by Aneko Yusagi
Eventually the continental shelf ended, and an even deeper place came into view. The view underwater was quite wonderful, very much like flying through the sky on Gaelion’s back.
“Ah, there’s something there,” I indicated.
“Yes, I see it. It’s a sunken ship. My sister has already checked it out, I’m afraid. Nothing there,” Shildina responded. Sadeena offered an apology.
“I see,” I said.
“There might be another one in the place we’re actually going to, so look forward to that,” Sadeena consoled me.
“Okay,” I said. Deeper, deeper . . . We eventually reached the ocean floor. Even with the underwater gear equipped, I was aware of the limitations on my movement. Sadeena and her sister didn’t seem affected, of course, moving as smoothly as ever with the propulsion from their mighty tails.
“Here we go,” Sadeena said. At her words, I readied myself for battle. First there was a chartreuse green mask fish, a monster a bit like an anglerfish with three lights dangling in front of its head. There was also an eel-like olive-green angola and a sahara lobster crab. I couldn’t tell if that one was meant to be a lobster or a crab.
The chartreuse green mask fish fired an arrow of light toward us from its three balls of light.
“Here it comes! You handle it, little Naofumi,” Sadeena prompted me.
“I’ve got it,” I replied. I held my shield up in front of me. We’d be fine behind the Shooting Star Shield’s barrier. The arrow of light failed to pierce the barrier and was repelled.
It looked like I could handle this one.
“Yay! So convenient to have you along, little Naofumi. Those light arrows come out so quickly. Avoiding them is a pain,” Sadeena said.
“They have some homing properties too,” Shildina added. “You have to be careful of the olive-green angola. They gradually use a mucus membrane to block our actions. The sahara lobster crab, meanwhile, is really hard.”
“That’s about the sum of it. Let’s take the fight to them!” Sadeena moved at high speed up to the chartreuse green mask fish and thrust at it with her harpoon. It wriggled around much more powerfully when compared to the blue shark.
“Zweite Chain Lightning!” While gripping her harpoon, Sadeena intoned some magic. The resulting lightning electrified the chartreuse green mask fish and then carried on toward the olive-green angola. While it wasn’t enough to finish it off, getting hit did make it fall back.
Not missing the chance to attack, the sahara lobster crab kicked up some grit from the seabed and closed in, launching a smashing attack with its massive claws. I blocked it on the Shooting Star Shield.
“Oh my! This is so much easier than normal!” Sadeena enthused.
“Let me have a turn. Please join me, Heavenly Emperor,” Shildina said.
“S-sure,” Raphtalia agreed. From inside the barrier, Shildina swept her katana down with incredible force and sliced off its claw. Raphtalia then tried a single slice across its body.
“Easy win! Keep an eye on your remaining air,” Sadeena cautioned.
“Worse comes to worst, I’ll use Bubble Shield to make some,” I replied. The shield skill had the ability to create oxygen underwater, just once. I could hopefully use that to extend our dive time.
“How’s the experience looking, little Naofumi?” Sadeena asked. I checked it at her comment. Yes, it was good. I was getting bigger numbers than from Q’ten Lo. And even more from that trip deep into the mountains. For sure it was better than the strong monsters Ren and Itsuki had been talking about. These weren’t even that tough, and yet the experience was around the same as from a karma-type boss in the Cal Mira islands. That placed them over level 80.
“If we go deeper, then we’ll encounter monsters worth even more experience. They get stronger too, of course,” Sadeena said. I gave her an unsettling smile. That’s right. If I got stronger, then maybe I wouldn’t have to lose anything ever again.
“It’s going well so far. No reason to stop yet,” Raphtalia said.
“I agree. Carry on, Sadeena,” I responded.
“You can count on me,” she replied. We dove deeper, for as long as our air would last.
Along the way, I put defeated monsters into my shield. Doing so rewarded me with some pretty convenient skills, such as an increase in diving time and underwater combat skills, making it progressively easier for me to fight.
But I was still a step behind Sadeena, who was naturally suited to this environment.
“Wow. We’ve got a big boy here,” Sadeena said. Having dived even deeper, a shark of comparable size to father Gaelion, called a slate-gray megalo shark, appeared. “I think even we four might have trouble fighting this,” she said.
“I’ve got an idea about that,” I said, then proposed using magic. “You want to join in too?”
“I think so. Once you mention magic, that means the two of us together, right?” she replied.
“That’s right,” I told her. We synchronized our breathing and started to prepare Descent of the Thunder God. We could now use up to Liberation class.
Using this magic would allow for a more efficient increase in our abilities. That was what I was hoping for, anyway, but with a fizzling sound, the cooperative magic failed.
“Oh?” Sadeena questioned. The slate-gray megalo shark started charging toward us. I managed to block the attack itself, meaning we took no damage. But the impact sent us swirling away through the water.
“M-Mr. Naofumi! Sadeena!” Raphtalia shouted.
“What went wrong?” Shildina asked.
“Little Naofumi, try again,” Sadeena prompted.
“I’m with you,” I replied . . . but every subsequent attempt at cooperative magic also failed partway through.
I didn’t know what was going on.
“No choice then. I’ll use Liberation!” I concentrated and cast some magic on my own. “Liberation Aura!” I applied it to Sadeena, who could move the most efficiently.
“I’m going in again!” she shouted. With me still on her back, Sadeena charged in once more, wreathed in the currents, and struck at the slate-gray megalo shark. Her piercing thrust successfully shaved a lot of the meat from her target . . . but she failed to finish it in a single attack.
“Next . . . Drifa Thunderbolt!” Sadeena sent out a blast of lightning, shocking the slate-gray megalo shark. It reared backward and thrashed about.
“Oh my!” Sadeena exclaimed.
“Gah!” I grunted. Even Sadeena was knocked back hard as it continued to resist.
“A real tough boy,” she commented.
“Yeah. Scarily strong. I never thought there were monsters like this in the outside world. Maybe no match for the Water Dragon, but still incredible,” Shildina added.
“W-what should we do?” Raphtalia asked.
“We can take it,” Shildina replied. “Pile on. I’m not going to lose to Sadeena.” She proceeded to create a magic water tornado, slicing into the entire body of the slate-gray megalo shark. The attack wasn’t big enough to consume it all, however.
“Haaah! Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny Formation Two!” Raphtalia had used that time to close the gap and unleashed a slicing attack into the fish. That was finally enough to slice the slate-gray megalo shark in two and finish it off.
“Not up to the strength of the Phoenix,” Raphtalia commented.
“Can’t compare to one of the four benevolent animals, surely,” I replied. I didn’t even want to go there. Regular enemies worse than the Spirit Tortoise or Phoenix? Of course, in a video game, later mobs generally ended up stronger than early bosses.
“Things are going well. I wouldn’t have made it this far alone,” Sadeena said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes. Having you protect us has made all the difference. How was that, anyway? The experience,” she asked.
“A decent amount, for sure. Sadeena, what about you? All of you?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m maxed out,” she replied. Of c
ourse. Those like Sadeena, non-heroes, generally had a maximum level of 100. Crossing that threshold apparently required a second class-up, but we didn’t know how to do that yet.
We had heard that the dragon king . . . Dragon Emperor fragments could provide a way to break the level cap. We just didn’t have any more information on that yet.
Which led to the question of how to handle raising levels from this point on.
It was a different story for the heroes and vassal weapon holders . . . For now Raphtalia would just have to keep doing her best as an attacker.
“Our purpose at the moment is to increase your level, little Naofumi, and little Raphtalia too. So let’s just keep doing that,” Sadeena said.
“Okay. Without taking too many risks . . . let’s do that,” I agreed.
We continued our hunting in the sea. Along the way S’yne joined up with us too.
It was the evening of the second day after we started hunting in the ocean.
The old guy from the weapon shop, Imiya’s uncle . . . and Motoyasu II all showed up at the village. Ren had gone out to meet them as representative from the village, so he was with them when they arrived. He was kind of like the old guy’s apprentice.
“Hey, kid. I heard what happened. That must have been tough,” the old guy sympathized.
“You have my deepest condolences,” Imiya’s uncle also offered. Both had such empathy in their eyes. After the Phoenix battle, they had asked Raphtalia to bring them to Melromarc when she visited Q’ten Lo. As for Motoyasu II . . .
“Yahoo! I’ll say one thing for this punk’s village: it’s always filled with pretty girls!” he crowed, seemingly as energetic as ever.
“You sure it’s safe to bring him out of Q’ten Lo?” I asked.
“I’ve got that in the bag, kid. No worries,” the old guy assured me.
“I feel a bit sorry for him, almost, but it seems like the right move,” Imiya’s uncle added with a dry chuckle.
“Damn you! Don’t remind me of that, Erhard! You jerk—” Motoyasu II was cut off by a painful grunt, putting his hand to his chest. I recognized that reaction. He had a slave seal.
“I’ve set it so he can’t move too far away from me. For our trip here I added another condition too. It activates when he says something that might rile you up, kid,” the old guy explained.
“Why do I have to suffer like this at the hands of my own student?!” Motoyasu II raged.
“Because you’re a terrible philanderer and owe a whole bunch in debts you tried to cut out on,” the old guy curtly replied.
“We have permission not only from Raphtalia, the Heavenly Emperor herself, but also the queen of Melromarc,” Imiya’s uncle added. I understood. I looked over at Raphtalia and she nodded.
“Just keep off the kid’s back, you hear?” the old guy said.
“Bah! If he was a real man that little cutie wouldn’t have had to—gah, dammit!” From his reaction, I could pretty much guess what he was going to say. He was right too. All I could do was defend, and yet I’d failed to defend so many people, Atla included.
“Hey? Punk? Bah, this isn’t easy!” After looking at my face, Motoyasu II clicked his tongue and crossed his arms. “I can’t stand being around this loser. Hurry up with our business here and let’s go drinking in the next town over!” he grouched.
“What business?” I asked.
“You found that sword in Q’ten Lo, remember? He finished cleansing it,” Ren said. He showed me the cursed blade that we had obtained in Q’ten Lo, where it had formed the core of the Sealed Orochi.
“Yeah, I managed to purify it. But I can’t see you chumps making use of it. The required stats are super high. You’d need to take all sorts of steps just to make use of it.” At Motoyasu II’s veiled taunts, I checked it out. As I feared, my appraisal wasn’t high enough to see anything. I really needed to find better skills in that arena to be ready for any possible circumstances. “On top of that, I reckon you’ll only be able to use it once. Swing it a second time and the purified curse will just well up again. After all that hard work!” Motoyasu II moaned. We could only use it once, he said. That wasn’t exactly efficient. The cutting edge did look pretty sharp though . . .
“So? You copied this, Ren?” I asked.
“I did . . . but the weapon that showed up was the Sealed Ama-no-Murakumo Sword. Check out the blade though.” With that, Ren changed his sword. The exterior did look the same, but it was also covered with a see-through coating, like a scabbard. He had to quickly change it to another sword too. “Just keeping it active causes all sorts of status effects, really piling on the pressure. It doesn’t have all that high an attack value either,” he explained.
“So that’s what copying got you . . . a sealed weapon,” I pondered. So was it a cursed weapon that had the curse lowered to a point where it was usable, or had the curse just not been broken? My Shield of Rage had been blessed and turned into the Shield of Compassion thanks to Atla, after all. There was a chance that meeting certain conditions might break the curse.
Thinking about shields reminded me of something.
“In a game I played once, there was a shield that had only negative effects when it was equipped. But if you wore it for long enough the curse was broken and it became the ultimate shield,” I recalled.
“I can’t deny that possibility. When I use it, a special item does appear as a number,” Ren described.
“Sounds like either the curse will intensify or it will become blessed and useable,” I reasoned.
“Yeah. I’d like to try it, but I’m worried it might mess with my head. If I do cause any problems, I want you to stop me. If that weapon starts to corrupt me, you can use the sakura stone of destiny series to contain me, right?” Ren asked both Raphtalia and me.
“Right. For now, let’s do whatever we can do to get even a tiny bit stronger,” Raphtalia offered the both of us, nodding with her hand on her chest.
“What about the remaining weapon?” Ren asked.
“We can’t use that kind of single-use disposable weapon in actual combat. Apparently they are Dragon Emperor cores, so how about we feed them to Gaelion?” I suggested.
“Some thanks for all that hard work I put into re-forging them!” Motoyasu II complained. In this case, his rage did seem justified. But making use of such finicky gear in battle seemed more trouble than it was worth.
If someone other than a hero had used one of them—when the Phoenix had been about to explode—could they have defeated it? I wasn’t sure, but it sounded unlikely. No matter how strong they were, I couldn’t imagine they’d act as such a powerful trump card. Even when maxed-out using the heroes’ shared power-up method, we hadn’t managed to wipe the Phoenix out instantly, after all.
“In any case. I’m going to be in the Melromarc weapon shop for a while, kid, researching the materials from the new monsters you’ve defeated. If anything else comes up, just come find me,” the old guy said.
“I’m also about ready to finish my training and return to the village,” Imiya’s uncle reported.
“Wouldn’t the three of you make the best gear if you all work together?” I posited.
“I mean, you’re probably right!” the old man said with a wry grin. It looked like I’d hit the nail on the head. Taking this into account, we decided that Imiya’s uncle would only make periodic return visits to the village, and he would continue to work with the old man.
With that, I requested new gear from the three of them.
After that, I gave the purified core from the Cursed Ama-no-Murakumo Sword to Gaelion. It looked like it would still take a while to get some information from it though.
Chapter Two: The Festival
It was three days later.
“I announce the start of the Phoenix Victory Festival!” Melty shouted. With a grand opening ceremony in the town square, the “festival” got underway.
Our neighboring town had been expanding nicely, becoming the second-most vital settlem
ent in Melromarc behind only the castle town itself. It was pretty impressive how much had changed in just three short months.
That said, the majority of the houses had been built using camping plants, so the place did have a bit of a “temporary housing” feel to it.
With applause from the townsfolk, the opening ceremony started.
“Filo! Take it away!” Nodding at this call from Melty, Filo dashed up onto a special stage that had been erected in the town square. She was also wearing an outfit created especially for this event. A cry of appreciation went up from the crowd, with even louder applause ringing out.
I took a look around and saw a substantial number of a type of person I knew all too well: “idol chasers.” I was almost impressed—I wondered how many fans she had.
Was that the wandering bard behind her? He was holding his instrument and playing in time with Filo’s singing. His normally gentle harp-playing was now creating the atmosphere of a live concert.
“L! O! V! E! Love me! Filo-tan!” Toward the back of the crowd of fans, meanwhile, Motoyasu was waving a flag. He’d taken a break from his travels toward Faubrey, excited to come back and take part in the festival. He still made me feel sick.
He also had Crimmy, Marine, and Green with him. All three of the primary-colored filolials looked incredibly bored—totally different from Motoyasu.
“Ah! I’m so glad to be alive!” said a random citizen nearby.
“Since we first heard Filo-tan sing, we just can’t seem to find the energy to carry on unless we hear her music!” his friend agreed.
“Tell me about it. Human, demi-human, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has come to hear her sing,” the first man said. That was news to me. I wondered if they felt this way despite knowing the truth about Filo.
“Now we just have to pray that the curse that turns her into the bird god will soon be broken!” the second man enthused. Ah, so she was a filolial because she was cursed, they assumed. That was a convenient concoction.
I asked Melty for details later, and it turned out Filo’s backstory had taken on a life of its own. Apparently she’d been forced to become an idol in order to break the terrible curse placed on her. Stuff like that. Sounded like the main character from an idol-based otherworld transition story.