Sky World

Chapter 1: The Raid

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VOLUME 2

Chapter 1: The Raid
Part 3

Four great beasts lived on Lao Thai, one for each cardinal direction. They were said to have protected the island since long, long ago. They were Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger [1]. Everybody on the island revered and feared these four guardian deities borrowed from Chinese mythology.

However, adventures didn’t particularly care about the story behind those creatures. They were motivated by their greed and acted accordingly. If the monsters could be killed, adventurers would hunt them down. If they had good drops, then they would become and even better target.

These people were known as gamers. At least, that’s how Jun explained it. They were the ones who had come to Sky World.

However, this did not apply to everybody.

Kasumi pushed her way through the crowd to make it to Jun. “Is it okay to kill creatures whose purpose is to protect people?” She asked, frowning.

She made a doubtful face when Jun arranged a meeting with a heavy warrior. Jun smiled bitterly like her, and quickly ended his conversation with the other adventurer. He turned around and faced her.

“Even when the four great beasts are killed, they will revive in just one day. Their quick resp.a.w.n time is one of their special characteristics. The developers of Sky World surely wanted them to be used to get some raid experience.”

Kasumi didn’t appear to be convinced, though. She felt there had to be more to it and continued frowning. It wasn’t just a system. She did not think that this world was just a game.

Kasumi Yukasaki needed a completely different approach to understand this.

“Ah, so it’s like that. Let me remind you of the quest for the four great beasts. The great beasts are testing adventurers’ skill. They want to test adventurers’ wit, resourcefulness, and communication. Finally, the Vermillion Bird tests raw power and cooperative ability. The four great beasts and the quest want to help weak and inexperienced newbies become full-fledged adventurers.”

Jun looked left and right. Fifty people had gathered in front of the Vermillion Bird’s cave. It was a loose group of adventurers who had answered Jun’s call for a.s.sistance. People referred to such groups as adventurer militias. This particular adventurer militia was preparing to fight the Vermillion Bird, with Jun at its head.

“As the final test, the Vermillion Bird calls for someone to a.s.semble a group in order to be defeated.”

In actuality, n.o.body among the group of adventurers thought that. They came there just to clear the quest or for raid drops like an HP-up ring.

However, as far as Kasumi was concerned, Jun’s explanation was much more important than quest rewards or rare items. Nodding seriously, she said, “Understood. Let’s go get Vermillion G.o.d-san’s approval,” and returned to her own group.

“What a cute girl.”

Turning around and staring blankly, she saw a seemingly out of place young girl, a secluded young woman in a black dress. Her knee-long blond hair swayed with the wind like stalks of rice in autumn. She looked up at Jun with her blue eyes, as if she were blaming him for something.

“Jun’s girlfriend-san, this is the first time I’ve seen her.”

“It’s not like that,” Jun said, as he shook his head, taking a breath while avoiding eye contact. Though adventurers in Sky World could freely edit the color of their hair, this girl said that she was born with that hair. Probably. Another thing that set her aside from other players was her gaze, which could enchant other people like a charm spell.

“Yukaria, over there.”

“I’m just buffing. Is it really okay if we don’t fight against the weak mobs?”

“They’ll mostly have been killed by the time they get to you. The newbies need experience.”

“You’re pretty calm for your time leading a raid.”

“That’s because I’m a coward. I can have my peace of mind because I have tricks up my sleeve.”

“Well then, let’s see how you handle this.”

Yukaria laughed mischievously and went back to the fifth group.

“Who was that just now?” Eri looked up. She had been busy exchanging information on her tablet with some other adventurers but it seemed like she had been listening the whole time. “Is she a n.o.blewoman roleplayer?”

“Yukaria is her character’s name, but her real name is Shido Erishia-Murasaki. &h.e.l.lip; She goes back and forth between j.a.pan and America every six months. Her hair and eye colors are her natural ones.”

“Huh? A real halfie? And her age?”

“She’s the same age as me. Before I met you guys, I often grouped with her. Though since she had a fixed group of five people, sometimes I thought that I was intruding on them.”

“A fixed group&h.e.l.lip; So that’s why they were all put together in the back.”

“I rely on them as damage mitigators. If, for some reason, there is a disruption somewhere, they’ll deal with it. They can take care of the potentially overwhelming amount of weak sp.a.w.ns.”

“Is it okay to put Kasumi in such an important position?”

This time, Kasumi Yukasaki had been given the most important role of a tank in the weak monster sweeping group. She would quickly take aggro from the relentless waves of weak monsters around the Vermillion Bird so that they would not get close to the main group. The success of the entire raid depended on that role.

The weaker monsters would usually resp.a.w.n every two minutes but with a maximum of 16 each time. In response to this, Jun designated four groups to defeat them. Since one group consisted of five members, half of the team ended up being a.s.signed to do this.

“I know that you want Kasumi to get more experience, but aren’t you moving a bit too quickly? It hasn’t even been a whole month since you guys came to this island.”

“Since her battery is now completely charged, it’s fine if she dies once. This is a good time for this.”

Under Jun’s guidance, Kasumi was absorbing all sorts of skills like a sponge. She was now an expert at being a tank and was not always shy about it anymore.

Jun thought that the time to take the next step had come. This raid would be the final test in Kasumi’s training.

“So basically, I want to complete all of the quests on this island.”

There were quests that required completing a raid to be cleared. The four sacred beasts quest was one of these.

“Is that really what you’re here for?”

“Of course it is.”

Jun shook his body. Clearing the quests. Getting 100% completion on every single island. Jun thought these were the most magnificent things ever. That they were his ultimate pleasure.

“You questmaniac&h.e.l.lip;”

“Stop praising me. I’m getting embarra.s.sed.”

“I’m not praising you! Oh whatever. I’m going to my own group.”

“Do your best! I’m counting on you as the main healer!”

“I wonder if I’m good enough. Seems like there are people better than me here,” Eri said, grunting and forcing her way through the crowd.

(She could be the main healer for any guild.)

Jun thought of her much more highly than she did of herself. She could cast heals in the weirdest of times. In this month, even though they had been all over doing quests, he had not seen her mess up a single time.

“Are you praising Eri-san?” It was a tall and thin boy. A silver medallion symbolizing his proficiency in black magic hung over his chest.

“She’s annoying. &h.e.l.lip; Isao-san, how is the situation over there?”

“I was telling them not to use summoning magic to play around with fireworks. There are around twenty raid newbies. I’m splitting them into groups evenly like you said.”

“What about potions?”

“I limited the access to them for the newbies. It’s even dangerous for those who have done raids before. It’s good that we summoned a shopkeeper in advance.”

When they were separated from the group, adventurers buying potions had to be careful. They had to keep records about nearby signs, the prices for different types of potions, and the amount that would be needed for the raid. Sometimes, adventurers would forget to buy potions, and those people would then hurry back to the shopkeepers.

“Even if you say that, the hi-potions and anti-corrosives will definitely come in handy in this battle.”

“You sure are helpful, Isao-san.”

Isao knew Lao Thai well. However, as an alchemist, he was not much of an adventurer. Since he had increased his alchemy skill level cap a couple of times and made it to level 120, it wouldn’t have been too far-fetched to call him the best alchemist in Sky World.

This time, he was taking part in the raid as the deputy leader. He and Jun were old friends.

“Don’t you remember? Even in other games, whenever it was like this and you were leading, I took care of this stuff&h.e.l.lip; Even though our groups were pretty loosely formed, we ended up on par with the best guilds on the server.”

“That was a year ago.”

“No, at that time I was still working.”

“Did something happen at work?”

“The company went bankrupt. I felt like the guild I was in at that time could make it to the top, so by mistake&h.e.l.lip; In the end, things settled down. It was about that time that I started playing Sky World&h.e.l.lip; That’s how it was.”

Isao laughed brightly. It seemed that it was hard for him to talk about.

“Anyway, four months have pa.s.sed. Even when I got other jobs, I would always get fired during the trial periods. I had to make my living as an alchemist in this world.”

“I’m counting on ya!”

“Leave it to me. It’s a request from none other than Jun-san&h.e.l.lip; Have you been with Kai-san?”

“Ah&h.e.l.lip; I haven’t been able to get in touch with him.”

That was a lie. Jun was taking great care to keep the communication stone that he had gotten from Kai/Sakuya’s dead body safe. However, he had been determined to not tell anybody about what happened.

“I see. If you see him, you’ll definitely tell me, right? Together, you two were an unrivaled pair.”

“Uh&h.e.l.lip; It might be possible that he’s using a different name here.”

After all, names on the internet were just means of identification. Jun and Is...o...b..th registered in Sky World under the same names as before, but even if they didn’t, they could easily identify each other since they had met once before in an offline meeting. However, situations like that were rare.

“Isao-san, you’re experienced in this raid, right? Is there something we should watch out for?”

“I guess I am. The boss is stubborn, but it’s not like it’s very strong. If we just take care of the monster sp.a.w.ns&h.e.l.lip;”

Isao casually changed the subject.

After all, preparing the raid group took only twenty minutes.

Translator’s/Editor’s Notes:

[1] – Azure Dragon – ruler of the east, Vermillion Bird – ruler of the south, Black Tortoise – ruler of the north, and White Tiger – ruler of the west.

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