Golden Experience

“Now, shall we promptly turn this town into a vacant lot?”

“Excuse me, but can we really say we’ve ‘conquered’ it if we just turn it into a wasteland?”

“Hmm, that’s a valid point. As expected of Azalea! But it seems like only the ones good at clearing land are around here.”

“For the initial move, we’ll leave it to the Giant Corpses and Flesh Golems. Once a certain number of residents have died, we’ll increase our pieces from there. After that, we can leave the details to them. What do you think?”

“Carmine, you say good things ocasionally! Let’s go with that plan!”

“…Occasionally?”

It sounded like Azalea heard, wondering why she always spoke first and I was thinking the same thing, but I decided to ignore it.

The condition of the corpses killed by the giant undead would be gruesome. If turned into zombies, the damage to their bodies from their previous lives would persist, and even if healed with items or magic, the wounds would never recover. However, if turned into vampires afterward, their bodies would be repaired to a normal state and undergo reincarnation.

If I were to dominate this land, I would eventually turn everyone into vampires. Turning them into vampires right after resurrecting them as undead would be faster.

“Were the people here dwarves? If they return to their pre-life state and then become vampires… would they be dwarf vampires? Huh? Then what kind of vampire am I?”

Originally, I was a skeleton. According to the response to the question Rare sent to the administration, I was apparently created as a skeleton made of bones. In other words, the current Blanc is a vampire skeleton created to become a skeleton. In other words, what’s that?

“…Oh well. Alright, let’s go! Giants!”

With Blanc’s command, the Giant Corpses and Flesh Golems began marching towards the targeted town.

The first target was a peaceful town without walls. Due to the distance from the territory of monsters, they were cultivating rye in vast fields.

“That’s rye, isn’t it?”

“Correct. If you heard Lyra’s story, each country seems to cultivate different things. For example, in the southern Portree, there are many orchards, Hiers and Aural have wheat and barley as their main crops, while Pearl cultivates rice and corn. Each race has its own food culture.”

“And here in Shape, there are many berry fields and rye fields. There are also plenty of apple-like trees planted near the town.”

“Why specifically raspberries and rye?”

“I heard that dwarves like alcohol.”

“I see!”

In that case, the trees near the town would be apples or plums. I’ve heard there is wine made from them. The same goes for berries.

For alcohol made from rye, there’s rye beer. It might even be rye whiskey.

“Alcohol, huh? Well, it doesn’t matter to me, and it doesn’t concern the undead either. But orchards are important facilities for vampires. So, be careful not to damage the fruit trees around the town, but feel free to level the other fields!”

As the death giants walked through the rye fields, the town’s knight order mobilized.

It was a peaceful town without walls, so it’s unlikely that a knight order was stationed here. They were probably individuals dispatched as defense against angels.

Angels weren’t that strong, so it was more efficient to deploy them thinly across the entire country than to concentrate them in one place.

In that case, these towns might have stronger defense forces than usual. On the other hand, other cities with usually robust defenses might currently have lower guard levels.

About the royal capital, it would be difficult to leave it undefended, and it seems unlikely. However, in other regions, our current forces seem capable of inflicting significant damage.

“All right! Crush them!”

The appearing knights were far fewer than those at Wells’s royal capital. Upon closer inspection, only a few wore splendid armor, while the rest donned simple leather armor or thick fabric clothing. It seemed that professional soldiers, such as knights, were dispatched as defense commanders or combat leaders, with the rest comprising a defense force from the town’s militia and young individuals.

According to Rare’s information, dwarves might be strong but could have fewer knights, and that might be accurate.

The few knights or knight-like NPCs were indeed formidable. They surpassed the knights defeated in Wells. It was said that they were considered at a player level, and these players were of a high caliber.

However, the strength lay only in those few individuals, and the other dwarves were not much of a challenge. Those in leather armor were somewhat resilient, but they couldn’t survive being trampled or kicked repeatedly. Leather armor wasn’t effective defense against being crushed. The young ones in simple fabric clothing had an easier time.

Their morale seemed low, and there was no determination to fight. The undead giants dispatched them without much resistance.

Azalea’s job was to resurrect them as undead. Using [Necromancy], she quickly turned them into zombies and sent them walking towards Blanc at the rear. Laestrygones didn’t possess the racial skill [Subjugation]. It was listed, but since there was no need for it, he hadn’t acquired it. Therefore, turning them into undead was the quickest solution.

These zombies, under the control of characters turned undead using [Necromancy], weren’t precisely [Subordinated]. They would return to the earth if defeated. It was more akin to being under the influence of [Charm] from [Mental Magic].

Once the zombies reached Blanc, she would [Subordinate] them, feed them blood, turn them into low-level vampires, and send them back to the front lines to attack their former comrades.

Blanc didn’t directly participate in this at the frontline, as she was strictly instructed by Azalea. It was one of the conditions given to her for sneaking out without the knowledge of Weiss and Rare. Azalea and the others needed the undead, but they wouldn’t directly engage in combat at the frontlines. If the opponent required the power of Azalea and the others, they had decided to retreat this time.

Rare seemed to share the same opinion, and if Blanc hadn’t thought that way, she would have stopped her.

As Blanc couldn’t move from the rear, she [Summoned] Azalea’s field of vision and observed the situation at the frontline. Magenta and Carmine were guarding Blanc.

The vast fields of rye were stained with blood, trampled and leveled. The once golden sea was now unrecognizable.

It was nothing short of a hellish scene.

The only ones lively and running around were the giants and the knights.

Even the knights seemed to be slowing down due to accumulated damage. It was only a matter of time before they fell.

“Once the knights are taken care of, let’s start turning the townspeople into vampires one by one. If I [Subordinate] them, they’ll probably automatically become some kind of undead, so if they don’t resist, there’s no need to bother killing them.”

And just as they were about to finish off all the knights and invade the town across the orchard, someone spoke.

“Hold on!”

Someone was walking alone out of the town towards them. Judging by the physique, it wasn’t a dwarf. It seemed to be a human or something.

Wearing what looked like a leather rider’s jacket, it was questionable if that could be considered leather armor in a broad sense.

The person, standing alone in front of the giants, clenched their fist with a glove-like leather hand and struck a pose.

“I won’t let you do as you please any longer! …I will fight! For the sake of humanity!”

“…Not for the dwarves?”

Since I borrowed Azalea’s hearing, I also heard her muttered soliloquy. Indeed, that might be the case, but he probably meant something else.

“Watch this! My… [Transformation]!”

“!?”

At that moment, the man’s body expanded. The leather jacket and thick pants he was wearing were torn apart, leaving him completely naked.

Even though it’s described as naked, there are no exposed flesh-colored parts. His entire body is covered in a glossy black armor that resembles an exoskeleton, making him look like he’s wearing full-body armor from a distance.

However, it’s different. The joints of the armor are filled with something like accordion-like rubber that doesn’t hinder movement, and there are no seams anywhere in the armor. The design doesn’t seem to consider taking it off, and therefore, this is probably the man’s actual skin.

Consequently, he’s naked.

Overall, the silhouette is quite round. Except for the two antennae-like things standing on his head and the sharp, jagged thorns extending outward on the armor of his arms.

Those jagged thorns are also present on the armor covering his face, especially on the part corresponding to the mouth.

I feel like I’ve seen a bug like this somewhere before, but I can’t recall.

“He’s a monster!”

“Ugh!”

Either worried about him or wanting to check on him, the dwarves who seemed to be residents rushed back to the town.

“…Huh. It’s not a bad thing to not be human.”

There’s a sense of melancholy emanating from the man’s back as he watches them leave.

“Whew…”

A sigh escapes from Blanc’s still-open mouth.

This appearance, those lines, and the word “Transformation”.

No mistake, he’s a Kamen Rider.

Or rather, a player who is well acquainted with Kamen Riders.

What is this Transformation? Is it a skill, or is it something else? Or is it a different race?

How can Blanc acquire that power? Can vampires also do it?

“Even becoming a vampire had a feeling of escaping just before brain modification. But I never expected such a serious transformation… What should I do? Can I become a vampire too? Oh, I think there was a series like that. Wasn’t that for the half-bloods?”

While Blanc mumbles to herself, the situation is unfolding in Azalea’s vision.

“Take that!”

The man jumps, aligning both legs, and delivers a flying kick to a nearby Flesh Golem.

The Flesh Golem staggers but doesn’t seem to have taken much damage. The man continues to land consecutive punches and kicks, but the Flesh Golem doesn’t even waver this time.

Come to think of it, there was never a situation where a single blow from a fully armed knight’s sword caused fatal damage, so it’s unlikely that this man’s bare-handed attack would deal significant damage. If this man has high stats to the point where he can deliver greater damage than a knight’s sword with his bare hands, or if he has invested experience points into the [Unarmed] skill, then it’s possible, but there doesn’t seem to be any signs of that.

“This is just too stupid to be on guard.”

Once again, Azalea’s muttered words were heard.

Indeed, that’s exactly right.

Although what Blanc was doing was not being cautious, but rather expecting something.

“Disappointing, really.”

The Giant Corpses crushed the man.

However, when the foot was moved away, the man, though staggering, stood up as if nothing had happened.

“I can always… revive!”

“Revive? More like, you weren’t dead. Huh? No damage from that last attack?”

The man who stood up is swaying.

It seems there is some damage after all. If he didn’t die from that, it means he has durability comparable to the knight from earlier. His attack power might not be significant, but perhaps this form has high defense and vitality.

However, the Giant Corpses didn’t seem to think so. Probably considering that they couldn’t crush him just because his skin was hard like armor, one of the giant hands grabbed the man, lifting him up in front of its eyes. Then, with the other hand, it grabbed the man’s neck.

“Ah!”

This is bad; the Giant Corpses intend to pull the man’s head off.

If I want to use [Appraisal] to learn about the opponent’s skills and race, I need to do it while they’re alive. Activating it on a corpse will only reveal information about the corpse. Even if I know the race, the skills and stats they had in life will remain unknown.

“Master!?”

“Hold on!”

Ignoring Magenta and Carmine’s attempts to stop her, Azalea flew out, reaching the man’s visible distance at full speed.

Just in time, or so it could be said. Just before the man’s death, we could barely confirm that information.

Already, the man’s head has turned into light at the fingertips of the Giant Corpses’ right hand. The body seems to be turning into light in its left hand. However, the information displayed through [Appraisal], once triggered, remains as long as the window is not closed or any other action is taken.

Magenta and Carmine stopped Blanc, who had come to a halt in the air, pulling her down like dragging her backward, while the giants and Azalea resumed their advance toward the town.

“He’s a human… in terms of race.”

There’s nothing suspicious about that point.

What catches my attention is the absence of race characteristics that should be present in humans. The characters “Exoskeleton”, “Armor”, “Iron”, and “Metamorphosis” are listed.

Certainly, there was no other way to describe his appearance. No, that’s not it. The metamorphosis is probably not in that sense.

Moreover, a regular human shouldn’t have characteristics like “Exoskeleton”, “Armor” or “Iron” as part of their race. There must be something that made it possible. Some addition of race characteristics to him, a human.

“Speaking of transformation… modification… body modification… grasshopper modified human… no, not a grasshopper. A shell, armor and iron? Okay, iron armor is fine but what’s this thing called a shell?”

“If I remember, I think it was the Beetle under Rare’s command that used to stay in Erntal, who said something about an ‘Exoskeleton Queen’ or something?”

“Oh, now that you mention it, I think she did. So, maybe [Exoskeleton] refers to the shell of a beetle.”

In other words, that man is a human modified with iron armor and beetle enhancements.

“Wait, what about modification! What kind of mad specifications are in this game—”

Look at the Flesh Golem crushing the town’s people. It’s the appearance of several Squire Zombies combined by Rare.

In hindsight, there might not be such mad experiments.

“…I think it was Rare-chan and this gigantic golem. I think she put in the person and the materials, with the size and appearance remaining unchanged. I didn’t see it, but she might have adjusted the race characteristics accordingly.”

As it was a golem, the race changed according to the material, but if the same thing were done to a human, it probably wouldn’t turn them into something like Adahuman or Humadamant.

If they were fused together under certain conditions, for example, they would have characteristics that would allow them to switch between normal human and abnormal human.

“Perhaps that’s what [Transformation] means. Transformation… Metamorphosis…”

“…What should we do? Master keeps muttering about metamorphosis…”

“…Let’s just leave her be. There’s nothing we can do about it…”