“Gregor! Watch out for the demonic monkeys!” → Lissa
Lissa shouted at Gregor which was defending the Northern wall. Different kind of beasts invaded and between them, there were some which could crawl on walls with no difficulty, even if they were full of spikes.
Lissa would form hundreds of fire-arrows, looking almost like Tara in damage but not in such monstrous numbers. Tara looked more like a mini-gun, killing dozens of beasts in seconds while Lissa was more like a one-man army of archers, creating volleys of fire-arrows one after the other.
“Hmph! [Earth Set: Stone Fangs]!” → Gregor
Gregor stepped hard on the wall, making it form new huge spikes which impaled the beasts that tried to get on top of the wall.
“I got this.” → Gregor
Gregor answered confidently then looked at the wall from behind and his eyes reddened.
“SOMEONE ON THE WEST WALL! NOW!”
Everyone was shocked. They looked at their backs and saw more than a dozen demonic gorillas and monkeys on top of the wall, and even more were still crawling on to the top. If the demonic beasts entered the fortress, the ones who couldn’t fight, injured, elderly, children or passed out from exhaustion, were in danger to be killed.
“What the hell is Ken doing?!” → Ronald
Ronald who just woke up from the noises shouted, preparing himself for combat.
(Ken = Kenaz3KenazAn Elder Futharks rune which, in this novel represents only \"torch\" and \"vision\". Appearance: Looks like a < and is normally written on stone, wood or even bone.)
The demonic beasts rushed inside the fortress when.
“[Illuminate!]”
A blinding light suddenly appeared, stopping the demonic beasts and making them cover their eyes. While everyone was blinded by the light, 2 shadows rushed in and going beside every demon from inside and on top of the walls, cutting their throats like experienced assassins.
For 3 seconds the blinding light shone, every demonic beast inside the fortress was dead on the ground while the ones on the wall were stopped by some kind of binding.
“…I don’t know who you lot are, but we’ll talk later. For now, thank you for the timely intervention.” → Gregor
Gregor said while rushing on the West wall, impaling the tied demons on the wall.
“Eh?”
When he looked in front of the wall, he saw Kenaz with his group of golems, killing the last demonic-beasts that wished to retreat.
[They said they wish to help so I left the wall to them.] → Kenaz
Kenaz said with a neutral voice when he saw the questioning look on Gregor’s eyes.
“Sigh…” → Gregor
He didn’t even know what to say about this.
What if they were enemies? I need to discipline this artificial fire-cat. → Gregor
“Ronald, feel free to go ba-…” → Gregor
Before he could finish, he saw Ronald on the ground, sleeping with no care in the world. At this sight, Gregor muted while with a plain face, he carried him back in his room.
After everything was done, the warriors rushed to collect the valuable items from the dead beasts, helped by the golems while Ryu, Bonny, Tara, Gregor and Lissa, invited the trio in the middle tower where they could talk in private.
“…”
The trio was pressured by the 5 people in front of them. They saw them fighting and every single one of them was stronger than any elite they knew, especially the trio of Ryu, Tara and Bonny.
They are comparable to our leader!
Their backs turned cold and their foreheads started to sweat.
“Sigh… Please calm down. You 3 helped us when we needed the most, making us indebted. No need to be so afraid.” → Gregor
Gregor said with a calm voice while looking at the 3 with a relaxed expression.
“Gregor is right. Please be at easy.” → Ryu
Ryu turned around and asked Bonny with a smiling face.
“Please bring some tea for our guests.” → Ryu
“Sure.” → Bonny
“I’ll go and help~.” → Tara
After Bonny and Tara left, everyone focused on the three sudden guests.
“Now, how come you 3 children came to our humble homes~? I can see you’re able to defend yourselves but still, this place is too dangerous for you three~.” → Lissa
Lissa smiled and looked at the 3 with her red, dragon-like eyes, making them more nervous. Seeing them like this, Lissa felt like laughing out loud.
“Giggle.” → Lissa
“Stop teasing them, Lissa. Are you a devil?” → Gregor
Gregor asked a stupid question, he knew the best how much of a devil Lissa could be so he dragged her by his side when she then caressed his head and the fur on his neck.
“Hahaha~ well, I’m curious as for why you are here, too. Is it for finding out why no beasts are rushing through this valley?” → Ryu
Ryu asked with a calm face.
The trio relaxed a bit after seeing their friendly demeanor. The wolf then talked first.
“Y-yes. We were sent by our leader to find out why no beasts are rushing through these parts of the borders while the other parts are swarmed by them, killing and decimating everything.” → Wolf
“Leader? Not king?” → Ryu
Ryu was surprised by how they referred to their superior.
“Hmph! We listen to no king! We are an independent clan! We are from the Fire Wing Clan! The strongest Clan from the Southern parts of Nostrung!” → Wild-Cat Woman
The wildcat young woman said while pushing her chest in front, feeling proud of her clan.
“We are players and we wish to unite the other clans of players to build the biggest clan on the Nostrung continent! We want to stop the war between the two continents and free the kingdoms from under the tyranny of the empires!” → Wild-Cat Woman
“Y-yeah! We already have around 1000 members and 500 of them are at the borders, waiting for the waves of beasts. We wanted to farm as many items from the waves of beasts as possible. We need money to arm up our tops. We rushed here to investigate only to be sure nothing worse awaited to come. But seeing how it was a newly built fortress, I think we can relax for now. And if you allow us, we can help you in defending the place only for the fur and meat from the demons.” → Fairy
The fairy said with some light in his eyes.
“…I see… uniting the players and freeing the kingdoms, what a noble dream you have there.” → Ryu
Ryu said with a smile that wasn’t really a smile. The wildcat woman felt something wrong while the fairy’s smile disappeared slowly.
Have I said something wrong? → Fairy
“T-then! Will you help us? With your powers, we might be able to unite every player and then-” → Wolf
The wolf young man was the only one who didn’t detect anything wrong. But shortly after, he was interrupted by Gregor’s cold voice.
“Young man… A noble dream is nothing but a dream if it’s handled by corrupted people.” → Gregor
“W-what do you mean?” → Wolf
The wolf asked a little bit frightened by the sudden change.
Ryu then continued Gregor’s words with some more explications.
“Think about it. How many people will need to die for your leader’s dream? Be them allies or enemies. Conquering an empire or kingdom also means killing the innocents, the ones who are fighting to protect their own homes. Besides that, everyone would wish some kind of reward for their services, no? This is a “game” after all. Have you ever watched movies with a medieval thematic? How the soldiers robbed the houses and raped the women, the generals using this as their “rewards”? That was the most realistic part in those movies.” → Ryu
Ryu asked with a cold smile on his face. He had the ankle of his right leg resting on the left knee, looking like a king with golden eyes.
“If you’re trying to be heroes then I can only applaud your sincere hearts but I can’t ignore the naïve part either.” → Ryu
“T-there’s no way our people would do that!” → Wolf
The wolf stood up with a furious face, looking indignant at Ryu.
“But how are you so sure? You mean to say that nobody from your clan had shown signs of greed? Or wish for more power? You mean you, yourself don’t want riches, power or women which you could take your time?” → Ryu
“I-I…” → Wolf
The wolf was embarrassed, just before leaving he said he wished some kind of reward for helping them, being okay with the idea of letting some people die only so he could get even more, making Ryu and the others more desperate. He felt really ashamed of himself now.
“In this world, there is no clear jurisdiction like on Earth, and the strong make the rules.” → Ryu
Ryu said while getting up and walking in front of the wolf young man. Ryu was taller with a head, looking downwards at him in an imposing way.
“For players who tasted power for the first time in their lives, this world is one with no rules, being able to do whatever they wish as long as they don’t offend someone stronger than them. These players your leader wishes to unite, are more than 80% corruptible people, whom on Earth dreamed for amazing powers or for some kind of event happening in their boring lives. Now their dreams became true. They got powers which they have no control over and are not prepared to use, being controlled by it, doing whatever their instincts order them. The noble dream is only another form of hell under a pretty disguise.” → Ryu
“N-no way… thud.” → Wolf
The wolf fell on the couch, his eyes showing despair. He tried to negate what he heard but more memories flashed in his head, showing exactly what Ryu said, people that were super excited about their powers, their eyes shining with insanity and greed. He started remembering how some made vulgar jokes about how they’ll go and “taste” some village women from a nearby village. The wolf ignored them, thinking they were just joking, now feeling despair at the thoughts that they might have actually really kidnapped women and raped them while nobody knowing.
“WOAAAAAHHH!!!!” → Wolf
The wolf screamed in terror, holding his head while tears fell from his eyes.
“N-no way…i-it can’t be real…” → Fairy
The little fairy started to tear while the wildcat woman looked in void with big eyes, as if thinking about what she just heard. Her fur started to rise, fear then twisted her face and she tried to hide her face from shame, remembering similar experiences as her companion.
Bonny then enters the room. She heard what Ryu said and slightly nodded her head. She already knew such things from Shen who made sure to make them aware of the responsibilities they have together with the power they got. She placed the tea in front of everyone and then said.
“It’s good that you understand. No need to despair now, you did nothing to feel like this. Please calm yourselves by tasting this tea. I made it especially to calm the nerves.” → Bonny
Bonny smiled beautifully at the little party who had pale faces and red eyes.
They looked at the cups of tea for a while. Only after 1 minute did the wolf guy take the cup and started to take little sips. Only after this have the others followed.
After 5 minutes of drinking tea in silence, the trio calmed down then looked with sadness downwards. The fairy then looked up and asked Ryu.
“Sir…er…” → Fairy
He still didn’t know his name so he stopped in embarrassment.
“Call me Ryu.” → Ryu
“Sir Ryu… You talked about players as if you know them well. Have you meet them before and got disappointed?” → Fairy
The fairy asked while looking saddened at him.
“I am a player myself.” → Ryu
Ryu said with a plain voice, only now remembering that he forgot to actually introduce himself.
“Pfff!”
The wolf and wildcat spit the tea at each other, making themselves drip with tea.
“Cough cough! T-then! If you’re a player like us, why did you say all that just now? Are you going against your own origin?” → Fairy
“Because, as a player, I can tell the consequences from getting power while unprepared. I was blinded by my own powers too, at one point.” → Ryu
Ryu remembered when he felt excitement while fighting like a wild beast, almost losing reasoning when he turned into a dragon.
The trio looked with surprised eyes at Ryu, not being able to comment anything.
“Hmm. Black Fang, since when did you become so talkative?” → Bonny
Bonny said with a laugh after recognizing the wolf-man.
The trio got up from their seats in a panic after hearing one of them being called out by their Ingame Name.
We haven’t said our names yet! Why does she know about one of us?!
They then looked closer at Bonny and their jaws dropped
“What, have the 3 of you already forgotten about me?” → Bonny
Bonny giggled after seeing their stunned faces.
“B-Bonny? Is it you?!”
The trio wasn’t able to identify Bonny till now because, they either looked down or at the those who talked, Bonny being mostly away from the room till now.
“Exactly~, so you remember me. How is that idiotic Gario doing? Still searching for humanoid boss-fields?” → Bonny
Bonny asked with a smile that wasn’t really a smile. She was truly mad at Gario since back then, because of him, she almost became enemies with the one who saved the world.
“H-he’s alright… Wait! By the humanoid boss-field, you mean the legendary player Shen?!” → Wolf
The wolf looked with sparkles in his eyes.
“Pff!” → Ryu
It was Ryu’s turn to spit the tea this time. Even Gregor, Bonny and Lissa looked with dumbfounded faces at Black Fang.
“Cough… Excuse me but…can you please tell me more about this?…Hehehe…” → Ryu
Ryu tried to hold back his laughter but failed tragically, making the others look at him in confusion or with a plain face.
This Shen, even on the other part of the continent he’s still surprising me again and again, hehe~. I want to see his face when he’ll hear this. → Ryu
“Shen is a player who fought 20 to 1 and won without any scratch on himself. Everyone who fought him said he looked like a deity! His pressuring aura, the incredible spells, the god-like appearance, everything about him surpassed what normal players could do. Everyone said he’s a myth, but the 20 warriors that fought him insisted on his existence, showing their broken bones with some pride. They heard some epic speech from Shen, igniting the will to live and being fired up to become stronger. Now the 20 people are on the top ranks inside our clan, Gario included, making everyone to believe in the existence of this “Shen”.” → Wild-Cat Woman
The wildcat woman explained with a shine in her eyes.
Everyone was dumbfounded with the exception of Bonny and Tara.
“Waah~. Sir Shen really is awesome! As expected for the one who’s mister Ryu’s friend.” → Tara
Tara said while smiling brightly.
“Indeed, his speech was like a slap to the face. Making everyone wake up to the harsh reality and try their hardest to live.” → Bonny
Bonny said while sighing. Feeling spirited every time she remembered that imposing aura and wild appearance Shen had at that time.
