Chapter 98 - Looks Like I'll be Taking Everything for Me
-
『Valiant Heart』 is an item accessory that grants the user a mild boost to several stats. It was quite underwhelming for an item I'm overrating but here's where it gets good. This accessory scales as the user progresses through the story by killing all the known bosses in the game, which means by the endgame, it would have provided me an immense status boost given on how many bosses exist in the game.
"Wait does that mean that..."
"Yep." I abruptly agreed on Lily's remark since I already know what she's thinking. "All rewards from the Tournament all came from the Serpent. You might have remembered but Jett used that Skill against Lily when they fought. He probably got that when he won the Tournament last year."
Although I'm not sure, but it's probably an item they got from the first hero of this world. Are the higher-ups okay with it, though?
Not to be pretty self-conceited, but there's currently no one who can win against Vaconawa. Even if they fought it with overwhelming numbers, they would just get annihilated with ease. I was an exception since I completely know Vaconawa's patterns to its core.
"How did you even know about that thing?" Astra dumbfoundedly asked, along with Lemuen who nodded after.
"Haha, we just gave up trying to find that answer a bit while ago..." Seia replied, straining a laugh.
"That's how it is." I said, shrugging the question, then raised my eyebrows when I saw the next item that took my interest. "This is..."
"Hm? What's wrong, Sai." Lily asked. "Is something wrong?"
"No. It's just that..." Briefly, I beamed. "Looks like our Mini-Dryad here will have her own first friend."
The girls looked at me, perplexed at my response. It would be better if I showed them directly, so I took the item, a glistening blue pearl with the size of an orange and placed it on the table. Once I took the girls attention into the pearl, I poured some Mana into it. Briefly after, the pearl cracks, then came a floating miniature Water Spirit, a small and cute pet that resembles a small siren.
"C-Cute!!" The girls shouted in unison, then starts to gang up the Water Spirit who was just woken up just a second ago, taking turns into caressing it as gently as they could. Poor Water Spirit...
Incidentally, due to the girl's ruckus, the Mini-Dryad was forced to wake-up in her slumber. It wasn't long after that she saw the catalyst on why the girls were going enthusiastic. Seeing a being that's similar to her, the Mini-Dryad came into the Mini-Water Spirit in curiousness.
"Hehe, look at them." Our two miniatures made a contact look into each other, inspecting each other in curiousness. It would take a bit while but hopefully, they'll be good friends later.
"Fufu, they're adorable, aren't they? Master." Luna who was watching them said so.
"Yep. I'm really loving this atmosphere." I replied, then took my hands to the final item of the loot—a weapon. It has an appearance of a Battle Axe but if you look at it in bigger image, is actually a large Trident. It has a cool metal texture befits using by a true warrior.
Named, the 『Serpent's Tide』
"It's beautiful, huh." Luna complimented, looking at the Trident in awe.
"Yep." I replied. "But this weapon is more than meets the eye. I assure you'll be surprised after you saw this in action."
"Eh? What do you mean by that, Master?"
"Just wait." I said, beaming. "You'll see it once we get to the Artic."
Thus, now ends the opening show for the Monster Bag. Thinking about it, there's actually another item that was dropped in every Bag besides the loot. This item is called the 『Manipulator』.
Actually, Vaconawa wasn't originally an official Boss of the game, but is a boss from a Game Mod. the 『Manipulator』 on the other hand, was also a Game Mod, but an expansion from the official Mod. This item is regarded as a game's "Quality of Life (QoL) which helps the player choose the item they wanted to drop from the Boss instead of what they got. Although by doing this, the user needed to sacrifice one of its weapons they didn't like and use it to exchange from the item they wanted. A soul for a soul.
As for me, there's nothing really worth exchanging for since all of the items I got was a pretty drop, so I'll just store it in my inventory for the meantime.
Since the show was done and all, let's get to the 2nd phase of the show: The item distribution.
I mean, there's no way I can use everything, right? Moreover, I have my trusty companions and it's more efficient to give them the items they're more proficient at.
* * *
"No."
"Oh..."
After some careful thought, I finally decided what items should I give to the girls. But then, when I firstly gave Seia the Gun, or the 『Leviathan』, I was downright refused by her.
"Sorry but I'm going to have to refuse." Seia exclaimed. "I promised to also become the strongest. But by doing so, I planned on achieving it with my power. You get what I mean, right?"
Hoh? Loving the Mindset. Your ambition through your dreams should also come to appreciation of your journey. I can see her remark was genuine so I'm not going to force her for this.
"Alright, but you don't mind the help of mine, right?" I asked.
"Hehe," In response, Seia gave me a beautiful smile. "Of course!"
"Good." I nodded, then shifted to the girls. "What about you guys?"
"I also agree with Seia." Lily said. "Our journey wouldn't be fun if we just relied everything to you."
"I also thought the same." Luna added. The rest also nodded in agreement. Hm, looks like my time of spoiling them had come to an end. They sure have grown fine, huh.
Looks like I'll be taking everything on me. Though, I had a duplicate of the Sword which I don't know what to do about. Should I use the 『Manipulator』 and change it to another Weapon? Hm, it's not really that worthwhile... Thinking about it, even if I use the 『Manipulator』, the rest of the items that didn't drop from the Bag were all pretty useless anyways.
"Ugh, I don't know what to do..." The girls went and had their girl's conversation. I, on the other hand, was still deciding what to do with the surplus item.
"Is something wrong, Master?" Looks like Luna saw my uneasiness and asked me. Ever since then, Luna had always been the one to be present whenever I'm having problems.
"I'm just having a confliction on what to do with the spare sword." I explained. Hm, sine it's Luna, I wonder if she'll accept it? "Luna, can I just give it to you?"
"I'm sorry but I'll have to refuse, Master." Luna gently refused. "Just like the girls, I also wanted to get something with my own strength. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to appreciate our journey."
Aw... It can't be helped, huh. I let out a sigh and rest my back through the Sofa. No choice, I'm just going to put it from my inventory then. It might prove useful for later. I don't know how, though.
"...Ah." Now that my part is over, the girls still haven't told me their side of the story yesterday, no? Curious, I used my ⟨⟨Appraisal⟩⟩ and check Astra.
『Astra Redwillow』
『HP: 800』
『MP: 200』
『Armor: 0』
『AGI: 275-550』
『DEX: 100』
『Endurance: 250』
Armor: None
Weapon and Equipment:
『Corrosive End』 『Wooden Broadsword』
Accessory:
『Steampunk Boots』 『Antipathy Gloves』
Skills:
⟨⟨Appraisal⟩⟩ ⟨⟨ Advance Offensive Technique⟩⟩ ⟨⟨Iaijutsu⟩⟩ ⟨⟨Advance Defensive Technique⟩⟩ ⟨⟨Dash⟩⟩ ⟨⟨Counter⟩⟩
It looks like they managed to complete the mission just fine. Although since I've seen Astra's present status, I can't help but feel dejected. From her Weapons and Equipment... were already quite far from the progression of the game but still, Astra's equipment felt very lackluster... It makes me very pissed just thinking about what her own parents had done to her.
But you know what? We've been friends for a while now but well, since I'm here, I'll make sure Astra will experience the best moments of her life. I know she deserves it.
The girls were still occupied on their girl's talk. Something was in my mind, so I wanted to ask someone in secrecy. Luckily, Luna was beside me so, silently, I close myself into Luna and whispered something from her ears.
"Looks like you've managed to complete yesterday's mission just fine." I told, not making myself too obvious. "How did it go by the way?"
Luna felt confused to my approach but went along with it, not making herself too obvious and went into my ears.
"It went great, Master..." Luna whispered. "We got everything you assigned to us. To be honest, it was a bit easy since the 『Everfruit』 was all over the place. Probably had grown much ever since we left the place..."
"Oh really..." That's great. I'm glad it went smoother than I expected. "Continue..."
"Yes... Along with the 『Life Essence』, we already gave it to Astra. She should be already fine right now. We also took an exact number for Lemuen. I'll ask just in case, the reason you're talking in a low voice was about Lemuen, right?"
I faintly nodded. She was right. Truth be told, I still haven't fully accepted Lemuen yet. Don't get me wrong, it was because we only met her recently that I'm still not affirmative of her yet. Although, in about time, I plan on giving those items to her. As long as she meets my expectations that is.
"Alright! since were done and all, how about we discuss our next plan?" I clapped as loud as I could, gathering everyone's attention. The two miniatures, however, was minding their own business, and is playing on the background. "Were nearing our preparations and after that and we'll take a hike to the Artic. Once again, I'll ask you guys, are you still with me or perhaps would like to withdraw from the plan?"
No one responded. That's great however, I'm still not convince. With that in mind, I turned my self into those two whom I'm still felt skeptical with—Astra and Lemuen.
"Astra, are you really sure you wanted to go?" I asked. Sigh, who am I kidding, knowing Astra and her circumstances, I already know what she'll respond.
"You don't need to ask." Astra replied, beaming. "I will go no matter what everyone says."
"Wow. Raring to go, huh." Right, I knew it. Then, I turned myself into Lemuen. "How about you? Just so you know, we're not playing here. We're going on a place that's really dangerous."
"I know. Regardless, please let me come with you." With a glare, Lemuen looks at me with earnest look. "Even if my sister didn't want to, I decided I wanted to go with you."
"Oh Really?" I replied. "And why is that?"
"Eh?" Suddenly, Lemuen's face flushed. After a brief pause, she then answered with a timid voice. "I-It's a secret..."
"Ah..." Everyone's mouth dropped as if they knew something. I'm not really stupid but I don't want to be seen as self-conceited, so I'll assume it's just for her personal interest.
"Alright!" I clapped once again, turning the girl's attention into me. "We've completed our first preparation which is to help our new members increase their stats. Now, for the next part, we'll be upgrading our Weapons. And to do that, once again, we'll go another separate operation. But this time, we'll be separated into three groups. You still with me, right?"
The next preparation will be our last until we'll hike our way into the Artic. It's always marked in my head—that this is not a game anymore that's why I was pretty cautious in preparations. The Artic is a place no one dares to take a step against. Which is why from now on, things will get pretty busy.
————————————————————————————————————————————
Quality of life (or "QoL") elements in games refer to features that are designed to make games easier to play without changing the gameplay itself, oftentimes used to trimming away all the time a player wastes dealing with unnecessary hindrances.