Raid on Area 1 (1)
The next morning, I woke up early, got dressed, and stood in front of the mirror.
There I was in the usual white tunic, black leather pants, and gray hooded cape. Everything was exactly as it had been yesterday, except for one new addition: the earring Emily had given me now dangled from my ear.
“Looking at it like this… I really am just a girl, huh.”
In real life I had never bothered with earrings, calling them a hassle, yet here I was wearing one in a virtual world. And what’s worse, it actually suited me perfectly.
With a face like this, pretty much anything would look good, but I couldn’t help wondering how I’d look with something even more beautiful.
“Ugh, whatever. Let’s just go.”
Feeling like the fragile masculinity I had been desperately clinging to had taken another small hit, I pulled up my hood and left the room.
On the first floor, the restaurant that hadn’t opened for business yet was already packed with a large group of people, Emily among them.
Are these the ones joining the raid?
At a glance there were around thirty. Factoring in the time, I figured between forty and fifty people would be participating in this raid.
Emily spotted me and waved cheerfully.
“Good morning, Ian. Did you sleep well?”
“More or less. By the way, you’re not hiding your face today.”
“It was annoying, and there’s no need to anymore.”
With her hood down and her face fully revealed, Emily was strikingly beautiful. Her flowing golden hair and voluptuous figure were enough to make any man fall for her at first sight.
But what caught my eye even more was the massive shield strapped to her back.
“You’re a shield user?”
In Arcadia Online, the base stats for male and female characters are different. While men have advantages in strength and stamina, women excel in agility and magic. That’s why the frontline usually belongs to men. It wasn’t some nonsense about testosterone; it was simply the more logical choice.
Yet here was a female shield user. There were no weapon restrictions based on gender, but seeing one felt like coming face to face with a legendary creature.
“Ah, didn’t I mention it yesterday? My weapon is a shield. I’m level 10.”
“T-ten?”
The fact that she was level 10 shocked me even more. Area 1 only spawned beasts below level 10. Reaching level 10 in a place like this meant she had an insane amount of combat experience.
And she wasn’t the only one.
“This is our party’s archer, Naira. She’s the same as me—level 10.”
“Heeey. So you’re the swordsman Emily brought along. Looking forward to raiding with you today.”
A woman with sun-kissed bronze skin and toned, compact muscles that reminded me of an Egyptian warrior—Naira, along with…
“This is our party mage, Mugi. She’s also level 10.”
“U-um… hello…”
A girl with red hair and freckles who gave off a Japanese vibe—Mugi.
The gazes of these three level 10s weighed heavily on my shoulders. My voice naturally shrank.
“I’m… Ian. Level 8. I mainly use a sword…”
I felt like I was shrinking into myself. It really was unfair. So unfair.
“Alright, now that introductions are done, I’ll send the party invite.”
Emily moved her hand a few times, and a window appeared before my eyes.
Player Emily has invited you to a party.
Will you accept?
I really was forming a party with someone again.
I closed my eyes for a moment, then pressed the accept button.
In the upper left of my vision, beside my own name, three others appeared.
⊳ Ian
⊳ Emily (L)
⊳ Naira
⊳ Mugi
In Arcadia, a single party could hold up to four members. These were the people who would protect my life today—and the ones I would have to protect in return.
“So where are we heading now?”
This was the first boss raid in Arcadia’s history. Since it wasn’t an opportunity that came often, I had assumed the raid leader would give some kind of speech in an open area.
“We can just stay seated here. This is the meeting point.”
“Here?”
“Forty people is enough. I already arranged to borrow the place.”
It had felt strange that I hadn’t seen Kate this early in the morning, but now it made sense.
Forty people, huh.
That meant ten full parties participating in this raid.
It was more people than I had expected. If they failed to defeat the boss this time, gathering this many again would probably be difficult.
As I looked around with that thought in mind, I saw nothing but grim determination on everyone’s faces. This raid would decide not only their own lives but the fate of the entire game. Seeing that, my shoulders felt heavy for no reason.
By the way, who’s the leader of this alliance raid?
So far I hadn’t seen anyone who looked like a leader. I was wondering who it could be when—
Scraaape!
The sound of a chair being dragged suddenly came from beside me. Emily, who had been sitting next to me, stood up.
“Alright, everyone’s here, right?”
She thumped her chest a few times.
“I’m Emily, and I’ll be leading this raid. Let’s do this.”
The location of the boss was the deepest part of the forest.
A group of forty people was marching toward it.
“I can’t believe you guys were the ones who actually found the boss.”
The reason Emily had been chosen as raid leader was because she was the one who had discovered the boss we were heading to defeat.
Walking at the front of the group, I had only just learned the full story. I glared at Emily.
She gave an awkward laugh under my stare.
“It’s not that I was trying to hide it. I just didn’t have the chance to tell you.”
“I seem to remember you disturbing my meal quite thoroughly yesterday.”
“I was too busy trying to explain everything and recruit you into the party.”
Or I would have found out if I had given up on the quest and attended the briefing session yesterday. Though if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to raise my level.
As I let out a sigh, Naira, who had been following behind, suddenly wrapped her arm around my shoulders.
“Who cares? It’s a chance to fight on the front lines. Just enjoy it.”
“I’m not suicidal, thanks.”
“Aww, come on. Emily unni will be right in front, protecting us all. What’s there to worry about?”
Unni… The affectionate term told me how close they were. I asked Naira,
“You two knew each other before?”
“Yeah. We’ve known each other for a while. I can’t go into details, though.”
You couldn’t talk about the real world here.
It wasn’t some unwritten rule of the game. I didn’t understand the exact mechanism, but whenever someone tried to speak about reality, the system would automatically seal the player’s mouth. That was why I had grown used to the name Ian. While I was stuck in this place, I had no choice but to use it whether I liked it or not.
“Anyway, the reason we were able to adapt to this game so quickly is all thanks to Emily unni. If it weren’t for her, we’d probably still be crying in the city, right?”
That made sense. Anyone with enough guts to invite a complete stranger into their party could probably do just about anything.
In that sense, a shield really was the perfect weapon for Emily. In extreme situations, instead of falling into despair, she took care of her people first. I could never do that.
As if she had read my thoughts, Naira gave a bitter smile.
“Unni has a reason she absolutely must clear this game. She’s probably the most frustrated person here right now. Right, Mugi?”
“Y-yeah…”
“Seriously, this girl is way too shy for her own good. Come on, you come over here too.”
“D-don’t…”
The bold and straightforward Naira and the timid, reserved Mugi. Even though their appearances had clearly been randomly assigned by the game, the two of them complemented each other perfectly. It was almost like this was how they truly were in real life.
“So you three have been traveling together the whole time?”
“We’ve recruited other party members when we needed them, but… they never really clicked with us. They left pretty quickly. So until you joined, it was just the three of us.”
It wasn’t an unusual story. It was common for people to leave a party if they didn’t mesh well with the others.
But a party with this level of quality wasn’t easy to find. No matter how poorly they got along, why would someone interested in clearing the game leave Emily’s party?
My question was pushed aside by Naira’s next words.
“Anyway, how about we drop the formal speech?”
“Why?”
“It’s more comfortable for me, and if something happens in battle it’ll be easier to call out to each other quickly.”
Honestly, I didn’t think there was a huge difference between polite and casual speech. Still, since she was offering to speak casually first, it felt awkward to keep using formal language with her.
“Alright. I’ll call you Naira.”
“That’s refreshing. I like it.”
Apparently pleased with my answer, Naira pressed even closer to me. She kept squishing her chest against me… Never mind. I’ll just stay quiet.
The party continued deeper into the forest.
Along the way we were attacked by the bears I had encountered yesterday, along with boars and gorillas, but with forty people it was barely enough to warm up.
By the time the initial tension from departure had started to ease, a wide clearing appeared ahead.
“Halt.”
Emily, the leader, raised her hand and clenched it into a fist before entering the clearing.
“We’ve reached the boss’s location. Check your tactics and supplies one more time before we engage.”
The previously noisy atmosphere died down in an instant. As previously arranged, the ten parties moved to their assigned positions and double-checked the items needed for the raid.
Recovery potions, mana potions, spare weapons. I’ve allocated all my stats too. I’ve done everything I can.
I opened my status window.
In this game, strength affected muscle power and physical attack power, agility influenced movement and skill activation speed, stamina determined the player’s vitality, and magic affected magic attack power and mana capacity.
The stats I had invested in this time were two points in strength and one in stamina. I had received an accessory from Emily, and after fighting the bear yesterday I had keenly felt the lack of offensive power.
Externally, everything was perfect. Now all I could do was trust myself.
Even so, cold sweat ran down my palms from the tension.
A boss raid that would decide the future of two hundred thousand players. I could feel that moment was right in front of me.
“Everyone ready?”
The leaders of each party nodded.
It was finally time to begin the raid in earnest.
“Then let’s move in!”
At Emily’s signal, the players shouted battle cries and charged into the clearing.
It was an unnaturally wide open space for a forest, almost as if it had been designed with a boss fight in mind.
But.
“Where’s the boss?”
What greeted us was nothing but an empty field. The boss that was supposed to be there was nowhere to be seen.
Just as everyone was starting to look at Emily with suspicion—
“Above! It’s above us!”
Someone’s shout rang out. A fierce wind blew. A shadow fell over our heads, and then came the sound of impact as a storm of dust swallowed the entire party.
Kwaaaaaaaaah!
A roar loud enough to rupture eardrums. As the dust settled, the creature that had landed on the ground revealed itself.
“N-no way…”
[Level 10 The Forest King]
It was the ruler of this forest.
A massive white tiger, as huge as a mountain, opened its jaws wide.