Chapter 341
The day after enjoying the grand festival we had thrown under the pretext of the event, I logged in to find a message from the Management. When I opened it, I discovered that it was a notice about the next event. The potted-plant event hadn't even ended yet, so there was apparently a reason the next announcement had arrived already. I could guess why when I read the event's title.
"'The Wonderful Aspect of Autumn: Activity,' huh? After the autumn of appetite comes the autumn of sports, I suppose."
The current event, 'The Wonderful Aspect of Autumn: Food,' involved growing edible plants and represented the autumn of appetite. Apparently, as soon as it ended, an event for the autumn of sports would begin. Jigoro, in particular, would probably participate with great enthusiasm.
At this rate, there might even be more events afterward. If we have appetite and sports, then what comes next...? Reading? Art was another strong possibility. In fact, it was also possible that the series would end with those two, so I shouldn't get my hopes up too much.
As for the event itself, it seemed that we would participate in sports at an event-only stadium. A new tier was established every ten levels, and participants would fight opponents in their own tier. Even having a higher level didn't mean you could win by a landslide.
However, many players had built their characters to specialize in one thing or another. In simple competitions such as weightlifting and footraces, where differences in stats directly affected the results, such players would have an overwhelming advantage. Perhaps the Goddesses had decided that wouldn't be interesting, because every competition seemed to have various twists.
For example, the running event wasn't an ordinary footrace but an obstacle course. Higher Agility would be advantageous, but some obstacles involved lifting heavy objects or using magic, making it difficult to force your way through with Agility alone. Single-stat builds would still have an advantage, but ingenuity could probably close the gap.
There was also bouldering, canoeing, shooting, and even arcade-style dance games, giving us a more diverse selection of competitions than the Olympics. There were even some in which players with production Jobs might be able to win. It seemed they wanted as many players as possible to enjoy themselves.
Simply entering a competition earned a participation prize. Those with outstanding results would receive a special Title and a choice of lavish rewards. What could be chosen would be revealed after winning. It seemed the message was, "If you want one, then win it."
"It sounds like there's an event-only stadium, so it should be a convenient environment for monster players to participate... Everyone will probably want to enter. In particular, there are at least two people who will definitely want to enter this combat tournament."
Of all the various competitions, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the combat tournament held alongside them was the main attraction. I had compared the event to the Olympics earlier, but it might be better to think of this as combining martial-arts competitions such as karate and judo.
At the first tournament, held in the city of Fars, Kanna and Raga won the pair division. Unlike that one, this tournament would be held in an event-only area, meaning that monster players like us could participate too. Having an event-only area really was convenient, since we didn't need to worry about the residents.
Jigoro and Genjuro, who had been disappointed at being unable to enter last time, would undoubtedly participate with great enthusiasm. As for me... what should I do? I had plenty of special tricks that shone precisely because I kept them hidden, so I didn't want to reveal too much of my hand. More importantly, if I fought with all my strength and openly revealed my four arms and tail, who knew what people might say? Yes, I would quietly choose another competition.
The combat tournament had solo, pair, and party divisions, just like the first one. In addition, there was a special-rules division in which the stadium's environment changed from match to match, a warrior division where damage could only be dealt with Martial Skills and mages weren't allowed, and a sage division where damage could only be dealt with magic and muscleheads weren't allowed.
These special rules had been added only to the solo division. The number of divisions had increased, which meant there were more spots for champions, but the number of players had increased as well. Winning wouldn't be easy. I wished all the participants the best of luck.
Incidentally, although there was no limit to the number of sports competitions one could enter, the combat tournament allowed each participant to enter only one division. Perhaps the Goddesses wanted the Titles for tournament victories distributed among more people. Or rather, Hero-kun and his companions, who had won both the solo and party divisions, were simply too strong.
"Hmm, which one do you think I should choose?"
While pouring 'Scorching Hellblood of Resentment' from a glass bottle into the potted plant, I tried asking the Wise Tree, which understood human speech. Since there was no way it could know what I was asking about, it merely drooped a branch, unable to answer.
I harvested the acorns lying on the floor, along with the nuts growing on the branches that the Wise Tree indicated I could take. Apparently, nuts weren't important to the Wise Tree; rather, it seemed to regard them as weights hanging from its branches. That was why it actively begged me to remove them.
However, perhaps it hurt when the unripe nuts were picked, because the Wise Tree wouldn't even let me touch them. Shiitake had asked me to examine the unripe nuts too, but I didn't want to force the issue and make the Wise Tree sulk. I pretended not to hear and left the unripe nuts alone. It's troublesome when something has intelligence at times like this.
"Hmm? You want me to cut this branch? Here goes."
When I snipped the offered branch, the Wise Tree held out another one and asked me to cut that too. After I cut that one, it held out yet another branch. This continued more than a dozen times before the Wise Tree finally seemed satisfied and settled down.
The Wise Tree had apparently realized how enjoyable pruning was ever since the first time I had pruned it. Every time I watered it, it begged me to prune it as well. If I put it in human terms, it was like tidying someone's hairstyle. It had hated pruning so much at first, though... Things really could change.
"We'll be saying goodbye to each other soon. Will your memories be passed on even after you become a seed? I'd be happy if they were..."
The arrival of the notice about the next event made it clear that the current event, 'The Wonderful Aspect of Autumn: Food,' would be ending soon. More specifically, it would end during the day tomorrow. Tomorrow wasn't a weekday, but unfortunately, I had to work on my day off. I probably wouldn't be able to be there when it ended.
I had asked Iris to be there for it. After watering and pruning the Wise Tree, I carried the flowerpot out of my room with both hands so I could leave it in her care. The Wise Tree had already grown so tall that it nearly reached the ceiling, but it bent its trunk on its own to avoid hitting the ceiling or the door. It was strange that it wasn't treated as a monster.
"Iris. I've brought the potted plant over... Oh, I picked a bad time."
The first thing I saw when I visited Iris's workshop was her wrestling with a giant Black Miasma Rock. She was probably carving a stone statue for the fountain. It looked like I had arrived at an inconvenient time.
The giant Black Miasma Rock was made by consolidating countless small stones into one using Shiitake's 【Alchemy】. The city walls we were about to build would also be made by assembling blocks formed in the same way. This was probably one of the pieces made for practice, which she had received for use in the statue.
Some people had suggested building the city walls by skillfully fitting natural rocks together, like Japanese stone walls. However, that proposal had been rejected because the completed walls would be no stronger, while the work would take more than twice as long. Since the construction of the walls had to prioritize safety and allow no shortcuts, we didn't want to add anything that would needlessly extend the schedule.
Genjuro, who had made the proposal, had looked crestfallen when it was rejected, but Ruby comforted him and helped him recover his spirits. I had known it for some time, but Genjuro really did love his grandchild too much. Or perhaps grandchildren really were adorable once you became a grandfather? I had no idea, since I wasn't even married, let alone had children.
"It's all right, Izamu. I was just thinking it was about time for a break anyway."
Iris had been carving while deftly manipulating countless tools with her numerous tentacles, but she said that cheerfully. Though I felt bad for making her accommodate me, I thanked her and placed the flowerpot on the floor.
"As I said yesterday, I'll leave this one in your care tomorrow. It may not need watering or pruning, but if it seems to want either, please do so."
"Leave it to me! I'll take good care of it. Right?"
When Iris stroked the Wise Tree with her tentacles, it happily shook its branches. The Wise Tree had been fond of her from the moment they first met. The reason seemed to be that she was a plant-type monster. For the same reason, it was also fond of Momo, the familiar of Nenaashi and Sei. It must have felt a sense of kinship with similar beings.
Shiitake? The Wise Tree had taken to her at first, but now it was blatantly wary of her. Shiitake had tried to peel off its bark, forcibly pull out its crimson lumps, and, worst of all, drill a hole in its trunk to collect sap like maple syrup. Its reaction was only natural.
"By the way, Izamu, did you read the announcement about the event?"
"Yeah, I read through it. I'd like to enter something, but I can't find anything suitable. What about you, Iris?"
"Hehe, I'm not good at sports..."
I recalled hearing somewhere that Iris wasn't good at physical activity in real life, so perhaps that was why she was planning to sit this event out. I had no intention of forcing her, but it seemed like a waste. I had found a competition Iris might actually be able to win.
Perhaps she hadn't even looked at the list of competitions. All right, perhaps this was meddlesome, but I would try persuading her a little.
"Iris, have you looked through the list of competitions? There was one you might be able to win..."
"What? No way! I'm really bad at sports..."
"No, no, it's not an athletic competition like a footrace. Um, could you open the list of competitions?"
Iris operated the menu skeptically and opened the list of competitions, then checked the one I had found. After thinking for a moment, she seriously said, "I really could win this." Oh, she'd gotten motivated! Heh heh heh, I wanted everyone to enjoy the event together as much as possible!