Chapter 100: Experiment 2

’Master’s gotten a little scary...’

Ilunia couldn’t help but think that. Her lips twitched with a mix of amusement and nervousness. Even though Ilunia was already fairly used to carrying out cruel acts, all of that had always been done through someone else’s hands, never her own.

She had absolutely no experience with killing herself. Which was exactly why she felt genuinely nervous right now.

If this hadn’t been something her Lord specifically wanted, Ilunia might have tried preparing herself properly first.

But here, she wasn’t even considering that option. Her Lord had already given her an order, how could she possibly refuse?

Unable to see, Ilunia felt the slightly cold hilt of the sword pressing into her palm.

’...It’s not that heavy, actually.’

Her heart pounded a little faster as her Master positioned the blade’s tip against something firm and fleshy.

Ilunia immediately realized it had to be the Grusk’s body.

Now, all Ilunia needed to do was thrust it in, and it would all be over. Besides, she couldn’t see anything, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

Except, contrary to that thought, Ilunia felt genuinely nervous, her hand trembling slightly as she slowly attempted to drive the blade in.

A low shriek rang out. The sword pierced through the Grusk’s flesh, the wet sound of spraying blood slowly seeping out. The sensation of flesh giving way, the somewhat thick resistance from deeper inside, Ilunia could feel it all as she twisted the blade.

It was a genuinely unsettling sensation... but she forced herself through it, making sure her trembling hand didn’t show too obviously.

Ilunia thought she’d hidden it well enough. But, as it turned out, her Master had noticed anyway.

A large, warm hand rested on her shoulder while the other steadied Ilunia’s own hand, still gripping the sword.

Ilunia flinched slightly, a bit awkward, but right after, she heard her Master’s voice, speaking gently.

"Ilunia... are you okay?"

***

’Ah... because of Fearless’s influence, I didn’t even stop to consider Ilunia’s feelings for a moment.’

Julian couldn’t feel fear at all, and that very absence had blinded him to the fact that Ilunia’s situation was completely different from his own.

That was a mistake Julian should’ve anticipated.

Watching Ilunia genuinely push herself forward despite the blind girl’s obvious awkwardness and fear made Julian regret his actions almost instantly.

"I-I’m fine...!"

Ilunia’s voice was forced, trying to sound okay. Julian knew that, so he let out a small sigh.

"Don’t push yourself too hard. We can stop here if—"

"—No!"

Ilunia slightly "turned" toward where Julian stood. The blind girl forced a sweet smile onto her face, as though nothing at all had happened. Her face was covered in sweat as she spoke.

"I’ll do it."

"....In that case, don’t push yourself too hard."

Since the girl was this determined, Julian decided he wouldn’t interfere.

Ilunia surely understood well enough that, in the future, she’d end up doing far more of this, an enormous amount more, in fact.

So, for that reason, the girl needed to bear through this for the sake of a better future.

Watching her push through it, all Julian could do was silently cheer her on.

The sword drove in far deeper, deep enough to make the Grusk jolt in pain, its eyes snapping open as it began screaming, thrashing in a panicked, uncontrolled frenzy.

Ilunia was startled too, so she forced herself, driving the sword down with as much force as she could manage, pushing far deeper, crushing the Grusk’s heart entirely.

"Khuwaak—!"

That pitiful sound rang out, then the Grusk’s body went rigid, stiffened, and finally lost its life.

Julian watched all of it unfold for several seconds, genuinely fascinated.

Then, his gaze immediately shifted across the way, where Julian could see his system screen glowing with its characteristic translucent blue light.

[System]

Disciple Rank Progress detected.

Source Rank: [F]

Progress Gained: [+0.32%]

MASTER Authority activated.

Return Multiplier: [100×]

[Status Update]

Rank: [D] — [0.5%] → Rank: [D] — [0.8%]

For a moment, Julian said nothing, but his heart pounded fairly fast while his lips twitched slightly.

’This actually works...!’

His gaze immediately shifted toward Ilunia. Julian had already heard this before, unlike Julian, who saw the system floating in the air like this, Ilunia could see her own system within her own consciousness.

According to her, it was exactly like within her blind eyes, where only darkness normally existed, her system would appear right there instead.

So, watching Ilunia standing there frozen, her lips slightly parted into an "o" shape, Julian guessed the girl had already seen that this method genuinely worked.

"...What do you think?" Julian couldn’t help himself, wanting Ilunia’s opinion on this.

Ilunia stayed quiet for a moment, but not for long, before finally giving her answer.

"Master... why hasn’t humanity discovered this method yet? Isn’t this kind of..."

Ilunia’s reaction was entirely reasonable. Julian himself genuinely felt this whole thing was somewhat absurd.

He couldn’t believe humanity hadn’t discovered something like this at all.

’Or... maybe they have discovered it, but something’s preventing them from using it?’

Julian mulled that thought over for a moment. He’d probably need to ask Aveela about this later, or ask a few others like Lurker and the rest.

If they genuinely didn’t know about this yet, then this could turn out to be an enormous discovery, one potentially capable of helping humanity’s growth while reducing the excessively high death toll currently plaguing them.

Julian then blinked, looking at Ilunia.

"How are you feeling? Can you continue?"

After this, Julian was thinking about heading straight into Rank-E invaded territory, wanting to try his luck knocking out a Rank-E Invader and helping accelerate Ilunia’s growth starting here.

Of course, he had no intention of overdoing it for now.

Julian planned to try this again on a larger scale once he’d figured out exactly why this method hadn’t already been discovered.

He didn’t want to push things too far, in case it eventually became a problem for him down the line.

’Well, I need to be careful about this... Besides, I don’t mind taking on the risk myself. But I can’t let Ilunia go through that.’

While Julian was thinking through all that, he heard Ilunia speak up from across the way.

"Of course, Master."

Wasn’t Ilunia learning this a little too fast...?