by Okina Baba
“Sure, I think so. Wanting to follow in his brother’s footsteps is the manly thing to do.”
“I’m not sure how convincing that is, coming from a former man.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m still a man on the inside, thanks.”
“No you’re not.” “Yeah, right.”
“What’s with the instant rebuttals?!”
“Ah-ha-ha. Still, I’d love to meet Sir Julius for myself.”
“You haven’t? Aren’t you the future saint?”
“I’m still just a candidate for now. As long as the current saint, Lady Yaana, still lives, it’s strictly hypothetical. As a mere future saint, I have no relation to the hero. A new saint is only born when the current saint or the current hero passes away.”
“So if the hero dies, the saint gets replaced even if she’s still alive?”
“Of course. A saint only serves one hero. So if Sir Julius died, a new saint would be chosen even if Lady Yaana lived… Ah, but it’s improper to speak of such things.”
“It’s all right. Shun may be blinded by admiration when it comes to Julius, but nobody’s invincible. There was even a time when he fell into a demon’s trap and was poisoned. If a full-blown war with demons breaks out, there’s no guarantee even Julius would survive.”
“That’s true. We can’t talk about it in front of Shun, but apparently, fighting a real demon is quite difficult.”
“Yes, and the long-silent demon lord has started moving again.”
“Yeah. According to the rumors, it might’ve been right around when we were babies.”
“It seems like a lot happened around that time, doesn’t it? The religious war between the Word of God and the Goddess, the appearance of the Nightmare of the Labyrinth, and so on.”
“The goddess is a false idol!”
“Ah, sure, sure. The Nightmare of the Labyrinth… That was the spider monster that dealt Julius his first and only defeat, right?”
“I overheard him talking about it with Shun. It sounds almost like the demon lord!”
“What if it really was?”
“How could a spider be the lord of demons? I thought all demons were humanoid.”
“Yeah, but maybe it had a Humanification skill, like what you’re after, Fei.”
“You know there’s no such skill as Humanification, right?”
“Oh, so there isn’t…”
“There’s not. Although, I suppose it’s possible there are skills that could do something similar.”
“Well, they say demons look exactly like humans, so if a monster could disguise itself as human, it could probably mingle with demons.”
“That’s misleading. Demons really ought to at least have horns or something.”
“Wouldn’t that make it a devil, not a demon?”
“I’ve never heard any such distinction.”
“Hmm. Say, this is just a thought, but…a new demon lord took over right around when we were born, right? Could you imagine if the demon lord was one of us reincarnations?”
“Yo, don’t even joke about that. Besides, that’d mean the demon lord was a baby at the time, too.”
“Oh dear. I’m sorry.”
“I doubt a baby could become a demon lord so quickly unless it spent every waking moment from the time it was born moving around and leveling up.”
“Wow, talk about a horror story.”
LORD OF THE FIRE SEA
Wow. This sucks.
A lake of magma stretches in front of me as far as I can see. And this time, there’s no path through it.
Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?
I don’t think that’s possible. The layout of the Middle Stratum is pretty much just a single, fairly expansive passage stretching ahead.
It’s more than half a mile wide, though, so I don’t know if “passage” is really the right word.
Anyway, that means I have to cross this magma lake to advance.
Luckily, while there’s no path, there are at least some small islands dotted throughout.
With my jumping strength, I can leap from island to island, or even go by way of the ceiling if I have to.
Man, how would a human ever get past this, though?
I bet they can only survive in the Upper Stratum.
I mean, logically speaking, how could anyone conquer a labyrinth that’s bigger than Hokkaido?
They’d have to be a hero or have some legendary power or something.
I don’t know if that sort of thing even exists here.
Maybe if an administrator took a liking to a beautiful youth and gave them a special ability or something?
Wow, that’d be unfair.
You should give it to me instead!
No dice, huh? Okay, I guess that makes sense.
Whoops. I got a little off track for a second there.
Anyway, yeah, technically, I can get past this, but there’s a problem.
There are tons of monsters lurking inside.
On top of being enormously wide, this magma lake is pretty deep, too.
At its deepest, it can go as deep as six hundred feet.
If there’s that much magma, shouldn’t it cool down and harden or something?
Apparently not. It forms a huge freaking lake.
And in this expansive, deep lake, there are tons of monsters.
I’m supposed to cross this?
Man, what’s up with this labyrinth?
I don’t see how anyone’s supposed to beat it.
Ugh. Well, it’s not like I have any other choice, so I’ll just have to cross it.
I’m sure it’ll work out somehow, right?
Besides, I was able to beat that eel, so I doubt anything else would pose much of a threat. I doubt there are too many monsters around as strong as that.
Even if there are, I’ll just beat them at their own game.
I’ve evolved since I fought the eel, literally and figuratively. My stats have gotten crazy good, my skills have improved, and most importantly, I can use magic now!
Heh-heh-heh, I couldn’t touch monsters while they were in the magma before, but now that I know magic, no hole-up-at-home strategy will work against me!
I’ll snipe you with my magic! Bwa-ha-ha!
I have new skills besides magic, too.
First of all, Evil Eye.
I got my second Evil Eye skill, too. This time, I chose Paralyzing Evil Eye.
Petrification was tempting, too, but it takes a long time for its effects to kick in, and worse, I can’t eat something that’s been petrified.
So instead, I chose paralysis, which renders things immobile much more quickly while keeping them perfectly edible.
I also learned a skill called Magic Warfare.
You can use it to consume MP in exchange for raising stats. I happened to pick it up just by focusing on cycling magical power through my body.
So basically, this is the MP-consumption version of Mental Warfare, which uses SP. But thanks to Height of Occultism, I don’t need to worry about spending my MP.
Even if I keep it active all the time, it recovers more quickly than the rate of consumption.
So at the moment, I’m keeping it active all the time.
As a result, now my stats are even higher.
I’ve also been occasionally activating Mental Warfare with an eye for my amount of Satiation stock, slowly raising its skill level.
If I activate both at once, my stats improve drastically, so I can use that as a trump card for sure.
Satiation is a pretty amazing skill, as it turns out.
I mean, it even stocks automatic recovery.
So my HP and MP stocks have been bolstered in no time.
My MP, especially, is getting to the point where I can’t possibly use it all.
I can activate Magic Warfare, keep both Evil Eyes on nonstop—and even practice magic—and still have plenty of MP to spare.
Height of Occultism is crazy powerful. So is Satiation, which stocks
any excess.
Although, I haven’t been able to save as much MP because of the magma damage.
So now that I have magic as a long-range-attack method and my stats are vastly improved, I’m sure I could take down an eel without breaking a sweat.
Which means there’s no reason to be afraid of a little magma lake!
If any small-fry attack me, I’ll just bring ’em down and eat ’em.
Time for my first jump!
I leap over the magma and land on a little island.
It’s a little scary, but I can always retreat to the ceiling if I have to, so I think I can make it work.
I’m still hopping my way across.
Hmm. It’s going so smoothly that it’s actually a little boring.
I haven’t been attacked by a single monster.
Honestly, I was so prepared for a fight that it’s almost more of a letdown than a relief.
No, it’s fine, though. Peace is a good thing.
But if it’s too peaceful, I could run out of SP, so it’d be nice if a monster would attack once in a while. Purely as a food source, of course.
If it’s a tasty monster, so much the better. Like catfish, or catfish, or maybe catfish.
C’mon, can’t one poke its little head out of the magma for me?
Sploosh.
Status: HP: 2,331/2,331 (green) (details) MP: 1,894/1,894 (blue) (details)
SP: 2,119/2,119 (yellow) (details) : 2,315/2,315 (red) +264 (details)
Average Offensive Ability: 1,999 (details) Average Defensive Ability: 1,876 (details)
Average Magical Ability: 1,551 (details) Average Resistance Ability: 1,528 (details)
Average Speed Ability: 1,657 (details)
Skills:
[Fire Wyrm LV 9] [Imperial Scales LV 2] [HP Auto-Recovery LV 2] [MP Auto-Recovery LV 1]
[MP Lessened Consumption LV 1] [SP Recovery Speed LV 3] [SP Lessened Consumption LV 3] [Flame Attack LV 5]
[Flame Enhancement LV 3] [Destruction Enhancement LV 2] [Impact Enhancement LV 4] [Cooperation LV 5]
[Leadership LV 7] [Hit LV 10] [Evasion LV 10] [Probability Correction LV 8]
[Presence Perception LV 4] [Danger Perception LV 7] [High-Speed Swimming LV 7] [Overeating LV 8]
[Impact Resistance LV 6] [Heat Nullification] [Longevity LV 1] [Instantaneous LV 8]
[Persistent LV 9] [Herculean Strength LV 1] [Sturdy LV 1] [Technique User LV 4]
[Protection LV 4] [Running LV 5]
Skill Points: 11,250
Titles:
[Monster Slayer] [Monster Slaughterer] [Commander]
>
Something came out?!
It’s a wyrm.
It’s way more legit than the eel. A real, 100 percent genuine wyrm.
Judging by its skill set and such, it may be an even-further-evolved form of the eel.
You couldn’t even call this thing a fish. It’s a fire wyrm, plain and simple.
Aah, this is not good!
Imperial Scales is a superior version of Dragon Scales, with a much higher effect.
I didn’t care about its effect of interfering with magic construction and weakening magic’s power, but now it poses a big problem.
The eel’s Dragon Scales probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to dissolve my Height of Occultism–enhanced magic, but this fire wyrm’s Imperial Scales may just do the trick.
Plus the Hit / Probability Correction combo that gave me so much trouble when I fought the eel is still going strong.
Not to mention, now it even has Evasion.
And it’s fully loaded with fire-attribute attacks, my biggest weakness.
But the most dangerous thing of all might be its Cooperation and Leadership skills.
My Detection skill is alerting me about monsters popping out of the magma, one after the other.
Cooperation and Leadership have effects that absolutely live up to their names.
Cooperation improves the ability to work together, and Leadership makes subordinates follow commands.
They’re both skills you get with the title Leader, which is an extra layer of trickiness.
This title has the effect of slightly raising the subordinates’ stats.
I’m completely surrounded by a swarm of monsters.
And the fire wyrm is their boss.
I know I said I could beat an eel no problem, but no one told me something this strong was gonna show!
Body brain!
Yeah, let’s run for it!
Our decision is immediate. I don’t think I could even beat this freak one-on-one, never mind with a whole army of flunkies.
In that case, running is my only shot.
The footing here is bad—no, it’s the worst—but it’s still my best option.
I jump over to an island opposite the fire wyrm.
Immediately after making the move, Detection informs me the island I was standing on before has gone up in flames.
Oh, geez! I know it was tiny, but still, it got swallowed whole!
I don’t think I can escape across these things.
The fireballs that wyrm spits out are too huge and too powerful.
Even with my new and improved stats, if I get hit with one of those, there’ll be nothing left.
I land on the next island, then immediately leap toward the following.
But while I’m in the air, a bunch of sea horses pop out of the magma and pepper fireballs at me.
It’s like antiaircraft fire.
Countless projectiles fly in a beeline toward me with pinpoint accuracy, as if the sea horses had trained together for this moment.
I’ve seen sea horses in groups before but never working together like this. Thanks to the leadership of the fire wyrm, though, they’re attacking in perfect sync.
I feel like I’m fighting a whole army.
No sense holding anything back.
On top of Magic Warfare, I also invoke Mental Warfare.
Then I shoot an Energy Conferment–enhanced thread toward the ceiling, using it to escape to the ceiling before my modified silk catches fire.
Tons of fireballs pass by directly below me, almost grazing my feet.
But already, a much bigger fireball is zeroing in on my spot on the ceiling. It’s one of the fire wyrm’s.
I race along the ceiling and manage to avoid the missile.
When it connects, the fireball destroys a portion of the cavern, scattering flames and debris everywhere.
If that hit me in the air, even if I still had HP left, I’d plunge into the magma.
The sea horses put up another fusillade.
I avoid most of them and douse the rest with Poison Shot.
Poison Shot has some degree of physical attack power.
If it hits something flying through the air, it can cancel it out.
And since Poison Shot is a simple spell and I have Height of Occultism and a portion of my mind dedicated purely to magic, I can even use it rapid-fire.
Of course, I can’t produce them fast enough to counter every single fireball this army of sea horses chucks at me, but I can at least use it to offset the ones I can’t dodge.
Until a fireball that I can’t dispel comes barreling toward me.
A really, really humongous one.
And it’s from the direction I was headed.
I can’t avoid it on the ceiling, so I let myself fall, landing on a nearby island.
Immediately, a bright-red flower blooms on the ceiling.
I look forward.
That wasn’t the wyrm’s fireball.
Instead, my way forward is blocked by eels.
Not just one, but three.
I’m in checkmate.
Eels at the front gate. A fire wyrm at the rear.
If it were just one eel, I might be able to break through, but getting past a group of three will be virtually impossible.
So I turn back toward the fire wyrm, since there’s only one of those,
but it’s closing on me with its army of countless sea horses.
On top of that, it’s accompanied by a fourth eel.
This is bad.
The only way I can survive is by avoiding the enemies’ attacks and reducing their numbers.
Even small-fry like the sea horse can be big trouble in such large numbers.
I have to bring those numbers down if I want to stand a chance.
There’s nothing funny about being assailed by a wall of fireballs!
Right now, the only saving grace is that the fire wyrm’s leadership is actually too perfect.
Basically, the attacks aimed at me are a little too accurate.
There are so many of them that it would be a simple matter to carpet the whole area, leaving me with nowhere to go, but instead, they all target me directly.
As long as I have somewhere to run, I can avoid them.
I sprint off to the side, trying to break through the siege of the fire wyrm and the eels.
As I run, I activate magic.
Poison Magic level 6: Poison Fog.
As the name suggests, it’s a spell that generates a toxic cloud.
It’d be great if I had a spell that would directly attack a wide range in one shot, but this is the only weapon in my arsenal capable of affecting multiple enemies at once.
It’s not as strong as my Deadly Spider Poison, so it won’t drain their HP in an instant, but if they keep breathing it in, the poison will gradually eat away at them.
If I can just keep escaping, this fog should reduce their numbers significantly!
But of course things won’t be so easy.
Some of the sea horses come on land to block my path.
Grr, out of my way!
I swing my scythes toward the standing sea horses.
Each of the scythes bisects a sea horse to my left and the right.
That’s how strong my scythe attack has become with my improved stats.
Swinging my forelegs back, I cut down two more sea horses.
At the same time, I jump straight into the air!
A fireball smashes into the ground where I was standing less than a second ago.
The blast accelerates my body all the more, and I reach the ceiling without using any thread.
But the aftershock alone was enough to decrease my HP significantly.
Catching sight of an eel getting ready to unleash a fireball, I synthesize some Deadly Spider Poison half out of desperation.