Chapter 15 — It’s Easy Enough in Games, but Identifying Plants Is Actually Pretty Hard
Cavern Quest was a game that afforded glory to only a select few. The difficulty was so high that the vast majority of players were incapable of dealing with level one quests and would drop out in the first few days. Ordinary people lived life as a desperate performance here. Those running the item shops, the guild, and the bar, those with no particularly standout characteristics, all had to create a character and work hard to afford paying the ever-increasing life tax. Those who were capable of defeating the last boss and starting a new season were truly heroes.
Volf was one such hero, and he enjoyed his position greatly. This world permitted any sort of violence, and he would still earn grateful thanks if he was able to kill the last boss. A fair number of people who cleared the game chose to return to the surface, but most remained underground. Those who wanted to live with absolute freedom only wished for their strength and equipment not to be reset with each new season. That way, they would always be fairly strong, even without any particular effort. They could watch from on high as everyone below them struggled desperately to survive the next round.
Currently, there were twenty such elites in this world, divided across five parties. Though they didn’t truly cooperate, they had an unspoken agreement that their groups would alternately defeat the last boss.
There was a rumor that this game was made to entertain a certain person. If that was true, they may have found this development rather boring, but Volf couldn’t care less. However, it seemed the people running the game didn’t intend to maintain the game in this state and were planning to shake things up a bit.
The easiest change to spot was the explosive growth in the number of channels. Apparently, something had happened on the surface, causing an incomparable number of people to come underground. Most of them were totally useless, but it was possible there were some powerful individuals among them who could threaten Volf’s position.
The number of fields had also suddenly increased far beyond the original three they had used. It seemed there were new monsters on those fields as well, but the elites had yet to fully investigate them. There was an increase in the types of equipment available as well, and by a considerable amount. They all had their own unique abilities and synergies, so it would take some research to find the most effective combinations again. Relying on their old knowledge was likely to trip them up in the future.
The worst of the changes to Volf and the other top players was the gimmick added to the last boss. Previously, there had been tricks like a number of subordinate bosses that had to be defeated before the last boss could be found, or the last boss changing elemental vulnerabilities at fixed intervals, but those weren’t especially challenging to deal with.
This time, however, things were a little different. The groups that had left to scout out the last boss didn’t return. The scouts’ role was only to obtain information about the fight, so they were specialized in survival. The fact that not a single one of them had made it back was bizarre.
In Volf’s opinion, it was honestly aggravating. But this world was a game in the end. No matter how difficult it was, it should have still been possible to win. There must have been a hint somewhere. That is what the elites knew from their experience in this world.
Though they acted with audacious arrogance, their position was one supported by a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience. They knew that if they kept things the same as always, their positions would be threatened. If they wanted to keep the freedom they had won, they needed to find a way to defeat the last boss as quickly as possible.
The other elite players had probably already moved to action. Volf had no intention of falling behind them.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Is this really what we’re supposed to be doing? It just looks like we’re taking a dog for a walk,” Tomochika wondered aloud.
Yogiri was holding a leash at her side. On the end of the leash was their new dog, Dai, walking a short ways ahead of them. They were walking down a gravel road through a grassland. A small stream ran parallel to the road a short distance away, and a dense forest lay on the horizon ahead of them. Unlike Base Town, it didn’t feel like they were underground at all. It seemed likely the nature of this place had been disguised, just like the floating continent.
“No point in rushing now,” Yogiri said. He was wearing a type of armor known as Light Mail, classified as leather armor. Critical spots were reinforced with metal, but overall it was a lightweight piece of gear. He had a short sword at his waist. For someone who could kill enemies long before they were even attacked, Tomochika figured the sword was unnecessary, so she guessed it was just for the look. The bag he had been carrying was now stored in her item box.
“Also, I’m not sure how I feel about dancing around in the palm of a Sage like this.” Tomochika was wearing an armored dress. Though armor made into the form of a dress didn’t look like it would offer much protection, the game mechanics may have been making up for that deficit. If she was accused of cosplaying like Yogiri, she wouldn’t really be able to deny it. One of the big reasons she had picked this armor was because it looked cute. Her weapons were leather gloves on both hands. Though they didn’t look the part, they were actually gauntlets. She also had other throwing weapons stored in her item box.
“Most of the Sages we’ve met have been pretty weird, but that doesn’t mean we have to fight all of them. Especially since he never attacked us.”
Although, as the administrator, he has the ability to do whatever he likes, the fact he has organized this world into a game makes me want to believe he is the type to follow his own rules, Mokomoko said.
“The game is fine, but it’s always when we’re relaxed and doing nothing that suddenly something ridiculous happens.” Tomochika vividly recalled the events leading up to the beginning of part two. They had barely been able to walk around, and before they knew it, the world was on the edge of destruction.
“That’s not that big of a surprise,” Yogiri said. “There are always people doing things in other parts of the world that we don’t know about. It only looks sudden from our perspective.”
“Well, I guess we can only do what we can. So, which ones are the herbs we’re looking for?”
This field was a forest and meadow, and they had come here in search of medicinal herbs. If they could find ten and bring them back to the gate, they would clear the quest and receive a reward. The 1 DP they would receive for each herb wasn’t much, but they had been advised to pick a pretty basic quest to help get a grip on how things worked in the game.
“Maybe they’ll sparkle or something?”
“Yeah, that’s a bit too much like a video game.”
“Medicinal herb” is not much of a descriptor either. There are countless plants that possess medicinal properties.
“Telling us to find a plant that could be turned into medicine in this huge field would be way too much.”
“The quest details say the herbs are the materials needed for a Health Potion S.”
“One of these, right?” Tomochika pulled out a potion she had bought at the item shop. It was a squishy red orb made of a gel-like substance and containing liquid. All you had to do to use it was break it open on the injured body part. It didn’t require much force to break, so it could even be used in an emergency by hitting it against someone.
“Speaking of which, how does the item box work?” Yogiri asked.
“Well, uhh, when I want to use it, a transparent window pops up in my vision that lets me see all the items inside. Then whatever item I want to pull out appears in my hand. I can put things in it just by holding on to them and thinking it too.”
“It’s always surprising to see you do stuff like that right in front of me.”
“Uhh, I think what you do is an awful lot more surprising, Takatou.” Compared to the ability to kill with your thoughts, Tomochika didn’t think the item box was an ability even worth mentioning.
“Maybe this potion can be some kind of hint? Like, maybe the plant is red.”
“Oh yeah, it’s not a drink, so they probably wouldn’t add food coloring or anything. Maybe.”
“That said, there’re no red plants around here anyway,” Yogiri observed, looking around. As far as Tomochika could see, the meadow around them was green. There were small yellow and white flowers dotted throughout the grass, but nothing brightly colorful like red.
“Is there a time limit for this quest?”
“Not that was written in the quest info.”
“Mokomoko, can you check from the sky?”
I cannot see anything that stands out in this area. If I were to look from any sort of height, I would not be able to discern between the plants anyway.
“This is actually a lot more difficult than I thought. Maybe we should have visited the info house after all.”
“Isn’t this the kind of thing adventurers would love to tell us about?”
“It’s easy enough in games, but identifying plants is actually pretty hard. Oh, do you think Dai could find them by scent?”
“Uhh, I don’t know about that. Dogs can be pretty dumb if they aren’t trained. Normal dogs can’t track things by smell that well.”
“No harm in trying, right? Can I borrow a potion?”
Tomochika passed the potion in her hand to Yogiri.
“It doesn’t seem to smell like much in this state. Can I open it?”
“If it’s just one, then sure.”
Yogiri broke the potion open on the ground. The orb split, spilling red liquid onto the road. A faintly sweet smell filled the air.
“Dai, can you sniff out the plants that this was made from?”
Dai barked in response. There was no way a dog would understand what it was being asked to do just from words alone, but after sniffing at the ground a bit, he began to walk.
“Are you joking?!”
“Let’s follow him.” Not quite believing what they were seeing, the two followed the dog. He followed the road until it brought them to the edge of the forest.
“I guess there’d be more plants in here, huh?”
“Yeah, so many we wouldn’t know which is which.”
Dai continued plodding into the forest. After walking for a short time, they found a small clearing with a dense patch of red flowers. Dai barked proudly, as if asking for praise, so Tomochika stroked his head.
“Hold on...is this dog actually really smart? Can it understand what we’re saying?”
“Anyway, let’s pick some of these and head back.”
The two of them worked together, pulling up the plants from their roots. The quest only needed ten, so they finished rather quickly.
“What do you think, should we try collecting more?” If this wasn’t the right plant, it would just be a waste of time to go back now. It may have been a good idea to grab a few different kinds of plants.
“It would be nice if there was a way to tell... Ah!” The plants in Tomochika’s hands disappeared into her item box. She then checked the item list, where the plants showed up with the label “medicinal herb.” “That’s kind of lazy, isn’t it?!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Looks like these are the right ones. I can see their name after putting them in the item box.”
“Oh, I see. But does that mean you can pick up anything you don’t recognize and find out its name? Who decides what it’s called?”
“Who knows? I don’t think there’s much point in worrying about it.” Tomochika put the plants Yogiri collected into her item box as well. They didn’t quite know how the quest would end, but the amount they had collected would be counted as they walked through the gate. In that case, she could just give Yogiri back his half of the plants before walking through the gate. Otherwise, Tomochika would gain all of the DP herself.
“I guess we really need to stop and think of what we’ll need before we go on quests.”
“Yeah. Without Dai, we would have been in trouble...”
Modern games were quite gracious in providing players with guidance, but Cavern Quest didn’t seem to follow their lead. Just going out and figuring it out on the fly didn’t seem like a very good strategy.
“Okay then, let’s go back—” As Tomochika turned to leave, a huge roar filled the air, causing the ground to shake beneath them. Whatever it was, it seemed to be in the forest close by.
“Huh?! What was that?!”
“Lightning?” Yogiri suggested, looking up. But the sky was blue and cloudless. It was pretty hard to believe there was any lightning coming from it.
“What do we do?”
“I guess we should take a look.” It may have had nothing to do with them, but there was a chance it was related to their quest. The two of them headed towards the source of the sound.
As they got closer, the air began to grow heavy with smoke and heat. Once they arrived, it was easy to tell what the source of the noise had been. A number of trees had been split apart, knocked over, and set on fire. There must have been a lightning strike after all. In addition, there was the person who had been struck by lightning and the one who had fired it. A woman in armor sat on her knees, while a golden dragon hovered calmly in the air above her.
“Huh? Don’t they look kind of familiar?!” As Tomochika spoke, both of the people in the clearing turned to face them.
“Huh? Where did you come from?” Despite having been struck by lightning, the woman seemed fairly healthy as she turned a suspicious look on Tomochika.
“Gaaaaah! Wh-What are you doing here?!” Despite its dignified, majestic appearance, the dragon let out a pitiful whine.
“Ah! It’s the guard and the golden thunder dragon!”
Though Yogiri seemed to recognize them, Tomochika didn’t have a clue who they were.
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