“Tanaka~, do you want to go skiing in winter? Let’s go ski.”
It wasn’t that long ago, but it feels nostalgic right now.
It only happened a few times, but I’m reminded of the after-parties in a bar.
“Haven’t you ever snowboarded before?”
I have, with my friends when I was in university.
“Then it should be okay. Naito! Add Tanaka to the reservation!”
“Gladly!”
Hey hang on! I didn’t say I was going!
And the first time I did it, my muscles hurt so much I couldn’t move.
“What are you talking about? A seeker wouldn’t have muscle pain like that. It’s not like before, you don’t have the body of an average person anymore. You can be a little dynamic too, and it wouldn’t be a problem.”
Really?
“Yes. But don’t fall as a joke! If you do it in a dynamic way, everyone around you will die.”
Who said that’ll happen!?
“Eh? But you’re always slipping.”
…Really? That’s kind of shocking.
“Really. You’re always acting serious, and when you throw in a joke, it bombs.”
My god!?
“I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
…Yes.
I accept what Chisato says.
I’m not trying to get a laugh or bomb or anything, and I’m not going to change anything, so whatever.
“Chisato is going there for the first time, so look after her.”
What do you mean by that?
“Yeah! I can do it!”
“Really? Then let’s go hit on some girls, Tanaka.”
What’s that all of a sudden? Hey.
“Stop! We’re going too!”
“It’s fine. Seekers don’t tend to meet a lot of people. Naito caught one last trip too, so it’s not all bad. Hajime wasn’t so lucky though.”
“Don’t spread that around!”
Chisato looks at Hajime with disdain.
Should she look at her brother like that? I guess she has to.
Would I be looked at with those eyes if I also hit on someone?
“So? People feel free in the ski slopes in the winter.”
No, I…
“No? You might find a girlfriend.”
I guess I will.
I feel eyes of disdain pointed this way, but surely they’re for Takeshi behind me.
After that nostalgic dream, I wake up.
◇ ◇ ◇
I see the blue sky.
I don’t know how long I was out, but I’m alive.
I sit up and look around, but it all looks white. It takes some time for me to realize it’s snow.
Fuuma is laying next to me, and since it’s wearing the perpetual spring scarf, I didn’t feel the temperature dropping.
I reach out and touch the white stuff, and yes, it’s snow.
I breathe outside the range of the perpetual spring scarf, and the cold causes an intense pain like it’s burning my throat.
I hurry back to Fuuma, heal my throat, and take a deep breath.
Breathing deals damage.
This snowy world is a crazy harsh environment.
I ride Fuuma through the snowy mountains.
It’s the one wearing the perpetual spring scarf, so now I can’t go too far. I can infuse it with magic energy to increase its area of effect, so I can step away a bit, but I’m scared of what will happen if I come across monsters.
The moment I get away from Fuuma and the perpetual spring scarf, a countdown to death begins.
I could use Healing Magic, but it would take a lot of magic energy, and even Magic Energy Circulation wouldn’t keep up. So it really is a countdown.
The blue sky and white land feels like a fantastical sight. And suddenly, the snow rises in these contrasting sights.
It’s a whole lot of snow, as large as the bear monster. That much snow moved, so an avalanche happens below and snow comes rushing. The ground that emerges is white too.
How deep is this snow, I think as I create a tornado to pulverize the moving snow.
Ahh. It’d be nice if that did it, but snow gathers again.
I’m assuming this snow monster is one of those that won’t go down unless the core is broken, but even after pushing snow away, I can’t see anything that looks like a core.
I use Trace on it, and feel magic energy in each flock of snow, so it feels like everything is the core.
Also, this new pile of snow is bigger than the last one, has a round shape, many legs like a centipede, and the body of a pill bug.
It’s like a flat omu with legs sticking out the sides.
The pill bug monster I saw so much on the first floor.
And now a stupidly big version with a different shape. It’s pretty creepy.
The giant omu charges at me.
It’d be easy if I could connect with it like Nausicaä or wipe it out like a god warrior, but a powerless man like me has to use magic.
I want to use the Earth Magic with reasonable offensive power, but snow isn’t very magic energy conducive, so I don’t. Instead, Fuuma uses Wind Magic to dodge into the air, and attacks with a strong tornado.
Its body is carved, but Spatial Grasp tells me something is gathering above.
I figured. I tell Fuuma, and dodge the snow that’s falling, carried by the wind.
If monsters had a threat level, the earth dolls would be higher. That said, fighting a monster with a core and one made of cores is different.
I have to either destroy everything at once or run away. I don’t have the means to do the former, and the latter is within reason.
Run away it is.
I seal its movements with strong wind that won’t destroy it, and soar to escape.
Fuuma is getting better with magic, and we can see everything from above.
Here we can see the world is white, and for a moment, don’t know where the surface is. This fantastical optical illusion makes me feel sick and scared, so we run.
The snow monster splits its body and comes after us like a blizzard, but it’s blown away after being hit with an intense wind.
This snow monster gets blown away easily because it’s light.
It’s taking form on the ground again, but I don’t think it’s coming after us anymore.
I think, despite knowing things never go that well.
In its omu form, the snow monster turns its mouth into a big cave and gathers a lot of magic energy in it.
Like a god warrior, a destructive beam is fired from the omu’s mouth.
I create wind to escape the trajectory of this jet, and there’s a big explosion where I was.
Ou, monsters here like explosions.
There’s no time for jokes, that explosion was pretty strong. It’d be dangerous if that beam hit me directly, but even just being near it would be bad.
The omu is getting ready for the next one.
It’s not hard to dodge, but more importantly, there’s a change on the snowy mountain.
Maybe it’s because of the explosion, but there are avalanches happening here and there, which are waking up more snow monsters.
They open their mouths, gather magic energy, and like before, fire destructive beams.
We’re flying, so we make a good target with nothing in the way. We run around the sky, and as I look down, I see the omu targeting us. We can’t run forever.
The destructive lights are fired all at once. Fuuma neighs, and accelerates with a burst of magic energy.
I feel like saying this storm of a bullet curtain is like a certain game, as we do our best to dodge.
We’re moving pretty fast, and I’m constantly making course corrections, meaning we’re rapidly shifting in different directions. The blue and white parts of the scenery keep shifting between being up and down, making me confused again about which is which.
The white part rains down like a destructive rain, and I create a flow of magic energy to divert the ones that feel like they’ll hit. And I nullify what comes after with the magic mirror shield.
It’s nice to see they don’t explode if nullified, but it’s getting to a point where I can’t dodge.
I’m accelerating, but I’m having to block with the magic mirror shield more and more.
If this barrage hits me, I’ll suffer more than just a few bruises.
I call out to Fuuma like I’m telling it to brace.
“Limit Break Burst.”
Fuuma heads towards a valley and rapidly descends, baiting the destructive beams after us.
The beams destroy monsters of the same kind, lowering their numbers.
There’s a loud sound as the monsters attack each other.
Their power doesn’t just destroy each other, it blows away snow, carves the mountain, and destroys it with explosions.
Of course, we also take damage. Since it was centered on us, it was unavoidable.
We get back on the surface, I step outside the range of the perpetual spring scarf, and deal with them as the cold burns my throat.
I’m boosted by Limit Break Burst, but it’s still not easy to deal with all the destructive beams.
They fall from every direction, a rain of over a hundred, and it’s hard to get through it by just manipulating the flow of magic energy. I use the exposed earth to create walls.
Still, it’s not enough. The destructive beams are powerful and numerous, and they keep coming.
I fire giant rock stakes to try to lower their numbers a bit more, but it’s not enough.
Dammit. As I consider running to the sky again, Fuuma neighs strongly.
I turn around wondering what it is, see magic energy bursting from its body, and it starts shining gold.
Wai!? You! That! Are you turning super!?
Fuuma ignores my comment as it infuses elementless magic energy into the rising dragon chakram, and deploys them in all directions, creating a big flow of magic energy.
The destructive beams can’t go against the flow, and fly away from us. They go towards the other omu monsters, which are extinguished when they touch them and explode.
Fuuma takes out monsters at an incredible speed. It’s using their power against them, but this is a crazy extermination speed. Not to mention that I feel like the destruction beams are getting stronger.
Is it because of the rising dragon chakram? Because Fuuma is adding to them? Regardless, this is incredible.
It doesn’t take long for Fuuma to take them all down.
There aren’t any omu monsters as far as I can see, or snow, so I heal my throat as I look at Fuuma.
It seems confused about what to do with the remaining destructive beams.
I tell it to just fire them to the sky, and it nods as it fires them… towards the mountain.
There’s a loud sound, the ground shakes, and the mountain erupts.
Snow spirit (omu)
A spirit birthed from the snow of The Abyss. It starts by chasing as a pile of snow, and if nothing is done, it will pass by. It won’t do anything if it isn’t attacked. But if it is attacked, all the snow becomes an enemy as it attacks. Its form then changes, and it defaults to destructive beams.
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Haruto Tanaka (24)
Level: 36
Skills: Earth Magic, Trace, Healing Magic, Spatial Grasp, Toughness, Magic Energy Control, Physical Strengthening, Poison Resistance, Storage Space, See Through, Parallel Thinking, Sewing, Limit Break, Dismantling, Magic Energy Circulation, Consumption Reduction (Stamina), Wind Magic, Curse Resistance
Equipment: Greatsword of fortitude, guardian beast armor (modded)
Status: Fat (All abilities boosted)
Summoned beast: Fuuma
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Fuuma (Summoned beast)
Skills: Wind Magic, Toughness, Magic Energy Control, Physical Strengthening, Consumption Reduction (Stamina), Parallel Thinking, Limit Break, Healing Magic
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