kscans

Chapter 129 - The World Tree

A few days after they formed a cooperative relationship with Bandit, a world announcement was made early in the morning.

"A Stampede has occurred in the Spirit Country. The Illusion Dragon Suien Mikazuki has begun its invasion. Please proceed to repel it. I repeat—"

It had finally come.

They had been making various preparations for this day, so there was no reason to panic at all.

Ash and Ren, who were in the base's dining hall as usual, nodded to each other and then looked at Hayato.

"Hayato and Esha, you come with us too. If we leave you in this base, someone else might come to kidnap you, Hayato."

"Got it. Esha, you're okay with that too, right?"

"Of course. I can't attack, but I think I can provide a diversion, so I'll go with you. By the way, I'll be eating a Super Eclair too."

"So that's your goal."

As they talked, Hayato's group headed for the Spirit Country.

First, they headed for the Royal Capital and teleported to the Spirit Country using the transfer device there.

This country, like the Demon Country, had no churches or temples, so you couldn't register a resurrection point. However, you could set your resurrection point at the World Tree itself, so its distinguishing feature was that you could return to battle quickly.

That being said, the Illusion Dragon Suien Mikazuki's specialty was an attack with a mist that caused bad statuses. Its purpose was to lower the players' combat ability rather than to defeat them. If you left the poison alone, you would be defeated, but the resurrection point could also be said to be largely irrelevant.

They met up with the mercenary group outside the plaza where the World Tree was. They had already given everyone Super Eclairs, and they had also given them rings and bracelets that nullified stun and knockback. It could be said that their countermeasures were flawless.

"Alright, everyone, let's eat the eclairs... The amount and sweetness are incredible, but bear with it. I've also gotten coffee from Hayato, so manage to eat them while drinking that."

Almost everyone requested coffee. The only ones eating them normally were Ren and Esha, and some of the female members. Hayato wasn't fighting, so he was just carrying regular Antidote Potions and Paralysis Cure Potions and hadn't eaten one. Learning from his past failure, he was only wearing stun and knockback nullifying equipment.

(It might be a little painful for people who don't like sweets. From a game perspective, your personal taste preferences probably don't matter, but this virtual reality almost perfectly replicates the five senses, so there might be dishes you can't eat even if you want to.)

A few minutes later, the men, though looking pale, had finished eating.

"Urp... alright then, Hayato and Esha, you stay inside the World Tree. That should be the safest place. We'll open a path there now, so follow us."

"Got it. Uh, are you okay?"

"I'm fine... though I would have preferred the same effect from some kind of meat."

Everyone except the women nodded at Ash's words.

"If there's an item like that, I'll prepare it next time."

"Please do. Alright, let's go!"

Ash's group started running, and Hayato and Esha followed.

Around them were players and NPCs fighting dragons. The dragons appearing here were smaller versions of the Illusion Dragon. They were dragons that looked like they were covered in mist, and they were called Mist Dragons.

Like the Illusion Dragon, they scattered a dragon breath that caused poison and paralysis, making them difficult to fight.

Normally, you would drink a medicine to nullify the paralysis or poison, but this time, because of Pat and his group, they couldn't use that medicine.

They probably had no choice but to release their emergency stock, but the ingredients for the herbs were expensive to begin with, so it could be said that they had little in stock. They had released almost all of their stock in several Stampedes. Now, every clan probably had little stock left.

(The Bandit clan probably has some in stock, though. Jolt was talking about giving some to me.)

The leader of Bandit, Jolt, had offered to give him medicine for paralysis and poison as a countermeasure for the Illusion Dragon, but he had refused. Although they had a cooperative relationship, it was ultimately a relationship of favors and returns.

If you received a favor, you had to return a favor of equal value. If he accepted the medicine, he would have to offer something else. Because of that, Hayato had refused.

However, as he was leaving, Jolt had said, "It seems you have another countermeasure, don't you? I'd really like to know what it is." He had told him that he had a large stock, but he felt like he was losing information every time they talked, so he was feeling a little uncomfortable with him.

(If he keeps doing that, he's probably going to be disliked by other clans... It's not like he's only acting like that towards me, right? As revenge for losing in the Clan War...?)

He didn't know the circumstances, but now was not the time to be thinking about such things, so he headed for the World Tree with Ash and the others.

The World Tree was a giant tree said to be a thousand meters tall and two hundred meters in diameter. It was hollow inside, and it was a place where Elves and Dwarves lived.

Hayato had heard that it was divided into several floors, and that you could go to the upper floors if you became friends with the Elves and Dwarves.

Even if you weren't particularly good friends with them, you could go up to the tenth floor, so Hayato and Esha planned to stay there. If you were going to judge the situation, it was better to be in as high a place as possible.

And they arrived at the first floor of the World Tree.

"Alright, let's part ways here. The dragons won't come in here, so it should be safe."

"Yeah, got it. Then I'll leave the rest to you."

"Leave it to me. Hayato has made all sorts of preparations for today. If we lose now, it'll be a disgrace to our mercenary group's name. We'll definitely win."

"I'll be cursing energetically today too! Uhihihi...!"

Ash readied his Dragon Eater. Ren also took out a five-sun nail and a straw doll. The other members also readied their Dragon Eater Replicas.

When Ash said, "Let's go!", everyone let out a war cry and left the World Tree.

"They're fired up. We should be able to win with this."

"Well, I'd be grateful if we could win. Pat-san and the others aren't here this time, so we should just have to deal with the Illusion Dragon."

Since the Fire and Underworld Dragons had already been defeated, they couldn't participate in the Stampede for a while. And Pat and Randa were protecting the herbs. Veru probably couldn't leave the Dragon's Grave either due to various restrictions.

He was concerned about Agres and the Thunder Dragon Od Base, but Hayato thought they probably wouldn't participate in the Stampede in their dragon forms.

Pat had said at the Dragon's Grave that the hardliners also had various restrictions and couldn't easily transform into dragons. It was understood that there would be some kind of problem if they forced it.

(I don't think a human form Agres or Thunder Dragon would be a problem. If so, Ash and the others should be able to win. Their stats probably wouldn't change much in human form.)

As Hayato was thinking that, a voice chat came in from Ney.

"Hayato? We're heading to the World Tree now, so we'll be counting on you!"

"Is that so? What about Pat-san's group?"

"Rosalie and the others are heading there. The members of the Black Rose can't participate in the Stampede, but they can fight where Pat and the others are. Rosalie was fired up, saying she'd defeat them this time for sure."

"That's encouraging. Then I'll be counting on you. You've given Ney and the others Super Eclairs too, right? Make sure you eat them, okay?"

"Of course. I've been looking forward to it! Alright, everyone, let's go!"

Just as he heard Ney's cheerful voice, the chat cut off. He guessed they had headed here immediately.

(Since it's a Stampede, I can't say for sure we'll win even if only a few dozen people have status effect immunity, but we should be able to put up a good fight. They said they were able to reduce its health by a third before, so we should be able to do it this time.)

"Master, shouldn't we head up soon? We can't see what's going on from here."

"Ah, you're right, let's go up... I don't get tired or anything, but are there only stairs here?"

"It seems so. They might transfer us if we become friends with the Elves or Dwarves, though."

"That's a possibility. Maybe I'll come here to do some quests again sometime. I need materials for rare items, so I've done a few quests, though not here."

After the Stampede event is over, Hayato thought as he headed up the stairs.

And after a few minutes of climbing to the tenth floor, it was strangely noisy. Someone was fighting with the Elves and Dwarves.

"Get out of the way. The likes of you can't stop me."

It was clearly Agres. He was dressed in his usual black leather clothes, defeating the surrounding NPCs. Next to him, a man in a white robe could also be seen. Hayato's guess was the Thunder Dragon Od Base. The two of them were inside the World Tree.

Fortunately, they hadn't noticed Hayato's group.

Hanzo and Esha hid in the shadow of the stairs they had just climbed so they wouldn't be seen.

"Those two, why are they here?"

"They're trying to go to the upper floors. I think there might be something up there that can destroy the World Tree. They might be thinking it's faster to destroy it from the inside than from the outside."

"Then we have to stop them. But this is bad. Neither I nor Esha can fight here. We have to do something to keep them from going up."

Hayato couldn't fight because he had no combat skills, and Esha couldn't fight because of her country affiliation.

Now what should he do, Hayato wondered.