Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 44
Chapter 44: The Errand Quest Begins
In short, one of the top clans in Astral Online, ?Knight of Crown?, fell apart because about 80% of its members were regular players. The incident on TV led to their disbandment.
Even ?Hunters of the Twilight? had a few members leave, but the situation was resolved when the remaining players from ?Knight of Crown? joined them.
The maximum number of members allowed in a clan is 60. Currently, ?Hunters of the Twilight? has 35 members, leaving plenty of room. If they form five-member teams, they could create up to seven groups.
Out of concern, I asked Shino in the chat if her clan, ?Hell and Heaven?, was holding up. She said her clan was formed by professional gamers, so they were all adventurers with no way out to begin with.
Despite everything, with the two giant clans that participated in the event still standing, they could probably continue fighting.
However, the recent defeat against the Leviathan cost Shiori and her team one life, reducing their ?Life Points? to 119, the same as mine.
Shiori said she was fine, but the loss of even one life felt incredibly heavy to me.
How many more times would we die in the future?
The thought was terrifying because there was currently no way to recover lost ?Life Point?.
Given that, it was understandable that regular players, with no strings attached, would leave a high-risk frontline clan.
After all, anyone would value their life.
Those who had been dying repeatedly in this game would likely quit playing altogether after this announcement.
Sora thought this was a normal human reaction. If he were in their shoes, he would probably do the same.
Perhaps this was exactly what that so-called God was aiming for.
As a result of this incident, the true top players of ?Astral Online? would now be concentrated in just two clans: ?Hunters of the Twilight? and ?Hell and Heaven?.
…Still, who exactly is that God?
Even though I heard her voice, I still couldn’t shake my doubts about her existence, which made me wonder if perhaps those of us playing Astral Online were somehow immune to brainwashing.
The message boards I checked before logging in were overrun with creepy fanatics worshipping the white-haired goddess, making it hard to sift through the nonsense. The reader comments on Rinne’s article summarizing the recent events were mostly similar, providing no useful information.
Seriously, is it just me, or are there way too many weirdos out there?
For now, it seems that the only option is to keep the other players’ opinions of this suspicious self-proclaimed goddess on hold.
Shino also instinctively felt that this goddess was dangerous and sent me a message warning me to be careful if I ever came into contact with her.
But how exactly I should be careful remains a mystery.
Is she really someone we can simply hide from and hope she’ll pass by? From what I saw on TV, the two girls I met this morning seemed a hundred times more normal.
In any case, no matter what happens in the real world, what I, Sora Kamijo, need to do won’t change one bit.
My mission is to conquer Astral Online, and that remains unchanged, even if the world around me does.
With that thought, I took a short nap before logging in again. When I woke up, I was startled to find Aria standing right in front of me, dressed in a see-through negligee.
Oh… that’s quite mature, princess.
By the way, in this world, the ?Sexual Defense? system prevents players from doing anything inappropriate with NPCs, so physical contact is generally restricted. Shiori even told me to set it up so that only friends could interact with me.
But wait a minute… why am I able to touch Aria, an NPC, who isn’t even on my friends list?
Curious, I decided to test it out and poked her cheek with my right index finger. Normally, the system would stop this action midway, but Sora’s finger made contact with Aria’s cheek without any resistance.
A soft, squishy sensation transmitted through her finger.
Hmm, it seems the security system isn’t functioning. Maybe it’s related to some kind of affinity or something like that. It’s just a guess, though, and I can’t be sure.
Not wanting to take things any further, Sora quietly pulled her hand away. As she did, the peacefully sleeping Aria murmured,
“Mmm… Ahh… Sora-sama, not there…”
If Kuro had heard that, it would definitely have led to some kind of misunderstanding.
But what exactly did she mean by “not there”…?
Despite her urge to retort, Sora held back since Aria was still asleep. It was strange enough that an NPC could sleep, but the idea of dreaming? How does that even work?
If she had to guess, maybe she’s seeing memories she experienced as dreams. But why would NPCs have such unnecessary features that have nothing to do with the players?
To add a sense of realism?
…No, this isn’t an ordinary game, so even speculating about it might be pointless.
Sora gave her own cheeks a light slap with both hands, snapping herself back into focus.
“Alright, first, I’ll finish up all the errand quests and then move on to the main temple quest!”
……………………..
When Sora inquired in Giorl’s office, the second quest turned out to be the extermination of a monster that had become ferocious due to the power of a ring.
The requirement was to submit just one ?Mutated Claw?. Even after scrolling down, there were no additional rewards listed. It seemed that, unlike before, there was no chance of obtaining rare items by submitting multiple claws.
This was quite disappointing.
Before setting out, Sora decided to ask if there was anyone who could lend her a hand. However, Giorl quickly turned her down, stating that the troops couldn’t be deployed as they were needed to guard the base.
This meant Sora would have to go alone. The question was, could someone unfamiliar with the terrain manage to make it back on their own?
Just as Sora was about to wake Aria, Giorl handed her a piece of paper with an apologetic look on his face.
Upon opening it, Sora saw that it was a map marked with the location for the quest as well as the position of the base.
“The map will disappear once the quest is completed, but please use it to your advantage.”
So this was a backup plan for when Aria wasn’t available. In any case, it was a welcome assistance.
Thanking him, Sora promptly left the base and started walking in the direction marked on the map.
She walked for about 30 minutes.
After getting a fair distance away from the base, Sora reached the location marked on the map, where she encountered a Forest Bear.
It seemed noticeably larger than the one she had seen the day before. Moreover, due to its berserk state, the Forest Bear was growling and attacking anything within reach.
When Sora checked its name, it was labeled as ?Berserker Forest Bear?.
And it was level 30. Perhaps even stronger than the Leviathan Army.
“…Strike first, finish it quickly.”
With her eyes narrowing in determination, Sora drew her sword, which gleamed in silver. She then applied ?Fire Attribute Enchantment II? and four layers of ?Attack Power Boost Enchantment? to the blade.
Thanks to the MP reduction skill and the ring’s effect, the MP consumption was reduced to 175, leaving her with 85 MP remaining.
To utilize the effects of the armor she was wearing, Sora pulled the hood over her head, completely concealing her eyes.
Then, Sora’s stealth effect increased to 50%.
By further utilizing the shadows of the trees, it was raised to 60%. Taking a deep breath, she approached from behind the enraged forest bear.
The Forest Bear was so focused on shredding the tree in front of it that it didn’t notice Sora’s approach.
Easily, Sora closed the distance.
In that instant, she activated ?Quad Slash?, the four-hit skill with the most strikes among those she had learned. Without giving the bear time to turn around, she slashed diagonally right, diagonally left, and horizontally, leaving golden trails in the air.
Boosted by the back-attack bonus, the damage from these strikes reduced the Forest Bear’s HP to just 20% in an instant.
Finally, raising her sword high, Sora brought the glowing blade down, slicing the massive bear cleanly in two.
The remaining 20% of its HP was completely drained.
The Forest Bear disintegrated into particles of light, disappearing before it had a chance to counterattack.
After using her ?Perception? skill to ensure no other monsters were approaching, Sora nodded slightly.
“Alright, solo kill success!”
The only drop was a ?Berserker Forest Bear’s Claw?. Unfortunately, there was nothing else.
Resigned to this, Sora swiftly returned to the base using the map as a guide and handed the “Claw” over to Giorl as proof of completion.
As soon as the quest was completed, the map vanished, and Sora received a decent amount of experience points. With the experience from defeating the Forest Bear, her level increased from 26 to 27.
Level 30 enemy sure does give a lot of experience.
Feeling a slight sense of satisfaction, Sora noticed that Giorl was trembling as she stared at the claw.
“To think you took down a ?Berserker Forest Bear? by yourself! Even when we send ten of our level 16 soldiers against it, they suffer heavy losses before they can bring it down!”
In response, Sora boasted, “Heh, there’s nothing an ?Enchanter? can’t do.”
“You’re a high-ranking ?Enchanter?? That’s incredibly reassuring!”
After this exchange, Sora accepted the next quest.
??The task was to search for a missing wind spirit child who had disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek.