96 Power Upgrade
"We escaped... We really escaped..."
Otto looked at the road ahead, now free of dense fog, and his eyes turned red—partly with the excitement of narrowly escaping death, and partly with sorrow over the presumed death of Natsuki Subaru.
He had heard the sound of the White Whale.
That sound had carried a sense of pain. In such a situation, the chances of Subaru surviving were not high.
If Subaru had truly been capable of defeating the White Whale on his own, then there would have been no need for Rem to be knocked out and for him to jump alone from the dragon carriage.
Besides, Subaru didn't appear to be especially powerful; he gave off no aura of strength. Therefore… Subaru's death was already determined.
So next, Otto needed to bring Rem back to the mansion. But once Rem woke up, what was he supposed to say to her?
Shaking his head, Otto decided not to think about that anymore.
For now, his priority was to drive the dragon carriage as far away as possible from that dangerous place.
.
.
.
"This should be the place, Lady Crusch."
"Hmm. Full alert, everyone. The fog is thick ahead, do not separate. I'll take the lead and clear the way."
Just as Crusch's group prepared to enter the fog, they heard a voice filled with pain, followed by a heavy crashing sound.
Crusch frowned as she heard it.
She was sure that sound came from the White Whale.
But what had caused it to cry out in pain? Had someone already engaged the beast before them?
But who would attack the White Whale? Its whereabouts had only been deduced through long tracking and study.
And while purchasing weapons in the capital, they hadn't heard of anyone else preparing for such a fight.
Unable to make sense of it, Crusch drew her sword and swung twice into the fog ahead. The invisible force of her strikes scattered the fog in front of them.
"Stay alert! Follow me! You all heard that! My objective lies ahead! Move out!!"
Led by Crusch, the group cut through the dense fog, heading toward the source of the sound. Not long after—
As the next sword swing cleared more fog, Crusch saw crimson blood, and within the pool lay a familiar figure.
Crusch, Wilhelm, and Felix approached the body. It was only then that they understood why the person had seemed familiar.
It wasn't a mistake—lying there was indeed someone they knew… Natsuki Subaru.
"No way… You've got to be kidding. Didn't Subaru and the others set out earlier?"
Felix's disbelieving voice reached Crusch and Wilhelm.
She dismounted her ground dragon and hurried to Subaru's side, seeing his face bearing a faint smile even as he lay in a pool of blood.
"He's dead… His body was crushed by something heavy, then fell from a great height and died from the impact…"
"From a great height? All units prepare! The target is above!"
.
.
.
"Yep… I really died again… sigh."
Lying on the ground in the white space, Subaru let out a helpless sigh and stood up, opening his system screen.
"This time I got 240 points, huh. It's kind of a hard choice. The main problem this time is probably the White Whale, but with only 240 points, no matter what I upgrade, it won't make much of a difference."
Subaru frowned as he checked what he had already allocated on his system: Strength 2, Defense 4, Agility 2, Superpower 1, Mana Capacity 1, Gate Quality 0.
Beyond that, he felt like there were some faint traces behind Gate Quality.
He looked closely but couldn't figure out what it meant, so he gave up on it.
"If I level up defense this time, I only need 160 points to reach level five, but just boosting defense won't help me against the White Whale. That thing's a giant brute—without strong attacks, I can't possibly win!
"But my strength is only level two right now. I'd need 40 points to reach level three, then another 80 to reach level four. That would leave me with 120 points. So at best, strength would reach level four… Agility's out of the question. As for Superpower… maybe I could try that… but I still don't understand how to use it!"
Last time, he had randomly picked Mana Capacity and Superpower.
He now had a sense of how Mana worked, but Superpower didn't seem to do anything… Betting on that seemed wrong.
Gate Quality, if leveled up, could help him learn magic like Puck had said…
But… without knowing where the save point was located, that had no meaning.
Sighing again, Subaru thought it over and decided to upgrade Defense first, then Agility. He couldn't provide offensive power himself, but that didn't mean he couldn't find someone else to do it.
In that case, his role could be to act like a tank.
Although, against a massive beast like the White Whale, a tank wouldn't be very useful… Actually, not useful at all! So maybe Agility was the better choice now!
Thinking that, Subaru decided to raise Agility.
Without defense and without powerful attacks, the White Whale was still a huge target.
With enough speed, he could draw its attention and dodge at the same time!
He tapped Agility twice, spending 120 points. With the remaining 120, he raised Strength to level 4 as well.
So now, his stats were: Strength: 4 | Defense: 4 | Agility: 4 | Superpower: 1 | Mana Capacity: 1 | Gate Quality: 0 | Points: 0
With everything decided, Subaru tapped the "Deploy" button.
His vision went dark, and when it cleared again, he saw the blue sky above him.
As he sat up, he noticed Wilhelm standing not far away. Turning his head, he saw Rem watching from a short distance.
"What's wrong? Are you done already, sir?"
"Ah? Mmm… Sorry, Mr. Wilhelm. That's it for today. I have a few things I want to confirm."
Wilhelm frowned at Subaru's expression.
He felt something was off. Before being knocked down, Subaru hadn't shown any signs of hesitation. And in the past few days, he'd never been the one to call it quits.
And yet… today, he had. Though Wilhelm couldn't say exactly what had changed in Subaru.
"I see. If that's what you say, then let's end it here for today. Please get some rest."
"Rest, huh… Mr. Wilhelm, may I ask you something?"
"You may. What would you like to ask?"
"Well, I need to leave today. It's already afternoon—can you help Rem and me prepare a dragon carriage?"
As Subaru said this, he looked earnestly at Wilhelm.
Being stared at like that, Wilhelm met Subaru's eyes.
He had been about to ask why Subaru was suddenly leaving, but upon seeing the expression in Subaru's eyes, he didn't press the matter.
"A dragon carriage… I'll arrange one for you, sir. As for why you intend to return before your treatment is complete, I won't ask. Please wait in your room. I will come fetch you both shortly."
As always read ahead (60 chapters) on my pa tre on!
There you can also read my other 9 Fanfiction