Volume 3 Chapter 14.1
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Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Is what we see vaguely in the distance Igreos Temple？」
「Indeed. We shall arrive soon.」
About one day after leaving the underground ruins at sixty km/h, and finally their destination, Igreos Temple, was gradually becoming visible.
「I am still impressed at what incredible power this golem car has.」
「I tried not to make it too crazy, but is it still a bit out there?」
「Well, that strange beam just fell a sand shark in one hit, did it not?」
「Well, if ya find its weakness then that’s how ya strike.」
They didn’t normally use the weapon function in the minivan, but now they had several opportunities. A lot of the monsters in the desert were surprisingly quick in moving about the desert, and much of them could not be shaken off by driving at 60 km/h, so they ended up having to use the magic laser to open the path several times. Of course, any monster they defeated within a close enough range, Tatsuya absorbed with Apport.
By the way, a magic laser could not normally take down a sand shark in one hit. However, it had a special quality that allowed it to hit an enemy several times depending on how long it illuminated the enemy. If you moved the laser in a clean sweep, you could gather enough damage to take them down.
「Do you happen to know that most carriages do not have any power whatsoever？」
「I knew about the regular ones not havin’ any, but don’tcha have a few golem cars with those capabilities here ‘n there？」
「No no no.」
As per usual, Hiroshi displayed his lack of common sense, and the queen called him out on it in a flash. Regular golem cars, or at least the ones with devices to launch fire while in motion hardly existed. The most they could do is bump into things, and anything that could do more was usually called a tank.
「It seems to me that you do not know the value of tanks, young master.」
「Tanks？ Not golem cars？」
「Golem cars with offensive power are just referred to as tanks.」
「So this car can become a tank too？」
「It sure could, yes.」
Hiroshi felt extremely weird about what she just said. Needless to say, to him, a tank was a caterpillar track with gun turrets rotating around. In one of those tank excavation games, a minivan was already treated as a tank, but Hiroshi hadn’t even thought of it as anything more than a minivan.
「Incidentally, how strong might a regular tank be？」
「Yes, well…the ones that the military purchases are a trade secret, so I cannot say much, but I believe that my merchant friend’s tanks had more than enough firepower to take down sand sharks or rock worms in one hit.」
「And they had firearms equipped？」
「Indeed. Although all they do is shoot out fireballs. Giant hoppers are one thing, but sand sharks and above require at least ten hits in order to go down.」
「I see.」
Apparently the tanks in this world weren’t a whole lot different from the ones in the middle east that remodeled Japanese cars to attach machine guns and rocket launchers in a more “technical” manner.
「Even those ones have twenty times the firepower. And the speed is not much different from that of a horse.」
「So much！」
「That is usually the kind of vehicle we mean when we talk about weapons shooting out fireballs unlimitedly with no drawbacks other than charge time.」
「Even if you say that……」
Regular golem cars were cheapest at 100,000 chrones, a price that would amount to 10,000,000 in seneca or yen. In the game it was hardly considered rare at the mere price of 100,000, but now that Hiroshi and friends had adjusted to the market price over here, they couldn’t help but feel that a vehicle with such inferior specs was only worth 2,000,000 chrome at best.
Naturally, Hiroshi’s group had a distorted idea of the price. Magic crystals, which powered the golem cars, could only be made by about ten people per country, and there were not a whole lot of raw materials produced to enable those functions. Inevitably, it took two weeks to make a basic magic crystal, and there were even less products made using offensive capabilities.
In addition to the issue of dynamics, the number of frames necessary to take an attack or the processing of increased weight would most certainly cause the materials for the main body to become expensive, so it was reasonable that the price jump up exponentially.
「Minivan, did you say? The price of this tank would, not joking, be enough to topple an entire country.」
「Totally absurd.」
「Oh no, it is not absurd in the slightest.」
To Hiroshi, the manufacturer, the minivan wasn’t all that significant, but as it was abundant in functions and its performance was on a whole other level, the price would be greater than a class 1 potion. Defensive capabilities of enduring firepower enough to turn a large city into ruins, long-distance capabilities enabling smooth rides in any wasteland, and simple management because of the vehicle being able to fit in one’s pocket when in a bind. Even if it was lacking in built-in functions, that simply meant Hiroshi did not see the need to make the load bigger and that he was still able to cast Expand Capacity plenty more times.
There were so many options with this car. If Hiroshi sold it, that would probably cause some country out there to try and get their hands on it even if they had to start a war over it. Thankfully, only the queen, Sergio, Norton siblings, and the royal house of Farlane knew that there was more than just a magic laser equipped in the car. To top it off, people from other countries didn’t even know it could attack. As a result, countries with equivalent or greater firepower tanks did not think to try to acquire the vehicle for their imperial guards, but had they known of the Worldshaker, things might have gone very differently.
「You seem to have realized the potential of your vehicle, but I would ask that you refrain a bit more from using said vehicle on a regular basis.」
「Hey, we wouldn’t go making that submarine thingy if we didn’t consider that.」
「Well, that is true.」
The queen just smiled awkwardly at the question Tatsuya hurled at her. She seemed to be familiar with these types of craftsmen who rampaged as far as they could once they got going.
「But wow, this road is inaccessible on foot, isn’t it?」
「I’m amazed they put such a rigorous thing in place.」
「That is because this road existed prior to Darl’s existence as a country. Then again, they also say there was no desert at the time.」
「Ah, gotcha.」
It made sense to everyone. Thinking about it normally, no one would usually build temples or towns and roads to go along in a place with severe terrain such as this without a very good reason. It was more natural to assume that an area with roads and towns gradually turned into a desert.
「Would the Sweltering Tower be related to the desertification？」
「From what I know, a poisonous bog arose near Purgatory around the same time the tower did, so maybe they’re the same kind of thing？」
「They are most likely related in some way. Then again, my country does not have accurate records of such things, so all we can do is conjecture.」
「Think we’d find information in Rupheus Library or something？」
「Either that or the People of the Earth, but depending on when the tower came about, they could have been in hibernation at the time.」
The group considered their approach to the Scorching Desert. Then again, none of this information would be of any help to finding out when the desert emerged or what caused it to.
「Now then, we had best begin preparations to disembark. At the rate we are moving, it is already at the tips of our noses.」
Hearing the queen’s words, they looked out the window. Before they knew it, a gigantic oasis spread out before their eyes as well as ancient stone ruins, a townscape spreading around it, and a tough-looking city wall protecting the town. They would reach the town in a matter of five minutes once they went down the slope in front of them.
「I wanna take a look at that there oasis before we go to the temple. How ‘bout it？」
「We have procedures to take care of, and time-wise we cannot go to the temple today anyway, so that will not be a problem, but why?」
「I’m just a mite interested in the area.」
「Hm. Is there something you see using as an ingredient there？」
「I wanna go and see what’s there to figure that out.」
Everyone looked at each other when Hiroshi said that. They knew from experience that letting him run amok by himself would lead to nothing good, but the worst he could do in this case was to go exploring underground ruins like last time. As long as they disregarded the possibility of being dragged into some confusion, there wasn’t a particular problem with the idea.
In addition, sometimes doing something irresponsible led to ensuring their safety, so it was difficult to completely call it out as being bad.
「What should we do？」
「I think as long as Tatsuya or I tag along, nothing crazy will happen.」
「Sensei makes things, that’s the kind of person he is. I say let him go.」
「Mm～、solo travel concerns me for many reasons, so how about both Tatsuya-san and I tag along?」
As Haruna casually tried to get herself next to Hiroshi, everyone else sent her lukewarm gazes. Makoto was gripping the handle and couldn’t look, but she, too, felt the same way. Maidens in love are truly desperate.
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