The Latest Game Is Too Amazing

“You want to harvest ingredients for mid-level potions? That place is full of orcs, there’s no way a rookie like you can go somewhere like that alone,” the receptionist at the Adventurer’s Guild, Carlo, says in response to my question.

…So I can’t, huh?

There are several restrictions for accepting quests. One of them is level. If you haven’t reached the required level, you can’t accept the quest. That probably applies for this quest. Although I went up another level when I fought the killer bees, my level is only 6. I’m sure there are a lot of quests I can’t accept. Or maybe this quest is recommended for parties.

Parties, huh… In MMORPGs like this, it’s common to form a group with several other players rather than play solo. That’s called a party. The advantage of parties is that, since you have support from allies, you can fight against stronger monsters in greater numbers for longer periods of time. The disadvantage of parties is that the experience points from defeating monsters are divided between party members. Early on, it’s more efficient to gain XP by acting alone while your level is low, and parties that don’t have many skills can’t give much support to their allies, so it tends to be avoided. But when fighting strong monsters is more important than levelling up, parties are more efficient. There are many people who form parties so that they have people to talk to while they play, since it’s more fun than playing alone forever.

Well, this is just based on the MMORPGs I’ve played in the past, so I’m not sure if it’ll be the same in Another World. But I’m sure I’ll need to join a party sooner or later.

Considering all of that, I deeply regret that first encounter. If I befriended her back then, I probably wouldn’t have to worry about parties at this point.

Actually, I have quite a few memories of parties in an MMORPG I played before.

That game had a party matching system where you could display your level, class, and other information to notify other players that you hoped to join a party.

At the time, I was a beginner who didn’t know much about MMORPGs, so I used the party matching system. But no matter how long I waited, I didn’t get any response. My name was the only one left on the screen as players who joined after me quickly got invited to parties, so my first day ended up being really miserable. Even so, I didn’t get discouraged, and I kept on trying the party matching system until finally, on the fifth day, I was invited to a party. I enthusiastically responded – by typing, since this was a normal game – to the person who sent me the invitation to the party. But it seemed that the one who invited me was looking for a healer and just happened to invite me by mistake instead of the player below me on the screen. That day, my heart broke when I was told, “Sorry, I got the wrong person,” and after that, I logged out.

After that, I learned that the class I chose didn’t have very good DPS, and although it had a lot of status effect skills, they weren’t very effective against monsters, so it was good for PVP but bad for hunting, which made it difficult to get invited to parties. I fell into the trap of choosing a class that catered to players who were masochists.

So next time, I tried inviting people into my own party, but they ended up avoiding me and turning me down, saying, “I don’t know if I want to play with someone who has that class.” In the end, I formed a party with a bunch of guys who had the same class. Since all of our names were on the party matching screen every day, people joked that we were the leftovers, and we played while feeling an odd sort of kinship with each other.

It was fun despite everything, but I’d like to think that sort of thing won’t happen this time. After all, the selling point of the Magician class is that it has high DPS, so I doubt anything that bad will happen. Anyway, for now, all I can do is level up and make it so that I can accept the quest. As far as parties are concerned, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’ll ask Carlo if he has any other quests for me.

But before I can do that, a man with a beard walks up to me. Huh? What’s this about?

“Hey, if you want to do a quest, how about doing one with us?”

…P- pardon? What did this guy just say?

“As a matter of fact, we don’t have enough people for the quest we’re doing this time. We’re trying to recruit whoever seems decent, you want to join?”

Huh? Was I just invited to a party? Seriously?

“…Why me?” I ask without thinking. After all, the Guild has dozens of brawny men with shaved heads and deep scars on their faces who look like they would fit right in as bandits. I can’t tell if they’re players, but the chances that there’s not a single player among them are low, so they could just ask one of those guys if they need one more person.

Well, it’s a game, so there’s not necessarily a direct connection between outward appearance and strength. It’s possible for a girl as tiny as a kid to carry a huge weapon and go wild with it, but I don’t think there’d be any benefits to inviting someone as low level as me.

“You’re a rookie, right? We actually have a couple of rookies, too. I accepted this quest to train them, but it’d be kind of tough with only two rookies and one guy keeping an eye on them. So I was hoping they could party up with a fellow rookie.”

…I see. That makes sense.

There are circumstances where, even if people form a party and defeat monsters, XP isn’t distributed to all the party members. That can happen if one member of the party is more than ten levels higher than the others. For example, if a level 15 character formed a party with a level 5 character and then defeated a monster, they could earn XP from it, but if a level 4 character joined, that character wouldn’t gain any XP no matter how many monsters they defeated.

This is to prevent an extremely high level player from being able to form a party with a low level character and level them up very quickly, known as power levelling.

Power levelling like that isn’t really recommended. There are several reasons for this. One of them is that the low level player would rely too much on others, causing them to become an incompetent player who doesn’t know how to hunt on their own. Players like this have a tendency to sacrifice their allies and become hated by other players. Another issue is that they would monopolize hunting areas for long periods of time in order to safely level up, which often leads to fights breaking out, people talking about them online, or all kinds of other problems.

Some things that are done for power levelling, such as using strong support magic or lending out strong weapons, are also done by people who genuinely want to help beginners, which makes it hard to draw the line. Personally, I think it’s more fun for players to avoid excessive assistance.

That aside, it looks like they reached out to me because of that problem.

…This is really good luck! Maybe this could be a chance to get closer to them and have them invite me to join their party permanently! I desperately suppress a delighted grin. No, not yet, I still need to ask what kind of quest they accepted and what kind of people are in the party. Depending on the party composition and the quest, there’s a possibility I could become either an asset or a burden. It’s the first quest I’m taking with a party. Shouldn’t I do all I can to make it a success?

Also, it’d be embarrassing if I got so happy right now that I gave them the impression that I’m a lonely player with no friends. Come on, me, restrain yourself!

“…I’d like to see the quest and the other party members first,” I reply, paying careful attention not to let any of that joy show on my face. The bearded man seems to understand.

“Alright, then come with me. I’ll introduce you to the others. Oh, I forgot to tell you my name, I’m Havoc. Nice to meetcha.”

Havoc brings me to a table with three people. It seems like they’ll be the party members.

“I’ll introduce you, here are the party members I’m planning to take the quest with.”

One of them is a brown-haired, blue-eyed man carrying a longsword on his hip and wearing what looks like an iron breastplate over his shirt. He’s a young man with a pretty good physique who’s looking at me with a smile on his face. I’d say the impression he gives off is refreshing and athletic.

The other two are women, one of whom is a laid-back woman in her twenties with short violet hair and violet eyes who’s wearing heavy blue and white clothing, vestments maybe.

The last one has long ears – an elf. She has long blonde hair and red eyes and a fierce-looking face. She’s wearing leather armor and has a quiver on her back, with a bow sitting in front of her, so she’s probably an Archer.

“I’m Chaos. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meetcha, I’m Liam.”

“I’m Emilia.”

“…Cornelia.”

After my greeting, the athletic guy, the laid-back woman, and the elf girl each introduce themselves. Judging by their appearances, they’re probably a Warrior, a Healer, and an Archer.

The Warrior’s role within the party is to lure in monsters and act as a shield, the Healer’s is to provide healing and support, and the Archer’s is to draw in distant monsters and assist with DPS. The party balance isn’t bad. With my DPS added to this, our battle strength wouldn’t be that bad. Parties can have a maximum of six people, but even four wouldn’t really be a problem.

“Now that we’ve finished introductions, let’s talk about the quest. It seems like there’s been testimony from a traveller that a group of kobolds has been sighted in the southwest. Our objective is to hunt them. The reward will be split between party members. Is that okay with you?”

That seems reasonable. I nod in acknowledgement.

“Then we’ll leave as soon as we’re prepared. It’s not far, so it should only take a day. The leader of the party is Emilia. Follow her orders.”

“I look forward to working with you, Chaos,” Emilia says, bowing gracefully. Then, a window pops up.

Emilia has invited you to join her party. Do you accept?

…Of course I do!

Mentally accepting the invitation, I join the party.