I became a heart-stealing thief in Azure Files

Momoi, who had been somewhat perplexed, suddenly had an expression of realization.

Oh yeah... if we could unleash a skill...

"Paladin Skill - Angel's Feather!"

"Paladin Skill - Summon Unicorn!"

With a whoosh, a pair of pixelated wings extended from Momoi's shoulder blades, and then a unicorn bathed in divine light descended from the sky and landed in front of her.

Seeing how quickly her older sister got into character, Xiao Lü wasn't going to be outdone.

"Assassin Skill - Spy!"

"Assassin Skill - Gliding Cloak!"

With a temporary blessing from the shadows behind him, giving him a slow-down buff and fall damage reduction buff, Little Green was full of confidence and prepared to jump down.

"Um...everyone, wait a minute..."

Yuzu, who was holding the staff in both hands, suddenly spoke.

Momoi, who was riding a unicorn and about to charge off, and Midori, who was wearing a cloak and about to slide down like Batman, both stopped and looked at Yuzu.

"Actually, actually... we can use teleportation."

The atmosphere was silent for a second or two.

Momoi: "Huh?!"

Little Green: "...I forgot. If it's a mage skill...there should be a teleportation spell, right?"

Amamiya, standing to the side, just shook her head.

Ah... When exploring another world for the first time and trying to cooperate with each other, such mistakes are bound to happen.

"Let's all gather around Yuzu."

Following Amamiya's instructions, Yuzu surveyed the town beneath her feet and began her 'operation'.

"Teleportation magic... Coordinate positioning."

Yuzu first waved her staff, sending out a purple, rhomboid-shaped positioning spell.

In comparison... Yuzu's 'gameplay' is much more cautious.

She even considered the potential consequences of a blind pass, such as the pass getting stuck in a wall...

After the teleportation beacon landed on the ground, Yuzu immediately raised her staff, and a magic circle began to spread beneath her feet.

"Teleportation magic... Group teleportation."

The blue beam of light pierced the sky and lasted only a moment before the girls in the game club felt a momentary sense of weightlessness.

In the blink of an eye, they found themselves standing on the streets of an 'other world'.

After regaining her composure, Momoi looked around with a sense of wonder at the strange 'streets and alleys' of this other world, which was somewhere between Victorian and Gothic architectural styles, as if she had discovered a new continent.

"Oh... so this is the 'other world'... How cool!"

Amamiya also immediately observed her surroundings...

He breathed a sigh of relief after taking a quick look at the situation.

Compared to the 'Impression Space' of Abydos, the 'Impression Space' of a thousand years ago, perhaps because there are more people in this area and the average person has a stronger ability to observe and understand, makes the shadows in it quite realistic.

Amamiya speculated that these shadows were probably capable of very smooth and unimpeded communication and possessed a considerable degree of intelligence.

Furthermore... perhaps due to its location in a safe zone, at least within the city, Amamiya did not directly detect any hostile "shadows".

After a brief moment of amazement, the three 'otaku girls' from the game club all turned their gazes to Amamiya, who was dressed in a phantom thief outfit.

These three women, all of whom are "homebodies," find it difficult to truly share common topics with others...

In addition, their negotiation experience was severely lacking, so negotiation tasks...

It can only fall on Amamiya.

Feeling the longing or expectation in the eyes of the three little ones, Amamiya was speechless for a moment.

After looking around the street, he walked up to a stall run by students in the shadows.

"Hello. We are adventurers from a foreign land... We are new to this city and not yet familiar with it. May I ask you a few questions?"

The student who was looking at the stall slightly raised his head.

"Oh...it's quite interesting that foreigners still come after all this time."

"He's quite handsome."

After offering his own 'sharp critique' of the masked Amamiya, the student nodded in shadow, "Alright, I happen to have some time... What do you want to ask?"

"First of all... could you tell me the name of this city?"

The student in shadow paused for a moment upon hearing this, then looked up in surprise at Amamiya Eiryou (1), Fin-Wu Keiji, and the three little guys from the game club behind him.

"Are you guys really that brave? You dare to come here without even knowing where this place is..."

After a soft chuckle, the student in the shadows spoke again in a calm yet chilling tone.

"Here..."

"It is the closest free city-state to the 'Demon King's Castle - Fortress City'."

"The name of this city-state is..."

"Elijdu".

Chapter Thirty-Five Rion: Oh no, it's coming for me!

"The name of this city-state is..."

"Elijdu".

The student's shadowy narrative surprised Amamiya for a moment.

Elidu?

After searching his mind for the name, Amamiya finally found a corresponding word.

[Southern Mesopotamia, a Sumerian city-state].

In ancient Sumerian mythology, Eridu was founded by the water god Enki and was the first city of the Sumerians... It was also one of the five cities in Sumerian mythology that existed before the Great Flood.

The mythical "first city in the world," the legendary "Temple of the Water God."

The Sumerian phrase "powerful land" or "land of guidance"...

This city-state can rival the city of Megiddo, which is associated with the root of all-powerful magic, in terms of its long history.

It can even be used as a root word for releasing magic by some Personas.

Adding prefixes and suffixes would probably allow it to unleash magic that increases attack power and critical hit rate (based on the legends of its powerful land), or water-based damage magic (based on the setting of its water temple)... something like that.

As for the specific format...

【idu】; 【iduDola】; 【Mahaidudolaon】.

"So that's how it is... This city is called 'Elidoo'..."

Amamiya wore a curious expression, as if he had learned something new.

After a moment's hesitation, he continued, "My companions and I have only been here a short time... Is there any other information you can tell me?"

The student, shrouded in shadow, calmly and lazily glanced up at Amamiya.

"That's all I know... If you really want to know anything, you can go to other places, like taverns, and ask around. They're more well-informed there."

"Okay, thanks for your help..."

Amamiya flipped his hand and tossed a silver coin engraved with a bright silver pattern, seemingly imbued with the power of "vanity," onto the other person's stall.

"You're welcome."

"Also... you're quite generous. If there's anything else you don't understand, feel free to ask me later. We've made some money today, so let's call it a day."

The student calmly picked up the bright silver coin, wiped it clean, and put it in her pocket. Then, she stood up unhurriedly, dusted herself off, and turned to leave.

"Sigh... With this money, my magic experiments can move forward again..."

For a thousand years, most of the students have been 'science-oriented girls'.

The nature of science-oriented girls dictates that they will not be as greedy as the Helmet Gang.

But they also need money—in the real world, they need funding to advance their research.

This is reflected in the Impression Space, where they need 'gold coins' to advance their 'magical research'.

"Wow……"

Only after watching the shadow of the thousand-year-old student recede into the distance did Momoi let out a long, 'amazing' breath.

"Sensei...that's amazing...you can communicate with strangers so pleasantly without any barriers!"

"It was like asking an NPC for information... and we successfully extracted some crucial information!"

Having witnessed the entire negotiation process of Amamiya, Momoi roughly understood what was going on—she even began to mentally list the progress of the main quest.

The next step should be to go to the tavern to ask for information, right?

However, requesting information obviously requires paying an intelligence fee...

Where does the intelligence fee come from? It comes from 'hunting monsters' in the wild and obtaining loot, of course.

The gaming spirit dormant within me is boiling... Inspiration is bursting forth like a spring!

With just this simple interaction, Momoi had all sorts of ideas about game development.

"so……"

Little Green chimed in, "Sensei, are we going to go 'outside' to find and defeat monsters next?"

Not only Momoi, but even Midori was temporarily completely immersed in this beautifully illustrated fantasy world.

Amamiya nodded: "Don't forget, our 'field research' this time is so that you can see and experience firsthand the 'battles in another world'..."

"So let's save the tavern exploration for next time. Our main objective this time is to find and defeat the monsters that roam this world—the 'Shadows'."

Yuzu's eyes gradually hardened.

In another world... you should be able to obtain 'special loot', right...?

I wonder what the spoils of war in another world will be like...

"Let's go, let's go outside the city."

With great interest, the three members of the game club, who kept stopping and starting along the way, wandered around the city and finally arrived at the city gate.

Perhaps because the cities in the fantasy world have no security concerns, since the city gates were open and there were hardly any guards, Amamiya and his party easily left the city.

After arriving in the 'wilderness', the girls in the game club all felt... that the 'game world' or rather, 'fantasy world' before them had become even stronger.

Once they left the city, they would immediately see those 'monsters' that emitted billowing black vapor and came in various shapes, all constructed from red and black mud.

"See those monsters? Those are the 'collection of negative thoughts in people's hearts,' also known as 'shadows.'"

Just like he had taught the five-person group of Abydos before, Amamiya gave a simple explanation to Midori, Momoi, and Yuzu.

"You know the enemy encounter patterns in RPG games, right? There are two types of enemies in RPG games: [visible encounters] and [unseen encounters]..."

"The enemy before us is one of the [visible enemies]. We need to attack them and break their mask before we can truly enter the battle phase."

"As for the enemies of [Dark Mine]... we haven't encountered them yet, so I won't explain them to you for now."

Amamiya deliberately used RPG game terminology to explain, which was very fitting and easy for the three girls in the game club to understand.

"In other words... we need to remove its mask before we can confront it head-on and enter the battle..."

Momoi looked eagerly at a tall shadow that was at least two meters tall and had a burly build that resembled an "orc".

"Understood, so next..."

After a moment's mental preparation, Momoi raised the shield in her hand.

"Warrior Skill - Shield Flash!"

Perhaps adhering to the principle that 'skills are more powerful when their names are loudly announced,' she pronounced them very loudly.