TNG Vol. 19 Chapter 1 Part 4
“Wasn’t Miraltrea the guild house that we still haven’t located? Is it so urgent that we have to prioritize it over Hades?”
Tiera asked Shin after hearing the reason for the change. Tiera understands that the guild house is in danger, but she thinks Hades was more important.
“If it was the guildhouse I was in charge of that was found, I’d leave it alone. No, that’s not it. If only Miraltrea had been found, we could have chosen to go to Hades first.”
Shin replied with a light sigh.
The guildhouses that each member of the “Rokuten” was in charge of were roughly divided into two systems: production and combat.
Shin’s guildhouse, “1st Mysterious Studio Demi Eden”, is the former, specializing in the research, development, and production of weapons and armor. If the weapons stored inside were to be taken out, it would be a big problem, but if not, there would be no danger.
The “4th Forest Palace Palmirack” and the “5th Daze Garden Romenun” were also of the same type, and were harmless if they were just there.
On the other hand, “2nd Assault Ship Celciutos,” “3rd Moving Base Miraltrea,” and “6th Sky Castle Rashugum” are in the combat category.
Because they were designed for guildhouse-to-guildhouse combat, they were equipped with several high-powered pieces of equipment.
They do have some production capacity, but it’s just a small bonus compared to the production category.
Celciutos of the sea.
Miraltrea of the land.
Rashugum of the sky.
They all have the aspect of powerful weapons, not to mention the potential for catastrophe if misused or even if they malfunction.
In this case, Miraltrea was a moving fortress, looking almost like an armored train with a huge drill mounted on its tip.
It has strong defensive capabilities due to its combat-oriented design, offensive capabilities with a variety of weapons, and mobility that allows it to move even underground.
Its greatest feature is its internal structure.
Miraltrea was a guildhouse run by Reed, the “Golden Merchant,” and inside it was a production facility for humanoid golems called “dolls”.
It can be almost like a factory that produces endless numbers of soldiers as long as you have the materials, and you can use the overwhelming amount of dolls to hunt down the enemy, a way of fighting that no other guildhouse can do.
“You say you had a choice, but you couldn’t leave them alone anyway right?.”
“Well, that’s true. So far, none of the equipment in any of the guildhouse has malfunctioned. So it’s possible that I’m just being overly cautious. But it would be a disaster if that were to happen.”
The dolls produced by Miraltrea’s production facilities vary in performance depending on the items they are made of.
The materials used were mainly metals and ores, and the more valuable they were, the higher the doll’s performance.
The puppets that were created one after another show their full potential only when it was controlled by Reed’s puppeteering ability, but it was impossible to determine how the puppets work in this world.
If a puppet created by a malfunction of the equipment targets a person, it would be worse than a simple monster.
After all, as long as there are materials, the number of dolls will continue to increase at regular intervals. They were not like monsters, which could only appear once and then disappear.
And in a battle between guildhouses, the dolls were mainly targeting the players running the other guildhouse, in other words, the people.
In the event of a malfunction, there is a good chance that it will target a person.
“Well, the most decisive factor is that his masterpiece is on the move.”
“By ‘masterpiece,’ do you mean the giant doll that was jointly developed by Reed, Hecate, and Shin?”
Schnee didn’t seem to know much about it either, so Shin spoke up, explaining further.
“Yes, that’s right. The basic structure was set up by Reed, I made the exterior, and Hecate put up the transmission system, it is one of the anti-guildhouse weapons. We’ve had some help from other members, though.”
The concept was simple: use as much rare magical metal as possible to give it highly offensive and defensive power, both physical and magical.
A body made in this way was manipulated with special fibers synthesized from precious materials through alchemy. That was all. But it was strong.
The death game started before they could test-run it, so even though it was in storage, the exterior could not be easily destroyed even by the attacks of Shin, the best player at the time.
“It could withstand your attacks? Why did you make such a thing?”
“Why? well……… It looked like something I could make, and it also looked fun.”
In the game days, it was a common thing to say, “I’ll do it because it looks fun.”
There was no doubt that half of it was for jokes.
It was not limited to Reed, but it was quite common to make something great out of jokes. 80% of the time, it would turn out to be a piece of junk, but it was interesting because it was sometimes a success.
In Shin’s item box, there were multiple unique pieces of equipment made in a similar manner.
To name some, “The Great Sword of Adrenalin” made the upper limit HP to 1 percent, but all physical status increased dramatically.
“You-Cannot-Catch-Me Armor”, increases all damage received by 10 times but triples the ability relating to dodging.
“One for All Bow”, which instantly kills one party member and fires an arrow that deals heavy damage to enemies within a certain range.
Regardless of the genre, he tried to recreate equipment from other content, challenged the upper limits of ability increases, and took on any number of other challenges that only a game can provide.
Reed’s masterpiece is almost the culmination of all of this.
“… Sometimes I’m not sure if Shin is supposed to be someone spectacular or not.”
Tiera’s head reeled when she heard Shin’s description of the weapons he used as examples.
A lot of equipment had no real use.
In this world where life and death battles were the norms, no one would ever try to make them.
And if the material was said to be a precious magical metal, one would definitely have a headache.
“You may not believe it, but in the old days, people were this stupid. Just know it as a fact that there were such days.”
“What was the world like before the Dusk of the Majesty……?”
Tiera had heard in the Elves’ Garden that the world before Dusk of the Majesty was said to have been a time of prosperity in which various technologies were greatly developed.
With the gap between what she heard and Shin’s story, Tiera could not help but be puzzled.
“Well well let’s cut the chit-chat here, so where is the Miraltrea?”
“It says, in the mountains northeast of the center of Est. He wants to talk to me directly about the details. Let’s go to Berett’s first. He’s in Balmel right now, so it’s just a short teleport.”
While telling Filma the location of the sighting mentioned in the message, Shin took out a Crystal Stone.
Berett was afraid that he should have been the one to meet up with them, but it was impossible for even Berett to keep track of the exact location of Shin and his group, who were moving around the continent.
Since Shin and the group can move around quickly by teleport, it was definitely faster for them to travel than Berett.
When teleported to a secretly registered point near Balmel, they materialize a carriage and drive it along the street.
The carriage was pulled by Kagerou. When Shin and his group caught up with the carriage in front, the coachman was surprised when he realized that it was not a horse pulling the carriage which caught up with him.
And when he saw Shin, he now had a look on his face filled with jealousy and anger.
“Aside from Kagerou, why did he look at my face and have a frustrated expression on his face?”
Shin couldn’t figure out the reason and expressed his doubts.
According to the skill Analyze, the man seemed to be a merchant.
If it had been one of the women sitting next to Shin, he could understand the man’s feelings, because Schnee and the rest of the women were all beautiful.
However, only one person, Shin, was currently sitting in the driver’s seat.
He was wearing a long, ankle-length cloak to protect him from dust and to hide his equipment, so there was no reason for him to be disappointed with his expensive-looking equipment.
“It’s probably because Kagerou is pulling the carriage. Most merchants who can tame a large monster and make it pull a carriage are exceptionally talented merchants in a large trading company. Maybe they thought Shin was one of them.”
Schnee told me, leaning out from inside the carriage.
The large monsters have tremendous strength and stamina compared to ordinary horses.
They could carry a large amount of cargo at once and were a force to be reckoned with when it comes to battles with bandits and stray monsters. They could even beat enemies at times.
However, large monsters require a reasonable amount of food and the people who tamed them needed to have enough money to cover their needs all the time.
“To the merchant, Shin must have seemed like such a special merchant. Anyone who sees this carriage can tell that it is no ordinary carriage either.”
Since it was further customized when it crossed the Sand Sea, its performance was far superior to that of an ordinary carriage.
Shin made sure the appearance of the carriage was not so different, but it has not been thoroughly disguised, so others could tell that a lot of work has been put into it, regardless of the details.
“Still, do I look like a merchant to you?”
Merchants were not the only ones who used horse-drawn carriages. Shin felt it would be premature to judge him as a merchant immediately.
“Shin you don’t have the threatening atmosphere of an adventurer, and the dust cloak is something that a traveling merchant would wear. Also, the fact that this carriage does not look like something adventurers or mercenaries would use for transportation may have been a factor in his mistaking Shin for a merchant.”
The carriages used by Shin and his group were also treated to keep dirt away, so they were rarely soiled with mud or dust.
A carriage of good quality and little or no dirt would not be thought of as the carriage of an adventurer who makes his living fighting or transporting prey, Schnee said.
“…But Schnee was the one to finish it off.”
“What? Oh, …”
Yuzuha, who had come up next to Shin, said as she looked at the carriage being pulled away.
When Shin turned around and used the skill Through Sight to look at the merchant from earlier through the carriage, his frustrated expression changed and he was stunned.
If he had to put that expression into words, he would say, you’re joking…
“Young male look up to strong and powerful male. The mate is Schnee, with large Kagerou aside. And sitting next to him is me, Yuzuha. Of course he gets envious!”
Yuzuha wagged her tail and looked proud.
“I didn’t mean it that way though.”
“If Schnee was a man, maybe he would have thought you were a guard. Yea, either way, they would have envied.”
Elves and other long-lived species tend to have a high level of experience as adventurers.
The fact that they have such a partner as a guard was also a sign that they were special.
Furthermore, elven women rarely teamed up with men, which may also have been a factor in the merchant’s stunned reaction, said Shibaid, who was listening to the conversation.
“I guess strange rumors are going to spread, usually merchants’ networks seem to be quite extensive.”
“’Well we do have a business going, so it’s not a mistake, is it?”
“The store was just an extra. I was all about restocking and product development, and the store was mostly left to Schnee wasn’t it.”
Players who owned their own stores generally hired NPCs from the country or region in which they set up stores as shopkeepers or used support characters as storekeepers.
Some players would stand in front of the storefront themselves, but Shin was not that type of player, so he had his support characters take turns manning the store.
Since money was exchanged through the buy/sell command, there was no need for a player to be present at all times.
“In the first place, I may look like a merchant, but I’m not.”
Shin has never played as a merchant, even in the video game days.
He has looked up the market value of items for sale, but he did so out of concern for not disturbing the hardcore merchant players.