Chapter 52: If We Go Any Slower, We Won't Make Any Money.
Viktor found Erika in the middle of a dense forest.
She lay unconscious among the weeds, her body wrapped in a thin barrier of Magic, her pulse and breathing both faint to the point of barely existing.
If not for that magical barrier, Erika's life might well have been forfeit in that battle.
Even now, she remained in critical condition.
"Far too reckless."
Viktor said mildly.
Whether it was the volcano incident or the Demon Invasion just now, Erika was like soone who had never once faced danger in her life—charging headlong into everything.
She never stopped to consider the consequences.
If Viktor had not dismantled the Magic Formation in advance, Erika would very likely have been swallowed whole by Yem.
"Duke Livi's approach to raising his children leaves much to be desired."
Erika always wanted to prove herself. She had always wanted others to look at her differently.
Especially her father.
But then...
Viktor shifted his gaze to one side—toward the purple-haired woman who was equally covered in wounds, hers even more severe.
A faint translucent magical glow emanated from her body; various Magic Buffs had kept her alive and out of mortal danger.
Yet bruises of blue and purple blanketed her from head to toe, and the tearing of muscle beneath the skin was even harder to detect than what showed on the surface.
Her injuries appeared worse than Erika's.
"At least she is not as cold-blooded as her father."
If not for Erika, this woman would certainly have died at the Demon's hands.
Viktor's gaze settled on her. Her clothes had been completely torn apart, and the exposed wounds looked grueso.
The bleeding had stopped, but the horrifying gashes were still enough to send a chill through anyone who looked at them.
"Erika's presence changed the Storyline?"
In the ga's Prologue, a Background Story about the Demon Invasion was presented to players.
Then, in the mid-section of Chapter 1, Gwen would tell the player the cause of her elder sister's death.
Kavra Delin—killed at the hands of the Demon of Greed, the Boss Yem.
A character players never had any chance of eting in person. She didn't even have a character illustration in the ga—truly an NPC who existed entirely outside the Storyline.
And now, the woman lying unconscious on the ground before him, clearly bearing a resemblance to Gwen.
In all likelihood, this was Kavra.
"She's a Demon Hunter."
Weija offered from the side.
"That explains it, then."
Viktor nodded. He understood what the Demon Hunter identity ant:
In the ga, Demon Hunter was a special class. Players could beco a Demon Hunter by speaking to an NPC Demon Hunter of legitimate bloodline and completing the class-change quest.
In his Previous Life, Viktor had helped more than a few players Power Level through class-change quests, so he was just as familiar with this class.
Demon Hunters harbored a deeply obsessive fixation on Demons. Once a Demon was detected, they would pursue it to the ends of the earth—until the Demon was dead.
Or until the Demon Hunter was.
And if that fanatical passive were converted into ga stats, a Demon Hunter would deal an additional 50% damage to Demon-type units.
Since Demons were inherently composed of concentrated Magic Power, Demon Hunters also dealt 10% bonus damage to Mages correspondingly.
Mages were already a group with relatively low HP and poor resistance.
Once the numbers were factored in, Demon Hunters had effectively beco a partial counter to Mages.
In short, Mages despised Demon Hunters.
Of course, Demon Hunters were not without their weaknesses.
Knights, who shared the lee role, could still draw on so Magic Power to augnt their own strength—whereas the Demon Hunter was, in the truest sense, a class with no MP bar at all.
"Good thing we arrived early."
Viktor crouched down and assessed Kavra's condition.
Weija nodded in full agreent.
"Indeed. If we had arrived any later..."
"Those wounds of hers would practically be healed by now."
Viktor, however, was unmoved. He flipped his palm over, and a bottle of Crimson Potion appeared in his hand.
"Making others owe you favors—that's sothing you're actually quite good at."
Weija remarked mockingly, watching as Viktor tipped the potion into Kavra's mouth, where it was successfully swallowed.
He then produced another bottle and administered it the sa way to the unconscious Erika.
Once finished, Viktor dusted off his hands and said:
"I am not a proper Cleric, after all—I cannot restore them to full condition."
That remark, however, left Weija completely speechless.
Viktor was showing off again.
So it played along and asked, cooperatively:
"I cannot comprehend it—how exactly do you do that?"
Every sign of their condition had clearly retreated from the threshold of death—testant enough to the potion's extraordinary effect.
If Weija had Viktor's eyes, it would certainly have seen the Health Bars floating above the heads of the 2 who had drunk the potions shoot upward by a substantial length in an instant.
For a player, as long as even a single drop of HP remained, it could not truly be called a critical state.
And Viktor operated on an NPC's template, yet was still able to produce player items—more absurdly still, he could supply those items to other NPCs.
This was already his uniquely singular ability.
No other player could do what he did—hand player items to NPCs.
"Then let us wait quietly for a while."
Viktor leaned back, and a chair materialized from the ground beneath him, fitting perfectly to support his body.
He reached out and picked up a Spellbook from his palm, and began filling in the knowledge he still had yet to study.
About 10 minutes passed. Kavra was the first to open her eyes.
An overwhelming wave of weakness swept through her body the instant she did—she could not bring herself to move a single inch, and every wound on her body made her wretched state perfectly clear.
The mont defeat crashed over her, an impulse toward self-destruction surfaced in Kavra's heart.
She hadn't expected to survive after the battle with the Demon ended.
"You should thank Duke Livi—he raised quite a fine daughter."
The rustling of turning pages ceased. Viktor closed the book, his deep black eyes settling on Kavra.
At the sound of his voice, Kavra's entire body went rigid. She forced herself upright with great difficulty.
The man before her sat in a chair, his black Coat and the One-eyed Crow lending him an air of profound mystery.
Impossibly refined.
Her vision still slightly blurred, she did not recognize who he was at first glance.
But Kavra was confused.
A chair?
Where on earth did he get a chair in a place like this?
She had no ti to dwell on it. The man's words reached her, and she shoved through the pain in her body and hurriedly turned her head to look the other way.
Erika du Chloe.
Though battle against a Demon would cause Kavra to lose her reason, her mories did not vanish along with it.
All the more so because the various Buffs still emanating from her body told her exactly what had happened during the fight.
The Demon's technique from the battle before—the one that had drenched the ground in Black Ink.
That had been an absolutely lethal attack.
Kavra, with her wealth of combat experience, knew this much.
Which ant Erika, while still conscious, had used Magic to preserve both their lives.
A hollow feeling settled in Kavra's chest.
If not for Erika, she would have died at the Demon's hands.
She hadn't expected the Demon to be so powerful. She hadn't expected herself to be so utterly feeble.
"She took a penetrating wound to the shoulder, and she still managed to keep both of you alive."
"Remarkable."
Viktor's words landed in her chest like another heavy blow.
Kavra was overwheld with guilt.
"That...that Demon..."
"You were no match for it—but to speak plainly: in a straight one-on-one, unless His Majesty the Emperor himself was willing to co personally, no one could beat it."
Kavra looked up, her brows knitting tightly together.
She could not understand it.
The Demon's power—as a Demon Hunter, she had never heard of anything like it.
It was like a being that had no business existing in the world. She had sensed it, and so she had pursued it with confidence.
Yet the Demon had never once seed to regard her as an opponent.
In the end, because of her own pride, she had nearly lost her life.
"Regardless, the aftermath has already been dealt with."
Viktor stood up, and the chair beneath him dissolved on its own.
He walked over to Kavra and gave his Coat a flick—2 bottles of Crimson Potion dropped down in front of her.
"Rember to think things through a little more before acting rashly."
"Even for a Demon Hunter, being driven purely by instinct doesn't necessarily yield better results."
"And don't forget to drink your potion, Miss Kavra."
Viktor swept his Coat around him and turned away.
Kavra stared blankly at the man before her. With her mind clearing, a new sharpness returned to her eyes—and she suddenly recognized him.
"Viktor...is that you?"
Viktor did not look back. He left only a single line.
"Don't forget to bring Erika back as well. I have no interest in letting the Duke misunderstand again."
A gust of black wind swept through, and a flurry of leaves filled the air, blocking Kavra's line of sight.
When the black wind died and the leaves settled, Viktor's silhouette had already vanished.
In his place, only a single black crow tail feather remained on the ground—testant that he had been there at all.
The feather drifted down before Kavra. She caught it in her hand, her heart heavy with tangled emotions.
Because written on the feather, in clear, legible script, was a ssage:
"4 Recovery Potions, 8,000 Geo. Rember to pay up."
She steadied her failing focus and picked up the red potion lying on the ground.
Its color was vivid as fresh blood—entirely unlike any recovery dicine she had ever seen.
She hesitated for a mont, then uncapped it and tipped it into her mouth.
An erald-green glow rose from her body, and in an instant, half of her wounds had healed.
She felt a surge of strength spread through her entire body.
"I can stand."
"What an extraordinary potion."
She thought to herself—1 bottle remained. If she drank it, she could recover even more of her combat strength.
But there was no need to fight anymore.
She left the potion for Erika, gathered her into her arms, opened the bottle, and poured it into Erika's mouth.
***
Knock knock knock!!!
The doors of the Du Chloe Family's manor were struck, and Duke Livi ca rushing out almost imdiately.
He stood at the entrance and watched as Erika and Kavra made their way to the front gate, leaning on each other for support.
Erika looked up at her father, disheveled and dusty, and broke into a happy smile:
"Father, Kavra and I held the Demon off for a long ti."
"Aren't I amazing?"
Even weakened as she was, the mont she said it, her eyes shimred with a light full of anticipation.
"I'm not dead weight anymore!"
"..."
Duke Livi was silent. He said nothing.
The air seed to grow stiff for a mont.
Erika drew her neck in and lowered her head, looking sowhat frightened.
And then, in the next second—
A firm embrace wrapped around her, warm in the way she rembered from when she was small.
Her father's trembling voice sounded beside her ear.
"Erika."
"You will always be your father's pride."
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