by Nikita Thorn
“Oh, okay, that one,” said Mairin. “Yeah, I did it once with the Social Guild, I think.”
Yamura frowned. “You mean the one where the village leader’s brother tries to poison everyone and you have to choose between saving some villagers or saving the dragon in the lake? Now that’s a stupid dungeon.”
“No,” said Mairin. “You can save everyone. You have to go to the villagers first and you’ll get more antidotes from them.”
“What?” said Yamura.
“That’s an optional objective,” said Kazuki. “Anyway, for this dungeon, Reiji wanted all of us to come. He said he didn’t want to use freelancers, because he was on the brink of discovering something important. So we all went, and we did all the usual things, you know, freed the villagers, gave them the antidote, destroyed the dam. Then we went to confront the village leader’s brother. That should have been it.”
Mairin nodded. “Right. At this point you’re all poisoned, and you try to kill the guy, and the dragon or whatever creature is in the lake spits up fireballs to help you kill him.”
“Yes, but instead of that happening, when we reached the brother, he cast some black magic. The dragon surfaced, landed on the bank and started thrashing about, spewing black blood. It turned out the antidote we dropped into the water was ineffective, and the dragon was still dying. In the end we had to get a Seed of Light from the brother’s secret treasure chest to cure it.”
Seiki had no idea what to make of the story, so he simply nodded.
Mairin looked at their host. “So you’re saying… you managed to trigger a… rare boss?” she said.
Kazuki nodded. “Yes. The drops were impressive. We got a healing charm, something we had never seen before. It was scalable, and Ikumi still uses it to this day. But that wasn’t the end. At some point we realized the brother had escaped from where we had left him. Aku was pissed because the man completely wrecked his chest guard earlier with a poison dagger when he was trying to hold him down.” The ninja chuckled at the memory. “We found a blood trail, which led slightly out of the village, and when we followed it…”
Kazuki paused for a moment to sip his tea, taking the opportunity to study his guests, as if waiting for them to finish the story for him.
“Uh…” said Yamura.
Kazuki looked at them. “Take a guess who showed up.”
“The Demon Lord?” said Seiki.
An excited spark lit up in Kazuki’s eyes. “Exactly! Now that was unexpected, and since you can never take on Kagenushi, he completely destroyed us and left us for the brother to do as he pleased. Then he disappeared, as usual, with some more speech about revenge. Of course, in the end we defeated the brother, and the man dropped a single item.”
Their host paused again to wait for them.
“The Shadow Seal,” said Ippei, perhaps before anyone could slip up and call it a key.
Kazuki nodded. “As you know, the item is unlabeled, unlike anything else.”
“Why do you think it’s a Seal, though?” asked Mairin.
“Well, we didn’t know what it was. Eventually Ikumi decided to call it that. It’s the right size and shape, and we thought it’s meant to denote some rank within the Demonic Clan. Then we thought that maybe it was used to control the dragon in the lake, since it casts a shadow in the shape of a dragon. Of course, we obsessively ran the dungeon every time it came off lockout for several weeks, but we could never trigger the same story line.”
“And then…?” said Mairin.
“Well, we were busy at the time, so we eventually moved on to other things.”
Ippei looked thoughtful. “I think the question here is how did Reiji know something was going to be different with that dungeon in the first place? That’s your best lead.”
“Now that’s exactly the right question, but you’re not going to like the answer any more than we did,” said Kazuki with a grim smile. “He received a Mumei message.”
Ippei let out a mild curse and Seiki stifled a groan. Anonymous tips were always almost as bad as seeing the boss’s health stopping at one.
“Yes, so you can see that was a dead end,” said Kazuki. “Eventually, after a few months, we gave up and forgot about it.”
“But that wasn’t the end of it,” said Seiki. “Because then Reiji got another tip for Nezumi Temple?”
Kazuki nodded, and Seiki started to think he was getting a little too advanced in the matter of intrigue.
“Well, this time we weren’t entirely sure it was Mumei. That’s what we suspected. At the time he had been running it for a while with different groups of freelancers, and after the message… he just stopped logging in. We got concerned and we sent constant pigeons, but there was no reply. I know it could have been anything, real life problems, rig problems, these things happen, but it wasn’t like Reiji to just disappear. Then about a week later, he sent me a post message saying that he was now pursuing a different kind of life and that he no longer welcomed my messages.”
The man stopped and let out a sigh.
Mairin looked at him. “And then?”
“That’s it. That was the last we heard from him. He disappeared. Naturally, we were concerned, and eventually we started digging up all his logs. It turned out the Firerat Fur Armguard was the last thing he looted.”
Mairin’s eyes widened. “Spooky.”
“We eventually received a message with a drawing and descriptions on the Firerat Fur Armguard, allegedly from Reiji, saying it was his last contribution to the clan, but that one was a Mumei message… so we didn’t know what to think.”
“Maybe it was one of the freelancers who ran it with him?” said Ippei.
“We asked everyone we ever hired, all the different groups, and no one went on that run with him.”
“Maybe he solo’ed it?” said Yamura.
“That dungeon is totally not solo-able,” said Mairin, which was what Seiki had been thinking, considering it would be very difficult to manage both the abbot and finding the hidden things within the instance with only one person. “So you’re saying that he went with a bunch of people he didn’t know and then was never seen again. Okay, that’s super spooky now. Yamura, your piece is cursed.”
The ryoushi jumped. “What?”
“Well, it could have been real life problems,” Seiki pointed out.
Mairin looked dead serious. “Your piece could be too, Seiki,” she said in an ominous whisper. “Since you looted it from the same rat boss.”
“Maybe.” Seiki let out a chuckle. “Considering I’m already haunted by a creepy mask.”
“Sorry, what?” said Kazuki.
“Yeah, as Seiki said,” said Yamura. “Could have been anything. Maybe the guy just broke up with his girlfriend, you know.”
“No,” said Ippei. “After a breakup you’d be logged in twenty-four seven, taking on every trivial quest and killing everything in sight. So it’s certainly not that.”
Seiki glanced at his friend, not sure how much of a joke that was.
That did get Mairin back on the topic, however, and she looked at Kazuki. “Okay, are you sure he didn’t have a quick fallout with anyone in the clan that you don’t know about?”
“That’s always a possibility, but I don’t think it’s the case. I mean, Reiji can be headstrong, but if he had a problem with you he’d just say it.”
“Or maybe he’s just done with the game.”
“Here’s the thing,” said Kazuki. “He still logs on once in a while. And sometimes our Locate can still catch him. Sometimes in the City, sometimes far in the Wilderness. Sometimes he’s gone for a long while, but the last one was only a few days ago, right before the start of the Festival, and just a few streets away from here.”
“Okay, seriously, guys. Don’t tell me that’s not extremely disturbing,” said Mairin.
“How do you do that?” said Seiki. “How do you track people?”
Kazuki smiled. Then he rais
ed his voice and shouted. “Sayuka-san!”
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and a cheerful-looking young woman ran in. “Yes, Kazuki-sama?” She was dressed in gray and red, which Seiki guessed was the Society’s chosen colors for staff uniform, but instead of the usual Clan Attendant label, she bore her own name: Clan Attendant Sayuka [Level 25].
“Every ten minutes she performs a Locate on everyone on the list I gave her and then tells me if any of them meets a certain criteria, like, if someone’s within the vicinity. Or she keeps a list of successful Locates that I can look at later.”
“Oh,” said Seiki. That was how the ninja had found him in the Court Prison. “This is how Ichikeya does it, too.”
“So you can script something like this, too,” said Ippei unconsciously as he stared at the Clan Attendant.
The samurai’s interest did not escape Kazuki’s notice. “There are still many frontiers to be explored. The Inner Palace and their Favor system is also quite an untapped territory. Of course, we recruited her from the court of Lord Otokubo as well, who is a patron of… Reason.”
“Inner Palace?” Ippei turned back toward the ninja, a hint of dread in his voice, then he chuckled. “In that case I guess I’ll just leave it to you and the Nobles.”
“Not your thing?”
“No,” said Ippei. “Too much social games in my real life already.”
Kazuki asked for a list from the Clan Attendant, who handed it over. “No new log-ins in the past two days from Reiji. Thanks, Sayuka.”
The Clan Attendant gave a slight bow before exiting the room, and Mairin turned her attention back to their host.
“So Reiji still logs in, but no one has ever seen him and he shows up on the radar once in a while. He never looted anything again. Since his record never changed to [unknown], so he didn’t delete his character or wipe his logs. So what is he even doing?”
“Honestly, Foxy, it could be a number of things,” said Ippei.
“Like?”
“Joined the dev team and just decided to make things interesting for you guys.”
The kitsune frowned. “That’s no fun at all.”
“No.” Ippei agreed.
Kazuki was not convinced. “Anyway, once again we started running the Nezumi Temple over and over. We also ran the Ryuutou one again, you know, the first one with the dragon lake. From Reiji’s loot log we knew he got a piece called the Firerat Fur Armguard from a rare boss called Hinezumi, but we were never able to trigger that one either.” He then looked at them all. “You, however, obviously did.”
“Okay, wait a second,” said Yamura. “So if you’ve never actually killed the secret rat boss, how did you figure out the 4% drop chance?”
“I just made it up,” said Kazuki. “It was a number that’s high enough to get people interested but low enough that people don’t actually expect to get it even after multiple tries.”
Yamura’s jaw dropped. “It was a lie?”
“Considering how many tries it took you, I guess it wasn’t far off.” Kazuki chuckled.
Yamura looked horrified and let out a loud groan. “We fell for a complete lie.”
“Well, it paid off in the end,” said Mairin.
“I see,” Ippei said. “So you publish your ‘findings’, with a low but attractive enough drop rate, and then you keep your eye on the loot log and wait until someone gets anything from the drop table. Devious, but smart.”
“We didn’t have the resources to keep commissioning runs, when we didn’t know exactly what we were looking for.”
“Great, I’m unsubbing from the newsletter,” muttered Yamura.
“I thought you weren’t subbed in the first place,” said Mairin.
“Then I’m never subbing, or reading it again. And to think I believed in you. Okay, what else is a lie?”
Kazuki laughed. “Nothing else. Just the drop chance. Everything else we publish is scientifically proven, but you’ll have to understand that this is quite… a different kind of matter, especially when it concerns our friend and quite a few unexplainable things. At first we were waiting to see if you’d come to us after you’ve got it. We even upped our reward offer for ‘discoveries’. But when you didn’t, I had to… do something else.”
Seiki now fully understood what that something else entailed. Kazuki had not been a hundred percent certain they had managed to find additional secrets in the instance, but their brief prison cell meeting had confirmed it.
“And it’s clear you did find another Shadow Seal,” said Kazuki. “How?”
Seiki and his friends had already agreed that there was no harm in letting the Society know how they had gotten the key in the first place, since they had guessed as much anyway.
“I’m not sure how you trigger the firerat boss. But once you beat it, you have to go talk to the boy after the instance ends and he’ll tell you Abbot Arai is missing. You follow the trail and you run into the Demon Lord, and he… well, there’s a fight with his underling and the guy drops the Shadow Seal.” As Seiki searched his memory, he could not help wondering how terrible of a job he was doing in relating the story in an understandable manner. “And there’s also something about, uh, Seeds of Light at the end, although I can’t really remember.”
Kazuki thought for a moment. “There’s a clear pattern there, isn’t it? You trigger the rare boss, and you get a chance at a Shadow Seal. And I’m sure it’s something very important, as the Demon Lord shows up to make sure you remember it. You see why this was an important discovery for us? Once could be anything. Twice, a pattern starts to emerge.”
Seiki nodded. He was also starting to understand why the man had been so eager to talk to them.
“Let’s compare.” Kazuki produced the familiar unlabeled item from his sleeve and placed it on the floor in front of him. Seiki did the same. Both items were identical. The ninja then clapped his hand and an unnamed Clan Attendant entered with a lamp.
As expected, under the lamp light, one shadow was that of a dragon, the other of a rat.
“Maybe they have something to do with controlling or corrupting the dungeon bosses,” said Kazuki. He then held the two items together and tried to see if they would combine. The attempt was to no avail, and he shuddered as the mild Fear effect ran through him from the Seals.
“Or maybe it’s just a souvenir for having discovered a rare boss,” said Kazuki with a sigh. “Do you have any other ideas on what these might be?”
The man was most likely telling the truth, which meant no one was aware of the demonic runed door hidden in Hitsu Temple.
“Uh…” Seiki did not trust himself to answer without giving anything away.
“So there are only two of these that have been found?” said Ippei.
“Two that we know of,” said Kazuki. “Although, as you can see, it’s impossible to get the Nobles to share anything, or the other clans, for that matter. Part of what this exhibition of unique weapons is to send a message that more collaboration is better. If we really put all our cards on the table, I’m sure we’ll get somewhere. Do you agree, Seiki?”
Kazuki met his eyes and Seiki had no idea how to answer the question.
“The game is designed to promote intrigue,” Ippei cut in. “I mean, you’re taught to bribe Shogun officials for your own combat logs, and bribe them more to spy on other people’s. When something’s designed that way, people play it that way. It would be easier to convince a clan to take over all existing territories than to convince everyone to work together.”
“That will encourage some people to work together against them. They won’t succeed.”
“Thus a state of perpetual movement and perpetual balance. People like you, and people like the Kano Castle,” said Ippei. “Which is what they want in the first place.”
“Interesting,” said Kazuki. “You share your friend’s opinion on this, Seiki?”
Seiki blinked. “Uh… I haven’t thought of it much. Mostly
I’m just trying to survive.”
Kazuki burst into hearty laughter. “All right, fair enough.” He took a while to compose himself, before finally settling into a mysterious smile that Seiki could not quite interpret.
“You obviously showed up here for a reason,” said the man after a short pause, looking at the group. “I believe there are things you want to know but won’t ask, and things I want to know but you won’t answer. So… let’s play a game. All right. I see Seiki looking at me like that, so, yes, I learned this from Fuyu.”
“I don’t like the sound of this,” muttered Mairin.
“My game has no hidden agenda,” said Kazuki.
Ippei pointed a finger at him. “That might be self-contradictory, but go on.”
“You came to us because you have questions. You all get one question each, which I’ll answer honestly, to the best of my ability. Then at the end I’ll have one question, which I want you to answer truthfully. Fair?”
When they hesitated, he added, “If you prefer not to answer, you’re allowed to say you’re not willing to answer, but you’re not allowed to lie or to misdirect. A game of no game. Four questions from you. One question from me. Fair?”
“Yeah,” said Seiki.
“Good. Who wants to go first?”
Without any clue what the man could possibly be after, they traded a few wary glances.
“I’ll go first, then,” said Mairin suddenly. “How does someone slip into someone else’s private instance?”
“That’s a good question.” Kazuki smiled. “Although let me rephrase it for you. You mean, how did Fumiya get into Seiki’s unlabeled Level 15 instance at the Shussebora Cave?”
They all stared, speechless.
Seiki told himself he should not be surprised. There were no secrets in the game after all. If the man had been keeping an eye on him, looting something like a Shussebora Scale from the instance would have showed up on the records as clear as day, and Clan Attendant Sayuka would have been eager to tell the man about it.
What was more puzzling, perhaps, was how casually the man was talking about it, as if they were simply discussing whether they should have more tea.
