OVRMMO28: Dance of the Fairies, Middle Stage

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Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudouki
Author: Shiina Howahowa
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Dance of the Fairies, Middle Stage

According to the Official Homepage, at long last information about the event’s Second Half will be announced soon, sending this world into a tizzy of impatience and activity.
Depending on the content of the Second Half, if you don’t try to become a little stronger it could be unfavorable for you; that’s the sort of threatening atmosphere that’s been hanging about.

The management hasn’t announced anything detailed yet, just a single statement: “Try to get along with your Fairy.”

Because of that a small portion of those that have been treating their Fairies like slaves thought, “Isn’t the way we’ve been treating them up until now bad?”  That kind of thinking began to come about.
There’s no doubt that forcible working the Fairy hard wouldn’t NOT have a bad effect on the relationship.
Even so will they be able to fix the relationship in time …?
Well it’s totally better than not trying to improve it all, though.

I’ve been commuting to the dungeon in the forest everyday since then to thoroughly train myself.
Because I’m alone Lesser Lizards and Dark Wolves are formidable opponents, even so I’ve been able to win against them somehow.
Well, along with the wins I’ve also taken several death penalties.
But the return from the investment was acquiring strength so it was the correct move.

Like that [Kick] leveled up to LV50, and with a welcome upgrade, [Kick] changed to [Kicking Assault]¹.
I learned a new Art, <Sliding Charge>, which is a technique for attacking your opponent with a sliding tackle.
In soccer I’d get a red card for doing it just once (heh).
Not to mention my shoes have a cutting edge accessory attached to them.

I’ve also acquired a new Art when [Hunting Bow] broke through LV30.
It’s an Art called <Mirror Arrow> which gives a 3 person clone effect and releases 3 arrows.
However the clones’ arrows only have 0.8 times the attack power.
You can focus them all on one point or fire the 3 arrows each at separate opponents.
Just, firing them at separate opponents was quite difficult when I tried it out on the Field the first time.
Rather than aiming for a specific point I have to scatter my focus all over in different directions, but in actual combat it’s just about impossible to split off your focus like that.
For now I’ll aim them all at one target.

Thanks to the new Arts I’m finally gaining strength, moving around in the dungeon is also getting easier, and thanks to that my efficiency is getting better.
[Thief] Skill has also gotten stronger, and <Danger Perception>’s effective range has grown to ensure safety in a larger area.
Of course I need to avoid being negligent or getting cocky.

―――――――――

I’ve just about finished my purpose for going into this dungeon.
My Skills have leveled up more than enough, my combat potential has grown, and I’ve trained in order to better my player skill in handling combat as well as training how to handle the specialties of the Dungeon.
Like that you can say I’ve already reached the point where I don’t need to play in this dungeon anymore.

The last thing to do is visit that place those Dark Fairies and Earth Fairies are always gathered around.
…. as always there’s a large number of them.
Even though I’ve heard people saying you can use [Fairy Language] to talk to Fairies it’s not really like that at all … I was thinking of trying to talk with them, but through the group of verifiers², giving detailed instructions in the middle of combat, inspecting Fairy Status, and making it easy to exchange information with your personal Fairy have been verified to be effective, but no one’s been able to chat with Fairies.
If I could at least have a conversation with them I could find out why they’re gathered here like this.

Just in case I used the leveled up [Thief] Skill and checked both right, left, and about my feet, but there really isn’t anything here.
I wonder if this is just their hangout … just when I was coming to that conclusion 1 Dark Fairy critter(?)³ came and *tsuntsun* poked me in the cheek.

“… Are you trying to tell me something?”

Even though I think it’s probably useless, I said that; just thinking out loud, not actually talking to it.
When I did, the Dark Fairies and the Earth Fairies suddenly huddled together; some kind of discussion conference?
This behavior isn’t anything I’ve heard about before … several dozen seconds later they made a shape, and the shape was…

“An arrow?”

Yes, an arrow. Specifically they made a 『↑』shape.
What an unexpectedly skillful trick they have, these little guys … I’m impressed.

“Up?”

When I confirm it, though I just wanted to say it out loud, they *burun burun* nod their bubble-like forms.
Up, so it’s up, huh… Using [Farsight] I slowly and carefully look over the low ceiling in the dark ….
They bothered taking that shape to talk to me so it there has to be something; it would be weird if there wasn’t.

This dungeon is the first dungeon so most of the players have finished it long ago and moved on to others, so for the most part people don’t come anymore.
And it was after people stopped coming to this dungeon that the Fairy event started, so there’s probably very few people who know about this connection with the Fairies; that might be why it’s still here.
There’s a small switch on the ceiling.
In other words they’re gathered here to tell you about that switch.
This just smells of treasure …this place makes you want to say that.

For the most part, maps don’t show the gap to enter secret areas.
Also this dungeon hasn’t had traps so far. If there’s a pitfall the [Thief] Skill’s <Trap Sense> Art will find it.
Just in case I use <Trap Sense> on more time, but there really aren’t any traps around.
I still feel uneasy, but since the Fairies bothered using their bodies to expand into a symbol I can’t just ignore it.
I move right below the switch and pull out a Heavy-Bludgeoning Arrow; I’ll throw it with my bare hands.
After a few times of throwing it at the switch I’m sure I heard a *click!* so I put it away.

*rumblerumblerumble*  … with that sound a tunnel appeared to my left … well, that tunnel is only big enough to let one person crawl through at a time at best…
Though at this point I honestly don’t want to go through.
Even though it’s the long-awaited chance, and even if you say I should continue since I’m “in for a penny, in for a pound”⁴ I’m going to have to crawl like an inchworm through that tunnel.

The tunnel isn’t all that long.
Right away I arrive at a tiny room; this obstinate method of hiding it is kind of mean.
Or this room is probably an addition they added with the event update.
After all, without the Fairies’ help I wouldn’t have been able to find the switch to begin with.
Anyway, in that small room there are two treasure boxes.
The first is a wooden chest and the other is made of gold(?) that shines.
But I’m absolutely not going to open the gold treasure chest. Why?
Because according to [Thief] Skill’s <Danger Perception> and <Trap Sense> this is the greatest danger yet.
It’s probably a trap that pulls in the greedy and then *chomp* instant death.
It’s a common trap type from long ago; I’m going to completely ignore THAT.

That aside, the wood treasure chest isn’t guaranteed to not have traps as well.
Slowing drawing closer I use <Trap Sense> to carefully secure it.
There’s that game I know where the treasure chests are your greatest enemy and it’s come to dominate my way of thinking.
Getting a trauma from failing to disable a trap and getting annihilated is laughable, so it’s better to do it carefully without a doubt.

After a few minutes of checking all the surfaces for traps I’ve confirmed there aren’t any, so I carefully go and reveal the contents of the wood treasure chest … inside there’s just 1 ring and some money.
The money is a really small amount, just 320Glow, and as for the ring …

—
A Worn-Out Ring

A large Fairy seems to be depicted on it, but it is hard to tell.
It’s a ring that has become worn out; it cannot be equipped.

Unique    Cannot be sold;
Discarding it is Unadvised.
—

Like that it’s an item I haven’t got a clue about at the moment, but “Unique” means it carries some worth for something, so since I can’t toss it I’ll take it with me.
The large Fairy depicted has a human-shaped appearance, and above it is a setting inlaid for a gem.
If I put some sort of gem into it will an effect come out?
However, at the moment a gemstone item can’t be found.
It’s likely that it will come out in the Second Half.

I enter the tunnel again, and when I make it back to the passage the Fairy brigade isn’t there anymore.
So does this mean their task is complete?
At least, I no long have anything to do keeping me in this dungeon anymore either, so let’s hurry and leave.

After that I leave the dungeon safely, and when I finish replenishing my arrows and putting out a food vending machine I log out; today I’ve also fought well.

SKILLS
[Hunting Bow]Lv38   [Kicking Assault]Lv5   [Farsight]Lv43
[Wind Magic]Lv43   [Craftsmanship]Lv39
[Cooking]Lv40   [Stealth]Lv31   [Physical Ability Reinforcement]Lv12
[Thief]Lv27   [Whip]Lv32

Reserved Skill(s)
[Blacksmithing]Lv22   [Woodworking]Lv21   [Alchemy]Lv34

EXP 14

And so, Key Item acquired.

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1. Kicking Assault – Any ideas on a better skill name? It’s written with the kanji for “kick” and “to hit/attack”. Basically it gives the impression of a kick meant to attack someone rather than just kicking in general, like kicking a ball.
2. kenshou kumi – “verification group” the players who like to upload the game facts they confirm to the game’s wiki … basically. I’ll just use ‘verifiers’ or ‘verification group’ from now on.
3. 1piki – he uses the counter for “small animal” and puts a question mark after it, aka wonders if it’s ok to think of them as small animals.
4. in for a penny, in for a pound – or the Japanese idiom, “when eating poison eat to the plate”

<T/N: Now why the heck would they leave the acrobatic fairies out of the manga? And Earth has successfully avoided the mimic. Congratulations Earth. >