Form a Party with Your Close Friends #4
“With everyone still in chaos from the entrance ceremony incident, now is the perfect opportunity. Their attention is scattered, which increases my chances of securing the requests I want.”
“Entrance ceremony incident? What happened?”
“There was something like that. Right now, everyone’s minds are elsewhere. That’s when we swoop in and claim only the juicy parts from a quiet field. Understood?”
“…….”
Nike didn’t seem convinced by the idea of raising our grades by hunting monsters. She couldn’t understand why killing monsters would even affect our scores. I had no choice but to give her a brief explanation.
“The founding purpose of this Prison Academy is to cultivate heroes worthy of the gods’ playground. Martial feats are the true achievements befitting a hero. In truth, written exams and practicals are merely secondary objectives for cowards.”
In D&A, events like written tests and practicals were nothing more than side quests. They were essentially safety nets for gamers who kept dying or failing in dungeons. The idea was to diligently raise your specs through those events before tackling the dungeons. For some reason, in this world the priorities between adventure and testing had been completely flipped. Still, the achievement points and rewards should remain exactly the same.
Nike said, “I know that much. But people don’t study for grades for no reason. Isn’t it because hunting monsters is so difficult? It’s not like we have two lives each.”
She had a point. We didn’t get retries. If we died while hunting monsters, that was the end.
“That’s why we spend money.”
“You’re going to buy equipment or something…?”
“No. You’ll see.”
I headed toward the Hall of Adventure, which issued monster subjugation requests. The Hall of Adventure had an atmosphere like an adventurers’ inn and was one of the places I used to frequent when looking for decent party members.
“It’s unusually quiet.”
The place I expected to be bustling was eerily deserted, with only a single rusted scrap of metal sweeping the floor. Why was it so quiet? Even with the entrance ceremony event going on, having absolutely no one here didn’t make sense. For the record, that thing didn’t count as a person.
「Request. Accepted. Have you come?」
It was a stiff-speaking piece of scrap. You could call it a robot. A machine with a single-wheeled lower body and a Lego-like upper torso. Request Assistant – Albaroid. Commonly known as the part-time robot! Seeing it like this brought back memories. But it looked much more worn and rusted than I remembered. Was there no manager?
Nike blinked her eyes wide several times.
“This is an automaton, right? It’s my first time seeing one! Actually, this is my first time coming to the Hall of Adventure at all!”
“Is that so?”
“They say it was made with the gods’ technology? It’s so fascinating. How does it even move?”
Well, in a world teetering between medieval and fantasy, seeing a robot would naturally be surprising.
“I’m jealous. It doesn’t eat or sleep. If I could do that, how much would I save on food…?”
Wasn’t her impression of seeing a robot a bit strange?
“Nike, if you touch it randomly and break it, we’ll have to pay for the damages.”
“I-I know that much.”
I stood in front of something that looked like a vending machine in the corner. There was a slot that resembled a coin slot. It was specifically for inserting 500 Rene.
Clink.
I inserted 500 Rene.
Beep-beep. Clatter-clatter.
The worn machine spun with old, creaking sounds. Finally, text appeared on its black-and-white screen.
Subjugation: Woof Woof Bark Bark!
Please hunt the ‘Plains Wolves’ that howl noisily every night.
0/30
Reward: 50,000R. Strength +1
“A 3-tier request. I suppose I should be satisfied that it’s working as expected.”
It gave Rene and stat bonuses exactly as I had predicted. Even setting Rene aside, the fact that it granted permanent stat increases was impressive. If I completed what was written here, my body would genuinely become stronger. The exact principle wasn’t clearly explained. I could only vaguely sense that it was a magitech device created with the gods’ transcendent technology, working in harmony with the magimetal currency ‘Rene’ that was the only thing capable of activating it. This was why Rene, which could only be mined and used on Ludens, held such high value. Because Rene possessed the power to alter reality.
However, Nike was horrified by this miraculous phenomenon.
“Plains Wolves are incredibly dangerous! You’d need thirty people to barely take down two or three of them…!”
You needed thirty people just to hunt Plains Wolves? That was quite the shocking revelation in its own way. Just how far behind were the standards here?
“It’s not someone else’s problem.”
Even I couldn’t hunt those Plains Wolves right now. So I inserted another 500 Rene.
Beep-beep.
“Victor. What exactly are you doing? The 500 Rene keeps disappearing!”
“Swamp Crocodile extermination. It’s a decent 2-tier request with good rewards, but it’s not what I want. Inserting again.”
Clink.
“Drake subjugation? How am I supposed to do that right now. Next.”
Clink. Clink. Clink.
“…You could buy half an egg with 500 Rene!”
Nike shouted as if she had lost her mind at this bizarre reset scene. Ten minutes had passed since I started standing in front of the vending machine. The amount that had vanished was 100,000 Rene.
“I already skipped lunch today…!”
“Think of it as an investment. Just trust me, Nike.”
“Ughhh…!”
Clink.
“H-How long are you going to keep doing this?”
“Obviously until it appears. There’s no need to be so scared. The probability is roughly one in a thousand. If you insert it about a thousand times, it should come out.”
Ah, I told you to trust me.
“…….”
Clink.
“…….”
Clink.
The only sound echoing through the hall was the clinking of coins. Even after spending two million Rene, the desired list still hadn’t appeared.
“…….”
As far as I knew, there were quite a few 1-tier requests in this vending machine that gave generous rewards. Among them, the probability of getting the one that involved catching ‘that guy’ should be around one in a thousand, right? Then shouldn’t it have appeared around the 500,000 Rene mark? Or at the very least by the one million Rene mark? Was my luck really this bad?
Well, honestly, I couldn’t exactly call myself lucky given the bizarre situation I was in, but this was crossing the line.
Clink.
“…….”
If it weren’t for Victor’s Steel mentality, my hands and back would surely be drenched in sweat by now. Maybe it was my imagination, but the back of my head felt unusually prickly.
“…Victor…! You…!”
“Just wait a little longer. It’s coming. Just a little. It’s almost here! Just a bit more and the jackpot will appear! If I stop now, everything I’ve spun so far will be meaningless!”
“That’s what they call the sunk cost fallacy! You’re just continuing because you don’t want to waste the money you’ve already spent! Whatever you’re trying to do, now is the time to stop!”
The earth mage Nike knew about the sunk cost fallacy? Even a rotten fish is still a fish. Was this what it meant to be a C-class student at Prison Academy?
“As expected, Nike, does your father play the stock market by any chance?”
But Nike was wrong.
“It is absolutely not the sunk cost fallacy. It will definitely appear. Just a little more.”
“Stop it! Get away from that vending machine right now!”
Clink.
I kept inserting Rene without pause while my mind worked busily. Maybe, like Nike said, it really was the sunk cost fallacy. Perhaps there was some variable in this real-world vending machine that I didn’t know about. Like the probability changing after a DLC was added or something. No, that couldn’t be. So far, I had checked most of the request lists from 1-tier to 3-tier while spinning the roulette. They matched exactly what I remembered and had organized. Therefore, that one had to be here too.
And so, when I had spent about three million Rene.
Clink.
Subjugation: Hunt the Spring Wildring!
Spring has arrived. Rumors say Spring Wildrings have appeared in the canyon. Please subjugate them.
0/5
Reward: 5,000,000R. Prime Adventure Token.
“Spring Wildring…?”
Nike cried out in shock.
“I heard they explode from the slightest stimulation… If you get caught in the blast, not even a trace remains….”
“Explode from the slightest stimulation? Those are exactly the ones I was looking for. This is the only 1-tier subjugation request we can handle right now. It even gives a Prime Adventure Token.”
“…How on earth are we supposed to catch those things?”
“You’ll see.”
Spring Wildrings were actually no big deal. As the name suggested, they would explode on their own if you so much as brushed against them. The truly terrifying thing was this island of Ludens.
“Nike, there’s something I need to check first. What is your vitality stat?”
“Me?”
Nike flinched and looked at me with a slightly wary gaze.
“You’re not supposed to ask something like that so casually. You know that, Victor.”
Of course. It was personal information. In this Prison Academy, everyone was a competitor. Having even one more secret gave you an advantage.
“Is it above 50 or below? Just tell me that.”
“…Below.”
“I see.”
If it was below 50, it was probably around 20 to 30. Since vitality increased HP by 1 per point, Nike’s vitality would give her roughly 20/30 HP. For reference, my vitality stat as Victor was 83. My total HP was essentially 83.
“But why are you asking…?”
“It’s necessary.”
Ludens was filled with all kinds of natural environments. From lands where magma boiled to frozen snow mountains. Various mysteries were hidden in places difficult for humans to live. Among them was the Canyon of Poison. It was literally a canyon filled with toxic gas.
In the game, just standing there would deal 1 dot damage per second. In other words, Victor, who had 83 HP, could survive there for 83 seconds. If I had the “Song of Purification” that could be obtained around Act 8, I could ignore the poison damage, but acquiring it now was impossible. So the method I used was this.
The HP Inflation Operation Using Luxury Herb Soup.
The effect of the 1-tier dish Luxury Herb Soup was simple. Upon consumption, it fully restored HP. At the same time, it increased maximum HP by up to 200 points. This meant that even I, Victor, with only 83 HP, could endure more than 200 seconds in the depths of that canyon.
“Nike, from here on it’s the Canyon of Poison. Your throat and eyes will sting. Can you endure it?”
“Me? I’m actually fine… But is this really going to work…?”
I told you it would.
“Then let’s go.”
We entered the canyon located in the field outside the academy. As we walked down the slope, yellowish, murky fog crept up from below our legs and soon completely enveloped our necks and faces. It stung like crazy. How should I describe it? Yeah, it felt like going into a chemical warfare zone without a gas mask. My eyes burned, and my nose and throat felt raw. However, Victor was far tougher than I had thought.
“It’s more bearable than I expected.”
Wow, keeping up appearances even in this situation? The Steel trait was truly useful. Perhaps because of its steel attribute, it had a half-damage effect against poison. My current HP was 283, which meant that thanks to the Steel trait, I could endure roughly 500 seconds inside here.
“Twenty-five. Twenty-six.”
Still, I had to keep a proper countdown. Unlike the game, it didn’t display my remaining HP.
“Nike, are you okay?”
“I can endure it…! There was a poisonous herb zone in the Reshguard Forest too. It feels similar… My throat burns a bit, but…! A dark mage should be able to handle at least this much…!”
Nike was tougher than I expected. Maybe it came from the vibe of someone who had lived as a dirt spoon, sleeping rough. We wandered through the Canyon of Poison where we couldn’t see even an inch ahead. Then, we finally discovered the creatures that lurked abundantly in this canyon.
—Kyuuiing.
It was a red, round creature. Its body was made of viscous liquid, with only its two eyes strikingly yellow. A slime. It was a type of Wildring that looked similar to one — the ‘Spring Wildring’.
I picked up a nearby pebble and threw it at the creature.
Thud.
The stimulated creature let out a “Kyuuiing…!” that clearly showed its anger, and finally, unable to contain its rage, it went — Boom!
Spring Wildring Subjugated 1/5
“It works. Nike, did the text appear in front of you too?”
“Y-Yeah! Letters popped up!”
Yes, it worked, it worked! The Luxury Herb Soup and Spring Wildring grinding method that became possible starting from the second playthrough when the Mysterious Forest opened!
“Nike, collect their byproducts too. Even though they live in a place like this, they’re valuable cooking ingredients.”
“Cough, okay…! Oh my god, I never imagined there was a method like this…! I never thought Luxury Herb Soup could be used this way! Did you really think this far ahead?”
“I can’t deny it. But this method can’t be used many times. If this gets out, others will copy it and the Spring Wildrings will go extinct. So we’re taking advantage of the beginner’s special treatment while we can.”
Nike and I diligently wandered through the poisonous fog, throwing stones. Whenever we reached our limit, we ate the soup I had prepared in advance to fully recharge our energy. By continuing this way, we were able to subjugate the five creatures in no time. Unlike other 1-tier monsters, they weren’t hard to find in the field, and catching them was easy. Naturally, I knew all five of their spawn locations.
“We have more time to spare than I thought.”
“Really? Is that so? Then let’s get out of here quickly! My throat is starting to hurt!”
“Wait.”
Thanks to the Steel trait, I had more HP to spare than expected, so I took the opportunity to also pick up the ‘stele’ that could be obtained in the Canyon of Poison.
Old Memory Stele #3: The God of the Anvil and Brazier said, “Isn’t it a shame to enjoy such a perfect island by ourselves?”
Thus, the gods decided to choose the eighth dice player. The king of humans, Gilgamesh, was chosen as their representative….
“As expected, it was under the rotten tree. How honest. And with this, my role in the group assignment should be sufficient.”
Group assignment research material. Securing cooking ingredients. And five million Rene plus a Prime Adventure Token. With this much, wasn’t burning about 2.5 million Rene as an investment perfectly reasonable? I’m telling you, I didn’t do the gacha because I wanted to.
We were able to return inside Ludens Academy before the sun set.
“I’m exhausted. I feel like I’m going to throw up. It’ll probably take several hours for the poison to clear… Cough. My head is pounding too… Ugh.”
“We’re almost there. Straighten your shoulders.”
The academy interior we arrived at was quite chaotic, but it was obvious why without even looking.
“Daily, did monsters invade?”
“Yeah, it was werewolves and spider things. The transfer student took them down though.”
“I see.”
“‘I see’ my ass! Dude! It was seriously amazing, okay? He just went ‘swish’ with his sword and sliced them in half! Of course, he got dragged off by the disciplinary committee for illegal weapon use on campus.”
There’s no shortage of news material — Daily said, the corners of his mouth lifting.
Indeed. Come to think of it, students gathered around the monster corpses here and there were murmuring things like “That transfer student is incredible…” and “As expected of the one who defeated Victor…”
Even without me stepping in to help, the protagonist Luke had handled it well on his own. Rather, I felt relieved. Starting from this episode, Luke would become a “Special Weapon Holder” and solve problems all over the academy.
“More importantly, Victor. What the hell happened to you? Did you get hit by a bomb? What’s that awful smell…?”
“Something like that.”
“Wait, wait a second, what is that? That thing in your hand. That red stuff in your hand, isn’t that Spring Wildring mucus!? That thing is a 1-tier monster! It lives in a place full of poison…!”
That Daily guy had an insanely quick eye. And how did he even know that was 1-tier monster mucus?
“Oh my god, Victor!”
The second-year newspaper club vice-president Daily began shouting loudly into my ear, which was already dizzy from the poison.
“Victor, you — the guy who got expelled from the student council and can’t even carry a sword — you’re telling me you hunted a 1-tier monster? Right now!?”
“Is there a problem? There shouldn’t be any rule prohibiting it.”
I had only done things that were perfectly legal and in line with the regulations. There was a bit of the viciousness of an old-timer mixed in, but legally there was no issue. Therefore, there was no reason for me to have what I obtained taken away or returned. Right, Victor?
However, there seemed to be something wrong with Daily’s head.
“You really are a hopeless guy, Victor.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because there’s no problem with it! This will sell! This is selling news material! This isn’t the time to be writing articles about werewolves invading the academy!”