Pongpongi Is Too Strong
Pongpongi Is Too Strong
The Shadow Forest.
A deep, towering forest west of the academy.
Rumors never stopped swirling about it.
That children who went missing in the woods had been eaten by animals. That someone had spotted a giant monster roaming around. That another person had seen a corpse being buried.
In the game, incidents like these were cataloged in a feature called the "Academy Newspaper."
Reading through them, a question inevitably arose.
If accidents and disappearances never stopped, why did people keep venturing in, only to get hurt or vanish?
Sure, anyone who went in despite the danger might just be an idiot, but maybe there really was something hidden in the Shadow Forest.
And indeed, rumors to that effect had floated around.
— There's a wild ginseng in the forest that makes you grow explosively just by eating it.
— A magic manual left behind by some eccentric master slumbers there.
— If you clean the moss-covered statue and offer a prayer, it'll grant you a blessing!
They were only idle rumors, but people couldn't help getting their hopes up.
After all, the Shadow Forest was a deep and mysterious place.
◆
Giant footprints.
Danya swallowed hard and murmured,
"Seems like a pretty big one."
"A bear or a lion, maybe?"
"No. The tracks are too narrow for those."
"Hmm."
Ian, who'd been examining the tracks for a moment, stood up and turned away as if uninterested.
'... Figures.'
He wasn't interested in this stuff either.
Danya sighed inwardly.
Back in the Catsnesia clan's sacred land, everyone's fascinations were cut from the same cloth. A strange flower blooming on a mountain cliff. A mysterious animal spotted and caught on a ridge. A crystal-clear pond where the bottom was perfectly visible. That sort of thing.
Danya, who trained in magic, was an oddball even among oddballs—but she'd never disliked those things. They'd shared the same curiosity.
'But there's no one like that here.'
- Eww, dirt's gross.
- Don't animals give you parasites if you touch them?
- Flowers? Can you even use those as magic ingredients?
On the surface, Danya was prim and cold.
Every time she mustered the courage to start a conversation, replies like that came back, and eventually she'd closed herself off.
Still, with Ian, she'd felt like their words clicked a little, so she'd quietly let her hopes rise a bit...
'I want to go home.'
Suddenly she missed her homeland.
Just as Danya was sinking into gloom—
"Come over here, Danya."
Ian called to her.
"Why."
Slightly put off by her chilly tone, Ian tilted his head and went on.
"There's a mark here that looks like it belongs to that animal."
"A... a mark? You found it?"
"Why are you so surprised? Do I seem that untrustworthy?"
"I thought you had no interest in this kind... No, I mean, it's not that I'm interested in you! No! I-I don't find you untrustworthy either!"
"...?"
She liked Ian, then she didn't.
Danya was playing hard-to-get all by herself.
Pulling herself together, Danya hurriedly started analyzing.
"It's definitely a pretty big animal... the gouges on the tree are huge."
"Got any guesses?"
"A few. But nothing certain."
She shook her head.
It might not even be an animal—maybe a monster.
The deeper they went, the darker and gloomier the atmosphere became, just the sort of place demons would love compared to a normal forest.
Meanwhile, Ian had already found a new trace.
"Here's another one. Looks like claw marks."
Was he secretly good at tracking?
For a moment, Danya was curious enough about Ian's past—though she had to shake the thought off right away.
"Hm. No, these aren't claw marks. But that was a sharp guess."
"Thanks for the compliment? You sound like my teacher."
"Ahem! In my judgment, these are... tooth marks."
"Teeth?"
Danya nodded and folded her arms.
"That's the only hint. Try to deduce what animal it is, Student Ian."
She lifted her chin smugly.
Even so, the sight of her barely reaching his chest was so absurd that I couldn't help but let out a chuckle—though I quickly hid my expression.
"It's not going to be a bear or a lion, like you said at first."
"Mm."
"They wouldn't leave two big parallel marks like this."
I was actually more experienced in this sort of thing than most, thanks to my time in the military.
'To think I'd get to use the skills I picked up back then.'
It was a strange feeling.
Anyway.
An animal with two huge front teeth?
What fit that description?
'Ah.'
One animal came to mind.
... But it shouldn't be this big.
At that moment.
— Fwooosh! Bang!
With an explosive noise, a bright firework-like flash shone through the dense gaps in the trees.
Danya and I locked eyes.
"!"
"The emergency rescue spell!"
The small artifact the professor had handed out before the field exercise.
If you pulled the firework-shaped object, it would launch a signal flare revealing your location, while simultaneously activating a protective spell.
— Of course, using it meant receiving the lowest evaluation grade. "Decide for yourselves."
That advice had come with it.
The fact that the Mezai Class students—who were half-deranged over grades—had used theirs meant something seriously dangerous was on the loose.
— Fwooosh! Bang!
"!"
"!"
When the explosion rang out again, I grimaced and spoke.
"This seems dangerous."
"You sense mana?"
"... There's dense mana nearby. But it's not in that direction. It's more like... it's underground."
While I focused on mana detection—
Another rescue spell went off.
Danya's expression clouded.
"... It's coming this way. Ian, let's get away."
"Too late."
"What do you mean?!..."
I opened my eyes, having sensed the mana.
"It's already there."
The tip of my finger pointed.
— Moooh!
A giant rabbit stood there.
◆
A rabbit that looked easily at least three meters tall.
Danya, hidden and watching, murmured in a daze.
"... Is that really a rabbit?"
"Look at its head."
I pointed at the rabbit's head. A small blue mushroom had sprouted from it.
"I can feel mana coming from there."
"So that's the mushroom Professor Rowen mentioned..."
"Goes to show you shouldn't pick up and eat just anything."
— Moooh!
"Oh. It even talks back."
As I spoke casually, Danya yelled,
"You idiot! We need to get ready to run!"
Even if it was a rabbit, at that size, getting rammed would be dangerous. And it seemed pretty aggressive, probably because of that mushroom on its head—it was glaring right at us.
"Maybe it's already too late? If dodging was an option, the others would've all gotten away. Look at those thigh muscles."
"......"
He had a point about his observation.
Ian stepped forward and took a stance.
"What are you doing!"
"If we can't run anyway, isn't it better to at least take a swing?"
"It's dangerous."
"Look closely. Is there any blood or anything on its fur?"
"... You're right."
Danya, who'd been studying the rabbit carefully, let out a sigh.
"Then I'll attack first."
"What kind of logic is that?"
"You're dead last in our class."
I almost snapped on the spot.
But I caught a flicker of worry in Danya's eyes.
I nodded and watched as she stepped forward.
— Mooooh!
The two of them approached each other, eyes locked.
I could feel mana gathering around Danya's body.
'The Grass attribute?'
The aura of nature in her mana. Just like the Earth attribute, it was a rare one.
'I'm looking forward to this.'
It was my first time seeing someone else's magic. What spell would she use?
Ssssss—
The mana coalesced in her hands and took the shape of a bow.
'Oh.'
I was genuinely impressed; Danya's pose holding the intangible mana bow looked pretty good.
— Twang!
A green mana arrow shot from her hand and embedded itself squarely in the center of the rabbit's forehead.
"Did we get it?!"
Don't say that.
You're just raising flags.
— Mooooh!
See.
The rabbit's aggression only intensified.
"This rabbit must be immune to magic!"
So that's why the grade-obsessed Mezai kids had slammed their panic buttons. Danya staggered, probably because she'd poured all her strength into that mana arrow.
"... Leave me and run."
She mumbled a line straight out of a shonen manga.
I smirked.
Run? Who's running?
I'd already decided to make Danya my ally. I needed comrades to stand against some unknown, not-a-virgin heroine.
'She'll be useful in a lot of ways.'
Plus, I had the disciplinary committee to think about. Having someone on my side would make a world of difference.
"Stop raising flags and get back."
"But...! You!"
"What about me."
"You're Ian Blackangus. Dead last in our class... a guy who can't even use combat magic."
This cat, seriously.
Not a single word of encouragement.
"Thanks for the concern."
"It's not concern! You're a mage too. How do you plan to deal with something immune to magic?"
"There's always a way."
"Argh, seriously!"
"If you're that worried, just stay back and use the artifact if something goes wrong."
With that, I turned my focus to the enemy.
The rabbit closed in on me as well.
'A giant rabbit immune to magic.'
That's even better.
The corners of my mouth curled upward.
— Mooooh!
The rabbit squared off, staring at me.
One step, then another.
The distance shrank.
The moment the rabbit tensed its thigh muscles—
I quickly chanted two spells.
"<Extract>, <Transmute>"
As always, the incantations felt completely devoid of romance, but—
Shring!
In an instant, my arms and shoulders were coated in metal, and they looked decent.
"!!!!"
Danya's eyes went round.
What kind of magic is that...? Is that even magic?
The answer came immediately.
— Crraaash!
A dull impact rang out against the fluffy rabbit.
The Earth attribute's unique damage-calculation mechanism.
It was magic (physical).
◆
"... That was easy?"
I was a little taken aback.
The rabbit was groggy after a single punch.
My homebrewed Metal Man (tentative name) packed more punch than I'd expected.
'Loading mana into an element really is simple and destructive.'
I used Extract and Transmute to coat my arms in an element, then reinforced that element instead of my body.
In effect, it was a straightforward way to sidestep the high-level magic of "Body Reinforcement."
The result?
The rabbit's eyes rolled back, and it began to topple.
— Thooom!
... The problem was.
"Huh?"
As the massive rabbit collapsed, the ground where I stood gave way.
"Ian!"
Danya reached out, but it was already too late.
I plummeted into a space like a small sinkhole.
— Ssssshk!
A huge burrow?
Even as I fell, I felt rough dirt scraping against my whole body. There was clearly a hard floor at the bottom.
'I need to absorb the impact.'
I rapidly extracted the surrounding elements.
But just coating myself with them wasn't going to absorb all the shock. I transformed it into a thin honeycomb structure and began to cover my body.
After tumbling for a while—
— Thud!
I slammed into the floor with a heavy impact.
"Ugh... Hm. I'm okay?"
Given the distance I'd fallen, some blunt impact was inevitable. It felt like being kicked while wrapped in a blanket.
'Honeycomb structure performance confirmed.'
I dismissed the magic covering my body and got to my feet.
It was a fairly large cavern.
What stood out was that it wasn't made of rock, but of compacted earth.
More than anything, overwhelming mana saturated the air around me.
'So this is the source of the mana I felt in the forest.'
A mana this oppressive would indeed be terrifying. But to me, it felt more comfortable than anything else—like being inside the womb of a primordial mother.
As I looked around, I understood why.
"...!"
In a corner of the cave.
A small earth-formed goddess statue stood.
"Gaia."
The Earth Goddess, Gaia.
The reason I recognized her face was simple.
The deities corresponding to each element were treated as pretty important figures even in the game.
And only then did I realize the true nature of this place. The most generous gacha feature in "Fanta X Aca."
'A blessing event!'
I'd been given the opportunity to acquire an Authority.