“This stupid menu!” Naotsugu roared, barely blocking the balls of light being shot at him with his shield. “These controls suck!”
“Naotsugu! Two from your left!” Shiroe shouted, standing at the top of a building. Naotsugu blocked the two overgrown weasels with briars wrapped around their tails with his shield. However, the weasels used the vines stuck to their tails to whip at him while holding onto Naotsugu’s shield.
“They stink! Get them off!” Naotsugu whipped his shield to get the weasels off only to yell when one of the blasts of light hit his back.
“Icicle Ripper!” Las Boss shouted, unleashing a spell of ice. It hit Naotsugu’s shield, bouncing off to knock the weasels off his shield and back at the weasels unleashing the light attacks.
“Thanks, Las!” Naotsugu said, rushing before Las Boss and blocking the renewed barrage of distance spells from the weasels, Briar Weasels.
Would help if you just hot key your attacks! Las Boss thought, chanting under his soft breath for another spell. “Servant Summon: Wild Boar!” Las Boss shouted for a complex circle to form before him and a wild boar launched out of it. It bowled right into the weasels, scattering them.
“Boss, Naotsugu! Fall back for now!” Shiroe shouted, making Las Boss to look up and see him moving his hands to work his own menu.
“Roger!” Naotsugu shouted, giving Las Boss cover from the weasels’ attacks while the boar attacked and managed to kill one of the weasels. “This isn’t like a game at all,” Naotsugu looked back at the weasels as the boar ran backed to Las Boss to be healed.
This is a game. Just a tough one to fight in, Las Boss thought, holding out his spread. “Healing Wind!” Las Boss shouted, hitting his servant and Naotsugu with gentle green wind.
“Las, can you make them scatter?” Naotsugu asked, relief on his face with his wounds healing.
“Lightning Fall!” Las Boss shouted, unleashing a torrent of lighting from a seal under the weasels, forcing them to move to the sides. Naotsugu and Las Boss ran back, gaining some ground between them and the weasel. The boar stood between them and the weasels.
“Those buggers are tough!” Naotsugu shouted, stopping and readying his shield as the weasels recovered.
“I’ll use a Nightmare Sphere-Whoa!” Shiroe shouted, drawing Las Boss and Naotsugu’s attention to above in the destroyed building. “A Triffid?” Shiroe gasped, bound by the vines of a moving plant. It opened it’s huge purple bud, exposing the flower to be actually a mouth of razor sharp teeth. “Oh, shit. Where did it come from!” Shiroe managed to shout before the wind was knocked out of him when the Triffid slammed him into the wall. He did not get a chance to breathe with one of its vines with a cone like object on the end slammed into his stomach.
“Shiroe!” Naotsugu shouted before seeing Las Boss bolt past him.
“Willow Spirits!” A mess of glowing vines shoot off the building which Las Boss used to leap up on and easily reach the ledge Shiroe was on.
“No! Stop!!” Shiroe grunted, kicking at the vines that keep hitting him.
Just use the hot keys! Las Boss thought, glaring at Shiroe. “Call Storm!” Las Boss shouted as his body glowed, steam coming off it.
“Boss?” Shiroe gasped, getting another vine punching his gut.
“Flaming Cage!” Fire engulfed around the Triffid, causing it to howl in pain. Shiroe gasped when Las Boss cut him free from the vines and dragged him back as the flames overtook the monster and made it collapsed to the ground.
“Boss, how did you do that?” Shiroe asked, shocked at the man before him. He watched as Las Boss chanted another spell.
“Icicle Ripper!” Las Boss roared, unleashing a torrent on the Briar Weasels going straight for Naotsugu with overtaking the boar.
“Yeesh,” Naotsugu sighed, watching the weasels easily torn apart and dropped dead. “Overkill much, huh, Las?”
Of course it is, Las Boss sighed, reaching into the traveler's cabinet on his back and pulling out a potion. He tossed it to Shiroe who quickly gulped it down, his health status bar recovering the lost HP. Those monsters are well below our levels. A level 90 Druid’s Icicle Ripper can one-hit kill all of them, especially with the Call Storm buff on.
“Boss, how did you use those attacks without a command?” Shiroe asked while Las Boss looked at his own menus. He saw the one skill he been waiting all day to finally get out of cool down. He pressed the now lit up skill with his finger.
His body instantly moved, making his hands come together in a hand sign of form. “Henge no Jutsu!” Smoke exploded forth from his body, instantly causing him to hack and heave while his body shifted form.
“Boss? You okay?” Shiroe asked before yelping with getting kicked in the knee.
“Of course I am alright. My HP is more than a small raid boss!” Las Boss shouted, now looking up at Shiroe’s face with his foot planted on Shiroe’s knee. “Use your damn hot keys! Any skill link to those will automatically be used if you-Hack hack!” Las Boss gagged, his throat suddenly burning. Las Boss grabbed the canteen Shiroe had taken out of his Magic Bag and gulped a mouth of water down. It did not stop the burning, but reduced it enough to stop the coughing.
“Let’s move out of the Archive Tower Forest,” Shiroe sighed, looking down at Naotsugu. “I think we have gotten enough information.”
“Oa..ku…” Shiroe frowned at Las Boss as he took out his notebook, the now pre-teen writing in it quickly. -Fine. Give a minute for voice to recover.-
“Understand,” Shiroe said as both of them walked towards a staircase that was still holding together.
Agh. This bites, Las Boss groaned, rubbing his burning throat. He looked at his HP to see it was half of the 23058 he had. His monstrous MP was still mostly full, almost the 503908, but he knew all the well how MP costly his spells were. But, how did my HP and MP jumped so much? I mean, originally it was just 7630 in HP and 12170 in MP when Elder Tales was just a video game. I was scheduled to be a raid boss for one of the events after the launch of the expansion, but my status were normal when playing just before waking up here. Las Boss pondered, trying hard to understand what was going on.
“Naotsugu, do you have some skills set to your hot keys?” Shiroe asked once the two reached Naotsugu.
“Yeah. I have Shield Smash on my first one.” Naotsugu said, raising an eyebrow at the two mages.
“Try using Shield Smash without a command… Ah, do it like the motion you seen when it was still a game.” Shiroe asked, making a swinging motion.
“Sure… Shield Smash!” Naotsugu shouted, his shield glowing green as he swung it away from the others. “Oh! It worked! Wait, why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Naotsugu whined, puffing his cheeks out in anger.
“I been trying to tell you two the whole time.” Las Boss said in his raspy voice, showing them his notebook filled with insults at them all while telling them to use the hot keys. “We need to figure out a fix for communication with me in battle. My Henge’s cooldown is exactly 18 hours, which sucks considering I can only use it for half an hour.”
“Except when Henrietta got eyes on ya.” Naotsugu smirked as Las Boss shivered.
Why the hell did the woman that was one of the sensible in Crescent Moon Alliance had to be a lolicon? Las Boss thought, remembering being chased around by Maryelle’s guild advisor while meeting with Maryelle. All when he discovered skills he had in his old world passed into this world with being unable to talk in the meeting. “But, fighting is much like the two games combined. You have a limited field of vision and the enemies can dodge or actually hit us unlike before when it would not count.” Las Boss said, changing the subject off the lolicon.
“Yeah. Even though the monsters we faced are low levels, they are still scary. And their breath reek,” Naotsugu groaned, slightly turning green. “Though, pain is amazingly low. Kind of like stubbing your toe on a cabinet corner.”
“Ow…” Shiroe flinched, a bit pale.
Must not like pain, huh? Las Boss nodded in agreement with Naotsugu. But, then again, Shiroe and I are mages, so we technically stressed away from the main battlefield. The fact I use a my own version of a hybrid of Shaman and Absorber build for a Druid is the only reason I am on the front lines. Las Boss sighed. Builds were basically play styles used with the classes and a basic framework that many players seem to fall into. A hybrid takes advantage of two to three builds to make an unique style. Oh, yeah. With it now no longer a video game, I wonder if any new builds will form?
“But, that jutsu is kind of broken. Only being able to change your form for thirty minutes before having to deal with a cooldown of 18 hours makes it akin to an emergency skill.” Shiroe said, summoning an orb of light along with Las Boss so they could see around them in the dark. “Is it from your world? The jutsu, that is?”
“You believe this chuuni of a game addict?” Naotsugu asked, frowning at Shiroe. “How can this brat be an alien? He plays Elder Tales, which is only on Earth.”
“It’s on my world as well. Only the Alpha server to test the Moon Server system wasn’t on when this event happened hours ago.” Las Boss sighed, crossing his arms. “Though, I don’t blame jutsu being buggy. We were still in testing the new scroll system that would allow more master points and have more experience players help new players due to how some of the new scrolls work like the Moon Scrolls. However, they are suppose to be awesome. They are harder to learn.”
“Moon Scrolls?” Shiroe asked before realizing something. “Wait, is that one of the new items along with others you showed me?”
“Wait? I know he works some for the Elder Tales company, but he shared company info with you?” Naotsugu asked, glaring at the two.
“Before they made me the director for the Moon Server for my world, I did concept art for Elder Tales for the past four years to pay for my subscriptions along with other payments and in-game gold. I sometimes have Shiroe double check me since he got a good design eye from CAD.” Las Boss said, chuckling at the shock look from Naotsugu. “I was experimenting with also making the first graphic design company using computers and good printers through the new company I made as well as other such companies. But, looks like I am not going to see the results of those due to this.”
“That's actually pretty good. I was expecting you to finally quit trying to be a ninja after I graduate.” Shiroe said, smiling at a pouting Las Boss.
“I’m not happy as even though my business wealth increased tenfold, I didn’t get a ryou yet due to still getting it all to launched off the ground.” Las Boss sighed, But, I barely remembering any of the major details of those businesses. Heck, I can’t even tell if this is my old voice or a random one. Las Boss rubbed his throat. All I remember is what each business was about and what they did for the company. I also can remember just the bare basics of the jutsu and why I learned them.
The Henge no Jutsu was a jutsu ninja learned before their career. At least, in Las Boss’s old world. Though using chakra, which was basically the same as mana here in this Elder Tale game turn reality, the ninja would transform their bodies. However, depending on the skill level, the henge would drop if hit or the user was stressed too much. Yet, here it is one-hundred perfect solid, but last thirty minutes at the lowest level and I can’t reuse it till almost a day later. I knew the scroll and jutsu system was being worked on, but this is buggier than homebrew games.
“Overachievement festival,” Naotsugu sighed, using his sword to bash away brush as they moved through the zones. “No wonder you two are closet perverts. All you do is focus on work, work, work. Your computers must be loaded with girls!” Naotsugu pointed at them both.
“How perverted am I in your mind?” Shiroe shook his head.
“I think he’s into tentacles.” Las Boss said, getting both men to stare at him. “What? That was the fourth Triffid that attacked him today alone. It’s like he got tentacle rape perfume on or something.”
“Ha ha!” Naotsugu laughed while Shiroe recoiled.
“It’s just my level! And I was alone, so they must have targeted me since you two were close together,” Shiroe tried to defend himself, his face lightly pink with embarrassment.
New material! Las Boss smirked, making Shiroe lose the color in his face. “Maybe you wanted them to go after you? You actually want tentacles to make love with ya instead of a-”
“No.” Shiroe grabbed Las Boss, covering his mouth to shut him up. “I don’t wanna hear that from you. You’re freaking twelve, yet your mouth is fouler than an used toilet. This is the very reason I banned you from the public comments of my blog.”
“So, it’s bad?” Naotsugu asked, curious at the scene. The two had played with Las Boss for a while, so knew of his bad habits. Though, only Shiroe had any contacts with him outside Elder Tales when it was still a game hours ago.
“Yep. I am not even going to say much further as some of what he sometimes say makes me wonder who the hell taught him it.” Shiroe sighed, letting Las Boss go.
“No one did. I taught myself when no one would explain what I saw in the red district to me. It’s the only reason I ever watched anime and manga outside game related shows.” Las Boss innocently said, making both men look at him with horror. Not that I can tell them that I kind of experienced it, too. Just not with this body.
“No wonder you're a troll at times,” Naotsugu sighed, “Though, with how hard it was for us to fight, I’m worried for Maryelle’s crew.”
“Ah, that’s right. No one is wanting to risk losing their life to see if we revive like in the game,” Shiroe said adjusting his glasses. “That’s why I wanted to get information on how fighting works. If we work up from low level monsters and up, then we should be able to defend ourselves with no problems and avoid dying.”
“Death festival would not be fun,” Naotsugu said, looking at the ground. “Though, Maryelle only has half her group at level ninety?”
“No, only four of them including Maryelle is at level ninety. Half is below level fifty that is here now in this world. Add the fact there is one member in Susukino, Maryelle will have a lot on her plate. I just hope she got the items they had on sell in the market back and gotten supplies while they could.”
“Probably did,” Las Boss said, tapping his spear on his shoulder. “Maryelle maybe denser than a blond at times, but when it comes to those she cares for, she will do anything to ensure they are alright. Though, my worries is the fact there’s no laws for Adventurers in this world. There’s still rules, but rules are bendable.”
“Yes. With how many guilds there are in Akiba, that should help keep some order here. Though, what I am worried about if the fact the Intercity Transport Gates are down. With no guides to figure out the Fairy Rings locations, the only means of transportation is through mounts and walking through zones to get to place to place.” Shiroe sighed, shaking his head.
“Zones filled with monsters and tentacles for Shiroe!” Las Boss chimed, smiling at the glare he got from the Enchanter.
“Maybe that is your cup of tea, closet pervert. But, you rather it with girls getting it than you,” Naotsugu teased before all three of them heard rumbling. “What’s that?” Naotsugu asked, readying his sword before they heard it again.
“It seems we still need to eat,” Shiroe said, all three of them realizing the rumbling was their stomachs.
“I’m actually feeling tired, too,” Las Boss said, crossing his arms. “Though, we best just break to eat and return to Akiba. I rather not chance sleeping outside tonight.”
“Agreed.” Both men nodded, all of them sitting down to rest. A slight amount of drool came from their mouths when they pulled out each a packed bento from their magic bags. The light odor oddly not making them hungrier with how good it smelled.
“Yes! Bento feast festival!” Naotsugu chimed before biting into a piece of fried chicken. “...Huh?”
“What is it, Naotsugu?” Shiroe asked before biting into his riceball. Shiroe's face instantly grimaced.
Weird… Bad lunches? Las Boss bit right into his sandwich. His reaction was spontaneous. “Ack! It tastes like nothing!” Las Boss shouted, spitting out his bite. All three looked at each other with a bit of worried before viciously biting into different foods, blanching with finding the same thing.
“WHY IS ALL THE FOOD LIKE SOGGY RICE CRACKERS?” The trio roared, causing the Goblins nearby to run away in fear.