When Bellocchio reached the point where the two paths converge, he was a little disappointed, as he was not rushing on the way there.
Still, he did have a plan. This was practically his garden.
This was a place that was supposedly rough for a sorcerer like Bellocchio. However, the idea that magic did not work in Thousand Sword Peak was a little misleading. To be more precise, it was a place where magic could not be fired into the air.
Magic that was activated by touch, such as healing or strengthening magic, worked as well as always, but offensive magic was usually performed by firing something at a distant enemy.
This meant that if one could inflict damage by touch, even offensive magic would work.
However, this would rip the user’s hand to shreds. This was why sorcerers used staff and healers such as priests did not. Sorcerers had to make sure their own magic would not hurt them.
When Bellocchio was young, he had a very tough time in this labyrinth, and having to stay back while the vanguard did all the work caused him a great deal of stress.
Feeling so useless after training so much hurt him.
But that was when he happened to see a party composed entirely of sorcerers calmly exploring the labyrinth. He figured there had to be something to them, and he found the answer. A technique called Magic Blade.
This technique would normally came with various hurdles.
Rather than using a jewel at the tip to fire magic, like a staff would, Magic Blade would imbue the blade itself with magic, and activate its effect when slashing.
However, not a lot of weapons could endure this.
A regular sword would only take a few hits before being destroyed. It was possible to hold back the power of this technique, but that would halve its effect.
By acquiring a magic sword that could handle Magic Blade, one could wield a lot of power, but to do so they would need either a lot of money or a lot of luck to find one in a labyrinth.
Taking into account the amount of time, money, and effort needed, it would probably be more efficient to improve one’s skill with a regular sword.
Rich hobbyists and A and S rank adventurers willing to spend the money were one thing, but it was certainly not the sort of thing one would expect an intermediary adventurer to use.
However, Bellocchio was a strange, studious man.
As he searched for a solution to his problem, he noticed that he could break as many weapons as he wanted in Thousand Sword Peak, and it would matter little. With this idea in mind, Bellocchio realized he could use this to practice his magic more than ever before.
At a glance, Bellocchio looked as though he had lost his mind, as he used the place that was avoided by sorcerers like himself as a playground of sorts to satisfy his curiosity.
As a result, Bellocchio not only learned a lot about Magic Blade, but also that the weapons in Thousand Sword Peak were a type of magic sword, although very weak ones.
That in itself was not very useful, but it meant that magic was easily transmitted through them, meaning it would not take much time for one to be able to learn Magic Blade and use it in actual combat.
His playground would go on to become his hunting ground.
Bellocchio generally kept that discovery to himself, even hesitating to tell it to the other members of his party.
Considerable strength was necessary to use such a place as a hunting ground, and a weak sorcerer beating this dungeon with powerful items or a powerful team did not have much merit in the long run.
So, he figured he should at least hide the fact that he beat this dungeon not by conventional means. Sorcerers of higher ranking parties who also realized this came up with the same idea.
This was the main reason why Bellocchio chose to tell Willy about it and not Tianna. In the meantime, he also felt she had been losing sight of how important it was to investigate things on her own.
He had purposefully spoken to her in an inflammatory way to try to light a fire under her, but seemed disappointed that it would probably end in failure.
However, just as he was thinking this…
“Gyawah!?”
“W-what…? The Dagger Wolf’s head…!”
“In one hit…?”
Something sharp came flying from behind, and the head of the boss of that converging point was sent flying. With surprise and expectation in his mind, Bellocchio turned around.
“…Tianna. I was waiting for you.”
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, master.”
What he saw was Tianna holding a strange shield.
◆
“You know it’s bad manners to jump in while someone else is fighting, right?”
Marcus said with a grin as he approached Survivors. Nick took a step forward and responded.
“You’re right, but it’s a little different this time, so let it go.”
“Alright, but you owe us one.”
“Leave that for after the match.”
Marcus was only joking, so he paid no attention to Nick’s light provocation.
There were also bigger things on his mind.
“…So, lady. Hum, what is… That?”
Marcus pointed to what Tianna was carrying.
He could not call it a shield. It had a shape similar to a shield, but its use was clearly different.
Tianna used it by holding it horizontally and aiming it at her enemy like a staff or bow.
“Does that… Fire short swords? How?”
“You really think I’m going to just tell you?”
Tianna smiled proudly, and Marcus seemed frustrated.
Bellocchio then took a step forward.
“Let us confirm something first… Inside that disk was a short sword rotating very quickly. And then, while maintaining its rotation, you fired it at the Dagger Wolf and sliced its head. Am I correct?”
“Yes.”
Bellocchio looked at Tianna’s weapon with a stern expression.
As he stared at the strange device while Tianna remained silent, a tense atmosphere formed around them.
“Tianna.”
“Yes.”
“This was dangerous.”
“Yes?”
“You use Magnetics and Lightning to make the short sword inside the disk spin. How do you keep the blade spinning around its center?”
“I use an alchemical magic item to create a temporary bearing.”
“And by releasing it, the short sword spinning inside it fired out… What do you call this weapon?”
“For now, a Magic Bow.”
“I see… About that Magic Bow.”
“Yes.”
“It is dangerous, don’t you think?”
“Yes…”
Tianna felt uncomfortable, but agreed with Bellocchio’s very serious words.
“If it fires in an unexpected direction, it can hurt you or one of your partners. I am also sure you cannot control it perfectly when it spins quickly. And you also need to think about what happens to this spinning blade when you stumble and fall.”
“No, well, I made it so the rotation stops when the correct process isn’t followed.”
“It will not stop immediately. Do you have breaks of some sort?”
“No.”
“Then think about that. You should also have a shield of some sort to cover and protect yourself.”
“But if I add more parts it might make it difficult to aim.”
“How about using wind magic to fire a blade without making it spin in the first place? You could use a plate spring to create a device similar to a bow gun.”
“The output wouldn’t be near enough to be viable as a weapon. There is this magic sealing barrier, so the moment it leaves my hands the effect of the spell is lost. I do use it to help propel it forward and establish the direction but…”
The people around them stopped being able to follow their intense discussion. Specific terms they could not understand were being thrown around, and by the end, the way they were speaking was indistinguishable from a full blown argument. ‘Wrong!’ ‘You do have a point there!’ ‘But!’ ‘Yes!’ ‘That’s the problem!’, and many more words of affirmation and negation were bouncing back and forth. Enough to make one’s head spin.
“Alright. I will add a shield with a window in front of me. That way I can aim, and still be protected in case it fires accidentally.”
“Good.”
As the people around them were getting sick of it, the discussion finally came to an end.
“Ah… Are you done?”
Asked Nick.
“Wait. I’ll have this fixed in less than an hour.”
“It will only be a stop-gap solution, so re-do it when this is over, Tianna.”
“Yes, understood.”
Nick meant that he wanted them to wrap up what they were doing so they could continue, but neither understood this, and took what he said at face value.