How to Survive Against Villains Chapter 101

Chapter 101: Awakening

“This one and this one—Dorneth will definitely like them.”

“Really?”

I handed her a decent-tasting sandwich as I got up, and she seed to love it.

It wasn’t anything special, just a sandwich made using a recipe I had shared.

Because I enjoyed camping as a hobby, I wasn’t a professional by any ans, but I was good enough to whip up simple dishes and often ended up in charge of cooking.

Since this was the territory of the dwarves, their food options were fairly monotonous—bread was just bread, and at was just at. When I made a sandwich with the ingredients in the basket and handed it to her, the response was unexpectedly enthusiastic.

From then on, I tried different recipes and brought various foods, and they turned out to be surprisingly tasty—perhaps due to my dexterous hands.

‘Is a sandwich really that fascinating?’

It was simply a mix of the bread, at, and vegetables they already had.

The Lady of Beneta showed interest in the sandwich, and the recipe began spreading little by little among the servants. Trends definitely seed to flow from the top down.

Seeing how fast food that we treated as mundane back in my world was being taken as a groundbreaking change here made pause to think about ways to leverage modern knowledge.

But that thought quickly went into the ntal trash bin.

Even if I used modern knowledge to develop the territory, it would all be for nothing when a calamity struck.

In a world like this, everything could be wiped away with a single wave of a hand.

Rather than wasting ti on such ideas, I figured it would be much more beneficial to spend that ti learning one more thing from Reto.

“I need to hurry and give these to Dorneth!”

Of course, there was a small benefit to this.

Ever since she started making sandwiches to give to Dorneth, the number of tis he glared at had significantly decreased.

The lord, who wielded the hamr of the frozen tundra, couldn’t even show his displeasure to the woman in front of him and instead sent his grumbling heart my way by dispatching skilled dwarven artisans to . It was absurd.

And don’t even get started on the steel clubs.

He seed to have deliberately crafted them to be excruciatingly painful.

“Do you have any really spicy ingredients? Sothing extrely spicy?”

“Well, Apal seeds are incredibly spicy, but…”

“That’s it. Put a ton of them in and give it to Dorneth. He’ll get to try a new flavor.”

“Are you sure about that?”

It’s not like he’s the type to spit out food because it’s spicy.

Oh, just wait, you damned dwarf.

This petty little act of revenge was amusing, but I needed to find a way to deliver a bigger blow. The question was whether I’d ever get the chance.

After all, he was stronger than for now, and before dealing with him, I had to deal with Fenry first.

Fenry had to co first, no matter what.

Ah, is it finally ti to steal so snacks again?

“Don’t tell training is already over?”

Sharbadin, leaving the training ground, was visibly surprised when he noticed I was following behind him.

It was typically the ti I would be practicing with my bow.

“As you can see, my arm is like this. I need to head back to my quarters.”

“Oh, your arm… Shall I call for a healer? It looks serious.”

“This much will heal with just so spit.”

“…….”

I waved awkwardly with my twisted wrist as if to send him off, and Sharbadin chuckled awkwardly before quickly heading off to find Dorneth. I briefly made eye contact with Natone, who was walking with him, but he shook his head in disapproval.

“What’s with those reactions?”

I shrugged and turned to leave.

Before heading back to my quarters, I decided to wash up first.

The water stung my wrist terribly, but I hated the feeling of being dirty even more.

I briefly debated asking the attendants for help, but in the end, I felt more comfortable washing up alone.

After all, I couldn’t picture won scrubbing my body for just yet.

Not to ntion, they’d probably freak out if they saw the scars.

“Ah, now I feel alive.”

As the traces of blood-stained gri were washed away in the cold water, it felt like I’d reached heaven.

With the filth gone, my well-trained physique was revealed.

I looked lean and ripped, with not an ounce of body fat—like a perfect blend of chiseled muscle.

Just two weeks ago, my skin had been smooth and fresh like a baby’s. But after countless cuts and tears, my skin had turned rough.

It had beco tougher and more elastic.

‘My appearance has changed a lot.’

As I dried myself off, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror.

I was looking at a different version of myself.

Fiercely angled eyebrows.

They used to look too intense and unfitting, but now they seed to suit perfectly, like a well-tailored outfit.

Was it the effect of the Heart of the Immortal?

The overall atmosphere I exuded had beco rougher and more imposing.

Even people who had known before might not recognize if they didn’t look closely.

[Have you noticed the change?]

“Are you referring to these physical changes?”

[Don’t be ridiculous.]

“Then what kind of change are you talking about?”

[If it were sothing you could realize just because I told you, I would’ve ntioned it long ago.]

“…….”

As always, Reto threw out the sa cryptic question.

The change he referred to seed to be related to completing the first stage of muscle evolution, but I still couldn’t figure out what he ant.

Whenever I asked, all he would say was that I wasn’t there yet.

I returned to my quarters.

Looking around, not much had changed since before.

The only noticeable addition was the vase of flowers placed on the small table next to Fenry’s bed.

The refreshing scent wafting through the room seed to co from those blue mist flowers.

[The scent of mana is strong.]

“From those mist flowers?”

[They’re not natural flowers. They were blood through a priestess’s prayer. They aid in mana recovery.]

A priestess.

Apparently, the elf Nella had visited a few days ago. These must’ve been her handiwork.

I approached Fenry’s bed.

Her condition hadn’t changed much compared to before.

She just seed to be in a deep sleep. According to Sharbadin, Nella had used an elf stone on Fenry but left in disappointnt, saying it wasn’t enough.

Apparently, Fenry’s body had undergone significant changes, and a single elf stone wasn’t sufficient.

Those changes were likely related to the list of divine nas.

“What changes could have occurred in her divine list? I’m curious.”

[If you’re curious, why don’t you just take a look?]

“I’m not a ‘Bearer of the Gods,’ you know.”

[What a stupid thing to say. Are your eyes just ornants?]

“What’s wrong with my eyes—oh!”

Reto had been drilling relentlessly, and with so many abilities to research, I had montarily forgotten about the ability of the Divine Hunter: the Awakening that allowed to read divine nas through the auras of my targets.

The faint aura above Fenry’s head was proof.

However, to activate Awakening, I first had to fully awaken as a Divine Hunter.

[Whether the target is standing before you, on the brink of death, or even asleep, as long as you have the will to hunt, they are simply prey.]

Awakening as a hunter wasn’t particularly difficult.

What held back was the penalty for failure, which had worried —but those fears turned out to be unfounded.

Even when I had failed to hunt Fenry before, I hadn’t noticed any significant penalty.

“The will to hunt, huh….”

I stroked my chin and looked down at her.

Standing before Arena Huaton, and more recently Fenry, what kind of emotions had I felt when awakening as a Divine Hunter?

The desire to hunt.

‘…A killing intent?’

Yes, it was killing intent.

The resolve to kill the prey.

I focused that intent on Fenry, but there was no response.

What was I missing?

[You call that killing intent? What a disgrace to hunters everywhere.]

“…….”

Was it too weak?

If only Fenry could wake up and hit again like last ti, that would make it easier.

It felt wrong to harbor a murderous intent toward soone lying there helplessly.

I let out a short breath and closed my eyes.

I visualized the target I wanted to kill.

Naturally, the face of a man appeared in my mind.

Rough, wind-tossed black hair and dry, unfeeling eyes.

Kal Blazer, the Mad Butcher.

My mortal enemy—soone I couldn’t coexist with under the sa sky.

A being I had to kill to survive.

Flash—

The mont I opened my eyes with savage determination,

Flinch—!

Even though she was unconscious, Fenry reacted instinctively to my killing intent.

Simultaneously, mysterious runes began to flow from the aura above her head.

[Fenry Chaser – Shadow of the World Tree (Shadow)]

[The Blessed Agility of the Dark Elves]

[True Dark Elf Clawthorn Hands]

[Shadow Clan Sorcery]

[The Shadow King’s Blessing]

‘The Shadow King’s Blessing?’

This must have been the divine list that Nella had seen.

Could the summoning ritual she perford in the abandoned mine have piqued the Shadow King’s curiosity?

This was completely different from when she had reached six stars and caught his attention.

Now she was only at five stars, yet she had attracted the Shadow King’s interest.

“This is way too soon.”

With her current mana, it was far too early to wield the Shadow King’s power.

There had to be a limit to her mana—so how had she earned this qualification?

My gaze landed on the belt she held close to her as if it were a treasure.

‘Ah, the Ruby Belt of Mana!’

Could that artifact have expedited the Shadow King’s selection?

Unexpected factors had led to an unforeseen outco.

‘Is this really the best path for her?’

It was hard to be sure.

The Shadow King’s power was overwhelming, but just like how I had acquired the Heart of the Immortal, it was a double-edged sword.

Wasn’t she already suffering from mana addiction, rendered powerless by it?

It was a force that could lead one to ruin.

The powers of the absolutes always demanded a hefty price.

[The dark one has shown interest in the elf. She’ll forever be starved for mana.]

Particularly, the Shadow King was a predator that devoured mana.

Mana addiction would likely beco Fenry’s lifelong challenge.

“Do you know the Shadow King?”

[He exists everywhere. He is the shadow, after all.]

“Reto, were you also an absolute being?”

[You could say that.]

“Then what did you take in return for lending your power?”

[The will to live.]

“…The will to live?”

[The price absolutes demand is often tied to their own void. The dark one uses mana to manifest his existence because a shadow cannot reveal itself alone.]

“Then, for you….”

[My void is ‘death.’ The more my power is borrowed, the closer the host cos to embracing death. The soul dies, the reason dies, and eventually, even the body perishes.]

“Obtaining the power of the Immortal Heart at the cost of death? That’s absurd.”

[You are an exception. You possess blessings to protect your soul and reason, as well as a ring that preserves your body.]

As Reto said, there seed to be exceptions to everything.

Perhaps Fenry, too, could find a way to defy this fate.

At any rate, from the Ruby Belt of Mana to the Shadow King, her developnt had leapt forward by years.

Seeing this result stirred an unease within .

The flow of the story was accelerating too quickly.

If my interference had changed Fenry like this, wouldn’t the novel’s protagonist face even greater disruptions?

By inserting myself into the conflict with Kal Blazer, I had taken people ant to be allied with the protagonist, as well as the opportunities and powers intended for his growth.

If he was the protagonist of this world….

“He’d find other ways to make up for his missing strength.”

The protagonist wouldn’t remain stagnant. If anything, he’d transform even more drastically than Fenry.

This could beco a massive variable, but there was nothing I could do for now.

‘Facing the Butcher alone was never an option to begin with.’

The Butcher had a powerful faction behind him, and to oppose it, I needed my own faction.

A blood pact.

I needed to form a blood pact, borrow the strength of Beneta and the Black Rose, and build my own forces. For that, Fenry needed to wake up first.

Nella was crafting an elf stone, but even at her fastest, it would take at least another week.

Until then, my tasks were clear.

I needed to have Reto acknowledge the first stage of my physical evolution.

And now, there was one more thing.

‘I need to uncover my own divine list.’