I would be forcibly dragging her into the hell where I remained.
It was the same atrocity the female Player had committed.
No.
It was even worse.
The female Player had controlled a complete stranger. I was considering forcibly binding someone who had been like a mother to me.
I understood that.
However, Aunt Mari had been wise.
She had not known much about Apothecary Crafting, but she had read many books and possessed great wisdom.
She also possessed a wealth of miscellaneous knowledge.
Above all, she had viewed the world from a completely different perspective than Master and me.
Whenever the two of us agonized over some problem, she would often casually present us with a solution as though it were nothing.
‘She would help.’
Simply borrowing her wisdom would be helpful.
And if Aunt Mari remained by my side, I felt that I could endure a little longer whenever something difficult happened.
I had pretended to be strong as I stormed out of the workshop, but I was still afraid and anxious about being alone.
I needed someone who would fight beside me, agonize beside me, and ease the burden of my emotions.
In the end, I took a long breath and reached toward the screen.
Several seconds passed.
“…….”
Nothing happened.
Because I had pressed ‘N’ at the last moment.
‘She would have helped.’
She could have scolded me whenever I began straying from the proper path.
She could have taken my hand whenever I sank into a deep mire.
She could have pushed me forward whenever I hesitated and given me an answer whenever I floundered.
But that was not particularly different from what Mental Stability Correction did.
Moreover, there was no possibility that Aunt Mari understood the laws governing this world.
She probably could not assist me in battle either.
Not that I wanted her to.
“I’m sorry for even considering it, Aunt Mari.”
It had been a pointless thought.
“……Wait, what is wrong with you, Aunt Mari? How long has it been since you died? Why are you still here? You are supposed to be resting.”
I deliberately filled my voice with irritation.
Perhaps that would make Aunt Mari feel a little better.
“Thinking about you keeps me from organizing my thoughts, so please move on to the afterlife or something. Do not linger around here…….”
I continued speaking in a curt voice.
Still, I hoped she understood that I missed her.
I had no idea whether my words would reach her.
‘……It is a pointless thought.’
I shook my head from side to side, casting away the distracting thoughts.
Then I dropped to the ground before the grave.
Perhaps it was because I had mistakenly believed I had glimpsed hope for a moment, but my mind had become even more tangled.
‘……There were not only two conditions.’
The target had to be a sentient being other than a Player.
It had to have died before the patch began.
It also had to be close to me.
Its Lv had to be lower than mine.
It had to possess a thorough understanding of this world’s laws.
And it had to be capable of helping me in battle.
An existence that fulfilled all those conditions……
【Patch in progress. 95%】
……existed.
Suddenly.
The existence came to mind without warning.
It was as though someone had forcibly shoved its name into my head.
‘……Wait. Does it truly fulfill every condition?’
The other conditions were one thing, but the Lv requirement bothered me.
No matter how I considered it, the existence that had come to mind could not possibly possess a lower lethality than me.
‘……No. There is a loophole…….’
Aunt Mari had died before the System intervened, yet I could still summon her.
That meant she satisfied both the distance and Lv conditions.
But the more I considered it, the stranger it seemed.
Lv represented lethality.
How could lethality be measured for the dead?
They could not kill anyone.
An evil spirit might be different, but there was no possibility that someone as kind as Aunt Mari had become one.
Even if she had, she had killed all the wild dogs, so it was time for her to move on.
Aunt Mari could not possess an Lv.
‘What if the dead are not assigned an Lv?’
The moment I formed that hypothesis, my heart began pounding.
It felt as though I had finally grasped a clue.
From my perspective, the System was an existence comparable to a god.
It had completely transformed the framework of this world and could summon even more Players without the slightest difficulty.
It had seized control of Amuse itself.
Then what had happened to the god that existed before it?
Where had the being once worshipped by the people gone?
‘There are two possibilities.’
The original god was the System.
Or the System had killed the god.
In other words, there was a fifty-percent chance.
‘It is more than worth attempting.’
I had nothing to lose if it failed.
Gripping the ring tightly with my left hand, I slowly recited the passage that represented ‘that being.’
“The one who created this world and watches over it.”
At that moment, the wind stopped.
“The great one who exists everywhere and nowhere.”
The insects fell silent.
“The noble one who willingly embraces evil and forever watches over us.”
Every sound in the world vanished, leaving behind only the beating of my heart.
Before uttering the final word, I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing.
“……Grid.”
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
‘As expected, it was foolish.’
Nothing happened.
The sounds of the world, which had seemed to stop for a moment, were returning.
It had all been my imagination.
But…… looking back, there was nothing to regret.
The fact that my mind had abruptly become filled with thoughts of Grid was unnatural from the start.
Why would someone who never prayed suddenly think of the existence of a god?
The chain of thoughts that had followed was equally idiotic.
A god was weaker than me?
Grid existed everywhere?
What utter bullshit.
There was no possibility that the Creator was inferior to a mere human.
Moreover, verses claiming that Grid existed everywhere were nothing more than words invented by someone. Naturally, there was no reason to believe they were literally true.
‘Something bewitched me.’
That was truly how it felt.
From the moment I thought of Grid, I had been consumed by the belief that ‘it was possible.’
It had completely dominated me.
Like a fanatic, I had blindly believed in that possibility.
In other words, every hypothesis I had proposed had been nothing more than choosing an answer in advance and forcing the reasoning to fit it.
From beginning to end, all of it had been absurd.
I had behaved unlike myself.
‘Let us give up on Necromancy for now.’
I was about to head toward the mountain behind the workshop to gather poison when a dark crimson screen appeared across my vision like dried blood.
It was the Guide.
There was no need to read what it said.
It is impossible for such-and-such reason.
It cannot be done because of this-or-that condition.
The command cannot be understood.
It was obvious that the answer would be something along those lines.
【Would you like to summon the soul? Y/N】
See? Just as I expected……………
“……………What?”
It worked……?
My hypothesis had truly been correct?
Then had Grid actually been killed by the System?
I did not know.
I could not understand any of it.
Regardless, it had worked.
I did not know why, but it had worked.
The fact that this was not a dream felt like a dream itself.
As I struggled with the disparity between my expectations and the reality before me—
WHIIIIIR—
The Guide trembled violently, and several of the letters on the red screen changed.
【Would you l■ke to summ■n the target? Y/N】
It was the same as before.
Just like when I became a Red Player, the letters were being corrupted…… No.
This was different.
The screen itself was not simply breaking.
SCREEEEEEEECH—!
The sound of space itself being scraped apart rang out.
Cracks resembling the Inventory split open everywhere around me.
FWOOSH-
At the same time, the air around me began shimmering like a heat haze rising from flames.
The ground beneath my feet rippled unsteadily like a swamp.
CRACK—!
The sound of shattering glass rang out.
Unknown symbols spread inward from the edges of the screen like black ink, devouring the original sentence.
【※…Would… you̴ like to… summ…o…n the target?† Y / N】
The entire screen convulsed as though suffering a seizure.
The letters split vertically and twisted as though they were being subjected to unbearable torture.
The world inside the screen.
The reality beneath my feet.
Everything was being distorted.
However, the Guide’s question remained unchanged.
【 W̴͞ou̴̕ld you l̴̖ike to summon the target? Y̸ / N̷ 】
It was asking whether I wanted to summon the target.
Even as it threw a fucking fit, shaking the earth and grotesquely twisting its own letters.
‘……Which answer is correct?’
The instant I pressed Y, the earth might split in half and swallow my body whole.
The instant I pressed N, the air might ignite and melt my flesh and bones in an instant.
My instincts told me that death awaited me regardless of which choice I selected.
They screamed at me not to do it.
Not to touch anything.
To let the sentence disappear on its own.
Then, at the very least, I would not be harmed.
Nothing would change.
‘…….’
Nothing would change.
I would continue floundering alone.
I would continue making foolish deductions alone, without understanding anything.
And eventually, a player would hunt me down.
I would slowly rot away while muttering idiotic lines, just like NPC Golden.
Regardless of which option I chose—even if I chose neither—if hell was all that awaited me……
‘……The old man told me to try something.’
There was nowhere farther for me to fall anyway.
BANG!
I slammed my fist into Y as though trying to shatter it.
At that moment.
The strength vanished from my body as though every blood vessel had torn free through my skin.
A portion of the mana flowing within me disappeared entirely, as though someone had taken an enormous bite out of it.
The Contract had been established.
FSSSSSS-
Black energy gathered above my palm.
It tangled together like a ball of thread and gradually formed a sphere.
It was small enough to hold in one hand.
[…….]
The sphere slowly floated above my palm and looked down at me.
It possessed no eyes, nose, or mouth.
Even so, it was unmistakably staring at me.
Our gazes met in midair and shattered.