Chapter 169
Chapter 169
A dark night.
The bonfire in front of the earthen house crackled, crackle, as it burned.
In front of it, Lapin lowered her head and fiddled with the knee protectors she was wearing.
“Ah…….”
Lapin bent and straightened her legs, stretching.
Then she jogged lightly, her eyes sparkling.
“Villed, it’s comfortable.”
“Does anything hurt like your flesh getting pinched? Does it feel too tight when you bend your knees? If there’s even a little discomfort anywhere, tell me. I’ll fix it right away.”
“Yeah. Nothing like that. It’s soft.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
Seeing how much she liked it, the investment felt worth it.
The protectors were also relatively simple in terms of the crafting process, so I was able to make them in half a day.
‘I’d like to make her boots too if I could…….’
But the conditions weren’t there yet.
For the outer layer, I could use Ice Rishi Bear leather. But I didn’t have any material for the soles, nor anything suitable for the inner lining. The lining needed to be an extremely soft material that could wrap around the foot.
‘That kind of material…… these guys will probably provide it.’
I looked inside a wooden barrel.
Scritch, scritch…….
Millennium Butterfly Larvae were gnawing on Spirit Grass leaves.
‘When these guys become cocoons, I’ll extract the silk and make boots too.’
Millennium Butterfly Larvae silk seemed to be an excellent material even for shoe linings. Apparently, it had good insulation, breathability, and moisture absorption.
And since they were being fed Spirit Grass, mana would naturally dwell within the silk. I could expect durability and shock absorption.
‘Not sure how long it’ll take until they become cocoons, though…….’
If I fed them generously, it seemed entirely possible they’d become cocoons within a month.
As I looked at Lapin wearing gloves and protectors, I became curious about how much effect items of that level would actually have.
‘Tomorrow morning, I should run a performance test.’
I had already chosen a place for the test.
‘I should try clearing the King of Namsan.’
There was no need to feel much pressure. Among the four mountains, it was the easiest.
‘It has high defense and the boss pattern is a bit tricky…… but it moves slowly, so compared to the other bosses, it’s easier.’
Besides, I had the ability to break that pattern.
……Yeah, very unintentionally, due to my ‘traits.’
‘And compared to the other mountains, its elevation is much lower.’
The other mountains easily exceeded 1,000 meters, but Namsan was only about 400 meters.
Estimated clear time was about three hours.
‘And it’s relatively close to Namsan as well.’
After all, where I was staying was south of Kirchen.
The next morning.
“Lapin, let’s go to the mountain today. There’s a pretty good place just behind here.”
“Are we going on an adventure?”
“Well, something like that.”
“Ooh……. My heart’s racing.”
And so, together with Lapin, I headed toward Namsan.
It was the same scene as in the game.
At the entrance to Namsan, two imperial sentries were guarding the area with a bonfire.
One of them was sleeping, and the other seemed to be awake.
I approached without paying them much mind.
“Halt. No entry.”
The standing sentry looked at us and spoke as if annoyed.
“Such young brats…… do you know where this is that you came here? Shoo, shoo, go back.”
Without a word, I took out my compass and showed it to the sentry.
“……What’s that?”
Even at the sentry’s question, I continued to stare silently.
After meeting my eyes, the man broke into a cold sweat and looked away, then woke up the sleeping sentry.
“Uh, senior. Sorry to wake you up, but what is that?”
“Huh? What?”
The sentry who woke up rubbed his eyes and looked at me. More precisely, he was looking at the golden compass I was holding.
The sentry called senior stared at it for a moment, then flinched and sprang to his feet.
“Hey! Hey, you idiot! Move aside, right now!”
“Y-Yes?”
I could hear their whispering clearly even from here.
“That’s the Yggdrasil Finders’ Compass! He could be a noble’s child from the Empire! You’ve been on duty for months and you don’t recognize that? Didn’t you memorize what I told you to? You’re dead later.”
“Oh no! This is bad!”
The two sentries hurried over, bowing deeply.
“Young Master, Young Lady. We sincerely apologize for the rudeness. Your identity has been confirmed, so you may pass.”
“Alright, good work.”
“Good work.”
When I answered, Lapin echoed me.
“Aigo, thank you for the encouragement. Please return safely.”
The two sentries kept bowing until we were completely out of sight.
……And so, while climbing the mountain.
After some time had passed, the first monster finally appeared.
A bluish Ice Slime. It had a round shape, like thin ice.
It was the perfect opportunity to test Lapin’s combat ability.
“Lapin. You see that white ball-like thing inside the slime? That’s the core. Go break that.”
“Okay.”
The moment Lapin finished speaking, her figure vanished.
And then…….
Bang-!
The slime exploded. The core was shattered as well, and its bodily fluid splattered everywhere.
“Kya-hahaha-!”
Lapin, wearing a silk hat, laughed out loud as if she was having fun.
‘……I didn’t expect her to land a one-shot so instantly.’
Even though Lapin’s Strength wasn’t particularly high, this result made me marvel inwardly.
After finishing the kill, Lapin hopped back over like a rabbit.
“Villed, did I do well?”
I thought briefly, then shook my head.
“……No.”
“Whyyy! Why won’t you praise me!”
“I won’t praise you for something like this.”
“Yeah, yeah! Then I had to work hard until you praised me! Kyahaha—!”
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
From then on, Lapin moved excitedly to receive my praise.
The moment a monster came into view, it instantly exploded.
The bodily fluids of the dead Ice Slime clung to Lapin, making her look like a ruthless slaughterer drenched in blue blood.
‘I knew Namsan was easy…… but isn’t this too easy?’
The party size was significantly smaller than the recommended number, and compared to the protagonist, our entry point was a full half-year earlier.
And yet, the攻略 was proceeding extremely smoothly.
What’s more, I hadn’t even used my ability. Only Lapin had been attacking the whole time.
‘Lapin…… she’s gotten insanely strong, hasn’t she?’
I knew her gauntlets and protectors were good equipment. But I hadn’t expected them alone to show this level of performance.
‘……No, come to think of it, doesn’t this make sense?’
She was wearing semi–endgame-grade equipment you’d normally equip only in the latter half of the episode, right from the start, so it was understandable.
‘She adapts so easily that I sometimes forget my ability is basically cheat-level.’
I also possessed endgame-tier items myself.
……In short, it was all gear power.
The estimated time to reach the summit of Namsan was about three hours, but…….
Thanks to how quickly Lapin dealt with the monsters, it took only about half that time.
When we arrived at the summit of Namsan, the ‘king’ came into view.
It was a massive ‘golem’ standing about three meters tall.
Unlike ordinary stone golems…… it was made of bluish, translucent ice.
Ice Rishi Golem
That was the creature’s name.
‘There’s no way I can deal with this ice chunk using a sword or the Heart of Ilawne…….’
I opened the subspace and reached my hand inside.
The weapon I pulled out was…… a two-handed hammer.
It was something I kept around to smash rocks in the terrain when building structures.
Now, it would be used to destroy the Ice Golem.
Just as I was about to approach the golem—
“Villed! Help!”
Lapin, wearing a silk hat, struggled with a teary expression.
Ice had clung to her legs, and she seemed unable to move.
……The same was true for me. My legs wouldn’t budge at all.
Due to the ice and cold covering the ground, ice was creeping up from the ground and freezing our feet in place.
‘This is why that golem’s pattern is such a pain.’
That golem had no eyes. It detected enemies and moved solely based on mana fluctuations.
In other words, until magic was used, it would never move—but the moment magic was cast, it would immediately charge and attack.
Lapin slammed her fist down to break the ice, but it didn’t even budge. Ice created by its unique mana was extremely difficult to break with sheer strength alone.
To break this ice, most people had no choice but to use magic.
……But I didn’t need to.
‘Hwayo.’
Because my ability wasn’t classified as magic,
Whoosh—!
I wrapped the hammer in flames.
The hammer heated up intensely, but it didn’t feel particularly painful in my hand. It would’ve been enough to cause severe burns to an ordinary person, but to me, it only tingled a little. Probably thanks to my fire adaptation skill.
When I pressed the flaming hammer against the ice on my leg, it melted away smoothly.
“Villed! Me too! Me too!”
After my legs were freed, I went over to Lapin and pressed the hammer against the ice on her legs as well.
It melted instantly, freeing her legs too.
Since we still hadn’t used magic, the golem just stood there, completely motionless.
I grinned and ran toward the golem with the hammer raised.
“Lapin!”
“Say it!”
“That thing—just keep smashing it until it breaks apart!”
“Kyahaha, Villed! I’ll make finely crushed ice slush for you!”
Bam—!
Thud—!
—Kuuur……?
The Ice Rishi Golem, not understanding what was happening, simply stood there and took our attacks.
“Villed, it’s tasty.”
“Yeah. It’s pretty good.”
The two of us made slush from the Ice Golem’s ice and ate it.
When we poured on homemade blueberry syrup from the farm, it tasted surprisingly good.
It felt a little odd eating something that had been a monster just moments ago, but it wasn’t really a concern. The water produced here was quite clean, after all.
‘Right. Since we didn’t use magic, it just malfunctioned.’
Not using magic even once—this was a攻略 method that existed in the game as well.
However, it was only viable for eccentric players who never learned magic and invested solely in physical strength, so it wasn’t very practical.
Namsan’s King, defeated!
Now there were three mountains left.
It would be nice if the others were as easy as this one…….
But it probably wouldn’t be that simple.
Not only were the bosses troublesome, but the mountains themselves were tall, making the攻略 time quite long.
‘Anyway, unlike the Ice Rishi Bear, there’s no loot usable as crafting material here.’
Did easy battles mean no rewards?
It felt a bit disappointing…… but the攻略 had ended smoothly, and realizing that Lapin’s combat ability had skyrocketed was a huge gain in itself.
“Lapin, if you’re done with the slush, let’s head down n—”
I stopped mid-sentence.
In a nearby snow-mixed grassy patch, something caught my eye.
……A flower.
“That is?”
I approached and knelt on one knee, looking closely at the flower.
A completely withered flower, discolored to brown.
‘It’s Moonlight Herb.’
……There was no doubt.
It was the same as what I’d seen in photos.
Though it was shriveled and discolored to brown and purple, I could still recognize its shape somewhat.
Moreover, a faint trace of Moonlight Herb’s signature cool blue color remained on the petals.
As I stared at it, something suddenly came to mind.
I took out Pau’s card.
‘……It looks almost dead, but will this work?’
Even if it was a plant, a flower was still a living thing. I might be able to use Pau’s ability.
Rather than just giving up and walking past it, it was better to at least try.
‘Pau, lend me your power.’
I used my ability on the flower.
Paaah—!
Along with a dazzling light, the areas stained deep purple were cleansed completely.
From the leaves that had dried up and turned brown, bluish life began to sprout.
The withered Moonlight Herb was revived.
But only for a moment.
I took my time and continued to observe the Moonlight Herb’s changes.
Then, in the blink of an eye, ‘a certain phenomenon’ unfolded.
Even in the game, the reason Moonlight Herb went extinct was never explained in detail. It wasn’t that important in the game, after all.
But by using Pau’s ability, I discovered the reason.
“……Ahh, so that’s how it is.”
I simply stared at the Moonlight Herb.