Chapter 725: If There Is a Path There
Author's Preface
(Katarina has a placard hanging from her neck that says, "I couldn't hold back on the monster lore.")
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"Obobobobaaah!!"
"Tsu-Tsuchinoko-saaan!!"
I was burned and melted to death by magma.
Ten-odd seconds later, crawling out of the tent pitched on the outer edge of the "Golden Spring" in the deepest part of the Horvalkin Grand Temple, I gave Midas-shi—who was looking at me with an exasperated expression—a manly smile in return.
"When you suddenly dove right in, I wondered what in the world was happening... but surely you understand now? This spring can only be traversed by a hero."
"That was quite the magnificent dive, wasn't it〜"
"Were you planning on swimming?"
Yeah, I didn't actually snap and act out of desperation. I just had something I wanted to know, so I was merely verifying it.
"Hehehe... naive, you're naive, Midas-kun. Neither impossibility nor despair... are eternal. There will always come a day when they are overturned."
That day is today.
The structure of this so-called Golden Spring is simple: in the center of a spring filled with "normal magma" roughly 100 meters in diameter, there's a spot barely a meter across where golden, shining magma wells up.
Despite being right in the middle of normal heat-radiating, light-emitting magma, the gold shines without mixing and without clouding, proving that this magma isn't just a simple palette swap.
In other words. As long as you can reach it, you can get your hands on the Golden Magma, but... the problem is inevitably the roughly 49-meter stretch of normal magma zone.
First of all, the organism known as a human is fundamentally nothing more than a piece of trash, so the moment you dive into magma, you die. To add to that, if you flew low over magma for about 50 meters, the ambient temperature alone would kill you.
So what should be done?
"By the way, Midas-kun, I can already see the strategy to beat this, but do you have any idea?"
"What are───"
"The time it takes to catch fire and die is five seconds; before ignition, physical contact causes damage in fractions of a second, and in non-contact situations, you take DoT from the heat. With the effects of the Reverse Position 'The Fool', that DoT is halved. Five seconds until I lose ten percent..."
Conclusion.
"Reach the center within fifty seconds, and secure the magma within five seconds...!! I could clear this in my sleep!!"
GO!!
Skill activation! Activation! Activation!!
"Sunraku" is a warrior, yet he is the fastest warrior who dashes through the sky without using a drop of magic! That is "Sunraku"!!
I'm the guy who sprinted right past the collapse of the world, if you want to stop me, don't bring out a damage floor, bring out a conveyor belt!!
"Hahhaaaah!!"
It pisses me off, but the effect reversal of the Reverse Position is working in my favor here. My body is being exposed to incredibly high temperatures as I sprint at top speed right on the razor's edge without touching the magma, but the resulting damage is less than usual.
"I see it!"
A single drop of gold! Bucket on standby!!
A numbing heat assaults my legs, and my stamina is being shaved away, but it's well within the margin of error! The real challenge starts now; dropping my speed to the absolute limit, I let myself freefall right toward the center of the spring.
Then, the exact moment before my feet sink into the magma! Using the minimum radius of Orbit Movement, I invert my body's top and bottom!!
The effects of the Aster Runner, the advanced evolution of the skill that alters the direction of gravity's influence, are still active. As long as this skill is running, my semicircular canals aren't affected by the spinning.
And thanks to the effect of the Hermes Boots evolution, Dione Assistance, I can even stand suspended right there without moving any further.
"Meaning, in this single split-second───!!"
It means I can swing the bucket from a completely stable footing. With a heavy sploosh, the bucket sinks into the gold. And the exact moment I pull it out!!
"The secret technique passed down continuously through generations of elementary school boys...!"
Achieving "water that doesn't fall" by swinging a bucket full of water around with all your might to generate centrifugal force... I'm just doing that with magma this time. Phew! If I screw this up, I'm taking a magma shower straight to the head.
Now all I have to do is make it back, but... damn it, I'm almost out of time. I can probably only manage one or two more mid-air jumps...
"Seih!"
First jump, doing a backflip in place to correct my orientation.
"Hup!"
Second jump, leaping high straight up.
"Rescue: Intelligence Catch."
And with that, I grab the hand of Saina, whom I summoned into the air, and return safely to the ground. What irony; it's precisely because I have Inventoria on both arms, allowing me to operate one even if the other hand is occupied, that I can pull off this kind of stunt in a situation like this.
I bought a full set of armaments for Saina, and among them is an aerial maneuverability package capable of suspending the weight of a single person and a fully loaded bucket.
Well, since increasing the weight limit cuts into the resources allocated for weaponry, specializing her flight capabilities to this extent means she can functionally only act as transport now. But whatever, that's more than enough.
"Wh-what in the world..."
"Yo, my fellow heroes, sorry but I'm dipping out first. Good luck with the walkthrough!!"
"Umm〜, do you think you could go fetch some for us instead..."
"Isn't this obviously the type of pattern where clearing it with unintended methods invalidates it?"
"Either way, it looks like we'll be relying on you for gathering soon enough."
Imron... you must never compromise on your bucket. That is the one and only correct answer.
Right before I left, Midas-shi asked me. He asked what I intended to do with it... Right, if I had to dare give an answer.
"If wishes awaken holy weapons... then I want to grip a weapon born of my own wish."
"That is........."
Forgive me, Midas. I have no idea what I just said either. I just haphazardly strung together some cool-sounding words on the spot, so it really doesn't mean anything... but I'll keep my mouth shut; if mystery makes a woman beautiful, then silence polishes a man.
Yeah, I seriously don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm just tired.
Whatever, the objective is complete. Let's go help Rei-shi out!!
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"........."
Zuzun, the earth quakes.
"........."
Neither Rei-shi nor I say a word; we simply exchange glances. It feels almost like an eternity of staring into each other's eyes...
"Vorururururh."
"".........""
I was looking up at Rei-shi, and Rei-shi was looking down at me. Why was I looking up at Rei-shi, whose avatar height is factually shorter than mine?
It was none other than because Rei-shi was straddling a stupidly massive horse. And on top of that, the horse's coat was distinctly metallic—or rather... yeah, without averting my eyes from reality, I initially thought it was just a suit of armor shaped like a horse.
"Umm...... who might this be?"
"It's a... long story, you could say. For now... um,"
───I changed jobs to the hidden upper-tier class Moon-Chasing Dragon Knight.
"Eeeeh........."
"Umm... for now, I was wondering what to name it..."
"Vurururuh."
Not a thoroughbred type, but the type of giant armored horse-kun... chan? that looks like it could turn a person's head into mincemeat just by stepping in place glared at me as if assessing my worth. Hoho? Fine, I accept your challenge.
"How about Weisswurst?"
"Then, let's go with that..."
Gonk!!!
"Ogoeh!?"
"Su-Sunraku-kun!?"
A-A headbutt just shaved off forty percent of my health...! Isn't this horsemeat smarter than I thought?! Damn it, how did it find out?
Author's Afterword
Weisswurst = Sausage
・Arma-Alogo Hetairon
A higher-tier species of the monster known as Alogo Hetairon that dwells in the volcanic region. Categorically, it is a Rare Enemy.
While standard Alogo Hetairon primarily charge in to crush enemies under the sheer weight of their numbers, this higher-tier species differs from the standard variants—which only possess partial plating. Because it covers what would normally be weak points (the joints) with an expanding and contracting carapace, it specializes in solitary charges and trampling.
Furthermore, Alogo Hetairon clusters, including Arma-Alogo Hetairon, have extremely rough temperaments and move with highly coordinated discipline.
Due to this nature, they almost always serve as the leaders commanding Alogo Hetairon clusters, but on rare occasions, individuals who lost in a power struggle between Arma-Alogo Hetairons vying for the leadership position will act entirely on their own.
Heroine-chan encountered precisely that type of individual.
By the way, if you're wondering whether Arma-Alogo Hetairon is a strictly superior version of standard Alogo Hetairon, that's not quite the case. If a full party of fifteen (the max limit) were unified solely as Alogo Hetairon, they would form a terrifyingly synchronized heavy cavalry unit.
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