Chapter 75: Unreadable
A while later, once Sienna seemed to have calmed down a bit, Walfred got straight to the point.
"More importantly, I’d like you to grant me that Blessing of Light you mentioned in the community."
"Oh! Right. There was that."
Sienna’s eyes went round.
As if she’d only just remembered. Then she suddenly wore a peculiar expression and said:
"There’s just a bit of a problem, though."
"...A problem?"
Walfred’s eyes narrowed.
"Don’t tell me, now of all times, that it was a lie..."
"N-no!"
Sienna hurriedly denied it.
"It’s real. It’s just..."
"Just?"
"It takes a bit of time to cast the blessing."
A problem of that scale didn’t matter.
Walfred asked back in an indifferent tone.
"How much time does it need?"
"Uh, well..."
She trailed off.
Stepping away for a moment, Sienna came back holding a book from somewhere. It was a thick book reminiscent of a skill book.
"I think it’d take about as long as it takes to read this whole book aloud. It says that’s what’s needed to cast the blessing."
"..."
"I-it’s true! Please believe me! Ugh, it’s not like I can show you my skill window directly..."
At the disbelief filling Walfred’s expression, she reacted as if she truly felt wronged. Meanwhile, Walfred looked at the book Sienna had brought.
’Three hundred pages at a glance, at least.’
Read this much aloud?
It would take ten hours at the very least.
But if it was a blessing that truly helped, he could wait around ten hours. Letting out a short sigh, Walfred looked at Sienna again.
"By the way, where did you get this?"
"Oh, that’s a long story..."
"Then sum it up in one line."
"...I’ll try. Give me a sec."
Sienna furrowed her brow.
A moment later, she summed up the process of obtaining the book in one line, just as he’d asked.
"I was sorting supplies inside a commercial building when the outer wall suddenly collapsed, and I found it there."
A lot was left out, but the bottom line was that she’d come across it by chance. Just like how Walfred had obtained the ’Essence of □□.’
"Then the moment I opened the book, I acquired a skill called [Eternal Blessing of Light]. But even after acquiring the skill, the book didn’t disappear."
Normally a skill book turns to dust and vanishes after the skill is acquired. But this one didn’t, and feeling something was off, she examined the book.
And.
"That’s when I found out. That the [Eternal Blessing of Light] I’d acquired was different from the [Blessing of Light] that other light-attribute hunters learn."
"How is it different?"
"Hmm, well, first off, the ordinary [Blessing of Light] has these effects."
Sienna took out a notepad and a ballpoint pen.
And she wrote out the effects of the standard [Blessing of Light] skill in detail before holding it out.
-----
[Enhancement: Blessing of Light]
[Holy light blesses you.]
[The body of the one who receives the Blessing of Light becomes lighter and fear is reduced. Additionally, the cooldowns of all the target’s skills are reduced.]
▷Physical ability enhancement: +100%
▷All skill cooldowns: -15%
▷Dark/death-attribute tolerance: +25%
▶Special skill: [Radiance]
▷Duration: 5 minutes
▷Cooldown: 6 hours
-----
A buff in the physical-enhancement category.
On top of that, the added effects of attribute resistance and cooldown reduction, plus a special skill.
Overall it was clearly a useful skill.
’Aside from the short duration, anyway.’
The duration was a mere five minutes.
The cooldown, on the other hand, was a full six hours.
That was its one and only drawback.
Letting out a sigh, Walfred next examined the [Special Skill: Radiance] written below.
-----
[Special Skill: Radiance]
[While the Blessing of Light is in effect, skills of any attribute can deal damage to ghost/spirit-type beings, and you gain immunity to mental contamination.]
-----
He wasn’t sure whether this was a good thing.
He’d never even encountered a ghost or spirit-type monster to begin with. Walfred handed the notepad back to Sienna and steered the topic back to where it started.
"So what about the Eternal Blessing of Light?"
"The detailed effects aren’t written down, so I don’t know. But the blessing’s duration is listed as constant, so I figured it was a permanent blessing."
It was certainly a reasonable guess.
Walfred nodded. In the meantime, Sienna went on:
"Oh, and it also said that the skill is consumed once it’s used on a single target."
"I see. So that’s why..."
"Yes, that’s why I said it was a one-time skill."
Now it made sense.
Nodding again, Walfred suddenly grew curious and examined the book. He was intrigued by just what kind of content was written inside.
But.
"Huh?"
The moment he opened the book.
What greeted him was a blank, empty page.
"What’s this? There’s nothing written here."
"Ah, it seems it can only be seen by me. The chief said the same, and everyone else said it just looks like blank pages to them too."
Writing visible only to Sienna.
Had it been set up so that only the person who acquired the skill could read it? Walfred handed the book back to Sienna and said:
"Try reading it."
Even if it looked blank to others, if Sienna read the book, he’d at least learn what it said.
At Walfred’s request, Sienna let out a short cough, then promptly parted her lips.
And in that instant.
"#####."
A pronunciation he’d never heard in his life flowed out.
How to put it? It felt like humming the melody of a song with no lyrics. When Walfred frowned, Sienna gave an awkward smile.
"Everyone else reacted about the same way."
"Anyway, so all you have to do is read this aloud to the end, and the Blessing of Light gets granted, right?"
"Yes. While staying close to the target."
A radius of about sixteen feet. At the additional condition Sienna laid out, Walfred nodded.
"Alright. Start right away."
"Yes, understood."
Sienna took a seat.
When she began the recitation in earnest, the book she was holding glowed faintly.
Watching the sight for a moment, Walfred leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes. He figured he’d catch a quick nap, using Sienna’s recitation as a lullaby.
How much time had passed like that?
"Mmm..."
Walfred woke from sleep, realizing he’d dozed off for a bit. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Sienna.
She was shivering and trembling as if tormented by an extreme cold. Confirming that Walfred had woken, Sienna let out in a trembling voice:
"Y-you really were, f-frost, attribute..."
"...Ah."
The instant he heard that, Walfred realized why she’d been shivering in the cold.
’It’s because of Cold Emission.’
Walfred’s passive skill, [Cold Emission], stays active at all times, even while he’s asleep. And over a wide range of more than a twenty-three-foot radius, at that.
"How long was I asleep?"
"Well, um, about, three hours, have passed..."
Cold emitted roughly every twenty seconds.
Ten minutes or so would be fine, but being exposed to the cold for three hours was a different story. No matter how bundled up in winter gear she was, she couldn’t help but shiver.
’Now I feel kind of bad about this.’
But there was nothing to be done.
[Cold Emission] had no on-off function, and above all, she’d said you had to be within a sixteen-foot radius to receive the [Eternal Blessing of Light].
"Hang on. Let me at least grab you a blanket."
"Th-thank you..."
Walfred fetched a blanket for the shivering Sienna. After that, he told her they’d resume after a short break, and just as they were taking that brief rest.
"Boss!"
A hunter came rushing in from outside, out of breath.
He went straight up to Mitchell and said something, and Mitchell’s face hardened in an instant.
At the sight, Walfred tilted his head.
’What’s going on?’
Had something serious broken out?
Sensing curiosity from the change in Mitchell and the other hunters’ expressions, Walfred headed straight over to them.