The Mage (2)
The Blue Moonlight Grass was something we obtained after placing a request with the Durendal Barony’s mercenary guild.
“Really? Then what about the person who carried out that request? We need to know exactly where that individual collected the grass.”
“Well… the one who fulfilled the gathering request was a magician, apparently.”
“A magician?”
Fleon forced his racing heart to calm. If a magician had done the gathering, it would be impossible to commission the same person again. Alchemists lived comfortably enough, but they were still a step below magicians, who received near-noble treatment. Magicians were people who could eat and live well without ever taking on menial gathering quests like this.
“Why would a magician accept a gathering request?”
“It was his first time registering with the mercenary guild, and our gathering request was the very first one he accepted. The collection site was Hool Lake and the swamps surrounding it.”
“Hool Lake and the swamps?”
It was a place Fleon remembered. They had once made potions from medicinal herbs gathered there. But at some point gathering had become impossible, and even professional gatherers stopped visiting the area.
“They say it was gathered in early November, and the leaf tips were completely saturated with blue light.”
“The tips were full of blue light at that time of year?”
It was already December, and only now were the leaf tips beginning to turn blue. The claim that someone had brought leaves brimming with blue light back in early November made no sense. He would have to verify it himself.
“Place a request with the Durendal Mercenary Guild. Deliver this bottle of high-grade potion to that magician. Tell him that if he has any more of the Blue Moonlight Grass he collected at the time, I will purchase each clump for ten gold. Even if he has none left, I will pay five gold if he tells me the exact collection site.”
“Understood. I will make the request as instructed.”
“Also, post a separate request at the mercenary guilds of all three territories: anyone who gathers Blue Moonlight Grass from Hool Lake and the nearby swamps will receive three gold per clump.”
Hardware Development Team Lead Yasuke Yamashiki doubted his ears when Elon Busker appeared late at night with the news.
“You’re saying the user named Orchan transferred as an Orc?”
He stared at Elon Busker as if the man had lost his mind. But after reading the test report Orchan had sent himself, Yasuke recognized the gravity of the situation. The user obviously knew he was human, yet the report stated he had logged in as an Orc and was completely confused.
While there had been previous cases of gender swapping during character setup, this was the first time anyone had transferred as a non-human race.
Yasuke Yamashiki pulled up every connection pod’s data on the main screen and began comparing them.
“For now, there is nothing wrong with the pod itself. Orchan’s unit does show a slightly higher connection loss rate, but the figure is still within acceptable parameters.”
“Acceptable parameters? In other words, you can’t confirm whether the loss rate is the cause.”
“Hm. Correct. We can’t be certain. We’ll need to run tests to determine if it’s a transmission issue related to the loss rate.”
“We’ll be sending another new user. If that one also ends up transferring as a monster or non-human entity, the problem escalates.”
“Then our first priority should be lowering the loss rate as much as possible.”
“Lowering it?”
“Yes. We need to perform synchronization work between the connection capsule and the user, just like we did with Park Jinwoo’s custom equipment. His loss rate is the lowest, after all.”
“Which pod is Park Jinwoo’s?”
“Number nine, right here.”
When Elon Busker compared it to the others, the difference in loss rate was obvious. The rest hovered around 0.1 percent while Park Jinwoo’s was 0.01 percent.
“A tenfold difference. Orchan’s is in the 0.3 percent range. So this occurred at roughly a 0.2 percent probability. Verification is definitely required. If individual customization is the way to reduce loss rate, how long does the process take?”
“Roughly one month per user to bring the loss rate down.”
“A full month just to sync the equipment and user…”
If they spent a month customizing the sync only for the user to die within a week, that entire month would be wasted. Bringing selected testers all the way to America for the work meant lost time for both the users and the entire development team.
“What if we don’t go all the way to Park Jinwoo’s level? Could we cut it in half, down to around 0.05 percent? Would that still take a month?”
“Hm. I’d have to test it, but it might be possible in fifteen days or even ten. The reason it took a full month with him was because he was exceptionally picky about the sync.”
Before joining Changing, when Yasuke had worked as a custom artisan, most jobs had been completed in a week to ten days. Park Jinwoo had simply been an outlier.
“Select the next test user and bring them in. We’ll attempt to reduce the loss rate and see whether they transfer as a non-human entity upon connection.”
“Understood. I’ll prepare the necessary logic while the new user is being selected.”
Test Report — User: Orchan
I know I’m human. But I logged into the game as an Orc. This is extremely confusing.
“Your Eminence the Cardinal. The traces of the evil god confirmed in the southern Shuzel Kingdom have vanished.”
Cardinal Etouan, who had been kneeling in prayer before the statue of Tablon, God of Balance, shot to his feet.
“Does that make any sense? If an evil god had been involved for more than twenty-four hours, traces should remain. Yet you’re telling me those traces have disappeared?”
“Multiple monks retraced the area, but no traces remain. Even if the evil god’s puppet died, the residue should linger. Instead, it is as though the evil god never intervened at all.”
“Could the evil god have developed a method to erase its own traces?”
When divine power acted upon the world, it was only natural for traces of that power to remain. The complete disappearance of those traces could only mean a new method of erasure had been created.
“This may be connected to why we have been unable to detect any evil god activity lasting more than a day recently.”
“It is possible. If so, we face a grave crisis. The priests will no longer be able to sense the evil god’s interventions. We will lose all means of stopping their wickedness.”
As the cardinal and priest pondered the implications, a monk burst into the chamber.
“Your Eminence! We have detected new traces of an evil god’s intervention!”
“Is this related to the southern Shuzel Kingdom incident?”
“No, Your Eminence. These are fresh traces. They sensed the evil god’s power in the Akran Mountains of the northern Splain Empire.”
“The Akran Mountains?”
The location was on the opposite end of the continent from the Shuzel Kingdom.
“May we dispatch all monks to the Splain Empire?”
“Send only one team to the Shuzel Kingdom where we lost the trail. Direct the rest to the Splain Empire. That region has always been notorious for its monster population, so we may need to request assistance from other orders. Send word ahead immediately.”
“Huh? What’s going on here?”
After traveling through three territories over eleven days, they had arrived at White Stone Village in the Metz Barony. The entire village was swarming with people. More than ten carriages stood outside the wooden palisade, and rows of camping tents stretched into the distance. The campers didn’t look like they had arrived yesterday or the day before; the scene screamed major quest.
“They say travelers cannot pass through the forest ahead because of a Sabre Tiger.”
“A Sabre Tiger? How could a high-ranking monster like that appear in a place like this?”
Not only the middle-aged nobles but even the experienced Priest Hergo looked bewildered. Creatures like Sabre Tigers were supposed to have been exterminated long ago.
“Apparently it was once a holy beast of Lecherot, the god of animals, but it has been cursed.”
“Ah, so the curse of divine punishment has fallen. Then when are the priests of God Lecherot supposed to arrive?”
Having heard the story, Priest Hergo spoke as though it were nothing serious.
“They sent someone to the Lecherot Order, but no one knows when the priests will arrive.”
“Haha. Looks like we’re stuck here for the time being.”
Listening from beside the nobles, Jinwoo had no idea what a holy beast was or what the curse of punishment entailed. He wandered between the temporary taverns and eateries that had sprung up in the village, quietly gathering information through eavesdropping.
Like the gods of Greek and Roman mythology, this world had many deities, including one for animals. God Lecherot was the god of beasts. During the ancient God-Demon War, animal-type monsters had fought alongside humans. Even after the war, those that still received Lecherot’s blessing were revered as the god’s holy beasts.
Such holy beasts existed across the continent. When one of them received a curse, problems like this arose.
In short, the god’s pets went berserk.
Whether it had been cursed or triggered by something else, a corrupted Sabre Tiger was now blocking the road. In a normal game, a quest titled something like “Defeat the Cursed Sabre Tiger and Save the Villagers!” would have popped up. And the situation was steadily moving in exactly that direction.
“They say a priest of Prokia, the god of war, arrived today along with a magician. If that’s the case, maybe we don’t need to wait for Lecherot’s priests?”
“Oh! If we have a Prokia priest and a magician, that should be enough. The Golden Dawn Mercenary Band that arrived a few days ago also had a magician. They should be able to subjugate it with brute force.”
“Besides, the noble procession includes knights.”
“No matter how strong a Sabre Tiger is, if knights and a mercenary band take the lead while a magician and priest provide support, they should be able to kill it.”
People trapped in White Stone Village for an entire month due to the blocked road desperately wanted the Sabre Tiger eliminated by force so they could move on. Naturally, none of them were considering the human casualties that would result from such an attempt.
“Instead of sitting around, why don’t we commission the Golden Dawn Mercenary Band? If we pool the money we’re wasting while waiting for Lecherot’s priests and offer a subjugation request, at least we won’t lose any more time.”
“Exactly. If we wait another half month our wallets will be completely empty.”
“I have liquor I need to sell at the spring festival in the capital.”
Led by the impatient merchants, money was quickly gathered. The merchants then took the funds and placed a subjugation request with the B-rank Golden Dawn Mercenary Band. The band’s leader, Palchion, agreed to accept the commission on the condition that the newly arrived priest and magician would assist.
With the merchants taking the initiative, a strategy meeting was hastily arranged.
“I have experience hunting Sabre Tigers in the western mountains. However, that was during a full mobilization for pioneering, so we had plenty of soldiers and support.”
“As expected of the leader of a B-rank mercenary band like the Golden Dawn. To have actual experience subjugating a Sabre Tiger… impressive.”
Even Priest Hergo had only ever seen a holy beast Sabre Tiger from a distance. Hearing that someone had already slain one, both he and the rest of the group leaned heavily toward participating in the subjugation.
Moreover, the mercenary leader named Palchion carried himself more like a disciplined soldier than a grizzled mercenary, which earned the nobles’ trust.
At the meaningful glance from Priest Hergo and the middle-aged noble, I nodded and blinked in agreement.
“I will also provide the knight Sir Kazen and the soldiers traveling with our group.”
Since this was a rare chance to hunt a Sabre Tiger, the noble wanted to give his knights and soldiers valuable combat experience and willingly offered his troops.
Yet even after receiving reinforcements that included knights and soldiers, Palchion’s expression remained grim.
“We are grateful for the support. However, before we proceed, there is something I must ask. Which of you is the magician? And I would like to know the extent of your attack magic capabilities.”
At Palchion’s question, Priest Hergo’s face twisted. Directly asking a magician what spells they could cast and to what degree was a serious breach of etiquette.
“I am aware this is an impolite question. Nevertheless, I must ask. Which one of you is the magician?”
“I am the magician. Is there some problem with the magician in your mercenary band? Is that why you’re asking first?”