Chapter 24 (1/2)

Published

at 20th of June 2019 02:38:24 PM

Chapter 24

We took it rather easy afterwards .

Obviously, we still had to make sure we were ready for the raid in three days .

First, I rendezvoused with Shouko and the others and shared with them everything I had learned so far .

From Alto, I learned where the location for the raid will be . From Romina, everyone got a new set of weapons . Romina also introduced to us someone who’s an armorsmith and we all got new armor too .

Maybe because our mats were from the ocean, we received a lot of blue-colored armor . The mats from birds made our armor nice and fluffy too .

Then, we investigated the special map .

We’ve learned everything that we can from others, but now it’s time for us to see it with our own eyes . So, the four of us set off to do some scouting .

The location was somewhere between the First and the Second .

There used to be a huge wall blocking this area off, but now there’s a path that cut through it .

The Dimension Wave must’ve had something to do with it .

Looking at the map from a distance, we could see the fissure clearly .

But right now, there wasn’t a single monster here, making it easy for us to learn the layout of the area .

It was mostly flat albeit with a few hills scattered about .

There were three paths with two mountains in between each of them . They all seemed to converge towards the tear in the sky .

My guess is that during the raid, the monsters would come from the three paths .

It wouldn’t be surprising if players had to push down each path as well .

There are other reasons to have a special map for the raid as well .

Firstly, there’s a special chat for the particular instance .

Normally, you can only talk to people within screaming distance, aside from the chat function .

But in here, party leaders can communicate with other leaders .

That’s probably why people in both the First and the Second are trying to find people to form parties of 10 .

In any case, there are a lot of people waiting to join in on the raid . An incredible number of weapons, armors, and items are being traded every day in the two cities .

Alto and Romina seem to be caught up in the frenzy too .

I can’t thank them enough for giving me the time and telling me all that they know .

Even though we don’t know exactly how many people are planning to join, I can almost a.s.sure that it’ll be chaotic .

Some of the frontliners were talking about tactics and strategies, but I doubt they’d work very well with the sheer number of people in the fray .

The map itself is pretty wide open though .

That’s all we could glean from the current situation .

I also included my sisters in on my gutting weapon secret but sold the information to Alto and Romina . With that, day two is over .

“It’s the third day today, but there ain’t much going on, eh?”

After we got ourselves all ready for the fight, we came to the map .

There was a blanket of snow on the ground, contrasting the red skies up above .

The black fissure in the sky didn’t change at all though .

Today marks one month since the game has begun, but there was nothing to show of it yet…

“… maybe there’s something somewhere else . ”

“Mayhaps there is more than what meets the eyes . ”

“That is certainly possible, but surely, there would be others who have noticed by now . ”

“I mean, Dimension Wave is literally the name of the game . It can’t possibly be a single-player story quest…”

We kept a careful eye at the fissure for hours, but we began to slowly relax .

I’m not about to force everybody to be alert at all times, but we really didn’t know whether anything would happen or not .

It’s not just us either . There were 12, 13 other parties around us doing the same .

There were some people asleep, so maybe they’ve been here for quite a while .

Roz mentioned that they’ll have someone on guard at all times too .

Some people are really serious about this game .

“Lemme check our stats again . ”

“Okay, sure . ”

I’ve opened everybody’s statuses and equipment screens countless times today .

Doesn’t hurt to check my own status, skills, and items again .

Name/ Kizuna†Exceed

Race/ Spirit

Energy/ 92,360

Mana/ 7,800

Serin/ 46,780

Skills/ Energy Production X, Mana Production VII, Fis.h.i.+ng Mastery IV, Gutting Mastery III, Cleaver III, Speed Gutting III, Naval Combat IV, Trans.m.u.tation I

I gained quite a lot of Energy in the past week thanks to everyone’s help .

The monsters at sea were pretty strong, so it was good farming .

It was rough without Naval Combat, but it got a lot better with it .

Even Shouko said she felt a lot more confident fighting on a boat .

I’m glad she got used to it, but hopefully it won’t affect our land-based battles .

There’s a surprising number of tricky bits to naval combat though .

Well, not that it matters right now since Dimension Wave is over land .

Oh, and right now, I have the least Energy out of the three Spirits in our party while Yamikage has the most .

Her Drain is getting more powerful and efficient so I’m not going to complain, but she uses nothing but Drain . It’s no surprise she has the most Energy out of us .

With Shouko being a former frontliner, she knows how to make the most of her Energy .

Honestly, it seems like I’m gaining the least out of everyone .

Well, even if I had a lot, I’m still using gutting weapons, so I wouldn’t deal too much damage anyway .

Since everybody got new weapons, I’ll be using my Cetus Longsword exclusively .

Maybe because it’s a custom item, it’s still extremely powerful .

All the other gutting weapons are like knives and such, so my longsword is the largest of the cla.s.s .

It should be good for a raid like Dimension Wave .

“It’s probably gonna start sometime today, so go get anything you guys are missing .

“… I’ve gone already . ”

“Aye, and I thrice!”

“Unbelievable, Yamikage . ”

We’re still the same as we were .

Shouko is always so well-prepared, she hasn’t left once .

It’s impressive how organized she is .

Maybe I have too much in my inventory though…

“Just to double-check with you guys, but with such a large raid, we’ll probably lose each other in the crowd . If that happens, just fend for yourself, alright?”

“Aye, aye . ”

Still nothing so far though .

There’s a lot of people waiting for it to start though .

n.o.body knows exactly how difficult it’ll be, but with this many people, surely, we’ll clear it .

Having triple-checked everything, I s.h.i.+fted my gaze towards the fissure again .

Yep . Same old . I couldn’t help but let out a yawn .

“Kizuna, don’t let your guard down . ”

“But nothing’s happening . ”

“That may be true, but something might happen at any time . ”

“You really don’t change, do ya? Oh, that reminds me…”

I might have encountered by her former party the other day .

Their team comp and equipment were definitely good, but something about them rubbed me the wrong way .

In my mind, Shouko was definitely in the right and those self-righteous b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were in the wrong .

I don’t get how they ever hit it off in the first place .