CH 161.1

Chapter 161.1: Ruined City Capture 1

Well then, the end of the Sakurai-kun battle was tragic in many ways but we moved on and took every single loot that might help us in the next destination.

「No matter how many times I look at it, it seems like a splendid arrow. This workmanship is literally rivaling Kotori-san.」

First, the biggest harvest from this battle was the bow, Sakurai-kun’s weapon. It was made from a huge, pearl black horn, and was a rather boorish looking bow.

『Black Horn Bow』：A longbow made from the horn of a fine breed earth dragon. Its color turned black, blackening due to the effects of the curse.

For some reason, my 『Pharmacy Intuition』 could analyze it and gaze the feedback into my head. It could be turned into a longbow due to the mastery of the skill, or else, it simply turned this way since the material was way too big.

One thing for sure, its quality definitely cut above the primitive bow used by govu. The only problem was the fact that it was hard to use.

To be specific, the bow string was way too tough and solid. This must be THAT, the kind of weapon that you couldn’t equip unless your ＳＴＲ reached a certain level.

「How about you, Rem? Can you use this bow?」

「GUGAGA, GOGAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Rem I flexed her metal muscle and then tried to pull that tough black horn bow. Ooh, awesome, she can use it. Well, it might be thanks to plentiful gorias materials that I added when I upgraded her that she had the required. I tried to ask Rem III to pull the bowstring, but she couldn’t.

Thus, it was decided that the black horn bow would become Rem I’s main weapon.

Naturally, Mei-chan could pull the bowstring with ease, but she wasn’t especially used to handling the bow. There was also the fact that her out-of-standard melons were hindering the process, thus we decided that it was pretty much impossible for her to handle the bow.

After that, we tried to check Sakurai-kun’s sub-weapon such as the short bow. This bow seemed like the properly made, enhanced version of govu’s bow, though its bowstring was rather tough. It didn’t need that much power to pull it to the point that even someone as weak as me could use it. Anyhow, I entrusted this short bow to Rem III.

「As I had thought, they’d prepared all kinds of bullets and arrows.」

Sakurai-kun was equipped with various sets of arrows and bullets which could be paired with his bow.

『Poison Arrow』：Arrow that has been enchanted with 『Poison』.

『Deadly Poison Arrow』：An arrow whose arrowhead is coated with extremely deadly poison 『Viola Poison』.

『Paralysis Arrow』：Arrow that has been enchanted with 『Paralyze』.

『Black Arrow』：Blackened Arrow.

『Flame Bullet』：A bullet stuffed with combustible oil and an ignition device made from fire magic stone.

『Smoke Bullet』：A bullet infused with 『Smoke』.

『Poisonous Smoke Bullet』：Bullet with 『Poison』smoke sealed in it.

『Sleeping Bullet』：A bullet infused with 『Siesta』’s smoke.

It seems Hinagiku’s 『Shaman』 was geared to learn abnormal conditions spells such as sleep, paralyze, or poison. And she could manufacture various kinds of arrows that could inflict abnormal status with 『Enchant』.

「Uhm, it’s a shame but, it’s pretty much different from what I can do.」

Nevertheless, being able to make poison arrows with 『Poison』 alone was good enough for me. As for the other kinds of bullets or arrows such as sleeping pills or paralysis poison, I pretty much could make it by hand. Or rather, I had already created my own paralysis arrow by using 『Spirog’s Poison』.

After that, the bullet side, 『Smoke Bullet』 was… in conclusion, the bullet wasn’t a kind of magic itself, it was just manufactured from readily available materials. It seemed like the content was wrapped in a small bag made from a monster’s hide. It could have been made with 『Simple Alchemy Formation』. If that was the case, I’d made something similar before.

「This is truly an ability that is tucking my creative instinct.」

Though the end result was really simple, it took quite a lot of time and effort to actually create one of these bullets manually. For example, manufacturing lumber like the one they sold at the home center needed a lot of work from cutting to treatment with tools and machines.

Humans used tools to develop their civilization. Our modern civilization was built on top of countless tools and the way to handle them.

But, the existence of 『Simple Alchemy Formation』 had negated the need for those tools themselves, to put it simply, it was like an Omni tool’s magic.

What’s manufacturing lumber? You could forget about that straight lumber, you could literally change the shape of lumber as easily as playing with clay with this alchemy formation.

Whether it was wood, stone, or metal, the limit to their forms was the creativity of the user of alchemy formation themself.

「Heck, so this is what you call production-type cheat huh.」

As a test, I tried to make an arrow with this 『Simple Alchemy Formation』. And completed it in less than a minute.

The stone arrowhead was sharp, the wooden shaft of the arrow was straight, smooth and beautifully polished, the feather was trimmed neatly. The notable mention in this case was the formation’s ability to unite the stone, wood, and feather into a single, polished and neat form. A real, handmade arrow seemed to attach, or insert the arrowhead into the wooden shaft but, the arrows made with this formation looked like they’re perfectly fused together, I couldn’t even find seams or split in the shaft to insert the arrowhead.

Even our modern technology couldn’t recreate this kind of arrow. Such terrifying magic. It felt a bit like a certain alchemist in the manga that I read before. Well, it’s not like I could transmute a huge object accompanied with a showy effect though.

「But still, this 『Simple Alchemy Formation』 alone is enough to make a living for my entire life if it’s brought back to Japan.」

Unfortunately, it was nothing more than a simple ability to make crude weapons or tools in this dungeon survival. No, wait a minute, I should be able to create the thing that I’m lacking until now with this magic.

Anyhow, since the number of recipes in our menu had increased as of late, I think I was craving for a beautiful plate of perfect meal.

===

After looting everything that we could loot in that building, we left the building. As expected, we’re not suicidal enough to make this place our base of operation. Thus, we went straight towards the next fairy plaza. There might be a boss room waiting for us right before that though. Anyhow, today, we’re back to faithfully following the magic compass as we walked down the street of the ruin.

「Kotaro-kun, they’re coming.」

「Yeah, I also felt their presence somehow.」

Five minutes after we walked down the street, the one who appeared before us was none other than high zombie-kuns who were sprinting energetically toward us. They’re as lively as a child running around in the park.

「KYOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

A familiar, deafening roar resounded from around the corner of the street.

Normally, I would’ve guessed that they’re about to appear by this roar. But now, I could sense the arrival of these high zombies right at the same time as Mei-chan who had superior senses than me as a fighter.

「Yeah, it was quite mysterious power I guess.」

That was what I felt as I grasped tightly on the 『Fool’s Cane』 with Sakurai-kun’s skull attached on its claw-shaped base. For the time being, I felt quite relieved upon knowing that 『Presence Sense』 was working normally. It was an extremely handy passive skill that was always active. I mean, a powerful active skill is just a piece of trash if I can’t even use it, that’s why this constantly active passive skill was much better for me. I mean, using familiar to scout has an unexpectedly high degree of difficulties, that’s why this presence sense was a great harvest.

「Uhm, shall we start trial shooting?」

「Yup. Please back me up if things go awry, Mei-chan.」

Mei-chan was walking to the side of the street as she nodded to me. Following that, Rem I who carried pearl black 『Black Horn Bow』 and Rem III who carried a normal bow came forward.

And then, I who exchanged Sakurai-kun’s skull fitted in the base of 『Fool’s Cane』 with 『Shaman’s Skull』 which I got from Arachne, stood beside the 1st and the 3rd.