Chapter 3
Beta: Worldbringer of Joseun
Illya rubbed her forehead as she walked within the market zone, taking in the sights of both the hardworking Non-Player Characters and the contradicting despairing players.
She had woken up far earlier than any of her family members and decided to go to the marketplace in order to both purchase a few potions – which she had neglected to restock on but that could be excused seeing as she had been dragged into Elder Tale before she could do so – and to set a few records straight within her own mind.
Illya gazed at the NPC's, all of whom were either trying – and failing – at selling some of their goods to other players, or trading and bartering with fellow NPC's.
Illya frowned as she recalled her brother's advice on the subject of NPC's, a warning about calling them NPC's vocally. She personally didn't care much for it, but she supposed changing her way of referring to them would have long-lasting benefits if they were to continue living in this world.
She wouldn't want to live in a place where the local populace held animosity for her, it would be bad for her health.
–If she could even be sick anymore.
She would have to perform experiments on her body when she had gotten the rest of the Emiya Family to a suitable level for survival.
The only question was 'how' would she exactly go with accomplishing that? She had a location in mind, a low-level zone with only a handful of level 1 to 3 monsters, none of which could really threaten her or her allies.
There was the variable of unknown threats coming from the Novasphere Pioneers expansion as well, which really put a damper on any plans Illya made. It was a risk she didn't want to take without insurance. What if there was a raid boss just lurking around in the forest?
Illya repressed a shudder at the thought. She didn't want to risk her family, but heading out there might be the only way possible for her to do so.
She'd need to use the Teacher system of course if she wanted to let them gain levels, otherwise, she'd end up with some experience that could have been for her guildmates.
As Illya was about to contemplate on what kind of armor to purchase for her inevitable decline in level, a pillar of white light sprouted out from atop the concrete canopy, reminiscent of a burst of miraculous energy.
Illya took the moment to cover her eyes at the phenomenon. Her thoughts ran rampant at the possible speculations of what could be occurring. Was it an attack on the city from some unknown factor? Perhaps it was worse and the NPC's of other in-game nations like the Izumo knights attacking them!?
Illya didn't know but she had to somehow confirm for sure.
Whilst everyone else was still blinded by the burst of light, Illya ran across the streets, relieved at the fact that she had gotten very used to running in her new body height.
Other players soon caught on to what she was doing and followed a crowd mentality, they followed her until she reached the source of the pillar of light, just in time to see the pillar recede into–
––The chapel?
Illya blinked as the light faded and focused on the chapel's tall and imposing doorways, its hinges creaking as the other players started to gather around her. Admittedly, Illya had called out her axe in case of any coming threat despite the fact they were in a safe zone.
She was nervous and wanted some sort of protection from whatever that pillar of light was.
Illya kept her breathing calm and steady as the doors fully opened. Footsteps echoed out within as a lone figure walked out, its legs hesitantly taking steps forward as it took in its surroundings.
It was a player.
The rest of the Emiya Family woke up earlier than usual, mostly due to the fact that they each had gone to bed after Illya had in order to have more slumber.
This naturally meant that Rin wasn't as grumpy as she usually was in the morning, so Illya wouldn't need to douse her in water, again.
That thought faded when they noticed the fact that Illya, the guild master of their recently created tenure, had mysteriously vanished.
There had been just a bit of panic on their part, but luckily Sakura remembered the fact that their 'menu' could be used to send a message to her. Rin took it upon herself to send the message.
Luckily, Illya didn't waste any time in replying and said that she was coming back. She was in the marketplace to buy some potions because she had forgotten to purchase some yesterday. There was something else she had wanted to impart, but it could wait until Illya got back.
So, in light of their recent free time, the Emiya Family chose to wait patiently with Shirou peacefully meditating – a past time he had developed ever since obtaining Archer's arm – and Sakura silently watching him do so with a subtle smile on her lips as she scrolled through her own menu.
All except for Rin, who was far too busy trying to figure out how to best utilize the blob of elements she had conjured yesterday. The magus considered turning it into an offensive spell of some sort, but the haphazard collusion of elements would just weaken whatever effect the spell could have had overall, jack of all trades and all that.
Their wait did not last long as the door creaked open and Illya stepped in. However, there was no trace of her usual carefree demeanor. In its place, a serious expression took hold with just a bit of inner conflict.
Something was wrong, they all knew that.
"Is something wrong, Illya-chan?" Sakura asked as her new ears twitched involuntarily.
Illya regarded her for a second before she breathed in slowly and nodded to herself in some sort of confirmation.
"Long story short, someone died and came back to life."
Rin's concentration faded as the orb of haphazard elements broke apart violently, marring her face with a bit of soot, water, and dirt. In turn, the twin-tailed magus frowned and twitched violently in irritation at the result.
Shirou was thankfully prepared and grabbed a wet towel – which he had found in the bathroom – to wipe her face clean. Once she was clean, Rin smiled his way with gratitude before she focused on the matter at hand.
"Elaborate," Rin ordered. There was no nonsense or her usual fiery attitude present. That was understandable. After all, with the news she was given, it may very well change their understanding of this world.
"Early in the morning, I went to buy potions, right?" Illya started, "After that, there was a commotion when a literal pillar of light erupted. A crowd had formed in front of the chapel, which was where the light came from. Luckily I was already near the front so I could see what it was…"
Illya sighed to herself as she continued, "… What I saw was a player laughing to himself hysterically. 'I came back to life' he said, followed by more hysterical laughter."
Silence was what took hold afterward. Illya swore she heard Rin swallow some spit to clear her throat.
"So… you're completely sure that he wasn't just crazy?" Rin asked with skepticism.
"In the game, the last chapel we visit is where players respawn after they die anywhere in the world." Illya informed, "The player told everyone that he died after fighting monsters outside Akihabara. He was level sixty, around my level so he must have been fighting near the mountains."
"Does this mean that we can respawn too…?" Sakura asked, somewhat hesitant to do so. The prospect of reviving from the dead sounded exciting, but everyone in the Emiya Family had come from magically-rich backgrounds.
A boon like re-spawning after death… something like that would not come without risk.
Illya solemnly nodded. "Yes, no doubt about it. As much as I hate to say it, this means we shouldn't have to worry about dying against high leveled monsters."
"So what? We're some kind of pseudo-Dead apostle ancestor?" Rin tried clarifying to an extent, "Immortality is completely unnatural. Either Gaia or Alaya should have done at least something about it if this many 'players' defy the natural cycle of life and death."
Once more, Rin's magus heritage and upbringing was making itself known.
"For now, we have to assume that both Gaia and Alaya don't exist in this world." Illya said, "Following that, we – or rather all of you – have to level up. Which means we need to kill monsters outside Akihabara."
Shirou and Rin simply nodded.
Sakura brought up a question, "But isn't that risky? We still aren't sure if the revival process is chance-based? We could still… die."
Considering what Sakura went through during the Holy Grail War, Illya couldn't really fault her for the logic she had. However, they had to get stronger and gain levels. There was no telling what shared immortality would do for the people in this world nor what the shift in the social hierarchy would be.
"All the more reason to get stronger," Illya declared, "So that we don't have to live our lives feeling that we can't do anything."
They could be immortal, but that didn't mean they were strong yet. There are others that were far stronger than them, ninety levels stronger, and who knows what they would resort to doing.
That needed to change.
The discovery of immortality was, without a doubt, going to change the player controlled city of Akihabara, and Illya wasn't sure if she was going to like the outcome.
The Forest zone, the zone that spawned a few slimes at level one and wolves at level two. It is the first place that new players were advised to go to get started on leveling.
Illya took a breath and turned to face the rest of her guild. It felt weird to call her brother and technical sisters 'her guild' but she should start getting used to it.
This zone was the first step for everyone in the Emiya Family to get stronger.
"Gross, gross, gross! It's on my shirt!"
"Nee-san! Calm down!"
"Shirou! Stab the snot-glob already!"
Illya tried very hard not to slam her head onto a tree. Rin easily killed a slime with her own fiery version of Gandr but was unprepared for the shower of green gore that it created.
Odd, seeing as whenever she or Shirou killed a slime, it evaporated into the commonly seen bubbles of experience from her time playing Elder Tale. Although, they had killed the slimes by slashing them with precision, which didn't really disturb much of the blob-like membrane.
Explosions? That would very much do so.
Sakura, on the other hand, had yet to kill anything. However, she was level 2 from simply soaking in experience points in comparison to Shirou and Rin who were level 3 – not that the idea of soaking experience made any sense to the magi. Experience is gained through hardships or something like that.
"Rin, the slime will disappear in a bit," Like all the corpses in this world seemed to do, "Just focus on killing the slimes and the occasional wolf. We'll move up to fight stronger monsters later on."
"Are we really getting stronger by doing this?" Shirou asked as he stabbed a weakened wolf with the scimitar they had bought. He frowned as it dispersed into bubbles of experience points. "Other than the numerical increase, it doesn't feel like we're getting stronger."
"Numbers are everything in MMO's, Onii-chan." Illya simply stated, "Also, why are you using the scimitars? I thought you'd trace Kanshou and Bakuya and be done with it?"
"I wanted to try to use these blades." Shirou defended, "They aren't bad and get the job done."
"But they're low leveled," Illya stated bluntly.
"I'll use a Noble Phantasm if the situation calls for it," Shirou stated.
Illya begrudgingly nodded at it.
A short distance away, Rin sent a Finn Gale towards another slime with a wave of her wand. She was clearly not used to using one – evident by the frown she wore on her face – but she remembered to stand a few meters away so that the shower of green didn't hit her.
"By the way midget," Rin called, "Why are you level five? I could've sworn you were higher than us before."
More than twenty times higher actually…
Illya shook away the thought and proceeded to answer. "I'm using another in-game system to lower my level."
She was level five, which meant that she wasn't wearing her trademarked armor. She was reduced to a simple plate-mail set with little defense to offer. Her normal armor had a level requirement to use so these were the next best thing. This also included her axe, meaning she was stuck using a simple woodcutters axe that she had bought earlier in the morning.
Unfortunately, she didn't have a helmet. Which meant that her wolf-like ears were exposed to the air which brought odd sensations to her. Illya had no idea how Sakura was capable of withstanding it.
Her stats took a dip too, with her HP being just above eight hundred while her original HP being about six thousand five hundred. She had only enough mana to perform a few of her skills without running out.
"Why would you lower it?" Shirou asked after looking at the forest zone. He saw no other monsters around, "Wouldn't it be safer for you to be at a higher level with your sturdier armor?"
"I'm agreeing with Shirou on this one, midget."
Illya sighed and nodded. She could certainly see their reasoning, but…
"The system is aptly named the 'Teacher System'," Illya started, "In the game, monsters focus on the highest leveled player. While I'm still higher than all of you, it's not by a significant margin. If I was ten levels higher than you then the monsters would all focus on me."
"So this is a way for us to combat monsters without them being distracted by you?" Shirou muttered, "Wouldn't it be easier for us to kill monsters if they were distracted by you?"
Illya nodded a bit, "True, but then again we could get used to mindlessly attacking monsters without regard for our mana and positions. Look around! Aren't we all in wonderful combat positions already?"
Somewhat true. Illya herself was near the front with Shirou while Rin and Sakura were at the back, figuratively. "This way, we can deal with incoming monsters better."
"But aren't you the tank?" Rin asked, the roles of tank, healer, support, and damage dealer having already been explained to them earlier. "The one whose supposed to be the main target of every monster? So what? Are you a shitty tank?"
"You can't always rely on me to pick up your slack, Rin."
"Such an unreliable tank~"
Illya scoffed, but it changed into a giggle shortly after. "In all seriousness though, if I were my normal level then I'd be gaining some of the EXP that you all should be getting. This way, I don't gain any experience and all of you get the full benefit."
It wasn't like she would need the experience from a bunch of mobs nearly a tenth of her level.
Before Rin could come up with any sort of witty remark, a sound took their attention.
The sound of bushes ruffling in front of them.
Illya brought up a woodcutter's axe, Shirou readied the bought scimitars, and Sakura clutched her staff.
Several pairs of red glowing eyes crawled out of the undergrowth.
Those eyes belonged to five– no, six wolves steadily stepping out of the bushes. They had a sheen of messy silver fur ruffling as they walked towards them.
"A pack of Rabid wolves," Illya muttered, "A rare spawn in this zone. They're consisting of level five to seven monsters, six wolves in total. Usually known as the newbie killers."
Rin sent her a look at the relay of information. Most likely being confused for a short second.
Once you remembered that Illya was part of a guild once upon a time, it wasn't odd if you thought about it. She must have gained some team playing skills back there.
"That's reassuring…" Shirou muttered back, although his eyes did not leave the slowly approaching pack.
Illya herself was not that worried, she knew that she could take on the entire pack herself – even with the restriction of abilities she had while being level five – but at the same time, she was wary that these monsters had changed in some way or form with the new expansion.
Then again, she was now immortal, so being wary was somewhat counter-intuitive–
Illya culled the thought before it could finish. If she thought she was invincible to every attack, then she'd get sloppy.
Granted she hadn't fought much ever since she was incarnated into Elder Tale, but she liked to think that her combat experience in the Holy Grail War brought her an advantage.
The same could be said of the rest of the Emiya Family. Sakura aside, Rin was looking at the wolves like some annoying gnat that interrupted their conversation while Shirou simply stared without much worry.
In comparison to god-like Servants, they've faced far worse than a few mangy wolves. It'd take something like a giant boss monster to get them completely worried. Maybe if they were a raid boss, then they'd worry.
Although, those wolves did remind Illya of some bad memories.
"So, how do we take these things out?" Shirou asked as he displayed his usual caution.
"Once the Alpha dies, which is the slightly larger one, the pack will go into a frenzy that boosts their stats, so aim for him last," Illya informed. "Other than that, not much different from a normal pack of wolves."
That was what caused most new players to die, they fought these wolves expecting the same thing. Usually when attacked by a pack of wolves, killing the alpha would cause the other wolves to either retreat or lose all cooperation among themselves.
It was funny for more experienced players to see newbies die to the tactic though, Illya wasn't going to deny that.
"Got it," Shirou nodded at the information.
"So midget, are you going to use that taunt skill or should I just attack now?" Rin asked. Luckily, Illya had taken the time to explain how aggro worked in Elder Tale so Rin didn't just blast them with her Gandrs and drag all the monsters towards her.
Illya sent a glance to Rin's health and mana bar on her menu, "It'd be better if you wait a bit and regenerate your mana, you're only at fifty percent. I'll draw all their attention so take the time to deal steady damage. Also, don't forget to keep an eye on your mana."
After Rin's reluctant nod, Illya took several strides forward which brought upon her the attention of the pack.
The Alpha barked, most likely orders to its brethren, and the five other wolves charged towards her.
She had put herself between the wolves and the enemy so she'd be the first target they'd attack, this was what she was preparing for. The Guardian class had only two skills at level five and one of them was well suited to this situation.
"Taunting Blow!"
The skill was a simple aggro skill to draw the attention of monsters towards her,
The woodcutter's axe glowed with mystic light as it soared through the air, impacting one of the wolves that chose to charge from her left. The impact took off a quarter of its health, not so much in the grand scheme of things, but it dragged the attention of the other wolves who were about to charge at Sakura and Rin.
Illya saw pure and unadulterated hatred in each of their eyes.
Once more, it reminded her that while this world may look like the same game she played in her downtime, these monsters could be said to be just as real as any player out there. Emotions included.
They roared and charged her down, exposing their backs and creating an opportunity for Shirou to rush in and deal over half a bar's worth of damage to a separate wolf.
Illya sent a glance back to the rest of the wolves and hit one aside with her axe. She got hit from behind and winced. The pain was something she was used to so she didn't really care. Although, the pain she would have felt seemed to have been dulled somewhat, most likely with the limited protection of her level five armor.
The wolf that attacked her from behind burst into EXP bubbles as a Finn Fire hit it from behind which caused Illya to widen her eyes in slight surprise.
How much damage does that spell have!? Rin was level three and that wolf was level five, it should have done at most two-thirds of its health.
Illya then remembered that Rin didn't bother to acknowledge the reality of her absurd damage output and instead shot another Finn Fire at a different wolf, this time not killing it in one hit but instead leaving its health at twenty percent.
Rin didn't look too pleased with that result. She didn't get to correct her mistake when Shirou leapt and dealt the final blow to that wolf.
Two wolves down already and four left to go, a surprisingly nice outcome.
"Heal!" Sakura shouted as she cast the most basic skill that her class had. It simply healed an ally for a substantial amount of health, but the rate of the heal took its time. In layman's terms, a heal-over-time effect.
Illya saw her health bar slowly rise back to ninety percent, which was great seeing as she had been at sixty percent a while ago. Luckily, neither Rin's magical attack nor did Shirou's culling of their kin draw much aggro.
However, she didn't want to take any chances and used another Taunting Blow on the same wolf, lowering her mana to thirty percent. She only had enough for one more skill.
Being low leveled again was truly annoying.
"The Alpha's moving!" Sakura shouted in warning as she eyed the larger wolf charging towards Illya.
Illya kept an eye on it and frowned. In the usual Elder Tale, she would have used an item like a smoke ball to deter its charge, but with the menu being clunky as it is, consumable items aren't as convenient as a button set to a hotkey anymore.
"Rin!" Illya shouted.
"Already doing it!" Rin retorted.
Even as a non-magical class, Illya felt the energy of the surging mana as it passed by her, a combination of both wind and fire affinities infused with a single Gandr.
Upon impact the larger wolf appeared to have been taken by surprise and crashed into another wolf, its health dropping to fifty percent.
It didn't kill it thankfully, even though Rin had just combined her Gandr variants. It was probably haphazardly done, meaning it was either weaker or stronger than her usual Gandr variant and could be improved upon.
However, the nagging thought in the back of her mind complained at the absurdity of the skill.
The wolf that had been hit by its Alpha yelped from under it, health at sixty percent. This confused Illya somewhat, seeing as none of them had attacked that specific wolf.
Illya charged at the wolf she had initially attacked with Taunting Blow and took it out with a few hacks to its skull. Now only two remained, one of them being the Alpha.
Illya stumbled a bit and charged at the weaker wolf while Shirou took off towards the Alpha. He slashed and weaved under each and every clawed attack that it tried to deliver with ease. As expected of someone who could go toe-to-toe with a few Servants.
A Finn Fire was shot towards the Alpha, who had enough cognition to try to dodge the attack but was unable to due to the two scimitars stuck in its gut, which all but prevented its movement.
The Alpha cried out in pain as it burst into bubbles of experience. Before the last wolf could gain a power-up, Illya used the first skill all Guardians learned to intercept it.
"Cross Slash!"
It was a skill usually performed with the standard starting sword. However, because Illya had an axe, the movement her body followed was less of two consecutive slashes and more two downward swings of her axe.
The skill did its job and killed the final wolf before it could gain the frenzied buff. Illya remained vigilant and took in the surrounding zone, much like Shirou and Rin were doing.
Surprise attacks were something they weren't looking forward to, but in this case, they didn't have to worry. The forest remained quiet for a solid minute before Rin exhaled in annoyance.
"That's it? I honestly expected more," Rin complained.
Sakura nervously laughed at that as she cast Heal on the slightly damaged Shirou. Illya simply sighed, "Well we didn't die, so that's good. How's everyone doing with their mana?"
"Thirty percent," Sakura chimed.
"Looks like I have around twenty-five percent left," Rin answered.
"Still full," Shirou informed.
Illya blinked slowly and then decided to take a look at her menu – berating herself for asking instead of looking at it earlier – only to find that Shirou had a full bar of mana.
"Onii-chan, care to explain why you didn't use any skills?" Illya calmly asked, "I can understand not using any earlier when we were killing slimes and lone wolves, but the Swashbuckler's 'Double slash' would have been useful here."
Shirou frowned ever so slightly as he answered. "I personally don't like the feeling of my body moving for me. I prefer using my own swordsmanship in battle."
Illya sighed in frustration at the action, even though she knew that it was very much like her adopted brother to do so.
Illya recalled the battle they had earlier. Shirou did, in fact, manage to block attacks and redirect them which lessened the need to be healed by Sakura. Illya herself didn't do much in that regard as she took blows instead of trying to block or parry.
She honestly expected her body to automatically block for her or something, as it already moved to perform any skills she wanted… That was a dangerous thought process. Like Shirou, she should rely more on her own battle prowess.
Even though she had no idea about axe-wielding techniques. Maybe she should ask Shirou to train her in those things in their downtime?
"Okay, let's ignore that for now." Illya started, "We should rest and focus on what to do next. Stick around and grind experience here or find a tougher location?"
It would be faster to go to the slightly higher level zones, but safer in the zone they were in. No players would even bother coming here anyway – they'd be too focused on farming in the higher leveled zones with their guilds – so they didn't have to worry about the recent player killers.
Not that Illya would tell Shirou of the existence of those players. He might have thrown his dream away for Sakura, but throw someone in danger before him and he'd still try to save them in a heartbeat.
"I vote that we leave," Rin said as she put in her own two cents, "These slimes creep me out and the monsters are too easy to kill."
"But we'll run the risk of meeting stronger players, right?" Sakura mentioned.
Rin scoffed, "It'll be fine, right? It's not like we can die anyway."
"We shouldn't take death lightly." Sakura scolded, "The revival process could be chance-based, remember? We still run the risk of death."
"You have a point…" Rin frowned at that. Illya couldn't really deny that either, not until she saw more people revive to confirm it's 100% accuracy. It was a concept they didn't like. In hindsight, she should have done that earlier and waited until they went on their grinding trip.
"How about we go to the higher level zones once we confirm that we truly can't die?" Illya suggested.
The rest agreed on the suggestion and started to rest. Once their mana and health got back to full they'd go hunt some more monsters. If they're lucky, then they'll find more Rabid wolves again.
"By the way, did any of you get any rare drops?" Illya asked innocently.
""What's a drop?""
Illya blinked before realizing something very crucial.
She'd forgot to explain to them that monsters dropped items upon death.
This meant that they had to walk back and grab the dropped wolf pelts, slime cores, and other gold or potions that could have been there.
They had also killed a lot of monsters.
This was going to be a long day.
At the present, the Emiya Family had taken to resting in the guild room. Shirou, with Sakura's help, was fixing everyone's beds before they slept, which left Illya and Rin to sit near the center table. The chairs had been given on request, but it had cost Illya some gold.
Stingy Kunie clan… A hundred gold for a few chairs was pushing it!
Despite the debacle at the end, Illya was admittedly happy they spent the entire day hunting down monsters. With the exception of Illya, they had all risen in level considerably. Shirou and Rin had found themselves at level seven, despite the fact none of them bothered to use the standard skills that each class had.
Sakura was at level five, mostly because she didn't kill any monster by herself despite her sister's urging. It just didn't sit well with the younger sister.
Although they could understand her wishes. Sakura had seen enough killing during the Holy Grail War. The Matou could tolerate killing monsters but was always hesitant to kill them herself. At least she could gain experience by healing.
Considering they had all surpassed the level five mark, they now had two skills each. Sakura had access to her first technically offensive spell, Root Snare. It was 'technically offensive' because it the only spell she had that dealt damage.
The spell bounded a single target for around two seconds while dealing damage over time. It can be upgraded to deal more damage or ensnare for longer, but that required skill points that could be used for newer skills.
Rin, being the overpowered sorcerer she was, didn't even use the skill point and kept a hold on it. After all, why use it to gain new spells when she can make her own spells? Illya honestly thought it was a good idea, this way she could get the mana regeneration passive once she reached a higher level and max it out early.
Shirou didn't even use skills, so kept the skill points for later as well.
All in all, it was a successful grinding trip.
"Hey, Illya-chan." Sakura called, "Do you know what an EXP pot is? I have two in my inventory but I don't really know what they're for. I've been meaning to ask you but you seemed stressed today."
… scratch that, their grinding trip was an inefficient disaster.
"I wish you told me that you had them earlier. I forgot those things existed…" Illya said as her fingers rubbed her skull, trying to prevent a migraine from developing. "Just… don't use those potions yet. We'll use them during our next grinding trip. They're potions that increase the percentage of experience gain. It would have been better if we used them earlier, but we can't change the past."
For some reason, Illya felt that a certain Bowman was weeping but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why?
Sakura felt a depressed frown rising from her as her Foxtail ears drooped in sadness. Shirou offered a comforting rub of her back, a pleasant smile taking shape. "It's okay Sakura, none of us bothered to ask about it so we're all at fault."
"How do these potions even work?" Rin questioned, holding a standard mana potion alongside a standard health potion. "If these were in our world, magi around the world would pay a huge price just to have samples of it."
Admittedly, they reminded Illya of juice. She was disappointed to learn that they tasted like water. Very disappointed.
"I don't know," Illya replied, "It's something to take a look into at a later date. For now, we should focus more on urgent topics."
Urgent topics such as how to properly maximize the efficiency of their grinding alongside the EXP pot. Hell, Illya was tempted to grab a few from them so she could use it in the future. It'd help speed her up to level ninety.
For the benefit of the guild of course.
"You're right about that. Speaking of urgent, do you have any more books on magic?" Rin asked as she set aside the beginner spell book, completely missing the point of Illya's words. "I've already memorized the basics so now it won't be able to help me craft better spells."
Illya sent Rin a glance and decided to humor her, "I can guide you to the Arcadia tomorrow if you want. There are lots of books there, not sure if they have a practical use though."
Then again, she wasn't sure on the practical use of that beginner's mage book, but it apparently helped Rin create a ball of elements.
Rin considered it for a short while before nodding at the idea.
"I thought we were grinding tomorrow though?" Sakura voiced out her concern once she was done fixing her bed. "If Nee-san goes to the Arcadia, then what are we supposed to do?"
Illya took a short while to consider it before shrugging. "Explore with Onii-chan, I guess? You two need to be more acquainted with the city, especially you Rin. You just stayed in the guild room for the entirety of yesterday."
Rin pouted but nodded alongside her sister. Shirou didn't really mind and nodded at the suggestion too, which was nice. At least Illya had no need to try and convince him.
Illya heard the familiar jingle of a message being sent to her and sighed. She navigated her menu and opened up her mailbox and found it to be from her old guild master again.
While Rin was comfortably crawling into her bed, Illya read the contents of the message. She frowned once she finished reading it.
Well, there went their plans for tomorrow. Right out the window and into the sewers.
A meeting had been called for guild masters of smaller guilds. Illya wondered at first on how Woodstock had found out she made a guild, but then realized she could see his guild name under his own in her friend list so he must have seen the same.
Apparently, it was a meeting to discuss the current situation of Akihabara and how to equally split the farming zones, not that she had a stake on it seeing as all her members were below level forty.
Normally she would have ignored it as she technically had a monopoly over the starting zone as the better place to train up her guild…
However, it did bring up a troubling reality though. Because Illya and the rest had spent the day farming, they didn't realize what had been going on in the other zones outside the city.
From what the message told her, larger guilds had basically decided to become bullies and shove nearly everyone else around and take control of the zones.
This also meant that the players that have been deprived of grinding spots, now have absolutely nothing to do. They could do nothing else now which could– no, would lead to public unrest. Dissatisfaction was one of the first ways civilizations of any sort would collapse.
The closest kingdom to utopia, Camelot, had fallen due to the dissatisfaction of their own king's incapability of understanding them.
Was Akihabara going to have a similar fate befall them?
Illya decided to put the thought process aside in favor of the rest of the message, detailing a concrete reason as to why larger guilds were doing this.
The level cap had apparently risen, so as any nerdy hardcore MMO gamer out there, they sought to reach the new maximum of level one hundred, which boggled Illya's mind seeing as she was only above halfway there.
It did remind her of how weak she was in comparison to those hardcore players, which was a reality she didn't like admitting. Would she be able to protect her family with her level like this…?
Illya forcibly snapped herself from her musing. Having thoughts like that again would help no one. Not herself or her family. Conflicts were almost never solved with words, actions spoke far louder.
"Well, that's too bad," Illya blurted out to catch everyone's attention. "Sorry about this Rin but I can't accompany you tomorrow. It appears that I have some very important business to take care of."
"What?!" Rin shouted in confusion. She looked at Illya from across the room and saw her hands extended out, accessing her menu. "Did you get an email from that old acquaintance again?"
Shirou looked on in confusion but Sakura widened her eyes in recognition.
"Yeah, I'll have to attend a meeting for smaller guilds tomorrow." Illya explained, "Knowing how meetings go, it'll probably take the whole day. Shirou and Sakura can take you to the Arcadia instead. We'll grind the day after, okay with that?"
Rin nodded, her own personal plans not really changed, while Shirou and Sakura sent each other odd glances.
"We can accompany Rin to the Arcadia," Shirou started, "Anything else for us to do? I'd rather do something productive."
It wasn't like Shirou could cook to keep himself busy anymore.
As Illya watched the dark cloud of depression set over her adoptive brother, she smiled with an idea. "I know what you guys can do tomorrow. You know how we have classes right? Druid, Sorcerer, Guardian and Swashbuckler?"
They nodded at her, which prompted her to continue. "Well, there are also subclasses. These subclasses can give you access to different special skills. For example, the blacksmith subclass lets you create your own weapons like an actual blacksmith. There's also an alchemist subclass to make potions for yourself too."
"Making your own equipment and potions sounds convenient," Shirou admitted as he tapped his chin, "We can spend less money this way… How do we get subclasses?"
"You usually need to complete quests to obtain specific ones," Illya informed, "However, with the fact that this world is real now… I'm not too sure. I think you can get the blacksmith subclass by talking with any smith so give that a go. If you want to find other subclasses then you can go explore for them, I can't list all of them for you."
Not that she knew where to find them but they didn't need to know that.
Shirou nodded at the idea. Although Rin voiced her own question. "What's your subclass then?"
"My subclass isn't really anything unique," Illya admitted as she answered. "My subclass is Berserker, it gives me a small percentage damage boost but it also means I take an increased percent of damage."
"Isn't that bad for you?" Rin asked, "You're the tank of our group. You shouldn't really be dying quicker than us."
"That's where my usual equipment comes in," Illya answered, "My axe, The Raging Rhapsody, gives all of my attacks a health absorption effect. Meaning as long as I'm damaging something, I'll heal back some health. In theory, I can fight forever."
The health absorption build was usually known as the 'Scarlet Knight' build. Popularized in Japan by the guild master of DDD. Illya had liked the idea of the build and built her character accordingly.
Although she was missing some more health absorption to create a fully functioning build, like more health regeneration.
She'd get that passive skill at level seventy so it was fine.
"Oh yeah, that axe." Rin muttered, "You know… you looked like some monster when you approached us wearing that huge armor and dragging that abomination on the ground."
Illya snorted and hefted the oversized axe over her shoulder. "This axe is not an abomination! It's a beautiful rare drop that took me three weeks to get!"
All true, Illya spent an entire month completing the same quest and killing the same boss over and over again to obtain the weapon. She liked its effect and its design. There was no way it was an abomination!
It also reminded her of Berserker, so it had some sentimental value, as limited as it was because it was a video game item.
"… Illya, can I see your axe?" Shirou asked. "Just for a second, there's something I want to confirm."
Illya turned to Shirou with a raised brow. "Sure, although I have to ask why?"
She opened her inventory and held the axe towards him. Shirou couldn't hold it himself because he was far too low of a level.
It was a beautiful axe. Golden metal held the majority of the axe together alongside the black-iron blades on either side. The black-iron handle was intricately chiseled to be ovate, so the user's palm could be used to direct the attack better. There were runes drawn over the blade of the axe itself, most likely how it performs the health absorption effect.
A few moments passed before he sighed. "I was right after all… Illya, where did you get that axe?"
Illya raised a brow as she answered, "There was a special quest that made me kill a boss near the Depths of Palm. I completed it and got this as a rare drop. Why?"
"I was playing on a hunch and used structural grasping on the two scimitars that we bought to see the forging process, the same as any other regular sword." He informed. "I can see the experiences that axe had even before you dragged it to meet us."
Illya narrowed her eyes and focused on her Raging Rhapsody.
Shirou took that as a sign to continue. "From what I can gather, that axe is not a solo piece. It was forged alongside a set of armor for one specific warrior. When that warrior died, he hid his equipment for a worthy successor to gather."
Illya's eyes widened in recognition. "The quest I took to obtain this weapon, I always had to kill the boss wraith knight. That monster held an axe that looked like this one." She muttered to herself as Sakura blinked at the side-mention of a wraith knight. "The quest NPC never said anything about another set of equipment though."
"What about the axes description?" Shirou asked as he recalled his scimitars had one too. Although it just said they were forged by a hard-working blacksmith.
Illya shook her head, "Nope, all it says is 'Rest well, Tulius'."
Shirou nodded at the information, "That's the warrior's name, Tulius the Golden Rhapsody."
Sakura, who had been silent up until now, suddenly spoke up with a question. "So, what does this all mean?"
"It means," Rin interjected, "That it's not just the world of the game that became real, but its recorded history as well."
"Rin, when you get to the Arcadia you should purchase a history book." Illya suggested, "It'll be better if we scanned it for events to look out for. The game's lore was developed so that large-scale events would be far easier to implement, like invasions and geographical changes. Sometime in the near future, we might be facing something like that."
Rin sighed as she nodded. "Everyday we learn more about this world but instead of feeling safer we feel more in danger. Is this bad luck? Did our luck stat drop to E-rank?"
"More likely the mythical F-rank, because even at E-rank it should be ten times better," Shirou muttered.
Illya sighed and unequipped her armor. Everyone was sighing today. "Let's just get some sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow."
Hopefully, they wouldn't be stricken with mind-breaking revelations the next day.
For Illya's mental health.
A/N: If you noticed, the chapter was shorter than the last... again. Don't worry about that though, this chapter's main purpose was for setting up for the next chapter, which is sure to be longer. Not much of an excuse though.
It would be helpful if you could leave a review on things that I ended up missing, this story is just getting started. The presence of the Emiya Family will, without a doubt, change things for the Log Horizon cast, but it will take time for such changes to set in.
Also, to the one guest reviewer who said that setting them at max level would have been the better choice, I vehemently disagree. If they were the same level as the rest of the cast, that would extremely limit the things that could happen, such as the wonderous reactions that they would have to certain game elements and features. It takes away from the chance of growth for the characters and devolves the story into a 'who has the strongest skill' mess. It also removes any possible tension knowing that Shirou could just spam swords at his max level and be done with every single possible threat. It's just not a good idea. Beginning from the ground up creates a far more believable framework moving forward.
The next chapter can be expected next month if my college doesn't prove to be very busy for the first semester.
Until next time,
Kappa.
A/N 2: Completely Unnoticeable Retcon was made, pay no mind.
