kscans

Chapter 90 - Collector

Hayato and the others sat in their chairs and watched the monitor.

A large number of dragons had already entered the Imperial Capital, and players and NPCs were fighting them. The high number of players was likely because they had jobs during the day. For players in the working class, this was when the real fun began.

This was just Hayato's prejudice, but he felt that working adults had a lot of energy after their jobs were done. Partly to blow off steam, they were launching fierce attacks against the dragons.

As he was watching the players, he heard Ney's voice from the monitor.

She must have used the transfer device in the Royal Capital.

"First, let's take down the dragons targeting the facilities! This time it’s dragons led by the Fire Dragon Eddy Owl, so we'll fight with fire-resistant armor and ice or water attribute attacks!"

In a Stampede, you fight a so-called boss monster and its subordinate monsters. The subordinate monsters are influenced by the nature of the boss, so their attack attributes and weaknesses become similar.

The Fire Dragon Eddy Owl was, as its name suggested, a dragon of fire. This meant it was weak to ice and water-based attacks. And since its attacks were fire-based, having fire resistance would lower the damage taken. Ney’s statement was based on this knowledge.

As for the mechanics of a Stampede, the boss monster isn't present from the start. It appears after a certain number of its subordinates have been defeated.

Basically, a Stampede takes place over one hour. If you defeat the boss monster within that hour, the defense is successful. If you can't, the defense fails. That had been the rule until now.

However, separate from that rule, there was a new gimmick this time where facilities could be destroyed. There was also a mechanic where, if all the facilities in the location of the Stampede were destroyed and the defense failed, a fragment of the artifact would be stolen.

Naturally, there was a similar rule for the moderate dragons. If they protected all the facilities and successfully defended, the moderates would obtain a fragment of the artifact.

Diite had explained these circumstances to him.

As if waiting for that conversation to end, Esha looked at Hayato.

"What type of party is Ney-sama’s group?"

Kokuryu hadn’t been featured in the Clan War videos, so the only people here who knew how they fought were probably Hayato or Diite.

It seemed everyone was interested in Esha’s question.

"If we’re talking about six months ago, they were a balanced type. Three frontline, three mid-range, and three rear-guard members each. Kind of like the Bandit clan we fought before. However, all the members were specialized in their respective roles, so it wasn’t like the Bandits where everyone could do a bit of everything. I don’t know about now, though."

At Hayato’s words, everyone looked at the monitor with interest. They were looking forward to seeing what kind of fighting style they actually used.

Esha also watched the monitor while eating a chocolate parfait.

"I see. Then we shall see what they are capable of."

"That’s a bit of a high-and-mighty tone… Well, you did get first place in the Clan War rankings, so I guess it’s fine."

"We ended up in fourth place, actually. We lost the final Clan War."

"Huh, really? I thought you won the final Clan War too. Weren’t you the one who came to help?"

Hayato whispered this to Esha in a low voice. Everyone else was around. He wasn’t sure how much of this was okay to say.

No one except Esha knew that Diite was the god of this world, the managing AI, nor that they had been captured by her. It was a mutual understanding between Hayato, Esha, and Diite that there was no need to tell them.

Esha leaned her face a little closer to Hayato’s and answered in a small voice.

"At that time, I realized that Master was about to be taken away by Diite, so I suggested to everyone there that we should prioritize helping you over winning. To chase after you immediately, we needed to end the Clan War as quickly as possible, so we had them lose on purpose. It was less that I won and more that the Maid Chief let me get away with it."

Why had only Esha won? It was because if you were defeated in a Clan War, you would have to wait in a separate area.

Hayato had disappeared from the base’s rooftop with Diite, the god. If everyone was defeated and had to wait elsewhere, they might not be able to follow him. Thinking this, Esha had pleaded with the Maid Chief and been allowed to win.

They had been defeated in the final Clan War, but the moment the match was decided, the glass-like partition that separated the space disappeared. Esha had hurried to the base, found a hidden staircase in the floor, and followed after Hayato.

"Never mind Relic or Mist-sama, I’m sure Ash-sama and the others found it difficult to lose on purpose."

"Yeah, Ash seems to hate his father, so even if it was for my sake, throwing the match must have been tough for him."

"They can simply repay their Clan War debt in the Stampede."

"That’s a heavy responsibility. I don’t have a lot of time to spare, though."

Stampede events weren’t something that could be successfully defended by just a dozen or so strong people. That said, strengthening their forces even a little would lead to a successful defense.

With that in mind, Hayato stared intently at the monitor. However, he could only see Ney and her group on the monitor, not Ash’s.

"Can’t we see how Ash and the others are doing?"

As if hearing his words, Diite let out a small sigh.

"My apologies. That setting isn’t working properly either. Please wait for Ney-kun’s group to join up with Ash-kun’s group."

If that was the case, it couldn’t be helped. Hayato looked around Ney and her group.

Hayato hadn’t been to the Imperial Capital very often. He used to go there for shopping, but after leaving the shopping to Relic, he hadn’t gone at all.

And now it was night, and the view on the monitor was generally dark. So he couldn’t say for sure, but it looked like Ney and her group were defending the church facility.

"Are Ney and the others defending the church?"

Esha nodded at Hayato’s words.

"That would be the best course of action. Churches and temples can be registered as revival points."

When players and NPCs revive, they are sent back to a church, a temple, or their base. If revival on the spot, that is, resurrection by a companion with holy magic, is possible, then there’s no problem, but otherwise, they have no choice but to return to their registered location.

If the church or temple is destroyed, that becomes impossible. If one has a base near the Imperial Capital, it’s one thing, but being sent all the way back to the vicinity of the Royal Capital would be a significant time loss. Even with a transfer device in the Royal Capital, it’s a considerable loss compared to being able to revive in the Imperial Capital. This temporarily leads to a decrease in defensive forces.

Therefore, prioritizing the defense of church and temple facilities during a Stampede was known as a correct strategy.

"I see. But aren’t there an unusually large number of dragons around the church?"

There were a considerable number of dragons roaming around the church. And they were ignoring the players and targeting the facility.

Ney and the others were desperately trying to draw the dragons’ attention by raising their hate value, but it didn’t seem to be very effective.

Diite shifted her gaze from the monitor to Hayato.

"Hayato-kun, I told you that the Hardline Dragons are seriously seeking the Dragon Soul artifact, didn’t I? It’s only natural that the enemy would try to destroy important strongholds first."

Basically, the monsters didn’t use very high-performance AI. They were the kind of AI that would charge in even if they knew they would lose, and most of them just repeated a set pattern of actions.

However, the dragons called Genesis Dragons were not AI, but human. And they could issue orders to the dragons like a tamer. Having them target troublesome facilities was a natural strategy.

"That makes things even more difficult. But isn’t that dangerous? It would be bad if the Imperial Capital falls and they take a fragment of the artifact, right?"

"That’s true, but the Imperial Capital might still be okay. Though we shouldn’t be complacent."

"Um, what do you mean?"

"I think Esha-kun knows the reason for that. Why don’t you ask her?"

At Diite’s words, Hayato looked at Esha.

For some reason, Esha had a slight frown on her face.

"Is something wrong? A problem? Is it that you don’t want to say what Diite-chan meant?"

"No, it’s not particularly a problem. It’s just that I have two acquaintances in the Imperial Capital, and I believe that’s what she means by the Imperial Capital being okay."

If they were Esha’s acquaintances, there was a high possibility they were former clan members.

Esha and Relic were members of the clan that Hero Ivan belonged to. That clan was the winning clan of the Clan War that took place three years ago. Its members must be considerably strong.

Just as he thought that, the dragon that Ney and the others were trying to draw attention to was attacked and defeated by someone.

In Stampede battles, there is no attack monopoly on monsters, so anyone can attack. And since contribution points are determined by the amount of damage dealt, it doesn’t matter much who delivers the final blow. It is an act of kill-stealing, but since there are no item drops during a Stampede, it’s not considered a major issue.

Ney and the others didn’t seem to mind, but Hayato was concerned about something else.

The one who defeated the dragon was an NPC. A slender woman in her early twenties with short-cropped red hair. But her appearance was quite bizarre.

It wasn't that her physical form was bizarre, but her equipment was. Her clothes were a simple outfit of brown leather pants and a white long-sleeved shirt with a brown leather vest over it, but her weapons were a different story.

First, the fact that she was holding a sword in each hand was strange. Furthermore, she had two huge swords crossed on her back, and a single katana-like sword equipped horizontally at her waist. In other words, she was equipped with a total of five swords and katanas.

Basically, you can only equip two weapons, a main weapon and a sub-weapon. Moreover, even if you call it a sub-weapon, it’s for things like a shield or arrows for a bow, and there is no setting that allows for dual wielding.

For these reasons, the NPC looked bizarre to Hayato’s eyes.

He was about to look at Diite for an explanation of this clearly out-of-spec NPC, but Esha caught his eye first.

By all accounts, Esha looked disgusted.

"What’s wrong?"

"To put it simply, that’s my acquaintance. Her name is Cecil Arven. She likes to collect magic and holy swords, so she was called the ‘Collector’."

"Collector?"

"However, within the clan, she was called the ‘Debt Queen.’ She turned all the money she earned into weapons, so she was always broke and borrowed money for meals from the members. Not that I ever lent her a single G."

"…Um, is she strong?"

"She’s about the second strongest after Ivan. She was the vice-leader in our old clan, after all. Well, she’d go down in one hit from my Destroy, though."

"Are you saying you’re stronger?"

Leaving Esha, who had a smug look on her face at those words, he decided to look at the monitor again.