In the Land of Leadale - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

 “…Well, I’m stumped…” 

Feeling feverish, Keina Kagami listlessly cooled herself by the window. It wasn’t a matter of staying in the bath too long, but rather the result of wisdom gained through a long, confusing, and self-powered brainstorming session. 

The fluffy clouds drifted across the blue sky before her. It was truly a marvelous day. 

Beneath that azure sky, a forest spread across the foot of a long mountain range, and as she gazed farther down, she could see a dozen or so wooden houses standing in a row. Such a sight was unheard of in the twenty-second-century world she knew, and it seemed pretty rude to question whether the town was peaceful or on the decline. 

Even someone like herself, who was part of that very landscape, couldn’t help but scoff. 

Attempting to understand the situation she now found herself in, the girl thought back to the other morning in that plain, sunlit room where this recent mess started. 

Prologue

“Miiiiss, it’s morning!” 

Keina weakly opened her eyes at the bright light suddenly pouring in and the young, lisping voice. She stared up at the blurry outline of a grained wooden ceiling. Sliding her gaze to the right, she caught sight of a shuttered window. To her left and beyond the expanse of white sheets, the upper half of a young girl was greeting her with a big smile and cheerful “Gooood morning!” 

“Yaaaawn… Gwud mornin’?” 

“Hee-hee! Time to get up, miss!” the young girl replied, her smile dazzling. 

Sleepiness began to naturally ebb away. Keina stretched her torso and bathed in the morning light as if trying to soak it all in, then looked down at herself and immediately froze. The young girl standing by the bed tilted her head at Keina’s odd stiffness. 

“Morning sunlight…and a wooden room?” 

Until just the day before, or recently anyway, she’d always fallen asleep in that white-walled hospital room she was utterly sick of. 

But more than that, Keina was dumbfounded by the fact that someone who couldn’t even stay awake on her own was getting up and stretching. 

Whether seconds or minutes, the shock didn’t last long. Keina’s gaze became downtrodden, and she felt the eyes of the girl who had come to give her a wake-up call. 

“Are you awright, miss?” The little girl seemed truly concerned. 

Keina considered how she might dispel the sadness in the girl’s dark eyes. Casting aside her own concerns, she opened an Item Box and clumsily took out a Candy, which would restore a small amount of MP. She placed it in her palm and presented it to the girl, just like the head nurse used to do for Keina when she was a child, since she was always crying. Keina smiled and gave the Candy to the young girl. 

“Th-thanks, miss!” 

“Not at all,” she replied, her smile bright and her face slightly flushed. Getting up from the bed, Keina patted the girl’s head lightly. 

The young servant placed the Candy in the pocket of her loose smock. She stripped Keina’s bed of its sheets and blankets, folded them neatly, and went to leave the room with a happy heart. However, she made sure to remind Keina, “Breakfast’s ready, so hurry on down, ’kay?” 

Logic urged her not to become too immersed in this heartwarming atmosphere, and Keina ruminated over what had just happened. 

…Open the Item Box? 

As soon as the thought came to her, a translucent display window appeared on the right side of her field of vision. Then, fifteen smaller boxes popped up at once. As she used the scrollbar in the top right corner to scroll down, a vast number of items appeared. 

“No…way…” 

She pinched her cheek. 

…Ouch. Okay, no question this is real. 

Having employed a classic reality-check technique, she had confirmed that the situation she now faced was no dream. There was no choice left but to accept it. 

Since she’d thought this might have been a dream, she opened the Magic Skill tab next to the Item Window. Keina blanched when saw something called Dream Dropper: Nightmare displayed. 

Wasn’t this that online game she’d just been playing? Leadale? 

The fact that she could move and feel pain proved to her that everything was all too real. 

You can’t fight on an empty stomach. Keina—or rather, Cayna—decided she would deal with her problem after breakfast. 

She timidly descended the steep, creaking stairs and made her way to the tavern’s dining hall. There, she found the girl from earlier and a plump middle-aged woman she assumed to be the proprietress. 

Within the dining hall was a round table with a set of eight four-legged chairs. There was also a counter with four seats facing the kitchen. It was surely difficult to weave through the crowds when the place was filled to capacity. However, at the moment, there were only two farmer-looking men sitting in the tavern eating their breakfast of soup and bread. 

“Come now, miss, have a seat,” the proprietress urged. “Otherwise, your soup will get cold.” 

“Y-yes, ma’am.” 

Cayna deliberated for a moment over where to sit before taking a spot at the counter. Bread and soup in a wooden bowl were soon placed before her. The young girl from earlier gave her a wooden cup of water, completing the breakfast set. 

There were already several things Cayna found strange about this online world. She went over them as she began digging in. 

Come to think of it, how many years has it been since I last fed myself? 

She broke off pieces of the slightly stale bread roll and dipped it in the stew-like soup as she ate. After living without a sense of taste for so long, she couldn’t help but vocalize her feelings. 

“…It’s delicious…” 

“Well, miss, ain’t you just the sweetest?” 

The proprietress’s surly face immediately brightened. She put her elbow on the counter and began chatting amiably. 

“If it’s so good that it can put a smile like that on your face, what kind of disgusting food have you been eating until now?” 

“Huh…?” 

Cayna had apparently broken into a large grin and didn’t even realize it until it was pointed out to her. Thinking back on her usual diet up to that point, the only things she’d ever ingested were water and pills, plus an IV drip. Ruminating about her life after the accident, she felt a keen emptiness over all the fine cuisine she had missed out on. 

“Um, well…there just wasn’t a whole lot that I wanted to eat…” 

“Now, that’s a sad tale. Without good food, you’re only halfway living! Here, this is on me. Have as many seconds as you want.” 

“Ah, I will. Thank you very much.” 

The woman patted Cayna’s shoulder. Cayna’s cheek twitched as she looked at the stew/soup that was now almost filled to the brim. 

I—I wonder if I can eat all this… 

She thought it would be too much for her stomach to handle, but the enticing smell alone seemed to give her the strength to smash through her limits. Cayna realized she was a lot hungrier than she thought and unintentionally stuffed herself. 

As she settled her full stomach with a cup of water, Cayna surveyed the first floor of the inn. 

There was no question this village sat on the border between the White Kingdom of Felstes and the Green Kingdom of Gruskeilo. Though remote, the region’s position as a key trade route should have kept the borderlands thriving. The world setting likely included plenty of inns and carriages to account for the constant stream of merchants. 

So why was this place so down on its luck? 

The last time she logged out, she remembered seeing multiple NPCs and hearing a bustling background soundtrack that gave the inn a lively atmosphere. 

Another stark difference from in the game was that the NPCs, who normally could only say their set dialogue, were responding to her with true emotion. At this point, you couldn’t even call them NPCs anymore. It was then that Cayna realized this world was both a game and not. 

The real question for her was How long can I live in this world? 

Having reached this conclusion, Cayna decided to investigate matters as much as she could. First, she opened her Item Window and checked how much money she had on hand. After seeing a ten-figure number, she took out twenty gil, which was the game’s currency. 

Intent on finding out whether the twenty pieces of silver would even be accepted, Cayna presented them to the proprietress. 

“Um, excuse me…” 

“Hmm? What is it?” 

“I’d like to stay here for a little while. Can I use these?” 

The silver coins, each carved with some sort of flower design on the front and back, clinked as she put them on the counter. 

The money had nothing more than numerical value in the game, but Cayna thought they actually looked pretty cute. 

““What?!”” 

This reaction came from both the proprietress and the little girl, whose eyes grew large as she stared at the coins. The woman timidly picked one up and turned it over in her palm, examining it closely. She put it back with a sigh. 

“You can use it if you like, miss, but don’t go flaunting your deep pockets, okay?” 

“…Pardon?” 

“Deep pockets”? This? That’s ridiculous. 

Going to a shop and selling one pill that boosted your attack power for thirty minutes could earn you about forty gil, and even a shovel cost less than ten gil. However, Cayna’s plan to take these numbers and mentally approximate the cost of a night’s stay had completely backfired on her. When the proprietress said four coins were enough for ten nights, Cayna realized how badly she had to reassess her financial know-how. She was beyond relieved that the first person she encountered in this world had been an upstanding NPC like the proprietress. 

There was no end to the questions running through her head, but her top priority at the moment was finding out why the village had fallen into decline. 

“I feel like this village used to be livelier, no…?” 

“It’s been about four generations since we had business like that. Ever since the nation of Felskeilo was established, no one needs us anymore.” 

“…Buh?” 

Cayna’s brain short-circuited the moment she heard this completely foreign name. It sounded like a mashup of the White and Green Kingdoms’ names, and she once again found herself wondering in bewilderment, Huh? Am I not inside the game? 

The proprietress left the lost Cayna in the dust and continued on. “They say that two hundred years ago, seven nations constantly waged war with one another and stirred upheaval anywhere and everywhere. The gods were so angered by their unsightly fighting that they chose leaders from among humanity to lead the people. These people worked hard to unite the world into three countries, and now here we are.” 

One of the farmers who had stayed even after finishing breakfast began heckling the proprietress about her impromptu history lesson. 

“Quit tellin’ Li’l Miss Adventurer here stuff she already knows!” 

“Shut yer trap! Get back to the fields, all of you!” she shouted. 

The farmers got up and hurriedly left the inn. 

Cayna was now the only customer. The information from that exchange sank her deeper into thought. 

Aren’t those seven nations part of the World of Leadale VRMMORG I was just playing yesterday? 

There were no set classes like soldier, priest, or mage; instead, you obtained four thousand different skills. The game had a high level of freedom that allowed you to play as an avatar whose race, equipment, and skills were completely customized to your specifications. 

That freedom earned it the mockery of netizens who sarcastically referred to the game as a Wild West of sorts. A large-scale Battle Event held each month decided the gain or loss of territory among the seven nations, and every player went crazy over it. When a nation took a certain domain, they were granted special, limited-edition event items. Even though so many people logged in to discuss detailed strategy the day beforehand that it would crash the server, it was also pretty funny to see countries that couldn’t manage to get online until the day of the Event end up in the dust. 

To hear that those seven nations—White, Green, Red, Blue, Brown, Black, and Purple—had existed two centuries ago shattered Cayna’s grip on reality. How was she supposed to live in a game she used to play now that two hundred years had passed? Anxiety loomed over her as her prospects turned increasingly grim. 

First, it was imperative that she familiarize herself with this world. There was no question the list of things she needed to learn in order to find her footing was growing longer by the moment. A certain someone would totally laugh in her face if she froze up because of nerves. 

When that despicable face that got its jollies from other people’s misery came to her mind, she couldn’t help but feel that a little anxiety was more or less the spice of life. 

“…At any rate, if you’re speaking of such bygone days, I take it you’ve been here before?” 

“Huh? Um, well…” 

Cayna knew it would be flat-out foolish to answer I logged out just yesterday! so she kept it ambiguous. 

“You’re an elf, right, miss?” the proprietress asked. 

“Ah, yes, I am,” Cayna replied. 

Her current body was that of her game avatar. Before leaving her room that morning, she had used her Truth Mirror—an item distributed during certain events—to confirm this. As the name implied, a Truth Mirror showed your true form. It had no other functions. 

When she nervously stared into it, she’d expected to see the emaciated girl who had been laid up in a hospital bed. Seeing her avatar reflected back at her, Cayna was momentarily overwhelmed. When she tugged at her bangs, the strands had shone with a subdued golden hue. Her hair was shoulder-length. She had deep-blue eyes and, of course, distinctly pointy ears that stuck out like a sore thumb. These ears were proof she was from a race of long-lived demi-humans. 

Cayna had chosen the high elf race, which, unlike regular elves, specialized in fighting from the back line. She went with this simply because high elves had the highest possible INT and MP stats. 

Even though each race had its own basic battle moves, once some users deemed a particular one to be the “lamest,” no one would pick it. High elves like Cayna were tanking in popularity of late, and it was quite common to hear of fans forming high elf–only teams. 

“Yes, I came here just once in its heyday…,” Cayna started. She answered honestly, since she figured there was no reason to hide it. 

The proprietress beamed. 

“I see. So, miss, you know how the village was back in the day. To think a regular would return to our inn after all these years. It warms my heart.” 

Cayna just smiled awkwardly and let the woman assume she visited the inn often. 

“Oh, right, I’m Marelle, and this here is Lytt. Relax and enjoy your stay.” 

“Thank you, I appreciate it. My name is Kei…Cayna.” She adjusted her posture and introduced herself with a bow. 

“Quit bein’ be so formal!” Marelle replied, thumping her on the back. It made Cayna a little happy. 

As soon as Cayna excused herself and returned to her room, she quickly set about checking herself and everything she had on her. When she pulled up the stats screen, the initial information read: 

Name: Cayna 

Level: 1,100 

Race: High Elf 

Title: Third Skill Master 

In World of Leadale, you could exceed the maximum level of 1,000 by another one hundred levels by completing a special quest. 

This level-breaking quest was a serious beast, and most people considered the event a necessary evil. Even Cayna’s own guild had recruited members and nonmembers alike to take it on and failed countless times. 

Finally, a huge four-party group of twenty-four managed to clear it. Some had even legitimately cried, which provided a pretty good picture of the quest creators’ sadism. When they at last succeeded, each party member had shouted, “Screw you, Admins!” 

After that, no rumors of anyone else beating the quest surfaced, so those members were essentially the strongest in the game. 

The merits of a high elf were 10 percent Battle and Skill Bonuses when surrounded by nature and the use of Eagle Eyes. 

The deficits were found in Craft Skills, since it was impossible to cultivate necessary plant ingredients by your own power. Cayna often gathered these by asking available guild members or buying them from vendors. 

The title of Skill Master was an honor bestowed upon those who mastered 1,500 Magic Skills and 2,500 Craft Skills to equal 4,000 total skills (though the designers continued to add more). Cayna had been given the title of Third Skill Master, since she was the third out of the fourteen people to master every skill. 

That title was the very reason Cayna preferred logging in and out of this remote region as she pleased without venturing into other territories. 

Along with the honor and title came the automatically obtained Skill #4,001 called Scroll Creation. 

Therein lay the problem. With this ability, Skill Masters like Cayna could record the skills they possessed onto parchment, making it easy for other players to obtain them without embarking on annoying quests. 

However, whenever she met players face-to-face, they constantly demanded she “give me this” or “give me that.” The Skill Masters got fed up with this and submitted a petition to the Admins to do something about it. 

The Admins had tried to deal with it, but an incident occurred in the process where one person ended up having a nervous breakdown and quitting the game altogether. 

In the end, their solution was to have the Skill Masters take on part of the Skill Transfer Quests normally handled by NPCs. Each Skill Master was then assigned a location of their choosing. 

The goal of these Skill Transfer Quests was to reach the summit of each location. Word of the new rule that anyone who succeeded in these difficult quests could have any skill they wanted spread throughout the game like wildfire. 

The locations of the Skill Masters differed greatly and tormented the players to no end. 

A beautiful building filled with lethal traps at random intervals. 

An undersea fortress known as the Palace of the Dragon King that was unreachable without magic that allowed one to breathe underwater—and of course, there were the sea monsters inhabiting the depths. 

A castle in the sky that was completely hidden unless you used Flight and Eagle Eyes simultaneously. 

The entrance to a temple whose location changed every day. Even after you finally managed to pinpoint it across the entire mountain range where it was located, the inside turned out to be an enormous dungeon. 

Half these quests were too frustrating to be any fun. 

They were clear manifestations of just how much resentment the Skill Masters harbored after having to deal with the other players’ heartless Gimme, gimme attitudes. 

With this in mind, Cayna conscientiously chose a silver tower in the middle of a vast forest as her base. If the objective was to reach the very top of the tower, it was certainly feasible. However, it took twenty-four real-time hours to do so. 

It was important to note that the long stairs did not match the height of the tower’s exterior. Players immediately started circling up the entire tower as if it were a drill bit, but since the speed matched their set pace, running wouldn’t make the journey any shorter. If you stopped at any point before reaching the top, you would be instantly returned to the starting point outside the forest. This was considered a relatively tame trick compared with some of the gimmicks employed by Cayna’s fellow Skill Masters. 

The owners of each location had rings and passcodes that allowed them to directly access their most central regions, so coming and going was no issue. Cayna told herself she’d have to visit hers later and moved on to inspecting her items and equipment. 

Currently, she was wearing a high-level Fairy King Robe that only female high elves could equip. Even within the entire game itself, Cayna was probably the only one who could wear it. She wore leggings that were visible down to her knees and sturdy boots. Both were treasured pieces imbued with several status boosts. 

On her left arm was an arm guard that she could attach a bow to with a command key; by expending MP, she could turn the normal arrows into magic ones. On her right side, she wore a headband with a feather attached. It automatically rendered her invisible when faced with an external threat, though this cost MP. 

Her weapon was a lightning dagger displayed at the very top of the Item Screen. It was an optimum weapon that paralyzed an enemy after only a few hit points. 

“To be honest, I’m way too well equipped here…” 

Basic battle strategy said she didn’t need to be this armed when she could just blow everything away with magic, but Cayna couldn’t be too careful now that she’d lost everyone from her guild in one fell swoop. 

Even if her race wasn’t as suited to a vanguard position as normal elves, she could still form a party with low-level players and act as a pretty good tank. 

All that was left was to consult the toolbox at her tower and decide what she’d keep. 

“…Oh!” 

Suddenly, Cayna realized she had completely forgotten her support AI. 

Her uncle had made it special for her when it became difficult for her to move on her own in real life. It was an assistance AI that aided her with daily tasks even though she was bedridden. Attached to the hospital bed, “he” was an extraordinary construct that could act of his own volition and do everything from raising and lowering the back of the bed to calling a nurse in an emergency. He could even assist her with in-game commands, keep detailed logs, scratch itches, and let Cayna know if she had visitors when she was either sleeping or being examined. 

He had been with her longer than any gaming companion, and she considered him a partner of sorts. She called out nervously, unsure of what she’d do if he didn’t respond. 

“…Kee, you there?” 

“Yes. I am here.” 

Cayna’s heart eased as Kee—whose name came from a cat her mother once had—replied. He spoke in a concise, robotic tone devoid of any affectations. 

“You have two urgent items.” 

“I figured. What’s up?” 

“Item one: You have disconnected from the hospital system. Item two: You have been disconnected from Leadale’s master system.” 

“I see… Thanks.” 

She had already guessed that this place was both part of the game and not. The question was why Cayna was here to begin with. Even within the past day or so, she hadn’t heard anything about Leadale ending service. It didn’t matter if you were far from the royal capital or your friends; if there was important information or a big Event coming up, any logged-in player would hear about it from either the Admins or their guild and friends. 

Cayna thought back to her most recent memory. 

Her AI assistant had informed her that her uncle and a cousin had come to see her, so she must have logged out. She’d spoken with them for a short while, then logged back in. Fatigue had quickly taken hold of her, and she’d gone to bed without logging out. Her last memory was of setting her status to Away. 

Whatever had happened between then and when she’d woken up must have brought her to this point. 

“Hmm… Kee, did anything strange happen last night?” 

“Yes, there was one item.” 

“There was?!” 

Since her partner (?) himself couldn’t tell if it was an emergency, he must have been uncertain whether to report it. 

“After you retired to bed, the power cut out for approximately two seconds. That is when the previous two items occurred.” 

“Cut out?” 

“I am eighty percent certain it was a blackout.” 

“Oh, right, a blackout. Okay… Wait, a blackout?!” 

The gravity of her strange situation became clear, and Cayna could easily surmise what had happened. This forgone conclusion robbed her of all hope. 

“Cayna?” 

Keina Kagami’s body was so weak that she couldn’t survive without life support. Cayna herself knew this, and the doctors had warned her as well. 

If interrupted by some outside source, whether it be a lightning strike or otherwise, it took about two seconds for emergency generators to resupply the hospital’s equipment. 

In that time, her spirit alone had escaped reality and fled to this world. 

In other words, Keina Kagami’s body was dead.