Kenshi, The Spirit Swordsman

Chapter 37

We stood in front of the gate to the dungeon.

Maria: ...

Kenshi: Maria? What's wrong?

Maria: Um... this is just a guess on my part, but... Regarding ALfheim Online, compared to other VRMMOs created under The Seed, there's one significant difference. And that's the fact that the Cardinal System running this game isn't a feature-limited version, but a copy of the full-spec system used in the old Sword Art Online.

Kenshi: Full-spec version?

Maria: The original Cardinal System has an Automated Quest Generator feature. It gathers legends and folklore from around the world via the network, whose proper nouns and story patterns it uses and adapts to generate infinite quests.

Shin: Then was this quest auto-generated by Cardinal as well?

Maria: Considering that NPC's behavior just now, it's highly possible. If that's the case, depending on how the story progresses, it's possible that you'll end up going all the way. According to the data I've archived, this current quest, along with the Norse mythology that ALO itself is based on, includes a so-called Final Battle. It's not just that the Frost Giant tribe will be attacking from Jotunheim and Niflheim, but from even further down, from a fiery realm called Muspelheim, the Flame Giant tribe will also appear and burn the World Tree to the ground.

Shin: The Twilight of the Gods, Ragnarok.

Itsuki: Impossible. There's no way that the game system would totally destroy its own map... It's can't possibly...

Maria: The original Cardinal System has the authority to completely destroy its World Maps. The reason is because the old Cardinal's final task was to destroy the floating castle, Aincrad.

Itsuki: No way...

Rain: Our shop...

Kurumin: Even if this Ragnarok really does come to pass, wouldn't it be possible to restore the server from the backup data?

Maria: If the Cardinal System's auto-backup feature was used, only the player data could be rolled back. It wouldn't include the fields.

"..."

Tohka: Hey, why don't we call the GM and ask them if they knew about this?

Shin: I think right now it's after hours for Human Support so that won't work.

Kenshi: Well, it is Sunday morning at the end of the year.

Itsuki: Big bro... The time...

Kenshi: Right. Anyway, let's rush down to the lowest level!

"Right!"

* * *

After we entered the dungeon, we've taken out most of monsters in here, and right now, we're fighting against two bullhead-like monsters. Me, Rain, Itsuki and Tohka attacked the yellow one several times but its HP wouldn't decrease, or rather, the monster was barely taken any damage.

Itsuki: This is looking bad, Big bro. That gold one has crazy physical resistance!

Kenshi: No shit!

Tohka: If only we had a mage who could cast an Attack Spell in our party!

Rain: That would only make the black one with its higher magic resistance move forward. Could this be any harder?

Maria: Shockwave Attack! In two seconds! One! Zero!

The yellow one slammed the axe to the ground and made a shockwave. We moved aside to dodge it but we still took damage, but Shin healed us right after that.