98-the thunder of judgment




'I wish for thunder'.

 As she walked through the rain of lightning strikes, Rin began to chant more.
 While precisely manipulating the dozens of bolt arrows that still remained, she began to chant a spell of the highest firepower she could unleash.

'Lightning that cuts through the rain, roaring thunder that weaves tragedy, I claim you like lightning that brings forth fruit.

 A magic circle spreads around Rin-chan. The yellow magic circle that indicates the lightning attribute spreads out widely, widely.
 Monsters who rush to stop it are pierced by lightning arrows. The rain of lightning seems to have a will of its own, and keeps the swarming monsters at bay.
 I kicked away the archers who hated it and aimed from afar with my own hands.

'Spirit of Thunder, send my prayers to your Lord. The Spirit King of Thunder, whose beautiful name is Tystamir.

 The entire vast, dome-like room was filled with purple lightning spilling from the magic circle.
 I'm not sure what to make of it.
 The name of the crystal is the Spirit of Thunder Crystal.
 It's a bridge to the spirits and an offering to the Spirit King.
 It is a ritual to temporarily borrow the power of the Spirit King for a price, which is allowed to those whose proficiency in lightning magic skills exceeds 500.

'Confirm approval for activation. Initiating magical resonance with the Spirit King.

 The air trembled. So dense was the stagnation of magic power that Lin's figure seemed to waver.

'Balance, descend! You are the spark of judgment that burns everything!

 The chant was only two verses long.
 The bolt-arrow death rain that had covered the sky was all sucked into the magic circle and vanished.
 Like the calm before a storm, all of the overflowing power was gathered to Rin.

 For the first time in the last eight days, Rin put her hand on the wand.
 The wand was made from named materials, but she never picked it up.
 The wand itself was an encumbrance to Rin, who drew magic with every movement.

 But at this moment, when she wanted to put all of her energy into one strike, she would not hesitate to hold it up.
 The staff is called the Blue Jade Staff. It was equipped with a mechanism to amplify the magic of lightning, and it was one suitable for Rin.

 Boom! The blue jade staff was thrust with a clang, and the uncontrollable magic of lightning overflowed from it.
 Rin took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry.
 One of the highest level of lightning magic.
 She said the name quietly.

''Judgment.''

 The all-consuming flames of heaven laid waste to the entire floor.


☆☆


 One of the highest-grade lightning spells, Judgment.
 It's the name of the current strongest class of magic that devotes all its resources to annihilation.


 The lightning that bore the name "Judgment" burned away more than 80% of the monsters on the floor, and then quietly closed the curtain.
 Only about ten percent of the monsters remained. All of these monsters had high lightning resistance, high magic defense, and were lucky enough to survive.

'Huh, ......'.

 I was stunned, but I regained my composure and readied my weapon.
 Rin is completely useless due to the repercussions of the Judgment, so it's my job from here.

 However, now that Rin-chan's magic has burned through most of the monsters, all I have to do is carefully destroy them one by one.
 After all, Rin's three spells almost destroyed this large monster house, which could be called the monster floor.


'The last one~'

 I slaughtered a mere hobgoblin, who I had no idea why he was still alive, with Kagewari, and finished clearing out the monster floor.
 To be honest, I thought I didn't need to defeat the role player type buffer.
 But then I thought about it, and realized that the reason this goblin was still alive was because of the magic buff.
 There might have been a few more buffers in the area I missed.
 It would have been troublesome if multiple buffers had been cast on it, so let's be glad that I defeated it quickly.

 Besides, after hitting the Judgment, Rin had a much heavier disadvantage than the Finisher.
 If I hadn't been here, she might have been killed in the end.

 I had heard that it might be one of the trump cards, but it had tremendous firepower.
 If the update to turn off friendly fire hadn't come along, I wouldn't have been able to avoid instant death either.
 It was like a tsunami of lightning.
 It burned away all the monsters as it licked the entire floor.

'Lin, it's over...'

'Thanks for the ....... I've never used it before, but it's really cool. ......'

 I handed the magic potion to Lin-chan, who was slumped over and looking exhausted.
 She is simply out of magic. You'll be able to find a lot of people who are interested in this kind of thing.

I'm sure you're not the only one. Isn't more than half of the money earned from this event poof?'

I'm sure you could have cleared it without using ......, but if you didn't, you wouldn't have a chance to use it .......

 The three million Iris refers to the market value of the Lightning Spirit Crystal.
 The 《Spiritual Crystal》 itself is a very valuable item, and even in its current state it has a number of uses.
 If you make it into a weapon, it becomes a powerful attribute weapon, and even if you just hold it, it becomes a magic amplifier.
 In fact, it is said that Rin had this item in order to strengthen her magic.
 It's a shame to throw it away to shoot a single spell.
 If I told Griffith that it cost enough to buy his own house, would he understand its value? No, I don't understand it either, using this analogy.

 Still, even with all that, Rin had her reasons for wanting to shoot this spell.

'But ...... this finally frees up the "Lightning Spirit Magic" skill.'

'The release condition is "contact with the Spirit King"?

 I don't know exactly what the Spirit King is, but it's some kind of magical powerhouse.
 Contact is purely a way to meet him in the field or dungeon.


 The other method seemed to be to contact the magic of the Spirit King through the activation of the highest level of magic, just like now.

'It's really just a matter of luck whether you can meet him or not, and even if you use the Judgment, the activation conditions are troublesome this way too. ......'

'You have to set more than 100 monsters to activate it at the same time. It's hard to do in normal fields and dungeons.

 As the spell is named 'Judgment', the activation condition is more dangerous than its power.
 Where are the scenes where you have to fight 100 monsters at the same time? Well, there was one here, but...
 In addition, the amount of magic power required to use it, the fact that all magic power is depleted after using it, etc. Anyway, it was a spell that had too many disadvantages as a result of its focus on annihilation.
 On the other hand, the chanting is not long, so it can be cast in 30 seconds including the ritual. In that sense, it may be a spell for annihilating monster houses.

 Incidentally, other attributes also have top-grade magic through rituals.
 I was curious, so I looked them up, but all of them are monster spells with activation conditions and firepower that make me want to turn my back on them.

 It wasn't until the start of this event that Rin was able to use Judgment, around noon on the third day I think.
 Ever since then, Rin has been trying to activate it in order to learn the Lightning Spirit Magic skill.
 However, she hadn't been able to encounter a monster house with 100 monsters since her first one, and it had been frustrating.
 So this forced transfer to the monster floor was a fortuitous event for Rin.

'I mean, Nana's HP has been reduced by the disadvantage of the Hungry Wolf. You should recover properly.

'Oh, that's right.

 It was drowned out by the thunderous roar, but he had already said the words to cancel the bratwolf.
 I've been using it for about two minutes, so I've lost about 40% of my HP.

'Haha ...... Let's take a look at the treasure chest for now. I hope I can make up for the 3 million Iris a bit.'

'Isn't there like 10,000 shards or something?'

''Don't make any weirdly realistic predictions, okay?

 The rewards for clearing the monster house vary, but it's a monster house of this scale. It's tempting to expect a bit of a reward.
 Considering the fact that the reward for the monster house I cleared by myself was a rare skill and 5,000 pieces of stardust, the numbers I gave may be more accurate than I thought.

'But it's a gorgeous treasure chest.

'Nana's treasure chest was also quite gorgeous if you dropped the rust, but this one is exceptional.

 Yes. This treasure chest is big. Anyway, it's big.
 It was so huge that the mouth of the treasure chest was almost at my chest.
 Even if I were to open it, I might just have to look into it.

'Nana, you can open it.

'What? Can I?

'It's payback for that time. It's not like the contents are going to change because someone opened it.

 Oh, by the way, I was tired that time and left it to Rin.


 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

'Oh, ......, that's great.

'It's a treasure trove!

 I peer in, but there's nothing. A mountain of gold, silver, and treasure was crammed into a huge treasure chest. If you look closely, you'll also find pieces of stardust mixed in.
 To be honest, I hadn't expected such a simple and straightforward reward, so Rin and I both felt our faces break into a smile.

'Oh, this isn't Iris, it's real gold. We'll have to cash it in to use it. There's also platinum mixed in with the silver ....... It's a treasure trove.

'Gems and stones vary a lot. Hmm, nothing too rare.

'Well, it's worth the money if you can sell it. Hmm, so much gold ......? This is .......'

 As I was digging through the gold, Rin seemed to find something and pulled it out with a question mark on her face.
 What she was holding was not a book like a skill book. Is it a letter?

''The 《Golden Invitation》...... invitation?

'Does that mean it's an invitation, or do I need it to go somewhere?'

'Hmmm, does it have anything to do with the ...... event?'

 The two of us tilted our heads and dug around for more.
 The golden invitation, as expected, included one for me.


--Item: Golden invitation

Item: Golden Invitation
Rarity: High Rare
An invitation to the Golden Trials. Those who dare to challenge the ordeal, unseal it with resolve.
This item will disappear if you defeat a boss monster without opening the package.

--


'The Golden Trials: ......, a zap of money?

'No, probably not. But it's a reward for clearing this floor,......, and it could be a bonus stage.

'But it says to be prepared. I'm not sure if it says that if it's a bonus.

'Hmm ......, should we wait and see what other rewards are available?

'I guess that's true too.'

 Perhaps she was too tired to think about it, but she decided to put it off for now.
 In any case, it's written in such a way that it will disappear when the dungeon is cleared, and there's no option not to challenge it.
 If that's the case, it's better to check the rewards first than to be upset now.



'Oh, I knew there was a skill book.

 As I dug through my inventory, I found a book that I recognized.

'That's not the Diva's Embrace. 《Ringsong》? It seems to be a rare skill, but ...... ah, this is the one Nana doesn't need.''

'What kind of effect does it have?

'It seems that instead of consuming three times the MP, you can shoot two shots of a single spell in a row.

 You can fire two shots of a spell in a row. That is, you can shoot two spells in a row.
 Considering that the disadvantage is that it consumes three times as much MP, I think this interpretation is correct.

'Does it mean that the firepower is purely doubled?

'Probably. There are restrictions on the types of magic that the effect can be applied to, and I'm not sure if it affects proficiency raising, but ...... I'll take it for now.

 I'm not sure what to do with it.
 I've never really paid attention to it, but I wonder if the rewards in the monster house are proportional to the player's contribution.
 I suddenly wondered this when I saw that the two rare skill books that came out were both appropriate for the MVP at that time.

'The rest of the rewards don't look too good,' he said.

'It looks like I'll be able to get about 2 million back, which is a relief for me. ......'

'Well, well, think of it as getting a skill for a million Iris: ......'

'Yes, you're right. And, as Nana predicted, there will be about 10,000 shards. I'm sure you'll be able to get 10,000 shards in a half day.

I'm not sure what to do with the golden invitation.

 I take out the letter again and look at it without opening the seal.
 If you open it, it will disappear, but even if you don't open it, it will disappear if you defeat the boss.

 So, if that's the case.
 You have no choice but to not challenge the trials.

'Well, let's get some rest first. I should at least get my status back to full.'

'That's right.

 It seemed that Lin had a really hard time with the drop in status due to the loss of magic power.
 After she had gone through the contents of the treasure chest, she let out a rare 'heh' and sat down.
 I thought it was cute to see her like that, but then I noticed something sparkling out of the corner of my eye.

'......? What is it?

 A black jewel that reflected the light, mixed in with a few gold coins still left at the bottom.
 It was at most the size of a large marble, but it looked strangely attractive to me.
 I leaned over to pick it up and ...... I was dragged into the treasure chest.

'Whoa!

'Nana? What are you playing with?'



'No, this is very heavy. ......'

 It had such a tremendous weight that even I, with a muscle strength of over 300, felt it was 'heavy'.
 I tried to lift it with all my strength, but I lost my balance and fell into it.
 I couldn't help but let out a strange voice, and Rin looked at me suspiciously.


--.

Item: Gravity Jewel
Rarity: High Rare
A mysterious jewel with gravitational properties. It is very precious and can only be obtained rarely.

--


'I think the Jewel ...... had something.'

'The jewel itself is similar to various attribute crystals, but I've never seen a ...... gravity attribute before.'

 This is a great way to make sure that you don't end up in a situation where you're not the only one.
 In some games, gravity can be a powerful attack. I don't know how it works in this game, though.

'Lin, can I have this?

'Sure. I don't think I'll have any use for it.

 With Lin's permission, I put the Gravity Jewels in my inventory.
 Judging by the amount of pressure in my inventory, the jewel itself isn't too heavy. It's probably the gravity attribute that's causing the problem.

 And at this moment, I secretly made up my mind about how to use this item.
 Right.
 I'll give it to Haruru.