Chapter 206: Sharing the Same Heaven - Part 12

"Haaaah, geez, this is such a paaaaaain!!"

Shouting with a high-pitched voice I definitely couldn't have produced at any point in my life outside of my childhood, I cursed at the blue chalice that had retreated to a height out of reach.
Despite my vision flipping upside down several times, we somehow managed to successfully destroy the green chalice while maintaining a state where we could perceive normal colors. So we naturally fired ourselves up for the next chalice, but... at this point, three new facts—both good and bad—had come to light.

"The next light is coming soon desu wa!!"

"Come on Blue, come on Blue, Blue...!"

"...Indigo."

"RNGeezuzzzzz!"

First off: the interval between the flashes, which we were forced to understand after allowing it to flash several times. The chalices shine at thirty-second intervals. If the effects brought about by the shining chalices are different colors, they stack. If the same color shines a second time, you return to your original state.

"What swapped thi—bugeh!?"

"Sunraku-san!?"

"Okay... I figured it out without anyone telling me... It's AGI and VIT."

Though I managed to avoid a direct hit, I still got caught by a tentacle and was sent flying spectacularly. Normally, my HP would have been completely wiped out in a single blow unless a luck-based effect allowed me to endure at 1 HP, yet I still had about ten percent left. It seems this "Indigo" completely negates the strengths of a highly mobile attacker like Sunraku.
Yes, the second fact is the effect possessed by the "Indigo" light. Color inversion and gender inversion are absolutely nothing compared to it; alongside "Purple," its effect is the epitome of maliciousness: Status Inversion. It imposes a restriction so severe that it makes you question the very definition of inversion—it literally swaps your stat parameters.

"Kuh........."

This effect is practically a natural predator to any player using a so-called specialized stat distribution. What happens if you subtract STR and VIT from a Tank? What if you take away AGI and DEX from a Light Warrior? What if you strip away MP from a Magic class? It's incredibly malicious, but the fact that it isn't entirely without merit is exactly what makes it so troublesome.

"Rei-shi! Role switch!"

"Understood...!"

Rei-shi, being an all-rounder leaning toward Tank, suffered relatively little damage. In fact, through this stat swap, she lost some of her sturdiness but gained speed in return. And conversely, having my legs taken away, I gained durability rivaling a Tank class.
Our roles swapped. Rei-shi quickly retreated, and I—fiddling with my status screen—stepped forward in her place. The current me is different from the old me. You could call me Version 2. Even though it's for an extremely limited time, and even though I bear the demerit of forced equipment breakage as a price, the current me... can be fashionable.

"Fools! Who said I can't play Tank!!"

So-called NPC shop equipment—gear that players can obtain just by paying money without needing to prepare crafting materials. But this is the "Guardian's Great Armor" series, a full-body armor set for Heavy Warriors (Tanks) crafted by the bunny closest to Vysache in Rabituza, and currently the closest to the Divine Craftsman title: Bilac, who holds the "Master Craftsman" and "Ancient Craftsman" jobs.
Equipping the full set activates the effect: "Reduces damage taken if hit while not currently under the effects of any active skills or magic cast upon yourself." Honestly, under normal gameplay circumstances, fighting entirely without skills or magic is rare in and of itself, so it's not a very useful effect. But for the current me, it's a godsend.

"Nngh, guuuuh...!"

The potions I brought along ran out ages ago. After forcefully recovering my stamina by crunching down head-first on HP-recovery fish I caught during our stay in Ruluiath, Ctarrnid's tentacles struck me. I was sent flying like a soccer ball, rolling across the Colosseum, but the damage I took wasn't nearly as severe as it looked.

"Damn it... to think they even faithfully recreated the texture of the tiny bones..."

As expected, they didn't go so far as to recreate the sensation of tiny fish bones getting stuck in your throat... Actually, it's probably technically possible with this game's engine, but they just chose not to. Thank god. It would be easier to eat if they were dried fish, but somehow... yeah, biting into them raw recovers my health faster due to the chewing speed.
When I did this while wearing the Bird Mask, Rust told me, "If you're a bird, swallow it without chewing." I retorted with a "Shut up, I'm human!" Ah, come to think of it, I've been treated like a bird quite a bit since I started this game. Araba even called me a "Birdian"... Wait, is my life flashing before my eyes?

"Uorraaaaashaaaa!!"

A full-power leap pouring my absolute entire body and soul—all my STR—into it. My foot caught on something, and I was sent spinning like a frisbee—or a stone skipping across water—but my HP barely managed to stay above 0. The moment I recognized the indigo light dyeing my vision, I threw off all my equipment with everything I had, sprinting away from Ctarrnid at top speed without giving a single damn about the fact that I was a half-naked female character looking exactly like an absolute exhibitionist.

"That was close, that was close... mugu."

"Umm, maybe you should put some clothes on... Or rather, eating raw fish starting from the head is..."

"Mold, don't be deceived by appearances. I am a man, and I believe it's perfectly fine to throw away a little common sense for the sake of efficiency."

"You aren't throwing away common sense, you're throwing away your basic humanity..."

Gaaah, humans eat the heads of shishamo smelt all the time, and you practically toss whitebait into your mouth without even registering the bones or heads! Don't get all flustered now just because a busty loli is half-naked and crunching down on a raw fish head-first!

"...Sunraku, it's bad for Mold's education, so do that somewhere else where we can't see you."

"I'm going to charge right back to the frontlines the moment I'm done healing anyway, so backing up even further is just a waste of time... Look, 'Purple' is coming down! That's absolute top priority for destruction!"

The four chalices that self-destructed the moment it entered the second phase were likely tied to the Sealed Generals. I don't even want to think about it, but their effects were probably the same. Just thinking that we might have been inflicted with Physical Nullification or Close-Range Nullification if we hadn't defeated the Sealed Generals sends shivers down my spine. And equally, we absolutely cannot let it use the effect of the "Purple" chalice. Yep, it just shone purple.

"And it does it exactly as I say that...!"

"I'm sorry, we couldn't destroy it entirely!!"

"Damn it, I'm not gonna let it regenerate! How many people still have potions left!?"

"...I still have some."

"Me too...!"

And out of everything we've discovered so far, this is arguably the absolute worst: the third fact... the effect of the "Purple" chalice. The effect of the purple chalice is simply "Damage Inversion." Just reading the text makes it sound like a counter effect, but it's not. It inverts Damage (HP reduction) into Recovery (HP increase). And what happens because of that? Our attacks cause the chalice to regenerate. No, it's not just that.

Ctarrnid raises a tentacle. That tentacle is holding the blue chalice, which looks like it's just one hit away from breaking. And Ctarrnid slams that tentacle down—not to harm us, but with a movement clearly designed to inflict damage on the chalice. With a deafening roar, the blue chalice smashes into the ground, and the cracks that looked ready to split it completely in half begin to repair themselves.
Yes, despite boasting that much strength, the bastard Ctarrnid actively heals its own chalices. You stingy octopus! Damn it, my curses are just statements of fact so they don't even have an effect... Curse you, Ctarrnid.

But we aren't just going to sit back and watch. If damage becomes recovery, then the reverse also inverts. A thrown potion smashes against the chalice, spilling its contents. The liquid, which should normally heal wounds, acts like sulfuric acid, eroding the chalice that had just begun to mend itself.

"No wonder we were able to catch such a massive amount of fish that act as potion substitutes..."

It's an absolutely egregious first-timer trap, but the fact that a relief measure was properly prepared just makes me even more frustrated. Still, there's absolutely no way anyone could have predicted "Save your potions so you can use them as throwing weapons to prevent the boss from healing" without prior information!!

"Thirty seconds desu waaa!"

The timer... I mean, Emul's voice echoed out. Honestly, aside from Rei-shi and me acting as decoys on the frontlines, everyone else has a lot of free time. We need to keep the attackers on standby in the back to achieve maximum efficiency when attacking the chalices, so I have no intention of changing our current formation. Hearing Emul's voice signal the next flash, I could only pray that this damn RNG would grant us a good outcome.

"It's Indigo!"

"Yeeeeeessssss! Smash it!!"

If we don't break it while our stats are back to normal, it's just going to turn into another RNG prayer game. Rei-shi—having regained her original sturdiness—and I—having regained my original speed—dashed forward to bait out an attack from the tentacle holding the indigo chalice. My chest bounces and it hurts!

Author's Afterword
A half-naked woman with scar-like bruises all over her body, crunching down on a raw fish head-first with completely dead eyes... Is she a mountain witch or something?