Volume 2 - CH 3

Chapter 3 – Emergency Request

“Emergency…”

“…request?”

Finne and I checked the contents of the request.

EMERGENCY REQUEST

Content: A large herd of monsters has appeared to the north of the capital.

Cause, exact numbers presently unknown.

All adventurers capable of fighting are to gather in the guild immediately.

Obligatory participation for adventurers of rank B and above.

Reward: 50,000 Gould

I was ranked A, so I was forced to go…I was told that rank S adventurers were allowed to not comply with forced participation requests, so if I was promoted could I have ignored this one too?

I was calmly considering such things, but Finne seemed pretty agitated.

“M-Mr. Haruto!! We have to go back to the capital immediately, everyone is in danger!!”

“Calm down, Finne.”

“How can I be calm in a situation like this!? We have to go back quickly or— ”

“Finne!”

“!!”

I grabbed Finne’s shoulders to make her settle down.

“The first thing to do is to keep calm. It’s especially important in situations like this. Besides, we have a way to go back immediately, so it’s all right.”

“O-okay…er, how can we go back to the capital immediately? It took us two whole days to come all the way here, right?”

Finne seemed to have calmed down, at least a bit.

It took us two days to reach the mountains, but only because we took our time. We could return in one day if the horse carriage ran at full speed; even better, if Finne entered the subspace and I used Physical Boost on myself, I could run back in two or three hours.

Since there was a real emergency, however, I thought of an even quicker method.

“We can do it — via instant movement.”

I had not tested teleportation yet, but I was positive that using Time-Space magic could make it possible.

Finne looked at me, dumbfounded.

“What…did you just…?”

“We’ll teleport back to the capital.”

“Tele..port…? Wait…whaaat!?! I-it’s that portal you can use in dungeons to go back to the floor you visited last…right? How can we use it to go back to the capital? There aren’t any dungeons here, besides I never heard of a person capable of doing something like that!!”

I did know that there were dungeons, but not that they were equipped with teleportation portals.

While I was registering that new information in my mental library, Finne continued panicking.

“Looks like it’ll be faster to show you…Finne, hold onto me.”

“Like, like this?”

Finne awkwardly grabbed my sleeve, then closed her eyes firmly.

I expected something a bit different…oh well.

Time to see if it works, then.

I closed my eyes, activated Time-Space magic, enveloped both my and Finne’s bodies with the magic power…then tried picturing the location I wanted to go to.

I thought about a patch of woods we passed on our way here, located close to the capital’s western gate.

The next instant, I felt like we were gently floating in the air.

When I opened my eyes again, I found familiar scenery.

I could see the capital’s outer walls through the trees. Looks like the teleportation experiment was successful.

“Finne, we’ve arrived.”

After I prompted her to, Finne slowly opened her eyes.

“This forest is…eh? That’s…the capital!?”

I nodded to Finne’s surprised reaction.

“Right. Okay then…let’s find a secluded place to take out Maguro and the carriage.”

“That’s true, if we went back on foot people would be suspicious.”

We thus decided to return to the capital on the carriage, on the same road we used when we left. It would take a few minutes from our current location, more or less.

I also wanted a few minutes of time to craft something: more specifically, a coat.

The mantle I wore was old and tattered, so I wanted a new one.

“Finne, can I go in the luggage space for a bit?”

“It’s fine by me, but…don’t you need to drive the carriage?”

“Don’t worry, Maguro can do fine by himself.”

I hopped from the coachman’s seat into the luggage space.

“What are you going to do?”

I grinned in response to Finne’s question.

“My mantle’s all tattered, so I want to make a new coat.”

As I replied, I took out the necessary materials.

I was going to use the mutant wyvern’s scales and skin.

“Those are…from the wyvern you just defeated?”

“Yeah, because it resisted both magic and physical attacks. Well, just you watch.”

I then poured my magic power into the scales and skin.

I imbued my magic power into the ingredients, just like I did when I crafted the Black Katana. I put them into the dimensional storage and accelerate the flow of time inside to let them blend well, mold their shape, then repeat the whole process several times.

This would create ingredients with a very high density of magic power, impossible to realize otherwise.

After the ingredients were done, I activated the Molding skill.

My magic power became visible and a crimson thunderbolt struck.

In just a few seconds, I had crafted a black coat with red streaks here and there. A rather cool design, if I said so myself.

I analyzed the coat with God Eye to see what abilities it possessed.

NAME: Black Coat

RARITY: Phantasm

NOTES: Created by Haruto. Evolves by absorbing experience points from defeated monsters.

Can absorb the wearer’s magic power to perpetually activate

Magic Resistance (Medium) and Physical Resistance (Medium).

The rarity is Phantasm, huh.

The rarity of items crafted normally should be one grade below, Legendary…but maybe I could reach this grade because I used a unique method?

The coat’s abilities were pretty good too.

Magic Resistance was resistance to magic attacks, Physical Resistance was resistance to physical attacks…just like the name said.

I had never seen that (Medium), though.

As soon as I wondered about that new element, the related information flowed into my brain.

Apparently, it displayed the extent of an item’s effects: on a decreasing scale, it was (Maximum), (High), (Medium) and (Low).

Resistance-type abilities decreased received damage: (Maximum) by 80%, (High) by 50%, (Medium) by 30%, (Low) by 10%.

I would have liked it better if it was (Maximum), but (Medium) was pretty strong already.

I couldn’t help but give myself a thumbs up, attracting Finne’s attention.

“What’s wrong?”

“It came out even better than expected! Can you imagine it? It’s “Phantasm” grade!”

“Oh, Phan…TAAAASM?!?!”

Once again, Finne was frozen solid.

Was that really so shocking?

In any case, we were almost at the capital. I had to discuss with Finne how we would move once we were inside.

“Finne, once we’re in the capital let’s go back to New Moon Inn and leave the horse carriage there. Then we’ll go to the guild: I’ll fight on the frontlines, but you should stand by in the rear.”

“Y-yes, understood!!”

My fast-spoken explanation forced Finne out of her shock: she listened and nodded to me seriously.

When we arrived at the gate we showed our adventurer cards and the short sword I received from Dillan, the king of Perdis.

As the capital was in a state of emergency, they probably wouldn’t have let us in so easily if we didn’t have the short sword…

We headed towards the New Moon Inn and found Jayn standing at the entrance.

“If it isn’t Haruto. You guys already came back?”

“Yes, that’s right. Sorry, could we leave our horse carriage with you? We need to go to the guild right away.”

“It’s about that large monster horde, right? Be careful, you two. We’re going to take shelter soon.”

“Thank you. Rest easy, I’m going to take them all out.”

I replied to Jayn with a smirk.

“You be careful too, Finne!”

“Yes! I’m going to stand by in the back, though…”

“Keep your guard up all the same.”

“…yes sir. Thank you very much!”

We turned our backs to Jayn and started running towards the guild.

~

Once we stepped inside the guild, we saw that the tavern, which also functioned as a reception area, was packed with people.

In the back, we spotted the guildmaster — Garguin’s polished dome: he was busily gesticulating as he explained the situation.

“The monster horde is currently advancing towards the northern gate. The total number is about ten thousand: in the frontlines, the first of our four lines of defense, three S rank adventurers are currently engaged in the battle against the horde, but it’s just a matter of time until the monsters reach the capital.”

Three S rank adventurers? Two of them were probably Norverne and Dybe, but…was there one more S rank adventurer in this town?

Garguin’s explanation continued.

“The kingdom’s military forces are already in a position to protect the royal family and the citizens, but to be frank, they severely lack numbers. Please, lend us your strength, to protect this kingdom!!”

Garguin then lowered his head to the crowd.

No one probably expected the guildmaster himself to bow like that: the whole entrance hall fell into silence.

It didn’t last long, however, as the crowd broke in shouts such as “I’m gonna do it!!”, “Leave it to us!!”, “Raise your head, man!!” and similar.

Garguin lifted his head and thanked the crowd.

I waited for the situation to calm down a bit, then approached Garguin.

“I’m back, Garguin!”

Garguin heard my all too casual greeting and turned around. As soon as he saw me, his eyes widened in surprise.

“Haruto! Did you quit the expedition to come back?”

“Nope, I took down the target already. That thing was seriously strong though, you sure gave me a pain of a mission…”

Garguin listened to my grumbling and looked at me apologetically.

“Yeah, sorry about that…no, wait, did you really take it down!? In that case, how can you be back already!?”

“Hold on, I’ll show you proof. Sorry people, can you give me some space?”

“Proof? You mean the fang to be used as proof of extermination?”

Garguin asked the question, a curious tone in his voice, as I had the nearby adventurers move away.

“Not that…but this.”

I pretended to open my Magic Bag, and took the mutant wyvern’s head out of my dimensional storage.

“What the!?”

Garguin shouted in surprise after seeing the monster’s gigantic head.

Some of the adventurers around us also retreated, with whispers of shock or dread.

“You believe me now, right? I can’t say how we came back, though.”

“Seriously now…? Haah, okay then. Looks like the mutant wyvern extermination mission is indeed complete.”

Garguin sighed, then continued.

“I’m sorry to say this when you’ve just come back, but…you know what situation we have in our hands, right?”

“Yes, I heard your explanation just now…so, what should I do?”

“I see, could you join Dyne and the others at the frontlines, then?”

I was about to nod in response when a group of adventurers interrupted us.

“Hey, Garguin!! That boy is too young, you can’t send him to the frontlines!!”

“They said there are more than 10 disaster class monsters! You’d be sending him to his death…!”

“If you want to send someone, send us instead!!”

Judging from their equipment, the three adventurers were certainly veterans. They were probably good-natured people too.

They didn’t seem to know that I had won against Norverne and Dyne, though.

Some of the other adventurers around us nodded to Garguin’s proposal, maybe because they knew of my abilities, but…

Garguin then answered the three adventurers’ protests.

“…you guys were out on a mission and don’t know him yet, but Haruto here has defeated both Norverne and Dyne in a sparring match. The mutant wyvern head he took out is proof of passing his promotion exam to rank S. I can vouch for his fighting abilities, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

The three adventurers looked like they couldn’t believe their ears.

“I’m off, then.”

I put back the mutant wyvern’s head, looked around and announced I was going to leave.

“Anyone going to fight, come with me…is that all right, Garguin?”

“Yes…take care of the frontlines, Haruto.”

I firmly nodded to Garguin, then left the guild.

~

Me, Finne, and a dozen other adventurers arrived at the northern gate.

I used Detect Presence and the map to check the current situation of the battle.

As Garguin had said, the monster horde had arrived at the first line of defense. There were three presences raiding the monster horde: they had to be Dyne, Norverne, and the other S rank adventurer.

Thanks to them, the horde’s advance had been disrupted, but some monsters managed to pass the first line of defense and arrive at the second. It was just a matter of time until the first line of defense was completely broken.

Before rushing to the frontlines, I turned around towards the other adventurers.

“Unfortunately, the situation at the frontline is not looking good. You guys go reinforce the second, third, and final lines of defense!”

I made eye contact with Finne, then we all started running.

When we reached the third line of defense we stopped for a moment.

“Finne, please join the defense here.”

“Understood. Please take care.”

“I will.”

There were already groups of adventurers stationed in that line of defense, so Finne joined them.

I started running again and reached the second line of defense.

The troops and adventurers here eliminated any monsters who crossed the frontlines: they seemed to be all rather experienced.

Just then, a pack of monsters appeared in front.

“L-look at the size of that group…! Did the first line collapse already!?”

“No, look again, there aren’t any other monsters behind them. That group just happened to cross the frontlines!”

I checked the incoming enemy group, as such orders and shouts flew back and forth.

About 100 in total…shouldn’t be too hard.

After reaching that conclusion, I ran through the soldiers and adventurers manning the line of defense, towards the approaching monster pack.

“H-hey!! Come back, you!!”

“What are you doing!? You’re going to die!!”

“Isn’t that the brat who defeated Dyne and Norverne…? They’re too many even for you, kid!! Come back now!!”

The soldiers and adventurers shouted at me, but I paid them no mind.

When I was about 100 Metols from the monster pack, I used Intimidation.

“…out of my way.”

All the monsters stopped dead in their tracks.

“I told you to get out of my way…not that I really expected monsters to understand me, though.”

I created a small fireball on my palm, then shot it towards the center of the monster pack.

The moment the fireball made contact with a monster — a large explosion rocked the whole pack.

What I used was the high-grade Fire magic spell Explosion. The small fireball was actually a highly dense concentration of magic power, which caused a large explosion upon contact.

The blast swept the surroundings, reaching even the troops behind me: I heard yelling from their direction.

I continued to ignore them and started walking.

After the cloud of dust raised by the blast dissipated, the monster pack was nowhere to be seen: only a crater remained.

I easily jumped over the crater and proceeded towards the frontlines.

I still could hear people clamoring behind me.