Chapter 819: December 1?th: The Serpent Called It a Keepsake, and Humans Called It Pride
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Previously on... (Three seconds ago)
At this rate, I'm going to be forced to wear a maid outfit. Moreover, judging from this person's own appearance and the brief interaction I've had with Elysion Haute-Couture over the past day, he's the type who doesn't care about the gender of the person he puts a maid outfit on.
"W-well, you see? Unfortunately, because of this Scar I have...... it'd be too much of a shame to explosively destroy a gift from someone else in just three minutes, so I'll have to decline the offer to be your model......"
"───At the very least."
Hm?
"At the very least, in this world, there are times when a million jewels can lose to a single stone that has found understanding."
"......What are you talking about?"
"If an actual example exists, then there must be reproducibility. Leaving aside whether it's realistic or unrealistic...... it is 'theoretically possible.'"
"So what are......"
"Requiescat in Pace."
It took me a few seconds to realize that was the official name of the R.I.P. Without a single hint of joking around, Elysion Haute-Couture spoke that name with a serious gaze while showing me the actual item from his inventory.
"It's a unique item even within ShanFro, generating a special armor using the currently equipped armor as a cost, but...... that's not the important part. The armor generated by the power of this crystal...... completely nullifies normal 'destruction'."
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I knew that best. R.I.P. breaks when hit with recovery items or magic, but conversely, with any other damage, the Inside themselves might take damage, but the mourning clothes formed by R.I.P. absolutely will not break.
"The principle behind it isn't important right now. Whether you strike a match or focus sunlight with a magnifying glass, the resulting phenomenon is ignition. The only important thing is the single point that 'the phenomenon of armor escaping destruction' exists in this World."
"My bad, but could you just give me the conclusion?"
"That scar...... it's an upgraded version of 'Curse', likely the same thing as the 'Engraved Stigma' inflicted by Siegwurm. If I recall correctly, that also had the demerit of destroying equipment over time."
Kokkon? Do they have different names for each Unique Monster?
"Let me state the conclusion. It might be possible to create Armor that nullifies the Scar's demerit, or evades destruction even while accepting the demerit."
".........I'll hear you out. If you can convince me, I'll strike a pose honed by my main profession."
According to a Professional Model:
The model in a photograph does not need to look at the readers; the readers look at the model's eyes...... Only by seizing the initiative of the field of vision can one be called a first-class model.
......
............
..................
Unfortunately, there's no need to take measurements for a player's armor. At least, there shouldn't have been, but after being told it was "necessary to grasp the harmony" and getting measured anyway, I (having used the Chalice) used Saina as a scapegoat and headed over to Wimp, who was acting like a mannequin with dead eyes.
"Yo, is training going smoothly?"
".........Well, passably."
I shot a quick glance at the Dress-Up Squad. For some reason, they looked embarrassed. I'm not asking for a naive reaction, I'm asking for a progress report.
"Well, to be blunt, she's weak. So, yeah."
"Not being able to learn skills hurts. And secreting poison is more of a support thing, anyway."
"Which is why she's currently training in the Assassin style. The kind where you avoid the ribs and stab."
That's not an Assassin, that's more like a Criminal or something in that vein.
Putting that aside, it seems the Wimp Training Arc is at least progressing. No matter how much of a coward she is, she's still a piece of a Unique Monster, so I want to believe there's no way she'll end up as industrial waste no matter how much she trains.
"For such a Wimp-chan, I have come bearing a present today...... here."
"a present? it's not some suspicious medicine made from a weird monster's bodily fluids, right?"
"If that's what you want, I can procure some Trainol Centipede poison for you?"
"no thank you!!"
I wonder if I can extract it from the Centipede Type 8-0.5, like a first press...... Probably impossible. If I could, that'd be some minor alchemy right there.
Jokes aside, I took out the special item I had asked Dulnyata to make in Catzeria from Inventoria and offered it to Wimp.
"......! This is,"
"Well, you know how it is."
Dulnyata is a Cait Sith 【Jeweler】. The "accessory-crafting specialized production class" that excels most in handling jewels......... When I tried asking, he did the job extremely easily. Actually, I wonder if he'd get mad if I told him I dropped the Levin Trigger: Hazard?
"While I was doing some Clank-Clank around the Catzeria area, I found something that looked interesting, so I had her mix a bunch of stuff together, weave it, and turn it into an accessory."
I took the Lapisteria Star Crystals from my "use-it-for-now" stash, added some Scorpion-type crystals from the same stash, and combined them with "Pure Fossil Crystals" discovered during my mining challenges in Catzeria and the Subterranean City Horvalkin—a mining material with the power to bind ore and biological materials together—along with a certain material I had, to complete this accessory.
A semi-transparent scarf, or perhaps a hagoromo—it was made by weaving ore turned into fibers via Jewel Weaving into the skin of a certain monster. [*1]
"He named it the 'Starry Sky Scarf of the Transparent Serpent'."
"this is......... Sammy-chan's........."
Bringing a keepsake along for an act of revenge is a common trope, right? I figured we should prepare something like that to follow the Established Tactics of revenge stories.
What Sammy-chan, who died and disappeared back then, left behind. Even if, systematically, it's just material from an "Giant Serpent"......... Even if I had an extremely superior item like the Golden Dragon King's horn. There's still meaning in using the material of a somewhat rare monster that wasn't that significant of an entity. At the very least, this game has the capacity to allow meaning to exist in that.
"Rather than leaving it asleep in a safe, let's take it along with us."
Wimp stared intently at the semi-transparent scarf, then hugged it as if it were precious and muttered a single word.
"............thank you."
"Don't worry about it. I am an 【Avenger】, after all."
Since it's my main job, I've already decided to take this revenge seriously.
"............I feel like I just saw something amazing."
"Is that Tsuchinoko-san's NPC Seduction-Skill........."
"To raise Wimp-chan's affection rating so easily........."
"Is he romance itself, walking around in clothes?"
"No, his clothes violently exploded just a bit ago, remember?"
"Pervert woman........."
Dress-Up Squad, I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
"Excellent! Inspiration is welling up limitlessly! Maid outfits! Ahh, maid outfits! This will change the history of this game! That conviction is taking up residence in my designs!!"
I'd like to pretend I didn't hear that either, but please give me a break—his voice is so loud my brain registers it without question.
Author's Afterword
・Starry Sky Scarf of the Transparent Serpent
A semi-transparent scarf created by sewing multiple ore threads into the base skin of the Assalterus Snake.
Perhaps because Lapisteria Star Crystals are woven into it, it occasionally emits a radiance like the starry sky, and the sight of its mysterious light swaying in the wind makes it look as if the wearer has wrapped an aurora around their neck.
Because ore threads are woven into it, it is far sturdier than it looks, possessing the ability to apply a damage mitigation check against attacks aimed at the neck. Furthermore, as the synergy of multiple ores reacts with the monster skin acting as the base material.........
And one more thing.
・Destruction Avoidance
To give an example, R.I.P. nullifies destruction against normal equipment-break checks through the trait, "Because it inherits the properties of the True Quiet, no damage occurs from normal attacks."
Like this, it is theoretically possible to evade equipment destruction by utilizing certain characteristics, such as materials or magic. That said, to achieve destruction evasion by human hands—something that normally requires the power tied to a "True Quiet," the absolute highest tier of spirit-type monsters—just how much dedication and research would that require?
Unless one clings to a god possessing wisdom surpassing thousands of years of human endeavor............ hm???
Translator's Notes
- [1] Hagoromo: celestial feathered robe of Japanese mythology (the Tennyo/celestial maiden legend).
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