Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 45

Palanquin

The Capital of Temperance reproduced a world of elf inside the game.

It was verdant with a lot of trees. A world that was overflowing with nature.

Ponsuke and the others were taking on a quest in that Capital of Temperance.

The quest’s content was to capture dark elf.

Dark elf――elf that was connected to a lot of bad images like falling  into darkness or being criminal. Similar to orc, this race also received  bad treatment.

Elf, half-elf, and high elf were living in the Capital of Temperance.

However dark elf had been banished from there and none of them could be seen in the capital.

If a player played as dark elf, they would be treated with prejudice just like orc. That was the Capital of Temperance.

Ponsuke’s party was searching inside a forest.

They would fight monster that sometimes jumped at them. Then the party arrived at the designated place.

There was a small hut at the clearing inside the forest.

A family of dark elf was living in hiding inside there. Three elf knights in full armor were attacking them.

「Please, I’m begging you, let us go.」

The dark elf was crying and begging, and yet the elf knight kicked him away before pointing his spear to the dark elf children.

「How dare a lowly criminal like you ask something from me. I’ll pass judgment to you disgraces of elf right here!」

「P-please at least spare the children!」

The dark elf parents were desperate to protect the children.

Ponsuke and the others ran into such scene and discussed what they should do.

「……What a difficult quest to complete.」

Ponsuke pressed his hand on his forehead. Alfie agreed with him.

「This quest pattern, we need to decide which side to assist here  isn’t it? I heard that the quest would be cleared even if we assist the  dark elf side.」

Mariela shrugged.

「With that choice you’ll only get gratitude as the reward. The drop items that the elf knights dropped are only a bit pricey.」

They took the quest from the guild and then spent time to search  until deep inside the forest. It would be night when they arrived back  at the Capital of Temperance.

Ponsuke scratched his head roughly.

「I hate this. Unlike watching through the screen, watching this kind of scene directly like this really gouge your heart.」

Ponsuke had investigated the quest beforehand. He also knew what the consequences of each choice would be.

If they assisted the elves, they would be able to receive precious items even if the elves acted condescendingly at them.

The dark elves would also transform into monsters, so it wouldn’t hurt their heart to defeat them.

If they helped the dark elves, they would be able to steal precious item from the elves.

The quest would be cleared, but the problem was that it was a failure result so no reward would be given.

Mariela watched the dark elf spouses clinging on the elf knights and asked Ponsuke.

「What are we going to do? We don’t mind either way.」

Ponsuke drew out his weapon and immediately headed toward the elf knights.

The elf knigts saw an orc walking toward them with unsheathed weapon, so they became on guard.

「An orc? What’s a monster like you doing here?」

「I don’t like your attitude, so I’m gonna beat you up!」

Ponsuke slashed at one of the knights. A battle broke out with that.

An elf knight with beard raised his sword and shield while facing Ponsuke.

「Stupid monster. There’s no point giving help to the like of dark elves.」

The elf knight slashed. He was a captain who had beard and high level of 75.

The remaining two knights were level 70. They also had useful skills. They were strong.

In front of such plainly strong NPCs that had become their enemy  after Ponsuke attacked them, Ponsuke lowered his waist and took a  fighting stance vigilantly.

Mariela fired her arrow. One knight deflected the arrow with his shield to protect the captain.

「They’re strong.」

Mariela was astonished even while she drew three more arrows and fired them simultaneously.

「But too bad……our side has already hit the level limit a long time ago.」

Mariela grinned. The three arrows that she fired each moved with different trajectory and hit the knight with shield.

The arrows hit his limbs and dealt damage. Then Alfie rushed forward and slashed horizontally.

However the slash resulted in three cuts.

「As expected from paid item, it’s strong.」

One knight was immediately defeated. The advantage in number belonged to Ponsuke’s party now.

「You……!」

The bearded elf turned red in anger. He was going to order his  subordinate, but Ponsuke closed the distance and sent him flying with  his shield.

While Ponsuke was facing the captain, Mariela and Alfie defeated the other elf knight.

The elf captain turned dark red, and then he strengthened himself with magic.

「THESE DAMN FOOOLLLLSS!」

Then Ponsuke roared toward the sky. The surrounding air shook and  even the trees were shaken from that roar. That roar strengthened the  party.

Mariela put her bow on her back and then attacked with two short swords.

Alfie also attacked from Mariela’s opposite direction. Then at the end Ponsuke thrust his sword with all his strength.

The letters COMBO appeared above the elf knight’s head. The three continued attacking in tandem and dealt more damage.

At the end it became overkill and the battle ended immediately.

The elf knight was enveloped in red light and vanished.

「Y-you bastards……don’t understand……what you have done……」

The elf knight glared at Ponsuke with ugly and pained expression. It left him with a really bad feeling.

(Dev……this is overdoing it.)

The three put back their weapon, and then the dark elf spouses approached.

「Thank you very much for your help.」

「We are really thankful.」

A small girl was hugging her mother from behind while saying thank you.

「Thank you, mister orc.」

Ponsuke accepted the thanks bashfully. He was going to leave that  place immediately but the elf spouses――the husband stopped him.

「Umm, excuse me, but do you have with you an item called “Kind Heart”?」

Ponsuke and the girls looked at each other.

「Eh, what? Could it be this is that kind of event?」

Mariela got slightly flustered and asked Ponsuke.

Alfie recalled back while talking about how this kind of pattern also existed.

「If I remember it right, it’s the item that we got at the Capital of  Hope isn’t it? I never thought that it would come up again here.」

Pandora had prepared a lot of events for the players, but it couldn’t be said that all of them had been found.

There were also a lot of events that had vanished without even a single player noticing it.

Ponsuke nodded to the dark elf husband.

「I have it.」

「Is that so. Then please accept this.」

There he handed to Ponsuke an item called Kind Heart that had different color from the Kind Heart stone in Ponsuke’s possession.

「……Umm, this is」

Ponsuke wanted to ask more, but the dark elves were walking back toward the hut.

「Wait!」

Mariela hurriedly rushed into the hut, but the next moment.

「KYAAAAAA!」

The others heard a very cute yell.

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Capital of Temperance.

Ponsuke was talking with the information broker inside a desolate café.

They were naturally talking about the dark elf subjugation quest. At  the same time he also told the information broker about how they  obtained an item that wasn’t mentioned in any game guide.

The information broker came to meet up with Ponsuke here in a great hurry and listened to the story in detail.

The information broker finished taking memo and nodded several times before asking Ponsuke for confirmation.

「And then, you only found corpses that had turned into skeletons inside the hut?」

The scene that Mariela found after she rushed inside the hut was the  dark elf family that had turned into only bones lying on the bed.

The inside of the hut was full with spider webs and dust covering  everything. It showed that it had been a long time since the family had  died.

Ponsuke drank his juice while nodding to the information broker.

「We tried searching the place but, there was really nothing at all. More importantly, is it our fault that the quest vanished?」

There were multiple quests for subjugating dark elf, but the family subjugation quest had vanished from the guild.

「It certainly is gone now. But, that quest isn’t that great so only a  few players even noticed. Even so, that quest doesn’t seem to be  intended for online. Perhaps it’s some kind of a big quest. If it  happened at the Capital of Hope, then at the Capital of Temperance,  there might be another in the next capital too.」

The information broker showed interest to the new information.  Ponsuke asked for several information as payment for this information.

「More importantly, how is it going after the large scale update? It would have been two weeks already if this is RL.」

The information broker laughed.

「It’s always a surprise every time but, this time is also really  surprising. It looks like there are also some balance adjustments but,  the most surprising thing is the half-fairy. The average players are  still thinking of them as weak but, it’s causing a lot of commotion with  the clearers. It seems they’re thinking that half-fairy will have an  important role for clearing the Capital of Arrogance.」

「That much? I know someone who is using it but, she’s having a really hard time with it.」

Ponsuke recalled about Sierra. He mentioned about what happened at the Capital of Hope.

「It looks like she got turned away from joining party because she’s a half-fairy.」

Thanks to that, Ponsuke ended up introducing her to Nanako. He couldn’t imagine half-fairy as being strong at all.

That species was simply weak against getting hit.

However, he also thought that perhaps there was more to it if the clearing group had their eyes on it.

(Riku was also mentioning something about it.)

The information broker told Ponsuke about what he knew.

「That’s not the case. The performance of the specialized type depend  on how you use it. Look, a race can be strengthened by level or event  right? I think there must be something like that for half-fairy too.」

The information was too uncertain, but certainly that sounded possible.

「More importantly, when are you going to offer the fire dragon’s horn on altar?」

Ponsuke finished his juice and talked about that matter.

「Our acquaintances had just arrived at the Capital of Temperance.  They’re still leveling up right now, so soon. In RL time, it will be  around two or three days more.」

Other than the orc party, Nanako, Sierra, and also Lighter were entering the Capital of Temperance.

His acquaintances were gradually gathering and the preparation was also progressing.

「Then I want to ask you one thing.」

「What is it?」

「Actually at the next capital――the Capital of Discretion also has its  own orc village. About the item to offer there, I still don’t have any  information about it. But, I suspect that it might be something from  Doryuu at the Capital of Temperance.」

<Doryuu>.

Not doryuu mole, but earth dragon. A dragon with earth element. (TN:  The kanji for mole is exactly the same with the kanji for earth dragon)

Ponsuke frowned.

「No, but……no earth dragon has ever been defeated before.」

An earth dragon felt like it would a low ranked dragon among all  types of dragon, but actually it was a monster that no player had ever  defeated before.

To be more accurate, there would be no problem even if it wasn’t defeated.

Apparently there were attempts to defeat it at the past, but when it  became known that it was possible to progress ahead without defeating  it, most players chose to pass through rather than facing the  troublesome earth dragon.

The information broker pulled down his hood lower so that only his mouth became visible.

However his tone was serious.

「Ponsuke-kun……how about trying to defeat the earth dragon? You have  gathered quite a lot of comrades aren’t you? Won’t you be able to do it  if you gather a bit more?」

Ponsuke looked reluctant, but he couldn’t possibly refuse to try if it was necessary for the orc strengthening event.

「I’ll try but, give me information in exchange.」

「But of course!」

The information broker handed a lot of data to Ponsuke as though he had been waiting for it.

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Mariela and Alfie were enjoying tea time with Sierra in a café.

「All of your physical statuses are low even though you have leveled  up. These numbers, they are about the same with level 20 or 30 player.」

Sierra looked like she was going to cry.

「That’s right. That’s why I have to be guarded when fighting high  level monster. It was easy when I was with Ponsuke-san but, my party  right now, it’s」

Half-fairy would still feel nervous even when fighting monster of the same level.

It was a specialized race that excelled in magic, but it could die easily which was a harsh demerit.

Alfie looked around while still holding her straw in her mouth.

「Even so Nanako-chan is late.」

Sierra sighed.

「Nanako-chan has it good. She’s plainly strong, and most of all she’s  the party’s main force. She’s quick, reliable……it feels like I’m just  dragging everyone down.」

Sierra became dejected. Mariela consoled her.

「This is just a game so don’t mind it. Besides, even though your  statuses are this low, you still managed to defeat the fire dragon and  come here. You can hold your head high.」

Alfie also felt the same.

「That’s right. You just need to do your best as magic specialist.  Besides, Ponsuke said that half-fairy is popular with the clearers. In  truth it might actually be strong.」

Sierra smiled bitterly.

「I hope so. I’ve been thinking several times to recreate my avatar, but I keep putting it off and continue using it.」

Then Sierra asked a question to the two.

「Come to think of it, isn’t Ponsuke-san going to create a guild?」

Mariela and Alfie fell into thought for a bit hearing Sierra’s question.

「A guild huh……is it really something good?」

Alfie basically prioritized having fun. She had no interest with things like battle or guild.

「Apparently it has its own merit but, you will get tied down for various things in it, so it’s a bit…」

Sierra sighed and held her head in his hands.

「Is that so……」

「Why are you asking about Ponsuke creating a guild?」

Mariela asked. Sierra averted her gaze and said.

「No, I heard that there’ll be a lot of merits with being in the same  guild, besides Ponsuke-san has a lot of acquaintances so I’m wondering  if he’s going to create a guild.」

Alfie looked up to the ceiling.

「Ponsuke as guild master huh. But, the majority of his acquaintances are……」

Then the door of the café opened.

And then the orc group came in while carrying Nanako on a palanquin on their shoulders for some reason.

「Ah, everyone~」

Nanako smiled. She didn’t look like she really understood the situation.

The orcs who were carrying the palanquin were looking happy.

Prey offered his hand to Nanako.

「Princess, we have arrived. Now, please get on my hand. Please grind that high heel without reservation on my hand.」

Nanako looked troubled.

「As expected that’s a bit……ah, I’ll take off my shoes.」

Nanako took off her shoes and got on the offered hand. Then Prey looked at his palm that got stepped by Nanako and said.

「……I’ll never wash my hand anymore.」

The orc leader stated that with a serious face. Alfie kicked his face right after that.

「What the hell are you guys doing!」

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