Editing Skill Tree Goddess:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 9===

The short, black-haired boy named Gilbezos Overridge parted the dark forest growth to travel at night. He wanted to distance himself from the human high elf hunting squad.

He had made a promise to Sismond Johnson.

He had told the younger boy he had done nothing wrong and that he wouldn’t let anyone send the high elves to hell.

So he couldn’t back out now.

“Well, as long as you’re after skills and not money, it doesn’t really matter which side you’re on. A serious fight to the death with other humans will still earn you plenty of LAW★”

“Yeah, I get the feeling this won’t end up being a safe sparring match.”

Very good. At least this wouldn’t end up being a complete detour from his path to battling Brave Liar.

“If I’m gonna do this, I’ll go all out.”

He wanted to rub dirt and mud over his body…but that wouldn’t matter. Not when the goddess by his side was sparkling so brightly. He wanted to believe the darkness of the night would be on his side.

Now that he had abandoned the guild job and chosen to save the high elves, he could not avoid battling ''with the humans'' in this forest. He was terribly outnumbered, so he first wanted to learn the lay of the land and gather information.

…He especially wanted to get some information from the high elves’ point of view. That was his top priority.

“Lady Seliphenia, is there a skill for silencing my footsteps?”

“A magical skill? Would you prefer a wind type or water type one? Fidget, fidget.”

So there was more than one. He ended up choosing one that eliminated the force of his steps by attaching something like a water gel to the soles of his shoes.

He kept close to the large trees in the darkness to sneak up behind a female high elf who was crouched and carefully aiming her longbow. He placed his small hand over her mouth.

“!?”

“Hm? She’s really skinny.”

Only after grabbing her from behind did he realize this high elf, who looked to be around 17 and had her long blonde hair tied back, had a different build from the curves he was accustomed to with Goddess Seliphenia and the inn owners. She was more slender, like he could directly feel the bones below her smooth skin.

…Even with his skill, he had managed to sneak up on her too easily and this skinny build seemed lacking in muscle, so were the high elves really going to be alright? They may have seemed like a reliable big sister from Sismond’s point of view, but maybe Gilbezos should adjust the all-powerful image the 9-year-old boy had given him of the high elves. He hoped they could do more than get abducted like they did in picture books so often.

“Mghh!!”

She was trying to say something, so this seemed like a good time to gather information. But he had something to tell her before removing his hand from her mouth.

“We are friends of Sismond Johnson.”

“…”

“Don’t yell. And rest easy. We are ''on your side''.”

She obeyed him fairly readily.

The name Sismond Johnson still meant something to the high elves. That bond had not been lost. That knowledge alone pleased Gilbezos a little.

“I promised Sismond I wouldn’t let a single high elf go to hell. So I want to know the situation before battling the humans. What do you consider to be your win condition?”

He doubted it was to use military might to push back all of the ugly humans ruled by greed and lust.

The legends said high elves were expert archers and magic users, but he doubted that was enough to defeat all those humans. If they were part of a traveling caravan, they couldn’t stay on the move and never let any humans know where they were.

Eventually, the high elf archer replied.

“Our chief has the Rank 9 Group Flight skill. In her case, it’s limited to deep forests, but it allows our 300-person caravan to travel anywhere in the kingdom by floating up into the sky. In fact, it lets us travel to imperial territory beyond this continent too.”

That explained why the high elves were considered rare to the point of mythical. Their entire group could fly. Even if word of sightings began to spread, no one would ever find them by following their tracks like normal.

“Of course, projectile weapons and magic still pose a threat for a time after we begin to float, but we can escape being surrounded on the surface. That seems more likely to work than a needless battle of attrition.”

“I assume you’ve already begun preparations to escape with that overpowered skill? You high elves don’t need to waste your time holding off an army of stupid humans.”

“Yes, but it takes time to activate. And the entire caravan will be defenseless during that time.”

“Kh. How long will it take!?”

“Another hour.”

The short boy instinctually looked up into the sky and felt the back of his head buried in something soft.

The goddess standing behind him summed up the situation.

“So there is no need to defeat the entire human side. As long as the human wave is held back long enough to prepare for that large-scale travel spell, the high elves will not be defeated. And that means we win★”

The rules were set. If they could last an hour, they won. If not, they lost everything.

“Our base is located-”

“You don’t have to tell me! You gain nothing from doing so.”

He quickly stopped the elf. He was risking his life here. He of course wanted to know what he was protecting, but knowing would only make him try to protect that location even if only subconsciously. He wanted to avoid his own actions foolishly giving away that precise location within the vast forest.

“But then it isn’t fair! You could get hurt too. You need a refuge to run to if something happens to you.”

“Just use me as a convenient sacrificial pawn. You’ve seen enough of the ugly side of humanity it’s hard to trust me so easily, right? So just use this suspicious human who showed up out of nowhere. Even if I’m thrown out partway through, I’ll still have kept my promise with Sismond.”

The high elf looked ready to argue further, but they didn’t have time.

It started in the distance.

The dark forest itself seemed to be shaking.

Based on that, Gilbezos guessed there were 3000, 4000…no, more than that. Probably 5000 people.

…Did the attacking group outnumber the entire population of the village?

The high elf archer here may have been ready to fight, but she too was one of the people Gilbezos had to protect. He shoved her into the nearby bushes to hide.

…But what was he to do? Thoughtlessly charging on an army like that would be a bad idea.

“Lady Seliphenia! Can I rely on you!?”

“So even you feel the pressure this time, hm? Then you leave me no choice, shorty. Have some sweet guidance from a kind goddess★”

'''Fire Type Magic – High

:'''Repeat Command

::'''Group Targeting with Magic

:::'''Repeat Command MP Cost 0

Seliphenia formed two fists and then spread her arms to the sides. As if stretching a large spring. The golden light near her large chest was the Skill Tree, but checking her recommendations didn’t tell him what the skills were meant to do in combination.

“?”

Gilbezos combined the skills as instructed.

In that moment, something appeared directly above the dark, dark forest. But at less than 20 metora up, it was still quite close. The night sky vanished. The great expanse was blocked by a colossal fireball. The only thing above was an orange light like the glow of a smith’s workshop.

(W-wait…did this just endlessly cast fire type attack magic all at once? And with an MP cost of 0!? Plus the target was expanded to the entire enemy group, making it grow large enough to engulf all 5000 of them!? Group attack magic is hard to aim precisely, but that isn’t an issue with a big enough explosion!)

He wouldn’t even need to wait for it to hit the ground.

Because…

“The blazing fire will burn away all the air within 5 kilemetora. A small number of survivors can maintain some air to breathe using wind magic, but they have their hands full doing that and will be unable to make any other moves. So you can snipe them with some long-distance attacks and end it with the big explosion. This is the greatest skill my goddess support can provide! A safe and sure method of obtaining a damageless flawless win! Kya ha! What do you think, Gilbezos!? I’m shining like I’ve never shined before!”

“''Wait.''”



The absurdly powerful ultimate slaughter magic stopped just barely above the high elf hunting party.



Time froze.

And the fireball slowly shrank and lost its shape.

They could see the danger had passed, but their minds took longer to catch on and they cowered down.

“Why would you stop, Gilbezos you coward!? Do you just not have enough guts? Maybe I should go ahead and teach you some exciting new things back at the inn tonight to give you some more confidence!”

The overpowered goddess childishly puffed her cheeks out.

…While he would generally rely on her help, he did wish she wouldn’t push him toward ignoring his morals and killing with barely a second thought. That had been way too close. What would this world be like if she was working with someone less principled? Besides…

“If we slaughter all those adventurers, it’s Sismond who will suffer in the end! Do you want that 9-year-old to think ''all those people were killed because he asked us for help''!?”

“…”

Goddess Seliphenia gave him a truly exasperated look for that one.

Her mouth formed a small triangle.

He knew it wasn’t the most important thing to focus on in this pressing situation, but he also knew he wasn’t wrong.

He wouldn’t place that burden on the boy’s shoulders.

“Then what do you propose?” she asked.

“I’m not letting even one of the high elves be hunted down to line someone’s pockets. That’s my top priority. And in addition to that, ''I will capture all of the humans alive.'' I made a promise, so I can’t back out now. And if I’m going to win this, then I’m going for an unequivocally perfect victory!”

“Hm, yes. But won’t that be impossible? It seems to me you’re just piling on extra victory conditions to increase the difficulty level far higher than necessary.”

“Making a promise can make the impossible possible. If I’m doing this, I’m not interested in a boring and gloomy ending where I kill everyone to stop them. I’ll do this in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone!!”