by Nikita Thorn
“No catch,” she said seriously as she carefully placed it on the floor in front of her.
Potion of Divine Luck. Increases the chance of the next three chance-based activities to maximum.
Despite the deceptively short description, Seiki knew what it really meant.
Fuyu drew back her hand from the bottle and gestured to him to pick it up. “No catch,” she said again. “But promise me one favor.”
Seiki looked at her for a moment. “At my discretion.”
The ninja girl smiled. “Of course.”
Seiki walked toward her and knelt down to pick up the potion. Fuyu silently initiated a trade prompt. A second later the potion appeared in his inventory.
It was almost too easy. Seiki studied her expression as he put the physical bottle in his pocket to store it away. “What do you get out of this?”
Fuyu’s eyes widened in affected surprise at the question, but then she placed one hand on her chest and leaned back. “Oh… don’t you know how much Fuyu-chan loves it when a man owes her a favor?”
Seiki let out a resigned chuckle. Whoever it was behind this Ichikeya ninja girl, she loved what she was doing, and she was having a tremendous amount of fun.
A different smile touched Fuyu’s lips then, one that was far from flirtatious. It was a kind of recognition, perhaps of the mutual knowledge between them of the kind of game she was playing.
Seiki turned to leave.
“You went to the fifth floor, didn’t you?” said Fuyu as he opened the door. “I would have tried talking you out of it, out of my… sense of obligation toward the greater good.”
She paused for a moment. “But I’m glad you went.” She glanced at him, a demure smile once again on her face. “For selfish reasons.”
Perhaps she wanted him to ask why, and so Seiki did not. He gave her one last guarded look and exited the room.
Upon returning to Kentaro’s third floor room, Seiki found that Yamura was once again missing, and the rest of his friends were sitting in a circle, apparently in the middle of an important discussion.
Mairin looked up as he entered. “Okay, you’ve got the potion?”
Seiki nodded and showed it to his friends as they made room for him. Ippei let out a deep sigh as he saw the item, before confirming that it was indeed the one from the Tier One Beta Gift Reward Box.
“Good,” said Mairin. “Okay, Seiki, since we’re instancing it, we’re doing the raid for real. I know we’re just trying to spite the creepy mask cult, but why not really play while we’re at it? Yamura’s going to recruit some Honor Warriors so we’ll have enough people. And, by the way, this is different, since we’re not joining their group to use their rockets, they’re joining ours.”
Kentaro chuckled. “In other words, these are people who Yamura is going to convince not to use the cable car and take the walking trail.”
Seiki blinked at the massive change of plans. “What’s in it for them?”
Mairin giggled. “Captain Ichiiro here is gonna lead us. Better chance of success than going at it on their own.”
Seiki turned to Ippei. “You hate pickup groups.”
The samurai gave a casual shrug. “I hate gatekeepers more,” he said. “And you know I don’t fight hopeless battles. There’s no way I’m going to let us instance the White Dragon event and not beat it.”
“And Kentaro was originally planning to do it with his clan, but he’s gonna help us,” said Mairin.
Seiki looked at the houshi. He understood what this was really about. “Thank you.”
Kentaro smiled. “Our raid leader here promised to make me his second-in-command, so I suppose this is my chance at fame and fortune.”
“If you can manage children, you can manage pickup groups,” said Ippei.
“There’s no drawbacks to not beating it, right?” said Seiki. “As long as we instance it, everyone will get at least the same reward as the world version?”
Ippei cleared his throat. “I’ll have none of that talk on my watch, soldier.”
Seiki laughed. “Oh, excuse me, sir. Must be combat nerves.”
Chuckling, Ippei got to his feet. “And I’d better go talk to the Banquet Guide guy some more to see what else he can tell me about the White Dragon, so at least I’ll know what I’m doing.”
“What do you need me to do?” asked Seiki.
“Nothing.” The samurai smiled. “You did your bit by securing the potion. Any more excitement for you tonight and they’re going to have to give you the What-Have-I-Gotten-Myself-Into Achieve. So take time to relax and save your energy for the raid.”
Mairin announced she had to pay the Social Guild a courtesy visit to say they were not joining the group. Kentaro also had to find a replacement healer for the Crafters’ Guild, and was looking to poach one from the Social Guild, so they left together.
With nothing to do, Seiki went back out onto the deck and found a spot to lie down. The night wind was pleasantly cool, and the muffled conversation sound effects from the upper floors were a calming drone in the background, and he let the present sensory experience wash over him. The bright silver glow had taken over three quarters of the White Dragon’s body, and he guessed there was less than an hour left before the event started and a new phase of the world began.
Slowly, he pondered the events of the evening. His friends were bending their plans for him, and the fact caused him to second-guess his decision, wondering if the group would be better off if he had simply given up the Shadow Key and walked away. The masked players were openly threatening his friends. They had called him selfish, and despite knowing it was part of their coercion tactics, Seiki could not help wondering if there was some truth to that.
Soft footsteps sounded on the deck and Seiki opened his eyes to find Mairin plopping down beside him, a pot of tea in her hand. Her violet and white Sumire Room yukata was loose enough to look very comfortable under the slender strip of obi, and her hairpin of purple flowers jingled softly, its metal bits catching the light of the floor lantern as she looked around for the best spot to set down the steaming teapot.
She was about to say something when Seiki asked, “Why do you play, Mairin?”
The kitsune girl blinked. “This game?” She looked beyond the deck at the Shinshioka cityscape and let out a long breath. “It’s nice here. And it’s a world where I’m not required to be responsible for anything.”
“Is that why you never joined a clan? I’m sure both the White Cranes and the Social Guild asked.”
“And the Honor Warriors.” Mairin laughed. “But, yeah, maybe.”
Seiki suddenly understood another logic behind the masked players’ specific gifts. They had marked out his two friends who had no clan affiliation.
“The worldbreakers are probably not going to leave us alone after this, even if we manage to instance the White Dragon,” said Seiki. “But I’ll fix it. It might not be possible right away, because I have no idea what exactly we’re up against, but I’ll fix this.”
The kitsune turned to look at him. “Zero responsibility means zero responsibility, Seiki,” she said with a little smile. “It applies to everyone, including you. I’m here out of my own free will. It’s not your responsibility to fix things.”
“It was me who started this whole thing.”
Mairin giggled. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe we’re actually here for these things you start?”
Seiki looked at her. “Top-grade entertainment.”
“Yep.”
“Still, things might get bad. And if that’s the case, I’m sorry.”
Mairin’s expression sobered. “If you’re going there, let’s trade apologies. I’m also very sorry, Seiki.”
She sounded so sincere it caught him off-guard. “What for?”
A grin spread across Mairin’s face. “One apology from you where I have no idea what you’re apologizing for, and one apology from me where you have no idea what I�
��m apologizing for, and now we’re even. Okay?”
Seiki had to laugh. “Okay.”
Mairin smiled as she lifted the teapot. “So do you want to be sober yet? The tea comes with the room and apparently saves you potions. Kentaro just discovered it.”
Seiki had only 17% drunkenness left in his system, but he sat up. “Yeah. Why not?”
The Festival Sencha was perfectly bitter and instantly cleared the physical debuffs as advertised. Mairin poured herself a cup and turned to look at the White Dragon in the sky.
“You asked why I play this game?” she said quietly after taking a few sips. “It gives me… freedom, I guess. Freedom from everything, from having to care, having to worry, having to try, having to be mindful of… social constraints.”
“Social constraints?”
In a puff of smoke, Mairin turned into a fox and bound off to run around the deck, ignoring the question.
“What do you mean by social… Oh.” Seiki laughed. “I see.”
The white fox returned to his side, looking at him intently as she lifted her front paw.
In slight confusion, Seiki held out his hand. The kitsune placed her tiny fluffy paw in it, before white smoke burst out to transform her back into a human girl. Her hand, small, soft, was cold from being in the night wind. Seiki glanced up to meet her eyes and suddenly forgot what he was about to say.
It took him a second to realize there was an item between their hands, and when Mairin removed hers, he found a reddish Rice Candy [Level 1 food] in his palm.
The kitsune burst out giggling. “It also allows for silly magic tricks like this, which makes no sense, but I love it. Oh, and you can totally eat the wrapper. It’s not plastic. Supposed to be rice flour or something. Neat, right?”
Seiki ate it. It tasted like cheap candy, but he would probably never forget the flavor.
Mairin let out a satisfied sigh as she turned her attention back to the view, leaning back on her arms and stretching her legs on the deck. “You know, all these little things. At the very beginning I was just trying it out. But then I saw someone unleash Kindred Spirits in a brawl for the first time.” She waved her hand and sent nine silvery phantom foxes out to run in circles around the deck. “I mean, I can sit here and do this forever. Even if you take away everything and just leave me the ability to shoot sparkly foxes out of my hand, I’d still stay subscribed, and I know it’s stupid.”
Seiki watched her smile fondly at her spirit foxes. “And no one’s gonna take it away,” he said quietly.
She turned her attention back to him. “Sorry, what?”
“Nothing,”
They sat for a short while before Ippei returned, looking a bit more confident in his preparedness for the event.
“I tried every possible question I could think of on the Banquet Guide, and I think I’ve got an inkling of how it’s going to work,” the samurai reported. “So, phases for sure, but he said the nature of the challenge would be tuned to the makeup of the group, so we should be fine with a standard raid group and I asked Yamura to recruit based on that ratio. The Guide seemed to suggest that preparations are not necessary, except that having spare firework rockets would help make it a lot easier. I think it’s mostly going to be puzzle mechanics. More about figuring it out than burning it down with force. Like we’ve guessed, it’s probably a bigger version of the Corrupted Beast events.”
“What do I need to do?” asked Seiki.
“You just need to concentrate on starting the event,” said Ippei. “I’m pretty sure that the luck potion will max out the chance to a hundred percent, so I’d suggest using one of the Pokamono rockets for range, but you should still take a few more anyway.”
They agreed on Seiki keeping one White Pokamono Rocket, one Red Pokamono Rocket and also the Golden Chrysanthemum Hanwarimono Rocket, just in case.
“Simply use them liberally,” said Ippei. “It would be good to save them for the raid, but they’re not necessary, and it’s more important to get the event started in the first place.”
Seiki picked up the bamboo items. “Does South City work?”
“I’m not sure,” said Ippei. “It’s not going to be the normal Shinshioka we’re exiting to, so there might not be PVP restrictions there to help you.”
Seiki nodded. “I’ll assume there won’t be. Or the worldbreakers wouldn’t have bluffed it.”
“I’m going to leave it entirely up to you how you plan to activate the instance. Tell me what you need before we start. I’ll go see what kind of Honor Warriors we’ve got to work with because we’re gonna need to be on the same page.”
“Oh, wow, Captain Ichiiro of Betaland at work,” said Mairin. “Okay, what about me? What am I supposed to do?”
Ippei was already getting up to attend to the rest of the group preparations. “You, Foxy?” he chuckled as he glanced at Seiki. “You try to convince him whatever plan he comes up with that doesn’t involve other people because he doesn’t want to involve other people isn’t gonna work.”
Seiki opened his mouth to protest but Ippei quickly disappeared into the room. Eventually he turned to Mairin, who was holding back laughter. “Right. Let’s think about this.”
Twenty minutes later, Seiki found himself explaining to a room full of unfamiliar Honor Warriors players about how they were going to start the instance.
The group Yamura had managed to recruit included four samurai, six ryoushi, two houshi, two ninja and one obake, ranging from Level 11 to 18. Ippei had not said it out loud, but Seiki could guess it was not ideal. The levels were too far apart, which tended to result in erratic scaling of the challenge, not to mention they were a little light on melee. Still, it was not too shabby considering what little time they had to put the group together.
What was a little troubling was the fact that many of the Honor Warriors had joined purely out of curiosity, since Yamura had mentioned Seiki’s fame as the person who singlehandedly triggered a world boss event.
“So there’s some high level enemies trying to kill you to stop you from activating the instance?” asked one of the Honor Warriors samurai. “The Rogami still mad from the siege?”
Seiki secretly winced, but consoled himself with the fact that at least Yamura had been upfront about the risks. “These people are a bit worse than the Rogami.”
“Who? The Nobles?” asked another voice. “I hope this ninja Nobles guy shows up. He’s got this nasty spinning bronze wheel of death that leaves a poison trail. Not sure what it’s called, but you’ve got to see it to believe it. I once saw it take out like ten people in a row in a brawl.”
“Okay, guys, we’re supposed to try not to get killed by high-level enemies,” said Yamura.
Several Honor Warriors laughed.
“So what’s the plan?”
Seiki quickly relayed his idea. “We use the crowd for cover for as long as possible until we get close to the dragon, then we’ll have a way to activate the instance.”
There were two things the masked players were not aware of: the Divine Luck Potion and the involvement of the extra Honor Warriors players. Considering how populous the Honor Warriors were as a clan, Seiki was certain he could use that to their advantage.
“Okay, can I ask a very obvious question here?” said Yamura. “Why can’t Seiki just hang back in the Banquet Tower and we go out and get the instance started?”
“I think it phases your whole group once you exit the tower,” said Ippei. “So the safest place is probably in the crowd.”
“I’ve got another question,” said someone else from the group. “There will be a zillion people out there at the same time, so how will they even locate you?”
“We’re hoping they won’t be able to locate us,” said Ippei. “That would be the best case. But these people have means, so it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
“So the plan is what again?”
“Basically, just act normal and stick with the main crowd,�
�� said Mairin.
“That’s it? Does that even qualify as a plan?” said one of the Honor Warriors, a young-looking houshi girl, sounding a little disappointed.
“A simple plan is usually the best plan,” said Ippei.
“Still, if they figure out you’re in our group, someone might target you, so if you want to walk away from this and do the normal world version instead, that’s totally fine,” Seiki added.
One of the Honor Warriors ryoushi let out a good-natured laugh. “It’s a win-win for us anyway. Yamura said we’re getting a hundred gold from you guys if we don’t beat the instanced version.”
“Excuse me?” said Ippei.
Yamura stepped forward and clapped his hands. “Okay, the dragon’s gonna land soon so we’d better get to the front yard if we’re going out with everybody else. Let’s get moving.”
Ignoring a look from Ippei, Yamura slid the door open and waved the group out of the room. Now that they were so close to the start of the challenge, the Banquet Tower automatically phased every group member into the same shared instance, and they soon found themselves crowded in the courtyard, waiting for the front gate to unlock.
The White Dragon was now visible directly above them in the sky, glowing bright silver all through save for the very tip of its tail. The flight path was also much lower now in preparation of its eventual touchdown that would mark the start of the event.
The majority of the Honor Warriors did not know each other before joining the group, and had accepted Yamura’s invitation in groups of two or three friends, and so quite a few of them were using the waiting time to mingle, while a few more entertained themselves by launching bamboo copter toys into the air or idly unleashing their various abilities at the surrounding trees. To add to the chaos, one of the ryoushi was trying to shoot her sparkly [Toy] arrows at the White Dragon, while the group’s sole ninja joined in with colorful [Toy] smoke bombs.
Seiki took his chance to talk to the Banquet Guide again to make sure he had understood everything, from whether he would get a notification from a firework rocket once he was in range to what would happen upon death.