Overlimit Skill Holder

Overlimit Skill Holder Epilogue Chapter 5.2

Epilogue 5 (2)

★ The front line of the undeveloped land "Canion" ★

The land of the Holy Kingdom was vast, and the area bordering on Canion was also vast.

As a result, many monsters still plagued the new villages within the borders of the Holy Kingdom.

THUMP…THUMP…THUMP….

Whenever the earth tremors, the poor farming village shakes, and dust and dirt fall from the roofs. The children cling to their mothers and fight their fears.

「M-Mother, shouldn’t we run? If we run away now, we'll be able to escape.」

「It's okay. Believe in your father and the village chief…」

The mother was also turning pale, but she desperately held on to her children.

Even if they ran away from the village, there was no future.

They made a bet on developing this land.

Many people in the farming villages were in the same position.

However, the heavy footsteps were getting closer and closer.

Finally, one of the children began to cry. At that time–

「They came!」

The door opened and a man jumped in. He was the children’s father, equipped with old leather armor and a rusty spear.

The children rush to their father with relief.

「F-Father… did the adventurers you requested in the town come to save us!?」

「That's right! They will save us!」

「B-But, you said normal adventurers wouldn't be able to do anything about it…」

「Not normal adventurers have come! Everyone is heading to meet them!」

When the family left with their father, they saw a crowd at the entrance of the village.

「Those people…?」

The mother wondered.

There were only five of them.

Even though the number of monsters approaching this village exceeded 3 digits.

And three of them were women, one of whom was only as tall as her eldest son.

「——I beg you, I beg you all. You are the only ones we can depend on.」

「——W-We understand. It's going to be okay, village chief.」

A slender young man was talking to the village chief.

The mother thought it was strange, after all.

It's common knowledge that adventurers are rough people.

Even so, the young man seemed kind and his demeanor towards the village chief was tender.

His black hair and eyes that she had never seen before were eye-catching — but she remembered there was a superstition that “black hair and black eyes are a disaster”.

「——Let’s go, Dante-san.」

「Ou!」

But when the big man called Dante took out a greatshield from his cloak – the mother's eyes widened in surprise.

What a beautiful silver color, she thought.

The shield was enveloped in a faint light.

Seeing it for the first time in her life, she wondered if it was the metal known as "Mithril".

To her surprise, all the other members were also wearing equipment made of Mithril.

Mithril Staff, Mithril Protector, Mithril Wand.

The timid-looking young man had two daggers on his waist.

Those must also be made of Mithril.

「Let's go.」

The young man said in a light tone, but immediately after that — his gaze changed to an extremely serious one.

With an air of tenseness that could be felt with a touch, they headed for the cleared land deep in the village.

「Thank you very much, members of Silver Balance…」

The village chief bowed his head as if prostrating himself as they set off.

All the other villagers also bowed their heads in the same way.

Looking at their dignified backs, the villagers had a feeling that they would be able to solve the situation.

★

When I received information that monsters were overflowing from the undeveloped land "Canion", I accepted the subjugation request without hesitation—which might have been a bit rash. Because–

「Reiji, are you sure about this?」

Dante-san asked me after leaving the farming village and proceeding to the clearing land.

「I-I think it should be okay…」

「But it's tomorrow, isn't it? Your wedding…」

Indeed. My wedding—My and Eva’s wedding was tomorrow.

Four years have passed so quickly since I confessed to Eva and we made the promise to wait 4 years.

During that time, we, Silver Balance. were active as an adventurer party at a hectic pace. The "souvenirs" given to us by Gurgio, equipment made of Mithril, led our party to be mistakenly called us “Mithril Balance”.

But we were so busy that we didn't even have time to correct people on the mistake.

It seems that once you reach Mithril-rank you can have a smooth-sailing and be dispatched only once a year. Most of the Mithril-rank adventurers I've met in the last four years lived like that, but we kept moving forward.

——I want to save as many lives as I can.

It was I who said that. It's all my fault we have been so busy.

But that feeling hasn't faded even now. When I heard about the dangers to the frontier settlement on the way back to the Holy Kingdom for the wedding, I immediately rushed here.

「A-Anyway, for the time being, I have also contacted Border Earl Mule. So if we can significantly reduce their number, we can count our mission accomplished.」I said.

「That's right, but…」

Dante-san kept looking at me with an expression of, "Is this going to be okay?"

I-I know. It's dangerous.

Timewise, I am sure we'll make it just in time, but what's more problematic would be Eva's impression.

I wonder what it would be like for the groom to be on the battlefield the day before the wedding.

But even so, I couldn’t leave Dante-san and the others to finish up this request while I head to the wedding alone. Because I want all of them to attend the wedding as well.

「–Reiji-kun. Let’s apologize to Eva-sama together.」

「T-Thank you.」

「I am sure she will understand.」

I was reassured by Non-san's kindness.

After I chose to continue being an adventurer, Non-san immediately returned to Silver Balance. She was allowed to leave on a special condition that she must keep up the public appearance of "belonging to the Church". As long as that condition was upheld, she was free to do as she wanted.

「——It’s fine if the wedding is called off because of this.」

「——Hey! Are you still saying things like that, Asha?」

Asha and Mimino-san were talking about something in the back.

Before I knew it, Mimino-san and the others started calling Anastasia as Asha.

Asha… she finally supported my marriage with Eva, even though she seemed to be having mixed feelings. However, there are times when she sulks as she did just now.

「They’re here.」Dante-san said.

The first monster appeared in front of us–.

No matter how powerful a monster is, it cannot break through Dante-san’s defense, who was equipped with a greatshield made of mithril.

「Doryaaaaaaa!!」

Dantes-san caught the Cyclops's fist head-on, and far from just standing his ground, he parried the fist to the side and slipped into the Cyclops’s flank, then drove his short spear into the Cyclops' face.

A while back, we had a mock battle with the dragons. And he fought a dragon all alone.

Not just me, but the other dragons were also surprised by his strength. We were all surprised that a human could reach such limits.

「Sweep them, O flames!!」

Asha's flaming blades flew horizontally, hitting a group of monsters and turning into a huge explosion.

「Hoi!」

When Mimino-san fired a spherical elixir with a slingshot, the flames increased even more, enveloping the surrounding area.

"Dupe Potion" has been improved over and over again. And after learning that the amount of catalyst can be reduced by making it fine-tuned specifically for Asha's magic, Mimino-san spared no expense and used this "Dupe Potion – Version Asha" ever since..

「Holy Barrier!」

Non-san deployed a barrier created by Holy magic.

With this, it is possible to prevent the monsters that have been overlooked from heading to the farming village.

Non-san's magic ability has improved dramatically since she started using the Mithril Staff. She was currently at a high priest level.

「Reiji, take care of the big one!」

「On it!」

Dante-san takes over the large monsters, while Asha and Mimino-san destroy the small to medium-sized monsters. Non-san readies defensive spells just in case.

While my role is–

「I'll finish it off.」

The subjugation of bosses of the herd, or large monsters that Dante-san's weapons can't reach.

In this monster swarm, there was a wyvern that had grown bloated and had deteriorated wings.

Named the Grand Wyvern, it crushes other monsters in its path and spews fire, poison, and ice from its three heads.

『『『Guruoooooooooooooooo!』』』

「It has three heads, so it’s three times louder.」

While I was looking up at it,

「Reiji-san, shall I grill it?」

「Reiji-kun, don’t worry if you get poisoned. I have a good potion for that.」

「Mimino-san… you said that it’s still in the testing stage, right? I'll just cure it with magic.」

I politely refused Asha and Mimino's offer.

I will not be done in by an enemy like this—after all, I am a groom who has an important wedding tomorrow

…It's not a flag!

I started running, stacking multiple spells together and jumped.

Although skill orbs were gone, the skills still remained in my body. And it felt like they were becoming more polished as I fought more and more.

I shot out like a bullet and easily approached the Grand Wyvern's face.

『!?』

I pulled out my daggers and slashed the puzzled-looking Wyvern. It felt like cutting jelly, but the x-slash cleanly cut the Grand Wyvern's head off.

The mithril daggers were as sharp as ever.

『Guruoooo!』

『Goah!』

The poison head got angry. And the ice head spat out a lump of ice.

I created a foothold in the air and jumped to avoid the attack.

The poison head was shocked to see my reaction, but when it realized that I was approaching closer, it hurriedly spewed out a poison mist.

「Wind Magic.」

What's so unfair about mithril is that although it's a dagger, it can also act like a wand.

Even though it was a simple magic spell, the wind amplified by mithril transformed into a gust of wind that negated the poison mist.

「I’ll finish it quickly.」

I cut the poison head with the left dagger and the ice head with the right dagger.

As expected, the Grand Wyvern collapsed on the spot after losing all three heads.

「Fuu…」

「Your attacks are as cunning as usual. No one can react to it at first sight.」

Dante-san said to me when I landed.

「Creating a foothold in midair is the result of extensive magic research.」I said.

Though, it's pretty common in Japanese manga and anime.

However, I don't think I would have thought of it if I had been bound by the existing magic and skills.

I wonder if the binding of skills were to disappear, magic and sorcery would be able to flourish more creatively.

「Let's clean up the rest.」Dante-san said.

「B-but… I think the fighting will end before the Border Earl army arrives.」

「We’ll leave the investigation of the lands further to them.」

「Yeah.」

Suddenly, a pillar of fire rose.

Asha seems to have used magic again.

「We can't lose either.」Dante-san said.

「Yes.」

We set out to subjugate the monsters.

In conclusion, it took a lot of time.

Because more and more monsters rushed in.

When I defeated the Grand Wyvern, I had enough leeway to not damage the torso—since it would be edible, and the materials procured would be an asset—but by evening, I unleashed my magic without restraint, prioritizing culling the enemy numbers over all else.

And it was all over only after the sun had set.

「F-Finally over…」

I was covered in mud, and gasping for breath.

Dante-san possessed monstrous stamina, so he was keeping watch over the surroundings. But Asha and Mimino-san, who were acting together, sat on the ground with their backs to each other, and Non-san cast a healing spell on them.

The surroundings were greatly damaged.

Over a wide area, trees were cut down, burned, and there were a large number of monster corpses.

「I-Is the battle over…?」

The village chief approached the area, accompanied by several villagers.

「Ah, it should be fine for a while. The Border Earl army will arrive tomorrow, so they should be able to scout the surroundings.」Dante-san responded.

「You didn’t have to go that far for us! At least let us help you with stripping the monster materials.」

「Ah, no, you don't have to help us.」

「What do you mean…?」

「This material belongs to the village. Please manage it as your own. When the prefectural governor arrives, discuss with them regarding offering these materials as tribute for the kingdom. Although this is a pioneering village, the tax exemption only applies to crops, right?」

We handed over the materials to the village.

This was also our policy.

Or rather, to be honest, we can't manage the materials one by one.

Handing over the materials is simply the best option when considering the time it would take.

Since Mimino-san collects things that can be used as catalysts during battles, we are still able to procure the rare materials.

「Wha!? W-W can't accept that. There are so many monsters…」

「We will receive subjugation rewards from the country and the guild, so you don’t have to worry.」

「But…」

「If you don't hurry, the material will rot. You should get to it quickly. It's worth spending the night to process the materials.」

When Dante-san coercively pushed the village chief’s back as motivation, the villagers with torches scattered and started stripping the monster materials.

「So, Reiji. It's already this late.」

Dante-san came up to me while I was resting.

「Hehe… it took longer than I expected.」

「Even if we start running with all our strength at this moment, we won't be able to make it to the wedding ceremony tomorrow. It's already night, so we can't ride on horses. What are you going to do…」

Dante-san had a defeated look.

「…Actually, I still have a last resort.」

「A last resort? No, well, I don't doubt you, but I know what you can and cannot do after traveling together for 4 years. Such high-speed movement–」

「I won’t be the one doing it.」

「?」

「Ah, look. Over there…」

I pointed at the night sky.

「Hmm? There's nothing… No, wait. Could that be–」

Dante-san's face stiffened.

There was a huge shadow in the sky–.