Chapter 7:
The Fake Olivia
WE ARRIVED ON THE SECOND FLOOR, and I checked Emma over where she’d been kicked. It seemed painful, but she hadn’t broken any bones as far as I could tell. What a relief!
<Excuse me, Noir. Who is this girl?! And why would you need her when you have Olivia all to yourself?!>
It was good to see nothing had happened to Olivia. She was still bound up in the Death Chains where I’d left her. I introduced her to Emma and went over everything that had happened. Just as I’d expected, Olivia was shocked to hear she’d been copied. The fact that the double had Get Creative, Editor, and Bestow implied that the copy had been made before Olivia passed those skills on to me.
<She doesn’t seem very strong. Should be a cakewalk for you, Noir.>
“Well, that’s easy enough for you to say!”
“Ms. Olivia? I hope this doesn’t sound rude, but do you have any weaknesses?”
<You’re Emma, right? What’s your bra size?>
“Uhmm…”
<It’s bigger than mine, isn’t it? Isn’t it?!>
Emma glanced at me anxiously.
“Quit joking around,” I told Olivia. “This is serious! We need to find a way to beat this double. Surely you’ve at least had some close calls before, right?”
<Hmmmm…maybe? Once…I think…?>
“You don’t even remember?”
<Hey! I’m sure it must have happened at some point! Maybe it was even in your town…>
I guess it would have been over two hundred years ago. It had to be easy to forget the details after so long. But she also had to have stories about her exploits. Most of them were probably made up, but I hoped to hear some kernels of truth.
<Why don’t you just ignore her? You already have a way down to the sixteenth floor.>
“No,” I insisted. “I’m going to defeat her. No matter what.”
<Okay, well…I guess I am a tiny bit excited. But remember: The number one thing I need you to do for me is not die. Really, remember that.>
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. And I’m going to find a way to set you free. I swear it!”
After that, Emma and I headed out of the dungeon and went back into town.
“My parents know a scholar,” she said. “I’ll see if they know anything.”
“Thanks. I’ll see what I can find out too.”
We parted ways, and I headed to the largest library in town. It cost a little money to use, but only as much as a couple of meals, so that didn’t deter me. The real problem was that they didn’t lend their most valuable texts to normal people.
I scanned over what I could find about the town’s history and any records of adventurers in the area. Unsurprisingly, Olivia’s name showed up a bunch of times, although the people who wrote the books didn’t seem to know where her power came from. Most of them just described her overwhelming opponents with a mysterious force.
I had more luck looking into the town history, and I soon found an account of Olivia’s stay at a famous inn, as well as her victory over someone called Litorean. But who was this person? They must have been pretty famous to appear in the town records. It was time to do some more digging.
It turned out she had been a well-known cleric who had contributed to the development of the town. Why hadn’t I learned anything about her in school? It seemed that a lot of incredible people had lived here in the past.
In the end, I couldn’t find any more information about other people Olivia had fought nearby, so I focused my efforts on Litorean. Apparently, she had been skilled at healing wounds but had also been known for having quite the temper. She was described as “tall” and “unusually strong,” which I supposed made her both a healer and a fighter? That was all I could get out of the books in the library, so I decided to ask Luna.
When I got to the temple, I was immediately discouraged. Why did the lines always have to be so long? But I didn’t really have a choice, so I got in place and waited. It was over an hour and a half before I reached the front.
“Sir Noir!” said Luna. “You don’t have to stand in line like that. Why didn’t you just say something?”
“Wouldn’t be fair on everyone else. Listen, there’s something I wanted to ask you: Do you know anything about a cleric named Litorean who lived here about two hundred years ago?”
“Of course!”
Bingo! Apparently, the temple even had a collection of books about her. It was part of their training to learn about famous clerics who’d worked there in the past. I explained the situation to Luna and asked for permission to read them.
“We don’t normally allow outsiders to see them, but… Just give me a moment.”
Luna approached one of the older priests and bowed her head. She was such a good friend. I was so lucky to know her. It wasn’t long before she headed back over.
“He says that you can read them as long as you stay here at the temple.”
“Thank you so much!”
The priest showed me into a small room, then brought the books in and set them on the table. I thanked him for his help and started to look through the collection. They covered everything about Litorean’s life.
She had been an unusual cleric—as belligerent as she was benevolent. Her personality might have caused trouble, but she’d also saved untold numbers of people. She’d defeated enemies with her strength in combat and made free use of healing magic. Apparently, she’d learned an offensive skill called Sacrifice that allowed her to give up one of her own skills to make herself stronger.
I’d never heard of such a thing. It had to be really rare. A skill could be relearned after it was sacrificed, but it was still a hefty price to pay—giving up in an instant something that had taken months or even years to master. It wouldn’t even be feasible for most people, but for some reason, Litorean had the ability to learn skills very easily.
“I see. That’s why she was able to sacrifice them, then.”
She’d even defeated dragons that way. This had to be the person who’d given my master a run for her money. If I had that Sacrifice skill, maybe I’d stand a chance against the fake Olivia.
Sacrifice — 500 LP
Well, that had been much easier to make than expected. It still sounded scary. I needed to check the details first.
User may sacrifice a skill to temporarily raise physical and magical ability. The stronger the skill sacrificed, the more powerful the boost. The duration of the buff is proportional to the number of skills sacrificed: one skill results in a one-minute buff, two extends it to three minutes, and three skills extends it to five.
Wow, that buff window was really short! I’d thought sacrificing a skill would buy you a little more than that. The mechanics of it were complicated too. It seemed like the strongest combination was achieved by sacrificing three S-Grade skills, which would massively buff my abilities for five minutes. But I had to do it all at once. If I sacrificed them one after another, it would only earn me three minutes. I really needed to be careful with how I used this one!
The skill was cheap though, so I coughed up the LP. It must have been unusually compatible with me. But I could use Get Creative to remake any skills I burned, right? Also, how would the cost of the sacrificed skills balance out against the buffs they provided? To find that out, I’d have to do some testing.
It was already dark by the time I left the temple. I stopped by Emma’s house to tell her about Litorean and to ask her to keep me updated as to what she discovered through her own research. Then I headed home to get some rest.
The next morning, I headed out of town to experiment with Sacrifice. I walked out to the base of the mountain where we’d fought the goblin thieves and took a few moments to prepare myself. It felt like a waste to sacrifice skills just to practice, but that would be better than getting confused and panicking in the middle of a fight. That said, I didn’t want to waste a strong skill, so I started with Improved Lunge. It had only cost 300 LP to produce, so I could replace it easily enough. I focused my intent on the skill and activated Sacrifice.
“Whoa!”
An intense feeling washed over me, filling my body with power. I felt as light as air! But I couldn’t waste any time enjoying the sensation. I only had a minute before the buff wore off, so I hurried to try out various techniques.
For starters, I fired Holy Flame up into the air. The flames were at least a foot longer than usual. Anyone who knew the skill would have noticed the difference.
Next, I tried Lightning Strike. Electricity jumped from my fingers. Again, the bolts were stronger, and the range was greater than usual.
Sacrifice might have been a temporary effect, but it could still change the inherent qualities of other skills and spells, just like Editor. It was much more impressive than I’d thought.
Time to try out its effect on physical abilities.
I kicked a small tree, which snapped in half with ease, then pulled a bunch of things out of my Pocket Dimension to crush. I’d never been able to do anything like this before but, before I could test it out any further, the effect wore off. It didn’t hurt or anything, but the change in sensation was obvious enough.