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“Master, are you sure Leon should be left as he is?”

“Yes, just let him cool his head for a bit.”

After binding Leon with chains of arcane power and rendering him helpless, we left him there and departed from the former demihuman village, which had become a scorched plain.

The effects of Photon Chain were that it rendered the target immobile for a certain period of time and improved the accuracy of attacks against the target to one hundred percent. This was different from the game in that it was permanent unless the caster canceled it or the target pulled himself free. In the game, it was pretty much ineffective against boss-class enemies. In any event, if it was Leon, he should recover after a while and pull himself free, so there was no problem.

Currently, Tanaka and Suzuki were running alongside each other, heading to our next destination—Alfheim.

We could only leave Leon behind for now. Bringing Leon along now would cause unnecessary trouble, yet killing him would be a waste of his combat power. There was also the option of forcefully making him submit to a master-subordinate relationship, but this would reduce his boss status to that of a tamed monster and lower his level from 1000 to 800.

Naturally, his exceptional HP of 1,500,000 would be expected to drop sharply. Indeed, after Leon was captured in the game, his HP was…250,000. In addition to being limited to Level 800 as a tamed monster, his HP was surprising as it was clearly inferior to that of a boss monster.

It couldn’t be helped for the sake of game balance, so I couldn’t do anything about it. This was one of the most classic features of an RPG. An enemy would have HP in the tens of thousands, yet when it became an ally, its HP would be reduced to only a few thousand.

Still, I didn’t think it was a great idea, especially since we would be fighting the Goddess in the future. It would be a pity to reduce Leon’s combat power. That was why I thought I should let him remain resistant and hostile to me so that he could maintain his status as a Level 1000 boss monster.

After talking to him for a bit, I realized he was very simple-minded. If he was properly guided, I felt he could be induced to fight the Demon King.

“So what are you planning to do next?”

“First, we’ll go to Alfheim as planned and meet up with Pollux. As for the option to go to Helheim…”

The plan was to head to Alfheim next and meet up with the Fairy Princess Pollux, who was the other half of Gemini and was responsible for sealing the Wood Ouroboros. This was because the other ouroboroses were sealed in Muspelheim, which was outside of the humanoids’ living space. Going there would mean that we would be stepping into the realm of the demons.

It was a place where we would have to go eventually, but I wanted to consolidate my combat power and be properly prepared before venturing there. Even though the demons would be just small fries to us, if they attacked in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, it would still be difficult to deal with.

Based on the fact that Taurus had showed up, the entrance to Helheim was probably nearby, but it didn’t make sense to go there now. Firstly, if I wanted to move Taurus who was responsible for sealing an ouroboros, I would have to prepare a substitute, but none of my current members could do it.

There were three people who were familiar with seal-type skills, namely Aigokeros, Dina, and Sagittarius. Aigokeros might actually end up awakening it instead, so he was out of the question. I wasn’t sure what Dina could do. Sagittarius just joined us, so it would be a bit weird to swap him out with Taurus so quickly. Therefore, I should recruit Pollux first and let her summon an einherjar as a substitute.

Besides, Taurus already said, “Come after everything else is done.” This probably meant “Don’t come yet.” If I were to casually go there, he might conclude, “You are really not Ruphas!” and start attacking. Furthermore…

“I don’t wanna! I’ll never go! Let’s just leave it like that! Leave him until the final battle and let him be a character that doesn’t appear until the credits roll at the very end!”

…Dina was acting rather spoiled in her refusal to go. If I insisted on going to Helheim, she might run away using X-Gate and not come back, so it was reasonable to postpone the trip. Furthermore, the hero and his companions were currently with us. If we brought them to Helheim, it would be too pitiful for them. At their levels, they would probably die in a battle with some small fry devils there.

This was merely based on knowledge of the game, but even the weakest small fry devils in Helheim exceeded Level 200. It was one of the most difficult dungeons for beginners. They were some perverted, self-restricting players who charged in with only two-digit levels, but then nobody was forcing them to do so.

The youth Sei and the others only came along because of the issue concerning the demihumans, but they were not really our companions. In that case, no matter what, I should send them to a nearby city first.

Anyway, Pollux huh? In the game, she was always treated as a set with Castor, being the Fairy Siblings. Thus, I didn’t really know their individual combat power.

First of all, there was no battle data. The only data available was that of Castor. Pollux would be levitating nearby, neither attacking nor taking damage. She had an accuracy value so she could technically be hit, but even then, Castor would take the damage instead for some reason. Occasionally, she would cast divine magic to support Castor…so she was like an optional accessory for Castor.

Her scariest aspect was probably her summoning ability. Surprisingly, unlike other MMOs, there was no summoner class in X-Gate Online, so it was impossible to summon phantom beasts or magical beasts out of nothing. This was probably because the administrators deemed it to be unnecessary since the monster tamer and alchemist classes already covered this role.

However, for some reason, only Pollux could do this. Once the battle began, she would summon periodically after a certain amount of time to send reinforcements against the enemy. Well, in any game, one would find things like “XX summoned a friend!” to happen frequently. This could probably be treated as summoning. Even so, it wouldn’t summon souls of the dead, such as the einherjar.

Of course, this ability was weakened for some reason when she became an ally. It was no longer a skill that would increase the numbers of one’s allies. Instead, it became an attack skill that temporarily summoned a big man in full-body armor to make an attack. When I first saw this, it was quite disappointing. Moreover, the summoned hero vanished immediately after finishing the attack. Why was it like that, even though it remained behind when it was used by the enemy?

Anyway, Castor’s true form was currently here…The optional accessory, Pollux, was acting on her own now. Was this really okay? To be honest, she seemed absurdly weak.

“Dina, is there a suitable village or town on the way to Alfheim? I want to send the hero and his companions there.”

“In that case, Ruphas-sama, how about Lægjarn, the warrior city? It has a large population and there are also transports like demi-dragon carriages, so they can resume their journey without any problem.”

“What kind of city is it?”

“In the realm of Lævateinn, there are four domains, namely the Sword Domain, Shield Domain, Spear Domain, and Bow Domain. Lægjarn can be considered to be the center of the Spear Domain. One of the heroes who followed Alioth to betray Ruphas-sama became the first lord. Thereafter, the lordship was inherited by his descendants through the generations. If I recall, the lord of the Spear Domain is of the noble Speth family.”

“Master, if you give the order, I can wipe it out with Brachium. What do you think?”

“No, thank you. Do you intend to send the hero and his companions to a burning field?”

After hearing Libra interrupt Dina’s explanation, I sighed. Why did she always think in terms of annihilating the other party? Although she had the highest possible AI level of 5, it made me want to cry that she was still a piece of junk.

Anyway, it was a domain of Lævateinn huh? …It seemed that I had unknowingly returned to where I started. It might be natural since the living space of the humanoids was small. It seemed that I had gone in a circle already.

I departed from Lævateinn to Svalinn, then onwards to the royal tomb and Gjallarhorn. I stopped at Vanaheim and Blutgang. Then, it was on to Draupnir and I dropped by Mjölnir on the way to Tyrfing. And now, I was back in Lævateinn once more. In other words, as far as the humanoids’ living space was concerned, I had roughly traveled around in a circle.

I thought it was quite fast, but considering the area involved, it was like driving a car around Japan for a week. It would naturally be fast.

“So what kind of city is it?”

“Yes. First of all, it has various kinds of facilities. The equipment for warriors and knights are of particularly good quality.”

“Don’t you mean bad quality?”

“It must be trash, right?”

Responding to Dina’s words, Scorpius and Libra gave a critical evaluation. Well, it might be true at our levels, but this was the limit of the current world. I couldn’t evaluate it since I had not even seen it, but wasn’t it possible that there might be some unexpectedly good products?

“Furthermore, there is an annual martial meeting where warriors can show off their abilities. In accordance with the fantasy trope, it’s a great place for the protagonists to test their skills. Would you like to participate?”

“Won’t I end up killing the participants?”

It had been said many times already that the overall level of this era had been greatly reduced. Even the world’s strongest, the Sword Saint himself, was like that. The people who could break through Level 100 were exceedingly rare.

Currently, we were like people from an RPG that had a Level 1000 limit entering a world with a Level 99 limit. To begin with, the arena itself was different. Even if I flicked someone’s forehead as a joke without any killing intent, it would be enough to send that person’s head flying. Of course, I would use Blunt-Edge Strike skill during a fight, but if I forgot to activate it, it would become a murder case. I didn’t want to risk it.

By the way, it might be a bit late to mention it now, but it seemed that the Sword Saint was a tiger.

No, hmm. I had actually seen him in Draupnir…You know, that tiger. Whenever I saw him, he would run away in fear for some reason. I had no idea that he was the Sword Saint. I thought that he was just a timid big cat. Sorry, Sword Saint.

Anyway…

“What is it, Sagittarius? You’ve been rather quiet.”

“…No. Currently, I don’t have the qualifications to join in on the conversation…”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s already over.”

I spoke to Sagittarius, who was sitting in a corner, and then moved next to him. He didn’t change into a humanoid form. Instead, he was sitting there in his large true form, so it was a bit cramped.

“If you can’t forgive yourself no matter what, you can just contribute more during the next battle. I’m looking forward to your archery skills, you know?”

No, really. Although Libra could also perform as a long-distance sniper, having two snipers was never a problem. Besides, his range was even longer than Libra’s and his attack would absolutely hit the target. It could also be used to teleport, so it could be really helpful depending on how it was used. Furthermore, he was someone with valuable common sense. Even that alone made him worth it.

“Ruphas-sama…”

“Now, I feel a bit cramped. Could you change into your humanoid form?”

In his case, changing into a humanoid form merely changed his lower body, since his upper body was already human. But it should still be better than staying as a horse. When I said so, he smiled slightly and nodded.

“Ah, Ruphas-sama, please wait…”

Karkinos noticed something and rushed to stop it. I didn’t understand the reason though. As I watched, the horse-like lower body of Sagittarius glowed and eventually changed into the lower body of a human. Karkinos quickly covered Virgo’s eyes and turned her around.

What’s this guy…

So I thought, but in the next moment, I understood the reason.

This was because there was a pervert with a naked lower body standing before me.

“………”

“Oh…That’s why I said wait.”

The symbol of manhood was swaying at his crotch. Luckily, Dina instantly activated a Water-element arcane magic to censor it with a mosaic, so I was able to avoid a direct view. Even so, it was terrible…and huge.

The person at the heart of the issue, Sagittarius, didn’t seem to care at all. He stood in a dignified manner with no intention of hiding anything.

“Transformation…completed.”

For some reason, Scorpius’ fist sank into Sagittarius’ smug-looking face.

“What are you doing?”

“Are you stupid!? Why are you showing Ruphas-sama that filthy thing!? Cover it up now, or do you want me to cut it off!?”

“Even if you say that, I’ve always been like this.”

“When you are a humanoid, it’s different from when you’re a horse!”

Although I was stunned by this development, I somewhat accepted Sagittarius’ explanation.

I see…So that’s how it is.

Now that he mentioned it…his lower body was usually naked! As a centaur, he wore a robe on his upper body, but his lower body was a horse without wearing anything. As I recalled, when Aries first changed into humanoid form, he was naked as well. Dina had to dress him up right away.

Aigokeros, Scorpius, Karkinos, and Leon must actually be decent beings. At least, they prepared their own clothes. However, Sagittarius was half-humanoid, so it might be common sense for him to wear something on top but nothing on the bottom.

“Don’t worry. I don’t mind.”

“I mind, you fool!”

When Sagittarius replied with an indifferent tone, Scorpius’ angry kick exploded on his crotch.

“!!?!?”

Sagittarius grabbed his crotch and squatted down, while Scorpius looked down at him as if she was looking at something filthy.

Hmm. What is this? Stop it. It must have hurt.

Still, I didn’t expect Sagittarius to be a lower-body-only nudist.

I thought we finally had a serious person join us, but it turned out to be a weirdo again. What was wrong with the Twelve Stars?

For the time being, should I transmute some underwear…?

Concept Art for Ruphas