Sky World

Chapter 2: The Quest

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VOLUME 1

Chapter 2: The Quest
Part 6

Two hours later, By the time Jun returned to the hill two hours later, Kasumi was completely exhausted. In spite of that, she continued to fight monsters with all of her might.

Kasumi, with her back bent and short-sword in ready position, evaded an attack from a Rabbit Wolf. Then, she struck back and landed a perfect hit. Even though light warriors had automatic evasion, she needed to time her attacks on her own. She had improved faster than he thought.

“Eri, you taught her all this?”

Eri frowned.

“I don’t like how you do things.”

“Someone who manipulates people shouldn’t be saying that.”

“Well, that was&h.e.l.lip; well, whatever.”

Eri, knowing that she had lost that one, groaned.

The battle ended. Kasumi remained unhurt for the most part. After picking up the fur that the monster dropped, she ran towards Jun.

Wiping her sweat off her head, Kasumi exclaimed happily, “Jun-sensei! I’m getting the hang of it!”

“I get why you told me not to use the automatic fighting mode now.”

“Yeah&h.e.l.lip;”

Kasumi glanced at Eri. Eri, forcing a smile, shook her head.

“I just gave her a few pointers.”

“Eri, shush. Kasumi-san, can you tell me what you think about it, in your own words?”

“Automatic fighting is a lot weaker than manually fighting. I also ended up taking less damage fighting manually.”

“Anything else?”

“When I watched the enemy myself, I found that I had a lot more time to dodge. &h.e.l.lip;Uh, I honestly couldn’t have done this without Eri. She helped me to fully understand how to do it.”

Jun looked towards Kasumi who was sitting on the gra.s.s.

“I figured this out too. Jun-san, you were able to beat the Dread Sphinx by understanding the timing of its attacks and by dodging them accordingly.”

“If you got that, then you’re doing really well.”

Dodging enemies attacks “by yourself.” Attacking “by yourself.” These actions, impossible on just a tablet MMORPG, could, in this world, be performed with one’s own four limbs.

“Well, if I had challenged the Dread Sphinx without any prior knowledge about it, I surely would’ve lost. While you guys were fighting it, I was watching the whole time, from afar, and observing its movement patterns. Because of you guys, I was able to grasp most of them.”

Eri glared at Jun. During the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation’s battle with the Dread Sphinx, the guild members did not manage their Enmity very well. Their main tank, unable to keep the Dread Sphinx attacking her, allowed it to trample over those who were fighting from the back lines.

“You were spying on us!”

“Well, Eri, you were the one who told me to watch, right?”

“Blah. I guess I did&h.e.l.lip;”

“Well, I’m happy that we were able to be of some a.s.sistance to you, Jun-san.”

Shiroko, being the leader of the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation, would have been even more furious if she found out about that. She already hated Jun. To her, Jun was an outsider who threatened her firm grasp on her guild.

Eri burst into laughter. Kasumi, not understanding what had happened, looked on blankly.

“Kasumi-san, you’re such an una.s.sertive little girl.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Kasumi smiled shyly.

“You’re the closest thing to a saint this world has to offer.”

Eri laughed heartily and started rolling around on the gra.s.s.

“Huh?”

“Look, she’s laughing at you. Why don’t you kick her?”

“What? Why?”

Now done laughing, Eri got up and wiped the tears of laughter off her face.

“Eri, you laugh at people way too much.”

“Heh. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten such a good chuckle from Kasumi.”

“Am I really that funny to you?”

“Kasumi, you’re fine.”

Eri slapped the still confused Kasumi on her shoulder and looked towards Jun with a smiling face.

“Well, you knew this already, but she really is a sheltered girl.”

“Then don’t make fun of her. Remember, she is older than you.”

“In online games, age doesn’t mean anything.”

That reasoning was certainly not unfounded. In games like Sky World, what really mattered were things like knowledge and cleverness. Cla.s.s and skill levels were also more important than real life age.

However, one incredibly important thing to have in order to facilitate good communication was etiquette&h.e.l.lip;

“Well, from other people’s perspective, I seem like a girl who is quite mature. I’m only being so informal with you two.”

“Anyway, for the time being, let’s go back to what we were originally talking about. There’s also another reason why the automatic fighting system is not good. Kasumi-san, because you’re a light warrior, it won’t do you any good.”

“Because I’m a light warrior?”

“In groups, everybody has their own role to play.”

Kasumi nodded, listening carefully.

“Light warriors are tanks. The role of the tank in a group is to attract the attention of enemies. This way, the healers can juggle the party’s safety much more easily, and the attackers can attack to their heart’s content.”

That response sounded like it came straight out of a textbook. Light warriors had special attacks that greatly increased enemies’ enmity towards them. Because of those, the role of tank came rather naturally to them.

“But why would they have to be the ones who attract the attention of enemies?”

“For starters, if the healers or attackers were hit, they would take a lot of damage.”

“Eri, I give that answer 50 points.”

“Ok, ok, Professor Jun.”

“During the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation’s raid, their main tank was a heavy warrior. Now, why was she chosen to be the tank? Why not Kasumi-san?”

“Because heavy warriors are the best cla.s.s to be tanks in raids&h.e.l.lip; Isn’t that common sense?”

“Why has that become common sense?”

“Well, raid level monsters have really strong attacks. It’s really hard to dodge their attacks, so if they only attacked a single person with high defense, like a heavy warrior, it would be easier on us healers since we would only have to focus our healing one person, and not as much either, because the high defense lowers the amount of damage taken. Because of that, heavy warriors with strong defense-oriented armor became very well-established as effective tanks.”

Eri just figured out why Jun was not satisfied with her earlier answer, and so she tried her best to provide as clear and as explanatory of an answer as she could to Kasumi.

“So, during the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation’s raid, was it impossible for Kasumi to serve as a tank?”

“Her inexperience was also taken into consideration. However, now, Kasumi probably would be able to.”

“Right.”

Eri glanced quickly at Kasumi and shook her head.

“Even now, that’s still a bit unreasonable. Kasumi’s defense stat is still extremely low. She needs better equipment.”

Her combat skill was almost maxed. She would need to figure out how to do the skill limit increase quest, and then get better equipment.

Kasumi looked sad. She hung her head down in shame.

“Well, were you able to get all that about the role of the tank in a group?”

“&h.e.l.lip; Hmm, well, because attackers do a lot of damage to monsters, it’s important to manage enmity and prevent them from being attacked. Just taking the monster’s attacks and not trying to evade would help make that easier.”

“Correct. However, if I did not avoid the attacks myself, I wouldn’t have been able to pull of any attack combos. Luckily, because magic swordsmen’s fire attacks are pretty strong, I was able to get enough enmity to keep the Dread Sphinx off of you.”

“Even though you dodged a lot of its attacks, my healing still didn’t fully account for all the damage you ended up taking. I think the enmity I got healing you ended up being pretty close to yours.”

“Well, you were the only healer I had. The Dread Sphinx concentrated all of its attacks on me. Couldn’t all of the healers in your guild have gathered around and healed me?”

“Hmm, I hadn’t considered that.”

Eri clapped her hands together.

“That could have been a possibility. Our guild’s healers would have been able to keep you healed just because there were so many. &h.e.l.lip; Well, you were pretty good. You thought outside of the box and didn’t fight conventionally.”

“I’m one of the people who helped to create those ‘conventional fighting tactics’. Anyone who plays an MMO early on contributes the establishment of conventions.”

“Wow. Such an addict&h.e.l.lip;”

“I’m not quite at that level. I still had to deal with schoolwork and such. I only ever played games after I had completed all of my work. There are many people who were logged in and playing 24/7.”

Obsessive players of MMORPGs started becoming a problem at the start of the 21st century. Neglecting their jobs and studies in favor of playing games, such players had become quite plentiful.

“Well&h.e.l.lip; if you’re comparing yourself to those kinds of people&h.e.l.lip;”

“They completely blow people like me’s statistics out of the water. &h.e.l.lip; Oh look, we’ve gone off on yet another tangent. Back to our topic: managing enemies with strong attacks. How would one go about doing it?”

“It’s certainly important to have multiple healers on a single tank. But if what you said is true, anyone could have thought of that and made that a now commonly followed convention.”

“That convention in particular probably isn’t always the best thing to do anymore, but the story behind it is pretty interesting.”

“Huh?”

“In the early days of Sky World, like almost every MMO, there were monsters that were thought to be impossible to kill. Tanks had a powerful attack called Heaven’s Inferno that could only be cast once every 4 seconds. In those days, even though the best recovery magic could fully heal somebody, such spells took upwards of 10 seconds to cast.”

“Wow, imagine maximum heal taking 10 seconds&h.e.l.lip; That’s a huge setback.”

“On the other hand, that spell didn’t generate much enmity.”

Sky World’s current strongest healing spell, able to completely fill up a person’s HP, generated an extremely high amount of enmity. Just using it once would attract the enemy. Trying to get it off the caster at that point was nearly impossible.

“So, in short, tanks had to be able to withstand 10 full seconds of damage no matter the enemy. Nevertheless, it was hard to even survive for 4 seconds to use Heaven’s Inferno against those monsters. Because of that, players weren’t really satisfied, so they had five recovery magic users use that strongest healing spell in staggered intervals. This way, they could fully heal the tank every two seconds, improving his survivability fivefold. Using that tactic allowed them to finally defeat those difficult monsters. Players cheated the system this way.”

That tactic was now known as chain healing. The basic idea was used many times, and many improvements were made here and there, and now, it had become an established tactic that everybody knew about and used.

“It’s said that that was the basis on which our current raid system was founded. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know for certain.”

“I never knew that was how that incredibly common tactic came to be.”

“That’s where it began. Before long, healers just kept on timing their heals in that way. Eventually, the developers got together and decided to nerf it.”

“Ah, so that’s why experienced players thought that way. The only reason I could find groups easily is because they wanted white magicians.”

“By the way, words like bottler [1] and diaper-men were first used a while after that&h.e.l.lip; actually, let’s stop talking about this.”

He glanced at Kasumi, and then stared blankly, not knowing what to say.

Jun and Eri made eye contact. They smiled at each other.

“Sorry. Anyways, back on topic, if your HP recovery can recover faster than damage is dealt to you, you’ll eventually win. That’s the most important thing to know about fighting raid level monsters. Yesterday, I was able to avoid most of the Dread Sphinx’s attacks&h.e.l.lip; As a matter of fact, Kasumi-san, that should be your goal too.”

“Welp, my goal, huh.”

“Yep. Not relying on the light warrior’s automatic evasion and avoiding the attacks yourself to the best of your ability. Because light warriors generally wear lightweight armor, they can be quite agile. You should try to get used to moving around rhythmically.”

“Do you think I can do that?”

“You won’t be able to leave this island unless you can. You’d have to wait quietly for the scheduled airship.”

Kasumi, seemingly ashamed, remained silent.

After a little while, Kasumi, with great conviction, declared, “I can do it! Please continue to train me.”

Jun nodded, thinking to himself, “all right!”

“Then we’ll start practicing after lunch. First, we’ll work on learning the attack patterns for all of the monsters in this meadow. You’ll be able to defeat any monster here without taking any damage at all.”

“I’ll give it my all!”

Kasumi, bowing sincerely, did not notice Eri looking unhappy beside her.

Training in the afternoon was a lot harder than in the morning, but Kasumi was still able to keep up with it.

Her memory proved to be surprisingly good.

“Remember to plan out every one of your movements.”

She became able to fully understand the attacks of a single monster after 30 minutes.

She was now able to both strike effectively, without too much effort, and swiftly avoid the attacks of the same Rabbit Wolves that she struggled immensely with earlier.

However, she seemed a bit worn out from exerting herself so much. After her last fight, she was so tired that she couldn’t move anymore.

Jun, carrying Kasumi who felt very embarra.s.sed that she had to be carried all the way back to town, was also pretty worn out. Smirking, Eri said, “hmm, I wonder how your b.o.o.bs feel&h.e.l.lip;”.

Showing off her chest, Eri said, “Ahh. Even when Sky World was still an MMO, I didn’t really like my avatar. It was a near perfect replica of my real self. Look at me&h.e.l.lip; I look like I don’t have b.o.o.bs at all! I’d like some big b.r.e.a.s.t.s too&h.e.l.lip;”

Jun instinctively turned away. Eri grinned and shoved herself in his face.

“Hey~ What’s wrong, mista?”

“Calling me ‘mista’ makes me feel weird.”

“Okay then. What do you think about Kasumi’s b.o.o.bs?”

She exhaled, with all of her strength, onto Jun’s shoulder.

Jun frowned. He noticed that his cheeks had started becoming flushed. Noticing his agitation, Eri continued trying to annoy him.

“Well, you’re a boy. Don’t they look like big b.a.l.l.s to you?”

“You’re a perv.”

“Excuse me. Let’s calm down. Anyways, which do you prefer, small b.r.e.a.s.t.s or huge b.r.e.a.s.t.s?”

“I don’t really care, as long as the person’s friendly.”

“You’ve got bad taste,” Eri said with her hands raised high, scolding Jun.

“G.o.d&h.e.l.lip; we’ve just formed this group. Can we not make things so awkward?”

“I’m just preparing you for your future harem.”

“&h.e.l.lip; Seriously speaking, that guild had a lot of problems with opposite-s.e.x relations.”

“Ah, yeah. Jun, you understand opposite-s.e.x relations, right?

“They’re troublesome, and I’m not very good at managing them.”

“Hmm. Anyways, you’re just trying to get off the island, right?”

“Right. I am. Is that bad?”

“&h.e.l.lip;What is your goal?”

“Doesn’t everybody just want to make their way to Aion Island? Upon reaching there, they might just be able to escape this world.”

“Everybody outside this island, maybe. Not us on this island though.”

“&h.e.l.lip;Well, honestly, I’m a bit scared of being stuck here forever.”

“Do you have something on your mind besides getting to Aion?”

Jun stared at Eri. That statement reminded him of the girl who ‘chose’ him.

That couldn’t be right. If Eri and Alice were one and the same, then she would have been looking much more scrupulously for ways to get off the island.

“I have friends.”

“In this world?”

“They don’t have communication stones.”

“They don’t? So even if we went searching everywhere, I doubt we’d able to find them then.”

“Hmm. &h.e.l.lip;Well, either way, we can’t afford to waste time.”

Eri shook her head, and quietly uttered “I’m sorry.”

“What? Isn’t this a bit late for that?”

“I didn’t know that you had something important to do yourself. It’s my fault that you’re stuck here right now.”

“It certainly is.”

Jun smiled. His opinion of Eri had improved.

However, Eri still seemed like she was making fun of him. He glanced at her.

“Anyway, Eri, how many times did you end up helping Kasumi this morning?”

“Uh&h.e.l.lip; Are you going to punish me if I did?”

“How many times?”

“&h.e.l.lip;Three times. Hey, is the punishment going to be something perverted?”

“Just keep quiet for three hours, starting now.”

“What!?”

“I’ll add to it. Four hours.”

“Agh!”

Eri flailed her arms around violently in defiance.

Jun grinned. He was happy with how things turned out.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

[1] – People who play games so much that they don’t want to waste time going to the bathroom and keep a plastic bottle nearby to pee in.

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