19 Chapter 14.1 - Halcyon Days [1]

"Um…Sir Shirou? Do you have a moment?"

"Mm? What's wrong, Gareth?" Gareth shifts slightly as Shirou turns to look at her, his hands still occupied with cutting the vegetables for the upcoming lunch.

Honestly, there are too many things wrong with the current situation, too many questions she needed an answer to lest she go insane. However, she'd kept her questions to herself, instead observing the pair as the days went by.

More and more she became convinced that neither of them are human, or fully human. Her master's clairvoyance had a terrifying accuracy, and she had somehow used magic similar to what her king once wielded. Sir Shirou had undoubtedly used Mage Merlin's powers, even calling out the name of her king's lost Sheath.

And her king…though her master had informed her previously, she was still shocked to see that the king she'd served is a woman. She understands the notion, for there had been no leader in her times that were female. She couldn't fathom what pressures she must have endured, leading her country only for it to end at that accursed hill.

Sometimes she wishes she could be as free as Sir Francis, but alas, Sir Francis is a pirate, while she is a knight. They are merely too different.

"Gareth?"

"O-Oh, forgive me, I-"

"It's okay to ask, Gareth." He says suddenly, as if he'd read her mind, and now she wonders if Sir Shirou has Clairvoyance as wel-

"No, I can't read minds." He says with an amused smile, "It's just written all over your face."

"I-Is it?" Gareth says, worried, as she begins to wipe her face.

"I didn't-, never mind." He places his knife down and turns to her. "Bottling things up isn't good. So, if you have any questions, ask away."

"Well-" She feels slightly strange asking this to him instead of her master, but perhaps he knows as well? "Where does master go occasionally? It feels as if she's disappeared." The first time this happened, she nearly fainted from shock, but Sir Shirou had been there to explain that it happens from time to time.

"Hmm…I'm guessing it's to those [ID]s she keeps mentioning."

"[ID]?" Sir Shirou nods. "Yeah. It's like, uh, another world. I've been to two, but there's probably more Hanami has. I don't know how she does it really. It's probably also why you can't feel her when she's away."

"Aren't you worried for her though? From what you're saying, it seems she goes out pretty often."

He frowns. "Of course I'm worried. Every time she goes away, I can't help but think about her. She's…everything I have left, but," He then smiles. "If I keep worrying about her, I won't go anywhere, would I? Besides, she's strong, so the best I can do is put my trust in her."

'Trust…'

The last time she trusted someone, she paid it with death. Could she do so once more?

~~~

"Hmmmmm…." Within an open field of grass, where winds blow gently across, creatures of many kind stands atop it, feeding on the grass for sustenance.

…or they would have been if my Brimstone Elemental didn't burn them all and all the grass as well, leaving behind just black remnants of the once beautiful island.

Oh, 'island'? Yeah, this field is on an island, a FLOATING island to be exact!

How cool is that!? I'm on an island, floating in the sky, with the clear blue sky above me and a sea of clouds below, surrounded by even more islands! Not only that, there are these cool water rivers that flow in the air, connecting each of the islands like some sort of weird mystical road that carried you along.

Anyways, despite how cool this island was, my new Brimstone Elemental is more important, so I let her scorch everything here to gain some nice Exp.

And boy, let me tell ya, this new gal I got is awesome.

Name: Brimstone Elemental

Age: ?

Sex: ?

Owner: Tsunaka Hanami

Level: 53 Exp: 12100/200000

HP: 1166/1166 (19.43HP/min)

MP: 74650/106000 (204.93MP/min)

Stamina: -

Strength: 32

Vitality: 22

Dexterity: 85 (+20)

Intelligence: 253 (+128)

Wisdom: 232 (+128)

Luck: 12

Skills: [Brimfire – Lv 76], [Flight – Lv 70], [Brimstone – Lv 52], [Magical Resistance – Lv 60], [Speed Burst – Lv 20], [Lament – Lv Max], [?]

From stats alone, she doesn't look all that impressive, but when you look at them skills though~! I'm beginning to see why she cost such an absurd amount of money to purchase from the store. Ignoring the fact that she has literal flight, her [Brimfire] and [Brimstone] skills were maddening on their own.

[Brimfire Lv 76 – 12%]

It is the flames that burnt in the secluded hells, kept away from the rest of world, for they fear the corruption it held within would consume them all. It flares with unnatural light, the malice it bred from turning the once brilliant flame a dark, maroon red. It is said that those caught by it would never be extinguished of its flame.

Allows the creation and manipulation of brimfire

Brimfire cannot be put out, unless if the enemies' [Magical Resistance] is higher than the output of power

Passively grants +76 Intelligence and Wisdom

-Due to special circumstances, Exp gain for this skill is tripled-

It's fookin' [Amaterasu] from Naruto, except the fires are dark red instead of black. Strangely enough, despite the description saying that the flame is powered by corruption and stuff, it isn't actually demonic, and my [Holy] element isn't reacting to it. That aside, that +76 passive gain is stupid.

[Brimstone Lv 52 – 76%]

The ashes of hell clumped and hardened by the curses of brimfire. Not merely heavy and durable, its surface absorbs surrounding prana, causing the stone to harden further. It seems the essence of hell that once resided within still burnt inside it, even as embers.

Allows the creation and manipulation of brimstone

Brimstone passively absorbs surrounding prana.

Absorbed prana can either be used as supplement for the caster or to harden the brimstone.

Passively grants +52 Intelligence and Wisdom

-Due to special circumstances, Exp gain for this skill is tripled-

Once again, this thing's not considered demonic despite its origins! Anyways, this is the other side of her magical prowess, allowing her to create large chunks of black rock that she can fire at the enemies, build a wall with, or just straight-up bash the enemies' heads with. Once again, that +52 is just as crazy.

(Still, I'm only level 31 and my stats are higher than hers. Wonder what that says about me…?)

Now, despite all this, there are glaring problems and issues that I'll need to cover my Brimstone Elemental from. First is her abysmal Strength and Vitality. A stray hit from a powerful foe will knock her HP down to zero in an instant. Yeah, she's able to block using her [Brimstone] and all, but what if an attack lands anyways?

Then there's that Dexterity. Granted it's better than her Strength and Vitality, and her [Speed Burst] doubles it for a short time, but it's not enough.

In conclusion, unlike me who's a battle mage, my Brimstone Elemental's a full on Caster, staying behind and firing from the back lines, which is…nice, actually, seeing as all my current companions don't really fight from the back lines. Well, except Francis, but she's a bit gung-ho, so she doesn't count.

Anyways~, now that we're done exterminating this island, why don't we go onto the next one?

Since this is my first time here, I decide to use the floating river to carry me to the next island. It's quite fun actually!

Fighting off bird monsters while doing that isn't so fun though. Heck, one plunged right into me and nearly sent me off the river.

I don't think I'll ride the rivers next time.

Now, from what I can see, each island seems to be a self-contained biome, holding different faunas and monsters on each. The one I just landed on is a rainforest, the one after this is a savanna, and I can even see a desert a distance away. And then there are the weird ones, like the island that's upside down and has red trees, that are also upside down. Or literally just an island made of smooth marble, with giant green mushrooms on them.

Yeah, gonna have to visit those!

Alright then, first-

"[Use only Brimstone, okay]?"

I say. The brimstone Elemental looks to me for a moment, before she nods slightly, deactivating the small cloak of Brimfire she had floating around her.

Unlike the first island I dropped on, this forest is filled with stuff, and I don't want it all to disappear just because I wanted to watch the forest burn. Granted, watching stuff burn is really interesting and all, but items are more important!

From what I can gather with my Mystic Eyes, this island is inhabited by…frogs and birds? Yeah, frogs and birds. They all vary in size and danger, but they all carry the same poison inside them. I don't know if I can get something like [Attribute Enchant: Poison] from them, but hey, I'll never know if I don't try!

Despite how excited I was, the forest exploration wasn't actually all that interesting. The frogs and birds, while agile and had strong poison, were fragile as shit, and several bullets enhanced with the [Dragon] attribute to the head and chest were enough to kill them. I did get several buckets of poison though, and while I'm here sitting and analyzing, my Brimstone Elemental's busy using her Brimstone as a glorified axe to cut down the trees for materials.

Why am I getting wood?

Well, I haven't gotten the [Getting Wood] achievement yet, so why not, right?

Anyways-

[Due to certain actions, you have gained the skill [Poison Dimiiorga]!]

After some prodding and analyzing, I've got the skill! The name's a bit weird, and the process took a bit longer than I would've liked, but I did it!

[Poison Dimiiorga Lv 1 – 0%]

Poison. It'd been one of the first weapons we had cultivated from mother earth. It struck the heart, caring not for what strength and defenses they held. Now, its power is in your hands.

Allows you to fire a bolt of energy infused with poison. Any [Living] target struck will suffer under the [Poisoned] ailment.

Costs 500 MP to fire.

Enemies inflicted with [Poisoned] will slowly lose their health. Their HP will decrease by 1% every 5 seconds.

-[Poisoned] can be cured. Skill upgrades needed to rectify this-

Now, it doesn't look all that impressive at first, but if each level up decreased the required MP and increased the damage over time, wouldn't that be broken? I mean, even if it caps on like 20% every 5 seconds, that's only 25 seconds before the enemy's dead.

Like, wow.

Anyways, after waiting a bit more, Brimstone Elemental finished her lumbering and I received a nice supply of wood. Sadly, it's only ordinary wood, and I didn't suddenly get fireworks popping out from my head, but I can't get everything, right?

With this island cleared of everything, I make my way to the next island, this time flying my way there.

Or, at least, I wanted to, but as soon as I approached the savanna island-

[WARNING. RECOMMENDED LV 85. RECOMMENDED LV 85]

This appeared. And, understandably, I'm confused, so I look back to the previous island and read its description.

[Rainforest Falma (Cleared)]

-Recommended Lv 35-

Once an island filled with trees and wildlife, now only barren land stands in its place. You monster.

…Oh.

Should've read the description before destroying the entire place. I then look to the other islands, and like that one, they each had recommended levels of their own. From what I see, the farther they are from the beginning island, the higher the recommended level is, though with some exceptions here and there.

And then it clicked with me why the recommendation of [Yuriele] was so low.

It's averaging all the islands' levels!

A chill creeps up my back as I observe one of the monsters wandering on the savanna island. It's a large T-Rex, with blue fur covering it, that happens to be burning with blue fire as well. It looks cool already, but its 1 MILLION HP cemented the fact that I won't be fighting that thing for a while-

…actually, I can probably try and take it out with my new poison skill, but I don't know if the T-Rex can fight back.

When has that stopped me though?

So, with my Mystic Eyes activated, I take aim. A light green blob of energy forms at the palm of my hand, and on my command, the bolt of energy is fired, flying forwards and hitting the large blue T-Rex in its left eye. It grunts in pain, and turns to the air, blue fire flaring, ready to burn me, but by the time it looked to the air, I was nowhere in sight.

'Cause I'm chilling under the island, using my eyes to monitor when the T-Rex will die like the cheater I am.

As expected, its massive HP pool begins to drop every 5 seconds. The T-Rex looks around in confusion, clearly confused why it's suddenly taking damage, not realizing that its insides are slowly being torn apart by the injected poison.

Slowly, it begins to weaken. It slumps onto the floor, the flames around it dimming, and its breathing becomes irregular, desperate as it tries to survive whatever is attacking it. Then, the fateful event occurs, and its HP finally drops to 0. The T-Rex lets out one final whine, before its head drops, and it dies.

[You have killed a Gregorian Dour. Gained 5,000,000 Exp!]

[You have leveled up x4!]

[You have gained 7x [Azure Pelt], 2x [Azure Feather]!]

[You have gained-

Well then~, 5 million Exp from one T-Rex, hmm? And from some scouting, I can see…7 more T-Rex and one gigantic one in the center of the island. 35 million Exp, huh? Not gonna go after the big daddy unless I know my poison can take him down, but I'm definitely taking down those 7 T-Rex with my poison.

So, using the island as my cover, I fly around the island's perimeter, firing my bolts of poison at the unsuspecting T-Rex before flying back down to the bottom of the island, waiting there as I watch their collective HP begin to chip away.

Thankfully, I was already hidden under the island when the biggest T-Rex of the bunch became alerted to his dying comrades. It begins to roar, blue flames dancing around it as the air ripples and the ground shatters. It roars again and again, clearly trying to find where I am, and in the process it releases more and more power, burning away the savanna it stands in and cracking the island apart. I actually had to let go of the island's bottom, because the shockwaves it released actually reached me, dealing a whopping 5000 HP.

That's just under a third of my HP pool. And that's just the shockwaves from its roars. Just how powerful would those flames then be?

'Yeah, I'm not going after that thing any time soon.'

But that display of power is ultimately wasted, as the final T-Rex finally bites the dust, flopping dead onto the cracked earth before beginning disappearing.

[You have killed Gregorian Dour x7. Gained 35,000,000 Exp!]

[You have leveled up x5!]

[You have gained 52x [Azure Pelt], 11x [Azure Feather], x2 [Gregorian Bone]!]

[[Poison Dimiiorga] has leveled up x2!]

Oh yeah, level 40 baby!

Man, this rush of power sure feels good! But, I think it's prime time to escape. The big boy's trying to find me, and I don't have much left to do here. So, with [Prana Propulsions] readied, I burst forward and away from the island, being careful not to attract the still very angry T-Rex.

Now, I would've dropped by the desert island, but I spot something strange in the distance and decided to visit that first.

And…boy, how strange this is.

[Dun Stadia]

A humble town sitting atop a small island. Just as others like it, a large translucent dome surrounds the island, forcing away any threats and giving protection to those living inside.

As the description says, this next island is covered by a large translucent blue dome, one that lets me fly in without trouble. The island itself isn't all that spectacular, with only apple trees decorating its grassy plains, but what most interests me is the medieval village sitting in the middle, and the group of people waiting outside, watching me as I enter their domain.

It's…weird. I mean, I've already met the dragoons and they're definitely not NPCs, but this time the people are human, and it just feels weird. I don't really know how to describe it…

"Good morning to you, traveler." A bearded man steps forward and says, a polite smile on his face.

'Traveler again…does he know I'm from another dimension?'

"Oh, uh, good morning." I say, and suddenly, the mass of people behind the bearded man sighs, as if some invisible weight had been lifted the moment my words came out. "W-What's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it, traveler." The man says, this time his smile more genuine. "We were afraid you would've…become forceful."

"O-Oh." Yikes, seems like this village hasn't had much good experiences with people like me, huh? "Well, I saw this island and wanted to visit it! I mean, I've been moving from one island to the next, so it's kinda weird to see one where monsters aren't trying to kill me."

"Ah, might you be a fighter as well, traveler?"

"Mm! Oh, and just call me Hanami. Being called 'traveler' all the time feels weird."

The man gives a hearty chuckle. "And I'm Oswald. Welcome to [Dun Stadia], traveler Hanami."

~~~

This. Is. Awesome!

"So you just exchange stuff for points, and then use the points to buy other stuff?"

"Yes, that's an ample description of how it works." Oswald, the village chief as I've recently found out, replies back. "I'm surprised you don't know about this." He then continues, looking to me questioningly.

"Ah, well, I don't venture a lot, so I've never seen how these things work, you know?" It's a half-lie, but he doesn't need to know, right?

Anyways, now that the village knows I'm not going to extort them, I'm having Oswald guide me through the village. As I saw from the outside, the village is rather small, with only a population of 58 people currently living here. Technology is minimal, and most of the villagers devote themselves to agriculture.

But then we reach the so called [Obelisk], and oh boy did my brain explode when I realized what it is.

It's a fookin' [Item Store]!

Of course, it's not completely the same. I use money, while the [Obelisk] uses [Points], something that can be gathered by selling anything to it.

And by anything, I mean anything.

Apparently one of the kids decided it'd be fun to try and sell dirt to the thing and ended up getting some points in return. Then, being the kid he is, he used those points to buy some toys to play with, got scolded by his mother for using those points on useless things, and he's never bought a toy ever since.

He still gathers dirt to this day.

Understandably, selling mounds of dirt isn't going to give you much, but that proves that the [Obelisk] accepts anything, and that's big. Real big.

But just as the [Obelisk] is a blessing, it isn't free. Like any real estate, the [Obelisk] requires points every month to keep functioning, or else it'll shut down, and take down the shield around the island with it, opening the island to monster attacks.

It's the reason they're all working away at the fields, toiling to gather products, both to eat and to sell to the [Obelisk]. It's why there are apple trees all around the island, as they're there to give a constant supply of apples, both to sell and to eat, though most people sell it for points to make sure the [Obelisk] keeps running.

As Oswald said himself, it's not the worst life, but they could do nothing but slowly stave away the [Obelisk]'s deactivation.

And that's a fate worse than death I say.

Which is why, even if there isn't a quest requiring me to do this, I want to help them.

[Would you like to exchange x5349 Wood Logs for 10698 Points? Y/N]

"Traveler Hanami?"

[Y/N]

Instantly, the logs stored in my inventory disappear, and in its place, appears what looks to be the points, symbolized as purple tickets. "Oswald, how much can 10000 Points get you?"

The village chief blinks for a moment, "Well…quite a lot. Why do you ask?"

"Hmm…If you had that much, what would you do with it?" I ask subtly. Oswald goes silent for a moment, clearly still confused why I'm suddenly asking this, before he smiles. "I'm the chief of this village. If I can help my people, then I'd do anything."

"I see."

[Give 10698 Points to [Oswald]? Y/N]

[Y/N]

"Well, here you go!" I watch the slow rise of Oswald's eyes, the creeping realization of what I'd just given him, and he turns to me, clearly shocked. His mouth opens and closes, unsure of what to say, and to that, I smile. "You said it yourself. Life here could be better, but you just don't have enough points to improve. Well, there you go."

"But…why?" My smile drops slightly at that. "I don't like stagnation." I say, reminiscing over those days before I came to this universe, of me just slaving away at that office, doing my best to meet my ends. "To me, not being able to improve is worse than death. And…well, I guess you just reminded me of who I used to be."

His eyes widen as I continue my explanation. "I wasn't always like this. I used to be stuck in one place, doing the same mundane things to keep myself alive. Looking back, I almost miss it, that safe feeling from doing the same thing day by day. But, if I didn't leave, then I wouldn't have seen the wonders the world has. I wouldn't have become who I am today. I wouldn't have come across this village." I turn to him, and I grin. "And I'll never change that."

"Traveler…" Oswald whispers together with the other villagers who had-, wait, when did the other villagers come here?

…huh, I guess I was too into my monologue to notice the other villagers arriving. On that note, they're all staring at me with…awe? Wait, some of them are crying as well!? I-I mean, I wasn't saying anything sad or-

"Thank you." He says as he bows together with the rest of the village, and I can't help but feel slightly embarrassed. I mean, all I did was exchange the wood logs my Brimstone Elemental gathered from that rainforest island. The reverence they have in their eyes just doesn't feel right, you know?

"N-No problem. Anyways, we should probably do something about defense."

"What do you mean?" One of the women speaks up.

"Earlier, you guys were afraid I was going to extort you for points, right?" At their nods, I continue. "Now that you guys have enough points to make serious improvements, anyone else coming here would want an ever bigger prize from you guys, and I don't think anyone wants that."

"But how can we do that? We're just villagers." Oswald says.

My grin returns. My [Skill Store] tab beeps to life in the corner of my vision.

"Time to break the meta."