Chapter 144: Limit Limit March
At any rate, I need information. To flesh out a strategy wiki, the best approach is to charge in expecting to respawn—but that's not an option right now. I have to gather as much intel as possible and at least get a rough outline of the enemy. Four towers, one castle, a circular inverted city, mermaids that fly through the air, an inexhaustible supply of fish-men, intelligent fish-men… Every bit of this information is an accent piece coloring a single scenario, a key part of the whole.
Sunraku: "So, with that in mind—first things first. Any ideas for somewhere we can secure as a safe zone?"
Araba: "Th-That part's simple… They rely almost entirely on sight and hearing to detect enemies. So if you put a wall between you—both visually and acoustically—they won't find you unless you do something incredibly stupid."
Sunraku: "I see, so that means…"
It was the opposite all along. There isn't one safe save zone in this city—theoretically, every building in this city functions as a save zone. In short: hide-and-seek. As long as you don't get found, your hiding spot stays safe. Figuring out how to get inside is a separate issue, but if almost the entirety of this vast city—yeah, vast enough that you couldn't fully grasp the whole area without spending a week here—can function as save points, then that makes a lot of things easier.
Araba: "I had heard about them secondhand, you see… so I'd been hiding inside a house. But I slipped up—locked eyes with one through a window—and you saw the state I was in…"
Sunraku: "That's hide-and-seek on a whole new level of dangerous…"
Get found and you're chased by dozens—no, hundreds, since the numbers keep growing—of fish-men. Climb onto a roof and mermaids rain debuffs down on you. This is one hell of a game of tag… Well, the fish-men themselves are manageable if you sprint all-out. That means the key to exploring this city is figuring out how to deal with the mermaids.
Sunraku: "First, we find a base. Until we run into mermaids or fish-men again, I want you to tell me everything you know. Every last scrap."
We spent over ten minutes running, occasionally chased by fish-men, until we finally found a house whose roof had partially collapsed—enough to get inside without the whole thing crumbling. We slipped in and could finally catch our breath.
With the information I'd pried out of Araba, the scenario's overall shape had come into focus to some extent.
First: the NPC named Araba was an entirely different species from those rotten fish-paste bastards and mermaids. When I asked this question, he nearly bit me—but, well, fair enough. If you told a guy on first meeting, "Your face looks like a chimpanzee, so you must be one," you couldn't blame him for throwing a punch. Though in my case, Sunraku's case, that one bite could be a matter of life and death, so I dodged.
Araba belonged to a race known as the Pescorians. The fish-men and mermaids, on the other hand, were apparently fish transformed by the power of the Overlord—that is, Ctarnidd. According to him: "living, non-human fish" are inverted into "undead, no-longer-fish fish-men." Conversely, "dead, non-human fish" are inverted into "living, no-longer-fish mermaids." That kind of forced wordplay-logic actually being made real might be exactly what makes a Unique Monster a Unique Monster. But if that's the case, a certain fact becomes clear.
Sunraku: "If they can turn fish into enemies, then slaughtering them all is effectively impossible… Lots of nasty tricks come to mind, though."
The simplest method to reduce contact with small-fry enemies is "exterminate them until they stop spawning." But if fresh fish from the nearby sea can be instantly transformed into rotten fish-men, then fighting them yields nothing but worn-down equipment and broken bones. At best, maybe drop items. The mermaids dropped an item called "Mermaid Red Meat"… Does this count as cannibalism? Is it okay because it's the lower half? Come to think of it, there might be a white meat version too.
Next: the four towers and the single castle. It was pretty much what I'd guessed—or rather, what the template dictated. The deepest part of the castle was apparently where Ctarnidd of the Abyss, the Overlord of Ruluiath, the Abyssal Capital, lay hidden. And the four towers? Each housed a monster known as a "Blocker."
Araba: "The Overlord of the Abyss didn't drag us all to Ruluiath because he wants to kill us. To him, everything in this city is nothing more than pieces on a game board…"
Sunraku: "Yeah, that's par for the course. Doesn't really bother me."
At least we're not being forced into a battle royale. There are times when party members who've endured hardships together end up in a bloody PvP free-for-all, lured by rewards. I'd been wary of some kind of infighting trigger, but I can probably assume that's less likely now.
The mid-bosses—the Blockers—each possess unique abilities meant to seal away our own powers. As far as Araba knew, one of the Blockers, "Clionaire," could seal away all magic. Clionaire… Clione? Like those sea angels that are surprisingly grotesque up close?
And finally: the monster known as Ctarnidd of the Abyss. Ctarnidd of the Abyss was a transcendent being who reigned from the lightless depths of the sea as Overlord, ruling over all creation. An entity that possessed the power of "Inversion"—to flip the very "reason" of the world inside out, turn it upside down, throw it into chaos, and warp the world itself. That was Ctarnidd.
This city, Ruluiath, had originally been an utterly unremarkable island on the surface. But Ctarnidd's power had twisted the very space containing it, turning "an island upon the sea" into "an island beneath the sea," inverted. The sheer magnitude of that power spoke for itself.
Araba: "Ctarnidd invites people into his dwelling to watch them struggle, to amuse himself in his tedium. The only way to leave here alive is to entertain Ctarnidd."
Sunraku: "Hah! What, should we do a comedy routine in front of the octopus?"
Araba: "Once, there was a man—the only one of the Pescorians ever to escape Ruluiath alive. That man pierced Ctarnidd's left eye… and before he knew it, he'd apparently found his way out."
Sunraku: "Huh… You're awfully well-informed."
Araba: "That man was my grandfather."
Sunraku: "So it runs in the family."
Alright. Time to piece the information together.
First: the final objective of this Bonus Unique Scenario is to fulfill certain conditions against Ctarnidd of the Abyss. Defeating it is probably impossible. How do you kill something that just comes back to life? There has to be some kind of clear condition—like when Lycagon branded me with that "curse (Marking)," or when Rabituza made contact.
Second: before challenging the boss of this scenario, we need to deal with the four Blockers. Ten to one, there's some kind of boss-fight gimmick involved. Otherwise, there's no reason to make four bosses stationary instead of roaming. There has to be a reason for the player to go to them. If it's just a bonus element, I'll cry.
Right then. That settles what needs doing. First, just to be safe, I moved all items into the Inventoria and fully restored my HP, hunger, and other parameters. Incidentally, thanks to Arcanum: The Fool, recovery failed four times. Curse you, RNG.
Sunraku: "Save complete… Alright, I'm heading out for a bit."
Araba: "Where to?"
Sunraku: "My comrades are somewhere in this city. And while I'm at it, I'll look for your weapon too."
Now that I've secured a respawn point, there's nothing left to fear. That means there's only one thing to do.
Sunraku: "A suicide charge, you might say."
Sunraku: "Uwahahahahaha!! I feel like the goddamn Pied Piper of Hamelin!"
A half-naked figure dashed through the monochrome-blue ruins. Behind him, more and more fish-men—by my count, over a hundred—surged forward in a grand parade, all targeting a single human. Looking up, the mermaids' song echoed through the air, and occasionally one would dive at me, arms spread wide as if to embrace me—some kind of attack, maybe.
I won't pretend I felt zero hesitation about kicking away beings modeled as pretty girls or beautiful women. But after about ten of them, I got used to it.
Leading a massive horde that had evolved into a full-blown horror parade, with beautiful singing (hazardous) as my BGM, I just kept running through the city.
Sunraku: "Okay, sure, I deliberately drew all this aggro to stand out, but this spawn rate is insane! Ahahaha!"
Even a horror scenario where zombies chase you turns into a joke when the numbers get this high. I was frantically sprinting, but the mermaids' song was a leisurely slow tempo—so mismatched I couldn't help laughing.
Run, run, run. If every last one of them is chasing me from behind, I don't even need to check. Just face forward, gather intel, search for people, scavenge for items!
Sunraku: "You guys are lacking in momentum! In power! In sheer absurdity! Every last thing!"
Compared to those deranged scorpions that burst out of the ground, instantly summoned reinforcements, and shattered any notion of individual combat strength—this is easy mode. Normally, the mermaids' song would pile on debuffs and lock down your movements, but frustratingly, Lycagon's Contusion repels every curse as well as magic-based buffs and debuffs.
Actually, I'm curious what would happen if they pinpoint-targeted my head or waist. But at least the mermaids' song affects my whole body, not just my ears, so my legs and torso resist it.
The mermaids' upper bodies are lures—like the anglerfish's lantern. And yet, as if to ask why?, a mermaid furrowed her brow like a real human. I drove an uppercut into her chin without a shred of hesitation or mercy.
Just as I thought: fighting the fish-men and mermaids in this scenario is a losing strategy. Having gone through several battles, I could tell. Even before the infinite spawn issue, the effort required to take them down isn't worth the results.
Sunraku: "This scenario… 'advancing while hiding' is the default, isn't it."
If so, what I'm doing right now is the worst of the worst—a stupid plan that draws pointless aggro. But… looked at another way, it also means that at this very moment, I'm the most conspicuous thing in this entire ruined city.
Sunraku: "'Let those far away hear by rumor, and those nearby draw close and see with their own eyes'… or something like that."
Living beings with at least some degree of reason generally fall into two categories when something comes barreling along making a huge racket: they either "investigate" or "run away."
Sunraku: "Sssssss… IS ANYBODY OUT THEEERE?!"
Emul: "ZANRAKU-SAAAAAAN...!!"
Bingo—she answered!! Oh, damn—at the window! At the window!