Chapter 36 “Start of the expedition.”

And so, the luck of draw tournament has ended and the victor was Rin. Shin was not really surprised by this result as he knew very well how strong she is or rather, he knew very well how at least strong she is. Today once again the bottom limit had moved up once again as even he did not expect this much. His skill “full course control” with combination of 6 people was completely broken. Shin could only image how far Rin’s actual power went but right now, it was not a concern of his as this time, she was on his side.

“Now I am sure that having those three will definitely increase our chances of survival in the west, although, I still do think it will end up the same way.”

Shin was now walking the streets of Larisane which he knew quite well. He was actually coming here quite often. The reason for his visits was quite simple. It was to meet this village’s current elder Hikari.

Hikari was a girl, whom Shin meet really long time ago. It was even before meeting anyone else from his current party. That also involved Musashi, Vatras and Bran with whom he originally created this party to begin with. The party started it’s activity when Shin first arrived at Karma and meet the other three. At that time, Musashi and Vatras were already playing together, so one may even say that the original founders were those two but somehow everyone was calling him and Bran a founder as well. It had some logic in it as two people are not a party yet but rather a duo.

Still even though Shin met those three the first time he arrived in Karma, he met Hikari even before that.

Shin still remembered that moment. It was the time when he finished 100th level barrier.

After failing miserably on the second part of it, Shin ended up dying and losing 10 levels. When next time he logged back, he was in some old grove that trees looked like they lived for a thousand years by now. Their leaves were dark green in color. The wind was moving them in the air which actually make those gigantic trees seem like they were about to move.

In the middle of that grove Shin spotted a crying child with quite unique hair. They were in both colors of gold and silver. That child was Hikari.

“

“Ah, I am really not good with kids but I can’t just leave a crying child in the middle of ‘gods knows where’.”

Those were the first thoughts that Shin had after logging back. Last time he finally successfully managed to complete the 100th level barrier. After many tries and failures, finally with some luck he withstood all 20 waves of enemies. But then something unexpected accrued. Even though the messages said that he completed the challenge and got to level 100th, there was additional challenge that he could take right afterwards. Someone as curious as Shin would not pass on something like that so he decided to try the second challenge as well.

It was one of the fastest deaths Shin had so far but he did not regret this decision and losing those 10 levels was nothing bad. It happened to him many times already. He would rather regret if he did not try.

Now once again with level 90 he appeared in completely unknown to him lands the only thing he could see were gigantic trees and a crying child. Shin focused on the second one.

There was no one that would look like a parent or a guardian of that child, so Shin assumed that it was all right for him to at least talk to it. From where he saw it, this child got lost and was now crying because it didn’t know what to do.

-are you lost? If so, maybe I can help you find the way.

After walking up towards it, Shin said to the child those words with awkward voice. He really was bad at dealing with kids of that age. The child’s age Shin judged to be around eleven or twelve.

Shin’s words did not give any effect and the child kept on crying, with no better ideas Shin decided to touch child’s arm and at least stop it from crying.

-crying never solves any problems, you should rather…-

-stay away!

The moment Shin touched child’s arm, the child which turned out to be a girl shouted those words and swung her arm in his direction. In that moment, Shin felt an incredible invisible force that pushed him away. After being pushed away with great speed, Shin ended up stopping on one of the gigantic trees. When he hit it, the blood came out from his mouth and he fallen to the ground with few ribs broken.

“In this game even coming close to a crying child is dangerous… auch.”

Shin was already used to getting hit, being cut by swords or being set on fire by some magic but that didn’t meant that it stopped hurting him.

-you shouldn’t have come! You shouldn’t have!

The girl who was now standing, kept on repeating those words. Shin could see however that something strange was happening around her. The grass nearby her started to separate from the ground and flying around her.

“Hmm, it seems like I will die in a second… ah back to level 81 once again.”

Shin quickly judged the situation. With his current condition, running away would be hard. No, he judged that even in perfect condition running away would be nearly impossible. Because he had magical profession, “Rune master” to be exact, he could feel the magical power and somewhat grasp how strong it was. Although this time even a blind person would probably recognize that the powerful spell will be coming soon. The golden ball of magical energy started to form around the small girl. That ball looked powerful but at the same time, it was swirling in random directions and it was not keeping its round shape.

-aaaaaaaaaa!

The girl started screaming while the occurrence started to happen.

“Wait! Will this be an unstable explosion?”

Unlike most other players who were simply fighting their enemies to get experience, new levels and items, people with magical profession also needed to study magic in order to improve it. Otherwise they would be stuck with the basis spells and never improve. Shin was especially good in theory, little less good in practice but still he could easily recognize an unstable spell that was going to get out of user control in a second.

“I have to do something!”

When his life was on the line, Shin was not really concerned. He was already used to dying anyway, still if he had to see a small girl detonating herself just to get rid of him he would not stand by.

“I hope it works.”

[Rune: naturalize]

Shin somehow managed to withstand the pain and get back on his feet after that, he immediately casted a spell from his hand in child’s direction. A small purple light escaped his palm and landed exactly at ground on which the girl was standing. After it hit a purple circle appeared around her and inside that circle there were words in an ancient language that Shin did not know.

“Don’t explode! Don’t explode! Don’t explode!”

The only thing that Shin could now do was pray. His skill [rune: naturalize] usually gave one of three effects. One was cancelation of opponent’s spell, second was nothing happening as if the rune was ignored and the last one was opponent’s spell exploding in their face. At the current time, both second and third option would result in explosion so Shin could only hope that it won’t be any of those.

‘plump’

The golden ball suddenly disappeared like a soap bubble. There was no flying grass either or anything like that. There was just that strange girl left.

-ah!

She looked around surprised and also she stopped crying or screaming.

“Thankfully it worked.”

With this Shin managed to save the girl from dying because of him. He at least assumed that it was his fault as before he touched her there was no random unstable magical explosion in sight. Still, Shin did expect do die soon anyway hopeful this time it would not be a random explosion that would take away the girl’s life too. Even though it was probably she who will kill him and it was just a game, Shin would prefer to avoid watching a young girl like her dying before his eyes.

-what… what did you do?

“Hmm… I am not going to die?”

Shin didn’t expect to hear words but rather something that would bring his doom. Still, if this girl was saying something rather than attacking him, it meant that it wasn’t a ‘monster NPC’ but normal NPC, in that case as long as Shin played it out right, he might be able to stay alive.

-your magic seemed to go out of control so I stopped it.

-you… you can do something like that?

The girl once again answered with the question.

-yes… you see that purple circle over there as long as you stand in it there you won’t be able to use your power.

Explaining his skill to a potential enemy was probably not the best thing to do but Shin wouldn’t see this girl as an enemy anyway so if she decided to attack him he would not fight back. He also knew that her power was on completely different scale anyway so him fighting back wouldn’t bear any fruit anyway.

-then I will say in it forever!

To Shin’s explanation the girl’s announcement that and sat down.

-ha?

“

That was Shin’s first encounter with Hikari. After that she didn’t exchange a single word with him and kept on staying in the circle, she did not know that should Shin recast that spell somewhere this circle would disappear. Still, Shin was not going to recast it any time soon as he did stay with a girl and tried to talk with her as he still did thought that she lost her way home. Then there was other reason and it was the girl would actually starve if left alone and Shin would not feel good with that.

After three days of taking care of her, he finally got a response and after another day he managed to convince the girl to leave the circle. What happen after that was another story for another time but after all those years Shin threated that girl like his own sister. It didn’t matter to him that she was an NPC and that she did not exist in real world. In this world she did exist and that was all that mattered.

Shin never actually told anyone about how deep connection he has with Hikari. Even his teammates thought that they first meet each other during the ‘Defense of Larisane’ which happened a year ago in game time. In truth however their relationship already lasted more than four years already in game time and whenever Shin would have some time, he would visit his ‘little sister’. It was quite easy to hide those visits as he did not travel there by normal means. He was given an amulet that would let him teleport to where Hikari was and back again, whenever he wanted or whenever Hikari wanted which sometimes resulted in Shin disappearing in unknown circumstances. Although Hikari would not call him without a good reason and usually just waited for him to come by himself. As to why Shin never told anybody about it, it was because Hikari asked him. Right now, it probably wouldn’t have mattered as Hikari was well acquainted with everyone’s in Shin’s party but she asked him not to tell anyone. It was before she got acquainted with others and now it somehow felt weird to reveal that.

“Now then, let’s see if she didn’t blow herself up.”

Right now Shin was walking through the streets of Larisane and was heading to Hikari’s house. Before he took out to the west, there was still one thing that he wanted to check and that was Hikari’s newest research. That research actually started yesterday and it was concerning Hiro’s newfound powers which Hikari called beautiful aura. The actual fight in which Hiro demonstrated so called “beautiful aura” was three days ago but Hikari was waiting for Hiro to wake up and give her permission. After waking up, Hiro put up in front that he will not tell anyone about that as it’s a secret but he also said that anyone can research what they want and Hikari started doing just that although her purpose was not to recreate what Hiro did, meaning the ‘primitive magic’ but she just wanted to reproduce the color so she can look at it any time she wants.

Shin didn’t expect any results today but if he were to leave to the west without saying goodbye his would be immediately summoned back for scolding.

“Ah, she was much nicer when she was younger.”

Shin thought like that sometimes. Actually since some time now his ‘little sister’ stopped being little. With all those years that passed, she started to grow up and if it was going to go like that she would soon reach Shin’s age which was 19, although Shin looked a little older than that. There was also the problem that while Hikari was growing up with game time, Shin was growing up with real world time which resulted in Hikari catching up really fast. Luckily for Shin she was of an elf race which would result in her stopping ageing quite soon. It was really fortunate as Shin wouldn’t want to suddenly become her little brother instead. Although Hikari was not pure blooded elf, in her family there were few other races mixed in as well although they never managed to confirm which exactly. There was also no one to ask, as Hikari’s parents were nowhere to be found, although Shin did found out what happened to them. Hikari’s parents decided to travel to the west and similar to any other attempt to travel to the west be it NPCs or players it always ended the same way. What was worse was that Hikari also wanted to go to the west and probably if it weren’t for her position as village’s elder she would go there already. Shin couldn’t understand why Hikari wanted to go there so much. He expected that maybe she hoped that her parents will still be there somewhere, although whenever he asked her about it she would answer that she just feels that she has to go there. Hikari did know what probably happened to her parents and she wasn’t a person that would believe in miracles, nevertheless even though she did well know what going to the west meant, she still wanted to do it. Fortunately Shin managed to stop her from it by somehow making her this village’s elder. Of course it wasn’t his decision but he managed to convince few important people in Larisane and it ended up like that and as long as Hikari was an elder, she would not go to the west.

-hey, can you help us with something.

Shin’s walk was interrupted by one of his new temporary teammates, Levi.

-if I can help then sure.

-you see, we are looking for the house of the elder and we have completely no idea where it.

When Levi said that, Shin soon spotted his other new temporary teammate Arata.

-well, I am going there right now so you can just come with me.

Shin answered, he also was little curious why would they want to meet up with Hikari.

-Arata come! He will show us the way!

Levi shouted to his friend who came soon after.

-if we are bothering you, you don’t have to do that.

Arata said that right away when he came to hearing distance.

“Ah… it’s somehow always like this, new people are way too formal.”

Shin experienced it many times already. New people that would join the party would usually have some restrains in talking with him. Shin did know what was the cause of it and that was other members telling some impossible stories about him when most of it weren’t true. Despite his attempts Shin never managed to stop that occurrence so it always was like that. The biggest problem was that Shin wasn’t really good at ‘breaking the ice’ so that awkwardness usually lasted for some time.

-no, no I am going there anyway so you guys might as well come with me…

And so they started walking. Usually in this scenario the awkward silence would begin right away. Shin already experienced it many time and even though he would want this to not happen, it kept on happening. Still, in comparison to all other times in which he had no idea what to say to them, they just gave him a free topic to start from.

-so, why do you want to meet Hikari?

Shin asked while they were walking.

-oh, you are on first name with her already, guess, it won’t work Arata.

Levi answered although Shin had no idea what the answer meant.

-it wouldn’t have worked either way but him saying her name doesn’t mean that right away.

-I guess, in that case I will ask. Hey Shin, do you have romantic relationship with that elder?

Somehow the usual awkwardness was not present in this man.

-em… no?

Shin didn’t exactly know how to answer a random question like that from someone with whom he didn’t speak before much.

-haha, then I going to take my chances then.

-you mean that you guys are going to hit on her?

-yes we are!

Levi answered right away.

-no, he is going to hit on her and I am going to see how he is beaten up for it.

Arata corrected Levi’s answer.

-well, in that case I think you both will get what you wanted.

Shin answer them with that. Shin never actually saw that happening but he did hear the tales of what happened to few elves from this village that tried to do the same and those were ‘concerning’ tales.

-you mean that it will work?

Levi asked.

-no, I mean that you will be able to hit on her and Arata will be able to see you being hit for it.

-which will also be not the first time and no the last time that it happens.

Arata added to Shin’s answer.

-hahaha, you two just doesn’t understand the dream of men, that’s what I tell you. Men should be like this, if you see the mountain climb it, if you see the beautiful girl, ask her out. As long as you follow those rules you will gain happiness.

-hmm… I think I did read something like that in some manga.

Shin ended up voicing his thoughts.

-even so! It is the truth!

-ye, ye, by the way em…-

-Shin.

Shin didn’t think that Arata forgot his name but he wanted to eliminate the awkwardness as soon as possible.

-yes, by the way Shin. It’s usually better to ignore what this guy is saying.

-hey Arata, what do you mean by that!

-I mean if someone tried to take you seriously then they would go crazy.

-hahaha, I think my lifestyle is much more interesting than yours. We are in game, we should do whatever we want.

-no, I am happy with my lifestyle thank you.

-sure be happy with your girlfriend but just you wait till I create my harem, then we will see who is the jealous one. The first girl on this road will be the beautiful elven elder from this village.

-wasn’t Rin going to be your first girl on this road?

-details, details! Let us not focus on the past but rather on the present!

“There really are people who play this game freely. Still it might be interesting to watch Hikari’s reaction to that. I should be able to save him from dying if it comes to worst.”

Shin already predicted what Hikari’s reaction will be.

-I would tell you to give up on it but I know you won’t listen to me so I won’t.

-haha, you understand me to this degree already Arata.

-well there isn’t that much to understand anyway.

-I see that you two are quite good friends.

Shin ended up commenting the situation.

-of course we are.

-if it seems like this then you are mistaken.

Arata’s and Levi’s answer were somewhat different.

-ah, Arata don’t be like that!

-by the way Shin, while we have the time I wanted to ask. Why do we start at this unusual hour, I think it would be better to start at morning.

Arata ignored Levi’s comment and asked.

-well, the answer is quite simple. On our way today we might end up meeting certain creature, that we might be able avoid if it we move on the right time. Although it’s still just my hopeful thinking.

-I see and those creatures are what?

-in short I would describe it as a giant spider. If we are lucky we will avoid the big one though and just skirmish with small ones.

-spiders?

Arata repeated the last word with slightly changed voice.

-yes spiders and the creature that we want to avoid the most is the ancient spider queen as from what I heard it’s a hell of a boss monster and if we meet it then it will mean our total annihilation. Eh… is something wrong?

Shin ended up asking seeing Arata’s blank expression.

-no, it’s just… let’s say I am not that good with spiders.

“Oh that’s something new.”

-you have arachnophobia?

-hmm… I wouldn’t go that far I think. But if we are talking about spiders already, I would prefer to avoid them.

-I don’t think we can change the route enough to avoid meeting any spiders on our way.

-no, no, don’t do anything like that… or no maybe you should. Because… hmm how to say it. I said that I am quite bad with spiders but if we are on this topic already, I would say that Rin is about 10 times worse than me being with spiders.

“I somehow can’t image that.”

Shin thought like that but Arata’s face was not lying.

-I see, well it might take us three extra days because of that but… .

-no, no, no, no, no. Arata is probably just joking about it, don’t change anything now…

Levi said that but his intentions were probably different.

-hey Arata, how did it come that you and Rin are once again exactly the same in some respect and you both are afraid of spiders.

-I am not afraid of spiders.

-your face is telling me differently.

-okay, maybe a little. Well, it realties to a certain event that I experienced, Rin also experienced it and ever since that time I can’t stand spiders. Even though it’s not logical and everything whenever I see those little things I can’t keep calm. Still when I see spider I immediately kill it for revenge, on the other hand Rin… well maybe she is over it already.

“I see so as I thought, they did know each other from real.”

Arata’s words confirmed Shin’s earlier hypothesis although he was already nearly sure of that earlier.

“From what he said maybe I should rethink the route but it’s probably too late for changing our direction now. Also it should be fine, we just need to slip through that area quickly and afterwards there shouldn’t be any more spiders.”

The current route that Shin chose led through the ‘widows’ forest’. That forest was at the border of what people knew as the ‘known lands’ and the west. From what he found out it was both the safest and most dangerous route at the same time. The difference between the two was simple. It was safest choice if you didn’t encountered the spider queen and it was the most dangerous when you did encounter her. It might seem like a huge risk but in theory as long as they travel through that forest at the right time they shouldn’t encounter the grand widow.

Shin, Arata and Levi arrived at ‘Larisane’s magic center’. It was not Hikari’s house but Shin expected to find her here so he led the others here. Actually Hikari was speeding here more time than in her house. Shin also spend his deal of time in this place.

On the outside it looked like any other ‘tree house’ that one could see in this village. Well this ‘tree house’ was ‘slightly’ bigger, which meant it was really big.

The inside was divided in few parts. First one, farthest to the left was simply a library, although books would be strictly focused on magic and nothing else. To enter this part they would need to walk through the farthest to the left gate. Then there was a middle part in which elves did their rituals. What rituals? All kind of rituals that would help this village in prospering. For example the tree houses that were the main part of this village were made thanks to one of those rituals. The invisible crystal terrace in the crown of trees was also made thanks to it. The rituals usually weren’t executed by a single person but by many, although Hikari was a ‘genius child’ that could execute most of them on her own. Then lastly the farthest to the right door leaded to ‘research part’ in which Shin expected to find Hikari.

-okay it’s this building.

Shin said to the others.

-you mean this is where that girl lives? Wow, such a large house.

-no she is not living here but this is where we should meet her. Let’s not waste any more time.

The whole thing seemed like complete waste of time to Shin anyway but he was not going to stop them if they wanted to do it.

‘boom!!!!’

Out of sudden they heard some explosion that came from behind the door in front of which they were staying at the moment.

“Seems like another failure.”

Shin was not really worried as random explosion in that room happened quite often. They started happening especially often ever since Hikari started being an elder.

Without waiting for other’s comments Shin just opened the door and entered inside. The inside was a huge round hall. Its walls were in the color of the tree’s trunk. Practically everywhere there were some devices that would help a magical practitioner. Although right now everything was in a mess as it either was knocked down or slightly broken. Luckily for this village this was only one room from many that those devices were kept in and also the damage was not beyond repair anywhere. In the middle of the room there was Hikari who was right now looking at the glass sphere that was hung on the celling. Right now the sphere was completely empty but Shin knew that few seconds ago Hikari tried to recreate within it ‘a beautiful color’ as she called it. Still by the state of this room one could easily say that it didn’t work so far. The tables were turned down, some of them slightly burned or broken.

-ah, it still wasn’t this!

Hikari said to herself, it seemed like she didn’t realize that they came inside, although Shin knew well that she did know it and she knew about their arrival ever since they decided to come here.

-Hikari! I brought you some guests!

Shin ended up calling to her and Hikari immediately turned around. It didn’t seem like she was too happy seeing them though.

-what is it? Can’t you tell I am busy.

She right away sent those words towards Arata and Levi, they weren’t meant for a Shin though as he was asked to come here before leaving and practically there was not a single time when Hikari was unhappy to meet him.

-well Levi, she is all yours.

Arata said to Levi.

-hmm, I think this might be not the best timing but this is my only chance in a lifetime.

Levi did not back of and went straight in the direction of Hikari. At some point he took out a red rose out of nowhere, probably from his inventory.

-I welcome you the most beautiful lady that I ever met. My name is Levi and I came here with a hope that you will grand me a single wish and that wish is for you to accept this flower that is filled with my feelings for you.

Levi ended up walking all the way towards Hikari then he kneeled before her and stretch his hands to give Hikari the flower.

-Shin, is there something wrong with this man’s head and you came here to let me check on him?

“Oh, it seems like she is in a good mood.”

Hikari’s voice was neither angry not annoyed, she simply joked around.

-no, he came here on his own.

Shin ended up answering.

-I see in this case… you, you said your name is Levi right? I will give you three choices. One, you will leave and we will forget anything happened, two you will wait till your friend tells me what he wants to say and then you will leave and forget anything happened, and three I will take your rose and give you a kiss on a cheek, which one do you choose?

Hikari ended up saying this to Levi.

-whaaa! Really! Then of course I will chose the third option!

Levi ended up shouting out loudly as he himself did not believe that. Hikari ended up taking the rose and then after a second she pushed it right into Levi’s mouth.

-whawasay…

Levi tried to say something but it was in vain and in the end he actually ended up eating that flower.

-hey didn’t you just say?!

-if you are stupid enough to believe that there is a woman that will answer to cheap talk like this then you are surely an idiot.

-being an idiot is fine as long as I can fulfill my dreams.

-I don’t know what dreams you had but you should be happy that I didn’t petrify you into the stone because for a moment I thought of doing so.

-if it involves kissing then I am still up for it.

“She didn’t meant that.”

-ah you really are an idiot… em… Shin, can I kill this guy?

Hikari ended up asking.

-don’t do it if you can.

Shin answered although he did know that Hikari was still joking.

-unfortunately Shin said that you shouldn’t die so we can’t choose the third option. In that case I will answer seriously… I do know you Levi, or rather I heard about you quite a lot from my new friend Rin. If you don’t stop what you are doing right now I will make you stop doing so. Sure I will not kill you as Shin asked for it but you will regret not being killed as the fate that will await you is far worse than death.

When Hikari was saying those words she shot a death glare with her golden eyes at Levi who somehow in the middle of that speech was slowly backing off and at the moment it ended, he was all the way where Shin and Arata were standing.

-I see it’s a shame that we can’t use option three in that case let’s go with the second one…

Levi’s attitude somehow changed. Shin knew why it was like that. It was not because he got scared of current Hikari image as no matter how hard would she try, she would still wouldn’t look terrifying. Her angry look was actually quite cute. Still what Hikari just did was to send into Levi’s brain a vision of ‘something’ that made him back of.

-now then you, your name was Arata, right?

Hikari switched her interest to Arata now.

-I didn’t expect you to know my name.

Arata answered.

-yes whatever, so why did you come here? You also came here too waste my time as the other one?

-you could say that I came to see as ‘the other one’ is wasting your time.

-in that case you both can leave already… I don’t feel like making new acquaintances today…

Hikari said that and turned around. She started taking care of a mess that probably appeared after the last explosion. Arata did not move away as instructed though, and waited. He seemed to be wondering about something. After about a minute Hikari once again spoke to him.

-that’s why I asked if you have any business with me, right away. Stop thinking about unrelated things and say what you want. I don’t care if it will be a meaningless question or behavior, just do it quickly.

As far as Shin remembered, Hikari was not someone who would throw away ‘the guests’ that came to her although she had a little patience when ‘those guests’ were slow in explaining their business. Still, because it was unusual for her to see many other ‘adventurers’, she was always slightly interested in them, so even if the matter was as stupid as ‘Levi’s one’ she would want to find out what that matter was.

-I am not sure if I should.

Arata answered.

-I will decide if you should do so or not. Now speak.

-okay… well, how to said it. My friend told me that by meeting someone like you I can get stronger so I came here to check out if it is possible.

-hey Arata, I was not serious about it, sure there is a possibility but it’s one in million.

Levi quickly interrupted him but then.

-be quiet, you had your time already…

Hikari stopped him.

-so Arata… you came here with a hope that I can make you stronger just because you will ask me nicely for it?

-pretty much, even if you really can help me somehow I would not be able to repay you in any way as I am leaving this village today.

“Hmm… I do understand where he came up with that idea. Yes, technically one does get stronger after meeting certain NPCs but it’s usually is a matter of doing quests. You do a quest for an NPC, then they give you some reward. You also technically do get stronger by getting some experience points and in best case scenario you will get some new skill. Still, I don’t know about getting anything just for asking.”

-that’s it? You will not try to convince me somehow?

It seemed like Hikari did get interested in Arata’s request for some reason though.

-I don’t really know what would convince you anyway I did not expect a serious answer so I will be going now.

Arata said that and then he was going to leave the room right away afterwards. Truth was that he did not really believe in getting anything for free in this game, given his experience so far.

“Well I guess, trying to ask is still better than doing nothing. Still I wonder if he had more time, Hikari would end up giving him a quest. I don’t remember her ever giving quests to anybody but me. Although that probably because of this village’s rules, there are no adventurers here.”

Shin also thought that it was rather impossible as he also knew this game way too much but then suddenly Hikari stopped Arata from leaving.

-wait. Just so you know, even though your request is unreasonable you are the first person that came to me and asked if I can make them stronger. Even this guy…

Hikari pointed with her finger at Shin. She always pretended to be in bad relations with him whenever a ‘third person’ was present.

-even though I know him for a while now never asked if I can make him stronger somehow. To answer your question if I can make you stronger somehow, I am not exactly sure. As I mentioned I never had an occasion to try doing something like ‘making an adventurer stronger’ and because of that when you asked for it, for a moment I though, I would want to see if I can do it…

Hikari explained her reasons.

-still, I am not sure if I really would want to do it for you. I don’t know you, you are complete stranger to me, the only thing I know about you is what I heard from Rin and from what I saw during the second round of that tournament of yours, although I was slightly distracted at that time. Practically what I know for sure is only one thing and that is that your aura is strong.

-aura?

-I don’t feel like explaining it now. Anyway I know that you are strong, so tell me Arata, why someone as strong as you wishes to become even stronger? You should be satisfied with your current level. If I were to compare you with other adventurers I know, there would be only few that had stronger aura than yours.

“Why would someone want to become stronger? Well, in this game, rather than having an answer to this question you take it as default. It’s natural for anyone to want to get stronger and win against others. The feeling of wanting to be superior to other players is quite common for anyone who plays the games.”

Shin thought like that although he himself never really had a focus like that. For him as long as he could enjoy the game, it was enough. That was at least what he thought was the case.

-why?…

Arata first said those words.

-well, the main reason would probably be because I am not satisfied with my current level I guess.

-I didn’t ask for an obvious answer, if that was not the case you wouldn’t have asked me for making you stronger.

-I wouldn’t say that it’s an obvious answer. I would probably never said words like few days ago but if you want to hear my other reasons the sure I can tell you those I guess. Although I am not so eager about it right now, and it will take a lot of time but at some point in the future, I plan to become the strongest adventurer of this world.

Suddenly Arata stated his ambitions.

-hahahahaha.

Levi ended up laughing at Arata from afar after hearing that.

“Well, his laughter is understandable, how can someone even think that they can become the strongest player in EOA. Although I don’t hate his ambition. Shouldn’t every player have an ambition like that. Although I am way too realistic to ever think like that.”

-you see how your friend reacted to your reason for becoming stronger.

Hikari was not laughing but got even more interested.

-well, that is why I would normally tell no one about it. Right now, I don’t really think about it too much anyway as I know that I still have a long way to go. Actually, by myself I wouldn’t think it’s possible.

“That’s what I expected from him, he did not lost his mind.”

-so why do you even mention it? How do you plan on doing something you yourself think impossible?

-even if it seems impossible, I will still do it and will not give up till the end. Even though I do not believe in myself enough to feel like I can become the strongest adventurer of this world, there is someone who believe in me full heartedly and the faith of her is the only thing that I need to feel that it is possible. She believes in it so I will also believe in it and make it happen.

Shin did not know to whom Arata was referring to but he did at least know that, that person was really important to him. Otherwise Arata would not do anything outside of his character. Shin already understood Arata’s character a little, so it was quite strange for him to hear that Arata has an unreasonable goal like that. Still now that he heard that he was not doing it for himself, it somewhat made sense.

-hahahaha…

Hikari also ended up laughing out loud, although her laugh was not a mocking one like Levi’s one.

-I liked your reason and I also started to like you. An honest idiot that would never do anything for themselves but would do anything for others, sounds exactly like someone I know…

In this moment Hikari send a look towards Shin.

-from now on, rather than elder you can call me by my name.

-well I never called you an elder either but sure if you like, I will Hikari.

-still Arata, if you really have a goal like that then trying to get stronger by asking someone like me to help is probably not the way you should take. True power is not something that you can receive.

-well of course, I don’t have any plans to run from one person to another with a similar request. In the first place I came here without any hopes what so ever, it was just something that seemed little more meaningful than waiting on some bench till we take off to the west. Also even though I said what I said, that is just something at the back of my mind. Right now I have other objectives. One of them is the success of this expedition.

Arata explained.

-I see, so coming to me for you is just taking any opportunity you can find…

Hikari stopped for a moment and then said.

-okay, I decided. I will help you on your journey.

Some way or another Hikari ended up agreeing to Arata’s request.

“Hmm… this world is really limitless, anything can happen in it I guess.”

Shin thought like that. Even though he was not exactly sure what Hikari was going to do, usually when she said something like that she at least had some kind of plan.

-well… thanks…

Arata was also slightly surprised.

-so in what way would you be able to help me?

He asked but at the same time Arata wasn’t too excited about it. He probably assumed that it won’t be anything that great.

-we don’t have much time so I will explain on the way, follow me. You two can also come but I am will be experimenting only on Arata.

-experimenting?

Arata started to wonder if it was really good idea to ask Hikari for help. Hikari now just walk pass them and was going to leave the room.

-quickly, quickly, we have to start in few minutes.

She ignored Arata’s comment and went outside the room.

-hey Arata, I would advise you to back out from it.

Levi quickly said when Hikari was out from the hearing range.

-well, I am not sure about it as well. From what I understood she agreed to help me only because she can use me as experimental rat.

“Yes, that’s about it, otherwise Hikari wouldn’t be so nice to someone that she just met and she loves experiments. Probably.”

Shin did understand Hikari as no one else in this world.

-good analogy. As far as I know experimental rats usually die young, right?

Levi said once again.

-on the other hand it’s a one-life chance and what the worst thing that could happen?

-I guess it would be you dying upon failure and remember we have not only a quest but also a whole expedition to do. Still the choice is yours. No risk no gains as they say.

-well it would be stupid to lose my chance on the world’s first just because of a wrong decision that wasn’t even connected to the quest. Yes… I will pas…-

‘puff’

Suddenly Arata disappeared in the middle of the sentence.

-hey where did he go?

Levi surprised ended up asking Shin.

-I think he was teleported somewhere by Hikari as I do recognize this…-

‘puff’

Shin tried to explain but he also suddenly disappeared in the middle of the sentence. For a second his vision went white but then after a single blink he appeared in a different place.

Shin recognized the place where he appeared in and that was the ‘ritual room’. The place was not that far from where he was previously as it would take just about four minutes to go from there to where he was now.

The ritual room was a large round area. The walls were still the same as in previous room and they were in the color of the ‘inside trunk’. In comparison to previous room there was nothing on the walls here. Not a single painting not a single bookshelf. In general the area that was so large looked quite empty. There wasn’t any furniture here, no tables, no chairs nothing. Also the whole area was quite dim as there was no that many light sources in here. There weren’t any windows either.

The only source of light was coming from the top. If someone wanted to look up from the middle of the room, they would see a long tunnel with the light at its end. In truth it was just a long trunk of a gigantic tree with the top that was cut open, and the light at the end was a simple daylight.

When most of the area in this room was empty the center of it was what was catching ones interest. In the middle there was a small pedestal that was growing up from the middle of the trunk. Around this pedestal there were four strange plants.

One would not think that those were plants but Shin learned that those were simply growing up from the base of the tree. Those four plants to Shin looked somewhat like lollipops. A small stick from the bottom and then a round colorful orb at the top.

Shin already saw as those unusual plants were changing their color during different rituals or Hikari’s experiments. When it was one of the rituals then it the colors were all different. One ‘strange plant’ would be purple, other blue, other red and so on. Shin already saw most of the colors so he suspected that they can change to any color there is. Still, the difference was while Hikari was experimenting with her powers. Whenever she was doing that the plants would always shine with blinding light as if one was looking directly at the sun. Actually that was quite annoying to deal with as whenever Hikari was doing new experiments it was Shin’s job to stop her if something looked like it was going to go out of control. Shin actually ended up creating for himself a protective google to be able to observe Hikari’s experiments.

Shin was teleported a little to left from the center. In the center however there already were Hikari and Arata.

-because you were slacking off I decided to summoned you here myself. I told you to hurry up, didn’t I?

Hikari started complaining.

-sorry but I think I will decline on your offer Hikari.

Arata quickly answered.

-decline? But… but… why do you want to decline!?

Hikari’s voice was really disappointed right now.

“Ah, seems like she really wanted to try doing that.”

-well it’s because I am little worried that something will not work out.

Arata explained. Seeing the previous explosion he was quite worried.

-but nothing bad should happen… well at least probably.

-I quite worried about this, probably.

-you shouldn’t, I wouldn’t do anything bad to Shin’s party. I do know perfectly that you are going for an expedition today, nothing bad will happen to you. Also if something would go out of control during the experiment, Shin will stop it from doing any harm, that’s why he is here as well. But anyway, you have only two minutes left to make the final decision, just so you know if you decline I won’t like you anymore. Even though I liked your ambition, I don’t like people who go back on their words.

Hikari was not making it easy on him but she really wanted to try out new things.

-hey, you really can stop it if it goes wrong because I really can’t have anything go bad here.

Arata ended up turning to Shin. It seemed like he was really worried about something unexpected happening.

-yes I can. You are not at any risk with me here. Also, even though she might not look like it, you shouldn’t underestimate Hikari’s power. Sure her powers sometimes go out of control but that does not happen that often anymore. During the last years she has been studding the ways of magic non-stop. As long as she does not overdo it, there is nothing to worry about. Also she is a perfectionist for good or worse, if she wasn’t sure that it will work then she wouldn’t even suggest you it.

-Shin! Because of whom do you think I became perfectionist? It’s you who always taught me that I should always prepare everything in best way I can.

Hikari nagged him.

-you know, you could have told me earlier that it’s a win/nothing situation for me. I wouldn’t have to think about it that hard.

Arata ended up complaining to Shin.

-probably but I didn’t want to influence your decision.

“In truth I simply wanted to see how you will decide by yourself.”

For one, Shin loved to analyze people. It wasn’t really nice thing to do but he was always like that. Rather than asking for something himself, he would prefer to learn it by himself by observation. That was Shin’s nature.

-so Arata, are you want my help or not. The time is running short.

Hikari once again asked.

-I do, I do. But you still did not tell me in which way you will actually help me.

-hmm… right now we have less than a minute so I will make it quick. In the meantime move to the middle of the pedestal over here…

Hikari walked towards the pedestal, get on it and stand the middle.

-all you need to do is to stand here and not move…

Arata moved to where Hikari was standing.

-as to what will I do. You asked me to help you to become stronger. The task of actually making someone stronger is not that easy, I will not be giving you any new powers from me or anything like that. I also will not try to increase your physical potential in any way. Maybe I would be able to do it but as you heard I don’t want to try anything I am not sure of. I will be just unlocking your potential that all. Ah… no good, there is no more time. I will explain everything afterwards now just stand still.

Right now Hikari and Arata were both standing on the pedestal.

Suddenly the whole room became brighter. The reason for that was because the sun outside was now right above the tree and the light was coming directly without interference. The sun rays brighten up the room and especially the pedestal. From Shin’s perspective it looked like a pillar of light was emanating from the pedestal. Still it was still the natural occurrence given the room’s structure. Hikari’s ‘spell’ did no start yet but soon after it did.

The ‘strange plants’ started to first emanate a small light that at the start was not visible because of the pillar of sunlight. Still as the time went on, it was more and more visible. Before it turned into blinding light, Shin found his protective goggles in his inventor and put them on.

-I am the one with the sun…

Hikari started to chant a spell. It was her usual chanting that she always did whenever she wanted to use ‘that power’, so Shin recognized it right away. He was also actually the one that had to come up with those words.

-I shine, so the people around me can be happy…

-I shine, so the people around me can be safe…

-I shine, so the people around me don’t die in vain…

-I shine, so I can use this power to defend them…

Those five lines were at the start of all ‘Hikari’s spells’. Actually the words while using magic were completely mediatory and not needed. Still speaking the words was something that helped one to focus. NPCs in the game also could use normal skills, the same that players were using but at the same time those with magical power naturally could also use ‘primitive magic’.

After Hikari started the ‘strange plants’ were already really bright.

-… .

Afterwards Hikari somewhat stopped saying anything else. Normally she would had few more lines that would be connected to her current objective but because she was doing something new and something she did not expect to do, she didn’t have time to come up with new lines.

“Hmm, she didn’t have an occasion to ask me to come up with new chanting so she is in a pinch.”

Well, she didn’t have time to make Shin do it for her as recently he wasn’t playing that much and when he once come here during the break, they weren’t speaking about something like new spells.

In the end Hikari ended up giving up on coming up with something on the fly and focused completely on the spell. After all, only with those five lines she was already ‘beyond understanding’.

The ritual continued for about a minute. During that time the orbs in “strange plants” were getting brighter and brighter with every second. But finally after one minute they were ready. Hikari stretched her hand upward and the lights from the ‘strange plants’ started to move. The light from them did not change their shape and four ‘light balls’ started to gather on Hikari’s palm.

“So far it doesn’t seem like it’s going to explode.”

Shin was checking for any signs of something going wrong but he didn’t see anything that would signal that. Hikari was in her top shape today.

After all ‘light balls’ combined into one, the second phase of the spell has started. Small fragments of ‘combined light ball’ were now leaving the light ball and were transmitted into Arata’s body. During this process Hikari was transmitting her magical power into the ball to keep it in the consistent shape despite what was happening.

Everything was going according to the plan. At least it was looking like that as Shin never saw this ritual before. Or rather no one saw it as it was the first time that Hikari was doing it, although she probably already tried it to some degree.

But then something happened. Shin did not saw anything that particular happened but he recognized that something has happened based not on the magic that was floating in the air but the change on Hikari’s face. Right now she had a face that she usually used when she had no idea what was going on. Whenever this face appeared during the experiments the next thing that would most likely follow soon after was an unstable explosion. Shin considered stopping the experiment right away but so far he still didn’t see anything that would signal the explosion actually happening. There was once again a change in Hikari’s face though. It seemed like she understood something and now she had a determined face and was looking up to the ball. Shin also saw that right now she was sending much more energy into the light ball. It was easy to see as she started to actually shine like the light ball when she was doing so. The magical words that Hikari was using were not all simply made up by Shin as whenever Hikari was using a large amount of her power in ‘controlled way’ she would start to shine like that.

“If I stop it now, she will be angry.”

Shin easily understood that this is not the time for him to interfere. From the start, he was actually not going to do anything unless either explosion was going to happen or if he received a signal from Hikari that he should interfere. For a note that signal was simply a panicked face that would look in his direction with pleasing eyes.

At some point the ‘fragments’ that were coming out from the magic light ball were not that small anymore. They reached the size of a tennis balls. Still, despite that, the ritual did end without any explosion and from what Shin knew if ‘new experiment’ did not end up in explosion it should always be considered a success.

When the experiment ended the pillar of sunlight that was coming from the top also somewhat dimmed as the sun was no longer directly over the top. That was the way in which the building was made as actually most of the ‘elven rituals’ that should occur in this room should be done in the surrounding of darkness. Still Hikari despite being an elven elder would always work better while being surrounded by sunlight. She still did the elven rituals at night if there was need for them but the time where she was doing something new that she and Shin thought up was always in the middle of the day when the sun was on top.

With the end of the spell everything in the room returned to normal, meaning nothing was shining anymore and there were no orbs of light or anything like that. The room was in the same state as in the moment that they first appeared in it.

-ha, ha, ha, ha.

There was the change though as Hikari was out of energy and was breathing heavily.

Arata finally opened his eyes as during the spell he had them closed for the whole time. He actually opened them in the perfect timing as the moment he did so he saw as Hikari was collapsing before him. With fast reflect Arata managed to catch her before she fallen on the pedestal.

-hey! Are you okay?

Arata asked. Shin also ran up towards the pedestal but he was not really panicked as right now Hikari had a syndrome of using too much power in the short duration of time that was common for all mages, including adventures.

-yes I am okay…

Hikari answered as she did not fall unconscious but simply run out of strength.

-this spell was much more tiring that I thought it will be. I don’t exactly know why but most likely it was your fault.

-my fault?

Arata asked surprised. He actually didn’t do anything other than standing on the spot with closed eyes.

-yes your fault so now take the responsibility and take me home so I can rest.

-hey Hikari, I can do it if you want.

Shin proposed.

-no the last time you tried to carry me you actually dropped me so you are not reliable for that job…

“Hmm, that did actually happened but it was not my fault. Ah, well I will not argue with her about this again.”

-also it’s Arata’s fault so he will pay the price.

-okay, sure… I can carry you to your home if you want.

With that Hikari ended up on Arata’s back and he started to carry her. Shin led Arata his wooden staff to make it easier to carry her. He already had a lot of experience in doing so and holding the staff while Hikari was sitting on it was the best way to carry her. Hikari also ended up plotting her hands on Arata’s neck.

“Ah, it’s usually me who was doing it…”

Shin thought to himself. He felt slightly sad but at the same time he did knew that Hikari simply wanted to try ‘riding’ on someone else for the change.

-okay, let’s go!

Hikari commanded and then they started to move in the direction of the doors and afterwards towards Hikari’s home.

-so, should I feel any change?

On the way Arata ended up asking.

-do you feel any?

Shin ended up responding.

-none at all.

-I see… well you probably won’t see any difference till you level up once as this is how it usually goes but… hey Hikari, should he feel any difference?

Shin then asked Hikari for confirmation.

-why do you ask me obvious questions? Rather than that… Shin.

Hikari looked at him from top of Arata and just said his name. Still just by doing so he understand what she wanted.

-right, right… Arata we will take a small detour on the way.

-sure, no problem, till the expedition starts I have nothing to do and even though I am not sure when its starts it won’t start with you here…

Arata answered to Shin. Right now they got out from the building and were once again out in the open. Apart from few villagers that were passing on the road there was no one else. Shin ended up then leading them to a certain shop.

-still Hikari, you were going to explain to me what that ritual actually did.

-later.

Arata said to her but Hikari did not answer.

-I am not sure that there are many ‘later’ left.

-Shin.

Hikari once again turned to him.

-Arata, Hikari right now seems to be really tired so she wants regain her strengths first before doing anything else. When she is like that she will not even answer to you and stay silent so even if you try it will be in vain to ask now. Still, if you want a fast and easy to understand explanation of what that ritual actually did then I can answer that. If you want details though you will have to wait for Hikari to answer.

-well I do prefer fast and easy to understand version.

-in that case here it is. The purpose of the spell was to unlock someone’s potential.

-yes I already heard that. Are you sure it’s easy to understand version?

Arata asked after hearing Shin answer.

-in short you will get one or two new skills from your profession the next time you level up.

-really?!! Just like that?

The second explanation that Shin gave him was really short and easy to understand.

-well, I wouldn’t say ‘just like that’. Preparing that ritual was not easy and executing it required large amount of magical power that made even Hikari to run out of mana. Although now that I think about it, Hikari, Arata has two professions does explain you difficulties?

Suddenly Shin had an inspiration to what might have been the answer to the troubles that appeared.

-two? And you are telling me it just now.

Hikari said that with the tired voice.

-well, I wasn’t taking part in research on that spell, still why did you even try to create something like that?

Shin asked as he was little surprised when Hikari had a spell like that. The reason for that was because as she said there was never any other adventurer that came to her with request like that and there probably wouldn’t be many either.

-… .

Hikari didn’t answer to his question though. Seeing that she won’t Shin once again explained.

-anyway you should see some new spells after leveling up and I just said that it should be 1 or 2 but I think now it turns out into one or two per class.

-really? Well if it’s true than I won’t be able to thank Hikari enough. Still is it really that simple and I got it for free.

-did I say it was for free?

Suddenly Hikari interfered despite what Shin said earlier.

-I thought you did?

Arata answered.

-hmm, did I? If so treat it as me helping you in your goal and you helping me in my goal.

-well, I will definitely will repay you if I can, but as I said, right now I have an expedition in which I take part in and quest to do so.

-of course I m… Shin.

Hikari once again stopped talking as she was still taking heavy after effect after the unexpected mana usage.

-she wanted to say that it will not be now but later in the future and she once again will tell you the details later. But also that Arata you are not obligated to help by any mean, you can refuse if you want.

-future? Well, if it will be possible then I will want to help but I will not give my word on this if I don’t know when it will be.

-yes, she doesn’t expect anything more than this…

Shin answered for Hikari as she once again stayed silent. Actually right now her eyes were slowly closing and even though she planned to stay awake she probably was too tired for it. By the time they reached the ‘shop’ she fallen asleep on Arata’s back.

-if you want, I can take her from here.

Shin proposed the idea thinking that Arata would want to do something else now.

-nah, I am not bothered by it. Still, we came to a restaurant and she fallen asleep before we managed to eat anything.

Arata said as he understood the intension of coming to a shop that was selling food.

-in that case let’s just order it on ‘take out’ and continue to her home.

Shin ended up ordering three ‘elder’s favorite’. For a note that food was really called ‘elder’s favorite’ in this shop and this was how it was marked on the menu.

After about 20 minutes Shin received the bag with food the food inside and then they continues to Hikari’s home.

-still, I must say that you two seem quite close.

Arata ended up starting the conversation after a long silence.

-you sure you should say something like that to me while you are giving her a piggyback. To anyone it would seem like it’s you two who are close.

Shin answered half joking.

-what I mean is how easy you two talk with each other and how you understand her without use of words.

-I guess, still Arata, if we continue this road it will be a second time that we have a silly conversation like that. You don’t seem like someone who is actually interested in subjects like that.

-I see, sorry for asking.

Arata started looking forward.

“Ah, was this my mistake. This should be a chance to drop this formal talk.”

-no, no. I don’t mind. Anyway, me and her, we know each other for few years now so you could say we are close. Say… is thinking of her like my younger sister is strange?

Shin ended up asking, it was actually the first time that he talked about Hikari with someone else and voiced this though. Arata little surprised at first decided to answer.

-strange? Well maybe, but the only part of it being strange would come from the fact that we are in EOA and this isn’t real world.

-I am not really concerned about this part that much. How to say it… hmm, it might be because we live in a strange era but since some time now, I stopped thinking about EOA as a game but rather an alternative world that I can be in. There are numberous of people that I meet thanks to being in this world. It’s not only players but NPCs as well. There are also numberous things that I did ever since coming here that I would not be able to do while living my simple life. There are also few things that changed in me while I was here. While I use the word game, I think of games that I once played in the past, but classifying EOA as a game is strange to me. The only thing that I can compare it with is living in normal world.

Shin made a long monologue. He did not plan to say this much but somehow he did say everything he had on his mind. Arata was little surprised hearing that.

-that is a little strange. Others from the party told me that you in particular threat this as a game and you focus only on gaming elements of it.

-I did mention that half of the things they say about me are lies. Still it might seem like that I guess as I am usually with them when we are taking part in gaming aspects rather than spending time with them normally.

-so whenever you are not doing dungeons with them you spent your time with your younger sister?

-I wouldn’t say whenever as I do other things with them as well. I particular like to play few other games with them, I heard you tried one of those already.

-‘Moloch agents’?

-yes that one. Still once again I will ask, is it strange to spend a lot of time with Hikari?

Shin once again asked as he really did want to hear an answer. He didn’t talk about it with anyone before.

-hmm… not really. Anyone can do what they enjoy. Still when you say it like that then I must ask this silly question. Is she the reason that you are giving a cold shoulder to Julia… if yes then maybe you should explain it to her.

-no, no, as I said I think of Hikari as younger sister. Even when we first meet she was of this height.

Shin showed the previous Hikari’s height. It was about the height of his leg.

-but she isn’t this small anymore.

-it’s been four years after all. Still it’s nothing like that. As for Julia, I don’t know what to do with her so leave it as this.

-I probably already asked too much about it… Anyway right now I can’t wait for my new spells. It’s been like forever since I got something.

It seemed like Arata was really excited about it.

-well, you can’t help it as you only get limited number of spells from leveling up. Apart from that you need to get them yourself somehow.

Shin answered.

-you mean the method is really to go around some important people and ask for new skills?

-no, no. I never heard of something like that actually working.

-we confirmed that it did happened today though, although I still don’t feel a difference and I didn’t get any new skills either yet so I will only be able to confirm it little later. Well it’s a whole level to get and right now I am at 40% but it’s not that bad.

-in this case, maybe getting friendly with certain people would result in getting new skills if you ask them. Still if Hikari is tired like this after doing it once I don’t think it will be easy to convince them to help you just like that. Not to mention there aren’t that many NPCs that can rival Hikari’s power.

-there is also a matter of asking for it. I mean, I didn’t really felt good while asking, ‘hey can you give me some spells?’…

“Yes there is also that.”

Shin thought to himself, as indeed he would not do something like that himself. On the other hand, he did knew few people that could ask like that without reserve.

-by the way, do you know other more normal methods to get skills?

Arata ended up asking.

-well you usually get them from quests.

-you mean class quests?

-yes those as well, although it is hard to find class quests. It’s even harder than getting normal quests. But from normal quests you get normal skills and from class quests you get class skills. For example while was doing normal quests I might receive a skill that is generally used by all magicians. Of course quests don’t reward you only with skills, there are other rewards as well. Items and such, you know how it goes.

-I see so it’s hard to get new skills for your specific class.

-that’s why there is a saying that at some point your class starts to matter less and less. Although it will always have a huge influence as it is your core. Also no need to get dishearten as even though it’s not that often you still will get a skill from time to time for free, from leveling up. There are also other methods to get skills as well, like having someone teach you those. Although something like that still usually ends up being a quest anyway.

-in a way it’s what Hikari did for me today.

-not exactly. She didn’t though you anything, she also didn’t give you anything in particular. She simply used her powers to unlock your potential. Right, there is also other way to get new skills and that would be unlocking your potential yourself. In a way those random new skills after leveling up are what comes from you putting in an effort so it’s not other method.

-and how exactly do you unlock your potential?

Arata ended up asking, Shin did not have a good explanation for him though.

-well, every class has its different so I won’t help you here. I don’t have a good reliable answer here. Like, I once thought that by studying magic I will get new skills. In a way it was working at first but at some point I didn’t get anything else anymore. In the end my theory on that is that there is a limit on how much I could get from studding simple magic. Still, even now when I did quite huge experiment with Hikari I did get a new spell. But I have no idea how would it work with melee class so don’t ask me for it.

-I see so by doing certain things I can get new skills… in that case I probably doing wrong things as I didn’t get anything new for so long.

Arata complained.

-probably but still it’s usually is like that. If someone gets a new skill once in few months then they are doing good job. It is very rare for someone to get many of them in a short time.

-really? I was leveling up with someone that was getting new skills like every level and it was not a lie as she was testing it before my eyes every time she did get something new.

-in that case that person was doing exactly what she should be doing. It must have been some talented player I guess, well given that it’s your acquaintance then that person must have been really talented.

-no, she is not talented, she would just go ‘wawawa’ this, ‘wawawa’ that.

Arata said it annoyed but he did have a smile while speaking about it.

-well I don’t know her, but for a note what does wawawa mean.

-hmm… I will say that whenever I thought that I finally understood what it meant, she would always surprise me with new usage of this word. In a way ‘wawawa’ means everything in her language.

-haha, well there are people like that as well.

Shin remarked. Also he finally managed to have a normal and not stiff conversation which was a good thing.

Soon after, they reached Hikari’s home. It was medium size oak tree that had three floors and a basement. Although saying medium size it was only in comparison to other houses as all trees that were part of Larisane were gigantic. The forest around the village was normal though. The secret to the trees were the rituals that were passed down in elven culture. Still even though Larisane was typical elven village, it didn’t mean that all other elven cities looked like this. There were examples of elven cities not being in the forest so it would be impossible for them to be made out of trees.

-this is the place…

Shin remarked and opened the door with his spare key.

The first flow was divided into three parts which was kitchen, bath and dining room. Then other rooms on other floors were simple rooms. One the second floor there was large Hikari’s room that took half a space and the study room that took the other half. Then the third one was a guests/Shin’s room and four other rooms that usually served as both guests/storage rooms. They usually were packed with really random things. Some of the rooms were better left unopened as if someone were tried to open them a large amount of things could crush them. Those rooms were packed in full as Hikari was simply teleporting things to their inside and never take anything out from them. The problem would appear though whenever a particular item was needed to be taken out. It was really hard to find them if there was a need. Still, despite many attempts to explain why she shouldn’t do it, Hikari kept on throwing stuff there like nothing.

-okay, let’s take her to her room. It’s on the second floor.

Just as Shin suggested it, Hikari suddenly woke up.

-aaaaa!…

She yawed strongly.

-Shin you did bought the food right?

That was her first question.

-yes I did.

-in that case you leave it on the table. Also Arata you can put me down now.

-you rested already?

Arata asked.

-no, but it’s enough for now. I will eat something now and then go to sleep. I think you two have your expedition so maybe you should go already.

“Hmm, it’s true we might get late at this point.”

-you still didn’t tell me what you wanted my help with.

Arata said that. Earlier on he was right, there were not that many ‘later’ left.

-I see, in that case come in, you Shin as well but just so you two know I won’t let my food to you.

-don’t worry I bought three portions.

Shin answered.

-who said that I can’t eat three portions? Still fine, I guess I shouldn’t eat too much before sleeping.

Afterwards Hikari led them to the dining room. Shin also entered the kitchen and took some cutlery.

The dining room was a simple dining room with a large table in the middle and chairs around it. Although it was quite rare that all of those chairs were filled. They all sit near one end of that table and started eating. At some point Hikari finally explained to Arata what she wanted to do.

-so Arata, in the future I will be asking you to help me in my journey to the west.

-to the west? Isn’t this were we are going today? Why don’t you come today if you want to go there?

Arata answered with an obvious reaction.

-it’s because I can’t do it right now. I have my responsibilities towards this village. Still when those responsibilities will be completed I will be making my own expedition to the west, and in that I need help.

-I see, well, as long as you notice me about it with good advance I should probably easily make it. Still, I would want to ask why do you…-

Suddenly Arata stopped in the mid-sentence.

Shin did not know why Arata stopped but he decided to answer Arata’s not finished question.

-she doesn’t has a reason…-

-yet!…

Hikari interrupted him.

-I don’t have a reason yet but when my expedition starts I will definitely find it. Anyway as to why I want to go there I just have a feeling I should go…

“Ah, why does she keep on saying that? Her adventure to the west is nothing like ours. We can simply go there and die at some point, which I expect to happen, but if she were to go there it’s a total different matter. Still despite my tries I can only slow her down.”

Even now the only reason Hikari did not start her journey there is because she is this village’s elder. Shin is partly responsible for this to happen but he is really happy that he managed to pull that out, otherwise Hikari would probably not be here today with them anymore.

-do you want to hear any more other specific on this Arata? If so then I mind you that those specifics can change as the times goes…

Hikari continued although right now Arata was not listening. He had a face that was deep in thoughts.

-hey…!

Hikari called out to him.

-yes, yes, what were we on about?

Arata answered but afterwards he made a specific movement that Shin interpreted as closing the pop up window that might have appeared before him.

-ah… were you listening at all?

Hikari said annoyed.

-yes, yes, I will go to the west in the future with you… for now let’s close it on that.

“Close it on that? That’s somewhat strange sentence.”

Shin founded it slightly strange that Arata was not asking for any more information. On the other hand Hikari was pleased hearing that.

-yes, there is no need for me to explain things now…

“Especially when you don’t have the explanation anyway.”

-then as to how I will contact you about it…

Hikari thought about it for few seconds and then came up with easy for her idea.

-Shin you deal with it.

The idea let Shin take care of it.

-yes, yes.

-you mean he is coming as well?

Arata asked.

-why are you surprised? Of course I am not going anywhere without him. Or, is it that you hoped that you will have a sweet time only with me? If so I will try to consider you but don’t bring up any hopes.

-no, no, I didn’t meant that.

-what you think I am ugly?

-no, no definitely not that.

-so what do you think.

In the end Hikari ended up toying with him.

-em… .

-Arata, you don’t have to answer, Hikari don’t bully your future allies.

-yes!…

When Shin said it to her she quickly stopped and responded like kids do to their parents.

-okay now that we finished eating and there is nothing that you wanted to ask about regarding my request I will be going to the second floor. I will not keep you waiting as you have your own expedition to make.

-don’t worry about that, we are already late.

Time somehow passed by really quick and it was already half an hour after the appointed time. Also even if they made it on time others would still say that they were late as whoever get to the meeting place last is always reminded that they are late. In that case there was no need to hurry. Although there was a reason to hurry this time as if they don’t start quickly they might run into more troubles later. Still Shin did not want to hurry up anything right now.

-I see… sorry to keep you waiting. Also Shin, the next time you come I will be making that ritual on you as it was already tested, make sure to come up with some lines for it.

-yes, yes.

-so… goodbye.

Hikari said that and run up towards Shin. She quickly hugged him for a moment and afterwards run up the stairs towards second floor. Well it was the usual way that she was seeing him off but she didn’t do it normally when someone else was around. Although, Shin always tried to make sure that when she sees him off, they are alone.

Afterwards, Arata and Shin left the Hikari’s house.

“Okay, we are just slightly late and I already considered a small delay so it will be fine. Although I did not consider that it will be me who will be late, well it could happen to anyone.”

With that thought, Shin started heading towards the meeting place which was little to the west from Larisane, precisely the spot in which the luck by draw tournament was held. But suddenly Arata stopped him.

-hey, I know we are already late but there is something that I would want to talk about.

He said those words.

-sure, let’s talk while we walk.

-I think it might take slightly longer than this.

Arata answered to him as from where they were it was five-minute walk towards the meeting place.

“Ahh… now I really want to know what he has to say but I don’t think we can delay right now, otherwise some really bad things may happen… but…“

Shin fought within himself for a moment but in the end he answered.

-if it isn’t something really important then I think it we should leave it for later.

-really important? Hmm… I think this will classify as really important for you at least…

“What!? … no, I can’t stay and listen no matter what right now. Prolonging it for some other time should be better. But ‘he’ is saying it’s something really important? … “

-I don’t think that there is anything important enough for us to risk our expedition being wiped out the first day.

In the end Shin had to say it. After all, the route that they chose had a high risk if they delay for far too long.

-if you say so… in that case I will summarize it in few words although you will probably have many questions to it and it’s not a simple subject.

“Why at the times like this!?”

On the one hand Shin didn’t want to listen to anything else anymore as he knew that if it’s something that would really concern him in ‘really important way’ he would not be able to stop thinking about it. On the other hand, right now he really wanted to hear about it.

“Hmm… I guess its leaves me with no choice.

-you know what let’s return to this conversation later.

Shin proposed the idea. For now it was better for him to be distracted with thoughts of ‘what could Arata have in mind’. Also there was no worry as during the journey there would be time for them to speak with each other and today is an important day in which delaying is really inadvisable.

-you know, I would want to talk about it now as I am not sure if it will be fair to talk about it with others around… .

-hm…hm…hm… .

Shin started to make quiet sounds as he was going to start to cry. Arata was not making it easy for him

“Why now! Couldn’t it be happen any other day?”

-it concerns Hikari and that expedition of yours… the other one I mean.

“…”

Arata added that and Shin’s mind went blank.

“Whatever… I don’t care anymore. Even if we meet that creature there is still one tactic we can use.”

-okay let’s talk, there shouldn’t be a problem if we get late by an hour or so.

Shin ended up telling Arata this. In fact there could be heavy consequences of this action but if it some matter that is ‘important to him’ and ‘concerning Hikari’ then he could not hold it back anymore.

They ended up walking towards a nearby bench and Arata started.

-hmm… I am not sure how to start it. I guess I will start with a fact that I have a certain quest.

-I know, the one in which you have to go to the heaven’s gate right. That’s the reason you want to go to the west in the first place.

-no, it’s another quest…

Arata quickly said.

-by the way, how much do you know about empire of Solaris?

-does this have anything with the matter?

-I wouldn’t ask if it didn’t.

-right, that was stupid question. Anyway I know that Solaris was some old empire in this world that had its peak few hundred years ago. About three hundred years ago it stopped existing as it was invaded by demon army. As to why it was invaded by demon army it was because the Solaris’s empire once helped…-

-okay, okay, I see that you probably know about it more than I do…

Arata stopped Shin from talking. Shin did have a great knowledge about empire of Solaris. After all, its old lands were the destination of the current expedition and he researched anything there was to research.

-anyway you also probably know that the tomb that is located south of Karma is actually the tomb of the last king of Solaris.

-yes, I do. I also did once thought of actually trying to complete the boss fight that is inside it but because that place does not reward you in any way it was just not worth it. But isn’t it a place in which Rin was doing her prequest.

-yes, it was… anyway Shin I think it will be better if I just explain everything and then you can ask about things that are not understandable otherwise if you comment on everything we will never get there.

-okay… .

Shin ended up nodding as he realized that he was indeed prolonging it. After that it went quick.

-so in that tomb Rin had a prequest in which me and Levi helped her. While doing so I actually managed to get another quest that is not exactly related to Rin’s quest but they both concern west. In that quest I received a ‘quest item’ the ‘crown of the king’ and the quest more or less is as follows. There is a chance that a living descendant of the king from the tomb lives, the successor of the throne of Solaris. There is some complicated thing with blood and all but in short the ghost said that the rightful successor of the throne can somehow bring back Solaris to its glory. I have no idea how would it actually happen, the ghost also said he did not know but he said it has some connection with the crown that I already mentioned that I have. The quest had a note that actual successor may already be dead but I thought that because I got this quest it shouldn’t at least be the case. Still, I had no idea how I would even start looking for that descendant anyway so I just leave it on the side. Still today while I was talking with Hikari, in the moment I agree to travel to the west with her that quest got completed and the other phase of it started. So what would you think about it?

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-… the obvious answer would be that Hikari is actually that successor, isn’t it?

Shin didn’t think much about it but he did end up asking for confirmation as somehow he didn’t want it to be true.

-that’s what I think as well.

-still, what would the actual successor do here? Also if you forgotten, Hikari is an elf and Solaris was a human empire in general and even if there were other races that were part of it, the royalty were all from human race.

-hmm… during the talk with the ghost I remember that he asked his subordinate as to what happen with his child and that subordinate said that the child escaped to elven lands and there that child married with some elven girl. Given that it was three hundred years ago with generations passing there shouldn’t be any traces of human origins in Hikari as probably most of her successors from that point were all from elven race.

-I see…

“With this there was no mistake. The quest wouldn’t have changed otherwise.”

-still, I don’t know what being a successor to the throne would change but how would it actually work? Because, I can’t really imagine. I did once hear something about royal bloodline in the past and even though there is nothing to prove it as long as the royal bloodline held the throne some countries were prospering well and the moment the line was cut the country stopped exist soon. But even if I were to believe in something like royal bloodline, as you said after all those decades Hikari doesn’t have much of a human in her and much less the actual blood of the previous king.

Shin started to explain what he thought about it.

-you probably shouldn’t ask me about it, I already told you everything I know. Still, we are in a magical world of EOA and not real world. Here anything can happen as long as it has slight traces of logic in it. Even things that have absolutely no logic in them can happen as well.

Arata didn’t have the answer to Shin’s worries.

-so you didn’t do anything in particular towards this quest yet?

-I have full hands with Rin’s quest right now so I didn’t even start thinking about it till now.

-I see… Arata… give me some time…

Shin answered and started thinking. After the revelation that he just heard he couldn’t somehow calm down. Even though it was not the time to do this he started thinking. Still, his tried to think up anything reasonable failed. His mind was now filled with thoughts and memories of the past. He was thinking of his time that he spent with Hikari and all strange events that happened that were connected to her. There were simply way too many thoughts in Shin’s mind right now to analyze them in any way, there was really just way too many. In the end, even though Shin couldn’t solve anything right now he arrived at temporary solution.

-Arata… you said you have no intentions of doing that quest right now and even if you wanted to do it, there is also a matter that Hikari can’t leave the village right now and it will still be some time before she can.

-how much exactly?

-a lot. I would say at least a year. That is because a new elder has to be selected or has to come from the elven capital and even afterwards there is a need for Hikari to pass down her responsibilities and teach the new elder the ropes. Right now there are not candidates for new elder in this village so it will take a lot of time before your quest can actually start. You should know that in comparison to other games in EOA you can’t simply force NPCs to do what they in theory should do. If Hikari doesn’t like it then she can simply ignore your quest completely.

-she will do that?

Arata ended up asking.

-no, probably not…

“Or rather she will be jumping from joy while saying ‘see Shin, I told you I should have go there. Now then you made me the elder so now unmade me elder right now so I can finally go, you can’t say no anymore yupi!”

Shin had an image of what would happen should Arata decided to tell Hikari about it today. In worst case scenario she would ignore everything and actually join them today. It was really good thing that Arata first talked with Shin because Shin did not have the strength to defend her. There was a difference between him going to the west to have fun adventure with his teammates and Hikari going. Shin always expected the end of expedition the moment they die after getting overwhelmed. It was natural to think like that because of what he knew about the west. If they got unlucky and meet the certain creature that is living in the forest that they plan to go through today, it was very possible that the total annihilation will happen right away on the day one. Against that creature, one would need an army and even then it might still be not enough. Then later on in the west, the creatures like this would continue to appear and the moment the party encounters one of them it will be most likely over. If Hikari were to come with them, the ending would also be the same. Despite being able to use really powerful magic, Hikari was not really that good at fighting. She did not have that much experience in it and actually using her magic in the heat of battle would be also quite dangerous to her. She was far from controlling it completely, even though there definitely was a huge progress since the time where she didn’t know how to control it at all it was still not something that she could use freely. The only time that her magic was used in an offensive way was during the ‘defense of Larisane’. If it weren’t for her it would be completely impossible for that battle to end without defeat. Shin would never say though that it was victory at that time.

-anyway because we are not going to do anything with that quest right now we will put it on hold and try to not think about it…

Shin presented Arata the temporary solution that he had made.

“Well, it’s impossible for me not to think about it but I should be able to focus on today’s expedition at least.”

-also it will be good if you don’t talk about it with Hikari for now, or rather don’t tell anyone else as they might tell Hikari about it. Either way, the important thing is that Hikari can’t find out about it.

-I wasn’t going to do it anyway as I thought it might have triggered the activation of this quest right now. Still it seems like I didn’t have to worry about it given that she has to stay here.

“No, it would trigger the event really fast and this village would end up elderless.”

Shin didn’t voice his thoughts to Arata now.

-ah right before I forget, Hikari said that it will be me contacting you when she will be ready so it’s better if you give me your phone number.

-okay, it’s 506682876.

Shin ended up noting it in his notebook and then he stood up from the bench.

-I will call you on the first occasion when we log out for now it’s better if we don’t keep others waiting any longer. Ah, I already hear those complains.

Arata and Shin started walking towards the meeting spot. It was not that far from where they were as right now they were in the western part of Larisane. It still took them ten minutes, before they could see the familiar faces of their teammates. Everyone apart from them naturally were already. After all, it was over an hour and a half delay.

-hey it’s them!

Seeing them coming, someone sounded the alarm. Soon enough few people from the part run up to him, with Julia being the first one. Knowing what might happen Shin stretch his hand forward to calm down everyone.

-yes, my fault, my fault. Anyway I don’t really have a good excuse as to why I am late but you can complain later on.

-it’s unusual for you to be late.

Vatras who did not run but slowly walked forward said to him.

-rather it never happened.

Following him Thesar added.

-yes, yes sorry…

Shin once again apologized.

-anyway I see that everyone is here so we should get going already.

After Shin said that everyone who were still siting stood up and started following Musashi who started leading everyone in the direction of the west. In this party there was no one that would take the responsibility to say the last words before going.

-em! EM!!…

Suddenly though someone shouted and got the recognition of everyone. It was a blond haired knight who was wearing a gray cloak.

-before we go, I think there is one thing left to do! I know that you guys don’t have a leader but wouldn’t it be sad to begin this epic journey to death without saying anything.

Levi who was now joined by Arata after he walked towards him started. Everyone who was present didn’t dislike this idea and let them continue.

-it’s not a journey to death but to victory but whatever!…

Arata added.

-so because there is no one in your team to say it we decided that our party leader will make a speech.

He continued like that. After Arata said that everyone once again gathered in one place and waited for what Arata was going to say. At least everyone thought that it was Arata who was going to say something.

-it will definitely be an encouraging speech so listen well.

Levi added and then.

=hey RIN!

He and Arata with slightly amused voice shouted to Rin who so far did not suspect a thing and was actually walking away from everyone while eating some cookies. The moment Arata and Levi called out to her she was in the middle of bite.

-a… .

Before she actually realized what was happening Arata and Levi run up to her and picked her up by legs upward.

-what are you doing!

Rin was half dazed by situation but when they picked her up she had to respond.

-naturally we are picking up our small miss leader so everyone can see you, right Arata?

-yep.

-so Rin give us the greatest encouraging speech you can think of. Everyone is waiting.

Rin ended looking around and everyone were looking in their direction with eyes of anticipation.

“Even though it seem like a joke, we don’t have something like that quite often.”

Shin also was waiting. He himself would also want to have this ritual in his party to appear more often but unfortunately somehow others expected him to do it and he was the last person that should be doing it. At least that was what Shin thought.

-if you want to have some stupid speeches do it yourself!

Rin ended up trying to ignore the crowd and yelled at her teammates.

“Yes, this is the response that I expected.”

-Rin, Rin, Rin… we can’t do that ourselves, right Arata?

-naturally, it’s the leader duty after all. It’s you who wanted to be the leader.

-but what does it have to do with this party!?

-well, in theory, it’s true that we are joining their expedition but in practice it’s also them helping us with our quest.

-so what!

-remember when I told you that morale are important.

-no, you were just babbling some strange theories about strange people so I was not listening, anyway, get me down already!

-sure, sure.

Somehow Arata and Levi let down Rin without much argue but that was just the part of their devious plan.

=the stage is yours Rin!

Arata and Levi shouted that and then started running away. But in the second they, did Rin quickly managed to catch Arata by a collar.

-not so fast, Arata. Don’t think I will fall for that. Now then… .

-to my defense it was all Levi’s idea I just come here a minute ago! You saw it yourself. I didn’t have a time to come up with something like this.

Arata did not try to run anymore as he knew that it was futile.

-of course it was his idea but you still agreed to it.

-sorry.

“Ah, they really do not realize that we don’t have enough time.”

Shin thought to himself after he once again check the hour. It was nearly 16:00 right now. Which was actually, quite bad. Still no one complained and everyone just waited to see what will turn out from it.

-in the first place Arata! It’s not me, who should be making speeches but that guy!

Rin pointed directly at Shin who seeing it coming quickly hid behind a tree so before anyone turned their head he was already out of seeing.

“That was close.”

-it won’t work, Shin will never do something like that. But feel free to do anything you want.

Vatras ended up adding to their conversation.

-yea we all love things like this.

Then following him Vivi.

-see Rin everyone is happy, go ahead.

-no way in hell…

Rin was blunt here.

-if you want a stupid speeches Arata, make them yourself.

-it won’t do, you are our leader Rin.

-fine Arata, I give this position back to you, now you can make the speech.

-okay, I will try to make one when there will be occasion for us three but here it’s still not my duty to do so. Here, my word has a little meaning but yours as the party’s strongest has a lot of value in it. When there is no leader in the party, the strongest is the one that leads it to victory.

“The strongest leads us to victory, hmm?”

Hearing Arata’s words Shin ended up coming out from behind the tree and started walking towards where the scene was being played out. Everyone looked at him and waited for him to say something but he wasn’t going to say anything. Instead he walked towards Rin and whispered to her.

-we don’t need a leader, we don’t need your words, what we need is a figure to follow. Could you assure everyone that when the bad times comes, you will be their pillar of support?

-NO WAY IN HELL!

While Shin whispered Rin just shouted out to respond.

-hahahahahaha!!!

Shin ended up laughing out loud. It was really unusual to see him laugh like this so everyone was surprised.

-hey everyone, looks like nothing will come out from it so let’s get going already!

Musashi ended up shouting seeing that there will be nothing out from Levi’s and Arata’s idea.

-it seemed interesting though.

-yea, we nearly managed to get starter speech.

-aye, I also wanted to see it. Musashi maybe we should wait a little more?

Flynn ended up asking.

-nay Flynn, I never believed it will happen anyway. It was nice to see her reaction though, and Shin laughing like this, when was the last time it happened.

The other dwarf with new black beard also agreed.

-yes and we shouldn’t delay any longer. Let’s get into the formation in which we will move. It’s not that long till we will find our first enemies. Our expedition already began long ago.

Vatras finished all disputes and the journey finally began.

Seeing that everyone got into their positions right away, Shin realized that everything was already explained while he was absent. Well those were only last time details as he already explained the general strategy before. The groups A and B were leading on the frond with Musashi being closest to the middle. Although he was still in the area of his team place which was the left point of triangle. Lee and Konan were holding the outer left flank. Rin and Yume were walking in the middle while being protected from every side. Then there was Vatras who was walking close to the middle of the whole formation. It was also where Shin was at the current moment. Shin was the part of team C that right now was on rest duty, which meant they were at the back of formation. Shin was overseeing from the middle the whole formation though. People from team C at the current moment didn’t have a specific role to play. With exception of Bran who was also walking close to Shin and was trying to take notice of first enemy that would appear in the distance. The rest from team C, Levi, Kei, Kuma, Thesar were relaxing at the back.

Then at the right side of formation was a team A. Flynn was in the middle of the right section. Then Arata and Julia was at it right now were stationed at the right flank together. Probably no one managed to explain the formation to Arata yet but it seemed like Julia was at it right now. Similar to the left side with this position, formation defended Vivi, Hiro and Mika who were going to stand in the middle although right now Hiro was going slightly towards the middle to where Shin was and he was waiting for the time when they can talk.

-looks good right?

Vatras who was walking next to Shin together with Bran said.

-given we are doing this formation for the first time it did turn out good.

Shin answered.

-well, we did a small training of it while we were waiting for you. Although, originally we were to going to do it with everyone.

-not to mention our strategist was gone during the most important part.

Bran added the painful yet so true words.

-yes, yes, once again sorry.

-so, what was the reason Shin? You won’t say like before that you didn’t have a reason right? Did you find some really interesting topic with Arata?

Bran was not beating around the bush and was not tactful. He wanted to know so he asked without holding back.

-you could say so, although our talk did not involve this expedition at all and right now it’s not the time for the talk.

-aye… talking and trying to spot enemies with the use of sound is not something that I should do. Anyway until we find the first pack I think I should be at the front so I will walk up with Musashi.

Just like he said Bran soon after was walking next to Musashi. He did not start a talk with him through and he was scouting the area before him. Actually there were only few people now talking to each other. It could be because of being spread out like this but also because some people were slowly getting nervous. Even though it was just the beginning they already were in the west.

‘crunch’

Well, there was one person who without the care was simply eating cookies as they walked forward. As for people who were talking it was mostly the ‘relaxed four’ at the back of formation.

-Shin will we be okay with this tempo? We started slightly late.

Vatras ended up asking.

-don’t ask me that if you already know the answer. Hopefully nothing will happen.

Shin ended up answering while prying that he will be right.

-wouldn’t it have been better if we just waited for another day?

-yes but it would have been your job to convince Hikari to let us stay for another day.

Shin quickly answered as he already analyzed this proposition.

-guess, it can’t be helped. Even if she wanted to agree, she has the rules to maintain and if the elder of the village don’t follow the rules, who else would follow them.

-yes, we can’t make too much trouble for her. Also, even if we will get into bad situation because of this little delay, if we won’t be able to overcome it, our expedition to the west will end up as a failure anyway.

-you mean it will be a good test?

-… .

Shin did not answer but simply nod.

-still, despite everything, we will all die anyway. It was your prediction wasn’t it.

-it was before we got three new fighting powers and a winning condition. Our chances might be small and even if we succeed it won’t be a flawless victory but if possible I want to get those guys to reach their objective.

-well, I knew you will say something like that. Anyway before I go, what are the chances of being wiped out on the first day?

-you mean complete wipe today? Given that we delayed for so long, I would give 50% for maybe not complete wipe but a damage that will be enough to make us stop. Then even if we manage to continue, it won’t be without deaths.

After hearing this answer, Vatras walked away to his position in the formation. Which was not that far from where Shin was, but they were no longer talking. Instead someone who was waiting for his turn finally came.

-hey Shin.

-hi… something on your mind Hiro?

-I thought that I will report something to you Shin…

“Well I guess I know what it will be about.”

-I will make it quick. As you probably realized there were few spells that I used during my fight with Rin that theoretically I shouldn’t have. It’s not that I was hiding them as in fact I don’t have skills like that, those are something different.

-I already know about ‘primitive magic’ so I know what are you about…

In truth Shin knew about ‘primitive magic’ for a really long time now. He also found out that his analytical mind is completely not suited to using primitive magic. Although from what Shin learned there are actually not that many people that can use primitive magic in an effective way. And number of people that can use it in battle is ever smaller.

-by the way Hiro, was the secret that you learned from the man that your sister was talking about was a secret about how to use it?

Shin asked. He already know that Hiro will not reveal the secret no matter what but a question like this was not a problem given the good terms on which they are and the fact that Shin would not tell about it around.

-well it’s basically. Well it’s not a 100% proof method that will work for anyone and even then you need a lot of training to actually pull that off, but if you have just a slight amount of talent for primitive magic then with this method you will be able to make use of it. I already been trying to use that magic for a really long time and with some success but only after learning that secret it actually became useable in combat. Well, I am still only at the lowest level of that method and have a long way to go till I can use it freely. Anyway I wanted to talk about exactly that. There might be time when there will be a need for one of those spells so just so you know. If you want to make use of them, my preparation time for a single spell is on average 1 minute, with exception of one ultimate that would take 10 minutes and have 50% chances of working. Then if we suspect a fight beforehand if you give me 30 minutes I will be able to prepare all my spells and be ready to cast them anytime later on, but that’s still can only be kept for 20 minutes of fight. Also by using this method I will pass out after those 20 minutes in similar way I passed out after Rin’s fight. So, if anything I would rather stick to the normal method that you told me about…

Hiro ended up explaining how his basic primitive works and what conditions it has. It actually had a lot of condition to meet which made the whole concept not that useful unless it’s a dire situation.

“I guess it will work only as a trump card for now. But it seems like he was not wasting time if he brought it to this level already.”

Normally no one would explain in details their skills with mentioning of all their weaknesses but in this party it was different. Hiro had 100% assurance that what he say to Shin will be for his ears alone, well with the exception of certain black beard dwarf but that black beard dwarf was also trustworthy. Also in the first place it was Shin that introduced Hiro to the concept of primitive magic despite not being able to use it himself. It was already more than two years ago in game time. Hiro also had problems at first but with some time, he did manage to cast few spells with the use of it, although he could only do that while he could concentrate, which meant when he was not attacked by enemies and also those spells were usually much weaker than Hiro’s normal spells so there was little use in them. Still it seemed that what Hiro have learned himself allowed him to use it more freely to some degree and in future it could go even higher.

-right now I have eight useful skills that I can use with it, should I start listing them out.

-we won’t have time for it now. Look Bran made a signal…

Shin just saw as Bran hold up his hand upward and the formation stopped. Although second later he put it down which meant false alarm and the formation started walking once again.

-well, anyway if there will be a need for you to use it I will leave it to your judgment and you can tell me the spells some other time. For now you probably shouldn’t use it.

-I don’t plan to use it at all. It’s still not in a state that it can be used freely and after effect is bad. I just used it only on her as… as I wanted to win.

Hiro stopped for a second but gave the explanation soon after.

-okay, thanks for notice.

-I am going back to my position then. Talk to you later.

And so Hiro walked back to his position which was the middle of the right circle.

The walk continued and now apart from ‘relaxed four’ at the back no one was talking anymore. They already were focused as to not get caught by any enemies that may come out any moment. Having to be focused at all time, that was the absolute necessity while traveling in the west. The formation that the party was using had a focus on that. It was not that at all times there would be a fight but the party at the back could relax while others had to always be prepared for battle.

Although Shin was right now in theory in the resting team he would not leave his post. In this expedition he won’t have too much time for rest as he was the ‘raid leader’. He had to oversee every battle and in case of need make quick and good decisions.

Similar to him, Bran was also not resting. Having his superb hearing, there was no one batter as a scout in a places like this. In the dark forest in which one couldn’t see too far away, the scouts that would rely on sight were much worse. In comparison someone like Bran was the best type of scout one could ask for. Although Bran was not only limited to his hearing. As a marksman his eyesight was also good, maybe not as good as Vivi’s one but still good. Also as a beastmaster, which was his original profession he had an ability to summon an eagle that would scout the area around them from the bird’s view. It wasn’t that useful to use this way of scouting in the dark forest but in other cases it was a great help.

With someone like Bran around, Shin was not worried about a sneak attack. Bran had been instructed to make stops any time he hear anything suspicious. Most of it would probably be a false alarm but he would definitely not miss enemies that would be around. Still, sneak attacks were the last problem as the party was already prepared for a fight at any time. That was the purpose of this formation. The problem would be however simple frontal attack by overwhelming forces.

The walk continued for another hour but so far the party did not encountered any enemies. Still the probability of encountering something was increasing with each passing minute as the party was getting farther and farther from the forest that surrounded Larisane and soon they were going to enter the area that will be their first test on the way to the west.

“So far, apart from being slightly late, everything is going according to the original plan. We didn’t encounter anything unexpected, although the fact that we didn’t encounter anything is also in a way not good. It would have been better if we had a small warm up fight before encountering anything big. Then again, encountering anything big is the last thing we want, so let be happy with how the things are going so far. Then again if we don’t fight anything for too long, people will get too relaxed and it is no good… Hmm both situations have pros and cons so any of them is fine I guess. Also…”

Shin finally spotted what he was waiting for.

“The easy walk will end soon.”

The ‘widow’s forest’ as it was called was now in their range of sight. About fifty meters before them there was a glade on which there were no trees, no bushes, not even flowers. Just simple, empty green glade. But that glade was no bigger than 50 meters in range and behind it there was ‘the widow’s forest’.

In comparison to the forest in which the party was right now there were few differences. First the most important one that forest was a coniferous forest. That natural changed the color of that forest. Especially now, that the EOA’s world time was the fall. Rather than a colorful forest with leafs in colors of red, yellow, and brown, the widow’s forest was dark green. The coniferous forest also natural looked different in the very structure of the trees. And lastly the other very visible change was a white ‘something’ on the trees. It was still not possible to recognize what it exactly was but Shin did know that those were spider webs. Also in comparison to normal spider webs those were really big as those were big spiders that made them. In the end the widow’s forest looked like some hunted forest from horror movie and with each passing hour as it would get darker and darker it would have been scarier to be in.

One might argue that planning to go through that forest was suicidal, and it was suicidal but Shin’s decision to go through there was not wrong. It simply was that all other routes were even worse and in this route there was a chance of slipping through that forest without encountering anything big. Other routes simply did not have that chance. Although right now, the chances of slipping through the forest safety were also low because the party was already two hours behind the schedule.

“It still should be better than other routes.”

Shin thought to himself, as the party slowly started to leave the ‘colorful’ forest and entered a glade but in that second Bran hold his hand up and after a second he looked at Shin and nod which was the signal that there was something before them.

“Well that’s only natural although I hopped that we will at least enter the forest without problem.”

-Shin, there is no mistake I also see a lot of movements in that forest right now. There are a lot of them and they are quite big, about this height.

Vivi reported as well. She showed that ‘the height of their soon to be enemies’ was reaching her neck, and Vivi wasn’t someone that you would call small, in height at least. Rather with her characteristics of an elf she was the tallest of all girls that the party had. The biggest problem was however that the spiders’ size was not big in height but in width.

-aye, those spiders are about my height. Still there are no bigger than those so I would say we are lucky.

-hiiiiii!…

Bran also reported but then there was a sudden squeak that came from the left.

-Mary? What is that talk about spiders?

Rin ended up asking with unusual voice.

-ah, right I didn’t tell you. Well it doesn’t matter to you but the first enemies that we will probably encounter are big spiders, actually we just located them so the fight against them should start soon.

Yume answered.

“Ah, seems like it was a ‘false alarm’ if Yume says like that. She should know Rin the best after all so if she says that it doesn’t matter than that should…”

Shin started thinking as earlier on he got an unbelievable information that stated that Rin in afraid of spiders for whatever reason. Now that Yume said that it didn’t matter than it didn’t matter although.

“Hey, what is with that face?”

Rin did not answer anything to Yume somehow her face went pale and her eyes were dead.

-Rin, everything okay?

Yume asked also seeing this change.

-everything okay, everything okay, everything okay… .

Rin ended up repeating herself.

“Really? So, Arata knew something that even Yume did not know? Interesting. Still what about him he also mentioned that…”

Shin now looked to the right and saw that the twilight swordsman was slightly more white than usual.

“What is with those two?”

-Arata, is something wrong?

Julia who was the closest to him asked.

-no, it’s just I remembered something bad and this image doesn’t want to go away.

Arata answered. He was doing fairly well in comparison to Rin.

“Ah, well. I understand that someone can be afraid of something without any reason for it.”

Shin thought to himself although Arata’s and Rin’s fear was not without solid base to it.

“Well, seeing those two so far, I am sure that when the fight starts and they see that those spiders are nothing more than another type of monster that they just have to slaughter they will fight okay. I mean even though the basis are the same spiders of that size shouldn’t exist.”

Technically Shin still did not see those spiders himself either but from what he heard he already had a clean image of how they will look like.

“Now then, we can’t prolong any longer.”

-everyone! The fights will begin the moment we walk pass this glade and enter the other forest, maybe even slightly earlier as the spiders may come out from the forest to attack us ourselves. We have no information about what they can do but they are probably simple beast type monsters without special abilities. They might be a poisonous though so healers make sure to cast ‘cure poison’ whenever you suspect that someone was poisoned. Anyway we will be using this formation and as discussed team C won’t be joining the fight unless necessary. Musashi! Forward!

For now the informations were too limited so Shin could only remind everyone to be careful.

The walk continued and they walked through the glade. Even though Vivi and Bran already noticed the enemy, for all others, the forest at the other end of the glade looked quiet. There were no movements in it, that one could see. Although there were some strange shadows that did not look like shadows of the trees.

“Those creatures are intelligent enough to make an ambush?”

Although Shin did not see them himself, he already knew that something is waiting in the forest before them. Still normally the monsters on the field would just attack upon noticing their prey, here however the monsters in that forest were waiting for them and were hiding behind the trees. Although those monsters were slightly too big, to hide completely. Still farther to the forest it was all dark, and the party could not see what was in there. Unfortunately not seeing and not knowing something didn’t mean that it’s not there.

“Hmm, maybe those spiders have a restriction on leaving that forest. Well, all and all, enemies like this should have an advantage over us in a dark forest like this. There are probably some of them that are hiding in the trees and the moment we enter the forest they will jump onto us. This can’t happen, no matter what, if the formation crumbles and something enters inside and we can’t deal with it quickly then we simply lose.”

The situation in which monsters would start to attack the range always resulted in ‘wipe’. It was not limited only to EOA. Rather in EOA there would still be slight chance that the range could survive still, it would depend on the individual player.

“The best option would be simply pulling those spiders out of their forest and fight on this glade… yes this will be the best. Then even if they won’t come after us we will have the advantage as we can simply attack from afar. Even if the enemy decides to fall back to the forest we will break their ambush…”

Shin started to analyze the possible outcomes.

“Yes, I don’t see a reason why this shouldn’t work, after all I never heard of spider type monster that shots. On the other hand if there will be one then we will have to either retreat and think of other strategy or simply rush in to the forest. But that’s just small possibility in case they will be able to shot which shouldn’t happen.”

-everyone! Even though we don’t see them, the enemy is hiding before us in that forest. They are waiting in ambush for us and they will attack the moment we enter the forest and they will use their home ground to their advantage. Naturally we will not let them do it. Using the fact that spiders usually don’t shot we will first attack with range attack. This will either make the enemy charge on us or fall back to the forest. If they decide to fall back we rush after them while they are unorganized. We can’t let them regroup and prepare another ambush deeper in the forest. Still my prediction is that they will come at us as they are simple animals they should follow the instinct of fighting back. Afterwards the only thing left to do is to get rid of them. Possibly with good timing as our main objective today is to get through this forest fast without encountering anything too big. Although as always don’t be reckless and wait till you find out possible attack way in which the enemy can attacks us. That would be all, advance!

Shin told the party everything that they needed to know and they once again started advancing forward.

“Now then, will we simply have a fight on this glade or will something unexpected happen?”

Shin thought to himself although something unexpected would be really unlikely as he already foresee most of possible outcomes. Still one of those outcomes started to happen before his eyes.

-Flynn, something like a white arrow is coming with a great speed from this direction!

Having her good ranger’s eyesight Vivi was first to see the incoming withe projectile. It came out from the forest before them, from the right side.

-aye, got it!…

Flynn noticed it quickly and right away moved to stand in the way of that missile. Soon the white arrow bounced of his shield that he prepared.

-hmm… looks like they can shoot Shin.

Flynn said after watching what was lying before him.

-what kind of attack it is?

Shin quickly asked.

-nothing much, you could compare it to a simple arrow, well slightly bigger arrow but it didn’t do anything to my shield. Also, I think it’s some kind of hardened spiderweb what was formed like an arrow.

-I see, well let’s not overthink it too much and just think of it as an arrow. Anyway we should just take notice that range attacks can happen as well, still that doesn’t change the fact that our artillery should be stronger. For now, adv…-

Shin was going to say ‘advance’ but he now realized that the first attack was just a warning for them to pull back. Now another shots started to come at them, this time in greater number and they also looked somewhat stronger. There was still only five of them so it was not that bad.

-tanks! Block what you can, other just avoid the attacks. Although their attacks are fast we see them from the long range it shouldn’t be hard to avoid them…

The first shot was visible only to people with improved eyesight like Vivi but the current arrows were visible to anyone.

“Although, I wonder what kind of monster can shot the arrows like this from this range. I mean we are still 30 meters away from the forest and we don’t see them but only their attacks.”

-continue forward while taking care of those arrows. When we engage the enemy they shouldn’t be able to freely shot them like that.

Nothing that bad was really happening but then something ‘unexpected’ happened. Right before moment Musashi and Flynn tried to block out the incoming arrows those arrows stretched out themselves and changed into a net, or rather simply spider web of gigantic size. It still had its previous speed and like nothing, both attacks quickly catch off guard both tanks and now Musashi and Flynn were caught in spider web. What was worse, while two other attacks were complete misses that flied pass the party one of them flied exactly at Hiro. Hiro with his usual confidence just made one step to the left to avoid them but the arrow changed into the net just like the two others a half of the web managed to catch Hiro and the other half soon bended and surrounded him fully. The speed of attack also created an impact that made him fall to the ground.

-hey I didn’t hear about this one!

Musashi complained while trying to get out from the web but even though he was trying to cut it down with his weapon, the web was not easily cut. Also the web highly restricted his movement which made it hard to cut.

-get off, dammit!

Flynn was in a similar situation and even his axe could not cut through the web. Anytime he tried to cut the web the web would just stick to his weapon.

Hiro on the other hand give up on struggling and waited.

In the meantime another five arrows could be seen.

-everyone, don’t let it touch you!

Shin shouted out but after unexpected attack some were disoriented and second later Julia, Konan and Vatras were all catch in a similar arrow as well. And just like others, their attempts to get rid of the web were futile.

Just like that in few moments, out of 12 people that were in team A and B, 6 of them were caught. What was worse the battle didn’t even begin, but it was soon going to begin in a second.

‘kraruara!’

A strange but loud sound could be heard from the inside of the forest and soon after, the forest that looked empty a second before was now filled with gigantic spiders that started to come out from behind the trees, top of the trees or simply the darkness deep in the forest. Also against earlier predictions the spiders started to come out from their forest on their glade. Shin realized a single mistake in his assumptions.

“Fighting inside the forest wouldn’t have been advantageous to them.”

Even though it was their home ground the forest could actually help the party. That was because that some of the spiders that were coming out from the forest were really big. They would barely fit between the trees, much less make large attacks. Well not all of them were that big.

Even though there were many spiders that were uncountable at the current moment they could mostly be divided in two groups. Huge spiders and super huge spiders.

The huge spiders were well huge. As Bran mentioned before they were nearly of the height of a dwarf. About 1,5 meter in height on the eye. Then they were 2,5 meters in width, although that was mostly because of their legs that were one meter long each. Each spider had eight legs. Six of them were really thick and it seems that they were used by spiders to walk. There were also two front legs that weren’t used to walk. They were slightly thinner but they looked really sharp. They were the two front legs that probably served to attack. Although the scariest looking part that would attack was definitely the mouth. Someone that would get catch in those jaws would not live for too long. There were also traces of poison on some of them, but only the bigger ones. The bigger ones were not that much different from smaller ones in look, they were just twice as big and had a different color. The smaller ones were mostly green and yellow, while the bigger ones were all orange. One could assume that the color signified the power of each spider and the green ones were the most basic ones while the orange ones were older spiders that were probably stronger. They were at least bigger, so maybe it was some older version.

Still the problem weren’t the bigger ones. There were about ‘5 orange spiders’ visible right now, and ‘a lot’ of smaller ones. Although, the smaller ones were still quite big. The worst thing was that new spiders kept on coming out from the dark and they soon reached the number of hundred.

“So the situation is, six of us are caught and the enemy forces are coming at us… that’s just great.”

Shin thought like that, it seemed quite bad but strangely a smile of excitement appeared on his face.

“Now then, we are already too far to fall back to the forest so we will fight on the glade. Even if everyone could run we probably wouldn’t manage to out run those spiders and also the formation would crumble. Yes, the fight will have to take place here but there are two things that must be taken care of if we want to win.”

-li…-

Shin was going to tell everyone that the first thing that they need to do was to take care of are the webs that caught Musashi, Flynn, Hiro, Julia, Konan and Vatras. Still it seemed like it was not needed as most of people were already trying to get rid of it.

Still it wasn’t going that good. The web was not that easily cuttable as any time someone tried to cut it down with a weapon the web would just bend around the weapon and afterwards would just glue the weapon, which made the other attempts on cutting it even harder. Also there was Yume who was trying to help Vatras by burning down the web but the web didn’t catch on the fire. It was really resilient.

“Even fire won’t work… we don’t have much time to find the good way. Should I call out the team C already?”

The spiders were already coming in numbers if in fifteen seconds they won’t find a solution to the web the party will be attacked in moment where both of the tanks can’t move from their positions. Sure they could still defend themselves as the web did not restrict their movements fully but they wouldn’t be able to stop the advance of the spiders. In short they wouldn’t be able to do their job as a tank.

“Now, think what is good against web?”

-another five arrows incoming!

Vivi shouted. The spiders were not slacking off.

-try to shoot it down, range!

-aye!

-okay!

[Magic bolt]

Shin as well took part in this and shot one of his magic bolts on the arrow. Even if the arrows were small the magic attack was slightly bigger so hitting it was not a problem. In collision between range attacks and the white arrows. Attacks by Yume, Bran and Vivi those were shot down, then Shin’s attack managed to activate the arrow and the spider web fallen down on the ground ten meters away, which meant it was neutralized. Then there was one attack that wasn’t taken care by ‘the last range available’ but luckily that arrow was a miss. Given the large range from where the enemy was shooting they couldn’t always hit it right and everyone focused on the arrows that would hit. Although theoretically every arrow should be shoot down. Shin looked in the direction of ‘range’ that was slacking.

Rin was just standing there and looked with terrified look at what was happening before her. Or rather she wasn’t terrified by the situation but by the look of the creatures that came out from the forest.

“Can’t be helped.”

There was no time for Shin to take care of something like this now. He had to think of a way to deal with the spider web in few seconds. Luckily the solution appeared second later.

-Mika! Use water spells on those who are in the web. Or rather just soak that web in water, it will help!

It was Hiro who said those words. Shin did not know when but while they were taking care of other projectiles, Hiro managed to completely ‘wash away’ the web that was on him. Hearing those instructions Mika started helping everyone with her spells worked like magic, well it was magic after all. Also she was not the only one. The moment Hiro revealed the weakness of the web, Arata who was trying to help Julia with little effectiveness so far started to cut down the web out of sudden like nothing. In seconds he helped both her and Flynn who was three meters away from him. The moment Flynn was released from the web he parried the first blow of the ‘yellow spider’ that came at him.

In second the fight started on all sides but just in time the solution to the spider web was found. Still, that didn’t mean that the white arrows stopped coming.

“Quite close.”

Shin was already ready to shout ‘team C join the fight!’ but he didn’t have to do it. Although given the ‘army’ that came at them, the possibility of letting team C slack was small. But for now the fight began.

“Hmm, no matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of spiders.”

The whole area before them was crawling with huge spiders. Still this also had it advantages. Because of their size, they could not all attack all at the same time. Using the formation the fight was minimalized to fighting 8 spiders at the time. Three each were hold back at the front by both tanks and the one that would try to circle around them would meet with left and right flank which with the help of the range dps instantly started taking care of them. Although, the left side of the formation was slightly slacking off as one of the range wasn’t doing their job. Still even with that after taking care of two or three spiders the danger of being surrounded was getting lower. That was because with every new spider dead a wall of corpses was slowly building around them.

For now the plan was like this. The tanks were holding in reserve the front lines with the support of healers while all dps were taking care of both flanks. The spiders on both sides were dying really fast with quick assault of dps. There was no danger of getting surrounded.

The spiders attacked mostly with their two front legs. In comparison to all other legs those two were much thinner and weren’t used to walking. The attack of the spiders was similar to attack of the spears, they had long range but only the very end could do a critical damage. Although the attacks themselves were much more different from the spears in terms of angle from which they came. Also each spider had two of those spears.

Flynn and Musashi were doing an incredible job at holding back three spiders at once. They both were surrounded from three sides at the moment but still somehow managed to withstand their attack. Natural they still get hit quite often especially from the attacks that they couldn’t even see, but they had the reliable healers at their back and because they were both ‘pure tank type’ they had huge defense. Even with the monsters of the west with healers at their back they would easily survive the attacks.

The frontal spiders tanked by tanks were left alone as dpses were all focused on holding the flank. The pile of spider bodies was slowly forming on both sizes. On the right size the was Arata, Julia, Hiro and Vivi to take care of them and on the left size Yume, Konan, Lee and technically Rin but in practice Bran was doing her job right now. Also while killing spiders Vivi and Bran were tasked with shooting down the white arrows that never stopped coming. This time the white arrows were coming up from the sky, probably to avoid hitting their own target. That made those arrows so much more difficult to deal with. One reason for that was that it was harder to hit a target that was coming from above for various reasons. It was harder to see, harder to aim, there was stronger wind up there. Because of those reasons the white arrows were stopped with little success. What was the worse in them was that there were two types of arrows coming and to the very end one could not predict which type it would be. And both of types were bad. When someone got caught in the web not only the coughed person would stop fighting for some time but also they would get distracted right away. When Mika was caught by web at some point it was nearly a wipe. Only because of Shin’s quick judgment to let Thesar in it did not happen. It was a simple matter. If something happened to a healer the bad things would follow up soon after. Then there was a problem when dps got caught as when that happened the flanks would have smaller damage which could result in spiders getting around the party and attacking from the back. That wasn’t a necessary that bad as there was still ‘slacking four’ at the back ready to enter any minute but they were the emergency card and also if the battle were to go on for too long, the switches between teams would be needed. Still getting caught in the web was still better than getting hit by the white arrow that was meant to attack. So far there was only one person that got hit by the white arrow as the spiders were focusing more on the spider web attack but still when Vivi got hit by that one white arrow all three healers from the party including Thesar who was on the back, immediately casted their best healing spells on her which eat the most amount of mana just to save Vivi’s life. It was something that all healers had, ‘a damage insight’ which could tell them how much damage a person took from this or that attack. For them to cast emergency heals like that meant that Vivi not only took a substantial amount of damage from that hit but also something similar to poison or bleeding effect would follow soon after.

“At the current moment our biggest problem is not the shadow of that gigantic spider that is twice as big as the orange spiders but those white arrows. So far the spiders are mostly using the web attack to catch us. Sure it is probably the better tactic but luckily for us we have a good countermeasure for it.”

While thinking like that Shin looked at Mika who was completely left with the duty of taking care of people that were caught by the web. For her it was just casting one single spell that would heal at the same time, so she was perfect for this job. Also as a healer she wasn’t focusing on the enemy but on her teammates so she also quickly saw the moment someone got caught.

“Just a note to myself if Mika dies here, we are doomed. Anyway the only possible way for her to die would be get hit by that white arrow and from what Tras said if a mage cloth type gets hit by one of those then it’s an instant death. Vivi who has slight better defense survived by a thin hair… .”

For a second Shin also imaged himself dying from that attack in one shot.

“Okay, let’s ignore that big shadow over there, it’s too small to be ‘that creature’ and focus on most important part as of right now. To win this fight we need to first take care of those spiders that shoot at us. Well they may not even be spiders but what they are doesn’t matter. Still, there is one big problem with that, we still didn’t see them. They are just sniping at us from the long distance…”

Shin thought like that and then smiled with an evil grin.

“Let’s make this save distance not save anymore.”

-Kei!…

Shin shouted to his teammate back.

-go and tell Hiro and Arata that I have special mission for them, afterwards switch in to where Arata was fighting to keep the balance I will take Hiro place latter on.

-roger!

Kei without asking any question went to do it right away.

“It will be best if people that go for those spiders can deal with the web net so those two will be the best. Not to mention that they are probably the best team that I can make right now from the people available because this one…”

Shin once again looked in direction of Rin who was now crouching down and holding her knees.

“Really what story there is for her to behave like that? Still it can’t be left alone like this. Unfortunately we can’t let Yume right now deal with it as she herself is already too busy, rather if not for that she would already dealt with it herself. In that case the only other option is.”

-Levi, go get Rin to the back of the formation, Bran is already helping in her place. Still even so, Kuma go support the left flank and make the spiders that appear there focus on you so Lee can utilize his dps to the fullest.

-got it!

Kuma rushed forward right away, on the other hand Levi with slightly troubled look started slowly walking towards Rin, and still it was a distance of three meters so he arrived there quickly.

“I am not sure it will really help but it’s better than nothing. Still our team C is already involved deeply in the fight. I should have known that ‘west fights’ wouldn’t allow us to hold back.”

-Thesar. Vatras and Mika are doing fine so you don’t need to go in. Still those white arrows are the treat so be ready to cast your best healing skills on them. Paladin will be best for that and if you are tasked with this job the other healers won’t have to focus on those, otherwise we will have ‘big overheal’ just like with Vivi a second ago.

Shin said it out all loudly so the other healers could understand it as well.

“Now then.”

Shin started pointing his wooden staff to the sky in the direction of widow’s forest. The staff was pointed above the spider army.

[Rune: emerald gateway]

A magical circle appeared at the end of Shin’s staff and started forming. Normally this skill was easy to use but this time Shin was going to use it in a little unusual way. He needed to use more magical power than usual and the casting speed was also bigger but everything was going smoothly. The magical circle shined with emerald light and flied off to the sky above the spider army. The projectile landed somewhere in the forest. Afterwards Shin pointed with his staff on the ground right before him and this time much faster casted another emerald gateway. On the ground before him a green circle appeared that inside was filled with markings and letters that no one knew meaning off.

-what is it Shin?

Hiro and Arata came to him at about same time and in the meantime Kei was already fighting against spiders.

-I am sending you two to enemy lines with a single mission, kill the sniping spiders.

-sniping spiders?

Arata asked again.

-well the ones that are shooting at us with those white arrows. There are probably five of them. We don’t know where they are but they shouldn’t be hidden as they are shooting at us non-stop. If you traverse the woods you should be able to find them. Destroying them is your highest priority you can ignore all other spiders you find on the way. I am choosing you two as you both have ability to deal with the web net yourself which might be essential on this mission. I already prepared my teleport rune so you will appear somewhere close to the forest, hopefully not in the middle of the spider army. Any questions?

-I have one, you said that dealing with the web is essential but if I and Arata go, only Mika will be able to deal with those. What if something happens to her and she won’t be able to do it.

-if Mika gets killed then we lose, simple as that. Even if you two stay you won’t be able to replace her in getting care of the web effectively. Anyway to minimize that happening we need to deal with sniping spiders but at the same time if I send random people there and they got caught in net or simply die then we automatically lose people and at the same time the situation will not change.

-well, you don’t have to explain everything to us.

Hiro answered.

-so, we should just kill those sniping spiders right? Easy enough.

It seemed that both of them were ready.

-okay, step on the rune and I will send you there…

Hiro first stepped on the ‘rune’.

[Emerald switch]

And he was send to the enemy lines. Inside the rune in which he was standing just now a small leaf appeared. Shin quickly picked up that leaf and moved it away from the rune.

-now you Arata.

-you guys better don’t wipe here.

After Arata’s words, in a similar manner that before Shin ‘send’ Arata as well.

[Emerald switch]

Surprisingly what was now in the rune was a part of orange spider leg. It seemed like in second that Hiro was teleported there, already encountered a spider, cut off its leg and then put it on the rune so the conditions for it to work were meet.

“Now then, everything is already taken care of, all that’s left to execute the strategy. Ah, it’s been too long since I fought.”

Shin left his position in the middle of the formation and moved to the right to where Hiro was standing earlier. There was nothing left for him to do as a tactician for at the current moment, now it was his time to simply join in the fight and attack the enemy. Without counting the small skirmishes in the tournament it was more than a month, real time, since he fought anything.

The situation on the battlefield did not change. Tanks were still dealing with three spiders at the front at the same time. So far, the party was fighting mostly against green and yellow spiders, but there was also one orange spider in the front. That spider leaded the assault and since the beginning was being tanked by Flynn. Flynn was now defending against two green spiders and one orange. Nevertheless there were no indications of him falling any time soon.

“It’s still would probably be better to get rid of it now, to reduce use of healers’ mana.”

Even if it was not much, it would obviously be better if Flynn was defending against three green spiders and given that the number of orange spiders was low, dealing with them first the moment they come would be advantageous.

-Julia, Vivi, Kei. Switch your attacks to the front and get rid of orange spiders!

[Movable rune: silver sharpness]

[Rune: silver artillery]

Shin shouted the command and without delay or questions Julia, Vivi and Kei switched their targets. Normally someone might have ask the question about this decision especially when Shin’s order in a way meant ‘let the formation crumble and ignore enemy getting pass our right flank’. That was exactly what was going to happen as the moment Shin shouted the command they were still fighting against one green spider. Still no one said anything and just followed what Shin asked them to do.

While they were switching, Shin casted his runes on them. [Movable rune: silver sharpness] was a temporary buff that increased damage output of melee dps. In comparison to long term buffs that would be used at the beginning of the fight, temporary buffs were much more effective but as name suggested they worked only for a short period of time. [Rune: silver artillery] was also temporary buff that increased the damage of range dps.

As for the difference between ‘movable rune’ and ‘normal rune’. Movable rune was casted on players and it was following them as they moved. For example right now as Kei was running, the silver circle underneath him was moving as well. In comparison normal rune was casted on single spot on the ground and to use its buff the player would need to stay inside the circle. Those were the two types of runes that Shin could cast. Also, those types could be switched the way he wanted, which meant that Shin could also cast [Rune: silver sharpness] and [Moving rune: silver artillery]. Most of the buff runes could be casted in two ways.

Naturally one would assume that moving rune was much better, and in truth it was better and it was unlocked for Shin long after he passed 100th level. Both types of rune, movable and static one, would also increase given attribute by the same amount. There were many merits in using moving rune over normal rune. The only downfall was that moving rune had increased cost. The increase was extra half of the cost of the rune. It was not much but if Shin were to spam them for a long period of time, it was given that he would run out of mana faster using the moving rune. That’s why Shin kept on using normal runes as well whenever he could, especially in a fights like this where no one knew when it would end.

There was one advantage of normal runes though, and that was that it could be used by multiple people. Then there were also types of runes that would be meaningless if they were used as the movable type. And also there were some runes that would not activate if they were casted as movable type. Emerald gateway for example was one of them

[Rune: yellow bind]

While the others rushed to take care of the orange spider, Shin was left to deal with the spider that was attacking from the right flank. Well that spider was already damaged quite a lot but he was still ready to fight and when that spider was left alone the first thing he did was charge at the nearest enemy, which was actually Shin at the current moment. Shin did not waste any movement and casted his rune underneath the back leg of the spider. Shin could of course cast a larger rune on the whole spider but that was both meaningless and not resourceful. [Rune: yellow bind], made the enemy unable to get outside the circle for a specific amount of time. The most time would be five minutes but if opponent struggled that time would get lower. For example one strong move of boss class monster was enough to break through it. Still, for smaller enemies it worked much better and also by binding just one leg of the spider the effort to break out from the circle would only be counted by that leg alone.

The gigantic spider was struggling before Shin. It was trying to stretch its body forward leaving the one leg behind. With few attempts that leg was already in unusable state. Shin thought that the spider was actually trying to rip it off just to move forward. Still, the spider did not have enough time for that.

[Magic bolt]

Shin stretched his staff forward and started shooting one magic bolt after another at the spider before him.

The greatest fighting tactic that any magical class, no any range class dreamed of. Restrict enemy movement and shoot at them from afar. Any normal melee class or melee type of monster is automatically destroyed by this tactic and there is practically nothing they can do. At that time they can only struggle to get out from their binds before they die but range classes, and mages at that, could vaporize their enemies in instant so the enemy wouldn’t have a chance for that.

Still, even though that was a great tactic not many players could use it as the binding spell or some spell that would restrict enemy movement was rare. There were really not that many classes that Shin knew of that had a spell like this although none of them worked as good as Shin’s [yellow bind]. For example there were druids or rare [nature archers] that could bind their enemy with the creeps that would suddenly come out from the ground. The purpose of that spell was the same as Shin’s [yellow bind] to prevent enemy from moving but to get out from the creeps one only needed to cut them down. In comparison there was no good way to get out from yellow bind. One could only use brute power to get out from it but even gigantic spider from the west was not able to do it immediately.

So Shin could use one of the best restriction spell out there and that made him overwhelming powerful…

Unfortunately the story was not that good. Firstly even though it was good spell Shin would still need to cast it like normal [magic bolt] and hit with it right underneath the enemy which in practice was nearly impossible against fast moving enemy. That’s why shin would use this spell mostly as the trap and not something to cast right before enemy’s eyes.

Still as long as the enemy is caught Shin automatically wins…

Unfortunately that was also not true. The reason for that was quite simple. Even though Shin’s class [Runemaster] was technically a magician class like for example Wizard, Mage or Sage, Shin’s class didn’t have the greatest characteristic of those classes which was huge dps. While normally magician class specialized in wracking havoc upon the enemies, Shin’s attack would rather only scratch them a little, so even if he managed to catch his enemy, his magical attack would most of the times not be enough to deal with them completely. Sure Shin had few other ways of dealing damage but his direct damage was very limited. Shin didn’t have even most basic spell of mages which was a fireball. What type magician can’t even cast a simple fireball?

While Shin was slowly dealing with the spider before him, the others already macerated the orange spider at the front line near Flynn.

“Ah…”

Anytime Shin saw something like this he would be slightly depressed over his abilities as dps. Second later something even more depressing happened.

‘bum, bum, bum, bum.”

Right from behind Shin, an attack came that hit the spider for times around its head. Those were Bran’s bolts that he fired out from his crossbow from the other side of formation. His side already dealt with their spiders and while waiting for the next one Bran decided to help out here as well. After getting shot four time the spider before Shin dropped dead immediately.

-sigh.

Seeing it Shin could just sigh. He knew that Bran’s simple shots from his crossbow were doing about 4x more damage than his magical bolt on which he had to spend his mana on. Even though it was still a little it was still costing mana. Still, the last thing Shin would think about was to try to outdps Bran.

While magical classes were specialists in doing damage from afar, the rangers, archers and so on were even better at that. Well, better was slightly off. Both of them had their expertise. The mages were specialists in AOE while the rangers were better on single target. It of course still depended on individual skills and individual classes but that was how it generally went. As for Bran in particular, there was no better dps than Bran in this party, probably even after ‘the three’ has joined. Although if Rin were to start making havoc with her skill all out she would probably be better but then again Bran would still have the best ‘stable’ dps of all.

That was how it was in raid battles. Even though one might be very good individually, in raid battles what was important was their specialization. Dps just has to make huge dps. Tanks just have to keep the targets on them and survive. Healers have to heal everyone. It was simple as that. In raid it was important for players to only do their jobs, the moment they had to do something other than that meant that something was going wrong.

Solo fights, small party fights, raid fights, and gigantic army fights. In EOA every fight could be assigned to one of those. Solo fights were obvious. Small party fights were the most usual fights in which a group of people usually fewer than seven fought together. It was usually one tank, one healer and few dps to make things go faster. Then there were raid fights, which was something that Shin’s party was doing right now. Then lastly there were gigantic fight army fights. That would be any fight that would involve over 100th people on both sides. Still the gigantic army fights could go even to hundred thousand on both sides although those were usually conducted by NPCs rather than players. Naturally gigantic army fights were rare, especially those that involved over hundred thousand on both sides, but fights in which both sides would have few hundreds thousands of fighting power did happen.

For a note at the current moment Bran had the highest level in the party which was 187. While the average level in the party was 154. Also given that he was in the party since the beginning, he managed to get all best gear there was to get from the dungeons around Karma and not only Karma, as sometimes the party traveled to other places as well. Lastly the reason that Bran’s dps was at the current moment about 20% better than everyone else’s was his crossbow. That crossbow dropped a year ago during the battle ‘defense of Larisane’ in which Shin’s party was defending against demon invasion. Everyone knows that in EOA only one guild can fight against demons and that is ‘The hand of the devil’, also known as ‘demon slayers’. Still Shin’s party did manage to win one battle against demon army. Sure it heavily involved NPCs from the village as well but it was Shin who was leading the defense and it was Shin’s party that got main loot from the defeated demons. The best item from that loot was Bran’s crossbow for which every range dps would kill for. Shin once tried to find information about better range weapon on the internet but everything he found would be blank in compression to it. Well that was something that one should expect from loot from the demons and the crossbow itself was a lot from the general that was leading the assault.

There was one specific reason that no one could defeat demons in EOA. Sure they were strong but they weren’t overall stronger than anything else. They would definitely fade away in comparison to dragons. Still, even though rarely the dragons were killed but the demons were not. The reason for that was Demons’ unnatural resistance or rather regeneration powers. Even if you killed them, they would not die and would resurrect on their spots in about 5 minutes after. Unless one killed them in a specific way they would never truly die. Shin did not know how the rumored guild was dealing with demons but his party could deal with them only because of Hikari’s magic. Well, the whole defense of Larisane was a miracle anyway but nevertheless the demon general fell down and along few other drops dropped this crossbow which Bran was now putting to good use.

The orange spider on the front line was dealt with and its body now joined the wall that was slowly building around the party. Thanks to it, Flynn was now defending against only two green spiders as orange spider made twice as much of a wall than usual spider. The fact that there was one spider less to fight at the time was great improvement.

In the meantime the dpses were still dealing with the spiders that were coming from the sides. The wall of corpses was getting bigger and bigger so the distance between tanks and dps was getting larger and larger also if it went on like this the party would end up getting surrounded by the wall. On the one side it was a good thing but on the other bad.

“So far the wall is to our advantage but the possibility of it breaking is quite big. Not to mention that some spiders are already trying to get over it.”

Still, the wall of spider corpses was not accounted in the first strategy. The original strategy was to fall back the moment the spiders start to surround the party and it was finally the time to execute it.

“Not yet, five more minutes.”

Even though it was time to execute that plan, Shin decided to keep on fighting here for another 5 minutes. But after that time passed.

-we will be slowly moving back now!

Shin shouted and soon after slightly, with short steps everyone started to fall back. Shin considered quick retreat to the forest at the start of the fight but because some people were caught by spider web it was not possible, now however they could do it as the countermeasure to the web was found. Not to mention, that now rarely anyone got caught by it. After Vivi got nearly one-shooted by white arrow the range prioritized shooting down any missiles that would come at them. The danger was just too great. As the fight continued, the number of incoming arrows also started getting lower.

The moment they started moving back the three orange spiders started to cross the wall. Two from the left side and one from the right side of the formation. Still, the fall back started in the exact moment that orange spiders tried to cross the wall which greatly slowed them and one spider got even trapped within that wall. In that time without much problem the party backed off while taking care of spiders that were on tanks.

-I see, so it’s like this.

While moving back Shin could hear the part of Rin’s and Levi’s conversation. As the time went on, Rin somehow started to get back to normal

-exactly, just as I said. Those are not spiders, did you ever see a spider of this size? They are simple game monsters that were based on spiders. You are not afraid of some game monsters, are you?

-of course not! Also, I am not afraid of spiders either!

-it didn’t seem like that before.

-… .

-oh, you won’t say anything to that?

-fine I will admit. Because I have some bad memories with them whenever I see those small leggy creatures I can’t calm down. But you are right the big ones are not scary. Rather if I massacre them then maybe I will stop being afraid of the small ones as well.

-no, I think that you are not really scared of them but you are just telling yourself that you are scared of them, or something like that. Well, I am not a therapist so you will have to deal with this one on your own.

-even if you are not therapist, thank you Levi your words helped.

-oh, it’s rare for you to thank someone.

-it’s not… it’s just that usually there is nothing to thank for. Anyway let’s kill some spiders.

Rin was already ready to jump in but Levi caught her in last second by her red cloak.

-hold your horses Rin! Right now we are on reserve so until that guy tells us to join in the fight, we are resting at the back.

-what!? But I have nothing to rest from.

-second thing… we are retreating right now so you jumping in would do more harm than good.

-why are we retreating? Are there some problems? It doesn’t seem likt that to me but if so I can probably deal with them. In the first place, I can deal with all those ‘creatures that imitate spiders’ by myself! They will pay for fooling me!

-wait, wait! For a note, did you forget that you are range dps here?

-… ah right… well, it will be boring them but I can destroy everything with my ability as well. It will classify as range, right?

Levi face palm himself.

-okay let’s go back to the point one once again. Right now we are in raid group and doing anything without raid leader knowledge always lead to bad things. Even if you think that it will help it usually goes back on you.

-but what there is bad in destroying all those creatures here? They are our enemies, right? And enemies should be killed.

-even so strategy is important. Here for example we have no idea of how long this fight will last, so we need to hold the reserve. Even you can’t fight forever, you were reaching your limits in tomb challenge as well after fighting for few hours weren’t you?

-well, I guess you are right. But still… .

-I know you want to do some fighting but we are just entering a damn west. Our objective is far and it will take who know how long till we reach it. You will have a lot of chances to fight yet, so wait patiently for now.

-yes!

“It seems like the ‘card of queen’ is finally available for me.”

Shin thought like that while he heard Rin’s and Levi’s relaxed voices. Still there was no need for him to use this card just yet. After all, the journey to the west just began.

The fight continued for two hours but there weren’t any significant changes during it. The most important thing in raid battles was stability. There was no room for anything crazy, and things outside of Shin’s prediction rarely happen. If in this fight something could be called unexpected then it was when two orange spiders suddenly jumped over the tank line and landed in the middle of formation. Still no one was caught underneath when that happened and with quick ‘target switch’ from every dps in formation, the spiders that tried to jump inside were quickly vaporized. With some time the ‘white arrows’ completely stopped coming as well so range and healers didn’t have to worry about them anymore.

As the fight went one, the party ended up falling back to the forest at some point. In that forest however the fight became even easier. The big spiders had problem to move through the woods. Despite the fact that they originally lived in the forest on the other side of the glade. Still one couldn’t help when they had a size like that. The orange spiders for example were in complete unmovable state when they entered the forest. Still the number of orange spiders during the fight didn’t go over 20 even after two hours. On the other hand the number of green and yellow spiders seemed unlimited. At least at first, after two hours however their number was no more and actually every spider that came was already killed. Even though at first they seemed slightly intelligent with their ambush in the forest, the spiders weren’t intelligent enough to start running and fought to their deaths.

As the fight continued the identity of a large dark shadow in the forest was also revealed. It turned out that it was just another spider. This one was twice as big as the orange one and had the red color. Apart from that there wasn’t much difference. Sure he was stronger and all but when he was meet with the attack of party’s dps he perished quickly before showing anything special. Although it might have been that there was nothing that special about him and he was just the older version of orange spider. He definitely couldn’t be classified as boss class monster. Also Shin already had an idea of what ‘boss’ is lingering inside that forest and it was not this. Still the party’s objective wasn’t to fight against some bosses but to just quickly pass through that forest and leave at the other side. That was their current objective. Still after the fight ended a small problem arrived.

-hey guys, is it just me or those guys weren’t that strong?

Even though it was a two hour fight that took heavy burden on everyone and most of the people were breathing heavy after the fight, Flynn ended up commenting.

Right now they were all resting after the fight as marching inside the forest in this condition wasn’t the best idea.

-no, it’s just that we are awesome!

The bald monk Lee answered.

-well we didn’t have any close calls here. Well maybe except one time but it went smoothly.

Even Vatras agreed.

“Getting overconfident is not good.”

Shin quickly thought like that while hearing the comments and decided to add few words.

-sure, we already fought a harder fight before. But you guys compared this fight to a raid dungeon while in truth we were just killing some random mobs on the field.

-yes Shin is right.

-oh, Shin is right? Well Musashi you didn’t discover an America here.

Bran commented.

-what I mean is that we shouldn’t get cocky. Also even though it might seem like we won it all right, my question is, where are Arata and Hiro?

-oh now that you mention it.

Flynn looked with interest on the other hand the other dwarf Bran quickly said.

-RIP Hiro.

It was an inside joke which they used when someone died in battle.

“Yes, even though the white arrows stopped coming about half an hour ago they are still not here.”

During the fight Shin sent Arata and Hiro on a special mission to take care of ‘sniping spiders’ and it seemed that they managed to do it but somehow they didn’t manage to come back.

-shut up Bran. Mika, how is it?

-alive.

Musashi ignored Bran’s comment and asked Mika if Hiro was still alive. She said he is alive but there were absolutely no proof to her words. She didn’t have any way to check if it was true at the current moment. Still because Mika said that her brother was alive it was the truth.

-well they are probably good lost or are waiting for us inside the forest. Anyway, after we rest let’s go find them.

Shin quickly said as he was sure that what Mika said was the truth. Still if he had to explain someone the reason why everyone trusted her on it, even as a ‘man of logic’, the only explanation that Shin could give people was statistics. Shin did not believe in some unimaginable bond between siblings as this was the explanation that Mika gave them but the statistics confirmed that Mika always knew that if her brother was dead somewhere. There were no basics on it but if statistics confirmed something then Shin trusted them. Especially since Mika’s predictions were never wrong. Still Mika could only guess if he was alive or not, but one couldn’t tell if Hiro were to die second after, or if Arata was still alive either.

After 10 minutes of break, the party finally crossed the glade and entered the widow’s forest and that marked the true beginning of the expedition to west.

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