Chapter 11: How Did He Do It?
Though it was the first BOSS of the first dungeon… Eivass had long forgotten its name because it was too difficult to remember.
To avoid wasting his teammates’ time, Eivass always skipped all the cutscene CGs in these four-player dungeons.
He had no idea what Ademar looked like outside of combat. He only remembered him as a hunched giant with purple spiderweb-like markings on his skin.
Back then, they called Ademar “Little Purple.”
This was because he was the first enemy of the Transcendent Path. In the early game, players rarely encountered other BOSSes and NPCs with purple special effects, so they gave him a straightforward nickname.
He was called Little Purple because there was a “Big Purple” later in this dungeon. Another dungeon also had enemies called “Old Purple” and “Purple Sis.” By the time Version 2 was released and more Transcendent Path enemies appeared, they stopped using these names.
Along with his memories, the “Wicked Bartender’s” incredibly simple mechanics also returned—
Ademar was seen with his hands on the counter, his arms swelling at a visible rate, completely tearing through his sleeves.
He suddenly slammed his right hand down, incredibly fast, as if accompanied by a strong gust of wind.
“【Steadfast Demeanor】.”
Eivass, even before he swung his palm, preemptively commanded from behind.
The moment the order was heard.
Haina’s body moved on its own, before her mind could even process. The light halo in her pupils rapidly spun. She turned her sword horizontally, bracing the front half of the blade with her left hand. She lowered her center of gravity and pushed off the ground with her right leg, adopting a stance to brace for impact in the blink of an eye.
—Clang!
Though it was her palm against a rapier, it produced the sound of a giant hammer striking an anvil.
The blade, empowered by the Lawful Tactics of the Path of Authority, steadfastly blocked the blow!
Haina could clearly feel a mighty force rushing through the sword.
If she hadn’t reflexively obeyed Eivass’s command and used “Steadfast Demeanor,” she would have been sent flying backward, crashing into Eivass, who was sitting in his wheelchair behind her!
But at this moment, her body was like a firmly planted foundation, channeling all that power into the earth!
After the blow, she instinctively seized the opening in his attack and launched a sharp counterattack!
A backhand sword strike, slashing down along the underside of his recoiling right arm, all the way to his left shoulder.
Blood spurted out. The Wicked Bartender staggered back in pain, crashing into the liquor cabinet behind him.
Some wine bottles fell from the collision, shattering on the ground with a crisp sound.
She remembered her instructor’s teaching of “not to advance rashly” and instinctively wanted to return to her original standard stance.
However, Eivass issued a timely command.
“【Great Strength Blow】.”
—Is this really okay?
A fleeting thought of hesitation crossed her mind.
The Great Strength Blow required charging. She couldn’t move or block before swinging, and she couldn’t change her move after swinging. It was easy for a nimble enemy to dodge and counterattack.
According to her instructor’s teachings, this move should be used when confirming the opponent was unable to counterattack or dodge it, forcing them to defend—and then shattering their defense.
After gaining the advantage in the first exchange, she should use 【Grind Blade】 to temporarily increase the sharpness of her blade, or use 【Curse】 to leverage the opponent’s disadvantage with intimidation, making them further powerless. She needed to control the distance between herself and the opponent, not too close, not too far. She needed to keep the opponent within the range of the 【Charging Slash】 while ensuring there was enough open space behind her to retreat, dodge, or parry.
…Oh, no, Mr. Eivass was behind her. Should she move aside first?
But if she did that, wouldn’t she be exposing him…
While her mind was rapidly processing complex thoughts, Haina’s body moved on its own in that fleeting moment of distraction.
After receiving Eivass’s command, she took a deep breath, switched to holding her rapier with both hands, and hunched her back like a cat before a hunt.
After about half a second of charging, her figure shot forward.
A sharp and ice-cold white light, like a crescent moon, flashed through the air, and she cut the counter in front of the Wild Elf Bartender in half.
The immense impact froze the bartender’s body in place.
Even his left arm, which he instinctively raised to block, was severed!
His forearm bone had a gruesome break. His purple, swollen-looking left hand fell to the ground. The bartender let out a piercing scream, and the purple patterns on his body rapidly receded along their original paths.
The scream was so piercing that it startled Haina.
And his appearance after leaving combat made Haina unsure whether she should continue fighting him.
At this moment, Eivass’s solemn voice rang out again.
“Haina, move aside.”
She shifted her feet, deftly stepping half a pace to the side.
—Only then did the sound of a gunshot ring out.
The bartender’s left eye was pierced by the bullet, and blood bloomed from the back of his head, splattering on the wine cabinet behind him.
His body slowly slid down powerlessly, dragging a deep red bloodstain.
She hadn’t even seen where Eivass had hidden the gun. He remained seated in his wheelchair, motionless. Faint white smoke was still rising from his black cloak, and the corners of his mouth under the hood were slightly upturned.
From Eivass’s perspective, fine white light spots gradually appeared from the corpse and flowed into his body.
【Killed a Level 2 Extraordinary. Gained 14 Free Experience.】
Eivass let out a pleased smile.
Let me have the kill, thank you.
Although the direct monster kill experience in Ouroboros Ring is quite low, leveling up mainly relies on quests, crafting, buying and reading books, and daily dungeon rewards… but even a small gain is better than nothing.
Moreover, his level was currently low. The benefit of using free experience to boost his level was quite high.
This 14 points of free experience, combined with the 24 points from killing that Demon Scholar, could be evenly distributed among the Demon Scholar’s three skills, allowing him to level up four times.
He could also allocate some experience to his Priest profession, leveling it up to Level 2 to unlock a Path. Then, he could level up the Demon Scholar by three levels. This was the plan with the greatest short-term gain.
Alternatively, he could save some experience to learn other skills in the Path of Devotion—such as “Fire Worship,” “Illuminate Spell,” or “Blessing,” which were more useful and harder to level up than “Praying.” This experience could at least raise his Priest level to five. This was the most cost-effective way to improve in the long run.
After all, “Demonology Knowledge” could steadily level up simply by reading mysterious Demonology books. “Basic Praying” could be steadily improved by praying at least twice a day for three minutes each time. “Demonic Contract” even allowed him to slowly replenish his power from Shadow Fiends without doing anything.
Only “Basic Ritual” was a bit troublesome. The main issue was the word “Basic.”
Its rank was too low. The ritual Eivass used to create the “Blade of Shadow” was too high-rank, and it didn’t even benefit from the experience. Eivass genuinely couldn’t remember such low-rank rituals—rituals that required him to memorize formulas had to be ones he used frequently, or recipes he could profit from selling.
From this perspective, the Demon Scholar could level up even if left unattended. However, improving the Priest profession was much more difficult and basically required slow grinding.
If he could quickly advance his Priest profession to Tier 2, he could prove that he was “a person who enjoys devotion.”
Otherwise, why would his Path of Devotion progress so smoothly?
Is your Path of Devotion level higher than mine? If not, why should you say I’m not a good person?
This would be an invincible life-saving card! He could then naturally become a favored student, receiving preferential treatment and resources from the Seminary… This way, he wouldn’t be the “bad student who took three months of leave at the beginning of the semester,” but rather a “genius who was frail and often ill but pious and kind.”
However, 38 points of experience were a bit insufficient for this.
Eivass’s thoughts raced, and in an instant, he came up with a new wicked idea.
Haina stared at the corpse, completely dazed. Clearly, she wasn’t as nonchalant about killing someone as she claimed to be.
Before she could react and question why Eivass had suddenly killed the bartender, Eivass preemptively accused her, “Why didn’t you go for a decapitation just now? He couldn’t have defended against it.”
“…Huh?”
Haina’s mind went blank for a moment before she quietly explained, “Because he was much weaker than me. I saw that he had lost the ability to resist, so I thought I could capture him alive…”
Indeed. His combat intuition was quite sharp.
Eivass silently agreed with Haina’s assessment.
If things had ended there, and they had left with the captured Wicked Bartender, this case could have been closed.
However, Eivass couldn’t let the Inspection Bureau interrogate him—what if he exposed me?
Although the Moriarty Family had some influence, he wasn’t sure if his adopted son would be convicted if there was clear evidence.
So, Eivass shifted the topic, stating sternly, “Then did you notice? His first reaction when he saw you display your Path was to resist, even attack you.
“What does this mean? It means he had no intention of pleading guilty and surrendering!”
—Nonsense, a brutal criminal caught red-handed with a murder weapon, facing a lone policeman who found him, how could he just surrender? Even if he didn’t fight back, he’d at least try to escape.
Eivass grumbled inwardly.
But his expression remained unwavering.
He said word by word, “As soon as you engaged, or even before engaging, you knew he was much weaker than you. Wouldn’t he know that too? Since he knew, yet he actively resonated with his Path and attacked you—what does that signify?”
It signifies that he knew he couldn’t outrun you and, in desperation, decided to fight for his life.
Eivass thought to himself.
“…What does it signify?”
Haina hesitated.
She felt her mind go blank—if this were a test question, she felt she could provide a perfect answer after careful thought. But now, with the fresh corpse emitting a bloody stench, her heart felt unsettled.
“Think about it,” Eivass suddenly changed tack, “At the beginning, he said the food here was very expensive, wanting to dissuade us. This shows he didn’t want to confront the Inspection Bureau…”
“Yes, I understand.”
“But later, I only asked you to draw your sword, without even asking you to attack—under these circumstances, he took the initiative to attack you instead of fleeing or making excuses. Why did he dare to do that?”
“…So, he must have an ability that has a very high price to use, and thus cannot be used normally… but is also very powerful?”
Haina ventured a guess.
Eivass nodded with satisfaction: “Precisely.”
You know, he actually did.
This reasoning wasn’t wrong. It was also one of the reasons the Wicked Bartender chose to fight desperately, as he wasn’t entirely without a chance.
The Wicked Bartender’s Profession was the Transcendent Path of “Fiend.” When critically injured, he could instantly recover half of his maximum HP, then enter a demonized state with rapid health loss and all attributes enhanced.
It’s just that your damage was too high; two hits pushed him to the next stage.
Using correct information to arrive at a correct answer through incorrect reasoning. No one would suspect anything was wrong here—even when she brought the corpse back, the result would only be “Eivass’s judgment was correct.”
“…So that’s how it is!”
Haina was convinced: “Thank you, Eivass! You saved me!”
Eivass nodded solemnly, “Therefore, when facing brutal criminals, you must never hesitate. You might want to capture them alive, but they don’t think that way.”
See, she even had to thank me.
“What should we do now?” she asked, now accustomed to asking Eivass and obeying his commands. “Should we pack up the body and take it back?”
“No rush.”
Eivass pulled his cloak, saying calmly, “He’s not the mastermind behind this.
“The real culprit is in the basement of this bar. She’s been listening for a long time.
“No need for a direct confrontation—pour strong liquor under the door, then set the place on fire.”
“…Isn’t that a bit too wicked? What if she comes out?”
“Then you’ll deal with her.”
After repeatedly verifying Eivass’s correctness, Haina no longer had the subconscious urge to argue.
She simply looked expectantly at the basement, gripped her unsheathed rapier, and was eager to fight.
“…This is quite surprising.”
As expected, a woman’s voice then rang out from the direction Haina was staring.
She slowly pushed open the basement door.
It was a bald woman wearing a vibrant red robe, with a sturdy physique and pale white skin like a corpse. She was at least 1.7 meters tall. Her left arm, pushing the door open, was full of muscle, her chest was high, and a purple glow faintly shimmered in her pupils.
Haina tightened her grip on her rapier, lowered her center of gravity, and prepared to charge.
But then her pupils suddenly contracted, and she froze in place.
On the woman’s right arm, several purple runes appeared. She clenched her fingers as if holding a ball.
Ethereal spirits, like vengeful souls, coiled around her fingertips, and a pale gray mist, slightly bluish, gathered. It formed an irregular sphere about the size of a baby’s head. Visible chilling energy fluctuated like a heartbeat, and a deep, frigid gray wind, almost visible, rolled towards them in waves along the floor.
Haina didn’t recognize this spell. But she clearly felt the threat.
The woman held the charged magic sphere without attacking.
This was correct.
If she had thrown the sphere over, Haina could have dodged it at this distance. If she had used it to attack Eivass, Haina’s charge would have been unstoppable.
But Haina also didn’t dare to charge forward because she didn’t know the specific effects of this spell.
Taking this magic sphere at close range might lead to an immediate disadvantage.
So, she subtly stood in front of Eivass’s left but without blocking his firing line. The three fell into a brief standoff.
“…How did you know I was in the basement?”
The bald woman stared at Eivass expressionlessly and retorted, “Did I leave any evidence?
“…How did you do it?”
“Experience,” Eivass replied simply. Because there was more than one BOSS in this dungeon.
—Indeed, it was deduction again!
How could he possibly guess!
Haina beside him felt mentally invigorated and agitated.
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