Chapter 252: Bigger and Better 2
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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Sometimes, when ying games, there''s a peculiar joy to be found in the strangest of ces.
Like rolling around in a tank with an absurd amount of health, firing silver arrows, or feeding magic damage to an opponent with ridiculous defense, or sniping a closebat king from afar with a 12x zoomser sniper rifle.
It''s about neutralizing the enemy''s strengths and beating them down unterally.
Tormenting them to the point it feels less like strategy and more like mockery.
Who could possibly dislike that?
"That''s too big to even be called a sword. It''s massive, thick, heavy, and rough. It''s literally a chunk of mana."
"Huh? What did you say, Hanna?"
"The monster was big, but Rnd''s holy sword seems even bigger. ...Well we won anyway."
-Teacher Rnd''s holy sword, damn!!!
-Seriously, throwing that bullsh*t at us again, LOL.
-Teacher Rnd''s thing is indeed pretty big.
-No wonder the club gang changed their name to the greatsword gang.
-F*ck, how is it that Han Se-ah is the hero instead of Rnd?
[Manly Greatsword Donated 50,000 Won!]
Wow, he actually did it.
Amidst the noisy banter of Han Se-ah and her viewers, I circted my mana, cheered on by their nonsense.
Mana, inside a sturdy shell, erupted outwards likeva from a volcano, through the sword, further and further
It might sound a bit funny, but it was an addictively overwhelming sensation.
The feeling of wielding aser greatsword that could smash everything in the world, a sensation too profound for a slightly overweight mobile game addict and a military-returnee college student to even dare dream of, let alone experience.
The omnipotence housed in the body of a senior adventurer.
Stepping forward with infinite trust in Rnd''s body, the giant bug stops, twitching.
"Do you sense the mana?"
Screech!!
As a boss on the 42nd floor, it sensed the mana and stopped.
But how could it possibly dodge theser sword, over 10 meters in length, moving slower than a turtle?
The giant light of the greatsword illuminated the clearing brilliantly, and the massive bug, encased in a metal shell, is sliced in half without any resistance and dies.
And Durandal''s duration still had 4 minutes and 45 seconds left.
''...Even against a boss-level enemy, Durandal is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.''
It takes 10 seconds to circte mana throughout the body and concentrate it into Durandal, and then 5 seconds to lift and sh down.
That alone is enough to effortlessly bring down arge carapace bug.
The burning aura of the greatsword, ignoring defense, cleaved the skull and innards in half.
As if something that had been hit with such a brutish wave of mana could remain alive.
Even if it were an undead, it wouldn''t leave behind even a shard of bone, utterly shattered.
And so, 20 seconds after summoning Durandal, all that remained were the shell and jaw that had been dropped before, a mana stone, and a new drop: elongated antennae.
-Are there still f*ckers clinging to bat names?
-A man''s choice is a greatsword! A man''s choice is a greatsword!
-There''s a streamer that insisted on the greatsword only to fall backwards LOL
-Can we mention other streamers? Got loads of stories
-Well she opened Kim Seok-hyun''s stream before and used that to clear the 30th floor LOL
And the noisy chat goes on.
"Is that the holy sword mentioned by the temple?"
"It looks like it would take several high-ranking mages to replicate that with magic."
"Does it have a different nature from a knight''s aura?"
"I wonder if he''d let me study it if I asked..."
"A warhammer and a shielding together to form a sword... can''t we at least get a sample through Charlotte?"
Ignoring the mages who murmured among themselves and cast ufortable nces, I walked towards my party.
Katie, with eyes sparkling, hurried over to me.
Her fervent gaze was, of course, on Durandal in my hand, now with only 4 minutes and 15 seconds of duration left.
She jumped several meters in a single bound, possibly using mana, but she dared not touch it, instead staring open-mouthed at Durandal''s form.
Though all you could really see was a greatsword surrounded by a swirling aura, Katie seemed satisfied, her face full of smiles.
"So this is the holy sword, Rnd? I was hesitant to ask to see it, but I''m d I can see it now."
"You like it that much?"
"As someone who wields a sword, being curious about a holy sword is only natural!"
Adventure, golems, and heroes with holy swords.
It was a set of words that Katie, with her personality, was bound to like.
Excitedly bouncing behind her wasn''t the rest of our party, but Old Bobo.
The artisan race found it fascinating that a warhammer and shield couldbine into a greatsword, and the change in mana''s wavelength and properties due to the transformation was intriguing.
For Katie, it was like the holy swords from the stories she enjoyed as a child, but for Old Bobo, it must have felt like seeing a transforming robote to life.
Then, fifty mages, sneaking nces, also began to creep closer like a horde of zombies.
Thanks to them, I got a profound sense of what it feels like to be a zoo monkey for roughly 3 minutes until Durandal reverted back to a warhammer and shield.
So this is what it felt like to be an exhibit, like Han Se-ah.
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Raei Trantions
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From the 41st floor to the 42nd, from the 42nd to the 43rd,
"These are squishies, aren''t they, Old Bobo?"
"Granny Pipi, it''s Granny Pipi!"
Battling countless wriggling creatures, the stone dwarves finally encountered a city of their kin.
Not half a year or a year''s distance away, but merely six days'' distance, they discovered two cities.
One city had be ruins with not a single living stone dwarf in sight, while the other was bewildered by the sudden disappearance of the squishies and the visit of their own kin.
Old Bobo''s city was also puzzled about why there were no squishies inside the city, with only a vague recollection of what happened before they disappeared.
Granny Pipi''s city was equally clueless as to why all the different races that came to trade within the city had vanished.
"What the hell? We lost to the Demon King, and now we''re inside a ce called the tower?!"
"The hero squishies brought a Vacuum Stone, and there are ppers all over outside?"
"Opened a passage with the Vacuum Stone and found one of our cities in ruins? And it''s only a few days'' distance?"
For Granny Pipi, it must have been a series of unbelievable stories.
Both the party and the viewers smirk bitterly at Granny Pipi''s reaction, no different from Old Bobo''s.
Granny Pipi, proving to be another mountain range''s stone dwarf, was made of a lighter-colored stonepared to Old Bobo''s.
The sight of the dark stone dwarf pping its stone limbs in front of a grey stone dwarf looked like something out of a children''s animation.
What finally dispelled Granny Pipi''s doubts was, as expected, the mana stone dropped from hunting the bugs.
"This is the gem that came out from hunting those wrigglers?"
"Yeah! We used the Vacuum Stone with those squishies over there to get here."
"Well, it''s unbelievable our city is this close Damn, the squishies lost to the Demon King?"
Granny Pipi, apparently quite knowledgeable about magic-infused ores and gems, started scratching her chin looking at the blue mana stone held in hand.
The sight of basalt convincing granite was almostughably endearing.
With a voice deep and gravelly like that of an old man, but movements belonging to round stone faces, it felt like watching a live fairy tale.
While I was frozen in ce, the 50 mages who were quietly standing back moved without a moment''s hesitation.
Whether they had been tipped off by Charlotte, who couldn''t participate in today''s expedition due to poor condition, they crowded around Granny Pipi, who had just been convinced, to discuss something.
"Hmm? Squishies, what''s going on?"
"We would like to trade goods with this city. We n to pay with our metals and these mana stones."
"Hmm, this is... quite tasty!"
As the mages pulled out copper, silver, gold coins, and mana stones of various sizes, Granny Pipi''s delicate stone fingers swiftly snatched them up.
From a goblin''s mana stone to a zombie crocodile''s, the mana stones'' colors ranged from nearly transparent to deeper and bluer shades.
Though from different cities, proving they''re still stone dwarves, the sound of crunching and grinding echoed as one mana stone and one gold coin were chewed up and vanished into thin air.
-It''s insane that an actual gold coin goes towards their food expenses LOL
-Carrying just money means no worries about food, the stone dwarves are the ultimate in inventory efficiency
-LOL, if things get tough, just hunt mobs to get mana stones. They''ll never starve
-How are they considered cost-effective when they burn through at least a silver per meal
-Do cheap coins fill them up just as well, like eating the value of bread in coins equals the satisfaction of eating actual bread?
Han Se-ah, leading her viewers whoughed as if watching a magic show, enters Granny Pipi''s city.
Granny Pipi didn''t seem to have any intention of stopping them, as if it was amon urence.
Actually, she was just too busy chewing on mana stones and coins.