by Blitz Kiva
“This isn’t as bad as I expected,” he commented.
“Y-Yeah...”
The majority of the players around them were taking on the Grand Quest in parties of four or five. Watching them effortlessly dispose of the undead-type monsters that popped up incessantly, she realized how much skill it took.
But having leveled up at a terrifying rate using the game’s paid content, Ichiro Tsuwabuki continued his leisurely one-man advance. What was more horrifying was realizing that, because he was using the 24 hour paid boosts every day, he was going to keep on gaining levels.
Ichiro’s class was Magi-Fencer. Its strength was that it allowed the acquisition of both Fighter and Mage-type skills, but most people didn’t have enough skill points to advance both equally. Even if they did, it would be impossible to keep up with specialist builds. The player’s half-hearted skill levels would just be a weight around the necks of their comrades in an MMORPG where role division in party play mattered so much.
Ichiro had more than compensated for that through the use of microtransactions. Every time he leveled up, he got three or four times more skill points than a normal person. He’d quickly outstripped more superficial specialist builds.
“Uooooo...”
“Uoooh... ahhhhh...”
Zombies lurched toward them, letting out eerie moans. Ichiro unleashed a peal of hellfire from his hands that incinerated the walking corpses instantly.
A skeleton knight attempted to ambush him from behind. He blocked it with his bare-handed “Weapon Guard” skill, then punched back as hard as he could with the other hand. The skeleton knight collapsed with a clatter.
This might be the time to explain how the game’s battle system works.
The abilities a player could acquire were broken up into two main categories: “Skills” and “Arts.” Skills had continuous effects, whereas Arts were used actively.
For example, “Dragon Claw,” which increased Ichiro’s attack power when fighting bare-handed, was a Dragonet-exclusive Skill, while “Punching Technique” and “School of Flame” increased the power of his hand-to-hand attacks and fire magic, respectively.
The fire spell “Spiral Blaze,” which he’d used to roast the zombies, and Weapon Guard, which he used to block the skeleton’s attack, were both Arts. The attack he’d used against the skeleton, “Bash,” was the most basic of basic physical attacks.
Flexibility was the game’s selling point; Skills could be turned on or off at will. As long as the sum total of your skill levels was lower than your total skill slots, you could set a level 50 skill to level 20 if it benefited you.
Ichiro’s strength came from his high number of skill levels, which gave him great freedom in choosing his Skills. He’d also bought the Skill Slot Doubler Bonus, which let him increase his combat prowess even more. This was a pay-to-download bonus that usually only lasted for 12 hours, and was meant to give intermediate players a boost for high-pressure battles.
And thus Ichiro, using the overwhelming abilities he’d gained with the power of money, was easily dominating this dungeon.
Felicia couldn’t say she minded this time.
“I’m glad we’re making such swift progress.”
“Y-Yeah...” Ichiro smiled as he used recovery items to ease the fatigue he’d amassed through constant use of his Arts.
Around them in the dungeon, a number of players with the Acolyte class were using “Saint Barrier” to block off encroaching mobs and healing the wounded within. At the same time, Alchemists and Thieves were offering potions and map information to players about to take on the dungeon in exchange for compensation.
“It appears that strength alone usually isn’t enough to get you to the bottom floors. You need to learn the map, and you need constant healing,” Ichiro murmured as he watched them. “Of course, a player’s own skill can keep expenditures at bay, I’m sure.”
“And you think you can do that alone, Itchy?”
“Yes. If your friend can do it, I believe I can too. I can get recovery items whenever I want to, after all.”
“Stop using microtransactions for everything!” Felicia screamed, earning looks from all the players around her. Her face was red and scrunched up.
Just then, an avatar broke in to talk to them. “Are you the one who’s trying to solo this dungeon?”
It was a man with a large, muscular body, a hawkish nose, and short red hair whose sideburns joined to his goatee. It was Stroganoff, the leader of the Red Sunset Knights. Like Kirihito (Leader), he seemed to have a large coterie around him, but perhaps that was simply true of all elite MMO players.
“I’m with this girl, so I’m not solo.”
“But it’s pretty much the same thing, ability-wise,” Felicia interjected over Ichiro. She was feeling like a total burden.
“I’ve heard about you. You took out Edward with one punch the other day,” Stroganoff said.
Felicia’s eyes went wide at the sudden talk of violence. What was he talking about? Who was Edward? All kinds of questions began flooding through her mind. Maybe he was a quest boss character?
“I thought he was pretty strong, too,” Stroganoff continued.
“But I’m far stronger than that ‘pretty strong’ Edward.”
“So it seems. But I still believe it the height of hubris to take this dungeon on solo.” There was something a bit antiquated in the way Stroganoff spoke. Perhaps he, like Kirschwasser, enjoyed roleplaying.
His voice was a deep and sonorous one, sampled from a famous voice actor. This was another pay-to-download option the player could purchase during character editing, suggesting Stroganoff was not beyond trend-chasing.
“Regardless of what anyone thinks of me, this is how I’ve always lived my life. Besides, there’s a player who’s already soloing the dungeon, isn’t there?” Ichiro responded.
“King Kirihito, you mean?” Stroganoff let out a sigh. “That man is extraordinary. If you just look at his stats — his level and total Skill and Art levels — they’re nothing that special. But what’s really noteworthy about him is his own talent, and...”
“Stroganoff. Are you suggesting that I am his inferior in this regard?”
“...Ichiro Tsuwabuki,” he said, apparently taking a moment to check the avatar name over his head. “I’m giving you this warning for your own good.”
Ichiro wasn’t a short man by any means, but Stroganoff still towered over him. His calm yet powerful gaze met that of the aloof Dragonet. It was the kind of “strong rivals glare at each other” scene you might see in a movie or an anime. Felicia’s (albeit limited) experience suggested that one of them would eventually get bored, and break the gaze with a “heh.”
“Heh.”
And so it was.
“You do appear quite confident,” Stroganoff said. “As you wish. We’ll see if your skills are enough to carry you through the lowest levels of Delve.”
“That was my intent, with or without your permission.” As Stroganoff turned and lumbered away, the main thought that ran through Felicia’s mind was that she had never heard someone say “as you wish” before. Kirschwasser had told her that Stroganoff ran his own restaurant. There was no way he talked that way in real life.
“Well, Felicia. Let’s get going.”
“Oh, wait, Itchy!’
Ichiro stepped back into the dungeon as if he were strolling about on a picnic. The other players watched him, agog.
“These graphics truly are detailed,” he murmured quietly.
“Itchy, you’ve been saying that this whole time,” Felicia interjected.
“Well, that’s just how I really feel.”
He’d flown all around the world and seen all kinds of ruins with his own eyes. The graphics designer who’d designed this dungeon likely couldn’t say the same. Yet the dungeon’s eerie atmosphere, the feeling of the walls and the floors... they were in no way inferior to the traces of ruined ancient cultures he had seen in real life. The human imagination tru
ly was a powerful thing.
The footsteps of his King Behemoth Leather Shoes resounded against the flagstones in the wide caverns. The paths twisted like a maze (in truth, that was what they had been designed to be), and beginning on this floor, all of a sudden, they became very wide, with high ceilings. It was easy for Ichiro to imagine just why the halls were that way. It was likely a sign that this level would begin to spawn oversize mobs.
But for now, the ones blocking their path were hordes of worthless Greater Zombies, mixed in with the occasional powerful mob that you occasionally saw at the higher levels — Pain Ghosts, Skeleton Reapers, and Giant Zombies. Ichiro’s Dragon Claw flashed, easily slashing through such monsters.
“Uoooooh...”
“Good to see you,” Ichiro said to the Giant Zombie — it would give him a lot of experience, after all — as he unleashed a magic blast on it.
It was Spiral Blaze, the mid-level fire-type attack Art. A whorl of hellfire wreathed his outstretched fist, easily halting the advance of the mass of rotting flesh.
The interminable hordes of zombies were there to tire you out, but there was no sign of fatigue in Ichiro’s expression. This would be a grueling battle for any other player, but that didn’t even occur to him.
“You must be tired of dominating everything all the time, huh, Itchy?” Felicia asked.
“Would you like to fight them, then, Felicia?”
“No, no thank you.”
The dungeon was set up to be a winding mass of corridors, but Ichiro was keeping a map with the drawing tool, which kept them from getting lost.
After turning the latest group of mobs to ash, they walked a little while, and found...
“Itchy, look!”
“Hmm...”
They were standing in a hall littered with equipment.
These were players’ dropped items.
It wasn’t an uncommon sight: the scattering of equipment items that indicated a party’s complete destruction.
It was, at minimum, the proof that a player had fought mobs in that location and run out of life less than 24 hours ago.
Of course, it was just a game, so while it may have been frustrating, they hadn’t really died, and would have been resurrected in the ruined temple nearby. But there was still something eerie and macabre about the sight of that equipment scattered around, symbols of their owners’ cruel end here in these uncivilized depths.
Ichiro’s expression turned from its usual breezy one to something more serious. He recognized that equipment. Unadorned straight swords and long black coats... Though quite rare, they didn’t offer very good stats bonuses, but there were enough pieces for there to be multiple owners, and they all had the same design with the same emblem textured onto the collar.
“The Kirihitters...”
“Indeed.”
They had suffered the indignity of dying here in this place.
The Kirihito from the story might be the ultimate solo player, but these were just wannabe heroes modeling themselves after him, just another group of players bound by the system’s rules. Their skill was far from “ultimate.” They had been beaten by a stronger opponent, nothing more.
Yet, thinking back on the considerate Kirihito (Leader) they had talked with just before, Ichiro couldn’t help but feel a scrap of pity. The more he thought about it, the less well it sat with him.
But the most notable point of interest was that there were only four sets of the equipment scattered there. The Kirihitters had seven members in all. Which meant three of them hadn’t died — at least, not in that location.
“Hmmm...”
Even so, they must have been in pretty big trouble if they didn’t even have time to pick up their allies’ equip items. In other words, the three Kirihitos had not avenged their fallen brethren, which meant the remaining half of The Kirihitters might still be on this floor, then.
Ichiro stuck the four sets of tie-in items in his inventory, then looked up and down the wide corridor. He had his infinite supply of potions. If they were still alive, he wouldn’t mind giving some to them.
Just as Ichiro was about to start down the hallway again, he heard the sound of screams echoing through it.
The cries that had previously only been indistinct echoes in the corridor consolidated into a single direction: the hallway right in front of them. Ichiro turned to face the voices and saw three men running down the center of the 30-meter-wide corridor. They were all Kirihitos. Which meant they were alive.
But there was no time now to feel relieved over that; they were being pursued by a swarm of mobs, undead monsters he had never seen before.
The monsters were based on a skeleton archetype that wore a helmet reminiscent of ancient Sparta. They brandished a machete and a shield, but unlike the usual skeleton warriors, their lower halves were a set of wheels made from bone.
Ichiro checked the clattering, creepily smiling skeleton’s maw with his Far Sight skill.
Behind the large dust trail visual it was kicking up were more of the same type; quite a number of them. Probably too many for the three Kirihitos to face. They were far away right now, but it was only a matter of time before they bridged the distance, and the Kirihitos were so distracted with their running that they hadn’t seen Ichiro and Felicia.
The terrifying train was coming right for them.
The Kirihitters weren’t the only ones panicking.
“I-I-I-Itchy! Itchy!!” Felicia screamed, grabbing the corner of Ichiro’s jacket and tugging hard.
Perhaps an explanation is required: In MMOs, trailing a large number of monsters behind you and luring them into groups of other players — an act known as “training” — is considered very bad manners. Training can be done maliciously, to take out a rival player group. But whether it’s done intentionally or not, it’s always considered rude.
Manners, however, are artificial constructs created out of a sense of mutual social consideration, and Ichiro had no interest in either enforcing or abiding by them. The charging undead monsters also didn’t seem like much of a threat, so rather than be angry or panicked, he simply called out:
“Hey, Kirihito! I’m glad you’re okay!”
“Is this really the time?!” Felicia screamed.
The Kirihito at the head of the train, Kirihito (Leader), only then seemed to notice Ichiro’s presence, and his face went pale. He was trying to stop so as not to make trouble for their party, but at the current distance, it made little difference.
“Mr. Tsuwabuki, I’m sorry! I ended up training you!” he shouted.
“Nonsense. No need for such formality with me,” Ichiro said calmly. With one hand still in his pocket, he raised his right hand. “It was clearly fate for us to meet here. Allow me to assist you.”
That would be easier said than done. An area of effect spell Art would surely catch the Kirihitos, as well. A support Art for focusing magic might be useful at a time like this, but he didn’t have any. There were also no spells that you could bend around a group.
In Ichiro’s opinion, this was one way in which the game was unnecessarily inflexible. Ichiro Tsuwabuki was the rare kind of person for whom games were often harder than reality, as the real world might be slightly more accommodating.
Ichiro’s thoughts strayed to Felicia, who cowered by his side. That was right, he remembered. She was here with him, too.
“Felicia, can you choose the location to which you summon your Power Golem?”
“Y-Yeah... It’s pretty flexible that way...”
“In that case...”
Ichiro gave instructions to Felicia.
Felicia nodded seriously, and took out her Dominion Dagger. A mysterious sound filled the narrow, choked passages of the Catacombs.
It was followed immediately afterward by a crunch, and then a huge shadow loomed over them. A steel giant whose height and width far outstripped the hallway’s dimensions became a wall blocking off the undead monsters from the Kirihitters.
Two Skeleton
Chariots had slipped through, but they would be easy enough to beat, Ichiro thought. But just then...
The first to stop was Kirihito (Leader). With little affect but a great deal of pride, he drew his straight sword and turned to face the charging Skeleton Chariots. He took in a deep breath, then made a great show of holding up his sword. Even Ichiro found himself enchanted by the sight. The Kirihito with a snail shell on his head and the Kirihito with the Detect Googles mirrored his posture.
What are they doing, Ichiro wondered, tilting his head. They didn’t need to be so reckless — he could easily handle them himself.
As the Skeleton Chariot squad drew closer, the laughter from the leader of the pack grew even louder. Just turning their attention to it activated its Skeleton Focus, and the rhythmical yet unsettling chattering of bones met his ears.
The three Kirihitos took a simultaneous step forward and drove their swords through the leading Skeleton Chariot. Three four-digit damage effects appeared at once, sending the lead Skeleton Chariot flying.
“Oh?” An unguarded noise of astonishment escaped Ichiro’s lips. Not bad at all.
But they’d only beaten the leader of the monsters. They had no way of defending against the fierce attack of the chariots that would follow, now disarmed and at the mercy of the bony wheels. In real life, the scene that unfolded before them would have been a merciless dance of flying blood and torn flesh.
But all Ichiro saw was a cold, calculating string of battle damage digits. All he could do was pray that their HP gauges didn’t get too low, and then lay waste to the chariots that followed.
He turned to face the chariot coming towards him, striking it with an unflinching counter. It barely registered.
The chariot continued on its trajectory, slashing away as it passed. Fortunately, Felicia wasn’t hit by the attack. The Skeleton Chariot continued to race down the hallway past them. It would be a while before it hit the far wall and U-turned back at them.
