When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 106



Only Noblemtl

◈106. Disobeying orders

Kwakwakwang! The crescent moon-shaped sword energy that shot out from my sword smashed the skeletons indiscriminately.

The sword energy that shot out was so bright that it instantly illuminated the dark ballroom.

The skeletons that were in the path of the black energy were all shattered and never rose again.

I let out a short sigh as I looked at the shattered skeletons.

“They’ve been dead for a long time, so they’re dried out and break easily.”

Bliss, who was watching the situation from the side, suddenly said.

“You said you learned that yesterday?”

“Uh. But why?”

“For a skill learned in one day, what can I say… … .”

Petros continued, replacing Bliss who was trailing off.

“It’s scary at this point. How on earth do you learn something like that in just one day?”

“Should I say that this is the result of studying with all my heart…? This is not the time to be chatting. There’s still a lot left to learn.”

As I pointed to the still squirming skeletons, the two readied their weapons.

Bliss was the first to take action.

The guy first activated the skill “Eternal Snow Chains (A)”.

Eternal Snow Shackles is a wide-area skill that freezes monsters’ feet, restricting their movements.

As we were writing this, the legs of about 20 skeletons that were rushing at us were frozen.

I used my sharp crescent moon on the skeleton that was now immobile.

Kwajangchang!

About 20 frozen skeletons were instantly reduced to bone fragments.

Petros wasn’t the only one who stayed still.

The guy also activated his skill towards the skeletons approaching from the other side.

Then―

Kkwaduk!

Several spears of light shot out from the ground and shattered the bones.

What he just used was “Thorn Forest (L)”

It was a wide-area skill that made spears made of light rise from the ground and pierce monsters.

After that, we used our skills to easily defeat the monsters.

When I finally destroyed the last monster, Bliss spoke lightly.

“It ended sooner than I thought.”

I laughed out loud and answered the guy.

“Don’t say that. In my experience, if you say something like that, more guys will come rushing in.”

Why, aren’t there such clichés in boys’ comics too?

There is a cliché where when the main character sees an enemy he has defeated and says something like, “Did you hurt him?”, the enemy who was about to die suddenly jumps up.

Even when I was working part-time, if I said something like, “There are no customers today,” customers would suddenly come rushing in.

So during the fight, I tended to refrain from saying things like, “Did you get hurt?”, “It was easier than I thought?”, or “It ended sooner than I thought.”

But that was it―

[The monsters “Wandering Ballroom Musicians” have detected your presence!]

As soon as Bliss said, “It ended sooner than I thought,” a surprisingly similar message appeared.

I took a deep breath and readjusted my grip on the sword.

“Look at this. I told you it had to be like this.”

The newly appeared monsters were even different from the skeletons that had just been broken.

If the ones that had just been broken were waiter uniforms, the ones that came out now were the uniforms of well-dressed musicians.

In addition, they were each holding a musical instrument such as a violin or cello in their hands.

Soon they started playing the instruments.

Kikkikkik- squeak-

As the creepy stringed instrument sounded, something strange happened.

The bone fragments we had broken began to wiggle and move, then began to stick back together.

I destroyed three resurrected skeletons nearby.

however-

Kik- squeak-

The shattered skeletons were reassembled and stood up to the sound of terrible music.

“Damn, it keeps resurrecting?”

After saying that, I then gave instructions to Bliss and Petros.

“Let’s first deal with those guys with those new instruments. They seem to be coming back to life because of the sound of music.”

“Do you have a ranged weapon?”

I nodded immediately at Bliss’ question.

“Yes, of course. I’ll shoot the arrow. You two, stay on the side and protect me.”

As I said that, the two of them came closer to me.

After that, as the skeletons approached, he started destroying them one by one.

During that time, I took out Nerebloka’s bow and held it in my hand.

Of course, I also grabbed the egg of immortality.

“Let my arrow hit that skeleton playing over there.”

After confirming the message that the Immortal Egg had received the wish, he shot the arrow.

Of course, the result was a hit.

‘All right. I broke one.’

There are now a total of six orchestra skeletons remaining.

I continued to aim my arrows at the rest of the guys, and every time I shot, my bow hit the mark.

So I made a wish to shoot two, three, four, and then a fifth band.

“Let my arrow hit that skeleton playing over there.”

I always thought that this time, the message [The Egg of the Immortal has accepted your wish!] would appear.

however.

[The egg of the immortal shakes its head. The price paid is insufficient.]

– Amount of metal needed to fulfill this wish: 230g

-Currently paid metal amount: 120g

I cursed softly.

The wish was rejected because the metal fed to the Immortal Egg ran out.

I had no choice but to shoot an arrow at the orchestra without making a wish to the egg.

Of course, the result was as expected.

Bliss asked politely, looking at my arrow that had missed its mark by quite some distance.

“Did you get any dust in your eyes?”

“… … No. The metal I fed to the Immortal Egg has all run out. Damn it. I can’t shoot an arrow without the egg’s help.”

“Then I’ll shoot. Give me the bow.”

“That won’t work either. Even though it looks like this, every time you shoot it, the divine power consumed is enormous. No one else but me can use it.”

It was because of me that I could use the Nerebloka bow so freely.

Because my divine power was so great.

If anyone other than me were to use a bow, they would pass out without being able to fire a single shot.

‘What should I do? Summon the spirits using the special effects attached to the bow? But they also suck up too much divine power when they’re summoned, so that’s dangerous.’

If I wasn’t in the middle of a battle, I might have just closed my eyes and summoned them.

But now it’s not possible.

I had just been firing arrows with divine power from my Nerebloka bow, so my divine power had been greatly worn out.

In this situation, if you summon the spirits, you will immediately faint due to the exhaustion of divine power.

‘Ah, that’s right! I can use the Deification skill. Then, my divine power will increase, so I won’t faint when I summon a spirit later.’

I was about to make that decision and activate the Deification skill.

Suddenly, an unpleasant message came to mind.

[The monsters “Dance Hall Guests Who Wander the World” have detected your presence!]

Since the workers and the band came out, I thought the guests at the ballroom would also come out.

But who would have thought it would appear at this time of all times?

New skeletons appeared amidst the skeletons still swarming around.

This time, they were dressed in dresses and suits.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it.

“Those things… they’re coming together?”

The skeletal ballroom guests didn’t just rush at us.

They began to gather together and merge, gradually forming a huge shape.

These small bones, combined in this way, soon became a giant skeleton as large as a monster.

Kwakwang!

The enlarged skeleton struck us with its hand.

It was just a simple strike, but it was so huge that even that was threatening.

I quickly activated Deification and blocked the giant skeleton’s second attack.

Accordingly, Doria was summoned, but seeing that I was busy, she said nothing, and took the opportunity to shout at Bliss.

“Bliss! While I’m holding this guy back, try to do something about the orchestra with your chains! Because of those things, we’ll never stop destroying them!”

“They’re already attacking… like this.”

Bliss sighed as if it was a disaster.

The chain that the guy had thrown far away to destroy the orchestra was caught in mid-air by a giant skeleton.

The skeleton casually cut Bliss’ chains with its large hands.

The broken chain and the blade attached to its end were soon buried among the bones and out of sight.

The Bliss guy said as he smashed the surrounding skeletons with his only remaining blade.

“It’s become difficult to destroy the orchestra by throwing blades, as you can see.”

“Damn it, anything is fine, don’t you have another ranged weapon? Or I’ll just shoot an arrow at you somehow, so just get this giant skull—”

Before I could even say, “Just block it,” I was hit for the third time.

Because these giant skeletons kept attacking, it was difficult for me to summon spirits and shoot arrows.

The other party members are also busy fending off attacks from small skeletons, and they don’t have any other ranged weapons.

At that moment of confusion, Petros suddenly spoke.

“I’ll go through the skeletons and destroy the orchestra myself.”

I asked Petros quietly.

“Do you think you can get through all those guys?”

“Regardless of whether you can or not, you have no choice but to do it.”

As he said this, Petros held the spear properly.

“Let’s go. You two, please draw the attention of the giant skeleton behind you.”

After hearing Petros’ words, I gave a signal to Bliss with my eyes.

Bliss, who saw my eye signal, activated the Eternal Snow Shackles.

Damn it―

The giant skeleton’s feet were tied with a freezing sound.

In the meantime, Petros ran towards the orchestra, and I took a big leap towards the giant skeleton.

puck-!

Kuuuuuu!!

An eerie roar rang out from the skeleton as my sword shattered part of its skull.

Immediately afterwards, Bliss climbed up the monster’s arm and attacked its shoulder.

The monster’s shoulder froze as it was brushed by the blade swung by the Bliss guy while using the skill, “Blue Claws of the Frozen Corpse.”

I swung my sword towards it and shattered the monster’s shoulder blade in its frozen state.

Pubbug-

Fragments of the shattered shoulder blade flew everywhere with a loud noise.

however-

Kikkikkik- kikkikkik- squeak-

As the terrible music of the orchestra was heard, the shattered shoulder blade reattached itself to the monster’s shoulder.

The orchestra’s music was also playing on the giant skeleton.

I shouted at Petros.

“Hurry up! If you keep doing this, you’ll run out of divine power!”

“I’m trying… Ugh!”

Petros, who was walking through a place teeming with hundreds of skeletons while holding a spear, suddenly stopped.

What happened? I called Petros, feeling ominous.

“Petros?! What’s going on?!”

“It’s nothing… just a slight wound on my side… … .”

It seemed like he was injured after being attacked by bones.

Why the side?

I wanted to help him because I thought he was in danger, but things weren’t going well for me either.

Kwakwang!!

He dodged the giant skeleton’s attacks one after another and then shouted at Petros.

“Are you okay!? Petros!!”

No answer came.

I looked towards Petros… but he was nowhere to be seen.

That was because hundreds of skeletons were attacking the guy.

Sensing the seriousness of the situation, I shouted at Bliss.

“I’ll take care of this big guy all by myself, so you go over to Petros!”

Now that you mention it, I figured Bliss would make her move soon.

But the guy just kept attacking the giant skeleton as if he couldn’t hear my voice.

Didn’t you hear? Feeling puzzled, I shouted again.

“Bliss! Petros is in more danger, so go help him!”

Only then did Bliss’ gaze glance towards me.

After that, I heard an unexpected answer from the guy.