Chapter 51: If It’s Cute, That’s Enough
Chapter 51: If It’s Cute, That’s Enough
Heavy drinking brings a hangover.
“Ugh… I’m dying.”
I lay sprawled on the bed, groaning in pain.
Not only did my head pound, but my stomach churned so badly that it was hard to gather my thoughts.
“….”
“Ah, thank you.”
After drinking the cold water Rosalia handed me, at least the thirst subsided.
“But why are you looking at me like that? Did I cause some kind of trouble yesterday?”
Could it be that I—District Six’s most well-behaved cultist—did something strange under the influence of alcohol?
My memory clearly hadn’t blacked out, but parts of it felt hazy.
While I was carefully retracing what had happened the previous night, Rosalia raised her thumb and brought it down.
Thud.
A pain struck my thigh—the exact spot she hit—as if I had been smashed with a stone.
“Well… I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did, but since I’m reflecting like this, please let it slide just this once.”
“…Alcohol, banned.”
For this taciturn elf to issue a warning aloud, it seemed I must have committed quite a serious mistake.
I didn’t particularly like alcohol to begin with, so I decided to accept the verdict obediently.
Press.
As if confirming the sentence, Rosalia pressed her thumb down once more before shaking her head slightly and sitting on the bed beside me.
Then she leaned against me, using me as a backrest.
After sitting comfortably like that for a moment, she suddenly extended one arm toward me.
– Kuu!
On her gloved hand, a small, round, purple pseudo-slime scurried around energetically.
A creature created with the Third-Tier Mystery Toxic Follower.
It was essentially a lump of lethal poison formed by combining all the toxic substances I had consumed so far, using the poison Bleak Future—which I had eaten recklessly yesterday as dressing—as its base.
“…Maengmaengi.”
The quiet elf suddenly spoke an out-of-context word, but from her gaze I could tell what she meant.
“Is that its name?”
Nod.
Rosalia bobbed her head and held the newly named Maengmaengi right up to my face.
“It’s truly lovely and adorable.”
But that was all the Mystery did.
Still, that alone was enough.
If something is cute, what more could you possibly need?
After all, cuteness could possess destructive power and lethality comparable to most swords.
“Try sending your will so it slowly moves toward me.”
If the goal were poisoning enemies, the Fresh Companion—which had risen to Sixth Tier thanks to the reward from Nightmare World—would be far more useful.
But personal preference was important, so I diligently taught Rosalia how to make use of “Maengmaengi.”
– Kuu!
The purple creature hopped closer, then wriggled up my body.
“Once you’ve succeeded in getting it close, you fire off part of its body like a bullet so it enters the enemy’s mouth or touches their skin. Preferably when they’ve let their guard down because of how cute it looks.”
A cute appearance could make enemies careless, and its tiny wriggling movements produced almost no detectable presence—perfect for surprise attacks.
Even something that looked useless at first glance would eventually find some kind of use.
The Immortal Cultist build included many Mysteries that other explorers would never learn—Mysteries they would rather avoid.
Shall I prepare that first?
I took out a single Mystery Tome from my subspace.
It was the Mystery Tome Fragment of the Colossus, obtained from Nightmare World.
“I’m going to do some reading.”
After asking Rosalia to move Maengmaengi—who was crawling over Sky Invader and melting holes in my clothes—I began reading in earnest.
Unlike Avatar of the Earth, which had taken quite a long time to finish because it was so difficult, this one wasn’t very complicated, so I quickly read it through.
《Congratulations: the Third-Tier Mystery Fragment of the Colossus has taken root in your body!》
Since I had learned it, I decided to test its performance immediately.
I lightly poked the small purple poisonous creature wriggling beside me with my fingertip.
– Kuu?
While Maengmaengi tilted its round body cutely, just that slight contact sent intense pain through my entire finger.
A stabbing, burning, tearing agony.
Yet outwardly, the finger looked perfectly fine.
That was the effect of Fragment of the Colossus.
《Fragment of the Colossus: Status abnormalities targeting the body no longer threaten your vitality!》
From now on, status effects that targeted the body—such as Rosalia’s poison—would no longer reduce my vitality.
However, the pain caused by those status effects remained unchanged, and status abnormalities affecting the mind had their duration and negative effects doubled.
A Mystery with both advantages and disadvantages.
In truth, the downside was greater, which was why it was usually ignored. But if used properly, it could exponentially increase my still-insufficient combat power.
《It will be interesting to see how you use such an inconvenient Mystery as Fragment of the Colossus. The Wise One is watching with eager anticipation!》
“Lidni, you will not be disappointed. I am not a cultist who grows in dull ways.”
– Kuuuu!
“Ugh. Maengmaengi, don’t come closer. It hurts.”
Just as I was rolling around on the bed trying to avoid the poisonous creature clinging to me—
“Ughhh… Captain.”
Pendrick, the swordsman who had changed his profession from inn employee to guest, entered the room looking miserable.
He seemed unable to think clearly due to a hangover.
– Please scold him properly, Lord Kar!
Astrimia, sheathed in the artifact sword sheath, fumed as if angry after listening to drunken conversations between a human and a dog-beastman all night.
As expedition leader, I could not ignore the matter, so I accepted the request and spoke sternly.
“Pendrick, next time make sure to eat snacks while drinking. Humans can’t just pour alcohol down like beastmen do. You’ll ruin your body.”
– …No!
“I’ve given him a proper scolding, Lady Astrimia. From now on he’ll drink responsibly—with snacks.”
Having delivered my clean lecture, I got up from the bed and began preparing to go out.
Still looking unwell, Pendrick sat in a chair and asked,
“Where are you going?”
“I have a few things to take care of. Lady Rosalia, shall we go together? Pendrick, would you like to come as well?”
“Yes, that sounds good. Let’s have breakfast first.”
“That works.”
We ordered the main dish of The Sheep’s Roar inn—lamb steak—and enjoyed it before finally heading out.
First, we handled something Pendrick absolutely had to do in order to officially join the expedition team.
“Here. The penalty fee.”
“Fine. Take him.”
After stopping by the headquarters of the guild Pendrick had belonged to and paying the fee, the guild master handed him over without hesitation.
He was an orc who looked somewhat dull-witted, and judging by appearances, he probably really was slow-witted or simply lacked passion for running the guild.
Otherwise, there was no way he would fail to recognize that the “super-genius swordsman from the Eastern Continent” that Hugestis had been spreading rumors about all night was an aspiring explorer from his own guild.
“…I feel a little disappointed.”
After we walked some distance away from the guild building, Pendrick spoke with mixed emotions.
“I didn’t expect them not to even try to hold me back. Honestly, I thought they’d desperately try to persuade me to stay.”
“That just means it’s a worthless guild. Forget about it.”
“I’ll succeed for sure and make them regret letting me go.”
“That will definitely happen—especially if you explore with me.”
After finishing our business with Pendrick’s former guild, we continued walking through the streets.
“Where are we going this time?”
“After discovering a Hidden Piece, there’s something you’re supposed to do, isn’t there?”
Sell the information.
To the group managing District Three—not the Harmony Church.
“We’re heading to the headquarters of the Ashen Wolf Guild.”
The Ashen Wolf Guild.
The strongest explorer guild managing District Three in Pletika stood in the northernmost part of the Challenging Mountain Trail.
Pendrick, who had rarely come this far as an aspiring explorer, stared at the guild building in amazement.
“…It’s a wolf.”
An accurate observation.
Right in front of the inner wall separating the central district from the others stood a large building constructed in the shape of a wolf’s head.
《Headquarters of the Ashen Wolf Guild.》
《The guild master stubbornly insisted on the wolf-head design, so the construction cost ended up ridiculously high. That’s gray orcs for you!》
The front gate lay inside the wolf’s mouth, with sharply carved white rocks forming its teeth.
When we opened the door—painted red like a tongue—and stepped inside, the first floor appeared.
It doubled as a tavern.
Not only guild members but also ordinary explorers could use it.
《You are no longer allowed to even smell alcohol. >:(》
Isn’t that a bit excessive?
Thinking that, I glanced sideways and saw Rosalia glaring at me.
“…Banned.”
“Yes. Understood.”
I raised my thumb reassuringly to the assassin who worried too much, then approached one of the reception counters deeper inside.
[Labyrinth Information Sales]
“Welcome.”
A receptionist wearing a uniform with a gray wolf emblem on the shoulder looked at me lazily.
“How may I assist you?”
“I’m here to sell Hidden Piece information.”
“….”
When I mentioned the Hidden Piece while showing my identification badge, the employee who had been responding indifferently suddenly flinched.
“Are you perhaps the expedition that cleared Pleasure Metropolis?”
It seemed they had been waiting for us.
An event triggered when someone first reached a certain amount of exploration reputation in District Three.
“…Please wait a moment.”
After I nodded, the employee went somewhere and returned, bowing deeply.
“We will escort you to the top floor, Explorer Kar. Your companions may come as well.”
The treatment was drastically different from before.
We climbed the stairs and were guided into a reception room.
Sitting on a plush sofa, Pendrick looked around the luxurious room and smiled faintly.
“Being in a place like this makes me feel like a famous explorer.”
– You’re not just an unknown aspiring explorer anymore. That muscular dog-beastman has been spreading your name and achievements everywhere!
“…Well, becoming famous like that isn’t so bad. Don’t you think, Captain?”
“That’s right. Explorers must gain fame in one way or another. If your popularity rises, your value increases—and you might even gain the support of wealthy patrons.”
Make your name known through achievements, prove your worth, and receive strong financial and material backing.
That was the most typical path to success for an explorer.
“Besides, if you clear an unexplored dungeon like we did, the recruitment staff from Milky Way might even approach you directly.”
Milky Way.
Like the Harmony Church or the Ashen Wolf Guild, these were the factions that each governed one of Pletika’s six districts.
When Mysteries residing in the body were observed with special detection tools, they appeared like stars.
The prominent figures of the district-management organizations shone so brightly that people said they looked like the night sky—hence the nickname.
“Perhaps the reason they brought us to the reception room is also to recruit us.”
“Is that so?”
Pendrick leaned back on the sofa and laughed.
“Thank you for the short time we spent together, Captain. I’ll quit the expedition and join the Ashen Wolf Guild.”
“Do as you wish. But if a taciturn red-haired assassin comes to visit you in the middle of the night, you should accept that what was meant to happen has happened.”
“Yikes! Then I’d better beg for mercy at least once for the sake of old friendship.”
“No chance. Do you take lightly Lady Rosalia—the cold-blooded elf who can kill even former comrades if given the order?”
“….”
Rosalia, who had been listening to our nonsense, frowned slightly and struck my knee with her hand like a hammer.
Compared to before, it felt like proof that she had grown comfortable with me—a sharp expression of camaraderie.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
After we had been idly chatting for quite a while, a large orc and a small elf entered the reception room.
The elf was clearly a secretary.
And the orc…
“Pleasure to meet you. I am Targon, guild master of the Ashen Wolf Guild.”
One of the twelve most renowned explorers in Pletika.