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Krita stepped back and took a stance against Sage who had changed his appearance. 

No, that’s most likely not Sage. He has a dangerous atmosphere around him contrary to the goody-two shoes Sage. 

“W-Who are you? Why are you there? W-Where’s Sage?” (Krita)

He knew the answer even when his voice was raspy. It was obvious. 

“You should have been warned. Weren’t you told to stop it, Krita?” 

It felt as if he had bottomless fearsomeness inside of him. 

His voice alone made Krita’s body falter. 

The man crossed his legs elegantly as if he were sitting on a cafe terrace. 

“You don’t have enough legs to stand on as the substitute for Shangri-La, even if you were to aim for the life of Sage.” 

The man said with an attitude as if he were used to being ordered from above on the daily.

That’s right, he understood. Sage not being here means that Krita’s plan was predicted. 

Krita’s breathing got rough and cold sweat flowed down from his forehead. 

His stomach began to hurt, and the discomfort was making him dizzy. But the reason why his body was trembling is not because his plan was discovered. 

Krita thinks it is a shame that his plan was discovered, but he thought that if his opponent was Sage and they were in the slums, he would be able to manage somehow. 

But what was in front of him was something that’s beyond his calculations. 

The man is wearing a black coat and a suit type spirit clothes that’s not armored. 

Spirit Clothes look like battle clothes at a glance, but it is sticking super close to the body and doesn’t look like it has any defense, however, the magic circuit on the surface of the clothes is drawing geometric patterns bordering art. Mana was flowing from them, and the light of it was beautiful. 

He could tell it is high class Spirit Clothes. He could tell that, but the issue is that he has not seen or heard about such Spirit Clothes ever before. 

Krita is a merchant that deals with Spirit Armors. He can tell which company made what Spirit Clothes. 

But, from what he could see, he couldn’t tell which company made it and…he couldn’t tell who this person was. 

It is not like he is wearing a helmet, and he is certainly seeing his face, and yet, it doesn’t remain in his memories. He even has doubts whether the voice is really that of a man. 

He stealthily used the camera of Spriggan, but it is blurry, and his face is covered in noise, so he couldn’t tell anything from it. 

He does think he is using magic, but he can’t tell what magic it is at all. 

If it were a Disguise skill, he would at least be able to see the face of the person. It is not like he wouldn’t be able to recognize him. 

“Are you saying I was scheming to become the substitute?” (Krita)

[Appraise]

He stealthily used Appraise while acting dumb. 

He tried to investigate why he can’t recognize him and just what are those Spirit Clothes in the first place. 

But his face warped and he staggered back after seeing the result. 

[Unable to appraise]

The Appraise that shouldn’t be able to be deceived didn’t work. The absolute analysis gave out an unbelievable result. 

This pointed to a single possibility. 

“Aah, you used Appraise, huh? That’s pointless. You won’t be able to see my equipment with mere Appraise.” 

The man laughed faintly, most likely inferring from his attitude.

Even though Krita could tell that he laughed, he really couldn’t tell what his face was, and even his voice didn’t remain in his mind which sent shivers down his spine.

There was one answer for this: a person from the Underground District. 

This world has: the Slums, the Surface District, Agricultural Sector, and Underground District. 

That composition doesn’t change no matter the land. 

The Underground District has fearsome magic science, and the only ones who can see that place are a few chosen from the Surface District. And also there’s rumors that it is veiled in mysteries. 

Only chosen ones can meet the people living there. However, it is like an urban legend. And there’s also one other rumor…

“—Why?! I only tried to kill Sage. I had no intention of getting in your way! I haven’t touched Lanpeach!” (Krita)

If you put a hand on the experiments that the Underground District performs every now and then, a person from the Underground District will show up and will slaughter the people who are getting in the way with absolute power. The rumors are that they deal with things in an extreme and merciless manner…

“What are you saying? Of course you are being a bother. Don’t you get it? It would be troubling if you were to get in the way of this flow.” 

It is okay as long as he doesn’t put a hand on Lanpeach who is connected to the Underground District -is what Krita thought, but after hearing the haughty statements of the man, he realized that he messed up, and he even felt as if the ground below him was crumbling. 

◇◇

The disguised Lanpeach looked at Krita, who was all pale and swayed around as if he was feeling bad, and sighed. 

He thought for a bit that maybe he would run away with this. If he did, he would not need to kill him. 

“Can’t be helped! I can’t afford to die here, so I will kill you right here and now!” (Krita)

[Spriggan Mode]

Krita said this as if howling while all pale, and activated the skill. A red aura enveloped his body like mist and his body changed with cracking sounds. 

His skin turned golden-copper, and his muscles swelled up as if they took in air to inflate themselves. 

That body of his turned into a gigantic one over 3 meters tall. His arms and legs stretched, grew thick like logs, and the glaring and ugly Spirit Armor made of gold and gems got bigger to match the gigantified Krita to match him.

Spriggan Mode is an Inherent Skill that the Artificial Spirit, Spriggan, has. It is a skill that doubles Hit Points, Strength, Endurance, and Agility for a set period of time. 

There’s a similar spell called Enlargement, but that spell halves Agility, so that’s testament of how outstanding Spriggan Mode is. 

The lore of this is that the Spirit Spriggan that protects treasure chests would turn from the appearance of a child to a ferocious giant when fighting off thieves. 

“I will kill youuuu! I am not the kind of man to die heeere.” (Krita)

Krita’s face was bright red and with a frown like an oni as he shouted. 

Lanpeach directed eyes of pity and waved his hand as if giving up.

[So it really did end up like this. Just like in the game.] (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach knew that things would end up like this. It is a quest in the game after all. 

It is a quest that always happens when the protagonist enters the base management route. Sage would come at first to give you a management tutorial buff by helping you out in the base. 

The effect is that your Production Power doubles, which allows you to obtain a whole lot of money. 

However, if you get all happy about that tasty buff and don’t gather information, Sage will one day disappear from the base, and the tutorial buff will end.

Players would just brush it off as the service time of the tutorial being over. They would find it a shame and give up, and then Krita would show up. 

According to him, Sage was attacked by bandits and died. But his last words when coincidentally meeting with his friend on his dying moments was to please support the base. That Krita would be helping from here on. 

The players would have high hopes that maybe Krita would have a similar buff to Sage, but the expectations go in the bad direction. 

Basically, your production power is halved.

But from the perspective of the players, this was great. Events in games where you lose stuff like money or items would mean that if you clear that, you would get far more than what you lost. 

When you gather information for the sake of this and have hardened your evidence, you will realize that the one who attacked Sage was Krita who had been blinded by the money of the base. 

After that, you would defeat Krita, obtain decent items and money, and clear the quest. 

Well, it is an event you would find often. 

—But the hardcore gamers would find one more quest. They  discovered that Krita was wandering around your base at the time when Sage was alive. If you gather information about there being a suspicious old man, you can learn about the ambushing event of Sage. 

That minor villain appearance of his would make the people around suspicious and on guard. 

Lanpeach would most likely gather the same amount of suspicion if he were to be in a church or a bank. This is the minor villain Lanpeach theory. 

And so, you would drive the armored bus in Sage’s stead, and the ambush incident will happen. You enter battle against Krita and 5 bandits he led. 

It goes without saying that the boss of those bandits is Lanpeach. 

When you defeat them, Sage will survive, and the tutorial buff will continue forever, keeping the production power at double. 

It is a happy and wonderful event for everyone aside from the punching-bag Lanpeach. 

This time it is Lanpeach who is protecting Sage and the number of enemies quadrupled, so the Lanpeach difficulty is taking effect, and makes him understand that destiny really doesn’t want him to clear this. 

Lanpeach took his sweet time remembering this, wasting time pointlessly as Krita’s body swelled, and he ended up looking ferocious like an ogre. 

Krita’s head was touching the ceiling, and a hole opened, but Krita didn’t care about having opened a hole and just bent over and headed straight towards Lanpeach with a ferocious countenance. 

“I can’t allow myself to perish here! I will erase that composed smile of yours!” (Krita)

Krita raised his massive arms and attacked. 

That roar of his sounded partly as if he had given up, but that pressure of his was fitting of a giant. 

The raised arms hit the ceiling that has armor attached to it, but his movements were unhindered as if there was nothing there to begin with. The metal bent and let out the sound of being destroyed as he swung down his arms. 

But Lanpeach had a calm and composed mind even at the approaching fist. 

There wasn’t even a small ripple in his heart. He was calm as if he were a scientist observing an animal inside a cage, his eyes purely those of curiosity. 

[Air Throw]

[The enemy is over mid-size, so it is not possible to use Air Throw.]

The counter skill he chose didn’t activate. 

[I see, so I really will have trouble with where to use Air Throw.]

But it was just as he expected, so he didn’t show any unrest. He just raised his hand on the approaching arm and caught it. 

He bent his fingers like claws, twisted his body, and put strength. 

“Strong Air Throw.” 

Lanpeach muttered. 

And then, Krita’s posture crumbled greatly, went past the side of Lanpeach like a boulder, destroying the rear seats of the armored bus, punching through even the chassis, and rolled outside while dragging metallic fragments along. 

“Now then, this will most likely become a touchstone. Let’s see what kind of effects my main techniques have.” (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach stepped out from the broken bus and declared coldly. 

“And, is it possible to change the quest that is controlled by destiny? I am truly interested in that.” (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach, clad in black clothes, had eyes like those of a mad scientist, eyes filled with curiosity without any regards to the harm he could cause.

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