Chapter 180
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: An Innocent Question
The raid dungeon for the 'Endless Gorge' expansion pack revealed itself.
Carved into the depths of Erin's Gorge.
Beneath a great scar on the earth.
'The Blue Overlord's Resting Place'.
Following the 'Tree of the Abyss', this was Astria Online's second Corps Commander raid.
With the raid dungeon appearing so early, before the farming for the elite dungeon 'World Basin' was even complete, the vanguard players frantically rushed their farming.
The supply of Sacred Stones on the market ran dry. The price skyrocketed. Those who needed to farm for the first raid attempts screamed in agony, while those aiming to sell Sacred Stones for gold screamed in joy, and everyone flocked to the World Basin.
Even with renowned players who had finished farming gear from the previous expansion's raid dungeon, the clear speed for the World Basin had been slow. However, after a few days, strategies began to take shape.
There were two main strategies for the 'World Basin'.
Would you deal with the pair of giant Lamias in the hatchery first to make the defense phase easier, or would you endure their attacks while defending the Divine Mark?
Both had their pros and cons.
Finding and eliminating the giant Lamias before the first purification wasn't easy due to enhancement mechanics like reflective shields.
However, if you simply kited them during the defense phase, you could face the weakened giant Lamias afterward, once their shields were gone.
Parties with classes like Rangers, who had excellent mobility, or Yin-Yang Masters, who could buff party members, chose to disrupt the giant Lamias and defend first. Parties composed mainly of classes with low mobility preferred to defend later.
Thus, as the strategies for the World Basin became established, the supply of Sacred Stones was gradually picking up.
I hadn't finished upgrading my accessories either. The new upgrade item, 'Sacred Stones', dropped in very small numbers—only about one to three per dungeon run, excluding the first-clear quest reward. Moreover, high-level upgrades had a chance of failure. Of course, the equipment wouldn't be destroyed upon failure, but the precious Sacred Stones would be lost.
And besides gearing up, there were other things I had to do to prepare for the raid attempts. One of them was today's hospital visit with Chris.
*Whirrr.*
*Click-clack.*
Chris and I were moving down the corridor of a large hospital. Of course, only Chris was walking. I was in a wheelchair.
"So, I went and kicked Go Seung-woo's ass, you know?"
"Hehe."
I giggled as I listened to Chris's complaint.
"Still, you gave me too many. I think I'll have a ton left over even after fully upgrading my accessories."
"It's fine. I have a lot left over too. You can just sell them and use the money for Ecostone upgrades, right?"
"W-well, I guess so."
In fact, my Sacred Stone worries were solved.
That was because Chris had given me a whole bunch of them.
With this many Sacred Stones, I didn't have to grind my teeth and farm. It gave me some breathing room during the month or so left before the next raid attempt.
The target of Chris's complaints, 'Go Seung-woo', was a Ranger from the Red and White guild.
Seopseobi and Go Seung-woo.
The cheerful Ranger friends of the Red and White guild.
The slick, underhanded bidders.
Among them, Go Seung-woo showed an incredible obsession with in-game gold in 'Astria Online'.
"He should be using them to upgrade his gear for the raid attempts, but he didn't upgrade a single piece and just hoarded Sacred Stones instead. I gave him a piece of my mind and bought them all off him. His hoarding was probably one of the reasons the auction house ran out of Sacred Stones."
"Hoarding? Why would he do that?"
"Well, isn't it obvious? To make gold. He buys up a ton of items he thinks will go up in price. He's a total gold-farming monkey, I tell you."
"Ah."
I don't know the first thing about trading.
I just sold items from dungeons or earned gold by running carries.
So there's a way to make money easily like that.
But, a 'gold-farming monkey'?
"It's what gamers call people who play games just to sell gold for real cash."
"Gasp...!"
My mouth fell open.
For some reason, it sounded like a very derogatory term.
But, if earning gold to sell for cash is the goal, wasn't that what I did too?
I felt a little dejected.
"Then, am I a gold-farming monkey too?"
"What!"
Chris was extremely flustered.
"N-no! Rain, you only earned gold to get by, right? B-because your body... it's hard for you to work and earn money! You're not a gold-farming monkey!"
"R-really? Then what am I?"
"Umm... A gold-farming angel?"
After saying that, as if she found it funny herself, she turned away and started choking back laughter. I pounded on her back, thoroughly annoyed.
As we bickered our way down the hospital ward, I saw a name on a private room. A nameplate was attached, indicating the patient's name.
Chris looked around with a nostalgic expression.
"You were hospitalized here once too, Rain."
I nodded.
My health was really poor back then. It must have been from an unbalanced diet and constantly overworking this body without caring for it. Due to malnutrition, even minor bleeding wouldn't stop easily.
Anyway, I was hospitalized for a whole month back then.
On the Earth of this future era, even leukemia and terminal cancer could be treated with a near 99% survival rate.
Still, for people with such serious illnesses, long hospital stays and enormous medical bills were inevitable.
The month I was hospitalized felt long to me, but there were probably patients who couldn't leave the hospital for years.
As I rounded the corner of the ward and stood before the central elevator going down, a nameplate on a private room caught my eye.
['Patient: Sonagi']
Sonagi.
A pretty name.
Though I quite like my name in this world, 'Iseulbi', since it's also pretty.
After leaving the hospital, I went for a walk in the park with Chris in the bright daylight for the first time in a while. I was following the doctor's advice to take walks in the daytime for my mental well-being.
This wasn't the park in front of my house.
It was a park near the hospital.
A large park in Seoul, with a university building visible nearby.
Even for a park in the middle of a man-made city, I could see signs that they had tried to preserve a natural landscape. The trees lining both sides of the walking path were quite thick and tall.
"Rain, you're so, so pretty that I didn't want to come out during the bright daytime because other people's stares are annoying."
"Chris."
I blushed slightly.
Chris compliments my looks all the time.
As I was crossing the path with a happy-looking Chris, my eyes fell upon a young man and woman. They were chattering with each other as they headed toward the university by the park's east exit.
Chris watched them and nodded.
"They're college students. Since the university is right next door."
"College students."
Iseulbi of the modern world.
I was already twenty years old.
An age when a normal South Korean youth would already be in college.
Come to think of it, what was 'Iseulbi's' educational background like? Well, I'm sure the divine being in this world took care of it.
For some reason, my thoughts were slowly turning toward the idea of a normal life.
Chris glanced at my face as I watched the college students.
"Do you want to go to school too, Rain?"
"Nn.... Not right now. But I don't know about later."
I shook my head.
I have things to do right now.
The Corps Commanders who have appeared on the Astria Continent, and the beings above them.
After I defeat them all, what will happen to 'Astria Online'?
Will I not be able to go there anymore?
An ending? Server shutdown?
Or, a Season Two. The appearance of a new enemy?
Even for me, who knew that world so well, how the world of Astria Online would change after its own kind of ending was unknown territory.
My gaze is turning toward a future I had never even considered.
The reason I, who was trapped in the past and couldn't even see the present, can now look to the future is...
I gazed intently at Chris's face.
Then I lowered my gaze slightly and mumbled quietly.
"I'm always so grateful to you, Chris."
"What's this, all of a sudden? Just being with you is more than enough for me, Rain."
Chris grinned and gently stroked my head.
As I was basking in that pleasant, heart-fluttering sensation, something I'd been curious about suddenly came to mind.
"U-um, Chris. There's something I'm curious about."
"Hm?"
"When we were clearing the World Basin, I saw something strange in the Lamia hatchery. It's just..."
Seeing me hesitate and trail off, the question on Chris's face deepened.
"What is it? What are you curious about? If it's something you're curious about, Rain, then I'm super curious too."
I glanced around the park, and even after confirming no one was around, I blushed and brought my mouth close to Chris's ear.
"Well, two female Lamias, they were... stuck together... But it was dark, so I couldn't see well. ...So... I was just a little curious... if females can do... l-lewd things together... and if they can, how..."
"*Pant, pant.*"
Chris's face turned beet red.
The breath coming from her nose began to grow ragged.
"Rain!"
"Hah!"
*Thump.*
Chris grabbed my shoulders, her eyes wide as if they were about to pop out, and gently bumped my wheelchair against a tree.
I looked up at Chris's excited face with fear in my eyes.
Why is Chris so excited?
Did I do something wrong?
I was just curious.
I'm an adult too, so it's normal to be curious about things like that, right?
Chris stared at me for a while with bloodshot eyes, then let go of my shoulders and started jumping up and down, clutching at her own thighs.
"Grrrrrr!"
"Eek...! I-I'm sorry! I won't ask again!"
I teared up as I watched Chris, who had started growling and rampaging.
I must have touched a nerve or something with Chris