Chapter 415: Let Your Heart Die as It Will, It's Grinding Time as It Will

"Euh... egu... ohh..."

She is legitimately crying; it's a genuine cry that completely throws away all the advantages of being a beautiful girl.

"I'm honestly sorry... I never expected her to be that much of a piece of junk..."

I am currently making the Culprit (Piece of Junk) engage in the Work (Punishment) of digging a hole in the ground and then filling it back up. She kept blabbering on about her Intelligence being bugged or whatever, so she can go waste some of that Intelligence doing that for a while.

"No jelly... no jelly... motor cortex, magic power, purge, extend..."

"Ah... wanna eat some meat? It's got some chew to it, you know?"

"L-Let me sleep..."

Well, yeah, it can't be helped. I went through the trouble of buying it, so let's set up the furniture! Yeah!!

"...Um, are you okay, desu wa?"

"Little rabbitttt... what part of me, looks okay to youuu..."

"I don't really get that steel person, but if you're going to be involved with Sunraku-san, getting used to it is important, desu wa... Before I knew it, I was going on so many grand adventures that I just kinda ended up accepting it all, desu wa."

"............What's your name?"

"Emul, desu wa."

"Somehow I don't feel like you're a stranger... Nice to meet you, Emu-chan."

"Sh-She has a more normal head on her shoulders than Sunraku-san, desu wa...!?"

I'll forgive her in light of her contributions as a fast-travel unit this time, but... there won't be a next time, Emul.

"Sunraku-san! Sunraku-san! Sh-She's normal, desu wa!"

"Sammy-chan-san is way more normal."

"Sunraku-san, is your head okay, desu wa?"

"Alright, you're outー"

"Honyaaaaaaa!?"

I grab her by the scruff of the neck and sentence her to a light shaking. Leaving the dizzy, staggering Emul to stumble around, I take another look around the newly transformed cave.

"There's a discrepancy in the civilization levels here."

"Hey, did you fill the hole?"

"Affirmative."

"Then go dig it again."

"Ah, my Intelligence is being wasted...!!"

Leveling is pretty much the same thing; pacing is what's important, pacing.
The toughness to continuously repeat simple tasks is an essential element of grinding, but those who can't take a breather properly will break their minds. Only those who can anesthetize the majority of the pain with a handful of compromises can become first-rate workers.

"But the fact that her level actually went up is just... yeah..."

Level 79. By New Continent standards, it's still garbage, but from a power-leveling perspective, you could call it exceptional. At the very least, it's a far more legitimate leveling method than knocking a massive swarm of scorpions off a cliff.

"What specific method did you use?"

"Answer: I intentionally lured a male group of Armilet Gargantulas that noticed me into the cave, and had her eliminate the targets one by one as they advanced in a single file line down the passage."

I see, so that's why the passage was expanded to have such a weird width and height.

"And then I had her ingest the harvested Jelly Material, initiated combat once more, and repeated the same process in a loop..."

"I see?"

What a horrific self-sustaining ecosystem; the fact that it's effective makes it even worse. For now, I decided to give it a try myself.

"Take this, oraaaaah!!"

Taking up a position in the middle of the passage, I slash down the Armilet Gargantulas pouring in. They're coming in nicely lined up, so targets are being replenished one after another... Ah, an explosion in the back, a chain reaction, which means it's coming towards the front............

"Wai───"

I reflexively try to kick it back, but the fact that they're in a single file line means the back is jammed up, which means...

"Gubeh!?"

The Armilet Gargantula I kicked away bumps into the spiders behind it and bounces back. And with the detonation, my body, taking the direct hit of the impact, is easily blown away...

"..."

I sluggishly crawl out of Brunbas.

"Guarantee: The self-destruct behavior of the Armilet Gargantula chains. Once they all self-destruct, a cooldown period will occur, so... shall we continue?"

"Like hell I'm gonna back down, orruaaah!!"

Come on, spiders! While I'm at it, to celebrate the creation of our base, I'll pick a fight with all the spiders, centipedes, and scorpions, rurururruaahh!!!

If a person's heart is cheerful, they will not grow weary even if they walk all day long, but if their heart is filled with sorrow, even a single league will become a burden.
The journey of life is the same; one must always walk the path of life with a bright and cheerful heart.

When Takeda-shi confidently recited this to me, I thought, "Wow, that's amazing!" but even that feeling of nostalgia from when I looked it up later and realized it was just a ripped-off quote feels distant now.
In other words, it's better to have fun while working, though honestly, it's way more efficient to just put your heart into a state of suspended animation.

"............"

"Good morning... wait, why do you look so burned out!?"

"It's fine to just ignore him, desu wa. This is a regular occurrence, desu wa."

"This is the end result of him continuously rushing toward death even after a total of thirty-eight revivals. I do not believe there are any issues."

Spiders are strong... Centipedes are strong... Soloing that is impossible... As expected, the era belongs to scorpions... Well, since I managed to get materials from the spiders and centipedes that died from mutual destruction and whatnot, my balance is in the positive. In the process, I got turned into an artillery shell along with the Armilet Gargantulas, and was dragged along for a drive in a way that's a bit hard to describe.
It was a front-row seat. Getting bitten by a centipede's mouth and being dragged along the ground like zarizari... Heheh, I couldn't see anything but dust clouds and flying pebbles.

"Fortress Gargantula materials: Armored Wall Carapace, Fixed Bristles, Turret Fragments... Trainol Centipede Gustav: Sturdy Strike Shell, Advancing Legs, Mortar Shell Fragments... And then various materials from the Alexand Scorpion... Nice, things are getting exciting."

The outer carapaces look excellent for armor, but I've already thrown away defense to begin with. If I were to use them as weapons... a shield? A tower shield is hard to utilize with my build. A fist weapon? The direction overlaps with the Gilta Brille. Hmm, what a luxurious dilemma...

"Alright, for now, I'm gonna go hunt some scorpions."

Emul, Wimp, and Saina—three people of entirely different races—all give me the exact same exasperated look, but... I want the Alexand Scorpion's Twin Core Treasure. The drop rate doesn't seem that bad, and I already have two, but I want one more.

Tomorrow... or rather, today is already my day off, so I want to clear Presi-Legend today or tomorrow. This has turned into quite a long detour.

The pickaxe excels at breaking parts, and the fists serve as effective blunt-force strikes.
I've already finished grasping eighty percent of its behavioral patterns. The remaining twenty percent are patterns for when it's at a complete distance, so I don't need to worry about them right now.

"We're in the endgame... Hand over that Core (Heart)."

Lasers are fired, but on the outer edges, the light just flows outward. Killing several scorpions has caused fluctuations in the territory of the Crystal Crown, but if the maximum number has decreased, then the individual territories have likely expanded.
In other words, my freedom to maneuver has also increased...! (5 Losses)

"Right there!!"

It swings its tail, which I had mined... off halfway, and charges its massive body, now possessing only a single pincer. Evading the Alexand Scorpion, I swing the tip of my pickaxe at its leg, meeting its momentum head-on as if to slam into it.
A satisfying Pakin rings out, and the scorpion's leg dances through the air, scattering shattered fragments. As if standing in for the voiceless scorpion's groan, an unpleasant creaking noise echoes from its entire body.

The moment of conclusion seems synchronized with the break of dawn. Far, far at the edge of the horizon, the morning sun reaches us, as if to repaint the colors of the night...

"Uoo!?"

In an instant, as if dominoes had started falling, the Tsar-Beryl Emperor Treasure Crystals growing on the Crystal Crown change their colors in unison from a blood-like crimson to a mystical azure.

In that split second, that one moment where the color reflected in my eyes was dyed entirely azure. That fleeting moment where the environment itself matched its body color—that was the signal for the Alexand Scorpion's final counterattack.

The scenery of the Crystal Crown, which had become nearly identical in both body color and constitution, served as a paradoxical camouflage. Moving its remaining, gap-toothed legs, the Alexand Scorpion circles around to my side with tremendous speed, its body turning a crimson lotus hue.
Thrusting its single remaining pincer, it unleashes a strike aimed at me, wringing out the very absolute bottom of whatever strength remained in its body.

But you're naive, too naive, Alexand Scorpion...! The True Gaze Bird Mask applies visual corrections to targets looked at directly. But conversely, that means I can sense discrepancies when something falls out of my field of vision.

The morning sun, the scorpion, the conclusion. In a moment that brings a destiny-like sense of déjà vu, my body dodges the beam and twists into a throwing posture.

"Here's a parting gift for the finish! As if I'm giving it to you!!"

The pickaxe, hurled with a full swing, splits the air as it rotates vertically. And its tip, brimming with the kinetic energy of the throw, pierces straight into the space between the Alexand Scorpion's eyes?
The scorpion's massive body twitches once, convulsing before stiffening. Then, as the legs supporting its massive frame yield to its own weight and collapse to the ground, its body explodes, turning into drop items and vanishing.

"I won..."

I'm used to this by now. Alright, first I'll cancel the Levin Trigger: Hazard and collect the items... What? Something feels like it's blinking behind me...?

I look back. There, among the crystals shining azure bathed in the morning sun, is a single crystal blinking red and azure. And the interval of that blinking is gradually getting shorter... D-Don't tell me.

"The properties of the beam... change between day and night...?"

Yeah, like a time-delay detonating bomb, for example...!!

"Wai-"

The red and azure crystal bursts. Scattered crystal shards pierce my body, and the impact blows me away.
The last thing I saw was the Twin Core Treasure, split perfectly in two by the aftermath of the explosion.........

My motivation just hit zero, so I'm going to play Presi-Legend as a break from my break. Wait? Was it the other way around?

Author's Afterword
Q. What happens when a wimp faces another wimp?
A. A victim's association is formed.

The reason Tsuchinoko-nine hated the Vorpal Bunnies and the reason Boss-dunine hates the Vorpal Bunnies are strictly different.
The reason Wimp doesn't particularly hate them is because, due to her fundamental emotional state, the reason to hate Vorpal Bunnies has disappeared.

There's a saying, 'He who hates the monk also hates his robes,' but is it fun to trample on the robes? It's kind of like that.

Time-Delay Yuzapa Cancel Scorpion Battle Endgame Description Jutsu!!