NOVEL NEXT Volume 10 9
I had seen Fallen Angel Raphael and her abilities in action.
She was an undeniably powerful monster, but she had a few weak points.
Her magic, which was currently her main means of attack, was far beyond the norm in terms of might, but its fuel efficiency was poor. That meant she had to use it sparingly and wisely, or risk not having enough magic power when it was most important.
To somewhat compensate for her poor fuel efficiency, she could use her [Dark Light Sanctuary] to absorb the magic power and the lifeforce of anyone caught within it, but even that had drawbacks.
First and foremost, it doesn’t discriminate between foes and allies. It affected everyone within it. Because of that, it was rather hard to support her after she has activated this skill.
Moreover, Raphael already had troubles in close-range combat, but this skill was making her isolate herself in a confined space with enemies. Kuina lasted two minutes inside, which would have been plenty of time to take down Raphael had Kuina been an enemy.
I want to make sure as much as possible that she we could defend herself after an enemy has closed the distance.
◇
After returning to my estate, I made a Mythological Fox guide Raphael to the house she would be living in.
Except for my [Monsters of the Covenant] and Tiro who was almost like Kuina’s pet, all of my humanoid monsters were given their own houses.
"Uggh... I used up too many furs..."
Kuina dejectedly said so.
In order for her to evolve, Kuina had to fill 10,000 furs in her tail with magic power. Kuina had been diligently doing so, but apparently, Raphael’s skill took away a few of her stock.
"Cheer up, Kuina. The [Recovery Room]’s going to be our new home, so your magic power recovery rate’s going to improve; you’ll have saved up as much in no time, you’ll see."
It was a bit regretful, but as they say, there’s no use crying over spilt milk.
"You’re right, Oto-san! ...anyway, Rorono-chan, do you have any ideas on what you’re going to make for Raph-chan’s weapon?"
Kuina had always been quite the optimist, so moving on was quite easier for her.
But Raphael’s equipment was indeed an important topic. If possible, I would like it to be something that would make up for her shortcomings.
"Mhm. I’m thinking of making her a close-range weapon."
"You are, Rorono-chan? Why though?"
Kuina and Rorono began a strategy meeting.
I decided I should join in too.
"That’s quite unexpected. Considering her stats, wouldn’t it be tough for her to fight in close-range? Wouldn’t something that’d help her outrange her enemies—so that she could take them down before they could even attack—be more helpful?"
"I thought that too, but she already has her powerful and long-range magic attacks, despite its poor fuel efficiency. That should serve as her main form of attack. All that’s left is to make up for her lacking close-range combat capabilities for when enemies have closed the distance. ...besides, even if I make her a long-range weapon, it’ll be useless with that aim of hers."
"Rorono-chan, you’re a genius!"
That was quite a bold way of thinking.
"I’ll even add in these as an extra: ultra-small golem guards that were supposed to be for master."
When Rorono said that, she took out four beautiful blade-only knives. These blades were blue and seemed to be made of some transparent crystal.
"Golems? Sorry, but all I can see are some knives without hilts, or anything else for that matter."
"Mhm, these knife-looking things are actually golems. Let me show you."
When she poured some magic power into the blades, they shined and then revolved around her.
My guess was that it had the enchantment of [Rending]. Through this enchantment, an object could cut even things that normally wouldn’t be possible to cut via physical means.
"These little ones will come flying toward anyone the user has recognized to be an enemy. They would launch automatically, so it wouldn’t matter how slow-witted Raph is."
"Woah, they’re so cool. Kuina wants some too! I can’t believe these are just extras!"
Needless to say, Kuina was charmed.
They certainly seemed fantastic. So much so that I wanted some for myself.
"Like I mentioned before, I developed these prototypes for master and not Raph. And that’s why I’m giving it to her just as an extra."
"Ohh. Does that mean I’m to get these as well?"
"Mhm. For a number of reasons though, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. But before that, I want us to visit the [Mine] room. You haven’t forgotten about our promise, have you, master?"
"Oh. Sorry, but I kind of did."
The quality of the minerals that could be dug from one’s [Mine] was dependent on the Demon Lord’s strength.
Due to the [War] against the [Pig] Demon Lord, I had gained a tremendous amount of experience points on top of emotions and DP. But it wasn’t just me that got stronger, my [Monsters of the Covenant] did too. And since Demon Lords grew stronger as their [Monsters of the Covenant] did, I grew even more powerful.
Most likely, almost a certainty, I was the only Demon Lord to have all three [Monsters of the Covenant] be S rank monsters. Considering that, my powers as a Demon Lord should be beyond the norm by now.
With a bit more effort, it shouldn’t be surprising to find a metal that exceeded even orichalcum in my [Mine] room. To do that little effort was what I promised with Rorono.
"I’m a bit sad to know that master has forgotten..."
Rorono turned away her face, but I could still notice her puffed cheeks.
"Hey, I’m really sorry. How about we go tomorrow? We’ll be busy with the move in the morning, but we can go afterwards, yeah?"
"Mhm, I’d be happy to. You mustn’t forget this time, alright? ...also, if we do find a metal that exceeds orichalcum, I’ll be making master’s self-protection tool using that."
I then brushed Rorono’s head.
What an awful father I am. Being busy is no excuse to forget a promise I made with my girls.
"That’s great, but Rorono-chan, Oto-san, let’s not forget about our discussion for Raph-chan’s weapon! If those knives are just extras, what’s her own weapon going to be?"
At that, Rorono pulled from her pocket a fist-sized object that looked like a pineapple.
"Is that a grenade?"
"It’s not going to be a gun?"
"Mhm, she can’t miss with this"
Rorono really has no confidence on Raphael’s aim, does she?
"Actually, this too was supposed to be a protective tool for master. However, I deemed it a failure and shelved it."
Rorono then pulled out the pin and threw the grenade.
After about two seconds, it exploded.
The air shook from the powerful blast.
"This grenade has a directional explosion. That means that its fragments will scatter on only one direction. If the fragments scattered in a forward direction and at point-blank range, it’s not possible to evade all of the fragments."
"But if it’s just about frontal attacks, shotguns would do just as well, Rorono-chan! And if you make it a rapid-firing shotgun, all the better"
"But with Raph’s slender arms, she wouldn’t be able to endure the recoil of a shotgun and thus making her aim worse than it already is. Moreover, her Physical Strength stat isn’t as high as yours, Kuina. The grenade’s blast will deal more damage than a single shot from a shotgun. Of course, there will be a feature to allow her to store magic power beforehand to increase the grenade’s damage, but that’s beside the point for now."
Rorono’s points made perfects sense, but there was one thing I was wondering about.
"You said something about making the fragments scattering forward... will Raphael be able to pull that off each time?"
Raphael tripped herself down multiple times in the short while we have known her. I was worried she might blow herself up.
"Mhm, I’ve already thought of that. This grenade will respond to the owner’s magic power by adjusting its position. In theory, no matter how the grenade is thrown, it will correct itself before exploding."
"This will be the case even for Raphael?"
"...I’m absolutely certain it will be fine. I believe in her S+ Luck."
As though she lacked confidence in what she was saying, Rorono turned her head away as she answered.
If it did work as intended, Raphael would have a means to react to enemies who have been able to close the distance. I wanted to trust Rorono’s design and Raphael’s S+ Luck, but my uneasiness on it all wasn’t completely gone, so it might be best to do some tests with some that had reduced power.
"I still think we should do some tests later, but moving on, the next concern will be whether we can prepare a large number of this grenade, won’t it?"
"We’re all good in that regard as well. The structure of the grenade is quite simple and thus is easy to reproduce. I could make a batch of them about once a month. If anything, I see making too many more of an issue. But since they’re easy to use, we could just distribute the surplus to others."
"I see. I’ll leave it up to you then. Just don’t forget to reserve a few of them for me."
"Understood."
Like that, Raphael’s equipment was determined.
I for one looked forward to the prototypes being completed.
◇
Then came the day to move.
The girls have already carried their belongings to the room downstairs where the Transfer arrays were in.
We have lived in this estate for a long time, so our belongings have increased since moving in.
Kuina’s belongings were particularly plenty. Some of her stuffed toys and her clothes were even peeking out of their boxes.
In contrast, Rorono’s belongings were very few. But then again, it could just be that a lot of her important things were in her workshop.
"Time to move ♪"
"I look forward to getting a bigger room"
"I’m so thankful you listened to our every demand for our new home, Rorono-chan. Our daily life going to be even lovelier."
"Gaugau!"
My three girls and their pet were in a good mood.
As for my own belongings, they were already packed. I’ve entrusted the packing to the Mythological Foxes serving as maids though.
Our new home was going to be located in the [Recovery] room, but this estate would still be known as the lord of Avalon’s home. Guests as well as paperworks would still be received here.
Now, going back and forth between our new home in the [Recovery] room and this estate in the city would be quite tiring without Transfer, so I decided to make the Abyss Howls always be posted in either location.
Of course, I could Transfer anywhere in my dungeon by myself through my powers as a Demon Lord, but Kuina and the others couldn’t.
"Alright, let’s go to our new home, shall we?"
"Yay ♪"
"Mhm"
"Let’s go"
"Gau!"
And so, the Abyss Howls on standby began transporting us.
Right after the Transfer was finished, all of us went outside.
We immediately noticed the transplanted golden apple tree towering magnificently. Its refreshing golden Qi wrapped around my body and made me feel comfortable.
Not far from the tree was our new home. Even from afar, the building looked splendid and majestic.
And it really was splendid and majestic. Rorono and Aura both did the best they could to grant the house protection against physical and magical attacks. If for some reason an adventurer has made it all the way here, we should still hold a defensive battle.
By the way, the [Recovery] room was the very last dungeon room before my crystal room. In other words, this house was our final line of defense. So, making this house be able to defend against threats wasn’t just out of fancy.
Additionally, because Rorono had accepted and incorporated requests from everyone, the comfort of living in the new house should be far beyond from what we already had before.
It was all so exciting.
But that’s enough fun for now. After moving a few boxes inside, I should head to the [Mine] with Rorono. This might be long overdue, but that’s all the more reason I should fulfill my role as a father.
...if we do find a metal that exceeded even orichalcum, Avalon should grow even stronger.