Chapter 27: Volume 2 Chapter 0 prologue

Volume 2 prologue

In this world, something called a “Status” exists.

A person’s status is determined by luck.

Their stats will increase by a value from 1 to 3 whenever they leveled up.

I was unlucky. From the beginning, my stats only increased by one and occasionally two until I was level 50. However, I didn’t give up. I continued to train, eventually obtaining other skills and strengths beyond my status.

[Munya,muna, youya seconds please!] (Luna)

[fufu, it’s fine to praise me more you know!] (Til)

When I woke up in the morning, I was being embraced by two beautiful girls. One of them was a cute fox-girl with fox ears and a fox tail, Luna. She was suffering from amnesia and a girl who I picked up in a dungeon. The other girl is a beautiful Elf, Til. She is a girl who ran away from her village in the forest to become an adventurer. Things happened and she joined my party.

Currently, we are in the town of beginning, Rumberg in an inn serving as our base.

It sounds great and all. But..

[Luna,Til. Why are the two of you in my bed?] (Youya)

I pinched the noses of the sleeping beauties in my bed.

After a while, their faces distorted and jumped out of bed.

[Youya, Horrible.] (Luna)

[You should wake girls up more gently!] (Til0

The two girls woke up with faces of contempt.

[I thought that I said no one is to enter my bed when im sleeping?] (Youya)

[I was envious of Til and couldn’t help it.] (Luna)

[Once you get a taste, you can’t stop asking for more!] (Til)

Both of them gave a ridiculous excuse.

During the festival, the two of them were competing to see who could find the most delicious food. Secretly, the two of them made a bet and for some reason I was the prize.The winner, Til asked me to sleep in the same bed with her for one night. I obviously refused, but after she cried claiming that she was lonely after running away from her village, I gave in to her request.

[Listen here. Men are dangerous and vulgar creatures. You should be mindful of your own actions.] (Youya)

The two girls tilt her head. Til started laughing.

[Youya isn’t dangerous. I feel safer when clinging to you.] (Til)

[Right! And hasn’t Youya said it over and over? That Youya isn’t a lolicon! So Luna is safe!] (Luna)

The two girls were stuck on me in the bed.The two of them were still children around the age of 13 or 14. And I do not feel attraction to children. However, because of their nightwear, it is highly likely to make a mistake at night if I don’t watch my own actions.

[If I find the two of you in my bed again, expect to eat the daily set meals at the inn. And only the cheapest bread with cheese will be prepared for lunch.] (Youya)

[Youya, unfair!] (Luna)

[This is blasphemy! I plan to eat all of the delicious things in Rumberg before leaving!] (Til0

Also, the two of them are gluttons. They will only listen to me when their food is at stake. After groaning for a while, the two of them finally let me go.

Now that I think about it, how did the two of them sneak into my bed? As a veteran, I’ve trained myself to stay aware of the surroundings even when I am sleeping to prevent anything dangerous from happening when I’m most vulnerable.

[Once you are done eating, head to the courtyard for your training.] (Youya)

[Okay.] (Luna)

[I understand. I’ll do my best!] (Til)

The two of them replied obediently. I finally understood how. The two of them don’t harbor any ill intent towards me, so I wouldn’t notice them when I’m asleep.

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After completing our morning training, we headed towards the guild.Although statuses existed in this world, it is important not to neglect our training and discipline. Speaking from experience, a person’s status isn’t everything.

Having proper training and a good status has a synergistic effect that improves a person’s fighting prowess even further, separating the first and second class adventurers.

Having the techniques without the status, or the status without techniques would only get you so far. However, having both would propel you to the top of the bunch.

As usual, we headed directly towards Phil’s desk.

Phil is my former party member and Rumberg’s number one most popular receptionist. Although her appearance is similar to a beautiful girl in her late teens, her actual age is around the mid-twenties.

[Youya, I’ve gotten a good quest for you. It’s an emergency ingredient collection quest in the seafloor dungeon. The requester is offering three times the market price for the item.] (Phil)

[Ah that sounds extremely good. If it’s the seafloor dungeon, we can earn a lot of exp as well.] (Youya)

The target this time is the Long Arm Shrimp which is a shrimp the size of a child. The item requested is the flesh that it drops, Shrimp Meat (Average). It is extremely tasty and easy to collect as one drop is about 2 kilograms. Furthermore, even after 2 months the food’s quality doesn’t deteriorate, so it’s often used more as compared to standard shrimps.

[That isn’t all. After completing the quest, you will be given an invitation for a free meal up to four people at the client’s restaurant. It is a shop that specialises in shrimp cuisine, and because their usual supplier ran into a bit of a problem, they are currently in a bit of a pickle.] (Phil)

I received the documents from Phil and began checking it’s content. It is an extremely tempting quest as they are offering three times the market price for 20 Shrimp meat (Average), roughly 40 kilograms. It is quite a large amount but we can manage somehow.

[Alright, I’ll accept that quest.] (Youya)

[The deadline is the day after, please make sure not to fail it, so do your best!] (Phil)

[Leave it to me, the guild is in big trouble after all.] (Youya)

[Yes. It isn’t quite like before the incident, especially since we don’t have a guildmaster now. But that is why I have to work twice as hard!] (Phil)

Phil is smiling. She has become stronger compared to when I met her for the first time.

Right now, the guild is currently in a dangerous situation as the guildmaster himself had initiated an act of terrorism. Although his attempt ended badly, the guild’s reputation has been tarnished, and without a leader, the chaos has spread all the way to the adventurers and staff. In the midst of all the chaos, Phil rose up as a leader figure to guide and restore the guild back to its former glory. It is thanks to the her that the guild has managed to recover this much. As an adventurer, I want to do my best to help. To do that, I have to finish this quest as quickly as possible.

[Youya, I want to ask a favor from you.] (Phil)

[What is it?] (Youya)

[About the free invitation, could I come along? It’s a high-class restaurant and I want to try it sometime.] (Phil)

[Leave it to me. I’ll definitely bring you to the store.] (Youya)

Phil is embarrassed. Considering her savings that was accumulated from her savings and the reservations, she could easily go to any store that she wanted. She really just wanted to have a meal with me. And I felt the same way.

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We walked through the magical door and appeared in a dungeon at the ocean floor.

It is the dungeon at the bottom of the ocean with a transparent ceiling where many aquatic monsters appear.

[Tonight we shall feast!] (Luna)

[For that to happen, we’ll have to hunt plenty of shrimp!] (Til)

As usual, Luna’s excitement can be seen by her vigorous fox tail. Similarly, Til’s long ears were twitched form excitement. Rather, they were more excited than ever when they heard about the dinner invitation. Til takes out her quiver and her long bow from the magic bag.

[Thank you Luna’s Treasure Sense.] (Til)

[Luna is on fire, Luna will find plenty of treasure too!] (Luna)

Luna is a special Thief who only possesses one offensive skill, Assassinate and poured the rest of her skill points into exploration skills. Thanks to her, we are able to explore the dungeon comfortably.

[Youya, Til. An enemy is coming out from that corner. A big shrimp.] (Luna)

[About time.] (Til)

The first person to react is Til. in one quick movement, she nocked the arrow and drew her bow. The unique trait of an elf, her jade eyes began to glow. A crimson shrimp the side of a human child appeared from the corner. It was a Long Arm Shrimp.

The Long Arm Shrimp has a relatively low attack power, however being a crustacean-type monster, it has high defensive power making it a troublesome prey. From a distance about 100 meters away, the monster doesn’t even notice the rain of arrows falling down above him. Even with it’s defensive power, it shouldn’t be able to endure more than ten consecutive arrows. With Til’s precision, it’s a ranged attack that can only be done by her. This is the result of being well-versed in archery and training ever since she was a child.

[It’s just as Youya said. The arrows made by Arrow Generation is getting stronger and stronger! At this rate, what would happen if we were to become level 50!?] (Til)

Til was trembling with excitement.

Arrow Generation

It is an essential skill for all bow users. It consumes a portion of the user’s mana to create arrows of quality and power proportional to the person’s status. With this, even if the store-bought arrows were all used up, the arrows can be replenished easily. In addition, an arrow generated by a level 20 adventurer is stronger than any arrow that can be commercially produced.

[We’ll find out once we hit level 50. Now let’s continue. Although Phil told us to clear it by tomorrow, we’ll complete the quest today.] (Youya)

[Leave it to Luna! Luna will find many enemies.] (Luna)

[What’s wrong Luna?] (Til)

[That wall smells of treasure.] (Luna)

Looks like we managed to find a chest today as well. My wallet is feeling hungry.

[Since it’s right here, let’s find it.] (Youya)

Luna and Til are still children, but they are adventurers who have clear strengths and weaknesses. We’re progressing fairly well as a party that is only one month old and our earnings are already on par with an intermediate level party.

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After returning to the guild, we headed towards Phil’s desk to report the completion of our quest.

[I thought that if it was Youya it would be completed by tomorrow.. I can’t believe you guys actually completed it within a day.] (Phil)

Phil began the completion procedure with an astonished face.

[Maa. I used a little trick.] (Youya)

Initially, we were hunting as usual when we entered the dungeon. However, it has been a few days since the monster has respawned, so it was difficult to find the target let alone any monster in the dungeon. So after running one round about the dungeon collecting treasure, we did a little cheat.

One of the most well-known monsters in the seafloor dungeon was the Hermit Crab. As most adventurers consciously avoid this monster known as the god of death, it was one of the monsters that were still alive in the dungeon. The Hermit Crab has a passive ability as a mid-boss that regularly summon monsters in its vicinity. That was the trick.

Normally, it would be a very troublesome ability to defeat, but with Til’s long-distance shooting and my Superconductive Bullet, it isn’t that difficult to clear the monsters in it’s surroundings without being swarmed by them. Since the Hermit Crab spawns monsters that appear only in the seafloor dungeon, one of the monsters being summoned was the Long Arm Shrimp. We repeatedly cleared the monsters surrounding it after it’s ability kicked in, providing a constant supply of monsters and drop items. Doing this, the drop items that appeared stacked up fairly quickly. This was a famous strategy utilized back only in the game era, so it would make sense that adventurers have never thought about abusing the monster’s ability.

[Now then, here’s the reward Youya. When will you be going to the restaurant?] (Phil)

[Tonight. Luna and Til have been saying feast,feast feast non-stop since this morning.] (Youya)

[Youya, Let’s hurry up and feast!] (Luna)

[My stomach is already going guruguru!] (Til)

Luna and Till came over from behind me. Phil let out a wry smile watching the two children.

[I understand. Then I’ll quickly finish up my work here. It’ll be about an hour so please kill some time at the bar. Luna, Til, I’ll pay so order whatever you want at the bar.] (Phil)

[Youya, we will go ahead to the bar. Luna wants a parfait!] (Luna)

[I want a mixed fruit juice.] (Til)

The two of them ran towards the bar in the guild. Watching the two girls enjoy themselves, I couldn’t help but let out a smile.

Our adventure today also went well. Next week, we will be riding on a caravan to the next town, and we’ll be leaving Rumberg. There is only less than a week before we part ways with Phil. It’s a little short but let’s try to enjoy our time with Phil as much as possible. That is what I have decided.