Chapter 40

Wednesday, May 14, 2031, 7:00 AM Yuuma was sitting in a circle, near the shelter entrance, with Sawa, Nagi, and Kenk, eating a mentaiko onigiri. Kakeru Niki had absconded with nearly half of the food they had acquired from the vending machines in the staff rooms, so after they passed out breakfast to the other seven, the rest was nearly gone. If they hadn’t visited Algol yesterday, they would have already been in danger of running out of things to eat entirely, but Yuuma and the others had checked, and they were in fact able to take the dried meat and fruit they acquired in Algol out of their inventories in Althea, and it still replenished their energy just like normal food. The dried food was more like emergency rations, unlike the fresh onigiri and packaged rolls they had gotten their hands on in the real world, but everyone was going to have to make do for now. “Man, that steak we had back in Calcina was good, though…,” Kenk muttered as he munched on a meager ham sandwich. Yuuma elbowed Kenk in the side, urging him to shut up. True, the sirloin steak they had eaten at Pomegranate Pavilion was so delicious that just the thought of it was making Yuuma’s mouth water, but it was probably best if the four of them (five, if they included Tomori Shimizu) kept that information to themselves until they were able to bring back enough for the whole shelter. At the moment, Tomori was sitting against the wall a short distance away, holding an onigiri in one hand while deep in conversation with Aoi Soga. As the more experienced Priest, she was probably schooling Aoi on how to conduct herself during a fight. The other students had split into small groups and were eating breakfast as well, but everyone was far more quiet than they would have been during school lunch. Most of the students had probably still been half expecting the adults to come rescue them once morning came. Yuuma was no exception. But all was quiet inside Althea now. There were no signs of any rescue squads coming to break through the exterior plate glass and rush in to save them. Yuuma had been doing his best not to think about what might be going on outside, but it was still strange. According to Sawa, the exterior plate glass walls had been reinforced with powerful magic now, so that even heavy machinery would not stand a chance against them. But just because it was hopeless didn’t mean the police or firefighters would be standing around helplessly, biting their nails. They were probably out there with power hammers and buzz saws, doing everything they could to get in. So then why was it so quiet? It didn’t make any sense. Yuuma chewed the inside of his cheek, wishing he had asked Valac about that while in the internus last night, although he was pretty sure she wouldn’t have told him the answer. If Yuuma wanted to know something, it would probably make more sense to ask his own demon than to ask Valac. But Yuuma’s demon hadn’t even told him its name yet. Why? If Yuuma was persistent enough, would it eventually be forced to answer…? “Phew, that hit the spot,” Kenk said, interrupting Yuuma’s reverie. Looking around, Yuuma saw that Sawa and Nagi had also finished eating and were already cleaning up. Yuuma quickly popped the last remaining bite of onigiri into his mouth, chewing several times before washing it down with a swig of water. He handed the packaging to Sawa as she came around to collect it with her hand out. Then he let out a huge sigh. Yuuma’s plastic bottle of mineral water was now empty. He was about to crush it in his hands, so that it could be thrown away as well, when he suddenly stopped himself. “Hey, everyone…put your empty bottles into your inventories, just to be safe. We might be able to use them as canteens over in AM,” he suggested. “Oh, good idea,” said Kenk, who nodded and opened his window. Nagi and Sawa stowed their plastic bottles as well, which were still half full. The four rose to their feet. As they stood up, Haruki Hokari, Kai Kisanuki, and Chinami Nushiro approached from the other side of the room. The two boys had iron pipes in their belts, while a steel ruler poked out from the pocket of Chinami’s hoodie. Hokari was a Ranger, so he probably would have preferred a bow, but there was obviously no way to get his hands on something like that anywhere around here, and a bow was probably too difficult to make on their own. “We’re ready when you are,” Hokari said. There was no trace of the dismal look that had been on his face the previous night. Kisanuki and Chinami seemed to have slept well also. “Understood,” Yuuma said, glancing to the left, but Tomori Shimizu and Aoi Soga, who had been there just a moment ago, were suddenly gone. Yuuma panicked for a moment, but the door to the back room opened and he caught sight of the two girls. That must have just gone to the bathroom. Aoi scurried toward them, bowing her head slightly toward the rest of the group. “S-sorry, everyone, I got a little queasy suddenly…,” she said in her tiny voice. Even under the emergency lights, it was clear to see how pale Aoi’s face was. Nagi stepped closer, worried, and locked eyes with the girl. “Aoi, are you okay? You know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, right?” Probably not even Sugamo would force her to join them if she wasn’t feeling well. Yuuma took a look around the room while waiting for her answer, wondering who they should ask to take Aoi’s place if she decided not to go, but Aoi shook her head lightly. “I’m okay. I can do it,” she insisted. Nagi hesitated for a moment but then nodded sharply and flashed Aoi a smile. “I see… Glad to hear it.” Yuuma was still worried, but if Aoi said she was fine, there was no reason to exclude her. “Once she gets inside a Caliculus, her actual physical condition won’t matter anymore,” Sawa whispered to Yuuma. “Oh yeah… I guess you’re right,” Yuuma whispered back. His sister was a realist, like always. He took a step forward. “Okay, then… Should we get going? The four of you have already formed a party, right?” “We have,” Hokari replied. “You’ll be leading the raid, right, Ashihara?” “Before we get to that… I think you should call Sawa and me by our first names while we’re out on mission. In order to avoid confusion.” “Oh… Yeah, that makes sense.” Hokari nodded awkwardly and cleared his throat. “Yuuma and Sawa it is, then.” “I’ll call you guys Yuu and Sawa!” Chinami said. “Me too,” Aoi added quietly. “It’s settled, then.” Yuuma tried hiding his embarrassment at being called by his first name by girls he didn’t actually know very well. He turned toward Kai Kisanuki. “M-maybe I’ll just go with Mr. and Ms. Ashihara… I probably won’t speak up that much anyway…,” Kisanuki suggested softly. Yuuma stared at him blankly. From the nose up, Kisanuki’s face was hidden by his long bangs, so Yuuma wasn’t sure what kind of expression the boy was making, but he assumed Kisanuki was just embarrassed. Yuuma decided to go along with it for now. “Yeah, that’s fine.” Kisanuki sighed in relief. Yuuma turned his attention toward Hokari again. “I’d like you to be the raid leader, Hokari.” “What…? Why me?” “I’ll explain after we dive into AM. But don’t worry, being leader doesn’t make monsters target you more or anything like that,” Yuuma replied before tapping his window. Yuuma sent a party link request to Hokari. As the one who had sent the request, Yuuma was automatically assigned as raid leader once Hokari pressed OK, so he tapped his window once more to transfer leadership to Hokari. After switching to the trade tab and transferring three MP potions to Aoi, their Priest, their preparations were complete. As Yuuma closed his window… “We’re counting on you guys! Stay safe out there!” someone shouted. Yuuma lifted his head to see Mimi Hariya standing nearby. She wasn’t alone; the other students were standing with her in a line, shouting out their own words of encouragement. “What did I say? Leave it to us! We’ll find that item and bring it back in no time flat,” Kenk called, bringing a strained smile to Yuuma’s face. Yuuma glanced around at his peers, wishing Kenk wouldn’t make such big promises. He suddenly realized there was one person missing. The shelter’s leader, Teruki Sugamo. After taking another look, Yuuma spotted Sugamo in the eat-in section in the back right corner. He was standing near Aria Misono, glaring in their direction. He looked as grumpy as always, but at least he was seeing the party off. Yuuma nodded softly in Sugamo’s direction and then turned away. After pushing the barricade to the side and making sure that the coast was clear, they slipped through the gap one by one. Yuuma waited for Kai Kisanuki, who brought up the rear, to make his way through before giving the signal to Aida and Tada, who were still inside the shelter, to push the barricade back into place. With the entrance fully blocked again, there was no indication that the other students were even inside. Yuuma hadn’t felt any fear when they had stepped outside the shelter the previous night to set the Whistle Traps, but his palms grew sweaty now at the mere sight of the gloomy waiting area and the yawning main lobby beyond. This was probably due to the added pressure of having the lives of the other four, who were entering the world of AM for the first time, on his hands. Yuuma would have preferred to wait until he had calmed down a little, but they didn’t have a minute to waste. After all, there was a chance that Kakeru Niki might attack the shelter again while Yuuma and the others were gone. “…Let’s go, Yuu,” Nagi urged, her voice as cheerful as always. “Yeah,” Yuuma muttered briefly, placing one foot in front of the other. It took a whole ten minutes for them to traverse the waiting area and main lobby, pass through the elevator lobby, ascend the emergency stairwell, and arrive at Playroom 01 on the second floor. They could have probably made it there in three minutes’ time if they had hurried, but since they had to walk in a single-file line along the wall to avoid triggering the Whistle Traps, that couldn’t be helped. Fortunately, at least, they didn’t encounter any monsters or other barriers along their route. Yuuma had been worried that Niki and the others would have done something to block the path to the second floor after they retreated last night, but it looked as if they hadn’t had the wherewithal for such tricks. Or maybe they had left the way open on purpose, so that they would be able to attack the shelter again next time. The playroom was silent, and there were no signs of monsters. But Yuuma and the others couldn’t afford to be careless. The Conehead Demolisher they had fought in Playroom 02 on the third floor had been formed out of twenty or so adults they had found, hunched over against the wall, who had fused together suddenly. Yuuma didn’t want to think about this, but the Conehead Bruiser that had gone on a rampage on the first floor had probably been created through similar means as well. In fact, the Coneheads probably weren’t the only monsters created this way. It was safe to assume that all the monsters wandering around inside the real-world Althea now had once been humans to begin with, including those poisonous Tabanus Hellfly Larvae that Yuuma had crushed with his hands. A total of 720 Nozomi City residents had been invited to Actual Magic’s launch, if Yuuma remembered correctly. Minus the forty-one students of Yukihana Elementary School Class 6-1, that left 679 people. There must have been about a hundred or so Althea staff members and IO-Tage (the company that developed AM) employees present as well. Based on that number, there could very well be twenty to thirty ultra-class enemies, like the Conehead Demolisher, still lurking out there. As for why they had invited 720 guests in the first place, the answer was obvious. There were eighty Caliculus capsules in each playroom, and nine playrooms in total, and eighty times nine equaled 720. At first, Yuuma thought it was awfully generous of the company to invite the maximum number of players, free of charge…but if IO-Tage were the ones behind whatever was going on here, maybe they had just wanted to maximize the number of victims. While these thoughts ran through Yuuma’s head, he began making his way clockwise around the outside walkway of Playroom 01. Although the damage at the front of the room was severe, the playroom was in relatively good shape the farther back they went. They eventually found a spot with eight undamaged Caliculus capsules standing side by side and, after checking out the area just to be safe, entered them one by one. They locked their lids and laid down on the gel cushion mats inside before reciting the voice command to dive in. Pure white, radial light blossomed outward, blotting out Yuuma’s vision. Yuuma felt his consciousness detach from his body and sink, down, down. The feeling was very similar to when he had entered the internus last night, but something about the sensation of falling was decisively different. This continued for several seconds until he felt his feet firmly contact with solid ground. Once he opened his eyes, a sky of complicated hues filled his view. The cirrus clouds floating high overhead scintillated deep red, while the cumulus clouds drifting below them were a deep indigo. The snippets of sky that peeked out from between the clouds were a lapis lazuli gradation, fading from pearlescent to a faint blue. For a moment, Yuuma thought he was looking at a sunset, but that couldn’t be. The time in AM was the same as it was in the real world—sunrise. A vast plain stretched all around him, and to the north, he could see a shadow that looked like it might be a forest. This was Yuuma’s third time diving in, including the playtest, but the world was so bright and vibrant compared to Althea, in which there was only dim artificial light, that it still took his breath away. Unlike the beauty of the internus, which somehow felt staged, AM’s beauty felt more real than even reality. “It’s…so pretty…,” someone suddenly said. Yuuma instinctively turned and spotted Aoi Soga, dressed in a cassock, eyes wide, frozen in wonder. The other party members dove in as well, one after the next. Once Yuuma saw that all eight of them were present, he opened his window. He was confirming their present location when Kenk leaned over from Yuuma’s side, taking a peek at the map and doing a double take. “Wait a second…! This is the same starting location as yesterday, isn’t it?! What are we doing here for…?” he exclaimed before suddenly grabbing Yuuma’s arm as if a new possibility had just occurred to him. “Oh crap! Yuu! What if the four of us wind up in the lord mayor’s mansion in Calcina again, while Hokari and the others spawn here at the original starting point even though we dove in together?!” “Does it look like that’s what happened?” Sawa said, interrupting him. “Oh. Oh yeah,” Kenk muttered after glancing around and seeing that all eight party members were there. Nagi chuckled slightly and turned toward Yuuma with a befuddled look on her face. “Why did we wind up here, though? According to the usual rules of the game, shouldn’t we have spawned in the way Kenk described?” “Yes… But when me, Sawa, Kenk, and Shimizu dove in yesterday, we all spawned in together, right here. I think maybe, with the official launch…which I guess is what you could call this now. I don’t know… But either way, if any players are diving into the new AM for the first time, I think the system is probably set up so that everyone spawns in at the same location as the leader.” “Of course, so that’s why you asked Hokari to be raid leader…,” Nagi said, nodding in satisfaction and looking toward their new members. The other four were staring at the scenery, speechless. Yuuma gave them time, wondering who would be the first to notice. After several seconds… “Wait… I can smell things!” shouted Nushiro, who was dressed in studded leather armor. Aoi sniffed at the breeze. “You’re right…,” she agreed. “I can smell grass and flowers. During the playtest, there were no smells at all…” “Does that mean you can taste things in here, too?” Hokari asked before plucking a single blade of grass from the ground and quickly placing it between his teeth. He immediately spat it out, coughing repeatedly. “Ugh, gross! It tastes like grass!” “You idiot, don’t eat random grass around here. It could be poisonous!” Kenk said. Hokari quickly tossed the blade aside. They watched as it turned into a particle of light and disappeared. “Uh, hey, Mr. Ashihara,” someone said from behind. It was Kai Kisanuki. He was standing there dressed in a wool tunic, the starting equipment for the Monster Tamer class. Kisanuki glanced to the left and right in worry, his eyes hidden behind his long bangs. He lowered his voice and asked, “Are you sure it’s not dangerous to be here right now?” “Dangerous…? Why would it be dangerous?” Yuuma said, cocking his head. There were no monsters in sight anywhere, and even if monsters did spawn in, they would be the weakest, starting at level 1. Before setting out, Yuuma wanted to double-check everyone’s level, equipment, and skills. However… “Players always spawn here the first time they dive in, right? In that case, if I were Niki, I would station a party here, maybe more, to keep an eye out. If just one or two people dove in, the party would be able to kill them there on the spot. With four or more, they could track us, waiting for a chance to pick us off, one by one.” “…” Kisanuki was a tiny bit shorter than Yuuma. Yuuma stared into his face, surprised. Yuuma hadn’t thought of that, but Kisanuki had a point. The group could be in danger here. In fact, Niki’s timing had been so convenient when he’d shown up yesterday that it was entirely possible he’d been tailing them all along, right from this location. Yuuma took another look around. The grasslands, illuminated by the morning sun, extended for several kilometers in every direction, but there were plenty of thickets and hollows where four people could easily hide. “You’re right… We should probably get moving,” Yuuma said. He started to nod in Kisanuki’s direction before suddenly furrowing his brow. “But if someone is tracking us from a distance, it won’t be easy to find them… They could be using magic or an item to stay hidden. They might even have a demon exploit they could use…” “Don’t worry. I’ve got an idea,” Kisanuki replied. He removed a purple card from the holster strapped to his right breast. The other six had gathered around at some point to listen as well. “This is a Lurker Slime that I captured during the playtest. Its stats suck, but it does have the Hide skill. Once we’ve walked a short distance, I can have it wait somewhere along the path and give it the Sneak Attack command. That way, if anyone is following us, the slime will attack.” “But…even if it’s only one person following us, they’ll still be able to easily defeat a single Lurker Slime…” Kisanuki had an answer for this as well. “That’s fine; that’s actually what we want. If the Lurker Slime dies, I’ll get a system message about it. It’ll even tell me the cause of death, including whether it was killed by a monster or by another player. It won’t give me the player’s name, but we’ll at least know that someone is after us, right?” “…” Yuuma was left speechless once again. Not only because of how talkative Kisanuki, who barely ever spoke two words either at school or in the shelter, had suddenly become, but also because of the idea Kisanuki had suggested. Lurker Slimes could change their color and patterning to match their surroundings, making them fairly difficult to spot. Once found, though, they were easy to capture. So long as the slime hadn’t been trained, disposing of one in order to confirm whether or not they were being followed wasn’t that big of a deal. If this had been a standard game, instead of fulldive, Yuuma might have had the same thought. However, Yuuma’s own holster only held two cards. He gently cradled it with his left hand. “After going through all the trouble of capturing a familiar,” he said, “it seems like a waste to just throw it away. We might still have other uses for it. So long as everyone’s careful not to stray too far from the rest of the party, we should be fine.” “…” This time Kisanuki was silent. His mouth twisted into a brief frown of displeasure, but the expression soon disappeared. “Okay… If you say so,” he replied in his usual standoffish mumble. “It’s decided, then,” Yuuma said, nodding. He opened his map again and displayed the full view of Algol—the world of AM—and then placed his window flat so that the others could see. Their current location was on the north bank of Cal River, about five kilometers east of Calcina. About two kilometers north lay the forest where most of the playtest had taken place, and beyond that was the ancient castle where Yuuma and the others had encountered the Varanian Axbearer. Yuuma was curious whether that mini-boss, as well as the treasure chest that had been located there, had respawned, but now wasn’t the time for detours. Northern Algol was a mountainous region blanketed in snow. There was a lake near the tip of a mountain range that extended like a tail from the north. Could this be the Lake Sumiu that Valac had mentioned while in the internus? During the playtest, this area had been out-of-bounds, cordoned off by a wall of mist that blocked sight, let alone passage. Now all they had to do to reach this lake was to walk across the plains for about five kilometers. Yuuma pointed to the lake, which was located due east of the forest and northeast from their current position. “Since the item we’re looking for is called a Rubellite Needle, I think we’re more likely to find it in the mountains than in the plains or near the sea. Of course, I doubt we’ll just stumble upon one while searching around in the overworld, but based on topography, there might a village or something right here…” Yuuma’s explanation sounded a little forced. He couldn’t exactly say that a demon had told him all this. But most of the others simply nodded. There was one person, however, who wasn’t fully convinced. “I don’t know… Instead of searching for some village that might not even be there, wouldn’t it make more sense to gather information in Calcina first?” Hokari said. Yuuma shrugged. “Maybe, but back when we were searching for Nagi, we had to defeat a Varanian lizardman boss in the lord mayor’s mansion that had disguised itself as Calcina’s constable. We escaped right after that, so I doubt anyone has figured out that we snuck into the mansion, but it might be better to steer clear of Calcina for the time being, just in case…” “You’re kidding! Nice job!” Hokari said, flinging his arms out, genuinely impressed. “But you’re probably right; you might be wanted for questioning. In which case, Ashihara… Sorry, I mean, Yuuma… I guess we should pass on Calcina and head toward the lake, like you said. If our search comes up empty, we can always head toward this town instead.” Hokari pointed toward Solieu on the northeast part of the map. Solieu looked like it was more than ten kilometers away from the lake, but it was located right next to a mountainous zone, so it did fit with Valac’s suggestion that they search the mountains rather than the sea. “Thank you. Is everyone else okay with that?” Yuuma asked, taking a look around. The other members of the group nodded in unison. Instead of avoiding monsters as they traveled, the party went out of their way to defeat them during every single encounter, to help Hokari and the others level up. Despite this, it still took only forty minutes to go five kilometers. Whenever they passed through any high ground, they turned around to scout the area, but there were no signs of anyone following them. Just in case, they had Hokari, who was a Ranger and had the Make Traps skill, scatter a few dozen Vine Snare traps behind them to help put their minds at ease, but even if someone did set off one of the traps, they would only get knocked down. There would be no notification that the trap had been triggered. At least it would deliver the message, if anyone was following them, that Yuuma and the others were on to them. Just as the clock in the upper-right-hand corner of Yuuma’s vision reached 8:30 AM, the party arrived at the hill in the northeast corner of the grasslands region. Once they climbed to the top of the slope, a new vista unfolded. To their right, the chalky cliffs that marked the end of the vast mountain range shone white in the morning sun. In the real world, it would be difficult to pinpoint an exact spot where a mountain range began, making this a sight that was unique to the virtual world. To their left, the gloomy tree line of the castle ruins forest awaited. Yuuma wondered if that NPC merchant had set up shop south of the forest again today, but he doubted they had time to check. A canyon about fifty meters wide continued northward, wedged between the forest and the cliffs. A narrow river flowed down the center of the canyon valley before winding its way around the outside of the forest and continuing to the southwest. Lake Sumiu must have been upstream. As soon as they stepped foot into the canyon, the variety of monsters they encountered instantly changed. The unnaturally quick, insect-like creatures they found, which resembled massive long-legged crane flies, gave them some trouble, but by having Hokari and Chinami knock the creatures to the ground—Hokari with arrows and Chinami with rock throws—and then finishing them off with weapon attacks, they were able to get rid of the monsters while still preserving Sawa’s MP. Fortunately, the rule for experience splitting in AM was that all party or raid group members receive an equal share, regardless of whether they directly damage the monster. As a result, even Aoi Soga, who was only using recovery magic, received her fair share of EXP and was able to progress from level 6, which is what she had been when they dove in, all the way to level 8. Haruki Hokari, Chinami Nushiro, and Kai Kisanuki, meanwhile, reached level 9. Not bad for leveling up along the way while they traveled—however, Yuuma, Sawa, and Kenk were level 13, and Nagi, who had received experience for defeating Oeben, was level 11, so work was still needed in order to get everyone in the party on the same footing. Yuuma sank into thought as he carefully led the party through the canyon. Once they got their hands on some Rubellite Needles and freed Aria and the others from their petrification, it might be a good idea to have the entire shelter dive in for some intensive leveling. They reached the exit of the canyon before 9:00 AM. After winding their way around a strangely shaped rock, large and towering, almost like a gatepost, the landscape suddenly opened up. They saw a bluish, dark green marshland that reminded Yuuma of the Kodanuki Wetland located at the western foot of Mount Fuji, which they had visited once as a class as part of an outdoor study program. However, these marshlands were several times as large. A thick fog hung over the marsh, but they could see the sparkling surface of a vast body of water in the distance as well. It had to be Lake Sumiu. A grayish-white cliff, at least one hundred meters tall, loomed over the eastern side of the lake. “I wonder what that cliff is made of…,” Kenk muttered. Chinami Nushiro spoke up. “I think it might be granite. There’s a cliff like that at Mount Kaikoma.” “Wait… Do you go hiking or something, Nushiro?” Hokari asked. Chinami grimaced, as if she had said something she hadn’t meant to. “No, not me, that’s my dad’s thing… But he does take me along sometimes. I mean, hiking’s pretty lame, right?” “That’s not true!” someone shouted. It was Aoi. She stepped in front of Chinami and continued speaking, her voice growing a little louder. “There’s no such thing as a lame hobby! Mount Kaikoma is around three thousand meters tall, isn’t it? We learned that in social studies. I can’t believe you were able to climb a mountain that big, Chinami. That’s amazing. I think it’s cool!” Chinami must not have been expecting that. She blinked for a moment before laughing, a little embarrassed. “Th-thank you, Aoi.” Yuuma, Sawa, Nagi, and Kenk exchanged glances and smiled with their eyes. At school, Chinami usually traveled with the girlie-girl clique, which included Aria Misono and Shouko Ezato, whereas Aoi tended to spend her time with Yukimi Yumura and Mimi Hariya, the other two girls who liked to bake. Yuuma and his friends could barely remember ever seeing Aoi and Chinami speak to each other. If AM gave them the chance to get to know each other better, then maybe forming a party together like this was worth it. Hokari, who preferred to spend his time skateboarding, seemed to have something to say as well. He smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but then… “There’s a village over there,” someone interjected brusquely. Yuuma turned around and saw Kai Kisanuki pointing toward the west side of the lake. Squinting, Yuuma could see what appeared to be the faint silhouettes of buildings through the drifting mist. “All right! A village!” Kenk said, snapping his fingers. Kisanuki grimaced, as if something about that gesture bothered him, but he began walking again without explaining why. Yuuma made eye contact with his friends once more before following Kisanuki. A path meandered through the marsh, but the ground was soggy and covered with lichen, which made it easy to slip if they didn’t keep their eyes peeled. This road was surrounded on either side by marsh water, teeming with suspicious-looking water plants, so if they were to accidentally step off the path and into the water, they would probably have worse to deal with than just wet shoes. Yuuma wanted to move carefully, but Kisanuki, who had placed himself in the lead, was already moving forward at a fast clip. They had no choice but to trust Kisanuki and follow. Luckily, the party was able to make their way through the marshlands without anyone inadvertently plunging into the water. They soon arrived at the threshold of a village. The village, which was surrounded by a stonework wall, was bigger than Yuuma had expected. While nearly all the buildings were single story, there looked to be more than twenty in total. Yuuma knew this was a game world, but he couldn’t understand why people would choose to live in what seemed like such an inhospitable place. He soon noticed a long pier poking out from a hut facing the lake, however, with some sort of small boat, like a kayak, moored by its side. The people here probably made their living by selling fish and seafood caught in the lake to places like Calcine and Solieu—in terms of the game world setting, that is. The grilled fish that Sawa had eaten last night at Pomegranate Pavilion may have even come from this village. Kenk peered inside. “I wonder if this village has a restaurant…,” he said, apparently having had the same thought. “You just finished eating breakfast at the shelter!” Sawa shouted, laying down the law. Nagi giggled in response before quickly furrowing her brow. “It’s…oddly quiet, though, isn’t it?” “You’re right…,” Yuuma said, nodding and listening closely again. All he could hear, though, was the sound of waves lapping at the pier and the breeze blowing in from across the marshlands. Now that Yuuma thought about it, it was well past nine in the morning. It seemed strange that boats would still be tied up this late. Maybe they only went fishing very early in the morning and late in the evening, but if so, then there should have been signs of people, up and about— “Well, we’ve come this far; there isn’t much we can do now but press forward,” Hokari said softly, looking at the others for agreement. He was right. Yuuma doubted they would find a Rubellite Needle immediately in this village, but by asking around, they should at least be able to get their hands on some clues. But before they could ask any questions, they were going to have to actually step foot inside the village. “Everyone, get prepared. We need to be ready for battle at a moment’s notice…” This time, it was Kisanuki’s turn to nod. Kenk, the Warrior, and Hokari, the Ranger, fronted the group as they made their way through the gate, which was formed from stacked, whitish stones. The ground inside the village was elevated about five centimeters higher than the marshlands, and the roads were neatly paved with gray stone. The houses were well-made, from materials that seemed to be about half wood and half stone, and there were no signs of dilapidation. It felt like children might burst onto the narrow road at any minute to play, but the only movement was the continuous flapping of laundry in the breeze. Yuuma and the others continued for about another thirty meters or so, more on guard than ever, before finally catching sight of a plaza. That was where they finally found the villagers, frozen in place, their backs facing Yuuma and the others, as if they had been running away.