Chapter 384 - 384: Trying the Nearby Village! A Pile of Quests, Already Cleared!

Akie Omoi, Healer (Nurse Outfit), Lv2, HP500, MP800, Skill: Ultimate Heal

Nanao Usami, Fighter (Sailor Uniform), Lv5, HP825, MP505, Skill: Ultimate Punch

Haruki Karen, Magician (Sailor Uniform), Lv19, HP29, MP49, Skill: Ice Break

What shows here is the skill set as priority. Whether they actually use it is up to the AI.

Haruki got allocate points when I took her virginity. I left them sitting.

I left the sex sitting too.

Watch-only. She just watches the rotten stuff I do with Akie and Nanao.

If the loyalty that went up a little drops again, fine. A little pushback is fine. The resistance felt new, so fine.

At first Haruki looked away. Then she started glancing. Then she stared.

A little longer and this one starts rubbing herself.

Sex was supposed to be enough for me. I still had something I wanted to check.

"Today we go out a bit farther."

"Yes, Master."

Haruki can answer in time with them now. At first her voice was small, so I slapped her and made her remember where she stands.

Online, people were saying World NPCs are too real. Past a topic. Among us Top Ten it turned into a question.

We hacked a crypto mining company's machine farms and parked the compute there, sure. Even then, every NPC in a world that big moving and talking like a person is wrong. That was the talk.

I only do sex, so I have never touched an NPC. The info came from the Top Ten who log into World, and from hacker friends.

World is off.

If someone tells me World feels the same as real life, all I can say is oh, is that so. I am still one of the core people who rewrote MANHUNT. When they asked me to help pin down the weirdness, I could not refuse.

Liner, the one who designed World, went underground. The fine settings are a blank. His program is too strange. Nobody can parse it.

So the only move is to touch an NPC, see it, and pick it apart.

"Master, if we are going far, I think we should take some quests first."

"Oh, yeah? Then you pick them, Akie, and put them up. I will just mash accept."

"Understood."

Akie smiled, nodded, and threw quests up one after another. I did not really read them. I just hit them.

"There are more?"

"This is the last one."

I hit more than twenty. Early game, so there are a lot. Fine.

"Map."

I opened a map with wide-area magic. Cheat, so the range is the whole region. Other regions should show once we cross a border.

The rock face we use as a base is labeled Stone Fort Ruins. So it was ruins. The fortress build makes sense. I have barely looked at the back.

The nearest village is Airst. Distance. Ugh, over 10 km?

Walking that sucks.

"Akie, what is travel like? I do not want to walk 10 km."

"The wide-area magic page has a travel magic page."

"Oh. It does."

I looked. A few travel spells.

Fly. You fly. Not that fast.

Jump. Almost instant, inside line of sight. Airst is not visible, so useless.

Wait.

"If I Fly, and I see the village from far off, can I Jump there?"

"No. Jump's effective range is about 100 meters, I think. You can test it if you want."

"If that is the setting, fine."

I checked travel magic again.

Transport. You move to a point on the map, with error.

"This Transport error. I do not want to land inside the ground or in water."

"That does not happen. It avoids obstacles and puts you on the ground, height 0."

"Then we use this."

"Even for a Master, a Transport-class travel spell is probably twice a day at most."

"Eh. That so."

Right. There was that MLv thing. I checked my Master level.

MLv4.

Weak. The cheat opened most wide-area magic, but MMP is low. I should have raised max MMP when I cheated.

If I can use it twice, I can go and come back. Better than walking 10 km.

"We go by Transport."

"Yes, Master."

I turned them back into cards first. Only the Master can move with Transport.

They became light particles, cards, and dropped into my robe pocket on their own.

"Transport."

I pictured the edge of Airst on the map.

My body felt like it floated, and the view changed in an instant.

I was standing on a forest path. A path people use. No weeds.

I checked the map again. A little off from where I pictured.

I took the three cards out of the robe pocket and deployed them. Light particles turned into the three of them.

"Looks like we arrived safely."

Akie smiled. We were off, but if she says that, fine.

"Then the villagers," I started, and an encounter popped.

What. Do not cut the scene.

Slimes. Them again. Nanao one-shot three of them.

I really just watch.

No. Akie and Haruki just watch too.

—-

We started walking toward the village and ran into slimes nonstop. What is this. Why so many.

I only watch, so it is fine, but the stops are a pain.

Nanao fought, so she hit Lv7. Akie went up to Lv5. Haruki did not change.

Skills unlocked and I could spend points. Annoying. Later.

"Master, that."

After Nanao dropped five more slimes, Haruki called out.

Loyalty is low. She still knows she is in the party.

I looked where she pointed. Someone was fighting slimes.

Village kids, obviously. A boy and a girl. The boy swung a stick at a slime. It dodged. He barely blocked it when it jumped him.

"Should we help that kind of thing?"

"It is not a quest or an event."

"We are about to go into the village. Helping is the move, right?"

"Yes. If you get close, a notice comes up like an encounter. Hit the button and a field should open."

"Oh. Right."

I walked over at a normal pace. The girl spotted us.

"Help."

Yeah, yeah. We will help. In return, tell the village we saved your lives.

A Battle button showed, same as Akie said. I hit it.

Nanao one-shot the slime.

"You okay? Hurt?"

Healer habit. She checks for injuries. Both kids nodded hard.

"You are from Airst, right? Payment for the save, sort of. Can you lead us to the village?"

They nodded and led us down the path. More slimes on the way.

Nanao, your turn. Work.

From how we talked, the boy figured out Nanao does the killing and I am the Master who runs it.

He looked at me like he admired it. Like he wanted it. Good sign.

The village finally showed. Fields, paddies. A livestock shed, so chickens or pigs.

A village woman ran up. A man followed, flustered, sickle in hand. Touchy.

"Inin, Anna. You are safe. I was worried."

"Sorry, Mom."

"I told you not to leave the village. Monsters are out."

"Yeah, but these people saved us."

"Thank you. For saving my son and daughter."

"Ah. We just happened to pass by."

"Adventurers. This is a small village. No inn. I can introduce you to the village chief's house if you want to stay."

Standard. I can already see the plot. Half a laugh.

"Mom, this."

The girl, Anna, held out something like a herb.

"Hipopo Grass? You went to get this?"

"Yeah. Grandma's fever will not go down."

The mother hugged Anna.

"Thank you."

What is this.

Is this a scenario? Akie said it was not a quest or an event, but it is too on the nose.

Haruki watched the family and teared up.

Too pure, this one.

"We will knock down a few more slimes, then come by."

The family bowed and went back to the village.

NPCs are something. Too real, yeah. I already knew it did not feel like VR. Running this much processing in real time across all of World should be impossible.

Someone in the Top Ten swore a coronation in the city they call the royal capital pulled nearly ten thousand people, and that you cannot run ten thousand NPCs in real time as separate bodies. I thought there was a trick.

Until I watched these villagers.

They do not stand like scarecrows and spit set lines. They do not loop a patrol and stop when you talk. Not that kind of movement.

"Master. You have cleared several quests. Do you want to check?"

"Oh. That so. You held the notices. Sharp."

"Thank you. I will display them."

Slime Hunt (Intermediate)

Slime Hunt (Advanced)

Fight 3 Times, Fight 10 Times, Fight 20 Times

Defeat 10 Monsters, Defeat 20 Monsters

Land 1 Critical Hit, Land 5 Critical Hits

Join a Help Battle

Defeat an Enemy with No Damage

Use Travel Magic Once

Use Transport

Thirteen quests, already done.

Rewards are mostly G. A few quests dropped items.

Bronze Sword, Wood Shield, Leather Jacket.

Gear. Front-line stuff. Early on, a stable front makes a stable fight. I do not have a sword-and-shield type.

Into the item box. The box is cheated, so it should hold over ten thousand item types. No idea if that many types exist.

I tried the Leather Jacket on all three in turn. None of them looked right in it. Item box.

Power Flag. A stone you socket into weapons or armor to strengthen them. I do not have slotted gear. Item box.

Outfit Ticket.

What.

"What is this?"

"Reward for Use Transport. I thought you would use it, so I accepted. Advanced quest."

"Not that. How do you use it."

"On the pack screen there is a ticket option. Use this ticket there and you get an outfit item."

Devs, good job.

Costume change. Nice spec. I used it right away.

I opened the screen and picked use ticket. A pack appeared, wrapped in light, and an outfit set came out.

Men's Uniform.

Do not need it.

I threw Men's Uniform in the item box and wandered the village edge. Only slimes. Boring.

A few more quests cleared after that. Items were a Leather Cap and a Potion (Small). All of it went in the box.

R Guaranteed Pack.

Nice. I pulled.

Third R after Akie and Haruki.

The pack showed, wrapped in light. A card came out of it.

Soldier, Buxton.

An old man.

Do not need it.

"If I do not want this card, what do I do?"

"It is an R. Are you sure?"

"I do not need an old man."

"Then select dispose. R is one medal per card."

"Same medal as PvP?"

"Yes. A special shop sells rare items. Save medals and you can also pull advanced packs."

"One medal for an R means?"

"Five for a UC. Ten for a C."

I spent allocate points too. Haruki stayed on watch-only.

Akie Omoi, Healer (Nurse Outfit), Lv7, HP519, MP832, Skill: Ultimate Heal

Nanao Usami, Fighter (Sailor Uniform), Lv9, HP840, MP509, Skill: Ultimate Punch

Haruki Karen, Magician (Sailor Uniform), Lv19, HP29, MP49, Skill: Ice Break

A lot of slimes, and Haruki's level did not move. Weakest monsters. Maybe that is why.

"If you do not land the last hit, you barely get EXP?"

"No. It splits normally. A critical hit adds a bonus."

Sun is dropping. Time to head into the village.