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 180
Chapter 180: Non-Active
“No way, monsters are finally appearing now?!”
“W-We need to run. This is bad!”
“Wow, this is amazing! I have to take a picture!”
“Stop provoking the monster! Students, evacuate to the school building calmly!”
In front of the monstrous creature, the students were buzzing with confusion and fear. Two distinct emotions were evident on their faces.
Among them, some were so captivated by the sight of a monster for the first time that they aimed their smartphone cameras at it with sparkling eyes.
“Kurono, stay by Inori’s side! I’ll go deal with this!”
Issuing orders to her partner, Sora activated the “Speed Boost” skill that popped into her mind.
With a speed that could rival Olympic champions, she dashed between the students.
In no time, Sora reached the center of the commotion, standing right in front of the monster.
While the teachers desperately directed the evacuation, Sora glared straight at the being that should not exist in this world.
?Increasing Crab?.
That’s the name of the monster that appears in ?Astral Online?, opposing adventurers.
In the oceanic nation, Enoshigaios, it was recently the most hunted monster by the top clans of adventurers.
With a shell so tough that D-rank weapons couldn’t inflict damage without bypassing its defenses, its only weakness was its unprotected, soft belly.
The pincers are a point of caution. Once caught, it’s tough to escape.
The strategy is to dodge body slams and strikes easily. As long as one avoids getting caught by the pincers on either side, it’s not considered particularly scary.
However, this is just data from the game. It’s unknown if a monster that appears in reality follows the exact same behavior patterns.
“So, monsters can spawn now…”
Soaked to the skin by the rain, Sora muttered with a tense expression.
The monster was about two meters long.
Its massive pincers seemed capable of easily crushing an adult. Imagining what would happen if she got caught was all too easy.
To be honest, she regretted standing there facing it.
She had heard the monster’s presence within her detection range and the screams, prompting her to rush to the scene, but she was completely unprepared.
That said, it was too late to flee now. If she did, she would be known as a cowardly adventurer, which would have a huge impact on her future school life.
*Sora Kamijo, gather your courage!*
She firmly planted her slightly trembling legs to the ground with strong will and faced the monster.
Unlike in the game, she obviously had no weapon on hand.
Could she pierce the monster’s body with just her hand?
As the evacuated students held their breath, Sora kept a wary eye on the enemy’s movements.
“Kaniii!”
As it let out the shout she had heard in the game, the ?Increasing Crab? suddenly charged forward.
“Wha—?!”
Sora jumped to the left, thinking it was going to attack, narrowly avoiding the advancing monster.
However, she soon found himself regretting that choice.
This was because, after she dodged, the monster didn’t charge at her again. Instead, it continued toward the path opened by the students behind her, trying to leave the area.
“W-Wait…?!”
Rather than attacking, it was making a sudden retreat.
Panicking, Sora kicked off the wet concrete ground and sprinted after it.
At that moment, a female student, frozen in fear, unwittingly positioned herself directly in the monster’s path.
Sora thought, “This is bad,” but it was already too late.
At this rate, the ?Increasing Crab? was on a collision course with her.
It was easy to imagine what would happen if that thing collided with an unarmored human.
Everyone present imagined the worst-case scenario and averted their gazes from the gruesome conclusion.
—But it didn’t come to that.
As Sora ran, the monster reached the girl, then suddenly, with surprising grace for its size, it maneuvered around her.
With a shout that was nothing but ridiculous, “Kaniii,” it vanished somewhere into the rain.
The surreal sight left everyone there frozen, unable to move.
“Did it just dodge?”
Teachers rushed over to check on the girl who had fallen on her backside.
Fortunately, it seemed she wasn’t injured, and she was quickly taken to the infirmary in a daze.
Standing there, speechless and motionless, someone appeared beside the azure sky, where she had been staring blankly.
When she turned to look, it was El Aurum, the self-proclaimed goddess with white hair and golden eyes.
A girl who looked like she was in her early teens, wearing a fairy-like white dress.
Though she wasn’t holding an umbrella, her small body was mysteriously protected from the rain by some kind of barrier she had created around her.
“Oh great, she’s here.”
While Sora felt wary of the suddenly appearing self-proclaimed goddess, she began to explain the strange behavior of the earlier monster.
“That one is harmless, as long as we don’t provoke it, Sora-sama.”
“How can you be so sure about that?”
“The world’s restrictions… Monsters that appear in this world, when interacting through the ?World Tree? that connects two places, have their active state changed to non-active.”
World’s restrictions?
The unfamiliar term made Sora furrow her brow in confusion.
Noticing Sora’s expression, El thought for a moment.
“You have a face like you don’t understand what that means. Do you want an explanation?”
“Yeah, please explain.”
“To put it simply, the restrictions are a curse imposed on monsters by the world. Instead of popping into existence above, they must not touch humans at all until they take damage.”
“I see. So, as long as we don’t attack them, they won’t become active?”
“That’s correct.”
You could say it’s like a safety mechanism.
If I had just been told that, I probably wouldn’t have been convinced.
However, the phenomenon that occurred right in front of Sora, where the monster didn’t attack, supported that claim.
From around her, the surrounding students began to voice their relief: ?Oh, I see! That’s great!?, ?As long as we don’t touch it, we’ll be fine!?, ?We have to spread what the goddess just said on social media!?
The only thing that bothered her was whether there was any real meaning in having monsters appear in this world at all.
No matter how much she thought about it, the answer didn’t seem forthcoming, so she decided to put this matter on hold for now.
“Are all monsters non-active…? But if that’s the case, if we were to attack them, wouldn’t it turn into a disaster if we handle it incorrectly?”
“That’s right. Therefore, from now on, there will be a nationwide broadcast alert from the country’s leaders. I have work to do, so I’ll excuse myself here.”
If you have work to do, why are you here?
As Sora pondered this question, El turned with a smile and walked away.
“Homeroom is about to start. Especially you, Sora-sama, will need to change your clothes again, so I think you should hurry.”
“…Oh.”
Seeing her completely soaked appearance made Sora realize.
With a mischievous smile, she said, “Hehe, do you have spare clothes? If you don’t bring them, the school doesn’t have any spare boys’ uniforms, you know.”
“Why do you know that? No way, was it you who did this?!”
“A goddess wouldn’t do something so mischievous.”
She denied it, humming as she walked away toward a white car waiting by the school gate.
As Sora watched her small back disappear, she let out a deep sigh.
“Sigh, I knew something was off, no matter how I thought about it…”
Sora stood still, their shoulders drooping in dejection.
Suddenly, someone stood beside her, blocking the rain that was hitting her body.
Feeling relieved, she turned to look next to her and saw Kurono and Inori holding their bags.
“Sora, are you okay?”
“…Sora-kun, are you hurt?”
“Yeah, I dodged, so I’m fine. But… I really need to change my clothes.”
Kurono looked at Sora, drenched from head to toe, with a somewhat exasperated expression.
“It seems like you’ll need to go to the infirmary and change.”
She had no retort.
Sora decided to obediently follow her words.
“Yeah, I can’t afford to catch a cold, so I’ll do that.”