Log Horizon Vol 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 4: World Fraction 1 "Gyaapyi~!?" The youth rose to the sky and spun beautifully, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. That youth spun 2-3 times in the air before swiftly falling into the ocean head-first. "Oooh... Oooh...! Wasn't that showy!" Maryele was laughing loudly as she watched the scene while relaxing under the parasol. This was the 'Meinion Beach'. One of the most beautiful beaches in the Sand Leaf peninsula with its sparkling white sand. It was only a 30 minutes round-trip by horse from the school campus where Maryele and the others were staying at, a convenient place. Maryele took an ice-cold soda from the cooler that doubled as a table beside her. She had taken off her singlet, revealing her bright bikini, an outfit ideal for vacations. Her equipment included a parasol, a deck chair, and a cushion, she was totally prepared for the beach. (Ahhh, this is it, this is it! This is paradise, I am so fortunate...) Maryele had a smile worthy of praise but right now her smile was 10 times more enchanting than normal, her angelic smile could melt anyone's heart. Even though there was no sunscreen, their bodies were much stronger in this world. They'd be able to manage somehow even if they got a sunburn. The swimsuit also took quite a bit of effort to secure. In Elder Tales, a costume was equivalent to your equipment. Elder Tales was mainly a battle RPG, equipment basically meant armor or weapons, and it did not include undergarments. Of course, if you removed all your equipment, your avatar would display you with underwear. But this was a function to avoid displaying sensitive parts, a safety function in the game, akin to parental control, so there would only be dull and normal undergarments. They could be seen on the character profile as well, but it didn't actually exist. But this function didn't work anymore, if you stripped off your clothes you would be naked, both your profile picture and yourself would be in the nude.
But underwear was very important, and the j.a.panese had always lived in a civilized world, they could not endure life without panties. If you made underwear you could wear it, this was already a known fact. But undergarments required a very high tailor level to sew. The citizens had almost given up hope in acquiring them, but they caught a glimpse of light. That light came from swimsuits. With its smooth graphics as one of its selling points, there were many equipments for you to dress your avatar up in Elder Tales. This included the special item, swimsuit. Most swimwear were made from rare recipes, or given out for partic.i.p.ating in special events. Swimsuits were obviously different from underwear. Like sweat absorption and friction from long hours of wear, they had many differences. But there were ways to overcome these differences after the Catastrophe, so the panties crisis was tided over by the excellent tailors. After the Round Table Council announced the new method of producing items, the tailors started to make cotton and silk undergarments. There was definitely high demand for them, and panties were a popular product for the tailors. Stuck with the mindset of the old world, Maryele also wanted several sets of undergarments to change periodically, so panties were one of the most profitable products for the tailors in Akiba. Hooks, laces, and elastic bands could be acquired easily by using the game menu to create clothes and disa.s.semble them. This ingenuity and attention to detail was their technique in making quality products. Since it was made by hand, their price was similar to a mid-level magic item, 300 gold, with no signs of dropping. Swimsuits made through known recipes were very simple, so they were relatively cheap since they were made from normal ingredients. But swimsuits with flashy designs were quite expensive. Maryele was an experienced player who liked swimsuits, so she had a few pairs. The one she was wearing was taken from the storage room after not being used for years. Maryele's swimwear was a praiseworthy design from the beaches of the old world, a bikini. The bikini itself was not small, but Maryele's criminal-level body and the high-cut of the bikini made her very s.e.xy. Maryele was conscious of that, so she put on a cotton hoodie. (Anyway, with so many people watching... it will be pretty embarra.s.sing if they see this...) Maryele thought that she would be fine with the hoodie. But the fact was the vague form of the bikini under the hoodie made the others even more uncomfortable, as they didn't know where they should put their gaze. But she was not aware of this, Maryele was enjoying her vacation on her deck chair with a big smile, she was peaceful and at ease.
"Maryele-san, Maryele-san!" The youth who jumped just now ran to her. The youth was holding a spear-like weapon with sharp edges on either side, he should be a Samurai. He was wearing leather armor under the hot sun, but he was totally wet after falling into the sea, just like a dog after a bath. "Heal me please!" The youth was bleeding profusely from his head. "No problem." Maryele nodded energetically, sat upright and cast Healing Light. A six-pointed white star appeared at her fingertip, and the youth's HP was refilled after absorbing its light. "This is great, I'm cured!" The youth felt his wound, the bleeding had been healed. Healing Light was a low-level spell with a short cast time and weak effects. It was normally used to bridge the gap while waiting for the high-level spells to cool down. But for low-level players, this was a powerful spell that could completely recover their HP. "Thank you!" "Anytime, anytime." Maryele smiled. "Don't mention it, go for another one! Get some more crabs! I suggest you ambush them from the side, remember to watch out for the restriction of your skills as well." "Okay, understood!" The youth ran off full of energy down the beach.
At the far end of Maryele's view of the beach, the youth discovered an Ascot Crab making its way onto the beach and made a detour. The crab was about a meter in length, if it spread its claws out it should be about 2 meters, a real giant crab. He then charged the crab with his spear and struck at the side of its belly in an attempt to flip the crab over. He seemed successful this time. There were 5-6 such beginners around Maryele, they were Adventurers with the lowest levels in this summer training camp. Maryele was leading these beginners at this beach. During the summer, there were countless Ascot Crabs, nicknamed 'Apricot', landing on the 'Meinion' sh.o.r.e line. If left alone, they would move further inland and endanger the livestock and the farms, so the People of the Land despised them. But these monsters were not much of a threat, levels ranged from 4-8 suitable for beginners to grind. Spending the whole day grinding like this should grant them plenty of EXP. If they were injured badly, they could seek treatment from Maryele. They would take a break when they exhausted their MP. With a personal medic on stand-by, they could have a tight training session. Maryele's grand vacation plan was a big success.
"Hahhhh!" "Die! Die, die! Just die!" "Accept your fate!" Maryele lay down on her deck chair as she listened to the battle cries of the beginners, the ice-cold soda in the gla.s.s cooling the summer heat. This was just like heaven. She couldn't help but smile. Many of the beginners here wanted to be in the production line. This was the 3rd month since the Catastrophe, but they were willing to stay at this low-level because they abhorred fighting. This was not a problem as players focusing on production were necessary to support battle guilds who went out to farm. But in this alternate world, being a pure production player was very risky. If they had no battle power, they couldn't protect themselves in a crisis. And a high player level was beneficial to production as well, some simple ingredients could be obtained faster if they went by themselves. This point probably played a big part in convincing them. Or maybe the beginners were aware of that, but the production guilds did not have a comprehensive beginner support program for them, so they had given up. The beginners gathered at this beach were pa.s.sionately grinding by engaging the crabs repeatedly. To make it clear, every time they had a setback and were about to give up, Maryele would heal their wounds with her sunflower-like smile. So even if they wanted to retreat, they couldn't do it, the pride of boys was such a pathetic thing. As for the girls, they were influenced by the furious fighting atmosphere of the boys and held the thought 'can't be helped, I will also train a bit more...' Only Maryele was not aware of this reason. (Everyone is working so hard... Wah, the weather is so nice.) The sleepy Maryele continued to enjoy her vacation.
The mid-level camp leaders sent by Keele and West Wind Brigade were patrolling the beach as instructors and lifeguards. Maryele was standing by as the supervisor (she was just enjoying her vacation), and healed the wounds of the occasional casualty. Maryele who was bored out of her mind was turning in her chair again. The air was dry, even if it was hot it didn't feel uncomfortable. When she saw a line of white bubbles on the surface of the ocean by chance, she waved over to Shouryuu who was nearby. "Shouryuu... look, what is that?" Maryele pointed to the white line in the sea. "Eh, what is that... bubbles? The trail of a boat? Hmmm..." But the discussion ended like that. The white line dissipated after a while, and nothing of interest happened after. The group battled crabs until the sun set, leaving with plenty of crab meats and sh.e.l.ls. Production subcla.s.s training began at the school campus in the evening, Maryele and the rest had long forgotten about the mysterious white line. 2 Isuzu entered the 3rd day of their challenge of Ragranda Forest. Their daily challenges lasted less than 3 hours. The process depended on their stamina, so they were unable to stay in the dungeon for long. It didn't mean it was better if you stayed in the dungeon longer, but it was obviously a problem if the duration was so short. They only managed 4-5 battles for each trip. They could only keep practicing. Rundelhous explained it this way, but there was no significant gain in EXP with only 4-5 battles. Each fight evolved into a battle of attrition, and they ended the trip after exhausting their MP and mental strength with nothing much to show for it. This story kept repeating itself. Isuzu was not wearing armor, she had changed into casual clothes. Because it was tiring to return to camp wearing heavy equipment. The higher level party spent about 6 hours in the dungeon every day, so the low level party who retreated around noontime had nothing much to do. They could recover their HP and MP after resting for an hour. And they could challenge the dungeon again in the afternoon to earn some EXP, but they were stopped by Nyanta and Naotsugu. They did not know the reason, but the party relented when they heard their instructors' harsh warning. And so, Isuzu's party could only do menial tasks like picking firewood or drawing water from the ponds, or just kill some time in the woods.
From the angle of the sun, it should be about 3pm. Isuzu was on her way to a pond nearby. It was not a big pond, but because there was fresh water flowing in, the pond was cool and clear, the water for the group was all drawn from here. It might not be suitable for drinking so no one had tried that, but Isuzu thought it should be fine. There were no showers in the hills. No one actually suggested it, but Isuzu's group decided to take turns to shower in the pond. "... Huff!... Ha!" The distant sound of breathing came from deep in the forest. (Who is it?) Isuzu peeked in the direction of the sound. The one training vigorously in the forest was Rundelhous. He was wearing a light purple costume similar to the uniform of a n.o.ble's boarding school, with a cloak of a mage on top, and was sweating profusely. He must have been exercising for quite some time. If the fluid that was dyeing the ground in darker shades was sweat, he might have been training all this while after leaving the dungeon. Rundelhous extended his left hand forward. He created a big fireball, compressing it to the limit to the size of a fist. This process required immense concentration, Rundelhous who was always very concerned with his image was sweating like a pig and clenching his teeth. After shooting the ball, a large ball of mist formed in his hand, which he compressed into an ice ball and shot out like he did before. This attack extinguished the fireball he shot out earlier. The magic that had been changed into ice and fire clashed fiercely in the forest, producing lots of steam. Rundelhous did not let down his guard and kept moving around, maneuvering himself from time to time to avoid the scalding water. Incorporating defensive moves into his attacks, he seemed to be doing a battle simulation. Isuzu noticed 2 lines on either side of Rundelhous, she didn't understand the meaning behind them. Only after watching Rundelhous for a few minutes did she realize what they represented. (... The walls of the dungeon.) The 2 lines on the ground represented the tunnel in the dungeon, Rundelhous was fighting invisible skeletons that were coming at him from the front. He kept moving around all over the place, but he did not cross the line, because they were walls. And he had been moving for quite a while now. It seemed like a long time, but after about 5 minutes, Rundelhous fell on his knees and breathed out loud. He maintained this position like he was puking, giving out an embarra.s.singly loud panting sound. "Are you okay...?" Isuzu who had been watching from behind the trees asked hesitantly. He reminded her of a cla.s.smate with asthma who displayed similar symptoms.
But Rundelhous seemed genuinely surprised by her voice, jumping up like a spring and facing Isuzu. "Hi Miss Isuzu... what... what are you doing here?" Rundelhous smiled like a prince and flipped up his fringe. But his fringe was full of sweat, so they were stuck on his forehead. "Don't push yourself alright?" Isuzu said while holding back a laugh, but she failed to calm Rundelhous, who worked in a panic to conceal his sorry state. "You... You think I am pushing myself? No... there is no such thing, I am only here for an afternoon stroll and to listen to the birds sing on the invitation of the fairies..." Rundelhous' face was turning purple as he went on. (He was just gasping for air and still wants to talk like a prince, no wonder he is turning purple...) Isuzu thought, but Rundelhous kept up his princely smile even with his purple face. Isuzu felt a sense of sympathy, so she averted her gaze and turned her back to him. "I... I see." An intense breathing sound came from her back as Isuzu spoke. A young couple alone in the woods with the heavy breathing sound of a man, you could describe it as a pervert sighting. But no matter how frivolous Rundelhous was, Isuzu still wanted to commend him for his samurai spirit. (Eh... I am weird in some ways.) Isuzu and Rundelhous were about the same level, and he looked to be in his early twenties, shouldn't be any younger than Isuzu. Rundelhous was a boy and not frail at all. But there was a big gap between their battle prowess, Isuzu was a support cla.s.s, Rundelhous specialized in damaging attacks. His battle prowess should be several times better than hers. But ignoring battle powers or conditions, Isuzu felt she was superior than Rundelhous in a totally different category. She didn't understand her own feelings. "Miss Isuzu... what are you doing in a place like this?" "I am going to shower... Oh right, Rundelhous-san, let's go together." Isuzu did not ask: "Do you want to go?" The normal her wouldn't talk like this, but right now she was not being polite to Rundelhous at all. "Shower? I have no interest in peeking at ladies bathing, don't look down on me!" "No one said anything about showering together or letting you peek." Isuzu kept her back to Rundelhous and retorted in a half-joking, half-angry manner. Rundelhous behind her choked and coughed, which made her happy. "It's not nice to let a lady wander alone in the forest, right?" Isuzu blushed a little, calling herself a lady was a bit embarra.s.sing. It felt a bit too much, but she couldn't take back what she said. "You are right, yeah, I will just be an escort." Rundelhous' voice started to recover. "Then allow me to escort you, the spring nearby? Which way?" Isuzu turned around. The Rundelhous before her said: "Please lead the way." She almost lost her composure looking at his expression, he was sweaty but was still charming, looking at him like this made him look really handsome. He could win against any shoujo manga's main character in the real world. (But I don't feel excessive pressure from this... Is this also the effect of the alternate world?)
"Rundelhous-san, it is this way." Isuzu tilted her head slightly, and as she started on the trail leading to the pond, the young man said to her: "Miss Isuzu, please just call me Rudy, that's how my parents address me." Isuzu listened to this with a tingling in her heart. 3 Shiroe and Akatsuki were brought to the depths of the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice, they did not know which zone they were in. In the depths of the palace, it was cold despite it being summer, the cold was between 'cool' and 'chilly'. At the end of the tunnel was a sculpted giant metal door. "This way, this is my abode, please come in." ReGan who claimed to be a sage opened the door and invited the 2 of them in. There were several thousand books in the library. You could tell it was a library from the gigantic round table, the tall ceilings and the room that extended in a straight line into the depths like a tunnel. There were mountains of books surrounding them. On either side of the tunnel wall were shelves twice the height of Shiroe. They were filled to the brim with delicacies known as books. The journals and scrolls spilled onto the floor, forming mini-avalanches.       This sight continued on deep into the darkness. ReGan searched around the room as he said 'Hmm, this is weird' 'Where did it go?' Shiroe and Akatsuki occupied a couch after clearing the books that were on it. "Eh, I apologize, I have misplaced the beverages I prepared in advance." ReGan was sorry about that, but Shiroe shook his head and replied: "It's alright," taking a few gla.s.ses and a bottle of black rose tea from his bag. This tea had became a popular beverage among the ma.s.ses, it was thicker than brewed tea but was not as bitter, and you could add honey or sugar to it to fit your preferences. The one Shiroe made had been cooled in the spring wells and sweetened with syrup. Shiroe poured cups for himself, ReGan, and Akatsuki. ReGan gave an expression of joy with just a sip. He might be short and frail, but he had a charming aura, a man of mystery. From his appearance, he seemed about Shiroe's age. "My grat.i.tude, I have always been poor in searching for things... Is this Dazanegg's Magic Bag?" "That's right, I had someone make this for me." Shiroe nodded and replied bluntly. "I have researched this bag before... for the process of crystallizing the magic circuits, you would need purple flame crystals and wyvern leather right?" "Yes, I gathered these materials before they could work on this." Shiroe was impressed, this was a level 45 quest 'Getting a Magical Backpack'. The sage ReaGan had a good grasp on the contents of the quest, much more knowledgeable than normal People of the Land. "Please excuse my impudence, let me introduce myself again, I am ReGan. I claimed to be a mage and use magic, but technically I am a magic scholar." "Magic scholar?" "Yes, someone who researches magic. I am also a lecturer for normal magical studies, but I have been focusing on doing research." "Researching here?" "Yes, I have lived in the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice for over 30 years, this was originally the laboratory of my master. But after he pa.s.sed on a few years ago, I inherited his work and continued to research day and night, do forgive my poor dress sense." "... Mirror Lake... you are the Sage of Mirror Lake?" Shiroe remembered ReGan's first introduction and understood the significance of this t.i.tle. Sage of Mirror Lake. When Elder Tales was just a game, this was a t.i.tle that was related to several quests, rumors, and books. For instance, the crucial item 'Key of Eternal Darkness' for the major raid '9 Prisons of Heroes' was said to be made by the Sage of Mirror Lake. But this was just a setting in the game which Shiroe thought was meant to add more background to the story, so he did not give it much thought. "I guess I am. But I still can't refer to myself with the t.i.tle, unable to drop the feeling of being a student. When others mention this t.i.tle, I always feel that they are referring to my master." "So the Sage of Mirror Lake is a hereditary t.i.tle?" "It is indeed, please call me ReGan." With his humble demeanor, the Sage of Mirror Lake did not have the air of one with such a grand t.i.tle. The silence flowed between them. Shiroe drank his black rose tea and his brain turned at high speed. Attending the meeting of League of Freedom Cities Eastal was due to their invitation, but it was also a step in gathering intelligence of the world. Attending this meeting provided the chance to know and interact with the leaders of the world, widening their information network, much more in depth than what you could get poking around in the streets. But this was a big catch. It had been 3 months since the Catastrophe. All kinds of knowledge about the world was gathered slowly by Shiroe's group. At least the minimum knowledge to live their daily lives normally was complete. The Adventurers in Akiba were successful in getting food, clothes, and shelter. But information like this made Shiroe think that "there is so much more to learn." There would be no problem if it was just Shiroe alone. Or if there were only a few members living together, all problems could be solved. No matter what the People of the Land thought or what was the truth of this world, Shiroe and the others were able to survive in this world with their abilities. They could go on journeys indefinitely, or build a base in the deep mountains, they could survive no matter what. But Shiroe could not think of it this way. There were 15,000 Adventurers in Akiba and almost 30,000 in the whole server, if he could abandon them, he wouldn't have started the Round Table Council. The 30,000 Adventurers could not ignore the People of the Land and live by themselves, they also needed a base of their own. In this area under the j.a.panese server, the population was probably 1.5 million, the 15,000 Adventurers were too big in number, they would have a large impact on the world no matter what they did. In fact, the new production method already had a huge impact on the world. Even if Nyanta did not discover this new method, someone would definitely discover it after a few months and the news would spread. Shiroe took advantage of everyone's confusion and depression after the Catastrophe and took the initiative to control the situation. Shiroe did not feel responsible for the spread of the new production method, but he needed to understand the impact of this new knowledge. And there should be similar incidents in the future. No matter how they tried to conceal it, Adventurers were still an alien existence in this world. To achieve a good ending and divert them from the path of destruction, they would need deep and wide knowledge of the world. Shiroe's group lacked such knowledge. (This conversation... might be more important than the meeting with the n.o.bles.) ReGan stared at Shiroe with interest and said: "I claimed to be a magic scholar, but the school of magic covers a lot of areas and has many fields of studies. My research focuses on global-level magic." "... Global level?" Shiroe rubbed his chin as he listened to this foreign term. "Yes, this is in accordance to the scale of the magic effects, magic can be categorized into action level, battle level, tactical level, strategic level, war level, national level, continental level, and global level. This is just one way of categorizing them, you can also group them by their features into energy control, changes in material form, conjuring types. Arranging them by spell levels is also commonly used." Shiroe thought as he listened. This was a rare way of thinking, if you categorized by the features of magic... for instance, Sorcerers controlled energy, Summoners conjured creatures... Shiroe could understand, that was a simple way of doing it. Shiroe also understood grouping them by spell levels, which was what spells could be learned at each specific player level, the way used by the officials in Elder Tales. "To categorize by scale, you need to a.n.a.lyze the magic by its effects or understand its intent through observation. Action cla.s.s is a magic that simulates a single action. For example swinging a sword to attack a monster, if you do this by magic, that is action cla.s.s, hurting one or a group of monsters is the effect, which can be achieved by a single action. The magic used by mages are mostly action cla.s.s, no matter how damaging the attack might be." From this perspective, Shiroe's basic attack, Mind Bolt, was an action level magic. That was a magic bolt that hurt the enemy's mind, but the effect was equivalent to shooting an arrow. Even if there were damage or debuffs, they were just additional conditions. "Battle level magic can decide the result of a single battle. If you cast it, you can determine the fate of your enemies and your allied party." This was a deep way of categorizing magic. For example Shiroe's Astral Hypnos seemed like an action level spell, but depending on the way it was used, it could push a group of enemies to the brink of defeat. Labeling it as battle level made sense in this situation. "Tactical level magic can affect 2-3 battles at the same time, a legendary magic cast by a group of Sorcerers belongs to this cla.s.s." Affecting multiple battles, meaning powerful buffing enchantments? Shiroe could only find one spell in his a.r.s.enal that fit this description. "Strategic level is even larger in scale, the effect can last for days, a single spell can defeat a fortress, a tower, or a dungeon." This was already beyond Shiroe's imagination. It might make sense in a simulation game, but players role-played as Adventurers in Elder Tales, if the Adventurer had the power to destroy a dungeon by himself, there would be no need to work together since they had such overwhelming forces. "Let's keep the rest of this short, war level can decide a war, national level can destroy an enemy nation, continental level can affect the whole continent with a single spell. As for global level..." "It's a magic that can decides the existence or the fate of the world... correct?" "That is correct." Shiroe understood the concept. It was still understandable if you treated it as academic research, but did such spells exist? No, in the world of Elder Tales, Shiroe was an Enchanter himself, questioning the existence of magic was ridiculous, but the scale in this topic was too big, he was unable to relate to it. "About that... Pardon me for asking, I can keep up with this categorization, but does such magic exist? Or is this just a theoretical category?" Shiroe's question made ReGan smile charmingly and answer. "It does exist, Searching through the archives and with my own observations, magic of this level happened 3 times, it is called World Fraction." "... The Catastrophe right?" ReGan's expression confirmed Shiroe's query instantly.
A magic of this scale could not be the work of one man. It might be the work of a being higher than humans, but research had not shed any light on this. War level, national level, continental level... Why was there a need to research magic that probably did not exist? The reason was because it actually did exist. Maybe it could not be done by People of the Land or Adventurers, but if a being like a fire elemental caused a volcano to erupt, or an earth elemental made an earthquake... These might cause magical destruction of the national level. As an experienced player familiar with Elder Tales, Shiroe thought of magic as just one of the skills of Adventurers, and could accept the existence of magic of grander scales from the background and the story setting. The skinny researcher ReGan was looking into magic that was beyond that of a single caster, he was indeed a magic scholar, not just a mage. His goal was not to increase his prowess, but to investigate the mysteries of the world and understand how nature works. "You named the incident that happened in May as The Catastrophe, the People of the Land refers to it simply as the Revolution or the May Incident, but I see it as the 3rd World Fraction. I have invited you to chat and find out more about the World Fraction from you. As a researcher, I want to know every detail." ReGan's eyes shone with curiosity, and he appeared to be sincere. (There is no point in hiding anything, we don't really know much ourselves, but...) "You said 'the 3rd' right? You mentioned that there have been 2 other global level magic, can you tell us about the previous 2 World Fractions? We Adventurers don't have too much data on the Catastrophe, and I am willing to tell you, but I also wish to know more about the Catastrophe." 4 Shiroe's words made ReGan who was reaching for his gla.s.s stop momentarily. "I don't mind, but it could take a while, will you be fine with that?" "..." "Yes, sorry for troubling you." Shiroe confirmed with Akatsuki who nodded beside him, and replied to ReGan. Akatsuki maintained a tense expression and listened carefully. "Let me think, where should we start? As I said, I don't know everything about the World Fractions, you can even say I am totally ignorant about the subject. You can even treat this as something that happened in the past... But that won't be explaining, so let me start from what I do know... from the history of our world." Shiroe adjusted himself in his seat and nodded in agreement. Shiroe was happy that ReGan was explaining right from the beginning.
"About 350 years ago, the world was much more prosperous than it is now, even if it could not match the glory of the fallen ancient empire, the population was still 3-5 times more than it is right now. Using the continent as their base, people spread to the corners of the world." "What do you mean by continent?" "Ah, I mean the neighboring Eureddo continent." The Eurasia continent... including China, the countries in the middle-east, Shiroe nodded in reply. This was without question the biggest continent in the world. But he did not start with the ancient lore, which surprised Shiroe. According to the background story of Elder Tales, the ancient empire which advanced civilization to its limits was ripped apart and reconstructed. The developers did not mention the dark age during the rebuilding of the world, so the players only thought of Elder Tales as the world right after the reconstruction. But the buildings and roads from the ancient times deteriorated to this extent, which meant all sorts of things happened during this dark period of time. Shiroe kept thinking of it as a blank period of time where nothing happened, so this fact surprised him. "The four races of Humans, Alvs, Elves and Dwarves lived gloriously in the world, every country lived in peace and prosperity, the magical items you can find in dungeons today are remnants from this period of time. The Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice we are in is an ancient magical structure, obviously different from that of the ancient lore, right? This is built by the Alv during that time, and they're also the inventors of magic, the pioneers in magic civilization. The various magical items they created are said to be able to decipher the mysteries of the world. The Alv... The developers listed them as an extinct ancient race, Shiroe was a Half-Alv who inherited this ancient bloodline, but there was no history or story behind this in the game, he only knew they were powerful in magic, a race suitable to use magic items.
"The details have nothing to do with the main topic so I won't dwell too much on it, but this power became a source of disaster. The Alv have high intelligence and magical talents, but are weak in reproduction. Their population did not increase, and the country around the land was also small. A minority race like this monopolizing magical techniques infuriated the surrounding nations, and they destroyed the Alv kingdoms one by one... The Alv were pushed to extinction, and their glorious history ends here." Since the Alv were extinct, something like this must have happened. Shiroe had Alv blood in him, but this did not fan his nationalistic instincts, he just made a note that there was such a setting. "But what about me?... There are quite a number of Half-Alv in this world, even though it is a small number." "This is the sign of the end of the Alv. The people raided the Alv firstly for their magical knowledge and quality magical items, and following that... they were after the Alv themselves. The Alv became slaves in this world. Everywhere, including the human, elf, and dwarf kingdoms, they traded the Alv as slaves, they were violated and gave birth to children, which are the Half-Alv we know. But the genetic inheritance tends to skip generations, and appears with a low probability between human parents... Woah, I'm going off topic, that won't do. Anyway, the Alv kingdoms fell, but a major upheaval happened. Featured prominently in this upheaval are the six sc.r.a.pped princesses of the Alv." "Six sc.r.a.pped princesses...?" This was a foreign term. ReGan wrote on the table with his finger. Six meant there were six of them, sc.r.a.pped meant they had fallen from grace, princesses meant females from a royal family.
"There are many theories behind the ident.i.ty of the six sc.r.a.pped princesses, the theory here is that they are different individuals with their own names and place of birth. But there is one thing for certain, they are all princesses from different parts of the continent. Six sc.r.a.pped princesses was coined by later historians, it is said they did not act in concert, and had become slaves like their kinsman. They escaped execution because of their royal status, which is a form of fortune. The history books describes them as 'so beautiful that they are pampered like gemstones'. The royalty, leaders, and n.o.bles treat them as their exclusive pets, keeping them imprisoned in 6 different countries. But they did not end their lives as slaves, some used magic, some led a rebellion of enslaved Alv, some controlled the royalty from the dark, all of them started revolutions against the whole human race." Shiroe was attracted to these words, but his emotions remained neutral, leaning towards the Alv at most. From the view of a modern j.a.panese, the humans of the alternate world attacked the Alv out of envy of their magic technology and the remnants of the Alv started terrorist attacks to retaliate, all these were within expectations. "The human, elf, and dwarf empires who destroyed the Alv gained many magical technologies, but they had not grown accustomed to them, so a war in the form of countless stalemates started. The reason of the stalemate is because the human, elf, and dwarf nations were fighting among themselves. The six sc.r.a.pped princesses were no heroines, but vengeful spirits, they orchestrated chaos behind the scenes, disrupting society, confusing the populace, spreading the seeds of discord everywhere in human society. There were many casualties in this war. If the records are correct, the total deaths matches the current population of the world. On the other hand, the six sc.r.a.pped princesses were pushed to their limits. They were Alv after all, and their weakness of low reproduction ability made the population small. Even if they hid behind the scenes of the infighting among allies, they are fragile when discovered. As the six sc.r.a.pped princesses were about to be killed... the first World Fraction happened." "The first..." They were finally getting to the point, Shiroe gulped. He noticed Akatsuki beside him was also totally engrossed. "Yes, the first World Fraction was speculated to be a result of powerful magic by the Alv. But there remains many mysteries, especially in the technical sense that we cannot solve. We cannot even understand the basic principle behind it, let alone replicate it. The World Fraction occurred, and the demihumans appeared... They did not exist until 300 hundred years ago. ... Demihumans did not exist. This was something Shiroe did not expect, but he could understand why civilizations including the Alv were ten times more prosperous. The world practically belonged to the humans then.
"I do not think the appearance of the demihumans here was the result of crossbreeding or a biological problem. This is the research topic of my master, but I proposed an a.s.sumption that the World Fraction might be linked to the spirit. The world then had lots of spirit material as the population of the world fell by almost half due to the war. These spirit fragments were then used to make demihumans which appeared throughout the world and pushed the human empire that was ravaged by the war to the brink of destruction. Many cities fell, armies that claimed to be invincible were crushed, almost all the countries were dissolved. In this peninsula, the only country that survived in these 300 years is the ancient empire Westelande. Several towns and cities in the League of Freedom Cities Eastal were only villages then. With the appearance of the demihumans, the world changed into the picture of humans fighting against the invasion of the demihumans and protecting their small civilized circles. The world is trapped in darkness, even after defeating the six sc.r.a.pped princesses, their revenge was a complete success." The six sc.r.a.pped princesses were defeated. The World Fraction was activated. Large numbers of demihumans made from spirit fragments appeared in the world.
"Next will be the Iron Ages. As explained, Goblin, Kobold, Orc, Troll, Gnoll, Sahuagin, and Lizardmen, these demihumans terrorized the populace all over the world. These cruel creatures invaded the civilization circles of humans, and life began to lose its shine. After much research, defense magic and setting up of barriers... the legacy of the Alv... started to work. But there was no such a.s.sistance back then, so the humans planned to fight back. The first plan they executed was to use the secrets of the Alv to create new warriors, the 'Human Instrumentality Project', a large-scale experiment which created werecats, wolf fangs, foxtails, animal hybrids and race of ceremony, the re-engineering of a human. They were sent to the front-lines as a man-made race, the human battle for survival begins here." When he only mentioned human, dwarf, elf, and Alv, Shiroe felt uneasy, but it seemed that the hybrids made their debut here. Werecats, wolf fangs, foxtails, and race of ceremony were races made for battle by humans. "Several countries in Eureddo thought the battle was hopeless and gave up. They organized big fleets of ships to cross the ocean towards a new continent. The new continent also had demihumans, but they persevered and built their own country in this brand new world, and with the power of their faith, the 'Ancient' was born." ... The new continent, it should be referring to the Wayne continent, or the Americas continent in the old world. So in this alternate world, the Americas were discovered 300 years ago. This should be the adaptation of the history of Eurasia and Asia, coinciding with the discovery of the continent in the old world. Shiroe tried to imagine the situation in the American server, but he shook his head and stopped that train of thought.
"There are several theories behind the 'Ancient', but there are definitely a number of them that came into being during this period. Regarding the 'Ancient'... let's talk about them another time, I will focus on the theory of spirits. Even after using so many resources and techniques, they were unable to halt humanity's path to destruction, that is how strong the forces of the demihumans were. Not only that, the effects of the first World Fraction were still lingering in this world. As I mentioned in the beginning, the demihumans do not fall in number no matter how many you kill. Even if you defeated them, their spirits would just re-sp.a.w.n as demihumans again... This is just an a.s.sumption, but their reproduction curve is fascinating, so that is the only way to make sense of it. Even though they are demihumans, they still need a period of time to grow and develop. If you manage to kill a large number of them, you will be able to weaken their forces. In other words, the dead demihumans will re-sp.a.w.n as infants, and won't be able to join the war meaningfully for a few years. But they can return after 3 years, the demihumans cannot be wiped out, so we have no chance of winning." This... Wasn't this the problem with the Elder Tales game settings? Shiroe wanted to interject. Elder Tales was a game, or it was a game before, if one player killed off all the monsters forever in a zone leaving nothing for the other players, that must be a disappointing experience. So the game set the monsters to re-sp.a.w.n after a specific amount of time, providing new monsters for the players. If not for that, stronger players would be able to clear all the monsters in the zone given an amount of time. "The people lived in fear and despair, praying for a miracle. This was a really dark period of the world, it had been 60 years since the defeat of the six sc.r.a.pped princesses and the first World Fraction. Humanity fell into absolute despair, poverty, hunger, and fear. Almost everyone was trapped in armored communities or fortresses, living every day in fear of demihuman or monster attacks, some even thought it was only a matter of time before humanity went into extinction. The six sc.r.a.pped princesses' revenge seemed to be working... At this moment, the second World Fraction happened, but it is different from the first, with almost no clear records and observation of it in the archives. It was the dark period in the history of humanity after all, so they might not have had the spare time to leave behind records. With the combined effort of the humans, elves, dwarves, and many races of ceremony, they invoked the holy summon spell, some religious texts describe this as 'G.o.d's Salvation'... anyway, the World Fraction happened again, the time is exactly 240 years ago... Adventurers appeared."
240 years ago. Adventurers appeared. "There is nothing of significance in the history that follows. The powerful Adventurers were a gospel for all of humanity. The 'Fields of Dead Spirits', 'The King of Hades', 'The Jade Throne of the Dragon', all kinds of crises that hit Yamato were solved by the Adventurers. The world did not became peaceful, but it is now more stable, and is on the way of restoration." (And so it links to our current situation...) "Adventurers... Now that you mentioned it, ReGan-san you seem to know about me. Why is that?" Shiroe felt concerned and asked. "Because Shiroe-sama is an archmage, I feel that among the Adventurers, you would be the one who is most familiar with the situation." "Archmage?" Shiroe was confused, he did not recall completing any grand quest that granted such a prestigious t.i.tle. "Shiroe-sama first appeared in history 98 years ago, there are other long lived Adventurers other than you, but in terms of frequency and activeness, Shiroe-sama must surely be an archmage, correct?"
(98 years? This...) Shiroe's mind circuit seemed to be catching fire as it ran, the time in this world, the history of this world... If you calculated this way, 240 years ago when the 2nd World Fraction happened was... (... The day beta testing of the game started.) 5 When they woke up in the morning of the 4th day, it was raining outside. The rain that started in the middle of the night persisted into the morning. It was just a summer drizzle, and the raindrops were small as well. The surrounding forest drained the water away smoothly and the tent was holding up fine. (But entering the dungeons has nothing to do with the weather), Minori thought as she checked her gear. Minori checked her equipment thoroughly after the challenge yesterday, but decided to check again before leaving out of habit. (I should be... feeling uneasy.) Repeatedly counting her potions was also because of this. Minori felt sorry for feeling like a child. She tried her best to be silent, but noticed movements in the other sleeping bags as the day broke. There were 4 tents, the 2 big tents were for the 2 beginner parties, 1 was for the instructors, and the last was the storage and changing room for the ladies. The 5 members of Minori's party shared a tent with a tarpaulin outside, so it was quite s.p.a.cious. "Morning..." Isuzu who slept beside her greeted, as she rubbed her eyes. Isuzu had stubborn and tough hair, and her hair behind her head would be kinked after sleeping for a night. She was conscious about it as well, that's why she always braided them. But Minori thought her hair was cute this way too. "Is it light out yet?" Isuzu gazed at the tent entrance with her eyes half open. The canvas was thicker at the entrance, but you could still see the light shining in from outside. "Yeah, it is a bit dark because of the rain, but it is light outside." "Is that so... I feel so sleepy." "Because it is cold?" "Yeah..." Isuzu mumbled something incoherently and snuggled back into her sleeping bag. Stowing her gear, Minori put a blanket over Isuzu with a smile. (The others seem to be awake, but they are not getting up.) It was drizzling outside, but they had a comfortable and cool rest last night. The sound of the raindrops filled the tent, giving it the steady and sleepy atmosphere of a secret hideout. The monotonous sound of the raindrops seemed to be protecting them, their first leisure time since making camp. There also seemed to be a shadow outside. Minori turned and saw Nyanta sticking his head into the tent. Minori walked to the middle of the tent, and approached Nyanta. The tent ceiling was high enough that Minori could stand up straight with no problem. "Morning nya." "Morning Nyanta-san." "For your breakfast.." Minori nodded to acknowledge Nyanta's soft voice. "We can't eat outside with the rain like that, so breakfast will be sandwiches with creamy crab soup, please eat inside your own tents nya..." "Understood." A few minutes later, Nyanta came to deliver breakfast. He gave her enough sandwiches for 10 people and a full pot of cream soup. "Thank you very much." "Ah, you are welcome nya, see you later nya." Minori held the tray with the pot and bowed awkwardly. Nyanta waved and went back into the drizzle, probably to deliver breakfast to the other party. Minori placed the tray carefully in the middle of the tent and was thinking of where to put the pot. She then remembered that she had a foot lamp used for heating things in her bag, and decided to use it for the pot.
"Hmmm, is it breakfast?" Tohya got up with an unkempt head of hair, Minori reminded him: "Ehmm, Tohya, your hair." Tohya just answered "Ehmm." Without much thought. "Should we eat?" "Let's eat." Tohya moved slowly out of bed, Rundelhous beside him was also awake. He seemed to still be dreaming and says: "Morning Miss Minori... you are as beautiful as the sun as well." After this baffling greeting he staggered towards the tent entrance. "Rundelhous-san, it is raining outside!" Minori warned him, but he mumbled: "I am just changing my face and washing clothes" as he left. Serara came back just as the tent flaps closed. Minori didn't notice when she went out, and Serara happily placed some fruits beside the sandwich tray. (Seemed like she spent the morning with Nyanta. A morning date?) With Serara's help, Minori poured the soup into bowls. The reheated soup gave off the fragrance of clam chowder soup and seemed to be delicious. "Of course, it is top quality!" The cheerful Serara said, she probably tested the taste with Nyanta. Minori thought it was indeed delicious with the corn and crab meat mixed in.
"Wooo..." Minori pulled up Isuzu who was lying down like a caterpillar. Minori took a comb out of her bag, as Serara said "leave this to me" and took the utensils. It was still drizzling outside. The party enjoyed their breakfast in the cool weather. Lying face-down, only the top half of Isuzu's body was out of the sleeping bag, and Minori was combing her hair behind her. Isuzu's hair was hard to manage and she herself complained about being so unfeminine. But Minori thought her light brown braid suited her well. "This is nice." Tohya commented softly, wearing a T-shirt and shorts and sitting with his legs crossed on his sleeping bag. This shouldn't be a sight to show the ladies, but it was given a pa.s.s with the training camp as an excuse. Rundelhous said when returning: "Hey, the breakfast is so fragrant and wonderful today as well, don't you think so?" He had a refreshing air about him, fixing up his appearance in such a short time to return to his usual pace. Isuzu, whose lower half was still in the sleeping bag, told him: "Rudy, this is delicious." and handed him a sandwich. (Rudy?) Rundelhous took the sandwich obediently, took a bite and said: "Woah, this is pumpkin salad right, such a delicacy." (He sounded so well mannered, he must have been from a high-cla.s.s family.) The group ate their breakfast amiably. The gentle sound of the rain soothed the fl.u.s.tered hearts of the group. When the group remembered that they had to challenge the dungeon later, their hearts became heavy, and they lost their chatting mood. They packed the leftover sandwiches into a basket for lunch, the 3 sandwich flavors were the sincere products of Nyanta, Minori's favorite was the fruit omelet sandwich. There were fruits left on the platter, but everyone was holding their soup cup and sighing. They were all in a blank mental state after a full meal.
"That..." Tohya said in this heavy atmosphere. "Do you want more soup?" Serara asked Tohya, with her eyes on the pot. "No... it's not about the soup." Tohya said, choosing his words. With the gazes on him, Tohya repeatedly opened his mouth and hesitated, he probably could not find the correct words to express himself. Tohya was bad with words and hesitated like this a lot, a sight Minori was familiar with. Minori immediately understood what Tohya wanted to do when their eyes met. Tohya wanted to break the current situation by encouraging the group. Was the brother trying to protect his sister and become a target for the group? Minori could see this happening. Since Tohya was set on proposing an idea, Minori had to tag along. (No, this is something I should have done.) '... Listen, if you encounter any trouble, remember to move forward. Not your legs, but your hearts.' She remembered the advice Naotsugu gave a few days ago. To move forward with your heart, Minori felt that she finally understood the meaning behind these words, that was to have courage. Courage didn't mean not backing down from a fight, but the will to overcome the fear in your heart. Minori realized the thing that had stopped because of fear was her heart. Because of this, she said with determination, "Everyone, shall we challenge the dungeon in the afternoon today?" 6 "Ah?" Isuzu made a sound in astonishment. "What are you saying Miss Minori! We are here for training right? The priority of the lesson should be to head into the dungeon as soon as possible and acc.u.mulate EXP to level up, correct?" Rundelhous retorted with a strong att.i.tude. "But we can only challenge it once a day, and we left before 3 hours yesterday and the day before, right? If that is the case, we will achieve the same results if we enter in the afternoon, right?" "You... You have a point, but we can't stay like this forever." Rundelhous said fretfully, he seemed unable to accept this. "It is because we can't stay like this forever." "Minori-chan?" Serara sounded worried, probably thinking that Minori would have a fight with Rundelhous. Minori felt her pleas to not be too heavy-handed. "So, for this whole morning..." Minori's words made Serara and Tohya tense up. "Let's kill time together lazily." But the tension was shattered by the 2nd half of Minori's words. "Miss Minori, are you joking?" Rundelhous sat up straight, a hint of anger in his voice. His character aside, his blonde hair and handsome face was intimidating when he was angry, Minori shrank a bit in her heart. But Isuzu was not afraid of Rundelhous at all and said casually: "Rudy, calm down." to ease his anger. Isuzu was good at observing the mood, and she might even be too conscious of it sometimes. So her actions confounded Minori, she was not afraid of Rundelhous at all. "Describing it as killing time lazily might be pushing it too much, but I feel that we should introduce ourselves." Minori chose her words carefully and continued talking to her party members. "My name is Minori, level 21, 14 years old, belonging to the human race in this world. I am the sister of Tohya here, I have the lowest level in the group. I am sorry for being a burden to this party." Rundelhous snorted lightly at her speech, but Minori didn't mind. No, it should be she could not mind. "My cla.s.s is Kannagi, one of the three healing cla.s.s." "We know." "No, you don't." Rundelhous attempted to break her flow, but Minori retorted with a serious look. "You don't know about me, and I don't know much about you all too. What do you like, what do you hate. Do you prefer to be in the spotlight or to keep a low profile, I don't know anything. And because I don't know, even if I want to help... I don't know where to start." "..." Serara was totally shaken and tensed up. She had never seen Minori reject someone's words so strongly, only Tohya was not alarmed. Unexpectedly Isuzu was surprised but had a gentle smile on her face. "Please tell me everything about yourself. I am weak, if I don't listen and remember it all, I won't be able to support everyone." "What do you mean by everything?" Serara asked hesitantly. "Everything literally. For instance, what is that fireball Rundelhous-san conjures?" "That is a lava ball, an Orb of Lava as it is named." Rundelhous replied casually. "Saying it like this is the same as telling us nothing... For example, why do you use this magic but not other spells? You know a variety of attack spells, correct?" "Because this spell is effective." "Why is it effective?" Minori pressed him. Rundelhous collected his thoughts and answered. "Among the spells I know, this is one of the more powerful ones. Not only that, it has a short cast time of 2 seconds and a pretty good re-cast time of 18 seconds. This is a good balance, allowing me to cast this spell every 20 seconds. It is not very rapid, but once every 20 seconds means I can cast this spell several times in a battle. Furthermore, even though this is a group attack magic, it takes the form of a small ball of lava weaving through the enemies, so it won't hit Tohya who is guarding the front. It is an excellent spell." Minori listened carefully and nodded at his words. "Wait a minute, the Samurai's taunt has a short range, and its cast time is 1.5 seconds," Tohya said with a confused look. "What do you mean?" "It means that as I am moving towards the enemy, I will invoke the skill Samurai Challenge to taunt them. Although it does no damage, it appears to them as though they were hit hard, and they will focus all their aggression on me." Serara also looked lost. She understood the words, but not the underlying concept behind the other cla.s.ses, this was the first time she heard about these skills. "Hmm..." Rundelhous displayed his excellent comprehension skill. This was a necessary knowledge. If the monsters focused their attacks on the damage dealers, they would want to divert their attention away with a bigger threat, which meant stronger attacks. But to endure the attacks from them, the vanguard would need high HP and defense. Tohya was a tank specializing in taking enemies' attacks with his high defense. He was strong in defense, but Rundelhous was twice as strong in terms of attack power. To overcome this, tanks needed to learn skills that could hold the enemies' aggression despite having low attack power. Excellent tanks must have these skills to focus the enemies' attention on them. These types of skills were known collectively as taunts. It caused low but painful damage to them, burning the impression that the tank was the hated enemy into their minds. "Even though all warrior cla.s.ses have taunt skills, each cla.s.s has their own unique taunts. The range of the taunt is very short for Samurai, about 3 meters. It is about melee range where you can hit the enemy directly, and you need to lure them this close before invoking the taunt. It takes about 2 seconds between casting the skill and it hitting the enemy." Isuzu listened to the discussion with a blank face, the contents were complicated. "In short, the cast time of Orb of Lava and Samurai Challenge is about the same, but Orb of Lava has a much bigger range. If both spells are cast when the enemy is within their casting range, Orb of Lava will hit first, and the skeletons will target Rundelhous-san." That was the conclusion. The taunt skill that Tohya was using was not effective in the battle. If the enemy used ranged attacks, it would be outside of his taunting range. The ranged attack of Rundelhous would draw the enemies' attention before the taunt hit anyway.
"If that is the case, it means I should not use Orb of Lava?" "No, just hold on for 2 seconds before casting it." "Doesn't that mean we will be wasting 2 seconds? In an elegant battle, a delay of 2 seconds can lead to a fatal hit." Tohya and Rundelhous continued to argue, and they were getting louder, although not to the extent of a fight. There seemed to be steam coming out of them. "... Maybe... There is a reason for the Coward's Fugue to exist?" Isuzu interrupted them hesitantly. "Isuzu-neechan, what is that?" Tohya asked with a confused expression. Rundelhous said: "It seems like something to do with weaklings, Miss Isuzu, is that a skill?" "Coward's Fugue is a song I just learned, a permanent status buff song. A permanent status buff song will last indefinitely after casting it once, although I can only sing 2 songs at any point of time. As for the Coward's Fugue... It can be used to disguise the damage of party members other than warriors to look insignificant." "There is such a skill?" "Is that true?" Tohya and Rundelhous shouted in surprise. They knew Bards had a large variety of support skills, but they did not expect them to have such a skill. "Woo woo hoo... There is, this skill exists," Isuzu was intimidated by their pa.s.sion and backed away. She didn't understand why they were pressuring her. "But this skill doesn't increase damage, evasion, or heal, I always thought that this was a useless skill." This was normal. Minori was the same. If someone told her there was a skill that 'disguised the damage of party members other than warriors to look insignificant', she would think it was a pointless skill. But now they knew this, it was a step forward. "We need to know more about each other." "Miss Minori, I must apologize. I see now that I am ignorant and shallow." Rundelhous bowed and apologized without hesitation. "No, I also did not know about these. Rundelhous-san, please tell us about all the spells you have. Not only the name and effect, but also what you like or hate about it. Or when is the appropriate time to use it, or when you prefer to use it, please tell us everything." "Everything... Miss Minori, it will take quite a while alright?" "Please take your time, I will ask you about it if there is anything I don't understand."
It was raining outside, but the group could no longer hear its sound. What they could do, what they could not do. What they were good at, what they were bad at.   Minori's group kept discussing until it was noon.