Chapter 50: The Mysterious Candies ①
“Haaah, I’m almost out of MP… But that was so much fun…”
“That’s good to hear.”
After using 【Fable Magic】《Yamanashi》, Shi-chan tried out all the spells she had learned.
【Fable Magic】 has a heavy MP cost of around 40 per cast, so it seems even high-level Shi-chan can’t just spam them.
To briefly summarize their effects, they were as follows:
《The Restaurant of Many Orders》
Field: Changes to the interior of a wooden building.
Effect: Targets all enemies within the field. A giant wildcat appearing from another dimension attacks enemies that meet three conditions: “take water damage,” “suffer an attack debuff,” and “suffer a defense debuff.”
Shi-chan’s comment: It’s scary, but I want to see the kitty!
《Kaze no Matasaburo》
Field: Changes to a grassy plain.
Effect: Targets only the caster. Within the field, wind magic can be used freely. MP is consumed only when deploying the field. The type and power of wind magic depend on the caster’s intelligence.
Shi-chan’s comment: It’s fun to use while saying the words from the original story! “Doddo do dodou do dodou do dodou”!
《Night on the Galactic Railroad》
Field: Changes to a world where the sky is starry, and the floor, walls, etc., are made of crystal and jewels.
Effect: Within the field, the caster takes all damage on behalf of all allies. The caster’s defense and magic defense are increased.
Shi-chan’s comment: Just activating it makes me remember the story and cry, so I can’t use it…
“I see… 《The Restaurant of Many Orders》 seems like a pain to use.”
“Yeah. But it might be quite close to the original story. Since it’s ‘many orders,’ after all.”
“? I can’t imagine the original story…”
According to Shi-chan, each spell seems to have effects related to the fable it originated from.
I’m a little curious about the source material for ‘The Restaurant of Many Orders’.
“Still, you learned a bunch of spells all at once… Can you turn anything into a skill just by reading a book?”
If that were the case, every book would have the same value as a skill book, which are said to be worth hundreds of millions of yen on the market.
Then, Shi-chan said.
“Nuh-uh. It doesn’t seem to work for every book. For example, this one…”
She took out a small picture book from her pouch.
“It’s a wonderful picture book called ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle… But reading this one didn’t teach me any particular skills.”
“Is that so…”
“Look, there are holes in the pages of the picture book, showing the caterpillar eating fruit.”
“That’s an interesting gimmick.”
“Right?”
Shi-chan showed a sparkling smile.
She must really like this book.
Wait, a caterpillar that makes holes in pages…
Somehow, it’s similar to the Imomushi that opens 《Wormholes》.
Perhaps Shi-chan brought that book hoping to learn 《Wormhole》.
“Even with Kenji Miyazawa’s books, I didn’t learn spells corresponding to all the stories… I wonder, is it my preference or how immersed I get…? Anyway, maybe I’ll try more later.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Whatever the reason, it’s probably a good thing that Shi-chan will have more time to relax.
“So these are spells derived from the 【Childlike Heart】 skill, huh… I wonder if everyone got experience points from that just now?”
“Yeah, they should have.”
“That’s great. I feel like I’ve finally joined everyone as a proper member. I’ll check my experience points. Status Open.”
“Guess I’ll check mine too. Status Open.”
Name: Natsume Kouichi
Level: 35
Experience: 7 / 3781
HP: 326
MP: 143
Attack: 155 (Bonus +28)
Defense: 134 (Bonus +14)
Speed: 234 (Bonus +27)
Intelligence: 96 (Bonus +2)
Skills: 【Childlike Heart】, 【Drop Item Enhancement】, 【Water Resistance (Small)】, 【Sleep Skill Nullification】, 【Water Walking】, 【Slashing Enhancement (Small+)】, 【Butterfly Dance】, 【Vigilance】, 【Poison Absorption】, 【Bond of Friendship】, 【Aerial Swordsmanship】, 【Godspeed】
Special Abilities: Monster Creature Encyclopedia, Mass Assault+, Monster Capture Net (Lv1), Bug Sumo: Stag Beetle, Cheering, Wormhole, Thread (Lv1)
“Ooh…!”
“Waah…!”
Shi-chan and I exclaimed at the same time.
“Natsume-kun, did you get experience points too?”
“Yeah, my level went up.”
If I recall correctly, as of yesterday, I still needed about 1000 experience points to level up.
Perhaps because I enjoyed the world of fables together with Shi-chan, I gained a whole bunch of experience points at once.
“I reached level 38 too! I’m so happy I could help Natsume-kun and everyone. Natsume-kun, you were level 33, right?”
“No, I’m 35.”
“Eeh!? You’re 35!? But, when we met the other day…”
“My level went up from catching Oniyanma and stuff.”
“Eeh…”
Shi-chan muttered, “That’s too fast…”
I feel like Otama-chan said the same thing to me a little while ago.
“At this pace, it looks like we could reach level 40 or higher in about a month…”
“Yeah, probably. We also have the experience from 【Bond of Friendship】 now. As long as we don’t push ourselves too hard and just enjoy ourselves every day, I’m sure we’ll grow.”
“Ah…”
Then, Shi-chan spaced out for a moment before shaking her head.
“Somehow, I just felt a sense of relief…”
“Isn’t that fine?”
Just as Manamin said, if the essence of my skill is “turning play into experience,” then rushing or panicking won’t do any good.
Play is free, and it’s supposed to be fun, after all.
“…Natsume-kun, thank you. Having friends is nice, isn’t it?”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you, Shi-chan. You’ve been fighting for us in all sorts of ways we don’t even know about.”
“…Yeah.”
☆★☆
After that, we returned to the “Home” inside the dungeon for a bit.
Shi-chan said she was tired from running out of mana (MP), so we went to check if the Elixir Ramune had been restocked.
“How about today…?”
I opened the refrigerator.
And it was empty inside.
“Too bad, Natsume-kun.”
“I guess it wouldn’t be restocked in just two days, huh.”
Elixirs are rare items, after all.
“Fufu, I probably shouldn’t drink an Elixir just on impulse. But when I’m with you, Natsume-kun, I somehow feel like it’s okay. Manamin will get mad at me, though.”
“An Elixir Ramune drunk when you’re completely exhausted must be incredibly delicious.”
“Natsume-kun, you’re good at tempting offers, aren’t you…”
“Well, yeah. Besides, even if we said ramune was an Elixir, I don’t think people out there would believe it. It’d be pretty hard to sell, right?”
“Maybe so… I hear there are even scams where people sell regular Elixirs with the contents swapped out…”
“Well, let’s check again tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Shi-chan is staying at a hotel in the city today and plans to come to the Private Dungeon again tomorrow.
Otama-chan and Manamin also said they’d come here tomorrow, so Team Secret Base is scheduled for a full gathering.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow too… It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way.”
“I’d also forgotten it for a long time until recently.”
I absolutely have to protect these relationships.
We opened the fusuma from the “Kitchen” and moved into the “Living Room.”
“Ah, right. Shi-chan, you’re tired, aren’t you? Want to relax on the engawa for a bit?”
“Yeah! That sounds nice.”
“Alright, it’s settled.”
Instead of going towards the hallway leading to the entrance, I opened the fusuma leading to the “Guest Room” to get to the engawa.
In the “Guest Room,” there was a large low table and two zabuton cushions.
And then.
“Ah, Natsume-kun, look!”
“Ah…”
On top of the low table, there was a flat basket woven from bamboo.
It wasn’t there during our previous investigation.
Inside it were four round objects wrapped in transparent film.
Each was a transparent sphere with red, blue, and other patterns inside.
They look like marbles, but those are…
“…Candies?”
“…Looks like it.”
Mysterious candies had appeared in the Private Dungeon.