Vol. 5 - Chapter 258 - Member Selection for Mock Guild Battle
"So nice. I really can\'t get enough, no matter how many times I hug Mochi-chan. It\'s so fluffy and bouncy, and it feels so nice to hug it with its excellent elasticity."
"Yeah. But the strongest is Sachineko-sama, Mochi-chan is the second strongest."
Was the second even stronger, I wonder?
The first thing that entered my sight was a huge, extra-large Mochiko, whose volume was clearly larger than any of the girls in the guild, and the figure of Rika tightly hugging it. Then Karua, who was hugging and squeezing ‹Mochi-chan› including Rika from behind.
It was a priceless scenery, to say the very least. I seriously wish there could have been a screenshot function.
In fact, I had discovered a machine that could record images in the Investigation Department building when I was checking out elective classes. I made up my mind to negotiate and get it in my hands soon.
"So relaxing. I can finally replenish Sachineko-sama-tium. I might become useless if I don\'t have Sachineko-sama to heal me. I definitely have to negotiate with Zephyr to have him hand over Sachineko-sama to me."
"Pardon me, Lana-sama. I apologize for being direct, but please refrain from any such acts, or the guild will fall apart if you handle it incorrectly."
My gaze shifted to the opposite direction of Rika and Karua upon hearing the terrifying line.
Unsurprisingly, Lana was there hugging Sachineko-sama, who was supposed to be enshrined in the home shrine. So it was Lana who said that! I would have begun a war if Shizu hadn\'t rebuked her!
As you may have guessed, the ones gathered here were the girl group who wanted to play with plushies after school. For some reason, many of Eden\'s members were either lovers of plushies or cute things.
It seemed there were only these four members for today, but there were also days when all the girls gathered frequently.
Courtesy to them, the guild room was gradually turning into a lovely, cute room. They have racks and showcases exclusively for plushies, and the number of plushies was just increasing as the days passed. They only numbered 10 in the beginning when Eden bought them, but now their number has exceeded 30.
“Just what will happen to the guild room if the plushies count continues to go on like this?” was something I was recently worried about.
"Oh, you\'re here, Zephyr. You didn\'t go to the Dungeon with your ‹Pri-4› today?"
Everyone\'s gaze turned to me at Lana\'s voice.
"Oh, I met them earlier. Rather, what the heck is a ‹Pri-4›?"
"Lana-sama is talking about the four classmates sitting in front of Zephyr-dono. They have been gradually called such in the class ever since their self-introduction. In literal terms, it means ‹The Quartet Filled With Unnecessary High Pride›."
Shizu answered with a straight face.
Saturn-kun and party, how pitiful! I never expected you guys would be lumped together in one group by classmates with such a nickname; wouldn\'t the prideful four explode if they came to know about this? At the very least, I call them by their proper names.
"I see. Also, I will absolutely not hand over Sachineko-sama, Lana."
"Why is it!"
No, but or however. Absolutely no! I will just say this.
Anyway, it\'s time to bring out the main topic.
"In fact, I have come here to discuss things. The aforementioned four people have created a guild.
"Hmm."
Lana\'s response was quite lukewarm. However, even such reactions quickly take a seat at my following words.
"So, they asked us, Eden, to have a mock guild battle with them一一"
"Guild battle!"
Lana reacted by interrupting my words.
That\'s right, it\'s our first guild battle ever since the E-rank exam. The next to react were Rika and Karua, who were listening to our conversation from the sidelines.
"You\'re going to do a guild battle, Zephyr? Have you already decided on participant members?"
"I would like to participate if possible."
Well, of course, they were benched in the last E-rank exam, even though they had trained a lot. They would want to participate in a guild battle at least once.
Well, it was a guild battle, and I was challenged by them with a nearly accusing tone, but it doesn\'t sound bad to fight considering the future.
No more than five members were allowed in the E-rank exam. At present, there are 13 members in Eden, with the majority of them completely unfamiliar with the guild battle.
Guild battles would be necessary to increase our rank in the future. So the best way is to let them accumulate as much experience as possible. This time the guild battle just happened to be a godsend.
Actually, I wanted to rack up the experience with the fellow members, but arenas weren\'t always free, unfortunately, so it was impossible to practice whenever I felt like it. It is especially hard at this time of year.
One of the reasons why it\'s usually not available is because one guild would need a lot of quest points to reserve the arena.
Quest points (also known as QP) are awarded by the academy when a guild completes a quest. Other than using them to exchange for items or equipment, quest points were also used to enjoy various facilities in this academy.
In addition to getting a discount on quest points if you\'re going to practice with the other guilds, depending on the time and goal, you may also be given priority in the arena.
We decided to do it on Thursday, after classes, though it\'s a relief to have an arena available to us.
By the way, because neither of us had quest points, we paid the time fee with Mir.
F- or E-rank guilds have the privilege of paying with Mir in case neither holds enough QP when they apply for guild battle. In exchange, this system would become unusable when the guild rank rose.
Hence, I had come here to decide on participants since we only have three days left. I guess I will take in Rika and Karua this time.
"I want everyone to experience the guild battle, if possible, equally. So, I will be relying on you this time, Rika, Karua."
"! Leave it to us! We will definitely stand up to your expectations."
"Yay. Let\'s do our best, Rika."
Rika and Karua high-fived each other as their faces cracked into a smile. Though the scenery was a little surreal as they did it while holding the large Michiko in between.
"Hold on, what about me!?"
"Didn\'t your turn come last time?"
"But that was just one match; that much wasn\'t even enough to state the curiosity at all! And aren\'t you also participating too, Zephyr!"
Well, I couldn\'t refute that.
It\'s not like there\'s absolutely no chance, but I guess it would be fine.
"Then I, too, want to participate. For future reference."
You too, Shizu. Well whatever.
Thus, we settled on the members who would be participating in the upcoming guild battle.
Saturn-kun and his group were amateurs when it came to guild battles, but I\'m not going to keep my hands.
Besides, three of our members were also amateurs, so it should be fine, I guess (?)