Mob Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni
Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #160
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 160: World Native (1)
The next day, I was lying
'dead' on the bed in my room at Fensalir.
Upon learning about Yujin-san
and Reina’s marriage—and the existence of their adorable daughter—I had been
completely knocked out by a profound sense of defeat, both as a man and as a
human being.
Even after the Guild members
left yesterday, I couldn't properly register Anna and Oribe's chatter about the
island's situation. The moment I got back to Fensalir, I had been lying here
like this, paralyzed.
"Haahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~"
Unconsciously, a monumental
sigh escaped my lips.
Where... just where did the gap between me and
Yujin-san start to widen like this?
On one side, there's Yujin-san, who has a
beautiful wife with a stunning figure along with a cute daughter who takes
after her mother.
On the other, there's me, surrounded by
beautiful girls, yet still without a single girlfriend. Still a virgin.
I originally became an adventurer aiming for a
fulfilling social life as a normie, so how did it end up like this...?
This is weird. Something is definitely wrong. I’m
working so hard, saving so many people, and I possess items that everyone in
this current world would kill for... yet I don't have a single girlfriend? This
is beyond strange.
"No... wait, maybe not."
Actually, it’s not ‘strange’. As long as I
weren't picky about who I dated, I could probably get a girlfriend by the end
of the day.
Not to sound arrogant or anything, but in this
world’s current state, there are mountains of people who would want to be my
partner.
The reason I don't have a girlfriend is simply
because I haven't tried to get a girlfriend.
It's not that I don't want one; it's
just that I haven't got time to focus on that.
And that hasn't changed.
"Haaah... First, I gotta finish everything
I need to do. Everything else comes after that."
With one last sigh, I hauled
myself up with a grunt.
Then Renge, who had been reading
manga with a 'no concern of mine' attitude, looked at me and smirked,
"Oh? Look who’s back from the dead."
"You... You could at least offer a little
comfort, you know?"
I gave her a half-lidded
stare, and Renge replied with a look of pure exasperation,
"Nah. The reason for your 'death' was so
pathetic I didn't even feel like bothering."
...It was as you say.
" So? What’s the plan? You were told they
want you to visit the island at least once, right?"
"Ah--..."
I thought for a moment before
answering,
"I think I’ll do that once we reunite with
Dad. That’s the top priority."
I don’t mind going to the
island, and I don't mind trading for a new card to replace Hephaestus.
Many of the magic items they
got from the Gold Disappointment Boxes were actually quite useful, and some
even made me think, "Oh, now this is a find!" Plus, more than
anything, even though they don't seem to realize it, those massive piles of
Garnets are something I'm desperate enough to climb mountains for.
...However. If I considered
the possibility—however slight—that Transfer becomes impossible again, I want to
make sure I’ve reunited with Dad before I go to the island.
With Dad around, even if I get
stranded again, it would give Mom and Ai with a much-needed sense of security.
As for defense, Anna and Oribe
would be here, and while I’m away, I planned to leave the B-rank cards I’m not currently
using—like Sukunabikona and Mercurius—with Mom and the others. But that
probably won't be enough to put my family’s mind at ease.
On the other hand, having Dad
here gave my family a sense of security, even if his presence made no real
difference in terms of fighting ability.
That is simply what a 'father' is.
Of course, if an emergency
arose, I'd put everything aside and rush to the scene. But first, I'd meet up
with Dad. That was undoubtedly the highest priority.
"Alright then. It’s finally time to start
the conquest of the Ikebukuro area."
As I said it, Audrey, who had
been standing by, pulled a stack of loose-leaf papers from her Storage skill
without me having to say a word about it and handed them over.
It was the result of the
investigation of the Ikebukuro area we conducted on our last visit to the
Ikebukuro area.
The map had been marked with
red circles for pre-existing dungeons and blue circles for new ones detected by
the ‘Dungeon Radar’.
This Dungeon Radar was one of
several magic items I'd acquired through the trade with the Hachioji Guild. As
the name suggested, it was an artificial magic item that detect nearby dungeons.
It was considered one of the
earliest inventions among artificial magic items. It was often said that
humanity managed to avoid the stupidity of ‘letting Angolmois happen because we
couldn't spot the new dungeons’ thanks to this device.
...Well, on the other hand, it means that by
fooling this device, it’s possible to hide a dungeon.
"No, no, it's not about that now..."
Thinking about that now wouldn't help.
Shaking my head to clear my
thoughts, I looked at the map again.
The blue circles representing
new dungeons far outnumbered the red ones. The thought of having to conquer all
of them was dizzying, but in reality, D-rank and below dungeons practically doesn’t
exist to me now. What mattered was how many C-rank and higher dungeons there
were.
Currently, the number of C-rank and higher
dungeons in the Ikebukuro area consists of one B-rank and four C-ranks. Whether
we can Calm these five is the key to Calming the entire Ikebukuro area.
And the greatest obstacle standing in our way
is...
"Gugalanna... a World Native, huh?"
I muttered to myself,
recalling the image of that divine bull—as large as a house, with majestic
wings sprouting from his back.
Gugalanna. In mythology, it
was the divine beast of destruction and famine, sent to Earth after Ishtar1 begged her
father2 to punish Gilgamesh3 for
rejecting her marriage proposal.
While I couldn't say for
certain since he hadn't appeared as a B-rank in other countries yet, a divine,
winged bull didn't leave much room for debate—it had to be the Bull of Heaven
(Gugalanna) from Mesopotamian mythology.
If so, this was bad. Very bad.
Mesopotamian mythology was what
people call 'World Native', a mythology treated specially by the dungeon among
the many mythologies.
The reason it was called World
Native was that it possessed native-level power no matter which country's
dungeon it appeared in.
A card might be A-rank in its
home country but drop to B or C-rank elsewhere. Mesopotamian mythology was the
exception and received native status anywhere in the world.
Scholars across the globe researched
why Mesopotamian mythology received such special treatment from the dungeon,
but the reason remained unclear.
One theory suggested it was
because the Sumerian myths, which strongly influenced Mesopotamian mythology,
are the world's oldest. Another pointed to its profound impact on global myths
and religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Greek mythology.
Various theories circulated,
but the truth remained a mystery.
All that was known was that
Mesopotamian deities suffered no reputation-based power reduction and possessed
native-level strength.
Just as Huanglong appeared
with somewhat diminished power in Japan, even among A-rank beings, there can be
a significant gap between natives and non-natives.
Adding to this, Gugalanna was
by no means a minor character within Mesopotamian mythology itself.
Within the mythology, he
appeared as a fearsome foe in the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’, and his portrayal was
far from insubstantial.
In some accounts, he was
identified as the first husband of Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, or one
of the beasts created by Tiamat4 to wipe out the deities.
If those legends are reflected in his stats,
we're in for a hell of a fight.
"Well, either way, there’s no choice but
to take him down..."
The real question here is the order: first or
last?
For this context, the question
of ‘first or last’ refers to whether I should first sweep all the surface
monsters, or whether I should sweep the surface monsters only after I've
cleared the dungeons to the point where I'm almost done with them.
Even if I sweep the surface monsters
first, I have to clear all the dungeons almost to completion before doing
another surface monster sweep.
Technically, I’d be doing double
work. But there’s a catch: by sweeping the surface monsters first, I can find
out which dungeon Bosses have gone off to other areas.
If a Boss was among the slain
surface monsters, their dungeon will become Calm. If any dungeon keeps spitting
out monsters after the initial surface sweep, that means the Boss is either
holed up deeper inside that dungeon, or it's a dungeon whose Boss has ventured
to another area.
Therefore, once all such
dungeons have been cleared, defeating the dungeon Boss that reappears on the
surface will Calm all dungeons in the entire area.
In other words, the effort
required to conquer the dungeons would be drastically reduced.
The downside—or rather, the
risk—would be the possibility that defeating Gugalanna might trigger a re-roll
resulting in an even stronger A-rank monster appearing in his place...
"Hmm... no, actually, it’s kinda
pointless?"
After some deliberation, I
scrapped the idea.
If all the dungeon Bosses
emerged to the surface, this plan might have worked. But as the Phase
progressed, the monsters' behavior patterns also changed.
According to the memories of my
clone that I sent to the island, as long as a dungeon Boss remains within their
dungeon, they retain some limited administrative authority over their dungeon
and a weak command over the monsters within. Perhaps because of this, or because
they find staying inside much more comfortable, the dungeon Bosses rarely
emerge to the surface.
This was likely one of the
shackles unlocked by the progression of the Phase. If the same applied to the
Ikebukuro area, many dungeon Bosses would likely remain holed up within their
dungeons.
If that was the case, sweeping
the surface wouldn't necessarily mean new dungeon Bosses would appear above
ground, so sweeping the surface twice would truly end up being a redundant,
double effort.
…Then, the
only option is to dive and push each dungeon to the brink of conquest one by
one, after all?
“...Well, I guess the silver lining is that the
Boss of the B-rank dungeon—the biggest obstacle—is already out on the surface.”
And there was one more piece
of good news
A significant number of
Carbuncles had been spotted roaming the surface as well.
This implied that there was at
least one secret dungeon hidden among the new dungeons.
As long as there’s a secret dungeon to farm,
the days spent grinding this area won't be a total loss.
"Alright. Let's get to work."
I smacked my cheeks to psych
myself up, then immediately used the Hamelin's Flute to transfer over to
Ikebukuro. My mission to bring Calm to Ikebukuro had begun.
【Tips】Mesopotamian
Mythology
A mythological system that was
revered for over 4,000 years in the Mesopotamian region.
It is also called the world's
oldest mythology, and its tales are said to have influenced myths across the
globe.
Some compare Angolmois to
'Noah's Ark' in the Old Testament, though that narrative itself is considered
to be based on the 'Great Flood' accounts found in Mesopotamian mythology.
If myths are the 'prototypes
of stories,' then the Mesopotamian mythology could be called the 'prototype of
all stories.'
The deities of Mesopotamian
mythology were also worshipped under different names across the world. Among
them, Ishtar was known as Astarte in Phoenicia, Anat in Syria, Isis and Hathor
in Egypt, Lakshmi in India, Anahita in Persia, Frigg and Freyja in Norse
mythology, and in Christianity, she was equated with the Whore of Babylon and
the Holy Mother Mary. She was syncretized and identified with goddesses from
various mythologies.
Furthermore, goddesses
originating from Ishtar ‘evolved’ and syncretized further: Astarte later came
to be identified with Aphrodite in Greece, Anat with Athena, Isis with Demeter,
and Anahita with Artemis.
She truly represents the
origin of goddesses.
Perhaps due to this unique
influence on world mythology, cards and monsters originating from Mesopotamian
myths possess power equivalent to a 'native' card in any country, making them known
as 'World Natives.'
***
Notes:
1 Ishtar was the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She was also associated with sensuality, reproduction, divine law, and political power. Her primary title was 'Queen of Heaven'. Additional note: In Mesopotamian mythology, Ishtar was the city deity of Uruk. ↩
2 Refer to Anu, the god of the sky and stars in Mesopotamian mythology. He was both a creator god and the supreme deity. ↩
3 Gilgamesh was a legendary king of the Early Sumerian period in ancient Mesopotamia (around 26th century BC). According to the Sumerian King List (an ancient text), he was the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Uruk (an ancient city in Mesopotamia), reigning for 126 years. ↩
4 The primordial goddess who was the personification of the salt sea and the mother of the deities in the ancient Mysopotamian mythology.↩
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