The Golden Experience Point [Part 1]

Chapter 43: "You Can't Run from Yoroizaka"

After learning [Space Magic] and various other skills, the [Summon Caster] skill had appeared in the [Summon] tree. Since Rare had already learned a ton of skills, she didn't know what the conditions for unlocking it were, nor did she have any way to find out right now, but this skill's effect was "Summon yourself to a follower's location."

Setting aside how the only applicable target was "Self," it was activated via the usual [Summon] skill, and it used the same list of available summons. In that list, "Self" was its own category, and the equipment she currently wore went with her. While it was limited to things she could equip, this meant she could use it to deliver items. Using [Summon] normally on a follower included all their equipment, so this was simply the reverse of that.

In this list, there was also an entry for "Mind," which allowed the caster to have their consciousness take over a targeted follower. As a result of possessing a follower in this manner, she had all her stats buffed by 10% due to [Enhance Follower]. The amount of a time that the possession lasted depended on the caster's MND; with how much MND Rare had right now, she could maintain the possession for a few days.

However, this skill ultimately only let her move the follower; the caster couldn't use any skills the follower hadn't learned. Because of this, Rare taught Yoroizaka the [Sword] and [Nimble] skills. Skills that moved the player's body gave Rare a sense of malaise, so she never learned any for herself. However, she didn't have that feeling when possessing Yoroizaka, either because her entire body was just metal armor or because she was no longer controlling her own body, so she wrote it off as a benefit of this being a game and went ahead with having Yoroizaka learn those skills.

The first time she activated the skill, she was sitting on her throne in the queen's chamber. When she saw through Yoroizaka's eyes her own character sleeping there, she thought it was really weird to essentially play another VR game inside of a VR game. However, she remembered seeing in the library's old news articles that it was popular even really old MMOs to play mahjong within the game, so she changed her mind and concluded that humankind didn't really change all that much.

In this state, controlling her follower's avatar, when she spoke it would come out with the follower's voice. But since Yoroizaka couldn't speak, that meant Rare also couldn't speak now.

—Well, it's not like I was hoping to have any friendly chats with other players anyway.

And since now her inventory was actually Yoroizaka's inventory, she couldn't friend other players either.

Rare took another look at her arboreal hiding spot and made some adjustments before leaving to go find some prey. The event details said that each block would be assigned around 200 players. That seemed somewhat low considering the maximum number of simultaneous connections and the total number of registered participants, though compared to the typical number of players in a given city, it was an extremely high number for a single area. Even after the official launch, the nearest city only had around a couple dozen players.

Thinking that she'd run into players no matter which direction she went, she decided to just wander around randomly. After a short time, one of the Kenzaki brothers strapped to her back (probably Saburou) suddenly unsheathed himself to cut an arrow out of the air.

—Interesting; even without explicit orders, they'll automatically take appropriate countermeasures against incoming danger.

The utility of Living Weapons climbed up one step higher in Rare's head. If that's how they worked, then even without possession, if she just wore Yoroizaka normally, she could expect her to act independently as necessary.

Arrows came flying at her one after another, but as long as she knew which direction they were being fired from, she could dodge them or even grab them out of the air with her hands.