Well, it’s pretty obvious that statement was laser-targeted at me… It’s not like I spent all that time killing slimes because I was trying to level up, for the record…
“Hmm. Sorry, Laika, but it sounds like leveling up by fighting a ton of enemies over and over isn’t an option this time. We’ll have to try something else,” I said. I had a feeling she’d been looking forward to a very lengthy stretch of combat, so I thought I should say something to console her.
“To the contrary, Lady Azusa—our foes growing stronger as we level up will just make for better practice! This system makes me feel a greater need to devote myself to my training than ever!”
“Diligent as always, I see!”
I guess this won’t be a problem, then. Judging by how Godly Godness described the system, there’s nothing stopping us from just leveling up until we get bored and moving along.
The fact that I didn’t want to get anywhere near the zombies was still a bit of a problem, but I decided to just suck it up and move along with the encounter. I made like a hero and swung my sword at one of the monsters.
[Zombie took 8 damage!]
A window appeared in my field of vision. The game had a system to tell me how much damage I’d done through text—obviously, I guess.
A moment later, the zombie next to the one I’d attacked was consumed by a ball of fire that flew from somewhere behind me.
[Pecora cast Fire! Zombie took 30 damage!]
With just one spell, the zombie collapsed.
“Ooh, that was one powerful spell! Looks like wizards are pretty tough!” I said.
“It’s not every day I get to use magic as weak as this! It’s a little refreshing! ” said Pecora.
“I guess for a demon king, that was nothing.”
The zombies proved to be the early-game enemies I’d expected them to be, and between Laika’s and Beelzebub’s attacks, we finished off the whole pack with ease. They each took about two hits to take down, on average.
[You defeated the zombies! Obtained 6 TP and 9 Genni!]
Once again, a window appeared to inform us of our spoils. I didn’t know with total certainty what TP was, but I figured it was probably some sort of point system that would let us learn skills. Genni, meanwhile, was probably money we got from killing monsters.
“But, wait… Where’d the nine Genni we got go…?”
Money wasn’t abstract like experience points were, so not being able to see the money I’d obtained made me feel vaguely anxious. Fortunately, Godly Godness the developer herself was ready to step in and explain.
✦ ✦ ✦
After you’ve beaten a group of monsters, you have to search their bodies to get their money!
✦ ✦ ✦
That’s the worst system you could’ve possibly gone with! “Are you trying to make your players feel like muggers?! This is criminal! Come up with a better system, please!”
✦ ✦ ✦
We added this system in for the sake of realism! The idea was that money spontaneously appearing in your wallet was too unnatural.
✦ ✦ ✦
Of everything, that’s where you chose to be realistic?
Pecora, meanwhile, was rifling through the fallen zombies’ belongings.
“Ah, they had money on them! Look—it was in their pockets!”
Honestly, the way you sound so cheerful about it just makes it harder to come up with a response.
Laika seemed to feel just as conflicted about this development as I did.
“Are you certain this is all right, Lady Azusa? Even if our foes were monsters, this feels rather, well…”
“I know what you mean, and no, I’m not certain it’s fine. This is definitely a don’t-try-this-at-home scenario. It’ll be hard to beat the game if we don’t have a good way to make money, though…”
I’d never stopped to consider it before, but imagining the protagonists of all the RPGs I’d played in the past rifling through their enemies’ pockets for spare change made it suddenly feel a lot harder to root for them… This was raising a major ethical dilemma about the nature of justice in my mind. In the end, though, I decided to compromise by just blaming it all on Godly Godness and calling it a day.
✦ ✦ ✦
Our party gradually grew more and more used to the RPG world as we progressed through its story. We found a key item in the cave, traded it for the boat, and explored the new lands it opened up for us. We also ran into enemies out on the sea that looked an awful lot like palette-swapped versions of Curalina the jellyfish spirit and Captain Imremico. Apparently, going out of the way to make unique, ocean-themed enemies was too much of a bother for Godly Godness…
Needless to say, we made sure to complete all the quests we encountered in the new lands we traveled to. Also needless to say, we encountered some slight issues every once in a while when our party members’ perspectives clashed with the game’s.
“’Tis a crime to walk into someone’s house and make off with the belongings stored in their treasure chest, Azusa. Are you not supposed to be a hero?” Beelzebub jabbed as I opened up a chest I’d found on the second floor of a random home.
“Ugh… No, this isn’t what it looks like! I mean, it kind of is, but that’s not how it works! Heroes are allowed to do this, okay?!”
The fact that searching through someone’s belongings for loot was an unambiguous crime according to usual logic made it really hard for me to explain myself. That wasn’t the only bump in the road we encountered, either—Laika ended up getting very suspicious at one point while we were gathering information. It happened when we were talking to each random townsperson who happened to be walking around a city in a particular kingdom.
“Outsiders aren’t allowed into the castle, but there’s a secret entrance in the waterway out back!” an old man told us.
“This, um, may not be my place to say…but it might be dangerous to share a secret of that gravity with someone you’ve only just met,” said Laika.
“Rumor has it the minister’s secretly a monster in disguise! He’s pulling the strings behind the scenes!” said another old man.
“That…is most definitely not a safe rumor to be spreading carelessly,” said Laika.
After we’d finished gathering information, Laika crossed her arms and walked over to speak with me.
“This is strange—too strange,” she said. “If a perfectly ordinary townsperson is aware the kingdom’s minister is a monster in disguise, then surely the minister’s identity is an open secret at best? I can’t understand why nobody’s done anything about it! Surely this must be a trap? We should look into the background of the old man who told us about it!”
“I understand how you feel, but it’s just one of those things! Tell yourself he’s just surprisingly well-informed and move on!”
“The man who told us about the secret waterway passage into the castle was suspicious, as well. We’d only just met him! For all we know, the enemy will be lying in wait to ambush us if we take his word for it and try to sneak in…”
“It’s fine, really! We can trust him! And even if it does turn out to be a trap, we still have to fall for it!” I said, realizing how ridiculous I sounded halfway through my own sentence. Unsurprisingly, the rest of my party wasn’t just going to sit back and accept that.
“’Tis madness to march into what you know full well could be a trap,” Beelzebub said, just like I’d known she would. “And that’s not even taking into consideration our lack of numbers. If the enemy is lying in wait for us, they could easily wipe us out. Walking headfirst into such danger would be foolhardy beyond all reason.”
“Right, but, um… The thing is, if we don’t walk into it, then the plot won’t progress… The worst that’ll happen is us getting locked up in jail, I promise…”
“How would the prospect of being thrown in jail ever serve as consolation? If that’s the consequence on the table, t’would behoove us to come up with a better option.”
Boy, I sure do wish I could force her to play through three classic RPGs or so before we carried on with this!