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Chapter 140: Overconfidence leads to slow reaction times when things go wrong

“What do you mean they were forced to retreat?! What fucking useless trash!”

The angry woman stomped on the ground in a rage, fuming and spitting as she roared, small sparks of lightning and flecks of ice radiating off of her.

Norman sighed quietly and shifted closer to the fire.

This damp, muggy atmosphere and marshy wet ground… he hated Ploids soooo very much, but being an intellectual among tyrants means he has to do a lot of things he dislikes doing, and goes a lot of places he dislikes going to.

Even though he’s interested in The Forge, he’s not so interested that he’s willing to brave bugs and mud and … not to mention it sounds like their allies from Extus have been forced to retreat.

Even though they were bringing the ‘piece’ that was vital to conquer The Forge…

… Was this going to be another failure?

As he watched watched Jesara, Lady of Storms, rant and rage, causing the mercenaries and other members of their organization to flinch and edge away from her, Norman began to wonder just why he joined this group.

Sure, he was allowed to investigate and experiment without having to worry about ethics or laws, but is it really worth it when he’s constantly worried about his life?

Aaah… he may be a mad scientist, but he isn’t suicidal you know…

“Jesara, calm down. So what if they didn’t bring the slave? We just need to do it as always, right?”

Boris the Stonefist punched his open palm belligerently, making a smacking sound.

“No… The Forge isn’t something you can conquer with brute force…” Norman trailed off.

Forget it, they’re not listening to him anyway…

“… For crying out loud, do none of you idiots ever read the mission prompts?”

Luckily, one of these powerhouses has some common sense.

Trevout, Bringer of Silence, snapped as he watched Jesara and Boris getting pumped up to attack The Forge.

“Hmph. What does a loser who got beaten up by one of those Carni fools in Nyls have to say?” Jesara sneered. “To be beaten by someone else’s Dark Magic, isn’t your position for Dark Magic’s Avatar at jeopardy?”

“Who said I wanted to be the Avatar of Dark Magic?” Trevout sneered right back.

Jesara and Boris looked over at him in surprise.

“What? Becoming an Avatar means that you’ll be regarded as a pillar in our plan, right? I honestly envy you specialist mages,” Jesara said.

“If it’s so good, then tell me, why didn’t Granwit try to become the Avatar of Fire?” Trevout returned with a snort.

“That’s because he has a different role as our vanguard,” Jesara said with a snort. “And even though he fights with fire, that doesn’t mean he’s the closest to fire. After all, he prefers using magic swords.”

Trevout just laughed in their faces.

“Yeah, okay,” he said, but he gave Norman a meaningful glance.

Yuup. It seems like at least one of these guys had a brain.

After all, a ‘pillar’ can mean many things when it came to the sorts of world-defying things their secret organization were trying to do, and there was no guarantee the ‘pillars’ were going to get through those things alive…

… Well, it’s not like they were certain they wouldn’t stay alive either.

It’s difficult to predict what will happen when you’re working off old texts and missing histories…

—

Jun’s Side:

Somehow, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my back once we exited the marsh area.

“Is Jun not so good with marshes and swamps?” Jira from the Scarlet Torch asked.

Not so good, huh…? It’s not like the smell or mud was really bothering me, but…

“I’m not so good with places with that sort of oppressive feeling, and it’s troublesome when you can’t move well, right?” I said, but the others quickly shook their heads.

“Nonono,” Jira said. “You were moving pretty well weren’t you?!”

Eh… it’s different when I have to use barriers to move well. To plant a barrier above the mud … it’s easier when you don’t have to plan every step, and sometimes I miscalculate how high up the barriers are, causing my knees to buckle.

It’s really very stressful.

“It’s still better to have better footing,” I reply, and Jira can’t really… disagree with me, so she just rolled her eyes and smacked me on the shoulder.

“Well, it’s not like I can argue with that -ssu,” she sighed.

Everyone’s taking a quick break after finally exiting the second level, scraping off mud and reorganizing their supplies, while Kaso sits still, attempting to sense whether or not The Forge has transferred near here.

He suddenly twitched.

“… Down,” Kaso said, eyes glancing over the edge, then following the river with his gaze.

“Down? In the river? Or downstream?” Perielle asked, stroking Kaso’s head.

They look a little like an older sister and little brother.

“Downstream. Just appeared.”

“Un, okay, good job,” Perielle said, before turning towards us. “That’s what he said.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t just follow the river,” Ragnall said with a frown. “We’ll have to go around.

Well, yeah, I guess the terrain isn’t that great, considering we’re on a cliff, but…

“Why not?” I asked.

“… What do you mean why not – is what I want to say, but do you have a different idea?” Ragnall asked dryly.

“Well…”

Put a couple barriers here… and then here… …

I hopped down the few makeshift stairs I’d made.

“… Like this?” I said.

“””… … … “””

Quite a few members of our party were giving me… looks, but Jira, Hibiki-chan, and the Adashino siblings were pretty enthusiastic about not having to take a giant detour.

Pretty soon, we’re carefully making our way down a … kind of precarious arrangement of barriers.

It’s mostly precarious because the barriers aren’t the easiest to see, and there aren’t any guardrails, but it’s still better than taking a day or two to get down the cliff and then back to the river… right?

… Right?

Oberon looks a little green. Don’t tell me he’s scared of heights…

Surprisingly, heights are something I’m not that scared of, and ever since I’ve got this new, nearly indestructible body, I’ve become even less so –

“Incoming!”

Derrick’s voice suddenly reverberated through my head, and given everyone else’s reactions, it seems like they heard it as well this time.

It’s times like these where you can separate the gamers from this world’s adventurers.

All of us Japanese looked up to see what was going on, while all of the adventurers, and even the tribesmen, dropped low and increased their defenses.

Even if Hibiki-chan and I realized our mistake and also squatted and prepared for an attack immediately… we can’t compare to people who grew up living in this world.

“Kyaa-!” Yuuri-san shrieked, but she swung her large sword at the same time, luckily blocking a chunk of ice, buzzing with lightning.

Soon, the air was filled with arrows and rocks, and these ice chunks flying towards us.

BANG!

Guh-! The ice blasted out one of our footholds – Dangit, I’ll have to increase their durability, and also barriers to block the attacks –

“We’re being attacked?!” Perielle flinched, grabbing Kaso and dashing down the ‘stairway’, dodging attacks all the while.

“Ugh! Oi, these magic attacks ain’t half-assed! Ragnall!” Oberon yelled.

“Aah-!”

Ragnall … is using his sword like a baseball bat again.

It’s fine when up against these attacks that have physical bodies, but up against truly magical attacks… … ah, no, that’s game logic. In this world, even magic is a physical phenomenon.

But is he going to be okay while up against things like fire or wind…?

… When I look closer, isn’t he being shocked by the lightning?

… … He seems to be shaking it off, so I guess he’s okay.

Hibiki-chan reached the ground below the cliff first, with a combination of transition magic and shadow magic, while Oberon and Ragnall and me are acting as tanks for Yuuri-san and the rest of The Scarlet Torch to get down.

The people from the dessert tribe quickly leapt backwards, back down onto the cliff, pulling out bows and arrows as they prepared to lay down supporting fire while I did my best to block the attacks as The Scarlet Torch and Hibiki-chan hurriedly made their way down, leaping quite a far distance to get out of range of the attacks.

“Yuuri-!” Takumi-san shouted from the cliff, and his sister darted out as he prepared to snipe.

Send Yuuri-san out to chase the hidden attackers and have the archers snipe them; it seems like this is a method they use quite often –

“Jun-! Don’t get distracted-!”

Eh?

Startled by Ragnall’s shout, I barely manage to turn and catch the flash of an attack coming my way with another neutral barrier –

CRACK!

Eh?

The attack had no problems breaking through – ah… this, it’s dark magic…?

I had only just figured it out when a sudden burst of dark magic projectiles shot out of the woods.

I need to readjust the barriers to be resistant to dark magic – ah-

Before I could act, cracking and shattering sounds exploded all around me, and suddenly, my footing disappeared.

Ah… crap.

I can’t swim.

“Jun-kun!” Hibiki-chan screamed.

SPLASH!

—

—

Splash splash splash

“… Hey.”

Ragnall glanced down as he dragged me onto the bank.

The river was even swifter than it looked like from above, so even though Ragnall dove in right after me, we got swept quite a way downstream before he was able to swim to shore.

Ugh… I swallowed a lot of water.

Ragnall sighed as he patted my back while I coughed.

“You know, your abilities are definitely strong, but haven’t you let your guard down too much? Especially considering you were standing over a river despite not being able to swim.”

Yeah, I’m scared of tight spaces and I can’t swim, so what?! – Well, not like I’m going to snap at the person who just saved me.

“… Sorry,” I manage to cough out.

Ragnall sighs and raps me lightly on the head with his knuckles.

“What ‘sorry’? Shouldn’t ‘thanks’ be more appropriate here?” he asked, grumbling as he turned to take off his boots and wring out his socks.

“… Thanks?”

“And why is that a question?”

I can’t help but laugh at that. But, you know, lightly, since I still feel like I’ve breathed in water.

Right, I should also wring out my socks once I get my breath back… athlete’s foot isn’t a joke … although I don’t know if I can even get that in this body…

…!

A heavy magical presence suddenly flared up right behind me, and I can’t help but freeze.

“Hey… Jun…” Derrick’s voice echoed through my head, causing it to pound, but I didn’t have much leeway to pay attention to that.

Bathump

Bathump

Half-rising to my feet, I whirled around to see where this eerie, pulsating sensation is coming from.

A large, organic-looking blob, about a human’s height in diameter at least, is hovering in the air in front of us, an ominous aura hovering around it.

It’s pinkish in color, a bit darker and duskier than flesh color, but it’s still … pretty grotesque looking. It doesn’t help that it seems to be throbbing like a heart does.

I’ve been getting better with gore and blood these days, but this still makes me pretty uneasy.

But more than that, this feeling I’m getting from it…

“… Hey. Ragnall. This… this isn’t… The Forge… is it…?”

I don’t want to believe it. The thing I was looking forward to… it can’t be this, right… ?

Ragnall blinked as he stared at the blob for a moment before his brows furrowed together in a look of disgust.

“… … Gross,” he said.

I agree.

---

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<a/n: First of all, I now have a twitter that will mostly be updates on progress and maybe some wips. But good lord, I can see how this platform is dangerous if you’re a browsing type of person. I completely agree with Joss Whedon on twitter being the least beneficial place for a writer to be. The amount of new stimuli you can drown yourself in and how easily you can start drama is, quite frankly, disturbing.

Still, very useful for letting people know what you’re doing quickly and easily.

Second, man wfb still takes me a bit… but I think I’m finally drawing the loose plot ends back together. Here’s to hoping that wrestling this chapter to The Forge and the whole… everything going on in the background will make future chapters go much more easily…>