Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Training in the Carriage

The next day, after logging in, we set off from the ?Hephaestus Kingdom? in a carriage that had been prepared in advance. A few hours later, the atmosphere inside the carriage was anything but the usual cheerful ambiance. It was filled with a heavy, tense air.

The usually lively Satanas, with a worried expression, glanced nervously between Sora, Kuro, and Alice.

Alice and Kuro held their favorite main weapons, looking tense as they braced themselves.

In contrast, Sora, the silver-haired adventurer, was relaxed, wielding a wooden stick he had purchased before departure. She enjoyed the scenery outside, where lava occasionally erupted.

“Man, it’s amazing how plants can withstand lava,” she mused.

In volcanic areas, plants typically can’t survive, but in this ?Astral Online? world, a unique red flower known as the ?Refractory Flower? grows, thriving on magma as its nourishment.

In Japanese, its effect would be translated as “Fire-Resistant Flower”.

The deep crimson outfit Sora wore beneath her coat was made using an extract from the ?Refractory Flower?.

Thanks to that, she was able to cut fire-type damage by thirty percent and negate activity debuffs in volcanic areas.

“I remember when I first entered a volcanic region and got hit by the unknown status ailment ?Overheating?. Everyone’s fatigue shot up by fifty percent, and our agility dropped by fifty percent. Many died against the initial golems and lesser dragons…”

Even I couldn’t forget the two times I was scorched to death by suddenly erupting lava before reaching the kingdom.

By the way, if you wear this fire-resistant outfit, you can survive with about fifty percent health left, but without it, it’s an instant death.

When the most defensive member, Rou, died from an instant death, everyone was terrified of the lava erupting from the ground beneath our feet.

Lost in thought, the fire-treated carriage was splashed by magma.

The “Bicorn” pulling the carriage and the driver were also equipped to handle magma, but it was quite nerve-wracking.

Kuro and Alice, who had been on high alert, instinctively turned their focus to the outside.

I didn’t miss that moment.

“Gotcha!”

“Huh!?”

Sora, going from a relaxed stance to a combat-ready position in a fraction of a second, swung her wooden stick, striking Kuro’s right shoulder as she reacted just a moment too late.

Receiving a strike from the wooden stick with an attack power of zero, she felt no pain but couldn’t withstand the impact and fell back onto her seat.

Sora then stood up and executed a high-speed spin, launching a second strike at Alice that accurately replicated the horizontal dual strike known as ?Dual Nail?.

“Ugh…!?”

Due to Kuro being hit first, the dragon princess managed to react just in time, blocking the first strike with the side of her beloved rapier.

She attempted to defend against the second strike in the same manner, but Sora sensed it and changed the trajectory of her slash mid-swing.

The second strike, now altered to hit at a right angle in the air, knocked the handle from Alice’s grip, causing her to drop her weapon.

If you focus too much on defense, you can suddenly find yourself targeted at your hands, making it one of those non-game skills you need to be cautious about in PvP battles.

Sora pointed the tip of the wooden stick at Alice’s nose, declaring, “Alright, both of you are out.”

“Ugh… It’s really hard to stay on guard all the time…”

“Stop complaining. When we set off, we agreed that since the travel time is long this time, we would do this kind of training, right?”

“Fine, I’ll do my best.”

Kuro, who had been taking surprise hits left and right, seemed to be building up frustration over her lack of success.

Maybe it was time to ease up on the intensity a bit.

Just then, Alice voiced her admiration.

“Honestly, I can’t believe you can move like that in such a tight space. If it were me, I’d definitely be worried about bumping into everything, and my speed would drop dramatically.”

“Ah, well, I guess it’s just something I’ve gotten used to.”

“From the way you speak, it sounds like you’ve fought in such confined spaces before?”

“It’s from a different world, though. There was a time when I was caught in a pinch between four knights on a narrow path barely wide enough for two people to pass.”

“I had to quickly take down the front duo, who showed off amazing teamwork, and if I didn’t defeat the back duo within ten minutes, the ones I had already taken down would respawn. I ended up getting used to it…”

I believe the title was ?Dark Knight 2?, and the story revolves around a traveler swordsman who fights against the residents of a country driven mad by summoning an ancient ruler.

The plot entails slaying all the crazed inhabitants and ultimately activating a reversal system set in the summoning circle to send the ancient ruler back, bringing the story to a close.

The difficulty is extremely high, with enemies waiting in ambush being the norm.

Enemies dropping from above are expected.

It’s common to encounter traps like pitfalls or spears jutting out from the floor.

Mobs executing combo attacks is par for the course.

Bosses kiting you is typical.

Using magic or sword skills has a long recast time of one hour after each use, so if you waste them in the wrong situation against enemies that can’t be chipped away with normal attacks, sometimes it’s faster to just die, depending on your progress.

By the way, save points are typically only at the start and midpoint of stages. I remember laughing dryly when I got pinned down by magical bombardment right before the boss room.

I can’t believe I actually cleared that. I want to pat myself on the back.

As I nodded to myself, Kuro gave a bitter laugh and said, “I’ve been wondering for a while now, but Sora, are you a masochist?”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say I’m a masochist. I find those terrible games to be quite profound. The thrill of being on the edge of whether I can clear it based on my player skills while doing constant side-to-side jumps is irresistible.”

Sure, there are some games that are impossible to clear, but those aren’t just bad. They’re impossible, so they’re a different case.

“If you want to master parrying, deflecting, and defending, there’s a fantastic trial-and-error game called ?Swordmaster?.”

“…Don’t try to drag me into hell with that.”

“Oh, I see. That’s unfortunate—gotcha!”

“Pyaah!?”

With a sharp crack, the wooden stick swung down and struck Kuro’s leg.

Although there was no pain, the shock surprised Kuro, causing her to let out a strange sound and momentarily jump.

Thinking it was quite a good reaction, Sora sensed a murderous intent coming from the girl sitting next to him.

“Now’s my chance!”

As if to get back for the two hours of being struck, Alice launched a diagonal slash from the lower left to the upper right with minimal movement.

Sora, who had been calmly anticipating the murderous intent, swung the wooden stick in time with the slash and cleanly deflected it.

“No way!?”

“This is called deflecting, and this is the counter.”

“Fugyaa!”

With a loud smack, the wooden stick came crashing down onto Alice’s head.

Sora fixed her gaze on the dazed Alice, whose eyes were spinning from the impact, and the frightened Kuro.

“Alright, we still have a long way to go. Let’s keep this going~”

“The world is spinning around and around! W-wait!! T-There’s a demon! A demon is here…”

“Call me Sora-sensei, not a demon.”

After about four more hours of training in the carriage, both Kuro and Alice gradually started to react to Sora’s surprise attacks.

By the time they reached the town, Kuro and Alice had developed about a 50% chance of being able to defend against Sora’s attacks.

By the way, Satanas had prepared some playing cards and was casually playing with them.

“Yay, I won again!”

“Guu, I lost again!?”

Sora has lost to her in every game they’ve played, whether it’s Old Maid, Poker, or anything else.