Akiba

The Adventurer City of Akiba (アキバの街, written as "Akihabara" by Crunchyroll) is the largest of the five main cities in the Yamato server of Elder Tale and the hometown of half the server's players.

The others cities are Shibuya (which was created to ease the burden on Akiba), Minami, Susukino, and Nakasu.

Overview
In Elder Tale, Akiba is located where Tokyo would be on the map according to Japan's Half Gaia Project. It is the also location where new players on the Japan server first appear after joining the game.

Akiba has the appearance of an old, overgrown city with streets lined with crumbling, derelict buildings and rough stretches of asphalt buried under carpets of moss and entwined with vines. Annexes and additions have been stacked organically onto the ruins, and the roots of trees spread out across the roads. Considered the holy land of the Ancients, it is an old ruined concrete city now smothered in verdant green.

Shiroe notes at the beginning of the series that a warm, moist wind rustled refreshingly through the treetops beneath the dazzling early summer sunlight. More than just heat, the radiant light burst from sky with an overwhelming intentness over both trees and buildings and cast deep shadows on town's main road that wrapped around itself the dark soil and dilapidated asphalt.

Despite its underlying concrete framework, Akiba is quite organic. On multiple occasions, Shiroe makes note of the smell of the damp earth, the whispering of leaves and grasses, and the humid breeze that sweeps between the abandoned buildings. Ginko and Elm trees have grown up around the old buildings, splitting the showy multi-colored signs and breaking down walls. The side streets are covered in leaf mold and emerald-green moss.

Later in the series, as most people have adjusted to their new lives and purchased buildings, Akiba appears more livable. The city has been cleaned and repaired to a degree; streets are swept clean of debris, and buildings repainted or decorated. The outer districts of the city are still overgrown and degraded, though some buildings have been refurnished such as Log Horizon's Guild Hall. The flood of immigrants from Shibuya has also made the city less barren and abandoned. The city's inhabitants, instead of clearing away the foliage, have incorporated it into the city's design. At night, the city is aglow with Magic Lights.

Geography
As Akiba the starting location on the Japanese server, many guilds use the city as their home base. To cater to the resident and transient Adventurer population, the city is filled with inns and bars. It also possesses almost every other conceivable thing a beginner adventurer may need such as weapon and armor shops, potion shops, food and drink shops, along with many other related businesses. This made it a very important destination for adventurers.

The center of the city is a large intersection behind the train station plaza (駅前広場). A large monolith-shaped "intelligent building" made of complex materials stands at the corner of the intersection. The atmosphere is of a lively open-air market, and players often congregate here to kill time, recruit for quests, and sell or buy items and trade information. Many People of the Earth run shops alongside adventurers here.

Both Adventurers and People of the Earth have taken up residence here and there among the abandoned buildings, and the streets are dotted with temporary stalls operated by Earthlings selling food and other goods.

Noteworthy Locations

 * The Big Bath: A public bathhouse, it was created after the establishment of plumbing and immediately became popular.
 * Crescent Moon Refreshment Stand: A food stand created by the joint efforts of Log Horizon and the Crescent Moon Alliance, it revealed the secret of real food preparation to the Yamato server. It created a huge sensation and became quite popular.
 * Guild Center
 * Akiba Central Plaza: Located in front of the Akiba train station and adjacent to Akiba's central main intersection. The plaza is full of vendors and shops.  It also contains enough open space to provide a common place for adventurers and Earthlings to meet.  Is nearly always full of people and very busy even at night.  It is decorated with many colored magical lights and lamps which create quite the spectacle

Other Locations in Akiba. Areas Surrounding Akiba
 * Fleig's Tavern
 * Birdland Duvacha: A path through a small forest, this area, around 40 minutes outside of Akiba, is host to level 80 monsters. The Black Sword Knights train there in small groups, and Akatsuki goes there to train as well even though she can't gain any EXP by killing the monsters due to her high level.
 * Small Stone Herb Garden: A small zone near Akiba. The zone has an ancient gaming facility which provides more topographical variety than the usual surrounding ruins in other zones, making it a harder place to fight. Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Akatsuki trained here soon after the Catastrophe to hone their combat skills. Common monsters found here are Triffids, Brier Weasels and Venom Moths- most at Level 50.

Ruins Located in Akiba
 * SUFTEC
 * Yashikayama Electric
 * Kuruta Tower

Immediately after the Catastrophe
After the Catastrophe, security in Akiba deteriorated. Outright fighting among players was not allowed within city limits, but the number of PK incidents in the area around the city drastically increased, and some malicious players discovered ways of getting around the Royal Guard system to abuse and intimidate others even in the city. The general despair created situations where PKing was seen as something to occupy time with since nothing else was happening.

Eventually, the situation settled somewhat as the city's large, influential guilds took hold. While cases of PKing and assault dropped as a result, this also meant that those large guilds had priority in the market and were free to do whatever they wished in the city. Initially, the People of the Earth were seen as mere NPCs without emotions or feelings and were badly mistreated. Only later was this treatment changed in a meaningful way to the point where they were treated as normal people.

Significantly, after the Catastrophe, all zones in Elder Tale became available for purchase. In Akiba, this amounted to about 50 zones within the city and 300 hunting grounds outside of the city.

Round Table Alliance arc
With the establishment of the Round Table Alliance, and the publicizing of real food preparation and inventions, Akiba began to stabilize and grow. The new discoveries created a renaissance within the city, changing nearly every aspect of life.

Recreating amenities and products from the old world was quickly under investigation and development. Within a month, a town bathhouse was constructed, a daily newspaper was established, and modern underwear was recreated. Things that would take too much time to redevelop normally were side-stepped through adventurer abilities; for example, plumbing uses Summoners' undines for a deluge of fresh water, while salamanders are used to heat ovens and furnaces. Naturally, some players are also investigating what kinds of new, original creations can be developed through the combination of old world knowledge and Theldesian magic.

Because new inventions and products required raw materials, this also gave work for battle guilds as hunters for raw goods. They could take on jobs as bodyguards not only for players seeking harder-to-obtain materials, but also for Earthling merchants going to and from Akiba. While the value of labor, and thus the prices to be charged for them, was still unclear, it brought Akiba out of its economic slump. Taxes collected through use of the Guild Center is used to research the now-dormant Fairy Rings and maintain upkeep on the Round Table's purchased facilities.

Adventurers were not the only ones swept up by the fervor of new inventions. News about flavorful food and never-before-seen inventions spread among the People of the Earth, dispelling any notion they had that adventurers were disorganized, mindless beings who went around taking up quests and slaying monsters. An influx of Earthlings swept into Akiba, seeking innovation and a new way of life or trying to learn these new methods to bring back home.

Not all were enthusiastic about this change, however. Nobles in the Eastal League of Free Cities were simultaneously wary and curious, seeing this development as a potential foothold to leverage power in negotiations with rivaling nobles. Furthermore, this sudden economic shift in power also meant a change in social and political power; the feudal-based Eastal League had no idea how to handle the Round Table, which was a democratic, representative government. The Round Table was also aware that they would have to negotiate with the Eastal League sooner or later, but were unsure how to proceed with such a large cultural gap between them.

Return of the Goblin King arc
In addition to the new food recipes and inventions, Akiba is also considered as a major military power due to the high number of Adventurers residing within its boundaries. With strong combat guilds such as D.D.D, Black Sword Knights, Honesty and West Wind Brigade, the city has a formidable, if unofficial and disjointed, fighting force.

Additionally, it boasts exceptional support, production and tactical guilds such as Log Horizon, Marine Organization, and the Crescent Moon Alliance. Due to their combined efforts during the Return of the Goblin King event, Akiba is recognized as the equal to the Eastal League of Free Cities, despite being only one city. As proof of its prowess, an army of only fifteen hundred adventurers defeated a force of goblins twenty times its size and fight all the way back to the goblin lair.

After the crushing of the goblin hordes, Akiba has signed a non-aggression pact and free-trade agreement with the League creating a potential powerhouse alliance that threatens to upset the balance of power throughout Yamato.

Libra Festival arc
By the time of the Libra Festival, Akiba has become a huge center for exports and imports. The products made by the Adventurers are highly sought after and their production methods are great sources of interest to nobles and merchants alike. Due to the difficulty of obtaining ingredients and materials, the Adventurers prefer to purchase these items in bulk from the People of the Earth, then use their skills to create products for sale and distribution. Although many combat guilds regularly harvest resources from the surrounding lands around Akiba along with honing their skills.

The Adventurers in Akiba have their first encounter with Eastal's main rival, the Holy Empire Westelande. Seeking to discredit the Cowen Family and weaken the authority of the Round Table Alliance, spies were sent in to cause random disturbances, while Malves suddenly arrived with supposedly 500 tons of cargo for storage. This scheme quickly fell apart, however, thanks to the timely interference of the Round Table Alliance.

Fallen Guardian arc
Akiba's main defensive system against invading monsters and inner-city violence was turned off in order stop the Mobile Armor's advantage, which was being exploited by a rogue member of the Royal Guard who was killing Adventurers out of spite and hatred. As a result, the city is now vulnerable to any monster attacks, unless the Adventurers themselves fight them off. The system cannot be restored for over 10 years. The cities defense is now solely reliant on the guilds. A week after the shutdown, it is stated that patrols by combat guilds keeps monsters out of the city. The players are not fighting as a result of the mutual cooperation of the many guilds and/or the threat of the city's combat guilds.

However, this fact, combined with Westelande's desire for war with Eastal, has left some of those in Akiba aware of this fact wary of war. However a potential war is becoming more and more of a threat.

Collapse of the Round Table arc
Eins of Honesty continues deadlocking the Round Table meetings with his protests that the faction was doing nothing for members of the city who weren't able to adjust to the new world. This group of adventurers unwilling to adept were becoming a growing though unseen problem within the city. At the same time, the guild did nothing to hide the fact that agents of Minami were constantly visiting them, leading Calasin and Shiroe to suspect that the two were working together. After another fruitless meeting, Eins was suddenly declared "Akiba Duke". This threw the council into chaos.

Meanwhile, Raynesia was told that she was to be wed into the House of Saiguu, Westelande's ruling family and the other dukedom with roots to the Westelande Imperial Dynasty. Together with the above events, this was a clear attack on the Round Table's authority and power.

Trivia

 * Akiba is named after Akihabara, a real life district in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward. The real-life Akihabara is known as a center for electronics and anime culture.