Chapter 239: Painful Stagnation Part 2
Chapter 239: Painful Stagnation Part 2
「All Rank S, but boy am I glad that there is nothing more.」
I was about halfway through the game, and so far the requirements were not overly strict or anything like that.
Even though some of the missions and tasks are pretty hard, as long as you remember the tutorial and its teachings it can all be accomplished sooner rather than later. The path of the sword does not yield even to increasing difficulty levels!
I hit the “AI Teacher Dummy” with a flying kick to the stomach, and as it wobbles in place I also add a full swing to it. The stage is cleared, now it’s time for evaluation. The strict voice shouts two words: Rank E! This means my performance was pretty much garbage.
Also, not that I am complaining, but the fact that you could switch your kendo uniform here on and off as you desired was kind of evil. I mean, what were the developers thinking when they added a function like that?
「I knew it…… When it comes to martial arts, the highest level of difficulty makes the AI opponents really hard to deal with……」
I was playing the game normally and at my own pace, but around the fourth dan and higher I started to struggle quite a bit.
Soon enough, rather than skill, passing the next stages of battles against AI opponents became more of a trial and error thing.
At first it was a piece of cake, but as the ranks started to go up the movements of the training dummies started to get more smooth and refined, and right about now they were able to perform really complex moves an maneuvers as if they were doing only that for God knows how many years without stopping…… And since there is a strict ban in this software when it comes to shoulder tackles from American football, pro-wrestling moves and everything that resembles street fighting, I was barely even managing to attain the lowest grade possible, which was G.
「It would be great to have an action game with skills and stats……」
I would really like to play around with my stats in this particular title. Specifically, I would like to increase the Agility of my avatar by one and a half.
With something like that clearing those stages would be a breeze.
「So does that mean it is time for the normal boss……?」
Knockout!
It was simply overwhelming. So far I managed to win one time, two times there was a draw and I have lost about forty three times.
The deciding factor seemed to have been a variation of German Supplex, but…… God, I’m so tired…… So, so tired……
「I’m out of breath…… In ShanFro this amount of exercise would not even make me break a sweat, but here…… Now then.」
Do I want to return to ShanFro? Or do I want to tackle that secret boss? For the time being I return to the title screen and……
「Umm, let’s see here…… “Young buds, from West to East, grow and take nutrients from the dead leaves, bloom into large flowers”?」
Was that supposed to be a poem? Or maybe a song? Or maybe…… You know what? I’m not going to bother with that. Ancient poetry and writing is something that is way too sophisticated for an average modern high school student such as myself.
「Umm…… So what this means…… Season changes, dead leaves dance in the air?」
There is a change in the main menu of the VR kendo dojo. The door at the back of the dojo start to open, released by the secret password, and now I can enter the hidden dojo where the secret boss would await me.
“DUAL WIELD HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE MODE SELECTION.”
“ONLINE BATTLE MODE HAS BEEN ADDED TO MODE SELECTION.”
“HIDDEN DIFFICULTY, BRAVE FENCER HAS BEEN ADDED TO MODE SELECTION.”
See, it’s here. It is only a little bit weird that you need to beat the boss to unlock the first two options. Those would usually come as standard in game options.
I choose the new difficulty setting without hesitation, and also choose the dual wield option while being at it. A pair of bamboo swords appear in front of me, hanging in the air.
「Dual Wield, huh……?」
I was unable to even touch the person that was known as Ryuuguin Fugaku.
I also learned that there is a huge gap in between our abilities to dual wield. Apparently the dual wielding art of the past was something totally out of this world……
「OGUEH!?」
For the first time ever in my life, I was also able to find out that you can get a brain concussion within five seconds.
It was not the unreasonable speed, just like that of the Gravekeeper Wezaemon. It was just your normal human speed. And before I could do anything or react in any way, I was already getting pummeled.
…… This battle was sure to be a struggle. A grueling one at that.
「Awaken!」
「Good morning, Sanraku-san!」
It’s already dark outside!
「Father should be back now!」
「Alright! Let’s go, Emul!」
Right now, I was extremely frustrated that I was unable to make any sort of progress when it comes to battle against Ryuuguin Fugaku, so I decided to log in into ShanFro to see if now I will be able to push the Unique Scenario EX a little bit further.
As we walk through the corridors of the Bunny Court, I try to summarize the information I have so far and organize it all inside of my head.
So far, the information gained during the conquering of the previous dungeons did not prove to be of much use. Wezaemon’s was a simple quest with a boss that simply pulverizes its enemies in a quick and neat fashion. Kutanid’s was a mere dungeon conquest with a whole lots of gimmicks to it. This Unique Scenario EX, however, had way too many steps for my taste.
It seemed to me that the progress of this quest was tied to doing other Unique Scenario EXs, and I was guessing that beside the one I was doing right now, there would be a whole bunch of other mini quests that I would be required to accomplish.
Will I be required to fight against Vash at the end of the line? Or is there going to be some other victory conditions that I’m unable to see for now? …… Thinking about it now, is defeating the Unique Monster the only way of clearing the Unique Scenario EXs?
Up until now I was doing just that, defeating them without thinking of a peaceful solution…… Well, Wezaemon was probably an exception to that rule, but even though you defeat the Unique Monsters, they are not really disappearing from this world…… Which is giving you an opportunity for a rematch.
Thinking about it carefully, this is all a Unique “Scenario”. The purpose of such quest should be tied to clearing the storyline connected to a given monster, so that would not necessarily entail having to defeat the Unique Monster in question.
Such possibilities are low, but not entirely impossible. What if in reality it was Setsuna of the Distant Past that was the real Unique Monster and Wezaemon was a mere boss? Would killing Setsuna instead of Wezaemon cause the quest to collapse? To end in failure?
If we are to assume something like that, then was Kutanid really a shy octopus that was playing around in his backyard, just wanting friends with whom he could play with?
「In the first place, just what is making the Unique Monster unique……? The story that is tied to it? Its connection to the gods? Or maybe something else connected to the world of the game itself?」
「S-Sanraku-san!? Again off to your own world!? Look, we are already here!」
GUEH!? Don’t pull on my cloak all of a sudden like that!
「R-Right then. How about we report our achievements so far?」
Well now, I wonder what exactly is going to happen from this point onwards……
Also, its seems that Akitsu Akane managed to arrive at Rabbitz and was on his way to the Colosseum in order to do the quest “Invitation from the Bunny Country”. After we are done here, let us go there and see how he is doing.