Newbie Graduation (2)
First, this skill called Five Elements Daoism — the Fire attribute in particular — was a lot like Fireball.
The difference was that Fireball was a fire-and-forget spell, while this one let me seize the projectile with spirit power and wrench its trajectory off course. A guided missile, basically. I could only manage one at a time so far, but still.
And that wasn't all. A Fireball only detonated if it hit something; this one I could set off whenever I wanted. I could even clamp down on the blast radius — the same way I had against the black wolves.
I'd called it similar to Fireball, but going by function alone this was intermediate magic or better. Mage players would have been screaming that a balance patch was overdue. A skill like this, sitting in the hands of someone who hadn't even hit level twenty.
I'd try the other attributes in a real fight eventually. For now, hunting with Fire alone wasn't going to be a problem.
As for Yeon's skill, which I'd meant to size up while we were at it... honestly, it had blown my expectations clean out of the water.
I'd already thought she was pretty decent for someone who'd just started the game. The way she held a sword, the way she moved her body — it was like she'd walked in off some martial-arts dojo in the real world.
Of course, even people like that tend to freeze up the first time a monster bigger than they are comes charging in. That was the whole point of hunting the black wolf pack: get her used to it.
I just hadn't expected her to pull a stunt like that. I ran the last fight back in my head.
When I'd thrown the flame at the wolves closing in at the end, I'd already known they would split left and right and try to pincer us. The black wolf pack was supposed to be a party hunt, but I'd soloed them over and over for the drops, so I'd had their patterns memorized for a long time. Back then I'd just crushed them with raw level, of course.
Anyway: once only two of them are left, they charge together, then peel apart and come in from both sides at the same time. In a party you can answer that without much trouble. Solo, even if you drop one of them fast, you can't cover the hit coming from the other direction.
I could have, though. Fire wasn't the only thing I had. Burn one down with a guided flame, take the other with a different branch of Five Elements Daoism, done.
The reason I'd left my back wide open instead was simple: I wanted to see what Yeon would do. There was a chance she wouldn't react in time and I'd get clipped for a painful little lesson, but I trusted her.
And she did exactly what I'd hoped. She raised her sword and put herself between me and the wolf. She looked terrified in front of a beast bigger than she was — but she didn't run. Standing her ground at all was a passing grade.
Frankly, that alone would have been more than you could ask of a newbie. What she did next made even me, after all the years I'd put into this game, go wide-eyed.
She changed her stance in midair and swung? The moment most people leave the ground, their form collapses and they start flailing whether they mean to or not. Unless you're some kind of special-forces type, that's just how a regular human body works.
Top-rank players can keep their posture in the air without much trouble — you get logged out a few hundred times and you learn — but that is not a move a kid who just started the game is supposed to have.
So how was I supposed to not be satisfied? The partner I might end up taking all the way to max level was a certifiable freak of talent.
"The place we're going is Yelloy Barrier Fortress, right? What's that even for?"
The question drifted out of Yeon on the walk back to the village, as if it had only just occurred to her. I tapped the fang I'd been fidgeting with against my shoulder and answered while I thought.
"Before that. Do you know why the place is called a Barrier Fortress?"
"Um... because it was built to hold back enemies pouring in?"
"It is as you say. Regard Yelloy Barrier Fortress as a sort of rampart, raised so the monsters pressing in would never spill beyond it."
"Eek... so it's just swarming with monsters, then?"
Yeon pulled a long face. I don't like the sound of that. We needed to level as fast as humanly possible, and here she was recoiling from the one thing that would help. I clicked my tongue.
"If the monsters are many, you ought to be glad. What cause is there to dislike it?"
"But I'd rather just loaf around with you than hunt, Choco... hey, speaking of which, can I hug you?"
"You may not. Away with you."
"Ow!"
I jabbed the fang into Yeon as she sidled closer, and she scrambled back in a hurry. So I wasn't allowed to actually attack her, but a sharp little poke like this was apparently fine. I hooked the fang over my shoulder again.
"Of course, Yelloy Barrier Fortress will not look as it does in my memory. The monster waves that used to roll in day after day had all but ended by the time I left, and more to the point, back then you needed to be over level fifty just to hunt there without dying."
"How many years ago was that?"
"Some... six years past, I think? I cannot quite recall."
"...It's really sinking in that you're older than me, Choco."
"Do not call me old."
Before I stab you. I swallowed the rest and leveled the pointed end of the fang at her. Her mouth snapped shut.
I gave a small, dismissive snort. Yeon opened her mouth again, carefully.
"But if you needed to be around level fifty just to hunt there without dying, isn't that still way out of our league?"
"It would be, if the waves were still coming. They are not. I have heard no word of them starting again."
I cast back through my memory.
"Yeon. Have you ever read a fantasy novel, or something of the sort?"
"Nnh. Never."
"Then I shall explain it simply."
I stopped walking, crouched in the dirt, and started scratching with the fang. A dog's head with slightly crossed eyes took shape, hunched over, a potbelly shoved out in front. Add a shield and a sword and you had a monster, complete.
"A creature of this shape is called a Kobold. They dwell in Gezina's Forest, near Yelloy Barrier Fortress, where we are headed. Their levels run from about eighteen to twenty-six, and the boss — the Kobold King — should be around thirty."
"That's lower than I thought?"
"It is not finished yet."
I started scratching again, this time beside the Kobold: an ant, its body sheathed in what looked like sturdy plate.
"This one is called an Armor Ant. They live in a dungeon likewise near Yelloy Barrier Fortress — Grape Cave. Levels thirty-one to forty, and their queen, the boss, around forty-three."
"Wait. If they're both near the Barrier Fortress..."
"Indeed. The monster waves were structured so that both kinds came flooding in at once."
Now that the waves were over, each was just an ordinary hunting ground. Back then, though, it had been a nightmare. It wasn't only the trash mobs — higher-level packs like the Kobold royal guard came pouring out in droves. And the bosses didn't show up one at a time. They came in tens.
There was a reason the recommended level sat more than ten above the monsters' average. Anything less, and the moment you stepped outside the fortress and swung a sword, attacks from every direction would turn you into a pincushion.
The experience, at least, had been excellent. Even with the penalty from the level gap, the defense-battle buff, the quests, and the endless flood of mobs stacked up fast. Rack up enough kills and the merit rewards weren't bad either, so Yelloy Barrier Fortress was always packed with players lining up for the defense. The monsters outnumbered them anyway.
"Well, the two have since been split apart and used as separate hunting grounds, so it is of no consequence now. Regardless, we mean to use Yelloy Barrier Fortress as our base and level with all speed — until we reach at least forty-five. Have you understood?"
"I understood all of it."
For someone who'd understood all of it, her face said she hadn't understood a word. I watched her nod with that blank look and muttered to myself.
It couldn't be helped. I had a goal, and I'd always been dead serious about the game. Yeon was a regular person who'd never touched a game before Al Fantasia — and a girl, at that.
Skill and potential were one thing. Unlike me, she might not want to grind herself into the dirt. She might just want to enjoy this world for what it was. If she hadn't gotten tangled up with me, she almost certainly would have.
I got it. Once I'd climbed high enough myself, I'd spent most of my time wandering around like I was on an adventure. It wasn't as if I'd been hunting-mad every second of every day.
But right now I needed her help. I had to get back to my original body as soon as I possibly could. That didn't mean I was going to drag her around by force. I was in a hurry, but I wasn't that much of a bastard.
I floated the question at her still-blank face.
"...Is there anything you wish to do before we depart for Yelloy Barrier Fortress?"
"Anything I want to do?"
"Until now we have done nothing but hunt and rest, over and over. Once we reach Yelloy Barrier Fortress it will grow more intense still, and simply dragging you along by the wrist sits ill with my conscience."
Yeon stared at me for a second, dazed, then broke into a sheepish smile.
"I'm the one who said I wouldn't undo the taming. Sorry for just whining."
"There is no need to apolo—"
"But since you put it that way — there is something. Something I want to do."
Her expression flipped, sharp and wicked, like she'd just found an opening.
"Shopping!"
"Took down a pack of black wolves, did you? You've come a long way."
The moment we hit the village, Yeon and I headed for the guard post. Hand over a Black Wolf Fang — the material, not the weapon — among the other byproducts from the pack, and the guards would pay out a reward plus experience.
"But where's that forest fox you used to travel with? And why are you walking around with a little girl?"
"Ah, haha... yeah. Things just kind of turned out that way."
"Hmph."
Yeon laughed, awkward. Before we'd come into town I'd used my transformation, just in case, and put the ears and tail away, so I looked like nothing more than an ordinary human girl. Getting mistaken for a monster and kicking off a scene wouldn't have done me any favors.
The problem was that hiding the ears and tail left me with a discomfort I couldn't shake. Like I'd folded a piece of my own body out of the way and forced it to stay there. It didn't hurt, exactly. It just sat on my nerves and refused to get off.
Anyway. We collected our reward from Guardsman Aiden and went straight to the equipment shop Ogle ran.
"Oh! If it isn't the adventurer from last time! Hmm? The one beside you — a little sister, perhaps?"
Ogle greeted us at full volume, the way he always did. Yeon laughed it off instead of answering, dumped every last byproduct from the black wolf pack onto the table, and said,
"Do you buy things like these, by any chance?"
"Black wolf hides! Fine materials... they would be, if they weren't all scorched to cinders."
"Ahem."
I cleared my throat, quietly. Ogle didn't seem to notice. He held up the least ruined hide, named a price, and Yeon nodded and sold the lot, gems included. Even the ones in bad shape went — for next to nothing, but they went.
By the time we stepped back out of the shop, we'd put together a decent pile of coin. Add the guard-post reward and we were sitting on nearly forty thousand gold. Considering Ogle's Masterpiece had run thirty thousand, we'd done pretty well.
Having more money to work with was a good thing. I still couldn't help groaning like a dog that desperately needed to go.
"We're here!"
At Yeon's voice I let out a long breath and lifted my head.
Why on earth did a place like this have a clothing shop.