王都への到達と旅の終わり
ユーミルが『バジリスク』の眉間に突き刺した剣から、光が迸る。
やがてそれは巨体の全身に回り――やがてバジリスクは粉々に砕け散った。
強敵だったことを示すように、天に光が昇っていく。
パーティメンバー全員が、肩で荒い呼吸をしながらそれを茫然と見ていた。
......。
「うおぉぉぉぉぉ!!」
真っ先に我に返ったユーミルが叫ぶ。
続けてトビも叫ぶ。
そして俺も叫んだ。
そのまま三人でハイタッチを交わし、笑顔のセレーネさんと握手をして激しく手を上下し、俺達の様子に戸惑っているリィズを抱き上げた。
「え、あの......う、嬉しいですけど、その――」
「あはははは! 勝った、勝ったぞリィズ!」
「兄さん、凄く楽しそう......ふふ」
そのままお姫様抱っこでくるくると回っていると、不意に背中に重みが加わった。
二人分の体重は支えきれず、俺はリィズを下敷きにしないように庇いながら柔らかい砂の上に倒れ込んだ。
誰だ! と、問うまでもない。
ユーミルだけだ、俺にこんなことをしてくるのは。
「ハインドォ! お前オーガの時は淡泊だったくせに、今回は随分と嬉しそうではないか!」
「あの時とは掛けた苦労の桁が違うって! てか重い、重いから!」
「何だと! 私はそんなに重くない!」
「体重の話じゃねえよ! 装備してる防具の分も考えろや!」
「では拙者も」
「わ、私も......」
「な、何で全員でのしかかって――ぐええっ!」
安全を確認したのか、戻ってきたラクダ達に「何やってんだこいつら」という顔をされるまで、俺達は勝利に酔っていつまでも騒ぎ続けた。
気分が落ち着いたところで、ラクダに乗り直して再び砂漠を進む。
マップ上では岩場が砂漠の中央付近だったので、俺達はマイヤに引き返さずこのまま『王都ワーハ』を目指すことに。
クエストの証拠品となる『大蛇のトサカ』は、予想通りドロップアイテムとしてインベントリの中に入っていることを確認済みだ。
更にクラリスさんから聞いた通り、バジリスクを倒した後は『ホーンヴァイパー』の姿が一斉に消え......。
今は『ヤービルガ砂漠』にも居た『デザートスコーピオン』が偶に出現するだけで、非常に快適に移動できている。
「それにしても酷い敵だった。まさかあれだけの瞬間火力を強要してくるとは」
「んー、クエスト詳細に推奨レベルとか、推奨パーティ人数の記載がある時点で気付くべきだったかなぁ?」
「かもしれません。でもこのゲーム、ちょいちょい理不尽な初見殺しが見られますよね。期限も短かったし、結構えげつない部類のクエストですよ。今回のは」
余裕ができたので、雑談しながらラクダをのんびり歩かせる。
モンスターが見えたら少し加速して離れればいいだけなので、スピードのある新種でも現れない限りはこのまま戦闘を避けつつ進めるだろう。
「耐久戦で安定した戦いをしたいプレイヤー的には、最悪の部類の敵でござるな」
「火力が不足している時点で詰みだからなぁ。ダメだった場合はレベルを上げる、武器の強化をする、最終手段として火力職でパーティを固める、って感じか。報酬の金額が破格だから、難易度に関しては仕方ないと思うしかないか」
「初見でクリアできて良かったな」
「二度も戦いたい敵ではありませんしね......死体が残らなかったのが残念です」
「残ったとして、死体に何をする気だったのだ貴様は......」
話している内にマップ上ではそろそろ終点が近付いて来た。
クラリスさんに情報を聞いた時点で、街の場所は記載されている。
この距離からして、あと数分もすれば王都が見えてくるだろう。
「今回はリィズがお手柄だったな。ダメージ調整と、石化でバジリスクの回復までの猶予を作れたのは大きかった」
「それを言うなら、事前に鏡を作製したハインドさんのおかげです」
「あー......ははっ、まあなんだ。褒め合いはこそばゆいからやめるか。――で、そろそろ王都だけど、まずはクエスト報告か? 王宮って俺らでも入れるもんかな?」
「どうだろうね。マイヤの街からルキヤ砂漠を通って来たって言えば、それだけで騒ぎになりそうだけど......ヤイードさんに連絡を取って、繋いでもらうのが良いんじゃないかな?」
セレーネさんの言う通り、その方が穏当かな。
『ルキヤ砂漠』側から街に入れば、どの道状況は知れてしまうだろうけど。
元は王宮勤めらしいヤイードさんに何とかしてもらおう。
足が悪いので、本人が来るかどうかは分からないが。
「そうですよね。移動が面倒だから、王都からマイヤに手紙でも書きますか。ラクダ便とかいうのがあるらしいし」
砂漠の安全確認が終わってからじゃないと運んでくれないだろうけど。
それでも、王都に着いたばかりでまた戻るのは正直しんどい。
「おお、ならその間にホーム候補を探せば良いではないか!」
「そうすっか。ホームは街の空き家の中から選ぶんだったよな?」
「そうでござるよ。中は異空間で広いので、建物や部屋の大小は考慮せずとも大丈夫でござる。ただ、立地や初期設備の良い物件は相応に高いそうな」
「そこは現実と同じなんですね。王都の家は高そうです......」
逆に安くホームを構えたい場合は、外れにある田舎の村などを選べばいいそうだ。
もちろん人が少ない分だけ特殊なクエストは起きないし、NPC相手の商売なども当然ながらやり辛くなる。
そういう場所では店売りの商品の種類も今一つだ。
ただし悪いことばかりでなく、農業だったり畜産だったりに関しては田舎の方が場所を確保しやすく便利なので、それぞれのプレイスタイルに合わせればいいとのことだ。
俺達の場合は深く考えずに、何となく王都にホームを構える予定だが。
「じゃあ、着いたらホームの場所選びに――あれ?」
何かを忘れているような。
しかし砂漠の小さな丘を越えたところで王都が見え、その思考は中断された。
パーティメンバーが感嘆の声を上げ、ラクダが小さく喉を鳴らす。
『王都ワーハ』は予想以上に巨大な都市だった。
見渡す限りの砂漠の中にあって、土色をした四角い建物がニョキニョキと密集して建っている。
蜃気楼が邪魔でその全景を窺うことはできないが、奥には荘厳な宮殿が鎮座しているのもうっすら見えた......気がする。
「着いたー!」
ユーミルがラクダの上で両手を上げて叫ぶ。
俺達もその言葉に長かった旅が終わりを告げようとしているのを感じ、顔を見合わせて笑い合った。
――その時だった。
ボコン、という音と共に近くの土が盛り上がる。
中から『デザートスコーピオン』より一回り大きく、毒々しい色をしたサソリが現れた。
レベルは37、名前は『ヴェノムスコーピオン』。
「う、うん? ええと......ハインド君? 何、このモンスター?」
「あ、そうか......これかぁ、引っ掛かってたの。すまん、みんな。言い忘れてたけど、この砂漠は通常フィールドなんだ。だから――」
「お、おう......なら居るだろうな、フィールドボス......」
「空気を読まないモンスターでござるな......」
「......いえ、向こうも困惑していると思いますよ。普通に登場したのに、こんな反応をされて」
一向に武器すら構えない俺達を見ながら、ヴェノムスコーピオンはシャキンシャキンと鋏を鳴らした。
ここが大型フィールドでないなら当然、出口付近にはフィールドボスが居る訳で......。
完全に存在を忘れており、全員が王都を見た時点で「もう終わり」という気分になっていた。
微妙なやる気と空気の中、ラクダを避難させての戦闘が始まる。
しかしやはりというか『バジリスク』よりも強いということはなく、俺達はそれをあっさり倒して街へと到達したのだった。
Chapter 57 - Reaching The Royal Capital And End Of The Journey
Yumir pierced the {Basilisk}  in the area between the eyebrows and light gushed out.
Before long, it spread out throughout its whole body and...the basilisk ended up crumbling into pieces.
As if to show that it was a formidable opponent, the light ascended towards the sky.
All members of the party looked at this dumbfounded while breathing heavily.
...
[Uoooooooooooo!!]  (Yumir)
Yumir was the first one to come to her senses and shouted.
Then, Tobi shouted too.
Finally, I shouted too.
After that, the three of us exchanged high fives and I handshaked up and down vigorously with the smiling Selene-san. Then I hugged Riizu who was looking at us bewildered.
[Eh, you see...I-I'm happy but-]  (Riizu)
[Ahahaha! We won, Riizu we won!]  (Hind)
[You look very happy, Nii-san...fufu]  (Riizu)
Like that, I carried her in my arms and started spinning around but a weight was added to my back.
I wasn't able to support the weight of two people and I collapsed on top of the soft sand while covering Riizu so that she doesn't end up being crushed.
Who was it!? Though, I don't even have to ask.
It was only Yumir, the only one that would do this kind of thing to me.
[Hind! Even though you were indifferent back then with the Ogre, you sure look quite happy this time!]  (Yumir)
[The effort it took compared to that time is different! Or rather, it's heavy, it's heavy!!]  (Hind)
[What did you say!? I'm not that heavy!]  (Yumir)
[I'm not talking about your body weight! Think about your defensive gear!]  (Hind)
[In that case, me too.]  (Tobi)
[M-Me too...]  (Selene)
[W-Why are you all leaning on me-Gueh!!]  (Hind)
Maybe it was because they have checked that it was safe already, even the camels were making a [What are these guys doing?] face and we continued to make noise while being intoxicated in our victory.
When we calmed down, we got on top of our camels and progressed through the desert again.
Looking at the map, it seems like the rocky area was in the middle of the desert, so we decided not to return to Maija and head towards the {Royal capital, Waaha} .
The {Serpent's Crest}  that was proof of the quest appeared inside our inventory as we expected since it was a drop item.
Furthermore, as Claris-san had said, the {Horn Vipers}  all disappeared after we defeated the Basilisk.
Right now, the {Desert Scorpions}  that were in the {Yabilga Desert}  appeared from time to time and we were able to travel quite comfortably.
[However, it was quite the hard opponent. To think that it had that much firepower.]  (Hind)
[Yup, maybe we should have known because of the recommended level and the number of party members it recommended?]  (Selene)
[Probably. However, in this game, we see quite often unreasonable beginner killers, right?
Since we had some leeway now, we carefreely chatted while walking beside the camels.
We only had to speed up a bit if we saw monsters, so we'll probably be able to proceed without fighting as long as a new speed type monster doesn't appear.
[It was the worst type of boss for players that want to fight stably and have a battle of attrition.]  (Tobi)
[It's checkmate the moment you don't have enough firepower after all. If you can't beat it, you would level up, upgrade your weapons and as a last resort you would make a party with jobs that had firepower, something like that?.
[It was nice that we were able to defeat it on our first try.]  (Yumir)
[It's not an enemy I would like to fight again...though it's a shame that it didn't leave a corpse behind.]  (Riizu)
[If it left a corpse behind, what were you planning to do with it...?]  (Yumir)
While we were chatting, we were slowly reaching the destination on our map.
We knew about the location of the place from that time we heard information from Claris-san.
From this distance, we'll probably see the royal capital in a few minutes.
[This time, Riizu was impressive. The damage adjustments and how she extended the time it took until the basilisk healed by petrying it was a big deal.]  (Hind)
[If you are going that far, that was all thanks to Hind-san preparing those mirrors beforehand.]  (Riizu)
[...So, since we are going to reach the royal capital soon, should we report on the quest first? I wonder if I'll be able to enter the royal palace?]  (Hind)
[You are right. If we said that we came from Maija town via the Lukia Desert, that alone will probably make a disturbance...wonder if it's better if we contacted Yaido-san and have him link us with them?]  (Selene)
Just as Selene-san has said, that way is probably more reasonable.
If we entered the capital from the {Lukia Desert} , I believe they would know about the situation anyway though.
Let's have Yaido-san, who served in the royal palace originally, do something about it.
However, since his leg is hurt, I don't know if he'll come personally or not though.
[Right. Since going there would be a pain, shall we write him a letter from the royal capital? Seems like they use camels to do that.]  (Hind)
Though they probably won't deliver it until they make sure that the desert is completely safe.
Even then, returning after just reaching the royal capital would honestly be tiring.
[Oh, in that case, isn't it the perfect time to search for a suitable place for our guild home!?]  (Yumir)
[Right. I believe the home is chosen among the vacant houses within the town?]  (Hind)
[That's the case. The inside is another dimension so it's spacious, so we don't have to think if the building and the rooms are small or big.
[That's like real life then. I bet houses are expensive in the royal capital...]  (Hind)
On the other hand, if we wanted to set the home in a cheap location, it would be fine to choose a rural town in the outskirts.
Obviously, with fewer people a unique quest probably won't happen and trading with NPCs would be hard.
In those cases, the type of goods that shops sell would also be lacking.
However, it's not like it would be all bad, it's convenient to secure a place in the countryside if you want to do stuff like agriculture and livestock raising, so it's nice if it fits your playstyle.
In our case, we don't have to think that deeply about it and we plan to set the home in the royal capital somehow.
[In that case, once we reach it we'll choose a place for the home...eh?]  (Hind)
I think I'm forgetting about something.
However, after we crossed a hill in the desert we saw the royal capital and I interrupted that thought.
The party members let out comments of admiration and the camel's small throats snorted.
{Royal capital, Waaha}  was bigger than I imagined.
There was sand as far as the eyes could see and within that, rectangular buildings of ashen color were built close to each other.
A mirage obstructed us and we couldn't get a panoramic view of it, I could slightly see a magnificent palace in the inner parts of it...or that's what I think.
[We have arrived!]  (Yumir)
Yumir raised both of her arms and shouted on top of the camel.
We all took that as a "I'm glad that the journey is over", exchanged glances and smiled.
...It was at that time.
The ground around us started rising along with a sound.
From within, a poisonous-like color scorpion, twice the size of a {Desert Scorpion}  appeared.
Its level was 37 and its name was {Venom Scorpion} .
[U-Uh? Eh...Hind-kun? What's this monster?]  (Selene)
[I forgot to tell you that this desert is a normal field. Which means...]  (Hind)
[O-Oh...in that case there would be one, a field boss...]  (Yumir)
[This monster sure can't read the mood...]  (Tobi)
[...No, I believe it is also bewildered. Even though it made an entrance as usual, we are reacting like this.]  (Riizu)
While looking at us, who had not taken up our weapons, the Venom Scorpion made sounds with its claws.
If this wasn't a large scale field it was obvious that there would be a field boss close to the exit...
We completely forgot about its existence and we entered the mood of [It's finally over]  once we all saw the royal capital.
While not feeling very motivated, we found shelter for the camels and started the fight.
However, I guess I should say that it was expected, it wasn't stronger than the {Basilisk} , we easily defeated it and reached the capital.dv
VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～
ＶＲＭＭＯの支援職人　～トッププレイヤーの仕掛人～
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二階堂風都