Just Because I Wanted To
Why, you ask? I just felt like it.
Yena's living room offered a sweeping view of the glittering night cityscape. Seated across from each other at the heart of it, Yena and I had a spread of mouthwatering chicken laid out before us.
"...Isn't three birds a bit much for just two women?"
"Seems about right to me."
Could she really not manage this much? When I shot her a doubtful look, Yena only returned an even more incredulous one.
"And here I thought you'd be the type to watch what you eat religiously..."
"It's my constitution."
Celestials were born with superior bodies, and as such, they boasted perfect proportions no matter what they did. Eat as much as they liked, exercise or not—their physiques always stayed in peak condition. Even though my strength had diminished since returning to the real world, that trait remained untouched.
"I do work out, of course."
"Ah... huh? Well, I guess that tracks. You did say you practice judo or something like that."
I nodded.
I did plenty of that in Deoen.
In the real world, needless to say, I'd rarely left my apartment except for my streaming sessions.
Yena still hovered somewhere around a dazed "heeeeh..." So I handed her a pill and a glass of water.
Without a second thought, Yena picked up the pill.
"What is it?"
"A painkiller. Brought it just in case."
Yena, who had been quietly suffering through her pain, swallowed it without hesitation, as if she'd been waiting for exactly this. The moment it went down, her condition seemed to ease somewhat.
Then her whole body flinched.
"...What the heck. My body suddenly feels better."
"That's what it's for."
"No, hold on—it hasn't even digested yet?"
Yena stared at me as if a question mark were floating above her head. I just shrugged and raised my can of beer.
"Maybe it's all in your head?"
"...You didn't slip me some kind of drug, did you?"
"What do you take me for?"
Well, it is something like a drug, technically.
To be precise, it was a pain-numbing spell I'd cobbled together by drawing on the mouse-tail's worth of mana I possessed in the real world. Weaving the formula had been hard enough, and channeling mana into such a crude construct had been harder still, but I'd managed to make it look presentable. If the spell were a building, its frame would be scaffolding made of wooden poles instead of steel.
Of course, even built this way, blocking genuine pain outright was impossible. But I'd embedded the spell into an actual painkiller, letting it activate through proper channels.
And at its core, the pain Yena suffered was pain remembered by her soul. Since it was phantom pain, a numbing spell could offset it to a degree.
You might ask why I couldn't just use a regular painkiller—but the phantom agony etched into a soul can't be treated with anything like that.
"Cheers?"
"...Cheers."
Our beer cans clinked together.
Ka-cha~
"This is nice... Drinking with Lily herself, hehehe..."
"...You're not drunk already, are you?"
"No way~"
Did I mess up the spell?
It was my first time casting it in the real world, so I couldn't be entirely sure. Granted, that world was a reality too, but casting civilian-grade magic like this was a first for me, and so was using a 'painkiller' as a reagent. Maybe the pill's chemical action had some strange reaction with the magic.
"......Tell me right away if anything feels off."
"Mmm...? Yena's perfectly fiiine~"
"......"
She's very clearly not fine...
The chicken was fantastic. Instead of the usual franchise, I'd ordered from an expensive handmade place, and both the flavor and the crispy texture were on another level. The beer was good too. Everything was great, except—
Tang!
"They should've let me wiin! Why'd they take it awaaaay?!"
"......"
Terminal case, then.
I set down the beer can I'd been sipping. Yena was trembling, her face flushed scarlet.
"Don't you think it's time for a fair rema—"
"Sniff."
"?"
"Hic, uuuugh... seriously!"
Thwip! Yena's hand snatched up a beer can, cracked it open, and gulped it down in great swigs.
That was my beer...
"They're on another level! I grindeeeed... for three whole yeeeears..."
"...That match."
"The match! It was so unfair! Lily, honestly... hic."
Crunch.
She's eating the chicken just fine through all that, though. Where did the person who couldn't eat go?
I cracked open a fresh can.
"You did well too, Yena. Better than I expected."
Honestly, I hadn't thought Yena would manage to imitate Spear's Roar. No matter how much a Mythic-grade item enhanced her magical abilities or how talented she was with mana, replicating a Celestial's technique bordered on impossible. Even Sword Masters who'd broken past the limits of humanity could barely manage it one in a hundred times—and even that one would end up completely wrecked after using it.
"...Why? Why did you gamble on me?"
"Sorry?"
"The gamble. I mean... me. I thought you'd figure out my age, and my gender, and..."
Her eyes were clearing a little now, as if her state had settled somewhat. I tipped my beer can.
"Hard to say."
The biggest reason was that there was nothing else particularly worth choosing. Over the years, I had wielded the weapons, powers, and abilities of countless beings—ancient monsters beyond counting, dragons, the Spirit Kings, hidden races, and more. I'd even handled the powers of Celestials and Demons, but aside from weapons with a satisfying bite like spears and hammers, most of it failed to catch my eye.
But if I really had to dig up another reason...
"Just because I wanted to, I guess."
"......Ugh, whatever."
Tch, tch...
Yena drank a while longer after that, then faceplanted onto the table and passed out cold.
She really had pushed herself hard.
I picked her up and laid her on the bed. The look on her face suggested she was dreaming about looting Mythic items, of all things.
May it come true, even in her dreams.
When I pulled the blanket over her, she grinned even wider in her sleep. After tidying up the emptied chicken bags and beer cans strewn across the table, I headed home.
"...It doesn't feel like I came home at all."
I had clearly returned to my own apartment from someone else's, but since we lived in the same building with identical layouts, it made no real difference. I washed up and dropped straight into bed.
Tomorrow, maybe some ranked matches...
Lunchtime the next day. In Deoen's massive Duel Arena, countless players were battling it out as they did every day. Rookies swinging starter-tier iron swords fresh out of the tutorial, archers with decently serviceable bows, mages hurling massive orbs of flame—the arena brimmed with people of every class and skill level.
And here, one player had just reached Diamond for the first time in two years.
"Phew... Diamond, at last."
It had been grueling. He'd thought the gap between Gold and Platinum was considerable, but the gulf between Platinum and Diamond was far worse. This was a tier crawling with people who simply didn't belong there—especially the late-800-point players known as Platinum's 'Gatekeepers,' who were beyond vicious, downright wicked. The sort who casually carried Legendary-tier gear and hidden pieces, along with the four great cheat enchantments—Sure-Hit and its ilk.
He'd repeated the Diamond promotion match a staggering seventeen times. Diamond truly was the wall of despair.
"But that's all over now!"
He hadn't given up. He kept challenging, raising his level without pause until he hit 73. He'd even succeeded in fusing several skills for his 'Swordsman' class after his 3rd Advancement. On top of that, he'd grinded through brutal dungeons and, through sheer persistence, picked up a few hidden pieces.
Perhaps the gods had recognized all that effort. The Diamond promotion grind that had dragged on for over a year finally ended in success on his eighteenth attempt.
Nothing could stop him now.
Even just making it to Master tier means I could coast for the rest of my life.
He still had a long road ahead and had only just reached Diamond, but in terms of rank alone, wasn't he just one step away?
One step.
It sounded deceptively simple. He'd climbed from Platinum to Diamond; he just had to climb from Diamond to Master. That was all.
The real challenge starts now.
He queued for a ranked match. He'd heard matchmaking got slow starting in Diamond, but to his surprise, it found an opponent within five seconds. He and his opponent were whisked away to the arena.
Out of habit, he checked his opponent—then rubbed his eyes.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing, so he rubbed them again.
She's gorgeous.
Blue hair and blue eyes. Her snow-white outfit made her look like an angel descended from heaven, and the black spear in her hand contrasted beautifully with it. What kind of character customization was that? She was prettier than the popular celebrities and streamers he'd seen on broadcast TV—more beautiful even than 'Luna' herself.
How much would a customization like that even cost?
Even as he wondered, the start signal sounded and he snapped back to focus, squaring his stance. His first Diamond match. Whatever his opponent looked like, he intended to give it everything—and he had no intention of losing.
He slowly raised his sword. The 'Five-Colored Radiant Sword' he'd fought so hard to obtain flared to life, and his hair shimmered into five hues.
Then—a slash.
A small blade of five-colored sword qi shot forth. His opponent's eyes widened slightly, and she swept her spear in a circular arc to assume a defensive stance.
His lips curled upward.
So it works here too!
At a glance it looked like an ordinary attack, but in truth, that blade of qi was an ultimate move he could use exactly once with his current build—his trump card, acquired only recently at tremendous cost. Even Platinum's Gatekeepers, who'd dismissed it and tried to block halfheartedly, had all been taken down by that very blade.
Judging by her expression, she'd recognized it to some degree, but she was clearly showing off her own skill.
The confidence that she can block it, no matter how strong it is.
"And with that, it's ov—"
KWOOORRRR... crack!
"......Huh?"
"Impressive rotational force. It's not quite 'infinite,' but it's serviceable."
His opponent murmured something to that effect as she effortlessly parried his Five-Colored Successive Slash.
No—not just an opponent. A master.
Her smile looked genuinely lovely, but what the swordsman felt was neither his heart fluttering nor admiration. It was terror—the fear of prey before a predator.
"How..."
"Was that really all I had to show you?"
The terrifying master smiled sweetly. A surge of defiance welled up in him, and he activated Charge, one of the Swordsman's 3rd-tier skills. Simultaneously, his fusion skills fired—Body Reinforcement and Five-Colored Shield.
Shnk.
I still have so much left to show.
He was no talent meant to stop at Diamond.
Do you know how I got here?! It took me seventeen—seventeen—tries to make it!
There was no way someone like him would be stopped here—
Shunk.
In the blink of an eye, the black spear punched through his layered defensive buffs and pierced his heart.
The swordsman despaired.
"...No way."
Is everyone in Diamond at this level?