This morning, I’m heading to the apartment building where Kumagai’s party lives.
Yesterday I got all worked up because they approached me all of a sudden, but now that I’m feeling calmer, I’m thinking they’re older than me and I should offer the proper respect.
But why am I here? To get what I was promised yesterday.
I input the room number on the first floor, and a door opens. They rented seven rooms in a section of the floor, and one of them serves as a meeting room for the party as well as a storeroom.
It sounds like they’re well off.
As the elevator goes up, I wonder what kind of room one could rent on a salaryman’s monthly salary, and when the door opens again, I see Kumagai standing in front of a room.
Good morning, I say, and Kumagai reciprocates while raising his hand.
He leads me inside that room, and I see a pile of stuff. He says I can take whatever I want from there.
I go ‘I see’, and start putting things into my Storage Space one at a time.
Kumagai gets flustered and stops me, asking who told me I could take everything.
He says he told me he’d give me what I want, but there are limits. He frantically argues that it should be one or two things at most.
This stuff belongs to the whole party, so even if it’s not being used, they can’t just do what they want without everyone’s consent.
Then why did you bring me here, I ask, and he says he’ll buy what I take from the party. But if I take a lot he’ll go bankrupt.
Then I’ll take everything, I say with a smile.
And he grabs his twin swords.
I’m joking, I’m joking. Put those away!
I’m sorry!
It was just an impulse!
There was about eighty percent resentment from yesterday in there, but it was a joke!
I try to talk down Kumagai as I’m hit with his bloodthirst, and he eventually puts his weapons away.
Yesterday, I couldn’t win even after using Limit Break. But it’s not like I lost either, there was no decisive blow.
Kumagai was wary of me because of how the air around me changed after using Limit Break, and also came at me with his full power.
Unlike me, who pushes through with ability boosts, Kumagai has a combat style that mixes truth and falsehood, and he used his skills expertly to evade my attacks.
I unleashed a torrent of attacks, but he weaved through the openings with his twin swords. And when I dropped my posture to dodge, his twin swords changed trajectory towards my neck.
I used my physical abilities to take a lot of distance, but he threw one of his swords. I pulled out the magic mirror armor’s shield to block it, but that wasn’t good. Blocking my vision like that meant I allowed him to get close, and he began to attack after catching his sword.
Twin swords are made for rapid attacks, but don’t have much reach. Instead, they can overwhelm an opponent if you let them get close.
Unless there’s a significant difference in technique or physical abilities, most of the time that will end it.
And my physical abilities are a lot higher.
I blocked all of his attacks with my greatsword and shield. I tried to kick him in the stomach in return, but he dodged like an acrobat.
This brought us back to square one, and the fight continued until his twin swords broke.
I honestly thought Limit Break would give me an easy victory. That’s how confident I was, but I couldn’t push him back even with a boost to my physical abilities and skills.
Is Kumagai’s technique just that good? Is it because I just try to push through with raw power? Both? In any case, I couldn’t win.
Ah! Can I have this?
Yes, this will do.
Tents for seekers are expensive, and if you guys used it, I’m sure it’s good and expensive.
Ooh, it comes with cooling and heating. And monster repellent!
I’ll take it!
Ah… It was made by Honto.
I thank Kumagai and put the Honto tent in my Storage Space. He says he’s jealous of the Storage Space, and that it looks really useful.
Apparently they call it Item Box.
After that, I have tea in the living room and we chat a bit.
It was supposed to be a negotiation for the greatsword of fortitude, a memento of his little brother, but apparently he changed his mind after yesterday’s match.
“You should keep it.”
He says, like something was lifted off him.
Then he complains that my handling of the greatsword is refined, but everything else is very easy to read. All I can say is that he’s right.
Lastly, he asks why I didn’t use magic.
…Was that allowed?
I thought for sure we were only allowed to use our weapons.
◇ ◇ ◇
I head to the guild after leaving Kumagai’s place.
Other things have been getting in the way, but I’m going to find out where the lecturer that sold me the book of magic circles lives.
And when I get there, I see him.
I found you!!
I sneak up behind him and grasp his shoulder.
He turns around and looks surprised to see me. I think he knows why he’s being called out.
It was a one in a million chance I’d find him here. One in a million yen even! And now I’m taking it back!
I know my eyes are bloodshot. The anger over being tricked is sending all the blood to my head.
My heart keeps telling me to stay calm, and I demand my money back.
But he shakes his head, and says the date has already come and gone.
What date!? I’m returning it!
You can find magic circles on the internet!
So why did you sell it for a million!? Give it back! Refund!
Eh? You don’t accept a cooling off?
Why? That period is over?
It was eight days?
…Eh?
After that, I get a thorough explanation from the lecturer, Shinichi Azabu.
He says I can’t return something after the cooling off period of eight days, and that he’s surprised I thought I could return something that’s so dirty.
Not only do I not get a refund, but that harsh criticism leaves me feeling down.
He looks at me and says he’ll teach how to use the book starting tomorrow morning, and to drop by, as he leaves for his next lecture.
◇ ◇ ◇
The eleventh floor.
I’m using two longswords to mimic Kumagai’s moves.
I grasped them during yesterday’s match after expanding Spatial Grasp’s abilities with Limit Break, and copy what I saw with See Through and Trace.
I move out slowly, and crush the distance in an instant as I accelerate to top speed.
It’s his footwork that I’m referencing the most.
The warrior kobold’s movements have also been fluently referenced, but that was a monster, meaning its body was different from a human’s. If I force myself to copy it my body will hurt, and there are things I can’t really do.
No matter how much I try with Trace, I can’t get past the fact that I can’t change my body.
But since Kumagai is a human, that’s not a problem.
At first I focus only on my feet, and as I get used to it, I swing my swords.
I don’t have to try too hard, just correct the moves as I get closer to what I’m picturing.
How did Kumagai move?
My greatsword was supposed to catch him, but he kept deflecting with his twin swords. Even though there was enough power behind it to at least make him step back.
I’ll copy that.
He accelerated unbelievably fast in an instant, striking the greatsword again and again to reduce its power and rotating his weapons into an underhand grip.
I’ll try consecutive attacks. Slowly at first, because he has a speed skill. I can’t copy that no matter how hard I try.
Then I rotate a blade towards me and… Dammit…
That hurts!!
The sudden pain makes me yell, after I rotated a longsword and stabbed myself in the foot.
I did it pretty fast too, so it’s dug in deep and blood keeps coming out.
I shouldn’t have taken off my magic mirror armor to practice.
Anyway, I can’t use longswords as twin swords. I can’t do the tight turns I need with them, and they’re not suited for the moves typical of twin sword users.
I pull the sword out and cast Healing Magic, but the smell of blood attracts a big ant and a goblin. And I unleash the anger from the pain onto them.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
