Prologue

Management’s POV, Following the Unlocking of Zone Eleven

“Ba ha ha ha! He did it again!”

“You mean Silver-Haired, I assume?”

“Naturally!”

“So, he’s unlocked Zone Eleven...”

“He’s gotten his favorability score with NPCs so high you’d think he was doing it on purpose.”

“He did make it happen a week earlier than we were expecting.”

“That’s just the way things go with this guy!”

“But still, his NPC favorability score is ridiculously high. He also has far more titles than anyone else. I suppose it’s all of his smaller efforts just adding up?”

“I don’t think he’s doing it consciously. He completes crop delivery quests almost every day, though.”

“Those quests give very low rewards, which is why most players stop doing them after a certain point. Silver-Haired could charge players tens of times the price for crops from a farm of his level.”

“Maybe it’s just become a sort of daily routine for him? He doesn’t seem like the type to fuss over details like that.”

“Well, not worrying about the details seems to be working for him.”

“Yes, the front liners who are focused on combat efficiency haven’t been able to raise their favorability scores with NPCs as much as we assumed they would, yet Silver-Haired and his laid-back way of doing things has earned him a higher favorability score than we could have expected.”

“He plays how he wants, and in doing so actually chooses the best paths to take... I’m starting to believe the theory that Silver-Haired has special powers.”

“I heard he was an alien...”

“There is also the theory that he is a time traveler who has memorized everything about how to play the game.”

“Well, let’s set aside speculating about Silver-Haired’s true identity for now. I believe we need to adjust the trigger for the rest of the events.”

“Right, because at this rate, only Silver-Haired will be able to trigger them.”

“People will start to think we’re catering the game to him.”

“What should we do about the unlocking Zone Eleven flag? That is the area creating the most commotion at the moment.”

“We can relax those conditions too. It’s not too much to ask to ease the requirements for something once one area is unlocked, right?”

“Although some other players have met the base favorability score with general, event, and artisan NPCs, they’re lagging behind on favorability from noble and divine NPCs. Divine NPCs in particular. The majority of players have zero favorability with them.”

“Perhaps we made those requirements too strict?”

“No, the scores can be gradually raised by completing quests in the cities. I believe we should see around one hundred players meeting the conditions in a few days. Silver-Haired is just in a league of his own...”

“For now, we should reassess the triggers for raising favorability.”

“A look at the forums tells us that players are making efforts now to raise their favorability scores.”

“I understand that, but that won’t necessarily ameliorate the issue right away.”

“Hm, are we going to have to work overtime again?”

“Hush. Besides, our request for more personnel has been accepted. That should help a bit.”

“Aren’t they only hiring people for other departments?”

“Would you rather the company be completely short-staffed?”

“As long as we don’t get more work to do.”

“Don’t jinx it!”

“Well, first off, the event is already at the climax, isn’t it? The number of demons being defeated in all areas has suddenly skyrocketed.”

“It seems Silver-Haired has had some influence on that.”

“Rather than his influence, I’d say it’s his little demon’s influence. Rumors have sprung up among the players that a demon is one of the event rewards.”

“Is that one of the rewards?”

“It’s one of the better rewards, yes.”

“I suppose it is necessary to ease those requirements a bit.”

“Looks like we’ll be having another meeting.”

“Yes... Ah! But I can’t stay today, remember?”

“Yes, yes. I know. Your daughter has dinner waiting for you at home, right?”

“Right! She told me, ‘Thanks for securing me a spot among the third-wave players, dad!’ Those were her words!”

“You’re going to be useless if your family falls apart, so please, go spend some time with them and maintain your happy home.”

“Huh? Pardon? My family? Fall apart? Does the situation really seem that dire?”

“I-It’s best if you don’t sweat the details.”

“What? Is it worse than I thought? I-I need to spend more time with my family...”

“I-It’s fine! Truly! O-On another note, I heard Company A’s newest title isn’t doing so well! Isn’t that something?!”

“I did hear that they started service just today for players who applied early.”

“Our success made them impatient to launch, so they reduced their tweaking time and launched considerably ahead of schedule.”

“Their game is restricted to those eighteen and up, and includes PK, PVP, FF, and features realistic blood, guts, and gore, right?”

“It apparently has become so apocalyptic that players find it difficult to play.”

“Apocalyptic... It became that bad even with the few early access players?”

“You say few, but it was over one thousand players. Many of the players are ones that said our game was too easy, and some ran absolutely wild over there. They killed important NPCs, and there were rampant and persistent spawn killings. The game received a deluge of complaints saying that the game was impossible to play.”

“Those are the selling points of the game, though. Isn’t it a bit unreasonable to complain about that?”

“Apparently some players only joined that game because they were not able to obtain LJO.”

“It sounds like we’ll be getting more applications for third wave spots.”

“Some are asking why we don’t just eschew the player limit with the next wave, if we’re planning on dropping it starting from wave four anyway.”

“Hmm, well, it’s not as if that’s entirely out of the question...”

“Yeah, but if we get any busier than we are now, we’ll end up dropping dead.”

“If that happens, then they’ll really have to hire more personnel.”

“Exactly! And not only that, but your family will be in shambles, chief!”

“Ah, yes. I could never go home again.”

“That’s not all.”

“What? Explain.”

“Chief. You won over your daughter by promising her a spot in the third wave, yes? What do you think will happen when anyone can purchase a copy as long as they apply?”

“Ah! It would make my promise meaningless!”

“You don’t want your daughter to give you the cold shoulder, do you?”

“Nooooo! Don’t do anything foolish, higher-ups!”

Chapter One: Chill Days

As always, I logged in.

“Yesterday was a lot, huh?”

“Mm-mmm.”

I was relaxing at my home base the morning after we unlocked Zone Eleven. The day before had been super hectic, and I had to go buy an incubator for Drimo and Olea’s egg. I hadn’t had a chance to take a single break.

I felt I deserved some idle time, so here I was, being idle!

Siegfried, Rais, and Akari had said they were going to form a party to explore the new zone, so I planned to ask them about it later. Until then, my only plans were to sunbathe on the veranda and chill with my monsters. And do a little crafting later, of course. I had a huge amount of materials.

The previous day, I had browsed the shops in the village to see what kind of products they had there, and it was insane. They not only had dozens of varieties of fish, vegetables, and meats, but they also had almost all the ingredients available from Zones One through Ten available for purchase.

There were also shops that sold medicinal herbs, lumber, ores, and monster materials; I found that I could purchase anything outside of rare drops.

For crafters, the village was like a dream come true. So what did I do, you ask? You better bet that I splurged as much as I could.

I bought all the monster materials that I didn’t have, even the ones I had no need for. I’ll admit, I went a little crazy. Thanks to my shopping spree, I now had enough materials that I could seclude myself away and craft for a week straight, so I would be able to craft to my heart’s content. Combat was starting to feel a bit more fun lately, but I couldn’t deny I loved crafting! I enjoyed the experimentation process and leveling up my skills. And bosses were still scary as hell!

“I think this is a good time for me to acquire the Sewing and Leather skills.”

“Tra-la-la!”

“Oh, do you agree, Eine?”

“Tra-la!” Eine trilled in reply. It did sound like fun to make clothes together.

“Hm! Hmm!”

“Whoa! Himka, what’s the big deal?”

Himka was tugging on my robe and trying to tell me something, like he was saying, Me too, me too!

“Hm!”

“Okay, I get it! I’ll also learn Smithing!”

I had bought a lot of ores, so doing some serious smithing work sounded like a good idea too. I had been planning on making accessories using Handiwork and Sculpting, but I wouldn’t mind making cutlery and armor too.

“Hum!”

“Gah!” I cried out in shock at the sudden impact against my back. What was that for?!

“You don’t have to pounce on me like that, Reflet! We cook together everyday!”

“Humm!”

“Didn’t we spend all morning making and eating seafood meals?”

“Hum?”

Did she just copy Eine and Himka because she thought it looked fun?

“La-di-daaa.♪”

“...♪”

“Squeak squeak.”

As I was goofing around with my monsters, Fau began to sing a mellow tune. Sakura and Drimo, the more mature ones of the bunch, were swaying to and fro, captivated by the song. Was this the Nyamun-chan song I had bought at that music convention? Despite how I felt about Nyamun herself, she made decent songs.

“Growl grooowl!”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

“Neigh!”

Bear Bear, Rick, and Carro were chasing each other around in the garden. Olea and Perca were running over to join. In fact, even my yokai were starting to gather around them, all dashing towards the game of tag with the Sunekosuri leading the pack. With so much going on, I didn’t know where to look!

“Poko.”

“Oooaaah.”

“Oh, thanks, Kettle,” I said as I accepted the cup of tea that the tanuki handed to me. Next to it was the Demonic Ghost. “And thank you for all your hard work during that boss fight.”

“Ooah!”

I stroked the ghost’s head. Even though she was frightening in battle, she was normally pretty tame and adorable.

Kettle’s area healing skill and the Demonic Ghost’s ability to provoke enemies had been surprisingly effective in the fight. My Yokai Summoning skill level was still low at the moment, so I could only summon one yokai at a time, but once I became able to summon multiple yokai in, I would have even more strategies to work with.

“Ya!”

“Kapa-pa!”

“Hold up, things are getting a little crazy over there.”

“Mmm.”

Now even my mascots were joining in. I felt a moment of panic thinking that the smaller mascots might get trampled. Things weren’t looking very chill anymore. Ahhh! Fluffaball almost got kicked! M-My heart can’t take this!

I was about to check the message I got from the Quick-Eared Cats, but things were so hectic out there I couldn’t concentrate at all!

While that was going on, I saw Lilith fly out from inside the house. She didn’t decelerate at all as she got closer, so she rammed into me at full speed. There was no way I was going to dodge that! A direct hit from a Lilith missile!

“Kee-hee!”

“Aaagh!”

She crashed right into my abdomen with a whump!

“Kee-hee!”

“Wh-What is it, Lilith?”

“Kee-hee! Kee-hee-hee!”

She looks like she’s in a big hurry about something... When Lilith dragged me to my feet, the reason for her urgency suddenly hit me. Could it be...?!

I followed Lilith, and she led me right where I expected her to.

“Kee-hee!”

“I knew it! The egg!”

Lilith had dragged me to the living room where the Awakening Incubator was. I peeked inside and saw cracks on the egg inside. It must have started hatching while I was offline.

“Tra-la-la!”

“Kee-hee!”

“Tra-la! Tra-la!”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

Eine came zooming in at lightning speed, and she and Lilith started conversing about something. Then, they both clung tightly to the incubator and stared at the egg through the viewing window.

Eine’s and Lilith’s loud voices seemed to have alerted the rest of my monsters that their egg was close to hatching. Everyone who had been playing in the garden came crowding into the living room.

I was pretty sure every one of my creatures who could fit in the house was there. Monsters, yokai, and mascots were packed like sardines in the small room. I swear there would have been more space to move around in a crowded train!

“Wait! There’s not enough space!”

“Mm.”

I was struggling to break free from the crowd, Olto put a gentle hand on my shoulder. Then, he gestured for me to be quiet by putting a finger to his lips.

“Huh? Are we really just going to wait here like this until it hatches?”

“Mm.”

They did indeed intend to watch over the egg until it hatched. Well, all I wanted to do today was take it easy at home, so I had the time, but... No, it would look pretty bad if I were the only one to leave right now.

In the end, we all watched over the egg with bated breath for over thirty minutes. I was crouching down the entire time, so if this were real life, my lower back would’ve been killing me!

At last, the egg began to glow.

“It’s hatching! Everyone, cover your eyes!”

“Growl.”

“Chirp chiiirp.”

All right, if even that scatterbrained duo managed to cover their eyes in time, then everyone else should be fine.

“Hyooonk!!!”

Perca! Not you too! You can’t start flailing around in such a small space! I left Perca in Olea’s care while I welcomed the newly hatched monster.

The incubator disappeared, leaving only a mysterious black substance.

“Nyuuu.”

“Uh, what sort of monster are you...?”

What was before me was a floating black mass. Its eyes and mouth were cartoonishly round, but I couldn’t tell what race it was. At a glance, it sort of looked like a basketball-sized black slime. But it didn’t make sense for a monster born between Lilith and Eine to be a slime. Plus, it was floating.

I checked its stats, which told me its race was a Dark Spirit. And it already had a name, which meant it was a unique specimen.

“You’re a dark spirit?!”

“Nyuuu.”

Name: Melum / Race: Dark Spirit / Base Level: Lv. 1

Master: Yuto

HP: 18/18 / MP: 36/36

Strength: 5 / Endurance 5 / Agility: 5

Dexterity: 6 / Intelligence: 12 / Sanity: 12

Skills: Sneak, Mental Resistance, Elasticity, Air Spirit Awakening, Float, Amorphous, Dark Absorb, Dark Magic, Dark Protection, Sericulture

Equipment: None.

Melum knew Air Spirit Awakening! That had to be thanks to the Awakening Incubator. The fact that it had Air Spirit traits even though it was a Dark Spirit must mean that it had inherited Eine’s air elemental attributes. It seemed the Awakening Incubator’s name indicated that it was the power inherited from the egg’s parents that would awaken.

The Sericulture skill must have also come from Eine. It looked like the skill it inherited from Lilith was Mental Resistance.

“Nyuuu.”

“Yep. I’ve never seen anything like you before, but you sure are cute! And you feel nice to the touch.”

“Nyu-nyu.”

Melum was smooth and springy, without any sensation of stickiness. Sort of like an unpoppable water balloon? In any case, I couldn’t get tired of petting it!

“Kee-hee-hee!”

“Tra-la-la!”

“Nyuuu!”

Are they holding hands? Lilith and Eine each grasped a tentacle-like appendage that had suddenly protruded from Melum and were lifting it high up in the air like a baby. The tentacles lengthened and contracted to match Lilith’s and Eine’s movements.

It was hard to read its emotions from its face, but from its voice, it sounded like it was having fun.

“Glad to have you on the team, Melum!”

“Nyuuu!”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

“Tra-la-la!”

Before I had even finished speaking, Lilith and Eine carried Melum out of the room as if they couldn’t wait another second to play with it in the garden. Everyone else followed them outside, making the once crowded room feel suddenly empty and desolate.

“You don’t want to go with them, Drimo?”

“Squeak.”

Drimo patted my lower back, like he was saying, “Let’s join ’em, pal.” Drimo, don’t ever change! You’re so thoughtful!

In the garden, everyone had started a game of tag with Melum. I sat down on the veranda and listened to their gleeful voices.

“Now I can finally check my messages.”

The Quick-Eared Cats’ message included an inventory of items attached. They had sent me this before. Since they couldn’t pay me my entire compensation with gold, they instead allowed me to choose items I wanted from their inventory.

I couldn’t blame them for not being able to pay over hundreds of millions of gold. Though, the reward was being split among over ten people, so each one of us wasn’t getting that much. I was considered the discoverer, so I would be getting a little more in payment. Around forty million, to be exact. I said I was fine with splitting the reward equally with everyone, but they all insisted I not.

“They have a bunch to choose from, as usual.”

“Aye?”

“Nyu-nyu!”

I was looking through the catalog for a bit when Melum and Fau came over to me.

The game-of-tag-slash-welcome party had died down.

“You two wanna look with me?”

“Aye!”

“Nyuuu!”

Melum settled on my shoulder and peered at the screen from there, while Fau sprawled on top of my head. Together, we browsed the catalog. It made me happy to know that this new monster was already feeling affectionate enough towards me to sit on my shoulder. Also, its springy body felt really nice against my cheek.

“I’ve seen a lot of these items before, but it looks like they’ve gotten some more interesting things in too.”

Among all the items, my eyes were immediately drawn to a few skill scrolls. They held assorted skills with no particular gameplay effects, like Toss Juggling and Kick Juggling. These were considered hobby skills.

This game not only had skills for fighting and crafting, but also many skills that weren’t exactly worthless, but had nothing to do with progressing the game. This allowed players to easily master hobbies or other recreational activities that were difficult for them in real life. People who gave up on learning how to juggle in the real world could easily learn it by acquiring the skill here.

Although the skills weren’t necessary at all to play the game, I was curious about them. I could only kick juggle a ball five times IRL, but maybe I could get to the point where I could even freestyle juggle if I used the skill in the game.

There were even skills for learning cup-and-ball games and hula hooping. Each one stood out to me as interesting.

“Nyu?”

“This one? It’s called Vocal Mimicry... So it lets you do impersonations?”

Melum’s amorphous form was surprisingly dextrous. It could stretch out a feeler-like appendage to point to the screen and ask about the skills that it was curious about.

“Aye?”

“Food Catching? A skill that lets you catch a marshmallow in your mouth with absolute success? Wow, talk about a niche skill.”

Someone had probably obtained that from a random skill scroll and sold it to the Quick-Eared Cats. My condolences.

The Quick-Eared Cats’ inventory had a substantial number of hobby-type skill scrolls, but I decided to go with Food Catching as my first choice. Honestly, I had just planned to look at the list and not actually choose anything yet, but Melum and Fau wouldn’t let up until I made the selection.

Other than that, I also ended up with several household objects. These were also chosen by my monsters, who had suddenly gathered around me.

I was coaxed into selecting a statue of a goddess holding a vase on her shoulder with water pouring out of it, a bronze statue of gnomes in a group gymnastics pose, and a chandelier that I had no idea where to hang up.

The last thing I chose was an item called Home Area Annex Ticket (Western-Style Living Room) that, as its name suggested, I could use to add a western-style living room to my house.

The purpose of the item was to add a small living room to a house, but I honestly chose it just so I could have somewhere to hang up the chandelier. I should probably think of a way to use it properly.

Soon after I made my selections, I called Alyssa. But she didn’t pick up. I waited for a bit, and she eventually called me back.

“Yuto! What’s up?”

“I was just calling to tell you I decided what I want from your inventory.”

“Already? That was fast. Okay, but I’m a little tied up in something right now, so could you hit up Lewin? He also has the authority to take the items out of storage!”

“A-All right.”

It sounded like she was super busy at the moment. She was speaking a mile a minute. Wait, was it because of me? The information was pretty great, if I do say so myself!

After I hung up that call, I contacted Lewin, who quickly got my items ready for me to accept. There were quite a lot of them, but I knew which one I wanted to use first!

“The Home Area Annex Ticket!” I said in an imitation of a certain robot cat.

“Mm-mmm!”

“...♪”

Olto and Sakura gave me a loud round of applause. I’m so lucky to have such nice monsters!

Once I used the item, a door appeared right where I wanted to add the new room. The interesting part was that there was no change to the exterior appearance of my house.

After that was set up, I placed several more household objects in areas where I thought they would look nice. Honestly, the chandelier looked out of place in the small living room, but Eine loved it, so it was staying there.

“Tra-la-laaa!”

Eine flew around the living room, nearly running into the chandelier several times.

“All right, next I’ll use the skill scroll.”

Food Catching, huh? First, I tried tossing a cookie into my mouth. Yep, I sure caught it. Rather than there being a motion assist, it seemed like the cookie’s trajectory curved a bit to land in my mouth.

“Nyuuu!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Growl grooowl!”

It was a totally useless skill, but it seemed to entertain my monsters, which I was happy with. While I was playing around trying to catch different things in my mouth, I noticed Drimo and Olea’s absence.

“Are they still in the other room?” I wondered to myself as I peeked into the Japanese-style living room. Sure enough, Drimo and Olea were staring into the incubator, watching over their egg.

I thought back to an event from earlier. I had been playing with everyone when Drimo and Olea came rushing over to me in a fluster.

“Squeak squeeeak!”

“Triii!”

“What’s up, you two?”

“Squeak!”

“Huh? You want me to follow you?”

“Tri-tri!”

They wanted me to follow them to the farm. Is there some sort of emergency? I wondered as I followed them to the farm. There, I was met with a surprise that explained why they had come to get me in such a hurry.

“An egg! Finally another egg!”

When I appraised the egg, I found it was Drimo and Olea’s. I can’t believe I got another egg! Talk about lucky!

“Squeak.”

“Tri.”

“Yeah, I’m on it! I’ll put it in an incubator!”

Soon after that, Melum hatched. It really turned out to be a joyous day.

“Okay, I still have some time... Maybe I’ll settle up some—”

“Hmm!”

“Huh? Himka?”

“Hm! Hm!”

Himka was suddenly in front of me, miming swinging a hammer. I guessed he was telling me he wanted us to do some smithing.

“Okay, I hear you loud and clear. First I need to acquire the skill, so give me a sec.”

“Hmm!”

And with that, I made my way to the workshop, dragged there by Himka.

“Yo! Ho!”

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Ten minutes later, I was fully immersed in trying out the Smithing skill. Himka had been rushing me so much that I didn’t even have a chance to do a tutorial. The process wasn’t too complicated, though, so I could just learn while doing it. Himka was by my side to give me advice anyway.

“Ho! Hrah!”

“Hmm.”

I followed the system assist function and used a smithing hammer to pound away at a bronze ingot. After only ten hits from the hammer, the ingot underwent a change. It gleamed brightly, and after only a few seconds, changed into a short-bladed knife.

I was doing simplified Smithing, so it took no time at all, but real Smithing was much more difficult. I heard that the amount of effort it took could classify it as something else entirely.

Doing real Smithing as a beginner led to wasting more materials, but once you got the hang of it, you could create items with way higher quality than when using simple Smithing. In my case, I just wanted to try it out, so I was perfectly happy using the simple option.

“What do you think, Himka?” I asked, handing him the knife.

“Hmm!”

Himka took the knife and examined it for a few seconds. Then, he gave me a smile and a thumbs-up.

“Oh, it’s not that good. The quality is super low.”

Name: Bronze Knife

Rarity: 1 / Quality: 1★ / Durability: 80

Effect: Attack +2

Weight: 1

It was about as effective as a wooden stick. The blade was also an awkward size. It was too short to use as a weapon, and too long to be a kitchen knife.

But Himka shook his head and gave me another thumbs-up.

“Hm!”

“Are you saying it’s good for a first try?”

“Hm-hm!”

Himka clearly believed that praise helped a student grow. But even though I knew he was only trying to encourage me, it did feel good to be praised.

“All right, I’ve got plenty of materials, so I’ll keep at this and level my skill up!”

“Hmm!”

And so, the two of us jumped back into smithing. Now that I had the skill, I gained a greater appreciation for Himka’s expertise. This went without saying, but Himka did not use the simplified version. He had to pound the ingots more than I did, as well as temper and polish them. Yet he still churned out a product faster, more precisely, and of a higher quality than mine. Plus, he could stand right next to the furnace without being affected by the heat. That’s a Salamander for you.

This was the knife Himka created:

Name: Bronze Knife

Rarity: 1 / Quality: 8★ / Durability: 180

Effect: Attack +9

Weight: 1

He used the exact same materials to make the exact same product I did, and yet the difference was stark. No wonder famous blacksmiths were always up to their ears with requests.

Oh well. I only really wanted to be able to make tableware, not weapons, so I was fine with not getting to that level. But I’d probably have to level my Smithing skill up a bit more in order to make nice tableware that wasn’t so misshapen.

“Next I’ll—”

“Tra-laaa!”

“Ah!”

Just as I was reaching my hand to pick up another ingot, Eine came up behind me and shook me violently.

“O-Okay, okay! I’ll do some sewing too! You don’t have to shake me!”

“Tra-la-la!”

Eine really wanted me to hurry up and craft with her now. It was true that I had gotten a little too absorbed in smithing.

“Phew. All right, should we try making some clothes?”

“Tra-la!”

“This is my first time, so let’s use a fabric that you don’t mind wasting.”

I chose the lowest quality fabric from among the many that Eine had made. It was one of the first ones she had produced—a plain white cloth with zero effects. I placed the cloth on the sewing table and used the assist function to show me the steps.

“First, I cut the cloth with scissors.”

“Tra-la-la.”

“Then I line the pieces up and use a needle and thread to sew them together! Here I go!”

“Tra-la-la!”

It didn’t take long to finish making the garment, though this “garment” was really just a long piece of cloth with a hole for the head to go through. Wearing this wouldn’t be much different from going without any armor at all.

“Well, I managed to make it, so all in all it’s a success?”

“Tra-la-la.”

Eine took out a stunning piece of shiny fabric. Among the ones she had, this cloth had the highest quality and rarity. And she handed it right over to me.

“Hey, don’t give me that! There’s no way I’m ready to work with that yet!”

“Tra-la?”

“I need to level up my skill before I can even touch that.”

“Tra-la-la!”

“Th-That’s too many! I’m gonna get crushed!”

“H-Hmm!”

In an attempt to tell me to hurry up and level up my skill, Eine took out a massive amount of fabric. The tower of cloth collapsed and completely engulfed the cramped room. It’s an indoor avalanche!

Himka let out a scream as he was also swallowed up by the fabric. I had to put some of this cloth away before I could even start working.

I continued crafting with Himka and Eine, and in the span of a day, I had increased my Smithing and Sewing levels each by three. I’d wasted a lot of ingots and cloth, but it was worth it in the end.

I took a break to unwind on the veranda and checked an update sent out by the devs. It was about how they slightly increased the number of players joining for the third wave. It didn’t seem all that relevant to me, so I decided to read through it later.

“Pom.”

“Thanks again, Kettle.”

“Pom!”

As always, Kettle’s timing for serving me tea was impeccable. I patted the tanuki’s head as I recalled the information Alyssa told me.

According to her, another company’s VRMMO game had failed at launch, so LJO had decided to increase the limit of new players to accommodate players dissatisfied with that game and wanting to come here. It wasn’t clear how true that was, but that was what the gaming community was saying.

“She also said there are rumors that famous players from that other game are coming here.”

“Pom?”

“It means this game is about to get even livelier.”

Some people must have waited to see what kind of game LJO was, and when they saw how popular it was, decided to move over here. It took a lot of courage to step away from a game you had invested a lot into.

After all, according to Alyssa, a lot of the players who were already distinguishing themselves in LJO had been famous players of other games.

Take Holland and Huey, for example. They had been well-known players in a fantasy-style action MMO.

Also KTK. She was known for being the best player in a stealth action PVP-focused MMO. Her name in that game had been “Kitty the Killer,” hence why she went by KTK here.

If more amazing players like them joined LJO, then this game would get even more fun. I was excited to see it happen.

◇◇◆◇◇

“All right, as much as I like spending so much time crafting, I should probably move around a bit.”

“Tra-la-la?”

“You want to keep going?”

“Tra-la!”

“Hum-humm!”

“Hm!”

Eine, Reflet, and Himka all nodded. Hmm. My monsters may love crafting a little too much.

It had been five days since the unlocking of Zone Eleven. I had explored the area a bit, but other than that, I had been basically doing nothing but crafting for the last couple of days. I had purchased a lot of materials in the village, so after the previous gauntlet of battles, all I wanted to do was craft.

My and Akari’s project of searching for yokai had also been put on hold for now due to our discovery of the new zone.

I had time, materials, and motivation—a recipe for hyperfocus. Although I hadn’t expected to essentially become a hermit for as long as I had.

I first cooked with Reflet. I had promised to make her as much seafood as she wanted, so I had spent that whole first day just cooking. When my other monsters saw us cooking, they begged me to craft with them too.

In the end, I crafted with everyone who wanted to and leveled up each crafting skill by quite a lot. My Smithing skill, for instance, was now already over level ten. It was well worth using up all those low-rarity materials. I still hadn’t reached the point of being able to make sellable items, but I was now able to make items for my own purposes without much difficulty. All in all, I would say that it was time that had been spent well.

“But! I’m getting kinda tired of this!”

I had been sitting down the whole time, after all. Of course I did take some breaks to do farmwork. Still, I had spent too long sitting still.

“And Melum’s only been in a few fights so far.”

“Nyu?”

Thinking I had called for it, Melum stretched its black form down from its spot on top of my head to peer at my face. From the outside, it probably looked like my head was being swallowed by a black slime.

In order to get a sense for Melum’s abilities, I had brought it out to fight for a bit around town. I thought it would mainly hang back in the rear guard, but it was actually an all-rounder type of monster that was also capable of taking point in combat.

Its Elasticity skill halved the damage it took from blunt damage, and Amorphous allowed its body to cave in the moment it was attacked, which further reduced damage taken.

As for attacks, it could use Dark Magic and Air Spirit Awakening, which made it a formidable attacker. It had the potential to become a really strong monster with high defensive and offensive skills if I leveled it up.

Incidentally, Air Spirit Awakening was the air version of Fau’s Earth Spirit Awakening, and it allowed Melum to attack with tornadoes. It was also capable of making its targets immobile, and it was even effective against large-sized enemies.

The one skill I couldn’t figure out initially was Dark Protection, but it turned out to be a similar type of move to Sakura’s Forest Ranger skill. As its name suggested, it boosted Melum’s fighting power when under the cover of darkness. The skill’s effects were activated in dark areas, such as during nighttime or in caves and dungeons. It had the opposite effect in sunlight, where it would slightly weaken Melum, so I had to be careful of that.

“First I’ll take a break and chill on the veranda.”

I sipped tea and gazed out at my garden as I pondered my next move.

“Oh yeah, I wanted to pick out furniture for my new living room.”

The room was still bare besides the giant chandelier, which made the room look really off-balance. In my days of crafting, I had created a lot of items I could use to decorate the place, such as plates, cutlery, and bronze statues.

That said, the items I made were all a bit misshapen, so I would be decorating mostly with the items that Himka and Sakura had crafted.

“Though I do want to put up some things I made. Maybe these painted plates? Or maybe these wooden dolls...”

I thought about the arrangement of the furnishings as I scrolled through my inventory. As I was doing so, I heard Mamori let out a squeal of excitement from the other living room.

“Ya-ya!”

Curious, I peeked into the room, where I saw Mamori cheerfully walking around. She peered into the incubator for a second, then picked up a small bag from on top of the kotatsu and held it up before her eyes.

“Mamori? What are you doing?”

“Ya? Ya!”

“Uhh, is that the potpourri?”

Mamori had taken the bags of potpourri I had recently succeeded in making and laid them out on top of the kotatsu. I had used flowers classified as miscellaneous flowers, so they had no special effects, but I liked them for their smell.

As I watched Mamori sniff and shake the potpourri bags, I realized she was in the middle of filming a video for her diary.

Maybe she was making an advertisement for the potpourri? It was true that whenever she posted a video about something to her Diary, its sales doubled. Even the slightly crooked tableware I made sold out after Mamori showcased it in a video. She had used footage of my monsters using them to eat, to create an advertisement that showed how my tableware was a favorite among the adorable monsters.

I knew that Zashiki-Warashis were supposed to be helpful in various ways, but I never thought this would be one of those ways.

“Ya!”

“Huh? You want me to hold it?”

“Ya.”

“I have to say something? Uh...”

Mamori handed me bags of potpourri, giving me a very producer-like look, then instructed me to start talking.

“This is potpourri I made with materials handpicked by Olto, and this one here by Fau. And this one was picked out by Reflet.”

“Ya!”

Mamori pushed the potpourri at me, telling me to say more, and so I did as she asked and continued advertising the potpourri. In the end, I described each different type. Would my clumsy explanation suffice?

“Ya.”

Mamori wiped the sweat from her brow, looking satisfied. As long as she’s happy with it.

“Hmm, is my potpourri going to start selling a lot?”

I hadn’t made very much of it...

“Ya!”

What a smile! That’s a smile that says they’ll sell like hotcakes!

“I’ll have to make more of them, then.”

I had thought I was finally finished with crafting for a bit, but it looked like I would have to keep it up for a bit longer. Next up is Alchemy...

And so, I really put my back into it. I crafted until I was satisfied—no, until I went beyond boredom and reached a trancelike state. I spent the entire day making potpourri, so much that, by the end of it, I didn’t want to see the stuff for a long while.

In the end, I was in such a crafting high that I ended up making other things until it was time for me to log out.

The next day, I finally left my house.

“All right, it’s been a while, but we’re back in Zone Eleven.”

“Nyuuu.”

“Chirp chirp!”

Rick pushed a bag of potpourri against me. After I had logged out, he and Fau continued making potpourri. But this particular bag smelled a little off... To be blunt, it reeked! Did they go noseblind after smelling too much yesterday?

No, this one just smelled like they had mixed too many scents together to create some unholy concoction. They probably mixed a bunch of different things as a joke.

“How about we set aside that potpourri for now?”

“Chirp?”

I really wasn’t interested in seeing the stuff right now.

“No crafting today! It’s a day for battle and exploration!”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

I wanted to take today to really progress through Zone Eleven and possibly make it to the city I had seen on the other side of the trees. Siegfried and the others still hadn’t told me the details, but the city was supposedly a thriving place. I was excited to see what it was like for myself.

My other goal was to level up Melum. The voice inside my head was telling me, “A weakling like you, grinding levels on the front lines? Don’t get ahead of yourself!” But this was the most efficient way to go about it if it worked out.

“All right, let’s go! Olto, protect me and Melum, okay?”

“Mm-mm!”

“Drimo and Olea, I’m counting on you to give it your all so Melum can level up.”

“Squeak squeak!”

“Triii!”

Drimo and Olea thrust up their weapons to show their determination. They looked psyched to get back into exploration after such a long break.

“Rick and Carro, you guys look out for Melum too.”

“Chirp chirp!”

“Neigh neigh!”

Everyone was full of motivation. But first, I had to pay a visit to the Beast Deity’s statue. I cut through the village and headed down the narrow pathway that led to the clearing. Standing there, just like before, was a statue of a Beast Deity that possessed characteristics of a variety of animals. I hadn’t completed its trial yet, so nothing happened when I approached it.

The requirements for the trial were to offer the statue three monster items with a rarity of six or higher, but those types of items were seldom dropped by monsters in Zone Eleven, so I would just have to be patient for this quest.

“Neigh neigh.”

“Squeak squeak.”

“Chirp chiiirp.”

My beast-type monsters joined me in praying to the statue. Even Rick, usually the mischief maker, had his hands pressed respectfully together as he sat on my head.

Seeing them like this reminded me of Sakura when she visited the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad, and made me wonder if this had a slight favorability boosting effect on them.

“Are you about done, Rick?”

“Chirp?”

I can’t raise my head while you’re sitting on it! I’m gonna be bowing here forever!

Once we finished praying to the statue, it was finally time for us to set out.

“First, let’s explore the area around the village!”

“Nyuuu!”

“Oh, Melum, make sure you don’t go too far forwards, okay?”

“Nyu?”

Likely due to its tanking abilities, Melum had a tendency to want to go to the front line in battle. Despite the soft look of its blob-like, squishy body, it was actually more of a combative type. But I feared it would die instantly here in Zone Eleven, so I wanted it to stay in the rear guard until it had sufficiently leveled up.

I plopped Melum onto my shoulder and was busy telling it not to move from there when Rick and Carro raised cries of warning.

“Chirp chirp!”

“Neigh!”

Soon after, a monster burst out of a bush.

“Where’d you come from?!”

“Hrrrog!”

It was a giant boar monster known as a Hammer Pig. It was a hog with black fur, and true to its name, its snout was shaped like a hammer. One hit from that hammer could instantly kill a rear guard party member, making it a terrifying monster. It had high defense and was one of the more troublesome monsters in this forest. We were only facing one this time, but a group of them attacking together would pose a lot of danger.

That said, this was an easy foe for us to beat. You see, all of its attacks—Nose Hammer, Hip Attack, Foreleg Stomp—dealt blunt force damage. I was confident that Melum, who had high resistance against blunt damage, could participate in the fight even at its low level. I would still keep it away from the front line, though. I needed that sense of security that it wouldn’t be instantly killed.

“Let’s fight!”

“Hrroog rragh!”

“Nyu-nyu!”

“That’s right, you stay right here on my head.”

In reaction to my and Melum’s voices, the Hammer Pig began to move. It came charging at us at tremendous speed with its very first step.

“Wha— Why’s it coming at me first?!”

“Mm-mm!”

“Nyuuu!”

“M-Melum? What are you doing over there?!”

Melum went with Olto to the vanguard! Didn’t I just say to sit on my head?! You might have blunt damage resistance, but you’re only level 4!

The reason I felt confident keeping Melum in this fight was because I assumed it would stay in the back line. Back here, even if it was grazed by an attack, it would be able to survive.

But instead, it went all the way to the front!

“Mm-mm-mmm!”

“Nyuuu-nyu!”

“Oh?”

It’s actually doing okay? In fact, the Hammer Pig just went flying backwards!

It might have been a result of Melum and Olto’s combined power, but so far Melum hadn’t even lost half of its HP. Moreover, the Hammer Pig was Blinded. Melum must have gotten close to it and used Dark Magic.

There was a black haze effect around the pig’s eyes and it clearly couldn’t see us. Melum must have had an even higher resistance to physical blows than I thought.

“Nice job, Olto, Melum! Everyone, attack all together!”

“Squeak squeeeak!”

“Nyuuu!”

Drimo leaped forwards like he was saying “It’s my time to shine!” and struck the Hammer Pig right on the head with a piercing blow. Ultimately, we won without taking much damage outside of the pig’s initial attack. Melum’s a beast!

“All right! Let’s keep this up!”

“Nyu-nyuuu!”

We rode that momentum and kept exploring. Zone Eleven turned out to exceed my expectations. First, there were the materials. Compared to other zones, it had abundant varieties of materials. In fact, there were so many it might prove difficult to keep track of them all, but they would certainly expand my crafting possibilities. According to Alyssa, up to Zone Ten was considered the beginner area, and from here on was the intermediate area—or the real start of the game, you could say. The speed at which zones became unlocked would also slow down drastically.

“The quality is sort of all over the place, but I did get a bunch of medium-grade medicinal herbs.”

“Mm-mm!”

“Whoa, I’ve never seen a plant like that before!”

“Mm!”

Olto had found a beautiful plant with blue leaves. Its shape reminded me of a dayflower. It was called a Dewy Herb, and like its name suggested, the surface of its leaves were drenched with water. It was clearly a water-aligned ingredient.

“Can you plant this?”

“Mm!”

“Nice! We finally found a new crop to plant!”

“Tri!”

This new zone did not disappoint. We had stumbled upon a huge discovery in barely any time at all. My party rode that wave of excitement even farther into the forest.

In addition to the Dewy Herb, I also obtained several more new plants, like the Dry Herb and Detox Plant. By this point, I was giddy with excitement. I couldn’t stop laughing!

“Aha ha ha ha! More! Let’s find more new plants!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Tri-triii!”

Olto and Olea joined me in roaring with laughter while we gathered plant after plant.

“Chirp!”

But our laughter had to end there. From atop my head, Rick chirped in alarm, and my monsters simultaneously put themselves on guard. Rick jumped gracefully down to the ground and glared to the right.

“I-Is there a monster?”

“Chirp.”

I was hoping he wouldn’t nod! Plus, judging by his stance, this was no easy opponent. After a few seconds of us waiting, the enemy revealed itself.

“Gaaah! There’s three of them!”

“Hrrrooogh!”

We had fought several Hammer Pigs by this point, but this was the first time we ran into three of them at once.

“O-Olto! Please!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Hrrrog!”

Olto sprang to the front of the group to defend us and clashed with two of the pigs. But Olto’s ironclad defense still wasn’t enough to keep him from being pushed considerably far back.

Shockingly enough, the Hammer Pigs had cooperated to use a coordinated attack. The first and second pig had charged at Olto to knock him off-balance, and the third pig used a Hip Attack to drive him backwards. The damage from Hip Attack was minor, but having our tank pushed to the back line put us in a precarious position.

It wasn’t that they had just happened to use their attacks together with coincidentally good timing. They had been clearly calculated moves. First of all, before their attacks, a blue aura had surrounded the three pigs. It seemed that when the Hammer Pigs huddled together, it allowed them to use a special coordinated attack. But after that attack, there was a moment where they stopped moving—all three of them. That high-powered attack must have required a long cooldown.

“A-Attack now, while we can! Strike its flank with everything you’ve got!”

“Tri-triii!”

“Squeak squeeeak!”

One pig was facing away from us, so we concentrated our attacks on that one, but we weren’t able to defeat it completely. Not only that, but something like a red aura began to enshroud all three Hammer Pigs.

Despite not being boss monsters, they had entered a rabid state. And all three of them had gone rabid at the same time, even though we had only attacked one of them. How was that fair?

“Nyu-nyuuu!”

“Meluuum!”

Despite Melum’s strong resistance to physical blows, it was brought to the verge of death in one hit! Curse you, rabid status!

I managed to heal both Melum and Olto and we brought down one of the Hammer Pigs. Once we did, the red aura vanished from the remaining two pigs, which dramatically reduced their attack power.

It seemed that when three pigs banded together, they received special moves and effects. It also affected their drops. Until now, I had received Hammer Pig Meat, but these pigs dropped Tri-Pig Meat. Were they supposed to be a reference to the Three Little Pigs? Or maybe even the Black Tri-Stars?

“We’ll have to be extra careful when we see three pigs.”

As we progressed through the forest, we not only ran into groups of three pigs, but groups of four or five as well. In those cases, their group was named Tri-Pig + Hammer Pig or Hammer Pigs. They continued attacking even after the three-pig combo was dismantled, so they were quite dangerous.

After we fled from them several times, I made a decision.

“If we keep overextending ourselves like this, we’ll eventually get wiped out. Let’s head back.”

“Mm...”

There were just too many enemies around, so I decided to cut our forest exploration short and continue our journey on the main road. We would still encounter enemies there, but at a rate that we could much more reasonably handle.

As we walked, the moment I had been waiting for happened. Someone leveled up. Who, you ask? Me, of course!

While the top players of this game were clamoring about attaining their fourth advanced job soon, I was still on my secondary job. Level-wise, I could technically change my job class, but I had decided not to do that.

That was because once I reached level 40 as a Commander Tamer, I obtained the skill Dextrous Fingers. Just possessing the skill granted a slight bonus to Dexterity to one’s tamed monsters outside of combat.

It generally wasn’t that coveted of a skill. Although it boosted dexterity, it really wasn’t by much at all. But for someone who was a crafting main as my monsters and I were, it was very useful.

Ever since I learned about the skill from Alyssa, I had been waiting in anticipation to acquire it. So instead of changing job classes at level 30, I decided to stick it out until level 40 when I would learn Dextrous Fingers.

“Hell yeah! Now I can upgrade my class!”

However, it wasn’t safe for me to look over the list of job classes right now. A monster could appear at any moment. So in order to do so, I hurried us along on a forced march straight for the closest safety zone.

I was in such a rush that I ended up making us go too far and almost died. My bad. If Olto hadn’t been able to save me, things would have ended badly. But that was how excited I was to change to a new job class.

Once we had taken refuge in the safety zone, I immediately opened my status screen and reviewed the list of options.

“Nice, nice. Captain Tamer is on here.”

Captain Tamer, the advanced version of Commander Tamer, was displayed on the list. Among the other classes listed were ones I was already familiar with, like Elemental Tamer and Beast Tamer.

I had to go with Captain Tamer. Of course, though the name made it sound like it was a class capable of tossing aside its shields to finally fight on its own, it was yet another weakling class. It was a class that sacrificed its own growth rate for the benefit of their tamed monsters.

But I was already used to being weak.

“All right, I’m changing my class!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Nyuuu!”

“Captain Tamer it is!”

Unsurprisingly, my appearance did not change, but I did get the skill I wanted.

“I got Tamed Monster Formation +2!”

“Squeak squeak!”

“Triii!”

I wouldn’t graduate from my weakling state, but I could now move about with more tamed monsters.

“I summon Lilith!”

“Kee-hee!”

Success. Lilith appeared before me thrusting her spear enthusiastically in the air. Now I could have a total of seven monsters with me, which should make progressing Zone Eleven go slightly more smoothly.

“Nice! Let’s go back into the forest!”

“Kee-hee!”

“We’ll get even more rare items!”

Ah, what an idealist I was. I thought that by advancing to my tertiary job, a Captain Tamer, that Zone Eleven would pose no issues. However...

“I guess it won’t be that easy.”

“Kee-hee...”

While things got a little bit easier, it was still no walk in the park. Whenever we ran into more than three Hammer Pigs at once, we nearly died. The same went for other monsters. How could we possibly dodge those high-leveled squirrels’ snipe attacks?! The monkeys were crafty! And I couldn’t even sense the slimes sneak up on us!

“I was thinking of checking out other areas if this forest ended up being a piece of cake, but alas. I don’t think we’re ready for this place.”

Over the past five days, Zone Eleven had been completely unlocked. As expected, the top players were easily able to find the other entrances once they had a hint.

I watched the videos of their raid boss battles, and man, what a show. They had also gotten all the information they could from the village to make all the necessary preparations, consequently allowing them to make full use of the traps.

Incidentally, Holland and Huey had participated in every one of the raid boss battles to unlock the zone. Each time, they were invited by the discoverer. I understood their reasons for inviting Holland and Huey completely. No one was more reliable than them.

Just as the western part of Zone Eleven—the area I had helped unlock—had a Beast Hybrid Village, each of the other three areas was the location of a village inhabited by members of one of the four major races in the game.

In the mountainous eastern region was a Dwarf village. In the snowy north was a Human village. And in the tropical rainforest to the south was an Elf village. And each one had an idol that allowed you to reincarnate into another race.

I wondered if a Human village was really necessary, but there were actually a lot of players who wanted to change from being a Beast Hybrid or an Elf to being a Human. And some playstyles weren’t compatible with certain races.

The village for my race, Halfling, which was a minor race, still hadn’t been discovered. No one knew if it was somewhere in Zone Eleven or beyond.

“Let’s try reaching the city without fighting.”

“Nyuuu!”

“Melum, you’ve been getting yourself in a lot of dire situations. Don’t go too far in front, okay?”

“Nyu?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!”

We continued traveling along the road, where monsters were scarce, and eventually made it out of the forest.

The encounter rate around the road really was low. We also had zero encounters with any demon-type enemies that had been prevalent as of late. I wondered if they just didn’t appear along the road at all.

“I see it! I see the wall!”

“Nyuuu!”

At the end of the road that cut through the forest were shockingly huge walls, so tall it was almost painful to crane my neck up to look at them. Walls of this size would have no problem defending against attacks from even a giant.

This city was the center of Zone Eleven and it was called the Fortified City Beastus, likely a reference to the “beast” part of Beast-Hybrid.

Our first step into the city brought us to a road lined with buildings made of massive stone. It lacked the color and brightness of the other cities I had seen so far, but that made it all the more realistic.

“They say there are a lot of shops that sell leather, bone products, and foodstuffs here.”

The Dwarf city sold metal goods, the Elf city wooden crafts and medicine, and the Human city was known for its Alchemy and textiles.

Leather items were light and durable, so I was expecting to make out with something good here. I was the only one of my party who could make leather goods, so I couldn’t supply myself with quality leather goods yet.

“Let’s walk around downtown first.”

“Nyu!”

“Tri-triii!”

Melum and Olea didn’t have much experience exploring cities and towns, so they were ecstatic. They both looked around with stars in their eyes.

I myself had only heard a brief description of the city from Alyssa, so I was just as excited as them.

I had tried to buy more detailed information, but Alyssa was firm. She told me, “I don’t think you should buy information, Yuto. It’ll ruin the novelty of it. You should walk around knowing nothing. Okay? Okay?” So in the end, I didn’t buy anything.

Alyssa was right. It was more fun not knowing any information. As I walked along the road paved with large, gray stones, I passed many shops on either side of me. This must have been Beastus’s main street, as it seemed like the location of most of its important establishments. It was interesting to see so many specialized shops, like a store that only sold swords and one that only sold axes.

“Nyu?”

“Oh? Are you interested in that accessory shop?”

“Nyu!”

From its spot on my shoulder, Melum stretched its body far to peer into one of the shops. From the window, I could see various accessories for sale.

Melum had no accessories, so I had tried equipping several things on it. But as expected, just as it couldn’t equip weapons or armor, it also couldn’t equip accessories like scarves, bracelets, or rings. I had just about lost all hope of it wearing anything...

I decided to enter the shop that had caught Melum’s attention anyway. Inside there were accessories for sale made from natural materials like bone, leather, shells, and stones.

“Is there something here you want, Melum?”

“Nyu!”

“This?”

“Nyuuu.”

Melum pointed an appendage at a necklace. It had a pendant carved from bone, which was hung from a thin cord of braided leather.

Name: Moose Necklace

Rarity: 4 / Quality: 7★ / Durability: 480

Effect: Defense +7, grants slight bonus to jumping skills.

Weight: 1

It was absolutely beautiful, but its effects weren’t that great. First of all, Melum could float. It had no use at all for a jumping bonus.

“Well, can you even equip it?”

“Nyu!”

That sounded like a yes. Could Melum equip everything at this accessory shop?

“In that case, I think something like this would suit you better.”

I picked up a necklace with a pendant embedded with red jewels. It gave Defense +20 and a slight boost to automatic HP recovery, both great effects. However, Melum shook its head—that is, it shook its body from side-to-side in rejection.

“Do you not like the design?”

“Nyu.”

“That’s not it? Then, can you not equip it?”

“Nyuuu.”

“Is the jewel the problem?”

“Nyu!”

So jewels were a no-go. Stone and metal were also out, while bone, leather, shells, and other materials that originated from living creatures were acceptable.

Nevertheless, Melum couldn’t equip any weapon, not even a bone mace. It also couldn’t equip clothing made from insect silk. Those were both materials from living creatures, but maybe shape-wise, they were incompatible with Melum.

“Okay, I’ll buy you this Moose Necklace for now.”

“Nyuuu!”

Later, I wanted to equip them with stronger accessories. I should be able to make them myself with my Leather and Sculpting skills.

Incidentally, the way Melum equipped the necklace was by swallowing it and absorbing it into itself. It completely disappeared, so I guess I didn’t have to put too much thought into the aesthetics of Melum’s equipment.

Once we were done there, we kept walking around the fortified city until we discovered an interesting area in the center of town.

It was a typical Japanese-style park bustling with NPCs. It had playground equipment like slides, swings, and monkey bars. I had similar equipment at my house, but this was my first time seeing so much playground equipment set up like this in the middle of a city.

Right in the center, there was equipment of fantastical, gigantic proportions. Each one would be fun, even for an adult to play on. There was a one-hundred-meter slide and an absurdly massive sandbox. There were swings that went too high to be safe in the real world, and a jungle gym over twenty meters tall.

“I probably can’t install playground equipment this big at my own house, huh?”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

“Nyu-nyuuu!”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

Wow, even my monsters couldn’t wait to hop on the playground equipment. They sped right to the middle of the park.

Well, I was already planning to look around anyway, so I was fine with it.

“Mmm!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Tri-triii!”

“Squeak squeak!”

“You guys too?!”

Even the usually cool and composed Drimo ran over to the sandbox. Even he couldn’t resist the allure of that giant sandbox.

My monsters each scattered in the direction of the equipment they were interested in. Drimo, Olto, and Carro dashed to the sandbox. A mole, a gnome, and a horse. I guess among my monsters, they were probably the ones I would most expect to like playing in sand.

Olto and Drimo quickly got to work making a sand mountain, while next to them, Carro was digging holes and rolling around. Although the pony was small, doing something like that in a smaller sandbox would cause a huge disturbance. But this sandbox was as big as an elementary schoolyard, so the little horse was free to go as wild as it wanted.

Lilith and Olea headed for the small hill in the very center of the park. The top of that hill was where the long slide began. I heard a shout from above, and when I looked, I saw Lilith and Olea coming down the slide together.

“They’re going so fast!”

They were zooming down the slide faster than a roller coaster, passing right over my head. The sound of them whooshing over me gave me goose bumps!

“Kee-hee-hee!”

“Tri-triii!”

They sounded like they were having a blast, but were they really going to be okay? With how fast they were going, I was worried they would go shooting out at the end.

I watched with concern, and sure enough, the two of them were unable to stop and were launched into the air. That’s what happens at that speed!

“Lilith! Olea!”

“Keee-heee!”

“Tri-triii!”

I knew that since we were in a city, they wouldn’t take any damage, but I couldn’t help but shout in alarm. In midair, Lilith caught Olea and was able to land normally.

It was entirely possible that they had let themselves go flying on purpose for the thrill of it. Well, I could probably leave them to what they were doing. They didn’t look scared at all, which was mind-boggling to me.

Lastly, Rick and Melum were playing on the monkey bars. Rick was an expert tree climber and Melum could float, so I wasn’t exactly sure how they could really enjoy playing on monkey bars. I learned as I watched them though. Rick was running on top of the monkey bars, so it seemed just running in high places was fun for him. As for Melum...

“Whoa!”

“Nyuuu.”

I let out a shout before I could stop myself. The mysterious black substance was suspended from the monkey bars, using the two appendages that sprouted from its body to nimbly swing from bar to bar. It was how monkey bars were meant to be played on, but for some reason Melum looked like a strange creature hunting its prey when doing so.

I almost wanted to turn to the NPC children playing on the bars and shout, “Run!” However, the NPC children seemed to understand that Melum wasn’t dangerous. In fact, some were even giving it some curious pokes, and Melum poked them back in fun.

Now it was time for me to decide where to go. Maybe the slide? If I went down slowly, I wouldn’t end up shooting up in the air like Lilith and Olea, right?

And so, before I knew it, we played in that playground for about two hours. It was the slide’s fault for being too thrilling! I had way too much fun playing with Lilith and Olea. Towards the end, my other monsters also came over to play with us, and we went down the slide connected together like a train. I really had a great time.

After the slide, we moved to the sandbox. We took a break, sitting on the edge of the box and eating snacks. Olto and Melum finished eating first and began playing the game where they stuck a stick in the middle of a sand mountain and tried to dig the sand away without letting the stick fall.

“You two really like that game, huh?”

“Mm-mm!”

“Nyuuu.”

Even though Melum had just joined our gang, it was already an expert at playing my monsters’ usual games. It used its wiggly tentacles to deftly break apart the mountains.

At my monsters’ urging, I also joined in. It ended up being really entertaining and I actually got pretty into it. Before I knew it, we had played thirty rounds of the game.

Was that too much? I thought so too, but everyone was taking it so seriously that it was hard to stop.

The day had turned from afternoon to nighttime before I realized it. Where did the evening go? All the children that had been in the park were also gone, replaced by lovey-dovey couples taking a stroll.

The faint glow of the streetlamps made for a very romantic ambience. We were totally killing the mood here, weren’t we?

I hastily stood up to leave when I noticed someone was sitting right next to me. It was a bald old man with a carefree expression. Wh-When did he get here?

“Wh-Who are you, sir?”

“Would ya say you’re a leisurely fella who does things at his own pace?”

“Um, pardon?”

Am I leisurely...? I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I had just spent hours goofing off with my monsters, after all.

“I know a spot perfect for a lad like you. Are ya interested?”

Wh-Who is this guy? That invitation sounded straight out of a horror flick! Wh-What should I do?! Come on, an old man suddenly appearing next to me at night...? What else could I assume but that he was a ghost?!

“Wh-Wh-Who are you?”

“The name’s Billy, owner of the Chill Retreat.”

“The what?”

“It’s a place where people gather to chill out.”

Uh-huh. That explains nothing! But at least I know this isn’t a horror event! Thank god for that!

“You can learn more if you go there yourself. How ’bout it?” the old man asked me.

“Is it far from here?”

“Not at all.”

Well, there was no point disrupting all the couples’ evenings by sitting here and talking. I decided to go ahead and follow him. Billy guided me out of the park, but instead of the main road, we walked down a winding, narrow back alley. I still hadn’t fully explored the city, but I was surprised by this complicated route.

I was sure there was still much to discover here. I figured there were things like hidden shops and establishments. This Chill Retreat Billy mentioned was probably one of those undiscovered establishments.

After a few minutes’ walk, we arrived at a small shop. At first glance, it looked just like a small house made of stone, but the front door was a wooden sliding door. Beside the door was a small wooden sign hanging next to it that said “Chill Retreat.”

I still had no idea what type of place this was.

“Come on in, now.”

“Th-Thanks for having me.”

“Squeak squeak.”

“Neigh neigh!”

Carro had no issues entering the establishment too, so presumably any monster was cleared to enter as long as they could fit through the door.

The inside of the Chill Retreat reminded me somewhat of a traditional Japanese establishment. It looked a bit like a soba restaurant or an old-timey sweets shop. In fact, I could eat sweets here. The menu included all sorts of Japanese desserts, like anmitsu and dango. The rest of the city looked so purely western, I would never have guessed that I would encounter a traditional Japanese sweets shop here.

However, Billy didn’t stop once we were inside—he kept walking towards the back of the shop. Clearly, this sweets shop was not our destination.

“You can stop by for a snack some other time. There’s something else I’d like to show you today.”

“O-Okay. Come on guys, keep moving.”

“Mmm,” Olto protested.

“Like Billy said, we can come back here later.”

“Mm!”

The floor plan of the establishment wasn’t very wide, but was long and narrow and extended pretty far back. It reminded me of those traditional narrow houses they called “eel beds.”

We walked single file down the hallway, which had narrowed even further thanks to the washroom and a staircase leading to the second floor, then suddenly found ourselves in a spacious outdoor area. It was about five times wider than the shop we had entered from.

“Whoa, this is awesome!”

“Tri-triii!”

“Chirp chirp!”

Half of the space was a garden, and the other half had a roof over it. No doors or walls partitioned the space—it was mostly just a covered garden. Under the roof were chairs and tables meant for relaxing.

“Welcome to the Chill Retreat.”

“So this is the Chill Retreat, not the shop?”

“The shop is also part of the Chill Retreat, as is this place. This is where laid-back folk can gather and take it easy. You can use this place however ya like.”

As soon as they heard Billy say that, my monsters made a beeline for the garden. Even after so many hours playing in the park, they still had energy to spare.

The Chill Retreat’s garden had several appealing features that the park did not. There was a hammock suspended between two trees, a rustic swing hanging from a tree branch, a wooden table with log chairs, and a pond in an area that had been left in its natural state, like a biotope.

Just like the Chill Retreat’s name implied, this was a place one could come and spend the entire day just chilling.

Under the roof was a wooden floor that looked straight out of a log cabin, and an understated table with a beautiful wood grain, surrounded by rattan chairs. Was the tea free to drink? I wondered.

Also, for some reason, there was water flowing under the table... There was even white steam rising from it. A footbath!

I took off my equipment and plunged my feet in the water soaking up the warmth. Now this is nice! I also found that by adjusting the angle of the bench I was sitting on, I could soak my feet in the water while lying down.

This place had everything. Could I really just stay here and hang out as long as I wanted?

“Do I need to pay a fee to stay here?” I asked Billy.

“No need for that. Anyone who’s earned my recognition as an easygoing fellow is free to use this space. Go on and take a gander at that wall over there.”

“Is this a map? And a pamphlet?”

“Sure is. The map shows ya where Beastus’s chill spots are, and the pamphlet tells ya about events going on there.”

The map showed a circle for the wall surrounding the city, and the thick line running through it must have been the main street. Within the circle were dots with names written next to them.

“I see the Chill Retreat on here too.”

The other facilities indicated on the map were the park, a bookstore café, a hot spring, a sauna, a forest, a meadow, and a planetarium. There were a surprising number of spots to chill and hang out in this city.

The pamphlet contained information about each place. The planetarium was as you would expect—it projected an image of the world’s sky. There was a schedule of the future projections, such as the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere.

At the bookstore café, you could read novels that existed in the real world. I recognized a few of the titles listed in the pamphlet. They were apparently going to hold a reading fair in cooperation with several publishers.

The other events mentioned looked interesting too, such as a picnic in the forest and a beer fair at the hot spring.

“Well, for now, I’ll just hang out here.”

I didn’t want to get up—I was enjoying this footbath way too much. I was using Melum, who had come over at some point, as a pillow as I stretched out on the rattan chair. The sky above me was filled with stars, and the sound of my monsters’ cheerful voices echoed in my ears.

“Aah, this is heaven.”

“Nyu-nyu?”

“Is this uncomfortable for you?”

“Nyuuu!”

Melum reached out a feeler and moved the position of my head slightly. It seemed it was actually enjoying itself, so maybe it considered this a form of physical affection.

“Maybe I’ll just stay here for the rest of the day until log-out time.”

“Nyuuu.”

Next, I tried out the hammock, followed by lying straight on the grass, until I noticed a monitor on the wall. Wondering what it was, I touched it—a menu popped up.

“I can order sweets to be delivered here?”

I thought it was the same menu as the front shop’s, but when I took a closer look, I saw it was different. Not only were there food options, but I could even purchase weapons, materials, and household objects.

And the lineup was unreal. There were so many great items listed, from a kotatsu to a simple footbath, and trees with a hammock attached.

“They’ve even got skill scrolls!”

There were some skills I already knew, like Singing and Meditation, but there were also a lot of skills I had never seen before, such as Hospitality and Water Temperature. They didn’t seem useful for either combat or crafting, though. That was when it hit me—all of these skills were for leisurely activities. Well, this was the Chill Retreat. Of course all the skills they sold had to do with leisure.

On that note, what the heck was this place, really? Even when I tried to buy skills, I found I couldn’t buy any of them. Apparently, I needed something other than gold.

It seemed there was something called CP. Somehow I had six CP and could purchase things that were worth up to five CP.

A skill scroll cost at minimum twenty CP, so it looked like I would have to find a way to gain more of these mysterious points.

“Billy, what are CP?”

“That stands for Chill Points. Yeh get more of ’em by participating in chill events and hanging out in the city’s chill spots.”

“So in other words, I need to do nothing?”

“Mm-hmm. Do anything that’s not fightin’, craftin’, or movin’.”

So it probably didn’t mean that I couldn’t do anything at all. After all, the bookstore café was one of the chill spots.

Incidentally, of the six CP I had, I had earned five by discovering the Chill Retreat, and another one point by hanging out here. It looked like it would take more than a single day to accumulate the CP I needed, and if I bought every item I was interested in, I would soon run out of points.

In that case, it was probably best that I set a goal first.

“Does participating in chill events give me more CP?”

“Sure will.”

Though they were called events, they were all relaxing activities, like having a picnic or taking a nap.

It would be hard for someone to earn a lot of CP in a short amount of time, but it was nice that the points could be automatically accumulated just by doing certain actions, rather than having to fight.

As I was looking over the pamphlet, I sensed someone lying down on the chair next to me. Is it one of my monsters?

When I looked out of the corner of my eye, I saw I was wrong. It was an NPC.

“Why, evening.”

“G-Good evening.”

The NPC greeted me after he noticed me staring. There was a small black bird on his shoulder, so I assumed he was a Tamer.

“You interested in one of the events?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, I’m happy to hear that, traveler. What do you say I show you to my recommended event?”

Was this offer itself an event? That’d be great if so. Participating in an event gave me more CP, and this NPC was going to show me the way to one of the chill spots.

I decided to take him up on his invitation. But I had to introduce myself first.

“I’m Yuto, a Tamer.”

“Oh, whoops. I haven’t given you my name yet, have I? I’m Nomole, and I’m also a Tamer. This here is Meltia. Nice to meetcha.”

“Tweet!”

“N-Nice to meet you.”

The small black bird extended a wing out to me. I took it lightly in my hand, thinking the bird wanted a handshake, and she flapped her wings happily in response. I had chosen right.

“So, shall we go?” Nomole asked.

“Huh? Right now?”

“Yeah, things’ll be starting soon. Are you busy?”

“No, not really, but...”

Well, I had been planning on just hanging out anyway, so this was fine. I was just surprised since I hadn’t expected the event to start at night.

“Guys, bring it in!”

“Nyu-nyuuu.”

After I called my monsters to come back to me, I followed Nomole out of the Chill Retreat.

“Where are we going?” I asked him.

“A field just over that way. Oh, right. Do you have a mat you can lie down on, traveler?”

“I have a straw mat, if that counts.”

“Then we can head straight there. Get ready to have a good time.”

Nomole would tell me nothing specific about the event, but judging by how happily Meltia was flying around, it seemed like the kind of event monsters could enjoy too.

We spent ten minutes walking through the nighttime city, buying snacks and eating them as we went. By the time Nomole came to a stop, my monsters and Meltia had become quite friendly with each other.

“Here’s the place.”

“Here? Well, it is a field...”

“Yep, it sure is. You can camp here too.”

The field was already crowded with NPCs. As I waited, wondering what exactly was going to start, the NPCs started spreading out mats and blankets on the field and lying down on them.

“Come on, traveler. Lay down your mat.”

“O-Oh, okay.”

I did what Nomole said and took out my straw mat and spread it out on the ground. My monsters and I then lay down on the mat.

“Wow, the stars are so pretty!”

The night sky glittered above us, a true sea of stars.

“Nyuuu.”

“Kee-hee-hee.”

“Neigh-neigh!”

My monsters seemed to share my appreciation for the starry sky, especially Melum, Lilith, and Carro. I wondered if that had to do with them being dark- and night-type monsters?

However, stargazing wasn’t all this event entailed. In fact, it hadn’t even begun yet.

“It’s starting, traveler.”

“And what exactly is starting?”

As soon as I voiced my question, the lights all around us went out. The streetlamps and building lights were all turned off at once, making the stars overhead stand out even more distinctly. They had already been pretty enough before, but now they were so beautiful they left me speechless with awe.

“Wow...”

“Nyuuu.”

“Kee-hee.”

“Neigh.”

The entire sky was alight with stars so bright I felt like I could reach out and grab them. I actually did reach out my arm without even thinking. The breathtakingly beautiful starry sky held everyone captive in its embrace.

I never would have thought I would be so moved by a starry sky in a game. This didn’t showcase just the devs’ skill, but also the passion and care they put into the game. I complained about the devs a lot, but I had to take my hat off to them this time.

Thanks, devs.

My monsters and I cuddled for a long time as we admired the sky. As we gazed up at the stars, the city lights turned back on, brightening the sky and obscuring the stars.

“Aah, what a great way to unwind.”

“That was very soothing.”

“You said it.”

It seemed like the event was over. The NPCs around me started to sit up and chat with each other.

“What did you think, traveler?”

“I have to say, it was really relaxing. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Thank you for joining us. I’m glad you had fun, and I’m happy to have found another friend to hang out with.”

I suddenly realized that it was almost time for me to log out. All I had been doing was staring at the starry sky, but a shocking amount of time had passed. I would have been in trouble if the event had gone for just a little longer. I might have even been forcibly logged out.

However, I wouldn’t know how many CP I had earned until I went back to the Chill Retreat. I decided to head back there as fast as I could before logging out.

Nomole had other things to do, so he left, but I knew the way to the retreat by this point. Well, I did get a little lost, but at least Carro remembered the way. You can always count on a horse to know where to go!

“Oh, traveler. How did you enjoy the stargazing?”

“It was amazing!”

Billy greeted me, and I chatted with him while I checked the menu. I now had eleven CP. By participating in that event, I had earned five points, which meant if I went to two more events, I could buy one skill scroll.

There wasn’t any skill that I really wanted in particular, but it was good to have a goal. It was then that I realized something.

“It looks like there are a few more items on this list.”

A few more household objects that started with the word “Chill” had been added, like the Chill Pool and Chill Farm.

The same thing happened with the list of skill scrolls. There were now new Tamer-type skills like Chill Trimming and Chill Monster Care.

“Oh? There’s now a new item page with items higher ranked than the skill scrolls.”

A new page had appeared with items that could be purchased with thirty CP, including an item called the Chill Tamer’s Book of Secrets. It was a book that allowed you to advance to a fourth job class.

Hold on, the fourth level of advanced jobs hadn’t even been found yet, right? Did I just discover something huge?

But why had this new page appeared? The only thing I had done so far was hang out and then go to that event with Nomole...

Could it have been because of Nomole? I became friends with Nomole, another Tamer, and now I could spend my points on more things? Considering the new items had to do with Tamers, that seemed plausible.

As I pondered this, I heard a notification telling me it was time to log out. I decided to continue my pondering in the real world.

“I’m short on time, so I’ll come back later.”

“Sure, sure. Yer welcome here anytime, traveler.”

Billy watched me go as I left the Chill Retreat. I immediately went back to my house and logged out. Then, after a meal, a bath, and a nap, I logged back on.

“Morning.”

“Ya-ya.”

As I sat up on my futon, I was greeted as per usual by Mamori.

It was early morning in the game. I quickly finished up some farmwork and then headed back to the Chill Retreat, this time with an entirely different party lineup. I had planned for us to spend our time having fun and chilling out again, after all. I might upset some of my monsters if I kept bringing the same ones every time.

I set out with Sakura, Reflet, Himka, Eine, Fau, Bear Bear, and Perca. I was grateful that Tamed Monster Formation +2 allowed me to split my party perfectly half and half.

The Chill Retreat was still in the same spot as it was yesterday. I could enter just fine, even without Billy.

I found him relaxing inside the empty shop.

“Hello,” I greeted him.

“Oh, welcome, traveler.”

“Do you mind if I use the back area?”

“Go right ahead.”

My plan was to look over the list of purchasable items again, but...

“Good morning, traveler. You’re a new face.”

“G-Good morning.”

When I stepped foot into the back area of the Chill Retreat, I was greeted by an older man lounging on a chair. He looked like a typical plump old man villager. This place must have been frequented by all sorts of NPCs.

“Are you a laid-back guy too, traveler?”

“W-Well, I guess so?”

Billy had called me as much, anyway.

“Then I know just the event for you. What do you say we go together?”

I was being invited to yet another event. First Nomole yesterday, now this guy. I hadn’t even sought out to increase their favorability towards me. What had triggered this? Or did these invitations happen automatically as long as you came to the Chill Retreat?

In any case, I figured that declining his invitation might negatively affect my favorability score with him, so I decided to take him up on his offer. I had been planning on looking for an event to go to anyway.

“I’m Squirrliam. I’m a Farmer.”

“I’m Yuto, a Tamer.”

“I can tell you must be a really accomplished Farmer too. I’m happy to make a friend here who loves farming as much as I do.”

Nothing got by this NPC. He seemed to know that I had the Farming skill.

“What type of event is it?”

“Today, the hot springs and the bookstore café are having a collaboration event. You can read books in the hot spring and drink for free. Just imagine how nice it would be to soak in a hot bath with a book and knock back some drinks.”

“Oho, that does sound fun!”

“Right?!”

After that, I headed to the hot springs with Squirrliam and had fun at the event. The hot spring was mixed bathing with swimsuits. There were separate hot springs for men and women too, but if I wanted to be with my monsters, then I had to choose the mixed bathing option.

Anyway, I was just glad that my monsters could join in the hot springs as well. They were all soaking and relaxing in the water. Even Perca, who I thought might not do well with heat, seemed perfectly fine in the hot spring. Currently, he was swimming around in the hot water, like a real hot springs penguin.

“Tra-la-la.”

“Honk hooonk.”

“Aye.”

Fau had filled a bucket with hot water and was using it to float in the hot spring. The bucket rocked violently anytime someone entered or left the water, but she seemed to think that was fun.

There was a bar counter set up by the side of the hot spring that had all-you-can-drink sake, beer, and various types of cocktails and soft drinks. They didn’t grant any special effects, but that was fine with me.

As with the main bookstore café, I could read any of the books provided by participating digital publishers. I decided to start by catching up on a manga series that was getting an anime adaptation soon. It had gotten popular recently, but I had never read it. I could read it as an ebook from my status screen, so I didn’t have to worry about the pages getting wet.

All these chill events were amazing!

Once we were done with that amazing hot springs reading event, my party went back to the Chill Retreat. I checked on my CP balance and saw that I now had sixteen points, confirming my theory that each event I participated in would earn me five.

Plus, there were more new items available to buy. The items followed the same pattern as the ones from yesterday, including new skill scrolls, household objects, and a Chill Farmer’s Book of Secrets.

It seemed unquestionable now that by befriending NPCs at the Chill Retreat, new items corresponding to their job class would be added to the lineup of purchasable items. As I waited for a bit to see if a new NPC would show up, I heard the sounds of my monsters’ voices from the garden, where they were playing.

When I took a look, I saw a strange creature sitting on the bank of the pond. My monsters were surprised by its appearance as well, but they weren’t regarding it as an enemy.

From what I could see from the back, it was an animal covered in thick fur. It looked a bit like a chubby cat or a medium-sized dog. But where had it come from?

I appraised it and learned it was named the Lounger, and to my surprise, it was a yokai. I approached to get a better look and saw that it looked very similar to a sloth. Except for the fact that its fur was tinged with green, it basically was a sloth.

You might say a sloth would be right at home at the Chill Retreat, but I wasn’t sure about that. I was of the opinion that enjoying lounging around and being a sloth were two different things, but I guess that was why the yokai was called a Lounger.

“Um, Lounger?”

“...Mrrr.”

“What are you doing here?”

“...Mrrr.”

It was no use. The yokai responded a bit but barely moved at all. I thought about calling Billy, but I wanted to hang out without doing anything strange until I earned more CP. If I moved around a bunch, my time here might not be counted as chilling, which would make this a waste.

I was also worried about scaring away this mysterious Lounger, so I decided to leave it be for now. Instead, I took out a light novel volume I had purchased. I hadn’t finished reading it during the hot spring event, but I was enjoying it so much I went ahead and bought it.

And so, I read the rest of the book and then checked my points. I now had seventeen. I was glad to see something as easy as doing nothing but reading a book would earn me points.

“Now, how’s that yokai doing...? It’s still there.”

The yokai was still sitting absentmindedly on the bank of the pond. I expected a yokai in the Chill Retreat to do as much.

“Maybe I’ll wait and see what it does for a little longer.”

I had actually bought the entire light novel series I was reading, so I had three more books to get through. It’s decided—I’ll spend the morning finishing this series!

And so I continued reading, and I had finished the rest of the books by the afternoon. It was about time now to make my monsters lunch. I sat up from the bench with that thought in mind, when I came face-to-face with Lounger. Amazingly enough, the yokai who had been stationary this entire time was now walking over to me.

“Huh? Um, hello.”

“...Mrrr.”

Whoa! It moved slowly, but the yokai raised its right hand. It totally reacted to my words! It did, right?

“I’m going to have some tea. Do you want some too?”

“...Mrrr.”

It nodded! It is reacting to what I’m saying!

I took out some Bizarre Tea from my inventory and carefully placed it in front of the Lounger.

When my monsters saw me, they all came running over wanting something to drink as well. I decided to give them lunch while I was at it too.

As I gave my monsters their respective meals, I decided to try to offer something to the Lounger too.

“Umm, do you wanna eat something? How about veggies?”

“...Mrrr.”

The yokai nodded, but I wasn’t really sure if veggies were what it wanted. I ended up taking out different foods for the yokai to try and placed them in a circle around it. This was the same strategy I used when I didn’t know the favorite food of another yokai I had encountered.

Eventually, the Lounger picked up a flower.

Yes! I knew I remembered seeing a television program about animals that showed a sloth eating flowers, so I had laid out a flower just in case, and it actually turned out to be the right choice. Imagine that. It wasn’t even an edible flower, so the yokai was apparently fine with eating regular flowers.

“...Mrrr.”

“Huh? You wanna shake hands?”

“Mrrr.”

Just like a poster from a certain movie about an extraterrestrial, the Lounger and I touched fingers, and as soon as we did, there was a burst of light.

“You have formed a bond of friendship with the Lounger. Certain skills have been unlocked.”

Whoa! We formed a friendship! The Lounger was even added to my encyclopedia. The Lounger itself disappeared, but it had probably just moved to my house. Could this Chill Retreat actually be a really important place?

The skills that had been unlocked by befriending the Lounger were Rest, Chill, and Slowing Circle. Rest, as you might expect, boosted the speed of recovery when resting at a save point and elsewhere. Chill boosted the speed of recovery while logged out. Slowing Circle decreased the speed of everyone in an area.

Slowing Circle seemed useful if it weren’t for the fact that it affected everyone. That sounded like it would affect enemies and allies alike. Honestly, it didn’t seem like a skill I could make the best use of. If I timed it wrong, I’d end up sabotaging my own monsters.

“Oh, right. I wonder if there are new items for purchase.”

My CP balance had increased to twenty-five. I must have earned points from befriending the Lounger in addition to hanging out.

“Chill Onmyoji’s Book of Secrets, huh...”

The Lounger was apparently considered related to the Onmyoji job class.

“I need to participate in one more event to be able to buy this Book of Secrets.”

I was drawn to the idea of accumulating points today just to see what kind of item it was. With that thought, I looked at the pamphlet, but there was no information available for any event that I could go to right now. I went to Billy instead for information, and he told me something substantial.

“Other than going to the usual spots for hanging out, sometimes like-minded folks in the guilds put on events.”

“By guilds, do you mean like the Adventurers’ Guild and Magical Beasts’ Guild?”

“Mm-hmm, that’s right.”

That was what I had been missing. It was only from this conversation with Billy that I realized I hadn’t found any of the guilds in this city.

“Our city’s Magical Beasts’s Guild is enormous. Most folks are floored when they see it for the first time.”

When he put it that way, I was really curious to see it.

“I guess I’ll keep an eye out for a chill event while I search for the guilds.”

Chapter Two: Get Rowdy

With the information I learned from Billy, I left the Chill Retreat and walked for about ten minutes, until my monsters and I discovered one of our goals.

“There’s the Magical Beasts’ Guild!”

“Aye!”

To be fair, it was impossible to miss even from afar. Just like Billy said, the guildhall was massive. It was far and away the biggest one I had seen so far. The building itself was only two stories, but its square footage was off the charts. It was probably several times the size of an average elementary school building. In addition, it had a vast yard and several other detached buildings the size of gymnasiums.

Without looking at the map at the entrance, I wouldn’t have been able to know where anything was. At least there were teleportation circles inside the building, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting around.

“Let’s go in!”

“Tra-la!”

“Hmm!”

The inside of the building was as vast as its exterior, and it was very fancy. I would’ve believed this was the entrance hall to some kind of embassy. The paintings on the wall looked expensive.

Were we even allowed to walk on the gorgeous plush rug? Bear Bear and Perca were barefoot. I mean, it was probably fine because this was a game, but the timid little real-life Yuto inside me was screaming in panic.

I was envious of how boldly my monsters could walk around in here without the slightest hesitancy. But again, this was a game. In a few minutes, I got used to it. I started to feel just as comfortable as my monsters as we walked around the building.

There was an incubation room for Tamers, a Monster Synthesis room for Summoners, and an enclosure to leave your monsters in. These were all features I had seen before, but their size and opulence were unmatched.

In the incubation room, there were rows of spherical incubators that were not only metallic, but had pipes and tubes sticking out of them, which made them look like cryogenic sleep chambers right out of a science-fiction movie.

The sight of dozens of those sci-fi-esque incubators above the metallic flooring didn’t look like the typical thing you’d see in LJO. If the guild staff members weren’t wearing mage robes, I would seriously have doubted that this was meant to be a fantasy game.

The enclosure was as I had expected—just kidding, it was far from it. First, it was immense. It was so big, I couldn’t see the other end of it. Supermassive monsters were lying down in the open space. They were monsters belonging to NPCs, and each was undoubtedly bigger than a house. There were several of those huge monsters.

How amazing were these NPC Tamers? And more importantly, did monsters of that size appear in Zone Eleven? If they were considered regular mob monsters, I definitely had no chance of beating them.

I walked for a bit more through the guild, and found myself in a strange place. It was a small room that looked similar to a front lobby. There was even a reception desk here, but there was a wooden door behind it that was bolted shut.

“Um, what is this room?”

“From here, you may enter a lounge exclusively for those whose guild rank is ten or higher.”

No way! Like how airports have lounges for different boarding classes?

The young woman behind the counter explained how it worked. The door behind her led to facilities exclusive to different job classes, so it would bring me into the Tamer’s Lounge.

In addition to regular features like an incubation room, the exclusive lounge had special features that could only be found there. Also, by changing my settings, I could make it so I went directly to the exclusive lounge from the entrance of the building.

My guild rank was fourteen. It had gone up recently when I had shown Melum to Barbara. So I should be allowed to use that lounge!

“Can I go in?”

“Yes, certainly.”

“Nice!”

The receptionist pushed some controls at her desk to open the locked door. I’m so psyched to see what’s back there!

The door led to a slightly smaller facility similar to the guildhall in the Town of the Beginnings. However, all the doors to the different facilities were grouped close together, making it super convenient.

Of the facilities that did not exist elsewhere, the one that first stood out to me was the training school. You could pay money to keep your monsters there to earn a fixed amount of XP per hour. It was similar to the enclosure, but that was free to use and the monsters didn’t earn XP while there.

Although the training school was a little expensive, it allowed the monsters you didn’t bring along in your party to get stronger too. But it didn’t really interest me that much; I preferred to go the slow and steady route and level my monsters up myself.

It would be really useful for those playing command-type classes who focused on combat, though. For example, if you wanted to beef up a monster in a short amount of time who had an ability effective against a boss or other monsters that you were having trouble beating, or if you wanted to otherwise level up your reserve monsters that you couldn’t bring with you in the field.

The next room I found was a mock battle room. The room didn’t allow players to do PvP, but it summoned phantom enemies so players could have a mock battle against them. You would earn no XP from the fight, but the room could be used to test out teamwork among other things. This was another facility I didn’t have much use for.

It seemed the guild in Zone Eleven, where monsters were much stronger, was largely equipped to support players in strengthening their combat abilities.

Lastly, I arrived at a store. There were a lot of products here that I had never seen before. My eyes were first drawn to a food item for tamed monsters called a Medium Honey Dumpling. It was a better version of the Honey Dumpling and cost twenty times as much, but the description said it was an even more delicious snack that my monsters were sure to love. I made my own food for my monsters, but maybe it was a good idea to buy some here for emergencies.

Another item that caught my eye was an exorbitantly expensive red jewel called Bloodline Awakening. Not only was it limited to one per player, but it cost ten million gold. That price was steep.

The effects were also vague. The description only stated that it awakened the powers latent in your tamed monster’s blood. It explained nothing concrete. To pay ten million for that required a lot of guts.

However, I had a hunch as to what its purpose was. I once used an item called Tamed Monster’s Awakening on Fau. Wouldn’t it make sense for Bloodline Awakening to be similar to that? Even their names were similar.

“I can afford it...”

Considering its high price, there was no way it’d be a dud. If I were right and it was an item that made monsters more powerful, then it was actually a steal! Well, maybe not a steal, but I wouldn’t regret buying it.

“Okay, yeah. Decision made! I’m buying this!”

In addition to that, I bought some potions for my monsters, and then left the store.

Come to think of it, I had come here with the purpose of finding a chill event. Where could I find that?

After I walked around the entire guild without finding a single event, I decided to ask the receptionist in the lounge.

But she just tilted her head in confusion and said, “My apologies, but I’m not sure what you are referring to.”

If the receptionist didn’t know, did that mean the event couldn’t be found through normal means?

For now, I decided to keep looking around the guild a little more. It was possible I had just missed a flyer or something. With that thought, I walked around the guild for some time until I found someone.

I say “found,” but I had actually seen this person before, I just didn’t think too much of him. At a glance, he was just an elderly man sitting in front of the enclosure watching over the monsters. But after I passed him several times, I realized something.

“That old man over there isn’t moving at all.”

“...?”

“That old man by the enclosure. Hasn’t he been in that same position this entire time?”

“...!”

Sakura clapped her hands together like she was saying, “You’re right!” I knew I wasn’t imagining things.

The old man, whose long white hair and beard covered most of his face, was sitting on a chair and smoking a pipe. But he sat stock-still as if he were a statue. If it wasn’t for the smoke coming out of the pipe, I would have seriously thought he was a statue. Wasn’t that a sign that he was a fellow easygoing person?

“All right, I’m gonna try talking to him.”

“Growl!”

My monsters and I approached the old man sitting in front of the enclosure. As we came close, he turned his gaze towards us.

“The enclosure’s just through here,” he said.

“No, I’m not here for the enclosure. I wanted to ask you something, sir.”

“Oho? What can I help you with?”

Mm-hmm, he’s cool. The old man looked kind of badass as he stared at me from the corner of his eye with his pipe in hand. Maybe he wasn’t a chill guy, but a classy gentleman?

Oh well. I had already started talking to him, so I might as well ask.

“I heard there’s a chill event going on at this guild. Do you know anything about that?”

“Oho! I see, I see. You do seem like the type who enjoys a relaxing time.”

I knew he was important! After I asked him a few more details, I learned that the old man—Donkeith—was the one putting on the event. It wasn’t a large-scale event exactly, but just a hangout session with the old man.

The place we were hanging out was the enclosure. I wondered if it was really all right to go into a restricted access area, but it seemed it was fine as long as I had the old man’s permission.

“Make sure not to startle the monsters relaxing here, okay?”

“Understood. You two be careful too, got it? Don’t make too much noise.”

“Tra-la!”

“Hum-hum!”

I decided to keep a close eye on Eine and Reflet in particular. Those two wouldn’t think twice about hopping onto a giant monster and climbing it.

With the old man’s permission, we stepped into the enclosure, and it was quite simply paradise. I had gone into a guild courtyard for monsters before for a school quest, but this one had that place beat.

There were all sorts of monsters here for me to pet, from small ones to enormous ones. I couldn’t appraise them, but one was a massive wolf that was taller than me even while it was sitting. It was so fluffy that I spent a long time hugging it.

I went a little crazy, doing things like climbing up onto a giant turtle’s back and sliding down the smooth scales of a snake. All things I ended up regretting after the fact. I had told my monsters not to make too much noise, yet I ended up being the most disruptive.

“Tra-la...”

“Humm...”

I deserved Eine’s and Reflet’s glares. I shouldn’t disgrace myself anymore, so I decided to behave myself from here on. I took out a rocking chair I made earlier and sat down on it next to Donkeith. As I rocked back and forth, I sipped on some delicious tea. Though if I rocked too hard, the tea would spill.

It was also nice to sit back and watch all the monsters playing in the enclosure.

At some point, I realized Donkeith was staring at me. More specifically, he was staring at my rocking chair.

“Are you interested in this chair?”

“Indeed I am. I’ve heard about chairs like that, but I’ve never seen one up close before.”

“Would you like to try it out?”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. Just give me a moment.”

I took out another rocking chair from my inventory. I had made it with Sakura, so it had an even higher rank and quality than the one I was sitting on. I also placed a cushion that Eine had made on its seat.

“Have a seat.”

“All righty, don’t mind if I do. Ooh... Now that’s nice.”

“You can put this on your lap too.”

I handed the old man a lap blanket Eine had made. It wasn’t necessary, but I felt like a blanket went hand in hand with an old man sitting on a rocking chair.

The white-haired man rocked in his chair and puffed on his pipe. This is picture perfect! I need to take a screenshot!

“This is nice...”

“Right? You can have it if you like.”

“No, no. I can’t just take something this valuable from you for nothing. How about I give you this in exchange?”

“Is this a permit?”

“Sure is. It’s a pass to enter my hometown. Outsiders aren’t allowed in, but someone like you is welcome.”

Donkeith was apparently an herbivore-beast hybrid, but he was not originally from Beastus. Instead, he was from a special village that required permission to enter.

“My village is even closer to the sea than the city is. I hope you go visit someday.”

“Thank you, sir!”

I had turned my rocking chair, which had been virtually free to make, into a permit to enter a village! Lucky me!

An hour later, after the guild enclosure hangout event was over, my monsters and I started to make our way out of Beastus. I wanted to test out the abilities of both the Bloodline Awakening item and of the Lounger.

As soon as I left the Tamer Lounge, I nearly collided with another player who had exited at the exact same time. Due to the anti-harassment block, however, we didn’t actually run into each other. But me and the other person were both startled at seeing someone suddenly appear at their side.

I was wondering why I hadn’t seen any other players here, but it seemed the lounges were instanced for each player. Also, I knew the other person.

“Huh? Ivan, is that you?”

It was Ivan, the Tamer who was a high school student. As usual, his snake monster companion was coiled around his body.

“Silver-Haired! It’s been a while!”

“Yeah, it has. What’s up? You look like you’re thinking hard about something.”

“Oh, well, I’m trying to decide if I should buy this one item.”

Those words alone were enough for me to guess what he was thinking of buying. He showed me the screenshot, and sure enough, it showed exactly what I had expected—Bloodline Awakening.

“It costs almost all the money I have. I was thinking of upgrading my equipment instead, but this item looks really strong!” Ivan said, clutching his head.

We both had the same idea. I had looked on the forums to see if anyone had posted about it, but I didn’t find much useful information. What I did find out was that the item had completely different effects depending on the monster it was used on.

“I was about to head out of the city to use it. Do you want to come with? That way, if you think it seems good, you can buy it.”

“Huh? Y-You don’t mind? I’d be super grateful.”

“Sure. In exchange, I just ask that you guard me while I’m testing it out.”

“That sounds like a fair deal to me!”

Nice. I knew I’d probably left defenseless at various points while verifying things. But now I had myself a bodyguard. Plus, it was great to get another Tamer’s opinion if I needed it.

“All right, should we head out?”

“Let’s go!”

Ivan and I left Beastus and stopped in an area slightly removed from the city. At first, I had considered doing this just outside the entrance, but Ivan advised us to move farther away. If we were right in front of the entrance, we might end up being an obstacle to others, so we found a place where there were fewer people.

“Okay, I’m going to use Bloodline Awakening now.”

“I’m so excited!”

I understood his curiosity, but having him stare at me up close also meant that his snake was staring at me too! It wasn’t like I had anything against the monster, but having the head of a giant venomous snake right next to me was a little disturbing.

“L-Let’s see, I can use it on...only Bear Bear and Melum?”

When I had used Tamed Monster’s Awakening, I had only been able to use it on Bear Bear and Fau, but Fau was no longer an available option. Were the monsters I could select for Bloodline Awakening different from the ones available for Tamed Monster’s Awakening? Or could I not select Fau anymore because I had already used Tamed Monster’s Awakening on her?

Additionally, it seemed like I could only select monsters who had hatched from eggs. Considering the “Bloodline” part of the name, maybe it had something to do with what the monsters inherited from their parents. Perca had hatched under special circumstances, so maybe that was why he wasn’t an option.

As Ivan listened to my hypotheses, he nodded several times and exclaimed, “Silver-Haired, you’re a genius! I think you’re absolutely right!”

“Y-You think so?”

“Yes! It’s amazing how you reached that conclusion so quickly!”

“N-Nah, I mean, anyone could’ve come up with that.”

He was hyping me up like he was my fan or something. I wondered if he felt a little guilty for being given so much free information and was now subconsciously flattering me? Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea? But it wasn’t like I could tell him to leave now. That’d be mean.

Now then, maybe I should make Melum stronger... I tentatively selected Melum, and a list popped up.

“Oho ho. A list of skills.”

“So can you select a skill from here for it to learn?” Ivan asked.

“Hissss?”

“It says to choose one, but why these skills?”

The many skills Melum could acquire were Yarn Spinning, Gather, Cultivation, Weaving, Air Magic, Wind Break, Sewing, Dyeing, Absorb, Illusion Magic, Tree Killer, Elemental Killer, Demon Killer, Mental Resistance, Spear skills, Magic Detection, and Vital Point Detection. They were all skills that its parents, Eine and Lilith, knew.

It seemed that this item allowed you to choose one Blood Skill that could be inherited from a monster’s parents for them to acquire.

If I were going to choose one, it would probably be Air Magic, but Melum already knew Dark Magic. It wasn’t an absolute necessity. What skills could Bear Bear acquire?

I checked their list. It was a lot shorter than Melum’s, but it included several interesting skills: Roar, Perseverance, Deep Regret, Insect Killer, Gather, Harvest Honey, Horticulture, Hive Making, and Bee King.

Perseverance was a skill that doubled the user’s defense in exchange for making them unable to attack for a certain length of time. Harvest Honey increased the collection amounts of honey-type items. Horticulture was similar to Cultivation, but it wasn’t very clear how they were different.

The skill I was most interested in was Bee King, but neither Ivan nor I had ever seen that skill before. Ivan even did some research, but nothing came up about it on the forums.

It seemed like this was a super-rare skill. The skill description was pretty vague, stating only that the user would receive the power of a Bee King.

However, there was some discussion on the forums around a similar-sounding skill, Dog King. It buffed skills that had some connection to dogs, like Roar and Fang, as well as boosted attack and defense stats when fighting against dog-type enemies.

“So basically, it’ll buff bee-type skills? Like Stinger and Beekeeping?” I wondered aloud.

“And probably also Flight and Hive Making, right?”

“Hmm, I would be happy enough if it buffed Beekeeping and Bear Bear was able to collect a bunch of Royal Jelly.”

And if I were lucky, it would also buff skills like Poison Claw. Plus, if Bee King was a rare skill, then I might not get another chance to acquire it.

“All right! I’ll go with Bear Bear for this.”

“Growl?”

Bear Bear paused their playing to look over at me like they were saying, “You called?”

“Come here for a sec.”

“Growl!”

Bear Bear waddled over, and I showed them the item as I explained what it would do.

“What do you think? I was thinking of having you learn this Bee King skill.”

“G-Growl!”

“Oho, you sound excited.”

“Growl growl.”

Bear Bear crossed their arms and nodded with a smug look on their face. They looked perfectly happy with this choice.

“Okay then, I’m using Bloodline Awakening on Bear Bear!”

“Grooowl grooowl!”

An intense red light engulfed Bear Bear, just like what happened when they evolved.

However, after the red light abated, there were no changes to Bear Bear’s outward appearance. Since they were acquiring a skill called Bee King, I thought they might sprout wings or antennae, or get stripes on their butt.

Regardless, it seemed they had properly acquired the skill.

“Bear Bear, can you use Bee King?” I asked.

“Growl?” Bear Bear replied with a questioning head tilt.

It was clear from that that it wasn’t a skill with a target, but one that was always in use—a passive skill.

“Well, I guess I can look forward to some higher quality honey?”

“Growl!”

Bear Bear thumped their chest, which told me the skill would indeed positively affect their beekeeping.

I would be stoked if they could harvest a large quantity of royal jelly. Bear Bear already had the max number of beehives they could manage, but the amount they harvested from them wasn’t that much.

Ivan was humming to himself as he examined Bear Bear.

“So I guess the item has a possibility of granting a rare skill depending on the monster,” he said.

“Yeah. But it doesn’t seem like it boosts their stats at all.”

“At most, it lets you choose one Blood Skill.”

“Also, I’m not entirely positive about this yet, but if you use Bloodline Awakening on a monster, you probably can’t use another Awakening-type item on them in the future.”

I was pretty confident about the fact that Tamed Monster’s Awakening and Bloodline Awakening could only be used on monsters that you had hatched yourself. So the fact that I couldn’t use Bloodline Awakening on Fau had to be because I had already used Tamed Monster’s Awakening on her.

The mystery was what the difference between Drimo and Melum was. Both had been hatched from eggs and both had Awakening skills already. And yet I could use Bloodline Awakening on Melum, but not Drimo.

Maybe according to Drimo’s internal data, he’d already had an Awakening item used on him? I had gotten Drimo’s egg from an event, so maybe it was to be expected that his situation would be different.

“This is a puzzle,” Ivan said.

“Yeah, I wonder if it’s worth the fortune it cost...”

While Ivan and I were discussing things, Fau let out a shout.

“Aye-aaaye!”

“Is there an enemy?”

“Aye!”

I looked to where Fau was pointing and saw a Hammer Pig coming our way. There was only one, which was actually perfect.

“All right, let’s test out Bear Bear’s Bee King skill.”

I also wanted to see what the Lounger was capable of.

“Himka, return! Lounger, come out!”

“...Mrrr.”

Okay, great. We had an apathetic sloth on our side now. Could it even fight? If not, I could always switch in another yokai.

“Lounger, can you fight?”

“...Mrrr.”

Was that a nod? Other than skills players could also acquire, like Slowing Circle, the yokai also knew skills called Chill Gift and Chill Enemy.

Chill Gift was a skill that lowered an ally’s speed in exchange for healing their HP. The skill didn’t heal a chunk of HP at once, but slowly recovered it over time. Additionally, it boosted defense, making it useful for tanks.

Chill Enemy simply reduced an enemy’s speed while also lowering their attack power. A yokai that could cast both buffs and debuffs would definitely be helpful. However, Slowing Circle seemed like it had a more profound effect.

The Lounger itself also moved incredibly slow. In fact, it barely moved at all. Maybe it wasn’t even capable of close combat?

“Huh? Whoa! What is that?! A-A yokai?”

Whoops, Ivan’s surprised. I realized then that I hadn’t given him any sort of heads-up about the yokai.

“Sorry. This is the Lounger, a yokai. I just befriended it, so I wanted to test out its abilities. Is that okay with you?”

Ivan’s party was fairly powerful, so even if the Lounger held us back a little, I was sure we could manage. We were only facing against a lone Hammer Pig, anyway.

“Could you hang back and watch until things look really dicey?” I asked.

“Y-You got it! I won’t let you down, Silver-Haired!”

It’s not that serious, dude.

“S-Sure. I appreciate it.”

“Yes! I’ll watch over your yokai, and I won’t share this information with anyone else! Still, the fact that you found a completely new yokai here is amazing... It seems people have been discovering yokai one after another lately.”

“Really? Other yokai have been found besides this one?”

We were in the middle of a battle, but I couldn’t just let that comment go ignored, okay?

“Hamakaze just discovered the last two yokai in Zone Ten.”

“Wow. I’ll have to pay a visit to the Quick-Eared Cats later.”

Hamakaze was an all-star. There was a reason she was considered the top Onmyoji.

“If you’re interested, would you want to search for yokai with me? I already bought the information.”

“What? Are you sure? I can pay you half the information fee.”

“No, it’s fine. You more than made up for it by letting me join you for testing out the Bloodline Awakening!”

“Really? Okay then, I’ll take you up on that.”

“...Mrrr,” the Lounger intoned vaguely as Ivan and I conversed.

Then, its body glowed faintly, and at the same time, the Hammer Pig approaching us also started glowing.

The Lounger must have used Chill Enemy. The skill actually had a pretty long range. That was good to know. Its slow-down effect was also significant. The Hammer Pig’s running pace visibly slowed by a lot.

“That will be great when we’re going after monsters from a long distance.”

“...Mrrr.”

“All right, next is Bear Bear’s turn!”

I wanted to find out what skills Bee King buffed.

“We’ll start with Poison Claw! Can you use it?”

“Grooowl!”

I was expecting the skill to have an effect on poison-type skills, Beekeeping, Sweet Scent, and Insect Attractant. The key here was whether or not it buffed Poison Claw, one of Bear Bear’s main methods of attacking. Would the skill only buff Stinger, or were any and all poison-type skills affected? Based on the answer, I could consider Bee King a jackpot or a mega jackpot.

“Grooowl grooowl!”

“Hrrrog?”

“Whoa! You poisoned it in one hit! And your attack power is stronger!”

After a few more battles, I determined that Poison Claw had in fact received a substantial buff. It not only dealt more damage, but it also clearly had a better chance of inflicting Poison. Based on what I could tell, both the damage and the odds had close to doubled.

And it wasn’t just the chance that increased, but the amount of slip damage inflicted by Poison too. There were several levels to Poison, but it seemed like this started with the highest level of poison. This was such a great buff that I almost couldn’t believe it.

“That was awesome, Bear Bear!”

“Grooowl.”

Honestly, this upgrade was so amazing that the smug look on Bear Bear’s face was well deserved. Bear Bear thrust their head towards me as if they were saying “Pet me!” So of course I did.

“Good job.”

“Growl growl.”

If Poison Claw improved by that much, I couldn’t wait to see how much better their Beekeeping was!

“You seem shocked, Silver-Haired. Is it really that much stronger?”

“Yeah, by quite a bit.”

When I explained everything to Ivan, he was also surprised by how much the Bee King skill had buffed Poison Claw.

“I-I’m always impressed by you, Silver-Haired. You’ve made another killer discovery!”

“I’m sure if you used Bloodline Skill, you’d get a super good skill too?”

“W-Well, yes... But it’s scary not knowing what you’ll get ahead of time.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

After a bit more testing of Bee King, I confirmed that Bear Bear’s Poison Claw skill was much, much stronger now. Its chance of inflicting Poison had nearly doubled, making Bear Bear an even stronger damage dealer.

Since Bee King also powered up skills related to beekeeping, I’d say I had hit the super mega jackpot.

“Thanks for coming with me,” I told Ivan.

“Of course. I learned so much.”

“Well, should we go yokai hunting now?”

“Yes! You can leave everything to me, since I have all the information,” Ivan said with full confidence. And for good reason. I almost couldn’t believe how smoothly our searching went. It was seriously a walk in the park.

Ivan’s party was extremely strong, but as it turned out, forming a friendship with the last two remaining yokai did not take very much fighting power at all.

First, we headed to the Eastern Great Mountains, where the Satori could be found. It was a yokai that looked like a very hairy monkey, and we barely had to fight it at all.

As we were walking through the mountains, the monkey-like figure appeared right in front of us. If we chased it for a good bit, we would eventually find out it was in fact a Satori. If we hadn’t known any better, we would have kept chasing it, but this little game of chase was actually a trap. Surprisingly enough, you weren’t supposed to chase it. If you ignored the Satori and went the opposite direction, the Satori would continue to circle around and show itself to you. However, if you kept ignoring it, it would send monsters to attack you. But even then, the right choice was to continue to run away from it.

After thirty minutes of completely ignoring it, the Satori approached us, and that was when we were able to form a bond of friendship with it. Kudos to Hamakaze for figuring out this complicated method.

When the Satori was antagonistic towards us, it looked like a creepily smiling monkey, but after we became friends with it, it transformed into an adorable long-haired baby monkey that looked very pettable.

After that, we headed for the final yokai in Zone Ten, the Double Cocoon. This, too, was a peculiar yokai, and it appeared in the Great Wilderness to the west. That was also the location where I had met Weris, the beast-hybrid NPC.

Before we could find the cocoon, we first had to find a moth. Among the moths that flew about the wilderness, there was a variant that had light blue wings instead of the normal white. If you followed a moth with light blue wings, it would lead you to the Double Cocoon.

It sounded easy, right? I thought so too at first, but this wilderness was filled with monsters and animals that preyed upon moths.

We had to protect the moth from those predators. Not only that, but the moth occasionally scattered scales that inflicted us with various mental status ailments, like Terror, Fury, and Sloth.

It was really difficult having to carry Bear Bear when they stopped moving after being inflicted with Sloth, while also having to try like crazy to catch Fau when she was inflicted with Fury and attempting to attack the moths.

“Grooowl grooowl.”

“Out of all my monsters, why did Bear Bear have to get hit with Sloth?!”

“Grrrowl grooowl grooowl.”

“Stop scratching your butt!”

“Grooowl.”

“You’re too heavy!”

We chased around the moths like our lives depended on it, until we finally found the Double Cocoon clinging to a cleft in a tree. It took so long that we were exhausted by the end of it.

The location of the cocoon changed every time it was discovered, so we couldn’t even have learned where it was from another party.

The Double Cocoon was a large cocoon that glowed with a pale blue light, but how were we supposed to fight something like this? We tried immediately, and it turned out that it could float. As it floated in midair, it released scales that inflicted us with mental status ailments.

Incidentally, the Satori was an evasion tank. It was good at accumulating aggro, making it a perfect companion for a rearguard Onmyoji. Its skills allowed it to boost its own evasion and lower the status ailment resistance of enemies. If Lilith and the Satori teamed up, then our chances of inflicting a status ailment would go up even more. They would work very well together.

“Phew, thanks for your help, Ivan. Seriously. If I hadn’t come here with you, I would’ve had a really hard time with this.”

“I should be thanking you. This has been fun.”

Despite what he said, I knew I had gotten way more out of this exchange. We split the materials we got along the way evenly, but Ivan was the one with the info about the yokai. He was also the one doing most of the work during battles.

All that in exchange for only information about Bloodline Awakening just didn’t seem like a fair exchange. It wasn’t like I had told him how to befriend the Lounger either. Actually, maybe if I did tell him, that would be equal compensation. It seemed like Ivan was actively interested in befriending yokai, after all.

“As thanks for the Satori and Double Cocoon info, I’ll tell you how to befriend the Lounger.”

“Huh? No way, I can’t ask you to do that!”

“I need to pay you back somehow. Besides, it’s not like I’m telling you verified information.”

Ivan was hesitant, so I assured him it was fine and told him how I had met the Lounger. That said, I also didn’t have a complete understanding of how it had happened. I just told him about how I had been playing in the park at Beastus when Billy came up to talk to me and brought me to the Chill Retreat, where I then happened to meet the other NPCs.

After listening to what I had to say, Ivan shook his head wearily. Had I gone on for too long?

“Hmm, so, first I have a question about the Chill Retreat—in order to unlock that, you have to find a hangout spot in Beastus and just chill there for a bit?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty positive about that part.”

“And then the NPCs who appear there afterwards probably have something to do with the individual player’s skills and job class, right? After all, you ran into a Tamer, a Farmer, and a yokai, who are all NPCs that are beneficial to you. It’d be too lucky otherwise.”

“You’re probably right. I also thought it was too lucky at first.”

It was likely that other players would encounter entirely different NPCs. As I talked more about the Chill Retreat, Ivan put a hand to his chin like he was thinking deeply about something.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I just thought of something. Have you been to Dwarvelia to the east?”

“No, not yet.”

“Dwarvelia actually has a lot of spots like parks and the like... Do you think it could be connected?”

“You might be right!”

It would be very unlikely for similar events to not occur elsewhere outside of Beastus, so there was probably a Chill Retreat in Dwarvelia too. The items you could exchange points for and the NPCs you met were probably different, though.

“Ivan, what are you doing after this?”

“I am one hundred percent free! I’ll go with you!”

I-I wasn’t asking if you wanted to go, I was just going to suggest you should check it out if you go there...

“I have to defeat the boss to get there. You don’t have to tag along for my sake,” I told him.

“I can help you with the boss,” Ivan offered.

“No, I couldn’t let you do that.”

“You’ve given me so much already, at least let me do this for you.”

Hmm. I didn’t want to turn down Ivan’s kind gesture. I meant to pay him back with my information about the Lounger, but now I was on the receiving end of yet another favor!

“A-All right, then. Thanks. But first, let’s go to Beastus’s Chill Retreat.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Of course. Verification is important for figuring out how to unlock the one in Dwarvelia, right?”

If we could get some hints as to how to get to the Chill Retreat, then that would help guide our actions in Dwarvelia. If Ivan was going to help me beat the boss to unlock Dwarvelia, then it was the least I could do to help him find the Chill Retreat.

First we tried just going directly to the Chill Retreat, but Ivan was unable to see the entrance. As I had suspected, players had to be invited there by Billy.

“Well, should we go to the park, then?” Ivan asked.

“Yeah! Let’s kick back and relax as best we can!”

“Growl grooowl!”

It was weird to say we were going to try our best to kick back and relax, but hey, it wasn’t wrong!

After we hung out and verified several things, Ivan and I debriefed in the sweets shop.

“It looks like it’s instanced per player,” I observed.

“Yeah.”

Actually, it hadn’t taken Ivan long at all to gain entrance to the Chill Retreat. We had succeeded in being approached by Billy after hanging out in the park.

However, we weren’t able to go into the back of the Chill Retreat together. Even though we stepped foot there at exactly the same time, Ivan disappeared. I waited a few seconds just to be sure, but he didn’t follow in after me.

I went back to the sweets shop, and Ivan showed up there a little later.

We tried going in and out several more times, but it seemed that at some point in the hallway that led to the back, we were sent to separate areas. The same thing happened even when we formed a party. The area was instanced per player, making it a completely personalized facility.

“Were there any NPCs there?” I asked Ivan.

“No, not yet.”

“Then it’s like I thought—you need to chill there for a little more. What’ll you do? I’m curious to see what happens too, so should we just hang out?”

“You don’t mind?”

And so, Ivan and I chilled at our respective Chill Retreats. We arranged to meet back at the sweets shop in three hours.

“All right, let’s go relax too, guys!”

Man, I was starting to feel like I was doing nothing but loaf around lately, but this was for verification purposes and to find more events. There was no way around it. I just had to relax as hard as I could!

“Aah... This footbath is the best...”

“...♪”

“Hm-hmm.”

While my monsters and I were hanging out and having tea, I noticed a figure walking towards me from the entrance. He was a stout man dressed in well-tailored, comfortable clothes.

“Hi there. Nice to meet you,” he greeted me.

“Nice to meet you too.”

“Are you a new fellow Chill Retreat enjoyer? My name is Norjin. I’m a Merchant.”

“I-I’m Yuto, a Tamer.”

A Merchant? I was expecting the next NPC to be someone who did cooking or concocting... I mean, I had absolutely zero skills that had anything to do with merchants. So why did a Merchant appear?

As I sat there with my head tilted to the side, Norjin continued.

“To commemorate our new friendship, why don’t we go to an event together?”

Just like with the other NPCs, Norjin invited me to an event. I had thought that I would meet an NPC who had some connection to my skills or job class, but I guess not?

But the thing was, so far I had only encountered NPCs that had something to do with my personal playstyle and skills: a Tamer, a Farmer, and a yokai. I had a hard time accepting that it was just a coincidence.

“Hmm.”

“Is now a bad time?” Norjin asked.

“Ah! No, not at all! Yes, I would like to go with you!”

“Oh, great! I’m happy to hear that!”

Norjin brought me to a bonfire in the middle of the forest outside of the city. There wasn’t really anything special to mention about it—it was exactly what it sounded like. Though it was fun to space out and let my mind wander in front of the bonfire in the dim light of the forest! I sort of understood now why there was such a demand for bonfire videos.

After it was over, I returned to the Chill Retreat to find Ivan was already there.

“Oh, hey! Did I keep you waiting?”

“No, you didn’t. I just got back five minutes ago.”

“So, did you meet Nomole the Tamer like we expected?”

“Yes, exactly.”

However, Nomole didn’t bring Ivan to a field, as he had with me. Though I supposed it wasn’t really the hour for stargazing anyway. Instead, he’d brought Ivan to an area with shallow open-air baths where people lay down to look up at the sky. That also sounded pretty fun.

“The Chill Tamer’s Book of Secrets was added to the list of items I could buy, so now all I have to do is earn more CP.”

“Ooh! Let me know what job class you pick if you end up using it.”

“You...don’t mind if I go first?”

“Why would I?”

“Never mind, I knew you’d say something like that. More importantly, what did you get up to?”

“Well, it was kind of weird, actually...” I began. I told Ivan about how I had encountered, for some reason, a Merchant NPC.

“What do you think?” I asked him.

“Hmm. Were there any changes to the item list?”

“Oh, right! I’ll go check right now, so just wait here!”

I dashed to the back of the retreat and opened up the list of exchangeable items. Sure enough, displayed on the list was an item called “Chill Merchant’s Book of Secrets.” There were a few other new skills and items added as well.

“So it followed the same pattern as the other NPCs,” I explained to Ivan.

“But you said you don’t have any Merchant-type skills...”

“That’s right.”

“What about items or titles? Like, do you have any special items or any titles that are related to merchants?”

“Oho, good thinking.”

Now that he said it, it made sense there was a possibility that those would be related. I scanned through my items and titles and found several titles that seemed like likely candidates.

“I have Spending the Day’s Earnings by Night, Throwing Away the Day’s Earnings by Night, Million Dollar, and Millionaire. Those might be why.”

“Whoa, you have all those?”

“Yup.”

“It does make sense for those to trigger a Merchant NPC to show up.”

Ivan was probably right, which meant there were probably actually a lot of different NPCs I would encounter in the Chill Retreat. I guess I would have to keep coming back several more times.

In any case, this was a good stopping point for verifying things in Beastus.

“Well, should we head to Dwarvelia in the east?” Ivan proposed.

“Yeah! Though we have to defeat the boss first.”

“Leave that to me!”

Ivan had already beaten that boss. Several times, even.

“I know all the tricks and items we’ll need!” he added.

“Oh, nice! Then I’m in good hands!”

With someone who already had experience fighting the boss on our side, I was sure we’d manage. I wonder what kind of city Dwarvelia is?

◇◇◆◇◇

“Oogaaa!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Olto, that was awesome!”

“Mmm!”

The battle to unlock eastern Zone Eleven was going perfectly in my and Ivan’s favor. We had all the information we needed, so we knew absolutely everything about the boss’s attack patterns and weaknesses, as well as all the essential items.

Ivan recruited players on the forums to join in on the fight an hour beforehand, but it only took a few minutes for us to get a full team. With five parties of six people each, we had a total of thirty players. With that many players, the battle turned into a raid, which meant the boss was stronger. However, it was actually easier to fight this way. We were all able to cover for each other’s mistakes and heal each other.

Plus, there were some strong first-wave players participating too.

“Double Slash!”

“Gaaagh!”

“Sick move, Holland!”

Ivan’s party members were Cerulean, Hinako, Takayuki, and Tsuyoshi. We also had some battle-loving players, like Holland’s and Kokuten’s parties.

Ashihana and Marca were present as well, but they really needed to stop glancing over at Bear Bear while they were fighting! They were making me nervous!

The top players were pulling out all the stops. So much so, in fact, that I had scarcely any need to get involved at all—much less the second-wave rearguard players. It was actually better not to get involved, otherwise we might make a bad move and make it harder for others to manage the boss’s aggro, so we had been told to focus on defending until further orders.

From my party, Olto and Drimo were the only ones fighting with the players on the front line.

Players who were fighting mains would probably take issue with this arrangement, but I was perfectly happy with it. The fight against the Cerberus Lion had been brutal. If this boss was anything like that, then I’d be dead the second I let my guard down a little. I would follow whatever the top players who had fought this boss before wanted me to do.

Thanks to this set up, the second-wave players and I felt comfortable enough to chat among ourselves as we watched the battle. We raised a cheer every time someone used a flashy move.

There were as many as eight second-wave players at my side. Since the first-wave players could beat the boss alone, they had essentially taken on the task of carrying the second-wave players.

One player who particularly caught my interest was a Tamer named Hijikata. Despite being a Tamer, he wielded a katana, and his starting monster was an Undine. I felt a sense of affinity with him.

While he was a second-wave player, he had friends who were first-wave players who had brought him all the way to Zone Ten.

Hijikata self-deprecatingly called himself a parasite, but I didn’t think there was anything wrong with being carried in order to play with your friends in the same zone. I remembered doing the same thing in many games in the past, both carrying and being carried.

Hijikata’s friends were currently fighting the raid boss with Kokuten and the rest of the vanguard. There was Isami, who was a female Swordfighter with short hair. Soar high! I couldn’t help but think at the name. Then there was Harada, a buff hunk; Hajime, who wielded a whip; and finally, the dashingly handsome Serizawa.

They all took their names from the Shinsengumi. But Serizawa...? Well, he seemed like he was having fun, so maybe it was a conscious choice. His dashing looks couldn’t get rid of the malicious vibes his name gave me, though.

The boss that said first-wave players were currently attacking was a giant monkey with four arms and three faces on one head. Its name was the Asura Primate. While on the surface it appeared to be a power fighter, it also made use of frequent magic attacks. The boss used water magic to both attack and hinder movement.

However, since we had already known that from the start, this was easy to deal with. The tanks, wearing water-resistant equipment, drew the boss’s aggro while also using potions that granted water resistance.

We also knew all the telegraphs of the boss’s attacks, so everyone was able to perfectly block or evade them. Even just a moment ago, with Ivan’s direction, Olto had guarded against the Asura Primate’s combo attack.

Plus, the traps that we obtained in the village just before the boss arena were doing great work. Just like how there was a village of beast-hybrids that Akari and I had discovered, there was a village inhabited by Dwarves before this boss too.

Halfway up the mountain was a large boulder that was actually an illusion. I was surprised to hear that it had been Ikaru, a Tamer I had previously met, who had discovered it. I saw her farming in the Town of Beginnings every day, but I had no idea she had made it this far this quickly. Was it easier for Tamers to encounter NPCs or something? Well, it was probably just a coincidence, but I was happy that Tamers were able to do their part.

While I savored the luxury of musing about all that at length, the battle against the Asura Primate reached its final stage.

“Graaagh?”

“Nice! The boss is paralyzed! Everyone, attack all together!”

“You got it, Silver-Haired!”

“Let’s do this!”

All at once, everyone attacked the Asura Primate, who had been paralyzed by a trap. We went all out, knowing this was the end. Actually, it kind of felt like I ended up being the one to give the order for everyone to attack. Did I just steal all the glory at the final moment? I had only meant to give orders to my monsters...

Wh-Whatever! I have to focus on attacking right now!

While I and the second-wave players attacked with regular magic and skills, the first-wave players were pulling out some super ostentatious moves.

“Hraaah! Sword Flash!”

“Flurry Stab!”

“Over Blaze!”

Were those special attacks? They seemed weaker than Holland’s, and they didn’t take long to charge, so maybe there were a lot of different types of special attacks. I need to show what I can do too!

“Bear Bear! It’s time! Release all your pent-up power! Drimo, Fau, Melum—use Awakening!”

“Growl growl!”

“Squeak squeeeak!”

“Aye!”

“Nyuuu!”

Look how strong my party has gotten! They can deal damage on par with top players!

Everyone’s favorite hero dealt the final blow. Holland swung his sword of light and shouted, “Shining Sabeeer!”

“Graaa...”

He’s as cool as ever! Holland’s special attack tore through the boss, and we defeated the Asura Primate—without anyone dying, amazingly.

We also got boss drops. I received various useful materials, like Asura Primate’s Pelt and Asura Primate’s Fang. I still hadn’t done anything with the Cerberus Lion’s materials, so I felt like I probably should. And that wasn’t all.

Name: Water Jewel

Rarity: 6 / Quality: 10 ★

Effect: A jewel that holds the power of water.

First I had received a Flame Jewel, and now a Water Jewel. No one else got this drop. Just me, again. I could only think this was due to the combined effects of Calling Blessing and Luck.

Now that we had defeated the boss, we could progress forwards. What followed was more or less the same as what happened after the Cerberus Lion battle.

Once we reached the end of the passageway, the new area opened up before us, and we soon reached the village. This time, not only had everyone survived the battle, but we all had plenty of energy left to spare. The journey to the village was a cakewalk.

At the village, our raid party disbanded. I exchanged friend codes with the players I’d just met before we parted ways.

“Silver-Haired, thank you.”

“No, thank you. You can come by my farm anytime.”

“I will!”

On our way to the village, Hijikata and I got into a good discussion about farming. Since he was still a beginner at farming, I gave him all sorts of advice, as though I were some sort of expert. As we were wrapping up our conversation, I even ended up inviting him to hang out at my farm.

I had gotten too caught up in the moment, I admit. Thankfully, Hijikata had replied with “Yes, I’d love to see your farm!” but someone who really valued their personal space might have replied with something like, “Ugh, don’t act so high-and-mighty!”

I had to be more careful. Kids nowadays could look all sparkly-eyed on the outside but be cursing you out on the inside.

Regardless, I suddenly had a lot more friends now that I exchanged friend codes with all the Shinsengumi and second-wave players. It was probably a good idea to participate in these kinds of raids every now and then.

“Seems like a pretty normal village to me.”

“Mm.”

“Nyuuu.”

Besides the fact that only Dwarves lived in this village, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. The houses made of stone were somewhat remarkable, but it wasn’t like they were totally unique either. Though when I paid more attention, I did notice that there were several aspects that were very dwarflike, such as the shops selling only metalware and the prevalence of alcoholic beverages.

However, our primary goal was to verify the chill event here. We couldn’t spend all our time in the village. Just then, a beefy, white-haired Dwarf called out to me.

“Can I have a word with you?”

He was here to guide me to another deity trial, just like the one in the beast-hybrid village. I had completely forgotten about that.

I was kind of in a hurry, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t spare a little of my time, so I apologized to Ivan and his party and decided to just follow the Dwarf to the shrine.

It was located in the same basic location as the Beast Deity’s idol was. At first glance, it appeared to be a stone statue of a plump man who resembled a stereotypical god of wealth. On closer look, I could see the man was actually stockily built and muscular. He also had a very dwarflike beard, so it was undeniably their deity.

“Do you wish to take on a trial?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Here is your trial.”

Mountain Deity Trial

Description: Offer three monster materials with a rarity 6 or higher.

Reward: Mountain Dweller factor, or five bonus points.

Time Limit: None.

It was more or less the same as the Beast Deity Trial, except for the Mountain Dweller factor instead of a Beast factor. By Mountain Dweller, it must have been referring to Dwarves.

After that, I met back up with Ivan’s party and we left the village. It took us a bit of walking before arriving at the Dwarf city, Dwarvelia.

“We’re finally here! Man, that took forever!”

“Good work, Silver-Haired.”

“Well done!”

It was already evening. Though considering we had fought a raid boss and traveled across a lot of the playing field, the fact that we’d made it here in less than half a day was actually pretty impressive. It just felt like it had taken a long time.

Ivan and his party members thanked me for my efforts. Takayuki and Tsuyoshi had gotten a later start than I had, but they had already far surpassed me. I didn’t ask, but I was almost positive their job class levels were higher than mine. That was only to be expected, of course, since they were both fighting classes. What? Tamer is also a fighting class? I thought we promised not to bring that up!

“Well then, should we go ahead and look for a park?” I asked.

“Yes, let’s.”

As a way to repay Ivan for getting everything we needed to defeat the raid boss, I agreed to introduce not only Ivan, but Cerulean, Hinako, Takayuki, and Tsuyoshi to the Chill Retreat. I had relied hard on all of them for the raid.

Ivan’s party had handled everything, from recruiting members on the forums, organizing the assembled players, and preparing all the necessary items, including the traps.

They claimed that it was thanks to me that they were able to gather so many famous players, which was why the raid boss fight had gone so smoothly, but I knew they were just exaggerating. Although, Kokuten did say he joined when he saw my name mentioned in the post... But I was sure a battle junkie like Kokuten would have joined whether I was there or not. It was just like a working adult to know how to butter someone up! You can’t fool me!

With Ivan guiding the way, we headed to a large park in the center of Dwarvelia. It resembled the one in Beastus, with a giant slide, monkey bars, sandbox, and other playground equipment.

“So all we have to do is just play here?” Cerulean asked.

“That should be easy enough!” Hinako said.

Cerulean and Hinako looked excitedly around at the park’s playground equipment. With her green hair and glasses, Cerulean gave off the impression of a serene beauty, so I had assumed that she wouldn’t like this place. But apparently I was wrong. As for Hinako, she seemed more like a happy-go-lucky type, with her brown pixie cut hair and comfortable, light clothing. She also seemed to like this spot, which matched my impression of her.

“C-Can I play with your monsters, Silver-Haired?!”

“Me too! I wanna play with them too!”

“O-Oh, sure. I don’t mind.”

“Yay!”

“Woo-hoo!”

It sounded like they were more hyped to play with my monsters than the playground equipment. My monsters were cute, though, so I understood!

After thirty minutes of playing together, the moment we were waiting for arrived.

“Hello there. You all look like the types that like to take it easy, eh?”

“H-Hello.”

However, I was surprised by the fact that the person who came up to talk to us was not Billy, but a plump woman in her fifties.

“Do you happen to know about the Chill Retreat?” she asked.

“Yes. I also know Billy,” I replied.

“Aha, I see. My name is Chilly. I’m the owner of the Chill Hall. I’m a friend of Billy’s.”

The Chill Hall, huh? So was it not the same thing? I wondered, but the place she guided us to was more or less the same as the Chill Retreat. There were some differences, such as it being more of a café than a sweets shop, and the area in the back where we could hang out had more western-style decor, but the items and such we could exchange points for were exactly the same.

My Chill Points also carried over here. I already had more than thirty, and Chill Tamer’s Book of Secrets and other items were available for purchase, so I could safely assume that I could perform actions in either city to accumulate points and unlock new items.

“Silver-Haired, thanks for everything. Now we can participate in the chill events too!”

“Thank you so much!”

I was thrilled that Cerulean and the others were so pleased to have come to the Chill Hall. Maybe this was enough to repay them for carrying me during the raid?

Honestly, I was interested in going to the north and south too, but I probably wouldn’t be able to check them out right away. For now, it probably made sense to just go sell the information I had to Alyssa.

With that thought, I tried contacting her.

“I’m free right now! In fact, you should come right now! Like, right now! Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

“O-Okay!”

And with that, I went immediately. Even I knew that this information about the Chill Retreat was worth a lot. As Alyssa wished, I dashed over there.

Incidentally, I had already split ways with Ivan and his party. I offered for us to go together and split the payment, but they declined.

I felt like Ivan had a right to some of the information fee, though. I even got down on my knees and bowed my head to the floor to try and persuade him to take his portion, but he still refused. Well, maybe that was a little overkill...

Some people just didn’t like taking a cut when they joined in partway through on something, and I guess Ivan was like that too. As I traveled thinking about that, I soon arrived at the Quick-Eared Cats.

“Hello.”

“Took you long enough!”

As soon as I stepped foot inside the Quick-Eared Cats’ shop, I was met with Alyssa striking a daunting pose. She was standing with both arms raised high, but why? Was she imitating the intimidation pose of a red panda? Or was she greeting me with open arms?

My monsters copied her pose. They could tell she was excited about something.

“So! You’ve got something to tell me, right? Info to sell? Info about this little black creature and about the park in Dwarvelia, right?!”

Whoops, so she already found out the gist? Well, Melum stood out, and Ivan’s party and I had spent a good amount of time playing at the park in Dwarvelia. Someone somewhere must have seen us and that information got back to Alyssa.

I picked up Melum, who was bouncing on top of my head, and held it out to an excited-looking Alyssa.

“Nyu?”

“I-Is that a slime? Or some other monster? Ah! It’s floating! It floats!”

“Nyuuu.”

“It’s so springy and bouncy! How cute!”

Alyssa was a big fan of how springy Melum was, and wasn’t even trying to hide her excitement.

A few minutes later, after poking Melum over and over, Alyssa finally regained her composure.

“Ahem. Sorry about that.”

She looked embarrassed. But I understood. This was just human nature, so I had to give her a pass.

“This is Melum, a dark elemental that hatched from Eine and Lilith’s egg.”

“A dark elemental! I thought there might be a monster like that!”

Darkness and light appeared in the folklore relating to the days of the week, so Alyssa had suspected that there would be elemental monsters that corresponded to those attributes too.

“So it hatched from an Air Elemental and a Demon’s egg? So I guess your little demon’s element is darkness.”

“I think you’re probably right.”

“It’s amazing that the monster already knows an Awakening skill. I’ve never seen that before.”

“That’s probably because I used an Awakening Incubator.”

“Oh, of course! That makes sense!”

Some information about Awakening-type items had been verified, but this was the first time the effects of an Awakening Incubator had come to light.

“So far, Lilith is the only Demon who has been discovered, but this is good information regarding their possible connection to elementals.”

This did bring up ideas for possible ways to produce a light elemental. Next, I also told Alyssa about Bloodline Awakening. As I expected, she was curious about the reason behind why I could use it on Melum but not Drimo. But she couldn’t come up with an exact reason either.

“So, Bear Bear knows Bee King now,” she said.

“I know there’s a skill called Dog King. I was thinking it must be the same type of skill.”

“Actually, there’s also a skill that’s been discovered called Frog King. It buffs the abilities of skills related to frogs.”

According to Alyssa, Frog King granted bonuses to poison-type skills, water magic, and singing. Plus, it gave bonuses to fish breeding too. It drastically raised the chances of breeding rare fish, which allowed the player to produce ultrarare fish that had never been seen before.

“I’m positive Bee King will have an effect on Bear Bear’s Beekeeping,” Alyssa stated.

Did that mean there was a possibility Bear Bear might get an even rarer item than Royal Jelly? Hell yeah, I can’t wait!

Alyssa also told me one more interesting bit of information. There was another player who used Bloodline Awakening on a Royal Honey Bear like Bear Bear, but that player’s bear was only able to learn the skill Bee Captain, which was an inferior version of Bee King. The skills went in order from Captain, General, and King, with each one having different effects.

The theory for the individual differences even between the same monsters was that it had something to do with the inherent qualities of the parents’ genes. Bear Bear had hatched from an egg I had purchased, so I couldn’t know for certain, but they probably had exceptional parents.

Wait, was Bear Bear actually royalty? Would they have been a prince of bears in another time?

“Grooowl?”

Nah, there was probably some mistake. Could you imagine this scatterbrained bear being a prince?

“All right, we’ve exchanged a lot of info so far, but that’s not all you have for me, is it?”

“Whoops, you’re right.”

“Don’t forget on me already.”

“Ha ha, sorry.”

I had been so satisfied with our conversation so far that I had completely forgotten.

“Let’s see, so, it happened at the park in Beastus.”

“Huh? Not Dwarvelia?”

“Nope. Beastus.”

Alyssa suddenly sat up straight. She was still smiling, but she looked a little more intimidating now. Simply straightening her back had changed her whole vibe.

But maybe I was just imagining things. I went ahead and told her everything, starting from when I met Billy in the park at Beastus up to when I was shown to the Chill Hall in Dwarvelia. I didn’t pause the entire time I talked.

I told her about how Billy had come up to talk to me while I was hanging out at the park and then brought me to the Chill Retreat, where I learned about Chill Points, met several NPCs, and discovered the menu of items I could exchange points for, including a Book of Secrets to advance to a fourth job class. Oh, and I couldn’t forget telling her about the yokai I met, the Lounger.

Even though all I had done was hang out and relax, I had managed to have many different encounters.

Alyssa’s expression didn’t change the entire time, so I kept talking, feeling somehow urged. That smile of hers really was a little intimidating. She almost looked upset. Did I do something wrong? I didn’t mind sharing everything, since I had already planned to do just that, but man did I rattle on.

“And that pretty much sums it up...”

“Wuh.”

Oh? What’s this?

“WAAAAAH! This is the craziest thing you’ve ever told meee! Aaahhhhh!”

Nice. Business as usual. It was just my imagination that she was upset! Heh, I got another scream out of her!

◇◇◆◇◇

After I had my fill of Alyssa’s yelling, I arrived in the northern part of Zone Ten.

“Silver-Haired! Over here!”

“Hey. Thanks for helping out again.”

“It was no problem! Thank you for inviting me!”

Ivan and his party ran over to me. I was meeting up with them once again.

You see, at Alyssa’s suggestion, I was participating in yet more battles to unlock the other parts of Zone Eleven. The impetus was the Water Jewel. After Alyssa was finished screeching, I told her about the Water Jewel—which I had forgotten about—and she fell prostrate on the ground where she stayed for quite a long time. I guess that information had more of an impact than I expected it would.

Once she recovered, we talked about me possibly challenging the unlocking battles in the north and south, which I had not yet done.

Alyssa wanted to find out if me getting a jewel was a surefire thing. I explained that it was probably just luck and my obtaining the first two didn’t guarantee that I would absolutely get any others. But Alyssa was fine with that outcome—she just wanted to verify the possibility. She also told me to do more leisurely activities in the town afterwards.

But the first step was the raid battles. I say first because, after that, I would be challenging it as part of a party, rather than as a raid. The fight changed to either a party battle or a raid battle based on the number of participants. The difficulty of the boss also changed with the scale of the battle, but Alyssa wanted to know if the drops changed as well.

At least doing some fighting in between the chill events gave me some nice variety.

I fought the raid battles with the Cats’ guildmaster, Highwood, and some members of the Verification Clan, but nothing significant enough to talk about happened. If I had to say anything about the experience, it was that everyone was way too strong.

The boss in the north had the body of a wyvern and legs of a spider, and its name was the Spider Wyvern. It was a tricky foe that spewed poison and skittered speedily around the cave, but it was easy to beat once we were able to trap it and keep it from moving around. Personally, I felt the most difficult part of dealing with it was its creepy appearance and movements.

The boss in the south was called the Octopus Golem, and it had eight long arms. For this fight, we brought a lot of tanks and had them guard the team as everyone else launched magic spells at the monster. Using this tactic, the fight took us less than fifteen minutes.

Even these super terrifying and fiendish bosses stood no chance against a team that held detailed intel on them. Although I could never pull it off on my own!

In the end, both bosses combined only took a total of two hours. I never imagined I would unlock the entirety of Zone Eleven before the end of the day.

Oh, and yeah, I did get the jewels. Both of them. I received a Wind Jewel from the Spider Wyvern, and an Earth Jewel from the Octopus Golem.

However, I was not the only one this time. Highwood also got an Earth Jewel. He was pleased, but Maple was baffled and said that only made things more confusing.

“Okay then, let’s head straight to the park now.”

“Oh yeah, let’s go.”

The Cats and I—specifically, Maple, Lewin, and Carlo—walked through the northern city of Hurun. Our destination was the park in the middle of the city, where we would hang out and trigger the chill event.

“How exciting! I haven’t played in a park since elementary school,” Carlo said.

“Yeah, saaame,” Maple said.

“Neither have I,” said Lewin.

Carlo and Maple aside, I couldn’t imagine Lewin and his full beard playing at a park. If this was real life, doing so could get him reported.

“Mm-mm!”

“Chirp chirp!”

“What is it?”

Olto and Rick clung to Lewin and started trying to tell him something. Unsure of what they were trying to communicate, Lewin tilted his head in confusion.

“I think they’re saying they’ll teach you how to play,” I told him.

“Mm!”

“Chirp!”

Olto and Rick puffed out their chests and gave a thumbs-up. Seeing that, Lewin laughed and patted them on the heads.

“Ga ha ha! I ’ppreciate it!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Chirp!”

Olto beamed, while Rick hopped onto Lewin’s shoulder and started mussing up his beard. My monsters loved Lewin. I felt like they were more attached to him than they were even to Amelia and Ursula. Was it the beard? Well, as long as they were having fun together, I was happy.

Unfortunately, this was where things stopped going so well for us. No matter how long we played at the park, no NPCs showed up.

“Hmm. I feel like we’ve hung out here for long enough, though.”

“Is it because it’s nighttime?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think that’s related.”

I was introduced to the Chill Retreat at night, after all. Plus, if the event was restricted to a certain time of day, then some players might not even be able to trigger the event at all.

Nevertheless, there was nothing we could do about the NPC not appearing. We all decided to split up for now and look around the city to see if we could find a clue.

At first, I was just walking around as I normally would, but my monsters soon got bored. It was my fault for bringing my monsters who were the quickest to get bored—Olto, Rick, Fau, Eine, and Perca.

“Chirp chiiirp!”

“Hey! Don’t run! You’ll crash into someone!”

“Aye-aye!”

“Don’t touch the stalls’ products without asking!”

“Tra-laaa!”

“Don’t chase each other down narrow alleyways!”

As I was chasing my monsters around like crazy, I noticed that people were staring at us. Probably because we were making a lot of noise in the middle of a main road. I decided we needed to get out of here right now. I took my monsters and fled down a back street.

“Ah, jeez. Way to make us stand out in a bad way, guys— Hey! There’s a cat!”

A cat was sitting on top of the wall. A super cute cat. This was probably the first cat I’d seen in this city.

“Mrow.”

“Aw, it left.”

“Honk honk!”

“Huh? Can you climb up there?”

Perca climbed up the wall and followed after the cat. He reminded me of myself when I was a rambunctious elementary schooler and used to run along the concrete block walls of other people’s houses. If I did that sort of thing at my age now, I’d really piss people off.

Most of my other monsters also ran off after Perca. Wasn’t this trespassing? How could they just go running down a wall dividing these expensive-looking houses?!

“L-Let’s follow them!”

“Nyuuu!”

“...♪”

I walked along the top of the wall, chasing my monsters, but nothing stopped me from continuing. It seemed like I could trespass right into their property, but I was sure that if I kept this up I would get in trouble. If nothing else, if an NPC saw me doing this sort of shady stuff in the middle of the night, I could only guess that it would have a negative impact on my favorability score with them.

I didn’t see any guards running out to stop us, so maybe the top of the wall was fine. If not, I was in trouble. Wait, this behavior wasn’t actually secretly lowering my favorability with NPCs, or my yet-unconfirmed karma points, was it?

I continued to walk, making sure not to fall, when my monsters and I ended up on the opposite side of the main road.

“Maybe this was just a regular shortcut?”

“Honk!”

“Hey, Perca! Wait!”

Perca hopped off the wall and landed in the road.

“Honk hooonk!”

“Y-You’re still going?!”

Just when I thought I had finally caught up with everyone, Perca and the others ran off again. They cut across the main road and climbed up the wall on the opposite side.

“Can you stop running already?!”

“Honk honk!”

“Fine! I’ll follow you to the very end! Let’s go, Sakura!”

“...♪”

Sakura was all smiles. Maybe my monsters just considered this a normal walk? Well, I guess doing this sort of thing at night was kind of exciting.

Once again, I was trying to keep my balance while walking on top of the wall that served as the barrier to a cluster of luxury houses, when I spotted some buildings that were constructed in a different style. Was it another residential area? But the roofs looked very low...

Once we reached the end of the upscale neighborhood, I realized why the other buildings looked so much shorter.

The houses in this area were shorter than the area with nicer houses, and were separated from them by a steep hill. That was why even the roofs of the houses located at the highest part of the slope came up shorter than the first stories of the mansions.

Below me, down the steep slope, I saw rows of European-style brick houses.

“Honk!”

“What? Th-This still isn’t trespassing? We’re okay?”

To my amazement, Perca hopped onto the roof of one of the houses from the wall.

“Honk!”

“Huh? Oh, I see people! Over there, and over here too!”

“Honk honk.”

I looked to see where Perca was pointing and saw figures of NPCs walking on top of the roofs of the houses here and there. Among them, I saw some walking across planks that had been laid between houses to serve as walkways.

Were we supposed to come this way?

In any case, it didn’t seem like I would have to worry about getting caught, which helped ease my nerves.

I continued moving forwards with my monsters. We scaled walls and jumped down from high places. I felt like I was doing an obstacle course or parkour.

Just as I climbed over a wall with Perca’s assistance, a person suddenly appeared before my eyes.

“Aaahhh!”

No, he didn’t teleport. He had just abruptly jumped up from a lower level.

I had just regained my composure enough to look at the scenery around me and admire the pretty townscape, when I was suddenly met with an extreme close-up of an old man. Who wouldn’t let out a scream or two at that?

The man who had appeared very much resembled Billy. He was an elderly man with white hair and a white beard, and looked something like a mountain man.

“Oops, sorry ’bout that. Didn’t mean to scare ya.”

“I-I’m sorry for yelling.”

The man’s eyes pierced out from under his white eyebrows, so for a moment I thought he was glaring at me, but he was just a regular, nice guy.

“No worries, son. I’m the owner of the Rowdy House. Ya can call me Row. Nice to meetcha.”

“Huh? The Rowdy House?”

“Mm-hmm. I thought ya seemed like a rowdy fella.”

This sounds familiar.

“I think my establishment is perfect for a lad like you. Are ya interested?”

There it is!

“Oh, yes. I would be happy to.”

“Oho ho ho. Then follow me, boy.”

And so, Row brought me to a curious-looking shop in the corner of the residential area. It was surrounded by houses on all four sides and could only be accessed by traversing over the rooftops. If you were just walking normally along the road, you’d never spot the place.

The green lawn, which was surrounded by walls, gave off a secret base vibe and piqued my curiosity even more. The Rowdy House itself was a western-style hamburger restaurant. It looked sort of like a retro diner you’d see show up in an American road trip movie. It was super stylish.

“Is this the Rowdy House?”

“Sure is. You should check out what I did with the basement. You’ll have a blast down there.”

Row pointed to a corner of the shop where there was a staircase leading down. I headed over and descended into a dimly lit playroom that had darts, air hockey, cards, and other games. There was even a bouldering wall. I could see how these all counted as rowdy, or even rambunctious games. A lot of them were easy to pick up and quick to play.

What stood out to me the most were the game cabinets lined up against the wall opposite the bouldering wall, making me feel like I was in a real arcade. I stood in front of one, and a display popped up showing me a list of games I could play. It seemed the cabinet was loaded with several games to pick and choose from.

There were nearly one hundred games to play, from legendary games of the past to popular fighting games from the same company that created LJO, and even ones released by their parent company. This was the place to be for a retro game lover!

And that wasn’t all—I could obtain items here too by exchanging Rowdy Points—or RP, for short. Among the skills, there were some with interesting names like Hasty Rest, Mad Rush, and Parkour. It was clear from their names that they were meant to be the reverse concept of the chill skills.

“Will the list of exchangeable items increase if I meet NPCs here?”

Could I get a Rowdy Tamer’s Book of Secrets, for example? When I relaxed at the Chill Retreat, NPCs showed up. So was being rowdy in the Rowdy House the key to meeting NPCs here?

I tried doing just that to see what would happen. My monsters and I dove in and played a few of the games. My mentality was “don’t think, feel” and I played without worrying about winning or losing. I just played through as many games as I could, finishing as quickly as possible. I was playing air hockey so erratically that I didn’t even know what was going on. I think I won?

Then, after fifteen minutes of rambunctious playing...

“Hello. Wow, you’re really going wild!”

It worked! A young man with black hair dressed in a blue robe suddenly appeared and started talking to me. On his shoulder sat a white rat.

“My name is Mullen. I’m a Tamer. This here is Dash.”

“Squeak!”

“I-I’m Yuto, a Tamer.”

This was almost the exact same script as when Nomole spoke to me at the Chill Retreat.

“Yuto, are you interested in checking out a rowdy event?”

“Absolutely!”

“Oh, good! How about we go together, then?”

I shouted my answer before he had even finished his question, but he just gave me an amused smile and guided me to the event.

Now that I thought about it, I realized that in my excitement, I had agreed without asking him any details. Mullen kindly told me about the event as we made our way there.

“We’re headed to an obstacle course. There’s a race going on there.”

“A race? You mean as in people competing for the best time?”

“Yup. But instead of competing against each other for a ranking, they’re trying to beat a specific time. So you’re basically competing against yourself.”

Mullen went on to explain that the goal time changed depending on one’s Agility stat and the skills they possessed.

The race took place in a small building in the middle of town. There was a simple wooden sign on the door that said “Rowdy,” but that told you nothing about what the building was. Once we stepped inside, I saw a front desk area and a staircase leading to the basement.

“This is where you register to enter,” Mullen explained.

“Got it.”

There was no fee to participate. All I had to do was give my name at the entrance. The man at the reception desk then explained the event to me. Like Mullen said, each player had their own goal time, and you were considered to have cleared the obstacle course as long as you finished under that time.

Essentially, everyone was given a time limit that would be challenging but still possible for them to beat. There were technically rankings, but there was no special prize for achieving them besides prestige. Though I bet there were players out there who would go all out to try to raise their rank.

There was no way I’d ever be able to place in the rankings, so I decided to just worry about beating my own goal time. If I wanted to actually rank, I’d need the insane speed of someone like KTK.

I walked down to the basement and was met with an astonishing sight. The room was unthinkably massive and furnished with a towering fortress of an obstacle course. The tower was made of wood and had a very charming design.

I couldn’t see the whole thing from the bottom, but I suspected the course extended pretty far back too. No wonder it might take me over five minutes to clear it.

My personal time to beat was five minutes and twenty-three seconds. If I recall correctly, the time limit for the first stage of a certain ninja obstacle course show was a minute and a half. The fact that it was going to take me over five minutes to get through this course spoke to the size and complexity of the course.

“All right! I’m ready for this!”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

“Aye-aye!”

Unfortunately, my monsters could not participate. Though to be fair, if Rick participated, he would have easily ranked in first. I doubted even top players could rival his speed.

“Okay guys, wait here for me, okay?”

“...!”

“Nyuuu!”

“Good luck, Yuto!”

“Squeak!”

With my monsters, Mullen, and Dash seeing me off, I plunged into the obstacle course.

First, I had to go through a walkway made of suspended ropes that was cramped both height- and width-wise. The path twisted and turned, making it extremely hard to walk. Once I got through there, the next task was bouldering. I scrabbled frantically up the many grips attached to the wall. After that, I had to get through various other obstacles, like monkey bars, a rope ladder, a suspended vertical rope, and a trampoline.

How much time had passed since I started this underground obstacle course? I didn’t think I had gone over my time yet...

Come to think of it, the term “underground obstacle course” sounded kind of sinister, as if this was some sort of death game. I couldn’t help but feel like it wouldn’t be out of the question for there to be some rich people somewhere watching and betting on the results. But nah. This place was just a nice sports facility.

“Hup! Ho! Crap!”

It’s getting harder! These spiral monkey bars are way too hard!

“Grrr...”

“Aye-aye!”

“Whaaa? Fau?”

“Aye!”

I suddenly noticed Fau just outside the obstacle course. There was some sort of invisible barrier blocking the obstacle course off from the outside, so she couldn’t come inside. But having her right there cheering me on lifted my spirits.

“Tra-la-laaa!”

“Nyuuu!”

“Ooh, you guys are here too.”

All right! I got this!

“Hraaaaah!”

Aaand I ended up going way over time! It took me around seven minutes. This was my first time doing it though, so some delay was only to be expected.

After that, I challenged the course two more times and somehow succeeded in beating my goal time. It was probably intended to be too difficult to beat it on your first time without having the route and strategy memorized.

“Congratulations! You beat your time!”

“Squeak squeak!”

Mullen and Dash congratulated me and gave me thumbs-ups. Would this earn me RP? I went back to the Rowdy House to check, and I found that I earned as many as ten RP. It was probably going to be more work to accumulate RP than CP, since the latter only required me to relax and hang out.

Once I was done there, I went to the rendezvous point to meet back up with Carlo and the other Quick-Eared Cats. They had already assembled by the time I arrived.

“Ah, Silver-Haired! How did it go?”

“You guys first. Find anything?”

At my question, the three Quick-Eared Cats shook their heads.

“It was fruitless. I couldn’t find anything,” Carlo said.

“I found nothin’ either,” Lewin groaned.

“Me neither. And all I did was sit on a bench the whole time,” Maple pouted.

Not one of them had discovered anything new.

“Heh heh heh.”

“L-Look at that bold smile! You found something, didn’t you?! Silver-Haired!”

“Wh-What is it?!”

Nice, I’d hooked Carlo and Lewin! Maple’s glare was pretty good too!

“Mwa ha ha! Listen up!”

“Ah, hold on a moment, please. We shouldn’t talk here. Let’s go somewhere else.”

“Ah, good point.”

Maple stopped me before I could continue. She wasn’t exactly glaring at me, but her look was piercing. She was right—this wasn’t something to discuss in the middle of a busy road. Obviously someone could be listening in.

The three Quick-Eared Cats were famous players, so they were bound to stand out. Though my monsters stood out even more so with the way they were making a ruckus.

Maple led us to a private room in a café. In any town the Quick-Eared Cats went to, the first thing they did was find a place they could speak privately. They truly were model information brokers.

“Sooo, what did you find?” Maple asked me.

“Well, let’s see... First, I found a cat. Then Perca started chasing that cat.”

“Honk honk!”

“And then...”

As I pet Perca, who was looking smug as he rested his chin on the table, I explained everything I did after leaving the park. Once I told them how it was possible to exchange RP for a Rowdy Tamer’s Book of Secrets, Maple clutched her head and screamed.

“NGAAAH! I knew we should’ve called Alyssa!”

“Whoa!”

I was suddenly reminded that Maple was also capable of unleashing an impressive shout. I wasn’t sure how I could have forgotten. But why were Lewin and Carlo covering their ears as if they’d never heard this before? Carlo’s bat and rat even fled into his cloak to hide.

“Uhh...?”

“I’m sorry. I lost my head for a little there!” Maple said.

“N-No worries.”

Next, I took the Cats on a walk around town to see if we could get the Rowdy House to appear again. Unlike the Chill Retreat, I didn’t know the requirements to make it show up, so we just retraced my exact steps.

It seemed that the cat I followed was the guide. When we got to the main road, we saw cats appearing frequently. The cats all walked the same path.

But the first time we followed the path, nothing happened. When we tried again, Row made his appearance.

Maple theorized that it mattered how fast we went. The first time I brought the Cats along, we weren’t familiar with the area so we had gone slowly. Since this was the Rowdy House we were going to, I guess we needed to go at a bit of a reckless speed.

“Now, about compensation...”

The Cats couldn’t afford to pay me the full amount I was owed, so they offered their usual deal of paying me a portion in gold and letting me choose items from their inventory to make up for the rest.

There wasn’t anything I desperately wanted at that moment, so I decided to take my time choosing. I did want materials I could offer for the deity trials, but I also bet that I could gather just them on my own.

While I was thinking about that, my monsters pointed out all the things they wanted. They seemed to know that Fau and Melum had already chosen the Food Catching skill. My monsters did a good job of exchanging information with each other. Olto and the others started expressing interest in looking through the catalog.

My hands were tied. I decided I would just let my monsters and yokai pick whatever they wanted.

After I split up with the Cats and returned home, I perused the inventory with my monsters. It was interesting to see how different the items they wanted were.

“Olto, you want...a watering can?”

“Mm-mm!”

It was a stunning, resplendent watering can made of silver-colored metal. It was engraved with a beautiful, intricate ivy design and the handle was decorated with green jewels. Its appearance made it seem like a magical tool of some sort, but it had no special effects. It was just utterly gorgeous. If it made Olto happy, I was more than happy to get it for him.

“Sakura, you want a sapling?”

“...♪”

It was a Sacred Tree sapling. The Sacred Tree that Lilith emerged from was growing well, and I had afterwards purchased two more at an auction. Well, having more didn’t hurt, so I was fine with that.

“And for Rick, an assortment of nuts.”

“Chirp!”

Of course that was what he picked. He never changed. I selected an assortment box that came with a large quantity of nuts for him.

In addition to those, I also selected the items my other monsters wanted, which varied from decorative objects to food.

“Bear Bear, you want what? A Transplant Ticket?”

“Growl!”

Bear Bear selected a ten-pack of tickets. When used on a farm, the tickets allowed you to freely transplant crops.

“Are there plants you want to move?”

“Growl!”

“Does it have something to do with your beehive?”

“Grooowl.”

After asking them a few questions, I found that in order to raise the quality of the honey they harvested, they needed to move some plants around.

From what I recalled, in real life, by planting only certain types of flowers around a beehive, you could ensure that the bees only collected a specific type of nectar. I asked Bear Bear if that was what they wanted to do, and it turned out I was right.

“Growl growl!” they replied, nodding repeatedly.

“Hmm, I guess it’s time we rearrange the farm.”

Chapter Three: The Lakeside Tree and the Flower Garden

“All right, let’s jump right into things and go to the Farming Guild.”

“Mm-mm!”

“Growl growl!”

After I logged in, my monsters and I headed to the Farming Guild. Bear Bear had told me how they wanted the farm rearranged before I logged out the night before. Before I logged back in, I refined the plan to remodel the farm, so I knew exactly where to transplant the crops.

I didn’t know what changes would happen to the honey, but if this was what Bear Bear wanted, then it had to be done. Though it did take a lot of time for me to even understand what they were trying to communicate to me.

But I soon found out that in order to rearrange everything to Bear Bear’s liking, I needed way more Transplant Tickets than the ones I had. They were expensive, but I had ample funds since I had just sold information.

Up until now, I had consolidated all the beehives in one area, but now I had them scattered all over the farm. For example, I made a plot filled only with fire elemental crops and placed a beehive in the middle of it.

I had fire, air, water, and earth plants covered, but I was a little iffy about holy-type plants. I ended up concentrating the Purified Grass and Sacred Trees in one plot, but I didn’t know if those actually were holy-type plants. As for dark-type plants, well, I didn’t even have those, so the point was moot. That aside, I would at least be able to see what changes occurred from the main four elements.

Bear Bear’s Bee King skill still hadn’t come into effect yet, but I was looking forward to seeing what kind of honey they would collect when it did.

“The farm looks a lot better now too.”

“Mm-mm!”

“...♪”

“Grooowl.”

Before now I had things organized loosely, with trees, fruit trees, and herbs grouped together, but now I had organized the plants by their elemental type.

Without proper planning, the trees and shrubs looked like a cluttered mess, so I had Olto and Sakura give me their input while I rearranged things to look more put together. I placed the beehives in the center of their plots and arranged the trees around them in a circle. Around the trees I replanted flowering plants. This looked much prettier than planting them randomly.

Olto and Sakura looked satisfied, and I had a lot of fun too. It was like redecorating a room.

“What should we do today? Look for another rowdy event?”

“...!”

“Oh? What’s up, Sakura?”

Sakura was trying to tell me something. What was she doing? A banzai pose? Was she influenced by Alyssa’s red panda intimidation pose? Or something else?

“Something big?”

“...!”

“Bingo. Let’s see, something big and tall...? Ah! The Sacred Tree!”

“...”

“No? Oh, but I was close?”

Something close to a Sacred Tree and that had something to do with Sakura?

“Oh, I got it! The Lakeside Sequoia!”

“...♪”

“You wanna go see the Sequoia Dryad, don’t you?”

Today was the day the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad’s Altar was open. I was planning to swing by there tonight, but since it was clear Sakura wanted to visit the dryad sooner than later, I figured I could go now too.

And so, once we were done with our daily tasks, we headed to the underground altar. Although I came here every week, the sacred atmosphere never failed to leave me in awe.

“Welcome,” the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad greeted us.

“...!”

“Tri-triii!”

“Hee hee.”

Sakura and Olea were interacting with the Dryad. They both looked happy, but Sakura looked even more delighted to see the dryad. I also got the impression that the Sequoia Dryad was more affectionate towards Sakura. I wondered if that was because their relationship was special since they were essentially like mother and daughter?

As I watched the three of them giggle and smile at each other, a window popped up in front of me.

“It’s asking if I want to give an offering...?”

Oh! Has it been eight weeks already?! I had been told that I had to wait eight weeks after giving an offering to the Lakeside Sequoia before I could do so again. I had completely forgotten about that, but apparently today marked eight weeks since that point.

“Oh man, what should I pick?”

This was all too sudden. I didn’t know what to do! If I had known today was the day I could give an offering, I would have prepared an item to give!

“Hmm. Last time, I offered premium fertilizer and got a Lakeside Tree Fruit in return.”

I now had items with an even higher rarity than I did last time. Any one of them seemed like they would get me a good item in return, but...

“I’m not sure what to choose.”

“...?”

“Oh, Sakura. Are you done?”

“...♪”

While I was puzzling over what to do, she and the Sequoia Dryad had finished their interaction. Sakura peered curiously at my screen.

“What do you think I should offer?”

“...?”

Sakura also wasn’t sure what to select. But that adorable, puzzled look on her face, gave me an idea. I scrolled down towards the bottom of the list and found the item I was looking for.

“A Tree Nymph’s Young Leaf!”

This was one of the ingredients that Sakura had been regularly producing with one of her skills. Among all the ingredients she produced, Tree Nymph’s Young Leaf had the highest rarity. Since it was so valuable, I hadn’t done much verification on it. All I knew was that if combined with a potion, it would raise its quality.

Seeing as I wasn’t sure what item would be best, I decided to offer the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad an item that I thought would at least make her happy. The Tree Nymph’s Young Leaf was something that Sakura, who was essentially the dryad’s daughter, had created, and it would show her how much she had grown.

“I’m going to choose this, okay?”

“...!”

When I selected the item to offer, the Sequoia Dryad beamed.

“I see you are raising my daughter well. Please accept this.”

Oh? That was a pretty good reaction, right?

The Sequoia Dryad handed me a dazzling green jewel. It was a fertilizer item called the Lakeside Sequoia’s Splendor.

Wait, what? This is fertilizer? It just looked like a jewel to me, but Sakura was overjoyed.

“...!”

“Tri-tri!”

Sakura, who was usually so calm and ladylike, was jumping around with glee. Olea was clapping in celebration. This had to be something good. Maybe I should try using it on Sakura’s true form, the Lakeside Tree, once I got back to the farm.

And with that, we rushed back to the farm. It was best to strike while the iron was hot, after all.

“How should I use this?”

I stood in front of the Lakeside Tree and used the Lakeside Sequoia’s Splendor that I had just obtained. That is, when I tried to use it, I froze.

It was plainly a green jewel. How was I supposed to use it as fertilizer? As I ruminated, I was soon given the answer. When I selected it as an item, a selection window popped up asking me if I wanted to use it or not. The only objects I could select to use it on were trees.

“All right, I’m using it!”

“...!”

“Huh? You don’t want me to?”

“...”

“Are you telling me to move these trees?”

“...!”

Sakura was pointing at the trees planted around the Lakeside Tree, telling me to do something about them. I took that to mean she wanted me to transplant the trees somewhere else to open up space around the Lakeside Tree.

Wait, but I had just replanted everything that morning... Sakura even helped. Well, I did obtain the Lakeside Sequoia’s Splendor after the fact, and it wasn’t like I could have expected her to have predicted I would get it.

“There’s no use fighting it. Back to the guild it is. Let’s see, which trees should I move where?”

“...”

“Oho, I see.”

Sakura lightly patted the trees she wanted to be moved and ran to the spot she wanted them moved to. I needed to clear a lot more space around the Lakeside Tree than I had thought.

The only way this was going to happen was if I moved one of the plots of weeds to a farm in another town. I had increased my guild level, so I could still expand my farm a bit. I had anticipated that discovering new zones would bring with it new crops, so I had left some extra plots empty. I had left two plots unused. My own powers of foresight were fearsome!

Sakura had more to tell me. She was drawing a circle on the ground.

“...!”

“Mm!”

“Tri-tri!”

She consulted with Olto and Olea about something. What did she want them to do? As I watched, Olto began turning up the soil with earth magic. He was really digging! Sakura’s reason for clearing the space around the Lakeside Tree must have been to secure space for whatever this was.

Before long, Olto had dug a hole that was ten meters in diameter and three meters deep. All this just to accommodate the Lakeside Tree getting bigger...?

“No, wait.”

I looked in the distance at the towering Lakeside Sequoia. Halfway up its massive trunk, water ran down like a waterfall, producing a beautiful rainbow.

“Huh? Is that what this is for?”

“...♪”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Triii!”

“No way...”

The Lakeside Tree would finally live up to its name and produce water. The hole was of course necessary to hold the pond. In fact, I actually wondered if this hole was big enough for a pond.

“Won’t the water overflow?”

“Mm-mm!”

Apparently it was fine. Game logic was at work to keep things convenient.

“Mmm-mm-mmm!”

“You’re really excited about this, huh, Olto?”

“Mm-mm!”

Olto turned to give me a look of determination, The water that flowed from a Lakeside Tree was high-quality and great for farming. That was probably what he was so happy about. But that wasn’t all.

“Mmm-mm.”

“Uhh, do you want me to extend the canal?”

“Mm!”

Olto wanted me to use the canal to distribute the pond water through the whole farm, and to make that possible, I had to rearrange the crops...again.

I had already spent so much money this morning doing a complete overhaul of the placement of the crops... What had all that work been for?

“Mm?”

“N-Nothing. So, you want me to have the canal circle the entire farm and then come back here?”

“Mm!”

If anything, it was better to install an object than have Olto dig. That would protect against quality deterioration. I would have to spend a lot of money again, but I decided to purchase a canal at the Water Elementals’ town. And I figured I might as well buy a pool there while I was at it.

“Let’s go all out! Olto, Sakura, Olea—I’ll buy you whatever you want!”

“Mm-mm!”

“...♪”

“Triii!”

Accompanied by those three, I went to the objects shop and Farming Guild in the Water Elementals’ town. However, my monsters, in their ecstatic states, wanted me to buy three times the stuff I imagined they would.

Was it a bad idea to say I would buy whatever they wanted? Well, I couldn’t go back on that promise now. That might upset them.

As a result, I spent half a day doing a huge renovation of my farm.

For the time being, the farm looked a little unkempt with an empty canal devoid of water running through it. This was going to come together, right? If this failed, I was seriously going to cry.

“All right, I’m going to use the Lakeside Sequoia’s Splendor for real now, okay?”

“...♪”

True to its name, the Lakeside Sequoia’s Splendor gleamed brightly before disappearing from my hand. Then, the Lakeside Tree emitted a dazzling light.

“Did something change?” I asked, craning my neck to see.

“...!”

Sakura assured me something had. Even though nothing had changed with its appearance, clearly the tree had undergone some sort of change. But even when I tried to appraise it, I couldn’t tell. It was still the same Lakeside Tree it always had been.

“Hmm. Sakura, what—”

“...♪”

“Whaaaaa?”

Just as I was about to ask Sakura what changed, it happened. The Lakeside Tree shone brightly and then began to shoot up in size. The trunk twisted as it grew thicker and the tree rapidly grew taller. A hole opened up in the now thick trunk, producing a cavity. This was just like the scene in Tororo when he made the acorns grow!

“Water’s coming out!”

“...!”

Water was trickling from the hole five meters up. It started as a small dribble of water, but it soon picked up force and became a gushing stream, until finally turning into a rushing waterfall flowing from the trunk of the tree. The water was beautiful and clear. It filled the depression at its base, creating a pond, and then flowed into the canal that spread through the farm.

“Whoa! Awesome!”

“...♪”

There might be some other special effect, but I was just happy to enjoy the beautiful scene for now.

Fifteen minutes. That was how long I stared up in wonder at the tree that had grown so much so quickly and gained an incredible amount of presence. The tree was already big before, but now it had to be in the class of a true sacred tree, right? I swore I even felt something spiritual from it.

Its trunk had nearly doubled in size, and its height was now over twenty meters. Considering that a regular fruit tree was five meters tall and a sacred tree was about ten meters tall, this tree was of abnormal proportions.

The sunlight reflected off the flowing water, making it sparkle. And was that a faint rainbow I saw? What a gorgeous sight!

“But the roots look a little lacking.”

“...?”

Sakura still hadn’t calmed down from her euphoric state, so she hadn’t noticed, but I felt like the bare earth around the Lakeside Tree looked a little shabby.

I had never put much thought into the appearance of my farm, but after transplanting so many crops and seeing how the farm looked well laid out, I wanted to make this area look nice too.

What was this called, aesthetic? I cared about that now.

Besides, the Lakeside Tree was so beautiful. It just seemed like a waste to leave it like that.

“Hmm. What if we plant flowers or let weeds grow around the base?”

“Mm!”

“Tri!”

“You two agree, huh?”

I knew just the thing to use.

“What about this? I was thinking of using it to spruce up the garden at the house, but maybe I could use it here?”

“Mm-mm!”

“Tri-triii!”

They had no issue with it. Now that I had the permission of the two overseers of the farm, I took out an object that turned a plot of land into a flower garden. I couldn’t harvest any of the flowers, but they bloomed all year round without needing to add any nutrients to the field.

It was called Flower Carpet (Nemophila). It might have seemed like a farm item, but it could be used indoors, so in actuality, it probably just made a bunch of flower-shaped objects appear. It was a housing item, like an oversized rug that could be laid out. But that was fine. Because it was absolutely beautiful.

“All right, I’m installing it!”

“Mmm!”

“Triii!”

In an instant, our feet were covered in light ultramarine flowers. Olto and Olea were jumping up and down with joy on the carpet. A good thing about this flower carpet was that no matter how many times you stepped on it, the flowers wouldn’t scatter or break. Thanks to that, we could run through this field of flowers as much as we wanted.

“Wow. It’s so whimsical.”

“Mmm-mm-mmm!”

“Triii-tri-triii!”

Olto and Olea started doing a happy dance on top of the flowers. Their dancing was as bad as always, but they looked like they were having fun. Sakura saw them and joined in with a big smile on her face.

When it came to the Lakeside Tree and things involving the Sequoia Dryad, even Sakura got excited and let loose.

As for myself, I tried lying down in the field of flowers. It sure did feel like a carpet. The grass was soft and incredibly comfortable. Surrounded by the scent of nemophilas, I enjoyed the feeling of a refreshing breeze as I lay in the shade of the large Lakeside Tree, with only the sound of my frolicking monsters and the flowing water in my ears. Aah, heaven. This is heaven.

“Growl?”

“Chirp?”

“Aye?”

My other monsters must have overheard the cheerful commotion. They came over to join us. Bear Bear sat against the Lakeside Tree. Himka stretched himself out next to me. Rick curled up on one of the tree’s now steadier branches, and Eine, Melum, and Lilith were chitchatting in midair.

Perca and Reflet were floating in the newly created pond, and Drimo was checking out the canal. He was the spitting image of a plumber. Carro planted itself down in a sunny spot, and Fau was sitting on the pony’s back and strumming a calming tune.

Was that the Sunekosuri running around among the nemophila flowers? The Lounger was sitting in the flower garden and staring absentmindedly up at the Lakeside Tree. Kettle, the Demonic Ghost, the Satori, and the Hanami Vandal had joined Olto, Olea, and Sakura’s dance circle. Being yokai, they were excellent Bon Odori dancers.

The Kappa joined Reflet and Perca in the pond, while the Double Cocoon was floating in the air as if unconcerned with anything else. My mascots also joined in, and before I knew it, we had ourselves a huge party around the Lakeside Tree.

“Ha ha ha! This is so much fun.”

“Hm!”

“Ya.”

“Oh, hey, Mamori. What is it?”

“Ya!”

I was zoning out for a while when Mamori popped up and peered at my face. Seeing her suddenly enter my vision startled me a bit.

“Ya.”

“You want me to stand up?”

“Ya.”

“All right, all right. Give me a sec. Hup,” I grunted as I stood up.

Mamori didn’t stop at me. She began calling everyone else to gather together too.

“Ya-ya.”

“Mm?”

“Tra-la?”

Mamori was having everyone stand at the base of the Lakeside Tree, like she was getting us ready to take a group photo. In fact, that was exactly what she was doing. Everyone else besides me had already figured that out. They were striking poses for the camera.

“Ya, ya, yaaa.”

“O-Oh, right.”

Finally, Mamori stood in front of me and counted down from three with her fingers. Then, I heard the sound of a camera shutter. I couldn’t see the camera, but I knew Mamori was using the photography function of her Diary skill.

“Ya!”

“Oh, you sent them to me?”

A window popped up, and I saw I had received a message from Mamori with several screenshots and videos attached.

Nice, nice. The pictures were great. Everyone looked like they were having a good time. I took a lot of screenshots too. I could go through and organize them later.

Online Forum [Gather ’Round Tamers] LJO Tamer Megathread Part 51

Share the deets on new tamed monsters, show off your companions, etc.—this thread is for everyone!

Bad-mouthing other Tamers is not permitted.

Screenshots gladly accepted.

Avoid double-posting.

Be mindful of what you post.

703: Ursula

Which monsters possess dark attributes?

704: MorningStarMeow

Are you trying to get a Dark Spirit, meow?

705: Ursula

Duh! I totally want it!

I already have a sylph, so all that I’m missing is a dark-type monster!

706: KingOysterMushroom

But even if you get a dark-type monster, isn’t there the possibility that they won’t breed due to their compatibility?

707: Eulenspiegel

You might even end up with a different race of monster hatching.

708: Ursula

I know that, okay?!

But I have to try!

709: Amelia

I get it! I so get it!

Who wouldn’t want that adorable squishy spirit?!

710: IrumaBlack

Cuteness aside, it looks powerful too.

If I could tame one, I would.

711: UdagawaRollerCoaster

A dark-type monster, huh? What about a bat?

Seems reasonable that they’d qualify.

712: Ursula

It’s already been established that that combination gets you something else.

713: Amelia

It results in a Wind Bat.

It’s strong, but it looks too realistic and it’s not cute at all...

714: KingOysterMushroom

How refreshing to see someone prioritize their own preferences over a monster’s abilities.

715: Ursula

I don’t wanna hear that coming from someone who only tames bugs!

716: Amelia

Yeah, what she said!

717: Eulenspiegel

Now now, I’m sure KingOysterMushroom didn’t mean it in a bad way.

718: Amelia

You don’t get to talk, Eulen!

719: Ursula

You’re the embodiment of lust!

720: KingOysterMushroom

I would also rather not have you speak up for me, Eulen.

721: Eulenspiegel

How mean! And after I tried to defend you?!

722: UdagawaRollerCoaster

From where I’m standing, you’re all the same to me.

723: IrumaBlack

Let’s get back to what’s important. So, Dark-type monsters.

What about undead monsters? Like ghosts and zombies?

724: Amelia

So far, there are no reports of someone getting an egg from an undead monster and an elemental monster.

725: KingOysterMushroom

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a possibility.

726: MorningStarMeow

Or maybe that combination could produce a monster with dark attributes, meow.

727: Eulenspiegel

That’s a long road. I’m more interested in getting a demon.

I don’t even need a whole succubus! I’m fine with just a little imp, so come on, game!

728: Ivan

Eulen, you never change.

It’s not about dark elemental monsters, but I do have some good news.

729: KingOysterMushroom

Oh yeah? Did you find a new monster?

730: Ursula

A cute one?

731: Amelia

If you say it’s good news, then it has to be cute!

Not that opening with a clickbait announcement like “good news” or “bad news” ever leads to anything very exciting.

732: Eulenspiegel

No way. Based on his timing, the good news has to be for me! Which means it’s a cute girl monster!

733: MorningStarMeow

Oho?

734: IrumaBlack

Hiding behind Eulen, huh? You’re just as bad as him, Morning Star.

735: UdagawaRollerCoaster

I vote it’s about a guaranteed way to obtain a tree nymph!

736: MorningStarMeow

I’d be happy to have that info too, meow!

737: Amelia

Yeah. I’d definitely have to call that good news.

738: Ursula

I want a tree nymph too!

739: KingOysterMushroom

I get the feeling you guys would be fine with anything as long as you can get it ASAP...

But I can’t deny I want a tree nymph as well.

740: Eulenspiegel

E-Even the bug tamer’s heart has been swayed!

That’s just how great tree nymphs are!

And yeah, I want one too!

741: Ivan

Sorry. It’s not information about monsters.

742: Eulenspiegel

O-Oh? Wait, you’re joking, right?

Tell me the truth.

743: Ivan

It’s really not about monsters.

But it’s about something even better.

744: Eulenspiegel

Oho ho ho!

745: Amelia

This is gonna be good!

746: Ursula

If Ivan says it’s good news, then I trust him!

747: KingOysterMushroom

Don’t set your expectations too high. You’ll make it harder for him to tell us the news.

748: Ivan

It’s okay, KingOysterMushroom.

No matter how high their expectations are, it can never be too high for this information to meet them.

749: MorningStarMeow

Y-You’re so confident. Just what are you about to tell us...?

750: UdagawaRollerCoaster

My heart is racing!

751: IrumaBlack

You sure you don’t want to sell it to the Quick-Eared Cats?

752: Ivan

The Quick-Eared Cats are already selling the information, and they’re going to be making it public in just two hours after putting it up for sale. It’s apparently selling like crazy.

In just a little while, the information should be disclosed in other forums too. I’m sure people will lose their minds.

753: Eulenspiegel

Wh-What’s the news...?

754: Ivan

The way to change to a fourth advanced job class has finally been found!

As a discoverer of said information, I was given permission to post about it before the Cats publicize it themselves.

755: Amelia

WH-WHAAAT?!

756: Ursula

HUUUUUH?!

757: Eulenspiegel

NO WAAAAAY!

758: MorningStarMeow

FINALLYYY MEOWWW!

759: KingOysterMushroom

Th-That is amazing. It certainly caught me by surprise.

760: IrumaBlack

You don’t sound surprised at all! Glasses man’s levelheadedness strikes again!

761: UdagawaRollerCoaster

That’s awesome! That’s so cool, Ivan!

762: Eulenspiegel

Did you say you discovered it?

For real? You finally had your moment!

763: IrumaBlack

You’re just like Silver-Haired!

764: Amelia

Post-Silver-Haired?

765: Ursula

W-We need to pay our respects!

766: MorningStarMeow

Ivan MVP?

767: UdagawaRollerCoaster

Ivan the God!

768: Ivan

Ah, well, sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but it was Silver-Haired who discovered the information.

I just joined him halfway through.

When Silver-Haired went to sell the information, he was kind enough to say I helped in the discovery.

It’s 99% Silver-Haired’s achievement... So please don’t praise me, it’s embarrassing...

769: Amelia

Ah, gotcha. Even that’s another Silver MVP moment.

He’s not overly particular about that kind of stuff.

770: Ursula

He’s not just generous, butoverlygenerous.

I mean that as a compliment, btw. Seriously.

771: KingOysterMushroom

Apologies for making such a fuss.

772: Ivan

KingOysterMushroom, you were the only one who didn’t make a fuss...

Anyway, I probably should have been more clear when I broke the news...

773: UdagawaRollerCoaster

Sorry.

774: IrumaBlack

My bad.

775: Ursula

Can you forgive us?

776: Ivan

Your apologizing is making me even more embarrassed!

777: MorningStarMeow

I got the lucky number!

778: Eulenspiegel

I got the lucky number! Lucky seven!

779: Eulenspiegel

Damn it, I missed it!

Curse you, MorningStar!

780: MorningStarMeow

Mwa ha ha! Mine, meow!

781: Ivan

You guys...

Well anyway, I suggest you all go look at the Quick-Eared Cats’ page.

782: Amelia

Uh-oh, gotta go!

See ya!

783: Ursula

Oh! Me too!

784: KingOysterMushroom

So, Silver-Haired has even discovered the quaternary job class...

He is a real pro.

785: IrumaBlack

Yeah. I have a feeling even more people will start worshipping him.

786: UdagawaRollerCoaster

All-Star Silver.

787: Ivan

I feel bad for benefiting off him so much.

I’ll have to pay my respects too.

Though I don’t think he’ll like that much LOL

All-Star Silver.

Online Forum [Farming Rocks!] A Farming Thread for Farmers by Farmers, Part 20

This is a thread where people who own farms in LJO can exchange information.

From topics concerning large-scale farms to small home gardens, all questions are welcome here.

Please make it clear if your post contains unverified information.

While we’re grateful for actual farming tips, we’re not sure how practical they’ll be in the game.

20: Tsugarun

What the heck was that video?!

Paradise! That was absolute paradise!

21: Charm

It was sooo awesome! I wish I was there!

It looked so beautiful and adorable and fun!

I can’t take it! Eeeeek!

22: Tagosack

Looks like Yuto’s getting first in the video rankings once again.

Who could possibly beat that?

23: Tsugarun

I’ve definitely contributed a lot to Silver-Haired getting in the top.

I’ve rewatched it, like, ten times.

24: Tagosack

I take my eyes off his farm for half a day, and he replants his crops and the Lakeside Tree grows exponentially?

Ha ha. What can you do but laugh?

25: Tsugarun

It doesn’t even look like the same farm.

How can it look so different from my own farm?

Anyway, I went ahead and put in a flower garden!

26: Tagosack

I had to run over there to see it for myself.

It was fun to play with his monsters in the field of nemophilas.

Maybe I’ll try transplanting some crops myself. But I have to think about my Tree of Evil.

27: Charm

I’m so jealous! I wanna play there too!

But I’m not brave enough to ask him...

28: Tsugarun

I know how you feel.

I know everyone’s clamoring to go to that paradise.

But all we can do is watch from afar.

But even if I get scolded by the Defenders, it’d all be worth it if I got the chance to join in on that...

29: Terrill

That video was insane!

Just how many were in that group photo shot?!

I don’t know why, but I almost cried.

30: Tagosack

Yeah, I felt a little emotional too.

With his monsters, yokai, and mascots combined, there were probably over thirty of them in there.

31: Terrill

I wanna be surrounded by cute monsters too!

And I want a Lakeside Tree!

I acquired Arboriculture, but I haven’t gotten a Lakeside Fruit yet.

32: Choregi

The people who have gotten that have either planted it themselves or used it as verification data.

33: Daichi

It’ll take a while before I can make an offering. Sucks.

I just have to devote myself to becoming a farmer like Silver-Haired.

34: Charm

I’ll work hard too!

I’ll plant a picture-worthy garden!

35: Terrill

Same!

36: Thomas

Yeah, but Silver-Haired’s not a Farmer.

37: Tsugarun

Shh, don’t say that...

38: Charm

Oh yeah, you’re right!

39: Daichi

We got crushed by a Tamer!

40: Choregi

Ugh, just kill me.

41: Thomas

Please, you have so much to live for!

42: Tagosack

Well, he is part of the Farming Guild, so I think we can consider him at least some percentage a Farmer.

43: Tsugarun

Thirty percent Tamer, thirty percent Farmer, thirty percent crafter, ten percent influencer?

I feel like nearly half of the discoveries related to farming were made by Silver-Haired.

I’m still nothing but grateful that he discovered apples.

44: Charm

Anyway, can I ask just what that large-scale transplantation operation was about?

Was he just redecorating?

45: Terrill

It sorta looked like things were moved around to accommodate the Lakeside Tree’s growth, so it was probably related to that?

46: Thomas

It looked like he had prepared the canal beforehand too.

I can only think that he was expecting the Lakeside Tree to grow.

47: Daichi

So you think he had some forewarning that the tree was going to grow?

48: Tagosack

Yeah, probably.

Yuto’s Lakeside Tree is his Tree Nymph’s true form, so it’s possible it was some sort of event connected to her.

49: Terrill

Ah, yeah.

50: Thomas

I really wanna know why he rearranged his farm.

51: Tsugarun

The Quick-Eared Cats couldn’t tell me either.

52: Choregi

Wow, you went to the Cats?

I heard it’s super crowded after the news about the fourth advanced job class broke!

53: Daichi

I heard the Cats are asking people if they’re sure they want to buy the info since it’ll probably be made public soon.

But people want to obtain the info even just a few hours earlier than other people so much that they’re willing to pay out the nose for it.

54: Tsugarun

I thought I was gonna die.

Ugh, it was like being on a crowded train... People pushing and shoving... I had my arms up the whole time so I didn’t get accused of anything suspicious... M-My aaarms!

55: Thomas

Stop right there!

Don’t bring painful thoughts of the real world into the game!

56: Charm

That’s right!

You’re in a fun, enjoyable game right now!

57: Choregi

Forget everything bad that’s ever happened!

58: Tsugarun

Whew, that was close...!

Anyway, asking the Quick-Eared Cats got me nowhere.

59: Terrill

I wonder if Silver-Haired is willing to share?

60: Thomas

I actually feel like he’d spill pretty easily...

But there’s no way I’m gonna go up and ask him.

61: Daichi

Me neither. No way in hell.

62: Choregi

There’s no way I could either!

63: Terrill

I can’t do it either, but a certain someone here may be able to?

You’re his friend and neighbor, right?

64: Tagosack

Nope, can’t do it.

I mean, I’m sure he’d tell me if I asked, but the Defenders have been more active lately due to the discovery of the fourth job class.

65: Charm

Ah, that explains why the Defenders have beefed up their surveillance this week to keep stupid players from bothering Silver-Haired.

They’ll punish us!

66: Tsugarun

We’ll just have to wait. Nothing we can do about it.

What’re the fourth job classes like anyway?

I haven’t gotten a Book of Secrets yet.

67: Tagosack

I’ve gotten two types of Book of Secrets.

But I’m still deciding if I’m going to advance to the next class yet.

68: Daichi

What are they like?

69: Tagosack

Seems like the Chill book is more crafting oriented, while the Rowdy one is combat oriented.

70: Choregi

A fightingFarmer?

71: Charm

Will it downgrade your crafting abilities in favor of fighting power?

72: Tagosack

No, it won’t go that far. But you can eat the crops you grow yourself to boost your stats. That kind of stuff.

You also acquire a skill that shortens the time before your crops are ready for harvest in exchange for lowering their quality.

Hasty Rest, which is a skill you can exchange for RP, boosts your recovery rate while you’re logged out, but it only auto-recovers up to eighty percent of your max HP.

73: Terrill

The Rowdy job class will probably be in demand for people who can’t play for long stretches at a time.

74: Tagosack

Yeah. And the Chill one is like the exact opposite.

It comes with a skill that makes your crops take longer to be ready to harvest but increases their quality, and one that gives bonuses to farming if you don’t engage in combat for a certain amount of time in game.

75: Thomas

Which one are you going to pick?

You both farm and fight, don’t you?

76: Tagosack

Still thinking. Each one has its pros and cons. I’m not really hurting in either department right now.

I’m thinking it might even be a good idea to wait until another fourth job is found.

77: Tsugarun

I have a feeling the Chill and Rowdy jobs aren’t normal job classes.

They seem like special jobs, right?

78: Charm

Now that you say it, yeah!

79: Tagosack

Are there a lot of players who have gotten the Book of Secrets, but still haven’t changed job classes then?

80: Daichi

I still have a lot of time before I have to worry about that.

But ideally, I’d like to advance to a cooler-sounding job class.

81: Choregi

Yeah, something about Chill Farmer and Rowdy Farmer doesn’t quite hit.

82: Thomas

They sound perfect for Silver-Haired, though.

83: Tsugarun

Yeah. The names don’t sound promising, but they seem like the type of job classes that have a lot of quirks and are tricky to master.

84: Charm

I’m going to try to get Chill Farmer!

Getting to just chill out and relax sounds like the best!

85: Tagosack

Hmm, what should I do?

86: Terrill

I’m sure all the other forums are posting about the same dilemma.

87: Thomas

Silver-Haired’s at it again. He’s putting the entire playerbase ofLJOthrough mental anguish with just one piece of information.

88: Choregi

That’s our guy!

89: Tagosack

Ughhh, I really can’t decide!

Half a day after the Lakeside Tree’s sudden growth, I headed to the southern part of Zone Eleven. I was wandering around Elfan, the city inhabited by Elves, when I finally found what I had been looking for.

“There’s the cat!”

“Honk honk!”

“Chirp chirp!”

My monsters and I had been searching for a cat, like the one that had led us to the Rowdy House. I knew they’d be here in the south too!

Just like last time, Perca and my other monsters climbed the wall to chase the cat. However, this being a city of elves, the route the cat took us through was a lot different than the one we followed in the northern city of Hurun. While in Hurun, we’d traversed the tops of walls, between houses and over rooftops, here we traveled along a game trail that we had to crouch to walk through and a pond that we crossed with stepping stones.

Finally, we made it to a restaurant in a forest called the Rowdy Diner, which was owned by an older Elf woman named Dee. The establishment was similar to the Rowdy House, but since this place was in a garden in the middle of a forest, there were no arcade cabinets. Instead, there was an obstacle course set up in the trees. There were billiards and other analog games installed under the roof, but not many. This establishment was for more outdoor activities.

I proceeded to play for a while at the Rowdy Diner, participating in a few rowdy events and accumulating points. Unlike the chill events, where all I really had to do was relax and hang out, I was kept pretty busy here.

Nevertheless, I gave the obstacle courses my best stab and did some parkour, and managed to accumulate RP. Thanks to that, I now had enough points to exchange for a Book of Secrets.

But I was still holding off on redeeming my points for that. After all, even if I did obtain it, I couldn’t change my job class just yet. Plus, if I had two of the books, that meant I would have to waste one. So I decided the logical option would be to wait until I’d heard from other people who did change their job class.

“All right, a yokai should appear next...”

“Mm?”

“What is it, Olto?”

Olto was staring towards the garden. Could he be looking at—

“Mm-mm!”

“Whoa! It’s finally here!”

In the Rowdy Diner’s tree-enclosed garden, a bipedal animal suddenly appeared. Its name was the Rascal. There was no mistaking it—this was the counterpart yokai to the Lounger.

“Krya.”

“Oh, hello.”

“Krya!”

The yokai seemed to be glaring at me, but held its hand out for a handshake. I supposed that the mean look in its eye was just part of its look, and it didn’t mean the creature was actually mad.

But anyway, what sort of animal was this?

“Krya?”

It looked a bit like a weasel, but I had never seen a weasel with such coloring. Its back was a grayish white, and its underside was black from its face to its feet. The red hair on its head was styled almost like a pompadour.

The colors reminded me of a skunk, but it wasn’t a skunk. Skunks had shorter and coarser fur. To me, this animal looked closest to a black-and-white weasel. That pompadour was probably a stylistic choice of the game.

But minus the hair, I felt like I had seen something like it before...

Oh! I know what it is! It’s a honey badger! The animal they called the most fearless animal in the world! I’d seen it on television. I was positive I had watched videos of one plunging into a pride of lions all alone, and another one fighting a cobra. Yeah, that was a good choice of animal for the Rascal.

“Krya!”

“Oops, sorry. It’s nice to meet you!”

“Krya-ya!”

“Huh? What’s that? You wanna play?”

“Krya!”

The Lounger befriended me after I relaxed for a while. So how did I befriend the Rascal? Be rowdy, aka, play hard!

“Kryaaa!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Triii!”

My monsters and the Rascal began competing with each other in various games. They started with darts, then moved on to hitting a target with a ball, playing air hockey, and so on. They looked like they were having a blast. It was way too cute the way my monsters and the Rascal threw darts and things with their tiny little hands. I had no choice but to take endless screenshots of the event.

I also joined in on playing games against the Rascal, but I just couldn’t win. The Rascal had exceptionally good reflexes. Its iron wall defense during air hockey was so good that even though we were playing against two against one, we couldn’t score a single point. It was sidestepping so fast it was leaving behind afterimages. When we played darts, it hit the bull’s-eye half the time, and it zipped through the obstacle course at a breathtaking pace. Could it be that only players who were fighting classes with high stats could befriend the Rascal?

Regardless, I continued to play against the Rascal, praying that I’d win by luck. About halfway through, I was running on sheer stubbornness. I was going to win no matter what.

After about two hours of playing...

“Kryaaa.”

“Oh? Is it happening?”

“Krya!”

The Rascal shone brightly, and then promptly disappeared. I then heard the announcement telling me I had formed a bond of friendship with the yokai. It seemed I didn’t have to beat it in the games, I just had to keep playing with it. I spent an hour and forty-two minutes playing with it. It was kind of a random amount of time, so maybe it was based on how many games I played with it?

“I unlocked some skills!”

The skills I had unlocked were Rowdy, Hasty, and Gale Circle.

Rowdy was a skill that granted a bonus to your stats the longer you were outside of a safety zone. That was beneficial when engaging in combat on the playing field for a long time.

Hasty boosted the automatic rate of recovery within a safety zone, but once you reached eighty percent of your max HP, the rate of recovery slowed down dramatically. There was the skill Hasty Rest that I could exchange RP for, but that was to increase the speed of automatic recovery while you were logged out.

Lastly, Gale Circle was a buffing skill that boosted the speed of everyone in the perimeter, regardless of if they were allies or enemies. It was the exact opposite effect of the Lounger’s Slowing Circle skill. Like that one, Gale Circle seemed like it’d be hard to put to use.

“All right, what should we do next? How does a chill event sound?”

“Mm-mm!”

Management’s POV After Finding Out About the Lakeside Tree’s Growth

“I’m back. And I’m starving!”

“Good work, chief. How did the meeting go?”

“Ah, well, it’s looking like we will have to reevaluate the entirety of the favorability conditions.”

“Aah, just as we thought.”

“We foresaw the chill and rowdy events being discovered, but the discovery of the quaternary job class was completely unexpected.”

“A number of players have found the hidden villages of Zone Eleven, though.”

“The first to discover something has the right to keep that information a secret. But Silver-Haired is an abnormal case.”

“It also seems a lot of players have been posting on the forums about them. Although some were assumed to be trolling and were not taken seriously.”

“Well, that’s what happens if they don’t provide proof.”

“At this rate, we will see more players than we thought advancing to the Chill and Rowdy job classes before the regular fourth job classes are discovered.”

“Having so many players advance to a special job class before the regular ones are discovered isn’t ideal. But even if players find the hidden villages, they won’t be given the trials if their favorability scores aren’t high enough, and even when they are presented with the trials, it will take most players a good amount of time to complete them.”

“Hence why we need to relax the restrictions for the favorability scores.”

“The trials for the fourth advanced job classes will now be presented by just talking to key NPCs in the hidden villages.”

“Is that drastic of a change necessary already?”

“We’ve received some more complaints from players. We have no choice. We’ll also have to review and adjust future triggers.”

“Gosh, it sounds like we’ll have our hands full with work again...”

“Well, for now, I’m going to get something to eat—”

“Aaaaahhh!”

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

“T-Take a look at this...”

“What is... Gaaah!”

“You see? You see why I screamed?”

“No, wait a second. At this stage? Already? Ha ha ha, this is a joke, right? Someone edited a photo of the Lakeside Sequoia to make it look like this, right? Phew, it almost fooled me.”

“Uh...no. First of all, it has a different shape than the Lakeside Sequoia.”

“Ah, you’re right. Then that means...”

“This is Silver-Haired’s farm. I made sure to have any actions of his be reported to me. I never imagined he would do this to the Lakeside Tree.”

“Why?”

“What? I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

“Why?”

“Chief?”

“Whyyy?”

“Chief, you’ve turned into a bot that keeps repeating the same word! Snap out of it, please!”

“Ah! I was so shocked, I just...!”

“Yes, I understand how you feel.”

“Oh, come on! This is all happening too fast! Silver-Haaaired!”

“Well, it did still happen within the earliest time frame we considered.”

“Yes, well, it was technically possible. But the probability is almost miraculous.”

“In-game-time-wise, it shouldn’t have happened for another two months.”

“This was one of the flags for the tree-type divine spirit awakening, right? What about the other triggers? Those have pretty strict conditions, don’t they?”

“Hmm, give me one moment to check. The achievement to clear the required dungeons...has been fulfilled.”

“The elemental villages were discovered so quickly, after all.”

“The effects of Silver-Haired’s bombshells are still ongoing! Next is the number of required bosses that have been defeated... That has also been fulfilled.”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s only just been fulfilled, though. Some parties continuously fight bosses and predators while they are online.”

“So Silver-Haired isn’t the only assassin!”

“Indeed.”

“Then, has Silver-Haired’s Lakeside Tree fulfilled the conditions for the divine spirit-related events?”

“Yes. Several components have already been unlocked. It seems no one has noticed yet, but I’m sure that will soon change.”

“Do we need to worry about any of those components making other players suspect cheating if they were to be found now?”

“Hmm? Ah, yes. The hidden altars in each city and each region’s sanctuaries in Zone Eleven. Also, the wandering NPCs and the irregular monsters.”

“We’ll be in trouble if the sanctuary trials are cleared.”

“Yes indeed. They’ll find the final secret technique, the fifth advanced job class’s Book of Secrets, and the ability to tame divine beasts... If any one player does that before the others, they’ll become too strong.”

“Technically, if they can’t meet the conditions for commanding them, they’ll be nerfed, however...”

“But they will still be considerably stronger.”

“Exactly. Well, the trials for the secret techniques, Book of Secrets, and sacred treasures can’t be completed at present, correct?”

“Probably.”

“The problem is the taming, then.”

“More accurately, Silver-Haired.”

“Do you think it will be all right?”

“I sure hope it will be...”

“It’ll be fine, right?”

“Maybe...?”

“It will absolutely not be okay!”

“Ah, deputy chief.”

“He has defied our expectations at every turn. We need to make changes before he pulls off something else preposterous!”

“Yes, you’re probably right.”

“That does sound reasonable.”

“But first, chief...”

“Yes?”

“We need to have an emergency meeting!”

“But I just came from a meeting!”

“We need to make some adjustments to a few future events as well.”

“Ah! That’s right! The divine spirit could intervene in the demon fight!”

“Could? We have to assume it will. The Lakeside Sequoia Dryad’s power has already partially awakened, so if a demon appears nearby the tree, then an intervention will occur. If we don’t adjust what’s been planned, then the large-scale raid boss battle will present no challenge.”

“Gaaah! We need to make changes both to the demon’s abilities and the spirit’s assistance!”

“Calm down. Let’s go. I have already contacted the other departments.”

“You’re quick! Wait, you already contacted them?”

“Yes. I have also been keeping tabs on the movements of several individuals, including Silver-Haired. Come on, let’s go.”

“But I was just about to get something to eat...”

“There are snacks in the conference room. You will have to make do with that.”

“Nooo! I was just set free from another boring meetiiing!”

“Shouting won’t do you any good! We have to deal with this promptly.”

“Ahhh! This meeting is going to take forever! I just know it!”

“If you don’t want it to drag on, then just make a decision quickly!”

“I can already tell I won’t be going home tonight once again! And my daughter is making gyozaaa!”

“P-Please hang in there.”

Chapter Four: Yokai

I was playing in the field of nemophila flowers with my monsters and yokai when I heard the ringing of an incoming call from a friend.

“Hamakaze? How’s it going?”

“Silver-Haired, it’s been a while.”

“What’s up?”

“Well, I actually have a favor to ask you.”

Hamakaze was calling to ask for my help on a quest she was having difficulty clearing. It was hard to think I would be of any help with a quest that was giving Hamakaze, of all people, trouble, though...

But since she’d asked me, I wanted to do what I could.

We decided to meet to discuss the details, so I headed to Hamakaze’s farm.

“Hi there,” Hamakaze greeted me.

“Hey! So, why the sudden phone call?”

“I accepted a quest the other day exclusively for Onmyoji, but I can’t clear it no matter how many times I try...”

“A quest exclusive to Onmyoji? There are quests like that?”

“Have you been to the back of the Magical Beasts’ Guild in Zone Eleven?”

“You mean the lounge area?”

“Yes. I accepted it there.”

The lounge areas in the guild were different for each job class. The Onmyoji lounge must have had various services specifically for Onmyoji.

“But I’m not an Onmyoji,” I pointed out.

“The quest can only be accepted by Onmyoji, but anyone can join as part of a party or team.”

“Sounds like it’s no problem, then.”

The quest Hamakaze accepted required her to search for a yokai. Recently, there had been reports of a mysterious yokai being spotted in various spots in Zone Eleven. Hamakaze’s mission was to find them, and if they were dangerous, to exorcise them.

That was the nature of the request. Today, Hamakaze was looking every bit the role of an Onmyoji, dressed in a white robe that looked like a kariginu with her silver hair in a ponytail. A request for an exorcism sounded like just the job for her.

“I’ve tried so many times, but things just never go well.”

Hamakaze had given up the first three times after not even being able to find a single lead. Four other times, she’d found what seemed to be the yokai, but was unable to catch up to it. And three more times, she was able to catch up to it, but when she had to fight the mysterious shadowy creature, she died.

That brought her total number of failures to complete the quest up to ten.

“So far, what I’ve found out is that all the members in my party need to have yokai-related skills, like Yokai Summoning and Yokai Knowledge.”

“Gotcha. Well, I do have those skills.”

“Yeah, and you have Yokai Searcher too, right? It’s rare for even Onmyoji to have that skill.”

The reason Hamakaze reached out to me was because, for some reason, I had so many of the yokai-related skills. Sure enough, I had five of them: Yokai Summoning, Yokai Knowledge, Yokai Detection, Yokai Searcher, and Yokai Whisperer.

As I recalled, you could only unlock Yokai Whisperer if you hosted the picnic for the Hanami Vandal quest. It couldn’t be obtained by normal means, so it must have been really rare for someone who wasn’t even an Onmyoji to have it.

“But I don’t think I’ll be much help against an enemy that not even you and your party could beat.”

“Well, y’see, I think that the enemy’s fighting ability changes depending on the number of yokai skills you have or the number of yokai you’ve befriended.”

The mysterious shadow’s power changed drastically when Hamakaze fought the boss with a yokai-loving Summoner who acquired the Yokai Summoning skill compared to when she fought it with a top player who could only summon the Sunekosuri.

“The enemy was clearly much weaker when I fought with the Summoner.”

“I see.”

If that were true, then I probably would be helpful. In addition to the many yokai-related skills I had, I had also befriended almost all the yokai that were currently identified. I was also interested in Hamakaze’s yokai. If I went with her, then I’d be able to see all her yokai in action. I had no reason to decline.

“All right. I’m in.”

“Yay! Thank you! I’m so glad I swallowed my pride and asked you!”

Swallow her pride...? Was this really that serious?

One of Hamakaze’s Onmyoji friends was also going to be joining us. We teleported to Beastus in Zone Eleven, where we waited for a short amount of time before her friend arrived.

“N-Nice to meet you! My name is Longneck!”

“N-Nice to meet you too.”

Longneck was a beautiful woman with long, black hair wearing a flattering Japanese-style robe. Her style was a little similar to Rikyu’s, but more subdued. If Rikyu’s style was like a courtesan, Longneck’s was more like a handmaiden.

Under her robe, she wore white traditional innerwear and a black hakama, and a stylish red haori was draped over her shoulders. Combined with her almond-shaped eyes and long limbs, she gave off a very powerful appearance. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were popular with both men and women.

Her behavior, however, was very strange. She kept glancing around with a terrified look on her face. Was someone out to kill her or something?

“Um, are you okay?” I asked.

“Y-Yesh!”

“Hamakaze?”

“Sorry. I think she’s just super happy to meet you.”

She’s happy to meet me...? I had been getting praise from fellow Tamers recently, probably because I had been lucky enough to make a few discoveries. But why was Longneck, an Onmyoji, so happy to meet me?

And she was definitely frightened about something, wasn’t she?

Hamakaze led Longneck aside where they had a whispered conversation.

“Pull yourself together, Long!”

“It’s Silver-Haired, okay?! Silver-Haired! A-Anyone around here could be a Defender! I-I’ll be punished!”

“The Defenders are just an urban legend!”

“Th-They don’t exist?”

“Well, they do, but they’re not as extreme as people say. You’re talking to him with me, his friend, so you’re doing nothing wrong! Come on, deep breaths!”

“Huff huff huff huff...”

“Those aren’t deep breaths!”

What are they doing over there? After speaking to each other for a few seconds, the girls soon came back my way.

“Sorry. She’s calmed down a bit, so I think she’s okay now,” Hamakaze told me.

“Uh, I really don’t believe that...” I replied, unconvinced.

“Eep!” Longneck squealed.

Seeing a tall, beautiful woman tremble so much might awaken something I didn’t want to be awakened.

“Um, if you’re not feeling well, you don’t have to force yourself to join,” I suggested.

“N-No! I’m fine! This is my chance to repay you for discovering yokai and Onmyoji!”

Ah, I get it now. It was true that I had discovered them, so if she felt indebted to me for that, I could understand why she was so flustered.

“A-All right! Let’s go!”

“Ah, wait, Long! Not that way!”

Hmm, is she okay?

I was pretty worried, but despite my misgivings, our search went smoothly. Hamakaze and Longneck were both strong, so our journey was largely unimpeded.

“You good?”

“Ye-Yerp! I’m just fline!”

“O-Okay.”

Longneck was fidgety the entire time, though, which was the only part of this encounter I was actually worried about. She just couldn’t seem to relax around me. My monsters were playfully teasing her, so I hoped that could help her loosen up a bit.

Soon after we set off, we found signs of a yokai in the form of footprints that had a black shadowlike substance rising from them. These footprints only became visible to a party that had the player who accepted the quest in it. And since the footprints reacted to the Yokai Detection skill, all we had to do was follow them.

However, depending on the skill composition of the party members, the number of footprints could be very small, which meant a party could spend a lot of time walking around and not even be able to catch up with the yokai within the time limit.

“I’m getting a response from over there,” I said.

“Okay, let’s go!” Hamakaze said.

“R-Right,” Longneck stammered.

Since all three of us had Yokai Detection, we hardly ever had to pause to look around for the footprints. And although it was nighttime, with Hamakaze and Longneck, the battles against small fry monsters posed no problems either.

“Hamakaze, your yokai are awesome! What was that fox one?!”

Hamakaze’s main fighting force was her two-tailed red fox. Of course, she made use of many different yokai, and each one was very powerful. She was on a whole other level compared to me when I summoned my yokai. It was impressive to see what yokai were capable of when summoned by a specialist.

Among all the yokai she summoned, she kept the fox in for the entire time. It looked like a Ezo red fox, and it was incredibly adorable. But it was strong as well. It unleashed flames that were powerful enough to fell a Zone Eleven monster in one hit, and it used an illusion-type move that made the enemies miss their attacks. The illusion move also worked to control aggro, so the rear guard was hardly ever attacked.

“That fox is so cute and powerful! I’m so jealous!”

“I know, right? It took me so much effort to get this little cutie!”

Hamakaze had been browsing antique shops in search of a yokai similar to Kettle when she spotted a decorative fox statue. It was similar to a stone guardian fox, and it looked very old. It was exactly in line with Hamakaze’s tastes, plus it was a rare traditional Japanese-style item. She’d purchased it without a moment’s hesitation. Later, she’d noticed she was then able to create an object called a Household Shrine.

“It was also a decorative object, but it required rare materials and a lot of money to make.”

Next, she placed the fox ornament in the household shrine, and then had to offer various items to it. She even made homemade tempura. Her persistence was commendable.

“And after giving it its desired offering for seven days, the fox statue turned into a yokai and I was able to form a bond of friendship with it.”

“Ooh, I see.”

For how much she had struggled to get it, the fox was considerably strong. It had two skills: Foxfire, which unleashed numerous balls of fire, and Foxtail, which produced illusions. Each one was outstanding. And as a fox spirit, I was sure she could expect it to become even more powerful.

“Do you think it’ll turn into a nine-tailed fox at some point?” I asked.

“I’d be thrilled if it did.”

I was envious of Hamakaze’s fox, but I hadn’t come across it when I was browsing antique shops to acquire the Antiques Knowledge skill. Either there was a very low chance of finding it, or only Onmyoji could find it. But I suddenly thought that maybe I should try looking around at antique shops again.

“By the way, your katana is really cool, Longneck.”

“Huh? Oh, you think so? Hee hee.”

Despite being an Onmyoji, Longneck primarily engaged in close combat with her katana. And get this—her katana was also a yokai. It was another antiques-type yokai. Just like how my Tea Kettle Tanuki was born from a kettle, this one was born from a katana.

Longneck had found a slightly battered katana for sale and bought it to use as decoration. But when she had it repaired, it turned out to be a pretty powerful sword, so she decided to use it herself.

Then, at some point while she was using it, she heard an announcement stating she had formed a bond of friendship with it and that the katana had awakened. The katana was a yokai known as a Tsukumogami.

“I think originally it was on the verge of becoming a Tsukumogami, and it awakened while I was using it.”

“Aha, interesting.”

Man, that sounded pretty romantic too. It’s decided, I’m going to look for an old tool too! But just like with the fox, I hadn’t seen a katana in my last perusal of antique shops, so I probably hadn’t fulfilled some required condition yet.

The katana Tsukumogami could use the abilities Swordcraft, which granted bonuses to the katana skills of the user, and Demon Slaying, which boosted the attack power of slashing moves.

The katana had to be equipped, so Longneck had to be in the vanguard fighting in order to use the sword’s abilities, but its power more than made up for it. Longneck could take down a small fry monster with one attack.

“Well, we’re jealous of your Kettle, Silver-Haired!”

“Y-Yes. Healing is nice.”

Currently, the Tea Kettle Tanuki was the only known yokai that had healing powers.

Also, fittingly for her name, Longneck was searching for a Rokurokubi, a yokai with a long neck. I wondered why, and she explained that she’d just always liked the yokai.

“Um, I like how her neck stretches out like sproooing! It’s so cute!”

“S-Sure it is.”

“Isn’t it?!”

Everyone had their own specific interests, but that sure was an unusual one.

“Please tell me if you find one!”

“I-I will.”

Longneck had been acting so suspiciously this entire time, but she was really enthusiastic when she talked about things she liked. Seeing her geek out over something did make me feel a sense of affinity with her.

“Ah, I-I’m sorry...”

“Don’t be. It’s okay.”

“Hey! What’re you two doing?! Let’s hurry it up!”

And so, we walked around for one hour.

“Th-There it is!”

“We found it!”

“So that’s the black shadow? Yeah, that’s the only way to describe it.”

“See? I’m telling you, it’s superstrong.”

Some type of creature composed of swaying black shadows was standing in a small clearing in the forest. Technically, it looked like a human. It stood on two feet, but it was nearly three meters tall.

“It looks like one of the demons that have been popping up in the main playing field recently, but...” I trailed off.

“It’s different from those. Yokai Detection reacts to it,” Hamakaze finished my thought.

“Right. In that case, the usual demon countermeasures won’t work against it.”

“That’s right. In fact, this one mainly uses physical attacks.”

As I listened to Hamakaze explain, it sounded like this enemy was more of a power fighter, like an ogre. This was going to be a tough fight. Time to get serious.

“All right, let’s get ’im!”

“Right!”

“O-Okay!”

Online Forum [Down with Demons] A Discussion Thread for the Ongoing Demon Event, Part 5

Please post any sightings of demon-type monsters.

Share any info about taming demons.

Don’t make stuff up.

878: Eustia

I was really getting into hunting demons, but I stopped encountering them all of a sudden.

879: Yoshiida

Same.

880: YanakaGinzo

I feel like suddenly there have been a lot fewer reports of demon sightings, yeah?

881: Eustia

They just disappeared from the playing field.

882: Yoshiida

And there used to be so many of them.

883: YanakaGinzo

It’s not just the field monsters.

The boss-level demons also just went poof.

884: Eustia

First there were the small ones. Then the medium-sized ones that attack NPCs.

And most recently, the boss-level demons.

They’re all gone now.

885: Yoshiida

Did someone finish an event?

Like, did they beat a boss or something?

886: Eustia

Y-You really think something like that could’ve happened without us knowing?

887: Yoshiida

This event started before I realized it, and now it’s ended before I realized it.

What is this, a stealth event?

888: Eustia

I wanted to fight the boss.

889: Yoshiida

Me too. Would’ve been nice if the devs could’ve given us some sort of notice about it.

890: Eustia

There’s not much we can do if they insist on being secretive about this event.

Maybe the cutscenes will act as a sort of announcement?

891: Yoshiida

Hmm, maybe.

892: YanakaGinzo

I don’t buy it. This is a large-scale event that they went as far as to make cutscenes for.

There’s no way there wouldn’t even be a raid boss fight for it.

I’m guessing there’ll be a cutscene at the very end.

893: Yoshiida

I mean, those movies are pretty hype on their own anyway.

894: Eustia

Yeah, they are.

895: Yoshiida

But it’s not like there’s guaranteed to be a cutscene.

And it’s also possible that they just haven’t played it yet.

But could it really be possible that some top player could have already beaten the boss?

Like, can you imagine Holland or someone just happening to encounter the boss and beating it with a tiny party?

896: YanakaGinzo

Yeah, there’s just no way an event raid boss can get beaten by just a few people.

If it was possible, it’d only be because the devs miscalculated something.

897: Eustia

The event boss will probably be a giant demon like the others.

Not even Holland and his party could beat something like that.

898: Yoshiida

What about Silver-Haired? Don’t you think he could pull off something unexpected like that?

899: YanakaGinzo

There’s no way— Wait, how many times have I said that now?

I can’t help but think if anyone can, then it’s Silver-Haired.

900: Eustia

’Cause it’s Silver-Haired.

901: Yoshiida

Right? There’s always a possibility Silver-Haired pulled something off, y’know?

902: YanakaGinzo

I doubt he defeated a boss...

But I do think there’s a chance he did his thing and brought the event towards its close.

903: Eustia

Maybe we could find out from the Quick-Eared Cats?

904: Yoshiida

Yeah! I think I’ll stop by to see if they have any info!

905: YanakaGinzo

They might know something. Silver-Haired’s pretty tight with that clan.

Personally tho, I just think the event’s moved on to its next phase.

906: Yoshiida

Even if the event’s not over, I’m positive Silver-Haired obtained some groundbreaking information.

And I might be able to buy it!

907: Eustia

I want that info too!

908: YanakaGinzo

There’s that inexplicable, unshakable faith again.

909: Yoshiida

If anything, I’d be more surprised if Silver-Haired didn’t pull any stunts during this event.

910: Eustia

In other words, he definitely pulled something!

Silver MVP.

911: Yoshiida

You guys always end up saying that! But I’ll join.

Silver MVP.

912: YanakaGinzo

So this is how we end things again...

Silver MVP.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. There’s nothing you could have done.”

After suffering a crushing defeat on our first attempt against the black shadow, we reconvened at my house to discuss what had happened.

The fight had started off strong. Olto and Drimo kept the shadow in check in the vanguard while the rear guard kept up a constant onslaught of attacks. Slowly but surely, we chipped away at the shadow’s HP without suffering any casualties.

However, fifteen minutes after the start of the battle, things started to take a turn for the worse. Until then, we had just called the boss a mysterious shadow, but once its HP dropped to twenty percent, the shadows vanished to reveal its true form.

A demonic figure emerged from under the shadows. It was a handsome oni with ink-black skin, a piercing glare, and toned physique. I had been thinking that the enemy’s fighting style was rather oni-like, and it turned out that was what it really was. Its name changed from Unknown to Invisible Ogre. From that point on, the boss started using more attacks, and things got a lot more intense.

It attacked by throwing shuriken-like shadows and teleported around using shadows. Equipped with a short sword on top of this, it was like a ninja. Having to face a powerful ninja was way too unfair!

And then came the decisive blow. Which killed me and only me!

For most of the fight, however, I managed to hold out against this powerful foe. Having Hamakaze and Longneck there was really helpful though. Longneck was able to cross swords with the Invisible Ogre and Hamakaze’s fox was packing a considerable amount of firepower as usual. Hamakaze’s own support abilities were also fantastic, so my and my party’s main role was just to assist the girls.

However, I had one moment of carelessness that proved fatal.

The Invisible Ogre used a special ability that allowed it to teleport right behind me, and I failed to evade its attack in time. Normally, one attack wouldn’t have been strong enough to kill me... Listen, I-I wasn’t trying to make excuses, okay? I just had a lot of bad luck hit at once.

First off, there was the terrain. There was no set location for the fight against this black shadow, and this time, we encountered it in a swampy marsh. As we fought, my feet kept getting stuck in the mud, which slowed me down.

Next, there was the timing. The fatal attack came right as I was trying to decide if I should summon Bear Bear in to replace Drimo, who had just lost a lot of HP.

Lastly, there was the attack itself. As bad luck would have it, it was a critical hit. The Invisible Ogre’s shadowy blade made a direct hit to my neck, turning it into a critical hit at a vulnerable spot, killing me instantly.

Moreover, my monsters also all disappeared from the battlefield when I died, so the battle formation naturally fell apart. Not long after that, Hamakaze and Longneck died too.

“We might have died, but we gained something as well.”

“We did?”

“Yes. I’m now convinced that this party of you, me, and Longneck can defeat the Invisible Ogre.”

According to Hamakaze, our fight had gone particularly more smoothly than her previous battles against the ogre. After all, this was her first time making it to the point where the Invisible Ogre revealed its true form.

“If you two are up for it, I’d like to challenge it again,” I said.

“I was going to ask you that, but are you sure? Are you not busy with anything else...?” Hamakaze asked.

“Nah. This is more important. Let me redeem—I mean, absolve my shame!”

I had almost said redeem my honor, but I had no honor to redeem in the first place.

“For now, our plan should be to fight the Invisible Oni on level ground next,” Hamakaze proposed.

“Can we do that?” I asked. Didn’t we fight the enemy wherever we found it?

“When we spotted the shadow, it was walking around, wasn’t it?”

“Now that you mention it, I guess it was.”

“So, I think we should wait until it wanders into an area where it’s easy to fight and then attack it.”

“I like that idea.”

Last time, we had been so psyched to find the enemy that both Longneck and I had attacked it on sight.

“Also, I realized things go south quick once you die, Silver-Haired. We should have Olto stay by your side to guard you.”

“Yeah, if I had Olto or Sakura near me, things would have turned out differently.”

“Exactly.”

All right, I’m pumped for this rematch. We’ll win this time for sure!

“Okay, let’s reconvene at Beastus when our death penalties wear off,” Hamakaze continued.

“Sounds good. I think I’ll take this time to log out and get something to eat.”

“I still have some time before I have to log out, so I’ll do some crafting.”

In addition to talismans, Hamakaze also made leather. She hoped to one day be able to craft using her yokai’s abilities. It did sound like a dream to have an accessory filled with the power of a yokai. It satisfied my inner middle-schooler heart in a way a western fantasy couldn’t.

“And Long... Ah, she’s not listening.”

“Definitely not.”

“Tee hee hee hee hee hee hee...”

Longneck was frolicking with the yokai on my farm. She was a true Onmyoji. Rather than my monsters and mascots, she had eyes only for yokai. She was surrounded by my and her own yokai, her ardor clear on her face. She must really love yokai.

“The scenery here is just amazing, by the way. Imagine the Lakeside Tree and that flower garden at night... You could charge an entry fee, you know.”

“Ha ha, Tagosack said the same thing, but I’m not so sure about that...”

“Yeah, it would be annoying to set up the admissions.”

“That, and the fact that I don’t know how big that tree is going to get.”

Right now, my Lakeside Tree, pond, and nemophila carpet took up two plots. But if the Lakeside Tree got even bigger, I might have to move the flower garden. I wouldn’t know until that happened.

“Well then, you could just do it for now!”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Do you mind if I play a little too?”

“Yeah, of course. Make yourself at home.”

“Yay! Long! Make room for me!”

It was worth going through the trouble of setting all this up if it made my friends happy.

The morning after we lost against the Invisible Ogre, I logged in, finished my daily tasks, and then met up with Hamakaze and Longneck to challenge the quest once again.

“We’re gonna win today for sure!”

“Yes, we will.”

“You said it!”

Since we had already done so before, finding the Invisible Ogre was extremely easy; it only took us about an hour. We soon spotted that mysterious shadow and plunged again into battle.

“Raaaaagh!”

“Your opening roar won’t work on us anymore!”

“Our earplugs block it perfectly!”

We already knew all of the Invisible Oni’s behavioral patterns, so we were perfectly prepared to guard ourselves against the roar it used at the start of battle, which had an intimidation effect. With our earplugs making the roar ineffective, we descended swiftly on the Oni.

“Olto, you guard me.”

“Mm!”

“Reflet, Eine, Fau, and Olea—support everyone else! Rick, you focus on long-range attacks!”

This time, I had brought my party members who were my best supporters. Even if I used my strongest moves, I couldn’t compare to the damage Hamakaze and Longneck could inflict. My mission in this battle was to support the girls by healing and buffing them continuously.

“I summon Kettle!”

“Pom!”

“Keep healing as needed!”

“Po-Pom!”

I summoned in Kettle too, so the only real attacker in my party was Rick.

But Hamakaze was strong, so that was just fine.

“Foxfire!”

“Arf arf!”

“Slash!”

In fact, Hamakaze’s fox’s fireballs and Longneck’s yokai-katana’s slashing techniques were dealing high damage. The other yokai they summoned were also effective attackers.

As part of her follow-up attack, Hamakaze took out a thin strip of paper that looked to be a talisman, and threw it. As if held in place by an invisible hand, the talisman stopped in midair, flashed red, and then emitted a giant fireball. This was the power of Talisman skills, one of an Onmyoji’s main abilities on par with Yokai Summoning.

Hamakaze used the power of her fox yokai, which was sealed in the talisman, to unleash fire. It was even the same color as her fox’s fire. Although it wasn’t as powerful as the real attack, it was still plenty strong, and the fact that it activated instantaneously was a huge plus.

Although making talismans took a lot of resources and time, it was a skill that became exponentially stronger the more yokai one had under their control. To my disappointment, I couldn’t learn it, since it was a skill exclusive to Onmyoji.

More than anything, making talismans just sounded so cool!

“Sunekosuri! Use Telekinesis to stop that thing!”

“Sneeeh!”

“Sneech, you know what to do!”

“Sneh sneeh!”

The Sunekosuri were doing a great job. Their invisible abilities were very helpful. Their moderately powered and imperceptible moves were perfect for hindering the enemy’s movements and interrupting its attacks. In my case, since I could only use my yokai through Yokai Summoning, their power was too weak to be useful in a boss fight, but both Hamakaze’s and Longneck’s Sunekosuri had considerably strong Telekinesis skills.

They were dealing several times the amount of damage my own Sunekosuri was capable of. They packed quite a punch too. Yokai belonging to legitimate Onmyoji were truly leagues stronger than my own.

Incidentally, Hamakaze didn’t give her yokai names, but Longneck apparently did. Among the command classes, Tamers were the only ones who were required to give names to their monsters; it was optional for other job classes.

The reason Tamers had to name their monsters was because they could tame multiple of the same type of monster, and it would make things confusing if the monsters didn’t have names.

Summoners and Necromancers could turn their monsters into entirely new creatures through synthesis, so naming their monsters might make them get too attached to their original monsters and feel bad about changing them. That was why naming wasn’t required for them. Though since it wasn’t impossible, that meant there were some people, like Sakkyun and Chris, who named all their monsters.

In the case of Onmyoji, they could only obtain one of each yokai, so it was sufficient for them to just remember the name of the yokai’s species. Hence why naming wasn’t required for them either.

Even when two or more Onmyoji formed a party together, their yokai had small individual differences to their appearances, so players didn’t have to worry about not being able to tell them apart. Even my, Hamakaze’s, and Longneck’s Sunekosuri had considerably different fur colors and textures. Hamakaze’s Sunekosuri was a cream color, while Longneck’s Sneech was more of a black color. It also had what looked to be bangs? Wait, is that why she named it Sneech?

“Garrrgh!”

“Oh shit! Here comes its Tackle!”

The Invisible Ogre lowered its hips and braced its legs. That was the sign it was about to use its dangerous Tackle move. In the previous battle, Longneck almost died because she hadn’t been prepared for this.

“Graaah!”

As if its body had been fired by a catapult, the Invisible Ogre rushed towards us at an accelerated speed.

And it was headed straight for me.

I hastily tried to move out of its line of fire, but the Invisible Ogre changed course to follow me. That tracking ability was one of the more annoying aspects of Tackle. The skill didn’t have a special effect, but its high speed, power, and pursuit ability made it an extremely difficult attack to block. But thankfully, I had a very reliable bodyguard!

“Mm-mmm!”

If you knew the attack’s abilities, it wasn’t difficult to defend against them. Not that I could. But Olto could!

“Mm-mm-mmm!”

“Graaa?”

With impeccable timing, Olto stepped between me and the Invisible Ogre, and swung his hoe down to divert the trajectory of the boss’s Tackle.

The boss’s large black form passed right by me. Unable to stop quickly, the Invisible Ogre slid by with a whoosh. Once it finally came to a stop, it lost balance and fell to one knee.

This crisis had turned into a moment of opportunity.

“Attack!” I yelled.

“Chirp chirp!”

In this scenario, even the Invisible Ogre, with its swiftness and high evasion, was like a sitting duck.

Our simultaneous attacks took a large chunk out of its HP bar.

Following that, since we had already fought the boss once before, the rest of the battle proceeded smoothly without anyone dying. We occasionally took damage, but we were able to keep ourselves healed just fine.

“I think we’ve got this!” Hamakaze cheered.

“H-Hamakaze! Don’t jinx it!” Longneck cried.

It happened right after Longneck’s shout. I suppose we shouldn’t have expected a boss this strong to be beaten so easily. Once its HP dropped to ten percent, it underwent a change we hadn’t seen from it yet. A red aura enshrouded it—it was rabid.

“It’s rabid! Silver-Haired! Be careful!”

“Got it!”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I was fully aware that if I took a hit from the boss while it was in a state that boosted its attack power, I’d be dead meat. Don’t worry, I know what to do—hide in the back!

“Grrrooough!”

“Ack! Olto, protect me!”

“Mm-mmm!”

The way the Invisible Ogre roared, its face looking like a hannya mask, was ridiculously menacing. Even without Hamakaze’s warning, I would never in a million years think of confronting that thing. Also, its speed had gone up a level. This was bad.

But despite my fear, the ogre was no match for Hamakaze and her yokai.

“I summon the Lounger!” Hamakaze cried out.

“...Mrrr.”

Hamakaze summoned the Lounger. Maybe this was needless to say, but Hamakaze and Longneck had already formed friendships with the Lounger and the Rascal. They had apparently asked the Quick-Eared Cats to sell them any information pertaining to yokai as soon as it came in.

“...Mrrr.”

With a lazy voice that felt out of place on the battlefield, the Lounger that Hamakaze summoned activated Slowing Circle, a skill that debuffed enemies and allies alike by reducing their speed. The Invisible Ogre’s movements visibly slowed down.

From here on, we focused on attacking the boss at long range. I see. So, slow down the enemy, and then attack using magic, which isn’t really affected by speed, to minimize the downsides of Slowing Circle as much as possible. It was a great way to use the skill.

Lastly, Hamakaze’s fox hit the enemy with its Foxfire, and the Invisible Ogre unleashed a scream as it faded into nothingness.

“Whew. We wooon!”

“Yaaay! We did it!”

“Th-Thank goodness.”

Choosing the location of the battlefield this time helped immensely. We managed to win. Man, we’ve been going nonstop since this morning!

However, our celebration did not last for long. We soon found ourselves back on guard. Something was appearing in the spot where the Invisible Ogre had vanished.

But it wasn’t the Invisible Ogre coming back to life—what appeared was a lone man. He was dressed in a traditional Japanese outfit, which made him stick out like a sore thumb in this western-style fantasy game. He looked like a warrior from the Kamakura period. But on his head, he wore not a helmet, but a tall hat that court nobles wore. What were those called again, eboshi? That hat made him look very much like an aristocrat.

“You have displayed your power. It is sufficient to master the Invisible Ogre.”

“You have formed a bond of friendship with the Invisible Ogre.”

This was a lot different than the other yokai events I had done!

The noble chuckled, and the Invisible Ogre appeared by his side. It stood there calmly, as if that wild behavior from before was just an act. It was a handsome ogre, with sleek features and a lean physique.

“Go forth and search for the four ogres under my command. When you have all command over all four, you may find yourself with a new power.”

That was all the noble said before vanishing. So, there were more ogres out there in addition to the Invisible Ogre. But my attention was quickly pulled elsewhere.

“Congratulations. Among all players, you have befriended ten yokai in the shortest amount of time. You will receive the title ‘Fastest Yokai Searcher.’”

To my surprise, I had received a title. I heard Hamakaze and Longneck start cheering at the same time. Did they get the same title too?

“I got Fastest Yokai Searcher! Woo-hoo!”

“A-A title! It’s been so long!”

I was glad that I, someone who wasn’t even an Onmyoji, wasn’t the only one who was the fastest. If I had been the only one to get the title, things would have for sure gotten awkward around here.

Title: Fastest Yokai Searcher

Effect: Acquire 500,000 G and four bonus points. Receive a boost in favorability from yokai.

That was a lot of money to receive from a title. Maybe the amount of gold received from titles increased based on your overall progression of the game? The last few titles had given me ten thousand gold or less. I wished I could start getting more bonus points too, but those remained the same.

“Silver-Haired! Thank you! We got a title thanks to you!”

“Not at all, thank you. If you hadn’t invited me, I never would have been able to get the Invisible Ogre.”

“Th-That’s not true! You were the one who found the Lounger and the Rascal! And I know you would’ve been able to find this event too somehow or another! I’m certain of it!”

“Ha ha ha, there’s no way I could’ve found an event that’s exclusive to Onmyoji.”

Longneck was really putting me on a pedestal here. I was just here to assist her and Hamakaze, so maybe they were just trying to be nice...

But I didn’t know how to respond to their flattery. Not that it made me feel uncomfortable, but I decided to keep this in mind next time I went golfing with a client. Now I understood what it felt like to be overly flattered.

In order to change the subject, I asked Hamakaze and Longneck about something that was on my mind.

“It sounds like there are three more ogres, right?”

“That’s right! He said four ogres! And if one of them is the Invisible Ogre, then...”

“Th-Then that man was Fujiwara no Chikata?”

“He has to be, right?”

“Yeah! Wow, that’s so cool!”

Hamakaze and Longneck voices rose in excitement as they worked out what they thought the true identity of the noble was.

“Fujiwara no Chikata? Who’s that?” I asked.

Um, mind filling me in?

To sum up what Hamakaze and Longneck excitedly took turns to explain to me, Fujiwara no Chikata was a famous figure from history. I didn’t know him, so I wondered if they learned about him in history class or something. The way they were talking about him made it seem like he was someone everyone should know.

Anyway, Fujiwara was a man who fought against the imperial army with four ogres that he controlled. The four ogres he controlled at the time were called Invisible Ogre, Gold Ogre, Water Ogre, and Wind Ogre.

I think I get it. The Invisible Ogre, the four ogres, and a nobleman. When they explained it to me, it all seemed to fit together. It was highly possible the noble we just met was indeed Fujiwara no Chikata.

“So, does that mean the other ogres are in the remaining three regions?”

“Probably! Ahh, we need to go look for them!”

“Silver-Haired! Let’s go!”

“Uhh, you want me to come too?”

“Of course!”

“W-With you there, we’re guaranteed to find them!”

I was the one who should be thanking them. After all, only Onmyoji could accept this quest. But would Longneck, who was so shy, be able to keep interacting with me like this without burning out?

Online Forum [New Discoveries Galore!] A Discussion Thread for New Discoveries Made in LJO, Part 68

Feel free to report anything you’ve noticed, however trivial.

Don’t make things up.

Don’t assume others are lying.

If possible, include a screenshot as proof.

205: Heartman

Sooo many players are walking along walls lmao

206: Fuka

There were so many people lined up, it looked like they were pretending to be trains.

207: Heartman

It’s funny to see everyone suddenly disappear once they meet the NPC and their party is sent to a different space.

208: Hiruma

It’s funny to watch the cats get chased around too.

People yell as they chase them, so the cats try to run away from them lololol

209: Fuka

It’s been a while since the information embargo was lifted.

It’s still going hot.

210: Hendrickson

Well, yeah. It actually probably won’t cool off for a while, if you think about how the second and third wave players will be doing the same thing later on too.

211: Hiruma

All the items available, including the Book of Secrets for the fourth advanced job classes.

Private playgrounds that only you and your party can enter. And they’re full of things to do.

Since yokai appear there, there’s a high chance there are some other hidden gimmicks.

Who wouldn’t want to go?

212: Heartman

I sank so many hours into the arcade games.

213: Fuka

I did the same thing with the footbath!

214: Hendrickson

It was the hammock for me.

215: Hiruma

I could stare at the bonfire forever.

216: Formaggio

You all prefer the chill spots?

I see the rowdy places are way more bustling when I check out the towns.

217: Heartman

The rowdy places have more games that you can beat, and you can finish each one in a short amount of time if you’re good.

218: Hiruma

People who are more interested in winnable games, who have less time to spend, or who like to be active gravitate to the rowdy side.

People who have more time, like to relax, and who get frustrated with the rowdy activities go for the chill stuff.

219: Fuka

The rowdy spots may be popular now, but I bet the chill spots will take over soon!

220: Hendrickson

I imagine the people choosing to spend their time in the chill spots are there for a long time.

221: Formaggio

Some yokai were discovered by Silver-Haired, but were there any other discoveries?

222: Heartman

I heard that NPCs teach new songs to players with music-related job classes.

223: Fuka

I heard NPCs will teach players with high flail skills the existence of other related skills.

224: Hiruma

It looks like they added some support for new job classes that were unlocked mid-game and the skills that not many players have acquired yet.

225: Formaggio

I see, I see.

Anything else? Even things that don’t have to do with the rowdy and chill events?

226: Hamakaze

Onmyoji can now go to a guild to accept a quest exclusive to them.

227: Hendrickson

Woo, a top Onmyoji is here!

An exclusive quest? So only Onmyoji can accept it?

228: Hamakaze

Yes. Though as long as the accepter is an Onmyoji, anyone else can join regardless of their job class.

It’s just that the quest has to first be accepted by an Onmyoji.

229: Fuka

An exclusive quest. How cool.

Nothing like that exists for Chefs!

230: Heartman

That must be one of the support measures for job classes with fewer players.

231: Hendrickson

Must be nice.

232: Hiruma

There are so few people playing those job classes that it’d be real bad if they didn’t do something to help them out.

233: Formaggio

People will choose to be a tamer or a fighter class without any encouragement.

Other, less popular classes need some kind of bolstering if the devs want more people to play them.

234: Hamakaze

Right now, there are twelve Onmyoji.

235: Hendrickson

You do need support!

236: Heartman

That does sound like a small number in the grand scheme of things.

Job classes that let you command magical beasts are highly competitive, so there’s no helping that.

237: Hamakaze

Heh heh heh heh.

It’s true Onmyoji is an unpopular job class!

And there aren’t many yokai to befriend!

But that changes today!

I’ve made a grand discovery that will put an end to that unpopularity!

238: Fuka

Th-That’s a top Onmyoji for you!

No one else could get away with calling themselves Silver-Haired’s rival!

239: Hamakaze

Well, Silver-Haired was with me.

240: Hiruma

That changes things, doesn’t it?

Was this your achievement? Or a Silver-Haired phenomenon?

241: Hamakaze

He helped me with a quest that I initiated! This is at least partly my achievement!

But still, I have a lot to thank him for!

242: Heartman

So, how was this quest that you and Silver-Haired worked together on to complete?

Or do I have to ask the Quick-Eared Cats?

243: Hamakaze

No, I’ll tell you.

Silver-Haired also told me he didn’t mind what I did with the info.

Even if I did sell it to the Quick-Eared Cats, I wouldn’t make much money from it anyway!

244: Hiruma

There are only twelve Onmyoji, after all...

245: Hendrickson

Information about a quest exclusive to twelve people...

Guess that’s not worth much.

246: Hamakaze

Yeah...

I’m sure it’s chump change to someone estimated to be as rich as Silver-Haired.

247: Formaggio

N-Now, now. I bet this info will get more people choosing Onmyoji!

248: Fuka

So, care to share this info?

249: Hamakaze

Onmyoji can accept an exclusive quest at the Magical Beasts Guild in Zone Eleven.

The nature of the quest is a pursuit that leads you to a battle.

I think a lot of people know that much.

250: Hendrickson

How’s the quest itself, difficulty-wise?

251: Hamakaze

The enemy’s strength changes depending on the composition of your party’s skills.

I’m certain that the number of yokai-related skills and the number of yokai you’ve befriended makes a difference.

252: Heartman

Now that’s interesting.

And that’s why you picked Silver-Haired to join out of anyone.

253: Hamakaze

Yes, exactly.

And so, the main target of the quest is a yokai, and once you defeat it, you can befriend it. And...

254: Hiruma

And?

255: Hamakaze

Well, the same quest exists in all four cardinal regions of Zone Eleven.

You can befriend a total of four yokai.

And they’re superstrong!

256: Fuka

Hamakaze, you have pretty strong yokai yourself, don’t you?

Are you saying they’re even stronger than your fox?

257: Hamakaze

Their power changes depending on your job class, so if you just have the Yokai Summoning skill, they’re not that strong.

But for Onmyoji, yeah, they’re just as strong as my fox.

258: Hendrickson

Whoa, what?!

That sounds so cool!

259: Formaggio

Are Onmyoji finally having their time in the limelight?

You said four superstrong yokai?

260: Hiruma

I don’t think there would be yokai that only Onmyoji can get.

There has to be another way to get them.

You don’t have any info that could serve as a hint to that, do you?

261: Hamakaze

Hmm, let’s see...

First off, the yokai are ogres.

I’m pretty positive they’re based on the four ogres of Fujiwara no Chikata.

262: Fuka

Fujiwara no Chikata?

Is he famous? Is he related to Kamatari?

263: Heartman

You’re thinking of Nakatomi no Kamatari!

Fujiwara is...Michizane!

264: Hiruma

No, that’s Sugawara no Michizane.

Plus, I’m pretty sure Nakatomi no Kamatari was the founder of the Fujiwara clan.

Kamatari’s son was Fujiwara no Fuhito.

265: Fuka

See?! What did I say?!

266: Heartman

Th-That was just a coincidence!

267: Fuka

N-No it wasn’t!

Anyway, I see the devs also take inspiration from real-world people like him, huh?

268: Formaggio

Does that Chikata person control ogres?

269: Hamakaze

You guys need to study up. No one knows about him!

He’s a famous and great person from history!

270: Hiruma

No way, Fujiwara no Chikata is super minor. A great person? Idk about that.

But it’s true he existed. He started a rebellion.

271: Heartman

And?

What kind of hint is this Fujiwara hiding?

272: Hamakaze

I don’t know! I was able to accept the quest normally.

Someone smart has to figure it out!

273: Hendrickson

Useless.

274: Formaggio

Smart people! Think of something!

Hiruma! Come on!

275: Hiruma

How could I possibly come up with something based on that info alone?

I need to hear a little more about this quest from Hamakaze.

276: Hamakaze

Sure thing!

277: Hiruma

I’ll also reach out to the Verification Clan and do some serious investigating.

278: Heartman

I look forward to what you can find out!

279: Hendrickson

We’re counting on you!

Let us know if there’s anything we can help with!

280: Formaggio

I’ll lend my help too! I have more than enough free time on my hands!

So! What can we do?

281: Hiruma

I know just the thing.

Pray to Silver-Haired.

282: Fuka

Right.

283: Hamakaze

R-Really? I guess I understand.

Oh, and progressing this event will unlock another fourth advanced job class.

284: Hendrickson

Whaaat?! That’s way bigger news to us!

We need to get serious!

I’ll pray as hard as I can!

All-Star Silveeer!

285: Hiruma

Wow, look at you go.

Well, for a lead for another fourth advanced job class that’s not a chill or rowdy one, I guess I can’t blame you.

286: Formaggio

Aaahhh! My right hand is overflowing with power!

Hraaah! Silver MVP!

287: Heartman

Ep-ic! Sil-ver!

288: Fuka

Silver MVP.

289: Hamakaze

Silver—I can’t do it!

As his self-professed rival, I can’t make myself say it!

290: Hiruma

But you’re fine with bowing your head and asking for his help to clear a quest?

“I got all four ogres!”

“Mmm.”

“...♪”

The four ogres that I just befriended stood in a row in front of Olto and me.

After I befriended the Invisible Ogre, I went to the other regions with Hamakaze and Longneck and befriended the others.

In addition to the shadowy Invisible Ogre, I now had the Water Ogre, whose body was made of water, the amorphous Wind Ogre, who was composed of green gusts of wind, and the Gold Ogre, whose body was made of shiny and metal, bringing my total up to four ogres.

Each one was strong, but we proceeded cautiously and managed to beat them. I made myself invulnerable by riding on horseback on Carro and having Olto protect me. It was thanks to that formation that I only took damage from the attacks that hit everyone. Plus, once Hamakaze and Longneck obtained the Invisible Ogre, their battle prowess also got a step up.

The Water Ogre’s watery body gave it a great defensive ability—all our physical attacks went right through it. When it became rabid, it started using long-range water magic attacks against us, showcasing its ability to be both a powerful close-range and long-range attacker.

The Wind Ogre was made up of a green gaseous substance. When it was standing, it looked like a regular, muscular ogre, but it suddenly lost shape when it moved. If its name hadn’t shown up as Wind Ogre when I appraised it, I never would have even known it was an ogre. Physical attacks were even less effective against this one than they were against the Water Ogre. You’d have a hard time fighting against it without magic. Onmyoji were magic users anyway, though, so that wasn’t a problem.

When the ogre went rabid, it clad itself in a tornado and repelled our attacks, making this battle the one that took the longest for us to win. Its attacks were also invisible, so I took a lot of hits. It really kept me on my toes.

And lastly, the Gold Ogre was the complete opposite of the Wind Ogre. It was a magic killer. It reflected almost all magic spells and only took damage from physical attacks. And since it had a high defense, we really had to work hard to beat it.

Since its movements were slow, in a way, it was the least dangerous battle we fought. But when the ogre became rabid, it started swinging a giant hammer at us, exhibiting an attack power that was high enough to almost kill Olto in one hit. If it hadn’t been for Carro’s Moon Magic, we would’ve died.

But all that effort had been worth it, because now I had four ogres. The question was, why were they chibi-sized?

“Gyaaah.”

The head of the Invisible Ogre I summoned was huge. It had the same proportions as a chibi character sprite you’d see in a mobile game. Even its voice was kind of cutesy. It didn’t look like an ogre at all.

Meanwhile, Hamakaze and Longneck’s ogres looked totally normal, with lean, muscular bodies! They were a little smaller than when we fought them as enemies, but they were much bigger than my four ogres. Why were Hamakaze and Longneck’s ogres the same size, while mine were so small?

The three of us had puzzled over that for a bit, but the answer soon revealed itself to us. Once we couldn’t think of a reason ourselves, we decided to take a look at our battle results.

When Hamakaze and Longneck befriended all four ogres they received a Book of Secrets from Fujiwara no Chikata. That must have been something only Onmyoji could receive, because all I got was the title “Four Ogres Master.”

The Book of Secrets was to advance to a super cool sounding job class, the Ogre Onmyoji. Hamakaze immediately upgraded to that job class. I admired her preparedness to go in blind and do her own verification on it.

After that, her ogres changed. They took on the exact same forms they had when we fought them as enemies. It seemed their appearances changed depending on the player’s Onmyoji score.

An Onmyoji score wasn’t a real thing, just something we made up. I, who only had Yokai Summoning, had an Onmyoji score of 1. Longneck, who was a mid-level Onmyoji, had an Onmyoji score of 2. And Hamakaze, who was now an Ogre Onmyoji, had a score of 3.

Our theory was that some yokai couldn’t completely exhibit their power if the player didn’t have a certain level of Onmyoji score. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that the yokai didn’t acknowledge the player enough to go all out for them.

In any case, without me having a higher Onmyoji score, my ogres probably wouldn’t utilize their full power.

“But it’s not like I can become an Onmyoji.”

Would anything change if I acquired more Onmyoji- or yokai-type skills? Even Longneck, who had an Onmyoji score of 2, had powerful-looking ogres. Honestly, my ogres didn’t look very strong at all with their chibi appearances.

“Plus, only Onmyoji can enter that dungeon.”

Hamakaze and Longneck had both obtained a title that I hadn’t been able to. It was called “Permission to Play Tag.” My guess was that the conditions to get it were probably to be an Onmyoji and to befriend the ogres.

The description of the title was vague, stating that it allowed you to participate in playing tag in hell.

The game of tag was being held in an instanced dungeon accessible through the Onmyoji-only lounge. Hamakaze and Longneck had already gone in. They told me about what that hell was like, and what I understood was that I wasn’t ready to go in there yet.

First, they went through the teleportation gate placed in the lounge, which sent them to a dim, cave-like area. Red liquid dripped from the black stalactites that surrounded them on all sides. The blue will-o’-the-wisps that hung in the air cast a gloomy light in the eerie cave. Various types of ogres wandered around in that cave and attacked the girls. At first, keeping with the “game of tag” aspect, Hamakaze and Longneck ran away, but they were soon surrounded from the front too and had nowhere to run.

From there, they tried to fight, but... All six types of ogres—Red Ogre, Blue Ogre, Yellow Ogre, White Ogre, Yellow Ogre, and Black Ogre—were extremely powerful. Although they were clearly mob monsters that roamed the cave, Hamakaze and Longneck knew the ogres were strong enough to utterly crush them. The girls managed to flee and stay alive, but after thirty minutes, they heard an announcement telling them that time was up, and then they were kicked out of the cave.

In order to reenter, they had to wait twenty-four in-game hours, meaning the cave could only be challenged once a day. Plus, there was no reward for the battles. Shockingly enough, defeating the ogre earned you no XP, and they didn’t even drop items.

If I were there, I would be instantly killed before I could even lift a finger.

“I’m interested if you can do any gathering there, though.”

But I couldn’t ask Hamakaze and Longneck to go back there just to see if there was anything to collect, knowing they would die there. Although, Hamakaze seemed like the type to do verification work, so if I waited, she’d probably find some things out eventually. Maybe she wouldn’t mind sharing some interesting materials she managed to find there.

Chapter Five: The Archdemon Amy

I left the Farming Guild, where I had bought several household objects to place around the Lakeside Tree, and headed to my farm.

“Let’s go see how the farm is coming along.”

“Aye!”

I had already sent the field of nemophilas and a few other things back to my home base, so Olto and the others had probably already gotten to work. He’d looked pretty enthusiastic about this, so I was curious to see the results.

As I excitedly made my way home, the ground suddenly shook.

“Whoa!”

“Aye?”

It was a pretty massive shake. There shouldn’t be any earthquakes in LJO, so what the heck was that?

Unable to grasp what just happened, I looked around, and wouldn’t you know it? I spotted something strange.

“Huh? What is that?”

“Aye-aye!”

A giant, squirming, inky-black mass of some sort of substance was floating in midair. It was past the Lakeside Sequoia, towards the eastern part of town. Despite it being pretty far away, I could see it clearly, which meant it must have been considerably huge up close.

“That definitely doesn’t look like a good sign, does it?”

“Aye.”

In fact, I’d have been surprised if something so dark and creepy weren’t a sign of something terrible about to happen. So much so that I’d probably have filed a complaint with management.

“That’s usually what happens before a demon raid boss appears, right?”

“Aye!” Fau remembered too.

As I recalled, it was from a similar black mass that the Archdemon Bifrons had emerged.

That detail alone should clue anyone in to what was about to happen. After all, demon-related events had been happening all the time lately. Of course, we hadn’t received any notice of an event, so maybe that wasn’t the case?

However, demonic enemies were still frequently appearing on the playing field and we’d seen cryptic movies showing that demons were scheming behind the scenes. With all that considered, something had to be in the works. And now this mysterious black mass just showed up out of nowhere. There was no way it was unrelated.

I gave up on going back to my farm and instead ran towards the east.

“Everyone, let’s go!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Aye!”

“Growl growl!”

My current party consisted of my non-farming monsters, Carro, Fau, Bear Bear, Lilith, Melum, and Perca. My expert tanks weren’t here, but Bear Bear was, so at least our balance wasn’t terrible. If a raid did start, I would be able to fight with this party composition.

Well, if the enemy was superstrong, we might still be in trouble. But...

An event in the vicinity of the Town of Beginnings meant that people besides first wave players could participate! Which meant there was a good chance it wasn’t going to be some crazy difficult boss that would destroy beginners! Probably!

I walked through the Town of Beginnings, keeping my eyes on the black mass. Everyone was already streaming in the same direction, so I didn’t have to worry about bumping into anyone.

We passed by the Lakeside Sequoia, exited through the Eastern Gate, and came out onto the Eastern Plains. A large crowd of players was gathered there, staring up at the sky. There were no enemies in sight, as if things had been configured so that monsters wouldn’t spawn in the area. As I expected, an event was about to start right here in the Eastern Plains.

Now that I could look straight up at the mass, I was able to grasp just how big it was. If I had to describe it, it was like a giant, black balloon, over twenty meters in diameter. I estimated that it was around one hundred meters in the air.

It wasn’t too high or too low, but at just the unpleasantly right height to intimidate all the players below with its size.

“It’s just frozen there.”

“Aye.”

“Growl.”

I could tell that the surface was wriggling slightly, but it wasn’t visibly moving more than that. It also wasn’t being moved by the air currents, and it was remaining at the same height. Was it going to stay like that until the event began? But we hadn’t received any announcement telling us when it would begin. I hoped the devs weren’t expecting us to stand here for hours...

As I stood in the field, pondering this, I saw a white streak suddenly shoot up towards the sky. It sped upwards until it struck the black mass, then it burst and disappeared.

After a brief moment of silence, noise returned to the field. Amid the confused chatter, I heard some angry voices shouting at each other.

“The hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Sh-Shut up! I just made a preemptive strike! It’s obviously a demon!”

“Oh yeah? And what if you made the event start off all wrong?!”

“It needs to hurry up and start already! I can’t wait here forever!”

It sounded like some player had gotten fed up with just staring at the black mass and decided to attack it with magic. I understood how they felt, but if something went wrong, people might blame that player for messing things up. I kind of admired their bravery, actually.

The good news? The attack did nothing, and the black mass continued to hang silently in the air.

Soon, a few attacks were shot out sporadically, but none of them made any difference. The black mass gave no indication of taking damage. It just kept floating calmly in the same spot. Next, some volunteers used their monsters who could fly to do some recon and search the area for any clues, but that led nowhere.

Could it be that the black mass was just an object placed here ahead of the announcement of the event, and the event itself actually wasn’t going to start for a while? Just as a lot of players started discussing that possibility, there was a server-wide announcement.

Ding-dong!

“The required number of players have assembled in the Eastern Plains. In thirty minutes, the final battle against the Archdemon of Desire will begin.”

Aha, so a certain number of players had to gather on the field before it could start. Those attacks really had been useless.

While players were muttering and looking up at the black mass, a screen popped up in front of me with a ping. Was it going to display details of the event?

“Let’s see, what’s this?”

“Growl?”

“Kee-hee-hee?”

“Hey, no pushing! Bear Bear, don’t lean on me! You’re heavy!”

“Grooowl.”

“S-Sorry. You’re not heavy,” I amended my words quickly when I saw how dejected Bear Bear looked. Are they self-conscious about their weight?

“Growl?”

“J-Just rest your head on my shoulder.”

“Growl growl!”

Just when I got Bear Bear into a comfortable position, I felt something tug on my robe from below.

“Honk honk!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Huh?”

It was Perca and Carro. Perca grabbing my robe with his fin was fine, but... Don’t chomp on my robe like that, Carro! Would the robe’s durability hold out? And was that drool?!

“Can you not see? How’s this?” I asked. I lowered the screen to a level where they could see it.

“Honk honk!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Grooowl.”

“Ah, wait, Bear Bear. That’s not gonna work...”

“Grooowl.”

“Don’t give me that! You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Growl?”

Ugh! Bear Bear knew I was weak to their cute mannerisms! That head tilt was killer!

But they were cute, so I gave them a pass.

I made some minor adjustments to the screen, going back and forth with my monsters, until I finally managed to find a position that everyone was happy with. Except I was stuck in an uncomfortable squat!

The details on the screen were in fact the official notice for the event. They displayed the rules for the raid boss fight that was about to commence—the battle against the Archdemon of Desire.

In ten minutes, a gate would appear to enter the raid boss arena, so that only players who wanted to participate in the battle could join in. Within the raid instance, time would be sped up, so a maximum of fifteen minutes would pass in the game’s normal area. Also, by passing through the gate, players’ HP and MP would be fully recovered, cooldown times would refresh, and hunger statuses would be fully satisfied. That was to allow us players to fight at our best. Otherwise, players who had already used their special techniques that refreshed only once every twenty-four hours would be at a serious disadvantage.

This archdemon raid could be fought again for a few days after the event, so players who couldn’t participate now could challenge it later on. However, players could only participate in the boss fight twice. Additionally, the boss’s power changed depending on the number of players participating. After all, there was a chance that only one hundred players or so would participate in a rematch.

As I was reading through the rules with my monsters, I heard players start making noise. When I raised my head, I saw why.

At some point, the black mass had disappeared, replaced by a rising black pillar of light right below where it had been. That black pillar must have been the gate to enter the boss arena. There were too many people around for me to see the base of the pillar. I heard people muttering, and it seemed like the crowd was moving, so the players around the base were probably doing something.

“Actually, it looks like I can teleport directly to the field from my window.”

I didn’t even have to touch the gate. I could teleport from right where I was. Despite that, most players remained in this area. I figured they were probably getting their items and equipment in order, waiting to meet up with their party members, or just waiting for a bit before joining the raid.

I similarly decided to wait a little and see how things played out. After all, it took some courage to be among the first to enter a raid boss battlefield. Who knows, the battle might suddenly start and I’d get crushed!

On the other hand, it was also a scary thought to teleport in after the battle had already begun. I could just imagine what would happen. Enter the battlefield! Get hit by the raid boss’s attack! Leave immediately!

“I’m gonna teleport now, okay?”

“Nyuuu!”

“Aye-aye!”

“Kee-hee!”

Even the newborn Melum was jiggling with unbridled enthusiasm. Fau looked impatient to get a move on, and Lilith thrust her spear up, ready for battle.

My monsters might have been cute, but they were always ready for a fight!

“All right, I’m selecting the option to enter in the raid.”

Once I pressed “Yes,” our bodies glowed with light, and in an instant, we were teleported from the plains to a strange area. Is this a temple? The ground beneath my feet was made of dirty cobblestones, and I saw several pillars the size of telephone poles. However, there were no walls or ceiling. Actually, there was probably a wall at the very edge of this field, but I couldn’t see it from here. Not only was the area vast, but it was shrouded in the darkness of night. There were numerous stars in the sky illuminating the space, but it was still much darker than daytime. Because of that, I couldn’t see very far into the distance.

“It’s not that I can’t see anything at all...but it is hard to see.”

“Nyuuu?”

“Kee-hee?”

“Can you two see fine?”

“Nyu-nyu!”

“Kee-hee!”

This level of darkness wasn’t a problem at all for Melum, a dark elemental, and Lilith, a demon. Unsurprising, since they were both at home in darkness.

They both responded to my question by snapping a salute. Well, Melum really just wiggled an appendage around, but I took that as a salute.

“Doesn’t look like the boss is here yet.”

“Honk!”

“Neigh neigh!”

Perca and Carro were glancing cautiously around us, but the boss in question—the Archdemon of Desire—was nowhere to be seen. That made sense, though. People were still teleporting in.

“It kind of looks like all the players are being placed in a donut shape, doesn’t it?”

“Aye!”

Hearing my mutter, Fau flew up and scanned our surroundings, then made a big circle with her arms. Either that was her signaling I was right, or she was saying that everyone was indeed standing in a circle.

The players that passed through the gate were being randomly placed in a circle around the center of the cobblestone floor. The same thing had happened in previous raids too, so no one was surprised by it. Party members were probably teleported in next to each other, and everyone was already prepared for what was to come as well.

However, considering the number of players who had gathered in the plains, there were actually not a lot of people here. We were probably being separated into servers of a thousand players each.

“Aye-aye!”

“Kee-hee.”

Fau and Lilith seemed to be getting hyped as they watched all the players coming in. As I was looking up at the two of them, I suddenly saw a red light shine in the darkness.

A giant ball of fire had suddenly appeared in midair. It was floating a good distance above us, but that deep crimson fireball was rapidly getting bigger until it filled my entire vision. It was also dropping at a terrifying speed. Um, this is bad, right?

“Guys, run away!”

“G-Grooowl!”

“H-Hooonk!”

Panicked, I turned to run, but it was already too late. There was no outrunning that thing.

The ground under our feet shook violently with a deep rumbling sound. But the explosion or shock wave I was worried about didn’t happen. When I looked behind me, I saw the giant fireball had sunk halfway into the ground. A second later, the blazing fireball began to transform into a twenty-meter-high pillar of fire. Was something going to come out from inside?

It seemed not. That mass of fire was the boss. When I appraised the blazing pillar, it showed the name Archdemon Amy.

“You’ll pay! You’ll pay for thiiis!”

A powerful, guttural voice boomed across the area. I felt like an angry stranger was shouting in my ear. This would’ve made any player with a weak will burst into tears! It was just that threatening!

Anyway, Amy sounded pissed! I should get away from it—

That was when I realized—I couldn’t move my body! Was that a paralyzing attack? This was not good.

It wasn’t just me. Everyone else around me couldn’t move either! If the boss attacked now, it could take out a large group of us with one hit! This boss sucks! Thanks a lot, devs!

As I internally cursed at the devs for messing things up, I found out that I wasn’t paralyzed and the boss didn’t suck. Sorry, devs.

A window popped up in front of all the players and started playing a video from the perspective from the front of the pillar of fire. I couldn’t see it from where I was standing, but there was a face or something on the front surface of the pillar. It was an emoji-like face drawn with black lines. It had slanted, triangular eyes and a mouth full of jagged fangs. It kind of looked like a child’s doodle, but the sloppy lines actually made it more impactful.

There was a human man standing before that fiery pillar. He wore aristocratic clothing and gave me a vibe of being a bad guy.

Had I seen that man somewhere before? That’s right—it was the man who appeared in the previous cutscenes. He was the one who bowed subserviently to the demon seated on the throne as they schemed together.

That man suddenly threw himself on the ground and prostrated himself to the pillar of fire and cried out, “Please, forgive me!”

“Curse those vexing travelers and my useless minions! I will burn you all to ash!”

“I-I beg for your forgiveness! Please, my lord!”

“Never! In spite of all the power I have bestowed, you’ve delivered to me nothing but failure! You incompetent fool!”

“Aahhh!” the man cried pitifully from his kneeling position.

Even though he was our enemy, I still felt a little bad for him. He was being threatened by a frightening demon. All I could think of was the poor guy.

In fact, wasn’t this straight-up power harassment? Seeing that plump man get berated by his superior struck me deep as an office worker. That’s enough! Subordinates are going to mess up, it happens! It’s your job as the boss to fix things! Your subordinate won’t learn if all you do is yell at him!

S-Sure, maybe the guy’s mistake was serious, but still, there was no need to get that mad about it! And the guy obviously knew he did wrong! That bald spot on his head was more than enough proof of that! That’s how you know he’s stressed!

“B-But the travelers are strong in their resistance! If it hadn’t been for them, we might have succeeded!”

“Silence! I won’t hear another second of your whimpering!”

Ah, just when I was feeling sympathetic for the guy, he shifted the blame onto us players! I knew it, there was no use feeling sorry for him! Let him have it! He was a villain who gave himself up to a demon anyway! That was close! I’d almost fallen for their trick! They were trying to make the man look miserable to gain my sympathy! What a terrifying trap!

“P-Please forgive me! I beg of you!”

“I won’t give you an easy death! I will let you endure the torments of hell!”

“N-Noooooo!”

The man turned his back on the demon and ran. Hey, wait, he’s coming right at us—

“There is no escape! You shall slumber within me!”

“Gaaaaaah!”

Ahhh! He got eaten! A tendril of fire grasped the man and tossed him into the pillar’s jagged mouth. Each time the demon chewed, it made this terrifying squelching sound. This game was always pulling out these horrifying scenes from nowhere!

A filter was applied to horror-like aspects of the game to tone them down for players younger than middle schoolers and people who didn’t like horror, but how could they be getting around this? It wasn’t possible, right? Did it turn into a cartoon?

At last, the archdemon swallowed the man, silencing his screams and other unpleasant sounds. It was finished eating.

That moment also signaled the start of the battle.

“You lot are next! You damned travelers! How dare you interfere with my plot! I will devour you all, and the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad after you! You will know the terror of the Archdemon Amy!”

We players were released from our paralysis, and an HP bar appeared above the Archdemon Amy.

“All right! Let’s do this, guys!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Aye!”

“For our first move—let’s wait and see what happens!”

“Kee-hee!”

“Honk honk?”

Hey, don’t look at me with those “Did you seriously just say that?” looks! You guys were ready to just rush in there, weren’t you? It would be pointless for us to attack the raid boss alone! We needed to coordinate with everyone else around us! Sure, there were players who charged immediately at the boss, but that was their decision! We had our own way of doing things! We didn’t rush in recklessly!

For now, I decided to see if there was anyone I knew here. There were about a thousand players here, so odds were I knew some of them. I glanced around, searching for friends to fight the raid boss with.

“Hmm...”

“Silver-Haired!”

“Oh! Hamakaze! We’re in the same server!”

“Yes we are! Long is here too!”

Surprisingly enough, the Onmyoji pair were both here. I guess we were destined to stick together today.

Hamakaze seemed to recognize another player nearby and called out to them. “Yodel-Ay-Hee! Over here!”

“Huh? Hamakaze? Ah! Silver-Haired!”

Yodel-Ay-Hee? The Painter? I remembered fighting alongside him in a previous event. There weren’t many people who played as a hobby-type job class, so he stood out in my memory. But was his hair always that color? Yodel-Ay-Hee’s hair was still parted in the center, but it was now strikingly dyed blue on the right side and red on the left.

Having noticed my staring, Yodel-Ay-Hee briefly explained. Painters could change not only the color of equipment, but of hair and skin color too. This was different from creating a skin. Instead, he could paint directly on hair or skin to temporarily change its color. Basically, he could change the coloring of a player’s appearance to whatever they wanted.

Although the color didn’t last forever, some people actually preferred that aspect of it, so Yodel-Ay-Hee could turn his services into a business. In fact, he explained that lately he was making bank doing just that lately. It was interesting to hear that Painters could make money in other ways besides selling paintings.

“This is a friend of mine! Go on, say hello, you lazy panda.”

“I-I’m not lazy! I’m just a little shy!”

Yodel-Ay-Hee forcefully pushed someone in front of him. I was intrigued the moment I saw them. After all, just like Yodel-Ay-Hee said, they were a panda.

The player was wearing a full-body panda costume. It was a kind of cheap-looking panda costume that resembled the panda rides you’d find on the rooftop of a department store. The torso area seemed to have some fur-like material on it, it was a full-body, formfitting leotard, and the head was huge and looked unbalanced with the rest of the body, to the point that I was worried it would come off at any second.

I wouldn’t say it was cute. In fact, it had an almost menacing quality to it. If I bumped into them in a dark place, I’d one hundred percent cry.

But in contrast with their imposing appearance, the panda spoke with a quiet voice. It sounded like the person inside was more of a melancholy type.

“I-I’m Yang Yang... Nice to meet you.”

“Ooh, that’s a panda name for sure!”

“H-Heh heh. Right?”

“Did you choose that name knowing you wanted to dress up as a panda?”

“No. I just like the chocolate candy.”

Their name was a reference to the chocolate snack that was impossible to eat at a reasonable pace and taught children the importance of planning? That snack?

Now that they said it, their costume did sort of resemble the panda on the packaging! Though their panda wasn’t smiling like that one! Instead, their mouth was a straight line, making them look somewhat gloomy. But overall, they looked similar.

Yang Yang explained that as a shy person by nature, they wanted equipment that would hide their face. I felt like the in-game avatars were so far removed from your real-life face that they functioned as a sort of mask anyway, but Yang Yang didn’t seem to think so.

Then, as they were walking around town, their eyes were drawn to costumes. First, they bought a ready-made costume, then they leveled up their Sewing and Woodworking skills to make their own. The reason they went with a panda was to go with their name.

I was very interested in hearing more about how they made their own costumes, but now wasn’t the time for chitchat.

“All right! First, Lilith—use Dark Sorcery!”

“Kee-hee.”

Lilith’s spell would provide us with not only resistance against darkness, but also Night Vision. This was an essential spell to use in a battle against a demon in a dark place.

“Kee-hee-hee!”

“Nice, no problems with that!”

I offered dark-type items to the magic circle Lilith conjured. As soon as the items vanished, a dark light began to pour out of the circle and surrounded us. The spell had activated successfully.

I couldn’t tell then if the darkness resistance had taken effect, but I could tell that I now had night vision. I could clearly see my surroundings now.

“The boss has started to move!”

“All right! We got this!”

“Kee-hee!”

As Hamakaze had warned, the Archdemon Amy’s body was undulating violently. The pillar flared into a twisting column of flames and started spitting out countless fireballs. A crazy AoE attack already?!

“Guys, dodge!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Growl growl!”

Although the fireballs were shooting out at a high density, they weren’t moving very fast, so it was actually pretty easy to dodge them. I thought they might explode on impact, but that didn’t happen either. There probably wouldn’t be many players taking damage from this initial attack. The only hard part was how much area the fireballs covered.

This softball attack wasn’t going to lower my guard, though. It was typical of raid bosses in LJO to start off easy and then turn into a brute in the second half!

“So, how do we fight it? It probably won’t be very effective for us to attack at random, right? We need a leader...”

Yodel-Ay-Hee piped up with a stupid suggestion. “Why don’t you be the leader, Silver-Haired?”

“Huh? No way, that’s crazy. I can’t do that.”

“What, why not? I think you’d be good at it.”

Ah! I remembered that the last time I fought with Yodel-Ay-Hee, he had also tried to push the role of leader onto me. So he was trying to do the same thing again, huh?

But that time, the boss we fought hadn’t been very strong, and there had only been twelve of us, including some second-wave players. This was a raid with a thousand players. Of course I couldn’t be the leader!

“Everyone’s looking at you, so I’m sure they’d do whatever you told them to.”

Not you too, Yang Yang!

But they were right. People around us were staring at me! Did I draw notice by being too loud? Wait, it was Yang Yang who stood out! You’re the one they’re looking at!

“I think they’re looking at Yang Yang and Hamakaze,” I said.

Hamakaze was not only a top player in a rare job class, but she was also accompanied by an ogre. It wouldn’t be going too far to say that a panda and an Onmyoji was the most conspicuous duo on this playing field.

“You’re attracting a lot of attention too, Silver-Haired.”

“You too, Hamakaze?! I’m not going to be the leader, it’s out of the question! If anyone, you should be the leader!” I shot back.

Hamakaze’s face broke into a smile. “Reeeally? Meee?”

“You’re famous, so people will follow what you say, right?”

“Well, if you say so, Silver-Haired, then I guess I can’t say no! Okay then, should I take on the role of supreme commander?”

“I’m fine with that.”

“M-Me too!”

“Yes, supreme commander!”

At my, Longneck’s, and Yodel-Ay-Hee’s encouragement, Hamakaze fully embodied the role.

“Very well! I’m giving out orders now!”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am!”

The surrounding players responded in concerted agreement to Hamakaze’s declaration. I guessed no one had any objections.

Hamakaze was getting really into her role. Personally, I couldn’t take on that responsibility. If we lost, she could be blamed for our defeat. Top players truly were a different breed. She had unwavering mental resolve even at times like these.

Hamakaze’s announcement quickly spread through the crowd. Players soon began gathering around her. In a way, this was the true start of the raid.

“Tanks! Gather in the very front and form a wall!”

“Roger!”

“People who can use long-range attacks, don’t bunch up too much. Make sure you have room to evade attacks.”

As Hamakaze gave out her rapid-fire orders, our battle formation rapidly started to take shape. Now we could attack the boss as a coordinated team. More important than the quality of Hamakaze’s orders was getting everyone on the same page.

Amy continued attacking us with area attacks, but we players were steadily learning more about our foe. People were analyzing how to best fight the boss, doing things like using a variety of elemental attacks to figure out its weaknesses and purposely getting hit to gauge its attack power. Members of the Verification Clan were summarizing all the information to share with the rest of us.

As you might expect from its appearance, the boss was weak to water, but that didn’t mean fire and wind were ineffective against it. There was a high chance of it inflicting Burn, so we had to be careful about that. The close-combat attackers were also doing their part, as evidenced by the information we received about the effectiveness of slashing, piercing, and blunt attacks.

The speed at which all that information became shared with everyone was amazing.

“Hmm.”

“What’s up, Silver-Haired?” Hamakaze asked.

“I was just thinking how the Verification Clan members are everywhere.”

“Oh, yeah. They’re a huge clan. But I don’t think they have as many members as the Defenders.”

“Huh? The who?”

“Never mind. It’s fine if you don’t know.”

There was a large clan I wasn’t aware of? Well, it wasn’t like I regularly sought out information about clans, so there were probably a lot of well-known ones I didn’t know. It was probably just one of the many clans that were unknown to me.

“By the way, is Amy one of the seventy-two demons of Solomon? It actually has a pretty cute name.”

“Yes, it is,” Hamakaze answered immediately.

She explained that the legends about Amy told of how it searched for treasure and took the form of flames.

“Y-You know your stuff. Do you have all seventy-two demons memorized or something?”

“Well, of course.”

Once I knew that the boss demons were related to Solomon’s seventy-two demons, I had looked up a list of all the demons. But obviously I didn’t try to memorize all of them.

“I mean, I had to learn about the seventy-two demons of Solomon and the eighty-eight constellations in sixth grade, after all.”

“What kind of wizard school did you go to?!”

At most, I had to memorize the Twelve Level Cap and Rank System!

“What do you mean?” Hamakaze asked with a tilt of her head. Was she being serious right now?

“Huh? Wait, really? Did you actually go to Hogwarts? Are you English?”

“No, I’m from Iwate.”

Ah, that explains the yokai. It wasn’t like everyone from Iwate liked yokai, but Hamakaze had definitely been influenced by it. As for where she went to school in sixth grade—I wasn’t gonna go there. I felt like that explanation would take a while.

“Anyway, more importantly, I think something’s going to change soon.”

“Huh? Ah, yeah, we’ve almost taken out twenty percent of its HP.”

Often, when an event raid boss’s HP dropped to eighty percent, it exhibited a change in behavior. There was a good chance that would happen now too.

“Vanguard, withdraw! Keep up the long-range attacks!”

“Roger!”

Once Hamakaze gave her orders, the battle formation changed in the blink of an eye. This wasn’t really the result of Hamakaze’s stellar commanding, but the Verification Clan members’ skill in being able to transmit information to the various sections. They were communicating Hamakaze’s orders immediately to the rest of the players like a game of telephone.

Th-The Verification Clan is amazing! Thanks to their habit of investigating every detail about raid bosses, they were now pros at supporting a team battle. With the help of the Verification Clan, the vanguard retreated, and only long-range attacks were still pelting the boss.

Then, just like Hamakaze predicted, the boss began to change. The immobile fiery pillar underwent a huge transformation.

“It turned yellow.”

“Doesn’t that mean it’s gotten hotter?”

The red flames had changed to a vivid yellow, and sinuous tendrils of flame began to crawl out from the base of the fiery pillar that was Amy. Those were probably the same tendrils it used to grab the man from earlier and eat him. Until now the boss had just been spreading fire around, but maybe the appearance of these tendrils signaled it was now prepared to counter close-range attacks.

“Let’s keep up the same strategy from before! Tanks, I’m counting on you again!”

Thus began round two of the battle. It didn’t take long to get a feel for how much stronger the boss had become.

“Whoa! These fireballs got more powerful! Yikes!”

“Did they get faster too?”

I blocked them with water magic, but they were reducing my water shield’s durability much faster than before. It seemed like their power, range, and speed had all been buffed. And that wasn’t Amy’s only method of attack now.

“Rrroaaaugh!”

“Aaahhh!”

I watched as some tanks who were attacking on the very front line were snatched by the tendrils and eaten, meeting the same fate as the man from the cutscene. They were players who had ignored Hamakaze’s order and were attacking on their own, so unfortunately there was no one else around them. No one was able to reach them in time to save them.

“Yeesh, did that seriously just happen?”

“Ugh, that was brutal.”

Having a tendril coil around me and drag me across the ground to be eaten by a demon... That was way too horrifying. Traumatic, even. It was the last thing I wanted to experience.

That scene was perfectly visible even from the rear guard, so I heard other players shrieking and groaning in response. Everyone shared my and Hamakaze’s feelings.

Nevertheless, the tendrils weren’t that long, so they couldn’t reach the rear guard. If they snatched anyone in the vanguard, we could jump in and save them.

Then, Bear Bear suddenly screamed. Was it my karma for having such a naive thought?

“Growl growl grooowl!”

I whipped around and saw yellow flames wrap around Bear Bear’s leg and then start dragging them. Apparently those flame tendrils could reach farther than I thought.

“G-Grooowl!”

“No, Bear Bear! Don’t do that!”

In their panic, Bear Bear grabbed onto my robe. They tugged so hard that I lost my balance and fell on my backside. I couldn’t target the tendril with my magic like this! I was getting dragged away with Bear Bear.

“O-Oh no! Carro!”

“Neigh neigh!”

Carro bit down on my sleeve and tried to pull me back, but it was no use. The pony started getting dragged along with us.

“Grooowl!”

“Damn it! Bear Bear, Carro! Dig your feet in!”

“Neigh neigh!”

It wasn’t working! It actually felt like we were getting dragged even faster! We were being rapidly dragged past the other players straight towards Amy. We’re gonna get eaten by Amy too! Nooo, I don’t wanna die that way!

As I was falling into panic, I saw a shadow overtake us.

“Honk honk hooonk!”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

“Y-You guys! Y-You saved us!”

“Honk!”

“Kee-hee!”

Perca’s ice and Lilith’s spear had destroyed the yellow-flame tendril.

I was surprised to find out they could be destroyed so easily by an attack. But I guess if they couldn’t, it’d be an instant K.O. if you were grabbed by one.

I ran back to the back line and kept a more vigilant watch over my surroundings. I was especially wary of the area under my feet. I had been so preoccupied earlier by what was happening to other people that I neglected to pay attention to that.

“Bear Bear, don’t get grabbed by a tendril again, okay?”

“Growl!”

Bear Bear nodded with full confidence. They didn’t forget that they had just pulled me down to get dragged with them, right? If they hadn’t done that, I could have attacked the tendril with magic and saved them a lot faster.

“Oof! That was close!”

I quickly jumped back. This time, a tendril targeted me! I dodged it by a hair, but that was too close for comfort!

“Grooowl.”

“Th-That was out of my control! I just didn’t notice it because I was talking to you!”

“Growl grooowl.”

Don’t give me that look! I evaded it anyway, so I’m safe!

“Never mind that! Another tendril’s coming! Intercept it!”

“Growl? Growl growl grooowl!”

Nice, I managed to get out of that smoothly. Bear Bear leaped towards the incoming tendril, ready to get their revenge.

“S-Silver-Haired, you and your monsters are really friendly with each other, huh?” Hamakaze commented.

“Huh? Yeah, I guess so!”

Wait, she was complimenting me, right? I couldn’t quite read her expression. It was weirdly serious, like she was shocked or bewildered. Was that because I was joking around on a battlefield? But Hamakaze and I were also talking. Ah, I got it. Hamakaze was an Onmyoji, so maybe she was surprised by the individuality that tamed monsters had? Yokai acted similar to my tamed monsters at home, but maybe she didn’t know that tamed monsters had so much freedom during battles too.

“The boss’s HP is almost down to sixty percent,” I pointed out.

“Huh? Oh yeah, you’re right,” Hamakaze responded.

Thanks to the players on the vanguard, who were attacking while simultaneously guarding against the flame tendrils, the raid boss’s HP was steadily decreasing. Although the boss had gotten a bit stronger, it still wasn’t giving us that much trouble so far. I was pretty sure no one had died yet. Nevertheless, it was only at sixty percent health that most raid bosses really showcased their power!

The vanguard put distance between themselves and Amy for a second time while the long-range attackers alone chipped away at its HP. Then, once it reached sixty percent HP, Amy started to change color again.

“This time it turned white.”

“I knew it. It is getting hotter,” Hamakaze said.

Now that she said it, I remembered that flames burned from red, yellow, white, to blue in the order of least hot to hottest. If so, then that meant the flames’ attack power still had room to get even stronger.

Amy’s appearance also began to change drastically. The fiery pillar shrank, twisted, and undulated. Players’ attacks were still flying at it, but during the middle of its transformation it was hard to even see it. All the attacks were repelled by an invisible curtain shielding Amy’s exterior.

It took ten seconds for the mass of white flames to finish its transformation. The archdemon stood before us looking completely different.

“It shrank a bit, didn’t it?” I observed.

“Uh-oh. Everyone knows when a boss gets smaller, it gets stronger.”

“Ah, like Brieza.”

“And it has a weapon now.”

Amy’s third form was a giant made out of white flames. Well, I say giant, but it didn’t have the muscular, hulking form that word normally would imply. First off, I couldn’t be sure it actually had muscles, but if I had to say, it was more of a slender, spindly kind of giant.

Well, big was big, so even though it was slender, its legs were still the size of oil drums. The flame spear in its hands was the size of a telephone pole. If I got hit with that, I’d definitely die.

“Melum! Come here!”

“Nyuuu.”

This was also a dangerous situation for Melum, who was still low-leveled. It would be safer for both of us to ride Carro together. Melum clung to my head like a helmet.

“Carro, I’m counting on you to evade. Make sure to stay out of range of that spear, got it?”

“Neigh neigh!”

We were still some good distance away from Amy, so its spear shouldn’t have been able to reach us, but I didn’t forget what had happened with those flame tendrils. We couldn’t get too comfortable yet. After all, who knew how fast the boss could move or what new long-range attacks it could use now?

In the center of the field, a fierce battle between players and the white flame giant had already begun.

“Rrraaagh!”

“Yaaah!”

“Hraaah!”

“Aaargh!”

W-Wow. The players up front had blocked the brunt of the swinging giant spear with their broad shields.

A rumbling sound of impact, along with a white shock wave effect, tore through the field. At the center of that explosion stood the tanks, who had barely moved back an inch and taken only light damage.

I didn’t know any of the players, but if they were first-wave tanks, then I knew they had to be crazy strong. Even second-wave players could be at their third job class by now if they had been diligently grinding levels.

In other words, there could be second-wave Tamers who were already stronger than me. Wait, no way. Th-There goes my dignity as a senpai... Of course, my monsters were still pretty popular. Gnome fans acknowledged Olto as being the first gnome, after all. I still had that advantage! I was still okay! It wasn’t time to panic yet!

“Silver-Haired, are you all right?” Hamakaze asked. “You started trembling all of a sudden.”

“I-I’m fine. I’m just excited. Yeah, that’s it. I was really impressed by the tanks just now.”

“Ah, yeah, that was pretty crazy. I think they used some special technique that can only be used in raids.”

“A technique only for raids?”

“Yeah. It’s a skill that buffs themselves and the tanks around them. It can be activated when a group of fifteen or more tanks are in the same area.”

Regular battles could be fought with at most two parties, for a total of twelve players. If you needed fifteen players to activate the skill, then of course it could only be used for large-scale battles like raids.

However, the skill’s strict restrictions made it all the more powerful. That was plain to see from the display I had just witnessed. I wondered if there was an added bonus for drawing aggro, since Amy was now going after the tanks relentlessly.

As long as our tanks were stable, then so was the battle.

The tanks were being supported with buffs and heals while close-range attackers dealt damage to the boss using the opening the tanks had created. The long-range attackers could also attack at a higher frequency now that they didn’t have to worry about drawing aggro.

When I saw Amy transform into its giant state, I thought we’d be in for a struggle, but now it seemed its second form, which had sent out scattered and indiscriminate attacks, had been more powerful than this.

Just kidding, there was no way things were going to be that easy!

“Grrraaaaaagh!”

Amy let out a piercing roar and sparks flew out from its body. The white flames floated softly in the air like glowing fireflies. In a way, it was beautiful.

But this phenomenon was coming from a raid boss. Its purpose wasn’t just to be pretty.

“The sparks are getting bigger! And they have red markers now!” Hamakaze shouted.

“Did it summon its underlings, then? They’re coming this way! Bear Bear, Lilith! Counter them!”

“Growl!”

“Kee-hee!”

Bear Bear and Lilith, who were both capable of frontline fighting, jumped out front and glared at the cluster of white flames descending swiftly towards us.

In addition to the sparks falling close by, there were numerous red markers appearing in the sky. The boss had summoned a swarm of mob enemies.

“Rrraaagh!”

“I-It actually looks pretty strong.”

The monster coming at us now was a two-meter-tall, human-shaped mass of white flames. Monsters called Fire Golems appeared elsewhere in the game, and this one looked just like those, except it was white.

“Perca! Attack with ice!”

“Honk hooonk!”

Water or ice can beat flames! I joined Perca in attacking the monster with that thought, but we weren’t able to deal much damage. Was its weakness not that obvious?

“Uurrrgh!”

“Grooowl!”

“It didn’t deal that much damage... Wait, no! Crap!”

The flame monster’s attack didn’t seem to have been that powerful, but after Bear Bear took a hit, some white flames were stuck to their right arm and continued to burn. And they were continuously taking damage from it. Bear Bear tried to put the fire out by slapping it with their left hand, but it wasn’t enough to extinguish it. The fact that the fire wasn’t spreading was a small mercy, but how could we put it out completely?

“A-Aqua Create!”

“Growl...”

It turned out just plain water worked, rather than needing to use a spell to remove the Blaze ailment. If we were careful, then maybe we could deal with these flames immediately. There were likely plenty of people here who could use water magic, and with how well everyone was working together right now, we would be able to quickly come to each other’s aid.

“I’ll avenge you, Bear Bear!”

“How dare you hurt Bear Bear?!”

A few players around us came over to back us up. They attacked the white Fire Golem, steadily bringing down its HP. It seemed the monster had high magic resistance, so physical attacks were the more effective option.

The players were yelling the same things I’d expect from Ashihana, but they knew Bear Bear wasn’t dead, right? Were they all fans of Bear Bear? Or had they watched the video of the fight against the Cerberus Lion and were now mimicking what they saw Ashihana do there? That did seem more likely. If so, they were doing a great job!

The white Fire Golem proceeded to get ganged up on by several players. It had fairly high HP, so it took a lot of time to get its health down. These flame monsters must have been a pain to fight farther up front where there were more of them clustered together.

But though these white flame monsters gave us a hard time, they were nothing but decoys. Amy took advantage of the abated player attacks to charge a powerful move. Its white flame spear was gleaming with a bright light.

“Rrrraaaargh!”

“Gaaahhh!”

“Nooooo!”

“Urgh!”

Amy swung its white-flame spear up high, then plunged the tip of it hard into the ground. The earth burst open with a loud boom. It looked like the players right underneath the archdemon had managed to run away, but that action hadn’t just simply been a physical attack.

Flames rushed up from the end of the spear, which had just carved a crater into the ground, and surged out in all directions like a tidal wave. This was not an attack that could be easily evaded. Almost everyone who had been fighting on the front line was swallowed up by that wave of white flames.

Don’t tell me the entire vanguard is dead, I panicked for a moment, but nothing that outrageous happened. Don’t get me wrong, it was a crazy powerful move. The white flames inflicted everyone with a special burn ailment and took out about thirty percent of our HP. There were quite a few of the vanguard who had been fighting on their last legs who did die from this.

From this point on, we had to focus a lot more on healing HP so that the front line could fight with a little more breathing room.

“It looks like that AoE attack also healed the white Fire Golems!”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

Hamakaze was right. The white Fire Golems who had been in range of the attack had recovered their HP. This was even worse than I thought.

“What should we do?” I asked her.

“First, we need to cut down the number of Fire Golems! Verification Clan members, direct the players around you on which Fire Golems to attack!”

It sounded like Hamakaze was just off-loading the responsibility onto the Verification Clan, but since that did seem like the best course of action, I wasn’t gonna say anything!

My monsters and I followed the orders of the Verification Clan member—or in other words, the true commanding officer—who was next to Hamakaze, and attacked the nearby Fire Golems.

Through strength in numbers, we chipped away at their HP. One player in particular was doing a standout job—a certain panda who easily stood out in the crowd.

“Hraaaaaah!”

“Go, Yang Yang! What’s that crazy aura around them? Some kind of buff?” I wondered aloud.

Yang Yang’s body was shrouded in a red aura that looked like it would deal me damage if I touched it. They were madly swinging around a shiny black metal club. That aura almost made it look like they were covered in blood, which made them look even more crazed. They must have had the Fire Golems beat in power too, since they were dealing a heavy amount of damage to them.

“That panda’s rabid,” Yodel-Ay-Hee stated.

“Huh? Players can go into a rabid state too?”

“Yang Yang can, as a Berserker.”

Berserkers and Mage Knights were both job classes that could shift into a rabid state in order to buff themselves. According to Yodel-Ay-Hee, the buff gave a huge boost to attack power but dramatically lowered defense, which were the same effects as when a boss used it. And although it didn’t make you attack your allies, like it so often did in other games, you couldn’t receive aid from your allies and you could get in the way of their attacks. In the stronger versions of the skill, you could no longer even see your allies. Although the buff made you very powerful, it sounded like it wasn’t convenient for all situations.

“Well, I don’t think Yang Yang’s current rabid state is that powerful.”

They might have gotten called out if they were moving around blocking other people’s attacks during a raid, so it made sense why they were holding back. Berserkers actually seemed more suited for playing solo. They were attack-focused, they couldn’t always receive support from their allies, and it was difficult to play as part of a party. It was just the sort of a job class for an introvert.

“Hraaaaaah!”

“That’s really the weaker version?” I asked, skeptical.

As I watched the wild panda’s violent rampage, it was hard to believe that they could actually see anyone else around them at all...

However, they did seem to be mindful about their positioning, so maybe Yodel-Ay-Hee was right. After all, no technology existed that could meddle with a player’s mental state. Even a rabid status didn’t actually elevate them to a higher mental state or give them a violent personality. In other words, those Berserker moves were just Yang Yang either getting into the spirit of it or role-playing. Thinking of it that way, they were probably actually making calm, rational decisions.

It was our turn now as the rear guard to pick up where the vanguard left off. Once the vanguard moved out of the way to open up a clear line of fire, the rear guard unleashed a volley of attacks.

“Aqua Javelin!”

“Painted Thunder!”

I let loose a spear of water, while next to me, Yodel-Ay-Hee waved his paint brush to produce his attack. It wasn’t that soap bubble attack I had seen before. Instead, I saw an artistic-looking, vivid yellow jagged streak shoot out. It was like he had drawn a lightning bolt and made it real.

I wasn’t the only one surprised by that. The players around us were also awestruck.

“Huh? Was that lightning?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it uses up a lot of MP.”

“Either way, that’s awesome!”

There still weren’t many players who used special elements like lightning or ice. It was said that if you leveled up several types of magic spells, you would eventually learn composite attributes, but no one had actually succeeded in doing so yet. Currently, the only ways to learn the skills were through skill scrolls or to acquire them as an initial bonus from your race.

Even though the skill had its quirks, it was definitely one that caught people’s eye. I’d had the thought before, but Painter was actually a surprisingly strong job class. Although it was said to be among the weakest of the hobby-type crafting jobs, I had a feeling Yodel-Ay-Hee was actually stronger than me.

“Hyaaaaaah!”

“Painted Thunder!”

“Is it a rule in this game that the more eccentric someone is, the stronger they are?”

I thought of the smiling faces of KTK, Rikyu, Sakkyun, and Alyssa. They were all top players who were also a little odd.

“A lot of top players are pretty weird, right?” I asked again. “Er, is something wrong, Hamakaze?”

“No, nothing.”

Hamakaze’s eyes were boring holes into me. Oh, was she trying to say that she wasn’t a weirdo? Well, too bad, because she was plenty weird too!

“All right, we defeated it! Who’s next?!”

“I see one over there,” Hamakaze said.

“Right!”

Hamakaze and I made our way over to another Fire Golem.

Although I’d had my suspicions that her title was merely decorative, Hamakaze was technically the supreme commander. She was watching how the battle was progressing as a whole and giving orders to the Verification Clan members, but it wasn’t like she was just standing around chitchatting while the rest of us were fighting.

“Uraaagh!”

“Grrr!”

“Whoa! A-Are those ogres?”

“They’re so cool!”

Hamakaze had summoned her four ogres to fight. Unlike my own chibi-sized ogres with heads that were a third of their body size, Hamakaze’s ogres were lean and muscular with perfect proportions. Though as amorphous beings, Water Ogre and Wind Ogre body shapes changed when they moved, so I wasn’t totally sure about them. Comparatively, the Invisible Ogre and Gold Ogre looked clearly like ogres.

The players around us must’ve figured out that the ogres, who were acting just as savagely as Yang Yang was, were yokai. Everyone was paying them undue attention. Maybe there would be more people playing as Onmyoji in the future.

“Hraaah!”

“Graaagh!”

The second Fire Golem’s HP was completely depleted by Yang Yang’s metal club and the metal-bodied Gold Ogre’s fist.

The fighting continued, and we brought the total number of white Fire Golems down by about half. We lost a few players to Amy’s spear and white fire attacks along the way. Although we had revival items, players couldn’t always get to others in time to save them.

But despite the losses, we had brought the boss’s HP down to forty percent. We had also been dealing damage to the boss by defeating the Fire Golems.

Amy stopped moving, then started stamping its feet in frustration.

“Bah! I have had enough of you irritating pests! Playtime is over! I shall show you what I am truly capable of!”

Amy’s thunderous voice boomed across the battlefield. I felt myself start shaking in response. It was a very convincing performance.

“I knew it, blue is next!” Hamakaze said.

“It shrank even more? And it doesn’t even look human anymore.”

“It’s probably getting denser.”

The white giant Amy had transformed into a blue-flamed beast. The four limbs that were firmly planted on the ground looked wolflike, but its long tail was more like a cat’s. Its long head looked sort of like a crocodile’s or a lizard’s. Of course, since its body was made entirely out of blue flames, that was just the best way I could describe its shape.

“Roooaaar!”

“Agh! It just sent the tanks flying!”

“Oh no! It’s charging at us!”

Amy swung out its forelegs and sent several players flying through the air. It would have to take a lot of attack power for it to be able to easily knock back the tanks while they were in their defensive stances.

Next, Amy’s body suddenly contracted, then sprang forwards at a startling speed. It ran in a straight line and knocked away the players in its path. Not only that, but it was charging right towards us. It wasn’t like it was targeting us specifically, though. It was just running forwards.

The number of screams indicated just how many casualties there were.

But we were going to be just fine.

“Neeeigh!”

Carro was keeping a careful eye on Amy’s movements and taking evasive maneuvers. I used water magic to attack the blur of blue flames that was barreling along ten meters to my side like an out-of-control dump truck. Attacking while evading seemed like the right move, right?

Now I’ll have Carro reverse directions so I can attack Amy from behind!

“Carro, can you turn around without stop—”

“Nyu-nyu! Nyu-nyuuu!”

“Wh-Wh-What is it, Melum?”

“Nyu!”

Melum suddenly started freaking out on top of my head. I felt it start wriggling and then abruptly twist my head around to look behind me. What’s gotten into it all of a sudden?

“What the heck are— Wha?! The boss already changed directions!”

“Nyu!”

Amy, who had just passed by us, had somehow turned on a dime and was charging towards us again.

There was no time to counterattack. It was gonna get us!

“Run, Carro!”

“N-Neigh neeeeigh!”

At my order, Carro sped up in a panic. The pony managed to escape from Amy’s orbit, but I wasn’t able to shoot off any attacks.

As I watched Amy pass us, I saw several players get caught in its charge. They probably weren’t expecting the boss to be able to turn around at the speed it was going.

Examining the boss’s movements, I finally realized why it was able to change directions so quickly. Surprisingly enough, it almost appeared to be drifting. By doing so, it was able to continue its charge in a different direction without losing any speed.

I had a bad feeling it was never going to come to a stop, and it turned out I wasn’t wrong. The blue-flame beast very annoyingly continued to charge and change directions, drifting without ever coming to a halt. Also, it would occasionally spit fire from its mouth that covered a wide area. It was simply impossible to evade the spreading fire while also moving quickly.

It hadn’t even been five minutes since the boss turned blue, but I doubted there were any players left who hadn’t taken damage.

Presently, players had broken formation and spread themselves out over the field in an attempt to reduce the number of people getting caught in the boss’s charge attack. After all, if everyone was all huddled together, then we’d all just get in the way of each other trying to run away. But even though we had spread ourselves out a bit, it was hard to say it had much of an effect. We were still getting mowed down by Amy, who was stampeding in all directions.

To make things worse, the blue-flamed beast must have had Blow Away resistance or Super Armor, because our attacks didn’t slow it down one bit. It was taking damage, sure, but it seemed it would keep charging for a while.

And yet, just when we players got used to Amy’s movements, the beast decided to ridicule us by pulling out a new move.

“Roooar!”

“I-It jumped!”

“Neigh neigh!”

The boss used its running momentum to leap high into the air. It must have jumped close to forty or fifty meters upwards.

While it was in the air, the blue flames of Amy’s body blazed brighter. After a few seconds of being airborne, Amy dropped down on us, its blue flames blowing upwards. It wasn’t just landing on the ground, it had curled itself into a ball and was literally dropping down on us at a terrifying speed.

There was a thunderous roaring sound and a shock wave as a burst of light ripped through the battlefield and players were sent flying. I had to shield my face from the bomb blast, even though my crew and I were pretty far away from where Amy fell.

After the wind settled down, I looked to the point of impact to witness a horrifying scene. What I saw was what could be perfectly described as a blast center. There was a crater twenty meters in diameter, and the ground around it was scorched black. And players who had been there had disappeared.

I couldn’t be certain of the exact number, but it looked like over one hundred players had vanished. That level of power was unreal.

In one hit from a completely new move, we’d lost ten percent of our players...

There were still plenty of us left. We could still fight. Most of the players started attacking Amy more fiercely than ever, but their expressions soon turned to despair.

“N-Not again!”

After about two minutes, Amy leaped up into the air once again.

I got a flashback to that terrible scene I had just witnessed, then immediately watched it unfold again before me. A new crater was formed, and with it, more players had disappeared.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be even more casualties this time than before. As if mocking the players predicting where it would land and running away from there, Amy changed the trajectory of its fall halfway down. I wondered if it was programmed to fall where there were more players.

In just two attacks, we lost close to three hundred players...

There were things a raid boss should and shouldn’t be able to do! Did the devs want us to have a chance of winning or not?!

Other players besides me seemed to be thinking more or less the same thing. I could tell there was a drop in morale. We were enthusiastic when victory seemed possible, but we got disheartened whenever we fell into a crisis—that was a characteristic of side characters like me.

But one voice was raised to knock sense into us.

“We haven’t lost yet! Let’s start attacking again!”

It was Hamakaze. She was shouting and waving her arms while riding on the Gold Ogre’s shoulders so everyone could see her.

“We still have a lot of players left! Plus, if we win, then all the players who died will still get the battle rewards! Don’t give up! Keep fighting for our fallen comrades!”

The light returned to the players’ eyes as they heard Hamakaze’s rallying cry. My monsters were also getting hyped. They raised their fists and jumped up and down like they were saying, “Yeeeah!” Mm-hmm, they’re adorable. No, not adorable. They are mighty warriors!

The dispirited atmosphere that had so suddenly gripped the crowd disappeared, replaced by loud cheers. Hamakaze had gotten through to them. Everyone’s will to fight had been completely restored.

Hamakaze, that was amazing! She was living up to the self-applied title of supreme commander. I was seeing her in a new light!

But as Hamakaze was pumping her fist, she was muttering something under breath. “Yes! We still have a chance of winning! There’s still hope I won’t be blamed for our loss! What the heck was that crazy attack anyway?! That was so unfair! That was cheating! This boss is a cheater! If we do lose and everyone blames me, I’m filing a complaint with management!”

“Er, right. Let’s get back to attacking too, Perca.”

“Honk?”

No one wanted to be blamed for an entire team’s loss, so it was probably the fear of that which temporarily instilled Hamakaze with charisma. Not that someone could tell that just by looking at her.

Whether by fluke or whatever, Hamakaze’s speech had rallied the players’ spirits. We started dealing damage little by little to Amy, who had returned to dashing around, but the archdemon soon jumped once again high in the air.

It’s going to drop down on us again! I screamed internally, but Hamakaze—no, the Verification Clan members were brilliant.

“Hit it with your strongest moves as it’s falling! Let’s push it back to the north side!”

“North is that way!”

“Go with special techniques that you can use in time!”

They were giving directions to everyone and showing where north was with light they produced with magic. It wasn’t Hamakaze’s plan, but she still had her arms crossed and was looking smug. What was that about?

“Don’t hold anything back! Fau, Melum! Use Awakening!”

“Aye-aye!”

“Nyuuu!”

As soon as Fau used Earth Spirit Awakening, she grew in size and became shrouded in a yellow light. She looked very grown up in her beautiful blue and golden gown.

Melum grew in size and glowed with a green light. Its appearance didn’t change as drastically as Fau’s, but the fact that it was bigger and now shining made it look plenty majestic.

Two large rocks rose up next to Fau, and a green ball of wind appeared next to Melum.

“Aye-aye-aye!”

“Nyu-nyuuu!”

Fau went from having her arms crossed imposingly to holding her arms above her head, and the large rocks on either side of her launched forwards at breakneck speed. The two projectiles spun as they plunged forwards, standing out even in the middle of other players’ magic attacks.

After Fau, the green-glowing Melum used its two appendages to point at the blue flame beast blazing above us. Then, the swirling mass of air began to spin even faster, creating a metallic, high-pitched screeching sound. I watched as tornadoes burst out of the mass of air.

I felt like I should call them tornado javelins, but they were a little thick to be javelins. They had to be about three meters in diameter. Those two tornadoes followed the giant rock projectiles up to the sky.

One after another, attacks struck Amy, from giant flames and whirlpools, water bullets, and other attacks that looked too powerful to simply be magic spells. There weren’t only Awakening spells like Fau’s and Melum’s, but other special ace-in-the-hole techniques too.

The countless magical attacks exploded in the sky, illuminating the ground with colorful lights, centered around the blazing blue flames. Even though I was in the middle of a raid, I couldn’t help but be captivated by the beautiful scene.

And that wasn’t all—our attacks were a huge success. We managed to majorly change the boss’s trajectory. Per the Verification Clan members’ plan, Amy fell towards the north side of the battlefield. Its impact produced a blast just as it had done before, but at less than one tenth of its previous power.

We players, having moved to the southern side of the field, had suffered few casualties. Although we’d used up a lot of our special moves, it seemed like it had been worth it.

Also, Amy’s HP had gone down by a lot after getting hit with all those attacks. It was now at twenty percent health.

“Grrr... GRRRAAAGH!”

Amy was crouched over motionless at the point of impact and let out an ear-piercing roar. The air trembled and a visible white shock wave effect rushed against us. No one could move as they endured that blast of violent wind.

I was covering my face as I dug my heels in, when I saw something black pass by in the corner of my eye. Was that trash? I wondered briefly, but more and more black objects started to appear. They were, in fact, black embers. Actually, they weren’t small enough to be called embers anymore.

Black flames were coming off of Amy and swirling in the air, forming a band-like shape and spreading around us. They didn’t deal damage when they came in contact with players, but it was eerie how quickly the black flames were picking up momentum.

Even under these circumstances, there were players who still found it in them to attack. But no attack was able to deal damage to Amy, probably because it was invincible while it was transforming.

Suddenly, the attacks stopped, and everyone just observed Amy.

Amy’s body was soon entirely covered in the rising black flames that seemed to have consumed the blue flames. They formed a swirling vortex that made it look as though Amy was turning back into a pillar of flames. The black flames condensed in one spot as if inhaled, and an instant later, there was a three-meter-tall demon. It had horns, wings, and a tail. Lilith shared those characteristics too, but this demon looked much more sinister than she did.

The repulsive demon, made up of ink-black flames, stood quietly in the center of the battlefield. Its face had neither a nose or a mouth, just two deep, empty holes where its eyes should be. No eyeballs, just two creepy, vacant holes. Amy had gotten even smaller now, but its presence was more daunting than ever. I had to hand it to LJO for being able to re-create such an intense feeling of pressure.

While I was getting over my shock, the top players had already started to move.

The players surrounding Amy attacked all at once. In the blink of an eye, the black-flame demon was enveloped in a storm of long-range attacks. The attacks were launched at different timings, so they continuously made impact for over ten seconds.

Of course, I also attacked with water magic, but I stopped soon after I started. Other players did the same.

“We’re not dealing any damage at all,” I groaned.

“Its HP bar hasn’t gone down a millimeter! It must be invincible right now,” Hamakaze said.

“This is such a pain.”

Our long-range attacks turned out to be completely ineffective. Amy remained unscathed, and the HP bar above its head hadn’t gone down at all, as Hamakaze had said.

There was no way this was a fight we were assured to lose, so there was probably something specific we needed to do to deal damage. It was already strong, but it had a gimmick on top of that? Did the devs really have to go that far?!

“We’ll just have to try out a bunch of different things! Hey, Verification Clan people! It’s your turn now!”

It was more like it was always the Verification Clan members’ turns, but they didn’t fight Hamakaze and immediately got to work. They didn’t complain, but actually seemed happy about doing the job. That was the Verification Clan for you. They were the real MVPs.

Next, we tested out several types of attacks, but nothing made a dent in the boss’s HP. Close-range attacks, tamed monsters’ attacks, physical attacks, magical attacks—everything was repelled by an invisible barrier, even special techniques that were buffed considerably. Everyone was searching the field as they fled from Amy in search of any clues, but there was nothing promising to be found.

Seriously, how were we supposed to deal damage?

Amy flapped its black-flame wings to fly around and scatter flames everywhere. Then, it descended to the ground and attacked viciously with one swing of its spear of black flames. While it was flying, we couldn’t get into a good formation to deal with it effectively, so those in the rear guard with flimsy armor started dying little by little. Naturally, there were players who were able to deftly counterattack, but still without dealing any damage.

“Growl growl!”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

“Honk honk!”

My monsters’ attacks were just as ineffective as everyone else’s. Bear Bear’s Charge Ramp-Up and Poison Claw combo looked like it made a direct hit, but with no results. Lilith’s spear attacks and Dark Magic also did nothing, and Perca’s Penguin Highway skill, which had a Blow Away effect, also dealt zero damage.

They shouted angrily at Amy, who was mockingly flying above us. I was sure that if my monsters could talk, they’d be unleashing a stream of profanities that I wouldn’t be able to say here.

My monsters weren’t alone. I could hear a majority of the players expressing their anger, frustration, and resignation. We were just fighting endlessly with no sign of progress, so I could understand why.

“It’s almost been five minutes since its flames turned black. How in the world are we supposed to defeat it?! Nothing’s dealing any damage to it!” Hamakaze cried out in frustration.

“Huh? It’s been that long already? That’s pretty bad.”

“Yes, it’s bad! Just when everyone got their motivation back! Now morale is dropping again because of that thing! If we lose, people are gonna say it’s because I was a bad leader! I can’t let that happen! I don’t wanna take the faaall!”

It seemed Hamakaze had given up on keeping up appearances around other players. She must have been feeling just that cornered. She was clutching her head and shaking it back and forth while she shouted.

I and the people around her were smiling awkwardly, but I didn’t actually feel that uncomfortable from her display. Part of it was because of Hamakaze’s personality, but we all also understood not wanting to be blamed for a loss.

“Gods, Buddha, devs! Please show me how to deal damage to that stupid, annoying boss! It can slip and fall for all I care, just make it take damage and die!”

Did the game gods hear Hamakaze’s ridiculous prayer? No, it had to be because five minutes had passed since Amy had turned into its black-flame demon form, right? Either way, the battlefield began to change drastically.

A sudden burst of green light shot up from the middle of the battlefield, growing in intensity until it started to form a pillar.

“What—”

I can’t move! Is this another cutscene?!

All the players stood frozen in their spots as Amy hovered in the air, looking down at the light.

“This meddling diving presence, it must be...a spirit?!”

The moment Amy shouted, the green light streaming out of the ground spewed up like a geyser. From within that light emerged a translucent, humanlike figure.

“Travelers, you mustn’t lose to the demon. I shall lend you my power. Rise to your feet once more.”

It was the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad. She looked a little bigger than she did in the underground altar. Plus, she was translucent, so maybe this was just an illusion.

“Do not interfere, spirit!”

“You will not have your way, Archdemon! I shall seal you away once again.”

“Hold your tongue! I will never be sealed away ever again! Besides, I know you have lost your power and cannot fight me directly! Once I kill every last traveler here, you will be powerless to stop me, isn’t that right?”

“You are correct. My true form slumbers. I no longer have the power it would take to defeat a demon.”

“Mwa ha ha! These insolent travelers have yet to break through my defenses! It is only a matter of time before I destroy them all!”

“No, you won’t! I will not let that happen!”

“What? No—!”

What, what? What’s going on? Why’s Amy panicking all of a sudden?

While every single player looked on in confusion, still frozen like statues, the green light engulfed Amy’s body. But that wasn’t all. Our bodies also started glowing as well.

Oh, I can move now. I looked around and saw that Hamakaze, Yodel-Ay-Hee, and even my monsters were glowing green.

“Huh?”

It sort of felt like everyone was looking in my direction. I turned around, but there was nothing out of the ordinary behind me. Were they really looking at me? Why?

“Silver-Haired, you’re glowing super bright!” Hamakaze shouted.

“You’re glowing ten times brighter than the rest of us!” Yodel-Ay-Hee added.

“I am?”

I was glowing brighter? I had no idea why, though. I stared at my hands like I was going, “I-Is this my power?” But still, I had no clue.

“Travelers. The archdemon’s defenses are gone now. You should now be able to wound it. I have bestowed on you all a temporary blessing. Use that power to defeat the archdemon.”

“Yeeeaaah!”

The dryad’s declaration did wonders to boost everyone’s energy. Just when we were feeling cornered by a formidable foe, a beautiful dryad appeared to help us and honor us with her encouraging words. There wasn’t a gamer alive who wouldn’t get fired up by such a dramatic twist.

“I pray the battle goes in your favor, travelers.”

As soon as the dryad disappeared, players shot off attacks, their energy still at full throttle. Multiple magic spells struck the floating, black-flame demon.

“Curses! Arrogant fools!”

Amy’s furious! We were finally dealing damage now. The demon was still tanky as hell, but as long as we could take out at least a little of its HP at a time, we could win!

“Grrraaagh!”

“Huh? C-Carro!”

“Neigh neeeigh!”

Amy charged straight at me! It’s clearly targeting me!

I suddenly wondered if I had jinxed things by getting too cocky. Carro evaded the initial attack, but it looked like we weren’t going to make a complete getaway. The demon was already right in front of us.

“Anyone who associates with spirits must face my wrath!”

What did that mean? Did this have something to do with how brightly I was shining? Never mind! This isn’t the time to think about that!

“Oh shit!”

“Graaagh!”

I raised my staff to shield myself, but who knew if it was going to do anything against an attack that was strong enough to blow away tanks. But as long as I didn’t die, I still had a chance! Please give me that chance, game!

“Nyu-nyuuu!”

“Melum!”

“Nyuuu!”

Melum jumped off my head and spread its body to act as a shield. The flames Amy had spewed out hit Melum directly and exploded in a great blast. I was knocked backwards and fell to the ground.

“Urgh... Melum!”

It was too late. Melum was nowhere to be seen. I checked my window and saw that both Melum and Carro had died. Carro had also protected me during the blast. Thanks to them, however, I only lost half my HP.

“Carro, Melum! You saved me!”

I’ll shower them with praise once I kill this demon!But right now, I have to fill the hole!

“I summon Olto and Sakura!”

“Mm-mm!”

“...!”

Since I knew I was being targeted, having Olto on the front line was essential. And having someone who could both tank and attack from long-range, like Sakura, would be very helpful. But when I saw the two of them, I froze up for a second.

“G-Guys? You’re shining too...”

The light emanating from Olto was clearly brighter than my other monsters. And Sakura’s was even brighter. The green light was so intense that I could even hear it making a whirring sound effect. It was like the light was bursting out of her.

“Sakura’s glowing as bright as Silver-Haired!”

“Damn, that’s so cool!”

Huh? I’m glowing as brightly as Sakura? Well then, of course all the players in my vicinity were looking right at me. If I were them, I’d be staring too. Was this because of our relationship with the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad? Or because Sakura was a Tree Nymph?

I sent Lilith back home and summoned Olea to test my theory. Olea shone about as brightly as Olto. My suspicion was right. This had to have something to do with our favorability scores with the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad.

Well, I didn’t really know what the brightness of the light meant. Wait, I did know something about it. It drew more aggro from Amy! The demon was charging at me again!

“I’ll get you this time!” Amy roared.

Can’t I catch a break?!

Some of the other players tried to protect me, but since Amy was dropping down on me from above, they weren’t able to stand between us very well.

“Mm-mm!”

“...!”

In the end, I could only hide behind Olto and Sakura to protect myself. Olto thrust out his hoe and Sakura did the same with her shield. But they were facing down a raid boss meant to be fought by one thousand players. There was no way only the two of them could block—

“Graaagh!”

“Huh?”

“Mm-mmm!”

“...!”

They were actually able to stop Amy! Olto and Sakura had been driven back by the blow, but Amy was completely stunned! And Olto and Sakura had barely taken much damage at all!

“Wha...? Wait, this is our chance! Everyone, attaaack!”

“Tri-triii!”

“Honk hooonk!”

“Growl grooowl!”

As my monsters and I attacked, I noticed that Olea and I were dealing the most damage. The green light must have been boosting our stats by a lot. The brighter the light, the higher the boost, but also the more aggro was drawn.

Personally, I would have been fine with receiving a more normal blessing if it meant not drawing all this aggro! But it wasn’t like the light was going anywhere, so I just had to keep fighting so we could defeat this demon before I died.

I sent back Perca, Bear Bear, and Fau, who were all running on empty at this point, and summoned Drimo, Rick, and Eine. Drimo and Rick were attackers with special techniques, and Eine could buff us.

“Drimo! Rick! Don’t hold anything back! Go all out!”

“Squeak squeak!”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

As soon as he heard my shout, Drimo used his killer move, Dragon Blood Awakening, and transformed into a huge dragon. Rick rode on his back, a shining green fruit clutched in his hand. It was a deep green fruit, which he produced with his Deep Green Heart skill. Both skills were our party’s secret weapons.

“Go!”

“Squeak squeak squeeeak!”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

Drimo let out a cute, valiant squeak and struck Amy with his dragon horn. At virtually the exact same time, the deep green fruit that Rick hurled landed squarely on the demon. There was a loud boom, and a flashy magical effect that exploded like fireworks, and Amy’s HP bar dropped noticeably. No surprise—it was just hit with special attacks that were buffed by the dryad’s blessing.

After a brief pause, other players began attacking at full force.

“Rraaagh! This is not over yet! I’m not finished yet!”

“It’s rabid!”

Amy, now at ten percent HP, became shrouded in a red aura. The black-flame demon had reached its final form.

“Aaahhh! Devil Flame!”

“Chirp chiiirp!”

“Squeak squeak!”

Since Rick and Drimo were immobilized after using their killer attacks, they both took a direct hit. To think even Drimo went down in one hit—this boss’s rabid status was ridiculous! I wasn’t close enough to revive them in time. Sorry, you guys!

“Damn it! Himka, Reflet! I summon you!”

“Hmm!”

“Humm!”

“You two—protect everyone!”

As we watched Amy’s attack take out a dozen players, we steeled ourselves for the more intense battle that was sure to come.

While that was going on, Sakura began glowing with a blue light that was unlike the dryad’s blessing.

“Sakura, is that light what I think it is?!”

“...♪”

Sakura smiled and nodded. As I thought, she could use her special move.

“All right! Use Divine Blessing!”

“...!”

Sakura brought her hands together in a praying gesture and calmly closed her eyes. Immediately after, a pale-blue light radiated out of her. The Divine Blessing skill had been activated. Divine Blessing could only be used when our party was in a pinch, but its effects were significant. It healed our party’s HP and gave a massive boost to our stats.

While the effects of Divine Blessing were active, I was determined to keep attacking until I drained all my MP.

“...!”

“Huh? What’s that?”

I stopped in my tracks. Sakura’s Divine Blessing was doing something I never expected.

“Huh? What’s this blue light?!”

“Whoa! This is different from the dryad’s blessing, isn’t it?”

“Silver-Haired’s tree nymph is shining like crazy. Is that a skill?”

To my shock, Sakura’s Divine Blessing was affecting every player on the field. This had never happened in previous raids. It was only supposed to affect party members.

“...!”

Sakura was smugly puffing out her chest like she knew this would happen.

“Did the dryad’s blessing make this possible?”

“...♪”

Apparently so. Sakura had been granted the highest level of the dryad’s blessing out of everyone on the field, and that benefit had expanded the effects of Divine Blessing to affect everyone in the raid. Blue and green mixed together to make everyone glow with an aqua-colored light.

The effects of that aqua light were staggering. It was obvious at a glance that the vanguard players were moving differently now.

“Wh-Whoa! I can jump so high!”

“Watch me! I can run so fast, it’s like I’m teleporting!”

“My dynamic visual acuity got a buff too, so I can even see how fast you’re moving!”

“Amy’s got nothing on us! C’mon!”

Now that they could jump higher than ever before, the lightweight fighters were able to jump and attack Amy in midair. Swarmed by so many players, Amy dropped its altitude to flee.

But below the archdemon awaited a worse hell. The heavyweight fighters’ speed had increased, which meant they could unleash full swing attacks in rapid succession. Just as the demon fell to the ground, it was sent flying back up, like a ping-pong ball.

“Grrr...! Do not toy with me, lowly humans!”

“Hmph! You sure talk tough for a lowly demon! You’re done!”

“What? Gaaah!”

Hamakaze just pulled off some OP move! Amy shrieked as Hamakaze’s four ogres struck it successively, followed by her fox attacking with flames and Hamakaze herself with talismans. She waited for the right opportunity to steal the show! I had a feeling she had used a skill to temporarily buff her yokai.

Our turn wasn’t over yet. The tanks took advantage of the time Hamakaze earned by descending on Amy all at once. A surging wave of some sort emitted from their shields, pinning Amy down in all directions and preventing it from moving.

“Whoa, what’s that?! It’s awesome!” I cried in awe.

“That looks like the tank combat technique that can only be used during raids that the Verification Clan discovered. If they use a defensive skill with a Blow Away effect from all directions at the same time, then they can immobilize even a boss,” Hamakaze explained.

“Wow.”

Rather than it being a bug, the tanks were using the effects of Blow Away to essentially trap the boss. Based on what I could see, the technique required around twenty tanks. The number was probably higher for larger raid bosses. It definitely wasn’t the type of skill that could be used in regular battles.

“But if their stats aren’t buffed across the board, then the enemy could break through in a second, so it’s really not practical.”

“Ah, so that’s why they were only able to use it now.”

If it were easy to use, they would have spammed it from the start. Moreover, even with the double buffs of the dryad’s blessing and Sakura’s Divine Blessing, the tanks were only able to restrain Amy for ten seconds. I saw Amy then repel the tanks and free itself.

But those ten seconds were fatal.

“Go, go, go, go! Everyone, bring it dooown!”

“Hraaah!”

“Slash!”

“Painted Thunder flurry!”

During those ten seconds, every player was preparing to attack with everything they had. We all unleashed an onslaught of our most powerful attacks to take Amy down.

Yang Yang had been swinging their metal club above their head. The skill’s attack power probably increased with each rotation of the club. At the end, the metal club was emitting a red light that looked like blazing flames.

Longneck’s attack wasn’t quite as flashy as Yang Yang’s. She sheathed her yokai katana and quietly gathered her power. I only noticed that she had even used an attack at all by the flash of light that accompanied her slashing attack. My water magic attack and Yodel-Ay-Hee’s paint attack mingled in with the other flashy attacks to also land squarely on the boss.

“Gaaaaaah!”

Amy’s shrieks could be heard among the special effect sounds of the attacks.

Once the storm passed, we saw Amy’s battered body. Its wings were torn, its horns were broken, and its left arm was fading away. It looked like its HP bar was empty, but since it still hadn’t fallen, it must still have had a fraction of a millimeter of HP left. We tried to launch another attack to finish the job, but we couldn’t move.

We were in another cutscene.

“Damn it all! How could I be defeated by mere humans?!”

Amy’s body crumbled, falling away in black embers. Its expression was as unreadable as ever, but I could hear frustration and anger in its voice.

“I may have lost this time, but this is not the end! I will be resurrected once more! And when I do, I will annihilate all those despicable spirits and destroy my seal once and for all! Enjoy your peace while it lasts! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!”

Amy cackled loudly as its body vanished into empty space.

Man, did that ever end things on an inconclusive note! The archdemon said it would resurrect again? That sounded really ominous! But all things considered, this boss wasn’t such a big deal after all, huh? It acted all superior at the end, but it wasn’t so tough!

At some point as I watched Amy make its exit, a mixture of emotions in my heart, I found I was able to move again.

“Phew. So, did we win?”

“Yeah, I think it’s over! We won!” Hamakaze shouted as other players started whooping and cheering.

Among them, some looked like they were feeling as perplexed as I was.

“Ah, it looks like we’re returning to the regular field,” I said.

The boss wall that enclosed the area broke away and we were all enveloped in a light. Then, the scene before our eyes changed instantaneously. We were in the center of the Eastern Plains.

“Our server probably finished first,” Hamakaze said.

“Huh? Really? Because of your leadership, you think?”

Why was she glaring at me? All right...I was half joking, but part of me was being serious. Hamakaze’s leadership was stellar until the halfway point of the battle, before the Verification Clan basically took things over!

“M-More importantly, we need to check what we got for winning! C-Come on! You look too, Hamakaze!”

“Yeah, okay.”

However, strangely enough, there was nothing new in my inventory. I had received no drops.

“Huh? What’s this about? Was this the type of boss that doesn’t drop any items?” Hamakaze asked.

“But the last demons we defeated dropped items. Like Andras.”

It was thanks to those items that I had been able to summon Lilith.

“Ah, we got a notification,” Hamakaze said.

“It looks like we receive contribution points instead.”

We received contribution points based on our actions during the event, which we could then exchange for items. Apparently we wouldn’t receive our final contribution points until all the raids were over.

We waited and chatted among ourselves for a while before players from other servers began returning one after another. After five minutes, when the players from the last server returned, the end of the event was announced.

“Aah, it’s over!”

This event had ended as abruptly as it had started. Would we see more of these announcement-less events in the future? Well, I didn’t mind these sorts of surprise events. It could get tedious if things happened the same exact way every time.

“I think I’ll head back home and take my time choosing what items I want to exchange for.”

“...!”

“Sakura, you were a rock star out there! Is there anything you want?”

My other monsters were easy to treat. I could just give them their favorite foods or items they wanted. But Sakura didn’t eat food, and she was always so selfless that I wasn’t sure what to give her.

“Tri-tri!”

“Tra-la-laaa!”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Whoa! Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’ll all get a reward too!”

Olto was clinging to my back, Olea to my leg, and Eine to my head. They were probably trying to remind me that they had done a good job too. Of course I was going to reward them too, not just Sakura!

“Ah! Yodel-Ay-Hee! Yang Yang! Good work out there!” I called out to the pair as I saw them about to pass by in front of me.

“G-Good work... Pretty crazy fight, huh?”

“Y-Yeah. Good work.”

They both gave me odd looks. Well, not like I could see Yang Yang’s expression. But their voice sounded a little high-pitched, and they were acting kind of strangely.

Uh-oh. Were they put off by the way my monsters were clinging to me?

“C’mon, guys. Let go of me for a sec.”

“Triii.”

“Tra-la...”

“Mmm.”

Don’t sigh at me! Where’d they learn that, anyway?

“You two were amazing!” I said.

“No way. Compared to you, we did nothing!”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t joke. My attacks hardly did anything. I’ll admit Sakura was pivotal, but I thought you two did much more impressive stuff than me.”

Since they were both unique job classes, they stood out quite a bit. Though Yang Yang’s costume probably had a bigger hand in that. I could spot them immediately anywhere. The same went for Yodel-Ay-Hee’s soap bubble and thunder attacks. But Yodel-Ay-Hee’s smile remained strained. I wasn’t sure why.

After I said goodbye to Hamakaze and Longneck, I went home.

“Home at last! Guys, we beat the boss!”

“Grooowl!”

“Honk hooonk!”

“Neigh neigh!”

“Nyuuu!”

My monsters who had died during the battle greeted me, full of energy.

“We couldn’t have done it without you all! Thanks!”

After I pet Bear Bear, Perca, Carro, and Melum, and I told them about our victory, they started dancing for joy. My mascots and yokai came over to join them, and before I knew it, things had turned into a party.

“All right, all right. Let me get inside first—”

“Aye-aye!”

“Kee-hee!”

“Hey! Give me a warning before you jump on my back!”

“Chirp chirp!”

“Tra-la-la!”

Ah, they were in play mode, huh? Fine! I accept that challenge!

“If I catch you, you get tickled! Hraaa— Hey! You guys are fast!”

“Aye-aye!”

“Honk hooonk!”

“Aw, come on.”

Damn it! I can’t catch anyone! Why?!

“Squeak squeak.”

“Huh? Oh, right. I need to exchange my points for my spoils of war. Thanks, Drimo.”

I headed to the living room and slipped under the kotatsu.

“Aah. Getting to experience the joy of a kotatsu in the game while it’s summer IRL is the height of luxury.”

“Pom.”

Kettle quietly served me tea, which I sipped as I opened up the list of reward items.

“Looks like there aren’t any rankings. Let’s see, I earned 228 contribution points? I don’t know if that’s a lot or not, but it looks like I have enough for several items.”

The highest-cost item required two hundred points. There were skill scrolls and advanced gear included. Those weren’t bad, but I didn’t have much use for combat skills or equipment. There were also exchange tickets for building workshops for all types of production, but it would make things unbalanced if I only changed one to a higher-level workshop. Plus, I wasn’t in a production job class anyway.

I continued poring over the list, thinking about what to get, but I just couldn’t make a decision.

“Hmm.”

“Kee-hee?”

“Oh, Lilith? What’s up? Do you want to look at the items too?”

“Kee-hee.”

Lilith seemed keen on seeing the rewards. I selected the items she pointed out to read their descriptions. The times Lilith expressed interest were when it was a demon-related item. And since we had just faced off against a demon boss, there were a lot of demon items available for exchange.

There were several interesting items, such as equipment for demons, demon eggs, and all kinds of demon-type ingredients. I myself was interested in the demon ingredients. If I couldn’t think of anything else to get, that was probably a safe bet.

“Kee-hee!”

“Huh? What is it? Did you see something you want?”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

Lilith slapped her tiny hand at the part of the screen that displayed information for an item that looked like a crystal.

“Archdemon Soul Fragment?” I read aloud.

“Kee-hee!”

It looked like a bluish-purple crystal ball, with the color slightly darker in the center. Its name did not bode well, but based on its appearance, it seemed like it was a piece of decor. It even came with a red cloth to place it on.

“What’s this? ‘A materialization of a fragment of the archdemon’s soul. This beautiful crystal ball fascinates many’?”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

It wasn’t an ingredient, but an object. And based on its description, it sounded like it was purely for decoration. Nevertheless, it cost a lot of points. It was one of the high-ticket items, at two hundred points. For a decorative object, it felt too expensive.

“Kee-hee.”

“D-Do you really want it?”

“Kee-hee!”

Too close! Don’t bring your face in kissing distance! I can tell you want it without you getting so close!

“Well, if you want it that badly, then I’ll get it. I couldn’t decide on anything else anyway.”

“Kee-hee! Kee-hee, kee-hee!”

“Settle down! You don’t have to pull my hand over to the confirm button!”

Lilith was trying to get me to exchange my points for that item before I could change my mind. But there was no need for her to do that. Since this had a good chance of increasing my favorability with Lilith, I was already going to get the Archdemon Soul Fragment even without her persistence!

“Here you go.”

“Kee-hee-hee!”

The crystal ball was sent immediately to my inventory. When I took it out, Lilith raised it above her head with a look of pure joy. She was going gaga over it in a way I never expected from her, like rubbing her cheek against it and kissing it.

“You’re gonna drop it if you keep messing around with it like that.”

“Kee-hee! Kee-hee-hee.”

Lilith froze as soon as she heard me say that, then very gently placed the crystal ball on top of the kotatsu. To be honest, I doubted it would actually break inside the house.

“Kee-hee-hee.”

Lilith rested her chin on her hands on top of the kotatsu and gazed blissfully at the crystal ball. Since she liked it so much, I wondered if maybe it was a good idea to place it in the darkroom, where Lilith spent a lot of her time.

“Well, I’ll just leave it here for now.”

I wanted Lilith to do with it as she pleased until her enthusiasm cooled down.

“Hmm. Now that I think about it, won’t the others get mad that I only got something for Lilith?”

I decided to exchange my remaining points for snacks for my other monsters. The assorted fruits and seafood platter were both ten points each.

“Yeesh, I don’t have enough points now! And I still have to think of what to give Sakura!”

Had I been too hasty in spending two hundred points on the crystal ball...?

“Kee-hee.”

Oh well. It made Lilith happy, and that was what mattered.

“Kee-hee-hee.”

What’s that, you want me to look too? Sure thing, I’ll join you.

Online Forum [Assemble, Fans of Silver-Haired] All Things Silver-Haired-Related, Part 21

This thread is for people who are interested in Silver-Haired, the famously eccentric pioneer, and his monsters. Feel free to exchange information about them here.

Slander or abuse will not be tolerated.

Please treat sensitive information with care.

This thread may be deleted without warning should we receive a complaint from Silver-Haired himself.

330: Willow

So, Silver-Haired played an active part in the raid, huh?

Not that I’m surprised.

331: visitorfromanotherplanet

Silver-Haired did as Silver-Haired does lol

332: Willow

But I can’t believe you two were in the same server as him!

What are the chances?

333: Yang Yang

I know, right?

I was shocked to my core.

334: visitorfromanotherplanet

So? What was it like?

335: Yang Yang

What was it like?

I survived to the end. Booyah.

336: Willow

Not that! No one cares whether you survived or not, panda!

We wanna know if you talked to Silver-Haired!

337: visitorfromanotherplanet

You did talk to him, didn’t you?

338: Yang Yang

O-Of course I did!

And he even came up and talked to me at the end, so I bet he even remembers my name!

339: Willow

Whoa! Really?!

Though your getup does make a strong impression, so it’d make sense for him to remember you.

340: visitorfromanotherplanet

You have a unique job class too, so you’d be pretty hard to forget.

Good for you for talking to him while the Defenders are watching! That takes guts!

341: Yang Yang

Right? Aren’t I awesome?

342: Yodel-Ay-Hee

I call BS!

There’s a lie in the panda defendant’s testimony, your honor!

343: Willow

What do you mean?

344: Yodel-Ay-Hee

That lazy panda was too busy being a wimp to talk to him without my help!

If I hadn’t introduced the two of them, I believe the panda would’ve never worked up the nerve to talk to Silver-Haired!

345: visitorfromanotherplanet

Ha ha, for real? You had to get the painter to introduce you?

346: Willow

Wow, and I really believed you went up to talk to him yourself, panda.

347: Yang Yang

Objection!

If I had been given a little more time, I would have talked to him!

348: Yodel-Ay-Hee

Yeah, right! You were staring at the ground the whole time in full-on antisocial mode.

349: Yang Yang

No, I was not! And it wasn’t like you talked to him yourself either!

Hamakaze saw you and introduced you to him!

350: Yodel-Ay-Hee

Hamakaze just beat me to it!

I-I was planning on going up to talk to him!

I swear! We are not the same, lazy panda!

351: Yang Yang

Liar! You were totally chickening out!

352: Yodel-Ay-Hee

I’m not lying!

353: visitorfromanotherplanet

So you were both bullshitting.

354: Willow

I’m disappointed in both of you!

355: Yodel-Ay-Hee

I-I seriously would’ve talked to Silver-Haired after like ten more seconds!

356: Yang Yang

M-Me too!

357: visitorfromanotherplanet

Never mind all that. Tell us more about what Silver-Haired did.

Here’s what we know so far:

- At the very start of the battle, he and Hamakaze unified the players.

- He stood next to Hamakaze and gave her advice like he was her strategist.

- His monsters risked their lives to protect him.We’ll pick up where you left off! Wooo!

- While everyone was bummed out from the boss’s drop attacks, his cute monsters lifted everyone’s morale to new heights.

That’s what I’ve heard so far.

358: Willow

He had to have done something else, right?

359: Yang Yang

I-If you really want to know, I’ll tell you!

360: Yodel-Ay-Hee

Yeah! Guess there’s no point fighting you greedy people!

361: visitorfromanotherplanet

Yeah, yeah. So? What happened?

Did he awaken some crazy power and beat the boss with a single punch?

362: Yodel-Ay-Hee

Of course not! But he did play a big role in our victory.

363: Willow

Oho? How so?

364: Yang Yang

So you know how the dryad shows up and gives her blessing?

Well, Silver-Haired’s blessing looked different from everyone else’s.

365: visitorfromanotherplanet

Oh! I saw that in the official video!

366: Yodel-Ay-Hee

Unlike the rest of us, the light was pouring out of him like a fountain.

367: Yang Yang

Other players were just glowing with a green light.

Silver-Haired was shining like he was using kaio-ken.

368: Yodel-Ay-Hee

His tree nymph was glowing just as brightly too.

I think his gnome was also glowing brighter than the rest of us.

369: Willow

That showed up in the video too.

Maybe his stats got a bigger boost?

370: Yang Yang

That seems likely.

His tree nymph and gnome had no problem blocking the boss’s charge attack.

371: visitorfromanotherplanet

The same boss that was knocking back tanks? They blocked it, just the two of them? Jeez.

372: Yodel-Ay-Hee

And that’s not all.

Next, the tree nymph buffed everyone.

I don’t know for sure what happened, but we all got a huge power-up.

373: Willow

I saw that on the official video too! It was the climax of the video!

But I could tell what exactly was happening.

374: visitorfromanotherplanet

According to the investigation forum, it was probably a combination of a few techniques.

Like, it’s possible that Silver-Haired and his monsters’ blessing was more powerful for some reason, which then boosted the buffing ability of his tree nymph’s skill by increasing its range and power.

Basically, the dryad’s blessing probably turned the tree nymph’s skill into an ultrabuffing skill.

375: Willow

I don’t wanna hear “for some reason” and “probably”! It’s too vague!

376: visitorfromanotherplanet

Well, we just don’t know the facts.

But all it takes is glancing at the video to see what those stats boosts were like.

The panda was leaving afterimages, for crying out loud.

That’s not possible with just a mild agility boost. It had to at least be doubled.

377: Yang Yang

Yeah, that buff was pretty insane.

I could move super fast, and since my dexterity also went up, I could control my movements perfectly.

Since I could attack repeatedly at double speed and with higher than usual attack power, I’d say it was more like a four times buff?

378: Yodel-Ay-Hee

The effects on the rear guard were also amazing.

My stats were so high that there was virtually zero time between my attacks.

In just a dozen or so seconds, I was able to shoot off enough attacks to wipe my mana.

379: Willow

But why was Silver-Haired the only one glowing so brightly?

380: Yodel-Ay-Hee

I dunno, because he’s Silver-Haired?

381: Yang Yang

Yeah, that.

382: visitorfromanotherplanet

That’s enough to convince me lmao

But that doesn’t really explain things.

383: Willow

It probably has to do with his favorability score.

Hewasthe first one who found the dryad.

384: visitorfromanotherplanet

From the video, I could also tell that Holland’s blessing looked like it was a little stronger than others.

I’m pretty sure his party found events related to the Lakeside Sequoia too. It was a hot topic for a bit.

385: Willow

Sounds like the answeristheir favorability scores.

386: Yodel-Ay-Hee

It was thanks to those buffs that our server was able to beat the boss stupid fast.

Pretty sure it took around five minutes after we finished before the next server was done.

387: Yang Yang

And the time in the boss field is sped up, so it was really a fifteen-minute difference.

388: Willow

In conclusion, Silver-Haired did it again.

389: visitorfromanotherplanet

We always reach that conclusion.

390: Yodel-Ay-Hee

Well, this is afanthread for Silver-Haired.

391: Yang Yang

And he never disappoints.

Epilogue

Management’s POV, Exhausted After the Completion of the Event

“The event ended without incident...”

“Indeed it did.”

“I thought we wouldn’t be able to adjust the demon and dryad in time...”

“We were really down to the wire. Although the amplification of the buffs was still excessive.”

“Right. The effects of Diving Blessing combined with the maximum amplification of the dryad’s blessing did exceed our expectations.”

“The dryad’s blessing shouldn’t have been able to affect the range of special techniques, but...”

“But that wasn’t a special technique, was it?”

“Technically not, yes. But, well, we did change things so that the Lakeside Sequoia Dryad makes her appearance at the end, so the effect of her buffs didn’t last for very long.”

“I have to say, when we looked into the players’ favorability scores with the dryad, I really panicked.”

“Indeed. If we hadn’t changed things, Silver-Haired would have defeated the boss in one hit.”

“His contribution points for the raid alone was triple the score of second place... It’s terrifying, really.”

“Thanks to our adjustments, the raid ended with a reasonable outcome. We haven’t publicized the ranking, but in overall rankings, he’s in seventh place.”

“It’s a bit high based on his little involvement in other battles, but there’s nothing we can do. Do you think there will be an uproar?”

“Players are aware of what occurred after watching the official video, but they seem to accept it as something that happened ‘because it’s Silver-Haired.’”

“Hmm. Is our playerbase perhaps a little too agreeable? It’s good for us, but still.”

“Anyone who’s kicked up a fuss at this point has already been driven away.”

“Ah, that would make sense. How was the reception to the battle rewards?”

“Generally favorable. The demon-related items in particular were a popular choice for most players.”

“Tamers, Summoners, and Necromancers can obtain demons now, after all.”

“Though I believe most players want the same demon Silver-Haired has.”

“We made some modifications to make things more clear regarding that, yes?”

“Yes. The egg to receive a Little Devil is called the Small Demon Egg. The egg to receive the regular-type Imp is called Mischievous Demon Egg. We also slightly reduced the number of points required.”

“That should help the situation then, right? Well, the Small Demon Egg still requires 120 points, so only the higher-ranking players will be able to afford it.”

“A considerable number of players have already selected them.”

“As long as things remain calm.”

“We won’t have to worry about that.”

“Ahh, it would be nice to take a bit of a break right now...”

“We cannot. We have to make adjustments to the rematches for the players who did not participate this time.”

“Ahh! There’s never enough time! How did this happen?! I thought we had allotted enough time in the schedule!”

“A lot of things have set us back, such as players stopping participating halfway through and all the complaints we received about Curse Man, but the coup de grâce was Silver-Haired triggering the flag to make the dryad participate in the battle.”

“I will never forget the look on the programmers’ faces when I told them we had to do a total overhaul of the dryad...”

“Their faces were the picture of despair.”

“Did you know they’ve been working at double time lately?”

“Their productivity is fueled by misery!”

“Ahhh! I just want to go home at a normal time and eat dinner with my family!”

“Woe is middle management!”

“Staff! We need more staff! Not just rookies!”

“We’ve already started recruiting experienced people. However, it takes time to bring in new people. It would be faster to train the rookies that were recently assigned to us.”

“Let’s get to work.”

“Yes, sir.”