Ch.230Web Novel Showdown (1)

Anyway, we searched the old town while hunting monsters.

“Wow… how can there not be a single monster?” Taiga remarked.

“We did hunt too many…” Sasith said.

“Yeah. Everyone went crazy for those weirdo slimes…”

Just catching one would make your level shoot up by 1 or 2 points. It was impossible not to get obsessed.

“But what can we do? Without prey, we can’t level up. The enemies are only going to get stronger, right? Won’t our growth stagnate?”

Kana leaned on her sword like a staff as she raised a valid concern.

“Our current levels are sufficient, though.”

I scratched my head as I spoke.

At level 70-something, we were already at a nearly complete growth stage. JRPGs have changed a lot these days. They don’t demand extreme grinding like they used to. The meta now is designing games so you can see the ending just by following the main quest.

Geez… kids these days have no perseverance. No grit… I almost said.

At this point, it was more important to build community and assemble psycho-robots. Along the way, we’d run dungeons to get equipment, buy whatever items didn’t drop… and then see the ending.

‘The ending, huh…’

Pink Beard’s major offensive would begin next March. Thinking about it that way, time had passed quite quickly.

When the world becomes peaceful… I’ll marry all my girlfriends and live happily ever after. I wanted to earn as much money as possible as a kendo athlete and web novel writer to make everyone happy.

“Hmph. Peace is a good thing,” Thumbs-up Man said.

“True. Well, it seems there are no enemies, so let’s head back,” I replied.

———

That night, I entered the dream dungeon again.

“Frill! Let’s try a new dungeon today!”

Sasith now completely went around as a duo with Frill for training.

“Sasith. How’s Saeko doing?”

I asked Sasith. I felt a bit sorry for ditching her last time.

“Honestly… I’m not thrilled about having another mouth to feed, but Frill likes her so much.”

Sasith casually stripped off his clothes while chatting with me.

He had become completely comfortable with taking off his top before fighting. Good. That’s it. That’s how you get properly conditioned.

“…I wonder if I should tell Sasith to stay away from Spiky Head.”

Frill looked at Sasith with concerned eyes. Hey, don’t treat people like they’re the plague.

“Thanks to Frill liking her, I can’t kick her out.”

Sasith sighed. Well, it’s because his happy newlywed life was being disrupted.

“Still, she doesn’t eat food since she’s a doll. And she’s started helping with housework. So she’s not completely a burden.”

Sasith said.

Saeko… desperately trying not to get kicked out as a freeloader.

“Well, hang in there. Our house is kind of like that too.”

I said with a smile.

“I’ll say it again, it’s because of Frill!! Otherwise, I would have just refused!!”

Sasith stated firmly.

“Sure, sure.”

I smiled as I acknowledged his words.

Anyway, I entered the daily dungeon again today.

———-

“My, my!! What a cute little one! Ohohoho.”

“What spell should I cast on you?”

Old women like pickled radishes greeted me immediately. These were the witches.

“AAAAARGH!! DIE!! YOU DEMONS!!!”

This wasn’t the kind of witches I had in mind!!!

I was expecting something fresh like “Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches”!!! This was more like “Yamada the Nursing Assistant and Seven Old Ladies”!!!

SWOOOOSH-!!

I immediately swung my sword wide, cutting down the witches in front of me.

“You’ve lived long enough!! Time to die!!!”

SWOOOOSH-!!!!

“KYAAAAA!!!”

“GUHACK!!”

The witches and their summoned minions became food for my sword one after another.

Anyway, filled with anger at my shattered fantasy, I vigorously ran through the dungeon.

Ding-!

My level quickly reached 74. As expected, leveling up was faster here. The consistent rate of leveling regardless of stage made it worthwhile.

‘So… now to the weapon dungeon.’

At that point, I still hadn’t reached 1000 sword proficiency.

Today I was determined to hit 1000 proficiency. With that sole purpose, I entered the sword dungeon.

As soon as I entered the dungeon, I spotted my target with eagle eyes.

“Anakin spotted!!”

I immediately rushed toward Anakin.

“Hahaha!! Filthy mortal….”

Anakin spewed his usual lines.

What I did was always the same too. Practice makes perfect.

I… had already reached mastery in the art of kidnapping Anakin.

Slash-!! Crack-!

Cutting off both legs with a swing of my sword took 1 second.

Stab-!!

Immediately after, thrusting the sword into his stomach and twisting to break Anakin’s posture took 2 seconds.

Thud-!

Grabbing Anakin by the collar and dragging him to the dungeon entrance took 3 seconds.

After that, it was just a repetition of continuously beating Anakin.

“Y-you, what are you… GUHEEEEK?!!”

Once again, Anakin suffered.

Ding-!!

After pounding Anakin like a piece of meat for quite some time, the results finally appeared.

“Ooh~nice!!”

My sword proficiency finally hit 1000.

‘Hero’s Sword Handle Unlocked’

A dry notification sounded from my status window. The special reward had finally been unlocked.

Now I had no more business in this dungeon.

“Anakin… I guess I won’t be seeing you anymore.”

I had somehow grown attached to Anakin.

“Anakin… take care not to catch a cold.”

I wiped my nose as I gave insincere well-wishes.

“What nonsense!! Please just leave!!!!”

Anakin’s anguished cry echoed.

This guy… acting shy when he’s actually sad too.

———

As the bars at the entrance of the sword dungeon were removed, an old sword handle fell to the ground.

“So this is the Hero’s Sword whatever…”

But the sword was in fragments, completely broken. It was quite dubious as a weapon.

Still, I tried grabbing the sword.

The moment I grabbed it, I was enveloped in a familiar feeling.

Flash-!!

At that moment, my consciousness went dark.

————-

Yes. A high-quality nightmare-like scene appeared before my eyes, just like last time.

“HYAAAAH!!!!”

In the vision, I swung my sword toward the Demon Lord ahead, letting out a beast-like roar. It wasn’t like “Demon Lord” was written on his face. But… somehow I knew. That person was the Demon Lord.

SWOOOOSH-!!!

The blue-glowing sword cut the Demon Lord’s body in half.

“UWAAAAAH!!!!”

The Demon Lord screamed in pain as he staggered backward.

“Guh… the wound… it’s not regenerating…!! That sword… it must be the legendary holy sword…!!”

The Demon Lord stumbled and fell backward.

Sizzle-!!

The wound inflicted by the sword on the Demon Lord burned fiercely with no sign of healing.

Yes. I had achieved victory against the Demon Lord. That much was certain.

“Just as the prophecy said… in the end… I meet my death at the hands of a hero wielding the holy sword.”

The Demon Lord laughed hoarsely.

“But even if you were chosen by the holy sword… you couldn’t protect your companions. You saved the world… but couldn’t save those by your side.”

The Demon Lord looked around.

Only then did I have to face what I had lost in the battle with the Demon Lord.

The bodies of the mage and cleric, my original members and senior members of my harem, were mangled beyond recognition.

And the beastkin warrior I had saved from an evil slave trader, the elf queen who joined as a spirit mage after falling head over heels for me, the golem in the form of a beautiful girl who had been sealed for 100 years, and the dark elf thief whose pocket habits were bad but whose bedroom skills were good… all had been killed.

They were all my precious companions and… lovers who had embraced me.

“Hahaha… you saved the world, but what’s left for you? You’ll spend the rest of your life looking at that holy sword and jerking off…”

While the Demon Lord was mocking me, I swung my sword at his neck.

Clank-!!

After throwing away the holy sword, I let out a scream-like roar.

“UWAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!”

———–

A while later, I came to my senses.

“Huff… huff…!”

It was such a terrible nightmare it made me nauseous.

That piece of the holy sword… was definitely a fragment of this sword.

“Is this the residual consciousness of the sword’s owner…?”

It was extremely unsettling.

Or… a past life? Honestly, as a web novel writer, I couldn’t help but have such thoughts. Was I a hero in my past life?

‘Nah. That’s a bit much.’

Even so, that’s going too far. Being possessed was one thing, but adding past life connections would be excessive world-building.

Anyway, this sword was too creepy. Just looking at it made me feel bad. Collecting the sword fragments would probably help… but I didn’t want to reforge it as a weapon.

This sword… deserved to rest in peace along with the memories of its previous user.

“Hmm. So you’ve finally obtained part of the holy sword. It’s a legendary weapon. If you collect all the pieces, our Green Beard can reforge it into a weapon.”

Blue Beard said with a smile.

“No. I won’t be turning this back into a sword.”

I shook my head.

“It would be helpful though?”

Blue Beard seemed unable to understand my thinking.

“No. This sword has the right to rest.”

Then, I voiced what I had been thinking.

“This sword is a material too, right? So we can feed it to Pinocchio to strengthen him.”

I was planning to just grind it up as enhancement material.

“What kind of crazy…!”

Blue Beard seemed genuinely shocked.

“Can we do it or not?”

I asked bluntly.

“Y-yes, it can be done, but…”

Blue Beard finally admitted it was possible.

“Then I’ll give it to Pinocchio.”

I smiled as I summoned Pinocchio.

Yes. This was the best solution. I was certain of that.

Here you go, Pinocchio. It’s a fragment of the holy sword. It’s precious, so eat it and grow strong.

With that thought, I headed toward the enhancement device.