CH 105

[Special Grade Bug, Omnipotent Mass]

The next day.

In the round-robin tournament set in and around the academy, Julia and Amanai encountered each other at the training ground in the academy.

The training ground was shaped like a small Colosseum, and it was where combat and magic training were usually conducted.

In addition, since lecture demonstrations were sometimes held in it, there were seats in the shape of tiered platform surrounding the training ground.

However, the only ones in the place right now were Julia and Amanai, and also Akano and Ethel, who had already been bought over by Sakurai before the kidnapping and had been dying for a good night’s sleep since.

Amanai didn’t intend to complain in regard to that.

To begin with, after the no-sleep no-rest leveling supervised by Sakurai, he, who had been up all night, no longer had the energy left to hound Ethel.

“You… have terrible black circle under your eyes. Are you okay?” (Julia)

“Yeah… I just need to drink a potion and I’ll be fine.” (Amanai)

“That sounds like something a good-for-nothing person would say.” (Julia)

“Rather, I feel like I’m going to sleep at any moment if I don’t move, and I’m a bit high because I was pulling an all-nighter, so I think I’d have easier time fighting instead…” (Amanai)

He threw away the antidote potion that he just drank. He drank it for its strong bitterness, not for its poison-curing effect.

When he looked sideways, he could see Akano dozing off with an antidote in one hand while sitting in a seat. Occasionally she would wake up with a “Hah!” as though she just came to and drink the potion in search of bitterness.

Seeing that, Amanai suddenly got reminded of Sakurai during their leveling.

About when they reached the boss room of the 39th floor under Sakurai’s leadership.

While Amanai and Akano, who had been fighting with all they had for almost an hour before arriving there, were gasping for breath, already dead tired, Sakurai fluently spoke to them as with nonchalant appearance like he was not tired at all.

“The 39thfloor boss, ‘Egg-laying Tree (Egg Mother)’, drops two ‘Fruits (Children)’ once every two turns. In reality, that means it spawns two monsters every 20 seconds, and unlike in the game, there is no upper limit to the total number of enemies, so if you don’t get rid of them quickly, you’ll end up surrounded by a large number of ‘Children’… but, that doesn’t matter! That’s not the important thing here! After all, our purpose is leveling, not subjugating the boss! Although the boss is one of those annoying type that summons small fries, in this case, we can make use of it as a wonderful summoning device that supplies us enemies semi-permanently!” (Sakurai)

“Hey, hold on a sec. Even if it’s just for a moment, let us take a break first.” (Amanai)

Sakurai enthusiastically entered the boss room without lending an ear to Amanai’s plea.

At the end of the doors, there was a plant-type monster. Its huge stem grew from the floor with a Rafflesia-like huge flower blooming at the end, and a Venus flytrap-like head extendingout from the center of the flower.

The boss monster called ‘Egg Mother’ swung its head around when it noticed Sakurai and co’s entry and spat out ‘Children’ from its mouth as tough launching them.

Smeared with acidic mucus, the ‘Children’ landed on the ground. Then, they shook, extending vine limbs from their spherical bodies, and grew the same carnivorous plant head as their mother.

“Kurueeeee!!”

“And this, is the main key.” (Sakurai)

In the face of the oncoming Children who were making strange bird-call-like cries and rustling sound of footsteps as they drew closer, Sakurai inserted the woods he had obtained along the way under the doors of the boss room, fixing them in place, and when the Children got close enough, he jumped to the back.

Then, strangely, the Children suddenly stopped walking and became ornaments that just kept making threatening strange voices.

“Maybe it’s due to the setting, but these guys don’t even try to take one step out of the boss room. So if you open the doors and get out of the boss room, they will stop moving. But since they still see you, the Children will come up to the doors, and the Egg Mother will keep spitting out two monsters every 20 seconds. What do you think! Isn’t this a wonderful natural experience points trap! Moreover, the level of these fruits-like small fries is 37 levels higher than you guys, so you should be able to earn sizeable experience points from them!” (Sakurai)

“Well, I don’t think you’d be able to reach a level where you can safely beat Julia even with this method, tho,” he added, and tapped *pechi pechi* the Children’s heads with his sheathed sword.

Despite what he did, the Children did not leave the boss room and more and more of them continue to gather near the doors.

Not even a fragment of terror unique to a boss monster could be felt from the Egg Mother that mechanically spews out new Children in the back of the room.

“Speaking of which, you said you want to take a break, didn’t you? It’s okay, take as much as you please. The Children will continue to be spit out as long as this door is open anyway, and unlike in the game, the spawned Children won’t disappear until someone defeat them or they’re starved to death. The Egg Mother spat Children into the empty space inside randomly, so when the room is filled with Children, it will spit them to beyond the doors. After it did, beyond the door probably get recognized as the boss room too, as the Children will all pour out at once! By the way the Children will continue to move for about 5 days, so if left unattended, they’d definitely be discovered after the academy festival.” (Sakurai)

“You’ve done it before, haven’t you?” (Amanai)

“By the way, if it gets found out by the Disciplinary Committee, you’d be made to clean up the floor by yourself. It was a lot of fun.” (Sakurai)

“This guy is beyond saving!” (Amanai)

“In addition, the dungeon is off limits during the academy festival, so no matter what happens, we’ll be sharing them together!” (Sakurai)

Amanai was dumbfounded at Sakurai, who offered him his still-sheathed sword while raising his thumb, and sighed.

Sakurai probably prepared the situation where he could safely hunt monster with a sword to grant his wish to use weapons and magic he had said previously.

While he thought he should be grateful, he couldn’t honestly say his gratitude because of Sakurai’s attitude and deeds. He lifted his arm that had become heavy due to tiredness and received the sword.

Then, after pulling the sword out of the scabbard, Amanai readied the sword and slashed at the Children even though he wasn’t used to it; Akano, too, started fighting by chanting flame magic that was highly effective against plant-type monsters.

Two hours after the fighting begun.

Amanai and Akano were thrown into the boss room by Sakurai every time they tried to take a break.

After desperately escaping from the boss room, potions were thrown at them, and they were made to return to the battle front, continuing to fight again.

“Hey… don’t you think the pace at which the Children come out has slowed down…?” (Akano)

“Hah, hah. What did you say…?” (Amanai)

In the middle of the battle Akano noticed that the pace at which the Egg Motherproduce Children was slowing down, and Amanai discovered that unlike in the game, the Egg Mother also needed stamina to produce Children and spit them out.

In reality, stamina was not inexhaustible.

Unlike Amanai and co who got around it by drinking potions and made rotations, the monster continued to move until the moment its stamina was exhausted.

At this rate, the speed at which they eliminated the Children would soon outpace the speed at which the Children spawned.

In that case, all that remained would the Egg Mother that had lost its stamina, and the only thing they could do would be to subjugate the boss.

“H-Hayato! At this rate!” (Reika)

“Ze… hah… yeah, the end is finally in sight!” (Amanai)

“Mama~! Here’s a new potion!” (Sakurai)

“Sakurai-kun!?” (Reika)

“Kurueeeeeeeeeee!!”

Or so they thought when suddenly Sakurai threw a potion from the back toward the Egg Mother.

The Egg Mother dexterously held it in its mouth and drank it, before it made a cheerful strange voice and picked up its spawning pace.

“What are you doing, Sakurai!” (Amanai)

“Fools! Did you think I didn’t know what’s going on your mind! It’s true that the Egg Mother runs out of stamina in about two and half hours, but if you give it a potion like this, its vitality will return to normal, and you can level more! That’s a plant for you! A mother who knows not tiredness!! I can’t stop leveling… so you guys… shouldn’t stop leveling, too…!” (Sakurai)

“Hayato, let’s throw him at it.” (Reika)

“Roger that!” (Amanai)

“Hey, what are you doing!? I have nothing but some threads on me now, y’know!? Owaaaaa!?” (Sakurai)

Sakurai was thrown toward the Egg Mother by the hands of the two whose thinking ability had declined and began to act upon whatever idea came to their mind due to tiredness.

Sakurai, who never thought he would betrayed by his comrades, was caught——no, protected in the ivies grew by the Egg Mother.

Then, Sakurai, who was protected by the enemy and stood on its petal, puffed up his chest with pride as if his panic earlier was a lie and gave a potion to the Egg Mother.

“No, what the hell!?” (Amanai)

“No matter if it’s a monster or a human, they’d try to get a factor that would be advantageous to them! This is the difference between reality and game, Amanai!” (Sakurai)

“You’re the very picture of a plant-user who has betrayed humanity, though!?” (Amanai)

“Hahaha! Maybe it treats me like a ‘prey that supplies it prey’ right now, so our relationship will last as long as I still have potions on me, but I’m sure it’ll prey on me as soon as I run out of potion! I don’t even have a sword, so I’m in a serious pinch right now!” (Sakurai)

“You’re actually tired too, aren’t you?” (Amanai)

“Hayato, let’s just burn them all together because it’s too much trouble.” (Reika)

“…Yeah, let’s.” (Amanai)

Even after capturing the 39th floor, the two continued to be abused by Sakurai.

They were woken every time they fell asleep or fainted; it was unpleasant experience.

However, thanks to it, Amanai came to realize the difference between the game and the reality, the harmful effects of mixing them up, and many things that he should have seen but didn’t realize.

(And as I thought, Sakurai, who should have screamed and moved about more than Reika and me, and ran out of stamina but still nonchalant, is no doubt strange.)

Even while the two were fighting, he was practicing swinging and movement technique in his free time.

And once in a while, he’d spray the Monster-Luring Perfume on himself, ran around the dungeon to attract monsters and pulled them over to him and Reika while continuing to hunt monsters that escaped them at the same time. He was strange indeed, so Amanai thought while the figure of Sakurai surfaced in his mind.

“I can see you had a valuable experience. You’re exhausted, but you’re free of the burdens on your shoulders… that’s the feeling I get from the atmosphere about Amanai-kun now.” (Julia)

“It’s thanks to you.In that regard, I heard that Princess had a hand in it, so please don’t expect me to hold back.” (Amanai)

“Of course, that’s what I wanted, so there is no need to be reserved!” (Julia)

Facing Julia who made a joyful smile, Amanai began to stretch his back once, rotated his shoulders, and loosen his body to get rid of his drowsiness and tiredness.

While popping noise sounded out from him rotating shoulders, he began talking without minding the fact that the one before him was a royalty.

“The weakness of alchemists lies in drawn-out battles. That is because they need raw materials to fight.” (Amanai)

“And there is a limit to the number of things that each person can carry… right? If that is what you are aiming for, then I will play along. Just imagining fighting against an opponent that can contend with me that I have been waiting for oh so long makes my heart pounds.” (Julia)

“No, I’m sorry, but I’m so tired so I can’t do that. Please do something like that with Sakurai.” (Amanai)

“……It would be unreasonable after all?” (Julia)

Julia showed a slight sadness to Amanai’s words.

She wanted to fight Amanai at his full strength rather than when he was ridden with wounds, but at the same time felt guilty about imposing that wish.

After all, she took part in cornering him, it was she herself that willingly colluding with Sakurai to corner Amanai.

She would have agreed if Amanai were to say that he wants to fight at another time, and she thought she wouldn’t’ mind even if she didn’t get to scout him.

“To some extent. But strangely, I don’t feel like I’ll lose to you.” (Amanai)

“Heeh.” (Julia)

Julia silently grabbed the grip hanging on her waist and alchemized her golden chain into a blade.

Noticing that, Amanai slowly readied his fists.

His body was exhausted.

However, the weight of his arms and the dullness of his legs were just right, and her five senses were clear.

(I was really helped by Sakurai.)

Amanai’s greatest harvest from Sakurai’s unprecedented abuse was he was able to reconfirm just what kind of thing his own body was.

[‘Aight, listen to me, Amanai. You’re looking down on the protagonist’s body too much. Your body is a special-grade bug, an omnipotent mass that was born into this world. It was mentioned a lot in the setting, and in the game, but you don’t get that at all.] (Sakurai)

He remembered Sakurai spoke those words with eyes filled with tremendous jealousy.

And, he was saying those words as he was resting-cum-practice-swinging with a one-handed sword he got in the dungeon.

[In the time I took to master one skill, you can master eight skills. So since you said you want to use both weapons and magic, train in them all at the same time so that you can wield them all at the same time. Learn the sword from me, learn the magic from Akano, mix them with your martial arts and sublimate them into a new technique (original). You can do that much at least.] (Sakurai)

Sakurai’s basis for asserting that came from the setting in the game that Amanai’s body was ‘the body of the protagonist that can learn all skills’.

Even though the one saying it was the person who had pointed him out the difference between the reality and the game, he strangely felt convinced by it; it must be because he said it without hesitation nor doubt.

[Your body will probably respond to everything you think you can do. You can think of it as a blessing (cheat) that the world bestowed upon you. Wouldn’t it be a waste not to use it?]

Although he knew that Sakurai definitely had a selfish motive behind those words, they sounded like a pioneer’s wise saying to Amanai; he gave him a clearer aim than the local knights who taught him martial arts.

It wasn’t like he held expectation for it.

However, when he tried it out, the ‘protagonist’s body’ responded to all his wishes as though rebelliously saying, “I’ll show what I can do.”

“If you assert it that far, then I can’t say ‘I can’t do it’… That’d be uncool. Let’s do this then. Show them what you can do.” (Amanai)

And so, Amanai obtained a new power.

It was the fruit of efforts that only Amanai had, even the original protagonist hadn’t.

“‘God’s Sacred Raiment’, ‘Sacred Fighting School’, ‘Swordsmanship’, ‘Flame Sword’, ‘Flame Magic’.” (Amanai)

In the beginning, he only possessed God’s Sacred Raiment and Sacred Fighting School.

He learned Swordsmanship and Flame Magic by receiving guidance, and he learned Flame Sword by ‘watching’ Sakurai used it in the dungeon.

Although learning skill not through normal skill acquisition conditions already demonstrated his abnormality, Amanai went one step further.

“Self-Taught Synthesis (Custom Rebuild)——Thunder Sovereign.” (Amanai)

A reckless action of arbitrarily selecting the characteristics of multiple skills and transforming them into one skill.

The creation of something of divine nature; something like that was allowed only for those chosen by the heaven.

The only person who could pull off the same feat in the present era was probably the ‘Sword Saint’, Sanuki Shoichiro, who made it to his current level with just slashing technique.

Golden gauntlets and armor that covered him from the base of his shoulders to his fingertips, and from the base of his feet to his toes.

Lightnings constantly racing around him as if they were alive, waiting upon his order.

He knocked together his fists in front of him.

Lightnings burst along with the impact, forming electrifying flame blades on both of his fists that he slowly parted.

He took in the racing lightnings into his body.

His hair made crackling noise and stood upright, and his movement speed increased in all aspects.

He gathered the lightnings on his back.

As they converged, they became a number of thunderstorms, forming into wings that look as though they could crack the space.

Amanai’s body gently separated from the ground.

Julia, looking up at his unworldly appearance, thought he didn’t look like a student anymore, but a thunder god that she had heard in epic poems.

At the intimidating feeling he emitted, at the gaze he directed at her, she smiled, her heart pounding.

“Ohh…! Ohh! Ohhhhhh!!” (Julia)

“I don’t choose drawn-out battle. I mean, I’m tired and can’t last long in the first place… I’ll challenge you in a short decisive battle with everything I’ve got.” (Amanai)

“By all means! By all means, do so! Ahh, what a wonderful day today!” (Julia)

Their positions had been reversed.

Now that she became the challenger, Julia’s heart was filled with unprecedented joy.

She didn’t need to go easy. On the contrary, she must respond with everything she got—that was what her heart shouted.

“Come on, come on, come on, come on! Fight, struggle! Talk with me! Entertain me, Amanai Hayatooo!!” (Julia)

Julia took off her outer garment with a *flap*.

Her corset and underwear, and her exposed toned beautiful physique—showing them off were unacceptable as a lady of the royal family.

However, she generously exposed them. Then, she alchemized all of the outer garments that she had taken off.

“‘Convert, Golden Cannon. Immediate Deployment’!” (Julia)

The skill ‘Convert’ used by the combat alchemist, Julia von Knaust, increased the performance of the finished product in proportion to the value of the raw material.

If it was a sword, the sharpness would increase, if it was a shield, it would be more sturdy, and if it was a firearm, the destructive power would increase.

How much was the clothing worn by a royaltyworth?

What about the gold threads that was used to draw patterns on it? What about the ornaments attached to it?

What was the monetary value given to the rarity of the raw materials used to make it in the first place?

An amount of money that was enough to make Ethel avoided looking straight at it and collapsed while foaming at the mouth was transformed into gorgeous golden cannons.

The line of ten golden cannons were deployed in front of Julia, and all of their muzzles were pointed toward Amanai.

The biggest and highest firepower at present were at Julia’s disposal.

Such firepower was usually spread over a wide area, but now it was concentrated on only one person, Amanai Hayato.

Julia faced Amanai with firepower so overwhelming that it could blow away the training ground.

Looking at the cannons, Amanai calmly assessed the situation.

With his currently exhausted body, he would definitely get taken down if he were to receive even one shot of the ten cannons.

In the first place, the consumption of magic power by the full operation of ‘Thunder Sovereign’ was abnormal.

Given his magic power was consumed several times faster than usual, he judged that he could only fight for 3 minutes at most.

If he didn’t use it, he thought wouldn’t be able to defeat Julia, considering the difference in their levels, but when they actually faced each other, he still ended up feeling that the difference in their strength was beyond imagination.

Therefore, he would play another card.

Now was the time to go for broke and pour out his all his strength without minding the aftermath.

Along with such a resolve, Amanai activated his second power, which was a new possibility shown by Sakurai.

His understanding as a reincarnated person combined with the extremely vague information given to him and his body that made the impossible possible gave form to it.

(I’m not the protagonist. I’m me. Even though our appearances are the same, the one born in this world was not ‘Amanai Hayato’ but me. That’s why I can use my own power as I wish.)

Amanai, who had been released from the curse called the protagonist, affirmed to himself, further refined his magic power with a refreshing feeling and—— showed his trump card along with a shout imbued with the power of words.

“——‘System Command, Hero Time!” (Amanai)

He stopped being the protagonist in a story.

He decided to walk his life as a single human being.

That was exactly why this time, he declared to the world that the protagonist of his life was none other than himself.

The world responded to the torrent of magic power.

The world, having received the price of enormous amount of magic power, shone a spotlight toward Amanai.

‘Hero Time’ was a magic that drew the world to become one’s ally by continuing to release an incomparably large amount of magic power to it in battle.

This magic was created by Amanai based on the story Sakurai heard from Nanashino Katsumi, the third reincarnated person, in anticipation of the upcoming battle.

As a premise, the magic in the original game ‘Frontier Academia’ was described as a miracle provided by the world in return for the paid magic power.

By drawing the world to become his ally even temporarily, Amanai would be able to receive the love and blessing from the world.

Its love weakens or nullifies all the magic directed at oneself so that one was not hurt by one’s own power.

Blessing gave one maximum physical strengthening to compensate the inferiority in one’s physical strength compared the opponent so that one wouldn’t lose to anyone.

New skill ‘Custom Rebuild’ and physical strengthening ‘Hero Time’.

By combining these two, Amanai succeeded in obtaining the same or higher status than Julia, who was 20 or more level higher than him.

However, the price was also enormous.

Amanai was only left with less than 15 seconds battle time.

However, Amanai was sure that 15 seconds would be enough.

“‘All cannons, fire’!” (Julia)

Along with Julia’s command, the muzzles of the golden cannons made roaring sounds.

He couldn’t let storm of cannonballs that were fired all at once based on precise line of fire calculation hit him, which was why Amanai strongly gritted his teeth and cut open a path to escape with his flame blades-clad fists.

A fist and a shell made a direct contact, and the flame blades that were inserted into it exploded the shell from the inside.

The floor of the training ground was turned up inside out and destroyed, and dust cloud arose from the ground as though there was an eruption.

The rubble that was blown into the air stopped at the top.

And then they free fell one after another. The shockwave they generated when hit the ground dispelled the smoke.

“——Magnificent, Amanai-kun.” (Julia)

Beyond the destroyed scenery, a young man like a thunder god was thrusting his fist before the princess.