Chapter 9: System Silenced? Rudeus’s Negative First Impression of Allen

Allen's face fell. The "pseudo-immortality" skill, which lasted only 6 minutes, had a cooldown of 800 days. In the world of Mushoku Tensei, where a year was roughly 300 days, that meant over two years of waiting.

If the healing magic level improved in the future, allowing it to heal severed limbs, the mana consumption would also increase, further shortening the skill's duration.

Was this some kind of "Tryndamere ult"?

Allen strongly suspected the system was messing with him.

Last night's [6] was solid evidence.

[How could that be?]

[The healing magic pattern slot is provided by the system for the host to recover after battles. As for using it continuously in combat, that would only be in life-or-death situations. Given the peacefulness of the Mushoku Tensei world, how often do you expect to face near-death scenarios?]

[Besides, think about it. If this magic pattern could be used freely, and you later obtained an Emperor-level or God-level healing magic pattern, wouldn't that be equivalent to having the immortality of a demon?]

[Add that to the defensive capabilities of Orsted's Dragon Saint Aura at higher levels, and you might as well not call yourself Allen anymore. Call yourself a cockroach. At that point, you'd be invincible, and no one would pose any threat to you.]

Allen spat on the ground, dismissing the system's sudden intrusion.

"Emperor-level and above magic is impractical due to the massive mana consumption and lengthy incantations. I've never even seen anyone use God-level healing magic in the main story. Who am I supposed to shake hands with to get that magic pattern?"

"Instead of wasting time explaining the magic pattern to me, why don't you tell me how to increase the capacity of my Dragon Saint Aura? You know the current nascent core state can only squeeze out a few strands of Dragon Saint Aura to dilute into my original aura and improve its quality."

[...Con...tact Ors...]

The text glitched for a moment, then dissipated before fully forming.

Allen raised an eyebrow, a look of surprise in his eyes.

"System?"

No more text appeared.

Allen was stunned for a moment, then frowned and muttered to himself.

"Ever since meeting Roxy, the system has been unusually active, popping up to interact with me from time to time... This never happened before, and now it's disappeared just as mysteriously."

"If it's really because of the phone... it's like there's no signal."

"But every time my swordsmanship level updates, or when the evaluation updates, it happens promptly. I've never encountered this 'no signal' issue before..."

"Strange."

"Is it the world's rejection? A limitation of the cheat? Or is the phone's signal bad? Maybe it's running out of memory?"

"...Not enough information to judge. But the answer to the earlier question is already clear: contact Orsted. The Dragon Saint Aura is derived from the Dragon God Style, so it's safe to assume I need to learn the Dragon God Style from Orsted..."

"It's too early to approach the Dragon God now. I need to grow stronger first. If he gets too excited and decides to 'have a heart-to-heart' with me, I'd be too weak to even kneel and beg to be his subordinate."

"As for the healing magic pattern... the maximum duration for the 'pseudo-immortality' is 6 minutes and 36 seconds, with an 800-day cooldown to recover mana. Based on the PvP combat experience in this world, life-and-death battles are usually decided in a few moves."

"That means using 120 days for 1 minute, or 60 days for 30 seconds of true power, is a reasonable allocation. Of course, this only applies to all-out, life-or-death battles."

"In normal combat, using breaks or taunts to recover intermittently is sufficient for both mana consumption and healing effects."

"Plus, I can feign weakness to create a tactical advantage, deliberately leaving openings to ambush with the North God Style or Water God Style."

"Overall, it's a decent progression-based cheat. It seems I'm not destined to be an invincible protagonist."

Allen stopped muttering to himself.

Pause. Silence.

The system's smoke-like text still didn't appear.

He raised an eyebrow and tentatively called out again.

"System?"

The system didn't respond.

Allen narrowed his eyes, then looked up at the sky.

"..."

"Alright, next up, I need to meet Paul and convince him to take me in. To participate in the major events of Mushoku Tensei, integrating into Paul's family like Roxy did is the best option."

"Find a way to win Rudeus's favor. That shouldn't be too hard... The detoxification magic pattern, while not as practical as the healing magic pattern, is still useful. After all, you can never have too many skills."

Clang! He sheathed his sword.

Time to move on.

The sun set over Buena Village.

The evening glow dyed the white walls of the Greyrat family's mansion, the home of the village's knight, a deep red.

Just like Lilia's face.

Her red hair was tied back neatly, with bangs framing her cheeks, giving her a soft appearance.

She wore a well-tailored black-and-white maid outfit and stood by the second-floor window, her gaze fixed on the yard below through her glasses.

Following her line of sight, three figures—two adults and one child—stood in the spacious rural yard under the setting sun.

The beautiful blonde lady and the tall, muscular lord stood with their backs to her, scolding a child who hung his head in silence.

It would have been a harmonious scene...

If not for the fact that the lord was using his body to shield his hand, which was wandering over the lady's white skirt in front of their son...

'The lord and lady have such a good relationship... Every night, they're so passionate and energetic... I can hear everything clearly...'

Thinking this, Lilia subconsciously touched her own back, her eyelids drooping.

In the yard.

"Rudeus, you promised to spar with me this afternoon to check your progress. Why did you run off and only come back now?"

Rudeus lowered his head, his eyes awkwardly fixed on the grass to the side as he scratched his cheek and smirked.

"Well... I went to survey the terrain and study plants. I got a bit carried away... Haha... cough."

Paul narrowed his eyes at Rudeus, his hand tightening on Zenith's skirt. Zenith, who had come to mediate, had a vein twitching on her forehead, but since Rudeus was present, she had to keep smiling and not lose her temper. The blush on her cheeks grew hotter.

She had completely forgotten the words she had prepared to defuse the situation.

Paul spoke in a low voice.

"Rudeus, tell the truth."

Hearing this, Rudeus quickly straightened up, clutching the plant encyclopedia under his arm, and bowed seriously.

"While I did go to survey the terrain and study plants, I did have the thought that being late would mean avoiding sparring with you. I'm sorry!"

Paul smiled and nodded, then turned to Zenith and winked.

"Then, honey, go make dinner. Rudeus and I have a manly promise to fulfill. Cough! Cough cough!!"

Zenith patted the wrinkled white skirt behind her, then elbowed Paul with a forced smile.

She then crouched down and spoke gently to Rudeus, who was staring at her skirt with the innocent eyes of a child.

"It's okay if you don't want to spar with your father next time, but you need to let us know in advance. I was so worried when you didn't come back this afternoon."

"What? Rudeus is happy to practice swordsmanship!"

"Darling, you have no idea what's going on!"

Rudeus watched as his parents crossed their arms and twisted them together, seemingly arguing but actually flirting. He couldn't help but smirk in exasperation.

Hey... you two lovebirds, keep it PG, will you?

After a while, the flirting ended. Once Zenith was out of earshot, Paul moved his gaze from his wife's retreating figure and leaned down to whisper in Rudeus's ear.

"Hey, hey, tell me the truth. Did you go out to lift girls' skirts?"

Don't project your own habits onto me, Paul!

The 34-year-old NEET, who was inwardly screaming but outwardly pretending to be an innocent child, suddenly sensed something.

It was the feeling of a snake slithering over his body.

What's this...? It's a gaze. Someone's watching me, and it's the kind of scrutinizing look I hated most in my past life...

His intuition made him ignore Paul's teasing and turn his head toward the gate of the yard.

A middle school-aged boy with intimidating eyebrows and a sturdy build was staring at him.

Well, not exactly intimidating—he just had sharp, upward-slanting eyebrows that gave him an overly intense aura. His messy hair was pushed back, and he exuded a sharp, cutting presence.

But Rudeus usually didn't get along well with people who had this kind of energy.

It immediately reminded him of the bullies who had tormented him in school.

The bully was stroking his chin, looking at Rudeus with interest.

Their eyes met.

The bully raised an eyebrow, a playful smile forming on his lips, as if he had found something amusing.