For Now, Until the Time Comes...
For now, he had to wait until the time came—or, more precisely, keep on with the work of harvesting the golden flowers. Quite some time passed that way.
Then Do Jiyun sent a message, and the moment Yujun read it, he summoned Paranet.
"Paranet. Take me to the others."
"At once!"
Given something to do at last, Paranet answered in a booming voice.
"Who's the leader?"
Yujun asked as he stepped out beside the party on a spatial teleport.
"Gah! You scared me. Why do you show up without so much as a hint of presence?"
Startled, Kim Yohan was breathing hard.
"It's magic. You should have felt the flow of mana."
"I'm a little dull about that sort of thing. I didn't notice at all. Oh—you asked who the leader is. Right up ahead."
Where Kim Yohan pointed, a single player sat astride an enormous drake.
"A sacred beast? A summon?"
"A summon, they say."
"So there are drake summons. I had no idea."
"There weren't any back when we were playing. Or maybe we just never found one."
"Still, doesn't an archangel riding around on a drake look a little off to you?"
Kim Yohan tilted his head.
"Not in the slightest."
"I'd think there were summons that suited them better..."
"Oh, come on, Yujun. This isn't a game. A high-grade summon you'd be lucky to get even if you paid for it—how are you supposed to pick and choose?"
"...Ah."
"The player called the Fourth Archangel probably just happened to pull a drake summon and uses it because it performs well."
Yujun nodded. He was right. Even in War of the Gods, acquiring a summon had demanded a serious investment of money, and in the Tower of Infinity—where paying to win was impossible—obtaining one at all was a distant prospect. Yujun's luck in securing Paranet, a growth-type summon, from the very beginning had been extraordinary.
He had known it even then, but seeing a celestial of an archangel's standing forced to make do with a drake summon drove the point home all over again. Summons were hard enough to come by, and unless they were the growth type, it was difficult to say they helped all that much. Their growth stalled, so they were only useful around a certain level, and obtaining one above one's own level was next to impossible. Even landing a summon of the same level was something to be grateful for.
I did notice there were hardly any players commanding summons.
Even if someone happened upon a growth-type summon, they would have to raise it themselves, which inevitably slowed their own growth. In every respect, summons were a poor place to look for any real reward.
Still, looking at that... I do want one more.
Yujun thought of Balrog and the Blood Lord, sealed inside the Absolute Sealing Orb.
It wouldn't be legitimate, but if I tame the two of them properly, I could use them like summons.
Even if the taming succeeded, there was a drawback. If they died, that was the end. And he could never fully trust them. A soul contract would change nothing; they might stab him in the back at any moment.
"Paranet. Thank you. Always."
Struck out of nowhere by the thanks, Paranet flinched.
"M-me?"
"Yes. You, Paranet."
"So suddenly?"
"For listening so well. All I ever do is ask favors of you."
"...I am moved, Master! And I feel just the same! You delivered me from that wretched laboratory dungeon, granted me fine equipment, and here I am putting it to splendid use! If anyone ought to be grateful, it is I!"
Paranet poured out every thanks he had never managed to say. Yujun's expression, by contrast, had gone stiff.
"Then work even harder."
"...Eh?"
When the reaction he had hoped for failed to come, Paranet was briefly thrown.
"Answer."
"A-at once!"
A smile tugged at Yujun's mouth. Watching Paranet fluster, he couldn't hold it in.
Teasing that one never gets old.
Under the Fourth Archangel's lead, a host numbering in the hundreds advanced at speed.
"What a sight. Look at all those winged celestials."
Do Jiyun smiled and nodded.
"By scale, they'd rank in the top three."
"Even so, they don't compare to the moderates or the hardliners, do they?"
"They don't. This group belongs to the hardliners."
"...Ah. Right. You said they split into squads to search for the Golden Goblin."
"It's large for a squad, but the Golden Goblin is so strong that finding it with anything less would be pointless."
"You've never actually seen a Golden Goblin yourself, have you?"
"I haven't. But the Fourth Archangel says they've seen one, so I have no choice but to believe them."
"They look a little suspicious to me."
"The Fourth Archangel?"
"Yes."
"Suspicious how?"
"The face is suspicious. The atmosphere, too."
"...You just don't like that celestial, do you?"
"That's right. It's less that they feel ominous, and more that I don't like how they look."
"When they're that pretty?"
"Then it must have been my mistake."
"Right?"
The Fourth Archangel had a strikingly beautiful face, and yet the features sat ever so slightly out of true. That, he supposed, was where the faint sense of wrongness came from—not that anyone's face was ever in perfect balance.
Must be my imagination.
"By the way, Yujun. You're not going to suddenly peel off from the group, are you?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I'm just uneasy."
"It'll depend on the situation, but for now I mean to watch and wait."
"Good. Leaving is fine—just don't suddenly attack the Fourth Archangel or anything. Understood?"
"...I see very clearly what you've thought of me all this time, Jiyun."
"It's a misunderstanding. I didn't think that."
"I'll believe you. For now."
Yujun had his senses pushed to their limit.
Does the Golden Goblin hide its presence well, too?
If one hid in the Golden Flower Garden, the naked eye would have a hard time finding it. Then again, if it couldn't also conceal its presence, any passing fool could spot it.
Dozens of people have found them, so... perfect stealth seems unlikely.
He decided the key was detecting the Golden Goblin's presence.
"What a waste."
He had muttered it without thinking as he glanced around, and Manuela caught it.
"What's a waste?"
"All of that is money."
He was looking at the golden flowers with a wistful gaze. Manuela laughed as if she couldn't believe him.
"You've dug up that many and it's still not enough?"
"You wouldn't know, being a witch, but human greed has no end."
"Tch. As if only humans are greedy."
"...Hm? They're not?"
"No. There are plenty of races worse than humans."
"What. Who brainwashed me into thinking humans were the race of greed?"
It was probably a prejudice picked up from all the media he had consumed. He had, after all, seen no small number of fantasy novels and films.
"If there weren't so many eyes on me, I'd sweep up every last one of them. Truly a shame."
Which was why what came next mattered. If he succeeded in abducting the Golden Goblin without incident, he could delay the end of the event and harvest that many more flowers from the Golden Flower Garden.
For that, luck will have to cooperate a little.
Whatever else, he had to find the Golden Goblin before he could do anything. Fail to spot the creature, and it was all for nothing. That was why he couldn't leave it to someone else.
My sensory range really has grown.
An hour had passed since he joined the Fourth Archangel's group. There were no results. None at all. Yujun's patience had run... dry? It had not. He had never expected anything to begin with, and he relied on his senses alone.
The problem was that even with a range this vast, the Golden Goblin's presence was difficult to find. Yujun went to Do Jiyun.
"I'm going to step away for a bit."
"Where to?"
"To water the flowers."
"...You're not going to pick them, are you?"
"You caught me."
Looking sheepish, Yujun's figure vanished.
"He really does disappear like the wind."
"He left me behind without a word again..."
Manuela pouted, her face forlorn.
Yujun cast a flight spell. Activating his senses from higher up would let him survey a far wider range.
It's definitely different up here.
He closed his eyes and invoked Super Concentration.
Super Concentration
Mental acceleration — subjective time nears a standstill.
A cool wind blew, and he felt as if he alone had been cut off from the world. Could everything he had lived through until now have been nothing but a game addict's delusion? Stray thoughts crept in, perhaps because of what Super Concentration did to him. In a real fight, that focus would have been spent entirely on the battle, but turning it toward an open-ended search for a Golden Goblin left room for strange ideas.
It had better not be. Please—let me walk the dark road, not the road of light.
Yujun shook his head. This was no time for idle thoughts. He let the strength drain from his whole body and focused on his senses alone.
Five minutes passed that way, and his eyes flew open.
"Found it."
The Golden Goblin's presence was exceedingly peculiar. It felt mighty, and yet, like the golden flowers, more substance than living thing—a strange aura that words couldn't quite capture. What he could say for certain was that it was starkly different from the presence of any other monster or player.
If a golden flower had life in it, it would feel exactly like that.
In any case, he had pinpointed where it was. Without lingering, Yujun flew toward the Golden Goblin at full speed.
True to its name, it was a goblin with a body of gold, and not particularly large—no bigger than an ordinary goblin.
Going by looks alone, it doesn't seem strong at all...
It was sharp-eared, though, and cunning. Sensing him draw near, the Golden Goblin slipped in among the golden flowers. He could see every bit of it, and a smile touched his lips.
An ordinary player, unwilling to damage the golden flowers, would be all too likely to lose a Golden Goblin even after spotting it. Yujun was different. Fuse Touch of Healing with Chaos, and he could do more than damage the flowers—he could tear them out by the root. He closed on the Golden Goblin with terrifying force, ripping flowers free as he went.
The creature scrambled away, opening the distance. It was very fast, and with the golden flowers aiding it besides, it didn't look easy to catch.
"Cute."
For all that, it was still a flea hopping in the palm of his hand. Yujun gave chase with an easy smile.
Was all that talk about the Golden Goblin being strong just hot air?
The moment he drew near, it fled no differently from a rabbit. If so, there was a good chance the Fourth Archangel had been lying.
Did they fool Jiyun?
Even as he pursued the Golden Goblin, Yujun opened his messenger and sent a message.
For a while, no reply came from Do Jiyun. Surely nothing had happened. The instant he opened the messenger again—
"Huh?"
Yujun's eyes went wide.
Two Golden Goblins?