[You drank too much. Remember to pace yourself next time when you are drinking.] (Youya)
Phil was dead drunk. Even though she should be aware of her own limits, she still ended up getting drunk. Well Iâm not completely free of blame this time. It was a reunion after such a long time and I ended up being careless. I nearly got myself drunk as well, but I managed to sober up and drank plenty of water.
[Iâm sorry.] (Phil)
[Is this the right place?] (Youya)
[Yeah, this is my home.] (Phil)
I could feel the warmth of Philâs body on my back. Itâs a nostalgic feeling. I used to carry her like this so often back then. Although Phil is a first class adventurer right now, back when we just started adventuring together, it was so different. I was tired of carrying her back then. She would often fall down in the middle of the streets, or get injured unnecessarily.
[In the past I often carried you around like this. It was tough work considering how many times I had to do that.] (Youya)
[Uhn. How nostalgic. Youyaâs back is as comfortable as always. It feels like Iâm safe so long as Iâm here] (Phil)
Phil started to place more weight onto my back, transmitting more of her temperature and even her smell onto my body. Sheâs been trying hard, and I kinda get the message. Although Philâs outer appearance hasnât changed that much because of the elvesâ racial characteristics, the Phil I knew and the Phil I know now are different. She has grown up to be a wonderful woman.
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I carried Phil towards her room. It was clean and neatly organized. She was always the one in charge of housework, even back when we were living together. She was a great cook too. Back then I often told her she would make a good bride, earning me weird looks from her.
I placed her down onto her bed and loosened her clothes by removing the buttons on her shirt. Now that she is home safely, itâs time for me to get back to the inn. There are various things that I have to teach till before her special course. The only time we have left is tonight and tomorrow morning, which isnât a lot of time since we will be entering the dungeon immediately after her class selection. Although that is if I get to leave the room.
[Phil, could you please let go of my hand?] (Youya)
Phil forcefully turned my head and gently gazed into my eyes. Thanks to the level reset, I do not have the power to resist her force. Itâs impossible for me to escape unless she lets me go.
[Why, why do you leave me back then. You left without a word, just leaving a letter for us to read Do you know how sad. How lonely I was when you left?] (Phil)
[If I remained, we would had definitely failed to complete the Tower of Trials. There was no way we werenât going to attempt it with how enthusiastic Leonard and Lyle was about the tower. I couldnât bear to drag you and Leonard behind, who could become stronger. Because if it was someone who was stronger than me in the party, you guys could definitely clear the trials.] (Youya)
The Tower of Trials has a survival rate of 2%. It is impossible to survive the tower with someone like me back then. Especially when the tower was designed to only be cleared by a party of four people who had reset their level. Clearing the tower yields multiple rare items and increases the level cap to 70, so that degree of difficulty is natural. In fact, Leonard was the ridiculous one who managed to clear the tower without the bonuses from a level reset.
[You know that is not what I meant. Why didnât you ask me back then? Why didnât you take me with you? We were always together werenât we? If you didnât want to attempt the trials, I would had followed behind you. I couldnât care less about aiming for the top. That wasnât the reason why I was in that party.] (Phil)
Philâs eyes starting to become moist. She had never shown those eyes when we were together back then. She is properly growing up, both in heart and body.
[I have always longed for the Youya who rescued the village, who introduced the idea of being an adventurer to explore the outside world. The same man who saved me when I was about to be taken advantage of by other adventurers. The same person who Iâve spend forever with. As time went by, my feelings just grew stronger and stronger. I thought that we would be together forever. Thanks to Youya, I felt like the happiest person in the world. But even then. Even so. Why did you abandon me? ] (Phil)
It felt like my chest was stabbed by her words. At that moment, I wanted to tell Phil everything.
[I didnât think about what I wanted to do after leaving the party. All I wanted was Phil to be happy with Leonard. If I were to consult the party about me leaving, Phil would surely leave with me, to me that wouldnât make you happy.] (YOuya)
I thought that it would be best for Phil to be together with Leonard who had loved her deeply. Together the two of them would be able to soar to greater heights. So I decided to leave only the letter behind and disappear on my own.
[Donât go off deciding peopleâs future on your own. We were always together, so why didnât you notice? It was not Leonard. It was never him.] (Phil)
Her voice carried a strange tone while her jade eyes caught my eye without relinquishing control. Her entire body seemed to carry an alluring tone. I swallowed my saliva in nervousness
[Iâm sorry.] (Youya)
[Are you still going to pretend not to notice? Iâm not a child anymore.] (Phil)
I didnât notice anything back then because I have always treated Phil as a daughter. Now that we havenât met in a long time, I couldnât help but notice how mature she has become.
[Phil, do you know what you are saying?] (Youya)
[I do. Thats why.] (Phil)
You told me so far, I understand what you are trying to say. However..
[Ouch~] (Phil)
I did a hard flick onto philâs forward with my finger.
[Iâm not desperate enough to lay a hand on a drunken woman, nor am I hungry for a woman.] (Youya)
[Meanie..] (Phil)
[Sorry.] (Youya)
[But Iâm relieved. I thought that you had come to dislike me thatâs why you left me behind. I was anxious thinking that I had done something bad. Thatâs why, could you sleep together with me tonight? Just sleeping. Itâs lonely to sleep by myself.] (Phil)
[Alright. I will.] (Youya)
[You have always treated me as a daughter, and I was fine with that. Because Youya was always taking care of me. You were always my first love.] (Phil)
Phil closed her eyes, leaving herself defenseless with a man like me. I smiled nervously. I didnât expect to be shaken up this much with her confession.
I had a hard time falling asleep.
Phil wasnât the cute little girl I knew back then. She has grown up into a fine woman. An idea suddenly popped back into my mind.
I could tell everything to Phil. Have her reset her level and fixing her status gain to the maximum, and go on adventures together again. It was extremely tempting. I spent most of the night watching Philâs sleeping face and before I knew it, I fell asleep.
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I returned to the inn at dawn.
Luna was scolding me for being late while Til was teasing me the entire time. However, once they knew that I spent the night at Philâs place, they calmed down. After that, we ordered room service and the owner of the inn delivered our breakfast to our room. While we were eating breakfast, we were explaining the basics of adventurers to Til. This went on until noon.
[Letâs start heading towards the guild. If Til misses her class, we wonât be able to go into the dungeon afterwards.] (Youya)
[Finally I can choose a class! I can become an adventurer now!] (Til)
Til seems excited for her class selection. Now itâs just up to Phil to hold the class for Til. While we were talking about such things, the three of us prepared for our departure.
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When we arrived at the guild, we went straight towards the receptionist desk to look for Phil.
Since special classes aside from the weekly lectures arenât considered official lessons, we have to look for Phil in order to attend the class. Strangely enough, Phil wasnât at the receptionist desk.
[Where are you looking?] (Phil)
I heard Philâs voice from behind me, and there stood a Phil in her personal clothes. She looks much better in her private clothes as compared to the guild uniform.
[Now that I think about it, today was your day off.] (Youya)
[Initially I was supposed to deliver Til back to the village today, but the situation has changed. Iâve talked to my superiors about the circumstances and the procedure has been approved.] (Phil)
Despite just drinking yesterday night, Phil still managed to get the class approved. Her makeup looks much better than usual today.
[Thank you big sister!! I will make you proud as an adventurer!] (Til)
[Iâll be supporting you as a sister and a receptionist, so try your best alright. Iâm sure youâll do fine since Youya is around.] (Phil)
[Leave it to me, I will make sure to keep your sister safe.] (Youya)
Although Iâm protecting Til as a responsibility towards Phil, Iâm also doing it for my own benefit. As a reward, Til will be supplying me Drops of the World Tree. A liquid that stops the body from aging. With just a drop, a human body can stop aging for a day. Today was the first day I was given the drop, and I took it before we departed. Apparently the drop can only be obtained by elves, I wonder where did the drop come from..?
[Follow me, Iâll lead you to the classroom.] (Phil)
Following Philâs lead, we went into the room at the back of the guild towards the same room where me and Luna got our classes.
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As expected, the place Phil lead us to was the same classroom.
After the special class ended, Til is standing in front of the statue. She appears totally stiff as she stood still. It seems that she was more excited rather than nervous. Her enthusiasm was overflowing so much that I could feel myself getting excited as well.
[Til remember to let me know what are the classes that appear in your mind.] (Youya)
[Uhn. I know.] (Til)
Right now, it was in the middle of the afternoon. We spent the entire time explaining the different classes to Til. There wasnât any specific class that I wanted Til to take, however if the exclusive class that Phil had was present for Til, I will ask her to take that class. If she doesnât have the class, Iâll ask her to be a Magic Caster. Our party lacks a dedicated attacker. A party needs to have someone capable of dealing with large number of monsters. If a group of monsters were to appear infront of me and Luna, it would be a difficult battle as we had no range attackers who could attack from the back. There were also monsters who could render physical attacks ineffective, and my mana pool isnât large enough to sustain multiple spell casts for each battle. Hence, a Magic Caster would be ideal for our party.
If the party member was a human, the Magic Caster would be ideal. However, Til was an Elf. For elves, the exclusive class that was present is a class that has priority over the Wizard class. It was a powerful class that was limited to NPCs back in the game era, players even thought that the class was unbalanced even in the hands of an NPC.
Til started to pray in front of the statue.
[The classes that appeared were Warrior, Fighter, Magic Knight, Thief, Magic Caster, Monk, Ranger and the Spirit Archer.] (Til)
There it is. The exclusive class that can only be taken by an elf.
[Take the Spirit Arche.] (Youya)
[Hurray! Will this class let me becoming an amazing adventurer?] (Til)
[Thatâs a special class that canât be taken by ordinary adventurers. It will make you a top tier adventurer if you can master it. I guarantee it.] (Youya)
[Then, letâs take it!] (Til)
Tilâs body was covered in a familiar glow. The light enveloping her body caused her body to become slightly transparent. Her body started to change back to normal after the glow dissipated. Til is now officially a Spirit Archer.
[I am the Spirit Archer Til now!. Please take care of me from now on!] (Til)
[Iâll do my best to meet your expectations.] (Youya)
Spirit Archer is a powerful class as itâs a combination of the Ranger class and the Magic Caster class. Rangers are capable of attacking from long distance using a bow while utilizing exploration skills. Magic Casters were capable of casting magic spells of all three attributes: Fire, Water (Ice), Wind (Lightning). Spirit Archers were capable of utilising bows for long-ranged attacks while having the ability to cast magic of the Wind (Lightning) attribute, giving them two different forms of attacks.
Although the Spirit Archer appears to be similar to the Magic Knight, magic knights did not have the same status correction that spirit archers have. Spirit archers have improved mana pools, attack power, speed and magic power with a decent increase in physical capabilities. This meant that they have similar benefits in status corrections to rangers and magic casters without the downsides. The classâs greatest strength wasnât the ability to utilize two types of attacks, but the ability to use two types of attacks simultaneously, showcasing itâs ability as an exclusive class.
Itâs ability is much more amazing than it appears to be. When I was watching Philâs battles back then as a spirit archer, there were many instances where I wished I could be a spirit archer. Similar to Philâs case, it would be better to have Til experience the strength of her class rather than explaining it in words. Iâm sure Til will be as surprised as Phil was back then.
I canât wait to watch Til showcase her power.