The big difference between a monster room and a dungeon was the fact that the monster room was considered a “trap” that could only summon monsters. The dungeon core had all the control when it came to increasing the floor count, the designs and traps, and allocating how much mana could be used to summon monsters. That made monster rooms rather inflexible, as it required the dungeon core to change the layout of the room and also to layer additional traps to make the monster room truly treacherous.
The monster room where I got Gravy’s core from had an additional trap that restricted the use of mana outside of runes and enchantments. By itself, it wasn’t dangerous since I had pretty strong physical attacking power, and my solar energy technically didn’t count as mana. However, the room’s boss monster was a golem with high enough vitality that it made my base strength in my dragon form look small. It was like fighting Ryra, in a way.
When I inquired what I could do with the monster room to Gravy, they pretty much shot down any idea that involved using traps or restrictions that only a real dungeon could create. Gravy could only create monsters, nothing else. If I wanted Gravy to help me out, then I needed to bend the rules by giving Gravy more tools to work with me, similar to a dungeon core giving a budget to the monster room core.
The golem bodies created through the union of Inferno Nest’s magma soil and Bleidla’s divine soil were one of those rule benders, as it allowed Gravy to expand the monster room outside the subspace. In the one month I had to prepare, the entire arena where we fought the first [Armored Glacial Burrower] was “terraformed” with the soil golem’s touch. This allowed Gravy to absorb mana from the glacier and summon and control monsters with their area of influence expanded.
Though that really wasn’t what I had spent that one month on. While playing around with the monster room was fun, how exactly would I make this work for our plan? Even with the new influx of mana, spawning monsters was extremely expensive, and the monsters spawned this way would always be level 0. It was an authentic monster spawning, to the point that the monster would act feral even if it was an intelligent monster like a grimgarian.
That made using monsters to fight against a rank A impossible. Too much mana and having a big fat body fight with me wouldn’t benefit me much when I was, firstly, as strong as a low-level rank A, and, secondly, unable to actually coordinate with the monster since it was unintelligent. Yes, it would listen to me as the owner of the monster room, but outside of not harming me, the monster was useless as a companion.
As such, I had to decide between quality and quantity and tailor my plan to that choice. For this case, I decided on quantity.
Gravy had plenty of mana to continuously summon the rank E [Puppeteering Slime] needed to control the golem body. Slimes, as well, were seldom intelligent, acting purely on what it could feel most of the time, which made controlling them pretty easy for Gravy. “Control the golem body” could be the slime’s only command, and it would act on it as if it were a machine, unlike a flesh-and-blood monster that could go berserk randomly due to pain or an aura attack.
Since the golems were anatomically humanoid, I also knew I could turn each of them into a “toxic bomb” by cladding them all in a suit of [Panzer]. Instead of an army of naked male Greek statues, I now had an army of purple-armored dragoons! … Until I realized I could actually do more with the golems than I initially thought.
They couldn’t learn any special skills, and they weren’t intelligent enough to become my fans or retainers—these slimes were a far cry from Shoyi. As such, what could they do more than being explosive toxin bombs? Well, like any spawned monster, they first start as mostly feral but gain more intelligence the longer they live, to the point some, like Kramps and Belzac, develop to the point that both could make deals with their patron god.
Now, I was saying the slimes could do something similar, but the longer they were alive, the more commands they could understand. While not intelligent, they could learn. Like a machine, they could copy whatever I taught them and repeat it later on with their “muscle memory.” I could even delegate the job to Shoyi or Gravy once I gave the first lesson.
Welcome to my orchestra. The Obsidian Orchestra has been revived! Purple flames flowed from my hands as I solidified it into a conductor’s baton. Having this new piece debut in such a manner certainly goes against what Papa taught me, but a musician shouldn’t be so picky about whom she plays her music to. Everybody has to start somewhere… System voice, I wish to register a new instrumental-only spell song.
“Oooh.” Vifi whistled as she stared at the opened eyes of my “living” golem, puppeteered by their respective [Puppeteering Slime].
They all stood on the obsidian ridges I had created for my arena. Their bodies were fully armored, making them look like knights, but the “weapons” they held were various instruments fit for an orchestra to play with. Violins, clarinets, trombones, and even the humble metal triangle. String, woodwind, brass, and percussion—a family member of each instrument type was here.
Though if I had to be honest, considering each of them was using an obsidian instrument, the sound the instrument would make would be different from how they would sound using normal materials. The string instrument, especially, had it rough since I wasn’t a luthier. Only through trial and error was I able to recreate cellos and double basses using mana threads as the strings. Hikari and I poured in all our experience from watching Papa’s orchestras for this performance.
Kill it, my ensemble! The Obsidian Ensemble certainly has a name to it, so play for me! Play to my instruction as your conductor! Your maestro!
As the worm roared, enraged by its sudden kidnapping, Vifi lunged forward with her spear, fighting it to cover. Gravy picked up the recorder and crystal and went back to the subspace. I raised my baton over my head as the slimes moved their golem bodies, readying themselves as they raised their instruments.
As I slapped my baton down to the height of my stomach, my arm pushed the cold wind into my face, prompting the violinists to start playing their music. Learning from my technique, the golems let their fingers and bows glide along their violins’ strings, creating short and long notes that created an impactful intro with their striking, fast music.
As a small crescendo—a climax—ended the intro, the violins stopped playing to let the cello, trombone, and drums create music fit for a marching army. Or for a warlord peering down at the foe, exuding their tyrannical aura to frighten all those around them. An outstanding and imposing figure that even opposing generals and warlords had to respect.
Though even this mighty fight needed moments of rest like the silence before the storm. Flutes, clarinets, and timpani dominated these moments with their quiet, windy, and tranquil sounds to calm the ensemble down in adagio, preparing both them and the audience for when the music exploded in an uproar with trumpets, horns, and the metallic sound of a triangle ringing like the signal of war.
As the tempo and volume of the music rose in a crescendo, the momentum stopped and started to decline until the last note was held up in a tenuto. All the other instruments fell to the side as the violins played this single note until it naturally started to quieten. The first movement of this symphony had ended, and just like any other symphony, there were multiple sections to it. I was not done with this spell song just yet!
And to signify this to the System and my audience, the bass and cello players immediately cut off the outro of the last movement with their deeper tones, followed by the slams of a bass drum. To express that the music wasn’t done yet and that the last one was truly only the “greeting.” To further this idea, the violins reappeared from their small break to replace the cellos and bass, playing the same rhythm as them, only at a higher note to recreate this marching music from before, only this time sounding like it was reserved for the appearance of an emperor.
This majesty kept on playing as the flutes had their solo moment, giving all a reprieve before the violins reentered the play. Drums, the tuba, and the clarinets were added to the mix before the cello and bass were added to finalize the harmony guiding the battlefield. Although the spell song wasn’t done yet, the music already seemed like it was taking over the fight as Vifi’s battle style became fiercer and fiercer.
The same ice burrower that the twins and I had trouble with was unable to perform any of its tricks as the entire arena was completely fortified by layers of obsidian. Even if it tried, purple magma would seep from any crack, burning and poisoning the monster before the magma solidified into obsidian to heal the crack. Meanwhile, Vifi was zooming around like a fly, striking the worm with her halberd, hammer, and gauntlet to break through the thick carapace.
The advantage was on our side, and to celebrate this moment, the music finally reached its climax as the tempo slowed down to larghetto, one tempo slower than adagio, to fully express the emotions and nuances of each instrument as it created this imperial theme song. The flow didn’t fit the high-tempo battle Vifi was conducting any longer, trying to prolong every note until the drums banged three times, signaling the finale of this symphony.
Yet, a two-movement symphony was pretty uncommon, but I thought it sure enough fit what I wanted this music to show. It took an entire month to teach the 100-person orchestral ensemble this symphony, and its debut was perfection! The sweet nectar of success filled my lungs and heart as I felt proud of my own work, and the rhythm and melodies of the symphony still lingered inside my ear as I felt empowered by the soft and thunderous tones. I almost wanted to join in and make this symphony into a concerto—a soloist music with an ensemble to accompany them.
The Trial of Kings and Queens.
Yes!
Holy description bloating.
Honestly, you could almost half the description’s length if the System had omitted the flavor text at the beginning. Really, Aurena really loved her flowery descriptions when it came to my songs.
In any case, from the summary Hikari provided to me, the song was essentially the one-versus-one song. A song dedicated to that one true hero from the prophecy battling the evil lord who wished for the doom of the world, you could say. That last battle soundtrack to end the story of a grand RPG. The crowning jewel and climax of a perilous battle after a long journey. The song being an orchestral symphony really was the cherry on top.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Unlike all my other songs, this song only applies to one ally and foe, applying all the benefits of [Music Resonation] to them. The buff would still appear in everybody’s Profile, but you wouldn’t gain any benefits from it, in other words. In exchange, the [Protagonist] would be super buffed while the [Antagonist] would really feel the debuff terror.
The song, honestly, went against how I wanted to fight. It was perfect to make somebody the protagonist of the battle, but it required an entire orchestral ensemble for it to apply. This meant that, unless I prepared for a battle, I couldn’t use this song for a sudden attack unless
I was willing to bring them into the Obsidian Orchestra inside my subspace. It was perfect for ambushing targets and dragging them into a one-versus-one, but extremely finicky if I wanted to bring out its full potential. Not to mention, which of my spell songs exactly harmonized with [The Trail of Kings and Queens]?First things first, Vifi, you’re the protagonist of this play!
“About time!” Vifi shouted as she roared, “Emotion Surge” with all her might, causing red electricity to explode around her body. Her demonic features appeared as two levitating arms formed on her back, holding up her gauntlet and hammer, while she wielded a lightning rapier.
I pulled out my [Heart of the Volcano Catalyst] and bardic violin and had Hikari play the latter as part of the ensemble, connecting it with the fire catalyst using the violin’s [Catalyst Tuning] enchantment. As I did so, Vifi’s various weapons started to glow red and green, symbolizing fire and wind from my respective catalysts had been applied.
As Vifi fought, it should have come as no surprise that [The Trial of Kings and Queens] innately didn’t boost much of Vifi’s combat power compared to my other songs. Her physical attacks were also inflicting fire and wind damage according to my respective highest fire and wind element-aligned skill—so [Ruby Star] and [Storm Magic Lv. 5]—but that was about it without the inclusion of a second non-instrumental spell song.
Yes, [The Trial of Kings and Queens] also made the instruments of my golem ensemble shoot out fire and wind mana projectiles, and since the worm’s resistance to those elements was reduced as well, it made Vifi’s job to deal with the monster easier. Yet, despite how grand the song was, it required a duet companion.
Better start testing songs. Let’s go with [Slave To My Love] for some taunting! Hika—
Eh? It seemed I didn’t even need to test things out. The System was my best critic…
Going through my various spell songs, I eventually ended up with this list of compatible songs: [The Heir of Hope]… yeah, that was the only song that actually harmonized with the symphony at a reasonable pace. Everything else was allowed, especially—as I figured—[Starstruck Winterscape] was forbidden as it was another instrumental-only spell song.
Honestly, I didn’t mind Eshe’s dirge being used for such a grand performance. Even if my initial intention was to mourn for Eshe, the song had such a powerful message that I wouldn’t mind hearing it in an orchestra. Simply change the singer’s interpretation of the song and you could really mix two different songs together to create something absolutely harmonic. With how picky [The Trial of Kings and Queens] was, though, I was incentivised to make new spell songs to play with it.
“In the midst of the desert ♫
A bright ray of light shines ♫
Pure and brave, that she was, as she walked ♫”
Singing into my fire catalyst, the [Shield of [The Light]] buff was applied on Vifi, but otherwise, nobody else had received it. Since the song didn’t have any debuffs, the 15% debuff increase of [The Trials of Kings and Queen] couldn’t be applied, and if Vifi wasn’t afraid of something or if the enemy wasn’t imposing enough, [The Heir of Hope] wouldn’t even activate. Though thankfully, since Vifi’s [Fear] emotion counted as being afraid of something, that wouldn’t be an issue for the future. Wrath demonkin being slaves to their emotions for the win! … I was joking, of course.
As the fight continued with an ultra buffed Vifi, the worm started to panic as it avoided fighting Vifi outright. It rampaged around the room, trying to find an escape, but its attempts were futile as I could simply restore the arena to its state before any damage occurred. Even if the worm tried to destroy my golems, the magma underneath the layers of obsidian allowed me to move the different ridges and platforms around like a modular sliding puzzle.
If the worm was targeting a specific group of golems, I could simply slide the ridge around, causing the worm to hit nothing but the wall. I could even move the worm’s position around, albeit it was quite tough since the thing was enormous and heavy. Due to this problem and the worm just being fast in general, it was impossible to keep every golem alive. The slimes would be destroyed, and the ensemble would lose a member.
Yet, I expected this! Therefore, I made sure to keep more golems in reserve! Summoning new puppeteering slimes right now couldn’t work as ensemble members, as they had to learn how to play instruments. We needed to make their replacement a few weeks in advance. That was why quantity mattered for this plan.
Eventually, the symphony would return to the second movement and start to reach the climax. Funnily enough, Vifi started to slow down, only attacking or moving with the rhythm of the symphony. Why exactly did she do that? I had no idea, but it didn’t reduce her combat prowess, so it didn’t matter.
Huh? While questioning Vifi’s action, she suddenly performed the salute with her rapier, causing the tip of the blade to start collecting her mana. She remained in this posture as the instruments started to gather, playing in unison as I finished the second chorus, until they all spiked in volume in the symphony’s crescendo.
[“Move your golems!”] Vifi sent me a telepathic message, even sending an image of where Vifi would attack next.
After moving all the golems away from the attacking area, the gathered mana on Vifi’s rapier burst with electricity as she twirled her body around. Shouting, “Voltaic Red: Thunder Divider,” Vifi swung her rapier vertically, sending a concentrated blast of electricity around the room, cutting not only the arena into two, but also the worm.
As magma shot out from the gap, I quickly closed the wound, where I noticed that Vifi’s attack had pierced through all three layers of obsidian and magma. Frankly, goodness me! I knew she had that move, but she hadn’t used that Ability once since she joined us. Though I did understand why—that salute pose probably was her “wind-up” time necessary to perform the Ability. It was slower to ready compared to her [Voltaic Red: Thunderspeed Roar], which could be thrown out at any moment.
Also, fuck… I forgot to have her join the bloody party. She took all the exp! Sending it now!
As Vifi took a big sigh after killing the monster, she grimaced when she saw the blue screen appear from her party bracelet. She looked over at me. “… You serious?”
“I want some experience as well, okay?” I yelled. When Vifi finally joined the party, I gave her a thumbs-up. “Thank you! Also, that whole rhythmic movement you did seemed to be in preparation for that move, right? No wonder you never used it.”
Rushing over to me while Gravy took care of the monster corpse, dismantling it with the golem army using a bunch of leftover dismantling knives Grimnir and Daichi had created for practice, Vifi shook her head as her demonic features faded away as she took a break.
“No, the salute was the build-up,” she answered. “[Voltaic Red: Thunder Divider] requires accumulating electricity on the tip of a rapier before I shoot it forward with the same mechanism as [Thunderspeed Roar]. Magnetism, naturally. The only difference between the two Abilities is how I do it and the resulting damage. The former takes longer to charge, but the ‘railgun-like’ effect, as you like to call it, is more precise. Difficult to use when the battle is too fast, as I can’t use my super-speed while charging. [Thunderspeed Roar] is more useful in that case.”
“Then why did you start moving to the beat. It was almost as if you were dancing.”
“I was,” she answered, causing me to tilt my head. “As you know, my [Hestia’s Retainer] evolved into [Hestia’s Imperial Guard]—glory to you, General—and like with Tasianna, I received a unique skill as a reward—[Dancing Thunder].”
<Dancing Thunder: A unique skill only usable while a spell song that applies [Music Resonation] is active. While moving at the same tempo and rhythm of the spell songs played, increase all stats by X and reduce mana and stamina consumption by X. As long as this skill is active, damage inflicted will be increased or reduced depending on the crescendo and diminuendo of the song and multiplied by X. If moving out of rhythm, temporarily remove stat increase and reduce all damage done by 50%. X is equal to ([Dancing Thunder Lv. X] * 5). If the owner forcibly cancels this skill, inflict a penalty timer of 1 Peolynca Standard Hour until the next natural activation can occur>
“So, don’t play slow songs with me around,” Vifi stated. “Aside from that, while I don’t understand the musical terms, I had a feeling it was talking about the timing of your songs. When your first spell song started getting louder and louder, I noticed the damage I was inflicting was rising, so I bet on the fact that the loudest point would help me deal the most damage. Got the confirmation, since I know how much [Thunder Divider] would do.”
I nodded, impressed by the skill Vifi got, but also found it funny that the one person who was more interested in my music due to its utility received a skill entirely focused on my songs. To her, it was a morale booster instead of a past time she actively engaged with. How curious… but I wouldn’t complain. It certainly depended even more on me than Tasianna’s and Shay’s retainer skill.
The fact that I could use “music lessons” as an excuse to lecture Vifi about my songs only made it better. Yup, maybe this was the way for me to include Vifi in my idol group! Maybe I could awaken that musical talent slumbering in the depths of her war-torn heart!
“Crescendo means the rise of the eventual climax of a song—as you said, the loudest point. The diminuendo means the opposite—a gradual decline of the volume until it reaches a soft, calming moment of ‘rest.’” I smirked as I showered Vifi with my knowledge. “Hehe, it looks like you actually have to learn my songs to heart now, huh? Every. Single. Spell. Song.”
Vifi jerked back, looking like she understood the implication. “U-uh, let’s stick with those two songs for now, okay? We don’t have too much time, so come on. The next target!”
I nodded as I gave Vifi an impish look, taking out the lyrics for [The Heir of Hope] and the sheet music for [The Trial of Kings and Queens]. Once I handed them to her to read, I opened a small hole at the top of the hole and reached my hand out, causing white flames to stream through it and envelop me in it.
I felt solar energy filling my body as I started regenerating mana. I had set a [Sun, Consume All] outside the arena to act as a solar energy battery for me. While I expended solar energy inside the arena, the artificial white sun would gather it for me to use later on, meaning I didn’t have to rely on my catalysts if I needed to.
Yes, it did reveal my location, but the elemental emperor and its army were so far away that they wouldn’t be able to stop me any time soon. Even if they could, they had to break through the obsidian arena anyway.
After I recuperated some energy, I opened the [Spatial Rend] again and this time pulled in a greater elemental in the form of an elk according to Vifi’s wish. When the giant fae turned its head around in confusion, it turned to us with a quizzical face.
[“Elk!”] Vifi shouted. [“You and Burrower should know exactly what is going on, so I am a bit surprised both of you and the other elementals who journeyed with us are helping that elemental… Nothing?”]
The elemental didn’t answer as it turned to us, readying to attack.
[“Then, you should know that the emperor had consumed the nymphs, using them like actors to control Tasianna. Your next Ice Elemental King is being held prisoner, and you are not doing anything. You are actively fighting against the people who wish for her good health,”] Vifi replied. [“Stand down, and help us.”]
Being diplomatic, huh? Urgh, hopefully this works, ‘cause using [Spatial Rend] really saps on my mana, I complained, feeling a bit under the weather due to arcane corruption. My skin hadn’t turned blue yet, so there was nothing to worry about, though.
Sadly, the talks fell through as the elk immediately attacked us, leading to Vifi and me repeating what we had done before. However, instead of killing the fae, Vifi told me to trap them inside one of the fairnite bottles we had. Once Vifi reduced its total mana to the point it was as small as a lesser elemental, we put it in a bottle to suppress its mana recovery.
“The fae aren’t at fault here. Victims of their nature,” Vifi explained. “Tasianna will probably also feel better if we try to avoid killing the elementals. They’ll be her ‘citizens’ after we rescue her, right?”
I nodded. Considering how motivated she was about culling the army, seeing her show mercy to the fae felt pretty surprising. I guess, being a fellow “victim of their nature” made her sympathize with them.
Continuing with this plan, we immediately caught the next greater fae—this time one in the form of an ice worm—but unlike before, I couldn’t help Vifi with music.
Arcane corruption had caught up to me. Three uses of [Spatial Rend] wasn’t exactly the limit, as the further away the army got from the glacier, the more the kidnapping cost would rise.
After Vifi dispatched the burrower and we captured them, I took this time to send a message to Nong to help me slow down the army using his wind power, while recovering from [Arcane Fever]. I still remembered that black hole-like phenomenon he could create, and wondered if he could use that to slow down the elemental emperor.
Once he gave me a confirmation, he would also start bombarding the army with fire from the sky to reduce the number of monsters, while leaving the greater elementals to us to deal with. The lesser and normal elementals could be scared off if Nong used a strong enough fire, so we didn’t need to capture them. Not to mention, they weren’t a real threat once Frozen Nest’s forces arrived.
Once the arcane corruption subsided, we continued with this plan while everything was streamed to my subjects. With the chat function, I was also kept updated with the state of everything, even the evacuation of the frontier people. Things were moving smoothly since I was streaming everything, including our subjugation of the elementals.
Once night came, I had the twins stop the stream to have them sleep, while Nong volunteered for night watch until dawn, when the twins took over and started the stream again. Vifi and I woke up a bit later and resumed the day, doing whatever we could.
Due to Nong’s presence and the gradual kidnapping of every single greater elemental in the army, monsters were avoiding the army like the plague. Even if some started joining due to the presence of these ice apes, they were quickly routed when Vifi threw one of her spears at them. Similar to the subspace and [Warp Point], magic and items could exit and enter the [Spatial Rend] without an issue.
Therefore, weakening the army continued with no big issue outside the fact that the elemental emperor was now actively retaliating against Nong. Aside from its slimy body morphing into something more humanoid, its control over the elementals was being fine-tuned. It couldn’t react against [Spatial Rend] since it couldn’t see where I was looking, but it could delay the kidnapping since by shooing away the twins, I wouldn’t have line-of-sight to cast the spell.
Unfortunately, when I finally had the chance to do so, the army took advantage of the fact that I was only kidnapping greater elementals. As the portal opened, a single ape threw themselves into the portal. It wasn’t the mandril king, thankfully, but the ape knew exactly what it was doing as it avoided Vifi, trying to find a way out of the arena. It was probably sent to scout us, but little did it know there was no way that would be happening.
A swift kill ended it all.
Yet, when we thought we had solved things, Shay warned us that the elemental was doing something with the mandril. When I looked at what was streamed, I saw the elemental pick up the ape and cover it in a ball of ice before throwing the ape with all its might. They stopped Nong from following by copying his black hole-like move, forcing me to snap back to the ape corpse, using [Mana Eyes] to identify a condensed ball of water and wind mana floating inside the monster’s heart.
… Did we get traced?
As the minutes passed, a weak earthquake appeared above us. Activating [Detection Sensor], I noticed a single signal above me as goosebumps started to form. Using [Sun, Consume All], I had it shoot out some flames at the signal, only to notice the attack being warded off. In the next moment, the ceiling broke apart as a spear of ice pierced right through it.
As magma started to seep into the arena, Vifi and I looked up to see a former acquaintance…
“This. My land!” The mandragonga snarled as it readied to use my grandmother’s true ice spear again, showing no intentions of getting dragged into my arena.
“And you’re about to experience regicide, bastard!” Vifi roared with an elated face, as if she couldn’t wait for her to take revenge.
Meanwhile, all I could do was frown as I looked back at the stream, noticing the greater elementals in the army were starting to sprint back to the glaciers. The emperor probably realized they didn’t need everybody to be around them. If they wanted faith, keeping the lesser and normal elementals safe was all it needed, while the greaters could simply go fight.
Uuh… we better end this quickly!