Episode 234 IceDrake
I wasn't going to put my hands on it myself, but I looked up information on IceDrakes. This monster resembled a FireDrake, but the breath it spat out from its mouth seemed to be something like a frozen breath.
A battle with an IceDrake would likely be an aerial battle. This was because Life Magic had a short range. I started to wonder if there was anything I could do.
There was Attack Magic that had a range of over 500 meters. Compared to that, the longest effective range of Life Magic was only about 80 meters.
In the Adventurer's Guild reference room, I rested my back on the back of the chair and looked up.
"As expected, magic to hit a flying IceDrake is difficult."
It didn't seem possible to create Life Magic that chased flying monsters like missiles. I was still out of ideas.
"Fumu, IceDrake's frozen breath can extend up to 100 meters."
I read the materials and learned the range of the Frozen Breath. I involuntarily let out a sigh.
[ In that case, the IceDrake will attack first. ]
'Thunder Sword' was a Life Magic with an effective range of 80 meters, but if it was fired at a distance beyond the effective range, the hit rate would be extremely poor.
"I could attack with the Magic Bow. But, it doesn't have enough power to kill it."
The range of the Magic Bow was long, but its power was comparable to that of a TriplePileShot. It couldn't defeat an IceDrake. 'Magnetic Barrier' may be able to block Frozen Breath, but it was difficult to fight when the opponent's attack had a longer range.
After reading the IceDrake materials, I headed to the paid practice field. I thought I'd research what to do in the unlikely event that I had to fight an IceDrake.
I rented the longest and thinnest paid practice field. It was a practice field with a length of 400 meters. I sat on a concrete block and started thinking.
"Metis, let's think together about how to extend the range of Life Magic."
[ Is the technique of coating with magic no good? ]
"That method is limited to extending the effective range to about 80 meters. We have to think of other methods."
The effect of the magical power coating faded 50 meters away from the owner of the magical power, and it seemed that the effect disappeared after a while.
[ Then, how about replacing the projectiles with metal instead of D-Particles? ]
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"But, it flies because it's a D-particle."
[ Since you can now use abilities such as
I was a little lost. Although it was rare in Japan, there were also adventurers who used firearms to explore dungeons abroad. It seemed that adventurers like that hardly raised their magic level.
Even if you did your best to defeat monsters, it was in vain if your magic level didn't increase. I told Metis about that.
[ In the case of firearms, no magic is used, but in this case Life Magic is used. ]
Even if the bullet hit the monster, the result was the same, but the process was different, so it seemed that the monster would be defeated with Life magic.
I launched the Sage System and formed something like a matchlock with D-Particles. I placed a mass of D-Particles with the
The result was a disaster. The explosion of the D-Particles shattered the copper pachinko ball. Shattered grains of copper erupted from the muzzle.
[ My apologies. This method doesn't seem to work. ]
Metis apologized. It became clear that the D-Particle explosion was different from a normal explosion. Come to think of it, the explosion of the gunpowder used as the propellant was the sudden generation and expansion of gas due to deflagration, so it was different from the explosion of D-Particles.
"Maa, there are things like this. In order to overcome the range problem, we may need a new D-Particle secondary mutation characteristic."
[ Will you look for a Magic Circle Scroll? ]
"That's right. Let's go around the Adventurer's Guild branches and look for a Magic Circle with the characteristics of the D-Particle secondary mutation drawn."
The only Adventurer's Guilds I've checked so far were the Shibugami Branch and Headquarters. I decided to go around from prefectures with many branches. However, large-scale branches of the Adventurer's Guild only existed in places with intermediate level or higher dungeons.
Even in big cities, if there were no dungeons nearby, there may be no branches. So, I decided to go to the Kanagawa Prefecture where there were several big branches.
This prefecture had big ones such as the Yokohama Branch and the Kawasaki Branch. At first, I went to the Kawasaki Branch and asked the Branch Chief to let me search the scrolls.
They agreed, so I spent the day checking the scrolls. Unfortunately there was no harvest. There was a scroll with the Magic Circles of existing Life Magic drawn, but there was no Magic Circle of new Life Magic or of D-Particle secondary mutation.
The next day, I searched for one at the Yokohama Branch, but it was also unsuccessful. In the same way, there was no harvest after searching for several days, and when I was about to give up, I found a scroll with the special Magic Circle of the D-Particle secondary mutation drawn at the Yokosuka Branch.
The characteristic of the D-Particle secondary mutation was
Then, I found the characteristic Magic Circle of the D-particle secondary mutation that I was looking for at the Odawara Branch. This was a characteristic of D-Particle secondary mutation called
This characteristic exerted the effect of suppressing the force that disintegrated and diffused the cluster of D-particles. The effect didn't last forever, and the D-Particles seemed to maintain their shape for about 5 minutes after being given that property.
◆◆◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆
While Grimm was looking for the D-Particle secondary mutation scroll, an adventurer team appeared on the 7th floor of the Narukami Dungeon to awaken the IceDrake.
This was Gotou's team 'Aoki Itan-ji'(TN:Blue Heretics). Gotou and the others went halfway up the mountain in the center of the 7th floor. There was a large cavern that connected to a large underground space inside.
The underground space was covered with ice, and an IceDrake was lying on what looked like a stage made of rocks.
"Do you think this guy is a Vagabond?"
Gotou asked the Muscle Wizard Shiraki.
"I don't know. I've never heard of a Vagabond that's sleeping."
Gotou nodded.
"But, if it's a Vagabond, we'll get the Transfer Gate Key. I think it's worth the risk."
"However, in such a closed space, if it spits out its Frozen Breath, we might be annihilated."
"I know. That's why I'm going to kill it with a single blow of 'Super Nova'. In case of emergency, we'll retreat."
Gotou stared at the sleeping IceDrake and activated 'Super Nova'. With a 'Vu~on', a firing sound resounded, and a compressed magic bullet flew towards the IceDrake.
Just before it hit, the compressed magic bullet hit something like a transparent barrier. The compressed magic bullet shot out explosive flames. However, the explosion did not reach the IceDrake.
"What? There's something like a barrier."
Shiraki raised his voice.
Gotou frowned and looked at the IceDrake. The IceDrake had a crack in its head.
"Did it take damage?"
For a moment, he thought the explosion of the 'Super Nova' had damaged the IceDrake, but when he saw the cracks spread to the IceDrake's back, he realized it was something else.
"This, isn't it similar to the molting of an insect?"
Shiraki's words echoed in the underground space. The faces of all the Team members stiffened.
"Retreat!"
At Gotou's orders, 'Aoki Itan-ji' escaped from the underground space.
*** ***