Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 64

Defense Specialization and Acquiring a Skill

Maple chose the extra quest route and left the temple to look for the woman.

However, the woman was nowhere to be found.

「Seems like she went back ahead of me…?」

After exploring the area around the temple for a while, Maple returned to town on Syrup.

Once in town, Maple went to the woman’s house straight away.

「…so what is happening here?」

Maple quietly opened the door of the woman’s house.

The girl was asleep.

The pained expression on her face was gone, and she was sleeping peacefully.

「Knight-sama… my daughter is… my daughter is not waking up…」

Maple approached the girl to check on her, but she could only see that she was not breathing.

「Eh—… r-really? Huh?」

「I’ll… I’ll go buy my daughter some apples… she loves apples…」

The woman said and walked out with a dizzy gait.

She could not accept the reality of her situation and looked completely out of it.

「E…eh—!? I-Isn’t the quest in progress!?」

Maple has confirmed the current quest that she had, but noticed that the girl’s body began to shine lightly.

Maple approached the girl and stood right next to her.

As Maple observed, wondering what was going on, she noticed something.

「The light is… making up letters?」

The yellow light overflowing from the girl formed letters in the air.

「Three days from now… 【The Crumbling Church】?」

Maple looked at the letters and after a few moments, the light overflowing from the girl faded and disappeared.

「Is that where I should go…? But where is… there was a library in this town… maybe I should check there?」

Switching places with the woman, who had returned, Maple walked out.

Maple arrived at the library as planned.

「Now then… there’s got to be a map here or something, right?」

Maple looked for a book with a map of the second layer.

She found a few, but none of them were detailed.

At best, the maps had enough detail to allow her to grasp the topography.

「Hmmm… not what I was looking for…」

Since Maple still had some time left, she decided to call it quits for the day and end her research there.

The next day.

Maple finished her research in the library and left it.

「I guess it was on the history shelf… I actually missed it…」

Maple found a small reference to the church in the corner of an in-game history book.

「Three days from now… who knows what’s going to happen; I should probably buy some potions.」

And so, prepared, Maple didn’t forget to head to the church three days later.

「So comfortable, thanks to Syrup!」

She praised Syrup as she headed south.

She got off Syrup at the entrance to the forest that stretched to the south and walked into the woods.

「It’s so easy without someone to protect.」

Occasionally a monster would appear and slam into her armor.

There was no way they could damage Maple.

It was no different for Maple than if they weren’t there at all.

However, because Maple was incredibly slow moving without Syrup, it took her about two hours to get to the church.

「Sigh… I haven’t been walking much lately…」

Tired because of the difference in comfort, Maple decided that she would explore on foot once in a while.

Just like that, Maple finally arrived there; the dilapidated church was in front of her.

「All right, let’s go in!」

The doors were already off and missing, and the interior had been encroached upon by ivy and vegetation.

Maple walked through the center of the room lined with benches.

On the wall in front of her was a large, tilted cross, old but still prominent.

Maple noticed something glittering on the floor just beneath it.

「And this is…?」

The glittering object was a vial of glowing gas.

Maple looked at the information about the vial.

【Fragment of the Archangel】

「T-this looks kind of awesome…」

Maple carefully put it away in her inventory and made her way to the girl as quickly as she could.

Maple gently opened the door of the woman’s house and went inside.

「Knight-sama… is something wrong?」

「I just wanted to try something.」

Standing right next to the sleeping girl, Maple took out the vial from her inventory and opened the lid.

At that moment, the girl’s body began to glow brightly.

「Wha—!?」

「Knight-sama! Is something wrong!?」

「Eh, c-can’t you see it?」

The glow from the girl formed a beautiful female figure, just as it had formed the letters before.

As Maple stared at the woman who had appeared, the woman began to speak.

「Thank you. I almost took this child’s life.」

「H-huh… i-is that so?」

「I will give you a share of my power… and now I may return…」

With these words, the light ascended to the skies and disappeared.

At the same time, the girl suddenly woke up.

「Um… mom…?」

「Ah, ah… a-ah!」

The woman hugged the girl.

The girl seemed to be unable to comprehend the situation.

「Is it all settled… or what?」

The way it ended was not quite clear to Maple, but since the “quest cleared” message was displayed, she accepted the situation.

Maple quietly walked out and checked the skills she had gotten.

「【Self-Offering Affection】… woah… what in the?」

Maple muttered as she checked the details of the skill.

And then, she ran toward the guild home, as if she had thought of something.

「Iz-san!」

「…What’s the matter? Why are you in such a rush?」

「I want you to make me a set of equipment… could you do it?」

「Well… not impossible, but I’d like to know what kind of equipment you’d like… Did something happen?」

「…I’m not quite sure myself, so could you come with me for a minute?」

「Seriously… what happened…?」

Maple took Iz to the field.

There, Maple used her new skill.

For five days after that day.

Whenever Iz logged in, she thought about the equipment in the workshop and kept making prototypes until she was satisfied with the results.

「No… this isn’t the right equipment for 【that】…!」

Such echoed Iz’s voice in the workshop.