“Yeah, you said it. But completing this trial is gonna be difficult.”
My Flame Jewel had a rarity of six, but I didn’t want to let go of that. Though I could probably find more in Zone Eleven, so maybe it was fine to offer it.
“Well anyway,” I continued, “we can’t leave the village until everyone comes back, so why don’t we take a look around?”
“Great idea!” Akari said excitedly. “We’re in a new area! Let’s explore!”
“I wonder if they have any cat merch?” KTK said.
And so, we walked around the Beast Hybrid Village of Zone Eleven, buying up all kinds of items as we did.
After I was finished looking around, I killed time by making Reflet a bunch of different types of seafood, as I had promised, then hanging out and having tea with my monsters. Although, Reflet wasn’t satisfied with the ingredients I had on hand, so I would have to make her more food sometime soon.
Oh, and the Curse Man had given basically the same reward as the Shadow Man had. No items, but a lot of money. That must be the norm with the demon’s underlings.
“So I’m assuming the Curse Man was the ‘higher-ranked minion’ that was mentioned in the second video?” Akari said.
“Oh yeah, you’re probably right.”
The second cryptic cutscene of the demon and his subordinate put out by the devs had implied that even stronger minions would start to appear. That must have meant that we had entered the second phase of the event. Did that imply that there were more Curse Man enemies popping up in other areas too? Well, I was glad we had defeated it in any case.
A raid battle against the main demon himself was probably awaiting us at the end of this event. Nearly all of the strong demon enemies that had appeared so far had been raid bosses, after all.
Once we were ready, we joined back up with Kokuten and made our way back to Yellow City. But when we got there...
“Whoa. What’s going on...?”
The entrance to the city was like a madhouse. The area was crowded with players. Thankfully, the space expanded to account for the number of players, so at least it wasn’t so crowded that it was impossible to move. The only possible explanation was that people had rushed here after hearing the server-wide announcement about the new zone being unlocked.
Although, I seemed to remember that announcement only mentioning that Zone Eleven had been unlocked... How did people find out it had to do with Yellow City?
After we walked a few steps, players swiftly moved aside to open a path for us. They were really staring at us! Wait, did they find out that we were among the ones to unlock the zone? No, never mind. I remembered how much people had been staring at us when we first set out together too. I knew I would think something was up if I saw Holland, Kokuten, and KTK going somewhere together.
As we walked forward, enduring the pressure of the gazes around us, we saw the person we were here to meet.
“Yuto! Over here!” shouted Alyssa.
“Ah, thanks. What a crowd, huh?”
“It sure is. Heh heh heh.”
She’s beaming! She was ever the portrait of a greedy merchant.
“Let’s keep moving! This way!”
“Alyssa, wait! Slow down!”
“Come on, pick up the pace!”
The reason we had returned to Yellow City was to sell what we had found out to the Quick-Eared Cats. I had contacted Alyssa ahead of time, but her energy right now was off the charts. With how quickly she was jogging, I felt like she was going to leave us in the dust. Wasn’t she a little too excited? We still hadn’t told her what kind of information we were here to sell. Though considering who was in our party, I guess she was expecting big things from us.
Right now, I was with Akari, Kokuten, Sawyer, Holland, and KTK. And although I had thought they wouldn’t even need me here, for some reason, I was in the front. I didn’t really consider myself at the bottom of the barrel anymore. After all, I had helped unlock a new zone! Plus with the second-wave players joining, there were certainly those who were ranked below me.
Was I a top player? No, that would be going too far. After having witnessed how Holland, Kokuten, Siegfried, and everyone else fought, I could never call myself a top player. An advanced player? That still sounded too good for me. I couldn’t imagine myself being among the advanced players. But maybe I had risen to the middle ranks? I had at least progressed to the point where I could get a pass for lecturing a newbie Tamer about the game like a glorified know-it-all, right?
Even if that were true, it was still odd for me to be acting as the representative of a group filled with all these all-star players... Well, I guess I was the one who triggered the quest, so maybe it wasn’t all that weird. But then why wasn’t Akari leading our group? Why was she all the way in the back?!
Alyssa led us to a reception room and had only me sit down on the sofa. I am being treated as the leader!
“All right, let’s hear what you have to tell me.”
“Right, where to begin?”
“Tell me everything! From start to finish!”
“U-Um, okay.”
I looked to the rest of my group, and they nodded. We had already discussed things beforehand, so I wasn’t asking if it was okay to tell Alyssa everything. I was checking to see if someone else wanted to take over in my stead. But as I had expected by this point, I would have to be the one to explain everything to Alyssa.
“Okay, I’ll start from when Akari and I were searching for a yokai and met Weris.”
“Weris?”
“She’s a wolf-human NPC.”
“Really? Do you have a screenshot? Tell me you have a screenshot.”
“Y-Yeah, I do.”
Alyssa, don’t bring your face so close to mine! I can practically feel your breath!
“Here it is.”
“She’s so cute! So, did she lead you to some sort of event?”
“Yeah, pretty much. She brought us to the beast hybrids’ hidden village.”
“A hidden village! Really? Y-You mean you discovered a whole new village?”
“Y-Yes.”
Alyssa was being even more pushy than usual. It was a little unsettling.
“Oh, sorry. This’ll take forever if I keep interrupting you. Continue.”
“Okay, so this village...”
I explained how all the inhabitants were animal-human hybrids, how they claimed it wasn’t a hidden village but it was hidden behind a barrier, how the cave continued beyond the village and led to a raid boss, and how we were able to gather information right there in the village that we needed to defeat the boss.
I then disclosed what happened during the boss fight in detail. Man, it had really been a difficult fight. We had miraculously beat it on our first try, but we would have all died had it not been for our revive potions and our all-star party.
I also told Alyssa about the things that needed to be prepared ahead of time, like knowing how to make the traps and poison, and how to make use of the stalactites.
It took a while, but I explained everything from beginning to end while showing her everyone’s videos of the fight. I had asked Holland and Ashihana if they were really okay with me exposing their ultimate moves, but they said that they had already sold that information to the Cats.
Also, since everyone in the raid party had filmed the raid boss fight, I let Alyssa know that we were prepared to hand over all the footage as well. We were originally going to use them to analyze the fight, but they had unexpectedly turned into informational videos instead.
“That’s everything that happened before we unlocked Zone Eleven.”
“...”
Alyssa had her arms thrust up wide and was looking up at the ceiling, posing like she was on the cover of a certain Vietnam war movie. When I first started talking, she’d been in the Gendo pose, with her elbows on the table and her hands folded in front of her face. It was a pose I had seen her take before. But as I spoke, she gradually leaned back until she ended up in her current pose. And she was shaking.
“Huh? Alyssa?”
“Alyssa?”
“Um, are you all right, Alyssa?”
“Kitty, are you okay?”
“Wh-What’s wrong with her?”
Kokuten, Akari, Sawyer, KTK, and Holland were bewildered by Alyssa’s behavior. Ha! This is exactly how she wants you to react!
I thought she was going a little overboard charging up for her usual scream, but maybe she was doing this for the benefit of everyone else, not me. I could see how someone who didn’t usually make use of the Cats’ services would be caught off guard by this display. Even I, who was used to this sort of thing, was a bit startled.
“Wuh.”
Oh! She’s gonna do it!
“Wuhhh...”
“A-Alyssa, what’s the matter?”
“Miss Informant? Is there a problem with your connection?”
Akari and Holland tried to approach Alyssa, when...
“WAAAAAH! I never saw this coming!”
“Eeep!”
“Whoa!”
“Jeez!”
“...!”
“Ack!”
Another stellar act! Akari and Holland, who were on both sides of her, exclaimed in shock and fell on their backsides. Kokuten jumped, KTK’s attached tail puffed up, and Sawyer let out a yelp. Classic Alyssa. She can even throw top players for a loop!
“Pant pant pant... Sorry, I lost myself for a second.”
“I-It’s okay. I mean, are you okay, Alyssa?” Kokuten asked.
“H-Heh. Yeah, this always happens.”
“I-It does?”
“Yep. I always scream like that when Yuto is involved... Hee hee, you can laugh if you want.”
“No, that’s all right. Just, um, thanks for all the hard work that you do.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Your efforts are appreciated.”
“You’ve done great, Alyssa.”
“We have a lot to thank you for.”
Everyone expressed their appreciation for Alyssa. Mm-hmm, that role-play act was really well done! But we still had information to share with her. Heh heh heh, you’ve gotten ahead of yourself, Alyssa!
“Um, I still have more to tell you... And in a way, this next part is the biggest news.”
“...?”
“After we made it to the village in Zone Eleven, an event triggered.”
“...!”
Alyssa’s face was going through all sorts of emotions. Nice, I got a new reaction out of her! Some of the faces she’s making are hilarious!
“And you’d never guess, it led to a quest to change races. Pretty neat, huh?”
“WAAAAAH! HE GOT ME AGAAAAIN!”
Whoa! Two screams in one day!