Chapter 102 |
Colorful, Squishy, Sparkling, Pop-Popping.
Fwoooosh-!
Along with a notification from the status window, the Balloon Sword shone with brilliant light.
As if a rainbow had seeped into something opaque, colorful hues filled the corridor.
"Ugh..."
"Wh-what is this...?"
Even the party members around me had to cover their eyes with their hands.
Even through that radiance, the status window's message floated clearly.
I stared at it calmly.
[Through sheer, stunning persistence, you have met the conditions!]
-As a reward, this weapon's grade will rise.
-As a reward, a special function will be added to this weapon.
Soon, the light faded, and the world returned to normal.
Through my dazed vision, I glanced down and saw my hand.
In it was the Balloon Sword, still shining brightly.
Only, its light was clearer than before, beautiful as if it had swallowed a handful of stars.
"......"
I stared at the sword in a daze.
The moment I lost myself for a while, blue screens appeared one after another.
Ding-!
[Balloon Sword+]
-Category: Growth-type Weapon
-Grade: B
-Growth Limit: None
-Status: Colorful, Squishy, Sparkling, Pop-Popping
-Description: A special Balloon Sword. Emits a faint purifying light from the blade.
The basic information was laid out.
Below that were the descriptions of its core skills.
[Skill Name: Sparkle-Sparkle!]
-Heals the target stroked with this weapon.
-As this exclusive weapon's grade rises, this ability's range and effect increase.
[Skill Name: Vitality Recharge!]
-Light originating from this weapon recharges vitality.
-Vitality is absorbed by the designated target and restores basic energies such as stamina, mana, aura, and so on.
-As this exclusive weapon's grade rises, this ability's range and effect increase.
The [Sparkle-Sparkle!] skill, which I had been using just fine for a while.
Below it, an entry called [Vitality Recharge!] had been added.
Maybe it wanted to live up to its B grade, because the Balloon Sword had gone and learned an entirely new skill.
'......Wait, it restores vitality?'
Even now, I couldn't help doubting my eyes.
It was because of the slightly unfamiliar wording, vitality recharge.
I turned the thought over with a faint breath.
'Why all of a sudden...?'
This went beyond simple healing. It meant the skill injected vitality itself.
That was something even dozens of high-grade healing potions couldn't accomplish.
The very concept of restoring vitality was that rare.
In other words, this skill carried a value dozens of times greater than half-baked healing skills.
'It was an insanely rare function even in the original.'
Not only did it comprehensively restore consumed stats, it also relieved the mental fatigue accumulated in the target.
At best, it was a function occasionally found in Spirit Items or items above grade SS.
But that kind of function had been granted to a mere B-grade item...
'To a mere Balloon Sword? And as a passive skill?'
Was it really trying to become the Absolute Balloon Sword?
On top of that, just like [Sparkle-Sparkle!], it was a skill that grew according to the weapon's grade.
'And.'
One more message caught my eye.
It was a single sentence attached at the end of every explanation.
Ding-!
[This weapon draws closer to the conditions of a 'Holy Sword'!]
Holy Sword.
A weapon counted among the highest tier of holy relics.
The notification was telling me that the Balloon Sword in my hand was drawing closer to one.
I couldn't help becoming rather serious.
A Holy Sword was closer to a concept than an item.
It had no concrete form, and there was no fixed route for obtaining one.
The title 'Holy Sword' was simply, and rarely, attached to weapons that achieved [unknown conditions].
'But this Balloon Sword is meeting the conditions of a Holy Sword...?'
The title of Holy Sword.
The cause and conditions by which that concept settled into a weapon.
Nothing had been revealed about them, and no player had ever clearly figured out the cause and effect.
'Even I couldn't find out.'
A mystery.
That mystery had suddenly walked right up to me.
My head grew complicated, but I had no choice except to accept that blessing.
'Right... good is good, for now.'
I didn't know what the conditions were, but all I had to do was keep moving at my own tempo.
I sorted out the thoughts that had started tangling themselves for no reason.
Receiving a reward this good seemed to freeze my head instead.
Leaving that complicated joy behind, I pulled my attention away from the status window.
"Ugh, uuh..."
"Khugh...?"
Thankfully, I hadn't been distracted for too long.
The members were only just recovering from the flashbang.
As I casually shook out the Balloon Sword, Caitlin, who had even taken off her mask, furrowed her brow.
"No... fuck, what was that just now? What was that light?"
"My apologies. I released it by mistake."
"You did that? You scared the hell out of me! I thought something exploded...!"
"Please relax. It was nothing serious. It was not the sort of light that harms living things."
Fortunately, the party let it pass without much fuss.
That made sense, since something far more attention-grabbing was spread out before their eyes.
"No... putting that aside, what the hell is this?"
"Such a massive creature swam toward us through the air..."
Just a few steps ahead.
The corpse of a sea serpent, butchered in every possible way, was blocking the corridor with its huge body.
Its length easily seemed to exceed 100 meters, and the sheer pressure of it left the kids speechless for a while.
"Something like this..."
Only after it crashed into the floor did the size of the thing that had been flying through the sky feel real.
Ranne, who had been dazed for a long moment, muttered without thinking.
"......How did we kill something like this?"
""......""
It was closer to a question to herself, but everyone agreed with it.
It simply didn't look like something students could handle.
No matter how much each of them had poured out their strongest firepower, a beast of that size dropping in one blow felt strange.
'Because that thing is a failure.'
A failure of something, Project Leviathan-Failed.[1]
A piece of waste that had fallen away like a byproduct while a certain project was underway.
'It isn't the finished product.'
Compared to the finished product, its power was not even a single layer of scale.
Even against a failure like that, our party had to pour out everything we had to stop it.
And the successful product would probably be twice as huge as that thing, with dozens of times more power...
"This feels unsettling. Even if this is the nest of wicked things, this is the first time I've seen anything this ominous."
"Will we really be okay if we keep going like this? For some reason, the farther inside we go, the worse this nausea gets..."
"What, do we have another way? The path behind us was blocked anyway. If they come at us from that side, we'll end up running into them all the same."
"Mm... just in case, I have been continuously sending signals to the professors, but I don't know what is going on with these coordinates. The signals will not reach them."
Carmilla.
Alice.
Caitlin.
Ranne.
One by one, the kids grew serious and gave their opinions.
I watched quietly, then finally walked past them.
"Let us move forward for now."
"Hey... you saw that thing and still want to keep going? I know you're fucking strong, but who knows how many more of those things there are?"
"But Miss Caitlin just said it, did she not? If we turn back, there is only a dead end, and that side does not seem to have any intention of stopping its attacks."
"That's true, but..."
"In the end, we have no choice but to move forward."
"......My stamina's hanging by a thread. I used almost all my mana pouring it into that thing earlier."
Caitlin scratched her head like this was a headache.
Her tone did not sound particularly frightened. Did she hate the thought of becoming dead weight even in a situation like this?
She truly was terribly addicted to competence.
'It is a pretty big loss, though...'
In the current situation, Caitlin retiring from the fight would hurt quite a bit.
She might be a little lacking in one-on-one duels, but in this kind of field, she acted as a very useful card.
On top of being capable of wide-area attacks, she was a speedster counted among the top three even inside the academy.
If she dropped out, our side's combat strength would fall by at least 30%.
"Hm."
Then should I test it here?
I raised the Balloon Sword in my hand.
Ding-!
[Skill Name: Vitality Recharge!]
-Light originating from this weapon recharges vitality.
"Miss Caitlin? Please stand still."
"What?"
I designated the target.
Right after that, a fierce radiance burst out from the sword just like before.
The opaque light, dyed in dazzling colors, wrapped around the entire corridor.
Fwoooosh-!
"Ugh, fuck...!"
"What do you think? Will this much do?"
"What do I think? Why the hell did you suddenly blast me with a flashbang like... huh?"
When the light faded, Caitlin had been about to rage according to her nature.
But the girl soon froze at the strange sensation she felt.
Crackle, crackle-!
"What is... going on..."
She had seemed pushed to the verge of complete discharge.
Now, current was leaking from Caitlin's fingertips.
Her energy had not only refilled from the bottom, it was overflowing, and the source was spilling out.
'It worked.'
Caitlin stood there in a daze.
After clenching and unclenching her fists a few times, she finally looked this way and asked.
"......How did you do this?"
"Who knows."
The skill's performance was far above what I had expected.
Thanks to that, I was able to smile wide.
To the girl asking how, I placed my index finger in front of my lips.
"It's a secret."
As always, it was a trade secret.
[1] Leviathan is a massive sea monster from biblical tradition, often used in fantasy for colossal aquatic monsters.