Game Opportunities Become Reality Episode 117
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Game Opportunities Become Reality Episode 117
30. Opportunity Quest 8th Stage (1)
[Opportunity Quest 8th Stage]
Conditions: Reach level 250, Defeat Balrog Tarnis
Reward: Open the 9th floor of Manuel Lucas's Mage Tower
After checking the Opportunity Quest details, I moved my steps to the lower floor of the dungeon I had exclusively rented to continue hunting.
There's really not much left until the next stage now.
Just raise one level and hunt a named monster, and I'll finally achieve the 8th Circle I've been waiting for so long.
Of course, hunting the named monster in that process won't be easy.
Even with just the Death Knight from the previous Opportunity Quest 7th stage, I recorded nearly 20 deaths while hunting it.
Moreover, the Balrog I'm about to hunt this time isn't an ordinary named monster it's classified as a raid monster, so its health pool is also huge.
It will clearly be far more difficult than the previous Opportunity Quests.
'At this rate, I wonder if the final 9th stage will tell me to go beat up a dragon.'
Still, I don't think it's an opponent we can never beat.
When I faced the Death Knight in the last Opportunity Quest, the battle strategy wasn't as well-prepared as it is now, which is why it was especially hard.
That was the first time I challenged the unconventional path of an evasion Mage, and I couldn't fight as well as I do now.
Arcia was also at a time when she was more used to swinging a shield than swinging a sword, so it couldn't be helped.
But if we were to challenge the Death Knight again with our current experience, we could clear it in one go without much effort.
That's how close our combat ability has come to being complete.
'As long as I'm careful with AoE attacks, we have more than enough of a chance.'
Since Arcia's main trait is defense, I don't think there will be a problem, but since we've never faced a melee combat monster with AoE attacks, there will probably be some trial and error.
[Dragonkin Warrior]
So, to save as much time as possible in preparation for the Balrog battle, I chose to level up and gain experience against monsters with similar combat styles.
The hunting ground we currently have exclusively is an underground dungeon called 'Dragonkin Shelter.'
Dragonkin are monsters roughly like cousins of Balrogs their skills and combat styles are quite similar, so they're called lesser Balrogs, making them perfect for training.
"High Blessing! Gloria! Saint Armor! Healing Factor!"
Bug, trained through rote education, spat out buffs the moment the monsters appeared.
It would be better if Bug's character were max level, but since experience distribution doesn't work properly if the level gap exceeds 20, his character's level was 260.
[For 5 minutes, Strength and Agility increase by 30%.]
[For 5 minutes, Attack Power increases by 20%.]
[For 5 minutes, Defense increases by 20%.]
[For 20 minutes, recovers 800 HP per second when injured.]
At first, I deliberated a lot over Bug's character class.
In the end, I chose a Healer, and the reason was to avoid affecting the named monster battle in the final round of the Opportunity Quest.
Apparently, since he's not an Opportunity Quest participant, he can't join the named monster battle.
So, thinking about a class that would be helpful while maintaining our current combat style, I naturally chose the Priest, the representative Healer class.
-Sharrarara!
Also, when I bought his account, one bonus came with it...
That was the supporter 'Spirit of Light.'
[For 10 minutes, the effects of healing magic and buff magic increase by 20%.]
The Spirit of Light is a small fairy that flies around scattering brilliant light particles.
It has no combat ability, but it has options that amplify buffs and enhance healing effects, making it an essential supporter for Healers.
Bug quite liked the Spirit of Light with its flashy effects.
"AoE attack!"
"Yes!"
-KWAANG!
The Dragonkin Warrior is a level 260-class elite monster.
Normally, it's taken down by a 5-person party.
But our party pursues such insane damage that even I, a Mage, engage in melee combat, so we could take it down at a speed rivaling a 5-person party.
"Worship this body."
-Sharrarara.
As the monster fell without resistance, Bug, who had only been casting Heal from behind, swung the Spirit of Light with his elegantly styled Priest character and spouted edgelord lines.
Looking at it now, it seems he wasn't warped by a bad environment the problem is in his personality itself.
Arcia and I ignored him completely and kept walking, while Bug followed behind us, muttering to himself the whole way.
At first, the fact that he was an artificial personality created by a series of coincidences seemed mysterious, but it didn't even take a day for that mystery to wear off.
"There's a trap on the ceiling 30 meters ahead, and two Dragonkin are hiding there."
But no matter how strange he was, he was incredibly useful in the virtual world.
Unlike Arcia, the virtual world was his home field, so he could quickly pick up on changes in the surroundings.
Almost to the level of map hacking.
His abilities really shone especially in dungeons.
If reality had the Myriad Mirror, in the game, Bug took on the role of the Myriad Mirror instead.
Thanks to that, we could sweep through dungeons with ease, as if reading the palm of our hand.
* * *
[Experience: 87.75%]
"You don't have much left now, do you?"
After using up the full daily playtime limit for Chronicle Online and leaving only about 30 minutes on the clock, I stopped by Manuel Lucas's Mage Tower as I always did.
There, Chester, the Opportunity manager who now felt like a friend, greeted us.
"If nothing major goes wrong, you should be able to level up by tomorrow."
"That's remarkably fast growth, considering everything you've been through in reality. Are you getting proper sleep?"
"I'm just an ordinary person, so I can't do many things at once. Cutting down on sleep at the very least is only natural. Still, thanks to magic, I don't get too tired."
"An ordinary person, you say? Why lower yourself like that? Sir Adrian is clearly an outstanding individual."
I gave an awkward smile at his unexpected reaction and thanked him for the high praise.
"Anyone would fail to feel special walking on the carpet laid out by Grand Duke Lucas. Compared to him, it's only natural that I'm an ordinary person."
No matter how much the world praises me as a genius, I know well that I'm not.
But he shook his head firmly, insisting that wasn't the case.
"Grand Duke Lucas was born into a special environment where he had no choice but to become proficient in magic. You, Sir Adrian, who started as an ordinary person, have no need to be compared to him on magical ability alone."
A special environment where he had no choice but to become proficient in magic?
Suddenly, the thought crossed my mind that Grand Duke Lucas might have been a physicist in his past life.
After all, Earth's physics and this world's magic shared many common threads.
"Hmm..."
I'm his heir, yet I barely know anything about Grand Duke Lucas himself.
Seeing my interest, Chester pondered briefly, then...
"Well, I suppose there's no need to hide it."
He then brought up something I never could have imagined.
"Grand Duke Lucas was originally a Mage."
"What?"
What is that supposed to mean?
He was from Earth?
As I looked baffled, he gave a small chuckle, as if he expected that reaction.
"How can someone who has witnessed magic in this place so confidently claim that there is no magic on Earth?"
"Because I've never heard of it. Everyone who appeared on TV claiming to be a Mage or a psychic was nothing but a fraud."
"Well, of course. But they did exist. Through generations of decline, their power grew feeble, and only a small number remained, living like ordinary people."
It sounded like something straight out of a conspiracy theory.
There was no reason for Chester to lie, but since it defied everything I knew, it was only natural to be skeptical.
"Grand Duke Lucas was American, but he was the eldest son of a magical family rooted in Manchester, England. As magic declined and environmental destruction thinned Earth's Mana, there was little a Mage could do. At most, they could conjure a flame at their fingertips or produce a spark abilities hardly comparable to a single gun."
Wait.
So does that mean Grand Duke Lucas's arrival here might not have been a simple coincidence?
"Haha, exactly. Did you think he got hit by a reincarnation truck?"
"Well, it's not much different. I'm here because I was crushed by a 'reincarnation dump truck' myself."
Stroking his beard, he continued.
"To put it simply, Grand Duke Lucas was also caught in an accident and thrown here. However, the difference is that while he was conducting Mana amplification research on Earth, he was caught in a Mana explosion powerful enough to tear through space and was transported to this world unlike you, Sir Adrian, who reincarnated after death."
The hidden story of Grand Duke Lucas, heard for the first time.
It was a story that piqued my interest in many ways.
"As a result of that Mana explosion, Grand Duke Lucas accumulated Mana at the level of a Grand Mage within his body. One could say he gained an Opportunity in exchange for being flung to another world."
"Well, that's quite..."
"Unlike you, Sir Adrian, who survived mortal threats with nothing but your bare fists, Grand Duke Lucas started from the beginning with abilities on par with a Grand Mage, so a direct comparison would be meaningless."
I think I can understand why Grand Duke Lucas was so desperate to return.
Unlike me, who was forcibly ended by experiencing death once, he was not only transported to another world by an accident but also gained power that might allow him to return.
Even I wouldn't have easily given up and would have been desperate to return under those conditions.
"Sir Adrian, you are walking a better path than what Grand Duke Lucas believed was the best option, so you may take pride in that."
The meaning was that I was plenty capable on my own and didn't need to compare myself to Grand Duke Lucas.
It ended up digging up Grand Duke Lucas's past, but it seemed he wanted to offer me encouragement.
I smiled and thanked him.
Seeing me like that, Chester sent me a kind, grandfatherly gaze.
He truly displayed a human side that was hard to believe was an artificial intelligence.
"By any chance, could it be that Grand Duke Lucas didn't die, but returned to his homeland of Earth?"
"He had research he was attempting until the very end, so it's not impossible. But only he would know for sure."
Grand Duke Lucas remained a man shrouded in mystery to the very end.
"Yawn!"
As that warm atmosphere continued, the Bug stretched and yawned, showing a bored reaction.
At that, Chester clicked his tongue.
"Oh, by the way, Chester. If I achieve the 8th Circle, will I also be granted Hollywood System administrator authority?"
The 5-use Hollywood System administrator authority that was granted as a reward for reaching the 7th Circle.
I had used 4 uses on money laundering, Arcia's family registry, becoming Duke Riverdale's disciple, and creating a fake Opportunity Seeker, leaving 1 use remaining.
In response to my question, Chester nodded.
"Yes, that's correct. Would you like to use your final remaining authority now?"
At that, I nodded with a satisfied expression.
"Go ahead. What would you like me to help with?"
But the gentle smile on his lips vanished at my following words.
"The final statement made by the Goddess Sepia could you tell me what it means?"
I had instructed Blue Moon to investigate Sepia's statement.
But even Blue Moon couldn't bring back any meaningful information.
Since I had already confirmed that Chester was behind Blue Moon, this situation meant one of two things.
Either Chester himself didn't know, or Chester was deliberately withholding information.
If Chester didn't know, my request would be canceled.
On the other hand, if he did know, it would prove that he was intentionally preventing information from leaking.
"The holy ground is still interpreting it too isn't it a waste to spend this on it?"
I knew that too.
The final single-use administrator authority was like an insurance policy for me against unforeseen circumstances.
Nevertheless, the reason I decided to use it was because of the Goddess's gaze that I couldn't easily forget.
'I hope it's just a simple misunderstanding...'
Don't people have intuition?
An ominous feeling that something is about to happen.
Amidst this peaceful situation where everyone was at ease, I had been steadily feeling that sense of crisis.
That's why I was pouring even more effort into achieving the 8th Circle.
"Judging by that reaction, you do know something, don't you?"
When I asked with confidence, he let out a small sigh.
"I'm not certain. I just have a vague suspicion."
"Is it something that must be hidden?"
"Because I don't wish to approach the Goddess's domain. Let me say this in advance the Goddess Sepia did not look favorably upon Grand Duke Lucas. For my part, I had no choice but to tread cautiously when it came to anything related to the Goddess."
At that, I faltered.
Before a god, humans are far too feeble.
If it was something she didn't want, the wise choice was not to do it.
As I furrowed my brow and fell into thought, he also appeared to be lost in contemplation.
"But if it truly had to be hidden, would the Goddess have needed to announce it publicly?"
"That's true."
After deliberating for a long while, he pulled a book from the bookshelves that filled the 8th floor of the Mage Tower.
"It might be better for you to find the hints yourself. Since this is already a document you, Adrian, possess, there's no need to use administrator privileges."
The title of the book he handed over was as follows.
[The Reason Rondel Cannot Advance into Space Despite Possessing Advanced Technology]