Chapter 9: Adrenaline

Well, well, well… It's a well! A very old and unused well. It also happens to be the future entrance to a dungeon. In the darkest hours of the morning, I left my chickens their daily food of rocks and grain, trusted them to not fight over it, and I traveled here to do some scouting.

During the Frying Festival, the underground of Dadirdtoun is accessed through this entrance. Amongst the festivities, a group of Orcs will infiltrate the underground through an opening found in the Logswoop Marsh. If I remember things correctly, they have a deep grudge against humans and their food choices. During the events of the Festival, they capture humans and transport them underground for a purpose that’s not fully explained.

The leader of these Orcs is a Fuzzy Orc named Mast Tersheff. He’s responsible for providing his tribe with food. Because he cooks for them all, he has very particular beliefs about food preparation. Essentially, Mast Tersheff is angry at Dadirdtoun’s yearly overindulgence depleting the resources in the area. By his word, these Orcs already struggle with resources, since they were cast out from both monster and human societies. The Tears of Nephelai presents this entire debacle in a very aggressive way. It’s all framed in a style that makes it seem like the Orcs irredeemably threatened the humans in Dadirdtoun sometime in the past.

When I was playing this game in my past life, I didn’t think much of it. The Hero defeats all the monsters in his way, and helps every town he visits. But now, I think there’s a little more going on. After all, I’ve been directly affected by the Hero’s actions. The game will support anything the Hero does because Namida was built around his very existence.

Mast Tersheff talks to the Hero in just a few lines before the boss fight. Every time you play the game, he’ll say the same thing, fight the same battle, and get defeated. Mast Tersheff gets buried under rubble after the battle as the Hero routs the Orc Tribe and moves on.

Reuben readjusted his dialogue and attitude in the Hero’s presence, and he’s not even reincarnated like me. What if Mast Tersheff is the same? The mere possibility of that being true is eating away inside me. Mast Tersheff isn’t entirely innocent, since he infiltrated Dadirdtoun with his tribe and kidnapped humans, but did he even want to fight the Hero? Did the game force him into a fate that was already written for him?

Frankly, I’m not sure why these thoughts are infiltrating my brain, but I’m going to use that possibility as the basis for my plan. There’s no other way I can handle Mast Tersheff in the state that I’m in. Someone like “Village Girl A”, who has now historically lost against her own chickens and a villager multiple times, has no chance against these Orcs in battle. I’m riding on my intuition as someone who has enjoyed The Tears of Nephelai more than anything else.

When Mast Tersheff occupies the underground, the space becomes the Well-Done Dungeon. If I go into a place like that without a plan, I’ll be as cooked as the food Mast Tersheff prepares. I have the layout of the dungeon memorized, but with Dadirdtoun being bigger in this version of Namida, I want to make sure there are no major changes.

The rope to go down the well is sturdy and firm, and I’ve made sure to equip a woodsman’s axe. It fits nicely enough within my belt straps, but I’ll be holding it in my hands once I make my descent, just in case. I silently thank Reuben for my weapon choice. His reports about the village of Dadirdtoun allowed me to determine which house I could conveniently “borrow” a weapon from. To the man named Jack Lumber, who is used to his axe being missing due to his mischievous kids, I appreciate your unwilling patronage and perfect circumstances. I’m sure Jack Lumber will think it's his kids’ doing. If it's only one day, I won’t be patronized for it. Probably.

Dadirdtoun’s underground is lit up by the crystals within. It’s funny to think that neither the Hero nor the Orcs acknowledge them. Not even the village itself does anything with these crystals. I’d like to do something about them myself if I get a chance. They’d make wonderful food for my Rock Chickens, and selling some should get me some nice funds for traveling.

Scouting the dungeon is easier than I thought it would be. The layout is the exact same, down to the strangely open area where Mast Tersheff is fought. It’s odd that Dadirdtoun is bigger but the Well-Done Dungeon is the same.

“Screeech!!”

Ah, an enemy?! My head whips around to the sound echoing throughout the caverns, and I spot a group of four bipedal rats that nearly reach my height. How exciting! My first enemy encounter! I’ll ignore the fact that I’m completely underprepared for this and allow my excitement to fuel my adrenaline.

These are Bratty Ratties! Typical early game enemies, they’re the first set of monsters that appear in groups of three or more. They tend to gang up on one party member at a time in an effort to wear down the player. Well, I’m the only party member right now, so I guess they’re just jumping me. It’s both exhilarating and terrifying seeing these things to scale. What was merely simple visuals on my screen is now physical! Woah!

I can’t do turn-based combat since I’m not the Hero, so how will these Bratty Ratties attack? They have scratching attacks, a simple buff spell, and a desperate biting attack that has a low hit-rate. The first one immediately goes for that desperate attack, and trips over itself. The heavy and grimy body of the monster rolls right near my feet. I swing my axe down.

My axe was aimed for the one-shot weak point of its neck, but there was no blood, only a dull thud as I hear a sound play. That’s the sound effect that plays when a party member attacks an enemy. The Bratty Ratty squeaks in annoyance and scratches my leg. I hear the enemy attack sound effect play, but now my leg is bleeding, and the pain is shooting up through my spine. My dress is ripped near the hem too.

I immediately figured out my situation.

“Ahaha, so this version of Namida wants to give me a battle system with a double standard?! Why am I the only one who can bleed?!”

The situation is so bewildering, I can only verbally express my paradoxical mix of exhilaration and frustration to the enemies in front of me.

“If I get hit, I need to suffer the damage, but you grimy things can just take whatever you want until your HP reaches zero, huh?! You can probably see my stats too! Why do I have to work hard and figure things out on my own? If Namida wants to give me a halfhearted battle system, then fine! I know your stats anyways! Level 15-17, with 54 maximum HP. Even if I only deal 1 damage every hit, that’s only 216 swings at maximum! I’ll cut you all down! I’ll show you what “Village Girl A” can do!”

Somehow, I feel a power surging within me. I was mostly bluffing to myself when I said I would use adrenaline to survive, but maybe this is actually a skill of mine.

The Bratty Ratties seem more irritated. Good! This’ll be a fun battle! They’re a bigger and slower target than Cooper, and Reuben is scarier than all of them combined. Since these things can only scratch and bite, all I need to do is use the distance of my axe to hit them when I can. If they get close, I’ll run away. I know every corner of the possible playing field, so this should be no problem. Reuben has helped me hone my dodging skills at an advanced pace.

I dodge a scratch and a bite, and I land another hit. 214 left. A scratch grazes my arm, but the wound isn’t deep and I’m able to hit three Bratty Ratties with one swing of the axe. 211 left. This process repeats itself. I run and duck and dodge through all of their slow attacks. One wrong move and I’m done, but the adrenaline is forcing me to move in ways I didn’t know I could.

The Bratty Ratties approach again, squeaking and chittering to each other. They probably thought I was easy prey. To their credit, I probably am. But if I were to lose to simple enemies like this, I wouldn’t be able to call myself someone who truly enjoyed The Tears of Nephelai. That would be truly terrible.

This adrenaline is the same feeling I experienced when I fought the Demon King for the first time. I’m just applying that into a more physical and life threatening context. My form is sloppy, but the Bratty Ratties are slowly succumbing to my tenacity. 195 hits left.

I swing my axe again.