Chapter 216: A Road May Be Different, But the Heart Stays the Same Part 1

Nothing in this world can last forever. Even a home run ball is eventually going to lose its momentum and fall back towards the ground. Same principle applies to the rapidly ascending ship.

「WE ARE FALLING!!! WE ARE FAAAAAALLLIIINNNGGG!!! OH MY GOD, WE ARE GOING TO DIE HERE FOR SURE!!!」

「Hey, we are being held in place! So at the very least we are not going to die on our way down! Silver lining!」

「That is exactly the problem, Sanraku-san! Now please hold me so that I won’t fall away!!!」

Right about now I was doing my best to grab a hold onto one of the ropes that were hanging from the ship’s mast. And well, what did you expect, Emul? It was only to be expected that once the tentacles let go of the ship the laws of physics will start to act on it once more. So if we were ascending at such high speed, it is only natural that we are going to be descending equally fast and eventually hit the surface of the sea. Nothing we can do about it.

「Look, the sea is getting closer…… And right about now! Stick to the landing!」

The ship crash lands into the sea, raising a huge splash of water in the air. It is a good thing that the ship was really sold, so instead of going back to the bottom of the ocean it was pushed towards the surface and it was floating again, just like the ship was supposed to do.

「Yo, ho.」

After the ship finally stopped shaking I looked around and saw that everyone was here with me, although looking a little bit shaken and exhausted. But oh well, it’s the fact that we were all alive that counts.

「Really now…… For now, thank you guys for lending me a hand with clearing that Unique Scenario EX.」

Those last in-game seven days were pretty much chaotic and made me feel like I wanted to drop dead on the spot on more than one occasion, but I would lie if I did not consider those last seven in-game days to be helluva fun as well.

「This is also quite the accomplishment. No one has ever cleared that boss before us. We are the first ones ever to do that.」

Well, that is not exactly true. Truth to be told, this quest must have been cleared at least once in the past, by the beta testers during the testing phase of the game’s development. But if we start thinking about games in that category, then no game in history has ever been cleared for the first time by the actual consumers. So let’s not venture down that rabbit hole.

「Where do you think this ship is heading?」

「Judging by the direction, I would say it goes towards Fiftsia! We can finally go home!」

「Let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Or else we might get lost on the sea! And we don’t want that!」

While listening to that random banter, a sudden realization hit me: it was the end. The quest was over. And then I felt that I could finally relax for a moment for the first time in a long while.

「Soooooooooooo…… tired……」

During this past week I have been running around like mad in more sense than one…… So tomorrow I am going to sleep a whole lot. Until I finally feel that I have regained my lost sanity and health.

I could technically take a short nap while we are on our way back to Fiftsia, but I might as well go through our loot and see what we got.

First thing first, the two chalices out of the eight…… Blue Holy Grail and the Indigo Holy Grail.

Form what I remember, blue one was gender reversal and the indigo one was the stats reversal.

To be perfectly honest, at first I was at quite a loss over the selected chalices, but then I have come to a realization that they were highly versatile and surely they will come in handy.

If the blue Grail changes only appearances without interfering with the physique then this is really not all that great, but if it could change for example the height of the target even by a few centimeters, then that is a whole different matter.

Although the stats are the same even if the gender is reversed, there are some minor details that may prove to be really advantageous to me. If we talk about the difference in size or weight, it may be useful both attack and defense-wise.

Welp, and this is about sixty percent of the reason why this item seems interesting to me.

Rather, I think that the Indigo Holy Grail is WAY more interesting and powerful. This thing is nuts! And what is so nuts about it, you may ask? It’s performance, that is what!

Magic nullification, physical attack nullification, and distance nullification are all but defensive abilities. If I was a tank they would be of more use to me, but in my current state I am not really able to benefit from them all that much.

Same with color reversals. It may be useful on some enemies, but it is nothing that some flashy AoE magic is not going to take care of.

The damage reversal was a tempting option, but the more intense the battles would get, the more ugly the situations that would call for its use would become. And if that’s the case, I might just corner myself or throw myself into a dead end by sheer accident.

However, the Indigo Grail is a whole different manner. I mean, the ability to switch stats around as you please is downright broken. Taking me as an example, I can easily become a tank just by switching my Luck stat with my Vitality stat. Hell, I can even switch it with Magic Power and make myself into a potent wizard.

And since it is reversal, and not a redistribution, I can switch my stats all day long while basically maintaining my Agility build without any drawbacks.

「That reminds me, what kind of Grails did you guys chose?」

I was really curios about that, so I asked the other players.

Rei: Blue and Purple

Rust: Green and Red

Mold: Yellow and Purple

Akitsu Akane: Blue and Purple

Alva: Red and Yellow

I was surprised that Rei, who is a heavy armored fighter, chose a Blue Grail as well. However, if you like the game so much that you become a heavy armored fighter, you might as well like to experiment in one way or another, to see what else the game has to offer.

But still, why not Indigo and Purple combination, I wonder? Well…… when it comes to Indigo Grail, it cannot really show you its full potential unless you can switch your job to something else to some extent.

Could it be that Rei chose the Purple Grail so that she could try to achieve even greater firepower than that she already possesses? I mean, unlike someone like me who basically dies in one hit is something powerful slaps me, Rei has the means of surviving a blow or two no problem. If that’s so, then the Purple Grail’s damage reversal is a great addition to the job of a Tank, since you can basically regain all of your lost health just by standing around and soaking all of the damage that is being thrown at you.

As expected, the old saying that the best way to improve your party-fighting abilities is to strengthen your solo abilities rings oh so true here.

I’m kinda worried about other people here, but I guess that they know what they are doing and that they have chosen the Grails that fit their respective playstyles best.

Rather, this here item is the real problem.