Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 198 - Creepy Alien Two

198: Creepy Alien Two

198: Creepy Alien Two

After accepting the Protagonist’s deal, I had him lead me to what he called his ‘base camp’.

As we travelled back through the ruined city, I noticed he seemed to be quite experienced with traversing the uneven rubble and overall risky environment, but that wasn’t particularly unexpected.

More than that, the main thing occupying my mind was a continuous desire to get it over with as soon as possible.

I thought about just killing the Protagonist out here in the wasteland, barely holding myself back at the promise of high-quality mana crystals.

It was pretty acceptable to assume he had some form of protecting himself even from a sneak attack, or perhaps coming back to life, but honestly, even if he had something like the first Beloved’s Amulet of the Holy Sun, I felt confident in my ability to handle it.

Again, the only reason I held out was for the mana crystals.

‘I wonder how many I should get before killing him…

Since he’s an alchemist, he probably has a bunch of potions or something I can take, too.’

Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure if he had a storage of mana crystals.

Seeing how he can harvest them directly from the aliens like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a use for them that was tied to a part of his #System.

‘At least, that makes sense to me.

Though, I wonder if the alchemist part is related to the #System, or if it’s something separate…’

Anyway, I already knew that mana crystals could be used in alchemy, but obviously they could also be used in countless other things, so I didn’t know.

It didn’t really matter.

Regardless, at some point whilst we traversed the city, I halted my feet.

“Hm?

Is something wrong?”

Noticing my sudden pause, the Protagonist also stopped and turned to me.

Glancing at him for the briefest of moments, I swivelled my head slightly.

“…Monster ahead.”

‘Did he not sense it?’

Not sparing him another look, I stepped forward, passing him.

We were currently on one side of the road, clear of debris, but due to the way the buildings in this section of the city collapsed, the only way to progress forward without climbing over the mountain of rubble that piled many dozens of metres into the air, was to go under it.

Just before us was a line of smashed windows belonging to what used to be an office building.

Fortunately, although everything around it wasn’t so lucky, the ceiling hadn’t yet imploded despite the building itself falling over, allowing us a clear path to the other side.

Alas, what I picked up hiding in between us and that ‘other side’, was a faint sign of life.

Letting the Protagonist wait just outside, I activated Sneak and entered the toppled building.

The interior being slanted was a little confusing, but I quickly got used to it, gradually making my way forward until I reached a door at the end of the first office.

Tentatively opening it, I expected to find an alien monster identical to the one I previously killed, but what I saw was slightly different.

It was similar, but not the same.

A grey, revolting mass, with dark veins spread all across its body just like before, but instead of being fat like a slug, this one was long and slender, more akin to a centipede with its countless “limbs” that lined its torso and that I didn’t even know how to describe, just slightly curled up as if sleeping.

It was hard to tell the exact size of the thing like that, but it certainly wasn’t much smaller than the previous, perhaps the size of a bus and a half.

At its head, the same hexagonal nut slowly rotated back and forth, the creepy blackness in the middle making it look sort of like a bizarre, eerie eye now that I looked at it again.

If there was another big difference between this one and the previous, it would be the lack of that high-pitched pulsing call, as well as the accompanying minute tremors.

Maybe that was because this one seemed to be resting.

‘Anyway, I’m not here to figure that kind of shit out.

It doesn’t matter.

I just want it dead.’

If I thought about what sort of properties these abominations had, the first thing to come to mind was obviously ‘evil’, and even though I couldn’t confirm that for sure, I was already convinced enough to use the Holy Sword over the Villainous Blade.

Sneaking close, only a tiny part of me doubted whether it would be able to sense me through the overpowered combination of both Sneak and the Draconic Shadow, but like I thought, I was able to close the distance in no time without a sweat.

Thereafter, arriving at the alien without waking it up, I targeted the head and raised my arm.

‘Ah, tsk…

Tougher than I thought.’

As if made out of metal, the recoil of hitting the head with the Holy Sword sent reverberations through my body, causing my arm and particularly my shoulder to ache.

“Even if I have the strongest weapon in the world, if the wielder is shit then it doesn’t matter…”

I still managed to cut through it, albeit with that sort of resistance, causing a fountain of that same, murky grey goo to leak all over the floor and let off hot steam.

Making sure to keep away from it at all costs, I hurriedly swung the Holy Sword to whip the blood-like substance off of the blade before dismissing it to Storage.

A bit belatedly, I felt my brows furrow, but only because I realised once again just how weak I was physically.

Or rather, it wasn’t that I was especially weak―just that I was comparing myself to all these fantasy and non-human creatures constantly.

It wasn’t particularly a problem when I was taking on 1- and 2-star Contracts, but for Contracts 3-star and beyond, the areas wherein I was lacking were becoming more and more evident to me.

Before I even considered taking on a Difficulty 4-star Contract, that would need to be fixed.

‘I can’t delay it any longer.

Mana Corruption has to be my next purchase.’

The only problem then was what to do when I had mana.

After all, even if I finally obtained it, that didn’t mean I would know how to use it effectively.

I was sure I’d be able to figure it out on my own to a certain extent, but that sort of half-assedness simply wouldn’t be enough in the future.

Higher Difficulty Contracts wouldn’t be able to be cleared by someone who was ‘just satisfactory’, or at a level of ‘passable’―’not bad’, ‘adequate’, however you wanted to call it, it was all the same, and none of it would be enough.

‘I should find a Contract with a mage that can teach me how to control mana next.’

But I was getting ahead of myself.

Before I started thinking about the next Contract, I still needed to complete this one.

Heading back outside, I notified the Protagonist that the monster had been dealt with, and we continued through the collapsed office building and on our way, one more high-quality mana crystal entering my pockets thanks to my efforts.

Before long, we arrived at the Protagonist’s human settlement.