“It’s Naïve to Blindly Believe in the Laws of Nature”

 Rare would have liked for some powerful player to randomly come by, but nothing that convenient could be expected to happen. She tamed the monster that Riley had captured, the forest owl that now went by the name "Ominous," and now she borrowed his eyes to search for suitable prey.

 There was a weak party in the great forest, only on the level of the people she had fought in the event finals. She chose to have them participate in her test; as thanks, they would receive some decent equipment to take back. Rare ordered some ants to leave swords and armor that had been forged for testing purposes in an inconspicuous location along their route; these items should be superior to their cast-metal gear. They excitedly swapped in the newly found items, then headed deeper into the forest in search of additional rewards. Recently, Rare's group had been packing down dirt to create artificial animal trails to facilitate travel, which also doubled as a way to lead players around the forest.

 This was the point where most players would have decided to turn back; instead, the carknight would be making its debut. The party panicked at the sudden appearance of this brand-new foe that no one had ever seen before.

 "That looks like bad news!"

 "Is it like an area boss?!"

 "The only enemies that've shown up here were ants and goblins, so why is there an undead boss all of a sudden?!"

 "Unnatural or not, if we can't run, then the only option is to fight! With the gear we just picked up, even if it's a bit stronger than the trash mobs, we should be able to put up a good fight!"

 It was commendable that they came to grips with the situation quickly, and they also made a sensible decision. However, if they were so weak to think that their new equipment was any good, then any choice they made would lead to the same result against the carknight. These new swords were supposed to be their remuneration, but if they were used against the carknight, they might end up as worthless lumps of metal. Next time, Rare would have to be more thoughtful about the prizes she handed out.

 According to their instructions, carknights would allow themselves to be attacked first. No matter how weak it was, Rare already knew from observation that players of this level were about average for the city as far as power level went. In which case, if the carknights could withstand their attacks, then she could approve of their combat capability. No matter how things turned out, she had a lot of carknights anyway.

 While the carknight stood there, unmoving, one of the players dove in, slashing with his new sword.

 "Hah! [Take this]!"

 He apparently had used a skill, but which skill exactly was a mystery. He changed his activation keyword to be something he'd normally yell when he attacked. Not bad. It's true that she couldn't tell at the time the skill activated which skill it was, but by observing his movements afterward, she knew it was [Slash]. If more players like this appeared from now on, then it would become important to memorize every skill that could be used by other players in order to keep up in high-end PvP. Fortunately, the different units in the adamantite series could represent each of the different fighting styles. If she taught them all the different skill systems, Rare would be able to study all styles without having to learn those skills herself. But thinking it over one more time, that didn't actually mean the XP expenditure would be reduced; in fact, since there was an army's worth of adamantite units, she would need an obscene amount of XP. In which case, she needed players to come in droves to enjoy the forest.

 While she was pondering all this, the battle continued to play out in front of Ominous's eyes. After the probably-[Slash] skill finished, likely having no effect, the player dropped his weapon, just like that heavy warrior from before had. Since the party didn't seem to have a mage, the other members piled on their own weapon-based attacks. The inclusion of a mace attack showed that they had a keen eye, but it didn't even leave a dent on the carknight. Part of the mace had flattened out; that was probably the part that had hit the carknight. Which meant that mace was probably made out of iron.

 Things would have gone better if they had brought a mage along, but the great forest primarily only had ants and goblins as foes. For players of this level, they could get by without one. Mages would make grinding more efficient, but mages also contributed more in battle, so they would get more of the XP earned. Either way, the presence of a mage wouldn't change the fact that players who earned more than a certain amount of XP would be killed before they could escape the forest.

 It didn't seem like Rare could get much more from this party. Just like Rare had done during the event, the carknight grabbed a player's head and squeezed, crushing it. It was a perfect way of demonstrating exactly how much STR it had. It then chased after the players who tried to run away and killed them in the same manner. If she remembered correctly, carknights had lower AGI, but it was still high enough to catch up to anyone who didn't funnel their XP into AGI. If they didn't get discouraged from this, she would love it if this party came back with more effective countermeasures.

 Rare didn't earn all that much XP from the encounter, but it was still a considerable amount considering the huge difference in strength. Players truly were the most succulent fruit.

 As far as the test went, it was great for testing the carknights' combat ability, but overall it was a failure in terms of leaking information about a new monster in the great forest. If word spread that monsters like this one were wandering around, then no one would dare delve any deeper. She needed a monster that was suitably weaker. Or, player levels needed to be higher.

 Maybe she should order the ants to switch to "wine & dine" mode in order to encourage player growth. From now on, they should raise the ceiling for how much XP players can earn before they get killed. Even if they got too strong, Sugaru would still be able to handle them. By Rare's order, the adamantite series could be deployed via Sugaru's request without requiring Rare's approval, so she would just leave Sugaru to deal with any complications. Given the combined might of all the ants, and adding in the combat strength of the adamantite series, even if all the players got a little stronger, they still wouldn't be able to conquer the great forest. In fact, the current Rare would probably have trouble trying to clear it solo.

 Rare suddenly thought to herself, That… actually might be a problem. There probably wasn't a military force of this level that was hostile to her, but that was only true as long as there were no other players at Rare's level. And if a player could achieve this, then it was possible for an NPC or a monster to have already gotten this powerful. More like, it definitely did already happen, which was how the six countries came into being. Things were currently stable, or rather Rare's forces weren't officially enemies of the state yet, but she could say with confidence that there would never be friendly relations. In which case, she should strengthen her forces to prepare for when the country did become antagonistic.

 If a master were to die, she didn't know what would happen to any followers. This could be fatal for her forces if she were to ever be defeated. While players didn't "die" in any real sense, this wasn't true for NPCs. But she needed to consider that hypothetical where if she were to die, then all her followers could be forced into some kind of death-like state. Operating off that assumption, Rare needed to strengthen herself to the point where even in that worst case, she couldn't die. Since raising her stats was directly linked to all her units' strength via [Enhance Follower], a certain percentage of the XP income was already earmarked for routinely increasing Rare's stats. However, she might need to think up a different method of improving her strength. She really wanted some kind of super overpowered skill to have as a last resort.

 As soon as she thought that, the [Reincarnate] system suddenly came to mind. According to one of the official game announcements, if you became a vampire's underling, you could reincarnate into a "Squire Zombie" or something. That was only the example given, and the notice also mentioned that "characters who fulfilled certain conditions can trigger certain events." If that was true, then there should be other ways to reincarnate.

 Rare did think of one possibility. She could use the greatest secret of [Alchemy], [Magnum Opus], to create a Philosopher's Stone. This game might have its own rearrangements, but the classic legends surrounding the Philosopher's Stone mostly spoke of granting eternal youth and eternal life, or transforming a commoner into a noble. Extrapolating from that, a character in the game should be able to use it after fulfilling the right conditions to change their race and stuff. Even if that turned out to be impossible, something surely should change. Rare really only had these vague stories to go off, but anyway, she just wanted to try making alchemy's masterpiece. She needed to find the appropriate ingredients. If it could be mass produced, then she would want to use it on everything she could get her hands on.

 Rare decided to study the recipes within [Magnum Opus] more closely.