Chapter 122 (2/2)

Grond must have realized all this. He soon tossed away his garments with metal decorating them.

「Aha hah hah, good job figuring things out.」

「He’s quite the thirsty pig, master. It turns out this is a good show to dine to. Heh heh, it turns out this special tea is better than I thought!」

「It’s really good, I’m glad this show comes with a meal.」

As they said that, the two ladies were enjoying the show and laughing happily.

After trying to drink most of the water, Grond stopped.

「ugah, pant, huff, you, bastards!」

Grond had only had a bit of the water to drink, maybe a coffee-cups worth.

From all the heat around him, the amount of sweat he generated was probably more water.

「Ahah hah hah, good good, that’s the way to work! Okay, the tutorial is over.」

I felt my smile rise again as I told him that.

☆

『Lose all your money?』or『Die quickly with all your money left?』

Two unbelievable choices.

I didn’t have time to reason with that damn hero, so I simply chose to drink all the water.

Maybe because of all the heat around me, I felt hot and lazy like I had a bad case of drunkenness.

The hero and the other two were seated outside the hole happily drinking tea and watching me.

Then the flow of water cut off.

(Idiots…with this water, if I keep drinking it, what will happen?)

There was the white silver hanging from my neck. It had the ability to dispel any poison.

Honestly, even after drinking all of that, the drug’s effect of a mad happiness and sensitivity didn’t occur.

(That’s why you’re weak, hero, if I can just survive, I’m going to regain all my power and crush you like a bug.)

The only problem left was after drinking all the water at once, was losing it all in this heat, so I had no idea what would happen.

「Ahah hah hah, good good, that’s the way to work! Okay, the tutorial is over.」

「What, huh?!」

The flow of the water suddenly began again.

But this time it was different, the places it flowed from changed here and there.

「Hmph? Hmgn?」

「Are you ready to dance?!」

The voice of this damned hero, and the ball moving here and there, finally to the outside of the foothold, then,

…above the iron mesh that had been heated up by all the fires.

「Nghh, ngaahhhhhhh!!」

「Hah hah hah hah, come on, give it your best! Dancedancedance!! You have to do the best for your precious precious money before it turns to dust! Hah hah hah hah!」

Pwish, pwush, came the sound, as my feet felt intense pain.

(This is why he pulled my shoes off!)

It wasn’t like being directly burned, as there was no direct heat, and it wouldn’t have hurt like this if I had shoes on.

I didn’t know the exact temperature, but it was hot enough for it to be hard to walk on with bare feet.

「Ugh, ggg, Gah, uughh!」

The sound of me trying to drink down the water quickly mixed with the sound of my moving feet being burned.

The physical pain that I was feeling wasn’t protected by the white silver.

「Ugh!」

Finally the water flow moved to the next foothold. Then the water stopped again.

「Huff, pant, gah!」

「heh heh heh, you did well, we finished the first point! But no time to rest, right? Time for the third stage to begin!」

「W, wait, nugaah!」

And within the less than 10 seconds I was given to rest, the water flowed to a different foothold again.

I stepped on the mesh and without preparing myself mentally for it, burned my feet.

(Ow! Ow! Ow! Dammit! Why did this happen to me?!)

Then I got to the next foothold.

Just like before the flow of the water stopped.

「Gulp, gasp, pl, please, just a rest, aghgh!!」

「Hey, we’re only half done, right? It’s a little early to give up!」

That’s why he didn’t give me time to rest, and within 10 seconds it flew over the metal grid again.

「Well, the first stage is half over. Time for a level up?」

「Ngh? Ngh, ghuh!」

I heard him laugh, and the falling water broke into two sides.

「Hey, hey, if you don’t concentrate all your money will be gone, heh heh heh.」

(Dammit, stop messing with me.)

His sadistic smiles showed me he was enjoying himself.

Then the water went around back to the first foothold.

「Congrats Grond! You cleared the first stage!」

「Huff, huff, !!」

The hero clapped at my performance.

I wiped the sweat off my head with the back of my hand, as he smiled and looked at me.

My feet had stopped feeling the heat and started feeling pain. The pain and the heat all around made my concentration scatter.

My face was covered by the remnants of the messy water I tried to drink, tears, and snot.

As the hero looked up, the ball itself had only shrunk a little.

「Hey, don’t get angry. If you get that upset, you might misjudge the water and not be able to drink it, right?」

He snickered, and kept on talking.

「Okay, that’s enough of a rest, right? Onto the second stage, do your best!」

「What? Just a little more…agh!」

I wasn’t prepared to jump onto the metal mesh again in order to stop the falling torrent of water.

However, at the words of the hero talking about the second stage, my body understood his words faster than my mind did.

「Guwaahh! Gulp! Glug!」

The pain suddenly hit from my right arm. Then surprise, as something forced my words back down my throat.

(What?! What the hell was that?!)

Something had happened to me, but I had no idea what it was.

However, the pain from the hit didn’t stop.

「Ugh! Glug?!」

Hits on my left shoulder, right wrist, back…

And the sounds of something metal hitting me and then the metal mesh.

「Ah, I missed.」

「Dammit, you have to throw it right. It’s a waste of money if you don’t!」

「Shuria, the way you flick your wrist is important. This isn’t like a throwing knife – it wasn’t made to be thrown.」

(Are they throwing my own money at me?!)

I was so focused on stopping the flow of water that I couldn’t really see what was going on, but from the sound of it hitting me I could easily imagine.

Then it went back to the next foothold, and I was able to take a short rest.

「Damn you alllllll, how long are you going to use my own money to mock me!?」

「Well, you still look pretty healthy! Hey you two, go ahead and hit him!」

「This time I’m totally going to get him, 100 shots, 100 hits!」

「That’s the spirit, let’s shoot for him, heh heh.」

The hero laughed, and from another mountain of money, the two girls laughed at me as they threw the money at me.

「Hit him well, okay, you two? You can’t just let him clear this stage easily!」

「Look, throw it properly like this.」

「Agh! Glug!」

The sound of her voice and a shock on my throat.

Drinking down water while getting hit like that made me want to spit everything up again.

But because I had to keep drinking the water down, I had to keep myself from doing that.

The two girls just kept throwing coins at me and having fun doing so.

「Damn, he keeps moving and I can’t hit him in the head!」

「Well, it’s not like you missed so it’s okay, right?」

(Dammit! Dammit! Stop all this stupidity…)

Then on to the next foot hold, and then the next, and the second trip around was finished.

「Huff, pant, huff…」

The water ball above me now had gotten even smaller.

I had drank a lot, but my body needed even more water now.

However, my whole body felt wasted.

Ow, oww, and only the feeling of pain.

Pain and heat started to disrupt all my thoughts.

All the was left was the continually renewed pain to my feet, and the unnatural feeling of sweat soaking my body, and being hit again and again by my own money.

Sweat, tears, and saliva all over my face, and the water I couldn’t stop drinking…it was hell.

「Here’s the final summit of stage two! Give it your all to make it there and back.」

Then the water began running toward the middle foothold again.

「ung…mmmph…geh」

My feet struggled to get my heavy body there, and I screamed at having to step whether it was on the metal mesh or not in all the pain.

And at that time…

「Um, the wrist, flicking the wrist, you mean like this?!」

「Agh? Gah!」

She threw the gold way harder than usual at my feet.

Since I couldn’t take getting hit in the foot, I lost my balance…

「Gyaaahahhhhhh!」

Hot! Hot!

My yet untouched face and hands now sizzled on the mesh as I heard a sizzling sound.

I got up as quickly as I could, as the mesh I tried to push off of crumbled and fell.

The water that hit my body and fell turned the metal into dust.

Of course, since I couldn’t put my hands on the crumbled spot, my body fell back into the mesh again.

「Gyaahhhhhhahhhhh! Owwwww!」

「Aha! I did it! What a hit!」

Still, as I was able to get up there was an amount of the water that fell into the pit.

「Ahhahhhhhhhahhhhh! My, my moneyyyy!」

I was able to keep all but a cupfull of water from falling into the pit, but even that amount falling in caused the water to start to bubble.

「Ahah! Hah hah hah hah!! More, Grond! More of you scrambling around! Make us all happy!」

「Agh! Glug! Glug!」

I tried to stand but my legs wouldn’t move, so on knees I tried to gulp down all the water I could.

「Hee hee hee, this is really funny Grond! Ahah! Hah hah hah hah!」

「He really is a disgrace, heh heh, like a fish out of water.」

「Hee hee, I’m really loving this too!」

They were slapping the ground, and laughing along with their hero friend.

(Dammit! I’m never going to let them get away with this! Neverrrr!!)

As I couldn’t stand, I was crawling with the metal burning me through my clothes, and then the water moved to another foothold.

「Glug, huff, wheeze wheeze.」

「Stage two is now clear, Grond. You did great, greaaat. Now, next is the last, the final game, the third stage…」

As I looked at the hero, he was looking at my worthless legs.

「All you have to do is drink all of the remaining water up. If you do that, you’re a free man.」

(heh heh, I’m telling you, you’re too nice, hero.)

「Water! Hurry, give me water! That water!!」

Hurt, heat, pain, hotness, bitterness.

There was no way I ever thought something like this would happen to me.

However, it would all be over soon.

Crossing that metal mesh, as long as I didn’t have to endure the pain of getting hit again, it would all be over soon.

All I had to do is drink the water down. Then I could leave this place. No problem.

(The Ramune’s poison would be dispelled by the white silver. All I have to do is drink water, hero.)

「All I have to do is drink it up, and it’s over, so…」

「…okay, now the final stage begins. You’ve worked and worked and worked, and now you’ve made it to here. So you think you can do your best?」

「Water…ah…glug, glug.」

(Laugh all you want now, hero…I’m going to watch you go to hell!)

I just had to make it look like I was drugged, just make the hero smile.

Yeah, this white silver would protect me.

All of that water that fell means I could drink up the rest.

「Yeah, good, you’re drinking it well! 」

「Ngahh, glug, gulp, ngah.」

The hero just watched me with a calm face.

He must be thinking that 『it’s enough』by now.

That’s why you’re a coward, you haven’t put enough though into all of this.

Yeah, you can laugh all you want in your heart, and the next moment, you’ll feel a chill and your thoughts will stop.

「I guess it’s about time now, huh?」

That calmly looking face, now all of a sudden changed into the look of a demon.

「?!」

That was the first time I saw his mask slip like that, and I felt really bad.

And with that, without being able to think about it, disaster falls without anyone being able to think about it.

Of course, this moment was like that.

Rip, the first change happened with that one first sound.

Suddenly, I felt a small pain on my cheek.

「Hmpg? Guh, aghhhh?!」

Just as a sand castle falls apart from one small piece, it collapses more and more, just as my body felt that first pain.

「Gah, hmph? Ahhh?!」

(What? What happened? What’s happening?!)

Almost like the surface of my body was cracking apart, I felt small cuts appear in my flesh.

Those small cuts were becoming countless, and deeper as well.

「Hey, Grond, the poison protection of mithril, do you know how it appears?」

「Hmpg? Guh, aghhhh?!」

I felt the burning on my feet get stronger, almost like a file or rasp was being pulled along my flesh.

My thoughts races as I now began to understand what the hero was saying.

The hero slung out his sword and the water stopped.

「Glug, ugh, huff, huff」

「The poison dispel effect mithril has. It’s almost like a small-scale magic dispel. Okay, now for a question! Equipment that exerts dispelling magic does so because it has a magical stone inside that powers it. Okay, so what does mithril use to do the same?」

「Ah? What? What does?」

「Here’s a hint. A suspicious man like you would think that I wouldn’t guess you’d have a small bag with mithrilin it right?」

I couldn’t guess what he was getting at.

It wasn’t because the pain was distracting me either. But yes, it was a confusion like just after drinking a strong liquor.

「Hint two, a magic stone that exerts that dispel magic when it exceeds the safe amount of magic it dispels, finally breaks!」

「ugh, so, what are you saying?!」

The hero continued talking without listening.

His words simply kept spilling out without a pause over and over while I couldn’t make their meaning out.

「Hint three, a human doesn’t have a certain “Safe amount”…so what’s the answer?」

The hero asked with a wicked smile.

(Answer? What do you mean? In other words, no, it can’t, nooooo!)

The dull thoughts I had finally arrived suddenly at an answer.

However, he simply laughed as if it were some fun conclusion.

「BZzzzzzzt! Times up Grond! That super important mithril you have with you Grond…」

No, I don’t want to hear it.

I thought I shouldn’t hear, but he simply kept talking.

「Is sucking up your magic, while it sucks up your life.」

「?!」

「The phenomenon occurring in your body, is that even though the magic is drying up, the sucked up power has to be put somewhere else. Okay, so final choice. 」

As he said this, he started the water flowing again.

I reacted by putting my mouth out so that my gold wouldn’t be hurt, but in that moment, pain shot through my body.

「ngguuuhhhhh, uguggghhh! Ugghhhh!」

「You so so important money, is now hurting your body? You still have more than half left. Show me, what is your choice now?」

What to do? What?

(What’s the choice? This torture or…my money in the hole? Which?)

「Answer me Grond. Your life or your money. Which will you choose?」

Those words, they made my already tired heart hit my stomach with a thump.

「ugh….ughhh…..ugaahhhh!」

I forced myself to stop drinking.

「….ahhh…so you’ll pick life then.」

After saying that as if he was disappointed in my choice, he then had the look of that demon again.

「Well, then, you don’t want this?」

「Wha, stop!?」

「I won’t stop, because it’s game over, right?!」

With that the hero dropped the half water ball in the water.

Suddenly, fwissshhhhhhhh and a huge angry sound erupted from the pit of water.

At the same time, bubbles like magma erupted.

「Ah, my money, my money!」

I fell to my knees in a loss of all my power, and watched all my money evaporate away.

Changed, changed away, my money, into worthless dust.

My heart suddenly felt like it was immediately stepped on and squished.