by Aneko Yusagi
Still, Ren had a world with VR and Itsuki had superpowers. What about Motoyasu? Maybe it was a world where choices appeared at critical points during conversations with pretty girls, or something like that.
Whatever. I didn’t care about Motoyasu. He was a mess. He wouldn’t give me a proper answer even if I pressed him for one.
“I think your other ability may well be called ‘Animal Friends.’ It means animals just take a natural liking to you. You’d be a great veterinarian,” Itsuki went on.
“Indeed. From what I’ve seen of you recently, Naofumi, I could agree with that. Look at the filolials and the Raph species,” Ren added.
“Uhh . . .” My trauma of being trampled came back to me again.
Still, Ethnobalt had been pretty friendly with me. Demi-humans and therianthropes were the same. I was starting to see something in Itsuki’s explanation.
Animals had always taken a liking to me, since I was small. When I would walk in the mountains, wild birds would land on my shoulder. I’d encountered a bear once and escaped by playing dead.
However, it did lick my face. I’d learned afterward that there were better ways to deal with bears.
A big dog in the neighborhood had let me ride it too. It had sat in front of me, offering its back. I’d sat on it just as a joke, and it had run off with me aboard.
I’d even swung a stick around, playing as the Ainu chick from that fighting game.
“Yeah, maybe in your world, Itsuki,” I conceded. I was starting to see what had warped the poor guy too. “Let’s put aside the abilities I may have and talk about the magic you’ve learnt for the upcoming battle.”
“Okay,” Ren said.
“Very well,” Itsuki said.
“I’ll show off the magic I’ve learned, I say!” Motoyasu said. I understood this might bring out the tendency to brag.
I was also interested in what each of them had learned from the inscriptions on the Cal Mira islands. If they had learned Aura, for example, someone other than me could also help out with support.
“Ren, I’ll start with you,” I said. “What did you learn here on the Cal Mira islands?”
“Zweite Magic Enchant,” Ren replied.
“Magic Enchant, you say. What’s the effect?” I asked.
“Magic for swords. It allows further magic to then be applied to your sword, after which you can cut down enemies for as long as the magic lasts,” Ren explained.
“It’s not a combo skill?” I checked. Those allowed a hero’s skill and ally’s magic to be combined together to create a special skill.
“No, it’s different from that. You can get a pure power increase from it, and it’s not applied with the aid of an ally,” he said.
“Which means what?” I asked.
“Even enemy magic can be applied to the sword. It can even nullify weak magic attacks and use them to attack,” he answered.
“Interesting,” I commented. Pretty convenient magic. You could deal with incoming enemy attacks and look for an opening to counter.
“The only issue,” Ren went on, “is that I could only learn up to Zweite. I tried to get Drifa, but I couldn’t do it.”
“Fair enough.” I moved on. “Motoyasu, what about you?”
“I learned Zweite Absorb, father-in-law,” he proclaimed.
“Sounds good. What does it do?” I asked. From the name, it sounded like it could absorb magic.
“It can nullify and absorb Zweite-class magic. However, I can’t move while I’m casting it,” Motoyasu explained. That was definitely an issue, considering what he brought to the table in terms of combat strength. I guess the point was to cast it first and preemptively stop opponents from using magic at all.
“What’s its range like?” I inquired.
“Looks like a diameter of around five meters, from what I saw,” Motoyasu said.
“I see,” I pondered. Sounded like a pretty strange piece of magic, but not without some potential. Looked like the inscription was dealing with support-type magic.
They had both said just up to Zweite, but if they used the Liberation method, they might be able to get up to the next level. There were lots of applications for that, so with some adjustments maybe they could use Drifa too.
I could only use that for healing and support, but what about Ren and the others?
“What are your magic aptitudes?” I asked.
“Yeah, we never talked about that,” Ren realized. “You are healing and support, right, Naofumi?”
“That’s right,” I confirmed.
“I’m water and support,” he replied. “Although there’s some water magic that can heal, so it isn’t quite so cut and dried.”
“Father-in-law, I’m fire and healing,” Motoyasu chimed in. “Although I can also use fire for some support.”
“And I’m wind and earth. Just like you guys though, I can use some healing and support too,” Itsuki said. So Ren was water and support, Motoyasu fire and healing, and Itsuki wind and earth. A pretty good split. And they also had access to some healing and support within those categories.
“I can’t use healing and magic as effectively as you, Naofumi,” Ren clarified.
“My fire healing is strong, I say!” Motoyasu boasted.
“That goes without saying,” I shot back. Motoyasu could use healing magic too.
Anyway, this meant, as expected, I didn’t have any attack abilities. The old woman at the magic shop had said something about that. The basic nature of a person has some influence when casting magic, and even a simple healing spell is affected by that nature.
That meant a little fire would get mixed in with Motoyasu’s healing.
And then, if someone cast magic that didn’t suit their nature, such as Motoyasu using support, the effects would be dramatically reduced.
That reminded me. There was an attack spell classified under healing. What had it been called? Decay?
I’d tried casting it myself, but it had failed.
The magic shop lady had said it was rare to find someone quite so completely unsuited to attack magic.
“The spells from the inscriptions seem pretty special,” I commented. Aura boosted all stats. Magic Enchant gave magic to weapons, including enemy magic. Absorb nullified magic.
“Itsuki, what about you?” I knew I was forgetting someone.
“Zweite Down. The exact opposite of yours, Naofumi. It reduces all stats,” he replied.
“Hmmm.” So I made allies stronger, and Itsuki made enemies weaker. That could be powerful, if used well.
Ren could absorb enemy magic and turn it to attack. Motoyasu could absorb and nullify it. So as long as we used them effectively, these could all be quite strong, although it wasn’t clear whether S’yne’s foes and the forces from the other world could even nullify magic.
“In that case, until the Phoenix battle, we’re going to work on getting you all to learn the Liberation class.”
“Understood, I say!” Motoyasu gave an energetic reply. Did he understand what that meant? Was he just agreeing for the sake of it? “I’m next, then,” he continued.
“Huh?” I said. What did he have to talk about?
“It’s time for me to tell you about the work I was doing prior to coming to your village,” Motoyasu said.
“You were raising filolials and being a street racer, right?” I retorted. Just remembering all that made me angry. After all the trouble we dealt with helping Raphtalia, and look what this moron was off doing!
“That’s part of it, but I was also quietly protecting your village, father-in-law!” Motoyasu revealed with a flourish.
“Huh?” Again, I had no idea what he was talking about.
“There were quite a few suspicious-looking characters heading for your village, father-in-law. But I totally cleaned them away. Don’t worry,” Motoyasu explained.
“Hold on. What are you talking about?” I said. He was cleaning up people heading for the village?
“Y-you think this
is okay, Naofumi? It sounds like Motoyasu has been up to no good?” Ren asked.
“We need to hear more, to find that out. Motoyasu, spill it,” I told him. Depending on how things had gone, it might turn out he’d killed some of our allies.
“First, guys like those who attacked us when we fought Ren attacked me numerous times. I defeated them. Of course, I use the soul weapons, just like you instructed. That let me defeat them with ease,” Motoyasu said. Had S’yne’s enemies been close to the village? If Motoyasu had been defeating them without anyone else knowing, no wonder we hadn’t experienced any attacks!
Of course, we didn’t know how many had come.
“There were others approaching the village with murderous intent too. I also defeated demi-humans and therianthropes. They were using some very strange weapons. After a while, those ones stopped coming,” Motoyasu continued. I had nothing to say to that. He’d been defeating the assassins from Q’ten Lo too? That sounded suspicious, but if I asked for proof, he’d probably bring me a skull or something. It was best to stay quiet.
Motoyasu wouldn’t lie about something like this. Not at the moment.
“There were also people in robes of some kind lurking around. I took them out too,” he said. Remnants of the Church of the Three Heroes perhaps?
So without anyone else knowing, had he been protecting the village all this time?
“I see,” I said.
“What do you think?” Motoyasu asked.
“Ah well, I think you’ve done pretty well. But I’m still not giving you Filo,” I said.
“I’ll do my best until you approve of me as her fiancé, father-in-law!” Motoyasu stated.
“Hey, Naofumi,” Ren said. “I mean . . . is Motoyasu all there?”
“He’s a totally different person,” Itsuki added. They were both looking at me with concern in their eyes. As if these two could talk!
“I want to think he’s fine,” I managed.
“He’s basically Motoyasu, but something’s broken about him. It’s scary. I hope the curse is broken soon,” Ren said.
“Me too. Just what kind of curse is it?” Itsuki wondered.
“Good question. Motoyasu, what is the cost of your curse?” I asked. He’d unleashed quite the variety of curse skills. He had to be paying something.
“Cost? What do you mean?” he asked back.
“You used Temptation and Ressentiment on us, right?” I reminded him.
“I don’t recall paying anything,” he returned. His face made it clear he really had no idea. No stat reduction? Nothing like that?
Hold on. Maybe the cost was his current disposition, although Witch certainly had done a number on him.
“O-okay then. Just do your best to be ready to fight the Phoenix,” I said.
“Understood!” he replied. I’d have to check thoroughly and make a decision later.
“That covers the effects of our magic.” I moved on. “We’re going to be taking on the Phoenix as our next enemy, but what about after that?” The four heroes other than me all had a certain degree of understanding, although we’d all kind of come to think that the others couldn’t be relied on too.
“After the Phoenix, it’s Kirin and then Dragon,” Ren said.
“That’s the way!” Motoyasu was clearly up for it.
“Do you think enemies from another world are going to attack again, like with the Spirit Tortoise?” Ren asked.
“No sign of it at the moment. We’ve got eyes out for that kind of thing happening, not just in Melromarc, but everywhere. Anything relating to the four benevolent animals in particular, we’ve really got locked down. If something was happening, word should have come to the village, but nothing has happened yet,” I told them. Even if something like that did happen, someone like Ost would surely show up to ask for our help. If possible, I’d like to resolve the situation just by talking, but those like Ost coming from the side of the four benevolent animals also wanted to protect the world and wanted to complete their duty of blocking the heroes. It would be a pointless spilling of blood, but if that was the only way they knew to live, then we could only consider it the role of the heroes to give them a worthy battle.
“There’s a very strong possibility that those with a connection to S’yne back in the village are going to get involved somehow, so we need to keep security tight,” I said. Who knows what kind of shit they might try to pull and how it might aggravate the Phoenix? There was no harm in being prepared for anything.
“Understood,” Ren replied.
“The Phoenix is apparently sealed in the west. If we can send one of the heroes ahead, that’ll save the rest of us some movement time,” I posited. I’d heard about the location from the queen and others from this country. If someone could get a portal there before the deadline, everyone else in the village would be able to keep training.
“I’ll go and get a portal position!” Motoyasu thrust his arm into the air. Keeping him in the village was going to generate so much noise anyway, and he’d probably do nothing but play with his filolials, so best to just let him go.
“It sounds like there may be notes there on how to defeat it, but I also want to prepare thoroughly before the battle. Right. Anyone got anything else to add?” I was keen to get this over with.
“Actually, about that . . .” Ren started.
“Yeah?” I asked. He looked away from my gaze. Maybe it was something difficult to say. He certainly didn’t seem very good at making requests of people.
From his standing, I guess I could understand that.
“I want you to lead the operation, Naofumi,” he finally said.
“I’m likely to stand at the head of the party and give orders from there,” I replied. When fighting the Spirit Tortoise, I’d been right there on the front lines, after all.
Of course, actual operational orders would be aided by the queen and other leaders of each nation. But with my experience of raising my own force, I’d likely handle most of the heavy lifting.
“Well, that’s not exactly what I mean. I want you to give us orders too. You said it before, right? You’ve got experience with a guild,” Ren recalled.
“I guess I might have mentioned that,” I confirmed. Upon defeating the high priest and learning that power-up methods could be shared, we’d had a hero conference then too.
“When we first met, Naofumi, I did think you looked a bit like someone I know,” Ren admitted.
“A friend of yours? That guy you mentioned a few times?” I vaguely recalled something. Ren gave a distant stare for a moment, as though he was about to slip into a flashback, and then looked at me again.
“That’s right,” he finally continued. “He was like a mixture of you from the past and you now. He just wanted to look after everyone, and people were just naturally drawn to him.” Me from the past, huh? Back then I had the confidence to talk to anyone. Rather than worry about maybe being tricked or abused, I’d just wanted everyone to get along and have fun.
“He ran a big guild. I know you did too. But that’s why I want to leave this to you,” Ren explained.
“Still, I can’t beat out experts in this stuff. Large-scale battles and raids running on a fixed set of rules, however complex, isn’t much help here,” I cautioned.
It was one of the major aspects of an Internet game. It was a way to proclaim your strength within the server you played on, including access to dungeons that only the higher-ranking guilds could enter and rare items that only they could obtain. Among the vast array of these events, guilds and teams allowed for the kind of experience you could never obtain while playing solo.
That said, it was a little hasty to compare the waves to that. It was impossible to tell what was going to happen during them, demanding everyone be ready for anything at all times.
“What scale of guild did you run in that game? I was just thinking you never told us the details,” Ren asked.
“Of multiple servers, there was one . . . I was part of the leadersh
ip of perhaps the third-largest allied guild, but we weren’t big enough to appear in world tournaments,” I explained, realizing I’d never told them this. I’d held quite a lot of authority within the alliance, but not the most. My character hadn’t been the highest level, and I’d really just put my emphasis on making money and building connections with people. Part of the reason for that had been because expensive gear and healing items had been very important in the game.
“So you’ve got a lot more experience than us, clearly,” Ren said.
“I mean, I guess so. But it’s rarely helped out. Maybe when ordering people about to get away from the waves,” I replied. During the first wave, it had been all I could do to protect the villagers, and things had been no different in the second wave or the third. During the fight with the Spirit Tortoise, the queen and the coalition army actually gave the orders. All I did was hold the Spirit Tortoise in place alongside Ost.
I mean, okay, maybe I had the most experience with this kind of stuff among the four holy heroes. Ren had only helped some others who also played solo get their game into shape. Motoyasu had run a smaller guild. Itsuki just played console games, right? They might have been strategy games, but I wouldn’t put money on it after seeing him fighting the waves.
All he could probably do was help form a plan to fight the Phoenix during the next wave. We’d start by checking the site and looking for information, then research ways to defeat it.
“What’s this Quest for the Phoenix game like, then?” I asked.
“In the game story, after the damage from the Spirit Tortoise, each country starts seriously investigating what’s going on. But they still fail to seal the Phoenix away, and it ends up reviving,” Ren told me.
“I see,” I replied. Back with the Spirit Tortoise they acted like they could just defeat everything with game knowledge. I guess this showed how the relationships between the four of us had progressed.
“After this . . . before the battle, we’re going to have the heroes all make accessories,” I told them.