Chapter 18 – Increasing Allies And Off To The Next Journey!

Chapter 18 Increasing Allies And Off To The Next Journey!

Chapter link: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n2211cx/19/ (2015/10/17)

Translation: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (2018/11/20)

Editor: Keii (2020/02/19)

Translation link: https://twomorefreethoughts.wordpress.com/awlba-c018/

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Notice 1: MC uses a particular form of “I” when he’s speaking as Ruphas. It’s something that could/would be used by emperors but are not limited to just them. MC doesn’t use “I” as an emperor would but uses it moreso to portray the natural significance of his own character (he’s really just role playing as a great being, not an emperor). I will continue to use the normal “I”.

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(Author note)

Levia: “I managed to use Protect!!”

(Author note end)

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Quite a few minutes elapsed before Aries finally stopped crying.

Although he was still teary and sniffling, he should at least be able to hold a conversation by now.

For now, Aries was no longer a wild monster and had returned to being under my control, so I should be able to see his status.

So naturally, the first thing I should do is check his status.

 

[12 Heavenly Stars Aries]

Level: 800

Species: Rainbow Sheep

Elemental Affinity/Type: Fire

HP: 75 000

SP: 7600

STR (Strength/Attack Power): 4100

DEX (Dexterity): 4000

VIT (Vitality): 4050

INT (Intelligence): 4300

AGI (Agility/Speed): 4170

MND (Mindpower): 4294

LUK (Luck): 4180

 

Hmm… Were his stats a little higher than what I remembered them being?

If I recalled correctly, Aries’s HP used to be 68 000, so it had clearly gone up.

I guess he was trying to improve himself in his own way during the last 200 years.

 

Anyways, these were such balanced stats.

Well, it was me that raised him to be a jack-of-all-trades due to the scarcity of stat points though.

Incidentally, even with this, I doped his stats up a lot. Without doping, his base stats were in the range of 1000-1500.

After all, this guy was originally a craft-type monster and not a battle-type monster.

Blatantly speaking, the correct way to use him was to let him manufacture wool and not take him to battle. As a matter of fact, I was the weird one for making him strong and forcing him to fight.[1]

 

“Now then, have you calmed down Aries?”

“Y, Yes.”

 

Looking up with a swollen red nose and teary eyes was a face that I couldn’t think of as male no matter how I looked at it.

I’m not really into traps so I didn’t think much of it, but Dina, who had come back god knows when, couldn’t stop smiling at all.

Although she disdained the appearances of orcs, it seemed  that traps were a strike for her.

I felt as though I was gradually figuring out her preferences.

… Could it be, she was gallantly serving me simply because she liked my appearance? That couldn’t be the reason, right?

 

“I don’t like beating around the bush, so I’ll get straight to the point. Currently, I’m on a journey to regain control of the 12 Heavenly Stars, and you’re the first. Don’t say anything and just follow me. I won’t accept any objections.”

“Yes! Gladly!”

 

Initially, I said I’d gather the 12 Heavenly Stars and send them to the tower, but it’s quite a distance from here.

Or rather, if I sent this guy back alone, I was scared he was going to get lost.

He’s excellent as a support so it was probably more advantageous to take him along. Thinking along those lines, I ordered him to follow me.

 

“Let’s work hard together again, Ruphas-sama! And… the unfamiliar person standing over there, I look forward to working with you!”

“!?”

 

Dina had frozen in shock.

Ahh, yep. I guess you would freeze after being called an unfamiliar person.

I had also happened to ask Dina, “Who were you again?”, but it seemed like Aries was just like me and had also forgotten about Dina.

Dina quickly came back to life and then met Aries’s eyes, striking up a conversation with a bright smile.

Wait, no, looking carefully, there were veins bulging on her forehead.

 

“Aries-sama? You really don’t remember seeing me before?

Really??

I’ve, always, been at that tower, you know?”

“Eh? You were there?”

“Look, please try to remember. In the tower, didn’t I always stay close to Ruphas-sama?”

 

When he was told so by Dina, Aries’s eyes wandered off as if he was recalling something distant.

After a while, he suddenly raised his voice and said, “Oh!”.

 

“By any chance, are you that person that always blended in with the background and had no presence?”

“So cruel!?”

 

Dina was devastated again and looked at me with a face that could burst into tears at any moment.

Well, yeah, there was no helping it Dina.

Because, Dina, you were, in a literal sense, a “background NPC”.

You literally couldn’t interact with others, have a turn to shine or have the ability to do anything.  If you had operated in the same way in this world, of course, no one could remember you.

 

“I’m surprised! You could move from that spot!”

“Am I furniture!?”

“Or more like, you can even speak!”

“Ruphas-sama! This child’s spouting savage remarks with a smile without holding back!?”

 

Poor Dina. If you could have displayed your current competence or made witty remarks 200 years ago, you wouldn’t be in this situation.

Or more like, why were you a background character back then?

Perhaps, back then, you were a quiet person without much personality?

If that was so, it would also mean that you were someone who had changed after 200 years of time had passed… I felt as though you had changed too much though.

Anyways, since this really is quite pitiful, I guess I’ll step in and give her a helping hand.

 

“Aries. Ever since I came back to this world, Dina is someone that has supported me wholeheartedly. Don’t bully her too much.”

“Eh? What.. I’m not trying to bully her……!”

“I was just saying what I thought….”

“That’s even worse!!” (Dina)

 

Ahh, I understood now. For better or worse, Aries was just straightforward and honest.

At this rate, it looked like Dina was going to have a difficult time.

 

*

 

“ … and in that way, Aries was successfully retrieved. And while we were at it, some guy called Mars from the 7 Luminaries was buzzing around and generally being annoying so I beat him up. You may now be at ease.”

“…….…. What were all the hardships we went through during the past few years for…?”

 

After retrieving Aries, I went back to Megrez’s home in the Noble district.

I don’t know how he persuaded the guards but, after the last encounter, he told them to allow me to pass through if I ever showed up with a Face pass (well, not that I showed my face). It was quite an appreciative gesture.[2]

As for Aries, since his original form and the human form were completely different, the guards did not suspect anything nor stop him for an inspection at all.

No one would think that monstrous sheep that was over 100m tall would be this girly-looking little boy.

I was the one who edited his human appearance to be such though.

 

“What happened to all the monsters?”

“I placed them all under my control for now. I ordered them to not pointlessly attack people, so as long as you guys don’t attack them first, you don’t have to worry about being attacked.”

“That castle should have had a few hundred monsters…. even after 200 years, the Supreme Ruler’s charisma to conquer and command still hasn’t waned at all, huh.

How scary.”

 

Ah, I’m sorry about that part. It had probably waned a lot.

After all, what was inside was different.

Not that I could say that out loud. So for now, I just laughed with a confident smile in order to deceive him.

 

“What do you plan to do from now on?”

“Naturally, I’ll regain control of all of the 12 Heavenly Stars under me. Next is…”

 

Next is… where again?

I’m not familiar with this period’s geography at all.

If there were cities from the time I was playing the game then I would know but, unfortunately, ever since my nation fell apart, the heroes had conquered and founded their own nations, so I had no idea where what was.

And so, I looked at Dina so she could continue on with the exposition.

 

“Our next location is [The Black-Winged Royal Tomb].

It’s approximately 500km away from here. One of the 12 Heavenly Stars, Libra of the [Scales], is guarding it.”[3]

 “…….. From the name of it, it sounds like my tomb.”

“It’s not ‘sounds like’, it literally is Ruphas-sama’s tomb.

Its construction was completed approximately 190 years ago.

Those who revered Ruphas-sama took 10 years to build an enormous pyramidal dungeon consisting of 108 floors in the greatest monumental building project in the world.

The highest floor contains all the equipment, treasure and weapons that Ruphas-sama had previously owned, and guarding that for the past 190 years without rest is one of the 12 Heavenly Stars, Libra.”

“Hou, Libra huh.”

 

12 Heavenly Stars, Libra of the [Scales].

She was most likely the strongest golem to exist even within X-Gate Online.

The base material was obtained by completing an official event. It was a material that was truly unique in existence — the [Selection Scales].[4]

On top of that, I got a Level 200 Alchemist, Mizar (a casher), to craft the golem to pull the item level up before getting the golem transferred to me.

I’ve previously already stated that the maximum level of the crafted item is determined by the material used. For the [Selection Scales], the maximum possible level was level 1000.

Furthermore, with Mizar’s Alchemist profession level of 200, the calculation used for golem creation was [1000 ÷ 2 + 200]. As such, golems up to level 700 could be created.

(Author Note: Golems are treated as items, so they are transferable.)

On top of that, I used a limited-edition cash shop item, [Orichalcum] (the effect of the item randomly increased the final maximum level of the crafted Golem by 10-30%), and was lucky enough to get a +30% roll, thus adding an additional 210 levels.

 

In summary, as a golem, Libra boasted a level of 910, making her an existence which could be called a super golem co-created by Mizar and I.

Well, the rule of [Cannot be stronger than the owner] still stood as usual, so if she was transferred over to a weaker player, she would weaken proportionately, but as I was level 1000, there were no problems.

 

As a side note, if you looked at the attack alone, it was most probably the strongest amongst the 12 Heavenly Stars…. Or perhaps even stronger than me.

Though, to be fair, the skill of the Boss Character [Goddess of the Scales] that we fought in order to obtain the [Selection Scales] was carried over and included with Libra.

The [Goddess of the Scales] was a gatekeeper in the Almighty Goddess Alovenus’s sanctuary (or so was the backstory of the difficulty of the dungeon), and thus required players to have fitting strength if they wanted to challenge the dungeon.

It was a fearful gatekeeper who struck down all weak and undeserving players without mercy using its ultimate (unique) skill, [Brachium].

The skill’s effect – 100% hit rate, flat 99 999 Area of Effect damage which ignored all Defence.

It was a given, but if you improved your character through normal means, this was something that you could never survive.

Even a naturally high spec’d Flugel or Vampire race player usually only had around 70 000 HP at level 1000.

 

In other words, the enemy was buffed to the point of being so broken that, outside of the top players, you would have had no chance whatsoever.

As a side note, when we were clearing the dungeon, Megrez, who had low HP, got rekt.

If you could not even defeat this gatekeeper, you were judged to be unqualified to meet with the Goddess. That was how ruthless the dungeon was.

[If you can defeat the gatekeeper and manage to meet with the Goddess after overcoming the various difficulties the dungeon throws at you, you will be rewarded] was the premise of the event.

 

Even after becoming part of a golem, this broken skill remained.

As one could expect, unlike the time when it was being used by a Boss Character and they could blast out that broken skill immediately after the start of the battle as many times as it wanted and as often as it wanted to, the skill was nerfed once to the point of only being able to fired once every 24 hours.

But that fearsome skill still remained fearsome.

I clearly remembered a scene where even my allies were shuddering from the sight of the skill being blasted immediately at the start of a fight as a [Pre-emptive attack] in order to gain an advantage.

The problem was… most likely due to bad AI, if it was in a condition to be able to fire the skill, it just blasted it even against weaklings.

As a consequence, there were many times I was stumped because it couldn’t be used when I really needed it.

 

Anyways, this clearly game-breaking skill was thought to be an administrative failure to balance the game properly by many players. Even I thought of it as such.

There probably would have been a balance patch in the next update and the skill would have gotten nerfed, but before that could happen, the final war had occurred and I happened to come over to this world.[5]

 

Ah, so she’s the gatekeeper eh…

I didn’t know if there were any tomb raiders, but if there were, I could only say, “My condolences.”

In this current world, I’d imagine probably only the likes of Levia could overcome… that.

 

“I’ve always heard rumours about Libra.

I’ve heard she’s been called a merciless killing machine that murders anyone who comes to the top floor. It looks like some have tried to negotiate with her, but she hasn’t really listened to any of them.”

 

As if troubled by the situation, Megrez sighed.

For me personally, I thought that this was better than the situation with Aries, who was acting violently, but Megrez didn’t seem to think that way?

 

“Then isn’t it fine to just leave her alone? Is there really a reason to want to rob my tomb so much?”

“It’s problematic because there is. It’s not just the people who deteriorated compared to 200 years ago. Weapons, equipment and alchemists all dropped in quality to an unbelievable degree. This is especially true because we lost many legendary-tired swords and armours during the fight with the Demon King. All that’s left in existence are the ones safely stored in your tomb.”

 

Legendary-tier weapons probably referred to the rare weapon drops that players could not craft.

The likes of official event rewards were especially valuable because they were things that you would never get your hands on ever again.

 

“Currently, as they have been pressured into a corner by the Demon race, it’s something that the humanoids want to get their hands on at all costs. It’s not that I support raiding the tomb of a deceased, but the countless weapons stored in your tomb could give the humanoids a chance for a comeback. … But, because of the existence of that golem, no one has been able to lay their hands on them.”

 

Well, you’re talking about a stupidly broken skill that dealt a fixed 99 999 damage with defence penetration.

Even if you said that repeated firing was not possible, in the current age, even getting to the top floor was probably done only by risking their lives.

So being hit by an attack that spelled instant death after going through all that was really something that people wouldn’t be able to readily accept.

 

“Hmm… Personally, I can’t come to blame Libra. It’s true that for the humanoids, she’s an annoying and troublesome existence, but for me, she’s a loyal retainer who’s been protecting my possessions until I returned. Let alone a reason for placing any fault on her, if anything, I should be praising her.”

“I understand that. It’s just that, after you’ve recovered Libra, I’d really appreciate it if you could leave some things in the tomb. It’s fine even if it’s just the stuff you think you won’t use. I’m fully aware that this is a shameless request.”

“……… Well, I guess I don’t mind it if it’s only that much.”

 

An owner of a tomb that approves people raiding their own tomb… it was quite an amusing story, really.

At the very least, the next destination was decided.

It was time to go give a word of appreciation to Libra who has been working without rest for the past 190 years.

 

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(Author note) 

[Some Irrelevant background settings]

• Skills and class

In this world, people are aware of normal concepts such as class, level and skills that existed back in the game (to begin with, there’s no such thing as a video game though), but beyond all that, all systems are created by the Creation Goddess Alovenus.

There are no concepts such as [creating my own skill] or [crafting my own technique] in this world. All skills and magic are gifted by the goddess.

Currently, the only one with that mindset in this world, is an irregular existence — only Ruphas.

 

Fundamentally, those powers are prepared for use by the humanoids and, outside of humanoids, class changes are not possible.

As such, no matter what monsters do, they will remain as monsters. Similarly, it is completely impossible for orcs to be born as Alchemists.

It is said the humanoids’ power to class change was a blessing provided by the Goddess as a result of her love for them.

 

However, the demon race also has the power to class change, and as such, there are more than a few people who doubt whether the power to class change is really a reward from the Goddess due to her blessing.

And even after 200 years of being pressured into a corner, however much the people prayed, the Goddess has shown no sign of changing this system, nor have there been any signs of punishment for the demon race.

(Author note end)

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[1] For non-gamers out there, combat-type pets are self-explanatory, but most games in the MMO genre have what you call life skills or crafting. Long story short, you’re able to make various items for various use, e.g. potions to save expenses, equipment to better your character, items to decorate your “own house”, etc. From the context, Aries was something that produced rainbow wool for possibly a cosmetic item or special equipment, or something that produced in-game currency if you sold them to an NPC. TLDR: just know that he’s not suited for battle.

[2] It’s a play on words in the raw, not so much a pun but… yeah.

[3] 500km = 311 miles.

[4] The MMO genre often has special events hosted by the game’s developers or publishers which gives a unique reward that cannot be obtained elsewhere in the game.

[5] Whenever something new comes out in an MMO (not limited to skills), it’s most often broken (overpowered). After a while, with enough feedback or, more commonly, with enough complaints from the players, it receives a “balance patch” where it gets weakened (aka nerfed).

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