Ch.367Adjustable NPC. (5)

It feels like it’s been a long time since we talked about the game.

The Dragon Mountain Range. In the game, it’s a field that only opens for raids after the end of ep.7 [Eight Holy Theocracy] and before entering the final chapter, ep.8.

That’s when the first 8-player raid and 16-player raid (including party NPCs) were introduced, which ended up being rated as the worst disaster raid ever. The reason was simple.

‘Even with eight level 900 Chikuyos, the NPCs would be wiped out before you could even start dealing damage.’

It was called an 8-player party with 16 members including NPCs, but the NPCs couldn’t withstand the attacks from the raid boss [Mountain Dragon]. Even if you brought along a tank NPC that was considered overpowered, they’d die in four hits. There was no way a DPS-focused squishy NPC could survive.

What’s worse, all attacks had such wide areas of effect that you had to predict and dodge them in advance, but the AI would only try to avoid attacks after they had already started. That was a guaranteed trip to the grave.

Naturally, the party NPCs were completely useless, whether healers or tanks. They provided no help whatsoever. In the end, the game’s signature party NPC feature was blocked, forcing players to set up their own support and tanking. It got so bad that people said it was better to strip the NPCs of all their equipment so they’d die faster and not pull aggro that could wipe the party. That’s why it was called a disaster raid.

“As I believe you know, dragons never interfere in the affairs of humans living on the Eight Continent. Conversely, we humans cannot enter their domain. If we do, we simply disappear.”

In fact, hundreds of years ago, there was a country and adventurers who formed an extermination party, claiming that dragons were just monsters to be hunted. Composed of humanity’s strongest adventurers—well, not quite the strongest, but at least hundreds of adventurers who were the best in their cities and countries—they gathered with support from various nations and headed to exterminate the dragons. But the result…

“Not a single person returned. Despite this, the dragons didn’t even threaten the countries that had provoked them. Do you understand what that means?”

“Don’t make the foolish assumption that they were being friendly to humans. Rather, humans aren’t even a threat to dragons. It’s like how a person might wave their hand to shoo away an insect, but wouldn’t threaten it with a sword. ‘Come if you dare. When I wave my hand, only insects will disappear.’ That was the meaning.”

That interpretation is actually correct. In the game, dragon extermination was treated as a side episode, just an extension of the ‘player is now the strongest on the continent’ storyline. You couldn’t craft weapons or armor from their dragon orbs, bones, or hides—you could only use those to enhance equipment you already had. The in-game explanation was that their bones and hides possessed an unbelievable durability that transcended human understanding.

“But such dragons allowed the march of insects? Jack, are you the type to just sit and watch if ants or cockroaches swarm in your room?”

“Of course not.”

“As far as I know, dragons are the same. To them, we’re just insects to be driven away, not negotiated with. It’s just that their power to drive us away is so strong that humans simply vanish. So even if the Theocracy offered them something, there’s no way they would have accepted it. This is also mentioned in the ‘Traditions of Things Never to Be Disturbed on This Continent’ passed down through generations of Ponia’s kings, so you can believe it. By the way, one of those things includes ‘the Elves of Siltra.'”

The kings of old interfered with both and suffered tremendous losses to their countries before being forcibly removed from power, the King of Ponia explained before steering the conversation back to discussing possible invasion routes the Theocracy might have taken. Ragni also began to wonder if Aiti had changed sides or if this was some kind of surprise attack. However…

‘…While dragons reject anything entering their territory, they’re not exactly connected beings like those linked by Kala.’

In the game, the reason players entered the dragon territory was because there were traces in ep.6 Aiti suggesting the Theocracy’s agents were somehow involved with dragons. In fact, the place where you could enhance equipment with dragon bones, hides, and orbs was the fallen Aiti. The setting, as I recall, was that based on the enemies’ research on dragons, these materials could be used as components for equipment enhancement. Well, the king is here, and I could pull Ragni aside to tell him. For now, since both of them seem adamant this couldn’t be the case, I’ll set it aside.

“…Avalatia, what’s important is whether that mayor escaped alive. If he was defeated by the enemy or, worst case, captured, we’ll need to rebuild our supply lines for this war from scratch.”

“Ponia is currently doing its best to gather supplies, but we lost over 70% of our materials in the border conflict. Even with the Empire’s compensation and resources, if we can’t secure supplies immediately, we’ll be at a disadvantage in an all-out war with the Theocracy. Moreover, if the attacking forces are still roaming nearby, the neighboring small nations could also be threatened…”

“…My head hurts. I can’t follow this conversation. Ira, shall we go outside?”

“Mmm, I want to stay here.”

“Ray, I’m sorry, but could you get some tea instead of me? I’ll stay by Lady Ira’s side.”

“Alright. Hey, Luxuria, stop sulking and help me in the dining hall.”

As Ragni and the king continued their discussion without us, Ray left the room to get tea, taking the invisible Luxuria with him. Ira started squirming in my arms as if wanting to get down. Huh? Ira, what’s wrong?

“Gore! I want a piggyback ride!”

“What? Oh, yes.”

“Hmm? Should I carry you instead?”

“No! Gore has to do it!”

Why? I’m taller… Somehow I felt a little sad that Ira was begging Gore instead of me, but I lifted my sister onto Gore’s shoulders as she wanted.

“Gore! Two meters!”

“Yes. [Enlargement]”

Gore is now taller than me. It seems Ira just wanted to be up high to look around, as she started scanning the surroundings. Hmm, what is she—

“That person, and that person! Gore, check them!”

“Yes. Huh?”

“What? What’s wrong?”

Of course, the king and Ragni aren’t the only ones in this room. There are other officials busy compiling information, drafting documents, and tracking the movements of the army and the Theocracy. They’re all up from their seats and moving around busily right now.

“Master. That’s…”

[Emp%# Off!@^& : Le!$$@ : 121 (Status: ㅣㅣ1231!@)]

[Emp# Off!@^& : Le!$% : 93 (Status: ㅣㅣ1231!@)]

“…Shit, what is that?”

“What?”

“Hm? Why are you suddenly acting like this?”

The status windows of the man and woman Gore pointed to appear broken. This situation feels familiar. Yes, definitely from the trial 8,000 years ago…

-Whoosh!

I immediately kicked off the ground and wall, positioning myself in front of the man with the broken status window.

“Hey.”

“Yes? What can I do for you?”

His reaction seems like someone genuinely asking what’s going on when a person suddenly appears while he’s working. He couldn’t have seen my movement. Is this really a person?

I lightly chopped the back of his neck.

-Thud.

Leaving him collapsed, I turned to the female official with the broken status window. But…

“……”

“W-what?”

“Eh?”

“W-what…?”

While everyone’s expressions changed in shock at my actions, only the woman remained unalarmed, watching as if curious about what I was doing. This is…

-Tap.

“Hey, don’t you have something to say to me?”

“…Pardon? Are you speaking to me?”

“Tch.”

-Thud.

I knocked her down before she could do anything. What is this? And why didn’t Gore or I notice their broken status windows until now? Anyway, facing Ragni and the king who were looking at me with confused expressions, I dragged the two unconscious people over and spoke.

“They appear to be enemy spies. I’ll investigate personally.”

“…S-spies?!”

“Jack. Those two were members of the Empire’s covert operations unit that I had persuaded to our side. Did you ‘see’ something?”

The king looked back and forth between me and the collapsed figures in bewilderment, while Ragni, who knows about status windows, asked with a serious expression what the problem was. Well, I’ll handle this. It’s awkward to discuss here. And…

“…Ira, how did you know these people were strange?”

“It felt like holy power and magical energy mixed together, like what Master taught me! And Gore is good at finding bad people, so I asked him to check!”

“I see.”

I approached Gore, who had returned to his original size and was protectively holding Ira, patted my little sister’s head, and whispered to Gore.

“Gore. Did you tell Ira about this?”

[I haven’t. As I told you before, Master, I only explained about levels to her in general terms.]

After Gore secretly replied through the status window, I blinked to acknowledge his answer, then told him to protect Ira here while I took the unconscious pair outside.

[Mmm, Gore has to do it!]

[That person, and that person! Gore, check them!]

“…She can’t see them, right?”

I understand why Ira found these two suspicious, and I’m grateful for that, but something bothers me. It’s almost like…

‘She knew I needed to know, and she seemed to have anticipated that I would immediately entrust her to Gore once I found out.’

Her instruction for Gore to grow taller might have been to locate the two suspicious people more effectively, but she could have just as easily spotted them from my shoulders. With several questions about Ira’s recent behavior in mind, I carried the two people with broken status windows to another room.