Please note before you read: Lyann (Golden_Ballade) is meant to speak in a very melodious and harmonious voice. This isn't me trying to make her into a Mary Sue. Its about her being in the body of a max level bard. Its meant to sound a little odd, and she will slowly grow more and more annoyed with this forced "auto tuner" effect. Have you ever tried to be taken seriously while singing your insults at someone? Over time, its going to grow into a trauma. Hell, it already gave ME a huge problem because the website does not display ASCII characters properly. Whenever she speaks (it doesn't happens through the [Message] link), I added a ~ next to her lines. This ~ was meant to be followed by a musical note (you can make them with alt + 13 or alt + 14) but the site simply does not display them. To try and solve it, I'm going to use ~ followed by 'fa' when she's calm, and "sol' or 'do' when she gets excited/angry. Pardon for the trouble, and just pretend they're musical notes. Now, lets continue!

Chapter 3

Grand quest at the adventurer's guild – The search for the celestial city!

Part I

For a town out in the backwoods, there was a surprisingly solid wall of wood and stone around it. Or was it there precisely because it was in the middle of the wilds? If those goblins were a sample of the neighbors they had to live with, it made sense.

There are no guards at the entrance itself, but there are on the watch towers at either side of it. Golden Ballade could see the militia looking at her as she walked past.

A petite female with wrapped in a traveling cloak, a funny spear on her back, and a backpack with a bedroll tied to its bottom. She was the very picture of a cliched adventurer, and not the goblins, ogres, beastmen or beasts that they were on watch against.

The streets are just dirt pressed under regular traffic, with most houses having stone foundations up to about knee height before wood replaces stone, with tall inclined roofs that suggest frequent rain at some point of the year.

There are no rain gutters, and she briefly wondered if that was because they didn't consider them important, didn't had the metal, or couldn't afford them.

It never even occurred to her that they had never even though about it.

Most people paid no any attention to her. There were about 24 streets from north to south, and 17 from east to west. It was slightly larger than any Yggdrassil towns had been, but those places only existed for players to pick or deliver quest, use basic services like smiths and inns, and weren't meant to accurately simulate the actual population needed for an actual settlement.

"Shops signs have no words. Just pictures."

She talked to Ren (Celi Malefactor) through their psychic [Message] link.

"So?"

"It means most people can't read."

"Well, thank you for the lecture, professor."

"Glad to have helped. But it really is a big help. It means I won't stand out as strange for not knowing their lang... oh."

"What is it?"

"I can understand what they are saying."

"They're using japanese!? What are the odds, I can't even..."

"No, their lips aren't synched up to it. They are probably using other language, but I understand them anyway. Still got to see if they can understand me, though. And one more thing"

"Yes?"

"They're mostly caucasic. I don't see a single asian person, or even black hair. I'm gonna change my appearance real quick, hold on."

Lyann went around behind a large building, and quickly recasted her [Alter Self] spell, going from asian to caucasic, and from brunette to redhead.

"Now you just look like yourself. Plus a insane amount of points on your charisma stat, of course."

"So? I'm confident on my looks."

"No, I just thought it was funny that you needed magic to accomplish that."

"Ah. You are right."

A petite brunette went into the alley, a slightly taller redhead came out.

~O~

She planned to enter every public building in town to look to as much of their technology and way of life as possible. It just happened to be that the first she walked into was an alchemy materials and potion's shop.

"Uhmm... ~fa"

The front room was wide, stretching from wall to wall, with a matching counter and a shelf acting as a wall behind it, just some meters away. There was a number of bags, flasks and iron bottles on it.

The clerk looked at her. He couldn't really see much of her. Her cloak covered her almost completely but for her eyes and a little bit of her bright red hair. She seemed to have a nice, curvy build that her clock couldn't hide, and was wearing high quality, brand new leather boots of a quality he had never seen before.

Her backpack straps, her spear, her boots, it all looked expensive and brand new.

He wondered if she was a rookie adventurer or a noble daughter ran away from home, but there were no nobles left in the region since the last time the beastmen swept through. So, rookie adventurer it is.

"Can I help you, miss?"

" .Mister ~fa"

She couldn't help but to sound stiff. She was very worried about whether or not the man would understand her.

"Yeah, good to you too, miss. Can I help you?"

"Ah! Yea! He underst- I mean, yes, thank you. I'd like to see your stocks, please ~fa"

"Potions, ingredients?"

"Everything. Please mention their names and prices as you bring them over one by one! ~fa"

"What?"

"Oh, and can I pay in these ~fa?"

Lyann placed two gold coins on the counter. They too, looked brand new, and of better minting than the man had ever seen on his life.

"I... guess so? Hold on, please. Need to have my boss look at these."

"Sure ~fa"

The man went into the back with one of the coins, and she took the chance to whisper to her friend.

"He understands me!"

"That's great. Think you'll be alright? I have stuff to do."

"Sure, I'm just browsing."

"Alright."

~O~

"So, what do you think?"

The clerk was talking to his boss, a man in his early fifties.

"Solid gold."

"You can tell without needing to scratch the coin?"

"Of course I can, do I look like a peasant to you!?"

"You just weighted it like always, then threw it into a flask with water and looked at it funny."

"The moment she let you take it with you, it meant she wasn't afraid of you scratching it. It weight's one thing, but now that I know its size, I can compare it to its weight to tell you that yes, it's pure gold."

"How do you do that with water?"

"Too long to explain right now. Now go out there and be polite to our very wealthy foreign-looking customer."

"Yes boss."

As soon as his employee was gone, Alberto, the town's alchemist, left from the back door.

~O~

"These are moonglade leaves. A kilo is 5 silver coins."

"Yes, moonglade leaf, 1k for 5sp. Got it ~fa"

Now that the young woman had taken her cloak off, Fredrick was completely smitten with her. She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, as cliche as that sounds.

Her clothes fit her perfectly, and had been obviously tailored for her, protecting without diminishing the impact of her figure. Her face was round and cute, with the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen, and a red hair so bright it almost looked as if the sunset was painted on it.

A thin line of it falls over her face and almost pokes at her lips, but not quite, and adding her looks to her voice, Fredrick had a problem trying not to stare too much.

She had been asking for every single item in the shelves for a while now, and writing their names and prices down on a small hand held book of surprisingly white parchment, for the better part of the morning now, He did not mind at all.

If his boss had come back and told him to go home early today, he would have punched him for trying to send him off.

"They're used as a mild antidote."

"Thank you ~fa!"

He preemptively answered her next question. "What are they for?". He hadn't lost all of his wits, yet. But when she smiled at him just now, he was doomed.

She double checked the shelves behind Fredrick to make sure she wasn't missing anything, and closed her small book, then placed it back into her backpack.

"I'd feel bad if I didn't buy anything. Do you have healing potions ~fa?"

"Yes, of course, just, not on the shelf. Please wait!"

"Thank you ~fa"

He came back quickly, with a small crate of iron flasks.

"These are the high quality ones. None of that cheaper stuff the boss tells me to push into strangers."

"Won't you get into trouble because of it ~fa?"

"It'll be alright."

"Can I hold one ~fa?"

"Of course, please go ahead!"

Golden Ballade picked one of the metallic flasks in her right hand, and used [Analyze Dweomer] on it.

[Potion of Cure Light Wounds]

"These are the best you have ~fa?"

"Yes! They're the good stuff!"

She gave him a somewhat weird smile. For her, these potions were literally of the lowest imaginable tier. She wasn't bothered by the fact that they were blue, but they were indeed the equivalent of a second level healing spell. Or first level if you didn't count "level zero" as a level.

Actually, there was a level zero healing spell, [Cure Minor Wounds] which would literally heal 1hp upon use.

"These are equivalent to a spell of cure light wounds, right ~fa?"

"Yes, as strong as a second tier spell!"

She nodded, taking a mental note of the fact that they seemed to count spell tiers starting at level zero. That meant that they had ten levels of magic, rather than nine.

"How much for these ~fa?"

"50 cold coins.. but I can give you a discount!"

"No, that's roughly the price I am used to. Let me see... 20 flasks, that should be 1000gp ~fa"

"Hah! I didn't meant to say you should buy the crate, obviously! You can just buy the o-n-e...?"

Fredrick was stunned when he noticed the small towers of platinum coins. As a potions merchant, he had seen platinum coins before. When you work with adventurers on a daily basis, you see a few every month, but this was several tall stacks of them.

Exactly a hundred platinum coins, were neatly piled up on the counter right now.

The young woman had begun taking the flasks one by one, and placing them into a pouch on her belt. They sort of just... disappeared there.

[Pouch of Potion Holding]

It was a handy item which would automatically ready potions for you to use as you needed, and could store up to 50 of them. It was considered one of those 'absolute must have' in Yggdrassil, like a [Handy Haversack].

By the way, a [Handy Haversack], like the one on Golden Ballade's possession, appears to be a well made, well used, and quite ordinary backpack. It is constructed of finely tanned leather, and the straps have brass hardware and buckles. It has two side pouches, each of which appears large enough to hold about a quart of material, but in fact, each is like a bag of holding and can actually hold material of as much as 2 cubic feet in volume, or 20 pounds in weight.

The large central portion of the pack can contain up to 8 cubic feet or 80 pounds of material. Even when so filled, however, it always weighs 5 pounds, no more, no less. Whenever you reach into it for an item, the item will always be the first thing you grab. It is an absolute must for Yggdrassil players.

~O~

"Hey, I'm back, anything interesting happen?"

Ren spoke to her through their [message] link again.

"I bought 20 potions of light healing."

"Cheapskate."

"No, it was the best they had."

"Seriously? I understand it is a small town, but even so..."

"Yes. Oh, and they count zero level spells as a magical tier, so they have 10 tiers."

"Thank you again professor, I know how to count, mind you. Still, is not that weird, right?"

"Right, plenty of societies did that back on earth. I just thought it was worth mentioning."

"So where are you going now?"

"I dunno. Whatever building has a sign outside next, I guess. I was planning to check every store."

"Ugh. I'm gonna go back to work, then."

"Alright, I'll call you if anything exciting happens."

"Take care and try to not stand out, alright?"

"Its why I'm here, and not you, remember?"

Lyann could feel the [Message] link end.

~O~

A little over a week ago

"We are in a valley surrounded by mountains. It does not resemble anywhere on our maps. It does not have any signs of civilization. In fact, there's no actual path in or out of the valley. We are cut off from the world."

"Doctor's Orders-sama, what does it mean?"

"We asked you to use our real names, remember?"

"Yes! But, it feels disrespectful to address the Exalted Ones as equals..."

Mako was gently chiding general Li across the meeting table. They had abandoned the senate, and simply re purposed one of the currently absent guild members room.

They finally had their round table, albeit it was a small one.

"Please do so. If it makes you feel better, I could order you to do so?"

The kind angel leaned her head slightly towards the side. She crossed her right arm under her breasts, and held her left elbow with its hand, then rested her left hand on her head as she looked at the leonal warrior.

"That won't be necessary, Mako-sama."

"You don't need the honorific either."

"I'm afraid that would be impossible, Mako-sama."

"...alright. It means that we do not know anything about where we are. We are fairly sure it is not one of the Yggdrassil worlds by now, so it could be virtually anywhere. It could even be any when."

Once Mako finished speaking, general Subutai stood up in turn.

"A flock of low level gryphons have their nest in the south corner of the valley. Other than them, there are no other monsters in the region. Game is plentiful, as are water sources. The snow in the tallest peaks around us suggests that we will have snowfalls at some point of the year."

"I wonder if we should change the weather in the valley... then again, winter events are fun, like Christmas ~fa!"

Ren and Mako agreed with their friend. It would be nice to see some snow.

Once Subutai sat down, it was Lyann's turn to stand up.

"Good news. Magic is working. MP is being replenished as usual ~sol"

Everyone sighed with relief at those news. It meant that they could use their spells without fear of running out of mana.

"Except... ~fa"

"Yes?" x5

"Level caps appear to have been removed. [Magic Missile] is meant to create a projectile every 2 levels after 1st level, and is hard capped at 5 missiles. It is the benchmark noob spell. But when I used it for the test, it created a huge swarm of them ~sol!"

"What about other spells?"

Celi Malefactor, Ren, was already wondering about [Fabricate], minor and greater creation spells, as well as many, many other spells that were meant to become more powerful based on their caster's level, but were hardcapped in some way.

"Fireball, Dragon Lightning, Cone of Cold, they all work without a hard cap anymore. Summoning spells too, albeit the summons do vanish after their enhanced time runs out ~fa."

"Thank you for risking your magic to learn that."

"Thank you, Lyann!"

"Thank you, Lyann-sama!" x3

"Now, we should focus into exploration. As soon as the scouts find civilization, I should go and- ~fa!?"

She couldn't finish her sentence, because everyone stood up together to firmly deny her words.

"Are you crazy!?"

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"How can we ask Lyann-sama to risk herself!?"

"I am strongly against it!"

Both her friends and all three NPCs were vehemently opposed to it.

"Well, its not as if we know what sort of people is out there. And none of you can change shapes, can you? Orcs, humans, elves, or anything else, I can blind right in! ~sol"

Everyone was quiet.

"Besides, I'm max level, I will be fine. You said those gryphons were the only thing out there, and they're low level, right? If that's the worst danger out there, it will be a piece of cake! ~fa"

"That's the thing. We don't know if they're the worst thing out there. You are level 100, so what? For all we know, the average level on this world could be ten thousand or one million!"

"I'm still the only one that can go. ~fa"

"Alright."

Ren sighed and gave her okay.

"What, why!?"

Mako stood up right away, her wings spreading behind her.

"She's right, that's the only why. Please calm down. As soon as the scouts find civilization, I will scry on them and adjust her equipment so it looks normal for their society. That's all we can do for now."

~O~

Now that her cloak was safely stored away in her backpack, people were staring at her, mouths agape.

She quickly entered the next door with a sign that she could find, and closed the door behind her. The sign had a bed and a mug, and she correctly guessed it would be a tavern and inn.

The place was rather large, with about 3 dozen tables, the vast majority of them, currently empty. As soon as she closed the door and turned around, the conversation of the few patrons on the common floor began dying out almost as if a wave of silence was physically spreading forth from the door.

"The hell's going oo-oh!"

The musician on the stage was the last to notice, shortly after the dancing girl stood still.

Lyann made her way towards the counter, and spoke to the middle aged man there in a low tone.

"Could I have a room, please? ~fa"

"Yes, of course... it's... money... per night. It includes breakfast... you need to empty by noon or it counts as another day and... please feel free to stay. Please marry me?"

"What!? ~sol"

"Please marry me."

"Sir, I don't even know you! ~sol"

"I'm Lucca. Now marry me?"

"Mister Lucca, please don't joke like that! I'll be taking a bath and come down for dinner, so please prepare your best! ~sol"

"Uhm, mah best, yes. Will do."

"Thank you. ~fa"

~O~

By the time she went back downstairs, the tavern was packed full. There were people at the bar, and even peeking in from outside the doors and windows.

"Oh ~Fa"

She had arranged her hair into a single long ponytail, which was now floating in the air behind her. It somehow looked as if she was underwater whenever she moved.

"Mister Lucca, you didn't told me that the dining room would be full. Can I take my meal to my room? ~fa"

Since everyone grew quiet when she showed up, she was beginning to worry about them having issue with strangers, but as soon as she said that, three men that had been sitting at a table, moved to the table right next to them, and squeezed in with the people already there.

Well, since they were going to such lengths to accommodate her...

"Oh. Thank you ~fa"

She smiled a little, and the room broke into cries of "oooh!" and "aaah!". She was soon swarmed with people asking her for marriage, or at least trying to get her to dine with them. She was a rather attractive young woman back on Earth, so she wasn't a stranger to having admirers, but this was a bit much.

"I can't marry! I just started my adventure! ~sol"

"Oh, you are an adventurer?"

"Where are you from?"

"What level are you?"

"What's your name?"

"Yes, I have arrived from a very distant land. It is called Tengoku Junzi. Level one hundred. Lyann Du Lumiere, but my adventurer name is Golden Ballade. ~sol"

"Ah, so Lyann-chan is a foreigner. Is everyone in Tengoku Junzi like you?"

"yes? I don't think I'm that special? ~fa"

She was beginning to calm down, now.

"You said level one hundred? You don't use the plate system in Tengoku Junzi?"

"Tengoku Junzi, and no, what plates are you talking about? ~fa"

"Golden Ballade, are you a bard, then?"

"Yes! You know bards? ~fa"

"Ah... I know of them. That's a fairly rare job, no? I wonder if Lyann-chan is strong. What plate level would she be?"

"If she made it here from a far away land, she should be at least gold?"

"That sounds very convenient for an adventurer called Golden Ballade."

"Sounds about right! Haha!"

The men seemed to think it was quite funny, but Lyann was now wondering about the plates system.

"Uhmm... how do I get a plate?"

"You will need to head to a city and apply on their Adventurer's Guild, but with those blasted beastman attacking the country, all cities have fallen, or been emptied and their citizens are now hiding in the capital."

The innkeeper took her meal to the table she was sitting at. To be honest, everyone was sitting facing in her direction. Whenever she spoke, complete silence reigned amongst the other patrons.

They were telling her about adventurer levels, or ranks. About the region specialties, and pretty much anything else she wanted to know. They were more than happy to earn a smile.

~O~

Meanwhile, Ren was hard at work.

As Celi Malefactor, she was a specialized crafter. Back on Earth, she was a math teacher, and after running some numbers, she had extremely high expectations for this little experiment.

[Fabricate] is a 5th level spell. In this world, it would apparently be ranked as a 6th level spell, though that bit wasn't important.

Normally, its range was considered "close", which meant 25ft + (5ft * ½ her level.) with a hard cap of about 100ft. But if Lyann was right, that limiter had been removed.

"A simple use of the formula for a sphere gives me 52,359,877ft^3 of range right now... I can aim quite deep under the surface."

"Yes, Ren-sama."

Subutai was acting as her escort. Lyann, the history nerd, designed him as a genius who could do complex operations with ease, in order to run the logistics needed to operate Tengoku Junzi with maximum efficiency at all times. She picked the name of the great mongol general who served Gengis Khan, Subutai, whom accumulated so many victories and successes that telling them all in detail would fill too many books, to the point where, in "Secret History of the Mongols", a simple paragraph was given to many of his exploits.

"Gengis sent Subutai his war dog, to the north west, where he conquered 11 countries in 2 years."

Only that.

A genius who back when the most advanced war machine was a bowman on horseback, was able to easily orchestrate armies hundreds of miles apart, develop the use of siege engines for normal battlefields, and conquered more land that any other general in the history of mankind.

That was whom Subutai, the [Attack General] of Tengoku Junzi, was based on.

"If we stand at ground level, restricted to a hemisphere below the world's surface, we change that number to 26,179,938.78 ft^3. This is about 1,471,022.695 m^3 or 1,471,022,695,100 cm^3 Ren-sama."

"Fumu... 1,471 kilometers is nothing in terms of distance to the planet's core. I can use [Fabricate] 122 times if I am willing to spend my full MP reserves to do so, but I think a hundred times should be good enough. Please write down the results."

"There is no need, I am more than capable of memorizing the results down to the last gramme of the materials extracted by Ren-sama's magnificent experiment."

"I wish to be able to distribute copies to Lyann, Mako, General Li and Administrator Burlaug, however."

"Of course, Ren-sama. Please forgive me."

Subutai took the small notebook Ren was offering him, and prepared to write down the results...

~O~

By using [Fabricate] to reach deep down under the earth, Ren had scooped up a perfectly square chunk of terrain 100 ft^3 in size, or 3,048 cm^3 if one was of such persuasion.

The spell had cleanly scooped out that chunk of world, and produced perfectly shaped metal bars with it, each sample producing different results based on the available material.

[Fabricate] was completely useless against living matter, or against anything with a will, no matter how primitive. One was unable to use it even against a target's equipment, because any items held by a person would benefit from their user's willpower when it was time to resist a effect targeted at them.

However, dirt was a completely different business.

The reason Ren was taking cubic samples roughly 30 meters per side (3,048 centimeters per side, if you wanted to be annoyingly accurate) every 14km of depth, was so she could compare the mineral content of the crust at varying depths, to later focus her efforts in the depths of whatever sample turned out to be the most interesting.

How would the results be judged? For this, we need to take another look at [Fabricate].

[Fabricate] is a spell that turns raw materials into finished products.

For example, if you wanted a wooden chair, you would need enough wood to match the precise, final, total mass of the chair. You could have extra material, and the spell would only take what it needed.

If you wanted to craft a sword, the spell would need a number of ore matching or exceeding the mass of the sword.

It was not a hard-to-understand spell. You want a bed? You need enough wood to make the bed. The spell simply replaces the crafting process. But if you were good with numbers, it loaned itself to plenty of abuse.

And Ren was good with numbers.

In this case, she had several containers ready and waiting to be filled with the resulting metal bars she was making with [Fabricate].

She used [Fabricate] to make those the day prior, in case you wanted to know. She couldn't make a fully functioning truck, but she could make every single part of it and let Mako have fun assembling it.

It was that simple. She was going to take roughly 30 square meters of the planet crust and turn it into perfect bars of whatever elements they happened to contain.

If the sample was 30% iron, then 30% of the bars would be iron bars. The remaining 70% would be pure bars made from whatever else there was inside that roughly 30 meters-per-side cube that she was processing with [Fabricate].

~O~

"Sister, what are these numbers for?"

Mako, General Li, and Administrator Burlaug were holding a paper copy with the results of Ren's experiment.

"If you look at the very simple results for sample 1, please?"

60.6% SiO2 yielded 1,106,625.09 tons

15.9% Al2O3 yielded 290,050.236 tons

6.4% CaO yielded 116,389.82 tons

4,7% MgO yielded 84,983.256 tons

3,1% Na2O yielded 56,347.12 tons

6.7% Fe as FeO yielded 121,932.352 tons

1.8% K2O yielded 32,330.878 tons

0.7% TiO2 yielded 12,008.54 tons

0.1% P2O5 yielded 923.476 tons

Mako looked at page 1, liften the 101 pages thick report, looked at its thickness, and put it down while forcing a smile to her face.

"Yes, its very ...nice? You got literal tons of stuff, but..."

Her sister stopped her with a raised hand as she smiled and then continued.

"Please turn the page so you can look at sample 2."

The NPCs did so with serious expressions.

Mako took the considerably thick report and rolled it into a very solid looking club. She walked around to behind her sister, and when she was still talking about the yield percentages of sample 2, hit her on the back of the head with it.

"Ouch! You meanie!"

"Be thankful Lyann isn't here. What do these numbers mean? Tons? Thousands of them, at it!"

"Earlier, I took 100 samples of the earth crust every 14 kilom... don't hit me!"

"Be quicker."

"We have a lot of materials now! we canbuildTokyoifwefeellikeit! Well, [Fabricate] Tokyo, anyway."

She rushed towards the end because Mako was holding the report up high again.

"Lyann is right, you are the nerdiest of us all."

Mako lowered her improvised club and hugged her twin from behind, giving her a smooch on the cheek.

"Just don't go overboard, alright?"

"I promise. Oh! You know, some samples... no, really! Its interesting! Some samples had unknown materials on them. Well, unknown for earth anyway. I think you would call them mithril, orichalcum and other fantasy stuff like that..."

"I see, I see, so, in total, how many mithril tons?"

She looked at Subutai while asking.

"754,441.45 tons, Mako-sama."

"Uhmm... I can't really get an idea of it. How much space does that use?"

"Of course Mako-sama, please excuse me. Each ingot is roughly 1/5th the weight of a similar sized iron bar, so they use about a kilometer per side."

"That is a lot of mithril."

"We also have eighty times as much gold."

~O~

"Please tell me more about the beastmen invasion. No, please tell me about the beastmen themselves. ~fa"

Lyann had finished her dinner, and was now sitting against a wall while the villagers sat on the floor before her, enjoying to look at her as she spoke.

"They are taller than men by about two heads, with reversed hands, and tiger heads."

"Reversed hands... we call those rahshasa ...in my land. They're a type of demon, not just a beastman. ~fa"

"That sounds about right. They are terribly strong, and hunt and devour humans for sport. They have their own realm next to us, and had always attacked us in small scale raids to 'harvest' us as they say."

"But this time its different? ~fa"

"We have already lost three cities to them."

"Fuuu... that sounds terrible! So the war is going poorly? ~sol"

"Everyone is scared, it looks as if this time, they want to turn us all into cattle!"

"You have adventurers, right? Aren't they heroes? Haven't they gone to fight? ~fa"

"They have, and died or worse."

"What about asking for help from other countries."

"I'm sorry, miss, but we don't know much about that."

"I see. ~fa"

Lyann crossed her legs and slightly leant forth in the classical The Thinker posture. The patrons at the tavern were more than happy to watch the beauty as she sat there, looking interesting and thoughtful.

"I think... I won't sign up as an adventurer, but... I'm interested in seeing the rakshasa. ~fa"

"Ah, you really shouldn't, miss. Those demons are many times stronger than a man!"

"How many times stronger than, say... one of the militia in town? ~fa"

"About 5 or 7 times?"

The villagers looked at each other with bitter faces.

Well, unlike a pure caster or warrior types, a bard was specialized in support and information gathering.

Coming into town, she could tell that the militia were only level 3 or 5 at most. So, she calculated that the rakshasa would be about level 15 to 35... which was roughly the same levels they had back in Yggdrassil.

If NPCs and players had made the jump, it made sense that monsters would have, as well.

Did this mean it was their fault, somehow?

"I want to fight them... ah! But I promised I wouldn't go looking for fights! That's the only way they would let me travel...! ~fa"

She looked quite adorable as she held her head with both hands, looking troubled. The villagers immediately began filling in the blanks by themselves.

Perhaps a noble daughter, too gifted for her own good, trained to defend herself as any child of nobility would, and turned out too good for her own good? She struggled to get her doting parents permission, but finally managed to do so... something like that.

"But, don't go looking for fights, alright?"

"Yes, okaa-sama, oyaji-sama! ~fa"

A regal-looking couple was there in their mind's eye! A beautiful and elegant mother, the queen! A regal but doting father, the king! and their beautiful, spoiled daughter! Even the villagers could easily imagine it! A white castle! A beautiful country! Tengoku Junzi!

"Miss, you really shouldn't go looking for them demons..."

"Fuu... I wanna, I wanna! ~fa"

"Such a pretty thing, they'd gobble you right up!"

After one of the patrons said so, all of them could imagine eating her out, in various ways.

"Fuu... I'm actually pretty strong, you know? I'm level 100 you know? ~sol"

She had a tear hanging from every eye! And a pouty face! Too adorable!

"Erh... I don't know how strong that is, but I don't think you should go looking for trouble and break your promise."

An appeal to the princess from their mind's eye! A promise to mama and papa!

"Fuu... I can use healing magic, and support spells. My music can make you strong in battle, so I could just stand in the back... ~fa"

"Wait, you know healing magic?"

One of the patrons straightened up. He was a muscular man in his early 30's, wearing a sleeveless studded leather chest armor piece, with two short swords strapped to his back. He had a small platinum plate hanging from a necklace around his neck.

"Yes? And you are...? ~fa"

"I am Albion, from the platinum adventurer team, Wild Riders. We were on a quest nearby, and our healer was badly injured. Since he's unconscious, he can't heal himself. We gave him healing potions and treated his wounds with herbs, but he still hasn't woken up. If you can heal him, we'll take you in!"

"Are you looking for rakshashas!? ~sol"

"No, but after we are done with our job, we need to go back to the capital. There's a very high chance we may run into one. If you want to see one so badly, wouldn't it be better to be with a party of 5 when it happens?"

"Ah... I guess so. ~fa"

The redhead nodded softly.

"In that case, please come with me, our party's cleric is resting upstairs."

"Alright. ~fa"

~O~

"Tch!"

The alchemist cursed softly under his breath. He had gone to the leader of the local brigands group to try and ambush the young woman, but if she was going to tag along with an platinum party of adventurers, it was much too risky.

"Don't worry old man. We just need to get more people. Pretty girl like that would really well once we are done with her."

And so, these men of violence rejoiced in their planning, picturing all the fun they would have once they got their hands on the foreigner girl.

~O~

"Oy, Albion, who's the pretty lady?"

A dwarf opened the door when Albion knocked. He was dressed in full plate armor, and armed. It wasn't that he was expecting trouble, but he was expecting trouble. You could call it an occupational disease for adventurers and workers.

"Please don't call me lady, -sama, or anything of that. I get more than enough of that at home. My name is Lyann, also known as Golden Ballade. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir. ~fa"

Lyann bowed slightly, and the dwarf smiled, then stepped aside to let her an Albion pass.

His equipment was of masterwork quality, Lyann noticed, but not magical, just incredibly well done.

'As expected of a dwarf.'

Such were her thoughts about it.

"Grumnir. Nice to meet cha, lady Lyann."

The dwarf greeted her with a smirk. His beard and hair were light brown, with black iron rings in them. He smelled of plants and earth, and Lyann decided that she liked him a lot. The first 'real' dwarf she had ever met.

"You are going to keep going with the 'lady' thing now, aren't you sir Grumnir? ~fa"

"Ye should nae introduce yerself, and show people what ticks ye off in the same line, m' lady."

"I'll remember it. I thought there would be more people with you? ~fa"

"The others have gone to have their gear repaired, visit the herbalist, or are just resting in their own room."

Albion spoke calmly, and Lyann nodded. She could see another dwarf, sleeping on the lower bunk bed near the window.

"Oh, you must be a wealthy group if you can all afford several rooms, then?"

"Not really, but we manage. Its necessary because we have three men and two ladies. Three and three now, perhaps."

"I see. So your wounded friend? What is his name?"

"Tazar. He's our resident healer, which means we all grind to a halt if he's down like this."

"Can I approach him? ~fa"

"Yes of course."

"Uhm ~fa"

Lyann took a look at the dwarf. He had thick but lustrous black hair and beard with silver ornaments, a rather lean build, though that may be normal for a caster. But, a lean dwarf was still more muscular than most human men.

His bandages looked freshly changed, and had only small spots of blood on them, so it looked as if his life was in no danger. The smell of herbs rose from him strongly, the same scent as Grumnir's, so she guessed that the armored dwarf had treated his compatriot recently.

Lyann Du Lumiere had zero knowledge of medicine. She didn't even know how to do CPR or measure someone's pulse, but Golden Ballade, as a max level bard with excessively high intelligence, had near godly levels on every possible skill, and that included Healing and Profession (Doctor).

A bard is nothing if not a skill monkey, after all.

"Activate skill: [Heal] ~fa"

She became a spectator within her own body. Golden Ballade was in charge right now. She placed her [Handy Haversack] on the floor near the bed, and left it open before she unwrapped Tazar's bandages with expert touch, pulled some alcohol from the backpack, some clean clothes, and proceeded to clean the dwarf's wounds again.

She pulled a couple of tweezers and used them to dig into the wounded dwarf's shoulder, fishing out a claw bit that was incrusted there.

Lyann was wobbly by the smell of blood, but Golden Ballade was unaffected.

After adding a scab-inducing unguent to Tazar's wounds, she pulled out surgical thread and meddles. Lyann was straight out dizzy now, but Golden Ballade smoothly sew the wounds shut with firm and expert hand, then wrapped fresh bandages on them and returned Lyann's medical supplies into her backpack.

"Agh! I be calling you mistress Lyann from now on, m'lady! Ye patched that fool's wounds with more love than his mother would have, ye did!"

"You said you knew healing spells."

"Skill Over. ~fa"

Lyann fell flat on her butt by the bed. She supported herself on her hands as she looked back at Albion.

"He didn't need them. His life is out of danger, this is not a battlefield, so there's no need to have him up and running right away. My dragon's aura will patch him up in a couple of minutes, anyway. I just didn't want to leave a bit of claw inside him. ~fa"

"Your what aura?"

"My.. uhm.. you have dragon shamans in this w- region, right? Our mere presence incites healing and strength. It won't heal him completely, but it will heal him half way there, you see? If we are allies, that is. Are we allies, now? ~fa"

"I say we are, m'lady! Nobody is that talented, and still a greenhorn, ye clearly know yer way around."

Albion seemed to consider it for a second. He was as smitten with the girl as anyone else, back in the common hall, but this was business now.

"Were you lying when you said you knew healing spells?"

"No. I guess I should patch him up right now, then? ~fa"

"Please do."

"Alright."

She took a deep breath, and got up, then stretched a hand over the still unconscious dwarf's chest.

"[Cure Serious Wounds]"

Her spell flowed like silver-glowing petals down the full length of her arm and into the dwarf. His wounds disappeared, and he was unconscious no more, merely sleeping.

"Well, that was a waste of a spell. ~fa"

"Wait, isn't that a third-tier healing spell? You know third-tier spells?"

"Third tier... ah, right. Your magical culture is different from mine. You count zero tier spells as tier one, right?"

"Uhm, that's past the point, lady. If ye know third tier spells, ye're beyond platinum, right?"

"I'm sorry, sir Grumnir, we don't use the plate system back home. We go by levels. I am level 100, you see? Besides, I'm not a front line sort, I'm really a support type. ~fa"

"Well, it'll be a lot safer to go 'round with ye supporting our backs, I say! So, what do ye think, Albion?"

"I guess... we are finally a 6 people party."

"Welcome t' the Wild Riders, m'lady Lyann!"

"Please cut the lady thing, sir Grumnir. ~fa"

"No deal, yer reaction's too funny!"

~O~

About an hour or so later, the whole group was sitting around in the room as they introduced each other.

They had already convinced Lyann to keep her hood while inside towns from now on, but it was too late for the town of Idalgo. They couldn't use the common room in peace anymore, not if she was with them, which is why introductions had to be conducted in the gentleman's room.

"You know, I do know [Alter Self] so I can look anyway I want to look. I could be another dwarven man, if you thought that would help. ~fa"

"Nice. Would it change your voice?"

"No ~fa"

"Then its pointless. Just copy some woman off the street the next time we are in a new town and you feel like taking off yer cloak, alright?"

Tazar has a lot less of an accent that Grumnir did, though Lyann couldn't help but smile when she heard how cliche the dwarves sounded.

"As for formal introductions, please allow me. You are already familiar with Tazar and Grumnir. The first is our cleric, and the latter is our meat shield. I am more an all around swordsman."

Lyann nodded as Albion introduced the male members of the party again.

"These are Kallisto, our mage."

A dark skinned elf woman greeted her by raising a hand. She was wearing well tailored, if well-worn clothes. She wasn't wearing any armor, though that didn't seem strange to Lyann since a lot of casters can't use magic while wearing armor. Druids, clerics, bard and a few others were the exception to this, rather than the norm.

Kallisto had a slightly elongated face, but looked rather pretty. Her eyes were also slightly longer, and gave her a very exotic appearance that wasn't exactly asian. She had short white hair and a black iron collar on her neck. It looked more like a slave's collar than a proper accessory, and Lyann had a rough time deciding if she should ask about it or not.

"And finally Cathya, our rogue."

'The party rogue, for a good and properly balanced monster meal, you got to have a caster, a rogue, a fighter and a healer.'

Lyann smirked a little. Some things were multi universal, it seemed.

The rogue, unlike the rest of the party except Grumnir, was wearing her complete armor. In her case, it was a black studded leather suit that hugged her tightly, well made, but not magical. It had nothing that could get caught on anything as she moved, and her boots were low and solid looking. She had short, fluffy looking chestnut brown hair.

"If you can look any way you want, is that how you really look?"

Cathya looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Not really, but at the same time yes. To begin with, I could turn into anything and tell you that's my actual form and you would just have to believe me. ~fa"

"So how do you actually look?"

"Fuu... like I said, like this, yet not like this... its really complicated. Now, why don't you tell me about the job you were doing when Tazar got hurt? ~fa"

"We were hunting Giant Harvest Bugs."

Kallisto sat on top of a drawer, and spoke calmly.

"Giant Harvest Bugs... could you describe them for me? I already learned that the tiger beastmen that are attacking the country are called Rakshasa where I come from, so I probably know them by other name. ~fa"

"Well, they're green, longer than a horse, can spit acid, and their tunneling makes land extremely fertile, so farmers like to use it to grow their crops. They're mostly harmless, except during harvest seaso-"

Albion had begun explaining, but Lyann nodded and finished for him.

"Because it's their mating season, right? And you can use their shells to make good, lightweight armor. I think I know what they are. We call them Ankheg. You can, if you pay close attention, see their antenna sprout from the ground while they are lurking about, right? ~fa"

"Right! That's the critter! I knew ye were no greenhorn."

Grumnir said while nodding approvingly.

"Well, it's nice to know that some things are the same anywhere I go. A rose by any other name, would smell just as sweet. Well, I think it's time I go to work, then ~fa"

"Uhm? No, no, we are done for today. You don't want to fight those things in the dark."

"I don't want to fight those things at all! I'm a support type, remember? Just trust me, and stretch a hand towards me! ~fa"

Lyann gently touched the tip of each party member's fingers with her own. A golden thread came forth each time, and soon she was holding 5 in total, then she added one of her own.

"What's that?"

Kallisto seemed quite interested.

"Uhmm.. it's a rather exotic job even back home, but this is the art of a Incantatrix. Just don't mind me for a little while as I work. Read a book, look out the window, go to sleep if you want. ~fa"

"Nu uh, I wanna see what you are doing. Besides, that golden thread comes from me, right? I can't touch it, though."

Kallisto jumped down from the drawer and pulled a chair to sit and look at what Lyann was doing.

"Fine, but don't blame me if you get bored. Support jobs aren't exactly exciting, which is why they are not very popular."

"Hah! Tell me about it!"

Tazar said out loud as he, too, pulled a chair nearby.

"No, really, tell me about what yer doing, m'lady."

"Fiiine. Each of these threads is us. It represents our fate. This is called fateweaving. I'm weaving our fates together. It lasts for a single day, but- ~fa"

"Yer doing what!?"

Now everyone was sitting or standing around her.

"You know support spells, right? Cat's Grace, bull's Strength? ~fa"

"I don't know them by those names, but a can guess you mean [Lesser Agility Boost] and [Lesser Strength Boost]. I'm pretty sure."

"Probably? We use different names for a lot of stuff, after all. Anyway, its a pain to cast it on every single party member, right? Your MP won't last. When I'm done weaving a little token charm, I can cast any spell on it, and it will affect all of us at once. Healing, support, enhancements... its really convenient. ~fa"

"Oy oy, that sounds mighty useful."

Tazar and Kallisto were quite interested now, but the rest of the party, being non-casters, and seeing that it wasn't dangerous, began doing their own things now.

"Yes, but it takes 10 minutes to create the charm, so it can't be done in combat. I used to do it every morning, but I've seen too many attacks at dawn and charges with the sunset in the background, so after soup time seems best now. ~fa"

"Ah, that does happen a lot in our business."

It was mildly interesting to see Lyann use her weaving needles to work the golden threads, but that was it, really.

"Once you are done, can we cast spells into it as well?"

Kallisto asked after a while.

"I'm afraid not, but I can work with you to make your spells stronger, though. ~fa"

"How much stronger?"

Lyann looked at the dark skinned elf. She was about level 20, so she should be able to use level 2 spells... level 3 in this world.

"Uhmm... let me finish this and I will demonstrate the full power of a support job! ~fa"

Eventually, she was done. It was a small, cuddly round pillow of golden threads.

"Done! Now let's see... ah, some spells require that you touch me when I cast them, which is why I have such inconveniently long hair. Please gather around wearing your full gear! ~fa"

She undid her long thick braid, and split it into many small ones, then had everyone hold to one.

"Here we go! [Greater Magic Weapon]! ~fa"

The charm token glowed red for a moment, then the magic spread through Lyann's hair to her new party members, all at once.

"Oy!, what does this do?"

"Check out your weapon. ~fa"

"Why is it glowing? It feels lighter, too."

"I made it so it will be much sharper and stronger. You should notice a huge difference in battle. I think they're about as good as a [Legendary] tier weapon right now? Since they don't have any special ability like throwing fireballs or anything like that. Ren could reforge them that way, but this is all I can do. Sorry. Now, let's continue ~fa"

[Magic Vestment]

Their armors began glistening as if they had been just oiled and polished. They were lighter, and stronger.

[Resistance against acid]

A green aura covered them briefly

[Protection vs evil]

A white aura covered them briefly

[Haste]

Their feet and arms would become twice as fast

[Bull's Strength] (Greater Strength Boost)

[Cat's Grace] (G Agility Boost)

[Bear's Endurance] (G Stamina Boost)

[Fox's Cunning] (G Intelligence Boost)

[Owl's Wisdom] (G Wisdom Boost)

[Eagle's Charisma] (G Charisma Boost)

[Minor Vitality]

Their wounds would close by themselves, as if they had the enormous healing powers of trolls.

[Stoneskin]

Their bodies were like rock as far as the enemy was concerned. Honestly, Lyann had began realizing that the levels of the average adventurer was much lower than in Yggdrassil, but considering that this was real life now, and the job implied really risking one's life, it didn't surprise her.

She had many times more support spells that she could have used, but restrained herself to those that would be called of up to 3rd level on this world.

"It is quite amazing, Lyann! I had never heard about a couple of these spells. What does stoneskin do?"

"To explain it simply, let me think... it should nullify three of the ankheg's hits! ~fa"

"That's really something. How long does it last? I know [Greater Strength Boost] lasts for several hours, but even so, you should have waited until we set out to fight."

"About the same. Don't worry, part of a Incantatrix job is, I can make support spells last a full day. So once I use that skill, any spells you have on you will last until this time tomorrow. ~fa"

"What!? That's too amazing! That's ridiculous!"

"I'm exclusively a support job. It's everything I do. Don't ask me to fight, alright? I suck at it. ~fa"

"I guess its a trade off."

Kallisto and Tazar were noticeable impressed, albeit everyone was looking at Lyann with a mix of awe and pity. If she was as terrible a fighter as she was a great support, she probably was a REALLY bad fighter.

"Anyway, before I do that, you should cast any support effects you'd like to last a full day. ~fa"

"Right, in that case, hold on, m'lady!"

[Righteous Might]

[Bless]

[Guidance]

[Enlarge Person]

Tazar casted a few spells on himself and the others, and then it was Kallisto's turn. Enlarge Person doubled his size, greatly enhancing his strength, but it only affected him.

[Mage Armor]

[Guidance]

[Resistance]

[Detect Poison]

[Endure Elements]

[Shield]

[Detect Secret Doors]

[Detect Undead]

[Detect Magic]

[Protection from Arrows]

"Alright, I'm done. Since we are going to rest now, I used nearly all my mana."

Kallisto seemed quite tired, but was covered in a veritable kaleidoscope of magical energies.

"Now just a few more things real quick. ~la"

That night, Lyann sang three songs, which the Wild Riders would never forget. The Song of Heroism, Song of Spellpower and the Song of Courage. They would catch each other humming one or the other from time to time for years to come, but forever regret that they couldn't quite remember them.

"Now that the songs are still affecting you... ~fa"

[Seal Fate]

"And it's done! It should last until this very hour tomorrow! ~la"

~O~

The following day, a dire crime was committed. As if 10000 ankheg voices were all whining out "OP NERF PLZ!" as one, and where then silenced. A true ankheg massacre, an ankheg genocide.

The Wild Riders did leave the eggs alone, however. After all, ankhegs enrich the farmers fields.

Lyann did her best at supporting them with crossbow shots. Her best at failing horribly, that is. 3 meters off to the right, 4 meters off to the left, too high, too low. Even sadder, not all of it was fake.

Golden Ballade may be a max level adventurer, but Lyann Du Lumiere was a complete noob around a crossbow. To begin with, even back in Yggdrasil, on the few occasions she fought, she used either the spear or the sword, so ranged weapons were a complete mystery and torture for her.

The Wild Riders had sad, bittersweet smiles the whole time.

When one of her bolts hit Grumnir in the back (nothing happened, thankfully. Stoneskin took the hit for him), they asked her to stand back and cheer them on, perhaps use a healing spell if needed.

~O~

Ren was crying as she laughed in the scrying room.

"Don't be a meanie! She can't help it!"

Her sister admonished her sternly, but she was chuckling as well.

"B-behold, the mighty Incantatrix!"

Ren was having trouble speaking, and breathing, and standing straight.

~O~

Lyann felt miserable. Her expression spoke volumes. A huge "do not talk to me" sign for everyone to see. She went back into town with her new party, without saying a word. Ate her lunch, without saying a word, and went around with Kallisto, without saying a word.

"But, you know, your support is really amazing! I can't believe one of my spells could do that much damage! And your singing voice is fantastic!"

"..."

"So, don't worry! Like Tazar said, it's a trade off! A trade off! You can't be good at everything! It's okay, I can't use a crossbow either!"

"I bet you can do it better than me ~fa"

Lyann had a gloomy cloud hanging over her pretty face while looking at the small hand crossbow hanging from Kallisto's hip.

"Uhmm.. so, tell me about your home?"

"Its a city, it's that way, really pretty."

She vaguely gestured towards the mountains.

"So... where did you learn magic? You said the Incantatrix job was rare, right?"

"Yeah, because people feels its useless in combat... which it is. I guess."

"Ah... ah... y-you know, I was a slave until the Wild Ride rescued me."

"Uhm? oh. Why do you keep your collar, then? Doesn't it remind you of bad stuff? ~fa"

"Well, its magical and I can't remove it. Plus this region is really dangerous for elves. We are considered no different from goblins, so without it, there's a chance I would be attacked. With it, whoever did that would need to compensate my 'master' you know?"

"Ah. I'm sorry, that must be awful. Want me to remove it for you? I'm pretty sure I can at least make it non-magical so you can put it on and off whenever you want. ~fa"

"Really!? Y-yes, that would be great!"

[Break Enchantment]

A sound like shattering glass sounded around them.

"There you go. ~fa"

"Really? You are amazing, Oh Gods, wow I..."

"I still can't fight my way out of a paper bag, though."

"...c´mon, I'll buy you a drink."

~O~

That night, she wove a new amulet, enhanced the party, and once she was sure Kallisto and Cathya were sleeping, Lyann left the room, then teleported back to Tengoku Junzi. They had agreed on her giving them regular reports, after all.

That is why, all six of the city rulers were sitting around the meeting table once again.

"I really can't fight using a sword? What about my spear? ~fa?"

"You can't show off too much. Right now you are the super talented but physically challenged Incantatrix. It's a good cover."

"Fuu... ~sol"

"Anyway, please make your report."

Mako gently urged her on.

"Alright... ~fa"

Lyann explained to them about the technological level of the Dragonic Kingdom, about the adventurer's plate ranking system, and about the war with the rakshasa.

Having been created with the sensibilities of celestials. Both the lion-headed general Li and the falcon-headed general Subutai were ready to take action against them.

Man-eating demons having a country of their own and using humans as cattle.

Three cities already had been conquered.

The country looks like it is about to fall, soon!

"Wait."

Mako immediately calmed them down. Burlaug was nodding with a grave expression.

"We can't simply empty Tengoku Junzi and send everyone to war. We don't know these people, or their shared history with the rakshasas, if they really are that. The tales you said suggested that they were very fond of melee, and the rakshasa we know, hate it."

"It could be a offshoot, a degeneration of their gene pool could explain it. If a whole nation grew up from a small group, odds are that their gene pool looks more like a filthy pond. And while there are tiger beastmen, and even weretigers, neither of them have the reversed hand traits that the rakshasa have, Mako-sama."

"Oh, that is wonderful, Subutai-san!"

"What is, Mako-sama?"

"You are voicing your opinion! That is great! We were really worried about you three just going with whatever we said, you know? Please feel free to do so whenever you want!"

"Y-yes, Mako-sama."

"And please stop the sama"

"I am afraid that is impossible, Mako-sama."

"..alright. So, what can we do, what should we do, and perhaps more importantly, what shouldn't we do, and why? Let's go around the table, and everyone try to add at least one item to every list, alright? I will begin if everyone agreed with that?"

Everyone was alright with it, so the exuberant angel continued.

"We could send our army and assist the Dragonic Kingdom. We should prioritize defending the people. We mustn't allow the Dragonic kingdom to become dependent on us. We don't know if we are here to stay. Please, Burlaug, continue."

Mako sat down, and Burlaug, who was sitting to her right, stood up. The dwarf thanked Mako for the chance, and began talking.

"We could send lupinals and hounds to defend towns and countryside communities. They are well versed with the wilderness, after all, and while most of our troops look like beastmen of some kind, there's little chance that anyone will confuse a cat and a dog."

Everyone nodded, so Burlaug continued.

"We should establish peaceful relationships with the Dragonic Kingdom. They are our neighbors, and we are probably squatting in their lands, so giving them a favorable impression should go a long way towards peace in the future. Finally, we shouldn't send all of our forces. General Li and his Pride have bathed themselves in glory in numerous occasions already. Isn't it the time for general Subutai and his Golden Horde to shine?"

Burlaug finished speaking, and sat down. Then it was the turn of General Subutai.

"Thank you. I agree completely with administrator Burlaug, and beg Mako-sama's pardon for going out of the should could and shouldn't former that she so graciously established."

He waited for Mako to nod and give her permission before continuing.

"The [Silver Pride] of general Li has covered itself in glory on nine different occasions, while my [Golden Horde] has been relegated to a support role. This certainly has allowed the troops to gain some experience, yet we have never had a chance to take the fight against evil to its own domain yet. Based on our lupinal scouts reports, I estimate a 99.99994% chance of complete eradication of the enemy within a 278 miles radius of Tengoku Junzi in the next 72 hours, with geometrical expansion of the pacified zone every 48 hours thereafter. Since we have an adequate number of shamans, we can create our own sources of fresh water as we ad-"

"General. ~fa"

"Yes, Lyann-sama?"

"I assume you have read The Art of War? ~fa"

"Yes of course! As Lyann-sama recommended, I have already memorized it on its entirety, as well as Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, Gulliman's Codex Astartes, Secret History of the Mongols and Low Level Hell by Hugh Mills!"

"Then you know that your job is not to give us a play-by-play report on your battle plans, only to achieve victory. Once you begin to move, you will be the sole entity in command of the [Golden Horde]. The ruler's job is to rule over the country, decide state policies and execute them. There is nothing as dangerous as a king who thinks himself a general. ~fa"

"It is as you say, Lyann-sama."

"In that case, I ask you in order to create those policies. Is victory attainable? ~fa"

"Certainly."

All three angels looked at each other, and nodded.

"General Subutai, I hereby order you, take the [Golden Horde] beyond Tengoku Junzi and wipe out the rakshasa infesting our neighbor's lands. Do not forget that yours is a peacekeeping force, not a conquering army. Try to leave a favorable impression with the locals, understood?"

"Yes, Mako-sama!"

"Anything else we should be aware of? Anyone?"

As Mako asked, her sister lifted her hand.

"Yes?"

"I'd like to update Lyann on the sample results from-"

"Just give her the report."

"But, I even [Fabricate]d a projector! It'll be fun, I promise!"

"Just give her the report."

"Meanie."

~O~

Once the meeting was over with, Lyann teleported back to Idalgo, then walked back to the room she was sharing with Kallisto and Cathya.

"If you are going for a walk at night, you should wear your hood."

Cathya was barely awake, and half grumbled at her.

"I am sorry. I will do so in the future. ~fa"

~O~

In the morning, the Wild Riders left town, heading towards the capital in order to collect their bounty from the Ankheg Hunt. Lyann (Golden Ballade, to be honest) had carefully cleaned the giant insect bodies, peeled off their exoskeletons, cured them and packed them in neat piles, which she then stored inside her [Handy Haversack], so the party was nowhere as burdened as they had originally feared they would be for the return trip.

"Oh, Lyann is so useful."

Albion said while patting her head as she peeled away the ankhegs.

"Yes, she can really be depended on."

Tazar said while patting her head as she cured the shells.

"Thank you for taking care of us."

Cathya said while patting her head as she stored away the packaged shells.

"You are trying to cheer me up because I can't shoot, aren't you!? ~sol"

"No, no, you are really useful!" x5

"Fuuu... ~sol"

Lyann pouted a little, inflating her cheeks as she shook her fists before her chest for a few moments. She quickly calmed down and sighed, then took out a acoustic guitar from her [Handy Haversack].

"What are you doing?"

Kallisto was interested. Elves liked chord instruments, though they were limited to hand lyres. Something as advanced as an instrument with an acoustic box was unknown on this world.

"The Song of Celerity and the Song of the Stout Heart are great for long distance travel. But you don't seriously expect me to sing all the way to the capital, right? ~fa"

"Why didn't you use them last night?"

"I didn't know we would be moving out today. ~fa"

And so, with a song that quadrupled their walking speed, and a song to ward of exhaustion, they set out on their way towards the capital.

They were simply walking, but to a third party observer, it looked as if they were running.

~O~

"They must have seen us, catch them!"

The waiting brigands started running behind the Wild Riders party, but the distance only increased over time. The more they ran, the further away they seemed to be, until their targets became dots in the distance, and then disappeared altogether.

"Ugh... ah- pff! T-they... sure run fast.. ugh!"

With that, the brigands leader fainted.

Behind him, there was a mile-long trail of fainted bodies lying on the road. Of course, the alchemist was one of the first to pass out. Working all day on a lab did not lead to a great constitution.

A bit later, they decided that it didn't matter. She didn't look that hot, anyway.

~O~

And with that sour grapes comment, we end part I at last!

Author Notes:

Wow, this chapter was so much longer, yet faster to write, than what I had originally expected it to be. Looking at it now, its 30+ pages long on my word processor. I will split it in two so it doesn't turns into a massive info dump... yeah, I'm going to do that.

Oh magic 8-ball, tell me the future!

Will the Wild Riders get some mounts to ride? (Signs point to no)

Did the readers already guess the true form of the [Golden Horde]? (signs point to yes)

Will Lyann learn to use a ranged weapon? (Signs point to no)

Will we see more dwarves in the next chapter? (Signs point to yes)

Will the brigands finally manage to catch the Wild Riders? (signs point to no)

Next Chapter: Part II

Ahh... this chapter was so fucking long, I feel bad about asking my friends to proofread it for me... please let me know if anything major requires correcting, I wasn't lying when I said I'm 99% blind you know? So spellchecking is really hard.