chapter 14

“Uwa… don’t come up with such gross things! Although, we’d be able to ignore the shell if we did that.” Hiyama-san is somewhat disgusted by my suggestion, but she doesn’t reject it.

Well, I did do some experiments beforehand. This is something I came up with the first day we arrived. By the way, things that have other things teleported into them explode… or burst anyway. Most likely from the objects appearing inside them. Under the laws of Earth’s physics, doing this would be very dangerous. That said, our abilities don’t seem to operate according to the laws of Earth’s physics.

Well, considering that something like Taniizumi’s flames exist, Earth’s physics don’t really seem applicable here. Then there’s also swordsmanship. How someone who has never wielded a blade until now can swing one around so naturally is an utter mystery.

I haven’t tested this on living things. In this world, I couldn’t because I haven’t been able to leave the base. In Japan, there were various reason to why I couldn’t try it out on something living. Even if I were to try, cats and dogs move around. More importantly, preforming such experiments would be horrible. Not only would I have to tie them down, they might even die.

However, putting a small object inside a water balloon was possible. Making a ship in a bottle is easy for me.

“That’s a good move.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

Shigenobu, Hagisawa, and Himeno-san all agree. Right now, everybody is imagining the possibilities. I don’t think they would have reacted like this before we came here.

“Why didn’t you try it out during any of the battles before this?”

“Well… my teleportation ability takes time to activate.”

Using it during battle is impossible. Once I set a target, my ability needs 5 minutes to activate. No mamono will stay still for 5 minutes during battle. And although I can try to anticipate the flow of battle, that’s not realistic.

“Seeing that it isn’t moving and is just staying in its shell, I think it’s worth a shot.”

Hiyama-san also agrees. With that, I hold the stone and activate my teleportation. An hourglass appears in my field of view, one that gradually decreases.

…The turtle doesn’t even budge. This should be easy.

“We’re almost out of time, so let’s head back after this experiment finishes.”

“Were we better off ignoring it?”

“No, it’s not a problem. Either way, I think we would have run out of time just searching for another mamono.”

“Will treating everyone’s injuries… be possible once we return?”

“No need, thanks to Himeno-san healing every once in a while, nobody’s injured.”

During the interval between each battle, I would transfer materials to Shigenobu’s workshop, while Himeno-san healed the others. As such, everyone was in perfect condition for each battle.

“To start, what should we do with the points?”

“Give them to Shigenobu so he can work on the next set of equipment.”

That was the general consensus. I got 350 points during this hunt. I don’t know if it’s a little or a lot, but if just one person can get this amount, then gathering up everyone’s points should allow us to make something good considering what we were able to make with the few points we had before.

“Okay, I’ll give them to you.”

With those considerations in mind, I give the points I collected to Shigenobu. At the same time, the stone that in my hand disappears. A good cracking sound then rings out from the turtle. The Blue Metal Turtle’s head pops out and its limbs flap up and down as it takes off… and crashing into a nearby tree.

“Wh-What?”

It wriggles around a little before rolling over on its back.

“Just now…did its head come out?”

As I say that, I stab my sword at the head of the flailing Blue Metal Turtle. As expected, it really is hard… my blade can’t penetrate it.

“Is it made of metal.”

In RPGs, enemies with this kind of toughness tend to give a lot of experience.

“Ah, there’s a crack here.”

A crack runs across the belly side of the shell. Hiyama-san and Shigenobu stab their blades there.

“――!?”

The Blue Metal Turtle is given a fatal wound. Its power ebbs as its blood flows out, and then with a twitch, it stops moving.

I honestly didn’t think that would work. If I use this power on Taniizumi while he’s sleeping… what would happen? It’s true that Taniizumi is a heartless guy, but not to the point of killing him. Most important of all, he hasn’t gone as far as to commit murder.

If I were to use this power to kill, I would never be able to face Shigenobu, Hiyama-san, or anybody else. None of them would ever forgive me either. In the first place, I want to help others. What would I say if I killed someone? This is getting my priorities backwards.

“Did we get a lot of experience?”

Our eye shine as we check our statuses… it’s less than expected. Same deal with the points. Well, of the mamono that we’ve fought so far, it’s given us exceptionally nice experience, but it’s nothing compared to a certain RPG’s metal turtle. Out of the mamono we fought today, it takes the lead by quite a bit.

If there were even more, that would be scrumptious.

That said, my teleportation takes five minutes to activate, so I don’t know how efficient that would be. If we defeated one every five minutes, would we have enough? Seems about right. Well, since we only encountered 1 after 2 hours, maybe there just aren’t that many.

“Was Yukinari’s attack effective?”

“Wasn’t it?”

Shigenobu, Hiyama-san, and Hagisawa strip off segments from the cracked shell and check the internal organs. As they do that, I see where my stone ended up… it crushed the heart.

“Seems like this sort of thing is possible after all.”

“Defeating the mamono that Taniizumi and the others couldn’t, that’s amazing!”

“R-really?”

That makes me a bit happy. It looks like my power can do something like this after all. Still, there’s too many problems that makes using this in battle difficult at the moment.

“Since it didn’t move at all, it somehow or another worked out…”

I can’t wait five minutes with a moving opponent. To use this in battle, just how far ahead would I have to be able to read!?

“For starters, we’ve obtained material from a mamono that not even Taniizumi and the others couldn’t defeat. I should be able to make good equipment.”

Shigenobu smiles broadly. I hope he’s able to make good equipment.

“Well, she we go home?”

“Yeah, next time… at night?”

“I think that would be a problem. According to Taniizumi and the others, the mamono tend to be stronger at night. Our field of vision will also becomes worse.”

“Lighting a lamp might alert the base camp of us too”

“For our safety, how about we avoid battles at night?”

“I think we’d be fine… if we go far enough away so that the light can’t be seen.”

I could buy a night vision scope or something in Japan and use it to fight, but that’s a bit problematic as well. I’m not confident enough to claim I can fight alone.

I reflect on today’s events… it’s impossible. Ah, but if it’s the unmoving Blue Metal Turtle, I can defeat it on my own. Next time, I’ll aim for the head rather than the heart.

Such were my thought as we returned.

…

Once we return, we sort through our spoils in Shigenobu’s workshop.

“I’m gradually getting used to dismantling mamono.”

“Well… do you think can you make anything good?

“Yeah, it looks like I can make new equipment from the materials of the mamono we hunted. I get I wouldn’t obtain anything without putting out… it’s just, I don’t have enough points.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

It’s common knowledge that a necessary amount of points needed to be sacrificed to make armor from the standard, hard, mamono shells. Actually, then, is this an excellent type of material?

“If the material is good quality, it would be nice to be able to sell it for points… then you’d be able to focus on getting good weapons.”

“Someone in the base group might get new skills upon a Lv up…”

That would be great. Hiyama-san would happily help with our work, and Hagisawa is great at tinkering with things. I wonder if there are strengths and weaknesses in our abilities?

“This time, I was able to randomly send the corpses of mamono to Shigenobu’s workshop, but thinking about it, that’s pretty dangerous.”

My ability seems to have offensive power. Also, if a mamono’s corpse were to suddenly appear in the workshop, our secret would be exposed. So then, is there a place we can hide it…?

“There for, shouldn’t we think of a place for Hanebashi to send everything?”

“I thought about using something like a big box and just teleporting things inside, but a mistake could happen if I don’t have a clear image.”

“At worst, some materials could collide.”

So, there was a problem like that.

“Hmm, wouldn’t it be fine to just determine a scope for teleporting it. Just target places you mark on the floor of my workshop.”

“Well, I could do that once I get used to it…”

“Worst case scenario, let’s just have a friend hide them. Hanebashi’s ability has a long interval usage.”

Ah, since it takes 5 minutes before it can be used again, we can just tidy things up during that interval.

“For now, I’ll just practice putting things precisely into a remote box without anyone noticing.”

If I do it in Japan, nobody will notice. Well, there’s a chance that my parents might see. But, messing up and letting the player group find out would be terrible.

“Understood, is Himeno-san all right?”

“She seems to be fine. Look.”

Hiyama-san, with those words, points at Himeno-san who is coming back. Yeah, it was good to hide for the time being.

“But… this seems like quite a lot of trouble just to make a single piece of equipment.”

“That’s true. Hanebashi’s here, so we can send everything here at once, but what should we do if we hunt something too big for anyone to carry?”

“If it’s something like a bear…the others can take it back.”

The guy with the carpentery ability can just build a cart or something to transport it. At worst, we can just dismantle it on site before moving it.

I will never take the same attitude as Taniizumi. I seriously want to ask him, “Did I do anything to offend you?” There might be a reason for this mysterious discrimination. If it comes down to it, I can take everything back with me.

Ah, now that I think about it, is this the value my ability brings to our community?

“…”

A dark expression once more starts to cross Hiyama-san’s face. It expresses her unconditional belief that my ability wouldn’t have been so unfairly judged if she weren’t present.

Lately, I’ve been able to understand her feelings. With my hand, I signal to Hiyama-san to not worry about it.

“Just ignore those who don’t understand the value of teamwork.”

For now, I have to be careful of others noticing the capabilities of my ability. This is about them after all. If they can’t transport a mamono back after defeating it, they’ll be more likely to bring me along.