NOVEL FROG Chapter 62: It is how it is…
Time to start the Meth busting. Wandering aimlessly around the ruined village of Akahram, Sanae and I are on the lookout for Meths to break and take their cores.
I have toggled my Night Walker skill off to increase the encounter rate of monsters and Sanae and I have turned our Lamp Bugs off, as Lampy is now resting elegantly on my chest while Sanae's Lamp Bug rests in her inventory.
"Akatsuki, are you doing well?"
"I can't see **** in this darkness." Sanae replied, as she doesn't have a skill that works like my Night Vision skill.
Therefore, we are currently holding hands in order not to get separated from each other. But after an hour, I'm sure that will no longer be necessary since by then, Sanae would have acquired her own version of the Night Vision skill.
And even if she can't see, her summons can.
Thus currently, our team formation is having Bane as vanguard, Sanae and I in the middle guard, and Sanae's other summons as the rearguard surrounding us in an U-pattern to safeguard us, or Sanae in particular, should any monsters appear.
I call it, The Queen's Guard formation, where Sanae is the "Queen" while the rest of us are her "Guards".1A/N: Yoru is Queen too, just so you know.
The golem monsters would continuously appear before us as we fought. From one wave after another, they just keep coming.
This is more difficult than the time when I first started playing this game and fought waves of Scrowlers on my first day.
The Meths are magic resistant as I've stated many times before already, so most of the damage dealt was actually done by Bane and the rest of Sanae's summon. But Bane is mostly the one pulling the weight because of his level being leagues higher than the other summons.
However, our progress is slow.
Each Meth killed does not guarantee us that their core will drop. Because of that, after thirty minutes of most of the work to Bane and the summons, Sanae and I have only collected 17 Meth cores out of 50.
"Hey Yoru, it seems like more are showing up again." Sanae called out to me.
As I replied, "Yes, I can see that."
"Well, I can't!" She snapped back.
Then, another battle occurred after the next as I supported the summoned crew with my spells.
"Geez... They just won't stop coming, huh?"
"Yup. That's the effect of not having your Lamp Bug's lights on. You'll get overwhelmed by a huge number of enemies, but it's easier grinding EXP if you can handle them."
"I see. That's good and all, but I don't think my summons are able to hold on much longer. Especially Bane who has been carrying us this entire time."
"Is that so? Well then, we'll just need more Banes to fix that, won't we?"
"Wait, what? What do you mea—"
I aimed my staff right at Bane and used my skill, "Multi-Mirror Make!" on him.
As a result, Bane multiplied.
He looked confused and surprised at first. But the Centibane understood the assignment quickly and wreaked havoc on our enemies with his clones. Screeching with joy and excitement as they smashed those Meths into pieces.
Hah! How do you like that, stupid golems?
"Hey Yoru, I don't know if it's the darkness or just me. But I'm seeing multiple Banes fighting right now."
"Did you not hear me say, Multi-Mirror Make?"
"I did. You used it on yourself, right?"
Sanae asked, as I simply stared at her in response.
"You used it on yourself... right?" She asked again, with a more reserved tone this time.
I gave her silence again, however, which answered Sanae's question perfectly as she asked me next.
"You can use that skill on others?"
"On myself, monsters that aren't bosses, and other players according to what the skill states... or didn't state."
"That's a bit too broken, ain't it?"
"It is what it is."
It's likely that this skill will get patched somehow once the devs caught wind of it. But until then, I'm going to have fun with it.
The squad of Banes proceed to take all of the workload for themselves, allowing us and the rest of Sanae's summons to rest while he has his fun.
"Bane is just great, ain't he?"
"Yeah... Also, I'm wondering..." Sanae then states her thoughts. "If you can use your Multi-Mirror Make skill on others, what happens if you were to use that skill on yourself and then use that skill again on Bane simultaneously?"
At that moment, I looked at Sanae and wondered that myself.
Crap. Now that Sanae suggested it, I have to try it out myself.
"Multi-Mirror Make."
I first casted the skill on myself. Making the clones of Bane disappear, whereby me and my clones then aimed our staves at him and used it at the same time.
"""Multi-Mirror Make!"""
And then, chaos ensued.
"""""SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!""""
"What in the world am I looking at?"
"I don't know. You tell me."
The squad turned into an army, as the Banes continued to destroy every Meths that showed up to the fray in seconds. And it continued so until Sanae got her racial version of the Night Vision skill which is also called Night Vision. She had also levelled up to level 20, while I to level 25.
I guess it's because our characters are both of the Elven races.
She also acquired Night Walker because of the constant encounters and now, Bane is just finishing up with the remaining Meths in battle, since we've acquired the necessary amount of Meth cores due to his efforts.
And so, while Sanae and I toggle our Night Walker skills on, Bane finished off the last T-Meth, as he and his clones ran up to me afterwards, begging for praises and headpats.
"Good job. Thank you for your work, buddy."
I dispelled the Mirror Make clones of Bane and patted the real one, who screeched with joy receiving my praise.
Then I turned to Sanae. "Now then, let's head back to Mavis, shall we?"
"Of course."
Sanae called back Bane and the rest of her summons into their respective summoning orbs as she then moved to my side and embraced my arm with hers, wanting us to walk back together.
"Should we bring out our Lamp Bugs?"
"Nah. It's alright. I can see in this darkness now thanks to the new skill I've just acquired. Besides, your Lampy looks like he's enjoying himself in your chest."
"I see. Then let's walk in the darkness."
And together, without letting go of my arm, we head back to the house where Mavis is to complete part two of the Chain Quest.
"Here you go."
Sanae and I handed the cores to her upon returning.
"Amazing! You've collected the amount I requested. And very quickly too!" Mavis happiness and humbly received the cores from us and immediately brought out some tools from who knows where.
"Now please, give me a moment while I analyse these cores." She said, cracking open one of them. "In the meantime, can I ask you to play with Lily until I'm done?" She then asked us, prompting a new quest notification window to pop up.
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Chain Quest: [The Ruined Village & The Alchemist Pt. 2]
Objective: Collect 50 Meth Cores for Mavis. (Cleared!)
Reward: [5,000 gold], [200 standard HP Potions], [200 standard MP Potions]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Initiating Chain Quest: [The Ruined Village & The Alchemist Pt. 3]
Objective: Play with Lily while waiting for Mavis to be done.
Do you accept? [Yes] / [No]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upon receiving the new quest objective, Sanae and I looked at each other as we thought of the same thing.
"Akatsuki..."
"Yoru..."
""This is the best quest ever!""
"Woof!"
🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
Meanwhile in the real world...
The time is around three in the afternoon.
Hikari has just returned home with Himeji in toll.
"We're back!" Hikari yelled out. However, she was only answered with silence.
"Bro and Sis Sanae must still be playing UFO." Hikari immediately concluded.
"Big Sister Sanae has a Dive Gear?" Himeji then asked, hearing about that for the first time.
"Oh yeah. I didn't tell you that, did I?" Hikari said, as she had spent the whole journey back from the mall, apologizing to Himeji for taking her first kiss unexpectedly.
"Sis apparently bought it after her first stayover at our house. I guess she must have felt lonely being left out while Bro, you and I were playing UFO together."
"I see. So that means the four of us can play together now then?"
"Yes, we can! But first, let's take a look at this Starlight Fashion magazine I bought featuring my brother on the front cover, shall we?"
Hikari took out the magazine with excitement, as she has been wanting to read it in the comfort of her home ever since she saw and bought it.
She'd also planned on showing it to her brother, but that's for later.
"Y-Yes! I've been wanting to read that ever since you showed it to me." Himeji expressed the same feeling.
And so, the two girls went up to Hikari's room to read it... slowly.
"Oh wow..."
"This is..."
Their expectations of the book went beyond what they thought it would be. Particularly on how Yoruto was showcased in it, wearing the various clothes designed by the company.
"You know, Sis Sanae has actually shown me the clothes Bro wore since they were given to him as extra thanks for helping the company out. But seeing him wear it in here is just... wow."
"Hikari, is this really Big Brother Yoruto? He looks so stylish here."
"I know, right? Like, what the hell? Bro looks incredibly dashing. It's scary."
"Mion Takahashi also looks cute and pretty here, but..."
"But Bro definitely outshines her. My god, his appearance on the cover was just a teaser. The contents in the pages are just next level."
"Yeah..." Himeji then audibly swallowed her saliva, which Hikari seemed to have caught on.
"Do you need some water, Himeji? You're looking kinda thirsty."
"Huh? Ah, oh... Umm... yes please..." Himeji embarrassingly answered, realising that she was practically drooling over her best friend's brother in a fashion magazine.
Hikari then went and came back with a cup of ice-cold juice for Himeji to quench her thirst.
Once she had passed the cup of juice to Himeji, Hikari took the magazine away, deeming it as too dangerous for the untrained eyes to look at. Thus stashing the forbidden grimoire away in her super secret compartment that her brother toootally does not know about; under the bed frames.
Afterwards, the girls decided to play on Hikari's laptop as Himeji had left her Dive Gear back at her house. Booting up a fun little online game from about two decades ago of their current time which the both of them enjoyed.
It was a flash game. Anyone feeling old yet?
