Golden Experience

The power of skill is wonderful.

In less than a day, there was a vast space in the cathedral basement of the Royal City of Wells.

We had the engineering ants dig a cavity, and using the large amount of soil they found, the craftsmen of Rifure created bricks, which were then used to build the basement.

In order to prevent collapse, stone pillars were placed regularly in places. This makes the space seem small, but it is much larger than it appears.

“This place would make a good base for Wells. The ceiling isn’t that high, so large monsters can’t get in.”

“I don’t see the need for large monsters, so I don’t think that’s a problem.”

“You can build walls and some rooms as you see fit. My room may or may not be there, but Mare’s room, Kerry’s room, etc.”

If anything else is needed, it could be a safe.

Inventory is convenient in terms of security and capacity, but it is not suitable for storing funds that will be used by everyone.

“Alright then, I think I’m done at Wells so I’m going back to Hiers. Call me if you need anything.”

I decided to return to Hiers and check on the progress of the other projects I was working on while watching the players who continued to attack without getting bored.

*

In the capital city of Hiers, Wayne and others, who seemed to have moved from Erntal, were assaulting without fear of death.

There were a few others mixed in as well. Since there were some familiar faces, they were probably individuals who had once defeated Rare in this capital.

Since it’s an opportunity, it might be good to settle the score from that time with him. Wayne and Gi1gamesh, the players, also had new reasons to confront.

I wasn’t sure what to do, but I decided to leave Yoroizaka-san behind and go, just me on my own.

In order to be intimidating, I summoned Ubel and made a grand entrance sitting on its front legs.

Ubel usually walks on four legs, but it can also stand on its hind legs alone. Its wrists have joints as flexible as a human’s, and it can even turn its palms upward like a human. That’s where I took a seat.

“You never get tired of your work, day in and day out, don’t you? Especially now, when creepy children are attacking us all from the sky all over the continent. Shouldn’t you be protecting the people from the other countries? Can’t you guys just go and do that immediately?”

“! Calamity!”

“The fact that you put it that way means that the people of this continent are aware that you’re protecting them.”

“…Continent?”

Rare’s enhanced hearing picked up the words that MentaList muttered. This might have been a slip of the tongue.

If I’m an NPC born from monsters, it would be somewhat unnatural for me to know that this land is referred to as a continent. Unless someone knows that there are islands and continents in the world, the phrase “all over the continent” wouldn’t be used.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

If I only knew this continent, in this case, I should have referred to it as the land or the world. However, even if I explain now, it would only raise suspicions.

Talking too much doesn’t lead to anything good. If only I had blown them away silently with Ubel’s breath or area-of-effect magic from the sky, things might have been more simple.

If I were to be questioned about this incident, I would have to stick to the story that I was originally an NPC human or something, but was forcibly turned into this through an experiment. However, even with that plan, my sister, who was supposed to play a role, had already transformed into a grotesque kind of form.

The original plan was to pretend we were headed west in search of home, but even in the fabricated story, said home had already been lost. Although since no one seems to be suspicious of the behavior of the Event Boss, it doesn’t matter so much.

“As you know, I’m protecting the airspace around here now. You could at least say I’m protecting it from the angels. In other words, you guys have nothing to do here.”

“But you’re the one who destroyed this capital!”

“You could say that the only thing that changed was the residents’ race, but in the sense of eradicating humans here, that’s true. But it was the humans of this land that attacked me first. I don’t know if you were aware of this or not, but this country, unprovoked, formed a strike force for the sole purpose of killing me. I don’t want to die either, so since that was the case, I had no choice but to kill them.”

I concluded by saying that it was some kind of hillside town where the clash had taken place. In reality, whether there was a strike force or not, I would have attacked the Hiers capital anyway. Just like with the Lord of La Colinne before, there was no need to mention it.

“…What about Erfahren? You should have attacked it before encountering the strike force.”

“Hey Wayne, if there was a conflict between the upper echelons of the country and the calamity, it would be a conflict between NPCs, which means it’s a scenario, isn’t it? There’s no point in arguing. Even the Prime Minister might not have told us everything, we can’t be sure.”

“By Erfahren, do you mean the town near the forest where I was born? If so, you know that it was you and your people who were going into my forest every day from that town and killing my lovely ants. That’s why I destroyed it. Don’t blame me for that.”

Thinking about it this way, it could be said that, for now, my actions were only a counterattack. Within the game and its nature, it was a normal thing. As the system allows characters to grow by gaining experience through production and combat, it is only natural for players to attack monsters, and it is a natural progression for retaliatory monsters to appear.

However, considering the current situation and the actions taken in collaboration with Lyra, there are excuses for not justifying everything as mere counterattacks.

“And now, you are once again invading my beautiful city every day. Some of you even paint graffiti on the walls, throw away empty potion bottles, and empty wrappers of portable food. This is unforgivable.”

“Eh? Are there guys like that?”

“W-wait! That’s not our problem!”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be you guys, but you’d better tell other people you know when you get back.”

For now, I decided to make the most of the advantage of being in the sky. The first move would be Ubel’s [Plague Breath].”

“Wait! More importantly, aren’t you going to fight the angels, the Archangel!?”

The one who shouted was not a member of Wayne’s party, but he was someone whose face I had seen before. Could this man be that “peel-something” player? I remember he had shown considerable interest in seeing a clash between me and the Archangel.

There was another person too, but not someone who looked familiar. It was a player who was not in the previous raid party.

“Whether I fight that so-called Archangel or not is none of your business, is it? Well, if that Archangel you’re talking about is the one who’s sending those creepy kids, then of course I would fight him if he appears in front of me. But I don’t even know where he is, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

And if this player is the one who is that “peel-something” guy, then he is an enemy.

<Ubel, unleash [Plague Breath] from the right side. Do you understand which is the right? It’s the side where my hand is stretched.>

A dark radiance emanated from Ubel’s open jaw.

If released slowly, the effect becomes quite subdued, turning it into an attack that only inflicts a status abnormality without damage. However, when released forcefully like this, it also causes some damage upon impact.

“Ugh! It’s not much damage, but… I failed to resist something!”

“It’s a plague! Menta, do you have a healing item!?”

“I do! Just a moment!”

Surprisingly, he does have it.

In fact, encountering the status abnormality of a plague is something that can happen quite early in the game. However, those who have only done early-game experience grinding in forests or grasslands may not be familiar with it.

But in cases where you undertake quests for cleaning sewers in the city, or defeating rat-type and slime-type monsters nesting there, countermeasures become necessary. There are also cases where bat-type monsters in caves act as carriers, although these are exceptions.

Whether he prepared it for a quest he once took or has been keeping it in his inventory for convenience in various situations, it’s surprising.

Regardless, there’s no need to leisurely wait for recovery.

<Ubel, [Toxic Breath] from the left side.>

“The next one is here! It’s a different breath from earlier!”

“It’s okay; this one is poison-type! It can be healed with the skill [Detox]!”

[Toxic Breath] is an attack that inflicts nerve poison. It falls under the higher-level category of [Venom], causing continuous damage, but its main effect is paralysis. Therefore, if relying on items, a nerve system treatment is required. When attempting to recover with items, it can be confusing for first-timers to decide which treatment to use since both damage and paralysis are inflicted simultaneously. This is one of the troublesome aspects of venom.

However, if recovery is done with a skill, Detox can cover everything. The success threshold for the recovery skill depends on the depth of the target’s abnormality. To recover from severe poison, a considerable stat would be required, but amazingly, it worked in one shot.

This player called MentaList didn’t seem to use recovery skills when I met him before, I wonder when he acquired that at such a high level.

Well, I knew that I wasn’t the only one growing as a character.

Honestly, I underestimated this player.

He had quite a proficiency in Mental Magic, but it was of no threat against me. In terms of direct combat power, only Wayne and Gi1gamesh warranted any attention; he was just their support.

While recovering from damage and abnormal statuses, the five players regained their footing.

However, they came mainly to fight the Carknights of the Hiers Capital, and they didn’t have means of attacking me in the air.

Considering efficiency, they should have brought at least one mage, but perhaps they didn’t need it with the attack power of Wayne and Gi1gamesh.

“Alright then, don’t forget what I said earlier and tell your other comrades.”

Staring at Gi1gamesh in the center, I activated [Dark Implosion] through [Demonic Eyes] and disposed of the five players.

Whether they wore Adamas armor or not, it didn’t matter.

Even Adamandukes couldn’t endure this magic unleashed by me.

The experience gained this time is less than the previous one.

In other words, the gap in strength has widened compared to last time, and it seems unlikely that they will catch up anytime soon.

*

On the evening of the third day of the event, a system message informed me that the three Newts left in Liebe’s cave had fulfilled the conditions for reincarnation.

The destination for their reincarnation is the Hiers Salamander.

Originally, this was a case where I had considered the possibility of them naturally reincarnating to save on Philosopher’s Stone usage. Now, the issue of mass-producing Philosopher’s Stones has been resolved thanks to the pure hearts. To be honest, I had forgotten about it until it came up.

Since they were thrown into the underground lake on the evening of the first day, it took two in-game days. While it is excellent in terms of operability as they can meet the conditions automatically without doing anything, listing other things that could be done within these two days would imply inefficient time usage.

“For now, let’s reincarnate them and leave them be. They might become Skinks. If that happens, it will save on experience points.”

To turn them into Skinks, Water Magic and Fire Magic are required. If I intend to mass-produce Gargouilles, it will involve a considerable consumption. To prepare ten, they need to acquire the skills for 300 bodies. The specific requirements beyond that for turning them into Gargouilles are unknown, but judging from the example of Amphisbaena, it might be around 800. For ten, it would be 8000. A considerable amount that can be used to upgrade a set of both a World Tree and a Spirit Lord.

“I wonder if I should take the romance out of it and create a Dragon Corps, or if I should acquire my own Spirit Lord… Well, I think I’d rather have a dragon squad, assuming that the Spirit Lord can be acquired from a Portree royal family survivor who can be seduced.”

If they are Portree’s royalty, they should already be High Elves. Therefore, there is no need to prepare the World Tree for their reincarnation.

“By the way, if you need a World Tree to become a High Elf from an Elf without using any items, how did the first two High Elves reincarnate?”

It could be that someone created an item, like the item to turn an Elf into a High Elf.

In that case, the most suspicious would be the former Spirit Lord, but blaming everything on him seems like a suspension of thought.

“To create a centrally controlled nation, superior beings with Subordinating abilities were needed as hands and feet, so an item was created for that purpose. While it doesn’t seem like a person who can think politically based on what I’ve heard, there might have been a separate person serving as the brains.”

The image of the former Spirit Lord in my mind is a muscular dwarf with a double biceps, showing off his upper body with a Santa Claus-like beard. Alternatively, he may have had wings on his back or horns on his head. In any case, he seemed more like an enemy of humanity than Lyra or me.

Perhaps the aesthetic sense at that time was different from that of the players.

“…I’m glad I wasn’t there at that time.”

This in-game world seems to have continued since before the start of the service, except for minor adjustments and updates. Perhaps the reason the management chose this era for the service was that the aesthetic sense of the NPCs was waiting for it to approach that of modern people.

For now, the cave in Liebe Great Forest always exudes dense mana without doing anything meaningful. Although it’s meaningless, it’s a waste to just leave it as is. I decided to put as many Newts as possible into the cave.

“Oh, by the way. While I’m at it…”

If I’m going to Liebe Great Forest’s cave anyway, there are things I’d like to do. There should still be Lyra’s Gargouilles in Tore Forest. Let’s ask her for help a bit.

She contacted Lyra to convey that to Abigor and headed to Tore Forest.

*

“This. Fufu. I’m sure this won’t kill you so easily.”

I verified to reduce my own lethality while in the cave of the Liebe Great Forest, and when I took a break, I received a friend chat from Mare.

<Your Majesty, it’s an emergency. I think. Probably.>

What’s that? That’s not very clear. If that’s just a fancy way of saying that you’re trying to get my attention, it’s a big deal.

After taking a break from the verification to reduce her own lethality while in the cave of the Liebe Great Forest, Mare sent a friend chat to me.