The Tale of Gerald Vader, the Heretic Knight’s Rampage Through Another World
Gaining power from the Cursed Jewel itself isn’t that difficult.
The method is simple.
Pour a certain amount of your own magic power into the jewel. That’s all.
Though that ‘certain amount’ is quite substantial, and the amount of magic power required varies by jewel, so I am somewhat uncertain if I can manage it in my current state.
Still, I won’t know unless I try.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, then began gradually infusing the jewel with my magic.
“…………”
The jewel showed no particular change.
But I could feel all the magic I poured into it being absorbed.
“Gerald, how’s it going?”
Twina, sitting beside me, watched my progress with keen interest.
“Twina, you should stand back a bit. If the jewel’s power goes haywire, you’ll get caught in the crossfire.”
“It’s fine. Your magic control is at a pretty high level. There’s no way it’ll go out of control, not even one in a million chance.”
“Hey, stop it. That’s a ‘flag’.”
The thing is.
Twina seems to think highly of my abilities, but that’s overestimating me.
I work hard, but I’m no genius.
Proof of that? Having her next to me is distracting the hell out of me.
Seriously, why is she clinging to me like this?
Or rather, since we’re sitting side-by-side on the bed, our centers of gravity naturally shift toward each other, forcing us into this close position, right?
“…What’s wrong, Gerald? Your magic output is unstable.”
Hey, whose fault do you think this is…!
And she’s clearly doing this on purpose.
Proof: she’s peering at my face with a smug grin.
“…Sorry, but I need to focus. Move away.”
“Hmm. I suppose I have no choice.”
Even Twina seemed to sense from my vibe that teasing me any further wasn’t a good idea.
Reluctantly, she stood up from the bed, pulled out her own chair, and sat down.
Well, having her stare straight at me like that is distracting too…
Still, there’s no point in saying anything more.
I’ll try not to let it bother me.
“…………”
Hmm…
I should have poured a considerable amount of magic power into the jewel, but so far, I don’t sense anything unusual…
Or rather, this marble-sized jewel is gobbling up my magic power at an alarming rate, making me wonder where it finds the capacity.
I’ve already poured in enough magic power to generate several ‘Sword of Ten’.
Thanks to training my magic capacity to death since I was a kid, I still have plenty of magic power left in me… but this thing is a real glutton.
Honestly, ‘Raum of Blasphemy’ was an enemy you fought mid-game or later in the game.
As a gemstone, it should be high-rank.
Naturally, I understand it requires a corresponding amount of magic power… but is my current capacity still insufficient?
…Just as I started to feel uneasy, it happened.
“…Huh?”
I suddenly felt resistance to the magic power I was pouring in.
It was like… the sensation when you pump air into a balloon until it’s stretched to its limit.
And then, the next instant.
“…Whoa?”
I felt the jewel I was clutching suddenly grow hot.
Not hot enough to burn, but hot enough to startle me.
I almost dropped the jewel, but I held on.
At the same time, I felt a great power flowing into my body through my hand.
Though, contrary to the jewel’s name, this power felt strong and pleasant.
If I had to compare it, perhaps it was the comforting ease of being completely immersed in a hot spring.
“…Huh. It’s a surprisingly beautiful sight, isn’t it?”
Twina’s voice snapped me back.
A faint light surrounded me.
I immediately recognized it as the same sight I’d seen when granted the power of ‘Sword Creation’.
I see.
I had vaguely suspected it, but the blessing granted by the dungeon and the ‘Curse’ of the Evil God seem to be of the same nature.
That’s precisely why those who received the blessing can draw power from the ‘Cursed Jewel’.
“…How do you feel?”
As the faint light faded, Twaina spoke.
“Not bad.”
I said, opening the fist I’d been clenching.
The ‘Curse Jewel’ still held a dark red mist within it.
Did this jewel still hold power?
But I could clearly feel a new power dwelling within me.
There was no mistake about it.
Thankfully, I understood how to use this power as if it were instinctively programmed into me.
This feels similar to the sensation of the ‘Swordcraft Blessing’.
“Shall we try it out?”
Saying that, I conjured the ‘First Sword’ in my hand.
A palm-sized dagger composed of faint light floated above my hand.
“Hmm. Nothing particularly unusual about its appearance, huh?”
Twina murmured her observation as she looked at the sword I had conjured.
“Well, of course. This is just a sword created using the power of ‘Sword Creation’.”
“Then, what do you intend to do with that sword?”
“…This.”
Saying that, I grasped the hilt of the ‘First Sword’ and slid the fingertips of my other hand swiftly along its blade.
As expected, my finger was cleanly cut, albeit shallowly. Fresh blood flowed from the wound, accompanied by a small but sharp pain.
Confirming this, I made the ‘First Sword’ vanish from my hand.
“Hey, Gerald! What..!?”
“It’s fine, calm down. I haven’t lost my mind or anything.”
Startled by the sudden self-harm, Twina clattered to her feet and started moving toward me.
I stopped her with my uninjured hand.
“Just watch.”
Saying that, I stared intently at the fingertip I’d cut with the sword.
The wound throbbed for a moment, but within about ten seconds, the pain vanished completely.
Simultaneously, the wound began closing rapidly, like a video playing in reverse.
“Gerald, that power…”
“Yeah, regenerative ability.”
I held up my blood-stained, yet perfectly unblemished fingertip for the astonished Twaina to see.
Who would’ve thought the power I gained from the ‘Curse’ would be this…
Namely, the ‘HP recovery every set number of turns (time)’ ability.
“This is quite a blasphemous power, isn’t it?”
“Well, it is the power of an evil god.”
Saying that, I took a handkerchief from the breast pocket of my shirt and wiped the blood from my finger.
…I see. It seems the lost blood doesn’t actually return.
But that’s probably for the best.
Frankly, if the regeneration skill were too powerful, I’d end up relying on it completely and risk becoming a reckless kamikaze.
If that put Twina in danger, it would defeat the whole purpose.
That said, I did feel a considerable amount of mana being consumed as the wound healed.
The sensation was roughly equivalent to using one ‘Ten Swords’.
For fixing a single small cut, it feels like a fairly hefty mana cost.
Fortunately, this auto-heal skill isn’t passive; it seems to be toggleable. Best to keep it off normally.
Beyond that… what I’ve learned from gaining this power is only how to use it. Whether it’s a ‘fixed mana cost per injury’ or a ‘mana cost proportional to damage taken’ is something I’ll unfortunately have to test to find out.
This is something I’ll just have to learn through experience in actual combat.
Still, if injuries that normally require holy magic or expensive healing potions can be healed with just mana consumption, it’s a pretty powerful skill.
Yeah, yeah… Drawing power from the jewel was definitely the right call.
“Fuhaha… This brings me one step closer to being the strongest!”
“Wait…!? No way, is this… going berserk…? Gerald, the jewel hasn’t taken over your personality, has it!?”
“It’s fine, no problem. I’m still me.”
My excitement over such a ‘perfect skill’ got the better of me, and I struck a painfully cheesy pose, scaring Twina.
But well, that was probably unavoidable.
Well, fifteen-year-olds are still in the thick of their middle school syndrome phase, you know.
…Age from my past life?
Right. I take back what I said.
Middle school syndrome is an incurable disease.