9 - Episode 5: The Ability of the Three Idiots - Later's Case
The inspiration for the Rig Veda is Rave's Musica. It really hit me in my childhood, and actually, I might like it more than Hal.
"---Good grief, you're hopeless,"
Along with a mutter mixed with exasperation, Later's thoughts and body accelerate as he cloaks himself in magic. Delivering a single direct kick to a goblin approaching with a club in hand to create distance, he channels magic into the bangle equipped on his right wrist. Then, the dull-colored bangle emits a faint glow, and just as it seems to squirm like a mollusk, it instantly changes shape into a short sword.
With that in hand, Later closes in on the goblin he kicked away. The speed of his step, springing forward by popping a magic vortex deployed on the sole of his foot like a spring, is not a speed a normal person can perceive. And the single strike he swings is also enhanced by magic. Without even a hint of resistance, the goblin's head is sliced clean off.
Later leaped further, maintaining the inertia of that step. At that moment, the enclosed space works in his favor. He immediately reaches the ceiling, which becomes his footing. Bouncing around like a pinball, the way he drops the heads of the goblins one after another as he passes by---.
"One's generation is divided between Ei◯man, Sa◯borg 009, or Squ◯id, isn't it?"
"Recently, you don't see many characters specialized in this kind of speed ability, do you?"
It evoked the impressions of Geoglyph and Marianne.
"If anything, I came up with it from fighting games. I used to go to game centers a lot back in the day,"
Before they knew it, Later, who had turned all the goblins in sight into headless corpses, returned while lightly regulating his breathing. The short sword in his hand returns to being a bangle once again.
"Well, that's why I have good compatibility with this Artifact,"
"It is a fine weapon. Though it completely ignores the law of conservation of mass,"
"Thinking about physical laws in a world where something absurd like magic exists... By the way, apparently my master could only use a grave and a few other weapons due to the nature of his magic, but I trained quite a bit when I was a kid, so I can move it as I wish. Like this."
As Later says boastfully, the bangle emits light again and transforms freely, becoming a katana, then a longsword, then a spear, then a bow. The reason he chose a short sword earlier was because they were inside a narrow cave.
Rig Veda.
It is something that Later's master, Gado, brought back during his days as a rookie adventurer from a ruin-type dungeon that seemed to be from an old civilization. Generally, armaments produced from such ruins are called Artifacts.
The characteristic the Rig Veda possesses is liquid metal---or so it seems. This is because Gado himself, the original owner, only recognized it as a convenient tool that becomes a grave if magic is channeled through it. As a result of Later, who received this, tinkering with it in various ways, he judged that it was something like the liquid metal from his previous life. It causes a chemical reaction---though that is a strange expression---through the channeled magic, taking the form desired by the user.
For Later, who basically allocates magic to physical ability like Internal Qi Gong, it was a very welcome weapon. Furthermore, he can perform a slightly unusual operation.
"And then, there's this."
When Later channels magic once more, the bangle emits light and plops down. Just as it seems to squirm around on the ground.
"Oh, how cute."
"Oh, how SF-like! Wonderful!!"
It changed shape into a metallic spider deformed to the size of a fingertip. Looking like a jumping spider, it greets them by waving its front legs. Marianne lets out such an impression at its tiny form, and Geoglyph, for his part, is greatly excited, shouting, "Isn't this Tachi◯ma! It's not Ta◯koma---!" SF otakus are troublesome.
"It's a substitute for a scout. It won't break easily, and even if it does break, it just returns to liquid, so it comes back to the user by following the magic."
Apparently, their consciousnesses are connected, and it is possible to operate it like what they would call a drone in their previous lives. As the spider runs into the depths of the cave and Later closes his eyes to concentrate his consciousness, his field of vision switches.
It is the spider's perspective.
After proceeding like that for a while, he comes out into a slightly large hall. Beyond that, several goblins. And then---.
"Hmm. One troll in the back and a whole bunch of others, huh. This place didn't just have goblins."
"I don't know if it took over or if it's a bodyguard, but a troll, huh. A normal rookie would have been stuck,"
"Then, may I take care of the rest?"
"Go ahead."
"Do as you like, Princess."
When Marianne, smiling mischievously, volunteered, the two of them shrugged their shoulders.
Next time, tomorrow again.