Part 4 - Discovery

“Please party with me!”

A female archer suddenly yelled that at Godou while avoiding eye-contact.

“Ah, me too!”

Another female player in light armour armed with a dagger also started pleading at him.

“I want in as well!”

“Me too!”

Before he realised it, Godou had found himself surrounded by female players whom he had no memory of ever meeting before.

“Tch… Damn this Harem Bastard.”

“Just go and explode already.”

“As expected of the Harem Bastard...”

From around him, he could hear the murmurs of discontent from the other male players around him.

…Why is this happening?

Godou panicked at his sudden burst of popularity(?).

Just how had this situation come to be? To find that out, one must travel back in time by a few minutes.

It had been after a several hour long trip on the caravan that the raid team finally arrived at their location, a small human settlement known as Retwep Village. After a short respite to stretch out their stiff limbs, the raid leaders started to call the raid team over to one place again.

Just as before, the goal of this gathering was to remind everyone to keep a low profile in the village as well as to brief them on the finer details of the battle plan.

As Lis started to broach the topic of party compositions and roles, Godou started to wonder what his role in a party would be.

Looking at it seriously, the roles of normal game characters did not fit him at all.

As someone who had originally only played Royal Road because he was forced it, Godou had never really given much thought into his stat distributions. In the beginning he had simply distributed all level up stat points across his basic stats. Afterwards, he had simply started placing everything into Divinity.

Although he had defences rivalling a tank player, Godou did not have the appropriate passive and support skills to professionally take this role.

He would be able to get by had he been playing solo or in a low level area but in a serious raid like this, things were better left to the professionals.

Being the tank was more than just being able to take damage, it was about controlling the enemies aggro levels, protecting the other party members and coordinating with support to give the DPS the best possible chance to strike.

Given the short amount of time which he had been playing Royal Road, Godou did not believe he had the experience to play in this role.

Additionally, Godou was immune to blessings and heals so he could not expect to get any support from other players while fighting making him even less efficient to use as a tank.

Despite this, Godou felt that it was quite clear that dealing damage was not what he excelled at either. In fact, due to his low skill proficiencies, Godou’s normal damage output was actually lower than a combat based player at the same level.

In the support department Godou had no outstanding feats either.

His fighting spirit could weaken enemies but that was a passive effect and not something he was actively trying to do. Mana weapon explosions caused AOE damage and knockback but compared to attacks with normal weapons the damage was a lot lower. [Might of the Ruler] also had some crowd control abilities but Godou could not use it at will.

As a result of his careless development, it was hard to classify Godou into any role. He did not specialise in anything but neither was he a jack of all trades.

In the end, Godou had become a unique existence made for a unique play style. There was no-one he could emulate thus he had to work things out through trial and error.

Rather than being a surprising development, it would be more apt to say something like “as expected of a Devil King Campione, blatantly ignoring the archetypes and walking their own road”.

As he was clueless by himself, Godou had tried to quietly consult Satoshi who had been standing next to him at the time.

Status Window[quart=Name,Alignment]Godou,Chaotic[/quart]

[quart=Level,Class]136,Overlord[/quart]

[quart=Race, Title] Heretic God, Fake Pacifist[/quart]

[quart=Fame, Notoriety]244521,14950[/quart]

[quart=Health, Mana]13021,10880 [/quart]

[quart=Strength, Agility] 179,220[/quart]

[quart=Wisdom, Intellect]268, 268[/quart]

[quart=Leadership, Luck] 102,638[/quart]

[quart=Stamina, Perseverance]186,220[/quart]

[quart=Sustenance, Fighting Spirit]197,709 [/quart]

[quart=Honor, Divinity]106,815[/quart]

[quart=Attack, Defence] 114,596[/quart]Magic Resistance99%(MAX)Class Bonuses

Class Bonuses

+ 20 to all stats

+ 200 Health

+ 200 Mana

+ 20% Magic Resistance

+ able to use magic

+ the skills and spells you use cannot fail

+ can equip all armours and weapons regardless of restrictions on class, level and stats.

+ immune to from the effects of most heals, buffs, curses, potions and poisons

+ harder to improve intimacy with members of religions. Church members may fear or worship you

+ half of the experience gained will go to your Divine Control Mastery.

Racial Bonuses:

+ You cannot gain the Murder’s Mark.

+ Divine abilities will no longer go on deactivate due to poor condition additionally, the cost of many abilities has been reduced.

+ Rarely, when hit by an otherwise fatal attack, you will survive with less than 1% of your total Health.

+ When you die, your character will be permanently deleted.

Stats gained from Titles

Destructive Saviour: +30 to all stats

The Amateur who did the Impossible: + 20 to all stats, + 10% Magic resistance

Benefactor of the Order of Freya: None

Fake Pacifist: +10 to all stats

Stats gained from defeating monsters

Elemental Lord Candidate Knite: + 20 Divinity, + 100 Fighting Spirit

Stats gained from Equipment

Enhanced Steel Dagger: +113 Attack

Chaos Origin Coat: +100% Max Health, +100% Max Mana, +100% Total Defence, +30% Magic Resistance, +68 Defence

Enchanted High Silk Tunic: +65 Defence, + Damage from blunt and piercing attacks is reduced by 40% + Damage from slashing attacks is reduced by 20%, + 20% power of Holy attributed spells and attacks, + 5% Magic Resistance, + 5% All Elemental Resistances, +100 Faith, + 30 Art, + 30 Charm

Enchanted High Silk Leggings: +55 Defence, + Damage from blunt and piercing attacks is reduced by 40% + Damage from slashing attacks is reduced by 20%, + 20% chance that Dark spells do no damage, + 5% Magic Resistance, + 5% All Elemental Resistances, +100 Faith, + 30 Art, + 30 Charm

Enchanted High Silk Set Bonus:+ 30% damage reduction of critical hits, + 100 Luck

Talaria , Scandals of the Messenger God : +50 Agility, +100 Luck, +500 Mana, +10% Magic resistance

Divine Ring of Embinyu: +100 Intelligence, +100 Wisdom,+10% Magic Resistance

Spectrum Contract Bracelet: +100% Mana Regeneration

“What’s with these stats? All that luck and fighting spirit… What sort of random character are you trying to build?”

However after seeing his stats, Satoshi also seemed to be mystified on what Godou should do.

It was then that Godou found himself suddenly bombarded from party requests from players he didn’t know.

More specifically, requests from female players.

“Humph! I will allow you the honour of joining my party.”

“I–It’s not like I want to join your party or anything okay!”

“Let me join you, I’ll do anything you want! Ah! B–But nothing e–ecchi alright!”

Helplessly, Godou tried to look for a way to escape his current situation. In the corner of his eye he caught sight of Satoshi trying to inconspicuously slink away into the background.

Seeing that chance Godou called out to him.

“Hey Satoshi, want to party with me?”

Satoshi froze as all the attention on Godou switched on to him. Slowly, he turned around and faced Godou completely pokerfaced.

“For a very important and plot relevant reason, I must refuse your request.”

“I see…. But if you could come along it would be a great help.”

Godou was greatly disappointed by this rejection. Being bombarded as he was, Godou would probably end up with a party comprised of entirely women apart from himself. While the notion of that thought gave him mixed feelings, Godou really wanted to have another male companion close by.

“I must apologise then. However, since I don’t want to die I will refrain from joining you.”

“…Die? What are you talking about?”

“Ah, it’s nothing important. Don’t worry about it. ”

Just as Godou was going leave the matter be, he heard some suspicious muttering among the male players.

“…So that’s one way to evade a death flag…”

“Death flag? Ah, right, you mean the Harem Bastard’s curse…”

Instinctively, Godou felt that it would be really bad if he left the matter as it is. Acting on this impulse, Godou somehow broke out of the crowd of female players around him and grabbed Satoshi before he could escape.

Unsuccessfully trying to hide an evil grin, Satoshi looked at him while trying to feign innocence.

“Why are you still trying to restrain me Godou? *Gasp* Don’t tell me… You have fallen for my charm?! *Fake timid voice* No… I don’t swing that way... Plus, I already have my waifu…”

“Answer me seriously. Why are you trying to avoid partying with me? Is this somehow related to my nickname?”

As Godou started to violently shake him, Satoshi opened his mouth and closed it again as he were about to say something but then thought better of it.

After that moment of hesitation, he dropped his act and explained.

“Basically, you are jinxed.”

“...Jinxed?”

Godou was surprised by his excuse. Satoshi had never struck to him to be the superstitious type.

“Yep that’s the reason why all the girls want you and all the guys will avoid you...”

“What….”

“Basically all the women who enter you party have a 100% survival rate. Meanwhile, all the men have a 100% death rate!”

…To think there was such an outrageous rumour about him circulating. However looking back at his past experiences, Godou could not deny that claim………

“Those were all coincidences! Things like magic curses and jinxes, they all actually don’t exist in real life you know!”

………Nevertheless, that did not stop him from trying to defend himself while having his heart thrown into disarray by all the outrageous events that had happened to him in reality.

“You can say that but looking at your abnormal gambling luck, I don’t think anyone will be willing to try testing the waters anytime soon.”

“Wait, what does this have to do with my nickname? No, what is my nickname?”

“Haven’t you figured it out really? Surely you can’t be that dense.”

It was as Satoshi had said. Godou had a nagging suspicion on what his call-sign was it he didn’t want to jump to conclusions so soon. Or rather, Godou had hoped that his guess was not correct.

“You are the player who became famous for having close relationships with multiple women in a short period of time. The [Harem Bastard]!”

Unfortunately, he had put two and two together correctly.

“Daily visiting a sickly girl and whispering sweet nothings in her ear until eventually becoming deeply engraved in her heart… Exploiting the naivety of a kind priestess and soiling her innocence… Taking advantage of the purity of a newbie to teach her various things with her body, even damaging it sometimes when not holding back… Easily managing to befriend the isolated girl who put a barrier between her heart and make her expose her weakness… Going to the woods with two of these women at once and disappearing for several hours, all three of you coming back drenched in bodily fluids and completely exhausted! Your continual exploits have become an urban legend!”

Who, just who was the man being described as a sexual maniac?

At least, it definitely wasn't Kusanagi Godou, hence, as the crowd around them started to assert the rumours and tell wild stories of their own, he wished they would stop, seriously.

It was only after several minutes of repeating the same excuses over and over again that Godou managed to calm the situation down.

Thus after that minor(?) disturbance, Lis steered the meeting topic to the raid’s battle plan alerting everyone on what had been planned to occur.

Lis began by giving an in-depth recount on the information collected by the scouts so far. If the behaviour of the monster village changed within the next few days, the raid team’s battle plan would have to be changed accordingly.

It was only after that was done and said that she got to the real crux of the problem.

“Basically, we are f**ked if we end up fighting the boss monster Uor along with everything else in the village. Therefore, we have decided to send a single party to pull Uor away and stall him until the raid team takes care of the other monsters.”

“What are the Naidiriv forces going to be doing in the meantime?”

“Yeah what are they going to do about that?”

“What about the issue of…”

Lis raised her hand to stop the raid team’s bombardment of questions.

“One at a time please, Naidiriv will also be sending a party to pull Uor. Basically there will be two parties there to stall Uor. Personally, I would like to have more but we simply don’t have the manpower to do that and wipe out the monster village at the reasonable rate.”

“So how are the rewards going to be distributed for this then?”

Since the players stall Uor don’t get any chance to fight the monsters in the village, this meant that they were missing out on getting a lot of drops from normal monsters. Thus, naturally the question was asked.

“This is an important role so the rewards for under taking this task will be given accordingly.”

After saying that Lis looked at the crowd of players and smiled innocently.

“However, please keep in mind that Uor is a level 300 raid boss. We are expecting the majority of the stalling parties to be wiped out by the time we reach Uor. So… any volunteers? Who has a death wish?”

Murmurs of unease spread through the crowd of raid members at those extremely blunt words.

“No volunteers? Everyone is too keen on living? Okay, I guess we are just going to have to conscript people then.”

At those words everyone instinctively started to back away from Lis. Unfazed by this, Lis started explaining the criteria for the conscription.

“Ideally we would need people with a ridiculously high vitality who will not die no matter now tragic the circumstances. However since we don’t want to cut out main combat force by too much this person must be utterly worthless in all other fields. Furthermore, they need a lot of fighting spirit, luck and a wildcard factor since any ordinary party will be wiped out straight away. Ha! yeah right. No such person can exist!”

There are things people can do and things they can't. And without a doubt, fulfilling such a ridiculous criteria falls in the latter category.

Despite telling himself this, Godou had the nagging suspicion that he was going to get called out.

Nevertheless, Godou had no intention of getting in another frantic life or death struggle. Besides, all those other times were miracles which could only pulled through due to coincidences and a lot of help from various sources.

As great as his past history was, Godou was sure that his luck would eventually betray him and cause a tragic outcome.

With all these players around here surely there’s at least one person better suited for this than me!

With that, Godou decided to keep a low profile.

As the atmosphere around the raid group started to become something like a standoff, a hand was suddenly raised.

“Oh, do we have a volunteer? Eh… you?”

Godou was just as surprised as Lis.

All eyes were shifted on to person with the raised hand.

All eyes were on the man with a maniacal atmosphere like a mad scientist. Satoshi.

Satoshi had never quite struck Godou as the time to sacrifice himself for others. Thus, when Godou saw the devil-like smile on Satoshi’s face he instantly put his guard up.

“Basically what we need is someone who is practically made to fight bosses right?”

As expected, it didn’t seem like he was going to volunteer himself. Godou felt his instincts warning him to get out right now.

Based on his analysis of Satoshi’s personality, his next words will probably be–

“In that case, I nominate Godou! Send the undying Harem Bastard!”

“Nope, even for me that is completely impossible!”

Godou replied to Satoshi’s call swiftly. In this sort of situation, it was crucial that he deny Satoshi any control of the conversation.

Due to the extremely broad range of friends of his sociable grandfather and mother, Godou was well accustomed to dealing with this type of strange person.

However…

“Yeah send him!”

“Well, It’s not like he’s going to die anyway…”

“Go and explode!”

…As Satoshi pointed at him, Godou’s protests became drowned out by the roars of the other male players in the raid group.

It took ten more minutes for things to calm down once again.

“On what basis are you saying that? I’m not going to authorise this just because of some petty grudge.”

It was then that Lis and asked Satoshi to share his logic. Satoshi happily complied.

“Grudge? Do you think I’m the sort of person who would act on those sort of things? I’m just choosing that path with the highest chance of survival. I mean think about it, Godou fits basically everything you wanted in a man– I mean, in for bait. He’s tanky, lucky and has insanely high fighting spirit. Plus…”

Satoshi started walking towards Godou seemingly oblivious of his glares. The raid team cleared a path between them for some reason.

“Godou, your ability to dodge is pretty amazing you know.”

In mid-sentence, Satoshi threw a wrench which had somehow appeared in his hand.

Without any hesitation, he had aim directly at Godou’s head.

“What!?”

Greatly surprised, Godou tried to dodge.

Satoshi’s throw appeared so natural and smooth that Godou almost didn’t register it.

However, relying on his natural reflexes and survival instincts, he barely managed to duck away from that attack with forceful suppression.

Clang!

With a metallic sound, the wrench landed somewhere behind him.

“Oi just what do you think you’re doing?!”

“If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a dodgeball~”

“What does dodgeball have to do with this?”

Ignoring Godou’s snarls of protest, Satoshi shrugged as if he had just proven his point.

“Hmmm… point taken.”

“What do you mean point taken Lis? Also, I haven’t agreed to doing this either. In fact, if I decide to leave this raid team right now, what are you going to do?”

“If you don’t do it then we will end someone else who will get wiped out for naught. Then Uor will come and kill the rest of us while we’re fighting the village making this how raid fail in the end. Afterwards, Uor might take this as a declaration of war and start amassing a monster army for real. ~Oh no~ Just think of all the problems this will cause for the people living here~”

“Guh!”

Although Satoshi’s reasoning had struck his principles to the core, Godou’s permadeath attribute made him reluctant to face such a dangerous boss.

“You survived fighting Knite. Surely you will be able to survive this crisis as well~ I think…”

“Don’t talk like it’s an easy thing to do! I thought I was a goner that time as well!”

As the two of them started squabbling in front of the bemused raid group, Lis suddenly hit the side of her fist with her open palm as if she just made a breakthrough.

“Satoshi, you came from Haven to Kallamore without a party didn’t you?”

“…In a matter of speaking.”

“That means you must have considerable survival capabilities and adaptability as well. What’s more, you will also be completely useless in the raid. That does it! Satoshi, you’re partying with Godou! I won’t let you refuse!”

“Fuck!”

At those words Satoshi’s complexion paled considerably.

Nevertheless, Godou could not bring himself to pity Satoshi who was now chanting “Two death flags in one” repeatedly like some sort of mantra.

Rather, the expression “reap what you sow” would be more apt to describe his feelings.

***

A few hours had passed since the raid meeting had ended and all the other party allocations had been resolved.

Conversely, Satoshi and Godou were the only members of the party being sent to pull the boss monster Uor from the Tellap side. Apparently, the Naidiriv side was sending a mid-sized party to compensate for their lack of numbers.

Godou had gone for a walk to investigate the surroundings and ask the townspeople about the harassment the monster village had been giving to them.

The damage at the village itself actually wasn’t that bad.

However, the isolated houses and farms further away had been broken into and plundered of anything valuable. The residents had been allegedly killed and eaten by the monsters. No prisoners where taken. No lives were spared.

Looking at these horrific sights and hearing the tales of suffering told by the villagers, Godou couldn’t help but feel anger burn in his heart at the monsters for causing all these problems.

“I’m going to have a ton of things to complain about when I meet Uor.”

Godou grumbled to himself as he continued his walk.

[That would not be advisable. Monsters have a tendency to attack first, ask later.]

As he was currently by himself, Godou had not expected a response, thus he was somewhat off-guard when Ferrex started a conversation with him.

Lately, Ferrex had been troubled over something and had been initiating less and less conversation with Godou or anyone else in that matter. It seemed that nowadays most of their interactions took place when Godou teleported directly to Ferrex’s world in the pendant.

Given this rare opportunity, Godou became more talkative.

“From what I have been told, Uor is different from the other ogres. He has the ability to think rationally and clearly. Peaceful negotiations might work in this case. Nevertheless, I don’t intend to let him get away from doing all this lightly!”

[Despite all your earlier protests, you actually gave in to taking the role as bait rather quickly.]

“You were listening?!”

[I can’t listen in all the time but I was paying attention at that particular moment. You were so adamant about not getting involved then but now you’re completely eager to get on with the battle. It’s like you were only looking for a minor pretence to justify the flames of conflict. You totally remind me of… of… who? I can’t put my finger on it. Damn, another blank in my memory…]

“Hold on a bit! There are several things wrong with what you just said. First of all, there was no way I could resist the flow of that conversation. Also, who exactly are you describing as a fire starting troublemaker?”

[There were plenty of ways you could have avoided the job if you really didn’t want it though. Aren’t you just bored of being cooped up in Tellap and wanted to enjoy the thrill of battle again? Why don’t you just be honest with yourself?]

“Nope! Not at all!”

As Godou fervently denied Ferrex’s ramblings, he had the impression that Ferrex was enjoying himself.

Although he was glad that Ferrex seemed to be recovering from his depression(?), it hurt that he had to come at Godou’s expense.

[That death jinx thing might actually be true though. If that’s the case then I am also a victim of the Harem Bastard’s curse.]

“Oh don’t you start as well!”

.

.

.

After spending time conversing about trivia matters, Ferrex’s voice suddenly sharpened.

[Hmm… I am imagining this?]

“What’s wrong?”

[Hey Godou, do you sense anything strange about your surroundings?]

Godou looked around. There was nothing particularly eye catching about this area.

“Nope. It looks perfectly normal.”

[Are you saying that while using your [Aura Sensing] skill?]

“Ah, I forgot I could do that.”

Activating [Aura Sensing], Godou’s “area of awareness” expanded and he found himself being assaulted by a confused mixture of auras which was a result of too many people being in the same area.

“What am I supposed to be looking for?”

[In front of you to the right. Is there anything particularly eye catching about that area?]

Godou followed Ferrex’s instructions and focused his attention into that area.

Just am I supposed to be looking for?

All he could see was a confused mixture of auras. Godou’s level of mastery in [Aura Sensing] was too low for him to see much else.

As he continued to focus his attention in that direction, Godou felt his “area of awareness” shrink as he began to ignore everything except what he was focusing on. At the same time, the details of the area he was looking at became slightly clearer.

Somehow, Godou had instinctively managed to gain greater control the [Aura Sensing] skill.

With this newfound technique, Godou finally managed to pick up on a particular aura that stood up from the rest at the very edge of his “sight”.

The aura was very faint, but at that same time, it was like a lighthouse on a misty night.

A mass of power.

Slippery and evasive.

Ominous but yet seductive.

And also, a large concentration of mana.

That was the sort of impression the aura had given off.

“I think I see something. It’s not like anything I’ve ever felt before.”

[I have the same impression. Rather than a creature, it seems to be coming from an inanimate object.]

Investigating the source of this strange aura led Godou into the woods surrounding the town. After spending around 10 minutes cautiously searching, Godou found the source of it.

It was a small, glowing rock.

Yet at the same time, Godou could feel something both powerful and strange from it.

After Ferrex had determined that it was safe to touch, Godou carefully picked it up, curious.

Ding!

You have found a Mana Fragment.

-----

And now to go on an indefinite hiatus…