| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 3142 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 2024 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
After taking down the ogre, we soon arrived at the entrance of the raid dungeon. There were many more users gathered around the entrance than what we expected.
Since it’s a brand new dungeon that had been discovered, there were many here expecting to gain the valuable title as well as the loot you gain in the process, but in truth it was difficult to make up a party that would be able to clear the entire dungeon unless you were a part of the Camelot alliance. On top of that, everyone on the server knew that I had the right to be the first person to dive into the dungeon so it didn’t seem like there were any groups actually attempting to clear it.
It’s understandable since if I were to not have such right, people inside the guild would immediately fight over the first dungeon clearing attempt, and though there is high probability that Katalina would win anyways, I didn’t want such infighting to happen amongst the guild members and made sure to strongly remind that to all the lower guild leaders.
And because of my order, the powerful and rich guild leaders including Katalina vowed their allegiance to me, and naturally, the medium to small-sized guilds also jumped on the bandwagon as well.
Of course, it wasn’t like it was my intention to force my authority over everyone so that I would be the one to gain the right to have the first attempt. It was Katalina’s suggestion in the first place, and the other guild leaders such as Lucas and Terror also agreed with her. They were in a happy mood since their revenue had increased after the war, and they didn’t want any unnecessary conflict to begin as they wanted to prepare ahead for the incoming server unification. You could say that in the end, everyone’s interest just fell in the same direction.
“To think that even the public broadcasting corporation would be here waiting for us as well…”
“I know right.”
Hearing what Katalina said, I looked over to the users near the entrance wearing armor and clothing with the BBC logo etched into it and nodded.
The reporters related to broadcasting channels that are focused on Blue Sky usually join and work at the guild that has the same name as the broadcasting channel that they work at, and this was because they wanted to avoid any incidents relating to impersonation and so on, but since the number of relating to such fraud had reduced by a lot after that change, it seemed very effective.
It’s because the reporters that belong to those guilds all wear clothing or cloaks that have the design of the corresponding broadcasting channel. The guild marks not only help differentiate between channels but also help in letting the reporters have pride and a sense of belonging to their channel as well.
I also have the symbol of Camelot put on my cloak and on the corner of my armor. The symbol looked like a crown with a sword penetrating through it, which Katalina had designed and I really liked the simple design it had. It was of extremely high quality thanks to commissioning from a professional designer, with numerous fansites praising it as well.
One interesting fact is that if you belong to a guild that in turn serves a higher guild, your original guild mark becomes overlapped with the serving guild meaning that both marks exist at the same time on your clothing. Of course the master guild Camelot alliance would have its guild mark large sized while your original guild mark would be beside it in a smaller size, reminding me of the time back when I was in the army where you would have the mark of a subordinate division if you belonged to one, with its size smaller than the overall division.
“Ugh, let’s not go there.”
Recalling the memories of my time in the army made me feel unpleasant as they were more often bad ones than not so I tried to clear my mind.
“What do you mean, where should we not go?” Katalina asked me as if she had heard me talking to myself.
“Well, there is this certain place. Where people inside of it would feel like time flows at a glacial pace, yet people outside of it feel as if time is going by instantly.”
“Hmm? Then isn’t it great for the people inside there? They’ll age slowly and deteriorate slowly as well. Girls would absolutely love it!”
Would girls love such a place? I think on whether what Katalina said could be true. Their skins would deteriorate due to too much use of camouflage cream, with risks of acquiring various foot diseases due to how often and long you wear long military boots, as well as various flexed muscles and blisters you would eventually gain from marching all day long.
Thinking of that you can easily come to a conclusion.
“No, not really.”
“Eh? Then Ellie, you like it when time goes faster instead?”
“Hmm.”
Normally, I also don’t think time going faster than normal is a good thing. Honestly, I did want time to go by faster when I was still a teen, but once I became over twenty there were numerous times that I wished for time to go even just a little bit more slowly.
But it’s a bit different in the army.
At first, your perspective of time divided by seasons downsizes to months, then downsizes even more to days, then hours, and finally minutes and seconds where every moment feels like an absolute nightmare. I had experienced firsthand with my own body very clearly that there was no place like the army where you feel that time’s almost stopped.
“In anycase, I would definitely want time to go faster in that place.”
“Hm, now I’m curious where that location could be. But even if I were to ask I don’t think you would tell me easily. But is there a possibility that I can one day get to that place?”
“Hmm…”
Going to the army, huh? As a foreigner, the only army that Katalina would be able to go to would be England’s army, but there’s no way that the experience you would have at England’s army would be the same as the experience you have at the army in Korea. Fundamentally you are able to more easily enter and leave the army base in England as opposed to how it is in Korea, meaning that it’s difficult to feel the same kind of experience in England.
On top of that, as a woman, she cannot enter the army at all unless she was an officer or a non-commissioned officer. And of course, it would be impossible for officers or non-commissioned officers to experience the same thing I did in the army as well.
“Well sadly…”
I was about to tell her that it was impossible when I had the feeling that I could use this as a chance instead. In any case, there was going to be a 1-week break for the scheduled update of Blue Sky. With the announcement by the company that this is the biggest update yet since they had started the servers, the experts estimated it will take at least 2 to 3 days of server downtime for the update to complete, while the information I got was that it could take at max one whole week to complete.
So Katalina would definitely prepare for a trip overseas, and just as I had promised her in the past, the decision of where to go is hers. Since being here in England was basically me having a trip overseas in a way, it would have been weird if I didn’t want to go back to my own country to visit at least.
However it was hard to take back what I had already said already, and for Katalina, it would be even worse to take it back. But if I were to use this chance well, then maybe I could make Katalina want to go to Korea as well.
“So I can’t?”
Katalina looked disappointed as she watched me trail off in my words.
“It could be possible, actually.”
“Oooh!”
A sparkle of light flashed inside of Katalina’s eyes. I don’t think it’s a place that’s particularly so great that your eyes would flash like that, but…
“But in order to do that, we have to go to a place called Korea, so how about changing our holiday trip destination to there?”
“Hmm… Korea? You’re talking about one of the countries that were a joint sponsor of 2002’s Olympics, right? The only country that’s still split into two as well.”
“Yeah.”
I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about my country hearing the last part. There was no way that you would feel proud about the nation being split in half even though they both are the same race.
Though I do not have much in relation to the nation of Korea currently, it’s not like that fundamental feeling I have for the nation would be gone in a single day.
“But wait, how did you know about that place, Ellie? You’ve never traveled overseas at all.”
“It’s not like the only way you can find out about countries overseas is by actually visiting there. I guess you could say I have a similar hobby as Esther does.”
“Well, you’re right.”
Quickly noticing Katalina’s suspicions, I used Esther as an example to make Katalina accept my reasoning.
“Korea, huh? Alright then. I did want to go someplace I’ve never been to until now as well, and especially to any country that’s located in Asia since it would be my first time there. Now I’m really excited about the trip. And I get to also visit that place you mentioned too, Ellie. It would be a really interesting trip, wouldn’t it?”
“Of course, of course. I’ll guarantee it.”
It will be a reaaaal different experience indeed. Since I was planning to change that particular location of where the army base was located into a ‘Special Forces training camp’ instead. Heh…
[Sisters? Where are you now? I’ve just arrived near the dungeon entrance.]I was laughing evilly to myself in my mind for a while when I heard Esther’s whisper in my ear. It wasn’t that long since we arrived here so Esther probably came running at top speed.
[You should be able to see two people standing near the entrance of the cave wearing Robe of Concealment.][Ugh, you do know that there are numerous people here wearing Robe of Concealment, right?]
[Ah… Then to help you out in finding us, you know where the rock near the entrance is located right? Come and find us there.]
[A rock? A rock huh… Ah! Found you!]
After guiding her to our location for a moment, Esther finally found where we were and ran towards us. Since she was also using Robe of Concealment, I wasn’t able to recognize her until she came close to us and spoke to us directly.
It was because there were numerous users wearing the Robe of Concealment just like Esther had said.
“Hehe, I finally found you.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think there would be so many people here.”
“It’s fine. The two healers that I recruited said they’ll be here soon, so all we need to do is wait a little bit.”
While Esther and I greeted each other, Katalina spoke to the two healers through whisper messages, and then told us they’re coming soon.
Moments later, two users also wearing Robe of Concealment came towards us, and Katalina greeted them in a friendly manner. With me, Katalina, and Esther in a party together, we now had two healers who will be following behind us in the dungeon healing us without being in the party so as not to steal our experience points but would receive gold and items as a reward instead. With the group set to go, we dive into the dungeon.
