VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

Chapter 50: Unexpected reunion

The monsters’ name was 「Desert scorpion」 and they were around level 35.

Their overall length was about one meter and as you would expect, they were much bigger than their real life counterparts and gross.

Since a large quantity of them appeared and were squirming around, it couldn’t be helped that I started feeling goosebumps in my skin.

Luckily, it seems like the camels couldn’t be the target of monsters’ attacks.

Like that, we entered battle with the swarm of scorpions.

…Now that I think about it, I believe this heat is taking a toll on our minds.

Our current objective was to travel and explore, not to fight with monsters.

I thought we already knew that…

However, for some reason we continued to fight with the infinite amount of scorpions swarming at us.

Tobi was moving around while attracting the attention of a large number of them.

Yumir aimed for the monsters that were heading for the rear guards while making her aura give off sparks.

I used 「Quick」 on Riizu and 「Attack up」 on Selene-san.

Riizu’s offensive magic 「Darkness ball」 moved towards the spot Tobi just passed by.

Selene-san blasted the gathered foes away with 「Blast arrow」.

Around ten of them were blown into pieces by a single attack. That did feel good.

Our party’s coordination has improved quite a bit during this fight…while I was carefreely having those thoughts, it suddenly came to me.

…Wait, what’s with this pointless war of attrition!? We have already defeated a hundred of maybe two hundred scorpions, you know!?

「S-Stop! Switch over and focus on defense! Let’s gather!」 (Hind)

「Nuoh!? What’s with you suddenly, Hind?」 (Yumir)

「We are already level 35 you know!? Only Selene-san is at level 32! Someone should have thought that something was wrong!」 (Hind)

「If you say that I’ll be troubled. You weren’t doing this on purpose?」 (Tobi)

「Eh? I was staying quiet since you looked like you were having fun…」 (Riizu)

「I thought that was your intention…we are talking about Hind-kun here.」 (Selene)

Why? How did it end up like this?

Now that I think about it, at the start everyone’s position was all over the place, so I shouted instructions over and over.

However, as the battle went on, each member started to grasp what their role was.

In the end, there was no need for me to say anything anymore.

Fighting with such a functional party, I remember feeling better and better-

「Isn’t everything my fault…?

「No choice, Tobi. Use that!」 (Hind)

「Eh, is it OK if I do!? If we thought about the cost of the materials, I’d say it’s something really valuable!」 (Tobi)

「It’s time to use it, do it! It could act as an experiment, don’t worry about the cost!」 (Hind)

「Don’t mind if I do then. Nin!」 (Tobi)

Tobi lit that and immediately threw it.

With a muffled explosion, sand and the remains of the scorpions were scattered around us.

And Waves of sand and wind pressure rushed towards us.

That’s some nice power.

Even though it’s only inside the game, isn’t this flashier than a real life 「Bo-hiya」?

Though the displayed damage wasn’t as high as it looked.

「Ooooh!! What’s that, what’s that!? I want to use it too!」 (Yumir)

「This is not the time to be saying that! Retreat!」 (Hind)

「Come on, let’s go Yumir-san.」 (Riizu)

「Gueh! Don’t pull me, I’ll walk on my own! I’m telling you I’ll walk by myself!」 (Yumir)

The enemies far from the center of the explosion were mostly all alive, but the damage had knocked them back so we were able to take some distance.

Taking that chance, we got on the camels and were able to break free from the swarm of scorpions.

When we were unable to see any enemies, we were finally able to take a breather.

Though, this time we talked while riding the camels.

Since they are lurking within the sand, there’s no way for us to know where the safe areas are.

The topic of our conversation was the origin of the strange number of 「Desert scorpions」.

Seems like Selene-san noticed something that bothered her while we were running away.

「…The truth is, I saw three strange holes. Since they were in the dunes far away, we were unable to notice them mid-fight.

「They were swarming from inside, so I believe there’s no doubt that it was their nest.」 (Selene)

「Ah, that’s why they respawned so fast. If we didn’t retreat, we would have kept fighting there forever…」 (Hind)

If we want to exterminate these scorpions, we have to destroy their nests first.

These types of monsters were standard in older action RPGs.

It was common to see a set of bees and their beehives.

The only saving grace was that the experience granted by those scorpions was extremely normal.

There are lots of cases where that type of monsters that spawn infinitely are set to give really low amounts of experience points.

「However, even though they are convenient to level up, once they catch you they will encircle you making it hard to escape.」 (Tobi)

「It’s hard to run in the desert after all…they would just catch up to you.」 (Hind)

「Fumu. However, since they are that troublesome, there’s probably some rare drops in those nest!」 (Yumir)

Speaking of drop items, we have a lot of scorpion materials in our inventories.

I wonder if we could use them for something.

…Oh, right.

Before thinking about such things, I should apologize for the blunder in the last fight…

「Ah, you see, I’m sorry everyone. Since our coordination got better during the fight, I kinda got too into it.

「I made a mistake concerning when we should have quit.」 (Hind)

「Oh, so you meant that. I was just thinking that it was quite the drawn out and unproductive way to fight for someone like you.」 (Yumir)

「Unproductive you say…you sure are quite harsh.

「But well, I can’t say anything to deny it. I’m ashamed.」 (Hind)

For some reason, the role of leading the party has fallen onto me.

That’s why the party’s failures are fundamentally part of my responsibility.

Once I lowered my head, Selene-san was the first one to back me up.

She’s so kind.

「However, I kind of understand Hind-kun. When I’m in great form while I’m doing blacksmithing, I tend to craft way more than what I had initially planned.」 (Selene)

Ah, I experience that kind of thing too.

Once you are in good form, you can craft high quality goods consecutively after all.

You can’t stop your hands in those kinds of situations.

「When I get into it, I somehow end up dying before I notice.」 (Yumir)

「When I get into it, I end up staying online all night.」 (Tobi)

「That sort of thing doesn’t happen to me, but as a punishment, can I demand to sleep together?」 (Riizu)

「…」 (Hind)

As if to express my own feelings, Selene-san started to laugh with a trouble look.

Well then, there’s just a bit more until our destination.

It’s nearly evening inside the game, the ocean of sand is starting to get dyed in red.

Sunset in the desert is breathtakingly beautiful, it doesn’t feel like it’s a game at all.

Unexpectedly, Selene-san was the most moved by the scenery and her eyes were glittering the most when watching the sunset happily.

“I’m glad that I came here”, at such a statement, I was unable to contain a smile.

I’m happy that she’s being honest.

As we had previously discussed, we took various screenshots and resumed walking after telling each other that we’d send the data to the others.

Luckily, there were no encounters with any monsters during that time.

「By the way, does this Yabilga desert not have an area boss? Isn’t it worrisome to just go like this?」 (Yumir)

That was a question asked by Yumir.

There’s a reason why no one else had asked this question.

「The tutorial explained this, right? In fields that take a long time to travel, they have set up dungeons so there won’t be a field boss.」 (Hind)

This was only because Yumir had skipped the tutorial.

The border color of the field name displayed when we entered the area was different so it was possible to differentiate them, since we have confirmed that this 「Yabilga desert」 is a large scale area, there’s no need to worry about a boss.

Strictly speaking, there’s a boss in the dungeon placed in the field, but there’s no need to worry about that if you are just travelling from town to town.

「…It’s something like that, we can just focus on travelling today. You got it?」 (Hind)

「I see, understood.」 (Yumir)

「Regarding the dungeon, we’ll just do it little by little-」 (Tobi)

That will probably be left for when we explore the place and set up the home.

In order to do that, we’ll devote ourselves to just progressing now.

For the time being, I want to imitate what everyone else is doing and reach this region’s capital.

「…Eh? Hind-kun, can’t you see something over there?」 (Selene)

「Eh?」 (Hind)

Just when I absorbed in how we’d proceed, Selene-san found something.

I can’t see anything though…we all advanced to the place she was pointing at, it’s true that I’m beginning to see something that has a different color from the sand.

It’s not a plant or a boulder.

Once I concentrated, I could see something that looked like a collapsed person carrying a…backpack!?

「I-It’s a person! Hind-dono!」 (Tobi)

「It collapsed!?」 (Hind)

We travelled towards said person in a panic with our camels.

We descended from our camels after they sat down and checked if that person had any pulse in a hurry.

Something must have happened, the luggage was scattered all around the place.

「Hey, hang in there! …Wait, this person is…」 (Hind)

「S-She is…cla…cla…Clatos!」 (Yumir)

「You are wrong. She’s Claris-san, Yumir-san. You sure have bad memory.」 (Riizu)

「Ah, she’s the clerk from the item shop in Altrowa village!」 (Tobi)

「However, why is Claris-san in this place…?」 (Selene)

The unconscious woman with her eyes closed was without any doubt the NPC Claris-san.

Immediately after checking that she was breathing, her eyelids slowly started to open…