The Divine Elixir (2)
The Commander Summon Ticket — the reward I'd earned from clearing the last raid.
My goal was to bring my total number of Commanders up to three before the year ended, with just four months left on the clock.
"Commander Summon."
Clank.
Cheeeing…
Chwik!
KUOOOOOOO—
Even the Superior Combat Unit I'd summoned recently had shown off a staggering level of grandeur, but next to a Commander-class summon, it still fell short.
"Ooh, I wonder what kind of comrade we're getting!"
Pitasha watched the ritual with her heart pounding, and from the look of her, she was so tense that her hands had clenched into tight little fists.
Squeeze.
"…?"
"Hehe…"
Then, out of nowhere, she latched onto my arm.
Well, it wasn't a bad thing. As if matching the grandeur of the summoning, the usual circle refused to appear — instead, interlocking gears materialized, and crimson mist began to seep up from between them.
When the mist finally cleared, a woman stood there.
"I greet you, Master. My name is Von Asteria Rune. I would be honored if you would simply call me Rune."
Kirurk…
A woman with eyes of the deepest, most vivid crimson.
And her skin was pale as fresh snow — an absolutely stunning beauty, bowing her head to greet me.
Behind her crouched a mechanical dragon — vaguely similar in silhouette to a Superior Combat Unit, yet entirely different in form.
The dragon, too, recognized me as its master, and lowered its head in greeting alongside Rune.
Gulp.
"Uh… welcome. Nice to meet you."
"Thank you. Would it be acceptable for me to report my area of expertise first?"
I nodded.
Her expression was impossibly cold, her charisma overwhelming. And though there was a fragrant scent about her, what actually brushed against my nose was the sharp, frigid smell of blood.
Rune studied me for a moment, then spoke.
"As you can no doubt sense, I belong among the combat units. To put it precisely, rather than command, you may consider me a specialist in one-on-one duels."
"I-is that so. And the friend behind you?"
"That is my mount. His name is Kuma. For reference, this size is a adjustment I've made — his full form is simply too unwieldy."
"An adjustment…?"
Clank.
Cheeeing.
Perhaps deciding her explanation was insufficient, Rune gestured — and Kuma's body suddenly rippled, swelling outward as if inflating.
By the time the transformation finished, Kuma had become something no different from an enormous mountain.
If a Superior Combat Unit was the size of an ordinary apartment building, Kuma boasted the scale of a truly massive mountain — an overwhelmingly colossal size.
Even his face had grown far more ferocious.
His maintenance was immaculate, and yet even so, the countless scars of battle could not be erased.
"It seems units like Kuma suffer a drastic drop in combat power if their parts are swapped out carelessly. Compatible materials are also extremely rare."
Pitasha whispered into my ear, having caught my unspoken question.
Rune turned and looked at her, silent and still.
"A pleasure. I am Rune. Might I ask for your name, senior?"
"Uh… oh? Senior? Ah! Right! That's me! Uh, yes! I'm Pitasha! I don't have a family name or anything!"
"I see. I look forward to serving alongside you."
"Yeah! Oh, but Kuma — the engine mounted near his tail, is that by any chance…"
True to her gift for getting along with anyone, Pitasha promptly dashed over to Rune and began bombarding her with questions.
Cold as Rune was, she answered each one with painstaking care.
I was watching the two of them for a while when a message appeared before my eyes.
[You brat. What in the world did you just summon?]
"…Huh?"
I got the feeling I shouldn't be having this conversation out here — and Sun Wukong apparently felt the same, because the messages stopped right there.
"I'll be in the castle for a bit. Pitasha, show Rune around the area, would you? There's something I need to take care of."
"Yes, Master!"
"…Master?"
"Oh, Rune! You should say it too! Master said it's fine for girls to call him that!"
"…What? No, I… …yes… Master… please return safely…"
Rune had been about to refuse, but the moment Pitasha fixed her with a glare, she hastily corrected herself.
Not that Pitasha's glaring was actually scary — but Rune, apparently out of deference to her as the previously summoned senior, was being scrupulously polite about it.
She looked like someone who would act strictly by the manual in everything. I watched the two of them for a moment longer, then hopped on a drone and flew into the castle.
The moment I stepped into my private room — soundproofed so perfectly that not a whisper could escape — Sun Wukong's messages resumed.
[I can't tell you exactly. Remember what I told you before? About your innate trait.]
"Divine authority. And the stripped-down, bargain-bin version of it."
[Right. And just so we're clear — we are what you'd call Transcendents. And above the Transcendents, there are gods. You're free to tell your people that much; they'd have figured it out eventually anyway.]
"What's the point of knowing that?"
[When you summoned that girl Pitasha, I could only half suspect. But now it's plain as day. You… have Transcendents serving under your command. A mere human, no less.]
"What does becoming a Transcendent actually involve? How big is the gap between them and humans?"
At my question, the answer paused for a long moment.
[…You'll likely have to find that one out for yourself. Who knows — perhaps becoming Transcendent is your kind's ultimate goal… In any case, the fact remains: you, a mere mortal, are commanding beings who have transcended mortality. How absolutely hilarious is that?]
"Then why is Rune so famous?"
[She's famous among our kind. Kihihihihihi… Crossing over into the mortal realm to play errand girl for a human. Truly laughable, isn't it?]
Rune was famous among the Transcendents.
Was that a good thing, or a bad thing?
From Sun Wukong's perspective, he'd probably want to see her knocked down a peg.
"Is it good fame, or bad fame?"
[Kukukukukehehe… No point in me telling you. Hear it straight from her own mouth… the story of how she became a Transcendent! UWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
BOOOM…
The sound of his laughter slammed into my mental landscape.
Which meant Sun Wukong was excited — wildly so.
He didn't get along with other Transcendents, and he got along with the gods even less.
Pressing him for more information would do me no good.
What I wanted first was to see Rune's abilities for myself.
When I flew back outside on the drone, I spotted Pitasha giving Rune a tour of the factory, with Rune diligently transcribing everything onto a hologram beside her.
As I approached, Pitasha waved at me.
"Master!"
"Ma… khm… Master. Good day to you."
This was a delicacy.
Taming a proud, cold beauty with porcelain skin, forcing her to bow her head and call me Master —
"Master."
"Uh… ah, yes…?"
Hsssss.
In an instant, the air around me seemed to turn to ice.
Crackle—
'Ice?'
Pitasha, were you an ice attribute this whole time?
Watching the two of us, Rune spoke up.
"Master. Was there something you wished to say?"
"Ah, right. I wanted to see your abilities in action, as it happens. Today's stage should be the one where Fourth Orders start appearing."
"…Fourth Order? Do you mean the orcs?"
"Oh? So you know about them."
"…I know them well, Master. Grit."
She seemed to know a great deal about orcs — entirely too much.
I wasn't tactless enough to ask what had happened to her.
Neither was Pitasha.
And so Pitasha and I headed for the command room, while Rune made her way up onto the castle walls.
"Starting the Wave. Stage 40."
KUOOOOOOO—
At my word, the gates began tearing open all at once.
The tattoos confirmed so far had been tiger, wolf, sheep, and boar.
But the Fourth Order orc that emerged this time bore a tiger, wolf, sheep — and an eagle tattooed across its body.
The creature once again began delivering its bizarre sermon to the gathered orcs, just as its predecessors had.
"Filthy vermin… Grit."
Rune's voice came through the radio the three of us shared.
She was glaring at the orcs with naked loathing, and her hand dropped straight to her waist.
Then, like something out of a famous foreign comic book, she drew a lightsaber.
Except unlike any ordinary lightsaber, hers took the shape of a colossal greatsword.
"Die."
Shwoooong…
KWAAAAAAANG!
The moment Rune gave the blade a casual swing, the wavering energy gathered along the massive greatsword tore loose and hurtled away.
Every orc on the field, from First Order to Fourth, was reduced to dust before any of them could so much as confirm the attack and activate their tattoos.
All that remained where they'd stood was a fine powder — and gleaming piles of coins.
The sheer scale of the blast sent the ordinary orcs and the handful of surviving First Orders wandering in confusion.
Just as one First Order was flying into a rage, trying to rein in the charging rabble —
RATATATATATATATAT—!
And just like that, the Trial was over.
The reward for clearing the Trial: a Trait Enhancement Ticket.
That brought my total up to six.
"That concludes it."
"Good work. Think you could keep running Stage 40 on repeat?"
"You are asking me to keep slaughtering orcs, Master?"
"That I am."
Smile.
Shiver.
A beautiful woman smiling like that is genuinely terrifying.
"Thank you, Master. I will repeat it as many times as you wish."
KUOOOOOOO—
At Rune's word, the gates began to open once more.
And out poured orcs bearing entirely different tattoos, their builds subtly different from the last batch — a completely new breed.
Smiiile…
Rune's expression brightened considerably at the sight.
I could tell something had happened to her in the past, but endless repetition of the slaughter was a good thing for her — so good was good, no?
Leaving Rune to her delight, I headed for the factory where this batch of elixirs was being made.
Walking there with Pitasha, I got my first look at the new elixir she'd been working on.
"I can't make true Elixirs yet. At least, not with the monsters we've seen so far — goblins and orcs. If one of them ever becomes a racial king, a Core forms inside them. That's the level I'd need to brew an Elixir."
Having said that, she held something out to me.
"Hehe… this one I made from the Spider Queen's Core. And you remember how I asked you to buy one more Core with coins a while back?"
Pitasha had requested one worth a full 200,000 coins.
Coins were already pouring into materials nonstop, but I'd let some accumulate by then, so I'd simply bought it for her.
"I made this with two Cores. An Elixir. They say you could survive even if nothing remains of you but your head, you know? It's for you, Master… hehe…"
"Pitasha…"
Between her research, running the factory, and her command duties, she'd barely had a moment of personal time lately.
And for my sake, she'd cut even further into her sleep to make this…
"W-well… I don't really need sleep, you know…"
Seeing the moved expression on my face, she mumbled the words, cheeks flushing red.
I swept her up in a hug.
"Thank you!"
"Aah… aahhh…. Hehehehehe…"