Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 (section)

===Part 27===

So they retraced their steps.

It had been a month.

The creature hadn’t been fully reduced to its skeleton, but it wasn’t fresh either. It was very much a pile of rotting flesh.

That was all that remained of the Brain Edge Dragon.

While this was a shiny fantasy world full of primary colors, the smell was still horrendous.

“Ugh, urp.”

It stung their eyes.

It affected their stomach.

Was this their punishment for taking lives so frivolously?

“Where is it? Where’s the legendary treasure? Some bandits didn’t steal it away while we were gone, did they!? What is this treasure even supposed to be, anyway!?” asked Mikoto.

“That big monster doesn’t have pockets and I certainly didn’t see it carrying around a fancy handbag, so maybe it swallowed the thing?” suggested Shokuhou.

Mikoto endured the unpleasantness as she split open its stomach with an iron sand sword.

Shokuhou didn’t even have the courage to approach.

A rotting stench pushed in like an invisible wall, but Mikoto continued working while gagging until she found it.

“?”

It was a rectangular cuboid.

It was about the size of a relay baton and it was colored red.

At first glance, it appeared to be made of glass or a jewel, but at this size that would make it as heavy as a small dumbbell. Yet it didn’t feel heavy at all. It was light as a balloon. Mikoto poked it with her finger, sending it spinning through the air. Part of her wondered if it was a tangible hallucination.

She had been expecting something like a ring or a crown, so she was a little surprised that this was known as a treasure. However…

“So this is the treasure?”

“There are supposed to be two more, right?”

From the Something Kraken and the Whatever Chimera.

After another two dizzying battles against a rotting stench, Mikoto now had a blue and a green cuboid as well.

They had all three treasures.

“Oh, no. I think I’m going to puke…”

“It looks like these increase your experience ability based on how much space you occupy. In other words, the bigger you are, the greater the advantage they give you. That may be why the bigger monsters claimed them and then grew even bigger with their help.”

Mikoto wasn’t too interested in that since she could instantly boost anyone to Level 9999. Except…

“Hold on. These can help your body grow? I-including, the B at the start of your measurements!?”

“Are you aware you said that out loud? And it would probably increase your weight ability ten-fold, turning you into a giant.”

The haves could be so cruel to the have-nots.

That said, Mikoto didn’t like the idea of trying it out when it wasn’t clear what part of her they would make grow. For that matter, experimenting on yourself was almost always a bad idea.

So worked to calm herself.

“Phew. Okay, Shokuhou. We’ve seen this red, blue, and green color combo before, haven’t we?”

“?”

“You don’t remember? Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina wore a white dancer’s outfit, but its ribbons were colored red, blue, and green.”

“Are you sure that has any significance ability?”

Looking at how names worked here, the rules of Celesaqphere did not apply to Salinagaritina. If they did, she would have a simpler name like Circlet or Reincarné. So she likely existed outside of Celesaqphere.

But they had found something in common with her.

Mikoto didn’t know how many other worlds there were, but what if each of them had a secret tool or technique that linked back to Salinagaritina? If so, why? Hadn’t she said she could send people from Earth to other worlds, but another goddess was needed to send people back the other way?

(Was there anything linking back to her in that space war world?)

They might have found something if they had looked.

“Anyway, we have all three treasures now☆” said Shokuhou.

“Yeah,” said Mikoto. “So now we just have to do that three treasures ceremony and return to Earth!!”

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