Sky World Vol 2 Chapter 3.2

VOLUME 2

Chapter 3: Raid Guild
Part 2

Jun entered this world about five months ago. Though he wasn’t absorbed in cooking like Kasumi had been, it did manage to satisfy his hunger for adventure, earning him small bursts of pleasure through trial and error.

Spreading some freshly baked bread with b.u.t.ter, adding lettuce and cheese in between two slices and then lightly sprinkling some salt and pepper on top, he made simple sandwiches. If he had the time, he liked to heat up some sausage over a fire too, but for now, all that mattered was preparing something substantial enough to fill up their stomachs.

“While we eat, I want to ask you a few questions.”

In the bar on the first floor of the inn where they had been staying, there were ten tables. That morning, Jun’s group took up one corner of it. Five people sat together at the table, Jun, Kasumi, Eri, Yukaria, and Ryuka.

“First, let’s get things straight. Kasumi and Ryuka, yesterday, you two have received a quest from an NPC you believe to be the Penglai Emperor. And then you two were killed. By an attack called ‘Death Call’.”

“Now that I think of it, by the time he called out my name, my HP had already dropped all the way to zero.”

“Mine too.”

What Kasumi and Ryuka described seemed typical of an impact attack.

Until now, Jun had never heard anything about a monster with an instant death attack.

He did not imagine such a monster of the legends could exist.

It was the G.o.ds. Sky World’s lore said so. The great G.o.ds could manipulate humans simply by calling out their names. With only a point of a finger, they could stop hearts. They were just that absolute in power.

They rarely interfered with the people of the physical world. The minstrels sang of tales that once, in an era long gone, the G.o.ds could be seen in the skies, but that they all left for another world.

“The Penglai Emperor NPC had to have been a G.o.d. Believe me. I think that you two were killed to inform you of that fact. There are lots of people who would behave rashly towards raid monsters.”

“But hey, if that were the case, why would the Penglai Emperor disappear in the first place?”

Yesterday, after Kasumi and Ryuka died, they scrambled to contact the others with their communication stones. If they could use them, Teleport should have been usable too.

Though their things stayed with their dead bodies, they first and foremost wanted to tell the others about the Penglai Emperor.

All that they could find was a single antique book that had fallen from the coffin.

“I don’t know if that book’s for the item identification skill. So what is it? Jun, can you get it identified at an NPC in the city?”

Jun had gone to an appraisal NPC acquaintance of his last night. Though the book was in terrible condition, he succeeded. The result was…

“I just know the name of the item. It’s ‘The Penglai Emperor’s Prophecy’.”

“So it’s something like that… Hey, does that mean you were able to read it?”

“Well, after mulling over it for a night, I realized that I had forgotten the most fundamental details,” Jun said, handing the book over to Kasumi.

“Kasumi-san, try opening it.”

Yesterday, when they tried opening the book, all they could find inside were indecipherable words. Sky World had its own languages. Since it was not j.a.panese, players were pained by their curiosity to understand how to read and write them. With a high enough linguistics skill level, they could read other local languages.

However, the language in which this book was written was one that was not covered by that skill. Yesterday, the group split up to cover the town and find adventurers who had maxed out the linguistics skill. Though it was possible that it was a language that could only be understood with a linguistics level higher than the currently discovered maximum… which had yet to be discovered since few players were purposefully searching those out.

Sure enough…

“I can read it,” Kasumi said. The others looked at her, astonished. “Ryuka, how about you?”

“Uh… hmm.” Ryuka hastily looked at the text of the prophecy from the side. “Seems like I can read it too.”

They all dropped their shoulders in exhaustion.

“Aren’t we such idiots? We should have known that only characters who have the quest could read it…” chimed in Yukaria.

“G.o.d. I should’ve realized sooner. This makes so much sense.”

Since it was related to a quest, it frustrated him. Moreover, Jun was annoyed that he hadn’t been able to get that quest. Putting that aside…

“We only have nine more days… sorry, Kasumi. We wasted some time.”

That was true. In nine days, the quest time limit would elapse. If it wasn’t completed by then, Kasumi would incur the quest penalty and die. Her battery would fall to zero percent. She would die for the third time.

“Well.. uh. After dying for the third time, do you know what happens? Could it be that maybe the player would be sent back to the real world?” Eri wondered.

Jun nodded his head, “Perhaps that may be the case. Stay optimistic! Kasumi-san, we’ll definitely help you through it.”

“Of course we will!”

As a matter of fact, Jun knew something that the others didn’t.

Soon after he came to this world, he went around visiting various people. On the very day of the Birthday, some people decided to commit suicide immediately, and those people who died three times in just the morning were no longer around, for some reason or another.

That’s what happened. All of them. Though he didn’t keep records, tens, maybe even hundreds, of people took their own lives that day.

Jun knew. They did not go home to the world from which they came.

Because Junichiro Mikimori only came to this world after they had killed themselves, the afternoon of that day. Up until then, in the real world, if there had been any news on the disappeared players, it would have made headlines.

Eri’s optimistic explanation had no chance of being true. So…

Jun looked carefully at Kasumi’s face. Though she more or less looked pale, she remained calm.

She had nine days left. Though that didn’t mean that she wasn’t scared. Earlier, while she was going down the stairs, she hesitated a lot. That was the proof. If she fell from the stairs, she would have taken fall damage. As of now, to her, losing health was akin to dying. The way she expressed her fright was strange.

“Anyways, what’s written inside?”

Hearing Eri, Kasumi read the book aloud.

Jun hastily took out his tablet to take notes.

Five thousand years ago, the Penglai Emperor was a great man. He created a giant empire and sent out his soldiers in search of immortality. Many soldiers made it to other islands, but died of exhaustion. However, a few returned with a clue as to perpetual youth and longevity.

One of them brought a certain mountain man back to the emperor with him.

The mountain man said that his people were just ordinary humans who had decided to isolate themselves in search of the truth of the world. They were unaffected by the tides of time, impervious to disease, and lived off the mist for sustenance.

“However, that is not to say that we, the mountain men, never die. If the emperor’s wishes are for eternal life, your majesty should go capture an immortal bird. With the blood of an adult immortal bird, your majesty can be resurrected numerous times.”

The emperor did all he could to capture an immortal bird. However, it was just a little chick. They found that it would need five thousand more years to mature.

“Until that day comes, I shall enter a deep slumber. In five millennia, I shall awaken, and when that happens, the Penglai Empire shall be restored.”

And with that, the Penglai Emperor went to sleep.

Before long, the Penglai Empire crumbled and became forgotten in all but myths.

“That story sounds like it came out of a book by Osamu Tezuka [1]!”

“The legend of the fire bird is quite famous.”

“Though, normally, people who desire immortality like this get punished for the very thought…” Eri, well-cultured in manga, tilted her head. “We couldn’t read this story earlier, right? For the time being, that ‘immortal bird’ should be the Phoenix of Kunlun.”

Kunlun Mountain was home to many raid monsters. The Phoenix was a popular monster among them. With appropriate preparation, the Phoenix was said to be just a bit stronger than the Vermillion Bird, but it resp.a.w.ned much more quickly.

Generally speaking, raid monsters resp.a.w.ned every week. Though the Vermillion Bird could be fought once per day, in order to be able to fight them, adventurers had to band together and complete a long series of quests.

The Phoenix resp.a.w.ned every six hours, four times faster than that of the already special Vermillion Bird, living up to its reputation as the immortal bird. In spite of that, for a monster on the seventh island ring that could be farmed easily, it was not very popular.

“Maybe it’s for the quest. Or maybe it’s a quest that just needs an item to be picked up,” said Jun. “But then, if we just obtain its blood, the quest should complete…”

“Worst case scenario, we have to bring it back down into that room under the pyramid. But Ryuka’s bind point is still right in front of the pyramid. If we just get the item, we can teleport to the pyramid right after, and go into the pitfall… shouldn’t be too hard. The problem is, what item does this ‘The Resurrection of the Penglai Emperor’ quest need?”

“There’s the Phoenix’s drop, Phoenix Blood,” Ryuka said. That shop manager knew the drops of monsters on this island the best out of the five of them. “Each kill should get us one.”

“Maybe it’s a crafting material for an elixir?”

Elixirs were a type of consumable potions that healed a considerable amount of health. However, since the materials were expensive and difficult to get, raid guilds seldom made use of them.

“So Jun, you know it?”

“I trained my alchemy skill as quickly as possible. I remember a few recipes here and there,” he responded confidently, then turning to Ryuka.

“The Phoenix Blood is a material used for the creation of Elixirs. However, Elixirs have many recipes. Phoenix Blood can’t be effectively subst.i.tuted out for any other materials. Well, if you’re making it normally, it’s easier to make it using different materials.”

“Just as expected from Ryuka… on the other hand, Jun, you’re a waste of time,” Yukaria stared viciously at him.

Jun glared back and said, “You’re really annoying.” Though…

“Well then. It shouldn’t be too hard, especially given the fact that it is an unpopular common drop, and the Phoenix resp.a.w.ns quickly,” Eri said, cheerfully, leaning on the back of her chair.

Similarly, Kasumi, who had stiffened from the mental strain, loosened up her body too, and let out a large sigh of relief.

Jun also sighed… and noticed that Ryuka looked pale.

“Hey, Ryuka. Do you have any in storage?”

“Uh… no. I sold all that I had.” Ryuka looked at Jun, as if she had something else to say.”Jun, remember a little while before, when you helped us out?”

“Hmm… with that violent adventurer?”

Come to think of it, that guy, a member of the Illusionary Brigade, for some reason wanted to buy everything from Ryuka. His name was Zakka.

“That guy wanted a Phoenix Blood.”

Jun frowned. That was weird. Something seemed off to him.

Realizing their situation, Eri and Kasumi’s smiling faces stiffened again.

“Last night, I got Genta-sensei’s trade records from the time when we were gone, but it seems somebody else bought out our entire inventory. By some odd coincidence, it was another member of the Illusionary Brigade.”

“Yukaria.”

“Hold on, gimmie a sec.” With the help of a communication stone, Yukaria quickly asked one of her acquaintances to stand watch for raid notices at the bulletin board in the town center. “Yeah… yeah, is that so…”

During the call, her face turned stern.

“Huh, I’ll check again. This whole week, the Illusionary Brigade has been setting up camp.”

There’s definitely something fishy going on here…

Jun groaned quietly.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

[1] – Arguably the most famous j.a.panese mangaka. Creator of works including Astro Boy and Black Jack.