Chapter 70 - 0 vs 1000

The three of us started backing away from the throne, now realizing that the king had every intention of caging those who knew their secrets. If the kingdom of Sistina knew of the abilities and resources that Macali held, it would likely endanger this country. It may even escalate into an arms war in an attempt to claim dominance.

What chance did we have against someone with stats so powerful? Not to mention, his ‘wives’ in front of him were nothing to sneeze at. Part of me wondered if it would be so bad to stay here where the quality of life appeared to be much higher, but my mind quickly quelled that thought. I couldn’t approve of how Koujiro had threatened to treat us. No matter how sweet the environment, it would be spoiled by the prospect of someone you couldn’t trust leading it. Therefore, my hand had already made its way to my knife.

Eryn unbundled her sword and drew it from its scabbard. The sword shimmered as she brought it between her and the king.

“Hmm… what a nice weapon. I think I should add it to my collection. It would look fabulous on the side wall in the morning when the sun hits it.” Koujiro stood up and casually walked down from his throne.

“Ladies, step aside. I should be more than enough to take care of this.”

As the group of girls parted ways, Koujiro drew his sword which faintly shone blue. I activated my skill and saw that the glow came from a thick flow of mana escaping from the blade itself. It was apparently strong enough such that it could be seen even without any special abilities. Undoubtedly, that was a highly-prized weapon.

Eryn got in front of us to engage the king as Katalina and I started backing away. The girls circled around us to cut off our escape. Even though I drew my knife, I wasn’t ready yet to pull out my trump card. Eryn had likely stepped up to test the king’s capabilities, while we bided time to strategize.

Eryn swung her sword at Koujiro, but his blade blocked hers in the air quite easily. His arm had barely moved even as Eryn drew back and swung at it several times. By merely placing his sword in front of him, his overwhelming defense made it seem like Eryn was attacking him with a paper weapon. Occasionally, she glanced back towards me as if to send me a signal.

What could I even do in a situation like this? Against a foe who was three times as strong as her?

Though I could likely ease the burden by breaking his equipment, his stats still had unnaturally high Atk, Def, and MgDef… wait, I felt like there was something strange about that. He said that he was an Electi but didn’t say what kind. Also, the Electi that I had met so far only had an advantage in one type of stat, so why was someone like him so special?

His harem had not moved in to detain us, having decided that we weren’t enough of a threat to bother. The control of the fight had been clearly on their side. Watching their champion fight off another challenger with an almost bored expression, they felt quite confident of their superiority. I quickly brought up a status window to check Koujiro once again. Sure enough, his stats were not a lie. I watched as Eryn cast some fire magic, in which Koujiro stood comfortably within its blaze. If anyone had stats like this, they could, of course, tank their way through anything that could be thrown at him.

However, it also seemed like he had little battle experience. His movements became rougher the more Eryn had thrown in feints. It was like he was only able to keep up due to his overwhelming parameters.

Not finding anything useful on this page, I clicked the next tab. Suddenly, everything clicked into place. I almost let out a chuckle at this turn of events, but I covered my mouth to hide my discovery.

“Hey, Katalina.”

“Yes?”

“What’s the most powerful equipment in your country, defense-wise?”

“Umm… that would be my father’s full body armor, rated at a total of 89 points for both physical and magic-based attacks. Why?”

“Is it as powerful-looking as Koujiro’s?”

“Probably. From here, I can see that the base materials are similar, but his armor looks enhanced by magic.”

“Good, that’s all I need to know.” I waited for the right moment to act.

Meanwhile, Eryn was still in the midst of a futile struggle against Koujiro. Having had his fill of feeling invincible, he moved forward and smacked his sword against hers. The resulting force ripped it out of her hand and into the air, in which Koujiro moved over to catch it.

He scanned the surface of the blade with a look of appreciation before looking back at her.

“Such a lovely specimen, both the blade and its wielder. Say, why don’t you join my harem as well? You would be much better off with the proper gear. I can promise you an equal place among the others in exchange for some affection.”

Koujiro dropped her sword and grabbed Eryn’s wrist, pulling her close to him.

“Hey, buddy! Hands off!” I called out to him. “She’s mine.”

Koujiro turned towards me with an inquisitive look. “Oh, I see! She’s your master, isn’t she? That’s the whole reason why you are here, like a puppy that has to follow along in her travels. What a poor, unfortunate situation that you have been placed in.”

Letting Eryn go, he turned his sword to me. “So, you turn your pitiful excuse of a weapon towards me? I know you have to play the role of a good familiar, but are you kidding me? I would laugh at your attempt, but the situation is so unfair that it would be evil of me.”

His words of ridicule left no impact on me as I steadfastly continued our staring match.

Koujiro paused for a moment and lowered his sword. “Join me. I sympathize with you. We are both people from another world who were summoned to be here. In my case, Relia was the one who summoned me. But things have changed. I quickly proved to be the superior one, and now, I am the master. Wouldn’t you like to have a taste of it too – what it feels like to be the hero of your story? Wouldn’t you like to be the one giving out the orders?” He extended his free hand towards me as he implied how he would help me dominate Eryn if I wished for it.

“Are you daft? I’m enjoying my life plenty. I don’t need someone to hand me any favors, especially not someone who barely knows what I’ve been through or how much I cherish our connection.”

A bit surprised by my refusal, Koujiro lowered his hand. “Be that way. Your efforts are futile anyway. Go ahead and take your best shot.” He lowered his guard, brazenly inviting me to attack him.

“Sure, since you SOOOO kindly insisted…” I pulled out my gun from the Item Box and activated my skill. I fired it over and over, pelting his body and his sword with seemingly harmless beads until the chamber finally clicked empty.

Not even moving an inch, Koujiro’s let out a sigh. “I couldn’t help but be disappointed when you pulled out a gun, especially one that didn’t increase your base Atk stat. Don’t you realize that projectiles don’t work the same way in this world as our previous one? No matter how seemingly powerful your weapon is, unless someone strong wields it, it barely does anything.”

“Of course, I know. That applies to anything thrown or launched too. But I think you’re overlooking the fact as to what type of Electi I am.”

Koujiro stared blankly at me. “Well, your best stat is Crit, which is maxed out. What does that mean, anyway?”

“It means this,” Eryn said as she swung her fist towards the front of Koujiro’s armor. As her fist slammed into the metal surface, the armor shattered from the impact. The back portion of the armor slid off his body and fell onto the ground.

Having been distracted by my statements, Koujiro never bothered to check that my seemingly harmless beads had created large cracks in his armor and weapon. Since he had so kindly stood still for me, I made sure to compound those fractures enough such that someone with a decent Atk could destroy it. Eryn spun her leg to kick the lower portion of his armor. This too shattered and fell to the ground. Reflexively moving his sword in front of him to block Eryn’s unarmed attacks, her fist next collided with the sword, snapping it right in half.

Stripped of his armor and weapon, Koujiro was left in only his underwear. The thin, lanky outline of his body showed nothing of what would be expected of a true fighter. With his status window in view, his stats were now all under 20, numbers that made him as weak as the average, untrained person. This was the true form of Koujiro, a frail person that had hid himself behind powerful gear and false bravado.

As to why it turned out this way, the secret lay behind the type of Electi he was. On the second page, which showed equipment proficiency, the attribute displayed a number of 1000% next to every category, a staggeringly high number. This meant that anything that he equipped would give him 10x the normal stat boost. Since weapons and armor were naturally designed to increase Atk, Def, and MgDef, his numbers became much higher than the rest. Even seemingly small boosts to other stats, which would normally be negligible, quickly added up to impressive numbers when equipped to Koujiro.

However, once those equips were removed, Koujiro had become essentially useless. Eryn and I smiled at him in contempt. Seeing that their champion had been beaten, the girls started to wield their weapons against us.

“Hold it now!” I turned to the girls and reloaded my gun. “It wouldn’t be wise for any of you to make a move. Not unless you want me to ‘Dress Break’ the lot of you!”

Though I highly doubted that any of them knew of the ‘boost-happy’ pervert that this move came from, they seemed to have gotten the message. Immediately, their hands moved to cover their bodies as if they needed to protect their modesty.

Seeing that they had stopped in their tracks, I walked over to an awe-inspiring crossbow that was mounted on the wall and grabbed it, before aiming it towards Koujiro. A collective gasp echoed through the room.

“Wait! That’s the Crossbow of Shambala! It has an Atk rating of 92! If you fire that at me in this state, I’ll surely die!” Koujiro begged at me. Eryn moved behind him and put him in a shoulder lock. His frame was particularly small, so even someone like Eryn could overpower him in this manner, having gone through basic knight training.

I took a step forward and aimed the crossbow at him. Before any of the girls could rush over to shield him, a bolt flew across the room and impacted him in the chest.

“Ow!”

Rather than piercing through him like they expected, the bolt bounced off his chest and fell to the ground. It likely stung but hardly did any real damage. While he was busy being confused that he wasn’t dead, I stepped forward and fired another bolt at him, which naturally bounced off his chest with another ‘Ow!’.

By this time, the girls were staring dumbly at this almost amusing situation. With each step, I reloaded the crossbow and continued to torture him with it. I was having quite a bit of fun at his expense, but he deserved it. However, I did decide to clue him in on the current situation.

“I’ll have you know that my proficiency is completely opposite of you. I have a value of 0%, so it doesn’t matter what I wield. It all becomes nothing more than a toy in my hands, sadly.”

“Then how? How were you able to destroy my gear? And so easily?” Koujiro yelled at me desperately.

By now, I was standing right in front of him. Bending down, I spoke gently.

“I may be weak normally. But still, there are things that only I can do. Things that I only discovered by truly persevering.”

With that last line, I tapped him on the neck. Koujiro’s vision blacked out.