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Chapter 207 – Part 1

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Translation: DarkHeartedAlchemist
Editor: Weasalopes

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I logged in again at 6:00 AM.
The mornings in the Wind Spirit’s Village were always quite busy and rather noisy.
Is it just me or does it feel like not only normal players but also NPC’s are engaging in an unusually high amount of gossip?
What’s going on here? Did something happen?

I’ve set up my tent and summoned just Bunraku to prepare breakfast for me.
I really want to know what’s up, so maybe I’ll go to Fina-san’s place to get some information.

「Ah, Keith-san! Good morning!」

「Good morning to you as well, Adel. Tell me, do you know what’s all the fuss about?」

「Oh, that? I think it might be related to an event.」

An event? I wonder what it’s going to be.

「Looks like the village itself might be under siege.」

「Siege? You for real?!」

「Yes. Apparently it’s a monster horde made up mainly of Centaurs.」

「How many of them are there, exactly?」

「Nobody knows for sure, but there are a lot of them.」

A lot , huh? Well that’s not helpful at all!

「Where’s Irina?」

「Last time I saw her she was heading outside the village.」

Hey hey hey! Isn’t that a dangerous place to be right now?!
That is what I initially thought, until I saw her coming towards us from in the distance.

「Adel-chan!」

「There you are! So, how was it?!」

「Saying that there is a horde of them was no exaggeration by any means! Sky Eye even got damaged a bit!」

「Geez, why do you always have to go overboard like that?!」

Hey hey, is everything all right?

「How’s the overall situation?」

「Ah, Keith-san! We’re in trouble! Big trouble! Huge trouble! Enormous…!」

「I get it, okay? Just calm down for now.」

That’s right. If the situation really is as bad as Irina claims it to be, what we need to do first and foremost is to calm down and think carefully about what we can do.

『There’s an emergency meeting planned for 7:00 AM! All the Adventurers who are present in the village are asked to calm down and attend!』

We suddenly heard a village-wide system message.
Hmm…

「Have you calmed down yet, Irina?」

「Y-Yeah, sorry for going off like that.」

No no no, you have nothing to apologize for.
For the time being, let’s go back to my tent and listen to what she has to say.
I’ll also have Bunraku whip up something for them as well.

Apparently the first incident happened yesterday in the afternoon, when a large group of centaurs appeared near the W3 map Relay Portal, and Adel and Irina happened upon them when they were hunting for Fighting Bulls together.

Realizing that fighting them could not end in anything else but a certain death, the two of them avoided making any contact, and quickly moved to the W2 map.

However, it looks like the monster’s target was not the W3 Relay Portal in the Spring of Mist.
When the rumors of the marching group of monsters spread, many players tried to stop them, only to end up dead without really doing anything.
Because apparently Centaurs were really not the only monsters in the group.

「I think there is also a rumor that someone saw Minor Griffons and Panzer Rhinos among their ranks.」

「Such monsters moving together with Centaurs? What a strange rumor.」

「Another unconfirmed one claims that there were also Djinns or Demons among them.」

「As much as I want to believe that these are just baseless rumors, it would be pretty bad if we ignored them and they’d turn out to be true.」

That’s right. In that case, we cannot allow ourselves to dilly-dally any longer. We have to go hunt them down as soon as possible.

「Adel, did you go to Fina-san already?」

「Yes. She said she was going to prepare for a counterattack!」
「But is it going to be okay? Both the Capture Team and the Production Team have sent their top members to the southern cave, so they might not have enough members left here in the village?」

「As long as we won’t get completely overrun by the enemy then she said they should be fine.」

Is that so? Then we’d best hope that the situation won’t get any worse.

For the time being, I cleaned up the breakfast Bunraku prepared for Adel and Irina, which, on a side note, they devoured in a mere matter of seconds.
Talk about being fast eaters!

Ok, now that we’re done here I can send Bunraku back and we can go attend the emergency meeting before I summon anything else.

The meeting itself took place in the usual village main square.
When we got there, the dispute was already quite lively.
One after the other, the players who were returning from the night hunts were also filling up any remaining free space. If it was my first time seeing something like that I would have been amazed, but now I just got used to it.

『I don’t care how you do it, make sure to alert every player possible!』

That was Fina-san’s closing remark at the meeting’s end. Hearing that, the players around me all seemed to be more than a little anxious. Given our current situation, I guess that was to be expected.

「Hello. The situation seems to be pretty tough. How are you holding up?」

「Ah, Keith. Don’t even get me started on that! This whole operation is going to be such a mess! And some of those idiots only add fuel to the fire!」

That’s right.
At the meeting, there was even a player who accused Fina-san of being responsible for all of this.
That player was chastised by their friends.
It’s hard to stay in your right mind.
Aside from Fina-san, her usual friends, Saki-san and Margrid-san were also present. Everyone looked just as confused and worried as everyone else.

「Have you seen the outside of the village already?」

「Not yet, but I was about to do so now.」

「Of course. You wouldn’t be yourself if you just stayed in the village quietly, am I right?」

「Don’t ask for the impossible.」

「Correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t think you’ll be able to handle this situation with just the three of you, right?」

「That’s probably our best bet if we want to decrease the enemy’s strength before the parties sent to the southern cavern come back.」

「And then there’s also the matter of the W3 map.」

Hmm…
I realize that I won’t be able to deal with the crisis of such a scale myself, especially if the situation really is as bad as everyone else is painting it out to be.

「Which of the big shots went to the southern cavern?」

「Hannes should definitely be among them… I think?」

「Yosaku and Fay as well, right?」

「I think big sis Fina should go as well!」

Mio’s correct.
Who will do it?
That’s right.
Everyone is looking at me.

「Breaking through the enemy, is it something you can do?」

「I have my horse, Zangetsu. We’re pretty good together. We’ve no choice but to try.」

「I’m going with him as well!」

「Me too! Just leave it to Keith and us!」

Adel and Irina raised their hands at exactly the same time.
That’s right. Now I remember that they also have horses as their Summoned Monsters.
And to add to that, we have a track record of good cooperation with one another.

「Saki, Rick, Margrid. Be sure to keep things under control here while I’m away, all right?」

「Roger that, ma’am!」

「We’ll keep an eye out for things, you can rest assured about that.」

「Understood. What about the supplies for the party up south?」

「I’ll leave that up to Rick. Make sure to finish it up on the double, you hear me?!」

「If you’re going, then let me tag along!」

「We’ll be your escort this time! Allow me to accompany you!」

Mio and Reina also voiced their desire to go together with Fina-san.
And with that, all the members of our spontaneous expedition were selected.

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