TN: System announcements will henceforth be differentiated using <these>.
*****
A high school girl has suddenly begun begging me for her life.
What I just said might sound crazy, but that’s how it is.
(I mean, why is she even here…?)
The person trembling in front of me is Igarashi Touka, the former Student Council President of my alma mater.
She’s the biological daughter of Fujita-san.
Furthermore, she has this worrisome skill called “Enchantment” which Nishino-kun suffered from back when we were at the school.
She hasn’t caused any problem since she arrived at the City Hall, and I’ve been keeping a distance between us, hoping that I wouldn’t get involved with her in any way…
(…Is she the one who was staring at me earlier?)
There aren’t any signs of other people or monsters.
The other Treants in this area aren’t acting up either, probably because they just witnessed the death of a “Flowered” Treant, their Superior Species.
She and I are alone in the truest sense.
(…I should be fine. Her brainwashing skills should be ineffective against me because I have “Mental Distress Tolerance”.)
Since Nishino-kun’s “Command” skill couldn’t do anything against me, I should be safe facing her skills as well.
Her skill’s a pain in the butt, but she’ll be at a disadvantage if we were to fight one-on-one.
I glance at her.
“Hiii….”
Huh? I just glanced at you. What’s there to be scared about?
Am I that scary? Is this a side effect of “Evolution”?
No, it can’t be. Nishino-kun and the others were fine in front of us.
“Why are you so frightened?”
“Eh…? No, t-that’s…”
“It’s almost as if you have something that you wish to hide…”
“…!”
She becomes visibly upset at my words.
“I heard a strange announcement in my head just now. Something about the level of ‘Appraisal Interruption’ having gone up.”
“…Ah…that’s…”
I close up the distance between us.
For every step that I advance, she retreats, paralyzed with fear.
“…Ah.”
There’s nowhere for her to retreat anymore.
Her back hits the wall.
I crouch down on the ground, thrust my face close enough that I can feel her breaths, and stare at her in the eyes.
“Igarashi-san, do you perhaps have ‘Appraisal’.”
“…”
She doesn’t reply.
However, her behavior up to this point can only mean one thing.
She has it. There’s no other way to explain.
“How did you get it? And why are you out here in the middle of the night?”
“…”
She doesn’t respond to my questions.
With her mouth shut, she turns to face another direction.
Irritated, I slam the portion of the wall that is near her face.
Hiii~
She’s terrified.
<Certain conditions have been met.>
<You have acquired the skill ‘Coercion’.>
<Skill proficiency has reached a certain threshold.>
<‘Coercion’ has increased from LV 1 to LV 2.>
<Skill proficiency has reached a certain threshold.>
<‘Coercion’ has increased from LV 2 to LV 3.>
Oh, I got a new skill.
“Coercion”… its effects should be as its name implies.
I activate “Coercion” on the spot.
“…Hii…Ah…A….”
She’s around 30% more scared than before.
Interesting. It’s a skill that literally scares its targets.
It’s also nice to know that it’s an active skill instead of a passive one.
“Why…? Why isn’t it working?”
“?….Ohhh. So you’ve been trying to cast your skill on me.”
She most likely attempted to “Enchant” me during this time-frame.
I didn’t notice because none of my skills have leveled up.
Simply put, the effect of her skill is so insignificant that my skills cannot gain any proficiency from it.
There’s no reason to be wary of her anymore.
“To begin with, what’s wrong with you, huh?”
“Eh?”
“I, for the time being, assumed that you were ‘on our side’.”
“!”
I’ve heard from Nishino-kun about her contribution in the battle against Alpha.
I was also told that she tried her best to restore the City Hall when everything was over.
That’s why I simply chose to stay away from her to this day.
But everything changes—if she wants to do us harm.
(Ah, I might be more pissed than I thought…)
Not only about her, but about myself as well.
It appears that I’ve been acting too nicely.
“If you are planning on harming us in any way—”
I pause for a moment there.
“—I won’t hesitate to bury you.”
I activate “Coercion” to its maximum as I say so.
Yes, I will not forgive her.
If she turns out to be our “enemy”, I will crush her there and then.
I’ve resolved myself to that decision.
“…!”
Realizing how serious I am, she rapidly nods her head multiple times.
(Then again, I’m not naïve enough to let things pass so easily…)
She might be pretending to be afraid right now.
That’s why I’ll be placing an “insurance” on her.
“Great. I’ll trust you for now.”
“R-really?”
“Why, of course!”
I smile as I release her from “Coercion”.
Relieved, she sighs out loud.
In that instant, I throw “something” into her mouth.
“Mugu—w-what!?”
Then, I close her mouth and force her to swallow.
I let go only when I’ve confirmed that she has swallowed the content.
“Gah…what did you make me swallow?”
“An ‘insurance’. I’m not kind enough to believe in empty words.”
I snap my fingers.
“! Og….Aga…w…what…is….this….”
She holds her stomach and begins crying out in pain.
Tears and snot stream down her face as she spasms on the ground in agony.
I snap my fingers once more.
“…The pain… it has subsided…?”
Covered in her bodily fluids, she looks up at me with a messy face.
“Do you understand now? I can take your life whenever I desire.”
“Impossible… you’re lying…”
“Oh, you don’t believe me? Why not try it out again?”
I snap my fingers.
“W-wait! I believe you! I believe you, so doooooooooooon’t! P-please….s-stop…this…pl…ease…”
I stare down coldly at the girl who begs me beside my feet.
At the same time, a feeling of guilt rises within me.
Obviously, it’s not about what I’m doing to this girl.
(…Sorry, Aka. I’ve made you play an unpleasant role.)
(…Furu furu.)
Don’t mind it.
Aka, who is disguised as my jacket, shakes.
Yes, I’ve injected a marble-sized clone of Aka into her body.
By having it expand inside her stomach, I’m making her experience a hellish pain.
But that’s all there is to it.
Over time, Aka’s clone will disappear inside her.
The statement about killing her at a moment’s notice was complete gibberish, but it should be sufficient as a threat.
Since she can’t see my status or my skills, she’ll just think that it’s the effect of one of my skills.
That misconception alone will be enough to limit her activities.
(The fact that I deem this to be “enough” goes to prove how I’m still a bit naïve…)
The best course of action would’ve been to make her spit out all the information that she has before killing her or feeding her to the monsters.
Alternatively, I could’ve locked her up in a “Shadow Cage”, just like Ono-kun.
I didn’t take such drastic measures, which means that I’m still quite naïve.
At the same time, however, there’s a certain part of me that’s telling me to never cast aside this naivety.
My heart remains unperturbed after all that I’ve done to the Student Council President.
I know that I would sound very selfish saying this, but if I were to throw away what little naivety I have left, I’m afraid that I would change into a different kind of person…
“Ready to talk? First, why are you here so late at night?”
“Y-yes… actually—”
To summarize what she says, she was investigating the reason behind the Self Defense Force’s annihilation and the disappearance of numerous citizens.
Fed up by the SDF members’ unwillingness to cooperate, she “Enchanted” one of them and forcibly extracted information from him.
Just as she arrived at the possibility that the monsters in the neighboring town had something to do with the citizens disappearing left and right—
“—You heard a loud noise and rushed over to find out where it was from.”
“Y-yes… and—”
“And? And what?”
I threaten to snap my fingers.
“P-please forgive me! I’ll say it! Please don’t do this to me!”
Seeing me lower my hand, she becomes evidently relieved.
“Then speak.”
“Y-yes… um, I haven’t explored this region yet, so I was thinking I’d be able to find some undiscovered ‘Treasure Chests’…”
“….‘Treasure Chests’, you say?”
“I-I’m telling you the truth! I’m not screwing around!”
Fearful that I won’t trust her, she babbles on in desperation.
“‘Treasure Chests’? As in those ornamental wooden boxes hidden in various corners?”
“E-exactly. Inside those chests, you can find recovery potions, weapons, and items that allow you to acquire skills. Some of them can be a miss, though…”
“…”
Ichinose-san and I have found something similar in the past…
The chest that we discovered contained a [Ring of Agility] which, as its name suggests, raises its owner’s agility, and a [Healing Jewel] with unknown functions.
According to the Student Council President, “Treasure Chests” can be classified as either hits or misses.
“Um…Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing. I see, ‘Treasure Chests’…Did you say some items can give you skills?”
“Yes, they’re known as Skill Orbs, and they’re essentially transparent glass orbs around the size of baseball balls.”
They’re about as big as the [Healing Jewel] that I have in my possession.
“Ho~u… and you’re saying that anyone can acquire skills by using these Skill Orbs?”
“Yes. Red orbs give you skills, black orbs give you occupations, and white orbs raise your status.”
They’re categorized into three types, huh?
As I thought, there are other ways beside Ichionse-san’s “Gatcha” to acquire skills and occupations.
“Is that how you got ‘Appraisal’?”
“…Yes, I came across the skill through sheer luck.”
“Is that so…”
Apparently, she can adjust the range of “Appraisal” to a certain extent.
By narrowing down her target to specific individuals, she can look at the details of their skills and status.
On the other hand, if she selects multiple targets at once, she will only get information about the targets’ names.
As such, ever since she acquired the skill, she has set “Appraisal” at default, allowing her to see the “names” of everything in her sight whenever she is outdoors.
Thanks to that, she has been able to find multiple “Treasure Chests” that were hidden in discrete locations where people would have normally overlooked.
Based on how her “Appraisal” is at LV 6, I can tell that she has been using it continuously to grind levels.
(My “Appraisal Interruption” was originally at LV 6 as well. That means the skills offset each other when they’re at the same level.)
In other words, if I hadn’t faced the Intelligent Zombie in advance, my status would have been revealed to her.
I don’t know whether to describe the timing of the Zombie’s appearance as impeccable or not.
Anyway, I’ve now figured out how she has “Appraisal” and why she is here.
(“Treasure Chests”…Considering what might happen in the future, I want to secure as many of them as possible.)
Although there may be some Mimics mixed in, “Treasure Chests” are exceedingly valuable as they have weapons, occupations, and skills inside them.
Ichinose-san and I have multiple occupations and skills owing to the fact that we can get bonus points from “Gatcha” and “Precocious”, but the same cannot be said for Nishino-kun and Rikka-chan.
If they can obtain some new powers through looting “Treasure Chests”, our overall power would shoot up considerably.
(It’ll be a breeze as long as we use her “Appraisal” to our advantage…)
She’ll act as our truffle hog… no, a truffle dog.
We’ll force that role upon her.
She was the one to provoke us first, so she shouldn’t have any qualms about this treatment.
Rather, she should be grateful that I’m not killing her.
(…If it was a few days ago, I never would have thought in this manner.)
It’s rather unpleasant.
To protect my loved ones such as Ichinose-san and Momo, I’m willing to walk down a cruel path.
It’s to the extent where I don’t think I’ll blink an eye even if I were to exploit the Student Council President and the others before discarding them like trash.
“Fair enough. Let us depart from—”
—this place.
The Treants around us start to buzz as I’m about to finish my sentence.
“….W-what?”
“This is—?”
Then, we start to hear unsettling sounds that are too creepy to describe as a simple “buzz”.
They’re…terrified?
The Treants are terrified?
The Treants around us are shaking as if they’re screaming, “Scary! Scary!”
“What…could this mean…?”
Their behaviors clearly deviate from the norm.
The answer reveals itself soon enough.
My skills ring a warning bell.
The very next instant, cracks appear on the ground in front of us.
“W-what—!?”
“—Dodge it!”
I instinctively grab onto Igarashi-san and jump backwards.
Countless “vines” explode out from the cracks that have just formed.
Vines as thick as a person’s body sprout up like a geyser.
Each of them is dozens, if not tens of dozens, of meters long.
(Are these vines from a Treant? No, but—)
They’re too long.
Aren’t they all over a hundred meters in length?
No, that’s not important right now.
Those are dangerous. Those vines are definitely “something dangerous”.
Both my skills and my instinct are ringing the alarm like never before.
(This presence… Could it be that this monster is as overwhelming as that Dragon from the morning? No, is it even stronger…?)
Impossible.
No matter what, that would be—
Before I could finish my thoughts, the “vines” move into action.
They swell up like tentacles and wrap themselves around the Treants that are near them.
“…What the—?”
“~~~~~~~~~~~!!”
The Treants that have been restrained make some creaking noises before being snapped in halves.
The “vines” nonchalantly pick up the magic stones of the deceased Treants and slowly slither back into the ground.
(Wait…? Aren’t these “vines” a Treant’s?)
Is it a different monster?
But why did the “vines” attack the Treants instead of us?
Oh, right.
“Appraisal”.
Won’t we be able to figure out the true identities of these “vines” through Igarashi-san’s “Appraisal”?
I look towards Igarashi-san who I’m carrying on my left.
“Igarashi-san, can you ‘Appraise’ those creatures?”
“Eh? Ah, yes! I’ll try it out!”
She turns to look at the “vines”.
A moment later—
“Eh? Strange…it doesn’t seem like I can ‘Appraise’ them?”
“Could they be…!”
Suddenly, the “vines” which have been targeting the Treants until now turn toward us.
Although they don’t have any eyes, it feels like we’re being stared at.
(No way. You’re telling me that these vines… have “Appraisal Interruption” like I do—?)
It’s quite clear that they’re “hostile” to us.
These unidentifiable vines have recognized us as their “enemies”.
Not good. This might not have been a wise decision…