There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 160

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No Place for Fakes – Episode 160

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The location was back at the Grand Temple.

Philomel and the three priests exchanged brief introductions before setting off.

The goal was the ‘Stem,’ located in the heart of the Grand Temple, a short distance from the central garden.

‘It feels like only this morning I was there.’

The time she spent leisurely getting a massage felt like a distant memory.

Then, Priestess Elaine shouted,

“Two monsters spotted ahead!”

“I’ll take care of them!”

A beam of light shot out from Priest Theodore’s hand.

“Kieeeek!”

The monster writhed in agony.

“I’ll assist!”

Priest Kyle said, firing an additional beam of light.

Thump!

The monster’s heavy body collapsed to the ground.

‘They’re so in sync!’

Philomel watched their coordinated attack with fascinated eyes.

As expected of the head priests, their teamwork wasn’t something they’d achieved overnight.

Their skills shone in areas other than combat as well.

“Ugh……”

A man clutching his leg groaned. He was a citizen they encountered on the way to the center.

Elaine stepped forward.

“May I examine the affected area?”

The man folded up his pants leg and took off his shoes and socks.

“Suddenly, my leg started hurting, and when I checked, it was like this!”

From his foot to below his knee was stained dark red.

“Did you happen to step on that dark red ground to get here?”

“I, I did. I was running from a monster, and I accidentally……”

“When you return, never step on the dark red ground.”

Elaine poured her divine power into the man’s leg, purifying it. Soon, his leg regained its original skin color.

The man cheered.

“The pain is gone! It hurt so much earlier, and I couldn’t even put strength into my leg!”

“I’m glad.”

“Priestess, I also sprained my ankle; please heal it.”

At his request, Elaine momentarily looked troubled.

Philomel quickly took out a bandage she had in her pocket.

“This will make it better!”

“……With just a bandage?”

“Just try sticking it on and see. Hurry.”

The man hesitantly stuck the bandage on his ankle. His doubt soon turned to surprise.

“It really is all better! It doesn’t hurt anymore!”

The divine power to purify the contaminated land was a precious resource. For ordinary injuries, treating them with bandages was a hundred times better.

‘And I have plenty of them.’

After that, Philomel’s group encountered a few more citizens. They were hiding in a warehouse building, avoiding the monsters.

They pleaded, terrified.

“Are you perhaps going to where the tower used to be?”

“No! That place is swarming with vicious monsters!”

“That’s right! We ran away from there!”

Eventually, Priest Kyle led the people back the way they came. They couldn’t advance with so much baggage.

“I’ll hand them over to other priests when I meet them and then rejoin you.”

With that, Kyle left.

With one less person, the battle against the monsters became even tougher.

“Elaine! We missed one!”

Theodore, who was fighting three monsters in front, shouted.

The monster quickly approached Elaine. She was in the middle of using divine magic to enhance Theodore’s attacks, so she couldn’t spare any attention for the monster.

Bboing! Bboing!

“Kieeeek!”

The cheerful sound of the toy hammer and the monster’s scream mingled together. Soon, the monster turned into black dust and scattered in the wind.

“……Amazing.”

Elaine said in a somewhat dazed voice.

“To produce this much power with something that doesn’t even look like it would hurt even if you swung it with all your might……”

Theodore, who was running over, interjected.

“No way! It looks ridiculous, but it must be an incredible weapon!”

“Really?”

“As expected of the Hero, you have many wondrous items, like that bandage from earlier!”

Theodore scratched his head.

“Actually, even after watching you defeat Killian, I couldn’t fully believe it. I’m ashamed.”

“It’s okay.”

It’s also thanks to the effect of that wondrous potion.

“But are those items also the work of the Master of the Magic Tower?”

“Well, yeah……”

With that, the wall between Philomel and the two of them crumbled.

The two were already friendly to Philomel, but now they were chatting without reserve.

Theodore glanced at Philomel’s arm and asked.

“Excuse me, but you don’t seem to have much muscle, Hero. How are you able to generate such power?”

“……Actually, my muscles are the internal type, so they’re not visible on the outside.”

“I see! Internal type, that’s the first time I’ve heard of that. I’ve gained another piece of knowledge.”

Theodore seriously accepted Philomel’s nonsense and began touching his arm muscles.

“……I wonder if I can build muscle too?”

Elaine, who heard him muttering, seemed interested as well.

Philomel looked back and forth between the two.

‘They’re unique people.’

Still, it’s a relief. Because they lightened the mood like this, Philomel felt much better.

Otherwise, her mind would have been filled with thoughts of the dead she had seen along the way.

The corpses weren’t just those who had been attacked by monsters. Some had died with dark red energy spread throughout their bodies.

Ieris was turning this place into a land where life couldn’t survive.

“One o’clock! A group of monsters is approaching!”

Then, Theodore shouted.

“This time…… there are ten of them.”

That’s a lot. And they’re all medium-sized or larger.

“Elaine, stay close to me!”

Philomel grabbed Elaine’s arm and pulled her closer. Her specialty was rear support.

“You guys!”

Theodore held back three of the ten monsters, but the rest advanced towards the two of them.

Bboing! Bboing! Bboing! Bboing! Bboing!

Philomel wildly swung the toy hammer.

Some of the hits landed, and about six monsters were knocked away.

“Krrr!”

But the others missed. They lunged at Philomel. And…….

Pajijijijik!

As expected, the automatic protection magic activated.

“Keng!”

Bboing! Bboing! Bboing!

Not missing the opportunity while the monsters were caught in the sparks, Philomel quickly swung the toy hammer.

All seven became food for the toy hammer and disappeared.

‘Whew. Thank goodness Le Guin recharged the automatic protection magic with mana.’

Philomel stretched her shoulders and let out a sigh of relief.

“Wow!”

Theodore approached with sparkling eyes.

“What was that? It was so cool!”

Elaine knew the answer.

“Automatic protection magic, right? I thought it was a useless magic, but I was wrong!”

“Wow! There was such magic? I wish someone would cast it on me.”

“Do you know how expensive that magic is?”

“How much?”

“20,000 Bell! And since the Master of the Magic Tower cast it on you directly, it would be ten times that, 200,000 Bell!”

Theodore gasped and counted on his fingers.

“If I save my salary for about 40 years, I’d roughly have enough.”

“Fool. Even considering salary increases, you wouldn’t be able to save that much. And would you just save your whole life?”

But now wasn’t the time to chat.

“Both of you, watch your backs!”

A giant appeared, about three times the height of a person.

The giant, positioned some distance away from them, picked up a rock lying on the ground. Then, he threw it with all his might.

“Uwak!”

Theodore barely dodged the flying rock.

This time, the giant picked up a fragment of the tower. Next, a milk carton that had fallen from a delivery cart.

“I see!”

Philomel understood the giant’s actions.

“It judged that it has no chance of winning if it approaches us!”

“So it’s just throwing things randomly?”

“It probably watched us fight the other monsters earlier and figured it out. Maybe the ten were bait……”

“It’s huge, but it’s smarter than it looks!”

The three were busy dodging the flying objects. Cold sweat ran down the back of Philomel’s neck.

There was one loophole in the automatic protection magic.

‘Inanimate objects don’t trigger it!’

The automatic protection magic is activated by sensing the malice of others. In other words, if someone doesn’t have malice, they can harm Philomel as much as they want.

Inanimate objects don’t have their own will. Unless the opponent directly wields a weapon and charges, there was no way to defend against ranged attacks.

Philomel didn’t know if the giant had calculated that far, but it was a crisis nonetheless.

Philomel dodged the flying objects this way and that. The potion of speed she had taken before fighting the ten monsters was now showing its power. But she was too busy dodging to approach the giant.

Theodore burst out in anger.

“That guy is throwing so much!”

The situation wasn’t much different for him or Elaine.

Then, a tree trunk flew towards Philomel’s face.

This, she couldn’t avoid.

‘Dangerous!’

Philomel reflexively raised her arms to protect her face. But the expected impact didn’t come.

Thud!

Someone kicked away the object flying towards Philomel.

“Nasar!”