It took a few hours but the students were called to the auditorium to fetch their homework for the week. Self-study will be brutal for first and second-years but it's also an opportunity for them to test their academic capabilities.
After another hour, Arnold got his work and quickly dumped it in his inventory when no one was looking. He'll finish it along with the guild stuff—which also got dumped in his inventory.
When no one was looking, he also teleported to Isolde's residence to meet with her. However, she wasn't at home so he left a note in her study telling her to come over to his city within two days, or earlier if possible since he wants to hold a meeting with his nobles and finalize the plans for the crystals so that they can enter the market.
After teleporting back, he then stood by the gates, waiting for Elizabeth and Wistorina.
The rest of this week off presents an opportunity for him to get things done faster. That's four days to finish whatever work he has to do. This includes handling Tyran and Hessinia, the latter of which is a great concern.
First thing to ask would be "What are your intentions once you find the President?" since he can be used as a lure for the princess. Normally you would confine a prisoner somewhere. He wants to know where that place is.
Just in case Wistorina's father is found by Serz, it's likely that they'll keep him there, waiting for Hessinia to come there as well.
Then again, Arnold could use the system to find him, right? Not for now since that comes after he gets to the bottom of Serz's plan. The place Hessinia is supposed to rendezvous with her comrades might be a secret base.
Using the Halo's powers to look for answers may not work, since, well Serz is overly cautious so there might be a countermeasure for even an ocular ability that can search through memories. That or Hessinia was left in the dark so he would only be wasting his time.
It would be a last resort since it's highly likely that, if it's the latter, Hessinia might end up being killed or Arnold could be injured in some way. It doesn't hurt to look for various options instead of taking the "easy" way out.
After a ten-minute wait, the two girls finally showed up, both carrying a suitcase.
The trio teleported away after finding a secluded spot away from prying eyes.
**
When they shifted locations, the first thing that caught their eyes were rows upon rows of flowers, the air carrying the scent of blossoms that eased one's mind. Each row of flowerbeds had different coloured flowers and roses inside.
This was supposed to be the very top of the palace in Whitage City, the terrace where many parties will take place. He doesn't recall there being this many flowers the last time he was here.
"Lord Arnold!" coming through the door leading inside, carrying a sack of compost was Caerwyn, not in her armor but casual farming clothes, coupled with a straw hat. Judging by the dirt on her face, she had been busy here for a while.
"Welcome back."
"Yeah, I'll be staying here for the rest of the week since the academy is going to be closed for a while." He gestured at the flowers, "How did this happen so quickly?"
"Ah, it's this thing called a Synthesis Stone. One of the people on your priority clients list is a rich farmer who donated many of these high-end stones to the Palace."
'They're trying to kiss my ass this early. Well, I'll keep my promise and let them be the first to buy the crystals once they go on sale.'
"That's great to hear. Synthesis Stones can be used to help agriculture progress faster so give one to each farm on my land. We should have two harvest yields per farm this year."
It may seem unwise to give this to simple farmers given how expensive and important such a magic stone is. Then again, there's no convoluted process to using them—simply dump them in the middle of a field and in one day you will have crops that grow double the speed they usually do.
This increases the amount of taxes he can collect from the people that use his land. All of which will be used to further expand the city.
"Your nobles won't be happy that we're giving the stones away to farmers instead of them…"
"They should start their own farms then if they want one. I'm not going to spoil them for sticking around."
As it stands now, they don't give taxes to the city lord yet since their territories aren't prospering. And yet the commoners who just sought a cheap land to live in that provided all the security they need, started up farms to support themselves and thank the city lord that lets them live on and use his land.
To him, his nobles are worth less than those commoners.
That said, he won't just push them away. Even the most useless crew can get a damaged ship ready for another voyage across the sea.
"Take their bags to guest rooms." He pointed at the bags at the girls' feet.
"Hello again, Princess Wistorina." Caerwyn bowed to Rina.
Rina returned the greeting with a slight nod and smile before handing her bag to Caerwyn.
"Oh, who is this?" Caerwyn looked at Liz, since Rina was here before.
Liz put her arms around Arnold's arm with her head raised high.
"Oh! I apologize for my rudeness." Caerwyn bowed again, now realizing that Elizabeth is Arnold's lover.
"Humph. Take my bag to the master bedroom." She demanded in a commanding tone that didn't fit her.
"Eh? But Lady Siana uses that bedroom." Caerwyn looked at Arnold, "Lord Arnold, are you planning on sleeping with both of them in the same room…?"
"That's unavoidable…" Liz won't settle for anything less and can't beg for more. Since he's warned her before of her behaviour, she should accept that much.
Elizabeth seemed a little upset but she didn't say anything.
"Take the two of them downstairs. I'll stay here for a bit."
He just had the thought of contacting Grace again. Maybe he should make this a daily thing to ensure the two can share news of anything that happened recently.
"Prepare a carriage to the Branding Centre as well because I'd like to visit it."
He could always fly there but first he'd like to see his city from the perspective of his citizens.
Are they happy? Do they live in fear knowing a Shadow Demon is watching them whenever they leave their houses?
Those are two questions he'd like answers to by observing everyone.
"Understood. Please follow me, madams."
The three soon left him alone among the sea of flowers. This palace is gigantic so it felt almost like he's standing in a real field.
He walked toward the edge of the roof, leaning over the railing to gaze down at his city.
The city looked a little brighter than before. Not in a literal sense but you could feel the cheeriness from the people even from way up here.
A lot of buildings were demolished and hardworking citizens are trying to rebuild better homes and businesses.
When he first started out, this city only had under one hundred citizens, but now that number has grown to almost a thousand. With the establishing of the Branding Centre, a place where a certain "magician" is giving the gift of magic to others, that number may grow to hundreds of thousands in just a few years.
"I wonder if I can do this remotely. There should be a function that can scan for nearby players in case of emergencies in dungeon raids." It's a neat little feature for players in case they're in danger.
--A private session has been opened to nearby players.
Almost immediately after getting that message, Grace's private ID appeared on the screen. He had memorized it beforehand so unfortunately there weren't other players nearby.
--We meet again, Mr. Mysterious.
'Looks like the range exceeds the distance between the empire and my city. That's good.'
"Are we giving each other cute nicknames now? So, heard anything of concern lately?"
--Not really. I've been focusing on spending time with a friend so I can't visit any information guild right now.
He confirmed earlier that Rachel was with Grace so that might be who Grace is talking about.
"Oh, that's surprising. I thought a certain thing reached your ears already."
-A certain… thing?
"You don't know about the cultists using human sacrifices to open demon portals?"
--I know about those. But what can I, a regular human, do about them?
"Well, something unfortunate happened. It's a deviation from the main story, as we know it, as if the NPCs had minds of their own so they had their own goals this time."
Sentient NPCs may seem like a fascinating concept. You can test how far their subconscious and will goes through interactions.
Will they scream for help if you threaten them? Do they have their own lives and schedules?
But what happened in that town proves that an NPCs—no, sentience in general is a dangerous thing and must never be given to something that never had it in the first place. The NPCs are just programmed flesh puppets, fed code and dialogue lines to make them feel alive so that they fill holes in an otherwise empty world—that's where their importance end. They don't need sentience to have a purpose.
But now that the reality convergence between both game and physical world happened, such a thing was inevitable.
Arnold continued:
"—A portal to the Layers of Hell opened and demons sealed away by Zephyros and other Gods, poured out."
--What!? How did that happen!? No sacrifice in this world is good enough to open that kind of portal! The requirements are just too great!
He knew that, of course. It puzzles him as well but that's why he's talking about it to someone who claims they were a developer.
--Unless… someone in the company lowered the requirements to ensure something like that would happen… or rather, to check if the gate can still open.
"Are you saying it would've been possible for that to happen during the main story?"
--I think… No, I can't just assume they were being malicious. I suspect that they were testing the dimension to see if players can still enter, but they forgot to reverse the requirements.
The dimension is accessible in both the main story of the DLC (near endgame) and the base MMORPG. If players want top-tier rewards and gear that can't be bought or made anywhere else, they can always challenge the dungeons in that dimension.
"Meaning they lower the requirements periodically to test if the dimension is stable? I heard that there are quite a few Demon King-level bosses in there."
It was one of Misteltein's goals to take down one of those bosses and hang its head over their guild table which is seen as a sign of power. It started out as Alecs' ambition but Lufulur and the rest began to make it theirs as well.
Only Bardolt's guild beat them to it. But it can't be helped since they had a headstart in the race.
--That's right. It's a place reserved for only those who reached endgame. Whoever lowered the requirements would've placed the entire playerbase in danger, which would've forced admins to get involved. But now the entire world is in danger, a world without admins who can simply press a button and the monsters disappear back into their dimension.
"How likely is it that someone lowered the requirements specifically so that they can enter the portal to slay bosses and not just for regular checkups? It's not rare for employees to have characters in the game, is it?"
--Some nutjobs like that did exist. In fact, a certain friend from work is probably the kind of person who would've done that.
"Who would that be?"
--I'm not giving that information away.
"It's not like they're still around."
--…My answer stays the same.
Oh well.
"What do you suggest we do about the portal?"
--Since the world isn't overrun by unkillable monsters yet, I think someone is already handling them—Justice and Freya have been running around lately so it might be them. But I'll need some time to figure out what I'll do.
"You don't think it's important that we move immediately?"
--Like I said, things seem to be under control. But since this is Zephyros' seal that came unbroken, he will intervene one way or another before things get out of hand.
"Millions will have to die to get a response from the divine realm…"
They'll send the Valkyries first, then the angels if things get too dangerous. Of course, Arnold knew this but he doesn't want to wait for a response.
Think of all the potential customers for his crystals that will die. That's a lot of money lost because he chose to be lazy.
--I know that. But I can do nothing about it so I choose not to care. The most I will do is open a relic tomb filled with divine guardians and let them do the work.
He didn't expect her to be that ruthless. That said, she is just a weak human so what can she really do? Her knowledge is very valuable and useful but it won't mean anything if she dies.
--What about you? Are you going to do something?
She asked, probably to determine what kind of person he is. But as mentioned before, he would rather not wait.
"I think I'll sit this one out as well… There's something else I want to know. Why is there a teleportation block in the Mountains of Wails?"
--We had no raid events planned before the convergence so I can't really say for sure why there is one. As I said, we do a lot of testing so we put certain measures in place to avoid getting jumped by malicious players. It's not impossible for one of us to forget about it in the process. Why are you interested in it anyway?
"A big fight is happening there. You know about the vampire lord that rules the Undead Nation, right?"
-I'm aware of her. Why do you care?
"Isn't it strange that a teleportation block is in place while such a powerful vampire is in a fight?"
It might just be a big coincidence but he couldn't help but assume—
"I think the bastard who has Lufulur's equipment might be trying to kill Selia. If the teleportation block wasn't implemented by admins, it could've been that person. If they met the requirements to wear Lufulur's equipment—which is level 90 at minimum—that means they must be strong enough to cast a teleportation block themselves."
-…
As if Grace was thinking, the ellipsis moved for a few seconds without any words being written.
It's a wild theory. But if he's right then this might be the biggest coincidence in all of Star Fantasy.
He's not denying that another vampire lord might be involved.
For now, there are a few options and neither is the right answer just yet.
--I want to confirm with my own eyes. Since the academy is closed for the week, I'll be able to take an airship to a town near there. The Republic is under siege from what I hear so I would rather not get caught up in the middle of another conflict.
She heard about the invasion, it seems. But to think it's even before the information was announced publicly…
"You'll go to that dangerous place alone?"
--No, I could use your help. You want answers as much as I do, don't you?
Normally he would say no since there's a possibility Grace could link his concern for Selia back to him. But the third player could be a nuisance to them both if he's eliminating the strong from the start. Arnold might even be next.
Why does he think this? Well, he's the most hunted down "Named NPC" in the game. Even top-level players target him. This infamy only began after the release of the DLC since people could finally learn about the events that took place before adult Luke became the Hero.
Before that, Arnold was just an edgelord tyrant who was too overpowered for even the top guilds.
"When will you be leaving?"
--At the crack of dawn. I need to see if I can find a magic circle. If it's big enough to block teleportation across the entire forest, it's possible I'll find the magic circle on the edge. If I do, I'll dispel it with a Star-Class item.
'Ugh, she got a Star-Class item before I could.'
"Alright. I'll meet you outside Nuaria city's gates."
--Odd place to rendezvous but I suppose it does face the direction of the forest… I take it you will come in a disguise?
Oh, no. He will send Luxtivin. He can't be bothered to get involved when his trusty sword can handle fodder for him. He'll just teleport there after Grace dispels the blockage.
"Yes." He replied simply.
'I'll keep this session open because if she's outside the empire, I won't be able to reach her with a simple scan.'
--See you tomorrow then…
After that, a message appeared at the bottom saying:
--The other recipient has left the session—
Arnold closed the window and headed inside.