If we assumed there was one in each quadrant, then the final two were in the Great Mountains to the east and the Great Wilderness to the west. And the last two yokai were the Satori and the Double Cocoon.
I took out their hanging scrolls. The Satori looked like a cross between a monkey and a dog; it was covered in thick, brown fur and had a long tongue lolling from its mouth. The Double Cocoon looked like a white cocoon covered in some phosphorescent substance. The inside of the cocoon wasn’t visible, but considering Tefu-Tefu’s appearance, it was probably a butterfly or moth cocoon.
“The Satori gives me a bit of the creeps,” Akari said.
“Yeah, it’d be a nightmare to be attacked by that thing.”
“But I also don’t love the idea of a giant moth.”
“I think I prefer the cocoon, personally.”
If we considered that the Satori was a beast-type yokai, and the cocoon a bug-type yokai, then couldn’t we make a guess as to which one inhabited the Great Mountains and which the Great Wilderness?
That had been my initial thought, at least, but neither stood out to me as being a more likely habitat for either yokai.
“Should we just go ahead and try checking out one of those areas?” Akari suggested.
“Good idea.”
However, it was getting dark, which meant our options were limited. Monsters spawned in stronger at night, and it wasn’t exactly the ideal time for exploration since we wouldn’t be able to see well.
“Mountain climbing will be hard in the dark, so how about we go to the Great Wilderness?” I proposed.
“Yes, let’s do that.”
And with that, we were off. Since I wanted to try using Yokai Summoning, I left one slot in my party open. But before making our way to the wilderness, Akari wanted to stop by the Adventurers’ Guild in Zone Ten.
“Accepting a few quests will make this journey even more productive!”
“Now that you mention it, I haven’t done very many quests for the Adventurers’ Guild.”
I took on quests from the Magical Beasts’ Guild and Farming Guild fairly regularly—almost every day in the case of the Farming Guild. Both guilds had persistent quests like delivering vegetables or medicinal herbs, so I just did those every morning.
I would get way more money selling my crops, but I completed these quests to earn contribution points with the guild. I never took on combat quests, so the only way I could increase my rank was by earning points little by little with the delivery quests.
And it was thanks to that slow and steady grind that my rank in both guilds was over 10. In comparison, my Adventurers’ Guild rank was only 5!
“Have you finished choosing quests, Yuto?”
“Oh yeah, I have.”
I had selected several quests that were available to me for the Great Wilderness. Akari and I showed each other the details of the quests we chose on our way to our destination. The quests more or less asked the same things of us. Our quests overlapped about eighty percent in terms of the enemies we had to defeat and items we had to deliver, only differing in how many of each were required.
Akari had to defeat more enemies and deliver more items for her quests. The discrepancy was due to our different ranks in the guild. Players with a higher rank were given more difficult quests, but in return, they received better rewards and more contribution points.
I decided to accept a bunch of combat quests this time around, since fighting alongside Akari would help me clear them. In exchange, I planned to help her with gathering items. Though I wasn’t sure how much help I would be, since she was perfectly capable of doing so herself.
Akari had learned plenty of gathering skills—not a surprise for the person who earned the title “Ruby Red Explorer,” which was given to the player who had gathered the most items at the start of the game.
Not only did she know the regular gathering skills, but she also knew a skill that specifically helped her find ingredients, a skill that increased the number of items she gathered, and a skill that extended her gathering range. Calling her a gathering specialist would not be an exaggeration.
Akari took enjoyment in exploring all sorts of places and collecting items there. She was the real deal, evidenced by how she was second to none in the number of items she had registered in her encyclopedia. It was no wonder that she would want to fill out her yokai encyclopedia too. Maybe it had stoked her collector’s spirit. I could understand that.
Honestly, I was feeling anxious that I’d even be much use searching for the yokai, but I supposed two heads were better than one.
“Okay then, ready to go?” Akari asked.
“Neigh!” Carro whinnied in response.
“Aye!” Fau cried from her spot on the pony’s head, pointing far off into the distance. She was already in the exploration mindset. Of course, she was pointing in the opposite direction where we wanted to go, so we would not be going that way!
“Carro, this way,” I said.
“Neigh.”
“Aye-aye?”
The Great Wilderness was an arid, rugged expanse of land with rocks, shrubs, and sand. The area offered little in the way of food, so it would be difficult to recover hunger using locally sourced ingredients. Not only that, but this area was unique in that our hunger depleted here faster than normal.
That wasn’t a problem for a party like ours, since we had plenty of our own food, but I had heard stories of parties specializing in combat having a rough go of it here in the early game. Another feature unique to this zone was the fact that many enemies could attack from underground. If we didn’t walk with caution, we could be hit with a surprise attack. Unlike the snowy forest and the mountains, however, most of the ground here was mostly flat, so at least walking was easy. And with Rick and Akari keeping a watchful eye out for enemies, the rest of us could focus on gathering items.
“I hope we can find the yokai, but where could it be?” I wondered aloud.
“Aye.”
“Neeeigh.”
We had accepted several quests though, so it was important that we completed those too. We searched for both the items we needed to gather and the monsters we needed to defeat. It didn’t take long for Akari to spot a suitable monster.
“What about that one over there?”
“A Fat Horn?”
“That’s the one!”
Fat Horns were bovine monsters that were, you guessed it, fat little cows. They were black-and-white, like Holstein cattle, and they were as round as a balance ball. Instead of using their four limbs to walk on the ground, the cows moved by rolling around. While they had high HP and defense, they were slow and had a limited range of attack, so they were the perfect enemy for trying out new skills on. Plus, if we defeated one, we’d get cow meat and milk.
But for some reason, Akari’s face suddenly fell and she said, “Um, actually, is this really a good place to try out the skill?”
“Huh? Why not?”
“There’s so many people watching...”
“Well, we’re just practicing. I don’t see a problem with that.”
It’d be another story if we were trying out a super rare skill no one else had, but Hamakaze had already uploaded videos of herself using Yokai Summoning. There was no point in us trying to hide it.
We were still around the entrance of the Great Wilderness, so there were a lot of players around. If Akari didn’t want anyone to see us, then we would have to go further in. Personally, I was more concerned about a couple of the onlookers themselves rather than the fact of being watched.
“Hey, Takkun. Isn’t that guy over there Silver-Haired?”
“Huh? Hmm, maybe. Oh, but that girl next to him is definitely Ruby Red.”
“You don’t know what Silver-Haired looks like, but you can recognize Ruby Red right off the bat? Takkun, don’t tell me, is she your type?”
Since there was no PvP element and players were free to just play casually, LJO had a lot of female players. Because of that, a lot of couples had been cropping up lately, including couples like “Takkun” and “Mami” over here. Although I had never seen a couple be as unreserved about it as these two.
I had heard of there being forum threads specifically about couples, like the “Thread to Discuss Emergency Measures Regarding In-Game Couples” and the “Couples, Get Lost! Singles-Only Thread.” Though I was curious what they wrote about there, I also sort of didn’t want to know. All I knew was that if I ever did take a look at those threads, I’d probably just walk away depressed.
“She’s a celebrity, that’s how I recognize her! Don’t forget that you were the one who recognized Silver-Haired, Mami.”
“Oh, please. He’s not my type at all. You’re my type, Takkun. Tee-hee! ♪”
“And you’re my type, Mami.”
“Oh, Takkun. ♪”
Why did I feel like I just got rejected? Well, you’re not my type either, so there! And get a room, damn it!
“Ugh!”
“Yuto?”
Whoops. I forgot myself for a second there. With a cooler head, I could see I was in the wrong. I was just some guy listening in on a couple flirting with each other and then getting mad over it... In real life, that sort of behavior would come across suspicious enough to warrant getting reported. Actually, it was also plenty suspicious in the game.
Akari hadn’t heard a word of Takkun and Mami’s conversation at all, based on the confused look she was giving me. She really was cute, though. Um, no, brain. Obviously my head still hadn’t cooled down completely.