Chapter 52: Chapter 52 - Finding Indigo
Chapter 52 – Finding Indigo
Author's Note: Hope you like Kana! Because she's going to be sticking around for the rest of the story.
"So, about this Indigo guy." Kana spoke up. "I think he is in the country we're going to. You told me how he looks like and all, and he sounds exactly like the guy that they just made their new king."
"King? How did Indigo become a king?"
"You mean you didn't know?" Kana said, skipping along the path. "A super handsome man with large wings fell out of the sky and crashed straight into a fountain. When he stood up, he was swarmed by everybody and they claimed he was an angel. This only happened a few days ago, but now they've coronated him."
Well, at least he was fine. Even still, I had to go find him and figure out what was really going on. I couldn't let anything happen to Indigo!
I kept conversing with Kana, clearly making Rishia feel bad as she was tailing along in the background.
"Hey, Kana." I suddenly brought up. "Could you show us your sword skills?"
"Yeah!!!" Rishia joined in, bored out of her mind that we weren't talking to her. "Please show us, Kana!"
"Sure thing!" Kana agreed. "No use having these skills if there's nobody to show them off to."
She stood there in a ready position, waiting for a swallow to fly by. As one descended down, gliding in midair, she struck.
"Swallow Reversal!"
Before my eyes could even move, a feather wavered in the air, floating and oscillating before it fell to the ground. I heard the sound of a sharp blade cutting through thin air. It was a moment later until we reacted.
"Wow!" Rishia cried. "That's so cool!"
"Good job." I congratulated. That was all I could come up with. Chills ran down my spine.
This technique, according to her, was supposed to cut down a swallow in midair. She brought this to a new level. Being so accurate as to cut a single feather from a small swallow while not inflicting any bodily harm upon the swallow itself. This was just scary.
"Impressed, huh?"
"Very much so."
"Well then, I think we should head to the closest town from here to buy you guys some equipment. You did mention that you are extremely vulnerable to attacks, correct?"
"Yeah." I sighed. "I'm sort of like a glass cannon. My attack stat is extremely high at the expense of my defense."
"I know of a really good smithery down there. It is certainly the best you can get in this region, so you should try it out."
Following Kana's lead, we arrived at the town. It looked like a traditional Japanese town, with rustic buildings, expansive rice farms and a large temple near the mountain top.
The streets of the town weren't paved, but they were still well maintained. From what I could see, the people of the town were living out their lives in harmony.
"This way, Satoshi!" Kana yelled.
The smithery wasn't very large, though it was nearly the size of the one in Castle Town. An old couple were sitting at the counter, assembling a set of armor. The armor looked like a set of samurai armor, though a bit less bulky than the ones I was used to seeing in movies and the sort.
"If it isn't Kana!" The old lady croaked. "We haven't seen you here in a while."
"Kana's back!" The old man exclaimed as he screwed in a flap of steel. "And who may you be?"
"This is my archer friend, and he's in search of a new set of armor. It needs to be light and protective, and relatively durable. We'd also like a set of armor for Rishia here."
"Feel free to take a look around. Everything here's for sale."
Katanas, Tekkan and Kakiwari lined the walls, and a few sets of armor were nearly stacked on top of each other. Since this was such a small town, it wouldn't be economical to produce too much weaponry since there wouldn't be many buyers.
"None of these are really what I'm looking for." I lamented. "They're too heavy. However, Rishia, you should try this on. It's exactly your size."
"Sure, Satoshi!"
Rishia slipped on the armor set, which consisted of a breastplate, armguards and thigh and shin guards. It wasn't very heavy, but it had enough protection and most importantly allowed Rishia excellent mobility and flexibility, which would be necessary to perform Hengen Muso like Granny did.
Rishia flailed her arms around in a klutzy manner and performed a few martial art attacks.
"Hya! Ha! Cha! Satoshi, I like this set of armor. Can I have it?"
Oh crap. I didn't have any money on me. All I had were some gold and silver coins.
Kana saw me rummaging through my pockets looking for some money. Luckily, she had me covered.
"I'll pay for everything, Satoshi. Leave this to me."
"Is that really okay? We barely know each other and all."
"We're friends. Friends help each other out."
Kana dropped a small bag of money onto the old man's counter, which he gladly accepted.
"Now, it's time to get you some armor, Satoshi. Anything caught your eye so far?"
"Sadly, no. Everything's too heavy for me. Since I value speed and attack power over anything else, mobility is of the utmost importance."
The man screwed in the last bolt of the armor set he was crafting.
"Young man, perhaps this set of armor might pique your interest?"
"I would be more than happy to try it on."
The armor looked bulky, but it was surprising light and mobile when I tried it on. It closely resembled a 16th century gusoku style samurai armor set, constructed out of iron, leather, lacquer, silk and copper alloy. Every piece of the armor felt like it was of the highest quality, way better than what I could personally make even with my transcendent crafting skills. Well, to be honest, my crafting skills were more oriented towards modern creations than the fine arts or ancient/medieval creations.
"This set of armor is perfect, Kana. Though, are you sure you can pay for it?"
"No problem! My family is extremely wealthy, and I have tons of money from winning those sword fighting tournaments. This is but a drop in the bucket."
"Really? Thanks, Kana. I really owe you one."
Kana grabbed a larger pouch of money and handed it to the old man. After thanking the old couple, we headed out of the smithery and hit the road.
"Kana," I asked. "Would you like to see the weapons that my country uses back in my world?"
"Are they different than what we use here?"
"Most definitely. Let me show you."
Since my level was quite high, I had unlocked the more potent weapons of the Arcian military. I converted my bow into an Arcian Light Maintenance Rifle Machine Gun variant. Truth be told, the only way this thing even worked was because I welded on and added some materials from this world onto it so it would kind of function. Either way, it wasn't as effective as it was back in my world.
"Wow! What's that thing?"
"Let me show you. It's like nothing else in this world."
I laid down on the soft grass, aiming my rifle at a faraway tree and setting my rifle to full auto. I pressed the trigger.
RATATATATATATAT!
Bullet after bullet erupted out of the muzzle, instantly tearing down that tree and many others behind it. After I went through much of the machine gun belt, which was never ending due to my weapon's auto ammunition replenishment abilities, I converted my bow back into a small bow to save space.
"What was that? That was scary!"
"This is what we call a machine gun." I explained. "Its main purpose is to take down many troops at once. It can fire a thousand rounds a minute and can take down whole battle formations in minutes."
Kana was completely shocked. This was completely different than the weaponry she was accustomed to. This was way louder in every sense of the word, and it wasn't as honorable as fighting hand to hand since, well, it could take down enemies before they could see where the attack came from.
"Fueeeee?"
"Rishia, it's safe to come out now." I sighed. The girl had always been scared of firearms, though that is pretty understandable.
"Tell me how they work!" Kana exclaimed. "I want to know!"
"Sure thing. It'll take a while though, so be prepared."
Continuing down the road to the country where Indigo was supposedly made king, I gave a basic explanation about how firearms worked. Kana listened attentively, though she clearly did not understand what I was rambling on about.
"So, the firing pin punches through the detonator which sends the bullet flying, huh?"
"Something like that."
We kept following the main path while continuing our conversation, talking about many topics such as our childhoods, our respective worlds and our fighting techniques. She told me of her weapon's strengthening method, refinement, and I told her about my four methods.
When we almost arrived at the country that Indigo had supposedly been crowned in, we met a trader that was selling his wares on the roadside.
"Hello, friend! Have you heard of an angel that had been crowned king of that country over there?"
"You are mistaken. The angel was not crowned king. Instead, he preached about some new ideas for government, and everybody immediately agreed."
"How is that possible?" I asked.
"That country has a long tradition of worshipping angels. Whatever an angel says, they will do. Even if the angel requested them to hop off a cliff, they would gladly do so."
"So, what has happened so far ever since the angel began preaching his new ideas?"
"Everything." The trader replied. "He disbanded the government and created a bicameral congress, and the country quickly elected a president. He is investing more of the treasury into the strong industrial sector, and the rest I do not know."
Apparently, this country was already somewhat industrialized. I didn't think industry was even invented yet, but apparently it was somewhat existent here.
Kana was shocked at these new developments. Even though I had explained the concept of democracy to her, she was still quite alien to it.
"Thank you for your help, friend."
Saying that, I scanned his stall to see if he had anything interesting.
"Hey, Satoshi, you wanna buy some ofuda for Rishia? They're pretty much cards made of wood, stone, paper or other similar materials that can be used to cast magic."
That's right. I probably couldn't use these ofuda since I was restricted to projectile weapons that were fired from something, so I couldn't use throwing projectiles. Kana couldn't use anything but her katana since she was the katana hero, but Rishia wasn't restricted by these things.
Kana pointed to a few ofuda in the stall.
"I'll take these."
After purchasing them, she handed the ofuda to Rishia.
We hurried along the road and across a bridge, where we reached the border checkpoint of Indigo's country. As we entered, we were ushered through by a group of soldiers carrying flintlock muskets.
"It's the person that the angel told us to look out for! Welcome, president of Arcium!"
Before I could realize what was going on, a tall man with fluffy wings descended upon me, tackling me to the ground like a football linebacker.
"Satoshi! I miss you so much!"
"Indigo! I can't breathe!"
"Sorry." Indigo apologized as he stood up, dragging me along with him. "Who's the pretty lady over here? Is she your girlfriend?"
"I'm Kana." Kana blushed. "We're just acquaintances."
"Sure you are." Indigo spoke sarcastically.
I slapped him with a glass bottle, which did no damage at all.
"Stop being impolite! So anyways, what have you been up to so far?"
"I'm so glad you asked. I pretty much recreated Arcium in this country, but since it was already industrialized and is much bigger, and there was no famine, the reforms are going even easier. And get this, they worship me as a god!"
"Explain further." I instructed Indigo. "I want to know everything."
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