Author’s Corner: HELLO HELLO! Reaching the dungeons we are, epic fights we expect!
ANYWAY, for some reason this chapter just refused to come out of my head, and I spent a lot more time than usual making it… Hope it still is in good quality.
ALSO, I’m a bit surprised that there weren’t all that many questions for the Q&A. Well, it happens, so I’m posting them here at this chapters end.
ALSO(2), for the dungeons fight, I will probably be nowhere near as detailed as the usual. And it’s not because it bothers me nor anything of the like, but more that there will be simply so many things to keep track, with so many players hitting and being hit that if I were to write everything that happened would take me a good ten chapters before we even reach the first boss, so yeah.
ALSO(3), there is a slightly specific joke in this chapter. I wonder how many will actually get it.
ALSO(4), as a random rant, I started a new character in MH4U, called him Wargon and made his Palico called Lieutenant. So yeah.
Have a good read!
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I rubbed my head slightly, feeling a bit light-headed with this important information that I just got. So, Yuu’s princess level is a lot higher than what I expected. To the point that she says that she will take her father’s jet as one would say that he would get a lift with a friend to a nearby city.
It’s actually a bit scary the fact that these two plan on coming to meet me in a couple of days in real life. On the other hand, it would take a couple of weeks in-game, which gives me a bit more time to organize my thoughts.
I shook my head briefly so I could turn my focus back to the two girls and asked.
“So, the two of you plan to come during next weekend, right?” I asked in confirmation, and the two nodded. “Do any of you at least know how to speak Portuguese?”
If Yuu turned to me and said that she knows… I wouldn’t be surprised, to tell the truth. I’m kind of expecting her to know pretty much anything that is not technology related by this point. But much to my surprise, she actually shook her head before looking towards Han-chan.
Han-chan smiled a bit shyly and said.
“I… Actually know a bit of Portuguese, to tell the truth…” She said shyly. “Since mother travels a lot, I ended up learning many different languages…” I actually was surprised for a moment before going on.
“And how good are you with Portuguese actually?” I asked her.
“Well… Not very good, actually.” She admitted while lowering her head embarrassed. “It’s one of the languages I studied the least… But it’s still enough to hold a brief conversation!”
I let out a long sigh. These two didn’t actually think this very thoroughly, did they? Still, from what I got these two are actually very studious, so maybe…
“What about English? Can you speak it fine?”
The two looked at each other surprised for a moment, before nodding cheerfully. It seems that they understood my idea. Since we couldn’t speak each other’s language, we could just speak another language that the three of us know! And what better language than English when it comes to most widely spread?
Not that I speak that many languages, though.
“I could do some real time translation through the App, you know?” We heard Cyg talking. I looked surprised to her, who was curled up in my lap. She looked up to me and said. “If the three of you download the app, I could process the speech in real time.”
The three of us blinked surprised at those words and looked at her. The three of us didn’t even think of this, and truly, if it is as good as it’s in-game, then it would be the easiest solution. But wouldn’t it be troublesome for her to go and keep translating for us?
Naah, it is Cygnas. She would probably do it even with one tenth of her processing power.
“I… Would like to speak with Shishou directly…” Yuu said in a low voice, while pouting slightly.
“I see…” Cygnas said while nodding slowly. “English it is then.”
She shrugged it off before curling up in my lap again and using her paws to pull my hand to her head so I could start petting her. I sighed wryly and started petting her mindlessly while I looked back to the girls.
“Okay then… So, what are your plans exactly on coming here?” I asked them, and they looked at each other a bit surprised.
“Meet you?” Hanbei said slightly confused, as if it was the most obvious answer.
I must say that it left me slightly emotional hearing her say that, but it wasn’t exactly the answer that I was looking for.
“I meant, where you are staying, if you are going somewhere, how you will get here and so on.” I explained them my question a bit better, and this made the two stop to think for a moment.
“We… Did not actually think that.” Yuu admitted. “Maybe we…” She started to say something, but blushed heavily before shaking her head “Maybe go to an Hotel nearby where you live, Shishou?”
Hmm… I wonder what her first idea was that she dismissed it so quickly. Just as I thought that, Hanbei nudged Yuu with her elbow while smiling mischievously.
“Why didn’t you say it?” She said with a smile before clearing her throat and saying in a voice similar to Yuu’s. “Shishou! Maybe we could stay at your house?”
I blinked surprised at this and watched as Yuu turned to a brand new shade of red. If I squinted my eyes I could even see the smoke leaving through her ears as she turned to Hanbei and started to swing her arms around while trying to say something. A flustered Yuu is also a good sight from time to time, I thought while smiling at the scene.
“That would actually be a good idea.” I told them after some time, making the two stop and look at me surprised. “Personally, I wouldn’t have a problem with that.” I told them. Huh? Hidden intentions? None whatsoever. “That way you could have easy contact with someone from the area, as well as save money from having to pay for a hotel or renting a house.”
The two looked surprised at each other and then back to me.
“Then… We actually can stay at your house?” Hanbei asked me surprised.
“Staying… Same house… Shishou…” Yuu was off to her own delusions, which made me smile wryly for a moment before shaking my head.
“That won’t be possible.” I said while shaking my head, making the two blink in surprise. Hanbei made a mischievous smile and prepared so say something, but I stopped. “And no. Before you say it, it’s not because I’m embarrassed.” I stopped her before she made her joke.
And it’s not like I’m completely unaffected by the fact that I would share my house with two pretty girls, it’s just that it’s not the reason. I’m not exactly completely oblivious to the opposite sex, you know?
“You see, my apartment is really small. If it were one of you alone, maybe we could work it out. But the three of us together just wouldn’t fit in the house.” I explained to them.
“Wait. Shishou lives alone?” Yuu asked surprised while looking at me completely shocked.
“It’s more of a surviving alone, but yeah.” I said playfully.
Really, there was nothing in my house. Only the bare minimum to survive. There is also a computer, of course. My father lives nearby, so I do not really need to worry much about my necessities as anything I need I just go and pay him a visit.
The two looked at each other a bit confused, but before they could say anything else, the dwarf waiter came bringing us our orders, so we started eating. As we ate, the girls kept asking me a few other questions, like where I live, the name of the apartment and so on.
In the end, what they arbitrarily decided was that they would rent another apartment in the same building I live. Yuu even stopped to write something in a window. Probably a message to her father or something.
Why do I have this feeling that I just dug my own deep grave?
Must be just my imagination.
We enjoyed our extra expensive dinner, which costs us a whole gold coin worth of money. Now I remember that Melinda told us that food and lodging is a bit on the expensive side in this city, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. At least the quality is worth the price.
By the time we finished this whole dinner, I received a message from Yagver, telling us to meet at the entrance of the city. Me and the girls nodded to each other and left the restaurant after paying. On our way towards the main-elevator, we passed through what had now become the main trade area for players, which pretty much means that half of the players in a twenty kilometers radius were found in here, so the chaos of player trading, looking for groups and so on was omnipresent.
“This area sure is full…” Yuu said as she dodged an incoming passerby. “Are all games this chaotic, Shishou?”
I looked around while examining the area.
“Compared to some older games? This is nothing.” I said while remembering my days of playing MMOs, where at every expansion the main cities would be simply too packed for you to even be able to walk without lagging.
But if I take a better look at the scene, its no wonder that it isn’t as full as the other games. Usually, other games would condense the city to its basic player-needed parts, like shops, armor smiths, class trainers and so on. And usually, only one of each.
Insania different, in that this was just like the usual city. There were streets for houses, facilities that most players would never use. There were even many shops specialized in the same things, which would make no sense on games, but fit in a real-life like situation.
Still, seeing so many players together made me want to do something a bit mischievous. Still, how many people would get this joke? Well, let’s try it anyway.
I motioned for the girls to wait for me at the elevator and turned back to the market. I walked until I was right in the middle of everything and entered into an alley after looking around just to be sure that no one was looking at me. As soon as I was out of sight, I breathed deeply and shouted out loud.
“DID I HEAR SOMEONE SAY, [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]?”
As soon as I shouted that, the whole area suddenly became quiet. As I was hiding, I couldn’t see the face of the players as they processed the information. I became a bit depressed by the lack of reaction, but just as I started to sulk…
“WANT TO BUY, [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker], PAYING TWO SILVERS!”
“I HAVE [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker], NOT TRADING!”
“I DUAL WIELD [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker], YOU LOSERS!”
“[Warglaive of Azzinoth], BOTH OF THEM, TAKE THAT!”
The sweet sound of chaos. Looks like that a good amount of people here played the same game I played, and soon everyone around was shouting the weapon’s name. Even if they had no idea what it was.
I’m pretty sure that not everyone understood that joke, but what matters is that I had my fun.
I left back to the elevator through another way just to make sure that the few players who didn’t like my little joke wouldn’t find me out. When I reached the elevator, I found a confused Yuu and face-palming Hanbei.
So, Hanbei got the joke, huh?
We quickly reached the exit, of the city after a few minutes, and found the group standing there, waiting for us. I greeted Yagver from afar when he saw me.
“So, are you all ready?” He asked us when we got close enough . I looked at the girls and we all nodded.
“Nice. So can we get to the killing already?” Xredder asked while crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.
“Sure. Let’s get going then!” I said while nodding.
“And how do you get there?” The harpy asked me a with a raised eyebrow, and I answered with a smirk while picking a crystal circle from my inventory.
“All we need to do is to point this to the sun, and then it will point us towards the dungeon. Cool huh?” I said proudly with a smile.
But, why is no one saying anything? I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at me with a slightly awkward smile, and even Xredder was looking away from me.
“Gon…” Hanbei said while approaching me and gently putting her hand on my shoulder. “You do know that it’s the beginning of the night, right?”
…
CYGNASDAMMIT! HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THAT?
I fell on all fours and started hitting the ground in frustration. BASIC COMMON SENSES! WHY DO YOU KEEP FAILING ME SO?
“Wonderful. Now we have to wait here until morning, huh?” Xredder said filled with sarcasm.
I stayed in the ground for a few more moments as the whole group was filled with an awkward feeling created by such a simple mistake. It took me almost a whole minute before I got up and said.
“There is another way…” I said in a slightly heartbroken tone.
The whole group looked at me with a slightly pitying eyes, as if I was an addicted gambler who kept swearing that I would earn the next game. But I did have a way to find the dungeon.
“Arkhoss, I know you are there!. Come here for a moment.” I shouted towards the sky, making Yagver’s group think that I’m going crazy.
“WHO SEEKS THE GOD OF CHAOS?” The ethereal voice came from the whole area around us.
Yagver’s group immediately jumped to action by gathering around the tank and he took out his shield preparing for a sudden attack. I must admit that, although a bit useless, their reactions were impressive. As they looked around alarmed, the air in front of us shimmered as the suit-wearing man appeared in front of us with an angry frown in his face.
He looked around until his eyesight fell upon me, and then he raised his eyebrow and looked at me slightly confused.
“So… Which way to the cave?” I asked him going directly to the point.
He sighed loudly and pointed towards a direction before saying.
“That way. But you could have used the Crystal too, you know?”
“Kind of difficult when it’s night…” I said a bit awkwardly and received a sigh before the god poofed out of existence. I turned towards the others and said. “So, let’s go then?”
The four looked at me in a mix of shock and confusion as me, the girls, Aura and Lieutenant simply walked in the direction that Arkhoss pointed us. It was only after we had taken a certain distance that they recovered and came running to reach us.
“What… What was that?” Yagver asked me confused.
“That?” I asked slightly confused. “I just called my quest-giver so he could point me to the right direction.” I told him.
“So you are saying… That you called a god just to get some directions?” Xredder asked me.
“Something like that?” It would be funny if they discovered that Cygnas is actually my pet, but lets keep quiet for now.
We started walking towards the direction he pointed us. Since we didn’t have much idea on how long it would take for us to reach the dungeon, we started talking a bit about our fighting techniques and what our roles would be in the dungeon.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Firstly, since Yuu was our only magician, we decided to leave her with the task of attacking the enemies with magic only. It was actually a bit funny when I explained to the guys that Yuu was as good on melee as she was with magic, as they didn’t believe me. Until Yagver jokingly said to let her fight against Xredder, who also knows martial arts, but the tiger refused immediately.
“There is no way I’m getting into a fight with someone like her.” He said with some slight fear in his voice “I can see from the way that she moves, and there is no way that I will get a fair fight unless I’m at least ten levels above her!”
The other three looked surprised to the tiger before turning to a smiling Yuu, looking at her like they just saw some kind of magical being.
Setting on the fact that Yuu would be the main source of magic and wide range damage dealer, we went towards Han-chan next.
According to her, it seems that her best attacks all involve some charge up time, and since her main resource is rage, she spend her time in two stages. Generating rage, and charging attacks. Although she could use the air-slashes to generate some rage, it seems that direct hits are more effective.
So we decided to pair her up with Xredder who was their main damage dealer. Different from her, he was specialized on constant damage output with some kind of combo system for his skills.
Next was Forgotten. According to the others, since everything he said would take a few seconds to be decoded, so we mostly ignored his words. It seems that he specializes on spammable, but weak heals, so we should avoid getting big hits in, but low and constant damage isn’t much of a problem.
As he was our only healer, we didn’t have much of a discussion about his role.
Next was L3nny. The harpy uses a crossbow as her weapon, and it seems that most of her attacks involve long-ranged heavy-damage. After comparing her raw damage with all of ours she confirmed the fact that her damage is easily the highest of all of us, but her damage is mostly single target and have a low attack rate.
Sir Yagver was a heavy duty tanker, focusing more on using his tower shield to block the attacks than avoiding them all together. Although this means that heavier attacks still eat through his health, it still fits just fine with Forgotten’s healing style.
Lastly, there was me with my more than indefinite fighting style. After briefly explaining them how it works and so on, we decided that I would keep alternating between an evasive off-tank and a damage dealer according to what the situation requires.
Since I could use two different weapons, I decided to leave my two sets of weapons as the Sword and shield for tanking and the bow for damage dealing. Why the bow you ask? With Han-chan and Xredder already being melees, it might be a bit cramped against smaller enemies, so being a long-ranged damage dealer might make it easier for me to attack, besides the fact that I find it easier to use the arrows rather than the knives for the special effects.
So, our party configuration was something along these lines. Yuu is responsible for wide area ranged attacks, Han-chan and Xredder are our front-line warriors responsible for damage dealing to the enemies. L3nny is our assassin, responsible for killing high priority enemies with her heavy but slow damage. Forgotten and Yagver have their position pretty much defined as tank and healers, while I keep going back and forth between helping Yagver or L3nny.
I kind of feel like one of those boys responsible for the odd-jobs.
We walked almost through the whole night, up to the point that it even began to dawn. We took this chance to actually point the crystal towards the sun and check on where the dungeon actually was.
As soon as we pointed towards the sun, it started to shine in a light blue light before a beam shot towards a nearby mountain. We quickly corrected our direction and started to walk towards it. I was getting a bit excited since this is my first dungeon in this game, and even if I wasn’t the main tank, it was still a bit worrying.
Luckily, it seems that I wasn’t the only one nervous, as all the others were getting a bit shaky with excitement. It seems that now that they knew that a god gave the quest to me, they started to take it a bit more seriously.
We camped at the base of the mountain, where I let Aura make us a breakfast and started to give a last check on all my gear, as well as passing half of my throwing knives to Lieutenant. I made around forty of each, and I could only hope that it’s enough for the three runs.
As the Yagver and Co. looked shocked as Aura started to cut a few vegetables and bread, I noticed Yuu and Hanbei getting a bit fidgety besides me.
“What, nervous for the dungeon?” I asked with an obviously fake confidence.
“Yeah… It’s our first true dungeon.” Han-chan said a bit nervous.
“First… True dungeon?” I asked confused by her words.
“Do you remember how I said that we went on a dungeon before meeting you?” She asked me, and I nodded as something like that was mentioned before. “Well, it was actually a pretty small and easy dungeon. We didn’t even need a tank for it, so it was mostly a slightly stronger area rather than anything.”
Oh, so there are various type of dungeons? I see… Now it makes sense why the quest gave both the number of players as well as the levels. So there are dungeons made for different sized groups, huh?
As we started to make our final preparations, I decided to re-arrange my inventory so that I could pick the elemental arrows and knives with a faster motion when opening the window. When the Harpy saw my special arrow-heads, she asked me what they were and I gave her a quick explanation.
She showed some interest in using these arrows, but they were far too long for her crossbow, that used shorter but bulkier arrows as ammunition. I thought about simply removing the arrowhead and exchanging with one of hers, but it simply didn’t fit, so we left it alone for now.
I still passed her some of my flash-bangs in case of emergency. I also gave a couple to Yagver, since he had more experience in dungeoning than me.
Finishing our preparations, we had our breakfast of sandwiches and started climbing the mountain. After getting around a quarter of the way up, we started to see some places where the ground was pierced by crystals spikes here and there.
Even some of the usual monsters that came to attack us when we were traveling now started to have a light blue aura around them. Some of the stronger ones even had one claw or fang made of crystal. And if we landed a hit on the crystal part, it would shatter and stun the monster for a moment before they ran away from us.
It was a strange sight, but we left it alone since these mobs were mostly level fourteen and didn’t give us much.
And this is coming from a level fifteen…
Oh well.
Leaving it alone for now, we quickly reached an area that had a few more crystals than before, almost as if making a trail for us to follow. Which, surprise surprise! Matched with the direction we had to go.
The more we advanced, the more crystals appeared as well as less monsters. When we looked closely, there were even a few pieces of bricks and some broken walls.
After some time, even the very air around us started to become slightly more contaminated by the crystals, as everything began to have a slightly blue hue. Luckily, Arkhoss told us that this isn’t very dangerous for us, so I wasn’t very bothered by it.
He did say that it was safe, right?
I really hope so.
If we took a slightly more careful look, there was even the trace of an old beaten path, covered with a bit of short vegetation here and there. We decided to follow the path since it went in the same direction of the beam.
And finally, we reached the entrance of the Dungeon.
There was a large engraved stone circle covering the entrance of a cave. Some symbols were pulsating slightly against its surface, giving an ominous glow that was pretty much screaming dangerous. In its middle was a circular slot that was clearly made for the circular crystal in my hand.
I smiled a bit awkwardly over this cliché situation and approached the door and put the crystal in the middle slot. As soon as I did that, the whole glow of the stone started to gather around the crystal, which started to shine even brighter.
I turned towards Yuu and said in a smug voice.
“And this is the part where the stone slide into the wall opening the passage!”
Yuu looked at me with some admiration, and I smiled proudly, while turning back to the stone that was starting to shake slightly. Putting on my best majestic pose, I looked at it and said in a deep tone.
“OPEN SESAME!”
And here, is where the passage opened.
The shine started to become even more intense, the stone started to rumble and even a few cracks started to appear in its surface. Geez, the mechanism sure is faulty, huh? And after a few seconds, it suddenly stopped.
But instead of sliding, the stone started to bloat up, and by the time I noticed that something was going horribly wrong, it was to late.
The stone exploded in my face, throwing me back a good ten meters and sliding a couple more meters face-first in the ground, before tumbling through a small decline.
I spent a good few minutes simply laying there as my whole body screamed in pain and my health bar was flashing the number thirteen in a deep red color. When rescue finally arrived, I turned to the group and said in a low voice.
“You all saw nothing!”
They all nodded awkwardly, probably without words for the fact that I almost died before even opening the dungeon.
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Hello hello, and welcome to the very first, INSANIA Q & A! Here we are taking your questions for the characters and answer them! I will be your host, the author!
O could go on and on here with me showing how much of a big-shot I am, but time is short, so lets get straight into the questions!
Questions by tomolone: “Cygnas, how do we profit in joining the Cygnas cult?”
“A cult… Outside Insania? I need to have to chat a little with the author later…” She sighs. “I’m not sure if I am worthy of having a cult outside of the game, but I will try to at least help whoever needs, as long as its within my capacities.” She said in a bright smile.
Okay, next question before she notices I’m close-by.
Still by Tomolone: “Lieutenant Colonel Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus the third, How large is your information network?”
“Nya, nyyy-aaa, na nyaa-ny. Nyaaow nyaa naa. Nyanananyana nayaaa!” He said while leaning forward confidently. (For now, we encompass the whole commercial sector, half of the general industries and the lower residential. We are in a war against two other groups that rule the remaining city. However, I have a plan to put an end to this battle soon.)
Translation added for your own convenience. Now, since we have a lack of questions, I’ll allow this third one to pass this time.
Tomolone: “what happened to DaddyLovesCygnas?”
He is actually in his quest right now for the light goddess in game, while offline he monitors the data he receives from Cygnas and Wargon’s relationship.
Okay, Next questions! Sablecaballero to Cyg: “Why haven't you smote Wargon yet? I'm pretty sure he has earned it”
“Well... The official reason is because I’m a merciful goddess who forgives.” She said with a gentle smile, before looking around and adding with a mischievous smile. “The REAL fact, is that its simply not fun to repay him using my powers, besides being much funnier to repay him with his own coin!”
Luckily, he didn’t hear that one…
Still Sable to Cyg: “Now that Aura has been around Wargon for a bit, what does she think of him? I'm pretty sure it has changed since the time they fought (Specially now that she is "the sane one" xD)”
“Although I feel a bit awkward by answering a persona question for another, since she gave me permission, here are her thoughts.” She takes a deep breath before answering. “Initially, she found Gon to be some kind of all-powerful savior and master. But after spending some time with him, she sees him as a foolish friend that pays a bit too much attention to the other fox, but still cares deeply for her. She says that she even likes the real him more than her first image of him, as it’s a lot more approachable.” Aura barks in the background, agreeing with Cygnas.
Geez, isn’t that touching? Before we get too emotional, on to the next one!
By imaginexbreaker: “Han-chan, when are you joining Wargon's harem? Haha”
“Hmm… I really don’t see Gon that way.” She said after thinking for a bit. “I mean, he is a fun friend to be with and I do like him, but not in that meaning. You see, I actually like my men more… Mature, like Goulder-san.” She said while blushing and looking away.
… I will hold myself back on commenting.
Next question! l0gin4me to Cyg: “If Wargon hatches a pet fresh from an egg, would you stop sharing Aura's body and move to the new pet? If yes and you could choose the egg, what kind of pet would you be?”
“Yep!” She said cheerfully. “Before leaving the egg, the pets don’t have a personality, so it wouldn’t feel as bad as taking the body of a mature pet like Aura. But now, for what kind of pet…” Then she stops to think for a moment. “Body shape doesn’t really bothers me, so I guess something cute? Or cool, like a dragon! Being cool is also nice!” She said with a bright and defiant smile.
*Tries to think of Cyg as a cool silver-scaled dragon. Fails miserably, stuck at the cute part.*
Next, griix to… Me, I guess? “are the other 3 of your friends in the story, your friends IRL?”
Yep. I made them based on my friends down to looks and personalities. I even asked for them to think of their characters for the story.
Now, next question! Metrux32 to Wargon: “Whats the name of the aforementioned disaster / sister and why does not even your father think badly of you calling her like that? =O”
“She’s called Lily. And just for you to have an idea, I had a nickname at my house for breaking things so often. Yet she took that nickname from me two years after being born.” He said in a dead-pan face. “It’s bad to the point that I forbade her from entering my room without me nearby.”
Geez, I can relate to that.
Now, to the last question of the night! Metrux32 to Yuu: “When shall you propose Wargon in marriage? Probably when you get to Brazil?”
“P-P-P-PROPOSE? TO SHISHOU? Th-th-that… Such a thing… I can’t…” Yuu blushes wildly while being lost in her delusions. Even after a few minutes she didn’t recover, so we had to remove her from story so she could calm down.
Well, a few technical problems there at the end, but yeah, this is it guys! The very first Q&A! Next week I may do something similar, so stay tuned!
Author’s out.