Chapter 186

I knew it! There’s no way Sora would so flippantly include me in the party! Steph looked to Sora, eager to hear about his well-thought-out plan, but… “I mean…since we’re gonna use hope as our weapons, I figured that, out of all of us, you have your head in the clouds—er, uh, want to protect your friends the most.” “Right! I’m not quite sure if you’re complimenting or disparaging me, but I’ll take it!!” Steph rolled her head back, her expression rife with equal parts hope and despair. Sora and Shiro, meanwhile, had a very different problem. They stared at each other’s status bars and muttered among themselves. “I’m a bit concerned about our own lack of HP and abundance of MP…” “…I think…we’re well…within one-shot range…” Unlike Steph, who had three long bars’ worth of HP and only slightly less than average MP, Sora and Shiro had almost no HP and the longest MP bars of anyone in the party. Izuna, Til, Jibril, and Emir-Eins, on the other hand, seemed to have a decent balance of both, even if their distributions varied slightly between them. “I guess we may as well ask, but…Schira Ha, is there a reason behind the difference in our distributions?” “Mweh-heh…? Not at all. They are, as you say, but a visualization of your hope,” Schira Ha answered in her usual wicked tone, her head tilted to one side. Sora and Shiro owned Schira Ha, so she couldn’t lie to them. Her claim was backed by Izuna and Emir-Eins, who both sensed that she was telling the truth, something they communicated to Sora with a nod. Everyone’s statuses were evidently a function of the game’s inherent mechanics— Right… Then I guess we’ll have to test out these game mechanics ourselves. “Jibril, Emir-Eins—I’m assuming you can’t use your magic?” Seeing as they were only allowed to use hope as their weapon, then it was safe to assume that they could not use their magic… But to Sora’s surprise: “Oh… Actually, Master…it appears that we can.” “Report: Sensing presence of functioning quasi-spirit corridor junction nerves. Magic presumed usable.” Oh? With this news, all eyes fell dubiously on one person. “Mweh-heh-heh…? Ah, yes. Within this Tower—inside the Devil—you may use magic if you so choose. But I recommend against it, as doing so consumes large amounts of hope.” Their gazes were met by a strange response from Schira Ha. This game is supposed to be fought with hope alone, and yet we can use magic? And…magic consumes our hope…? “Jibril…I want you to use as little magic as possible to do something. Say…lighting up your fingertip?” Jibril promptly held out her hand and concentrated her magic into her pointer finger—but. …………, “I know I told you to do it…but I’m surprised you can suppress your magic this much.” The tip of her pointer finger was only as bright as a firefly. Sora was impressed by this, although Jibril seemed confused. “Oh…? But I intended to use a rite that creates about one hundred times more light than this…” “Conjecture: Use of magic within the Tower is possible—but its effect is reduced by a factor of more than one hundred…? Incidental/Report: Irregular Number’s MP has been reduced by zero point zero three percent. Current use of magic determined to be the cause.” Emir-Eins’s summation seemed accurate. Upon closer inspection, Jibril’s MP bar had indeed been reduced by the slightest of slivers. ………Hmmm…… “How about this, Jibril: If you were to, say, shift under these conditions, how much more MP do you think it would use?” “……………I daresay my best guess would be over a few thousand times more MP.” “Approximation: Magic using three thousand three hundred and thirty-four times more MP would reduce Irregular Number’s MP to zero. Conclusion: Use of magic unrealistic.” So while magic was physically possible to use during the game, it was essentially pointless. Sora was thrown into deep thought over this …………, “……Hmm, well, I guess we’ll figure it out as we go along…” Nodding to himself as he spoke, he then turned to the party to discuss their strategy for running the Tower dungeon. “So, Steph. You’re gonna be our tank.” “…You’re our…meat shield… Thanks, Steph…” “I’m not sure what a tank is, but meat shield certainly doesn’t have a safe ring to it!!” Sora ignored Steph’s question about her role and continued: “Sorry I gotta ask this, but Izuna—you’re gonna carry me and Shiro, and Til will carry Steph. Do you guys think you can do that?” “Yup, you got it, please. Leave it to me, please.” “Lady Steph is light, she is. I always thought she should eat more, I did.” Just as Sora asked, the two petite party members easily hoisted the party’s three Immanity heroes onto their backs. “Jibril and Emir-Eins will be our subs. Get in the bag.” “…Come again, Master?” “…Confusion:” As soon as Sora made this call, the pair was sucked into the floating bag before they could object. Per the rules, the party could have only five members active at once. Therefore, two out of their seven members would have to stay in the bag at any given moment. The bag acted as the party’s inventory, where their substitutes would wait to be switched out. According to what Schira Ha had told them back in Elkia, the bag would float behind the party automatically. This magical bag could also store items. The group took this opportunity to put their backpacks and other things inside when— “Report: Space within inventory bag is far more cramped than initially anticipated. Warning: This unit feels intense dissatisfaction about touching Irregular Number. It’s too tight in here. Don’t touch me. Go away.” “You don’t think I’d ever willingly touch a heap of scrap metal, do you? As you are a machine, why not fold into something more compact? ” “Rebuttal: Flügel are a magical race and therefore capable of shape-shifting. Recommendation: Maybe turn into a mushroom or something?” There’s gotta be better game mechanics than just stuffing people into bags, Sora thought while he heard his two friends bickering from within the opened sack. With that out of the way, Sora moved on to his next and final set of orders to win the game. Which were!! “We’re gonna have Izuna and Til carry us through the dungeon up to the hundredth floor! Between a Werebeast and a Dwarf, we should be able to avoid any enemies and make it through without a fight!!” …You expect us to fight every orc, slime, and goblin who comes outta the woodwork …? Not gonna happen—!! “So you’re not even going to try playing the game… I suppose that’s typical of you…,” Steph muttered from atop Til’s back after hearing Sora shout out his directions. “Not even try? Avoiding unnecessary battles is how these games work!” Sora defended his idea from roughly the same height—atop Izuna’s back, with Shiro on his shoulders. “Or what, Steph? Are you the type who has to kill every monster you see in an RPG? Take a second to think about what you’re saying. That would be a literal massacre in this world. I’m actually appalled…” “There you go again! I don’t even know what an are-pee-gee is!!” Sora didn’t miss an opportunity to tease Steph—but nevertheless: “Hope is all we have in this game. We lose it via MP if we attack, and we lose it via HP when we get attacked. We have to keep our hope at all costs, so there’s no reason to go out of our way to use it in a fight. Avoiding enemies is our only option.” “I…suppose you’re right about that…” Normally, in these sorts of games, the party gets experience points, money, maybe the chance at a rare item drop by defeating enemies—fighting is how you grow your characters. But with their hope being a set value in this game, it was doubtful there was anything to gain from combat in terms of levels or loot, so there wasn’t much reason to fight in the first place. Looks like the UI is on our left wrists, too… There’s something curious about the blank space between my wrist and my status bars, but…oh well. “That said, it sounds like we’ll be up against bosses on each floor, so we probably won’t be able to avoid all the fights.” There was also the question of whether they could skip the floor bosses the skeleton was so kind in alluding to for them before. Either way, though avoiding as much confrontation as reasonably possible seemed to be the best course of action in Sora’s mind, his directive did not go unquestioned— “Master…I would like to ask for permission to pose a question about your orders…” “Evident: Master and Little Sister have critically low HP pools. Advice: Avoid combat.” Two voices could be heard raising their concerns from within the party’s inventory. They were right: Sora and Shiro both had HP pools so thin that it was well within the realm of possibility they would be taken out of the game in one hit. Even on Izuna’s back, all it would take was one stray shot for it to be Game Over, You Died. While Jibril and Emir-Eins’s shared concern was legitimate— “We need to keep you guys away for an emergency, since you’re the only two who can use magic.” …Technically Til—a Dwarf—should’ve been able to use magic, too, except she was more confident in her ability to accidentally blow up the party than to actually be of any use. Therefore, Jibril and Emir-Eins would have to be tucked away to save their MP pools for a real emergency— There’s still a lot we don’t know about this game. Sora made this implicitly clear. “…Understood. Your wish is my command, Master.” “…Consent: Please be careful, Master.” The pair solemnly withheld their concerns, and the party outside of their inventory looked to the far edge of the safe zone. There sat a door, beyond which undoubtedly extended a vast dungeon. It was time for them to enter the Tower dungeon—but before that… “So…Izuna…I think you’re gonna have to leave your stuffed toy behind…” “…We’d like you…to carry us with, both hands…if you can…” “Uuugh?! I don’t wanna, please! Th-this thing’s mine, please!” “As I’ve made clear, I am no one’s thing!!” Izuna clung to her fuzzy toy—the Devil—with great zeal, which left her with only one arm to carry both Sora and Shiro on her back. This gave the siblings pause. Then: “Mweh-heh-heh… I understand how one could fall to His Evilness’s cute allure, but the Devil that you hold in your hands is my own possession.” Going somewhat against the Devil’s claim that he was no one’s thing, Schira Ha bowed her head. “The fragment of His Evilness that you hold maintains its manifestation through me as its catalyst. Should you move too far away from me, it shall vanish, so you will not be able to take him into the dungeon either way…” “See? We gotta leave him behind, so give it here—whoa?! I knew you were strong, but holy crap?!” Schira Ha and her owners, Sora and Shiro, finally motioned to free the Devil. But someone didn’t want to give him up just yet. “Nooo… Uuuugh!” “…C’mon…Izzy… We’ll see him on the…hundredth floor… Okay…?” Izuna sank her claws into the stone floor, refusing to budge one bit, until the trio eventually managed to convince her to drop her toy. With that, the siblings climbed onto her back and— “All right, guys!! Off to the hundredth floor we go!! Let’s bust this dungeon as quick as we can!!” “…Whoo-hoo…!” “Y-yes, of course!!” “Yessir indeed!!” “Hmph… Fine, please!!” With Sora, Shiro, and Steph on the backs of Til and Izuna, the party rallied themselves before moving forward. Their inventory bag was close behind, floating quickly through the air as they went. The party rushed through the door at breakneck speed in their quest to beat the Tower dungeon. ………… “Schira Ha…tell me, do you truly believe these heroes will make it to me?” “But of course, Your Evilness. The wisdom you’ve gifted me tells me so.” The furball and the snake-eyed woman silently watched the party leave the safe zone before exchanging these words. “They will make it to you… And if Your Evilness so wishes for it, they will go even farther than that—” Schira Ha didn’t just believe this—she knew it, as if she’d already seen it for herself with her serpentine eyes. Schira Ha held the Devil in her arms and quietly left the Tower…… When the party passed through the door, what awaited them was a whole new world of its own. Compared to the safe zone they’d just left, this was… “Is this supposed to be some sort of big cathedral…? This is the last place you’d expect to find the so-called Devil…”