The following morning.

I intend to travel abroad for about a month. The destination is the country I was born in; the country I have some knowledge of it, but Ive never personally seen.

Suu-chan informed me and then left with her guardian. To be honest, I was relieved to see that Suu-chan was properly interested in something other than games.

Perhaps something has changed her life, or perhaps some of her troubles were resolved after attending this years tournament, but I could tell that she looked much more radiant than when I first met her.

One thing I did not expect was that Miharu is Suu-chans guardian and caretaker.

Miharu used to be the head of the bodyguard squadron of the Takajou family, and in contrast to Toki, who had crammed me full of theoretical knowledge, she was my direct mentor who taught me how to fight in a practical way.

She is monstrously strong, after all. Even I was beaten up one-sidedly until I was in the third grade. {only until 3rd grade?}

But rather than martial prowess, she was someone who was exceptionally good at sensing the air ah, in that sense, you could say she had a super sense that was close to the sixth sense that Suu-chan has. I can still remember how she could sense the presence of an ambusher and how she knocked down every aggressor.

Its been a long time. Youve become so much stronger than before.

Her tone of voice was as relaxing and fluffy as it had been in the past.

Her body language was not as refined as it used to be, so it seems that she had not been actively working out in the field since she retired. Even so, its been about 10 years since I last saw her, but her presence hasnt changed at all. It is as if shes a ghost. {shes using youkai=ghost here}

Miharu and Suu-chan who went out together, looked like a parent and child, which made me a bit envious.

A super big update?

Yes, thats right. Super big update.

Right now there were three of us, Me, Rin-chan and Touka-chan.

After seeing Suu-chan off, the three of us had breakfast together and talked about the big changes that had taken place at WLO while we were at BATTLER.

Is it normal for them to make such a grand announcement all of a sudden? Wasnt the update after the apostles battle a while back low-key but well-publicized?

The major update that took place after I defeated Ars Nova in the battle to destroy the apostles was just about two weeks ago.

The major update at that time was mainly the addition of new useful items like items that allow you to go back and forth between towns and the restrictions release of the seventh town.

And I believe it was stated at that time that the update would be done after the event.

Im not familiar with game development, so I cant go into depth about it, but if there was going to be a major update, I would expect that players would have been notified earlier.

I think this one is a rather rare case. However, I heard that WLO has two types of updates running in parallel, one is the manual updates by the management and the other is an automatic update by the management AI, so I think this time it was the latter.

Management AI?

Yes. Its a semi-autonomous, ultra-high-performance AI that is usually called Mother AI in other programs. It was said if you give it certain conditions and world seed, it will run a simulation of a world according to the authority you give it. In that world, Iris, the creator god, would probably be the equivalent.

I tilted my head, and the two of them laughed at me, who looked confused at their gibberish talk.

The actual technical application is not important. Why dont you check the contents of the updates from the app?

Okay, I dont really care about the inner workings after all.

Because it would be inconvenient for her to explain using a tablet, Rin-chan prepared a projector and displayed a screen with the details listed.

I was so annoyed by the list of unknown words that made me didnt even want to look at them, but Rin-chan put the pointer over the information she had picked up beforehand and guided me to the important ones.

The biggest update is probably this one, she said.

Lets see, the release of the World Quest and the addition of a new dungeon?

The world quest [Hunt for the Treasures of Iris].

The description of the quest went something like this.

The path to The Seven Star Kings has been opened by the challenge of the Otherworld Travelers.

The protection of the seven treasures that will bring new blessings to all living things.

Prepare for the coming Holy War, overcome the trials of The Seven Star Kings, and obtain the Treasures of Iris!

A common objective for all players ?

Yes, thats right. Weve been exploring the world and moving forward at a leisurely pace all these time, and I think were finally starting to see some storyline.

Im sure youve heard a lot about the treasure of Iris from the head of the village of the Oni, right?

Um, I mean, give me a moment. I need a while to remember

Now that I think about it, the village chief of the Oni village, Hakuyo, called me before I challenged the Moon Wolf and told me a lot of things.

It is true that she mentioned the treasure of Iris, which I believe was a treasure entrusted to The Seven Star Kings by the creator god Iris.

I only remember that its an item that will do something good when you get it

Also, I heard that the being called the Seven Star King itself is the guardian of the treasure and not our adversary.

However, there is one exception.

The [Siren] who were the cause of the dungeon event that ended with the battle to destroy the apostles, are being who were fascinated by the power of hidden treasures of Iris and tried to take them for her own.

Thats why there are only a total of six Seven Star Kings that we can actually meet.

The Seven Star King that I know is [Requiem, the Heavenly Wolf King of the Beyond], and the other is the one who continues to protect the seal of the Oni god Shuten Douji, which was done by using the power of the hidden treasure, this one also my goal in WLO as someone who had subjugated Aria the Red Wolf (or thats what Hakuyo told me).

Did I get that right..?

Yeah, thats pretty much it. The only thing you missed is that Solo Named subjugation will be the key to the Seven Star King.

Oh right, that too.

The Solo Named is a unique boss monster among the Named monsters that roam the field, with the unique condition that it must be fought alone.

They are rather unreasonable monsters that require pure one-on-one fighting skills, with their levels changing depending on the level of the player who challenges them.

And as far as I know, [Aria, the Lone Red Wolf], whose territory is in the vicinity of the city of beginnings, is one such monster.

And another one in the lake surrounding the third city of Trillia, I think I heard from someone about some kind of {Seirei}spirit-like solo named ?

Anyway, they are like the famila of the Seven Star King, and defeating them will open the path that leads to the Seven Star King. Having defeated Aria, I already had my ticket to the Requiem.

Aria, Rondo, and Fantasia. I guess that path would be opened by defeating the three named red, black, and white.

Okay, with that settled, let me read the description of the new dungeon that has been released this time.

When I tell them what I managed to remember, Touka-chan continued and began to read the explanation about the new dungeon.

New additions [high difficulty dungeon STrillia]. {ok, not sure if this is S or ES, but it was clear it was not Ace unless the author made some typo.}

This was ancient ruined fortress city sunk at the bottom of the lake that surrounds Trillia, and The water dragon King that lies at the bottom of the lake awaits the arrival of the heroes who seek the hidden treasure in slumber.

To reach the dungeon, you must have reached 100 proficiency in the [Diving] skill and receive the extra quest [Abandoned Sunken City].

Once you have reached the dungeon, a warp point will be opened in Trillia from which you can travel around.

The recommended level for entering the dungeon is 100. As it is a very dangerous area, we recommend that you are well prepared for the challenge.

The recommended level is 100!?

At the moment, there arent many players with the recommended level.

It is too high.

As Rin-chan said, the number of players who have reached that level at this point in time should be so few.

Because level 100 is the first level cap in WLO.

By the way, I was at the 94th level at the time of the Moonlit battle, but with the experience gained from it, I quickly rose to level 100 and reached the cap.

Well, since I defeated a named boss who was more than 50 levels higher than me, I should be rewarded at least that much.

Then again, maybe Im a little exception for a player who joins in the second wave since I had taken a lot of shortcuts to level up.

Its been a series of many level boost for me, starting with defeating Aria the Red Wolf, farming to the limit every day with demonic effectiveness during events and even taking down Gold the knight. took down Ars Nova the Giant Dragon, plus became the MVP in that fight, and I also became the MVP in the fight against Nocturne the Moon Wolf too.

In addition, I hunt Solo a lot, and my combat time is short, so my hunting efficiency is much higher than the average player.

Considering that Ive rarely taken the death penalty so far, I must have levelled at almost top speed for the players of the second wave.

There are probably a few dozen or so people in the first group who have reached the level cap, and the fastest levelling people have recently reached the seventh city, Sefira, so they may have released their level caps as well.

Still, considering we have tens of thousands of players in all, even 100 would be a good number.

The owner of level 100 is such a minority at the moment that it is a realm that can barely be reached by those who have put all their time into WLO.

The recommended level for the new dungeon was clearly too high for the current player average.

I mean, I dont even have the [Diving] skill.

It was a skill that could only be used in Trillia. The 100 skill proficiency level itself can be achieved if you put in a days work

I dont know if I need to work on my swimming skills to tackle this dungeon.

Yeah, and if you look at this from a streamers point of view, this is a good thing since you wont be lacking in fresh material for a while, and Sefira is also a hot spot that has only been reached a few days ago.

Rin-chan was right. I noticed when I was surfing the net that there were players who had reached Sefira just around the time I defeated Moon Wolf.

Once a path is paved, it is bound to be followed one after another, and it seems that the current frontline is beginning to shift from the sixth city of Zeronoa to Sefira.

In such a situation, it is difficult to decide whether we should come back to Trillia and challenge the new dungeon, and there probably no right answer to that question.

The dungeon is said to be permanent, so theres no need to rush to challenge it.

I guess that means its not an event-only dungeon anyway, from the description, the Seven Star King of Trillia is the water dragon King sleeping in the sunken city at the bottom of the lake, right?

Yes.

So that means theres probably someone out there who has defeated Trillias Solo Named?

Yes. Well, that would be at least technically true, we dont know if they really defeated it, but at least they passed the challenge.

Trillias Solo Named are spirit-like monsters on the lake.

Putting aside the fact that the level is still variable, it is said that when fighting normally, you are forced to fight underwater and it is hellishly strong there.

High diving skills and swimming skills, and on top of that, the skill to wield weapons underwater. Just hearing about it is troublesome enough to make one feel tired.

I heard that there is an extra quest that only players who have reached the required [Diving] skill level can take, in which they have to battle with this spirit by swimming. The reward for clearing the quest itself was thought to be nothing much, but two days later, a huge update went into effect and STrillia was released.

I see wait, is it possible that Aria route also had something that available to all the players like these extra quests, so you dont need to directly fight it?

Possibly. In fact, if defeating the Solo Named is the only way to release the World Quest, it should start once Nana defeats Aria.

The existence of the Solo Named is connected to the Seven Star King, I defeated Solo named during my first encounter, and in Trillias case, someone conquered it using a quest. If that is the reason for the difference, then maybe we will find a quest for the Wolf King Requiem at some point in the future.

Anyway, I wont go to the sunken city for today, I havent given my thanks to the Oni-folk people that helped me clear the Moon Wolf battle, and I also have an appointment with Haruru and Konekomaru.

Oh right, about that it may be a good idea to involve your viewer in that decision, make a pool to decide your course of action, Im sure your viewer will be delighted to feel like they are participating in your stream activity.

Thats a good idea. Your first three choices are to go to Zeronoa or Sefira, the second one is to train your diving skill for the abandoned sunken city of the lake, or you could go straight to the shrine of the end.

When you listed it like this, I think you have a lot of things to do, dont you, Nana-sama?

Youre right.

I knew that I could challenge the shrine of the end after I reached level 50 because Shuten Douji told me.

Ive been putting this off for a long time because of the hassle of going all the way back to the city where it all started, so Id like to give it a shot soon, but even so, I have so much to do that Im sure it will get put off again.

Well, thats about it for now as far as new dungeons are concerned. There are also a lot of system updates. The biggest change is in the despena system. It looks like it will be reduced from 6 hours to 30 minutes.

hee despena is now 30 minutes?

If you are under level 50, it will be 15 minutes. This is a game-changing update.

I almost let it slide because she said it so casually, but it was a more shocking update than I had imagined.

Until now, WLOs penalty was a 6-hour status halving and no experience gain. Instead, there was no loss of items or currency, Iris. And if you read the description carefully, you will see that the penalty has changed slightly.

It said, [The effect of halving stats and experience is still the same, but you lose level x 100 Iris when you die, and the time is much shorter]?

Yes, thats correct. Level x 100 iris is not much of a penalty, compared to the time-saving.

If you are so short of money or you feel that the penalty is too much, you can just leave your money in the bank when you go on a deadly adventure. Anyway, this update has made it easier for people to go bolder!

The new dungeons are a surprise, but this one is more like a major update.

If the despena is reduced, it will definitely help people to make progress. I dont know if its due to the release of world quests or if its a decision from a lot of requests directed to the management to add an appendage, but it would definitely be a step in the right direction by allowing for a little more recklessness.

Another big thing after that is they will add more servers to some maps to accommodate more new players, but we dont have to think too much about this, Nana.

Is that so?

Yeah. It only means no more congestion at the beginning of the city like we experienced and no more waiting in line for boss battles. And it will allow them to take more players, so it will be like the official release of WLO from here on out.

I see?

I honestly have no idea what so significant when shes talking about the new servers, but it probably means theyve found a way to distribute the players better in case the event dungeon happens.

All that matter to me is that the resources of the field are finite, and it will be difficult if all players roaming in one world. Thats why it would be nice to be able to distribute players in some way.

Im a little concerned about how NPCs will be handled, though.

For us, its also about drawing the growing number of new players to our stream. Nana, you should also try to ride this big wave.

Roger, that!

Ill do my best to make it to Griffith!

Dont fail your test, okay?

Ill be careful.

Touka-chan, who has to balance her college life with her personal life cant afford to fail the test that is coming up at the end of July.

I think shes been spending a lot of time practicing for BATTLER, and I do think she needs to work a little harder on her studies.

I know that streaming games are my job, but in my case, I dont have anything to do beside that; thats why I think its really admirable that Touka-chan manages to do so many things at the same time.

While I was excited to be able to dive into WLO for the first time in a while for the 10:00 a.m. distribution, Rin-chan let out a voice as if remembering something.

AH! Nana, your birthday is coming up, right?

He?

July 7, the so-called Tanabata Festival, is also my birthday.

I couldnt help but let out a strange voice when she mentioned my birthday, which was approaching soon.