NOVEL NEXT Chapter 114
Chapter 114
Chapter 114 – Libra Used Pursuit
Translator: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (2019/10/18)
Editor 1: Hand of Vecna (2019/10/19)
Editor 2: Keii (2019/10/20)
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Notice 1: Apologies, I’ve been busy and don’t have a teaser ready for you.
Notice 2: I forgot to include a relevant illustration last chapter, so I retrospectively added it. I will also include a copy here.
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(Author note)
There seems to be a protagonist which arrives this late in time.
(Author note end)
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After finishing the battle with Benetnash, I arrived at Tyrfing even whilst feeling dispirited. However, for some reason, there was nobody present.
Or rather, there were some demihumans present, but the all-important Twelve Heavenly Stars and Leon were nowhere to be seen.
Wherever she looked, there were traces of destruction and battle remaining. However, the individuals themselves could not be found.
She was convinced that it was not a mistake to say that they were all here at one point in time. Nevertheless, they must have changed the battlefield halfway through the battle.
She wanted to believe that if it was them, they would not lose to Leon. But after all, the individual who served as the enemy was him.
If possible, I’d like to go assist them as quickly as I can.
As she was searching through the destroyed location for something which could serve as a clue to tell her where they were, she spotted something written on the broken-down castle wall.
“Currently, everyone is fighting at the demihuman’s village.”
It was a single concise message. Below the message, a simple map was drawn to convey to her their current location.
In all likelihood, this was done by Dina. Quite a job well done.
It doesn’t seem that far away, so I should be able to get there quickly.
I spread my wings wide, checked the direction that I was heading to and then crouched down a bit.
Subsequently, I leapt into the air with great speed and then used that momentum to fly up.
I created a giant crater when I jumped... I’m sorry to anyone who lives close by.
When I get a little serious with this body, the surroundings end up being destroyed. Please forgive me.
The surroundings quickly flowed past behind me and all sound disappeared.
I was not really becoming deaf, it was just that the speed of sound was unable to keep up with me.
After I flew a little, I found what looked like a forest below. I then quickly descended and landed back down on the ground.
In terms of the amount of time that had passed... well, it would not even have been five seconds.
The difference between the time that I experienced and the time that passed in real life was quite significant. Therefore, sometimes, I became unable to make out how much time had really passed.
Now that I think about it, when I first flew from Laevateinn to Mafahl Tower, it registered in my head that it had taken a few minutes. However, it most likely had only taken a few seconds in reality.
When I arrived at the location, for some reason, Dina was slumped on the ground. In front of her was a masked man who was standing tall.
..... He is.....
...... He’s... right. He’s Tauros. ... No, was it Taurus? Which was it again?
In contrast to before, I’m able to recall who he is just by looking at his face... even though I can’t actually see the face behind the mask. Though.... I don’t know if I should be feeling happy with this development or not.
I had heard from Parthenos that he was currently sealing the [ouroboros] in Helheim, so what is he doing here? And why is he cornering Dina?
In any event, this is looking pretty bad, so I suppose it’s better for me to stop it.
Oh, everyone’s looking at me. I guess they’ve noticed that I’ve arrived. Even Tauros is staring at me.
“.... Ruphas, huh?”
Not to mention, he’s not using any honorifics.
I see, I see, it seems he’s different. He’s not the same reverent type as everyone else.
But strangely, this feels fitting and I’m feeling nostalgic.
For now, if I were to divide them into groups, Scorpius and Aigokeros would fit into the fanatic group; Aries, Virgo, Parthenos and Libra would fit into the normal group; Dina and Karkinos would fit into the weirdo group; and I suppose Leon and this guy would be in the rebellious group.
It doesn’t change the fact that this is a gathering of strange individuals though. Ruphas really gathered many different types of individuals.
“Tauros, huh? It’s been a while.”
“Yeah.... It has. It’s really been a while. Also, my name’s Taurus.”
Oh, it seemed Taurus was the correct one. He has such a confusing name.
But I seemed to recall Parthenos calling him Tauros too. It seems that it was not just me; other people were not remembering his name properly either.[2]
But... how troubling... the conversation isn’t continuing.
After Taurus replied to my words, we weren’t able to find another topic and it’s been silent this whole time.
Yeah, how do I put this? It’s similar, but definitely a new pattern that we haven’t had until now.
Aries, Aigokeros and the others all showed some kind of reaction when we first reunited, disregarding whether that reaction was good or not.
Even Libra was not an exception to this, as at the very least, there was no trouble getting a small conversation going with her.
But Taurus showed no reaction whatsoever and the conversation ended after he only said, “It’s really been a while.”
In any event, the silver lining to all of this was that I was not able to sense any hostility towards me. I supposed I should just quickly step in and help Dina out.
“Ahh, anyways. Don’t bully her too much. She’s a newbie, but she’s actually quite an useful individual.”
“............”
Hmm? Are you asking me what happened to the ‘strategist from 200 years ago’ setting?
Well, who really cares at this point in time? After all, everyone already knows that’s a white lie by now.
Due to the mask, I was unable to read Taurus’s facial expression as the awkward silence hung in the air.
Hmm.... This guy... he’s quite a handful in a different way from Scorpius.
[Coercion] is actually supposed to be my skill though.
“..... If you’re willing to go that far, I won’t say that I can’t take a step back. Assuming you’re saying it out of your own will, that is.”
“..... What are you trying to say?”
“Who knows? Truthfully, I’m also not able to decide. It feels a bit strange, but the person that predicted all of this would come to pass was none other than you. Since that’s the case, this very situation included, it might actually be based on your true will.... If that’s the case, I have nothing to say.”
– !
This guy... did he see through everything after a single glance? The fact that I was someone else who was occupying Ruphas?
If it had been the words of someone else who was going against Ruphas’s will, he did not have any intention of listening.
I also had a small inclination that the very act of me entering into Ruphas’s body was something that the original Ruphas had planned and predicted. And above all else, there was that battle against Benetnash.
In other words, right now, he was trying to ascertain things.
Whether or not I was included as part of Ruphas’s will.
“..... Well, whatever.... It seems all of these situations were part of the plan. Then you should first sort out everything that’s here. I’ll always be in Helheim... I’ll wait for you to come.”
From the looks of it, it seemed that he would let Dina go based on my words.
As soon as Taurus left her side, Dina very quickly crawled all the way to me and swiftly hid behind my back.
It’s really rare that she’s showing such a strong aversion to someone else.
Anyways, while I’m at it, I guess I’ll check Taurus’s status, just in case.
[12 Heavenly Stars, Taurus]
Level 800
Species: Minotaur
Attribute: Earth
HP: 230 000
SP: 2000
STR (Strength/Attack power): 50 000
DEX (Dexterity): 3695
Vitality (vitality): 500
INT (intelligence): 100
AGI (Agility/Speed): 100
MND (Mindpower): 500
LUK (Luck): 10
Equipment
Head: King Minos’s Steel Mask (No effect)[3]
Right Arm: Heresy Killer’s Axe
> Doubles STR
> When receiving damage from the enemy, the defence will be calculated as 0
Left Arm: ——
Body: Helheim’s Coat
> Continuous HP regeneration when in a location with mana
Foot: Heavy Boots
> Enemy’s hit rate to self 100%
> Accuracy doubled when attacking
Others: ——
– isn’t he an idiot!?
I almost said that out loud, however, I desperately held back my words.
Taurus’s status was identified to be completely skewed and specialised for attack and HP. Putting it another way, he was the type to tank everything with his high HP and get one strong hit in.
As long as his HP was high enough, under this world’s system, he was able to take any kind of attack. In other words, whoever the enemy might be, it was possible for him to endure at least two attacks.
Or more like, to begin with, unless the opponent’s status was very broken, 99 999 damage was not even going to happen. Therefore, although his defence was paper-thin, he was able to take a lot more hits than one would think at first glance.
Well, it was fine. The issue was that his status had become even more skewed than what I could recall.
As there was no such thing as equipment for magical beasts, his attack power was 25 000.
However, because he was wearing some weird equipment, his status had become quite absurd.
That’s why I’ve been saying, magical beasts shouldn’t be wearing equipment. It’ll destroy the in-game balance.
Well, it’s that, you know. With such a dumb number, most enemies will receive a hit from him and be sent flying before they can shave his HP down.
But yeah... maybe it’s the sad feature of being a specialised type. It’s clear to see how he matches up with others.
For example, if the enemy was Benetnash, even if she was only at level 1000, he would be pulped into submission one-sidedly without even being able to touch her.
It was unfortunate. However, with such dimwitted and slow attacks, even if he had attempted hundreds of thousands of times, he would not even be able to scratch Benetnash.
Or rather, I would think that in all likelihood, in a one-on-one battle amongst the Twelve Heavenly Stars, he would end up ranking quite low.
To begin with, before he could even attack, he would be beaten to a pulp. Thus, someone like Libra would definitely win, and it was doubtful whether he would even be able to win against someone like Aries.
With such high HP, he would just end up becoming an easy target for Aries.
But all of that was the story only if he was acting alone.
If he were to coordinate with someone else, he would become someone that would be impossible to handle.
For example, if he were to attack whilst Aries or Aigokeros was sealing the enemy’s movement, that alone would become quite a significant feat. Furthermore, on the day his skill’s damage was boosted and went past the limit imposed by the system, it ended up displaying quite a ridiculous number as damage.
Even whilst he was a wild magical beast, he was already specialised in attack, and this became the result because after I captured him, I further strengthened nothing but his attack power because I thought it would be interesting that way.
As one could see, he possessed an astronomically high attack power such that if one only considered the heaviness of the blow, it even surpassed that of Leon’s.
Although it was bad for me to say it, his status was built in a way with nothing but coordination in mind in the first place.
Back during the time of the game, I would seal the enemy’s movement and have him attack the enemy.
Although his true strength laid not in attack power, but in a very cheat-like inherent special ability that he possessed..... Nevertheless, the explanation for that skill would be done sometime in the future.
After I sent off Taurus by watching his back which was disappearing into the distance, I turned to look at Aries and the rest.
And the first thing that I noticed was Aries whose appearance was in a very precarious situation.
His clothes were torn here and there, such that he was essentially half-naked and it would not be wrong to call the situation miserable.
Combined with the fact that there was still some amount of fabric on him and that he was male, it was not important to pay that much attention to the overall situation. However, someone like the young boy Sei was looking elsewhere entirely after having difficulty deciding where to look at.
Now that I think about it... I haven’t told him Aries is male.
In any event, leaving it like this is quite bad. There might be someone that thinks of lewd things even knowing Aries is male.
I snapped my fingers and used alchemy to repair Aries’s clothes.
Maybe this time, I should use some durable materials and create a piece of equipment that would be hard to rip.
.... Oh, that reminds me, the highest tiered cloth material is this guy’s wool.
“Anyways, Dina. How long are you planning to stick to my back?”
“B, but! That person was really, really scary, you know!? What is even up with him!? How do you open a hole in the space-time continuum with a punch!?”
Unusually, Dina was crying and complaining whilst genuinely upset.
It seems this time’s incident was a really bad situation.
Until this point, I had thought of her as a happy-go-lucky person that I could not see through. However, it seemed she actually had a natural enemy.
Although she always seemed like she was sneakily planning something bad, what happened this time should be quite a good medicine for her.
“Now then... first of all, I would like to know the situation. Can anybody explain to me what happened?”
“Understood. Then first, I will start from the time we first arrived at Tyrfing –“
When I asked for an explanation, it was Libra who quickly responded to the question.
According to her explanation, right after arriving at Tyrfing, the battle against Leon started. Furthermore, they had managed to corner him once.
However, after receiving the same old assistance from the Goddess, he powered up. After permitting a reversal in such a situation, they were pushed into a serious predicament.
“The Goddess again, huh? She’s such a one-trick pony.”
“Stories are usually lame like that. Like suddenly getting stronger or awakening latent ability to result in a super power-up after becoming angry, or it might be his bonds with his friends, or the character might say, ‘I’m going to protect everyone’, then without any explanation whatsoever becomes able to fight on equal footing or become even stronger the enemy they were previous losing against. In the end, doesn’t the protagonist win as a result of the convenience and corrections of God (author) in order to advance the story? For God, it’s the easiest and simplest way to intervene. The main character is nothing but a doll to God, you know?”
“Well... yeah... I guess it just can’t be helped? If they don’t do something like that, the bad guy will end up winning so....”
“Yeah, I guess so. I think the Goddess is also doing many different things so that a bad guy like Ruphas-sama doesn’t win.”
Dina, who had reverted back to her usual state after Taurus completely disappeared, replied to my sarcasm with an even greater sarcasm of her own.
However, she was still clinging to my back even now and it seemed that she had yet to fully recover from the shock she had received from Taurus.
“How outrageous to say that Ruphas-sama is the bad guy! Ruphas-sama is justice itself! The one and only law in this world!”
“Exactly, exactly!”
“The conversation is going off-track so you guys just be quiet for now!”
After telling the usual two blind followers, Scorpius and Aigokeros, to be quiet for a moment, the two of them showed a face as if they had somehow received some kind of mental shock and collapsed on the spot.
So dramatic.....
“Apologies, the conversation got side-tracked. Please continue.”
“In this case, should I be saying ‘scorpion-zama’?”[4]
“You don’t have to say it.”
I rebuked Libra, who was expressionlessly attempting to deal the final blow to Scorpius, and urged her to continue with the explanation.
Seriously. Why is it so easy to get side-tracked or get absolutely nowhere?
“Scorpion-zama.”
I already said you don’t need to say that!
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(Author note)
Stop! If Scorpius inflicts poison damage, the last remaining 1 HP that Leon has will be extinguished!
Please, don’t die Leon (President’s [of a company] voice)
If you manage to get through this, you can win against Ruphas. (President’s voice)
[Taurus-san’s anxiety]
People always get my name wrong. Even Ruphas often gets wrong. Parthenos also gets it wrong. Even the author often gets it wrong.
Taurus: “It’s Taurus... my name is Taurus. It’s not Tauros or Tauris.... Don’t get it wrong again.”
Ruphas: “Ohh, sorry Tauras.”
Correct: Taurus
Incorrect: Tauros
Both are fine, right? (Outburst)
(Author note end)
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(TLN: Sorry, I had some difficulty with translating this chapter.)
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[1] “https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pursuit_(move)”.
[2] Ok.... So I remember the translation was Taurus in the past, and honestly, I didn’t even notice that Parthenos (author) misspelt it when she first said his name. So clearly, it’s not as noticeable as Taurus/Tauros in Japanese. It’s similar to Jupiter/Jupitar. Additionally, Japanese people have trouble pronouncing the L sound.
For those who are not very used to Japanese language, what Ruphas is saying stems from how its an “English word” written with Japanese katakana letters (which are sometimes annoying even to Japanese people) and unless a person is carefully looking out for it, it’s hard to see small mistakes/differences. For a bit more detail on why it’s confusing, have a look at these videos. It’s “kanji” so it’s not exactly the same but the idea is the same.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IARguDQIGVs”.
“https://youtu.be/88Nh0wvQGYk”.
In addition, the Japanese katakana used here are simply transliterations of the same name from different languages: タウルス (Latin: Taurus) / タウロス (Greek: Ταύρος / Tauros).
“https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A6%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9”.
[3]ミノス王の鉄仮面
In Greek mythology, Minos was the first King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus’s creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur.
“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos”.
[4] The term zama (ざまあ) is short for zamamiro (ざまあみろ), which is a slang used to ridicule the failure or misfortune of others.
“https://word-dictionary.jp/posts/2209”.
“http://zokugo-dict.com/11sa/zamamiro.htm”.