Chapter 17: Lucky Star 2
The novice adventurer party disbanded.
Considering they barely completed the herb-gathering mission, they likely earned very little.
Since the first floor wasn't dangerous to low-level veterans, they could move separately without much risk.
It seemed like an unspoken agreement to keep their distance from one another as they headed in the same direction.
Indeed, it was amusing to see the four of them leave after the party leader and their scout fought.
With the disheartened men behind her, the female ranger Grace approached me discreetly.
"Excuse me, I heard you're training novice adventurers."
"Yes."
"If you haven't found party members yet, how about me? I'm a scout trained by my father as a ranger. I'm confident that my skills are better than most hunters."
Considering she was a 3★, her confidence was quite likely justified.1★ characters had higher innate physical abilities, like strong farmers, skilled lumberjacks, or experienced hunters.
However, superior physiques aren't enough to be useful in battle.
Characters with a 2★ ranking, such as the female swordsman Kora, possessed innate talent in specific skills like swordsmanship, allowing them to rapidly gain power.
Thus, 2★ characters, considered as lower-tier substitutes, were not included in parties either.
Starting from 3★, like Grace, characters possessed unique skills.
Grace's ranger skills or a rogue's trap disarmament would fall under this category.
With more stars, skills like a noble family's arcane swordsmanship could also be included.
"You should talk to her instead. It's not my party; it's hers."
"Oh, I see. You're quite strict."
With that, Grace gave a subtle chin nod and took a step forward, standing in front of Han Se-ah.
The camera drone focused on Grace, and its tail wagged, as if it was excited to meet a 3★ character.
While some players only encountered 3-4★ characters as starting NPCs and had difficulty recruiting even 2★ party members, Han Se-ah struck gold by recruiting a rare 6★ NPC.
She received personalized one-on-one training from this powerful character, and even had a 3★ character approach her in the field.
No wonder she was thrilled with her progress.
However, viewers in the chat window, though partly in jest, couldn't help but feel envious and a tinge of resentment towards her good fortune.
"So, what do you think? If you want, I can join you for a bit to show you my skills."
"I'd love that! But..."
Han Se-ah responded with a wide smile before glancing my way.
She seemed to think she needed my permission since I was currently leading the party and providing training.
"Do as you wish. I'm not the party leader right now. You are, and I'm just helping. And as a leader you are responsible for the outcome, that's what being a party leader is..."
"Uh-huh! Let's go then!"
As I recited Han-Se-Ah's words like a well-known proverb, she coughed loudly and spun around abruptly, caught off-guard.
Mischievous viewers in the chat quickly seized the opportunity to tease her.
Although her words were typical of a fantasy role-playing game, the clip, when viewed without full context, could be quite amusing.
The beautiful woman in leather armor nodded, saying, "Well, that's what a leader is."
Of course, the viewers wouldn't let that go.
Even though this is a parallel world where virtual reality games have emerged, the humor and memes seem quite similar.
Suddenly, I became very curious about the outside world, or rather the reality where Han Se-ah's virtual reality game was released.
It would be great if, after clearing all the quests, I could wake up in a capsule just like in a typical modern game fantasy novel's opening.
"We're heading up to the next floor, so I'll let you know if I see any monster tracks on the way."
"Monster tracks?"
While I silently watched the chat the two finished their introductions and began discussing how to proceed.
Han Se-ah knew very little about the tower, so the slightly more experienced Grace took the lead in explaining.
"You know that monsters just suddenly appear in the tower, right? Monsters in the outside world make nests or dig tunnels to breed, but in the tower, they just appear."
"Yes, I know that."
"As a result, tower monsters don't have a home. They just wander around aimlessly after appearing. Pathfinder party members find monsters by looking for their tracks. It's more efficient to track them by looking for footprints rather than just wandering around the tower hoping for a monster to appear."
Han Se-ah nodded at Grace's kind explanation.
On the first day, she had experienced wandering around the exit zone while looking at the minimap, hoping to find a monster.
She couldn't help but understand the importance of pathfinders.
It's one thing for the plains to be wide open, but both pathfinders and mages are equally important in the limited visibility of the tower's upper floors.
In dense forests filled with trees or cave floors where you can't see without a light spell, you'd lose money on equipment repairs if you just wandered around without a trace.
A rookie ranger who had only been active on the lower floors was now eagerly guiding a newbie mage on her second entry to the tower.
The sight of the two beauties was quite pleasing to the eye.
... My fans, who are mostly intermediate adventurers, sometimes offer to help or buy me a drink, but most of them are muscular, hairy men.
Since being an adventurer is a life-risking profession, there are naturally more men.
It's heartwarming to see two beautiful women chatting and laughing rather than being surrounded by grubby men who would rather spend their money on alcohol than bathing.
"Then, I'll take the lead."
"Okay!"
Grace, who had just spoken, glanced at me and slowly began to walk.
Naturally, she headed in a different direction than the previous party members.
While she wasn't quite at the level of the female swordsman Kora, she seemed to have some experience as she took a lantern from her waist and checked the direction, looking much more skilled than Han Se-ah.
I remember reading somewhere in my past life, on an internet article, that people can't walk in a straight line.
If you get lost in a desert, you'll wander in circles and be found near where you started.
I'm not sure if that's accurate, but it did have some credibility.
The lantern, if not constantly checked, could lead you to believe you were going straight when you had actually changed direction.
Moving your body in reality is different from pressing arrow keys to make a game character move straight forward.
"There are no signs of goblins, but there are some horned foxes. What should we do?"
"Are there footprints or something?"
With the two of them walking ahead, Ranger Grace suddenly lowered her head, her gray hair almost touching the ground.
She carefully examined the lower parts of the grass.
Han Se-ah, curious about Grace's actions, approached her with the camera drone.
"There aren't any footprints, but if you look closely at the short grass, there are subtle traces."
"...These are traces?"
"They look like tiny roots, but they're actually horned fox fur. It seems the fox was lying down here, scratching its body with its hind legs."
Grace found a few strands of fox fur clinging to the clumped grass.
Considering the fox's red color, finding such small strands of fur was impressive.
Her vision must be better than mine.
To be honest, watching pathfinders search for traces like this feels more magical than actual magic.
With magic spells and the game system in place, such ghostly tracking must be a type of skill.
"I can see why you're a pathfinder. I wanted to be an ranger if I didn't have magical talent. How did you find this? Doesn't the camera have trouble picking it up too? Even if I hold it close to my face, I can barely see it."
Not only I was amazed by her keen observation and excellent vision, but Han Se-ah started chattering nonstop as well.
Grace didn't react, seemingly unable to hear her talking to her chat while she searched for more traces of the horned fox.
She continued combing through the bushes, unaffected by Han Se-ah's conversation about recruiting a ranger sister.
After chatting with the viewers for a moment, Han Se-ah asked Grace another question.
"Do horned rabbits and horned foxes not drop magic stones often?"
"That's right. They're also more agile than goblins, so they're not easy to track."
"Then let's ignore them and move on."
Despite not receiving any magic stones, both Han Se-ah and Grace couldn't help but grin with amusement.
Han Se-ah relished in the envy of the viewers who witnessed her good fortune with a 3★ pathfinder, while Grace was thrilled to have proven her skills by locating the rare horned fox fur soon after joining the party.
Han Se-ah, your luck is really good.
It's not just about meeting me, but finding a competent pathfinder is as difficult as finding a decent mage.
Adventurers tend to gather from strange places, creating a mixed group.
Looking at our party composition, we already have a tank, pathfinder, and mage.
Now, if we find a vanguard to take care of sustained damage and secondary tanking, and a priest for healing, we'd form a luxurious full party of five on the first floor, which is quite impressive for beginner adventurers.
***
2/4! And advance chapter tiers are up! on my kofi link below up to 15 chapters ahead will be posted Sunday at 9pm PST!
Enjoy the chappy!
Please give the book a rating and a review on NovelUpdates.
It helps the website and helps people find this novel!
Novel illustrations are also found on the ko-fi link below! Check out the gallery page inside the ko-fi page.
If you'd like to make a one-time donation to support our translations or subscribe to read up to 15 chapters ahead, you can do so via Ko-fi.