Volume 2 Chapter 14 : Confrontation

(Walson) 

The feeling of something hot closing in my face makes me sober up, even if it's only a little.

"Gah!"

I took out the [Spidek Hook] from my [Inventory], shot a spider silk to the back of the wall, and used the propelling motion to retreat from the [Fireball] in haste.

Two [Fireballs] exploded right in front of me, and some new ones came rushing into me through the smoke.

Oi oi, are you trying to kill me?

Tsk.

My hand that got grazed by one of the [Fireballs] is stinging so much.

Turning my gaze from my smoking hand, I looked at the figure of Grace, with an Oni-like being cosplaying as her Stand, floating menacingly behind her.

It's probably nothing more than a hallucination, considering no one else seems to react to it.

"...Idiot...Asshole..."

"What do you think you are doing Grace? You will burn down the surrounding houses."

When I came back from the red light district, I was feeling quite surprised to see that Grace was sitting in the shop.

Shouldn't you be playing with the Duke eldest son? Why are you back so early?

And just after I said "You still want more presents from me?" I was greeted with the sight of numerous [Fireballs] rushing at me.

After replacing her old staff with [IRIS], Grace's magic spell potency has been greatly improved. The [Fireball], which should have been only the size of a basketball, now is the size of an adult human.

I took out the pre-crafter [Stone Wall] from my [Inventory] and blocked the next dozen [Fireballs] that were rushing at me. After the smoke that came from the explosion cleared off, I walked off from behind the wall.

"What are you going to do if you burn the surrounding area? Do you want me to pay for it?" 

"...No."

Grace turned into petals and disappeared from my sight, but I also had made some preparation for this.

With the ease of someone who had practiced the said motion for hundreds of time, I seamlessly took out stacks of [Cobblestone] from my [Inventory] and quickly crafted a stone wall to protect my rear.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Just as the stone wall erupted behind me, the sound of a something sharp collide with the stone wall come from the other side of the wall, i turned my head to take a look, and find that the shadow behind me has turned into a sharp black knife and had pierced half an foot into the stone wall, not long after, and the black knife fluctuated and melted once more into the shadow.

She actually used the [Shadow Cutter] on me?

Thanks to [IRIS], it seems the power of the [Shadow Cutter] spell had already been enhanced even further than before, since as far as I'm aware, the [Shadow Cutter] that other adventurers use couldn't even penetrate my stone wall.

Just as I was still thinking so inside my head, the black shadow once more fluctuated and transformed into a big hammer.

With a bang, the stone wall was smashed to pieces.

"OOOO──[Illusory Barrier]." While dodging the hammer, I chanted the unique magic of the Ancient Tree - Human race and began to construct the barrier.

I don't want to shoot back at Grace.

...Still… to just launch a magic spell on me directly like this— Are you really trying to turn the tip of your wand at your childhood friend?

Just when the barrier was about to be formed, a [Shadow Cutter] spell flew over, and half of the magic structure I had built in my brain collapsed.

Did she just destroy the magical fabric of my [Illusory Barrier]?

...I see, it must have been because of the [Eye of Ender] on the staff.

"..." Accompanied by the collapse of the [Illusory Barrier], what flew over was a [Wind Spear], an intermediate magic spell of the Wind Element.

Under the influence of the staff, the original [Wind Spear] should only be in the shape of a javelin, but now it looks like a giant spear like the one that Karna from that Fate anime would have.

I see, it seems the staff has improved your magic to such a fearsome degree huh, Grace.

Your future would certainly be bright, and the chance of you gaining the title of the strongest magician must be quite high.

It seems the result of my hard work has paid off, two months full of sleepless crafting to make that staff certainly paid off, even if i spend half of that time fainting due to the depletion of my magic power to craft it, it seems [IRIS] would help you a lot in the future.

I'm happy, I truly do.

But—

[IRIS], That staff… you are trying to kill me using that staff…

You are trying to kill me using the things that I spent my last 2 months crafted without taking a single rest.

Ha, so you want to kill me?

Had I wronged you that badly?

Had I done some unforgivable thing to you? Or did I take something from you? To the point where you want to kill me?

…..Very well, try it if you can.

"Hmm." The tip of the [Wind Spear] pierced through my abdomen directly, leaving quite a sizable hole in the middle of my stomach, and blood started to gush out from it.

It's not that I intentionally took the spear on purpose to make some kind of weird claim, it's just that the [Wind Spear] was moving too fast for me to react to, making me unable to craft a stone wall.

"Master!?" Cried out Melon, her body was fixated on the wall opposite to me, her legs and arms are covered by spider web.

In fact, Melon was about to jump over to protect me when Grace released the [Wind Spear] magic spell.

But if I let her interfere in this matter, that would mean I would make Grace and Melon fight against each other.

The both of them are obviously very good friends, pretty much sisters in all but blood, so there is no need for me to break their relationship like that.

So instead of creating a wall made of stone, I shot a spider web at Melon to stop her movement.

"Don't worry, I'm okay." I said, and just as I said so, the abdominal hole in my stomach started to healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

—-Regeneration, this is one of my abilities.

In Minecraft, as long as the player's hunger gauge is full, no matter how serious the injury is, so long as there is a glimmer of life remaining, they will always end up fully recovered, and all that is needed is to rest and wait.

I stared at Grace, and just like me, Grace also stared at me, her face blank.

"Why don't you continue?" I asked, a smile on my face.

"I admit, that [Fireball] made me sleepy, so I got to say thank you for that."

Originally, I planned to go to bed and take a deep rest as soon as I came back.

When I went to the red light district, I didn't have any plan to lose my virginity at all, I just got a massage -the normal kind- in one of the best massaging shops there.

During the day, I slept on some inn all day long, letting my body took the much needed rest after working non-stop for 2 hours to craft Grace [IRIS].

As for why I didn't go have a massage at day, it's because the shop open only after the sun went down.

Of course, I also don't forget to mute the [Party Telepathy] chat function, since if I'm going to have a solo coming-of-age ceremony by myself today, I don't want to disturb both Melon and Grace by tainting their happy occasion with my occasional comment.

"—Ah! I'm sorry—!!" Just as I was preparing myself to receive Grace's next attack, the tall girl suddenly cried out with tears..

Eh?

Why are you crying like this! ?

Just when I was about to do something, the figure of Grace suddenly disappeared. .

...

What.

"That's a little too much, even for you." It was the figure of Aure who spoke such words.

"I was too much? I was almost killed." While saying such a retort, I walked to the wall that Melon is stuck in, took out a knife, and began to cut the spider's web.

"Melon could have stopped Grace's attack just now, but you didn't let her stop it, instead letting you hurt yourself."

"That kind of attack can't kill me."

"But you let Grace hurt you."

"..." I had no comeback for that, so I opted to ignore her instead.

I smiled at Melon and told her that I'm not injured.

"...Walson, Can't you tell that Grace likes you a lot?"

".....What?"

"Sheesh, come here, drink with me."

"I don't want to drink, and what did you just say?"

"She's waiting for you here all day, she's even go as far as rejecting Neolla invitation on public."

Melon, who had been observing my surprised expression, suddenly got up and started to prepare some wine.

"Stop joking."

"I'm not, there's a lot of rumors spreading around the campus now about her refusal, there's also some news about how she said that she already has someone she like, and considering the number of men that Grace has been in contact with, would it make sense for it to be someone else other than you?"

. . . . .

Huh

"Well. . . Now I really want to have a drink."

While drinking barrels and barrels of wine to keep my mind out of the revelation, Barella had started to sing several unknown songs, but each one of them was satisfying to hear.

The wine-loving elf has a surprisingly good singing voice, she's good enough that she's possibly already surpassed most of the professional singers from my previous world..

...Of course, I wouldn't say any of my praise and admiration out loud, I got a hunch that her ego would shoot right through the roof otherwise.