Chapter 29
Carpe ventured out of the city towards the Luana’s Beach.
The goal was undoubtedly the Mermen!
“Lightning Arrow!”
“Gyagagagagak!”
Just like the first time she visited the beach, Carpe swiftly began to defeat the Mermen.
And it took about 40 minutes.
Ding
[You have defeated the Mermen.]
[You have obtained Mermen’s Scales. (20/20)]
“Faster than I thought.”
-Well, about the scales.
“…Yeah.”
Unfortunately, while gathering all of the Mermen’s scales, she couldn’t obtain the essence of the sea.
Cheonma mentioned that the drop rate was low, so she expected as much…
“The drop rate is quite low, isn’t it?”
-Well, to remember the exact drop rate is too trivial… Anyway, it should drop within roughly 2 hours.
“Ugh. That’s too long.”
Checking the remaining login time in the system window, she had about 5 hours left.
“Can I retrieve the relic within the remaining time?”
-It’s not really reassuring to be so pessimistic. If you’re lucky, it’ll drop soon enough.
“Yeah, you’re right!”
Yesterday and today.
Undoubtedly, the luckiest two days of her life.
2 hours? That’s a joke. I’ll get it within 10 minutes!
“To obtain the essence of the sea, do I really need to defeat the Mermen?”
“Yeah, as long as it’s a marine monster, they have a low chance of dropping it, so just defeat as many as you can.”
“Got it.”
Carpe embarked on her hunting journey once again.
One hour later.
Carpe still hadn’t obtained the essence of the sea.
“Argh, why won’t it drop!”
-Since it’s not dropping, it’s kind of refreshing, isn’t it?
Countless monsters were dyed gray, her inventory was filled with junk, and she even leveled up once, but just once.
She couldn’t obtain the essence of the sea.
-I thought you were a lucky charm… Turns out, you’re just like everyone else.
“I won’t be able to obtain it even if I use up all my login time today, will I?”
-Surely not.
Stretching out and ready to go, but just having one item holding her back was frustrating.
“I’ll try a bit more, and if it doesn’t work out, I might have to check the auction house.”
-The likelihood of there being no listings is higher.
“Well, then there’s no choice.”
Thinking back, how many days had she struggled in the game just to obtain one quest item?
Whining about barely two hours of grinding, Carpe had accumulated too much gaming experience.
“I should let go of my impatience and think calmly. The quest isn’t going anywhere.”
-Well, sometimes it does.
“What? What’s that supposed to mean…”
“Kyaaw!”
As Carpe was about to inquire about the cryptic statement, Mukhyang approached her and acted cute.
“Kyaakyaaw!”
“Yeah, you’re the only one who thinks about me… Huh? Why are your cheeks like that?”
“Kyawng!”
Rather than swelling like a squirrel storing food in winter, Mukhyang’s cheeks seemed to be bulging unnaturally.
When Carpe pressed on Mukhyang’s cheek, a bluish bead-like object popped out with a ‘pop’ sound.
Ding
[Essence of the Sea]
[Grade: Rare]
[Classification: Magical Material]
[A magical material found at a rare chance on coastal terrain. Contains a weak mana aura.]
“Wow!”
Carpe exclaimed in amazement as she picked up the bead.
[Collecting Instinct Lv. 1 – 6th Grade]
-Your familiar receives a 3×3 size inventory.
-Can probabilistically collect items within a 20m radius of the summoner.
-What items to prioritize for collection is solely determined by the familiar.
-The higher the familiar’s grade and intelligence, the higher-value items it prioritizes.
*Due to the skill possessing familiar’s racial traits, the most prioritized collection target is fixed to ‘acorns’.
*As the skill level increases, the size of the inventory and collection range increases.
*Acquisition restriction: Beast-type familiars
It was the first moment when Mukhyang’s skill ‘Collecting Instinct’ was activated.
“This is unbelievable.”
-Since the owner couldn’t do it, the pet did it by itself. Well done. Mukhyang did it.
“Kya!”
“Don’t get mad just because I called you ‘Kya’. But, things have resolved in such an unexpected way.”
At a frustrating moment, she obtained the essence in a completely unexpected direction.
The thrill of looting directly by defeating monsters was not inferior!
Thinking that she should buy a lot of acorns when she returned to the city, Carpe petted Mukhyang.
-‘Collecting Instinct’ is the number one skill card desired by players with beast-type pets.
Everyone loves freebies.
However, ‘Collecting Instinct’ is a skill that automatically picks up items once learned, making it a shameless skill, so it skyrocketed in popularity.
-Thanks to it, if there’s any item listed on the auction house, it’s instantly snatched up.
“Bokdungi, my lucky charm. From now on, I’ll call you ‘Gathyang’.”
With that, all the tasks at the beach were finished.
After selling all the junk items to the shop in the city, Carpe quickly headed back to the cabin.
Zoom.
As Carpe entered Geass’s cabin, the refreshing scent of lemons greeted her, just like the first time she entered.
Swallowing involuntarily, Carpe addressed Geass. “Here, I’ve brought everything you requested.”
“Oh, excellent. You’re indeed my successor. It must not have been easy,” Geass remarked with a smile.
“I was lucky,” Carpe replied, and it wasn’t an empty statement; she genuinely had been very lucky.
Accepting Geass’s humble words with a nod, Carpe felt slightly taken aback when he mentioned it would take about 30 minutes to craft the artifact.
“Thirty minutes? That long?” she asked, surprised.
“It’s because it requires magical craftsmanship,” Geass explained.
Carpe felt a slight sense of disorientation. “Usually, in other games, they craft the item right then and there when you bring the materials. It’s strangely realistic here.”
-There are sometimes quests like that. In this case, additional quests often pop up during those 30 minutes so you can do something else.
As if hearing Cheonma’s words, Geass presented a new quest.
“While I’m crafting the artifact, could you check if there’s anything unusual around the pit? It’s not far from here.”
Ding
[Artifact of the Mage King (2)-2]
[Investigate the pit in Luana for anything suspicious.]
[Check the Luana Pit (0/1)]
[Defeat Undead Monsters (0/5)]
[Success: Obtain Shard of Purification]
[Failure: Increased difficulty for related quests]
“Understood.”
[You have accepted the quest.]
With a sense of finality, Carpe cheerfully accepted the quest and stepped out of the cabin.
As soon as she stepped outside, a timer window appeared in front of her, displaying [30:00].
“Oh, I forgot to ask for the location,” Carpe realized.
Pushing the door to re-enter the cabin, she found it inexplicably locked. It wasn’t just a locked door; it felt like it was strongly rejecting her access.
[Geass is concentrating. You cannot enter.]
“Oh, great,” Carpe muttered.
-Try bringing up the mini-map. In cases like this, the mini-map often marks the location.
“Right, good idea.”
Bringing up the mini-map, she found the coordinates marked, not too far away. It would take about 10 minutes to walk there leisurely. Carpe wasted no time and headed straight for the coordinates.
“Fires Arrow!”
Swoosh!
Carpe’s magical arrow shattered the skeleton’s skull.
Just like with the merman, it was an undeniable one-shot kill!
“Undead are easy,” Carpe commented.
-Right now, it’s just a simple field. The dungeon inside will probably be different.
It was a dungeon related to Mythic mainstream. Naturally, the difficulty level would skyrocket.
-You’re more than capable of handling it, but don’t let your guard down.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Carpe affirmed.
After about 10 minutes of travel, Carpe arrived at her destination.
It was a place resembling the center of a communal cemetery, with a ominous, deep, and massive pit in sight.
“It’s like an extra-large sinkhole. I can’t see the bottom,” Carpe commented, and the term “bottomless pit” seemed fitting.
As Carpe wandered around the pit, she found herself dispatching five skeletons in quick succession.
Ding
[Investigation completed. Quest completed.]
“Huh, that’s it? That was surprisingly easy.”
Carpe checked the quest window just to make sure, and indeed, it was marked as completed. She shrugged slightly.
“Guess it was just to pass the time.”
Returning to the cabin now would roughly align with the 30-minute timeframe.
On her way back, Carpe hunted a few more skeletons, earning enough experience to level up once more.
Ding
[Level Up! Bonus points awarded.]
“Level 14 now! Just one more level and I can unlock a skill pack. Should I learn another skill before entering the dungeon after reaching the next level?”
She contemplated whether she should invest some of the stat points she had saved up.
“What do you think… Wait, what’s with that serious expression?”
-It’s about the quest we just completed.
“Right now? Just to pass the time?”
-It felt rather arbitrary. Like doing something meaningless for the sake of it.
“Hmm?”
Carpe reconsidered the quest after Cheonma’s remark.
Indeed, it didn’t feel like a particularly important quest.
“Just a routine investigation of the surroundings before entering the dungeon, right? It’s not entirely meaningless.”
-That’s one way to look at it… Ugh, it’s irritating.
However, the quest was already completed, and there was no other route besides returning to the cabin.
“Anyway, I should go ba… Huh? Someone?”
As she made her way back, Carpe spotted a woman.
With a slightly absent-minded impression, the young woman exuded an air of innocence.
She wore a figure-hugging white dress adorned with a cross, along with a white hat with a cross drawn on it.
And the long golden staff she held suggested a particular profession.
“A priest?”
Whether Carpe muttered to herself or not, the priestess noticed her and approached with a smile.
“Hello there!”
“Oh, hi.”
“I’m currently hunting undead monsters. Have you seen any nearby?”
“Oh, there are quite a few in there,” Carpe replied, gesturing towards the direction she came from, and the woman thanked her and left.
Carpe watched her departing figure until the end, shaking her head slightly.
-That rascal. Pretending not to know, yet you’re also a man. Well, she was beautiful even to me.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… unsettling.”
-Unsettling? What do you mean?
“I don’t know about that…”
-Tsk tsk. No need to make excuses, mate. It’s only natural for a guy. I understand.
“No, really.”
-Stop trying to act all innocent. How many times did you swallow your saliva while talking to a woman… Hey, I felt embarrassed just watching.
“…Saliva?”
At that moment, Carpe realized the source of her discomfort. But the priestess had already hidden her presence and was gone.
“Damn it!”
Carpe started sprinting back to the cabin.
Not to the woman, but to the scent.
-The scent?
“The source of my discomfort was the smell.”
Though it was a somewhat sad admission, Carpe had been mostly a loner until now. Her life was mostly filled with games.
So, she tended to get a little nervous when talking to women. Especially if the person was a beauty.
However, even she couldn’t help but notice that she was blatantly swallowing saliva several times while conversing with a woman!
“A lemony scent.”
Her body emanated a scent that made saliva involuntarily trickle down.
And there was one more thing.
Carpe hadn’t immediately noticed the lemon fragrance because it was mixed with another smell.
“A scent of blood! Damn it!”
Carpe arrived at the cabin in a flash and burst through the door.
“Eugh.”
Inside, Geass was struggling amidst a pool of blood.
Witnessing the scene, Cheonma sighed.
-Now I understand.
Why we had to perform such a meaningless time-filling quest.
The answer was simple.
Because we really had to pass the time.
That’s how the game’s scenario progresses!
Ding
[Scenario Event - Geass’s Death has progressed.]
[The attacks of those who do not covet Arkram’s presence have begun.]
Enjoying the story? Don't forget to rate 5 stars and review in NovelUpdte!