Chapter 31: Chapter 30: Popularity & Survival

Login. The last day of the event.

After entering the event field..., I was dumbstruck.

"Come here, come here! Come and get a taste of the Crow cookies!"

"We got Crow banners, Crow buns, and Crow coats here! Come and get one before they're sold out!"

"The play, "The Legend of Crow" will start momentarily! Get your tickets ready!"

It's a Crow festival! Despite being a carnival!

"Oh? Hey, the masked one~, over here~." 

I turned around and saw the fox from yesterday..., Aino, was it? She waved at me close to the teleport entrance, so I walked up to her.

"I knew it was Ga-, nothing. We can't let your name get exposed. Come here." - Aino

The fox woman made me follow her to a less populated spot from the huge bazaar featuring goods related to the elf from yesterday, Crow. 

"Phew, that was close~. If people started to gather attention at you, Black, then all the preparations would go to waste~." - Aino

"Preparations as in the weird stuff back there? And "Black"?" - Garami

Before she answered, the fox started to fiddle with something. Probably her menu screen, because a moment later, she made a system window appear and showed it to me.

It was a list of the contenders of the popularity contest for the Carnival. Crow the elf was on a record-high first place. After that, there was some Grieger character and some other people, but saying there was a long shot for them to overcome Crow is the understatement of the year.

Then the fox sorted the list to make two entries appear..., that's me! Both of them! One is just my name and nothing else, while the other is my masked appearance with the name "demon princess" on it.

"People have not connected your name and appearance yet~, but if they know that the first Dungeon clearer is such a beauty that has left her mark on the Carnival already, don't you think that you may overtake Crow in popularity?" - Aino

"Ah, that's why "Black"." - Garami

"Correct~." - Aino

Well, I am wearing black armor, a black cloak, and a black mask...

"Anyway, thank you soooo much~! It's going to be hilarious to see Crow falling from his paradise to hell after this~." - Aino

She's talking about the true meaning of the popularity contest.

The NPCs I overheard yesterday talked about making a male player win the contest so they would not be killed by "something" as the winner would be made the "offering" instead. After I shared this info with Al Azif, he then recruited the two crafter girls from yesterday, this fox and the legal loli, with the plan of making Crow the "winner" of the contest.

"You have something against the elf?" - Garami

"With Crow? Nothing personally. We both have our shops in Seira Chaos now, and we do not compete over most of the materials in our work. However..." - Aino

"However?" - Garami

"I cannot agree that his name is more known than me!! He is only brewing those boring potions of his every day while I create the most fabulous clothing you will see in the game or outside it! This is completely ridiculous!!" - Aino

"...just asking, the stuff sold back there is...?" - Garami

"That? My guild made them. It was a haste job, but we finished it with just half a day on us." - Aino

Ah, now I get it. It was told on the BBS, but it seems that equipment-focused crafters aren't that appreciated yet. They haven't surpassed the quality that the NPC shops or the items found in the field have. However, consumables like potions are always sought after, as all the NPC shops have limited storage of their goods. 

Taking this into account, people would be shopping at the elf's place rather than the fox's. 

"Okay, I don't care. I'll keep a low profile for today." - Garami

I got no urgent need for more CP at the moment. 10.000 should be enough.

"Great~! Then, if you ever visit the big city, please give me a call~." - Aino

That would be nice, but my title is making me public enemy #1 in those cities. Not to mention that I hate crowded places like a "big city". 

I saw the fox returning to the "bazaar" and started to walk towards the stands in the Item Exchange area. 

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"That will be 1.000 sol, miss." 

I gave the shopkeeper her money and accepted the pieces of black-purple ore. It's a "dark magitite", a strange type of ore that allows you to use skills by spending the MP stored inside the rock. Limited to skills of the corresponding element of the ore, or composition elements that include the ore's element.

It's sorta costly, but since there's nothing else for me to do other than window shopping, I figured out this could come in handy. I also bought other handy gadgets-

"Hey, something's happening over there."

Guess things are starting over at the main area. Most of the players went over to the edge to get a better view. I for my part climbed up one of the stone buildings and pulled out the binoculars, one of the handy gadgets I had bought just now, and took a look at the situation.

A huge stage had been constructed in the main area, right in front of a huge huge hole that made up the center of the area. Standing on it was that elf-guy, Crow. He was waving his hands at the people who'd gathered in front of the stage.

One of the NPCs, another thin and slim guy with a green, full-faced mask on his head, handed the elf something like a trophy, and then...

The trophy exploded into a blast of smoke and revealed lots of ropes that wrapped themselves around the unsuspecting elf. The NPC had already fled the scene. Literally.

Right afterward, a green glow emerged from the hole in the center of the island. A huge body made of thin, sharp-looking limbs emerged from the hole. Its height easily surpasses 10 meters. A kaiju-level enemy?

And there rang the gong!

Still, a mantis..., aaaah. Now I get it. The emblem on the posters. It must have been supposed to be a picture of a mantis' head with their sickle-like hands crossed.

Thinking about it, the NPC being so thin and lean, plus that helmet-like mask, are they perhaps mantises as well? It would make sense, as this "queen" mantis would want a male, so they forced the job from themselves to one of us players. Was the popularity contest a method to choose a player, or to make the "queen" wish for the player that won?

No wonder they didn't want a girl like me to win the contest. Rather, I'm glad I didn't win. Poor elf...

Speaking of the elf, he's getting carried away by a man dressed in metal armor. Not the kind that a knight in fantasy stories would wear. It's mostly greaves and a chest plate. The crafters may not have reached the level where they can produce full plate armor, or the guy doesn't have the qualifications to wear one.

In any case, the "queen" doesn't seem to like having her "company for the night" snatched away from the stage..., or maybe it's some sorta "podium" in her eyes? 

The "queen", eyes red from anger, swung one of her massive scythe-hands at the elf and the armored player. Some guys holding huge shields moved like they'd teleported and took the blow for the two escapees.

The tanks seemed like they would get crushed, but then magic spells from the magician-looking players struck the tanks and the latter group then proceeded to fend off the kaiju-scythe. That must have been defense enhancements and healing spells. Cool.

While the "queen" staggered from the tanks' deflecting her attack, probably due to some skill, various weapon-holding players came at her with weapons raised. Some of them did incredible high-paced moves that I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate without using a skill. Cool.

...are those two "cool"-things the reason why Warrior and Mage are more popular than Scout? We don't have such cool moves. Then Crafters are either for hobby-type players or players who wanna profit "financially" in the game rather than go on adventurers, I guess.

Tch, no love for the Scouts. I mean, sure we don't have any flashy skills or moves, but still! So what if our only good traits are looking for things and keeping ourselves hidden!?

...looking for things? Keeping ourselves hidden?

I just got a nasty idea. As I looked at the "queen", I used..., tch. It doesn't work with the binoculars? That would have been an OP move that could break the game balance, I guess. In that case, I'll take the "queen"'s too-big-for-her-own-good-size to my advantage.

While looking at the huge mantis that was visible even from this distance, I activated [Weakness Evil Eye]. There are no big changes in the mantis' movements, but I doubt it's completely ineffective. 

I continued to glare at the queen with a whole area in-between us as I casually drank MP potions to recover what I used on the Evil Eye. Since there's no increase in consumption even with this distance, I can continue for as long as I have potions.

I could also just take a break and let [Mana Auto-Recovery] do its trick if I run out, but I want to inflict as much Weakness on the "queen" from the get-go as possible so the other players have a breathing room to reorganize themselves into better positions. 

And it worked. Soon, the players started to make use of the "queen's" obsession-like aggro toward the elf to their advantage by staging ambushes with the magician players who had prepared tons of high-powered magic spells and to keep the "queen" away from the players that recovered from the damage and exhaustion.

Around halfway into the battle, probably due to the "queen's" HP reaching a certain threshold, the masked NPCs started to attack the players. They didn't seem to do much damage to the players, but it led to reducing the number of players who could concentrate on the "queen" due to the manpower being divided into yet another role.

Despite the difficulties, the "queen" seemed to gradually become easier for the players to beat. Were the players getting their game more together? Was the "queen" a type of boss that had her stats on its highest at the beginning for then gradually being reduced? Or is it due to my devilish Evil Eye-trick?

Whatever the reason, soon, the "queen" and her troops of false NPCs were reduced to black dust in the wind. And I didn't even need to move from this spot! Nice~.

Okay, okay..., 9th place? As in, the 9th player that contributed the most to the raid? WHY!?

Crap, rumors are gonna start spreading again. Time for a quick retreat. I'll decide the rewards tomorrow.

Log out.

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