Games Are Different from Reality (1)
Games Are Different from Reality (1)
In a game, no matter how long you walked, the character never got tired. That was only natural. If the character got exhausted from just walking around, it would be incredibly frustrating for the player.
If a character who walked for about an hour couldn't move without a ten-minute break, it would be a fatal flaw in a genre like lengthy JRPGs where playtime runs long.
Furthermore, these games didn't place many restrictions on running either. Unless it was an action RPG, not having a stamina bar didn't seriously affect the gameplay. Since the game switched to combat mode every time you fought an enemy, there was no reason to restrict fast movement and only make the playthrough feel clunky.
The problem was, that was only true in the game.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
I heard ragged breathing coming from behind me.
The place where the Elemental Bear lived was deep in the forest. It wasn't that there were no paths, and it wasn't a full-on mountain either, but compared to the firm roads of the village, it was a footpath that took considerable effort to walk on.
Naturally, walking along such a path for dozens of minutes without a break was bound to cause stamina problems.
"......"
I had at least done the bare minimum of conditioning. Even if I didn't possess a superhuman body like the other protagonists, my basic stamina wasn't the absolute worst.
The problem was Mia Crowfield, who normally seemed to have no connection whatsoever to exercise.
"Are you alright?"
Perhaps because I looked relatively fine, keeping my expression steady while clenching my teeth, Claire glanced back with concern and asked Mia Crowfield, who was barely managing to follow at the rear.
"Huff, I-I'm fine..."
"No, you don't look fine at all."
Alice said.
"Let's rest here and then go. It's better for us to meet our quarry in optimal condition, not just for Lady Crowfield."
"Indeed, that's true. Let's rest here for a moment."
The sun was slowly rising in the sky.
We had woken up at four in the morning and headed out after eating, but it seemed everyone knew how foolish it was to enter a forest in the dead of night. However, we hadn't been idle during that time; we had reviewed the request details once more and double-checked our supplies before entering the forest.
No matter how diligently I had played the game, this forest didn't look exactly like it did in the game, just as the imperial highways didn't. The shape of the village had closely resembled the game, but... implementing the sheer scale of this vast forest identically in a game must have been impossible.
"Haaah..."
Crouching down on the ground, Mia Crowfield let out a sigh.
"......"
I took out the canteen from my waist and handed it to Mia Crowfield. I had boiled the water thoroughly in the morning, filled the canteen, and placed it inside the leather pouch at my belt, so it still retained a little warmth.
"Ah..."
Mia Crowfield's eyes widened slightly as she looked up at me, seeming a little surprised that I had handed her the canteen.
"Th-thank you."
But perhaps because of the eyes watching from around us, she couldn't bring herself to refuse the canteen.
After receiving the still-warm canteen, opening it, and carefully taking a sip of water, Mia Crowfield breathed out a soft, "Hoooh..."
"It looks like we might not be able to complete a few of the requests."
Jake spoke rather coldly.
But at the same time, I agreed with Jake to some extent. Never mind Mia Crowfield, my own stamina had its limits. To others, I might look like some kind of iron woman, but the truth was, no matter how hard I trained, I couldn't beat anyone here in strength or stamina, with the exception of Mia Crowfield.
"......"
The question was, what happened to the game's story then?
A few side quests could afford to lose a person, but the main quest locked the party composition. Well, things were already very different from the game now. In the game, you could only bring four party members into battle at a time.
The very fact that so many of us were moving around all together was already a major departure from the game.
But, in that case.
What would happen if a character destined to play an important role in the main quest ran out of stamina, got injured, or collapsed from exhaustion?
As I was seriously pondering this alone, Mia Crowfield, who must have misread my expression as I looked at her, handed the canteen back to me with a slightly frightened look.
I silently took the canteen and drank a sip of the water inside.
The still-warm water slid down my throat, warming my insides just a little.
... Well, considering only the story progression, we were still at the very beginning. It wouldn't be too late to watch a bit longer and judge then.
And besides.
This request was chosen by Charlotte and approved by Leo and Claire, wasn't it?
The three of them had judged for themselves that they possessed the skill to reliably bring down an Elemental Bear, and the guide who had heard the name of House Grace had nodded as if it were obvious, so it would work out somehow.
Would anyone get seriously hurt in a mere side quest?
*
The Elemental Dog was similar in size to a wolf.
Its physical capabilities were also not much different from a wolf's. It supposedly held Marmaros in its body, but that wasn't strong enough to deflect bullets.
However, thinking about it, that beast was the monster encountered in the very first battle in the story.
Naturally, it was a monster that couldn't be that strong here either.
"Grraaoooh!"
But, the 'Red Claw' howling in such a frenzy had a different aura about it.
... In other words, the beast we had to hunt this time was a 'bear.' A bear whose hide and bones sometimes deflected bullets.
And on top of that, a bear that instinctively used magic because it harbored fire-attribute Marmaros within its body.
Its bulk was at least twice the size of a polar bear I had seen at the zoo, to the point where I had to tilt my head all the way back just to look up at its face.
A normal bear might look a little cute if it sat still with its mouth shut and a blank expression, but the Elemental Bear exuded the atmosphere of a wild beast even when it was just standing there.
"Alright, here I go!"
Leo said that, and Claire nodded.
"Grraaoh!"
They nimbly dodged the Elemental Bear's swinging arm. Leo leaped to the side, and Claire ducked her head swiftly. Watching the tips of Claire's hair, tied back behind her, get sheared off by those sharp claws was enough to make my own knees go weak.
"Let's go too, Princess!"
"... Just call me Charlotte."
Jake and Charlotte dashed in next. The two of them circled around to the rear of the Elemental Bear and swung their swords. Though, because of its thick hide, it didn't look like it would go down easily.
Claire drew the Elemental Bear's attention from a slight distance using her signature whip-like sword aura, and in that opening, Leo lunged in from the front and swung his sword. He couldn't inflict a fatal wound in one blow, but he was steadily chipping away at the beast's stamina.
The fight unfolded with the two in front attacking again to redirect the bear's gaze forward every time it turned its head towards Charlotte and Jake at the rear. The Grace family swordsmanship, centered on heavy strikes and slashes, and the swordsmanship of Charlotte, who used a rapier, and Jake, who employed rapid hit-and-run tactics, combined quite well together.
"Alright, I'll go too."
Alice said, gripping her sword tightly.
"Watch our backs!"
"Yes."
As I nodded, Alice burst forward.
The imperial swordsmanship was a style that placed great weight on each individual strike. It was slower than the Grace family's two-handed sword style, but at the same time, a single attack possessed tremendous power. Enough that the sword aura alone could crack the ground.
In the game, Alice was a melee dealer whose 'speed was slow but single-hit techniques were strong.'
As Alice, who had rushed toward the Elemental Bear in an instant through the gap between Leo and Claire, swung her sword, the belly hide of the Elemental Bear, which had only suffered minor scratches from Leo and Claire's sword aura, split wide open and blood splattered.
"Gwoooaaaar!"
A pained roar, different from the spirited cry from moments before, tore through the air, loud enough to pierce my ears. Boom, boom, the enraged Elemental Bear slammed the ground several times. Flames flickered up from the forest floor thickly covered in dry leaves.
"Eek."
Seeing that scene, Mia Crowfield let out a thin scream.
"We proceed as planned."
I spoke calmly to Mia Crowfield.
It was a far more intense scene than what I'd seen in the game... and felt more brutal, but I had already blown a person to pieces and put a bullet through a wolf's forehead before. There was no reason to be shocked by such a spectacle now.
"Please prepare a water-attribute spell. I will get ready to fire from a short distance away from you."
At my words, Mia Crowfield nodded several times.
After watching Mia Crowfield move a little distance away from the scene of the fight, her shoulders slightly hunched, and begin casting a spell with her staff raised, I moved as well.
If I had enough time, I would have climbed a tree, but it didn't look like there was time for that now.
I climbed onto a large nearby boulder, knelt on one knee into a sitting firing position, and aimed my gun at the Elemental Bear's head.
Its head was certainly large, but the head of a creature screaming and thrashing madly toward Leo and his party wasn't an easy target to aim at.
But, I had several chances.
I placed my finger on the trigger and squeezed it. The solid steel pushed back hard against my finger, then finally bent backwards, collapsing under the force I applied, and—
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, so loud I wondered if it was even louder than the gunfire I had heard in the army.
It was a stroke of luck that I managed to hit the bear's head in one shot without turning back time.
"Grraaoh!"
But the quarry didn't go down in a single hit. Honestly, the sight of it straightening up and rising to its full height while blood spurted from one eye was a little terrifying.
In the meantime, the Elemental Bear's body accumulated several more wounds, but the beast stared directly at me as if it couldn't care less about them.
Rage.
If a bear could have a facial expression, that was the vibe it gave off.
Watching blood and something clear leak from the bear's right eye through my scope, I placed my hand on the bolt and pulled it back. Clack! I felt the crisp, satisfying movement unique to a firearm's parts fitting perfectly together, and simultaneously, with a ping, a shell casing ejected outwards.
As I pushed my hand forward again—
"......"
Flames began to surge from the bear's back.
Even by my standards, unable to perceive things like killing intent, the bear's appearance was profoundly alien.
"Get back!"
The moment he saw that, Leo shouted, and everyone near the Elemental Bear instantly retreated.
Even amidst that, the Elemental Bear didn't bother chasing the humans who had been surrounding it.
Shwooook—
A sound like a kettle boiling over could be heard, and the massive bear head slowly opened its mouth.
That gaping maw was aimed directly at me.
"... Ah."
Right.
I hadn't thought of it because of its excessively beastly appearance, but in Aetherna Chronicles, even trash mobs used magic as if it were nothing.
And with the exact same effects as magic used by humans.
I had been inwardly curious about how they used magic that required humans to recite incantations.
Through the scope, I saw flames flickering deep within the bear's mouth.
It came directly from its body?!
I urgently pulled the trigger.
I heard a bang, and felt the full recoil of the firearm through my shoulder. Because the scope was knocked upward by the recoil at the same moment I fired, I couldn't immediately see the bullet pierce the bear's cheek.
And at the same time, the magic that Mia Crowfield had been preparing since earlier was activated.