Chapter 408: Dragon, O Dragon! We Run to the End of Our Longing — Single-Minded Resolve Can Pierce Even Crystal

Using Bradion, I reach the Crystal Crown high above in a single burst.

The Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion in the outer-edge territory—the one I’m targeting—has already lost the stinger on its tail that it uses to intercept mana. I do not need to worry about it ambushing me as I move in anymore.

Sunraku: "Let’s go, Elma... Nah, too long. Saina, I expect results that don’t fall short of the weapons I lent you...!"

Saina: "Correction: This unit’s designation is Elma=317. However, that shortened form satisfies the minimum conditions for identification, so this unit will recognize it as an address."

Sunraku: "Operation start!"

Saina: "Referencing Master’s genetic data. Accessing Inventoria... Deploying equipment."

Saina, who had been clinging to my back with her one arm, detached herself. At the same time, she worked the window and filled her equipment slots.

Saina: "───Unit designation: Non-Standard Special Reinforced Armor [Shoro]. System control acquired. Connecting a temporary energy line to this unit’s reactor line... Complete. I have control...!!"

Oh, that line was good. She was really leaning into the robot act now.

Shoro, which would blow apart after three seconds if I wore it, appeared out of thin air and equipped itself onto Saina. Maybe the powered suit could make up for missing parts. Put bluntly, Saina had been missing seventy-five percent of her limbs, but the hand of the powered suit now covering her closed into a strong fist.

Saina: "Your weapon, Master."

Sunraku: "You got it!!"

Non-Standard Weapon: Wire Type [KEEP OUT].

Weapon-type-wise, it was in the rope category Oikatzo had used at some point.

A disc-like thing attached itself to Saina’s left arm, now transformed from a busted girl into a dragon-shaped machine humanoid, and began rotating slowly. It was supposed to be a rope weapon...?

Anyway, I would not win a fight I could win by standing around and watching a mannequin get dressed.

Sunraku: "I call it Operation Noob Player...!!"

The parts I needed were Dis Pater, the Nether King’s Mirror Shield, plus guts and lung capacity—stamina!

Sunraku: "Let’s go!"

I did not die twenty times for nothing! I can say for sure that I have figured out all your attacks, Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion—Alexand Scorpion...!!

When its body color changes, that is the wind-up for a beam attack. I can tell what the next attack will be from the moment it catches the “core” of the beam it fires outside its body.

A short charge means a single laser. A medium charge means 3-WAY. A long charge means the huge laser cannon.

I did not need to worry about the huge laser cannon as long as I stayed at close or mid range. I had told Saina that too.

The problem was the 3-WAY.

A single laser disappeared when it hit a field object—meaning a Tsaberil Imperial Treasure Crystal—but the 3-WAY beams bounced around like billiard balls.

Thankfully, they were not absurdly fast like Wethermon’s Tachikaze. As long as I was not careless, dodging them was manageable. But I could not predict where they would go.

The field objects were unprocessed rough crystals. They were not neat shapes where you could work out exactly how a beam would bounce.

A beam could suddenly come flying back at you. It looked like they disappeared after bouncing around five times... Which meant that until they had bounced five times, a laser I had dodged could come back at me.

That killed me three times.

Sunraku: "All right, here comes the 3-WAY...!!"

If I always entered from the same place, the same individual would be waiting for me.

The Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion whose tail I had cut off over twenty tries used its bizarre pincers—shaped like they could fire railguns, and actually serving as laser turrets—to reflect the beam in place of its tail and stinger.

Sunraku: "Saina!"

Saina: "Understood. Restraining it."

A weight, apparently launched from the weapon’s main body, whipped in from above and to the side of the Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion, using centrifugal force to wrap around the pincer that was about to fire.

A yellow, nonphysical tape-rope trailed behind it, with KEEP OUT! displayed across it exactly as the name promised.

Saina: "Restraint engaged. Beginning pull... Error. This unit judges overcoming its strength impossible."

Sunraku: "Interfering with it is enough!!"

The 3-WAY fired.

But I already knew. For the first meter after it left those pincers, it was still a single mass of laser light.

Sunraku: "Killer Liner!!"

Dis Pater belonged to the Nether King, the deep-sea emperor that could fire lasers from its own body through a different principle from the Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion.

I slammed the round shield from the new Divine Era, built with that key lens, into the mass of light.

The reflected beam crashed into the Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion’s face.

Sunraku: "Sorry, but you can go sit on the bench."

What, there was no substitute? Tough shit!!

Then how about you play pitcher again!?

Maybe it had become wary after seeing the beam reflected. The tip of its tail had been cut off, but it still worked as a kinetic weapon, and it came roaring at me.

A tank might have taken that hit...

Sorry, I might carry a shield, but I’m an evasion build.

Sunraku: "If you’re an ore lifeform... I’ll mine youuu!!"

Sturdy Digging Pickaxe!

It was a pretty rough tool for targeting a tail, but my past play records proved how effective this weapon was.

Against metal-type monsters... Better yet, monsters whose whole bodies were made of minerals...

This worked reaaally well!!

GAGIN!

A sharp metallic ring echoed out.

The Sturdy Digging Pickaxe had been my buddy since the Lake Dagger days, back when Duxram was still that very dagger. I had fed it nearly as much rare ore as I had fed Duxram.

It would not lose to the emperor of crystals.

A point struck plate armor. A crack spread through the Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion’s shell, far too deep to call a minor wound.

Sunraku: "Ha!! When it comes to fighting in crystal areas, there aren’t many people who can beat me!!"

If there were a title for it, I had spent enough time at Crystal Nest Cliff that calling me a Scorpion Slayer would not even be an exaggeration.

I was the kind of man who became friends with every scorpion...!!

No, more exactly, I was the kind of man who turned every scorpion into materials—my friends.

Sunraku: "Saina! Don’t go outside that big crystal, that one! And that pair of crystals stuck together! It’ll turn into a hellish melee...!!"

Saina: "Understood."

It was impossible to judge an Imperial Crystal Twin Scorpion’s territory exactly.

Still, while the outline was vague, I could figure out the rough shape from the placement of objects. Through trial and error in twelve out of twenty attempts, I had worked out the boundaries where the neighbors got pissed off.

Sunraku: "Shit... Saina! Fall back toward the outer edge!!"

It charged with its pincers spread wide. Once prey came into range, it grabbed them like a hug and crushed them under its body.

A hug tackle.

These things were sensitive about anyone entering their territory, but completely clueless when they crossed into someone else’s territory. More dangerous than the damage itself was the risk of charging straight into another scorpion’s territory.

Sunraku: "Saina, we’re pushing all the way to the climax from here!"

Saina: "I will show you a thrilling finale. Good scripts are born from superior Intelligence."

Sunraku: "Isn’t that more about sense than Intelligence?"

Saina: "You have a point. But the other nine points are Intelligence. Therefore, this unit’s Intelligence is supported by the majority of common sen—blargh!"

Sunraku: "S-Saina!!"

That flag got collected way too fast!!

A hidden effect on the pickaxe...! Not really. It is just a well-known trick.

Forgive him, he is a hermit barbarian...