Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Party Consideration

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Author’s Note: The fourth act begins.

Suddenly it feels like a game…

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Let’s talk about this world.

The continent we live on is called the Garm Continent, and as for its size, it’s supposed to be roughly comparable to Africa.

In a place slightly south to the center of the continent, an enormous tree known as the World Tree towers over everything.

What developed around the World Tree was the Kingdom of the Sacred Tree, Novelius.

They are acknowledged as the caretakers and protectors of the World Tree, and are the greatest military nation in the world.

Many adventurers gather there, setting their sights on the World Tree’s labyrinth, it’s the origin of the Adventurer’s Guild, and it’s considered the base of the Sacred Tree faith. It truly is the nation at the center of the world.

At the west side of the continent is a massive expanse of woodland, where the elves built a kingdom.

This is The Forest Kingdom, Raum.

80% of their country is said to be forest, making it almost seem like it was land made for the elves.

A variety of medicinal herbs are produced there, and their economy was established with those as their specialty products.

To the east stands a mountain range, and beyond it a scattering of small islands.

At each of those mountains, and each of the islands, exist small countries. Those countries allied together to form one nation.

This is the The United Regions of Matala.

It’s mainly made up of dwarves and other demi-humans. Their specialty product is ores infused with magic power, in other words magic stones.

The craftsmanship in that country is highly developed.

And on the southern end of the continent is The Forneus Federation.

In other words, the country we live in.

Various city-states, large and small, competing in their growth and increasing their economy. It is the center of economic power.

And lastly, the northern end of the continent.

The region occupying nearly half of the continent, and largely unexplored.

Of course that’s not because people can’t go there.

In that region are demi-human type magic beasts, undead, and mythical creatures, but even without those, all kinds of monsters dominate the area.

Some humans apparently form small settlements there, but a cycle pervades, wherein if they grow too large, that actually draws the attention of the monsters and they are soon destroyed.

Therefore, it’s referred to as the “barbaric region” and despised.

And a recent arrival in that area is— the “Demon King”.

He suddenly appeared a few years ago, quelled the surrounding monsters, and stood as the most powerful being in the north; a tyrannical king.

Though considering the fact that he brought order to a lawless region, I wonder if we can really call that good or bad?

~*~

Now, we had earnestly spent a week in Cornus playing around.

Waking up in the morning and enjoying some shopping, going swimming in the afternoon and being assaulted by Haster, feeling the agony of sunburn at night while being assaulted by Haster…

Huh? It’s no different from usual, is it?

Well, though the location changed, we continued our depraved lifestyle in that manner, but it was about time for miss Levy to get impatient.

“Hey ya’ll, shouldn’t we be makin’ for the World Tree about now?”

Miss Levy is being annoying, so let’s seriously consider it.

First, our party composition.

Naturally, I’m in the rear guard. Seeing as I have low physical abilities.

I can use [Body Reinforcement] to avoid emergencies, but I would only be able to use it three times a day at best if we’re on a long adventure.

I suppose Haster would be in the front guard by process of elimination?

He has high physical abilities, and uses a style that mixes magic with skills, giving him plenty of variety.

And then miss Levy.

Her physical abilities are high, but it would probably be best to put her on trap searching duties.

The problem is her ability to find them isn’t so high.

If I use “Appraisal” on a ‘space’, I would know where the traps are, so we could probably leave the rest to her, but…

That’s not something I can use continually, so in the end we’ll have to improve our sensing abilities.

But still, with only three of us—

“Hum, we don’t have enough people.”

“Yeah, there’s only three of us. Should we drag along some people from Forest Bear?”

“Best not. At their level, it’s like asking them to come along and die, see?”

Suddenly a fourth person butted into the conversation.

Speaking of, when it comes to the World Tree’s labyrinth, this guy should know a thing or two.

“Welcome, Bahamut. I see you’re appearing unexpectedly as usual.”

“Good evening. When I heard “World Tree” I figured it was my time to shine!”

“Kh?!”

Miss Levy was shocked to the point where she couldn’t speak upon finding a boy suddenly sitting in the chair next to her.

Makes sense.

“Wh-who’s this here kid?”

“His name’s Bahamut, and… Well, he’s a specialist when it comes to the World Tree.”

“Kid’s got the same name as the legendary hero, huh…”

“Because that’s who I am.”

Upon nonchalantly replying to her, she jumped out of her seat and stuck to the wall.

You’re that surprised…? Err, actually maybe we’ve just become immune to it I guess.

“If you’re here, then our front line is set.”

When I said that, Haster presented an annoyed look.

The one I’ll be relying on most is you, of course, so please don’t make that face.

“This makes sure Haster won’t face any difficulties. If we bring him into the mid-line, then our fighting power is stable now.”

“About that, sadly it won’t go that easily.”

“Meaning?”

Bahamut shrugged his shoulders, snatched my cup and filled it with some fragrant tea on his own.

Haster was looking at him stormily as usual.

“The labyrinths of this world are, in a sense, living creatures. The labyrinth in the World Tree is no exception.”

“What about it?”

“Since it’s a living creature, it has a sort of immunization feature. Because I’ve invaded and cleared the place, I can’t enter the labyrinth anymore.”

“Couldn’t you draw a map, or assist in some other way?”

“The structure of the labyrinth itself is one form of its immunization. It’s… Not very flashy, but its appearance can apparently change from moment to moment. All the more reason why adventurers searching the labyrinth are endless, though.”

So does that mean we’re just going to have to steadily break through each of the 1000 floors…? What a pain.

While miss Levy and I were looking sullen, Bahamut suddenly pulled a single stone tablet out.

“Well, that’s actually where this comes in!”

“And that is?”

“A teleportation magic circle I placed just in case while I was exploring it.”

“Teleportation… But if it has an immunization mechanism, wouldn’t it be normal for it to become useless?”

“Probably would, if it’s used.”

That’s when I suddenly noticed.

He passed through all 1000 floors in a single excursion. In other words, he hadn’t used the teleportation magic circle even once.

If it hasn’t been used, then the immunization didn’t take place?

“So what you’re saying is—that magic circle is still live?”

“Yep. It’s placed somewhere around floor 900. “If we have to withdraw at this point, getting back here would be tiring in the future,” is what I thought and placed it there.”

“Then if we use that…!”

Miss Levy’s eyes shimmered in response to Bahamut’s remark. He looked at her regretfully as he raised both his hands, palms open and facing her.

Why does it seem like some sort of American gesture?

“Sadly, right now you all lack the power for it.”

“Even Yuuri and I?”

“Even you two. In a straight-up fight you two are pretty powerful, but the setting here is a labyrinth, see? You lack power, experience, and most of all, personnel.”

“People… huh?”

It really did come down to that.

As far as powerful people go, I guess we’ll have to take Alec along?

“We can take Alec along for one… About how many people would we need?”

“Only up to six people can enter at once now. The World Tree has gotten pretty stingy.”

“I feel like it being stingy isn’t really the issue. But anyway, that makes four… Now we need two more, then.”

“The front line will be Alec and I, the back line will be Yuuri and Levy. We shouldn’t have any problems with magic or physical power.”

“That just leaves a searching type and a healer.”

The only healers I know are miss Bella from Forest Bear, and Mac from Vulture’s Nest.

Maybe it would be best to take applications…?

“Well, there’s no rush to put the party together. If you use this magic circle, you can get to the top within a month. Which means you have five years to figure it out.”

“What if we support someone’s growth in that time?”

“Along with the guild at the foot of the tree, there’s also an adventurer training school. If you choose a promising young talent from there and raise them up, you’ll make it in plenty of time.”

That’s a helpful line of thought. However… He’s being awfully cooperative, isn’t he?

“I mean, this means my number of companions might increase, right? Right now there’s only you two, and the more the merrier!”

“… … …And?”

“There’s no way I’m going to sit out on something so fun.”

“I figured it was something like that.”

But really, nurturing someone, huh…? On top of that, an adventurer’s guild school… Hmmm?

“Haster, doesn’t this mean we’ll have to register with the guild?”

“Probably so. If I remember right, the entrance to the World Tree labyrinth is supposed to be restricted to adventurers affiliated with the guild.”

“If you or I were to join the guild…”

“It would probably turn into a huge ruckus. I mean, we’re some of the top fighting power in the world.”

“Riiight.”

I wonder what we should do. My communication-dysfunctional self would prefer to avoid bathing in peoples’ attention as much as possible.

Moreover, I was previously known for destroying Lilith.

“Not like ya’ll have to register at the guild with a real name, see?”

“Really now?”

“Like here, I’m already registered an’ all.”

Saying so, miss Levy pulled a card from her pocket.

The card had a pattern mimicking the world tree, and on it—

Registration: Livy Aatan Affiliation: Novelius Headquarters

Middle Rank Explorer

Highest Level Explored: Floor 102

Was written.

“Couldn’t you have picked a better pseudonym?”

“Twist it ’round too much and I wouldn’t be respondin’ to it.”

“Not much descriptive information, is there?”

“Main purpose is to be sure ya got a trustworthy adventurer. Where that there trusted authorizin’ came from, and how far they done climbed are important.”

“So it emphasizes performance over numeric values of a person’s abilities.”

“Sure does.”

I just now thought of this, but not all adventurers are out to climb the World Tree. What happens with them?

“On a basic level, the adventurer’s guild was established with conquerin’ the World Tree as its goal. Other’n that, each branch just gives out certification. Adventurers who ain’t gone and challenged the World Tree are tendin’ to be taken lightly.”

“Hum? Then the reason Vulture’s Nest stopped at being middle rank is…?”

“Probably ’cause then hadn’t challenged the World Tree. Or else they hadn’t done performed well on any big jobs. They might’a gotten up to middle rank because they been around for long enough.”

“I see. And this middle rank is?”

“Well it’s like a rough indication of an adventurer’s capabilities. Lower rank, middle rank, upper rank, and top rank are the four ranks in how they’n be divided, “so similar talents can be grouped together,” is why they do it like that.”

“If we’re freshly registered, then does that mean we wouldn’t be able to group together with you, miss Levy…?”

“Aaah, guess so. But ya’ll can get to middle rank in no time, bein’ who you are Yuuri.”

If bringing up a newcomer is our goal, then our rank being low is actually probably more convenient.

“So we’ll taken Alec along and proceed to Novelius, register with pseudonyms at the guild, search for some brilliant talents within five years, help them grow… That’s our plan so far?”

“Looks like it. If such an ill reputed Demon King is aimed for “Eternal Youth” and “Immortality,” then it’s something we’ll just have to do.”

Following in this manner, we’ll be challenging the labyrinth.

First we’ll have to return to Mareba.