Starting from Zero

Chapter 145: The value of trust

Translator: blackberrry Editor: blackberrry

"How do I know if they're being honest or not! So I chose to let them fight, and the best scenario is if all of them die!" I did not care, they are not from China!

"But they are women!" Hope had the urge to help them.

"You shouldn't randomly help others." I stopped the both of them.

"How goes your search for the Spirit Stone?"

"I didn't find anything!" Felix answered.

"Then why are the two of you here? Quickly go back and continue searching!"

"Oh!" The two of them detoured around the empty area and headed to another city.

I continued to observe the PK performance, which was truly spectacular. The Female Elf Captain was too nimble and agile and resembled a dexterous fox leaping in and out between the Knights, yet no one was able to get close to her. The aggressive Elf that almost fought with me was another prominent one, her movements were extremely large, every attack of hers looked to be in full force. From the way she fought, I could tell that she must have definitely chosen to place all her points in Strength. This was a rarely seen Female Elf model that walked the path of pure brute strength!

Amongst the battlefield, I noticed the shy young lady from before, her profession seemed to be some Battle Sacrificer, she was always situated at the rear, although she would occasionally run up to strike some enemies, the rest of her time was spent giving blood to her allies! This pure Warrior Organization was not as weak as they looked, they had in fact exploited one of [Zero]'s significant feature - Variety and differences in the Professions.

[Zero] had established an extremely complicated Profession System, every Profession would develop differently, according to how the Player groomed him or herself. A pure Warrior could be differentiated into 4 Generic Paths that had over 20 subpaths in each of them. Further adding the different advantages of different races, even more varieties would appear in just one profession itself.

Maybe because they were all Female Players with comparatively more delicate minds, although the Cherry Blossom Organization Members were all Warriors, they had in fact branched out into different varieties in the profession itself. The Captain was a Dexterity Warrior, the impulsive girl was a Strength Warrior, while the smallest girl was a Battle Sacrificer. From the looks of it, they had in fact successfully obtained all the different Professions, but a pity they did not have a Mage with large AOE* spells!

Although Ikeda Rikio's Knights had the advantage in numbers, the Cherry Blossom Organization was able to gain the upper hand slowly. Although there were casualties, the Female Elves successfully controlled the situation, most importantly, the Captain had specially formed a small group to break through the enemy's lines and kill the enemy's Mage Camp. They were all Dexterity Warriors with fast movement speed. Adding that Mages were the slowest Profession, it was simply a Big bad wolf dropping into a herd of sheep. In an instant, the enemy's mages were cut by half, and although the Archers were able to intercept them for a short while, they were still not the opponents of the Elf Warriors, and after a few bouts, the entire back line was destroyed.

I watched on with great interest until Aldeina suddenly shouted: "The Knights are about to unleash a Finishing Blow!"

I hurriedly focused on the Knight Regiment's movements, at the start I was not able to catch anything, but then I realized that inside the regiment, there were about 20 odd Knights that were slowly retreating, while the Knights around them would cover their empty spots and defend against the Elves. This group of Knights slowly retreated out of the chaotic mess and summoned their war mounts. This group of Knights was a few that did not have their war mounts injured, and could still actually mount on them! They quickly formed up, while the Knights in the mess suddenly split apart like the Red Sea and formed a pathway, where the 20 Mounted Knights initiated a charge. Although this 20 men charge did not possess a terrifying threat, the damage was still sufficient for the Elves that were weaker in Constitution!

The Cherry Blossom Organization ladies did not expect that they would meet with the Knights' Charge head on at such a moment. The 20 Mounted Knights were like Knives cutting through the Elves formation, their frail screams along with the graceful figures flew all over. Without looking, one could also tell what had happened to the Elves at the front. Around 10 meters away from me, I saw a mist of red blood in the sky, a few beautiful heads had flown out of the chaos, one of which belonged to the youngest Battle Sacrificer.

Aldeina was stunned by the scene. "That...! Too terrifying! Master, can I go and help them?"

I instantly pulled the already standing Aldeina back down to sit. "Only when one side is completely obliterated, otherwise, we will not move! That is how they will earn my trust, with their blood!"

"But…." I raised my hand, an indication for Aldeina to stop talking.

"If you truly can't watch the battle without doing anything, you can give them all a Full Blessing, that is my bottom line!"

"Alright!" Aldeina had no other choice, she was still my Companion and could not go against my intentions.

Although a simple Blessing could not help much, it had indeed lessened the pressure on the Cherry Blossom Organization Elves. After receiving the Blessing, the Impulsive lady fanatically rushed to the mounted Knights and used her slender red sword to parry with the Knight's Broadsword which produced a series of sparks before being forced back. It was impossible for a Pure Strength Elf to fight head-on against a Knight that used their Strengths for a living. But after being forced to retreat, the Elf Captain suddenly appeared behind the Knights. The Impulsive Elf was just a distraction! The scene of the blood mist appeared once more, this time 7 heads were cut off from their bodies, which rolled on the floor. Before the other Knights could even react, flashes of light dazzled their eyes, and they found swords in their stomachs.

The mounted Knights suffered from the focus attacks, and in an instant, all of the Knights that had participated in the Charge were eradicated, but because of the 20 Knights Charge, Cherry Blossom Organization lost 30 over Elves. That was how effective the Charge was against the Elves.

The circle of chaos became smaller and smaller as time passed and the number of people in both parties gradually lessened. The endless pillars of white light and the number of corpses on the floor proved that both parties were on the verge of collapse. Cherry Blossom Organization was left with less than 30 Elves, all of them with injuries. The Inagawa Union was nowhere better, with about 40 odd men, but all of them severely injured. The Elves' fighting capabilities and damage output were far more powerful than what I had anticipated!

When I thought that the battle was concluding, a burst of uproar suddenly came out from the forest, the sound of horses galloping along with the trembling ground meant that an even bigger group of Knights had arrived! As expected, the trees swayed as rows of Knights arrived one after another. I sent Phiona up into the sky to scout, who quickly flew back down.

"There are about 700 mounted Knights with pillion riders coming over!"

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I knew for sure that the Elves were finished, 30 injured and tired ladies could not possibly defeat 700 Light Cavalry soldiers, furthermore, they had Mages with them! But another yet another uproar came out from the other side of the forest, with many green figures rushing into the empty space. Elves, a large formation of Elves. Archers, Warriors, Mages, Sacrificers, this time, all sorts of Professions could be seen. The Cherry Blossom Organization's reinforcements actually arrived at the same time as the enemy.

Both parties did not engage in any superfluous words and quickly engaged in battle, with limbs and blood instantly flying all over. As I did not wish to get involved, I got Lucky to bring down a few large trees behind us where we retreated to, where it was difficult to be attacked. A pity though, the Inagawa Union's fools were not cautious enough, 40 Knights who did not even unload their mages behind them rushed at us. Duty bound, Lucky and Phiona rushed forward. With a burst of spells, the Knights and their pillion riders were instantly flung back into the chaotic battlefield where they were trampled on indefinitely and were unable to stand again.

"Master, are we truly just going to watch them fight?" For the umpteenth time, Aldeina encouraged me to participate in the battle.

"Yes! We will not move from this spot!" I was determined not to participate.

The situation became even messier than before, the Cherry Blossom Organisation's reinforcements consisted of over a thousand Elves while the Inagawa Union had close to 1500 people, and although the Cherry Blossom Organization was at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, their fighting capabilities were exceptionally high, and with their formations and coordination, they instantly took the advantage from the beginning.

The battle continued for another hour, and the headcount of both parties got lesser and lesser, with a layer of dropped Equipment on the ground. At long last, the total headcount of both parties were less than 10 people, the Cherry Blossom Organization was left with the Captain that lasted through both battles and one Elf that came with the reinforcements, who looked to be the President** (Guild Leader) of Cherry Blossom Organization. Inagawa Union was left with eight men, three Archers, and five Knights, but none of them looked to be of Commanding positions. Although the two Elves were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, their levels were much higher than their enemies, adding their stronger equipment and tactics, they were actually handling the eight enemies with ease.

The two Female Elves worked separately, the President of Cherry Blossom Organization faced against the five Knights and although it took a toll on her, she was able to barely hold on. The Captain rushed towards the three Archers, who were most probably low-level Archers or had consumed all of their Potions and did not have much HP left, but they were easily killed without any resistance. The Captain then returned back and aided the President in a pincer attack on the Knights.

One of the Knights who was slightly higher leveled suddenly pounced at the President and used the Knight's version of [Sacrificial Strike] - [Noble Sacrifice]. Two white lights descended at the same time, the President and the Knight both died at the same time, but the President used her terrifying battle experience and killed another Knight with her sword. The Elf Captain was up against three Knights and was also low on HP. Previously, she was able to sustain due to her own members sacrificing themselves for her, but since the Battle Sacrificers were gone, she no longer had much health. The Three knights were also low on HP, their armors were filled with holes which indicated that their durabilities were low and their armors penetrated, their HP nowhere as much as before.

"Die!" One of the Knight suddenly used [Noble Sacrifice] once more, he was planning to risk it all to kill her. Both parties were no longer fighting for victory, but for face, just like what America faced in the Vietnam War, they went for an 'honorable' retreat and did not come close to winning.

Even so, the Female Elf Captain looked as though she did not plan to give any face to her enemies, with a nimble turn, she actually dodged the [Noble Sacrifice], where the Knight's [Noble Sacrifice] caused him to exhaust his HP to 0 no matter if he hit or missed, he was instantly killed in mid-air, but another Knight took the chance to strike at the Elf Captain.

She was struck heavily into the air and with a frail scream, she fell to the ground. The other Knight immediately rushed at her with the thoughts of adding the finishing blow, but the Elf Captain threw the sword in her hand at him. The Knight that was left with a bit of HP was easily killed off by the nick of the sword.

The last Knight standing took his sword and walked over while the Elf Captain laid on the ground without an ounce of strength left in her, and without any resistance, she turned her head and looked towards me. In her eyes, I saw her intent to question me, and I instantly knew that she was asking if they had proven their sincerity. I nodded my head slightly, which resulted in her revealing a satisfied smile and the closure of her eyes.

The Knight stabbed into her body ferociously, but the sword did not manage to stab into her because, by the time his sword had plunged downwards, she had transformed into a white light and disappeared. She must have sustained some severe injury that contained the effect Bleed, thus she was constantly losing HP till death.

The Knight looked at his sword that was plunged deep into the ground and effortfully pulled it out. He then turned and looked at me with dread, he knew that he could not fight me, ignoring the fact that he was already at half HP, just with Lucky alone behind me was menacing enough to suppress him from coming forward.

Aldeina became angry, and hit me with her fist: "You're truly cold-blooded, she was already in that state, yet you still did nothing."

I stood up and caressed Aldeina's head: "People will only cherish things that they have worked hard for, humans will never care much about things they obtained with ease! Seems like your AI*** isn't evolved to the point of understanding such philosophies yet!"

I jumped up onto Night Shade, extended my hand out and Aldeina up with me while the Knight looked at me with a strange look, which looked as if he thought that I did not plan to finish him until I spoke up: "Lucky! Kill him, and take everything up." (Lucky has his own Inventory, he can help with transporting Items, I hope everyone did not forget about that!)

Before we even walked out far, Lucky caught him, it was not difficult for him to get rid of a dying Knight without a mount, and picking things up did not consume too much time. I was about to PM 1 Felix and Hope, only to see them running over.

"Boss, we've found it!" Felix ran over excitedly.

"They will continue their exploration tomorrow morning, it will be fine as long as we follow them, their itinerary route is the same, just that they delayed the time."

I interrupted his excited speech: "Hope, do you know where Shiromizu is?"

"Which Shiromizu are you talking about?" Hope replied with a question that caught me in a daze.

"What? Are there many Shiromizus?"

"Nope, I know there are two. One is Shiromizu City, the other one has huge leveling area, with a hot spring and river called Shiromizu. I'm not sure which Shiromizu you're talking about!"

"I don't know too, most probably Shiromizu City! Let us go to the City first."

"You have something to do there?" Hope looked at me with astonishment, normally, it was safer for us outside of Cities.

"Yes. The two of you don't have to follow me. Let us gather at the place we met yesterday first thing in the morning tomorrow."

"Alright!" The two of them quickly turned and ran up the mountain.

I moved the Items from Lucky's Inventory to my Bracelet, then unsummoned all my Companions except for Aldeina and Night Shade.

I suddenly recalled that Companions were considered NPCs, they were able to speak various national languages, thus allowing Aldeina to speak Japanese would not produce the unique voice of the Translation System of the game!

If I had remembered that she could be my translator, everything would had gone smoothly!

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I removed and kept my armor, changing into lousy equipment to prevent others from recognizing me. To add to the disguise, I intentionally wore different equipment, and no longer had a proper set. There was no other way, the majority of the Players were like that, usually, only members that belonged to large Guilds or Organizations were able to form complete set equipment due to their manpower and exchange system within the organization that acted as a guarantor.

There were too many Professions in [Zero], thus a myriad of equipment, and further adding that it had to be further differentiated into male and female equipment, it was extremely difficult for a Player to obtain a full set equipment alone without the exchange system of the Guilds. One had to either receive the equipment through chain missions like what I went through or spend money to buy, otherwise, it was impossible for one to obtain all necessary equipment from drops.

While entering the city, I maintained vigilance and observed the guards by the gates, the Players might not know who I was, but I was unsure if the NPC guards could recognize and attack a foreigner like me. The fortunate thing was that the Nation Wars had not started, so the NPCs had not unlocked their hostility towards foreigners. I carefully entered the City, which was my first time truly entering a Japanese City! The last few times were either at night or for fights and never got to experience the City life.

The Japanese City was extremely beautiful, it had a classic feel to it, with everything being small, regardless of the doors or windows, even the houses were short! The street was extremely narrow and looked to be able to accommodate a few people at once, maybe because the City was not some Large City, I remembered that the Black Dragon Force's City was not like this! Along the way, I saw many stalls selling equipment and initially had the thoughts to sell all the equipment that I picked up, but upon thinking about it and how it would make me look suspicious, I gave up on the idea.

I continued walking until three Japanese people suddenly blocked my path. I had the intention to detour around them, but as I moved to my left, he moved to his right, when I turned to my right, he turned to his left, he was intentionally blocking me! With my ordinary equipment, an ordinary Knight's Helmet covering my face and my decision to unsummon Night Shade and walk to prevent attracting attention, what could this person possibly want?

"Big Brother, your Girl is very beautiful, how much will the three of us be worth?"

I almost fainted, even with Aldeina's beauty, they didn't need to treat me as a Pimp!

Under my orders, Aldeina spoke fiercely: "If you don't want to die, get lost!"

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" The three of them immediately made way for us.

The Japs are like that, the more ferocious you are, the more respectful they become, once you reveal any weaknesses, they will definitely enjoy bullying you!

After scaring the three fools easily, we quickly found the Teleport Station and chose Shiromizu City. Upon coming out from the Station, I mistook the City for a cemetery, as the entire City was green. All of the structures were covered with vines and vegetation all over, while the streets were littered with unknown flowers and plants. But the various broken walls and pillars informed me that the place was not reforested, but it was actually a ruin, and for it to actually have a Teleport Station, it was really strange!

"Who are you?" A Female Elf suddenly appeared on a dilapidated structure that was missing a half, with her bow armed and drawn at us.

When I saw her, I knew that we were in the right Shiromizu City. "Where's your President? Tell her that I'm here to fulfill my end of the agreement!"

"You're Ziri?" The Archer exclaimed out as she relaxed her bowstring and jumped down. ELves were much more nimble and agile, thus the height was not a problem for her.

"Please follow me!" She ran ahead of me.

Not one of the houses that I saw along the way were completely intact, as though the entire place had encountered bombs! The grass and vegetation covered every corner of the City! The Archer held onto her bow and ran to a large house, which was most probably the most intact structure of the entire City, with only its one side of its large door left leaning against the wall, as though it was struck heavily something large.

"What happened here? Was there some kind of bombing?" I could no longer resist and decided to ask about the state of the place.

"It has always been like this here, this City is Japan's Elf City. Elves that leaves Beginner Town will all appear here first. Legends state that Elves is a race that adores nature, thus the City is like this!"

"Woah! That's really creative!"

While talking, I was pulled into a room, and immediately saw the Female Elf Captain with the President running over along with four other Elves. I figured that they were the other Captains since I could only recognize the Third Force Captain, the few others who looked to be on equal grounds with her had to most probably be the other Forces' Captains.

When they came to me, the other Elves were stunned. At the beginning when they saw me, I was equipped with my Dark Dragon Set, but I was currently in trash equipment (Obviously compared to my Dark Dragon Set), thus their strange reactions.

Before speaking to them, I poured out all the equipment from my Bracelet, they were the equipment from the battle between Cherry Blossom Organization and Inagawa Union. I never had the time to organize them.

"These are the equipment you dropped, I helped all of you to pick them up."

The six of them stared at me blankly, ordinary people will never be able to comprehend how I, a single person, was able to pick up so much loot. But since they had more important matters to attend to, they did not bother about the equipment.

"This way please!" The President invited both of us enthusiastically in while one of the Captain ran to find the other Elves to claim their items.

We followed the President into a room which looked to be more or less intact. The interior was neatly arranged and decorated with wooden furniture, but with a hint of western and modern taste added to it. I placed my Helmet on the table.

"I'm Ziri, this is Aldeina. Do you mind introducing yourselves first?"

"I am the President of Cherry Blossom Organisation, my name's Hiko, Elf Warrior." The President introduced herself first. I observed her elegant black hair and beautiful green eyes, and she truly gave off the demeanor of elegance, no wonder she was called Hiko*****.

"This is Peach, Elf Archer and Captain of our First Main Force, holding the responsibility of leading 200 of our Elf Archers." Hiko pointed to the slim and tall lady. She looked like a model, her height looked to be close to 180cm! With such a height, she was definitely a crane in a flock of chicken in Japan!

"Nice to meet you." She graciously shook hands with me, but I did not like standing next to her, it made me feel short, and it was simply jabbing at my self-esteem!

"This is our Second Main Force Captain, Akira, Elf Warrior, she is in charge of the 200 Elf Warriors of the Second Main Force." Akira looked like a weak and pretty daughter of a humble family, I could not guess that she had chosen to be an Elf Warrior, even more so a Battle Sacrificer. Everyone has their own dreams, I guess!

"This is our Third Main Force Captain, Yoshimi, she is also an Elf Warrior. I believe she was the first person you met? The 200 Warriors that you saw are under her charge."

"Thank you for helping us!" Yoshimi smiled and shook my hand. I suddenly felt that she was extremely similar to Rose in terms of personality, of course, she isn't as pretty as Rose.

Before Hiko could even introduce her, the Captain of the Fourth Main Force jumped up and introduced herself: "I am Captain of the Fourth Main Force, Norika Shizuka, Elf Mage, you can call me Shizuka. I am in charge of the 200 Mages of Cherry Blossom Organization." This girl was at most 16, at such an energetic age, she still chose to be a mage. I felt warmer towards Shizuka and Akira, for such a bright girl to be a Mage, who knew if she would become so agitated and rush to hit her enemies with her staff!

"This is our big sister, and also the Deputy President of the Organisation, Meigetsu Yuri, Elf Battle Sacrificer, she is in charge of all of our Battle Sacrificers." Honestly, she could no longer be considered a young girl, although she had maintained herself well, I could still tell that she was around 37 to 38 years old, her bearing was more like an Office Lady.

"Nice to meet you!" She shook my hand politely, but her eyes were filled with lust, which scared and caused me to retract my hand back quickly. What the hell, she's already so old, yet she's still coveting over me, a tender young man! Disgusting!

"All of you wants to go?" I did not like to beat around the bush, and after the introductions, I went straight to the problem.

"Not all of them, more like 99%!" The Captain answered my question.

"How many is that? I need a specific headcount, I'd prefer a precise number."

"There's a total of 1021 of us!"

(*) AOE - Area of Effect

(**) In the previous and this chapter, they call the guild leader the President, but in games, they are mostly guild leader. I'll continue to go with President, but I hope all of you will understand that she is the guild leader.

(***) AI- Artificial Intelligence

(****)PM - Private Message

(*****) Hiko - Apparently Hiko is Flying (According to Google Translate), and the Chinese word translated to elegant used to describe her bearing can also be translated to float or drift, which is like flying, thus her name and comparison.