Log Horizon Book 3 chapter 4

Name: Re-Gun
Level: 28
Race: Elf
Class: Magic Scholar
HP: 1624
MP: 2721

Equipment
Well worn Robe
A well used robe, although Re-gun have spare robes, he thinks changing robes is a bother. He doesn't meet other people much, so Re-Gun don't feel any inconvenience.
Almanac
Recording of research done by all previous Sages of Mirror lake.  It is written in cypher so only a sage of the mirror lake can understand it. Some of the contents was purged by Re-Gun's predecessor, and these records has been lost ever since.
Firefly candelabrum
A convenient light source, the brightness can be adjusted to suit the user's preference. A common item made by adventurers with production subclass, but is not too popular among the people of the land.


Chapter 4: World Fraction


1

"Yah!"

The youth jumps and spins 2-3 times in the air, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. He dive head first into the ocean.

"Woah...Woah...! That was a fierce battle!"

Marielle laugh loudly as she watches the scene while relaxing under the parasol,

This is the 'Minion' beach.

One of the most beautiful beach with sparkling white sand in the Sand Leaf peninsula. It is only 30 minutes by horse from the school campus, a convenient place.

Marielle takes a ice cold soda from the ice bucket that doubles as a table. She has taken off her singlet, revealing her bright bikini, an outfit ideal for vacations.

Her equipment includes a parasol, a deck chair and a cushion, she is totally prepared for the beach.

(Ahhh, this is it, this is it! This is paradise, I am so fortunate...)

Marielle has an angelic smile that can melt your heart, the others almost compliment her about it. And right now her smile is 10 times more enchanting than normal.

Even though there are no sunscreens, their body is much stronger in this world, there should be a way to remedy it if you get a tan. The swimming suit took quite a bit of effort to secure.

In Elder Tale, costume is equivalent to your equipment, Elder Tale is mainly a battle RPG, equipment basically means armor or weapons, and it does not include undergarments.

If you remove all your equipment, your avatar will display you with underwear. But this is a function to avoid displaying sensitive parts, a safety function in the game, akin to parental control, so there will only be dull and normal undergarments.

They can be seen on the character profile as well, but it doesn't actually exist. But this function doesn't work anymore, if you strip off your clothes you will be naked, both your profile picture and yourself will be in the nude.

But underwear is very important, and the Japanese has always lived in a civilized world, they cannot endure life without panties.

If you make underwear you can wear it, this is already a known fact. By undergarments require a very high tailor level to sew. The citizens have almost given up hope in acquiring them, but they caught a glimpse of light.

That light came from swimsuits.

With its smooth graphics as one of its selling points, there are many equipment for you to dress your avatar up in Elder Tale. This include the special item, swimsuits. Most swimwear are made from rare recipes, or given out for participating in special events.

Swimsuits are obviously different from underwear.

Like sweat absorption and friction from long hours of wear, they have many differences. But there are ways to overcome these differences after the Apocalypse, so the panties crisis are tided over by the excellent tailors.

After the round table council announced the new method of producing items, the tailors start to make cotton or silk undergarments.

There is definitely high demand for them, and panties are a popular product for the tailors. Stuck with the mindset of the old world, Marille also wants several sets of undergarments to change periodically, so panties are one of the most profitable product for the tailors in Akiba.

Rear hook, laces and elastic bands can be acquired easily by using the game menu to creating clothes and dissembling them. This ingenuity and attention to details is their technique in making quality products. Since it is made by hand, their price is similar to mid level magic item, 300 gold, with no signs of dropping.

Swimsuits can be made through known recipes very simply, so they are relatively cheap since they are made from normal ingredients. But swimsuits with flashy designs are quite expensive. Marielle is an experienced player who likes swimsuits, so she has a few pairs. The one she is wearing was taken from the storage room after not being used for years.

Marielle's swimwear, is a praiseworthy design on the beaches of the old world, a bikini. The bikini itself is not small, but Marielle's criminal level body and the high cut of the bikini made her very sexy.

Marielle is conscious of that, so she put on a cotton hoodie.

(Anyway, with so many people watching...it will be pretty embarrassing if they see this...)

Marielle thinks that she will be fine with the hoodie. But the fact is the vague form of the bikini under the hoodie made the others even more uncomfortable, as they don't know where they should put their gaze. But she is not aware of this, the Marielle who is enjoying her vacation on her deck chair and a big smile is peaceful and at ease.

"Miss Marielle, Miss Marielle!"

The youth who jumped just now ran to her.

The youth is holding a spear-like weapon with sharp edges on either side, he should be a Samurai. He is wearing leather armor under the hot sun, but he is totally wet after falling into the sea, just like a dog after a bath.

"Heal me please!"

The youth is bleeding profusely on his head.

"No problem."

Marielle nods energetically, sit up right and cast 'healing light'. A white star of David appears at her fingertip, and the youth's HP is refilled after absorbing its light.

"This is great, I'm cured!"

The youth feel his wound, the bleeding has been healed. 'Healing light' is a low level spell with a short cast time and weak effects. It is normally used to bridge the gap while waiting for the high level spells to cool down. But for low level players, this is a powerful spell that can completely recover their HP.

"Thank you!"

"Anytime, anytime."

Marielle smile.

"Don't mention it, go for another one! Get some more crabs! I suggest you ambush them from the side, remember to watch out for the restriction for your skills as well."

"Okay, understood!"

The youth run off full of energy down the beach.

In the far end of Marielle's view of the beach, the youth discovers a Ascot crab make its way onto the beach and made a detour. The crab is about a meter in length, if it spread its claws out should be about 2 meters, a real giant crab.

He then charged the crab with his spear and strike at the side of its belly in an attempt to flip the crab over. He seems successful this time.

There are 5-6 such beginners around Marielle, they are adventurers with the lowest level in this summer training camp.

Marielle is leading these beginners at this beach.

During summer, there are countless Ascot crab landing on the 'Minion' shore line. If left alone, they will move further in land and endanger the livestock and the farm, so the people of the land despise them.

But these monsters are not much of a threat, level range from 4-8 suitable for beginners to grind.

Spending the whole day grinding like this should grant them plenty of EXP. If they are injured badly, they can seek treatment from Marielle.

They will take a break when they exhaust their MP.

With a personal medic on stand by, they can have a tight training session.

Marielle's grand vacation plan is a bigh success.

"Hahhhh!

"Die! Die, die! Just die!"

"Accept your fate!"

Marille lies down on her deck chair as she listens to the battle cries of the beginners, the ice cold soda in the glass cooling the summer heat

This is just like heaven.

She can't help but smile.

Many of the beginners here wants to be in the production line. This is the 3rd month since the Apocalypse, but they are willing to stay at this low level low because they abhor fighting.

This is not a problem as players focusing on production are necessary to support battle guilds who goes out to farm.

But in this alternate world, being a pure production player is very risky. If they have no battle powers, they can't protect themselves in crisis. And high player level is beneficial to production as well, some simple ingredients can be obtained faster if they go by themselves.

This point probably played a big part in convincing them.

Or maybe the beginners are aware of that, but the production guilds do not have a comprehensive beginner support program for them, so they had given up. The beginners gathered at this beach are passionately grinding by engaging the crabs repeatedly.

To make it clear, every time they have a set back and is about to give up, Marielle will heal their wounds with her sunflower like smile. So even if they want to retreat, they can't do it, the pride of boys is such a pathetic thing.

As for the girls, they are influenced by the furious fighting atmosphere of the boys and hold the thought 'can't be help, I will also train a bit more...'

Only Marielle is not aware of this reason.

(Everyone is working so hard... Wah, the weather is so nice.)

The sleepy Marielle continues to enjoy her vacation.

The mid level camp leaders sent by 'Jeer' and 'west wind brigade' are patrolling the beach as instructors and lifeguards. Marielle is standing by as the supervisor (She is just enjoying her vacation), and heal the wounds of the occasional casualty.

Marielle who is bored out of her mind is turning in her chair again.

The air is dry, even if it is hot it doesn't feel uncomfortable.

When she saw a line of white bubble on the surface of the ocean by chance, she wave Shoryu who is nearby over.

"Shoryu...look, what is that?"

Marielle points to the white line in the sea.

"Eh, what is that...bubbles? The trail of a boat? Hmmm..."

The white line dissipated after a while, and nothing of interest happen after. The group battle crabs til the sun set, leaving with plenty of crab meat and shells.

Production subclass training begins at the school campus in the evening, Marielle and the rest has long forgotten about the mysterious white line.


2

Isuzu entered the 3rd day of their challenge of Ragranda forest.

Their daily challenge last less than 3 hours.

The process is trying on their stamina, they are unable to stay in the dungeon for long.

It doesn't mean it is better if you stay in the dungeon longer, but it is obviously a problem if the duration is so short. They only manage 4-5 battles for each trip.

They can only keep practicing.

Rundelhaus explained it this way, but there is no significant gain in EXP with only 4-5 battles. Each fight evolves into a battle of attrition, and they ends the trip after exhausting their MP and mental strength with nothing much to show for it. This story keeps repeating itself.

Isuzu is not wearing armor, she has changed into casual clothes.

Because it is tiring to return to camp wearing heavy equipment.

The higher level party spends about 6 hours in the dungeon every day, so the low level party who retreats about noon time has nothing much to do.

They can recover their HP and MP after resting for an hour.

And they can challenge the dungeon again in the afternoon to earn some EXP, but they were stopped by Nyanta and Naotsugu. They do not know the reason, but they relented when the party relented when they hear their instructors' harsh warning.

And so, Isuzu's party can only do menial task like picking firewood or drawing water from the ponds, or just kill some time in the woods.

From the angle of the sun, it should be about 3pm.

Isuzu is on her way to a pond nearby.

It is not a big pond, but because there are fresh water flowing in, so the pond is cool and clear, the water of the group are all drawn from here. It might not be suitable for drinking so no one has tried that, but Isuzu thinks it should be fine.

There are no showers in the hills.

No one actually suggested it, but Isuzu's group decided to take turns to shower in the pond.

"...Huff!...Ha!"

The distant sound of breathing came from deep in the forest.

Who is it?

Isuzu peek in the direction of the sound.

The one training vigorously in the forest is Rundelhaus. He is wearing a light purple costume similar to a uniform of a nobles boarding school, with a cloak of a mage on top, and is sweating profusely.

He must have been exercising for quite some time. If the fluid that is dyeing the ground in darker shades are sweat, he might have been training all this while after leaving the dungeon.

Rundelhaus extend his left hand forward. He creates a big fireball, compress it to the limit to the size of a fist. This process requires immense concentration, Rundelhaus who is always very concerned with his image is sweating like a pig and clenching his teeth.

After shooting the ball, a large ball of mist formed in his hand, which he compressed into an ice ball and shoot it out like he did before. This attack extinguish the fire ball he shot out earlier.

The magic that had been changed into ice and fire clashes fiercely in the forest, producing lots of steam. Rundelhaus did not let down his guard and keeps moving around, maneuver himself from time to time to avoid the scalding water.

Incorporating defensive moves into his attacks, he seems to be doing a battle simulation. Isuzu notice 2 lines 2 lines on either side of Rundelhaus, she didn't understand the meaning behind them. Only after watching Rundelhaus for a few minutes did she realize what they represents.

(...The walls of the dungeon.)

The 2 lines on the ground represents the tunnel in the dungeon, Rundelhaus is fighting invisible skeletons that is coming at him from in front.

He kept moving around all over the place, but he did not cross the line, because they are walls.

And he has been moving for quite a while now.

It seems like a long time, but after about 5 minutes, Rundelhaus fell on his knees and breath out loud. He maintained this position like he is puking, giving out embarrassingly loud panting sound.

"Are you okay...?"

Isuzu who has been watching from behind the trees ask hesitantly.

He reminds her of a classmate with Asthma who displays similar symptoms

But Rundelhaus seem genuinely surprised by her voice, jumping up like a spring and face Isuzu.

"Hi miss Isuzu... what... what are you doing here?"

Rundelhaus smile like a prince and flip up his fringe.

But his fringe is full of sweat, so they are stuck on his forehead.

"Don't push yourself alright?"

Isuzu says while holding back a laugh, but she fail to calm Rundelhaus, who work in a panic to conceal his sorry state.

"You... You think I am pushing myself? No...there is no such thing, I am only here for an afternoon stroll and listen to the birds sing on the invitation of the fairies..."

Rundelhaus' face is turning purple as he goes on.

(He was just gasping for air and still wants to talk like a prince, no wonder he is turning purple...)

Isuzu thought, but Rundelhaus keep up his princely smile even with his purple face. Isuzu feels a sense of sympathy, so she averts her gaze and turn her back to him.

"I...I see."

A intense breathing sound came from her back as Isuzu speaks.

A young couple alone in the woods with the heavy breathing sound of a man, you can describe it as a pervert sighting. But no matter how frivolous Rundelhaus is, Isuzu still wants to comment him for his Samurai spirit.

(Eh... I am weird in some ways.)

Isuzu and Rundelhaus are about the same level, and he looks to be in his early twenties, shouldn't be any younger than Isuzu. Rundelhaus is a boy and not frail at all.

But there is a big gap between their battle prowess, Isuzu is a support class, Rundelhaus specialize in damaging attacks. His battle prowess should be several times better than her.

But ignoring battle powers or conditions, Isuzu feels she is superior than Rundelhaus in a totally different category. She doesn't understand her own feelings.

"Miss Isuzu...what are you doing in a place like this?"

"I am going to shower...Oh right, Mr Rundelhaus, let's go together."

Isuzu did not ask:"Do you want to go?" The normal her wouldn't talk like this, but right now she is not being polite to Rundelhaus at all.

"Shower? I have no interest in peeking at ladies bathing, don't look down on me!"

"No one said anything about showering together or letting you peek."

Isuzu keep her back on Rundelhaus and retorts in a half joking, half angry manner. Rundelhaus behind him chokes and coughs, which makes her happy.

"It's not nice to let a lady wander alone in the forest right?"

Isuzu blushes a little, calling herself a lady is a bit embarrassing. It feels a bit too much, but she can't take back what she said.

"You are right, yeah, I will just be an escort."

Rundelhaus' voice starts to recover.

"Then allow me to escort you, the spring nearby? Which way?"

Isuzu turns around.

Rundelhaus before her says:"Please lead the way." She almost lost her composure looking at his expression, he was sweaty but is still charming, looking at him like this makes him look really handsome. He can win against any Shoujo manga main character in the real world.

(But I do not feel excessive pressure from this... Is this also the effect of the alternate world?)


"Mr Rundelhaus, it is this way."

Isuzu tilt her head slightly, and as she starts on the trail leading to the pond, the young man says to her

"Miss Isuzu, please just call me Rudie, that's how my parents address me."

Isuzu listens to this with a tingling in her heart.



3


Shiroe and Akatsuki was brought to the depths of the 'Ancient palace of eternal frost', they do not know which zone they are in.

In the depths of the palace, it is cold despite it being summer, the cold is between 'cool' and 'chilly'. At the end of the tunnel is a sculpted giant metal door.

"This way, this is my abode, please come in."

Re-Gun who claimed to be a sage opened the door and invite the 2 of them in. There are several thousand books  in the library. You can tell it is a library from the gigantic round table, the tall ceilings and this room that extends in a straight line into the depths like a tunnel.

There are mountains of books surrounding them.

On either side of the tunnel wall are shelves twice the height of Shiroe. They are filled to the brim with delicacies known as books. The journals and scrolls spill onto the floor, forming mini avalanches.

This sight continues on deep into the darkness.

Re-Gun search around the room as he says 'Hmm, this is weird' 'Where did it go?'. Shiroe and Akatsuki occupy a couch after clearing the books that was on it.

"Eh, I apologize, I have misplaced the beverages I prepared in advance."

Re-Gun was sorry about that, but Shiroe shake his head and replies:"It's alright.", and take a few glasses and a bottle of black rose tea from his bag.

This tea has became a popular beverage among the masses, it is thicker than brewed tea but is not as bitter, and you can add honey or sugar to it to fit your preferences. The one Shiroe made has been cooled in the spring wells and sweetened with syrup.

Shiroe poured a cup for himself, Re-Gun and Akatsuki. Re-Gun gives an expression of joy with just a sip. He might be short and frail, but he has a charming aura, a man of mystery.

From his appearance, he seems about Shiroe's age.

"My gratitude, I have always been poor in searching for things... Is this a Dapicnic backpack?"

"That's right, I had someone made this for me."

Shiroe nod and reply bluntly.

"I have researched this bag before...for the process of crystallizing the magic circuits, you would need purple flame crystals and wyvern leather right?"

"Yes, I gathered these materials before they can work on this."

Shiroe is impressed, this is a level 45 quest 'getting a magical backpack'. The sage Re-Gun has a good grasp on the contents of the quest, much knowledgeable than normal people of the land.

"Please excuse my impudence, let me introduce myself again, I am Re-Gun. I claimed to be a mage and used magic, but technically I am a magic scholar"

"Magic scholar?"

"Yes, someone who researches magic. I am also a lecturer for normal magical studies, but I have been focusing on doing research.

"Researching here?"

"Yes, I have lived in the 'Ancient palace of eternal frost' for over 30 years, this was originally the laboratory of my master. But after he passed on a few years ago, I inherited his work and continued to research day and night, do forgive my poor dress sense."

"...Mirror lake... you are the sage of mirror lake?"

Shiroe remembers Re-Gun's first introduction and understand the significance of this title.

Sage of Mirror lake.

When Elder Tale was just a game, this is a title that are related to several quest, rumors and books. For instance, the crucial item 'key of eternal darkness' for the major raid '9 prison of heroes' was said to be made by the sage of mirror lake.

But this is just a setting in the game which Shiroe think is meant to add more background to the story, so he did not give it much thought.

"I guess I am. But I still can't refer to myself with the title, unable to drop the feeling of being a student. When other mentions this title, I always feel that they are referring to my master."

"So the sage of mirror lake is an hereditary title?"

"It is indeed, please call me Re-gun."

With his humble demeanor, the sage of mirror lake does not have the air of one with such a grand title.

The silence flows between them.

Shiroe drinks his black rose tea and his brain turns at high speed. Attending the meeting of 'League of Freedom Cities Eastal' was due to their invitation, but it is also a step in gathering intelligence of the world. Attending this meeting provides the chance to know and interact with the leaders of the world, widening their information network, much more in dept then what you can get poking around in the streets.

But this is a big catch.

It's been 3 months since the Apocalypse.

All kinds of knowledge about the world is gathered slowly by Shiroe's group. At least the minimum knowledge to live their daily lives normally is complete. The adventurers in Akiba are successful in getting food, clothes and shelter.

But information like this made Shiroe think that there is so much more to learn.

There would be no problem if it is just Shiroe alone.

Or if there are only a few members living together, all problems can be solved. No matter what the people of the land thinks or what is the truth of this world, Shiroe and the others are able to survive in this world with their abilities. They can go on journeys indefinitely, or build a base in the deep mountains, they can survive no matter what.

But Shiroe cannot think of it this way. There are 15000 adventurers in Akiba and almost 30000 in the whole server, if he can abandon them, he wouldn't have started the round table council.

The 30,000 adventurers cannot ignore the people of the land and live by themselves, they also need a base of their own.

In this area under the Japanese server, the population is probably 1.5 million, the 15000 adventurers is too big in number, they will have a large impact on the world no matter what they did. In fact, the new production method already had a huge impact on the world.

Even if Nyanta did not discover this new method, someone will definitely discover it after a few months and the news will spread. Shiroe took advantage of everyone's confusion and depression after the Apocalypse and took the initiative to control the situation.

Shiroe did not feel responsible for the spread of the new production method, but he need to understand the impact of this new knowledge. And there should be similar incidents in the future. No matter how they try to conceal it, adventurers are still an alien existence in this world. To achieve a good ending and divert them from the path of destruction, they would need deep and wide knowledge of the world. Shiroe's group lack such knowledge.

(This conversation...might be more important than the meeting with the nobles.)

Re-Gun stared at Shiroe with interest and says

"I claimed to be a magic scholar, but the school of magic covers a lot of areas and has many fields of studies. My research focuses on global level magic."

"...Global level?"

Shiroe rubs his chin as he listen to this foreign term.

"Yes, this is in accordance to the scale of the magic effects, magic can be categorized into action level, battle level, tactical level, strategic level, war level, national level, continental level and global level. This is just one way of categorizing them, you also group them by their features into energy control, changes in material form, conjuring types. Arranging them by spell levels is also commonly used."

Shiroe thinks as he listens.

This is a rare way of thinking, if you categorize by the features of magic... for instance, Sorcerer control energy, summoners conjure creatures... Shiroe can understand, that is a simple way of doing it.

Shiroe also understands grouping them by spell levels, which is what spells can be learned at each specific player levels, the way used by the officials in Elder Tale.

"To categorize by scale, you need to analyze the magic by its effects or understand its intent through observation. Action class is a magic that simulate a single action. For example swinging a sword to attack a monster, if you do this by magic, that is action class, hurting one or a group of monsters is the effect, which can be achieved by a single action. The magic used by mages are mostly action class, no matter how damaging the attack might be."

From this perspective, Shiroe's basic attack mind bolt is an action level magic. That is a magic bolt that hurts the enemies' mind, but the effect is equivalent to shooting an arrow. Even if there are damage or debuffs, they are just additional conditions.

"Battle level magic can decides the result of a single battle. If you cast it, you can determine the fate of your enemies and your allied party."

This is a deep way of categorizing magic. For example Shiroe's astral hypnos seems like an action level spell, but depending on the way it is used, it can push a group of enemy to the brink of defeat. Labeling it as battle level makes sense in this situation.

"Tactical level magic can affect 2-3 battles at the same time, a legendary magic cast by a group of sorcerers belongs to this class."

Affecting multiple battles, meaning powerful buffing enchantments? Shiroe can only find one spell in his arsenal that fits this description.

"Strategic level is even larger in scale, the effect can last for days, a single spell can defeat a fortress, a tower or a dungeon."

This is already beyond Shiroe's imagination.

It might make sense in a simulation game, but players role play as adventurers in Elder Tale, if the adventurer has the power to destroy a dungeon by himself, there would be no need to work together since they have such overwhelming forces.

"Let's keep the rest of this short, war level can decides a war, national level can destroy an enemy nation, continental level can affect the whole continent with a single spell. As for global level..."

"It's a magic that can decides the existence or the fate of the world... correct?"

"That is correct."

Shiroe understood the concept.

It is still understandable if you treat it as academic research, but do such spells exist? No, in the world of Elder Tale, Shiroe is an enchanter himself, questioning the existence of magic is ridiculous, but the scale in this topic is too big, he is unable to relate to it.

"About that...Pardon me for asking, I can keep up with this categorization, but do such magic exist? Or is this just a theoretical category?"

Shiroe's question made Re-Gun smile charmingly and answers.

"It does exist, Searching through the archives and with my own observations, magic of this level happened 3 times, it is called world fraction."

"...The Apocalypse right?

Re-Gun's expression confirms Shiroe's query instantly.

A magic of this scale cannot be the work of one man.

It might be the work of a being higher than humans, but research has not shed any light on this.

War level, national level, continental level... Why is there a need to research magic that is probably don't existent? The reason is because it actually does exist.

Maybe it cannot be done by the people of the land or adventurers, but if a being like fire elemental causes a volcano to erupt, a earth elemental make an earthquake...These might cause magical destruction of the national level.

As an experienced player familiar with Elder Tale, Shiroe thinks of magic as just one of the skills of adventurers, and can accept the existence of magic of grander scale from the background and the story setting.

The skinny researcher Re-Gun is looking into magic that is beyond that of a single caster, he is indeed a magic scholar, not just a mage. His goals is not to increase his prowess, but to investigate the mysteries of the world and understand how nature works.

"You named the incident that happened in May as the apocalypse, the people of the land refers to it simply as the revolution or the May incident, but I see it as the 3rd world fraction. I have invited you to chat and find out more about the world fraction from you. As a researcher, I want to know every detail."

Re-Gun's eye shines with curiosity, and he appears to be sincere.

(There is no point in hiding anything, we don't really know much ourselves, but...)

"You said 'the 3rd' right? You mention that there have been 2 other global level magic, can you tell us about the previous 2 world fraction? We adventurers don't have too much data on the apocalypse, and I am willing to tell you, but I also wish to know more about the apocalypse."



4

Shiroe's word made Re-Gun who is reaching for his glass stop momentarily.

"I don't mind, but it could take a while, will you be fine with that?"

"..."

"Yes, sorry for troubling you."

Shiroe confirms with Akatsuki who nod besides him, and reply to Re-Gun. Akatsuki maintains a tense expression and listens carefully.

"Let me think, where should we start? As I said, I don't know everything about the world fractions, you can even say I am totally ignorant about the subject. You can even treat this as something that happened in the past... But that won't be explaining, so let me start from what I do know... from the history of our world."

Shiroe adjust himself in his seat and nod in agreement.

Shiroe is happy that Re-Gun is explaining right from the begining.


"About 350 years ago, the world is much more prosperous than it is now, even if it cannot match the glory of the fallen ancient empire, the population is still 3-5 times more than it is right now. Using the continent as their base, they spread to the corners of the world."

"What do you mean by continent?"

"Ah, I mean the neighboring Eurasia continent."

The Asia continent... including China, the countries in the middle east, Shiroe nods in reply. This is without question the biggest continent in the world.

But he did not start with the ancient lore, which surprised Shiroe. According to the background story of Elder Tale, the ancient empire which advanced civilization to its limits was ripped apart and reconstructed. The developers did not mention the dark age during the rebuilding of the world, so the players, they only think of  Elder Tale as the world right after the reconstruction.

But the buildings and roads from the ancient times deteriorated to this extent, which meant all sorts of things happened during this dark period of time. Shiroe kept thinking it as a blank period of time where nothing happened, so this fact surprised him.

"The four races of Humans, Alv, Elfs and Dwarfs live gloriously in the world, every country lived in peace and prosperity, the magical items you can find in dungeons today are remnants from this period of time. The 'Ancient palace of eternal frost' we are in is an ancient magical structure, obviously different from that of the ancient lore right? This is built by the Alv during that time, and they also the inventor of magic, the pioneer in magic civilization. The various magical items they created are said to be able to decipher the mysteries of the world.

The Alv... The developers list them as an extinct ancient race, Shiroe is a half-Alv who inherited this ancient bloodline, but there are no history or story behind this in the game, he only knows they are powerful in magic, a race suitable to use magic items.

"The details have nothing to do with the main topic so I won't dwell too much on it, but this power became a source of disaster. Alv have high intelligence and magical talents, but are weak in reproduction. Their population did not increase, and the country around the land are also small. A minority race like this monopolizing magical techniques infuriates the surrounding nations, and they destroy the Alv kingdoms one by one...The Alv was pushed to extinction, and their glorious history ends here."

Since the Alv are extinct, something like this must have happened.

Shiroe has Alv blood in him, but this did not fan his nationalistic instincts, he just made a note that there is such a setting.

"But what about me?... There are quite a number of half-Alv in this world, even though it is a small number."

"This is the sign of the end of the Alv. The people raid the Alv firstly for their magical knowledge and quality magical items, and following that... they are after the Alv themselves. The Alv became a slave in this world. Everywhere, including the human, elf and dwarf kingdom, they traded Alv as slaves, they were violated and give birth to children, which is the half Alv we know. But the genetic inheritance tends to skip generations, and appears with a low probability between human parents... Woah, I'm going off topic, that won't do. Anyway, the Alv kingdoms fell, but a major upheaval happened. Featured prominently in this upheaval are the six scrapped princess of the Alv."

"Six scrapped princess...?"

This is a foreign term. Re-Gun writes on the table with his finger. Six means there are six of them, scrapped means they have fallen from grace, princess means females from a royal family.

"There are many theories behind the identity of the six scrapped princess, the theory here is that they are different individuals with their own names and place of birth. But there is one thing for certain, they are all the princess from different parts of the continent. Six scrapped princess was coined by later historians, it is said they did not act in concert, and have became slaves like their kinsman. They escaped execution because of their royal status, which is a form of fortune. The history books descibes them as'so beautiful that they are pampered like gem stones'. The royalty, leaders and nobles treat them as their exclusive pets, keeping them imprisoned in 6 different countries. But they did not end their lives as slaves, some used magic, some led a rebellion of enslaved Alv, some controls the royalty from the dark, all of them started revolution against the whole human race."

Shiroe is attracted to these words, but his emotion remains neutral, leaning towards the Alv at most. From the view of a modern Japanese, the humans of the alternate world attack the Alv out of envy of their magic technology and the remnants of the Alv starting terrorist attacks to retaliate, all this are within expectation.

"The human, elf and dwarf empire who destroyed the Alv gained many magical technology, but they have not grown accustomed to them, so a war in the form of countless stalemates started. The reason of the stalemate is because the human, elf and dwarf nations are fighting among themselves. The six scrapped princess are no heroines, but vengeful spirits, they orchestrated chaos behind the scene, disrupting society, confusing the populace, spreading the seeds of discord everywhere in human society. There were many casualties in this war. If the records are correct, the total death matches the current population of the world. On the other hand, the six scrapped princess were pushed to their limits. They are Alv after all, and their weakness of low reproduction ability made the population small. Even if they hide behind the scene of the infighting among allies, they are fragile when discovered. As the six scrapped princess is about to be killed... The first world fraction happened."

"The first...."

They are finally getting to the point, Shiroe gulped.

He notice Akatsuki besides him is also totally engrossed.

"Yes, the first world fraction was speculated to be a result of powerful magic by the Alv. But there remains many mysteries, especially in the technical sense that we cannot solve. We cannot even understand the basic principle behind it, let alone replicate it. The world fraction occurred, and the demihuman appears... They did not exist until 300 hundred years ago.

...Demihuman did not exist.

This is something Shiroe did not expect, but he can understand why the civilization including Alv was ten times more prosperous. The world practically belonged to the humans then.

"I do not think the appearance of the demihuman here was the result of crossbreeding or a biological problem. This is the research topic of my master, but I proposed an assumption that the world fraction might be linked to the spirit. The world then had lots of spirit material as the population of the world fell by almost half due to the war. These spirit fragments are then used to make demihuman which appears throughout the world and pushing the human empire that was ravaged by the war to the brink of destruction. Many cities fell, armies that claimed to be invincible are crushed, almost all the countries were dissolved. In this peninsula, the only country that survived in this 300 years is the ancient empire Westgandia. Several towns and cities in the 'League of Freedom Cities Eastal' were only villages then. With the appearance of the demihuman, the world changed into the picture of humans fighting against the invasion of the demihuman and protecting their small civilized circles. The world is trapped in darkness, even after defeating the six scrapped princess, their revenge was a complete success."

The six scrapped princess were defeated.

The world fraction was activated.

Large numbers of demihuman made from spirit fragments appeared in the world.

"Next will be the iron ages. As explained, Goblin, Kobold, Orc, Ogre, Troglodyte, Gnoll, Sahugin and Lizardmen these demihuman terrorize the populace all over the world. These cruel creatures invades the civilization circle of humans, and life begins to lose its shine. After much research, defense magic and setting up of barriers...the legacy of the Alc...is starting to work. But there were no such assistance back then, so the humans planed to fight back. The first plan they executed was to use the secrets of the Alv to create new warriors, the 'human instrumentality project', a large scale experiments which created werecats, wolf fangs, foxtails animal hybrids and race of ceremony, the re-engineering of a human. They were sent to the front line as a man made race, the human battle for survival begins here."

When he only mentioned human, dwarf, elf and Alv, Shiroe felt uneasy, but it seems that the other races made their debut here. Werecats, wolf fangs, foxtails and race of ceremony were races madefor battle by humans.

"Several countries in Eurasia think the battle is hopeless and gave up. They organized big fleets of ships to cross the ocean towards a new continent. The new continent also have demihuman, but they persevere and built their own country in this brand new world, and with the power of their faith, the 'Ancient' was born."

...The new continent, it should be referring to the Wayne continent, or the Americas continent in the old world. So in this alternate world, the Americas was discovered 300 years ago.

This should be the adaptation of the history of Europe, coinciding with the discovery of the continent in the old world. Shiroe tried to imagine the situation in the American server, but he shake his head and stop that train of thought.

"There are several theories behind the 'Ancient', but there are definitely a number of them that came into being during this period. Regarding the 'Ancient'... let's talk about them another time, I will focus on the theory of spirits. Even after using so many resources and techniques, they are unable to halt humanity's path to destruction, that is how strong the forces of the demihuman are. Not only that, the effects of the first world fraction is still lingering in this world. As I mentioned in the beginning, the demihuman do not fall in number no matter how many you kill. Even if you defeat them, their spirits will just respawn as demihuman again... This is just an assumption, but their reproduction curve is fascinating, so that is the only way to make sense of it. Even though they are demihuman, they still need a period of time to grow and develop. If you manage to kill a large number of them, you will be able to weaken their forces. In other words, the dead demihuman will respawn as infants, and won't be able to join the war meaningfully in these few years. But they can return after 3 years, the demihuman cannot be wiped out, so we have no chance of winning."

This...

Isn't this the problem with the Elder Tale game settings? Shiroe wanted to interject. Elder Tale is a game, or it was a game, if one player kills off all the monsters forever in a zone leaving nothing for the other players, that must be a disappointing experience.

So the game sets the monster to respawn after a specific amount of time, providing new monsters for the players. If not for that, stronger players will be able to clear all the monsters in the zone giving an amount of time.

"The people lived in fear and despair, praying for a miracle. This is a really dark period of the world, it has been 60 years since the defeat of the six scrapped princess and the first world fraction. Humanity fell into absolute despair, poverty, hunger and fear. Almost everyone is trapped in armored communities or fortresses, living every day in fear of demihuman or monster attacks, some even think it is only a matter of time before humanity goes into extinction. The six scrapped princess revenge seems to be working... At this moment, the second world fraction happened, but it is different from the first, with almost no clear records and observation of it in the archives. It was the dark period in the history of humanity after all, so they might not have the spare time to leave behind records. With the combined effort of the human, elf, dwarf and many race of ceremony, they invoke the holy summon spell, some religious text describes this as 'God's salvation'... anyway, the world fraction happened again, the time is exactly 240 years ago.... adventurers appeared."

"There is nothing of significance in the history that follows. The powerful adventurers is a gospel for all of humanity. The 'fields of dead spirits', 'The king of Hades', 'The jade throne of the dragon', all kinds of crisis that hit Yamato are solved by the adventurers. The world did not became peaceful, but it is now more stable, and is on the way of restoration."

(And so it links to our current situation....)

"Adventurers... Now that you mentioned it, Mr Re-Gun you seem to know about me. Why is that?"

Shiroe feels concerned and ask.

"Because Mr Shiroe is an Arch mage, I feel that among the adventurers, you would be the one who will be most familiar with the situation."


"Arch mage?"

Shiroe is confused, he did not recall completing any grand quest that grants such a prestigious title.

"Mr Shiroe first appeared in history 98 years ago, there are other long lived adventurers other than you, but in terms of frequency and activeness, Shiroe must surely be an Arch mage, correct?"

(98 years? This...)

Shiroe's mind circuit seems to be catching fire as it runs, the time in this world, the history of this world... If you calculate this way, 240 years ago when the 2nd world fraction happened is...

(...The day beta testing of the game started.)



5

When they woke up in the morning of the 4th day, it is raining outside.

The rain that started in the middle of the night persisted into the morning.

It is just a summer drizzle and the raindrops are small as well. The surroundings forest drains the water away smoothly and the tent is holding up fine.

But entering the dungeons have nothing to do with the weather, Minori thought as she check her gears.

Minori checked her equipment thoroughly after the challenge yesterday, but she checked again before leaving out of habit.

(I should be... feeing uneasy.)

Repeatedly counting her potions is also because of this. Minori is sorry for feeling like a child.

She tried her best to be silent, but there are movements in the other sleeping bags as the day breaks.

There are 4 tents, the 2 big tents are for the 2 beginners party, 1 is for the instructors, and the last is the storage and changing room for the ladies.

The 5 members of Minori's party shares a tent with a tarpaulin outside, it is quite spacious.

"Morning..."

Isuzu who slept besides her greeted as she rub her eyes.

Isuzu has stubborn and tough hair, and her hair behind her head will be kinked after sleeping for a night. She is conscious about it as well, that's why she always braids them. But Minori thinks her hair cute this way too.

"Is it light out yet?"

Isuzu stared at the tent entrance with her eyes half open. The canvas is thicker at the entrance, but you can see the light shining in from outside.

"Yeah, it is a bit dark because of the rain, but it is light outside."

"Is that so... I feel so sleepy."

"Because it is cold?"

"Yeah..."

Isuzu mumbles something incoherently and snuggle back into her sleeping bag. Minori puts a blanket over her bag with a smile.

The others seem to be awake, but they are not getting up.

It is drizzling outside, but they had a comfortable and cool rest last night. The sound of the rain drops filled the tent, giving it a steady and sleepy atmosphere of a secret hideout.

The monotonous sound of the rain drops seems to be protecting them, their first leisure time since making camp.

There seems to be a shadow outside.

Minori turns and see Nyanta sticking his head into the tent. Minori approach Nyanta and walks to the middle of the tent. The tent ceiling is high enough that Minori can stand up straight with no problem.

"Morning Nya."

"Morning Mr Nyanta."

"For your breakfast.."

Minori nods to acknowledge Nyanta's soft voice.

"We can't eat outside with the rain like that, so breakfast will be sandwiches with creamy crab soup, please eat inside your own tents nya..."

"Understood."

Nyanta came to deliver breakfast.

He gives her enough sandwich for 10 people and a full pot of cream soup.

"Thank you very much."

"Ah, you are welcome nya, see you later nya."

Minori holds the tray and the pot and bow awkwardly. Nyanta waves and goes back into the drizzle, probably to deliver breakfast to the other party.

Minori place the tray carefully in the middle of the tent and was thinking of where to put the pot. She remember she has a foot light used for heating things in her bag, and decides to use it for the pot.

"Hmmm, is it breakfast?"

Tohya gets up with an unkempt head of hair, Minori reminds him:"Ehmm, Tohya, your hair." Tohya just answers "Ehmm." Without much thought.

"Eat?"

"Let's eat."

Tohya moves slowly out of bed, Rundelhaus besides him is also awake. He seems to be still dreaming and says:"Morning miss Minori... you are beautiful as the sun as well." this baffling greeting, and staggers to the tent entrance.

"Mr Rundelhaus, it is raining outside!" Minori warns him, but he says:" I am just changing my face and washing clothes" and left. <TL: That's what he said.>

Serara is back.

Minori didn't know when she went out, but Serara happily place some fruits beside the sandwich tray, seems like he spent the morning with Nyanta, a morning date(?).

With Serara's help, Minori pour the soup into cups. The reheated soup gives off the fragrance of clam chowder soup and seems to be delicious.

"Of course it is top quality!"

The cheerful Serara says, she probably test the taste with Nyanta. Minori feels it is indeed delicious with the corn and crab meat mixed in.

"Wooo..."

Minori pulled Isuzu who is lying down like a caterpillar up.

Minori take a comb out of her bag, Serara says "leave this to me" and takes the utensils.

It is still drizzling outside.

The party enjoy their breakfast in the cool weather.

Only the top half of Isuzu's body is out of the sleeping bag, Minori is combing her hair behind her. Isuzu's hair is hard to manage and she herself complains why she is so unfeminine. But Minori thinks her light brown braid suits her well.

"This is nice."

Tohya comments softly, wearing a T-shirt and shorts and sitting with his legs crossed on his sleeping bag. This shouldn't be a sight to show the ladies, but it is given a pass with the training camp as an excuse.

Rundelhaus says when returns:"Hi , the breakfast is so fragrant and wonderful today as well, don't you think so?" He has a refreshing air about him, fixing up his appearance in such a short time to returning to his usual pace.

Isuzu who's lower half is still in the sleeping bag tells him:"Rudie, this is delicious." and hand him a sandwich.

(Rudie?)

Rundelhaus takes the sandwich obediently, takes a bite and says:"Woah, this is pumpkin salad right, such a delicacy." he sounds so well mannered, he must have been from a high class family.

The group eat their breakfast quietly.

The gentle sound of the rain sooth the flustered heart of the group. When the group remembers that they have to challenge the dungeon later, their heart becomes heavy, and they lose their chatting mood.

They pack the leftover sandwiches into a basket for lunch, the 3 sandwich flavors are the sincere products of Nyanta, Minori's favorite is fruit omelette sandwich.

There are fruits left on the platter, but everyone is holding on their soup cup and sigh. They are all in a mental blank state after a full meal.

"That..."

Tohya says in this heavy atmosphere.

"Do you want more soup?"

Serara ask Tohya with her eyes on the pot.

"No, it's not about the soup."

Tohya thinks as he choose his words.

With the gaze on him, Tohya repeatedly open his mouth and hesitates, he probably cannot find the correct words to express himself. Tohya is bad with words and hesitates like this a lot, a sight Minori is familiar with.

Minori immediately understand what Tohya wants to do when their eyes met. Tohya wants to break the current situation by encouraging the group. Is the brother trying to protect his sister and become a target for the group? Minori can see this happening.

Since Tohya is set on proposing an idea, Minori has to tag along.

(No, this is something I should have done.)

...Listen, if you encounter any trouble, remember to move forward. Not your legs, but your hearts.

She remembers the advice Naotsugu gave a few days ago.

To move forward with your heart, Minori feels that she finally understands the meaning behind these words, that is to have courage.

Courage doesn't mean not backing down from a fight, but the will to overcome the fear in your heart.

Minori realize the thing that has stopped because of fear is her heart.

Because of this, she says with determination

"Everyone, shall we challenge the dungeon in the afternoon today?"



6

"Ah?"

Isuzu makes a sound in astonishment.

"What are you saying miss Minori! We are here for training right? The priority of the lesson should be to head to into the dungeon as soon as possible and accumulate EXP to level up correct?"

Rundelhaus retorts with a strong attitude.

"But we can only challenge it once a day, and we left before 3 hours yesterday and the day before right? If that is the case, we will achieve the same results if we enter in the afternoon right?"

"You... You have a point, but we can't stay like this forever."

Rundelhaus says fretfully, he seems unable to accept this.

"It is because we can't stay like this forever."

"Minori?"

Serara sounds worried, probably thinking that Minori will have a fight with Rundelhaus. Minori feels her pleas to not be too heavy handed.

"So, for this whole morning..."

Minori's word made Serara and Tohya tense up.

"Let's kill time together lazily."

But the tension was shattered by the 2nd half of Minori's words. "Miss Minori, are you joking?"

Rundelhaus sit up straight, a hint of anger in his voice. His character aside, his blonde hair and handsome force is intimidating when he is angry, Minori shrinks a bit in her heart.

But Isuzu was not afraid of Rundelhaus at all and says casually:"Rudie, calm down." to ease his anger.

Isuzu is good at observing the mood, and she might even be too conscious of it sometimes. So her actions confound Minori, she is not afraid of Rundelhaus at all.

"Describing it as killing time lazily might be pushing it too much, but I feel that we should introduce ourselves."

Minori chooses her words carefully and continues talking to her party mates.

"My name is Minori, level 21, 14 years old, belonging to the human race in this world. I am the sister of Tohya here, am have the lowest level in the group. I am sorry for being a burden to this party."

Rundelhaus snort lightly at her speech, but Minori didn't mind. No, it should be she cannot mind.

"My class is <Kannagi/Shaman/Shrine maiden>, one of the three healing class."

"We knew."

"No, you don't."

Rundelhaus attempt to break her flow, but Minori retorts with a serious look.

"You don't know about me, and I don't know much about you all too. What do you like, what do you hate. Do you prefer to be in the spotlight or to keep a low profile, I don't know anything. And because I don't know, even if I want to help... I don't know where to start."

Serara was totally shaken and tensed up. She has never seen Minori reject someone's words so strongly, only Tohya was not alarmed. Unexpectedly Isuzu was surprised but have a gentle smile on her face.

"Please me everything about yourself. I am weak, if I don't listen and remember it all, I won't be able to support everyone."

"What do you mean by everything?"

Serara ask hesitantly.

"Everything literally. For instance, what is that fireball Mr Rundelhaus conjures?"

"That is a lava ball, a ball of lava as it is named."

Rundelhaus replies casually.

"Saying it like this is the same as telling us nothing... For example, why do use this magic but not other spells? You know a variety of attack spells correct?"

"Because this spell is effective."

"Why is is effective?"

Minori presses him. Rundelhaus collects his thoughts and answers.

"Among the spells I know, this is one of the more powerful one. Not only that, it has a short cast time of 2 seconds and a pretty good cool down of 18 seconds. This is a good balance, allowing me to cast this spell every 20 seconds. It is not very rapid, but once every 20 seconds means I can cast this spell several times in a battle. Furthermore, even though this is an group attack magic, it takes the form of a small ball of lava weaving through the enemies, so it won't hit Tohya who is guarding the front. It is an excellent spell."

Minori listens carefully and nods at his words.

"Wait a minute, the Samurai's taunt has a short range, and it's cast time is 1.5 seconds,"

Tohya says with a confused look.

"What do you mean?"

"It means that as I am moving towards the enemy, I will invoke the skill 'samurai challenge' to taunt them. Although it does no damage, it appears to them as though they were hit hard, and they will focus all their aggression on me."

Serara also look lost. She understands the words, but not the underlying concept behind the other classes, this is the first time she heard about these skills.

"Hmm..."

Rundelhaus displays his excellent comprehension skill.

This is a necessary knowledge.

If the monsters focus their attacks on the damage dealers, they would want to divert their attention away with a bigger threat, which means stronger attacks. But to endure the attacks from them, the vanguard would need high HP and defence.

Tohya is a tank specialising in taking enemies attack with his high defence.  His is strong in defence, but Rundelhaus is twice as strong in terms of attack power.

To overcome this, tanks need to learn skills that can hold the enemies aggression despite having low attack power. Excellent tanks must have this skills to focus the enemies' attention on him.


This type of skills are known collectively as taunts. It causes low but painful damage to them, burning the impression that the tank is the hated enemy into their mind.

Even though all warrior class have taunt skills, each class have their own unique taunts. The range of the taunt is very short for Samurai, about 3 meters. It is about melee range where you can hit the enemy directly, and you need to lure them this close before invoking the taunt. It takes about 2 seconds between casting the skill and it hitting the enemy."

Isuzu listens to the discussion with a blank face, the contents is complicated.

"In short, the cast time of lava ball and samurai challenge is about the same, but lava ball has a much bigger range. If both spells are cast when the enemy is within their casting range, lava ball will hit first, and the skeletons will target Mr Rundelhaus."

That is the conclusion.

The taunt skills that Tohya is using is not effective in the battle.

If the enemy uses range attack, it will be outside of his taunting range. The range attack of Rundelhaus will draw the enemies attention before the taunt hits anyway.

"If that is the case, it means I should not use lava ball?"

"No, just hold on for 2 seconds before casting it."

"Doesn't that mean we will be wasting 2 seconds? In an elegant battle, a delay of 2 seconds can lead to a fatal hit."

Tohya and Rundelhaus continues to argue, and they are getting louder, although not to the extent of a fight. There seems to be steam coming out of them.

"...maybe... There is a reason for the 'Ode of the timid' to exist?"

Isuzu interrupt them hesitantly.

"Miss Isuzu, what is that?"

Tohya ask with a confused expression. Rundelhaus says:"it seems like something to do with weaklings, Miss Isuzu, is that a skill?"

"'Ode of the timid' is a song I just learned, a permanent status buff song. A permanent status buff song will have last indefinitely after casting it once, although I can only sing 2 songs at any point of time. As for the 'Ode of the timid'... It can be used to disguise the damage of party members other then warriors to look insignificant."

"There is such a skill?" "Is that true?"

Tohya and Rundelhaus shout in surprise.

They know bards has a large variety of support skills, but they did not expect them to have such a skill.

"Woo woo hoo... There is, this skill exist,"

Isuzu was intimidated by their passion and back away. She doesn't understand why they are pressuring her.

"But this skill doesn't increase damage, evasion or heal, I always thought that this is a useless skill."

This is normal.

Minori is the same. If someone tells her there is a skill that 'disguise the damage of party members other then warriors to look insignificant', she will think it is a pointless skill.

But now they know this, it is a step forward.

"We need to more about each other.

"Miss Minori, I must apologise. I see now that I am ignorant and shallow."

Rundelhaus bow and apologize without hesitation.

"No, I also did not know about these. Mr Rundelhaus, please tell us about all the spells you have. Not only the name and effect, but also what you like or hate about it. Or when is the appropriate time to use it, or when you prefer to use it, please tell us everything."

"Everything...Miss Minori, it will take quite a while alright?"

"Please take your time, I will ask you about it if there is anything I don't understand."

It is raining outside, but the group can no longer hear its sound.

What they can do, what they cannot do.

What they are good at, what they are bad at.

Minori's group keeps discussing until it's noon.





Chapter 4 end