Chapter 26: Vesta

"..." Nio looks at the Apostle of the 3rd Floor. Standing before her is a short, cute girl with long blonde hair and deeply black eyes. Her eyes have no shine at all, looking almost dead.

Her build is small, with small breasts and an overall petite frame with no curves. She stands at 150 centimeters tall and has a massive shield on her back. The shield is bigger than she is, nearly touching the floor and rising past her head.

Nio is only 3 centimeters taller than her and a little more "filled out," but aside from that, the biggest difference between the two is that the girl in front of her looks very much like a human.

’Vesta Durandal... she’s a Prismatic Golem, and she has a gap moe thing going on — cute with a complicated personality... my punching bag and test dummy... the NPC I used to test spells... and the same NPC who doesn’t like me very much because of all the tests I ran and that I made part of her lore...’ Nio takes a deep breath.

Vesta is one of the most problematic NPCs to face from Nio’s perspective, because she is easily the one who could hurt Nio the most in a battle, all because of her powers.

Special Power = By using [Retribution], the user transforms any damage received into defense and also returns 70% of all damage taken back to the attacker.

Racial Power = Within a 50-meter radius around her, she can generate and control crystals, commanding the entire area around her and able to attack or defend with extremely resistant and powerful crystals.

Vesta is a wall of thorns, a being you hit and it hurts you back. She is the one enemy no one would ever want to face. Even if Nio didn’t get hit by a single blow in a fight against Vesta, she would still come out all wounded.

’Fortunately, in the game I had more than double Vesta’s HP, so I wouldn’t die hitting her... and her attack power isn’t as absurdly high as other NPCs... in the end, she’s a battle tank.’

"Vesta... you look great," Nio says, approaching with a smile. The girl, clad in silver and gold armor, stares at her Master — the person who attacked her so many times throughout her entire life.

"Yeah... I am... I assume you want to train, right? Fine, let’s begin." Without any malice, Vesta accepts that this is her fate, to be Nio’s "test dummy," so she already prepares to defend herself.

"..." Nio swallows hard. She didn’t want to fight, but whenever she showed up on this floor, it was only to test attacks and spells. In this world, Vesta seems to keep following that pattern.

’Th-This is bad!! I don’t know how to use my powers properly...’ Nio can’t back down now because she has no good excuse. Besides, Vesta is smart. If she realizes Nio doesn’t know how to fight, she could absolutely betray her.

"Whatever. It’s good to see my test dummy so eager," Nio tries to sound confident while Vesta half-narrows her eyes at her.

"Nio, I don’t think this should be the situation where I’m supposed to get hurt. You’re always so confident and powerful. Come at me with everything you’ve got!!" Vesta encourages Nio, who just wants to leave.

’Was that a request not to attack, or a provocation?’

"..." Nio advances quickly and throws a punch. Vesta, just as fast, places the shield in front of her. Nio’s punch against the shield generates a shockwave that travels through the entire structure of the palace.

Externally, nothing seems to have happened, but the ground beneath the palace cracked, even going so far as to affect the tectonic structure of the region, which naturally generated a weak earthquake.

But for Nio, the situation is worse. Her fingers broke immediately upon punching the shield because of the damage reflection.

’G-Ghmmm... th-this hurts a little... seems like there’s another problem... I feel pain...’ Nio realizes a problem she hadn’t thought of before. Attacks generate pain in her. Even though her passives regenerate her fingers immediately after the damage, she still felt the pain of the moment.

"Nio, did your punch seem weaker?"

"...It’s because I’m without my equipment or buffs. I thought about testing some new things," Nio says, throwing another punch with all her strength. The punch doesn’t even move Vesta from her spot, but Nio’s fingers are shattered.

’...’ Nio looks at her hand, at the twisted fingers and bones, and wants to cry. She takes a step back, creating distance as she points her hand.

’There are five primary types of magic... Low-Level Magic... won’t work against Vesta. Mid-Level Magic won’t work against her either... High-Level Magic should be enough. Better not use Special Magic or Racial Magic for now...’ Nio briefly plans the attack as her twisted fingers snap back into place.

"High-Level Magic: [Anchor of Rebirth]"

[Anchor of Rebirth] — Darkness Magic that fires a black beam which applies [True Death], preventing low-level spells or items from resurrecting someone, requiring items of extremely high levels.

From Nio’s hand, a violent beam of utterly black, obscure energy is fired. The air around seems to shift, taking on an unpleasant tone of death that would make any nearby animal or person want to flee. The impact against the shield pushes Vesta completely backward as a black wave is released to the sides. In the end, Nio is a mage, so her magic is far superior to her physical strength.

The attack is so intense and carries so much magic that Vesta is forced to truly defend herself instead of leaving everything to the shield. When the attack ends, Nio feels strange.

’I took damage... but since Vesta wasn’t hurt, the damage was minimal... which is strange. I don’t have defensive abilities like she does... did something change?’ If this were the game, Nio would have lost a considerable amount of HP relative to the attack’s power.

But unlike the game, which needed to quantify damage as numbers, in reality, the force necessary to actually cause damage to Nio’s body is greater than it seems, especially if it’s magical damage, not to mention her own immunity to darkness magic, making her feel only the light impact of the attack.

"Nio, you’re still excessively intense as always, but if you want to kill me, please warn me before using a true death spell... th-that way I feel hurt."

"Ah... I think we’d better stop here. I was just testing something, and I think that test taught me a few things. I see you haven’t gotten weaker, and that’s good," Nio makes up a lie to get out of this test that’s dangerous for her.

"Understood, Nio... I guess we can have a chat then, how about it? I have some questions about leaving the palace."

"...We can talk, but let’s keep it brief. I have to leave soon," Nio decides to accept so as not to raise suspicion.