Chapter I: Interdimensional Networking
There was a great plain to the north of Brunhild castle.
The entire area was covered with a barrier that barred entry to anyone but authorized personnel. It was also enchanted with the same kind of stealth field that surrounded Babylon.
This plain was largely used for testing out Frame Gears, as well as any new inventions or modifications designed by Doctor Babylon. And it just so happened that on this day, one of those tests was ongoing.
“It’s surprisingly swift.”
“Gollems are machines, so it’s obvious they’d be receptive.”
“It isn’t operated manually, so it’s actually a good bit faster than regular Frame Gears in terms of response time.”
Doctor Babylon, along with Elluka, answered my remark as we watched the giant machine running around. The thing before us was an enormous, black, lion-shaped robot. There was a hefty, almost see-through sphere embedded in its chest. It also had various phrasium attachments on its body, that glimmered as they reflected the sun. There were also golden lines of metal that ran across the mech’s structure.
In terms of scale... if a Frame Gear was the size of a human, then this thing would be the size of an actual lion in comparison.
It was the Gollem-enhancing mech that Elluka and Babylon had co-operated on developing. It was called the Over Gear.
The crystal sphere on the chest contained a cockpit, known as the Core Frame. The Gollem would act as the core and situate itself in there alongside its master.
The Over Gear synchronized with the Gollem inside it to bring out stronger versions of what the Gollem could already do. It was basically like a large powered suit that amplified the existing power within the Gollem.
A good question would be why it wasn’t humanoid. I certainly wondered the same.
I asked the two of them, and they just responded with, “We wanted to make something freaky.”
In other words, those two dumbasses just followed their own whims.
The black lion kicked off the ground and leaped up into the air. I was pretty amazed by the power in its legs. It ran around full-pelt, suddenly stopping and starting itself back up as it pleased. It was incredibly versatile... It definitely had more movement potential than a regular Frame Gear.
“Is it using a Gollem skill right now?”
“No, right now that function is disabled, since it’s still a bit unstable. What you’re seeing right now is purely the base functionality of the Leo Noir.”
In terms of equipment, it only had crystal claws and fangs... But it looked like it could definitely fight multiple Intermediate Constructs with ease. I didn’t think it could solo an Upper Construct, though.
“Hm... It might be interesting if we could have it transform into a humanoid mode...”
“The Core Frame is built all around the middle piece anyway, right? It’d just be a case of swapping out parts, though that’s not quite transforming.” As the two women spoke, the Leo Noir suddenly stopped moving. It lay down on its belly and turned off, after which a young girl and a little black robot emerged from the core in the middle. It was Elluka’s younger sister, Norn, along with her Gollem, Noir.
I walked over towards Norn to ask her how she liked it.
“Your movements were pretty solid back there. How was the ride?”
I was met with silence. She didn’t react at all. I wondered what was up. Norn looked up at me, her eyes were wiggling around in her head. She was staring like a dead fish. She slowly wobbled towards me unsteadily and grabbed me by the coat.
“...Blurgh...”
“Huh?”
■Please Stand By■
“...Hmm, seems like we didn’t nail the shock absorption.”
“Yeah, looks like the cockpit shook around more than we thought. We’ll need to tweak it to a higher level than the Frame Gear’s standard settings, I guess.”
“Hey, assholes! Quit jabbering and help us out!” I yelled over at Babylon and Elluka, who seemed to have a clinical reaction to the sudden outburst of vomit all over my pants. Norn, who was now prone on the ground and covered in the contents of her own stomach, glared weakly over at the duo.
“I-I can’t control it... It’s too powerful... I just wanted to make it run a little, and that happened...”
Norn stayed flat on the ground as she quietly muttered those words. I could relate a bit to that. When I first cast [Accel], it was way too intense... Either way, this meant the sleek display I’d just seen from Leo Noir was completely unintentional on Norn’s part.
She was almost like a newbie in a fighting game, just button-mashing and hoping for the best...
“It shook so much... It... It shook so much...”
“Shhh... There, there...” Noir softly patted at Norn’s puke-caked hair.
“Seems like the first test was a success, at any rate. The only real issue is, we can’t really mass-produce the Over Gears.”
“Really? Why not?”
I butted in when I heard the Doctor say that. What do you mean you can’t mass-produce this thing? Did you make it specifically for Norn and Noir, like the Valkyrie Gears?
“It’s a no-go. Each Over Gear needs to be attuned to the specific Gollem it’s made for. They’re basically all personal mechs.”
“So wait, if Nia’s Blood Rouge got into Leo Noir, it wouldn’t be able to do anything?”
“That’s right. Any other Gollem aside from Noir won’t even be able to boot up the Leo Noir. Frame Gears can be used by different people, but that’s not the case here. The Over Gear is powered through its connection with its assigned Gollem, so only the Gollem and its master can make use of it.”
That made sense. Gollems were all uniquely connected to their masters, after all.
“Even Soldats are only connected to one Gollem master. It’d be pointless to have one person who could control multiple Over Gears, anyway. Not to mention the fact that only legacy Gollems can connect to the Over Gears, so it’s basically pointless to mass-produce them.”
We’d still want to produce a lot of them, but it seemed like each one would have to be custom-made.
According to the two geniuses, the Core Frame was the only part that needed to be custom-built, and the other parts could be swapped freely. So for example, if we finished the Core Frame for Nia’s Over Gear, we could just snap the limb parts from Norn’s Over Gear, and it would work.
“Still, we can’t defeat the mutants without them, so we’ll need to hurry.”
“Yes, yes... We’ll continue to make improvements. I’m sure we’ll be able to make a mass-produced variation eventually. Though I doubt it’ll be as powerful or impressive.”
It always came down to either quantity or quality, but we needed a decent amount of both! It was a tricky situation.
It wasn’t like the enemy was going to wait for us to get everything right, either.
On the way back to the castle, I swung by the training field. Moroha was putting them through the grinder, as per usual. But from what I’d seen, they’d at least gotten used to it at this point.
“Touya, you’ve come at the right time.”
“Oh?”
As I watched the knights, Hilde walked over and greeted me. Her breathing was still a little ragged, since she’d been training herself. I opened up [Storage] and pulled out a towel and bottle of water for her.
“Thank you. I was actually just on the phone with my brother, and he was wondering if the Lestian knight order could have a joint training session with ours.”
“Reinhard was asking about that?”
Hmm... A joint training session
with the knightly elite of Lestia? Sounds fun.
Hilde suddenly smiled a little awkwardly and continued talking.
“I think he’s just saying that for the sake of appearances... I think he actually wants to fight against Moroha and receive some more training from her.”
That made more sense. Last time Reinhard was in Brunhild, he had a quick duel with Hilde and ended up losing to her. His pride was probably damaged as a result.
Given that Reinhard also had the job of governing a country, it would make sense that Hilde would slowly overtake him in swordplay. Not to mention the fact that Hilde was a beneficiary of my divinity, which was already propelling her past regular humanity.
But still, the idea of a joint training session was appealing. I had recently bothered the former knight king, Galen, by making him judge some newbie adventurers, so this was probably a good way to make it up to them.
I pulled out my smartphone and looked up Reinhard in my contacts.
“Yeah, it’s about what you said to Hilde earlier. Yes. Yeah. Uh... wait, now? You wanna do it right now?!”
I didn’t mind, I just thought he was being a little too eager. Still, the guy was probably dead set on his goal, so I wasn’t about to get between him and it.
I opened up a [Gate] to Lestia, and almost immediately, King Reinhard filed through with several elite Lestian knights.
The king of Lestia was technically the commander of the knight order over there, but they did have a proper sub-commander in place for when he was busy.
“Thanks for the invitation.”
“Thank you for obliging.”
The commander of the Lestian forces was exchanging a greeting with Lain, our commander.
The man’s name was Franz Icemann. He was over forty years old, and his hair was clearly greying all over the place. He had a small mustache as well, giving off the full image of a refined gentleman.
It seemed he was a friend of the former king, and somewhat of a mentor to the current king. He was considered a swordmaster in Lestia, and had been personally trained by Galen a long time ago. The man seemed very serious and studious man, so I was glad he didn’t take after Galen.
Typically, in joint training sessions, the commanders didn’t participate.
After all, if a commander lost in a battle against the commander from another nation, it would look extremely bad. If Lain lost to him, we’d definitely be looked down on.
That was how it usually went, at least... But apparently, the first one out to fight was the goddamn king of the country.
The first match got off to a flying start. It was Moroha and Reinhard, and their blades were clashing every other second. The knights gathered around and watched in awe.
...Awe at how brutally Reinhard was getting his ass handed to him, at least.
“...You could at least hold back a bit.”
I sighed quietly and pinched the bridge of my nose. Moroha was seriously dense. I was just glad that, even though they were watching a foreign king get beaten severely, all of my knights had the social awareness not to laugh.
They all understood how scary Moroha was, anyway... They probably felt bad for Reinhard.
Technically, Moroha wasn’t part of our knight order, so I could probably explain this away somehow... She was only here in an advisory capacity!
...Wait. If she’s not a member of our order, then why the hell is she even participating in the joint training exercise?!
Reinhard took another heavy blow and got blasted out of the arena. It was hard to watch.
“Lady Moroha is truly a monster. It’s incredible. My heart races just looking at her brutalize him...”
“A-Ah... W-Well, please forgive us... I’m sorry about my sister, she’s a little extreme...”
I winced a little at Franz’s commentary. Moroha really had to learn to read the mood... Sending a foreign king flying away like that could spark a war in some cases...
“No, no. It’s not a bother at all. Our king certainly seems to be happy. Seeing such a terrifying wall before him makes me certain that he’ll keep on striving to fight harder and faster.”
I understood his logic. I’d certainly grown in strength since I’d arrived in this world, and that was through overcoming hardships. I still wasn’t nearly on Moroha’s level, though.
I couldn’t afford to become complacent, since I was surrounded by gods. The moment I started getting all cocky, they’d put me in my place...
“We’ve recently added magic beast combat to our training schedule. It isn’t seeing much success, though... Capturing the beasts and bringing them back is proving difficult, so we’re considering just going out and training in the wild.”
“Brunhild doesn’t have much in the way of magical beasts, either. Our knights aren’t really experienced at fighting them. There should be plenty of strong ones on the dungeon islands, though...”
Lestia had a massive amount of knights. After all, it was the knight kingdom. Many of them were assigned to protect towns, so they needed to know how to deal with unusual threats like magical beasts.
Often, the knight order would collaborate with the guild in order to hunt down magical beasts. That was even a way for adventurers to get their foot in the door in terms of joining knight orders. Galen, who ended up becoming the king over there, started off as an adventurer as well.
There was certainly no harm in trying out some combat training against monsters, though.
“Hm... I’ll go find some random monsters and bring them back, then. Should be fine if I focus on ones we can eat afterward.”
“What?” I left behind the bewildered Franz and opened up a [Gate] to fetch some beasties for the knights to try their hands against.
“You need to aim for the joints or your swords won’t do anything... Don’t just stand in front of it, it’s gonna blow out bubbles. They’ll melt your skin if they touch you!”
I clicked my tongue as I yelled advice to the swarming knights. Both the knights from Brunhild and Lestia were fighting against a massive red-shelled Bloody Crab. Obviously, I had forbidden the Brunhild knights from using their phrasium blades, since that would’ve basically been cheating.
By guild standards, the Bloody Crab was a red target, the same tier as a Lesser Dragon. This particular magic beast was actually found in Lestia now and then, too.
That being said, this specimen was a little larger than usual... It could’ve even been considered a silver foe.
“It’s a bit big, isn’t it...?” Hilde muttered to herself as the Bloody Crab scuttled after the knights. She was right, it was.
“I’m just guessing here, but it might be turning into a Behemoth... If we’d left it a couple more years, we might’ve had to kill it with Frame Gears.” I shrugged and gave my hypothesis as I cast Healing magic on a knight who almost had his arm snipped off. The knight rose to his feet and promptly charged back toward the monster.
There were around twenty men in total fighting it, and they had ample support from my healing. It had nowhere to run, so they could probably kill it.
“Hm... It’s quite easy to see its movements from the side. See how its forelegs clench together before it shoots its bubble?”
“You’re right. Also, it seems to shuffle slightly after swinging its pincers. Its follow-ups are quite well telegraphed.” Reinhard and Franz were looking at the crab from the side. They were being pretty smart. Observation was the best way to deal with an enemy. You could build a strategy around how it attacks. Human or magic beast, all things could be analyzed that way.
“You should’ve brought in a cyclops or something to make it more interesting.”
“No thanks... Why would I bring in a giant? That’s the kind of thing I’d reserve for Frame Gears.”
Moroha, who was still being casual and blunt, made a stupid comment. Cyclopes were magical beasts around the same size as golems. They tended to be smaller than Frame Gears, but they could vary in size.
“They could deal with one wit
hout a Frame Gear, I’m sure. You just need to find the best way to kill it. It would probably help their training, in all honesty. Finding out your opponent’s weakness and targeting it is a vital part of battle. Knowing which weapons are the best and exactly when and where to strike are the best ways to get better. You need to know how to bring out the best in you and your allies and move without overexerting yourself. If you do all that, the fight would be easy.” Easier said than done...
I sighed at Moroha’s nonchalant talk, then turned and noticed the knights had weakened the Bloody Crab considerably. They all charged in. Their spears pierced the leg joints, while axes cleaved the front pincers off. After that, a small group of knights pierced their swords through its underside, sending the Bloody Crab crashing to the ground.
“Woohoo!”
“W-We actually did it...”
“Hell yeah!”
The knights from Brunhild and Lestia all celebrated in their own ways, cheering out in joy with each other. A few were wounded, but I patched them up right away. Then, I used [Refresh] to restore everyone’s stamina.
“That’s it for the training session, then.”
“Seems so.”
I nodded to Hilde and opened up [Storage], producing a massive cooking pot. Then, I used Earth magic to create a basic stove in the ground and added some water to the pot with magic and lit the stove.
I took out a table and lined up a few snacks on it, then poured some miso into the pot as a base stock.
“Alright fellas, we’re having Bloody Crab hotpot tonight!”
“Yeaaah!”
The knights all took up their swords and started slicing up the Bloody Crab.
I threw the cut-up pieces into the big pot along with some tofu, veggies, mushrooms, and assorted meats. Slowly, but surely, it began to smell even better as it boiled. Everyone happily ate their portions for dinner, and they smiled in delight. I wasn’t too surprised they were happy, since they’d all worked hard to hunt this meal themselves.
As I was idly thinking about how much tastier this magical beast was than regular crabs, my smartphone began to vibrate.
“Oh, it’s Silhouette.”
Silhouette was the leader of a series of brothels in the Reverse World, as well as the boss of the Black Cats, an intelligence-gathering organization. She usually forwarded information to me from the other world, but it was unusual for her to call me. I was a little worried.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 17 Page 1