We have been back and forth to the [Crimson Cavern] for about three weeks now ever since our first visit there.
Today was no exception.
Tenko was sprinting inside the cave. She found an enemy.
The target this time was a red falcon gliding in the sky.
Of course, it was no ordinary falcon. It was a C rank monster, the Fire-eater bird.
It was going to swoop in from high above, using its sharp beak and talons to attack.
Although it’s what one might call a narrow cave, the falcon flew while it skillfully maneuvered itself.
Catching the Fire-eater bird would have probably been a difficult task. But not for Tenko.
“Give up!”
She fired her shotgun, a Remilton M870P.
She was properly making use of the two kinds of bullets. The one she fired this time was a shotsh.e.l.l.
It was a kind of bullet that bursts out after it was fired from the boorish gun.
And so, the shotsh.e.l.l scattered in a wide arc and the red falcon flying at a high speed in the air was easily hit. The red falcon was. .h.i.t in the wing and came crashing down.
Following it up, Tenko charged. She slid the pump along the gun’s barrel, agilely loading the next bullet. Her shotgun was loaded with alternating rounds of shotsh.e.l.ls and slugs and the next to be fired was, of course, the ultra-high powered slug sh.e.l.l.
She hit the enemy in the torso and made the red falcon’s body scatter.
“How was it, Oto-san? Did you see!?”
She turned around in glee.
“Yeah, I saw it clearly. You were amazing, Tenko.”
“Yay! ♪”
Her fox tail was swinging.
She liked hunting and goes into a good mood whenever she moved her body.
As of late, I had deployed just a few Skeletons whose duty was only to guard our backs. I then left all the enemies ahead to Tenko. I have done so because it was a waste to share experience points to the Skeletons who have already reached their maximum level. Their maximum level if made to be able to grow, by the way, was 20.
Besides all that, I just wanted to let Tenko do whatever pleased her.
“Let’s head back little by little.”
“Alright, Oto-san.”
Fatigue would hinder our judgment so it was better to not to exhaust ourselves and save some strength for the way back.
Hunting each day made Tenko’s level rise to 30 while I was a bit behind at 29.
From around the time she reached level 30, her level up progression was almost unmoving. According to Succubus, high ranking monsters had a harder time to go up in levels. Our levels would probably not move much after this if we only fought C rank monsters as our enemies.
“Oto-san, may we eat something delicious after we got back?”
“Leave it to me.”
My level has increased and so did my MP. It rose to 3450 so I had some leeway on my MP usage. That leeway mostly consisted of fulfilling Tenko’s wishes though.
Today, I’ll fully restore her spirits.
“It’s finally tomorrow, huh.”
“What is it, Oto-san? Why are you grinning?”
“Tenko will soon have a little brother or sister.”
Medals could only be made once a month and the privilege to make one would finally return to me tomorrow.
“Tenko’s… little brother or sister?”
“Yes. I’ll create it using my [Creation] medal, the [Earth] medal I got from Marcho, and then an imitation medal. The new monster will be another S rank monster like Tenko.”
“……S rank.”
I recalled what Marcho told me. If both the medals used were A rank medals, there was a 1/3 chance to have a B rank monster and a 2/3 chance to have an A rank monster.
And if A rank and B rank medals were used, there was a 2/3 chance to create a B rank monster and a 1/3 chance to have an A rank monster.
Now, if my A rank Creation medal was then added, it’s alright to think that the results would go up by an entire rank.
In other words, if I used my medal with the A rank [Earth] original medal and a B rank imitation of either [Beast], [Person], or [Flame], there was a possibility that an S rank monster would be born.
And a possibility was all I needed.
My [Creation] medal states that: 『It allows the maker to choose the desired outcome out of the myriads of possible outcomes』.
In short, an S rank was pretty much guaranteed.
Although, if the imitation medal wasn’t an imitation of an A rank medal, the possibility of creating an S rank monster wouldn’t exist in the first place.
……But this was something I only knew by intuition.
S rank was the highest rank. All the monsters that can no longer be sorted as an A rank were all together at S rank. By that definition, each S rank monster would not be the same as the others in terms of their capabilities.
S rank monsters as high-end as Tenko probably couldn’t be made if even a single imitation medal was mixed in during fusion.
“Aren’t you happy about having a little brother or sister?”
Tenko looked depressed.
“Oto-san.”
She tightly gripped my sleeve.
“What’s wrong, Tenko?”
“If the new monster is stronger than Tenko, will Oto-san not need Tenko anymore?”
Tenko had anxiety all over face and looked at my own with her upturned eyes.
Some tears were threatening to fall.
How silly, there was no need for such worries.
“I promise. I absolutely won’t do that. I love Tenko, after all. Even if the new monster is stronger than you, I will always need you.”
I embraced her and patted her head. And as I did so, she leaned over me.
Tenko might be a cunning, clever, and calculating child but she was also a lonely one.
And an extraordinarily spoilt child too.
“Yay ♪! It’s a promise, Oto-san!”
She raised her head up and called for attention.
“Yeah, I know, I promise.”
Just like that, Tenko kissed my cheek.
“Tenko!?”
“It’s a promise kiss. Oto-san has to absolutely, definitely keep his promise.”
Maybe it’s because she herself was embarra.s.sed but her face reddened and separated away from me. She then trotted towards the transfer array that Succubus was preparing.
◇
After we returned to our house in Marcho’s Dungeon, the two of us, Tenko and I, had a meal.
The Skeletons were stored away. There wasn’t enough s.p.a.ce for them here.
It was a little bit awkward. She was still feeling shy about the kiss earlier.
I used [Creation] to make her favorite food, the steak, but she still ate her meal slowly.
While I thought that, she opened her mouth.
“Oto-san, what kind of monster will you make this time?”
Her voice trembled for a bit.
It was probably her desperate attempt to break the ice.
“Oh, yeah. I initially thought of making a higher ranking undead type monster.”
Training the Skeletons consumed a lot of effort.
If I was able to call forth a high-ranking monster with high intelligence and could also command the Skeletons at will, I would then be able to train the Skeletons in an easier and not to mention more efficient manner than what I was doing currently.
“You talk like you’re not going to anymore.”
“Yeah. After all, the [Earth] medal is the only original medal I have right now. I won’t seem to have great options if we factor in the attributes that imitation medals and my [Creation] would add.”
[Earth] and the undead didn’t have a poor compatibility but that didn’t mean they were perfectly compatible neither.
If that was the case, I thought it would then be better for me to wait for a more compatible medal.
“I see but then, what will you make? It’s going to be Tenko’s little sister or brother so it should be cute.”
Tenko chimed in.
Her awkwardness was gradually going away. It was great.
“I think I’ll make a dwarf that can do some smithing. [Earth] and dwarves have excellent compatibility. Also, I’ll use an imitation of [Person]. Finally, I’ll transform [Creation] to [Alchemy].”
I had heard of the existence of [Alchemy] from Marcho. She was teaching me as much as she could about medals that seemed useful. Her lessons would certainly be used as guidelines on what kind of monster I’ll make.
I intended to summon the highest-ranking dwarf using [Earth], [Person], and [Alchemy].
“Why a dwarf? They’re not that strong.”
“Well, they’re not really for battle. I plan to use them for their smithing abilities.”
“But aren’t Oto-san’s weapons strong enough?”
“Yeah, they are but don’t you want to see them be even more powerful? Let’s take your shotgun, the Remilton M870P, as an example. If we increase the amount of powder and also increase the size of the bullets, its attack power will jump up.”
“Woah, that’s fantastic! Tenko wants that shotgun!”
Tenko’s eyes sparkled as she imagined it as a new toy to play with.
I smiled wryly at that.
“For a shotgun like Tenko’s, the size of the bullet is measured by gauge. The smaller the number of the gauge, the larger the caliber becomes. The power of the gun will increase too. The standard for the Remilton M870P is a 12 gauge sh.e.l.l. However, sh.e.l.ls range from 4 gauge up to 24 gauge. The power of a 4 gauge and a 12 gauge differ by about three times. But, regrettably, the Remilton M870 only uses 12 gauge and there aren’t any shotguns in my memory that uses the 4 gauge sh.e.l.ls.”
4 gauge sh.e.l.ls were considerably unique sh.e.l.ls. A 12 gauge was 18.1mm in diameters but a 4 gauge sh.e.l.l measured 25.2mm, roughly 1.5 times larger in size.
Even bears and sea lions were not a match for 10 gauge sh.e.l.ls and 4 gauges were really only used when going against something like a tank.
“That’s disappointing. I want to shoot the triple powered 4 gauge.”
“Tenko might be disappointed but it’s only natural for something like that to not exist in my memory. Their recoils were too strong that they were not practical. No person could use it.”
“It’s no problem for Tenko. Tenko’s strong!”
What Tenko said was true.
The physical strength of monsters might just be able to handle a 4 gauge shotgun.
“It might not be a problem for Tenko but the gun itself may not be able to bear it.”
4 gauge shotguns were used in an era when black powder was the main component whereas modern day shotguns employed smokeless powder.
Smokeless powder delivered more power than black powder so a gun that could endure being used with 4 gauge sh.e.l.ls made of smokeless powder probably didn’t exist.
“Guns have no guts at all. I wish they’d work harder.”
She puffed her cheeks and uttered such absurd things.
I couldn’t understand what she’s feeling.
“Another thing, there aren’t any 4 gauge sh.e.l.ls in my memory to begin with so I can’t make any with my [Creation].”
I can’t make any so of course there wasn’t any of it.
“Oto-san’s mean. Now I’m not excited anymore.”
“Don’t give up so quickly… I only said that I can’t make any using [Creation]. If by chance we have a remarkable blacksmith, they will be able to disa.s.semble the gun I made using [Creation], examine its construction, make a 4 gauge sh.e.l.l, and reconstruct a shotgun which can use the said 4 gauge sh.e.l.ls. Furthermore, there are magic metals in this world. If a bullet was made using these magic metals, the bullet alone would increase the weapon’s power. And if we made the gun using magic metals, it just might be able to endure firing 4gauge sh.e.l.ls.”
That much was my goal; to improve our weapons.
Moreover, if I may be so greedy, I wished for a ma.s.s production of weapons that didn’t rely on my [Creation].
I was aware of the performance of the Skeletons through our daily level up battles and I aim to push them beyond that.
“I get it. A dwarf really was most suited! They’ll make Tenko’s shotgun even more amazing!!”
Tenko was hyped up, suddenly straightening her fluffy fox tail.
It looked like someone excited about her new favorite toy.
Well, I was the same.
My thoughts went from our new companion, the dwarf, to the new weapons it would create.
The author, Tsukiyo Rui-sensei, wants to take this opportunity to promote the release of the first volume of her other work, お菓子職人の成り上がり～天才パティシエの領地経営～ (Upstart Pastry Chef ~The territory management of a Genius Pâtissier). It will launch on the 30th of October (although futabasha states it will be available on the 29th).
The synopsis say that it’s about a genius pastry chef reincarnated into a n.o.ble albeit of low n.o.bility. And after some twists, becomes the ruling lord of an area. And so, he want to build up his territory while also fulfilling his previous life’s dream of becoming the best pastry chef.