[Author’s Opening Note: I never said I wouldn't update.]
[Author’s Opening Note continued: Well, you know, updates will probably stop for a while...]
Chapter 457: O Dragon, O Dragon! We Race Toward the End of Our Longing — O Dragon, O Dragon! Part Thirty-Four
Re-Legacy Weapon: Vysache — Centipede Model 8-0.5 Tausend.
It looked like a strange rod that was difficult to describe, but despite appearances, it was not classified as a club or staff. It was a spear—more specifically, a halberd.
According to Bilac—who stared at it for three minutes, touched it for five, and looked ready to start licking it all over until I chopped her on the head, bringing the total to ten minutes—Legacy Weapons were divided into generations. Among them, this spear belonged to the final generation of the Divine Era. It felt a little strange to describe something from so long ago this way, but apparently that made it the latest model.
Bilac usually demanded rare ores and other materials in addition to the main material. But as expected of a Divine Craftsman, Vysache's forging was on another level entirely: he asked only for materials from Treynor Centipede Dora.
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Vysache: "Well, well. It has been a while... Let's see if this thing still works properly..."
Sunraku: "B-Bilac! Passing out at this stage means your resistance is seriously pathetic!!"
Bilac: "Ogo-gogo-gogo..."
Emul: "Big Sis Bilac! W-Wait, she's foaming at the mouth, desuwa?!"
What Vysache rummaged around and pulled from his workshop was difficult to describe.
The closest comparison would be a metal brush whose tip opened like a crab's legs.
Vysache: "All right, bring out the materials."
Sunraku: "Yes, sir!!"
Wake up. If you miss this, you're going to get angry at me later.
Vysache gripped the metal crab-brush in a way that was hard to describe. The moment he gave his wrist a light flick, the various materials I had obtained from Treynor Centipede Dora began floating on their own.
Vysache: "People can't breathe fire. Their claws are blunt, and even a little heat makes them scream. In other words, weapons and armor exist to bring people closer to the creatures that already possess those things."
Sunraku: "Bilac, are you alive?"
Bilac: "I'm aliiive..."
Each time Vysache moved the metal crab-brush, the floating centipede materials were processed without anyone touching them.
The carapace was shaved away as though someone were erasing a picture drawn on paper. Just when it seemed to have crumbled, it had instead been worked into tiny "screws" so small that I might have mistaken them for shavings if I had not looked closely.
It looked like a puzzle assembling itself.
Vysache: "But those Legacy Weapons they call Devices work the other way around."
Sunraku: "What do you mean by that?"
Vysache: "A person is a person, and a beast is a beast. A Device doesn't bring a person closer to a beast. It remakes the beast's power into something a person can use, making it even stronger in the process. That's what it means to 'make use of a material's active properties.'"
The ultimate form of that principle was forging a weapon from a single material.
Wood could fulfill the role of iron, and stone could begin shining like a jewel. That was the supreme technique of an Ancient Craftsman—the final destination of the craft.
At the end of the path drawn by the metal crab-brush, Dora's "Furnace-Core Liquor Organ," which resembled an organic engine, was fitted into the weapon as though Vysache were kneading it into clay.
Vysache: "Listen, you can't just swing a Device around and call it a day. If a person is going to use one, they need to understand it. If the weapon is the one using you, you're still a brat. At that rate, you're a hundred years too early to think about beating that one."
Sunraku: "You're absolutely right."
Legacy Weapons and Re-Legacy Weapons were heavily influenced by the traits of the monsters that supplied their materials.
For example, knowing what the Crystal Scorpions' poison worked well against—and what resisted it—had helped me use Reject more effectively.
Incidentally, their poison worked on almost anything organic, from beasts to fish. Affinities hardly mattered at that point, did they?
If so, then learning the traits of the Treynor Centipede species would be the first step toward mastering this exceptionally unusual Re-Legacy Weapon—a weapon forged by Vysache, a Unique Monster.
Vysache: "There you go. It's finished. As for a name... Well, everyone knows a centipede seven and a half coils long is beaten with a headband wrapped eight times. Let's call it Centipede Model 8-0.5 Tausend."
Sunraku: "Centipede Model... Tausend."
Damn you, Vysache. Judging by names like Togetsu, I thought Japanese-style names were your main thing, but you've got some real taste...
Vysache: "This one is different from Reject and Conversion. I've built the foundation of a Device into it. That means your skill—your own hands—will be what matters."
Sunraku: "That means..."
Bilac was hopping up and down, reaching for the strange rod in my hands, while Emul watched her with a slightly disturbed look. Ignoring them, I questioned Vysache as he took a puff from his pipe.
Vysache: "Kakaka... Didn't I tell you that from the very beginning?"
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Sunraku: "Exceed Charge..."
The lines running along the rod I swung were divided into red and blue, like oil and water.
But now, in response to my voice, the boundary between them vanished. The two colors mixed and turned purple.
It was the basic principle of a Device: activate the power of its materials and draw out tremendous strength.
Its name was—
Sunraku: "Vital Awakening: Liberate!!"
It was different from Reject, which forced in enough output to damage the weapon, and Conversion, which activated through power supplied from outside.
This Exceed mechanism could be described as doing nothing more than switching the power on, yet its performance was every bit as strong as the other mechanisms.
Siegwurm: "You poisoned... yourself?"
Sunraku: "It all depends on how you use it. Follow the correct dosage, and even poison can become a cure-all—doping."
Ogogogo... I felt absolutely awful.
It was like having jelly poured into my veins, or some foreign substance racing throughout my body. Along with that indescribable sensation, the Treynor Centipede's "poison," injected through Centipede Model 8-0.5, surged through every part of me.
Sunraku: "All right... Caffeine in real life and poison in the system—I'm double-dosed! Now that we've met, your hundred years are up! A blind turtle meets a floating log! One-percent drop rate! Now, fair and square—die!!"
Siegwurm: "Ghnngh?!"
I accelerated with my first step, crossed five meters in four, and closed in on Siegwurm in eight.
Centipede Model 8-0.5 had revealed its true form as a halberd after being "activated" by the Exceed mechanism. I carved a slash into Siegwurm's flank with it.
Sunraku: "That damn juiced-up centipede...! Couldn't it take a little better care of its own body?!"
Now I was completely juiced up too.
This felt seriously unhealthy!!
The abilities of Centipede Model 8-0.5 were closely tied to the natural traits of the Treynor Centipede species.
The key question was how those creatures managed to move bodies that enormous.
The Gargantula species were spiders from the tarantula line, yet they possessed no venom. Treynor Centipedes, by contrast, could produce potent venom fired as projectiles.
However, when the flavor text found in materials from Gustaf and Dora was put together, it seemed they produced another poison inside their bodies, separate from the one used for attacks.
That was the Treynor Centipede's "Frenzy-Muscle Venom."
Instead of poisoning an enemy, they poisoned themselves, forcing their own muscle fibers into extreme activity through natural doping.
A version detuned for humans had been built into Centipede Model 8-0.5. When Liberate acted as the trigger, the Frenzy-Muscle Venom was injected into its wielder, spread through my muscles, and granted an enormous enhancement while rapidly consuming "a certain resource."
Sunraku: "It consumes the user's MP and greatly boosts every stat...!!"
Meanwhile, the purple spearhead where the two poisons had mixed did not carry the Frenzy-Muscle Venom injected into the wielder. It formed a blade of "Bombardment Venom" that ate into the enemy and contaminated anything it cut.
Sunraku: "I've heard how this works... It gets nullified eventually, but that doesn't mean it has no effect, right?"
Siegwurm: "N-Ngh...!!"
Sunraku: "I don't care whether it's a Phillips screwdriver or a taxi driver. If you keep holding it back, you'll die with it still in reserve, Siegwurm!!"
My entire body screamed.
Beneath the moonlight, Golden Crystal Battle Garb: Exile Cross gave off a vicious gleam.