Chapter 672: Clad in Imperial Aura, I Now Advance
"I'll be absent from class today due to a sudden cold, and I'll probably take tomorrow off too just to be safe."
Seeing Bansai-shi's refreshing smile as he declared that with absolute certainty, I was once again reminded that he truly was a gamer just like the rest of us...... Setting that aside, it seemed this guy wouldn't suffer any academic consequences even if he skipped a day or two of classes, which really just drove home the fact that his base human specs in everyday life were completely different from mine.
That aside, I wonder if Rei-shi had already logged out? Well, considering what time it was, it was only natural; if anything, the members of 【Library】 who were still running around full of energy at this hour were just too lively.
"Hey, Lore Nerds. I just got a new Exordinary Skill, wanna help me verify it?"
"Sounds good. How many people do you need?"
"14."
"Ah, sorry about that, Sunraku-kun. There are only five of us here right now."
Well, there are some pretty high-difficulty walls scattered throughout, so I suppose it couldn't be helped......... Unlike Leviathan—where finding the winning strategy was the hard part, but once you had it, it was just somewhat tedious—Behemoth required a mindset of "Alright, it's a test! One-shot deal!!" It might actually be more merciful considering it fully permitted using cheap tricks and finding loopholes, though.
Setting that aside, I was curious about its performance, so with a total party of eight—including Emul and Saina—I used a combat dummy provided by "Ivory" as a virtual enemy......... No, seriously, don't put that thing out right in front of my Saina!!
"Good grief............ Alright, let's start the verification."
Bansai-shi, the Professor, Saina, Emul, and three Library members. With my seven party members standing idle in the back, I stepped forward alone............ Activate, Exordinary Skill "Golden Age"!!
"Hmph!!!"
Whoa, this is amazing. When I used it at the Crystal Nest Cliff, my body's surface was just enveloped in a pathetic effect that made me think, "Wait, did I just glow?" But now, with seven people waiting behind me, a pretty magnificent skill effect generated. What would be a good way to describe it... it was like "Fighting Aura" in manga... and not the flickering flame kind, but the crackling electricity kind.
"I actually wanted you to start without the skill first, but...... alright, let's start by verifying a bare-handed attack with the skill active."
Wait, didn't this turn into a much more serious verification test than I was expecting? Well, whatever. Hitting an unresisting target was boring anyway, so I had it perform some random attack actions and............ I drove in a compact upper at a sharp angle!!
A hard sensation. However, my sunken fist completely blew away the body of the Saina's relative that resembled an inorganic mannequin.
"Hmm...... Sunraku-kun, you aren't using any accessories or other skills with STR modifiers right now, right?"
"Nothing in particular."
"To produce that much firepower with stats heavily skewed towards mobility......... If this is what you get with seven slots, I'm suddenly very curious about the firepower if you had a full fourteen. Next, try it with a skill active."
"Got it. I'll use Samildánach, then."
Alright then, without any particular setup, I activated Samildánach and............ threw an honest, straight punch fitting of a classic trope!!
My punch sank into the arm of the combat dummy that had taken a guarding stance. The hard sensation transmitting through my clenched fingers suddenly flexed, shattered......... and blasted apart!!
While watching the combat dummy go tumbling away as it was violently blown back, I gazed at my arm as the skill effect rewrote itself...... So this is what you get with just one skill on top of my base specs, huh.
"Shattering the guard and causing that much knockback...... That's terrifying."
"No, it's definitely terrifying, but I don't think it actually dealt as much damage as it looked like, did it?"
"I agree with Bansai-san. I can't say for sure since we can't see the HP gauge, but the guard was shattered while the damage itself probably stopped entirely at the arm, right?"
"I see, that makes sense. The way it blew back didn't look like the damage penetrated into the torso. Still, if you close your eyes to the activation conditions, you get a constant buff giving you those specs...... It's what you'd call a jackpot skill."
Those guys started completely ignoring the tester and fell deep into their own discussion...... Well, I got the performance check done, so I'll just let them do whatever they want. I mostly party up with Emul and Saina anyway, so a two-person multiplier will likely be my main setup.
"........."
Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I threw a punch with my absolute full specs? I should still barely make it within the effect duration, right? Skill activation, skill activation, skill activation. Support via accessories, buff, buff, buff......
"Hm? Sunraku-kun, what are you..."
"Focusing purely on power. Take it all without leaving a single drop, and embrace it......!!"
The fastest! The maximum! The strongest! I unleashed a full swing of the Exordinary Skill "Warphan," intentionally prioritizing sheer power over knockback!!
Using a full-speed dash as a substitute for a wind-up, I slammed my cocked fist straight into the combat dummy!!
"Tch."
A sensation I had never felt before. Even though I felt like I had punched it with all my might, it felt like the power had decayed...... No, that's not it. Was this processed as if my punch decelerated because the receiving end barely moved? Warphan was a strike that forced you to choose between two extremes. It either stripped away almost all the damage to generate an enormous knockback, or,
It became a high-power strike that reduced knockback to practically zero.
"O-Ooh?"
A nasty *Crack!!* echoed out. As if the impact resonating inside it had surged through its entire structure, fissures spider-webbed across the combat dummy's entire body before it collapsed right on the spot and vanished...... It seemed its HP had run out.
"............"
"............"
"............"
Silence. Was it because the result was far more grotesque than expected, or was it because new variables had just been added to their theoretical calculations?
".........Did Sunraku-san just acquire an art to destroy opponents from the inside out desu wa?"
"No, what the hell is that ridiculous assassination fist?"
While softly denying Emul's muttered comment, I wondered what to do next and exited the colosseum.
".........Well then, should we head to the lab!?"
"Complaint: Is that really the line you should be saying right after pulverizing one of this unit's kin?"
"Heh, look who's talking, Saina........."
She didn't sound nearly as clouded as she claimed. It seemed she had already steeled her resolve. First, I had to figure out how to dodge the impending interrogation from the Library players who clearly loved skill verification............
......
............
..................
It was getting to a dangerous hour where I really needed to log out soon, but the final Conquista Doll-related event......... I wanted to at least reach the point of opening the closed doors to Andrew Jitterdoll's lab. So, while soothing my impatient heart, I stood in a certain sector of Behemoth's Eighth Layer alongside Saina and Emul. 【Library】 wasn't here. Since none of the members present had a Conquista Doll, they decided they wouldn't be able to tag along anyway, so they were supposedly focusing on scavenging for documents in the Eighth Layer.
Naturally, the Professor and Bansai-shi pressed me to tell them what was inside later......... well, that much was fine. It wasn't an event exclusive to me anyway. Sooner or later, a player affiliated with 【Library】 who contracted a Conquista Doll...... yeah, like Mirei, for example, would probably come here too.
"So? That 'Ivory' said you knew the way, right?"
"Affirmative: This unit retained a certain amount of information regarding Andrew Jitterdoll during the production phase. By referencing that........."
Saina operated one of the consoles and began opening some sort of file. Let's see......... the idol group "Sternenblume"? That's information from the Divine Age, right? An idol group is a pretty niche thing to......... wait.
"Response: He is waiting. Waiting for the one who arrived to learn of what he loved. And......... waiting for his own creations, these units, the Conquista Dolls. No, perhaps that is simply what this unit wishes to be true."
The moment Saina operated the console to seek more detailed information, our bodies were enveloped in light. I knew this. This was a teleportation method using Divine Age technology──────
"Let us go, Contractor. To our father...... Andrew Jitterdoll."
Author's Afterword
Heroine-chan: "Greeting the parents............?"
Comments
Post a Comment