CH 88

A day passed since Asahi moved for us. 

My wanted poster has been taken off from the city for now.

But that’s because they know I am staying at the Hisame Dojo, so they don’t need the wanted poster. Everyone from the Knight Order still believes that I am a cultist. 

It seems like the Knight Order has been injected with the fear of the Nekomimi Mansion. Even Asahi asked: “Just what kind of place is your house?” 

I learned from my many predecessors and answered…

“A pretty amazing place.” (Souma)

Yeah, I am not lying here. 

Also, it is simply that there’s a lot of pranks set in that mansion by the developers. 

The horror room and the spinning room were actually most likely made for the player to have fun in their own twisted service spirit. Excluding the intruder traps, there aren’t actually that many that bring harm to the body purposely. 

No, it might be just because you can just reset in the game world for the physical damage, but the mental damage it does to your real self is actually more effective. 

At the very least, now that the game has become reality, the traps of the Hisame family’s trial that were all life-threatening were a lot more dangerous than the mansion. Is that just me? 

It seems like the matter of the Knight Order will take more time. 

Asahi didn’t tell me not to go outside, but he did warn me to not go to the capital. 

I honestly don’t understand the subtleties in those areas. 

But, for now, I don’t really have any pressing matters I have to do in the capital aside from the matter with Maki.

I will use this dojo as my base, and will clear dungeons and fields that don’t have much to do with the capital. 

When I told them my plan, Mitsuki’s cat ears stood up and Ringo had milk in one hand as they both agreed.

The Bear alone was clinging to my neck and smacking my head, but this is not about what I am saying here. It is simply that its anger of before has not subsided. 

“So, where are we going first?” (Mitsuki)

I once again think about it.

There’s no immediate danger, but in Nekomimi Neko, wasting time means death. 

This game has a war state system made so that the player doesn’t slack. 

Putting it simply, the war state system is an influence battle against the monsters. You gain an advantage by doing battles and events; on the other hand, if you don’t battle or fail events, the monsters will push humanity. 

The easiest to understand one would be when you neglect completing the game too much and the Demon Lord ends up reviving the Evil God which would bring the Resurrection of the Evil God Bad End. Game Over. 

The thing deciding the war state is the parameter called Monster Invasion Progress that exists in each field. This lowers when you defeat monsters of that field, and if there’s a lot of monsters in the field, it will increase.

When it gets higher, the monster spawning will shorten, and when it is maxed, it will overflow to neighboring fields. 

On the opposite spectrum, if it lowers a lot, monster spawning will lower, and this would be a hindrance to leveling up there. It lets you get a peek of the disdain the Nekomimi Neko developers have with leveling up. 

Anyways, leaving that aside…

The Monster Invasion Progress being way too high and monsters invading the neighboring fields is not something that happens in normal gameplay, but there’s also the influence to events as well. 

In the case the Monster Invasion Progress is high, the Attack on the Capital and events where massive amounts of monsters show up happen more frequently. If you want to aim for a safe playthrough, you should lower them as much as possible. 

The Attack on the Capital event is one to watch out for specially. 

This event is apparently connected with the Monster Invasion Progress from the surrounding areas and the days since you came to the capital, but the conditions for it are still not clear. 

But if you continue your slow play and it happens in your first playthrough when your preparations are not good, it is certain that you won’t be able to deal with it to begin with. 

If it happens when your stats are lacking, or if it happens when the player is not in the city, a massive amount of deaths happen there, and there’s the chance it will deal a big blow to the city’s functions and the events. 

Even if not, the characters of this world are all actual living beings. 

If possible, I would like the casualties to be as few as possible. 

Also…

(Maki will show up in that battle as well.) (Souma)

If Maki’s position is that of the game’s Princess Shermia, she will be standing at the very frontlines and fight the monsters. 

I obviously want to meet Maki, but I don’t want to expose her to danger pointlessly. 

But she is not an adventurer and not even a Nekomimi Neko player, just a normal modern girl. 

Fortunately, the Monster Invasion Progress should have lowered quite a bit by wiping out the monsters of the Massive Outbreak, and it has only been recently since I have arrived at the capital. 

I doubt the Attack on the Capital will be happening anytime soon. 

Also, the event of the Attack on the Capital and the monsters that appear there may have a slight margin of error, but the direction and route they appear from doesn’t change at all. 

As long as I prepare properly, I should be able to fight them off easily. 

Especially in this world where freedom is higher. 

I am thinking about setting traps in their route beforehand, and wipe out the monsters that come attacking. 

But in order to set large-scale traps…I won’t go as far as saying I need the cooperation of the capital’s people, but I haven’t built enough trust with them to have them not oppose this. 

Anyways, it means that I can’t make my move yet.

Also, the threats related to the Monster Invasion Progress are not only the Attack on the Capital. 

It is not, but…

(First, we have to confirm our fighting force at a convenient location.) (Souma)

I look up a good location to test this out within my brain.

There’s several candidates. 

With our current ability, we technically can overcome any place aside from challenging the Demon Lord Castle. 

I would like to be back by today, so it will have to be limited to places closeby. 

I also add the condition that it shouldn’t be too life-threatening or have rough traps. Also, since there’s the chance here, I would like it to be a place where we can obtain useful items… Yeah, I think I’m close to singling one out. 

“Alright, then we will head to the Steam Cave today.” (Souma)

I decide on our next objective. 

I did go to Asahi to get his permission to go outside just in case, but he gave the okay pretty fast to a surprising extent. 

Even though I will be bringing her daughter along, he doesn’t even ask for the place. 

He probably trusts us. 

The troubling thing instead was that the Clumsy Maid-san heard we were heading out on an adventure, and said: “Then, I will cook up something that will last, okay?!”

And she began making boxed lunches for some reason. 

In the first place, I have the Cooler Box, so there’s no need to make food that will last, and with this clumsy one being the one who is cooking it, I can only imagine a bad result. 

I desperately refused, but I was pushed back in the end. 

“Eat it with everyone, okay?!” 

She said this and gave me a whole ton of mitarashi dango**. 

Why dangos? Why mitarashi? But within the many dangos, the mitarashi dango is the only one that doesn’t degrade with time, so mitarashi dangos are being treated as preserved food in this world.

…Well, I am not really clear on this since there are many vegetable type items and their settings are haphazard, but even though dango itself can’t be considered preserved food, the moment you put sweet soy sauce glaze on it, it suddenly becomes one. 

It is one of the natural features of Nekomimi Neko. You could even consider it a bug. 

I receive those dangos while feeling wonder at how even the bugs have resonated in the daily life of the Nekomimi Neko world.

As for the taste…let’s just say she messed up the salt and sugar. 

We meandered a good amount, but we safely departed from the dojo, and we managed to arrive at the Stream Cave before it turned to night. 

The Stream Cave is a level 110 dungeon. 

Because the entrance is in a hard to tell location, the level of the enemies in this dungeon are high despite being close to the capital.

In terms of level, you could say they are slightly higher than me and Ringo. 

But…

“These two really are absurd.” (Souma)

We blitzed through the place without feeling that at all. 

The monsters showing up here are water element. 

There’s guys that look like a giant mass of water that are floating around the vast cave, but it is honestly just a target for Ringo’s Lightning Strike. 

The attack power of Ringo with the Wakizashi is incredible. 

She was defeating all enemies that should be above her in one hit with her Lightning Strike. 

Defeating them might not be the most accurate way to represent that sight. It would be more appropriate to say she is mowing them down. 

She is defeating them in one hit, so it instead makes it hard to tell the limits of the Lightning Strike. 

It is hard to say whether this is a successful test of her strength. 

There’s also Mitsuki who doesn’t even care at all that the enemy is in the sky. By the time I think she jumped, the enemy was already dead. That’s just how fast she was bringing down the Elementals. 

By the way, I asked the two to not attack and used Side-Slash with Shiranui and managed to defeat them in one hit. 

I will just consider having learned Ringo and I can defeat level 110 enemies in one hit as the test showing results. 

But I chose this dungeon because I carefully thought we would be able to defeat the enemies here even if we lacked the ability, so ending it like this would be a bit dull. 

That’s when I thought of something. 

“Ah, now that I think about it, Bear, want to try defeating enemies too?” (Souma)

If the bear can defeat cows, it might be able to level up. 

Well, with that body, I doubt it can equip armor, but there should be a chance if it can equip a weapon. 

It should at least be able to stab the Wakizashi on a dying enemy. 

After confirming that the bear nodded, I grinned. 

“Then, Ringo, please give the Wakizashi to the bear.” (Souma)

Even if the Wakizashi has high power, there’s the chance that the bear will get killed if it gets hit. 

I decided to weaken the Water Elemental as much as possible with my game knowledge.

“Actually, this Water Elemental monster looks like it is hard to defeat because it is floating in the air, but it is actually an easy to defeat monster that has a lot of weak points. First…” (Souma)

I throw a red ball to the Water Elemental first. 

The Red Ball that was within the items I bought in large quantities at the Item Shop. 

The ball type item is an expendable item that deals fixed damage like the Dart, but there’s a variety of elements depending on the color of it. When it hits something, it will burst and deal elemental damage to its surroundings. 

But since it is a cheap 50E one, it only deals 10 damage, so it would get even lower if you have elemental resistance. That said…

“It stopped…moving?” (Mitsuki)

It is effective against this Elemental. 

When an Elemental monster gets hit by their elemental weakness, they get stunned for a set amount of time.

And within those, the Water Elemental has an even bigger weakness. 

“Stopping its movements with a fire element attack first is the basics. What’s next is…” (Souma)

What I take out next are 2 bottles that I pour onto the enemy. 

The green and yellow liquid smashed onto the Water Elemental, mix, and the once blue body of the Elemental changed to green and yellow. 

“That just now were poison and paralysis drugs. Maybe because its body is liquid, the liquid poisons have 100% effectiveness. 

And so, this guy has not only been poisoned but also paralyzed, so you can now do as you please with it. 

In this case…” (Souma)

Without further ado, I ready the Golden Sakura that I got from Ringo and…

“[Last Nirvana]!” (Souma)

Activate the Ninja Sword skill. 

Last Nirvana is a skill to hold back. 

Even if you deal fatal damage, it can keep the target in 1 HP. 

There’s no way I would miss this against a paralyzed enemy. 

My attack hit the Water Elemental splendidly and…

(Got nice feedback there!) (Souma)

I get its HP to 1. 

Perfect. 

Now, we just need to have the bear defeat the Water Elemental that has 1 HP and…

“…Eh?” (Souma)

While I was thinking this, the green and yellow Water Elemental’s body wavered and fell to the ground. 

“Eh? Why…?” (Souma)

Mitsuki whispered to me when I was confused.

“…If you get your enemy to 1 HP in a poisoned state, it will obviously die immediately.” (Mitsuki)

“Ah…” (Souma)

A hard to describe atmosphere filled the cave. 

The cat ears of Mitsuki covered themselves as if saying ‘even I am feeling embarrassed here…’. 

While I was feeling dejected, a new Water Elemental spawned.

I raise my voice as if to clear away the awkward mood.

“A-Alright, one more! 

Basically, just don’t use poison. If I only use the paralysis one, I can hold back for the Bear—” (Souma)

Just when I was about to finish what I was saying, a silver flash ran by my side. 

“Wa?” (Souma)

When I checked where it went, I saw that the Wakizashi was stabbed at the center of the Water Elemental. 

I hurriedly turned back, and the Wakizashi was not in the hand of the Bear anymore. Its arm was directed at the Water Elemental as if it had thrown something. 

“Throwing skill…” (Souma)

I muttered this dumbfounded. 

The power of the skill that brought the end of many players is still alive. The Water Elemental fell to the ground with the Wakizashi still stabbed in it, and disappeared into the air. 

“What was the point of my work…” (Souma)

Within the hard to describe silence and sad atmosphere of the cave, only the Bear had a grin as if having fun. 

Because the Water Elemental was too weak, we didn’t manage to confirm it properly, but I am now suspecting that maybe that Unique Skill shows the same amount of power regardless of who uses it. That said, I don’t have the leeway to think about that right now. 

Even with that, the exploration went smoothly to a spiteful degree. 

When two or more enemies showed up, Ringo would defeat them with Lightning Strike. When there was only one, the Bear would defeat them with the throwing skill and we soon arrived at the boss room. 

The boss was a giant Water Elemental, so I immediately threw a Red Ball to it as if smashing all of my grievances here, threw a paralysis drug, and mindlessly stabbed it to death while it couldn’t move.

I was completely venting here. 

But thanks to that, I managed to regain my composure, and obtained a water element spear and Magic Seed as boss drops. 

(Well, this is good.) (Souma)

I may have shown a pretty uncool side of me in the middle, but when looking at the whole picture, it wasn’t that bad. 

We managed to feel our growth, and we obtained a water element weapon which we didn’t have yet. 

Also, when you defeat the boss of the dungeon, the Monster Invasion Progress of that area lowers heavily. 

With this, there’s no need to worry about this place for a good while. 

However, after thinking that far, something bothered me. 

(Monster Invasion Progress, huh… I really can’t ignore it.) (Souma)

Actually, when I remembered about the Monster Invasion Progress, I also remembered that there’s a place I must go to no matter what. 

I placed one cushion to test our current strength just in case, but I can’t run away the whole time. 

“You two, listen here.” (Souma)

That’s why I resolved myself and spoke. 

Mitsuki, Ringo, and the Bear on top of my head look at me. 

“I think the exploration of today was a success. We managed to reconfirm that we are strong. That’s why there’s a place I want to go to no matter what.” (Souma)

“A place you want to go to no matter what?” (Mitsuki)

I nodded at Mitsuki and answered. 

“Yeah. The field at the base of the mountain range south of here, the Slime Mold Forest.” (Souma)

I said this with quite the resolve here, but the reaction of the two was questionable. 

Ringo probably doesn’t know that place, and Mitsuki most likely doesn’t understand why I feel so much danger from it exactly because she knows about it. 

As if proving my thoughts right…

“Is it a place to be so on guard of? If I remember correctly, that place should be a mere level 120 field.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki’s cat ears tilted as if saying ‘you are so weird~’, but that’s the reaction of a person that doesn’t understand their fearsomeness. 

They begin moving for real once the game starts. 

I don’t know how this world fills the holes of why they don’t move before that, but they must have begun their ‘invasion’ into this world the moment I came to this world, just like in the game.

At this rate, this world will be conquered by them.

That’s why I must stop them before it is too late.

The lord of the Slime Mold Forest and for the Nekomimi Neko players…

“Demon… A demon… Yellow…Demons…!” 

“If you see one, assume there’s 1,000 more of them.” 

“These guys definitely have defeated more monsters than us.” 

“While we were playing an RPG, these guys were playing a war simulation.” 

“Wasn’t the Monster Invasion Progress created solely for these guys?” 

“A cat ear loving developer most likely mixed a weird love in it.” 

“The detail and fixation is on a whole other level…in a bad way.” 

Are the complaints said about history’s worst monster in Nekomimi Neko…the Yellow Slimes!!