47. The day before the duel

The day before the decisive battle.

How I spend today will determine tomorrow’s battle.

As soon as I woke up in the morning, I went to the kitchen where Akane was.

“A bundle of paper, gloves, and various types of paint?”

“Yes, I want them, so…”

“Okay, no problem. I have a lot of paint since my hobby is drawing. I’ll prepare a bundle of paper and gloves too now, so please wait.”

“I’m really sorry. I’ll be sure to pay――”

“Don’t worry about it. You see, I wanted to have a son, and Seal, you made me feel how it is to have a son. As a thank you, please receive it for free. “

This is bad, I’m about to shed tears on her overflowing motherly. Even though she has a cat face, I feel the warmth to the point I don’t care about the appearance.

Race differences? I think that I can care less about it when I’m spending time in this city.

After I received the tools from Akane-san I immediately went out to pick up something.

————————————

There is an object filled with Mana called, “Coral Cracker”.

When an impact is applied, the Mana contained in it will bursts, causing an explosion.

The Knights use it by the name, “Coral Grenade”.

The other day, I asked Pearl, “Is there anything that has Mana and can be easily obtained?” And he told me about this information.

And so, I’m going to get it now.

It seems that a golem with this bomb coral all over its body are living outside of the city, in a cave just a short walk along the sea. They said that you can get more than a dozen fist-sized corals from one golem.

Unfortunately, it’s raining today.

So, I borrowed the umbrella that Pearl’s daughter used before I went out of <Mother Punk>.

I was walking south along the sea. 

I heard the location from Pearl and got a map so that I wouldn’t get lost.

“Is its here?”

A hole in the rock wall… it’s the cave.

The sky is dark but the inside of the cave is bright. Somehow Red and Yellow ores are shining inside the cave.

Well, it’s not what I want, but maybe I can trade it for some money.

“I guess it’s time to dig the treasure? Well, it can be a good souvenir.”

I closed my umbrella and took a step into the cave.

Then, a heavy footstep was approaching behind me.

“Take this!”

When I turned around, the other side of the axe blade was approaching in front of me.

I step back and land while dragging my foot on the ground.

The axe that was targeted at me is crushing the ground.

“Bastard, who are you?”

Standing with an axe was a large man with an evil-looking face.

Drenching in the rain, his wet bangs were blocking his face and made his evil-looking face even worse.

“That’s my line! You… what are you doing in our hunting grounds!?”

“Hunting grounds?”

I heard footsteps behind the big man.

“This is the hunting ground for the excavation guild, “Naga Desert”. All the gold ores inside are ours! “

“Who cares? You should at least put up a sign, idiot. I got the knight’s permission. There is no reason to complain.”

“The foolish one is you! Who cares about the knight! Leave now. Hurry up! “

I take out the talisman with “祓” written on it from my pocket. [TN: the dagger]

The guy in front of me seems to be able to use mana to some extent, I knew it with the attack he did.

” ”OPEN” “

I take the dagger out of the talisman and hold it in my right hand.

“What!? From where you take that dag…!”

“You don’t have the right to know.”

The man with an axe, swings his ax, saying, “OOOoo!”.

Slow… compared to Pearl, there are plenty of gaps, too many, it makes me in dilemma about which one should I choose. 

I could pierce him first, but I decided to wait for a while and swing the dagger to the side when the ace came near.

CLANK! 

The axe broke and the debris scattered. The tip of my dagger pierced the man’s belly.

“Back Off. I don’t want to use Mana…! “

“――!?”

I let out a little of my Red Mana.

And, the thieves stepped back all at once.

It seems my intimidation using Red Mana has finally reached a usable level, perhaps to the level of Shura’s and Pearl’s.

“In the wild, it’s not uncommon to fight for hunting grounds. Kill the owner of the hunting ground to take over it. It’s something normal.”

“Bas, Bastard…!”

“What? Wanna fight over this cave with me for real?…..”

When I shook my finger provoking them, the man with an axe and his gangs faltered.

But ――

“Hoho? You, use some interesting techniques huh.”

From the shadow of the man with an axe, as slender man with glasses appeared.

A man with mossy green-colored hair.

“……”

This guy is not an ordinary person.

You can tell by the Mana he’s letting out.

“Naga-san!”

The man with an axe called the glasses man, “Naga”.

Is he the leader?

“This is a warning. The coral golem at the end of the cave is not at a level you can deal with. It’s wise to go back.”

“Can you deal with it?”

“Yes, of course”

“Then, if I can beat you, that mean I can beat it, right?”

I point the tip of my dagger at the man with glasses.

The man lifted his glasses, and put his right hand forward.

“Alright. I’ll get on that provocation!”

“Ah, wait, Naga-san! You, in this rain――! “

“Don’t stop me. The blood as a Magician is boiling after a long time! “

I step forward and plunge into the man with glasses called Naga while drenching in the rain.

“Take this! This is my most valuable Magic Technique, Sand Magic! “

“Sand!?”

Sand rises from Naga’s feet.

――However,

“Whoaat!?”

The sand sucked the raindrops and fell to the ground.

“……”

“Wa-wa-wait a minute! This battle is invalid!”

I hit Naga’s head with the handle of the dagger.

In one hit, Naga fainted and fell to the ground.

“……”

“……”

A few seconds of silence comes between me and the axe man.

“Are your leader, an idiot?”

“Yeah, that’s why I usually get rid of problems before him… Go, if it’s you, perhaps you can beat that golem too. “

“Okay ――Be strong, man.”

I lightly sympathized with the axe man and returned to the cave.

Looking back, I saw the axe man holding the man with glasses pitifully.

“What’s wrong with them…”

—————————

A lot of gold ore was sleeping in the cave. 

Let’s take it on the way home.

But, why is such a mountain of treasure left unattended?　

Perhaps people were scared of that guild?

The guy in the back of the cave solves my question.

“[GOOOOOO!!!]”

A beautiful open space in a cave where red and blue ores illuminate the area.

There it was waiting.

It has a body that is five times taller than me.

A golem with blue coral-like crystals from the whole body.

No doubt, that is a coral golem. 

Perhaps people were scared of this and so no one dared to get close to this cave.

” ――Lion Spear”

I unseal the lion spear and hold it with both hands.

The golem opened his mouth wide and turned to me.

“[Gooo!!!!]”

Blue crystals released from its mouth.

I strengthen my whole body with Red Mana and jump sideways to avoid it.

When the crystals landed on the ground, a roaring sound could be heard. They blasted and scattered debris around them.

“It’s like what I heard”

I kick the wall in the cave, swing the opponent’s line of sight from side to side, then kick the ground and jump up.

At the same time as its gaze turned upwards, I put Red and Green Mana into the lion spear.

“Grow!”

The spear stretches and crashes into the golem’s forehead.

However, the spear was sluggish there, as if it couldn’t grow any longer.

” “CLOSE” “

I sealed the spear back.

Indeed, it seems that it’s useless if there is not enough power to break through that armor. Is it hard to do it with a weapon I have? Then,

“Let’s give up on breaking it, ‘from the outside’.”

After landing, I roll up the talisman that sealed the lion spear.

At the same time, the golem tries to tackle me in a high-speed. 

I put my hands forward and caught it.

“Oh”

Different from what I thought, the golem stopped with just a little strength.

“Is it the result of the special training? Well, it wasn’t in va――in! “

I grab the golem’s arm and throw it at the back wall.

The golem digs into the wall. The crystal one the body should have received a considerable impact from it, but it still doesn’t detonate.

Does the crystal won’t detonate when it received a shock as long as it’s attached to its body?

The golem quickly breaks out of the wall.

“[Gooo!!!!]”

The golem opened its mouth again.

―― I was waiting for it.

” <Lutta> !”

I take out my dagger, <Lutta> from the talisman, hold it with my hand and rush.

I drop the released crystals with the dagger. The first crystal I dropped, it caused a blast, and the other crystals too.

Throw myself into the black smoke with all my might and throw a paper ball into the wide-open mouth of the golem.

The golem swallowed the piece of paper containing the lion spear.

“Alright, time to end this.”

I raise my finger,

“ ”OPEN” “

The lion spear is unsealed inside the golem.

The lion spear pierced the golem from the body to the head.

“One down!”

The golem couldn’t even scream and collapsed on the spot.

I’m take out the “Coral Cracker” from its body, draw a letter on it and seal it on a talisman.

With this, my mission completed.

On my way home, I collected the other ores and sold it at <Mother Punk>. The ore wasn’t as expensive as I expected, even though I carried until my arms full of it, it was only 2000 Ouro. 

Well, let’s buy some sweets for Akane-san with this money.

Five days have passed. I have done what I can.

I’m ready.

―― The first day of Tenzaka Month has come.

At the arena, I’m waiting for her.