LIGHTNOVELONLINE
Chapter 21: Beginner's Request 1
The morning always came quickly for adventurers.
Before the sun had risen, I gently awakened Grace, who was sleeping beside me with a soft pat on her fair bottom, and escorted her back to her own room.
The game's time didn't seem to flow at a 1:1 ratio, so Han Se-ah was due to log in around sunrise.
While novice adventurers were busy scurrying about in search of lucrative and easy quests, I enjoyed a leisurely meal and mulled over some newly learned facts.
I wasn't the quickest thinker, so organizing my thoughts like this provided some clarity.
Firstly, with Han Se-ah's appearance, gacha characters had begun to surface in this world.
Grace, who claimed to be a girl I had rescued from a village under siege, likely represented a collectible element.
In most "otaku" games, collecting characters, leveling them up, or raising their affection would unlock sub-stories.
If the 6 Great Paladin Roland's sub-story was a decade-long epic, then the 3 Apprentice Ranger Grace's sub-story would be something like: she became an adventurer after admiring the paladin who saved her as a child.
Of course, leaving out the part where she spent her first night with the very paladin she idolized.
But the real issue was Han Se-ah...
[Han Se-ah's stream has begun!]
[Han Se-ah-A new companion: 3 pretty ranger sister!]
Her stream started like clockwork just as the sun began to rise.
While it was difficult to predict how things would go in the tower, in the inns, it always seemed to be morning when she logged in.
In a typical RPG, choosing to rest at an inn would cause the screen to darken and then suddenly become morning, so it made sense.
In real-time, she would start streaming in the afternoon, playing the game for half a day before ending both the stream and the game late at night.
In-game time, she would wake up in the inn in the morning, play for half a day, and then log out at the inn in the evening.
...But was this a viable way to climb the tower?
The middle floors of the tower required days-long journeys to traverse, while exploring the uppermost floors could take months of grueling, nomadic living.
Streaming that horrific experience with a 1:1 time flow would be more like labor than gaming.
It wouldn't be enjoyable as a game, and even less so as content for a stream.
Unless there were numerous patches that catered to gamers' convenience similar to the inventory and minimaps, it seemed unlikely that progress up the tower would be swift, if at all.
***
Raei Translations
***
"Why the long face this morning?" Ellis asked.
"I drank too much last night," I replied.
"And forgot to buy the dessert you promised?" she added.
"I recruited a new party member yesterday. We'll go to the caf today and bring both of them," I assured her.
As Han Se-ah's stream notification appeared and I absentmindedly stared at the chat window with my chin resting on the table, Ellis approached me.
Despite enjoying a laid-back, part-time work schedule, she was pouting over the delay in receiving her dessert.
She insisted that I buy her dessert today, then, I began recounting what happened yesterday.
"There weren't any suitable candidates for the vanguard. There were a few decent ones, but they were somewhat unsuitable to join Paladin Roland and the promising witch. There's no one yet volunteering for the priest position to climb the tower, so we might have to wait. However, there was one quite capable person from the ranger class..."
"A ranger, of all things?"
"They used to be a hunter and roamed around with adventurers outside the tower. They were skilled enough to complete material collection quests by themselves up to the seventh floor..."
"Alright, I get it. I'm sorry for leaving the party member search to you."
I raised both hands in surrender, playfully stretching out the words as I spoke with Ellis.
Although my words were lighthearted, I had been a nuisance nonetheless.
Perhaps the seventh-floor ranger was someone Ellis had been keeping an eye on.
She must have already brought up the topic of joining my party.
It would be annoying if I'd gone and found myself a ranger while she was in the middle of persuading someone else.
"By the way, where did you find such a beautiful young lady? Bring some junior receptionists to the Adventurer's Guild later."
"I didn't bring her; she came looking for me."
As we exchanged casual conversation, the doors of the Adventurer's Guild opened, and Han Se-ah and Grace entered.
After nodding slightly to greet Ellis, they sat at an empty table. I beckoned them over, and the two joined me, sitting side by side.
Grace, acting as though nothing had happened the night before, seemed as if the events were but a fleeting dream.
However, one thing had undoubtedly changed.
"That armor must have cost a fortune."
"I used all the funds I'd saved when I left the village to get this equipment."
Grace's once plain leather armor had been transformed into a fitted, waist-cinching armor that emphasized her femininity.
The tight waist and protruding chest area captured people's gaze like gravity.
No wonder the chat window was plastered with nonsense like 'eye candy.'
"Unfortunately, we couldn't find a vanguard or a priest. So I'll temporarily serve as the vanguard, and after we get in sync on the fifth floor, we'll head straight to the tenth floor."
"The tenth floor?"
"Yes, understood."
At my words, Grace nodded immediately, while Han Se-ah asked in surprise.
Any novice unfamiliar with the tower's circumstances would be shocked by our rapid progress from the first to the third floor, and then from the third to the tenth floor.
Grace, who was now glued to Han Se-ah's side, began to explain kindly.
"Though I'm not sure about the eleventh floor onwards, there's not much difference between the first and tenth floors. It's true that monsters become stronger as the floors get higher, but horned rabbits and horned foxes only grow slightly larger in size. The same goes for the skinny goblins that appear."
"So we're only going up to the tenth floor?"
"Right. That's where we can make some money."
The two of them sat close at the table, engaging in a lively conversation.
As expected, Grace, a fellow novice adventurer, had some experience with the lower floors and seemed to know her stuff.
"The tower has a special monster every 10 floors. They're much stronger than the monsters of the same level, and instead of dropping magic stones, they leave behind different loot when defeated," I explained.
In simpler terms, these were boss monsters.
If the players defeated the boss monster Horned Wolf on the 10th floor, they would find a forest waiting for them on the 11th floor.
Similarly, upon defeating the Forest Boss Orc Hunter on the 20th floor, they would encounter a cave starting from the 21st floor.
"If I take the lead as the vanguard, our party should aim to hunt the Horned Wolf. Of course, we won't go there right away. After gaining experience from various lower floor quests, we'll hunt it then."
"Does the wolf have horns like the Horned Rabbit and Horned Fox?" Hanna inquired.
"Exactly. Although it's incomparably stronger than the likes of a Horned Fox."
It wasn't until I entered the fantastical world of Heroes Chronicle that I realized just how large wolves could be.
I knew wolves were big, but as a boss monster, the Horned Wolf was even larger.
The real-life wolf photos and GIFs I had seen on the internet depicted wolves only just larger than humans.
When they stood on their hind legs, they towered over us, and their heads were about two or three times larger.
The boss monster Horned Wolf was even bigger than the ones in those images.
"Unlike the Horned Fox, the Horned Wolf's horns can pierce leather armor. Its mouth is large enough to bite off an inexperienced adventurer's arm along with their small shield if they don't handle the shield properly. That's why, up to the 9th floor, adventurers can rely on their individual abilities, but on the 10th floor, they must always stick together as a party."
Although the Horned Wolf's could pierce leather armor, they couldn't penetrate steel armor.
The conventional growth path for adventurers involved saving up money from lower floor quests to purchase steel armor and shields before challenging the 10th floor.
I, however, had equipment exclusive to my gacha character, which was incomparable to steel armor.
Therefore, all the money earned from quests and adventures would be invested in Han Se-ah's and Grace's gear.
"Let's leave the explanation at that and check out some quests."
I rose from the table and headed towards the quest board in the corner.
Industrious adventurers had already picked off the easy, well-paying tasks, leaving the board looking rather sparse.
I stood beside it, arms folded, waiting for the two women to choose their quests.
Han Se-ah had never taken a quest before, and although she had entered the tower twice, this was her first time attempting one.
Grace, once again, stuck close to Han Se-ah, kindly explaining the details.
The camera drone focused on the two of them, I can guess how the chat is reacting to that shot.
"Most quests in the plains involve gathering herbs. It's no surprise since the area is filled with nothing but grass. The herbs are used for ointments, cosmetics, and magical potions, but since the plains are vast and frequented by novice adventurers, the rewards are quite modest.
That's why it's best to accept several quests at once, especially since you have that magic inventory of yours." Grace explained.
"What kind of quests should we pick up?"
"Well, you need to know a bit about herbology for that Golden Foxtail often grows alongside Cotton Tuft Grass, and where the Golden Foxtail flourishes, you'll likely find horned rabbits hiding. These rabbits frequently drop lowest-grade magic stones."
Grace, who had trained with her father, a former ranger and hunter, seemed to have a decent understanding of herbs.
When we first met, she was already completing herb-related quests.
Catching my gaze, she sent a sly smile over Han Se-ah's shoulder.
The camera drone captured her relaxed demeanor, a stark contrast to the night before.
***
and also sorry google translators... The fix I talked about last week slows down the website and while it isn't slow enough to actually be noticed by readers(0.1ms), it does matter for getting verified for ads, so I'm going to wait until we get verified before I upload the fix. Sorry! don't know when that will be. Within these 2 weeks would be nice.
And with that we're going to try to have a more consistent schedule for releases tues-> fri or tues -> sat if we decided to increase to 5 a week. not sure yet.
2/4 Enjoy the chappy!
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