Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1 - Request

Time flew by.

Whenever he logged on, Godou would make sure to pay a visit to the injured Kallamore Knights. On that note, Godou felt that his relationship with Hel had become quite strange ever since he had found out she was a girl.

It was to the extent that someone as dense as him could see it. Godou is not a humorous person, and is useless when it comes to sensing other people's emotions.

His sister often calls him obtuse, or that he talks too much. He had always thought that she was exaggerating but perhaps she was right in this case.

Godou really hoped he could resolve this issue soon.

After making this visit, he would have a variety of options to choose his next actions from.

Godou could spend the day helping the townspeople rebuilt or join Misaki and his other acquaintances hunting monsters around the area. Else he could simply kill time by lounging around in a pub. There was also the option of joining punitive forces to counter monster armies but Godou refrained from joining them for most part.

From time to time, he would pop up and pay Ferrex a visit as well.

Curiously, Godou's [Teleport] did not send him to that strange realm of shadows again. Neither did it show him any more visions like he had seen on his first trip. Even when he tried to use [Teleport] targeting the shadow directly, the skill still failed with the following message appearing:

Unauthorised transport to this section of the Immortal Realms has been restricted.

On the same note, Godou had once tried teleporting to Knite but the skill also failed with a similar message popping up.

While this was indeed a mystifying occurrence, it didn't seem like any cause for concern so gradually the matter was pushed aside to the back of his mind.

As the days went by, Godou made sure to start training his skills. Divine abilities aside, he felt the need to do something with the skills he had gained so far.

After all, the game world was not the same as the real world. In here, earnest effort was rewarded with skill level ups and other bonuses. It certainly wasn't anything as ridiculous the campione authority's "only improve through actual combat" feature.

Gradually growing stronger the more you play. Getting better items and gear as you go along.

Wasn't all that the point of a game?

Conveniently ignoring the fact that such a mindset was completely violated by his attributes of "being unable to gain experience from killing normal monsters" and "able to equip all gear with no restrictions", Godou strengthened his resolve.

Acting on the impulse of wanting to be "normal", Godou tried to diligently improve his current abilities.

Cooking Mastery Beginner 1 (21%)

Identification Beginner 1 (8%)

Handicraft Beginner 1 (5%)

Mana Weapon Creation Beginner 5 (82%)

Sword Mastery Beginner 4 (13%)

Throwing Weapon Mastery Beginner 3 (47%)

Overpowering Will Beginner 3 (13%)

Rallying Call Beginner 1 (5%)

Survival Instinct Beginner 3 (10%)

Might of the Ruler Beginner 2 (57%)

Divine Wind Decree (Comprehension 100%)

Divine Wildcard Decree(Comprehension 5%)

Divine Control Mastery Beginner 6 (49%)

Collateral Damage Beginner 3 (99%)

Aura Sensing Beginner 1 (69%)

Although he had resolved himself to work hard, having to consistently do menial tasks without the proper drive or motivation eventually led to slacking off.

Godou found himself cutting corners and mainly focused of this training was levelling up his [Mana Weapon Creation] skill which was the skill he used the most in combat.

Other skills such as [Cooking], [Handicraft], [Identification], [Rallying Call] and [Sword Mastery] were largely neglected. That being said, he did manage to figure out the activation conditions of some of his more troublesome skills.

Skills like [Survival Instinct], [Overpowering Will] [Might of the Ruler] activated automatically but only under certain circumstances. It had taken him a while but Godou had finally figured out how they worked.

Survival Instinct (Passive)
It is said that a cornered beast is many times more dangerous than a normal one. An adrenaline rush surges through your body causing your ability to deal damage to increase as your condition worsens. As this skill grows your ability to perceive danger will sharpen. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.

[Survival Instinct] increased his damage according to how much health he had left and sharpened his already animalistic sense of danger. Like its name suggests, Godou could only activate it when he was mentality prepared to hold his ground and seriously fight to the death.

Overpowering Will (Passive)
Your determination to do the impossible allows your battle spirit to overcome your limits. You can temporarily exceed your physical limitations in battle and ignore the effects of your opponent(s) fighting spirit and MORALE. Your fighting spirit will continually rise in battle. Stamina consumption and hunger will increase for the next few days afterwards due to pushing your body beyond its limit. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.

[Overpowering Will] made his stamina infinite among other things and continually increased his fighting spirit while it was active. To activate it, Godou needed to have the resolution to do the impossible.

Might of Ruler
You have denied the power of higher beings. Inflict psychological pressure on your opponents
Shatters illusions and dispels magic/buffs. Fighting spirit increases proportional to the power of the strongest opponent present. This skill activates automatically depending on your actions.

[Might of the ruler] was the only non-passive skill out of the three and allowed him to intimate his opponent to cause debuffs due to high fighting spirit or even stunning them if their fighting spirit was low enough. The only time that Godou could use the skill was if he wanted to scare his opponents or if he did something intimating.

In short these were the type of abilities which Godou found hard to use in normal situations. After all, even while knowing these conditions it wasn't like he could use these skills at will.

If only everything was as convenient to use as [Mana Weapon Creation]. How many times had that rueful thought entered Godou's mind?

Eventually growing tired of all this, Godou would log out and then log in again whenever he had time to spare.

Thus, without making a conscious effort, Godou had managed to completely adapt Royal Road into his everyday life.

It was on a certain day that a festive atmosphere could be found in part of the town of Tellap. The rate of the town's repairs was almost 50% with the town walls mostly repaired, however this was not the reason for the celebration.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Damn why didn't you make it a maid café!"

"So in the end, the new place is exactly the same as the old one."

It was the long awaited opening day of the pub [Badger and Mushroom] a.k.a. Mark's new pub. Due to the large number of customers, Mark had requested Godou's help as a worker for the day along with several other players who also used to work for Mark. With no reason to refuse, Godou had accepted the job.

"Damn who's going to win this?!"

"Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!"

"One more!"

"Damn. Me too!"

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Godou had actually been quite shocked by the large crowd that had gathered in the newly opened pub. Aside from the usual drunkards acting out, gambling and having drinking contests, there were several people he did not expect to see in a pub.

For example, Misaki had also been hired as a waitress in the bar. Apparently Mark had hired her and helped her out in her early days.

At the counter, Badas and Mark seemed to be having an intimate conversation. Hel was listening in to their conversation apparently interested.

Lexus and several seemingly upright members of the church of Freya had also dropped by for a drink. A part of that group of clergymen had now effortlessly mixed in with the mob of partying drunkards.

Inori had also been part of that group. At some point in time, she and Hel had disappeared off somewhere…

Strangely enough, Reta was nowhere to be seen. Godou had the impression that she was someone who would enjoy this sort of atmosphere. In retrospect, Godou had not seen Reta around the town lately. Perhaps she had moved to a different town already.

Simply shrugging the matter aside, Godou set himself towards serving the seemingly endless stream of customers.

This was going to be a long night…

.

"Would you like to join us in a raid?"

After the party had mostly died down and Godou had been idling at the counter waiting for someone to order something. It had been then that a question had been sprung on him.

The one who asked him was one of his drinking buddies, a young but weary looking woman who seemed to be working for the town's military, Lis.

"Why are you asking me this? You know that I'm a pacifist right?"

"Pfft. What sort of pacifist goes out and hunts monsters. Why don't you just let loose already and rampage. Ah~ That would be a sight to see~ Let's watch the city burn~"

The one who had interjected to Godou's response was not Lis but another drinking buddy of his, Satoshi. Just to clarify, Godou was sure that Satoshi was not acting this way because of alcohol. Rather this was the sort of strange personality he had normally.

"…Just what sort of monster do you take me for?!"

"Hmm…Godzilla or maybe King Kong?"

"Do I look like some supersized animal to you?"

"Well, there's definitely a resemblance."

Oh please tell me what resemblance I have to an oversized lizard or ape? As much as his inner self wanted to say that, Godou felt like he would lose if he did so he stopped himself.

On a side note, Godou was wearing simple pale coloured cloth clothes and boots he had gotten from the Order of Freya. It was sort of casual wear was completely devoid of any of his high level equipment. This attire had become the norm for Godou.

Even when fighting monsters around the area, Godou felt that it was a bit overkill to use high level gear since his fighting spirit alone would debuff monsters to the point where they were hardly dangerous at all.

Lis wore a blue magician's robe with allowed for both style and ease of movement. A tall wooden staff lean on the bar counter next to where she sat.

Meanwhile Satoshi simply wore a buttoned up white coat which gave off the impression of a lab coat. As usual no weapons could be seen on his body. Godou had always wondered about that. He had seen Satoshi use support magic before but he had never actually seen Satoshi fight.

As Godou and Satoshi squabbled with each other, Lis interrupted them.

"What if I told you the target of this raid is a monster village which has been causing all sorts of problems for this area?"

"Hmmm?"

Seeing that she had grabbed his attention, Lis continued.

"There are rumours about that village about how they go around attacking farms and other monster villages, stealing livestock and taking the conquered as slaves."

"Ah! Is this that goblin village that was said to be led by the ogre variant Uor? The guy who publicly tortures anyone who opposes him for 8 hours straight until they die?"

"Yeah that's the one."

"Slaves of goblins and ogres… Slime tentacles as well huh… I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going~"

"No-one said anything about tentacles."

"Wait a second, surely it can't be that bad!"

As Lis and Satoshi discussed the topic among themselves, Godou could not help but protest at the atrocities he was hearing about.

"Rumours are exaggerated 90% of the time but my sources say that this is the truth."

"If Satoshi says so then it's probably true… So, do you still want to refuse?"

"I…"

Faced with this notification which sounded like a challenge to his magnanimity, Godou had no choice but to accept his fate.

Kusanagi Godou was a pacifist. One who kept a respectful distance from pointless combat. But at the same time, he was also a man with a greater sense of responsibility and aspirations to serve the public good than ordinary people.

Godou made his decision.

"Alright, I will join you."

"Ah good. That's one less soldier I have to worry about getting."

"See? Not quite the pacifist you make yourself out to be now are you~"

"Yeah. Yeah…"

As Godou wearily tried to shrug the attention away from himself, Lis turned to Satoshi asking:

"So what about you? Are you also interested in join?"

"Are you sure you want me though? I can't imagine you being able to assemble a large force for the raid. The enemy will spot it. There has to be a person limit right?"

"Well the only people in town right now are the leftovers who didn't join a punitive party to go fight somewhere. With the town as it is, it's actually quite hard to get fighters with the time to join us."

As Satoshi showed surprise at the invitation, Lis gave a response felt that felt like something that had been rehearsed. Sure enough, the sharp ears of the self-proclaimed alchemist did not miss this detail.

"…For some reason I don't think that's the real reason you're asking me to join you"

"To be honest, I want you on the team for free information."

As Satoshi wryly pointed it out the issue, Lis responded with a dry smile and dropped all pretence with an extremely blunt declaration.

"Free information?"

"As an information broker you would obviously charge people for information on the monster village. However, given how loose lipped you are around comrades, you would provide this information out of your own free will if we invited you."

"Loose lipped… So I'm just there as the pokedex? That's harsh."

"Well it's the truth. You are a self-proclaimed information broker after all."

"Hey!"

As Lis and Satoshi argued among themselves, Godou remained silent, simply listening in and serving the occasional remaining customer who came for another drink.

After much off track discussion, the topic of the conversation finally shifted back to the raid.

"What's the head count limit then?"

"About 100 people."

"Ah… That ogre Uor chose the perfect time to strike then. The Kallamore Knights here are extremely low on numbers, the towns are damaged so repair is our number one priority, on top of that we can't just brute force them with overwhelming numbers because we're still recovering from the last siege so we don't have the resources to attack them head on. That leaves our only options to be either that we leave them alone where they can grow in influence and strength or we attack them with a small force and somehow hope for a miracle. My god… That's brilliant!"

"Why does it feel like you're excessively praising the enemy?"

"What? A good plan is a good plan~"

Lis sighed wearily. Godou couldn't blame her for it. From Satoshi's words the situation really did seem hopeless.

However, from what Godou knew, despite her lack of energy, Lis was a responsible person who cared about the wellbeing of her subordinates. Unlike another certain person sitting at the counter, she probably would not authorise an attack with no chance of victory.

"So what's the plan then? Do you have something up your sleeve?"

"Actually the plan is that the neighbouring town of Naidiriv will also be sending a raid party of a similar size to attack the same target. We'll catch the monsters when they're unaware and launch at pincer attack on the village."

"What about Uor then? He should be a boss monster at around lv 300. It will be troublesome to deal with him as well."

As opposed to her answer to Godou's question, Lis's response to Satoshi was a vague "I will explain the details later on."

Noting that Lis's answer offered no reassurance that the raid would actually succeed, Godou grew worried. Was the success rate really going to be that low?

Thud.

"Alright! I've decided! Allow me to join you. Hahahaha This is going to be fun~"

As things started seeming bleak, Satoshi loudly slammed his drinking mug on the counter proclaiming lively.

"Do you happen to enjoy dying or something?"

"Hmmm? How should I put it, if it were a choice between killing myself or killing someone else, I would happily pick the latter option."

"I think that would be the normal person's reaction…"

"Why the protest then? Do you want me to join or don't you?"

"Yeah… yeah I'll add you to the list. So that's 2 down, 24 people more to go… Damn…I'm running low on imoutonium…"

""Imoutonium?""

Lis looked at Godou and Satoshi tiredly.

"The raid party will depart in 5 in-game days. The meeting place is in front of this pub, the Badger and Mushroom. We will work out the meeting time on a later date. If you have any questions then feel free to ask me and if you find any players willing to join make sure you notify me. Now I think I'll log out now and bother my sister~"

"Er… Okay."

"Roger that and cya~"

With that Liz left leaving Godou and Satoshi to talk among themselves.