I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 59

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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What I discovered was a ring worn on the right index finger of a completely dried and twisted corpse.

It was close to silver with an overall grayish hue, and on the top, intricate patterns were engraved.

Despite a considerable amount of time having passed, it hadn’t lost any of its original luster.

This was the item needed to progress the next part of the main story.

That was why Arachnae was a boss that had to be defeated as a mandatory part of the story progression.

Ignoring the terrible feeling of touching that finger, I grasped the hand of the completely dried and twisted corpse.

If I just took this ring, there would be no need to come back here again.

‘I probably can’t take the whole corpse.’

Even in-game, when interacting with this spot, the character would only take the ring.

The story would still progress fine that way.

Moreover, the corpse was firmly attached to the wall by spider webs.

Even if I couldn’t tear it off with my strength, the knight commanders might be able to, but there was a high possibility of the corpse being damaged in the process.

Rather than taking it with us while shattering a part of it, it was better not to take it at all.

‘…But why won’t it come off?’

I struggled for a while, trying to pull the ring off the finger.

I thought it would be easy since it was on a completely dried and twisted corpse, but it didn’t budge at all as if it were glued on.

I put more strength into my hand.

Then I felt the ring slowly coming off.

My arm trembled.

Since the ring was gradually being pushed out, if I just put a bit more strength in this stateㅡ

ㅡPop.

‘Huh?’

The ring came off.

The problem was, the corpse’s finger came off with it.

“……”

After blankly staring at the shattered finger for a moment, I discreetly placed it back between the spider webs.

I decided to pretend I didn’t see it.

After going through some trouble to remove the ring from the finger, I put it in my potion pouch and carefully stored it before exiting the cave.

In the distance, I saw the knight commanders who had finished dealing with Arachnae waiting for me.

Lizé smiled brightly and waved at me.

“You’re quite late. What were you doing?”

Perhaps they had settled on bringing the head as proof of subjugation after contemplating what to bring, but Claudia’s hand was holding Arachnae’s severed head.

I took out the ring from my potion pouch and placed it on my palm.

Three pairs of different gazes focused on my palm.

“I went to get this.”

“This is……”

Erica seemed to know something.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Do you know something, Erica?”

“Yes. This is the emblem of an aristocratic family. Just a moment. Which family was it……”

The knight commanders were lost in deep thought.

Originally, this was an event that occurred after returning to the knighthood and showing them the ring, but now that we had all come together to subjugate Arachnae, it seemed to start here.

Of course, I knew which family it was.

However, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that the name might have changed, so I quietly waited for Erica’s words.

No, rather, if I looked back on everything that had happened so far, it would be more accurate to assume it had definitely changed.

At this point, it would be faster to find what hadn’t changed rather than what had.

“I remember now. It’s Pratroid. It’s definitely the emblem of the Pratroid family.”

‘As I thought.’

It was a name I had never heard before.

“But… why was a ring symbolizing that family discovered here?”

“Why do you think?”

I pointed to the corpses scattered all over the walls.

Each and every one of them had a shriveled appearance, their blood completely drained, and they were firmly attached by spider webs.

Some had swollen bodies here and there.

Understanding my meaning instantly, the expressions of the knight commanders stiffened.

“…I understand. For now, let’s take this ring with us. I’ll send a letter to the Pratroid family later.”

Erica spoke in a slightly subdued voice.

Claudia tightened her grip on Arachnae’s head, and Lizé also bit her lip slightly.

“Yeah. Got it.”

One of the knight commanders would send a letter to the Pratroid family, and the main story would progress as the player personally visited there to deliver this ring.

If the ring couldn’t be obtained, the path to exit wouldn’t even open, so it was safe to say there was no way for the player to overlook the ring’s existence.

Even if there was a player who couldn’t find the hidden passage, they would eventually discover the cave while wandering around the boss room, unable to find the exit, and enter it thinking it might be the way out.

“Ah, finally we can return to the castleㅡ?!”

Suddenly, Claudia tried to say something but stopped mid-sentence and covered her mouth with her hand.

Our gazes focused on Claudia.

Claudia coughed roughly as if she were about to vomit her guts out.

“Cough! Hack, hack!”

As soon as I heard that coughing sound, cold sweat ran down my back.

A thought crossed my mind: Could it be?

“Claudia. What’s wrong? Are you hurting somewhere?”

“…No. I just suddenly started coughing a bit. It must be because the air here is bad. I’ll be fine once we go outside.”

“You don’t look fine at all. Your complexion is serious, you know?”

Lizé and Erica each made a remark with worried expressions.

Their worries were justified.

If my thoughts were correct, Claudia was definitely not fine right now.

“Why are you all like that? I’m really fine, I’m telling you. I just need some fresh air outside.”

Claudia forced a smile and made excuses, but the cold sweat beading on her forehead showed that her condition was not fine at all.

“Since you’re not fine, hand that over first.”

“Huh? Delta, you……”

I snatched the Spider Queen’s head from her hand.

As soon as I took the head, Claudia sat down on the ground powerlessly, unable to even finish her sentence.

Perhaps she no longer had the strength to hide it, as her breathing noticeably quickened.

“Lizé. Can you hold this for me?”

“What on earth is going on? Why is Claudia suddenly like this?”

“I told you that their bodily fluids were coated with deadly poison, didn’t I? So I also said not to make contact under any circumstances if you didn’t want to get poisoned.”

“…Don’t tell me?”

I nodded emphatically.

“That’s right. It’s poisoning.”

Poisoning was one of the status ailments caused by normal poison and deadly poison in Brightest Darkness 4.

Once poisoned, a percentage of health would be depleted for the duration.

In the case of normal poison, 50% of maximum health would be lost over 3 minutes, and in the case of deadly poison, 85% of maximum health would be lost over 3 minutes.

Since it was proportional to maximum health, one might think it would be advantageous to have lower HP, but there was a minimum damage, so it wasn’t necessarily the case.

In fact, the duration of poisoning was so long that it was hard to find a situation where someone would die from poison damage unless it was quite severe.

Based on normal poison, 50% of maximum health would be depleted over 3 minutes, so the damage per second was a mere 0.2% of maximum health.

Even for deadly poison, the damage per second was slightly less than 0.5%.

However, the true terror of poison lay in its ability to restrict the player’s movements.

Every 15 seconds, normal poison would cause a 1-second coughing fit, and deadly poison would cause a 2-second coughing fit, rendering the player unable to take any action.

What if the coughing fit occurred during combat?

You would simply die.

That was the very reason why the duration of poisoning was as long as 3 minutes.

“…I’m sorry. For being in this state.”

“It’s something you obviously have to do, so stop saying you’re sorry. If you say it one more time, I’ll tell Erica.”

Claudia repeated her apologies weakly while being carried on my back as we left the valley.

She seemed to be quite bothered by it.

There were reasons why I was carrying Claudia instead of leaving it to Lizé and Erica.

In terms of pure strength, Lizé and Erica were far stronger than someone like me, but their height was a hindrance.

Claudia was exceptionally tall, while Lizé and Erica were not.

Erica was precisely the average height for a woman, and Lizé was even shorter than Erica.

Due to the difference in height, if Claudia were to be carried by either of them, it would result in an uncomfortable posture for both.

So I, being taller than Claudia, had no choice but to take on this role.

Even for me, carrying one person on my back was sufficiently manageable.

We returned to where we had tied the horses and leaned Claudia against a nearby tree.

Her entire body was drenched in sweat, her arms and legs hung limply, and her complexion was seriously bad.

“Hack, hack!”

She would also cough as if her lungs were being torn apart.

‘I should have prepared items that could cure poisoning before starting the boss fight.’

I had thought that with the knight commanders’ skills, there would be no issues since I had taught them how to handle most unexpected situations.

That assumption was the root of the problem.

Of course, in reality, there were no issues.

That is, until a series of extraordinary coincidences piled up and things got complicated.

Who could have imagined that a situation that was difficult to aim for intentionally would occur at that exact timing?

‘The symptoms should be the same as in the game.’

In the game, it just caused some coughing and depleted a portion of maximum health. But here?

Would it end with just some health loss here as well?

‘I don’t know.’

There was nothing I could be certain about.

“Riding a horse in that condition……”

“It’s absolutely impossible alone. Erica, you return to the castle first and try to find a way. Delta will ride together with Claudia, and I’ll escort you from the side.”

Lizé and Erica had a serious conversation.

The atmosphere was extremely solemn.

“I’m too… tall… I’m sorry… If it were Lizé… she could have fit snugly in Delta’s arms, hack……”

“Are you joking even in this situation, Claudia? We’re being serious, so please keep your mouth shut.”

Claudia made a joke with a hollow laugh.

It seemed to be her way of trying to lighten the mood, but it had the opposite effect.

Erica let out a deep sigh.

“Is there no way, Mr. Delta?”

She seemed to be trying to place her last bit of hope on me.

There was a slight expectation in her gaze towards me.

“It’s not that there isn’t.”

Brightest Darkness 4 was a difficult game, not an unreasonable one, so in places where monsters that used poison and deadly poison appeared, consumable items that cured the poisoned state were often dropped together.

‘The problem is the Darkest Light Mod.’

However, the Darkest Light Mod was unreasonable.

Originally, herbs that functioned as antidotes for deadly poison could be obtained in bulk near this area.

They even regenerated after a certain time, so if time permitted, it was possible to stock up on them indefinitely.

But it wasn’t the case in the Darkest Light Mod.

First of all, the ones near Arachnae’s boss room had completely disappeared, and only after going quite far could one barely acquire one, which didn’t regenerate, so it ended after being consumed once.

If your skills were such that you would get a status ailment from a mere early-to-mid game boss, it meant you should just die from the poison.

‘…I wonder how far the distance is.’

I knew the direction.

The important thing was how far it was from here.

“If we go in this direction, we can obtain an herb for detoxification. However, I don’t know how far we need to go. It could be an hour, two hours. Or even more than that.”

“The time doesn’t matter. The point is that there’s a way, right?”

When I nodded, Lizé seemed to have made up her mind and had a determined expression.

I could easily predict what she was going to say, so I prepared to go and find the antidote.

“Erica, get ready. We need to go find the antidote. If it’s as Delta said, there must be an antidote in that direction, so before returning to the castle, firstㅡ”

“It seems you need help?”

An unfamiliar voice I had never heard before came from somewhere.

Lizé and Erica drew their weapons faster than the wind and remained vigilant in all directions.

Flames flickered on the Japanese sword, and ice formed on the twin daggers.

I was the same.

Since it was a situation I had never experienced before where someone else appeared here, I gripped the blood-stained sword while being extremely tense.

“Who said that? Answer or reveal yourself. Otherwise, we will consider you an enemy.”

“We’re a bit short on time right now, you know? If you don’t want to fight, it’s best for you to come out quickly.”

A menacing atmosphere lingered in the air.

If it were a normal situation, they might have acted a bit more leniently.

However, since Claudia had been poisoned and time was of the essence, such reactions seemed to emerge.

“Oh my, how scary. I kindly offered to help, so there’s no need to get angry, is there?”

The confrontation didn’t last long.

From behind a nearby tree, a woman walked out, pushing through the bushes.

It was a woman with blonde hair and green eyes.

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