-44- Strange Coincidence 2
Wazuka is looking at us sitting together with sharp eyes. Observing in detail, he seems to have no intentions of missing not even one move.
「Geez, Natsume, it’s fine even if you stop being on guard like that, okay?」
「I wonder. Being able to reach this place means it’s very likely that Heidi leaked the information we got, right? It’s obvious that I should worry about that.」
When Wazuka turned his eyes to Oyabe-imouto, it’s very different from the way he looks at us. Since I think that there’s nothing wrong with his point, the one who is more lenient might be Oyabe-imouto.
She just breathed a sigh.
「I’m sorry if he made the three of you feel uneasy. He doesn’t mean any harm either. It’s just because he’s a bit of a worry-wart.」
Oyabe-imouto is patching things up, but the main person himself seems to have no plan to stop stare rudely.
「Heidi, how much did you say?」
I have never seen Oyabe-ane having a conversation except with Wazuka and her sister. I was surprised that such a person opened her mouth to us.
The rarely heard voice, maybe because they are sisters, is very similar to the younger sister.
「I told them how to handle mana and the existence of the magic gun. They already got a magic bag so there was no need to tell them about Ashia.」
Wazuka clicks his tongue; he seems to have no intention to hide his bad mood. With the glint in his eye becoming sharper, he asked as if threatening.
「You guys, you didn’t leak that information to anyone, right?」
「We didn’t, besides, we also have no plans to tell anyone.」
「Really? Then never leak it out. If you talk about it too much, I will consider you guys as an enemy.」
「Got it. We won’t tell anyone.」
Fighting against Wazuka is not a good plan. He is clearly stronger than me. I understand very well from what I heard from Heidi and the impression I felt when facing him directly. The mana I can sense from him is more than twice of mine and, even based on status, I believe there’s a large gap between us.
When I promised to keep it a secret, his threatening presence weakened just a bit.
「Before we start talking, there’s one thing I want to ask, how much MS have you acquired?」
「Circulation for me and Hiiragi, and just emission for Hibari.」
「In that case, maybe you better not go beyond this point yet.」
「May I hear the reason?」
「You simply lack the abilities. I can say that not having circulation is fatal. The monsters that will appear beyond this point are four-legged variety like wolves, bears, rats and flying foxes, but their bodies are large, particularly the wolves and bears, and might be troublesome opponents.」
Regarding the wolves, I had predicted it since I learned of the existence of a huge monster that manipulated wind appeared in here. But I never thought that even a bear will appear.
「The wolf is two meters in length and the bear is three meters. If you can’t use circulation against wolves that attack in a pack of more than ten members, injuries can’t be avoided. In the worst case, death. The surface of the bear’s body is tough; I can’t even put one scratch on it with my full strength.」
「In addition to that, the wolf uses wind magic and the bear uses fire magic. The flying fox uses earth magic and drops gigantic stones from above, but flying was not its strong point.」
Unexpectedly, Oyabe-ane and Wazuka supplemented the information to Oyabe-imouto’s explanation. I thought that they won’t tell anything, but it seems I was wrong.
「That’s why it’s not worth considering if you don’t even at least learn circulation. Can I also talk about that?」
Oyabe-imouto looked at Wazuka to confirm again. Wazuka put his hands between his eyes and sighed in a big way.
「Do what you want.」
「Okay. There is an MS that requires the acquisition of circulation and emission. It’s called layer but its something that enhances your defense considerably, so if you can, you better learn it. The needed PP is 8,000 so it might be impossible right away though.」
「How strong is it?」
「It might be faster to show it than explaining it by mouth. Mukou.」
Saying that, Wazuka stood up and called me. We move somewhere a bit away from the four people.
「Try hitting me with all your strength using that pole.」
Without even preparing, Wazuka told me to hit him in a defenseless state. Since it seems he will not avoid it, it felt that I’m being underestimated.
Does he have that much confidence in his defense?
「With all my strength?」
「That’s right.」
I grasp the cypress pole tightly and raised it over my head. I take one deep breath, operate my mana and explosively enhance my strength.
Kicking the ground, I utilized the force of acceleration and swing down, aiming at the top of his head with the intention of crushing his skull.
It gave off a sound of snapping.
I didn’t understand what happened. The cypress pole, that had never been broken even if I keep on hitting monsters until now, is broken in two pieces. I look at the end of the pole that was in my hand and is surprised.
Wazuka does not even have one scratch. When I look very closely, the tip of the broken wood did not reach his skin as if it was prevented by an invisible barrier. The thin layer of mana enclosing Wazuka functioned like a barrier.
MS layer. A defensive skill that completely covers the whole body with a thin layer of mana. It has a strong defensive effect against simple physical attacks. It also shows a defensive effect against magic, but it seems to fall greatly behind compared to its physical defense ability.
「I’m sorry that I broke your weapon.」
「It’s fine. I just got a new weapon yesterday to substitute this old one.」
Wazuka was showing an expression like it was his fault. Although I have a substitute weapon, I have an attachment in the cypress pole that I have been using until this point. I said that I don’t mind with my mouth, but it might have shown it in my face.
He clicked his tongue once and spoke shortly.
「I’ll let you borrow.」
Saying that, Wazuka went back. I collect the broken cypress pole and also return to my seat.
All things considered, it’s unexpected. I never expected Wazuka, who doesn’t look like someone who trusts other people, has an honest personality.
「Were you actually able to understand from seeing it? I advise you to get layer since it’s a useful skill.」
「The mana consumption of layer is large. If you have little mana, deploying it continuously is difficult. Status upgrade is indispensable.」
「As Onee-chan says. Considering the body reinforcement that uses the rest of your mana, it is completely not enough.」
I planned to improve my base physical ability through HP and gave it a bit more priority, but do I also need to improve my MP to fight against enemies that are getting stronger?
「If you plan to go beyond this point, do it after you learn circulation at the very least. Mikan will be sad if Heidi dies.」
For Wazuka, other people are different from the Oyabe sisters. I can sympathize with the feeling of giving priority to someone special. That’s why my wariness towards Wazuka lessened just a little.
Probably, it’s the result after I was able to find out just a bit of his true character.
◆
Receiving useful information, it was a very worthwhile time. They also finished resting and left for departure.
I suddenly recalled when we were facing each other and said our parting words.
「Wazukkun, do you guys know that Miyazu died?」
「We checked the corpse before leaving. We knew somebody died, but it was Miyazu?」
Wazuka doesn’t care, but Oyabe-imouto and Heidi looked sad as we talked about our classmate who died. Probably, that is normal and the rest of us are strange.
「Our classmates gathered and held a class meeting so everyone knows. Nagaoksan talked about the wind wolf that she heard from you.」
Wazuka made an unpleasant facial expression, maybe he remembered about Dekoko because of the words class meeting. I was a little relieved that he has also something that he’s not good at.
Just when I thought that our talk had ended and it is a farewell with this, Oyabe-ane started to talk.
「There’s one information that we didn’t tell her. This was dropped after defeating the wind wolf.」
Oyabe-ane said so and showed a long rugged staff she holds in her hand.
I found out that there is strong mana hidden in it. They didn’t tell anything so they didn’t plan to tell us, but she seems to be anxious to explain it.
It’s two meters in length and the tip is shaped into a semicircle. There were no excessive decorations and it was made out of gray wood.
「This is the staff of destruction (Vanagandr). The device is saying that it’s a fake. It’s a strong weapon capable of ranged attack. If the wind wolf respawns, I recommend that you defeat it.」
「Was there a need to tell even that?」
「I’m making them indebted to us. It would be good if we can have an ally when something happens.」
Oyabe-ane said she was tired and kept quiet after that. Maybe she does not have conversations with anyone because it’s troublesome to talk.
Looking at the attitude of the Oyabe sisters that can be said generous, Wazuka breathed out a big sigh. He raised back his head and looked at me.
「If you can do emission, why don’t you try practicing circulating mana outside your body? If you can grasp the feeling, you can probably do the same inside your body, right? Also, just by simply coating your body with mana, it won’t become a layer. You need to reinforce the mana that you covered you from outside. The image feels similar to an exoskeleton or power suit. You have to do circulation at the same time to reduce mana consumption.」
Telling unexpected words, Wazuka turns his back and walks.
The Oyabe sisters exchanged looks. I don’t know the expression of the older sister behind her hair, but I’m sure that she’s laughing like her younger sister. The two of them chased behind him and the three vanished to the other side of the door.
Thus, with the strange turn of events ending, we both head towards a different path and went deeper in the dungeon.