ALL NOVEL Chapter 16: Daily Explosion
It was a bright an sunny day. I'm walking through the streets of Axel with Megumin on tow. It's a bit rushed, but right now, we are on a date.
"This isn't a date Kazuma," Megumin muttered.
"Then what is this then?"
"War preparation,"
And so, we do our war preparation in the nearby magic equipment shop. There's a lot of stuff in there, ranging from wands, staff, magic tomes, and even magic crystals. At one side of the wall is a bunch of high end equipment being put on display.
Megumin went straight towards a beautiful ornate pitch black staff with a sparkling purple core. "This is the one! State of the art magic staff, capable of enhancing any spell's destructive power by 200%!" she exclaimed. "Its handles are made out of manatite infused enchanted oak with one by one ratio. Its core is…" she realized that she's been rambling all this time and looked down a little.
"Th-this one, please…"
I nodded a little and looked at the clerk. "How much?"
The clerk looked at us skeptically. "Excuse me customer, are you actually planning to use this staff?"
Megumin nodded before I could say a word. "Of course! By using this staff I will…"
"Then I'm afraid I cannot sell it to you, this is a collector's item, not some ordinary weapon," the clerk said sternly. "This functional replica of Entropy's Ruin is too dangerous to be wielded by some kid," he said.
"But I'm an archwizard!" Megumin took out her adventurer's card to prove her point. "I'm not just some kid!"
The clerk shook his head. "I still cannot sell this weapon needlessly," he sighed a little. "I mean, if you have enough money to buy this, I have other things you'd probably like," he said.
Megumin was about to throw a tantrum and prove his point when I stopped her.
"Alright then, show me what you have," I told him.
With that, the clerk gave us a small tour through the store. I asked him to not only show us staffs and weapons, but also some magic items that might be useful to an adventurer like myself. I decided to listen to him intently since I don't really know much about magic.
Megumin on the other hand walks around the shop like a curious child. Taking closer look at every bit of trinket and probably knocked on a few things along the way.
"And here we have an assortment of manatite stones that you could use to replenish your mana," he showed us some colorful crystals placed on a small pedestal. "It's a bit expensive but you can charge it up with your own mana."
Hmm, so instead of mp potion we have an mp power bank? Not bad, not bad…
"Which one has the highest capacity?" I asked him.
The clerk picked the purple one the size of a coin. It is slightly translucent and seemingly glows a little. "At full capacity, this manatite crystal can refill twice a full grown man's magic or a half the magic of an expert arch wizard."
Filling it up is going to be a pain, but the prospect of free mana is too much to pass up. "How much for that one?" I asked him.
"Only half a million Eris," he said.
Not bad, but I decided to see the other merchandise before buying anything. We walked some more through the store, until we found ourselves in front of an assortment of weapons. There's a bunch of blades, swords, and many more enchanted weapons.
"These are weapon attachments," the man grinned a little. "Each one of these are made out of manatite crystals. The tougher and much stronger variant of the manatite stone. They are capable of enhancing a spell's power up to five hundred percent."
Holy shit! That sounds OP as all fuck! "The staff and wand made out of these must be extremely forbidden huh?" I asked him.
The guy shook his head. "No, you see, manatite crystal are extremely hard that once you use it for one spell, it will stuck to that spell," he picked up a random sword that's been attached with the crystal. "If you were to ask your arch wizard friend to cast fireball with this sword, it will become a fire sword. But the spell is permanent once you cast it."
I see, no wizard in their right mind would want a staff that can only use one spell only.
I turned towards Megumin, eyes sparkling as she gazed upon the only manatite crystal staff attachment on display. "We'll take the staff attachment please," I told the clerk.
"Wh-what? Are you sure? It can only use the first spell it's used to cast it with!" he exclaimed in a hurry.
"What do you think Megumin?" I turned towards the little girl and saw her already attaching the crystal to her staff. "I think she wants it."
The clerk looked at us in confusion before slowly nodding a little. "What about the manatite crystal battery?"
"I'll take two," I told him.
---
"Ahh… Ahn, ah… Ka-Kazuma, l-let's go, anywhere is fine… I can't hold it…"
She's talking about a place to test out her new upgraded staff.
"Th-this long and hard thing… To think I'd get to… Ahnnn…"
She's talking about her slightly longer staff.
"Just thinking about it… this powerful staff filling up and… ha… ha… Shooting it out…"
She's talking about the 500% spell bonus.
"And then it'll… with this staff it will… will… destroy… Ahhnn… ruined for anyone else!"
She's talking about the explosion spell and the permanent spell on the attachment.
I just sighed patiently as I led the Megumin, drooling and rubbing against her new staff with that thirsty look on her face. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am NOT a lolicon, but holy shit does she look so fucking horny right now…
Calm down Kazuma, calm down, you're already branded as a pervert from the steal accident with Chris. Do NOT get yourself branded as a child predator. I repeat, DO NOT get yourself branded as a lolicon pervert.
After a long trek out of the city, we found ourselves standing in front of a large hill overlooking an ominous castle. I took one look at the castle and realized that it must've been the castle the Demon King General is staying in.
I was about to pull a one eighty until I realized that we're still far enough not to get spotted. Heck, if we can destroy the castle in one hit, that'll be a big bonus! If we can't, then we know that explosion, fire, and wind typed magic doesn't work on it.
"Yosh, Megumin, that looks like an old empty castle. I don't like it, do you mind wiping it off the map?" I asked her.
"C-can I? T-to use explosoin on such a strong and powerful," Megumin panted heavily before tightening her grip on her staff. "H-here it is…" she took a deep breath and begun her chant. It's different every time and I wonder if she spend some time making up these spells.
To destruction and the unmaker
Heed thy prayer and grace thy enemy
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Raise the hammer of creator
To the anvil of entropy
EXPLOSION!!!
If someone were to ask me what a nuclear explosion look like, I would just point at this and said. "That's what nuclear explosion look like," and I won't be lying. A ball of plasma expanding in all direction swallowing everything within its might. A mushroom cloud resembling the incarnation of death itself puffing up into the sky.
Seriously though, whoever thinks that this girl is useless is the most ungrateful bastard ever. This loli is the equivalent of a hand held nuclear launcher! So what if she can only use it once a day? I can't imagine ever needing to use this kind of firepower even once much less twice a day.
What I'm saying is, this little girl is better than any other ordinary little girl. That's already a major plus for me.
"Ano, Kazuma san…" I heard her slightly muffled voice coming beside me. "Can you pick me up please, thank you."
I picked her up and carried her piggyback style. "So, how was it Megumin?" I asked her.
"It feels nice, thank you, Kazuma… It's the first time I did it with such a long, hard, and powerful thing… I, I can't feel my legs anymore…"
And just what the hell with this innuendo? "I'm glad you like it, but…" I looked back at the castle and realized that it's still somewhat intact from that explosion. "You didn't destroy the castle,"
"What?" Megumin's grip on me tightens as she peeked behind my shoulder. "Se-seriously!? But that's got to be my most powerful explosion ever!"
"Magic barrier maybe? Look, just think of it as your very own, indestructible, target for practice," I told her.
"You're right, so uhh… Can we make this a regular thing, you know, practicing explosions?"
"Sure, sure, not like I have anything better to do during the day…"
And thus concludes my first of many daily routine with Megumin.