Anyway, Arghalia, who had been called Scaramuccia, vanished into white particles.
Was it over?
Ding!
Just as I was wondering, a notification window appeared.
[Skirmisher, Scara!%+"+₩]
But static briefly flickered across that notification window.
[You have subjugated Arghalia, Prince of Katai.]
The notification corrected the bastard’s name before reappearing.
And with that notification as the last—
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up……….
Countless notification windows densely filled my field of vision.
The ceaseless chorus of dings that accompanied them was just a bonus.
Before I could even check those notifications,
new ones mercilessly shoved aside the existing windows and filled their places.
More than ever before, all I could see was notification windows.
I can’t even see in front of me.
Though I suppose that was only natural.
I might have used cheats, but I had defeated a Sword Master.
I had cleared an event designed for me to lose.
It was hardly strange for there to be this many notifications.
Let’s see. What are the rewards?
Just as I was about to check my inventory,
two hands brutally pushed through the notification windows blocking my view.
Those hands grabbed both my cheeks without mercy and held me in place.
With the flood of notifications pouring down without end, I could not make out the identity of the unwelcome visitor before me very well.
"You’re all right…?"
Judging by that uniquely flat voice that burrowed into my ears, it seemed to be Angelica.
At that moment, as though the system had finished all it needed to do, it erased the countless notification windows at once.
Once the windows obscuring my sight had fully cleared away, what filled my vision once more was none other than Angelica’s face.
Her face was as expressionless as ever…
but I could see the concern she had felt for me in her own way.
As she had said, my body was fine.
Perhaps because I had leveled up so much.
Or perhaps because of the blessing Iris had placed on me.
Either way, it did not look like I would need to be bedridden in the infirmary for three days like last time.
But then.
"Where are the others?"
"They’re coming."
Angelica answered me expressionlessly.
She did not look out of breath or anything.
But with Kafka there and Iris having been possessed by the Holy Maiden, the fact that Angelica had arrived first meant she must have run here at full speed.
So just how far had I flown?
Considering that Angelica had run at full speed and still arrived only after the fight was over,
I must have been blasted a long way from the library.
And no sooner had that thought crossed my mind than—
"You defeated him, Junior."
Iris arrived second, standing there with her brilliant golden hair streaming in every direction.
She clearly wore Iris’s face, yet she was in the Holy Maiden’s state, her expressionless face completely at odds with the girl who usually went around with such a radiant smile.
But upon closer inspection, the corners of her lips, too, had lifted ever so slightly.
"I really almost died this time."
When I grumbled softly, the Holy Maiden opened her mouth.
"You actually……"
She had been about to say something, but then she furtively gauged Angelica’s reaction and shook her head.
"No, it’s nothing."
Just as I thought.
Much like how the [Oath of Chivalry] gauge did not change even after a Retry, it seemed the Holy Maiden was unaffected by Retries as well.
Iris and Angelica would not know that I had Retries twenty-eight times.
Rather than bring it up and confuse them, she must have judged it wiser to keep quiet.
And if Professor Luke had fled here on his own earlier, like he did in the original game, I would not have had to go through this hell.
Why the hell hadn’t he come?
‘Scaramuccia’ was, quite literally, a boss for a losing event.
He was not a character the player was meant to defeat; he was a boss designed from the start for the player to lose against.
Even if the headmaster had sealed his Aura Blade and someone had cut off one of his arms, he was still a Sword Master who had reached the rank of a superhuman.
Even with his abilities diminished, he was around level 70.
It was only because I had cheats that it was possible at all. Without Professor Silves or Brother Cassian, there was no way the protagonist’s party—who were at most around level 40—could have defeated Scaramuccia.
But Professor Luke had not come.
Could it have been because of the Holy Maiden?
There were differences between the game and now besides me.
The Holy Maiden standing right in front of me was one of them.
Holy power was the natural bane of the undead.
Especially holy power pure enough to create a ring with the ability to revive someone once.
I figured that even Professor Luke would have had difficulty approaching.
Then.
I briefly pulled Angelica’s hands away from my cheeks, which she was still kneading,
and opened my status window to check the rewards I had received before the others got here.
Ding!
【Ian de Logres】
◈ Level: 47
◈ Titles: Rival of the Sword Demon, One Who Surpassed the Impossible
◈ Traits: [Dragon Strength], [Insight Eye], [Oath of Chivalry], [Flower of Chivalry], [Knight Slayer], [Time Sense]
◈ Stats
Body: 306 | Mana: 125
Luck: 10 | Mental Strength: 30
Aura: 70 | Spirit Power: 0
(Current SP: 50)
▶[Skills]
The UI of my status window was noticeably longer than before.
I had gained one new title, two additional traits,
and even my level had risen by a full ten.
First, deciding what to do with my SP was a problem…
I found myself seriously debating whether to invest a little in Spirit Power or dump it all into Aura.
Focusing on Mana to raise my physical stats themselves also seemed like a decent option.
‘Still… I’ll go with Aura.’
I invested all my remaining SP into Aura.
To learn and make use of that secret technique from Angelica, raising my Aura stat was more effective than increasing either my physical stats or Mana.
Spirit Power was not especially useful anyway.
Unlike other spirits, Kafka was not the kind of being maintained through Spirit Power.
I would need Spirit Power to use skills related to spirits, of course.
But for now, learning Aura-related skills was more efficient than learning spirit skills I could not even use properly.
Then.
Shall I check the title now?
The title I had obtained was called One Who Surpassed the Impossible.
A title gained after Rival of the Sword Demon.
But it was an unfamiliar title I had never seen before.
It had never appeared in the twenty-nine playthroughs of Dawnstar Academia.
Judging from the name, it seemed to be a title earned by defeating an enemy who should have been impossible to beat…
But that did not add up.
If that alone were the requirement, there was no way I could have failed to see this title over the past twenty-nine playthroughs.
After all, while playing Dawnstar Academia, I had not only cleared it without equipment, but also defeated bosses while piling on every kind of nerf imaginable.
Yet I had never seen this title even once.
Which meant there was only one possibility left.
It was a title granted only for clearing a losing event.
After all, the only events in this game that I had never managed to break were the losing events.
I clicked on the title section.
[One Who Surpassed the Impossible]
A title bestowed upon one who battles and defeats an enemy that cannot be defeated.
◈ Your stats increase in proportion to the health you have lost.
◈ Your stats increase the more extreme the level difference.
◈ You do not become intimidated.
This is good.
It was an incredibly good title.
Unlike Rival of the Sword Demon, which had granted an experience buff, this title clearly provided a combat buff.
Its effects were that my stats increased in proportion to health lost, and that my stats increased with extreme level gaps, much like [Flower of Chivalry].
The disappointing part was that, unlike [Flower of Chivalry], it required a level difference.
That meant it had no effect against opponents at the same level.
It would be completely useless when sparring with Angelica.
But what did it mean by not becoming intimidated?
That was vague.
I’ll leave that aside for now.
I pressed the traits tab.
A trait window popped up from where I had pressed.
Two of them were sparkling at the top, as though announcing that I had just acquired them.
[Knight Slayer]
You have slain a Sword Master, one of the Stars of Knights.
Now, more than anyone else, you will find it easier to slay knights.
◈ Damage dealt to Aura users increased by 40%.
◈ Ignore 33% of the defense of heavy armor wearers.
◈ Ignore 20% of the defense of light armor wearers.
I had seen [Knight Slayer] before.
It was a trait obtainable by killing thirty Aura users or one Sword Master.
It was a useful trait that increased damage dealt to Aura users by 40% and allowed me to ignore a portion of the defense of armored opponents.
This will come in handy when sparring with Angelica.
But [Time Sense]…
[Time Sense]
One journey through time, followed by twenty-eight Retries.
As a result, you have become able to sense time itself.
◈ You are immune to all external abilities and effects that interfere with time.
◈ You can acquire time-type skills.
◈ However, temporal reversal caused by Dreamland is designated as an exception.
This was a trait I had never seen before.
I could sense time?
It had not appeared in the game, where I could Retry hundreds of times.
Come to think of it, I remembered Isabella having a similar trait.
Was it [Regressor’s Sense]?
It was a trait that rendered all time-type abilities completely ineffective against her and gave her the talent to acquire time-type magic.
It possessed abilities similar to the [Time Sense] I had acquired.
That was why, unlike Iris, Ars, and Dante, Isabella could learn absurdly overpowered magic like time stop.
Ah, so that was why neither Kyle nor Isabella had been affected by Retries.
I had thought they were unaffected simply because they were regressors.
This was another good trait.
Time-type skills were not especially common.
But the final bosses who appeared in the later episodes used time-type skills such as time stop by default.
And I was not merely immune to them—I could learn time-type skills that went beyond magic.
Of course, compared to [Regressor’s Sense], the requirements might be more demanding, since I did not possess the talent itself, only the condition to acquire such skills.
But that did not matter much to me, since I had [Insight Eye], which let me acquire a skill after seeing it once.
"Um, Ian? Did you hurt your head?"
Then.
At Angelica’s cautious question, I nearly bit my tongue without realizing it.
Had I been too focused?
When I looked at Angelica, she was expressionlessly reaching out to place her hand on my forehead.
I must have looked rather strange.
Angelica could not see my status window, so from her perspective, I must have looked like a madman staring into empty space and waving his hands around.
The Holy Maiden, on the other hand, showed no particular reaction.
Then again, she would naturally know about the existence of status windows.
No matter what I did to empty air, she did not seem to find it strange.
Well, shall we stop here?
"———Ian!"
Dante’s voice called my name from afar.
‘Ian. Are you okay?’
And Kafka’s telepathy entered my mind, so it seemed the others would arrive soon as well.
I thought I should close the status window now, but still.
Let’s at least check my inventory.
I had seen notifications saying I had obtained something.
When I opened my inventory, countless bluish square slots poured into view.
SMAAAAAAACK—!!!
A round object that burst out of one of the open slots struck me square in the face.
Fuck.
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