[Reberu] ga Arunara Agerudesho? Mobukyara ni Tensei Shita Ore wa Gēmu Chishiki o Ikashi, Hitasura Reberu o Age Tsudzukeru - CH 101

[The Unsinkable Idiot]

“Come at me with all you got! Otherwise, your girlfriend will completely turn into my experience points!!” (Sakurai)

The protagonist awakening event, presented by a mob character, starts!

By the way, if I make a single misstep, the protagonist may have a mental breakdown, but the Imperial Headquarters has announced that he’ll pull through somehow since he is the protagonist, so there’s no problem whatsoever!!

What is the Imperial Headquarters, you ask? Don’t ask me…

“Sakuraaaaaiii!!” (Amanai)

Now then, the original game’s protagonist, ‘Amanai Hayato’, had a wide variety of fighting styles because he could learn a huge number of skills.

For example, the paper armor high-speed combat style, which make use of the increase of agility and evasion from equipping the ‘Three Sky Series’, or the shaman style, continuously raining abnormal status-giving attack on the enemies.

For the rather weird one, there’s even a joke a fighting style which requires him to solidifies friendship with a monster tamer first. After which, he can have them to give him a buff that turn his appearance into that of a monster with the power of their magic and play as the strongest goblin on land.

Yet dungeons fundamentally go underground, so even if he’s the strongest goblin on land, when he dies, he dies.

In case he doesn’t die, if the ally monster tamer dies, he’d become just a normal goblin, so he’d still die in the end.

It is exactly because the protagonist can embody so many kinds of fighting style, the players’ hobbies and thoughts are expressed strongly in the skills and equipment they selected.

“‘God’s Sacred Raiment’!” (Amanai)

Along with the screaming of Amanai, his surging, lightning-like magic power cling to his equipment as though to cover it, making its size one size larger.

It is a kind of ‘bestowal magic (enchantment)’ that bestow one with the stats correction of weapons and armor that meet the conditions.

In the original game, as the story progressed, especially at the end game, the stats correction it gives becoming inferior to buff-type magic at the same level, so given its cost to performance ratio, it can hardly be said to be a useful skill.

Now, if you’re asking what is the merit of this skill, on the other hand, I’d say it gives you a head start in the early stage.

After all, in the early stage of the game, equipment, items, and magic are all rather shabby, and no one has mastered buff-type magic.

Under such circumstances, ‘God’s Sacred Raiment’, which could be learned by talking to the local knights on holidays, become the only skill that can increase the attack power and defense power of your equipment at the same time.

To cut the long story short, it’s kinda like doubling the number of your equipment.

The fact that it allows you to substantially double the stats correction such as attack power and defense power of your equipment is, of course, good, but there is another way of using it. By wearing equipment with excellent special abilities but low performance, and set equipment with no special ability but have high stats correction to ‘God’s Sacred Raiment’, you can have the best of the both worlds, that is having ‘special abilities’ and ‘high stats correction’.

‘There is an upper limit to the rarity of the equipment that can be set’— due to such limitation, when the buff-type magic, which applies corrections according at a percentage, starts making its appearance, ‘God’s Sacred Raiment’ skill gradually become obsolete, but that is probably why it is adjusted to become a strong skill in the early stage.

(And with the game having turned into reality, the merit of being able to arm yourself at anytime as long as you have magic power has increased. But in that case, I see no point in him choosing bare-handed as his main style.)

The action I take before the approaching Amanai is to retreat, as a matter of course.

The problem with bare-handed fighting style is that its effective range is too short. On the other hand, I can release a ranged pseudo slash with Shishū skill.

Since I can attack from a distance that the opponent’s attack does not reach, I have no reason to go out of my way to fight Amanai head-on in his ring.

“‘Virtuous Priest Fighting School’——” (Amanai)

Therefore, Amanai, as another matter of course, activates a skill to crush that distance.

“——‘Thunderclap’!” (Amanai)

It is the same kind of evasion rate increase skill as my ‘Remnant Smoke’ in the original game.

It has a demerit of consuming one’s own HP when activated, but it has a higher increase in evasion rate than ‘Remnant Smoke’.

Also, the skill group ‘Virtuous Priest Fighting School’ has the characteristic of an increase in attack power and effectiveness of skills when fighting against ‘humanoid enemies’.

If that takes effect now, in this place, the evasion rate increase effect of ‘Thunderclap’ used by Amanai will become about 1.5 times that of ‘Remnant Smoke’.

And that difference in evasion rate manifests in the form of a difference in speed in reality. The moment his electrified leg steps on the ground, Amanai shoots off seemingly leaving a burst of lightning at his feet.

(Tsk, so he’s this fast!)

I tried swinging my one-handed sword the same time as Amanai shot off.

However, seeing that Amanai getting closer at a speed that exceeded my expectations, I give up on doing a slash and throw my sword without hesitation.

“!” (Amanai)

Amanai, come rushing in directly as if wanting to close the distance as fast as possible, makes a sudden stop before the thrown sword, and avoids it by turning only his upper body to the right.

I release ranged slashes using the stretched around threads in pursuit, but Amanai completely reads their trajectory despite the dim lighting in the forest, and moves forward while slipping through them as though dancing.

With the increase in his speed from the effect of ‘Virtuous Priest Fighting School, Thunderclap’, it’s only a matter of time before he reaches me.

“Is charging straight ahead all the thing you can do!?”

Having decided that let alone setting up trap, even Shishū skill itself wouldn’t work in this situation, I mobilize all the threads I have stretched around to entwine the large number of plants that grow underfoot and pull them all up.

A number of small plants spread before Amanai, flying to his face.

Before Amanai, who has been forced to come to a sudden brake due to the distraction, regains his posture, I step closer to him.

(Shishū doesn’t work, and my sword is out of reach. To take the initiative, bare-handed will be faster!)

Amanai-kun! I know I said I wouldn’t fight you head-on, but that was a lie!

Time to show the power of ‘Soul Attack’, the bare-handed fighting skill from the Netherworld that I’ve been practicing every morning with Iris!

I’ll pay you back in full for that kick earlier, you bastard!

“‘Soul Attack・Gomon[Lit. ferrying five crests]’! (Sakurai)

From right hook to backhand chop, and to double kick and left straight, that combination swoop down on Amanai.

In response, Amanai, repels my right hook by folding his left arm compactly and raising it to the side of his face the moment my fist emerges from the distracting shower of plants.

Stopped at the beginning, I immediately pause my backhand chop and grab the left arm with which Amanai repelled my right hook, but he calmly flings off my arm by moving his arm in a circular motion from inside to outside.

“Seriously?” (Sakurai)

“Haa!” (Amanai)

My first move ended in failure, now it’s Amanai’s turn.

My failure is paid back with a direct, right straight by Amanai.

Following the impact transmitted to the abdomen, a fist come toward my face this time.

I grit my teeth and headbutt it vigorously.

“Gh…!” (Amanai)

“Agh, ghah!! (Sakurai)

By deliberately hitting the fist, which was aiming at my face, I was able to stop it before if fully gained momentum.

Even so, it still packed quite a punch, causing me to let out the sound of anguish momentarily.

If Amanai hadn’t put on a solid gauntlet, his fist might have been broken at worst.

It’s very important to hit accurately when you’re bare-handed.

“You, can’t… take me down with such meagre strength, Amanai!” (Sakurai)

With my view flickering and swaying, I get closer to Amanai.

No, to be exact, the impact transmitted from my forehead shakes my brain and forcibly moves my wobbling body forward.

Still, I don’t forget to smile and laugh. I pretend to be okay even though I’m not to put pressure on him.

Seeing me, he probably got reminded of his battle with Baldasare as his reaction is delayed by one beat. That’s a deadly opening in a hand-to-hand combat.

“‘Soul Attack, Isshukishou (lit. one revolution ogre palm)’!” (Sakurai)

The palm heel I recklessly released is the most powerful move among ‘Soul Attack’ skills.

If it connects, then good; if he avoids it and creates a distance between us, then I’ll be able to take a breather.

As I want my visibility to recover, I can’t help but hope that it will be the latter.

However, my wish vacantly scatters to dust along with the circular spark that appears before me.

“Ha?” (Sakurai)

Facing my palm heel, what Amanai, who has recovered his bearing, does is neither to defend nor to avoid it, but to intercept it.

Amanai draws his arm, which is the opposite of the fist I received with my forehead.

His arm that is heading backwards changes to an uppercut following the small rotation of his waist, and hit my palm heel from directly below.

And whether it’s a coincidence or not, what appears at the moment of contact is a circular spark that signals the occurrence of ‘Perfect Attack’ or ‘Perfect Guard’.

It is unclear which one is occurred, but anyway, pain ran in my thrown up palm heel, and I expose my defenseless body to Amanai.

“——”

(Ah, this is going to be painful.)

Amanai takes a small, yet deep breath.

Then, hand-blade, liver blow, hook, backhand chop, and kick interweaves, attacking me consecutively.

When I stop his hand-blade that’s aiming at my neck, only his wrist bends and strikes my nape.

When I try to block his approaching fist with both hands, his fist changes into a claw and grabs my arm, then he flings me away.

When I expect that right high kick is coming, seeing the tilt of his center of gravity and slightly raised right hind foot, what he actually release is a left high kick centered on his right toes.

“Hah!” (Sakurai)

I keep being tossed about by his attacks that come without a pause.

“Gah, guh, goh, gah, gefu!?” (Sakurai)

If I don’t see through it, his attack will hit me, and even if I do see through it, his attack will change to an unpredictable one.

His attacks interweave truth and falsehood, backed by the overwhelming difference in skill between me and Amanai.

The ‘circular sparks (Perfect)’ overlap and scatter over and over again following the barrage of attacks, telling which one has the upper hand in the battle.

If the opponent is like Higaki, who is particular about technique, I could read the initial movement of the skill activation and would be able to cope with them.

If the opponent is like Nanashino, who almost entirely relies on their physical ability (specs), if I could somehow block them several times, I would be able to get used to their movement pattern and cope with them.

Amanai is neither of them.

Without regard of his skills, without overestimating his physical ability, he selects the most suitable way to deal with his opponent.

Amanai mastered a type of fighting style that I, who is bad at anti-personnel combat, is particularly bad against.

“‘Virtuous Priest Fighting School——Hidou (Lit. fly motion)’!” (Amanai)

“Woah!?” (Sakurai)

A technique to grab and lock the enemy by their arm and throw them as is.

Fortunately, because I recognize the motion of the skill, I succeed in getting free of the restraint by throwing a kick at Amanai in the middle of throwing.

I thrust my arm into the ground and stop my rolling body.

When I get on my knee and raise my face, there’s Amanai, who’s holding a stance without showing an opening, before my eyes.

“Haa… haa…!” (Amanai)

Still, after launching continuous attacks without a pause, Amanai’s breathing is ragged; his shoulders that are heaving up and down can’t be hidden.

I also adjust my breathing and try to relieve my pain and recover my stamina by using ‘Qigong (medium)’ skill.

Of course, I smile so that he won’t notice it and slowly stand up as if to show I still have strength to spare.

In reality, my joints hurt after getting beaten and I can only stand up slowly, though.

(Fufufu, he’s a lot stronger than expected, ain’t he…!)

The result of getting ahead of myself and facing him head-on in his ring is this beat-up condition, but in order to further corner Amanai, I won’t yield and act like I have strength to spare.

“It’s exactly as Baldasare said. Even in this kind of situation, you’re still not serious.” (Sakurai)

“Still? That’s not…!” (Amanai)

“You’re really pretentious. After all that, the only skills you used are ‘Thunderclap’ and ‘Hidou’. You think you can defeat a boss character with just a normal attack? There should be a limit to how much you look down on others.” (Sakurai)

While spitting out the soil that entered my mouth when I was rolling on the ground, I provoke Amanai with words to further rile him up.

“You don’t aim for my eyes nor you throw sand to blind me. You aimed at my neck but not at the throat. You have to take me down as soon as possible, yet you don’t use any powerful skills… do you know that Akano will pay the price of that leisure? You dumbhead.” (Sakurai)

“——!” (Amanai)

I brush aside his gaze, which looks like he’s threatening to kill me, with a smile.

Amanai wants to finish this battle without killing me.

Putting it in a good way, he’s ‘gentle’, putting it in a bad way, ‘he’s naïve’. Either way, I trampled on the feelings of such Amanai.

Incidentally, I also guided him to his benefit, implicitly saying, “You should use more skills, or rather, use them.”

(My sword is… on the other side of Amanai, huh. Well, it’s better not to use it anyway. Rather than letting him cool his head facing an edged tool, continuing to trade blows with fists and rile him up is better to unmask his true nature.)

As I take a glance at the one-handed sword stuck in the tree behind Amanai, he raises up his fists again.

So as to match him, I also raises up my fists again while continuing to smile frivolously.

(Or rather, this has turned into a leveling session, ain’t it?)

I suddenly see the log in the corner of my field of vision and notice that the more I got hit by Amanai, the more experience points of ‘hit resistance’ I gained.

In the original game, resistance-type skills are obtained by receiving the corresponding attack in battle or by having special training outside of battle.

As a child, I imitated the way the protagonist trained in the original game. I reached out my hands to a ‘Homa[1]’ and continued chanting Nenbutsu in front of the burning flames, but in the end, I didn’t get any experience points or skill. All I got were burns.

And I was only able to acquire fire resistance skill for the first time when I was exposed to the ‘Flame Sword’ Higaki wielded in our fight.

Rather, it puzzled me as to why the original protagonist was able to get fire resistance by performing a Homa and reached out his hands to it, but… anyway.

I once wondered, “Maybe all resistance-type skills in this world can only be acquired through battle?”

However, it was denied by the resistance skill ‘Narcissist’, which nullify Fascinated status, that I got before I knew it. I had never been struck by an attack that had fascinated effect before I realized I had acquired it.

And after further deliberation, I hypothesized that resistance skills related to damage reduction could only be obtained by receiving the corresponding attack.

From this, I concluded that the easiest and quickest way to resistance is to have a super long prolonged battle like back then I was fighting a ‘certain shitty DV bastard (Babi Niflheim’ or to become someone’s punching bag.

However, opportunities like that are hard to come by, let alone an opportunity to get a ‘no-killing grappler’ like Amanai to become my opponent.

It’s a coincidence that I never expected, but the battle to corner Amanai eventually resulted in the leveling of my ‘hit resistance’ skill.

So, until Amanai gets serious and comes to kill me, I will endlessly be his punching bag and continue to amass experience points of ‘hit resistance’. It’ll be a waste to miss this opportunity, after all.

Of course, it’s under the premise that I can continue to withstand his attacks, but no one can match me in terms ‘tenaciousness’, so I will manage somehow!

To me, who had been treated as a punching bag by a god, albeit an evil one, something like that is nothing but a pastime now.

As long as I can get experience points, I’ll happily get myself beaten-up!!

“Now then, I wonder how much longer Akano can hold on! If you don’t hurry, she’ll die, y’know! If you don’t like that, swing your fist with the intention to kill!” (Sakurai)

Finding out that I get to leveling in the process of finishing up the goal, my tension inevitably rises, and my agitating lines also become fiercer.

I open my eyes wide and laugh as if ridiculing Amanai to no end while launching attack at him over and over again.