Chapter 4: Investigation And Verifiation

「Since we are already here, let’s try fighting the monsters that are here!」

When Yumir said such a stupid thing, I let out a sigh and prepared to suggest going back to the forest.

…What is this girl even saying?

「No no, you just saw that PK guy, right? Even though we had more people on our side, we couldn’t even beat someone at level 5. We are still level 3, you know?」

「It’s impossible even if it’s only one!?」

「…unlike that PK they probably won’t heal themselves, so it’s not like we won’t be able to defeat them. If we are talking about efficiency…no, let’s give it a try. I’ll try to support you properly」

「Fufufu, I actually have a secret weapon!」

「Hmm?」

Yumir opened her menu and started to operate it.

After she was done, the wooden stick on her back disappeared and in its place, something that looked more like a sword appeared.

「Wait, when did you get-」

「I picked it up after a bee dropped it! How is it? I look like a knight now, right!?」

「You are right. Now you need to mount on a horse, wear some armor and you’d look like a splendid knight from some country」

「Right, right!? Well then, let’s go! Charge!」

「She’s not even listening to me…」

After that, I wanted her to show me the data of the sword just in case, but Yumir didn’t listen when I urged her to switch back to the beginner gear…

For the record, the sword she had equipped was called 「Crude Broadsword」 and it had the same attack as the stick. Aside from that its endurance was only…3 points.

During that time, we returned to the place we were at the beginning of the incident.

I initially expected we would be able to beat them but I was completely wrong, the sword was damaged and we were utterly defeated.

Since Yumir was easily defeated, I used the holy water to revive her and we decided to return to 「Dondery Forest」 for the time being.

「Alright, we arrived. Walking this much, I can see just how far we were chased」

「Umu, you are right. Then, what should we do first? You said you wanted to verify something?」

「First, I want to see how experience is distributed in a party. Then…we are going to level up soon, right? I want to know how much the experience differs because of our levels」

「Hmmm…? I don’t really get it, so give me the instructions!」

Yumir followed my orders and drew her sword.

Let’s start by experimenting on the 「Killer bee」 we have gotten used to.

It’s probably the weakest monster in this game…but at the start, we challenged it bare-handed and lost.

Isn’t this quite embarrassing experience? Let’s not tell anyone about this…

There are 2 types of monsters in this forest, the other type is a monster with the appearance of a caterpillar aptly named 「Caterpillar」.

While its movements are slow, they are stronger and have more HP than the 「Killer bees」.

When you think about it, they are about the same strength.

After that, we disbanded and remade the party multiple times and we verified the amount of experience we got before leveling up, as a result…

「As expected, it seems that hunting in a suitable area for our level is the best. Even if we kill a lot of small fries, the experience we get will be trash…and then, since there’s a small bonus of experience and experience is shared properly, supposing we kill stuff solo and in a party at around the same speed, it will be more efficient to do it solo. However, since that’s not really realistic, in the end, it’s usually better to play as a party. To sum it up…」

「I don’t get it!」

「…

If we defeat monsters around our level while in a party, it’s faster and more efficient」

「Oh, that’s easy to understand!」

「So, incredibly strong solo players might be faster than parties. They receive all the experience for themselves after all」

「Just say that from the beginning! I’ll say this, even if you have free time, playing solo is prohibited!」

「O-oh…」

I believe that finding a good hunting ground, is the most important thing in an RPG.

Always going for efficiency might be boring, but since Yumir said it was launch day…guess we should focus on being efficient for the time being.

So, let’s review things for now.

When it comes to the fundamentals in the game called TB, the stats are extremely simple.

HP・MP・Attack・Defense・Magic attack・Magic resistance, these six.

If you move your body in a way that shouldn’t be possible in reality, once your consciousness returns to your body it’ll place a great burden on it, so they place limitations. That’s why, no matter how much you level up, your physical ability will stay the same.

That’s why there’s no real value for speed, the damage you deal will increase accordingly with your level, the damage you receive will decrease too. This way it can present how your strength has increased.

In that case, lacking the reflexes, wasn’t it the right choice for me to choose to be a rear guard?

Then, if you increase your offensive ability while you don’t have your weapon equipped, there’s a system that affects the weight of the equipment making it lighter.

This being the case, it’s possible to give players the impression that they are getting stronger even if they don’t increase their real-life physical strength, a method that won’t affect your real life body.

To sum it up, when you level up your power will go up and you will be able to use heavier weapons.

When it comes to defensive equipment it’s the same, depending on your base defensive stats it’ll feel lighter too.

Because of this, if you have a job that will have high base attack and defense you will be able to use heavier gear than the ones we have currently.

All this information is information that existed in the tutorial and Yumir lightheartedly didn’t bother reading it.

In reality, it’s true that after leveling up I feel that this wooden branch has gotten lighter, so I believe this information is true.

That being said, the branch was light to begin with, there’s also the possibility that I’m just imagining it.

Well then, what should we do about our current equipment?

We should probably decide taking into consideration that it’s launch day.

…I wish I had some kind of indicator, in this case, let’s try borrowing the knowledge of a gamer.

「Hey, Yumir. Does crafting exist in this game? Like blacksmithing or item crafting」

「Of course!」

「Ah. In that case, the weapons and armor that they sell in NPC stores…」

「Usually, their performance is worse than the ones players craft! Though it’s to be expected!」

As I thought, it was like that.

In that case, I have to do that gradually…this girl is bad at attentive work after all.

If that’s the case, materials and money are absolutely necessary as an initial investment. So we should sell everything that doesn’t look like we’ll use and be careful when buying things.

Hmm…alright, it’s decided.

「Let’s use the beginner gear until level 10」

When I said that, Yumir made a face as if she had just received the death penalty.

That much!? Does she hate the beginner gear that much!?

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「Why!? I hate this lame wooden stick!」

She’s still going on about appearances, huh….

However, Yumir…you don’t get the wonderfulness of this beginner gear! I’ll teach you about it right now!

I swung my fist to emphasize it.

「You are such an idiot, the beginner gear is free! If something has a set endurance, you’d have to go to a store and repair it with a whetstone, and that will incur various expenses, right!? Not having any endurance means that its maintenance costs are 0! If it’s for fighting, this branch and that stick are more than enough! Since it’s launch day, we’ll be patient until level 10, not use any of the drops and pick everything up!」

Free of charge, gratis, 0 yen, service articles, sales, discounts…such pleasant words.

Wait, I think about half of them have a different meaning.

Yumir took a step back because of my menacing look.

「Gunuh…this damn economist…

However, are we really going to be fine until level 10?」

「Think about how our stats increase to match the increase in stats on the enemies, I believe it’s designed to be doable. Even the goblin you fought in the plains, it didn’t feel like an enemy you wouldn’t be able to defeat, right? If your sword hadn’t broken」

「Nu…right, I believe he did take damage. Since that sword had the same offensive ability as this wooden stick…」

As the developers had thoroughly displayed, until level 10 it’s what you would call the game’s beginner zone.

I believe the difference in enemy strength is moderate at best.

I guessed that the beginner gear would be enough to clear it.

That being the case, there’s no need for things like that incomplete set the PK guy was wearing.

「When I said we should leave the plains, it was because beating a monster would have taken too long even if we fought there, let’s see…we are level 5 now, huh. I believe now that we have reached this point it should be faster」

「So you are saying that the speed at which you beat monsters is important, huh…if we fought goblins at our current level, you mean that it will be more efficient?」

「That’s right. When it comes to gear, it would be better to immediately obtain and change to gear that’s crafted by players…but in reality, that’s impossible right now?」

「It would be impossible. Even if you learned it, it would normally take time to acquire that kind of skill. More importantly, we don’t know any crafters within the game」

「Besides, aren’t you forgetting about something? Inside our inventory…」

「Ah! The experience items!」

「That’s right. After taking various things into consideration, I thought that it would be better to just rush with the beginner gear today. What do you think?」

When she heard my words, Yumir just kept nodding over and over.

You don’t have to look at me with those glittering eyes, it’s not like I thought of something that special.

It’s embarrassing so please stop.

After finishing that simple verification, now that we had reached level 5, we headed towards 「Homa plains」.

On the way, Yumir opened her menu and something started to bother her.

「Hind, are you still fine on time?」

「Hmm? What time is it now?」

「3pm」

「Ah, I think I’ll be fine until 5pm. Then I’ll have to make preparations for dinner and wait for Rise.」

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「Hmm? I can understand having to make preparations for dinner…but why do you have to wait for Rise? She should have the keys to the house, right?」

Rise is my little sister.

Since she went to cram school today, she was currently absent from home but…

「For some reason, whenever I’m at home she said that she wants me to come open the door and greet her. She just leaves the keys in the living room on purpose. Since she was small she got lonely easily, but it’s like I’m some kind of dog waiting for its owner to return home」

「Tsk, that brocon…」

「Hmm? Did you just say broco-」

「It’s nothing! You just misheard it!」

「I-I see. Both of you don’t get along after all…」

Miyu has a pretty straightforward personality, so she doesn’t tend to dislike many people but…

She seems unable to get along with Rise, the times it becomes dangerous after they meet are many.

However, they don’t get into a fight, they just exchange some abusive language between them and stop, it’s hard for me to say anything.

I pray for the day they are able to settle their differences…oh, I should change this atmosphere.

We are playing a game after all, let’s have some fun.

「Anyway, we are taking a break at 5pm. However, since we are here, let’s aim to get to level 10 before 5pm」

「Ooh, you sure are motivated, Hind!」

「Yeah. This game is pretty detailed so it’s gotten fun. Right, have you noticed? If you hit a 「Killer bee」 in the thin parts of its torso, it takes more damage」

「So they have set weak points!? I didn’t notice…」

Because this is a VR game, it doesn’t have a targeting system.

Since you can aim freely, each player has to choose what part they want to attack.

The existence of weak points broadens the strategic side of the game, I can say that I really like this system.

「I believe their abdomens are called scapes. Since ants and bees evolved from the same species their structures are similar」

「What’s with you! Are you an insect expert!?」

「I liked insect picture books when I was small, it’s information I remember from back then. Though it would be impossible for me to remember it all now…wait, that wasn’t what I wanted to say. Let’s return back to the previous topic, we should search for the weak point of the goblins once we reach the plains. That way we can have fun leveling up」

When I gave a suggestion going by the information we had verified a while ago, Yumir opened her eyes wide.

Again? Is what I thought, but her reaction this time was more extreme.

The corners of Yumir’s mouth suddenly rose up.

「Ahahaha! Hind! Hind!」

「W-what is it? Stop hitting my back! It hurts, it hurts!」

She suddenly burst out laughing, I thought she had gone insane.

The face of Yumir, who was hitting my back, had a good smile, though I didn’t know what she was really thinking.

「Right now, I’m having the most fun of all the games I’ve played! It’s so fun, Hind!」

「I-I see, I’m happy for you…?」

「Umu! It’s the best!」

After that, Yumir was in a great mood.

Then, it might be because even her physical condition was in perfect form, she crushed all the monsters in front of us one by one once we reached the plains.

When I noticed, we had been able to reach level 10 in an hour.

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