Chapter 29: Empathy
The situation had completely exceeded the calculable range of Loran’s 99-Intelligence brain.
If Kiro solo-killing a dragon could still be explained as a chain of low-probability coincidences under specific circumstances, then Gostoc’s death, along with this top-tier upgrade material that should never have appeared here at this time, revealed the terrifying nature of Kiro’s “Luck” in a way Loran could no longer deny.
Gostoc had been “unlucky” enough to be startled by Kiro.
“Unlucky” enough to slip.
And then “unlucky” enough to fall off a cliff and die.
That entire chain of misfortune had ultimately transformed into Kiro’s “luck.”
She had both taken revenge on the sleazy little man who wanted to scheme against her, and obtained a reward far beyond expectation from what was supposed to be a harmless prank.
“This stone... it’s used to upgrade weapons, right? Like, all the way to max level?”
Kiro’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
She snatched the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone from Loran’s hand, held it up before her eyes, and turned it over and over under the sunlight.
“Mm.”
Loran came back to himself and nodded.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
Kiro slapped her thigh.
“Let’s go get a weapon upgraded! Didn’t you just get some Meteorite Staff? Can that be upgraded? And me too! This crappy knife of mine needs replacing. Scratching enemies to death is exhausting.”
“The Meteorite Staff can’t be upgraded. And in theory,” Loran said, “to use this thing, we first need to upgrade a weapon... with ordinary smithing stones, all the way from +1 to +24.”
Kiro’s face immediately fell.
“How many stupid rocks would we need to get all the way to +24? We don’t even have a single low-level smithing stone right now!”
“Yes. According to the game’s rules, that would be the case.”
Loran looked at the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone in Kiro’s hand.
“But as for what this world is actually like... and whether its rules have changed, I no longer know.”
One accident after another had already made him deeply doubt the fixed guides in his memory.
He made a suggestion.
“We can go ask Hewg and try.”
The two arrived at Roundtable Hold.
When Fia saw Kiro, her body stiffened slightly.
Then she forced a somewhat awkward smile onto her face.
“Good afternoon, Kiro.”
“Good afternoon, Miss Fia!”
Kiro waved at her, smiling brightly, as if the person who had hugged her leg and cried with tears and snot all over her face had not been herself.
[Fia’s Affection toward Kiro: 0]
[Status: Helpless / Avoiding / Slight Pity]
After greeting her, Kiro turned around in satisfaction and strutted proudly toward Blacksmith Hewg.
Loran’s gaze, however, was drawn to the girl across from Hewg.
Roderika.
But had her storyline not yet been triggered?
According to the game progression, she should still be at Stormhill Shack.
Why had she appeared here early?
Had the worldline changed again?
He saw that the status bar above the girl’s head was an unsettling gray.
[Name: Roderika]
[Identity: Spirit Tuner: Unawakened]
[Affection: 0]
[Status: Fear / Self-Loathing / On the Verge of Mental Collapse]
While Loran was deep in thought, Kiro had already walked up to Hewg.
“Hey! Old man!”
Kiro slapped the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone onto the anvil with a clang, interrupting Hewg’s rhythmic hammering.
Hewg raised his face, a trace of displeasure flashing through his eyes.
Still, he asked patiently,
“...What is it, girl?”
“Tell me.”
Kiro pointed at the stone.
“Can you use this thing to directly upgrade my weapon to the strongest level?”
Hewg’s gaze fell on the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone.
He picked it up and brought it close to his eyes, studying it carefully for a moment.
“...Ancient dragon stone... Good thing.”
He muttered to himself, then looked back at Kiro.
“You want to... use it directly?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
At the same time, Loran walked over to Roderika.
He crouched down and tried to speak with her, but the girl merely hugged her arms and buried her head even deeper, her mouth constantly murmuring meaningless fragments.
“...They’re all dead... all dead... turned into spiders... so scary... so ugly... Am I going to become like that too...? No... I don’t want to...”
Her voice was not loud.
But in this relatively quiet corner, it was unusually clear.
On the other side, Kiro was arguing with Hewg in full force.
“Why not? Isn’t this thing used to upgrade weapons?”
“...How do you build a house without a foundation, girl?”
Hewg seemed too tired to explain the complicated principles to her.
“This is the final step. Without all the hammering and tempering before it, it will only burst your weapon apart.”
“Burst it apart? Then we’ll just use another one! So stingy!”
“...This isn’t stinginess... It’s the rules...”
The sound of the blacksmith’s hammering, Kiro’s arguing, and Roderika’s never-ending muttering mixed together into three completely different kinds of noise.
“...I’m useless... I can’t do anything... That’s why they died... My fault... It’s all my fault...”
Roderika’s muttering grew louder and louder.
By the end, it had almost turned into hysterical sobbing.
Kiro finally could not take it anymore.
“You over there, crying and whining! Can you keep it down?”
She shouted in Roderika’s direction.
“You’re so loud! I can’t even hear what the old man is saying!”
Roderika’s endless muttering came to an abrupt stop.
She suddenly raised her head, her eyes filled with hollow terror.
[Name: Roderika]
[Identity: Spirit Tuner: Unawakened]
[Affection: -100 toward Kiro]
[Status: Terrified / Trauma Response / Stress-Induced Silence]
On the other side, Kiro glared back without backing down at all.
In her view, this woman who only knew how to cry and whimper had interrupted her “serious business” with the blacksmith, and was now staring at her with those inexplicable eyes.
It was completely unreasonable.
[Name: Kiro]
[Identity: Finger Maiden: Provisional]
[Affection: -100 toward Roderika]
[Status: Provoked / Annoyed / Contemptuous]
Loran sighed.
He grabbed Kiro’s arm and, almost half-dragging and half-pulling, moved her out of Roderika’s line of sight.
“You really have no empathy at all.”
He lowered his voice, his tone filled with unconcealed helplessness and exhaustion.
Kiro was just about to retort with “What did I do?” but when she met Loran’s eyes, that righteous confidence somehow went out.
She opened her mouth.
In the end, she only turned her head away and shut up.
Strangely, the affection value above her head did not drop at all this time.
[Status: Unconvinced / Silent / Tacitly Accepting]
Loran was too tired to analyze her abnormal behavior.
Right now, all of his energy was focused on how to deal with the mess in front of him.
He turned his gaze back toward the girl curled up in the corner.
Roderika had returned to her previous posture, burying her head deep in her arms.
Her body trembled slightly from suppressed sobs.
Simple verbal comfort probably would not work anymore.
Kiro’s shout just now had been like pouring another handful of salt into the wound.
He had to use some other method.