Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Pulling Strings

“Hey, let me take just one~ please!“

An annoyingly high-pitched voice rang out from behind me.

“Shut up,” I said, not paying it much heed as I turned the map around in my hand. Was this the correct way to hold it?

“Dude! Come on! For me~”

“No? Who the fuck are you that I would that?“ I looked back and frowned. 

“But you have eight! Just one core!“ Blaine's cutesy act was only amplified when the number of cores in our hands increased. As we made our way through the dungeon, we came across more and more monsters, thankfully, none of them were as strong as the first four that I fought.

Since I had Blaine, I didn't fight them at all. She took down three desert monster crabs, one more worm, and also a giant fox. I shamelessly took their cores with ReRa.

I had already told her I'd help her get whatever rank she wanted, but she was still being whiny about it. Maybe she also wanted me to go easier on her? I turned back to see Blaine walking with slightly slumped shoulders. Unlike before, her breathing was a bit ragged and her feet seemed shaky to a very minute degree. She did seem tired.

Maybe noticing my gaze, Blaine sighed and asked. “Why is this so damn heavy—”

“—Hah! Did you just call ReRa heavy!?“ 

“The bag!“ Blaine clicked her tongue. “It's way too heavy for some cores and a golem!“

So, it was finally noticed.

I smirked and let out a low chuckle. “That, of course, is another of ReRa's features—”

A soft glint came rushing from the side.

“—Madam Blaine, are you sure I shouldn't carry that?“ I asked.

“… What?“

***

 “Sir, we have eyes on the kid that was constantly draining his mana.“

The operator's voice took the attention of all the professors sleazing around the screens. As time passed, the trio of Don Brocious, Artie, and Claudio started playing poker, leaving only the newer and less familiar ones to monitor things. 

Claudio was slightly interested, so he set his cards down and walked over to the monitors. There, the monitor that previously showed Odis, Anna, and Reina was now following Ralph from a distance, in front of him was a light-blue haired girl stepping away from the boy with a horrified look on her face.

“Blaine Sothsfield with Ralph Rubinstein, isn't she the only one who is still stuck at one point in the top ten?“

With no third player, even Don Brocious and Professor Artie had to crawl over to the monitors. Blaine had stopped stepping back by then and instead they were opening up Ralph's bag.

“Oh ho!“ Artie whistled when he saw the bag. “He's pulling out the golem, it is a fine work.“

With Artie's words as a cue, the boy on the screen clapped his hands and a tiny golem stepped out of the bag. The Golem, with an extremely adorable set of eyes and face drawn on it, made everyone watching break into a smile, not realizing it came out holding a cylindrical object that looked exactly like its body.

Had it not been cute, the golem would have been accused of cannibalism.

As the drone watching the scene slowly got closer and closer, Ralph's bright smile and constant bows of gratitude toward Blaine became clearer and clearer. The dynamics of things were pretty obvious to the professors. Ralph was probably saved by Blaine and was being used as a slave.

Ralph had picked up both the part of the golem and the golem itself when the drone zoomed in.

“What the hell!“ Don Brocious exclaimed, his eyes widened in surprise.

Everyone else shifted their attention to the bag, at the glowing orbs of many colors hiding beneath the umber cloth of the bag. Cores of many monsters rested inside the bag, completely unscanned by their wristbands.

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“This…” Even the snappy-tongued Artie was stumped at the sight, and so were all the other professors watching the screen. 

Only Claudio Alo broke into a chuckle, his lips turned upward. “That kid might be weak,” he said. “But he's a cunning bastard.“

***

I switched off ReRa and pressed on its side. With a small beep, its limbs and head shot out of the cylindrical body and dropped to the ground.

“Y-you just killed ReRa!!“ Blaine screamed again. “I knew it! You've gone mad!“

Being nice to her once was having this effect!

“Quiet, Miss Blaine!“ I picked up the limbs of ReRa and took them to the other cylinder-shaped torso it had brought out of the bag. “ReRa's specialty is to change the spell that is engraved on it!“

Blaine nodded and clapped. 

I attached the limbs and the head of ReRa to the new body and powered it on. Its head started spinning again.

 
Off, and on.

After trying it twice, ReRa activated normally.

“So, what spell did you add now?“

The ground below ReRa started shaking. Ripples formed on the ground, and a wave of heat spread out.

In the blink of an eye, flames poured out of ReRa's feet! The flames boosted ReRa up to the air, slowly at first.

A loud blast rang out.

ReRa's limbs and the head fell off again.

And leaving behind a trail of smoke and flames, the torso launched off like a rocket. The projectile shot swerved through the air and crashed into the drone looking at us from far away.

“Woohoo! Nice shot, ReRa!“ I held my palm on my forehead to shade my eyes as the drone broke into bits and fell to the ground.

Blaine stared at the same scene with her jaw dropped open.

“What spell was that…?“ she asked.

“Failed prototype,” I said with a thumbs up. There wasn't a need to be nice to her anymore.

I picked up ReRa's limbs again and attached them to the previous body when a voice called out from behind.

“HEY! RALPH!! Is that you!?“

From the distance, a familiar brown-haired and bespectacled face called out to me. Behind the dork were two more familiar faces, Anna the scout and Reina the healer.

I waved at Odis and gestured at him to come over. 

“Look Blaine,” I said. “We've found your first companions!“