VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

The quest was over and I was left with 3 skill point books.

I insisted that I was fine with my own share, but Herscha and Walter insisted in giving me theirs as thanks.

I wasn’t planning to make that much of a big deal of it though…however, now that I have accepted them, I’ll gladly use them.

After exchanging a promise that next time we’ll party up without thinking of returning favors and such, we dissolved once we turned in the stolen goods and the bandits.

Just for the record, we became the center of attention when we returned to Heathrow to turn the bandits in.

Since we stood out quite a bit, I’m pretty sure they’ll talk about us in the BBS.

So it basically went like that, the problem is the ninja in front of me that looks like an empty shell.

「Hey, Tobi. Come back already…」 (Hind)

「…」 (Tobi)

Tobi has been like that since receiving that shock from Walter.

Since I didn’t have much of a choice, I had him sit down in one of the benches scattered around Heathrow but…

He moves when you push him and he properly accepted the reward from the quest but even then…

Just when I tried to wave my hand in front of his eyes to see if I could get a reaction, he suddenly moved his mouth.

Eh…I wonder what is it, it sounds like…he’s muttering a magic spell?

「…No! No! Hastah! Hastah kufuak burukudom bukutoragurun burugudomu! Ai! Ai! Hastah!」 (Tobi)

「…!? What are you even trying to summon! Have your sanity reached 0 points!? There’s no golden ambrosia, nostrums or a flute with a magical jewel here!」 (Hind)

「Hah!? I-I’m fine…my consciousness has returned!」 (Tobi)

「Those are not words that would come from someone that is fine! Get a grip!」 (Hind)

Seems like he is still confused, so what he’s saying doesn’t make any sense.

However, as I kept talking to him, he started to calm down.

His eyes are dead though…

「Uuuu. I mean, Hind-dono…it’s like I’m having a nightmareee…even though his looks are perfect, to think that he’s a guy…」 (Tobi)

「Well, it was my bad. I gave you the preconception that Walter was a girl…」 (Hind)

「I’m grateful for your words…but in the end, I believe it was because I misunderstood. Actually, I still can’t bring myself to believe it…」 (Tobi)

We both sighed and the atmosphere turned gloomy.

It’s not like it’s Walter’s fault…it’s our own fault for thinking that he was a girl to begin with.

Before long, Tobi stood up from the bench with lifeless movements.

「…Wacchi. I’ll log out here…and heal myself with screenshots of Maou-chan…」 (Tobi)

「O-Oh…good work…」 (Hind)

「Wacchi, what about tomorrow?」 (Tobi)

「Since it seems like my part-time job is going to be tough tomorrow, I probably won’t log in. I might play a bit the day after tomorrow at night.」 (Hind)

「OK, guess I’ll do the same. See you-」 (Tobi)

「Yeah, see you.」 (Hind)

When Tobi logged out, I checked the time.

..Geh, it’s 11pm already.

Hasn’t it been 3 hours since I started already?

Once I meet up with Yumir, guess I’ll log out for the night too.

Since she hasn’t contacted me yet, I’ll use the skill point books and allot those points in skills—an email inside the game has arrived.

Just when I thought that it had finally arrived, I opened the menu and checked the contents.

Sender: Siesta

Subject: Help me（＞＜；）

Body: Please stop, I’ll die

If you are in the vicinity please save me

…It’s not from Yumir!? It’s from Siesta-chan and this message…

I pinpointed her location from my friend list and hurriedly ran to the west exit of the town.

Western side of Heathrow 「Latera lakeshore」.

When I entered the field, I marked the location of Siesta-chan in the map and started to run.

The four of them went quite deep…it’s quite far.

On the way to the lakeshore, the monsters inside the forest were aquatic living creatures like frogs and crayfish.

It goes without saying that their size was fiendish since they were monsters.

The crayfish are especially aggressive, even if you don’t attack them, they will persistently chase you while brandishing their scissors.

Since it’d be hopeless with my own fighting strength, I could only run while praying that I wouldn’t get caught.

Before long, the forest widened and I reached the sandy beach of the lake.

「There they are! Wait, what the hell is this!?」 (Hind)

A gigantic water buffalo of about 10 meters with horns protruding from it was chasing Yumir while raising clouds of dust.

And then, in a spot a bit apart from them was Siesta-chan with a millimeter of HP and the other two…the knight Lycoris-chan and the archer Cineraria-chan were incapacited.

「Ah, Hind-senpai. Save me-」 (Siesta)

Siesta-chan asked me to save her with a voice devoid of a sense of urgency.

Are they perhaps out of holy water…? I thought I had given them quite the amount of them though.

I checked the timer until they would resurrect and gave a「Holy Water」 to Cineraria.

Then used 「Revive」 on Lycoris-chan to resurrect her.

「Yumir, how long will you be able to hold up!?」 (Hind)

「!! Hind, is that you!? 30 seconds more should be my limit!」 (Yumir)

「Alright, just wait! Siesta-chan, heal those 2!」 (Hind)

「Yeees.」 (Siesta)

After resurrecting them, we both healed them to full HP and they stood up.

In a panic, Lycoris-chan tried to go back into battle.

「T-Thank you very much! Yumir-san, I’ll go help you right-」 (Lycoris)

「Dah! Gather here, all three of you gather here!」 (Hind)

「Eh?」 (Lycoris)

However, I stopped her.

Seeing that, Siesta-chan assisted me in persuading her.

「Ah, both of you. Let’s do as senpai says? OK?」 (Siesta)

「O-OK…Lyco!」 (Sai)

「Ah, yes!」 (Lyco)

I casted 「Guard up」 on Yumir, who was fighting alone on the front to buy time for 「Healing」 to come back since it had gone on CD.

Judging from the order these girls died, if they fought the same way, they would just end up in a pinch again.

「First off, I’ll focus on healing Yumir, so Siesta-chan should focus on Lycoris-chan.

「Cineraria-chan should attack at a frequency that the enemy won’t attack her. Once the monster turns towards you, immediately stop attacking it.

「Understood? It’s fine to go with the idea of using the vanguards as a shield. Other than that, have you acquired 「Arrow rain」?」(Hind)

「Y-Yes, I do have it.」 (Sai)

「In that case, I want you to not use it until I give you the signal.

「Lycoris-chan, if you take too much damage, stop attacking too. Whenever your HP is…above 50% you are free to attack. Otherwise, leave it to Yumir.」 (Hind)

「U-Understood」 (Lyco)

These girls are still beginners so they don’t understand the game.

They especially don’t know about aggro management, you could say that the archer who is supposed to be a middle guard dying first is a pure mistake in their battle tactics.

While giving them instructions that even they could execute, I started casting 「Revive」 which had come back from CD.

From the glimpses I got, the only one whose battle style doesn’t show any issues is Siesta-chan’s, so it could mean that she didn’t teach them because it would be a pain…I think she’s the only one that has an extensive knowledge about games.

「I mean, I didn’t think we would go this far tonight. So I don’t think it’s my fault? They were all getting into it, so I couldn’t really stop them.

「So, was it like my mistake for reading the mood?」 (Siesta)

「Can you not read my mind as if it’s the obvious thing to do!? I believe you are guilty because you didn’t stop them even though you knew!」 (Hind)

「Morusua」 (Yumir)

「Ah…everyone, battle is restarting!」 (Hind)

I revived Yumir who had just died and the 5 of us turned to face the

「Gigantic Buffalo」.

Its level was 35 and its HP was extraordinarily high so it had barely been shaved.

I get the feeling this is going to be a war of attrition…

Two on the front, one in the middle and two at the back, we arranged ourselves in a balanced formation.

「Take this!」 (Yumir)

「Lyco, it’s going your way!」 (Cineraria)

「Got it, Sai-chan!」 (Lyco)

「Arooo!」 (Yumir)

「Yumir! You died too fast! Why have your movements become reckless once I arrived here!?」 (Hind)

「In exchange, the damage she dealt has increased though. Senpai’s follow ups are so perfect that I might fall in love with you right here.」 (Siesta)

「Since you have nothing to do, why won’t you shoot some offensive magic!? You are a balanced type right!?」 (Hind)

「Revive」, 「Potion」, 「Guard up」, 「Attack up」, 「Healing」, 「Magic up」…even though it was only just one more person, supporting a 5-man party was so hectic that it felt like my eyes were spinning.

「Bumooooooooooooooooo!」

「!!」

Right after the enemy’s HP had finally reached 30%, the buffalo let out a cry and its black body turned red.

Its status showed attack up and defense down…an unique action that many bosses have, the so called berserk state.

However, this change in status is better for us instead!

「Both knights, focus on evasion!」 (Hind)

「OK!」 (Yumir)

「Eh? Ah, yes!」 (Lyco)

「Cineraria-chan, be prepared to use arrow rain! We’ll aim to finish it off with it!」 (Hind)

「–!! Yes! I was waiting for that!」 (Sai)

「Senpai, what about me?」 (Siesta)

「Shoot offensive magic at the same time as the arrow rain, if the two at the front take damage, heal them!」 (Hind)

「Got it」 (Siesta)

Yumir and Lycoris-chan dealt shallow cuts on the enemy and dodged its vigorous charges.

While that was happening, I used 「Attack up」 on Cineraria-chan.

The enemy stopped its charge and at the timing that it would be too late for it to head in our direction…

「Fire!」 (Hind)

「Please hit!」 (Sai)

An arrow imbued with magic power was shot to the heavens…it broke into an innumerable amount of arrows and they ran down incessantly from the sky.

They rained down incessantly on top of the huge body which had its defense lowered and the HP bar that had taken us so much effort to shave started to be shaved off at a rapid pace.

Just as I thought, this skill had great affinity in this kind of situation.

Most of the arrows easily hit the large body of the buffalo.

However…

「Gururururu…」

「N-No way!」 (Lyco)

「It’s still alive, Hind!」 (Yumir)

The buffalo still had some HP left.

Both knights were in a panic, but there was nothing to worry about.

The chant had already ended.

I aimed the new skill I had just gotten 「Quick」 at Cineraria-chan.

The shining light was absorbed by her body.

「T-This is!?」 (Sai)

「Well then, one more time! Fire!」 (Hind)

「Understood! Here I go!」 (Sai)

「Quick」 is a support skill that refreshes the CD of the last skill the person had used.

Having become able to use 「Arrow rain」 in rapid succession, it rained down again…and it splendidly was able to shave off the rest of the 「Gigantic Buffalo’s」 HP.

Its large body bent and its mass made the surrounding sand rise up.