Chapter 12 — I Want You to Figure Out the Rest Yourselves
In the guildmaster’s room on the second floor, Yogiri and Tomochika were sitting on a sofa across from the young man, a table between them, where they were receiving an explanation of Cavern Quest.
“Sounds like a familiar premise for a game.”
“One where you hunt monsters...”
You took a quest, headed out to a field, and after completing your objective, returned home. You collected materials to strengthen your equipment, which allowed you to take on more difficult quests. That was the kind of game Cavern Quest was.
“It’s pretty straightforward, right? You get stronger and stronger until you can defeat the last boss. That’s all there is to it.”
“Then what about those guys who tried to stop us from registering?” Yogiri asked. “We were told to ask the receptionist about it.” If the game was that simple, it didn’t make sense for that many people to show up to try and stop them.
“I guess I haven’t explained about DP yet,” the guildmaster answered. “DP is something like money, and you get it as a reward for doing quests. It stands for Drama Points. Basically, you get them for doing something dramatic in the game. They were hoping to get some DP for participating in an event where they mess with new adventurers.”
“Huh? You can get money for that?!”
“Yup. You can make a pretty good amount of DP doing stuff like that. It’s the only currency you can use in Cavern Quest, so it’s absolutely necessary to survive. And just to warn you, arranging things beforehand and just acting it out doesn’t work. The Director AI watches your behavior closely, so if you want DP for it, it’ll have to be impromptu.”
“Hold on, this isn’t really sounding very simple anymore...” Tomochika tilted her head. Yogiri also felt like he understood the hunting game aspect easily enough, but he was starting to feel like there were some unnecessary parts being added on.
“So I understand how Cavern Quest works, but why did you feel the need to explain it to us personally?” he asked.
The guildmaster had given them a good explanation, but nothing that the receptionist wouldn’t have been able to do. It didn’t feel like there had been much point to taking them aside like this.
“Oh! I guess I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m a Sage. The name’s Van. I wanted to see what the rumored Yogiri Takatou was like firsthand.”
“Huh?” Tomochika blurted out. Yogiri also hadn’t expected the Sage to appear in front of them so quickly.
“I’m not planning on being your enemy or anything, so don’t worry.”
True to his word, he hadn’t shown anything close to killing intent towards them yet. All he had done was explain Cavern Quest.
“If you’re a Sage, that makes things easy. The Philosopher’s Stones are here, right?” Yogiri asked. Sion had said that the clear reward for Cavern Quest would be the Philosopher’s Stones.
“Yeah, I’ve got them right here. Come on in,” Van called out, prompting some others to enter the room. A slender elf, a plump young man, a small but fit older man, a bewitching woman in a wide-brimmed, three-pointed hat, a young man with horns growing from his forehead, and another young man with a sharp gaze. In addition to the six of them, there was a large white dog. They lined up on the side of the room to Yogiri’s right.
“Oh, you’re already here, Hanakawa?” Yogiri remarked.
The plump young man was none other than their troublesome classmate.
“So it appears...though I cannot say I know what is going on,” he answered. It seemed he wasn’t the only one completely in the dark. The others seemed equally confused.
“The Philosopher’s Stones are inside them,” Van said, casually waving a hand. As he did, blood sprayed from Hanakawa’s chest. He crumpled to the ground with a bizarre gurgle as the others around him screamed. A huge hole had been torn in his chest, showing a round stone inside his body.
“Relax, Hanakawa. You’re a Monk now, so you won’t die from that. You can heal yourself too, right?”
“H-Heal...” Hanakawa struggled to speak, but the wound didn’t close right away. Though the bleeding slowed, it didn’t seem like he was going to live much longer.
“Oh! I forgot you were back at level one. No wonder you can’t heal such a wound. Okay, go ahead and use this.” Van pulled a red orb from his pocket and tossed it over. The orb struck Hanakawa and split, spraying him with a red liquid. As they watched, the wound in his chest closed.
“I-I thought I was going to die for sure!” Hanakawa complained as he lifted himself up off the ground. Yogiri could understand his feelings.
“I thought you could take it, so that’s why I did it to you,” Van explained. “The others would have died right away.”
“I do not need that level of trust from you!”
“So you understand now the stones are really inside them, right? Should I open one more up for you?”
“Stop! Leave that dog alone!” Yogiri shouted, sensing killing intent from Van aimed at the dog. He wouldn’t allow a random dog to get wrapped up in this.
“Hold on one moment! Even after seeing blood spray from my chest, you were not the least bit concerned! Why are you so worried about a dog who has yet to be harmed?”
“Because dogs are cute.”
“Only a psychopath would consider dogs more important than people!”
Now that he thought about it, prioritizing the dog’s well-being wasn’t very good of him. Yogiri did his best to restrain his anger.
“I was just trying to be nice, but looks like I made you mad,” Van’s expression clouded over. Yogiri felt there was something odd about the way he acted.
There wasn’t any hatred or malice in his actions. The Sage had just figured showing two of the stones would be better proof than one. That was how his thought process worked.
“You also need to control yourself!” Hanakawa shouted at Van.
“I brought the Philosopher’s Stones into the game as bait for you, but just leaving them as the reward for beating the game sounded kind of boring. So instead, I’ve made them necessary items for beating the last boss.”
It seemed things were getting more and more irritating. If all they had to do was beat the game to get the stones, they could go ahead and beat the last boss right away, but now that wouldn’t get them the stones. It was easy to predict that those who were trying to clear the game would now start fighting over the stones too.
“It’s not quite the same as the completion reward, but since you need them to beat the game, it amounts to basically the same thing. Still, it’s definitely not what we agreed to. So as an apology, I’ll give you one right off the bat. Go ahead and pick any of them.”
“Okay, I want the dog,” Yogiri responded instantly. Everyone in front of them would likely be attacked by those looking to steal the Philosopher’s Stones. Humans could do something to protect themselves, but a dog would be killed right away. Yogiri couldn’t accept that, so he wanted to save the dog if he could.
“Uh, Takatou?! Are you sure that’s a good idea?!” Tomochika clearly thought they should have picked a human.
“Wait, wait, wait! Look at me! I am still right here!” Hanakawa cried.
“You’re not going to kill the ones I don’t choose, right?” Yogiri asked.
“They’ll just be sent back to their original channel,” Van answered. “Did I explain the channel system yet?”
“No.”
“Right now, we’re in a place called Base Town, but there are tons of identical places. They’re identified by numbers and are called channels. For example, this is channel 141, but Hanakawa was in channel 487.”
It was similar to having different worlds or servers in an online game, Yogiri thought. “Isn’t that good, Hanakawa?” he said. He remembered Sion saying Van didn’t think things through very well. If they believed her, they could assume Van wasn’t the type to lie or toy with people.
“You could have at least confirmed that before you made your selection!”
“I knew you would be fine.”
“I feel like a lot of trust is being put in me here, but is anyone taking even a moment to think about what I—” In the middle of talking, Hanakawa vanished, as did all the others, leaving the dog alone.
“You said there are tons of channels, but can we move between them?”
“Yup. It costs DP, though.”
“Does everyone know that you need the Philosopher’s Stones to beat the last boss?”
“I didn’t announce it or anything, but the conditions to beat the last boss change with each season. People will figure it out eventually. I ended up showing you who currently has the stones and I told you what channel Hanakawa is in, so you can consider that a welcome bonus.”
“What do you mean by ‘season?’”
“I guess I didn’t explain that yet either. Once someone beats the last boss, the game starts over. The time between the game starting and the last boss being defeated is called a season, and each new season has different settings. After all, if you could beat him the same way every time, it would get pretty repetitive.”
“If everything starts over when the last boss dies, what’s the reward for winning?”
“The reward for beating the last boss is that I’ll grant any wish that you want.”
“Excuse me!” Tomochika raised her hand. “What did you mean when you said the Philosopher’s Stones are needed to beat the boss? Is it something like needing the orbs of light to remove his cloak of darkness?”
“This time, the last boss has a number of different weapons...but maybe I shouldn’t say too much. I want you to figure out the rest yourselves.”
“That sounds like you were about to say something straight from a strategy guide!”
“Getting all the info from the guy who made the game would be boring, right? If you want to know the basics, you can read this.” Van put a booklet on the table titled An Introduction to Cavern Quest. “If you want info about how to proceed, there are people out there making a living finding that info. Now, what else should I say? I would avoid heading straight to the last boss and killing him if I were you. If you kill it in some way that doesn’t use the system, the system won’t recognize that he’s been defeated. That would make it impossible for the game to be cleared.” After saying that, Van disappeared.
“Was that him trying to say you can’t use your power to beat the last boss?”
“It sounds like it. He must have heard about my power from Sion.” It seemed Van had some knowledge of Yogiri’s power.
◇ ◇ ◇
After Van disappeared, Tomochika and Yogiri returned to the first floor of the guild.
“I guess we should talk about what we’re going to do next. Do you think we can use the bar? We don’t have any DP yet.”
It would be nice to have a place where they could sit down and relax to discuss things, but they hadn’t cleared a single quest yet, so they probably wouldn’t have any DP.
“Maybe we start the game with some?” Yogiri suggested.
Tomochika also thought it was pretty common for games to start you with a little money, so it seemed best to check.
“Excuse me! We’d like to order some food. Can you tell us how to check how much DP we have?” Tomochika asked someone behind the counter at the bar.
“Welcome! Please touch this crystal.”
Tomochika put a hand on the crystal.
“It looks like you have 990 DP. All food served here costs 1 DP, so you should be able to enjoy yourself without worry.”
“Looks like we’ve got a lot. But it’s a pretty random amount for starting cash, isn’t it?”
“Is there a way to tell how we’ve picked up our DP?” Tomochika asked. If DP were “Drama Points,” they may have taken some sort of dramatic action that had earned them points already.
“Yes, you can check using the crystal.”
Tomochika put her hand on the crystal again, and this time letters floated up to the surface.
Visited the adventurer’s guild with a member of the opposite sex: 100 DP
Had a quarrel with members of the adventurer’s guild: 30 DP
Defeated the adventurers (15x): 750 DP
Registered as an adventurer: 10 DP
Called out by the guildmaster: 100 DP
“Looks like there’s quite a bit. Could we not leave and join the guild over and over to make money, though?”
“If you come with a different group, it might work, but the drama value gets pretty weak after the first time, so it likely won’t earn you very much.”
“Ah, so that’s how it works. Okay then, can we order some food?”
“Of course. Please take a seat over here.”
After being guided to a table, the two of them ordered some food.
“So I guess we should talk about our plan now,” Tomochika said.
“Yeah. First of all, we need to name the dog.”
“That’s right. When you start Cavern Quest, you have to begin with naming the dog. Are you being serious right now?!”
“Just setting you up for the joke.”
Setting me up for the joke, indeed, Mokomoko commented.
“Actually, it’s not that much of a joke,” Yogiri continued. “We are going to need to give it a name of some kind.” He pointed towards his feet. The white dog that had been on the second floor had followed them down and was now lying there. Yogiri didn’t know if it was a good idea to bring a dog into a restaurant, but no one had complained, so he figured it was okay.
“We’re bringing it with us?”
“If we don’t, he might get attacked by others.”
“I guess we can’t just abandon him, then. Fine. Let’s come up with a name.”
“Do you have any ideas, Dannoura?”
“Hmm...our dog’s name was Ginta, but do we want a Japanese name or something more Western? It might be better to think of what kind of name we want first.”
“My dog’s name was Nikori.”
“Oh? Where did that name come from?”
“Nikori is a Shetland Sheepdog, but Asaka thought she was a collie when we first got her. Nikori sounds pretty close to ‘like a collie’ in Japanese, so it stuck.”
“It doesn’t sound like this Asaka person takes things very seriously!”
Rough Collies and Shetland Sheepdogs looked almost identical, the only real difference being their size, with the Shetland Sheepdog being much smaller.
“But what kind of dog is it?”
“Looks like a Great Pyrenees to me, though I have no idea what kind of dog breeds this world has.” Either way, it was a large dog. If it stood on its hind legs, it might have been taller than Tomochika. It had fluffy white fur and a gentle face. The fact that it was calm and quiet now made them think it had a rather docile personality.
“A name, huh? Maybe it would be best to just rely on intuition and pick the first thing that comes to mind.” Tomochika had every intention of leaving it to Yogiri. He was the one who wanted to bring the dog with them, so she felt it was best he came up with the name.
“Intuition, huh? Hmm...well, he’s white. So Shiro?”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit too on the nose?”
“‘Dai’ means big in Japanese. How about that?”
“Uhh...I guess that’s a little better. Though it doesn’t really solve the problem.”
“Okay, Dai it is. Are you okay with that?”
The dog barked in response.
It seemed the matter was settled.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login