I was lying on the soft bed, eyes open blankly staring at the ceiling. I was already awake.
Today is the weekend. And Chris’s work has been wrapped up to some extent. From today, I need to help Chris level up.
Whirr.
I washed my face briefly and headed to the kitchen. Chris was already up and preparing the meal.
Chris smiled brightly seeing me coming out pulling the wheelchair.
“Oh, Rain. I was about to go get you if you weren’t up yet.”
“…I don’t know. Busy unnie every day.”
Yesterday Chris left early for work, so we couldn’t even have breakfast together.
I showed a bit of a sulky attitude.
“Uhuhu…! Unnie is sorry…!”
Chris gripped the rice paddle tightly with both hands and made a face like she was about to cry.
“D-don’t cry! Here, here!”
“Ahhh…!”
I took one of her hands and placed it on top of my head. Chris immediately looked like she was about to fly away.
Anyway, Chris likes my body. Says it’s soft and squishy or something. If it makes her happy, I can allow this much skinship.
I looked up at Chris gently stroking my head with dreamy eyes and extracted a promise.
“Anyway, we’re definitely playing the game together today, right?”
I’m doing well enough, so I hope Rain, who hasn’t seen Chris for long, gets loved too.
* * *
Actually, my memories of that time are a bit hazy.
Perhaps because something was stabbing my heart from inside my chest, and my mind went blank.
I must have stayed in front of the wall carved with Ein’s image for a while. Chief Droogel waited for me patiently. I also had some conversation with the chief afterwards.
The chief seems to think of me as a direct descendant of the hero from a thousand years ago or something. Well, it’s a hair and eye color not found on this continent. It’s not unreasonable for him to think the past hero was also a being from the stars.
In fact, I’m the same person. But I’m not a young mom.
Just from comparing my appearance to minerals rather than colors, there must be some sense about the subtle hues of minerals that only dwarves can perceive.
“Ein…! Is it Ein! Hahaha…! Hero! This humble descendant has recovered your name!”
Clang, clang!
The hammer and chisel in Chief Droogel’s hands, who was rejoicing, danced on the wall as if possessed.
And below the rock carving, dwarf letters were engraved.
[Dwarf Hero ‘Ein’]
The hero party’s mission ended in the past.
What does this world want from me now?
What I can do now is to uncover the secrets of this world that only I can know.
To do that, I can’t stop adventuring in this world and conquering dungeons.
I checked the options on the bracelet I received from Chief Droogel. This is a small gift given to me by a past companion.
[Bracelet of Hammer and Anvil]
[Elite]
[Strength +35 Agility +35 Intelligence +35]
[Unique Ability: Reset all skill cooldowns (Cooldown 10 minutes)]
It’s an accessory of the bracelet part that appeared in the game for the first time. It seemed to be a new part item that can be received by filling up all the amity with the dwarf village.
It’s like wearing one more accessory in the specs of other users, so I’ll be able to gain a lot of advantage and conquer the next elite dungeon.
The stats are good, but the most attractive option is of course the accessory’s unique ability ‘Reset all skill cooldowns’.
Because the unique ability cooldown is long, it can only be used about once per try, but the existence of this option makes possible outrageous plays different from before.
I can use the extreme damage skill Flash Strike consecutively, or after using all invincibility skills, I can activate the bracelet’s unique ability to use invincibility skills again. By simple calculation, it means I can get through even if an absurd pattern like 10 consecutive full area-of-effect attacks comes out.
My own bracelet obtained by skipping many processes. The time when other users get this item will be quite later.
“They’re late…”
Tap tap tap.
I checked the time while puffing my cheeks and stomping my feet.
The place I’m standing is the entrance of ‘Berbeia Rocky Mountain Cave’, the cave leading to the dwarf village. I promised to meet Chris here today.
“…Rain! Huff huff.”
A welcome voice was heard from a bit below where I was standing.
My ears perked up.
I felt good and like my body was about to jump up.
But I barely calmed my body down. And puffed my cheeks again.
Chris, who had come up to where I was, smiled brightly looking at me with a tired expression.
“…”
“Rain, sorry! Unnie was late, right?”
Chris approaching me with arms wide open.
I slightly pulled my foot back and turned my head sharply to the right.
“Ah…! Rain!”
Chris came around to my right to look at my face from the front. I turned my head to the left.
Swish.
“Hmph.”
“Ack!”
Chris clutched her chest. She looked like she was about to cough up blood.
Seeing her suffering expression, my heart that was going to scold her for being late became uncomfortable.
Unnie seems to be in a lot of pain.
Pitter-patter.
Hug.
I approached her and hugged her.
“Unnie, I missed you.”
“Ra… Rain! Uhuhu! I’m sorry for being late! I’m sorry for being busy all this time!”
Chris hugged me tightly, sobbing.
Her reaction made me feel even more sorry.
From unnie’s perspective, it must feel like she’s consoling me twice.
Rumble rumble.
“Oh.”
Clap clap clap.
Chris, sitting at the entrance of the cavern full of golems in the last area of the cave, clapped.
“Ahem.”
I puffed out my chest and shrugged my shoulders. I had taken care of the golems in an instant using even the options of the newly acquired bracelet.
Chris checked the status window and exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow, the experience points went up a lot.”
“You see? You should be comfortable. Today, Chris is a passenger on the Rain bus.”
Chris is the boss who hired me. As her employee, I have an obligation to level her up.
Even in a 2-person party, the experience gained doesn’t decrease exactly by half. In field hunting where you have to do monster kill quests too, there’s not much advantage to partying, but in grinding sections like this, you can efficiently share experience through parties.
If we hunt together, we could take care of them a bit faster, but since we’re killing them all at once with area attacks anyway, it doesn’t get dramatically faster. Then, it’s better for Boss Chris to be comfortable and employee Rain to work hard.
I continued hunting for a while, excitedly going in and out of the dungeon while receiving Chris’s cheers.
“So this is the dwarf village.”
Chris looked around with wide eyes following behind me. Since I was amazed when I first came too, her current reaction is not unreasonable.
I introduced Chris to Chief Droogel as my companion. It seems if you become a friend of the dwarves, you can raise the amity for one companion too. Not all of it, of course.
“My amity became 40.”
“That seems to be the minimum condition for entry. The next elite dungeon seems to be here.”
“…!”
Chris seems properly surprised. Well, I was surprised too when I saw the dungeon entrance discovered inside the dwarf mine yesterday.
Chris and I entered the mine entrance guided by a guide dwarf. The dwarves around the entrance greeted us warmly.
Clang, clang!
The sound of dwarves’ pickaxes could be heard from inside small caves dug left and right here and there along the straight mine.
As I was looking inside like that, a human user fiddling with a pickaxe came into my view.
“…Cherni ahjussi?”
“I-I’m mining hard right now! …Oh? Rain? Senior Chris?”
He pretended to be pickaxing hard as soon as he heard my voice, then made a dumbfounded expression when he saw Chris and me.
“What are you doing here?”
“They say you have to mine minerals to raise the dwarf village’s amity. Haah, I wonder how long I have to do this.”
“Hehe.”
I covered my mouth and giggled along with Chris.
Seeing that Cherni is here, it seems other users have started entering the dwarf village too. However, to enter a certain area inside the mine, you need to fill up the dwarf village’s amity to some extent.
Soon, Chris and I faced a huge door that had revealed about half its appearance in front of a large cavern. Several dwarves were delicately carving away the rocks covering the area around the huge door.
“This is the entrance to the ancient temple discovered recently. Judging by the ancient dwarf architectural style incorporated, it appears to be a temple inside the rocky mountain built by the dwarves’ ancestors well over a thousand years ago, but…”
I nodded at the explanation of the young-looking guide dwarf. Certainly, this huge door must be the entrance to the next elite dungeon.
And today, the system message that popped up from the somewhat excavated door confirmed that.
Chris smiled looking at me.
“This is where we’ll compete next. This time, unnie will win for sure.”
Words I’ve heard once before.
I didn’t know before, but now I know what they mean.
While browsing the ‘Astria Online’ user community after a long time during hospitalization, I learned that ‘Chris’s Raid Party’ and the ‘No Name’ party have been competing for elite dungeon first clears all this time.
Chris, who conquered dungeons at a similar pace to me and exchanged weapons.
And the two parties that have been achieving elite dungeon first clears so far. Chris’s Raid Party, and the No Name party.
The latter must be the name of my party that I didn’t name. Chris probably doesn’t know yet that I’m conquering alone.
There’s no particular reason to hide from Chris now that I’m soloing, but there’s no reason to boast about it either. Since I’m living as Lee Seulbi too, she’ll find out naturally.
Of course Chris is a grateful unnie, but she ignited my competitive spirit that had eaten the sword in this world in my own way.
I smiled broadly and said to Chris with a bit of provocation.
“I’ll clear it faster this time too.”
[Enterable Level 42]
[Elite Dungeon (4-person party recommended)]
[Berbeia Ancient Temple]