Chapter 451: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part Twenty-Eight

Time rewinds a little.

◆

Sunraku: “Saint-sama, do insects tend to bite you a lot?”

Eristella: “Pardon...?”

If not, I could only assume that the white dragon and Josette had something in common.

Like some automatic attraction toward Saint-chan...

Sunraku: “Damn it, it really feels like they’re targeting her for some reason!!”

Not me.

Saint-chan.

Was it a quest effect? Or was she getting dragged into the trouble caused by Lycagon’s Contusion?

The lesser dragons were clearly focusing their attacks on her.

Because of where we were, they couldn’t completely surround us. Even so, roughly ten of them attacked every five meters we moved.

What was this garbage encounter rate?

Sunraku: “Saina, Saint-cha... sama’s safety is the highest priority. Wipe them out while keeping that in mind.”

Saina: “Acknowledged, aye-aye, sir. I will protect the target using all armaments currently available.”

Maybe it was simply because time had passed, or because the players had killed so many of them, but almost all the ant-shaped lesser dragons Bryleinyego kept producing had eventually disappeared.

Its main force was now made up of humanoid lesser dragons whose movements were clearly more polished than those of the earliest ones.

They still moved like players who weren’t used to the controls and were pressing everything at random, but the fact that they could even parry made them a pain to deal with.

Sunraku: “Saint-chan-sama! Keep moving forward! This much is nothing! We’ve got it handled!!”

Saina: “Affirmative. Based on the current specifications of this unit—me—the chance of any interference reaching the protected target is below five percent.”

Eristella: “How reassuring. The steel dragon armor is also incredible... But Sunraku-sama, what is that sword?”

Sunraku: “This? It’s—yeah, I see you over there, bastard!!”

The sword swept through the air, leaving a crimson trail.

The line following that trail turned into an attack effect and flew through the night air.

It almost felt like I was playing a shooting game, but the attack landed perfectly, carving a deep wound into the neck of a humanoid lesser dragon trying to circle around behind us.

Sunraku: “Its name is Lumeridian, Treasure Sword of Boundary Light. It was made from the materials of a certain monster... Right now, it’s in Nightglow Blade: Katana Mode.”

Personally, I didn’t go out of my way to use katanas.

In a game like Bakumatsu, where fights often ended in a single blow, it didn’t bother me. But in a game like this, where you had to attack repeatedly, the whole single-edged design was a little awkward.

Unless you were aiming to strike with the back of the blade, you had to keep adjusting the direction of the edge with every swing.

A short sword would be one thing, but once it was large enough to hold with both hands, a double-edged sword like Duxram, Blade of Aspiration was much easier to swing around freely.

Single-edged swords had plenty of advantages, of course. But Sunraku’s stats couldn’t make full use of them.

That was one reason I didn’t dislike katanas, but had never actively searched for one either.

Imron: “Hmm, I see. So what abilities does it have? I saw it launch that slash just now.”

Sunraku: “Basically, it has two forms. Its abilities change depending on how much moonlight and sunlight each one has absorbed... Wait, that wasn’t Saint-chan asking. It was you, Imron.”

That man—or woman—was a blacksmith, but also a Hero.

More specifically, Imron was the Hero of the Holy Hammer, which made them a crafting-class player with real combat ability.

So it wasn’t particularly strange to see Imron fighting on the front line instead of supporting everyone from the rear through equipment.

Imron: “I know. This was created by the Vorpal Bunny blacksmith trying to compete with me, wasn’t it? Hehehe...”

Was instantly dropping the roleplay just part of the routine at this point?

Sunraku: “Uh... Yeah, pretty much. Oh, right. I tried Glittergrit, Crystal Sword of Heroic Radiance. It felt good to use. The STR scaling was a little rough, but I can work around that.”

Imron: “Thank you. And? That isn’t all this sword can do, is it?”

Sunraku: “No, it isn’t... Hm? A giant type...!!”

Those things were coming this way too?

Their huge bodies made them easy targets, and the surrounding players had already worn this one down. Even so, one-shotting it in my current state would still be tough.

Every time I swung Lumeridian in its crimson, single-edged form, another slash flew from the blade.

But the giant wasn’t the only enemy.

Imron had ended up fighting beside us, but we still had to deal with the humanoid lesser dragons too.

And then—

Sunraku: “Crap, it broke!!”

Crack!

With a sharp sound like breaking crystal, Lumeridian snapped cleanly in half.

I kicked away the humanoid lesser dragon I had been fighting and backstepped.

Imron watched the sword and muttered suspiciously.

Imron: “Weapon damage...? No, the grip is still there. Don’t tell me...”

Sunraku: “Yeah. Exactly what you’re thinking... Redeploy!!”

Lumeridian, Treasure Sword of Boundary Light, lost durability differently from an ordinary weapon.

No matter how roughly I used it, even if its blade snapped in half, its main durability would not decrease.

But that didn’t mean it was an indestructible weapon like Duxram, Blade of Aspiration.

Imron: “Don’t tell me it uses durability like a gauge...?!”

Sunraku: “Correct!!”

The remains of the broken blade shattered.

A new crimson blade formed from the grip, like watching an icicle grow at several times its normal speed.

Sunraku: “And in its current form, Lumeridian recovers durability by absorbing moonlight!!”

The recovery wasn’t anything dramatic. It was more like a small extra feature.

Still, damn you, Bilac. You made another ridiculously specialized weapon.

Sunraku: “Time for some giant killing!!”

The deployed blade had its own durability, separate from the weapon’s main durability.

That durability could be spent to perform its special actions.

In this form, that meant flying slashes.

Yesterday, before coming here, I had left it under the sunlight in Rabituza, so the attacks had built up a fair amount of power.

But needing both sun-drying and moon-drying made this thing completely useless indoors!!

Whatever—giant type defeated!!

Sunraku: “That’s basically how it works! Once the sun rises, a new blade comes out of the ass end!”

Imron: “A special parameter mechanic... NPC-only? No, that’s wrong. In this game, players and NPCs operate under almost the same rules. I have been defeated... in creativity...!”

I wasn’t sure the word “creativity” really applied to NPCs connected to the server, but apparently Imron considered this a defeat.

Also, sorry, but could you at least keep fighting?

Sunraku: “Oh, right. Bilac—the one who made this—had a message for you.”

Imron: “...I’m listening.”

Sunraku: “Let’s see... ‘My Pops is even better than this.’”

Imron: “...I see.”

Oh, so you really only cared about the weapon?

You aren’t going to help?

I see.

I watched Imron wander away in a daze, then hurriedly started swinging my sword again now that we were short-handed.

Sunraku: “Oh.”

Eristella: “Is something wrong?”

Sunraku: “No, I just realized I can pick up something I left behind...”

Could I recover Bryubas, which I had left sitting out around here?

It would be a slight detour, but it wasn’t far from our route.

I glanced back at Saint-chan, and she looked as though she didn’t mind.

Then I would gladly accept her kindness.

Sunraku: “There it is.”

Even if it was only the size of a cruiser, a ship sitting on dry land really stood out.

The shared clan inventory box was empty now, so I should be able to store the ship again...

Hm?

Sunraku: “...‘Cannot store because a player is aboard’... you say?”

Oh?

Some shameless bastard had climbed aboard someone else’s ship without permission?

The ownership settings meant they probably couldn’t damage or mess with anything, but I still needed to give them a piece of my—

Oh, crap! A lesser dragon was attacking Saint-chan!!

???: “Well, well. It’s been a long time... Sunraku of the Mu Server.”

Something cut through the air.

A thick arrow struck the forehead of the humanoid lesser dragon leaping toward Saint-chan. It looked tougher than the others, but it couldn’t withstand the arrow’s force. Its head snapped sharply backward as it was sent flying.

Sunraku: “That way of calling me...”

I looked up.

A man stood on the deck of Bryubas.

He was an archer in light equipment that felt slightly out of place in SLF’s Western-fantasy world.

It was still “Western,” but his cowboy hat and the rest of his outfit belonged to the Wild West instead.

I didn’t know this man.

But he knew which server I had come from, and I knew of one person who wore clothing like that.

???: “Technically, we met on ‘that island.’ Do you remember me? Didn’t Baibaru mention me? Nice to meet you. I used to play on the Gamma Server as Atbird. These days, I’m Yashirobird.”

Sunraku: “Yashiro... bird? Oh. Congratulations on the appointment?”

Yashirobird: “Thank you, thank you.”

The shameless intruder who had boarded my ship without permission turned out to be another former Survival Gunman player, just like Baibaru and me...

Huh? Something is happening to Imron...?