The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich

“Harloys, what do you think the most important factor is for a successful assassination?”

Since I was far too bored at the long wait, I started chatting with Harloys.

“Assassination? I’ve never been an assassin before… But, I have received anti-assassin training before. The main thing is to be on guard against strangers, and to not go to dangerous and isolated locations with no exits. If I had to say, the most important factor for an assassination is to appear at a critical location at a critical time when the enemy isn’t on guard.”

“That’s right. The most important thing for an assassin is patience, patience…”

We were currently in my personal Hell world, rather than Shupnus’s personal palace. Preparing for an assassination wouldn’t attract any attention from others here.

I wasn’t a professional assassin… no, I wouldn’t even receive a passing grade as an assassin, due to my terrible disguising and stealth abilities. While I could fool some ordinary undead, I wouldn’t even dream of being able to deceive an Undead Emperor who would have soul vision or a Devil Lord who would be a professional liar. That was why I decided upon a rather silly method.

“I’m just going to keep waiting right outside their base. I refuse to believe that they won’t go out.”

Rather than entering the middle of the devils’ camp and try and approach my target through countless layers of defenses, I might as well instead wait for him to come out by himself.

My difficult fight against Sophocles the Deceiver had exposed many of my abilities. However, my bug-like personal Hell was one of my biggest secrets. I had entered my personal Hell world at the entrance to Shupnus’s palace, so when I exited, I would naturally be at the same location.

Readers of my log could probably already guess that I was intending to hide in my personal Hell world until Sarwenstan came out. I would then suddenly appear and viciously attack him. The only problem as that…

“Patience, patience… to hell with patience! It’s already been a day and a half! He’s still staying inside without coming out! Why would I be patient!?”

My patience was nearing its end. It wasn’t my fault for not being able to take it anymore. I had already waited here for 37 hours. I had even maintained the exact same position for the last eight hours for the sake of the assassination’s success.

“Just take a break. Another batch of living hostages have been sent in to become his food. It seems like Sarwenstan has no intentions of leaving today.”

I wiped away all of my sweat as I put down my magic sword. All of the light faded as everything returned to calmness.

“According to legends, there’s a group of mystical people who live in the distant east. They are capable of waiting in a bathroom for several days for the sake of information gathering or an assassination. They’re so hard-working…”

“Stop being ridiculous. I’ve also been to the east. Nobody there is so disgusting. Isn’t that the same as watching others do… disgusting, that’s truly disgusting.”

“Don’t say it. Although I’ve only heard rumors, there really are examples of such things happening. That’s why they’re called ninjas… for they can really, really endure.” [TL note: the “nin” character in “ninja” also means endure/persevere.]

My memories weren’t clear, but regardless, they could really endure. That was probably the meaning of the word, if I recalled correctly.

“That’s why we should keep the ‘spirit of enduring’ and wait in the bathroom until the end. I won’t leave until the enemy appears! Basically, it’s like having someone above you while… I really should leave, then. This type of endurance is inhumane.”

“Stop saying anything. It’s too disgusting. You’ve definitely misremembered. How could there be such a job?”

I shook my head helplessly. Nobody believed me these days even when I spoke the truth. Perhaps I had misremembered some of the details, but overall things should be correct. There really was such a job in history.

I gave the command to take a temporary rest, causing the Pillar of Holy Light in the distance to stop transmitting Holy Light to me as everything returned to calmness.

I nodded in satisfaction as I glanced at the Dawn sword in my hand which was losing its glow. My Holy Light sword’s abilities had far exceeded all of my expectations due to the outstanding resources used in its construction.

“That whatever sword of yours is actually effective?”

“Of course it is, as long as I can land an attack that’s been charged for long enough.”

Although I spoke really confidently, I wasn’t actually feeling confident at all. Right now, I really regretted having fought with Sophocles the Deceiver.

If I hadn’t shown off my ability to actually endanger and perhaps kill the Chaos Main Gods, then they wouldn’t have been on guard against me, meaning that I could have used far more potential schemes, rather than foolishly waiting here for Sarwenstan to come out.

My Dawn Holy Light sword had two major attack modes. The second mode was the “lighthouse” mode which I previously showed on the battlefield. That mode would illuminate a large area to cleanse and weaken Chaos type enemies.

The other mode was gathering light at an incredibly high intensity, transforming into an incomparably sharp blade of light. The attack power’s upper limit would be determined by the capacity of myself and this sword, which I still didn’t know.

“At the time, Sophocles took an attack that had been charged to less than half of maximum power. Although he was only injured on the surface, the attack indeed managed to injure a Chaos Main God. Now, the charging limit has reached eight hours. The maximum attack power should have more than doubled.”

This was a theoretical calculation, as well as me trying to give myself more confidence. Any weapon which was outstanding in theory still wouldn’t make me feel reassured without testing it in practical combat first.

Since the resources for my Dawn sword had been far too outstanding… A God Equipment belonging to the ancient Sun God, the original spear belonging to the God of Holy Light, and the inherited hammer of the Holy Knights. I had basically combined three top-level God Equipment into one. Although this wouldn’t reach the effect of having triple the power, the quality wouldn’t be bad at all.

I was still unable to determine Dawn’s maximum power. The eight-hour charging limit was only my personal maximum capacity. That was the utmost amount of Holy Light that I could control. I could only maintain that amount of Holy Light for ten minutes at most. If I still didn’t attack with Dawn or stop gathering Holy Light then, I would no longer be able to handle it.

“Stop complaining. At the very least, you don’t need to use yourself as the vessel to gather Holy Light. You wouldn’t be sufficient for that even if you were entirely drained.”

Harloys was indeed correct. It was only my bug-like personal Hell world which allowed me to safely charge Holy Light for several hours with the help of Hell’s Pillar of Holy Light, all for the sake of one attack.

“…Indeed, on the battlefield, an enemy won’t give you even three minutes, much less eight hours.”

Injecting Holy Light into my Dawn sword wasn’t simply a matter of time. The closer it approached to its limit, the more Holy Light and time would be required. After injecting Holy Light for only half an hour, this pitch-black personal Hell world had already become a clearly-lit realm. Three hours after I started charging, even Harloys would start instinctively retreating from my Holy Light sword, and even I would feel numb while looking at it.

The prerequisite for limitless energy was probably the time required to charge Dawn.

From a certain standpoint, this was also a type of forbidden spell which required Holy Light to be continuously supplied to it as if it was a mage tower. I would then have to charge energy for several hours in order to transform all this energy into an extremely powerful attack.

“Sheesh, if I accidentally lose control and this explodes, we… Alright, please put down that innocent eggplant. I won’t say anything more. You’ve been playing with such things quite often recently, so could it be that…”

I wisely then shut up as I saw Harloys waving the eggplant around, obviously wanting to use it.

“Okay, rest time is over. Let’s start again.”

I was feeling even more now the advantage of having reached Level 4. At least my stamina would now swiftly recover just with a minor amount of food, water, and rest… This all seemed rather familiar. Wasn’t this how characters in video games restored HP by using food and drink? What kind of strange physical body and setting was this?

“Cough, concentrate.”

I held my Dawn sword as I gathered Holy Light once again. The Pillar of Holy Light in the distance also started glowing brightly as endless Holy Light illuminated me and started providing energy for me and my Dawn sword.

This trick of mine could only be used once. It definitely wouldn’t work a second time. Thus, I was seriously intending on obtaining a concrete combat achievement with this opportunity.

“I’m going to crouch here and keep crouching while showing off the spirit of enduring. I’m going to wait here until the end of the world. I refuse to believe that he won’t come out to use the bathroom… whoops, I meant I refuse to believe that he won’t go outside!”

Shupnus felt that perhaps he had made a mistake in coming to the mortal plane.

He felt that he was really pitiful right now.

He had arrived while filled with ambitions, thinking that he could finally create a world for the undead. However, he then received multiple impacts before he could even do anything.

His Undead Emperor allies did all sorts of slacking off and lazing around, while he could only work his hardest at fighting by himself. He went to the effort of bringing out everything he had to win a battle, yet he then discovered that all his allies had run away. The Undead Emperor that he trusted the most actually stole most of the victory loot. Shupnus had worked and fought so hard, yet he obtained nothing except the enmity of all humanity in this area. Now, he was waiting for the humans to come attack him.

From Shupnus’s standpoint, this really was a tale filled with sweat, blood, and tears.

“Even though everyone was my ally, even though we all agreed to create a country for the undead together, even though slaughtering humans is really fun, even though it’s great to share fun experiences with fellow undead, why, why…? Why did all of you betray me so quickly!? Just how many times have you all betrayed others before in the past?”

Those were words that I imagined Shupnus saying, so that wasn’t a real quote… Honestly, people who loved White Album 2 should all be beaten to death.

Only a saint wouldn’t have a grudge when put in Shupnus’s position.

Was Undead Emperor Shupnus a saint? That was obviously impossible. He was quite infamous for having a terrible temper. Currently, not only was he incredibly angry, he couldn’t find a place to vent right now, so he was on the verge of exploding.

However, Sarwenstan, who was the Lord of Tyranny, wouldn’t care what Shupnus was thinking right now.

Shupnus requested that the devils carry out the contract and immediately attack the human allied forces. However, he was informed that he had forgotten to specify a date on their contract, which meant that even though the devils would definitely attack the humans, when they would attack would depend on Sarwenstan’s mood.

Only someone in a position of power would get to negotiate. Shupnus didn’t say anything as he simply left with a dark expression. It was obvious that his anger had reached a maximum.

In a way, Shupnus really was quite young among the ancient artifact-like existences. Even the devils had easily scammed him. If he had instead met Roland… Well, there was also a special reason why Shupnus was like this. He had likely never met anyone who dared to directly fool him like this. However, a Devil Lord would have no reason to give face to an Undead Emperor. The devils would scam him in any way possible without any fear that he would turn on them.

Sarwenstan currently had no intentions of carrying out the contract. He was patiently doing nothing at all.

Everyone knew that since the Dimension Door here was now connected to the lower planes, Sarwenstan’s devil army would grow stronger on a daily basis, which would obviously mean that the undead would become weaker in comparison. Shupnus and his undead would obviously lose influence.

In fact, Sarwenstan even felt that it was rather regrettable how Shupnus had been scammed so easily. Sarwenstan hadn’t even needed to use his typical contract traps or flowery wordplay tricks in order to scam Shupnus.

It was easy for Sarwenstan to tell that Shupnus’s patience was at its extreme limit. Sarwenstan thus decided to go out tomorrow to take a look at the army in order to have the undead witness the majesty of the Devil Lord Main God.

The next morning, when Sarwenstan finished discussing with Shupnus and right after they left the palace entrance, a mortal suddenly appeared before them.

“How come he seems so familiar…”

Sarwenstan’s expression instantly changed. This face was obviously quite familiar to him as both twin brothers had the same face. Yet, both twin brothers were the devils’ mortal enemies.

“Hi. Nice to meet you. Take this sword skill from me!”

And then, Sarwenstan saw the blonde-haired Holy Knight giving him a friendly greeting, followed by…

“Sword? What sword?”

Only then did he notice that this Holy Knight was holding a sword. This sword hilt was enveloped in a faint darkness, rather than any Holy Light.

The sword hilt didn’t even contain a blade. Instead, there was only pitch-black darkness made from stardust.

This was the property of light at its most extreme, which then transformed into void similar to a black hole.

Sarwenstan didn’t have the time to exclaim over his discovery. He hadn’t noticed that Shupnus had already hid behind him from the moment that Roland appeared. In a way, Shupnus really couldn’t blame the other Undead Emperors for betraying him, as selling out one’s teammates was a classical move for all Undead Emperors.

“Holy Light, this enemy is worthy to fight!”

The next instant, a torrent of light washed over everything.