2.In the depths of the earth

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

(???’s PoV)
I checked for signs of magic chanting by the opponent and immediately
hid behind a rock before counting to five.
I turned myself around and jumped out, and in my line of sight, in the
ruins of an underground city visible in the distance below the cliff, as
expected, the enemy had lost sight of me… Clad in luxurious armor and
holding a huge jet-black sword, but with its limbs crumbling in places
and its bones and muscles exposed, the one-eyed giant failed to
activate its magic, and became a sitting duck.
If the timing was even a little early, it would unleash a nasty magic that
inflicted fatal debuffs such as silence and fainting, while erasing all of
my support effects.
No matter how many times I had done it, my back would still be
nervous, but it seemed that I would be able to get through this time as
well.
“Sesto Siesto Zen Ma Na Dolor Lea Lea Lea Di Viega!” (TL: 10th grade
purification magic: O Light, Bring Down Thy Sword!)
The soprano voice that flowed from my mouth as if I were singing a
song, words that sounded like a string of meaningless words to the
casual observer.
Although it was embarrassing at first, once I got used to it, I practiced
all the frequently used magic I had learned over and over again until I
was satisfied that I could always call it up, because it eliminated the
need to look at the command or macro window each time and gave me
a wider field of vision.
I’d been holed up in this underground ruins for a month now.
The chanting, which I had repeated hundreds or thousands of times,
was finished in less than two seconds, and four spears of light appeared
around me.
The magic I used was “Divine Spear”, one of the few offensive magics I
owned in an otherwise purely support build with almost no means of
attack.
I learned this magic at the endgame of the Bishop subclass. It had a
delay after use that was somewhat non-negligible, but the cooldown
was relatively short, and it was extremely effective only against
enemies with specific attributes.
Initially, I could only summon one spear at a time, but after increasing
the skill proficiency to the maximum level, I could summon two of
them. In addition, by using two types of scrolls available from raid
bosses and pushing the skill limit, it was possible to increase the
number to the current maximum of four.
This skill had an unparalleled attack power (for the Priest class at least),
boasting one of the highest DPS among all classes only against undead,
demons and spirits.
Although there was the problem that it could only deal MP damage, it
was a very effective means of attack if the enemy was an undead type.
I had only five seconds until it came back to its senses and
counterattacked.
Guided by the system’s assistance, the spears of light rushed toward
the target.
Now!
As soon as my mouth began moving again, I began chanting a new
spell.
This time it was “Solid Ray”, a magic that negated one instance of
physical damage.
It was a defensive magic that last for a very short time and must be
used in conjunction with the enemy’s attack, but it had the advantage
of short chanting and no delay.
A protective wall composed of a lattice of light made up of many
hexagons was formed between me and the target, and at the same
time, the Divine Spears from earlier struck the giant in the distance,
reducing its HP, albeit slightly.
At this point, I could see my enemy, who had finally recovered and
grabbed a rock from its feet. I took a defensive stance and held out my
staff in front of me.
The next moment, a rock larger than my torso flew in front of me at a
tremendous speed, was bounced off the defensive barrier and
shattered.
Solid Ray had a major drawback: it could not prevent the collateral
damage and stun effects caused by attacks with high impact properties.
Although the direct damage was nullified, the impact slammed my
petite body into the wall a few steps behind.
My HP was stripped away like paper, and my HP gauge passed through
yellow into the deep reddish-orange range.
My whole body went numb, and I almost fell to my knees, but I
managed to use recovery magic to fully restore my HP. Eventually, I
rolled into the shade of a nearby rock to cut off the line of sight again
before the enemy magic came off cooldown.
…The enemy still had more than half of its HP left.
I was so close to my goal. I twisted away my mental energy and focused
my mind on the count in my brain.
“(pants heavily)… Is it… over?”
The series of monotonous rotations, which could collapse instantly if I
made a mistake, were repeated over and over again… until I found
myself looking down at the giant undead slowly collapsing in the
distance, just out of range of my anti-undead attack.
I supported my mentally fatigued feet by resting my body on the long
staff I held in both hands, and gazed in amazement at the level-up
effects shining brilliantly above my head.
When I opened my status window, the number 110, the upper limit of
my subclass “Bishop”, shone brightly in its column.
It’d already been half a year since I turned down my sister and my
friend’s proposal to go out with me and raise our level together, saying
that I wanted them to prioritize raising their own level.
Three months had passed since I promised them that I would catch up
with them as soon as possible, as they were worried that they could no
longer work together with me due to the level rollback.
The season had changed from winter to early summer, and with a sense
of frustration at having to keep them waiting, I inadvertently got caught
in a pitfall trap in a dungeon of an abandoned ancient city I visited in
search of undead enemies that I could hunt solo, only to find a hidden
room in an undiscovered underground city about the size of two Tokyo
domes.
When I used an appraisal item to see the level of the enemies roaming
around, I discovered this area was full of undead of the highest level.
Even stranger was that just beyond my initial landing point was a small
foothold with a gently sloped surface, which could be reached from one
end to the other in ten steps and was not invaded by the monsters.
Perhaps it was an accidental miscalculation, but the monsters were
unable to approach me due to their huge size and remained stuck in
the underground ruins.
Well, considering a single thrown rock would leave me at red HP even if
I cast defensive magic with all my might, it was almost a miracle that I
did not die at all up to this point. Though, I had to work on the very
edge of my routine every day.
If it had been a proper combat class character, they would have beaten
a monster here to death in a matter of seconds, but I lack the means to
confront the monsters face to face, and thus had to resort in such a
monotonous pattern of hunting.
In any case, it had been a little over 30 days in real time. I felt like my
real body would even get moldy.
Now, if only I could complete the event, I could finally catch up with my
sister and my friend who had completed their reincarnation earlier and
were waiting for me at the destination.
With a sense of urgency, I told them that I was going back to the city
and activated the teleportation gate, which all players can use only
once a day to travel to any city they have visited before, when an alarm
rang in my brain telling me that I only had 30 minutes left until the
eight-hour limit for continuous play.
There was a restriction in this game that if I were connected for more
than eight hours within a 24-hour period, I must log out for at least 12
hours, because of health considerations.
…Unfortunately, it seemed my time was up for today.
With surprise that more time had passed than I had expected and
disappointment that I had been put off before my eyes, I jumped into
the gate leading to the city where my friend, whom I had not seen in
the game for a long time, was waiting for me.