Next chapter isn"t super long but didn"t feel like doing it right now. Maybe tomorrow. Otherwise the next 4 chapters after that will be bulk Wed-Fri, or maybe all 5 of them will be.Year 7447, Month 6, Day 29
I could still somehow tell up to the point where Ralpha raised her voice and cowered over in fear.
However soon after the scenery reflected in front of my eyes gradually became unfixed and began to melt together almost like paint tossed all over a canvas, the scenery twisted around into a mix of rich colors.
My hands, feet, and body all lost their fixed shape and crumbled fusing together with the things nearby transforming into a portion of some avant-garde art painting or something.
Simultaneously,
"Uwa~~~~n" a sound almost like a swarm of winged insects,
"bang~bang" a sound almost like a hammer banging into concrete,
"swish~swish" a light sound,
"Ban~" a sound almost like suddenly hitting various keys of a piano,
"Biyo~~n" a sound almost like one from stringed instruments,
and then the sound almost like an engine from an automobile revving up...
There was a wide variety of sounds that I can"t even express them all flowing through my head.
I feel seriously nauseous.
I momentarily remembered my sense of crisis.
In any case I need to be able to give out at lest the bare minimum orders.
First I need to do something about Ralpha who"s condition seems strange.
"Ralpha 9~nine!"
There"s so much strange noise interfering that I can"t even hear my own voice.
However, I definitely felt the sensation of my voice pa.s.sing through my throat.
Suddenly a pure white concentric circular pattern spread out in front of my eyes almost like blooming flowers.
While it was spreading out and moving far away it gradually got even more transparent and in no time at all scattered and disappeared.
I thought that the scenery had crumbled into an unfixed form but before I noticed it had changed to pitch black almost like outer s.p.a.ce. All over the place inside of that there were small gatherings of rich color almost like a small coin being born, moving, and disappearing. Even though there"s so many various noises flowing through my head it"s strange because I can ascertain the direction and volume of each one of them.
However, whenever I try to look in the direction that the giant stag beetle was in the loud sound of an insect swarm rapidly moves in front of me. Simultaneously a violent stream of sounds and colors that I"ve never experienced before mercilessly pa.s.sed through my ears and eyes making it even more disgusting and strengthening the nausea.
s.h.i.t!!
I don"t know what"s what but I can still clearly feel the sensation of the bayonet held in my right hand.
Several overlapping bright red circles moved by my side and then after pa.s.sing me, scattered, and disappeared again.
All over the place there"s yellow, green, and blue circles overlapping as they move around at high pace expanding and then soon after becoming transparent and disappearing.
If I were to say that the direction they"re heading stretches almost like several rubber bands piled on top of each other would you understand?
Otherwise, ripples that spread out into the sky while advancing?
Though I feel like it might be a bit different something like that doesn"t matter at all.
In the low direction where I believe the ground should have been there"s some light brown circles appearing but these ones disappear without advancing all that far away.
I feel almost like I"ve taken some kind of dangerous drugs.
However, the back of my mind is rapidly growing cold.
Though such an absurd situation suddenly started up I can still somehow think about things.
I don"t feel the so-called happiness that supposedly comes when drugs take effect at all.
Though I can"t tell for sure since I"ve never tried drugs.
Now that I"ve ordered Ralpha to withdraw from the battlefield in any case what I need to do is somehow hold back the giant in front of me. I"d really like for her to take some distance from the giant once and then take another look at the situation but Ralpha had just yelled out in a strange voice as her appearance turned strange. I need to backup those who come to help Ralpha withdraw!
However, the noise is too loud it"s way beyond the level of just distracting.
All that"s reflected in front of my eyes is the brightly colored b.a.l.l.s that make no sense at all.
It"s really confusing to the point where I don"t know what the h.e.l.l is going on.
I wonder if Ralpha ended like this as well?
In front of my eyes various brown-colored bubbles almost like carbonation from soda started to surge out.
Simultaneously what seems to be the origin for the sound of the swarm of insects around there seemed to have moved a bit.
The giant should have been just around that area.
At the same time as the clear "kin~" sound of metal hitting something echoed through my ears a large rainbow-colored shining circle suddenly spread all over the place before disappearing.
What in the world is going on!
The nauseous is still seriously bad.
Almost at the same time the sound like a piano suddenly appeared to my left side and then moved ahead of me just like that.
However, just before it moved in front of me a number of small red circles stretched out from the source of the sound and the sound of the piano pushed me away along with them, at the same time large red circles spread out around where my chest should be.
It felt almost like I was pushed away by someone as they pa.s.sed by.
Suddenly the loud sound of a swarm of insects pa.s.sed by around where I was until just now.
I ended up falling to just my right knee and somehow managed to endure falling over.
I wonder if it was good luck that I managed to avoid completely tripping over, or...
!?
Ah, d.a.m.n it!
So that"s what it was!!
The red color and piano sound from just now was Miduchi!
The sound of an insect swarm is the giant!
My sight and hearing have been switched!!
What appeared to be circles were actually sounds.
What sounded like noises were the scenery that should have been reflected in my eyes.
Calm down, me.
In, other words..
I must have been captured in some kind of special skill or spell.
In that case.
First off I should try using Identify.
The moment I activated the Unique Ability Identify I felt like the sound of an insect swarm that I can hear in front of my eyes got a bit higher.
I guess this means that Identify took effect?
Then in that case!
"You should be able to use magic!"
I shouted in a loud enough voice that everything in front of my eyes was covered in pure white circles.
Simultaneously I left the giant in front of me to Miduchi while thinking I should finish off the giant that"s caught in the net.
I look in the direction I can vaguely recall.
............It"s considerably smaller than the sound in front of my eyes but the sound of a different swarm of insects certainly reached my ears.
At the same time I can tell there"s a very small amount of what appears to be the brown-colored circles...
Over there!
There shouldn"t be anyone over in that area.
I can"t hear any other sounds in between myself and that insect swarm that"s far away.
That means there shouldn"t be any obstacles between us.
Alright.
Along with another "kin" and the vivid sound of metal, a tremendously large rainbow-colored flash appeared covering everything before disappearing again.
..This is, Angela"s rifle I guess? I wonder if that vivid metallic sound is the muzzle flash?
With my right knee still on the ground I stretched my left hand towards the sound of an insect swarm in the distance.
{Stone Ballista Missile}!
I feel so nauseous it"s difficult to concentrate.
In part because I was in a hurry but it felt like it took almost en eternity for the spell to activate though even then I"m sure it was at most 3~4 seconds.
Simultaneously the sounds of 5 "ki~~n" sounds almost like a jet engine appeared along with the shrill of metal as they flew off into the distance in no time at all and along with deep blue circles disappeared around where the swarm of insects were.
The moment I was sure that the spell had hit I finally reached my limit and threw up all over the ground.
Sour.
Smelly.
It seems my taste and smell are normal.
I don"t know if it"s because I threw up once but it feels like things got just a bit more comfortable.
There"s multi-colored circles appearing here and there before disappearing.
After firmly adjusting my hold on the bayonet in my right hand again I can hear a light "powa~powa" sound from around where it should be.
I guess it"s the sound of my bayonet in my vision.
In front of my eyes there"s been some small yellow and earth colored circles appearing around where the swarm of insects is and then moving off into the distance. I can also hear some sort of bouncing sound as if something was. .h.i.t and a cry almost like cicadas moving off into the distance.
One of them should probably be Ralpha and the other should be Basutoral or Gwine dragging her away I guess.
Almost simultaneously an extremely loud sound of a piano being hit rang out and mixed together with the sound of an insect swarm. Along with the sound of the piano several red circles appeared and started to move around.
Miduchi must be shouting something while fighting.
There some pink-colored circles joined in and twisted together along with a sound like "gishi~gishi" as they moved. Around where my feet should be I can tell there"s some small brown circles appearing. It seems to be the sound of footsteps.
Bel huh?
Somehow it seems like a high sound was sucked into the sound of an insect swarm but the moment it made contact the high sound changed directions along with an outbreak of green circles.
I guess Toris or someone"s attack spell was deflected?
After that there was a banging sound almost like an engine and then sounds almost like stringed instruments approaching that sound.
"That"s no good, don"t approach it! Everyone take some distance!! Bel you retreat as well!! Angela stop firing!! I request backup from just Zenom!!"
You"ll end up just like me!
It would be best to leave it to Miduchi who has a bit of knowledge and decent close combat strength.
She has a sword that could even cut through that upper jaw after all.
Also, it"s already injured.
The "gishi~gishi" sound went off into the distance.
"Miduchi!! 5 seconds after I give the signal duck down!! I"m going to blow it away with cannon!! Everyone countdown! Let"s go!"
I shouted that before pointing my left hand towards the closer insect swarm this time but just the same as usual I can"t hear my own shouts at all and there"s just the pure white circles spreading out in front of me and disappearing the same as before. I feel like this sight is making it feel even more disgusting. I start concentrating in order to use {Stone Cannon Missile} so the timing matches up with my shouting.
"5!"
Simultaneously various multi-colored circles started spreading out and disappearing.
Everyone, I guess they"re counting down together with me?
It"s good that they"ve kept their composure.
"4!"
"Ding~" a sound almost like the bell of a Buddhist altar or the ringing of a bell was absorbed by the sound of an insect swarm and continued to ring just like that.
"3!"
It must have been Zenom"s axe, that.
"2!"
I pour in the mana while carefully pointing my left hand towards the sound of the insect swarm. I guess it"s because I normally would be able to see it, I can properly grasp where the sound of the insect swarm is.
"1!"
And then the spell was completed.
A sound almost like a giant F/A-18E fighter jet"s afterburner came out from the end of my left arm and flew off.
If it"s Miduchi then even in the worst case she wouldn"t mistake the timing.
I believe in her.
The insect swarm was just before my eyes.
Just in case I added missile to it but it"s a distance that"s hard to miss.
The sound of the F/A-18E super hornet fighter jet pa.s.sed straight through the middle of the insect swarm sound.
Immediately after the sound of the insect swarm scattered into multiple directions.
All of the sounds seem to be coming from on top of the ground.
Did I do it?
I don"t know if it"s a stag beetle or whatever but that was my ultimate attack spell.
There"s no way the likes of an insect swarm could win against Super Hornet-senpai.
If it hit then I think it would have killed it but I have no idea what"s going on so I can"t let my guard down.
"Did I kill it!!? If it"s already fine then grab my hand and help me up."
The sound almost like a piano and a swerving flame started approaching me.
I felt the sound of a piano wrap around my hand which was still stretched out.
I guess that killed it...
I spontaneously leaned over onto the sound of a piano.
For just a moment I wondered what I should do if it isn"t Miduchi but this sensation should be Miduchi.
Even if I look at my own body, it"s mostly just small gray circles almost like grains that occasionally outbreak and almost completely transparent.
The sound of a piano returned my embrace.
It seems there"s no longer any danger.
"What kind of condition is Ralpha in? She might be the same as me. If she"s still alive then grab my hand."
Various multi-colored circles appeared in front of my eyes before disappearing.
"Wa!!? Did she die!!?"
The various circles appear in front of my eyes and disappear again.
"s.h.i.t!!"
My hand was held tightly.
"So she"s alright?"
My hand was held tightly again.
"Ah, sorry. I can see and hear but my eyes and ears were done in. Also, I feel sick. I"m about to throw up."
Though I"ve already thrown up once.
The multi-colored circles are breaking out and disappearing in front of my eyes.
Ah, I should rinse out my mouth with water.
Etiquette is important.
Feels a bit late at this point though.
"Sorry but while I can tell you"re saying something, I can"t understand the content at all. I can tell where everyone is standing but I don"t know what kind of expressions everyone is making. It seems the sensations of my eyes and ears switched places."
Multi-colored circles started appearing in front of my eyes and then disappeared.
"It might be the same for Ralpha. Someone hold her hand and help her relax."
"It"s fine if it"s Miduchi or anyone else but would someone use {Detect.Magic} on me? If there"s a reaction then I don"t think I"m injured but could someone use some kind of healing spell on me."
And while I was nervously talking suddenly~ the nausea disappeared and simultaneously my senses returned to normal.
I was relieved from the bottom of my heart.
Miduchi was crying with her eyes bright red.
It seems everyone else was worrying about me as well.
Even after identifying myself I couldn"t find any major problems.
It seems there was a reaction for magic but whether it be {Cure} type, {Remove} type, or every other healing spell, none of them were effective.
I guess that means the duration of the effect ran out?
After listening to what happened once again and the combat itself didn"t even last over a minute after Miduchi fired the net launcher. It seems that the duration my senses were messed up continued for over 10 minutes but supposedly Ralpha recovered after 4~5 minutes.
Supposedly everyone around her including the {Amber.Goliath} changed into the appearance of the same person from her past life. Since it was her grandfather who she watched pa.s.s away from lung cancer after much suffering when she was young she ended up panicking. It must have been a kind of trauma. I just heard about it from Miduchi so I didn"t ask in too much details but it seems she was forced to watch and listen to his dying screams. I"m sure it must have been terrifying.
According to Miduchi the effect of the {Amber.Goliaths} confusion is usually like that and shows illusions of people you knew from the past. Otherwise, if you"re unlucky then you start to misunderstand everyone around you as being the {Amber.Goliath} and start attacking them by mistake. Supposedly she"s never heard of anyone with symptoms like mine. I wonder just how unlucky I could be.
Also, the moment I finished of the second {Amber.Goliath} the cage of lightning bolts disappeared the same as usual.
Furthermore, just as can be determined from the situation, my stone cannon magnificently hit it and the giant stag beetle was split in half through the middle of it"s body. In regards to this because it was a powerful spell that I"ve never showed even once in the past, everyone excluding Ralpha were excited as they talked about it.
However, thanks to that even if I use Identify they just show up as {Corpse of Great.Underground.Voyanoy}.
Now that I"ve recovered Zulu was finally able to relax enough to start gathering the magic stones.
After confirming that I"m safe Angela started walking towards the other giant stag beetle further in as well.
I need to Identify the giant stag beetle to figure out their status and about that confusion.
I tried looking at the other one with Identify first but unfortunately this one was already {Corpse of Great.Underground.Vojanoy} as well.
I"ve already mentioned that if {Corpse of} appears in the status when I use Identify I can"t get much information about them at all.
"Angela, check the status and if it"s not a corpse then I"ll use the {Identification} spell."
I said to Angela who stopped walking and turned around.
After nodding in agreement she started talking again.
"Hey, and then what was the {Magic.Item}?"
After recovering from both the stress and confusion Ralpha Said.
The moment she recovers from the confusion and this.
As expected from our {Slaughterers} number one miser.
I was a bit impressed but it"s true that including myself everyone else had completely forgotten about it.
Right. The fact that it"s a guardian we"ve encountered for the first time means that it should have some kind of {Magic.Item}.
Everyone started looking at the torn in half corpse of the {Amber.Goliath} that Zulu was dissecting.
Zulu"s already grappling with the upper body as he searches around so if he finds anything he should report it.
The fact that he hasn"t means that there"s nothing at all.
When the lower body was split off it seems to have done a few flips while flying about 10 meters away as the open wound of the body is facing over here.
Just from a glance that doesn"t seem to have any kind of equipment on it either.
Next we looked in the direction of the corpse that Angela"s crouching down by.
"Master!"
Angela raised her voice.
So it was this one.
Now~ it"s time for the highly antic.i.p.ated inspection of loot.
............................
"This is..a metal ingot I guess?"
There was a large leather bag hanging from the waist of the {Amber.Goliath} corpse that Angela was removing from the net in order to gather it"s magic stone. After moving the leather bag to the ground I could see a clump of metal almost like metal ingots from the opening.
"Alright! There"s a reaction so isn"t it magic metal!?"
Ralpha dashed over even faster than me and already used {Detect.Magic}. I said I would use the {Identification} spell so being careful of {Cursed.Items} everyone left the unknown {Magic.Item}-like thing for my arrival without touching it.
However, for it to be magic metal!?
I reflexively used Identify on it.
【Breeze.Horseshoe】
【Mithril】
【Condition: Normal】
【Manufacture Date: 29/6/7447】
【Value: 1】
【Durability: 524288】
【Ability: The same as normal horseshoes.】
【Effect: Auto.Mending】
【Effect: In order to use these horseshoes it"s necessary for over 50% of the surface area of the horseshoe to be in contact with a single nail(hardened skin) on the body. In the case that the conditions are met, the shape will automatically transform to match just the right size and shape of the target creatures nail. After this horseshoe has been equipped in a usable condition and the the creature starts using them, it will be able to move for 12 hours consecutively without being fatigued on top of being able to transport double the weight that creature can normally carry. Also, the creature that equips these horseshoes will be able to move over water that is less than 10% of it"s height as if it were moving over normal land and furthermore it"s possible to move over mud or other unstable terrain just the same. On the occasion of removing them they will easily come off with a touch for the one who equipped them. Furthermore, bear in mind that it"s only obvious for the effect to be displayed if horseshoes are equipped to all of the nails required for movement.】
I just glanced through it but it"s fine since it doesn"t seem to be anything cursed.
Just in case I picked up the leather bag without touching the contents.
It was a lot lighter than I imagined from the size of it.
This, it"s questionable whether it"s even 10kg or so.
And then I grabbed on to the bottom of the bag and flipped it upside down.
Then a number of sparkling silver rough metal bars or plates that are about 7~8 cm long, 1 cm wide, and 5mm high came rolling out. Just from a glance there seems to be around 200~300 of them.
Furthermore, there didn"t seem to be anything unusual about the leather bag at all.
With everyone watching over, I saw down cross-legged in front of the mountain of small metal plates and started pouring mana into the spell {Shine.Light.Eyes}.
...
"How pretty~"
"Ral, what kind of reaction did they have?"
"Nn~ I think it was the feeling of void magic, earth magic, and wind magic.."
"He~ I wonder what they are?"
.....
Sorry for the wait.
It"ll take a while longer for the spell to be complete.
"Since there"s a lot of them, I wonder if we"ll sell a few?"
"You never know something like that."
"I guess that"s true."
"But, if it"s magic metal then we might be able to make a sword or something..Uwa"
...........
Of course it takes some time you know?
I can tell you"re bored just watching over.
But you know~
"Master is concentrating, if you want to talk then do it over there.."
Angela, you"re a really good person.
I"ll definitely repay you.
Plus 1 point.
...................
Finally just now, my eyes should have shined.
Though I"ve just been continuing to stare at the metal on the ground so I"m sure it"s not like anyone noticed either way.
"They may look like this but supposedly they"re horseshoes. It seems they have the name {Breeze.Horseshoes}."
I said that but only Zulu and Angela who were on standby by my side were impressed and congratulated me.
Everyone else was a bit of distance away and,
"Hey, Miduchi. Can magic metal be sold for a high price?"
And the miser Ralpha babbled on,
"You could say they"re quite the valuable items."
Miduchi is nodding with a triumphant face as well.
"I wonder if you make arrows and such with it?"
Bel asked in a voice filled with antic.i.p.ation and,
"Arrowheads that are made using magic metal have a considerably high attack power."
"Then, I wonder if it would be more effective than the gun.."
"Hmm, I wonder about that~ But, it might be close. Bel, what do you want to do?"
"If I ask Al-san he"ll make some for me right?"
And, it seems she"s talking about something together with Miduchi.
"If there"s that much then it should be plenty to make a spearhead and such right?"
The sole married-man in the {Saviors} has started getting over-optimistic all on his own,
"If it"s Al-san then wouldn"t that be fine?"
Toris casually replied like that while equipping two powerful {Magic.Arms}.
"Hey now, everyone stop saying such self-convenient things. There"s still no guarantee it"s magic metal right?"
"That"s right, really."
Zenom, Gwine. You dwarves are precisely the conscience of the {Saviors}.
"But if it"s that beautiful then maybe I"ll get my ears pierced? Supposedly the accessories from Seishen in the capital are super popular right now. If it"s magic metal then I could brag all I want about it."
"Oh? A piercing huh? My dead father used to have it done on one of his ears.."
"Eh? Isn"t that cool?"
"Is that so?"
"That"s right, I think just having one ear pierced is manly."
"Hmm."
"Not to mention it"s magic metal and that sparkle?"
"Maybe I"ll get one done as well?"
"If Zenom-san were to use a piercing from Seishen then it"d be cool and I"m sure it would suit you."
"Hohou..But if you were to use that to make an alcohol cup and drink from it I"m sure it would be delicious."
"Ah! That too..That sure is wonderful as well~"
"Right?"
"If you were to make an alcohol cup and a matching small dish, then have a matching toothpick to stick into salted olives I"m sure it would suit you!"
"I"m sure it would be exceptional."
Putting aside weapons and let alone accessories..using magic metal to make tools for drinking, so these dwarves were precisely the cancer of the {Saviors}.
"Listen!"
""Ha!!""
Zulu and Angela both stood up straight.
"Not you two."
All of the cancerous cells started to gather over here.
Everyone present is making an apologetic face but roughly 1 person has their hands behind their while casually babbling, "Wasn"t that pretty fast!? I think it took a while longer yesterday though."
"They might look like this but supposedly they"re horseshoes. It seems the name is {Breeze.Horseshoes}."
After saying it once again and they all started saying things like, "Horseshoes~!?", "This is?", "He~", "How unexpected~", and such. Yeah. It"s not as if I didn"t think the same myself.
"Probably this wide surface, I guess you call it? If it"s in contact with more than half of a hoof it will automatically equip itself. It lets the horse continue to move from morning until night without ever feeling tired and doubles the amount of weight it can carry. It also seems you can move on top of water or mud and such."
It seems everyone is so surprised their voices aren"t coming out.
Though in reality it"s the same for me too.
I can"t test it out here but after we return to the surface first off I"m going to try equipping them on my war horse Ura.n.u.s.
By the way, I wonder why the {Amber.Goliath} was holding something like this?
With no emotion at all Angela took out the magic stone and looked at the messy corpse of the {Amber.Goliath} still entangled in the two nets. I guess this individual with the smaller upper jaw would be the female? Otherwise it could just be a child with a huge body though I have no clue?
Two on the tiptoes and while it"s completely covered in dirt there"s properly a Y shaped metal plate stuck to each of the heels growing from the backs of it"s legs.
After cutting each one of them off and touching it with the tip of my finger and with a plop they fell off returning to the same shape as the other horseshoes in no time at all.
The number of horseshoes inside of the leather bag was 252.
Adding in the ones we recovered from the feet of the 2 {Amber.Goliaths} and there"s a total of 256 of them.
If it"s horses then it"s possible to organize a long distance high speed mobile unit with 64 of them.
If I were to have them pull a carriage made with rubber tires and an axle with bearings I"m sure it would be pretty amazing.
Ah, though I guess the carriage wouldn"t be able to run over water huh?