Yelloy Barrier Fortress (7)
The gender ratio among those who play Al Fantasia is, as one might expect, overwhelmingly male. That said, the number of women in the game is hardly so low as to raise eyebrows. Twelve out of every hundred users are female — not a bad showing at all for a virtual reality RPG.
What startled people about Yeon, then, was not that she was a girl. It was the hour at which she had logged in.
Night had settled over Al Fantasia, and night had settled just as deeply over the real world. Three in the morning on a weekday — a stretch of time that old-school gamers half-jokingly called the hour of legends. And at that hour, a girl who looked barely old enough for high school had appeared as if she belonged there.
Perhaps it was only natural, but nearly everyone gathered at the fortress, murmuring among themselves, was a man. And so Yeon found herself shrinking under the weight of countless male stares.
Nothing's going to happen, but still...
She was scared all the same. The downward gazes of adults each a full head taller than her were a little much for someone as introverted as Yeon.
Fortunately, the silence did not last long.
"Sorry. I wasn't trying to give you a hard time or anything. You just caught me off guard."
The man who had muttered earlier scratched his head and held out a hand.
"Name's Rihan. Level twenty-four."
"I'm Yeon. Level... twenty-one."
"You said you had something to ask, right? I'm guessing you want to know why everyone's bunched up like this?"
"Yes. What's going on that has everyone gathered here?"
"I don't know the details, honestly... but it looks like some kind of sudden event has popped up."
A sudden event? Yeon's face went blank with confusion, so Rihan added an explanation.
"A sudden event is exactly what it sounds like — a hunting ground or its monsters suddenly start behaving differently from usual, with no warning at all. It doesn't happen often, but it's not unheard of either."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Not particularly. You usually walk away from these things with a decent haul. The problem is... there's a level restriction."
"A level restriction... Ah — the soldier mentioned something about a barrier. Is that it?"
"That's the one. Right now, Gezina's Forest will only let in users level thirty and below."
"It's a real headache. The kobolds' average level has jumped by at least three, and you can bet the boss scaled even harder."
The hulking man beside them let out a sigh as he spoke. The shield in his grip was as large as his own body — a tank, by the look of him.
"The efficiency's gone to garbage."
"Pretty much."
Rihan nodded at the tank's assessment.
The old approach had been simple enough: the tank held a pack of kobolds while two DPS peeled them off one at a time. Now the tank crumbled under the main pack before the DPS could even thin their numbers. The DPS, for their part, could barely win a duel against a single kobold — and once the pack finished the tank and came back around, they were swept aside.
And so the old three-person parties had been abandoned in favor of groups of five, sometimes as many as seven. Experience efficiency was never going to survive that. The kobolds did give more experience now that their levels had risen, but taking down creatures buffed well beyond their own level meant swallowing a loss every time.
Then can't they just hunt the weaker ones, level up, and move on to Grape Cave?
That was what Choco thought, listening in from a distance. And if you really thought about it, that was the standard play. A sudden event that slapped a level restriction across an entire hunting ground left you with precious few other options.
Every so often some hero would step up, put down the monster at the heart of it, and make a name for themselves on the community boards — but that was rare. It had to be. You were expected to kill a vastly stronger monster while locked under a level cap, and no ordinary mechanical skill was going to cut it. Being good on your own wasn't enough, either. Every member of the party needed serious ability and serious gear, all while still fitting under that restriction.
There was a reason a successful clear became the talk of the forums. On top of that, sudden events with level restrictions didn't show up often to begin with, and they faded on their own if you simply waited. The hunting ground they left behind was never quite the same. Gezina's Forest would likely transform into something else entirely, the way it had during the monster wave.
"Is there anything else we should know...?"
"Anything else... Ah. This is just a guess on my part, but I think a mage has shown up among the kobolds."
"A mage? Among the kobolds?"
"I saw a violet aura flowing around the enhanced kobold warriors' bodies. I figure it might be a buff..."
"Blades still went in, though. If anything, once you actually landed a hit, they died a lot faster than before. They're just so much quicker, and their attacks are so sharp, you barely notice the difference."
If anything, this was good news for their side. Choco had left the kobolds alive in the first place to train Yeon. If she felt like it, she could have incinerated entire packs in a single breath, no matter how many came. And if those same kobolds had grown even frailer than before, there was no reason to keep standing here listening.
"Huh? Okay."
"Pardon?"
"Ah — no. Thank you for the information. We'll be going now!"
"Ah, wait—"
Yeon turned on her heel and vanished as if fleeing before Rihan could get another word out. He scratched his head, watching her go.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Haa... I thought my heart was going to give out..."
"It was merely a conversation. Why make such a fuss?"
"It's a big deal to me, okay? Hmph — revenge!"
"Dnh't do thaaat..."
That was what I managed to say to Yeon as she took hold of my cheeks and started squishing them, but it did not take in the slightest. She had done the hard work, to be fair, so I had no intention of shaking her off just yet. If it went on too long I would, though.
I had been getting my cheeks kneaded for some time when Yeon spoke up, as if the thought had only just occurred to her.
"By the way, Choco — why do you keep switching the way you talk?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Right now you're all what do you mean by that, like something out of a historical drama. But when you talk inside my head, like earlier, you sound completely normal... Which one is the real you?"
"The latter is the true one, of course. Is that not obvious?"
I spoke normally to begin with. It was only that garbage skill — Dignity, or whatever it was called — that force-corrected everything that came out of my mouth. It apparently did not apply to conveying intent through spiritual power, because those words came through exactly as I thought them.
Wait. Then I don't even need to talk out loud. I could just communicate through spiritual power.
"No. If we're hanging out together and I'm the only one talking out loud, I'll look like a weirdo."
"Did this one just speak aloud?"
"You didn't say it with your mouth, but your face said it all. That whole wait, then I could just do that look. And for the record, I'm against it."
Uncanny. I clicked my tongue, and Yeon went on.
"So what now? You said you heard everything."
"What else would we do? We go hunting, of course. Though I doubt you will need to take the field this time."
Their durability had dropped, yes — but their speed and attack power had risen to match. Factor in that it was night, and the numbers had already climbed well past anything Yeon could handle.
Put it this way: the kobolds we had hunted in daylight were greenhorn soldiers. The ones waiting in the forest now, enhanced and wrapped in darkness, were closer to seasoned knights. Asking someone who had been picking off foot soldiers to suddenly take on knights was not merely difficult. It was impossible.
And if she ended up in a fight by accident and died, I would be stuck sitting on my hands until she logged back in. All the more reason not to let her anywhere near them.
For Yeon, who had never wanted to hunt in the first place, this should have been welcome news.
"Huh? I don't have to hunt?"
"I have judged it far too dangerous for you to face them as you are. I would have hesitated even in daylight. At night, there is nothing to consider."
"Hmm... I feel kind of disappointed..."
"There is no need to feel disappointed. Once we have gained a few levels and day breaks, I shall have you hunting like a woman possessed."
"On second thought, I'm not disappointed."
She flipped her expression so fast it was as if the disappointment had never existed. A small laugh slipped out of me.
"In any case, it would be best if we moved without drawing those people's eyes."
If the ones we had just been questioning about the forest saw us heading in, they would almost certainly try to stop us.
And so we took a slightly roundabout path toward the gate that led into the woods. There we found a familiar gatekeeper. When we had first arrived, he had been stationed outside the fortress. Now, it seemed, he was guarding the gate to the forest.
"You two heading into the woods?"
"Are we not allowed to leave?"
"Unless it is a special circumstance such as a monster wave, we do not restrict passage. However, the forest is currently deemed dangerous, so I must advise against it."
During the day he had looked like nothing more than a slacker, yawning at his post. Now he actually looked the part of a gatekeeper.
"It's fine. We're strong enough."
"Then I wish you fortune in battle."
He raised the spear he had let dip and opened the way.
"Wait a moment!"
"Hm?"
We were just about to pass through the gate when a voice called out from behind. It was familiar enough that we stopped and turned.
"That guy..."
A fierce splash of red caught the eye — and behind it, a head of blue and a head of black. Two of the faces I knew. But who was the third?
I was still turning that over when the red-haired man spoke to Yeon.
"You remember me, right?"
"Y-you were the one who asked to party during the day..."
"My nickname is Absolute Defense Jin. Please call me Ho-jin."
"Ah, I'm Yeon. And Se-jin unnie is here too?"
"We meet again."
Se-jin gave a small wave, her face as blunt as ever. Yeon grinned and waved back.
Ho-jin looked between the two of them, then spoke as if this were a stroke of luck.
"You two know each other?"
"We rode the same carriage to the fortress. We got close then."
"I see. Ah — this is Blue Sky. You probably don't know this one yet."
"Ah, hello."
The boy introduced as Blue Sky bowed at an awkward angle. Yeon returned the bow with a face that looked about as uncomfortable as his.
"Ah... yes."
"Anyway, you're heading into the forest now, right? If it's not too much trouble, could we come along?"
"No. I am sorry, but we cannot accompany you."
He had been asking Yeon for her consent. I answered in her place. Only then did Ho-jin seem to notice me, his eyes going round.
"A little kid...?"
"Who are you calling a child."
There was no denying that I looked like one. Admitting it, however, would only invite suspicion.
"Yeon, this person is...?"
"Um... how am I supposed to introduce you?"
I could only hope they had some tact. I spoke while watching Se-jin, who kept glancing this way and that as if searching for something.
"This one's name is Choco. A companion of Yeon's."
"Yeon's friend... A high schooler, at that size?"
"Choco, you said...?"
Ho-jin and Se-jin were startled for entirely different reasons. I added a line in a hurry.
"What is that look? Are you mocking this one for being short?"
"No, that's not — I was just genuinely surprised... But why the way you talk..."
"She says it's a character concept. Funny, right? Haha..."
"I— I see..."
Ho-jin laughed, awkward and unconvinced. He did not look as though he had bought it, but he was not going to press the matter either. That left one person.