by Nikita Thorn
“Jigokuryu?” Seiki ventured to ask.
Renshiro stared into space for a second. “That was quite a while ago,” he said. “You know the story?”
“I know that you’ve disbanded,” said Seiki.
“We initiated a challenge,” said Renshiro, after a little pause. “Kano Castle held nine villages. That’s almost twice as many as what everyone else had. We challenged one. They retaliated by starting a siege on our home territory. At the time, only Fuoka Army came to our aid, and when we were driven out they sheltered some of our members.”
“That’s why you want to help them out with the key,” said Seiki. Itsuki had said Renshiro owed them a lot of favors, and he wondered if this was what she had meant.
Renshiro heaved a deep sigh. “You can never fight two battles at once,” he said. “When they came to help us with the siege, Rogami took the opportunity to invade the Fuoka Army’s home territory in Fuoka. They used to control one of the city’s three factions, you know, and now they’re a wandering clan, without a home territory.”
Seiki did not understand clan wars, and he did not know what was considered acceptable behavior, since the Wilderness was pretty much free-for-all. But he could guess that being opportunistic was perhaps not the noblest thing you could do.
“I unequipped the Wanderer’s Charm,” Seiki said. “I think that’s how the Rogami Clan found us.” Maybe it did not matter, but he thought the man should at least know.
“I noticed,” said Renshiro. “I thought you were expecting help from your friends, and at first I was very surprised to learn that your friends turned out to be Rogami. But then, nothing got looted, and Satoru sent a message saying you were in trouble.”
“Will this get you in trouble with the Rogami Clan, too?”
“I’ll do anything for the Fuoka Army, and they’ve been perpetually at war with Rogami ever since that invasion, so I’m already in trouble with them,” Renshiro said. “But, no, don’t worry. They can’t find us.”
“Not even with Locate?” Seiki asked in surprise.
“Not when we’re this far from the road,” replied the ronin.
Renshiro explained that every section of the East Main Road was named, and a Locate attempt would return the nearest landmark, for example: ‘East Main Road – First Bend’, or ‘East Main Road – Red Pine Hill’, or any nearby village. However, if you were out of range of the main road, you were considered to be in the wild, and—perhaps to maintain a sense of mystery—Locate would only return ‘Wilderness’, plus sometimes a general direction, like north or south.
“So, honest people use the road,” said Renshiro with a chuckle. “People like us stay off it.” He mused for a few seconds. “How did Rogami know about the key anyway? Not a lot of people do.”
Seiki shook his head.
“Even the Fuoka Army kept it only within the circle of ranked members.”
“But you did,” said Seiki.
The ronin shrugged. “I know someone.”
“And who would send you that Mumei tip about me?” asked Seiki.
“No idea,” said Renshiro. “Maybe I’ve got friends I don’t know about.”
Seiki sighed. He was not any closer to solving any of the mysteries he had inadvertently gotten himself involved in.
They rode in silence for a while, and had cut across the edge of a rice field into a dry sparse wood that gently sloped upward onto a small hill. On both sides of the path were grass fields, and more villages in the distance, which also flew green and brown flags.
“You’re curious what’s in that piece of paper?” Renshiro asked, out of the blue.
“I’m not going to look at it,” Seiki said.
Renshiro made a teasing face. “I know what it is.” Seiki glanced at him. “It’s a poem.”
That got Seiki’s attention. “You mean, a puzzle poem? Like those that lead to treasures?”
“Yes,” said the ronin. “And if I have to guess, it’s not just any puzzle poem. It’s an instance puzzle poem. Heard of that?”
Seiki shook his head, and the man continued, “Sometimes in an instance, let’s say, a dungeon, or a war event, there’s a secret location. If you have the poem on you and if you manage to figure out what it means, it leads you to a special room that is otherwise not there. A lot of unique weapons are discovered this way.” Renshiro’s eyes brightened. “You see, two uniques have never been discovered, so any instance poem could lead to one.”
Seiki was well aware of the fact that, without the blood lock, there was nothing stopping Renshiro from taking it. He could tell the man was really weighing it in his mind. “And if there’s anything I can do to piss off the Kano Castle, I will.”
Somehow, Seiki did not trust himself to try very hard to fight if Renshiro had really wanted to take it. “I’m not doing this for Ichikeya, or Kano Castle, or anyone else,” he said with resolution, or perhaps it was a plea. “I started this, so I need to finish it.”
Renshiro pulled his horse to a stop to study him.
“It’s kinda important,” said Seiki. The sun was dropping low in the sky behind Renshiro, and Seiki could not quite make out his expression. “I guess I need to know I’m still capable of at least something, you know,” he added, not sure why he felt the need to explain.
Renshiro paused for a while. “You got hurt, kid?” he finally asked, softly.
From his tone, the man was definitely not talking about their encounter with the Rogami Clan.
Renshiro exhaled. “You’re young. You’re trained beyond the level of a hobbyist,” he said. “But you’re here all weekend, and weekday nights. Miya did her homework and looked at your log-in records when we were tracking you down.”
Seiki heaved a shaky sigh and turned his eyes back toward the road ahead. The question had caught him off-guard, and he was at a loss for words.
After a moment, Renshiro urged his horse to a walk again. “Overall good technique and quick reflexes,” he commented. “But rusty.” The man suddenly had on a little smirk.
Renshiro was really not cutting him any slack, and Seiki let out a soft chuckle as he looked at him. “Yeah?” The man was probably right.
Renshiro unstrapped his armguard and tossed it to Seiki.
You have received: Lone Archer’s Kote +41 defense +18 attack +1 inventory slot.
The dark gray leather was rather worn, and fortified with thin strips of metal. Hidden on the inside, however, was a tiny slot carefully sewn in, much like a pocket.
“As much as I hate the Kano Castle, I’ll lend you this,” he said. “It doesn’t store weapons and armor, and normally it’s used for emergency anti-Fatigue potions when you’re out in the Wilderness and keep dying to a monster you can’t fight, but it will keep your delivery safe for now.”
Seiki’s eyebrow shot up. “You mean whatever is in here can’t be looted?”
“It’s considered part of the armor, and people can’t take your equipped armor. It’s also not classified as an inventory bag, so it’s safe from Pickpocketing.”
Seiki stared at it. The stats were nothing special, but he did not doubt that something like this would be worth a fortune. This was perhaps why Itsuki had asked for it when trying to negotiate with the peddler.
“Mind you, these are very rare, so I want it back,” said Renshiro. “Come find me when I can’t kill you with a flick of my finger and I’ll teach you some more.”
Seiki laughed. “Come on, you can’t kill me with a flick of your finger.”
Renshiro pointed ahead toward the road down. “Follow this road and, once you come out of the woods, cut across this field on your right, and you’ll be on the last stretch of the main road before Mannaka Village. It should be fairly safe now since Rangers patrol a lot around there. I shouldn’t go any further.”
Renshiro threw Seiki his Sheathed Blade and post kit, as well as twelve gold. “Keep the change. People would kill you in a blink for that Sheathed Blade
, so go pay for a box in Mannaka. It’s five gold a day for the inn, so you can get it back safely in the capital. Kano Castle’s only a few minutes from the village.” He thought of something. “Oh, and buy yourself a meal before riding back. The village has this famous noodle that gives you 5% energy regeneration for an hour. Again, they like to mess with you, so they make it taste horrible.”
Seiki took his belongings back. “Thank you,” he said.
Renshiro smiled. “Thank Fuyu-chan for me,” he said. “For this.” He twirled a small cloth bag between his fingers, which Seiki recognized as the Wanderer’s Charm. Now that it was not equipped and was in his bag, the man had managed to Pickpocket him again as he gave him back his things. “Rogami should leave you alone now that they’ve seen what was in the box,” he shouted, as he rode back down the road.
Seiki shook his head in amusement. He had no idea what Fuyu was going to say about losing the charm. She had said she wanted it back, so it must be worth something. But then, Seiki could not help but feel she could not expect much after throwing him out so unprepared into the Wilderness, and he would deal with that later.
Carefully, he put everything back in his pocket, switched out his armguard, which magically shrunk to fit him, and stored the folded paper securely in the secret slot.
There was no longer any trace of blood on his clothes and armor, but the Oni Cleaver had left a deep cut on the Shinshioka chest piece, which Kentaro would definitely not be so thrilled about.
A pigeon dropped down gently beside him, and Fubuki shook her head before it could land on her neck. Seiki grabbed the bird and looked at the message.
Mairin [Level 10]: (57 seconds ago) Hi, Seiki. 7pm tomorrow by the Palace? Ippei’s got this idea that we’ll each grab a civil mission and choose the best one. And why Southeast Wilderness of all places? Good trees out there?
Another pigeon followed almost instantly.
Ippei [Level 11]: (58 seconds ago) Foxy misses you, so you’d better be here.
Mairin [Level 10]: (57 seconds ago) Don’t listen to him. He’s the one who keeps paying for Sasu.
Seiki laughed, as he could imagine them bickering over pigeons. And in that instant, he was really looking forward to going back. It had not been that long at all but, somehow, he even missed the taste of kakigouri, and he wondered if the ice dessert was considered food and would get rid of Fatigue.
“Time to get this over with,” he told Fubuki, and he started making his way down the road. It was as Renshiro had said: after cutting across a rather dry field, with unaggressive Field Hares [Level 17], the main road slowly came into view, and Seiki thought that if he logged back in early tomorrow, he would make it back to Shinshioka in time for the mission reset as he had promised Ippei after all.
He needed to let his friends know, but he had rather wait until he was in the safety of the Mannaka Village inn, since now that he did not have an anti-Locate charm, anyone could track him.
The message greeted him as soon as Fubuki stepped onto the packed dirt road once more.
Welcome to the East Main Road. Wilderness combat rules apply. PVP status: enabled.
In the distance ahead of him, Seiki thought he could discern roofs, and smoke coming from what looked like a small cluster of civilization.
“Told you he would be going for the nearest box.”
Even before Seiki had time to react, right in front of him, Taiyora of the Rogami Clan [Level 27] burst out of the bush beside the road on his golden-armored horse, his long sword raised in what Seiki instantly identified as the samurai’s Mounted Strike.
Seiki only had time to pull his Hikari to Parry, knowing that the outcome would probably be very bad. He had never attempted to Parry while mounted, and what happened was that it automatically dismissed the mount. The impact seemed to burst in his hands, violently throwing him off his horse and sending his sword flying into the roadside growth.
Seiki landed on his side on the hard dirt ground, as a cold realization hit him: the Rogami Clan had never been after the box in the first place. The discovery of the blood-lock had surprised them, which meant they were after something else, and Seiki now knew what it was. The Sheathed Blade.
“Shouldn’t have let Kojiro take his sweet time.” It was Rieko’s voice.
They should not have known about the blade either, but somehow they did, and Seiki was now at a tiny sliver of health. Seiki glanced up as Strength of Will kicked in, and he could make out multiple feet and hooves. There was nothing stopping them from taking what they wanted anymore.
Except distance, Seiki reasoned, and he immediately burst to the side with Slide.
Someone laughed. “Look, he’s still trying.”
Seiki spent the rest of his energy on the second Slide, which—with the energy reduction enhancement—he could now sustain for much longer. Rieko’s Life Drain was already starting to wrap itself around him like a sickening fog, and Seiki knew he would not be able to outrun it.
But he did not need to. All he needed was three hundred feet.
He made it just that far, before the Life Drain snuffed out the remaining of his health and pulled him down into the freezing darkness.
Welcome to the Spirit Shrine. PVP status: disabled.
The first thing Seiki noticed upon waking up in an unknown Wilderness spirit shrine was the rather nice woodwork on the ceiling. He reminded himself to lie still until the dizziness subsided.
This spirit shrine, like the one near Shinshioka he had visited whenever he happened to accidentally offend a kodama, was made of light-colored wood and decorated with ceremonial paper strips that swayed gently in the wind. Unlike the City Morgue, there was no bubbly old lady to hand him a cup of hot tea here, since, if you were high enough to die out in the Wilderness, you probably already knew what death was all about.
Seiki waited until the five-minute death nausea was over, and he sat up. Unlike the morgue, where you had to claim your belongings back from officials, the Wilderness spirit shrines put your items in a box beside you, which remained locked for exactly five minutes, before people could peer in and let out a curse when they discovered what had been looted while they were dead.
Seiki did not have to open his to know what was in there, or, rather, what was not in there.
“Pretty smart, boya,” said Rieko’s voice, now cold with displeasure. “But you’ll know soon that it was a bad idea.”
Seiki looked up and saw the obake standing in front of the spirit shrine. “Give me that Sheathed Blade,” said Rieko.
In the split second before the Life Drain had killed him, Seiki had equipped the Sheathed Blade instead of his Hikari, knowing that was the only way to make it safe from looting. You could not switch out weapons once you were in the middle of combat, but you could fill an empty slot, like what Fuyu had done with the unique blade during the Ichikeya challenge. Being three hundred feet away from a named blade unequipped it, freeing up his main weapon slot for the Sheathed Blade instead. Equipped weapons were unlootable, but now he was left without a usable sword, and he did not have to check in the wooden box beside him to know that they had left him nothing else.
Seiki ignored where he was, but the fact that Rieko had been able to catch up in five minutes from where they had been meant the spirit shrine could not have been that far away from Mannaka Village.
“Give me the Sheathed Blade,” said Rieko. “Or you’re not leaving here.”
You are now severely Fatigued. 120 minutes to Absolute Fatigue.
The sun was now sinking, and Seiki looked at Rieko. “You know what?” said Seiki. “Let’s just not do this right now.” That was not how he had expected to end the night, but severe Fatigue had hit him with a much worse kind of heaviness than he had expected.
Rieko let out a scoff in disbelief as he faded away.
…
Despite wanting to be able to say that he was completely unaffected—or at least as much as he had shown the obake girl—, h
e found it very difficult to concentrate on anything the next day. His mind kept racing for a solution. But when he finally logged back, he still had no idea how he was going to get out of this one, except that they would get tired of waiting and leave him alone. Then, he would make a mad dash toward Mannaka, if he could figure out where it was now.
He cleared his schedule and logged in earlier than usual.
…
The pre-dawn Wilderness around him was almost lovely, with a refreshingly cool breeze that spoke of promises, like how people often felt when they happened to wake up earlier than usual, found the air brimming with potential, and made a vow to turn this into a habit. Seiki did not have time to truly appreciate it, though, as his heart was beating fast from apprehension.
He finally opened the wooden box beside him that held his belongings. As expected, the only items inside were the Sheathed Blade and the Jade Steel Dagger, which were equipped and could not have been looted.
Seiki was not alone in the spirit shrine. Next to him, Mukuro of the Lakeside Campers [Level 15] was getting up and re-equipping his bow and long spear, muttering something about killer fish. He seemed surprised when he saw Seiki’s level. “A bit too low to be around here, bro,” he said, before running off and calling to his horse.
Seiki approached the edge of the spirit shrine, but saw no one around. He had no idea which direction he was supposed to take to get to Mannaka, so he decided he would just have to guess and then find a climbable tree soon to orient himself.
Welcome to the Wilderness! Wilderness combat rules apply. PVP status: enabled.
As he reached for his horse whistle, Seiki could hear a dull thunk. He turned, drew his dagger to Parry, and blocked one arrow in time, before the sickening Life Drain from an unseen obake dropped him into the darkness once again.
There was no combat log, or at least that he knew of, of who killed you in the Wilderness, but Seiki did not need one to know. He did not have to wait long, either, for the confirmation of the fact, as Chise of the Rogami Clan [Level 18] appeared, peering into the spirit shrine. “Rieko said not to let you leave, and she doesn’t want anyone else handling the Sheathed Blade.” She nodded to somewhere in the darkness. “Mitsuhiro has been camping all afternoon. Rieko will be here in a while, so just sit tight.”