3-4 The Ultimate Cleaver And The Glass Earth

Day twenty-eight in another world.

For now, the arrangements to guard Eri’s family were in place.

With Ed and the others, they would run security properly.

Before going back into the labyrinth, I decided to raise my magic levels.

When I faced that chimera, I honestly didn’t know what to do.

You don’t use advanced magic for the first time in real combat.

So first—grinding intermediate magic.

If I could get intermediate attack spells to a high level, then even without finding an open battlefield, I should be able to pour in power and drop a chimera easily with my current strength.

Luckily, I’d already picked a suitable training ground.

It was a place I’d spotted while flying north with Fly.

A wasteland—endless jagged rock.

No one would be bothered there.

I started with intermediate spells.

Beginner spells had a ceiling on their power.

And advanced spells were sometimes too strong to use conveniently.

Sure, they’d taught me from the start how to suppress output and use them delicately, but… was that useful for anything besides indoor drills?

So first I’d take the “usable and strong” route: raise all intermediate spells to the cap, Lv10.

All I did was blast them, so I practiced different firing patterns and output control.

And by the time the sun set, every intermediate spell had reached Lv10.

This “magic level” thing was basically a guideline: what you could do at that level with a “normal” amount of mana.

The real power came down to how much mana you poured into it.

Still, higher Lv obviously meant higher baseline power.

If I wanted magic beyond that, I’d have to create new spells myself.

Also… I really wanted a cutting-type spell.

I’d struggled way too much when trying to take the chimera’s head.

I didn’t want to do close combat against high-rank monsters.

And I also wanted to master magic armor completely.

After thinking it through, I tried making something: an orichalcum magic sword ten times the size of my usual one.

If I made it now, it would probably—

I did it anyway, and sure enough: “MP insufficient.”

As expected, my current MP—nearly 88 trillion—blew apart and scattered miserably.

To make a ten-times orichalcum blade required 200 trillion MP.

An absurd object.

But in exchange, my MP level went up.

I hadn’t expected I’d need that.

There probably wasn’t anyone else in this world who could create this oversized orichalcum sword.

My MP level hit Lv10, and I now had a brutal 22,250 trillion MP.

The MP numbers were simply the “space” my magic PC reserved—an area to absorb mana.

It seemed fundamentally different from what people in this world called “mana capacity.”

It just expanded the reserved area numerically based on a fixed formula whenever necessary.

If it ran short, it widened the area.

A very PC-game-like setting.

Normally you kept the system load low, and expanded the area only when needed.

Then I tried crafting the giant orichalcum sword again.

This time it worked—an enlarged-copy creation: a massive orichalcum magic sword with a ten-meter blade and thirteen meters overall length.

A huge magic stone sparkled brilliantly.

This was something you could never put a price on.

Yeah… I had to keep this sealed everywhere except inside a labyrinth.

I tried granting Fly to it.

For a test run, I sent it into the sky with flight magic.

A single blade could be flown freely.

I made multiple and tried flying them too, but controlling them was tough.

It didn’t handle like “shooting magic.”

But if I just floated them in the air and launched them all at a target at once, multiple was fine.

Like a motion-controller game—control through the image in your mind.

So I tried making a controller.

Cross-shaped, ball-shaped… I tested a few.

In the end, to pilot these monster swords, the best form was the classic “magic staff” type.

Not a wand—more like a conductor’s baton you see in fantasy films on Earth.

Swing it around, make fine adjustments, then bring it down.

A magical tact that commanded and performed a sword-dance.

Eventually I might be able to control them without a staff at all.

I did image training while imagining the chimera fight.

If I worked a bit more, dual-wielding magic staffs might even be possible.

It got fun—I played hard.

And while I was enchanting these with enhancement magic, my Body Reinforcement and HP Lv rose to 11, and I hit 4,000,000 HP.

Why did my HP go up in such a weird way?

It felt like something was seriously wrong, but I decided not to care.

When I built my cheat at the start, “that thing inside me” probably misunderstood something and made it like this.

Back then there wasn’t time, either.

Well, that was normal for me.

It was late.

I wrapped up and headed to Eri’s house.

It was dinner time.

Today—since I couldn’t last time—I’d try curry.

I’d use chicken breast for the ingredients.

The prep was already done.

I used a little more water and made it mild, even at medium heat.

The rice was warmed—copied.

Erin’s eyes were sharp as she watched me cook.

And I could feel the kids’ excitement.

What if it was too spicy for them?

I only had medium and hot curry blocks.

I served it cautiously, and after one bite, Eri shouted:

“It’s delicious!”

Paul and Marie could eat it too.

They looked a bit spicy, though.

Erin was devouring it.

And she went for a third refill without hesitation.

Someday I’d make her eat an ultra-spicy curry that made flames shoot from her eyes.

Even now, if I increased the roux amount, I could probably pull it off.

Though honestly, she’d probably still go for seconds.

Dessert was unanimously pudding.

Erin, of course, had three.

After everyone finished eating noisily and happily, I returned to my inn in the capital.

And then it was just sleep.

Day twenty-nine in another world.

Today I’d train advanced magic.

With my massively increased MP, I wasn’t short on fuel.

Time to go flashy.

I blasted away—completely unrestricted.

Erin and the others’ meals were left with Eri to manage.

I’d made her an item-box bracelet and loaned it to her.

I’d warned her never to let anyone see her using it.

Ed and the others knew she had it, so that was fine.

Eri was smart.

And trustworthy.

I’d also told her not to give Erin more than four puddings.

Including that, she was the kind of kid who handled things properly.

Erin was on a 24-hour close-guard schedule.

She alone stayed overnight at Eri’s house.

A female bodyguard, basically.

And for all her appetite, Erin was actually a capable adventurer.

Ed valued her skill as an archer, and she could handle detection and scouting properly.

She could fight close range to a decent degree.

Since she’d originally been a hunter, she had some thief skills too, and she was good with herbs and mixing.

Because of that, she also handled part of the team’s recovery role.

Right now they had expensive potions I’d given them, though.

In that party, she was the most all-around capable.

You could call her Team Ed’s ace.

And since she could naturally stay with women and children overnight, this mission suited her perfectly.

Her greed for food was also the strongest… but this time, that worked in our favor.

When this job was done, I’d have to reward her.

I still hadn’t given her the classic imported premium ice cream or Belgian chocolate!

In the evening, I teleported to the guild.

I wanted to see if there were any potion orders.

And there was also the matter of advanced healing magic.

But the moment I showed my face, the guildmaster summoned me.

Uh-oh.

Bad feeling.

And the first thing he said was:

“Hey. We got an inquiry from the palace today. Apparently, from the northern region… they detected a massive number of extremely powerful spells. Any idea what that was?”

Cold sweat ran down my back.

Uh…

“And before that, there were reports that a lot of strong magic was detected too.”

I hadn’t even said anything yet.

Was it written on my face?

I was too honest—my face gave everything away.

I gave up and confessed everything to the guildmaster.

“All the advanced magic you taught me—most of it, I raised from Lv1 to Lv10 in one go. I was firing nonstop all day. Before that, I did the same thing with intermediate magic. So what?”

“…I see.”

“Huh. You’re not mad?”

“I’m not mad. But you’re coming with me to the palace right now to explain yourself.”

“Ehh—”

“Shut it. Do you not know there are limits to things?”

“Before that—can you come with me for a second?”

“Where?”

“Here.”

In an instant, I teleported the guildmaster with me to my training ground.

“W-what is this…?!”

A vast area had been completely vitrified—turned to glass—and on top of that it was cratered, overlapped in concentric rings of melted layers.

And it shimmered in rainbow colors.

It was unbelievably beautiful.

Like an accidental art piece.

Even if I tried, I’d never be able to create something like this on purpose.

“I’m getting dizzy… So this is what you wanted to show me?”

“Nope.”

A heavy silence fell.

Then, in that tranquil air, I performed the ultimate orichalcum sword-dance.

I’d increased the number of swords to two hundred.

If I only swung them roughly, I could still manage this many.

And I lined them up in front of us, like an army standing at attention.

“Well… I struggled a lot cutting off that chimera’s head, so I made a huge orichalcum sword. With this, I might even handle a dragon, right? I wanted the opinion of a Dragon Slayer, you know.”

“You… No. I won’t even say anything anymore. But don’t you ever show that in public. What were you thinking, seriously?”

“Thought so. So what do we do about this glass earth?”

“How should I know?!”

“So anyway, um… are we going to the palace now?”

It was already late, so we were escorted into the inner palace zone where the royals lived.

“Al!”

Oh—Prince Emilio.

We’d gotten close enough that he now called me “Al” affectionately.

That made me genuinely happy.

My soul felt cleansed.

Because this kid was adorable.

“It has been some time, Prince Emilio.”

I couldn’t help smiling.

Ah… “a Buddha in hell,” that’s exactly what this was.

Even the king looked warmly pleased at my reaction.

“So, Amon. You say the magic disturbance was entirely this one’s doing?”

“I sincerely apologize. It is entirely due to my lack of virtue.”

Amon bowed solemnly before the king.

Ugh… I felt small.

The boss of adventurers was apologizing to the king because of my screw-up.

What a terrible look.

“Well, it is fine. I am glad it was not some suspicious unknown.”

“Ah—about that matter. After the incident with Prince Emilio, I struggled against a mere A-rank chimera, so I thought I should train a bit. I devoted myself today and worked extremely hard, so if I see that thing again, I’ll drop it in one hit with an ultra-powerful spell.”

““……””

Ah—maybe I’d spoken too casually to the king.

Especially that last part.

“Well… it is fine. Since it was not some dreadful monster or enemy.”

“It was worse in its own way, though.”

Hey—Guildmaster!

Don’t say that!

After that, I talked with Prince Emilio about all sorts of things, and in the end… I stayed the night at the palace.