STGB Episode 468

Landowner(3)

Before the Count Alminas’s family took legal action, they first waged a public opinion war.

Why?

They could have simply filed a lawsuit and secured a cut through the verdict.

The conclusion I reached was this:

“Count Alminas doesn’t want this to reach the court either.”

If I am right, the lawsuit itself is probably just a gesture – a form of pressure or intimidation. In essence, it’s a message: “Given the difference in our status, if you don’t want to lose more, comply quietly and hand over what’s ours.”

‘Someone of Count Alminas’ status wouldn’t act out of mere greed for money…’

It must be about pride.

Though my experience is limited, that’s what I’ve observed in the noble society.

There are only winners and losers here.

And letting this matter slide would be the clearest sign of defeat for them.

Therefore, I decided to flip the public narrative first.

“Baron Jandel doesn’t have the capability to defeat a Floor Lord.”

“If not for the Gearfang Clan, there’s no way they could have taken down the Floor Lord.”

Technically, that’s true, but the count is instilling these ideas into everyone’s heads—

It’s a kind of groundwork.

Starting with questioning competence, gradually more negative comments will emerge.

“Bjorn Jandel stole the credit for the disaster recovery efforts of the Gearfang Clan at the last moment.”

“Is this the behaviour of a hero?”

Count Alminus has perfectly grasped where Baron Jandel’s power stems from: his reputation.

“Hmm. So you filed the subjugation request without even discussing it with us?”

After returning home and announcing the raid plan, Amelia shot a cold glare at me.

Though it didn’t last as long as usual.

“Haah…”

She sighed as if looking at a misbehaving child, and searched for solutions first.

“Do you at least realize how many five member clans attempted to fight a Floor Lord and never came back?”

“I’ve heard. People say it’s especially risky with only five. That’s why they usually gather between twenty and thirty people…”

For reference, these numbers are based on explorers between the 6th and 7th floors.

However…

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

Typically the Lord of Terror is meant to be cleared by five. Only then does its proper reward drop.

The rewards were well known, so there were quite a few clans that would periodically go after the feat.

Not a lot, about two or three every century.

‘It’s actually much easier to clear a 5-player raid than a 30-player raid if you know the strategy.

That’s the reason I chose the Lord of Terror as the target for our next expedition.

Around here, people think a five-person clear against the Lord of Fear is harder than taking on Riakis.

Succeeding here would silence all doubts about my capabilities.

“…”

Right then, I noticed Auyen—who’d been silently watching our Yandel Family meeting—fidgeting around.

I suddenly wondered why he was here, but didn’t say anything.

Well, he did help out this time, so fair enough.

“Rokrok.”

“Yes, SIr? Please speak.”

I told him what he was probably hoping to hear:

“You can sit out on this one if you want, so don’t worry.”

“Ah… Indeed… R-right…”

He let out an obvious sigh of relief.

“Then who’s going to fill that open spot?”

After that, I sent Auyen back to his room and started discussing who to include in the team and the overall strategy for the raid.

And when it was all said and done.

“Jandel.”

Amelia called to me as I headed to my room to rest.

“You’ve been making more and more enemies lately… Are you sure you’re not pushing yourself too far?”

She basically meant: Aren’t you doing too much and stirring up trouble everywhere?

“Just look at this mess with the Count’s family. In our current situation, it might be simpler to pay what they want rather than end up on bad terms with them.”

I understood Amelia’s concern completely.

They’ve been prominent in this region for a long time.

My becoming a noble chief, and now this lawsuit—it’s only natural she’d feel uneasy about us constantly clashing with them.

But…

“Amelia.”

I shook my head and answered firmly:

“If you’re too afraid of a counterattack and refuse to expand your front yard, you’ll lose the game eventually.”

It’s a long-held belief.

This was one of my longest-standing beliefs.

“…?”

Amelia looked at me like what the hell was I talking about.

***
The next day, I went out alone with Erwin for the first time in a while.

Our destination was Raven’s laboratory in the mage tower.

“Ah, you came?”

“It’s been a while, Raven.”

“I heard about your victory, congratulations. I tried visiting a few times, but you were always out.”

“I’ve been really busy these days.”

Her lab was as cluttered and dusty as ever.

“…The lab is a bit messy, isn’t it? Recently, I’ve been spending almost all my time at the military base in the capital. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been in the lab.”

“Thank you. I didn’t expect you to take leave to make time for this.”

“Of course! Every mage would line up for a chance to study a Floor Lord’s Essence.”

Hmm, that’s probably true…

But none are as reliable as her..

Even Vercil Gowland, who specialized in magical tools, admitted she had no experience in handling such an essence.

“When you told me about Riakis’s essence, I did a bit of research on it. And it’s quite unusual.”

“Yes, I’d say that’s accurate.”

“Okay, shall we take a look…?”

As Raven approached with a grin, Erwin took a step back.

“…Mister, can we just do it the two of us, like before?”

Erwin seemed uncomfortable being treated like a test subject, but there was no helping it.

“As I said, a mage’s help is essential to properly assess the power you’ve gained.”

“…”

“Can you do it?”

“Yes…”

Erwin nodded at my persuasion.

Seeing this, Raven chuckled.

“Erwin, you’re still the same as ever.”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“Well, that’s fair enough. Come this way.”

Ugh, the tension is suffocating.

I think they used to just call each other by first names and get along pretty well.

I wish their relationship would go back to the way it used to be.

Ah, forget it, they’ll figure it out themselves.

It’s silly for me to worry when they’re fine, so I just focused on the experiment.

“Here, wear this bracelet.”

It was the same bracelet Raven had forced me to wear to test the Corpse Golem essence.

But I don’t think they could be called bracelets though.

“…Ugh.”

As soon as Erwin sat down in the ominous chair, the bracelets(?) clamped shut and locked her arms in place.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s just inserting a mana conductor into your veins to check your vital signs.”

“…”

“Shall we start the rest then?”

Raven continued to make various preparations for the experiment, and once everything was ready, she asked Erwin to activate her skill.

“It might be tricky, since it’s your first time using this ability. But try to visualize it clearly. It’ll be easier if you think of the name that the Great Sage gave the ability-”

“I’ll handle it, so just be quiet. Let me concentrate.”

“Sure, sure. Well, you’re probably a better expert on this than I am as a mage.”

A few seconds after Erwin closed her eyes, something began to change.

Although there were no visible changes on the outside…

Beep, beep, beep-beep-beep, beep—

The graph of the biometric signals connected to Erwin from the magical tool began to fluctuate.

The essence’s skill had been activated correctly…

[Erwin Fornacci di Tercia casts [Fusion]

In short, [Fusion] is a Transformation-type ability. It’s similar yet distinct from my [Transcendence].

[Transcendence] influences only my active skills—

「All Passive Skills will fuse into one.」

But [Fusion] targets passive skills.

‘I wonder what the result will be.’

I recalled the passive skills Erwin possessed one by one.

[Energy of the chaos engulfs [Attribute Enhancement]

The Level 5 essence from Evan, boosting damage of all four elemental attributes (water, fire, wind, earth).

[Energy of the chaos devours [Absolute Concentration].」

The Level 4 essence from Ritcannon (royal reward), it doubled the damage by all casting-type skills.

[Energy of the chaos devours [Harmony]

The Level 5 essence from scout Ertes that converted Soul Energy into Natural Energy.

[Energy of the chaos devours [Half’s Blessing]

The Level 5 essence from Wolf Beast, Kalban. It gives you buffs at regular intervals.

[Energy of the chaos devours [Hunter’s Eye]

The level 4 essence from Metcrow. It triples all vision-related stats and adjusts all long-ranged attacks.

[Energy of the chaos devours Food Chain]

The level 3 essence from Heavenly Adjudicator, she obtained with the help of Fairies after the team was disbanded.

Its passive skill greatly increases all damage dealt to monsters proportional to one’s Rank.

While it’s not as valuable as its active skill [Rupture], the passive still holds significant value.

‘Since the Floor Lord’s essence isn’t included in [Fusion], this is all there is.’

To be honest, I couldn’t precisely predict what the combination of these skills would produce.

There are so many essences in Dungeon & Stone.

No matter how knowledgeable I am, it’s physically impossible to test every single combination among that astronomical number of possibilities. Even more so because I didn’t play the cheat version of the game.

‘…Well, I have tried most of the combinations involving high-level essences, though.’

Thanks to that, I’ve found quite a few powerful combos.

But attaining those combos would be far in the future.

All we could do now was observe the results of her passive skills combination

[Energy of the chaos resides in the flesh of Erwin Fornaci di Tercia]

That’s why the help of a mage was essential.

It’s not like I can ?I’m not sure.”

“Really? Then we’ll have to go through the condition checklist”.

Raven continued with experiments similar to those she had conducted on me before, and of course, the experiment wouldn’t end in just one day.

“I’ve taken leave for the entire month, so from now on, come here every day.”

Erwin’s schedule for the month was set.
***

[Energy of the chaos resides in the flesh of Erwin Fornacci di Tercia]

[The character’s soul power and natural force greatly increase proportionally to the Rank]

[When inflicting elemental damage on monsters of Level 4 or lower, additional chaos elemental damage is dealt]

[All damage taken while concentrating is absorbed using soul energy]
***

Even after returning from the Mage Tower, busy times continued.

[I’ve also heard some strange rumors lately about you, Baron Jandel. Of course I’ll help if you need witnesses to refute them. That should quiet those nonsensical claims.]

I managed to get assurances from the low-rank explorers I met in the Labyrinth to testify if needed.

[There seems to have been a fierce battle at the top of the Dragon Mountains. One of the Seven Powerful died there. Oh, and one more thing you should know—.]

I checked war-related information from Vercil Gowland and anything else that I might have missed.

[Bjorn!! Hurry to the sanctuary! We need you!]

In between, a situation arose within the tribe that required a visit to the sanctuary.

[It hasn’t even been a month yet! What do you know about blacksmithing? Properly melting Mystium requires building the facilities first… Huh? You didn’t rush it? Stop lying!]

I also stopped by the dwarf blacksmith to check on the progress of smelting metals and disposing of loot.

After all, even in idle games, you have to click on those progress gauges frequently to speed things up.

‘……It’s only been half a month.’

My body was getting more and more exhausted with each passing day.

Today, after returning home late at night, I collapsed onto the bed and closed my eyes.

It wasn’t to rest and finish the day.

Unfortunately, I still had one more task to complete before I could get some sleep.

[The character’s soul resonates and is drawn to a specific world]

…Let’s go.