Two days after meeting Sayuri, Prim, Mana, Lydia, Ludia, and I came to the Treasure Tree of the Ideal Mountain Range with Emperor Reinhardt, Princess Eliss, and Maruca.
Mina, Flam, Raus, and Rebecca are still unable to hunt due to the effects of acute mana fluctuation syndrome. Rika has to finish her duties as lord and provincial governor to go to Valentia, Yuri is being taught healing magic by Sayuri, and Ed, Marina, and Fiana are busy with the production of Marianne’s Armor Coat.
I should start preparing for the trip to Valentia soon.
It’s a sea voyage, so it’s a pain to have to stock up on things, but it’s convenient since I can buy them all at once and put them into storage.
Speaking of storage, since Valentia is Lydia and Ludia’s hometown, the idea of building our own ship occasionally crosses my mind.
Oh, the public execution ended without a hitch yesterday.
Princess Marianne wailed that she didn’t want to die at the very end, Saches fainted multiple times unable to endure the fear of death, and Barbados shifted the blame to Princess Marianne and Saches. Ambassador Retisencia begged for his life while crying.
It was a beheading by guillotine, and it seems the severed heads will be put on display in the plaza in front of Amagi Castle for a while after being preserved.
The emissaries from Retisencia protested vehemently, but because of the attempted kidnapping of Carol, the eldest daughter of Count Donato Bernstein, they and their escorts have been apprehended.
An emissary will be sent to the Imperial Capital, but it is said that he will not meet the Imperial King, but rather give Amister’s letter at the entrance of the Imperial Capital and return immediately.
It is certain that the emissaries will be killed as a countermeasure or retaliation, so I think that much is acceptable. I don’t think they would talk sense anyway.
“Wow… amazing!”
“Indeed. And since it’s the summit of the Ideal Mountain Range, it looks even bigger than the Treasure Tree depending on how you look at it.”
On Sirius’s back, the two queens are impressed by the Treasure Tree. Certainly, considering it’s the summit of the Ideal Mountain Range, it doesn’t look less magnificent and valiant than the Treasure Tree on flat ground.
“Sorry to interrupt your moment of awe, but we have an escort waiting.”
“That’s… a Sky Serpent.”
We just hunted one the other day, so there don’t seem to be any Gryphons around. However, about three Sky Serpents are flying towards us from the branches of the Treasure Tree, so we’ll take them down before landing.
“Let’s do that. Our movements are too restricted in the sky.”
“Agreed.”
His Majesty makes a decision while equipping himself using Ee-quipping.
Well then, without hesitation.
“Jade, go!”
“Quo!”
Jade, with a short cry, created numerous spears with ice-attribute magic and fired them at the Sky Serpents. Some of them were dodged, but one was immediately killed by a spear through its head, and the other two were also impaled through their torsos, significantly hindering their movements.
“Fluorite!”
“Quaaaargh!!”
Then, Fluorite’s fire-attribute magic breath hit, and the Sky Serpent fell, emitting a pleasant aroma.
“That’s amazing. To defeat a G-rank Sky Serpent so easily.”
“Rank isn’t everything when it comes to strength, but they are certainly performing at their rank’s level.”
“They’re only a few months old, so I think they have a lot more growing to do, don’t you?”
It’s easy to forget, but both Jade and Fluorite are only a few months old. They are said to leave their nests after a year and mate for life, which means they are not considered adults until they are a year old, so it’s estimated that they have about half a year until they reach adulthood.
“It’s hard to believe they aren’t adults yet with this much strength.”
“Thinking that they are the familiars of these two, it makes sense.”
His Majesty and Maruca say so, but whatever they say will be met with objections from everyone, so I’ll ignore it this time.
By the way, Lydia is riding behind me, and Ludia is behind Prim. The King and Queen are riding with Mana on Sirius.
“Yamato, make sure to secure the Sky Serpents.”
“I know. They’re a souvenir for Sayuri, right?”
“Yes. I even received a request to hunt edible monsters when going to the Ideal Mountain Range.”
Sayuri, who is also an O-rank Crafter, is first-class as a tailor and seamstress, but her most renowned skill is as a chef. She has spread Feel and its exotic cuisines throughout Amister, and she recreates various Earth dishes, so there is no one who doesn’t know her as a chef.
Sayuri often cooks at Amagi Castle. I wonder how the castle chefs feel about it, but they say it’s a great learning experience to cook with an O-rank Crafter like Sayuri, so they welcome it.
Therefore, Sky Serpents, which are rarely eaten even in the Royal Capital, make for an excellent souvenir.
“As for other edible monsters, perhaps Heavy Shell Grizzlies.”
“That’s right. While other monsters aren’t inedible, they aren’t something one would want to eat willingly.”
The higher the rank of a monster, the better the texture of its meat, but inedible monsters remain inedible even at high ranks. Insect-type monsters are out of the question, and I’ve heard that Storm Ligers and Thunder Leopards are also extremely unpalatable.
“It’s a bit far, but what about Feather Drakes?”
“They are delicious, certainly, but since Yamato-kun is going to send Winger Drakes, they would be inferior in comparison.”
Right. Of course, besides Winger Drakes, I also plan to send Abyss Taurus meat. O-rank Crafter’s cooking is bound to be incredibly delicious.
“Then that leaves us with Evil Drakes and Grandic Boars.”
“No, you’re saying it casually, but both of those are anomalies, aren’t they?”
Maruca and Emperor Reinhardt retort, but if they’re there, I’d be happy to hunt them myself. After all, I’ve heard both are delicious. In fact, the Evil Drake I ate in Feel was delicious.
“Collection complete. The location is a bit different from last time.”
“That’s unavoidable, isn’t it? Besides, if it’s the same place, monsters might not appear.”
That’s true.
“Hmm, looking at it this way, there’s nothing here except the Treasure Tree.”
“Yes. My impression was that only the Treasure Tree was standing tall on the summit.”
The summit of the Ideal Mountain Range has nothing but the Treasure Tree. Because of this, it looks like cherry blossoms blooming on top of the mountain from afar, but when you get closer, you’re surprisingly struck by how wide it is. That’s how big the Treasure Tree is, and as a result, there’s nowhere to hide on the mountain side, so you can spot monsters if they attack immediately. The Treasure Tree has completely become a monster nest, so we need to be on high alert. And just as I’m saying that, a Heavy Shell Grizzly jumps down.
“So this is a Heavy Shell Grizzly. It’s my first time seeing one in person.”
“Indeed. Rei, Eliss and I will focus on support, is that alright?”
“Please do. Yamato-kun and the others, I’m sorry to ask, but could you provide support?”
“Understood.”
They want to try it themselves first. Emperor Reinhardt is holding the one-handed straight sword made of Lapis Laz I gave him. Princess Eliss has a Lapis Laz rapier forged by His Majesty the King, and Maruca also has a pair of hand axes forged by His Majesty the King.
Princess Eliss’s rapier can extend its blade to twice its length. I wondered how she did it, but it seems she enchanted it with Craft Magic, Deforming and Connecting, to physically extend it. When extended, the blade becomes thinner overall, but it can be reinforced with Mana Ring, so it apparently won’t break easily. With Lapis Laz, it’s even less likely to break.
Maruca’s hand axes have a rounded design on one side, but despite being hand axes, they are quite large. Furthermore, by joining the pommels, they can be used like a pinwheel, so they are also enchanted with wind-attribute magic for that purpose.
“Then, let’s slow down its movements a bit.”
Using Bind String and Arresting, they bind the Heavy Shell Grizzly, slowing its movements.
“Hah!”
The first to attack was Princess Eliss, extending her rapier. Since she has the longest range, the advantage is that she can attack from afar. She also seems to be good at fire-attribute magic like Prim, so she’s already mastering Fire Arms.
“Oof! There!”
Emperor Reinhardt dodges the Heavy Shell Grizzly’s downward swing from the right and slashes its torso with Thunder Arms. He must be skilled in thunder-attribute magic.
“Hiyah!”
Maruca, with her hand axe swung high, brings it down towards the arm of the Heavy Shell Grizzly that His Majesty attacked, enchanting it with Wind Arms.
“Kattaaa!”
It didn’t sever the arm in one blow, but it was destroyed to the point of being unusable, so that should be enough.
“Haya!”
Princess Eliss thrusts her rapier into the bloody arm again. The moment it hit, the arm blew off as if it exploded. Wow, amazing.
“Taa!”
The Heavy Shell Grizzly recoils from the unexpected attack, but Emperor Reinhardt doesn’t miss the opening, thrusts his sword into its chest, quickly withdraws it, and then slashes its neck. Although the head is still attached, the Heavy Shell Grizzly slowly falls and never moves again.
“This is truly amazing.”
“Indeed. It’s on a completely different level than Magic Silver.”
“Truly. And its hardness is also superior to Magic Silver, so the fact that I don’t have to worry about it breaking is a great relief.”
With some monsters, they can break weapons with sheer brute force. Of course, even Lapis Laz can break, but it’s still more durable than Magic Silver or Adamantine Steel, and with Mana Ring reinforcement, minor damage can be repaired, so it won’t break easily.
“That’s impressive too, but the fact that there’s no mana fatigue is the most amazing thing. Since the opponent was formidable, I put more mana into it than ever before, but I felt absolutely no mana disturbance. The other day, it was a monster I was used to hunting, so I realized I was unconsciously controlling my mana.”
Ah, so he truly understood it by facing a superior opponent. Even with a monster he was used to hunting, if he felt no mana disturbance, I think it’s fine, but it’s a habit that’s hard to break.
“That’s a sensation that only my older brother would understand. For us, we evolved while using them, so we don’t understand that sensation.”
“That’s right.”
“My sister and I actually evolved during combat, so we didn’t have time to think about something like that.”
As alloys become more available, I expect more Hunters and Orders to feel this way. I think it would be good to use Magic Silver or Adamantine Steel weapons at least once, but if they break during a life-or-death battle, it could be life-threatening, so it’s a difficult decision.
“Perhaps. But eventually, we’ll all be able to use them normally, even unconsciously. To do that, facing stronger monsters is the best way. Even more so if you have reliable escorts.”
So that’s why they wanted to come to the Ideal Mountain Range with us. At first, I thought it was strange for the King to be in a place like this, but conversely, precisely because he is the King, it would be better for him to correct that habit early on. In a pinch, the difference in whether or not he can control his mana can literally mean life or death. If they had said so from the beginning, I would have gladly cooperated, but perhaps they found it difficult to say because they were assuming they could rely on us.
“If that’s the case, leave the support to us and hunt to your heart’s content.”
“We will. It’s been a while since I’ve had such enjoyable hunting.”
After that, we continued hunting for about three hours. We hunted quite a few Sky Serpents and Heavy Shell Grizzlies, and one Gryphon also appeared, so we didn’t hold back and took care of it. Although we didn’t see them last time, we also hunted three Tentacle Horn Kongs, a P-rank Monster, so we got a lot today as well.
Furthermore, Emperor Reinhardt reached level 50, Princess Eliss reached level 37, and Maruca reached level 46 and evolved into High Aldily. Prim and I haven’t changed, but Lydia and Ludia also leveled up by one each, so it was a sufficiently satisfying outcome.
Now we just need to return to the Royal Capital, have them buy the hunted monsters, and buy souvenirs for everyone before heading home.
