Chapter 343
Jacob looks at Kamenev holding the sword pointed at him, and he says, “Come on, put that thing away, man. Stop joking.”
But Kamenev doesn’t exactly look like he’s joking. He does look pretty serious after seeing that Jacob just got a Lullaby Skill.
He has no idea what that means. Why a Lullaby Skill? Maybe because Jacob was repeating the word “flaw” on a loop, and something like that maybe would have soothed a baby? But that can’t be. Even if Jacob was completely incapable of coaxing something good from the Mana Crystal Stone, it should have still been influenced by Karma. And so it makes absolutely no sense that Jacob would get a nonsensical Skill like a Lullaby one.
What was happening? For the love of Rafnov’s creations — Kamenev has lived longer than any other person in the kingdom of Zamorye, and he has not the slightest idea about what has just happened. A Lullaby? Is this kid so incompetent, so thoroughly useless, that he fully ruined Rafnov’s inheritance and turned a Mana node so powerful into a damn Lullaby Skill?
To say that Kamenev is beside himself would be a huge understatement, but still, he has to follow the law. Jacob has not technically broken any rule. It is true. Kamenev had also told himself that as long as he turned the Mana node into anything but dust, he would have passed the trial and gained access to the Book of Blade.
But now, Kamenev is really in a big pickle, because he had thought — after seeing how easily Jacob had gone through the entire trial — that Jacob could be some sort of incredible heir to all of Rafnov’s legacy, that he was blessed beyond belief, that his senses were truly unique. But now, seeing the Skill and looking at Jacob’s face — damn. The man clenches the hilt of his sword. He feels rage. He has been fooled. This Jacob perhaps had found a way to trick the entirety of the Dungeon of the Worthy, and now his true colors have shown themselves, and he has revealed himself to be useless.
I thought he was useless before. I shouldn’t have changed my mind. I should have… I can’t believe this is happening to me.
Kamenev is going through an existential crisis. And now this idiot has access to the Book of Blade.
But then he starts calming himself down and slowly lowering his sword, much to Jacob’s relief.
If he is a fraud, there is nothing he can do to the Book of Blade. In fact, the Book of Blade requires the Wrath of Blade to turn its pages, and if one doesn’t have complete mastery over it, they could strike it with a pickaxe with all their strength — even at Mithril Rank — and nothing would move the cover of the book. That’s how magical the artifact crafted by King Blade is. So why is he worrying so much about this Jacob Cloud and his bag of tricks? He will just bring him to the Book of Blade and then kick him out of the royal palace forever.
“So,” Jacob smiles, “this is an interesting Skill, right? Why would Rafnov put something like this in the wall?”
Kamenev is thinking about how he will soon get rid of the idiot, but hearing that question, his temper flares again, and he raises his voice.
“Rafnov would never put such a Skill inside a wall. Do you understand nothing? Your idiotic chanting during the process must have influenced the Skill. You were so incredibly incapable and unskilled that the Mana node gave you a Bronze Rank Skill at Imperium Rank because you didn’t qualify for anything else. You didn’t even get a striking Skill, which is the most common outcome when an amateur strikes the wall.”
“Hey, man, calm down. Wow. You said as long as I mined the Skill Crystal, it would be all good.”
And that reminds Kamenev of a missing piece, which actually makes him smile.
“Oh, you are still one step away. You must absorb that Skill Crystal for you to actually pass the Dungeon of the Worthy.”
Jacob looks at the Skill Crystal with the Lullaby Skill in it and says, “Really?”
Kamenev smiles widely. He knows that absorbing the wrong Skill can mess up your Class, and that anyone with a bit of sense in their head would think twice before trying to absorb a Lullaby Skill at Imperium Rank. Being at Imperium Rank has such an influence that it could potentially completely derail Jacob’s growth, and only a fool would agree to do so. In fact, he can actually use this as a bargaining chip.
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“Or,” Kamenev says, “you might opt not to absorb the Skill. You would still have passed the Dungeon, technically, but you wouldn’t get access to the Book of Blade. So, what do you choose?”
Kamenev silently congratulates himself, thinking that he has found the perfect way to make sure that Jacob won’t even get close to the Book of Blade. He could probably do nothing with it, but keeping such a treacherous individual from even getting close to the book is better than letting him touch it. One never knows what a donkey is capable of.
Jacob looks at the Skill Crystal and says, “Oh, no, don’t worry. I’ll just—”
And he doesn’t finish the sentence. The Skill Crystal is just absorbed by Jacob.
Kamenev actually shouts, “What are you doing?”
Jacob jumps. “Holy— What’s your problem? Why are you shouting?”
“Did you just absorb a Lullaby Skill? You have a pickaxe that comes from a Rafnov Trial. You clearly have something from Rafnov himself, and you choose to throw everything away to absorb such a Skill?”
“I mean, it’s a Skill from this Dungeon, and this Dungeon is a Rafnov Trial, right?” Jacob asks, confused.
“Yes,” Kamenev snaps. “So what?”
“You said it. If it’s Karma, it’s Karma. It means that I’m supposed to learn this Skill.”
Kamenev wants to punch Jacob — to hammer-punch his head and put him into the ground. It is not Karma. It is just the incompetence of a young man too full of himself to understand the damage he has done. But he can’t tell Jacob this and openly disrespect Rafnov’s trial. He has to keep up appearances.
“All right.” Kamenev nods and waves a hand, a portal appearing beside them. “Let’s go. You have to present yourself to the royals.”
“Huh?” Jacob says.
“You have to—” Then Kamenev remembers that Jacob doesn’t even know one formula, and says, “You know what? Let’s just— You have to meet a royal in a formal setting. Ask for their permission. It is a formality, but it’s protocol. Let’s go.”
And so they shuttle through the portal and meet Count Myshkin standing beside a seated Princess Yekaterina on the throne. She is the regent while her parents fight Apocalypse.
“Hello,” Jacob says, waving at the princess.
By now, the princess is counting on Jacob having sort of understood that she was not just a miner.
“Hello, Jacob Cloud, and salutations. I assume you understand I wasn’t a miner and that I was there to test you.”
Jacob shrugs. “What? Really? But you do look like a miner, you know?”
He is teasing her, but Princess Yekaterina doesn’t get the joke, and she just says, “What did you say to me?”
“I mean, you do have, you know, a miner look.”
By this, Jacob means that — since miners here are so important — he is paying her a compliment. He doesn’t want to anger Kamenev beyond what he has already done, and so paying compliments to the princess, in his mind, is the least he can do. But the princess had camouflaged herself as a dirty miner, as one of the lowest, exactly because she knew that Jacob didn’t know about Skill Crystals being mined. And so, when she hears those words, she thinks that, to Jacob, she looked like a peasant from his world — and she starts heating up.
“Are you calling me a peasant?” she snaps, surprising Kamenev and Count Myshkin alike. The princess rarely loses her temper.
“Not a peasant, just a miner, you know? Like, you looked very good in a miner’s outfit.”
But Princess Yekaterina had never worn a true miner’s outfit in front of Jacob. She’d just worn the camouflage that made her look like a peasant. She raps her knuckles on the throne.
“Are you used to insulting royalty, Jacob Cloud?”
“I mean, I do have a complicated relationship with royalty, but I’m just saying that you looked very, um, professional.” Jacob is reaching for whatever word could convey the meaning of his compliment. “I’m saying you looked very well, even in those clothes, and that you are a great princess or, uh, whatever.”
“Or whatever?” Princess Yekaterina snaps.
“You know what?” Count Myshkin butts in. “I think that this is good enough for an introduction, and we should move on and get the book. Kamenev, please.”
Kamenev would usually be angry at Count Myshkin addressing him so casually, but he just wants all of this to come to an end. He is tired of Jacob Cloud and his shenanigans. So he summons the Book of Blade that he so jealously guards onto a marble pedestal. He served King Blade personally, and he knows how great the man was.
The Book of Blade is fully made of Mithril and other rare minerals. It is carefully inscribed with the best magic available in the kingdom of Zamorye at the peak of its power. And this, albeit not technically being a Rafnov’s Trial, is on par with a Rafnov’s Trial when it comes to difficulty, if not worse. It is almost impossible to glean any knowledge from it because of how hard it is to learn from.
“You must use the Wrath of Blade as best as you can, focusing it on your hands, not your pickaxe, and turn as many pages as you can. The more pages you can turn, the more knowledge you’ll be able to acquire.” Kamenev recites the rules and then steps back. “If you fail, you will be removed from the palace immediately.”
“All right.” Jacob nods, feeling confident, since he knows he can use the Wrath of Blade without any flaw in it.
And so he coats all of himself with the Primordial Spell and goes on to turn the cover of the Book of Blade. He thinks it’s gonna be easy to turn every single page. He can shave Mana Crystal Stone that gives problems to people way higher level than him, so he’s not gonna have any trouble doing—
And before he can finish that thought, as soon as he touches the cover with the Wrath of Blade activated, the book shines brightly and then crumbles into a pile of steaming, useless dust.
Jacob looks at his hands, then at the fuming dust, and then at the huge vein pulsating on Kamenev’s head. He notices the shining sword in the executioner’s hand and raises both his hands.
“I didn’t do anything.”