Volume 10 Chapter 8 (1/2)
I used the [Despair] medal, my [Creation] medal, and an imitation medal of [Planet] to make a new monster.
I aimed for it to be a fallen angel.
Fallen angels were extremely rare monsters. Their stats as well as their skills were excellent and had great practical use.
Thankfully, those were true for Fallen Angel Raffaello, the new monster I just made. There was just one problem with her though: she was a bit of a klutz… err, physically uncoordinated.
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We went to the [Crimson Cavern] to raise her levels.
The hot magma everywhere illuminated the otherwise dark cave we travelled through.
Raising her levels was vital. She might be an S rank monster, but given that she was still at level 1, she wasn't particularly strong.
”Don't stray too far away from Kuina!”
”Understood, Master Kuina!”
Kuina was in the lead, and behind her were Raffaello and I. The one protecting our backs was Rorono.
Kuina was here to train Raffaello while also fulfilling her duty of guarding me. Meanwhile, Rorono came along to get an idea on what kind of weapon would suit Raffaello best.
I took this opportunity to once again look at Raffaello's Status.
Race: Fallen Angel Raffaello
Name: Unnamed
Level: 1
Stats:
Physical Strength: DEndurance: DAgility: DMagic: S+Luck: S+Special: S++
Skills:
Seraphim's Halo: The power of an angel of the highest rank. Holy-type enemies whose rank is lower than Seraphim will suffer a decrease of 1 rank to all their stats. Moreover, this skill doubles the damage done to enemies that were of the Darkness and Death attribute.Dark Light Magic: Provides a boost (extra-large) to magic. Allows the use of dark light magic spells, which were spells that had both holy and darkness attribute. When calculating the damage done to the target, whichever between the target's light resistance and darkness resistance was of the lower value would be considered.Black-winged Angel: Through the divine protection granted by the dark light, Endurance and magic resistance are both increased by one rank. When flying, Agility is increased by one rank.Dark Light Sanctuary: Rains down a stream of dark light to construct a sanctuary. Having the skill user as the center, this sanctuary may have a radius between 20 and 200 meters. The narrower the sanctuary is, the greater the effects. All within the sanctuary will be enveloped and affected by its effects.Fall From Heaven: On the condition that the skill user loses their angel-related attributes as well as aptitude for light-related skills and magic, the skill user shall become steep in even more darkness, have all their stats increased by 2 ranks, and gain special abilities. On the third use of this skill, the fall to darkness will be complete and irreversible.
Her stats were extreme, in more ways than one.
Stats that might be more important in close-range battles—Physical Strength, Endurance, and agility—were at D. In exchange for that though, the stats that could be considered important in magic battles—Magic and Special, as well as maybe Luck—were at least S+.
But more worthy of attention than her stats were her skills.
Given that Seraphim's Halo was effective against monsters of the holy attribute as well as monsters of the darkness attribute, it was overwhelmingly advantageous. Seraphim was the highest rank in the hierarchy of angels, so there should be only a few monsters of the holy attribute that wouldn't be subjected to Seraphim's Halo.
Dark Light Magic was powerful as well.
There were very few monsters who had resistance to both Light and Dark. It was almost always the case that if a monster had resistance to one, they would be weak to the other.
Black-winged Angel raised her stats and only required easily-fulfillable conditions. As great as increasing some of her stats by a rank might sound though, in reality, it only raised those stats to C. Still, that might be more than enough.
All her skills so far could be praised for certain, but the remaining two were rather hard to use.
I had no idea on how her Dark Light Sanctuary would affect those caught within it.
In the first place, why would she—whose stats for close-range were quite low—put herself in such a disadvantageous position where she was not only near her enemies but also confined with them? Even if the sanctuary could be made to have a radius of up to 200 meters, the question still stands.
And then, there was her most problematic skill of all: Fall from Heaven.
”Raffaello, listen, absolutely do not use Fall from Heaven, alright?”
”Understood! I won't use it”
If I didn't tell her that, such a scenario was more than possible:
”Raffaello, use Fall from Heaven!”
”Yes, right away! [Fall from Heaven]!”
Yes, a scenario where she would joyfully use it.
Fall from Heaven, at first glance at least, seemed to be a very powerful skill. Its effect of increasing all of her stats by 2 ranks was more than what [Berserk] offered. However, skills which required angel-related attributes such as holy would become unusable. In Raffaello's case, she would lose access to Seraphim's Halo, Dark Light Magic, and Black-winged Angel. Dark Light Sanctuary might become inaccessible as well.
To be frank, I thought it wasn't worth it. My intuition was telling me that its true value would show itself after the third use, but obviously, I had no intention of taking such a gamble.
”Master Kuina, this'll be my very first hunt and to be honest, I'm quite nervous”
”It's natural feel like that on your first time! Just watch your Master and learn!”
”Yes, Master Kuina!”
Even though she looking around restlessly, Raffaello's eyes were full of respect whenever she gazed on Kuina.
A short while after, Kuina's ears pricked upward, the reaction she had when she has found an enemy.
”Raff-chan, look over there”
”S-so that's my first foe?”
About a hundred meters away in the direction Kuina pointed to was a red lizard. To be more specific, it was a Salamandra, a D rank monster.
It didn't take long before it noticed us as well and breathed out some flames as means to threaten us.
”For now, try firing your assault rifle, Raff-chan. From this distance, you should be able to defeat it one-sidedly.”
”Here I go!”
Serving as her current weapon was the EDAR-04 Laevateinn.
Unlike Aura's anti-materiel rifle which was useable by pretty much only her, Rorono designed and made this assault rifle so that anyone, with enough training, should be able to draw out its maximum potential. It was such an easy-to-use and high-performance weapon that it was the weapon of choice of a lot of my monsters, especially the intelligence corps.
In order to increase Raffaello's hit rate, we taught her to fire in a burst of three shots.
Sadly, all of her shots missed.
Rorono was greatly perplexed by this.
No matter how much of an airhead Raffaello was, at this distance, she shouldn't miss. To make matters worse, the Salamandra didn't take any evasive maneuvers and was in fact charging straight ahead.
”Eeeehhhhhh? Why am I not hitting?”
And then, her magazine became empty of bullets.
She tried to retrieve another magazine from her bag and replace the empty one, but she instead dropped the bag.
”Raff-chan, no time to pick it up. Use your magic! Maybe you can make that hit something!”
”Y-yes, Master Kuina! [Dark Light Explosion]!”
She raised her hand up toward the Salamandra. I then felt overwhelming magic that was unbelievable for a level 1 monster.
In the following moment, dark light surged from her raised hand and eradicated anything the Salamandra had from the neck up.
Such speed and straight trajectory. So, this is Dark Light Magic, huh.
Much like the term dark light would suggest, the dark light she fired off traveled in a straight line and at the speed of light. That meant that as long as the target was within the line of fire, evasion was impossible.
Kuina and Rorono were quite surprised.
Originally, by which I mean without the use of guns, it was hard for a level 1 monster, even an S rank one, to deal a fatal blow to a proper D rank monster. And yet, Raffaello easily beheaded one. Truly, a Magic stat of S+ and stat ups from her various skills were nothing to joke about.
This then made me imagine of how powerful her Dark Light Magic could be once she has reached her maximum level. Such a thought made me shudder.
…I mean, an instant kill attack that can't be avoided! Other than monsters like Aura who could attack from so far away or monsters like Kuina who was immune to magic, most monsters would die without a fight.
”Amazing! That surprised me, Raff-chan”
”…with that power, guns wouldn't be necessary. What an absurd power”
”Yup, yup, exactly, Rorono-chan. Raff-chan, you know, Kuina was beginning to think you were a lost cause, but you've changed my mind!”
”Actually, Master Kuina…”
”What's wrong?”
”That magic just now, it actually used up all my magic power. Can we rest a bit?”
”So, you're a lost cause after all…”
Considering she exhausted herself in one attack, it seemed like her attack's fuel efficiency wasn't great, to say the least.
Well, once she gains some levels, her total magic power should increase as well. Moreover, she hopefully would have obtained a better mastery of things over time.
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After giving Raffaello a potion made from the golden apples to improve her magic power recovery rate and letting her rest for a bit, we continued our hunt.
In order to compensate somewhat for the weak point of Raffaello's Dark Light magic, Kuina and Rorono tried to teach her more on how to use a gun.
Sadly, there wasn't any improvements.
If one used a gun, they could still have firepower when they had exhausted their magic power reserves. Moreover, they would be able to fight even enemies that were resistant or immune to magic.
”Say, Rorono, can you make a gun that can be used by anyone and whose bullets will always hit the enemy?”