Just like with the flames created by his Intermediate-Tier Firebomb Arrowswould be magically extinguished after all of the current enemies had been defeated, Tsukuru watched as the smokescreen of red fog began to magically disperse as soon as the last Hobgoblin had been slain.
All that remained was the silver canister on the ground.
Tsukuru walked back over to where the canister was, and picked it up.
"Huh, looks like my experimental 'tear gas' was a resounding success," he replied with a smirk.
'Well, it's not exactly 'tear gas',' he thought. 'More like aerosolized pepper spray, but it still gets the job done.'
Tsukuru's thoughts were cut short, as he once again heard the sound of electronic interference.
He looked up at the far side of the arena. There, he saw eight groups of pixels beginning to form. Each one of them took on the large, arachnoid form of the Swarmers.
Tsukuru sighed internally.
'You know, I didn't really mind these things when they were still giving me XP,' he thought, irritated. 'But now that they don't even give me that, they're just annoying.'
The eight Swarmers all manifested in individual flashes of light.
As they let out their battlecry, Tsukuru just looked at them with a a deadpan expression.
He held his right arm out to the side, and activated his Ability.
One of the flaws with his Inventory was the fact that he could only withdraw one copy of a single item at a time. Like how it worked in a video game.
That meant that when he wanted to throw multiple items at once, he had to actually make them with his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and three groups of pixels appeared under his arm. Each group of pixels clustered together into the shape of an arrow.
There were three successive flashes of light, and three Intermediate-Tier Firebomb Arrows appeared.
Each of the three arrows then became enveloped in an aura of glitching, hard-light pixels, as Tsukuru used his Video Stasis Skill on them, causing them to floating in mid-air.
Tsukuru swung his arm out towards the Swarmers, launching all three arrows.
On impact, the burst into flames, causing three large fireballs to incinerate the other side of the arena like a house on fire.
The Swarmers all screamed in pain as the burned in the fires, followed immediately by them all bursting into pixels one after the other.
Once they were all gone, a set of twoSystem messages appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed 8 Swarmers.
Wave 1 is now complete.
You have received 2 Battle Points.
Battle Points: 2
You have received 100 Gold.
Current Balance: 10,140 Gold]
'Well, would you look at that,' Tsukuru thought with a smirk. 'Looks like I found a way easier way to acquire Gold Coins.'
Another System message then appeared.
[Wave 2 will now begin. Would you like to continue?
[Continue] [Retire] ]
Without a second thought, Tsukuru hit the "Continue" option.
The bar lit up brightly, and an electronic "beep"was heard.
Tsukuru's whole body became enveloped in an aura of green energy. He instantly felt a warm, soothing sensation flood through his body, similar to how it felt when drinking Healing Potions, or when Hayley used her Ability on him.
Tsukuru then felt all of his fatigue and exhaustionmelt away from him.
The aura of green light then faded, and a System message appeared in front of him.
[Your In-Game HP, Energy, and Stamina have been fully restored.
HP: 55/55
Energy: 180/180
Stamina: 15/15]
This was actually the only way that Tsukuru's HP and Energy could be healed. Since this wasn't technically his real body, both his Health Potions and his Energy Potions were completely useless here.
A second later, a new System message appeared.
[Wave 2 will now begin.]
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and eight group of pixels appeared at the far side of the arena. The two groups closest the the far left took on the shape of the base Goblins, while the other six took on the shape of the Swarmers.
There was a series of eight flashes of light. Once they did, the eight enemies manifested.
Like always, the enemies let out a battle cry.
Tsukuru smirked and aimed his gunblade at the second Goblin, and pulled the trigger.
The sound of a gunshot rang out, and the high-density, armor-piercing Beast Bullet shot in a straight line from the barrel of the Scordana Gunblade straight into the Goblin's head…and straight out the other end.
The Goblin's eyes widened, and he fell backwards onto the ground. It then exploded into pixels.
A System message then appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed a Goblin.]
The first Goblin turned to the right, and saw his comrade fall. As he stood there in a blind stupor, another gunshot rang out.
The Goblin felt a piercing pain in its right temple, before it, too, went down.
The second Goblin landed on its side, a wide-eyed, bewildered look on its face, before it exploded into pixels.
The same System message repeated itself in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed a Goblin.]
Tsukuru then turned his attention to the Swarmers.
Once again, he held out his right hand to the side, and activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and two groups of pixels began to appear just below Tsukuru's right hand. The groups of pixels both clustered together into the shape of an arrow.
There were two flashes of bright light, and two Intermediate-Tier Firebomb Arrowsappeared.
Tsukuru then activated his Video Stasis Skill, causing the arrows to float in midair as they became surrounded in auras of glitching pixels.
Tsukuru then threw the two arrows at the group of six Swarmers.
Like always, they burst into flames, creating a large fireball, and incinerating the Swarmers. They then burst into pixels.
Another System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed six Swarmers.]
The sound of electronic interference could be heard again, indicating the arrival of the next group of enemies.
Tsukuru saw eight more clusters of pixels begin to form. This time, all of them took on the shape of the Swarmers.
Seeing this, Tsukuru's face scrunched up into a look of great annoyance.
"Ugh," he groaned, and slumped his shoulders. "There's got to be a faster way to deal with these things."
Then, Tsukuru's eyes widened, as something flashed through her mind. It was a memory of something that he had created on the Red Portal Planet to deal with the Beasts there.
Immediately, Tsukuru retrieved one of the "stick grenades"from his System's Equipment Tab. They were one of the few things in there that weren't Beast Gear. But, Tsukuru figured that you never knewwhen having a fewexplosives on hand would come in handy. Therefore, he made a bunch of them the first time he had some free time, and stashed them in his System's Equipment Tab.
Pixels began to appear in Tsukuru's hand, clustering into the shape of a long stick with a cylinder attached at the end.
The light then died down, revealing the "stick grenade".
"Yeah, I was wondering about those," Reiju replied. "Are those really WWII-Era Stick Grenades?"
Tsukuru glanced back.
'Not exactly,' he thought back. 'It's essentially just an iron rod with a glass canister of nitroglycerin attached to the end. But, it essentially functions the same. You throw it, it explodes.'
There was a pause.
"That is an amazingly oversimplification of how a grenade works," Reiju noted.
Tsukuru rolled his eyes. He tightened his grip on the iron part of the "stick grenade", and wrenched his arm back over the back of his head.
Then, he threw the "stick grenade" towards the Swarmers.
The "stick grenade"spun as it soared through the air.
When the "stick grenade"finally made contact with the ground, it exploded, creating a loud "BOOM!", as well as a ball of yellow light.
The concussive force of the detonation ripped apart the Swarmers at its epicenter, sending guts and body parts flying. Additionally, the glass shards of the canister were sent flying from the force of the explosion, becoming shrapnel that pierced the swarmers not hit by the explosion.
As each Swarmer died, it exploded into pixels.
Once all of the Swarmers died, the explosion instantly died down, leaving nothing left. Even the scorchmarks from the explosion began to vanish, turning into pixels that eventually faded.
A System messagepopped up in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed 8 Swarmers.]
Tsukuru had a satisfied, triumphant smirk on his face.
Now that he knew that he could use the "stick grenades" to deal with the Swarmers, he no longer had to waste Energy or Firebomb Arrowson them.
Tsukuru then heard the sound of electronic interference once again fill the air.
He turned his head towards the far side of the arena.
He saw three more groups of pixels beginning to form. However, this time they weren't taking on the form of the Swarmers. They were taking on humanoid shapes.
There were three successive flashes of light.
When they faded, Tsukuru saw three Dark Elvesopposing him on the other side of the arena.