Chapter 568: Peerless Brilliance

Author's Preface

Settle down! I decided I wouldn't introduce any new trash games during the JGE Arc, didn't I?! (Beckoning from the dark side)

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Well, setting that aside.

"Apparently, they're adding a new monster category."

"You bring that up right after inviting us to a coup d'état?"

"Hey, well, priorities are priorities."

"A new category... You mean a classification like Unique or Raid?"

"Exactly. Do you two know about 'Named' monsters?"

"......Well, yeah, of course we do."

"Like the 'Scarlet WoundScar-red' on the New Continent..."

"Yeah, that's the one. It seems like 'Exordinary Monsters' are being added as a new evolution of that concept."

Exordinary......? That word doesn't exist in my vocabulary, which consists solely of high school English and gaming terms, but was there ever an English word like that......?

"Exordinary... Exordinary... Ex-ordinary? Extraordinary, as in uncommon... or rather, a peerless monster... is that it?"

"No way, getting it right on the first try is amazing, Rei-chan."

"Awesome."

"N-No! I'm just, um, I'm humbled..."

As expected of Rei-san, her real-life mastery of both literary and martial arts is no joke. But peerless, peerless, huh... Thinking about it based on that word, does it mean this?

"An existence that hasn't appeared in the world until now, a monster that hasn't been evaluated?"

"Yep. An Exordinary Monster is an existence that is similar but fundamentally different from a regular monster that spawns and then achieves some kind of feat to earn a Title."

A unique origin and unique abilities... The Golden Scorpion comes to mind. That thing spawned from a highly unbalanced diet and possesses a form specialized in killing its own kind, along with self-regeneration capabilities.

In that sense, it fits the criteria for this 'Exordinary Monster' thing, but that guy is ultimately just a Rare Monster. If so, what kind of monster actually falls into this category......?

"By the way, I actually already know one example of them."

"Alright, trade established."

"If you seriously think you can bait me with that menma, I'll sentence you to the latest beauty trend: a ramen face-wash."

"You literally just called it a sentence!"

"Tr-a-de..."

"So? What's this one example?"

"Draculus Dinocerberus 'Scars of a Mortal StruggleScar-dead'."

Hm.........? Ah, it's not Scar-red, it's Scar-dead. No, that's way too confusing!!

"The Draculus Dino series are originally forms that base monsters transformed into, but 'Scar-dead' is an irregular born from crossbreeding between those transformed ones... a naturally born contaminated individual."

Therefore, from birth until now, it's an ultra-high-consumption entity that requires a massive amount of energy just to stay alive, yet having survived to this day, it boasts a strength that completely eclipses a normal Draculus Dinocerberus.

Those possessing greater energy are, as a rule, all strong entities. Having waged mortal struggles against them and emerged victorious, 'Scar-dead' is engraved with numerous scars that will never disappear...

"So basically, you're saying it was born as a 'Scarred OneScar'?"

"Probably. On top of that, it seems to have a damage nullification ability where your attacks won't go through unless you hit it with an attack that corresponds to a specific scar."

"That's..."

Annoying. 'Scar-red' has a property where it becomes increasingly sturdy every time it takes damage, making it a monster that gets more unmanageable the more you corner it, but if this info is right, 'Scar-dead' is a monster that displays ultra-durability right from the start. Or rather, just because it's spacious, the Sea of Trees on the New Continent is way too much of a demon realm. Are they just letting boss characters roam free?

"So anyway, Exordinary Monsters—which are further developments of existing monsters—are being implemented... but actually, the subjugation rewards for these are special."

"Meaning?"

"Players who defeat an Exordinary Monster will learn a skill without even needing to level up. A skill housing the power of the Exordinary Monster they defeated..."

".........Seriously?"

"Seriously serious. And on top of that, exclusive materials... Making them appear on both the New and Old Continents might actually be a pretty wise decision."

Our Named Monster friend has been reduced to a strictly inferior downgrade......... With the danger of Raid Monsters existing on both continents, if they placed the new content exclusively on the New Continent, the already skewed player ratio would become even more lopsided. Thinking about it that way, was the passenger limit on the ships bound for the New Continent aimed at this......?

No, they could have just lowered the hurdle for acquiring Teleport magic. The fact that that Deep Slaughter guy is still able to make a viable business out of it means the acquisition or learning difficulty is still stupidly high, doesn't it?

"If you don't defeat the Raid Monsters, a map-level disaster occurs, and now that Exordinary Monsters have appeared, we have to reinvestigate the monster distributions..."

"And the World Story won't progress unless you defeat Unique Monsters. We're busy, huh."

There's way too much to do... No, I guess that's exactly why it's ShanFro. That game has a tendency to show absolutely no intention of letting a single player enjoy everything the game has to offer.

Are you telling the farmers to live and die as farmers?! Screw that, anyone who picks up a weapon is a warrior! I'll never forgive Lycaon!!

"For the time being, Library is going to die."

"Let's laugh and look at their dying faces, yeah?"

"I think... they'll probably have smiles on their faces too..."

"Hey."

Hm? There were only supposed to be three of us having this ShanFro discussion, so where did this fourth voice come from?

"What's up, Natsume-chan?"

"Umm... you guys... you play ShanFro, right?"

"Yep."

"And, umm... Kei plays it too, right?"

In an instant, an electric shock ran through the three of us! Because we immediately sensed where this conversation was heading and what Natsume-shi was about to say.

Leaving Rei-san and me, who had somewhat begun to fidget, Pencilgon took a deep breath on behalf of all three of us and turned to face Natsume-shi with a gentle smile.

"In other words, Natsume-chan... you want to start playing ShanFro?"

"B-But, you know, right? In these kinds of games, playtime is directly tied to your stats, so it's too late to start now, isn't it?"

"Comrade Sunraku-kun, apparently the current highest level reached by a player in Shangri-La Frontier is 147, but why don't you tell her the level of your character and when you started playing."

"Eh? Ah, I started around summer and my current level is... ah, yeah. 147."

No, but my case probably shouldn't be used as a reference. I only reached these stats because I had the pre-nerf Inventoria. Even if we were to drag Natsume-shi up to the frontline level right now, we can't use the Scorpions anymore. However, as long as I don't speak of those internal circumstances, they might as well not exist.

"Well, I wouldn't tell you to follow the exact same path as our Tsuchinoko here, but if you're motivated, forcing a high-speed march to the top is totally possible. That's the great thing about ShanFro. Basically, Natsume-chan, it's not too late to start now!"

"I-Is that so? Th-Then, even if I were to start playing..."

"I mean, that Silver and Gold person also started pretty recently and is already at the frontlines, right?"

.........Hm?

"What did you just say?"

"Bird-head-kun, seriously......"

"Umm, this Silver and Gold person is......"

Uh oh, this is......

"Did I step on a mine?"

"Why are you using English...... Exactly!"

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Pencil Knight King: Good Job!!

Sunraku: Wait, which one is it?!

Psyger-0: ???

Mold: I completely lost the flow of the conversation.

Rust: I completely lost sight of the front of the line.

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Author's Afterword

- Exordinary Monsters from a Meta Perspective

To confess briefly, it's because I noticed the fact: "The Named Monsters that Avengers defeat for requests are just generic monsters, yet 'Scar-red' dropped exclusive materials, didn't it?"

Realizing this was bad, I thought about it a lot, and halfway through I started having fun coming up with monster settings, so I just threw a new one in. Specifically:

- Named Monsters

Born as a normal monster with a special thought routine, they become Named Monsters through their actions up to the present. Because of this, they are strictly "normal monsters that act weirdly," so the materials they drop are identical to regular species.

- Exordinary Monsters

Set to be born with some kind of special trait. While they belong to the same broad species category, they possess idiosyncrasies in form and ability.

- "Scar-red"

The root of all evil. Despite being a Named Monster, it picked a fight with a Raid Monster and survived, which caused the Behemoth Server to mess up by concluding, "If some kind of change doesn't occur here, it violates the 'fundamental settings'." The other two main servers filed a complaint, which was discovered by Ricchan and Tsukuyo-san. After a fistfight (a weak one), Exordinary Monsters were implemented.

Eh? So in the end, is "Scar-red" an Exordinary or a Named Monster? Umm...... An acquired Rare Monster...... I guess?