…
Straf and Cycelia are walking through the dimly lit forest for quite some time now. She follows Straf closely and looks around frequently, being well out of her comfort zone.
「Lia, do you figure this troll will be much deeper in?」
「Huh? I… I don't really know. I only read stories about them, I don't know how they behave.」
「Hmmmm…」
《It'll most likely look like a big fat baldie and carry a big stick… Shouldn't be too hard to find, but… Man, this search is really getting boring. And the adventurers' guild blew its chance being the hub of cliche. What a drag… I should hit up mages' guild next and break their crystal.》
Straf sighs. His head hangs down, grass rustles and branches crack beneath his feet as he's lost in thought.
「Straf…. Straf…. Straf!」
「What?」
Cycelia whispers at first, then raises her voice. Straf glances at her, but she's pointing forward with wide eyes and a nervous face. Straf turns his head around and looks there.
If not for his [Eyes of Infinity], he could have missed it… A large humanoid figure sitting cross-legged on the forest floor amidst the trees. Just to the side of it, there is what looks like a log cabin, built with trees… Entire trees. Unprocessed, full-length, with bark on.
「Ah, finally. Good eye, Lia.」
He praises Cycelia as he quickens his step towards the troll. Cycelia is nervous, but unwilling to leave Straf to fend for himself against it, so she hurries behind him.
「Look, he even built a cute home! Too bad for you that the government doesn't like it when people live in forests!」
The troll is surprised someone is simply shouting at it. It turns its crooked and warted nose at Straf, takes a nearby fallen tree trunk in hand, and gets up. It lets out a deafening roar that echoes all across the forest. Cycelia's hands start to shake as she looks at the huge monster with uneasy eyes.
「Lia, since I can't use my sword, can I borrow yours?」
Straf asks without bothering to turn his head, simply holding his open hand out at her.
「A- Y-yes! Please be careful!」
Her trembling hands hand him her sword with a clatter, and she quickly backs away. Straf slashes the air in front of him a few times…
《Huh. Weird. It feels like it has no weight at all, other than the grip… Hope it doesn't suck. In the worst case, I can just use my own.》
The troll smashes the ground with its improvised club, causing it to quake for just a moment. The trees all around heave and creak from the impact, and a small crater remains. It stomps it foot towards Straf, and roars again. Cycelia clenches her teeth and covers her ears.
「Shut up already you annoying fat bastard! I almost regret not taking [Animal Friend] so you could understand me, but it would be a total waste of points!」
He glances to the side with one eyebrow raised as he thinks.
「...And it would make the rabbit farm kind of awkward…」
「Straf, watch o-」
The ground shakes. Straf feels an odd sensation, his body moves sluggishly. He looks at the troll, its club is slowly closing in as the troll swings it down at him.
《There it is, [Contextual Time Perception] again. Can't believe this thing was going for 500 a level…》
He walks aside at a leisurely pace, without a care in the world.
The troll's tree trunk smashes into the ground, the tip is pulped into splinters and loose bark. The troll lifts its weapon back over its head as Straf looks completely unimpressed.
「-out! Huh?!」
Cycelia blinks. Straf was standing beneath the troll's club before she blinked, and then he's next to it.
《Did he just teleport?! He's fighting such a huge and terrifying thing and he looks so bored! He wasn't even looking at it!》
The troll growls with hateful eyes as it cocks its arm far above its head.
「So that's it, huh? Just going to do the same thing over and-」
The troll swings, Straf once again feels like he's moving underwater. He sighs.
《Well, whatever. Trolls are usually just oversized goblins anyway, I didn't expect much.》
He walks up to the troll as if he was on a casual stroll through the forest. He looks at Cycelia's sword in his hand…
《Can this thing even kill it? For starters, let's see how much damage it does…》
He jumps up towards the troll's torso… And finds himself floating through the air, as if in space.
《Wha- Seriously? I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I can move mostly normal, but that doesn't mean I get to break the laws of physics, I suppose…》
A painfully slow moment later, he gets within his weapon's reach. Straf slashes the troll three times across its chest, then looks at its head. A healthbar appears.
Lowland Troll
[|||--------------------] Lv. 60
《Se riou sly?! It's pretty much twice my level and it's already almost dead after just three hits?! What the actual fuck?! And Cycelia was scared of manhunters with a sword like this?!》
As he ponders how powerful the borrowed sword is, he sees the troll regenerate a sliver of its health.
《Ah. I guess it regenerates pretty fast. Not nearly as fast as me, but I can see why everyone is pissing themselves about this big dumb fat balding goblin. Good grief… I might as well finish it off and generate a trope here myself.》
As Straf is slowly floating through the air, he pulls his sword arm back… And starts hacking away as quickly as he can.
《Chopchopchopchopchopchopchop! And this! And that! Turn into little bloody cubes! And-》
Suddenly, he hears an incredibly unusual, stretched chiming sound. He no longer feels any resistance as he swings the sword around.
《Hm? Did I kill it-》
He look at the sword. Or at least, what was the sword. A small stub of the blade remains as it sticks out of the hilt. The remainder of the blade shattered in the troll's torso somewhere.
《Ah! Shit! That's not good. What happened?!》
He focuses on the sword…
『Royal Blueblood Blade』
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
[Broken] [Magic penetration] [Durable]
『Royal Blueblood Blade』 is a mythril-adamantine alloy sword. A few drops of a noble's blood are required to forge it. It never loses its edge, but it must be sharpened during forging.
It can slash through magic barriers, magic shields, and ethereal magic beings of 『Ghost』 and 『Wraith』 type. It is also capable of reflecting and cutting spells.
It will never bend and an immense amount of force or use is needed to break it.
Small text at the bottom of the tooltip states…
Durability
0/14000
[-----------------]
《What?! Are you shitting me? There's-》
Straf clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes.
《Of course there is durability! What about the troll?》
He looks at the troll…
Lowland Troll
[-----------------------] Lv. 60
《Huh? Dead? So why is the time- Ah. Of course. I still have to land.》
He looks at the ground beneath him… He floats gently, slowly… And floats…
《Good grief, it will take years to get back down at this rate! Fuck this!》
Straf reappears in front of the troll, facing away from it using [Translocation]. The troll lets out a confused grunt, and blood jets out of its chest everywhere, including all over Straf. It then loses grip of its tree trunk, which already smashed into the dirt with a loud thud, and reels backwards…
《Level up. Attribute points gained.》
Crrrrack! Thud!
《Level up. Attribute points gained.》
《Argh! No! Not again! Shut up!》
The earth shakes violently again as entire trees collapse, the dead troll crashing into them rips the weakly rooted ones out of the dirt, and breaks the strongly rooted ones completely. It slams into the ground with echoing rumble and a large cloud of dust. The troll's tree cabin falls apart entirely.
Straf walks towards Cycelia, impeccably clean.
《Did he- He killed the troll and I couldn't see him move?!》
Cycelia is amazed, as she only saw a Straf-colored blur in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, and then the troll was dead. She places her palm on her chest and sighs with great relief…
「Aaa! Aaaaaaaaaa! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!」
…Until she sees the broken sword. She points at it, screaming in shock.
「M-m-m-」
She stutters and struggles to get a word out.
《Oh boy…》
「My sword! My grandpa's sword! It's-」
She falls to her knees, clutching at her head in disbelief.
「But it's unbreakable! It's mythril-adamantine! You could have a horse kick it and nothing would happen to it!」
She drops on all fours, her head hanging low as she sobs… Very reminiscent of somebody else.
「Aaaaa! Grandpa… I'm sorry, grandpa… Huuuuu…」
Straf sighs and scratches his head, wondering what to do…
《Man… I kind of feel like that dyslexiac murderer now…》
「Look… I'm sorry, I'll try to make up for it somehow, alright? So don't cry…」
She shakes her head, trying to hold tears back.
「No, I don't blame you Straf… You did what you had to.」
She sniffles and sobs quietly… All in all, it's a pretty sorry sight. Straf puts down the broken sword in front of Cycelia, and she grips it tight while sobbing.
「Look, I'll leave you be for a moment. I'm going to collect the proof I killed it…」
Cycelia nods as she hugs the hilt, her head still hanging low.
Straf returns to the dead troll, walking all around it.
「That being said… What do I actually get? A finger? Ear? Nose? Hmm…」
He looks at its head…
「I guess if I take his head, there won't be any arguing how I just maimed it and ran. He's dead and his soul is freed, so it should be fine, right?」
Straf opens his [Portable Storage] and pulls his sword out.
「No soul for you, Omnicidus. I need you for just a second…」
He says as he slashes through the troll's neck, just below the head. The head separates away as if pulled off of an action figure. The sword lets out a low and displeased growl as Straf throws it back into its incomprehensible hole.
Straf grabs the head with both of his hands… [Portable Storage] hole grows in size, roughly to that of a car… He throws it in, and the hole closes.
「Well, that's that. Where's the loot?」
《Level up. Attribute points gained. Skill points gained.》
《Shut up- Skill points? I'll have to check that in a bit.》
Straf circles the corpse, searching for items.
「Did the fat bastard drop dead on my items?」
Something in the grass catches his eye. He walks up to take a better look.
「Huh…」
He picks it up and looks at it…
「Well, I am not wearing that. But I guess I'll keep it around. Off it goes.」
He throws his loot into the [Portable Storage], and returns to Cycelia.
「Lia, are you alright now? I really didn't mean to break it.」
She stands up, her face not hiding any sadness.
「It's alright… I'll get over it. I'll let the sword rest here.」
She says, then sniffles.
「Let's go back to the guild and collect the reward, okay?」
Cycelia nods in silence, still very sullen.
《Level up. Attribute points gained.》
《Ahhhhh… This is going to drive me insane…》