Part 1

“Ah! Thanks for bringing these. It may be a bit shameless to ask but could a trouble you with another urgent task which needs to be done? I heard that the town blacksmithery is a little shorthanded at the moment. Maybe you should go give them a hand?”

Ding!

Quest Complete!

Intimacy with the townspeople of Tellap has increased.

Total damage repaired overall = 7%

As Godou handed in the appropriate supplies to the appropriate supervisor, the supervisor offered him another task to do. Godou readily accepted.

More than a week had passed since the siege of Tellap had concluded. Significant damage had been done to the town as a result of the siege. Looking around the town right now, one would actually find that it was harder to find a building in perfect condition and a damaged one.

However, the bulk of the damage done to the town was actually caused by a “freak” earthquake which had occurred just after the siege had ended. Conversely, Godou was pretty much the only person who knew the true nature of the earthquake.

The earthquake had in fact been caused by his own skill [Realm of the Overlord] when it had applied its correction onto Tellap town due to the sheer destruction he had caused in his fight against Knite in the other dimension. Originally, the scale of damage from the earthquake was not meant to be that extreme but when coupled with his [Collateral Damage] skill which amplified accidental and AOE damage the result was the disaster zone currently known as the town of Tellap.

Godou could already feel the headache caused by the troublesome skills he had somehow managed to pick up. Thus, burdened by the guilt of being one of the culprits responsible for the “freak” earthquake, Godou was now doing what he could to help the town recover.

After the supervisor had finished give out instructions, Godou moved to perform his next task, namely to help pack crates from the public town blacksmithery onto a wagon which would then be used to transport the crates to one of the damaged town walls. Inside the crates things such as nails, bolts, screws, clamps and the like. Basically the crates contained some of the things needed to repair the wall.

In terms of the skills needed to do complex or specialised work, Godou didn’t have any, well aside from his under developed cooking skill that is. However, doing simple task involving of physical labour was well within his abilities so Godou did his best to help.

Much to his surprise, Godou found the bartender Mark also helping out in that place. Though, rather than helping carry out the crates for working with metal, Mark was appraising the finished products, giving out tips and supervising the blacksmithery as a whole.

In the past, Mark had told Godou he had an injury which prevented him from actively becoming a blacksmith, hence this was probably why Mark was refraining from helping out physically.

Mark’s pub had also been one of the places struck by the freak earthquake. Through when Godou gave Mark his condolences Mark simply laughed it off saying:

“Hahahahahaha! Don’t worry about it. I’ve been thinking about getting the place renovated anyway. It saves me the demolition cost. I guess I should also change the name as well. Honestly that was only something I chose back when I lacked forethought and creativity. I’m more worried about the pubs which served the ordeal. Those sons of bitches they better not steal too many of my customers…”

When Godou had arrived at the blacksmithery, it was a hive of activity. Apparently, it was a rush hour of some sort for the place, hence Godou had been called out to help reduce the burden on the workers.

Despite all the work that was being done, Mark and quite a large number of his regulars were chatting away amiably as they worked.

Since it concerned a place that he had developed a habit of visiting, Godou listened into their conversation to help pass the time.

“… So I’m considering of changing the theme of the pub when I rebuilt it.”

“Eh? That place had a theme?”

“Dumbass, its theme was that it had no theme!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Everyone just shut up! Now, Mark, please continue.”

“….So as I was saying, I’m thinking of changing the theme… to maids!”

“““Eh?!!!!!!!!!”””

“Does this have anything to do with what that mad scientist guy was saying before the siege?”

“Oh that information broker guy? Wait, this was his idea?!”

“Go for it!”

“Don’t! We don’t have enough women around here with spare time. Unless you want to be served on by some cross dressing pervert…”

“Dude! You crossed the line.”

“What has been seen, cannot be unseen.”

“Really, I wouldn’t mind”

“Eh?!! Who said that?!”

And so on and so on.

Although the contents of the conversation made for an interesting entertainment, Godou did not participate in it at all. Or rather, he tried his best not to get drawn into the weird atmosphere around the public town blacksmithery. He had always thought that Mark’s regulars had acted the way they did because they were drunk. However, after he had now seen them all sober and still acting the same way, Godou had to revaluate his impression.

Thus time passed by… Eventually, the rush hour was over and the situation stabilised yet again.

Wiping sweat off his brow, Mark turned to Godou saying:

“Thanks helping out it this. It may be a bit shameless to ask but could a trouble you with another urgent task that…”

Thus, Godou continued to help the town rebuild.

Part 2

After spending an unknown number of hours performing various errands to help repair Tellap, Godou decided to take a break.

Buying some food from one of the stalls on the street, Godou moved to find a place to eat his meal in peace. Finding an empty bench, Godou sat down and ate.

As a result of the damage done to the town, most of the main buildings of food vendors had been damaged and in need of repair. To make up for this, the majority of the food vendors had temporarily switched to selling their products from street-side stalls, hence the source of Godou’s current meal.

Conversely, due to some unknown reason, ever since the siege had ended, Godou had been assaulted by the ravenous sensation of hunger far often than he knew was normal. Additionally, Godou had the feeling that his stamina was being exhausted far too quickly than it should have been. This worried him slightly.

After all, Godou had, in more occasions than one, previously been forced to participate in activities far more strenuous than simply helping repair a town. Basic training, traveling between towns, hiking up Mt Revils, participating in a siege… even after doing all of these things Godou had not felt as lethargic as he did currently. Yet why was it that he felt so exhausted right now? It wasn’t to the extent that he couldn’t move but rather it more like the laziness you feel the day after running a marathon.

Initially, Godou had dismissed the sensation as fatigue but it had already been over a week since the siege ended and his condition was still exactly the same as before. If he didn’t recover soon it would become a real cause of concern.

As Godou pondered on the abnormalities of his body, a telepathic voice interrupted his meal.

[Godou, about 200 metres to your left there are two people you know who may be in need of your services.]

“Someone I know?”

Despite the sudden announcement from a disembodied voice, Godou responded unfazed. The voice, of course, had belonged to a close friend of Godou’s, Ferrex. Due to certain circumstances, Ferrex now resided in a realm which could only be described as the place between life the death. The pendant which Godou know wore around his neck apparently served as an anchor point to keep him from passing on and truly dying.

However this essentially meant that wherever Godou went, Ferrex was forced to come along as well. Although humans were social creatures, being stuck with one person twenty-four seven could only be described as unpleasant. Additionally, to reach his current state, Ferrex had effectively been forced to kill his physical body, hence in a sense he truly was someone with one foot already in the grave. Although he never said anything about it, Godou was sure that the trauma of dying and being isolated from social contact had affected Ferrex in some way.

Nevertheless, Ferrex continued to act as if nothing had happened. From time to time, he would make conversation or give Godou advice and warnings about certain things. Apart from that, he was silent. It was almost as if he was working on or considering something.

Godou cast his [Aura Sensing] skill in the direction specified.

Normally using [Aura Sensing] in such a vastly populated area would result in getting a feedback of nothing but a confused mixture of auras as a result of too many people being in the area. However, once Godou had met someone and seen their aura, he would be able to distinguish them from the rest of the crowd.

Godou frowned.

“Hey Ferrex, are you sure you’re not mistaken? I don’t sense anyone I know there.”

[Yep, I’m sure]

As Ferrex asserted his observation, Godou merely shrugged.

To put it frankly, Godou ability to use [Aura Sensing] was actually mediocre at best. On the other hand, Ferrex had described his ability to sense others as being stronger than a priest but weaker than a seer. Godou actually wasn’t familiar with the scaling system that Ferrex used but that didn’t change the fact that Ferrex simply had more experience in sensing than he had.

Additionally, a result of the Elemental Lord Candidate’s appearance, the auras of a number of Godou’s acquaintances were in an ambiguous state. Now that he thought about it, he also had a number of acquaintances who camouflaged their auras so well that Godou couldn’t distinguish them unless they let him, the main offenders of this case being Lexus, Reta and Satoshi.

Thus, choosing to trust his friend, Godou finished his meal and made his way in the specified direction.

Sure enough, he caught sight of one of his acquaintances. As he approached them, he heard the sounds of conversation.

“Eh? I’m grateful for your help but it’s dangerous isn’t it? Onee-chan said the monster army remnants are still around.”

“That’s exactly why I should go with you! The woods aren’t the sort of place that a beginner should be going right now!”

“I’ll be fine! I’m a player after all. If I die I’ll just come back but you… Anyway, I don’t have the confidence that that I can protect someone else with me. If you’re coming along we need more people to come along as well.”

“Don’t underestimate a priestess of Freya! I have my own ways of protecting myself.”

With a child-like and immature body, the priestess of Freya, Inori was having a conversation with another girl that Godou vaguely recognised.

From an outsider’s perspective, the roles of the two conversing would seem to be reversed, appearing like a child trying to protect a teenager. However, Godou knew that Inori was the same age that he was. Moreover, she was contracted to the high ranking holy spirit Gegorus that was able to put up a fight against even Knite a period of time.

Recalling that incident, Godou suddenly saw a flaw in Inori’s argument and immediately decided to join their conversation before the duo decided to take some foolhardy risks.

“Wait a second, I thought you weren’t able to use magic yet?”

If he remembered correctly, Inori was currently unable to use magic properly as part of the backlash from summoning a spirit on the level of Gegorus. It should still take several more weeks until Inori’s condition had stabilised enough for her to use magic again.

“Well, I have spell tags for that– Eh? W Where did you come from?”

Inori turned around startled as if she just noticed him. Well, to be fair, he had only just arrived a few moments ago.

“I came because someone told me there was someone I know who may need help around here. I’m guessing that would be you guys…”

“Well… help would be appreciated… but everyone is busy with repairing or helping out the town so I don’t want to bother them.”

The one who had quietly murmured that was the other girl. It was then that Godou noticed her for the first time. She had brown hair tied in a ponytail and appeared to be younger than him by a few years. She appeared vaguely familiar. Godou wondered where he had seen her before.

Putting that aside, he asked the obvious question.

“What seems to be the problem?”

Inori looked at the other girl who then, in a quiet voice, concisely explained the situation.

“I am doing class initiation quest. She wanted to help me. We need to travel in surrounding woodlands.”

With that, Godou got the gist on the conversation. A beginner going to the woodlands at this time was something akin to suicide. At the very least, it wasn’t somewhere you should go alone. Even Godou had Ferrex with him when he first went into the woods.

Being the type of person she was, Godou couldn’t imagine Inori not helping someone in need. He turned to Inori who straighten up as he suddenly made eye contact her.

“Honestly, isn’t it a bit reckless of you to go into a danger zone in your condition?”

“But even if you ask around, everyone is too busy or injured to help out”

“Still, it seems a bit foolhardy.”

As Godou reprimanded Inori, his thoughts were thrown into disarray as he remembered all the times he had ignored this very piece of advice. Fighting a bunch of kobolds by himself, fighting a Divine Saint, fighting Knite… the list reckless deeds went on and on.

“I’ll join you. May I?” Godou sighed, looking at the new girl.

The girl looked at Inori who simply said “This person is reliable on the frontlines and someone who can be trusted.” After hearing that, the girl nodded and introduced herself.

“I am Misaki.”

Likewise Godou did the same.

“I am Godou. Please take care of me.”

Getting back to business, Godou asked about the details of the quest and with the minimum amount of words necessary, Misaki answered him.

“What do you have to do to complete the quest?”

“Assassinate deer. Retrieve evidence.”

“Should we also look for a tracker then?”

Godou remembered receiving a similar quest back when he was first able to leave town. Kill a wolf pack wasn’t it? Ferrex had been with him that time and they had hired a tracker to find the wolves den before attacking the pack head on in a life or death struggle…

“No… I want to do this properly without receiving too much help from others. Also, when tracking an animal, it’s better to have as few people as possible.”

However, this time, Misaki refused.

Ending the conversation at that, the three partied up and headed outside of Tellap and into the woods.

Thus with that, Godou accompanied the two girls in their quest.

Part 3

The trio made their way into the woods. Attacks from wolf packs, occasional encounters with lone bears… such things did not happen. Rather, it was more like due to Godou’s monstrously high fighting spirit stat all predators stayed clear of the trio.

While Godou was grateful for not having to participate in unnecessary fights, his high fighting spirit was actually a mixed blessing of all sorts, scaring away their prey as soon as he got close to it.

Despite that, they actually came close to completing the quest several times but failed as the deer slipped from their grasp in the last minute. Though, most of the work was actually being done by Misaki who had stubbornly said “This is my quest so please allow me to do myself. I don’t want to become a leech. I want to do this properly!”

As the trio went deeper into the woods, they encountered a party comprised of the remnants of the monster army.

Although the siege had ended with Tellap’s victory, the majority of the enemy forces were still scattered around the surrounding lands. In short, with the death of their commander, the enemy army had scattered into smaller and harder to find parties and were still present around the town.

Thus, in addition to rebuilding the town, Tellap also had to worry about these remnants and devote part of their workforce into creating search and destroy parties to eliminate the monster army remnants.

After exploring so far without encountering danger, Godou’s wariness of his surroundings had somewhat dulled. Thus he was caught off-guard when they ran into the monsters. After about 15 minutes of fighting, they managed to finish off the monsters.

Running forward, Godou had aggroed all the monsters and engaged them in close combat.

Godou had no background in martial arts. However, in order to prevent the monsters from attacking his two defensively weak comrades, he had no other choice but to fight them up close, with occasional support from Inori.

Despite this, the trio’s conflict with the monsters turned out to be a rather one-sided affair. Godou almost felt dismayed at how easy the fight had been. Throughout the whole fight, there was no sense of danger, no sense of challenge…

If a monster launched an attack at he could dodge, Godou would throw himself to the side and immediately try for a counter, either with his body, his dagger or his [Mana Weapon Creation] skill.

If the monsters attempted to surround him, Godou would simply detonate a mana weapon and use the resultant shockwave to buy himself some space to break free.

Even if the monsters landed a direct him on him, the damage they dealt could not be classified as any other than insignificant. Although the monsters were around Godou’s level or above, his opponents were so intimidated by his fighting spirit and divinity that they couldn’t even initiate a proper attack.

Additionally, since his battle with Knite, the majority of the equipment Godou had on him had been destroyed requiring him to replace them. The majority of the equipment he currently wore was from the church of Freya but due to his class attributes of being able to equip anything without restrictions, Godou actually had quite a few high level items in his possession taken from the strong opponents he had fought in the past.

The ring and scandals from the Divine Saint of Embinyu. A coat and a bracelet from the Elemental Lord of Light Candidate.

All these were items gave Godou abilities well beyond what a player at his level should have been able to do. In particular, the items he had received from Knite had amplified his defensive abilities by quite a bit.

Chaos Origin Coat

An ancient overcoat of unknown origins. This coat which only appears to those that it deems worthy of using it. This coat has a will of its own. The majority of the abilities of this coat have been locked until the coat recognises his wearer of being worthy of using them.

Durabilitiy: 1000/1000

Defence: Defensive value of this coat is equal to half your level

Restrictions:

Level 1000

God Race

Options:

+ will unequip itself out of jealously if you wear other non-cloth based body armour.

+ durability regenerates itself automatically.

+ keeps the wearer’s body temperature constant regardless of the environment

+ doubles total Health of the wearer

+ doubles total Mana of the wearer

+ doubles total defensive value of the wearer

+ bound to player [Godou]

+ 30% Magic resistance

+ other abilities are locked.

Spectrum Contract Bracelet

A magic bracelet left behind by Elemental Lord Candidate Knite after being a defeated by a Divine Overlord. Due to the bracelet and their wearer being currently out of sync, the abilities of this bracelet are currently unavailable for immediate use.

Durability: 471/500

Defence: None

Restrictions:

Level 800

Gain Knite’s approval

Options:

+ doubles total Mana regeneration

+ Bound to player [Godou]

+ main ability is currently unavailable

Time until complete synchronisation: ~60 days

With the Chaos Origin Coat, Godou’s defence was so high that even if he had just stood there and fought without attempting to dodge, he probably still wouldn’t lose to the monsters. With divinity and items enhancing his mana capacity and regeneration, Godou didn’t need to worry about conservatively using mana either.

However, regardless of all his special traits and powers, Godou had only actually played Royal Road slightly longer than Misaki had. In comparison to his equipment and bloated stats, nearly all of his skill proficiencies were in the early beginner stage. Godou had, somehow, ended up becoming a character with extreme survivability but low offensive power, thus resulting in the long time needed for him to defeat the monster army remnants.

Actually, rather than having low offensive power, Godou felt that all his skills somehow only seemed to fall into two categories: being convenient but lacking in decisive power or being ridiculously powerful but difficult to use flexibly.

However that suited Godou just fine. If he could use divine abilities at will, everything would become too easy. It was the same reason he had decided not to join any sports clubs after becoming a campione in real life.

His body’s natural disposition resulted in a situation which could not be described as anything other than cheating if he got serious.Even a 100mph fastball from the American Major Leagues should be visible if he decided to face it seriously. Disregarding the issue of capturing the ball at the most appropriate spot, seeing through that speed and hitting it with the bat was probably no a problem?

Although this disposition occasionally showed itself in-game whenever Godou fought strong opponents, for the majority of the time, Godou had been able to enjoy the game without it feeling too easy. In that aspect, the fight he just had with the monsters had been a serious a turn off.

In fact, Godou was now seriously debating whether or not he should take off his high level equipment. However, since he still had to protect the two people currently with him and because he didn’t have any replacements for those items, he decided against taking them off for now.

After their brief battle against the monster army remnants, the trio continued on with their search. It was during this time that Misaki, who had been mostly quiet up until that moment, suddenly asked Godou a question.

“Hey… What sort of class do you have? Are you supposed to be a tank?”

Face with such a question, Godou was momentarily at lost at how to respond.

“To tell you the truth, I actually don’t know. My class role is actually pretty vague.”

The bonuses given by Godou’s class pretty much allowed him to play any role he desired with the right equipment. Thus, Godou could only give that sort of answer to Misaki’s question.

“So there are classes like that was well huh…”

Hearing Misaki’s quiet muttering, Inori joined in the conversation.

“Well you know the old saying, there’s a class for everything in the world.”

“Actually, I’ve never heard of that before…”

“Me neither.”

Neither of the two players present had heard that saying before. Perhaps that had been a piece of logic held by NPCs and veterans, regardless, both Godou and Misaki were newbies who had barely experienced anything in this world.

Continuing the conversation, Godou asked Inori the question:

“Speaking of which, your class is priestess but you can also summon holy spirits can’t you?”

“Yeah… well once you dive into the specifics of each class path, things get complicated. There isn’t always one purpose for each class. Theoretically speaking, it’s actually possible to do everything no matter what class you have. For example, its common pretence that priests and mages have weak defences but there’s magic shields and barriers for that. Or that warriors and knights have weaker offence then mages but then you have people like Hel who could do just as much with aura.”

“This world… has a lot of classes to choose from…”

As Misaki uttered in amazement at Inori’s speech, a question suddenly came to Godou’s mind. One which he probably should have asked in the beginning.

“That reminds me, what class are you choosing Misaki? This is the quest for you to unlock your class isn’t it?”

“The rogue class.”

“Is there any particular reason why you chose that class?”

As if a switch had been pressed, Misaki suddenly became quite talkative.

“Onee-chan doesn’t want me to choose a frontline class… in fact, she wanted me to choose a magic based class like her. However! From the very beginning I had already made up my mind. Ever since I saw ‘that video’ I became inspired to choose this sort of DPS class!”

“…That video?”

Godou was somewhat surprised at Misaki’s sudden outburst. Was this really the same person who was so quiet before?

“Several months ago… No, over here it would have been over a year by now. There was an uploading of a fight between two rankers. Both of the fighters were women you used a DPS class. I’ve seen videos of them fighting before but it was only when they fought each other that I became inspired. When I saw them, I thought, I want to do that as well!! Focusing everything on offense, they were the type of players whose fight would be over if they got hit even once. It must have been exhilarating fighting like them! But, they never got hit. Even when facing multiple opponents, they were untouchable! They were invincible!”

Untouchable…

Invincible…

Those two words suddenly reminded Godou of Knite. Even when faced against an army, there was almost no-one who could land a clean hit against that guy. To his knowledge, the only people who had managed to land hits on Knite were Gegorus who was a high ranking holy spirit, Badas who was a Great Knight of Kallamore, Hel who was also a Knight of Kallamore, and Godou himself who was a Heretic God.

Even then, no-one had not come out of the fight unscathed. Gegorus had become heavily damaged and needed time to recover, the two Kallamore Knights were also in serious conditions and Godou himself was not in his proper form after his fight with Knite. All this had been the result of Knite fighting them without a serious drive or motivation.

Conversely, Godou only knew how bad the knights’ conditions were because he had made sure to visit them every time he had logged on, however, that’s a story for another time.

So Rankers are… that strong?

A swirling of expectation rose within Godou as he remembered his desperate struggle against Knite. However, he immediately killed the feeling and continued to listen to Misaki’s enthusiastic introduction.

“I admired both of these players because of their strength. Without a doubt they are the ones at the pinnacle of the path that I aim for!”

“Who are these people which you speak so highly of? Have you met them before?” asked Inori curiously.

“Well… no… I actually haven’t met them personally yet. I’ve only heard the stories about them or watched their feats from afar… I actually don’t know their names either… Only the nicknames people give them…”

Inori’s interruption seemed to a throw Misaki off her game. However, she quickly recovered and continued with her explanation.

“A Anyway! Ever since I saw that video I’ve been dreaming of being able to do the same things they did. Grey Phantom and Scarlet Blitz… I will never forget the fight those two had. ”

!

“H–Hang on a second! Did you just say Grey Phantom?”

Grey Phantom… t-that -that was Reta wasn’t it? Godou recalled the somewhat eccentric girl who he was familiar with. Surely that wasn’t the case…

“Yep. A female player with violet hair and has a skull shaped mask who fights using fist protectors. Oh! And she also wears grey scarf and has the atmosphere of a horror movie killer.”

That was Reta. That was definitely Reta. That fits her description perfectly.

Now that Godou thought about it, Reta was a player who had extraordinary skill. Didn’t she fight on par with a Demonic Spirit without any skills before? He also knew that she was someone who had played Royal Road since its release. But still… Godou couldn’t quite connect the image of the Reta he knew with the Grey Phantom Misaki was describing.

“One of the main reasons I choice to start here is because they said that she was in the area…”

“Yeah about that… I think that person might actually be someone I know.”

“Really! Please introduce me!!”

Misaki suddenly looked at him from up close, eyes sparkling. Uncomfortable, Godou shook her off and asked her about the other person.

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do. So what about the other person? Scarlet ummm...”

“Scarlet Blitz. She’s one of the founders of the Hermes Guild in the Haven Kingdom. Brown hair, green eyes and wears a masquerade mask. A swordswoman whose fighting style that completely revolves around speed.”

“So if you admired these two what made you chose to come to Kallamore and not Haven?”

“Well, Onee-chan was based in Kallamore and Scarlet hasn’t been that active in Haven lately so Kallamore was the only choice I had–”

Inori suddenly held up her hand as a warning signal. Seeing this, the other two immediate stopped what they doing and froze.

Once again, they had found their quarry.

Quietly, Inori whispered pointing, “There’s a buck about 30 metres in that direction. We’re upwind so it won’t smell you if you sneak on it from here.”

Hearing that, Misaki became quiet again and nodded. She started to creep in that direction.

Curious, Godou extended his [Aura Sensing] in that direction. What he received was a vague mixture of auras as the aura of plant life and small organisms prevented him from getting a clear picture of the situation.

It was then that Godou wondered whether [Aura Sensing] would actually develop into something that was actually useful. As it was now, Godou could not see any real use for the skill apart from helping him find where his acquaintances were.

Since Misaki wanted to do this on her own, Godou simply stood on standby with Inori who was monitoring the situation, ready to alert him and Misaki of any incoming danger.

A moment passed. One moment eventually became 5 minutes then–

“I did it! Quest complete!”

Misaki’s jubilant voice sounded over the party chat. Godou and Inori moved towards Misaki and found her standing next to the carcass of a young buck.

“We just have to carry this back now right?” Godou asked as he lifted up the corpse.

“Yep. Can you manage that?”

“No problem.”

Although Godou didn’t mean anything deep about his actions, he didn’t the idea of making a young girl carry something heavy in his presence. That was simply the way that he had been raised.

Thus with Godou who had the strength stat of a warrior over lv 100 carrying the deer, the trio made their way back to the town to hand in Misaki’s quest whilst continuing their conversation. Without encountering any unforseen difficulties, they reached the town and did just that.

All’s well that ends well.

After separating from the other two, Godou logged out of Royal Road.

--------------

Merry Christmas!

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