Part 2 - Gathering

The day of the departure.

Godou had arrived at the designated meeting place feeling slightly apprehensive as he saw the crowd of people already waiting at the meeting area.

With a social circle that mostly only extended to a relatively small group of NPCs and players who he met on a regular basis, he was actually not familiar with most of the players invited to the raid.

However, Godou was not a person who fretted over the small details. It was pointless to be scared of a large gathering like this. From Lis’s words most of the players gathered were random people who were in the same situation as him, thus Godou boldly joined the group.

In retrospect, compared to Godou’s childhood overseas experiences of being stranded in without food, water, money and a language barrier, this really was an insignificant matter.

The front of Mark’s newly rebuilt pub was new and study looking.

Even now there were several customers inside watching the raid group’s gathering with either bemused or indifferent expressions.

As for the raid group themselves, no one was dressed casually. There was nervous tension in the air almost like the atmosphere just before a sports match.

Everyone wore a variety of battle gear dropped from monsters, earned from quests or bought from others. For players, their gear was something akin to trophies, definite proof of their hardships and victories, thus they wore them proudly.

Amongst the crowd of players, Godou was pleased to find that he could spot several familiar faces.

To the left side of him was a mage named Flay who Godou knew specialised in Ice Magic. In the middle section of the crowd was a rogue player named Spade. Next to Spade was the high levelled archer player Harris.

He spotted Lis in the centre of this crowd in deep conversation with some other players he had never seen before. Judging from the contents of their conversation, it seemed they have having a discussion about how everything was going to be organised.

The days before this, Godou had asked around his various acquaintances for people willing to join the raid.

However, when he asked about what sort of people to look for, Lis told him not to invite any NPCs saying:

“It’s best not to ask any NPCs to join us. If we fail and get captured by the goblins we can still suicide to get out of there or log out. However that option does not exist for the NPCs. Also since they’re the ones who truly live in this town, repairs have a higher priority for them.”

As a result, the number of acquaintances Godou could ask was greatly decreased since he mostly knew NPCs. Nevertheless it’s not like it was guaranteed that his acquaintances would be available even if he asked them.

Badas was out of the question and Hel seemed to be busy with paperwork. Something about being the supervisor of a new batch of Kallamore Knights being assigned to the region.

Godou had tried asking Reta but apparently she was busy doing a quest so she couldn’t go.

After depending on the church of Freya for so much, Godou felt that he might become overwhelmed by guilt if he asked them for help this time around as well. Additionally, the strength of the church of Freya was the sole reason the town was able to still exist in its destroyed state.

He had also asked about food supplies and such but Lis had said that she would be arranging that as well so he let the matter be.

“Yahoo~ It’s nice to see you on this bright and cheery day. It seems like the perfect weather to raze down a village and wrench away everything that isn’t nailed down~”

Suddenly hearing a cheery voice suddenly talk to him from behind, Godou turned to face the speaker.

There was a male youth wearing something that resembled a white lab coat fiddling with something in his hands. Needless to say, this youth was Satoshi.

“Yo… Could you not make such a disturbing analogy in such a light tone? I almost thought you were telling me about flower arrangements or something.”

“It’s not an analogy. It’s the simple truth. What they do to us, we do to them. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, wanafish for a wanafish.”

While making this strange statement which seemed to be a reference of some sort, Satoshi shrugged and continued fiddling with the object in his hands apparently performing maintenance.

Wait, is this for real? Godou could not help but stare at the object in surprise.

He had always been curious about Satoshi’s weapon of choice, but to think it was something like this!

Given Royal Road’s medieval setting he didn’t think this kind of object would exist.

It was a strangely shaped object shaped like a crossbow without the bow part attached. Although it had no real life counterpart model, Godou had no doubt about what it was. It was–

“A handgun?!”

“Correction! This isn’t your ordinary firearm, in fact, this is actually a magic tool! I present to you, the magic gun!”

Seeing that he had grabbed Godou’s interest, Satoshi smiled and twirled the object in his hand and pointed it at Godou.

“What’s the difference? …And can you stop pointing that at me?”

Although it was just a game, Godou found it unnerving to have something resembling such a dangerous weapon pointed at him.

Still smiling, Satoshi flipped the magic gun around and opened the chamber where bullets would normally be stored. Inside was a cylindrical crystal like object.

“It’s a crystallised attack potion. Though the procedure to make these is a bit lengthy so I’d rather not waste these. Basically, this is one of my last resorts.”

Satoshi explained.

“Attack potion? What’s that?”

So far the only potions Godou was familiar with were Health potions and Mana potions. He didn’t know that other types existed –Actually, he vaguely remembered reading something about it in the church of Freya’s library but that had been so long ago that he couldn’t recall anything about it.

Noting his confusion, Satoshi elaborated a bit.

“Attack potions are potions that are made with the primary purpose of being used to attack others. The most well-known of them being poisons but there are others such as the Splash Potion of Harming, Blast potions, Freeze potions, lightning potions, monster attractants etc.”

“Oh… So your magic gun shoots these?”

“Yep. Not only that, this gun also has the same function as a magic staff and can do a few other things. Pretty nifty don’t you think?”

“How did you get something like this?”

Although Godou had not explored that much of Royal Road aside from Tellap town and its neighbouring areas, he had grown used to the atmosphere of the game. Thus, he was surprised to see something that he had not seen before.

He knew that magic tools existed. However they were supposed to very rare items, furthermore, no news of anything resembling a modern gun had ever been told to him.

“An acquaintance of mine created the concept a while back. As you imagine, it caused quite a stir in the magic researcher community in Haven.”

“I see.”

The theme of the weapons in this world were the ancient weapons of warfare such as swords, spears etc in addition to magic staffs. A handgun was a modern weapon and thus completely contradicted this theme. But yet before Godou was such a weapon.

With his world view significantly broadened, Godou couldn’t help but wonder what else was out there in this world that he didn’t know about.

“Speaking of Haven, that’s where you first started out isn’t it? What’s it like?”

“What’s it like? That’s a very broad question isn’t it?”

Since the question had been suddenly asked, Satoshi seemed at lost at how to answer it properly.

Haven and Kallamore. The two powerhouses of the central continent.

The two were bitter rivals.

While Kallamore was a place that gained its strength from having to combat constant monster attacks, Haven was also a land rich with resources and dungeons. That was all common knowledge in Royal Road. Despite knowing that, Godou felt that there was much more too it.

In that case, who better to ask then a former resident of Haven?

After pausing as if he was considering the question, Satoshi finally spoke.

“Haven is a completely different place from Kallamore. No, I think it would be more accurate to say that Kallamore is different from all the other kingdoms. In other places, you would only on very rare occasions see a raid party like this comprised of randoms and members of different guilds.”

“It’s because of the monsters isn’t it?”

“That is correct.”

Kallamore was a kingdom different from all the other kingdoms. Conflicts between players and guilds were actually a rare occurrence in this kingdom. Now that he thought about it, Godou had not actually seen any players fight each other since he had started playing Royal Road.

However in other kingdoms which did not have the threat of monsters constantly breathing down their neck, this was not the case. Fights would break out between players over the slightest things, guilds would war against each other for supremacy.

“Heck, in Haven there were even some events that encouraged PvP. Ah… those were the times… Fighting another party to steal an antique which is actually fake, losing a lot of money from betting in tournaments which suffer upsets when famous players lose to no-names… ”

Satoshi was a player who had started out in such an environment. Thus, it must be quite a bizarre experience to come to a raid like this.

“There are a lot of famous players in Haven aren’t there?”

Now that he tried to recall it, Godou found that the number of times Misaki had mentioned a player from the Haven Kingdom was astoundingly high compared to players in other kingdoms.

Since Misaki was the type of person who would memorise the details of famous players off by heart, Godou didn’t think there was any particular bias in her words.

“It’s sort of the other way around though. Those players became famous solely because there was a lot of stuff they could do in Haven. With more dungeons they had a higher chance of getting good items. With more enemy guilds they had more opportunities to demonstrate shows of power. With more rivals they had to push themselves harder to stay in the lead.”

Satoshi’s words had a slight tinge of nostalgia mixed in them.

“Not the mention the fact that there were a lot of oddball powerhouses in Haven at the time for some reason…”

Sensing Satoshi’s slightly strange tone, Godou decided to change the topic a bit.

“Speaking of Haven, the Hermes guild is based there isn’t it?”

“Hermes huh? What do you want to know about them?”

“Please tell me about the Scarlet Blitz!”

“…Who are you?”

Of course, Godou had not been the one who had made that lively proclamation. It had been a third party. As Godou and Satoshi turned to stare that this third party, Godou realised that it was also someone he knew.

A teenage girl younger than him who was aspiring to become a strong assassin type player. It was Misaki.

Since he was the common point between Misaki and Satoshi he was the one responsible for introducing the two of them to each other.

“Are you joining this raid as well?”

After the introductions were down, Godou had asked the question Misaki with surprise.

Was Tellap town’s situation so bad that Lis was resorting to recruiting beginners as well? Are we going to be alright?

However, Misaki’s explanation quelled such doubts.

“Onee-chan said I should join this raid because it’s a good chance to gain experience and learn from veterans.”

“Wow, newbies sure are cherished here.”

With no doubt, Satoshi was recalling the treatment of new players in the other kingdoms he had visited. Compared to those places where new players had to put up with the dictatorship of old ones, Kallamore’s traditions were completely different.

Due to all the dangers of the monsters attacks, having even one set of extra helping hands created a huge impact on whether or not the kingdom would survive or not. Because of that, veteran player in Kallamore were always happy to help new players.

One reason for this was because they wanted to make it easier for the new players so they decide to stay in Kallamore and help. Another reason was because they too remembered what it was like to start out in Kallamore and felt pity for the new players.

“Wait, does this mean that your older sister is in this raid party as well?”

From Misaki’s words, Godou had gotten the impression that her older sister was the type of dote on Misaki both endlessly and foolishly. Although he was trying not to judge on rumours alone, the image of a single minded siscon had been engraved into him whenever he tried to think of Misaki’s sister.

Was it finally time for him to meet this mysterious older sister?

“Ah Godou, how typical of you to start going after the ladies ASAP. Without a doubt, the nickname people have started calling you behind your back fits you perfectly. ”

“Eh?”

As Satoshi started to nudge him playfully while making a troublesome statement, Godou started feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“What nickname are you talking?”

“Oh, do you really not know? Ignorance is bliss you know. I think I’ll just withhold it from you…”

“Hey, tell me. What are people starting to call me now?”

The players in Kallamore had a tradition of bestowing famous or eye catching players call-signs or nicknames. It most cases the person who received the name will not like it either because the name was too chuuinbyuu (Grey Phantom) or a potential innuendo (Quick shot). Because he knew these two examples in person, Godou could only guess how bad his nickname was going to be.

But why exactly am I being even a nickname?

During the siege and after that Godou could not recall doing anything particularly eye catching. During the fight against Embinyu’s Divine Saint he had his hood up so his identity could not be found. Moreover, his fight with Elemental Lord Candidate Knite was something only known by a few people.

I’m sure that nothing I have done so far will attract the attention of others so what exactly is this nickname going to be about?

As Godou considered forcefully shaking the information out of Satoshi, Misaki suddenly interrupted again and looked at Satoshi with sparkling eyes.

“Irrelevant things aside, tell me about the Scarlet Blitz!”

“It might be irrelevant to you but to me this is a matter of utmost importance!”

“What do you want to know about Scarlet? Fufufufu I can tell you all her secrets!”

“Ooh!”

“…Are you guys going to start purposely ignoring me now?”

“Then… is it true that Scarlet is one of the original founders of Hermes?”

“Out of all the questions you ask, this is the first one? Not some question about the secret to her strength or whatever? ”

“I want to move forward with my own strength. Not something I have learnt from others.”

“Ho~”

As Satoshi and Misaki brilliantly started to ignore Godou’s protests, Godou found that he had no choice but to simply go with the flow and listen.

“That rumour is… incorrect!”

“Eh? Really?”

“Yeah, these days people will think any strong person close to Ray Bard is part of Hermes. But it wasn’t like that. In fact, Scarlet isn’t even formally part of Hermes anymore. She is one of founders of the [Mercury] guild!”

“Wait that ghost guild actually exists?”

Misaki made an expression of horror as if her dreams got crushed, but then immediately brightened up again as if she saw a silver lining.

“Instead of a hero fighting boldly in the spotlight, Scarlet’s anti-hero who fights in darkness! So cool! Yep that definitely fits her character better!”

“What are you talking about?”

As Godou started to grow genuinely baffled by unfamiliar terms, Misaki began to explain.

“The Mercury Guild is rumoured to be one of the most feared guilds in the Haven Kingdom. While it’s said that every single member of the guild is a complete monster, there’s actually no hard evidence to show that the guild and its members actually exists.”

“…Complete monster… isn’t that going a bit too far?”

Even Satoshi seemed to be having doubts about that phrase, nevertheless Misaki stood her ground and insisted:

“If one rumour about Mercury is true, then the others must be as well! Like how Mercury is actually led by the Demon-eyed Killer, Tyrant’s Eye and Kamikaze! And–”

“Hold on a second! Kamikaze?”

Godou could not help but object when he heard that term. Surely that name didn’t mean what he thought it meant…

“That’s the nickname given to a player who’s famous for employing suicide attacks! While there were rumours about him being related to Mercury, there was no actual evidence for it…. Until now! It’s true right? Right?!”

To think there was such a person with that name. Godou felt sorry for that person. He couldn’t help but wonder if all the players in Royal Road had a bad naming sensing or something.

“So they actually exist right? There’s definite proof that Kamikaze and Tyrant’s Eye exist but what about Blade Fortress and Demon-eyed Killer? What about Sunlight Knight Neo then? Is it true that the player killer Lucifer is part of Mercury as well then?”

“Neo… is a complete monster but he is the guildmaster of the Half-Legend guild and thus has no direct relationship with Mercury. Lucy… Lucifer on the other hand is actually part of the guild, in fact Lucifer and Tyrant’s Eye are the same person. Blade Fortress and Demon-eyed Killer also exist… I’m fairly confident about that fact…. You sure know a lot of rumours about this, I would have thought that there would be less general knowledge about this ghost guild.”

“Mercury is something like one of the seven mysteries of Royal Road. With a bit of research anyone would become a little curious about it!”

Satoshi helplessly stared at Godou as Misaki started to pressure him. Godou wondered if he was starting to regret his words. Godou started to rack his brain trying to think of a way to change the topic.

Seeing Godou remain still, Satoshi simply shrugged and saying:

“While that may be true, the members of Mercury are still human. They have their faults. For example, the Demon-eyed Killer has extremely bad luck and attracts weirdos and perverts. Or that Kamikaze is actually a lazy person who excels at procrastinating. There’s also the fact that Tyrant’s Eye and Blade Fortress both have severe chuuinbyuu.”

“Ooh!”

A sudden thought came to Godou’s mind. The idea seemed outrageous, but stranger things have happened.

Godou spoke his thoughts.

“In mythology, Hermes is the Greek god of economics, travellers and various other things, Mercury is his Roman counterpart isn’t he? Are the Hermes guild and Mercury guild somehow related then?”

Even a Japanese person like Godou knew these details about the famous paragons.

“I’m surprised you know about that of the top of your head. Personally, I would have needed Google to find that out.”

As Satoshi praised him sounding impressed, Godou merely shrugged. His knowledge on mythologies was superficial at best, he knew that all too well.

“Wait, really?! What’s the relationship?”

As Misaki yelled that out, Satoshi put his finger to his lip and with a wicked grin whispered:

“Not many people know it but Mercury was originally an offshoot guild of Hermes created to do their dirty work. Over time the relationship grew distant though the guilds still have connections with each other. Anyway don’t spread this. It wouldn’t do to hurt Hermes’s reputation after all~”

“EVERYONE GATHER UP! WE’RE LEAVING!”

A voice interrupted their conversation. Godou looked and saw Lis gather up the raid party. Was it finally time for them to move out?

“Let’s continue this conversation later.”

“Okay.”

With those words, Misaki left them, probably to find her sister. Just as Satoshi was about to follow her, Godou called him.

There was one thing that had bothered him during this conversation. There was no point beating around the bush so Godou decided to ask Satoshi directly.

“If all this information is supposed to be a secret, the how do you know it?”

However, Satoshi merely shrugged evasively.

“Truths, half-truths and lies... These three things spread and become distorted as rumours. When you’ve been around as long as I have, you hear things from all over the place. But rumours are only rumours at best, there is no guarantee that anything I say is correct is there?”

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