CH 191

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“Richter, lend me your strength!!” 

Saying this, he held aloft the sword tainted in an ominous black, the Knight Sword, Richter.

“Kuh! As if I will let you!!” 

The one facing him was a big man with blue skin.

—The Demon General, Riglath.

The old vanguard of the humanity invasion, and a war seasoned warrior. 

He closed the distance with leg power that would be impossible for a human to bring out. 

But…

“Wa, disappeared? …Above!” (Riglath)

Riglath snapped back and looked up, but everything was too late. 

What was there was the figure of a swordsman jumping high up with the sun at his back.

“Cra—” (Riglath)

“Ultimate Technique: [Eternal Heaven Soaring Blade]!!” 

The blade swung down from high altitude easily split Riglath apart. 

The Demon General that turned countless people into corpses had finally fallen on his knees in front of a human. 

“Impossible… Me…against an inferior life form…” (Riglath)

The Demon General left those last words and disappeared into a mist of light. 

After seeing this, the swordsman turned around and muttered something as if talking to the jet black blade.

“…I have avenged you, Richter.” 

And then, after hearing those words, the scenery around changed in one go and…

I have returned to my own room in the blink of an eye.

I slowly separated my finger from the stone slate that lost its light, and sighed.

“Man, that was one exciting development!” 

What I saw just now wasn’t real. 

It is a past recording of the Evil God Great War. 

But this is an extra video created to have the people of Japan playing Nekomimi Neko enjoy it.

The one who actually made this wasn’t the developer but the mysterious power that created this world, but the concept has been inherited and surpassed.

Thanks to this, this recording now has high entertainment value.

Especially the 8th Chapter that is a turning point of the story. It was incredibly heated.

This time around it was the fight against the vanguard of the human invasion, the Demon General Riglath, but the demon Richter that was in the rival position until now rebelled against the Evil God because of the death of his subordinate, and joined forces with Alex and the others.

Even with that, they were still on the verge of losing against the Demon General, the severely injured Richter sacrificed his own body and used an item called the Dragon’s Treasure. 

He changed his body into a sword, and with the power of Richter now entrusted to Alex, he finally defeated Riglath after an intense battle. 

And it seems like I am not the only one who was excited from that heated development.

“T-That was so impressive! Impressive… It was impressive!” (Sazan)

“Stop shaking me already, Sazan.” (Souma)

Sazan shook my arm while displaying his pitiful vocabulary. 

“Wuuuh, even though Rihiter-san was such a nice person…” (Ina)

Ina was in the opposite direction, tears rolling down from her eyes while holding my hand.

No, that’s not all. 

When I looked a bit up from the hand Ina was holding, there’s Maki hugging my arm, and there’s Leila sticking right on my back, breathing roughly. 

Ringo is between my legs, Mitsuki is frozen up without moving with her chest touching me lightly, the Bear is on top of my head; it is an abnormal situation where a total of 6 people (plus a plushie) were sticking onto my body.

Since the day we watched the 1st Chapter together, all of my comrades would gather in my room at night, and it has become an everyday event to watch the stone slate. 

“At any rate, half of it is already over, huh. I am hesitant about watching the continuation of it.” (Ina)

Ina finally noticed she was holding my hand this whole time, and let go of my hand with her face slightly red, and muttered those words.

I can understand those feelings of hers too.

How to say it, rather than following the trails of a hero, it feels more like we are watching a series. 

It is saddening when the series you like ends. It seems like this world has books and manga, but from what I know, there’s no TV or movies. 

This recording must be special for Ina and the others.

“Yeah, but it is not like we can’t watch it again, so we could do so again anyti—” (Souma)

I said this without thinking and stopped myself after noticing. 

It is not anytime…

Once we finish watching all of this, my promise with Sazan will be fulfilled.

When I do, I will be able to obtain the spell that might allow me to return to my world.

Of course, I will have to do a variety of experiments first, and depending on the situation, might have to cease the idea completely. 

Even so, there’s no assurance that I can show these videos to Ina and the others all the time…

“…Souma-san?” 

I returned to my senses at the somewhat questioning…no, somewhat uneasy voice of Ina.

Even though I was thinking I should say something, words didn’t come out.

The one who saved me from my distress was Ringo.

“…Souma, was the Dragon’s Treasure also…in the game?” (Ringo)

“…Eh?” (Souma)

The atmosphere changed at the sudden question of Ringo that didn’t read the room.

“I was curious about that too. I have not heard of an item that can change humans…no, this time around it wasn’t a human, but an item that can change living beings into a weapon.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki joined in on the question and the words that I found difficult to finish were washed away. 

“Y-Yeah, the Dragon’s Treasure was in the game too. Or more like, it is said it is necessary to create the strongest weapon.

That’s because a certain percent of the stats of the person that become a weapon will become a straight up +modifier. 

It doesn’t increase things like Agility and Stamina, but just by having a high level character holding a transformed weapon, they can increase their strength by several dozens of levels, so there’s no way it wouldn’t be strong. 

The Dragon’s Treasure can only be obtained at the endgame, and you have to sacrifice a comrade to use it, so there aren’t many who would use it, but it is an item that will always appear when discussing which is the strongest.

I don’t know where it originated, but the weapon created from the Dragon’s Treasure was called the Sand Dragon Sword and treated specially. 

The Dragon’s Treasure was a drop from a devil type monster endgame, but even in the recording it doesn’t change the fact that it is an important item, and aside from the fact that the devil Richter held it, there’s apparently only one handed down in the royal family. 

“But well, it is an item from Nekomimi Neko, so there’s obviously a downside. When you use the Dragon’s Treasure, you can choose the type of weapon you are changed to, but…” (Souma)

When you shout the name of the weapon and your own name, the weapon transformation will begin, but a lot of weapon candidates have been prepared. 

With just the sword category, there’s already: sword, greatsword, knight sword, tune sword, decorative sword, butcher, beheading sword, rapier, uchigatana, wooden sword, light saber, giant cross, radish, a plain wooden stick, and many others. Aside from standard weapons like the spears and axes, there’s throwing weapons like: rock, shuriken, kunai, darts, boomerang, chakram, super ball, fork, grenade, talisman, coin, gyaru’s panty.

Moreover, there’s for some reason musical instruments like: harmonica, guitar, harps, pianica, lute, shamisen, xylophone, pipe organ, and grand piano. Furniture category items like: chairs, desks, sofas, beds, darumas, fireplace, kotatsu, and barbeque sets. 

Anyways, there’s a lot of directions you can change into, and depending on what’s decided, the visual and weight changes depending on the result. 

“What’s the problem with that? Leaving aside whether it is necessary or not, I think it would be a good thing to have a lot of choices.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki tilted her cat ears and asked this.

I think so too.

But that not being the end is what makes it Nekomimi Neko. 

“Yeah, I think so too, but even when you choose the direction you are changing, your weapon type always ends up as a sword.” (Souma)

“…Wa?” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki’s cat ears stiffen in surprise and I explain with a sigh.

“As I said, it must have been a pain for them after increasing the direction of the transformations too much. 

Even if you choose a spear or an axe, or a sofa, or a grand piano, all of them will be treated as a sword.” (Souma)

I saw a surreal video of someone using a sword skill with a grand piano before. It was horrible. 

It is the opposite pattern of the Shiranui that has the size of a sword but the reach of an Otachi. 

Because slashing skills have a lower range than the size of a grand piano, it won’t hit the enemy no matter how you shoot it. 

Mitsuki was left speechless at this and Maki also frowned at the side. 

“Uwaah. This game really is…uuh…what was it? You know, cra—no, p-poop…” (Maki)

“Trash game. A trash game.” (Souma)

“That’s right! That’s it! A trash game!” (Maki)

I want Maki to have more memory and shame. 

Also, I don’t mind it when I use the word trash game myself, but I for some reason don’t like it when others do. 

I got a bit pissed about it and raised my voice. 

“N-No, but…the Dragon’s Treasure is truly strong, you know?! If you can’t use it as a weapon, you can still hold it in your opposite hand as a sub-weapon, and if you have several of them, you can do even more incredible things! 

The production method for the strongest weapon using that is already in the Wiki and…” (Souma)

What I am reminded of is the Sand Dragon Sword Loop Method which is the worst strengthening method of a character. 

The Dragon’s Treasure not only uses the stats of the character, but also the stats of the equipment. 

The equipment will be destroyed when you do, but in exchange, even if the person that used the Dragon’s Treasure has low stats, if they had equipment with high stat modifiers like…

“Uuh…Souma-san?” 

That’s when my eyes met Ina’s and brought me back.

What was I thinking? 

I don’t really want to go as far as sacrificing someone to become strong, and there’s no enemy that would need that in this world.

I shake my head as if shaking off the wicked thoughts. 

“Basically…that’s not it. 

If you instead make it a weapon smaller than a sword, it would have a higher range when using skills just like with the Shiranui.

I have used the Sand Dragon Sword, in other words, a weapon of the Dragon’s Treasure once.” (Souma)

“That means you changed someone into a weapon?” (Ina)

I had trouble speaking for a moment at what Ina pointed out.

But I can’t play off this one.

“Yeah, there’s an old man called Joseph deep in the eastern mountains.

No matter what anyone does, they will definitely die after 100 days of the game from natural causes.

That’s why I earnestly requested of him and he accepted becoming a weapon.” (Souma)

“…I see…” (Ina)

The intensity of Ina weakened. 

It is not easy to make others use the Dragon’s Treasure. 

There’s no skill or spell that makes others say what you want, so you have no other way but to ask them in the normal way. 

You are basically asking the person to die, so it won’t succeed unless you have quite the high affection, and no matter how much you increase the affection, depending on the character, there are those that won’t allow you to use the Dragon’s Treasure on them.

…By the way, the number one person that won’t let you use this on is the mage that is ignoring our talk and playing around with the stone slate, Sazan.

I explained to them just now with ‘earnestly requested’ so that they would get it easily, but I actually went to Joseph’s place countless times, raised his affection close to 100, and asked him to let me use the Dragon’s Treasure. 

“And so, was that weapon useful?” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki took the place of Ina, who couldn’t find words immediately, and asked for the continuation.

But I didn’t answer clearly to her.

“I wonder. It wasn’t that useful as a weapon, but the modifiers were certainly useful. 

But I barely used that weapon in the end.” (Souma)

It might be possible in this world, but the weapon of the Dragon’s Treasure can’t be placed in the weapon synthesizer of the game, and you couldn’t change the weapon type.

That’s why, even if the weapon is smaller than a sword and works well in tight turns, the Sand Dragon Sword that can’t use the important Otachi skills doesn’t have much use. 

Also, the stats of Joseph were not that impressive, so I couldn’t expect any drastic effects.

But the biggest reason is…

“…Sacrificing someone to become strong didn’t really feel right for me. 

Even though I knew they were just game characters.” (Souma)

I said ‘I am an idiot, right?’ in a self-deprecating manner, and my hand was held tightly. 

“T-That’s not true.” (Ina)

“Ina?” (Souma)

“I…I think that’s a good side of yours, Souma-san!” (Ina)

I got embarrassed by the passionate words of Ina and averted my face.

I hurriedly made an excuse.

“N-No, it is not such a nice reason like that. 

It is hard to use a sword, also, you know, there’s also the problem of the name.” (Souma)

“Name?” (Ina)

The name of the Sand Dragon Sword is chosen by the type of the weapon and the first name of the person used. 

For example; when Richter became a Knight Sword, the name Knight Sword Richter is forcefully decided.

Also, not being able to customize the weapon also means that you can’t change the name of the weapon too.

I said this with an embarrassed smile as if regretting my past mistake. 

“Cause you know, Gyaru’s Panty Joseph sounds lame.” (Souma)

For some reason, a cold silence hit the room.

We utilized that opportunity to disperse, and returned to our own rooms. 

“You really are always Souma no matter when.” (Maki)

Maki said this as she left, baffled.

“I am curious about what you were in the middle of saying about the many uses for the Treasure, but…I am sure that…will reveal it.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki left those mysterious words as she pointed at the stone slate and exited the room with her cat ears waving bye bye.

Well, they are all a quirky bunch, so there are some who won’t go back.

First, I convince Leila who wasn’t getting away from me no matter what; pushed the stone slate onto Sazan, who was trying fruitlessly to read even more information out of it, and shooed him out of my room; and just when Ringo was about to leave the room after helping me out in making the others leave, I remembered that instance of before. 

“Ah, wait, Ringo.” (Souma)

Being called to a stop, Ringo looked back with her hand on the doorknob.

“Thanks for before. You saved me there.” (Souma)

At the time when I was troubled with what to say to Ina, Ringo deviated the conversation for me. 

We are talking about Ringo here, so I don’t think she did it on purpose, but I at least wanted to thank her.

I thought for sure that Ringo would get confused at my sudden gratitude, but…

“…I support you…Souma.” (Ringo)

She answered with mysterious words and disappeared to the other side of the door as if running away.

“Support, she says… What does she mean by that?” (Souma)

I really don’t get what Ringo says as always. 

However, the side-profile of Ringo before she closed the door was strangely sad, and that face of hers didn’t leave my mind for a while.