[Gosh, the monsters appearing on this great flood were tough.]
[What are you even talking about?]
Sondark played the straight man in response to my attempt at being humble.
Well, I did single-handedly defeated the monsters attacking Telesco.
The battlefield was now rife with craters, debris, scorched earth, all that
crazy stuff. Pieces of monster gore and heavily burnt remains were scattered
everywhere.
It was the result of using Maximum Explosion and the strongest magic of
each attribute without me pulling any punches. Yes, I wasn't reflecting at
all.
After returning back to the royal capital, I only rested for a single night,
before returning to Crossroad once I got myself new armor.
Marl's mithril mesh hadn't finished its repair yet, so she remained in the
capital as my answering machine again.
My new armor was crafted from mythril, but it's still just an ordinary armor
in terms of quality. There was a lot of it in stock in the capital, so it's a good
pick for a quick buy and if I didn't bother trying to maintain my Hero look.
[Please take care, alright? For real this time, okay?]
[Don't worry. I won't pull my punches this time around.]
If my MP was not depleted already due to the mass troop transfer, I would
have more room to improvise during my battle against that black lion. With
sufficient MP I doubt that lion would be able to even nick me.
Before learning space magic, I used to travel on horse alongside the
marching soldiers. So not only was it more MP cost effective, I could rely
on the soldiers to clean up the remaining monsters to further save up my
MP. On the flip side, mass transferring soldiers really ate up a lot of my MP
thus increasing the risk I'd have to take in exchange for cutting down travel
time. But honestly, between the two options, I'd rather pick the third option
of teleporting alone and use large scale magic to clean up the monsters by
myself.
Therefore, this time around I decided to teleport alone.
I quickly did a long-range transfer to Crossroad's Adventurers guild office.
[Ooossh, oldman Ultz, it's been a while.]
[Uooo!? How the hell did you just pop outta nowhere like that!?]
[Your expression looks like when someone realized that there is a worm
popping out of their apple. Anyways, tell me how to get to Telesco.]
Ultz was naturally surprised at my sudden arrival, but was quick to recover
and brought out a map to show me the way to Telesco.
From Crossroad's west gate, just follow the road to the north.
It should take three days on horseback, but maybe it'll take only a day if I
run at full speed. Not to mention that I had leveled up some more these past
few days.
[Alright then, I'll now go alone to Telesco and clean up the monsters.
Please inform the other sides]
[Wha? Hey, hold your horses the――]
I didn't even give oldman Ultz time to respond properly as I already ran
towards the west gate. It'll be a problem if I crash into the passersby, so I
resorted to jumping from one roof to another.
For some reason when I jumped seriously, I was able to land on a two story
building's roof with relative ease. I've completely stopped being a human,
haven't I?
Jumping to the rampart from a nearby roof, I leapt off the city wall and
started running.
I heard in passing the soldiers atop the wall making some noises, but I
ignored them. I wanted to finish the great flood and finally take some rest at
the mansion. I wanted to spend my time flirting or crafting new weapons.
Was the bonded sword not enough? Honestly, not even close.
Make no mistake, it's powerful. So powerful it can cause widespread
destruction with a single casual swing. But using it for small scale fights
would be overkill.
And I wouldn't have invented the gold silver if not for the bonded sword!
What if I forge a sword purely made out of gold silver? Maybe a large
greatsword meant to be used on a super huge enemy?
Ah, if I have spare time, maybe it's best to forge it from orichalcon instead.
After all, when it came to greatswords, the heavier it was, the better.
I also wanted to craft some simple projectile weapons. There were many
ways to dispel magic after all.
In my original world, there was this game genre called FPS where
people were divided into teams and they had to shoot down the members of
the opposing team with various kinds of guns. If things went well, I'd like
to make a handgun for both myself and Marl. Just to satisfy my old hobby.
I used to have an airsoft handgun, and I've dismantled it before. So I pretty
much understood the structure and the mechanisms somewhat.
But it'll be no fun if I were to make a normal gun. Since we are here in a
fantasy world, then why not make a MAGIC GUN?
Though it might blur the line between fantasy and science fiction if I made
the magic gun go ZAPZAPZAP firing lasers.
I wanna make a whip, maybe chain sword, perhaps pile bunker, or probably
drill, pretty much all kinds of novelty weapons. The problems here were the
materials, the knowledge of the principle of how each weapon worked, and
various other things.
I sprinted to Telesco while pondering about such things. The Wind Shield
had been deployed beforehand to eliminate air resistance.
I don't know how fast I went because there was nothing around that I could
use as comparison, but if I had to make a guess, I'm probably as fast as the
shinkansen.
About three hours after I started running, I arrived at Telesco. I also
decimated the small monsters I came across along my way. I was pretty fast
if I had to say so myself.
Telesco city wall seemed to be more robust than the wall around Crossroad.
Maybe because it's close to the border with Geppel Kingdom? Most likely
that's the reason why.
Due to the wall's robustness, it seemed to be easier to deploy troop along
the ramparts when compared to Crossroad.
Even now, the siege weapons such as the arbalest and catapult were already
deployed on the ramparts to cut down the number of the invading monsters.
The bulk of the horde this time were made of bipedal beasts. They were
poorly armed, some even resorted to flinging stones.
There were also small flying monsters and large sized monsters like the
cyclops.
However, the flying monsters and the large sized monsters couldn't
breakthrough the intense resistance the city spat out. The cyclops were
particularly good target practice for the arbalests.
The monsters were actually kept at bay by the impressive artillery barrages.
[Alright, I noticed that you were absent this morning. What did you do
during that time?]
[Do you have any problem with that?]
My reply caused Sondark to sigh as he rubbed his temple. There were too
many people who I needed to give some face to in the Karendil Kingdom.
It's troublesome, but it can't be helped either.
This time, I did it like a boss. Launching maximum explosion and highest
level elemental magic left and right without leaving any gaps. It was over
much faster than I expected.
I had raised all earth, water, fire, and wind magic to the max level 5, and
pretty much used the horde as target practice.
The strongest earth magic turned out to be just a giant spear made of rocks
jutting out with extreme force from the ground. How should I say it?
Unsatisfying? I thought that it would be more of an explosive magic.
The rock spear protruded out from the ground one after another, shattering
any monster that it struck while raising an intense amount of dust cloud. It's
like the ground itself had bore its fangs and is chewing on a wide area.
The strongest water magic produced a water sphere the size of a basketball.
It's plain at first sight, but I was fairly surprised once I launched it.
When the sphere landed in the middle of a group of monsters, it vanished
instantly. But right after that, a huge area around the landing point was
frozen over. Any monster caught in its radius was frozen in an instance and
shattered on its own.
I'm not sure about it, but it's a magic capable of instantly freezing and
crushing all targets in a wide area. Scary.
The strongest fire magic looked similar to Maximum Explosion; a fist-sized
fireball that caused a wide area of burning zone on where it exploded.
The difference was that this burning zone lingered for a while after the
initial explosion. In comparison, Maximum Explosion was more neat and
clean.
By the way, the burning zone generated an updraught and caused the flame
to turn into a fire whirlwind which burnt an even larger area. All in all, it's
pretty much a scarier looking maximum explosion.
The strongest wind magic turned out to be the most exciting. It created an
invisible gusts of wind that are sharp enough to cut down mostly anything I
tried it upon.
Simply speaking, it's like turning a 10 meter tall and 100 meter wide area
into an invisible giant blender. Invisible and extensive.
And it's relatively easy to adjust its range compared to the other max level
magics of other attributes. Superb killing ability, coupled with adjustable
area of effect, makes it a good tool to use when fighting in a team.
Ah, I also learned Flying at Wind magic level 4. It seemed slow in
terms of speed, but I guess, with some alterations, I'll be able to fly at mach
speed like a jet once I got used to using it.
And thus, once I finished experimenting my new elemental magics and
cleaned up the rest of the monsters with maximum blast, I returned to the
capital and reported to Sondark.
After receiving my report, Sondark sighed, but nevertheless arranged post
processing personnel right away, and asked me to open a transfer gate to
Telesco.
I tilted my head wondering why Sondark wanted to personally come to
Telesco, but apparently his sister that was married off to another noble
family lives in Telesco.
It was publicly known that Telesco's city lord was Sondark's brother in law.
Considering that, I suppose it's normal if he wanted to have a talk with his
brother in law regarding various things.
[Then, can I go home now?]
[….I would appreciate it if you are willing to come with me to greet the city
lord.]
[He's your brother in law, isn't he? Is helping clearing out the monsters not
enough of a favor already? At this rate I'd just end up stuck in here forever.
I'm going back home! Oh, I'm fine with the reward being paid at a later
date. And it should include ores and alchemy materials. Don't be stingy, or
else I'll be mad.]
[Haa… very well. Don't worry, our country does not have the guts to make
an enemy out of a hero as of now. But it will take sometime to stabilize the
country, so the reward will take awhile to prepare.]
Leaving Sondark to his own devices, I departed from Telesco immediately.
If Sondark informed Marl that I went to Telesco alone this time, she'd
definitely force some of her specially made potions to me. That would be
horrible.
I did a long-range transfer to my residence at the capital Alfen, stashed my
equipment such as the armor and bonded sword into my inventory before
walking towards the entrance.
[Welcome back, Master.]
Flam who was polishing the stair railings greeted me when she noticed my
arrival.
Glossy black hair, dignified but willing looks, and that tight maid uniform
she wore. Totally the kind of maid I'd bang.
Should I entrust her with a sword too? But I guess it won't fit well with the
maid uniform if she were to carry it around on her waist.
Let's think of something better then.
[I'm back. Where is Marl?]
[She went to the alchemy workshop, then to the living room, then to the
bedroom. In short, wandering around restlessly. Probably relaxing in the
living room now?]
[I see, thanks.]
[You are welcome.]
Flam let out a natural smile for a few seconds there. Since that evening,
Flam had exhibited this kind of smile on occasion now.
Why, I'm not sure.
We only talked once over a glass of water before. So I couldn't be sure if I
was the real cause behind those smiles.
Uumu, I should stop thinking negatively when it comes to Flam. I should be
glad that we're getting along just fine now.
Maybe I should talk with her more often.
[Is there something wrong?]
[No, it's nothing. Thanks.]
I finally parted with Flam, and headed to the living room.
There, I found Marl sitting on a couch as she drank tea relaxedly. When she
saw me, her face shone brightly.
[I'm ba- [Welcome back! Are you alright!? You are not injured, are you!?]
…no worries, I'm fine-ouchouch.]
Marl promptly charged at me and started checking my body for wounds.
Hey, Marl-san, why is it that any body parts that should be unscathed felt
hurt when you check on it? Are you actually trying to hurt me?
[Now that Karendil Kingdom is mostly safe… I wonder about Miscronia
Kingdom? Shall we go soon?]
[I think Miscronia should be safe. There are three heroes residing there after
all.]
Marl replied to me in a seemingly uncaring tone.
There are three heroes there?
Are they as strong as me? If so, then of course Miscronia will manage just
fine.
[Do you know anything about them?]
[My father, the eldest son of a influential noble, and woman who was a
former adventurer.]
[Ee? Marl's dad is a hero?]
[Yes, my father is also a Hero.]
I had only bad feelings about this.
I felt like he'd go Defeat me first if you want to marry my daughter if
I went to Miscronia. No, nope. I should try to convince him some other
way.
The bonded sword might be a bit of an overkill, so let's forge a regular
sword first. Also, maybe I should try myself on crafting armor.
[I somewhat can guess what Taichi-san is thinking, but it's going to be fine.
My mother won't allow such a thing.]
[He's a hen-pecked husband?]
[Yes, my father can't even raise his head against mother.]
No matter whether he's both a hero and a member of royal family, the
relationship with his couple turned out to be the same as a regular family
For the time being I settled myself on the sofa. Marl stuck to me like a
magnet, probably still worried. All lovey dovey on me.
Meanwhile Maybell came in to bring us more tea.
[Welcome back. It seems that master is fine.]
[Yeah, I'm fine.Tonight, I want steamed rice as a side dish for dinner. I'm
also going to need a massage after the bath.]
[Understood!]
Maybell-san also looked happy. Not that important, but still, I'm glad.
Now all that is left is flirting with Marl.
And thus I enjoyed a thighs pillow while having my ears picked, followed
by some playful tickles and other fun stuff until it's time for us to have
dinner.
[Thi, this is…!]
That's unmistakably shredded kelp right there on the table.
Moreover, it's wrapped around a lump of rice shaped into a
triangle――yes, it's actually the tororokonbu onigiri (shredded kelp rice
ball).
Today's soup also had kelp in it.
[Finally the menu is completed. And it's actually really tasty.]
[It's perfect, Jack-san.]
By the way, a separate case filled with white rice was also prepared, and the
side dish appeared to be baked dried fish. There were also hot vegetable
salad.
Let's try the tororokonbu onigiri first.
When I picked it up, a hot mist wafted out from it.
Not only the kelp, the amount of salt was also perfect. The moderate
saltiness spread through my mouth as I tasted the tororokonbu onigiri.
Ahh, onigiri is truly the soul of japanese food. I almost felt myself tearing
up.
Was there shoyu or miso, maybe nori or natto too?
Apparently it's possible to import the konbu from Geppel Kingdom. Were
there traces of japanese culture in the Geppel Kingdom? I felt the need to
investigate it now.
[it seems that it's safe to assume that Master enjoys it.]
I was surprised on myself when I heard Jack-san's comment. Apparently I
already reached out for the second onigiri when he said that.
I was so impressed that I didn't even realize what I was doing.
[Yeah, it's really excellent. Thank you, Jack-san.]
Jack-san responded with a perfect butler style bow.
Marl seemed to enjoy the onigiri as well, eating it quite voraciously. She
looked cute like a kitty that way actually.
The kelp soup and the baked dried fish were also good.
Well, the soup felt like there was still something missing, but it's delicious
regardless.
After dinner, I took a bath with Marl.
I didn't go too far yet because the maids would enter the bath shortly, so I
held down any lewd thoughts for now.
But once we're done bathing, we headed right away to the bedroom on the
second floor and I could finally relieve myself. It's been several days since
the last time, so releasing it now felt especially gratifying.
I actually planned to not use the origin magic, but I ended up automatically
using it anyways.
What can I say? It's a pleasure that comes from the union of not only body
and mind, but also our soul.
And because of the obvious difference in our physical strength, Marl ended
up reaching her limit first.
Stroking the head of the sleeping-more like she's fainted- Marl, I checked
her status for the first time after a long while.
Name: Marl (Fake), Mariel Blanc Miscronia
Level: 25
Skill: Ethic 2, Deception 1, Danger Detection 3, Performance 1, Reputation
3, Shooting 2, Swordsmanship 3, Origin Magic 3, Alchemy 3, Water Magic
2, Wind Magic 2, Magic art 1, Twin Swords style, Royalty's Charisma
(True)
Title: Gale Sword Princess, Fencer, Alchemist, Saintess, Hero's Lover,
Hero's Squire, Sex Fiend, Beginner Magician, Elementary Alchemist,
Veteran Adventurer, Adventurer, Swordsman, Male Semen Draining
Machine, Runaway Adventurer, Runaway Daughter, First Princess of
Miscronia Kingdom (second in line to inherit the throne)
Achievement and Crime: None
When I first met her, she was only level 2. Now she's already level 25.
The swordsmanship skill had risen to 3 in such a short period thanks to her
constant effort. Well, I guess she inherited the prowess in martial arts and
sword fighting from her father.
The alchemy and magic level were also good if I had to say so myself. The
growing speed could be considered as really fast even if she kinda cheated
with origin magic usage.
People with a level 3 skill are usually deemed pro or elite. That said, Marl
who owned several level 3 skills could be considered as having amazing
talent.
Now that I think about it, Miscronia Kingdom had long been known to
favor Heroes highly. I have a feeling that they deliberately mixed their royal
blood with these heroes to produce strong heirs.
I shouldn't rush to an assumption that cannot be clarified. Don't just don't.
Anyways, let's check my status.
Skill Points pts Skill reset available
Name Taichi Mitsuba Level
Skill Swordmanship , Martial Arts , Polearms Mastery , Throwing ,
Shooting , Magic Art ,Fire Magic , Water Magic , Wind Magic ,
Earth Magic , Pure Magic , Recover Magic , Origin Magic , Barrier
Magic , Space Magic , Life Magic, Body Strengthening , Magic
Strengthening , Magic Recovery , Negotiation , Cooking , Equestrian
, Blacksmithing ,Detection , Danger Detection , Appraisal Eye, Magic
Eye, Poison Resistance
The growth was certainly high.
The obscene amount of STR, AGI, and VIT is probably caused by Body
Strengthening Lv 5. Since it increases corresponding stats by 50% per level,
my current STR, AGI, and VIT are actually 3.5 times of the actual value.
Without it, my STR, AGI, and VIT amounts to around 500 or less. Around
the same number as my DEX that has no stat strengthening.
My initial DEX should be around 30, so I gained around 430 points after
leveling up 63 times. Other than POW, apparently all of my stats shared a
similar amount of growth per level.
The average appeared to be 7 points per 1 level. Average of 7. Where did I
hear this before?
[The average of the result when two dice are rolled…?]
There are some variations. It's just a rough calculation too, but I think I'm
pretty close to the truth.
However, POW growth does not fit this hypothesis. It has much greater
growth than other stats, and its initial value was certainly the highest either.
I still remembered that the initial value was 130. It gained 790 points after
63 times level ups. If I simply divide the former with the latter, we get 13.
Does the number of dice increase? But if I simply double the number of
dice, the average roll would become 14. That's a bit low. But, I don't know
for sure.
It's hard to imagine that it'd make use of a different law, so there must be
some sort of modifier――ah, of course! Maybe the two dice has modifier
in them
The average roll result for two dice is 7. Giving 6 as a modifier would give
the average growth of POW I've estimated just now. Alright, I think I get it
now.
And now, what to do with the unused skill points?
I don't think I need the skill reset yet, since I've accumulated a fair amount
of skill points to do what I want.
In addition to the elemental magic, I've also raised danger detection to 5,
then Throwing to 5 as well.
Why throwing instead of shooting? Given my STR and AGI, I thought
throwing directly would deal more damage. It also helped to cause chaos by
throwing one monster at another.
But even after using a lot of it, I still had 177 skill points left in store.
There was no urgent need to use them all right now, so let's just examine
the available skills leisurely.
My level up should slow down starting from now, as events where I get to
fight a lot of monsters like the great flooding shouldn't occur that often. So
I guess leveling should be shelved for now.
In other words, I wouldn't be able to add anything else for a while once I
ran out of skill points. I suppose I should stick to that mentality. Who
knows if I encountered a strong monster during my explorations?
There was also "title" on my status menu, so let's check it out.
Title
Stranger, Magician, Swordsman, Fist Fighter, Beginner Adventurer, Rising
Star, Pure Magic User, Martial Artist
Troll Crusher, Adventurer, Hero, Intermediate Magician, Barrier User,
Veteran Adventurer, Interrogator, Executioner, Karendil Kingdom Certified
Hero, Sword Saint, Master of Fist, Master of War, Sex Fiend, Beginner
Blacksmith, Blacksmith, Veteran Blacksmith, Supreme Blacksmith
Divine Material Creator, Magic Swordsmith, Veteran Magician, Conqueror
Hero, Brave Hero, Divine Sword, Divine Fist, Divine Polearms,
Exterminator, Supreme Magician, Demon King, Breakwater, Demon King
Slayer, Dragon Slayer, Magician of Space
Mage of Rumbling Earth, Mage of Glowing Water, Mage of Exploding
Flame, Mage of Extreme Wind, Master of Elements.
This is somewhat amazing. And I realized that it's been arranged according
to the order of acquisition.
There are quite a few obtained after gaining a certain skill, some because of
my achievements, while the rest were given by other people.
Let's just leave it alone for now, as the title effect on my stat is trivial at
best. And I'm not aiming for completion anyways.
But I know how I ended up with the "Hero" and "Demon King Slayer" title,
but what's with this "Demon King" title?
From my understanding, that creature coming out from the darkness was
considered as a demon king… No, the Demon King title was acquired
before I killed that creature.
Was it because of Level….? I believe I reached level 50 before killing the
first demon king I encountered. Don't tell me everyone received this
Demon King title upon reaching level 50?
Because those creatures appearing from the darkness were well above level
50, that they were considered as demon kings?
When I checked the title for more information, a new window was shown.
Demon King Reached lvl 50. An individual who had devoured
many souls, and grew stronger from it.
Demon King Slayer Earned by defeating a level 50 or above
enemy who has obtained Demon King title.
Sex Fiend Earned by absorbing magic power from others
through physical contact.
Executioner Earned by killing 5 or more criminals.
Breakwater Earned by stopping the Great Flooding .
Element Master Earned by mastering four elemental magic.
Chaos Magic becomes available.
Why of course.
I get how to obtain the title now, but it didn't offer any clue whatsoever
regarding the great flooding.
On the other hand, I'm wary of this Chaos Magic. It's not there on the skill
learn section. In other words, it's probably something I have to learn and
understand manually, just like Magic Art.
By the way, the skill that is inaccessible via skill learn menu cannot be
raised with skill point, which is why my Magic Art still remained at level 3.
Umu, let's do a research about this chaos magic in the near future. Perhaps
it'll allow me to fuse two elemental magic? Like producing Lava by fusing
fire and earth, or lightning by combining wind with water?
Anyways, I need to get some sleep.
Ah, I forgot about Maybell's massage.
=====
[What's wrong, Maybell? If you're looking for Master, you must wait until
tomorrow]
[Uu ....Master told me that he wanted a massage though]
[Too bad, but you should postpone it till tomorrow. We should leave it to
Marl-sama today]
[Today?]
[Yes, today]