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Beware of Unmarked Spoilers below!!

The Wolfgang Clan

Founding Members

Sunraku

Sunraku / Rakurou Hizutome

^{Click here to see him IRL}

Voiced by: Yuma Uchida (Japanese), Eric Vale (English)

A boy who loves to play crappy games for the challenge of it. He is convinced to challenge himself by playing SLF.

Bile Fascination: In-universe, Rakurou loves invoked poorly made but still enjoyable video games and Obvious Betas, especially the kind you can only beat through exploiting glitches and Fake Difficulty.
Blue Is Heroic: Sunraku's standard character design is marked by a big blue bird mask. The underwear, his only gear, is also a bright blue color, though he uses other outfits when in public to not call too much attention.
Chekhov's Skill: His time in playing trash games proves useful when moving to SLF, as he focus on where to land critical hits and is used to exploits to power through older games.
- When we are introduced to Rakurou's family, we see that his father (whose hobby/obsession is fishing) has a tendency to gut the fish he's caught in the kitchen in front of his family. When Sunraku is fighting a giant enemy fish, we learn that because he's learned how to gut fish (unwillingly) due to his father, and uses that knowledge to deal additional damage to said fish.
Challenge Gamer: It doesn't matter how poorly made a game is, he will beat it, using every exploit he can, simply because he loves the feeling after overcoming a challenge. He even applies this attitude to otherwise good games like SLF, going out of his way to face dangerous challenges and monsters simply because they're there and the alternative would be boring (though it helps that said risks are often actually rewarded in-game).
- Sunraku often puts self-imposed challenges on himself purely for fun, such as beating a boss the first time facing it or beating the speed run record for a specific boss battle.
Challenge Seeker: Has a hobby of playing through "trash games", known for being buggy, tedious, or just borderline unplayable. He manages to finish them in the end, which leaves him pretty satisfied. When encouraged to play SLF, he focuses on fighting high-leveled enemies. After receiving the Lycagon's Mark, he uses it to deliberately ignore lower-level foes.
Cheese Strategy: In-Universe, Sunraku is not above using these in games if he finds out there is one available, but might avoid them if they end up making the game less fun for him. For example, in the fight against the Clown Spider, Sunraku found that he could use the gimmick of its boss lair against it by dropping its own debris on the spider. However, Sunraku soon found that this strategy made the fight too easy to be enjoyable, and he decided to finish off the boss in a straight one-on-one match.
Cool Helmet: The Spiked Battlehelm crafted from Quad Beetle materials he collected. The most prominent feature on it is the horn, which has its own hitbox and can be used as a weapon or, as Sunraku does against Wezaemon, as another method to parry an attack, which is why he wanted the helmet in the first place. We later learn that the helmet is also a very good piece of armor in its own right, granting its wearer an additional 400 Endurance (for comparison, that bonus is 10 times Sunraku's base Endurance, if not more, at least for most of the story). This bonus proves to be necessary when using Gilta Brile, a Divinity Era weapon that Bilac crafts for Sunraku that needs a high Endurance score to use.
Counter-Attack: One of Sunraku's methods of defense (besides just dodging) is to parry his opponent's attacks, since his defense and health are so abyssal due to his build that most enemies could take him out in one hit. His years of playing full dive "trash games" have given him a lot of experience in doing this. He also has abilities that rewarded successful parries, starting with Perfect Parry, which nullified all damage on a successful parry. This later evolved into Repel Counter, which gave Sunraku a free counterattack on a successful parry.
Critical Hit Class: Sunraku plays as one, investing a lot of his stats in his speed and luck, the latter of which increases his chance of gathering loot and dealing critical hit damage.
Critical Status Buff: Sunraku uses a pair of these buffs during the fight with Wezaemon. "Hunger Wolf" gives a buff when a character hasn't eaten enough, but it also means he's on the edge of losing much-needed stamina due to said hunger. "Climax Boost" activates when his health is below a third and gives a scaling buff based on the difference between his level and his opponent's.
Cursed with Awesome: How Sunraku views his "Marking of Lycagon" curse at times. While he bemoans that it prevents him from equipping any armor on the body parts with the curse markings (i.e. all of it besides his head, allowing only an accessory item besides), there are benefits to the curse. These include scaring away lower level enemies (leaving Sunraku free to focus on stronger opponents (and with his speed he can usually catch up to fleeing monsters if he wants) and the markings warding off magic and curses weaker than Lycagon's own. The latter proves very useful when crossing the "Inner Canyon of Ancient Souls", where a miasma lingers that can curse a player that stays in it too long if they aren't prepared (e.g. having a holy power item or access to a cleric), but Sunraku's markings cancels out the effects of the miasma.
Damager, Healer, Tank: In the Wezaemon fight, Sunraku shares the role of Damager and Tank with Oicazzo, with Pencilgon being the Healer. Sunraku plays mostly as the tank in that battle (specifically as an evasion tank^note, keeping the boss's attention occupied on him while his teammates deal with Wezaemon's mount so it can't help the boss and make it impossible to win. In practice, they're pretty much all Damagers in their general play style, but Sunraku fits the description the most.
Dual Wielding: Sunraku's primary combat style in SLF. Specifically, he's usually wielding two daggers and aiming to strike at an opponent's weak points to inflict critical hits.
Everyone Has Standards: In the sense of taste rather than morals. While Sunraku holds no shame in his love of trash games, he did have at least one game he liked that was actually decent in quality before he began playing SLF, a mecha game called Nephilim Hollow simply because he loves robot games. He winds up revisiting it briefly after a considerable absence to get over the disappointment of not being to use the advanced equipment found in Inventoria due to his curse markings.
Expressive Mask: His bird mask's eyes express as if it was his actual face. Enough so for some NPCs to think he was some sort of birdman.
The Faceless: Not to the audience, but Sunraku covers his face in-game at all times (primarily to provide him some anonymity since he's dressed like a weirdo) and wears a series of masks when meeting his teammates in real life for the Galaxia Heroes tournament.
Fearless Fool: Sunraku's gung-ho playstyle sometimes results in him jumping into a situation without doing some research or even fully thinking things through. Examples include him jumping to get a rare drop in mid-air, apparently not thinking about what might happen if he were to miss catching it or after that moment (namely, that he would drop into a horde of angry Crystal Scorpians that would tear him apart), and when he jumped into fighting the Humming Lich without doing any research on it, which would have told him that he needed a holy-attribute weapon to do any damage to it, and it was pure luck that Bilac was nearby to craft a suitable replacement. It's somewhat justified here, as he's playing a video game where the only consequence for failure is having some time wasted and/or feeling frustrated.
Fragile Speedster: Sunraku's build invests all his stats into his speed and its critical hit damage instead of any level of defense or HP. This is Rakurou's preferred way of playing, and he seems to do it in all games, attempting to get 0 hits from enemies. Even in situations where he has to switch tactics, such as when he uses a heavy Mecha build when fighting Rust in Nephilim Hollow (as Rust had already made a better Fragile Speedster model there), he will find some way to incorporate some enhanced mobility (in that case, adding hidden hover legs to surprise Rust to throw her off).
Full-Body Disguise: Due to Sunraku becoming too recognizable in SLF thanks to his cursed markings that can't be covered up (as the Curse prevents any items from being equipped on any parts of his body with the markings on them), he sometimes wear an equipable item that essentially looks like a decorated bedsheet with eyeholes in it. He only wears this disguise when he really wants to be anonymous, as it's not exactly inconspicuous but it does cover the whole body (the curse doesn't apply to it because it's technically just a piece of headgear, and the marks aren't on Sunraku's head).
Glass Cannon: Sunraku mentions that, with the Lycagon's Mark curse on him, he is stuck with this kind of build. The curse forbids him from using any armor in any place marked, which is his entire body sans his head, meaning he has inherently no reason to invest in health and resistance, dumping all his points in speed, stamina, and luck. This is enhanced with his Arcanum, which allows him to spam attacks even faster, in exchange for making healing from items less reliable.
Godlike Gamer: His gaming skills have long been honed from playing trash games with their various bugs and glitches, and he proves to be a formidable player in any game like SLF that lets him use those skills to the fullest, taking on encounters solo that many players would struggle with in groups. In the eyes of Kei, Rakurou could definitely make it as a pro-gamer (which has become a much more viable career with the advances of full-dive technology and gaming) if it weren't for The Promise Rakurou made with his parents to focus on high school and college first.
- Possibly the best example of this (in the eyes of the public anyway) is when he won a battle against Silvia Goldberg during the Galaxia Heroes arc. While he lost the match in the end (it was best-out-of-three competition), the announcers say that most veteran pro-gamers would struggle to get any victory against Silvia, never mind during their first time playing against her.
Hammerspace: Has one in SLF, as every other player does. However he, along with Oicazzo and Pencilgon, have access to an additional extra space called "Inventoria" as a reward for defeating Wezaemon, which comes with several mechanical beasts from the Age of Divinity. Inventoria is a bit different from the standard player inventory, as 1). it's shared between Sunraku, Oicazzo and Pencilgon, as are its contents, and 2). players marked as its owner(s) can warp themselves directly into it. The latter point is most notable, as Sunraku uses that ability frequently as a way to avoid enemy attacks by warping into the extra space (though it can't be spammed as it costs mana to do so).
Hyperspace Arsenal: Sunraku stores several sets of weapons in his inventory, partly due to the durability system in SLF making it a wise precaution to have some alternative options. Some of the most notable weapons he owns include:
- Vorpal Choppers: Daggers looted as a rare drop from Vorpal Rabbits, they deal extra damage on critical hits, which pairs nicely with Sunraku's build. They are later "ascended" by Vysache into Togetsu (Moon Blade), a unique dual weapon where each blade has a separate effect, and the two blades can combine into one if certain conditions are met.
- Marsh Daggers: One of the first set of weapons Sunraku had crafted for him. They have the special effect of halving durability loss on critical hits, meaning they can last much longer without maintenance if used properly. They're often Sunraku's standard weapon outside of big fights because of this. They're later ascended into a more powerful version called Ducusram.
- Empire Bee Twinblade: A twinsword forged by Bilac from materials harvested from an Empire Queen Bee. This weapon has the "Corrosive Poison" property, inflicting a status that deals damage over time to any vulnerable area struck.
- Dullahan General's Decapitator: A weapon dropped from a defeated Dullahan General, a two-handed greatsword that deals extra damage to strikes against a target's head or neck. Initial rusted and fragile, the sword was later repaired by Bilac and then evolved into the Flame General's Decapitator.
- Gilta Brile: Probably Sunraku's most unusual weapon, it was crafted for him by Bilac after she gained the ability to craft Divinity era items. It's essentially a pair of gauntlets that shoot out magically created crystals, which can later grow on command. At first Sunraku needs to equip the Spiked Battlehelm to use Gilta Brile due to the weapon requiring high Endurance to use.
In a Single Bound: To make up for his lack of range, Sunraku would start to pick up abilities that would increases the heights of his jumps to make it easier to close the gap with airborne enemies, along with reaching higher terrain to gain an advantage.
It Runs in the Family: Rakurou's entire family is as obsessed with a specific hobby as he is with video games: his dad loves to fish, his mom collects insects, and his sister models and buys fashionable clothing. They make a point to have a weekly ritual of all meeting up on Sunday mornings to talk with each other, otherwise there's a real chance that they might not see each other at all due to getting so absorbed in their respective hobbies.
Level-Locked Loot: The Togetsu is by far his best weapon, but it was also made for someone with way higher stats than him, so as soon as he receives it, they can only sit on his inventory for a while until he's leveled up. In the process, he lost his Vorpal Blades, which were some of his best weapons.
Logical Weakness:
- While Sunraku's build makes him a beast in close quarters, he had little to no options for ranged combat in the early game, so anything that was either able to fly out of his reach or was just too fast even for him proved to be a difficult problem. The stand-out example of this is the Toxic Eagle from the Boss Rush he faced in Rabituza; while most of the enemies he faced in that took only a few attempts to defeat (maybe a dozen at most), the Toxic Eagle took 112 attempts simply because it kept divebombing him and inflicting status ailments out of his reach. Sunraku would take steps to alleviate this issue, primary through gaining abilities that would vastly increase his jumping capabilities, to the point of being able to Double Jump eventually.
- As his player build and preferred gaming style is a Fragile Speedster, anything that’s able to slow him down or completely freeze him in place is also a huge problem for him. He notes that fighting the Marsh Digger, a mere second level area boss, was actually worse than fighting Lycagon due to the mechanics of the marsh slowing him to a crawl, and then it’s special Limit Break paralyzing him in place for an unavoidable attack.
Man of Kryptonite: Thanks to the Mark of Lycagon, Sunraku is able to No-Sell any curse effect that's weaker than the Mark itself (meaning virtually any curse that doesn't come from another UM). This proves to be very effective against bosses like the Humming Lich, as it negates some of his more dangerous abilities.
Min-Maxing: The first thing Sunraku does is sell all his starting equipment to buy better weapons. This has the unfortunate side effect of leaving him wandering around in his underwear.
Must Have Caffeine: He's consumed so many energy drinks that he can tell the difference in caffeine levels between domestic and American brands.
Oh, Crap!: Has a few moments of these, some of which are the result of when he gets himself in a precarious situation due to his own recklessness. One of the most notable examples is when, while fighting an undead fishman on a ghost ship in the middle of the ocean, Sunraku's notices a split second of lag occurring, something that he has never encountered in SLF. This lag winds up foreshadowing the arrival of one of the Seven Colossi, Ctarnidd, who sinks everyone present into a vortex.
One Curse Limit: The Mark of Lycagon is a curse with a special property that protects those afflicted (including Sunraku) against any curses or debuffs weaker than the Mark itself. It takes a very powerful monster, such as the Abhorrent Woodmage, to override this protection.
The Promise: Turns out he has one with his family in Chapter 159. He's allowed to play games as much as he wants, but he has to go to College and earn his degree once he graduates from High School. Hence why he can't play as a Pro Gamer, despite receiving invites from several people and it being a viable career path due to how VR Games have exploded.
Signature Headgear: The Bird Mask he's worn since character creation in SLF. Despite it being an option for any player since the beginning, we haven't seen anyone else weaing anything like it (most likely because they've moved on to other pieces of headgear that better suits their build or aesthetic tastes). Sunraku has taken it off occasionally, most notably to equip his Beetle helmet for the Wezaemon fight, but we never see the face of his avatar (though the audience has seen Rakurou's face already).
Speed, Smarts and Strength: The Speed to Pencilgon's Smarts and Oicazzo's Strength in their Wolfgang clan.
Unluckily Lucky: Sunraku has a habit of running into enemies that vastly outclass him, but provide him with opportunities far beyond an average SLF player. Barely into his SLF career, he runs into Lycagon, who trashes him and puts a curse on him that stops him from using any armor; this curse also unlocks Rabituza to him. Oicazzo and Pencilgon (and occasionally Sunraku himself) also note that he tends to be pretty unlucky in general when it comes to RNGs in games, but he seems to able to roll with the failures reasonably well by this point.
Walking Shirtless Scene: He uses no armor, neither can he due to the Mark of Lycagon, so he walks around the game using only the bare minimum clothing the game allows and a mask. Players think he is either a creep or is using a meme build.
Weapon Specialization: Sunraku's primary job in SLF specializes in dual wielding daggers and similar short blades. Unlike most examples, he can use other types of weapons reasonably well, but it's harder to learn new skills with weapons outside his specialization.

Oicazzo

Oicazzo / Kei Uomi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oikatzo_pc.png

^{Click here to see her IRL}

Voiced by: Makoto Koichi (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)

A fellow gamer that Sunraku met playing a crappy game. One of Japan's best fighting gamers, excelling in PVP, who belongs to a pro gaming team called the Nitro Squad under the name “Kei”. In SLF, they play a pretty monk girl, but Kei themself is a man. Meeting Sunraku got them addicted to crappy games.

Bare-Fisted Monk: Oicazzo's class in SLF locks them out of using any weapons except their fists, though they do exploit a loophole to get whips via a Job.
Damager, Healer, Tank: In the Wezaemon fight, Oicazzo shares the role of Damager and Tank with Sunraku, with Pencilgon being the Healer. In practice, they're pretty much all Damagers in their general play style, but Oicazzo is probably the most Tank-like of the trio, with their build specifically about being able to take damage before dishing it out.
"Eureka!" Moment: During the battle with Wezaemon, Oicazzo and Pencilgon are busy keeping his mount Kirin occupied so that they can't join Wezaemon directly and make the fight even more difficult. When Kirin's bucking proves too much for Oicazzo's rodeo skills, Pencilgon encourages him by telling him to "stay strapped in". This gives Oicazzo the idea of using his whip to tie himself onto Kirin's head, trapping it in the "bucking off" behavior until the phase change.
G.I.R.L.: Their SLF avatar is a female brawler. In real life, they're a man in his teens.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Their IRL counterpart is a blonde boy of Sunraku's age. He may be a top gamer but he's willing to socialize with the middle-class Sunraku and Towa who turns out to be a celebrity in real life. He even covers their travel expenses and their stay at a luxury hotel when they help him out with a special exhibition match.
Hidden Depths: While their primary interest and specialty is in fighting games, Kei is also quite good at FPS games, performing spectacularly in front of some sponsors in a previous tournament. This winds up biting them in the ass when the sponsors for his pro-gaming team demand that he participate in the finals for a world championship FPS tournament, which unfortunately is at the same time as the exhibition match with Star Rain and Silvia Goldberg. As he obviously can't refuse, this forces the rest of the team (including temporary members Sunraku and Towa) to stall for time with their match so that Kei can make it in time).
Interclass Friendship: With the middle-class Sunraku/Rakurou and Arthur/Towa who turns out to be a celebrity.
Ki Manipulation: Oicazzo's monk class, specifically a varient called a Spirit Fist User, can enhance their attacks by shrouding their hands in different coloured spiritual flames that grant various bonuses (e.g. red flames provide a general strength and vitality boost, while black flames specifically enhance the damage of the user's attacks briefly). These "colours" can also be combined for more potent effects, though they may come with a drawback as more colours are mixed together.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Their monk class exchanges any proficiency in armor or weapons for the ability to cast buffs that greatly enhance their defense and offense.
Second Episode Introduction: Despite a significant appearance in the opening of the anime and promotional material, they take quite a bit of time to actually be introduced to join SLF with the other main characters. In the manga, they don't show up until chapter 20; while in the anime, they first appear in episode 10.
Speed, Smarts and Strength: The Strength to Sunraku's Speed and Pencilgon's Smarts in their Wolfgang clan.

Arthur Pencilgon

Arthur Pencilgon / Towa Amane

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Brianna Roberts (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arthur_pc.png

^{Click here to see her IRL}

Formerly going by the nickname "Pencil Knight", a high level and sadistic player killer. She and Sunraku know each other from playing other MMOs together.

Anti-Debuff: From a history of fighting a Shaman player recurringly on SLF, she carries a Straw Doll on her chest at all times, an item that takes status effects cast at her.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed. We first see her in her more negative gamer persona, where she happily acts a villain in SLF (specifically a PKer and a general Troll) before learning that in real life, she's a famous fashion model named Towa Amane, who likely uses games as an outlet for her more negative impulses. It's downplayed, as it's usually played for laughs, there's still a fair bit of respect between her, Sunraku and Oicazzo, and she stops player-killing after the battle with Waezamon, most likely because it wasn't as interesting for her anymore. She still has some Sadist tendencies, as shown in the Galaxia Heroes arc (see Mad Bomber below).
Card-Carrying Villain: Delights in being a sadistic PKer, and shows no qualms about it (the only concern for her would be if people found out her real identity as a celebrity fashion model, as her behaviour could seriously affect her career if the public ever made the connection). Ironically, this is part of why she ultimately turns against the Asura-Kai; when the update that imposed penalties on Player Killing by the developers, the guild members showed their true colors as the Dirty Coward, which disgusted Pencilgon, as she had the guts to stick to her guns and is able to accept the consequences of her actions, which she shows when she lets Psyger-0 defeat her and claim her loot after the Wezaemon battle as repayment for their aid (albeit after using an exploit to keep her most important items, specifically her primary weapon and a quest item she received from Setsuna), leaving Pencilgon in debt in-game).
Cast from Money: In the Wezaemon battle, she uses an item called the Rewards Scales, a unique item loaned from the merchant's guild, which can provide temporary blessings in exchange for money or items, with the strength of the blessing corresponding with the amount of currency and/or value of the items offered to the scales. Pencilgon offers up to 30 million worth of the in-game currency to buff everyone significantly.
Commonality Connection: Part of the reason she became interested in Setsuna was due to each of them having an Ironic Name, ones which mirrored each other no less (see the trope below for further details).
Damager, Healer, Tank: In the Wezaemon fight, Pencilgon is the Healer while Sunraku and Oicazzo share the role of Damager and Tank. Her biggest contribution in the fight (beyond making the strategy for it in the first place) is providing healing and buffs through items she purchased. In practice, they're pretty much all Damagers in their general play style, though she's the most strategic and forward thinking of the three.
Death Equals Redemption: After the party defeats the Wezaemon quest, she confronts Psyger-0 and duels her. Pencilgon is soundly defeated and, as a result of an update that punishes Player Killers, loses [most of] her entire inventory. However, she explains beforehand that her defeat and respawn would be considered a fresh start for her after being part of Ashura-Kai, even though she still has the attitude of a PKer.
Defeat Means Friendship: In United Rounds, being overthrown by Oicazzo and Sunraku (albeit still getting the last laugh by destroying the castle with them inside) has made the three of them friends, or at least in good enough terms that they keep contact over email and start playing another game together.
God Save Us from the Queen!: In United Rounds she staged an uprising against the NPC monarchy and installed herself as queen. She used that position to deliberately rile up players into trying to overthrow her so she could pit the various player factions against each other. The general opinion of most players was that whatever Big Bad might have been created by the developers, it was nothing next to Queen Pencil Knight.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: It is very good that Pencilgon has video games to get out her more sadistic urges, although that doesn't stop her teammates from being worried when she starts getting a little too into her roleplaying.
Ironic Name: Her real name, Towa, means "eternal", but she very much lives in the moment. This is part of why she took an interest in the NPC Setsuna and her story, despite normally being a video game sadist, as Setsuna means "Moment", but she's forced to "live" through an eternity as a ghost.
Load-Bearing Boss: In United Rounds, Pencilgon had her castle filled with explosives which she set off when Sunraku beat her, ensuring a Mutual Kill.
Loophole Abuse: After being killed by Psyger-0 in exchange for their help with the remnants of the Asura-Kai and losing her items as a result, she reveals to Sunraku and Oicazzo that she used the properties of the Rewards Scales (which wasn't taken due to it technically belonging to the merchants guild, with her merely borrowing it) to "store" certain items by offering them up to the scales, then reclaiming them later, to get around the Player Killer penalty. The items she saved this way were her primary weapon and a unique item given by Setsuna.
Mad Bomber: She plays a character named Clock Fire in the Galaxia Heroes arc who's one of these. Due to her Sadist tendencies, she gets a bit too into the role, and is disturbingly effective in it, to the point that the announcers for her matches wonder if they'll have to censor her parts due to the NPC reactions being realistic to the point of horror (not helped when Towa begins using the NPCs as involuntary suicide bombers.
Manipulative Bastard: Her biggest strength in a fight is her ability to mess with her opponent's head, making her very good at PvP. Conversely, she struggles more against non-intelligent NPC enemies (such as beasts) since it's much harder to manipulate them with her usual methods.
Mythical Motifs: She named her character after King Arthur Pendragon.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Played with. Her SLF avatar looks almost exactly like her real appearance (not counting the different eye and hair colours), which would normally give her true identity away... except that the avatar creator in SLF is very customizable, so there would be enough plausible deniability if anyone asked, especially as her real life job is a famous fashion model, the sort of person you might mimic the appearance of if you wanted someone pretty to look at while gaming.
- As we see in an extra scene, hers is by far not the only SLF avatar deliberately modeled after Towa Amane.
Pet the Dog: While part of her motivation for teaming up with Sunraku and Oicazzo to take down Wezaemon was to screw over her old PK guild (who had lost their fire and become too cautious and reserved for her tastes due to the massive penalties player-killers now faced in SLF), she had another reason; to help out a NPC, Setsuna, that Pencilgon formed an unexpected connection with, even crying tears when Setsuna passed on after Wezaemon's defeat.
Reformed, but Not Tamed: After the battle with Wezaemon, Pencilgon stops Player Killing (mostly because continuing would create problems with pursuing the Unique Scenario left by Setsuna), but she's not above using lies and tricks to get what she needs (e.g. snatching equipment from a guild under the pretense of their alliance to hunt down Lycagon). Admittedly, this is partly because she's currently saddled with a massive debt in-game after being killed by Psyger-0, but she doesn't help her case a lot due to taking pleasure in it.
- As the Galaxia Heroes arc shows, those sadistic urges aren't gone by any means, she just keeps more of a lid on them in SLF so she can pursue the quest Setsuna left behind. When she's given the opportunity to let loose in that arc in another game, she revels in it, much to the horror of everyone watching.
Riches to Rags: As a successful and active max-level PKer, Pencilgon had built up a lot of gear, money, and rare items. After being killed by Psyger-0, all of her items except a handful are confiscated due to her bounty and she ends up going into debt just getting basic gear.
Sadist: Enjoys causing terror to her opponents a little too much.
Speed, Smarts and Strength: The Smarts to Sunraku's Speed and Oicazzo's Strength in their Wolfgang clan.
The Strategist: She comes up with battle plans rather than relying on complete skill or force.
Token Evil Teammate: Arthur Pencilgon, AKA Towa Amane, founder of the Player Killer guild known as Asura-Kai. She is happy to collaborate with Sunraku and Oicazzo and eventually form a new guild with them, Wolfgang, but she clearly gets the most enjoyment out of the game when she's griefing other players.
Vapor Wear: Based on the gaps of fabric on her hips, she is not wearing underwear. Somewhat justified that it is just an avatar in an online game, so it doesn't really need real world logic, only Rule of Cool or Rule of Sexy. That or it's just a high waisted leotard with matching undies.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Pencilgon is usually eager to go for the sadistic options in the games she plays (e.g. capturing a princess NPC to tie up her up and use her as bait to draw other NPCs and players into an ambush). The sole exception to this Setsuna, the first NPC she ever got truly invested in, taking her quest and the game more seriously than she usually does.

Later additions

Psyger-0

Psyger-0 / Rei Saiga

Voiced by: Azumi Waki (Japanese), Corey Pettit (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/psyger0_pc.png

^{Click here to see her IRL}

Rakurou's classmate who has a crush on him. In an attempt to get closer to him, she started playing SLF with the long term goal of getting Rakurou to play it and spend time with him in-game, but her shyness stopped her from actually putting said plan into motion. As she kept playing, she became a top player of SLF.

Advertised Extra: Rei is one of the first characters introduced in the story, featured in the third cover of the series and prominently in the opening of the anime, but she is much less connected to the story than the other 3 main characters and will not participate in several segments of the story, mostly because she's not a Challenge Gamer like the rest, and so isn't as interested in other games besides SLF, but even in SLF, her priority is often with her sister's guild rather than Sunraku's party. As a result, supposed side-character Emul ends up with more screentime than her.
Awesome, but Impractical: Psyger-0's most famous technique, the one that gave her the title of "Master of Attack"/"Attack Holder", Armageddon. This attack has the highest damage output seen yet in SLF, enough to be a One-Hit Kill against virtually anything in the game (possibly including the Seven Colossi themselves). Unfortunately, this ability has several requirements that need to be met in order to execute it, starting with hitting the target 5 times with two other techniques each, followed by a long chanting time that can't be interrupted (meaning other players are required to protect Psyger while they're casting), and lastly the attack actually needs to hit the target (which isn't a guarantee) or it would all be for nothing. To add insult to injury, the user's stats are halved for a day after using this attack, and their current equipment is left degraded until it can be repaired.
BFS: Her sword is about the size of her character, which is already huge.
Color Motif: White, in both her real life and in-game, is a color she is associated with.
Difficult, but Awesome: Her most powerful technique, "Armageddon". There are numerous requirements before it can be used (including a long chanting time), and it leaves their equipment in a much weaker state, but it is likely the technique with the highest damage output in the game, enough to be a serious threat to even a Unique Monster like Lycagon.
Flashback Fail: Her recollections of her first interaction with Sunraku in SLF is heavily colored by her crush on him, portraying him as much more friendly and even flirtatious than he actually was being.
Imagine Spot: Has a lot of these, usually about how she sees Sunraku's words and actions (which often have a much more romantic vibe than they did in reality).
Knight in Shining Armor: Psyger-0, AKA Rei Saiga, takes on this appearance, thanks to her high-tier heavy armor and massive greatsword.
Love Makes You Dumb: Rei Saiga has a massive crush on Hizutome, but can't bring herself to confess to him. As part of a contrived scheme to get his affection, she starts playing Shangri-La Frontier before he does in the hopes that she will be able to use it as a way to bridge the gap. One full year later, and she is no closer to confessing, but she has become one of SLF's top-ranked players.
No Social Skills: She is so shy that she can't communicate properly with the target of her affections and is not good at reading social cues. Sunraku mistakes Psyger-0's way of speaking for polite distance, and sometimes mistakes her intensity for anger towards him; generally being weirded out by her attempts to bring them closer together. In counterpart, her lack of social skills also means she doesn't understand that he is not responding to her advances and in her head, he is actually friendly if not outright flirtatious towards her.
Punch-Clock Hero: In regards to hunting down Lycagon. Despite being part of a guild whose primary creed is taking down that specific UM, Psyger-0 admits to Sunraku that she's not as interested as the rest of her guild in beating Lycagon, that it's just another game monster to her at the end of the day. She's in the guild mostly because it's run by her sister (Psyger-100), and Rei had no actual objection to it.
Punny Name: It's not immediately obvious to someone not familiar with the Japanese language, but Psyger sounds very similar to her surname "Saiga", and her first name "Rei" can mean 0 in Japanese. In other words, her in-game name is just a different way of saying her real life name. It's close enough that Sunraku thinks there's something familiar about it after Psyger asks him to just call her Rei (he doesn't know Psyger's RL identity is someone he's actually met, partly because Rei is too shy to actually speak with him in real life).
Put on a Bus: When Sunraku and the others are playing other games than SLF, don't expect her to appear due to her Shrinking Violet nature and reluctance to play other games besides SLF.
Red Baron: "Master of Attack" ("Attack Holder" in Japanese), used to establish her power as having the largest damage output attacks in the game.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Inverted. Psyger's Arcanum (an optional upgrade that can be obtained when a player reaches the maximum level, that improves your abilities with a tradeoff attached) doubled her stat growth, but it also doubled the recharge time for her abilities. Since the Arcanum that a player can obtain is usually determined by their achievements, and thus their play style, Psyger is pretty content with this exchange.
Shrinking Violet: At least when it comes to Rakurou, to whom she Cannot Spit It Out in real life, and hopes to use SLF as a way to close the gap with him. While she believes she's made progress in that regard, her lack of social skills combined with a rather rose-tinted view of her interactions with Sunraku make her think they're way closer than they actually are.

Shangri-La Frontier

Utopia Entertainment Software

As a whole

UES (also known as Union Inc.) are the developers of Shangri-La Frontier, whose work in full-dive VR far exceeds their competition (Oicazzo outright rates their technology on an OOPart scale, saying its several generations ahead of anyone else), with a player base of over 30 million. Notable figures within the company include Tsukuyo Tsukuri (the founder of UES and the World Creative Administrator), Ritsu Amachi (Executive Producer) and Sakai Tsukuyogi (Director of PR).

Both Sides Have a Point: Tsukuyo blames Ritsu for Wezaemon being defeated so early (10 years early according to her predictions), saying Ritsu had nerfed his stats. Ritsu counters that if she hadn't done that, defeating Wezaemon would have been impossible, severely impacting any enjoyment players would have had in fighting him, though that particular decision wound up biting them on the ass as it wound up enabling a sequence break in their planned storyline.
Didn't Think This Through: Shangri-La Frontier's superbosses were intended to be defeated, but the plan for their defeat was supposed to be years long and to happen within a certain order. It escaped the mind of all designers, including Tsukuyo to put some kind of barrier to stop Sequence Breaking, especially because the game world is so realistic that defeat of a UM cannot be undone or ignored. Ritsu's plan to nerf Wezaemon also comes across as poorly thought out since he just wasn't meant to be defeated yet.
- For comparison, real life MMOs have a tendency towards releasing bosses together with story expansions, which ensure that they're defeated in a certain order.
Power Trio: Tsukuyo, Ritsu and Sakai function as this within the company; Tsukuyo created and oversees the world of SLF, including its story and notable characters like the Seven Colossi, Ritsu looks over the former's work and helps balance it to make it a more enjoyable (and in some cases playable) experience (e.g. nerfing Wezaemon's stats to make him actually beatable), and Sakai tries to settle disagreements between the two. The last part is harder than it sounds, as the first two tend to bicker and fight like children when riled up, causing enough stress for Sakai that he needs stomach medicine when dealing with them.
The Shut-In: Tsukuyo Tsukuri. Apparently it's not unusual for her to spend a significant amount of time in the basement of the Union Inc. building (10 floors down even). Her room even has several layers of security to it (including fingerprint identification and retinal scanners).
This Is Gonna Suck: Sakai's reaction to learning the news about Wezaemon's defeat, Ritsu going on ahead to speak (or rather, argue) with Tsukuyo, and realizing that he's out of his usual stomach medicine but still needs to deal with the two bickering.
Unkempt Beauty: Tsukuyo is clearly a good looking woman, but she spends so long locked away doing nothing but work that she turns into this trope.
Womanchild: Both Ritsu and Tsukuyo behave and fight like preschoolers when left to their own devices to solve a problem because their priorities never match (Ritsu wants to make the game playable and balanced, which clashes with Tsukuyo's prioritization of the story).

Players

Mia and Reiji

Mia is voiced by: Saho Shirasu (Japanese), Leo Matthews (English)

Reiji is voiced by: Takuma Nagatsuka (Japanese), Tom Laflin (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reiji_and_mia.png

A pair of coworkers. Reiji convinces his crush, Mia to try SLF as a way to spend more time with her.

Audience Surrogate: Mia is as clueless as Sunraku is of the game, but she is a normal player, so she seeks to understand concepts better and faster than him and wouldn't do things like skip tutorials or information, serving as a way for the story to get exposition by explaining things to her.
Expy: Their clothing resembles the Archer class of Ragnarok Online.
Running Gag: Whenever they see a strange character, Mia has her bow at the ready before Reiji stops her so she doesn't accidentally hit or kill another player and be marked as a PK-er.

Animalia

Voiced by: Sayaka Senbongi (Japanese), Kelsey Cruz (English)

The leader of the SLF-Zoo clan, a clan that focus in documenting and photographing the fauna of SLF.

Abhorrent Admirer: To Emul. Animalia's drooling is enough to make Emul freeze up and want to run. It is why Sunraku is hesitant to even talk about Rabituza and his Unique Scenario with Animalia and the rest of SF Zoo, because as Pencilgon notes in Volume 7 of the manga, the clan is like a group of locusts around anything monster or animal, so if they ever found out about Rabituza, Sunraku (and by extension all Vorpal Bunnies) would never get a day of peace again.
Animal Lover: Big time, and she leads a whole guild of like minded players, with the goal of finding every animal species within SLF. Recently, she (and the rest of SLF-Zoo) have become obsessed with finding out how Sunraku gained permanent access to Rabituza (as the better known quest only lets a player stay temporarily before being kicked out by the residents) so that they can hang around the vorpal rabbits as much as they want (along with petting and cuddling them in some cases), leading them to negotiate with Wolfgang and the other guilds to learn the secrets behind the Unique Scenario that Sunraku stumbled across. Unfortunately, their lack of control over this desire, along with having No Sense of Personal Space in regards to the rabbits, makes Animalia (and the rest of her guild for that matter) an Abhorrent Admirer as far as Emul (and to a certain extent Sunraku) is concerned.
- Ironically, a later chapter reveals that Animalia's player is seriously allergic to animals in real life; a large part of her animal obsession in SLF is because the game gives her an opportunity to be around them in a way that wouldn't be possible in real life or even other full-dive games, given the high quality and attention to detail in SLF.
No Sense of Personal Space: Whenever Emul comes into the picture, Animalia is shown to drool over just trying to pet the Vorpal Rabbit, even going so far as to snuggle her until Emul goes unconscious. And when Pencilgon and Oicazzo rope Sunraku into a Clan meeting together to exchange information, Animalia is hesitant to even part with the rabbit for more answers, actively chasing Sunraku down for what she sees as a "free pass" to rabbit paradise. It's no surprise to anyone but Animalia that when Sunraku gives Emul a chance to go back to Rabituza, Emul takes it just to get away. The rest of the SF Zoo clan aren't any better, forming a mob that tries to run Sunraku down before the clan meeting, just before Sunraku throws Emul towards them for breathing space.
Oh, Crap!: When Lycagon reveals it can clone itself and wipes out her guild. In particular, she realizes that the Lycagon they were fighting is not like any animal they've seen in SLF, right before she's devoured.
Status Effects: As a Shaman class, her specialty is casting status effects on her enemies.
Taking You with Me: Her final attack allows her to cast insta-death curse on an enemy, provided that she is pretty much defeated already (it requires her HP to be on the single digits), as the curse will kill her as well.

Psyger-100

Psyger-100 / Momo Saiga

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese), Morgan Berry (English)

Rei's elder sister and the leader and founder of Schwarzer Wolf, a guild in the game that exists to hunt down and defeat Lycagon.

Serious Business: Defeating Lycagon. She's very invested in beating the UM, and isn't above some unscrupulous means to do so (at least if her sister's Imagine Spot about Momo kidnapping Sunraku to join their guild after being told about how he helped defeated Lycagon's shadow isn't an exaggeration). She's also pissed when Rei refuses to talk with her after Momo learns about the whole situation with Lycagon's shadow, wondering if Rei may have stolen her kill behind Momo's back.
Sibling Team: She and Rei were this in SLF, though it's more that Rei followed Momo's orders most of the time. The addition of Sunraku into SLF has begun to strain this relationship as Rei began prioritizing spending time with Rakurou over her sister's plans, made worse when Rei defeated Lycagon's shadow alongside Sunraku after accidentally joining him in the boss fight, then avoided talking directly to Momo to put off the inevitable argument.

The Professor

Voiced by: Joji Nakata (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/professor_pc.png

The leader of "The Library", a guild dedicated to discovering the lore and secrets hidden within SLF and its somewhat vague story. Despite the avatar looking like a young girl, the player is actually a middle-aged man who doesn't bother to hide his voice.

Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: In-Universe. Leads a guild of players whose primary goal is to research and uncover the lore of SLF (as the main game most players experience is pretty vague in terms of its own story). He meets with the newly formed guild Wolfgang to negotiate for information regarding Wezaemon, and to discuss the possibility of an alliance to uncover more about the game's story.
G.I.R.L.: Like Oicazzo, the Professor is a man playing a female character. In the Professor's case, he's a fair bit older with a voice to match, creating a sense of dissonance for those who aren't expecting it (like Sunraku when they first met).
Last Episode, New Character: He is introduced on the final episode of the anime adaptation's first season.
Sherlock Scan: When he first meets Sunraku while he's in one of his disguises (a special kind of headgear that can cover his whole body, including the curse marks - it essentially looks like an accessorized bedsheet with eye holes cut in), the Professor instantly recognizes the item, including some of the lore around it and how it's usually only available from a certain travelling merchant.
Vocal Dissonance: The first time he speaks, Sunraku is shocked to listen to a very deep, masculine voice coming from a petite, pretty girl.

The Ashura-Kai

An infamous clan of Player Killers that Pencilgon partook in.

Dirty Coward: A big part of why Pencilgon has grown disgusted and disappointed by them, deciding You Have Outlived Your Usefulness about them, is that despite acting all high and mighty about slaughtering other players, all of them are actually cowards who responded to the update providing Video Game Cruelty Punishment by only targeting weaker players and avoiding risky fights with high-level players, out of the fear of losing all the items and gold they've gathered up over the years.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: They used to be The Dreaded across SLF because of how they wouild wantonly slaughter everyone just for the fun of it, especially when lead by Pencilgon, but after the bounty-system update as deterrent for PKers like them they showed their true colors to every other player about how they're Dirty Cowards who only do things if they can avoid the consequences, nowadays mostly targeting weaker players out of fear they'll lose their item stash to whoever kills them for their bounty. As such, many normal players consider them absolute jokes whose constant talk about still being feared killers is all hot air.
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: An update to SLF has made it so that players that kill a Player Killer will, aside from a bounty, be allowed to take whatever they want from the PK-er inventory and storage, turning PK-ers into walking treasure chests for high enough level players, encouraging them to become the ones hunted down.
Wrong Genre Savvy: The leader of Ashura-Kai insists that the Seven Colossi are so ridiculously overpowered, they're obviously meant to be unkillable and attempting to do so is a waste. However, killing the Colossi is in fact integral to progressing the game's story.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Pencilgon eventually decides for giving them one final smackdown and steal all their loot once she no longer has use for them, as the newest update would make life harder for Player Killers and they will not help, and may in fact hinder, her plan to defeat Wezaemon.

Rust and Mordo (Spoilers)

Two players Sunraku had first met in another full dive MMO, Nephilim Hollow, a custom mecha fighting game. Rust, a Mecha Otaku, is the number one player in their server (with her and Sunraku battling to a draw in their last match against each) and Mordo is her calm right hand man.

Contrived Coincidence: Both Rust and Mordo having previously played Shangri-La Frontier is not that improbable, given how popular that the game is. The fact that they had found a quest that could lead to fighting Ctarnidd, while Sunraku had the perfect thing to trade in exchange (the chance to see the robots in SLF that Rust had searched exhaustively for before giving up)? Just slightly more improbable.
Damager, Healer, Tank: Sunraku teams up with the pair in SLF to fight against one of Ctarnidd's blockers, with Sunraku acting as an evasion tank, Rust attacking the target using her various bows, and Mordo supporting the other two with healing and protective spells.
Otaku: Rust is a major fanatic for mechs, specifically for pilotable Mecha, though anything sufficiently robotic can catch her attention.
Victory Is Boring: Played with for Rust. It's less that Victory Is Boring, but more that Victory with the Same Strategy Is Boring. In Nephilim Hollow, Rust has a self-imposed rule of not changing her mech build until she's defeated. Unfortunately for her, both her chosen build (a Fragile Speedster with a lot of mobility) and her own skills at the game are so good that no one else on the server even came close to beating her for a long time. It's not until Sunraku returns to the game that she even has a decent challenge and she is ecstatic when Sunraku does finally defeat her, as she immediately comes out with a new build she had sitting on the sidelines for some time, eager for a rematch with Sunraku.

Akane (Spoilers)

Akane Akitsu

A player Sunraku originally met in Berserk Online Passion under the name "Dragonfly". After Sunraku helped her get used to that game she decided to seek him out in SLF. She's the second player to unlock the Unique Rabituza scenario and received a curse to Seigwurm, similar to Sunraku's own from Lycagon.

Big Damn Heroes: She shows up just in time to save Psyger-0 from being killed by Lycagon.
Chekhov's Gunman: She initially was just a random newbie to Berserk Online Passion that Sunraku trained, only to become a major player in the story going forward.
Curse: She received a curse from Seigwurm that functions similarly to Sunraku's one from Lycagon. Though it only manifests as marking's on her face.
Loophole Abuse: The curse she received from Seigworm prevents her from equipping gear to her head, but the mask she wears counts as an accessory.
Ninja: Styles herself after one in SLF.
Ninja Log: One of her techniques allows her to replace herself or one of her allies with one of these (though it's dependent on having a consumable item to use, giving her a finite number of uses).
Sure, Let's Go with That: During one conversation between Akane and Sunraku, Sunraku guesses that the reason Akane wears a mask is to hide the curse markings she received from Seigwurm. While she verbally agrees, her inner monologue reveals that the actual reason is that she accidentally modeled her avatar's face too closely to her own and she doesn't want her face exposed.

NPCs

General

Setsuna

Setsuna of Bygone Days / Setsuna Amatsuki

Voiced by: Asami Seto (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slf_setsuna.png

The ghost of Wezaemon's lover. She can grant the players the Unique Scenario "From the Living World, With Love", which grants the players the fight against Wezaemon.

But Now I Must Go: When Wezaemon is finally defeated, Setsuna disappears shortly afterwards, as she no longer feels like she has a purpose to stay for.
Cute Ghost Girl: Is the ghost or rather, an AI recreation of the original Setsuna.
Died Happily Ever After: After Wezaemon's defeat, he and Setsuna are seen walking across a field of flowers, presumably into the afterlife.
The Lost Lenore: For Wezaemon. In fact Wezaemon's ephiphet, "the Tombguard" refers to her tomb, as his entire existence is now dedicated solely to protecting her grave.
Quest Giver: For the Unique Scenario that leads to the battle with Wezaemon.
Robotic Reveal: Or more accurately AI Reveal - After the battle with Wezaemon is concluded, she reveals that she's not the actual ghost of Setsuna, but rather an AI recreation of the original Setsuna, made to watch over Wezaemon until he could finally pass on.
Verbal Backpedaling: During her first conversation with Pencilgon, Sunraku and Oicazzo, Setsuna begins talking about how Wezaemon had set up the barrier around her tomb using "programs", before quickly changing it to "magic", hinting at the true nature of the game's world.
Video Game Caring Potential: Setsuna is, surprisingly, the only NPC Arthur ever got invested in, which she is ashamed to say made her take the quest and the game more seriously than what she usually does.

Rabituza

A thriving village of friendly talking Vorpal Rabbits. While there exists a commonly known Unique Scenario for visiting the place, Sunraku manages to achieve a scenario that gives him free permanent access to it alongside a questline revolving around the Rabituza clan itself.

Emul

Magical Rabbit Emul

Voiced by: Rina Hidaka (Japanese), Molly Zhang (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emul_pc.png

^{Click here to see her disguise}

A rabbit from Rabituza who is responsible for kickstarting a Unique Scenario quest for Sunraku.

Alice Allusion: She is fashioned after the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, down to her role as a guide to a magical land and her outfit, which greatly diverges her from the Japanese aesthetics of her homeland.
Berserk Button: Doesn't like it when others imitate her speech or mannerisms, as Sunraku sometimes does.
Black Mage: Emul is primarily a magic user in combat, launching a wave of condensed mana as her main attack.
Cuteness Proximity: In-universe. Many players find her mannerisms and appearance to be irresistibly cute. Players were shocked to see Emul had joined Sunraku's party, as Vorpal Rabbits are usually rare hostile monsters that cannot be recruited.
Equippable Ally: Emul is small enough that Sunraku can have her latch onto his arm and point her at enemies like an Arm Cannon while she blasts magic spells. Notably, she doesn't actually count as a piece of equipment as far as the game mechanics are concerned, Sunraku is just able to do this due to the incredibly realistic nature of the game world.
Every Man Has His Price: She frequently tries to act like a stern but caring big sister figure to Sunraku, scolding him when he does crazy or outright dumb things as part of his Challenge Seeker mindset, but all it takes to get her to fold and accept his methods is him offering her carrots. Sunraku eventually expresses concern over how predictable she is.
Freudian Slip: Part of the comedic contrast between her projected serious image and true friendly Daddy's Girl personality is that she slips into calling Vysache "daddy" before correcting herself into saying "boss". Anytime she gets so shocked she stops trying and outright calls him "daddy" is a case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business signifying something important, like her learning about the planned face-off against Wezaemon and running off to find him.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Played with. Emul is of a higher level than Sunraku since the quest she triggers is meant for someone level 80 at least, as a result, she packs quite a punch in battle, but Sunraku is still a powerful enough fighter on his own.
Non-Human Sidekick: To Sunraku.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: A cute and friendly support character for Sunraku, and has pink hair in her human form, while her ears are slightly pink as a rabbit.
Stock Animal Diet: She loves carrots.
Video Game Caring Potential: In-Universe. Sunraku becomes quite attached to Emul after working with each other. Pencilgon warns him that NPCs in SLF do not respawn like him if they die, which makes him a bit more protective of her. Because of this, he advises her from joining the Wezaemon fight. She then lends him a necklace that unlocks unique dialog during the boss fight.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: She can change into a human girl. However, she cannot hold that for too long due to mana consumption and will return to normal shortly after. To maintain longer, she has to be chugging down on mana potions.

Vysache

Boss of Rabituza, Vysache

Voiced by: Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese), Chris Guerrero (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vysache_pc.png

The head of Rabituza, a threatening-looking rabbit that accepts to train Sunraku.

Character Catchphrase: While talking Vorpal Rabbits in general like mentioning it to Sunraku, Vysache in particular seems to have a near-compulsion for referencing the "Vorpal Soul" and how well Sunraku exhibits it (though none of them seem to have any interest in explaining what said "soul" is exactly)..
Explosive Breeder: After meeting Vysache, every time Sunraku meets another Rabituza clan member they're said to be one of his sons or daughters, to which Sunraku questions whether all of the younger Vorpal Rabbits are his children, which him being a rabbit makes Sunraku consider the possibility of it being true.
Eyepatch of Power: Vysache wears an eyepatch over his right eye which, along with the scars along the right side of his face and on his right ear, add to his intimidating presence.
Large and in Charge: Easily the biggest Vorpal Rabbit seen so far (often at least twice the size of the other rabbits, including his own children), and commands a great deal of respect among them, even if he technically isn't the leader among them (see Retired Badass below).
Nothing Personal: Despite being the leader of all Vorpal Rabbits and the implication that every one fought as an enemy is also one of his children, Rabituza holds to a form of Social Darwinism as part of their "Vorpal Soul", with Vysache considering it simply a part of life for humans like Sunraku to kill them and acquire their Vorpal Choppers necessary to achieve the Unique Scenario granting access to Rabituza, caring more about how well said fighters embody the "Vorpal Soul".
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Vysache is capable of capturing the Abhorrent Woodmage with relative ease, an enemy that gives Sunraku a tough challenge due to its power and speed, and the Woodmage is already on level 120. However, the "offscreen" status of this awesomeness gets rectified when, after Sunraku succeeds at surviving for five minutes, Vysache jumps into the arena, effortlessly pins down the Woodmage, then executes a One-Hit Kill on him.
Retired Badass: It's revealed that Vysache actually retired from active leadership of the Rabituza, leaving the role to one of his sons, though he's still highly respected and a key figure in the plot line.
Ultimate Blacksmith: It's later revealed that before becoming the leader of the vorpal rabbits in Rabituza, Vysache gained fame as a blacksmith. Not only is he a Master Craftsman (a master of conventional forging), he's also an Ancient Craftsman (meaning he's able to forge weapons from the Age of Divinity, which includes high-tech devices and machines), the combination of which (along with years of training and experience) marks him as a Divine Craftsman. He puts these skills to use in upgrading and evolving Sunraku's primary weapons in preparation for his battle with Wezaemon.
Yakuza: While not one, he is fashioned after a threatening Yakuza boss.

Bilac

Voiced by: Miyu Tomita (Japanese), Lindsay Seidel (English)

One of Emul's sisters (in fact the two are triplets, with the third sister being a merchant). Idolizing their father Vysache, Bilac chose to follow in his footsteps as a blacksmith. She and Sunraku don't really get along, as she feels he doesn't quite value her skills as blacksmith enough, but they maintain a decent working relationship as he brings her rare materials for forging and she maintains and crafts weapons for him in return.

The Blacksmith: Has been following in Vysache's footsteps, and is quite talented in her own regard, having become a Master Blacksmith by the time we meet her, and only isn't an Ancient Blacksmith because she's missing an important component, which Sunraku helps her obtain so that she can repair some Divinity Era tech he and the Wolfgang guild had won from the Wezaemon battle.
Compressed Hair: Bilac's chest wraps are used to compress her fluffy body fur, which is why she looks so much skinnier compared to her siblings. When she removes the wraps to transform, her fur has significant volume.
Equippable Ally: Similarly to her sister Emul, Bilac's small size means Sunraku can reasonably hold onto her feet and swing her around like a weapon, using his speed to easily bring her into melee distance while using his built-up momentum to boost the power of her next strike.
Hero Worship: She adores her father, and loves to listen to his song while he works at the forge (and doesn't take kindly to anyone talking over it, as Sunraku nearly finds out the hard way before Emul quickly shuts him up).
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Downplayed, as Bilac rarely accompanies Sunraku in the same Emul often does, but when she temporarily joins him for an expedition to search for a necessary tool for her crafting, it's revealed that her level is in the 90s, making her higher level than Sunraku, just as he had caught up with Emul's level.
Objectshifting: Unlike her sister Emul, Bilac isn't able to transform into a human to disguise herself when venturing out of Rabituza. However, she does have some shapeshifting ability - she can turn herself into a cloak that Sunraku can wear while walking around one of the human cities. She has full control over this transformation, as well as some ability to move while a cloak, which can reduce the effectiveness of the disguise when she gets rowdy.
Weapons of Their Trade: Her primary weapon in a fight is a hammer, which is fitting given her profession as a blacksmith.
Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: As she states to Sunraku after showing how powerful she is, alongside him seeing how she's level 98, all that power and experience was developed through hammering away in the forge, so while she might be strong and skillful she lacks practical combat experience, needing an experienced fighter like Sunraku to lead her in fights.

Peatz

Voiced by: Satsumi Matsuda (Japanese)

One of Emul's siblings, and a traveling merchant that deals with rare items.

Voluntary Shapeshifting: He uses this to be able to travel from one town to the other and do his trading.

Elke

Voiced by: Kiyono Yasuno (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English)

The eldest triplet of Bilac and Emul. She runs the Skill Garden of Rabituza and speaks in a contagiously drawling that makes her look affable, but she is a ruthless merchant.

Big Little Sister: Despite being the eldest, she is smaller than her two sisters, with Bilac in particular outsizing her and their other sister.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Outwardly a sweet Valley Girl, but a ruthless merchant otherwise that is capable of sweet talking Sunraku into wasting almost all his money for some skills grimoires.

Cazzeria

A land of Cait Sith, an ally of Rabituza.

Aramiys

Wild Wind Aramiys

Voiced by: Hiromu Mineta (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aramis_pc.png

The vice captain of the "Musketeers in Boots", a military force of the kingdom of Cazzeria. He is infatuated with Bilac and will do anything she asks, even if it annoys her.

Abhorrent Admirer: Bilac is violently annoyed at his insistence in trying to win her over, and only keeps him around because he is a useful contact.
Beware the Silly Ones: Despite his comically boisterous personality, Bilac warns Sunraku he is even stronger than her, who is already a Hypercompetent Sidekick companion to Sunraku.
Fairytale Motif: Like Emul is one to Alice In Wonderland, Aramiys (and likely the force he oversees) is a thematic fusion of Puss in Boots and The Three Musketeers, with the names of him and his jeweler friend D'Arnyaata also being inspired by the latter.
Last Episode, New Character: He is introduced in the final episode of the anime adaptation's first season.

The Seven Colossi

As a whole

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slf_sevencolossi.png

Seven Unique Monsters (or U.M.s for short) that reside in the world of Shangri-La Frontier. Each one is incredibly strong due to a combination of extremely high stats, unique abilities and (in at least some cases) bizarre gimmicks. They are so tough to fight that by the time the story starts (one year after the game began, accruing a player base of 30 million), none of these U.M.s have been defeated. As their defeats are tied to the world story of SLF, this has meant that zero progress has been made.

Anti-Frustration Feature: Players who wind up fighting a Unique Monster will receive a massive amount of EXP even if they lose. Given SLF's usual approach to gameplay (difficult but realistic, with success at least being possible), this was likely to help incentivize players to actually seek out and fight the U.M.s, as otherwise no one except for the highest level players would even try to approach them.
Optional Boss: Played with. Players don't technically have to fight them; indeed, they're difficult to even find, with some of them still a complete mystery to the player base. However, they are tied to the world story of SLF, so anyone that would want to find out more about it would have to fight them eventually (or find another player strong or skilled enough to do it for you).
Respawning Enemies: Heavily averted. While regular enemies and even mini bosses will eventually respawn in SLF, once an Unique Monster is defeated, there's no coming back for it as killing them advances the World Story progression, which is implied to alter the state of the game world. The only exception to this would be if said defeat was done through cheating, an exception that does not apply to Wezaemon's defeat, much to the developer's frustration.
Shrouded in Myth: The players know that there's seven Colossi in SLF, but very little else is actually known about them, to the point that for almost half of them, even their names are a complete mystery. A few are somewhat well known (such as Lycagon), but there are still numerous questions revolving around them. Even The Library, a guild specifically dedicated to uncovering the hidden lore of SLF, only knows so much about them (naming a few and giving one or two facts that wouldn't be known by the average player).
Superboss: Each Colossi counts as this, given their monstrous stats and abilities. It's an achievement to even put up a fight against one, never mind actually defeat them. Many assume they are just impossible to defeat but, at the very least, not invincible.
Unique Enemy: Unlike other enemy-type NPCs, from the mooks to the bosses, which respawn with each instance so that new players can fight them and old players can level grind, the Colossi being Unique Monsters tied directly to the world story of the game means not only is there only one of each in the entire server, when killed by players using completely legitimate methods (A.K.A. no glitches or cheesing strategies), they will never respawn.

Lycagon

Lycagon, The Nightstalker

One of the Seven Colossi, a massive black wolf that seems to appear randomly at night. Sunraku meets it early on, is utterly thrashed, and declares that defeating Lycagon will be one of his driving goals in the game, earning some of the wolf's respect.

Casting a Shadow: It turns out that Lycagon has some powers connected to shadows, including Self-Duplication and Invisibility, with the effects and/or strength of those abilities changing depending on how much (or little) moonlight is present.
Curse: It can inflict one on those it sees as excellent (or at least entertaining) prey, Markings of Lycagon, which has several effects; it prohibits equipment on the body parts where the markings are present, scares away lower-level enemies, and the affected body parts are resistant to magic and other curses. The curse also has an effect on certain NPC relationships (e.g. the vorpal rabbits of Rabituza). It can only be removed by either being blessed by a saint (the only one currently known is a high level NPC that's difficult to interact with) or defeating Lycagon.
- The second fight with Lycagon reveals that there's a stronger version of this curse, Lycagon's Scars, given only to those Lycagon sees as a Worthy Opponent. With this version, higher level enemies will now actively seek out the cursed, the curse resistance is raised considerably, and the curse can now only be removed by defeating the true Lycagon. On the bright side, the equipment restriction is somewhat loosened... except that anything equipped on the marked body parts will be destroyed if worn for more than 3 minutes.
Diabolus ex Machina: How Lycagon is introduced. Sunraku was having a difficult time fighting some higher ranked goblins at night due to their numbers, when suddenly Lycagon appears, seemingly out of nowhere, and wipes out the goblins in a split second. And now Sunraku has to battle the colossal wolf for its amusement.
Fluffy the Terrible: The name "Lycagon" averts this, but some dialogue from Setsuna hints that it was once called "Blackie".
It Can Think: In contrast to Savage Wolf below, it reveals that it's terrifyingly cunning during the second fight between it and Sunraku, hiding certain abilities so it can pull off feint attacks, and in general just messing with its prey.
Leave Him to Me!: Bilac mentions that this is probably what the Mark of Lycagon is. It marks who it considers to be prey and warns weaker monsters not to touch them.
Lunacy: Lycagon's powers seem to be connected with the moonlight. During his fight with Sunraku, he vanishes every time the moon hides behind the clouds, and re-appears when the moon shines again.
Samus Is a Girl: A meeting with the clan "The Library" (a guild dedicated to deciphering the lore of SLF) indicates that Lycagon is apparently female.
Savage Wolf: Lycagon is one of the strongest enemies in the game, viciously fights anyone who crosses its path, and curses enemies that amuse it so they can provide an entertaining fight later.
Self-Duplication: When pinned by the SF Zoo clan, Lycagon reveals that it can create copies of itself from shadows to attack independently, wiping out the clan. It can also fight alongside these clones (though it's revealed that the clones operate on a much simpler attack pattern than Lycagon herself). The end of the second fight with Sunraku reveals that the Lycagon everyone's been fighting is also a clone, with the real wolf observing from elsewhere, though leaving a means to find it as a prize for defeating its shadow.
Wake-Up Call Boss: While Sunraku lasts a good while in the first encounter, he could barely lay a scratch on it before he is inevitably defeated. This shows just how powerful Unique Monsters are and defeating this specific one becomes his drive for continuing SLF, especially when having its curse.
Worthy Opponent: At first it sees Sunraku as mostly entertaining prey, with its curse being intended to stop weak monsters from trying to claim his food, but it starts to see Sunraku as someone to respect after the second fight between the two, which it shows by enhancing the curse on him.
- When all of Lycagon's shadow clones are defeated, including the clone that everyone had thought was the real Lycagon, the wolf leaves a reward for the remaining players that helps them find the location of the true Lycagon in recognition of their achievement.

Wezaemon

Wezaemon, the Tombguard

Voiced by: Show Hayami (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slf_whethermon.png

An ancient warrior and another member of the Seven Colossi. Despite being humanoid in shape and size, his strength definitely justifies his status as a Colossi. Wezaemon strongly resembles a cyborg samurai, with a move set to match, being armed with several insta-kill sword techniques that makes him so tough, even a guild of high level player killers couldn't take him out. However, this guild took advantage of his predictable schedule (always manifesting at certain times and always in the same place) and the EXP players receive from fighting a UM, even from a loss, to grind levels from the warrior.

Arc Words: "Until you surpass my ultimate, I shall not fall." The boss repeats these words whenever he is about perform his Clear Sky Conquest attack sequence. Sunraku figures out that the boss's "Sky Clear", his final attack, needs to be parried to survive and win as it is otherwise unavoidable and, lore-wise, Wezamon will continue to guard Setsuna's grave until it is finally defeated.
Boss-Altering Consequence:
- Trying to take away his sword will have him shift to a new set of moves, including being way more likely to use a giant hand made of clouds that is hard to dodge. Sunraku manages to steal his sword but gives it back just so he can stick to the easier moveset.
- His second phase is about keeping him away from his mount. If the player fails, the two will join together and be way tougher enemies than they are separated when combined.
- The third phase sees him using an unavoidable One-Hit Kill attack, that can only be countered by interrupting it before it’s used. If the players manage that, then his mechanical mount will transform into a humanoid Mini-Mecha with laser cannons and missile launchers, while Wezaemon himself becomes more aggressive, and eventually being able to spam all of his attacks without any time lag between move sets.
- A much more minor example is that if one equips a certain accessory, it triggers unique dialogue from Wezaemon, as seen when Sunraku wore the necklace Emul gifted him, which Wezaemon identified as being relevant to someone named Alice.
Clipped-Wing Angel: Due to the level difference his boss fight imposes, the best attacks done by Sunraku don't even scratch him, which forces Sunraku to Hold the Line until the phase change triggers. However, once the third phase triggers and his area-hit instakill is countered, his armor becomes damaged and he becomes vulnerable to damage, but he also becomes a lot more aggressive in exchange.
Cyborg: Looks like a heavily augmented humanoid clad in futuristic samurai armor, though comments from Vysache and Setsuna hint that he's more like The Undead than a true cyborg.
Died Happily Ever After: After Wezaemon's defeat, he and Setsuna are seen walking across a field of flowers, presumably into the afterlife.
Fallen Hero: According to Tsukuyo Tsukuri, the writer of the World Scenario, Wezaemon was once the greatest hero of the Age of Divinity. Now he's become a near mindless monster, obsessed with protecting his dead wife's tomb.
Fusion Dance: According to Pencilgon, Wezaemon can combine with his mechanical steed Kirin during the second phase of his fight, becoming so strong that fighting becomes outright impossible. As a result, Oicazzo and Pencilgon are preoccupied with keeping Kirin away from Wezaemon while Sunraku tanks the undead cyborg.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Wezaemon is a powerful fighter, but he used to be much stronger, until he was nerfed by the game's producer against the creator's wishes, who believes that alteration has caused this trope in a game she specifically designed to have the gameplay and story as intertwined as possible, because Weazaemon was meant to be simply that powerful in-story.
Guide Dang It!: Wezaemon has a Total Party Kill attack that he uses in the opening of his third phase. To disarm it, the player needs to use a holy item to neutralize it as he is an Undead monster. While that interaction between holy itens and undead monsters is well known, that Wezaemon is an undead and not a cyborg or mechanical life-form, is a fact hidden and not told to any player not fully in the game's already secretive lore. Sunraku being capable of figuring that out came from a complete coincidence as he had access to an NPC that knew of Wezaemon, which was himself hidden behind a quest only he has ever triggered.
Hammerspace: Wezaemon has access to this, but he only uses it once in his fight to summon his mechanical steed, Kirin. Access to this space, Inventoria, winds up being one of the rewards given to Sunraku, Pencilgon and Oicazzo upon defeating Wezaemon.
Limit Break: His Clear Sky Conquest, which is only activated during the third phase. It mainly removes the time lag between his attacks; allowing for continuous spamming, and if the player survives long enough, he’ll unleash a vertical One-Hit Kill slash that’s impossible to dodge or block. The only ways to counter it are to either use resurrection crystals to revive after being struck, and to have enough to last the remaining 10 minutes, or to parry the attack. The window to parry is so tight that you need a slew of buffs just to have a chance to do so and anything less than a Perfect Parry will result in the weapon being broken through.
Meaningful Name: An Alternate Character Reading of Wezaemon is "Wethermon", which represents how his primary techniques involve Weather Manipulation.
Nerf: As originally designed, Wezaemon was mathematically impossible to beat to reflect his status as the greatest warrior of his age. Ritsu nerfed his stats to make him actually beatable, which is a point of contention with Tsukuyo especially after his early defeat.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: An undead, cyborg samurai who can summon and combine with a mechanical horse.
Noodle Incident: Sunraku was told that Wezaemon's current situation was caused by a lie involving his dead wife, but neither he or the audience are told what exactly that lie was, or any of the other circumstances around how Wezaemon became an undead cyborg.
One-Hit Kill:
- He has several attacks that end players in one hit, most likely because the beginning of his boss battle reduces any opponent's level to a quarter of his own. The fight against him involves learning to dodge them for long enough for him to switch to a next stage.
- During the transition into the third stage, Wezaemon unleashes an AoE howl which will wipe an entire player raid unless somehow interrupted or weakened.
- His Sky Clear slash that he unleashes during the third phase is especially notable as it’s specifically armor-piercing, skill-piercing, magic-piercing, no-evade, etc.
Power Misidentification: Based on his appearance, Pencilgon and Asura-Kai believed Wezaemon was a cyborg. Sunraku's discussion with Vysache reveals that he's actually some variant of undead, a vital clue on how to disrupt an otherwise raid-killing attack.
Puzzle Boss: Thanks to Pencilgon and the Asura-Kai's numerous encounters with Wezaemon, mostly for EXP after the guild gave up on actually defeating it, she discovers his boss fight having shades of this;
- To begin with, anyone facing him will have their level automatically lowered to level 50 at the start of the battle (note that this doesn't raise anyone's level, so lower level players are in even worse trouble) while Wezaemon remains at level 200.
- Then you have to do everything you can to avoid his One-Hit Kill moves (of which he has several) until the fight shifts into the next "phase", where the pattern changes and you have to deal with new complications (such as the addition of a new attack in its sequence or the inclusion of his mechanical steed, Kirin). Pencilgon theorizes (after some previous battles with him) that the goal is not to beat him in a straight fight, but to survive for multiple phases (each phase being as long as 10 minutes) while defending against his onslaught. This theory seems to be correct, though Sunraku manages to take him out in the final phase before the counter ran to 10 minutes, albeit after using every trick and weapon in his arsenal to do so.
  - The manga supplementary materials reveal that the normal clear condition is that every party member has to survive the One-Hit Kill of his "Sky Clear" without dying a single time. Alternatively, because his sword has a Durability value, you could break it by concentrating attacks on it. And as a "cheese" strategy, you could steal the sword and keep it away until his body gives out on him, but doing so wouldn't reward you with most of the loot.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Wezaemon enters the third phase of his fight, his blue eyes shift to red, signifying his much more aggressive fighting style that leaves no room for error for anyone sparring with him. It's also played with, as his defenses are greatly reduced in this state, allowing players to deal actual damage to him and possibly defeat him.
Sequence Breaking: The creators of SLF, particularly Tsukuyo Tsukuri, really weren't expecting Wezaemon to be defeated first, intending him to be a mid-late encounter. Since his defeat was entirely legitimate with no cheating involved, meaning the company couldn't just undo it without causing outcry, they had to rapidly make changes to their world scenario to account for this.
Story And Gameplay Integration: Like all undead, he is vulnerable to holy items, and Arthur stops one of his deadliest attacks by chucking a bottle of holy water at him.
Tragic Monster: According to NPCs like Setsuna and Vysache, Wezaemon was once a mortal man before some lie involving his dead wife warped him into what he is now, only concerned with guarding her gravestone and cutting down anyone that approaches.
The Undead: Despite strongly resembling a cyborg (and indeed having at least some augmetics, given his legs), dialogue from Vysache strongly implies that his long existence was mostly due to some form of undeath. This proves vital in defeating him, as Pencilgon uses holy water to interrupt what would have been an otherwise unstoppable One-Hit Kill move that would have taken out the whole party.
Weather Manipulation: His main powers revolve around thunderstorm elements, specifically summoning lightning from the sky and being able to attack by summoning a giant hand made of clouds.

Ctarnidd

Ctarnidd of the Abyss

Little is known about this Colossi, except it's believed to be a giant octopus according to stories from half-crazed NPC sailors (who have been the only source of information on it for the players of SLF so far).

It was supposed to be the first Colossi defeated.

Diabolus ex Machina: When the protagonist first truly encounters Ctarnidd, they were in the middle of a somewhat-tough battle, mostly complicated by the realization that said battle was secretly part of an Escort Mission, when the UM suddenly appears when the last player steps on the ghost ship (heralded only by a split second of lag that is otherwise unseen in the game by this point) and sinks the ship and everyone on it into a whirlpool, dragging all present into its underwater city.
Reality Warper: During the EX Unique Scenario involving Ctarnidd, it's revealed to have the power of Inversion / Reversal, which can invert the properties of a creature or object. While we don't yet know the rules or the full extent of it, the applications for this ability are shockingly broad, including being able to do things like turning living fish into undead fishmen, dead fish into living demi-humans like mermaids, and rotating a city so that it's underwater, the atmosphere above it included. Sunraku is utterly bewildered when hearing about it.
Sea Monster: While we haven't seen it fully yet, silhouettes show it to have massive tentacles reminiscent of a giant kraken, and it's primarily compared to an octopus in the descriptions given by NPCs.

Siegwurm

Siegwurm the Sky Ruler

A golden dragon that flies high in the sky, far above where any player can reach it. Despite apparently being a random encounter similar to Lycagon, The Library (a guild dedicated to deciphering the lore of SLF) believe that it frequents a certain sanctuary, seeking heroes to challenge it.

Curse: Like Lycagon, it can inflict one on players that battle it. It's currently unclear Siegwurm's curse is different from Lycagon's in any notable way, though it seemingly also affects NPC interactions like the "Markings of Lycagon," as seen with Akane, the second player to trigger the same Rabituza Unique Scenario as Sunraku did.
Our Dragons Are Different: We don't know much about Siegwurm beyond its golden colour, but a silhouette of it resembles a Western style of dragon.
Worthy Opponent: If The Library is correct, then it appears at a specific sanctuary (in contrast to its apparent nature as a random encounter) seeking those worthy enough to challenge it.

Orchestra

The Orchestra of the Doom Echo

One of the Seven Colossi. Very little is known about it. It was discovered by a player who raided the Royal Library of Ainverth.

Notable Enemies

Vorpal Rabbits

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vorpalbunny_pc.png

A special and rare enemy of the starter forest. A small rabbit that wields a red knife and is incredibly fast and dangerous.

Critical Hit Class: An enemy example. The rabbit's weapon is one that increases the critical hit damage. It also will try to strike the player in its weakest spots.
Elite Mook: It is a rare and powerful enemy of the starting forest, but in counterpart, it has a powerful drop in the Vorpal Blade.

Ravenous Snake

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lagonianpython_pc.png

The area boss of the The Rampant Forest. A huge snake defending the bridge to Secondil.

Beef Gate: It is a test to see if the player gathered enough experience and resources (and, if possible, a party) in the starter city to be able to move along to the next area.
Damage Over Time: If a player gets hit by the snake’s poison even once, they’ll lose one Health point every 10 seconds. Notably, the effect continues even after the Ravenous Snake is killed; forcing the player to race to a save point location, or end up dying and having to start over and fight the Ravenous Snake again. One player notes seeing beginners race to an Inn to save their data is fairly common in Secondil.
The Great Serpent: This snake is large enough to devour any player in one bite.
Non-Mammalian Hair: It’s a giant snake, that has hair both on its head, and tip of its tail. The hair on it’s tail actually helps conceal the fact it has a hole to shoot poison at a player.
Technicolor Toxin: The poison it shoots is an appropriately sinister purple.
Wake-Up Call Boss: The Snake is intended to serve as this for new players, using a significantly more dangerous moveset than mobs in the starting forest and applying a debuff to punish anyone who isn't properly prepared. Sunraku notes that despite a beginner level boss, it’s challenging enough that it convinces him that SLF is as high quality as people claim.

Mud Digger

The area boss of the Diremarsh Waste. A shark-like monster that dwells in a huge mud pit.

Fall Damage: It’s special Limit Break, that occurs after its HP reaches a certain point. It dives underneath the mud before launching the player high in the air with a sneak attack. The inital attack doesn't deal a lot of damage (as even Sunraku with his pitiable defense barely took any), but the fall damage will be a lot more severe. However, this can be used against the Mud Digger, as the physics of SLF can let players use the momentum from the long drop to deal extra damage upon landing on a target. Sunraku used this (albeit accidentally) to finish off the Mud Digger.
Home Field Advantage: It resides in a muddy marsh, where the mechanics reduce players to a crawl, and can dive under the mud to move around easily and emerge directly under players.
Logical Weakness: Speed-based build players like Sunraku can struggle a lot against the Mud Digger, as the marsh that serves as the boss arena severely hinders mobility. It’s Limit Break of trapping a player in place and launching them in the air to exploit Fall Damage, with no possibility to counter, also makes it impossible for solo players like him, as well. If Sunraku didn't have Emul with him during his first fight with the Mud Digger, he would have never beaten this boss on his own.
Man of Kryptonite: It’s designed to completely counter players like Sunraku by utilizing his two biggest Logical Weakness as listed above. He even notes it’s a worse opponent for him than a Colossi like Lycagon.
Red Baron: It has the nickname of Solo Killer, for it’s ability to kill any single player through diving underneath a player only to ram them in the air to exploit Fall Damage, without an possibility for escape or a counter-attack by the targeted player.
Shark Fin of Doom: In its normal attack patterns, it’ll swim through the mud, and show this as the only warning players have; averted in it’s Limit Break that sees it emerge directly under a player with no warning. Sunraku Lampshades how a monster of it’s size can submerge to do this in mud that only comes up to a player’s ankles.

Clown Spider

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sld_clown.png

The area boss of the Prismatic Forest Grotto. A huge spider living in a hollowed out massive tree.

Afraid of Clowns: Presumably its name, and the clown-face marking on its abdomen, is meant to invoke this.
Giant Spider
Gimmick Level: The Clown Spider's layer for its boss fight. It lives atop a huge vertical area, which demands that the player climb the area full of spider webs, some of which are sticky, and it will be dropping rocks on the player. A player that's able to climb past the Clown Spider quickly enough can actually turn this around on the boss, using the debris against it.

Humming Lich

The area boss of the Canyon of Lost Souls. An undead mage that spreads miasma around the canyon.

Achilles' Heel: Its strongest attacks involve blasting players with heavily debilitating curses, which means anybody with high enough debuff resistance, such as Sunraku with Lycagon's own curse, leaves it only capable of fighting with its weaker physical damage attacks. That said, it has a failsafe ability against debuff-resistant players in its Me's a Crowd skill, which allows it to counterbalance its weaker attacks through having multiple copies to attack with, including a long-range archer.
Off with His Head!: Sunraku's strategy during the fight involves using the bonus from the Dullahan sword to deal a ton of damage on it and its clones by targeting their heads for a beheading.
The Power of Hate: Lore-wise, they embody the hatred of the people that died in the battlefield that was the canyon.
Me's a Crowd: One of its strategies is to self-duplicate until there are multiple copies of itself present at once, with each duplicate holding a different weapon and the whole group essentially acting as a full party.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: One of its attacks is to summon multiple grasping hands from the ground. Sunraku mentions that compared to Wezaemon’s attacks, dodging them is easy.
Touch the Intangible: Thanks to its nature as a ghostly lich, normal physical attacks simply pass through it without dealing damage, so players need to use either magic spells or bring a holy-attribute weapon. Thanks to Sunraku being so gung-ho about fighting it, he didn't think to prepare one, requiring him to Draw Aggro with Emul's magic while Bilac prepares him a holy weapon mid-battle.

Crystal Scorpions / Golden Scorpion

Crystal Scorpion

Special enemies of the area above the Canyon of Lost Souls, the Crystal Nest Cliff.

Elite Mook: The Golden Scorpion, a variant of the Crystal Scorpions found above the Inner Canyon of Lost Souls. Not only is it much stronger than its crystal counterparts, it possesses a Healing Factor that can be used if badly injured and it can shoot poison from its stinger in a variety of patterns to hit its target. In terms of sheer combat strength, Sunraku compares it to freaking Wezaemon, though he does manage to take it down through exploiting its AI.
Friendly Fire: Against the Crystal Scorpions, Sunraku weaponizes the fact they can attack one another by accident if he dodges. The impact causes parts of their bodies to break off, which he can take as loot, which was all he really wanted anyway. Even when the developers release a patch that tones down their aggressiveness, or at least stops them from fighting each other to the death, this can still be used against them with some clever thinking, especially against the even more agressive Golden Scorpion.
Home Field Advantage: They're capable of blending with the crystals of the area and hide themselves within it. Because of their size, they also have much better footing than players, while also messing with the players' footing since they smash the crystals they would use.
Let's You and Him Fight: The Crystal Scorpions are prone to infighting due to their aggressiveness, which Sunraku exploits to farm their drops. This is also how the Golden Scorpion is ultimately defeated. Despite technically being the same species, the Golden Scorpion and the Crystal Scorpions do not get along, and will quickly fight with each other when provoked. Sunraku exploits this to wear down the Golden Scorpion by having the Crystal Scorpions gang up on it, then going into the fight himself once the Golden Scorpion has suffered enough damage through attrition to finish it off personally.
Lunacy: The Golden Scorpion, when badly injured, can retreat and use the moon's energies to heal itself before getting back into the fight. However, this ability requires the Golden Scorpion to raise its claws to activate it, and sufficent damage to the claws or interference from its opponent can prevent the regeneration from triggering.
Rare Random Drop: The Crystal Scorpions lose fragments of their body while fighting, but after farming them for a while Sunraku notices he hasn't received a stinger yet. Justified as their tail and stinger are much sturdier than the rest of their body, only breaking off once Sunraku deliberately starts targeting one.
Solid Gold Poop: The first item Sunraku manages to retrieve from their nest is the crystallized droppings of the scorpions, which is both beautiful and full of concentrated mana due to their digestive process.
Zerg Rush: Not only are each of them quite strong, but they also attack in swarms.

Abhorrent Woodmage

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aberrantwoodmage_pc.png

A high level monster captured by Vysache and used to challenge Sunraku as the final foe of his Boss Rush. A formidable foe that combines high level magic with rapid attacks with tendrils grown from his body, as well as a shockingly sturdy body, the challenge was not to defeat the Woodmage but to survive it, specifically to last for 5 minutes without being killed.

Berserk Button: Taking the Woodmage's staff away from him sends him into a frenzy where he lashes out continuously with his vines, leaving little room for error while dodging. It turns out there's a good reason for his fury: the staff not only helps him to cast magic, it's also key to his high physical defense. Take it away, and he's a lot more vulnerable (though Sunraku doesn't find that out until Vysache told him after the fight).
Botanical Abomination: It is implied to be a mage that merged with plant-life to attain immortal life.
Dub Name Change: Known as "Loser's Woods" in Japanese.
Combat Tentacles: One of the Woodmage's primary strategies (that doesn't rely directly on magic) is overwhelm its opponent with dozens of attacks from tendrils it grows and controls from its body, keeping the target off balance as it simultaneously barrages them with magic.
Final Boss: He is the final challenge for the Boss Rush of the "Invitation to Rabituza" questline.
Hold the Line: For Sunraku, his battle is not about beating it thanks to its massive level gap. Instead, he has to survive for 5 minutes as it relentlessly attacks him.
Spam Attack: An apt description of the Woodmage's strategy, combining Magic Missile Storm with high tier spells and Combat Tentacles to try and overwhelm its opponent.
Squishy Wizard: At first it appears to be averted, as it can seemingly No-Sell Sunraku's attacks during the battle, but it's later revealed that this is only true while it's holding its staff; take it away and he's pretty vulnerable if you can get past his vines. Sunraku doesn't learn about this until after his battle with the Woodmage is over.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Sunraku, already tired from the long Boss Rush, nearly gives up to get some sleep when he realizes just how difficult the Woodmage is to fight. This causes him to realize he's been getting sloppy with his gaming, making stupid mistakes and relying on Emul's overpowered stats, something he can't afford if he plans to conquer a god-game.

Characters / Shangri-La Frontier

The Wolfgang Clan

Founding Members

Sunraku / Rakurou Hizutome

Oicazzo / Kei Uomi

Arthur Pencilgon / Towa Amane

Later additions

Psyger-0 / Rei Saiga

Shangri-La Frontier

Utopia Entertainment Software

Players

Psyger-100 / Momo Saiga

The Professor

Akane Akitsu