NOVEL NEXT As dusk fell, the surroundings became pitch with only the lights illuminating the sandy beach.
At the same time it was cue for us. Let us begin the top of classic summer event—Test of Courage!
Everyone had changed into their usual dungeon ready equipment, and so did I to my ?Firmament Series?.
"Attention everyone! We will now commence the beginning of ?Monster Hunting in Night?!"
Oh, the actual, but hidden for reason, name of the event was ?Test of Courage?. As a matter of fact, specific only to the summer night, a ship would appear in the ?Sea-Dun?.
"There's a huge ship anchored in the south a few minutes away from here. Our goal is to hunt down the monster there, collect their drops and search for treasures from inside the ship."
Night at sea and a ship where monsters appear...did it sound familiar? And indeed, it was nothing but the Ghost Ship!
The specific setting in the ?Sea-Dun? was such that a ghost ship would appear in all floors as the set during the summer night. And would disappear as soon as the white glow of dawn illuminates the sky. So it was basically a night only event.
The special part about this Ghost Ship was that the treasure chest lying somewhere inside it was a special one which would spawn back again the next day while taking another shape. Wasn't it an intriguing mechanic? The fact fueling that thrill even more was the drops of treasure chest changes on a daily basis, and so too the rarity of the treasure chest!
A treasure loot specific only to summer night. Doesn't this get you pumped with excitement?
"Also take the ?Lamp? here everyone, since it is dark. Also, we will all move into a team of limited members, it's a game after all, and race for who can get the treasure chest first. There are around 3~5 of them, meanwhile we will split into seven teams. Any team who would return with treasure chest would get a special prize!"
"Treasure chest?! Hurray, it's going to be fun, isn't it, Hannah?"
The expression of Lana and Hannah, the treasure chest enthusiast, dazzled with smiles. In contrast, dark clouds were hovering over Sierra's expression.
"Say, Zephyr. The enemy in this ?Monster Hunt at Night?, are they perhaps......."
The realization dawned upon Sierra. I presume she must have studied about the monsters that appear in ?Sea-Dun?.
So it's finally time. I held back my gushing nervousness and unveiled the details of our true event.
"Most of the monsters are actually…ghost and skeleton type. And the ship is actually a ghost ship."
"........."
"Ack!? Hold on, Sierra. My head would come off if you shake me so much!!"
Sierra grabbed me by my collar quietly and started shaking me violently. W-What's with this power, she's damn strong! Help me guysss!
"Errr. It's your fault, Zephyr-kun."
"You reap what you sow."
Ack, Hannah clearly shirked away from helping me, so did Lana.
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"Calm down, Sierra! I'm sorry, alright, cough, but didn't you say you will work hard to get used to ghosts?! It was just a preparation for it." freeωebnovēl.c૦m
"Ugh......"
She finally stopped.
She gave me adorable glare with faintly puffed out cheeks and stared at me silently for a while.
"I will let you off only this once."
Phew, I finally got my neck free.
Did she decide to forgive me? I guess It would be better to apologize to her later. I firmly noted it down in my mental note.
Anyway, aside from her, there were a couple others, Alulu and Nico, who also shook hearing the name of skeleton and ghost ship. It seemed like they were not good with such stuff either.
"Brave-kun, I still haven't recovered from fatigue from daytime, so it seems like this is my stop. I will be waiting here."
"Y-Yeah! I am also from the production job, so I think it would be better for me to stop here as well!"
"Well, you're coming with us either way, Nico. Your presence will be required to increase the appearance of treasure chest and drop rate up too."
"G-Give my old bones some breakkkkk!"
Nico let out a miserable howl at my statement.
It only left Alulu alone who wouldn't be participating, but it seemed like she was afraid of being alone so she decided it would be better to tag with us and changed her opinion immediately.
With that, we left for our destination immediately after.
Also, we didn't have any plan to come back here, so we retrieved ?Light? etc items and used the lantern-type ?Light? to light up our way and started moving.
It took only a few minutes to arrive there.
"This...I was sure there was nothing earlier......."
I could feel a slight tremor in Sierra's speech as she looked at the battered galleon.
It wasn't just Galleon that appeared out of nowhere, a similarly battered and uncanny anchorage had also appeared there.
"It's so rag down. I wouldn't be surprised if ghosts suddenly started to come down."
"Eeeek! P-Please stop giving spooky predictions!"
Nico showed a scared expression as Ester muttered her impression. Whoops, seems like she really has low resistance against ghosts.
Alulu, too, had stuck herself to Hannah.
"Y-You look so calm, Hannah-san. Are you not scared at all?"
"I guess...so. After experiencing that scary incident, ghosts etc are nothing."
"S-Something even more frightening than a ghost? You seemed to have far more experience than you look, Hannah-san..."
I am sure I had explained it before, that was just a slime you know... nothing such drastic. Though Alulu was looking at her like she was some kind of battle-hardened veteran.
Hannah blushed, but otherwise didn't seem to find it bad at all.
We sort out teams via our typical lottery system.
I would like to avoid any party imbalance since there were going to be seven teams. There were 26 members right now, so it would basically be a team of three combatants along with un-combatants Alulu, Maria, Melina-senpai, Kairi and Nico joining either of them.
Hmm? You ask why not production job holder Hannah as well? Ahahaha, Hannah herself packs more than simple firepower after...all… wait, is it me or there’s something amiss here? Hmm-mm…..alright, there’s no need to care about details in game, yeah.
The composition was basically a high level member joining hands with low-level members who were going to be chosen through lottery.
It was still the upper floor and skeletons weren't that strong either, so we hardly needed a dedicated attacker. I mean, a max leveled member was literally invincible here.
So I made sure each team had at least one max-level member, while the other members were chosen randomly.
"Alright, now each team will board in order! The time limit is until 8:30 PM, about an hour. All ready? Then let's start our test of cou—ahem, I mean let's start ?Monster Hunt at Night? event! Hop on, team A!"
The seven teams were named from Team A to Team G who would be boarding the ship in alphabetical order.
Team A would be facing multiple battles as the one at the lead of our train, though it was balanced by more exploration time.
I was in the last team, Team G. We would hardly be seeing battle, and the exploration time would be equally less.
The members were I, Sierra, Sachi and Nico. Sierra and Nico were slightly scared so I decided to bring them in last team/
The Team A—members being Lana, Pamela, Noel and Kairi—had just entered when we heard their screams coming out.
"Woaah, why in the name of ghost there are slimes!? I got my shoes stained with them-desu."
"Kyaa~, ghost ship is scary~."
Yeah, they seem to be enjoying it thoroughly. The slightly monotone voice after Pamela's was probably Noel's.
Man, that girl sure has the knack to liven the mood unexpectedly, doesn't she? No, wait. I guess that make sense in her case huh.
Well, in either case, Team A also had the bane of Skeleton and Ghosts, ?Saintess? Lana. They shouldn't be having any problem, ?Seeker? Kairi was also in their rank after all.
That's why, O' Knight Maiden Ester of Team B, could you not give me reproachful glare? This is a game—ahem, I mean test of courage so what fun would there be if you chase after them, right?
Also, Nico and Alulu......you know there's really nothing to be scared about from Noel's voice. It's the typical made-up kya-kya of girls you would hear from a haunted house honestly.
Just in case, I explained to them lest they keep making a face if they were being sent to a butcher's shop.
Amidst the howl and cries and kyaa—all...alright, majority being fake—of the members, rest of the teams boarded in the order.
Alright, it's finally our team turn then, huh. Let's goooo!