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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 333 Part 1

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 333: I Whisper to You with a Craving in My Voice Part 1

Dear Diary. About the first day of me living in the wilderness (re-addition).

Today, a rather scary rumor started to circulate around the entire camp of the People of the Forest. That rumor states that there is a scary monster lurking nearby, just waiting for an opportunity to ambush you and drain you of all of your life.

「Huh? What was that? Wanna go? Want to take this one outside, huh!? You little shit, if you want to quarrel with me, are you sure about that? Is your level even remotely close to the ninety nine? Huh!?」

I cannot really distinguish between reptiles’ facial expressions. Or do reptiles even have facial expressions to begin with? Whatever the case, it seems that this little raptor right here did not had enough of balls to try and pick up a fight with me. Its level must have been lower than ninety nine, for it automatically started to run away from me first thing it saw me.

And wouldn’t you know it? Once the raptor started to run away, the rest of the pack that was following it started to do exactly the same thing. Could it be that it was the alpha of the entire group?

「Heh, for a dinosaur, you surely do not have guts! This is going to be your undoing one of these days!」

Not to nitpick or anything, but I have been meeting less and less monsters here, and the pack that I was coming in contact with were smaller as well. Does that have something to do with me? Or maybe it’s something related to the environment here?

「I never thought that I would admit it openly like that, but this may be the very first time that I am grateful for those carved wounds…… But still, Luukan you bastard……」

No, no point bringing myself down like that for now. For the time being, let’s be positive! Gotta keep that motivation of mine fresh and ready to go!

I can see that most of the behavioral patterns of the People of the Forest is sloppy…… But it is that kind of sloppiness that is also strangely effective. In other words, their abilities to search for things inside of the forest is excellent.

The carved wounds on my body are a passive effect, so the monster with the level lower than my own run away from me. But at the same time, the moment I happen across a monster that is equal or stronger than me, that monster almost immediately tries to have a go at me.

However, here is where the People of the Forest come into play. They possess the ability to detect danger, and usually they are always on their guard for the monsters with the level higher than ninety nine, so that they can run away from them. This also means that I can know where the monster are, what is their level, and if I desire to do so, engage those monsters without a problems.

Isn’t that what we would basically call the strongest possible combination out there? However, the range and variety of monsters here can be somewhat huge and diverse, and the fact that the Elves can be treated as the pseudo-party members certainly is not helping all that much here…… But you have to give them credit where the credit is due: we have managed to arrive at the place where there once used to be an Elven village almost without triggering any monster encounters. I wonder how it feels? To abandon a place only to come back here after some time?

「I had no idea that there was second stage to Luukan’s “curse”.」

「When it comes to this game, I’m not sure if I can on improvising if it keep on throwing “upgrades” like that my way.」

Not that I do not have options for dealing with this problem available to me. I can always try to get rid of the curse permanently, or try score yet another “upgrade” for myself to see how it goes…… But sometimes the fact that the AI can be so high-performance can actually be a curse in and out of itself.

「I think that the place we are currently looking for is just a little bit further away from here…… Hesh, shouldn’t there be a sign around here somewhere? One that only the People of the Forest can understand?」

「There should be one here somewhere, or at the very least there was supposed to be one around here somewhere……」

「It’s a story passed down amongst the People of the Forest for generations. It’s a mark that our ancestors have left, so the current generation of People of the Forest would not know what it is.」

Said Hesh in an angry voice, glaring at me in such a way that I immediately understood that arguing here would be of no use.

Oh well, ignorance is a common theme in games, especially when it comes to the community and the ways in which their ancestors used to do things. Think about how many times you were asked to find a key that opens some specific door, or when you explore some twisted mansion ridden with elaborate puzzles that no one seems to know the answers to. So yeah, things like that DO happen.

「Your Majesties, please forgive me for the detours we are taking. I realize that heading towards the frontline base should be of the utmost importance here.」

「Please, don’t fret over it. We do not mind in the slightest. Helping the People of the Forest to reclaim their long lost village…… I do believe that acts of kindness like that are the ones that tend to bring the two races together. Especially in the time of great need.」

Yes, once again, please forgive me, Your Majesties. You may think it is like that, but the truth is that both Tottori and I do this with our own self-interest in mind. And it’s like ninety percent self-interest here, if not more.

After all, there is no reason why we would not like to lift the level caps on our characters.

「Ahh, umm…… Your Highness, you’ve been walking for quite a while now. Surely you must be tired, aren’t you?」

Actually, I know that it would do wonders for my mental health to just ignore the First Princess, but it would not be wise from the role playing perspective. Same with deceiving her. So good luck me, good luck indeed……

「Oh, no, I’m quite alright, Sanraku-sama. Knowing that you are going to protect us from monster, I can easily rest assured.」

Well, this game is not Shit Chronicles Online. In Shit Chronicles Online you could be sure that the monster would always choose to attack the NPCs before shifting aggro to the players, but this is ShangriLa Frontier. You can well maintain aggro on the players throughout the duration of the fight, without having to worry about the NPCs getting attacked. Or should I just let the monsters feed on this one just for the old time’s sake?

「Your Highness, you surely are strong.」