Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 5

by Hiro Ainana

“Is it a beef and pork mix? Or beef only?”

  “It’s long-haired cow beef mixed with wild boar. If everyone likes them, we’ll explore some other meat variations, too.”

  As I conversed with Arisa, I made some standard side dishes, like French fries and glazed carrots.

  The carrots in this world were round and a little sweeter than usual. There were many different varieties of potatoes, so I’d picked out a kind that was well suited to frying.

  “Done.”

  “Loading capacity exceeded, I complain.”

  Nana plopped her haul down in front of the carriage: a heavy-looking bag and a bundle of green bamboo. The bag contained a mountain of bamboo shoots.

  “These look delicious.”

  “Mm. Yummy.”

  “They take a pretty long time to prepare, so we’ll have them for lunch tomorrow, all right?”

  “Too bad.”

  Maybe I should try to make a spell to shorten the cooking time.

  According to the AR, the bundle was of the edible bamboo variety.

  I knocked on the green shaft; it felt as hard as metal. Its exterior was many times harder than ordinary green bamboo, then. I could probably even make armor out of it, but that would be a bit silly.

  It had to be fit to eat if the name was anything to go by, but I had no idea how to cook it just yet.

  I would have to ask around once we reached the next town. Until then, I decided to stash it out of the way in Storage.

  Sorting through the herbs, edible grasses, and materials for various potions that Arisa and Mia collected, I set aside what I needed for the day’s lunch and put the rest in Storage via the Garage Bag.

  “Shall we make tempura with the angelica sprouts?”

  “Mm. Excited.”

  I asked Lulu to prepare the angelica sprouts. She was better at handling wild plants than Liza.

  “Master, I utilized a great deal of Body Strengthening during transport, so my magical power supply has been exhausted, I report. Magical power replenishment is required, I request.”

  “All right. I’ll give you a mana recovery potion later.”

  When I responded, Nana went perfectly silent. Her expression was as blank as ever, but she somehow seemed dissatisfied.

  “…Direct magic supply is preferable, I entreat. Is it impossible? I inquire.”

  She was still expressionless, but something about her tone reminded me of a child asking for a treat.

  “I was planning on doing some magic experiments after we eat, but…I’ll prioritize you first as a reward for working so hard.”

  “Yes, master.” Nana’s voice sounded much more cheerful.

  Immediately, she began to remove her clothes, but Arisa and Mia stopped her in perfect sync.

  “Nothing gets past Arisa’s Impenetrable Barrier!”

  “Mm. Perfect.”

  Looking beyond the two smug girls, I informed Nana that I would supply her with magic after lunch.

  “Now, shall we eat?”

  After preparing individual plates, I put a stack of freshly cooked steaks in the center of the table.

  Then, with the usual Arisa-led chorus of “Thanks for the food!” we began to eat.

  “Mmmm?”

  “Mmm!”

  As soon as they took their first bite, Tama’s and Pochi’s eyes went round with surprise.

  Liza made a similar expression for a moment, then turned serious as she focused all her attention on chewing.

  Finally, her throat moved visibly as she swallowed, and she smiled with satisfaction.

  By all appearances, even Liza, who normally preferred tougher food, was a fan of the hamburger steaks.

  “It’s delicious! …And very soft. Its texture reminds me of the fish balls we had before, but I much prefer this dish.”

  “Yummy! It’s been so long since I’ve had this. The fries on the side are delicious, too!”

  Lulu and Arisa also seemed excited about the hamburgers.

  “Mia, I would like to trade a tempura for a carrot, I request.”

  “Mm, sure.”

  Mia and Nana were having fun making swaps. Next time, I would have to make extras of the sides as well as the meat for everyone to enjoy.

  Satisfied with the positive reception, I took a bite of my own hamburger steak.

  As soon as it entered my mouth, the meat seemed to fall apart and melt all on its own.

  The taste of the two meats and the rich sauce made a harmonious combination on my tongue, filling my taste buds with happiness.

  It was so delicious that if this were a cartoon, angels would probably be flying around me.

  Next, I tasted the side dishes: the sweet, crunchy carrots; the French fries and broccoli; and some freshly cooked rice to cleanse the palate.

  Then, in accordance with my youthful instincts, I stretched my chopsticks toward another piece of meat.

  Before I knew it, everyone’s plates were empty.

  The beastfolk girls were starting in on the mountain of regular steaks, but for some reason, their eyes were fixed on me.

  “Did you want me to make more hamburgers?”

  The answer to my tactful question probably goes without saying. I’d just add that the dwarven meat grinder passed its first performance test with flying colors.

  After the meal, I got to— I mean, I had to supply Nana with magic by touching her smooth back.

  The strangely sexy noises she made in the process caught me off guard as always, but with children present, I kept myself under control in every sense.

  Then, in order to work off that repressed energy, as well as the food, I practiced with the fairy sword for a while.

  I swung the sword up, paused, and imbued it with magic before swinging it down. When it was lowered, I reabsorbed the magical power and raised the lightened blade back up.

  I increased the speed of this exercise slowly but surely to get myself comfortable with the changes in weight and magic. It was the key to mastering the fairy sword.

  After about thirty minutes of nonstop practice, I was finally satisfied enough to take a rest.

  Once I stopped, I was greeted with the sound of applause for some reason.

  Everyone had sat down to watch from a safe distance while I was focused on my training.

  “You really are a cheater. Do you even realize what you were doing?” Arisa demanded.

  “Er, practicing with my sword?”

  Was my self-taught swordsmanship really goofy-looking or something?

  “Nope, you have no idea.”

  Trotting over to my side, Arisa pulled my head down to her level and discreetly whispered, “Most people can’t put magic into a sword anywhere near that quickly. And usually they have to release the magic they put into it afterward. No one ever reabsorbs it like that.”

  Wait, really?

  I didn’t have a problem doing it with Liza’s magic spear, so I figured it was normal…

  “Maybe they just can’t do it because they’ve never tried or something?”

  “I seriously doubt that. If anyone could do that so easily, there’d be no need for magic recovery potions, would there? You could just recover it yourself—storing MP in a Magic Item to reabsorb it after you use spells, that sort of thing.”

  Releasing me, Arisa struck a “you’re hopeless” pose.

  Well, that’s good to know. I thanked her for the information. It didn’t seem to be enough, so I gave her a quick hug, too.

  “Wah! Hey, not so suddenly!”

  Just like last time, she gave a weird little exclamation and wriggled in protest.

  As usual, even though she was always getting into my personal space, she got flustered when someone else showed her affection. I have to admit, it was fun to catch her by surprise once in a while.

  At any rate, I decided to test how effectively I could reabsorb magical power from the sword, then test it further by leaving the magic-imbued sword in Storage overnight to see if it had leaked away at all in the morni
ng.

  If my guess was right, this might be a good way to store extra MP, even if I usually had plenty to spare.

  Before we departed, I registered in my magic menu all the scrolls I’d bought in Bolehart City.

  It was always fun to compare the scroll version of a spell to the magic menu, but I hadn’t used them from the scrolls yet. I just tested them out arbitrarily.

  Testing out the scrolls earned me the skills “Light Magic,” “Ice Magic,” and “Ice Resistance,” so I maxed those out with skill points and activated them.

  I decided I’d test out the magic menu versions off in the mountains somewhere after sunset.

  The rest of the day passed without much event, aside from an attack from a group of gray wolves on the road that allowed us a chance to restock our wolf meat supply. Overall, it was a very peaceful journey.

  That day, after dinner and my daily magic chant practice, I stole away in the dead of night and took off into the sky with my hang glider. Because I had the Wind Magic spell Blow, I was able to depart from anywhere.

  There was a wasteland in the recesses of the mountains more than ten miles away from the road. Fire didn’t seem likely to spread there, so I chose that as my site. There were a few shrubs and bushes but not enough to be much cause for concern.

  Without further ado, it was time to begin the magic experiments.

  My first test subject of choice was Forge.

  According to the book on Smithing Magic, Forge was classified as an intermediate Fire Magic spell.

  I remembered turning the walls of a labyrinth into lava with the lesser spell Fire Shot, so I decided to use a large meteorite from Storage as a workbench.

  This was one of the meteorites that had fallen from the sky when I used Meteor Shower, which should make it fairly heat-resistant by my reckoning.

  I slashed at the meteorite with a Holy Sword.

  There was a slight resistance as I did so, but I still managed to cut off a piece without a problem, and I put the rest away in Storage.

  I placed a copper coin, an iron dagger, and mithril ore on the completed workbench, then selected Forge from the magic menu.

  As the spell was used for smelting, it was possible to adjust the intensity of the fire. The amount of magic consumed seemed to change depending on the strength of the flame.

  As I slowly raised the temperature, the smell of molten metal began to rise.

  Whenever the smell got to be too much, I used the Deodorant spell.

  It’s getting toasty.

  My body in this world was pretty resistant to changes in climate, but standing so close to the flames of the Forge spell was still making me sweat.

  The copper coin melted within about ten seconds, and after thirty seconds the dagger liquefied as well.

  It took about three minutes for the mithril, but finally that melted, too. The temperature of the flame was shown in an AR display, so I made a note of each metal’s melting point.

  At this high temperature, my skin felt prickly, like it was burning under the midsummer sun. This might be fatal for a normal person, so I would have to be mindful of my surroundings when I used this spell.

  Next, I wanted to test its maximum firepower.

  Though it felt a little wasteful, I decided to use a mithril dagger for the test.

  I set the spell to full power and activated it.

  Within an instant…

  Blinding, white-hot flames immediately filled my vision.

  Without waiting for my “Sense Danger” skill to kick in, I immediately deactivated Forge and used Blow to send the heat up into the sky.

  The “Light Intensity Adjustment” skill must have been working, as my vision returned to its original state right away.

  The top of the workbench was charred black, and the mithril dagger I’d put there for the experiment had all but evaporated, leaving behind only a bit of residue. Oddly enough, the workbench itself showed no signs of melting.

  When I checked my body, I discovered several minor burns.

  That was to be expected; I’d been standing only a few feet away from flames hot enough to sublimate metal.

  If anything, it was probably unnatural that I had nothing but a few little burns to show for it.

  The hand I’d used to cover my face took the most damage, but even as I watched, it healed itself up like a film clip playing in reverse. This was probably my “Self-Healing” skill at work.

  Honestly, my healing abilities are so fast that it’s a little disturbing, if I do say so myself.

  But I guess I should probably be grateful for that.

  So my body was healed thanks to my skills, but my clothes were still scorched.

  The parts of my outfit that had been facing the flames were burned into tatters, and even the extremely heat-resistant hydra leather coat had a few holes.

  I didn’t want to worry everyone, so I decided to change into a similar outfit.

  Despite being intended for noncombat usage, the blistering heat of this Forge spell definitely gave it potential as Attack Magic.

  Because of its short range, it was a little bit like a suicide bomb, but I decided to keep it in the back of my mind as a very last resort.

  That said, I would probably never need to use it like that. Demons could generally only be defeated with Holy Weapons.

  I continued my experiments with the other spells.

  Curtain, Magic Mold, Polish, Freeze Water, and Pure Water all had potential for some interesting uses. It was going to be difficult to get the hang of Magic Mold, though.

  Personally, I didn’t need them, but spells like Bug Wiper and Anti-Itch seemed like they’d be good for the kids when they went out foraging.

  In my case, mosquitoes and other bugs couldn’t pierce my skin, so bug bites were never a problem for me.

  Wall, Rock Smasher, and Hard Clay were all really useful for construction. I could literally build a castle overnight. I even tried it out in the wasteland and managed to create one in just under three minutes. Easy as making instant noodles.

  On the other hand, I couldn’t think of a single use for Condense. Fence didn’t seem totally unhelpful, but Shelter or Shield would probably be more convenient in most cases. And Sonar was redundant with my radar.

  As for the last spell, Cube…

  “This is fun.”

  The spell could make transparent cubes in the air ranging from four inches to forty feet in size; the amount of weight they could support depended on their own weight.

  “I wonder how high I could go?”

  As I mumbled to myself, I walked up the transparent staircase I’d made using Cube.

  The effect time was ten minutes at most, so an ordinary user would probably run out of magic and fall. In my case, though, it took only a second to recover enough MP for a cube that could support my weight, so I could keep making them indefinitely.

  While I was floating in the air, a monster attacked me after I invaded its territory, so I decided to practice some aerial combat.

  The level-20 monster looked like a rhinoceros beetle the size of a small truck. According to the AR display, it was called a soldier beetle.

  Since my goal was to practice fighting up here, I made footholds in the air with Cube and jumped around on them to avoid the soldier beetle’s attacks and magic.

  I have to say, I felt like a badass video game character.

  With the help of my “Spatial Mobility” and “Midair Maneuvers” skills, I was able to figure out the smallest size of cubes I could make to match my mobility. It was very helpful in my ongoing quest for optimal movement.

  By the time the soldier beetle’s strength ran out, I was able to fight in the air just about as well as I could on the ground.

  At this rate, I would even be able to fight dragons or demons in midair.

  > Skill Acquired: “Skyrunning”

  > Title Acquired: Sky Strider

  > Title Acquired: Wingless Flier

  > Title Acquired: Master of the
Sky

  As I gained the ability to fight freely in the air, I also gained a skill and a bunch of titles.

  The skill name was especially intriguing, so I put the max number of points into it right away and activated it.

  “Skyrunning” turned out to produce a similar effect to leaping around with cubes as footholds and had a lower magical cost.

  It was highly responsive and allowed me to move without having to think about the size and position of each cube, too.

  Even at its top speed, the “Skyrunning” skill took only a little more MP than the amount I recovered automatically, so if I could contrive a good method of flying, I could cruise about as far as I wanted.

  I was the only one who would be able to withstand the high winds and low atmospheric pressure, though, so I would probably have to be mindful of my speed and altitude if I was carrying someone else.

  It was early morning, a few days after my magical experiment session.

  We’d made it through the mountainous region and were getting very close to the main road that went along the river.

  “Master, I can see where this road meets the highway now,” Lulu remarked from the coachman stand, and I came out to have a look.

  There was a lighthouse-esque watchtower set up near the point where the roads met, along with a collection of duchy soldiers. A forest behind the tower obscured my view of the river.

  Liza and Nana, who’d gone ahead on horseback to scout out the area, came back toward us. Mia was riding along with Nana.

  “Master, please have a look over there. There’s something on the other side of the forest.”

  I looked in the direction where Liza was pointing, but all I could see through the trees were the sails of a large ship. Wait, that was probably what she was talking about.

  “Those are the sails of a ship. It must be traveling along the big river on the other side of the forest.”

  Tama and Pochi poked their heads out, apparently having heard my comment.

  “Shiiip?”

  “Where is it, sir?”

  Tama used me to prop herself up and tried to see over the forest.

  Pochi, too, grabbed on to Lulu’s shoulders and stood on tiptoe, but she still couldn’t see it.

  “Come here, please. You could hurt yourselves like that.”