chapter02 · 054-ep48
Episode 48: The Wolf That Chases the Sun Is Sulking
Saturday.
The alarm was set for four.
I was awake before it rang.
A dungeon, for the first time in a whole week.
During Golden Week I'd dived every single day, and then for one week before the tests — not once. Some part of my body had been restless and itching the entire time.
Today was the day to take all of that back.
Before Mom got up, I made the rice balls myself. Five. No — six.
Today would probably take six.
Saturday's Toda wasn't as packed as Golden Week.
Even so, a few dozen explorers stood around the entrance. Some noticed me and waved — but the people lying in wait with their phones raised were nearly all gone.
Seemed everyone was slowly getting used to this.
"Thank you very much."
Smiling, waving back, I passed through the door.
Jumped to the Floor 125 transfer circle.
Black-water paddies. Withered brown rice stalks. The faint glow of the ceiling.
The place Hati and I reached together last week.
Around us, not a trace of anyone.
From here on, I'd probably never meet a soul.
"All right."
I opened the Vault of Tomes and flipped to the weapons volume.
Today's weapon was already decided.
【Bow of the Thunderbolt】. The reading: Keraunos.
A longbow of white and gold. Lightning-shaped ornaments at both tips. The string looked like a fine thread of light.
The description reads:
- A bow that turns lightning into arrows. Draw it to full, and lightning races down the string
- No arrows needed. The lightning becomes the arrow
- It can also call lightning down from the sky
And at the edge of the page, in my handwriting:
- Overlaps with Adam. What do I do
"So you never figured out what to do, huh."
The Eighth Seat, Adam, has the myths of a thunder god mixed into him as well. The thunderbolt of the supreme god of Greek myth. Me-from-back-then apparently used that thunder's name for the bow — and only then noticed it overlapped with an Executive's lore.
Then he wrote "what do I do," and left it at that.
Classic me-from-back-then.
One deep breath.
"—Thunderclap that splits the sky, thunder of the gods. Nock no arrow; draw the string"
Light raced between my hands.
The white-and-gold bow appeared. The moment I gripped it, the string gave a snap.
"—Roar, pierce: 'Bow of the Thunderbolt'!"
As I finished the second line, pale-blue lightning ran down the string. A prickling tingle crept into my fingertips.
"Whoa. Cool."
I thought it, sincerely.
I tried drawing the string, just to see.
Even with no arrow nocked, between the string and the bow, a crackling arrow of lightning was born.
Toward the far side of the black paddies — out over empty water — I loosed it.
The lightning arrow flew dead straight.
The instant it struck the surface — bzzt — the water flashed pale blue for a heartbeat.
"Ohh."
Water, and lightning.
Same as what I did with the Sage's Staff at Toda with Tono-senpai and the others last week. Against enemies in the water, lightning hits hard.
In these deep floors of black water, this had to be seriously strong.
With the bow settled on my back, I did the other thing I'd decided on.
Summoning.
Today's call wasn't Hati.
The Book of the King. The page for the beasts in the King's direct service. The other wolf, drawn beside Hati.
A golden coat. A body just a little bigger than Hati's. The fur around his neck bristles up like rays of sunlight. Eyes an orange touched with red.
【Skoll】
- A wolf that chases the sun, forever. Twin of Hati (Hati handles the moon)
- Child of Fenrir
- Can run across the sky. Because he chases the sun
- Golden. Incredibly golden
- High energy. Can't sit still. Charges in, first, always
- Loves the King dearly. Loves sleeping at the King's feet (fights Hati over the spot)
"You two fight over the spot too?"
It's written on both their pages. Me-from-back-then apparently wanted both of them sleeping at his feet.
Last week, I called only Hati.
I just hoped he wasn't sulking about it.
"All right. Let's call him."
The moment I decided — words rose in my head.
As long as Hati's had been. Carving themselves into the margin of the page, in my handwriting.
I stood in the middle of the black paddies and held out my right hand.
"—One day chasing the sun; a thousand days, never reaching it"
Lines of light ran across the water at my feet.
"—Yearning, howling on, golden fangs that never sink"
The lines drew a circle. A double magic circle. The same size as Hati's.
"—Cast the sun aside. Where thou returnest is my feet"
Over the circle, this time, an orange light like a sunset came flooding in.
"—Come forth, 'He Who Chases the Sun'! Run at my side!"
The magic circle flared like something bursting.
Something golden came flying out.
A wolf.
Just a little bigger than Hati. His golden coat glowed in the black paddies — that one spot alone, bright as midday. The fur around his neck stood up soft and bristling.
Orange eyes looked at me.
Then — hmph — he turned his face aside.
"Eh?"
Skoll kept his face turned away from me and plopped himself down on the black water.
His back, toward me.
"Skoll? Heeey."
No reply.
Even his ears weren't pointed this way.
He was, completely and utterly, sulking.
"Ahh..."
Figured.
"I said I'm sorry. Last week was Hati — but today I called you, didn't I?"
Skoll didn't move, back still turned.
But.
His tail.
That fluffy golden tail was going wag-wag-wag-wag, full force.
Slapping and splashing at the water.
"Honest tail you've got there."
Skoll's ears twitched.
His tail froze for an instant.
Then it started wagging again, hard. He was trying to stop it, and failing.
Cute.
I walked over, crouched, and stroked his back.
Fluffy. And he smelled a little different from Hati — like a futon dried in the sun.
"Really, I'm sorry. It's a full day today — I'm counting on you."
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
Skoll spun around.
The next instant, I was flat on my back in the black water.
"Whooooa?! Cold — water — I'm IN the water—"
He hadn't heard a word.
Skoll licked my face all over, tail swinging with everything he had. Little whines — khhn, khhn — through his nose.
"I get it, I get it. And I understand REALLY well that you were sulking."
Three seconds, and I'd already caved.
Soaked through, I finally got back on my feet.
Skoll pressed in tight at my side, tail wagging. Like the sulking had never happened.
"All right, let's go. Today I want to reach Floor 150."
Skoll barked — wan — big and loud.
Louder than Hati.
Then, before I'd taken a single step, he took off across the black water.
"Wh— hold up!"
Fast.
Hati was fast too, but Skoll was a different kind of fast. Forward, forward. Just barreling ahead, no matter what.
Next to that concept sketch — "charges in, first, always" — yeah, I wrote that.
Floor 126.
The moment I came down the stairs, something burst out of the water.
Mud Frog Lord Difficulty: D (higher)
The giant mud frog from last week. Three of them.
Skoll charged in ahead of everyone.
"Skoll, wait—"
Too late.
Skoll tore through the black water and sank his teeth into the first frog's throat.
Incredible. The frog collapsed in a single blow.
No — that's not the point.
The other two were about to lash their tongues out at him.
"—!"
Bow up. String drawn. With a crackle, the lightning arrow was born.
At the first one — loosed.
The lightning arrow drove into the frog's body.
Bzzt.
The frog went numb, its motion cut dead.
Good — one more—
And then Skoll screamed — kyahn!
"Eh?!"
I turned: Skoll stood in the black water, every hair on end, twitching and spasming.
Ah. The water.
The frog my lightning arrow hit had been in the water.
Skoll had been in the water too.
Water carries lightning.
"AAAAH, I'm sorry! Skoll, I'm really sorry!"
Skoll, thoroughly numbed, turned back toward me, slowly.
His golden coat was standing off him in one great poof.
Orange eyes fixed on me — a long, narrow, sullen stare.
He was sulking again.
The remaining frog, once he'd shaken off the numbness, Skoll dispatched with the unmistakable energy of a grudge being taken out on him.
Then he came back to me and turned his face away.
"Really, I'm sorry. I forgot — lightning travels through water."
Skoll stayed faced away.
His tail, this time, wasn't wagging either.
Genuinely angry now.
"From now on, I'll be careful. If you're in the water, I won't shoot. I promise."
I crouched down and met his eyes.
"So — could you hold up your end a little too? When I fire, I want you out of the water. On a levee path, or in the air."
Skoll's ears twitched.
For a while, he stared at me in silence.
Then he gave one snort through his nose and stepped out into the empty air.
Above the water. Standing firm on nothing at all.
Skoll turned, right there in midair, and looked at me.
Like he was saying: this work for you?
"Thanks. You really do get it, huh."
His tail wagged once — pat.
From there, bit by bit, we started to click.
Skoll races ahead through the sky. Leaps down on a frog in the water, seizes it by the scruff, drags it up into the air.
That instant — I fire.
The lightning arrow stabs into the frog in midair.
Bzzt — it goes stiff, and Skoll crushes it in his jaws, just like that.
"—This works!"
Floor 127. Floor 128.
Skoll drags them up, I shoot. I shoot and numb them, and Skoll bites down.
Now and then, Skoll would very nearly land in the water by accident.
"Skoll — water!"
Skoll would leap frantically back up into the air.
And every time, he'd glance over, tail wagging hard.
The face said: I did it right, didn't I. Praise me.
"Good boy — good boy, Skoll!"
One stroke, and the tail wagged even harder.
He might be even easier to read than Hati.
On Floor 130, we took a short break.
I sat at the edge of a levee path and brought out the rice balls.
I bit into one, looked at the next — and Skoll was sitting at attention right in front of me.
Drool was already dripping.
"You're drooling, just so you know. Want it?"
His tail wagged hard enough to snap clean off.
I broke one in half and held it out; Skoll ate it in a single gulp.
Then he sat at attention again.
Staring, hard, at the rice ball in my hand.
"Eh — another one?"
The tail wagged.
In the end, Skoll ate one and a half rice balls.
Hati was satisfied with half.
"You're a glutton, you know that."
A piece of nori stuck to the corner of his mouth, Skoll snorted, proudly.
Good thing I'd made six.
I opened my status.
Lv: 152
Two since Floor 126.
Not the climb Golden Week was. Maybe past Lv150, levels come slower.
But that's fine.
Twenty floors still to go.
"All right — let's go, Skoll."
Skoll barked — wan — and took off ahead of everyone again.
This time, properly, through the air.