Chapter 36: Dungeon My Knife ⑤

■ Dungeon My Knife:

These are the knives that were sacrificed during Season 1 through the first half of Season 4.

■ Knife #1

First appearance: Wof, age 13 (⑤)

Sacrifice:
The knife he originally carried.
It was cheap, but he sharpened it himself and even used it like a kitchen knife.

Cause of death:
He looked away for a moment and the knife snapped with a crack.
Part of the leather armor he was struggling to cut had metal hidden inside.
It caught the blade at a weird angle—snap—and that was the end.

■ Knife #2

First appearance: Ash Flower ③ – Holy Edge

Sacrifice:
The knife he bought because the first one broke.
It resembled the previous one.

Cause of death:
He took the egg container out of his pouch,
poured the contents over the blade, and the wet knife glittered…
and then it stopped cutting entirely.

■ Knife #3

First appearance: Silent One ④

Sacrifice:
A knife he splurged on—20,000 Oro.

Cause of death:
Wof, being careless, erased it with the relic [Banish].

■ Knife #4

First appearance: Crown of the Wonderland ④

Sacrifice:
A used knife.
Simple design, thick, slightly heavy, and sturdy.

Cause of death:
The opponent thrusts; I calmly block with my knife.
When I take the strike—
the blade of my knife is severed.

“!?”

…No, that’s not it. I can tell.
It wasn’t cut—it vanished.

■ Knife #5

First appearance: Reunion Dump ③ – Bone-Extracting Brain-Crushing Hunter

Sacrifice:
A knife found in the junkyard, seemingly from some tribe.
A large curved black single-edge blade, with a round guard reminiscent of a katana tsuba.
The handle was smooth white stone; the sheath was hard wood.

Cause of death:
But Prototype A twisted its left arm and turned it into a blade.
It charged and swung down. I stepped forward and blocked with my knife—

In that instant, the knife blade melted.

■ Knife #6

First appearance: Tasan of the Ring ②

Sacrifice:
One of three purchased for 50,000.
A simple knife, actually part of the Standard Series.

Cause of death:
Pierce raised his sword, I caught it with my knife—
and instantly let go.

The knife fell with a crack from the impact.
I jumped back…

…and then forgot to pick the knife up.

■ Knife #7

First appearance: Cat and Dog ⑥

Sacrifice:
The second of the three knives bought for 50,000.
A strange upward-curving single-edge blade.
A bit heavy, but thick and powerful.

Cause of death:
Only the hand holding the knife was frozen solid.

Wh-why!?

“Damn it, why only this hand!?”

I grumbled and used [Banish].
If I didn’t hurry, I’d get frostbite.
The ice and the knife handle vanished.

The bare blade fell.

Resurrection:
Later, Pakira found it and returned it to Wolf.
It was reborn as a new double-edged knife.

■ Knife #8

First appearance: Grave of Death ④ – Saturnus of Yomido
and Grave of Death ⑥ – Rest in Peace

Sacrifice:
An Elixir Knife—coated in elixir, effective against undead.

Cause of death:
During the fight with Saturnus, he used Silent Move.

The Elixir Knife had broken. I repeat: the Elixir Knife had broken.

I had been gripping it hard, but most of the blade was gone.
It wasn’t snapped cleanly in half.

It was sheared off diagonally from the base—
a huge chunk of the blade missing.

■ Knife #9

First appearance: 5th-Rank Explorer ①

Sacrifice:
Agaro’s knife—a wide, long knife with a red blade.

Cause of death:
Liv’s blade wavered doubly, and she charged.
I met her downward strike with the knife.

A heavy shock and pressure—then I felt a strange weight in the knife.
Sensing danger, I tried to pull back but couldn’t move.

The wavering blade stopped dead.

“Crash Edge.”

The knife shattered.

Resurrection:
Using Liv’s mysterious nanomachine capsule,
the fragments and an ingot of Unobtanium were combined—
creating Agaro’s Knife Kai.

■ Knife #10

First appearance: Arc Lab ④

Sacrifice:
A crumbly old knife found beneath some wooden debris.

Cause of death:
I hear a crack-crack as I walk.

“What was that?”
“What’s that sound?”

Looking down: wooden boards—pieces of a crate.

Under that was a rusted knife.
So worn out it broke just from being stepped on.

■ Knife #11

First appearance: Prelude ①

Sacrifice:
A simple knife found in the storeroom of the church at the deepest area of the Grave of Death.

Cause of death:
The Arc Lab barbecue party.

It came from deep within the Grave of Death, but was otherwise just a normal knife.
Alright, let’s use it.

The meat was cut thick, so I wanted to slice it thinner.
I aimed wide—it looked tough—so I swung down in one motion.

“Wait, that piece has a bone—”

The blade bit into something solid with a clang.
When I pulled it out with force—snap—the knife split diagonally.

■ Knife #12

First appearance: Calm Hydrangea ⑥ – Dog Search

Sacrifice:
– Short blade with a vermillion sheath; straight blade, black lacquer handle, reversed-choji hamon.
– Double-edged knife; black half-circle guard, pure-white handle, metal ring at the pommel. Very sharp.

Cause of death:
I swung the short blade at Alweld on instinct.

“Crash.”

The short blade shattered.
As I stared in shock, Alweld was already in front of me.
I reflexively slashed with the double-edged knife.

“Crash.”

The double-edged knife shattered too.

■ Knife #13

First appearance: Follower Knight Tsukaeshi ⑨ – Training Begins

Sacrifice:
The Knife Goddess’s protective charm knife:
beautiful, pure-white, feather-like blade.
A commemorative item for breaking ten knives.

Cause of death:
A chimera’s eyeball is big—about the size of a baseball.
While harvesting, the knife melted.

“…………”

I had a bad feeling. I really did.
So I tried to insert the charm knife behind the eyeball to scoop it out—
but viscous dissolving fluid oozed out and hissed.
When I pulled the knife out—

The blade was melting with smoke and noise.
I panicked and threw it away; it dissolved completely.

■ Knife #14

First appearance: Midnight Festival ③ – Decisive Battle

Sacrifice:
Agaro’s Knife Kai:
a blade like blue flames, rippling like an LCD screen.
Capable of cutting phenomena and concepts.

Cause of death:
As I stepped into range, he swung Somber Gladius with uncharacteristic simplicity.
The slash swirled black.
I blocked with Agaro’s Knife Kai—

—the blade vanished cleanly.

“…eh?”

The tip of the blade had been erased in a smooth arc.

■ Knife #15

First appearance: Midnight Festival ③ – Decisive Battle

Sacrifice:
A thick, rectangular knife:
When drawn, the handle curved into a machete-like shape.
It rested in a leather sheath, and inside was a pitch-black rectangular blade.

Cause of death:
The second black swirling slash claimed this freshly bought knife.

■ Knife #16

First appearance: Midnight Festival ③ – Decisive Battle

Sacrifice:
A silver cross-shaped knife found in the desert dungeon.

Cause of death:
The third swirling sword strike caused the silver cross-shaped knife to vanish.

■ Knife #17

First appearance: Ruins of Avasdrakdu ①

Sacrifice:
A plain-handled, straight double-edged knife—battle loot.

Cause of death:
Along the way, we found a broken door about to fall off.
Looking closely, it was warped.

I inserted the plain-handled straight double-edged knife into the gap.

After trying several, this one fit perfectly in thickness.
I gripped the handle tightly and moved it.

With a crack, the door came loose and fell with a clatter—
along with the knife blade.

The broken pieces hit the ground with a clink and roll.

■ Knife #18

First appearance: Our Journey: Preparation Arc ② – Kaede Akima’s Method

Sacrifice:
“The black-bladed knife” broke.
No—Kaede cut it in half.

Cause of death:
Same as above:
“The black-bladed knife” broke.
More accurately, Kaede cut it cleanly.

■ Knife #19

First appearance: Our Journey: Preparation Arc ② – Kaede Akima’s Method

Sacrifice:
“The saw-toothed knife.”

Cause of death:
I hurriedly pulled out another knife—the saw-toothed one.

I blocked her strike; the serrated section chipped…
and then the whole blade snapped.
It was almost disappointing how easily it broke.

■ Knife #20

First appearance: Our Journey: Preparation Arc ② – Kaede Akima’s Method

Sacrifice:
“The Swordbreaker.”

Cause of death:
Her sword had become completely tangled in the Swordbreaker’s grooves.
All she had to do was twist, and the sword would snap—that’s the mechanism.

“Shall we end this? I’ll break it, you know.”

A cheap threat. She wasn’t used to intimidating people.
By the way, even blindfolded, how was she seeing so precisely?

“…Not yet. Not yet, Wof-dono. This one has not played enough.
And besides—Kii Ichihōgen is not some fragile blade that breaks from this.”

Kaede smirked sharply, tugged her sword—
an obvious suicidal move.
But the one that broke was the Swordbreaker.

“—!”

Its comb-like teeth crumbled away.

■ Knife #21

First appearance: Our Journey: Travel Arc ③ – Wof and the Spoils

Sacrifice:
A knife taken as loot.

Cause of death:
I placed it over the first Swordbreaker.
Inserted the blade into the brush-like gaps of the broken edge.
The spacing was wide enough to interlock nicely.

“Using leverage like this—”

Bagi! …The knife broke.
So easily it was almost silly.

■ Knives #22–27

First appearance: Our Journey: Travel Arc ③ – Wof and the Spoils

Sacrifice:
Five assorted spoils-of-war knives.

Cause of death:
Any that had chips, rust, or heavy bloodstains were erased with [Banish].
Same for the ones coated in poison—[Banish].

■ Knives #27–33

First appearance: Trade City Heizen ⑦ – The Secret Hideout Revealed

Sacrifice:
Various pirate loot knives.

Cause of death:
Once again, selecting from the spoils.
Anything unusable was immediately erased with [Banish].
About six of them, I think.