by Okina Baba
Which means they’re completely unprepared for a surprise robot attack from behind.
Finally, I get to be in the spotlight!
Since I’ve left the hallway, I’m a little far away, but at my speed, I can fix that in a matter of seconds.
I jump in between the robots and the vampire duo, ready to destroy the former.
Now I can really show off!
“Yaaaah!”
Oh. Looks like I spoke too soon.
Mera dashes forward with a shout, closing in on a robot.
Before it can fire its gun, he slashes at the muzzle with his sword, knocking it away.
The other robot aims its gun at Mera, but this one’s muzzle freezes over.
It’s Vampy’s Ice Magic.
With the muzzle blocked, the energy inside has nowhere to go, and the frozen robot explodes.
Seeing this, Mera imitates the Vampy’s moves and plugs up the first robot’s muzzle, too.
He’s naturally gifted with Water and Ice Magic, too, maybe because it’s Vampy who turned him into a vampire.
His skill levels for those aren’t quite as high as hers, but he makes up for that with his higher stats.
Frozen like the other one, the robot attempts to fire and explodes, too.
Nice. Very well done.
Mera used his quick thinking to aim the muzzle away in that first moment, and Vampy made a spot-on judgment to freeze the other robot.
On top of that, Mera realized he couldn’t destroy the robots with his own strength, so he deliberately made it self-destruct.
Though it might be hard to tell from the way the Demon Lord and the puppet spiders are making quick work of them, these robots aren’t actually all that weak.
In fact, from the perspective of a human from this world, they’d be damn strong.
If even one of those light bullets hit you, you’d end up with a breezy new air vent in your body just like that.
And since these robots can fire those powerful rounds in rapid succession, only an idiot would call them weak.
It’s impressive that the bloodsucker duo managed to beat two of them without any help, even if they did get lucky by figuring out super fast how to make them self-destruct.
Really goes to show how much Vampy and Mera have grown.
Yep, yep. I believed in you guys!
I knew you could handle those robots without any help.
That’s why I didn’t get involved, okay?
I just wanted to give these two an opportunity to shine, okay?
I didn’t miss my chance because I was too busy fantasizing about how cool I would look, okay?
I’m not mad that they stole the spotlight, okay?
Okay? Okay? Okay.
…Is it just me, or have I not done anything since we entered these stupid ruins?
The only thing I’ve accomplished is shooting myself in the face!
Uh-oh.
If I don’t do something cool soon, my reputation will be down the drain!
Ugh, but at this point the Demon Lord and the puppet spiders have wiped out most of the robots.
If I jump in this late in the game, it’ll probably be even more embarrassing.
I mean, I’m sure they’re already wondering what the hell I’m doing, but that would just make it so much worse.
We can’t have that, can we?
Yeah, it’s better if I stay cool and don’t do anything!
I’m the last line of defense.
I can’t go wasting my time on every insignificant little enemy that shows up!
Panicking and leaping into action because the spotlight keeps getting stolen is waaay beneath me.
I’ll be the bigger spider and let everyone else look cool for now.
Hmph! I won’t swoop in until it’s absolutely necessary.
It’s the protagonist’s job to come through in the most dramatic moment possible. Duh!
That’s why I’m not gonna bother with these stupid little robots.
Heh-heh. Yeah. I’ll just save my strength for a bigger, better fight.
Anyway, while I was standing around being a sore loser, it looks like the Demon Lord and company finished turning all the robots into a scrap heap.
A second later, one of the puppet spiders—Sael, the timid one—goes flying across the room with a loud boom.
Huh?
?! What the hell just happened?!
I turn my gaze to both Sael and whatever sent her flying. (Having lots of eyes sure is convenient at times like these.)
Sael is missing all three of her left arms and part of her torso.
That’d be a fatal wound for a normal person, but since the puppet spiders’ real bodies are small spiders inside of dolls, it doesn’t matter too much if the doll gets damaged.
It’ll take a while to repair, but that’s no big deal as long as the Sael herself is unharmed.
Although if the hit had been a little closer to the center, it’s possible the spider body might’ve gotten hurt, too.
Sael must have dodged just in time, or else the culprit’s aim was off.
Either way, I’m sure Sael was targeted only because she was the closest.
The attacker, emerging from a door on the other side of the room, can be described only as a tank.
It’s covered in very strong-looking metal armor, has a giant gun that makes the robots look dinky by comparison, and its tank treads are crushing the ruins of the smaller robots beneath it as it slowly moves forward.
This thing looks strong.
In fact, it has to be strong to send one of the puppet spiders flying despite her high stats.
Look, I know I said I wanted the spotlight, but I never said I wanted a big, strong opponent.
ANTI-TANK BATTLE!
The tank’s giant muzzle points right at the fallen Sael.
It emits a flash of light.
If the robots were firing light bullets, this thing is firing light cannonballs.
The robots’ bullets weren’t too shabby in terms of speed and power, but this is way worse.
Even if the tank caught Sael by surprise, the fact that it was able to hit her and cause that much damage is concerning.
And now that she can’t move, what happens if it hits her with another cannon shot?
Luckily, we don’t have to find out.
By the time the tank’s round hits the floor, Sael is gone, carried to safety by the Demon Lord.
She must have run over, picked her up, and carried her away faster than the missile could move.
The Demon Lord even took care to restrain her movement so Sael wouldn’t be hurt. Otherwise, if she snatched her up while moving faster than a bullet, the aftershock alone might have rattled Sael to pieces.
How did she even prevent that from happening?
I guess it’s another case of physical mastery going beyond even what stats can manage.
Unlike me, who got strong by fighting tons of battles over a short period of time, the Demon Lord has honed her strength over a very long period. That means she has that much more abilities and experience.
Strength that isn’t reflected by stats and skills.
That’s just one more way the Demon Lord outstrips me.
Hmph. Hmm. Hahhh.
Well, I guess the fact that she’s stronger than me isn’t exactly news.
What’s most important here is that the Demon Lord saved Sael.
In that moment, she had several options.
For instance, she could have used Sael as a decoy and attacked the tank. With its sights fully on Sael, it was totally open to attack from anyone else.
If she’d given up on Sael, she could have easily gotten in a major attack on the tank.
But she didn’t abandon Sael.
She chose to rescue her, even though it meant she risked getting hit by the light missile herself in the process.
That says a lot about the Demon Lord.
It also says a lot about the person who did decide to abandon
Sael and focus on attacking the tank: me.
A single Black Spear closes in on the tank, produced by my Black Magic spell.
Right as the Demon Lord moved to rescue Sael, I focused on destroying the tank.
Using Sael as a decoy.
That’s the difference between the Demon Lord and me.
She thinks of other people, while I worry only about keeping myself out of danger, even when it meant giving up on Sael.
But in this case, it meant we were able to do both, so maybe it worked out.
The Black Spear pierces the tank’s side, which is utterly undefended after firing a shot.
Wait, no.
It disappeared as soon as it hit the tank’s armor.
My Black Spear is gone so fast, it’s like it was never there in the first place.
It only looked for a split second like the spear had pierced the tank because it disappeared so completely and naturally that I assumed it must’ve gone right through.
Is that the same mysterious barrier Potimas used?
As I’m about to launch another spear so I can find out, the tank turret turns toward me with a loud whir.
I retreat right away, and a light cannon round slams into the ground where I was standing mere moments ago.
Yikes, that was close.
It’s so hard to read this tank’s movements that I almost ate a direct hit to the face.
Uh-oh. I can’t see what the tank’s going to do next.
My Future Sight skill doesn’t seem to work on it.
Since I’m used to being able to predict my enemy’s next move with this skill, it takes me that much longer to react when I can’t rely on it.
The only foe I’ve ever had this problem with was Potimas.
Which means this tank is definitely using the same kind of barrier as Potimas did.
Crap. This is gonna be an even bigger pain than I thought.
Having to deal with a bunch of robots at once already seemed annoying, but now there’s this giant weapon on top of all that?
See, I told you ancient ruins were never good news!
Is this my divine punishment for stupidly wishing I could get a chance in the spotlight?
If so, whatever god is responsible has a nasty sense of humor.
Oh wait. I happen to know an evil god who matches that exact description.
Damn you, D! Is this your doing?!
As I pointlessly shout at that evil god in my mind, I shot another Black Spear at the tank.
As soon as it reaches its target and makes contact with the armor’s surface, it disappears, just as I feared.
I can activate my magic perfectly fine. The barrier must not cover this whole space.
Potimas’s mysterious barrier was crazy effective, rendering most skills and stats totally useless within a certain range.
Maybe the tank is using a similar kind of barrier, but it works only in very close proximity to the tank.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to use magic at all.
Still, since it’s totally nullifying my Black Spears without a problem, it’s probably safe to assume that most of my long-distance attack methods are useless here.
With its ease of use and high power, Black Spear is one of the most useful of my beloved Dark-type spells.
The only spells I have that are stronger than this are Abyss Magic and stuff like that.
Those spells take time, even with my Height of Occultism skill, and I don’t even know if they would work.
It’s probably best to assume they wouldn’t and forget about magic for now.
Which means I have only one option: a physical beatdown.
Whether it’s Potimas’s magic barrier or whatever else, the best way to deal with these anti-magic-barrier jerks is to hit them with raw power.
As I dodge the third light shot, I produce my weapon from Spatial Storage: a white scythe with a very sinister aura.
I made this scythe when I decided I wanted some kind of weapon for close-quarters combat.
Believe it or not, it’s actually crafted from part of my own body.
I used the scythes that make up the front legs of my spider half as the base, then used my other legs and thread to whip up this little number.
It feels like an extension of my body, probably because that’s what it’s made out of. And since my stats are so high, it’s super-sturdy and cuts like a dream.
The only problem is that it’s been letting off this weird aura for a while now.
Maybe it’s just my imagination, but it definitely looks like the whole scythe is emitting some kind of black glowy effect.
By the way, the scythe’s Appraisal results look something like this:
Attack: 14,099
Resistance: 99,999
Special Traits: [Automatic Growth] [Automatic Repair] [Rot Attribute] [Dark Attribute]>
Yeah. Is that weird or what?
Its attack obviously means how strong it is as a weapon.
That means this scythe alone is strong enough to cut right through the puppet spiders’ defenses.
And resistance measures how strong an attack would have to be to damage it.
That means it won’t break unless it’s hit with an attack higher than that number.
In other words, the only way to break this scythe is by hitting it with the max amount of damage.
In other words, it’s basically unbreakable.
However, that number will go down whenever it’s hit with an attack, so I have to be careful… Or at least, I would with an ordinary weapon.
But this scythe also has a special trait called automatic repair. It’s a useful trait that recovers its resistance over time, all on its own.
As long as it has this trait, I don’t have to worry about the resistance going down.
And that resistance is so high that nothing short of a max-damage attack would break it.
It’s the unbreakable scythe, dude.
I gotta admit, that’s kinda weird.
I know I used my own body to make it, but even I don’t have such crazy-high defense, y’know?
And that’s not the only thing that’s weird.
Since when does it have the Rot and Dark attributes?
It didn’t have anything like that when I first made it.
These attributes must be what’s causing the creepy aura.
Yeah, this is weird, all right.
And it even has this weird automatic-growth trait now.
In fact, that must be what’s causing all the other strange stuff, huh?
When I first made it, its attack and resistance weren’t this high, and it didn’t have any of those weird traits.
But at some point, it gained this automatic-growth thing, and now the scythe’s stats and traits have been increasing at random.
They say that when you use materials from a strong monster to make something, it sometimes ends up having a piece of that monster’s power.
But it’s supposed to be only a piece, like the faint remnants of the monster.
A weapon shouldn’t randomly be growing on its own.
The only explanation I can think of is that maybe it’s the effect of Pride.
Pride is a cheat-like growth-enhancement skill, after all.
If this weapon somehow inherited that…well, it would explain a lot.
There’s something else that worries me, though.
It sure would be nice if this weapon was strong because I made it out of my own parts, but that seems almost too convenient, so I can’t help but suspect that someone else was involved.
Namely, a certain someone who gave me the cheat skill called Wisdom.
Yeah. D would do that.
Knowing that self-proclaimed “evil god,” I could just imagine D handing out an ultra-strong weapon just because it would be amusing.
That would certainly explain why it’s so incredibly high-powered.
Still, it’s not like I have any proof of that, and it
hasn’t caused any trouble for me so far.
But come on, this evil aura totally makes it seem like a cursed weapon!
Hrm.
Is this scythe actually going to work on that tank?
It’s got the Rot attribute, but that’s the attribute that controls death, and a tank isn’t a living thing.
As I stand around contemplating this, the puppet spiders rush forward to attack the tank.
Aside from Sael, who’s injured, the other three are charging from all sides.
And the tank’s muzzle is still pointed at me.
Did they use me as a decoy?!
Well, I guess I can’t blame them. I did the same thing to Sael earlier.
As the puppet spiders rapidly close in, the tank extends four arms to fend them off.
They’re the same kind of gun arms I saw on the robots we wiped the floor with.
The guns start shooting light bullets.
Of the four, two fire at Ael, and the other two shoot at Riel and Fiel.
Though the tank couldn’t have possibly known this, it was smart to focus its fire on Ael, who’s basically the eldest sister of the puppet spiders.
Even Ael has no choice but to stop when two guns are shooting at her, fending off the shots with her blades.
It’s still kinda impressive that she isn’t taking a scratch, though.
While Ael is keeping those two arms occupied, Riel and Fiel work their way closer to the tank while blocking and dodging its shots.
Clearly one arm each isn’t enough to stop them.
Next thing you know, their swords swing at the tank’s armor.
There’s an unpleasant metallic CLANG as the swords clash against the armor, sending sparks flying.
But that’s it.
The swords cut through those robots easily, but they aren’t working on the tank’s outer defenses at all.
Forget slicing any part of the tank to ribbons. At most, they can leave only a tiny scratch.
Having thrown their full weight into the charge, Riel and Fiel are forced to pause for a second as their attacks are blocked.
The tank wastes no time in taking advantage of that opening.
With a loud grating noise, it rotates like a giant top, sending Riel and Fiel flying.
Luckily, they react quickly enough to push off the hull, adjusting themselves in midair and landing safely on their feet.
However, the tank isn’t done.
It keeps spinning as it charges toward Ael, who’s stopped in place.
