Small Village Tridente Chapter 2

Chapter 2. This “Saysan” seems to be a bit too friendly and has a bit too much in common with our MC.  Suspicious.

Small Village Tridente – Chapter 002

rawr:

June, 2XX7

The World We Create

「U-um… Please be my friend!」

For a moment, she was surprised by my words, but then she suddenly smiled and…

「Fufu, gladly.」

At that moment, for the first time, I was able to make a friend.

「I'm Saaya. And you are?」

「M-ari…… I'm Mari! Please take care of me! Um, for earlier, thank you very much! I'm very sorry for thanking you a bit late! You even used a valuable herb… and also, um, that…」

「Y-you don't have to get so fl.u.s.tered talking that much. Calm down.」

「uwu… I'm sorry… I, I'm not used to talking to people.」

「I see. Ah, then possibly, it wasn't a problem with the voice function…」

My face turned red, and I became fidgety.

「Fufu~ Just like a small animal, how cute.」

「Muu…」

She pet my head, and I felt like flames would fire up from my face.

「M-more importantly, what should we do now? Even though I thought that we would start at a base…」

In a generic online game, players start at a town or a base, right. In online games, when you're not playing, different from an offline game where time completely stops, even if you turn off the game the world always keeps moving.

I think that's why, the first time you play, you start in a safe town or village.

But when I logged in to NW, the place where I started was an empty plain. Saaysan also said the same thing earlier, so I believe that we are in the same situation.

「I also thought that we would start at a base, but it looks like it's different. Perhaps each player's starting point is the real place where they first logged in to NW.」

The real place where you logged in? I wonder what she means?

「And… that means?」

Not understanding what Saaysan said, I tilted my head as I asked her.

「About NW, it seems that it's modeled after the real world's continents. Mari-san, the place where you live, is it somewhere near the sea?」

「I-it's as you say.」

「And nearby, is there a unique aquarium?」

As she said, there is. It's an aquarium with lots of strange creatures.

Even though we've just met, and haven't even properly exchanged info, I wonder why she knows?

But, when I looked at the spot that Saaysan was pointing out on the map, my thoughts finally caught up.

The map is the same as the real world, and the place that she's pointing to on that map right now is close to the neighborhood where I logged in.

「Then, perhaps Saaysan also…」

Saaysan also lives in the neighborhood I live in, she's a person from the same area, is that it?

「That's right, we live nearby in reality. Us meeting here isn't a coincidence, it's most likely inevitable.」

Basically, it's like this.

If you're playing NW for the first time, and you create your character in Tokyo and log in from there, then you would start in the area modeled after Tokyo. And if you create your character and log in from Kyoto, your starting place would become the area modeled after Kyoto.

The starting point is different depending on the area you live in. And so, your starting point is politely made in your neighborhood.

「But, isn't this system rather inconvenient?」

「Eh? Why is that?」

People who live near each other in the real world, it's a system where they would inevitably meet each other. Isn't that idea rather amazing? It would make you think that.

「But then, if a friend lives far away, and you start this game together, wouldn't you start in different places?」

「Ah…」

Someone like me who doesn't have any good friends IRL, didn't think that way.

It really is inconvenient. If I had a friend in Tokyo, the place where I live right now, would be about 150 km apart from Tokyo.

And when you're just starting, I think meeting up with such a distance between you is reckless. And as I was thinking about it…

「Meeting an acquaintance from the UK, would probably be impossible.」

The scale of the distance that I was thinking of was different.

Because j.a.pan is an archipelago, they would have to cross over the sea or they wouldn't be able to see each other.

「Do you have a friend overseas?」

「Yes, my sis is overseas. It's due to my sister's influence that I came to like games.」

「Your sister is abroad? That's amazing.」

A relative living abroad… I wonder if she's a lady from a wealthy household?

I'm a bit curious, but I think that asking about her RL too much isn't good. I swallowed the words that were about to leave my mouth.

「So, what should we do now?」

Moreover, I didn't want to talk about my RL, so I changed the subject.

「Let's see… first, we should look for a town.」

「You're right. I want to get some equipment.」

Both of us were wearing cheap clothing, and we didn't have any weapon-like weapons, so we decided to search for a town to make into our base.

「Then, should we party up?」

「Ah, okay! But, how do we do it?」

This game doesn't have any proper tutorial, so I don't even know how to make a party.

「I wonder where in the commands it is… there's nothing.」

「Um, I'll read the help menu.」

I looked over the help screen after opening it.

It's there!

・Partying Up

You must shake hands with the person you would like to party with for more than 3 seconds and a PT ring will appear.

・The moment two or more people equip a PT ring with the same ID, the party will become official.

・If you want to dismiss the party, please remove the PT ring.

・Furthermore, if you are apart by 10 km or more, the party will be dissolved.

Saaysan quickly held out her hand, I timidly held out my hand, and held Saaysan's hand.

「Please take care of me!」

「Y-yeah! Please take care of me too!」

And then, a ring appeared in the bag.

Party Ring 【ID: 200752】

We both equipped it and checked.

・Party Members

【Saaya】

【Mari】

It looks like the party was created properly.

「Well then, time for adventure~!」

「o-oo~!」

Looking at me as I embarra.s.singly raised my arm a little, Saaysan smiled.

It's a bit embarra.s.sing but, it kinda feels nice… doing something like this.

It's been 15 minutes since we started exploring but, after looking over the place, there are no signs of any towns.

I wonder if Saaysan's and my starting point was far from a town?

While I was thinking about that, I saw two people fighting the mouse-type monster I'd fought earlier.

「Saaysan! That's-」

「Let's try asking them. Excuuuuse meeee! Can we ask sooomethiiiiiing?」

She sure decides and acts fast.

I hid behind Saaysan and followed her.

The people who were fighting were a male and female pair and as the battle ended, they noticed us.

「Sorry for being abrupt, but have you seen any towns?」

「Nope. Actually, we're also looking for towns but, we can't find any at all.」

It seems that this pair also hasn't found any towns yet.

「I wonder if we started at a point far from a town?」

Saaysan's shoulders drooped a little.

Usually, in an RPG you would want to skip the first town to hurry up and start the adventure! And you'd become excited at an unknown field. But, conversely, if you weren't able to find any towns, you would start getting irritated in wanting to find a town.

「Not really. Not being able to find any towns, it's not only in this area.」

What do you mean? Saaysan's expression asked as she stared at the guy.

「Since we couldn't find any towns at all, I took a peek at the boards earlier. And not a single person in the whole world has found any towns at all.」

What does that mean?

NW is a VRMMO that debuted worldwide today.

It seems to have gathered so much attention that there were 40 million people that applied for an exclusive VR set.

I don't know how many exactly, but there should be quite a lot of people that are currently logged in. The map is modeled after the real world, so this earth-based map should be huge.

If there were only a few towns, then I could understand that they would be hard to find.

But with this many people, a whole hour after the service started, not finding any towns is abnormal.

「Did they forget to make towns?」

The woman paired with the man asked.

「Hahaha, if it's like that then the devs are pretty much idiots.」

Contrary to the merry couple, Saaysan was pondering.

I wonder if she's feeling that there are no hints?

I wanted to cheer her up a little, so I tried telling a pointless joke.

「Or maybe, we should just make a town or something? Just kidding… ahahaha.」

As I was laughing at my own words, Saaysan was taken aback and turned her head towards me.

「That's it!」

「Eh?」

「Maybe, this game doesn't have any towns so that the players will make their own?」

Saaysan said with glittering eyes.

「I see. But, how do we make a town?」

「First, we should gather materials…」

Saaysan and the guy bit onto the words 「make a town」 and started a discussion.

「Wait a minute…? Earlier, when I was looking at the boards, I saw that when you level up you can put points into a skill called 【Craft】. Maybe, that's it…」

Saaysan, after hearing that, became excited once again.

「That's interesting! Now that we know that, we should go and level up~!」

「o-oo~!」

The woman that was watching our exchange-

「Are you two friends in real life?」

「We aren't, we just met earlier. Sorry for the late introduction. I'm Saaya, and this girl, she's Mari-san.」

I bowed my head a little.

「I'm Tsurugi, nice to meet ya!」

「I'm Karma ~yon, nice to meet you, little kittens.」(9: Don't expect any yuri from this person, you will be disappointed. And yeah, she speaks with some sort of accent which I don't have any proper experience TLing yet.)

Little kittens…?

「You, what's with… that way of talking?」

Tsurugi-san retorted. It seems that she's not always like this…

「Maa maa, this is a virtual world, after all. Won't a little RPing be fine~ yon.」

「It's good and all, but don't say something weird to a person you just met, okay?」

「How about the two of you? Do you know each other in real life?」

Looking at the friendly exchange between the two, this time Saaysan asked them.

「Yeah, our houses are next to each other. When we logged in at the same time, our starting point was the same.」

「Little kittens, that means your house is also nearby yone~n. Why don't we have tea sometime?」

uwu, I'm bad with people who are pushy like this.

Being invited to tea by a person I just met, it's my first time experiencing it, but I'm really not that happy about it.

「I'd rather not. I really don't want to go with a guy who's. .h.i.tting up girls.」

I also agree.

Hm…? Guy?

「Oh man, I got exposed.」

「Obviously, it would get exposed.」

「You are correct! I'm a guy in real life.」

Said Karmsan.

「E-eeeh~!?」

I didn't notice!!!

I see. During the character creation you can also choose the gender, so it's normal to have a female character inside of NW but be a guy IRL… …So there are things like that, huh?

「Haha, it looks like Mari-chan didn't notice.」

「What!? In that case, I should have pretended to be a woman more!」

「No way, you can't call “that” pretending.」

No matter how much of a VRMMO beginner I am, if I thought about it a little I would understand. But this world is as pretty as the real world, so I got a little careless and forgot that we were avatars.
But more than that, Karmsan, he has such a cute voice.

「Mari-san is innocent and pure. Please don't tease her, geez!」
「Haha, sorry, sorry.」
「B-but the voice is…」
「Recently, the voice changers are really good. It's a must-have item for Nekamas.」(9: I don't know, or I forgot, the english term for nekama, but they're basically males who play as and/or pretend to be girls online.)

I was totally tricked.
The internet is scary.

「Well then, we will level up for a bit. And I'm a bit curious about the crafting skill.」
「Sure, it was fun. Take care of us the next time we meet」
「See you! Lovely kittens!」
「(bows)」

Ignoring the words about kittens, I bowed my head and said goodbye to Tsurugi-san and Karmsan.

「For now, let's search for monsters.」
「Yeah!」

After walking for a little while, we saw a forest, so we decided to search there.
We entered the forest, and picked up herbs and antidote herbs as we moved along.
And then, suddenly, the bush in front of us moved.

「Hiii!」

There's something!?
I quickly shouted–

「Saaysan!」

After she heard me, she moved to stand before me and protect me.
And what appeared there was a meter-long cricket.

「Uwaa…」

As expected, even Saaysan faltered a bit. A huge insect appeared before her, so it can't be helped.
Saaysan a.s.sumed a stance with the tree branch, and slowly closed the distance.
The cricket as well, raised its wariness and readied itself the moment that Saaysan took a stance.

Those figures stood as if they were masters reading each other… even though it's just a tree branch and a cricket.

The first one to move was the cricket. Finding an opening for a moment, it kicked up its hind legs and jumped, soaring high into the skies.

「Dam-」

Saaysan didn't expect an attack from the skies, but she pushed her tree branch upwards.

The tree branch stuck into the cricket as it landed on Saaysan. There was damage but it pressed down on Saaysan, so she couldn't move around.

「Ugh!」

KINGDOUMA ATTACKED → SAAYA RECEIVED 41 DAMAGE

KINGDOUMA ATTACKED → SAAYA RECEIVED 46 DAMAGE

(9: The cricket is kamadouma in romaji, so its localized name would be kingket or king cricket.)

From the crickets attack, her HP is decreasing quickly.

This is bad! I should do something as I am the only one that can move…

I looked around and picked up a fallen tree branch, and so that the cricket doesn't notice, i stealthily moved behind it, and I smashed it consecutively with the tree branch.

MARI ATTACKED → KINGDOUMA RECIEVED 39 DAMAGE

Suddenly being attacked the cricket faltered, and that instant Saaysan slipped out.

「Mari-san, nice!」

「Saaysan hurry up!」

――Hurry up and defeat the cricket!

Because the cricket, it's obviously targeting me now~~~!!

「Leave it to me! After all I will pay it back 99 times fold~!」

It's not really a precise number but, it seems that she was mad. (9: The joke here is that it's usually 100 times fold, hyaku-bai, but in this case it's kyu-ju-kyu-bai. A j.a.panese joke?)

SAAYA ATTACKED → KINGDOUMA RECIEVED 45 DAMAGE

KINGDOUMA ATTACKED → SAAYA RECEIVED 38 DAMAGE

SAAYA ATTACKED → KINGDOUMA RECIEVED 34 DAMAGE

SAAYA DEFEATED KINGDOUMA

Somehow after smashing it many times with the tree branch, the cricket's HP gauge disappeared.

DROPPED ITEMS

【Cricket's Chin】

【Cricket's Legs】

LEVEL UP

【Saaya】 LV1 →2

【Mari】 LV1 →2

10 Skill Points obtained

「So, this is the skill point.」

From looking at it, there are quite a lot to select from. More than 100?

Obviously orthodox skills like stealth, attack speed, clairvoyance, teleportation. There are also a few unique sounding skills.

I didn't think of my build yet, so I'm quite troubled over what to select.

「Saaysan, what are going to select?」

「First, 1 to crafting. I'm curious about it after all!」

Saaysan put a point in Craft and then, Smithing, Sewing, Woodworks, Construction… and many other selections got unlocked.

「So it's a system that branches here, and you put points in each of the skills.」

Saaysan chose Smithing, Woodworks, and Construction.

「Ah, looks like we can make a weapon with what we have now!」

The items that we have right now aren't much, right…?

I'd like to refrain from something like a cricket type sword.

「If you process the tree branch, it looks like it will become a wooden sword.」

She pressed the ok b.u.t.ton in the craft screen of the wooden sword.

And then, the tree branch changed shape, and became a wooden sword shape.

「Oooh…!」

Finally we got a weapon like weapon in this game, and got a bit excited.

「Mari-san lend me your tree branch. I'll make one for you.」

Saying that she received the tree branch from me, and made a wooden sword for me.

「Ok, here you go.」

「Waaah! Thank you very much!」

I received a wooden sword, and immediately starting swinging it.

「How nostalgic. I think I bought one during the field trip in elementary school. It's already been 3 years since then. This year's field trip, I should buy a better one.」

「Ahaha, you're right.」

I reflexively replied, that's why I noticed.

A field trip this year means third year middle schooler.

Saaysan, who I thought was older, is still in middle school.

The same grade as me――

Chapter 2 END

G.o.ddess bless.