kscans

Chapter 141 - Kindred Spirits

A standard combat field in an MMORPG. Anyone who has played the genre would likely picture a similar scene.

A vast map—plains, forests, wastelands, mountains, even the bottom of the sea or above the clouds—and scattered across it, a multitude of cannon fodder (mobs).

Hunt them down, one after another, and a new horde of monsters respawns in their place. You spend your finite resource of time to acquire the infinite resources they generate... It's one of the defining pleasures of the MMO genre.

In that sense, you could say Arcadia isn't very MMO-like. After all, in this game, you'll rarely encounter a monster just by wandering around aimlessly.

There are special enemies like the [White-Shining Bird of Fortune (Stilac Elburd)] that I once farmed, which have somewhat fixed spawn locations.

But they are a tiny minority. Apparently, almost all monsters don't have set spawn points—in fact, their habitats can even shift depending on the situation.

A good example is the great forest surrounding the [Safe Area].

You'd think such a vast forest would be teeming with monsters—right? Surprisingly, that forest is almost completely empty.

Of course, it wasn't always that way. Long ago, the great forest... also known as 'The Great Forest,' was apparently home to a great many monsters.

And then—the moment players who had broken through the [Trial Spheres of Partition] reached the Great Bell Tower sunken in the heart of the forest, a grand conflict between the 'Pioneers' and the 'Natives' began.

Who was victorious? The answer is the current [Safe Area] and the silent great forest itself.

In other words, the numerous monsters decided, "Screw this, we can't deal with those freaks," and moved their homes.

As this example shows, Arcadia doesn't have clearly defined habitats or corresponding hunting grounds. Well, they exist, but they're more like vague guidelines: "If you go looking around here, you can probably hunt something." That's the reality of it.

If you gather your information properly, you're almost guaranteed to find them, so it doesn't devolve into a terrible game where "all monsters are rare enemies" that you can never encounter.

As for the issue of "Isn't it stressful not being able to fight constantly?"—

"—Sora, it's heading your way!"

"Which way is 'your way'!?"

"No, that's a clone! Three o'clock!!"

"What time is three o'clock!?"

"You're too confused, calm down!!"

—the enemies that appear in this Garden of Divine Creation are all tough, tricky foes, which fulfills the demand not with quantity, but with quality.

And the [Misty Snake] currently plunging us into a perfect vortex of pandemonium in this muddy swamp is no exception.

It disappears, it flees, it makes clones. To top it off, it blankets a wide area in a poison mist and then goes into full stealth (hide), making it an absolute pain to deal with, a true master of underhanded tactics.

I already have experience fighting it, so I decided to observe for now, letting Sora-san try it alone first—haha, she's panicking.

Surrounded by countless giant snakes (clones), my partner is having a minor panic attack, her eyes spinning as she retreats into a defensive barrier of magic swords.

A swarm of countless, tiny magic swords orbits her body at high speed.

There are too many to count, and though they're the size of pebbles, their power and weight are no less than that of a full-sized sword.

If I were to approach Sora right now, I'd be diced into mincemeat in an instant.

"Ugh..."

It's not that she's in any real danger. Her HP hasn't dropped by a single millimeter, but she's clearly at a loss for what to do.

When she cast a hesitant glance my way, my unconditional softness for Sora made me open my mouth without a second thought.

Still, it felt wrong to just mindlessly tell her to "just smash it," so I decided to offer a hint for the strategy instead.

"Sora, that thing can turn invisible. What you're seeing are basically all decoys."

There's no reason for it to reveal its true form among the decoys—and that is precisely what will be the undoing of this damn beast.

"And the clones don't have a physical body... no mass. But the real one, of course, does."

In other words, you shouldn't be looking at its 'form,' but—

"—I see!"

Exactly. The place where Sora's gaze landed, the end of the serpent's trail that its mass had carved into the mud.

Of course, the [Misty Snake] isn't stupid. As it scurries around, it cleverly employs various techniques, using numerous fakes to keep its position hidden.

In fact, it even uses the tracks left in the swamp to its advantage to confuse us.

I heard that a certain player who once challenged it solo was toyed with perfectly and ended up playing tag for nearly an hour.

So, the fact that Sora-san found the solution instantly after I gave her a hint, and then perfectly pierced the [Misty Snake]'s head with a single, resounding shot from a magic sword—well, I think that's just a little bit weird.

"...! I did it!!"

"Heh, nice one."

But she's cute, so who cares.

After confirming her own success, Sora spun around, a brilliant smile blooming on her face.

With the massive azure snake exploding behind her, my partner ran up to me cheerfully, and we exchanged a high-five. Her gentle tap was so very her.

"How were the drops?"

"Um, one hide, two fangs, and... a poison gland? I got one of those!"

Oh, the poison gland is a somewhat rare drop. No idea what it's used for, though.

"Alright, then we need three more hides... When I fought them, it dropped one every time, so it's probably a guaranteed drop."

"So that means three more to go?"

Having gotten the hang of it, she seemed to have gained some confidence. When I nodded, the girl's face was full of motivation. "I'll do my best!"

She's strong. I remember thinking, "Three more? You've got to be kidding me," with utter weariness... but I guess if she can take them down that easily, it makes sense.

"Alright, let's keep it moving."

"Right! Ah, um, if you would, please!"

Okay, leave the searching to me.

I gave a light wave, soared into the sky, and scanned the swamp with my avatar's super-vision. Our snake hunt, an endeavor that was, in my opinion, a bit of a cheat, concluded just over ten minutes later.