Chapter 20: An Encounter With the First Class Player
「Hey, look, it's that player again...」
「What is such a high-level player doing in the beginner's area?」
「Maybe he's looking for someone?」
「But she seems to be a female player.」
「Really? A female player with a roughly looking avatar like that?... I can work with this.」
「Nah, just look at her. She seems to be so high-leveled that she won't even bother with looking at low-levels like us.」
Thinking about it logically, finding a high-leveled party members would be increasingly difficult right now, since it was the beginning of the summer vacation and the number of new players would be quite high.
That is why it could be considered a miracle that I was able to overhear such a conversation while strolling through town. I wouldn't think I would meet those people again so soon.
「So in the end, what matters is not only the level but the skills of the player as well?」
「Apparently so. Even though we are on the same level as Sanraku-san, we couldn't attack the Vorpal Bunnies as effectively as he did.」
「They say that if you're good at VR games, you can battle even high-level monsters with ease while being a Level 1 yourself... So Sanraku-san must be a veteran of games like that for sure!」
「Lina, you keep saying that, but this isn't your first time with VR games either!」
「P…please don't say things like that!」
On my way from the weapon shop back to the inn, I saw a boy that was swinging around a brand new sword, accompanied by a thief girl who was smirking widely and a magician girl whose cheeks were flushed.
While hearing someone rather noisy I managed to spot the name tags walking through the streets. Now, knowing that my appearance was quite intimidating, I approached them quietly and spoke up quietly as well, so as to not startle them too much.
「Umm...」
「... Yes? Hyauh!?」
「Ababababah!?」
「Uwooohhh!?」
I failed miserably.
First of all, it was really bad manners from my side to sneak up on them like that. But at the same time, it wasn't that I was trying to hide my presence or anything, so it was kind of their fault for failing to notice me.
Then again, if I was suddenly approached by a suspicious-looking person like myself, I would probably react in the same way as the trio did just now. Can't really blame them.
「W, what... is it?」
「... It didn't try to attack us, so we might as well listen to what it has to say... for now.」
Soma's speech pattern was kind of funny, but maybe it was just an element of him roleplaying his character. He turned towards his companions as if looking for their consent to the idea.
「You guys... Have you by any chance met the player called "Saraku"?」
「Eh, ah, y, yes, that's right...」
「In the forest area, he helped us out when we were in trouble...」
「At first we mistakenly took him for some new kind of a monster...」
Said Kaho while recalling the strange birdman-creature jumping out of the tall grass and swiftly disposing of the Vorpal Bunny. The memory brought a smile on Kaho's lips.
「Could you tell me where I could find him...?」
「Umm... I am pretty sure that he went towards Sekandil, right?」
「He said that he would do that after earning a few more levels.」
「But wasn't his level already more than appropriate to take on the Giant Serpent?」
(... So he's not here.)
Although I should be surprised by hearing that, I really wasn't. Since he was a veteran of sh*tty games, it wasn't all that improbable that he would do something completely unexpected like that, which normal players wouldn't even consider doing. But the fact that he was heading for Sekandil was more than enough for now.
「Thank you for the information.」
「Eh, wait just a...」
「... Sorry, I'm kind of in a hurry.」
「Wait...! Aaaand there she goes...」
「Kaho, did you get any of that?」
「And what's this? Magic Scroll "Coordinate Teleportation Gate"...?」
It was still a little bit early for the trio to know the true value of the object that the armored female knight gave them was a unique item that was only obtainable through a high-level quest from the endgame segment of the story.
Using her inhumanly high Agility, the armored knight was traversing the forest by jumping from tree branch to tree branch. Because she gave the magic scroll with the teleportation spell to those three newbies, she now had to walk all the way back to Sekandil.
(I knew that his behavior would be highly irregular, but for him to not even make a stop in the first town available in the game...!!)
The first town in the game was, like all other elements at the very beginning, a part of the tutorial. The fact that he didn't even make a stop there to set a respawn point meant that he must have broke through the exploration zone and defeat the area boss without dying even once.
The Giant Serpent "Orochi" was not a hard boss, that is if you take your time to learn its attack patterns and be mindful of the poison-inducing dung balls it was throwing at you. Still, to beat that boss on your very first day of playing the game was quite an achievement to perform. One that would be quite impossible without excessive grinding for levels.
The armored knight continued to jump from tree to tree, taking the shortest route possible, and before even two minutes managed to pass, she was at the end of the exploration zone, where the Giant Serpent awaited her. Of course, she dealt with him without even stopping for a second.
「 ..."Highest Strength!!", "Enchanted Hell Flame!!", "Apocalypse!!"」
The first ability gave her a huge boost to her Strength statistic. The second one applied the fire element to her sword. And finally, the third one was the ultimate magic attack that managed to blow the Great Serpent away with one strike.
「I want you to be able to clear bosses with ease like that... to have a shuttle runs like that together.」
Behind the armored knight, the body of the Giant Serpent was cut vertically in half while still trying to maintain the intimidating pose.
Fortunately for every newbie out there, it was the afternoon, about lunchtime, so no one really witnessed that.
Once defeated, area bosses for one zone will respawn after some time or after you make a respawn point in the next city. "Shuttle run" is the process of defeating the boss, forcing it to respawn and then defeating it again over and over again.
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