Azimuth: The Elden Throne

Sorry for the delay, I had some things due and I had them done.

I'll be trying to post all 4 chapters, 2 for yesterday and 2 for today within the next 1-2 hours, but in case I get too tired, I'll just post 2 today, 2 tomorrow after some sleep followed by Danmachi and possibly the 2 chapters for the day itself.

I can be faster, it's just that some chapters do take a while to edit, this one took 40 minutes for example.

I do appreciate the power stones and also if you bookmark the Novel.

Peace!

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[You received a message from...]

"..."

Sigh...

"Let's see what he wants..."

But feeling frustrated and confused, Dale scratched the back of his head while he took off his towel, returning to his bath.

"Really now, what was even that? I received a video call from Ermin and I didn't even manage to see him?"

He looked at the message with some disdain.

"And instead of talking with me, he messages me?"

'Is it due to his sisters again?... Come on, even if my mom told me to stop playing, I would've been able to at least dialogue with my friends before logging out...'

'They also talked as if Ermin was a small child that needed supervision at all times...'

'Just how much of a tight grip do they have on him? Or is there something I'm not seeing?'

With these thoughts, Dale opened the message...

[I'M REALLY SORRY!]

"..."

"O... Kay... This is a start... So..."

[What happened?] Dale typed quickly in the air as he finished scrubbing his back

[DING!]

[It... Was more of a bad timing situation than anything...] Ermin replied almost immediately

[Me and my sisters were doing a Hidden raid on a Boss monster that spawns near our starting Village... Oh yeah, sorry, but I won't be able to play with you...]

[Anyway]

[I tried to convince them, but I failed miserably. And since that time, I've been dragged around like a fool, so I didn't have the time to contact you...]

[I like playing with my sisters, but only when they are too occupied to bother me, which ends up never happening...]

[It's not like I can stop them anyway, the last time I tried to ignore them, I suffered severe real-life consequences, something I would rather not experience again]

[And it's not like they are always on my ass, in fact, this game is the only one they made question to have me play with them, to this, I'm as surprised as you]

[Other times, I could just say I wanted to play alone or later and they would respect my wishes, I'm not sure why they are so keen on having me around this time... If only they weren't so controlling and in their own world... Things would've been so much better...]

"..."

Dale quickly read through his messages, surprised at how fast he was writing those replies.

So he replied in kind:

[...]

Three dots... It summarized everything he was feeling.

Though, of course, he wouldn't leave him at that.

[... It seems like they own you... Like a sla...]

[Believe me, I am already aware, but my options are limited, at least they don't abuse me, I'm more of their...]

[Butler???]

[Ha... Ha... You look so funny using that old shit... ??]

[Go back to the early 20s bro??]

[Still... A bit exaggerated but not that far off... Our relationship is quite complicated]

[Okay...]

[Yeah, let's just forget about this for now and focus on the important]

[As I was saying, we were doing a Boss, and my... Your message. It ended up distracting me and I took a hit]

"Shit..."

'Don't tell me they failed the raid because of that?... I would feel bad for him if that was the case.'

[Did you fail the raid because of me?]

[What? No no, it's just that my sisters wanted to get a perfect run and I foiled their plans, so... They got quite annoyed and they wanted to punish me for it...]

[Sorry...]

[Let me finish... When they learned that you were the person that did the call, they immediately took this chance to learn more about you...]

[So they took over the call and pushed me out of the camera...]

But Dale had a headache...

[Wait, first, how do they even know about me?]

[I... I may or may not have spread a few words due to the pressure from my sisters...]

[Bro...]

[I swear I didn't share anything crucial!]

[Just cut me some slack! I needed some sort of excuse to go after those items you requested! I have them all on me I swear!]

[And you can be assured that I shared nothing of meaningful substance with them]

[From their perspective, you are just an old friend who knows quite a lot about this game, they also felt indebted to you due to the money you gave me last time, and the information you shared with me]

[Remember our run planning last month? Yeah, it was all thanks to that]

[I know about that, they told me about it...] Dale typed as he rolled his eyes

[COUGH! It wasn't my fault]

[I underestimated the amount of information my sisters knew about me... Or the level of monitoring they have...]

[... Do I need to repeat what you just said Ermin?... In fact, I do not, I already printed the screen]

[No... Please no... Delete it immediately...]

[DING!]

[You just sent a /.Im/ anex to player, Jelly]

"Sigh..."

"Jesus Christ Ermin, are you really their brother?"

"It feels like they're cops trying to keep you in jail."

[DING!]

Shaking his head in disapproval, he continued to read the messages.

[Well, we can joke all day but it doesn't change how things are]

[Thanks to that money, my objective worked flawlessly and I managed to get my things and do everything I had planned in the tutorial, this includes gathering the Sigils and the Unique 'collectibles']

[All the while letting my sisters play around to their heart's content, so I can safely say mission accomplished]

[They're happy, I'm happy, that's all that matters]

[Hah... At least that...] Dale replied quickly

[For a moment I thought your sisters had stolen the 'fun' and the items from you...]

[I... I would've left this home if that had happened I swear on my very Soul]

[That is doubtful coming from someone who is a literal butler for his sisters a? ???]

[Don't send me these annoying Emojis! ??]

"Ha! At very least he is still the same." Dale said with a smile as he cracked his neck

'He got everything he wanted and had fun while at it... Well, some fun at least...'

"Hum... There are still some things I would like to ask him..."

So Dale continued to type:

[So what now? You'll be playing with your sister? I didn't even ask, but where did you all start?]

[I'm glad you asked, after a bit of talking, I managed to convince them to start in the far South of the continent in a Village near a desert]

"Near a desert?... Could it be..."

"I think I know where they are..."

[For a bit of perspective, is there a mountain range near your position? One with a legend about something breaking part of it?]

[OH?! Do you actually know about it? ????] Jelly replied with a surprised... Emoji

"..."

[There is one like that further SouthWest of our position, but that place is a forbidden zone and impossible to cross...]

[Why the question though?]

Dale smiled

'It seems he is closer to me than I expected. He's just North of here...'

[Because I am just a tiny bit further down... If you cross the desert you'll find me]

[Ha! What a coincidence then]

[We chose this Village because of the balance between its level of danger and reward, plus its geographical location seemed rather good]

[If we get on a horse, it would take about a month to arrive at the Capital if we were to use the fastest transportation available to us]

(N1)

[Not only that but several decent grounds are near us...]

[There is only one problem... Pretty much every enemy over here is a Boss monster to us due to the difference in Level... And with the items and stats, it's hard to make a living in here]

[Though things should change over time...]

[Are you a standard mod player?] Dale asked

'Standard players suffer from the Level difference system.'

'Even if their Stats are Higher, if they face a monster with a Higher Danger Level them theirs, they'll suffer a penalty.'

'It doesn't make hunting them impossible, but that can vary depending on the conditions, in most cases tackling anything 10-20 levels above you is pretty much suicide.'

[Yes, I didn't have the courage to choose HardCore, neither my sisters had it]

[My older sister wanted to try it, but after showing her the price of a new account she retreated in fear]

[She may be old but she works you see, she knows the pain of an empty wallet...]

[You know how it is, she's already full of shit to do thanks to her student loans and part-time jobs, so anything else would already be too much]

[I see, I thought your sister would be living alone since she is already...]

[Yeah, that was our parents' fault, she wanted to move out one day but my mother convinced her to stay... Unfortunately...]

[You know what? I'll delete these messages, if they read this group chat I'm fucked...]

[Message deleted]

[Message deleted]

[Message...]

"..."

'I already printed everything though...'

[In any case, I'm glad to have talked with you, if you need more money I can send it to you but remember to pay up!]

[Hey! Do you have no faith in your bro?! Do you think I'll let that pass?!]

[Even though I didn't talk, I was still there hearing your conversation with my sisters!]

[I saw you fawning all over them!]

[WHAT?! Fawning?! As if! Beauty doesn't faze me!]

[Liar! I saw it! You gauging up my younger sister's face and my older sister's chest!]

[You're delusional...]

[SEE! Oh God... They already charmed Dale... Please God!]

[You...]

[Do you think I can't connect the dots? Do I have to pay while my sisters get preferential treatment?]

[Look at you all proud! I saw your smile when my younger sister ran away! I'll report you to the authorities for hitting on a minor!]

[...]

[Say something!]

[... Bruh??]

[Don't 'bruh' me! ??¤?... I hate these emojis, why do they even have them? No one uses them anymore...]

[Ysk! Look! I did that for you!] Dale replied quickly

[For me?! What a way to distort things!]

[I'm being honest here! I tried to make you look good by making myself look good!]

[...]

[...]

[Look at the bullshit you're talking, you know what? I'm out, see ya later Dale]

[Sure, see ya man]

But before he left...

[Simp...]

"This fucker..."

[Sucker...]

'That'll teach him...'

"Ah! I almost forgot!"

[Hey, before you go, what did you get for your Beta Tester Box?]

[DING!]

[Oh yeah... That was a thing... Give me a minute, I'll open it right now...]

"... So he forgot about it too... Glad to see I wasn't the only one."

[... So, I got an ID effect, a universal armor skin, the Ashen Striker, a strange emote where some sort of ghost appears behind me and claps his hands slowly]

[And that was about it]

"Hum?... The ID... But I got no Armor Skin..."

'Also, he didn't get the Insignia... Weird.'

[I see, in my case, I got the ID, an emote, and a strange insignia, it seems the rewards from the box are random]

[That's interesting, it means each one of the Beta testers gained something Unique, I can now proudly say I'm the only player with this emote until someone gets one as well...]

[Anyway, it's time for me to go, until later]

[Later...]

After these two last messages, Ermin left for real to play with his sisters, leaving Dale alone once more.

He shook his head and finished showering and brushing his teeth, deciding that it was time to leave and explore the village outside.

"What's this?"

As per force of habit, Dale opened his stats as he walked around, seeing something new...

[...

Current Effects:

Aspect of Might -> All Stats +15 <subtxt> . </subtxt>

Body Reformation -> Natural Healing and Stamina recovery speed has been increased

Constitution Ratio 1.1

Cleaned -> +15% to Disease resistance for 6 hours

Inventory (+)

]

"Hum... It seems there are many more bonuses I need to pay attention to."

'Eating well, sleeping well, maintaining my hygiene... To be honest, it's getting harder to live inside this game than in real life...'

So after putting on a fresh new set of traditional clothes, he took a step outside, but he was immediately flabbergasted!

"?!"

/Chatter chatter!/

There were at least a dozen people he had never seen before, walking around the place looking at everything as if they were in a zoo!

The moment Dale appeared, many of them immediately had their eyes on him!

"..."

'These are...'

'Players!'

Dale immediately recognized what they were, they were players, and that was clear by the flashing names on top of their heads.

Apart from HardCore, all players have an ID on top of their heads, and some even had Titles next to them.

All players can equip at least one Title at once to boast their accomplishments to others.

And knowing the mind of a player, it was an obvious thing to do as players would find all forms of ways of showing off, normally done through their gear...

'Thankfully I'm wearing a set of basic Villager clothes, if I were to be wearing my gear, they would immediately recognize me as a player... But this makes things a bit harder now.'

'If a situation appears where I may need it... How will I pull it out?'

'It would be better if could remain as an NPC for a bit longer...'

Dale ignored their eyes just like any NPC would and proceeded to go on his way somewhere less populated.

He needed time to think and process the situation before he committed a mistake.

Considering the number of people in this area, there is the possibility of there being at least a hundred if not more players all around the village!

However, Dale also noticed something, and that was their clothes...

'Several of these players had Clan/group emblems on their clothes, showing they belonged to some sort of organization.'

'I already identified 4 different groups, and the rest were normal/lone players or those that are hiding their allegiance...'

'But a question remains, why are there so many players here? I expected them to come as the days passed and the first batch of players finished their tutorials, but this was too sudden.'

'The first batch of players should still be a day or two away from finishing and last time I checked, only 3% of the initial player count had actually descended into the continent!'

'One or a few is fine, but several dozens all of a sudden... Was I being too optimistic of the players simply avoiding this place?'

'There has to be a reason... A motivation...'

'It can't be me, so the only possibility is... Something happened as I was sleeping.'

'But what could cause this in a matter of 30 minutes... Actually, one and a half hours.'

'I came to the Inn and played with the kids before talking with Illia, then I played with the kids again and went to sleep.'

'Following that I took a shower and walked around a little as I recovered my senses, so in total, a bit less than 1 and a half hours passed.'

'That is quite a long time...'

Surprisingly, no one approached Dale, instead, they all kept an eye out on each other.

They seemed to be trying to figure out what was happening, and who he was...

But the surprises were far from ending...

"Hm?"

As Dale approached the foot of Church's hill, he saw a blockage, formed by the players of the 4 different parties he had previously seen.

They seemed to be blocking the entrance to the Hill, impeding any players from going there.

Of course, Dale immediately realized he might find the answer to his questions if he were to climb atop the hill, so without any hesitation, he made his way to the players...

...

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Notes

N1

You would be surprised at how much ground can be covered up in 1 week.

I used an interactive map of ancient Rome that calculates from time to season and the speed of the units within it to calculate and I think this time of 1 to 2 weeks pretty much covers a lot of space.

If they used horses, covering about 50 Km a day. In one week, they could travel 350 Km, but this is still low, they could go much faster depending on the creatures they use.

And that would be in a straight line with all weather and environmental conditions being rather perfect...

And I have yet to specify how big the desert is, although Dale said he is a bit further south, that could be a euphemism on his part.

As someone said before, it was strange for no players to appear.

But I want to say that, even though there are currently over 10 Million players in the game, there are over a thousand possible spawn locations.

And Resko is one of those hidden locations you would need to look deeply into the map to find.

The only people who'll go into Resko will be those who like living on the edge, those who are greedy for high rewards, those who are confident in themselves, and so on, you got the drift.

Rodi was very confident in his abilities, and he said he was very strong...