Clearing the Game at the End of the World

“Balance… Balance, you say… What technology in a fantasy world would be able to maintain the balance of a floating object…?”

“Captain, what are you mumbling to yourself about?”

“Tch tch. You will soon spill that soup if you stay that way.”

“Hm? Ah, what if you put the entire thing in water using water magic? No, but that would make the mass unbelievably heavy… Ouch, that’s hot!”

“I told you that would happen.”

Ottman clicked his tongue as he caught the spilled soup and returned it back to Professor’s bowl.

“You have been acting odd ever since we came into the Ray Line! Like just now, you were not concentrating, even in battle! Do you not know that we almost had a disaster when a few of the ghouls who slipped past your side infiltrated the formation?”

Welp. I got nothing to say to that.

Like Ottman said, I wasn’t fully concentrating these days. Maybe it was due to the lack of maintenance. Still, even in the Ray Line that was drenched in holy water in every little nook and cranny, there was quite a few undead who wandered in, and in the process of dealing with them, I was sidetracked like I had just been, and it almost led to a big accident. I had no right to say anything, but…

‘I can’t help but dwell on it!’

A human is an animal of endless greed. Looking at Roman trying to fly that model boat every single night, I know that it’s pointless, but internally, you get the hope of ‘what if it actually worked?’

To just forget about it, the existence of an airship brought too many benefits with it.

‘Roman said so himself that he had everything else figured out aside from the balance problem. If we could just solve the balance issue, then the invention would be more than enough to turn over the entire flow of this war! Supplies? Just fly them over. Battle? Just filling up the airship with oil would be more than enough to annihilate all low-rank mutes that are under Rank 6, so they could halve the burden they need to deal with. And the troops’ movement speed will increase drastically as well, so a commander would have much more flexibility when strategizing. Flight units in a world where air supremacy isn’t even a thing are basically cheating!’

Everything else is already done, and it’s just the balance that they needed to figure out, and if they really solved that, then there would be so many things that would be solved in the overall game. The early portions of the Ray Line were already boring to start with, but seeing Roman and his model ship just made me think about it more. Maybe that would have worked, or maybe this will, and such.

And it just so happened that one of the biggest contributors to efforts trying to industrialize the GG universe was currently in the chatroom, so I asked Goldman whether there was any way possible to make it work.

‘Just think that any sort of modern technology is going to get caught by that stupid [Devil of Technology] setting.’

‘Huh?’

‘GG’s setting! The setting where any sort of modern technology that the player introduces to their side will be upgraded a step further and given to the enemy! And it’s not the way you introduce it to them that matters—it’s the result. No matter how creative and innovative an idea you come up with to replicate modern technology inside of the game, the moment something from the real world is made by the character you interfered with, it’s game over. I ruined five characters just by trying to implement a windmill in my territory. I spent three months without doing anything about the windmill and just mumbled to myself, [The wind always blows… Is there not a way to use such power?] and gifted a smart-looking guy something like a maple seed, then he managed to develop a windmill, but exactly a month later, a noble from a nearby territory hired some wind mage and developed something called a [Wind Charge Ram] to run down my castle gates and take my land.’

‘Then… doesn’t that mean there isn’t any way to invent new technology in here?’

We are bit.ly/3iBfjkV, find us on google.

‘Yes, there isn’t. The only way would be to create a completely new skill, one that’s possible only in the fantasy world and impossible in the real world.’

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…was what he said. To summarize, it was impossible to go the ‘Ah, so this is modern technology’ route, so I needed to think up something possible inside of this world.

The first thing that came to mind when I thought of that was magic. Technology that doesn’t exist in reality but does in games. That’s magic, isn’t it? Not to mention, I’m a mage. Being a player that has the rare class of mage, I thought I would be able to be the person that would complete Romance Gachaman’s invention that led countless players into false hope and endless despair, the airship…

‘Hahahah! You think I wouldn’t have thought of that? I was also a water mage in the past!’

‘T-this doesn’t work? But you said balance was the problem! Like how you fill the dock of a ship with water, if you just fill the lower part of the airship with water to maintain balance…’

‘Impossible! It would have been possible had the object stayed still. But the airship needs to move forward! If you use a water-based counterweight as you thought of, then it will become the shackle that will capsize the boat once it starts receiving inertia.’

‘But can’t you use magic to solve that? I heard that mages that have an awakening in water’s [Shape] can split up water like pudding and use it to make houses and furniture!’

‘Unfortunately, all of the magic-engineered circuits throughout the airship contain many void stones. Aside from a few rooms that are not affected by the circuits, you could say that almost the entire airship is under the influence of a thin mana repulsion field. It might be possible to maintain smaller magics, but anything that would influence the entire airship will not work. In that context, it’s also impossible to add several mages on board to assist the flight magic. That is because my invention is completely based on magic engineering!’

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…is what he said as he held my hands. Something about how it was nice to have someone sincerely pondering with him.

‘It’s been four days now since we entered the Ray Line. It’s about time that we split up now… Is it really just a bad gacha pull?’

Any major magic that affects the entire airship doesn’t work because of the void stones in the magic circuit. You can’t implement modern technology. And the only method that would be possible is through magic engineering, but the only NPC with that much magic engineering knowledge at this point in time is Roman. It’s a failed invention without the involvement of the player, but there’s nothing that I can do about it. Isn’t that just a checkmate, then?

Thump!

Cruncccchhh!

“Aaaahhhhh!”

“It’s an attack! It’s monsters this time!”

“They’re cockatrices! Be careful of their petrification breath!”

“…Tch. They’re not even giving me time to think anymore.”

Seeing how the attacks from the undead and monsters became more frequent the deeper they went into the mountains, they must be pretty close to the central region. It looks like today is going to be the day we part ways with the merchants.

‘I’ve already talked about it with the merchants. They’re not amateurs, so they should be able to run away far enough while we cause a ruckus to distract them. And the other side of the ride is managed by the empire anyway.’

“Skreeeeeekkk!!!”

“Cuckaww! Skeeeeek!”

“Don’t go near them!”

“You shouldn’t underestimate them because they look like chickens! Their beaks can rip through steel shields!”

Watching the mercenaries raise up their shields to not look at the cockatrices, Professor got up from his seat. It was a shame, but he needed to give up on the airship now.

“You don’t need to do that! Just go collect all of the camping tents! The petrification from looking at them and their breath will all be solved just by putting a tarp over them!”

“Yes, Warrior, sir!”

Passing by the mercenaries that were now quite coordinated, Professor leaped towards a cockatrice’s head.

“Give up, my ass! Eeeeeuuuuuu-rekaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

And 10 minutes later, Professor was laughing like a madman as he hung onto the cockatrice’s neck and strangled it.

“Grwakkk! Kreeeeek! Gwrawk! Skreeeeeekkk!!!!”

“Hold on tight!”

“Captain! Its breath is leaking out, the breath!”

“The ones with the water shield, go and block them up with more oil-soaked cotton! And bring all of the bottles of snake poison we’re using for the arrows! The cockatrice’s breath bounces off snake poison!”

“B-but we paid 5 thousand Shillings in Kingsland for that poison…!”

“Ditch all of it! Liquified cockatrice breath is twenty times more expensive than that!”

“Aaahhhh! The ropes tying up its wings are loose! Warrior! Warrior, sirrrr!”

“Squakkkk! Grakkkkk!”

“Hold on a little longer! I’ll go after I finish tying up this guy!”

The three cockatrices that attacked the merchants were much stronger than their average species. From the metallic sound that came from their feathers combined with some kind of weird scales, it would have taken about one or two of his arms or all of his mana with Blood Armor to kill them. Still, since they were just about to go into the mountain and cause a distraction while the merchants escaped, he didn’t want to waste his energy like that.

So the alternative choice he selected was to just hang onto the bird’s neck and strangle it with brute force. After the mercenaries worked together to cover each of the birds with the tent tarps and he was working hard to strangle them to death, he realized something unbelievable.

“Sqwaaakkk! Kaghkkk! Sqwa-kahk! Skrakkkk!”

“Warrior, sir! What exactly do you want to do by capturing them alive…?”

“Just stay quiet and pull those ropes tight! I’ll go tie it up soon!”

After I broke the neck of the first bird and then announced to the mercenaries busy trying to dodge its attack that I wanted to capture the rest of them, they all looked at me like I was out of my mind. Still, after putting a tarp over them and using the rope that I brought from the church, we somehow managed to succeed in capturing them.

“Squakkkkk! Kawwwkk!”

Thump! Thump!

Flap flap! Flap!

“Captain! What are you doing on top of their heads?”

“Ahahahah! Borka! Look at this! I’m not shaking! It doesn’t shake at all!”

“That crazy man’s going off again. What is he talking about on top of those monster…s?”

Everyone was risking their lives to capture these cockatrices, and he was just playing around with them. But Borka’s eyes, which had been painted with disgust as he watched Professor squirm around on top of the birds, soon changed to confusion. It was because, in his sharp eyes, he saw the water cups that Professor placed on top of the cockatrice’s head.

They couldn’t fly or run because they were tied down with ropes connected to a stake, but the cockatrice continued to flail around its massive body in efforts to break free. But surprisingly, the water cup on its head only splashed around a little bit but still stood sturdily on top of the shaking bird’s head.

“Look! Isn’t it cool?”

“Is that… some kind of magic trick?”

“It’s not magic! See? My hands aren’t doing anything. This isn’t magic. It’s just like this! All chicken heads work like this!”

The chicken’s head has a unique tendency to move separately from its body in order to maintain balance. Like how even if you hold them and shake their body, their head remains still, the cockatrice, who also has chicken heads, had the same trait!

Obviously, for me, who was racking my head about how to solve the airship’s balancing issue, the automatic leveling function of the chicken’s head led me to an outstanding realization.

“Reeeeakk! Squakkkkk!”

“Notum! Aldrich! Do you have anything that can seal this thing’s soul? Ideally, something small!”

“Are you trying to contain the cockatrice’s soul? Mmm… I can only handle human souls…”

“Notum! I saw you playing with some dog souls that only had their skeletons left!”

“Gwruh. Big small human. Need container to put soul in. Teeth or bone. Part of a body…”

Crunch!

“Here!”

“Aaaaaaahhhh!”

“Warrior, sir! Your hand!”

“The church’s Warrior is hurting himself!”

“I’m not! I was going to throw it away anyway because I got their breath on it!”

While the mercenaries who were pulling on the cockatrice’s ropes let out a blood-curdling scream, Notum patted my slightly petrified hand with contentment and raised up the totem that was hanging around her neck.

“On count of three, break its neck small big human, and humans holding the rope run away. You die if you get caught! One!”

“W-wait! You can’t break this guy’s neck like it’s some kind of chopsticks…!”

“Two!”

Clack, clatter, clatterrr! Clatterclatterclatter!

“A-A ghost! There’s a ghost next to the troll! C-Captain!”

“Let go of the ropes and fall back! We’re going to get caught up in it!”

“Aaaaaghhhh! Die, you bird brain! Stop! Putting! So much! Force in! Your neckkkk!!”

“Skreeeek! Sqwakkkkk!”

“Three!”

Snap!

“Mashar ga urcha! Chirxen! HOMA!!!”

[Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!]

At the exact moment I snapped the bird’s neck and leaped to the side, Notum shouted out words in an unfamiliar language with my grayed hand in one hand and her totem in another, and then I saw a white, transparent soul get dragged out of the cockatrice’s head with a screech.

“De Mato! HOMA! Chirxes DUKAaaaaa!!!!”

[Skreeeeeek! Kyikaaakkkkkkk!]

There was no wind blowing, but Notum’s clothes flapped from an invisible force, and the cockatrice’s soul writhed in pain from the words she recited, then started to get sucked into my hand.

Thud!

Ending with the sound of the dead cockatrice’s body hitting the ground, the chilling air swirling around them, and the flurry of wind under the clear sky, all returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

“Hmph! It’s over.”

“A, Ahhhhhhh…”

When Notum let out a huff and announced she was done, one of the mercenaries slid down to the floor with a hand over his crotch. They saw a stain slowly start to spread from the groin area, but nobody blamed him. He was the one closest to Notum’s spell, aside from me. Mercenaries were weak to the supernatural to start with, and he just saw a troll who had her eyes rolled up and was surrounded by a cloud of souls as she spoke in an unknown language. He should be commended for pissing just his frontside.

“D-did it work?”

“Positive. Big chicken, trapped in stone hand.”

Notum collapsed down on the spot as if tired, and when she put down my hand, which became a temporary soul jar, the hand that had been flinching slowly started to relax, then raised up the middle finger in a curved arc like a chicken’s head and started to use the other fingers to waddle around.

Flick, flick!

Waddle, waddle…

“Grwuh. This is all I know.”

“I-I will continue it from here!”

Aldrich, who had been watching with his mouth agape like the guild people, jumped back to his senses and picked up the gray hand, which seemed confused, then sprayed on a reagent that he took out of his robe that started the magical treatment.

“The soul is outstandingly stable. Soulbinding normally needs a certain amount of communication with the soul, so it is known to be difficult when handling souls of other species…”

“Gwurh. Humans are other species to me in the first place. All species after I left my mother is a foreign species.”

“I see! They commonly say that the infancy stages are when the shape of the soul is formed. It seems that Notum’s soul… was developed in a form with high elasticity, making it suitable for accepting things that are different from itself. By the way, what was the spell that you used just now? It was a language that I had never even heard of, much less taught it to you. No matter how talented you are, this is…”

Notum grimaced as she waved away Aldrich’s question like an annoying fly.

“Since a few days ago, weird souls calling them ancestors kept coming and teach stuff. They keep bothering me to come back home, so I yelled at them to shoo them away, but they still come back.”

“Ancestors, don’t tell me they’re troll ancestral souls! W-what did they look like?”

“Three. They all looked obnoxious and old trolls.”

“Tell me in detail!”

“Gwwwrh. Troll with a bunch of tree roots for beard…”

“And?”

“A female with red eyes that keeps on smiling…”

“And?!”

“A bushy beard with cool tusks, but left one is broke—”

Grab!

“Broken left tusk! A deep scar that runs diagonally across their face! Hair and beard tied up neatly, unlike the standard troll! Is that correct?”

“Uh…. can ghost oldie see them too? Red eyes said you wouldn’t be able to…”

“Half-tusk Magnauka! It was the troll warchief who stopped the undead attack along with the hero of the princess’s family 70 years ago! If the other two souls are also of equivalent power, then of course I cannot see them if they do not want me to! Their souls have reached a much higher plane than a mediocre mage like me!”

Aldrich had charged toward Notum at some point in an excited state that was the polar opposite of his usual blunt attitude.

“It is no wonder your talent is beyond my expectations! You have been chosen by them! The talent that only a select few are born with, even among the trolls, is spellcraft that is close to a primordial myth! You are their chosen heir!”

“…Ghost oldie teacher? Did you plan with them? They’re saying the same thing.”

To Notum’s unintentional agreement, Aldrich looked like he was almost about to cry.

“T-this is not the time to be doing this. Let us go talk for a moment. The ancestor souls of past troll warchiefs! Oh, how much I have to talk with them about souls!”

Whoosh!

“Uh… Aldrich?”

“Embalming, soul sealing, and spirit petroglyphing have all been done! Unless you cause a large impact to the frame now, the soul inside will now act like the hand is its own body! I am busy now, so do not interrupt me!”

Even before I asked him, Aldrich threw me the hand containing the cockatrice’s soul with his answer, then, looking like a child who just received their birthday present, disappeared into a corner of the camp with Notum.

Flick, flick? Peck peck—

Among the people who were still frozen in shock from the series of unnerving events, only the hand that landed on the ground waddled around as it pecked on the sand.