I Became a 6★ Gacha Character

Unlike viewers' expectations as they switched their romance plotting target to Han Se-ah with various insinuations, nothing particularly noteworthy happened after that light cheek touch.

"Sir Knight-! They're coming again, from the sky!"

"The sky? What is it this time?!"

"A flock of carnivorous wyverns!"

More precisely, we had no time for such things.

After the boar pack died headbutting the rock, attacks continued at least once daily.

Giant reindeer herds charging with blade-sharp antlers like armored deer's arctic cousins, carnivorous wyverns swooping down from the skies fixated on our dog sleds, yeti packs that had been good food for the previous Giant Worm and Wyvern...

With one to three attacks daily, viewers started sensing something was wrong.

"Hey, maybe this isn't a quest we can clear like this...? Maybe we shouldn't have come alone but should push through with the Margrave's army later."

-Season 2 monster waves aren't something low levels can handle lol

-Honestly thought it was easy when I logged in to boar corpses everywhere but guess not

-Called monster waves and they really come like waves, is this the second batch today?

-Han Se-ah getting nervous about the quest window not updating lololololololol

-Are we doing this wrong? Feels like we're just brute forcing through with Roland

Viewers too thought like I had - that a character quest shouldn't be this difficult.

Just as I'd been certain rainbows would appear for my character quest, viewers found the relentless monster waves suspicious - anyone with basic game knowledge would find this strange.

Though not high-rank but mid-rank, waves of hundreds of monsters lived up to their name. As the three retired adventurers said, we physically understood why villages couldn't survive here.

Though Han Se-ah's area attacks handled the eagle-pterodactyl hybrid wyverns and I dealt with charging beast-type monsters without major damage... wasn't this only possible with a 6★ tank? Normal players would reasonably retreat after three days of this, their resolve broken.

"Well, what can we do? Turning back now would waste all this time. Besides annoying fights, nothing serious has happened, so we might as well push through. Igor said we're about a day away - if attacks continue like this, we should arrive within two days."

-She's not just missing brakes but reverse gear too lol

-Then what DOES she have exactly lololololololol

-Just ^inventoryminimapwaterpurifierlighterflashlightroadsweeperclotheswasher^ obviously

-Hey now, even if it's tedious to list them all, that's slanderous oversimplification, she has many more features

-Looking at her magic skills she's above average for mages but see how they treat her lololololol

But Han Se-ah's mindset differed from normal players.

Always choosing the hard path, truly a moth to flame. No injured companions, no supply losses with dog sleds and inventory items intact... these were secondary concerns to her.

Fuck it, after coming all this way through such hardship, how could we turn back?

Of course I did the hard work, but players think of themselves, not NPC companions, right? So after continued forced marches and several more attacks, we reached our destination.

"There's something snow-covered ahead... ruins?"

"Must be that village. Seems it was buried in snow since monster waves didn't sweep it away."

Grace spotted it first, naturally. Following her gesture, we saw jagged ridges in the otherwise flat white snowfield in the distance. Too narrow for ridges - probably snow-buried village buildings as Igor said.

We turned the dog sleds without losing a single one, the village ruins becoming clearer.

Though just bumps in the white snowfield from afar, up close we could clearly see the village's layout from fence to watchtower to buildings. Being snow-buried and abandoned for years, "intact" might mean "intact under snow."

"...Should we make this our base?"

"Not buried as deep as expected. Buildings won't be usable but we can pitch tents using them as windbreaks."

Though buildings abandoned in snow for years wouldn't be habitable, the protruding village ruins could block wind. Seems this area got blizzards but not several meters of snow at once.

We parked the supply-laden sled by the fence and unleashed the blizzard-adapted sled dogs to rest in what seemed like an open area.

After thoroughly petting the wolf-sized dogs who showed affection, perhaps knowing I'd saved their lives repeatedly, I joined the others to find Han Se-ah gathering mana with her staff.

Wondering what was happening, I caught Grace's eye. Usually stuck close due to Han Se-ah's logout state, she hurried over to whisper:

"Why's she doing that?"

"She wants to try clearing snow and stabilizing ground with Earth Control and Gust of Wind? Says she needs to concentrate so stay quiet."

She whispered to avoid disturbing the mage's concentration. That explained why the adventurer trio and childhood friend couple watched from afar. But strangely, stream viewers were saying something different.

Getting excited like they'd found a dungeon entrance rather than preparing camp ground--

※

Flash, rumble, then screams.

Quickly assessing the situation in darkness, I clenched my fists to suppress the urge to repeatedly smack Han Se-ah's head, camera or not.

'Quest window activated when we reached the village?'

"Ow, my head... Roland?"

"Yes, Hanna. Let's hear about what magic you used."

Though I understood from watching the stream, Roland couldn't know that. Apparently when the quest window updated upon reaching the village, she followed its instructions to move mana and opened a dungeon entrance.

The problem was this dungeon didn't just open - it kidnapped the opener. Just my guess, but finding only Han Se-ah and me in this dark cave while everyone else vanished seemed reasonable evidence.

So I needed to hear her excuse before deciding.

"Well, um... I was trying to push snow away and raise the ground for tents when suspicious magical energy reacted below the surface, then flash - I was teleported. How did you follow?"

"Strange mana wrapped around you, so I grabbed you and got pulled along."

"Ah, I see..."

Seeing her roll her eyes while making up excuses made me consider smacking her, but noticing her face was surprisingly close, I realized I was practically pinning her down and stood up.

No wonder viewers were spamming "hmm hmm" instead of discussing the dungeon.

Still, she quickly grabbed my offered hand and stood. Though I wanted to scold her recklessness, I couldn't reveal I knew the truth from watching her stream - we'd just have to clear this dungeon quickly.

"By the way, is this a solo dungeon? The entrance pulled me in alone, and Roland just got caught up movie-style rather than properly entering. Could this be a trial dungeon where Katie should enter alone for her character quest?"

-Yeah bit cliche but character growth dungeons only letting that character in

-See how she immediately goes female mode after noticing teacher's reliable shoulders lololololol

[Chat deleted by moderator]

-How did the AI censor learn human language well enough to catch "female mode"

[Chat deleted by moderator]

-People still getting cut using that exact phrase knowing it gets censored lol

Han Se-ah quickly brought up the dungeon with viewers, perhaps to break the awkward mood. As gamers often think alike, most thought this was a Wesley family dungeon specifically for Katie.

I had to agree, for a simple reason.

"...Hanna, use Shield and maintain it as long as possible."

"Huh? Why suddenly?"

"Don't know why, but mana-infused wind's blowing from inside. If your winter coat's not enough, use mana to maintain body heat."

Because the dungeon was intensely cold. As if warning that ice-attribute treasure lay within, approachable only by those who could handle ice-attribute mana.