The Gold of the Kunie Read online

  You could say that organizing parties was the first tough problem in raids.

  The basic idea when putting them together was the members’ classes. For example, the warrior in the First party—in other words, the main tank—would have to draw attacks from the strongest monsters to themselves at all times, throughout the entire raid. To that end, they needed the highest possible defense abilities, high-level HP, and the ability to attract monsters’ aggro with the strongest taunts. The only class to fulfill all these requirements was Guardian. Samurai was another potential candidate, but when you took the presence or absence of shield equipment into consideration, Guardians were more stable.

  However, this was just a general theory.

  When the participating Samurai had a higher level than the Guardian, or when the quality of their equipment was better, this wasn’t necessarily true. In addition, the personalities of the Adventurer acting as the main tank had an even greater influence than their equipment or level. Since tanks were at the very center of raids and had to take enemy attacks for an extended period, the position carried a heavy burden. Techniques were necessary, of course, but so were strength of will and bonds with the defender’s companions. Even among Guardians, there were Adventurers whose minds tended to focus on attacking, and who didn’t like guiding or protecting their compatriots. Those were better suited to being in command, or to being active in the Third or Fourth attacking parties, than to being tanks.

  In short, organizing parties that would participate in a raid was a difficult puzzle in which you couldn’t discover the best combinations unless you carefully considered not only class and level, but the personalities of all the participants. The weak points and actions varied depending on the monster you were fighting, and when you considered countermeasures for those as well, there were innumerable answers. It was a tough problem that had worried commanders for twenty years.

  Shiroe guessed that this was the reason William had chosen to travel overland: so that he could grasp the personalities and habits of the new members and refer to that information when forming the actual parties.

  I doubt this is going to help him much, though.

  Shiroe, who’d thought this, had been put in charge of the Second party.

  Its members were:

  Shiroe the Enchanter.

  Naotsugu the Guardian.

  Tetora the Cleric.

  Voinen, a Druid.

  Federico, a Swashbuckler.

  Demiquas the Monk.

  Voinen and Federico were Silver Sword veterans, and they’d given Shiroe a much friendlier welcome than he’d expected.

  The problem, naturally, was Demiquas. Every time a battle began, he leapt out faster than anyone else in the party, crushing monsters as if venting his anger on them. The monsters’ average levels were between 30 and 40. Demiquas was level 93, and the fact that he could tear through them like rice paper was only to be expected. However, you couldn’t see either personality or teamwork that way.

  Shiroe had spoken to him a few times, attempting to reprimand him, but Demiquas only gave short, threatening responses, and it wasn’t possible to have a conversation.

  “There’s no point in rushing things.”

  As Voinen spoke to him, he wore an amiable expression.

  “It would be nice if we managed to finish up before the year’s out.”

  In a way, Voinen’s thought was only natural.

  In the first place, raids weren’t the sort of problem you could break through in a day once you’d tackled them. Even in his recollections of the Elder Tales days, there had been countless normal (albeit raid-rank) monsters and between five and ten boss monsters to a single raid zone. If they weren’t careful, even normal monsters could wipe them out. With boss monsters, usually a party would feel out their abilities while getting annihilated dozens of times, then finally find a way through to win.

  When they got wiped out in raid zones, they wouldn’t be sent back to the Temple in a player town. They’d revive at the entrance to the zone. The zone entrance functioned as the same sort of resurrection area as the Temple.

  Even if they got annihilated, they could tackle the zone again from the entrance, but the number of attempts would probably be a large one. Thinking it would take about a month was valid.

  As if to support Voinen’s remark, on William’s instructions, Shiroe had laid in more than a month’s worth of provisions and consumables. Not content with this, cautious Shiroe had stuffed his Magic Bag to its limit with a variety of materials and tools, and as a result, they’d probably be able to hole up in the zone they were capturing for about two months.

  That would be convenient in terms of giving their watchers the slip as well, he thought. Susukino was remote and sparsely populated, but it was still a player town. It was likely that they’d be noticed. If it was possible for them to lie low in an undiscovered zone, that would probably be safer. Shiroe didn’t know exactly how far they could rely on that, but…

  All that said, he didn’t want to take a lot of time.

  Even if they were holed up somewhere, the longer it took, the greater the danger of an information leak. In the first place, if Shiroe’s prediction was correct, their watchers weren’t the sort who could be shaken by simply switching zones. Nyanta and Akatsuki were creating an alibi for him back in Akiba, but even then, he didn’t know how well it would work. As a result, he wanted to settle this as quickly as possible.

  In the midst of Shiroe’s anxiety, he noticed traces of loneliness within himself.

  “That’s odd,” he murmured, scratching his cheek with his index finger.

  He’d only spent six months there, but he missed his guild home, nestled in that ancient tree. He wanted to be in the dining room with the fragrant wood flooring Michitaka had made for them, listening to everyone’s cheerful voices. He wanted to drink roasted green tea on the veranda, out in the gentle wind, as he watched the evening sun. For that to happen, he had to make this mission a success. He was a guild master now, Shiroe thought, psyching himself up.

  “Wow?!”

  When Shiroe glanced in the direction of the weird cry, Tetora was looking at him, her eyes round.

  “What, what’s up?”

  “Shiroe smiled! He was smiling to himself; I saw him!”

  “Well, yeah, he smiles.”

  “Really?! I’d never seen it before…”

  The perpetrators of this incredibly rude dialogue were Naotsugu and Tetora.

  “Shiro’s, y’know… He’s moody, see.”

  “Oh. I see… Poor Shiroe. Want to see my panties?”

  “You’re an idol. You can’t show him those willingly.”

  “I wouldn’t show him. I just asked. I was only curious. If I were going to show them, I’d pretend it was an unavoidable accident. Then I’d report whoever saw them.”

  “You really are the worst idol ever.”

  “Oh, stop. Naotsugu. Even if you fall for me all over again, I can never belong to just one person, you know.”

  Their combination, which left no room for anyone else to get a word in, startled Shiroe. Before his very eyes, Naotsugu barked, “I’m not falling for you” at Tetora, and Tetora clung to Naotsugu, saying, “Only a tsundere would say something that cold. I’m going to climb you.”

  They really must have hit it off.

  As he watched, even Shiroe forgot his annoyance at the rude words and began to feel oddly entertained. Come to think of it, it was only the second day since they’d met. It was only natural that she hadn’t seen him smile; they knew practically nothing about each other.

  Tetora, who’d apparently proceeded to say something that made Naotsugu mad, broke into a run, and the man took off after her. Shiroe didn’t attempt to stop them. Those two would probably be able to take down any monster they ran into in the dungeon with no trouble, and in any case, Demiquas had taken care of all the ones nearby.

  Even so, Shiroe did wave at them and call, “Be careful.” From behind him, a
voice spoke: “You people are seriously confident, aren’t you.”

  William was fully equipped, and he carried an enormous bow on his back. He came up alongside Shiroe, gazing ahead of them with a sharp expression.

  “They’re not confident so much as easygoing,” Shiroe answered.

  At those words, William seemed to smile wryly.

  Over the past few days, he’d come to understand that William’s sharp, wary expression didn’t actually reflect what he felt inside. The expression was his default, and it didn’t mean he was in a particularly bad mood. His small, ironic smile had no deeper meaning, either. It was just William’s usual face.

  A good raid commander had to grasp his members’ personalities and the direction they wanted to go. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to determine their party formation or disseminate orders properly.

  Meanwhile, the members of a raid also gradually got to know the raid commander who led them. If they just obeyed their commander’s orders, there was no point. They had to understand what the orders meant and the intent behind them, and then, for the first time, they’d gain the speed of response that was necessary to teamwork.

  Shiroe, who’d been entrusted with the leadership of the Second party, had consciously attempted to grasp William’s character, and as he did so, he’d learned that William thought about his guild members and those around him far more than anyone could have imagined from his habitually cross expression.

  In a way, that was only natural. If William didn’t have abilities on that level, he never would have been able to command Silver Sword, a combat guild that showed up on the server rankings.

  “He looks the same as always.”

  The fact that William’s gaze was turned toward the big man who was destroying a monster made the meaning of those vague words clear. True, in terms of the Second party’s teamwork, Demiquas was the only one out of step.

  “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  Shiroe felt apologetic, and the emotion showed through a little in his words. However, William smiled fearlessly, stroked his thin chin with his left hand as if pinching it, and squinted his sharp eyes as though there was a wry smile in them.

  “Still, he came to raid, too. He’ll learn. Even I and the other knuckleheads learned. If you don’t learn, you really can’t go any further.”

  Several pieces were missing from William’s words, and Shiroe wasn’t yet able to understand what he meant.

  5

  Three weeks had passed, and the party was in the middle of their capture.

  Their plans to aim for a month had crumbled easily, and the future had grown less and less clear. Even after three weeks, they’d only managed to defeat two bosses. They didn’t even have a grasp of the entire zone.

  The party’s atmosphere grew harsher and more fatigued.

  “Damn yoooooooou!”

  Inwardly cursing at Demiquas, who was doing the howling, Voinen desperately cast Heartbeat Healing. It set Demiquas’s HP to recover incrementally for twenty seconds. The green-and-orange pulse that surrounded the big warrior was the spell’s effect.

  Demiquas went from a rush—his specialty—to pounding the ochre-colored slime creature with middle-guard jabs.

  Lightning Straight. The full-force attack, which he’d leaned far forward to launch, punched through the mud-like enemy with incredible ease. However, Voinen came very close to screaming, That won’t work!

  Demiquas’s attack pierced the Orc Jelly’s body, scattering it with a sticky sound. The substance, which had splattered all over, gave off a foul stench and began to dissolve. White smoke was rising even from Demiquas, the one who’d launched the attack. Orc Jellies had powerfully acidic bodies, and attacking them at close range did great damage to the attacker as well. In spite of this, the enormous slime, which was over five meters, didn’t seem to be bothered all that much.

  “What did I tell you?!”

  Voinen began running toward his companion. The hot-blooded idiot’s charge had taken him outside the twenty-meter range in which recovery spells were effective. Heartbeat Healing, which he’d cast on Demiquas before, was continuing to recover his health, but it was nowhere near enough. Unless he maintained his HP by combining Instant Recovery and Small Recovery, Demiquas would go down again.

  Demiquas always fouled up their teamwork this way, and Voinen was irritated with him.

  From the drainage outlets on their right and left, new Orc Jellies appeared with weighty sounds.

  It was a melee.

  There were twenty-four members in this raid unit, led by William, whom Voinen followed. It was composed of four parties, but only the First and Second had defensive capabilities above a certain level. Because the First party was specialized toward defense and holding the enemy in place, it had to draw lots of Jellies on the frontline.

  The Third and Fourth parties were in charge of firepower, and their mission was to exterminate enemies. Their makeup emphasized defeating monsters, but their defensive abilities weren’t all that high. Their role was to swiftly dispatch the monsters the First party had attracted.

  That meant the role of the Second party, the one Voinen was part of, was to act as a mobile force.

  When more monsters appeared than the First party was able to hold back, their mission was to divide them up and immobilize them. When many enemies had launched a surprise attack on the raid unit, they had to protect the “softer” Third and Fourth parties from them.

  As you’d expect, the star of the raid was the First party, which faced off against the biggest, strongest enemies without giving an inch, but the Second held a tactically important position that required resourceful decisions and immediate responses. Unless all members understood the role their own party had to play, coordinated teamwork was difficult.

  They were being pursued by monsters that had ambushed them from both sides.

  The First party was projecting out onto the front line, which made it hard for them to turn back. Demiquas had gotten impatient with the slow-moving battle, and had charged their way, but encountering enemy reinforcements at that moment in time was highly dangerous. The enemy reinforcements had appeared on either side of the Third and Fourth parties, or in other words, the defenseless rear guard. The spellcasters, who had been performing long-range attacks, were particularly lightly equipped. If attacked, they’d go down easily.

  Hey, you’re in no shape to talk about other people!!

  As far as Voinen was concerned, he was running after Demiquas, who’d gotten too far ahead.

  Conscious of his feet, which seemed to be striking the ground much too slowly, he kept a wary eye on the translucent, dirty, gelatinous walls.

  This might be bad. Just as Voinen thought it, a mass of silver charged in from his right.

  “Anchor Howl!”

  With enough spirit to set his eardrums buzzing, the Guardian drew one of the Orc Jellies. It was Naotsugu, who was also from the Second party. Voinen had heard that the guild he was from was famous but small, and he was impressed for the umpteenth time. From his actions, Naotsugu was far more accustomed to raids than Voinen had expected.

  The monster, its repulsive body quivering, seemed to have locked on to the newcomer. Naotsugu held his shield up defensively; he probably understood that if he actively went on the attack, he’d get hit with an acid counterstrike, and the damage would increase. In terms of technique, the way he cleverly used taunting skills and his shield to keep the damage down might have been even better than Dinclon, the fellow Guardian who was Silver Sword’s full-time tank.

  The Jelly that had come up on the left, as if to catch Naotsugu in a pincer attack, stretched upward like swelling mochi, then stopped moving.

  He didn’t even have to hear Astral Hypno’s sharp chant to recognize the Enchanters’ hypnotic spell. A monster targeted by it would stop moving entirely, although for only about twenty seconds. Naturally, since it was “hypnosis,” inflicting even a little damage would undo the status and let it start
attacking again, but even so, being able to cut down on the number of enemies participating in a battle was an enormous help. Since this was a raid zone, the monsters that appeared were all beefed-up, large-scale enemies bent on confrontation, and the time they spent hypnotized was reduced to about four seconds. However, with even four seconds, it was easy to sprint past a stretched-out monster and reach the front line.

  “Enemy reinforcements; requesting support! Orc Jellies, direction of travel: eight o’clock!!”

  The voice of Shiroe, who’d cast the hypnosis spell, rang out.

  Obeying that call, the Third and Fourth attack parties changed their targets. The first to connect was Commander William’s Rapid Shot. Crystal arrows glittered like falling stars, opening fist-sized holes in the gigantic Orc Jelly’s side. Then an unbroken rain of flame, ice, and lightning magic attacks poured down.

  Without exception, raid monsters had stupendous HP. Even under concentrated attacks from ten people, it took a long time to finish one off. Naturally, the Orc Jelly that Shiroe had stopped in its tracks became active again, but in that four seconds, it was quite possible for a Guardian to store up aggro.

  Voinen saw a lightly equipped Cleric bounding around.

  The healer, whose name was Tetora or something like that, also had more combat experience than her appearance suggested. Her guild was Light Indigo, an insubstantial outfit he’d never heard of, but she seemed to have adapted to the raid in a week. Her equipment was light, in contradiction of the generally observed formula for Clerics, who were able to equip full-body armor. However, he sensed an uncommon instinct in the way she understood this and contrived ways to move around that didn’t expose her weak points.

  Tetora darted in and out with short, quick movements, again and again, scattering Reactive Heal around. Then, when the Orc Jelly contracted, compressing itself, she took advantage of the motion to hide behind Naotsugu. This was a player technique that used the Guardian’s powerful defense as a fortress to protect the other player from raid monsters’ powerful ranged attacks.