Tenshi Translations

Volume 1 Chapter 4 Part 3

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can grab the PDF here.

~~~~~~~~~~​~~~~~~~~~~​~~~~~~~~~~

 

Leaving Tsuki no Hokora behind, Shin made a beeline for the Northern Forest. Hoping to avoid the unnecessary complications that would arise were he to stumble upon the team currently out investigating the Skull Face incident, he advanced while carefully confirming that there was no one nearby.

 

With no specific destination in mind, Shin had left the direction up to mere intuition. As he proceeded deeper into the forest, though, he began to perceive a suspicious feeling in the air, so for now he altered his course to go even deeper into the forest. If he went back to where the Skull Face had been, it would become impossible to avoid encountering the investigators, so he headed for the opposite direction instead. The course led him towards an area that he had not searched the last time he was here.

 

The place where the Skull Face had been was the southeastern part of the Northern Forest. Bearing westward gradually brought Shin towards the central part of the forest. The further he went, the thicker the vegetation and the dimmer the light. The Eastern Forest was no comparison at all; the darkness became so thick and it almost felt like nighttime. The trees themselves were also taller than those in the Eastern Forest, and seemed to emanate a dark and thick air that forbid anyone from going any deeper.

 

In truth, Shin was aware of how the deeper he went into the forest, the stronger the thought that he must not proceed grew in his mind. It wasn’t intuition nor premonition. There was something more specific here that was actively trying to influence his will.

 

(Is this it?)

 

He was not certain, but Shin felt that this feeling that was getting stronger the further he progressed was not directly harmful to himself. Rather, it felt more like a barrier that was protecting something.
Shin continued to press on like the barrier was nothing. His advance belied the strength of the barrier, though; it was actually so potent that any normal person of this world would have unconsciously evaded the area without even being aware that they were being affected. In some sense, it was a powerful form of illusion magic, and someone other than Shin would not have been able to say with confidence that this barrier was not something harmful. However, for Shin, who had put in especially more effort into developing resistance against mental interference, the barrier might as well have not existed. Rather, all it did right now was to tell him that『there is something ahead!』.

 

Carefully keeping an eye on his surroundings, Shin continued further into the dark forest in the direction where the feeling grew stronger. Perhaps due to the barrier, there were no monsters anywhere around.
Suddenly, when he passed by a conspicuously large tree, a soft light gently fell onto Shin and cleared away the darkness in front of him.
The view beyond the barrier revealed an open area with the ground exposed to the sky. In the space stood a vivid scarlet torii and a nostalgic-looking Shinto shrine.

 

(T/N: Torii is a structure like an archway. It marks the entrance to Shinto shrines.)

 

“So this is what was in the middle of the barrier?”

 

The moment he stepped into the area that abruptly opened up in the center of the forest, the feeling of mental interference stopped, so he deduced that he had completely passed through the barrier. There being a shrine at the end had been beyond his expectations, though.

 

“Nn~? ...... This shrine, I feel like I’ve seen it before ......”

 

The appearance of the shrine seemed to be tugging at something in his memory, so Shin wracked his brain. Back during the game, Japanese style architecture was not exactly rare, but there weren’t a lot of people with the flair for building Shinto shrines. It felt like he was almost able to pull out the memory, but he was still a step short no matter what he did.

 

“Let’s try going in for now.”

 

Aware of how stupid he looked standing there nodding to his own suggestion, he passed under the torii without any further ado.
The sandou that started from the torii ran straight towards the main shrine building. The shrine was composed solely of the torii and main building; there was no sign of the other accompanying facilities normally associated with shrines, such as komainu, chouzuya, and offertory box. There was only the torii and the sandou that ended at the main building.

 

(T/N: Quick Shinto shrine vocab lesson. Sandou is the path that leads from the torii to the main shrine building (Note: Never walk in the middle of the sandou! That part is reserved for the gods.) Torii is the gate, as said earlier. Komainu are the stone guardian dogs usually placed in front of different gates and buildings in a shrine for protection. Chouzuya is a place with running water where visitors are to wash their hands before approaching. Some people believe in beneficial effects from drinking the water at the chouzuya too. Saisenbako is the offertory box where visitors chuck money into before praying.)

 

“Did the air change?”

 

However, as if insisting that it was a holy place even if there was only the main shrine building, the moment Shin stepped through the torii the air around him changed abruptly.
The wind that caressed Shin’s face was so refreshing that it almost made him forget that he was inside a forest. Having just passed through a forest filled with the smells of all sorts of creatures mixed together, Shin felt this change in the air all the more.
There was no doubt that there was something special about this place.

 

The grounds inside the shrine did not look in disrepair. Rather, the whole place looked quite diligently maintained.
Following the sandou, Shin approached the main shrine building. The floor of the building was raised high and there was no ornamentation at all on the entire building. For someone used to seeing normal shrines, this one might have seemed a bit strange.

 

The moment before Shin reached the main building, he heard a ‘pishiri’ sound.

“What was that?”

 

It was a sound similar to that of cracks appearing in glass. Thinking about it, it might have been the sound of cracks appearing in the barrier.
It did not forebode well.

 

Shin looked around while wondering “Was it my fault?”, but nothing seemed to have changed. The air was still brisk and clear, and the holy atmosphere of the shrine had not diminished at all. In the first place, Shin hadn’t done anything.
If he really had to point out something out of place, it would be that the door to the shrine standing slightly ajar. But Shin had noticed that only after the sound, so the door had either been open in the first place, or it had opened together with the sound.

 

“It’s open ......”

 

The way the door stood slightly open seemed to be inviting him to open it all the way. There wasn’t enough of a gap to peek inside, but there was enough that he couldn’t ignore it. Now that he was aware of it, it would continue to bother him.

 

“...... Let’s open it, I guess.”

 

Wrestling with the feeling that he was being disrespectful, Shin reached out and opened the door to the shrine, allowing sunshine to illuminate the dark interior.

 

The first thing that caught his attention was the drawings on the floor. Sanskrit-like letters were written in a pattern within several concentric circles, such that the whole thing looked like a magic circle.

 

And in the center of the circles. There was a figure lying down in the center of those circles of varying sizes.

 

“...... A fox?”

 

The light spilling into the room revealed a fox cub with silver fur lying limply on the floor.

 

“There’s no time to waste just staring at it.”

 

After quickly confirming that there were no traps, Shin rushed over to the cub. He did not see any external wounds, but its HP bar was already more than halfway through the red zone. On top of that, it was also afflicted with both【Poison X】and【Curse X】. If left alone, its strength giving out would only be a matter of time.

 

“I’m not sure if it’s this guy or not, but that doesn't matter now.”

 

Just because it was here, Shin understood that this was no ordinary fox. He wasn’t sure if this was the fox that Millie had asked him to save, but he decided to just deal with it later if this was the wrong one. Opening his inventory, Shin swept his eyes over the rows of items, found the Elixir stack, and pulled one out in physical form. The golden liquid was capable of recovering HP, MP, repairing injuries, and could dispel almost every kind of debuff. He flipped the lid off with his thumb and brought the bottle to the cub’s mouth. When he did so, a loud sound like a large amount of glass being shattered, “gashan!”, reached Shin’s ears.

 

“What is it this time?!”

 

Shin immediately activated【Sense Presence】to probe the surrounding area. Whereas【Search】could only detect monsters,【Sense Presence】could tell him the position and numbers of both players and monsters. Though【Sense Presence】had the drawback of having a smaller range, it could see through walls and obstacles, and thus was more effective for this situation.

 

A cursory glance told him that there were easily more than 50 monsters currently heading towards the main shrine building. It seemed that the sound just now was of the barrier being broken. His ingame map showed a large number of red markers from all directions converging like ants to sugar.

 

(Are they here for this little guy?)

 

Shin considered what to do while looking at the fox cub that was weakly purring “Kuu ......” in his arms. After drinking the Elixir, the debuffs were gone, and its health had recovered into the yellow zone and was steadily heading towards the green. Seeing how it still seemed weak despite recovering its health, Shin guessed that quite a lot of time must have passed between the cub becoming like this and Shin’s arrival.

 

“First of all, activate【Barrier X】!!”

 

Shin still did not understand the significance and role behind this place and this cub, but he decided to set up a top tier barrier before the enemies got any closer. With the main shrine building as the center, the barrier stopped the red markers from advancing any further, causing them to start crowding together right outside.
To be honest, Shin was still not sure what was going on, but abandoning the fox cub here was not an option. If he really put his mind to it, he could abandon it, but he was not so cold-hearted. Shin placed the shivering cub that was tilting its head to look at himself back in the center of the drawings that looked like a magic circle, gave its head a rub, then stood up.

 

“Kuu ......”
“Wait a second. I’ll be right back after kicking those nuisances to the ground.”

 

So saying, Shin turned his back on the cub and opened the doors of the shrine. What greeted his eyes was the sight of numerous Skull Faces jostling each other beyond the barrier that he had set up. Brandishing rusted swords and wearing patchy armor, the skeleton warriors with a gloomy fire burning within their eye sockets were stumbling around like sleepwalkers.
The Skull Faces were not strong enough to break the barrier, so Shin took his time surveying the situation.

 

“ ‘When quality fails, fall back on quantity,’ eh?”

 

Shin concluded while looking at the view spread out in front. None of the Skull Faces in the crowd was using special equipment or had unnatural levels like the Jack class that he had killed before; all of the Skull Faces currently surrounding the place were well within what he knew to be the norm for Pawn and Jack classes.

 

With the knowledge that all of the enemies around were Skull Faces, Shin exchanged【Sense Presence】for the longer-ranged【Search】. Doing so allowed him to focus only on the monsters, and also gave his detection a wider reach, such that he was now aware of each and every Skull Face.

 

The issue this time was the numbers. Including the ones beyond the range of【Sense Presence】that was now being shown by【Search】, there were roughly a hundred enemies. If even a tenth of them escaped, they could cause a great amount of damage and casualties.
The scene that unfolded in Shin’s mind was that of a field of blood with human parts scattered all over. He did not intend to be someone who would always tout justice, but he was not going to allow unnecessary bloodshed when he could do something about it.

 

“Too bad for you guys. I’m not going to let even one of you get away.”

 

While taking a step forward, Shin also drew a fresh weapon from his inventory. What materialized into his hand was a spear. The handle shone silver, and the edge of the spearhead was a vivid jade green. Due to it being enchanted, the entire spear was also wrapped in a faint white light.

 

After giving the spear a twirl, Shin reduced【Limit】to II. Confirming that this level of power was the strongest that he could still control, he kicked off the ground and rushed towards the barrier.

 

“The first strike!!”

 

While dashing forward, he activated the Spear-Type Martial Skill【Wadachi Tsuranuki (Furrow Pierce)】. With sheer brute strength, the spear pierced through several Skull Faces at once. When he activated the skill, an emerald green light in a spiral pattern smashed through swords, armor, and the Skull Faces themselves. It was almost like a cannonball had been fired horizontally; the tightly packed Skull Faces were ground to pieces, leaving behind a straight line of bones and iron scraps in a furrow.
Riding along the momentum of the attack, Shin broke through the encirclement of the Skull Faces. While paying attention to the positions of the monsters, he took a bit of a distance.

 

“Before I do anything else,【Star Mine】!”

 

With the activation of the skill, several tens of light orbs appeared and flew off to surround the whole group of Skull Faces.

 

Holy Arts-Type Magic Skill【Star Mine】.

 

It was a skill that placed holy elemental orbs in midair that worked like mines.
The light orbs surrounded the Skull Faces that surrounded the main shrine building. With this, he had cut off their route of escape, making sure that none of them could run back into the forest.
Confirming that the light orbs were all in position, Shin resumed assaulting the Skull Faces that were still clustering around the barrier despite having been attacked.

 

Aiming at the backs of the crowd, he lunged forward with the Spear-Type Martial Skill【Senka (Flash Blossom)】. Leaving behind an emerald green line in the air, the spear swung horizontally in a mowing attack that reduced several Skull Faces to pieces. Furthermore, the smashed pieces of armor and sword shot out in an arc, punching through the Skull Faces beyond the range of the spear. Pawn classes and Jack classes fell equally under the single attack packed with a ridiculous amount of power. The group now looked very much like a honeycomb.

 

Having finally noticed Shin, several Jack classes had turned around and raised their swords, but they could not withstand the strike from the spear, and were converted into impromptu bullets that pierced through their own allies.

 

“Have one more!!”

 

Shin swung his spear around as he pleased. Whenever he used a skill, he took down around ten of them in one blow, and the fragments from their broken bodies conveniently shot out like buckshots. Their numbers were whittled down in a flash.
In the face of Shin’s unstoppable rampage, there was no way that these Skull Faces without any special characteristics could remain standing.

 

 

 

♦♦♦♦

 

 

 

It took barely ten minutes for Shin to completely exterminate the entire group of Skull Faces. There was so much debris spread out around the barrier that the ground could not be seen.
Having no intention of cleaning up the mess, Shin ignored the remains and returned to the main shrine building.

 

When he stepped in after opening the door, the fox cub that looked like it had been crouching in wait sprang towards him.

 

“Ku—!!”
“Uwah! That’s a pretty dangerous thing to do, little guy.”

 

As the fox cub started to rub itself against him while settling in his arms, Shin regained his balance and walked down the stairs from the shrine. The cub had seemingly made a full recovery, and was now incessantly licking his face.

 

“Well then, what to do now.”

 

Shin unconsciously sighed as his gaze swept over the wrecked surroundings while still holding the fox in his arms. He noticed that the holy feeling was gone. Maybe the power that had been protecting the shrine had dispelled together with the original barrier.

 

“Ku— ?”
“Oh right, I don’t know anything about you yet either.”

 

He had decided to help out because of Millie’s request and because he had found it in such a weak state, but there was still a lot of mystery surrounding the cub. Shin now realized that he had not even checked the cub’s name yet, as he had been occupied with its weakened state ever since he had first laid eyes on it. Only monsters and players had HP bars, so he knew that this fox cub was some kind of monster.

 

“I totally forgot to check your name. It’s probably ‘Little Fox,’ right?”

 

Shin used【Analyze】to check out the cub’s status window while raising the name of a type of monster that had been popular as pets back during the game. The cub probably didn’t understand what he was saying, as it merely tilted its head in response.

 

“So, name, na ............ me?”

 

Shin’s eyes froze at the Monster Name field. What was written there was completely beyond his expectations.

 

“E, Elemental Tail ........................ Are you serious? ......”
“Ku—!”

 

The fox, no, Elemental Tail, gave an energetic reply that almost seemed to say, “That’s right!” Shin was understandably petrified with shock. Elemental Tails, previously also called “Nine-Tailed Fox” and “Kyuubi” by the players, were normally monsters that could boast of being level 1000 and were widely accepted as one of the most superior monsters in THE NEW GATE.
It regularly made the higher ranks among the “Who’s the strongest monster in THE NEW GATE?” player surveys. Seeing the name of such a monster coming up left Shin at a complete loss.

 

“What to do ...... Seriously, what to do ......”

 

Reading the rest of the status window, Shin saw that the Elemental Tail was level 211. By the standards of the residents of this world, it was already more than sufficiently dangerous. Seeing how it was here alone, Shin surmised that its parents were probably gone. It should be said that even Shin would feel in danger if even one of the parents were near. It was a tall order for even a player with completely maxed out stats to challenge an adult Elemental Tail alone. If he completely deactivated【Limit】, the Shin with his current stats might win, but not before reducing the entire Northern Forest to scorched earth.

 

“Why is an Elemental Tail here? It’s almost like Arclid’s ...... Wait, I got it!! There was an Elemental Tail!!”

 

The feeling that he had seen the shrine before when he had first arrived here. Finally remembering the reason for it, Shin could not help but shout in recognition.
There used to be a quest involving an Elemental Tail, nicknamed the Kyuubi Quest, that had required a visit to a Shinto shrine composed of only the torii and main shrine building. To be exact, it was a spot slightly removed from the shrine, but that place had probably been destroyed by the cataclysms. Most likely, the reason why the shrine was still standing was because of the protective barrier that Shin had felt. Thinking this way, it wasn’t actually that strange for an Elemental Tail to be here.
Half of the customers who had stopped by Tsuki no Hokora had been players planning to do the Kyuubi Quest. Putting it nicely, it had been a collaboration that had helped Shin raise his sales.

 

Finally satisfied at why an Elemental Tail was here, the only question left was what to do next. Originally, the Kyuubi Quest had only involved a single adult Nine-Tails; there had been no mention at all of a little Nine-Tails.

 

“What do you plan on doing from now on?”

 

Proper conversation was not possible, but Shin felt that the cub could somehow understand what he said, so he tried to ask it directly. Though the area was safe now that the barrier that he had set up was in place, the place had a feeling like it had fulfilled its role. The cub was an Elemental Tail, but it was also still just a cub, so Shin had misgivings about just leaving it here.

 

“Ku—......”

 

Having been lowered to the ground, the Elemental Tail turned around and stared at the main shrine building. After a short while, it turned around decisively like it was shaking free from something. In the same motion, it jumped onto Shin and climbed up, finally settling down on his head with a plop.

 

“Why on my head?”
“Ku~!”
“That’s not an answer.”

 

The Elemental Tail slapped his head lightly. Shin somehow felt that this was its way of expressing its resolve to leave the place behind, so he voiced it out loud as a question.

 

“...... You want to come with me?”
“Ku—!”
“I see ...... Wait, stop struggling! Your claws! Your claws are hurting me!”

 

The cub seemed to be responding “Let’s go!” in high spirits, but its energetic moving around swung Shin’s head all around the place.
The claws that were for taking down prey were completely extended, incessantly prickling Shin’s head and making it ridiculously hard to walk.

 

“Calm down a bit!”
“Ku—?”
“Don’t tilt your head at me. I know you can understand what I’m saying!”

 

Though it was still a cub, its race was the top-ranked Elemental Tail, so there was no way that it wasn’t clever. Perhaps this was its way of distracting itself from the sense of loneliness.

 

(It would be great if I could become more mature before I go back to my own world.)

 

With these thoughts in his head, Shin began walking back towards Berylricht while using both hands to block the paw punches (claws included) coming from above.

 

 

Previous Part | ToC | Next Part