Chapter 846: December 19th: Standing Face-to-Face, the Meteor Closes in Head-On

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Why was Argent Owl in a place like this instead of the absolute frontlines...... specifically, in Fifticia, which requires passing through a city that is the New King faction's "territory" since she is not a part of said faction?

It was because she had been continually challenging a certain Unique Scenario.

The Unique Scenario "The Great Pilgrimage".

To trigger it, one has to set one of the upper-tier jobs branching from the "ClergyPriest" class line—"MonkBishop," "BaptizerCleric," "Bestower of GraceEnchanter," or "Pilgrim"—as their main job, and then embark on a pilgrimage to every single city...... That is the premise.

However, players who actually managed to complete this Unique Scenario and reach the hidden highest-tier job it unlocked were practically nonexistent. No, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say there were none at all.

Because to complete this scenario, several conditions must be met.

First and foremost: to not die even once. Naturally, logging out is fine, but dying—whether to monsters or players, or even dying to poison from eating something bad—is completely prohibited. One has to keep walking forward, keeping only a single, unbroken flame of life lit...... It goes without saying, but utilizing teleportation-type fast travel is entirely out of the question.

And secondly, keeping one's Karma Value strictly at zero or below. The Karma Value is an incredibly delicate thing...... highly prone to fluctuation. Taking a life obviously raises the Karma Value, and any vices humans can commit are entirely out of the question. What's more...... even the food one eats matters; consuming any animal-based products causes the Karma Value to rise slightly. Even the lives one has no choice but to trample simply to survive contribute to karma.

While even the bare minimum survival activities required for a human are restricted, one has to make a pilgrimage to every single city...... every single church. At a glance, it is a set of conditions that could only be called impossible, yet one must declare them possible and overcome them.

And finally...... one has to achieve these conditions while suffering a state where every time a city is visited and its church prayed at, maximum HP decreases by 1/15th and maximum MP increases by 1/15th.

The more one pilgrimaged, the more their life frayed; the more they prayed, the closer they came to a grand achievement. That is exactly why such a way of life would become a legend.

When the final pilgrimage is completed and all of one's life is exhausted......... a great miracle is brought forth, resurrecting them through the ultimate resurrection magic that can only be acquired by the one person in this world who reaches that job—【Holy Birth of the Martyred GodAlma Resurrection】.

Along with that grand achievement, awe, and above all, faith, that name would be bestowed upon them.

The hidden highest-tier job branching from the Priest class line: "The Great SaintThe Saint." That was the name of the job Argent Owl had accomplished and acquired.

"What's wrong, challenger! You only get 1 round, you know? You better go full-throttle right from the start...... Right!"

"An attack I don't recognize......!"

Perhaps it should be called fortunate, but after acquiring the job "The Saint," there was no longer any problem with hunting monsters or eating meat. (Although, there was still the instability of having the job stripped away if one committed a sin.)

Under normal circumstances, if a player who acquired The Saint job belonged to either faction, they would be able to engage in PvP. There were times when one could be praised as a saint through deeds of valor in battle, and this was especially true in a world where humanity could not even afford to be the apex primates. Because the dual sovereignties permitted humans to fight each other, and because the church maintained neutrality without condemning it, under normal circumstances...... yes, had she only belonged to either faction, The Saint would have been able to defeat other players.

"Haaah!"

"That slash...... it's just like Duespada. But I'm not the archenemyVillain Skull Gun, you know? Sorry that I'm not intercepting with bullets."

The slashes unleashed by Kaisoku, who possessed a swordsman job, had their trajectories warped simply by the bare-handed Argent Owl lightly swiping her arms. While she did envelop her entire body in the light of skill enhancements, Kaisoku widened his eyes at the fact that she dealt with a downward slash from a high stance by parrying the flat of his blade with her bare hands.

But precisely because she could do that, the person before him had hoisted such a joke-like grand achievement as her signboard. Discarding his astonishment, he immediately transitioned into a follow-up attack.

The character "Kaisoku" that Kaisoku had trained for this exact moment was "almost" purely a physical swordsman. It was brought as close as possible to his most proficient character in the Galaxia Heroes series, Duespada...... Fully demonstrating his true strength based on his experience as a fighting gamer without holding anything back, he launched a fierce twin-blade assault on Argent Owl.

However, if Kaisoku's main character was a dual-sword userDuespada, then Argent Owl's main character was bare-handedMetius. In other words, the presence or absence of a weapon provided no advantage whatsoever.

(She's strong, she's truly strong......! Just watching from the spectator seats, I couldn't comprehend this level of strength......!)

Although his swings were evaded with minimal movement and his thrusts deflected, with her rough, damage-indifferent step-ins landing heavy blows that reverberated through his body like boulders flying out of a fog he could never seem to hit, Kaisoku barely managed to stand against this fierce onslaught by utilizing the anti-Sylvia strategies he had been constructing for years, ever since the day Sylvia Goldberg won her very first World Tournament.

"Right there!"

".........!"

Reading the "habit" of Argent Owl's evasion, the tip of the blade he thrust precisely where she jumped back shallowly sliced her cheek. Without stopping there, using the momentum of his forward step, he slammed his left sword down. Though guarded by her arm, it was the first clean hit of the battle.

"O.........Oooo......!"

Pouring strength into his left arm, he pushed down as if trying to sever Argent Owl's arm completely...... But it wouldn't cut. No, that was wrong, it was cutting. However,

"It's...... regenerating!?"

"Correct. With a magic spell called 【Faraway JourneyFar Journey】, I'm granting physical regeneration exactly equal to the damage taken."

It wasn't HP recovery, but rather regeneration magic that healed the damage to the flesh itself. That was the wisdom of a pilgrim meant to break through any hardship and tribulation with their body intact. That was the trick behind how Argent Owl's skin, flesh, blood, and bones were resisting the blade.

"And, naturally, it also comes with HP recovery, but...... I won't be using that."

"I see......... I shall give you my thanks for that!"

Without understanding the meaning imbued within Argent Owl's words, Kaisoku expressed his gratitude. He had misunderstood; he thought she was refraining from using recovery purely to adhere to the format of a fighting game match.

And precisely because he didn't understand the meaning............ Kaisoku never noticed the reason why Argent Owl narrowed her eyes.

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Author's Afterword

Saying it's a "No-Heals Restriction" sounds nice, but when a self-healing character restricts it themselves, what it essentially means is───

By the way everyone, Volume 8 of the Shangri-La Frontier manga will go on sale on April 15th.

Volume 8 means there are 8 books. Do you know what having 8 books means? It means I'm super happy.

It has been proven that Great Mage Fuji-sensei's transcendent drawing ability performs without issue even in the steel, thunder, and fire of robot battles, so ShanFro truly has no enemies left. Once in a while, I timidly ask, "Could you make this character feel kind of like this......?" and that's the absolute most I can do. Fuji-sensei outputs Katarina's incredibly vague character images at 120%, so my only possible reply is, "This is it! This is my ideal!"

The one gracing the cover is a walking mass of contradictions, the Professor, who has started enjoying the garnishes more than the sashimi itself. A new reader who picks it up drawn in by that exterior is going to encounter a heavy-bass silver voice. What a terrible guy you are, Professor.........

Setting that aside, the battle scenes with the Crystal Scorpions are truly god-tier. When the comic adaptation was decided, I thought, "Just having this scene drawn would be something I'm already too grateful for, but is it even possible to draw this scene in the first place?" But those worries were completely unfounded; rather, they delivered something 100 times crazier than I expected. Katarina himself was trembling the most. When it came to the battle scenes, they far surpassed the image in Katarina's head. I mean, it's not like I particularly love scorpions that much, but it's a fact that I poured a lot of passion into writing that part, and it's a fact that they hold a pretty important position in the story of ShanFro. To have them drawn with such incredible artistic skill... and when it came to the Golden Scorpion, the only thing I could say was, "It's turned into something insanely cool!!!!!" Just look at that intimidating presence, it's oozing with so much menace you'd think it was a Unique Monster... (snip).

In any case, thanks to all of you, we've reached our 8th book. It's currently being highly acclaimed and serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and for those who think physical books take up too much space...... you can also read it on Magazine Pocket. I hope you continue to support my humble work.