by Nikita Thorn
A thought flashed through his mind and Seiki let out a sudden curse, nearly startling Ippei. “Hey, what’s the most obnoxious demand you can make when you run something for someone else?”
Ippei blinked. “You mean a merc run, like a… mission carry?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Full loot distribution rights,” said the samurai after a moment. “That’s just a polite way to say you want to keep all the loot. And if you want to be a bigger prick, you also ask them to put down an advance for your repairs. Why?”
“Testing a theory.” Seiki grinned as he reached for a piece of post paper, scribbled down his demands and addressed it to Gin of the East City Bandits. “If I’m right, this is going to be very interesting.”
The Field Officer yelled from across the instance, “Hey, no outbound pigeons on my ledge!”
“Don’t worry, old man. I’ll go outside. And we’re just about to leave.” Seiki turned to Ippei. “I guess it’s back to good old grinding.”
Missions had not reset, and all known repeatables in the City were missing, having been temporarily replaced with Festival Quests. Since they had pretty much exhausted every quest that was not directly related to the Rogami Clan, the best way to earn experience was to go on a hunting trip in the Wilderness. Seiki was usually not too keen on the method. Ever since the lower-level enemies near Shinshioka stopped yielding experience, it meant he had to venture quite far into the Wilderness, which came with the inconvenience of travel time, accidental deaths, as well as respawning in an unknown spirit shrine with a Fatigue penalty. With a tangible reward on the horizon, however, it suddenly sounded very appealing.
“Yeah, let’s go get you that dragon shield. I happen to know just the spot,” said Ippei.
Seiki added, “Or if that fails, I suppose we can always head further east and get an XP drink at Kano Castle.”
“That would work, too. I’m sure that Fumiya guy would be thrilled to see us.”
Seiki chuckled. “To be honest, after that rare, I doubt Kano Castle can do much worse.”
“Unless they toss you into a gladiator pit and throw down a rare scroll.”
Seiki looked at his friend. “They don’t really have something like that, do they?”
“No idea,” Ippei said as he got to his feet. “Let’s hope we don’t get to find out.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Honshori Wild Bull slain. 292 XP gained.
Seiki watched the beast collapse. Feeling the impact from the last Upslash tingling up both his arms, he turned to shout to Ippei, “Okay, it’s down. That was a close one.”
Fortunately, the encounter had been nowhere as close as the half-monk half-monster Nozuchi earlier. Still, the bulls were all Level 18, and had a Charge ability, which was perhaps an animal version of the ronin Slide (which made them very fast and rather unpredictable.) Seiki still had a numbing bleeding gash down his hip from the animal’s earlier pass.
They had spent the past two hours in the Wilderness, killing mostly Honshori Wild Bulls and the occasional Giant Aodaisho Snake. Ippei had picked the particular location for its Level 18 beasts: slightly more advanced than their current abilities could easily handle, but very much doable with two players. It was up in an area called Honshori Highlands, nearly a twenty-minute ride from East Gate and another five minutes on a hidden northward dirt path. The timing was fortunate, since the Festival had attracted a large proportion of Wilderness players to Shinshioka, leaving more available beasts to farm with less risk of encountering player killers.
The Wild Bulls spawned in the grass plains, and their strategy had been to aggro one at a time and draw it into the sparse white pine grove where its Charge would be somewhat restricted. It had worked well so far, until one spawned unexpectedly close to the grove and decided to join in the ongoing fight.
Making sure that his health was still at above eighty percent and that he still had a decent amount of energy, Seiki turned to look at Ippei. Their trouble was still not quite over. The other Honshori Wild Bull, HP 347/2450 was still charging at them from around a tree. Whatever real-life animal they were based on, they were bigger than any bull Seiki had seen, and was covered with very thick furry hide that was difficult to penetrate without a perfect-formed strike. One of its curved horns had drawn blood earlier, and was now dyed dark red. The beasts’ attacking stance gave them double speed which, when coupled with their Charge, made them too fast even for Seiki to catch with his stuns.
Ippei let out a yell as he ran toward the beast, trying to get a connect with his Swerve Cut. The beast spun around at the last minute, and only the first of the samurai’s two successive strokes hit. The bull jerked its head up, trying to gore him with its enormous horn, forcing Ippei to yank his sword back to Parry. The clack of metal hitting bone rang clear, and the samurai cursed as the impact sent him staggering backward.
Seiki rushed in before the bull could stomp its hoof on his friend. Seeing that the beast’s health was now down by almost another two hundred points after Ippei’s strike, he risked nothing fancy. Pushing energy down his sword arm, he plunged a Focused Strike into its side, activating a perfect connection. The beast immediately went still, before dropping into a giant heap of fur and horns.
Honshori Wild Bull slain. 241 XP gained.
Seiki had been obsessively checking his experience after every kill for the past hour. This time there was no need for that. The notification came like long-awaited rainfall.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 16. HP increased to 1680. Max energy increased to 805. A Free Slot is now available.
The level-up elation surged through him, cold, hot, intensely pleasant, filling his mind with exploding colors and senses he could never manage to describe. Seiki unconsciously held his breath and allowed himself to enjoy the artificial happiness for a little as he let his energy and life refill.
Ippei grinned. “Grats.”
“Thanks.” Seiki grinned back. He knew Ippei had been trying to leave most of the close encounters to him in order to give him a bit more of the experience share. “And, thanks,” he added, more seriously. Level 16 was a major milestone in the gameplay, since it was the first time players could really start diversifying. Whatever complaint he might have about Honshori Wild Bulls had evaporated and now all he felt was a kind of soaring lightness and disproportionate gratitude towards everything.
The samurai chuckled as he put away his sword. “Now let’s try to get out of here before the Kyouhou Archers come round and decide we’re on their property.”
Earlier, on the way to the area, Ippei had pointed out a trail that led up to one of the eight Wilderness clan territories on Kyouhou Peak, owned by the elusive Kyouhou Archers. The first time his friend had mentioned the clan, Seiki had missed its significance, but now it finally jogged his memory.
“Wait, that was the guy at the Festival boss event, right? The guy with the firestepper. He was with the Kyouhou Archers.” Remembering how impressed his friend had seemed, Seiki looked at him seriously. “So you picked this spot just to stalk your extreme sports hero.”
“Yeah, I’m looking for a signature on my spider exoskeleton,” said Ippei. “Actually, that might be a good excuse. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing their territory.” He nodded toward the north, where Seiki could see the outline of a grayish mountain range beyond the dense hill at the other end of the grass plain. “No outsider has been allowed in ever since, well, probably the first day of this live launch. If you wander up there without permission, they shoot you on sight for poaching.”
That sounded a little extreme. “I thought they didn’t do clan wars,” said Seiki.
“They don’t. They shoot indiscriminately.”
“And the Rangers allow that?”
“Technically, they’re just defending their territory, so the Rangers let them be.” The samurai gave a casual shrug. “And it’s not like the Rangers can do anything about it, going up ag
ainst a supercharged extra-range high-level Focused Shot even before you can see where they are. One of their sports is allegedly target practice.”
Seiki had no idea whether his friend was joking or not, but such rumors often did not propagate without at least a tiny grain of truth. “Well, I guess they’re all ryoushi for a reason,” he said, deciding that dying from snipers was probably not going to be a pleasant end to their hunting trip. “Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve… well, we’ve definitely poached enough for one day.”
So far, the loot yield from the Wilderness beasts had been much better than the pitiful loot the rare had given them earlier. Seiki walked over to disperse one of the two bulls into a puff of dark gray smoke. As expected, he was rewarded with three conveniently leaf-bound packets.
You have received: Wild Bull Meat [x2]. Ingredient.
You have received: Wild Bull Meat. Mid-Grade Kurimi Cut. Ingredient.
“All right. More premium beef over here,” Seiki said. They had been getting specific cuts from some of the beasts. Unlike generic Wild Bull Meat that was stackable, each of these special cuts took an individual inventory slot, and so they guessed they were quite valuable as Cooking ingredients.
“Kentaro would have a field day on these,” said Ippei, as he crouched down to loot the other animal. “Yeah. One more cut here, too.”
Special ingredients yielded a higher chance of discovering new Cooking recipes and gave more experience, and were therefore prized by Cooks. With his meager Level 5 Cooking, Seiki knew better than to try grilling high-quality beef himself over a campfire out in the Wilderness, as it would most likely result in a Generic Grilled Meat [Level 1 food], which could be cooked from any low-level meat, and would therefore be a complete waste of good ingredients.
“To be honest, this is kinda making me hungry,” said Seiki. Despite muscle fatigue not being a problem, spending energy for a long time always made him feel like having gone through a good workout. “How about we stop by that beef bowl place on the way back to the City? Next door from Momiji Inn. Their 2-gold set is pretty decent.”
Apart from the leveling experience, they had come up on over 30 pieces of Wild Bull Meat, as well as 7 premium meat cuts, one of which was marked top-grade. The trip was a total success and that, he thought, deserved a minor celebration.
In retrospect, Seiki was glad he had not been able to kill the Nozuchi on his own. Finally reaching Level 16 was much nicer here in the open, with a friend, out in a sunny grove of gigantic white pine trees, rather than in a private instance, locked in a fight-to-the-death with a grotesque monster.
Putting the loot away, Seiki turned to Ippei and grinned. “My treat.”
“Was that ever in question?” The samurai seemed amused. “You’re the one getting a rare undocumented Free Slot shield today. In the meantime, got a free spot in your bag? Mine’s full.”
Seiki nodded, and Ippei tossed him an item.
You have received: Black Powder. Ingredient. Combine this with a Bamboo Tube and at least one pack of Stars to create your own fireworks. Adds a 2% chance to attract the attention of the majestic White Dragon during the last night of the Festival. 20-foot range. Takes 1 slot in a Bamboo Tube.
The Black Powder was wrapped in thick paper, tied with hard paper strings, and had a separate piece of paper glued on to it with the characters for ‘fire’ and ‘medicine’. Seiki wondered what would happen if he simply lit it on fire, but then decided it was probably not designed that way, or someone would have already tried blowing up random passersby in Shinshioka.
“With these fireworks items dropping everywhere, I’m starting to think that they really want us to do the White Dragon instance,” said Ippei.
“We should probably do it, then.” Seiki put the Black Powder in his inventory, unconsciously handling it with more care than he needed to and placing it as far away as possible from the slot that carried his flint. “I wouldn’t mind seeing a completely empty Shinshioka for once. You know, it’ll probably be like one of those night marathons when they close down the streets and you can go in the middle.”
Ippei lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve done that?”
“No.” Seiki let out a sigh. “Never got round to it.”
Ippei looked at him for a moment. “All right. After tomorrow, it’s your call what we do for the rest of the Festival.”
“You’re gonna regret this,” said Seiki. “Since you have no idea what you’ve just committed yourself to.”
Ippei grinned. “Try me.”
In high spirits, they slowly made their way back to the main road. It had been a while since they had been out the East Gate, and Seiki was reminded of the sense of vastness he had felt ever since the first time. The sun was high, but the tree shades were pleasantly cool and damp. The surprisingly noisy wind in the leaves made it clear how quiet it was, away from Shinshioka’s bustling crowd. Seiki summoned Fubuki even before they reached the road as he thought she would enjoy the pleasant stroll.
They were about to mount up when they realized they were not alone in that corner of the wild. From the distance somewhere ahead of them, like the rumbling of approaching thunder, came the sounds of multiple horses, most likely three or four riders at a gallop.
“Were you serious about the Archers killing trespassers on sight?” he turned to ask Ippei, although he could not really see how exactly they were trespassing, or poaching, for that matter.
Ippei looked undecided. “Do you want to prove the rumor?”
They decided not to.
It was Wilderness etiquette on small roads that lower-level players gave way to higher-level players, mostly by pulling off to the side to avoid collision and spooked mounts. In such cases, it was also etiquette for higher-level players not to harass those who had yielded.
That said, Seiki was sure that the rule only applied when they were not direct targets in the first place. In their situation, even when the chance of running into any of the three clans trying to kill them on sight was extremely low, the idea of waking up in a strange spirit shrine with all their items gone was not particularly appealing.
The sound of hooves drew closer, and they quickly dismissed their mounts and found safe coverage behind a flowering bush a little off the path.
“Okay, if it’s really the Archers, try to get their names, all right?”
Seiki had no time to ask why he wanted to know that. The riders appeared round the sunlit bend, thundering down the small path on tall, sturdy horses, one of which was a rare brown-splashed white. The group consisted of two men and a woman, all with unfamiliar armor sets not common in the city. One of the men had a long spear strapped across his back, while the other two had long slender bows, much bigger than the Chubu Rangers’ standard weapons of choice. They also had matching black headbands, written with a character Seiki did not recognize. Ippei’s hunch was right on their identity:
Kinari of the Kyouhou Archers [Level 27]
Wadama of the Kyouhou Archers [Level 29]
Genryu the Kyouhou Archers [Level 26]
The three seemed to be in a jovial mood, and Seiki heard them laughing as they rode past. The woman, Kinari, her hair braided with colored ribbons in a style Seiki had never seen, was saying, “… are we gonna get it in time for the patch night…”
Wadama, the bearded man with the long spear, shouted back his reply to his clan mates, “… tell Mori if we all hit the events hard we might make it…”
Then they were gone, disappearing down the path and leaving behind a short trail of dust. From the first impression, they did not seem like people who would kill random strangers on sight, but then again, nothing was ever what it seemed in the Wilderness.
Seiki was surprised when he turned to see Ippei scribbling something on a piece of post paper. “Wadama, Kinari and…”
“Genryu,” said Seiki.
“Thanks.” Ippei finished his message, held out his hand for a post bird, clasped the piece of pa
per on and sent it off, before turning to explain. “For my friend Katsumasa. He asked me to get some more leads on the clan, ever since I told him that a Kyouhou Archer was spotted in the city.”
Seiki thought it was about time he asked who Ippei’s mysterious friend was, when his body tensed out of instinct at the familiar sound of a blade whishing through the air. He had no time to warn his friend as Ippei let out a yelp and collapsed. A small black projectile flew by, missing Seiki by a few inches.
A figure burst from the thicket on his right with a battle shout, before Seiki could completely comprehend what had happened. He saw a flash of a man, youngish, a player, in black armor, his longsword raised high in one hand, his eyes gleaming with intent to kill.
Grunting, Seiki raised his hand and shielded himself with his Crimsonfire Tekko.
The force of the impact threw him back as the fire-colored shield stopped the killing blow. Any distance between him and the attacker was good, and he helped the momentum by bursting into a Slide in the same direction, twisting his body to turn around. Glancing back, he saw Ippei frozen on the ground, although his health was still almost full.
The attacker in black forwarded his offense, twisting his blade in a curve to connect the first swing with the next in the opposite slashing direction. Seiki had barely had time to recover when the steel threatened to slice him across the shoulder. At close range, it was too tight to draw the Hikari, and he grabbed his dagger and jerked it up with both hands in a Parry.
The clank rang clear through the silence of the surroundings. As to be expected, the move drained all his energy, and Seiki threw a quick glance to see that the man was labeled Level 24. Cursing under his breath, Seiki knew their Wilderness luck had run out. This was the downside of leveling out here, and he realized there was no way he could really win this fight. He ducked low, traded almost all his health with Blood Rush and broke out into another Slide past the man, bending down to grab Ippei by his arm and dragging him as far away as possible.
