The Magic Country Svel 4

Classifying the denizens of this world roughly, but appropriately, it's possible to come up with four different categories. Those categories are: Humanity, Monsters, Grimmfolk, and everything else.

First, Humanity consists of seven main races: humans, the flugels, dwarves, elves, halflings, vampires, and beastmen. The conditions for being 'human' are… well, they're subjective.

If you require humans to be bipedal, then orcs and goblins fit, but they're treated as monsters since they don't understand speech. No, well, they are intelligent enough to speak, but somehow it's way too hard to communicate with them. It's probably a difference of values.

Next is monsters. This category is for special living things other than Humanity that have transformed and evolved due to mana.

This world's monsters aren't spawned by the grimm queen, and they don't just randomly spawn. It's said that all monsters used to live in this world as normal animals. So the changed versions of those are monsters.

To be honest, elves, dwarves, halflings, and beastmen seem to be former humans that have been transformed by mana, but we don't call them monsters. That part is pretty vague and half-assed.

The grimmfolk are… well, I'm not actually sure. Even in the game they had an astounding lack of backstory.

One of the most convincing theories is that they're a secret eighth race of humanity that's been changed by mana, I guess. They're probably not all that different from vampires. Also, they're different from monsters, even if they're both probably mutated from mana.

Of course, there're grimmfolk who bring monsters around with them, but they're just using Tamer skills, so it's the same as us. However, even though it's a game thing, they were able to do some cheater-ass shit like use more than one monster at once…

Isn't it way too unfair when one of them is clearly leading a huge army of over one hundred monsters, but in the system, all the monsters are counted as one body? I mean, what the hell? The monster's name even says shit like "Goblin x 100." Hey, is it one or one hundred monsters? You tell me! If that's legal for you, then I'm gonna bring out all of my strongest monsters under the name "Twelve Zodiac's Guardians," dammit.

...Ah, shit, no. There was a golem in the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians.

Lastly are those that fall under the category of everything else. For this, well, it's as it says on the tin. It's anything living that doesn't fall under any of the above three. Like animals and fish and bugs and stuff. It's kind of way too rough, but it wasn't that important in the game, so it just ended up that way.

And it's also true that there's not really much to explain about this. There are some differences in shape and stuff to their earth equivalents, but there's no point in talking about each one individually. In the first place, they're just background elements to liven up the place.

Now then, out of these categories, Fiona is a monster.

Well, I managed to tame her using Monster Tamer skills, so of course, she's a monster, but to be honest, Monster Tamer skills are pretty haphazard, too. To put it bluntly, as long as it shows up as an enemy, even if it looks human... For example, you can even treat vampires and dark elves as 'monsters' and tame them. The worst players would exclusively tame bandits and pirates and the like and call themselves "Human Tamers" instead of Monster Tamers.

So, with that in mind, Fiona is very properly a monster. She lacks impact as one, but since she has a really easy indicator in her rainbow-colored wool, she's really easy to identify. She's easy to spot.

I also already know where she is. So the question is, should I go in boldly and bring her back?

I returned the book I just finished to its shelf and looked over at Orange. She was already into the eighth volume of the series and looked completely absorbed.

What the hell? You read way too fast!

"Huh? You're already done?"

"Yeah. We've gotten all We want to. Let's go."

"Go? ...Where?"

"To the castle that Fiona is in. Guide us, Orange."

Orange got up, and the both of us left the library. Our destination was, of course, the nearby castle that Fiona was staying in.

At first, I had wanted to prioritize Juvia, but at the moment, I couldn't think of a way to get into the Nobles district. If I really wanted to get in there were ways to do it, but none of them were peaceful. So instead, it'd probably be more efficient to go stop Fiona first before taking my time to think of other methods.

"Okay. Fiona's castle is right—"

Prodded on by me, Orange started to tell me where Fiona was. But her words suddenly cut off.

The ground shook, and Orange collapsed.

"Hup."

I caught Orange before immediately releasing her and returning my wings and arms inside my mantle. I was saved by the fact that it happened in an instant, so no one noticed, as well as the fact that everyone had bigger priorities now.

The ground shook intensely. The buildings, which weren't as earthquake-proof as those in Japan, noticeably creaked and groaned, causing people to scream in terror.

An earthquake...? It's pretty strong.

It's a level 4? Maybe 5 on the shindo seismic scale.

"Hm, vertical shaking?"

"You're really calm, aren't you, Big Sis?"

"We are used to earthquakes."

Earthquakes of this level were daily routine for Japanese people. It didn't seem to be the same for people of this world, however, as they were clearly terrified. They reacted like foreigners who came to play in Japan and just experienced their first earthquake instead.

Seeing that, a sudden doubt crossed my mind.

"Orange, how often does this country get earthquakes?"

"It rarely happens, if ever."

"...Hm..."

Rarely if ever, huh? So, my doubts remain.

Of course, it's still possible that this was just a rare, natural earthquake. However, I had an inkling of what it could be if that wasn't the case.

Fiona had a skill to cause earthquakes.

No, I should say I was made to remember the possibility.

Like I'd said before, a tamed monster's levels were adjusted so they could never exceed the player's for game balance. (However, it wasn't impossible to forcefully achieve this anyway with stat-boosting items.) So that level adjustment was one thing, but there was actually one more annoying thing: the management of skills.

Players could obtain skills infinitely, but tamed monsters had a limit to how many skills they could have. That was their level/50. That was the number of skills a Tamer's monsters were allowed. And the skills a monster could learn were widely categorized into two types: one a monster learned by leveling up, and one a monster learned through using an item that taught them a skill.

Originally, Fiona was a monster that wasn't suited for combat. In other words, all her battle-oriented skills were given to her by me. That's why I knew better than anyone what Fiona's skills were.

Fiona's theme for her skills is… that's right! "Obstruction" and "Percent Damage."

The solution I came up with to have Fiona have a role even with her low stats was to give her many skills that obstructed the enemy, which didn't rely on stats. And out of those, the one that Fiona always used the most was "Earthquake." It intentionally causes an earthquake in the area and lowers all affected character's AGI stats, and it also has a certain chance to apply stun. It's an ability that's basically there for harassment.

I'm a flugel, so I can fly, which means I'm not affected at all by the skill. Which means it's got extremely good compatibility with me.

"It might just be chance... However, if it's not, then that means Fiona is here."

"You're most likely right, Big Sis. I can feel the mana being disrupted over there… in the Trade district."

"Where Teuchi is?"

So she can even sense mana being disturbed? I couldn't stop the edges of my mouth from twisting upwards seeing my self proclaimed little sister's sheer versatility before I looked towards the Trade district.

That old man Teuchi should be there. We'd only spent a scant ten or so minutes together, but he was a nice guy. I should probably hurry, then.

"Big Sis, let's hurry and get on the monorail to the Trade district!"

"No, that's too slow. Also, the monorail might be stopped right now."

"Then...?"

"We will be taking a slightly more forceful option."

Right now I can't take off my mantle. However, like this, I can't fly. So what should I do? It's easy. I just need something else to be my wings instead.

"The materials... Yes, that'll do."

I spotted a collapsed building at the edge of my vision. It must have been really weak to earthquakes, since something of that level already caused it to crumble into brittle pieces. I sent my will towards that building and activated my Alchemy.

I do somewhat feel like a thief, but it doesn't seem so bad if I think of it like removing rubble from a construction site.

I completed a simple vehicle that both Orange and I could ride on. To be more specific, it was just a huge triangular base. By itself, it would be nowhere near a vehicle; that's how cheap it was.

"Get on. We shall fly."

"Um, it looks like we'll fall instead."

"Then grab on to our back."

I quickly got on the thing, and Orange followed on after me, clinging to my back. Once I'd confirmed that she was safe, I activated my ESP.

Use Psycho Throw on this base! The transformed piece of rubble, with us on top of it, was treated as a single weapon and flung through the air all at once! Now then, please, let us make it...