Translator: Silver

「Prologue」Part 1

Author Note: I’m happy that you’re reading this.

At a bar where those freed from the workplace battlefield gathered, I met with two 『IRL friends』after a long absence.

Both of them were men.

Despite our long acquaintanceship, we rarely had a chance to met face-to-face after sitting out on our own paths.

“『Grandia Seed』is shutting down tomorrow.”

Grumblings escaped my lips between large swings of beer from my mug.

“Honestly, I’d thought it was a fake announcement.”

“Well, it was considered kusoge from the start, and the servers are sparsely populated.”

The pair responded in hushed, barely audible tones.

I’d said 『IRL friends』before, but the three of us mainly played the online game 『Grandia Seed』together.

Even though lived separate lives from one another, we spent a great deal of time hanging out in the game.

But, the game we love was considered kusoge.

“I still say the combat is the best thing out there.”

I'm…… it was a bit late for an introduction, 『Nishikida Yoshiki』

I was a gaming enthusiast, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t the best at playing games.

However, I’d managed to obtain a high ranking position in Grandia Seed by pouring a ton of hours into the game.

Well, once the server population reached its all-time low, there weren’t many people left to test my skills against.

“It’s already been reduced to a glorified chat room, Hisashi.”

“What do you think, Yoshiki? You’re the one that brought it up.”

“It was just fun to fight normally.”

I was only interested in the combat and treated the game like a single-player offline game. Even as everyone else just chatted about or a user event came up, I was focused on fighting.

It was just that enthralling.

But……

“It all ends tomorrowー.”

“What are you gonna do? You got any ideas, Hisashi?”

“I’ve done a bit of research on my own. Do you know anything, Kazuki?”

Usually, Hisashi showed no interest in the subculture around the game and just played Grandia Seed, but it was whole another story for Kazuki.

Kazuki was, in stark contrast to Hisashi, heavily invested in the game, anime, and net community.

If anything, Hisashi was the least absorbed in games, besides Grandia Seed, and gaming culture.

While, if our ages were rounded up we would be in our thirties at this point.

“I caught the second half, but frankly speaking, I’m fine so long as the conversation continues.”

Mellowー, such a laid back person.

When updates had become a rarity, and only combat remained, leisure conversation had become a source of entertainment.

While I had a good chat now and then, the fun combat held the majority of my attention.

As a result, I’d been labeled things like  『Combat Junkie』 and 『Explorer』on the games forums and discussion boards.

There were even rumors that I was a BOT (a software program created by a trader) or an NPC.

“Then, let’s log in once today’s maintenance is finished. I’d like to discuss something with our guild.”

“What? Is it gonna be the Last Order?”

“If Yoshiki is drinking…… than so am I.”

“You guys…… then I’ll have a Kahlua Milk.”

“”Sissy””

Kaivon: Hey Hey.

I logged in immediately after I got home and typed that greeting.

It was a cheery hello in our team chat, but it didn’t seem like anyone else was here.

Well, it was rare for anyone else to be on this late.

Kaivon: Hey? Syun, Daria?

Oink: Those two aren’t here yet.

Kaivon: Seriously…… Can’t you use the hotel Wifi?

Oink: They did just leave the three-person offline meeting.

There was only one other guild member logged in right now.

With the servers going down tomorrow, I’d hoped it’d increased the number of logins.

Because the two of them came back home for the holidays they should be connecting from their hotel with their laptops. I wish I could stay at my parent’s house.

This lacking guild chat would’ve been better if that were the case.

Syun: Hey

Daria: Hello > everybody.

Kaivon: Oh, you came?

Daria was Hisashi’s, one of the friends I’d been drinking with, character.

While I’d known him for over twenty years, yet when he logged in to play, I realized that there were many things I didn’t know about him.

His avatar was your typical female elf.

But, it was a loli. A blonde bulb cut little elf girl.

Well, it wasn’t like he was a nekama, but the character’s level of exposure was natural discomforting.

Syun was Kazuki of course.

Hisashi and I have been friends since elementary schools, but our relationship with Kazuki didn’t begin until the game launched.

We learned that we lived in the same city during an offline meeting…… well, it’d only been three of us, but we still had a good time.

He modeled his avatar after his real-life appearance, making it a short male human, that could be mistaken for a boy from a distance.

His hair was an unrealistic shade of white though.

We spent some time talking with Oink about the guild members that hadn’t shown up.

Perhaps, tomorrow…… well, today was suppose to be the day that the number of logins should increase this evening.

What should we do till then?

On the monitor, a lone swordsman cut down an enemy and absorbed something from their body.

I was using the 『Depriving Sword』, a hobbyist weapon in the eyes of many.

It was a rank 15 longsword with an attack power of 25.

You could only reward someone for completing the tutorial so much.

However, in this game, rank 15 is the highest grade of weapon one can hope to find.

And one could only obtain the 『Depriving Swordman』class by using this weapon.

Kaivon: Hey, did the administration slack off because the game is shutting down?

Oink: What? Something wrong?

Kaivon: My absorption skill kept firing off. With it, I was able to kill a rare Duster Dragon solo.

Oink: Are you serious!

Kaivon: Tone.

Oink: Hihihi, that’s amazing.

The sword had a unique ability that gifted the player one random passive skill upon defeating an enemy.

I wasn’t sure how many passives you could stack, but I’ve fought with this sword for so long that I must have killed ten thousand or so boss monsters.

However, I’ve only managed to amass 165 unique passives till now, and I’d just obtained the 166th skill.

It may have seemed like an absurd weapon, but only eight passives could be active at a time.

When configured it to make up for the miserable stats and offensive power, only two open slots remained.

The present configuration was as followed:

+15% Attack Power

+10% Weapon Damage

+25% Critical Chance

Additional Blade Strike

Demon Blade

×2 Ability Effect

Dragon Slaying Blade

Ice Emperor’s Blessing

The『+15% Attack Power』buff was only calculated after the last ability is applied.

Thanks to that the weapon’s stats were only slightly inferior to regularly used weapons.

Also, the 『+10% Weapon Damage』, which was unaffected by enemy defenses, allowed the sword to rival the damage output of similar type weapons.

『+25% Critical Chance』didn’t need to be explained.

Furthermore, 『Additional Blade Strike 』and 『Demon Blade』provided the sword with additional damage output and a magical attribute respectively.

And finally, 『×2 Ability Effect 』doubled the effects of each ability I had slotted.

The dawn of my era came the moment I obtained this sword! It’d been exhilarating.

But……common weapons also had passives

For example, a weapon with 980 attack power and the +10% Weapon Damage and ×2 Ability Effect easily exceeded my damage output.

Although that was an extreme example, since weapon passive were initially given at random, it was possible…… those type of god tier weapons were usually auctioned off.

Because of my limitations, I was far from being considered the strongest.

Though having seven or eight passives on one weapon was still impressive.

However, only two ability slots could remain open if the weapon was to stay viable.

For example, 『Dragon Slaying Blade 』applied a 1.5 damage multiplier when fighting dragons.

But, not every passive could build off of each other.

『Ice Emperor’s Blessing』changed the attribute of all my attacks to the ice attribute. Doubling that was impossible.

Well, that was why it wasn’t worth calling the 『Depriving Sword』 by its official name, 『Depriving Sword Brandt』.

So, as a result of challenging the high-level duster dragon, a nerco duster dragon if fact, I obtained an unknown ability.

Along the way, I’ve received duplicate ability after duplicate ability, but my persistence has allowed me to acquire an excellent monster ability.

The passive's description was as followed:

『Right of the Usurper (Dragon) 』

『One of the seven stars, proof that you have taken all of the abilities from the dragons of destruction.』

『×10 experience gain multiplier, halve damage from dragons.』

It was a broken ability.

While the damage output didn’t increase, the effect was still pretty significant.

My current equipment was all selected for their appearance rather than their defensive stats.

So I had to rely on the 「Dodge, hit, consume, recover」strategy.

There was also the HP absorption ability, which activated whenever I landed an attack.

Well, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.

Kaivon: What’s with this effect?

Oink:…… Isn’t that pretty useless? You’re already at Kansutoppu.

Kaivon: You have a point…… but I think that every boss monster type has an ability like this one.

Oink: Then…… wanna go test it with another boss monster?

Kaivon: Really! Then…… set a marker on Hihilosenki Castle!

Oink: Understood.

Something exciting had occurred on the final day.