That character that everyone has been waiting for, HE finally appears.
Year 7444, Month 1, Day 1
I somehow managed to return to the town of Baldukk in time for dinner. I had a slightly extravagant New Year"s dinner(it"s just that the ingredients were slightly higher quality) with everyone and then returned to the inn. I was invited by Toris and the others to go drinking but there"s something I have to do alone in my room for a bit.
It doesn"t even need to be said, trying to release the {Report} spell cast on me. It"s a spell that"s supposedly G.o.d-level extra high difficulty to use in addition to taking an ultra amount of mana, but you know~ even my mana is G.o.d cla.s.s. Probably though. I sit down on the chair in my room and grab my head with both of my hands. Right, in order to deploy an {Anti-Magic Field} on my head. The amount of mana I"m putting into it is all of it remaining except 5 MP. Since I have 7,063 MP remaining right now I"ll use 7,058 (I only recover 12 MP per hour from natural recover after all, I used a reasonable amount of MP in the combat on my way back. The amount of MP required to use the spell {Anti-Magic Field} multiplies in 5s with an addition of 3 so if I were to use it all my MP would hit 0).
Since I just ate and it"s just a matter of getting tired enough to go to sleep so I thought of using all of my MP as well but I want to avoid being unable to endure it and attacking a woman walking down the street. And right now as long as my MP doesn"t hit 0 I"m safe inside of the inn so it"s fine if I just sleep after.
I calm heart and start kneading mana. I normally use {Anti-Magic Field} quite a bit but the amount of MP I put into it is at most a few hundred. The last time I used this much all at once was when I was still small and devoted to increasing my MP. Even then I"ve only used {Anti-Magic Field} while trying to precisely control the MP used in it about five times so it would probably be best to resolve for it to take about 10 minutes to properly activate.
.............
.........
....
Alright!
I take the {Anti-Magic Field} I deployed and while remaining focused on the spell {Report} cast on me I aim it towards me head.
..This should be fine. I"m probably already fine. The only thing remaining in between my hands right now should be the MP remaining from the remnants of the {Anti-Magic Field}. If I Identify my glowing hands then I can tell exactly how much MP was used on that spell {Report} by subtracting it from the MP remaining. I should have 5 MP remaining. If I use Identify it will turn to 4 but it should be fine. Since I"m interested I"ll try Identifying it.
Eh!?
My hand isn"t shining!
I can only think of one possibility.
It perforated through my {Anti-Magic Field} that was using 7,058 MP, in other words over 7,055 MP was used on the spell {Report}, is what it means. Since I"ve used {Anti-Magic Field} a lot since the past against my brother and sister I"ve completely gotten a grasp on it"s characteristics. The bare minimum uses 1 MP in earth, water, fire, wind, and 4 in void for a total of 8 MP. With this you can erase any spell that uses up to 5 MP. I just said it but after that if you add 1 MP for all magics after that (in other words, 5 MP each) you can increase the aggregate amount of MP erased with just that. If it"s the {Anti-Magic Field} I just used then it should be able to erase a spell that uses up to 7,055 MP.
I just stared at the palms of my hands in a daze but I"ve gradually started to feel like laughing.
"kukkukku"
I don"t know if it"s a {G.o.d} or a {Demi-G.o.d} but the world is a vast place.
"Ufufuffufu"
With just 7,055 MP.
"Heeeee e e e"
I guess it"s the frog in the well doesn"t know the ocean.
"Ahhaahahahah"
There"s someone that would use this type of spell which you never know when it would come in handy after countless years of checking. It"s truly a G.o.d, this is. If I try to calmly think about it, it"s not something man could manage. I already knew more than well enough that the beings called G.o.ds existed but once again I can"t help but think they"re amazing. Simultaneously I feel some sort of pitch black emotion rising up that is difficult to control but I decided forcibly push it back down.
Well if it thought of me as something harmful and intended to remove me then if it can use this much mana then shouldn"t it already have been able to do it, rather, I"m sure with just a single fingertip something like me would be turned to ash. Since that hasn"t been done to me until now, I guess it means that it"s accepted my actions. No, it"s also possible that it"s just observing me. Either way I"m sure it doesn"t see me as a threat and most likely doesn"t have any intention of killing me as well. I don"t know if it was able to tell that I just tried to remove the {Report} (Since it seems that it can only look in on my memories when my conscious is decreased {Report}) but in the case it does know, I wonder what will happen to me?
I tried thinking about it a bit but I thought that it wouldn"t particularly do anything. In my past life around when I was an elementary schooler in the 1970s. I kept a beetle inside of a fish tank, I took care of and observed it everyday. I kept some crayfish as well. I"ve gotten hurt from being pinched by both of them. However, both the crayfish and the beetle were existences that were far for me to consider them a threat. Even if the crayfish and beetle I was keeping were to have the ability to think, and think that the fact that they"re made into pets isn"t amusing, and I knew that they were thinking of trying to escape from there, I"m sure I wouldn"t have tried to do anything special.
Of course, even then I would properly give them food and as long as they"re alive I would remove the dirt, clean the fish tank, and take care of them. Even if I know they"re planning to escape since I also know they can"t open the lid of the fish tank with their power, even if they were to try it right in front of my eyes I wouldn"t get angry at them. Let alone that I"d probably think, "oh~ they sure are energetic" and show even more affection towards them.
In other words it"s the same as that. It might not be any different from researchers who put trackers and such on dolphins, sea turtles, and other animals and watch their behavior patterns and such like that. Rather than a child taking care of his crayfish the researchers would probably be the ones les likely to involve themselves with the target though.
Of course I don"t have any proof. It might all just be my own delusion. For the most part there"s also a G.o.d that reincarnated me so it"s possible it might just want to know if I were to die or the cause of death or something. After all, the first time I met G.o.d it replied that several had already died and told me what the causes of death were for them. If I were to mention the harm of it, then it"s about some random memories being sealed up and even then if someone mentions them it"s a seal so weak I"ll remember them. It"s certainly a bad memory that I forgot about things in regards to the efficient way of acquiring the magic special skill but I completely remembered that after being punched by brother.
Since then I"ve made sure to be careful as well and written a memo called "laws of Bakuddo to protect" and have it hanging on my wall. Right now the only memories that I would be troubled by forgetting are just these. It"s an extreme argument but even if I were to forget anything other than this I wouldn"t be troubled right away by it. Of course, if I were to forget something like language, the way to use magic, or how to use Identify there"s a lot of things I would be troubled by but according to the story I heard from Karl what is lost is limited to memories of declarations in episode memories so it"s not just limited to language, knowledge, or some type of skill (It"s not just limited to Unique Abilities and magic. The way to use the sword or fishing techniques are included) those sorts of meaningful memories are probably no problem.
In other words, the "method to acquire magic skills" that my mother developed and the "exhaust mana during infancy to increase it at a certain probability" are within the range of meaningful memories so I won"t end up losing them (being sealed away). However, because "keep both of these pieces of knowledge a secret" is an episode memory there"s the possibility they could be sealed. Giving one or two more examples and since the knowledge "exhaust mana during infancy to increase it at a certain probability" is a meaningful memory I can remember it but the reason why I managed to learn that is an episode memory so it"s possible it could be sealed. Although, since this is something I can find by using Identify to check the sub-window on MP so if I see it again I"ll probably remember.
Just the same way my name Alan Greed isn"t a meaningful memory but an episode memory. However, the names of third parties and items are cla.s.sified as meaningful memories. Because the first method someone has of recognizing their self-awareness is to know their name and a lot of the first memories are of their name. Particularly in the case of me with experience reincarnating, I already had the ability to retain episode memories since I was a baby.
In my case, it was the same as being born with an adults level of ability in regards to episode memories so the instance I learned my name was like a once in a lifetime event on the end of episode memories. However, learning about Status Open was a meaningful memory so I can"t forget it. Even if I were to forget my own if I check my own status or use Identify I would remember it right away just like when brother pointed it out.
If I think about it like this I can calm down a bit. However, it"s bad having memories sealed. It"s bad but since I don"t have any method to resist it, if I don"t at least force myself to think this way then it"s not good for my sanity. It"s true that even if I were to stomp around cursing here it wouldn"t solve anything after all, I need to do whatever I can to maintain my thoughts and emotions in a stable direction.
In any case, the spell that allows you to counter spells {Anti-Magic Field}, at the very least even if I use something on the level of 7,000 MP it seems to have been no good. I intend to try it once more using all of my MP this time after going to sleep and waking up with full MP tomorrow morning. Since my maximum MP is 7,436 the highest amount I can use for {Anti-Magic Field} is 7,433 and it will only be able to erase a spell that uses up to 7,430. It can erase something that uses 400 more MP than this time.
In my common sense I can only think of sister other than myself that can use over 400 MP for a single spell so normally with this much increment it would be able to erase any spell but...
.............
Year 7444, Month 1, Day 2
Obviously after I woke up I immediately tried using {Anti-Magic Field}. I put less than half of my hopes on it but after all I guess you could say, there was no blue light remaining in my hands as proof that the {Anti-Magic Field} was remaining. It"s definite that the spell {Report} cast on me used more than 7,430 MP. Somewhere in my heart I had the thin hope that "maybe.." is only obvious. Though it just ended up being that reality is harsh and..d.a.m.n it.
Since I only have 3 MP remaining, after eating some food I thought of relieving myself before using up the last of my MP and going to sleep.
On my way to the restaurant and I started to consider whether {Report} was only used on me or if it was used on all of the reincarnated people. It seems like all of the ones I"ve so far Kuro, Mary, Ralpha, Bel, Toris, and Gwine didn"t have any sort of issues with their memories. Well even if they did unless it was over something major it"s unlikely they would point it out themselves so it"s impossible for me to know about it...The closest thing is when Bel mentioned whether or not our mental ages have only grown up to around the as our physical ages again and she didn"t say anything in particular about missing memories.
Even I only noticed something like missing memories about a year or so ago. It seems like it actually had started at least half a year prior to that but in any case around the end of the year before last I started to notice it was strange and had felt something was off but I wasn"t completely aware of it. The only way I can think to resolve that is to have Karl look at them.
If all of the reincarnated people are targets of the spell {Report} then while it doesn"t feel good but it"s something I can accept and think that it can"t be helped. However in the worst case if I"m the only target for it, the number of things that I"ll need to think about will increase quite a bit.
Even just thinking about it a bit, why is it only me? is the problem. If the user of the spell {Report} was the {G.o.d} or {Demi-G.o.d} that reincarnated me then why among the 39 reincarnated people was I the only one selected? would be the problem that comes up. In this case, I could thing of things like because I had 2 Unique Abilities, or in the first place there were several of us chosen as samples, but it really can"t be helped just thinking about it.
Next up is whether or not it was really the {G.o.d} or {Demi-G.o.d} that reincarnated us that used it on me? is the problem that remains since before. I"m sure the myriad of G.o.ds aren"t all involved with reincarnation. It"s even possible that it"s completely unrelated. I can"t even deny the possibility that it"s not a G.o.d but I can almost a.s.set that"s unlikely. Because even if there was someone who had more mana than me, they still shouldn"t have more than double the MP. Particularly a spell like {Report} Karl said that it would only be enough to last for at best a few minutes. In other words, it would be necessary to re-use it several times in a day.
Of course, if they just use it once then after that if they leave a period between it for a short while it"s also possibly to use it again but in that case it would be meaningless if they don"t use it knowing it would have no effect when they use it on me again in the middle of the day when I"m conscious. At the very least, during the hour or so I met Karl, last night, and this morning, it would mean they"ve already been using it several times. Even if I suppose in the case that they have double my MP it wouldn"t make sense. It"s not unthinkable that it was just a coincidence but I should have been the target (or at least one of them) since at least a year and a half ago, and there"s also the possibility that they"re using the spell {Report} on my party members in order as well.
However, that"s probably minuscule. Most likely it"s an existence that has MP one a level far beyond how many times mine and can use it like an abundance of water, and it"s unnatural to think of that as a person that"s mixed in together with the average person of Orth or another reincarnated person. Even if that was the case then that person would be spending day and night just to use the spell on me so I doubt they"d be able to maintain any sort of lifestyle. It"s not unthinkable that they can do other actions while using spells like me but even then it"s difficult to think they can keep that up forever.
That"s why in this case it"s easy to come to terms with supposing it"s some sort of super-natural existence, since super-natural existences have already been confirmed after all..Yeah, it should already be that the chances of it being a G.o.d are incomparably high.
Since there"s no way I"ll be able to guess all of the possibilities, there"s no other choice than narrowing it down to a few candidates and cutting down the rest. Even if the correct answer was among those then that is that. No choice but to give up.
The remaining problem is..I"ve arrived at the restaurant. For the time being I wonder if I should talk about the things that happened yesterday? No, even if I talk about it there"s no way to resolve it. Most likely it would just end up giving them feelings of terror in regards to something that is impossible to resolve right now. If I were going to talk about something it would be about the portions unrelated to the spell {Report}. Even that I"m sure it would best if I just bring them the next time I go to Karl"s place. It"s still four months ahead. If something comes up during that time I"ll talk about it then.
...............
Year 7444, Month 1, Day 17
It"s about something that happened in area we visited for the first time on the 5th floor. We discovered a room a bit ahead in the pa.s.sage of the dungeon as usual. We carefully closed it on it. The only thing we could see from the edge of the pa.s.sage was the dim wall of the room but in roughly the center of the room there was a 3 m or so stone statue of a giant demon. It has wings like those of a bat growing from it"s back and horns growing, there were four stone statues of a demon or something like that all with their backs to each other facing each wall of the room. This seems to be that. Gargoyle. Near the end of last year I once caught sight of one. In that case I guess that should be the same as well...
I had everyone stop just before the room and as we carefully look into the room and after all it was there. There"s something like an altar with black flames raising from it on the left side of the room. On the wall of the opposite of that altar there"s two pa.s.sages that go even further in and there"s one more on the wall to the right as well. I can"t tell if there"s anymore pa.s.sages on the other side of that from where we are.
If we step foot into the room the gargoyles in the center of the room will move and try to attack us intruders. Simultaneously the black flames coming from the altar will burn even brighter and I don"t know what sort of principle it works on but another monster will be summoned in front of the altar. The first time we stepped into a room with an altar a group of ghouls was suddenly summoned and I got the chills.
However, the last time we found a raw ore of an emerald was near the end of last year, midway through November, we discovered it enshrined in a small shrine on top of the altar. After we finished wiping out the gargoyles and the ghouls and we"re investigating the room, the altar that had just been spitting out flames until then, the flames gradually got smaller and the double doors on the shrine suddenly opened. We borrowed it from out of there.
Since we had heard that you can obtain treasures from the altars with the black flames on the 5th floor we got quite excited. And without a doubt after obtaining a raw gem, we returned to the surface quite pleased. Remembering back the raw emerald from that time ended up selling at an absurdly high price of 14,950,000 Z.
I looked around at everyone and pointed in the direction of the altar. After noticing the altar all of us zombies for money had smiles on our faces. I"m sure I"m grinning as well. If in just a single go we were able to find a magic wand that lets anyone use the spell {Fire Ball} then it"s the same as making enough money I"d never have to come back into this depressing dungeon again other than visiting Karl. Even if that"s not the case there should be a reasonably valuable treasure in there.
"Zulu, Angela, you two charge at the statues in the center of the room. I"ll back you up. Zulu take the one on the left, Angela the right. I"ll take down the two on the front with the spell {Stone Javelin}. After that I"ll aim for the right side. Backing up Zulu will be the last. Be careful.
Zenom, Toris, Ralpha be cautious as you proceed towards the altar. Bel and Gwine you two back them up on that end. It"s fine if you don"t pay any attention to our side. After Zulu and Angela finish up the statues, if there"s any monsters left on the altar side then split up and go after different monsters or if it"s one then attack from a different direction. In the off chance that no monsters come out from the altar then Zenom you back up Zulu and everyone else remain cautious. Alright?"
After confirming everyone nodded, we checked our equipment once again.
Zulu and Angela stand at the front and I"m behind them. On our left side with Zenom at the center, Toris and Ralpha have their weapons in hand, and behind that Bel has heard bow at the ready, and Gwine is behind that ready to stab things with a spear that"s about 3 m high. Since Gwine"s weapon is a spear it"s necessary to let her start a bit later. Our preparations are perfect.
I looked at everyone once again and sent out the order.
"Let"s go!"
Along with my signal Zulu and Angela ran off towards the Gargoyle statues in the center of the room, the unit with Zenom at the center started towards the altar on the left as well. The moment they stepped foot into the room the gargoyle statues yes shined with red light and they spread out their bat wings.
The reason I did use magic on them while they were still statues is to take into consideration the MP efficiency. When I saw them last time I tried using {Fire Ball}, {Lightning Bolt}, and {Stone Javelin} from outside of the room but I was only able to put a slight scratch on them and in order to destroy just one of the gargoyles while it was still a statue it took over 500 MP. However, once they start moving they degrade to the same level as normal monsters. Honestly speaking, if I hadn"t heard about the altar with black flames and moving statues I would have probably just walked into the room on guard thinking they were just creepy statues and been ambushed.
After the gargoyles start moving they"re reasonably fast. They can fly as well.
I used {Stone Javelin Missile} from behind them after they ran off and took out one of the gargoyles, then used {Stone Javelin Missile} once more to hit one of them that had flown into the air as well. Zulu and Angela have arrived in close range to the remaining two.
I heard a bowstring from my left side. It"s probably Bel"s shooting. It seems that monsters have already been summoned.
"!!"
I heard the sound of Gwine take a breath and run off. It must be a powerful enemy. But, there"s no other choice than for them to endure it for now. I"ll back you up soon.
I use {Stone Javelin Missile} aimed ate the head of the demon swinging it"s arms in front of Angela. I was magnificently able to land the hit but even with only half of it"s face remaining it"s still attacking Angela. It doesn"t die. I need to get rid of it quickly.
{Lightning Bolt} which reaches the enemy in an instant is an easy to use spell but it"s a problem that the power of it is spread over a wide area, if you try to use it from behind allies then swords can act as lightning rods so even if it"s a good attack for quickly attacking it"s difficult to use in these situations.
I finish off the gargoyle in front of Angela with {Flame Bolt Missile} and used {Stone Javelin Missile} to attack the gargoyle in front of Zulu once more. The stone spear I made is guided through my mana towards the chest of the gargoyle. By the time the gargoyle notices it"s already too late. I don"t know if it was faster that my stone spear hit it"s chest or Zulu"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword stabbed into it"s stomach but in any case the gargoyle died.
Angela has already changed her stance with the broad sword, jumped over the corpse of the gargoyle in front of her, and started charging to the left side. Zulu kicked off the gargoyle to pull his b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword as well.
I look to the left and changed my sight to the direction of the altar.
"!"
A large 4 m long pure white lizard had appeared. Isn"t that the so-called ice monster that I"ve heard about!? There"s no where on it"s body that an arrow has stabbed into. Though it"s at a distance of over 20 m away, it"s hard to think that Bel would miss a target that large, I wonder if the scales on it"s body deflected it.
"Aim for the right eye!"
I used the spell {Fire Arrow Missile} at the same time as I gave out instruction to Bel. It doesn"t do that much damage but since my first objective is to crush it"s eyes doing damage is put off for later. It"s plenty as long as it works well for tight turns and is easy to keep in sight because of the light it gives off, while still having some power.
I send the {Fire Arrow Missiles} flying towards the ice monsters left eye through the gaps in Zenom and the others charging at the ice monster.
For a short while I move the large fire arrows a bit higher up and let his attention focus on Zenom and the others again. Simultaneously thinking I should insure that I have a good line of sight for the next attack I start running towards the center of the room. Of course, when it comes to missile type spells (ah, come to think of it Karl said it"s invocation system to control it like a missile), since you"re guiding it there"s no need for a line of sight but it"s easier control if you can see clearly.
If I stand on the corpses of the gargoyles in the middle of the room then I should be able to see from about 30 cm higher.
I run while guiding the {Fire Arrow Missile} and aim for the ice monsters left eye.
I heard the bowstring ring out once again from behind me.
It must be Bel"s shot. I don"t know if she used Shooting Intuition but I"m sure she did.
The ice monster"s head shook to the left. Even if Bel"s arrow didn"t stab into it"s right eye, it"s definite that it hit nearby.
"Alright!!"
I heard Gwine"s voice. I guess that means she was able to crush it well.
Right now!
I suddenly made the {Fire Arrow Missiles} I had circling above it swoop down towards the right eye of the ice monster.
Zobuju!!
I heard such a sound as the {Fire Arrow Missile} stabbed into the ice monsters right eye and burned the skin around it at the same time.
Gyaoon!
The ice monster let out a roar. Unlike the Horned Bear it should be just a normal roar.
Something like a white smoke is leaking from it"s mouth.
Is that..cold air!?
Sis Anderson of the {Black Topaz} mentioned it.
""It will breathe a breath of ice. In other to oppose it you need at least level 4 fire magic.""
However, I"ll finish things off before it spits out that breath!
I use the spell {Fire Javelin Missile} and guide that towards the ice monster.
Zenom avoids the head that the ice monster is shaking around in pain and hits it in the jaw with an upper cut using his {tomahawk}. Since Zenom doesn"t use a helmet I can"t tell where his head is facing in between his pink beard and hair.
On his right side Ralpha was just swinging her {Tomahawk} with both hands into the right side of it"s body. The light from the flames of my {Fire Javelin Missile} reflect from her dyed golden hair.
Since the body of it is in the way it"s hard to tell but I heard a voice filled with spirit like "Teya!!" from Toris.
A bit behind Ralpha behind the left back leg of it I saw the same red hair as me from Angela charging in.
A few steps behind Angela is Zulu charging towards the taill letting out a battle cry like "Gugo~"
We"re completely beating it from all sides.
The {Fire Javelin Missiles} that I had flying above 5 m from the ground I guide and had suddenly descend aimed at the ice monster"s back.
"Ga!!?"
I felt a sharp pain run through the back side of my right thigh. Since I wasn"t ready for it at all and I was suddenly attacked I ended up abandoning control of the {Fire Javelin Missile}. The javelins ended up flying towards the opening of the cave behind the altar instead of descending.
"Gu!!?"
I felt pain run through the back side of my upper right arm this time.
It"s an arrow!
I"m being attacked from behind!
I felt an impact in the center of my back and head as well.
But, on those ends I had the armored plates from my rubber protectors and helmet so it seems it deflected them.
As expected of the 5th floor. I don"t know if it"s a goblin or hobgoblin, but was there a zombie that uses the bow!
"s.h.i.t!!"
I turned around and saw several silhouettes with a slightly higher brightness coming from the other pa.s.sage connected to the direction we came from.
I used Identify out of habit. They"re large for goblins, is it hobgoblins or orks!?
No, even in that case they should be slimmer. Their movements are dull as well.
An attack from a different group of adventurers!
With this timing!
I felt something like a sudden heat from the arrow wounds.
There might be poison on the arrows.
Hmph, I already know this poison.
I pointed my open left hand towards them.
By that point I had already neutralized the poison.
It seems that about half of them are equipped with swords and spears.
Which idiots are these?
If you"re going to try and kill me then aim to crush my head and do it in a single attack.
Looking down on me.
{Chain Lightning}