WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Upbeat Newbie the Infinite Regressors Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 35: You’re Too Big, Saintess
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I had a reason to believe I could clear this in ten minutes.
The key to this attempt was whether I could rescue the Saintess and receive her buffs in full.
There had been a minor unexpected development, but I already had a generous ten-stack buff.
For reference, there had been five minutes remaining when I arrived at the religious order.
Of course, even five minutes was more than enough.
Why? Why, you ask?
‘No matter how many Paladins come at me, the game is over once I destroy the Holy Grail.’
Bang!
Carrying Elena on my back, I made my entrance by smashing through the order's front gate.
“Pant, pant! I, I can't take any more...”
Can't take any more, my ass.
She'd been riding on my back while doing nothing but letting out strange, suggestive cries.
Having grown somewhat used to Elena's way of speaking, I ignored it and looked inside the order.
The people there widened their eyes at the unexpected intruder.
“W-why is that witch here?!”
“Who the hell are you?!”
“Uh, huh?”
That was when it happened.
After catching her breath, Elena pointed at several of the clergy.
“That person, and that person... Ah! That person too!”
“Confirmed.”
I immediately drew out mana threads and pulled the clergy Elena had indicated toward me.
Zip, zip, zip!
“A-Aaah!”
“A demon! It's the power of a demon!”
“Paladins! What the hell are the Paladins doing?!”
The three clergy hit the floor face-first behind me.
“Urk!”
“Oh dear!”
“Grrr, what kind of outrage is this in a sacred religious order?!”
Then the pupils of those who remained began to split vertically.
An ordinary person would not have been able to see it clearly from this distance.
But I could.
These tentacle-Reptilian bastards.
It looked like they had finally grasped the situation now that Elena had selectively picked out only the clergy who had not fallen.
That moment did not last long, though.
They quickly resumed pretending to be human and shouted.
“He is a lackey deceived by the witch.”
“What are you all doing?! Get over here at once!”
Not to be outdone, Elena shouted from my back.
“Don't listen to them! They are the Fallen! Please, listen to me!”
Whoooosh!
Elena drew out the tiny amount of divine power she had left.
A golden aura began to swirl around her.
The three clergy who had come over to my side looked back and forth between Elena, me, and the fallen clergy.
“What is this?! They said she had fallen and lost her divine power!”
“I-Is God testing us...?”
“What in the world is going on?!”
The fallen bastards began gaslighting them too.
“Have you not heard what happened in Eden Vale?! Do not be deceived by that witch's words!”
They raised their voices at one another, shouting that one side was right and the other was wrong.
It looked like a witch trial was about to break out.
Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing what had happened on the original route.
The real Elena had said that after the tragedy in Eden Vale, she had not even been able to set foot in the order's headquarters.
If she had switched to a damage dealer-support role, this would not have happened. Unfortunately, buffs apparently could not be applied to herself.
‘Well, if she could buff herself, she could have just forced her way through with brute strength.’
Anyway, it was noisy, and I was short on time.
I shouted from the center of the crowd.
“Boring and pedantic.”
Arguing with words over some witch trial would take too long, and the debate would never end.
But what if I just smashed Baal's Holy Grail?
Simple, and the chance of losing the argument would be practically zero.
Everyone's attention turned to me.
I took my stance and refined the power from my core.
Realizing what I was about to do, Elena clenched her fists and shouted.
“You would all do well to brace yourselves! This person has reached that legendary realm, the realm of a Sword Master!”
Everyone there, including the clergy, froze in place.
Right. The name Sword Master carried no small weight in this world.
Then I would simply meet their expectations!
Screeeech!
With the sharp scrape of glass, Aura...
Pshhhk.
“...?”
Again.
Screeeech!
With the sharp scrape of glass, Aura...
Pshhhk.
‘What the fuck?’
Give me back my Aura.
I glanced at Elena.
Elena, who had been brimming with confidence as if saying, ‘You're all dead now!’ was staring at me with an empty expression.
The clergy who had not fallen were looking at me as if asking, ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’
Even the fallen Paladins and clergy, who had been so tense, stared wide-eyed before bursting into laughter.
“Pwahahahaha!”
“What did you say? Sword, pfft! Sword Master?”
My face burned.
Damn it.
Was I not some ultra-genius who could copy anything after seeing it once?
Honestly, I had known that in my head.
My stats were still on a completely different level from before.
But I had already spent a huge amount of power unleashing Aura once.
No matter how much I honed it, I was slightly short on the total amount needed to refine pure power like I had on my first attempt.
‘Right. How could I make a super play every time?’
‘When you do enough circus acts, sometimes you break a plate and fall over.’
That mindset did not make it any less embarrassing.
With my face twisted, I immediately drew out mana threads.
Zip, zip, zip!
Then, with power equivalent to having climbed ten more floors, I hurled my dagger at the statue of Sola-Estella.
Swoooosh!
In an instant, the fallen Paladins threw themselves forward to block it.
‘Yep, penetration MAX.’
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
The dagger pierced through them with ease and struck its target.
Everyone who saw it was stunned.
Then they each cried out.
“Y-you madman!”
“This is blasphemy!”
“So she really was a witch?! How could you commit such an atrocious act?!”
For the record, those were the real clergy who had not fallen.
“N-No! No!!!!”
“Kyaaaah!”
“S-S-Sola... Gah! Lord Baal!”
Those were the fallen bastards.
Gurgle...
Horrific tentacles began pouring out of their abdomens.
The clergy who had not fallen watched with their mouths hanging open.
“Aah, aaah!”
“P-Please, have mercy!”
The tentacles swallowed the fallen whole and disappeared.
The Fallen vanished without even leaving corpses behind.
It was a shame to watch.
Among the many holy relics Baal had scattered throughout Heretic Exterminator's world, that Holy Grail possessed the strongest authority.
If Heretic Exterminator had somehow dealt with Baal's Holy Grail before the regression point became fixed, her life of regression might have been somewhat bearable.
‘Well, I can turn it back someday.’
Without lowering my guard, I waited.
You could never relax before the Monolith's clear message appeared.
As expected, black smoke erupted from inside Sola-Estella's statue.
Fwoooosh!
I sheathed my dagger and Black Iron Sword, then raised a Mana Shield to block the smoke.
After the black smoke swept through the order for about five seconds, my vision cleared.
The surroundings had rotted away in an instant.
Seeing that, I sighed in relief.
‘Phew, I knew there would be a deathrattle.’
I lowered the Mana Shield and looked at where the statue had stood.
Rattle...
From inside the broken statue, a Holy Grail that looked filthy as hell floated into the air.
Of course, I had made a very pretty hole in it with my dagger, so it did not last long before shattering.
Crack!
Then the Monolith's clear messages appeared.
It meant I could finally relax.
[You have cleared the mission within the time limit.]
[Floor 2 Clear!]
[Your achievements will be saved after settlement.]
[Settlement in progress......(5)]
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the Monolith messages.
‘Wait, wasn't this floor supposed to be different?’
Why was the settlement taking only five seconds?!
Shouldn't it give me at least thirty seconds?
I cleared the mission, didn't I?!
‘Where did my climactic emotional scene go?!’
Elena should have teared up and thanked me, then said prayers to lay the victims of Eden Vale to rest, something like that!
I'm disappointed, Monolith.
Seriously disappointed.
Of course, I did not have long for stray thoughts.
I had four seconds left.
This floor had already been cleared, and I could never enter it again.
So what could I do here to end things properly?
After thinking for a moment, I found the answer, as I always did.
Even if I could not enjoy the highlight scene, I should at least avoid leaving any lingering discomfort.
Seizing the chance, I spoke to the copy of Elena created by the Tower.
With a solemn expression.
“The strategy of luring them into lowering their guard worked very well.”
“...Ah, ah! So that was it, Saint!”
Unlike Elena, who immediately accepted it, the clergyman still sprawled on the ground raised one eyebrow.
“If that was the case, you seemed awfully serious...”
“The strategy of luring them into lowering their guard worked very well.”
I said it twice because it was important.
At least this one was not completely oblivious. After looking into my eyes, the clergyman lowered his gaze and nodded.
Elena looked around for a moment, then grabbed my hand tightly with tears in her eyes.
At the same time, she and the surrounding scenery began to be enveloped in golden waves.
“Saint, thank you so, so much!”
Leaving those words behind, Elena's copy vanished into the waves.
‘So you really left, Elena.’
In more ways than one.
Anyway, it was still a relief.
No matter what, it would have been seriously crossing the line if this was a rescue mission and I could not even hear a word of thanks.
‘If I get another mission like this, I should say goodbye before clearing it.’
I looked at the Monolith messages in the middle of the bleached-white religious order.
[Settlement Complete.]
[You have cleared Floor 2 of Infinity Difficulty.]
. . . . . .
. . .
Clear points, the Extinction Timer, something about Players across the country, and so on.
The massive increase to my overall stats came as a passive bonus.
As expected, I also received a generous amount of A-rank Magic stones.
However...
‘Tch, no Skill Jewel or item dropped.’
That was definitely disappointing.
Still, I was only disappointed with the material rewards.
In terms of inner growth, I had gained a great deal from this floor.
I had found a clue toward Aura Awakening.
Next was the Infinite Regression Gallery.
Honestly, I had not expected much this time, but they had prepared everything so neatly on their own.
[You have overcome the trial!]
[You receive 40P Shop Points!]
[The second special feature is unlocked!]
[30% until the second special feature unlocks!]
Looking at the Infinite Regression Gallery messages, which had regained their exclamation marks, I thought:
‘Come to think of it, didn't the gallery users predict that causality had been used on the Infinite Regression Gallery? I thought that meant I would not receive a reward.’
Could it be that neither the Infinite Regression Gallery nor the Monolith had touched causality?
‘Then again, the rewards are pretty sweet.’
I had been sure that the feature unlocked in increments of 20%.
This time, it had unlocked by 30%.
Maybe the points were higher because this was the second floor. Or perhaps the Infinite Regression Gallery's reward had increased because the Monolith had used causality.
I still did not know.
Puppetmaster and Archmage had not been certain either. They had only made predictions.
For now, I would just store the questions that could not be answered through thought alone in the back of my mind.
I had 100P in shop points.
Excluding the amount being collected for Dundo, I had 80P available to use.
I did not know who would win, but it meant they would be able to shop more generously than ever before!
Floor 2 was cleared anyway, and Elena's copy had been laid to rest.
I ended the recording, then activated the recording function again and summoned the roulette.
Then I nearly fell over in shock.
“What?!”
There was a clear anomaly in the roulette.
I was only startled by the mysterious phenomenon for a moment.
“I need to upload this right now!”
Normally, the template was to upload the clear process and reward messages first, then spin the roulette.
This time, though, I had no choice but to upload the roulette first.
The pizza slice belonging to Heretic Exterminator, which occupied one section of the roulette, had grown overwhelmingly large.
Footnotes:
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