I wanted to comfort everyone back in the village, but I guess I'll have to tell them tomorrow since today's oracle is no longer available. My villagers are depressed, but I can't stand to see how dejected the dark elves are.
Their shoulders slumped and they remained slumped. After returning to the village, they stayed in the house we gave them, and the room was filled with a heavy silence. The elves couldn't say anything when they saw them, and their previous attitude had changed completely.
"It's like a funeral."
I understand how you feel. You challenged them to a battle with the fate of your village on the line...This time it didn't work out, but even now, they are probably still faintly hoping that God will give them a miracle or a plan of recovery.
"Well, it looks like it's the same here."
After witnessing so many monsters, my villagers couldn't hide their shock. When Gams informed Lodis of the outcome, the security of the village was immediately strengthened. I'd expect the same from the other players....
Don't just give up and choose a reckless suicide mission if you can't win. It's still too early to despair. There are things you can do. I've been working with a player for a long time, and I don't want to lose him or her to this. I'm not sure if it's him or her, but I'm sure they'll be a powerful ally if we can continue to work together.
"There are so many things to do, so many things I want to do. My brain, which I haven't used in ten years, is running at full speed and is on the verge of overheating."
I don't have enough time at all to think with this head. I want to pull back and use the past time that I wasted, but I can't get back the lost time or the past. I've been through this many times, and I understand it painfully.
"I'll do what I can do now. That's it. I've just got to take care of one thing at a time."
First, I'll keep an eye on the Dark Elves to make sure they don't choose the worst possible outcome. The oracle won't be available until tomorrow, so when the time comes, I'll stop them even by moving the third god statue.
"Tomorrow there will be more I can do, but for now there is nothing I can do for them. I wonder if there's any miracle that can help the villagers."
I skimmed through the items on the "Miracle" page and selected "Clear Sky" to see if they could feel any better. The thick clouds that had covered the sky above parted and warm sunshine poured down.
"It's only a consolation prize."
The dark makes me feel depressed. That's coming from a guy who used to live with the curtains closed and only the light leaking from his computer screen.
My lifestyle improved after I started "The Village of Fate", and I learned to go to bed early and wake up early, so I started working and had more opportunities to be exposed to the sunlight. Even though that was all I did, I felt that I was alive. I am very happy with the results.
I can't help but feel a little depressed when I have a hard day of...work ahead of me. I'm glad that the villagers looking up at the sky are feeling the same way I do. As I was voluntarily making my rounds around the village to reduce the burden on the villagers, I saw a carriage coming towards us from afar.
It was slowly heading north along a road that was little more than a beast path. That must be Doldold wagon. It was obvious from the well-built body sitting in the driver's seat. Was today a peddling day? He has a contract with the village, and he is supposed to bring supplies to the village every two weeks without fail.
"When we have a little more time, we'll have to work on the roads."
Even from above, I could see that the vehicle was shaking a lot. It looked like my buttocks would be sore from such violent shaking.
"Horse-drawn carriages don't have suspension or springs, do they?"
I muttered this as if it was my own discovery, but it's actually knowledge I gained from a novel. There are some standard items that Japanese people who are reincarnated in other worlds make popular in the other world.
For agriculture, it's a water mill and a thousand-tooth pestle. For entertainment, there are playing cards, reversi, shogi, and chess. For food, pudding, fried food, mayonnaise, etc. and so on. Most of the things that don't exist in the other world, but can be made using things from that world, I've seen in novels.
I'd like to give some advice based on that, but it seems that the games prevalent in the world are enough for entertainment, and if I build a waterwheel on the riverbank, I can only see it being destroyed by monsters. If I were a player on the side of the Evil Gods, I'd order the monsters to destroy the waterwheel when I found it.
I don't need a thousand-tooth pestle because I haven't grown any grain yet. I've only recently started farming in earnest, but my main strength is potatoes and root vegetables. We also have a good amount of leafy vegetables.
As for food, first of all, eggs are precious and we can't sacrifice our few chickens. We can't even afford eggs for desserts. I don't recommend mayonnaise casually because of the risk of food poisoning due to salmonella growth in raw eggs. I don't know if salmonella exists in other worlds....If this were just a high performance game, there would be no need for such trouble. But they are flesh and blood. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not.
"I'll never forget this."
I'll never forget those days we spent together. They are not characters in a game; they are human beings with blood in their veins.
"Mr. Doldold is here."
The villagers in charge of the watchtower shouted loudly, and the gate on the log fence opened. A group of people with big smiles on their faces walked in. The carriage stopped in the square, and a group of four hunters came out from inside to help unload the carriage.
They were guards hired on a long-term contract. It seems that they are so skilled that even Gams is interested in them. I've never seen them fight before, so I don't know how good they really are.
"It's been a while, folks. I've got all the ingredients and necessities I promised you."
The villagers surround the carriage at once. Most of them were women in charge of their families, and they picked up the items they had ordered. Lodis had written down in advance which villagers needed what. After handing it over and confirming the order, Doldold brings it in from the city.
Since they are self-sufficient in food, they order spices and clothing. There are also many weapons and armor. Bows and arrows are handmade by Kang and Ran, who are good at woodworking, and the elves, but the rest of the weapons and armor are left to Doldold.
"I'd like to invite someone who's good at blacksmithing, like a...dwarf, into the village."
In many fantasy worlds, dwarves are considered to be skilled with their hands and good at blacksmithing. Dwarves also exist in this world, and they are skilled in ore handling and blacksmithing. To begin with, the cave where Gams and the other early members of the group were based was the remains of a dwarven ore mine.
"The problem is that they don't get along with the elves."
It's also standard practice to say that elves and dwarves are like cats and dogs. They're not as bad as elves and dark elves, but they don't like each other in some way. By the way, the dark elves don't like dwarves either.
Of course, the dwarves don't like them either, and instead of calling them elves or dark elves, they call them "white ones" or "black ones." If this were Earth, there would be a big discrimination problem.
"Well, well, what's the matter? The air seems to be heavy."
As soon as the goods were sold, Doldold walked up to Lodis and the other old members and, after a few words of social greeting, immediately spoke up.
"Have you noticed that? In fact—"
When Lodis explained what had happened, his smiling face changed, his eyes narrowed, and he stroked his chin.
"I've heard about it, too. I was going to tell you about it today."
So Doldold already knew. He is indeed a skillful merchant.
"There is a rumor that monsters are gathering one after another in the Forbidden Forest. As I'm sure you know, there are monster pools in the world. It is said that monsters can only be born in a certain place."
I knew this in advance, too. The monsters in this world do not breed and increase in number, but rather there are masses of evil energy scattered around the world, and monsters appear as if they are springing from the ground in certain places.
The prevailing theory in this world is that these are places where the power of the Evil Gods sealed underground is leaking out, and monsters are being created under its influence....
To explain this in game terms, the place where the monsters spawn out is called the Monster Spot, and it is the home base of the Evil Gods side players. In other words, the player on the evil side can only summon monsters from that spot. So if they want to attack a place far away from their home base, they have to move the monsters and create a temporary base. It was this temporary base that the Dark Elves were aiming for this time.
"It seems that quite a few monsters have been moving around, and many people have seen them. There seems to be a wide variety of monsters coming from different directions."
This is valuable information. It is reasonable to assume that more than one player is involved. If it was a single player, it wouldn't make sense unless the monsters were coming from the same direction. There's no need to divert them all the way to the Forbidden Forest.
"It is rumored that their numbers may be as high as one hundred or two hundred...or even more.""
"That many...?"
The wrinkles on Lodis' brow deepened as he listened to Doldold story.
"The main race we encountered was the demon race, but there may be another race waiting in the background?"
Even Gams, who basically has no expression on his face, looked as if he had just chewed on a bitter bug. If they already had that much strength, they should have attacked the village right away, but the Evil God side could not do that. According to the logic of the other world, monsters do not like to act in groups and will not take orders from other races. One day, however, they made an exception.
Needless to say, it was the "Temptation of the Evil God". The Evil Gods give orders directly to the monsters, and the monsters become mere followers of his commands. If you think about it from a game perspective, the player on the Evil God's side will be forced to give detailed orders to all monsters only on the day of the "Temptation of the Evil God". That's how it works.
Therefore, the monsters that attack on other days will only be in groups of four or five at most, and some races don't have the intelligence to understand your orders, so there is nothing strategic about their actions. Incidentally, the cost of summoning intelligent species is unusually high, and there is a limit to the number that can be summoned. The evildoer who did the extra work in our village before was a very expensive and rare character.
–I was recently given the information that I could do something. If I had gotten this information earlier, I would have been able to do a lot of things, but it was too late.
"With our defenses working this well, we should be able to manage everything but the [Temptation of the Evil God]."
It's great to know that as long as we can survive the monthly attacks, we can feel somewhat safe. I want to make the most of it in the future....The question is, will there be a future? There are hundreds of monsters out there; can we protect this village from them?
What's more, there is no single opponent. There are multiple players manipulating their own forces and attacking at once. As a former NEET I know that it's nearly impossible to protect the village alone.
When I've had similar experiences in games, I've lashed out at my opponents and then quickly turned tail and given up on my defense. But that's not going to happen this time.
I have to defend the villagers who saved my life; I must protect them with all my might!