45: Chapter 45 Night Talk

...

Dead silence.

"Cough, cough, cough...!" Mia knelt in a pool of blood, completely transformed into a blood-soaked figure. Her nun's habit, gloves, stockings—every part soaked in blood was now churning wildly, as if something was about to break out of a cocoon.

Her body had long since exceeded its limit. The veins under her skin bulged from mana overload, and blood constantly overflowed from the corners of her mouth.

"Pain... so much pain..."

[Set · Upgrading... Current evolution progress: 89% → 94%...]

"Mi, Mia...?" Tuaner crawled toward her, trembling, her voice choked with tears.

But before Mia could respond—

Thick blood snaked and climbed across the ground, wrapping around Mia's ankles like a living creature. She knelt on one knee in the center of the pool of blood, her eardrums buzzing. The impact of the troll's self-destruction left half of her body numb, and her mouth tasted of rust. She tried to lift her arm, only to find that even this simple movement made her joints groan under the unbearable burden.

"How... pathetic..."

In an instant, the pool of blood beneath her feet seemed to come alive, rushing back onto her body and forming a blood cocoon. The branches of the blood cocoon quickly climbed onto the nearby rubble and broken walls. The blood-soaked fabric clung tightly to her skin, and a bizarre, writhing sensation spread through every limb and bone. Each piece of blood-stained equipment was burning hot, like insect eggs about to hatch. At this moment, Mia was like a butterfly trapped in pine resin, falling into a coma within the blood-colored amber...

When listening to Tuaner recount the events of the past two days, Mia still had sparkling night dew on her eyelashes. That day, the Dragon Tooth Soldier had brought back the two carriages the Elves had provided as support. Everyone had specifically cleared one carriage for Tuaner to take care of Mia, so the bumping of the carriage did not make her feel overly exhausted. "That day, Goblin Slayer grabbed you—or rather, the blood cocoon—from Ryan Nephalem's back and carried you all the way back to the surface." Tuaner still had food crumbs on her lips, yet she spoke with great animation.

"It seems I need to go thank him specially later," Mia said, a bit hesitant. "No need, Goblin Slayer said we are teammates, especially you. You saved everyone at the critical moment!" Tuaner continued.

[Milestone title unlocked: Goblin Slayer. Current status 220 / 1000 (You only deserve this title when you are one against a thousand)]

"Mia?"

"Hmm? What is it, Tuaner?"

"Why do you push yourself so hard?"

"This body, this face, were stolen by me in the first place. At the very least, I have to carry both my own effort and hers to keep living." When Mia said this, she exuded a heavy, manipulative aura.

"Lies, what a high-sounding excuse."

"Alright, then the truth. After becoming Mia, I once thought about it in the dead of night: if our world was also a dungeon world, the original me would probably just be a woodcutter who went into the mountains to hunt and was eventually eaten by wild beasts; what about you? Probably a beautiful waitress lusted after by everyone in a tavern. Even if I were lucky enough to marry you in the end, our mission would just be a beautiful woodcutter's wife, holding a nursing baby in her arms, begging the hero to bring back the belongings of a husband eaten by monsters. Isn't that right?"

Tuaner was silent. "Who, who wants you to marry... that...?"

"Then what is Goblin Slayer? Goblin Slayer is probably the captain of the guard in a small town or city, with his own story, working hard every day to slay evil Goblins."

"So, do you want to be that woodcutter's wife begging the hero to bring back her husband's belongings?" Mia's gloved hand held Tuaner's shoulders.

"I also don't think you want to. So, I don't want to die. I want to strive to live! I want to see a life beyond being a woodcutter, even if it means wearing Mia's appearance and having my soul stained by Mia, becoming no longer the person I used to be—I still want to live!" As she spoke, Mia's eyes were covered by the hair on her forehead. Moonlight shone in through the gap in the carriage curtain, and there seemed to be something glittering on her face...

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Equipment upgrade complete!

Complete Set Components

① Main Equipment: Blood Rose Convent Robe

Defense: 85 (Peak of Light Armor Realm)

Traits:

[Dual Divinity]: Simultaneously blessed by Holy Light (+ 40% healing gain) and cursed by the Abyss (+ 50% Charm duration)

[Living Weave]: Thorny vines will extend from damaged areas to automatically repair them. During repair, it deals 5 points of bleeding damage per second to anyone who touches it.

[Scarlet Resonance]: When Mia uses leg techniques, the skirt will transform into 12 scarlet tentacles to assist in attacks (each tentacle deals Strength value × 0.8 damage).

② Sub-Equipment: Original Sin Corset · Modified

Material: Dragon tendon + Forbidden Art Seal

New Skills:

[Painful Communion]: Consumes 10% of own HP to convert 30% of the damage from the next 3 attacks into group healing (Healing amount adds [Lust Poisoning] debuff)

[Seven Deadly Sins Engine]: Every 100 points of Sin accumulated (by dealing damage/Charm) automatically generates 1 [Fallen Holy Nail * Pseudo] floating behind the back (Cap: 7)

③ Abyss Banquet Gloves · Final Form

Evolution Effect:

Poison gland upgraded to [Versatile Potion Slot], can store 3 types of custom mixed poisons

Runic magic threads on the back of the hand evolved into [Divine Art Seal], allowing the pre-storage of 1 Divine Art below High-level (original 2 low-level slots abolished)

New Ultimate Link Skill — [Profane Verdict]: When using Capoeira, Street Free Fighting, or hand-based attacks to deal damage, the gloves will manifest as scarlet claws to deal additional tearing damage.

④ phantom silk stockings · Rose Form

Changes:

Spider silk material replaced with [Fallen Angel Hair], no longer absorbs HP after being torn but directly drains the target's MP.

[Rose Cage] evolved from [Scarlet Web]: Those bound will continuously suffer the effect of Mia's [Painful Gaze].

New Passive [Original Sin Siphon]: When Mia is in [Lust], [Envy], or other Seven Deadly Sins states, the stockings' transparency will self-adjust to enhance the corresponding Sin effect.

Set Effects (3 pieces activated)

[Scarlet Mass]

Each time an enemy is killed, 1 Blood Rose blooms on the corpse (each flower restores 15HP / 5MP)

After accumulating 10 flowers, [Rose Explosion] is triggered: Deals Succubus racial value × 3 AoE true damage to all enemies with the [Lust] debuff.

[Two-Faced Saint]

Healing effects and curse effects can be converted into each other.

Using Charm skills in Holy Light mode adds [Fire of Repentance]; using healing in Abyss mode adds [Sweet Corrosion].

[Dance of the End] (5 pieces activated)

Automatically triggered when HP is below 15%:

Forcefully absorbs all vitality stored in roses within a 20-meter radius (prioritizes draining allies)

Enters [Blood Rose Duchess] form for 10 seconds (All attributes × 1.8, but loses 3% of max HP per second)

If ≥ 3 enemies are killed when the ultimate skill ends, all skill CDs are reset.

System Warning

"When you gaze at the roses on the hem of the robe, those petals are also gazing at you. Why do I always feel like this set of equipment is missing a pair of shoes?"

(Equipment Appearance: The originally pure white nun's habit is completely dyed dark red, and the golden profane runes are transformed into flowing scarlet silk threads. The corset extends chain-like ornaments that wrap around the thighs, and thorn rings appear on the knuckles of the gloves. The stockings are completely translucent, and vein-like black rose patterns can be vaguely seen flashing under the skin.)