CH 98

[Tearful Graduation! (Study Time: 20 Minutes) & The Other Mentor-Mentees]

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・Event cleared! You have dealt a certain amount of damage to Tengu Hermit!

You can now learn the secret event limited arts: Advanced Tenma School Archery!

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“Ugh… what a powerful blow…!”

Master Tengu was laying on the ground.

He’d been blown away after taking my ‘King Bison Charge Shot’.

“Kh… the power of that art depends on the strength of your bow. But how could it display such power when used with that worn-out-looking bow?”

“Oh, that, you see, is because this ragged bow of mine is possessed by a Shadow Weapon, my familiar.”

The Shadow Weapon’s Strength enhanced the bow’s attack power. That’s why it packed quite a punch.

Well, I originally had the Shadow Weapon possess the bow only so that it could fly.

That way, I could activate ‘Arms Barrier’ without holding the bow. But now that I’d learned the melee art ‘King Bison Charge Shot’ which used bows as its medium, it could serve me in more ways.

“Moreover, I have a skill that increases the power of starting gear, further boosting its power. Blowing away one old geezer or two isn’t a big deal.”

“Who are you calling an old geezer?! Goodness… just be on your way, now. You have completely defeated me, I am no longer worthy to be your master…”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

I approached Tengu Hermit and then I grabbed his hand and forced him up.

“What are you–?!”

“You and I aren’t master and disciple anymore. Going forward, we are rivals!”

“…?!”

My new rival’s shoulders shook.

The fact that he was way advanced in age or that he was an NPC didn’t matter.

We had fought each other with everything we’d got, and that made him my buddy now! (※The pope also fitted the bill, but he was an asshole so he didn’t count.)

“Looking forward to our future battles, Tengu Hermit.”

“Kh, h-hmph!”

I smiled at Tengu Hermit, but maybe he was embarrassed? He quickly looked away.

But in the next moment, a message window appeared in front of me…

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・Master NPC Tengu Hermit’s favorability of you has maxed out!

You obtained the limited bond material ‘Tenma Jewel’!”

※Bond materials can be obtained by maxing out your favorability with master NPCs.

Players can only obtain them once, and by using them to create or reforge weapons and armor, the resulting item will have the effect of reducing the MP cost of the arts learned from the master from which the material is obtained.

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“Hmm~, bond material, huh?”

A beautiful orb came flying down out of nowhere and hovered before me.

When I grabbed it, Tengu Hermit began to visibly panic, “W-what?!”

“Sheesh, Gramps. You like me that much?”

“S-shut up, stupid! There has to be a mistake heeeeeeeeeeere!”

Tengu Hermit rushed into his home, screaming.

He really was a good-natured old man. Looking forward to our next meeting, I left in search of even greater strength.

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“…To think she’d unlock Tengu Hermit’s hidden event, which requires you to make him hate you to the point of wanting to kill you and your Karma Points be well below negative…!”

“Tch, we especially set those conditions to mess with players who naively thought that gaining NPC’s favor was a one-size-fits-all way to unlock all the hidden quests, but it ended up backfiring…!”

“Dammit! Unlike other players, Yuri-chan won’t ever lower herself to flattering others!”

–Just like any other day, the devs were complaining in the development room today as well.

The source of their complaints was, of course, their number one problem player, Yuri.

They had nerfed her times and again, yet she somehow was still sitting strong on her throne as the strongest player. They now viewed her as their nemesis.

“Haa… if only we managed to defeat her that night, then her spirit would have been dampened a little…”

“Yeah, who would have imagined that even Pendragon would fail to finish her off.”

They looked back on the night they had cornered Yuri—but at that time.

[–Well, my bad. I didn’t expect she would be so tenacious, either,]

A woman’s voice suddenly echoed throughout the room.

In an instant, the devs stood up and straightened their bodies.

“I-is that you, Rindou-senpai?! W-where did your voice come from?!”

[Hahaha. I was thinking of surprising you, so I developed a new technology. It allows for communication through specified spatial coordinates. It doesn’t require cellular networks, let alone telephone lines, so it is possible to use it literally anywhere. Pretty convenient, huh?]

“Please stop developing a technology that deserves a Noble Prize for such a cheap reason?!”

The devs cringed hard at Rindou’s outrageous remark.

–However, all of them still maintained straight postures like soldiers.

They might have broken personalities, and their geniuses might be the only good thing going for them, but this showed just how much they worshipped the woman named Rindou… the ‘mentor’ who guided them in the way of electronic science and technology.

“Haa~. Really, you don’t know how surprised we were, Senpai—or should we call you, ‘Pendragon, the Goddess of Dawn’?”

At those words, Rindo replied wryly, “Don’t call a woman in her prime by her in-game name.”

Indeed. She was the pioneer of VR technology and the top player in the VRMMO ‘Darkness Soul Online’, the game she herself had first created.

In a sense, it was only natural that she was able to overwhelm Yuri without using any skills or arts.

After all, she was the goddess of creation who brought dawn to the VR world.

[Chuckle… Anyway, that night was the first time in a long while that I got so fired up. At first, I thought you guys had fallen to become scums, telling me to gang up on a single player with two other.]

“Scums?! W-whatever do you mean? She got Zansword, the player with the longest login time, with her, and we started off the attack event by targeting the top players to raise the hype! Everything was planned based on logic! We haven’t any personal grudges against her! We are not scums!”

[Okay, okay. To sum up, Yuri-kun lit a fire under you, right?]

“H-huuuuuh?! What are you talking about?! We are always cool and composed, I’ll have you know! Such a person is incapable of ruffling our composure!”

[Haha, okay, okay. Whatever you say.]

The devs became noisy.

They panicked like a junior high schooler hit on by their crush. Hearing their screams, Rindou retorted inwardly, “This is calm and collected?”

[Well, be sure to treasure her. A player like her won’t only spur the growth of the players around her, but also the growth of the game devs.]

“Huuh?! Are you seriously saying that? She’s been pestering us all the time! Never mind growing, our hairline is receding?!”

[But she got nothing to do with your hairline… fufu, I see, so you don’t realize it. Well, it may be more fun this way.]

Rindou laughed at her genius but dumb juniors.

She decided to enjoy watching them grow as they fought with Yuri with similar feelings of watching rare animals.

[Anyway, I’m actually quite fascinated by ‘Blade Skill Online’, more precisely its world.

[Its lores, automatically created by the Control AI after you threw in the necessary details, are simple, yet interesting. Well, because of all the battle events you held, it’s becoming more and more like a PvP game and only a few players mainly focus on adventures and solving mysteries.]

“T-that makes us sounds like idiots… so?”

[So I’m planning to do a couple of things. To make the players learn more about the world, and most importantly, to make my rematch with Yuri-kun more spectacular.

[Don’t worry, I’m just going to go a little wild as but a single player.]

“Huh~…? W-well, we wouldn’t mind as long as it could make Yuri shocked speechless…”

Rindo’s laughter that traveled through the space made the devs somewhat uneasy.

And so, as Yuri received new powers from his Master, the eccentric mentor and mentees held a secret meeting.

Rindo: Well, I used to be a bit mischievous as a game dev, too.

Devs: Hoeee~?