Strongest Gamer; Let's Play in Another World Volume 2

by Shinobu Yuuki

  "I'm glad we've got Karumi on our side as well. She's always been more of a neutral bystander before. She's earnest and understanding, and I think she'll work hard since she's got something on the line as well."

  "Yeah, Karumi's the best. She always brings me candy!"

  Karumi and I got along well, and I trusted her to do right by me even if she wasn't in harm's way, but I thought she'd be less likely to screw up when her own neck was on the executioner's block.

  "I can't believe I thought she was the perfect coworker for a full week after I was hired."

  She'd managed to hide her true nature for a week or so, but like a mostly-white cat covered in baby powder, her dark side became visible before too long. She was a klutz.

  "Really? I think she's cool. I wanna be like her when I grow up."

  "You should tell her that next time she visits. I'm sure it'd make her happy."

  And now I was just praying that Ann didn't learn to be a klutz from Karumi.

  "Oh. But I would like to have bigger breasts than her."

  "Whatever you do, don't let her hear you say that. We'll all regret it."

  I explained that Ann was permitted to compliment Karumi on her slender figure, but that any other related commentary was strictly forbidden.

  "O-Okay."

  "The next thing we're going to need is workers. If we weren't in such a rush, I wouldn't mind just the two of us building the whole thing, but we've only got three months to get this done."

  I brought up the labyrinth manager UI and checked my status.

  Aoi Kousaka

 

  Vitality: 208/208 Stamina: 952/952 Willpower:205/205

  Skill(s):

  There were my same three stats again, and precious little detail about what they meant. Still, they had risen sharply ever since I'd gotten here, what with all that work digging out my own set of stairs---thanks for nothing, Karumi---and saving Milt in their moment of need. Looking back at it, I really had been through a lot. I couldn't detect any physical changes---no bulging biceps or six-pack abs---but I had switched from swinging the pickaxe with two hands to swinging it with one. My stamina had improved so much that I could run all the way from the labyrinth to Milt without getting winded. Ann's stats had risen just as much as mine. But our stats would only take us so far. No matter how far we pushed ourselves, we still had limits.

  "We need as much help as we can get. I'll explain everything to Mayor Hopper, but I'm sure this isn't going to be cheap."

  "It's autumn, too. Even I'm helping every day in the village."

  Autumn was harvest season, the busiest time of the year for farmers. The farmers in Milt generally raised crops that grew year-round and in a relatively short time, so they were a little less focused on this time than traditional farming villages, but fall was still a hectic season for them.

  "You'll have to feed them if they're here helping, you know."

  "Oh, you're right. Even if we persuade them to work, we'll still have to arrange meals and drinks for all of them. Man, I feel a headache coming on."

  In the modern world, you could just pay your workers and expect them to take care of food for themselves, but things didn't work that way here. They'd be doing hard physical labor here. Asking them to commute all the way back and forth for each meal, not to mention prepare three meals a day for themselves, was out of the question.

  "If you make delicious food for everyone, I bet people will work harder."

  Milt had no inns or restaurants to speak of.

  "I'll need to purchase food, transport it, and hire people to cook and serve it. And worse, I'll need to feed all of those people as well. The more people there are, the more expensive this gets."

  Thankfully, the prices were cheap out here in the sticks, and I could sell my potions on Tundra for a tidy profit. Still, I felt like this was not exactly going to be a cheap project.

  "We'll need someone experienced with working with the land if we're gonna dig underground. They'll need to be comfortable giving out orders, too."

  The labyrinth would be largely underground. We'd need a lot of stone for the part of the building above ground, as well, and preparing all of that would require a lot of time and technique. Thankfully, I had the skill, so procuring pickaxes and shovels would be easy.

  "Like a foreman?"

  "Yeah, right. I'll ask the mayor to recommend someone, but I'm worried. It'd be easy to find the kind of person we need in a mining town, but I'm not so sure about Milt."

  "Hmm. Well, Mister Barry told me he dug an underground tunnel once."

  "Barry? Is he a kobold?"

  "Yeah."

  "Huh. Guess that's why I don't remember him well."

  I still couldn't tell most kobolds apart from each other in Milt. You could kinda tell who was who by the patterns on their fur, but face recognition was hard; they all kinda looked like dogs. The only kobolds I could recognize at a distance were Ann and her aunt Jenny.

  "Okay, good suggestion, Ann. We'll ask him later."

  "Mmm!"

  I stroked Ann's hair, and she murmured ticklishly. From the way she reacted, it must've felt rather different from when she was in her kobold form.

  "And the last thing on the list is a labyrinth guardian. Someone strong."

  I still needed to build up a labyrinth, of course. A big empty space with a boss in the middle of it wouldn't really be a proper labyrinth. If push came to shove, I could fight. I'd grown a lot stronger during my time here, and though I was completely untrained, I could always grab the cursed sword from my warehouse and let it take care of the hard work at the expense of my health. It had certainly come in handy when crisis came to Milt. Since the cursed sword literally moved me on its own, it felt more like controlling a game avatar than actually doing things. All these dumb imaginary "skills" rolling around in my brain were finally coming in handy. Besides, it was important to have a backup. Even though I'd be paying my guardian for full-time work, the labyrinth didn't take days off, and they'd need to rest. If I could take up the sword and tag in for them every now and then, the burden wouldn't be so extreme. I'd always noticed that labyrinths in games were populated with undead and golems, and my new perspective gave me a lot of insight into why they were so useful. Golems and the undead didn't need food or rest.

  "Oh, wait a minute. There actually is a combat veteran in the village."

  Wouldn't that prideful, clumsy knight be perfect labyrinth guardian material? I'd been planning to hire her to do odd jobs anyway, pending Ann's permission. I decided to ask.

  "In most games, I'd have the luxury of trial and error. Even if I messed up, I could reload, and once I got it right, I could save and move on. This really is hard mode."

  But the harder it was, the more fun it was!

  "Yeah, I'm only happy when the difficulty's as high as it gets. This is perfect."

  I realized that I was actually getting pumped up about my labyrinth-building time trial. And why wouldn't I? Build a labyrinth, rack up points, and do it on a tight deadline. It was classic game material! I'd spent countless hours playing games back when I was a student, but ever since I'd found a job, I'd switched to playing the game of life, and it was a whole lot more serious.

  "All right, I think we know what we need to do. Wanna come to the village with me, Ann? We need to lock down our guardian."

  "Okay!"

  I was really hoping Mary would accept the job of protecting the labyrinth. It wouldn't be easy work, but I could certainly make it worth her while. Besides, one of my favorite game mechanics had always been making enemy units into allies.

  ◇

  "Heya! My name's Ann!"

  "I'm Mary. Um, Ann, do you mind if I pet you?"

  "Oh, um, go ahead."

  "So fluffy..."

  Ann and I paid a visit to Mary at the mayor's house. A wave of bliss crossed Mary's face as she stroked Ann's soft fur. It would see
m she had a soft spot for fluffy things. At least the two of them were off to a good start.

  "Mary, this is the girl I told you about. Ann is part of my family. You two would be seeing each other every day if you came to work at the labyrinth, so, do you think the two of you can get along?"

  "D-Do you mean to say I could pet her like this every day?"

  I was worried that, being a human, she would have some aversion to Daemons, but given she'd been content to stay at the mayor's this whole time, maybe I was overthinking the problem. Still, I decided to ask.

  "You won't mind living with a Daemon?"

  "Oh, so that's what you're concerned about. My house was close to the border. Moreover, we had Daemon servants since I was a young girl, so I hardly think of them as anything out of the ordinary. Though I admit, most humans do not share my views."

  Servants? I'd heard the humans turned captured Daemons into slaves, but to think Mary's family had done that... It was small consolation that they were putting them through forced labor, rather than trying to drive them to extinction.

  "At any rate, the other day we talked about you coming to work for me. I'd like to hire you for half a year. Would you be willing to do chores and to serve as my labyrinth guardian for that time?"

  "What tasks does a guardian perform? Stand guard over the treasure at the heart of the labyrinth?"

  She didn't know about the goal to attract people to the labyrinth, of course, but she did at least have a good handle on what a guardian's job was.

  "Yeah, that's more or less the idea."

  "Chores aside, are you sure you want to entrust the labyrinth to me? Perhaps I shouldn't be the one to point this out, but it wasn't long ago that I was attacking this village."

  "Well, first of all, you seem like the kind of person who keeps her word. And second, it turns out I really need your help."

  "I'm pleased you think so highly of me, but I would like to understand why you require my aid specifically."

  Mary tilted her head and listened as I explained about the labyrinth's upcoming performance evaluation and the expectations placed upon it. How we owed twenty years' worth of intruders and only had six months to get them all. I even told her about the plan to attract hunters to try to rack up enough points in six months to meet our quota.

  "A dire situation indeed."

  Mary stroked Ann's fur through the whole story. She was like one of those kids who wouldn't stop pestering the poor, tired worker stuffed inside an amusement park mascot costume. I had complicated feelings about it. I could understand why she wasn't in any hurry to agree to the proposal. If I'd been one of this world's humans, I'd have been pretty alarmed to hear that those horrible Daemons were building labyrinths teeming with traps, and were counting up the number of deaths they inflicted.

  "If my role shall be to fight, rather than merely to do chores, then I would ask a favor."

  Mary raised her head and met my eyes.

  "Let's hear it first."

  "I don't mind if you wish to train beforehand, but I would like to challenge you to a duel of swords. Or of any weapon, I suppose, as long as it's a duel. I'm aware you're a civilian, not a soldier, and I'll admit I find you an agreeable enough man, but I must test your mettle to determine if I can respect you as my superior. You can learn more about a man by spending a minute crossing blades with him than you can by speaking with him for an hour."

  I hadn't seen that coming. In a game, this would be a branching point, and the story would change depending on whether I won or lost. But it was clear that if I wanted to win Mary's approval, I'd have to at least take her on.

  "Very well, I accept your challenge. I would like to use sheathed swords, rather than wooden swords."

  You really ought to use wooden swords for this kind of thing, but I had no sword training at all, so I couldn't even fight unless I depended on the cursed sword. That was why it had to be real swords. It sure would've been nice if I had a game I could practice with. Maybe some up-and-coming VR game developer would make a game where a cursed sword took over your body. I sure wished they would hurry up and get on that.

  ◇

  I'd gone back to the labyrinth to fetch the cursed sword, and now I was facing off against Mary in the backyard of the mayor's house, sword in hand. I actually felt like I'd grown somewhat accustomed to the single-edged blade, but I was still a bit nervous whenever I remembered that its only mode was "all-out attack". I left the sword mostly in control of me, basically just willing it to prepare to engage with Mary. This must have been what it felt like to be moved around with a controller or keyboard. Mary held her double-edged sword, what I assumed to be standard issue for a knight, with the tip pointed straight at me.

  "I'm ready whenever you are."

  You know, life in this place was hard, but it sure was fun. I'd gone up against people of all ages and nationalities while playing games, but I'd never had a chance to cross swords with a knight before. Mary's concentration and experience were evident in her stance. Her sheer presence was overwhelming, rivaling that of any top-ranked pro I'd seen. No, she surpassed them all. In a situation like this, the information floodgates opened up, and your brain picked up on every little twitch of muscle, every flicker of the eyes. The eyes were the key; the windows to the soul. It looked like Mary intended to let me take the initiative. I mentally thanked her as I briefly reviewed the one-handed and two-handed sword combos in Gun Gust before selecting one. As I pictured the preparation stance from the attack where you launched from the back row around the enemy's flank to cut at them from the side, the cursed sword interpreted my thoughts and made my body enact them.

  "Here I come!"

  I imagined myself pressing my Shift+W hotkey to quickly close the gap between us, and then Ctrl+1 to use the skill, and a smile spread across my face. But I wasn't using a keyboard or mouse, and this wasn't a game. I had to be conscious of that and provide input to the cursed sword the way it expected. Close the distance. Slash. Regain my balance when she evades. Quick, intercept Mary's slash from the right! Now, dodge the follow-up and get some range. There weren't any fancy visual effects, but the clash of our sheathed swords striking was far more impressive.

  "You can do it, Aoi!"

  Ann gave me a cheery yell. Seriously, shouldn't she have been scared or something? Clearly I'd let her play too much Gun Gust.

  I had to parry another cut from the right, and then again move to parry her follow-up thrusts low to my center. Mary was ruthless. If this were a game, she'd have gone pro for sure. No, her skills here were beyond any gamer I'd ever seen.

  "Good luck to you too, Mary!"

  She had me cornered. If she'd been one of the many rivals I'd found over my years of gaming, I'd have put my trust in being able to avoid every attack and gone for a high-risk technique to break the stalemate. I pictured the go-to combo move I'd invented in Gun Gust, Flash Blade, which mixed a movement skill and an attack skill. It was kind of plain, but it always got the job done. The cursed sword accepted my input and closed in on Mary with blinding speed before throwing out a fast feint. Mary didn't bother with parrying, and instead tried to avoid the feint altogether, just like I'd hoped. I stepped in and rearranged for the real attack, slashing hard with my sheathed sword, and... miraculously, Mary's sword made it there just in time to parry, now clutched in both her hands. I kept linking together combos from the game, and every time, Mary would parry, evade, or deflect them, sometimes even throwing in a counterattack. We were risking our safety out there, but our swords flashed as we twisted and turned as though we were locked in a dance together. Man, jumping around and getting actual exercise like this was crazy fun. I wondered if VR games felt this good. Even though I was pushing myself hard, I wasn't breathing particularly hard. Maybe leveling up my stamina so much was coming in handy?

  "Hah!"

  Mary parried another attack and pushed me back, creating some distance. My heart was crying out, telling me it wanted to keep fighting, it wasn't done playing. I
t was a damn shame, really. If this had been a game, we could've played until our lives were spent.

  "Mary, shouldn't you have a shield?"

  It was a good fight, even if I didn't think I'd win, but the whole time I could tell something was off about Mary's technique. She was almost exclusively using her sword one-handed, only grabbing on with the other hand when she was forced to parry. The way she fought made me certain she was used to carrying something in her free hand.

  "I left my shield with the soldiers whenever I rode the armor."

  She was looking at me in surprise, her eyes wide. Probably wondering how I'd noticed. But come on, I'd seen countless enemies wielding a sword and shield, and some games even had different animations for characters when their equipment set was incomplete. Mary's style was just like a sword-and-board knight whose shield had lost all its durability.