Ah, yes, middle of nowheresville, exactly the type of place Genjiro wanted to be.
Genjiro frowned as he looked at the map he was given by the control center.
Nubo was going to be messaging them in a few moments, but Genjiro would've liked to get some progress going.
"So, where are we going?" Whitebrim looked over Genjiro's shoulder, "Where are we even? I wasn't paying attention too much."
"We're heading to some of the rural towns," Yamaiko answered, pointing to a few places on the map they were given, "The groups going to Re-Estisize, Baharuth, Argland, and Dragon are all going to the capitals. The wilderness group are just trying to find signs of life in general. And we're sticking to the rural towns."
Ankoro nodded, "Okay, I get all of that, but if we're doing that…"
Ankoro warily looked towards the three smartest NPCs in Nazarick, "Why are they here with us?"
The three NPCs immediately kneeled before them as Demiurge loudly proclaimed, "I am sorry my Lords! Unfortunately we are not aware of why Lord Punitto Moe assigned us to this group!"
Luci*Fer hummed, "Well, we are the group that made the whole theater room famous… Plus Yamaiko, sorry, Yamaiko."
Yamaiko tilted her head, "No offense taken, but I'm not following- Oh, wait, nevermind, I get it now."
Shizyuutensuzaku reluctantly nodded, crossing his arms, "Right, we got the message loud and clear, Punitto. Ha. Ha."
"I don't get it." Whitebrim declared, scratching his head, "Ankoro, do you?"
Ankoro shrugged, "Nope. I don't get it."
Genjiro sighed as he explained to the two, "Because we're responsible for the whole Washington theater thing and made ourselves famous, besides you, Yamaiko, Punitto is subtly telling us that we're so dumb that we need 3 of the 4 smartest NPCs in Nazarick with us to make sure we don't do something equally as stupid."
Whitebrim and Ankoro's jaws fell as Whitebrim yelled out, "No way! We're not that stupid!"
Demiurge nodded, "Yes, of course, Lord Whitebrim! We are all beneath your intellect!"
Liberta in his adolescence agreed with Demiurge's assessment, "Yes, while we don't have the right to question Lord Punitto Moe's decisions, we are far beneath you intelligence wise."
Albedo layed on the praise as she said, "If anything, we are more likely to learn from you, my lords."
Whitebrim's ego skyrocketed as he nodded and pointed at the NPCs, "Yeah! They get it! We should ask for a replacement straight away-"
"You guys haven't moved yet, I'd suggest walking and talking," Nubo's voice echoed through their head, "Your one job is to check out the small rural towns, and unofficially you're the backup."
"The backup?" Shizyuutensuzaku questioned, not aware of what Nubo was talking about.
"Yeah. We needed a backup team that wasn't just the 8th floor NPCs, and you guys are by far the least important group, investigating basically how the rural people feel about this whole Holy Kingdom thing." Nubo answered, "If something goes wrong somewhere else, we'll peel you guys away, probably one by one."
"Ah, wait, so you didn't pair us up with the smart guys to call us dumb?" Whitebrim asked.
"No? Why would we do that?" Nubo asked, confused.
"...Okay, uh, we'll get going now to, uh, wherever we're going. Why don't you check up on someone else?" Whitebrim slowly said, grabbing everyone in a huddle.
Nubo just accepted it and cut off the group message.
Immediately after, Whitebrim announced, "Everyone, forget we came to that conclusion."
The three NPCs immediately nodded, and they probably somehow used their vast intellect to actually forget about it.
Shizyuutensuzaku sighed, "What does it say about us that we immediately came to the conclusion that we thought he was calling us stupid?"
"Forget about it," Whitebrim repeated, "We're all very very smart people! I'm not tolerating these naysayers."
"We're all stupid, but only sometimes. That was one of those sometimes," Genjiro said.
"Oh my God just forget about it!" Whitebrim shouted, "Genjiro, where are we going?!"
Genjiro looked at the map, "Well, we're here, so…" Genjiro did some quick guessing on which town was the closest, and eventually decided, "Tirisfal?"
"And what direction is that in?" Ankoro asked.
Genjiro paused.
Then, Genjiro turned to the 3 NPCs, "Hey, quick quiz, which way is south?"
Demiurge answered first by pointing in a certain direction, "South is in that direction, Lord Genjiro!"
"Yeah we're going in that direction," Genjiro confirmed, and just as he was about to start walking, a good idea popped up in his head, "Alright, uh… Actually, why don't you three lead us? You know, because you guys need the practice."
Demiurge eagerly took the map that Genjiro handed to him, "Thank you for being so considerate, my lords! I assure you that the three of us will not fail you!"
As the three NPCs took a look at the map to determine their route, Whitebrim quietly whispered to the group, "Genjiro, that was really smart."
"Thank you."
It took about an hour of walking before they were able to find Tirisfal. Not because of any mistakes or anything, it was mostly because the group of players were easily distracted by the wildlife that was roaming about.
In the past hour alone, Ankoro found 3 bunnies that she declared would be coming back to Nazarick with them, while Luci*Fer noted a few species of birds that he wanted to get, and Genjiro found out today that he was a massive fan of insects.
Albedo, Demiurge, & Liberta quickly made those dreams into reality as they quickly caught the animals of interest as Liberta contacted the control center in order to get a gate from there to Nazarick's 4th floor where Leshy was instructed to keep the animals in a temporary holding until Aura was back in Nazarick to care for them properly.
The group of players didn't do anything to stop them because the three NPCs looked too eager for them to do something for the group to just stamp out.
Anyhow, they were in a clearing just before entering Tirisfal, and so Genjiro contacted Nubo, "Hey, Nubo, can you check the village we're about to enter for any dangers?"
The entire group felt Nubo's gaze focus in on them as he quickly did so, and after a moment, returned the results, "There's nobody in that village."
Luci*Fer responded with confusion, "What do you mean there's nobody? This place looks fairly well maintained."
"I don't know what to tell you, man. I can't see anyone in any of the houses." Nubo responded back with some irritation, "I won't rule out that it's a trap, but I don't think it's likely. Maybe just look around for some signs or notes left behind. Then move on."
Genjiro frowned, "Alright, we'll do that then."
As the message cut off, Yamaiko loudly announced, "I hate the horror genre, I'm not splitting up from anyone."
Ankoro nodded with Yamaiko, "I agree! Let's go in groups of 2- No, 3!"
"Alright, so 2 players and 1 NPC, got it," Shizyuutensuzaku then pointed to Liberta, "You're coming with me, Liberta," and then he pointed to Luci*Fer, "You too."
"Huh? Why me?" Luci*Fer asked.
"I don't trust you out of my sight," Shizyuutensuzaku plainly answered.
Luci*Fer's face fell, "Dude… Ugh, fine."
"Albedo! You're in the girls squad!" Ankoro decided.
Albedo gracefully walked to stand next to Yamaiko and Ankoro.
Demiurge nodded as he silently walked towards Genjiro and Whitebrim.
And so, Genjiro announced, "Okay guys, we'll search this village from top to bottom! Here we go!"
Yamaiko hummed as she inspected the insides of a house. The kitchen was fully stocked, though the food was all old and moldy. But there were still knives, pots, and all of the other things a kitchen would need to function.
Ankoro picked up some sort of doll and showed it off, "Hey, I found this!"
Albedo tilted her head and frowned as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't.
Yamaiko noticed it, and so she asked, "Albedo, you seem as if you want to say something."
Albedo's eyes widened with panic and she reflexively bowed, "I'm sorry my Lady Yamaiko! But I believe you already know of my thoughts or even the truth already, so it is useless for me to speak!"
Yamaiko absolutely did not know what was going on. She had a pretty good guess, but she needed to go meet up with everyone else to get a clearer picture.
So, Yamaiko waved it off, "It's alright, why don't you just speak your thoughts freely? This is all for your sake after all."
Albedo's expression looked as if she had been given the secret to life and was close to crying, "Ah! I am so fortunate to serve under you…"
Ankoro & Yamaiko gave each other a small look, which went unnoticed by Albedo because she took up a thinking pose and closed her eyes.
"Everything here is far too clean for a village that's abandoned. The humans should've taken their valuables, but didn't. There's also the lack of damage around here, signifying that whatever happened, it wasn't violent. I believe that something happened here which forced the humans out of here quickly. Of which that 'something' likely would've been Seraphim. However, someone else must be visiting this place fairly often to maintain the cleanness of it all. From what I know, however, it cannot be the previous inhabitants of this village, due to the fact of their belongings still remaining. As such, it's likely that there is a third party, likely of criminal origin, using the abandoned village as a base of sorts," Albedo concluded, finally opening her eyes and looking eagerly towards her two masters.
Yamaiko agreed with the analysis, she didn't get to the conclusion that Seraphim forced them out and the whole criminal aspect of it. She has no idea how Albedo got to that idea, but it does make sense with the information they currently have.
Yamaiko turned to Ankoro.
Ankoro was just smiling and nodded as if she had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Yamaiko decided to just say, "We'll see. Let's meet up with the rest. See if they have any idea."
"Hm, empty pens and empty farmland, why do you think that is, Demiurge?" Genjiro asked, looking out at the empty fields where farm animals presumably once were.
Demiurge hummed as he thought about it for a few moments, "Perhaps they were all taken to somewhere else, Lord Genjiro."
Genjiro nodded, "That makes sense. Why do you think they weren't killed here, though?"
"Similar to how Heket transports the pop monsters to the butchery before harvesting them, I believe that the humans took these animals someplace else before butchering them. Likely for sanitary reasons." Demiurge answered, looking happy about his answer.
Whitebrim scratched his head, "I still don't know why they'd decide to move out, I mean, this place is kind of nice."
"You do not have to be so humble in my presence, my Lord! I'm sure you already know the true reasoning behind the disappearance!" Demiurge protested.
Whitebrim shrugged, "Eh," and left it at that. No need to try and make himself look worse.
Genjiro sighed, "Well… Whitebrim, go check out that storage house looking thing."
"Huh?! Why do I have to do that?!" Whitebrim protested, "I can smell the rotten food coming out of there!"
"I can do it if you wish, my lords!" Demiurge eagerly suggested, wanting to be useful.
Whitebrim nodded at the opportunity to get out of doing something, "Yeah, you do that, Demiurge!"
Demiurge moved over to the storage house, while Genjiro and Whitebrim huddled together.
Genjiro quietly said, "What are your thoughts on this whole situation?"
Whitebrim replied, "This is freaky. I don't like it."
Genjiro nodded, "Right. Once Demiurge gets back, we'll check up with the rest of the group."
"The population of Tirisfal has been relocated to Slane District City, Rome. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond." Shizyuutensuzaku read out the official looking paper on the board in the center of the town using a translator lens he kept on him.
They would definitely have to work on learning the language sometime soon. Can't be forced to rely on translator lenses all of the time, especially considering that they take way too much of their mana to use.
Damn, why did the developers decide that using mana to use an internet translator was a good idea? There's not even a practical application of it in battle. There was literally no need to do that, but they did, because they're full of shit.
Luci*Fer pointed out the obvious, "Well, that's definitely Seraphim. Can't imagine any other Mustapha Mond. Plus, isn't that paper the, uh, level 65 one? Equinox Paper?"
Shizyuutensuzaku nodded in agreement, "Definitely. I remember farming up an ungodly number of those back in the day for our talismans. If Seraphim had another talisman user, they probably have a bunch of the stuff lying around to spend like this." Then, Shizyuutensuzaku asked, "Say, do you think this is the Megacorp sort of relocating, Nazi sort of relocating, or is it the Chernobyl sort of relocating?"
"I have literally no idea what those last 2 things are," Luci*Fer blatantly admits. It's not like he had a strong sense for history, and he only got as far as middle school because his company paid for their employees to go through middle school to keep them happy about working at an airport where only rich folks ever came around.
"Hm," Shizyuutensuzaku looked at Liberta, "Hey, Liberta, how much of our world's history do you know? If I recall, Denshosho copy and pasted some of his favorite books into the Library of Ashurbanipal, as long as they were public domain, of course."
Liberta frowned, "Uh, while my Evening and Midnight perspectives frequent the Library of Ashurbanipal, I can't say that history was ever a subject we took an interest in… I'll be sure to fix this mistake, Lord Shizyuutensuzaku."
Shizyuutensuzaku waved it off, "It's alright, I only know some of the big events in history too. I'm more of a math guy," Then he began to explain, "So the Nazis were the Germans back in the 1940s, they were the ones that began the second world war, and they had a thing where they deported minorities so they could put them into concentration camps to kill them. The other thing is Chernobyl, which was a nuclear reactor from the Soviet Union back sometime in the… Hm, somewhere in the late 1900s, I can't quite remember it off the top of my head. Anyways, that nuclear reactor had a big meltdown and the Soviets tried to downplay it for a while until everyone found all of the radiation in their backyard. So the Soviets had to evacuate people from Chernobyl for safety. And the megacorp one for you, Liberta, is that there were these big companies back in our old world that basically controlled everyone's lives. And sometimes, these megacorps would want to move people so they would spend less time on travel and more time working, so they forcibly moved people to different and more 'efficient' locations. And thus my question, is this the type of relocation so Seraphim could kill them? Or is this the type of relocation for Seraphim to protect them? Or for Seraphim to make better use of them?"
Luci*Fer shrugged, "I'm going to be honest with you, Shizyuuten, most of that went over my head, but I think it's just the megacorp one."
While Seraphim are probably all in a similar situation as them, Luci*Fer wouldn't discount the possibility that Seraphim are just taking a page out of a book that they've been the words of before. Better the devil you know, obviously.
Liberta thought about it for a moment, before he gave his answer, "I agree with Lord Lucifer's assessment. With the obviously preferential treatment that the humans receive, it's clear that the only two options are for protection or efficiency. And given Seraphim are similar in power to you, but still inferior to you, I believe they moved the citizens for efficiency purposes."
Shizyuutensuzaku hummed, "Very good, very good. Now, why don't we get everyone together so we can all collectively share our findings?"
After about 15 minutes of searching, everyone came back together to share the results of the quick search.
Collectively, they agreed that the humans here were taken away. They also agreed that it was sudden, because from the looks of it, they didn't even take anything from their homes and Whitebrim found all of the food in the farms to have decayed over the course of years.
But somehow, everything else in the village seems to have only been abandoned yesterday. If the village was truly abandoned, it would've been taken over by nature at some point, but everything looks clean.
Not to mention, they can't even agree on the 'why' they were taken. The most plausible idea was Seraphim imitating the mega corps of the old world, but to the players, they can't imagine why they would want to repeat Earth.
Ultimately, Genjiro came with a decision, "We don't have enough information right now. Let's just keep moving and hopefully we'll find something that'll give us some clues."
And so, they moved on to the next village.
"The population of Saltalesh has been relocated to Slane District City, Barcelona. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Doltor has been relocated to Slane District City, Paris. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Kikiyo has been relocated to Slane District City, Paris. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Asta has been relocated to London District City, San Francisco. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Mumua has been relocated to Slane District City, Rome. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Later has been relocated to London District City, York. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Garma has been relocated to Slane District City, Berlin. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Vemo has been relocated to Slane District City, Barcelona. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Holly has been relocated to London District City, Amsterdam. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Jemena has been relocated to Slane District City, Paris . Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Windanen has been relocated to Slane District City, Rome. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
"The population of Namhair has been relocated to Slane District City, Chicago. Please report to your nearest major city for documentation and transportation. Signed by the Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."
The group sat rather defeatedly around in the old and beaten town of Namhair.
The most they've learnt other than that this map was worthless in actually naming populated rural towns was that there were some towns that were like Tirisfal and were completely clean despite looking as if it were abandoned for years.
And others were like Namhair, totally and utterly demolished, with only a few things left standing against the flow of time.
At some point, they had abandoned their guises and decided to just run as fast as they could to the various towns in the hopes of finding any signs of life. But apparently Seraphim was thorough in relocating everyone to… Somewhere.
Well, it was clear they did a lot of renaming. Who names their cities after European and American names? Seraphim, apparently.
And they have no idea why the Slane district and London district are named so. Slane doesn't sound like they're following the Western naming scheme. And they'll probably never find out as long as they were the backup team who were supposed to avoid danger.
Luci*Fer sighed, half defeated and half bored, "Damn it, do you guys just want to call it a day? It's been a while since we started."
"It's been 2 hours and 30 minutes since we've left Nazarick, my lords," Liberta pointed out.
"What?!" Luci*Fer shouted in shock, "How?! It feels like we've been looking for way longer than that!"
Whitebrim groaned, "Look, we're the backup team, let's just call it a day and maybe start getting some food that isn't from Nazarick." The NPC trio looked a bit dismayed at Whitebrim's words, so he hastily corrected, "Not to say the quality of Nazarick's food is bad! No! It's the best I've ever eaten! It's just that, well, I've got to diversify my taste buds with some… Lesser foods, you know?"
That did lessen the NPCs' worries a bit.
Ankoro sighed, tossing a few piles of dirt as far as she could to satiate her boredom, "No thanks, I ate before I left. I'm not that hungry right now."
Yamaiko and Shizyuutensuzaku were both busy staring at the vast plains beyond them. Yamaiko quietly commented, "This world is so beautiful, but it feels so empty…"
Shizyuutensuzaku nodded, "Yeah, it's kind of one of those crap quality DMMORPGs, right? Everything looks good, but it's all as shallow as a puddle."
Genjiro was using a toy butterfly knife, a small toy back in Yggdrasil, and he commented on the two's conversation, "Hey, don't talk like this is a game. That's harmful to your mental health, probably, to compare life to a game."
Shizyuutensuzaku nodded, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just sort of tired and bored of finding nothing here…"
Albedo frowned at the group of downcast players, "Is there anything that we may do to satiate your boredom, my lords?"
Genjiro waved it off, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure we'll find something."
"My Lords, we are made to fulfill your every whim. Please do not hold yourselves back from requesting anything from us!" Demiurge urged, "We will tear this world apart to satisfy any of your urges."
"You guys are sure fanatical about us, huh?" Ankoro commented.
"That is what we were created for, Lady Ankoro," Liberta said.
Genjiro hummed, "In that case…"
Nubo's voice suddenly shouted out, "Massive emergency! The wilderness group just got caught into a trap that teleported them inside some kind of guild base! Demiurge, we're going to need your summons, enter the gate now!"
Genjiro actually had to do a double take. Wasn't that Orphea's group? He's pretty sure that group had all of the heavy hitters NPCs, how did they fall into a trap like that?
A gate suddenly appeared and Demiurge looked to Genjiro and bowed, "Excuse me, my Lords!" And he quickly entered the gate, leaving Slane behind.
"How did that happen?!" Genjiro panickedly asked Nubo.
Teleportation traps were easy to overcome, considering most classes had some sort of skill that allowed people to stop them from being forcibly teleported as long as you could react fast enough. He couldn't imagine a single one of those guys in the wilderness group to suck enough to be caught by the teleportation trap.
"No clue, I wasn't there watching it when it happened. You guys sit tight for now in case we need to call you." Nubo hastily replied before cutting off the message, likely to go assist in that situation.
So now, they were all on their own for a while.
"Shit, do we go back to Nazarick?" Luci*Fer asked, already preparing a Gate just in case.
"Nubo told us to just sit tight, I think we should stay here," Yamaiko said, "That being said, this definitely feels like a type of situation where they really should've called all of us in…"
Their friends are in a hostile guild base, and they're not fully sure if the guild intruder system that boosts the guild NPCs based on the number of invading players is still a thing. Because if it is, it's potentially a death sentence to someone split off from the group.
Demiurge didn't leave anything behind, so they didn't have any minions to keep an eye on the perimeter, and the control center sounds like they're in too much trouble that they won't be able to keep watch for them.
In other words, they were in enemy territory with the orders to not do anything.
"I think," Ankoro slowly started, "We should just ignore Nubo, and keep moving. Because I don't wanna be stuck here waiting around for something."
"...We should at least wait until Nubo gives the all-clear, that everything is going to be fine, right?" Luci*Fer suggested.
Genjiro nods, "Yeah, we'll wait until Nubo stabilizes the situation, and then we can continue. Until then… Lucifer, you picked up some summoning spells, right?"
Luci*Fer scratched his head, "Only the trash ones from like the 5th tier, yeah."
"Great, summon some of them and make sure we have eyes checking the perimeter." Genjiro ordered, then he looked to Albedo.
Albedo was currently in her full plate set built by Amanomahitosu, which was made to specifically resist anti-armor attacks, so she would be perfect in any hard situation that the wilderness group would be in. So it was likely she would be called next.
"Albedo, you're probably likely to be called next, so just be ready just in case," Genjiro called out.
Albedo dutifully nodded, "I will not fail you, my lords."
Genjiro nodded, "Alright everyone, we'll stick around here for a while until we get the go-ahead from Nubo that everything is okay."
After an anxious 30 minutes, Nubo called back, "Everything has calmed down, it's still an ongoing situation, there's still some fighting that's going to have to happen, but nothing absolutely catastrophic yet. You guys can keep going, and we'll peel more from you if we need it."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay, that's great, we'll keep going, then." Genjiro replied.
Nubo disconnected the call soon after.
Genjiro then announced, "Alright everyone, now that the situation over there is all sorted out, we're going to keep looking through villages, any objections!?"
Luci*Fer raised his hand, "This is boring! Can we do literally anything else?"
"What are we supposed to do, huh?" Shizyuutensuzaku asked, "None of us are hungry or tired enough for a quick lunch break. And we've seen a grand total of 0 sentient lives so far."
"Let's just play I spy while we travel," Ankoro suggested, "Here, uh, I spy with my little eye… Er, something big and blue…"
"The sky, Ankoro that game sucks, there's almost nothing to see here that we haven't already seen in the past 3 hours," Luci*Fer said, then shrugging, "Welp, sure, let's play. I spy with my little eye… Something white."
"Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!" Whitebrim excitedly raised his hands, pointing to himself.
Luci*Fer shook his head, "No, it was actually the clouds."
Whitebrim's mouth fell, "What the hell dude!"
And so they set off.
After another hour of visiting abandoned villages, they finally found signs of life in the village of Byrks.
At this point, the sun was starting to set, and everyone was starting to feel the fatigue of the travel weighing down on them mentally. Physically, they were fine, but they were just about ready for any human interaction after hours of seeing nobody.
"I'll call Nubo to ask for a quick divination, Lucifer, you go make some summons to check our perimeter, and then we can go in," Genjiro said as he messaged Nubo.
After a few moments, Nubo got back to them, "Yeah, they're humans all right. But… They're all in cultist garb, so maybe they won't be so friendly."
Genjiro groaned, "God damn it."
He was really hoping to get to talk to people that weren't kissing his ass all the time, and then the people they were going to meet turn out to be cultists for something. Life sucks.
"I can't get an exact level measurement, I'm not that type of divination player, but I can tell you that the strongest person in that village can't be higher than level 50, which is still probably the highest level thing I've seen, but still pretty weak. Just be sure to protect Liberta, since he's only level 30."
While the gear scaling from 1 to 60 was a bit more lenient than the later levels, a level 30 would still get demolished by a level 50 in most scenarios. Additionally, the Adolescent Liberta was a warrior, and thus his survivability skills aren't fully developed due to his age, profession, and level.
Though, a level 100 player without any gear would lose to a level 60 player in level 60 gear, due to how Yggdrasil's system worked, where most of a player's stats would mostly stem from their gear with only a small fraction of their stats coming from their player level. So if the level 50 person in that village had no gear at his level, Liberta still had a decent shot at victory.
After giving their thanks, Nubo cut off the message to go off somewhere else.
Genjiro then declared, "Alright everyone, we're going to approach the village, and we'll hope that everything just works out for us."
Albedo frowned and voiced her objections, "Lord Genjiro, while I would never dare question your orders, perhaps I may walk in first to test out the waters? I wouldn't wish for you to walk blindly into a trap."
"Actually, you know what? Yeah, Albedo, you can do that," Genjiro easily agreed, "Uh, I'll do the talking though. The rest of you, just protect Liberta or something while we walk in. And let's try to avoid fighting, yeah?"
Whitebrim nodded and pointed out, "Say, remember that one seraph world enemy that could only be summoned by killing a bunch of innocent kids? What if this is like that, but for cultists?"
"Oh, yeah, that would suck. Let's definitely avoid fighting, even if they attack us, then." Yamaiko voiced, getting nods from everyone.
So, everyone started to walk towards Byrks.
Basically immediately, their presence became known as one cultist, his robe black and ordained with red stars, demanded of them, "Who are you?!"
Genjiro casually raised his hands and replied, "Just some travelers looking for information. Do you mind if we talk to your boss?"
The cultist glared at them, "You dare make such demands of us?!"
Ankoro lightly whispered, "This is a really dumb idea, guys."
Genjiro chuckled, spotting an old guy coming up to them, "I don't think it's in our hands anymore."
The old man tapped the cultist on his back, "It's alright, my little sacrifice. I will handle this."
The old man was wearing a more stylized version of what the other cultists were wearing. And everyone noted how he had referred to the cultist as his little sacrifice.
This was definitely a cult.
The old man turned to them, "My name is Herring. I can tell just by your figures that you are quite powerful, so I suppose you aren't here to join the Incarnation of Fate's Will?"
Incarnation of Fate's Will? What an odd name for a cult. But Genjiro wouldn't bet on it being the strangest.
And so, Genjiro confirmed, "Yeah, we're just here wondering what you're doing."
Herring smiled, "Are you with the angels?"
Genjiro shook his head, "Nope."
Herring's eyes gazed over to Luci*Fer, the angel, an action that basically everyone noticed and immediately put their guard up for.
Herring shrugged, "I suppose that makes sense. Then come with me and I will tell you the truth of this world."
Herring started to walk towards one of the larger buildings, some sort of stable, maybe, and everyone reluctantly began to follow him while he monologued.
"10 Years ago, the 72 Lords of Seraphim made their descent into this world. But they were not the first gods to come here, for 600 years ago the Six Gods made their descent. And along with them, they brought all of these wonders into reality, and one thing that they all had was a little message from what I can only describe as the Incarnation of Fate itself."
Herring opened the doors to the stable, and every single cultist standing on guard moved to enter the stable, which was seemingly removed of everything inside but the walls.
Herring continued, "Sometimes, their messages came from powerful artifacts, sometimes they used the words of a living creature to send elusive messages. And sometimes, we could see them in our dreams. But the one message that we all shared was the vision of the Incarnation of Fate, looking over us as if we were nothing more than ants."
Herring moved to the middle of the circle the cultists had made with their bodies, kneeling on both knees in reverence to Herring, "And so, for 600 years we toiled away, hoping to one day know the truth behind this world, and to finally meet the eyes of our most benevolent god, Fate."
The ugliest grin began to form on Herrings face, and everyone immediately knew that they probably shouldn't have let the obviously evil character monologue for 2 whole minutes, "You are tainted with an energy so similar, yet so foreign to It, but you are not the source of that energy. But that energy, even so quaint in quantity, is enough to fuel my ascension!"
The cultists stabbed themselves in their hearts, killing all of them in ritualistic suicide as their souls suddenly burst out of their bodies and into Herring's waiting mouth.
Herring's body began to grotesquely change, becoming more metallic and dark, stained with blood. He began to sprout horns out of the top of his head, and his teeth became sharper and sharper as his hands turned into claws and feet became talons.
His eyes screamed out with ecstasy and as the transformation changed, Herring had become some sort of metallic demon, and he shouted out, "I thank you, travelers! For giving us the energy for my ascension! No! I give my thanks to Fate for bringing you to me! Now, I will bring you all to Fate itself!"
Albedo got in front of the players, "My Lords, I could sense him becoming more powerful, but I'm not sure how much powerful he became just now."
Genjiro hummed, not very worried about the situation, "Well, he was level 50, and I can't really feel anything coming out of him. Maybe it's like Sebas' transformation where it's a big temporary boost."
Yamaiko gently chided Genjiro, "Don't underestimate him, he just sacrificed 20 people."
Luci*Fer looked at the dead bodies and frowned, "That's kind of gross. Does anyone else find that kind of messed up?"
Ankoro nodded, "Yeah, but… Well, we're all familiar with dead bodies, right?"
You could find dead bodies in Tokyo just moments after walking outside of your apartment. Though they might share a sentiment of 'oh, that's sad,' there were always other things to worry about.
Though it was slightly unnerving to a few of them to watch someone actively die like that, even if they were familiar with the sight of someone dying due to the pollutive air of Japan.
Whitebrim nodded, "Yeah, anyways, do we capture him or do we beat him up?"
"That's a bit rude, Whitebrim…" Shizyuutensuzaku said.
"Thank you for wasting your time talking and allowing me to get used to this new body!" Herring shouted, seemingly high, "Now, let us begin!"
And within a moment, Herring had closed the distance and in a single punch, knocked Albedo out of the stables and sent her skidding across the floor.
At that moment, every single player there had realized that Nubo was a big fat liar, and this was not a level 50 enemy.
Genjiro, the group's fastest player, immediately summoned 2 extra arms using an racial skill, and he used 4 daggers and made a stab at Herring.
Herring was not as fast as Genjiro, but he managed to deflect 2 of his attacks and took hits into his arms before pushing Genjiro back and being forced to defend against Yamaiko's punch.
Luci*Fer used an 8th tier holy magic spell, but Herring didn't take any visible damage from it as he was busy pushing back Yamaiko's fists and Ankoro's axe.
Shizyuutensuzaku shouted out a 10th tier spell, which hit both Herring and the two melee players, causing Ankoro to shout out, "OW! OW! OW! FRIENDLY FIRE, MAN!"
"Sorry!" Shizyuutensuzaku shouted, going down to 7th tier spells which would hopefully be more easily controllable.
Albedo came back from being forced outside, and was healed by Whitebrim before she shouted, "HOW DARE YOU LAY HANDS UPON MY MASTERS?!" And threw herself into the fray, using her tanking skills to draw his attention.
Herring's body was forced to turn to Albedo, and everyone took the opportunity to start hammering Herring, using all they could do to put Herring down. But though they were starting to do visible damage, Herring wasn't being taken down. The shack, however, was completely leveled from the force being outputted, and Liberta had to retreat outside to avoid being hit by a stray attack.
As soon as Herring regained control over his body, he immediately jumped away and towards the nearby forest.
"Christ, what is he made out of?!" Whitebrim shouted as he looked towards Liberta, who had simply drawn his sword and kept up a defensive stance to keep himself safe outside, "Liberta! Can you contact someone while we fight?!"
Liberta hastily nodded as he immediately started to communicate between his other selves to send his message.
Albedo was about to start giving chase, but Shizyuutensuzaku stopped her, "Wait, guys, what build is he?"
"It felt like he might have a natural armor build," Yamaiko suggested.
While natural armor builds were in most scenarios weaker than fully armored builds, they did have a small advantage that, whenever a new raid tier dropped, their natural armor would scale to the highest gear level in the player's inventory and for a few weeks, natural armor players would be stronger on average while everyone was getting kitted out in their full sets, because all the natural armor players needed were the weapons and trinkets, and thus skipping the largest part of the grind of getting the armor.
But there wasn't any way they could think of for Herring to get his hands on something higher than level 100, or maybe even up to the level 120s to be able to fight 7 level 100s at once. So instead, Yamaiko suggested something else, "But also, I think he's not a type of player or NPC, but might be closer to a dungeon boss. So in that case, he's just going on raw stats right now."
While bosses couldn't equip any actual gear, and instead all of their gear were just decorative, the rules were different now, and they weren't very enthusiastic to find out if bosses could massively boost their power by wearing player gear.
"Yeah, I think he somehow transformed himself into a boss," Genjiro agreed, "Do you think he's running right now?"
Nubo decided to make his return as he told everyone, "You guys are all morons, how did you guys find a goddamn dungeon boss here?!"
"Is he actually a dungeon boss?!" Ankoro asked.
"Hell if I know. But that guy you were fighting is in the middle of healing himself. How strong was he?" Nubo said.
Shizyuutensuzaku answered, "I would say that he's in the realm of maybe a mid-tier level 84 dungeon boss, if we're going by that metric. A melee boss, too."
Nubo breathed a small sigh of relief, "Okay, that's good, that's beatable even with only 7 players. I'll keep my eye out on the perimeter and warn you if anyone is coming. So beat him up, get him alive if possible but it's also fine to kill him as long as you can keep the body. Liberta, I'm making a Gate for you now because you're a liability right now."
Liberta nodded, and as soon as the gate was made, he immediately entered it and left Slane behind.
"Okay, I'll ask about who the hell this guy is later, for now, you just need to hide your tracks and beat the hell out of him." Nubo ordered, "He's waiting for you in that forest, I think he's finished healing."
Yamaiko nodded, "Albedo, you lead first since you're the tank."
Albedo dutifully nodded, bringing up her bardiche, "Of course, my Lady!"
"Try to bring him to Nazarick alive, or dead, doesn't really matter. But make sure to prioritize yourself." Nubo said.
Albedo used her wings to start flying towards where Nubo was directing her, and the rest followed.
Herring made his appearance known by launching a shockwave at the group, stopping them in their tracks.
"I can feel my master's influence on me! I am destined to win this battle!" Herring manically shouted, jumping towards Albedo.
Albedo had gotten out of her paralysis, and immediately swatted Herring away in Yamaiko's direction who punched him towards Ankoro, who hit him with her axe.
Herring regained his bearings, and he started to conjure a red ball on the tip of his finger before launching it towards Shizyuutensuzaku, who had to tank the hit with his hand, which put a hole in him.
"Ugh!" Shizyuutensuzaku groaned in pain, before getting healed by Whitebrim, "That freaking hurt!"
Luci*Fer shouted out, "I'm gonna use Pantheon with the hourglass!"
The purpose of super-tier summons was mostly to tank. This was because the summoning super-tier spells usually summoned weaker variations of dungeon or raid bosses, and thus they had a large health pool.
But some super-tier summons, like the angels from Pantheon, were mostly made to attack targets with high level holy magic. And though the DPS from such summons were strictly inferior to players of similar levels, in a situation where friendly fire was enabled, the Pantheon angels' ability to attack without harming allies no matter the situation was a useful one.
Luci*Fer surrounded himself in the sigils of super-tier magic.
Herring immediately saw the threat, and tried to rush Luci*Fer down, but Yamaiko grabbed onto Herring's legs and threw him in the opposite direction.
Luci*Fer smashed his hourglass, and then six level 80 elite tier angels appeared on the battlefield, all immediately attacking Herring.
Herring shouted out in pain as the holy magic washed over him, then he angrily cried out, "The Incarnation of Fate's Will is destined to carry on through me!"
Herring's body started to boil, as he suddenly busted out a burst spell, pushing everything away and covering him in smoke.
Whitebrim quickly used a dispel spell, and the smoke quickly lifted and revealed…
Herring in a new, more demonic form.
"Please don't tell me he's stronger now," Ankoro lightly pleaded.
Herring laughed, "Now, I have reached the pinnacle of my power! I AM NO LONGER RESTRAINED BY HERRING! I AM NOW ZENITH!"
The newly named Zenith was beaming, his body just begging to fight. If they had to put a level on him, he likely would've been a low level world enemy. Maybe even weaker than Yowairyu.
"Then we just punch him harder," Yamaiko stated, getting ready for the next assault, undisturbed by his new power level.
Nubo suddenly messaged them, "Shit! Guys, everything just went wrong! You guys need to pull out- IS THAT A WORLD ENEMY?! WHAT THE FUCK?! GET OUT OF THERE YOU-"
Nubo's voice suddenly cut out as Zenith let out a rainbow light, creating a barrier around them.
Silently, everyone had unconsciously understood that retreat was no longer an available option.
"Let us fight to the end!" Zenith gleefully shouted out, jumping towards Albedo at lightning speed.
Albedo raised her arms to defend the attack, but Zenith had course corrected midair to launch at Whitebrim.
Whitebrim had enough agility in his build to teleport away using a silent teleportation spell, but Luci*Fer did not.
Zenith's legs hit Luci*Fer with all of his might, and Luci*Fer was launched away.
"Lucifer!" Genjiro shouted out in shock, then without hesitation went to try to stab Zenith in the back.
Zenith turned around to strike-
Then his arm turned to Albedo, whose face was hardly recognizable due to the rage on her, "YOU DARE DIRTY MY MASTERS!?"
Using the small window of opportunity thanks to Albedo's taunt, everyone was able to start to damage Zenith.
Though, because of the nature of Zenith's powers, there was no visible damage done. But they could tell that Zenith was not as strong as them yet.
Then Shizyuutensuzaku shouted, "Using hourglass Celestial Nail!"
The light of Shizyuutensuzaku's super tier spell appeared on the same second as Albedo's taunt wore off, and Zenith tried to take down Shizyuutensuzaku before he could break his hourglass.
Yamaiko and Genjiro had expected this, however, and tried something they couldn't do in game.
They simply held Zenith in place using their raw strength. No control spell or ability involved, just pure hands.
Zenith was physically stronger than the both of them, of course, but the gap was close enough to where it cost Zenith seconds.
Shizyuutensuzaku's hourglass shattered, and the Celestial Nail came down from the heavens to strike at Zenith.
Zenith tried his best to escape, but the countless spells and attacks laid upon him prevented him from moving at his peak speed.
And also, Celestial Nail was a homing attack.
The Celestial Nail landed in Zenith's stomach, piercing through him and pinning him into the ground.
Everyone began to wail on Zenith again, and for a few moments, it looked like he was taking damage.
Then, he grabbed onto the nail and took it out of his body, throwing the nail at Albedo.
Albedo's eyes widened as she attempted to defend against the leftovers of a super tier spell, but the force of the nail was still enough to break through two layers of her armor, pushing her far away.
Whitebrim gasped and looked towards where Albedo was thrown., "You can do that?!"
Zenith took advantage of the surprise and struck at Whitebrim, successfully hitting him a few times before Ankoro pushed him away.
"Fuck, that hurt!" Whitebrim whined, healing himself and forcing the blood to disappear, "Where's Lucifer? That bastard got hit once and now he's gone!"
Ankoro looked at where Luci*Fer was thrown to, and noticed that Luci*Fer was noticeably absent.
"I don't know-" Ankoro started to answer, before Zenith rushed to try and take down Shizyuutensuzaku.
Albedo came back and drew Zenith's attention again-
The barrier surrounding the area suddenly broke.
Zenith looked up at the sky, baffled, and everyone else took the opportunity to attack.
Many attacks hit Zenith's back as he tried to defend himself and-
A whale cried out.
Everything suddenly stopped as Luci*Fer's voice shouted out, "Hello, beautiful!"
Everyone turned to the sound of his voice, and there Luci*Fer was, standing on top of Tangaroa, slowly floating towards them.
"Tangaroa, swallow him up!" Luci*Fer shouted.
Tangaroa opened his mouth, and the landscape started to be uprooted as everything was being swallowed by the void in Tangaroa's mouth.
The players took the hint and quickly teleported themselves to Luci*Fer's location.
"How the hell did you get Tangaroa?" Shizyuutensuzaku quickly asked.
Luci"Fer shrugged, "Well, the barrier only stopped magical creatures, spells, and items from getting out, so… Well…"
Luci*Fer pulled out a walkie talkie, "As it turns out, this thing isn't magic at all, and I managed to connect to Nubo who had a walkie talkie in his inventory. And my voice wasn't magical either, so I got Nubo to send Tangaroa to me since I remembered Orphea talking about how Tangaroa was like, really strong or something lorewise. And hey, it looks like she was right!"
"That shouldn't have worked at all, but I'm really glad it did," Ankoro said as she looked down on Zenith, who was trying his best to avoid the mouth of Tangaroa, "It looks like he doesn't have teleportation?"
"You'd think a world enemy would be able to avoid Tangaroa's swallow ability, but…" Yamaiko gestures to Zenith, who at this point had tripped on something.
"NO! NO! NOT LIKE THIS! FATE! HELP ME! THIS CAN'T BE MY DESTINY!" Zenith shouted, thrashing the land around him as he desperately tried to claw out of Tangaroa's gravity.
Eventually, Tangaroa caught up to him, and Zenith was swallowed whole.
"Where does his mouth even lead to?" Ankoro raised a good point, "Is he dead now?"
Luci*Fer shrugged, "Who knows, maybe Tangaroa can throw him up. Anyways, apparently things are going wrong, so we need to get back to Nazarick now…"
Luci*Fer created a Gate, and so the Slane expedition left Slane behind.
"Hmm, that was quite unexpected," a long and lanky priest mused, his robe made out of the most common cloth of the new world, his weapons made out of oak trees, his hair unkempt.
The woman next to him, her green robes and witch's hat making it clear that she was a practitioner of dark arts, agreed with his assessment, "Yes, sacrificing him was the right option."
The two of them took their eyes off of the telescope which allowed them to see the fight. The two were on a beach, sitting under an umbrella despite the sun setting.
They didn't quite expect Zenith to be able to grow to such heights, nor for the group of players to possess a giant whale that was powerful enough to capture Zenith. But now they know, so it was a fair trade.
The Priest nodded, "Of course. Still, do you have any ideas why he was able to gain such power in the first place?"
The Witch shrugged, "Who knows, the mechanics of this world are all botched and aren't what they should be."
Yes, it was quite bothersome to find that all of their hard work was for nothing. They thought they did something wrong when it was Seraphim who dismantled their little hidden empire in the span of a year.
Still, it seems as if their fears were unfounded.
The Priest wryly smiled, "It's fine, my friend. We may have lost a valuable piece from the board, but the result is still unchangeable. At least we now know that we're correct."
The Witch frowned, "Yet, Seraphim's decree still affects us."
The Priest's face fell as he was reminded of the angels' interference, still bitter about the entire situation, "Yes, that was an unfortunate thing to have happened. But it's a temporary setback, as all things are. No doubt he's already set a new result to find us. Though, with how things are, that won't be happening for a while."
It was an unfortunate drawback, but a drawback that could be cured as long as they did their duty.
"So, we're going to keep hiding until they wipe Seraphim off the map?" The Witch asked for clarification, "That sounds like a long and boring plan."
The Priest sighed, "Yes, we're going to keep hiding until the third act. We can't risk dying just yet, not with Seraphim's decree overruling us."
The Witch nodded, "That's fair. Though…" The Witch frowned, "Preparing Zenith's soul again for resurrection will be a pain."
"It's hard to say whether or not Zenith will be given any mercy," The Priest pointed out, "If he is, then at this point we may as well just abandon all hope for him. And even if he is killed, it's not a guarantee he will return to us."
The Witch seemed a bit saddened, "Aw."
The Priest raised an eyebrow, "Aw?"
"We owe him money now," The Witch replied, "That sucks."
"Ah," The Priest nodded with pity, "That does suck."
The two packed up their umbrella, and they eventually started walking towards a random direction.
"Hm, what are we going to do next?" The Witch questioned, "Sengoku's soul is still out and about in this world, should we revive him next while Zenith is stuck in Nazarick?"
"Does it really matter?" The Priest asked, "Everything will lead to the same result anyhow."
The Witch rolled her eyes, "I know. I would just like a subplot to immerse myself in, just to stave off the boredom."
The Priest shrugged without care, "Go ahead, don't blame me if you die, though."
And so, night fell on the world.
AN:
You're never getting a 7v1 ever again that shit was awful to write. Single handedly made me dislike this chapter and I think it's my least favorite chapter so far. I hope Slane burns and explodes or something.
Honestly this chapter needed more NPC dialogue in it I think, but to be honest I cannot give a damn for Slane anymore. You'll see Demiurge next chapter anyways, and Liberta is everywhere. Albedo is the only one being hurt here, and she's a tank anyways so she'll be fine.
The original plan for this chapter was 'uhh idk they go explore some towns?' But I was like 'that's so boring though' so I ended up advancing Seraphim's progress by a bit to make it to Slane.
Also, how obvious is my foreshadowing? Because I was thinking about how I foreshadow things and I'm always like 'wtf this is basically a spoiler.' But maybe it just looks like a spoiler to me because I obviously know what's going to happen. Maybe it's less obvious if you've never read a single one of my other works.
Oh yeah this chapter is like 8k. I've been writing the chapter word counts down here every once in a while mostly because when I see a long chapter I want to know exactly how long, so I've been putting them down here in case anyone else has that same urge to find out how long a chapter is.
X
I don't know how I never mentioned it, but the name Mustapha Mond is from Brave New World, the book.
Tirisfal is from Tirisfal Glades from World of Warcraft.
And that's the only town name that I put thought into. Everything else is a name I randomly came up with.
And the renamed cities are obviously just cities from America/Europe. You'll find out why in like 4 chapters.
Herring is a name I randomly decided on, may or may not have to do with red herrings, I haven't decided yet.
Zenith is just a dictionary word, synonymous with peak.
And the names of The Priest and The Witch aren't revealed, but Sengoku is revealed. His name is from the Sengoku period of Japan.
X
I know I said 2 chapters a month, but I want to release the April Fools chapter after this arc concludes, and that includes an epilogue of sorts, so I need to make a lot of chapters in 2 months so I can spend like 2 weeks finishing my April Fools chapters.
As such, January had that cleaning up chapter, the Argland chapter, and now Slane. February should have the wilderness, Baharuth, and the first Re-Estisize chapter. Then March should have the last Re-Estisize chapter, then the epilogue for this arc, and then just waiting for April Fools.
Kind of ambitious, especially considering I'm still writing Manifest Destiny during all of this, and those 6 chapters will probably somehow combine into a total of 35k words somehow, not counting my April Fools chapter already has nearly 4k words poured into it, so that chapter will likely end up with 10k words total combining with the Manifest Destiny April Fools chapter that I have to do at the same time.
Maybe I can somehow fit 4 chapters in a month to give me as much time as possible for April…
But would I burn out?
Nah, I'd write.
Also, this is the first chapter where the OC main character's name isn't mentioned.
I only noticed I mentioned her twice halfway through writing, so I decided to just go all in and deleted her from this chapter.
I'm going to be finishing making the NPC bios for the next chapter, so consider that whole thing done.
Personally, I'm pretty excited when some of those NPCs make debuts. I think they'll make a memorable impression on people.
Speaking of impressions, should I change the description or the tags on this fic? Because I haven't really paid much attention to them since I wrote them a few months ago.
Since then, a lot of things were written, and the main meat of the story, the 41 Supreme Beings of Ainz Ooal Gown Vs the 72 Lords of Seraphim isn't even hinted at in the tags or description. I feel like that might be something people looking at this fic would want to know about.
Though, I have no idea how I would write that. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to comment about it.