Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 52

Moving Mountain

「LET’S GOOOOOO!」

A large shield at the left hand.

And a great sword at the right hand. Ponsuke slashed at a field boss with those equipments in hands.

He had investigated where the boss would appear――pop up, and then he lied in wait for several days.

Other players were also targeting that boss. Ponsuke’s party finally encountered that boss just now and launched an attack.

Mariela ran through the grassy field while firing arrows with her bow.

The arrows hit the boss monster one after another, inflicting damage on it.

Since she became high elf, there was visible change to her movement because of her increase in status and change in skill.

Mariela’s ability to support Ponsuke had increased. She never did  anything like hitting her own ally anymore like when she just started.

A combo occurred between her attack and Ponsuke’s attack, dealing a large damage. The Alfie circled behind the boss and slashed.

Alfie made the boss focused on her, then she moved around to avoid the boss’s attacks.

「T-this thing is too fast!」

She was dodging the attacks but, Alfie could do nothing else except  running around from the sharp attacks. Then Ponsuke attacked next.

He jumped on the back of the boss that looked like a huge bear and  stabbed his great sword. It was a critical hit and made the boss  rampaged. Ponsuke got thrown away from its back.

Even though he was thrown away, he rolled on the ground to soften the  impact and stand up immediately. Then Mariela came to back him up.

「Ponsuke, it’s fine now.」

Ponsuke changed his equipment when Mariela said that.

He prepared two great swords and each of his hand held one of them.

Mariela slung her bow on her back and she broke into a run while her  hands were holding short swords. Then Alfie showed a movement that  matched the timing of the two’s attacks.

「Surround and beat it up!」

Ponsuke roared. That was the Roar of Strength――the skill increased the status and the three’s attack power went up.

Two players attacking with twin great swords and twin short swords,  along with the swordsman Alfie landing her attack skill at the same  time. The timing was magnificent and the simultaneous attacks resulted  in combo. And then the three kept attacking without stopping.

They rained down skills and normal attack on the field boss. Even  when it attacked back, they paid it no mind and pushed on with brute  force. The boss quickly got reduced into red light.

When they realized, the damage amount had surpassed their expectation by far.

Ponsuke stabbed his great swords into the ground and then he started adjusting his heavy breathing.

When he looked to the side, he saw Mariela and Alfie also sitting down on the spot.

Mariela looked up to the blue sky and yelled.

「This is……the lasttt!」

The field bosses and area bosses that could be defeated in the World of Temperance.

Ponsuke’s party had challenged practically all of them. They managed it after spending much time for it.

It took several weeks of real world time.

In the virtual world it was a time that spanned several months. The  three managed to finish defeating all those bosses by spending that much  time.

Sometimes they would ask for help from their acquaintances, and then  when there was a boss that was more difficult to find than fight, they  would have to lie in wait for it to appear.

They were defeating bosses like that to earn job point and skill point.

Alfie wiped her sweat and checked the drop items.

「There isn’t any rare drop.」

Ponsuke switched from his two great swords equipments to his usual equipments while accepting the result in resignation.

「Well, it won’t be so difficult if it can be obtained that easily.」

They were searching and defeating boss monster because that monster would sometimes drop a rare drop.

But, that kind of item would only appear occasionally. The players  could only fight many times while praying that the drop item would  appear.

Mariela looked toward Ponsuke and praised him.

「Come to think of it, your ukemi (art of falling safely) just now was  amazing. It didn’t take you much time to immediately get back on your  feet. You had been doing the same thing even before this but, recently  it’s even more amazing than before.」

Ponsuke rubbed the skin under his nose with his finger.

「That’s because I’m going to gym so I can move better when inside the  game. It’s just as Ri……Rook said, training your body in RL will also  help you moving better here.」

Ponsuke almost called the name of his friend Riku with his real name  instead of his game name that was Rook. Even so he was proud of his  result of going to gym lately.

Alfie was on her guard against the surrounding while showing interest at Ponsuke’s story.

「Is there really that much difference?」

Ponsuke touched his chin with his hand and explained the difference from before.

「Hmm~, it’s subtle but I think there’s really a difference. Like when  doing ukemi, it’s possible to do even inside game with the help of the  system assist but……now I can, like this, I’m moving my body in advance,  or something.」

The difference was really subtle.

Ponsuke too was improving his player skill.

「But, I wonder how useful this will be for the earth dragon subjugation even after we have done this much?」

Ponsuke felt down because of Mariela’s doubt.

「No, I don’t think that it will be that much help. After all it’s not  like only casual players had tried their hands on defeating the earth  dragon until now. Even the mid-level players had tried various things to  defeat it until now.」

He tried to investigate and he found that there were also a lot of players who managed to drive the earth dragon into a corner.

But, most players concluded that the earth dragon couldn’t be defeated.

Even if they kept attacking it to accumulate damage, the earth dragon  could obtain resistance if the same method of attack kept getting  repeated.

Even the players who prepared trap, quantity of players, and many  other methods of attacks were unable to defeat it in the end. They  couldn’t defeat it even if the earth dragon only had a sliver of HP  left.

Ponsuke put his hand on his waist and spoke resolutely.

「We still haven’t found the way to defeat it even after investigating  this much, so let’s just try to fight it first. Well, we have gotten  strong enough recently so it should be fine.」

Their job level and skill level had increased from defeating the bosses.

But, they would surely be able to grow even stronger if they  proceeded ahead normally without getting fixated on the earth dragon.

Alfie shrugged.

「Well, we aren’t in any hurry so I don’t mind.」

Ponsuke thought.

(I’m indebted to them for going along with my selfishness. I too need to help them out if there’s something that I can do.)

Like that the three returned to the Capital of Temperance after accomplishing their objective.

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Night.

Ponsuke was talking to the queen, [Shela Nor Agnica] at the inn’s courtyard.

The setting that the NPC queen was sneaking outside and working in  the bar after that provided Ponsuke with a chance to talk with her like  this.

He didn’t know what kind of event was waiting from doing this but,  Ponsuke kept talking with her in order to make the event progressed.

「So there is this much liveliness outside the castle. I never knew it.」

Her friendship meter had gradually increased and now she often smiled toward Ponsuke.

Shela was talking about the castle and various things. She was showing a bit of dissatisfaction toward her position as a queen.

Then the mood became slightly strange while he was talking with that Shela.

「The people around me are worshipping me because I’m a high elf and a  queen, but someone like me is really no good compared to the previous  queen. Even though the previous queen had the achievement of defeating  the earth dragon」

「Defeating the earth dragon?」

Ponsuke never imagined that there would be connection between the  earth dragon and the queen. He asked about that matter for more detail.

「Eh, the previous queen? How did she defeat the earth dragon!?

He couldn’t even imagine hwo to defeat the earth dragon, but he never  even thought that he would be able to hear about this story from Shela.

But Shela slightly looked down.

「……It was when the earth dragon attacked the Capital of Temperance.  It happened not every several years or even dozens of years, but every  several hundred of years. At that time the previous queen paid with her  life to successfully repel the earth dragon.」

(So she didn’t defeat it. More importantly, based on what she said, Shela is a grandma who is several centuries old huh.)

Then Shela pinched Ponsuke’s cheek.

「Just now, you’re thinking that I’m a several centuries old grannie aren’t you?」

「I-I’m nhot」

Ponsuke let out cold sweat. Then Shela said 「I’m joking」 and her hand let go.

(NPC is amazing.)

Shela continued her story while he was thinking of such thing.

「I was raised to the throne some dozens of years ago. I was elevated  to that post because it’s necessary in order to engage the earth  dragon.」

Shea said that she was put into her current position in order to engage the earth dragon that might come attacking anytime.

「Originally we should ask for help from other worlds, but elf has bad  reputation that we can’t obtain any help. I hope that we will be able  to defend this capital too next time.」

Shela’s words sounded somewhat sad.

「Err――」

「I’ll be going now. The mistress will scold me if I’m here too long.」

The relationship between the Capital of Temperance and the earth dragon.

Ponsuke had forgotten to consider that angle. He started investigating about the game setting from that courtyard.

He looked at the introductory paragraph about the earth dragon.

「Come to think of it, I had been looking at the walkthroughs that the players wrote, but I had never really checked over here.」

He had been browsing the information that had been found out and  shared by other players, but he hadn’t really paid attention to the  actual game setting.

There was also part that was filled with comments that other players wrote, so he planned to read them later.

About the earth dragon, it was just as Shela said. It had history of attacking the Capital of Temperance.

Last time the queen risked her life to repel it and protected the Capital of Temperance.

「Well, certainly this kind of information isn’t something that most people really pay attention to.」

The game’s background story must be considered as unnecessary information by many players.

Ponsuke thought like that as he closed the screen.

「……Don’t tell me, this event is connected to the earth dragon? No,  this is online game. As expected there’s no way that’s the case.」

Surely this was just a friendship event with the queen.

Ponsuke decided to think of it like that.

「Is she getting along with other player at this time?」

He met with the queen Shela at the audience hall, and then he encountered her again at the inn that he was using.

He almost misunderstood because the AI was too amazing but, she was  an NPC. It wouldn’t be technologically impossible for multiple instances  of her to manifest in several places at the same time.

Surely there were also other players who encountered Shela like this  in another inn. Thinking of that made Ponsuke felt slightly gloomy.

「This must be that kind of thing. If I post at forum that I have  gotten along with the queen, there will be many others who write me too  me too.」

Ponsuke imagined such unpleasant future and returned to his room.

The next day.

Ponsuke’s party headed to the adventurer guild and found a quest called 『Earth Dragon Investigation』  had been generated.

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「Earth dragon investigation? Eh? For us?」

It was a special quest that wasn’t posted on the quest list.

It was the guild receptionist who told Ponsuke’s party to accept the quest.

「Yes. This request is designated for Ponsuke-sama. This request come  from a noble personage, so you have to accept it. There is no time limit  but, please finish it as quickly as possible.」

The quest didn’t need to be done in a hurry, but it also couldn’t be abandoned.

Ponsuke was bewildered. Mariela tilted her head toward him.

「Why at this timing? Is it because we are trying to defeat the earth dragon?」

Alfie shook her head.

「As expected I don’t think that’s the case.」

But, Ponsuke alone had an idea about the cause.

The one who came to mind when he thought about his acquaintance who  was a noble personage, there was only Shela that came to mind.

(Did that event lead to this? No, but as expected that’s……)

They were forced to accept the quest.

Ponsuke thought a lot, but for now he decided to investigate.

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The location that was pointed by the earth dragon investigation quest  was nearer to the Capital of Temperance rather than the location of the  earth dragon.

Mariela and Alfie were riding horse. Ponsuke was riding a donkey while looking around.

Alfie was looking at the surrounding.

「This place is still far away from the point where the earth dragon  come out. The earth dragon’s dwelling should be still far ahead than  here.」

Based on the information that they had gathered in order to defeat  the earth dragon, and from the videos that they had seen until now, the  three thought that the earth dragon couldn’t possibly be here.

However the earth started shaking.

「……No way」

The mountain that was visible from nearby was slowly moving.

「Let’s go.」

Ponsuke spurred his donkey. Alfie and Mariela followed after him.

(Don’t tell me……)

Ponsuke felt uneasy and it showed in his expression. And then he found out that his hunch was right on the money.

A gigantic body that he had to lift his face in order to see it.

The earth dragon was there, moving forward as though it was crawling on the ground.

It had a head that looked like a crocodile and a mountain on its back.

Its front legs had sharp claws. It was advancing with movement that  looked like it was crawling. The players that were too small compared to  it would get crushed if they got on its way.

It was definitely the earth dragon.

「Hey, isn’t it color look strange!?」

Mariela spurred her horse while keeping the distance so they wouldn’t  get crushed. She observed the earth dragon and threw a question at  Ponsuke’s back.

Then a screen appeared in front of Ponsuke’s eyes.

There it was written that he had succeeded on his quest. It instructed him to report it to the guild.

Alfie was also looking confused.

「I never heard about something like this. Besides, it’s even bigger than in the videos……」

They had seen it before in the videos, but the actual thing had grown even larger and its color was also different.

Ponsuke checked the map in hurry and found that the Capital of  Temperance was in that direction. There was no doubt about it. The earth  dragon was heading toward the capital.

The earth dragon was slowly……really slowly heading toward the Capital of Temperance.

Ponsuke waved at the two behind him to get away from this place. They  hadn’t decided any hand signal beforehand but, the two managed to guess  what Ponsuke wanted to say and increased their speed to get away from  the earth dragon.

The earth dragon’s impressiveness surpassed their expectation. They  would get crushed without being able to do anything if they got on its  way.

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