Chapter 16 — This Is, in Its Own Way, A New Dannoura Style
Carol and Ryouko, as a Ninja and Samurai respectively, were incredibly strong. Though the monsters on the first level of the Underworld were the weakest, they weren’t just wild animals. From boars covered in spikes to giant armored bears to living skeletons, none of them were things that ordinary humans could match. Even so, Carol’s shurikens easily punched through the boars, and Ryouko’s sword split the armored bears in two effortlessly.
More impressive was that they did it all with pure technique. While their stats were no doubt admirable, they didn’t use any of their skills at all.
“It seems there wasn’t much need for me here,” Rick said, clearly impressed.
With Carol and Ryouko taking care of the enemies that appeared, everyone else felt like they were just sightseeing. Rick stood ready to jump in if there were any problems, but he had yet to have the chance as the two girls cut down their foes without breaking a sweat.
“So, wait, you’re a prince or something, right?” Tomochika whispered to Rick beside her. “Is it all right for you to be in a place like this?” She had just learned that Rick, or Richard, was the third prince of the Kingdom of Manii.
“Of course the king doesn’t have such liberties, but the rest of the royal family spends a significant amount of time in the Underworld. After all, we are lauded as the royal family for our ability to keep this place under control.”
“Well, there’s that, I guess. But you’re the Swordmaster now, aren’t you?”
With the death of the previous Swordmaster back at the tower, Rick had inherited the title. Apparently, he didn’t think of himself as being strong enough to merit it, but there had been no other qualified candidates at the scene, so he’d had no choice but to accept the responsibility.
“And you are a Knight of the Divine King, are you not?” Rick replied. Having passed the trials in the tower themselves, Tomochika and Yogiri had both become Knights.
The things that threatened this world could generally be divided into two classes: Aggressors and Sealed Gods. Aggressors were those who invaded from the outside. The times and locations of their appearances, as well as their numbers and strengths, were all unknown. The ones responsible for dealing with them were the Sages, who paid little heed to other dangers to their world.
In contrast, the locations and threat levels of the Sealed Gods were more or less widely understood. They were the responsibility of the Divine King, along with her Swordmasters and Knights.
The Underworld the students were now in was one such place, where a Sealed God was attempting to interfere with life on the surface by creating monsters. It wasn’t strange at all for Swordmasters or Knights to visit this place.
“Actually, I kind of want to give up that title...”
“You don’t have to worry about it so much. There’s nothing we can do to compel foreigners like you to act in any case. Oh, and we have also prepared holy swords for you, so whenever you have the time, please visit the church.”
“Holy swords, huh?” Tomochika sighed. They were the identifying mark of Knights of the Divine King.
There may have been some benefits to being a Knight, but it seemed there would be just as many drawbacks, so Tomochika was still on the fence about whether she wanted to accept that burden. That being said, as a gamer at heart, she couldn’t help but be interested in the idea of having a “Holy Sword.”
“The Swordmasters before me could never leave the tower, but things are different now. As the next Swordmaster, I believe I have a duty to conquer the Underworld. And if I may say so, Sir Takatou should have no problem accomplishing such a feat, no?”
Rick was aware that Yogiri had killed the Dark God in the Garula Canyon. While Tomochika couldn’t imagine what kind of feelings that knowledge inspired in the new Swordmaster, he must have thought that putting aside his pride and dealing with the Dark God in the fastest way possible would be for the best.
“It’s kind of hard to say. It’s not like he has to see the person he’s killing, but...”
It is probably impossible. In the case of the other Dark God, the creature’s aura was enough of a threat to his life to allow him to respond. There is no such aura of evil in this place, and the monsters it has created are entirely separate entities from the Dark God itself.
Tomochika relayed Mokomoko’s assessment, but judging from his reaction, it appeared Rick hadn’t had much in the way of expectations.
“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but are you good to go, Dannoura?” Sora called out.
“Wait, isn’t it your turn next, Akino?”
“Yes, but given how easily Ninomiya and Carol handled things here, it doesn’t seem like there’s much need for me to participate.” She seemed confident enough in her combat abilities.
“I’m not really suited to combat myself,” Yui Ootani, the Cheerleader, chimed in. Her ability was more for supporting others and increasing their stats.
Tomochika turned to look at the battlefield. Carol and Ryouko had reduced their enemies to a single monster. They had spared one skeleton in order to gauge Tomochika’s abilities in combat.
As Carol and Ryouko returned to the party, the skeleton ran in pursuit, prompting Tomochika to step forward to intercept it.
“Just a skeleton, huh? Will martial arts be good enough against something like this?”
It’s humanoid, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
“How are its joints even stuck together? If it can just detach them at will, I don’t see how my techniques will work on it.”
Tomochika sized up her opponent. The skeleton had a sword and shield as if it were a warrior of some kind. The bones making up its body didn’t even connect at the joints and were just floating in place. Even so, it looked and acted like it was a single coherent body, so she thought it best to view it as having invisible flesh and ligaments holding things together. Its center of gravity seemed to match that theory, at least. Therefore, she could treat it like a human.
Having come to that conclusion, Tomochika stepped forward and kicked, smashing the creature’s knee in a wrestling move known as a Yakuza Kick. The moment one’s opponent had all their weight on one foot, you stepped in with a stomping kick. She had chosen that for her first move in part because the skeleton’s legs were wide open, but also to see how it would react to its legs being kicked out from under it.
Her opponent clearly shifted its attention to its damaged leg. As expected, it reacted just like a human would.
As its posture collapsed around the injury, its head was left wide open, so Tomochika’s next move was obvious. “Give me the heavy one.”
Got it.
A black blade appeared in her hand, shaped like a large kukri knife. She brought the heavy blade down onto the skeleton’s head. Its skull shattered easily, the rest of its body promptly falling limp.
That was how Tomochika would fight to survive in this world. With her strength and speed enhanced by her battle suit, and the ability to materialize and reshape any type of weapon she wanted, she could easily dispatch enemies that she came across. This was the final result of having analyzed the material they had obtained from the Aggressor.
“I never got the chance to see your prowess at the tower myself, but I guess I’m not surprised.”
“Well, it seems you are plenty strong.”
Both Rick and Sora seemed genuinely impressed.
“Maybe there’s no point in getting that close, though,” Tomochika said. “Let’s go for the long one.”
At this rate, I’m afraid your weapon is too convenient to even make this experience worthwhile as training. Well, that’s fine. I suppose this is, in its own way, a new Dannoura style.
Without turning around, Tomochika reached behind her. A spear immediately appeared in her hand, its tip punching through the head of a newly-appeared cyclops. About ten meters long, the weapon struck dead center, not even the slightest waver to its tip.
Carol and Ryouko were speechless.
Yogiri slipped through the black lines that were tracing around him one after another. The lines of death represented a certain, absolutely fatal danger. But on the other hand, if he didn’t let the lines touch him, he would never die.
A moment after he moved, a fur-covered arm passed through the space he had just occupied. Contrary to popular belief, he was actually quite agile. He had always been naturally athletic, and he was a fast learner. He had a reputation for being lazy, which led others to believe he had poor reflexes, but in truth, he just didn’t have many opportunities to exercise.
Ever since coming to this world, however, he’d had plenty of chances to practice. And since he was only doing the absolute minimum necessary to avoid the oncoming attacks, it wasn’t even that tiring.
Right now, Yogiri’s abilities were being tested, so the members of Group Two were watching him from all around. He was currently locked in combat with a slender, caveman-like creature. About the same size as a human, one might think it was a kind of monkey, but its four arms put a quick end to that notion. Dodging a beast like this required a serious effort, but the movements themselves were simple enough.
Having figured out his opponent’s methods, Yogiri moved to attack back, swinging his sword along the lines of death. He could be sure that his enemy would be on the other end, so it was effectively a counter. But as expected of a typical high school student, even with an enhanced weapon, a single attack wasn’t enough to finish off his opponent.
It did, however, give him ample chance to display the results of the impromptu sword fighting lessons Tomochika had given him. After repeating that pattern a number of times, the monster exhausted itself, pausing just long enough for Yogiri to deliver a fatal blow.
“Not terrible, I guess,” Haruto said in assessment. Though Yogiri had performed perfectly well, his combat abilities were unarguably limited.
“If you can move like that, you should fit into my formation, no problem,” Suguru Yazaki added. Although Generals were strong on their own, their true strength began to shine when they had a group of allies to command.
Shinya Ushio wore a relieved expression. He must have been satisfied to see that Yogiri wasn’t good enough to threaten his own place as one of the strongest members of the class. Seiichi Fukai, on the other hand, showed no particular reaction. He kept his usual downcast expression, seeming completely uninterested if Yogiri wasn’t planning to use his power.
“What’s with you?” David muttered, astounded. “Your movements are clearly amateurish, yet you dodged every attack without fail. Your swordsmanship is nothing impressive, but you landed every single hit. You remained calm from start to finish, and even delivered the finishing blow without so much as a moment of hesitation...” Perhaps that was the expected reaction from someone who was actually a trained swordsman.
“Are you sure you don’t want to see my insect-killing power?” Yogiri called out to Haruto as he made his way back to the group.
“It doesn’t matter. I doubt we’d conveniently come across an insect-type monster.”
“Skills don’t work that well down here,” David added. “What rank is your skill, anyway?”
He was referring, of course, to the royalty’s power, which served to forcibly reduce the rank of all skills in the area. On both the surface and the first level of the Underworld, all skills were reduced by two ranks. On the second floor, they were reduced by one, and by the time they reached the third floor, they would be beyond the king’s reach. That applied to humans and monsters alike, and any skill brought down to Rank Zero would be completely unusable.
The sword and clothes Yogiri wore had been enhanced by one of his classmates. Her skill was Rank Four, which provided a Rank Three benefit to his equipment. Factoring in the king’s power, they were currently only experiencing a one-rank increase.
“If you’re relying solely on your skills, even a single decrease in rank is a huge problem. So the most powerful creatures avoid coming as high as the second floor. Which means the monsters on the third level and lower are incomparably stronger than the ones you will encounter here. That’s another reason exploration hasn’t proceeded too far past the second floor.”
“I see. In that case, I suppose we need to visit the third floor,” Haruto remarked. “This seems sufficient for preliminary scouting, though. Shall we head back for now?”
Their first expedition had strictly been to get the lay of the land, so they decided to return in the afternoon.
Also satisfied with their experience, Tomochika’s group was making its way back to the surface. The monsters that would occasionally appear to attack them were immediately cut down by Carol and Ryouko, leaving nothing for the rest of the group to do. The opponents they encountered on the first floor were no match at all for them.
“By the way, what rank is the skill you’re using, Tomochika?” Rick asked. “The fact that you are using it at all means it must be at least rank three, but that’s my best guess.”
“Uh, rank?” Tomochika replied.
“I’m concerned about whether I can safely add my sealing power.”
By overlapping his own power with the king’s, the strength of the seal would be increased. Thanks to the king’s ability, all skills were reduced by two ranks in the area. With Rick’s power on top of that, though restricted to a limited area, they could be reduced by another two ranks.
“Oh, I’m not sure. I don’t really know that much about it,” she replied, dodging the question. “But wait, if that’s the case, couldn’t the royal family form a group and just seal all of the monsters’ powers?”
“That’s possible to a degree, but it would also result in us sealing each other’s powers, so it’s only useful up to a point.”
It seems I should also be taking skill ranks into account, Mokomoko mused. Perhaps if Rick uses his power, I should turn off your battle suit, leaving you naked?
“Just try it. I’ll send you to the next life in an instant.”
Oh, you think you’re capable of such a thing, do you?
“If I’m that embarrassed, who knows what I’ll ask Takatou to do?”
Really now, your attitude toward your ancestors is a serious problem...
As they were speaking, they reached the exit of the Underworld. But this was the place they were most likely to let their guard down, so just in case, Tomochika looked around one more time. As she did, she saw movement at the edge of her vision.
Something gold was jumping from the floor to the walls to the ceiling. It was shaped like a box, small enough that she could have carried it alone, but it also had insect-like legs which allowed it to hop around the room.
Carol immediately threw a shuriken at it. The attack struck dead on, and the box dropped to the floor. It must have been some sort of monster, but with a shape like that, it was hard to determine where its weak points were.
The creature tottered back to its feet, apparently still alive.
“Ah, it looks like a Dunfer,” Rick commented, as if they had found something rare.
“Who gave it such a silly name?” asked Tomochika.
“That’s the name people discovered it had after using analysis skills on it. Perhaps the Dark God named it?”
She couldn’t understand why. As Tomochika puzzled over the creature’s name, the Dunfer scuttled away.
“Uh, guys, it’s escaping.”
“That’s fine. It’s nothing particularly dangerous, and besides —” As Rick explained, the critter scurried off into a side tunnel.
Even if it wasn’t that strong, it was still a monster. If it was going to attack people, it should have been dealt with. As Tomochika considered whether to pursue it, a voice called out from the tunnel the creature had fled into.
“I’m done for!”
The cry was followed immediately by a loud explosion. Tomochika peeked into the tunnel, seeing only the scattered remains of the box-like creature.
“Dunfers run off to explode somewhere harmless once they’re defeated, and apparently drop some valuables when they do,” Rick concluded as he stepped up beside her.
“Why does something like that even exist?!”
In the center of the box’s scattered remains was a jewel. She couldn’t tell what the Dark God had been thinking when it had made a monster like this. Its existence gave Tomochika an uneasy feeling that she couldn’t quite put into words.
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