A Well-Rested Student (Not)
[Base Stat 'Stamina' has improved from grade E to grade E+.]
[Remaining Karma Points: 0p]
He stood frozen for a long while, staring at those messages.
Karma points. Forcibly raising stats.
Not even he, a veteran of the original game, through and through, had ever heard of anything like this.
'The option... Hellpath just got cracked open?'
Additional options.
When the difficulty was set to [Impossible], a whole range of extra choices would surface. Which option you picked shaped your entire playthrough. Things like losing your sight and taking the blind swordsman route, or playing as one of the faculty members.
Every last one had the difficulty cranked to absurd heights. Made without brakes, aimed squarely at the old guard.
But even among those, there was one that stood above all the rest as the hardest of them all.
[Additional Option: Hellpath (地獄道)]
-All spawned monsters maintain a berserk state.
-Difficulty of all hostile factions increases by 300%.
-All of the player's base stats are fixed at grade E.
Hellpath.
A difficulty that made even the most seasoned veterans click their tongues.
[Title: Is This Supposed to Be Beatable??? What the Actual Hell]
[Author: GrindLife]
On my 5th attempt at Hellpath now
The difficulty is so completely nuts I'm starting to lose my mind
Do this and die, do that and die, do nothing and still die. God damn
What a garbage-ass game I genuinely want to find the studio and burn it to the ground
I don't know about the rest but
All base stats locked at E ← This is the one truly insane restriction
How the hell are you supposed to take on calamities at an overall E-rank, or push through Purgatory
I've already died four times on Lacquered Night alone, supposedly the easiest calamity
And I'm probably going to die on this fifth run too lol
Is there any kind of bug that forcibly raises stats?
If I could just solve the stat problem I feel like I could brute-force my way through somehow
[Nope, nothing]
-> There's no bug that raises your stats
-> GrindLife) Then why the hell not
[If you mean base stats like Strength/Stamina/Agility, no bug for those]
-> GrindLife) But there are bugs for character parrying and the balloon sword and status ailment parrying and all that, so why is there no bug that just bumps a stat letter up
-> lol these devs are oddly careful about it
-> There are loads of bugs, but not a single one that would truly break the game wide open
-> That's why there's no item-duplication bug either. The most you can dupe is simple stuff like food items
[Honestly a bug like that probably shouldn't exist]
-> If bugs could break everything, it's not a game anymore, it's an insect museum
[If you're gonna complain this much just don't pick Hellpath. Why are you stubbornly grinding through it]
-> GrindLife) There's an achievement you can only unlock by clearing it...
-> You're going for achievements? Even so, isn't this a bit much
-> GrindLife) But BugHunter used to clear it like having breakfast...?
-> BugHunter and you are the same? lol
-> You little... are you looking down on our great BugHunter right now?
-> I'll end you, you piece of trash, I'll flood every board with your screenshots
-> GrindLife) When did I ever
And so the stats locked in place by Hellpath had remained untouchable.
No bug existed to get around it. If one had, he would have been using it long ago.
But the answer had turned up in that mysterious title.
'Saint... Saint, huh.'
He spent a long time reading the title's description. Then read it again.
'So, save a life, earn something called karma points. Spend those karma points to raise a base stat?'
He turned it over carefully.
Pulling one survivor out of a cage just now had earned him 50 points. And raising his Stamina by one grade had spent those same 50.
[Base Stats]
Stamina: E+
Strength: E
Agility: E
Mana Sensitivity: E
A jump from grade E to grade E+.
Maybe stats this low just ticked upward easily.
One rescue. That was all it had taken to crack the ceiling on his Stamina.
'That bone-deep exhaustion from a moment ago... it does feel a bit lighter.'
A system that gave you resources in proportion to the lives you saved. A setup that fit the [Saint] concept perfectly.
To think something like this had been hiding in there all along.
After earning the title, he'd worn it for some time without any returns, because during that whole stretch, he hadn't saved a single life.
'If the status window hadn't told me, I'd have never figured it out.'
Hellpath.
A restriction that could be overcome through the title's special ability.
In that case, there was exactly one thing left to do.
"Engage. Scythe."
Farm karma points.
"Engage. Blade."
Shick, shick, shick!
The scythe swung out in broad, brutal arcs, shearing through the row of cages one after another. He tore the isolation room doors open and pulled people free, reaching a hand out to every terrified face inside.
"No need to worry, everyone! The Slayers have dealt with every last one of those Cultists! It's time to wake up from this nightmare and go home!"
The same kind of lie he had used at the Ranch, delivered in the same smooth tone.
The headcount was smaller this time, so keeping everyone together was easy.
The rescued survivors moved compliantly, threw their arms around each other, and broke into tears.
"Oh, oh my God... hnngh, we're really saved?"
"Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you..."
"I really thought I was going to turn into a monster..."
"Ugh, huk... it's a miracle, it's a miracle..."
They all gave thanks or dropped to their knees and prayed on the spot. A few grabbed his hand and sank down, weeping.
He stayed close. Let them feel safe.
He gestured to the Cultist bodies scattered across the floor, proof, if any was needed, that the danger was past.
Ding!
[20 Karma Points obtained.]
[20 Karma Points obtained.]
[20 Karma Points obtained.]
[20 Karma Points obtained.]
.
.
[20 Karma Points obtained.]
[20 Karma Points obtained.]
[Remaining Karma Points: 400p]
Twenty points per life, apparently.
Earlier, the fifty had probably been a bonus for unlocking the ability for the first time.
Twenty healthy survivors had been locked in the isolation room. By the time he'd torn through every last cage, karma had stacked up to 400 points.
"Princess."
"Mm. Same as before, I just throw them at you?"
"Please."
And then there were the ten from the special isolation room.
Their bodies had been corrupted by dark mana and had already begun to transform.
Carmilla extended her Blood Manipulation, shaping a thick fist from condensed blood, then picked up the partially transformed individuals one by one and hurled them straight at him.
"Ngh!"
People rocketing in like baseballs.
The Absolute Balloon Sword was already in his grip.
Thwip.
Thwip.
Thwip.
An unbroken chain of parrying catches. Every swing of the glinting balloon sword snapped the transformed ones back to their original form.
"Hoo."
These people hadn't yet become Mutants. The transformation was still incomplete.
That meant there was room for Status Effect-Parrying to step in. Their race hadn't actually changed, they were only suffering from a status ailment called Corruption.
"My daughter? Our... our daughter!"
"Mom? I feel strange, I had the weirdest dream..."
"How could this even... ugh, thank you, thank you..."
Another wave of tears swept through the survivors. Some even bowed all the way to the floor toward him. The parents who had almost lost their children were especially bad.
"Please don't worry. The Slayers have rescued you all."
"Huk... sob, are you... a saint? Are you a saint?"
"It's a miracle. How is this even possible..."
"God, oh God..."
Calming them all down took a while.
Somewhere in the crowd of sniffling survivors, Carmilla tilted her head slightly.
"Vikto... no, Deputy Commander Garulik."
"Yes. We should head back soon."
"What do you plan to do with the survivors?"
"I've already contacted the Border Knights."
"The Border Knights... you mean the order those knights at the Ranch belonged to?"
"That's right. Sir Kantas promised he'd help us whenever we needed it."
"I don't imagine you managed to reach them at this hour. You must have given advance notice."
"These things need to be prepared ahead of time. I contacted them before we dealt with Professor Glinbert."
"As expected... my deputy is truly thorough."
"Ha, isn't it better to be certain?"
About an hour later, troops arrived near the temple.
A banner rippling in the wind, a lion emblem embroidered in gold thread.
The symbol of the Border Knights.
Kantas came sprinting ahead of the rest and snapped off a salute.
"Sir Garulik! Lady Manre! It's an honor to see you both again!"
"Likewise, Sir Kantas. Please handle things exactly as outlined in advance."
"Upon every honor of my knighthood! I will confirm the identity of every survivor and see them safely back to their families!"
"Reassuring."
"For humanity!"
"Yes. For humanity."
Same overly formal knight as ever. Having earned his goodwill during the Ranch incident, he was clearly ready to accommodate just about any request.
'Well... useful enough. That's fine.'
Having someone to handle the cleanup was always welcome, it meant leaving the loose ends in capable hands.
They turned the survivors over, left the temple behind, and made their way back to the Academy.
"Ugh..."
Every muscle ached.
A heavy, soaking fatigue pressing him down from all sides.
'How much had happened in just these past few days.'
During the practical, he'd cleared the First Calamity.
Dealt with Alice's Nightmare right on its heels.
Arrested Professor Glinbert on charges of being a mole inside the Academy.
And at the very end, demolished the Cultist branch connected to him.
'All of it in four days.'
The gains had been just as significant, to be fair.
The cascade of rewards from the practical.
The alliance he had built with Alice.
The compensation the Academy had promised.
Javert's Wish Coupon.
The White Knight's Demise.
And finally, understanding what the [Saint] title was actually capable of.
'If I keep stacking rewards at this rate, I'll get indigestion...'
Full. Genuinely full.
He'd suffered enough to earn it, and he had no regrets. The fatigue, though, that was still very much there.
Thud.
He arrived at the dormitory and dropped straight onto the bed.
The blanket wrapped around him, warm and soft, and pulled his mind down toward sleep.
'Let me sleep...'
He'd been running at a breakneck pace for too long. Lectures had been suspended in the wake of the incident, so at least that was one less thing. The plan was simple: no getting tangled up in anything, just quiet recovery.
'I am not leaving this bed. Not under any circumstances.'
He pulled the blanket all the way over his head.
***
And then.
Turns out "not under any circumstances" doesn't really mean much.
[Student Viktor.]
The entire school, filling the auditorium.
Students standing in neat rows, every gaze fixed on the stage.
He sat in the Class E waiting area, staring up at the podium with a thoroughly flat expression.
[Not only did this student achieve the top score in the practical evaluation, but they also provided decisive cooperation in apprehending a mole within the Academy.]
[Please come up to the stage.]
[Students, please welcome them with a warm round of applause.]
Every pair of eyes in the school swung his way.
Students whispering among themselves, starting to clap.
He had no choice but to stand, awkward and reluctant.
'You have got to be kidding me...'
Twenty-seven hours. That was all the time that had passed since he'd sworn, with great conviction, never to leave this bed.
Dragged out without so much as a moment's rest.
To receive an award in front of the entire school, no less.
A soundless cry rang through his chest, something that couldn't be said out loud.
'Oh, come on.'
Just let me sleep.
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