Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9 Read online

  There were a lot of other rings, too, but no translation or underwater movement rings.

  “Aren’t there any spell books?”

  Arisa sounded hopeful, but I had to shake my head.

  “There are maps of both land and sea, and reports on some magic tools, but no spell books.”

  The maps covered a wider expanse than the one I had, but many of the major borders and place names were different.

  The only ones that looked the same were the Valley of Dragons and elf territories like Bolenan Forest.

  “What do you think these different-colored dotted lines on the sea map mean?”

  “It says Nunulie, Nenelier, and so on.”

  If what Captain Ghost said was true, then these were probably the routes of the floating castles.

  “Isn’t Nenelier the place those ancient manuscripts you got at the dark auction came from?”

  Arisa’s words jogged my memory. There hadn’t been anyone in the old capital who could read Ancient Language, so I had been planning to ask in the elf village, but I completely forgot.

  Since I’d picked up the “Ancient Language” skill in the sunken ship, I could finally read those manuscripts later.

  Suddenly, an adorable growl rumbled from Arisa’s tummy.

  I guess it’s just about lunchtime.

  “Ahhh, that was some really good takoyaki!”

  Lulu blushed at Arisa’s compliment. “It’s only because the octopus was so fresh.”

  For lunch, we’d had takoyaki made with the octopus Pochi defeated.

  The other kids were patting their stomachs in satisfaction and dozing off on the mat we’d spread out on the deck. Mia hadn’t finished her octopus, but Tama and Pochi were happy to eat it for her.

  “The fish was good, too.”

  Lulu smiled happily, letting out a little sigh of contentment.

  The takoyaki alone wouldn’t have been enough food, so we boiled and grilled some of the scorpion fish, greenling, and other fish we’d caught in the sunken ship.

  “Yes, they had just the right amount of salt.”

  “The soy-boiled fish was delicious as well, I report.”

  Liza and Nana both looked pleased.

  “Let’s make sashimi and sushi sometime soon, too.”

  “Yes!” Lulu exclaimed. “I can’t wait.”

  The other kids chimed in eagerly as well.

  Arisa was the only one who knew what sushi was, but they must have figured it was some kind of delicious food.

  Well, I’m pretty full now, so maybe I’ll try to work this off a little.

  “What’s up, master?”

  “I thought I’d test out the thing we found in the ship’s hold.”

  As I responded, I stood over the water with “Skyrunning” and pulled out the Small Magic Cannon.

  Despite being “Small,” it was a full size bigger than the disposable berserker cannons. It was in good shape thanks to Fixify, so I needed to give it only a quick inspection.

  Once I’d distanced myself from the ship by a few dozen feet, I started setting up targets for the cannon.

  I activated eight Flexible Shields about four hundred feet away from me, lined up on top of one another. Layered like this, they could withstand even the black dragon Hei Long’s breath attack, so they should work just fine as a target.

  “I’m firing now,” I called back toward the ship, and then I loaded the Small Magic Cannon with magic power.

  A red conducting line extended from the muzzle of the cannon, and magic circles began to form around it.

  “Kind of looks like a cutscene from a fantasy game.”

  Suddenly, an unstable light started crackling along the line and the circles.

  Uh-oh.

  Just as I pulled the trigger, “Sense Danger” activated, and I produced Flexible Shields in front of myself as well.

  In the next moment, a flash of light dyed the ocean waves white.

  The sound of the explosion tore through the air. It was so loud, it nearly knocked me off my feet.

  After a few seconds, the flash faded, and my “Light Intensity Adjustment” skill restored my vision.

  More than half of my Flexible Shields still remained, but the excess energy of the Small Magic Cannon had carved a path through the waves along a distance of more than half a mile.

  Water went flying in every direction as it evaporated, and more seawater poured in to fill the gap the cannon had made.

  “Hot!”

  I used Wind Magic to fend off the wave of heat that came toward me.

  I returned the now-melted ruins of the Small Magic Cannon to Storage and headed back toward the ship, leaving the raging sea and the cloud of hot vapor behind me.

  “Looks like I used a bit too much magic.”

  Clearly, this weapon had similar properties to the magically overcharged Holy Arrows I’d used to defeat that demon lord; the cannonballs were made from monster cores, so they could be charged up with magic to create enormous destructive power.

  If done normally, it shouldn’t cause the weapon to collapse like the Holy Armor, but I guess I didn’t fully understand how that worked.

  Luckily, I still had thirty-one Small Magic Cannons left to use for research, so I decided to take one apart and examine it next time I had a free moment.

  If I really couldn’t figure it out, maybe I could even ask the research-loving elves of the Bulainan and Beliunan clans for help.

  “No more craziness, okay?”

  “Mm. Repent.”

  Arisa and Mia scolded me when I got back to the ship.

  “Sorry, sorry.”

  I’d gotten so distracted by the mesmerizing sight of the cannon activating that I had forgotten to adjust how much magic I was putting into it, so I really had no excuse.

  When I test-fired another cannon with the proper amount of magic later, the red line and magic circles still appeared, but there was no strange crackling this time, and it fired a steady shot.

  Using the rapid-fire function caused the cannon to overheat, so it seemed to require a cooldown time after a few shots.

  Firing it with a cannonball overloaded with magic power produced about half the strength of Hei Long’s breath attack, while firing it the normal way was about a tenth. Regardless, it was so powerful that it wouldn’t be easy to use.

  My intermediate Light Magic spell Laser was a lot easier to focus and control, so even with less range, it was probably still more user-friendly than the Small Magic Cannons.

  Concerning the experiment I’d thought of in the sunken ship regarding whether I could use Pure Water to turn salt water into fresh water, it turned out that I could produce completely salt-free drinking water and mineral-rich salt particles. Not only that, but I could do a whole barrelful of it in one go.

  The results were better than I expected, but it was still faster to use the Well Bag or put magic into a water stone if we needed fresh water, so I probably wouldn’t get a chance to use it very often.

  According to my spell books, even a veteran Practical Magic user could produce only slightly less salty water with that technique.

  “Master, unidentified object discovered above the seas ahead, I report.”

  “What is it? A UMA?”

  My AR revealed that the flashing light Nana was pointing at was actually the back of a sea serpent monster, not an unidentified mysterious animal.

  Maybe it was investigating the commotion I’d caused with the Small Magic Cannon?

  “Looks like a sea serpent.”

  “Whoa, it’s huge! What is it, level fifty?”

  “No, the one in front of us is level thirty-one.”

  As Arisa and I chatted, the sea serpent raised its head above the waves and shot a ball of water at us.

  Its range was a lot longer than I expected: It flew more than three hundred feet.

  “Master, allow me to take care of this, I exclaim!”

  A magic circle glowed on Nana’s forehead, creating two transparen
t shields in front of her. It was a similar technique to the intermediate Practical Magic spell Flexible Shield, which I often used.

  Nana’s shields successfully intercepted the blob of liquid, but as soon as it hit, both shield and liquid went up in a puff of white smoke.

  Stealthily, I created a few Flexible Shields of my own beneath the ship itself.

  “Looks like those blobs aren’t just made of water. They’re globules of acid.”

  “Yikes, no thank you.”

  I had to agree with Arisa. I didn’t want to see any of my friends get a nasty chemical burn.

  “Fire.”

  Mia took aim and fired with the Fairy Bow she’d brought from home, but her arrow was blocked by a wall of water that appeared around the sea serpent.

  “Mrrr.” Mia scowled.

  “Master, I am running low on shields. Requesting backup.”

  “All right. I’ll take over.”

  I switched into Nana’s defensive position and used a Light Magic Laser on the sea serpent, which was still firing at us from far away.

  The Laser pierced right through the wall of water and obliterated the sea serpent with ease. I guess intermediate magic might’ve been overkill.

  The sea serpent’s blood began to dye the water red.

  Immediately, most of the other sea serpents on the map began making their way over to us. Like sharks, they could probably smell blood from a long distance away.

  Of course, the school of them traveling along the southern tip of the area didn’t react.

  “Scarecrow, bring the ship back a thousand feet. Stand by at maximum altitude. Engage evasive maneuvers as needed.”

  I gave some instructions to the ship’s golem.

  Sadly, it couldn’t respond out loud, so the only confirmation was text that appeared in my log. Next time I had a chance, I would have to add a magic-propelled steam whistle or something.

  “It looks like a bunch of sea serpents are swarming because of the blood. I’ll distract them, so can you girls attack them with Magic Bows from above in order to level up?”

  “Nooo?”

  “Teachers said powelling is bad, sir.”

  Hmm? By “teachers,” they must mean the elf instructors, but what was “powelling”?

  “You weren’t there at the time, master? Hiya and the other elf teachers told us not to use power leveling. They said it doesn’t make you stronger because you won’t learn how to use your skills properly.”

  Arisa stepped in to explain.

  That was strange. The beastfolk girls had been power leveling with my help from the beginning, and they seemed stronger than soldiers and such around their same level, but…

  Well, all right, then. I think it probably varies based on the individual, but if this advice is coming from the long-lived elves, it’s probably in our best interest to listen.

  Besides, there’d be plenty of enemies for leveling up once we reach Labyrinth City.

  “In that case, Arisa, Nana, and Mia, please defend the ship. Lulu, stay by the helm and keep an eye on the steering. Tama, please take the lookout post, and Liza and Pochi, watch the front and rear of the ship!”

  The group all shouted confident affirmatives, so I left the ship feeling reassured.

  Using “Skyrunning,” I made my way over to the area above the dead sea serpent and added more monster blood that couldn’t be used for potions to the mix.

  Reaching an insane speed of nearly ninety miles per hour, the swarm of sea serpents arrived, promptly tearing into the dead one floating on the waves.

  I guess sea serpents don’t have a problem with cannibalism.

  The monsters were completely focused on their meal, paying no attention to me floating above them.

  Taking a closer look, I realized that their heads looked more like that of an eel than a snake. If it weren’t for the sharp fangs peeking out of their mouths, they might just look like giant eels.

  I was willing to bet they’d be delicious, so I took extra precautions to not damage the meat with my attack.

  Picking serpents at random, I caught them with Magic Hand, lopped off their heads with a “Spellblade”-infused fairy sword, and put the corpses away in Storage.

  I was able to get through about half their number that way, but when the sea serpents ran out of meat, they all started firing acid attacks at me.

  Using “Skyrunning” and “Flashrunning” to avoid the attacks, I flipped acrobatically into the middle of the swarm.

  At first, I continued cutting off their heads with my fairy sword, but that started to become a pain in the heat of battle, so I wound up putting “Spellblade” directly on my hands and fighting them off that way.

  It wasn’t the most efficient use of magic power, but considering how much I had to spare, it wasn’t a huge deal.

  As I cut the sea serpents down, I quickly put the bodies in Storage one after another to ensure they weren’t picked off by the others.

  “…Ooh. It’s time for the big game now, huh?”

  A level-56 deep sea serpent emerged from the depths, gaping its enormous maw.

  It seemed intent on swallowing me, so I hopped right into its mouth, then spun my entire body—sword in hand—and cut off its head from the inside.

  A few more deep sea serpents attacked us, so I hunted each of them down. Finally, the last few sea serpents fled the scene, and the battle was won.

  I didn’t want to leave the sea in such a state, so I stored away the bloodiest parts of the water in Storage until it had thinned out to a reasonable level before returning to the ship.

  “You’re as overpowered as ever.”

  I shrugged at Arisa, then handed Lulu a big slice of sea serpent that I’d removed the blood from during battle.

  I’d had my spirit light on full blast, so the dangerous miasma in the meat should have been thinned out to a safe level.

  “It doesn’t seem to be poisonous. Want to try cooking a sample?”

  “Of course! Shall I broil it in soy sauce?”

  Lulu already had a mithril kitchen knife in hand.

  “That sounds good. Since we want to see how it tastes first, could you grill one piece plain, please?”

  With that, I retreated to the captain’s quarters on the poop deck to change clothes.

  I’d used Practical Magic to clean off the grime and seawater from the battle, but changing into fresh clothes just makes one feel cleaner.

  “Smells good.”

  “Aye-aaaye!”

  “Sniffing it makes me feel all floaty, sir.”

  When I returned to the deck, Lulu was cooking on the oven magic tool, and Tama and Pochi were hovering around drooling. The other kids looked eager to try it, too.

  “Master, could you taste it first, please?”

  “Thank you, Lulu.”

  I started with the plain grilled piece.

  First, a bite with some salt… Yep, it was delicious. Its large size notwithstanding, it tasted similar to a conger eel. Lulu had removed the small bones carefully, so it was a breeze to eat.

  Next, I added a bit of lemon and took another bite.

  Mm. This would go perfectly with some dry sake.

  Finally, I tried a piece that had been broiled in soy sauce with a thick sauce on the side. The sweet dipping sauce beautifully complemented the light, flaky flesh. If there were white rice to go with it, I’d probably eat so much, I wouldn’t be able to move.

  “It’s delicious, Lulu.”

  “Thank you very much!”

  Lulu’s beaming smile could have made a field of flowers bloom.

  “The rest of you should try this, too.”

  At that, the girls all scrambled to get a taste of the broiled sea serpent.

  Even Mia, who didn’t generally like meat, seemed to enjoy the plain grilled fish with lemon.

  Guess we’ll have sea serpent for dinner tonight.

  A good majority of the sea serpent’s body was edible, so even if we grilled, broiled, or fried it every
night, it would probably take half a month just to get through a single one. Its head might taste good broiled, too, so I’d have to try that sometime.

  “Tweeelve ships?”

  “Thirteen, sir.”

  “Reeeally?”

  I heard Tama and Pochi conversing on the lookout post. They were probably counting the number of sunken ships I’d recently collected.

  We were heading north along the archipelagos, picking up sunken ships as we went.

  We’d had our fill of sunken-ship exploring with the first one, so each time we found another, I just put it into Storage with no questions asked.

  In this area, we were finding one every couple of miles, but there seemed to be even more of them up ahead.

  “Another wooden one, huh?” Arisa murmured.

  “Approximately twenty percent have been metal, I inform.”

  Aside from the adamantite battleship we first found, we’d come upon only two metal ships, both mithril-alloy magic destroyers from the Flue Empire.

  The rest were all wooden, mostly Shiga Kingdom carracks and jib-sailed caravels, with the occasional galley ship of unknown origin.

  All of them were huge ships, ranging from three hundred to five hundred tons of displacement, and most were equipped with Magic Guns of various sizes, Foundation spear launchers, and so on, with about half of them having a Magic Furnace as well.

  Most of the Magic Furnaces could probably be used with a bit of repairs, but they wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as my Holytree Stone magic power sources despite being bigger, so they would probably just stay in Storage.

  “All right, I think that should do it.”

  Since I had the time, I was fiddling with one of the Small Magic Guns that had been Fixed in Storage to make it usable again.

  The Foundation spear launchers looked sort of like harpoon guns, but none of them had been Fixed, so I would have to do some maintenance over the next few days before we could test one out.

  “I wish to test fire it, I request.”

  “Sure. Aim for that rock over there.”

  I stabilized the ship and let Nana try out the Magic Gun.

  A bigger version of this was frequently used in Seiryuu City’s anti-dragon towers. It was like the weapon equivalent of a Fire or Thunder Rod.

  Normally, it would be supplied with magic power from a City Core or Magic Furnace, but this ship’s Holytree Stone engine didn’t produce much extra magic, so I was supplying the magic myself. I hadn’t overloaded it this time, so it should be fine.