Chapter 3

The merits of a high elf were 10 percent Battle and Skill Bonuses when surrounded by nature and the use of Eagle Eyes. The deficits were found in Craft Skills, since it was impossible to cultivate necessary plant ingredients by your own power. Cayna often gathered these by asking available guild members or buying them from vendors. The title of Skill Master was an honor bestowed upon those who mastered 1,500 Magic Skills and 2,500 Craft Skills to equal 4,000 total skills (though the designers continued to add more). Cayna had been given the title of Third Skill Master, since she was the third out of the fourteen people to master every skill. That title was the very reason Cayna preferred logging in and out of this remote region as she pleased without venturing into other territories. Along with the honor and title came the automatically obtained Skill #4,001 called Scroll Creation. Therein lay the problem. With this ability, Skill Masters like Cayna could record the skills they possessed onto parchment, making it easy for other players to obtain them without embarking on annoying quests. However, whenever she met players face-to-face, they constantly demanded she “give me this” or “give me that.” The Skill Masters got fed up with this and submitted a petition to the Admins to do something about it. The Admins had tried to deal with it, but an incident occurred in the process where one person ended up having a nervous breakdown and quitting the game altogether. In the end, their solution was to have the Skill Masters take on part of the Skill Transfer Quests normally handled by NPCs. Each Skill Master was then assigned a location of their choosing. The goal of these Skill Transfer Quests was to reach the summit of each location. Word of the new rule that anyone who succeeded in these difficult quests could have any skill they wanted spread throughout the game like wildfire. The locations of the Skill Masters differed greatly and tormented the players to no end. A beautiful building filled with lethal traps at random intervals. An undersea fortress known as the Palace of the Dragon King that was unreachable without magic that allowed one to breathe underwater—and of course, there were the sea monsters inhabiting the depths. A castle in the sky that was completely hidden unless you used Flight and Eagle Eyes simultaneously. The entrance to a temple whose location changed every day. Even after you finally managed to pinpoint it across the entire mountain range where it was located, the inside turned out to be an enormous dungeon. Half these quests were too frustrating to be any fun. They were clear manifestations of just how much resentment the Skill Masters harbored after having to deal with the other players’ heartless Gimme, gimme attitudes. With this in mind, Cayna conscientiously chose a silver tower in the middle of a vast forest as her base. If the objective was to reach the very top of the tower, it was certainly feasible. However, it took twenty-four real-time hours to do so. It was important to note that the long stairs did not match the height of the tower’s exterior. Players immediately started circling up the entire tower as if it were a drill bit, but since the speed matched their set pace, running wouldn’t make the journey any shorter. If you stopped at any point before reaching the top, you would be instantly returned to the starting point outside the forest. This was considered a relatively tame trick compared with some of the gimmicks employed by Cayna’s fellow Skill Masters. The owners of each location had rings and passcodes that allowed them to directly access their most central regions, so coming and going was no issue. Cayna told herself she’d have to visit hers later and moved on to inspecting her items and equipment. Currently, she was wearing a high-level Fairy King Robe that only female high elves could equip. Even within the entire game itself, Cayna was probably the only one who could wear it. She wore leggings that were visible down to her knees and sturdy boots. Both were treasured pieces imbued with several status boosts. On her left arm was an arm guard that she could attach a bow to with a command key; by expending MP, she could turn the normal arrows into magic ones. On her right side, she wore a headband with a feather attached. It automatically rendered her invisible when faced with an external threat, though this cost MP. Her weapon was a lightning dagger displayed at the very top of the Item Screen. It was an optimum weapon that paralyzed an enemy after only a few hit points. “To be honest, I’m way too well equipped here…” Basic battle strategy said she didn’t need to be this armed when she could just blow everything away with magic, but Cayna couldn’t be too careful now that she’d lost everyone from her guild in one fell swoop. Even if her race wasn’t as suited to a vanguard position as normal elves, she could still form a party with low-level players and act as a pretty good tank. All that was left was to consult the toolbox at her tower and decide what she’d keep. “…Oh!” Suddenly, Cayna realized she had completely forgotten her support AI. Her uncle had made it special for her when it became difficult for her to move on her own in real life. It was an assistance AI that aided her with daily tasks even though she was bedridden. Attached to the hospital bed, “he” was an extraordinary construct that could act of his own volition and do everything from raising and lowering the back of the bed to calling a nurse in an emergency. He could even assist her with in-game commands, keep detailed logs, scratch itches, and let Cayna know if she had visitors when she was either sleeping or being examined. He had been with her longer than any gaming companion, and she considered him a partner of sorts. She called out nervously, unsure of what she’d do if he didn’t respond. “…Kee, you there?” “Yes. I am here.” Cayna’s heart eased as Kee—whose name came from a cat her mother once had—replied. He spoke in a concise, robotic tone devoid of any affectations. “You have two urgent items.” “I figured. What’s up?” “Item one: You have disconnected from the hospital system. Item two: You have been disconnected from Leadale’s master system.” “I see… Thanks.” She had already guessed that this place was both part of the game and not. The question was why Cayna was here to begin with. Even within the past day or so, she hadn’t heard anything about Leadale ending service. It didn’t matter if you were far from the royal capital or your friends; if there was important information or a big Event coming up, any logged-in player would hear about it from either the Admins or their guild and friends. Cayna thought back to her most recent memory. Her AI assistant had informed her that her uncle and a cousin had come to see her, so she must have logged out. She’d spoken with them for a short while, then logged back in. Fatigue had quickly taken hold of her, and she’d gone to bed without logging out. Her last memory was of setting her status to Away. Whatever had happened between then and when she’d woken up must have brought her to this point. “Hmm… Kee, did anything strange happen last night?” “Yes, there was one item.” “There was?!” Since her partner (?) himself couldn’t tell if it was an emergency, he must have been uncertain whether to report it. “After you retired to bed, the power cut out for approximately two seconds. That is when the previous two items occurred.” “Cut out?” “I am eighty percent certain it was a blackout.” “Oh, right, a blackout. Okay… Wait, a blackout?!” The gravity of her strange situation became clear, and Cayna could easily surmise what had happened. This forgone conclusion robbed her of all hope. “Cayna?” Keina Kagami’s body was so weak that she couldn’t survive without life support. Cayna herself knew this, and the doctors had warned her as well. If interrupted by some outside source, whether it be a lightning strike or otherwise, it took about two seconds for emergency generators to resupply the hospital’s equipment. In that time, her spirit alone had escaped reality and fled to this world. In other words, Keina Kagami’s body was dead.