ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

There is a monster called Ascension Horn in this game.

When it comes to its characteristics, it is a combination of a deer and a Unicorn. It also possesses two horns growing out of the back of its head and one growing out of its forehead.

Using those horns it can deflect any projectile that is being shot its way. If you try to blingly rush at it with all of your might, you will simply end up getting charged at yourself and blown away as a result. What’s more, it possesses a really troublesome ability to emit lightning from its horns and use them as a sort of shockwave all around itself…… But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that its horns are extremely valuable materials, so it is haunted almost constantly.

The reason for that being, the horns of Ascension Horn being part of the strongest HP regenerating potions in the game, and with the opening of the new continent all of the players were stocking up on those in preparation for their own departure in due time. And since so many people wanted to buy those potions, their price was skyrocketing by the day. Of course, so was the price of the horns alone.

However, since its encounter rate is not all that high to begin with and the exact spawn conditions are yet to be fully clarified, it managed to earn for itself a title of the monster that: “if you are so lucky to encounter it, you should never let it escape”.

That is the way in which the vast “majority” of the players perceive that particular monster.

Normally a situation like that would never take place in this game. That is because the Guild “SF-Zoo” would always get as much information about the given monster and make it all public for everyone to know. However, ever since that particular incident with a giant wolf the Guild Master of SF-Zoo would not log in to the game, not even once. This situation put a wrench in the well-working cogs of the machinery that was SF-Zoo. As a result, they did not gather as much information as they used to, stepping from the stage and letting another guild, “Library” to gather and organize information on monster and all such things. That was also coming with a major downside: “Library” was really selective when it comes to its costumers, and the price of their information was not cheap in the slightest. This lead to a situation where only a select few players knew what was going on with Ascension Horn and thus managed to monopolize its hunting grounds and its drop items almost completely……

「And with that, that would be the twentieth one……」

There is a beast right in front of me with horns on its head, so pale and radiant in contrast to the darkness of the night. It was a monster, but right about now it let a sorrowful death cry as its body collapsed on the ground and exploded into a geyser of red polygons, leaving only its horns behind.

Even though the drop items from the monster called Ascension Horn are called exactly in the same way: Ascension Horns, there are two types of those items: the ones growing from the back of its head and the one that grows out of it forehead. In the inventory screen they are both called “Holy Horns of the Ascension Horn”, with added “back” and “front” to them.

This distinction is there mainly because the back horns are used in production and refinement of weapons and armor, while the front horn is the highly valuable material used in production of HP potions. Rear horns also sell for a hefty amount of money, but it is something that is not even remotely close to the prizes of front horns. Additionally, no matter how cautious you are during the battle as to not damage the horns too much, their drop rate is completely random, so luck plays a huge factor in obtaining these.

「As for the quota…… At the least, the number of front horns should easily oscillate around four hundred, maybe a little bit more……」

The player who was holding so much front horns of the Ascension Horn in its inventory…… Saiga-0 lets out a long sigh as she waits for the enemy to respawn.

As for the conditions for the Ascension Horn to appear, it was something that Black Wolves discovered together in a joint effort with another Guild. Basically, for the Ascension Horn to appear one needed to wait for anything between ten to twenty minutes in front of the caves in the area “Mythical Forest” at night. And when it comes to this “Ascension Horn horns farming” it was the activity that the player with really high level would do out of the lack of better things to do. It was also an action that in general was shunned pretty badly by the game’s general community.

「…………」

The goal that Saiga-100 imposed on Saiga-0, it was something that was obviously impossible to achieve if one would to try and do it all on their own. However, once she would be able to achieve that, she would finally be able to sever her ties to the “Black Wolves” for good.

That is why she was able to put up with this task, even if it meant having to stand still all alone inside of the dark forest without even the slightest BGM playing in the background. She was even able to withstand fighting Ascension Horn all on her own, even though her opponents were all the size of small cars.

That is exactly why……

「Form a party and work as a team……」

She wanted to give this task just a little bit more courage.

* * *

It was mainly because the humors of Kyo-Timate that we were kind of forced to meet at the Snake Apple’s Branch place here in Elevental. Normally we would meet in Fiftsia, but right now that place was…… You know……

「…… So? What’s this all about?」

「Well, you know. Apparently the news that I have joined the guild “Wolfgang” have also reached my comrades over there on the other continent.」

「Well, not that it was not your intention to let that information out into the world to begin with……」

「So imagine this: I was just minding my own business, hunting as usual…… Huh? Hunting for what? Well duh, monsters! Obviously. But then I just so happened to come across some player from the “Black Wolves” and I might…… and I might have accidently PK’d the poor bastard.」

「Yeah, sure. “Accidentally”. You sure that was not all part of your plan to begin with?」

「That situation got me really nervous, you know? So then the guy comes back to avenge his death and what do you know? I managed to accidentally PK him again. Then he came back with a bunch of reinforcements and I happened to PK them all on accident as well…… and as a result I might have acquired a whole lot of their high-tier equipment.」

「Of course, the equipment stealing also happened completely on accident, right?」

「What a horrifyingly bizarre and unnerving story this is……」

All ethics aside, I would never have thought that Kyogoku would turn out to be such a mad dog when it comes to PK. Honestly, and here I thought that Pencilgton was a total nut-job. The world really is full of surprises, is it not?

Thinking calmly about it, the more PK the player commit, the more severe the punishment becomes, right? So at this rate, you would think that there would be no one insane enough to keep on doing that willingly. Does that mean that Kyogoku was that much of freaking lunatic……?

「So, what about that one person who is yet to arrive here?」

「Said something about “powdering his nose and then joining us”.」

Powdering his nose? The hell?

「But what else can I say? About forty percent of this whole mess is actively your fault.」

Ohh, won’t you look at that. While we were talking about that, a certain shadow entered the bar. That shadow was Katsu, who was looking extremely tired for some reason.

「Forty percent? Forty percent of what?」

Snake’s Apple is that kind of bar and restaurant that only rouges and bandits would frequent, usually quite muscular, burly and nasty-looking. On the other hand, Katsu’s avatar was that kind that looked like a delicate and cute woman…… That kind of avatar joined us at the table and sat down, apparently being done with powdering her nose.

By the way, I have a small wound on my shin…… It was a wound done with a knife, made by one of the NPCs from before. I must say that the AI in this game is really smart, being able to actively harass and attack people who they do not like. But I understand, not everyone has to like half-naked bird-people.

Pencilgton started to talk to the bartender in a friendly manner. Kyo-Timate started to look at her own shoes, clearly showing that she did not wanted to be involved in any of this. Thanks guys, the usual pattern is in play, huh?

「Silvia is going to make her debut in ShanFro soon……」