novelraw Chapter 33 : Homeward (1)
Chapter 33 : Homeward (1)
Homeward (1)
In *Belkhazium*, both a worthless and a godly game, there was a unique level system.
Though it was an RPG, there was no experience bar,
and the max level was only 8.
Because of that, leveling up was extremely slow.
'I never imagined that the game's levels would directly correspond to the real-world ranks at the time.'
At level 1, you start with a basic attack and a slow dash.
At level 2, you learn a buff-type skill, namely one of three swordsmanship forms.
Quick Sword, Strong Sword, or Flowing Sword—one of these three.
And for some reason,
it seemed I could use all three of the basic forms.
'Of course, if Jeros saw, he'd start by nitpicking.'
Anyway,
from level 3 onward, you could use the active skill that enhanced normal attacks: "Sword Energy".
That "sword with a transparent aura swirling about it" that Ralph, the 3rd-rank security squad leader, had shown during the sparring meet was exactly that.
And now,
the kitchen knife gripping my hand,
"?!"
A translucent aura began to rise from the base of the handle.
Sword Energy had climbed over a quarter of the blade.
Or perhaps I should call it Blade Energy.
I stopped mid-swing and focused all my attention on the kitchen knife.
Gnash.
I was concentrating so hard, I found myself grinding my teeth without realizing it.
"......."
Soon after, the flickering aura vanished without a trace,
and all the strength ebbing through my body disappeared at once.
It felt like the strength buff from chewing raw rice had worn off.
'What a waste.'
Still, just from reading the sword manual and assuming the right posture, I had almost conjured Sword Energy.
So that meant,
'I must be at the end of the 2nd-rank. 3rd-rank is just in front of me.'
I was momentarily pleased at progressing much faster than in the game,
but curiosity crept in about what my level would be like without the rice strength buff.
'Seems like I can't hope for Sword Energy at all without the buff.'
Once again, I assumed my form and swung the kitchen knife.
Let's start with Strong Sword. Whoosh.
"......."
It instantly turned clumsy.
Of course, compared to the arming sword or dagger, it was still far more natural,
but the organic movement I'd had with the rice's strength buff was gone.
The same was true for Flowing Sword.
But Quick Sword was different.
It was perfect as ever.
Swish, shwip!
"Looks like Quick Sword is the only one I can manage properly."
Let's sum up.
Right now, as a 2nd-rank, I can assume the Quick Sword form,
but if I use the rice strength buff, I can manage all three forms—Strong Sword and Flowing Sword, too.
I can even envelop roughly a quarter of the blade with Sword Energy.
Quite the enormous difference, with or without the buff.
'It's definitely more efficient to eat as much shop window food as possible before training.'
No wonder, even with only a 15% 〈Normal Customer Buff Application Rate〉, soldiers dropped by every day.
Anyway,
if I keep this up just a bit longer, I'll probably hit 3rd-rank soon.
*
I arrived at the stonemason guild in the morning sunlight.
The old man and the three workers were ready to go,
with loads the size of small houses piled on the cart.
There was a lot—really a lot.
'Well, sure. Remodeling for a whole golden, it should be at least this much.'
We passed the checkpoint and left the fortress city.
A snowy mountainside path lay ahead.
It must have been slippery, but the workers hauled the cart even without mana.
Medieval people must just be built differently.
The journey was uneventful.
No monsters, no picking up amnesiac mages—nothing happened at all.
That night, on our first campout,
we lit a fire on a flat rock and skewered potatoes and sausages. I spoke to the old man.
"You may have noticed already, but I'm the new owner of Fairy's Leg."
There was no reason to hide it anyway,
and as we'd be working together from now on, I laid it out openly.
"!!"
The old man recoiled in genuine shock.
"And what about the owner with the nasty temperament?"
"Missing."
"That explains it. That stingy bastard would never spend money hiring adventurers."
The old man took a bite of potato and continued.
"Whoever you are and regardless of what happened to the original owner, it doesn't matter to me. As long as I'm paid, all we need to do is provide work worthy of our guild's name."
For some reason, his words gave me a sense of relief, and I bit into a sausage.
Even though it wasn't salty like modern ones, it made me crave rice.
'I can't just eat alone when everyone's together.'
It was going to be hard to earn points for a while.
Except in emergencies, I'd decided to save up.
'But I guess eating the sugar I bought beforehand is okay.'
I set up away from the fire,
.
.
〈 Concentration slightly increases. 〉
〈 Energy slightly increases. 〉
〈 Consuming a certain amount of sugar prevents energy loss for 30 minutes. 〉
I swung the kitchen knife in both hands.
From several battles and training sessions, I'd realized something:
using mana was just like using muscles.
The more you use it, the more efficient and the larger the capacity feels.
'That's why I need to train swordsmanship and mana whenever I get the chance.'
That way, I could boost my survival skills.
"Boss, you depend too much on mana."
Plerine, who'd been observing my training, spoke up.
"Hm?"
"You need to use mana at just the right moments. Right now, you're trying to do everything with mana."
Since a mage was giving advice to a martial artist, maybe that's why I couldn't get it right away.
"So what exactly should I do?"
"Try doing it with just your body's natural strength, without mana. That'll suit your training best, boss."
"Hmmm."
Honestly, it didn't really connect with me,
but since someone stronger than me was giving advice, I decided to obey.
And, as expected,
Whoosh, fwip!
Once I cut back on mana, my poor stamina was exposed.
Sweat burst forth like rain.
The moment the sugar buff ended, my heart felt ready to burst.
"Huff, huff, is this—huff—really helping, training like this?"
Plerine nodded as she replied.
"Yes. You'll improve much faster. Good job."
I decided to take a break and plopped down beside Plerine.
"Did you remember anything from the library?"
Of course, I was hoping she hadn't,
and Plerine shook her head firmly.
"Not at all."
That's a relief.
I patted Plerine on the back and said,
"You'll remember someday."
Though frankly, I hoped that would only happen after our shop was much more successful.
"No, it's fine."
Plerine continued with words I couldn't fathom.
"I think I'd be fine not remembering."
Before I could ask 'Why'?, Plerine explained her reason anyway.
"It could be a useless memory. I can just start fresh."
"... If that's what you want."
That's a win for me.
"By the way, boss. What sort of place is Granfen village?"
"It's a weird village—mostly soldiers, miners, and prostitutes."
Plerine grinned and asked back at my answer.
"What village is like that?"
"It's true. It's a frontline village that developed out of a military garrison."
"Huh? A frontline village?"
"Yeah. There's a spirit stone quarry nearby, and there's a war with the beastkin of Heroni federation over that."
"... Ah."
Plerine rested her hand atop her head and spoke softly.
"That's strange."
"What is?"
"Just... feels like something's missing that should be there."
Hm. No idea what that's about.
I said to this ever-mysterious mage,
"Anyway, since we're talking about the village—"
"Yeah?"
"The day we set out from the village to Grey Fortress, the village soldiers were looking for me."
"For you, boss? Why?"
"I don't really know. Not that I did anything wrong, anyway."
My voice trailed off for a moment as I recalled killing Derek's crew and torturing Flaco, but I let it go.
"So when we enter the village again, something unexpected could happen. If that happens, please don't use magic and just stay still."
"Huh? Why should I do that?"
"If you show you're a mage, the northern soldiers will get rattled. No need to stir up trouble, so let's keep the fact you're a mage hidden."
To be precise, it was because of the mage sighting incident at the spirit stone quarry,
but if I brought that up, things would get complicated, so I left it at that.
"Got it. If Boss says so, I'll do it."
Thankfully, Plerine agreed without resiform. Now, if only,
'Nothing troublesome happens when we return to the village.'
Please.
* * *
Granfen garrison's battalion commander, Kratan.
He stroked his mustache, deep in thought.
'Will the outsider really come back?'
It had been a week since he'd ordered the soldiers to fetch the outsider.
He'd heard from Flaco the hunter that the outsider had left for Grey Fortress.
And he'd even promised to return.
But the battalion commander wasn't sure if the outsider would really come back.
Accordingly, he'd tried to strengthen his forces with food from the outsider's shop, but the situation had become uncertain.
After all, they might be up against someone who could use magic.
Just as Commander Kratan was biting his lower lip in frustration,
Knock, knock.
Someone rapped on the office door.
"This is Lantz, sir."
"Come in."
Company Commander Lantz stepped in as the door opened.
"A response from the King has arrived."
An unusually quick reply.
Which probably meant a rejection.
"All right. What does it say?"
There was no expectation in the commander's voice,
but the reply was unexpected.
"They say... support has already been sent."
The commander doubted his ears.
"What did you say?"
Lantz continued in a bewildered voice.
"They're sending reinforcements appropriate to facing a mage, since our troops suffered at their hands."
At that, the commander sprang to his feet and snatched the letter from Lantz.
As he began reading, his eyes narrowed in disbelief.
"They've already dispatched... a squire?"
A 5th-rank warrior, a squire,
was headed to Granfen.
*
We'd spent two nights camping on the roadside.
Based on the route to Grey Fortress, we were about halfway back.
'Looks like we'll reach Granfen after one more night's sleep.'
It seemed the baggage cart had inevitably slowed us.
Still, it was fine.
There'd been no monsters or amnesiac mages along the way.
—or so I'd thought until just now.
"Damn it."
Of course.
Luck never favored me.
There was never a time things went smoothly for me.
Something was coming from afar up ahead,
charging through the snow straight toward us, plowing and scattering powder like a snowplow.
It was way too big to be a regular wild boar.
"H-holy!"
The old man and the workers panicked, cursed, and ducked behind the cart.
"Wh-what is that?!"
The old man asked in a flustered voice,
but I ignored him and spoke to Plerine.
"Plerine, do you know what that is?"
"No idea. I don't sense any mana."
That meant it wasn't a monster or demonic beast.
Charging like that without mana wasn't something any human could do.
So it had to be some kind of beast or wild animal.
"What should we do?"
Plerine asked.
I remembered how she'd instantly reduced a swarm of impets to ashes and stopped her.
"Just melt the snow around it for now. Let's see what it actually is first."
"All right."
Plerine thrust her hand forward, and a wall of blue flame encircled the charging beast.
Whoosh.
"Raaaargh!!"
Only then did it stop charging,
as the billowing snow melted, revealing its identity.
A white bear at least three meters tall with a pitch-black face and a huge frame.
"An Ice Bear?"
I recalled that the mountain where Burt had been buried was an Ice Bear's habitat.
Back then, I was lucky not to have run into one, but here was one now.
But, why was this thing, that should've been there, showing up between Granfen and Grey Fortress?
The answer came right away.
'Because that labyrinth will appear soon.'
A sign of mana anomalies.
Before a labyrinth appeared, the local ecosystem would get thrown into chaos—always.
"Raaa! Raaa!"
The Ice Bear's roar snapped me out of my thoughts.
"What should we do, boss? Should I just scare it and send it away?"
What? Send it away?
For a mage who'd incinerated an entire pack of impets, that was surprisingly merciful.
"No way. What are you talking about?"
The fresh raw meat I'd craved was right in front of me—I couldn't just let it go.
"Let's take it down properly without damaging the meat."