Vol 2 Chapter 3 (2/2)

s.h.i.+n just threw that question out there while looking at Yuzuha. There had been no young Elemental Tails back in the game, so he was completely clueless in regards to how they grow. Unexpectedly, all this could be happening as a natural part of growing, instead of some quest or something else.

Kuu~ ...... Good morning, Master. Hah?

Having failed to pick up on s.h.i.+ns mental state, Yuzuha yawned widely and gave his greetings like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Wait a minute, Yuzuha. Youre able to speak now? Kuu? I think when the black thing went away, my head cleared up. Black thing?

When s.h.i.+n heard black, the first thing that came to mind was the core of the Skull Face Lord that he had split in half just now. When he thought back, he remembered that he had met Yuzuha amid a sea of Skull Faces too. It somehow did not feel strange to think of the Lord as the head of those Skull Faces too.

The black and round thing inside the bones. The thing that Master cut apart. That sounds like the core of the Skull Face Lord to me.

Apparently, s.h.i.+ns guess had been on the dot. s.h.i.+ns gamer instincts were telling him that there was some connection between Yuzuha and the Lord after all. Either Yuzuha had absorbed some of the Lords power, or some seal on Yuzuha had been released. Unfortunately, with the Lord dead and gone, there was no way to confirm which it was.

For now, youre forbidden from speaking in front of other people. Normal demon foxes cant speak, after all. If its just us, then its fine. This applies only when there are other people around. Nn, can I still speak inside my head? Oh, telepathy? Thats totally fine.

Even if speaking out loud was NG, they still had telepathy, so it wasnt like they had to maintain complete radio silence. Yuzuha seemed to have instinctively understood that it was the more important of the two, so s.h.i.+n nodded immediately.

But s.h.i.+n, with three tails, theres no way it could pa.s.s off as a Little Fox. Can we do something about that? There are some sub-species of demon foxes that have more than one tail, right?

In actuality, there were many different kinds of demon foxes, and indeed there were those with multiple tails. Rather, it could be said that those with a single tail are in the minority. The problem lay elsewhere. All of those demon foxes with multiple tails had a higher level that normal people might consider dangerous. Some examples of demon foxes with three tails included Flame Tails and Tail Leaders, but even the weakest of those were above level 250. In this world, it would be hard to bring such monsters around freely.

Perhaps we could try it pa.s.s it off as it is only a kid? But it would eventually become full-grown. Lets see ............ Hey, Yuzuha. Do you know how to shapes.h.i.+ft, by any chance? Kuu? Some forms I can take, and some forms I cant. Can you make it so you only have one tail? Ea~sy~

So saying, the three tails turned into one tail with a pon.

Ohh! Wonderfully done.

It wasnt an illusion pa.s.sing off three tails as one; there really was only one tail now. It also didnt feel strange.

Is this good? Its perfect. Is it tiring? No problem! In that case, can you make it so that you only have one tail whenever we are in a place where other people can see? It would be really helpful if you could. Un, okay~

Yuzuha easily agreed. It did not seem at all opposed to the subterfuge.

...... That somehow got resolved quite quickly. Yes it did. With this, the secret would no longer be easily exposed.

Schnee also gave her seal of approval. For a split second, it felt to s.h.i.+n like the matter was fully resolved only after Schnees endors.e.m.e.nt.

Yuzuha great? Ou, very great, very great. Kuu~~

Clasping Yuzuha to his chest, he stroked its head for a job well done. Yuzuha basked in the praise.

............ so cute. Nn? Ah! Nothing, that was nothing. ...... Do you want to pet it? Yes please!!

Though she was strong, Schnee was still a girl. She apparently really loves cute things. Yuzuha also looked like it was really enjoying being in her hands.

All things considered, s.h.i.+n, you still continue to surprise me, like you always have. Nn? No one has ever successfully Tamed an Elemental Tail before.

Stopping her hand, Schnee spoke with a tinge of wry resignedness in her voice. In the first place, back in the game the settings did not allow any players to tame Elemental Tails. Schnees surprise was understandable. The reason why there was resignedness mixed in was because she knew all the crazy things that he had done during the game era.

Though you say that, you dont sound very surprised, though. Well, I was surprised for a bit, but then I felt like if anyone could do it, it would be you. And its not the high level version that we fought against in the past anyways. True that. That one was so strong that even Rokuten didnt have the leisure of going easy on it.

s.h.i.+n remembered that fight. Employing magic of all elements and dealing powerful physical attacks with its fangs and claws while moving with an agility that belied its huge body, it was a monster that even players with maxed out stats could not let down their guard against. That was the true form of an Elemental Tail.

Kuu?

The menace of a fully-grown Elemental Tail could not be seen at all from the Yuzuha that was curled up in s.h.i.+ns arms.

Well then, I think it might be about time for us to start running in earnest. Actually, I have some companions whove gone on ahead. They might be raising a fuss. If that is the case, then lets hurry. Looking at the time, we might be able to catch up to them yet.

Considering s.h.i.+n and Schnees movement speed and the fact that Wilhelm was on foot and not riding a horse, they could easily catch up. However, Wilhelms physical capabilities had been boosted by the buff that s.h.i.+n had cast on him earlier. The situation being what it is, Wilhelm and Ras.h.i.+a would probably have gotten quite far away by now. If they manage to reach the Kingdom and tell people about what happened on the Plains, things would get quite troublesome for s.h.i.+n in several different ways.

Lets go at full speed. I really dont want to draw anymore of the Guilds attention. If you had told me this earlier, I would have been fine with waiting to do the explanations later, you know. This and that are two separate matters.

Seeing her make the face that she did, there was no way that he could have asked to do it later. But he couldnt just say that, of course.

Alright, off we go!

After making sure that Yuzuha was comfortably settled on his head, he took off with Schnee by his side. It didnt take long for the two of them to catch up with Wilhelm and Ras.h.i.+a. Soon after the suns face peeked out from beyond the horizon, scattering the last few wisps of morning fog in their way, the two figures ran abreast of each other. s.h.i.+n and Schnee had been running together for about half a day. That was all the time they needed to come into Wilhelms detection range.

Now that youre here, Im going to make you spit out everything. Why do you sound so belligerent even though we just got here?!

Wilhelm had been keeping a sharp eye on the surrounding area while protecting Ras.h.i.+a, who was currently napping. When s.h.i.+n and Schnee arrived, even though they had joined up safely, Wilhelm flared up at s.h.i.+n in a threatening tone almost immediately. Ras.h.i.+a was fast asleep, probably due to fatigue.

Well, pretty much Schnee just showed up and took down the Skull Face Lord by herself. Hmph.

The response to s.h.i.+ns words was an attack with a demon spear. The sound of the attack was not very sharp, but there was still a significant amount of strength behind it.

Dude! Thats dangerous!! After letting off that crazy amount of magical power, the h.e.l.l you pretending like its all someone elses achievement. You probably rampaged all over the place, didnt you? How did you know?! Of course I do!! More like, are you trying to insinuate something by catching up so quickly after sending us off with a freaking flashy move like that? You were pulling your punches? You could afford to pull your punches against something like that, ah? Gimme back the years I lost from desperation, d.a.m.n you! Wait, wait, wait, calm down! Its my bad for making a joke like that but isnt using Venom going a bit too far?!

Though Wilhelm was attacking s.h.i.+n, he was not fully serious, of course. It was more like a rougher sort of playing around. Wilhelm was an A rank adventurer. He fully understood how dangerous the thing that they had met was.

If he fought, he would die.

Even putting aside the fact that Ras.h.i.+a had been there, that was what Wilhelm had felt with every fiber of his being. All the tough spots and dangers that he had been in could not hold a candle to the presence of death in that place. The army of undead had given him the impression that they were ready to march to war against entire countries. In spite of all that. He had been running so desperately to reach the Kingdom and ask for reinforcements, and had decided to take a short break to keep his strength up. When he did so, the person who had supposedly stayed behind to fight actually caught up with himself. He was more than a little concerned with what had happened to the army that had made him so apprehensive. The sudden sense of exhaustion that followed his desperation and the relieve that he felt upon hearing that the entire incident was resolved mixed together uncomfortably in his chest. Therefore, he was using s.h.i.+n to vent off some of the irritation and vexation that he was feeling against the unfairness of the world, thinking that there probably wouldnt be any divine retribution even if he managed to dump off some of these negative feelings onto s.h.i.+n. Needless to say, not a single one of the attacks landed on s.h.i.+n.

Tch. Did you just blatantly click your tongue at me?! It was just a joke, man! A joke my a.s.s. You totally had a I didnt do anything look on your face. Stop s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around and give me a proper explanation.

s.h.i.+n had apparently gone a little too far with the messing around. The loose atmosphere from before dissipated as Wilhelm glared at the two of them.

s.h.i.+n, its about time to get to the main topic.

After watching the exchange between s.h.i.+n and Wilhelm, Schnee stepped forward.

Oh, its you. So, hes the one? Long time no see. It appears that you have fully grasped the situation already. Do you still want further explanation?

Wilhelms words seemed to have some deeper meaning behind them. Clearly, some sort of meaningful exchange had just taken place.

Guys, can you put things in a way that I can understand?

s.h.i.+n had no clue why Wilhelm had been so easily appeased.

Dont you know? The name Schnee Raizar is famous for being someone who never yields, never gets won over, and never kneels, be it to kings or the Pope.

What firmness of character.

Isnt that just a disrespectful person? I will never kneel to anyone other than Master.

He had only knowledge from light novels to go on, but s.h.i.+n felt that it might not be a great idea to take such an att.i.tude with royalty. However, for Schnee, it was a policy that she would never concede on.

Well, in the first place, there isnt anyone who values their life so little as to pick a fight with her. So thats the reason why she gets away with it, huh.

Even if someone wanted to punish Schnee, no one could touch her if she got serious. Of course, that was just the more trivial reason. Both her way of speaking and her att.i.tude is respectful, she lends her strength whenever strong monsters appear, and she maintains a neutral stance by not being affiliated with any faction or organizations these are the real reasons why no one wants to fight her. More like, anyone who wished her harm would get showered with blows from all sides with a What do you think youre doing!!. A powerful ent.i.ty who would lend her strength in times of trouble. The list of achievements that she had built up over 500 years was not merely for show. As a natural consequence of being who she was, many people had approached her in secret to try to convince her to join their camp, but no one has ever succeeded.

I can completely understand why they would want to win her over as an ally. Anyways, for someone like that to be obediently following you, well ...... Ahh, so from that ......

So he had already been seen through. He didnt know how familiar Schnee and Wilhelm were with each other, but when put like that, he understood that anyone could have come to that conclusion.

So youre a high human? And also my Master. For all its worth, yea. Dont you for all its worth me. But if its like that, then I finally understand. That amount of magical power was seriously no joke. Sorry, that was still me holding back. ...... The master of Schnee Raizar, huh. I see, you are much more than I had expected from the stories ...... Oi, then the fox sitting on a high humans head is most likely not a normal fox either, is it?

While shrugging his shoulders with a gimme a break kind of feeling, Wilhelms eyes fell on Yuzuha. Mixed inside his tone was a sense of resignation that had gone beyond surprise. The reason why there was no fear in his voice was most likely because he had gotten to know s.h.i.+n without being influenced by any preconceptions.

Kuu? Yea, its not a Little Fox. Its level just broke 400 after that last battle. ...... I dont even feel surprised anymore.

Wilhelm looked intently at Yuzuha with a sigh. It wasnt that he was not surprised at this little creature being more than level 400, but its just that what he had learned a while ago had been that much more shocking.

So this is why your answer was so vague when I asked whether you were a Chosen One. Yea. In my case, I am much stronger than Chosen Ones, but I didnt start out this strong. There are very few people like me in this world, right? Thats why I decided to just pa.s.s myself off as a Chosen One. I see, I see. But well, if you two are going to move together all the time, then its only a matter of time before other people find out.

What Wilhelm was saying had merit. Schnee and Tsuki no Hokora were famous. If a man was to sudden appear by her side in a seemingly close relations.h.i.+p, those with good ears would start digging around.

I was hoping to deal with it somehow with magical skills. Time can be bought by making good use of illusion magic. I have a feeling that the illusion magic you are thinking of is not exactly the one that I have in mind. Im not going to be surprised even if you transform into a monster. What do you think I am ...... Youre pretty much a walking cataclysm. Dont be strolling around the place, Mr. Oh I Can Raze a Country to the Ground When I Wake Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed. I wouldnt be able to rest easy if I was a lord.

Only when s.h.i.+n retorted with I wont rampage around for no reason did Wilhelm lower himself to the ground. It was not exactly comfortable to both talk while standing up and fix Ras.h.i.+as bedding every once in a while as it slips off, so s.h.i.+n and Schnee urged him to sit down. Ras.h.i.+a was sleeping so soundly that she did not appear affected at all by all the ruckus happening around her. Wilhelm had calmed her down by pointing out that he himself, a high rank adventurer, was around. And on the topic of s.h.i.+n, he had pointed out that someone who could use so much magical power wouldnt go down easily. As she had witnessed firsthand s.h.i.+n using skills, those words were enough to alleviate her worries. Though she had combat experience, she still couldnt tell the difference between power levels, so she didnt actually fully understand the situation.

Speaking of, are there any records about us left behind?

The last time he was at the library, he didnt finish looking everything up, so all he knew was only what Tiera had told him. He was willing to admit that there was most likely a part of himself that had unconsciously steered away from that topic. No one would enjoy looking up their own dark history on their own accord.

To some degree, yea. Well, all I know is that you guys were strong as heck and that each one of you had an ridiculously high proficiency in a different profession. Some people in those professions still treat you guys like G.o.ds. There are still anecdotes and legends of the others being pa.s.sed down. Uweh, that sounds like another annoying thing I have to deal with. But then again, we did start off as a crafting guild, so we would never let anyone surpa.s.s us in our respective fields. Hah? Didnt you guys get bored of being the strongest and then start making things to kill time? That sounds more reasonable. Wilhelm, I havent been training my Cooking skill only to kill time!

So it turns out that indeed some discrepancies had risen from the stories. Though it was true that all members of Rokuten had ridiculously high stats, the main reason why they had gotten together was because of crafting.

Thats wrong. See, even when the levels are the same, humans are the weaker race. In my case, I got into Blacksmithing as a way to make up for that. It was unbelievably hard work to raise my level and my Blacksmithing together at the same time. Most of the time you spent as a beginner was just running away, wasnt it?

s.h.i.+n nodded. At the beginning, he had been so weak that the present him could not even imagine it anymore. The difficulty of purposely raising ones combat level and crafting level at the same pace was something that people without experience in playing online games could not understand. Due to the game system and the level of difficulty being what they were, each profession required a ton of work to master.

No normal person could do that. Those who could were called high players. Well, you could also just call them game addicts. High p- ...... What? Anyways, I kept on making weapons to make it easier to level up. I then equipped those weapons, went out, and defeated strong enemies to level up. I then took the materials dropped by those guys to make even stronger weapons. Then stronger enemies, and so on went the cycle.

The person who had just casually used a word that only players would know was Schnee. As question marks floated above Wilhelms head from hearing a word not of this world, s.h.i.+n matter-of-factly described something that residents of this world could not do. In the first place, this world was not so lenient as to allow someone to make higher tier weapons as easily as s.h.i.+n made it sound. Taking Blacksmithing as an example, crafting skills were slightly easier to level up than attack skills, but THE NEW GATE was not indulgent enough to let any half-hearted player cap anything. Therefore, players made a distinction between combat-oriented guilds and crafting-oriented guilds. Most people who tried to be a part of both at the same time either gave up almost immediately or somewhere in the middle. Almost n.o.body stuck with it to the end. On the system side, most combat-oriented players could only make low level recovery items like Potion X, while a lot of crafting-oriented players had a little bit of experience with fighting. However, most of it was on the level of better than nothing. Rokutens fame was indeed partly due to the members fighting power, but also partly due to their crafting prowess.

I give up. You are what normal people would call an idiot. How rude of you. Do you know about absurd it sounds? No sane person would even think of doing what you did. Probably the only ones who could consider it are the long-lived races likes elves and pixies. Not that they would, though.

Just as Schnee said, only long-lived races like the elves and pixies could consider it in earnest, but neither of those races had any affinity towards Blacksmithing. To residents on this world, the very idea was madness. The only reason why s.h.i.+n had been able to accomplish it was because it had been a game. Using items to boost xp gain and reading Books of Secrets to learn skills, it was his single-minded pursuit of strength that made s.h.i.+n into what he was today. With that said, he had truly poured an enormous amount of time into the game. It was impossible for someone who lives and breathes in this world to imitate what he had done.

Well, its not like we didnt know we were abnormal. Every member of Rokuten was remarkable. If it wasnt for my Blacksmithing, I couldnt even compare to them. Kain could build an entire castle in a day, Cook would prepare and cook dragons, Cashmere would be making monster farms left and right if you took your eyes off her, and Hecate would ma.s.s produce Elixirs and Philosophers Stones like they were low level potions. Leids dolls could even fight toe to toe with holy beasts. s.h.i.+n also forged many holy swords and demon swords, didnt you? And if you didnt like it, you would melt down even Ancient grade swords and reforge them. Filma shrieked when she saw you do that.

Schnee grinned wryly as she reminisced about the past. Indeed, s.h.i.+n had frequently melted down and reforged weapons that he wasnt satisfied with, even if they were Ancient grade or Mythology grade. Incidentally, Filma was number 2 among s.h.i.+ns support characters, and she was a greatsword user. s.h.i.+n finally understood why she had been so despondent for a while.

Each and every one of you sounds like a freaking monster. More like, your specialty was Blacksmithing, huh. Ou. By the way, do you want me to upgrade Venom a little? Screw you.

Wilhelm immediately shut down the s.h.i.+n who was grinning sleazily and laughing like a suspicious merchant. He had no doubts that s.h.i.+n would indeed make Venom better, but the strange way that s.h.i.+n was speaking gave him pause. To be blunt, he was sure beyond a doubt that there was no way s.h.i.+n would stop at a normal upgrade.

When you feel that its not enough for you anymore, just give me the word. Since its you, Ill strengthen it for you at a really low price. Why do you have the look of an unscrupulous merchant, huh?! Oh dont worry about it, its just my Blacksmithing blood coming awake, you see? ............ Okay, okay, I concede that your main profession is definitely a craftsman. Come to think of it, youre making the exact same face those gambling old timers make.

People of the same occupation tend to speak and do things the same way in every world. The faces of the dwarven craftsmen that he had shown Venom to came into Wilhelms mind. What he had seen blazing fiercely in those eyes was a mixture of the innocence of a child who has found a new toy and the fighting spirit of a warrior who has found a worthy adversary. When he took another look at s.h.i.+n, he realized that s.h.i.+n had the same eyes too.

Anyways, dont you dare start showing off your techniques at the smithy. Since its you, youd probably be using mystery somethings or long-lost secret arts to make your weapons. Im not going to do anything flashy like that! I was just thinking that it has been a while since Ive held a hammer in Tsuki no Hokora! If I let you do it, I have no idea whats gonna happen. The craftsmen that helped me were telling stories about Rokutens blacksmith making longswords that could exchange blows with Legend grade weapons.

Originally, the performance ability between Normal grade and Legend grade weapons was so great that even if you bunched up a lot of Normal grade ones together, a single blow from a Legend grade would shatter them all. Of course, Wilhelm was not gullible enough to believe those stories.

Oh come on, thats a bit ...... wait a second. Wasnt there that experiment where we tried to find out how far we could enhance a Normal grade weapon? Oi ...... thats a joke, right?

When Wilhelm was about to say that it really was impossible after all, s.h.i.+n closed his eyes like he was trying to remember something. If the story just now was truth, it would shatter the common sense of Blacksmithing. Thats why Wilhelm had been so sure that it was just exaggeration. But the sight of s.h.i.+n wracking his brains started to erode his confidence.

Are you perhaps referring to the experiment suggested by Leid-sama and Hecate-sama? Oh right! So that no one could ever complain again about low quality materials, we took a random piece of iron and slapped every enchantment we could onto it. Then we used the best facilities that we could find to forge it into a longsword. Well, after that we accidentally placed it onto the shelf in the store and someone bought it. He was so shocked that he came back and asked us about it afterwards. ...... What the h.e.l.l.

Incidentally, the person who had bought the sword had intended it as a gift to another beginner player. Later, he discovered the other guy one-shotting monsters that were supposed to be out of his league. The one who received the present just thought that the monsters were weak. The player who had bought the present did not check the stats when he bought it, thinking that it was a normal longsword.

That time, everyone was so shocked at what we had managed to do. But then again, it really was just made of iron, so its durability was really low. We made several of them and tested them against actual Legend grade longswords, and they only lasted 10 or 20 blows. Please listen to your own words and realize how crazy you sound.

Realizing that s.h.i.+n was a prime example of someone who does not understand common sense, Wilhelm pressed a hand to his head. Blacksmithing was not so lenient that the grade of the weapons could be decided solely by the blacksmiths skill. But so what. Even though it was common sense for a Normal grade sword to shatter immediately when exchanging blows with a Legend grade sword, s.h.i.+n had made several ones that could last around 20 blows. Thinking of the chaos that would happen if swords like that were to start circulating around in the market, Wilhelm could not help but let out a huge sigh.

Okay, okay, I get it, I fully get it now. I have no more doubts about you being a high human. What I know to be common sense is now lying at my feet in shreds, all thanks to you. Hes my Master, after all. He cant be bound by todays common sense. Ku~ku~! It wasnt a compliment!

Wilhelm retorted at the Schnee who was looking really proud for some reason and the Yuzuha who was nodding approvingly. He was likely still a bit shaken, as he failed to notice that Yuzuha was responding like as if it could actually understand the conversation going on. As for Schnee, she was looking so proud because of how widespread this legend about s.h.i.+n was.

Nn......Nnnn?

Just as Wilhelm was thinking Oh man, these guys are hopeless and letting out another sigh, Ras.h.i.+a, who had been sleeping at his side, woke up. They had apparently been making a little too much noise. It must have been hard to continue sleeping.

Eh ...... s.h.i.+n ... -san? Yo. Ah, good morn- ...... Wait, no, why are you here?!

She was still half-asleep, but when she saw who was sitting in front of her, she unconsciously shouted in surprise. He was supposed to have stayed behind after helping them escape that crowd of monsters, but her eyes were telling her that he was here. And Yuzuha was still riding on his head as usual.

Things somehow worked out. Eh ...... ?

Ras.h.i.+a looked towards Wilhelm for help, as if she was asking What is he saying?. Her eyes were filled with disbelief. Wilhelm caught the glance and returned it.

He said that someone who just happened to pa.s.s by helped him out.

Wilhelms gaze s.h.i.+fted to s.h.i.+n and Schnee as he explained. His eyes were saying We cant tell her. With a barely perceptible nod, s.h.i.+n also agreed to keep the fact that he was a high human concealed from Ras.h.i.+a. Different from Wilhelm and some royals who were acquainted with Schnee, Ras.h.i.+a was not familiar enough with her to deduce s.h.i.+ns ident.i.ty through Schnees att.i.tude. It wasnt really a problem for s.h.i.+n if she found out, but she might come into danger for possessing valuable information. There was no guarantee that a possible information leak in the future would not drag her into trouble. Therefore, the three of them decided to pa.s.s it off as Schnee just pa.s.sing by. As for Wilhelm, Schnee was the one who had given him his letter of introduction, so she already knew that she could trust him.

Nice to meet you. My name is Schnee Raizar. I have the honor of serving as the Acting Manager of Tsuki no Hokora. Thank you for the courteous introduction. My name is Ras.h.i.+a Luzel. I ............ Excuse me, what did you just say?

Ras.h.i.+a asked Schnee to repeat herself, looking like she had heard something unbelievable. Of course, it wasnt that she had misheard. It was simply that she could not believe what she had heard.

She said shes Schnee Raizar. You know of her too, right? Shesthatone. ............Thatone? Yea,thatone. Why does it sound like you two are making fun of me?

Being called that one so many times in a row made her sound like some weird person, for some inexplicable reason. In this case, it was being used with a positive connotation, though.

Dont worry about the details. Oi, dont