How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 317

317. The Truth Is Here (8)

After that, I continued to challenge Magma Nessi as I recovered my stamina.

However, it wasn’t easy.

“Uwaaaaaaack!”

Some days, I would get hit by its swinging head right from the start and go flying.

“Kueeeeeeeck!”

Other times, I thought I had pushed it all the way, but it would narrowly revive and turn the tables on me.

It wasn’t hopeless, but there was just a little something missing to finish it off.

“…Is that thing a cheat or something?”

If it were in a novel, describing how to catch that thing would probably take up a book or two, detailing even the most trivial processes.

They’d probably pad out the story by going into some dungeon to find its weakness!

To take that down single-handedly is just reckless.

“The problem is, it doesn’t seem impossible to catch…”

It feels like it’s just barely possible.

That’s the most frustrating part.

If it seemed impossible, I wouldn’t even bother looking at it!

To put it in perspective, it feels like I’m always about to catch the monster, and then I get a ‘Game Over’ right at the end.

It’s so tantalizing!

“Looks like you’re having quite the trouble.”

And Melas is still leisurely watching me.

Well, it’s not like she has nothing to do; she disappears for a few days every now and then, so she must be doing something else.

I guess she’s probably dealing with monsters somewhere else.

It’s faint, but when she comes back, I can clearly smell blood.

“There’s not much time left… I don’t know if I can really defeat that thing.”

“That depends on what you do.”

Easy for you to say.

“Just for reference, how did you plan to catch it, Master?”

“You ask too much…”

“Well, you knew what that monster was from the start, didn’t you?”

“Hmm…”

She doesn’t deny it.

“Then you must have had some kind of plan.”

“Nothing much. I would have just kept cutting and cutting until it was completely annihilated.”

“…Wow, how barbaric.”

“What did you say?”

“No, I said, ‘How wise you are.'”

Yeah, ultimate damage is the best kind of intelligence play.

I know, I know.

“Ultimate attack power, huh…”

“You should be able to do it too.”

“I don’t know… maybe.”

I still couldn’t figure out why she and I had such different levels of completion even when using the same techniques.

She keeps saying that I can do the same, or even better, but I still don’t know why.

I don’t doubt her, but I don’t know the reason yet.

“…Whether I can or not, I’ll have to give it my all tomorrow.”

I don’t have much time.

I need to be a little more reckless.

* * *

I stood under the volcano, looking up.

I’ve charged at it so many times that it probably recognizes my scent now. The ground is already shaking, and something is flying out of the volcano, falling towards me.

A burning rock.

“Hmph… I knew that was coming.”

Don’t think I’ve been challenging you for nothing.

I deftly dodge the falling rocks, already used to them.

Moving to the summit in one go.

Magma erupts at the spot where I teleport, as if it were aiming for it.

“I told you I knew it was coming, didn’t I?”

I activate the Almighty Crystal, creating a mineral that even magma can’t easily melt, and spread it out in front of me.

Then, using it as a shield, I immediately activate teleportation again.

“Ice Spear!”

I move above its head and wildly fire ice spears, then retreat the moment its heads lift up.

“Not yet!”

I continue to attack using the next means.

Next, I unleash a gravity field to strike it and spread out a wide sword aura to unleash vast destructive power.

Kwaang!

Its entire body shakes, and it pauses, seemingly quite shocked.

“…So far, so good.”

The reason I feel like it’s easier to deal with than before is probably because I’m used to it.

‘But that’s not it…’

It’s not because I’ve gotten stronger that I feel it’s easier.

I won’t delude myself about that.

More than anything, this won’t do.

“Kugh!”

The flow of my attack was cut off.

Annoyed, it forces its massive body through my attacks, trying to crush me.

“What a temper…”

I narrowly avoid its charge while continuing to attack, but this alone is not enough.

Yeah. It’s not enough.

“…Shall I try it?”

I deliberately used a sword technique recorded in Killmuris [a legendary sword technique] once again, just as a test.

Papakapak!

Dozens of lines pour down on it like rain.

I know it won’t work.

As expected, the pouring sword energy didn’t even completely pierce its body.

“Not enough!”

I kept attacking and pondering.

What’s missing?

Technique? Do I need to pour in more mana?

While I was thinking, its maw lunged at me, trying to swallow me whole.

“Nowhere to go!”

I immediately created a gravity sphere and launched it, pushing it away.

Even though it looks like this, it was launched at maximum power.

Even for a behemoth like it, it should be enough…

“Hmm? Maximum power?”

At that moment, my thoughts froze for a second, and perhaps because there was a gap in my movements, one of its heads lashed out like a whip before my eyes.

“Crap!”

I messed up. I spaced out.

I hastily defended, taking the magma neck head-on.

“Hot!”

Even for me, hot is hot.

Well… humans who jump into a fight against monsters like that with their bare hands are probably not normal in the first place.

“…Normal?”

There’s still a sense of incongruity.

The vague sense of incongruity I’ve had since Melas first pointed it out, since I saw her demonstrate the technique.

“…Could it be?”

I ascended higher.

It chases, but it can’t fly.

The method I’m using for flight right now is a combination of gravity control and wind manipulation magic.

I glanced at the faint purple afterimage remaining on my body and muttered.

“Maximum power… was that it?”

Let’s put everything else aside for now.

I unleashed the power of gravity control to the maximum possible extent, slamming the heavy field down as much as I could.

Kwagagagagagang!

The pressure reverberated as if the entire mountain was sinking, and it screamed.

The impact reached not only the volcano but also the surrounding area.

Faintly, dust rose, and the height of the area decreased.

It’s still an absurd amount of power.

Right now, I can probably draw out almost the same amount of power as described in the original work.

“…The power described in that novel.”

What is the real power of gravity control in the first place?

It was never specifically stated.

There was only a description of it being an estimate at the time.

The estimate was that it had the power to sink an entire city in one blow.

In reality, my power is exerting that much force.

Recently, it’s true that it hasn’t been shining as much because the opponents have been that much stronger.

But still.

“Is that really the maximum?”

I wouldn’t have questioned it before.

But I’ve learned a few things since coming here.

The novel I read is just a guide.

It’s just them taking what was supposed to happen and directing it in the most desirable direction they could think of.

“…Could it be that it arbitrarily created a limit?”

The limit of the novel I read.

For example, gravity control was said to have the power to sink a city, as I mentioned earlier, right?

But what if it’s not?

More than anything, the standard is strange.

Abilities require the user’s capabilities to support them. Isn’t it contradictory that there’s the same limit?

If a strong person uses it, it should be strong. If an even stronger person uses it, it should be even stronger.

Once again, I tried to exert the same power.

“Hup!”

Another purple field poured down, crushing the area along with it.

“…Wrong.”

It’s still the same.

I definitely thought I squeezed out more mana than before, but the result is the same.

There’s still a limit.

“If that limit is unconsciously applied.”

It should be possible to break free from that restriction.

Maybe that’s what Melas wants to point out.

It’s true that I lack technique.

It’s not wrong that I lack experience.

But if it’s fundamentally off…

“Recognition…”

I muttered briefly and landed on the ground.

It’s more stable to pour it down from above, but I need to be more strongly aware right now.

I don’t have the leeway to even think about flying.

Once again, I use gravity control.

“To the maximum… pour in mana… no. I need to fundamentally overhaul my recognition.”

More powerfully, more heavily… I don’t set an end to it.

In the first place, it’s contradictory for an ability to have a limit.

If a strong person uses it, it should be stronger.

More than anything, Melas said.

I’m already stronger than her.

So, of course, the results should be different.

“Hoo…”

I take a breath and create a sense of continuously and naturally pouring in my mana, rather than forcibly squeezing out power.

I bumped into that wall like before, but I ignored it.

And…

‘There is no limit.’

Like a lie, the limit I felt just now disappeared.

As if there were no blocked wall, mana continues to be refined endlessly as fuel to activate the ability.

“…I see. Is that it?”

There is no end.

I don’t know how much to pour in.

I feel my own inadequacy.

I realize that I haven’t even slightly grasped how great power is.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any more time to enjoy it.”

In that short time, the monster approaches.

It charges at me as if to crush me, pushing its magma-dripping body forward.

“No way.”

There’s no need to be intimidated.

I immediately unleashed the ability that was about to be activated.

“Go.”

And…

Everything blocking my path disappears.

* * *

“Hmm… that kid, he seems to finally understand the extent of what he can do.”

Sword Emperor Melas muttered, looking towards the volcano where Aileon was fighting.

Honestly, it’s fifty-fifty whether that kid really realized his problem.

“I don’t know where you saw or heard it, but you misunderstand your limits.”

Even with the same technique, Aileon arbitrarily judges that this is probably the maximum power.

I don’t know what he based it on, but Aileon is putting a limit on all the power he has.

It’s like someone arbitrarily set a limit.

That’s why there’s a discrepancy between the ability he actually has and the limit to which he uses it.

That’s why he’s struggling.

“…Well, that’s one realization, I guess.”

Usually, a fledgling learns this when they’re just getting rid of their rookie smell, but that kid still didn’t know.

I needed to make him suffer a little.

“He finally understands, the dullard.”

He’s a boy I’ve given advice to, even if he’s not a formal disciple.

If he achieves a result, I can’t help but feel a sense of reward.

She nodded contentedly, looking at the scene before her.

The scene she’s looking at is…

A volcano that has been carved away like a bitten piece of fruit.

And behind it, a huge trace of destruction that looks like a giant punched through it.

“That’s your real limit, you dullard.”

* * *

“What? What is this… Wow~ Scary.”

It’s my doing, but it was too much.

The power of gravity control beyond the limit is no exaggeration to say it’s excessive.

‘It’s true that I poured in too much mana.’

I have no intention of doing the same thing twice.

‘Still. Thanks to that, I’ve gained certainty.’

The reason why I wasn’t properly using the abilities that she pointed out.

‘The preconceptions I have…’

However, I can’t be completely immersed in thought.

The monster is not finished yet.

Even though more than half of its body is gone, it still glares with its fierce eyes, revealing its animosity towards me, who has driven it to this point, without hiding it.

“Ooh. How scary.”

I said, adding insincere interjections, and this time I raised Killmuris again.

Now that I know the trick, there’s no need to struggle anymore.