War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  Mairin finally understood. “In the wall between the first room and the third room…” She gasped.

  They were all instantly up at the far wall. Kiku’s body wavered with the Fade effect as she pressed her hands against the blank dirt surface. They met resistance at first, but moving to the right, her fingers suddenly passed through the dirt. She turned to look at Seiki, spooked, excited, speechless.

  “Stand back,” said Seiki.

  Wasting not another second, his palm burst through the wall with a bare-handed Focused Strike. The vertical surface crumbled, letting loose a cloud of brown dust. Seiki shielded his eyes, and Kiku, not having been prepared, had breathed at the wrong time and had started coughing.

  What appeared before them, however, was unmistakable.

  Lodged within the dirt wall was a wooden box, brown with old dust, as if it had been sitting there for centuries. Seiki stared at it in disbelief, before yanking it free from its hiding place, dislodging more dust.

  The rest of his friends were staring. They had been talking about the treasure for so long, but had not actually spared a thought for what they should do once they found it.

  “A… unique?” Yamura sounded as if he was about to faint.

  “Open it,” cried Mairin.

  Ultimately, there was something very anticlimactic about opening a highly-coveted treasure box. There appeared to be no lock on it, and the dusty lid clacked plainly onto the ground. Still, Seiki’s heart was pounding in his chest faster than when he had been struggling with a Level 29 ninja as he took his first peek at the content.

  It was a paper scroll, fine, red-trimmed, tied close with woven dark crimson strings. Unlike its shabby container, the scroll itself was in perfect condition, without a speck of dust on its patterned outer layer.

  Oudou Scroll. Requires Level 30 in Tailoring to unroll.

  Seiki continued to stare for a moment to let it sink in, before letting out his held breath, suddenly not sure how he felt about it. Perhaps, at the back of his mind, he had somehow been hoping that it would turn out to be one of the two undiscovered unique weapons—a thought which he quickly chided himself for.

  He glanced up at his friends, most of whom seemed to share his first impression.

  “Uh… okay,” Yamura sounded disappointed. “A… Tailoring scroll?”

  Ippei let out a chuckle. “At least… it’s not Pottery.” The comment earned him a disapproving look from Kiku.

  Mairin did not seem particularly bothered. “It’s probably going to make some great gear. Level 30 dress? Wooh.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.” Kentaro’s eyes were sparkling in delight.

  Kiku had on a thoughtful expression. “You know, this is exactly like the one we found with the Fuoka Army. Yes, Ippei, the Pottery scroll, but you have any idea what this is worth?”

  “I’m sure it’s worth a lot,” said Yamura, sounding a little depressed. “But… of all treasures, it’s a Trade Skill scroll? I mean, just give us a mid-level named weapon or something. Like, that bandit guy has a named bow-quiver set.”

  Mairin picked up the scroll and flipped it around in her hand. She even tried untying the strings, but, of course, without having Level 30 in Tailoring, they did not give way. Then she looked up at Kiku. “Since it’s your poem, I’d say you bring the scroll back to your clan, have someone learn it, and then make us one each of whatever it makes.”

  “That’s pretty fair,” Ippei said.

  Now that his unexpected gut reaction was over, Seiki was starting to feel a little excited about being in possession of something only Level 30 Tailoring could make. His two cloth layers were nothing out of the ordinary, and he would very much welcome a boost in both health and defense, especially if they were allegedly going after the Kano Castle now.

  “I hope it’s like a really good pink kimono with crazy stats,” Mairin said with a giggle.

  “Not funny,” said Yamura.

  Kiku was carefully studying the scroll. “You know what?” she said after a while, looking up at Kentaro. “Why don’t you learn it right now?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We don’t have anyone in the clan who’s near Level 30 in Tailoring yet, while you’re this close,” she explained. “If we can trust what Fumiya said, the whole Rogami army is still outside, and I really don’t want a repeat of what happened to the other scroll.”

  Kentaro stared at her. “You mean—”

  “Yeah. Just level right now, and open it. That way, it guarantees whatever Fumiya is scheming, he won’t get the scroll.” She then smiled. “Of course, I’d like you to promise us to make our clan mates the Level 30 item, as long as we provide the materials.”

  The houshi stared into space for a moment. “You guys know I’m not going to say no to an offer like that.”

  “Uh, no one’s actually expecting you to say no,” said Yamura.

  “How much more XP do you need to max?” Mairin asked the houshi.

  “About four thousand.”

  “Just for reference, how much total XP do you need to reach Level 30?” said Yamura.

  Kentaro glanced inward. “About 2.5 million,” he said.

  Seiki nearly choked. He was getting only about two hundred points per tree for his Woodcutting. It would be a long while before he was anywhere near that number for his main Trade Skill.

  “And do you have enough materials to level right now?” asked Mairin. “You got a bunch of nice cloth from the dragon, right?” Technically, it was still undecided who the fabric would go to, but since Kiku did not contest the statement, and since it was unlikely that anyone in the group would ever have need for flower-patterned Kobana-mon Kinran cloth, no one said anything.

  Kentaro thought about it. “I suppose I can make two 18-slot pouches from this cloth right now, and that, times the material cost, will probably get me four thousand XP, but it will be such a waste of rare material. Kinran gives triple-attack bonus on whatever gear you make, so this would better be made into an obi or even decorative hems. Oh, and with this pattern you can also get harmony bonus if you do it on mainly defense pieces.”

  Considering he had no idea what it meant, Seiki said nothing.

  “Come on,” said Yamura. “We just got a max-level Tailoring scroll and you’re worried about some gold cloth?”

  Only Kiku seemed to understand the dilemma and said something about using it for attack-boosting charms.

  “Just do the bags right now, Kentaro,” said Mairin. “I’m dying to see what it makes.”

  Kentaro reviewed them one by one. “Or,” he began, a small amused smile lighting up on his face. “Better yet… we waste nothing.”

  “Okay?” said Yamura.

  “Take off your clothes,” said the houshi.

  “What?”

  “I get about 300 XP for each repair attempt, you see. So it’s turning out to be a good thing after all that you all got your gear completely wrecked.”

  The group exchanged looks.

  “Of course, I don’t lug around reinforced leather, so I can’t do armor. But give me all your cloth layers right now.” The houshi sounded equally amused and serious.

  “Well,” said Mairin after a little, before leaping to her feet. “In that case, me and Kiku-chan are going to the poison room. No peeking.”

  Yamura heaved a long sigh after the girls had left as he started untying the straps on his chest piece. “I really didn’t think finding epic loot was going to come down to stuff like this.”

  At the end, Seiki did not have to strip beyond his outer cloth layer, as his Superior Black Cotton Shitagi had garnered enough wear and tear from both the Spearmaster and Shousei. Kiku also turned out to have a few pieces of extra gear that she used for various purposes that were not at full durability. This, coupled with the double-experience effect of the potion they had gotten earlier from the Shussebora conch shell, was enough XP for Kentaro to unostentatiously reach his final level in Tailoring.
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  The houshi did not seem to mind the lack of occasion, and simply sighed happily once he did. He also seemed to take great pleasure in adding to everyone sleeves a strip of the Blue-Gray Seigaiha cloth, a slightly less valuable cloth he had also gotten from the conch shell. “Adds a bit of defense, so I won’t have to fix so much of your things anymore now that I’m no longer getting any XP for it.”

  Seiki noticed that he had an extra strip of wave-patterned cloth on the bottom hem of his shirt as well, perhaps because the houshi had decided he needed it more than anyone else. Each one gave an extra +8 defense to the piece, which was not an incredible amount, but any extra health-related buff was always useful.

  “And now I’m going to have to mog over it,” muttered Ippei as he took his dark red shirt from the Shinshioka set back from the houshi.

  “Team spirit.” The houshi smiled, successfully extracting another sigh from Ippei.

  “Just pull the scroll already.” The samurai waved his hand tiredly. “Please.”

  Mairin and Kiku, both of whom had much larger strips of the wave-patterned cloth on their kimono sleeves, returned to join them in very high spirits, and they sat down around the dusty box and waited for the houshi to pick up the Oudou Scroll.

  “Here goes.” Kentaro’s voice almost trembled as he carefully untied the red strings and pulled the rollers apart.

  Not being qualified, the black tidy text appeared as complete gibberish to Seiki, and presumably to everyone else in the group, and they looked expectantly at the houshi’s reaction.

  Kentaro darted his eyes across the text. Instead of a delighted gasp, he simply furrowed his brows, blinked a few times as he re-read the document, before putting the scroll down on the ground in front of him, where it slowly disintegrated and faded away.

  “So?” said Mairin, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

  “Did you learn the recipe?” asked Yamura.

  “Yes.” Kentaro sounded a little confused.

  “What’s the pattern for?” asked Kiku. “Please tell me it’s something from the legendary celestial set.”

  Kentaro took a very deep breath, his expression still unreadable. “Let me show you,” he said. “I have the so-called recipe in my mind now, so I’m going to write out exactly what it says.”

  He took out a piece of paper, his ink kit, and quickly produced a copy of the scroll in legible form:

  Red Headband Master Pattern [Requires Level 32 Tailoring to sew]

  Materials:

  Coarse cotton cloth [x1]

  Red dye [x1]

  They all looked up at each other in puzzlement.

  “Okay, get serious, Kentaro,” said Yamura.

  “It’s really what it says,” said the houshi.

  Seiki was not quite sure what to make of it. “Any hints on the stats?”

  “No,” said Kentaro, before adding, after some thought. “A red headband is the first thing you learn to make as a Tailor.”

  “We managed to kill some high-level loot-stealing ninja for… red headbands? Well, in that case, it’d better make you invincible or something,” said Yamura. “Or I’m complaining to the Bureau of Customer Service. No, actually, I’m done. I’m quitting.”

  Seiki glanced at Ippei to see what he thought, but the samurai was simply staring at the written words, slightly worried, but somehow fascinated.

  “Um, well… oh, so is this some weird philosophy mechanics thing like that bard woman was talking about?” Mairin said. “At the highest level, return to the most basic thing.”

  Seiki shook his head. “And to make it, you have to be Level 32, which… doesn’t exist?”

  “Doesn’t exist… yet?” Mairin guessed. “Like, so you can get ahead once they finally expand the world, so you can be making baddass red headbands straightaway when new levels open up?”

  “That is lame!” cried Yamura.

  Kiku was completely speechless.

  Ippei was staring at the copied scroll, lost in deep thought. “Except… Level 32 exists right now.” Then he let out a kind of curse reserved for when the world was about to come to a happy end.

  Yamura looked at him in confusion. “What?”

  “You can get to Level 32 in a Trade Skill,” said Ippei. “Level 32 actually exists for all Trade Skills, even right now.”

  Kentaro nodded, seemingly relieved that someone had finally understood his meaning, and a second later Seiki was reminded how it was possible. There was indeed a Trade Skill unique dagger that temporarily added two levels to any of the player’s Trade Skills who had it equipped.

  “Orihime no Hari, Needle of the Weaving Princess,” said Kentaro. “The Society has it at the moment.”

  “Right,” said Mairin, still sounding unconvinced.

  “You have any idea what this actually means?” said Ippei.

  “So… you can start making badass red headbands straightaway, like, right now.” The kitsune started giggling. “Red headband, wave-pattern sleeves. Team uniform.”

  “That is so not funny!” said Yamura.

  Ippei ignored them. “Seriously, you have any idea what this means?” he said again.

  Seiki slowly nodded as it came to him, and he slowly realized the extent of the implication. “Maybe… the uniques’ abilities aren’t arbitrary.” As far as he knew, each unique weapon possessed a one-of-a-kind ability that nothing else in the game had, and, so far they all seemed random and sometimes even comically trivial.

  He looked up at Ippei. “Maybe… the uniques are meant to do something specific.” This Level 30 named scroll had obviously been designed to work with a unique Trade Skill dagger.

  Mairin stopped laughing. “Whoa,” she said.

  Seiki then looked at Kiku. “And the Kano Castle knows this.”

  More pieces of the puzzle started to click into place, and Seiki slowly continued his train of thought out loud. “That’s why they broke off from the Nobles with half their uniques and started a clan at the edge of the world,” he said. “That’s why they’ve been gathering uniques. That’s why they went through all that trouble to create a throwaway character and give him Level 30 Pottery.” He paused for a moment as one part of the whole scheme that had never made any sense to him became clearer. “They didn’t even care about the recipe. They could have safely kept the recipe on that Level 13 if it’s so valuable. Instead, they deleted him, just to cover their tracks…”

  Mairin nodded as she finished his thought for him. “So they could make sure no one ever sees a Level 30 Pottery recipe that actually requires Level 32 to make.”

  Kiku pursed her lips. “So… they weren’t trying to start a clan war between us and the Rogami. That was just a lucky byproduct. The Kano Castle only wants to make sure everyone else is kept in the dark, and no one learns of the existence of Level 32 recipes out there.”

  “And the weirder thing is that the Level 32 recipe makes… red headbands,” said Kentaro. “Why that?”

  “You won’t know until you actually make it,” said Mairin. “Maybe it really makes you invincible? Maybe…” She was again making wild leaps in her head and her eyes suddenly sparkled. “Maybe that’s something you need to trigger the next unlabeled quest.”

  Yamura let out a delighted curse. “That must be it.”

  Seiki looked at Ippei. As much as he would like to believe Mairin’s theory, he still felt that there were too many things that did not add up. “I think it’s time to talk to the Society.”

  Despite grimacing, the samurai solemnly nodded. “All right. Tomorrow’s loot division meeting is now officially a what-the-hell-we-just learned meeting, and yes, you can bring your hime-sama,” he told Kiku. “Since your clan is right in the middle of it, and the more we know the better.”

  “And Hiro?” asked the obake.

  “Yeah, whatever,” Ippei gave in. “Keep RP to a minimum, though.”

  “Oh, samurai-san, we can’t wait!” cried Kiku in very convincing del
ight, falling back into her role as her clan’s spokesperson. “What a great opportunity to pursue a closer relationship between our clan and yours.”

  Ippei’s eyes widened in horror. “No, no, no, we’re not going there,” he said as he realized his mistake.

  Beside him, Mairin raised her brow. “Why not?” she said, lightly and nonchalantly, as if in passing. Her tone was casual, and Seiki was not sure how seriously she meant it.

  The kitsune smiled. “We’ve got our clan uniform already. How many starting members do you need again? Five?”

  Kentaro blinked, and Yamura looked a little confused at what she was suggesting. “What again?”

  “We’re still gonna be one short.” Seiki kept a straight face. “Since Yamura’s gotta join the bandits.”

  “The hell I am,” cried the ryoushi in protest.

  Still discussing theories and endless speculations, they slowly made their way back toward the entrance, having agreed it was a better idea not to log out from the wilderness.

  “You think the Rogami are still camping the exit?” said Mairin as they stopped in front of the cave wall that served as the instance boundary.

  “It’s 4 a.m.,” said Ippei.

  “It’s the Rogami,” said Seiki. “And it’s Friday. They might still have people.”

  “I think we’re in this situation a bit too often,” said Mairin. “Like, why are we always wondering if there’s a Rogami army on the other side? And why are we still running from them?”

  “Wait till you don your new red headbands,” said Ippei, sounding almost serious.

  Mairin frowned. “Do they even know they’re being used by the Kano Castle? So Fumiya told them about the treasure, and they rode all the way out here expecting to get some treasure, but Fumiya’s plan is just to slip in himself and make sure no one finds the treasure.”

  “Right,” said Seiki. Thinking back, the ninja’s expression had not been a look of greed when Seiki bluffed him, but alarm.

  “So now what?” said Mairin. “We fight our way back to the city? Did you say something about being able to summon your troops once you’re back outside the instance, so we can run with some rear protection?”