The Path to the Frontlines

Nana, your goal from now on is serious level grinding, okay?

The next day. As I woke up, I was informed by Rin-chan about what the plans would be from now on.

Yesterday, in the end, I wasnt able to log in, and it became a sudden break from streaming.

Touka-chan seemed like she was getting busy with her school, so she temporarily returned home.

But still, thinking about the time it took her to commute from her house to her school, rather than forcing her to come to us, it would be easier to meet her in the game, which would give her more time to play as well.

It seems like Saku-chan was already at the 4th town. We talked about playing together once I caught up to him. His attitude of being busy with school, part time jobs and getting into games hadnt changed at all.

Nana, do you remember the details of the quest you have received?

Being brought back to reality by Rin-chan, I traced back my memories.

I had a meeting with Shuten at that mysterious shrine. And the extra quest that came out from our conversation was, Shrine of the Edge: -The Underworld of the Kishin-.

Im sure that when I raised the expertise of Douji to over 30, I have to go to the place of beginnings.something like that.

Well, make sure to check it properly later. Whats important is the shrine at the edge of the place of beginnings. Is there something that comes to your mind from this keywords?

Its the Town of Beginning and the Forest of the Edge, right?

Regarding Rin-chans question, I had the same thoughts when I heard it.

Beyond the south plains of the Town of Beginnings, in the depth of the paradise of wolves where I fought against Aria, there was a wide-area dungeon called Forest of the Edge.

Originally, my detection skill was something Rin-chan recommended for me to get so that I could go conquer the Forest of the Edge.

And then there was a shrine there. I didnt know the exact details, but at least, these places are impossible not to think of when you hear the key wordsBeginning and The edge.

Youre right. Regarding the shrine at the edge, to be honest, I dont really know anything about it either. That dungeon was just ridiculously big, but additionally, there are strong monsters despite it being near the Town of Beginning, no one knows why it was placed there. But, thanks to the quests you have taken, I can somewhat see through what it is.

Is it about the dungeon regarding Douji?

It is also like that, but.most likely, that shrine is not only limiting itself for kijins but has something important hidden in it for other races as well. I cant declare that its for all races, but I think it serves as something you would call a door.

It seemed like she had no definite proof, but Rin-chan seemed to be confident about it.

A door. Certainly, guessing from the details of the quest that I received, I was sure that the shrine at the edge serves as some sort of door.

The Ground Cherry Ornate Hairpin that was passed to me, according to Shuten, becomes the key to connect the present world to the Underworld.

I dont know what functions the Underworld actually had, but considering that it was part of a game, it wouldnt be weird for there to be some key items that let you move to another world. Rather, almost all final bosses in RPGs are in those kinds of places.

In that world, there is a place where space deviates called the Fairy Country. There is an NPC that talks about that, you know?

Rin-chan, who suddenly talked about something totally different, caused me to unintentionally tilt my head, but from the flow of our conversation, I understood what she was talking about.

Though it was an old woman at Griffis. I know that there was some sort of information, but its probably that, no matter what you do, any info beyond what we already know will not be disclosed.

I see, then if that Fairy Country is the same kind of thing as the Underworld of the Kishin.

Thats right, I think that the shrine of the edge will become the foothold in this world that leads to those places.

I dont know whether the shrine of the edge was the key itself to the quest yet, but at least it would become a compass that will lead me to it.

Though, right now, I dont have enough level to go to the shrine.

I ended up losing the battle against Apocalypse, but being able to chip a fragment of its horn gave me experience, so my level right now was actually 30.

Including the remaining points that I got from defeating Aria, I should probably think carefully about distributing it to my stats for this quest from now on.

After that, I need to prepare my weapon too. I used up the Kugelschreiberto fight against Apocalypse, and the iron club got destroyed by magic.

It didnt even last for two hours since I got it from Haruru..

I have to at least tell her, right.?

This is still the prologue, okay? Whats important is that its not a quest that Nana has to take by herself. You understand what I am saying, right?

Youre coming with me, right?

Thats right. You might have forgotten it, but the players of HEROES are not just you and me. We will challenge that quest as a party. Using Nanas quest to light the fireworks, lets get grand and advertise you!

Yeaaah!

Well, it was good that my objective was decided, but that being said, to grind my levels seriously, I wonder what I should do?

When I voiced that, Rin-chan spread out the WLO world map from her phone screen and showed it to me.

Up until the 4th town, Fias, the path continues to the north. Thats why, Nana should be able to easily run through those initial towns.

At the southernmost part of the map, there was a huge forest. This was probably the Forest of the Edge.

Looking at the map like this, comparing the length of a path straight from the Town of Beginning to the 3rd town of Tria, the Forest of the Edge was still longer than that. Basically, it was an incredibly huge dungeon.

Indeed, it displayed that it was mostly a straight line to go from the Town of Beginning, up until the 4th town.

There was a mountain between the Town of Beginning and Dualis, and a forest was spread between Dualis and Tria, but looking to their east and west, it looked like I didnt have to go around them.

Just in case, there are other ways rather than the regular route to go from town to town. However, they take time, so I dont really recommend them that much.

I guess so. Either way, I want the bonus point from defeating the dungeon boss too. I guess I really should just push for the shortest one.

Yeah. Its not like there is something special between Tria and Fias, but the dungeon boss is quite strong. Though saying that, its not as strong as a named boss

Fumu fumu, so to pass through from the 3rd town to the 4th town, I have to fight a strong boss.

Rather, thinking about it once more, I felt like the bosses I had fought were generally way too special.

It was not like I defeated him, but having the experience of fighting a monster of Apocalypses class, then I think that I wouldnt really be that scared of most of the things in my way.

So, the problem is beyond Fias. From this point on, you cant keep going straight. The area surrounding the town is not separated into east, west, south, north. Between Fias and Griffis, there are two wide area dungeons.

According to Rin-chan, the two wide area dungeons were separate routes that connected to Griffis.

There was the surface route, calledWorld Tree Hollow, which was a route going through the inside of a super big tree.

And then there was the underground route, called Ancient Ruins of Fire, which was an underground dungeon.

I leave it to Nana to choose where to go. The difficulties themselves are mostly the same, even a solo player like Nana is enough to clear it.

By the way, where did Rin-chan go through?

I went through the World Tree Hollow way, its hard to use magic in the narrow ruins.

I see.

That meant that I could also easily go through the World Tree Hollow route.

Just that, you just had to admire being able to explore ancient ruins.

As the name of a wide area dungeon implies, it takes a lot of time to clear it. Once you clear it, a warp point will open up so you wont be having any trouble going through.

Even though you couldnt just warp until Fias. Konekomaru-san ran through them right?

The path until Fias is treated like a tutorial, most likely. Though the kijins extra quest seems to be around the area in the Town of Beginning..well, you would understand once you went there, but its a really huge dungeon. To the point that you would rather want to warp.

From the look of Rin-chans grimacing face, I guess it really was an absurdly huge dungeon.

As I thought, I wanted to go around the ancient ruins. There should be traps too, which made me excited.

For now, aim for Tria. Im not worried, but somehow it feels like Nana easily gets rolled up in strange things.

W-well yeah. I think so, too.

The fight with Aria, encountering Rou, and then the invasion of Apocalypse. Then, from the meeting with Shuten, an extra quest.

In just four days, my life was filled with events.

I felt like it had started since I had defeated Aria. But thinking about it again, I wonder what the cause of Apocalypses invasion was?

Though, it cant be helped. Even after seriously thinking about what was going on in the game, I still didnt understand the reason for having a hidden boss-class monster invading an early field such as the Lawres wetlands.

If you said that it was simply a wandering-type Named then the speculations would just end there.

Since I wasnt able to stream yesterday, I kinda miss the viewers.

Since when you get used to it, it feels like you have been playing with them for a long time. Its good to get used to streaming.

I was a bit nervous about it, but having come to this point, I could feel that that perfect distance between viewer and streamer was enjoyable.

Rin-chan, hearing me say those words, happily smiled.

Ogre chapter 39 end

9: I keep forgetting to say this but, actually Rou and the lawress, could be translated as Law and Lawless but there werent any context of that being the case like Nana pointing it out or the viewers. but you could say, what a coincidence.

Cassie (Proofreader/Editor): Its only been four days?! Nana-chan, your ability to encounter trouble is really out of this world, you know? Also, I think it would be interesting if Saku-chan looked kinda like Makoto from Minami-ke IRL and looked like Astolfo from FGO in-game or something.