Golden Experience

The day of the server-wide event. Rare had signed up for it yesterday, before the deadline.

She wondered if her followers could also enter, but since it required seeing system messages, it seemed that only players could enter. Due to this, it would probably be hard to get them into the event zone as well.

As written on the official site, Rare headed for an event zone access point. This point could be found in each town and every safe zone, which included old castles and volcanoes. These were obviously not places that could be found in a town, so they were probably for the players who had monster races to use.

For Rare, though, the closest safe zone wasn’t in the city, but inside the great forest, so that’s where she went. There were a total of five safe zones in the great forest, all around the central area. Normally, no one but players would even approach these zones, but, maybe because they were Rare’s subordinates, the catkin girls, ice wolves, ants, and even Deas could all enter without issue.

“I wonder how these safe zones distinguish between players and anything else? If, as the tutorial AI said, there’s no system-defined difference between characters, then these zones could be the only exception…”

Rare looked upon a quiet stream surrounded by a field of blooming flowers. It would have been picturesque if not for the horribly misplaced giant ants and the undead knight. Deas usually kept to himself in a corner of the queen’s chamber, but he always followed along whenever Rare left to go anywhere. There was a faintly shining magic circle to the side of the safe zone. It seemed that it would only react to players; ants would sometimes step onto it unknowingly, but nothing happened to them.

<Princess, are you truly planning to go alone?> Deas objected immediately.

Even though Rare was in command, he referred to Rare as “Princess” but Sugaru as “Queen;” she wasn’t sure what that was all about. Maybe when he was alive, he had served a princess, or aspired to such a position.

“That’s correct. I’m probably the only one who can go. You’re free to try to come after me, but I don’t think it’ll work. Plus, I won’t be alone.”

Rare was dressed from head to toe in black armor that she had created with [Magnum Opus] the other day. On top of it all, she was also covered in a hooded cloak. Since it was daytime, she needed all this in case she popped out somewhere with a lot of sunlight. Underneath the cloak, she carried a total of five swords, arrayed across her back and waist. These were also all Living Weapons. As such, it should all count as “equipped” and be allowed to accompany her to the event zone.

“Well then, it’s almost time for me to leave. Deas, escort Sugaru back to the queen’s chamber. I should return in about two hours.”

<…By your will,> Deas responded after an extended pause.

“Until later.”

Rare entered the magic circle in the safe zone. Just as the event announcement described, multiple warnings appeared; she skimmed them all then marked her consent to dismiss them. A moment later, Rare’s field of view changed, and her character disappeared from the bank of the stream.

＊

It was probably some kind of teleportation; she found herself standing before something that looked just like the Colosseum of Rome. Considering the number of contestants, this area shouldn’t have been large enough to fit all those people, but there mysteriously wasn’t any overflow from the arena. Despite the fact that there were clearly too many people in the grounds, it didn’t feel crowded in the least.

In the distance, the spectator seats were also filled with people; they had probably come to watch their friends and acquaintances who were participating. The official event explanation stated that any players who lost in the battle royale would be moved to the spectator seats. Of course, they could also leave those seats, which would take them out of the event zone altogether.

A voice announced that the event would be starting shortly; it sounded like it was a system message. Finally, it felt like the area was being accelerated to six times the normal speed of time. Actions that used to take five minutes to do would now awkwardly require 30 minutes in the event zone.

According to the system message, this area was only for kicking off and closing the event, and for the spectator seats; all the contestants would be transported directly to the battlefield. The field was appropriately huge, and it would be divided into 32 blocks. Contestants would be randomly assigned and sent to a block. Afterward, the remaining 32 players who survived in each block would participate in a championship free-for-all.

Rare ended up in block 16. It was mostly forested. Since she tended to spend a lot of time exploring the great forest through the eyes of her followers, she had an advantage in this field. After being transported, Rare immediately started looking for a hiding spot. While going through the forest, she occasionally ran into other players whom she would instantly cut down with her Living Weapons. It had only been two weeks since the official launch, so any metal armor they had was weak enough to be no better than cloth against Rare’s swords.

—That reminds me, I hadn’t checked carefully, but I wonder what kind of metal these swords are made from.

Rare was experienced with the naginata, but not very familiar with how to use western straight swords. With her current STR and DEX, she could competently line up the blade and slash, but she wasn’t skilled at it. So she thought she would leave it up to those who studied the sword for their whole lives—she held the weapon, but the weapon itself performed the attacks.

While all that was happening, Rare found a tree with a hollow she could completely hide in when she wasn’t wearing armor. If she used leaves and brush to camouflage her cloak, she would be hard to spot as well.

“Good. I’ll use this place.”

However, Rare wasn’t planning to hide herself until the number of contestants had gone down. Only looking at stats, she believed hers were among the highest. If she just went around fighting randomly, she could probably get into the finals without much thought. The problem was her innate characteristics. She didn’t regret the ones she had chosen, but that meant she couldn’t operate in the sunlight, and anything somewhat far away from her would be hard to see, both huge disadvantages. It wasn’t smart for her to be idiotically straightforward and fight everyone head-on.

Rare quickly shed her cloak and armor, then worked on camouflaging the cloak. The armor could move itself, so it was surprisingly quick to put on or take off. After putting back on the now-camouflaged cloak, she curled up completely in the tree.

“All right, I’ll be borrowing your body. By the way, you really need a name… Okay, from now on you’ll be Yoroizaka^[1]. And all you Living Weapons, in order of when you were produced, will be Kenzaki Ichirou through Gorou^[2].”

Then, inside the tree hollow, Rare closed her eyes and activated the [Summon] skill she had learned.

“[Summon Caster: Mind].”

^[1]: I modified this, but the original was 君は今から鎧坂君だ。あ、女性型だから鎧坂さんかな？, which is “From now on, you’ll be Yoroizaka-kun. Ah, since you’re female armor, maybe Yoroizaka-san instead?” Since I’m not using honorifics in my translation, I just merged the two halves. The name “Yoroizaka” (鎧坂) doesn’t have any special meaning except that “Yoroi” means “armor” (鎧). The “Saka” (坂) part just means “hill;” I assume it was the first “Yoroi” name she could think of.

^[2]: “Kenzaki” (剣崎), like above, is probably just the first surname Rare could think of with “Ken” (sword, 剣) in it; the “Saki (Zaki)” (崎) part just means “cape” (as in a major protrusion of land extending into water). As for the first names, “Ichirou” through “Gorou” (一郎から五郎) are specifically Ichirou, Jirou, Saburou, Shirou, and Gorou, which are common names that just mean “first son,” “second son,” etc.