—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The Mystic Island Investigation Committee, as part of its final phase, had arranged for the Dean of Clarice, who usually worked at the Imperial Palace, to make an official appearance.
I promise to reveal the truth…
He was an elderly man named Dorman Tedeylov, known as a war hero and appointed dean for his contributions to the academy. Of course, this was all a lie.
His true form was the Great Demon Belial, and his purpose was to act as a bridgehead to completely take over Clarice Academy.
‘Humans are so annoying. It’s so hard to play the part of an old man, you know?’
The first thing Belial did after arriving at the academy was to show the Great Demon, Paimon, the sanctuary in the central magic tower.
Yesterday, he had solidified the school’s stance on the Mystic Island incident and clarified the progress, focusing on calming the anxious families of the students. It was a rather tedious task.
He had no interest in how many of his creations died, so he didn’t feel like explaining, and besides, it was the demons themselves who had caused this mess.
‘But it’s quite fun to deceive them, isn’t it?’
Of course, it was bearable when he saw these foolish people worshiping the dean of Clarice as a hero and a problem-solver.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm…~.”
Belial’s next destination was the Seraphi Black House. The dormitory where the brats who had defeated Marchosias on Mystic Island were staying.
‘What kind of brat, or bitch, was it that finished off Marco?!’
The death of Marchosias, assassinated in his own domain in Pandemonium, was an unprecedented and shocking event even in Hell, so the demons also needed to investigate the truth.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Welcome, Dean.”
A female student with a refreshing aura greeted Belial.
“Ho.”
“I am Yeriel Artina, the dorm prefect of Seraphi.”
As Yeriel introduced herself, she looked at the dean’s deeply wrinkled face and felt a little uneasy.
‘Is it because of what happened then…’
He was a rather gentlemanly old man, but… because of the Umberto incident, she didn’t feel very comfortable. But this time, she had been informed that the dean was coming to commend them, and Selena was also inside, so she wasn’t alone.
“Ahem!”
Belial, satisfied with the scent of a maiden, cleared his throat and said, “A student as a dorm prefect, that’s interesting. You actually live here, I see?”
“Yes.”
After savoring Yeriel’s short answer, Belial took out a diary bound in high-quality leather from his pocket and slowly read it.
“Good… The resident students are Selena Windforce, Lily Forgêt… Aria Bluebell. And…”
“It’s me, Yeriel Artina, and Lev Denec.”
“Very, very~ excellent students. I’d like to meet them all.”
“Thank you… If you give us notice, we will make arrangements…”
As Yeriel expressed her thanks,
‘…’
‘…?’
Belial stared at her for a long time and then couldn’t help but say,
“Shall we shake hands first?”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Woooong…!
On the circulating train heading to Seraphi Hall, I recalled the settings of Reincarnated Hero. A ‘perk’ was a piece of content that enhanced a specific ability in an RPG-like game.
In short, it was an additional passive skill.
Actually, the treatment of perks in the closed beta of was a bit ambiguous. Since each character had their own passive skills and traits, the perk system wasn’t really necessary.
However, in an attempt to try out experimental elements, the concept of a ‘passive shared by all characters’ remained as a basic perk, limited to the closed beta version.
For example, the perk I had milked dry: attacks on an unaware enemy are always critical hits and deal increased damage. And the perk that dealt additional damage equivalent to a critical hit when attacking a weak point.
These perks were basically hidden, with no detailed information available…
I remember that the veteran players and the game forums had tried to figure out what perks were in the game. Of course, all of this, with the subsequent patch versions…
‘…was integrated into the character’s basic passive.’
Anyway, as I was thinking about these things, by the time I arrived at the Seraphi Black House…
“!”
A man who looked like the dean of Clarice. No? It was the Great Demon Belial, talking to Yeriel.
‘Stay calm.’
This was somewhat expected. The demons didn’t know who had killed Andras, Bune, and Marchosias, or how. But if he messed up the plan here and went on a rampage to kill me… it was game over.
“Oh…! Lev!”
Yeriel’s face lit up when she saw me.
“Ahem. Ahem…!”
“Yeriel, I’m back… uh… who… are you?”
I saw Belial awkwardly clearing his throat and immediately responded with my best pathetic acting.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Ah, Lev. The dean is visiting…!”
“Hello, Dean. Welcome.”
‘What’s with this guy…’
With the man’s interruption, Belial had no choice but to withdraw his outstretched hand.
‘Forget it, this one, she’s… different.’
It was no wonder they were suspected of killing Marchosias. The feeling he got from Yeriel was not ordinary. She possessed a level of magical circuitry rarely seen in a student.
She might even be stronger than the imperial mages or the mediocre professors of Clarice.
‘I need to see her magic myself to figure out the source…’
He had offered a handshake to try and gauge it.
“Dean? Are you… not going to acknowledge my greeting?”
“Ah, yes.”
But a good-for-nothing with no discernible power kept interrupting and talking to him.
‘This creation is nothing, so why does he keep…?’
“Dean.”
And he called out to Belial with a serious expression.
“What is it now?”
As Belial showed his displeasure behind a smile,
Slide.
…he smiled foolishly and politely held out something with both hands.
It was a blank piece of paper. White paper.
“An autograph… ah, please sign here.”
“…?”
“I’m a huge fan of war heroes.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“You have a pretty sturdy body for an old man, Dean.”
“I’d like to have a manly duel with you, Dean!”
“Dean! Would you like to sleep in my room?!”
“Dean, then at least have a meal before you go! It’s my turn to do the dishes today, you know? How about a dishwashing bet…!”
‘How do you like a taste of my incompetence?’
The setting for the dean of Clarice in was gentle and kind. I used this to annoy him, who had to act the part.
“It’s fine. It’s alright.”
“Haa, haa. It’s fine.”
“I said it’s fine!”
“Sigh… I’ll come back another time…”
With the demon’s deep sigh, I succeeded in getting him to leave for today.
‘That was a close call, though.’
I felt a flash of killing intent from time to time. His muscles twitched, he occasionally gritted his teeth, and his eyes sometimes looked like a murderer’s. He wouldn’t kill me nicely the next time we met. Well, I had no choice.
The moment he touched Yeriel, Belial would have noticed the Fallen Angel’s curse on her.
Flop.
I lay on my dorm bed and stared at the ceiling. Time was running out. I had… one more chance. Of course, the demons’ intentions were still obvious.
To approach us one by one to gauge our combat power, and to identify the one who killed Marchosias.
‘The problem is that he’s… ridiculously strong.’
Since he was in human form, the Belial-specific pattern analysis status window didn’t pop up, and when I used my Demon Eye on his back…
…it appeared, so I couldn’t even check his stats. If he had a Soul Spring that made him immune to Exorcism, like Marchosias… the plan would fail, and a full-scale demonic offensive would follow.
“I have to kill him at the most opportune moment.”
For a moment, Edwin, with his execution attribute, crossed my mind.
‘Good.’
There was no need to worry about whether the assassination would succeed or not. I would make it succeed. I took a deep breath.
‘Crossbow proficiency.’
I first popped up the status window.
Ding.
‘Choose reward.’
In the unfinished closed beta, there was no way to obtain other perks besides the default ones. However, there was one exception: when you maxed out your weapon proficiency, you were given a one-time reward.
I had reached the highest level of crossbow proficiency, 9, during the last battle with Marchosias, and I had remembered what I had forgotten while at the cafe with Yellody.
‘It should have notified me…’
Tiririring…!
Anyway, I focused on the reward window that appeared in front of me.
“I have to choose the one with the highest potential…”
.
.
.
“Skip the basic ones…”
The constant effect activation type had no penalty and could be gradually enhanced using SP, so it was the most stable, but that also meant its growth potential was limited. That wasn’t enough.
Therefore, what I had to focus on was…
…the [Activate on Condition] type.
As I had thought before, like the basic perk that made attacks on unaware enemies critical hits, my main target was things that gave a sweet return if the condition was met.
Ding.
‘Nope, not that.’
After filtering out the flashy but useless traits, I scrolled down for a long time.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“Oh…?”
I let out a short gasp and immediately chose Sharpshooter.
Ding.
The trait that increased damage in proportion to the distance… seemed so ordinary that it didn’t look like much. But it wasn’t.
If the constantly activated perk was enhanced and leveled up with SP, then…
Ding.
…the conditional activation perk could be enhanced by adding a penalty.
‘Time to custom-build a one-shot kill.’
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
