Sky World Vol 2 Chapter 3.3

VOLUME 2

Chapter 3: Raid Guild
Part 3

Camping.

In MMORPGs, the term, “camping” referred to staying in the same place and killing a monster over and over again each time it resp.a.w.ned. When performed against raid monsters, camping could last up to two weeks, or sometimes even longer.

Of course, having an entire guild stay in the same place for a long time could incite tensions with other groups of people. In games where PKing was allowed, this could provoke entire wars.

In Sky World, PKing was unregulated outside of towns.

“At any rate, it’s strange,” moaned Jun, as he munched on the bread he baked himself.

After they managed to confirm that the Illusionary Brigade was camping the Phoenix, the group reconvened for lunch in the bar and shared whatever information they had learned.

It had become clear that the Illusionary Brigade was out in a frenzy collecting Phoenix Blood.

“It’s not just my shop. They’ve scoured the whole city, just to look for Phoenix Blood.” Ryuka had gotten in touch with other shopkeepers. “I heard that they, whoever they were, were buying them out at any cost. Even if they were overpriced tenfold, they’d swoop in and make the purchase without hesitating. In the auctions too. As soon as the Phoenix Bloods were placed on display, they would pay the buyout price. Now, n.o.body in the whole city has any Phoenix Blood. And even with all that the Illusionary Brigade has bought, they’re still camping Phoenixes…”

“It’s indisputable among everybody I know. They’re definitely camping Phoenixes,” Yukaria chimed in. “Though a few guilds have gone into negotiations with the Illusionary Brigade, they respond with, ‘We’re not in the mood to stop at this moment,’ persistently… They won’t even tell us why they’re engaging in such activities. Those guys are just stubborn, even when threatened with weapons.”

“Brute force will always reign supreme,” interjected Eri.

From the start, the Illusionary Brigade was known as a menacing force. They were famous for their coerciveness in negotiations with their incredibly large 500-person-strong guild. Though now, it seemed that they had s.h.i.+fted their focus to the fourth island ring…

“Hey, on just this island, it seems like there’s about a hundred Illusionary Brigade members,” continued Eri. She had ama.s.sed some information of their members from other adventurers. “Over the course of about two months, there were many newcomers to this lower island. Though my contacts heard a lot about them… there’s not much that they know in detail. The Illusionary Brigade has many strict rules and regulations. As soon as you join, you have to sever ties with any player not affiliated with the guild. You aren’t even allowed non-guild-issued communication stones, let alone ones for former friends. It’s like an army.”

“Well, that’s ‘cause raid guilds often resemble armies in nature. Disallowing communications is just a precaution against spies.”

Jun had joined raid guilds before in other MMOs. He had even been at the center of such guilds, along with Kai as the leader. There was a time when they had been the best in the server. In the end, Kai lost interest and neglected his responsibilities…

He disbanded a group with just a single “well, I’ve had enough”.

Though that seemed typical of Kai, he managed to earn the ire of many a player. Jun was always swept along with his whims.

Even Kai had a weakness. His feelings were always deep towards people he considered friends. Bringing Kasumi to Sky World was very like him. First doing so on a whim, later regretting it, and then recklessly pus.h.i.+ng her away. However this was just the way his strong wishes to protect her manifested themselves.

Jun understood Kai/Sakuya’s thoughts, but could not approve. The result of their differing views was a duel to the death. It happened more than a month ago.

If I can’t get Kasumi through this… I’ll never be able to face Kai again.

Noticing Jun glance over at her, Kasumi stiffened and smiled.

d.a.m.n it…

His heart throbbed. It must have been terrifying to have these feelings of despair and dread a.s.sail her.

She’s my companion. I can’t lose one of my greatly treasured companions.

The situation was as grave as could be.

But it was still too early to give up. They could still do tons of things.

“Eri. Can you go into more detail about what you heard about people who joined the Illusionary Brigade?”

“n.o.body knew anything too important. First of all, they’re focused on recruiting heavy warriors, white magicians, and black magicians. They’re only taking half the magic swordsmen. Too bad for you, Jun.”

“So they’ve got plenty of attackers. Makes sense for a large guild. In order to maintain balance, they can’t just randomly select recruits. To keep things stable, essentially, they shouldn’t be taking too many of the lower strata cla.s.ses like attackers…” Jun retorted, responding calmly to Eri’s provocation.

Eri spewed out, “Well that’s boring.”

Jun redirected the conversation.

“Well. There will always be new faces coming in and out. People fighting against raid monsters on the fifth and sixth rings need to prepare their equipment. They were really organized like an army, taking down strong monsters and aiming to became stronger themselves.

Loot from raid monsters often divvied up based on individual contribution. It is often the case that armor considered top quality by regular players is also considered trash by even lower ranking members of raid guilds.

Rather, that had to be the case. They, having entered a strictly organized army, had to be compensated for their discomforts in some way. For the promise of increased power for their own characters, those who joined raid guilds are content with remaining mere p.a.w.ns.

That in itself was not bad, but…

The nature of these raid guilds meant that they couldn’t avoid a sense of elitism.

“The Illusionary Brigade seems notorious for being nasty. After joining, it was common for new recruits to take over and camp areas. I’ve heard that they purposefully unleash trains on others and monopolize monsters that resp.a.w.n by triggers.”

A “train” was a term developed early in the MMORPG world.

After engaging in battle with many monsters, one would send them all at a nearby group member.

For example, an adventurer infiltrating a goblin fortress could run past an unsuspecting lookout and bring with him goblins from inside the fortress. As the chain of goblins that would emerge from the fortress looked like a train, the word was coined for this concept.

When the train stopped right in front of another adventurer and the current train driver died, the role of the train driver would pa.s.s onto that nearby player. In MMOs, when somebody yells “Train!”, everybody in the vicinity had to immediately drop whatever they were doing and flee.

However, with strong enough armor that could withstand such onslaughts, members of raid guilds could easily accidentally cause trains, though usually, they would feel ashamed afterwards.

But creating trains on purpose with the intention of killing other people…

Jun looked back to what had happened on Altaria. On that isolated island, Jun knew that that guild leader behaved unscrupulously and was no match for Jun herself. At wits end, she had no choice but to turn to MPK as her final option.

Eri’s description of the Illusionary Brigade’s actions was incorrect. It was clear that they couldn’t have been unleas.h.i.+ng trains on others just for their own happiness.

“They just absolutely want to do it.”

“Raid guilds on the order of hundreds of members all wanted to go to higher rings. It seems n.o.body knows why the Illusionary Brigade would be so keen on having such a large presence in a place like this.”

Though Lao Thai, an island on the seventh ring, was said to be home to three thousand adventurers, most of them were unaffiliated with any large ent.i.ty or only operated in small groups of up to ten.

Though there were a few guilds with more than a hundred players, they served no other purpose than to facilitate cooperation between players, never to do raids. Because their members weren’t even hardcore MMORPG players, their intentions didn’t change much after the Birthday.

Rather, people who were apt to risk their lives by joining a raid guild were quite eccentric.

“I really wonder why those fellows in the Illusionary Brigade are collecting so much Phoenix Blood…”

“At least, we know that they have no interest in the pyramid.”

“Ah, that reminds me. Jun, you went back to the pyramid right? How was it there?”

“Basically, all we found out was that the Illusionary Brigade doesn’t know anything.”

Ryuka’s bind point was still in front of the Penglai Emperor’s Pyramid. They made use of it. Jun brought a few of his dark hunter friends, as they were well versed in the art of investigation, and revisited the Pyramid thanks to Ryuka’s teleport spell.

Those dungeon experts left no stone in the pyramid unturned. Searching the hidden rooms, they even managed to begin and clear the appraisal quest.

What they did find out that time though, was that Kasumi and Ryuka were the first ones in the world to have experienced what they did.

“Dark hunters have the ability to a.n.a.lyze footprints. Yesterday, when they used that ability, they found that in the hidden pa.s.sageway, there were no footprints other than the ones we left. Dust had constantly been piling up. That dust also could not have been due to magic.”

“I wonder how much we can trust that ability of theirs,” said Ryuka, doubtful.

Yukaria smiled, “Where a game system is concerned, footprint a.n.a.lyses cannot deceive.”

“Is that so? So a.n.a.lyses that come from the system are absolute. Sorry, I still don’t know much about games.”

“Actually, it’s good to question what we take for common sense,” Jun interjected. “We don’t know where a vulnerability could lie … Okay, let’s get back to the main conversation. There isn’t at all any other way to the room with the pitfall trap than the hidden pa.s.sageway. While I’m at it, our footprints were the only footprints in that room for at least a hundred years.”

“Your point is,” said Kasumi, summarizing the results of their expedition. “The Illusionary Brigade’s efforts in gathering Phoenix Blood has nothing to do with anything related to the Penglai Emperor’s quest.” Everybody nodded. Everything up to now made sense. The problem lay with what was just said. “So, why? Even if it has nothing to do with the pyramid or with making elixirs, why would the Illusionary Brigade be camping Phoenixes for so long?”

n.o.body had anything to say.

The raid guild was camping there with many, as much as a hundred, people for an extended period of time. They bought up all of the Phoenix Blood in town. What did they have in mind that led them to go to such lengths?

When would they stop camping? If they wouldn’t, would they be open to pa.s.sing the camp location over temporarily?

“I don’t think there’s any way to get rid of the Illusionary Brigade,” Eri said, dejected. “It will be hard. Obsessing so much over Phoenix Blood and having it become the guild’s reason to live, that is, over getting stronger, must have been caused by an incredibly deep desire. If they needed a lot of materials for stronger weapons and armor, that’d be it. They’re thinking of controlling a monopoly over Phoenix Blood.”

“Getting other raid guilds to go to war with them… would that be impossible?”

After Jun thought about it for a bit, he shook his head. “We don’t know whether we could be able to do it, or if it would even turn out well. During a war, we wouldn’t even be able to get any Phoenix Blood. Not to mention that we don’t even have that kind of connections. First of all… nine days wouldn’t be enough. There isn’t even a large scale raid guild here on this island right now.”

“Ugh, so it’s no use.”

A Black magician’s teleport spell allowed fast travel between towns. However, only an airs.h.i.+p could transport adventurers between islands. Such obstacles to movement existed in Sky World.

“Let’s continue gathering information. Yukaria, I’m counting on you to find and prepare volunteers for the Phoenix raid. It doesn’t matter whether you tell them about our situation. We need to be ready to swoop in immediately for our raid on the off-chance that the Illusionary Brigade disappears tomorrow. Ryuka, you’re in charge of going around and visiting the merchants once again. Kasumi-san, can you go through the bars and make sure that n.o.body has any more Phoenix Blood? Eri, can you make a list of people who are bitter with the Illusionary Brigade?”

“Fine with me, but… do you have a plan?”

“Of course I do.”

“Okay, Jun. I do love your scheming, so don’t let your perseverance rot.”

“Stop praising me, I’m shy.” Jun grinned widely.

“Exactly what do you have in mind? Are we not going to try to negotiate with the Illusionary Brigade?”

“Before that, I want to have a few things ready. Even if we enter discussions, we need to have a few trump cards to play.”