3-5 Completion Of The Magic Armor, And Then To The Dungeon

Day Thirty in Another World.

I spent another leisurely day at the royal palace.

If there had been a cat here, it would have purred and then yawned from how utterly relaxed the mood was.

I had fun playing around, trying to make all sorts of snacks.

Today, His Highness Prince Emilio also enjoyed some donuts.

For some reason, even the Queen and the Princess came by.

Every last one of them was either a beauty or a beautiful young girl!

The palace was overflowing with beautiful women, which was impressive enough, but the royal family truly radiated an aura on an entirely different level.

And on top of that, their personalities were incredibly kind.

Maybe that was because they had Japanese blood in them.

Unfortunately, the princes—His Highness’s older brothers—seemed to be buried in work.

Those guys, too, gave off a strong sense of Japanese DNA.

Hands together in prayer!

Everyone was watching over him with strangely warm smiles.

Even the guards of the royal guard.

His Highness Prince Emilio was truly loved.

I skipped training today as well.

Everyone enjoyed some premium ice cream and Belgian chocolate.

Even the poison taster looked blissfully happy.

It was a truly relaxed, wonderful day.

Surely this must have been because of my good conduct in everyday life.

Day Thirty-One in Another World.

Alright, it was about time I dealt with that pending issue.

Yes, the proper use of that magic armor.

But this one was a real headache.

If I failed, I might blow myself away with my own enormous magical power.

Even aikido didn’t pull off tricks that delicate.

Just in case, I went out and bought some armor.

It was a very bulky set of metal armor.

I had a slim build, but with a plan in mind, I chose a size with some extra room.

I replaced the material with forged orichalcum—the same material used for the orichalcum blade—and stacked multiple layers of reinforcement on it.

Unlike the orichalcum blade, this was not a laminated structure like a Japanese sword, but a completely forged, thick construction.

Then I packed the gap between the armor and my body with a cushion spell I created by imagining a shock-absorbing material.

I had deliberately left space between my body and the armor, and I filled it thoroughly with shock-absorption magic in a standby state.

This was a strange spell, almost semi-physical in nature, that required space in order to function as a cushion.

I stacked Physical Enhancement to the maximum, and slapped a powerful barrier tightly over the surface of my body.

On top of that, I layered multiple High Shields around the armor, pouring plenty of magic power into them.

After that, I used teleportation magic to move to the magic training ground that had turned into a glass wasteland.

Then, after letting out a light breath, I activated “Magic Armor.”

I didn’t really understand what had happened to me.

…When I came to, I had been blown several kilometers away into the wilderness.

The High Shields had shattered, and even the supposedly ultra-durable orichalcum armor had been blown to pieces, leaving no trace behind.

Perhaps it had returned to the land as microscopic orichalcum dust, or directly reverted to magical particles.

The powerful barrier that had covered my body had also completely vanished.

I must have taken an utterly unimaginable impact.

Naturally, the cushion spell had also been blown away by the shock.

Since that spell existed precisely to absorb impact, it disappearing was only natural.

Just how much impact all of that had absorbed for me was impossible to guess.

After all, I had “picked a fight with a star.”

It was a wonder I was even alive.

This magic armor was truly a dangerous piece of work.

Its power was outrageous, but especially in my case, because my magic power was so excessive, the penalty for losing control was enormous.

Before I knew it, I had passed out right in the middle of a far-off wilderness.

At first, I couldn’t understand at all what had happened.

It was that feeling of “an unfamiliar ceiling.”

Except in this case, it was the open blue sky overhead.

My own overwhelming magic power had launched me all the way out here.

Damn it, was I a magic railgun or what?

What kind of idiot fires himself?

At least I hadn’t gone straight up and broken through the atmosphere.

If that had happened, I might have suffocated to death in the vacuum of space while unconscious.

The fact that I didn’t have a single injury was probably thanks to my HP Lv.11 status with four million HP.

So I was this tough, huh?

I couldn’t help but admire myself over and over.

Yeah, I was really glad I had taken leveling seriously.

And I was glad I had secured orichalcum.

Without it, I would have taken all the damage directly to my body instead of having that ultra-high-strength orichalcum shatter and cancel out the impact.

In that case, I had no confidence I would have survived.

Thank you, old man at the weapon shop.

And as always, thanks to the blessings of the Seventh Sense.

And thanks to my past self, who learned the hard way not to casually defy what “that thing” said, after getting hurt again and again for ignoring its advice.

When I went to talk to the Guildmaster afterward, he was utterly dumbfounded.

“Of all things, you wore that? Yes, your opponent used magic armor in the finals of the exam, but that is not a technique you can master overnight. Only a family that has wielded it for generations can manage it. You’re lucky to be alive.”

“Uh…”

“In any case, you start with training in magic power control. Have you been doing daily magic control training?”

“About one or two hours.”

“Good. Your magic has that kind of power, after all. Never skip that. Even so, it still won’t be enough to control magic armor. Alright, I’ll assign you the perfect instructor.

Legg, call Andre.”

The Sub-Guildmaster was being ordered around for my sake.

“Andre? Who’s that?”

“Heh, you’ll understand when you meet him.”

Before long, the man called Andre was brought in, and the moment I saw him, I was struck by a strange sense of déjà vu.

Andre-san looked like someone I knew.

But who?

Seeing my puzzled expression, he laughed.

“Hahaha. Do I look familiar? I’m Antonio’s older brother.”

“Antonio?”

“You don’t even remember the name of your opponent from the B-rank exam finals? He’d cry if he heard that.”

“Oh, oh, oh! That explains it!”

“Good grief. Andre, sorry about this, but train this idiot a bit for me. We’re taking him all the way to S-rank.”

“Oh? That’s quite an investment.”

Andre-san sounded genuinely impressed.

Maybe that kind of thing was rare.

“Sorry. This one has… circumstances.”

Heh, “a little” didn’t even begin to cover it.

“But to think you’d make our Orston family’s magic armor your own after seeing it just once!”

“He memorized it, not mastered it. That’s why I’m asking you. Alright, I’m leaving him to you.”

For the next week, I was relentlessly drilled in precise magic power control at the guild’s training grounds.

As a side effect, I gained the ability to handle ordinary magic at about one-and-a-half times its previous power with ease.

Andre-san praised my progress highly.

Even so, I still couldn’t control the magic armor.

Then, at last, it was time for a mock battle—and the opponent called in was none other than Antonio himself.

The moment he saw my face, he turned bright red with anger.

Well, anyone would be angry.

That exam really had been awful.

“Brother! What were you thinking? Because of this guy, the Orston family was utterly humiliated!”

“Now, now. But you were certain of victory, grew arrogant, and then lost.”

“Gah!”

“It will be good training for you as well. Make every rival your teacher. That’s a family maxim of ours, isn’t it?”

“…Understood. Hey, you. Don’t get cocky just because you won once. And with that kind of victory, no less.”

“But a win’s a win, right?”

I waved my B-rank adventurer card right in front of his eyes.

Antonio turned red and shouted.

“You bastard! Fight me right now!”

So young, falling for provocation at this level.

You’ve got a long way to go, kid.

But surprisingly, I held my own.

It wasn’t magic armor, but by using my improved magic control, I deflected his attacks with various magic defenses and shields packed with extreme magic power, handling them beautifully.

I hadn’t expected to be able to do that.

I’d really grown a lot in this one week.

It was like learning a new skill in my fifties.

Andre-san was truly a wonderful teacher.

I found myself deeply interested in the Orston family.

By repeatedly watching his magic armor up close, I naturally grasped how to use it.

After a week, I found myself wearing the magic armor perfectly, as if it were second nature.

Antonio’s stunned, unbelieving expression was priceless.

Andre-san praised me, and the Guildmaster granted permission for dragon subjugation.

The Guildmaster also lectured me on how to kill a dragon.

“Don’t let it breathe. Immobilize it and take its head.”

If it was headhunting, leave it to me—a man from a land that once took countless enemy heads and even seized dominion through it.

I had even made a dragon-specific headhunting sword at a convenient time.

It seemed like the perfect opponent for a test cut.

Day Forty-Five in Another World.

Seven days remained until the A-rank exam.

Early this morning, we arrived at the labyrinth city of Adros.

Of course, it was to slay the dragon on the lowest floor of this dungeon.

Antonio came with me.

According to the information we gathered, there was a dragon here as well.

Andre-san’s casual remark, “Then why don’t you take Antonio along?” decided it.

Naturally, I had no reason to object.

Having an overwhelmingly powerful human shield who could use magic armor was practically cheating.

Of course I was going to use him to the fullest.

He seemed unable to defy his older brother.

I suspected he was usually causing him plenty of trouble.

With that rowdy personality of his, after all.

If necessary, this old man would straighten him out himself.

After all, there was almost a parent–child age gap between us.

Well, about thirty-one years, to be precise.

Even so, his brother seemed worried about his emotionally unstable younger sibling, saying, “Please take care of my brother,” which was how we ended up coming together.

To this Adros labyrinth.

By teleportation magic.

At first, he seemed utterly confused, his brain unable to keep up with the sudden world-slicing transformation caused by instant teleportation.

Soon enough, his face twisted into a bitter grimace, and finally into one of resignation.

“So, we’re going dragon hunting now. You mentally prepared?”

“Even if I wasn’t, you’d go anyway, wouldn’t you?!”

He probably had a lot on his mind about fighting a dragon.

He snapped back angrily.

“Well, you’re wearing magic armor, so I don’t think you’ll die. Alright, let’s go.”

We used teleportation magic to reach the deepest floor we’d already visited.

As time allowed, we had steadily advanced downward while training.

Today, we were starting from the forty-fifth floor.

After that, we pushed forward with magic and weapons, utterly dominating everything.

Thanks to that, we gathered a massive amount of materials.

And in the boss zone, there was a familiar face waiting.

“Grrr—”

A chimera.

It must have popped up after the last time.

So from this floor onward, A-rank monsters were bosses.

The chimera immediately unleashed a powerful breath attack without any preamble.

Well played, chimera.

Its breath was brutal.

On top of that, it was highly responsive and had great endurance.

But I smoothly absorbed all of it straight into my item box.

It growled with a shocked expression.

Even so, it immediately shifted into a physical attack stance.

Perhaps because it prided itself on its tenacity, this monster—despite being able to combine magic and physical attacks—apparently favored this approach over using magic.

It seemed intent on pinning down a troublesome prey with its forelegs and finishing it off with its prized poisonous tail.

But that wasn’t happening.

“Magic Armor, activate.”

I circled around the charging chimera at high speed and smashed it with a counterpunch packed with maximum power.

Unable to overpower the bracing stance of my enhanced body, it was instead blown away as easily as a passenger car colliding with a speeding truck.

In the end, it flipped onto its back like a dog or cat, wings spread to either side in a perfect pose of surrender.

In the very next moment, I stepped beside its face and delivered a full-force kick to its head as it stubbornly tried to get back up again.

Its head was crushed by the merciless, full-power kick of a leg clad in magic armor, and even an A-rank monster died instantly.

Yeah.

I’d gotten strong.

There was no longer any need to run from this thing.

The pathetic version of me who once struggled against an E-rank Gryon and cowered in fear was already a thing of the past.

“Well, look at you. You’ve completely mastered magic armor. The speed of activation is incredible.”

“Yeah. Honestly, I wanted to settle the score with an upgraded Thunder Rain.”

“Then we can just come back.”

Antonio said that as if it were nothing.

This guy was something else.

Even though he wasn’t even B-rank yet, he was the type who could solo A-rank monsters.

I was really glad I wasn’t in some awful situation where he was secretly stalking me out of spite over the B-rank exam results.