Chapter 71 - The Trial Spheres of Partition
Beginner fields, newbie areas, tutorial maps, and so on. Among the veteran players, these map groups are ultimately so unimpressive that their names aren't even consistent. However, they do actually have an official name given by the developers.
That name is, drumroll please, [The Trial Spheres of Partition]—seriously, the word choice, the sense. First of all, how do you even read that last four-character compound? Please add some phonetic guides.
It's no wonder people call them whatever they want, but I have to object to the strange assessment that these areas are “unimpressive.”
Insanely vast fields, powerful monsters that are truly alive and attacking you, and then there are the ‘outliers’ that sit in secluded regions, a cut above even the bosses.
As the one who once dropped an incendiary bomb on the official forums out of ignorance, I'm trying to restrain myself, but I was once again thinking, “What are you seniors even talking about, haha.”
—The warm-up meadow… I mean, the boar paradise, Area 1, [Plains of the Horizon].
—The labyrinth of rock faces, Area 2, [Rocky Wasteland].
—The sky bridge where the ‘White’ lurks, Area 3, [Cliff Road of the Sky Bridge].
—And the stronghold of our nemesis, Area 4, [Great Flowing Sand Cavern].
Even setting aside the truly secret [Buried Labyrinth of Forgetfulness] that followed, both Sora and I shared the understanding that we had experienced some very intense adventures in every sense of the word up to this point.
Naturally, we tackled the game's design, which became more vicious—er, tastefully bad… let's say, tricky? with each new stage, with a mix of fifty percent anticipation and fifty percent worry, slathered in a sauce of curiosity.
Eh? Why does that sound like it's in the past tense?
Well, just wait. I'm about to unveil the glorious ‘next chapter’ of the clichéd “After overcoming a battle to the death, our adventure has just begun!”—in three lines.
Area 5, [Bioluminescent Underground Lake]—Instakill.
Area 6, [Inverted Fire-Plug Canopy]—Instakill.
Area 7, [Spiral of Ordeal]—Instakill.
I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about, but we understood perfectly, clearly, and completely what had happened.
In other words, it was that thing—tee-hee, we over-leveled a bit.
"Ehh…"
Right before Sora's eyes, who was bewildered with a reaction uncharacteristic of her, the thing that was the boss monster crumbled into pieces, as if saying “My job here is done,” and made a swift exit as ash.
Just before that happened, it let out some kind of grandiose death cry, went through the classic dying monster final boss move of writhing violently right before expiring, was engulfed in a torrent of blindingly bright energy that burst from within its body, and this mysterious slime-like amorphous boss (which provides a variety of combat experiences by transforming into different forms!) has now met its end, but…
"Man, that was an epic boss battle befitting the finale of the beginner fields."
"That was a textbook monotone delivery…"
I'm doing it on purpose. Three-minute cooking? You've got to be kidding me. Excluding the grand entrance that was meant to be super creepy, the fight was probably less than half that time.
By the way, this area, which is apparently the finale of the beginner fields, was a single-boss-only type with no mobs along the way, so the time spent fighting it equals the clear time.
We're first-timers here, you know? We had no intention of being speedrunners, okay???
To add insult to injury, this battle was Sora solo. The moment she charged in with gusto and her first attack completely wiped out one of the boss's HP bars, I had a feeling and calmly sheathed my weapon.
Instead of having ten flimsy layers, could you maybe make each one a bit denser? Is your HP bar made of puff pastry or something?
Because of the ridiculous situation, Sora held back and adopted a “don't attack while it's transforming” mindset, which resulted in me witnessing a brutal execution video of new form reveal -> appeal time -> sliced in half -> repeat nine times.
It perfectly established the dynamic of a mob bravely challenging a player who was just messing around, and I felt like I saw a tear glisten in the corner of the mysterious slime's eye as it kept up its relentlessly robotic attacks… As someone who chose to spectate, I couldn't help but shed a tear. Where's the corner of a slime's eye, anyway?
If I were to defend it on one point, I think its sixth form's fish-like all-range simultaneous scale explosion attack would have probably one-shotted me if I were alone and up close. Nice guts!
Well, thanks to a certain broken skill, Sora has become flawless in both offense and defense, so she finished the fight without taking any damage from start to finish.
"Somehow, this feels… anticlimactic, doesn't it?"
Her magic sword operating style, which she solidified during the [Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King] battle, remains unchanged, so Sora, still in her light armor and a single ring during non-combat, turned to me with a troubled look.
It is anticlimactic, I guess, but to be honest, I pretty much expected this outcome one hundred percent.
"That's because you've completely become a balance breaker, Sora-san."
"So that thing really is bad, isn't it…"
Oh yeah, it’s bad. So bad that even Sora, who has always called my playstyle unconventional, is intimidated by it. Simply put, its direct convenience and threat level would easily surpass even the infamous 《Scareless》.
You might wonder what kind of skill could be crazier than a buff that boosts you by 30 levels, but it really does have some insane specs, so there's nothing to be done.
Specifically, it has enough power to beat down the early-game final boss (early-game final boss???) in under two minutes.
That skill is called 《Optimize Alert》. You can't guess what it does from the name at all, but its effect is simple and easy to understand, both visually and performance-wise—
◇Confirmation of all stages of [The Trial Spheres of Partition] completed◇
"Oh, the usual… or is it?"
Along with the familiar bell-like sound, a system log window appeared in my vision. I thought it was the usual boss-slain announcement, but it seemed to be something different.
◇Calculating comprehensive evaluation of progress through all stages—Evaluation value calculation complete◇
"Um, what is this…?"
"Uh, well…"
In parallel with the unknown announcement, the celestial arena-like field left behind after the boss's remains completely vanished began to change.
Well, celestial, or maybe space? It was a field like a disc-shaped platform floating in a starry space… but the countless stars that had been floating around it began to fly about frantically in some kind of mechanical orbit.
It's probably, or rather, definitely a “Congratulations on graduating from the tutorial!” type of event progression. The reason the two of us are standing here with our mouths agape, feeling a sense of suddenness… is simply because we over-strengthened our avatars and cleared what should have been an epic battle to the death without any trouble at all.
Including that, I'm well aware that we've messed up quite a bit on our way here, so maybe we can expect something good from this evaluation value they've calculated for us.
◇Evaluation value [S] has been acquired◇
See? This has to be the highest evaluation—
◇Executing level maximization according to evaluation regulations◇
"Huh?"
"Say what?"
Ignoring our confused voices at the sudden declaration, the light of a level-up, which we had seen many times before, enveloped our bodies.
It was a golden light effect, even deeper than the gold we were used to seeing. As if cued by that brilliance—the familiar mountain of system logs finally piled up after the boss fight.
◇You have cleared [Spiral of Ordeal]◇
◇You have cleared [The Trial Spheres of Partition]◇
◇You have acquired titles◇
・『Reacher』
・『One Body and Soul』
・『Guide』
・『World Opener』
◇You have acquired a skill◇
・Telepathy
――――――――――――――――――
◇Status◇
Name：Haru
Lv：85→100(150)
STR(Strength)：140
AGI(Agility)：500(+10)
DEX(Dexterity)：200(+10)
VIT(Vitality)：5
MID(Mental)：5
LUC(Luck)：50
◇Skill◇
・All-Weapon Aptitude
《Blink Switch》
《Piercing Dart》
・《Quit Counter》
・《Floating Leaf》
・Embodied Protection
・Heavy Attack Manipulator
・Combo Accelerate
・Fleet-Footed
・Swallow's Flight
・Fataless Jumper
・Rhino's Heart
・Guardian's Cradle
・Telepathy New!
――――――――――――――――――
◇Level cap reached◇
・Status Remake system has been unlocked.
・Skill Delete system has been unlocked.
◇Affection value conditions have been met◇
・Partner System has been unlocked.
How do you read that, I wonder. I don't know either.
How is that possible?