Golden Experience

<<One hour until automatic resurrection. Would you like to respawn immediately?>>

<<During this event, there is no XP penalty.>>

<<The previous spawn point cannot be found. You cannot spawn there. You do not have any other valid spawn points. You will spawn at a random location within the starting spawn zone.>>

“…Haah…”

It had been completely useless. Even though there were NPCs in that city who were supposed to be guards, they were way weaker than Wayne was. The Erfahren guards were at least as strong as Wayne was now, so he had been hopeful, but those guards were much too unorganized.

Considering it more deeply, perhaps that was only natural. If there were monster territory nearby, then people would need to be able to fight to protect the city from those monsters. But without that kind of looming threat, the guards didn’t need to be particularly skilled. It’s expensive to employ people who were strong, so if there was no need for their strength then no one would hire them. Thus, people who could fight well would relocate to the border towns closer to monster territory instead.

Right off the bat, the enemies had set fire to the town’s lifeline, the barley fields, which really hurt. The flames were unnaturally fierce, so there had been a dispute over whether to focus on putting out the fire or repelling their foes, and before they knew it the fields had burned up. The officer’s lack of leadership and inability to clearly decide what to prioritize had resulted in this tragedy. If they had been used to dealing with monsters in an organized manner, it wouldn’t have gone so poorly.

In the first place, if there were any border towns in the area, they should have already been attacked by monsters for the event. This of course meant that there was a possibility that other cities nearby could also be assaulted. In which case, after the update that changed starting spawn locations to be much safer, the probability of him spawning there should have been very low. That said, when Wayne had to respawn before, there was probably no way of predicting that something dangerous was about to happen.

Continuing on, while he had absolutely no idea why a pack of undead would suddenly appear near such a peaceful city, maybe he had been sent to aid players who were based there or something. For those specialized in crafting or other non-combat builds, it may have been unsolicited meddling, but perhaps the admins had been thinking something like that.

However, if the event was configured to only react to logged-in players, then why did undead appear there? There weren’t any other players in the city; the only one there had been Wayne.

“I wonder if it was my fault… Because I had respawned in that wasteland, maybe that’s why they…”

No, that couldn’t possibly be why. It was simply unrealistic for an event to take into consideration each and every player’s individual circumstances. Then maybe the undead just happened to spawn there, found Wayne, and chased him all the way to the city. That scenario felt a lot more plausible.

“But then it still would be my fault…”

No matter how much he might regret it, there was nothing he could do about it now. He had to rein in his feelings and start thinking about what to do from here.

The sun steadily climbed up into the sky. This marked the beginning of the second day of the event.

＊

This time he had an easier time finding a city. It was daytime this time around.

In the light of the sun shining down, the city he spotted had a gorgeous castle, the likes of which he had never seen before, as well as a formidable city wall. At first glance, he thought the wall indicated that he was at a border city, but there would never be a castle as flashy as this one out in the sticks.

So this must be the capital. It was the safest place to be right now, which meant it was also the furthest place to be to find event battles.

However, he had no other choice but to go there. If he remembered correctly, during the event, there should be a teleportation system that allowed him to instantly travel to a neighboring town regardless of the distance.

Using that, he would be able to slowly make his way back out to the border.

Once Wayne arrived at the city gate, he was greeted by a cheerful guard. He thought that guarding a gate had to have been boring work, but apparently the guard didn’t share that opinion. The man went about his job so enthusiastically it was like he was thanking God for having created gates for him to guard.

Following after the guard, whose name was apparently Thomas, Wayne headed for the sellsword guild first. If there were any players here, he wanted to talk to them. As expected of the capital city, the townscape was very picturesque. It wasn’t often that he enjoyed simply walking around. When he arrived at the guild, it had a very different atmosphere from Erfahren’s more relaxed counterpart.

Apparently they shared the building with a restaurant, since there was a very appetizing smell throughout the room. It was still wasn’t even noon in-game yet, and Wayne hadn’t had breakfast. However, he still felt somewhat full. From a financial standpoint, it would be better if he munched on some shortbread he had in his inventory, although he couldn’t say much for the taste. There was nothing to be gained from buying food here. It would simply be wasteful spending.

A whiff of lard, the crackle of sizzling. The aroma of burnt sauce.

“Maybe I’ll…get a light snack.”

As soon as Wayne’s feet started dragging him toward the restaurant, he heard the sound of loud footsteps outside the guild, then turned to see a knight wearing extravagant armor enter the establishment. Normally, a fine knight like that would never come to the sellsword guild; something must have happened. He wanted to find out what was going on, but that matter would have to wait; first, Wayne needed to order something to appease his grumbling stomach.

While waiting for his food, he was able to check on the knight, who was apparently trying to gather sellswords. He seemed to especially want people who were safeholders.

“Hey man, sorry to tell ya, but we ain’t seen any o’ the safeholders since yesterday. Usually they’re always here messin’ around at all times o’ day, but somethin’ musta happened to ’em.”

The knight wanted players for some reason. The ones who hadn’t shown up since the day before must have been doing the event, so they had gone to cities closer to the border. Wayne had also come to the guild to see if he could find any players, but it seemed to have been a wasted trip. Not that there was anything that could be done about it now.

After his hot food was ready, Wayne pulled money out of his inventory to pay to the woman.

“Oh? Yer a safeholder?”

“Yeah, I am. I also came here to look for other safeholders, but seems like there aren’t any here today.”

As soon as he heard Wayne’s voice, the knight came over to speak to him.

“Pardon me! Are you a sellsword safeholder?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s right.”

“Is it true that safeholders have a way to communicate with other safeholders, no matter how far apart they are?”

He must have been referring to friend chat. It could only be used with people already registered as friends, though. Right now, Wayne’s only friend was the guy he had met in the previous event, Gi1gamesh. However, using the event messaging system, it would be possible for him to call out to the player community at large.

“Well, you’re not wrong. We can’t do anything, but…”

“Superb! My deepest apologies, but I would like you to accompany me to the castle. There is an emergency!”