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Chapter 31: Calot (1)
The creature that will appear in this tournant must be a phenonon-type.
I was sure of it.
‘Otherwise, there would be no reason to mix illusions into the parade.’
Parades are usually conducted to match the characteristics and traits of the creature.
In other words, the large-scale procession and illusions strongly suggest that the creature we will face is a phenonon-type.
Considering that the most critical elent in isolating creatures is information, there's no item that surpasses a map that can provide geographic knowledge or relevant data.
I tightly gripped the map.
‘Well, I need to keep other possibilities in mind, too…’
It's best not to assu this is just an ordinary phenonon-type.
Nice, noticing holding the map, whispered quietly.
"You've obtained a great item."
With those words, a blue light filled my vision.
My turn was over.
"Administrator!"
"Are you alright?"
I heard the chattering voices of the staff.
I had returned to the place I was originally in.
glanced at the map I brought back and smiled slightly in admiration.
"Looks like you picked sothing decent?"
"Of course."
After responding to Luci, who was pretending not to know, I imdiately looked for the [Yeondan Society] staff.
Since I had already used a Clairvoyance Potion, I decided to maximize its efficiency.
"Go tell Mino to pick the ash-gray box at the very end."
"Wh-what? What do you an by that...?"
"No ti to explain. Mino will make the decision on his own."
"Understood."
After that, I held back my words.
There was no need to explain the contents.
Simply put,
‘The item the [Yeondan Society] needs most right now is in that box.’
Whether they get it or not is entirely up to Mino's ability.
While gaining a reliable ally would be great...
‘That doesn’t an I'll spoon-feed them everything.’
How one utilizes the given information is a personal matter.
Only those who can filter out false information and select useful data will be able to contribute in the upper ranks.
Though that's a story for much later...
There's no harm in practicing early.
I unfolded the map and examined its contents.
[Map of Calot (F)]
- A map that records information about Calot.
‘As expected.’
The map not only contained geographical information about Calot, but also details of the fortress's interior layout, where things were hidden, and even personal information about the knights within the fortress.
It made wonder how this could possibly be classified as F-rank...
‘Well, usually, even with this information, it’s unusable.’
Even if soone tried to steal items from the treasure vault based on the map, the creature is a phenonon-type.
With knights guarding the fortress, this information would be unusable.
The sa goes for the personal information of the knights.
Even if you knew how strong each knight was, there would be no way to utilize it.
‘That is... under normal circumstances.’
For an ordinary staff mber holding this map, it would be worthless, but it's a different story for soone like , a forr rank 1.
‘At the very least, this is all useful stuff that can be exploited in the stage.’
I folded the map and put it in my pocket.
Then, I reviewed the cards I held one by one as I quickened my pace.
‘I've pretty much got everything I need.’
Friendly alliances, top-tier 7th-rank staff, and now a map that records all the information about the stage.
I lacked nothing when it ca to subduing the phenonon-type creature.
‘Even if we encounter a powerful entity within the phenonon…’
I can cover it with the Nightmare Amulet and the Vampire Potion.
‘Let's head back now.’
I needed to prepare for tomorrow's tournant.
* * *
The next morning.
As if to showcase the scale of the tournant, employees from countless companies gathered by the lake.
True to their veteran status, none of them appeared flustered.
Except for one company.
"It was crowded yesterday, but it feels even more packed today."
Mari, restless with excitent, cracked a joke in her usual playful tone.
Luci waved her hand as she watched Mari.
"Mari, make sure you don’t get hurt and co back safely."
At the entrance to the lake, Luci was blocked by an invisible barrier, as if Nice had already restricted access in advance.
This was as far as she could go with .
I shrugged my shoulders and made a suggestion naturally.
"If you're that worried, you could at least give a buff, right?"
As I teased her, Luci gave a fed-up look and spoke.
"…You know, you really are like a sly fox sotis. Well, fine. I can't give you a buff because it's against the rules, but I’ll give you this instead."
Luci handed a square piece of paper.
I inspected the item closely, but couldn’t gather any information from it.
As I tilted my head in confusion, Luci quietly spoke.
"It's a secret shop ticket. Isn't that what you were after?"
Indeed, I had intended to raise her favorability to gain access to the secret shop, but I didn't expect her to give it to so readily.
It made it even harder to grasp her true intentions.
"Just take it. You're going to need it."
Leaving behind Luci's aningful words, I took the ticket and headed toward the lake.
"I’ll put this to good use."
As I approached the lake and waited for a mont, the water parted to the sides.
And from within, Nice erged.
"Ahem. We will now begin the martial arts tournant."
-Thud.
Nice drove a golden sword into the ground and continued speaking.
"There’s no reason for this to happen, but… if anyone hesitates to challenge or feels unconfident, you may withdraw now."
Muttering this, Nice stared off into the empty space.
[Warning!]
[Employees who die here will not be revived.]
[Would you like to forfeit the martial arts tournant?]
It was a warning ssage I hadn’t seen in quite so ti.
‘It feels a bit more real now.’
Beyond this point was a true battlefield.
Strategies could be devised, but there would be no escape.
The [Recall] ability, a Administrator’s privilege, could no longer be used once I entered this place.
'Once I go in, there are only two options.'
To survive and co out with rewards,
'Or for everyone to be buried here, failing to conquer it.'
Luci must have known this, which was why she gave the secret shop ticket.
‘I was planning to get it by raising her favorability anyway.’
But since she willingly handed it over, I was grateful enough.
‘Well, even without Luci’s help, I had a few more safeguards in place…’
The more safety nets, the better.
I pressed the participation button on the screen before .
If the containnt failed, this place could turn into a grave, but… I wasn’t too worried.
After all, I had never failed at containing an event creature, except once.
[Approval granted for participation in the ‘Administrator Zone (Silver)’]
After approval, I looked around and saw that the crowd had thinned out a bit since my arrival, perhaps because the riffraff had been filtered out.
"Very well. Employees from participating companies, please follow down to the bottom of the lake."
Leaving the sword behind, Nice started to retrace his steps back the way he ca, and other company employees followed him.
"We’re going too."
I also began to walk in step with them.
Swooosh—
Looking at the walls ford by the vertically parted lake water was a novel experience.
When I reached out and touched the vertically flowing water with my finger, it sank into the lake.
A cold sensation touched my skin.
‘This isn’t an illusion.’
It was proof that this was real water, not a fake.
“Eek!”
Mari, who had been following closely behind , touched the oddly raised water wall and spoke with a slightly trembling voice.
"…Th-this won’t suddenly collapse on us, will it?"
Hearing that, I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
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"Why are you laughing, Administrator? I’m serious here!"
"No, it's nothing."
Leaving behind the indignant Mari, I looked up at the massive walls of water rising on either side.
'Are you wondering if this water might suddenly collapse on us?'
To put it bluntly, the chances of that were quite high.
When it ca to moving to the event creature's location, teleportation thods varied depending on the ga administrators’ preferences.
‘The administrators always did enjoy sudden surprises.’
After all, it was a ga, so they had to grab the players' attention.
The players could enjoy the spectacle even if those involved didn’t know.
Thus, there would probably be another sudden occurrence this ti.
"We will now begin the transfer."
As we moved to the middle of the lake, Nice murmured those words.
"Transfer."
The bodies of those gathered here began to glow blue.
Simultaneously.
"Ah, crap!"
"Kyahhh!"
The massive walls of water that had risen on both sides started to collapse slowly.
"Uh, uh, uh!"
"Ad-Administrator!"
Most people from the other companies, except for a few employees, fell into a collective panic.
I imdiately cald the staff.
[The ntal strength of the employees owned by 'Foundation's Star' is greatly increased.]
To prevent the panic from spreading, I took the initiative.
"Calm down. Nothing's going to happen anyway."
The calming only lasted for a mont.
Swooosh—
Flash!
The wave engulfed us, but when I ca to my senses, we were sohow outside the lake.
It seed like everyone had started from the sa point, as people were getting up one by one from the lakeshore.
"Ugh..."
"What... what was that? A wave definitely hit us..."
Ignoring the murmurs, I turned my attention to the ssage in front of .
[(Calot) - Identify and isolate the cause of the anomaly!]
It seed we had properly entered the stage.
"As expected, it's a phenonon type."
The tricky part of a phenonon type is that it's impossible to know exactly what the creature is.
We had no choice but to figure it out while exploring the world.
Though it didn't take too long this ti...
Boom!
A deafening roar shook the ground.
"Th-there!"
A frantic voice shouted.
An employee from the [Diamond] company was pointing at sothing.
"Everyone, look over there!"
Following the direction of his finger, I saw sothing burning.
I let out a dry chuckle and shook my head.
"Hah, no wonder they didn’t show their traits during the parade..."
So this is where it all started.
The majestic thing burning was Calot's fortress.
Just as it had looked during the parade, the grand fortress of Calot was now ablaze.
We only stared at the burning fortress for a mont.
"This isn’t the ti for that. Everyone, we don’t know what happened, but we can be sure there’s a creature in the fortress."
An employee from the [Diamond]-level company was gathering people while shouting.
"There’s no need to gather information; we just need to go to the fortress, and it's over."
"Ooh."
"He's right."
"This will be easy."
Several companies, seemingly srized by his words, started heading toward Calot.
I watched them as they got further away, lost in thought.
‘He's not wrong, but still…’
If it were that simple, Nice wouldn’t have prepared support supplies or confird our participation again.
I agreed that we needed to move quickly, but we couldn’t dismiss the need for information.
"Mari, Khan, Beryl."
I called the three employees.
They quickly gathered beside .
"Follow them."
There was no point in staying here longer.
The priority was to gather information using the map.
Every second was precious.
Just as we were about to follow the procession from behind—
Swoooong.
[Warning!]
A chill ran through my entire body, as if frozen.
Bang!
[Warning!]
Sothing flew down and landed in the middle of the procession.
"What the...!"
"Cough, cough."
"Sothing fell from above!"
A huge crater had ford where sothing had landed.
Dust rose thickly in the air.
Sothing erged through the dust from the crater.
[Warning!]
No one present dared to speak.
They just silently faced the monster erging from the dust.
"Hah? All the rats are gathered here, huh?"
As the dust settled, the monster's appearance was revealed.
It was a girl with a petite figure.
"My na is Mordred. No, here, I'll just say..."
Her red armor clinked, seeming ill-fitting for her small fra.
Her sharp eyes were proof enough that she was already a knight.
"I'll just say I'm the dog here to catch you rats."
Her glowing red eyes scanned the gathered employees.
And then—
"Clarent, let's finish this quickly."
She summoned a massive greatsword, larger than her own body.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[(Survive) - Mordred has started a rebellion. Subdue the rebellion or survive until the □□ main force returns.]
[71:59...]
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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