Chapter 6: A Cruel Fight to Stifle the Grind
Chapter 6: A Cruel Fight to Stifle the Grind
Three days had passed since the draft meeting for the competitive guild mission.
“We’re home.”
After class, we all headed to the guild house as usual. Kokoru was there to greet us.
“Oh! Welcome back, everyone. Bawk.”
He hopped down from his seat behind the counter and plopped onto the floor. There was something terribly charming about how silly his every action was.
“Chirp chirp! Chicken! Chicken!” Draco playfully flew over and landed on Kokoru’s head, giving him lots of friendly nips.
“Bawk?! Cut it out, bawk! Don’t eat meee!”
He ran around like a chicken with his head... being chewed off.
Akira laughed. “Ahahaha. I see Draco and Kokoru are getting along.”
Yano, on the other hand, looked a little uneasy. “I dunno. Some people say these dragons mean it when they bite. I’m worried about what’ll happen when he gets a little bigger.”
“Erm, I’m sure it will be fine,” Maeda said. “I doubt the devs would set up something so gruesome... right?”
“I wonder. This game does have a lot of weird little details in it.”
“Et tu, Takashiro?! Please, don’t frighten him!”
“Hey, Ren! This is for you, bawk!”
“Hm?”
Kokoru traded me a few items along with some money. On top of 110,000 Mila, there were several designer items for our guild shop. He had stayed exactly within the specifications of quantity and designs that I asked for.
“Ooh, this stuff sold well! The stuff you made was spot-on, too! Thanks, buddy!”
“If you guys are gonna let me stay here, I might as well try to earn my keep, bawk.”
Indeed, with Kokoru’s Apprenticeship and Subcontractor skills, we could put him in charge of the guild shop. He could also craft things in order to replenish the shop’s stock when it got low.
I’d always wanted a shopkeeper NPC, so he was the perfect addition to our group.
As the son of a merchant, he had an aptitude for trade. He was even going outside and attracting more customers to the store. When we left him in charge during classes, he could sell things a whole 150% faster than we normally did. He was the best shopkeeper NPC I knew..
As for leveling him up, we hadn’t made any progress whatsoever. He was still level 1. He tried to say that he was still getting used to running the shop and that he wasn’t ready to move on to the next step yet, but...
We really ought to deal with that soon.
“So, Kokoru. Ready to go grind up some levels today?”
“Nice, this is what I’ve been waiting for! Let’s goooo!” Yano was over the moon; she loved grinding.
“Right. If we don’t get to work soon, we’ll surely fall behind the other guilds,” Maeda agreed.
“Yeah! Let’s go get ’em, Kokoru!”
“B-Bawk. Are we really doing this? I feel bad since you guys took me in and all, but there’s no point in trying to raise me, bawk. Even I know I’m worthless. I’d be better off just running the shop, bawk.”
“Yeah, you’re a huge help here in the shop. But think about it like this: if you’re already helping out, then it’s not a waste of time for us to train you. Just think of it as us hanging out, all right?”
“If you’re that okay with it, then I guess we can try, bawk.”
“Nice. Let’s get your equipment straight, then.”
We threw together some equipment for Kokoru. NPCs could equip weapons and protective gear too, after all. It was our responsibility to give them something good. But they couldn’t just equip anything; each character had a set type of equipment they could use.
Kokoru was a light-armor type, able to equip things between leather armor and chain mail.
Equipment had base level requirements, but level 1 would probably work for now. I could craft plenty of different items for level 1, so I crafted some stuff and had him equip it.
“What kind of weapons can he use?” I wondered aloud before taking a look.
Kokoru’s equippable weapons were shortswords, swords, lances, whips, and crossbows. He had a pretty wide range. My own symbologist class could only equip staves at base level.
“Bawk, I’m really no good at slicing or hitting stuff up close.”
“Then let’s go with crossbows.”
“I can work with that, bawk.”
All right. I’ll just make a wooden crossbow and some wooden bolts.
With that, Kokoru had a pretty spiffy starting loadout!
“Nice! Now, let’s get going!”
Everyone cheered. “Woohoo!”
And we were off!
Our destination was Timber Forest in Mishr. This was where Akira and I had done our testing on the properties of the Blowgun. There were plenty of enemies, so it wasn’t a bad spot to hunt.
However...
“Huh? Uh, where are the enemies?”
What happened to all the Bandit Wolves that were swarming the place?
“Bawk? There’s nothing here.”
Akira frowned. “That’s weird. Last time, we had plenty of mobs to kill.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence? I’m sure that if we wait, they’ll start swarming as usual,” Yano suggested.
“Right. Let’s wait,” Maeda agreed.
A minute passed. Then four more ticked by. Still nothing!
Weird! They were supposed to have a respawn time of five minutes.
Once they died, the Bandit Wolves should’ve only taken five minutes to come back. But they still weren’t showing up. Could that have meant they were still alive somewhere else?
I turned to the team. “Something’s fishy. Let’s take a quick look around.”
We proceeded through the forest a bit more, and soon...
Grrr...
Ruff!
Groar!
Rawr...
Grrrrr!
I heard a whole bunch of crazy growling. Those were the sounds of the Bandit Wolves.
Following the noises, we entered a clearing in the forest.
“Whoa! What in the world are they doing?!” I cried.
There was a huge pack of Bandit Wolves crowding in one place. I figured there must’ve been a hundred or so.
It was as if all the enemies in the forest had gathered here. They had surrounded a single player and were attacking him relentlessly.
Despite the onslaught, the player in the center of it all seemed perfectly calm. He was over level 100, while the Bandit Wolves were all 30 or below. With the vast level difference, he was taking no damage at all.
He noticed us and called out, “Heheh. Sorry, buds. I’ve already claimed this grinding spot! Stay here as long as you want, but your NPC won’t be getting a single point of EXP!”
Uh, what? Oh! He’s trying to sabotage other guilds in the competitive mission!
By sealing off the area, he was going to prevent our NPC from leveling.
Huh. That’s some ruthless competition! Not bad, not bad at all.
“I see. They aren’t going to go easy on us, huh?”
“Yeah. It is a competitive mission between guilds, after all. Whatever it takes to win, right?” Akira gulped.
If he was going to keep the enemies away from us like that, there wasn’t much we could do.
In this game, the first party to take aggro from a monster is the only one who can fight it. Simply put, this is the right to monster monopoly.
If the devs hadn’t made it this way, rarer monsters could get sniped by some stranger hanging out on the side, netting him all the item drops while you and your crew got nothing. Thus, it made enough sense to me.
However, because it’s based on which party gets aggro first, competition between groups to monopolize rare monsters with good drops is pretty intense.
Several parties might wait with bated breath, ready to unleash a Taunt skill to secure their monopoly. These moments could be as tense as the seconds before the start of a short-distance sprint.
That’s the true, heated battle between those who have their eyes on certain items.
The opposite of the monster-monopoly system is the “anything goes” system, where anyone can freely jump in and bop a monster from the side. The majority of locations useful for leveling in this game use the former.
There are instances where kill-stealing is allowed during events or missions. This, however, was not one of those times.
At present, the hundred-ish wolves were all being monopolized by a different player, so we couldn’t lay a finger on them. This wouldn’t be a viable place to grind.
Normally, I could’ve called a GM to settle the matter since it was technically a type of griefing activity—something done only to bother other players. But this player belonged to the guild Peacemakers, who were essentially the student council here.
Normally, the Peacemakers would help players deal with any griefing or harassment they endured. The fact that he could do this in the first place meant that the GMs were accepting of these methods for this event.
“Give it up! Go on, scram! I’m not letting a single one of these boys go! Oh, yes, good doggie! That’s my boy!”
He was the spitting image of a certain chimpanzee expert surrounded by her beloved apes.
Does this guy love animals or what? This scene is pretty bizarre.
“Wh-What do we do, bawk?”
“Looks like the only thing we can do is leave,” I replied. “Let’s try somewhere else!”
“Since it’s close, shall we try Almishr’s Burial Ground?”
Maeda’s suggestion was a good one.
“Good idea. Let’s go!”
We moved over there, but...
“What?! Here too?!”
The plains above the burial ground had yet another player monopolizing a huge crowd of monsters.
This time, the player belonged to Mystic Arts.
That’s Yukino’s guild! Is everybody in on this?!
If so, Homura’s guild, Grand Museum, was likely doing the same. And at this rate, maybe even Kataoka’s Fountain of Knowledge.
“Anyway, we might as well check inside!”
We stepped into the burial ground.
Normally, blood-red Crimson Mummies would be sprouting from the walls, but everything was still.
“Seriously?! The place is completely empty!” Yano shouted.
“Perhaps all the grinding spots in the world are under someone’s thumb?”
I snapped my fingers. “Maeda might actually be right!”
“I guess doing so means you can just stop other guilds from progressing,” Akira said.
Maeda cocked her head to the side. “But I haven’t seen any other guilds’ NPCs.”
“True,” Yano said with a nod. “Just chumps trying to keep people from gaining those delicious levels.”
“Hindering others is great and all, but how are they gonna raise their own candidates?” I asked.
Yano shrugged. “Dunno. It’s a mystery.”
“Anyway, I think we should get moving again,” Maeda suggested.
“Yeah. We gotta find someplace we can use,” I agreed.
“How about Trinisty Isle?” Akira asked. “The upper floors could help a little.”
If there’s no other choice, we might as well try it.
We were pretty much on a wild goose chase, but off to Trinisty Isle we went. However, the tenth floor had already been plundered. I found myself grinding my teeth in frustration.
We went down one floor at a time, until...
“In the end, I can’t stay away from this place. Hey, fellas! Daddy’s home!”
Before us were my good friends and test subjects: the Island Bunnies. As always, they were hopping to and fro with vacant expressions.
Yep, we had come all the way down to the first floor of Trinisty Isle. This place always gave me a little nostalgia.
I can’t believe this is the only place in the clear! You don’t even get EXP here once you reach level 3, so I guess they overlooked this place because there isn’t much point in blocking it.
Akira laughed awkwardly. “Ahaha... Well, it’s better than nothing. Let’s just get him to level 3 for now.”
“Sure. All right, Kokoru. Have at ’em!”
“Um, I’ll try. Bawk.”
“You can do it!”
With Akira cheering him on, Kokoru raised his crossbow and took aim.
Now, let’s see how Kokoru’s Cowardice trait affects things.
His hands trembled as he held the crossbow, making his aim dubious at best. Was he even capable of landing a hit?
“B-B-Baaawk!”
The crossbow bolt he fired went in a completely different direction from where he’d aimed it. We all watched it soar way up in an arc, then come back down toward an Island Bunny.
Ooh! That’s not the one he was aiming for, but hey!
Unfortunately, the Island Bunny evaded the attack.
Still, the attack had earned Kokoru some aggro. After dodging it, the bunny made a beeline for him. It was followed by another Island Bunny right next to it. The second bunny had seen its buddy get targeted and was now ready to help it fight back.
This is called a linked mob.
The two Island Bunnies closed in on Kokoru.
“Bawk?!”
“It’s okay, Kokoru!” I shouted. “You’ve got plenty of distance to your advantage! Keep on shooting.”
“B-Bawk...”
He shakily set another bolt in the crossbow and fired. However, his fear combined with the recoil of the crossbow caused the bolt to go straight up.
When they reached him, the Island Bunnies let loose a flurry of attacks on Kokoru.
“Bagawk?! D-Don’t eat me, bawk! I don’t taste any good!”
Having taken some damage, Kokoru was full-on panicking.
“I’ll help you!”
I did a couple of simple body slams on one of the Island Bunnies. Naturally, it died right away.
Akira took down the other one with one of Skyfall’s shockwaves.
“You okay, Kokoru?” I asked.
Well, now I know he’s one of those guys who can’t aim a crossbow to save his life. Wasn’t he supposed to have an aptitude for it, though?
Was this due to the effects of Cowardice? Or was this simply an issue stemming from Kokoru himself?
“Urgh... Thanks, bawk. Those foes were super scary.” Kokoru unsteadily got back on his feet.
Bonk!
The bolt that had gone up into the air had flown back down and stabbed right into Kokoru’s head.
Kokoru attacked.
Dealt 7 damage to Kokoru!
Kokoru defeated Kokoru.
“Baaawk!”
He collapsed to the ground, dead. Kokoru had self-destructed!
“Oh. Well, uh, I can see the problem here.”
“Ahahahaha! He killed himself! That’s actually insane!”
“Pfft... Stop it, Yuuna. The poor boy... Pffhaha!”
Akira, however, did her best to cheer him up. “It’s okay, Kokoru! Nobody’s perfect on their first try!”
“Chirp! Chicken! Mmm, tasty!” Draco started chomping on the fallen Kokoru.
Despite the uphill battle, I believed it would make transforming him into a hero all the more worthwhile.
◆◇◆
The next morning, I was hard at work crafting items for the shop. Just a little bit of productivity before class.
Kokoru was lending a hand, which was a huge help. It made things go much faster.
When he was in the shop instead of on the battlefield, Kokoru really was a capable guy. But that wouldn’t mean anything when it came to the mission.
Incidentally, Kokoru was still level 1.
I was hoping we could do some quick power-leveling to help him out, but if none of his attacks were going to land...
Even other weapons like shortswords and lances had been a complete dud. In the end, we’d concluded that it was just one of Cowardice’s effects.
We had to come up with a way to pump up his stats, whether it was through magic or some other means.
If only we could cancel out the debuffs from Cowardice. Might as well investigate a little on that front.
Trying to raise his level as things were now would be impossible. We wouldn’t be able to power-level him, either. We would have to include him in our party and fight enemies that would yield experience at our level.
In the case of party grinding, experience yield is calculated based on the highest level in the party. If an enemy’s level is too low in comparison, the party won’t get any EXP.
Trinisty Isle wouldn’t work because the enemies were too weak. We were still in our early 40s, so enemies around level 50 would make for good hunting. However, the interference from other guilds was no joke.
How could we redefine Kokoru? How would we get around the monopolies other guilds had over grinding spots? There was a lot to think about.
But hey, I happened to enjoy that kind of trial-and-error work!
“What to do, though?”
“Bawk. Sorry about yesterday, bawk.”
Hearing my muttering, Kokoru dropped his shoulders in shame.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad or anything.”
“But you’re stuck thinking about how to fix me, bawk.”
“Don’t worry, buddy. We came in ready to deal with stuff like this. It’ll just be extra satisfying when we get you to shine! I wanna tell the world that I was the one who raised you!”
“Bawk. You’ve got some weird hobbies.”
“Heh, don’t praise me too much. Besides, if all goes well, you’ll get to show those Birdmen who were picking on you who’s boss. Doesn’t that sound great?”
“Sure, I guess. But I understand why they’re mad, bawk. I don’t know why I was chosen to be a hero candidate. I can only imagine that my dad bribed somebody, bawk.”
“Well, Akira’s all fired up and ready to help you get back at those guys, so it’s far too early to throw in the towel. Humor us for a little longer, all right? We’ll figure this out, I swear.”
I gave Kokoru an encouraging pat on the back.
“You’re all so nice, bawk. But I know better than to expect anything from myself by now. I’m just a big, dumb chicken.”
I mean, you’re not wrong there. You’re literally a chicken.
Still, I felt his mentality needed just as much of a level-up as the rest of him.
“It’s still not too late, bawk. Why not just pick a new candidate or something? If you really push them, they might let you do it.”
“I would never. If you really aren’t up to it, then just helping around the shop is more than enough. Anyway, I’m off to class. Good luck with the shop, buddy.”
“Yeah. See you later, bawk.”
Thus, I entrusted the shop to Kokoru and left for school.
During afternoon homeroom, Ms. Nakada had an announcement for us. She delivered it with her usual pep.
“The competitive mission is still in progress, but remember that tests are coming up. Are you all studying as much as you should be? Not that I need to remind you, but your test scores are directly converted into Merit Points. That means you gamers better hit the books! I know you all have your sights set on plenty of talents, equipment, and other items.”
Yes, ma’am! I study every once in a while! My test scores are gonna rise dramatically, just you wait!
“But just to really get you gamers motivated, your teacher has come with a teeny, tiny tidbit of information.”
Ooh? What’s this?
“Your scores don’t just get converted into MEP. You can also get new rewards based on your overall rank!”
Ohoho!
The class was excited now.
What could it be? Am I gonna get anything?
“And here’s the reward for the top-ranking student in your grade!”
Ms. Nakada knocked on the blackboard, causing an image to pop up.
No way, a whole airship?!
“That’s right, your very own private airship! This is a high-speed aircraft, so it’s much faster than the regular ones. You can also use it whenever and however you like!”
“Wow, wow, wow! This is great!”
I had taken a ride on the airship owned by Yukino’s guild before. It had been a very comfy, pleasant experience, and it’d made me wish that we could have one of our own someday.
Apparently, this game even has airship battles. An airship would be necessary to enjoy that experience, of course. But if you want to buy one using MEP or straight cash, the cost is just out of control.
With that in mind, it would be awesome to get one for free. Better yet, we had a real chance of winning this with Akira and Maeda on our side.
“Akira, think we can do it?”
“Yeah, I’ll do everything in my power to hit the top spot! We’ll get that airship and find all the best views in the world! Ehehe!” Akira’s eyes were sparkling like never before.
This was the incredible smile of a girl obsessed with worldly desires.
Maeda was sitting a short distance away from us, her jaw set with determination.
Ooh, she’s ready to win. Very reliable!
As for me, well, I probably couldn’t do it. But I was ready to get the highest score I could. There were plenty of talents I still wanted!
◆◇◆
Once the school day was over, I ended up going to the info brokers with Akira and the others.
“Hey, man. Got anything about skills or equips that can cancel out an NPC’s Cowardice skill?”
Kataoka was in charge of the store, operating the Dealer’s Desk to access their database.
"Mmm... Nope! Nothing’s coming up.”
“For real?!”
“Yep. NPC training is an unprecedented event. Must be different from raising a pet dragon too, right? Pets that come with beast-tamer classes don’t let you mess with their skills or equipment either. We’re still developing our knowledge on this one.”
“Well, that’s not good. Hmm... Okay, one more.”
“Sure. That’ll be another three thousand Mila.”
“You got it.”
I paid Kataoka the info fee.
“So, what do you wanna know?”
“You know how all the grinding spots are being disturbed because of the competitive guild mission?”
“Yeah. Interfering with other guilds by cutting off their EXP sources is a super basic strategy. The GMs are okay with it too, so even our guild has a gang going out and doing it.”
“That means cutting off your own farming spots too, right? Where do you raise your NPCs, then? That’s my question.”
“Oh, that’s easy. Each guild has their own private dungeon. Only guild members or people they invite can come in, so that’s where most people are grinding.”
“I see! So that’s why we haven’t seen anyone else’s NPCs.” Maeda’s brow furrowed.
Yano was pretty taken aback. “Whoa, that’s crazy! And it’s rude as heck to mess with other people’s grinding zones when you have a pristine one all to yourself!”
“Well, it’s pretty effective.” Kataoka shrugged. “You can tell everyone is serious about this because they're going about it so mercilessly.”
I nodded. “If you wanna play, you play to win. I understand how they feel. After all, everyone at this school is a video-game addict.”
The more fun a game is, the more you want to play to win. Going for the top, competing with others, and winning becomes your greatest source of joy. Sports are like that, too. Whether you can make money, though, depends on society’s values and your status.
Whoops, I sound just like my parents now. Though I do agree with them.
“Anyway,” Kataoka continued, “you can only make a private dungeon if you can get your own island in the Lagoon. So, if you're not a bigger guild with those facilities already, it’ll be rough for ya.”
“Then this is essentially a strategy formulated by bigger guilds to crack down on smaller ones.”
Maeda was probably right.
“Yeah. Small fries like us are at a real disadvantage,” Yano said.
“Who cares? You can only topple giants if there are giants in the first place!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Yano waved me off like a fly. “We know how it goes, Ren.”
“Hey, Kataoka. Is there anywhere we can go to level up uninterrupted if we don’t have a private dungeon?”
Akira’s question prompted Kataoka to stick out his hand.
“You know the deal. Three thousand more Mila.”
Cha-ching.
“All right. There’s this place called Sky Fissure.”
Hmm, I’ve never heard of that before. At least, it definitely wasn’t mentioned in the Unlimited World Guidebook.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Well, as the name implies, it’s a rift in the sky. Sends you to a randomly-generated, instanced dungeon. There are multiple entrances, and they move. Each entrance is treated as a different dungeon, so it’s impossible to stop people from grinding there. You could try using that.”
Akira nodded, listening intently. “That might be pretty good. How would we get there?”
“It’s in the sky, so you gotta use an airship. But normal passenger ships won’t go there. You could buy or rent one, but either way, you need an airship that goes anywhere you want it to go. Then, you find an entrance and hop in.”
We need our own airship!
“Mm... Maybe we could borrow one from another guild? Snowy or Spitfire might let us.”
I’d be careful throwing out nicknames like that if I were you, Yano. Snowy might be cool with it, but Spitfire would probably be pissed.
The nicknames were pretty cute, though, so I wasn’t entirely against them.
“Eh, I’d rather not impose on them. They might be willing to help us out, but their guild members probably wouldn’t. It’d be rude to put them in the middle like that.”
Since they were both guild masters, they could probably make it happen if they were forceful enough. But it would be awful if that hurt their relationship with the guild.
“Ah, yeah. It’d be best for those girls to stay in their guilds’ good graces.”
You wouldn’t have guessed it, but Yano was quick to catch on when it came to delicate social situations.
“You’re right. Besides, there’s something even more important at stake here.”
“Borrowing is relying on others! And if you’re relying on others, you’re not toppling giants with your own power! Right, Ren?”
“Correct! A-plus answer, Akira!” I gave her a proud little round of applause.
“Hehe. That’s very like you, Takashiro.” Maeda chuckled.
“I agree one hundred percent. A follower can’t accept gifts from his Hime-chan! He can only make offerings! You get me, right, Takashiro?!”
“No, dude! I don’t!”
Let it GO, man!
In this guy’s mind, every female player was a Hime-chan, and that made every male a follower. A very simple worldview, if anything.
“Sheesh. Then how are we gonna secure an airship?” Yano asked, scratching her head.
“Don’t worry, there’s a way. I am gonna have to rely on you girls, though. Remember what Ms. Nakada said during homeroom, about the reward for the top test score?”
“Oh, yeah, it was an airship! All right, Akki and Kotomi! Good luck!”
“Yes, leave it to us. I already wanted one, so I was planning to put my all into it anyway.”
“Yep. All the more reason to win!”
Maeda and Akira were the pinnacle of reliability!
We’d finally found a way to level up. All that remained then was to figure out how to make Kokoru a thing.
I knew I wanted to make him explode into a full-body redefinition of the NPC meta! I just didn't quite know how yet.
I’d have to keep looking into it.