Golden Experience

“Okay then, [Tidal… Oh?”

Right when she was about to cast her spell, she saw numerous shadows dart out at her from the meadow. As a result of obliterating the forest, she actually did succeed in flushing out some players.

“I thoughtcha were a sorcerer with yer hood up like that, but I see ya got some hardcore armor on too. Well, just goin’ by what ya did, yer still a sorcerer through and through.”

“A flame sorcerer, by the looks of it… But man, that firepower is something else. As long as we watch out for that, we could take him down with enough people… probably.”

“Dunno why you’re so impatient, but why did you show your hand so quickly? If you stand out too much, then other players will just wanna take you out first. Kinda like what’s happening now.”

Apparently, the players who saw Rare’s spell and judged that she was too much a threat formed an impromptu alliance against her. They could have attacked her instead of chatting her up, she thought to herself, but maybe they had some kind of personal policy against doing that. They didn’t seem to have seen her kill anyone prior to casting [Hellflame], so they had her pegged as someone specialized in magic. Since the opportunity had come to her, she wanted to try taking their attacks. She may have to fight players who banded together to oppose her in the future, so this could be a dry run for that.

“[Thunderbolt]!”

“[Thunderbolt]!”

“Haah!”

The two mage-looking players both cast [Thunderbolt] to restrain her movements, while the one with the sword dropped his stance and shot straight at her. Behind him came a warrior wielding a mace and shield, and another one with a spear was apparently hiding in the warrior’s shadow. There were no projectiles like arrows, though. Any bow mains would have probably been hiding in the forest, which in turn meant that they were probably all dead.

The [Thunderbolts] intended to keep her in check had absolutely no effect on Yoroizaka, so Rare ignored them and stepped forward to face the swordsman and his blade head-on. Since it was the height of stupidity to strike plate armor with a bladed weapon, the attack was of course aimed at the armor’s joints, but in reality there wouldn’t be much difference no matter where he hit.

Clong! There was an unpleasant noise as he slipped past. No damage. They really wouldn’t be worthy opponents. Let’s wait for the mace-wielding warrior.

“No way! It had no effect! Was that a skill?!”

“My sword did nothing either! It’s the armor! Not a skill!”

“That’s my cue! Graaaah!!!”

He let out a roar as he swung his mace. Right, that part was important. Particularly for a heavy warrior like him, in most cases his target already knows he’s coming. If so, then instead of a quiet, stealthy attack, it’s better to let loose a war cry to maximize your strength in that split second, even just a tiny bit more. Rare found this heavy warrior to be the most competent player in this party.

Sadly for them, that wouldn’t be enough to produce a favorable outcome. He was simply repelled by her armor, and the shock of the impact traveled back into the heavy warrior’s hand, causing him to drop his mace. A fatal mistake.

“It’s so damn sturdy! What the hell!”

Looking at the fallen mace, it looked completely mangled now, completely bent out of shape. Almost like someone had just finished smelting the metal and somehow coaxed it into a rod shape. Considering the blowback didn’t totally destroy the mace, it must have been harder than iron, meaning it was probably made out of a superior metal. Even still, it couldn’t even scratch Yoroizaka.

Actually, even if she did get injured, Yoroizaka was a monster, or closer to a character, so her LP automatically regenerated. As long as she didn’t die outright or have part of her entirely removed, she would heal, meaning any injury would disappear. She was a piece of equipment that needed zero maintenance or upkeep. The Kenzaki brothers were the same.

A group of probably the strongest players on the server only amounted to this much. With even more people, what would be known as a “raid party” in other games, they likely wouldn’t fare any better. Yoroizaka picked up the mace and threw it. It flew through the air, spinning like a disc, knocking off one of the mages’ heads before disappearing off into the distance. Yoroizaka also had the [Throw] skill; she wasn’t even bad at long-distance combat.

“Aaah!”

Rare didn’t want to communicate with them. Talking, listening; it was better to just kill instead. It was simply more efficient. The swordsman was saying something as she crushed his head. Pulling Ichirou out from her belt, she hacked at the heavy warrior who had dropped his mace. She hesitated for a second, wondering if she should wait for him to raise his shield, but it was made out of the same material as the mace, so it wouldn’t change anything either way.

The spear-wielding player stayed collected and continued to attack her. Rare was impressed. He aimed for the opening her visor presented; true, if there was any chance at victory, that was the only place she could think of to target. However, whether Yoroizaka had anything to say about that was a separate issue. Using her open hand, she simply grabbed the tip of the spear and destroyed it with a crunch. It must have been iron. With one [Slash], the spearman’s head separated from his body. Rare didn’t even have to lift a finger. The results of this test were outstanding.

All that was left was the lone mage squatting a short distance away. Since he appeared to have lost any motivation to fight back, Rare tried to think if she had anything else she wanted to try. She was able to test out defense, and she had gotten sufficient data on offense as well. She was even able to try out spells she never had a chance to cast before. For the time being, she seemed to have completed everything on her list. Anything else could wait to be done in the great forest.

Finally, Rare cast [Tidal Wave], flooding the meadow and taking out the mage at the same time.

Apparently, all other players in the championship had died. She received a system message congratulating her victory. Following that, there was a request for her to join in some kind of exhibition match. There wasn’t anything like that on the schedule, but the battle royale did conclude very early. That was probably mostly Rare’s fault; if the accelerated time were reverted now, only a little over an hour would have passed. The exhibition match would be a battle royale where anyone currently in the event zone would be invited to join, even if they hadn’t registered for the event.

<What do I get out of it?> Rare asked.

She had already finished testing her own capabilities, as well as Yoroizaka’s and the Kenzaki brothers’. Plus, even if they included players who didn’t sign up for the event, they would be clearly weaker than the people she had just demolished in the championship. On the contrary, there might not even be as many people as there were in the prelims. Rare contemplated what she would get out of accepting this request. If she had to name one thing, it’d be the chance to steamroll weak players to her heart’s content. The death penalty was suppressed during this PvP event, but she didn’t want to expose her abilities and lose XP back in the regular game because people came up with countermeasures. Her name as the champion would be widely publicized—when she signed up for the event, she was pretty sure she assented to something along those lines—so PKers flooding the great forest looking for someone with the name “Rare” would be the least of her worries.

Still, she couldn’t imagine those players being able to break through the army of ants she had hiding in the great forest. Not to mention all the platoon commanders would be able to use their heavy weaponry to execute guerrilla tactics in their own backyard. Plus, they would literally be coming up from under their enemy’s feet. To put it bluntly, those players would just be walking buckets of experience. And they would be masochistic, economical resources that would get back up whenever they died, too.

How odd. Now she couldn’t see anything but advantages to accepting this request.

At this point in time, she felt increasingly inclined to just go ahead and accept, but in a negotiation, rather than justifying the benefits for yourself, it was better to see what the other party offered. Therefore, she just waited for the admins to give her their response.

<<Now relaying message from administration. “During the exhibition match, whenever player [Rare] kills another player, she acquires all their experience points.” Is this condition acceptable?>>

Not a bad proposal. Since there was no death penalty during this event, that conversely meant that there was no way to earn XP. That said, if she just wanted XP, waiting for players to invade the great forest would be the same in the end. Even if she didn’t get any visitors, she would still accumulate XP over time with the goblin farm. In which case, she wanted something only the admins could provide, something special that she could squeeze out of them. Something that was difficult for her to get on her own right now.

<I don’t need XP, so I’d like to request one piece of strategic information.>

<<Analyzing………… “It depends on the request.”>>

<The great forest I inhabit… It’s in the country of Hiers, right? I’d like a map of the region.>

That area was enormous. Trying to explore it without a map was suicidal. That said, if she just had the ants zerg the place, with time, she might be able to produce a detailed map herself. It was something she would need to obtain eventually, but if she could get the map for free then that would be preferable.

She had just about capped out on what resources she could obtain from the great forest. Those resources included ones that were extremely rare, and some of the higher-rank alchemical ingredients unlocked more information about materials, but she didn’t have access to all materials. There were some lower-rank materials that she hadn’t unlocked any information on yet.

<<Analyzing………… Please wait one moment………… Now relaying message from administration. “We accept your request. There will be server maintenance after the event ends; after maintenance ends, the requested item will be sent to player [Rare]’s inventory along with the reward from the event championship. The previous experience point condition will also be included in the agreement.”>>

<Wonderful. I accept the request to join the exhibition match. Well then, I shall strive to kill as many players as I can during the match—>