Ascension: Online

It was the third day of the preliminaries - only two more to go. Last night, Ming Hong had reported back to me saying Furuwa had won her fight yet again, and Ichigo and Horiya were still nowhere to be seen. As for Jim, Ming Hong said he didn't see him. Most likely, he had missed the sign-up yesterday, which was unfortunate for him, but good for us.

The time right now was 5:30 AM. We had just finished getting ready for the day and prepared to head out. But when we exited the inn's doors-

"Hey."

-A female voice called out to us.

I turned to see who it was, as my eyes widened. "You're…"

The girl, leaning on the wall, smiled and licked her lips seductively. "Don't worry. I won't kill you… yet."

I narrowed my eyes. "… What do you want?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to cheer you up a bit," she replied nonchalantly - but I did not miss the snake-like eyes that gazed over my entire body. It was as if she was watching me closely… and that feeling made me uneasy.

"I just want to say," she continued, sending me a wink and sticking out her tongue. "I look forward to kill- I mean, facing you in the main tournament."

… She just said kill, didn't she?

Yep, this girl's definitely a psycho. I already knew before, but this just confirmed it even further. She was absolutely obsessed with killing, though I didn't know why.

"… Is that all?" I asked, unamused.

"Yes, yes," she said, pushing herself off the wall and giving me a slight wave. "I hope you don't disappoint me… Kaze-kun."

Beside me, I could feel Hina-nee send the girl a hateful glance filled with venom, but she didn't seem to even notice. As she walked off, I folded my arms and watched her disappearing figure.

"Looks like she's fixated on me already," I muttered.

"But… why? It's not like you've done anything particularly outstanding, and Aisa said she hadn't sent the message yet," Hina-nee wondered aloud.

"… Probably because she used Inspect on me, back when I was fighting against Gabriel," I sighed. "She already knows… my stats don't match up with my level."

"So this is why you asked me about that stat-hiding artifact," Aisa mused from beside me. "How unfortunate."

"Is there really no skill or art that can allow me to hide my real stats?" I pondered.

"I believe you have already asked me this question before. My answer is the same."

"Yeah, I know, it's just… I find it hard to believe."

"However," Aisa suddenly interrupted. "There are certain special skills you can learn, not found on the skill tree. The Corruption skill you have, obtained from the Vault of Corruption, is an example."

"Oh yeah… speaking of that skill, I've never even used it once yet," I muttered. "So, you're saying there is a skill that can be used to hide my stats, just it cannot be obtained the normal way?"

Aisa nodded. "Quite close to Qilian City, right past these eastern gates, is another forest, similar to the Lidya and Keldo Forests you have already been to. This forest, however, contains a Vault - the Vault of Deception. There, you can obtain the skill you wish for."

"… I see. Let's do that right after we both complete our matches then, Hina-nee," I suggested.

She nodded firmly. "Sounds good."

"With this, I can try to convince Nadeshiko what she saw in my stats was just a bug… though there's no guarantee she'll believe it."

*****

Both Hina-nee and I managed to complete our battles without trouble. Koroth, the demon we met, and Nadeshiko, the psychopathic girl also achieved victory with ease.

Lunchtime rolled around and the number of participants in the competition had been reduced to about thirty, though that was only in the morning. If I had to say, the total number of participants remaining would be around sixty or so by the end of today.

After tomorrow, this number would be cut to thirty, and after Friday, the final number would be around fifteen. Since the main tournament would have sixteen slots, this could be said to be near-perfect organization.

Nadeshiko and Koroth both glanced at me briefly before leaving, though in different manners. I wasn't too concerned about Koroth, but Nadeshiko was a problem. Her going around spreading rumors about me and my stats would be a problem.

I either controlled her… or I killed her.

… Is what I'd like to say, but she'll just respawn, so the whole 'dead men tell no tales' idiom just got tossed straight out the window. There was really only one way to prevent her from spreading the news about me - and that was to control her. I didn't know a way to do that yet, but the sooner I figured it out, the better.

For now, however, I had something else to do.

After grabbing some quick lunch at a nearby restaurant, Hina-nee, Aisa, and I set out for the forest east of Qilian City, via the eastern gates. Our destination was the Vault of Deception that Aisa had mentioned this morning.

When I got to the gates, the guards stopped me.

"Travel permit?"

"… Will our Hunter's Guild cards serve?" I asked hesitantly. I had said last time when hunting snowolves I would get a travel permit after getting back to the city, but I ended up forgetting.

"This… yes, but do try and get a travel permit as early as possible," the guards said after some debate.

I nodded. "Thanks."

Once we were out, I sighed in relief. "Man, I really need to get that travel permit…"

"Let's get it tomorrow then," Hina-nee smiled warmly. "Today we'll probably be too tired after getting back."

"Agreed… I'm surprised they let us through though, since Aisa doesn't have a guild card," I said, glancing down at Aisa.

"Hehe, Aisa-chan is too adorable, so they let her pass~"

I chuckled. "Maybe on the surface, but… don't be fooled."

Hina-nee giggled. "Don't worry, Kaze-kun, I know."

I pulled up my System and opened the minimap. I could see the forest in the distance, which the path we were currently walking on passed through. However, what I was searching for was the forest's name. Unfortunately, it didn't show up on the map. I probably needed to enter the place first for it to show up.

My suspicions were confirmed as we stepped foot into the forest. The path was still wide and visible though - it's just that now, trees surrounded us on both sides. My minimap now showed our current location as 'Quirrel Forest'. As I panned the map around, I realized that this forest was a lot bigger than the other two forests, Lydia and Keldo. Denser, too.

"So, Aisa… where is this Vault you speak of?" I asked as we walked.

"Patience is a virtue, human. Keep walking. When you are near enough, you will know."

I was doubtful, but I decided to listen to her. Not long after, her words proved to be true.

A hologram appeared in front of me. It caught me by surprise since it was so sudden, but then again, I was used to it by now. Kind of.

[New Vault Detected]

[The location has been marked on your surroundings.]

I looked around. A short distance away, I could see a pulsing symbol that looked like an A and V intersected. I decided that must be the spot, since I was smart like that.

The three of us immediately changed our course to head there, breaking off from the path and truly entering the dense Quirrel Forest. We encountered some Magic Beasts on the way, but we didn't bother killing them. Instead, we snuck by to save time.

A few minutes later, we arrived at our destination. It was… a tree. Yes - one tree, among… a bunch of other trees. If I had to say, the camouflage was actually rather well-done. In fact, I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I was in a hurry and there wasn't a white indicator telling me where to go. In any case, it felt a lot more natural than the cave known as the Vault of Corruption, that's for sure.

The trunk of the tree was the same size as all the other trees in the forest, but there was one notable difference - a perfectly-drawn square on it. I recalled the time when I entered the Vault of Corruption - the sensor at the door had been a similar size.

Deciding to just take a gamble, I placed my hand on the square. The color of the trunk melted away, revealing a green sensor underneath.

I smirked. "Knew it."

But then, the sensor turned red. I frowned.

"What…?"

I removed my hand and scratched my head. "Uh… Aisa? Why is it showing red?"

"Reminder: this is the Vault of Deception."

My eyes widened as I realized. It finally clicked for me.

I shook my head in exasperation and placed my hand on the sensor once again. The sensor returned to green, its natural state, then red again. But this time, I didn't move my hand away. Instead, after five seconds of waiting, the red turned back to green, and the trunk of the tree slid open, revealing a way to enter by jumping down one at a time. I peeked down.

"Whew… that's one long drop," I whistled.

"Worry not. You will slow down at the end, so the fall will not kill you," Aisa replied.

I sighed in relief. "That's nice to know. Anything else? Tell me about the Trials of this Vault."

But at this, Aisa smiled evilly. I didn't know her face even had smile muscles, even if its devious ones.

"I agreed to answering all of your questions about the game, this world, and the reality planes. The specific Trials of a Vault do not fall under any of those categories."

"What…?" I frowned in confusion. "How does that not fall under 'game'?"

"That is like saying the price of potatoes at any shop in any city on any continent falls under the 'world' category. I refuse to answer."

"… You're kidding, right?" I facepalmed in exasperation as Hina-nee giggled at our interaction.

"Fine," I said at last. "I could kill you here, but it wouldn't be very wise to destroy all of reality along with you for… potato prices, using your analogy."

Just thinking of that again made me mad. I mean, I originally had Aisa in the bag already with my flawless, brilliant speech that pointed out all of her fatal weaknesses, but she somehow managed to turn the tables on me at the last second to turn it from a crushing victory to a more-or-less tie.

The power of a supercomputer, I suppose.

"Also, one more thing. This Vault, unlike others, can only be done by one person at a time. In other words… you are alone, human."

Hina-nee's eyes widened at Aisa's words. "H-Huh?! But this place is filled with danger, right? What if-"

Smirking, I patted Hina-nee's head gently, cutting her words off. "I'll be fine, Hina-nee. Just wait out here for me."

"A-Ah…mm… alright," she replied, blushing slightly.

I moved my hand away and turned back to the tree, now with a revealed hole to jump into. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. This reminded me of that time I first entered the game, and debated whether or not to jump off the cliff. Thinking back on it, that was truly a ridiculous decision. Still, it was that same ridiculous decision that allowed me to have so much fun.

Yes, there were many worrying and stressful problems I had to consider, from people discovering my real stats to the reality plane of Earth, but despite all this, I could not deny that I was having fun in this new, fantasy world of Ascentia. How much longer will this journey be? How much would I continue to grow?

I looked forward to the answer.

With a confident smile on my face, I jumped.