Mukuro and Yoroi
Satou here. With the aid of scientific advancement, people have become able to express themselves in new and exciting ways. Gone are the days of giants below the earth and gods in the skies. As ridiculous as those notions were, I always found them entertaining.
“First, let’s go see Yoroi and Mukuro!”
Her black hair fluttering behind her, Semery the vampiress pointed ahead.
After leaving the Eternal Night Castle, we were riding on the back of Semery’s pet monster, the vampiric Roper.
I had never ridden on a roper before, but it was a surprisingly smooth and comfortable ride.
“Is it far?”
“Not with Roper it’s not!”
Semery looked proud.
Opening my map, I checked to see where we were going.
“I thought so. It’s in one of the blank areas, huh?”
The territory we were heading into was protected by a similar barrier to Ban’s castle.
I had forgotten to ask the progenitor about it; I would have to find out the exact nature of the barriers that could block my Space Magic and “Search Entire Map” at some point.
“We’ll be there soon!”
Leaving the main passage, we went down a branch path toward the blank area.
“LWOOOPWWWERRRR.”
The roper suddenly stopped in the middle of the path.
My AR display indicated that the Underworld Barrier was right in front of us.
I doubted that it really led all the way down to the underworld, but it certainly wasn’t the most inviting name.
“You wait here, Roper. Let’s go, Kuro.”
As we got down from the monster, Semery reached out her hand toward me.
“We’re about to enter Yoroi’s territory, so you’ll have to hold on to my hand to enter.”
I accepted her slightly cold hand, and we went through the barrier together.
I probably could’ve gotten in on my own, but I didn’t want to set off an alarm or something by entering without permission.
Once we were in, I used my “Search Entire Map” skill, intending to do a little research on Mukuro and Yoroi before meeting them.
They seemed to be nicknames, though: I didn’t get any hits by searching the map for those names.
The highest-level entity on the map was a level-72 King Mummy , which had two intriguing Unique Skills called Metal Maker and Dream Factory. His real name was apparently Tetsuo .
The second-strongest was a level-53 Iron Stalker . This one was named Takeru and had a sinister-sounding Unique Skill called Soul Possession.
These were probably the two reincarnations Ban had mentioned.
Unless I was totally off the mark, the king mummy Tetsuo was probably Mukuro, and the iron stalker Takeru must be Yoroi. Funny, you would think their real names would be the other way around, since Tetsuo usually has the meaning of iron.
As soon as we entered the cavern past the barrier, we were standing on a battlefield.
“Awesome! Looks like they’re just getting started!”
Grinning like a kid who’d found a favorite toy, Semery tugged me along by the hand to a spot with a good view.
Before me, steel vehicles were rolling forward, each with two caterpillar tracks digging deep trenches in the ground.
The four tanks stopped on top of a hill and swiveled their turrets.
After a moment of silence, black smoke emitted from the muzzle and muzzle brake.
They’re not using smokeless gunpowder?
The four shells shot across the battlefield, striking the steel golem that had just made it across the first trench.
The shots pierced through the golem’s thick armor and into the dirt wall behind it, sending up a cloud of dust. Destroyed in one hit, the golem’s body flew into pieces.
“Ooh, here comes Mukuro’s catchphrase.”
“Catchphrase?”
As if in answer to my question, a loud voice echoed through the underground cavern as if amplified with a megaphone.
“Drop dead! Fantasyyyyy!”
Wow. Really?
That sounded like something a certain familiar on a floating continent would say.
“That line again?! Use your own words to celebrate for once, you damn moron!”
From someplace unseen, the opponent shouted jeers in a synthesized-sounding voice.
This must be Yoroi, also known as the iron stalker Takeru.
Looking more closely, I saw that there were thin lattice towers painted either red or white dotting the battlefield, with something that looked like speakers on the top. That must be where the voices were coming from.
Checking on my map, I confirmed that the defending side was Mukuro, the king mummy Tetsuo.
Aside from the four tanks, the defending side also had four armored vehicles and fifty-six skeleton soldiers.
The attacking side had seven steel golems and fifty-six mud soldiers.
Instead of swords and shields, both sides were armed with bayonet rifles.
Including the golem that had just been destroyed, that meant it was an even sixty-four versus sixty-four.
This wasn’t a war—it was more like a war game.
“Looks like Mukuro’s gonna win this time.”
Semery and I watched the battle from an observation tower. Just as I had suspected initially, this was more like a strategy game of sorts than an actual war.
Victory ended up going to the tank side, which dominated the whole time with ambush tactics.
Just once, a golem got close enough to destroy two tanks, but an ambush with a berserker destroyed the golem’s leg, and then they finished it off with concentrated fire from a distance.
By watching this battle alone, you might think modern weaponry had won, but the golems’ movements definitely seemed slow.
On the outside, they looked just like the golems that protected the progenitor vampire’s territory, but their movements were sluggish, like they weren’t outputting enough power.
If one of those gatekeeper golems was here, I thought it might be able to trash all the tanks easily.
Maybe there was some kind of handicap or regulation involved.
“All right, let’s go see Mukuro.”
Semery promptly jumped down from the tower, so I followed suit.
After watching a relatively modern-looking battle, I felt bizarre jumping down from a sixty-foot-tall tower without a lifeline, even though I did that sort of thing all the time.
On the other side of the battlefield was a featureless white building that looked like a lab of some kind.
A seven-foot-tall wire fence surrounded it, complete with barbed wire on the top. If Arisa was here, she’d complain that it ruined the fantasy feeling of the world.
Semery seemed to be a familiar guest: Once she greeted the mummy guarding the gate, we were able to enter the building without a problem.
“Is this made of concrete?”
From a distance, I assumed the building was marble, but up close, it definitely looked like concrete.
A mummy guided us farther into the building.
It was wearing a maid outfit, but I would just forget I had seen that.
The mummy led us to an enormous room that seemed to be lit by fluorescent lights. There was a large table in the center of the room, with a diorama reproducing the battlefield we’d just witnessed, complete with miniature tanks, golems, and so on.
On either side of the table stood a mummy and a metal suit of armor, arguing about something.
My AR display confirmed that these two were the King Mummy Tetsuo , aka Mukuro, and the Iron Stalker Takeru , aka Yoroi.
“Hrmph. Semery, huh? Did you come to demand a tank so you can beat Ban?”
“If ye lemme squeeze those useless sacks on your chest, I’ll come up with an extra-strong elite design for ya.”
“Y-you pervy old man! And what if Lord Ban despises me for bringing such a boorish weapon to his castle, hmm?!”
Semery turned red at the inflammatory remark and chased the pair around, waving her arms in the air.
Running away from her, the pair definitely seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Should they really be acting like such little kids?
“By the way, who’s this guy?”
“Is he your you-know-what, Semery? Finally gave up on getting Ban all to yourself?”
The two finally took a break from inappropriately teasing Semery to notice my existence.
Yoroi made a vulgar gesture with his fingers, causing Semery to punch his helmet off his body.
Just as I suspected, the armor seemed to be empty on the inside.
If Arisa met him, she’d probably ask him to say “brother!” in a sweet voice.
“Of course not, moron! Lord Ban asked me to bring him here.”
“Oh, did he?”
Mukuro looked at me suspiciously.
For a mummy, his face was surprisingly expressive.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Kuro. I’m from the same place as Sir Ban—would it help if I say I’m Japanese?”
“Oh? A black-haired Japanese person who’s not a Hero?”
“Already looking for an immortal body at such a young age? Go enjoy life for thirty more years or so first.”
“Yeah, you don’t want a metal body like mine, pal. Even touching Semery’s chest wouldn’t be any fun with these steel jobbies, y’know?”
“My chest belongs only to Lord Ban!”
What a noisy reaction to me introducing myself.
Still, the two of them looked like they could easily be the mid-boss and final boss of a game.
Especially Mukuro—if I hadn’t met the Undead King Zen before, I might’ve mistaken him for a monster and destroyed him.
“So, whaddaya want? Are you really here to get an immortal body?”
“No, I asked Semery to take me to the best spots in the labyrinth’s Lower Stratum, and she said this was the most fun.”
“Seriously? You’re sightseeing down here?”
“Oh-ho-ho-ho, I’ve never known anyone to come here to the depths of hell for fun before.”
When I gave an honest answer, they both laughed at me.
“Oh well, that works. For the past thousand years, our only visitors have sought eternal life, lost knowledge, or some other stupid request.”
“Or would-be Heroes who think we’re demon lords and come to defeat us, but we make quick work of those losers.”
I couldn’t read their expressions at all, but I could tell they found all this annoying.
At any rate, it seemed like they welcomed my visit, so I offered them some gifts from the depths of my Storage, like gunpowder cannons and muskets.
I was worried about whether I’d be able to take the cannon out through the Item Box, but luckily, the opening changed size to allow me to do so.
“Damn, these are some rare antiques…”
“I set this cannon up myself when I was in the Flue Empire. They had a huge outbreak of magic-draining slimes, so I gave ’em these to fend them off.”
Evidently, Yoroi had once been an engineer for the Flue Empire. If I remembered right, that was a civilization that was destroyed by the orc demon lord, the Golden Boar Lord, six or seven hundred years ago.
I felt a strange connection to them, since the City Cores I made contracts with in the desert were from the Flue Empire, too.
“And this gun is made with crimson ore… What kind of crazy person would do that? Guns don’t need to be that strong.”
Excuse me for being crazy. That was one that I’d made just for fun.
I covered my awkward thoughts with “Poker Face” as I watched the pair tinker with their gifts.
They seemed even more pleased than I expected: In exchange, they offered to let me into their subspace museum.
Mukuro entered a gold-adorned door floating in the air.
It must be a teleport gate, because his dot vanished from my map and radar.
Checking my marker column, I saw that his current location was marked as Unknown .
Out of curiosity, I used Clairvoyance to try to see him, but it didn’t work, just like when I tried to peek into the Eternal Night Castle.
I followed Yoroi and Semery through the golden door.
The map only read No map available for this area . I’d seen this message before—right, when I was stuck in Zen’s shadow.
This time, I found myself in a seemingly endless world of white.
“You made it. Come on.”
Mukuro and Yoroi led the way through the white space.
Soon, we reached an area with tall fifteen-story buildings lined up at regular intervals.
“Was this area made with Space Magic?”
“No, it was made by Yuika’s Unique Skill. This way, no matter what happens, not even the gods can spy on us inside.”
“You’re such a worrywart. The barrier outside would’ve been plenty on its own.”
Mukuro scowled at Yoroi’s gibe.
He had a point: Gods certainly have a reputation for watching the world from on high…
Oh, wait.
There was something more important I needed to ask.
“So this Yuika person made the barrier and this space?”
“That’s right. Not even the power of the gods can get through that barrier, never mind any advanced magic. The only way to enter is ‘through a designated entrance,’ ‘through specified means,’ or ‘by meeting certain conditions.’ Without meeting those conditions, even the seven gods can’t get through or even look inside.”
Huh? Wait a minute.
It made sense that I was able to enter the Underworld Barrier when holding Semery’s hand or the Eternal Night Castle Barrier when I met the conditions by passing the gatekeepers’ test.
But when I went to rescue Zena, I was able to enter the Eternal Night Castle Barrier without going through the proper entrance.
If not even the gods could pass through but I could…
I guess my ability to pass through barriers, which I always thought was no big deal, might actually have some secret to it after all.
But at any rate, this explained why my Space Magic and “Search Entire Map” didn’t work.
If it was an individual’s Unique Skill, I probably didn’t have to worry about demons or demon lords casually using it.
“It might even rival the legendary Valley of Dragons: Barrier.”
“Talk about a shut-in.”
Yoroi laughed.
“A shut-in?”
“Yeah… Enough laughing already!”
Mukuro smacked Yoroi’s helmet with his staff.
“Unlike us, Yuika was born as a goblin. She went through a lot of awful things, so she hides in her own territory to avoid people.”
Reincarnated as something other than a human…that sounded like hard mode to me.
This might be the first time I’d heard of a “goblin” without a “demi” attached—no, I guess there were stories about the Goblin Demon Lord that the first Hero fought.
Still, a girl being reincarnated as a goblin seemed particularly cruel.
“Yuika’s quiet, but she’s a good friend. She gives me romantic advice and stuff.”
Semery defended Yuika. Knowing her personality, I had a feeling she would force her way into a friendship whether Yuika wanted it or not.
“Oh, right, Mukuro. Is it okay if I take Kuro to see Yuika later?”
“Hunh?” Mukuro looked at me for a moment. “Kid seems harmless enough, so if she’s okay with meeting him, sure.”
Actually, since we were already talking about Unique Skills, maybe this was a good time to ask my question.
“This barrier is very impressive, though. I guess Unique Skills really do have the power of gods, huh? If a person has God Fragments, then—”
“Kuro.”
Mukuro turned an icy gaze on me.
His friendly-old-geezer attitude had completely vanished.
I guess I must have touched a nerve somehow.
“Who told you about that?”
Does he mean the fact that Unique Skills come from God Fragments?
“Well…”
I wasn’t sure if I should reveal that I’d heard it from a demon lord, so I considered using my “Fabrication” skill to gloss it over, but my “Sense Danger” skill activated as I opened my mouth to speak.
I got the feeling that lying wouldn’t work on Mukuro.
Not because of a skill—I suspected it was purely because he’d lived for so long that he was probably very good at reading people.
So instead, I told the truth.
“…From the Dogheaded Demon Lord.”
“Kuro, who the hell are you? Is that a fake name? Or did you deliberately get a ‘Name Order’ to fool people?”
“What do you mean? I received this name from the ruler of the Black Dragon Mountains.”
Besides, I don’t really know how to answer the question “Who are you?”
“Then when did you meet Crow—Doghead?” Mukuro challenged.
Ah, so he’s asking me that because my name sounds similar to the purple-haired boy Crow who showed up after I defeated Doghead?
So maybe Crow really was the demon lord from before he transformed?
“Just a trimoon ago.”
“Tch, when’d that happen…?” Mukuro clicked his tongue.
“Mukuro, your wife didn’t say anything about it?”
“Psh, she wouldn’t tell me. It’s been, what, two hundred years since we last met?”
Was Mukuro’s wife a friend of Doghead or something?
I didn’t see any high-level individuals who might fit the bill in my map search, so they likely lived apart or something.
“Then there must be a real slaughter going on up there right now… Gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
Yoroi made a gesture to ward off evil, but Mukuro shook his head dismissively.
“Bah, knowing that poser, he’ll leave us alone as long as we don’t get in the way of his slaughtering holy folks.”
“Are you two friends of Sir Doghead, by any chance?”
“Ha! Yeah right.”
“I wouldn’t be caught dead being friendly with that fanatic.”
Yoroi and Mukuro grunted.
“Whaaat, but you guys all hate the gods, don’t you?”
“Don’t lump us in with that freak,” Mukuro spat. “Sure, I hate the gods, but I wouldn’t be so crazy as to slaughter a buncha their ignorant followers just to make them less powerful.”
“You hate the gods as well, Sir Mukuro?”
“Yeah, we had a little falling-out a long time ago. Are you saying you do, too?”
“No, I don’t have any particular reason to hate them.”
I did have the Godkiller title, but I didn’t kill the dragon god out of hate or anything.
“Ahhh, so you meant Doghead…”
Mukuro nodded in understanding.
“Did you come here to find out how to kill him, then?”
“We’re not gonna help, got it? We wouldn’t stand a chance, for one thing…”
Mukuro and Yoroi both sounded adamant.
“…No thanks. We’d either die or turn into demon lords.”
That’s it!
“So it’s not just a superstition that reincarnations can turn into demon lords if they use their Unique Skills too much?”
“Kuro, did Doghead tell you that, too?”
“Yes, why?”
“Don’t go blurting that out to other people.”
“Yes, of course.”
I nodded earnestly.
The purple hair common to reincarnations was already considered bad luck, so if word was to get out about this, it could easily turn into a full-blown witch hunt.
“I’m sorry if I came across the wrong way. One of my traveling companions is a young girl who’s a reincarnation, you see.”
I decided to stop beating around the bush and directly ask for information.
“I don’t want to see her turn into a demon lord.”
“So that’s why you wanted to ask about Unique Skills—or should I say, the Divine Right loaned to reincarnations by the gods? Very well…”
“Wait, Yoroi. Kuro, what is this girl to you?”
Mukuro stopped Yoroi from answering me.
“She’s very dear to me, like family.”
Mukuro mulled over my answer in silence for a moment before speaking.
“Tetsuo the king mummy inquires: This girl is as important to you as yourself or even more so, correct?”
…An examination by an analyst?
“Answer the question, Kuro.”
“Yes,” I responded to Mukuro’s question.
“Tetsuo the king mummy inquires: You wish for this girl’s happiness, correct?”
“Yes,” I said immediately.
“All right, then. I’ll tell you as much as I know.”
With that disclaimer, Mukuro began explaining about Unique Skills and God Fragments.
The information he revealed confirmed some of my suspicions but then went far beyond them.
“When reincarnations are reborn into this world, a god will give them Divine Rights.”
This referred to Unique Skills, which were loaned to reincarnations in order to grant their wishes.
And the source of these Divine Rights was God Fragments.
“…But the thing is, they’re not without their limits, see.”
Divine Rights could function only within the limits of the reincarnation’s “soul vessel.”
“If you use Unique Skills past your limits, it’ll damage your soul vessel. They’ve been known to heal if it’s just a few cracks, but in most cases, they break beyond repair—and that’s how you get a demon lord.”
“So once someone turns into a demon lord, there’s no way to turn them back?”
“Yeah, ’fraid not. There are some rare cases like Doghead where they manage to retain their sanity, but most just turn crazy and violent.”
“I hear the gods can repair a vessel, but they wouldn’t waste their oh-so-precious godly power on that, the bastards.”
“What about Prayer Magic by a high-ranking priestess?”
“No luck. It ain’t the kinda thing humans can do jack squat about.”
So I should assume that turning into a demon lord is irreversible…
“Don’t get so down about it. If you’re worried, just make sure she doesn’t use her Unique Skills past her limits.”
“Exactly. Proper dosage is important.”
I was hoping for more help than a pharmacist’s warning…
“What, don’t believe us? I’ve seen a whole lotta reincarnations in my day, but unless they go past the number of uses the god sets for ’em at the beginning, none of ’em has ever gone demon lord.”
“The god sets a limited number of uses?”
Now that I had thought about it, Arisa’s Unique Skill Never Give Up was limited to three uses, with one use being restored per month.
I didn’t know the limits for her other Unique Skill, Over Boost, so I’d have to ask her sometime.
“Can’t they also turn into demon lords if they try to use Unique Skills when they’re mortally injured or about to die of an illness or whatever, too?”
“Oh, right. And one even turned into a demon lord ’cause of depression.”
Yikes. I couldn’t depend on the usage limits as the only gauge, then.
“Basically, a sound mind and body are really important.”
“Just keep her happy and healthy and maybe raise her level to improve her basic abilities, too, yeah?”
That made sense. It was good to have knowledge from my elders.
“Oh, and if this girl has a one-hit KO or limit-surpassing type of skill, you better warn her not to use it. Those can surpass the soul’s limit and turn ya into a demon lord right away if you’re not careful.”
Geh!
That described Arisa’s Unique Skill Over Boost all too perfectly.
“…What, she does have one?”
Mukuro and Yoroi exchanged glances.
“Look, I’ve got a Sacred Treasure in my Item Box that can preserve the soul vessel. It’s sort of like a physical restraint or a supporter, but it’s pretty damn effective—”
“You’d let me use it?!”
I jumped on Mukuro’s words eagerly.
“Hold your horses. It ain’t free, all right?”
Mukuro smiled wickedly.
“I won’t ask for something crazy like a dragon’s tooth. Maybe just a few dragon scales, some branches or leaves from a World Tree, and a little bit of Philosophium…”
“Hey now, that’s way too much to ask from a kid like this. Pick something more realistic, will ya?”
Yoroi rejected Mukuro’s proposed cost. But if it could help prevent Arisa from turning into a demon lord, it was a small price to pay.
“How many leaves and branches do you need from the World Tree?”
“Let’s say a carriage’s worth of branches and enough leaves to cover the floor.”
The World Tree’s branches were thick, so enough for a carriage would be easy.
“All right. Should I just pull them out here?”
“You’ve got ’em?”
I nodded at the surprised-looking Mukuro, and he directed me to a storehouse, where I began taking them out through my Item Box.
“Damn, I can’t believe you really have them.”
Yoroi stared in amazement as I pulled out the items.
“The hell is this?”
“A dragon scale? Why, what’s wrong with it?”
“Isn’t this from a full-grown dragon?”
Mukuro whistled in surprise.
“And these leaves ain’t from a sapling—they’re from the real thing, yeah?”
The scales aside, I wasn’t really sure why Mukuro was so surprised about the leaves and branches. But they seemed to be acceptable payment, so I handed him a fingernail-size chip of Philosophium—a Philosopher’s Stone.
“This one’s the real deal, too. Damn, Kuro, who are you?”
“I just happened to have some connections with the elves and a dragon or two.”
“Connections don’t explain why they would give World Tree branches, never mind something as precious as Philosophium, to a human…” Mukuro trailed off. “But I guess I’m not gonna interrogate ya.”
“Damn right, Mukuro. This guy came all the way down to the depths of the earth and gave us some seriously valuable stuff without even haggling. That girl must be really important to him.”
They were right, but it was a little embarrassing to hear it repeated like that.
“Here, Kuro. This is a soul shell garland. Have her wear it as close to the head as possible, yeah?”
Mukuro handed me a broach-like item that looked like a layered ring of tiny flowers. This must be the item for protecting the soul vessel.
“After she’s used a one-hit-kill technique, make sure she checks the soul shell garland. If the violet soul pearl inside is cracked or clouded, that means bad news. You’ll wanna have her take an elixir or get healed by a priestess’s Prayer Magic ASAP.”
Oh good, then I can just give her an elixir.
“If ya need elixirs, I’m sure Ban would hook you up. He’s always got extra stock for the handmaidens at his castle.”
“Thank you so much for the advice.”
I had some on hand already, so I didn’t need to turn to the progenitor.
Actually, this was a good chance to ask another question.
“Sir Mukuro, is it possible to remove a God Fragment, to your knowledge?”
Doghead had mentioned that he stole Unique Skills from other demon lords.
He said it was impossible, but I figured if they could be stolen, there might be some way to remove them.
“…Hunh? What, so you can get rid of the danger in advance?”
I nodded.
“I get that you wanna remove the risk, but—”
“Enough buildup, dude. Just tell him already.”
Yoroi interrupted Mukuro’s roundabout explanation.
“Ugh, you’re such a pain. Yes, it’s possible to remove God Fragments. But the host will die in the process, okay?”
Ah, his answer is the same as Doghead’s…
“That thing’s roots dig into the soul real deep to ensure the Divine Right takes root. If ya try to tear it out, you’ll rip the soul in the process. If you mess it up, they could turn into a demon lord on the spot, and even if you don’t, they’ll probably never be able to enter the cycle of rebirth again.”
I guess it was even more dangerous than I’d thought.
According to Mukuro, there was a demon lord about a thousand years ago whose violent Unique Skill could steal Divine Rights from other reincarnations, and those victims were how they knew the results.
“There was also a demon lord whose Divine Right could be passed on to kin, but that’s so specific, I doubt it’s gonna help ya.”
That was more or less the end of the God Fragments removal discussion.
From the sound of things, unless we were lucky enough to meet a reincarnation whose Unique Skill could remove God Fragments risk-free, there was no way to take them out of Arisa.
After my enlightening conversation with Mukuro, we went to check out his museum as planned.
“Kuro, should you really be casually touring a museum right now?”
I turned to Yoroi as he questioned me.
“Isn’t Doghead tearing it up aboveground? You worried about your friends and that reincarnation girl or what?”
Oh, right. We got onto another topic partway through the conversation about Doghead’s revival.
“It’s all right. The Dogheaded Demon Lord has already been defeated.”
“Defeated? Someone beat him already?”
“Well, there’s no way those lazy-ass dragons moved that fast. The gods are too stingy with their power to deal with it, and even if they did, Doghead’s got powers that could be a bad matchup for them, so they’d be hard-pressed to defeat or seal him.”
Yoroi and Mukuro tilted their heads.
“According to the rumors, a Hero defeated him.”
“A Hero?”
“Don’t be stupid. That might work on some fresh-spawned demon lord noob, but no way could a Hero take down a demi-god-level demon lord like Doghead.”
I was telling the truth, but the two of them didn’t believe me.
“Sure, Heroes are strong, since they get power from Parion and all. But still…”
Mukuro looked at me doubtfully.
“…Thing is, they’re still just humans who got a little piece of a god’s power. Barely any better than us reincarnations, frankly. If the gods couldn’t beat him directly, there ain’t a chance in hell someone with a fraction of their power could do the job.”
Sure, their logic did make sense.
Hayato the Hero was said to be humanity’s strongest, but even then, I couldn’t say how many humans of that level of strength it would take to defeat Doghead.
“Maybe the Hero had some help from the gods or dragons, then.”
I used my “Fabrication” skill’s help to give some arbitrary end to the subject.
“Well, as long as Doghead’s not on a rampage, that’s good news. I’d rather check out Semery’s rear end than think about that weirdo any day.”
Yoroi’s gaze went back to Semery’s curves as she walked ahead of us.
I couldn’t argue with that, but it did seem inappropriate to say so within her hearing range.
“Hey! Quit staring like that! My rear end belongs only to Lord Ban!”
“C’mon! Don’t be like that. A little peek never hurt anyone!”
“It has! I don’t know how or when, but I guarantee it has!”
Semery scowled at Yoroi, who was like a pervy old man in empty armor.
“Enough already! I brought you bastards to my museum, so the least you can do is shut up and look!”
“Oh-ho-ho, sure, like you’re doing us a favor. I know you’re dying to show it off!”
This time, Mukuro and Yoroi started arguing.
They seem really close.
I turned my attention from the pair to the objects in the museum.
There were an awful lot of weapons: familiar-looking pistols and rifles, a submachine gun, mortars, and explosive projectiles, to name a few.
The next building of the museum was full of war machinery, including monoplane and biplane fighter aircrafts with reciprocating engines, tanks, and more. Unlike the tanks I’d seen aboveground, my “Analyze” skill suggested that even Semery would have a hard time fighting one of these.
“These ones use the blueflame engines that were developed in the Flue Empire. They require a valuable fuel source called bluecoins—ever heard of ’em?”
Bluecoins were a currency developed from Philosopher’s Stones. If they used that as fuel, then the Flue Empire’s blueflame engines must be similar to the Holytree Stone engines the elves used.
According to Mukuro, the tanks we saw outside used internal-combustion engines.
“Crazy, ain’t it? This guy goes all the way to the Middle Stratum to get the oil for his stupid toys.”
“My underlings are the ones who carry ’em! Tyranon is a great pack animal!”
As Yoroi sneered at Mukuro’s obsessive hobby, Semery boasted about her vampiric pet.
I had to admit, my mental image of the undead was deteriorating by the minute.
“This here’s a reproduction of the battleship Ryokuhou from the World War II period! It wasn’t easy to replicate these triple-.64-caliber turrets, just so ya know.”
Mukuro gleefully explained his work as he stood in front of a six-hundred-foot-long battleship, but something outside the window caught my eye.
“Is that…a railroad?”
“You got it. That’s what got the gods on my case in the first place.”
Mukuro explained that some three thousand years ago, he was reincarnated as the prince of a small kingdom.
He used his Unique Skills and military knowledge to build a great empire in the west of the continent, but…
“I created radio towers and railroad systems to stabilize the empire’s distribution and communication…but it seems that touched a nerve with the gods.”
They were met with one natural disaster after another: droughts, locust swarms devouring their crops, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and more.
Even then, Mukuro managed to keep the empire going for another ten years, but when an oracle declared that his technological advances were the cause of the disasters, the empire was disbanded, and he himself was assassinated.
Luckily, he’d suspected the assassination would come, so he prepared a ceremony to make himself into a king mummy.
“Even in this body, they still kept chasing me down with a God’s Servant, but I convinced them to stop on the condition that I seclude myself deep in the dungeon.”
At that, Yoroi barked out a harsh laugh.
“Convinced? This barmy bastard used all of humanity as a hostage. He made a mountain of nuclear weapons and threatened to wipe out the human race if they didn’t stop chasing him, ha.”
I thought he was joking at first, but Mukuro just harrumphed without denying it. I guess that had actually happened.
Still, threatening the gods seemed crazy to me. No wonder he was able to create an empire.
He added that the gods had transformed the radioactive materials into lead so they couldn’t be mined from aboveground.
Since his Unique Skill Metal Maker couldn’t produce things like plutonium or uranium, he didn’t have any nuclear weapons anymore.
Thank goodness.
The last thing a fantasy world needed was a nuclear winter.
At any rate, I was rather unpleasantly surprised to find more evidence for Doghead’s claims in this unexpected place.
I guess trying to advance civilization too much really did incur the gods’ wrath.
That being said…
“So boats and airships are fine but railroads aren’t?”
“Seems like anything that makes it too easy for cities to communicate is out, yeah? Boats can’t do anything about the threat of monsters, and it’s impossible to mass-produce airships, plus they burn through monster cores like crazy.”
I see. I guess I should cut back on airship production, just in case.
“Anyway, did you design all these vehicles and machines on your own?”
“You betcha! I got plenty of time on my hands, plus some magic and Divine Rights that make production easy to boot.”
“Oh-ho-ho, don’t inflate Mukuro’s ego too much. Bastard’ll never stop bragging.”
“Ah, shaddup,” Mukuro snapped, but he seemed to be in a good mood. I ended up borrowing a few books and blueprints from him for internal combustion engines and the like, plus testers and other measurement tools.
I felt bad getting so much stuff from him, so I gave him some of the magic metals he wanted in return.
After this informative visit, we left Mukuro’s museum behind.
“Ooh, I didn’t realize this thing was so fast!”
“Oh-ho-ho, do you have a death wish, my friend? The rest of us will recover even if we get crushed or broken to bits, but that’d be the end for you, no?”
“I’m driving perfectly safely.”
I was behind the wheel of a vehicle borrowed from Mukuro—a military jeep with large tires.
When I spotted it on the way back from our museum tour, I got Mukuro’s permission to use it for sightseeing. I hadn’t driven a car in ages; carriage-style golems just weren’t the same.
The roar of the engine reverberated through my entire body as I went around a sharp curve.
Building up too much momentum, the rear wheels skidded—the grip was worse than I’d thought. Maybe it was inevitable because of the stone paving?
Discreetly keeping the car on track with Magic Hand, I enjoyed the drive.
“Incredible! Your driving’s nothing like Yoroi’s or Mukuro’s!”
Semery shouted excitedly and clung to my shoulders from the back seat.
Sadly, the seat between us prevented me from experiencing that joyous sensation.
“Don’t compare me to this so-called safe driver! I’ve got a gold driver’s license, dammit!”
“So-called”? How rude.
I wanted to retort, but I was afraid I’d bite my tongue, so I let Yoroi’s rude comment slide.
I’d marked the route on my map, and I was using the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance to keep an eye on my blind spots and using the 3-D map to check the terrain. In a way, it was even safer than using a GPS.
I destroyed any obstacles or monsters ahead with Flexible Swords and Flexible Shields, and I used Magic Hand to put them away in Storage, so there was no issue there.
I might’ve been going a bit too fast, but given that I was pretty sure I was still under sixty miles per hour, I thought the “death wish” comment was a little harsh.
Compared to the speed of “Flashrunning,” we were barely even moving.
> Title Acquired: Joyrider
> Title Acquired: Dark Joyrider
> Title Acquired: Crazy Driver
Glancing at my AR display’s log window, I noticed I’d gained some rather rude titles, but I decided to let it go, since I was in such a good mood.
Only Semery and Yoroi were riding with me; Mukuro was already hard at work forging something with the legendary-class magic metals I’d given him.
Yoroi was a Flue Empire engineer, too, but he didn’t seem to be interested in research like Mukuro.
“Ooh, this is quite a view.”
“You know it! This waterfall goes deep, so don’t lean over too far and fall in, got it?”
Since there was no light source anywhere, it looked like a waterfall leading down into hell.
I used the Pixie Light spell to shed a little light on the depths.
“Whooooooa! Th-that’s amazing, Kuro! It’s so pretty!”
In her excitement, Semery grabbed me by the collar and shook me repeatedly. The feeling of her chest smacking against me was nice and all, but this was a little too violent for me.
Still, I couldn’t blame her for getting worked up about the fantastic sight.
I definitely wanted to bring my group here to see this, too, sometime.
Making a note of that, we moved on to the next sightseeing spot.
“Is that floating thing a slime monster?”
“Nope, just some water.”
Before our eyes, several beach-ball-size globes of water were floating in the middle of a lustrous black room, their shapes gradually shifting.
“Things are weightless in this room.”
I didn’t understand how, but apparently, this room somehow didn’t have any gravity.
“Don’t go inside, though. It’s a trap—the water will get in your lungs and drown you.”
“So if I just keep my mouth closed, I’ll be fine, then.”
Unable to resist my curiosity, I ventured inside.
Ooh.
The sensation felt very different from floating in the abyss of space or free-falling. It was strange, almost like diving without water around you.
“Gwaaaah, it hurts! I can’t breathe!”
Lured in by the sight of me having fun, Semery followed me inside and immediately started choking.
I put the wheezing vampiress in the back seat, and we moved on to the next spot.
The high-speed vehicle was making this underground sightseeing tour a lot easier.
“This place is called the Garden of Paradise.”
When we made our way through the tightly sealed metal door, we arrived on a hill full of blooming crimson and lilac flowers.
Yoroi didn’t call it the Garden of Paradise for nothing: It was quite lovely. Like the plant area in the Upper Stratum, the light seemed to come from roots in the ceiling that glowed like fiber optics.
“They’re actually evil mustard plants, though.”
According to Yoroi, a criminal guild that was conspiring with demons had cultivated this place four hundred years ago.
“Can I burn it, then?”
Yoroi gave a go right ahead gesture, so I used the Fire Magic spell Fire Storm to burn it away without a trace.
There were a few unpleasant places like that, but with the help of the high-speed vehicle, we were able to hit most of the sightseeing spots in the Lower Stratum.
“Yoroi, should we go to the lowest spot, too?”
“Hunh? Ain’t nothing down there but the elder root.”
“Its sap is so tasty, though.”
“You’re the only weirdo who’d try to drink that, Semery.”
Yoroi snorted.
“That’s not true! Shirahime likes it, too!”
“Besides, how do you even drink the sap of a huge monster that inflicts Life Drainer if you touch it?”
If I remembered correctly, Life Drainer could leech away not only your stamina but also your youth and level.
“But you can get back whatever it stole by drinking the sap, yeah?”
“Only vampire freaks like you can do that.”
Semery looked disappointed, but I didn’t really want to face a dangerous monster like that, either, so I ruled in favor of Yoroi.
“Stop the car behind that boulder there.”
I followed Yoroi’s directions and parked the car.
This area was the home of a family of Evil Dragons. There were monsters like basilisks and flare scorpions, too.
“I hate this place. It’s always so smelly.”
“Is that sulfur?”
“That’s right… Hate to disappoint, but there’s no hot springs here, if that’s what you were hoping.”
It was a very Japanese assumption, but I was all set, since I’d already built one in the Middle Stratum.
“It’s actually very hot here.”
I got the impression that Yoroi was smirking at me from within his empty helmet.
Putting my cloak away in the Item Box, I followed behind him.
We passed through a few stone gates, the temperature rising each time.
Soon, it was as scorching as a midsummer day. The one perk was that Semery had changed into a sexy bikini-like outfit.
“What do you think? Pretty great, eh?”
“Yes, maybe heat isn’t so bad once in a while.”
I agreed enthusiastically with Yoroi as we proceeded down the corridor.
“I don’t get you guys.”
Semery seemed perplexed, but I didn’t want her to figure it out and do away with our precious perk, so I kept my mouth shut.
Of course, Yoroi didn’t say anything stupid, either. If he had an actual body, it might be fun to go visit some brothels together.
“That’s the spot over there.”
We passed through the last door and finally arrived at a large, open cavern.
“Whaddaya think, Kuro? Pretty fantastic, eh?”
“It certainly is quite a sight.”
Lava was bursting out of the ground like geysers, forming flowing streams of red.
It reminded me of the Flame Lord’s volcano I saw in the southern seas, but this was beautiful in its own unique way.
The geysers were producing lethal gas as well, though, so I used spells like Canopy and Air Control to take care of that.
All the monsters under the red light of the lava made the whole scene even cooler. Maybe I could hunt a few later and give them to Liza and the others as a souvenir.
Unfortunately, the Evil Dragons were napping deep in the volcano itself, where I couldn’t see them.
“Hey, Kuro. Wanna know a secret? There are dragons living here.”
Yoroi whispered in a conspiratorial voice.
Yes, I know.
“Ah-ha-ha, don’t worry about it, Kuro. Those dragons are always sleeping on their island in the middle of the lava lake. As long as nothing makes a loud noise, we’ll be totally fine!”
Before I could respond, Semery reassured me, although it sounded more like a setup for something bad to happen.
Normally, that’d be harmless advice, but since Semery seemed to be even clumsier than Pochi or Karina, I got the feeling she might mess something up.
“Dammit, why’d ya give it away? Now we don’t get to see Kuro looking all scared.”
“Honestly, Yoroi. You’re such a jerk.”
Semery put her hands on her hips, creating an enticing line from her back to her waist.
As I tried to put such thoughts aside and enjoy the scenery, I saw Yoroi standing by a yellowed boulder and taking some tools out of his Item Box.
“All right, come help me with this,” he called.
“Are you mining for ore?”
“Nope, stocking up on sulfur. Mukuro can make normal ore out of dirt, so we don’t need to mine for those. Fire stones fall from the geysers sometimes—keep an eye out if you need any.”
Hrmm, fire stones?
I didn’t really need any, since I’d stocked up on a ton on the volcanic mountain of the Flame Lord, but I figured I might as well pick up a few more, since I was here. They had plenty of uses, like manufacturing Fire Rods and Magic Guns for the military.
“There really are a lot lying around.”
I did a refined search for fire stones in my immediate area; there were so many results that it hurt my eyes.
I narrowed it down to any of a certain size or larger and tried again. This time, I found that there were gigantic ones the size of a person lying around at the bottom of a nearby lava lake.
Worried that my clothes and shoes might burn up if I got too close, I used a combination of Clairvoyance and Magic Hand to recover them.
There were also Firelight Pearls, the more advanced form of fire stones, at the deepest parts of the lake.
Semery chipped away at the boulders with her blood sword, collecting the sulfur.
“Careful, Kuro. You might fall in if you get too close.”
“Don’t go dying on us now! I’ve still got to beat you and make you my manservant!”
Yoroi and Semery both chided me. To them, it must have looked like I was just spacing out near the lava.
I apologized and joined them in collecting sulfur.
It tended to collect in yellow patches near fissures in the rock, so it was easy enough to gather. I used some metal tongs to put the pieces into a large bag, handing each one to Yoroi whenever it got sufficiently full.
Suddenly, I heard a loud splash behind me and turned to see Semery looking sheepish.
“Sorry, I messed up.”
She must have made a mistake while cutting off sulfur and knocked a piece of rock into the lava.
“…Uh-oh.”
“I’ll check right now.”
Semery turned one of her hands into a bat and sent it up to the ceiling. Her ears transformed into bat ears and twitched a few times.
“Yeah, it woke ’em up. One’s coming this way.”
She seemed to be able to receive transmissions from her bat as it flew around near the ceiling.
“A kid?”
“No, a parent…”
Just as she responded, there was a loud boom, and an arc of flames scorched the ceiling. That must be the Evil Dragons’ flame breath.
It blasted right into Semery’s bat, which was burned into ashes in a matter of seconds.
Judging by the movements on my radar, one of the Evil Dragons was indeed coming toward us.
Before long, a red-scaled dragon appeared from beyond the volcano.
“It’s not very big, is it?”
Including its tail, it was probably about a hundred and fifty feet long. The Evil Dragon was level 80, yet it was smaller than the level-68 black dragon Hei Long.
It was technically a lesser dragon, so maybe that was why it was smaller.
“It’s plenty huge, you moron!”
“You made it mad with your stupid comment, Kuro!”
Semery pointed at the dragon in consternation.
Spreading its wings to intimidate us, the Evil Dragon stomped through the craggy lava cavern at a considerable speed.
But still…
“Why doesn’t it fly?”
“Ah, well, see…”
“Mukuro used it for target practice with a tank once.”
Yoroi hesitated, but Semery explained in a strained voice.
So he’d used a flying dragon as a target for an antiaircraft tank? I hadn’t seen anything like that in the lineup when we toured the museum before. I’d have to ask him to show me when I returned the car.
“Quit standing around gaping and let’s get outta here, you two.”
“Right. If we pick a serious fight with a dragon without Lord Ban or Mukuro around, we’ll lose for sure.”
Semery bolted toward the exit at a quick pace; Yoroi followed close behind, clinking noisily.
A dark-red shadow flew overhead, kicking up a hot wind, and landed in front of the exit.
“Dammit, it jumped over us!”
There were no holes in the Evil Dragon’s wings, so its injuries from the tank must have healed already or something.
Maybe it was walking not because it was wounded but because it was paranoid about getting shot down again.
It looked like a red dragon, but on closer inspection, it seemed to be a gray dragon reflecting the red light of the lava with its scales.
“Semery, buy us some time. I’ll switch over to the rock golem.”
“C’mon…are you serious?”
Semery rejected Yoroi’s proposal in a shaking voice.
“I can do it, then.”
A little curious about this lesser dragon, I offered to buy time instead.
“<Dragon, my name is Kuro. I am a friend of the black dragon Hei Long.>”
I used my “Ventriloquism” skill to mimic the tone of a dragon and tried introducing myself in dragon language.
“GWLORWOOON.”
It raised a howl not unlike those of Hei Long, but unlike his, this one didn’t seem to mean anything that I could understand. Of course, I didn’t get any new language skill or anything, either.
Sadly, it looked like conversation wouldn’t be possible here.
From a short distance away, Semery produced a red double-handed scythe like Shirahime had.
Looking closer, I realized that the hand she’d transformed into a bat had already recovered.
“Hurry it up, Yoroi.”
Yoroi’s voice didn’t respond to Semery’s urgent call.
Instead, there was the clattering sound of metal hitting the ground behind me.
When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the metal armor that had made up Yoroi crashing to the ground; in its place, the surrounding rocks were rolling together as if they had a mind of their own.
I guess that was what he’d meant by “switch over to the rock golem.”
“GWLORWOOON.”
The Evil Dragon howled at me again.
It sort of seemed to see itself as a cat toying with a mouse.
“I don’t want to kill it. What should I do…?”
I’d already killed too many dragons in the Valley of Dragons, even if that was out of my control.
“…Oh, I know.”
I tried putting on one of my Dragon Slayer titles.
Immediately, the dragon focused on me in alarm. Its casual attitude vanished, replaced by a piercing gaze that seemed almost like hatred.
I guess Slayer titles made the target in question hostile toward you.
Next, I changed my title to Dragon Calamity.
It became even more hostile, but I thought I saw fear in its eyes, too.
So Calamity titles intensified their hostility but also added fear.
Finally, I tried the Dragon Destroyer title.
The Evil Dragon looked around frantically, as if seeking an escape route.
Destroyer titles seemed to make the target powerfully afraid and cautious.
“Now!”
Semery leaped forward to distract the dragon and was promptly knocked back by its distracted swipe, crashing into the rock wall. Normally, that would be enough to kill someone on the spot, but my AR showed that she was just fine.
The Evil Dragon focused on the wall where Semery had landed, readying its “Dragon Breath.”
“Not gonna happeeeen!”
The rock golem, a massive clump of rocks, drove a punch toward the dragon.
Its name read Takeru , Yoroi’s real name.
“GWLORWOOON.”
The dragon knocked Yoroi’s rock golem form back with its tail.
The rock golem was smashed instantly, falling apart into several chunks and sinking into the lava.
I guess the strength of a level-80 monster is no joke.
“GWLORWOOON.”
This time, the dragon’s flame breath fired toward me.
Too slow.
The attack approached with all the speed of a fake flamethrower effect, burning the ground between us.
I chose Flexible Shield from my magic menu to deflect the breath attack.
The black dragon Hei Long’s breath could destroy two Flexible Shields in a matter of seconds, but this dragon’s breath could barely get through one.
I produced a rock from Storage and chucked it at the Evil Dragon’s forehead.
It landed a clean hit, since dragons seemed to be immobilized for a short time after a breath attack.
That was probably enough comparing greater and lesser dragons for now. Any more and I’d just be picking on the weak.
Oh, one last thing—maybe I’ll try changing my title to Friend of the Black Dragon?
“Uh, what the hell is this…?”
Returning to his original armor body, Yoroi stared in disbelief.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha, wow! You’re something else, Kuro!”
Already fully recovered, Semery stared along with Yoroi and laughed.
“What did you do?”
“Trade secret.”
I certainly hadn’t expected the dragon to roll over like a pet dog.
As a result, I even gained titles like Dragon Keeper and Dragon Knight.
For now, I had changed my title to the latter, and now we were flying around the cavern on the Evil Dragon’s back.
Of course, I was recording the flight with Picture Recorder and Sound Recorder to show to my group and Miss Aaze.
“Kuro! Look over there! They’re coming out to meet us.”
Semery waved at the Evil Dragon family as they flew up from their nest.
“Looks more like they’re coming to attack us…”
The one that seemed to be the eldest came charging at us. Its parent was far stronger and avoided its breath attack easily, knocking it back into the nest with a single strike of its tail.
The other dragons didn’t attack, but they circled around us threateningly.
“GWLORWOOOON.”
The Evil Dragon we were riding howled loudly, and the others howled in response and began flying in line behind it. I guess its family members had chosen to be subservient.
“GWLORWOOOON.”
The parent dragon landed in the nest with us still on board and started pushing treasures toward us from their nest.
I didn’t want to turn down a present, so I accepted some gold nuggets and trinkets. Then I used spells like Magic Mold and Forge to make some dragon-size crowns and bracelets, then presented them to the dragon family in return.
“KWLOLUOOOOON.”
“KUUULOLUUUON.”
“KWROLUOOOON.”
The dragons gazed at their new accessories with glee.
I guess dragons really did like shiny things.
“Hee-hee, thanks, Kuro.”
Noticing that Semery looked incredibly jealous, I used one of the gold nuggets to make her some matching accessories.
Then, since I didn’t want Yoroi to feel left out, I used the leftover gold to make some decorations for his armor.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho. Well? Do I look fancy?”
“Yeah! You’re killin’ it, Yoroi!”
Yoroi and Semery seemed satisfied.
While I waited for them and the dragons alike to calm down, I used a combination of my map search, Clairvoyance, and Magic Hand to discreetly collect some rare fire ingredients like fire stones and Firelight Pearls from the surrounding lakes, plus some scales, claws, teeth, and other fragments from the dragons’ nest.
“All right, we should get going.”
Waving to the Evil Dragon family, we left the giant cavern behind.
Once we left the Evil Dragons’ area, Semery announced that we should go see Yuika, so we changed our course.
If I remembered correctly, Yuika was the name of the other reincarnation in the labyrinth’s Lower Stratum.
I certainly had no qualms about meeting her, and besides, I couldn’t refuse the request of someone whose boisterous bouncing had been entertaining me in the rearview mirror all evening.
Of course, Yoroi had no objections, either.
“Stop the car here. Yuika’ll get mad if we mess up the flower field.”
“All right.”
“You two go on. I’ll wait here, eh?”
“What? You don’t wanna come, Yoroi?”
“If the younger Yuika is there, I might make her cry again.”
Does Yuika the goblin have a child?
I had just automatically pictured a solitary shut-in girl.
“A child? Perhaps I should’ve brought some pastries, then?”
“Hmm? Yuika’s not a kid. I think she does like sweets, though. If you make some next time, I can bring you here again.”
Huh? I’m confused.
“So she doesn’t have a child?”
“Of course not. Lord Ban said Yuika has something like multiplying personality disorder.”
“No, it’s not multiple personality disorder exactly. If something really awful happens to Yuika, she uses her Unique Skill to cast off her personality and memories and change into a new person entirely. I know it sounds like a manga, but it’s true.”
The old personalities, Yoroi explained, could only observe from the background like ghosts.
According to Semery, if the main Yuika fell asleep or fainted, one of her old personalities could possess her.
This sort of story was pretty common in old manga and anime.
In a way, it was like she was independently re-creating the same effect that the high elves of Bolenan Forest had created with the World Tree.
We left Yoroi with the car and walked toward the field of flowers, lit faintly from somewhere around the ceiling.
Of course, I didn’t want to stomp all over her lovely flowers, so I carried Semery under my arm and used “Skyrunning” to float along above the ground.
“Kuro, see where those purple flowers form a hexagram? Land in there.”
I followed Semery’s directions and touched down.
There was probably another detached area around here like the one that held Mukuro’s museum.
“So where do we go now?”
“Nowhere. Hang on a sec.”
Semery sucked in a deep breath, so I quickly covered my ears.
Sure enough, she started bellowing “YUIKA!” over and over. So noisy.
The shout seemed to serve in place of a doorbell; the hexagram of purple flowers started glowing and produced six transparent floating doors, one at each point.
The doors were written in Earth languages: Four of them were in Japanese and read WRONG, ENTRANCE TO HELL, IT’S A TRAP, and DON’T COME IN, while an English one simply said DEATH. The last door had the English word WELCOME in Japanese hiragana.
My personal instinct would be that they were all traps, but…my “Sense Danger” and “Trap Detection” skills indicated that the WELCOME door alone was safe.
“Lemme see… I think it’s this one!”
Semery confidently bounded toward the ENTRANCE TO HELL door.
I quickly grabbed her by the back of the collar before she could go on.
“What’re you doing?!”
“That’s not the right one.”
“How do you know?!”
Without responding, I pulled her along into the WELCOME door.
“Whoa! You really were right! That’s crazy, Kuro!”
I asked the overexcited vampiress how she normally got in, and she replied that she simply kept trying until she got it right.
If she went in the wrong door, she just turned into mist or a bat and escaped.
Leave it to an immortal vampire to use that kind of trial and error.
“Man, it usually takes me about four tries to get it right…,” she grumbled, looking oddly vexed.
“No, she says she’s a neat, so she never goes outside.”
A NEET? It sounded to me more like she was retired.
At any rate, just as I suspected, this place said No map available for this area , just like Mukuro’s museum.
I tried using “Search Entire Map” to check the area, but there was nobody else to be found.
“Seems like no one’s here.”
“Yeah, Yuika’s a scaredy-cat. We have to go through about eight more sets of doors before we get to her.”
That was an impressive level of shut-in skills.
I figured I could get through all of them on instinct, but the odds of that were six to the ninth power—so about one in ten million? At any rate, we passed through a total of nine doors before we finally reached the space Yuika occupied.
We arrived to find a Japanese-style home adjacent to a field and a bamboo thicket.
The wooden porch looked out on a courtyard where chickens were eating feed, and onions and daikon radishes were hanging from the eaves. It definitely seemed like the perfect place to have a laid-back country life.
In fact, it gave the impression of a miniature garden re-creating the “good old days” of the Japanese countryside.
Time seemed to work differently here than aboveground; there was no sun to be seen, but the sky was bright as a normal afternoon.
“That’s Yuika’s house. She’s usually in the field… I wonder where she went?”
While Semery looked around, I used the “Search Entire Map” skill to inspect Yuika’s information.
Just as Mukuro had said, her race read Goblin . I’d been half hoping to see a high goblin or something, but I guess she was just normal.
Incidentally, goblins were considered a fairy race like elves in this world. They seemed to have long life spans like the other fairy races, since Yuika’s age rivaled Mukuro’s or Ban’s.
True to her nature as a shut-in, her title read Hermit , but I figured it was safe to ignore that.
Surprisingly, she was only level 50. She had mostly ordinary skills like “Cooking” and “Everyday Magic,” but her Unique Skills were something to behold.
Including Create My Garden, which had made this area, she had a total of fifteen different Unique Skills—several times more than even Doghead.
Even accounting for power inflation, that was way overboard.
I silently bad-mouthed the gods of this world in the back of my mind.
“Oh yeah. Yuika scares easily, so don’t make any sudden moves that might freak her out. I startled her the first time we met, and she squashed me flat into the depths of hell. It took ages to get back out!”
I was pretty jealous that vampires could recover from getting squashed flat.
“I dunno where she is, though.”
Bored of looking around, Semery grumbled and then took another deep breath.
“YUIKAAAA! WE’RE HERE! YUIKAAAAAAAA!”
A moment later, my “Keen Hearing” skill picked up some shuffling from inside the Japanese-style house. Semery seemed to hear it, too, as she stopped shouting and headed for the house.
“Semery, is that you? I made the most delicious pickled daikon. Take some home for Ban, won’t you?”
“Geh, no thank you. You’ll turn Lord Ban’s lovely face bright yellow!”
Yuika opened the sliding door and emerged, speaking to Semery in a soft, youthful voice that belied her age.
Since when are goblins this gorgeous?!
She had very pale, fair skin, and her long, silky-smooth hair that reached all the way down to the floor was the light violet of orchids. Though not quite on Lulu’s level, she was every bit as lovely as the likes of Arisa or Mia.
Aside from her slightly pointed elf-like ears and the two small horns on her forehead, she could easily be mistaken for human. Her slender, straight frame was reminiscent of the elves, too.
Come to think of it, the kobolds I’d met in the Muno Barony and the orcs I’d found beneath the old capital of Ougoch Duchy looked a lot like humans or elves, too.
At first glance, her outfit seemed to match her old-fashioned Japanese home, but her kimono ended in a short miniskirt accompanied by knee socks, which was definitely eye-catching.
“But it’s classic Japanese home cooking. I’m sure Ban will…”
Yuika’s red eyes locked on to me.
So she had finally noticed me. I think Semery’s powerful presence had kept her distracted at first.
For a moment, she looked pleased, but then the smile froze on her face.
Wait, wha—? Nobody said anything about her being particularly androphobic…
Her lips moved, and for a second, I could swear she mouthed the word Ichirou.
But all I actually heard was…
“KYAAAAAAAAAA!”
…Yuika screaming as if she’d seen a ghost.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login