Sword of the Philosopher Chapter 4

When I had reached a point in time where all of the necessary facilities had been set up at the base, beating high-level monsters was now possible for me.

The reason for that may have been due to fighting monsters every day to a point where I haven’t realized that a year had already pa.s.sed. I was honestly enjoying the thrill of growing stronger and at this point, I have already reached my goal as I had already grown strong enough that the event where I would die would no longer be a problem. In truth, I already had the confidence to avoid it at that time where I was starting to save money along with gathering forging materials. In order to not lose focus and divert my objectives, I still continued to hone my skills with the sword and magic by battling with monsters.

I was also able to get my hands on raw materials and before long started with the creation of items. Now at the present time, I had already grown into a fine adult whose skills had been recognized by my parents. Without exception of my home town, I had also been visiting the other towns and staying there for several days at most. I was gathering information regarding the Heroes as I am currently unaware when the game’s opening scenario will start. So moving forward until we reach the point where the Game’s scenario starts, I continued to make myself stronger and hunt monsters as this was what I thought was best for now.

With my current level of strength, I think that even if the opponents were of the Five Great Generals of the Demonkin, I have confidence that I would be able to hold my ground and possibly beat them. Of course afterwards would be the Demon King himself but… the thought of challenging him was indeed there but the thing about the barrier still exists.

“Hmmm… It seems like the battle itself with the Demon King would be the problem…”

This was the thought that entered my mind as I was in the middle of working at the base. I then started to consider the things involving it.

Currently, there is no clear picture regarding the whereabouts of the Generals of the Demonkin but in time they will inevitably appear. In the game, one would be able to locate them after triggering a series of events, and without those events, finding them would be close to impossible. So even if I currently have the means of winning against those five, I currently have no idea as to where I would need to go to fight them… Also, there was one huge problem involving the fight that I would need to consider first as it would be bad otherwise if I fought them myself.

The Demon King being the last boss, to be honest needs a set of conditions which would need to be met in order to be beaten. The most important condition to this was a lineage which I obviously don’t have is needed in order to beat him. That lineage was of the Philosopher that had sealed him long ago in the past, a lineage of magic. In order to beat the Demon King, the five Heroes that all have that trait were those of the Philosopher’s descendants were essential.

The Demon King’s barrier is one that can defend against all kinds of attack, and the only ones capable of destroying it were those that carry the blood of the Philosopher within them. That was the condition set to break the barrier. However they would need to first to take back the Philosopher’s magic from the Five Great Generals as they were somehow able to exploit it for themselves. Without that power, there was no way of beating the Demon King. That was the truth established within the game.

Regarding Luon, naturally being a story character, was in no way possessing the blood of the Philosopher within him thus defeating the Last Boss was impossible. The Five Great Generals are one thing but beating them by myself would inevitably turn to the end where the continent was ruined. It is therefore essential to have someone from those five Heroes obtain the power instead or everything that I had done would be for nothing.

“Accompanying one of the Heroes was already one of the hands that I’m ready to play out but… this again would be problematic.”

A few things were needed to consider in selecting the Hero that I would be accompanying. Which one of them would be taking the role of defeating the Demon King was the first of those questions. Furthermore, I have few details of what scenario is currently in play… Even if I, for argument’s sake, know where each Hero is located at a different place and are doing different things simultaneously which makes observing them impossible. What if I were to forcibly guide one of the Heroes to fight? No… Not good… If by some chance a different Hero defeats the Five Generals, I have no way of knowing what follows next so it instead this turns into a bad idea.

There was a pattern where one person beats the Five Generals and there was also a pattern where five of them joined forces to gain victory. However, triggering the latter scenario was a bad idea in itself. The reason for this was the Demon King will be gaining more power and would then fire a large scale magic that would lay waste to the majority of the villages and towns. Following that attack would be the flood of monsters that would tear the continent apart. Although the latter was the easiest to predict, this was already my reality. Knowing the full state of that scenario from the game’s perspective, living through that after the Demon King’s defeat was one thing I would really want to avoid.

There was also the thought of showcasing my abilities to the Heroes and in turn rise up to lead them but… then again risks would also be high as I had thought about the results of it. The majority of the scenarios would crumble after forcibly placing actions. This would result in me not being able to antic.i.p.ate any of the actions from the Demon King’s side. The choice of making the Heroes stronger by offering my aid was the best so far but I still have doubts of how it will turn out… really, I don’t know as there was always this lingering possibility of the Demon King launching the large scale magic and… this was certainly making me worry.

As there was already no option to “redo” any of this, running along the scenario for now is the best. Based on the situation, until I have a firm grasp of when the beginning scenarios of the Heroes will move out, I’ll continue to observe both the Heroes and the opponent to come-up with more options. What if I was not able to recognize that one of the scenarios had already started? I then began to wonder what I’ll be doing at that time.

If that by chance occurred, I can interfere as much as I wanted but… The Nature of the game being that of a free-scenario was I think to a certain extent flexible. However it would also be good if it can proceed without me in it. However if there could be trouble of any kind, having the ability to deal with it at the soonest should also be possible.

Besides, it could end differently if I show myself too much and felt it would be bad. In the end of it all and without exception, the Hero that ends the Demon King will become the King. If I were to join the battle, the chance that I could to ascend as king was possible. Such high and important position was something I would like to pardon myself from taking.

All things considered, I will continue to strengthen myself to the bitter end using my knowledge from the game. I really don’t have any abilities related to politics anyways so being King was something I have never thought of. Therefore I’ll be staying as a simple NPC through the end while moving behind the scenes until the Heroes have defeated the Demon King. This right here would be the basic foundations of the plan right…? Well, there was also the opening event to look into. I knew that it would leave a bad aftertaste afterwards and it was already at the point where I would want to avoid it.

Naturally since I am in no way capable of defeating the Demon King, It would inevitably reach the ending where the continent is destroyed.

“As I thought, that would be bad… so there’s nothing I can do right?”

It was indeed cold-hearted of me to consider this but any intervention to the current scenario would be bad as it would go into a direction where I wouldn’t be able to predict nor stop. Which way the event would be proceeding or what kind of influence it would resulted in was at this time already set. Anyhow, I don’t have much time left to level myself more before the opening scenario starts. That’s why until that time arrives, it is important for me to firmly prepare for what is to come. Truthfully at this point, the level I have now is already alright but there would come a time where I would need a far greater strength. That’s why I need to reach an absurdly high level for when that time arrives.

For now, I need to think about a partner that would join me in my travels. Tagging a normal Adventurer wouldn’t be much of a help so it’s rejected. A person listed from in the game would also be good. No… no… The one thing I have already reached a conclusion to is not move any of the essential characters. Then the person I’ll need is someone that can move independently without affecting any of the characters essential for the different events.

If that’s the case then the first thing I would need to do is… securing the items that would be used up in the events. I would also need to match it up with the place and if I raise its levels it would be perfect. I decided that I should only create items in the game that are currently present and only create the other ones when their time comes. There’s also the last dungeon where it would only appear if you go near it but, if no one comes close to it would not show up… well, let’s see how things will play out and think about it afterwards.

The objectives had finally been laid out so I should start and look for materials now. The only current concern left for me right now was how far should I prepare? The opening scenario has yet to begin so let’s just hang in there and do our best… And with those lingering thoughts that I had I continued to ponder, I began to move out from my base.

A full year afterwards, I have completed all of the items and was done synthesizing of course along with defeating monsters.

The results were I can only remember magic and skills… furthermore, I was also able to gather even those metals and crystals that were only attainable at the final stage of the game. These were originally rare-items with low acquisition rates but since I was wearing an amulet that increases the drop rate of these items, I was able to gather a lot of them.

The opening scenario of the game has yet to start still but… for now, the places where there aren’t any people where monsters dwell are already thinning out. I was earnestly hunting the monsters to a point where the Five Great Demon Generals would no longer show up but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

This is only my guess so there is no denying about the Demon King’s invasion. However the possibility of them not reaching the continent yet is high. Perhaps they are slowly advancing towards here while setting up different things in preparation for their invasion and as a matter of fact, I haven’t seen even one person from the Demon Clan yet.

Or ‘are they maybe not realizing the onslaught I’ve been doing to the monsters that they are sending?’ is what I have thought but, it seems that the monsters are also born thru lingering magic in the air as they somehow breathe and produce this from themselves. Such techniques were being done on places with no people so it was flooded with monsters in those places. However the intensity of magic in the air was not constant as it changes depending on the presence or absence of humans within the environment.

If the process of producing monsters in the air was to be put to a stop complete, it may be possible to stop the continuous sp.a.w.ning of monsters but I then it would likely be noticed if I truly destroyed it. It seems that there was no problem if you just defeat the demons itself so I just did that instead. If I were to draw their attention by fully destroying these grounds that sp.a.w.ns out monsters and the Demon King shows himself, we would go straight to the Bad End. It will become so as no one from the bloodline of the Philosopher would be here. That is why I only clear the monsters with haste and do not bother their means of sp.a.w.ning.

If I were to use advance magic for about two or three times against the Demon King without his barrier, I’m pretty sure that he would die. I seem to have already become some kind of existence similar to what we call a BUG.

Factoring in the opening restrictions for the sake of story character’s abilities or whether it applies to others, it seems that even if you have a body of a human, with enough ability and perseverance, defeating someone with the strength of a Demon King would be possible.

If there was a way to somehow know the level of others just by looking at their outward appearance, I would most likely not be able to stroll out leisurely anymore but, fortunately, there is no such thing in here. Although as one would expect, it would also indeed be bad if the place I was h.o.a.rding all of my items and gold were to be found out. It would be better not to let anyone know of this and some major changes should be done at the base.

So, with the superfluous amounts of raw materials should I make the strongest weapon possible…? Somehow, even if it was just for a bit, it has become fun. And with the large amount of items that I can freely use to my heart’s content, I decided to begin creating.