Luribel, the Safe Haven – Part 1

It seemed we were out of the woods—both literally, and figuratively.

“We should hurry. Those Dire Wolves’ll be busy fightin’ each other for a little bit, but after the infection regains control, we’ll probably be dog food.”

“Great. So we’re still in danger out here?”

“Not as much as in the forest. But as long as yer in its territory, ya ain’t safe.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“For some reason, I can’t get infected. But literally everything else in this world can, and ya probably ain’t an exception. I’ve experienced this first-hand since this whole thing started.”

“Infection” was a status condition in Arcforge that could be inflicted by a few mobs and bosses. It was similar to a curse, but it had a physical source, as opposed to a magical one.

But why can’t Yzara get infected while everything else can…?

Oh, I know! Her level’s too high!

Mobs and NPCs in Arcforge had levels, but these were only used internally; in the game, no one—players or NPCs—could see them. There was a crucial difference between infections and curses—only mobs and NPCs lower than the level of the source of the infection could be infected in the first place. Yzara was, by far, the highest-level NPC in Arcforge; in fact, her level was above the level cap imposed to players, level 100, and she towered over every other mob in the game.

So does this mean the source of this glitch is a mob?

That would certainly explain its infection capabilities and the level cap-restriction. And no matter how much this thing leveled up, whatever it was, it could never infect Yzara.

“Yer quite silent. Figured somethin’ out?”

“Well… Your level is too high to be infected.”

“My… level? What are ya talking about?”

Guess that went about as I expected.

Arcforge was surprisingly realistic in its NPC depiction, so much so that some beta players actively said it was magic. But NPC conversational patterns were, in fact, carefully orchestrated to avoid broaching certain forbidden topics. One of those topics was any of the game mechanics—NPCs were unaware of them and outright refused to even acknowledge you were talking about those things.

Case in point, even if I wanted to, I’d never be able to explain to Yzara what levels were, much less how any of the game mechanics might work.

“Well, basically, it means you’re too powerful for it to infect you.”

“Eh. Flattery won’t get ya anywhere, ya know. I’m nothing without my class. I’m basically as weak as you are, except ya can get infected, I suppose.”

“So basically, we need to go to an area without the White Death for me to be safe, right?”

“Easier said than done. Half the world has been taken over, and we’re smack-dab in the middle of it.”

Well, isn’t that a problem.

“The only safe places in the White Wasteland are the Polis leftover by the Heroes.”

Heroes—that is, players—could found their own settlements in the wild area outside the jurisdiction of the countries and kingdoms established by the intelligent races. These were called Polis, and worked sort of like city-states. When defined as a Polis, that settlement created a safe zone where monsters could not enter.

“But we’re quite far from any Polis. We’d never make it to one alive.”

Wait… that’s it!

“Can you tell me where we are, exactly?”

It ashamed me to admit that the area was so unrecognizable that I couldn’t figure out where in map we were.

“The Grenton Woods.”

Damn. We really are in the middle of nowhere.

The map of Arcforge was divided into two main areas. At the center of the main continent were all the countries of the intelligent races, where players could have a more standard RPG experience; and then there was the vast and wild outer frontier, which contained the Demon Queen’s lair. This was where players could found their own settlements and expand human influence to combat the Demon Horde.

Hmm, let’s see. So we’re in the southwest of the map, right? Recalling the layout, and judging by the Sun’s position, we had come out somewhere to the East. I was pretty sure there was a small NPC village nearby. These existed even in the frontier, serving as pit stops for players trying to expand southwards.

“There’s a village called Luribel nearby. Let’s go there. Might as well and do this where we can at least have some shelter.”

“And what are ya planning on doing, Hero?”

A rather nasty smile sprouted on my face.

“If we can’t get to a Polis, how about bringing one to us?” I said with a smirk.

“Are ya right in the head, Hero?”

“I’m completely fine, I assure you. I’ll found a Polis right here.”

* * *

To found a Polis, you needed a special item called a Foundation Crystal. Because Arcforge had been in beta, and we wanted players to help us debug potential issues, we gave them a freebie—every beta tester started with a Foundation Crystal in their Hero’s Bag.

“Ah, there it is.”

After reaching into the bag, I found what I was looking for. The Foundation Crystal was a carved piece of solid, black glass-like crystal, with a long spike and a round head, kinda like a push pin.

“A Foundation Crystal, eh? Guess that would do it.”

“It’s a bit of a waste to found a settlement here in the middle of nowhere, but that’s way better than getting mauled by those doggies.”

“So how do ya know there’s a village out here, Hero Takashi?”

“I was a—I mean, I’ve been here before.”

“Huh. That’s unusual. Every Hero I came across in the past had been summoned fresh from another world, and had no idea what this world was about. Practically newborn fowl, they were.”

“You met Heroes before? How is that possible? Weren’t you supposed to be controlling your Horde from your castle?”

Certainly no one during the design phase ever brought up Yzara just randomly strolling into human towns. Granted, I wasn’t involved with her AI behavior at all, so it’s possible they snuck in that detail late in development.

“Even that got borin’ after a while,” she added with a huff. “When things were calmer, I disguised myself as a human and visited some human towns. Just to check out the enemy, ya know?”

“Right. Of course.”

“Then what’s yer story, Takashi? What happened for ya to get back here? Every other Hero suddenly vanished a hundred years ago.”

I could barely believe what she said.

“Wait, a hundred years?!”

The Arcforge beta had closed down eight years prior. It didn’t make any sense how this world had existed for over ten times that. Not to mention, the servers had most certainly closed down.

So does that mean this is another world based on Arcforge, not the actual game world?

“Yup. For sure. I can’t forget how joyful I was that day,” Yzara added. “The world was in chaos for a while, and I thought I could finally make my move to conquer the entire globe… but then the White Death showed up. So what happened to ya? Yer quite well-preserved for a hundred-year-old human.”

“On my side, only about eight years have passed,” I said. “Let’s just say… Heroes could no longer exist in this world. Until now, apparently. I got summoned back in here by the White Death.”

“Eh. That must suck for ya,” Yzara said, giggling a bit. “If that’s the case, then where did ya get yer gun? No other Hero had it previously.”

“Well, I was wondering about that, actually.” There was obviously no way I could outright tell her that the Debuggun was just an item given to developers of Arcforge when they spawned in. “It was an item I obtained before, and I guess it just stuck around in my Hero’s Bag…”

“Huh… So ya don’t know, either.”

Her tone betrayed her suspicion of my completely lie, but she didn’t dig any further. Instead, i took the chance to ask my own question.

“So what happened? All Heroes vanished, the White Death showed up, and decided to attack your Horde?”

“Pretty much. Those early days, the Wastelands spread rapidly, and before I knew it, I was cornered in my castle. We had a grand last stand right there, but… well, I lost. All I could do was use the last of my power to seal the source of the infection right there.”

“You… sealed it?”

“As much as I could, at least. At least, that seemed to slow down the spread of the turning to only half the world. Its control is still slippin’ out, though. I’ve been on the run since then, and slowly it has managed to weaken me and steal all my titles, one by one. Finally, it sealed my Dark Ruler class—but since I used it to seal the infection source, as long as I’m alive, it can’t escape.”

“So basically the only thing keeping this world in check is your existence?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Well, isn’t that a terrible situation.

“And this source you mentioned? What exactly was it?”

“Well, I… I don’t know.”

“You… don’t? But didn’t you seal it?”

“I did, but that thing was surrounding by a ton of that black mist. I couldn’t see its true form.”

A mysterious “infection source”—some sort of glitch that managed to conquer half the world. Then, the Demon Queen was blamed for its spread, and has been the target of its wrath for over one hundred years.

What am I supposed to do with her now? Should I trust her story?

At least I knew this “White Death” and the Demon Queen were at odds, which gave her a tiny bit of credibility, at least.

“But with yer gun, maybe it would be possible to get past that,” she said with a forlorn tone.

“Hey, this has been bothering me for a while now, but how do you know what a gun is?”

“Even the former Demon Queen would know about guns, ya doofus.”

“That’s not what I mean. Guns didn’t exist in Iditath a hundred years ago, right?”

“Oh, that. Humans invented them.”

Wait, what?

Arcforge didn’t have any guns at all. It was a purposeful design decision to keep the world purely sword and sorcery.

But now this NPC is saying that they invented guns on their own?

“Now that ya mentioned it, how do you know about guns, Takashi?”

“I mean, we have them in my world, too. Obviously.”

How could this be? NPCs weren’t set up to “invent” things. Their AIs were advanced, yes, but they just followed their predetermined script.

Could they have gained this ability during the transition to this “real” world?

Or wait, maybe…

I shook my head. I was letting my mind run wild with the hypotheticals, and no good would come of that. I had to focus squarely on getting out of this stupid situation alive.