novelDina Issued A Challenge
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Chapter 39 - Dina Issued A Challenge
Raw link: (27-12-2015)
Translator: twomorefreethoughts/ TpstT (08-01-2019)
Editor: Hands of Vecna / Vecna(10-01-2019)
Translation link:
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Update 1: Please avoid posting spoilers in the commentsection because we are not able to use a button to chat the spoiler. To compensatefor this, I'll introduce a channel for the spoilersin the (#excuses.. - 🅽🅽novelpletelydead... cuzit'snew) discord... 😥
Update 2: If you would like to talk to me or Vecna, here is the link for the discord server. The server is still relatively new (actually only 3 people at this moment with me and Vecna serving as 2 of them... ) and there's next to no activity but, please feel free to join and talk about the series or just to chit-chat!
Update 3: Raw for chapter 18 of the manga is out, and it covers the entire chapter 44 and half of chapter 45 of the novel. If things go as planned, we will catch up to the manga before the next raw chapter comes out (and before it comes back to me in 1 month's time)
TL Disclaimer: I have no experience in translating anything, nor am I great at either English or Japanese. This is not machine translatedbut Japanese to English dictionary is occasionally used for words I am not sureabout. I will not be able to fully translate the author's jokes, puns or slangsif there are any. I will try to stick with literal translation where possiblein the context. If there is anything Idon't understand I will leave it in a bracket (x).
If there is an error in the translation, website, sentencestructure or format please let me know in the comments below or DM me on thediscord ()and I will try my best to fix them. Any constructive feedback is appreciated.
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(Author Note)
Benetnash "I should prepare things before Mafahl comes. It's a reunion after 200 years, after all. The firstimpression is important you know. Should I wear black mantle or should I wearred mantle.... . It's hard to ditch the silver embroidery. Hey you, which one doyou think is better?" Wakuwakusousou[1]
Aide (.... Ruphas hasn't.... even started heading this waythough...... )
(Author Note end)
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"—Now then, let's kill each other. My lovely master - RuphasMafahl."
Dina flew up high and shouted out all the while releasinggold-coloured light from her whole body.
That instant, there appeared thousands or perhaps tens ofthousands... a number simple too futile to count of Metal-attribute raindrops.
It was a lump of metal that individually was not worth evencatching.
However, it was a different story if you were to be showeredby them all at once.
Needless to say, if you were a normal person, you would beturned into minced meat.
Countless steel bullets filled the air and in the nextmoment, Dina brought her hands down.
"Come forth, maidens whom I call. With thy daunting power, crush everything in heaven and earth -Cleta!"[2]
Pronouncement.
In that instant, all the metallic raindrops stormed down. Asif shot by a Vulcan cannon, everything on the Earth was shattered, shaved awayand pulverised. [3]
This... with something like this, I guessed even I would haveto take some damage?
No, let's not concern myself with this. I will just break through this.
By using the intuition and senses of Ruphas within me, Icharged into the metallic rain as if they were rocks to be shattered.
Of course, a metallicblizzard blew against my whole body.
It was painful.... But it was not something I could notendure.
I swung my wings strongly creating a gust of wind to blow away all the metallic raindrops.
"It's my turn this time!"
I transmuted many swords and shattered them into countlessblades using alchemist's skill.
I then proceeded to launch them all towards Dina.
However, Dina did not change her expression nor move from herposition and proceeded to call out the magic.
"X-Gate!"
What opened in front of Dina was - I should call it a... holein space?
As if there was a hole in the sky, it was an unrealisticsight to behold.
It definitely felt strange and surreal.
The sky was notsomething that was made to open a hole.
Yet, in that place was something that could not be describedas anything other than a "hole", and that hole sucked in all the blades that Ihad launched.
That being said, the Metalattribute was quite interesting.
It was similar to alchemy to an extent, yet it was somethingdifferent from it.
The basis of alchemy is to combine. It was to combinevarious materials that originally exists into something else.
But Metal-attribute arcane magic was different. It was usedto "give birth" to a metal.
Arcane magic could transform mana into a phenomenon. Thatwas the setting under this world.
For example, fire or water created by arcane magic was nodifferent in substance when compared to the real ones. Nevertheless, fundamentally, they were mana and not real fire or water.
Therefore, it was impossible to create a golem out of thewater created by the arcane magic.
Correction, technically it was possible to create the golem, but they would disappear very quickly. To create a golem out of magic powerwould be impossible unless a person had an infiniteamount of SP.
Anyways, what I was trying to say was that.
The difference was whether the created product was water ormetallic.
In any event, to see a solid product being created in frontof my own eyes was quite absurd.
As for the X-Gate.... Ireally can't understand it.
[Moon] was the attribute that was associated with space and time, but Dina's affinity was with [Metal].
Perhaps it was a magic that was not restricted to a specific attribute.
Furthermore, back in the game, this magic existed only inthe lore.
Notwithstanding, even though Dina was a "player" just likeme, she was able to utilise that skill.
Was it a skill that was learnt in these 200 years or was ita skill that would have been implemented in the next update... ? Whichever itwas, there was no way for me to find out at this moment.
"Are you daydreaming? You seem to have quite a lot ofleeway."
Dina sent the blade that I had previously used back at me.
Tsk, so you canredirect the vector of the things you sucked up huh.
Additionally, by teleporting to a new location, Dina wasable to create distance between us and send in the next magic.
"Aglaia!!"[4]
Light so bright that it blinded you - was that what you wouldcall something like this?
Aurora covered the surrounding so brightly that I could nothelp but shut my eyes.
But the damage was negligible. It was not something thatcould penetrate past my defence.
By the time my vision recovered, Dina had already switchedand commenced her second attack.
"Auxo!"[5]
The rain kept falling everywhere in the surrounding.
The rain itself did not have any power or effect.
The problem was with the earth that had bathed in that rain.
Trees started sprouting from every available space and grewso high up into the sky. Those trees then became like whips and startedattacking me.
"Tsk!"
I punched, snapped andkicked at the large trees coming towards me.
I then flew high up into the air to avoid the trees thatcontinued to grow without bound.
Next moment, I nose-dived! I used a grappler's skill [MeteorKick] to pierce into the ground, and just as the name would suggest, uprootedand blew away all the trees.
I then proceeded to grab one of the trees that I had snapped and threw it towards Dina.
Of course, she escaped by teleporting away, however, I flewand closed in on her by aiming at the location that she reappeared at.
"....... ! Fast......"
I used a normal attack as a probe at the surprised Dina.
Dina managed to avoid the attack by quickly twisting herbody a bit and countered by slapping towards my face with the back of her hand.
But.... .
"Something like that won't work, you know."
"!?"
—It did not hurt me one bit.
No, I thought, without a doubt, it had more than enoughpower when compared to a random small fry's attack.
The one I had previously fought.... . errrr, who was it again? That guy that was buzzing around me. Thatfire-attribute guy from the 7 Luminaries.
.... Err, yeah never mind about the name of a guy like that, it really doesn't matter anyway. In anyevent, this could not be compared to a guy like that.
Getting back on the topic, even if two players were of thesame level, each player would have their strong and weak points. That is tosay, even if the original Megrez or Merak punched me with all their might, Iwould not have taken much damage at all. [6]
Magic type is a magic type. Thefront liner is a front liner. [7]
This was even more so since my character's stats were buffedup by doping.
My apologies, but just because the enemy was level 1000 didnot mean they would be able to fight fairly with me. Let alone 10%, I did not thinka physical attack from a backline player would even do 1% of my max HP. [8]
I struck my palm into Dina's rib cage and activated the "Blunt-EdgeStrike" skill. [9]
When it hit her, her body flew away in a funny fashion andmowed down the trees that were in herpath.
Notwithstanding, it was clear that she was still at maximum level.
She spun around in the air once and proceeded to softlylanded on the ground.
However, her facial expression showed some of her impatienceand irritation that she could not manage to hide.
"Haha, I see I see. As expected.... As expected, as expected. As expected of Ruphas Mafahl. With justone attack it took away quite a lot from me."
"Why don't we stop here, Dina? Someone like you won't beable to win against me."
If I had to describe myself bluntly, I would be a natural enemyto all the magic types.
The mantle I was wearing reduced the effect of all attributesby half. Thus, an arcane magic attack that did not have "no attribute" was unableto do any significant damage on me. Furthermore, due to the dress that I hadequipped, I was immune to any status defect which might have been associatedwith attributes.
Additionally, due to the strider class's gap-closer skills, I was able to quickly get close to the enemy and dish out high physical damageattacks that the magic types disliked. [10]
Naturally, as a level 1000 back-line player, they would haveprepared ways to counter melee players. Indeed, it was a fact that someone likeMegrez was completely fine even if the enemy front line got too close to him.
There was some rare exception like Libra that he could nothandle through.
But Dina was not prepared.
It was true that her level was equal to mine. However, shehad neither the knowledge about the theory on how to counter the melee players northe practical experience in her gameplay to spontaneously execute that theoryin real combat.
And of course it waslike that.
It was because she was a "test player".
She was not like us who actually played the game up to ourlevel. All she was required to do was to test the balance of the abilities inthe game. [11]
As such, she had no reason to figure out how to escape froma melee player as a support player. She would neither have found loopholes nor researchedwhich pairing was a good or bad match ina fight.
She also would not have done something bothersome likedoping during a test play.
"Oh, how kind of you. Are you saying that you will forgivesomeone like me who had deceived you all this time?"
"It's a fact that you were deceiving me this whole time, butit's also a fact that I was helped by you as well. In any event, I think it wasmy fault for being foolish enough to be deceived. I praise your ability onbeing able to do such a thing, so I don't feel resentment towards you."
Exactly, I felt no anger towards Dina.
Yes, I was shocked that I was being deceived this wholetime, but that was it.
Ultimately, even now in the end, she was still included asone of the people that I hoped to protect.
She was deceiving me, using me. Yea that was exactly how itwas. But so what?
I was not going to hate her just because of something likethat.
I did not have such a heart that would falter from beingdeceived once.
"Why don't you talk to me about it? The reason that you hadto take such a troublesome and roundabout way to get me to fight the DemonKing."
"Do you think that you've already won? I think you're jumpingto conclusion. Please leave remarks like that after you survive this attack!"
Dina's eyes shone brightly and she spread her arms wide.
The next moment, the land started rumbling and the treesstarted collapsing.
The waves of pressure given off by her magic power alonemade the sensation of wind created by Jupiter looked like a gentle breeze.
It seemed like she still had a hidden trump card left.
"X-Gate—"
"Summon? What is it at this time.... ."
When I murmured, I noticed that my surrounding had suddenlygotten dark.
What the... ? Did the weather suddenly change?
I looked up as that thought was running through my head.... And just a little... I regretted it.
....... . Yeah...... Nah....... This was.... You know....
"......... This is.... Such a fierce thing."
There was a massive gate deployed in the air.
That was fine. That was within acceptable range.
The question was the thing that was coming out of the gate.
A gigantic globe giving off the golden shine was probably... not real.
If it really was actually coming down, I would not be ableto see "that" thing falling down at me as golden. To begin with, I probablywould not be able to recognise that thing as a spherical object.
Even with all that, the size of that thing was beyond the norm.
The diameter of that thing.... was probably a few hundred metres. I would like to believethat thing didn't reach a kilometre but...
She had most likely created it very high up in the sky usingMetal-attribute arcane magic and brought it here using X-Gate.
What was falling down from the sky was.... Venus, a planetthat was shining bright gold.
"—— Dawn Starrrrrrrrrrrr!!!"[12]
Matching with Dina's yell, a small planet closed in onto theground with a thundering sound.
Wa, it.... . a little.
That totally lookslike something that'll involve the country of Gjallarhorn as collateral.
Not to mention thatmagic was famous for being hard to utilise well because it was something thatshould have taken a few seconds after itwas cast before it started coming downback in the game. Yet, to use an X-Gate to bypass that and fast forward is a little bit unfair, don't you think?
She had probably thought that she would not be able todefeat me unless she did something like this, and honestly, she went a littleoverboard.
Having said that, it didn't look like I had the option tojust run away.
If I ran away, the country of Gjallarhorn would reallycollapse and Merak would die.
Aries and others will probably be able to endure throughthis normally but I did not really feel like just letting it drop on its own.
Therefore.
"Very well. I accept your challenge, Dina."
From the start, there was only one thing that I could do.
If there was a subordinate that had made a mistake, I wouldpunch them back until they were rational and then stick my hands out for themto grab.
I was not good at thinking from the very start. I don't meanto brag, but I was never one of those people who were intelligent to begin with.
So the things that someone like me could do was limited, andlikewise, it was evident.
At the very least, I should expand my full effort in the commitment of those limited options I couldtake.
It was the same this time. It was not going to be anexception.
I gripped my fist tightly and looked up into the sky.
It gave off the feeling of oppression that made me want torun away, but strangely, I felt absolutely no fear at all.
Most probably, the "Ruphas" inside of me was saying that shecould do it.
And I myself was strangely excited about what was about tohappen, as my heart was pumping so violently that I felt my whole body vibrate.
I noticed that the muscles in my own cheek loosened into asmile and thus understood that I was probably laughing at that moment.
Flight.
I kicked the ground all my might and flapped my wings withall the power that I could muster.
Accelerate, accelerate —- accelerate.
Sound barrier - annoying, get out of the way!
Something like the soundwas just a foolish and sluggish thing and I had no intention of waiting agesfor it to arrive. They should just stay behind where they were.
As the scenery flowed past in a ridiculous speed, I put allthe power that I had into my right fist.
Grappler's skill [Iron Fist]. [13]It was a skill that raised the attack power of the fist based proportionally tothe level of the class.
Furthermore, the skill was paired with the defencepenetration effect associated with the [Penetrate Weak Spot].
The rest was based solely on my power.
All I had to do was believe in my own body and my right punch.
"Uoooooooooooooooooooooo!!"
— I punched it.
My apologies for not being able to describe it in a stylishand fanciful way, but that was all that could be described.
I was not good at unnecessarily describing things in vividor colourful phrases, and since all that I did was punch, I could only explainit as "I punched".
And that was enough.
The small planet that I punched ignored the laws of physicsand flew away into the sky, proceeding to shatter into pieces.
When that happened, as the miniature Venus was unable tomaintain its form, it was broken back down into manaand disintegrated as if it never existed in the first place.
"...................... No way."
As if Dina sudden forgot to keep up with her evil façade, Isaw that she had her mouth open with a dumbfounded expression.
Well, it was a justified reaction.
Even if it was me, ifI was not Ruphas but the original guy that was in this place, if I sawsomething like that, I would have called that person a "cheater".
In any event, it seemed it was more than enough to breakDina's will to fight.
I could not feel any more haki from her.
"So.... Do you still want to continue? Dina?"
I asked her just in case.
If she said she was going to continue, I planned to use my fist with "Blunt-Edge Strike" on her.
Personally, I did not want to punch a girl so I would haveappreciated it if she surrendered at this point.
I would have avoided hitting her face or stomach, but withthe opponent being a girl, choosing where to hit in the first place was abother.
I felt like I would be a scum wherever I decided to hit....
If the opponent was a guy, I could easily punch his facewithout holding back.
All the more if he was a good-looking guy. I would have hithim more than I needed to and I would not even stop if he cried.
".... . No. It's my loss."
However, her reply ended my needless worry.
Dina admitted her defeat and sat down on the spot.
Good, now I did not have to harm her any more.
Anyways.... It really did give me the shivers.
Even if it was fake, I did not think that she would dropdown a planet like Venus.... .
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(Author Note)
[Some very irrelevant settings]
Dawn Star
Strongest Metal-attribute map-wide AoE arcane magic
It is a famous "dropping the meteorite" magic that any RPGwould at least have 1 of. Back in the game, the players used to drop the skillhere and there without giving a thought to the surroundings.
For some reason, even if you used the magic in the room, themeteor will still come down normally. That was the premise of these kinds ofmagic in the games.
In the game, the magic will strangely do no harm to theuser, but in this world, the user will also be dragged in normally as you wouldexpect.
Normally, there is a cast time and delay before themeteorite comes crashing down onto theenemy and dealing damage. But by utilising X-Gate, Dina was able to cheat and turnthe skill into instant cast magic with nodelay before activation.
It's not really important, but it seems the strongest arcanemagic of any attribute is renamed into the corresponding planet name.
If it was the magic attribute arcane magic, then it will be"Triple Grand Hermes", or something like that. [14]
Mars "So the name of the strongest Fire-attribute arcanemagic would be me!"
You're wrong.
(Author note end)
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[1] Ithink... this is showing her excitement
[2] Cletawas written in English in the raw. Second sentence of the incantation is whatthe LHTranslation used for the manga. First line was not in the manga.
EN: Dina's skills are named after the Charities inGreek mythology."en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Cleta".
[3] IGoogle'd Vulcan cannon, it looked like a minigun to me.
EN: An example would be the M61 Vulcan, a six-barrelledgatling-style rotary cannon."en. wikipedia. org/wiki/M61_Vulcan".
[4]Aglaia written in English in the raw.
EN: Aglaea (Greek: "splendor, brilliant, shining one"), youngest ofthe 3 Charities."en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Aglaea".
[5]EN: protector of vegetation and plants, and growth and fertility."en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Horae#First_triad".
[6]Raw used Megrez and Meisu (メイス). I assume that was a typo and author meant Merak because it makes sense in thecontext... unless I missed something while I was translating.
[7] Iassume the author's trying to say support (magic type), and a tank (frontliner). For those not used to MMO genre, there's 3 types ofcharacters/player/class. Tank, DPS and Support. Tank does little damage but cantake a lot of hit, their job is to prevent damage from hitting the allies andto keep others alive. DPS (damage per second) is damage dealer like Ruphas, does a lot of damage but doesn't take damage for others or support otherplayers, job is to kill everything. Support are backliners like healers (e. g. Merak) who support and heal others and to keep others alive. Author is sayingeven if support players like Merak and Megrez attacked Ruphas, Ruphas won't reallytake much damage at all.
[8] Referto footnote 10. Back line character like Dina is focused on Magic attacks, and dovery little (if any) physical damage.
[9]Literally meaning "Striking with the back of the sword". Please let me know ifyou prefer "Blunt-Edge Strike" (current) or "Sword-Back Strike". (Raw: 峰打(う)ち)
[10] Explanationof typical MMO mechanics. Most MMO splits the attacks into "physicalattacks/damage" and "magical attacks/damage". Meaning for defence, there's"physical armour/defence" and "magical armour/defence". Most of the time magicusers like mage, healer, support have equipments that boost magic attack/heals(magical), and magic armour/defence. The magic users often (not always) havelow movement speed and low survivability and low physical defence. They oftenhave very little way to counter physical attackers that have already gottenclose to them and thus they are considered "weak" against physical attacks inclose range. Author is saying Ruphas's equipment gives her a 50% damage reductionagainst all arcane magic attacks and she is able to negate all negative debuffsassociated with specific elements (e. g. fire/burn, lightning/paralysis, water/slow). Furthermore, she is able to easily close in the distance onto themagic users with her "gap-closer skills" and do a lot of burst physical damage(high damage in short amount of time) before the magic user is able to get away(e. g. teleport away).
[11]Test-players are usually given max level avatar by the developers and don'treally "play" the game to that level. They just test for bugs and glitches andreport them back to the company.
[12] 明けの明星 - Used LHTranslation's translation (chapter 15) - Dawn Star
[13]アイアンフィスト
[14] 三重に偉大なヘルメス
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