Mob Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni
Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #121
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 121: The
Longest Day of My Life (5)
"Fu~u......"
Knowing
the enemy's identity, the first thing I did was take a deep, deep breath.
I
exhaled the impatience and fear within me along with the air, allowing the
oxygen in my body to be renewed.
If the
opponent is Urashima Taro, enemies won't appear at first. In a way, it's safe.
Therefore,
first, I need to calm down. In the battle against Urashima Taro, the greatest
enemies are impatience and time.
With
the fresh oxygen, my head is clearing...
"You're
looking pretty calm, eh? I thought you'd be more flustered."
Renge
asked with a smirk.
I
replied,
"There's
no point in panicking."
That’s
right, whether the enemy is Urashima Taro or whoever, what I need to do is
obvious.
I need
to defeat this enemy as quickly as possible, rush back to Ai and the others,
and kill that Pied Piper of Hamelin bastard... that's all.
Originally,
I needed to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible anyway. The addition of my
lifespan as a time limit didn't make much of a difference.
At
most, I'm just a little worried about whether Ai will recognize me at a glance
when we meet again.
"Fufu,
you have a good, determined look on your face. That's how a hero should be. So,
have you thought up a strategy for defeating the enemy?"
"Yeah,
more or less."
I
nodded at Athena's question.
Perhaps
because he’s known as the worst kind of enemy for adventurers, information
about Urashima Taro became relatively widely available.
Urashima
Taro is an Irregular Encounter that is unusual among the Reapers because the
sequence of events is in reverse order.
In
other words, while the original storyline was [Rescue a turtle], [Be taken to
the Ryugu-jo (Dragon Palace) by the turtle], [Receive the hospitality of
Otohime and others], and [Opening the Tamatebako1
and instantly become an old man], this Irregular Encounter forced the [Opening Tamatebako
and instantly become an old man] ending onto adventurers at the start.
Therefore,
first, I have to find the Tamatebako hidden somewhere around here and close it.
"The
problem is..."
I
scanned my surroundings.
Crude
houses stood scattered across the sandy beach. The Tamatebako would be hidden
in one of these twenty houses.
You
might think we could just check each house one by one, but the Grim Reapers'
schemes were not so simple.
Urashima
Taro's aging effect had a property where it accelerates further while someone
is inside a house.
The
rate is ten times faster than normal. Roughly ten years of aging will strike
your body every minute.
Even if
I split up the search with my cards, it takes at least one minute to check a
single house. This one-minute figure is the shortest possible time to examine a
house with ten cards, and the fewer cards that can be summoned, the more time
it will take.
In
other words, I'd have to pay at least ten years of my lifespan every time I
check a single house.
The
probability of being correct is only 5%. If I check them all one by one, I'll
definitely run out of lifespan before finding the right one.
The
Guild's recommended strategy for [Phase 1: Treasure2
Hunt] had two main approaches.
One
was brute force: simply using a large number of people to search all the houses
at once.
With
twenty individuals, all the houses can be checked at the minimum cost.
But
even for professionals, such a large team is rare, and more importantly, I'm
alone.
Even
if I try to compensate with subordinate summoning, low to mid-level
subordinates without independent thought aren't suited for this kind of
delicate work. In the worst-case scenario, they might even destroy the Tamatebako.
If that happens, I'll be trapped here until the next prey arrives. Game over.
The
other approach would be the orthodox strategy: properly solve the riddle and
find the correct house.
But,
of course, the Guild's records did not contain the solution to the riddle.
Riddle
skills vary the problem based on the challenger's knowledge. It's likely a
measure to prevent further increases in difficulty by carelessly revealing the
solution.
The
time it took to solve the riddle ranged from about ten to twenty minutes for
the fast solvers. For average people, it usually took several times longer.
Alright,
what to do...
The
first thing that came to mind was using precognition applied through Fate
Manipulation to pinpoint the correct house, but...
"............No
good."
I
can see the paths of possibility. But the outcomes beyond them could not be
seen, covered by a black haze.
Is it
because we're in an Angolmois, or is it interference from the Irregular
Encounter...?
At
this rate, Luck Manipulation would be useless too.
"Athena,
can't you find the answer with your Authority of
Knowledge3?"
The
authority of the goddess of knowledge is the right to access humanity's
collective wisdom4. It searches the internet
of knowledge that humanity has accumulated so far and can refer to records of
similar memories that have been lost.
Since the collective wisdom is
an accumulation of knowledge from those who have died (the knowledge of living
humans exists in a standalone state), older knowledge known by many people is
easier to look up, while new information known only by a few is harder to find.
However, since information about Irregular Encounters with many victims is
globally shared, there's a high possibility of being able to search for it.
Athena,
however, shook her head in response to my expectant gaze.
"
It's likely possible to obtain the answer with the authority of knowledge, but
there's a high chance of getting caught in the riddle skill's 'cheating'
detection. It would be safer to refrain."
”I
see......"
So,
not only does the problem change based on our prior knowledge, but it might
also change mid-question if we try to cheat, huh?
Considering
the nature of riddle skills, which test pure wisdom and courage rather than
just knowledge, that's entirely plausible.
"Eliza,
what about your [Intuition] or [Finn's Thumb]?"
"I
apologize, Master. I feel like I can discern subtle differences and oddities
between the houses, but pinpointing the correct one..."
"Okay...
Eliza and Athena, please look at all the houses and see if you can deduce the
correct answer from the exterior. Everyone else, please help them."
While
the cards were scattered to the various houses, I remained there to figure out
the next breakthrough.
Leaving
the riddle-solving to those two, I wondered if using a brute-force approach
with subordinate summoning was truly impossible.
......
Right, Kishimojin! How about the Rakshasas?!
As highest-level subordinates, they possess
self-awareness equivalent to the original. If I have all the subordinate summoners
I have summon their subordinates like crazy, and we get about 200 of them, we
can search everything at once!
It'll
be a significant loss to not be able to use Kishimojin's subordinate-devouring powers5 in the fight that
follows, but it can't be helped!
『Renge,
transform into Kishimojin. Summon the Rakshasas and let's finish this quickly
with a brute-force approach!』
『Mm......
hmmm…』
To my telepathic message,
however, Renge returned a troubled response.
『…Is something wrong?』
『Uh,
it's just that those Rakshasas are, you know, denizens of the Asura Path. They
spend all year round in battle and don't even see it as suffering. So they're
reliable when it comes to fighting, but they're kind of rough, or to put it
bluntly, they tend to solve things with brute force...』
『Enough,
I get it...』
In
other words, they're not suited for Treasure Hunting, huh? Having the
Tamatebako destroyed would be seriously bad.
Tch, looks
like the orthodox approach, solving the riddle, is the only way.
『...... By the way, Utamaro. How
many minutes have passed since we got here?』
I
looked at the Card Gear in response to Renge's question.
『I
don't know the exact time, but I think it hasn't been five minutes yet.』
『So
at least two to three minutes have passed, right?』
『Yeah...
what about it?』
As I asked back, Renge gently landed in front of
me.
Then,
she stared intently at my face... and sighed softly..
"Just
as I thought..."
"What's
wrong?"
"Your
appearance hasn't changed at all since we got here, you know."
"What?"
I
spontaneously touched my face.
My
appearance hasn't changed? But I should have aged at least two or three years?
At our age, people change
significantly even in just a year or two. The fact that my appearance hasn't
changed at all means...
"...Is
it a side effect of Perfect Link?"
"Probably.
I think your aging is several times slower than a normal person's right
now."
"Then,
my lifespan is also...?"
”Yeah,
it's likely longer by that much."
The moment I heard that, I
grinned.
If
that's the case, then things are simple!
『Everyone
gather around! Forget about the riddle! We're going to search every single
house! Yuki and Athena, summon Shiro, Kuro, and Nike too!』
If the
shackle of lifespan is gone, there's no time to waste on a time-consuming
riddle.
We'll
find the correct house by checking them all!
"Well,
I figured it would come to this... By the way, shouldn't we summon those Celtic
goddesses?"
"Mm......
I guess so."
I
hesitated slightly at Renge's question.
Soon
after obtaining the three Celtic goddesses, I had tried summoning them.
Nemain
was fine since I used her for Dress's rank-up, but the other two were
different.
I
guess, or rather, as I expected, their [Pride of Deity] worked against me, and
they refused to obey me.
They
said things like, "We have no intention of bestowing blessings upon one
who is not a warrior," and "If you grovel and beg, we might spare6 your life, but do not command us."
After
that, I tried summoning them several times to somehow improve our relationship,
but with zero success. On the contrary, I felt their attitude getting colder
each time I summoned them.
Recently,
before Angolmois, I had refrained from summoning them, fearing further
deterioration of our relationship... but in this situation, I can't afford to
keep holding back...
――――Because, Urashima Taro's
combat power is likely equivalent to A rank.
Irregular
Encounters appeared by taking over the boss of a dungeon. That doesn't change
even during Angolmois.
Therefore, it would be logical
for them to appear at a rank corresponding to the phase.
But,
Angolmois is a festival for them.
According
to past records, the combat power of the Grim Reapers during Angolmois was
clearly about one rank higher than the highest-ranked enemy in that phase.
Just
as the boss of a dungeon appeared one rank higher than the dungeon's own rank,
these Irregular Encounters probably received a one-rank boost during the
Angolmois.
In
other words, even if they took over the boss of a C-rank dungeon, they would
possess combat power equivalent to A-rank during Angolmois.
Even within A-rank, combat
power varies wildly, more so than below B-rank. Rumor had it that their initial
combat power ranged from 1000s for the low, and the highest-class native cards
exceeded 3000.
Their growth limit also seemed
to be different from those of B-rank and below. I don't know Urashima Taro's
exact combat power, but in the worst-case scenario, I expect it could exceed
10,000.
Against
such a monster, I don't have the luxury of letting the power of the Trinity
Deity be idle.
First,
I'll try asking sincerely, and if they still refuse, it can't be helped.
I'll
have to force them with Link.
--- An application of
Synchronization, Marionette.
With
this Link, which can forcibly move cards, even a rebellious card can be used
temporarily.
Of
course, the card's impression of the master will worsen, and in the worst case,
a negative skill might even sprout immediately, I hear... but this time,
there's no other way.
With
that resolution, I summoned the two deities, Macha7 and Morrigan.
The
war goddess of wrath and destruction, with hair as crimson as blazing flames,
along with the war goddess of dominion and slaughter, possessing both allure
and valor, manifested before me.
"Hmph,
it is impious of you to call upon this Macha so rudely, little boy......
mu?"
"This
is... I see, you've been captured by a Grim Reaper."
To the two deities who
immediately grasped the situation upon appearing, I said,
"Let
me explain the situation concisely. My family and children have been kidnapped
by the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I was on my way to rescue them when I got caught
by another Irregular Encounter. It's likely Urashima Taro. Every moment counts.
You may find me disagreeable, but please, cooperate with me here."
The
two goddesses stared intently at my face.
...How
is it?
I
waited for their reply with a pounding heart.
Please,
just nod!
"...Hmph,
very well. What will you do, Morrigan?"
"For
now, I shall obey."
I was
taken aback by how readily the two goddesses nodded.
The
last time I summoned them, it felt like there was no way to even approach
them...
I
couldn't help but ask,
"Are
you sure...?"
"Well,
yes. Right now, you bear the face of a man driven to the battlefield for the
sake of his people. One who would stoop to any means for those he deems worth
protecting... a warrior's guise, of sorts."
"It's
a bit of a shame there's no sign of martial prowess, but martial strength isn't
the only requirement for a warrior. If you are a warrior, then it is this
Morrigan's role to bestow blessings upon your path..."
"I
see... that's reassuring."
I
breathed a sigh of relief.
With
that, my anxiety about the Celtic Trinity Deity was dispelled.
Not
only for the battle ahead, but having more personnel to search for the
Tamatebako is also a quietly significant development.
With
this, our manpower is: Renge (Kisshouten and Kokuanten), Eliza, Yuki (+ Shiro
and Kuro), Mea, Suzuka, Athena (+ Nike), Audrey, Myra, and Dress (+ Macha and
Morrigan), totaling 9 slots and 15 individuals.
I have
three summoning slots remaining. It would be a waste to leave them unused...
Oh, right!
I took out the Silkies that I
had once pulled from the card packs.
The Silkies had been entrusted
to my family until now, but with everyone's cards upgraded, these cards with
inconvenient negative skills had returned to my possession.
Clumsy, outwardly compliant
but inwardly rebellious, lazy, carefree, forgetful... they were all maids with
personalities unbecoming of maids. From among them, I chose and summoned the
penny-pincher, the terrible cook, and the unfriendly one, as their negative
traits wouldn't hinder the Tamatebako search.
Appearing
before me were a twin-tailed loli (the penny-pincher), a smiling, gentle older
sister (the terrible cook), and a big-breasted delinquent type (the unfriendly
one) – a diverse group of maids.
The summoned Silkies was about
to open their mouths, each wanting to speak.
"Silence!"
"""!"""
Audrey barked out an order,
preempting them.
At the single command of the
maid among maids, the Maid Master, the maids with negative skills instantly
stood at rigid attention.
"From
this point forward, the Master will explain the situation. Listen
carefully."
"""Yes,
ma'am!"""
"Then,
Master, please."
"Oh,
ah......"
Audrey
gave a swift, polite bow and stepped aside, then I addressed the Silkies,
"Mm...
right now, we're trapped by an Irregular Encounter, Urashima Taro. To escape
this situation, we need to find a box, Tamatebako, hidden somewhere here.
You've just been summoned, and I know it's a lot to ask, but I'm counting on
you."
"""Understood!"""
Whether it was a
characteristic of the Silky race or Audrey's influence, I was inwardly
satisfied with the obedient Silkies and divided the cards into two groups.
Investigating one house with
this many individuals would be a waste. Splitting into two would be more
efficient.
Group A would be led by me and
consist of: Renge (Kokuanten), Suzuka, Athena (+Nike), Myra, Audrey, and the three
Silkies – ten members.
Group B would be led by Renge
and consist of: Renge (Kisshouten), Eliza, Yuki (+ Shiro, Kuro), Mea, and Dress
(+ Macha, Morrigan) - nine members.
It was a setup where Eliza
with her [Intuition] and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, along with Audrey and
Dress, the Maid Masters, were in separate teams.
"Alright,
let the search begin!"
With both groups decided, we
immediately started our search.
I led Group A towards the
nearest house and entered.
"Tch,
it's wider inside than I thought. And it's filthy..."
The interior of the house was
many times larger than its crude exterior suggested, and useless junk like
pots, broken farming tools, and torn nets were scattered around as if to be
deliberately annoying.
"Mumu,
this really gets my cleaning spirit fired up! I'll make it sparkling
clean!"
"You
don't have to tidy up... no, wait."
I was about to tell the
gentle, terrible-cook Silky, who was rolling up her sleeves, that we just
needed to find the Tamatebako, but I stopped myself.
Searching for an unknown Tamatebako
in this garbage-filled house while cleaning might actually be a good idea.
The peace of mind from knowing
we won't have to worry about potentially overlooking something in a previously
searched area would be significant...
The
problem is that just getting this mountain of trash outside would probably take
quite a bit of time...
"Master,
in that case, storage skills might be useful."
"Oh,
right! We
have those!"
I
snapped my fingers at Audrey's suggestion.
Mayoiga's
[High-level Storage] skill had a storage capacity equivalent to our high school
gymnasium.
Many
Silkies also possess a [Low-level Storage] skill as an acquired skill, and the
three here also have it.
If
we throw the dummy trash into that, it’ll save us the trouble of taking it
outside.
"Also,
if it's just about getting rid of the trash, the Brownies8
should be sufficient."
"You're
right. If it's sorted trash, we can leave it to the subordinates. Alright, one
of you Silkies, go join Group B."
"Ah...
then I will go."
The
one who raised her hand was the unfriendly Silky, who had the most
exceptionally ample busts among the Silkies.
She
hadn't lost her perpetually displeased expression since appearing, but despite
her lack of amiability, this Silky was probably the most reliable in terms of
her actual Silky abilities.
"Thank
you. ...Okay, everyone, search for the Tamatebako while cleaning up the
trash."
As everyone scattered, I
started on a nearby pile of garbage, a shadow slid silently towards me.
Who
is it? I looked up to see that it was the penny-pinching loli Silky.
"Heh
heh, Master. If we find the Tamatebako, will there be a bonus or
something?"
This
one... does she even understand the situation?
I was more dumbfounded than
angry at the penny-pinching loli Silky, who was rubbing her hands together with
a sleazy smile.
She's
definitely worthy of being in a pack.
Out of the corner of my eye, I
saw Audrey, veins popping on her forehead, about to come over here, but I
stopped her with a hand gesture and asked the penny-pinching loli Silky,
"
Talk while you work for now... What kind of bonus do you want?"
From experience, it's better
not to forcibly suppress those with negative skills.
If they can be motivated with
rewards, they can even be easier to handle.
"Well,
it's gotta be this, this, of course!"
To my question, the
penny-pinching loli Silky made a circle with her
fingers, the gesture for money.
"Humans
can get most things as long as they have money, right? Money's the best!"
"Even
if you get money, you can't use it yourself, can you?"
"Well,
you see, for my share of the reward, I'd have Master go out and buy things for
me."
"You're
a maid, and you're going to make your master run errands…? Well, whatever, but
human money is practically worthless paper now, you know?"
"Eh...?!?"
The
penny-pinching loli Silky stopped putting trash into her Storage Skill, a look
of shock on her face.
"Don't
stop working. ...Common sense says you can't exactly go shopping with monsters
running rampant, right?"
"Ah,
I see. So that's already started. No wonder you've summoned so many. Hmm, in
that case, magic stones then. Give me magic stones, please."
"Magic
stones? Magic stones, huh..."
Magic
stones weren't valuable only to humans.
Cards... and even dungeon
monsters instinctively desired magic stones, and it had been found that if you
scatter them in front of monsters, they'll go for them, ignoring humans.
Apparently, for cards and
monsters, magic stones were seen as a delicacy... or rather, a luxury item that
gave them something close to pleasure.
Of
course, magic stones, being a universal energy source, weren't just a luxury
item.
Normally,
such a use would be wasteful, but giving them to cards also had effects like
restoring stamina and magic power, or increasing the production of cards that
generate food and other resources.
My
cards, strangely enough, don't seem to desire them much, but I have heard that
there are many cards of other adventurers that actively want magic stones, and
in severe cases, some cards barely listen unless they're given magic stones.
Therefore,
it wasn’t strange that this Silky would want magic stones...
"Well,
fine."
"Yay!
Woo-hoo! My motivation is surging!"
The
penny-pinching loli Silky's movements visibly sped up. It seemed that promising
a reward had activated the positive bonus of her [Penny-pinching] skill.
As
the piles of trash rapidly diminished, I also worked diligently, and a thought
suddenly occurred to me.
A
Silky with the negative skill of [Penny-pinching] wanted magic stones instead
of money, huh?
If the
value of money doesn't recover in the future, perhaps magic stones will...
No, that
doesn't matter right now.
Shaking off these distracting
thoughts, I decided to concentrate on the task at hand.
――――And so, we proceeded with
the search of the houses at a tremendous pace.
The first house took us as
long as three minutes due to our unfamiliarity and fear of overlooking
something, causing us to search more thoroughly than necessary. However, the
next house took two minutes. From the third house onward, we could search each
in about a minute.
However, the crucial
Tamatebako was proving difficult to find, and it was only at the sixteenth
house, counting both groups, that we finally found it.
It was around the time when my
body had aged by a hundred years.
[Tips]
Urashima Taro Part 1
Urashima Taro is an Irregular
Encounter with a rare, reverse-order story among the Grim Reapers.
Because of this, adventurers
experience Urashima Taro's tragic ending first.
In Phase 1's Tamatebako search,
the adventurers will search for the Tamatebako in a field where they age by one
year every minute.
This aging effect cannot be
prevented even by a card's barrier.
The Tamatebako is located in
one of twenty houses, and the challenge is a riddle skill where you must deduce
the correct house based on various clues hidden in the houses' exteriors. There
are no attacking enemies, and even if you can't solve the riddle, you can
eventually reach the correct answer by checking all the houses, making it a
relatively gentle riddle skill.
That is, except for the fact
that the aging accelerates tenfold while someone is inside a house.
Due to this nature, lower-rank
dungeons with fewer summoning slots take longer for people to find the
Tamatebako. As a result, even Five-Star adventurers can die. Also, since the
aged body doesn't return to normal even after defeating Urashima Taro, it is
the most feared Irregular Encounter among adventurers.
***
Notes:
2 Refer to the box because actually, the term for the box is ‘tamatebako’ ( 玉手箱 ), which can be translated as jeweled box, jewel box, or treasure box. It’s basically a beautiful box. ↩
3 Athena has the [Guardian Goddess of Cities and Heroes] skill: Allows the use of Athena's powers as the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, warfare, and crafts. ↩
4 The raw is 知 (chi), which can refer to both knowledge and wisdom, as well as intellect. This word is broad enough to encompass both wisdom and knowledge.↩
5 [Mirror Image Divinity: Ferocious Spirit of Kishimojin] skill ↩
6 the phrase "命くらいは守ってやる" (inochi kurai wa mamotte yaru) literally translates more closely to "will at least protect your life/as for your life, we will protect it," but considering their pride, we guess using 'spare' rather than 'protect' is more aligned ↩
8 Silky can summon E-rank monster Brownie, the intermediate house fairy, with the [Servant summon] skill. It’s an infinite summoning type. ↩
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