Chapter 102
Fwoooosh-!
Alongside the status window's notification, the Balloon Sword shone with dazzling light.
As if a rainbow had dyed something opaque, vivid colors spread through the corridor.
“Ugh...”
“W-What is this...?”
Even the companions around me had to shield their eyes with their hands.
Even through that radiance, the status window's message floated there in perfect clarity.
I stared at it calmly.
Ding-!
[You achieved the condition through incredible persistence!]
-As a reward, this weapon's grade will increase.
-As a reward, a special function will be added to this weapon.
Soon, the light faded, and the world returned to normal.
Through my blurred vision, I caught a glimpse of my lowered hand.
Still held in it was the Balloon Sword, shining brightly.
Its brightness was more vivid than before, and it was beautiful, as if it had swallowed a star.
“...”
I stared blankly, mesmerized by the sword.
As I briefly lost myself, blue screens began appearing one after another.
Ding-!
[Balloon Sword+]
-Category: Growth-Type Weapon
-Grade: B
-Maximum Growth Grade: None
-Status: Colorful, Soft, Sparkly, Adorable
-Description: This is a special balloon sword. It emits a faint purifying light from its blade.
The basic information continued on.
Beneath it were descriptions of the core skills.
[Skill Name: Sparkle!]
-Heals the target stroked with this weapon.
-The range and effect of this ability increase as the dedicated weapon's grade rises.
[Skill Name: Life Force Charge!]
-The light originating from this weapon charges life force.
-Life force is absorbed by the designated target, restoring basic energy (vitality, mana, aura, and so on).
-The range and effect of this ability increase as the dedicated weapon's grade rises.
I had often used [Sparkle!] before.
Beneath it, an entry called [Life Force Charge!] had been added.
At B grade, the Balloon Sword had apparently decided to live up to its letter value by learning an entirely new skill.
‘...Wait, it restores life force?’
I couldn't help but doubt my eyes all over again.
It was because of the rather unfamiliar wording, “life force charge.”
I mulled it over in a quiet inner monologue.
‘Why all of a sudden...?’
It meant infusing the target with life force itself, going beyond simple healing.
This was something that even pouring in dozens of high-grade healing potions could not accomplish.
The very concept of restoring life force was exceedingly rare, after all.
In other words, this skill held dozens of times the value of those half-baked healing skills.
‘It was incredibly rare even in the original.’
Not only could it comprehensively restore depleted stats, it could also relieve the mental fatigue accumulated by the target.
It was a function occasionally found in spirit items, or in items of SS grade or higher.
And yet, such a function had been granted to a mere B-grade item...
‘To a mere Balloon Sword? And as a passive skill?’
Was it really trying to become an Absolute Balloon Sword?
Just like [Sparkle!], this skill could even grow according to the weapon's grade.
‘Moreover.’
There was one more message that caught my eye.
It was a single sentence attached to the end of every description.
Ding-!
[This weapon is drawing closer to meeting the conditions of a ‘Holy Sword’!]
The Holy Sword.
A weapon considered top-tier among Sacred Relics.
It was a notification that the Balloon Sword in my hand was drawing closer to it.
I couldn't help but grow solemn.
The Holy Sword was closer to a concept than an item.
It had no physical form, nor was there a predetermined way to obtain it.
It was simply that, on rare occasions, weapons that had fulfilled [unknown conditions] were bestowed with the title ‘Holy Sword.’
‘But this Balloon Sword is gradually meeting the conditions for becoming a Holy Sword...?’
The title of Holy Sword.
The trigger and conditions that caused that concept to take root in a weapon.
Nothing about them had been revealed, and no player had ever identified a clear cause-and-effect relationship.
‘Even I never managed to figure it out.’
A mystery.
That mystery had suddenly come to me.
Even as my thoughts grew complicated, I had no choice but to accept the blessing.
‘Well... a good thing is a good thing.’
I didn't know what the conditions were, but all I had to do was move forward at my own pace.
I put aside the thought of getting needlessly entangled in it.
Receiving a reward that was too good almost made my mind seize up instead.
Pushing that complicated joy aside, I pulled my attention back from the status window.
“Ugh, uh...”
“Grrrgh...?”
Fortunately, I hadn't been distracted for very long.
The club members were only just coming out from under the effects of the flashbang.
As I casually shook the Balloon Sword, Caitlyn, who had even taken off her mask, furrowed her brow.
“No... fuck, what the hell was that just now? What kind of light was that?”
“I'm sorry. I accidentally let it out.”
“You did that? You scared the hell out of me! I thought something had exploded...!”
“It's nothing, so please rest easy. It wasn't light that harmed living creatures, anyway.”
Thankfully, the others let it slide without making a fuss.
That was because something far more attention-grabbing had unfolded right in front of them.
“No... putting that aside, what the hell is this?”
“A creature this huge came swimming through the air toward us, and...”
A few steps ahead of us.
The corpse of a sea serpent, hacked to pieces in all sorts of ways, was blocking the corridor.
Its length easily exceeded 100 meters; faced with its overwhelming presence, the students were speechless for a moment.
“Something like this...”
Only after it had been slammed into the floor could they grasp the size of the thing that had been flying through the air.
Ranne, who had been dazed for a long while, muttered unconsciously.
“...How did we even manage to take something like this down?”
““...””
Though it was a question bordering on a soliloquy, everyone felt the same.
It simply wasn't a size the students could possibly have dealt with.
No matter how much of their best firepower each of them had poured out, there was something unnatural about a monster that huge being felled in a single blow.
‘Because it's a failed prototype.’
A failed product of something (Project Leviathan-Failed).
It was discarded like a byproduct while some project was underway.
‘It isn't the finished product.’
Compared to the finished product, it didn't even possess the strength of a single scale.
Even that failed prototype had taken all of our combined strength to stop.
The successful product was at least twice as massive and would have possessed powers dozens of times greater, yet...
“This place is unsettling. Even if it is the lair of all manner of vile things, I have never seen anything this ominous.”
“Do you really think it's o-okay to keep going like this? The farther in we go, the worse this seasick feeling gets...”
“What, do you have another way? The way back was blocked anyway. If they come at us from that direction, we'd end up facing them all the same.”
“Hmm... Just in case, I've been sending signals to the professors continuously, but something seems wrong with the coordinates—the signals aren't getting through.”
Carmilla.
Alice.
Caitlyn.
Ranne.
The girls took turns speaking up with increasingly serious expressions.
I watched them quietly, then finally walked past them.
“Let's move forward for now.”
“Hey... You still want to keep going after seeing that? I know you're damn strong, but who knows how many more of those there are?”
“But Miss Caitlyn just said it, didn't she? Even if we turn back, it's a dead end, and that thing doesn't look like it plans to stop attacking.”
“That's true, but...”
“In the end, we have no choice but to keep going forward.”
“...I'm running on fumes. I used almost all my mana pouring it into that thing earlier.”
Caitlyn scratched her head as if she were troubled.
She didn't sound particularly frightened, but perhaps she hated becoming deadweight even in a situation like this.
She really was a hopeless addict to being useful.
‘It'll be quite a significant loss, though...’
In the current situation, Caitlyn's retirement would be a considerable blow.
She might be somewhat less useful in a one-on-one fight, but on a field like this, she was an extremely valuable asset.
In addition to her wide-area attacks, she was one of the academy's top three speedsters.
If she dropped out, our forces would be reduced by 30 percent.
“Hmm.”
Then perhaps I should test it here.
I held up the Balloon Sword in my hand.
Ding-!
[Skill Name: Life Force Charge!]
-The light originating from this weapon charges life force.
“Miss Caitlyn? Please stand still.”
“What?”
I designated the target.
Immediately, a fierce radiance like before burst from the sword.
The opaque, rainbow-colored light wrapped around the entire corridor.
Fwoooosh-!
“Ugh, fuck...!”
“How do you feel? Is this enough?”
“What do you mean, how do I feel? Why the hell did you just flashbang me out of nowhere... Huh?”
When the light faded, Caitlyn was about to get angry as usual.
However, the girl froze at the strange sensation she soon felt.
Crackle, crackle-!
“What is going on...?”
She had seemed to be on the verge of running out of power.
But electricity was leaking from Caitlyn's fingertips.
Her energy had not merely replenished her empty reserves; it was overflowing, spilling from its very source.
‘Success.’
Caitlyn stood there, dumbfounded.
She clenched and unclenched her fists several times, then finally looked over at me and asked,
“...How did you do this?”
“Who knows.”
The skill's performance was far superior to what I had expected.
Thanks to it, I could smile broadly.
To the girl asking how I had done it, I pressed my index finger to my lips.
“It's a secret.”
As always, it was a trade secret.