Chapter 15

Beta: Worldbringer of Joseun

Cover: LousGndiner


Night had yet to arrive. The sun had long passed its zenith and stood atop the far-off mountain range.

Waver took in a deep breath of his smoking rod, a distinctly separate feeling from his old rod, and let out a simple sigh. The smoke, which should've entered his lungs and caused a feeling of calm and contentment, failed to do so. The smoke entered yet he could not feel any change.

He supposed that this was one of the downsides of an Adventurer body.

Waver had left the Arcadia to get some fresh air, yet the semi-crowded streets of Akihabara did not give him any solace. The dread that permeated the air was both hilarious and sickening, but he supposed it was fitting.

Now, Waver leaned atop the roof of the Arcadia, which was built into the side of a ruined building. It appeared that every building had stairs that led to the roof, so he had just taken that route up. He could see the streets beneath him, but at the very least, none of the local populace's constant grumbling could reach him from up here.

Waver took in another puff and sighed.

"Heavens Feel… eh?"

The Third True Magic.

Waver suppressed the shiver that ran down his spine. Any second now he expected the sky to tear open as the dogs of Alaya homed in on their location, annihilating the island of Yamato as they knew it.

Yet only the peaceful city breeze greeted him.

Waver idly opened his inventory and dropped his smoking rod inside. The pipe wasn't doing it for him. The realistic feeling wasn't there. Much like the food they would eat, tasteless and lifeless.

He had clawed his way to a respectable position in the Clock Tower within a decade. However, he had not once forgotten his roots as a novice magus. The old him would have never grit his teeth and pressed on until he succeeded. The old him would only lash out at his betters in the pettiest way imaginable. It was from that pettiness that he entered a life-changing event.

The Fourth Holy Grail War.

He had no right to be in it. He was a novice with little to no experience, yet he had somehow managed to survive. He lived where his teacher, Lord El-Melloi, was brutally murdered with his crest ruined beyond compare. He was spared only through the whims of an overwhelming enemy, one that defeated his king.

The fact that he was the only one to return was what caused others to call him a victor of that war, but Waver had never seen it that way. He was a survivor. He did not know who the true winners of that war were, for he would argue that everyone there was a loser.

However, he at least knew who had won the Fifth one.

"This… has turned into a complicated situation," he muttered.

The very fact that the Einzbern heir had the Heavens Feel in any capacity, meant that they won that war. They had won the war that they had labeled a complete failure.

"Of course they'd call it a failure," he grumbled.

If they had declared their victory to the Clock Tower, then the following chaos could not have been contained. All magi were selfish. If one had heard what winning a grail war could achieve, then they would never know peace. Magi would've hunted them without end. He supposed that the fact Magi barely saw the war as something above a passing interest was a blessing.

But where does that leave them now?

They were proceeding with the Einzbern's plan at a smooth pace. The potion was all but completed and the citizen's outlook on adventurers seem to be improving with the appearance of Crescent Moon Burger. If looked at as a whole, there was no way for things to go wrong.

Then why do I feel uneasy?

Something was going to happen, Waver Velvet's instinct as both a person and a magus told him so. But he couldn't tell exactly what was going to happen.

Waver noted the message he received from Illyasviel and dismissed it. He could head back down once the sun had set.

For now… he just wanted to observe the setting sun.

Shame that there wasn't an ocean nearby. It would've been a wondrous sight.


Illya took in a deep breath, considered what she saw before her, and sighed.

"What happened?" Illya suddenly asked. "We used all the correct ingredients, didn't we?"

"Were the ingredients faulty?" Rin muttered.

"No, I'm certain that they were the freshest that they could be," the ghost knight answered with certainty. "I made sure of it myself! The mana quality around them is at their peak."

Two hours had passed since Krentelfal left the Arcadia. He returned an hour later with Shirou, Sakura, and Taiga in tow. However, Rin didn't want to take a chance at the Fujimura's tendencies when she was bored and told her to wait somewhere else until they were done. So, she went and tried to find Lord El-Melloi II to waste some time.

That was ten minutes ago, but at present, they faced a new problem. They knew all of the ingredients for an EXP potion, but even then, the result before them was anything but. All their previous attempts could at least be called a potion.

This… This was blackened tar.

"Then what happened?" She muttered once more. "Are we missing something? We already know all the ingredients, but what are we lacking?"

"Maybe you stirred it wrong?" Sakura tried. "When you stir certain ingredients too fast, they lose some texture."

"Maybe add ingredients in a specific order?" Shirou asked. "Some dishes change when you add things prior."

"You two are pulling a lot from cooking, aren't you?" Illya berated with a slight frown. "Alchemy isn't like cooking you know?"

Shirou blinked. "Both have ingredients and you mix them to make something new. Isn't that the same thing?"

"Saying that my family's main proficiency is on par with cooking is degrading so please don't say anything further," the albino guardian finalized. "However, does that idea have merit, Ferlna-san?"

Ferlna nodded. "Mana interacts with each other in different ways. In a vacuum, it shouldn't change, but adding an Undine's tear to a Salamander's tongue would change many things."

"So we'll have to try separate ingredients in different orders?" Rin muttered. "That'll take a while, won't it? Better start now."

"Things aren't as easy as it seems, is it?" Shirou muttered. "Let me help, I can do that much at least."

"Me too!" Sakura piped up.

"Sure, the more the merrier," Rin said with a hint of a smile at her dear sister. "Grab a cauldron and we can begin work."

As Illya watched them all get up to work, she couldn't help but frown. It wasn't focused on her guildmates, they were all experienced in their own right and could probably help out, but what she focused on was the potion itself.

It didn't make sense.

Illya could accept that the world of Elder Tale became real and changed in various ways, but adventurer menus remained the same as they always were. You could still choose ingots and make equipment from it. You could still select ingredients and make dishes from them, as tasteless as they were. You could still decide on alchemical ingredients and make potions out of them, the order of ingredients be damned.

Idly, Illya tried to use her menu and make the EXP potion that way, but even then, what she got was blackened tar.

She was missing something… but what?

"We're back!"

"If I hear any more of her yammering, I fear that I'll go insane. For sanity's sake, tell me something good," Waver Velvet announced.

"The potion seems to have failed so we're going to try different preparation methods," Rin explained. "You can help by grabbing a cauldron if you'd like, we'll be here a while."

Waver furrowed his brow. "Failed? In what way?"

"Black tar," Illya answered. "It doesn't make sense to me either."

Waver simply tapped his chin lightly as he went for a spare cauldron. "You stay there, woman. I dread to imagine what your careless fingers could accomplish."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm not that careless! Name one time and I'll back off!"

"The bridge we were crossing fell when you touched it," he mentioned.

"The souffle I was making burned when you turned up the heat too much," Sakura added.

"The chicken I was cooking burned because you touched the pan," Shirou dryly stated.

"Why're you all bullying poor old me," Taiga dramatically whined, but it wasn't without reason. Even Ferlna was wincing at the brutal verbal beat-down. "Is this what I get for taking care of you all these years? Ridicule and slander?"

"The truth isn't slander, Fuji-nee," Shirou said once more.

"Well, that's final. Fujimura-sensei, please don't try and help with the potion brewing," the Tohsaka heir declared.

Illya tuned out the sound of Fujimura-sensei's fake bawling and focused on the potion ingredients before her. Roughly a minute passed before the woman became annoyed with her voice and just watched them from afar. Hopefully, she'd keep her mouth shut so they can focus.

"Hey, Shirou," or not. "You're okay, right? That was scary, wasn't it? You could've lost your head."

Wait a minute, what?

"Hold on, what?" Rin suddenly blurted. "Did I miss something?"

"It's nothing, really," Shirou tried, but a glare from his worried girlfriends silenced any attempt.

"I asked Shirou to make me a sword today–" Taiga started. It was better than mindless bawling, at least. "– and get this, the sword exploded! Never thought I'd see a sword explode. It was scary."

"Explode…?" Rin muttered. "Shirou, were you using your magecraft on accident?"

Shirou shook his head. "No, I can't make exploding swords. It'd be interesting if I could though… forget it. I was just trying to make a sword with Torashinai in mind."

"So, you tried to make Torashinai?" Illya muttered as she finally grabbed her cauldron. "Surprised you failed at all. I thought that making swords was second nature to you by now."

"Meltraus said that the higher the level of a blade you attempt to make, the likelier it is to fail if your smithing isn't high enough in levels. It makes sense, but I'm not too sure if I like the idea though," Shirou supplemented. It made sense, given he was used to creating whatever weapon he wanted as long as he knew what it looked like– barring a few exceptions. "Looks like I'll need to max it out before I try something like that again."

She supposed that made sense. The higher level you were, the better the blade you could make. In the same sense, the lower your level, the more likely you were to fail. Though, in the game, you wouldn't even be able to attempt to make such high-level weapons. You'd need the levels first for the options to be unlocked.

Heh, maybe they needed to be a high enough level alchemist to even try and–

Illya dropped the copper cauldron back onto the wooden table, startling everyone in the room.

"What's wrong with you?" Rin irritatingly asked, but that expression flipped into mild concern once she noticed her guildmaster's expression. "Something wrong?"

"… Not high enough level…" Illya muttered. "That's it! Lord El-Melloi II!"

The Clock Tower Lord, having only just begun brewing a potion, looked up in both curiosity and irritation. "Yes, what is it?"

"You're a maxed level alchemist, correct?" Illya asked.

"... That I am, but why would that–" his mouth stalled as his eyes widened. He resumed his brewing with haste. "I see, if that's true then so much makes sense. The answer was so simple that it was practically staring at us in plain sight!"

"Wait, I'm lost," Taiga muttered. "Did my story help?"

"It did, as infuriating as it is to admit," Waver Velvet declared. "Our Guild Master has already thought of it, but think of it this way. That Emiya over there could only make weaponry because he was a high enough level blacksmith to do it. Now, consider this, what if he wasn't any of those?"

Lord El-Melloi shoved the cauldron away and started adding the rest of the ingredients. Both Rin's blood and the Dragon's blood extract trickled in like a bejeweled fountain. "As your story told, a blacksmith without a sufficient level would not be able to make a high-level blade. At the same time, if you weren't a blacksmith at all then you couldn't make any blade. If you were a high enough level blacksmith then you could make any blade."

"That makes sense," Sakura muttered, still stirring her pot.

"Now, think of this," Waver said, adding the Faerie dust. "Substitute 'blacksmith' with 'alchemist', and 'blade' with 'potion'. Doesn't the black tar result make sense?"

Both Sakura and Shirou stopped their stirring and widened their eyes. Shirou frowned and put the cauldron away. "That means we wouldn't be able to make any potion, even if we knew how to make it, right?"

Rin silently growled in frustration. "And that means I won't be able to make it either. I might be of the alchemist class, but I'm far too low level." She only got the class recently, after all.

Waver added Phoenix egg yolks, and both damage and healing boosting potions to the mix. It was at that point that it would've transformed into blackened tar—like with Rin's attempt. However, that was not what happened.

The liquid rippled and shimmered, collapsing in on itself and swirling even without Waver's stirring hand, before finally settling into a very familiar shade of magenta.

Waver wasted no time checking it with his inventory.

He smiled.

"Success. We have ourselves an experience potion, the first one ever brewed by an adventurer's hand," Waver declared. "However, compared to what we learned about both blacksmithing and alchemy, this is but a footnote."

Sakura widened her eyes. "Is that so?"

"Of course it is, Sakura," Rin berated lightly. "If these rules applied to both of these subclasses, then it stands to reason that it works for every other subclass."

"This place is game-like in the oddest of ways," Lord El-Melloi II muttered. "To perform a task yourself, without the aid of in-game systems, you must have a suitable subclass and be of a high enough level. Such a simple concept, yet it is only now that people are catching on."

"People?" Taiga muttered. "We aren't the first to figure that out? But who else could've… Ah! Crescent Moon Burger!"

Shirou widened his eyes. "Chef subclass… You need that subclass to cook?"

"That, and a high enough level," Illya added. "Not just that. Perhaps my Berserker subclass is more than adding reckless skills for me to use?"

Taiga scratched the rim of her Wolf Fang ears. "My duelist subclass probably doesn't benefit much, right? It just makes one-on-one fights better for me."

"What if it made you able to force a one-on-one encounter?" Shirou added. "If you could limit the number of enemies to fight you, then all you'd need to do is worry about one enemy instead of several others surrounding you."

"Oh… that sounds cool!" Taiga declared. "One woman versus an army! I'll be the first in history to do it!"

"Cu Chulainn already did that though," Shirou mentioned. "It was a defining part of his legend as a hero of Ireland."

Taiga blinked. "Who?"

"Ignore that for now," Illya ordered. They'd get sidetracked at this rate. "What we know could very well change reality for adventurers as we know it. Under no circumstances should you reveal this to any other player, got it?"

This information would change everything. That much was undeniable. If the other players figure it out then they ran the risk of losing their potential monopoly on EXP potions, not that they had one at the moment but Illya would be getting rid of Hamelin soon.

The Villain in Glasses must've known this trick, but he was telling nobody about it. Or rather, he's only told the Crescent Moon Alliance. However, now that Illya knew this secret wasn't limited to food, she couldn't help but worry.

What machinations did he have running in the background? What if he had plans occurring this very second?

People would figure out the trick eventually, there wasn't a single doubt in her mind about that, but until then they needed to take advantage of it… Just like the Tea Party's Shiroe is doing.

"Lord El-Melloi II, can you make EXP potions from your inventory alone?" She asked.

He had his smoking pipe out, she heard he liked his tobacco but frowned and put it away. "Yes, it should be possible. There should be little difference considering my subclass is maxed. I assume we are going ahead with the mass-production?"

"Yep," Illya declared. "Everything is lining up for us, but a regular EXP potion probably won't cut it."

Waver raised a brow, "Cut it for what?"

"The plan was to have a monopoly on the EXP potion trade, but we've run into a problem," Illya said as she kept her voice as flat as possible lest she ruin everything she's done. "There's another guild already selling these potions. You may know them as Hamelin, who get their supply from members lower than level thirty."

"Ah, that guild," Sakura muttered with a wry smile. Just thinking about how close she was to those human wastes made Illya want to tear their eyes out and make them watch as she cut open every orifice of their body. Unfortunately, their adventurer constitution wouldn't allow for it.

"Wait, does that mean everything's been for nothing?" Rin quickly asked. "We needed to become the monopoly to ensure the big combat guilds become our shields. All so that we can live a peaceful life in this city and have them act in a way that benefits us."

"We can still get them to become our exclusive buyers," Illya pointed out. "The EXP potion recipe was very flexible, wasn't it? What happens if we add a resurrection potion into the mix or even status immunity potions? The answer is that we'll have a much more varied selection for the big combat guilds to choose from. Hamelin only has standard EXP potions from low-level players."

"I see, that could work," Waver had a gleam in his eye as he contemplated it. "I suppose if that doesn't work, then we can undercut the competition by lowering our prices."

"And if we lower our price, they'll respond by lowering theirs," Rin added with a glint in her eyes. "But, if we keep up with the price lowering, eventually we'll reach the point where they'll be free. Normally, that'd be bad for both of us with no one making a profit, but we'd have a wider selection. We can force out Hamelin and make the combat guilds sign an exclusivity deal with us if they want our wider selection. We can raise back the prices as soon as Hamelin runs itself down!"

"That is assuming we can provide for all the combat guilds," Waver concluded. "We'd need a stable source of Dragon blood extract, Faerie dust, Phoenix Eggs, and of course adventurer blood. Any ideas?"

"We could always just purchase from the market when we need them," Sakura added.

"And let Hamelin realize?" Waver prompted. "If we enter the EXP potion market, they will realize that we can brew them on our own. They'll be stalking our every move… unless we set up a bounded field that specifically targets Hamelin members."

"I can do that easily," Illya said. "While Waver does his job here, I'll make a bounded field."

What Illya didn't say was that her bounded field would not just target Hamelin. After all, others were looking at Hamelin.

Like the Villain in Glasses.

Was he looking at more than just the food market? Did he want to expand his reach to other ventures?

What about that Assassin stalking Hamelin? What if that Assassin was from another top guild? No, that made less sense. They wouldn't want to draw up suspicion and antagonize their own supplier.

What if that player worked for the Villain in Glasses? That idea made just a tad bit more sense, but not that much. The guy hated being in a guild, but it could work if that Assassin was just a friend.

But if it was so, then did he want to sell EXP potions too? Did he already figure out the hidden ingredient, and the potential gain in doing so?

Illya didn't know. So many possibilities ran through her head now that she realized this trick, this secret hiding in plain sight, but she couldn't pin a finger on the reasons. If she wanted to figure it all out, if she didn't want to fall behind the man's schemes, then she needed to do something… drastic.

It looks like she'll need to step up her game. Illyasviel Von Einzbern would not be left behind.

"Can you make a full stack of ninety-nine regular potions and a variety of modified potions before the end of the week?"

Waver simply nodded.

Illya, in turn, simply smiled.

Perfect.

Illya just silently snickered before she noticed the look on Ferlna's face. "Something the matter, miss Ferlna?"

The glasses-wearing researcher simply took off her glasses. "… Forgive me, but I did not realize that you were all children of merchants."

"We aren't though?"

"From what I've seen? I beg to differ," she muttered. "Talks of pricing and monopoly, you all sound much more frightening than all of the merchants in the city."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Rin interjected. "That just means making money here should be easier than in our old world," she frowned. "Or rather, keeping money should be easier without that ass of a priest here."

Illya had a feeling that the Lander withheld any comment she might have about the remark.

"Wait, does that mean a chef subclass can make food with taste?" Sakura muttered.

Shirou twitched. "Illya, how do I change my subclass to Chef?"

Illya made a face.

"Sakura, I'll tell you, but don't tell Shirou, okay?" the Wolf Fang Guardian ignored her dear brother. "I like the fact we have a personal blacksmith to repair our equipment."

"Illya!?"

"Understood, guild master!"

"Sakura!? Hey!"

"I honestly don't care who cooks between the two of you, so give it your best Sakura!"

"Fuji-nee, you too!?"


Sakura sighed in content as she watched the buttered toast slowly cook itself.

Her cooking skill, after she had learned how to obtain it from Illya, much to Shirou's dismay, had taken the few levels her apprentice subclass accumulated. This meant she had more levels than a beginner.

However, while more than others just starting, it still wasn't enough for the more traditional dishes she had in mind. As such, she decided to start light with eggs and toast.

Sakura loved the fact that Illya had upgraded their guild room overnight. As it looked now, there were two distinct bedrooms. One for female tenants with four beds, and another for male tenants, but that one had two spare beds leftover. Of course, they had a bathroom in each of those rooms.

Then there was also the living room which was linked with the kitchen, which sort of made it a dining room too. Not much space for six people but they made it work. They had enough chairs now.

Her stomach growled at the thought of something that tasted like breakfast, especially after a solid month of eating nothing but apples to satisfy her palette. She had to spend the entirety of last night burning through ingredient items to make tasteless food via her in-game menu, as much as she hated that, to raise her level quickly.

Illya mentioned that they were low on ingredient items, so she was planning to send out Krentelfal again to gather them. Sakura worried that her guild master was overworking the poor old ghost… but then again, he was dead. Did that mean he couldn't be overworked?

Her subclass, now as a Chef, was only at level ten. Not high at all since the maximum level for subclasses was a hundred, but she was steadily gaining EXP even as she cooked. She was level eleven now!

… but it might take a few hours of bread toasting to make it level up again, which wasn't ideal. Maybe she should try to find out what she could make at this level?

She shook her thoughts away and laid the stack of toast and eggs on the wooden table. The sausages were also done, Sakura had not forgotten that Illya had some in her inventory and that simply roasting it didn't require a high-level subclass.

"Breakfast is ready!" She called out to the bedrooms.

A sudden bark caught her attention.

Sakura blinked and smiled. "Good morning, Raijuu. Done with your breakfast?"

The pup merely barked and leaped towards her. It was a surprisingly high jump, seeing as he managed to land on her bosom and crawl into his favorite resting spot.

It wasn't even a few seconds before she could feel the little one settle into a now familiar nap.

Sakura sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

Hopefully, she could go and visit the Bestiary today. The way her new pup acted probably wasn't normal. Then again, she never had a pet before. There was once a stray dog she tried to take care of.

It was just a whim.

When grandfather found out, she found its corpse by her bedside.

Luckily, she hadn't named it yet so she wasn't attached to it, but there was always a pang of guilt whenever she remembered its fate.

Sakura blinked.

Ah, she should probably make coffee for her sister. She was always lethargic in the morning. Did they even have coffee in this world? She hoped they did, and if not, then maybe they could try to synthesize some.

Illya was the first out of the girl's room… actually, the only one out of the girl's room. "Where's everyone else?"

"Asleep," Illya grumbled. "I tried to wake Rin up, but she wasn't budging. Fujimura-sensei was worse."

Shirou and mister Velvet left their room too, looking a bit tidier than Illya. Shirou himself was an early riser and mister Velvet was probably much more used to waking up early, being a teacher to give lectures early… which was why Taiga not waking up didn't make sense.

Shirou took a look at the now-cooling stove and pouted.

He pouted, of all things.

"Don't worry, senpai. I'll be sure to learn cooking for you!" Sakura reassured.

It didn't work, seeing as he cutely slumped to his seat. Oh well, he'll get over it. This was a truthful sentiment and not one stemming from the relief that she could role-play as a housewife for once without Shirou cooking himself.

Mister Velvet looked at the food and then at the woman's dorm. "They're not awake, are they?"

Illya nodded as she idly started biting into the toast and eggs. Sakura smiled when she saw her shiver in happiness. Seeing people smile as they ate your cooking was the best feeling.

Waver sighed and knocked on the girl's dorm door. "Oi! Insufferable woman! Get up!"

"It's probably better that I do it," Shirou offered, to which the elder allowed.

Shirou entered the room.

"Wah!" was heard, followed by a thud.

"Good morning, Fuji-nee."

"… Why are you so cranky?"

"Is he still grumpy about not being able to cook?" Rin groggily muttered, probably from her bed.

Sakura smiled. This everyday banter… she never had that in that quiet mansion.

Shirou didn't bother to give them a reply as he returned to his seat in the kitchen… living… dining room? Sakura will probably just call it the dining room. A dining table meant a dining room.

By the time everyone took a seat on the table, a solid minute had passed. There wasn't anything said during breakfast, but Sakura was just fine with that. Everyone was simply enjoying the fact that they could have a solid tasting meal for once.

"Oh, by the way," Taiga suddenly asked as she brushed off the crumbs from her face. "Do you have anything for me to do, Illya-chan? I've kinda been wandering around the last few days."

Illya glanced away from her toast mid-bite and contemplated. "Well, we're pretty close to being done anyway. All we need to do is get all the potions ready… Ah, there is something you can do, I guess."

"And that is!?" Taiga jumped up excitedly.

Illya shoved her breakfast into her mouth and simply pointed at Shirou, Rin, and Sakura. "You see how low level they are? Grab em and level them up. Take the entire day if you have to."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Rin suddenly lurched as her sleep-addled mind truly woke up. "I was going to help Ferlna with her research today!"

"Did you make plans beforehand?" their guildmaster swiftly asked.

The slowly puffing cheeks from her sister told them all they needed to know.

Shirou sighed and nodded. "I'm fine with leveling up today. It's a weekend anyway so Meltraus closed up his forge."

Sakura let a small smile out. "I guess I'm not going to be able to level up my subclass today, aren't I?" It was a shame. Sakura had planned to spend the day practicing and experimenting with the local ingredients. Some of these spices didn't exist back in their original world, like Dragon Spice, whatever that was.

"You wouldn't be able to," Illya supplemented. "We're running low on ingredient items anyway. I guess you could use this chance to go and gather them. If you head over to the Imperial Garden Forest, then you should be able to kill the local boar population. They're all around level eighteen, right around your current level– barring Sakura's fifteen. They give a ton of EXP and drop random ingredient items, so good luck."

At the nods she received, Illya went back to eating, only to be interrupted by a slap on her back by an overexcited Taiga.

"Don't worry! I'll make sure they double– no, triple their level by the time we're done!" She cried out, at which Sakura could only laugh wearily. She had seen what Fujimura-sensei had done to push the archery club members that slacked off. She knew to expect an arduous day.

Sakura could visit the bestiary later when they returned from their grinding trip. That seemed like a good idea.


Krentelfal floated.

There wasn't much to do as a ghost. He had heard of his brethren going around scaring people for a quick laugh, but that had often gotten them consigned as monsters for elimination.

Granted, the old knight knew that being eliminated was nothing but a pipe dream for him now.

The vast amounts of mana he was drawing upon told him that.

Illyasviel von Einzbern, the mountain of an adventurer he had spoken to for centuries, had turned out to be a girl at the cusp of adulthood. While odd, it did not change his perspective on her. He had heard of, and witnessed with his weary eyes, female adventurers conquering what an ordinary man failed to.

Then again, Adventurers broke the common norm, as they had for centuries.

Krentelfal sighed from above the guildhall.

As a ghost, there was not much to do, sleeping included.

Every night he would watch over the city of Akihabara, which had barely changed over the centuries it stood for. He had once visited it when he was still alive, which was a wondrous occasion. The populace was kind and the adventurers… well, they were adventurers. Stoic and appeared almost like synthetic golems.

He had not an idea as to how modern adventurers became much more expressive than their brethren of ages past, but he saw it as a blessing.

Adventurers were warriors. They were beings who waged war against the endless onslaught of monsters that existed beyond every city's walls. For that reason alone, they were respected and admired.

The city's current situation was less so.

It was as if these people of the land had forgotten the dark ages. Centuries ago when adventurers had yet to exist, with both women and children falling to the immortal threat of monsters each day and every passing hour. He supposed that this generation was far too protected. The adventurers of old had done their job, almost too well. The people here never seen monsters and thus underestimated the threat they posed.

Ignorance is a slow and insidious killer, but he supposed that it would exist nonetheless.

Krentelfal focused on the rising sun and sighed.

Monsters would rule, then heroes would arise and quell the threat. Heroes would lose purpose without an enemy, and the people would cast them out. Without heroes, monsters would return, thus reigniting the cycle of death.

Throughout the centuries, Krentelfal knew this to be an irrefutable truth. It was as if life was an abhorrent game of rock, paper, and scissors.

However…

A tug from his endless mana source told him that his anchor had called for him. With nothing better to do, he phased through the walls and rendered his body invisible to the common eye. The rooms he passed were always empty, even the room his anchor was in unless he knocked on their door. An odd quirk this building had to be sure.

By the time he arrived at Illya's doorstep, she was already outside with a slightly wicked grin.

"Good morning, Krentelfal."

The knight bowed… or attempted to. Floating in the air made it a bit hard to do so. "A pleasant morning to you, Lady Illyasviel. I take it that we are to continue observation today?"

She nodded slightly to the side. "In a manner of speaking. Everyone's gone out to grind and Lord El-Melloi II is busy with my request. Now's a perfect time."

"Pray tell, for what?" he inquired.

"We already know what we want to of Hamelin. To take the next step for our plan, we need to make an impression on certain guilds," Illya began. "Our plans for today are simple. We find out where the combat guilds headquarters are. I have a few guesses but they could've relocated after the third of May, or the May Incident as the Landers call it."

She pivoted on her heel and beckoned him to follow. "Come on, your ability to phase through walls could be helpful."

"As you wish, Lady Illya."

In this abhorrent game of rock, paper and scissors labeled life, some people would pick none of the above and craft their path through sheer force of will.

Lady Illya might just be one of these people.

"Perhaps I should purchase that joke book from Lady Ferlna's collection?" Krentelfal idly wondered aloud.

"Wouldn't she just let you borrow it?" Illya asked. "You two seem like friends."

The old knight shrugged. "Mayhaps that is so. However, I find a personal copy to keep in my pocket to be much more satisfactory. Oh, maybe I should write my own novel instead and have Lady Ferlna publish it in her name."

"Why would you do that?" she asked with a raised brow. "If you wrote something, wouldn't you want others to know you wrote it?"

"Why, it's so I could be a ghost writer, of course!"

A small snicker followed.

"You're slacking on your pun game, Krentelfal," Illya smiled. "Maybe next time. We got a job to do first."

A ghostly smile found its way onto his face.

There wasn't much to do as a ghost. In a way, these mindless errands were a blessing. At least it was something to do.


"One, two, three, that's a tree!" Taiga blurted out. "Four, five, six, it has a bunch of sticks!"

"Why did I agree to come on this trip again?" Rin muttered aloud to herself.

"It can't be helped," Shirou tried aiding. "Illya gave a good point. We are running low on ingredients."

"You just want to teach Sakura all your recipes, don't you?" Rin accused. Yeah, that's right buster. I'm onto you! Stop smiling like that!

Rin had truly wanted to help out Ferlna today, but then the midget – yeah she was going to keep calling her a midget even if it was wrong – sent them off to do some leveling.

Granted, Rin could see the benefit to it but she wasn't going to admit it. There were a few spells she wanted to try out now that she had a better understanding of the magecraft in this world, or rather magic. She still struggled to even call it that.

A loud bark got their attention. Normally, Rin would've jumped into a battle-ready stance but the smile Sakura had on her face as she played with her little pet pushed it all away.

Raijuu, as Sakura had named it, was a lot more active now they were out of the city. Instead of resting on her bosom, it ran around like a hyperactive pup, which Rin supposed it was.

Illya did mention that there was an anti-monster bounded field around Akihabara, so perhaps the dog was under its influence the entire time? The bounded field might have considered it a monster ever so slightly and weakened it a bit. That, or it subdued monsters in some weird way. She could never trust the books written here. The more she read about their spell-casting systems, the more she wanted to cry.

Rin, instead of focusing on Sakura's pet – she was truly happy for her having one, it would do wonders for her mental health as much as she tried to hide it – decided to focus on the road they were on.

Taiga, Rin would never call her that out loud for fear of retribution, had said that this was the fastest way there. The twin-tailed magus barely left the city so she had no choice but to follow her lead. Shirou certainly had no issue doing so, but he kept an eye out for any surprise attacks.

Being player-killed was still a big possibility, even if the act had dropped off in popularity in the past few weeks. Now? All they did was keep to themselves. Pathetic, really.

Then again, they only did so because the ever-looming presence of the top combat guilds was a big deal. Hell, the Emiya-Family planned to have these titans protect them by giving them something only they could offer. The other guilds could barely even compete in that regard.

"And here we are!" Taiga declared as she pointed to the large canopy before them. "Welcome to the Imperial Garden Forest!"

"I still think that's a redundant name," Rin commented. "Why call it both a garden and a forest in the first place?"

"Bah, naming things is hard. The developers probably didn't care about what they named it." Taiga tried answering. "However, don't focus on that. Focus on the boars we're going to be killing and looting. Don't worry, if you guys get overwhelmed, your Fuji-nee can take care of it!"

"Just make sure you lower your level so we get more EXP," Shirou reminded.

"Ah, nearly forgot," their former teacher muttered and promptly did so. From Rin's interface, she could see her level lower from eighty to twenty, just a little above the local monster populace. "You guys better drink EXP potions too. We're going to be power leveling here like crazy!"

Rin shrugged and did so. She only had two left from her constant experimenting before discovering the actual recipe, but she could always borrow from either Shirou or Sakura. They never used theirs so they had a surplus in stock.

"The potion effects lasts how long again?" Sakura asked.

"Two hours, if I remember correctly," Taiga supplemented. Did both of them forget we could look in the item description? "Now, since it's like ten in the morning, we can grind for two hours and then take a snack break. Then, use up three more potions and grind even more!"

"Three more–" Shirou blurted out. "That's six hours, right? That sounds… doable? What do you guys think?"

Rin shrugged. "By looking at my class' abilities, an endurance run isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I can do it. I'll need to be more careful with my mana usage though."

Sakura just nodded, followed by a bark from her dog.

"Great!" the Wolf Fang Samurai cheered. "Well, without further ado, let's get–!"

Rin widened her eyes.

Shirou noticed and grabbed his former guardian to duck behind a tree. Rin and Sakura quickly followed suit behind them.

"Hold on, what's gotten into you guys!?" Taiga tried shouting, but Shirou was muffling her voice.

With extreme haste, Rin threw a wind-stone, an apt replacement for gemstones, and let the spell within activate. All around them wind surged for but a moment before settling. She reached out hesitantly, wondering if her spell failed, but smiled once she felt the breeze around them.

"We should be free to talk now," Rin informed them. "The wind around us should prevent sound from escaping and distort the surrounding light to keep us hidden."

"Seriously, what's going on?" Fujimura-sensei asked once more. "Why are we hiding?"

Shirou simply pointed to the forest entrance.

Rin didn't have to see their resident baby-sitter's reaction to know what she thought.

A few adventurers walked out whilst they kept a vigilant eye around them. One of them appeared to be a Foxtail Assassin and the other was a Wolf Fang Swashbuckler. After noticing the lack of other players, they made a motion towards the dark forest.

A wooden caravan suddenly appeared from the dark entrance of the forest. The wheels were rickety yet somehow stable. In front were a few horses pulling the cumbersome load. It was covered in gray cloth so they couldn't see what was underneath, but they didn't need to.

Adventurers were walking around the cargo but since they were all so relaxed, they wouldn't be able to find them. Even if they were actually looking for them, they wouldn't be able to perceive them with the pseudo bounded field in play.

Unfortunately, they couldn't hear them either. The barrier of wind prevented sound from getting out but also prevented it from getting in. A flaw in the spell that Rin would need to work out somehow.

Rin shook the thought away and focused on the caravan slowly leaving. However, the caravan stopped when an adventurer walking behind it shouted something. Several surrounding adventurers went to him and entered the cargo area.

In doing so, the flaps unveiled for but a second, allowing them a mere glimpse inside.

"What's inside…?" Taiga muttered.

"Boars with vegetation on their backs," Shirou concluded. He must've reinforced his eyesight beforehand because Rin could barely tell what it was. "They captured monsters."

"What!?" Their resident samurai shouted. Soundproofing was a blessing. "But why would they do that…?"

"Because they need them," Sakura surprisingly answered. "I recognize a few of the adventurers there. They're from the Crescent Moon Alliance."

It clicked in her head. Rin frowned as a result. "Crescent Burger… I see, then these must be the ingredient gatherers."

"But why capture them live?" Taiga muttered. "They still drop meat when you kill them. Isn't this a bigger pain to deal with?"

"A chef doesn't just cook ingredients, but prepares them too," Shirou muttered. "The chefs could be preparing the meat themselves. If they butcher the boar then maybe they'll be able to get much more meat? It'd have to be more than what they normally drop if they're going through this much trouble for it."

"That's just crazy," Taiga said in disbelief. "All that for a burger? It's tasty, don't get me wrong, but isn't this excessive?"

"With how many adventurers in Akihabara that haven't had a decent meal in a month, I'd wager it isn't," Rin said. "Their stocks will plummet if they don't have a constant supply of meat. It makes sense in the long run if they want to keep making a profit."

The only question was… what did they need that money for?

It was just now that the thought crossed her mind. Sure, they figured out how they were making food with taste from Taiga's story of Shirou's failed forging, but this was different. They learned how they made it and where they got their ingredients, but they didn't know why they were selling it or what their overall goal was.

"They're leaving now," Sakura muttered as she rubbed Raijuu's chin. "A boar must've made a fuss inside the caravan."

When the caravan was out of sight, Rin deemed it safe to drop the barrier by injecting the wind-stone with her mana.

"We should tell Illya about this," Shirou suggested. "This seems like something she'd want to know."

"I'll send a message to her," Sakura said with her menu already opened.

"We should probably change our leveling location too. There's a chance that they have guild members still in the forest," Rin added. "I don't know if they're friendly or not, but judging from how cautious they were, they want to keep this a secret."

Shirou frowned. "Did Illya reply yet?"

Sakura nodded. "She said to leave it alone and change locations. There's another forest nearby but the monster population there have a minimum level of twenty."

Rin shrugged. "Harder monsters, but they'll be a lot safer than this place. Let's get a move on."

"What a way to start the day," Taiga muttered. "You guys already drank a potion and the Shattered Wood Forest is ten minutes away."

"Then all the more reason to hurry up," Shirou said with a wry smile. "Come on, we don't have all day."

With a renewed goal, they left the Imperial Garden Forest.

They could have stayed, but the Crescent Moon Alliance had several members, with multiple matching Taiga's level. If they ended up in a fight, they were the ones who were going to lose. Numbers, as Illya would put it, meant everything in a world like this. As much as she didn't want to, Rin was inclined to agree.

However, before leaving, Rin dropped a small sculpture of a bird.

When they were far enough, the Tohsaka Magus activated the mana left within, causing the sculpture to come to life and fly into the forest canopy. It was a small thing so it would only drain a little mana. It wouldn't get in the way of their leveling.

Even if Illya told them to leave it alone, Rin was a magus at heart. The small familiar will let her see what's going on in that forest, and that's all that mattered.

Curiosity was a dangerous thing to indulge.


A/N: So, this chapter is on time but a bit short. Unfortunately, if I lengthened it then I wouldn't have been able to stop until I found a good spot to end it, and that'd be bad because Mr. Beta is going on vacation on the 25th with his family, which means he wouldn't have been available to quality check. I don't like submitting without quality checking, but don't blame him. Everyone needs a break.

As you can see, a lot of what I set up is coming to fruition in this arc. I'll be rocking the boat next chapter so that means February. I did decide to take a faster pace, like with my main story, for this one and I think it worked out. But then again, the previous chapters were meant to set up a lot of things so this is probably expected.

Onto something else, Lostbelt 5 came out. I played it over the course of two nights because I'm busy during the day. It was great, not gonna spoil the events there for the NA fans, but I'm excited for part 2 of it. Orion tho, he's a beast of a servant... which makes sense because he was the Grand Archer– we would have had Grand Archer in our Chaldea if Artemis hadn't hijacked his Saint Graph. Gott damn.

There isn't much else to say so I guess it's the usual. Leave a review if you noticed some errors and I'll try and address is... unless I forgot. I'm notoriously bad at remembering important things. Until next time,

Kappa

A/N 2: Grammar errors burned my eyes.