"Soooo cuuuute~~!" - Aino

".........*silently suffering*." - Bloom

Letting these two meet may have been a mistake. For Bloom's case, anyway. 

We're currently in my Player Room after I gave Aino a "visitor invitation" to let her in. The first thing she said after entering was "wow, dark!". My place is sorta dark-ish, I agree. Most of my furniture got "dark" in its name even. The second thing she said? Look above.

"...could you stop sexually harassing my servant until you tell us what you have on that swamp?" - Garami

"Boo~!" replied Aino with a disgruntled face, but she did leave Bloom alone.

I told her that she could take the rest of the day off and saw her flee into the "Servants' Home" area. 

"Now, what's your big plan regarding those bugs?" I asked the fox-girl. 

"Burn 'em." - Aino

"...huh?" - Garami

"I said we'll burn the lair of those caterpillars down." - Aino

"...and how do you propose we do that?" I asked while rubbing my head. Damn sudden headache. "And how're you sure that's needed to get rid of this infestation?"

"Have you heard about the Vile Queen that appeared in a village near the port town we met?" - Aino

"...a little." - Garami

Is she talking about the Queen that supposedly appeared in that goblin cave in the forest where I first met Nyx?

"A fire happened in the cave the Queen used as her lair and killed her. So I thought about recreating that event." - Aino

"Impossible. Forget about it." - Garami

"That didn't take long." - Aino

"The event you talked about was possible because the full force of the Union in that village was behind the attack. The swamp has this natural defense system called "it's goddamn poison!!" that prevents normal people from entering it, and there are few ways to enter even for  the abnormal guys." - Garami

"That is no problem. Do you remember about the medical herbs I requested earlier? Half of the reason why I requested them is that I need them for the quest I mentioned before, but the other half is related to clearing out the Venemy Caterpillars." - Aino

"You're gonna heal them to death or something? Pesticides would be better." - Garami

"Not in that manner! You see, in one of the teaching books related to the Weaver class-" - Aino

"The class you have?" - Garami

"Yes, my main class. One of those books explained methods about how to alter the silk spun by the likes of silkworms and spiders. One of the methods is related to altering the diet of the silk-spinners to turn the silk they produce less flammable, or, like in our case-" - Aino

"The other way around." - Garami

"Correct~! We will spread drugged bait with that specific medicine. Normal poison will probably not work on insects that are so closely tied to the Poison element, but medicine-" - Aino

"Sorry, but that won't work." - Garami

"Eeeh~?! Why not?" - Aino

"If you're thinking the caterpillar's nest is just a bunch of silk, then you're sorely mistaken. That place's mostly made outta mud collected from the swamp. You can't make it a fire hazard just by feeding some random bugs with drugged bait." - Garami

"...w-wait just a sec! I-I'll think of something..." - Aino

So much for that brilliant plan. 

"...hey, maybe it could work." - Garami

"H-how so? We're still burning the hive?" - Aino

"Forget your pyromaniac ideas for just a sec, okay? The part about using bait's not bad, but we have to give up turning that place into an oven. Instead, we'll try to give those things the worst stomachache in their short lives." - Garami

Aino tilted her head to my declaration. Just watch and learn~.

---

"Yes, we will handle your order as soon as possible," replied the receptionist-ish girl of the Blackmarket. "As for the payment..."

"Will goods work?" I asked, showing her an example of my bartering offer. A sword that was dropped by some random adventurer who died in the Fort.

"...yes, items of this quality should be a fair offer. Please return by tomorrow with the payment," replied the receptionist, purposely not asking where I'd gotten this thing. 

After we left the mansion of that perverted gentleman (who luckily wasn't here today), Aino and I went to the port for a quick break. 

"You were calling me a pyromaniac, yet..." - Aino

"It gets the job done. Can't say if our Karma Value will survive, but that's what you get for working with those guys." - Garami

I took a bite of one of the apples that Aino had bought on our way here and enjoyed the view of the sea. Hmm, wonder if I could make Nala do some deep-sea searching for rare items...

"But to think the "Demon Princess" is part of the Black faction. I'd believed you were part of the Purple one,"  said the fox girl all of a sudden.

"Don't call me by that nickname. And what's this talk about factions?" - Garami

"You didn't know? Each country has a certain faction that is related to a color, which again is related to one of the primary elements." - Aino

"Hmm, didn't know. And Blackmarket's the local specialty of Umbral?" - Garami

"No, the Blackmarket is, from what I've heard, linked to the Chaos element. The group of the Umbral country is called the Purple Cult." - Aino

Cult... They don't sound like the type of people I wanna be affiliated with. 

"And they're the guys who gave you that Keystone-rewarding quest?" - Garami

"How did you know?" - Aino

"If Blackmarket's a faction related to Chaos, the element said to be represented by the negative Karma Value, then working with the faction related to Darkness' the most likely way to gain dark powers. Like a new composition element related to it." - Garami

"And you connected those pieces of information on the spur of the moment!?" - Aino

"It's not such a big deal. And these self-proclaimed fanatics, are they safe to work with?" - Garami

"I'd say so, yes. They call themselves a cult, but it's mostly made of demons who are worshipped instead of the people worshipping them." - Aino

...that's right. This is the country of demons. Kinda forgot about it. 

"...which means that getting on a faction's good side will award you with new elements. Guess I know what the next fad after "Dungeon-Hunting"'s gonna be." - Garami

"And like with the current fad, you're already on a good way with the future one." - Aino

"You serious? Do you know how big of a cheapskate those guys in the Blackmarket can be? I'd be broke if I wanted a Chaos-related composition element from those guys." - Garami

"Hmm, that's true. Then are you planning on kissing up to the cult-people?" - Aino

"Who'd do anything like that? And do you have some bad blood with those guys?" - Garami

She suddenly referred to working with them as "kissing up" to them. What's up with that?

"I don't think you would blame me if you ever met them yourself. They're so goddamn arrogant for a bunch of NPCs." - Aino

"...ah, now I get it. You're misunderstanding something." - Garami

"What?" - Aino

"The "NPC" of this game isn't like what you're probably used to from former games. These guys are Terra Sol AS' newest self-sufficient AI-type programs or whatever they called them. They said so on their web page." - Garami

"...self-sufficient AI-type programs?" - Aino

"Yeah. While their access is most likely limited to this game world, these guys act and learn just like normal people. They're not pre-programmed to do stuff according to a scenario written for this game. These guys' actions, along with ours, are what's writing the scenario of this game." - Garami

"..." - Aino

"Well, some guys with a sufficient backstory may be dropped in for events like this sometimes. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't just dismiss them as some "programs". We're the "Migrants" here, and they're the "inhabitants". You think some no-name could come and act like they owned the world and expect that society would bend according to their needs?" - Garami

"...I guess...not..." - Aino

"Yup. Those cult guys must either be just some arrogant jerks like you suspect, or they could be some really important guys in this country of demons. In any case, going around and expecting that everything will go your way's not gonna help you." - Garami

"...yeah, I get that now. Who'd thought an MMORPG would double as a real-life simulator?" - Aino

"Good question." - Garami

We went silent after that, just watching over the sea. Then something caught my eye. A magician was fighting some sea..., maybe not a "sea monster" like a Kraken or whatever, but a monster that came out from the sea. The mage used something like a spell and captured the monster with a sphere made from seawater. 

"That's one nasty spell. Water Mages are practically invincible here." - Garami

"Water Mage? Isn't that one a Hydromancer?" - Aino

"Huh? They used a water spell, so wouldn't they be a Water Mage?" - Garami

"Water-type spells cannot affect seawater, so that spell must be of the Ocean element." - Aino

"People's already found that component element? That was fast." - Garami

"No, I think it's more likely that person has the Hydromancer class from the Book of Arts." - Aino

"Book of what-now?" - Garami

"The Book of Arts. You know, one of the four books that the magician-line classes are a part of." - Aino

".........?" - Garami

"Oh, is it that you don't have any magician-line classes?" - Aino

"I got one...self-taught at the library here." - Garami

"Oh, then it's no wonder. Let me start from the beginning:

"All magician-line classes, outside the Magician beginner-tier class itself, is written in one of four magical tomes. These are the Book of Worlds, the Book of Arts, the Book of Traditions, and the Book of Creatures.

"The Book of Worlds refers to the magician classes that command specific elements of the world. Water Mage, as you mentioned before is a great example of that. The downside with this Book is that the magics are focused on an attribute and not a purpose, so it's not fitting for someone who wishes to be an attack-type mage or a healing-type mage. 

"The Book of Arts, on the other hand, is perfect for those people. The magics recorded in this Book and its related magician classes focus on specific actions such as healing, supporting, attacking, and so on. I've even heard rumors about a Sword Magus class that uses sword-related spells.

"Then we have the Book of Traditions. Unlike the two first Books, this Book does not use magic in the "normal" way. These classes use unique ways of spell-casting that are outright weird when compared to the former two Books. Most of the support skills for normal magic would not work with these spells. I think classes like Spectermancer, a weaker necromancer-ish class, and the Druid class are part of this Book.

"And finally is the Book of Creatures. It's quite simple to understand. It is the Book related to summonings, taming of creatures, and commanding them. It's essentially a magician's answer to a Tamer-type class, even when most of them's likely to be written about in this Book.

"And these are the four Books of Magics. What class you can use depends on your inborn talent to understand and clear the quests related to these four Books, but it's average to have talent in at most 2 Books, or at least 1." - Aino

"...guess I'm good with the Book of Creatures." - Garami

"Oh~? Then the Demon Princess can summon proper demons~. That explains the rumors." - Aino

"Shut up with that nickname. And yes, I got the Demon Caller class. What about you?" - Garami

"Me?" - Aino

"Yes, you. You're not gonna tell me that you don't have a magician-line class or two while having such in-depth knowledge about them, do you?" - Garami

"Busted~. I have two of them, the Pyromancer class from the Book of Arts and the Shaman class from the Book of Traditions." - Aino

"Another -mancer class... What's so different with them?" - Garami

"Pyromancer is a class that relies on spells that inflict the Burn status ailment. It can be from any element from the Fire element to the cursed burn-wounds from the Curse element. Not that I've had the chance to learn those advanced spells yet...te-hee~." - Aino

...should I tell her she's too old to act like that? Too old visually, at least.

"And Hydromancer?" - Garami

"I think that is related to the Drowning status ailment." - Aino

So, the thing related to when you can't breathe and a gauge appears that tells how long you have until your character die? That's nasty!!

Aino continued talking about the different types of magic (she must enjoy having someone to teach) before moving over to talking about weaving and fashion and other stuff before it got too late and she logged off. Tomorrow I need to gather that special "bait" from the Blackmarket and prepare for the raid on the caterpillar nest...

Still, factions... Maybe those guys are related to that.