Golden Experience

“…Is it just my imagination? The goblins now seem to be wearing armor.”

Sure enough, with a killer’s precision, she had been cutting down anything that moved in her field of vision in an instant.

Then, as soon as she made a somewhat forced remark, the corpses turned into light and disappeared.

“…So it was a player after all.”

Due to the excessively high attack power of the naginata made from the adamantite-esque material, even if they wore inferior armor, it could cut through them effortlessly. It was only after slashing through them that he noticed the metallic armor from the odd sensation at his hands.

Not that she didn’t realize. She noticed and still slashed.

However, there wasn’t much reason to intentionally kill the players she discovered. It was just that conversations were troublesome.

If anything, it might be because she had developed a reflexive sense of players being enemies when she saw them.

She had discovered them first, and their faces hadn’t been seen. Even if they had witnessed something, at most, it would be being cut by someone with a hooded appearance. Hooded players were abundant, and in the current VR game world, which was as realistic as reality, many players chose spears with longer reach than swords. As one became more experienced, sword users increased, but there was no dramatic decrease in the population of spear users.

Identifying a person named Mare should be difficult.

Moreover, she was confident that she hadn’t even been sensed at all.

“It’s because they suddenly appeared. Well, it was just bad luck for them.”

Perhaps being players accustomed to dying, they disappeared in an instant as soon as their death was certain, likely choosing respawn during the system message.

“…”

Watching that, she couldn’t help but think.

Rare’s corpse that had been defeated in the capital must have disappeared immediately like this.

At that time, the players present there didn’t have any suspicions that the calamity might also be a player. If they had disappeared right after death, I’d think it could only be a player, but what clouded their judgment?

Was it their preconception that event bosses were special?

Certainly, if the boss prepared for the event disappeared on the second day, it would affect the subsequent excitement. So, should they have set up a system to respawn instantly during the event? Of course, there was no need to say it intentionally. If doubts arose, it was enough to vaguely hint at it.

“…It’s already in the past, so it’s fine now.”

For now, the goal was the central part of the town, probably the lord’s mansion, which was still a bit away.

Thanks to the performance of the weapon and Rare’s skill, the walking speed was not much different from normal walking even during battle. Moreover, there were times when he didn’t perform any skinning or such. It should be significantly faster compared to a regular dungeon attack.

If the boss of this area was monitoring the movements of intruders by some means, Rare would be an important target.

If they approached the lord’s mansion any further, there might be a reaction different from ordinary mobs.

Looking forward to that, she advanced with a slightly heightened vigilance.

However, even as she approached the lord’s mansion, there was not much difference in the mobs that appeared.

They were still goblins slightly larger than humans. Although some used magic, their attacks, which only flew in a straight line, were easy to dodge no matter how fast they were. Despite their rank allowing them to use area-of-effect magic, they only used single-target magic for some reason. Perhaps because there was only one rare. It could be that there was a programming routine that did not choose area-of-effect magic if there were no multiple targets.

“Or rather, it might be an order not to waste MP since the higher-ups have it.”

The strategy was named ‘Magic Efficiency’.

In Rare’s opinion, what needed to be saved was the overall resources, which included time. If using area-of-effect magic would result in a faster conclusion, it should be used, but it would be cruel to expect each soldier at the bottom to make such judgments.

For Rare’s subordinates, such as infantry ants and zombies, who were at the bottom of the bottom, there were few things they could do. Therefore, it was natural for them to always do what they could do without thinking. What needed to be considered was the arrangement of those soldiers and the division of their numbers, in other words, the job of the manager. And the manager was given a certain level of experience, and education was also provided to enable them to make somewhat advanced judgments.

“This is a difficult problem. Although we are a pyramid structure based on a large company, we also have many intermediate managers like Sugaru and the queens. It’s basically a top-down type, but it’s called middle-up-down management. In a one-man organization where all decisions have to be made by the top, strategies and orders may become sloppy.”

If the organization had a small number of personnel, a one-man structure would be more rational. The speed of decision-making for the entire organization would be on a different level.

However, this further increased the likelihood that the boss of this area was a player.

If it were a wild boss, they wouldn’t consider the performance of the battle cost and would give orders with killing intent as their top priority.

While chopping down the large goblins that attacked, she gradually approached the lord’s mansion.

The city’s largest building was just ahead.

However, including the player she encountered by chance a while ago, the lack of challenge was starting to get a little boring.

After all, martial arts in reality had been honed as a technique to wield weapons made of wood or iron. Fighting with a weapon like this, which was like a magical item that never broke, bent, or chipped, was not something that had been anticipated.

—The weapon was too strong. Maybe I shouldn’t have used equipment that was higher level than my own. But there’s a different kind of enjoyment in blowing them away with magic, and this is not bad either. If you think of it as some kind of overpowering game.

Before long, she arrived at the front of the lord’s mansion.

While the gate was closed, there didn’t seem to be any lock in place.

Rather, it appeared that the gate, once destroyed, had been haphazardly closed for the time being.

The main entrance door of the mansion, visible through the gaps in the iron bars of the gate, showed a similar state.

There were no signs of other player parties entering or leaving here.

However, if the walls were as high as those of the royal capital or the city’s fortifications, it would be a different story. With this kind of fence, it would be possible to climb over from places other than the gate if one raised their stats. The gate being closed didn’t necessarily mean that players hadn’t come.

Moving slightly to the side of the gate, she jumped, placed his hands on the top of the fence, and effortlessly used her strength to soar over it. Even a player who wasn’t Rare could easily do this if they had come this far. Even magic users who hadn’t allocated any experience points to physical abilities could probably manage it by using ropes or similar tools.

The garden beyond the fence that she had crossed was also in a state of neglect. It was far worse than the garden of the Rifure lord’s mansion.

The garden of the Rifure lord’s mansion was well-kept with a sense of taste, despite nobles’ guests rarely coming. The main visitors were likely traders involved in transactions and residents who came to make petitions. It was also a sign that Albert considered residents important.

Here, guests would likely be unruly players invading, and entertaining them with a beautiful garden might be pointless.

The entrance door opened when pushed, or rather, it collapsed. It seemed the hinges were also destroyed, and it no longer retained its shape as a door.

“…How is the boss entering and leaving?”

Perhaps the boss never leaves the city, or there might be another entrance. Even if that were the case, it wasn’t necessarily because they planned to escape. If that were their intention, they wouldn’t have come alone. It was probably just a leisurely play. If possible, she wanted to take a look at the boss’s face, and if she killed the boss, she wanted to see what would happen to the territory.

—No, that’s right. I want to see that. In that case, I’ll prioritize defeating the boss.

First, she decided to explore the mansion floor by floor.

The entrance hall was spacious, with stairs on both sides. Above, there seemed to be a large chandelier-type magic light. Of course, it wasn’t there now. Whether goblins took it or it was destroyed was unclear, but only the remnants of chains that seemed to have held something were hanging.

The drawing-room, dining room, kitchen. Places that seemed like rooms for servants and the linen room. A laundry room facing the backyard.

Then, the wine cellar and food storage in the basement.

There was no boss, not even a large goblin, on the first floor.

“Did they send all the small fry out to the city? Don’t they have any meat shields to protect themselves when needed? What are they thinking?”

The fact that nothing attacked him after coming this far could be considered evidence that there was no means of monitoring the intruders’ movements.

If that were the case, it seemed somewhat unnatural not to consider base defense against intruders who might attack at any time.

She didn’t feel the presence of goblins packed on the second floor, but it wasn’t impossible.

For now, she returned to the entrance hall and decided to explore the second floor by going up the stairs.

There were only guest rooms and what seemed to be the lord’s family’s private rooms here, but still, there were no goblins.

The only thing left was the west side of the second floor, the room at the very back. Among the places she hadn’t checked yet, it should be the study. Most likely, that was it.

And it was the only place where he felt some kind of living presence.

During the exploration, she tried to make as little noise as possible and moved stealthily to suppress her presence, so she shouldn’t have been noticed. However, it wasn’t an absolute guarantee.

Approaching the door slowly, she sliced it three times in a breath. First, the hinges, and then the door in a cross shape.

In an instant, the door fell into four pieces onto the floor.

Then, magic flew out from the room.

She had intended to launch a surprise attack, but it seemed they were waiting. It was fortunate that she didn’t rush in at the same time as destroying the door.

However, it was too close for a mutual offset. There was no time. And the corridor was too narrow to dodge.

“Kuh.”

This was the first damage she took since coming here.

To minimize the damage, she covered her face with her arms and turned half of her body to reduce the area of impact. Queen Arachnea’s thread seemed excellent, as there was no significant damage. It seemed to be [Fire Magic], but she didn’t receive the bad status of burns. There was no damage to his equipment either.

—Thanks to the excellent equipment, I was saved.

Until now, she hadn’t paid much attention to what she wore, but there was room for consideration now.

Equipment should be based on Adamant and Queen Arachnea’s thread, and the items necessary for the equipped characters should be renewed.

Needless to say, the original dress that Rare was supposed to wear was being made by Queen Arachnea and her companions. Once that was completed, it might be a good idea to have clothes made for Kerry and the girls, Lord Albert, the Gustav family, and even the Archbishop of Aural.

The magical resistance was amazing. If turned into a cape for defense, it would likely be impervious to low-rank magic.

That being said, she jumped into the room before the next attack came.

The interior seemed to be an office, with bookshelves, a sofa, and a heavy desk and chair.

Reclining on the chair was another goblin. It seemed it had fired magic while sitting. Quite audacious.

In the same swift motion it prepared to cast magic again, she cut off its right hand with a lightning-fast thrust.

Unaware of the low table at his feet, he accidentally kicked it away, but thanks to his high STR, it didn’t become a significant obstacle. The table that was kicked flew into the bookshelf and knocked it over.

“Gyagyau!”

“…A strange cry, isn’t it?”

With her arm extended, she rotated the halberd and also severed the left hand. With excessive force, she also tore through the desk, but she didn’t mind. She dismantled the desk as if in passing and, since she saw the feet of a goblin sitting on a chair, she sliced that off too.

Numerous marks were left on the ceiling and floor, but it wasn’t her room, so she didn’t care. The cramped space was worse.

“Gyaggiaau!”

“It’s not a scream. Is this a howl? You’re just a goblin.”

This goblin, larger than the large goblins she had cut down before, had decent equipment, but that was it.

If it were a player, or rather, if it were reasonably intelligent, they could probably converse like Gaslark. In other words, the creature before her was an NPC small fry without much intelligence. The fact that she completely defended against the magic earlier might be due to the enemy’s low INT.

“Which means you’re not the boss, right? Where’s your boss?”

Even if she asked, there wouldn’t be an answer. Even if it did answer, it would be impossible to determine what the strange howl meant.

—Kill this one and return to the city. If there are still goblins in the city, then this one is not the boss.

It would have been more convenient if there were small fry inside the lord’s mansion, but in that case, she probably would have killed them all, and the result would be the same.

She cut this one into small pieces to the point where she could be convinced of complete death, cleaned off the blood with [Cleanse], and left the lord’s mansion.

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