Golden Experience
Chapter 226: “The Heart of Zagreus”

Having returned to Tore Forest, I summoned Ururu there and restored her significantly depleted LP.

Already awaiting me was Lyra, who greeted me.

“Welcome back, Rare-chan. You seriously took down the Archangel. Oh, whoa, your LP is seriously low!”

“I’m home, Lyra. How did you… ah, True Eyes, right? Where’s Blanc?”

“I asked her to step out for a bit. Well, she could’ve stayed, but just to be safe.”

This likely had something to do with the Archangel and the devs.

“So, what’s the talk about? The system message mentioned something.”

“Yeah. Have you read it?”

“Not yet. Okay, I’ll read that first. Oh, before that, Sugaru.”

I instructed her to reinforce the area around the falling point of the Sky Castle with insects and maintain a military blockade.

Currently, Vespas are buzzing around seeking dropped items, and there are also Meganeurons.

They are ordered to eliminate players on sight, so unless something significant happens, it should be fine, but I don’t want it to be too disrupted.

Even if they missed obtaining it, the Sky Castle itself is an important item. Even if it’s broken, it may still have some use.

*

“I see, so that’s how it is.”

“Yeah, that’s how it is.”

There are 56 bosses with a combat power exceeding that of the Demon Lord born a little while ago, meaning they are stronger than the calamity that wiped out Hiers in the previous event. While there was no room to be aware of it during the battle, logically, these are opponents that players cannot defeat through conventional means. Even I found it impossible.

In other words, those bosses were originally designed to be unbeatable, a so-called scripted loss event.

“I never thought you’d actually win. How did you do it?”

“That’s a secret. But more importantly, Lyra, was the proposal or cooperation request you received from the administration about Hugelcup?”

“Yeah. So, until the announcement in the system message, I was generally forbidden to talk about it, and even after that, only minimal information could be shared. They said it’s okay after the Archangel has been defeated at least once by someone. Well, considering that I haven’t publicly disclosed that I control Hugelcup, it must be a pre-approved exception. With that in mind, the people I can talk to and the content I can discuss are limited.”

“What specifically did you cooperate on?”

“As it was written, I restricted the movements of the knights, considering that monster players might come, I advised not to attack monsters recklessly. Fortunately, access to the underground from the entrance was possible without entering the city, so there was no need to mess with the city. However, since there is no access from the castle to the underground, the facilities in the city, although present, are not under my control. I probably didn’t notice the existence of that because of that. Also, I had the knights carry items and clean up the underground passages, set up tents near the entrance, and dispatched the bar that was in the knights’ quarters to set up a stall.”

“And what reward did you get from the administration? There must be something, right?”

“That’s a secret. I’ll tell you if you tell me the secret of defeating the Archangel.”

“Then I don’t need to know.”

“Oh, well…”

It’s already becoming a topic on social media.

In that past world, it seems that no one has successfully defeated the Archangel yet, but at the same time, it’s being promoted by a player in the present, stating that the Archangel has already perished. Somehow, the Seventh Calamity—me—was depicted quite impressively, and although I didn’t notice it due to my desperation, it might have looked pretty cool from an outsider’s perspective.

“Why are you grinning like that?”

“I’m not. But more importantly, even though it seems like no one has defeated the Archangel even once in the past, was it okay for me to make that information public?”

As per my instructions, it’s okay to make information public if the Archangel is defeated, so it’s fine since it’s already been defeated in the present, right?

That’s probably not what the administrators wanted to convey.

They likely wanted to keep quiet about the specifications for transferring to the past world, and the present Archangel has nothing to do with that.

“I wonder what specifications they were planning to implement. Like if a certain number of Archangels were defeated in the past, the current one would weaken or something.”

“Who knows? Anyway, before anything of the sort could happen, Rare-chan went and defeated it, so nothing will be revealed from now on. It doesn’t matter.”

“That’s true.”

I wonder what form the Archangel would take if it were weakened.

Maybe the numbers would decrease.

No, that would just make it a small fry.

The reason it was such a tough battle was because there were so many; if the numbers were fewer, the fight would have been settled in a shorter time.

“By the way, what were the drop items from the Archangel?”

“Oh, right.”

I summoned Ubel, who is in charge of collecting drop items, and appraised the gemstones.

“The name is [Zagreus’ Heart]…? Tarot? No, maybe Greek mythology. Why is the heart of the Archangel’s heart named after a Greek god’s child? Speaking of Zagreus… I remember, he’s the child of Zeus and Persephone, killed once but later reborn… maybe.”

The description mentions, “It has the effect of healing the body of the deceased and calling back the soul.”

“…So, it’s just a resurrection item?”

“…Looks like it.”

It seems to be simply borrowing the name as a resurrection item. Words derived from the names of gods, such as Panic and Narcissist, are widely known in the modern era. Hebereke is another example. In the game, this would be of a similar nature.

Unexpectedly, a resurrection item was obtained.

Moreover, from now on, it can be obtained as much as desired.

According to the system message, it mentions that one can challenge the Archangel by consuming a suitable item. Since no one has yet successfully defeated it, the details are unclear. However, if Zagreus’ Heart drops during the defeat of the Archangel in the past world, it can be interpreted as an event that effectively converts unnecessary items into resurrection items.

“Looking at related threads, it seems the most efficient conversion is with the Pure Heart. It apparently costs 10 AEN even when there’s no specific use for it. In other words, you can challenge the Archangel with 10 Pure Hearts.”

For low-rank materials, it seems the values are in decimal points. There are reports of needing 10 copper ores just to reach 1 AEN. Fortunately, both Lyra and I have accumulated a large number of Pure Hearts. Recently, a similar directive has been issued to the Wells Church, so they are likely collecting them there too.

Collecting this item is merely a precautionary measure, considering it might become a material for resurrection items. However, there’s no specific plan for its use. In fact, if resurrection items are already obtained, it may not be necessary anymore. It might also be a good idea, with Lyra’s guidance, to let the knights of the Hugelcup carry them and use artifacts in exchange for gold coins.

“In short, it’s an artifact that exchanges 10 Pure Hearts for a resurrection item. Not a bad rate, right?”

“That’s too demanding. Besides, it’s only worthwhile if you can defeat the Archangel. Based on current reviews, it seems a bit challenging.”

Whether one can win or not depends on the player. It might simply be a matter of the number of attempts.

According to the message, the transfer destination is always right after the birth of the Archangel. If that’s the case, no matter how much players fight, the combat experience won’t accumulate in the Archangel’s AI. If the opponent’s experience is reset every time, it should be possible to analyze their actions to some extent by patternizing them. So, by challenging multiple times and thoroughly understanding their moves, someone might eventually succeed.

“It seems that Archangel is a species or race with a high affinity for things like resurrection, revival and recovery.”

“From the drop items, it seems so.”

Lyra might not know, but that’s not the only reason. All 50 Archangels had acquired Healing Magic and mysterious resurrection skills.

“[Resurrectio], huh? I wonder what the acquisition conditions are.”

So far, I haven’t given much importance to resurrection. In my camp, the most significant damage is naturally to myself. If I die, all my subordinates would die simultaneously, and there would be no one who could resurrect me. Even if I could be resurrected at that time, it would still take an hour for my subordinates to respawn. In other words, it was a significant loss at the moment of death, and whether I revived immediately or three hours later made little difference, since the brunt of the blow was already dealt.

However, facing the Archangels made me reconsider. Resurrection isn’t something needed only for me. Being able to bring back subordinates who died immediately on the spot is a much more powerful tactic than expected. Moreover, it’s incredibly troublesome and annoying when the enemy does it. What was unpleasant when done to oneself should also be unpleasant to the enemy when done to them.

Upon reflection, it was a matter of course, but I had been focusing solely on the damage incurred in the case of my death and had not considered adjacent options at all.

“Huh? What do you mean by ‘Resurrection’? Was there someone who used that?”

“Yeah, the Archangel. Well, it made things quite challenging. Not that I’ve seen it in much detail, and I don’t know the detailed acquisition conditions.”

“Well, during battles with higher-ranked opponents, there’s no room for that kind of leisure.”

“But, if you use an artifact to go back in time, there’s a freshly born Archangel, right? If they have that ‘Resurrection’ thing at that time, wouldn’t it be possible to investigate?”

Not a bad suggestion. Honestly, I had had enough of the Archangel for a while, but if that’s the purpose, it’s not bad to go for it.

However, according to the content of the system message, the difficulty level for defeating the Archangel is ☆5 or higher. This is a somewhat difficult value to judge. Probably, currently, there is no ☆6 or higher difficulty setting. In other words, ☆5 or higher implies a difficulty level with no upper limit, and it is unknown if it is a level that can be defeated.

“It’s unlikely that the past one is stronger than the present one, considering that the purpose of the past one is weakening and eventually eliminating the present one. If Rare-chan defeated the present one, she should beat the past one easily.”

From the contents posted on the forum, it seems that the Archangel is a single entity. If it is weaker than the individual fought in the present, then it should be an easy victory. The various bow and arrow active skills, which could be considered a one-hit kill, don’t seem to hit if you shoot them head-on. If there’s only one, focusing should make it possible to clear without taking any damage.

“Since we’ve come this far, let’s go together, nee-chan. We’ll invite Blanc-chan too. What do you think?”

“…Not a bad idea.”

If all the outward characteristics are turned off, and the mouth and eyes are covered with a mask or something, there shouldn’t be any fuss. Moreover, forming a party with Lyra and Blanc to defeat the boss sounds interesting. However, if it becomes known that it was cleared with a three-person party, it will still be troublesome, and it’s preferable that no one finds out.

“So, make sure to tell Blanc not to transform indiscriminately. If you don’t tell her, she’ll definitely do it. By the way, did you figure out how to change the activation key?”

“I told her about that. It’s pitiful to hear her keep calling it ‘Transformation’ forever, you know?” (T/N: once again, because she’s saying “hentai” every time)

“It didn’t seem like it was all that bad, though.”

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