Chapter 23

The chimera was truly troublesome .

Even if it was one v . one, the movements of the snake tail was unreadable and it’s poisonous, so it wasn’t wrong to say that it was two v . one .

「…tsk . 」

When I jumped back in accordance to my perception skill, the place that I had just been in was melted by poison .

I continued moving backwards and dodged the claws of the lunging animal as well .

「…it’s roughly two, three meters . 」

I measured the range of the poison by eye, and distanced myself from the chimera .

As I was observing the chimera, it came charging, as if to say that break time was over .

I held ‘Yatonokami’ at the ready, and I moved forward and not backwards .

『Guruaaa . 』

「…this is not enough either, huh . 」

The ‘Yatonokami’ that caught hold of its neck just as we passed one another was repelled .

Previously, I was going to cut off the tail, but it was also repelled .

The Minotaur’s hide was good, even though the fur was fluffy at a glance, it was hard .

It was disregarding the various laws of nature .

With that momentum, we were five meters apart and facing each other .

Both of us bent down, …and clashed .

When you’re dealing with an assassin whose agility was second-to-none and, a chimera who had excellent leg strength, even when they’re five meters apart, they can’t be contained .

「Guhhh . 」

However, when it came down to physical strength, at that moment, I was inferior .

By nature, assassins didn’t do direct confrontations .

They cowardly slit the target’s throat, from behind .

Even though you’re slitting their throats, there’s no need to use too much strength .

The chimera appeared at the spot where I had been knocked down onto, chasing after me .

I twisted my body and dodged it, and crashed into the ground right after .

I fell over and decided to keep my distance, but before I could stand up, i received an impact in my abdomen .

I was hit and crashed into the wall, everything in front of me blanked out .

The difference in strength was too much .

If I was caught even once, I would be toyed with as if it were messing with a baby .

Perhaps it was on purpose, or perhaps it because of luck, it seems that the claws had not reached me, and I was not torn apart .

However, it was certain that a few ribs were broken, one of which seems to have pierced an internal organ .

Blood spilt from my mouth, it might get dangerous if I don’t get medical treatment soon .

Objectively looking at my injury, although it was too late, I realized that this was not the time to be stubborn about having a direct confrontation .

In the first place, the boss was not weak enough for me to be able to fight it with my magic and skills sealed .

「…my bad . I will fight seriously from now on . 」

I said that to the chimera who saw me get up from far away and I held my hand out as if I was holding something .

The chimera suddenly stiffened .

「…『Shadow Magic』 . 」

The shadows within the dim boss’s room blew up .

It hadn’t come out in a while and it seemed happy .

A thin yet tough shadow wrapped itself around the chimera’s feet .

That was, not something that I instructed it to do .

『As I thought, it seems that your magic has its own consciousness . 』

Commander Saran’s voice resounded within my head .

Was that, the night when the the forest was nearly annihilated?

────

「Consciousness? Magic?」

「Yes . After all, magic like shadow magic doesn’t exist in this world . 」

Within Commander Saran’s office, my jaw dropped at the controversial statement that was smoothly uttered .

「Ha? No, shadow magic is actually properly displayed on my status though . 」

「Yes, I don’t doubt its existence itself . Since I saw that power with my own eyes today . 」

Commander-san, who put his elbows on the desk and was broadly smiling, seemed like he was having a lot of fun .

Of course, it wasn’t amusing for me though .

「The magic of this world seems to be divided variously, and it is actually divided into certain attributes . 」

He turned over unwanted documents onto the other side, and easily drew a diagram .

「First off, the fundamental fire, water, earth and wind . These are normal skills, abilities, etc . , however, it is relatively easy to acquire them . 」

He drew four circles and filled them in with the letters of the four magics that he told me about .

And then, each circle had lines drawn out and several circles were drawn .

I was looking at it upside down, ‘it somehow looks like a drawing of the ecosystem,’ I muttered this irrelevant thought in my head .

「First is my light magic, but it comes from one element and is derived from water . Now then, what do you think comes from water and light?」

「…isn’t it healing?」

「Yes, that’s correct . As usual, you have a good understanding and it is worth it to teach you . 」

Commander Saran was grinning broadly and wrote down healing in between water and light .

「Other magics like dispel magic are derived from healing magic, but they all come from water magic . In addition, darkness magic comes from earth magic, lightning magic from light magic, it comes out to be like this . 」

Commander Saran continuously wrote down magics that even I knew .

Shadow magic was not included in this .

「Isn’t it derived from darkness magic?」

「That is a good question . However, I thought that you, the user, would understand it well, but shadow magic consists of physical attacks, and darkness magic attacks the mind . In that case, it would be strange for darkness magic to be derived from earth magic, but that’s how it is . 」

「In short, that means that that area is vague? Got it . 」

「Although I have lived for a long time, there are still a lot of things that I don’t know . 」

Commander Saran said this, and wrote down shadow magic a little further away .

「I think that that the fact that your shadow magic is being classified as an extra skill is related to that area . …besides, today was the first time I’ve seen something like shadow magic . 」

He was looking at me with his eyes shining .

Just like, a scientist who made a new discovery with their gaze that had turned towards an experimental guinea pig .

「Compared to Commander Sarah’s light magic, a skill that can annihilate a forest is, dangerous though . 」

「Maa, maa, for me, a part of me doesn’t want you to use it and other part wants you to keep on using it . 」

「Really . Then, what do you mean by my magic having its own consciousness?」

I turned my head as if running from that gaze, and brought it back to the real issue at hand .

Commander hit his hand with a pon, and put down the pen .

「Today, when the forest was almost annihilated, if you looked at it right after it happened, the magic could only be seen as running wild . 」

「It was actually running wild . 」

「Maa, there is that, but something like magic running wild, would be when it would target the person who invoked it . 」

When it involved the common sense of this world, there was nothing to retort .

The reason was simple, it was because I don’t know .

It was extremely humiliating though .

「As a matter of fact, your magic today, it could be seen that, far from causing you harm, it turned towards the forest by itself . Zeal-kun is of the same opinion on this . 」

「…if that’s what Vice-Commander Zeal said, then that’s probably how it is . 」

「Ah! My glass heart was hurt just now!」

「Glass? Aah, tempered glass, huh . 」

「Tempered glass? T, this time, please tell me about it . 」

There was nothing more unpleasant than a starving man thirsting for knowledge .

I pushed Commander Saran who had brought his face close to me back .

「Well? If my magic had its own consciousness, what about it?」

「Let’s see . When it runs wild again and if there were people around, they might get caught up in it . Shadow magic in itself is an extremely strong magic, but there’s the fatal problems of MP consumption and control . 」

And, the joking around look on his face disappeared and he turned serious .

I had great admiration for the speed of this person’s change every time .

「Akira-kun, please use this magic after getting permission from me, or when you have confirmed that there isn’t anyone around . Even if it’s completely under control, you can not be careless . …alright?」

「…I got it . 」

────

「The right side is ok, the left side is ok, above is ok, below is ok . … . target confirmed . 」

The shadow were waiting for my orders, as if it was telling me to hurry up . .

I could see that the chimera was struggling to escape from the shadow, but it wasn’t able to escape from my shadow .

「Alright, that’s good . ‘Eat messily’ . 」

The shadow, made an inaudible sound full of delight .

The shadow was gradually eroding the chimera’s body .

For the first time, the chimera raised its voice that was full of fear .

However, I did not stop the shadows .

Aa if it was a bloodthirsty demon, it did as I told it to, and ate the chimera messily .

It was to the extent that the shadow penetrated the skin that didn’t have a single injury and tore the chimera’s body into pieces .

The boss’s room was filled with the smell of blood .

It was so stinky that I was nauseous, but strangely, I didn’t find it unpleasant . Rather, I even had a feeling that I had smelled it all the time, ever since I was little,

In the end, did my five senses become strange because of the pain?

The satisfied shadow, came out from where the chimera that had been torn into pieces to the point of being unrecognizable was, and came back to my feet .

「You’ve worked hard . Thanks . 」

When I said this, the shadow snuggled up to my leg like a cat, and disappeared .

「As expected, let’s not use shadow magic and skills only while on the floors . …it may be, tough for, the boss . 」

I lost consciousness while leaning on the wall .

As one would expect, it seems that the pain was more than I could tolerate .

《Master’s damage has exceeded the acceptable value . Forcible activation of 『Shadow Magic』 . Mode, ‘Recovery’ . It is confirmed that Master’s MP is insufficient . Collecting the necessary amount from the magic power that had been preserved by the shadow magic . …recovery complete . 『Shadow Magic』, activation suspended . 》

Within the room where there wasn’t anyone who heard that, a mechanical voice came out of my mouth, but no one knew about that .