But the Timing Was Too Perfect
But the timing was far too perfect for that.
He didn't go down from a single hit, did he?
Yujun had even pressed a fresh set of armor into his hands. Not a sword — one punch, and he was reverse-summoned? And yet every sign pointed exactly that way.
"......"
Paranet's toughness was something even Yujun acknowledged. He was not the sort to fall so easily.
A good while later Paranet was summoned back, and the complaints began at once.
"Master. You said you would hold back. Wherever is the sense in striking so hard?"
"...I did hold back. Why didn't you use Thousand-Pound Drop?"
"There would have had to be time for that. I do not even know what you struck me with. It was magic, was it not? Did some spell come flying in from behind and fell me?"
"I just hit you with my fist."
"That is your answer?"
"Yeah."
"...You are telling me a fist knocked me out, not a blade?"
"Not knocked out. Dead. You got reverse-summoned."
"Then the armor must be defective, must it not? This makes no sense."
"Defective? You said you could feel the difference the moment you put on what I gave you."
"Th-that is true, yes."
"That's because you charged in like an idiot with your head down. Without even using Thousand-Pound Drop."
"That part, I must say, feels a little unfair."
Paranet spoke with his mouth pushed into a pout.
"What's unfair now?"
"The foes I have faced until now and you, Master, are simply too different. Combat is, by its nature, a relative matter. After dealing with nothing but small fry, it is only natural I could not adapt the moment I was thrown against you. Try me again, and I believe I can bring out Thousand-Pound Drop in time."
There was sense in that. When Paranet had clashed with the Cult branch chief who kidnapped Asilien, the two of them had been roughly on a level, and the man's subordinates had sat several notches beneath him. Yujun stood on an entirely different plane. It was only natural that Paranet could not keep up with his speed.
"Then shall we try again?"
"Yes, sir!"
Desperate to forget the humiliation of a moment ago, Paranet challenged him once more. The result was not much different.
Yujun did his best to loosen up and go easy, but Paranet's movements were so transparent he couldn't bring himself to stand still. The moment an opening showed, he took it — and Paranet toppled flat onto his back and did not get up.
"You asleep?"
"You are too cruel, Master."
"It's because I know you too well. I don't even have to look. I can already tell how you're going to come at me."
"Then what am I to do?"
"You'll have to attack unpredictably. Something I can't see coming. And you'll have to be fast, too."
"As I am now, that will not do."
"Instead of charging in blind, picture the fight in your head first, then step in. It'll feel different."
"Yes."
"The banquet's starting soon, so let's hurry."
"Shall I call for the lady as well?"
"I've already sent a message. She'll come with Yenil."
Manuela and Yenil came walking up, both of them looking thoroughly pleased. Curious as he was, Yujun didn't bother asking what they had been talking about.
"Everyone ready?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go."
They returned to the room they had taken before coming to the Golden Flower Garden, then headed straight for the building where the Sky Castle Lord resided — the place where the banquet was to be held.
Preparations seemed to be in their final stretch. Sky Castle's soldiers were moving about in a considerable bustle.
Strange, really. The angelic race's soldiers look more like actual soldiers than the ones on the Continent.
Had they been put through systematic training? Thick iron plate that left their wings bare — honestly, it had a certain style to it. And there were so many of them that the mere sight of them standing was a spectacle in itself.
"They're really going all out for a banquet..."
That was Manuela's review.
"Do they hold these often?"
"It's Heaven's business, so I don't know the details. I think I heard the Castle Lord likes banquets, though. And that every time he holds one, he throws it on a grand scale."
"Where do you even get information like that?"
"You just pick things up when you've lived long enough."
At that, Yujun's eyes went wide.
"You're not Manuela."
"What are you talking about?"
"There's no way you'd bring up your age first."
"...That reaction is even more annoying."
"Sorry, then."
"Anyway, this is going to be fun. Look at the finery they've put on for the banquet. It feels even bigger than the festival they held before."
Manuela said it with an excited smile. Watching her forget herself entirely, Yujun turned to her and Yenil for their thoughts.
"Hold on, you two. I've got a question. We're sure the Castle Lord is tied to the Demon God Worshippers, right? Is that alone enough reason to kill him?"
"Huh? Where's this coming from all of a sudden? Weren't we trying to find whoever killed Sertiphs?"
"That's what I'm saying. The Castle Lord's connected to it. Is helping the Cult enough to justify killing him?"
"If he gets in our way, we kill him. We've already killed the Castle Lord's son. Why are you splitting hairs?"
"Right?"
Hearing Manuela put it that way set his mind considerably more at ease.
"True enough. The Castle Lord who raised a child like that isn't blameless either, is he?"
"Weighing good and evil is unlike you, Master. We are hardly judges, are we?"
"That's more like it."
"Dad! If something gets in the way, just kill it!"
"R-right."
Even Harp, with that cute little face, was chiming in, and the dissonance of it sat wrong.
It isn't taking after me, is it?
That wouldn't do. He had wanted at least Harp to grow up pure, and the thought that he had stained that blank slate black left a bitter taste.
"Master. There is something I wish to ask."
"Hm?"
"We are uninvited guests. Will we be permitted to join the banquet?"
"That's already handled. Turns out there's nothing money can't do."
"Ah..."
"Capcom and Shoman helped."
"They did not ask why we were attending?"
"They didn't."
"That is a relief."
"They said they'd be there too. You'll see Capcom and Shoman at the banquet."
"Two Great Merchants in attendance, and yet Asilien, regrettably, cannot come."
"That disappointed, are you?"
Yujun looked at him with a thoroughly mischievous smile.
"You are truly wicked, Master."
"That's what I live for."
Before stepping into the banquet hall, Yujun opened his status window. He had spent days mining gold without rest and had yet to offer any of it as sacrifice, and he wanted to see the change for himself.
Right now...
His pure stats, at present, came to roughly that. Magic sat at 3,069.
If he offered up a mountain of gold as sacrifice, how far would that Magic climb? The more gold he gave, the worse the efficiency became — he knew that. Still, there was truth in the saying that quantity was king. With this much gathered, surely it would rise enough to satisfy him.
He had given up raising his level. He had given up searching for Synchronization Marbles. He had given up even sleep, and done nothing but mine gold. If the reward didn't match the cost, he had no intention of ever setting foot in the Golden Flower Garden again.
Yujun offered every last piece of gold in his subspace pouch.
Golden Mammonism
Sacrificed gold converts into permanent Magic.
Golden Mammonism activated, and his Magic began to climb. It rose without a break — and then, at some point, it locked.
Exactly 820, then?
Looking at the number alone, the jump was absurd. Unlike the explosive gains at the start, the climb had slowed the further he went — and even so, he had come away with more than eight hundred Magic.
Insane.
Who would believe he had raised a stat by 820 in a mere six days? He hadn't even gained it by leveling. His level was exactly where it had been, which made the increase all the more precious. And it mattered all the more that this was not some item effect, but a rise in his pure stats.
With Magic that much higher, the power of my spells has to have gone up too...
He wanted to test the difference right away. From here on, though, he had to attend the banquet and quietly gather information.
Before Yujun's party could enter the grand hall, a rather bulky angelic soldier barred their way.
"I will verify your identity."
"Will this do?"
Yujun drew a gold card from his pocket. It looked much like a Black Market proof token.
"Confirmed."
The soldier dipped his head and stepped aside.
At a banquet opened by the Castle Lord, races other than the angelic one were present in greater numbers than he had expected. There were so many of them it seemed as if every non-celestial in Sky Castle had flocked here, and Yujun was puzzling over it when Manuela soon answered the question for him.
"There's probably an event hosted by the Sky Castle Lord. Nothing as grand as the ones the System runs, but the rewards are decent enough that players have no choice but to swarm."
"...You looked into this ahead of time, didn't you."
"Of course. Isn't that the basics when you're walking into enemy territory?"
"Right...?"
Yujun, who had failed to cover those basics, scratched his head.
"What's the reward?"
"A Legendary equipment item. Rumor says the level requirement is 650. No one's actually seen the real thing... but the Castle Lord said so himself, so it's probably true."
"They're all hanging their hopes on a single piece of Legendary gear? That many players? The competition's going to be brutal."
"There are more rewards. Small stuff next to a Legendary equipment item, but the sort of things that would make most players drool."
"Hmm..."
Even with Manuela's explanation, Yujun's interest refused to stir. If the top prize was Legendary gear, these were not items he needed to exert himself to obtain.
"No need for us to join the event, then."
"I think so too. It's not like a real event run by the System, where you get extra lives. And an event run by the Castle Lord isn't exactly safe, either. Not that it would be dangerous for you."
"Manuela."
"What?"
"You're unusually talkative today. Something good happen?"
"Ah, no. Nothing like that?"
Yujun did not miss the flash of panic across her face.
"That's a lie. What is it? What's got you grinning like that?"
"Drop it. You don't need to know."
The conversation she had shared with Yenil was the one thing she could never tell Yujun. How was she supposed to admit that she had cheered up the moment she understood, clearly, that Yenil stayed at his side not because she had designs on him, but solely to learn magic?
"How dull."
Yujun let it pass as if it were nothing and stepped into the banquet hall.
Dozens of long oval tables filled the room, and across them lay every kind of rare dish he had never seen in his life. Dazzling lights made the interior blindingly bright.
The mana stones in those lights alone must cost a fortune.
Mana stones could be used semi-permanently, but they required a constant infusion of mana.
That's not what matters.
Cloak pulled low, Yujun studied the players inside the hall.
A few of them look like Demon God Worshippers.
He had found them — and he was the only one who knew what they were.
As expected. I'm absurdly good at sniffing out Demon God Worshippers.
To pick them out of a crowd like this — on the subject of Demon God Worshippers alone, he could fairly be called a master.
Where's the Castle Lord?
He wanted to see the man himself first, the one the rumors had swollen around. Yujun's senses stretched farther still.