Chapter 1482 December 15th: Introducing the Crazy Party Members!

The whole body of that dragon is covered with blades. It seems that it is not a dragon that is shaped like a blade or something like that, but rather that its scales are the size and sharpness of the genuine blades. But either way, it is certainly a terrifying existence to encounter.

Motivated by the promise of the mysterious content called a “Dragon,” we headed towards the place that the Queen Minotaur pointed us to shortly after the second day of the summit ended. While we were at it, Survival was screaming at Sasami-chan while making some strange poses that were supposed to be that of a monster bird…… Goodness gracious man, have some modesty! What are you, an Elementary Schooler or what?

Ah! Basashi-kun! Wow, so awesome! Now, put your hands up in the air!

「Now then, let’s assert our situation, shall we?」

「It would be great if you could use the Save/Load trick in real life to mess with things, wouldn’t you agree?」

「Unfortunately, life itself cannot be divided into save datas, but the same cannot be said about human mentality. This can easily be divided as such.」

「…… Huh?」

Sometimes it is really hard to understand what Karoshis UQ is going on about, but I sure hope that a day will finally come when I will be able to understand him…… But yeah, having only a single save file for your data can be a cause for some pretty irreparable damages down the line.

That being said, when we heard information about the Blade Dragon Holstein Minotaur, we left Catzeria while I was holding onto my freshly upgraded dragon-slaying tool. And since we were given some Teleportation scrolls, we could always backtrack to Catzeria in an instant in case we had forgotten something from there.

「It’s the Northwest plateau, right?」

「Yes, but…… I know I might realize this a little bit too late, but I think we’re the most aggressive Players in the entire New Continent right now, wouldn’t you agree?」

Hey man, we don’t know that. There may be some other Players out there who are unexpectedly ahead of us, just because they haven’t been loud and obnoxious about that fact. After all, the New Continent is certainly a magical world, but at the same time it is magnificent. Not all monsters keep aiming at the Players with murderous intentions, and the attacking monsters also behave way differently from anything you have been used to…… Not to mention that If you make another monster a scapegoat, it will unexpectedly forgive you. In other words, it is not so difficult to get out of the Sea of Trees and the desert, if you really try to escape from there in earnest.

Well, I also realize that som of them were really designed as a native monsters? But some of them have it way too easy to kill the Players? There are some guys like that out there, like…… the scorching chameleon that appears in the volcanic wilderness. It can be said that it is not human-friendly, and its ability to make a quick draw with its burning tongue that will kill you instantly when you touch it is a little bit over the top.

「I’m glad that ShanFro is just a game. Isn’t the scale of this continent the same as the North American continent? It’s not normal to walk across so vast distances. That would just leave you insane.」

「Yeah, why can’t humans run through the air with just the five steps?」

「Sanraku-kun…… I believe that your definition of humanity is severely out of order here?」

Not when you have actually transcended beyond humanity, like I have……

Basically, small fish monsters do not come near us, and sometimes powerful monsters come, but get disposed off rather quickly……

「Nuh!!!」

Bogyoh!!! A monkey-like monster that was blown away with a type of sound that should not be heard being made by any kind of body of a living thing. And with how powerful the hit was made by Urdim-san, there were even traces of smoke coming off of his fist……

「…… Say, Survival? It seems that your position of Power Attacker in this party has been stolen from you.」

「…… No, this is completely racially different, and I’m not talking about skin color exclusively here.」

Mixed within our party against the Blade Dragon are two additional NPCs:one is Sigma, but for the time being I decided to leave her inside of the INVENTORY and do not deploy her. Too great of a risk that Survival would freak out and Deepslaughter would try to sexually harass her.

And the other is a self-proclaimed Oak…… Urdim-san, a former Oak King. As a worried to-be-married guy (it seems to be a male individual in terms of gender), he seemed to be of a fighting race judging by his appearance, but…… as long as he actually took part in battles several times, it would be a nice addition. But once we saw him in action, it was almost laughable how strong he was. He is close to the state where the human player is always activating their skills, or it might be that his attacks are just that powerful on their own. Anyways, he is really powerful, even more powerful than the vast majority of the Players.

However, there was also a problem with having this strongest Oak within our party.

「……… Yeah, the experience points that come into the Players’ side are extremely low.」

「Maybe this is because the vast majority of experience is taken in by this guy, so even if we were to stay up all night it would be pretty much inefficient……」

It seems that if you fight with Urdim in the party, most of your experience points will be taken by him. Furthermore, even though it is a six-people party including him, the amount of drop items here is also abysmally small for some reason…… We even had Karoshis to speak up about that matter, especially with fifteen-people parties, and he said that: “The amount of drop items is the same as when a monster is defeated by fifteen-people and two unions.”

In short, it’s okay if you just win, but it’s a complete obstacle in terms of item laps and leveling ourselves up. I think the reason why the items does not drop is probably because the monster that was attacked by Mr. Urdim-san are crushed to a level that can not be accommodated by such easy expressions as parts destruction…… But I actually wonder about that?

「…… Honestly, what do we do about it? At this rate we can only dream about getting some good loot to drop from that blasted dragon.」

「Originally, he might possess the abilities that would allow him to subdue the dragon on his own if we did not come here, but if we reverse that logic, this dragon should be an enemy who should be at the equal level of strength as him, wouldn’t you agree?」

If this is “I don’t think it will be possible with five humans to win, so I shall bring my favorite Urdim-san with us as the party’s ‘guardian’”, then I guess that we have one heck of a tough battle ahead of us.

The problem here is the pattern of “I’m worried that even if Urdim-san was to go solo at the dragon, he will realize that he still has us and will let us help”. This game sets event flags in a very natural way during a conversation, so if you don’t listen properly, even the slightest of discrepancies can cause a fatal crack.

「But then, what exactly is a dragon? I mean, in this game, exactly? Does that mean that this game is really particular about its dragons? And what would actually be a good example of a dragon.」

「Something like Siegwrum, for example.」

「But he was an artificial creature, wasn’t he?」

「In a sense, yes. But it’s a really twisted way to look at it……」

Even though he possessed that Last Boss-like move, it’s not like Siegwurm was inherently evil, and I am sure that he would have gladly resulted to something else if he had the choice of doing so. But dragons, huh? Dragons……

Every time I take a step, I approach the plateau…… and the dragon that is there. And I can’t tell what’s waiting for me there until I see it with my own eyes.

As I walk forward, I remember the words of a certain blacksmith ───