Chapter 20

Konjiki no Wordmaster Chapter 20: The Restrictions of Word Magic

Hiiro looks at the Red Boar once more.

To fight a rank S monster, you usually have to be an adventurer of Rank S or above. Otherwise the danger level would be too high. However seeing his first Unique Monster only interested Hiiro further.

“Old Man, what rank are you?”

“Me? I’m C, Rank C.”

“Hm, you’re quite high.”

“What about you?”

“I think it was E… no I became a D.”

When he last checked his Guild Card, it had shown rank D. It seems that fighting monsters naturally improved his rank.

“C and D… It doesn’t look like we’re anywhere close to taking out an S.”

“Is that so?”

Unlike Arnold, Hiiro isn’t even flustered. However he still feels the hostility emanating from the Boar.

“W-we’ll have to run. We have Muir with us here.”

“Why must we do that? We can just bring it down.”

“Don’t ask for the impossible! Rank S is stronger than you thi-”

Before Arnold finishes his sentence, the Red Boar begins charging. It’s faster than any monster they’ve seen before. In an instant, Hiiro plants a kick on Arnold’s chest, kicking him out of the Boar’s path.

“Ow! Damn! It’s way too fast!”

Arnold is complaining, but Hiiro is the opposite.

(Amazing. So this is Rank S…)

The Red Boar has taken up a fighting stance. Its aura is quite formidable. What’s more, after they had avoided the charge, the boar was on a set course for a large tree; however, the one that broke was the tree. The Red Boar escaped with no injury.

(It’s skin and tusks seems to be quite hard. If I took that charge head-on, My HP would drop to 0)

If this were a game, he may have been able to stand it, but in real life a blow like that could cause instant death. Hiiro scowls, wondering which case applied to this world. Whichever the case, he would like to avoid pain.

“O-oy, Run away Hiiro! Muir, you too!”

Muir is shaking in fear, peeping out from a hiding place behind some trees.

The Red Boar faces us again.

“Alright, I’m going to kill that thing.”

“D-don’t be stupid! There’s no way you can beat that!”

“Quiet. For me, there is no impossible.”

“For the love of-! Where does that confidence come from! Look, it’s coming again!”

Arnold avoids it by jumping, but Hiiro doesn’t even move.

“I-idiot! Avoid it!”

The ground begins shaking, and cactus-like spikes emerge from the ground impaling the Red Boar… or not.

“Wha!?”

The spikes break upon contact with the Boars skin. And the Charge doesn’t eve slow down.

“Damn.”

Hiiro somehow avoided it by diving onto the ground, however he is angry at how his attack had no effect whatsoever. His dodge was a second too late, and his left hand came into contact with the Red Boar. The small impact rotates his entire body, and smacks him into the ground.

“Gu-!?”

His body is taken by intense pain.

“Hiro!”

Arnold calls out, but Hiiro has no spare time to answer. Ignoring the pain, he immediately stands back up. However he sways unsteadily.

“This bastard… You sure did quite a bit.”

He glares at the Red Boar.

(Perfect, there’s a character I’ve been wanting to test. I’ll use it on this one.)

Hiiro concentrates magic on his finger and starts writing a character. It’s hard to move, and for some reason, it’s taking a long time to write. In that period of time, the Boar has already begun its next attack. It detaches its tusks and sends them straight at him.

(It can even do that!?)

Hiiro manages to dodge the tusks, but the Boar once again starts running at him. It’s not giving him a chance to write anything.

Suddenly, Arnold slams his body into the boar’s flank. The Boar braces his legs as not to fall, but as a consequence its charge is halted.

“How’s that! Did you see? This is Arnold-sama’s-”

The Red Boar’s eyes glow a dangerous color as it stares at Arnold in anger.

“Ah, um, that is…”

While Arnold confronts the monster, Hiiro rushes to write his word.

(Damn! Move, my fingers!)

But his fingers are shaking and he can’t write well. This only makes him more irritated. While he’s doing that, the boar charges Arnold.

“Uhyaa!”

He avoids it by taking a large leap to the side. But then the flying tusks come after him. He uses his large sword to guard against them, but the impact in itself sends him flying.

“Guha! … A-as I thought. It’s too st….”

Arnold has a pained expression on his face, as he stares at his opponent who has yet to take a single point of damage.

(Just a little… Just a little longer and….. It’s done!)

He finished his character, and now all he has to do is hit the Boar with it. But the distance to the Red Boar is too long. At this distance, there is a high chance of missing.

“Old Man!”

“W-what is it! Did you finally decide to run?”

“You’re in the way, move.”

“Wha!”

Hiiro needed the Red Boar to target him alone, so having Arnold there was a hinderance.

“What are you saying!”

“Don’t worry, just go hide with the shorty. I’ll do the rest.”

“… As if I could- Owaah!”

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

The Red Boar’s tusks come at him again and he leaps to avoid them. Arnold looks at Hiiro’s face, seeing his determination. Thinking that he had some sort of plan, Arnold follows Hiiro’s words and escapes.

“Now come, you reckless bastard. Come straight at me.”

And as is he had heard Hiiro’s words of provocation, the Red Boar faces him with an angry face and begins kicking the ground. With one last kick, he starts running at Hiiro with an amazing speed.

Hiiro points his finger at the charging Boar, and makes a gesture as if he were pulling the trigger of a gun.

(Take this!)

The Boar seems startled for a second as the character flies towards him, but it keeps confidence in its charge and doesn’t try to dodge. As a result, the character hits the boar directly, and…

Whomp!

As if all of the power were drained out of its body, the Red Boar falls to the ground. The momentum from its charge causes it to slide on the ground for a distance.

(Good, it worked.)

Seeing the situation, the hiding Arnold and Muir slowly approach Hiiro.

“O-oy, Hiiro. What the hell did you do?”

“Ah? I put it to sleep.”

“Sleep!? H-how did you… ah, your cheating magic.”

“Yeah.”

Arnold notices something strange. Normally, Hiiro would take up a haughty attitude here, but it seems that his heart is elsewhere.

Hiiro looks back at the sleeping Boar.

(I put it to sleep. That’s good. But I took way too long to do it.)

Unlike usual, it took him around 30 seconds to write a single character.

(Since I was using magic to forcefully change my target’s state was that a 《Rebound》? Altering the state of a living being other than myself seems to produce this effect. Writing 『Sleep(眠)』 took this much effort. What would 『Death(死)』 take?…)

As he thinks this, a shiver goes down his spine.

(No, as long as I keep the image of 『Death(死)』 in my mind, I shouldn’t get a 《Rebound》. Even for 『Sleep(眠)』, more than《Rebound》, it felt like it was just difficult to write. It seems that some words require a bit of compensation. I wonder if different words require different obeisances.)

Right, a 《Rebound》 is supposed to bring disaster unto one’s self. This time, the writing speed simple dropped. It doesn’t feel like a 《Rebound》.

(『Needle(針)』 and 『Hard硬』 have an AOE of 4 tatami (6.61 m2). No matter how hard I tried to imagine the effect, that area was the limit. There’s always a restriction. So each word has its own restrictions. That’s all I need to know right now. And for now…)

Hiiro walks over to the sleeping Red Boar. The effect should last for 1 minute, so it should wake up soon.

“I’ll be taking your life now.”

He tries to shove 『Piercer』 through its body, but it’s quite tough. As expected of an S Rank monster.

“Ha!”

He uses all of his strength, and finally the blade goes through the skin. The Red Boar convulses violently and finally perishes.

Beeeeeep. A sound that he hasn’t heard in a while echoes through his head. Hiiro checks his status.

–

Hiiro Okamura

Lv 33

HP: 102/610

MP: 123/1290

EXP: 33089

NEXT: 4210

ATX: 216 (278)

DEF: 165 (180)

AGL: 301 (303)

HIT: 164 (172)

INT: 267 (271)

《Magical Attribute》 None

《Magic》Word Magic (Single Chain Unlocked|Air Word Unlocked|Parallel Writing Unlocked)

《Title》 Uninvolved Bystander, Other Worlder, Word User, The Awakened one, Ripper, The one who Imagines, Killer of the Unique, Gourmet Bastard, One Who Follows his Own Path