by Okina Baba
We have no chance of winning in a long-range battle.
If we can’t get closer and force a close-combat situation, we’ll get hit with that magic at point-blank range.
Another beam flies toward us, and I deflect it in the same way.
As we get closer, the weight of the attacks hitting my Mirror Shield increases accordingly.
Each time, I reinforce the shield with a fresh supply of MP, but I can tell it’s not going to last if these attacks keep coming.
Despite the constant onslaught of attacks, the old mage’s MP shows no signs of running out.
Honestly, I’d like to give this guy a piece of my mind.
But even that powerful magic and massive MP might still be conquerable if we can get close enough to prevent him from firing magic.
And that chance is coming up right before my eyes.
Physically speaking, that is.
The distance between us and the old wizard is so little now that I don’t need Clairvoyance to see him.
Once we’re a few dozen feet away, I jump off Fei’s back.
“Wha—?!”
Fei’s startled exclamation reaches me through Telepathy, but the boom of a magic beam exploding against the Mirror Shield in front of me drowns that out.
Since I’ve moved away from Hyrince and Fei, my magic defense power’s been reduced.
Nevertheless, I put all my strength into the Mirror Shield, knocking the beam away.
Then I let gravity do its work, swinging my sword downward toward the wizard.
“Hmm. Well, I suppose that earns passing marks.”
I hear a voice…
…but it’s coming from beside me.
My sword cuts through empty air, and when I whirl toward the source of the voice, I see that the old mage has somehow moved several feet away.
Was it an illusion or Teleport via the rare Spatial Magic?
I can’t tell, but I definitely can’t just stand here defenseless.
Jumping away would be a bad call.
If there’s more distance between us, that gives the wizard an advantage.
I’ll just have to step forward!
My skill-enhanced thoughts arrive at this conclusion in an instant, so I turn to step toward the wizard.
However, against my will, my legs are forced to move backward instead.
By the countless spells being fired at them.
“Geh… Ugh!”
The magic barrage hits my legs with machine gun–like speed.
Individually, the shots are weaker than the long-distance attacks that were fired at us before.
But there are too many of them!
I use my sword and Mirror Shield to knock them back, but several still break through my barrier to jab into my body.
The damage per shot is low, but you know what they say about many drops of water.
The impact pushes me back one step away from the wizard, then another.
“Yaaaah!”
Suddenly, Hyrince comes leaping down from the sky just as I did.
His sword splits the castle ramparts below.
This time, I see the old man disappear.
Whirling around, I find him standing opposite where he was just moments ago.
Teleport. It’s said that the number of people who can use Spatial Magic can be counted on one hand.
It’s still far from even my grasp, yet this terrifying mage can use it freely.
Hyrince and I square off against him.
At the same time, Fei comes back around, menacing the old wizard from the sky.
On her back is Katia, fully prepared to use magic.
“Oh dear… This is too much. You got me, you got me. This old man is retreating.”
With that, the wizard teleports away.
I search for signs of his presence, but he doesn’t seem to have teleported anywhere nearby.
“Did he really retreat?”
“Decided to let us go, more likely.”
I agree with Hyrince.
If that mage was using his full power, I don’t know if we could win, even if we all came at him at once.
“That was Master Ronandt. The strongest human mage alive, and Julius’s instructor in magic.”
That was Julius’s master?
The powerful mage who Julius used to say was “a funny sort”…
Did he decide to spare us because I’m Julius’s brother?
“I guess…I still have a long way to go.”
I don’t know why he decided to let us live.
But I feel like he showed me there’s always someone stronger than you.
Hugo, that girl Sophia, the little white girl who killed Julius—
—will I ever be able to surpass them?
“Let’s go.”
I shake my head, pushing down the anxiety welling up inside me.
Fei lands on top of the ramparts, letting Katia down.
There are no signs of anyone else nearby.
If no one came running to see what was causing all the noise, that probably means a trap is lying in wait for us.
But we still have to go.
“Fei, wait here. If anything happens, I’ll let you know with Telepathy.”
“Okay.”
Leaving Fei on the ramparts, we walk into the dark of the castle.
THE ELDERLY MAGE AND THE RULER
“And where have you been?”
As soon as I come back, a particularly nasty face confronts me.
“I can go wherever I please, I’m sure.”
“I suppose. Then I can do whatever I wish too, then, no?”
The little girl gives me a smile that’s barbed with meaning.
For the first time in many a year, a slight feeling of fear rises within me.
“I do consider you quite valuable, you know? So much so that it seems a waste that you are a mere human.”
Oh-ho, I don’t like the look in this girl’s eyes.
Even as she claims to value me, she’s looking at me like a predator who’s locked on to its prey.
“Ah-ha. What an honor.”
“Indeed. But since you are so valuable, that also means I have to keep an eye on you. It matters not what the rabble might attempt, but you are another story. Seriously, make a wrong move, and I’ll have to crush you.”
The girl takes a single step forward.
I take a step back and surreptitiously begin preparing a spell.
“Just kidding.”
The girl turns lightly on her heel and begins walking away from me.
“Just don’t try anything funny. Not that anything you do could stop Master’s plan anyway.”
“Then nothing I do should cause a problem, no?”
“Oh? Even if it doesn’t cause a problem, it could still be an annoyance, you know. Why, if you caught me by surprise, you might even be able to land a single hit on me.”
Having said her piece, the girl strolls away.
What a shocking thing to say to the strongest human mage.
That petulant little lass really raked me over the coals, again.
However, she’s not necessarily wrong.
As near as I can tell, there is a significant difference in combat power between us.
If I fought her, I’d almost certainly be the first to go down.
I may be the strongest human mage, but that’s only saying so much, in the end.
I cannot hope to compete with inhuman monsters, in the truest sense of the word.
I already learned that lesson long ago.
That there is always someone stronger, and there are walls I cannot surmount.
Therein lies the problem.
The fact is that I’ve started to want to teach my late disciple’s younger brother.
If that boy cannot surpass me, then there is no hope.
But unlike me, that boy—the real hero—is still young.
He will surely become stronger with time.
Now, will that hero be able to ov
ercome the wall that I could not?
And if he does, will he be able to surpass that little girl, and the “master” who lurks behind her?
That girl, Sophia.
The moment Appraisal failed to work on her, I knew she was no ordinary person.
The problem is that even I cannot see through to what she really is.
And this terrifying girl has someone she calls “Master.”
The most powerful creature I know of is “that master,” but it could be that this girl’s so-called Master is on the same level.
And if so, will any human be able to put up a fight?
Prince Hugo, who rules an empire with an iron fist.
And the figure manipulating him in the shadows.
Now, how should I move amid all this?
Perhaps I should heed the girl’s warning and lie low for a while yet.
THE EARTH DRAGONS OF THE LOWER STRATUM
I eat.
And eat.
And eat.
I’m no longer making any effort to hide it.
I bite down heartily and suck up the insides.
So that I can eat it all up.
I went on a rampage in the Lower Stratum.
I was trying to vent all the anger built up inside me.
Weak monsters, strong monsters, I hunted them down equally.
In the process, I had an unexpected reunion.
Earth dragon Kagna.
The second earth dragon I met in the Lower Stratum.
Huh? You wanna know if I fought it?
Buddy, take a look at its stats and then try asking me that again.
Status: HP: 4,198/4,198 (green)
SP: 2,798/2,798 (yellow)
Average Offensive Ability: 3,989 (details)
Average Magical Ability: 1,837 (details)
Average Speed Ability: 1,225 (details)
MP: 3,339/3,654 (blue)
: 2,995/3,112 (red)
Average Defensive Ability: 4,333 (details)
Average Resistance Ability: 4,005 (details)
Skills:
[Earth Dragon LV 2] [Imperial Scales LV 9] [Hard Armor LV 8] [Steel Body LV 8]
[HP Rapid Recovery LV 6] [MP Recovery Speed LV 2] [MP Lessened Consumption LV 2] [Magic Power Perception LV 3]
[Magic Power Operation LV 3] [SP Recovery Speed LV 1] [SP Lessened Consumption LV 1] [Terrain Enhancement LV 8]
[Destruction Enhancement LV 8] [Piercing Enhancement LV 6] [Impact Super-Enhancement LV 5] [Magic Power Attack LV 1]
[Terrain Attack LV 9] [Hit LV 3] [Danger Perception LV 10] [Heat Perception LV 6]
[Earth Magic LV 2] [Destruction Resistance LV 9] [Cutting Super-Resistance LV 2] [Piercing Super-Resistance LV 3]
[Impact Super-Resistance LV 6] [Shock Super-Resistance LV 4] [Terrain Nullification] [Fire Resistance LV 3]
[Lightning Resistance LV 7] [Water Resistance LV 3] [Wind Resistance LV 5] Heavy Resistance LV 2]
[Status Condition Super-Resistance LV 8] [Rot Resistance LV 3] [Pain Nullification] [Pain Super-Mitigation LV 3]
[Vision Enhancement LV 3] [Night Vision LV 10] [Vision Expansion LV 4] [Auditory Enhancement LV 1]
[Ultimate Life LV 2] [Magic Hoard LV 3] [Instant Body LV 1] [Endurance LV 1]
[Herculean Strength LV 9] [Stronghold LV 2] [Monk LV 2] [Sanctum LV 1]
[Acceleration LV 1]
Skill Points: 31,200
Titles:
[Monster Slayer] [Monster Slaughterer] [Dragon] [Champion]
>
No way in hell!
With those skills, this thing’s defense is way too perfect.
It’s basically a walking castle.
Sure, my stats are a little lopsided, too, but these skills are totally specialized in defense.
To start with, we’ve got the default dragon skill, Imperial Scales, which grants high defense and magic-canceling power.
Then, throw in Hard Armor and Steel Body for even higher defense.
Both are constantly active skills that simply raise your defense.
Thanks to those, its already high defense power is skyrocketed even more.
And THEN, there’s that huge mess of resistance skills.
I don’t think I could put a dent in this thing.
The most annoying of those resistances is Status Condition Super-Resistance.
It’s an advanced version of the Status Condition Resistance skill the fire dragon had.
My main weapon is status condition attacks, so this is the worst possible scenario for me.
And it’s level 8, so pretty much no status condition is gonna work.
Poison, Paralysis, Curse, the whole shebang.
Oh yeah, apparently curses are categorized as status conditions.
Which means most of my Evil Eye skills won’t do anything, either.
Even putting that aside, the fact that poison won’t work seriously sucks.
I’ve always relied on poison, since the day I was born.
Not being able to use it is kind of a shock.
I’ve even brought down monsters with Poison Resistance before, but now, for the first time, my opponent’s defense is just too damn high.
It’s not like I wouldn’t be able to do any damage at all, but whatever I do manage would be healed up by HP Rapid Recovery in the blink of an eye.
Status conditions won’t work.
So what about physical attacks? Well, that’s even less likely.
My meager attack power could never break through that fortresslike defense.
Rot Attack might just do some damage, I guess, but whatever injuries my scythes could possibly cause would be like papercuts on Kagna’s giant body.
And Rot Attack is like a suicide bomb, so I can use it only once each with my left and right scythes.
Bring down that defense-heavy beast with two attacks?
Yeah, not gonna happen.
Percentage-wise, it’d probably damage me more than it would my target.
Even if I managed to break through its defense that way and do some damage, it’d still heal pretty quickly thanks to HP Rapid Recovery.
It seems pretty unfair for something with that high defense to also have a recovery skill.
Thanks to that, attacks from my Heavy Evil Eye won’t mean much, either.
If physical attacks and status conditions won’t work, then magic is my only option.
I guess I should count myself lucky that it doesn’t have a resistance for my best kind of magic, Dark.
But if I try to shave it down with that, its recovery and high defense might help it survive.
In which case, it might acquire the resistance skill partway through the battle, and its recovery could even start to outweigh the damage again.
If that happened, that’d be the end of it.
But, well, my magic stats are pretty crazy high, so I do think I could wear it all the way down.
The problem is, it could end up destroying me before I finish the job.
Looking at its skills, I’m guessing that Kagna’s strategy is to use the brute strength of its enormous body.
It does have the breath attack from the Earth Dragon skill and some low-level Earth Magic, but other than that, it doesn’t seem to have any major attack-based skills.
You could even say that those are its only long-distance attack options.
But wait! Don’t be so hasty.
Because it’s so giant, its body itself is basically one big weapon.
I mean, picture it.
A huge dragon charging at tiny little me, wanting to crush me underfoot.
Yikes.
Plus, its speed is 1,225, much higher than most of the monsters around here.
It just seems low because all its oth
er stats are so high.
Of course, I pride myself on my speed, so it wouldn’t be able to catch up with me, but still.
This is all assuming there’s only one opponent.
Status: HP: 3,556/3,556 (green)
SP: 4,067/4,067 (yellow)
Average Offensive Ability: 3,433 (details)
Average Magical Ability: 1,343 (details)
Average Speed Ability: 4,122 (details)
MP: 2,991/2,991 (blue)
: 3,562/3,845 (red)
Average Defensive Ability: 3,874 (details)
Average Resistance Ability: 3,396 (details)
Skills:
[Earth Dragon LV 2] [Imperial Scales LV 6] [Hard Armor LV 2] [Steel Body LV 2]
[HP Rapid Recovery LV 3] [MP Recovery Speed LV 1] [MP Lessened Consumption LV 1] [Magic Power Perception LV 3]
[Magic Power Operation LV 3] [SP Rapid Recovery LV 3] [SP Minimized Consumption LV 3] [Terrain Enhancement LV 8]
[Destruction Enhancement LV 9] [Cutting Super-Enhancement LV 8] [Piercing Super-Enhancement LV 4] [Impact Super-Enhancement LV 8]
[Magic Attack LV 1] [Terrain Attack LV 8] [Dimensional Maneuvering LV 5] [Hit LV 10]
[Evasion LV 10] [Probability Correction LV 7] [Danger Perception LV 8] [Presence Perception LV 10]
[Heat Perception LV 7] [Motion Perception LV 8] [Earth Magic LV 2] [Destruction Resistance LV 4]
[Cutting Resistance LV 8] [Piercing Resistance LV 8] [Impact Resistance LV 9] [Shock Resistance LV 5]
[Terrain Nullification] [Lightning Resistance LV 3] [Status Condition Super-Resistance LV 3] [Rot Resistance LV 1]
[Pain Nullification] [Pain Mitigation LV 7] [Vision Enhancement LV 7] [Night Vision LV 10]
[Vision Expansion LV 5] [Auditory Enhancement LV 5] [Olfactory Enhancement LV 4] [Taste Enhancement LV 3]
[Longevity LV 9] [Magic Hoard LV 1] [Ultimate Movement LV 2] [Fortune LV 1]
[Herculean Strength LV 8] [Sturdy LV 9] [Monk LV 1] [Talisman LV 8]
[Skanda LV 3]
Skill Points: 31,000
Titles:
[Monster Slayer] [Monster Slaughterer] [Dragon] [Champion]
>
So, like, Kagna was, oh, I dunno, with another dragon.
Seriously, what the hell?
Unreal.
Who does that?
Of course I immediately ran away with Teleport.
