Raw link: (18/04/2016)

  Translator: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (23/04/2019)

  Editor 1: Hand of Vecna (03/05/2019)

  Editor 2: N/A

  Translation link:

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  The morning after doing the stupid thing, namely, strengthening the plenty strong Libra even further, we left Blutgang as we were being monitored…… I meant, whilst we were being sent off by the dwarves.

  In all honesty, I wanted to take it easy a bit longer, but we had Scorpius with us.

  Unexpectedly, it was not possible to keep on hosting the individual who had attacked the country, thus we were faced with the inevitable problem of having to quickly leave the place.

  If anything, the fact that they allowed us to stay for a night meant they were being magnanimous.

  Normally it would have been an instant eviction.

  Anyways, the cause of that problem, Scorpius, had been clinging to my arm the whole time since she woke up.

  She had been pushing her chest against me as if to give things a try, however, it was meaningless since we were the same gender. Though, I was a man on the inside.

  Either way, considering that I made her feel so lonely this whole time that it caused her to go berserk, I thought that it’d be fine if she was going to be satisfied with this, so I let her be.

  Having said that, excluding Virgo, I felt the other 12 Stars were displeased with what was happening as I felt my back hurting from being stared at.

  Aries was acting disgruntled and Aigokeros was giving off the feeling of cursing someone to death as he stared down at Scorpius.

  Libra was holding onto a machine gun the whole time and Karkinos was crying, "

  had also just gotten back together too!!"

  Even as we became more chaotic, Tanaka carried and drove on as usual.

  After Mizar’s revelation, our next target had been determined to be Eros, also known as Pisces but, we had one problem with that.

  Not one of us knew Pisces’s location. Not even Dina had a lead on where Pisces was.

  "Aaaannn~, that worrying face of yours when you’re thinking about something is also gorgeous, Ruphas-sama."

  Scorpius, who was stuck on my arm, said something random as she entangled even more.

  It really didn’t matter but I would have preferred it if she stopped whispering into my ear. It was quite ticklish.

  As if she had detected what I was thinking, Libra grabbed onto Scorpius’s head with her iron fist, quite literally, and pulled Scorpius away from me.

  "Heeey, that hurts, you knooww!? What are you trying to doo!?"

  "That’s as far as you go, Scorpius. I can understand that you are feeling joyous about the reunion, however, you are causing inconvenience for the master. I will not permit anything further."

  "Haah?? Why should this mistress need your permission to nurture the love I have with Ruphas-sama? If you get carried away further, I’ll turn u into a

  as I did to your sisters!"

  "I recommend that you stop. If the battle were to break out, the one that will turn into dust is you."

  Scorpius and Libra had me in the middle as they created sparks and started a staring contest with each other.[1]

  Aries seemed to be hesitating on what he should do, but Aigokeros crossed his arms and seemed to be brimming with the will to join in.

  Instead of trying to defuse the situation, Karkinos tailed and encouraged the two whilst he laughed in high tension.[2] Virgo, on the other hand, ran to a position that would allow her to avoid getting caught up.

  And Dina blended into the background magnificently.

  "No, I’m not!?"

  Well, blending into the background was a joke.

  In fact, she was drinking tea in the corner as if the chaos had nothing to do with her.

  Even whilst I was thinking about all of this, the atmosphere between Libra and Scorpius became perilously threatening and eventually led to Scorpius’s hair waving and pointing towards Libra.

  Matching that, Libra clenched her fist, creating a volatile situation.

  Thinking that this was getting too dangerous, I came between the two to break them up.

  "Stop this. You two, are you intending to break Tanaka?"

  "Hmm…… Looks like you managed to get away with your life, Scorpius."

  "Are you talking about yourself? Libra."

  With me stepping in, the fight was somehow avoided, however, they still continued to stare at each other.

  These guys have such a bad relationship, oi.

  Aries and Aigokeros had quite a good relationship, but it seemed not every member of the 12 Heavenly Stars got along well. There were also bad pairings as well.

  Well, if there were 12 individuals, I supposed there were bound to be at least one bad pairing.

  Anyways, I should inspect Scorpius’s status in the meantime.

  [12 Heavenly Stars Scorpius]

  Level 800

  Species: Emperor Berserk Scorpion

  Attribute: Fire

  HP: 90 000

  SP: 8000

  STR (Strength/Attack Power): 4800

  DEX (Dexterity): 3105

  VIT (Vitality): 6570

  INT (Intelligence): 2100

  AGI (Agility/Speed): 3800

  MND (Mindpower): 3300

  LUK (Luck): 5500……

  Level, 800, she returned back down.

  Was this what that was? Did her level return to what it was because she was no longer under the influence of the Goddess or because she was reunited with me and her hatred was cleared away? I wonder what the reason was.

  Anyways, because her level had decreased, her HP had also gone down. As such, it seemed she would no longer be able to withstand Brachium.

  Yeah, this was exactly as Libra said. If they fought, Libra would have won.

  Or more like, how was she able to win against both Aries and Scorpius whom she was supposed to be badly matched against?

  I was reminded and made to feel yet again how badly broken Brachium’s efficiency was.

  Of course, if you considered the fact that with just that skill alone, she was able to become a candidate for one of the strongest, it was to be expected.

  Nevertheless, status alone did not determine how strong an individual was. This also applied to Scorpius.

  As her true strength lay in her poisonous attacks, simply speaking, her status did not need to be that high.

  By further buffing herself, she was able to multiple her attack, therefore in practice, her actual attack power was far different from the value that would be displayed.[3]

  Additionally, due to her high luck, she was frequently able to deal critical hits, thus as long as there was no Brachium, she was unlikely to lose against Libra.[4]

  The scariest thing was the influence of the Goddess who was able to strengthen this Scorpius to the point of being able to beat Libra.

  "Anyways, Ruphas-sama, what should we do from now on?"

  "We have no choice but to gather those whose locations were known. If I recall correctly, Alfheimr, Helheim and Muspelheim…… those three places, right."

  For now, if I had to pick a place out of them, Alfheimr was the most convenient place.

  And above all else, as [Gemini] of the Twins was actually two persons counting as one member, there was this joyous point of being able to collect two comrades at the same time.

  As I was thinking about the future, Tanaka suddenly stopped, causing my train of thought to be cut off.

  What happened? Something strange like Takana stopping on his own just happened.

  "Oh, he stopped. I wonder what’s happening."

  "What happened, Tanaka? Did something happen?"

  "

  "

  I walked towards the front and looked outside the windows.

  When I did so, I noticed that there were quite a lot of people approximately 1km in front of us.

  It seemed they had not noticed us, however, we saw beastkins, humans and elves going towards the same location without minding about the others.

  When I looked at the sky, there were even flugels which made it clear that there was some common objective between them for this journey.

  "Dina, is there something where they are going?"

  "Umm, if it’s this position and direction…… Ahh, there’s Draupnir."[5]

  "The country of beastkins, huh. But I wonder why the other races are also going there."

  In response to my question, Dina was saying "hmmm" as she tilted her head a little.

  It seemed she also did not know why.

  Unexpectedly, Scorpius raised her voice at that moment.

  "Ahh, that’s because recently, there’s been a hunting festival going on, Ruphas-sama. They would release all the magical beasts that the tamers have caught at the same time for this ridiculous competition to determine the strongest of these weaklings by seeing who can hunt down the most number of magical beasts."

  "I see (hou), you’re quite well informed."

  "Yeah, of course. That’s because after I destroy Blutgang, I was planning on spreading magical beasts randomly for this hunting festival then storm into that country."

  "…… I see."

  So dangerous. It was a super correct choice to recover Scorpius.

  If I didn’t recover her, she would probably have gotten a horrible hat-trick combo of bringing down the three major countries of Hrotti, Blutgang and Draupnir.

  Scorpius acted as if she did not have a speck of guilt (or most probably, she literally did not feel it at all) and stuck herself at my arm, subsequently raising her head and looking towards Dina.

  "Oh, by the way, who’s that blue thing? Oh and that white-winged."

  "You’re asking after all this!?"

  "The white-winged girl is the new recruit for Tyrannical 12 Heavenly Stars, Virgo of the [Maiden]. The previous Parthenos has passed away thus she’s the new place holder. And that blue thing is Dina Bacckgrounnd-sama the [Background]."

  "Whaaatt!? Don’t teach such a lie so casually, Libra-sama! I don’t have a last name like that!"

  "Did we have a star like the ’Background’? Well whatever, it doesn’t matter, pleased to meet you, ok? Background-san."

  "Noo, stop calling me with that name!?"

  Dina was tearing up as she looked at me.

  I understood very well from the way she looked at me that she wanted me to do something about all this.

  Tears of a beautiful girl did have that enticement to make people protect them, but strangely, even above all that, Dina really made people want to tease her.

  As such, instead of helping her out, I decided to get on board.

  "I see, for the stars to shine well, we do need a background to exist. Or maybe space for the stars to be able to roam…… Which means that background might be something needed for the Tyrannical to exist……"

  "Ruphas-sama!?"

  "Isn’t it fine, Background? In a way, it’s even more magnificent than the stars themselves. It’s the universe itself."

  "It doesn’t make me happy at all!"

  As by now, being teary had almost turned into full on crying, thus I decided to stop teasing her.

  Well, I did feel that Scorpius really did not regret what she said though.

  "But hunting festival, huh……"

  If I was to be blunt, I had absolutely no interest in the hunting festival itself.

  Although it might sound too much, from our point of view, this really was merely a festival for the low levels as Scorpius said.

  If I were to use the game as a basis, this just seemed like the extremely crippled or newbie players (noobs) rushing into a hunt. If one were to waste time like that, it would be better to farm more items.

  That was why I did not feel like participating at all.

  I did not know how big Draupnir was, however, with my speed, it was not impossible for me to fly around the capital and defeat all the magical beasts.

  The others in the group were also in the same situation such that whoever participated, it was clear things would become overkill.

  Nevertheless, I was actually thinking of putting that overkill situation into practice.

  "It’s not such a bad sideshow. Virgo, why don’t you participate?"

  "Eh? Me?!"

  Virgo’s level was the lowest amongst us.

  Notwithstanding, her level at 300 was still extraordinarily high by this world’s standard, so it would clearly still be an overkill.

  Meanwhile, although I felt a little bad for the other participants, I wanted Virgo to have some confidence.

  In all likelihood, she did not realise how strong she was herself.

  After all, she was raised by Parthenos in the forest the whole time and once she came outside, she was surrounded by me and the 12 Heavenly Stars. This had completely caused her to believe she was weak.

  There was a saying that the frog in the well did not know that an ocean existed.[6] This referred to how the frog that resided in the well might think it knew all about the world, however, it would not know how wide the ocean was.

  But nowhere was it written that the well was small, additionally, the frog might be a monster that went above the length of 1m.

  Nevertheless, the frog that was living in the well had no way of knowing how big or strong it was.

  She was precisely in that situation. She did not realise how all the frogs outside the well were smaller and weaker than herself.

  It was not as if I wanted her to become conceited. But I wanted her to at least have the confidence matching of her own ability.

  I believed it was my duty to think about things like that as someone that was entrusted to take care of her by Parthenos.

  "Ruphas-sama, you are seeking victory over the hunting festival? If that is your wish, please leave it to this mistress. I will serve up all the magical beasts and participants with poison for your pleasure."

  "If you leave things to me, I will show you the country of beastkins sinking into fear and terror……"

  "I will wipe the whole country with Brachium……"

  "Umm…… I’ll turn back into my sheep form and stomp on the capital……"

  "Wh, whaat! Then I’ll use Dawn Star on the whole capital……"

  "Noooo!? Only

  amongst the stars don’t have a large scale attack!?

  can’t win with this!"

  "All of you are banned from participating, understood?"

  "Anyways, it’s fine even if you don’t use these guys as your reference. If it’s you, even if you don’t use these idiots as the standard, you have more than enough ability to aim for the victory."

  "Umm, but I don’t have any ability with such a large area of effect."

  "That’s why you don’t have to use them as the reference. To begin with, hunting festivals are not something like that."

  Firstly, I thought I would correct things properly to resolve the misunderstanding caused by the bunch of idiots acting up.

  The hunting festival was all about how fast one could hunt down the magical beasts. It was not a festival about how large scale an attack one was able to release.

  I patted Virgo’s head and asked her, "so how about it?"

  I really wanted her to gain some confidence from this. Those were my true feelings.

  It was really pitiful of her to underestimate herself because she was surrounded by a bunch of overpowered monsters even though she had ability and talent.

  "Yes. Then…… I’ll give it a try."

  "Ahh, just take it easy."

  With this, Virgo’s participation was determined.

  As such, all we had to do now was to go to Draupnir.

  I gave my order to Tanaka and changed the direction of our journey.

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  (Author Note)

  [The Hunting Festival in-game]

  Ruphas: "Go, Libra! Scatter the enemies in front of me!"

  Libra: "YES, Master! Brachium towards the capital, fire!"

  Ruphas: "Transmute! Winter of Swords the whole capital!"

  Megrez: "Tidal wave the entire capital!"

  High-level character-san 1: "Kame __ haaaaaaaa!!"[7]

  High-level character-san 2: "So special……!"

  Low-level character-san: "Ah, Shamo star……"[8]

  High-level character-san 3: "Ex __ aliburrrr!!"[9]

  High-level character-san 4: "a Hosei Ho__hooooo!!"[10]

  High-level character 5: "Starli___ Breakerrrrr!!"[11]

  High-level character 6: "Midgard isss!!! The Midgard itself isssss!!"

  ** However wide of an attack the players used, objects and NPC were not destroyed. Exploiting that, all the super large scale attacks were used one after another. Game is scary.

  (Author note end)

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  [1] Something like below. Very typical Japanese cultural thing.

  [2] High-tension laugh…… I think it’s those…… happy, loud, crazy cheerful laughs u hear in anime.

  [3] In MMORPG there are "buffs" and "debuffs" which I’ve explained in previous footnote somewhere. Sometime, some games have buffs which temporary boosts the ally’s or their own stats. Some of those buffs boosts the attack value;

  In all likelihood, Scorpius has one of these buffs. And my guess is that Scorpius’s poison damage is based off of her base attack stat or the initial hit of the attack (e.g. "

  "). Hopefully you get what the author’s trying to say even if you didn’t understand how the mechanics work from this crappy explanation.

  [4] In MMORPG, luck stat is usually the most vague and random but…… looks like in this series’ game, the luck stat corresponds with critical hit chance and perhaps critical damage. (Sometimes, crit is based on agility, a lot of the times crit is based off dex. Having said that, majority of the time, if there’s luck stat, crit is based on luck and dex corresponds with dodge. If you have a complaint, tell that to the developers.)

  Critical Hit chance is the chance for the attack to do critical damage.

  Critical damage is usually a direct multiplier to the base damage. (e.g. If a punch was going to do 100 damage and critical damage is 150%…… usually…… actually, depends on the game, some game it’ll be 150 damage, and some game it’ll be 250 damage. The players will have to figure it out, but you get the idea.)

  [5] "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupnir".

  [6] Literally translated. Raw: "井の中の蛙大海(うみ)を知らず"

  [7] Reference to dragon ball series.

  [8] Reference to dragon ball series.

  [9] Reference to Fate series.

  [10] Reference to One Punch Man.

  [11] Reference to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

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