Chapter 15：Embarking On A Journey

12th login – Embarking On A Journey

On the next day, Sakuya with the blue rose guild member have gathered at seaside shore. A city which have a beautiful beach and white sands. It's the nearest location that they have chosen as the starting point for their expedition to the Far East continent.

Moments later, Akari show up with two players behind her.

"Good morning everybody. Let me introduce you to my friends. The bard here is Heinz and the dancer is Mina."

"Nice to meet you."

The bard Heinz is very skinny and tall, he wears a green beret with a feather on top of it. He also dressed in green to match his beret. On the other hand, the dancer Mina looks average but her body is so tempting. She has curves all over her body and the sexy pink dancer outfit brings out her charm. Making Kongou and Roberto unknowingly drools.

When they're busy introducing themselves, two big man in heavy armor approaching.

"Ah, there they are."

"Shibo, how're you?"

"Great. It's nice to see you. Everybody, the man with the black armor here is Billy the iron wall. And the man with the grey armor is Shidou the moving castle."

"Hello. Please look after me."

Hikaru is not surprised to see Billy. He has seen him before in the monthly event. His black armor and big body sure looks dependable. He should have what it takes to be called the iron wall. When Hikaru look at Shidou, his face is surprisingly look girlish. It's such a mismatch with his armor.

Seven then show up at the meeting place. With this, 13 players and Sakuya have gathered.

"Now, it's only them that are left."

The six remaining players are called by Roberto to come. This makes the rest of the party is worried. Will they really come? But, minutes later their doubt gone. Strong players which are easily recognized have showed up.

From afar, a tall and handsome man with a hawk on his shoulder is nearing. Beside him, a cute girl in a shamanic outfit is walking.

"Hello everybody, nice to meet you. My name is Yoon Bin and she's Min Sora. Please take care of us."

They are easily recognized. Both of them leading the black crows guild and known as the cursed arrow. Following after them, three men in a matching armor is marching. Without any doubt, they are Erio, Douglas33, and Seraphim. The leader of three swords guild

"Hello everybody. My name is Erio, he's douglas33, and he's seraphim."

Erio looked to be the youngest between the three of them, but he's really talkative and sociable. That's probably why he's the one who do most of the talking. Douglas33 on the other hand looked very serious. He is carrying his sword on his back to show that he never wants to let his guard down. Seraphim, the last of them surprisingly enough are a girl. Although she looked like a man from far because of the armor, she's actually pretty.

"It's amazing how these people have gathered when Roberto asked them."

"Yeah. I couldn't believe it. My view of him has changed."

Hikaru and Kongou are surprised to see the rosters that have gathered here. Most of them come from a famous guild. They know realized how lucky they are to meet with such strong players.

"So, let's go now shall we?"

"Eehh... isn't there only 19 of us?"

"Nope, we're already 20."

When Roberto said that, Hikaru is surprised. He then counts the people one by one. Himself, Sakuya, Roberto, Kongou, Leona, Shibo, Akane, Akari, Kenta, Seven, Billy, Shidou, Yoon Bin, Min Sora, Erio, Douglas, Seraphim, Heinz, and Mina. No matter how many times he counts it again, it's definitely 19.

"Heh, I guess it's time for you to show yourself Kira."

Without anybody notices, someone is showing up from Hikaru's shadow. It's a woman with an appearance similar to Kuro's. Dressed in all black and wear a mask. Her short black hair show how mature she was. Even if it was covered by a mask, they beauty of the face can still be seen.

"Eehh... I didn't realize that somebody is standing behind me."

"That's pretty natural. After all, she's a shinobi. Their class is known as the best for hiding their presence."

"Nice to meet you. My name is Kira."

"Whoa."

Hikaru and Kongou are amazed to see her. Her skills should be pretty high for her to be able to hide without being notice by the rest of the party.

"Okay, let's start the journey then."

With that said, Sakuya take out a bottle from her bag. She then shouts a command.

"Neptune's tears maximize."

The clear blue ship from Sakuya's bottle then disappear from the inside and appears on the water. It then slowly gets bigger to its regular size. The rest of the party that haven't seen the form of the ship is gaping in awe.

"What's you're waiting for? Let's get in."

That comments from Roberto make the other party member returned to their senses and they're aboard the ship.

"So, where are we heading?"

"To the south east direction."

"Okay."

Roberto volunteered himself to control the wheel. Although Hikaru and Kongou want to do it too, they were convinced by Sakuya word's that it's better to entrust this task to Roberto.

Their journey will take approximately two hours. Along the way, they are chatting and seeing the scene with a happy face. Only Sakuya and Akari looked worried. When they have reached the border line of the continent, a window appears.

Attention.

You're heading towards the Far East continent.

Access to this area is still locked. Unauthorized personnel please turn back and leave.

"That's weird. Aren't we granted access by using the Neptune's tears?"

"I don't know either."

But, seconds later the window is updated.

Recognizing special item.

Neptune's tears. The permission to access the Far East continent has been granted.

Congratulations! You're the first player to arrive in the new world.

After that, the ship is moving and entering the Far East continent. The Far East continent is located in the south east of the world. Based on the world geographical, this continent is having a tropical climate all year round.

The ship light attracts some dolphins and they are swimming alongside the ship. The party then watches that scene happily. But, Sakuya then feels something is going on inside his head. She then fall down to her knees and put her hand on her head.

Seeing that, the rest of the party asked her what happened.

"Sakuya. What's going on? Are you alright?"

Sakuya then raise one hand and gesturing that she's okay.

"I'm okay. It's just a new data of the far east continent has been added to my database."

As a NPC, Sakuya is connected to the database through the system called the network. Although some of it is concealed and can't be accessed if she doesn't have an authorization. When she enters the Far East continent it seemed that her knowledge about the Far East continent has been added. But, Seven seem to haven't realized that she's a NPC.

"So, do you know where Kuro is?"

Akari is the one who' asking about that impatiently.

"No, there's nothing about that."

When Sakuya gives her reply, Akari seemed to be down. But, seeing that question Seven is curious.

"Hey, who's this Kuro?"

The entire ship then saying no word to that question. For those who participate in the battle with the wyvern must have heard about the rumor. They're also explained about the situation when they're asked for help. But, Seven doesn't know anything about it.

"Hey, someone, please tell me about it. You're hiding something aren't you?"

Hikaru is the one to pat his shoulder. He then spoke to him softly.

"Do you really want to know?"

Seven can see the serious look on Hikaru face. He wants to know about it but something scares him. It seemed like he's going to succumb into despair if he learn about the truth.

"On second thoughts, never mind."

When he said that, Seven expressions is somehow weird. He never feels this way in his life before.

"Anyway Sakuya, what can you tell us about this new continent?"

Leona is the one who looked calm. She definitely wants to get as much information as possible before they're heading to the unknown.

"The far east continent capital city, Eden fall- the hidden garden. It's the new city where marriage system will be implemented. Due to various reasons, the city of light with the same name, Eden fall will be changed into Luminos- the city of light. The Far East continent level range is on 40 to 70. We're currently nearing the capital city."

The ship then took another twenty minutes of sailing and docked at Eden fall. It's such a beautiful city. In the middle of the city, a tall tower that's completely covered by plants stand. The buildings in the city is made of wood and on the side of the road, it's covered by a bunch of flowers from all kind of types and color. It's truly a hidden garden.

What's more surprising is the NPC on the island. Their face looked like a cat, lion, tiger, panda, bear, and all kind of animal. They also have a skin that's covered with fur based on their face. At first, Hikaru is nonchalantly take out his sword and tries to cut them down, but he's stopped by Kongou.

"Calm down Hikaru. They're not enemy. They're the beast race."

From the FFAID announcement, their progress on the beast race is on 80%. So they probably want to test it out on the NPC first. But, it also makes a perfect combination of the Far East continent which is geographical structure which is made of island and jungle as the home of the beast race.

"So, what do we do now?"

"We're going to hunt new monster right?"

Hikaru is really excited to see the new continent, what's more there are a lot of new monster in here. But, he seemed to be forgetting their reason to embark on this journey. Which is to find information of Kuro's whereabouts.

"I'm going to ask around. Meanwhile you can do anything you want."

"I'm going to go with you."

Akari said that and she walked with Sakuya to ask some of the NPC on the island whether they have seen Kuro or not. It's a little bit hard because they can only describe him by words, but the two of them is a little bit surprised. They seemed to know about him and all of them are replying in a same manner.

"I've seen him. He's the hero of our village.""I've seen him. He helps my village once and expels some monster.""I've met with him before. He's our savior."

When they learned about that, something fishy is going on. Just what in the world have Kuro done. Before they decided of what to do next, they decided to go back to the rest of party first.

"I've found something interesting."

"Yeah, me too."

"Yeah, it's really interesting. All of the NPC give the same response when we asked about Kuro. It's as if he was some kind of hero for these NPCs."

"Yeah. It's also weird for me."

Just when they're talking, Leona is running from a far and is waving her hand.

"Everybody. I've found some clue. Follow me."

The party then surprised to hear that and hurriedly follows her. They then arrived and met with a really old looking monkey faced NPC. It seemed that he's the elder at Eden fall.

"Welcome young adventurer. It seems like you're all looking for a man that turns out to be our hero."

"Do you know something about him elder?"

"One day, he suddenly shows up in our city. That time, our city is controlled by Tiamat – the holy dragon that live on top of the tower. But, that man killed the dragon and frees us from its terror. We're all addressed him as the black hero."

The tale that they just heard seems like a lie. From what they know, a holy dragon level is at 96.

"That's should be a lie. Right, guys?"

Seven is the one who's saying that. He also expects for the rest of the party to deny that statement, but the rest of them looked pretty calm and believe in it.

Tch... Just what is happening here...who's this Kuro..?Why do I keep feeling uneasy about him..?

Seven may not know it, but they know if it's Kuro it's really possible for him to kill a dragon.

"So, where is he now?"

"From what I heard from him before he leave, he's going to climb the Tegron's mountains. But, I've never heard anything from him since that day.

"Thank you elder, for sharing to us about this information."

When Sakuya hear that, she instantly decided to go, but she have to talk about it with the party first.

"So, what are we going to do now? Are we going to follow him?"

"That's what I'm planning to do. If anybody doesn't want to come with me, they're free to do whatever they want."

Although Sakuya doesn't have any leadership skill, or charisma, but they way she act just draws people attention. They definitely can't leave her alone. After all, her determination to find Kuro no matter what happened is enough for people to help her.

"What're you saying? I've said that you have to bring me on your journey. So I'll never leave you."

Seven said that in confidence. Even though he's still having some suspicion about Kuro.

"I've promised to protect you. I'll hold on to that promise."

Hikaru said that while making another pose of victory.

"Well said you two. We here know about your circumstances and have decided to stay with you until the end. So, what are we waiting for?"

"Thank you everybody."

Sakuya said that while bowing. When she stands up, they can see her eyes are watery. They give her a smile and Roberto lead the party with his shout.

"Yosh... let's go to Tegron's mountain."

"Yeah..."

After that, the party then readied themselves and walk towards the mountain.

I can feel that you're near... I'll be there soon Kuro-sama...