kscans

Chapter 63 - The God-Wedge Sword-King that Enshrines the Gods, The Scales of the Chant that Celebrate the World, Part Seven

◇ You have traversed the 'Buried Labyrinth of Forgetfulness' ◇

◇ Title Acquired ◇
・'Inseparable'

◇ Skills have grown ◇
・Quick Change ⇒ Blink Switch
・Accel Tempo ⇒ Combo Accelerate
・Adaptive Run ⇒ Swallow's Run
・Feather Foot ⇒ Fatalace Jumper
・Boar's Heart ⇒ Rhino's Heart
・Guardian's Fleetfoot ⇒ Guardian's Cradle

——————————————————————
◇Status◇
Name: Haru
Lv: 65⇒81 (160)
STR: 50
AGI: 430 (+10)
DEX: 200 (+10)
VIT: 5
MID: 5
LUC: 10

◇Skill◇
・All-Weapon Aptitude
《Blink Switch》 Up!
《Piercing Dart》

・《Quit Counter》
・《Floating Leaf》

・Embodied Protection
・Heavy Attack Manipulator
・Combo Accelerate Up!
・Fleet-Footed
・Swallow's Run Up!
・Fatalace Jumper Up!
・Rhino's Heart Up!
・Guardian's Cradle Up!
——————————————————————
◇Status◇
Name: Sora
Lv: 42⇒67 (250)
STR: 50
AGI: 100 (+10)
DEX: 100 (+10)
VIT: 70
MID: 100
LUC: 50

◇Skill◇
・Magic Sword Aptitude
《Optimize Alert》 New!
　Telekinetic Sword
　Homing Shot New!
　Magic Sword Generation Efficiency New!

・Light Magic Aptitude
《Qualia Veil》

・《Spectate Ale》⇒《Scareless》up!
・《Observer's Eye》

・Healer's Precept
・Evasion Precept New!
——————————————————————

"Whoa."

A long list of skill growth announcements appeared, and my avatar was enveloped in a continuous stream of light effects from the consecutive level-ups. When the flashes surpassed ten, I called up my status window and saw that my level had jumped up by a ridiculous amount.

"I went up 16 levels... Sora-san?"

Sora, who had been checking her own status like me, was bugging out next to me for some reason. When I called out to her, she showed me her window with a dazed look.

"Let's see, how many levels did you get... guh?!"

Wait, Lv. 67...? I think she was around 40 before we challenged this area... And unlike me, who only had skills grow, she had four new ones. Including the evolved Scareless, her status was on a whole other level compared to before the fight.

"...I always thought leveling up was something you did little by little."

"Normally, that's the correct assumption..."

It's true that Arcadia makes leveling up incomparably easier than in any MMO I'm familiar with. But still, there has to be a limit. I've gained a chunk of levels after every boss fight so far, but this time, the increase seems to have deviated from the game's balance.

Defeating an enemy you're not supposed to be able to defeat. In any game with the concept of experience points, the reward for such an unreasonable feat is always one of two extremes...

"There are cases where you get next to nothing because you're out of the appropriate level range... but it seems Arcadia is the type to give an insane amount of rewards."

That being said, it would be impossible to aim for something like this again. There's no way some mysterious system-side favoritism would fall into our laps so often.

"Traversed... I think it was the same in the desert, wasn't it?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, that's right. It said 'traversed,' not 'defeated.'"

Since Sora was logged out when we cleared the `Great Flowing Sand Cavern` last time, she didn't see the system announcement then.

"In that case, did we... do a bunch of not-so-normal things again?"

"We sure did... though this time, it feels more like they were done to us."

In any case, we've reached some sort of conclusion. A transfer gate should be appearing soon, or an automatic return teleport should start—

"Hmm?"

As I looked around to check for a transfer gate, I noticed something.

The debris from the walls that had been shattered at the start of the battle was still there. In a conventional game, for processing reasons, such things would disappear after a short time... but mixed in with the debris that remained even after the long battle, one object clearly stood out.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, that over there..."

Just like last time, since it wasn't a kill confirmation, I had assumed there would be no item rewards... but maybe. Thinking that, I led the tilting-her-head Sora over to it, and—

"No way!"

"Eh, what?"

It was a "fragment" mixed in with the rubble, but it possessed a platinum-gold brilliance that hinted at its former glory. It was a piece of metal with a familiar, intricate engraving on its surface—a bit too large to be called a fragment, it was a metal chunk about a meter in diameter. I tapped it with anticipation...

`Withered Fragment of the God-Wedge Armor`—that was the name displayed in the window that popped up.

It was, without a doubt, a spoil of war left behind by Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King.