Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 12

Mercenary NPC

Special quest.

A quest that was also a strengthening event for orc race.

The first step was to depart from the Capital of Hope and visited a  forest where there was an orc settlement in it. If there was no orc in  the party, a battle would break out, but if there was orc in the party,  they would be requested to subjugate the ogre that settled down in the  forest.

Ogre subjugation was regarded as a grand achievement among the orcs.  As the reward the orc would be bestowed power from the orcs that lived  in the forest.

It was a race limited quest.

But, the ogre that had to be subjugated was a troublesome existence.

Ogre was also a monster that could pop out as normal encounter, but it couldn’t be found in the world of the Capital of Hope.

It only appeared at the next world――the world of the Capital Temperance.

Besides, the ogre in this quest was also strengthened because it  appeared as a boss monster. The battle would definitely be unwinnable if  the players fought it like fighting the random encounter monster.

Buff, debuff, healing method.

The players had to prepare them all before challenging the ogre.

And then――in a stroke of good luck, or perhaps bad luck, Ponsuke knew  of a group that would help if they were told about that orc  strengthening quest.

*

Orc party.

They were a slightly strange group, but the party of four people consisted of only orcs.

The orc strengthening quest would also be beneficial for them. That was why Ponsuke came to them and asked for their help.

He contacted them. Then at the day where they met to talk inside the game.

The location was a restaurant at the main street of the Capital of  Hope. The pretty waitress NPCs were serving the customers with a smile.

The atmosphere there was different from the dining hall that they usually used.

The food they served prioritized quality rather than quantity. The price was around twice as expensive.

Ponsuke’s party and the orc group were sitting around a table inside such place.

From a glance it couldn’t be denied that they felt out of place there.

The orc party’s leader, Prey drank his tea while looking at Ponsuke.

「In other words, you want to borrow our strength? Ah, waitress, please refill my――」

Prey asked the elf waitress NPC who approached the table to refill  his tea. The smiling NPC changed drastically and showed a grimace and  sour expression.

「……peh」

Usually the NPC would reply with a line like 「Certainly」, and yet it  was made to give very cold attitude when the other side was an orc.

But, it seemed that it would still bring the refill no matter how cold it was acting.

Prey smiled a little.

「Fuh, it’s the best right? The NPCs in this place all have unique  reaction. Aa, that girl there has a setting of someone scared of orc, so  be careful when you talk with her.」

Prey taught Ponsuke information that he didn’t care about at all. He smiled wryly.

「I-I see. Umm, and about my request for us working together, what’s your answer?」

Prey folded his arms. His leather equipments looked like they would  burst at the seams from his bulging muscles. They were making ripping  sound.

「Of course, we want you to let us join this quest too because it will be beneficial for us……but!」

Alfie was eating food with knife and fork unlike usual, but Prey’s response made her hands stopped moving.

「Is there any problem?」

The tsundere orc Dume was looking down while folding his arms with  expression of reluctance beside Prey. He told Ponsuke’s party about  their issue.

「There are big problems. First is your party’s level. Our level is  already more than 30. You guys need to be at least level 30 too so that  your party won’t be a burden.」

The strength of monster in a quest could change depending on the  average level of the party and the raid. The strength of the enemy in  the quest this time would also change depending on the player’s level.

The serious looking orc Gido nodded while accepting water from a disgusted looking NPC.

「Sometimes you also can’t even take the quest if the difference in  level is too big. Well, it will be fine as long as you guys reach level  30. But then, the next problem is――」

The taciturn orc Deidada continued after him.

「……The magician and monk jobs.」

Prey who was about to state their conclusion thanked the NPC who brought the refill for him first.

「Thank you.」

「……Go die you trash.」

「Nfu, thanks for the compliment.」

Prey who looked happy from being called trash coughed and continued the talk.

「We need magician who can give buff and debuff, and also monk to be our healer. We won’t be able to win without them.」

Unlike offline game, it was very rare in online game for player to be  able to win against a boss with brute force. It was only natural that  they needed to make preparation in order to win.

Ponsuke nodded.

「For now I’ll share the enemy’s information. It seems that debuff  won’t really work against it, so I’m planning to recruit a player who  can use buff magic.」

Prey put his hand on his chin and pondered.

「It’ll be irregular, but our formation will be the four of us and the  three of you, and I want one more party of two rear guard specialists. A  magician and a monk. But unfortunately we don’t have any acquaintance  with those jobs. We are acquainted with other orc players but……everyone  has gone ahead and on top of that their play time doesn’t match with  us.」

There was nothing that could be done if their play time didn’t match with each other.

Player who restricted their own level could help with facing random  area boss, but they couldn’t help fighting against event boss.

Mariela shrugged.

「We also don’t know many people here. Though we know a lot of people that we don’t want to be involved with.」

She was referring to the outrageous players that came when they were recruiting for new party member.

Dume coughed.

「If we have exhausted all of our options then our last resort will be  to use mercenary NPC. I heard that their strength is only around 80% of  player with the same level, but even then they should be useful  enough.」

Prey agreed.

「I see, mercenary NPC huh. There is that. Or rather Dume, where did you learn about it?」

Dume muttered with low voice.

「N-no, I just used them a lot when I was playing by myself.」

Ponsuke had a thought when he heard that.

(It feels painful to hear that though!)

Even though this online game had a lot of other players playing, Dume was playing day by hiring NPC every day.

Mariela was also at a loss of what to say and it showed in her face.

Alfie was the only one who kept ordering more food and eating silently.

「Excuse me, I want to order.」

The NPC waiter who responded to Alfie smiled.

「Please wait for a second.」

*

Ponsuke’s party and Dume who were knowledgeable about mercenary went to the bar where the NPC mercenaries gathered.

The path leading to the bar was a bit complicated, but it was the hang-out for the mercenaries in the Capital of Hope.

Apparently player could hire NPC there and brought them to their adventure.

Dume explained about mercenary inside the bar.

「All the mercenaries sitting here are NPC.」

There were mercenaries sitting around the wooden tables inside the bar. They were drinking alcohol and playing trump.

There were really macho looking NPCs with thick beard, but also  female adventurers who looked like female knight in armor. There was a  lot of variety here.

Ponsuke looked around.

「There are a lot of them.」

Dume talked about the general way to use the mercenaries.

「Most times they are used when you simply can’t gather anymore people  but, there are also those like us who bring a lot of them all at once  in two or three parties when forming group for a quest or a raid. Even  the clearing group sometime brings all of them when attacking city.」

It seemed these mercenary NPCs that numbered more than a hundred were treated as mooks to make up the numbers.

Mariela looked around as though she was looking for someone.

「And, which NPCs that Dume-san usually used?」

Was Dume’s preference the cute looking NPC, or the rough looking uncles?

Dume scratched his cheek with his finger and answered Mariela’s curiosity.

「They……are gone. There were these NPCs that I always hired but, other players used them as bait.」

Alfie was surprised.

「Eh? Umm, they won’t return here after they vanished?」

Dume shook his head.

「The NPCs that vanished would be replaced, but they wouldn’t be  resurrected. Player would only get asked to pay additional fee if they  allowed the NPC they hired to die.」

Paying the additional fee was the only requirement, so apparently there were players who used the mercenaries as bait.

Mariela felt awkward because she tried to tease Dume with the matter of the NPCs and apologized to him.

「Umm, I’m sorry.」

Dume made a small and sad smile.

「No, it’s alright. I sometimes visit this place but, I know that the NPCs in here are getting replaced really fast.」

Ponsuke thought.

(Is he perhaps hoping that the NPCs he knew might show up again someday and waiting for it?)

Dume shook his head. He told Ponsuke to quickly hire some NPCs.

And then they were going to try commanding the NPCs in a real fight as practice before the main event.

*

Ponsuke and others went out to the grassland and they fought together  with the NPCs that were joining their team while Dume was watching.

The NPC they had with them was a magician. He was a male wearing glasses.

「Carelessness is the enemy!」

The NPC said that and applied status increasing magic to his allies.  And then he stayed safe at the back while holding his staff in  readiness.

Mariela fired an arrow which pierced a goblin’s head. The monster turned into light particles.

「My stats are in another level. I absolutely want one of this for our party.」

Another NPC, a male monk was standing beside Dume.

They kept switching NPC while fighting multiple times. This was for them to learn the way to fight together with the NPCs.

Alfie took a deep breath and sheathed her weapon.

「It’s more relaxing to have a monk in the party who immediately heal  us when we get damaged. As expected from a job that is said as an  absolute necessity in the party.」

Mariela seemed to favor the magician more.

「I like the magician. Who knows that magician doesn’t only use attack magic.」

Dume approached them and talked about the circumstance of that.

「Even vanguards can have different way of fighting and job depending  on their skill and weapon. Like Ponsuke who fight defensively while  aiming for counter, while I fight offensively with my great sword. It’s  also the same with magician and monk. Apparently the way of fighting  when you’re high level will also change greatly.」

When a player’s level became high, the level of several of their jobs would also have been maxed.

Because of that a single player would be able to carry out several roles on their own.

Would they gather jobs and skills that were completely focused in a single aspect, or would they be a versatile all-rounder?

Player could find as many play style as they liked depending on their choices.

But despite saying that, there were also things that became fashion and things that became out of fashion within the game.

There was time when being all-rounder was the craze, but there was  also time when a player who mastered an area of expertise to the extreme  got praised extravagantly.

Dume shrugged.

「Well, in the end the norm is choosing your play style based on your  own fixation and the teamwork in your party. The situation will change  again anyway when the clearers finished conquering the frontline city.」

Currently the clearers were in the middle of clearing the Capital of  Sloth in the World of Sloth while using the Capital of Love as their  base.

When that was over, there would be a large scale update waiting in  the bay. At that time the situation would change regardless of what they  wanted if there were new jobs or revision to the existing jobs getting  introduced.

Ponsuke recalled how the clearers would recreate their avatar each time that happened.

「The clearers really have it hard huh. As I thought, going by your own pace is the best if it’s just for playing.」

Dume smiled hearing that.

He had a prickly attitude, but he was unexpectedly a plainly good guy when they tried talking to him like this.

「I’m looking forward to when the clearers finish clearing the  frontline though. Well, I agree with you that the best way to play is by  going on your own pace. After all we also can’t say that we have  finished exploring the Capital of Hope.」

Mariela’s smile twitched a little when she heard his words.

「By that, are you referring to your testing of the NPCs’ scornful attitude to yourself?」

Dume nodded energetically.

「I can’t keep up with the other guys with how defiant they are but,  I’m still having fun on my own way. My recent favorite is this one NPC  in a restaurant. I found out that she would sit on your back if you  crouch down there. Ah! Don’t tell this to those hardcore M okay?」

Ponsuke didn’t miss how Alfie’s gaze toward Dume was gradually turning chilly.

「No, we won’t tell anybody even if you tell us something like that.」

*

At the real world.

Akito was finished with his part-time work and returned home. He sat  in front of his PC’s monitor and killed time by watching video and the  like.

Other than that he also checked the information about the clearing while reading about battling ogre.

Ogre had bigger body than orc. Their size even reached 4 meters.

A lot of them carried weapon like club and the like. When battle  broke out, the ogre would chase after the player while swinging around  its weapon.

Someone recorded the scene of them being chased by ogre for content.  The video was impactful and it had also been watched a lot of times.

「……We will need to prepare a lot more items than usual.」

The reward that could be obtained by clearing the quest was something that any player using orc race would desperately want.

Orc race that couldn’t receive divine protection from the goddess  could only strengthen themselves by diligently taking strengthening  quest like this.

Akito thought back.

「Come to think of it, those two said that they’re going to the shrine to get Pandora’s divine protection soon.」

Those two girls were making preparation to go to the shrine to get Pandora’s divine protection before the ogre subjugation.

This divine protection was fundamentally a strengthening to the player’s avatar.

It would increase the player’s growth rate, or perhaps made up for  the racial weakness, or improved the race’s strong point even more. Such  things were possible.

If anyone felt like it, it was even possible for gnome whose special  trait was their dexterity to take the role as frontline warrior.

In regard to the production job, apparently it was possible to improve the success rate or speed up the creation time of items.

Although player couldn’t receive divine protection for free.

The divine protection a player could receive was decided by the  number of quest they had finished and monsters they had defeated until  then.

Suddenly being able to obtain powerful divine protection was impossible.

「If only orc can be strengthened like that too.」

Orc was blessed right from the start to be a vanguard, but the race  was still treated as a joke because they couldn’t receive divine  protection.

It could also be said that by picking orc, the player abandoned the fun of being able to customize their own character.

Besides orc’s appearance was also like monster, and the NPCs treated them badly.

It was very popular to a certain type of player, but as expected that popularity was also for it being a joke race.

「But, why did the dev create this kind of race? I wonder if there might be an update for it at the future.」

Akito hoped for salvation for the orc race while looking over the information for facing against ogre.

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