Log Horizon Vol 3 Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Attack 1 s.h.i.+roe turned in his bed. It was almost dawn, and the dark empty room was silent. The curtains were drawn, so even the starlight could not s.h.i.+ne through. The room was in darkness, there was no difference in opening or closing the eyes. s.h.i.+roe reviewed his day in the dark. As predicted, the n.o.bles of the League of Freedom Cities Eastal contacted members of the Round Table Council individually with a variety of requests. Most of them hoped for military aid, the loan of technology, or wanted to sign trade treaties. They were more cunning and smart than s.h.i.+roe's group imagined. If the Adventurers sent out an army, they could easily disrupt the balance of power between the cities. The n.o.bles understood they could not lose this balance, and quite a number of them knew about Oceanic Systems, The Rodrick Firm, and 8th District Shopping Center pooling their resources to make a steam engine s.h.i.+p prototype. s.h.i.+roe was surprised by this, and he could tell from Akatsuki's report that the n.o.bles had a lot of spies in Akiba. This means they were the center of attention. Akiba did not cla.s.sify any of the information from the public's eyes, so it was easy to gather intelligence from them. There were no real secrets at this phase, but the technology of building a steam engine and the related technical expertise required high level Blacksmith and Mechanic subcla.s.ses. Even if they leaked the information they were creating something, the other countries wouldn't be able to emulate them any time soon.
s.h.i.+roe, Michitaka, and Krusty held a meeting and communicated with the other members of the Round Table Council via telepathy to discuss about working with the League. Signing a free trade agreement for food should not have any cons. Akiba could not provide enough food for themselves, and they were lacking in rice, wheat, potatoes, taro, and all types of beans. Signing a contract to open a trade route was advantageous to Akiba. On the other hand, Akiba would be exporting seasonings in the food category. Salt, sugar, and all types of spices were the specialty of Akiba, but the processed seasoning products like soy sauce and other sauces could be made using knowledge of the old world by the subcla.s.s brewers.
Some of the requests of the n.o.bles could only be accepted with additional conditions, or they would be kept in mind for further discussion. The number of rejections was several times that of the accepted requests. This was a necessary process for Akiba to draw the line on where they stood on the numerous requests and issues. Compared to the meetings with the n.o.bles of the League, the conversation with ReGan had much more impact on s.h.i.+roe. (I can't calm down...) s.h.i.+roe flipped again and thought. ReGan was not an annoying man, s.h.i.+roe thought of him as an admirable researcher, knowledgeable and witty, but as for trust... he might not be trustworthy, but s.h.i.+roe didn't think he was lying. But the history of the world he mentioned made s.h.i.+roe's emotions unstable.
World Fraction. Spirit Theory.
As a global-level magic researcher, ReGan seemed to only be concerned with these 2 parts. ReGan mentioned the spirit problem which related to the spirit theory. s.h.i.+roe was not an expert, he was unable to understand the technical details, but the summary was as followed. Normally, humans' and demihumans' spiritual energy were known as spirits. The spirit was not one individual piece, it was made up of two related energies, 'Soul' and 'Essence'. According to ReGan- 'Soul' was the energy that powered the mind, the psyche of the human lay in Soul. The stronger the Soul was, the stronger and more determined the heart would be. This would also affect the power of magic, MP was the manifestation of Soul. 'Essence' was the energy that drove the body. The strength of the body lay in Essence. The stronger the Essence was, the stronger the body and its spiritual capacity would be. Fighters who specialized in weapons could utilize this energy in battle. HP was part of the manifestation of Essence, but most of it was 'Ki'. When humans lost the ability to fight, they would not be able to move. At this point, the psyche was still present, but the body was separated from the psyche. The Essence and the body controlling the five senses that was linked to the outside world would stop transmitting information to the Soul and the psyche, trapping the psyche in darkness. As the Essence started to disperse, as described before, the Essence was the source of energy for the body... Ki. Stronger and higher level bodies would take longer for the Essence to disperse. Lower levels or frail Essence would disperse in a matter of minutes, but strong Essence would take up to half a day to disperse. This process was called 'Failing Essence'. When healers casted Resurrection, it was used on a body in such a condition. The method gathered the Essence that had dispersed around the area, reconstructed it, and sent it back into the body. If there was not enough Ki during the reconstructing process, the healer would top off with her own Ki. The information needed for reconstructing was taken from the body in front and calculated by reverse engineering. If there were any mistake in the calculations, it would result in the resurrected player losing EXP, this was an unavoidable data corruption. If resurrection was not used and the Essence dispersed completely, the body would not be able to maintain its form. In physical terms the body would start to decompose, People of the Land in this condition were dead... Yes, resurrection unexpectedly worked on the People of the Land. But the condition was casting it immediately after death.
On the other hand, when Adventures went all the way through the Failing Essence process, or the Adventurer willed for it himself, the body and equipment would disa.s.semble into light particles, and be sent to the cathedral using the power of the Soul. The body would then be automatically reconstructed, the cathedral would provide Ki power to repair the Essence. After finis.h.i.+ng repairing the body, the Soul would merge with the body and resurrection was complete. This miraculous ability required exhausting both the Essence and Soul energies, which resulted in data corruption and the lost of EXP... But adventurers would come back to life if they died and they had an undying body. According to ReGan's research, these were the death mechanics in this world, and the mechanics of how Adventurers came back to life. "This is very similar to the reincarnation system of the demihumans." ReGan said. "When a demihuman dies... Eh, in this case when it goes into Failing Essence, their body will decompose just like the People of the Land, their corpse and equipment will be left behind. But their Soul will immediately be reborn in another body, even if it has a 10 years growing period, it will still be an undying reincarnating body." It was terrifying in a certain way. But this was ReGan's and his master's hypothesis, most People of the Land did not know of this theory. If the theory was true, demihumans would be harder to deal with than previously imagined. So, did demihumans have memories of their previous lives? s.h.i.+roe asked back then. "I am unable to answer, there are 2 factors involved." ReGan found this hard to answer, and chose his words with discretion. "Firstly, the psyche resides in the Soul, demihumans and Adventurers have Souls that last forever. The psyche, personality, ambition, character, and such information must be stored in the Soul, along with memories, or at least most of it is kept in the Soul, this has already been proven. On the other hand, we also have proof that memories are stored in the body's brain. The body is the domain of Essence, so in other words, memories are stored in both the Essence and the Soul as a whole. Since that is the case, when a body falls into Falling Essence or when reconstructing the Essence, I deduce there is damage to the memory. And the facts confirm this, as memories are imperfect or lost after death." "Soul is also where the emotions lie. Even an undying body will have poison in the form of fear, despair, and laziness. The demihumans probably are cursed by the first World Fraction, resulting in their spirits being twisted. A psyche under this condition might be able to retain memories, but they also lose the ability to recall memories freely and recognize who they were. This is like schizophrenia, or viewing your own memory like a history event." If that was so, death meant... In this alternate world, death was not a risk-free event. This was a terrifying fact. No, everything was just a hypothesis. But s.h.i.+roe accepted this as a fact to calm the doubting voices in his mind. There was no need to use logical deduction, he knew through instinct. Death came with a risk, there was no such thing as unlimited life in the world. (ReGan says the memory is stored in both the brain and the spirit...) s.h.i.+roe didn't believe every part of the magical theories of the sage, but he still thought about something. He recalled the development of the Elder Tales game, no, it should be the making and structure of all online games. Players like s.h.i.+roe sat in front of the computer at home, logged in to Elder Tales' world to play, online games were basically structured like this for entertainment. If that were so, wasn't the real world's introvert graduate student 's.h.i.+rogane Kei' playing the role of 'Soul'? Even if the character died, the player 's.h.i.+rogane Kei' would not die, he just needed to choose the game option to resurrect and s.h.i.+roe would be able to adventure again. Borrowing ReGan's theory, all the memories were within 's.h.i.+rogane Kei', s.h.i.+roe was just a body.
But this was when Elder Tales was just a game. Because of the effect of some unknown magic, the s.h.i.+roe now was using the ident.i.ty of s.h.i.+roe to exist in this alternate world. Put simply, s.h.i.+roe's Soul existed in this world, not stored safely in front of the computer in the old world. The continuity of memories was no longer a guarantee, death would mercilessly harm s.h.i.+roe's Soul. s.h.i.+roe called out his status screen. The screen displayed the number of times he had died. The number was quite high, reflecting s.h.i.+roe's long gaming experience. But s.h.i.+roe had not died yet since the Catastrophe. He thought death was a frightening thing, even if he could resp.a.w.n, it still gave him a feeling of fear... It must be the same for the other members of Log Horizon. He was not sure of the extent of memory loss that came with death. He could only hope it was not too much. If death resulted in serious memory loss, Akiba would already be in chaos. The symptoms were probably so mild that dying once would not have much effect, or it might be lost selectively from unimportant memories so that the subject himself didn't even notice. The loss might be so minute that it was no different from being absent-minded. (Even so, I am unable to tell them about this.) He had not told Michitaka and Krusty about this. s.h.i.+roe also asked Akatsuki to keep it a secret for now. They would need to say it one day, this was a problem that affected all players. s.h.i.+roe turned again in the darkness. The darkness was making him very depressed. 2 "The patrols are approaching, let me see... 5 of them? In about 10 beats."  Isuzu who was poking her head out of the arch reported. (Hmm, 10 beats is... 20 seconds?) This was the first tomb on the right route of Ragranda Forest. The s.p.a.cious tunnel dropped downwards, and led to a room. It was about 5 meters in diameter, with no doors, only an arch linking the room to the corridor. Tohya's group hid their presence and hid in this tomb room with several stone coffins.
There were 5 skeletons patrolling along the corridor. This was the report of the best scout in the party Isuzu. From their experience so far, there should be one of them with a ranged weapon. "Let's move according to plan." Tohya said in a soft voice, the other 4 nodded their heads and spread out in the room as they planned, everyone checking their equipment on hand. (No problem, just like we discussed beforehand, we can definitely do this. We cannot keep making the same mistake... we cannot continue to be on the losing end.) Tohya thought in his heart. (No, we cannot fight like we used to!) Today's battle would be different from yesterday. You could tell just by looking at everyone's faces that they had the determination to make it work.
5th day of the dungeon challenge. In the end, the group did not enter the dungeon that rainy day. Tohya's group discussed until noon, everyone raising questions and explaining their skills. Someone suggested they needed to look at the skills in action to understand it, so they entered the forest to demonstrate. They could also do that in the dungeon, but they would encounter the enemies frequently inside and wouldn't have the time to clear any queries on the spot. In the Elder Tales world, there were many monsters and wild animals in nature. Demihuman tribes like goblins, orcs, and lizardmen were a force to reckon with in the ruins of this world, and they were big in number as well. Even though there were many monsters, the open world they were active in was also very vast. Elder Tales used the Half Gaia project, scaling down the world by half, much vaster and wider than normal MMO games or home console RPGs. Unless you raided the nest of the monsters or you were hunted by the monsters who kept engaging you in combat, the encounter rate of monsters was quite low. Normally after finis.h.i.+ng a fight, there would be ample time to rest and recover before the next fight. But the density of the monsters in dungeons was different, since it was their base and fortress. Compared to the open world, in the much smaller and narrow s.p.a.ce, there might be up to a few hundred monsters stalking in the dark. Players couldn't ignore this possibility. So there would be continuous battles in the dungeons, the time between fights was much shorter than in the open world. If they fought repeatedly with little time to rest, MP would drain faster. Most of the Samurai's skills had a long recast time, and they were unable to wait for the skill to refresh before facing another battle. There was also the problem of lighting unique to dungeons, and restrictions due to limited s.p.a.ce. Battle in the open world usually started when you were 10 meters or further away from the enemy. The reason was the groups could see each other from further away. But in the dungeons, you might encounter the enemy when you turned a corner or entered a room. All these elements made battles in the dungeons much more difficult than open world fighting. Defeating an enemy, of a certain level, in the dungeon required much more skill than defeating the same enemy in the open world. Tohya's party had confirmed over the past few days how hard a fight in the dungeon was.
And because of that, they needed to carefully ascertain the abilities of everyone. Not only the unique features of every skill, but the sequence and combinations also had many varieties. There would be many questions, like how much additional damage does Harmony Carol cause? What was the probability of it activating? What was the range of the sword attack that knocked down the surrounding enemies? How much damage did it cause? Each question seemed simple and insignificant, but there were many sequences and combinations which would yield surprising results. In the evening, the explanation of the skills ended, and the next question was how to make use of each skill. At this moment, Minori was acting as the patrol file, formation, operator, and field monitor.
The sounds of friction and footsteps approached. The skeleton was about 5 meters away, Tohya signaled to the rest with his hand, and they nodded to acknowledge with a tense expression. Tohya looked around him, and charged into the corridor without hesitation. As Isuzu reported, there was a 5 skeleton patrol group in front of him. Tohya drew his blade and used Vacuum Slash at the group. The deep red shock wave shot out and bent in the air, slightly wounding the arm of a skeleton. After confirming the hit, Tohya immediately dashed into the tomb without looking back, running into the deepest corner. The clear sound of bones. .h.i.tting bones was chaotic and shrill. The footsteps of the patrol were in rhythm, but after discovering a hostile, they would charge at him in just a few seconds. The skeletons rus.h.i.+ng into the tomb were black all over, giving off the aura of death. Their dark eye-sockets burned with a greenish white flame. The 5 skeletons went through the arch, 4 of them went after Tohya in the depths of the room, while 1 archer remained at the entrance. But everything was going just as they planned. "I leave that side to you guys!"
As if she was acting on cue from Tohya, Isuzu stabbed her 2 handed spear at the skeleton archer and Minori waved her knife wildly. The attacks from the 2 ladies caused some damage to the archer skeleton, but they were unable to stop it from moving. These undead types would not flinch from any attack unless it was defeated. "... Since it is just you alone, I have something more suitable than Orb of Lava... taste the power of the elegant Sorcerer! Lightning Chamber!" A feeling similar to a spasm made Isuzu and Minori retreat. The electricity made the sign of a 5 point star for an instant and the skeleton archer was imprisoned in a cage of purple lightning. The lightning cast by the Sorcerer bounced between the ceiling and the ground, and the skeleton archer disintegrated from the attack. "Great!" Tohya grinned as he saw this scene, he battled the 4 skeletons with his back to the wall, refusing to back down from the fight. Serara was in charge of healing him.
"HP at 84%, he can continue to endure it!" Heartbeat Healing was a heal over time spell. Combined with the occasional Heal spell, Tohya was able to stand up to the 4 skeletons' attacks with his HP over 80%. But it was painful. The axe strike of the skeleton was dangerous, if there were no healing support, he was not sure if he could last more than a minute. But Serara's healing was supporting Tohya in this fight. "Minori please confirm, Isuzu-neechan, Rudy-nii, please prepare to attack!" The party members sounded out to acknowledge Tohya and got into their positions. Minori headed to the entrance, Rundelhous and Isuzu moved behind the skeletons that were focused on Tohya. "They are totally infuriated?" Rundelhous looked haughtily at the skeletons. "Yes, there was enough time so I used Samurai Challenge twice on each of them, they won't go with Rudy so easily." "Good, now I can attack without fear!" Rundelhous started to chant his attack spell immediately. And so did Isuzu. She started casting her magic later but finished before Rundelhous. She stuck her spear into the ground and the bells on her spearhead started to ring, the sound wave piercing through the skeleton group. "I have confirmed the situation in the pathway, no visual of any follow-up patrols, there is no problem. Rundelhous-san, please do it!" "Leave it to me, Miss Minori! Orb of Lava!" Rundelhous cast his spell as instructed by Minori, a compressed stone glowing like molten magma appeared at his fingertip. Tohya used Samurai Challenge again. Rundelhous' attack was very high, Tohya had to taunt the monsters again to draw all their attention to him. He had already used taunt skills multiple times, but he cast it again to play it safe. Tohya was a Samurai and the image of Naotsugu's back appeared in his mind. '... Tohya, the duty of the vanguard is to tank all the attacks of the enemies and to trust your allies, right? This is an oath between men, okay?' Tohya stared at the skeleton group with unwavering eyes. Rundelhous who was standing behind the group was chanting his spell to turn his magic into destructive power. The boiling lava ball cast an orange light in the room that was full of heat and caused their vision to sway mysteriously. The ball shot out from his hands and pierced through the extreme left skeleton, rebounded off thin air and pierced a 2nd monster's body. The small bouncing ball of death repeatedly pierced and smashed the skeletons' bodies with its destructive power. Rundelhous followed up with his wide area spell Frigid Wind.
"And so it ends. All of you, return to the dark world that befits you!" The chilling wind made the skeletons struggling in the heat fall to the ground in a heap. The sounds of the battle were gone abruptly, and the tomb was filled with the gasping breath of the group. Tohya held his sword on guard, Rundelhous held his staff that was still channeling magic and Serara cast Heal on reflex to prepare for the next battle. Everyone looked at Minori at the entrance. Minori carefully scanned the tunnel again before turning to face her party members. "There are no reinforcements, this battle has ended." These words put them at ease. "Hmmp, this should be the way." "That was a pretty crazy way to handle it!" "Yes, thank you everyone for your hard work!" Minori and Tohya looked at the smiles of their comrades, and b.u.mped their fists. 3 Everyone worked so hard. Minori's face relaxed with a smile when she thought of that. Minori's party explored the dungeon for 7 hours for their 5th day dungeon challenge, battling 22 times, only fighting 2 enemy patrols at the same time once. She thought that their way of handling the battle was several times sharper than 2 days ago. There was a short rest after every fight. The short break was to cure their HP and debuffs, as well as recovering their MP fully. But there was another meaning for this. The group would do an after action review, agree on the smooth parts and find ways to improve it. This was a time to discuss the next battle location and plan, make preparations for the next battle.
The first was to confirm the battle formation. Tohya was a solid Samurai vanguard, so they needed to focus the enemies' attacks on him, this was the most basic tactic, but this obvious move needed the cooperation of the whole party. 'How do you set it up so the party members other than Tohya can move?' If you never considered this before making your move, Tohya would not be able to draw the enemies' attention.
The next was information control, that was the job of monitoring the HP of all party members. In the present Elder Tales, it was hard to confirm each other's status in the heat of the battle, even more so for melee fighters. This was now common sense in the alternate world. This time, there were 2 healers in the party. This means they would have the benefit of rapid HP recovery, but it had a weak point. If both healers worked on the same target together, they could recover the HP rapidly. But it could also result in over-healing the target, a waste of mana and time. If there were any other casualties, Minori and Serara's main healing spell could be stuck in cool down, resulting in a gap in healing... This might do more harm than good. After Minori and Serara discussed about it, it was decided that Serara would be solely responsible for managing Tohya's HP. If she needed help, Serara would ask Minori for aid.
Minori who was free from healing duties volunteered to act as a field monitor for the battlefield. The duty included acting as a reserve for healing or attacking as well as watching the surrounding zones for any enemy reinforcements. With this a.s.signed post, the chance of the battle becoming a free for all dropped to the minimum. If they could discover the reinforcements before hand, they would be able to increase the healing spells or change the support magics to prepare.
High alert patrol file was a formation they could use while moving that maintained the battle formation as well as scouting in all directions. The team was led by Tohya and Minori as the rear guard. The two of them were twins, so they could watch each others' blind spots and detect the approaching enemy as well as a sense of the battles. The member who was best at hiding her presence and scouting was Isuzu, in charge of keeping an eye on both the twins and looking out for signs of danger in all directions. If there was a need, she would scout ahead alone. By moving in this formation, Serara would be able to monitor the HP of the party, Rundelhous could focus on recovering his MP. Serara was the main healer, Rundelhous was the main attacker, Minori's main point of this plan was to let the 2 of them concentrate on their job.       These were the 4 basic points s.h.i.+roe taught Minori about a party moving in the dungeons. It was not a game's system, it was the ingenuity and thoughts of the Adventurers. But Minori did not know the meaning behind these basic points in the beginning. Even if you could explain it in words, it would be pointless and you would not understand, so Minori didn't talk about that.
What she needed to do was very simple. That was to sound out your intent and have a discussion about it.
If you needed help, just say "please help." If you were healing, just say "I will heal you." If the enemy was approaching, just say "the enemy is close." "Prioritize the ranged enemy", "Leave him to me," or "My MP can only last for 2 more spells", just say whatever you had on your mind. These were simple things, just doing that would let you defeat the enemy one by one. The struggles they had before all seemed like a lie. It was not friends.h.i.+p or hypocritical words of concern, it was a technique necessary for survival. A party that could not help each other was like sealing your own potential. Adventurers like Minori and the others needed to help each other in order to defeat the enemy, this was how the alternate world worked. On the other hand, this technique went beyond friends.h.i.+p and care, it was something warm and holy. In the battlefield where seconds meant the difference between life and death, if you requested for aid you needed to say directly, or if you could predict the need of your comrades then help them. You would need to know each other well beforehand and have the knowledge and understanding of all the skills they had. To fight in front of the room? Or to pull the battle line further back before engaging? Start the battle with a sneak attack? Or to lure them out into the open? Could you envision the scene of victory? What did it look like? Do you want to let your party member handle this? Minori's group focused on all possible questions, and shared their own answers. This was a strict test of how well you knew your teammates. As Minori's group slowly pa.s.sed the test, the 5 Adventurers were now a real party.
"Ah ha, Minori, your nose is all black." Isuzu laughed loudly. As they left the dungeon, the last light of the afternoon illuminated the woods. It was already evening, the sky should turn red in 30 minutes. Isuzu pointed at Minori's nose in the sunlight. "You got dust on it? Or is it a spiderweb?" Isuzu laughed heartily at Minori, but her leather armor and forehead were also drenched in sweat and brown from the mud. (But her smiling eyes are so clear, so pretty.) Minori took out a cloth from her bag and pa.s.sed it to her with a smile: "You too." Isuzu wiped her face in a hurry, and had a disappointed expression when she looked at the dirty cloth. "Wooo, am I black all over?" "You are not dirty to that extent, but do you want to go to the spring?" "Alright, ah... Serara-chan let's go together, okay?" Isuzu invited Serara who was walking in front. "What is it Minori, are you going to the spring too?" Tohya who was leading the way heard the conversation and turned around. Seems like he was discussing with Rundelhous about showering there. "Wooo, but we are all sweaty..." "Ladies first. Tohya-kun, just bear with it." Rundelhous consoled Tohya. Rundelhous was also covered in soot, with no sign of his handsome face. His s.h.i.+ny tunic had also lost its s.h.i.+ne.
Today's exploration was huge progress. They even reached the workshop at the deepest corner of the route on the right. The workshop had stoves burning with magical flames, and the air was thick with smoke. The dead became skeletons and worked as they were commanded. The monster controlling the skeletons was a 'Burning Dead'. Different from the normal skeleton, it emitted blue flames of the underworld from every joint, he was a strong enemy that could use magic attacks. But Minori's group took care of the patrols one by one, and finished him off with a blitz of attacks to take him out. But because of the battle in the smoky room, they were now all dirty. "Why don't we all go together?" "Is... Isuzu-chan!" Isuzu said casually and Serara rejected her by waving her hands in a panic. Isuzu realized the reason she was all fl.u.s.tered, and she also started to panic and explained, "I don't mean showering together! We can wash ourselves at the side of the spring blocked by the trees, Tohya-kun and Rudy can use the pond on the other side, that's what I mean!" Isuzu explained in a panic, Serara replied: "That... That's fine then." and tried to cover it with a smile. "Minori, how about it?" "If you guys are okay with it, Tohya." The twins came to a consensus immediately and took a change of clothes from their tent. The 5 of them chatted happily as they walked to the spring.
The topic was about today's battles and tactics. The burning dead was level 24, probably the strongest enemy on the route to the right. s.h.i.+roe mentioned before that enemies that you could take on safely were 5 levels below your party's average. The average level of Minori's party was slightly above 24, so the opponents they could fight without much risk were level 19. This meant they won a fight far above this safety margin. The team was exuberant when they understood this fact. Defeating an enemy of the same level with only a party of 5, this was a great result. They were surprised when they received a magical item as loot. But the thing that made them most happy was that the normal mob battles were going very smoothly. Either luring the enemy to a corner or taking the initiative to attack, striking when they had the advantage with the terrain and position. The importance of doing this was more crucial than they imagined. They learned the important lesson of watching out for each other. (We are a real party now.) Minori smiled to herself. She was so happy that she finally understood the meaning behind s.h.i.+roe's words. Not only levels. If you wanted to become stronger, the key was not only levels. To fight in this world, you needed companions. If you wanted companions, you needed to take the initiative to talk to them, persist in interacting with them. This was a treasure you couldn't get through strong skills or high levels. Her days at Hamelin were slowly fading away. The days she was forced to level could not have brought her to these heights, this was something you could not obtain through leveling up. "Mi... No... Ri? Fas... ter!" Isuzu was jumping and waving at the deep end of the forest. Minori replied cheerfully and ran towards the spring with her back to the red evening light. 4 (Hooo...) s.h.i.+roe kept the stack of paper in a leather file. He was sorting out all sorts of doc.u.ments. Reports, investigation findings, gathered data... They had all sorts of names, but they were all doc.u.ments with complicated intelligence in it. It included memos written by Akatsuki and the other Round Table Council members, s.h.i.+roe sorted the information on a daily basis. Because they needed to be ready for any surprises when meeting the People of the Land. These pieces of paper were kept in a bigger and more secure folder, and became a doc.u.ment too. Examples were request forms from guilds, lease agreements, contracts, IOUs, letters of authorization... s.h.i.+roe was a Scribe, his ability was to make copies of doc.u.ments, books, and making curses, technical manuals, or maps. No matter how complicated the literature item was, he could make it in 10 seconds if he knew the production method. But just like Chefs, Scribes also had new possibilities. s.h.i.+roe wanted to do research on this area, but he was caught up with the work of the Round Table Council and had not made much progress.
This was a room provided for s.h.i.+roe in the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice, he stretched his back behind his desk. The sun had already set, but the rooms in the palace were illuminated with magical light sources, it would be quite a while before bedtime. s.h.i.+roe took the map of the League of Freedom Cities Eastal from another folder. The map was not only well-made, but also filled with notes and labels written by s.h.i.+roe. He felt that his subcla.s.s Scribe had been very helpful, the biggest aid being the ability to make quality paper. The quality of paper in the alternate world was very poor, you could often see parchments during trips and adventures. Some places even used paper that looked like tree bark. s.h.i.+roe's Scribe ability allowed him to make magical instruction manuals, maps, and doc.u.ments. These items were listed as magical items in the game setting and could not be made with just any paper. High-level products required corresponding levels of materials, which included paper and ink. Scribes also had the ability to create special paper and ink, which were the ingredients for creating such magical items. s.h.i.+roe kept a variety of items in his inventory. There was no need to use high quality ingredients to make normal memo papers, just simple ingredients would be enough to create quality paper that was easy to write on. The importance of the paper was in its thickness, uniformity, and cleanliness, the quality of ink was its durability against light exposure, uniformity, speed of drying, and bright colors. s.h.i.+roe ma.s.s-produced these easy to use paper and ink which was a great help in office works.
s.h.i.+roe studied the handmade map. His finger traced a line through the mountain ridges or coastlines as he thought. If he frowned at any doubts, he would write it down on a memo. For a long time there was only the sound of pen moving on paper. But this was cut off when s.h.i.+roe heard a ringtone in his ear.
"Yes?" "s.h.i.+roe-san, it's me, this is Minori." With the friend list, you would know the caller's ident.i.ty the moment they contacted you through telepathy. But Minori always started off the conversation this way, a reflection of her polite nature. A big difference from the cheerful shouts of Tohya's 'Niichan, it's me!' "Good evening, you have finished your training for the day?" "Yes!" Minori sounded so cheerful after sounding so disheartened the last few days. s.h.i.+roe guessed that they must have overcome an obstacle. Minori and the others were partic.i.p.ating in a training camp and challenging a dungeon suitable for beginners. But suitable for beginners did not mean it was easy to complete. On the contrary, it was a difficult dungeon that welcomed beginners with its hard battles. In simple terms, it included "all the elements beginners must overcome" in a condensed package. Pathways that crossed over each other in all 3 dimensions, getting a bird's eye view of the room from high places, the long climb with ladders, the monsters' patrols and the almost endless horde of undead monsters. These were all st.u.r.dy obstacles to overcome, stopping the players from clearing them with just the ability of their cla.s.s. The undead monsters were fueled by the limitless energy of grudges from the underworld, if they tried to break through without a battle plan, they would be tormented by the enemies' endless reinforcements. "You made progress in the raid?" "Yes, let me report, we began the dungeon raid at 7:30am. After exploring for about 7 hours, we left at around 3pm. During this period, we reached the furthest end on the route to the right and defeated the Burning Dead in the furnace room!" "Wow, that is incredible!" If s.h.i.+roe remembers correctly, the Burning Dead followed a floating level system, between level 23-25, about the same as Minori's party average. Defeating an enemy the same level as your party average and with only 5 members, it was quite a feat even for a party of experienced players. It was also dependent on the compatibility of the enemy, but it was still a nice battle. Compared to the failures the past few days, this could only be described as an achievement. "That's right!" From Minori's cheerful voice, he could tell this was a fruitful trip. She was so demoralized just yesterday. s.h.i.+roe felt a sense of warmth in his chest. Since yesterday, s.h.i.+roe felt his mind had been stressed by all sorts of things, including the foreboding Spirit Theory and a dreadful feeling that he did not understand from knowing the history of the world. These emotions turned into a heavy burden he could not put into words, weighing heavily in his heart. It could also be defined as frustration. The feeling that he had not accomplished anything, and the unease of not knowing anything. And despite the lack of knowledge, situations kept coming up when he could not do anything about them, that was the feeling s.h.i.+roe was fighting against alone. But hearing the energetic young voice of a fellow member of Log Horizon, he felt a flash of bright light scattering the dark fog. Companions were your most precious treasures. It might sound old-fas.h.i.+oned, but that was what s.h.i.+roe felt. "How is everyone doing?" "They are doing great!" "That's not what I meant." s.h.i.+roe continued asking with a smile. Minori seemed to be in a great mood today. Even though her manners were polite as usual, but hearing the perkiness in her replies made s.h.i.+roe perplexed and happy. "?" The image of Minori's graceful expression of surprise surfaced in his head. "How involved is everyone? How did you manage to defeat them?" "About that, Tohya is responsible for attracting and engaging the enemy, this part is the same as before. But we changed our tactics and get into position from the start, luring the enemy into the room and breaking them into groups!" ... This was the traditional 'pulling' technique used for continuous battles so they could have the advantage in numbers. Put simply, it was better to fight 100 battles against 1 opponent than fighting 1 battle against 100 opponents. "Taking out enemies with ranged attack is the priority. Also, I am the backup healer in charge of security looking out for reinforcements. We concentrate our attacks to reduce the enemies' fighting power... do you understand what I am talking about?" "Yes, I understand." Minori's tactics were correct. She kept to the basic principles s.h.i.+roe taught her. But they were not something you could execute just from hearing about it. Be it healing or attacks, every action in a battle had their own priority, who would be the one to judge the order using which criteria? How do you inform your teammates the conclusion of your decision? s.h.i.+roe could understand the uneasiness of Minori when she asked if he understood. She should be worried about communicating her thoughts properly. In summary, it was to be alert of your surroundings and take out the enemy one at a time. It was easy to talk, but to execute this tactic required detailed planning and steps... knowing the surrounding terrain, the range of their support, all team members knowing the range of support and attack magic. How to support any members that fall into trouble, they needed to understand each other and practice it. When Minori was in danger, Serara would a.s.sist. If Rundelhous got caught in a trap, Minori would use damage intercept spells. When Isuzu fell into trouble, Serara would use heal and Isuzu would retreat as well. By acc.u.mulating a number of such detailed cooperations, their 'combat operation' gradually came into shape. These acc.u.mulations of minor cooperation details, could it be explained so easily with words? s.h.i.+roe had experienced Minori's uneasiness before. (Relax, I understand, your thoughts can reach me, this is a delicate and important thing... In order to protect your goals, you have to acc.u.mulate plenty of such meticulous thoughts.)
"Relax, I understand what you mean, is everyone taking part actively?" "Of course! Serara-san's healing is powerful! HP recovery is several times faster than mine, she has a wide array of spells too, I am losing my confidence here." For pure healing powers, Kannagi couldn't compare with Druids. The 2 cla.s.ses had different philosophies regarding the protection of allies' HP anyway. Minori's Kannagi cla.s.s didn't focus on healing wounds, but focused on their unique damage interception magic, preventing harm from happening in the first place. In terms of healing wounds after they had happened, Druids were better. "As you level up, your a.s.sortment of magic will catch up too." "Is that so? Isuzu-san is amazing too. In terms of variety, she has so many skills it is hard for me to remember." He recalled that Isuzu was a Bard, so it was understandable why she had such a wide range of skills. She shouldn't compare with her since the feature of a Bard was their variety of skills, s.h.i.+roe laughed softly. "Tohya is working so hard, he can keep the enemies in check, and is holding himself from using his skills... s.h.i.+roe-san? Really, are you laughing at me?" "Sorry, I am not laughing at you, really." s.h.i.+roe laughed gently in reply, Minori at the other end was also laughing shyly, so there was no problem. "As for Rundelhous-san, everyone calls him Rudy, but Sorcerers are so strong." "He's not in any guild?" "Yes, he is a handsome man... but it is a pity that he is a bit dumb. But he's always overexerting himself, a shameless and interesting person. He is very close to Isuzu-san, and can use powerful magic. He will not back down before defeating the enemy, he should be the most serious person among us." Shameless, interesting, serious, handsome and dumb? Minori's description was all over the place, but s.h.i.+roe felt that he was a guy you could get along well with. Minori gave all kinds of reports, like the battle with the skeletons, defense, and follow up attacks. Tohya's fight, Serara's contribution, Isuzu's determination, Rundelhous' decisiveness... and a bit of Minori's active partic.i.p.ation. s.h.i.+roe nodded in reply to her every buoyant word. Tohya's silly jokes made everyone laugh; Isuzu's black nose; Serara's crush on Nyanta; Nyanta being unaware of her feelings; Rundelhous holding the sandwiches with both hands like a well-mannered boy... So vivid that s.h.i.+roe felt he was there himself.
The happy times pa.s.sed by in a flash. s.h.i.+roe reminded Minori not to risk their lives and ended the call. Since Naotsugu and Nyanta were there it would be fine, but they shouldn't take too many risks. After ending the chat, the room seemed to still be reverberating with Minori's cheerful voice.
... There were mysterious things in this world. s.h.i.+roe was not able to tell everyone that death had its risks, but he would need to do that sooner or later. He had to live on in such a world. But if he could listen to Minori's happy voice, he felt that he could carry on in this world. 5 The sparks danced in the dark. This was the central hilly region in Sand Leaf, a plaza in the middle of the forest. This was the campsite for Isuzu's group that was raiding the Ragranda Forest dungeon. Isuzu and Rudy were seated beside the campfire. There were more people just now, but they had all returned to their tents now. It had been a week since they started challenging the dungeon, this was the last day of their first raid. They were scheduled to return to the school campus tomorrow afternoon. Hence the group was only planning for a simple trip into the dungeon the next morning. Isuzu's group had built their team spirit over the days, and had been staying beside the fire until just now, drinking honey black rose tea together. They chatted about everything as they maintained their weapons or armor. Serara asked Nyanta to pat her head, Minori was chatting with someone secretly. As for Isuzu, she took out a lute from her bag to play. Lutes were a Middle Ages European musical instrument, its shape was similar to a guitar, and its size fit snugly into Isuzu's thin arms. The lute had less note variations than a guitar, but it had a cla.s.sical feel to it, bringing a sense of luxury to the campsite. Lutes were a common portable instrument in this alternate world. Instead of plucking the strings, you strummed them with your fingertips to play the unique sound of this instrument.
(Wah... Lutes are great too...) Isuzu was chatting and enjoying herself, but she still felt the need for music. Just strumming the strings like this stirred a sense of nostalgia in her heart. Isuzu liked music and all instruments. The normal country high school girl Isuzu liked it, but was not so pa.s.sionate that she wanted to make it her future. But on the other hand, this was her pure and unpretentious youth. To be honest, this was a feeling of 'Ahh, it is so fun to play with instruments, I want to keep playing'. She had been this way since grade school. "Miss Isuzu is so cla.s.sy." "Eh, I am a Bard after all." Isuzu looked up with a smile. With everybody gone, there was only Isuzu and Rundelhous at the campfire.
Just strumming freely without referring to any scripts. Isuzu had not played a lute before, she remembered this was the European precursor to the guitar, used by the people in the Middle Ages... She remembered reading about it in music magazines, but the first time she touched one physically was in this world (the basic design was the same as a guitar or violin anyway). Isuzu had a guitar and a cheap contraba.s.s at home, but no violins. The thing that bothered her were the 15 strings on the lute. Even so, she managed to play and strum it after 2 months, playing individual notes was not a problem. Rundelhous held on to his white metal mug and listened silently to these notes that could not be called a song. His gaze didn't make Isuzu uneasy and Rundelhous did not interrupt her music. The music reverberated like the tides of the ocean. Isuzu did not play any specific song, she just played a bit from here, another bit from there, editing and playing them at random. The popular songs Isuzu remembered from the old world appeared and was lost in the sea of melody, the lullabies and cla.s.sical pieces rose in her heart and dispersed once again. Even though there was no need to stop, Isuzu chose a suitable part and played the ending notes. Rundelhous clapped his hands totally impressed by her. "Don't act like this, this is nothing really." "No, that was very beautiful, it is like the music merges into the air after you play it." Isuzu also felt that was the case. But the soothing sound of the lute should be attributed to the environment and atmosphere, not because of Isuzu's efforts. The forest in the starry night sky, the campfire, and the cool summer breeze. Playing music in such conditions would make anything sound like a melody from the heavens. Isuzu wanted to say this, but Rundelhous' eyes were full of praise and admiration. She couldn't bear to find fault with this feeling of his, so she only said curtly: "Thanks."
After this, they continued their normal conversation. Occasionally strumming the lute in her arms playfully. The particles of music that appeared visually in the night sky was so refres.h.i.+ng. "What do you normally eat, Rudy?" "Warm sandwiches, warm sandwiches, or warm sandwiches." "So you only eat sandwiches, is it the Mentaiko sandwich?" "You are absolutely right, Miss Isuzu." This was the product of a guild called 'RP.jr', who sold the food out of their cart. They were a small guild, but they managed to reap a lot of profit from the popular Mentaiko sandwich, the secret of their success lay in the 6 batches of fresh and tasty bread they baked daily. It could be called the Mentaiko Potato Salad, the ingredients were lower than meat products. They had a good eye for running a business, Isuzu liked to eat it too. "It is nice, right?" "Yes, Mentaiko's chewy texture is top cla.s.s." Their favorite beverage was the trending black rose tea. Adding honey or lemon juice into water and freezing it with an ice elemental to make a 'crushed sherbert' was nice too. If you wanted to splurge, fried pork cutlet from 'Buu's Kitchen' was the best choice.
Isuzu was talking a lot today. She saw herself as a plain girl, and had no memory of ever chatting with a guy for so long. Because it was Rundelhous? Re-evaluating the young man Rundelhous, she saw that his eyebrows were long and handsome, and he had an Anglo-Saxon face of a model, or the looks of a prince. If he came to the country school Isuzu was studying in, there would be an uproar and school would be cancelled for a week. But Isuzu didn't feel any romance looking at his face. Isuzu thought deeply. (That's right! Golden retriever!) A large dog that was smart and had a n.o.ble air about it, Rundelhous was just like them. Smart, had a calm temperament, even the aloof nature was also alike. Like the drooping corners of the eyes, a bit silly if you got to know him, and his friendly demeanor were all the same. In Isuzu's mind, she was completely equating Rundelhous with a dog. (I understand now, that is why I am not afraid of him.) Isuzu loved dogs, and she thought dogs loved her too. The feeling she had with Rundelhous was the same as taking care of a large dog, so she was not nervous. Isuzu accepted this line of thought.
The topic s.h.i.+fted to where they were staying, Isuzu was living in the guild hall, but Rundelhous did not join any guild. "Hmmph, I have a royal suite on the second floor of Sedan Hotel." Even though he was speaking arrogantly, Isuzu thought of it as the feelings of a puppy barking, so she did not mind. Sedan Hotel was in the low to mid-range level in Akiba, it was popular due to its location, but its price and facilities were normal. (Hold on, this is not something you can say so arrogantly, right?) The royal suite on the second floor sounded impressive, but it was just a normal room for an Adventurer, it didn't have any deeper meaning. Isuzu felt the way he talked so arrogantly was like the nature of a golden retriever. But there was a cuteness about it. "Is that so. Speaking of which, why didn't you join any guild Rudy? You don't want to?" "To bind my s.h.i.+ning talent to just one place is a sin, right?" Rundelhous replied haughtily, giving her a look casually. (This is the first time I have seen someone giving off a look so naturally, Rudy is amazing... although he is an idiot.) Rundelhous was an idiot, but joining guilds was their own choice. She could not comment on that. "Is that so." "But Miss Isuzu is a beautiful and talented lady, this is the first time I have heard such a magnificent performance, you really love music... And you are reliable in combat, you are the only Bard I know that uses a 2-handed spear." "Rudy, stop... stop playing around." Isuzu retorted. She chose a 2-handed spear because it resembled something she saw in her father's collection, 'a rock and roll singer holding his guitar up here after destroying a speaker'. This weapon was heavy but Isuzu could wield it easily, which made her surprised. The contraba.s.s was also 15kg, so it made sense that she could wield the 2-handed spear. In short, practice makes perfect. "Hahahahaha! Miss Isuzu you are really charming this way! You are a companion I am comfortable to be around with, since we live in Akiba together, we have plenty of chances to meet after the training camp is over, please take care of me then!" "You are right." Isuzu nodded without hesitation.
From the looks of things, they wouldn't be leaving this world anytime soon. And battles were scary, it sometimes reminded her of her time in Hamelin where she almost broke down. Despite this, Isuzu had music, companions, so she had to make the best of it since she couldn't return yet. Isuzu learned to take it in stride from Minori, so she was able to accept Rundelhous' words directly. "Ah, if that is the case, I will register Rudy in my friend list, if you have any good things to share remember to find me. Let's eat Mentaiko sandwiches together someday, hehe, okay, register register." "Eh..." Rundelhous' expression sank. This was the face of regretting his failure. And blaming himself for being naive. In the end, Isuzu was unable to register Rundelhous on her friend list. 6 The sound of a fierce battle broke out in the forest. Swords and s.h.i.+elds clashed. Axes and spears collided.
Shouryuu closed the distance between him and the Kannagi in an instant. The level 38 young man was trying to create distance while chanting the spell "Holy Curse of the Sword"... Shouryuu used the basic Swashbuckler skill Razor Edge to interrupt his spell after closing in on him. The young player fell with a cough, Shouryuu offered him his hand and helped him up. "I know you are retreating in order to chant your spells, but you will be stopped if the enemy sees through your intent. It should be fine if you are just fighting monsters, but you will be facing tougher adversaries in the future. You need to increase your familiarity with combination attacks."
"Was I too slow?" "You are not slow, just too honest. You need to work on varying your movements to keep your foes off guard." The young man accepted Shouryuu's advice with a nod. In Elder Tales, you were considered a mid-range player upon reaching level 40. You needed to experience quite a number of battles to reach this stage. This level was high enough for production players to defend themselves, but for players specialized in fighting, they needed more skills and finesse than that. In the Elder Tales world that was no longer a game, this was a crucial point. Even though Adventurers wouldn't die, they could still feel pain. According to players who died before, the pain was not unbearable, about the level of a bone fracture or a traffic accident (that was still very painful). Even if you ignored the painful aspect, there were many disadvantages with dying.
An example was the problem of time. When Elder Tales was still a game, the time in this world was 12 times faster. When 2 hours pa.s.sed in the real world, a day went by here. This was implemented with the quests of the game in mind. Some missions could only be done at night, so if the time between the real world and Elder Tales was synchronized, when it was nighttime in the real world, it would be night in the game. If this system was in place, Elder Tales players who could only play in the day would not be able to do night missions. The players in the real world tended to have a relatively fixed schedule for their work and play time. To accommodate such players, the in-game time was set to be 12 times faster, 2 hours was equivalent to 1 day. But for the Elder Tales that had changed into the alternate world, the players were in the game itself, unlike when it was just a game, they needed to rest and sleep. And so places that usually took an hour to reach in-game now took 12 hours to do so. If you included resting and the time to set up camp, the journey could take 2 days. With fast travel methods such as Fairy Rings being restrictive in its use, this change was much more prominent. Whether you wanted to raid dungeons or go to a zone with high-level monsters, the first troublesome issue was the journey. This made EXP more important than before. The leveling requirement remained the same, but the amount of EXP you could earn every hour was much less than before. If you died and lost EXP and money, you would need much more effort to get them back. If you thought of it this way, the difficulty of battling had increased, since there was no permanent death, the minimum security of all the players was ensured. But Adventurers who regularly partook in fights needed to understand that and hone their skills.
The young Kannagi also understood this point. He unsheathed his sword and took a stance with a serious expression, repeatedly confirming the moves to activate his skills. Kannagi were eastern-style healers and they could equip swords. It may not be so in other servers, but in the j.a.panese server, male Kannagi were called Negi, female Kannagi were known as Miko. The clothes that fit these t.i.tles, Suikan and scarlet Hibakama for the maidens, were available to the Kannagi at level 40, and many of them set this level as their goal. New items in Elder Tales could be added by subsidiary companies through expansion packs. For the j.a.panese server, there were a lot of equipment for Kannagi and Samurai, including a 'holy sword' that increased magic powers. Kannagi who liked to play solo like this youth liked this type of weapon. Shouryuu grinned at him. He had potential, Kannagi were healers, other than a few exceptions, so they were unable to learn melee weapons and skills. But there were benefits to learning how to fight up close. If they were able to use ranged magic and melee weapons, their battle mobility and variety would increase, becoming an advantage for Kannagi.
Shouryuu was about to teach some practical footwork when he suddenly turned and looked behind him. He had always been right about his foreboding feelings. A ringtone sounded off in his head, Shouryuu probably would never forget, but this was not a real sound, but a signal from his game menu. This ring tone informed of a telepathy call. "Shouryuu! Come to the beach now!" "Mary-san, what is it?" "Sahuagin are invading from the sea, the beginners are... Woo, come quick!" Shouryuu ended the call, and shouted at the young Kannagi: "Gather everyone, quick!" The situation at the beach was unknown. Sahuagins' numbers and battle power were unknown. But the message was urgent, Maryele was out of breath and there were sounds of battle in the background. The beginners were all low-level over there, even though there were many higher level Adventurers with them, that was also dependent on the number of enemies, he had no idea how the situation was over there. (What is happening now? Why are the Sahuagin appearing in this place?)
"Gather all the people and contact me via telepathy... keep in contact every 10 minutes!" Shouryuu left these words and ran off. He blew his summoner flute in a hurry, but did not want to waste time waiting for his mount to come and dashed off into the forest. It was important to take care of the beginners here, but the beginners at the coastline were less than level 30. Sahuagin was a type of monster. As you could tell from its name, it was a demihuman race living in the sea or lakes, a fish with 4 limbs growing out of its body. It was grey or dark blue all over, most of them had brown spots. It was between 160-200cm in height, weighing around 100kg. At the end of their front limbs were webbed hands, they used their gills to breath underwater, and were able to use their lungs as well when they went on land occasionally. Because of either their skin or body structure, they were unable to live away from water, so it was a rare monster to encounter in the plains or dungeons. Their intelligence was about at the level of goblins, most of them preferred to use javelins or tridents, that was the extent of knowledge Shouryuu had about them. He had little experience fighting these monsters. (Their level... I remember is about 20-30...) A light brown horse rushed over, Shouryuu ran beside it and jumped onto its back. He then rode straight for the coastline.
He spurred the horse on. Cutting through the green forest and the gooseberry shrubs. The ridge roads that cut the hills into plots like tiles. The sky was blue with nimbus clouds in it that were ever present in the summer. It was a beautiful scene. Even though it was a moment like this, Shouryuu couldn't help himself from thinking. Even though the summer was so refres.h.i.+ng and beautiful. His ear maintained the telepathy call, with sounds of panting, weapons clas.h.i.+ng, and the shrill noise of magic tearing through the air. Far in the background was the roar of the loathsome Sahuagin and the chaos of battle. He could hear a dripping sound, maybe Maryele was bleeding too.
Shouryuu held back his feeling of urgency that was stuck in his throat like a stone. He rode through the empty school campus, making a beeline for the beach. This wide ramp should be used by farmers in ancient times, with half-buried telephone poles and flags that had lost their meaning. Shouryuu's horse ran across the canola flower fields and the fields of vegetables at top speed.
He crossed path with the fleeing beginners and reached the beach. At the front-lines were the members of Black Sword Knights and Keele, Maryele was also in the fray to protect their comrades. Shouryuu rushed into the Sahuagin crowd on his horse, knocking over several monsters with tridents in their hands. The war horse exclusive to high-level players was working to Shouryuu's expectations, showing its power in the battlefield. "Mary-san!" "Shouryuu!" Shouryuu put himself between the monster and the pale-faced Maryele, protecting her. He was the battle group leader in 'Crescent Moon Alliance'. Shouryuu's duty was to protect Maryele in battle, the enemy was Sahuagins, their level was low, but their numbers were flooding the whole beach. "Mary-san, please stay back! We need to gather the groups scattered all around the camp... now!" Shouryuu drew both his swords, with an elegant move like an opera actor, he charged into the scary-looking group of Sahuagins that looked like a cross between a fish and a reptile. He turned into a whirlwind, and attacked repeatedly without avoiding the mist of black blood around him. He did not have a plan, did not think too deep, just threw himself onto the battlefield without holding back, concentrating on taking them down one at a time. At this point Shouryuu didn't know. The Sahuagins' tide seemed to be never-ending, invading the beach one after another. The attack came in like a dark cloud, this was just the beginning of the many crises happening in the Sand Leaf peninsula.   The young man swung both his swords as he leaped into the air, fighting to protect his comrades with all his heart.