Chapter 136: [Arc 4] Chapter 17: Clues to Greatness

Revi's PoV:

Half an hour for 40 new potions. That's a new record. Go me~.

We've finished with our preparations and had gathered outside the Dungeon entrance. There were no lines, so we can enter it whenever we want. After those two have finished acting out their drama over there. 

"-and that's why you're too strong for that weapon." - Flint

"No waaaaay!" - Mira

Mira stopped shouting and held her head after a while, so we are good to go...or maybe not?

A large cloud of smoke came from the entrance to the village. An accident? Or some ruthless newcomers? This place is filled with knuckleheaded samurai, even if they are working as shop owners here, so the odds of someone trying to pick a fight are not small...

"...You guys go on ahead. I'll check that out." - Mira

"Huh!? But what about-" - Revi

"Just use this as a trial round. There is no guarantee that the spell will blindside the monsters after all. You have to test your theories properly." - Mira

 And with that, Mira left us and headed towards the smoke cloud. Huh? Was it not her who's the one most excited about this?

"...What should we do?" - Karnel

"Good question. It's obvious that she's got some brain damage." - Revi

"That's a little..." - Flint

"Agree with the girl." - Iron

"Right!" - Revi

"...She has a point though. We don't know for certain if Revi's magic will work on those plant-beasts just because it worked on Iron's soldiers." - Flint

It still smells fishy... but if the other option is to be involved with whatever trouble those macho-samurais are having, then I will choose the Dungeon any day. Even if it was Damavand and not this place.

---

Mira's PoV:

When I arrived at the entrance, I found rivers of blood and mountains of corpses. Maybe not that much, but it would not feel wrong if it was.

The cause of the smoke is a huge floatship, way bigger than the Mercenary we used to come to this village. If I should compare it to something, then... a galleon? It's shaped that way too, but the sails are replaced with large motors in the back.

As for the ship's crew, they are fighting the samurai that lives here. From a glance... only demons? Their species differ, but they are all of the demon-genus. And with most of the samurai being Youkais... a true picture from hell.

The result? The demons are losing. Horribly too.

Considering the samurai are challenging the Dungeon in their free time and getting to develop their skills in a relatively safe environment (as there are only monsters on the last floor), they have way more combat experience and skills compared to the demons, judging from this one-sided slaughter.

"HYAHAAA! Don't let them escape!!" - Samurai #1

"Drain their blood and water the plants with them!!" - Samurai #2

"That's all that they drink, those blasted plants!!" - Samurai #3

...the samurais are oddly very motivated. Must be the aggression from failing to conquer the jungle. 

Right, as I was wondering if I should join the brawl, one of the samurai came flying towards me. I stepped aside, of course. 

"Owch... that's going to leave a mark."

Ah, it's the old lady from the candy store. I threw one of the potions I had snagged from Revi before we split up to the samurai.

"Oh, Mira, sweetie. So kind of you."

"It's okay. What's going on?" - Mira

"I have no idea. Those rude demons came with cannons blazing and demanded us to bring little Revi to them, so we gave them a beating in return."

And she's saying it without blinking. I would have done the same, so good job! Still, they want Revi?

...Oh man. I recognized the demons' gear. They're Solomar-crafted goods, all of it. And they all have accessories that block skill-negation. Some looked like they're equipped with dragon slayers even. Low-quality stuff though, but they still have dragon-slaying abilities. 

With so many demons gathered under the same flag, it's easy to imagine who's behind this. I'm glad I followed my hunch and sent the others into the Dungeon. They should be relatively safer there. Relatively.

"Well, I have rested my old bones enough now. COME AND GET ME, YOUNGLINGS!! YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!!" 

The old grandma rose to her feet and ran towards the demons with a face that's more at home in hell. Aaaand... she's blown away again. She landed on her feet this time, so she shouldn't be too hurt. As for the culprit...is that a giant...no, a bull?

One of the demons looked like a human and a bull had a lovechild in the strangest way possible. He had a human face with oxen horns, but the rest of his body was like a human-shaped bull. Thin legs and a heavy upper body. Muscles were visible through the stretched-out uniform he was wearing. 

This guy looks like the leader. He's the most decorated of them and he has the highest number of samurais defeated. 

Surprisingly, this guy's completely unarmed! All the samurais were sent flying simply with hand-to-hand combat while the ox demon's unharmed...hmm? Unharmed...

Another group of samurai rushed toward the ox demon with swords readied in their hands. The ox demon did not even show signs of wanting to defend himself and fought back the samurai while they slashed at him.

A clear cross-counter!! ...is not what happened. The samurais got blasted away by the ox demon's fists, but the perpetrator is unharmed. It's not like he defended himself or the damage recovered at so high speed that it didn't show. The samurais' prided swords did no damage at all. 

Some of the samurais with Magic skills noticed this abnormality and decided to strike the ox demon from a distance. Not that it helped, because the magic bounced off him. As in literally bounced off him. People around him had to run away to escape the wild fireballs.

This is... yes, a skill like what my teacher has. Drastically improves your talent with a type of martial art and turns you super-resistant to almost any attacks except for what the skill specializes in. My master had the swordsmanship variant, but this guy must prefer hand-to-hand combat? Seems like it.

That makes things easier. The talent-improving part is passive (my teacher didn't need it at all though) but the resistance effect is something you have to focus on to keep active. Plus, you can't use any skills except those related to the martial arts that the skill doesn't resist. 

Meaning, the ox who's struggling with the many samurais even now is forced to use only hand-to-hand combat. Poor guy. What easy prey.

I instantly created several phantom swords and turned them into spirit vessels, then asked some nearby spirits for some assistance. They possessed the phantom swords and granted the swords their attributes. All that remains is some Accel Boost magic, and... go!

The spirit swords charged at the ox demon. He noticed them but did nothing to evade them, confident in his durability, and... he got pierced. 

Hehehe. Don't think that an Extra Skill that's half-focused on defense is a match against my Airgetám who's a specialist in making and enhancing swords~. 

I didn't only shoot the spirit swords but also charged at the ox demon with my own greatsword ready. The sword edge is enhanced with [Lightforce Edge], [Lightning Edge], and the blessings of Airgetám, and I've covered my arm with the black crystals from [Dark Knight's Crystal: Sword], a damn expensive skill I found one day after searching for new skills to take. 

This skill is one of the several attribute-based skills that only a Dark Knight can take. It takes the shape of a gauntlet (made with the materials of that attribute) on your arms holding a weapon described in the skill's name and any damage dealt while wearing that gauntlet becomes non-resisted True Damage! Even an Extra Skill can't protect you unless it has a True Defense effect!

I made a large swing to maximize the damage zone of my slash and cut through one of the ox demon's arms, not caring about defenses!

Ugh, no good... too taxing...

I kicked the ox demon to get some distance as the fatigue from using the Dark Knight's Crystals struck me. It's powerful, but using it in tandem with everything else is too much. In various ways. [Personal System]'s notifying me that I've lost 1/3 of my total MP with that one attack. My greatsword... still in one piece. Phew, so I didn't replace Orimaru for no reason. This one can withstand my "strongest" moves.

The ox demon however is barely able to stand after that last attack. Smoke's coming out from his body after being fried by the electricity, and he's losing lots of blood from his chopped-off arm. He's not going to last-

"OoooOOOOHH! ANIMA DRIVE!" - Ox demon

"Animal?" - Mira

I don't know what that is, but it sounds bad, so I'm out of here!

A dark-red mist...kinda aura appeared around the ox demon. It started to condense itself into the form of..., what is that? A bull? It's really an ani...mal!? 

*CRASH!*

T-too close! The ox demon tried to tackle me, but that speed's out of the norm! Even I would have been taken out if I wasn't on guard there! Like that house over there... and over there... he broke the walls of three buildings with that single charge. 

I waited for the ox demon to return... but he didn't. Hmm? Hey, don't tell me...

I jumped onto the roof of one of the buildings and looked over the area. In the distance, I could see some glowing dark red thing running away from the village... 

He tricked me! That little-!!

Ugh, whatever. Let's go and find out if I can extract the truth out of his goons. I just hope my bad hunch isn't right about anything else today...

---

Revi's PoV:

F-finally, we got past the monster house. It felt like an eternity... it's really only been fifteen minutes, but keeping such a large spell active along with Genocide Drive... I'm not Garami, damn it! 

"Great work, Revi! Take a potion." - Flint

"Th-that was amazing! Here, a potion." - Karnel

"...potion." - Iron

I-I'm not looking that bad, am I?

"How long has it been since we entered the Dungeon?" - Flint

"...1 hour and 32 minutes," responded Karnel after looking at his watch. 

"New record," said Iron while making a V-sign with his fingers.

But he's right. This is incredible. This gives us around three and a half hours on the wooden dragon.

"...Hey, what if we try to beat this thing right-" - Flint

"You want to keep the sword for yourself, don't you?" - Revi & Iron

"HOW DID YOU KNOW!?" - Flint

Come on, it's obvious. And Mira's going to kill you if you did.

"You... the Kusanagi no Tsurugi is a national treasure for the whole continent. And you want to pillage it?" asked Karnel with his soured stone face. 

"If it's amazing as the legends say, then yes. I'm going to dismantle it to see its workings!" - Flint

"Please do not do that!" - Karnel

This must be the first time in history when a moving rock statue has been this distressed. Now that I think about it, Karnel is also a native of this continent. I remember that the mountain he grew up in is within the region of the Wakoku kingdom. That sword must be important for him.

"...Samurais outside. Going to be angry if we leave with it." - Iron

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Flint froze after hearing that. We've learned the samurais' strength firsthand during these few days. Mira could bust them up thanks to being too her speed and her superior swordsmanship, and Iron has enough defense to withstand their attacks for hours, but us homebodies on the other hand...

"...we'll do as Garami said and only take a picture." - Flint

He gave up. Better luck next time, blacksmith. I have the "camera" that Garami gave us ready to take as many of those "pictures" as possible.

"...but the dragon?" - Iron

"Ah, it was sort of passive, but that may change in this situation." - Revi

It only focused on defense when we faced it before, but that could be because the time limit was closing in. Now we have more than enough time, so the dragon may turn to more violent means...

"Whatever! We have both Iron and Karnel with us, so defenses are taken care of so that we are the ones who can play the stalling game! Plus, we only need to cover it with fire-type attacks until it's reduced to ashes. Mira wouldn't even have a role to play." - Flint

"Well, you can try saying that to him." - Revi

I pointed towards the dragon lying on the floor that we had reached while arguing on the stairs. The wooden dragon looked up with sleepy eyes... then shot a dragon breath at Flint who's yet to move away from the stairway. 

*Da-DOOOOM!!*

"GYAAAAA!!" - Flint

"We lost the lizard!" - Revi

"A necessary sacrifice." - Iron

"Y-you two-!" - Karnel

Relax, he was all "gyaaa", right? If he can shout like that, he's not dead... I think.

Iron ran towards the wooden dragon and pulled its attention to himself through the [Challenge] skill. Meanwhile, I flew across the large, empty room with my wings... or the mass of wailing curses (is what it appears to be) that have taken the shapes of wings on my back.

Anyway, thanks to [Dragon Wing (Curse)], I was able to circle the whole room in a short amount of time, drawing a grey line behind me as I flew.

Meanwhile, Iron had gotten into a face-off against the wooden dragon, having used various Magma skills such as [Lava Bomb] and [Volcanic Territory] to turn up the heat. The wooden dragon's leaves have already burned up, leaving the poor thing bald as a middle-aged old man. 

As I finished the circle around the dragon, I activated the [Misty Graveyard] skill. A large amount of fog emerged from the drawn line and converted into a dome of fog. It's faster than letting the fog spread from one area, so it's worth the extra work.

Soon, the area around the dragon had turned into a graveyard filled with mist. This will help me and Karnel stay out of the dragon's sight and have it focus on Iron. I then used [Fearful Graveyard] and [Swamp Graveyard] to add a continuous Fear-effect to the area along with turning parts of the graveyard into sinkholes frilled with swamp materials. 

I wanted to set up some [Tombstones] too, so I could spawn weak undead to act as a distraction, but all the magma is in the way. Such a team-unfriendly attribute.

 The wooden dragon turned obviously terrified from the sudden change which made it lower its guard enough for Iron to send a [Lava Bomb] into its face. The explosion made the dragon stagger... and it stepped right into a bog hole. Then, the ground around it started to collapse letting more of its body fall into the hole. That must have been Karnel. Did he enter the fight after having dragged Flint to a safe area?

Looks like he did. Several barriers were placed onto Iron, which improved his defense even further. Mhm? Did [Challenge] increase its sound? Oh, right. That [Hate Management] skill that Karnel has. Did Iron take a peek in my "Garami love-love" treasure box...? No, snap out of it, Revi! That one is safe in Damavand!

*Gasp*, I forgot my role. I have to Identify the secret to the wooden wyverns. If it starts sprouting those creatures here... This dragon has many fancy skills. Even one that sounds similar to Genocide Drive... nope, it's this one I want. This Extra Skill... heck, it is at Lv.8. Good work there, buddy...

WHAT IN THE NAME OF TERRA SOL!?

"Revi?" - Karnel

"GYAAAAH!?" - Revi

What-, huh-, who-!?

"Relax. It is just me. Is everything fine?" - Karnel

Ph-phew. It was just the Gargoyle...

"No, it's not fine!! That thing has... something I want." - Revi

I forgot my duty again... [Envy].

The dragon's Extra Skill was no match for my Sin Skill. That will take care of potential reinforcements...

Just thought of this, but what if those creatures from the floor above decided to come down here?

"Iron! Hurry up and take that guy down, quick!" - Revi

I released several Death Bullet magic spells towards the dragon while shouting a warning to Iron. Karnel noticed the desperation in my voice and started to use Earth Magic to create walls around the wooden dragon to limit its movements. 

"...[Magma Touch.]." - Iron

Iron charged at the dragon with his hot-glowing shield and collided with the big creature. Large flames wrapped themselves around the dragon as it roared in pain. Good! With this-

*Rumble, rumble, rumble-*

Oh, snap! I was right! The dragon-army from the fourth floor's coming to help the boss! They're trying to penetrate the barrier that forms the illusional graveyard, but it's only a matter of time!

*Ka-BOOOM!*

A large explosion could be heard from outside the "graveyard". What was...

"Oh, my. You think Flint will be okay out there?" asked Karnel with worry in his voice.

That's right. Flint still has all those exploding swords of his! If he can use them to stall-

"Hmm?" - Revi

"This is..." - Karnel

We turned around and found Iron standing by the burning corpse of the wooden dragon.

"...it didn't think about recovering from the damage..." replied Iron with an uncharacteristic dumbfounded voice...

Ah-aaaahhh... It must have believed it still had that Yggdra-whatever-it's-called skill. It must have planned to make a full recovery by "dying once"... [Envy], what a fearsome ability… to not even tell that you've taken something before it's too late...

The plant creatures, I mean, the Plant Tokens must have been part of why it thought it could survive. If they're still here, then the dragon must have believed its resurrection ability was also safe...

Okay, I've decided. I will never rely on skills with such big risks! This girl is going to place safety first!

[LOSS OF DUNGEON BOSS CONFIRMED. CONGRATULATIONS. MEMBERS OF ENEMY DUNGEON, RECOGNIZED. TRANSFERRING OWNERSHIP OF ONE DUNGEON-ITEM TO DUNGEON: "Damavand". STARTING TRANSFER OF INVADERS TO THE DUNGEON ENTRANCE.]

And here comes the announcer that always kicked us out before! Wait, Garami's getting something? Even when we're the ones who did all the work?! 

However, despite my complaints, we were enveloped in the same light as when we were forced out of the Dungeon before, and before we could blink, we were at the entrance of the Dungeon. Along with one huge treasure chest.

"Ooohh!! They did it!" 

Eh... oh. Samurais... the chest contains the clue to the sword, doesn't it? We have to give it to them or risk being chased by a so-called "Hyakki Yagyō", right?

"Okay, okay! Stand clear, you bunch of freaks!" - Mira

And here comes Mira! And don't call them that! We're tired here!

"Fiiine..."

They... they are listening to her?

"What is going on?" I whispered to Mira

"Some idiots attacked the village while hunting for you. I wanted to interrogate them, but this group of barbarians killed them all before I could, so we're allowed to look at the clue first," whispered Mira back to me.

That's luuuu...someone is after me? Why!? What bad things have I ever done!? 

"No worries." - Iron

"It is worrisome that people are coming after our little dragon-witch. They even had someone with an 'Anima Drive'-skill, or whatever that was." - Mira

Eh? She's worried about...?

"You mean 'Aether Drive'?" - Revi

"Say what now?" - Mira

"Aether Drive. The wooden dragon had a skill like that." - Revi

It never got the chance to use it though.

"No, I'm talking about an Anima... there is another one? They sound oddly similar too..." - Mira

Yes... this sounds bad...

"Still no worries." - Iron

"Again, why're you saying something like that!?" - Mira

"Drives are weaker than Extra," replied Iron with a confident voice...Extra?

"The wooden dragon, it was ancient." - Iron

Ancient... ancient dragon...as in...as in the one Garami that talked about? Iron got one of those skills!? And...oh boy. This undead may be the worst candidate for having one of those skills...

---

Skill List:

Attack Skills: Magic Skills: [Magic Ability Lv.47] UP16 [Force Magic Lv.16] UP10 [Call Spirit Lv.Max]   [Spirit Magic Lv.12] UP6
    Active Skills: Passive Skills: Resistance Skills: Perception Skills: Leadership Skills: Elements: Monster Skills: Extra Skills:

Title List:

Hunting Titles:

Status Titles:

Description:

[Virtus - Fighter of Bravery] is an Extra Skill that is considered the Extra-tier of the [Close Combat] skill. It drastically improves one's hand-to-hand combat arts to the point where one could fight a god of martial arts, and it would be a close match.

This skill is among the "martial art proficiency" Extra Skills, a series of skills that are the ultimate stage of skills like [Swordsmanship]. They grant god-like proficiency regarding their art of war, a talent that only a few millions can obtain normally.

Their greatest strength lies in their second ability to resist practically anything except for other Extra Skills that are designed to hunt down a specific creature (and even then the damage is greatly lowered compared to normal) or skills that can inflict "True Damage" that ignores resistance.

Mira's comment: Yup. Feels just like what my teacher owns. Not that she used it anyway. According to her, it felt like "the skill drags my level down". She's crazy.

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