by Mamare Touno
There was nothing to be gained from analyzing himself. Personalities were no more than reflexive reactions to circumstance. The mirror was warped, and there was a little individuality in the way it twisted—that was all.
Honestly, it was probably more profitable to pursue fun situations.
“That said, I haven’t exactly given up my desires, you know.”
“Is that right? That tart was delicious; did it not suit your preferences?”
After thinking for a second, Krusty spoke to the self-proclaimed beautiful girl, who’d stuck her snout out of the mouth of the bag. Hua Diao’s voice had been filled with sympathy, as if she pitied him from the bottom of her heart, and he continued the conversation in a calm, perfectly natural voice.
“It’s just that I like something different, that’s all.”
“What sort of foods do you like, Master Immortal?”
“Well…”
“Well?” Hua Diao prompted, brimming over with curiosity. They looked at each other. Her innocent eyes were like black pearls, and Krusty responded solemnly, “…Greedy little otters, grilled whole and served with fig sauce, perhaps?”
“Huh? Dweeeeeeeh?! D-Do—”
After a moment of stunned silence, a hysterical scream echoed off the rocks, where dawn was beginning to break. His prank had succeeded.
…Possibly too well.
“I don’t taste good, Master Immortal. D-don’t eaaaaaaat meeeeee!”
Hua Diao struggled, trying to jump out of the bag, and at the same time, with a big puff of smoke, she reverted to her girl form. On this slope of sharp rocks, where there wasn’t even a mountain trail, that seemed far too unsafe. Reflexively, Krusty caught her by the scruff of her neck, rescuing her, just as a transparent blade swung down on him.
6
He immediately raised his Fresh Blood Demon Ax, and it and the great crystal sword locked blades with a dissonant metallic clang. The two-handed sword had been moving fast enough as it fell, but the blond youth who wielded it was in light armor—it might not have had quite enough weight behind it to cut him down. Either that, or Krusty’s thick, full-body armor had absorbed the momentum as if it had put down roots.
In midair, their eyes met for a moment. Then the two shadows flew apart, getting some distance from each other. The attack had numbed Krusty’s right hand, and as if to check its condition, he rotated his enormous bardiche once, gazing at his enemy.
He was strong.
The attack he’d just taken had been quite enough to show him that.
He was probably outranked, too. The level on his status display was 100.
Elias Hackblade: the strongest character in Elder Tales. He was an Ancient hero who based his activity out of the Western European server. His own HP had already been at the halfway mark, and that one attack had taken it down even further. Guardians had excellent defense and durability, but even though it had only been a few percentage points, the damage was shocking. His opponent’s damage output was on the level of a raid boss’s normal attack.
“Finally. That’s more like it.”
Krusty smiled.
“Don’t waste your breath!”
The youth spit his words out sharply, then closed the distance between them in the space of a breath. Krusty evaded the blue-and-gold swordsman’s attack, but the man swung that transparent broadsword as they passed each other, and it tracked him. A stream of water flowed from its tip, closing in on Krusty, who’d twisted away, until it was right on top of him. Apparently, the range of that magic sword wasn’t what it appeared to be.
Krusty slammed the shaft of his two-handed ax into the stream, scattering it. Iron Bounce was a special support skill that reduced the force of an enemy attack. The damage he hadn’t been able to negate completely burst on the surface of his Einherjar’s Armor and dispersed.
Even so, the spray that got through left a shallow split in Krusty’s cheek, like a razor blade.
The blood trickled down his face, and when it reached the corner of his mouth, he tested it with the tip of his tongue. Instantly, a restless heat spread through him.
“Elias Hackblade.”
“I have no name to give to one such as you!”
This time he seemed to have used some sort of ability. Something that looked like wings made of water appeared from Elias’s shoulders. Naturally, they probably weren’t just for show. They had to have some sort of offensive ability.
I am being attacked by Elias Hackblade (present continuous tense).
He’s the Ancients’ greatest hero.
According to Elder Tales lore, he’s one of the good guys.
Why is he fighting an ordinary Adventurer?
Someone may be controlling him.
He might have had a violent personality to begin with.
He may have misinterpreted the facts.
I may actually be a force of evil.
No particular grounds for denying this.
What are his combat abilities?
Far greater than those of a level-90 Adventurer.
He doesn’t have the durability or speed of a raid boss.
His normal attacks have force equal to a raid boss.
Magical and physical attacks with a focus on water and cold air.
Is midrange his preferred fighting distance?
Check into this.
Find some way to deal with him—
A torrent powerful enough to gouge holes in rock pierced the spot where Krusty had been standing a moment ago. He’d read the attack and dodged it, but he was overflowing with an elation that made him feel as if his blood were boiling.
He didn’t know why an Ancient hero had attacked him.
There was a decent possibility that it was some sort of mistake, and that if he talked to him, they could avoid fighting.
However, before he knew it, rather than thinking of a way to avoid combat, he was sizing up his opponent’s combat abilities.
Where was the sense in avoiding combat anyway?
Hadn’t he left fairyland because he was bored?
In that case, this encounter, and this bout, were the best opportunity he could have asked for.
He didn’t have anything against the hero Elias, but crossing blades with that princely young man and crushing him seemed like a pretty interesting way to entertain himself.
If his life ran out on him in the process, that would be interesting, too.
“Master Immortaaal!”
“You hide for a little while, delicious otter. I’ll deal with you later.”
Knowing in a corner of his mind that what he was saying and doing was likely to be misconstrued, Krusty spoke to Hua Diao, who was poking her head out from the shadow of a boulder. He was aware that the corners of his lips were curving up. Apparently, he was smiling.
Clearly angry, Elias closed in again.
He was fast. He also launched a lot of blows. The watery wings that grew from his shoulders thrust out their ends like spear tips, targeting Krusty.
Guardians were characterized by their defensive abilities, not their evasive ones. Since the Catastrophe, it had been confirmed that active evasion efforts increased the possibility of successfully evading. However, with this armor covering him from head to toe, he wasn’t suited to acrobatic evasions. To acquire this steel defense, he’d traded away his potential for dodging.
Although that’s precisely what makes it fun.
Krusty swung his ax violently, then leapt backward, leaving himself behind.
He spread his mind out, thinly.
He’d activated Hyperion Eye, his Mystery.
From his subjective perspective, just now, Krusty had split into two people.
They were Berserker Krusty, who was crossing blades with Elias Hackblade’s ferocious attacks, repelling them, and actively slashing at him while wearing a ghastly smile; and Commander Krusty, who had no material body and was looking down at his other self from midair, making tactical decisions. The effect of the Hyperion Eye My
stery let you look down at yourself and your companions from midair.
Back when Elder Tales had been an MMO game, the screen had been the sort that gave you a view from above, the way this Mystery did. One of the reasons combat had become more difficult after the Catastrophe was that your perspective was anchored inside your own head, and grasping information had gotten harder. This Mystery could conquer that inconvenience.
Although it was convenient, it was drab compared to all the Mysteries other D.D.D. members had that Krusty knew of, and it had no decisive power. It made it easier to get a handle on the surrounding situation when he was commanding raids, but it didn’t increase damage, and it didn’t enhance defensive abilities. It also hadn’t put him within reach of a miracle he’d never imagined before.
It was an inconsequential Mystery.
“Wha—?!”
However, Krusty dodged the blade coming at him from his blind spot by twisting half a step. Elias’s aquatic support had attacked him soundlessly, but he’d evaded completely without so much as glancing at it.
He kept moving, changing the motion into an attack. The thick bardiche, as long as he was tall, writhed, wrapping around Krusty’s twisted body like a whip before slamming into Elias.
Krusty had activated one of the seven trajectories for Merciless Strike without going through its command, then linked it to Aggro Charge, intending to pry open the vulnerability he’d discovered by observing Elias from behind his back.
He had absolutely no leeway.
Viewed objectively, Krusty’s HP had been down to the halfway mark to begin with, and every single attack was as much of a gamble as Russian roulette. Even in this moment, although he’d avoided a direct hit, a trailing barrage of aquatic daggers was continuing to inflict small wounds on him. None of the attacks caused significant damage by themselves, but Krusty couldn’t hope for recovery, and he couldn’t afford to ignore them.
However, what welled up inside him was savage joy.
“You’re certainly strong, hero Elias!”
“That isn’t the sort of thing I want to hear from a stranger like you!”
The swordsman was incensed, and his attacks grew more severe.
However, Krusty was familiar with the hearts of blade-storms like this one; they were home to him, and he found them relaxing.
He didn’t hate slow-moving routines, but even so, fear ate away at him, rusting him little by little. This state of focus, in which he was gradually being driven into a corner and couldn’t afford to drop his guard for a moment, had ripped his gloom away like a scab.
His refreshed, sharpened senses drew him even further into his accelerating sense of time.
Krusty, who was neither truly good or truly evil, spun the roulette wheel of combat on the only compensation he could offer, using his own life as chips.
“Conquer! Crystal Stream!! Spirits of clear water, transform yourselves into a thousand blades and shine! Aqua Thousand Rain!!”
Elias had taken a step back and charged up. His energy swelled.
As he’d announced, thousands upon thousands of high-speed water missiles flew wildly, and Krusty slammed Onslaught into them. His bardiche, which shone bright crimson, was a phantasmal weapon. It was magic battle gear of the highest rarity—only a handful had been found on the Yamato server—and as such, it was equipped with powerful offensive capabilities and an HP absorption ability. At present, when Krusty was plagued by this curse, the absorption ability might as well have been sealed, but as though to dispel that gloom, the weapon scattered shock waves around. In this head-on collision between two huge techniques, the surrounding rocks crumbled and were washed away.
However, it wasn’t enough.
Krusty’s HP was falling. He didn’t have even 30 percent left.
In contrast, Elias still had over 70.
Even with Hyperion Eye, he couldn’t completely evade all range attacks. If Elias had been a close-range physical-attack type, he would have been able to fight with a slight advantage, but unfortunately, the Ancient was a midrange fighter, and he seemed to be a combined physical- and magical-attack class. Not only that, but he even had support magic and simplified recovery spells. If the fight went on this way, he wouldn’t be able to avoid defeat.
In a corner of his mind, he thought he heard a small, dark murmur say, That wouldn’t be so bad, but he also felt as if it would be irritating to go along with it.
Krusty genuinely thought he wouldn’t mind losing, but that wasn’t the same as being okay with not winning.
I can’t win.
Find a way to break out of the situation.
My combat abilities aren’t enough.
Then boost them.
More than half unconsciously, Krusty released a part of himself. As he visualized pale, sparkling, iridescent light, he felt a connection form, passing through an extremely tiny gate that had opened inside of him. Drifting in the sea that lay beyond it were countless delicate treasures, gleaming with all the colors of the rainbow: someone’s recollections in liquid form.
Krusty’s lips curved into a smile.
There were plenty of memories he could offer. Right now, more than that, he needed enough energy to fight the man in front of him.
It was a kind of sacrament. Recollections were memories, and at the same time, they were the yang component of the spirit energy that people were made of. In other words, they were the MP that supported Adventurer combat abilities, and the Empathiom that formed all of creation. A primordial energy that carried thoughts, transmitting them through the vacuum.
The radiance that flooded Krusty rapidly recovered his MP, and once the vessel was filled with the primitive violence it had had before being reduced to a spell, it accelerated his Recast Time.
“That power… Where did you—?!” Elias shouted, his eyes wide with astonishment. But Krusty didn’t hesitate.
With the yell of War Cry, he closed the distance between them in a rush. He was converting a charging weight of more than a hundred kilograms into the destructive power of Scarlet Thrust.
MP brimmed over, dripping from his ax.
The red light of magic eroded the area, as if he’d scattered fresh blood around.
In the distance, he felt as if he could hear the sound of the surf, very faintly.
In the midst of the countless indescribable images he’d seen in the moment he was flung from the Mountains of Ouu to the Zhongyuan server, Krusty had definitely come to understand something. At this point, he’d lost it, but not all of it. Krusty knew with certainty that this technique, the Mystery that pulled rainbow light out of the void, was a clue from the opposite direction as his lost memories.
The clear realization, like gears meshing, roused delight in his mind.
It felt as if the peaceful days since he’d come to this land, during which everything had been stagnant, were being ripped apart, and he’d finally found his own path to walk.
Krusty’s attack closed the gap between them, slicing through two—no, three—streams of water as tough as steel before finally locking blades with Elias’s fairy sword. Both weapons had been reinforced with mana, and they bit into each other, trying to tear each other apart with a harsh metallic screech.
Even if his level was lower than Elias the Blademancer, a magic swordsman, Krusty was a Guardian, a pure physical vanguard class. That might have meant that his arm strength was greater: Little by little, as they locked sword hilts, pushing at each other, Krusty was winning the contest.
He wasn’t aware of it, but the corners of his mouth had turned up, and he was wearing a fiendish smile. It was the smile of a hunting dog that had spotted its goal. In the midst of this fight with Elias, Krusty had found the enemy’s tail.
However, their contest of strength came to an abrupt end.
Both parties had an overabundance of mana, and the ground itself couldn’t take it.
There was a momentary floating sensation, as if the ground had vanished, and then Krusty and Elias found them
selves in the center of a collapsed basin in the mountainside. They tried to jump out, but the ground they needed to use as footholds was beginning to crumble. There was something they’d both forgotten: This mountain held Sirius Grotto, a large-scale complex of countless limestone caves.
1
When they entered the cavern, the harsh cold lost its edge, and relief rushed through Leonard’s group.
“Huhn. It’s warmer in here than I thought it would be.”
“From what I’m told, the temperature in limestone caverns doesn’t fluctuate that much throughout the year,” Chun Lu answered.
Apparently, temperatures underground were more stable than temperatures on the surface. That wasn’t because they were in Theldesia; it worked the same way on Earth.
The interior of Sirius Grotto was lit by the pale glow of Coppélia’s Bug Light spell. It was several dozen meters wide, and the ceiling was even higher than that. They were just inside the entrance, but already the space was vast.
“Bweeg?!”
With a cry, Kanami abruptly dropped into a stance that would have turned into the splits if she’d fallen much farther, then managed to hold the position, trembling.
“Master. The footing is slippery.”
“I’m well aware of that!”
No doubt she was: She’d almost fallen just then. Thinking that the fact that she’d managed to tough it out in a stance as unnatural as that one was just what you’d expect from a Monk, Leonardo shrugged and went on ahead. Thanks to the rubber boots he was wearing, he didn’t feel like he was in the slightest danger of slipping.
“Still, this place is pretty damp.”
As he walked over slippery stone, Leonardo looked around restlessly. The space itself was several dozen meters wide, but the majority of it was taken up by a stream of water. He’d tried thinking of it as a passage, but it would have been more accurate to say it was an eroded, walkable area beside a river that flowed through a great subterranean cavern.
Not being a local, Leonardo had no way of knowing whether the dungeon had been designed that way, or if it had ended up like this after the Catastrophe. Either way, it was a sight that made you aware of the threat of nature.