The Latest Game Is Too Amazing

After running for about an hour, I can see the river to the east of Maeldia. Even from far away, I can hear the loud buzzing that shows that the killer bees are there. There’s a field of flowers nearby, which is probably what attracts the bees. Looking closely, I manage to spot them in the distance. They’re pretty big if I can see them from this far away, maybe even about half as tall as me.

Come to think of it, I wonder if it’s alright if the target monster of this hunt quest is completely wiped out? I should have asked for more details when I accepted it. Oh, right, it’s a quest, so I can find out by checking the event window. Remembering this, I go to check, and the quest info is all there.

“Killer bee hunt”

Hunt 20 of the killer bees which inhabit the area surrounding the Eulitt River east of Maeldia.

Bounty item: Killer bee stinger

Reward: 10 silver

“Medicinal herb harvest”

Harvest 10 of the lowest level potion material “sahira weed,” which grows in the area surrounding the Eulitt River east of Maeldia.

• In the event that low level potion material “sahira weed (high quality)” is harvested, reward is increased.

Reward: 10 copper per sahira weed

20 copper per sahira weed (high quality)

I’ve only been concerned about the killer bee quest, but come to think of it, I also accepted an herb collection quest. The reward is copper, huh. 100 copper is one silver, 100 silver is one gold, and 1000 gold is one platinum, so the herb collection quest is kind of cheap. Well, the difficulty level of an item collection quest is lower than a monster fighting one, so I guess it’s only natural. Isn’t there some way to increase the reward a little…?

Oh yeah! If the quest is no good, how about crafting? In Another World, there are item crafting classes like Alchemists, who can craft medicines like potions, and Blacksmiths, who can forge and repair weapons and armor. While it’s fairly expensive and causes the item’s effect to decrease, it seems if you provide the materials, you can pay NPCs to craft items. It’s still the beta test, so the information on craftable items is still incomplete, but the necessary materials for low level potions have probably been discovered, at least. The money earned from quests probably isn’t worth as much as personally collecting the materials and having the item crafted.

I’ll look up which materials are needed to craft which items on the wiki later. For now, I’ll just harvest more than the quest demands.

But to do that, I have to make the area safe first. I know from prior hunts that in Another World, monsters’ spawn points are unclear, and I still haven’t found one. No matter how long I stayed and waited for it, they didn’t respawn. Therefore, as long as I defeat all the enemies, they won’t get in the way of harvesting, so I’ll kill them all without holding back.

Killer bees are level 4-7. I, their opponent, am currently level 5. It’s possible to win with that level difference. I quietly approach a killer bee while its back is turned so I can enter Mana Bolt range without it noticing, just like with the forest wolves. When I’m almost within range, I point my staff at the killer bee, prepare to use the skill–

And in that moment, I get blown away.

What the heck just happened?! Thankfully, there’s no pain, just a vibration stronger than a cell phone’s, so I quickly get up and look around in confusion.

And there, I see the killer bees approaching to attack. S**t, when did they get behind me?!

“Mana Bolt Level 3!” I call out, activating the skill after choosing a target. It’s one of several higher level skills I obtained. Mana Bolt Level 3 has an increased MP cost but the power and range are higher.

But the killer bee nimbly dodges it. The attack missed and now a killer bee is attacking with its stinger, this is bad! I drop down to the ground, but an impact shoots through my shoulder. It looks like the stinger grazed it.

The situation keeps getting even worse. The killer bee I was aiming for seems to have noticed the commotion and is heading this way. I assumed that insect-type monsters would be weak, but this is ridiculous. I never thought that a fast, flying monster would be this much trouble. And at this rate, with it being two-on-one, I’ll be at a disadvantage. Judging by my stats, if I get it with two more of those, my HP will hit zero and I’ll die. I have to beat these things somehow…

Oh yeah, I’ll use that!

“Spider Net!”

Thin magical threads spread out around me in every direction. The killer bees try to dodge, but since the threads spread quickly, they get caught in them. Though it’s not enough to immobilize them, it inhibits their movement and they become noticeably slower.

“Mana Bolt Level 3!”

The bees are hit with purple lightning, and I win the fight.

It’s a good thing my skill selection seems to have paid off.

Spider Net: Centered around your body, magical threads spread out and lower the target enemies’ movement speed for 10 seconds.

The effect time and range are both short, which makes it difficult to use, so I thought for sure it was just a typical MMORPG PVP skill, but now I see that it’s also useful for enemies like these. Mana Bolt is fired in a straight line and its trajectory can’t be controlled, so it’s hard to land an attack even if it’s aimed well when the target is difficult to hit. So I’ll also need a strategy for making it easier to land a hit. It makes sense when you think about it, but up until now, I usually aim my attacks just by pointing the cursor at the enemy and clicking it in MMORPGs. It’s just what you’d expect from a VRMMORPG! You need to fight while taking the nature of the monsters and skills into account.

Oops, killer bees are still heading this way. I’ll save the thinking for later. I’ll use the same trick and get rid of them!

***

The Maeldia Adventurer’s Guild door opens. The one who enters is the boy who visited only 4 hours ago – Chaos. Carlo stares at him. Chaos, having found a familiar face, approaches Carlo’s table and suddenly raises his hand over it.

The twenty stingers clink as they’re casually dropped on the table, along with a bundle of ten high quality sahira weeds that must have been carefully selected.

“Quest completed.”

‘So this guy really is the real deal!’ Carlo exclaims in his mind.

It’s almost impossible for a rookie to defeat killer bees singlehandedly. Which means Chaos is definitely the one who massacred that many forest wolves after all. Naturally, he didn’t come out of a fight against twenty killer bees uninjured, but being capable of this much is plenty. Even so, Carlo didn’t expect him to fight twenty of them.

He’s pretty sure he didn’t specify a number of killer bees to hunt when he gave him the quest. After all, killer bees live in large numbers, and they’re always a hunting target at this time of year. He expected around ten at most, but Chaos brought back more than expected, which goes way beyond rookie level.

And on top of that, the sahira weeds are all high quality. As expected, Chaos also has the talent to judge things like this. After seeing this, there’s no doubting his ability.

“Here you go, twelve silver. The request to hunt killer bees is always posted, so if you have free time, come take it again.”

Chaos nods, then turns around and leaves the guild.

‘I’ve confirmed his ability. All that’s left is a background check,’ Carlo thinks while he sorts the stingers and herbs Chaos handed him into delivery bags. As far as he can tell from his investigation, there’s no one matching his description on the list of criminals or the blacklist. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s suspicious. Therefore, he needs to be monitored, and by a suitably talented adventurer.

(Hmm, isn’t there anybody qualified for this?)

If possible, a veteran who’s trustworthy…

As Carlo is struggling to think of someone to choose, the guild’s door opens again.

The visitor’s armor makes a clanking sound as he walks in. He’s a large man in his 30’s clad in dimly shining armor, with short blue hair of even length and tanned skin. He has a chin beard and a friendly smile on his face.

“Oh, Havoc, you’re back,” Carlo says to the armored man.

“Yeah, got back just now. The rookie worked harder than I expected.”

“What do you think, does it seem like she could be a permanent addition to the party?”

“She’s strong-willed and unbelievably stubborn, but she has talent. Well, for an adventurer, it’s a good thing to have a certain level of competitiveness.”

“Right, she was an elf girl, wasn’t she? She’s way too scary for that face.”

“Gahaha, don’t tell her I said that! It’ll look like I’m worried about her!”

It's rare around here to see someone from the long-lived race of elves. In addition, since elves are commonly known to be prideful people who are hard to please, and due to the fact that she’s a female adventurer, she couldn’t quite manage to join a party.

Then, two members of Havoc’s party retired, so they were recruiting replacements. Since there were also women in his party and they had no bias towards elves, the Adventurer’s Guild introduced them to her, which is how all this started.

Carlo is relieved to hear that things are going well between her and Havoc’s party. His party has a good track record, so the guild puts a lot of faith in them.

“Oh, yeah, Havoc.”

“Huh, what is it?”

“You guys had one more rookie other than the elf girl, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Havoc says with a dubious look.

“I have a favor to ask…” Carlo says, grinning like he just got an idea.