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Volume 1 Chapter 6-3: Raid

 

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Against strong enemies simple body enhancement wouldn’t cut it. My HP would reach 0 in seconds. Furthermore, my greatest weapon, magic, would become practically useless. It was a fatal weakness.

For a strong enemy I would choose a different ‘self’.

After weaving through the soldiers and killing nearly 30 of them I finally reached the food storage.

I tore down the wall with my sword and entered.

「Pretty amazing.」

I couldn’t help but say that.

There was way more food than I expected. All in all I could see nearly 4 tons of food. Plus there was plenty of other things of interest. There were potatoes, legumes, and various other things not grown in the elf village. There was even honey mead. What made me happiest was the large amount of salt stored in here as well.

This was definitely one of the ways the empire maintained its control over us.

This relay supply base was how the empire squeezed out all the resources from the surround villages.

What’s more they forced each village to only cultivate a single crop to increase efficiency. They then collected everything and provided the bare minimum each village needed to survive.

It was a plot to prevent rebellion while at the same time raising productivity.

But more than anything it was simply a large storage of emergency food.

「【Item Box】」

I took the food and placed it inside my item box. This was another skill that only Deet could use and one of the most important reasons I chose him today.

The game world’s restricted the weight limit to 4,000 but in reality 1 meant 1 kg so even 4 tons of goods were easily stored away. The things placed within the item box could be taken out at any time without worry that they would rot since time stopped for the items inside.

It was a ridiculously useful skill whose only restriction was that living things couldn’t be stored.

「Okay I got the consumables so now for the weapons.」

The soldiers that surrounded me from a distance fired their arrows at my back as I took 3 tons of the food away. I kicked the door down to get the weapons next.

The soldiers wouldn’t take the trouble to carry these heavy weapons all the way from the Empire.

The Empire itself had supplied weapons and food to this base so the soldiers could go about their collections. This meant there were plenty of weapons hanging around this place.

I had 30 minutes left of 【Samsara Recursion】. After another 18 minutes I would need to leave.

If I stayed here I would die. With my Cyril body I would be unable to run away.

I made my way cutting through my enemies until I reached the locked armory and kicked the door down.

「So many iron weapons! As expected of the Empire.」

Though it may be for underling soldiers and it may be low quality…they were iron goods. I could see 50 sets of extra armor and swords. Each set weighed at least 30kg so I would only be able to carry back around 30 of them.

With so much metal we would be able to make better weapons and improve our own standards of living.

「Ok then, I should drop off my leftover luggage.」

I took the corpses of the soldiers who I had killed back in the village and mixed them with the dead soldiers on the ground.

It was a slim hope, but maybe they would make the mistake of thinking they had died here.

It was just a shame that the Captain’s corpse was too horrible to look at after the torture so I couldn’t bring him here.

「I guess I should grab what I can carry and head back.」

My gains this time were 3 tons of food and 1 ton of iron.

The 3 tons of food would be able to feed a village of 200 elves for at least a month. With the village’s emergency stores, some hunting, and a bit of scrimping we would be able to make it through the winter. Also among the goods I obtained were some interesting things. If some of the things I planned worked properly then we might even be able to get a proper harvest within 3 months.

The 1 ton of iron could be used for armor piercing weapons, reinforcing the village’s tools, barbed wire, tools to properly utilize the maple trees in the forest, and plenty of other things I wanted to make.

「I need to focus.」

I said and smashed through the wall and dashed through the rain of arrows as I slashed at the soldiers. I dashed out of the gateway at full speed.

I could hear the sound of horses behind me, but it was useless.

My current self was even faster than horses.

However I still ran at full speed. My time limit as Deet was actually only about 4 minutes. It was less than I thought due to the heavy consumption of energy.

Lucy’s smile floated into my mind giving me a small burst of energy.

Not yet. I couldn’t die without feeling the touch of her lips.

My body was enveloped in light. Black hair and black eyes changed to golden hair and blue eyes as my armor disappeared.

I changed back into Cyril.

At the same time a horrible exhaustion flooded my body. It was proof that I had used up nearly all my magic. Plus, the recoil of using 【Samsara Recursion】 kicked in.

My soul was creaking. It felt as if it was crying out.

「Really…the user-friendliness….is crap. But at least….I escaped before I reached….my limit.」

【Samsara Recursion】 was a magic that thoroughly exhausted your magic to its roots. Plus after using it I couldn’t use it again for a minimum of 12 hours.

No matter if I used magic to change or switched to a past version, my true body right now was that of Cyril. Using this magic warped that fundamental truth and cause my soul and body to be mismatched. It caused two types of burden. This magic was a spell that injured my existence as it strengthened me. A two-edged sword.

If I tried to do it multiple times…or if I tried to call multiple past selves at once…the worst thing wouldn’t be death, it would be injuring my soul so deeply that I would never be reborn.

「【Perception Expansion】」

The Elven wind magic barely even used my own magic and instead utilized wind mana. Right now I could barely utilize it.

I was able to sense Lucy’s presence.

I took one step at a time as I approached her.

After what felt like eternity I finally reached her.

It was deep in the night. A time that anyone would be sleeping.

But despite that Lucy was sitting outside of the wagon wrapped in a blanket and waiting for me.

She didn’t use a fire for fear of the enemy finding her so she must be cold…

「Cyril! You’re alright! Thank goodness!」

Lucy dashed over and hugged me tightly.

I could feel her body that had been chilled by the cold night wind.

But even so I felt a warmth that couldn’t be denied.

「As you can see I’m unharmed. I made you worry.」
「Un, I really….really worried.」

Lucy buried her face into my chest. I felt something cold and wet. Lucy was most likely crying.

「There’s no way I’d die. Forget about that, stealing the food went well, don’t you want to hear about it?」
「That….I know Cyril is safe so it doesn’t matter.」

I was happy that, even more than the village, she treasured me.

「I’m fine. Plus I properly got the food. How could I die without my kiss from Lucy?」
「You were…serious about that?」
「Yep, I was serious. Of course if you don’t want to then I won’t force you.」

I wanted to kiss her, but I’d rather not if it meant she’d hate me.

I wanted to properly consider Lucy’s feelings.

「It’s fine….if it’s Cyril.」

Lucy raised her face from my chest. Her eyes were wet from her tears and her cheeks were blushing.

「Thank you Lucy」

I said and touched our lips together in an innocent kiss.

It wasn’t an act for sexual satisfaction but instead a warm feeling filled my heart. I finally felt like I was alive once again.

My heart cracked open and my emotions were revived once more.

Let’s not use tongue this time.
This wonderful feeling was enough for now.

「Cyril that was my first kiss. Take responsibility.」
「Happily my Princess.」

I said as my body lost its strength.

「Cyril are you okay!?」

I ended up leaning on Lucy.

She called out to me worriedly.

「It’s not an injury or illness. My magic power is empty and the recoil from what I used before is hitting. Honestly I don’t think I’ll be able to remain conscious.」
「That’s……you’re not fine at all!」
「It’ll get better if I sleep. More accurately I have to sleep. After around eight hours I’ll be okay. Just put me in the wagon and cover me well so I don’t catch a cold.」

Lucy had hidden the wagon deep in the forest and I had gone back on my tracks a few times to throw off pursuit. We should be fine for the time being.

「Wait till I wake up. If the soldiers come while I’m asleep leave me here and run. If it’s just you escaping then you should be fine. There’s no way they can catch an elf in a forest.」

That was my limit.

Leaving those words behind, I passed out.

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