Without sound or warning, Bell extends her collapsed halberd and runs toward the man with her signature large, silent strides across the clearing. Before the yawning man can even drop his arms, the felinoid is already high above his head, with her halberd wound up. *zubashi* Followed by going into a front flip, the axehead of the halberd slashes up towards the top of his chest, up the throat to the center of the neck, through the chin and exiting at the top of his nose. The man slumps forward with wide open eyes, landing face first just behind where Bell landed mere moments ago. Turning around sharply, she starts jabbing the tip of her halberd into the corpse repeatedly as though it’s her parents’ killer. “What the h.e.l.l are you doing?!” Rick whispers coa.r.s.ely over the PM, still within the darkness of the trees. The felinoid stops moving, turning to face toward the group. “Oops…” “What oops, get the h.e.l.l out of there! You just marked yourself as a murderer!” Looking up, she sees a blood-red sword symbol above her head, it’s clearly visible even though it doesn’t give off any luminosity. “What the h.e.l.l?! This is that crossdressing pervert from before! Why the h.e.l.l did I get- s.h.i.t.” Realizing that she’s making a racket, she immediately collapses her halberd and runs off to the nearest tree, beyond the light of the dimly lit oil lamp. *dota dota* *sha* The sound of wood being moved is followed by the soft rustling of leaves. “Hmm… what do you make out of this, boss?” “What do you mean?” “Yeah, what do you mean, man?” “Well, even though we rejected the First Princess’ quest, she’s sending us to the Third Princess instead and asking us not to tell her that she sent us. What gives?” “Honestly, I’ve no idea, wish I knew more about what’s going on with the Norman Kingdom… but I hope you guys ain’t mad that I didn’t end up accepting it.” “Pffft, we said we’d stop doing s.h.i.t like that already, we ain’t no sc.u.ms.” ED: OOPS “That’s right boss, we ain’t gonna trick n.o.body and n.o.body ain’t gonna trick us again, this s.h.i.t should be about adventure and manliness and what not!” “Hahaha, glad you guys feel the same! … Hmm? Hendricks, why the h.e.l.l are you sleeping on the floor, didn’t you say you’d wait for us outside?” Three men exit from a hidden trapdoor as they talk amongst themselves, walking out of the dimly lit staircase that leads underground. One of them walks toward the body laying on the ground and pokes it roughly in the b.u.t.t with the blunt end of the spear in his hand. “Oy, Hendricks, time to go…” The man bends down, roughly shaking the unresisting body. “What the f.u.c.k?! Defensive Formation!” The other two men shout “Defensive Formation” down the staircase before rushing over the man, who immediately jumps up, brandishing his spear as he looks into the darkness. The others do the same, albeit with some confusion. “What-” “Hendricks is dead.” Before the question can be asked, the man already gave the answer. Shortly after, 17 more men and women appear from the staircase, drawing their weapons as soon as they exit. “s.h.i.t, look at what you did! Kun is signaling that we should get out of here. Let’s meet back at camp.” Rick whispers harshly with a PM to Bell before disappearing, heading into a different direction from where they came from. * * * * * “Care to explain yourself, Bell?” Kun asks with a confounded expression, with his arms crossed. The group had returned silently, through a roundabout route, lest they be tracked. After scaring the sentry for a split moment, they gathered around the main burning campfire. “I… have no excuse, the blood just rushed to my head.” The felinoid answers sheepishly while sitting in seiza. [T/N: ”Sitting in a kneeling position” doesn’t carry the nuance necessary in this case, seiza (正座) is the respectful, formal sitting position, in this case, it shows repentance.] “Pffffttt, it looked like you were slaughtering a boyfriend that cheated on you.” Rick is chewing on a piece of snake jerky with both his hands behind his head, laying down while leaning his back on some bags. “Do we have to put Bell-ne on a leash the next time~?” “Brother, what’s a ‘leash’?” “It’s something you tie to someone’s neck to prevent them from going too far.” “Sounds uncomfortable.” “It is.” Kun turns away from the fox and focuses his eyes on the red sword above Bell’s head. “First things first, we need to get rid of that.” “Eh, what’s the rule for getting rid of it again?” Bell looks up as well, pondering. “Let’s see~ The formula is X times 24 hours of log in time. Then 0.1%-0.5% fixed deduction from the penalty time for each eligible mob kill~ During this time, experience lost as a result from death is 10 times the normal amount.” The others turn to look at her. “Where are you getting this…? This isn’t in the help section…” Rick is poking and flicking his fingers into the air as he searches through the interface. Likewise, Kun is doing the same while Bell got out of her seiza position and is now sitting in an agura position. [T/N: “Sitting in a cross-legged position” doesn’t carry the nuance like with seiza. In this case, agura (胡座) is considered an unsightly sitting position since females aren’t expected to sit in this way. Conversely, it’s also used to indicate Bell’s att.i.tude. In this case, either she doesn’t care for manners or that she feels close enough to everyone to do this (or maybe a bit of both).] “Oh~! You just access the command sidebar and connect it to the external terminal by typing in ‘browse -x -remote’, then you can use the terminal browser inside the game. Just don’t share it with anyone~” ““AH!”” “Huh?” “Mm?” Rick and Bell exclaims excitedly as they open their own browser while Kun and Gui both share a dumbfounded expression, not sure what’s going on. It lasted for all of a second since there are pressing issues at hand. “So there’s two things that we need to do: Bell has to lose that Murderer status. We need to find out what’s going on with the princesses. We have no idea what is going on with the First Princess, but those people mentioned the Third Princess… we definitely need more information.” “Kun has a point… since chances are we might have to break into that hideout one of these days, there’s a high chance one of us is going to die.” Rick agrees while shifting a piece of jerky in his mouth. “Unless Bell doesn’t mind losing her experience pointlessly, 10 times the experience, doesn’t that mean she might even lose a level? Although that does explain how Kun got so many levels from those crystals…” The felinoid makes a difficult face. “Well, I’ve some leeway in the next few days, guess I’ll go grind some mobs and have the kids clean the carca.s.ses…” “In that case, we will go back to Lilyheim to gather more information~” Kun starts rubbing his chin, “You know… I’ve been wondering… Rick, can you get me 10 pieces of Marsh Viper leather within 12 hours?” “Eh?” Rick makes a dumbfounded expression. “What for?” “Hmm, guess it didn’t work…” “Ah, I see what you are trying to do!” Bell smacks a fist into her palm, while chewing on a snake jerky as well. “Guess it didn’t work, too bad.” “You are done repenting already? And what is it that he was trying to do, make a pair of snake trousers or something?” The blond youth narrows his eyes as he slowly chews on the meat. “Hmm~?” Till tilts her head slightly, remaining silent as Bell and Rick banters. After the youth got knocked in the head and backed away from the felinoid, she places her right hand, palm up, in front of her heart, while nodding, placing her left hand over the right hand, clasping them together. “Rick-ni, I request that you get me a bundle of those elongated fruit within 12 hours, the reward is 1 silver.” The piece of snake jerky falls out of Rick’s mouth, as he stares blankly at the transparent window before his eyes. Everyone turns their head at his sudden silence and stillness, even Bell’s expression cools down. As though possessed by a spirit, Rick shambles towards the supply tent, grabs a round bundle of fruit and returns, dropping them into Till’s hand. Both Rick and Till rub their eyes as they look at their respective windows. A moment later, the girl grabs something from her waist-pouch and hands over a small silver coin. “Kun-ni… Where did you get this idea from~?” “EEEHHHHH!? It works?!” The realization of what just occurred hits the felinoid like a sudden squall on a sunny day. *kon* “Shhhhhh! You want to wake up the kids?” Rick, in a reversal of roles, smacks Bell in the head to quiet her down. “I figured, since the students can use the magic we learned from Alfina’s books, they should be the same as us… right? And we all know the NPCs can do requests on our behalf like when we were trying to isolate those two guilds. Since we need information, we can commission help from the NPCs instead… no?” “How, what, how are NPCs the same as us?!” Rick makes an incredulous face, then he turns and look at the gray fox that disappeared at some point and is now chewing on a piece of snake jerky as well. Placing his head in his hands, he can only mumble a “nevermind” as he relishes the cool sensation from the silver coin seeping into his face. “Nyahahahaha, interesting! Interesting!” The felinoid suppresses her excited voice, as she repeats the word several times while enjoying the novelty of the discovery. “But this was just between users, we need to see if it works with NPCs.” Kun starts getting up. “I’m going to test it with the sentries.” The blond youth’s head suddenly snaps up. “Wait, if it works, I just got an idea. Let me join you.” “Idea…?” * * * * * “Eh? So this is the place? Not bad, not bad at all.” I mumble to myself as I get escorted into a misty forest by a group of men that have b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l features. In front of me is a multistory building with a large field bustling with activities in front of it. Just behind, I can see numerous log buildings of various sizes as well as various facilities. “Welcome to Zinnia Academy, Master Barthos. My name is Echo, I will be your liaison, if you have any questions, let me know.” “Don’t be so stiff, my boy! Just call me Barthos!” I give the lean man a slap on his back as some stablehands lead the dog-like horses away. “Ah, those are the other instructors, I take it?” I point at the various figures fighting vigorously on the field. “That would be correct, they are the instructors Kun-sensei hired to help expand the Academy. Would you like to join them?” Huh… using a game to train people eh… guess old Hank wasn’t joking at all. Huh… what the h.e.l.l… “No, more importantly, who built those buildings? Aside from that big building in front, the rest of them feel wrong!” “Hmm… what do you mean?” Without bothering to explain all the details to this Echo, I run the several hundred meters to the nearest building, causing Echo to chase after me. Wait… I’m running? d.a.m.n, no wonder they were hiring all those Untouchables and even old Pamuk, this might just work out for them. Shaking my head, I chase those idle thoughts out as I inspect the log building in front of me. “d.a.m.n it!” I turn around as I wait for the liaison to catch up to me, surprisingly, he’s standing right behind me. “What’s the matter?” “These buildings, we have to repair them, or even tear them down.” The man’s ears perk straight up from the shock. “But… we built them not too long ago.” “Who’s the engineer responsible?” “Engineer?” “Who directed you to build them like this?!” I can feel a headache coming on, this game’s simulation is too realistic for me, I didn’t expect idiots with no construction knowledge to be building things here as well. “There is none, we just built these buildings like we do during expeditions.” “Expeditions…? Those are temporary buildings you fools! These are permanent buildings right!? And this, THIS!” I point at the warped pieces of lumber on the building. “Did no one think to use green-wood construction techniques! These buildings could be collapsing in weeks! AHHH!” [T/N: I had no idea wtf green-wood construction was so I decided to look it up. Apparently fresh lumbers (known as green wood) usually can’t be used to build things as is since it needs months or even years for the wood to season (dry up) to ensure stability, free from breakage, shrinkage and warping. Since there’s no mentioning of the species of trees involved, I can only surmise that engineers in EC’s Earth have thought up of ways to use fresh lumber without requiring to wait for the wood to dry. This also explains how they were able to construct Kun’s new facilities using fresh lumbers as well.] “… Come with me, if what you said is true, we need to resolve this as soon as possible.” The man dashes off towards a particularly robust building, with me following right behind. * * * * * *kan* *kan* *dokkan* “G.o.d d.a.m.n it, five days! Just five days and everything went to h.e.l.l!” “Stop complaining and help, you idiot!” Rick is in a crouching position after throwing out b.a.l.l.s of ice to bludgeon some enemies by rotating and flipping rapidly, complaining bitterly. Bell, on the other hand, is desperately fending off users, non-users, and mobs alike. A chaotic scene of a ma.s.sive battle royale is playing out within the clearing and the surrounding jungle area. “We should have waited for Kun and Gui!” “Then we would have been too late!” “Bell-ne, duck~!” A blast of air *hyuu* over the felinoid who kneels down in the nick of time, sending a human swordsman and his sweeping sword into a group of dwarves, who immediately dispatches him with their axes. … … … The day following Rick’s proclamation of a plan, Rick and Till went to Lilyheim to carry it out. They first asked for permission to use the [Request Bulletin] in the town-square from the guards, it was a strange request, but the guards had no objection, especially since they are affiliated with Kun, who brought the slavers in. The request was simple. Quest: Show your scholarly prowess! Show your knowledge and have a chance to win a scholarship to Zinnia Academy attended by n.o.bilities and Royalties alike! Each new piece of information regarding Norman Kingdom’s First Princess, Third Princess, and the Royalties, will be rewarded with 1 silver and a lottery slip for the drawing! They stayed within the city to receive the information at an inn. Unexpectedly, aside from a few pieces of general information from users and a few merchants, nothing important appeared. The idea to promote the Academy as part of the quest was a good one, unfortunately, the fear of Lèse-majesté was stronger. As such, on the morning of the third day, Till quietly went to the [Request Bulletin] alone and added something to the request. [T/N: Lèse-majesté is a law prohibiting the insult or indignation of Royalties. Punishments varies and can even lead to the death penalty.] Quest: Show your scholarly prowess! Show your knowledge and have a chance to win a scholarship to Zinnia Academy attended by n.o.bilities and Royalties alike! Each new piece of information regarding Norman’s Kingdom First Princess, Third Princess and the Royalties will be rewarded with 1 silver and lottery slip for the drawing! An additional drawing will be held for a [Blessing] from a Deity. It’s the same one that was used in Feia not too long ago, don’t miss out! [ED: PUTTING THAT FERTILITY G.o.d TO USE] The initial response was like the last two days’, at least until the early evening when the lobby of the inn started to get a little crowded. Servants of various n.o.bles were sent to provide some detailed information as well as inquiries in regards to the blessing. Although the people of Feia kept their promise of keeping Rick’s secret, they couldn’t hide the celebrations, the births and the undeniable prosperity and vitality visible within the city-state. Since Lilyheim and Feia trade with each other, news of these events are well-known. Additionally, spies planted within Feia also reported the strange events, like the ma.s.sive visit to the nearby [Forest of Illusions] by the top echelon of the city-state. n.o.bles being n.o.bles, can detect an opportunity when they see one, and they see a chance to outdo their rivals. The request triggered a ton of speculations, causing the people observing to ask, “why?”. From one misunderstanding leading to another, this led to the distorted notion that “A Deity is trying to save the missing First Princess and will reward those that save her with an even greater Blessing” on the morning of the fourth day. Of course, Till and Rick tried to correct the false information, but that only added to the fire as others think they were trying to keep the ultimate reward to themselves. As such, n.o.bles’ personal fighters, mercenaries and even users flocked together and tried to locate the presumably missing First Princess. After discovering some clues through the imprisoned criminals, users that have some knowledge of the contracts from the First Princess and so forth, everyone prepared and rushed to the hideout on the morning of the fifth day. Everyone has the same goal, at the same time, everyone is also a rival. … … … “Fall back for now! We don’t know who our enemies actually are! Fighting like this is pointless!” “d.a.m.n it, alright, let’s do that.” Bell grits her teeth and leaps over a group of men fighting each other, distracting them for a moment. Rick follows right after by dancing through the tangled ma.s.s of men and weapons. Till is sitting on a distant tree, away from the fighting, as she expertly diverts projectiles away from the two’s general area. “We need to breakthrough somehow…”