Chapter 324: Think of Sorrow
H O B B Y E X P L O S I O N
Sunraku: So did you guys manage to clear Ctarnidd or what?
Akitsu Akane: Ah, I was curious about that too!
Arthur Pencilgon: Cleared it~
Arthur Pencilgon: About eight times I wanted to punch Sunraku-kun for holding out on info, but well, yeah, going in knowing the trick might actually ruin the fun
Arthur Pencilgon: It's everyone else's first Unique, right? Everyone was so tense… stopping them from charging the delusion forms was a real pain…
Arthur Pencilgon: Ending the scenario the instant you win is just cruel, that thing
Rust: But you won, so isn't that fine?
Arthur Pencilgon: Got wiped by some weird orca, zombie panic chain reaction, the exhaustion from the process outweighs the victory afterglow—!!
Sunraku: Wait, you're telling me you couldn't first-try Atlanticus Lepnorca!?
Sunraku: Are—you—seriousssssssssssssssssss!?!?
Arthur Pencilgon: I didn't sell my soul to the seafood section like Mr. Face-Fish over there~
Sunraku: You wanna go?
Arthur Pencilgon: Wanna hear about how Katzo-kun, after a sex change, had zero visual change but a rod just sprouted?
Sunraku: Hold on, I'm gonna get popcorn. And cola.
Mold: This person is fully settling in to listen…
Sunraku: So what about Katzo-kun, who even got declared a bottom by Ctarnidd? I'm doing a new Unique Scenario right now by the way
Sunraku: Doing! It!! But!!!
Oikatzo: That report settled it. I'm telling them.
Sunraku: Wait
Sunraku: Wait, Oikatzo-san, let's talk this through, okay?
Sunraku: The clear line between humans and beasts is that we can resolve things indirectly through conversation, you know?
Oikatzo: Primal rage feels pretty beast-like to me
Arthur Pencilgon: Oh!? Is this stray bullet about to hit me too!?
Psyger-0: What is this about, I wonder?
Rust: I'll go buy popcorn and cola
Mold: Ugly cannibalism…
Sunraku: The never-fail story!! Pendrillgon, who punched through the textures in a tailspin and—!!
Arthur Pencilgon: Chimera Katzo-kun, who fully fused with a chubby old man and—!!
Oikatzo: Sunraku Rocket, who got sonic-blasted to the rendering-limit altitude with attack effects shooting out his ass—!!
Mold: Nnnggghhfh
Rust: This is a three-day course.
They had apparently managed to clear it. While turning over in my mind how to dispose of Oikatzo in secret—silence him—I logged in. One day left until that royal rescue operation. That's exactly why… Unique Scenario time.
Sunraku: "Gotta say, it's genuinely a little moving when you find connections in the weirdest places…"
Normally, I probably shouldn't be doing this. Escort missions are a long game by rule of thumb—the player is the guide, and sometimes the wall, protecting the escort target. And given that my build as a wall offers about as much defense as a paper screen, I'm already restricted from the get-go. When push comes to shove, I've got to consider a last resort. Need to restock items, prep weapons with a long fight in mind.
But none of that matters right now. If I've got the time and something interesting pops up, why not put that first? They say regret comes too late, but diving headfirst into a regret you can see coming is part of life. I mean, come on… you're curious too, right? A love story between a punishment monster and a rare monster—who wouldn't be?
Unique Scenario: "Love Brings Sorrow, and Sorrow Brings Death."
The trigger conditions are probably owning True Quiet's weapon, Noble Cysilence, and General Dullahan's weapon, the Flame General's Decapitation Blade. And then… this is just a guess, but there also has to be someone with a certain level of knowledge about weapons—a blacksmith with the Master Craftsman job or higher.
In fact, when this Unique triggered for me, it was exactly the moment I casually showed the Noble Cysilence to Bilac. When she suddenly said, "This scythe… is searchin' for someone? Oi, you, bring out that greatsword from back then," I froze for a second having no clue what she meant.
From there, it was event progression. She said, "This scythe and sword have a strong bond," "This bond ain't no half-hearted thing," "If ya want to know what comes next, the owner of this sword… General Dullahan might be some kind of clue."
I laughed a little at how it was so obviously set up to say "go contact General Dullahan and raise a flag." But stepping on a landmine you've spotted is what they call style. So I came to Eighthold. And—rare as it is—instead of my friend's house at Crystal Nest Cliff, I set foot into the undead world spreading out below it…
Sunraku: "Hah? You wanna go, you bastards? You think a bunch of calcium like you can take me on?"
I ain't got time to deal with you. Shoo, shoo. Now then, where the hell is General Dullahan…?
Two hours later.
Sunraku: "Not here!"
Is it shitty RNG!? Or an event flag!? Agh, damn it, with no strategy info I've got no choice but to figure it out myself!! Okay, first: nail down the background. That's ironclad. The summary is something like, "The True Quiet weapon and the General Dullahan weapon are reacting somehow, so can you go investigate?" The characters involved are, needless to say, True Quiet and General Dullahan. Judging by the weapon descriptions for R.I.P. and Noble Cysilence, and by the decapitation-blade descriptions tied to the Flame General and General Dullahan, this is about a knight and his wife who lived in an ancient age somewhere between the Divine Era and the modern age. Seems like the king and princess of the time pulled some kind of romantic crap and a tragedy happened… Man, Iwamaki-san, the romance in this game is garbage too, huh. Well, whatever. What I do know is: "The Black Knight lost his head and wandered," and "The wife went mad and became a heavenly spirit." What is this, a bad ending? Wait, there's a branching route I can still take from this situation!?
Sunraku: "Where's the flag…? The top candidate is an encounter with General Dullahan…"
Well, making direct contact with a character involved is the safe bet… but wait. Direct contact with the character involved?
Sunraku: "…………"
A moment's hesitation. The chart itself is simple, but if I do that, a demerit hits me too. It'll affect the main Unique Scenario I'm progressing, so it's a drawback I can't ignore… but just then, the Iwamaki-san in my mind (image) gave a soft, knowing smile.
Iwamaki-san (image): ("…Do not lose your way in love, young man!")
No, the one doing love or whatever isn't me, it's the punishment reaper and the rage-fueled Dullahan. Still, my heart's made up. If it were those two bastards who'd suggested this, I'd be punching them in my mind, but if Iwamaki-san (image) says so, then let's do this.
Sunraku: "Whoops, first, change gear…"
I deck myself out in the Gourikitetsu Series—armor with no special effects, pure defense. Holy Grail in my right hand, black crystal in my left… Shall I strike a bit of a pose?
Sunraku: "Transform!! Just kidding."
That player was named Mia. A gentle soul not cut out for rough stuff, not the type to enjoy stepping over others for personal gain… basically a person unsuited for the hack-and-slash category. But she started SLF because her living situation meant she couldn't keep a pet, and a guy she'd recently gotten close to recommended it as "a hack-and-slash with more realism than half-baked sims."
Buddy Monsters—whose importance has recently been reconfirmed as the precursor to Tamer—are topped in popularity by the cat-themed Buddy Cat and the dog-themed Buddy Dog. Together with her Buddy Dog, Kuritaro, Mia advanced not quickly but steadily, and decided to challenge the Canyon of the Ancient Souls because "at least with bones and zombies, I feel less hesitation about attacking them." As an aside, Mia… Suda Mia, has a weakness for horror movies.
Mia: "Ugh… I'm just scouting today… Kuritaro, let's beat a few weak monsters and go right back, okay…?"
Kuritaro: "Woof!"
Mia wasn't planning to clear the Canyon of the Ancient Souls with just Kuritaro—essentially solo. Since Reiji, who'd invited her to SLF, was on the New Land, and since she'd boldly declared to Reiji, "Next time we meet, I might be a Tamer!", she felt she had to move forward on her own. Forming a pickup party along the way was fair game, but her adorable little scheme was to have tamed some cool monster besides Kuritaro by the next time they met and then show it off with a smug look. However… advancing timidly while using holy water on herself and Kuritaro for miasma protection, Mia began to notice something off, perhaps as she gradually got used to the fear.
Mia: "There are… no monsters?"
She intended to actually tackle the area by recruiting a random party, and this attempt was purely for the purpose of "getting used to the horror-type monsters that appear in this area." With Firstia and Thirdrema packed with hordes of new players, and the New Land and Fifticia drawing the high-level players pushing into new frontiers, the areas caught between them had fallen into a kind of artificial depopulation. There shouldn't have been zero monsters…
And then it happened. Right after Kuritaro stepped in front of Mia and growled, something fell from the sky with an explosive impact, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and miasma.
Mia: "Wh-What… Eek!?"
Rattle-rattle-rattle. The monster shook a throat that no longer existed, its bones clattering hollowly in its place. Its name: Skeleton Wyvern. Mia had no way of knowing, but this was the sorry end of a wyvern that had, full of itself, landed on Crystal Nest Cliff, gotten absolutely thrashed by the Crystal Scorpions reacting to the impact, and been dumped into the valley.
Mia: "K-Kuritaro… no! This is impossible! Let's run! Kuritaro!!"
Mia's stats were the classic all-rounder-jack-of-all-trades: "Wanted to use magic so I raised MP, but ended up half-baked after listening to too many people's advice." Paired with a Buddy Dog that, as combat strength, could barely manage to draw aggro, she was no match for this enemy. The Skeleton Wyvern had no long-range attacks like breath weapons, but it had gained agility by discarding muscle and entrails, and its main tactic was charging with a mass still more than enough to send a person flying even reduced to a skeleton.
Having fled all the way here… the Skeleton Wyvern switched its aggro. It directed its killing intent at the insolent little mutt that dared growl at it despite its puny size, and at the human looking at it with terrified eyes. Tears welled in Mia's eyes. Still, Kuritaro raised its hackles and growled, determined to protect her.
Mia and Kuritaro didn't know. The Skeleton Wyvern, for just a moment, had forgotten.
Sunraku: "Fufufu-hahahahahahaha…………!!"
What he had been running from. The thing that had slaughtered zombies and skeletons in the depths of the canyon, clad in black lightning, running rampant in every direction, was terror itself——!!
Sunraku: "DIE————!!"
Mia: "Hyk—"
Clad in mourning black, dancing as if slicing through the sky itself. Both arms bore unnaturally massive fists shining gold and silver. Flying in as if dancing through the air, it—he—slammed an iron fist backed by gravity into the Skeleton Wyvern's skull. The Skeleton Wyvern's AI recalled what this was, but too late. Its entire body scattered black miasma and lightning… The avatar of black clouds and thunderstorms delivered the finishing blow, pulverizing the Skeleton Wyvern's skull, shattering its skeletal body into splinters.
Sunraku: "Fuuuuuuuuuuu……………"
Mia: "Ah… ahh…"
Of the horror categories so abundantly produced in the world, there were two types Mia simply couldn't overcome. One was seemingly inexhaustible despair—a horde of zombies and monsters with no hope in sight, the fear that no matter how hard you struggle, sheer numbers will crush you. And the other was the absolute, dominant killer—like a slasher villain who slaughtered characters one by one, certain and unstoppable…
Sunraku: "—Oh my, have we… met somewhere before?"
Mia: "—!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Kuritaro: "KYAUN!?"
The face that turned toward Mia was veiled, impossible to see beneath. But to Mia's terror-clouded eyes, it looked like nothing other than a faceless monster. The voice of a young girl, heard with unnerving clarity, was nothing but a spice to heighten the fear. Displaying an agility beyond her stats, she scooped up Kuritaro and sprinted back the way she'd come with every fiber of her being. This area was impossible—that conviction sinking deep, deep into her heart…
Sunraku: "—Ah, she was with that guy… Reiji, or whatever."
She had nightmares for a week.