The [Flight] Skill Orb—its appearance sent shockwaves through all awakeners. And no wonder. To fly… until now, even the superhuman awakener had been unable. Yet they had never needed to. If one wished to soar, one used a plane or a helicopter.
But word of the Shinjuku temporary dungeon had already reached certain tight-lipped ace-class awakeners. A dungeon that assumed flight as a prerequisite. It all but confirmed the possibility that others of its kind would follow.
Of course, dungeons tended to follow certain rules. Namely: fixed dungeons appeared only in places where their monsters could live. A dungeon of land-bound beasts meant a gate upon land. A dungeon of aquatic monsters meant a gate beneath the sea. No dungeon of fish could ever appear upon land, only to flop about uselessly upon a dungeon break.
But temporary dungeons did not always obey such laws. Shinjuku had been such an exception. And it raised another specter: fixed dungeon gates might someday appear in the sky.
Should that come to pass, the skies themselves might be rendered impassable. Planes, helicopters—every aircraft humanity relied upon could be grounded.
“Of course, that need not spell the end of mankind. Do you know why?”
The question came from Black Witch Sendou Sarina, who sat glued to her computer, locked in a furious online auction. Her manager thought hard. A careless answer would sour her mood. A serious one, she would accept. He wracked his brain. He’d heard this before. Yes—
“The appearance of a new generation of awakener… wasn’t it?”
“That’s right. Just as aquatic monsters had once been met by a new generation—Awakener with classes that could fight beneath the waves. Celebrated as ‘human evolution,’ but really, it was merely a divergence of path. If you look back from the future, that’s all it was.”
“So this time… a class that flies?”
“Most likely. Perhaps some super-heroic sort, soaring freely through the skies, wielding immense power.”
Her manager pictured it. The era already had its awakener heroes, but the allure of the classic hero—caped and airborne—had never faded. Surely such figures would be adored. Then it struck him.
“Ah—! I see. Unlike underwater combat, flying is spectacular. The people will love it. And those who cannot fly will suffer by comparison…”
“Exactly! Just imagine! The thought of brats jeering ‘But she can’t even fly!’—ugh, it makes my skin crawl! That era is coming! They’ll mock me with innocent eyes: ‘You’re a witch, yet you can’t fly?’ That innocent cruelty gnaws at my soul!”
“Yikes…”
Sarina cared dearly for her image as the Black Witch. Her raw power as a Dark Mage was unaffected by flight, yet symbolically… it was disaster.
“There’s already a thread online—‘[HUGE FAN] Black Witch-sama’s Modern Quirks [Helicopter Rides]!’ They say I should at least get a motorbike, or a sports car! Damn it all… If I could, I’d rise from a glowing magic circle myself!”
“C-calm down… focus on your bidding…”
“Argh! This one—I cannot lose!”
Her manager sighed.
“Even if she wins… flying brings its own problems. Health, luggage… she’ll still rely on cars most of the time…”
Sarina’s class, Dark Mage, was specialized to the extreme: devastating in offense, frail in defense. Her stats read as follows—
Name: Sendou Sarina
Level: 62
Job: Dark Mage
Stats
Attack: F
Magic: A
Phys. Defense: F
Magic Defense: C
Agility: F
Luck: E
Skills
Dark Sorcery, Magic Barrier, Dark Aura
As long as she struck with spells, she was fearsome. But her defense was weak, and only through acquiring Magic Barrier via a Skill Orb had she shored up that flaw. Sarina herself claimed, “I’ll never surpass the wall of A.” Yet her manager believed otherwise. Sarina had the talent to do it.
“Ahhh! The price went up again! I knew it, but… this’ll break ten billion and keep going!”
“W-wow…”
“But I won’t yield! This one—I must win!”
Perhaps another Flight Orb would appear someday. Perhaps it would be cheaper then. But those who trusted in “someday” had no place among the top.
Thus, Sarina kept bidding, as her manager silently watched over her.
While elsewhere, Inari—utterly uninterested in any auction—gazed forlornly at the scrambled eggs she had just made, having failed yet again to cook tamagoyaki.