Extra Chapter: Olivia’s Memories

Extra Chapter:
Olivia’s Memories

 

ON THE SECOND FLOOR of the hidden dungeon, once again Olivia found herself bored and with nothing to do. Worse, Noir had gone home, so she had no one to talk to.

<I wish he would come back. I’m so lonely.>

Olivia repeated this thought, over and over again, before finally giving up. She never wasted much time reflecting on the past, but in her current situation there wasn’t much else to do.

<Where did he go again? Oh right, Honest. Haven’t thought about that place in ages.>

Olivia had traveled to all over the world as an adventurer, both on jobs and for pleasure. Now she thought back to her sightseeing trip to Honest.

<It was a pretty nice city. I remember having fun. But I vaguely recall something bad happened…right! I met that awful man.>

Of course, everyone encountered good folks, normal folks, and downright nasty folks during their life, but you didn’t always immediately know which was which.

Olivia thought back to a day long ago.

 

***

 

Olivia was in a bad mood when she arrived in Honest, and the cause of her ill humor was wyverns. They weren’t usually pack monsters, but the keyword was “usually.” That morning a flock of them flew over her head and all happened to evacuate their bowels at once.

“Ew?!”

Thanks to her catlike reflexes, Olivia deftly avoided the dung raining from the sky. However, even with the most careful of steps, she couldn’t avoid the flecks of foul matter thrown out as it smashed to the earth. A small amount had dirtied her clothes and utterly ruined her mood.

Even as she sulked down the road, her beauty attracted the gaze of all she encountered. One man in particular saw this as an opportunity.

“Hey, you with the blue hair. You’re the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen. Wanna have dinner with me?”

“No thanks. I’m in a bad mood, so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out of my sight.”

“Ha ha ha! If I know what’s good for me, huh? I know how I look, but I’m a pretty strong adventurer, you know. They call me Fire Fingers, check it out!” He created a flame in the palm of his hand, trying to show off. “I’ve used this baby to put hundreds of monsters six feet under. Pretty hot, huh?”

Olivia performed the same move, but her flame seemed to reach all the way to the heavens. The man’s eyes went wide. Some of the people in the street stopped to stare.

“Did you say something?” she asked. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“N-never mind. Sorry for bothering you.”

Funny how many men backed down the second they realized how strong Olivia was. Either way, he was of little consequence to her.

It was only the middle of the day, but Olivia went to a bar anyway and demanded a drink. People were staring again, but she wanted to wash away her troubles. So she drank, and drank, and drank. As she carried on into the night, her bad mood finally abated. She was even enjoying chatting with the bartender.

“You know, I can make like, any ability,” she told him. “Don’t put me in the same category as those other adventurers.”

“Wow, does that mean you could even extend someone’s life?”

“Oh yeah, that’s easy. I can make someone live longer than an elf or even give someone eternal life, if I wanted.”

“Did you say…eternal life?” another voice asked.

It came from a man sitting behind her, wearing a hood. Olivia paid him no mind.

“But straight up immortality would require so much LP it’d be practically impossible. I could probably afford to do it for myself, but in order to give it to someone else? The cost would be massive.”

The bartender assumed she was joking. Or drunk. “All right, then,” he teased. “So why don’t you do it? Give me a skill. I’ll cut your tab in half if you can.”

“Oooh, you can’t take that back now.”

“What are you going to do?”

Olivia pondered the question, red in the face from drink. She had over ten million LP, so almost anything was possible. She used her Discerning Eye on the bartender and laughed when she noticed he had Lower Back Pain.

“You know that people who have a skill for back pain never get better, right?”

“I…never told you that.”

“I saw it with my Discerning Eye, dummy! If I cure your back pain, I want my drinks on the house.”

“That’s impossible,” the bartender scoffed. “Even doctors and healers said so. But…if you really can cure it…your bar tab would be a cheap price to pay.”

He polished a glass while he spoke. He’d been humoring her because she was beautiful, but he was getting tired of keeping a stupid drunk company. All he really wanted was to go home. It was after closing time already, and he’d been on his feet all night. His back was really starting to bother him.

“All right,” said Olivia. “All better now.”

“Heh, well, thanks. Now, ma’am, it’s closing time, so you had better pa—”

The bartender paused and frowned. How strange. The pain had completely vanished. He must have been imagining it! Timidly, the bartender moved into a position that usually caused him pain. He always regretted it, but…strangely, there was no pain at all.

“Doesn’t hurt, huh? That’s because I fixed you.”

“I-It’s just a coincidence.”

“Oh ye of little faith! All right, I’ll give you a bonus, C-Grade Superhuman Strength. There, it’s yours. Try picking up something that’s usually too heavy.”

The bartender did as she suggested, trying to pick up a barrel of beer. Normally, he needed another person’s help.

“What? I can pick it up, and with such ease!”

“Yeah,” said Olivia. “Because I got rid of your back pain and I gave you superhuman strength. My bill will be my bar tab for today. Byeee!”

Olivia left in high spirits, and the bartender didn’t try to stop her. Instead, he thanked her and asked her to come again with a smile.

After she left the bar, Olivia wandered through the town in a drunken stupor. She had booked an inn, but she couldn’t remember where, so she just picked a direction and started walking. There were fewer and fewer people around now. She was just considering giving herself a better sense of direction when a creepy feeling slid down her spine.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked. “I don’t like the way you’re looking at me.”

The man from the bar had followed her from the tavern. He kept staring at her from under a hood, a faint smile on his lips.

“Can you do it for anyone?” he asked. “What you did to the bartender, I mean?”

“Yeah, sure. Depends on compatibility and stuff, though.”

“Could you give me eternal life?”

“I’d have to work myself half to death, so that’s a no.”

“Well, you just met me, so that’s understandable. But it’ll change, just you wait. Sounds like you have a Discerning Eye, so why don’t you try it on me?”

His arrogance irritated Olivia, but she scanned him nonetheless. She couldn’t read any of his abilities. He had some kind of concealment skill.

“What’s wrong?” he taunted. “Can’t see anything? He he he.”

“Ugh.”

Now she was really annoyed. She created a Nullify Conceal skill and Bestowed it on him. It cost her over 100,000 LP, but it’d be worth it to see the look on his face. She used her Discerning Eye again, and read him like a book.

“Northrad Gaien, forty years old, and Level 820. You have quite a few skills, but your strongest is probably S-Grade Alchemy.”

“Huh?!”

The man, Gaien, was so astonished that he took three steps back. What had she done to him?!

“You will do what I ask,” he said. “You will!”

“You’re gonna make the great and powerful Olivia do what exactly? You know, I was finally in a good mood before you came along. I wish you’d knock it off.”

“Don’t worry,” said Gaien, “I’m not going to kill you. Just make you submit to me.”

Gaien pulled a sinister purple sword out of a pocket dimension. The blade had Poison and Paralysis on it, and even the slightest touch would drive a target mad. Gaien rushed Olivia. Just before he made contact, Olivia jumped away.

“Huh?!”

It was no ordinary human jump. Olivia leapt over a two-story building and landed on the roof. “I’m done entertaining drunks for the night,” she called down. “Byeee!”

“Wait, you’re the Olivia, aren’t you?! The insanely powerful adventurer?”

“You’re pretty famous too, Gaien,” Olivia retorted. “Aren’t you meant to be the hero of this town?”

“Something like that, but I want to be a hero for all eternity.”

“Give it up. Everyone dies someday. You just need to accept it.”

But Olivia’s words didn’t get through to Gaien. Instead, he threw an amber-colored pebble at her. Olivia backhanded it away with ease, but Gaien punched the air for joy.

“S-Grade Spearmanship! I shouldn’t have expected any less from the great Olivia.”

“Ngh.”

When she used Discerning Eye on herself, her S-Grade Spearmanship skill was gone—somehow Gaien had it instead. When she examined the amber pebble, she realized it had a skill-stealing effect. But just as Olivia was about to get serious, Gaien disappeared.

“Clever. Well, whatever.”

She didn’t use spears very often anyway, and she could just make it again if she needed to. Olivia yawned and laid down on the roof, figuring she’d sleep there for the night. After all, it wasn’t very practical to steal someone else’s bed. The roof would do just fine.

 

***

 

She awoke around noon the next day. She headed for a restaurant, already regretting having drunk too much the night before. Disappointingly, the place was much more crowded than she’d anticipated. Instead, she bought something from a street vendor and headed for the town square. She sat down on a bench and watched the children playing in the fountain. They were pretending to be adventurers and goblins. Why had they picked such weak monsters? There was an old man making repairs to a piece of green stone, and she asked him the question.

“Goblins invade the town rather frequently,” he said. “I’d guess that’s why.”

Olivia looked at what he was working on. “What a ghastly looking stone.”

“I would watch my tongue were I you, traveler. Lord Gaien made that for us.”

Urgh, surely he hadn’t done it just for the good of the town, had he? To be sure, Olivia used Discerning Eye and discovered that the stone had a skill that attracted goblins. She pushed the old man aside, made a fist, and hit the stone hard—smashing it to pieces and breaking the skill to boot.

“What are you doing?!”

“You know, that thing’s the reason goblins keep showing up. You can thank me later.”

“Guards! Guards!”

Unsurprisingly, the guy didn’t believe her. Olivia was about to run when a much more irritating opponent showed up. Even without the hood, she could tell he was the same man from the night before.

“My preparations are complete,” he said.

He had four, giant, armor-clad, massive-weapon-wielding guardians in tow as he marched into the square.

“Oh,” said Olivia, “I see you’ve brought friends.”

These Gaien Guardians were Levels 1,050, 880, 440, and 250 respectively. Gaien was also carrying a spear. Anyone else would have been terrified. Olivia, however, was feeling relatively motivated to fight. Unfortunately, Gaien had no intention of fighting fair. He pulled a scarlet stone out of his breast pocket.

“Use your Discerning Eye on this.”

“What? It burns you if you touch it? Good luck hitting me with it.”

“Take a good look.”

He threw the stone, but he wasn’t aiming at her—he aimed at the children playing in the fountain.

“Ugh.” Olivia caught the stone, setting herself aflame.

“Now!” Gaien shouted.

The guardians attacked as one. Each of them had a different weapon, but the strongest one, and the only one that landed a hit, wielded a mallet. Olivia was knocked back against a wall, and Gaien laughed when he saw her tattered clothes and how she swayed as she stood.

“I’m surprised you’re alive!” he said. “Although I suppose I shouldn’t be too shocked. You are the great Olivia after all!”

“…”

“What?” Gaien cried.

The space near Olivia distorted and a black knight on a horse appeared. It held a sword as black as its armor. Olivia had used Summoning Magic to call Odin himself.

<You have not called upon me in quite some time, Olivia.>

“Take out those four guardians.”

<Understood.>

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Odin sliced Guardians One, Two, and Three in half with a single swipe a piece. He was about to return from whence he came when Olivia called out to him.

“Hey! I said four guardians.”

<Yes, and you know well that I will not touch the weak. I won’t fight a creature below Level 300.>

“Worthless.”

<Hmph. I await the day when next we meet.>

Olivia stuck her tongue out as he left through the dimensional rift.

“M-my guardians…” Gaien stammered.

He trembled as Olivia used a gap-closing skill to appear right beside him.

“Take that!” she shouted.

“Eghhhh!”

The fight ended with a single blow. Olivia snatched Gaien’s spear and deftly chopped off one of his arms.

“Aaaagh!”

As she listened to his screams, Olivia pondered whether she should end the life of this phony hero. In the end, she didn’t have the chance. The villagers all gathered around Gaien’s fallen body, risking their lives to protect him.

“You know he’s the one who’s been summoning monsters to the town, right?” said Olivia. “He even attacked children to try and score a hit on me just now.”

“Lord Gaien would never do such things!” said one of the townsfolk. “Please, we’re begging you, spare him.”

“Yes, please. Lord Gaien is our hope.”

Olivia was impressed by how thoroughly Gaien had deceived them. He would have made a better conman than alchemist.

“I have no particular attachment to this town,” she said. “If that’s what you want, go ahead.”

Instead, Olivia turned around and headed for the gates. On the way, she paused to destroy a stone in front of the inn that attracted harpies.

“Think of it as a parting gift.”

Gaien drew monsters to Honest just so he could look like a hero. How pathetic. Olivia wanted to warn someone about it, but they wouldn’t have believed her any more than the townsfolk in the square had.

“Oliviaaaaa!”

As she was about to leave, she heard a voice call out behind her. An exhausted-looking Gaien limped toward her.

“If you try something again, you’re dead,” she told him.

“Did you see?” he demanded. “I’m the hero here. And you’re nothing but a villain.”

“Hmph.”

That wasn’t the reaction he’d wanted. The veins popped out of Gaien’s forehead.

“I shall live on forever!” he shouted after her. “Even without eternal life! I’ll be immortalized in their memories!”

“Yeah, sure, cool story, bro.”

“Ha ha! I shall live out the rest of my long life doing whatever I want. Secretly committing heinous crimes, eating people…it doesn’t matter what I do! They’ll herald me as a hero! Ah ha ha ha ha!”

He really was a piece of garbage. Time to give him a parting gift as well.

 

Lifespan Minus Fifty Years

 

“Huh? What did you just do?” Gaien asked.

“Oh nothing. Enjoy your life, or at least what’s left of it,” she said.

She gave Gaien a wave and walked out of town, Gaien’s deranged laugh echoing behind her the whole way.

“Nothing is eternal,” she muttered. “One day, your evil deeds will be exposed. And I bet the person who reveals it will be a total hottie!”

It wasn’t until almost two hundred years later, but Olivia’s prediction came true.