Chapter Eighty-Two: The Magical Girl—Arrives

"Woo woo~ I'm so happy~" Lancer wore a lovestruck expression, squatting joyfully in front of Silica, while Silica, watching Lancer clearly enter a "foolish mode," could only sigh helplessly. She liked the clothes she was wearing, but seeing Lancer turned into a chibi version made her feel a bit shy.

"Big sister~ be good~ just call me that once, and I'll give you this set of A-grade equipment for free. If I make more such equipment in the future, it’ll be completely free of charge, and I'll provide all the materials myself." Though she had originally intended to give the equipment away, Lancer shamelessly used it as a bargaining chip to seek greater benefit.

"Uh~ uh~" Silica hesitated. She liked the equipment both for its attributes and its appearance, and judging from yesterday’s teary-eyed shopkeeper Agil and the store’s prices, this was definitely not cheap. Lancer even offered after-sales service: equipment of this kind, free of charge...

"Big~ sister~?" Unable to resist the temptation, the girl slowly uttered the words.

"To all my comrades in heaven—now I can die without regrets!" Even though the daughter of his father’s friend, Chizuru, would call him "big brother," it never really made him feel moe, because whenever she used that little-sister-only voice, it usually meant Lancer was about to lose money or face some kind of "punishment" from her. It was never truly cute. But this time, his long-held regret was finally remedied.

"Silica~ so adorable~" Lancer's "loli-lover" side exploded; even with some rationality left, it was clearly not enough. He went all out, pulling out every recording crystal and image crystal he had to create a flawless 360-degree capture.

Silica’s eye twitched repeatedly. She began to doubt whether it was wise to entrust her quest to the creature in front of her, which had now transformed completely into an indistinct, pixelated entity.

"Ahem, ahem~" Finally, just before losing all sense of dignity, Lancer managed to recover, though it was clear that the cool image he had created at their first meeting was utterly ruined.

"Alright, take the weapon too." Lancer handed the last piece of equipment to Silica, who took the short staff, puzzled. She didn’t know why Lancer gave her such a thing, but it was obviously part of the set. Under Lancer’s expectant gaze, Silica equipped the final item.

"You’ve acquired a new skill. Please check your skill list." Hearing the prompt in her ear, Silica opened her mouth wide in surprise.

"Take a look~ I found the matching skill after countless attempts." Lancer had crafted dozens of sets of similar equipment, and due to the materials used and the forger’s intent, the completed items would randomly generate skills. In the world of Sword Art Online, aside from initial skills, there were almost no identical skills—at most, they were similar in effect.

Silica carefully read the skill description attached to the equipment and looked at Lancer in astonishment.

"Magical Girl Transformation—when equipped with the magic staff, attack range increases, attacks gain splash damage, melee damage is reduced by twenty percent, and equipment appearance changes." So many attributes, nearly enough to drive someone mad: damage reduction worked on both bosses and regular monsters, splash damage increased leveling efficiency, and extended attack range could have miraculous effects in many situations.

Lancer felt elated seeing the special skill he’d named himself. Though, in his mind, a magical girl transformation required all sorts of optical effects and holy light, the problem was that Kayaba Akihiko’s equipment transformation system didn’t include any kind of light. The official announcement had stated there were no mages, and though reality differed greatly from the publicity, Kayaba’s insistence hadn’t changed.

"Alright, let's go. Today, we'll help revive Pina."

"Okay, big brother..." Silica started to say, but then changed, "Big sister~"

"Oh, god..." Lancer, the fake believer, clutched his nose and collapsed, his HP dropping sharply.

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"That is a plant-type monster, said to be the easiest to deal with among all monsters. Our entire time during the quest was spent searching for the boss room; actually defeating the boss and gathering supplies didn’t even take a day. When we tried to clear the boss room on the next floor and failed, we came back here to level up." Lancer’s explanation was meant to show Silica how easy this floor was. After all, one more floor meant more experience, and even the main raid group chose this floor for training, proving its simplicity. Still, Lancer went over some common traps.

He explained, for example, where carnivorous plants tended to appear and their distinctive features, as well as how to avoid their attacks. In short, he told Silica everything there was to know about the monsters on this floor, while a certain mouse silently wept over her notebook filled with these secrets.

"Go ahead and try. This man-eating flower doesn’t have any special skills; it attacks with vines formed from its leaves. Just do as I instructed and practice for real." His words were serious, but out of Silica’s sight, Lancer secretly pulled out a recording crystal.

"Indeed, magical girls really ought to fight monsters like these. But judging from Silica’s hair, should she be a senior? Yet a headless senior lacks the charm of a tyrant... Ah, this is a blissful dilemma~" The shameless otaku muttered strange things as he sent Silica off to face the monster. Fortunately, Silica didn’t understand any of it and was calm as she confronted the creature.

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Watching Silica attack the monster methodically at first, Lancer nodded to show he was still paying attention. But once the monster's HP dropped below ten percent, its attack speed and pattern changed abruptly, grabbing Silica and hoisting her into the air.

"Oh~ oh~ is that corrosive fluid?" Seeing the monster open its mouth and drool something like saliva, Lancer didn’t move to help. He kept searching for the perfect filming angle, confident that Silica wasn’t in mortal danger.

Finally, embarrassed and angry, Silica used the skill attached to her equipment. Instantly, even though there were no strange light effects, her gear transformed—her clothes changed from ordinary fabric to skirts and collars adorned with lace, the patterns grew more ornate, and her "magic wand" extended and smashed the monster's body.

Though she wanted to blame Lancer for not rescuing her sooner, she couldn’t help but feel delighted at having slain a forty-seventh floor monster by herself.

Lancer put away the crystal as Silica returned and stepped forward.

"Congratulations."

"Mm~" Silica smiled again.

Lancer smiled too, but as if by accident, he kept scanning the surroundings for anything unusual...