The True Soul
They left the village and climbed the mountain in search of materials.
Climbed up near the summit, pulled out the card.
A card capable of wielding magic that manipulates phenomena.
"Menu open"
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Akitto
Type: Common Card
Mana: 53/56
Number of magic uses: 52/100
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Checking my magic reserves.
Up until yesterday, it was at a maximum of fifty-six. Now it's fifty-one.
Mira, Yuria, Rirya, Arisa, Svetlana.
After embracing the five, the maximum increased by five.
That’ll do.
But yesterday, Mira and the other forty-seven—excluding the three who were pregnant—were all held.
The maximum value didn’t increase—only the current value healed.
From that, you can infer: the maximum value resets only once, while the current value can be restored any number of times.
Hmm, there might still be exceptions.
Whether holding a "not a first time" girl increases the maximum value or not.
Better remember that for later.
Well then, shall we?
Muttering to herself, she steeled her nerves.
She channeled her magic, boosting encounter rate and luck.
Then waited a moment.
“Oops.”
The ground shuddered. She staggered, off-balance.
Right after, holes burst open from all around.
Lava poured out from the cracks—shaping itself into monsters.
The one she’d been waiting for. Lava-type monster, called Lava.
The soul harvested from this one served as energy for all sorts of things.
It kept giving off heat—well, at least the first stove she’d ever made was still working, so it was clearly been doing so for a long, long time.
Honestly, in her mind, it was basically a perpetual motion machine.
There it was—the Lava, summoned through a magic that manipulated phenomena.
“…Is this too many?”
Lava kept pouring out, one after another.
One wasn’t enough.
It oozed and merged, flowing together into a single, massive Lava.
Oozing out, merging into one single lava.
Oozing out, merging into one single lava.
One after another, it repeated.
Another hole opened up.
Lava poured out from there too.
“Too many, too many, too many.”
It was getting a little frantic—too many.
Counted at thirty, and still growing.
The lava writhed like a soft-bodied creature, crawling across the ground.
The stench of burning grass, the heat—crushing, intense.
“What now? Call rain?”
Holding the card, thinking. Could summon rain with magic. But what then?
Before she could decide, the lava began sticking together.
Two lava creatures collided—fused.
Like oil droplets on water, merging, blending.
One after another—fusing, merging.
Growing, combining, layer upon layer.
As mass and volume increased, the speed of fusion accelerated.
Eventually, all the lava there merged into one solid mass.
It was enormous—roughly the size of a tennis court.
A monster that big.
"Wait... seriously, this is a thing?"
muttered.
But that wasn't the end of it.
Like a creature seeking new nourishment, the colossal lava mass extended itself and plunged into the hole.
Then, thump-thump—lava was sucked upward from within.
Its body grew larger—kept growing.
And then the mountain began to burn.
"...Feels like I messed up big time?"
Sweat broke out—then evaporated instantly from the heat.
"Menu open."
She pulled out a common card, summoned rain with magic.
Clouds appeared in an instant, from nowhere, and rain poured down.
"...Like throwing water on a hot stone."
The phenomenon was literal.
The falling rain hissed and vanished into steam.
The fire leaping up the tree, the heat from the giant Lava—it showed no sign of fading.
The tree burned, then toppled from its roots.
Sucked into the Lava’s body, it vanished in an instant, reduced to ash.
That’s what happens when you touch it directly.
“Mmm.”
The tree fell, clearing the view.
There, in front of her, was the village—the same one, rebuilt these past few days, nearly finished.
And approaching it, writhing and undulating, was the massive Lava.
The tree, turned to ash in a heartbeat, seemed to foreshadow the village’s fate.
“Can’t let that happen.”
She couldn’t let the village she’d built go up in flames.
She pulled free the True Eternal Slave.
Moved slower than a child’s footstep—this colossal Lava, barely stirring.
She got ahead of it.
Channeled magic into her swing.
Dongōōōn!
The Lava exploded apart, as if struck by a hammer.
Ordinary lava would’ve been done by now—but this one’s different.
A chunk flies off, but the main body looks untouched.
It starts pulling the scattered pieces back in, slowly reshaping itself almost back to normal.
Troublesome.
But there’s no choice.
Grips the sword again. Takes a breath.
Then starts smashing. Just keep smashing.
Smashing the giant lava—like a kid beating snow off the sidewalk with an umbrella.
At first, it pushes back.
No matter how hard she hits, it just won’t give.
It’s pulling the scattered bits back in, even building more lava up from inside the hole.
Swelling. Advancing. She’s inching backward.
But after thirty minutes, something shifts.
The giant lava stops moving forward.
Closer look—no more lava is emerging from the hole.
It’s not growing anymore.
The lava’s been beaten into submission. The attack’s outpaced its regeneration.
“Uoohhh!”
I thought I could do it, so I spun faster.
Her slave sword danced, striking the massive laver over and over.
The situation took another turn.
That one was pushed back.
To be precise, it was me being whittled down little by little, but from that scale, it looked like I was retreating.
And so, chipping away at it.
Chop, chop, keep chopping.
The laver slowly shrank, until it was finally the size of an ordinary laver.
"Final blow!"
Pour every ounce of power into it—hit it with everything you've got.
And so Lava vanished.
Gone without a trace.
“Phew.”
She exhaled, scanning the surroundings.
The summit was half-destroyed—almost entirely charred black.
Looks like it’s been scraped raw.
Just moving around like this—imagine what’d happen if she were let loose in the wild.
Well, that’s fine.
The results, though.
She used her luck boost at the same time as the enemy encounter boost.
One shot, and Rava’s soul should be out.
Staring hard at Rava’s remains.
There it was—floating up.
“Huh?”
Same shape as before, but golden.
The moment I grabbed it, DORECA flared.
The glow that appears when you can craft a new item.
What I’d obtained was the true soul of Rava.
And right then, multiple things appeared in DORECA that could be made with it.