Vol. 11 - Chapter 629 - Chapter 629: Giran's 1st trial, completion reward
Cecile raised a fist in exhilaration as she loudly announced their victory, a reaction which was rather unbecoming of a noble. The way she moved also made Allen sway wildly, as he was carrying her on his shoulders.
"Huff…huff… I did it!!"
Shea had been running at full speed for a while, so she was exhausted. She had likely run a total of many thousands of kilometers in less than an hour. At the same time, she ended the Skill [Full Beast Mode] as she approached Allen. Many support Skills could be canceled at the caster's wish, though that would not shorten the cooldowns.
"Shea worked hard, but it was all thanks to my help!"
Even though Shea was a princess, Rosalina gloated about herself without reserve. Since Shea was so exhausted, Sophie took out a bottle of water from her magic bag.
"Here, Shea. Please take it."
"Oh, thanks. Thank you too, Merus."
"I know! And why didn't you tell us about it, Allen?! It was like Shea just turned into a blur in an instant! It was really cool though!!"
Cecile was moving her arms wildly, showing just how excited she was. Everyone also turned to look at Merus, who had contributed a lot to Shea's victory.
'I'd prefer it if you don't bring this up…'
Merus tried to avoid all those eyes, muttering in a barely audible voice. At the same time, he stored the pompoms on his hand back into his Catalog. He kept angrily avoiding everyone's gaze.
"Seriously Allen, you should tell us if he can also use buffs."
"He used it for the first time just a bit ago in the Paradise of Primordial Beasts. We were lucky he found it amongst his weapons."
Allen had continued testing out the 100 weapons Merus had gained with the Angel B summon. He was testing them to see which ones would help in the Earth Labyrinth later.
[Properties of Angel B summon's weapons] -Special and Awakened Skills aren't always attack ones -The staff can cast healing magic -The two-handed staff can cast offensive magic -The fan and pompoms have buff Special and Awakened Skills -The buffs can't be stacked between weapons, and only the last one to be cast applies -Special and Awakened Skills don't have Skill Levels, so they can't get stronger -With Growth at Level 9, the healing magic and buffs have a range of 10 kilometers -The cast time of healing magic and buffs is nearly 0 seconds -Special Skills have no cooldown, and Awakened Skills have a 1 day cooldown
To help with Shea's trial, Merus had used the weapon with the buff that raised Agility the most.
[Weapon name: Bonbon (Growth Level 9)] 1) Skill Name: Funny Pompom -Agility +10000 -Skill cast time reduced by 20% 2) Awakened Skill Name: Crazy Dance -Agility +30000 -Skill cast time reduced by 50%
"Huh? What? Why can he use offensive magic too! That's just a Cheat!!"
Cecile was shocked when she heard Allen's explanation, and she once again used the word Cheat that she had learned from Allen. She seemed to be getting attached to the term. But she also feared her position as the attack mage of the party was weakening.
"I mean, before he could only use Angel's Ring and Judgement Thunder, so it's rather helpful."
Allen seemed to be on Merus' side. Before Merus only had the ability of inheriting Allen's Skills with Angel's Ring, which was useful, but largely limited him to a supportive role. He could still use his incredible stats to fight physically, but he had no Skills to aid with that. In a way, that seemed like a large downgrade from an angel revered by everyone.
Allen could tell why his twin sister Lupto didn't like that very much. She knew how important he was in the past when serving Elmea as the First Angel, so she had tried to amend that a bit. Allen turned to Merus, ready to say that he should be thankful to Lupto. But Merus turned to look up, his eyes filled with rage.
'Lupto, what's the meaning of this! And what were those strange moves?'
"What are you saying, you helped a lot."
'That's not what I mean. Bring me out next time Lupto shows up.'
"Why are you so angry?"
'Just do it.'
Merus would not listen to anything else. When Allen was Kenichi in his past life, there were events in games where even the guys could wear bunny suits. Those would give ridiculous buffs though, so he would wear them for as long as possible.
"You two really can't understand each other, huh."
Cecile was baffled at how little Allen understood Merus, but then felt something behind her.
'I believe it's about time you stop ignoring me, yes?'
(Ugh go away, we're still celebrating. Oh wait, we still haven't gotten the reward.)
Giran had interrupted their celebration, tired of being ignored all that time. That reminded Allen that they still had not obtained the reward.
"Ohh, my apologies. I appreciate your consideration, as well as the trial you so graciously offered us."
Allen quickly became far more polite as he knelt in front of Giran.
'Your insolence really knows no bounds… Though maybe it's that attitude that allowed you to complete the two trials. But don't forget that I'm in a difficult situation thanks to you now.'
(Well, I guess he is being considerate after all. Then again, there were 5 of us helping Shea to complete the trial with her Divine Technique at Skill Level 4.)
There was something odd about the difficulty of Giran's 2 trials. The first one seemed near impossible, but it was easily accomplished by completing the second trial, as the Divine Technique obtained from it gave Shea a lot of speed.
-At Skill Level 1 there were 2 attacks -At Skill Level 2 there were 3 attacks -At Skill Level 3 there were 4 attacks -At Skill Level 4 there were 5 attacks
The Beast God Giran had split into 5 clones, and Shea had to hit all of them. But considering he was a God, it was hard to think 5 was the limit, he could easily have split into 10 or 20, which would have made the trial impossible. For some reason Giran did not do that though. It seemed like the Giran had wanted Shea to complete the trial, and had adjusted the second trial to make it possible.
"Shea, Lord Giran will be giving you your reward now."
"I see, I appreciate that."
Shea seemed somewhat nervous still, but she slowly stepped forward.
'Alright then, Shea. As your reward, I'll grant you my Divine Artifact, the Divine Wind Shoes.'
"Shoes? Not knuckle guards?"
'Why? You would've preferred a weapon then?'
Giran stared at her, as if questioning her decision to complain even though she only completed the trial thanks to everyone else.
"...I have to stand ahead of everyone, I just want the tools to break through anything in my path."
'Alright then. My Sanctuary, grant power to the one who completed my trial.'
Giran raised one of his front legs and then touched the Sanctuary with it. Something like a magic circle lit up, and then the Sanctuary that had a diameter of around 1 kilometer was imbued with Giran's divine power.
There was a small ripple across it, and then the entire stone platform began to tremble.
"What?! Heyyy!!"
The stone platform that was 10 meters thick and had a diameter of around 1 kilometer trembled violently, and then began to shrink.
(Woah?! The stone platform is gathering under Shea's feet!!)
Allen also lost his footing. In the end, the platform shrank to the size of a pair of shoes, and everyone who was standing on the Sanctuary was flung down onto the hill.
"So this is my Divine Artifact."
The Divine Artifact was completely white and seemed to be shaped after the wind. Shea nervously reached to them, and they warped to fit her feet better.
'These Divine Wind Shoes will still fit even if you're under Full Beast Mode. They're as resilient as orichalcum, but they won't ever break, so feel free to wear them at all times.'
"I-I see, thanks. They're extremely light, I feel like I could run anywhere!"
Shea was usually rather stoic, but now she was hopping happily like Kurena, showing how ecstatic she was.
"That's so good, though Peromus isn't here so we can't tell what it can do."
"Hm? Not really. Merus, can you appraise it?"
'Alright. Catalog…Loupe.'
At Allen's command, Merus opened his Catalog and took out one of the Angel B weapons, [Loupe], and then turned to look at Shea's feet.
[Stats of the Divine Artifact Divine Wind Shoes] -Strength 10000 -Agility 30000 -Dodge Chance +50% -Skill cast time decreased by 50% -Combo chance up (Strong)
"Ohh, those are impressive stats."
"Let me see too. Ohh! That's incredible!!"
The information Merus saw through the Special Skill [Appraise] flowed into Allen's mind.
[Weapon name: Loupe (Growth Level 9)] 1) Skill Name: Appraise -Shows the stats of an item 2) Awakened Skill Name: Survey -Shows the stats of enemies' equipment -Range of 1 kilometer -The efficacy depends on the enemy's Intelligence, Luck, and element -Cooldown of 1 day
Shea's Divine Artifact gave her a lot of Agility. Everyone celebrated happily, though Cecile still had something to say.
"Hey, he can do anything now! That's just a Cheat!!"
"Maybe, just a little."
"This isn't funny!"
WHAM
"Ghah?!"
Cecile was not amused by Allen's playful reply, so she smacked Allen with all her might.