White Yak Fur Coats
Stepping out of The Tale of Blooming Frost Flowers, Yujin glanced at Vivian trailing behind him.
The more I think about it, the more impressive she is.
Unlike a certain someone who spat curses and complaints even when power was forced down their throat.
Wanting to grow stronger of her own free will.
A pleased smile kept tugging at his lips.
"Gross."
Vivian furrowed her brow and put some distance between them.
Of course, Yujin didn't care in the slightest.
"But."
"Speak."
"You never told me. That method."
"I didn't."
He'd only said there was a way—never given any concrete explanation.
"Tell me."
"For a player to get stronger, what do you need?"
An obvious question.
Vivian answered without a second of hesitation.
"Levels."
"Right. And to raise your level?"
"Hunting."
Yujin nodded.
"There's no special method. You just hunt your ass off."
Vivian tilted her head at that.
She'd already been hunting until she was sick of it.
Was there any need—or any reason—to talk about something like that as if it were special?
Seeing her baffled look, Yujin snorted a quiet laugh and went on.
"Of course, it's not ordinary hunting. Ever heard of a Cow Room?"
"No idea. About that."
Well, he hadn't expected anything from the start.
"It's a place that got passed down like a legend in some old game."
A place where bipedal cows with halberds poured out in numbers too vast to count.
"There's a place like that in the Tower, too."
Obviously, actual cows didn't spawn.
Instead, monsters flooded in without end.
How bad was it? More than every zombie that had appeared from the seventh floor through the ninth combined.
Literally endless.
"And the experience is incomparably higher than anything those zombies could ever give."
Vivian blinked.
To think a place like that existed.
If they just went there, they could raise levels at an incredible speed.
"Where is it?"
"The twenty-third floor."
"Let's go."
Vivian looked ready to climb that very second.
But Yujin shook his head.
"It's not a place just anyone can enter. Only after you meet special conditions do you get the right to go in."
Even first-cycle Yujin had never set foot inside.
He'd only heard about it later.
"So we need to start preparing now. We should be able to fulfill some of those conditions on the twenty-first floor."
Uncharacteristically, Yujin answered kindly all the way through.
That was how much he liked Vivian's attitude.
But Kind Yujin ended here.
He'd done enough.
"Stop talking now. I need to think, too."
Vivian nodded.
As if she'd never wanted to keep chatting with him in the first place.
She sealed her lips tight and focused on walking.
Like that, the two of them crossed Frost Veil, heading somewhere.
"Here."
Ignoring the NPCs who kept glancing their way, they walked on and finally stopped in front of a small building of ice, no different from the rest.
A sign reading Morakmorak hung from it—a general goods store.
As if the place were familiar, Yujin opened the door and stepped inside.
"Welcome!"
Unlike the cute name Morakmorak, a burly owner swaddled head to toe in thick furs greeted them.
"I'm looking for some clothes."
"Oh my—how did you know this is the place that sells the finest clothes in all of Frost Veil?"
The owner let out a hearty laugh and guided the two farther in.
"Of course you're here for cold-weather gear, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, he pulled something from a corner.
It was closer to a wad of fur than clothing.
"Might not look like much, but this is insanely warm. Even the people in our village each keep one as a must-have."
It wasn't bluster.
The NPCs of Frost Veil really did each own one of the outfits he'd just pulled out.
The reason was simple.
They were cheap.
And warm.
Insane value for money, in other words.
But Yujin shook his head.
"What I'm looking for isn't this crap."
What he needed right now wasn't value for money.
Only performance.
Clothes warm enough for the 3 No to fight monsters in this godforsaken cold.
If he skimped on a few credits and bought cheap junk, it would clearly cost him far more in the long run.
"Oh, well now. Looks like I failed to recognize a big customer?"
The owner looked Yujin up and down, then nodded heavily.
Judging by the items he was wearing, he'd roughly sized him up.
"Then I can't just recommend any old thing. Let me show you the finest goods we have at Morakmorak."
He told them to wait a moment and disappeared deep into the back.
Then he quickly brought something out.
Different from the fur wad of a moment ago.
A long coat made of soft, pure white fur.
It was similar to the Frost Veil Coat [D], but looked far more luxurious.
Even Vivian gazed at it with open admiration.
"I stitched this myself, stitch by stitch, from the fur of a white yak. I pride myself on its cold resistance being the best in Frost Veil."
Yujin took it.
Soft.
And warm.
It felt like holding a hand warmer.
"Nice."
Just as he remembered.
The White Yak Fur Coat [D] boasted extreme heat retention.
"Give me three."
"Heh heh—this is rather expensive, you know."
"I roughly know the price, so just bring them."
The owner looked at Yujin with surprised eyes.
He'd thought the gear looked decent, but he hadn't expected the man to be grand enough to buy three at once.
"Just wait a moment, please."
He scurried into the back and quickly brought out two more.
"So, um. If we add it all up, how much was it again…."
His eyes rolled around.
He was calculating how to squeeze out even one more coin.
But Yujin had no intention of playing along.
"Not credits. Barter possible?"
At that, the owner's face twisted slightly.
"If the value matches, there's no reason it wouldn't work, but…."
"It'll more than cover it."
Without hesitation, Yujin shoved his hand into Chunbae's mouth and pulled something out.
"Kku-a-a-a-ang—!"
"Uheok!"
At the creature's cry, the owner yelped and fell on his rear.
"W-what in the world is that?"
A living teddy bear?!
That was shocking enough—but something kept pouring endlessly from a palm-sized doll.
For an owner seeing such a thing for the first time, stuttering was inevitable.
"This should do it."
But whether he cared or not.
Yujin dumped everything he'd pulled out at the owner's feet.
"H-heh heh—."
Surprise settled on his face once more.
"An Ice Troll Core [D], and wait—isn't this a Snow Wolf Fang [D]?"
Each and every one was junk of the same grade as the White Yak Fur Coat [D].
And nearly thirty of them were piled up.
The owner stared blankly for a moment, then cleared his throat with a hem-hem.
"Roughly this much should match the pri—"
"Don't try any funny business."
Yujin snorted.
"You think I don't know two of these cover three coats and then some?"
He pointed at one Snow Wolf Fang [D], and the owner's face stiffened slightly.
"Save the backstabbing for someone else."
Idiots would be flooding in soon enough, after all.
"Pay with two of these, and buy up the rest of the junk. I've got places to spend credits. Ah—and if I catch even a hint of you trying more nonsense, it won't end with words."
As he spoke while drawing up a bit of mana, the owner smoothed his stiffened face and laughed heh-heh.
"There's no one in Frost Veil who does business as honestly as me. Don't you worry. I'll give you a generous rate!"
Even in this cold, cold sweat beaded on the owner as he quickly finished the calculation.
"This should be a fair price."
He held out a pouch of credits.
Without checking separately, Yujin stuffed it into Chunbae's mouth.
"Judging by the weight, it's about right."
When he grinned, the owner's forehead grew a little damper.
To think he could tell the amount just by weight.
The thought that any real trickery would have led to true disaster must have made his chest go cold.
"Well then, good business. I'll come back if I need anything else."
Cradling the White Yak Fur Coats [D], Yujin left Morakmorak.
Behind him he heard the owner grumbling, but he ignored it.
He had no desire to waste time or energy on the likes of that NPC.
"Put this on first."
The moment they were outside, Yujin handed one coat to Vivian.
She took off what she was wearing and put on the new clothes.
White hair, white skin.
With the pure white fur coat on top of that, an almost inhuman air radiated from her.
Passing NPCs stopped in their tracks at the sight.
"How is it? Warm?"
But Yujin cared more about the coat's performance than any of that.
"Warm."
"Can you fight?"
"Yes."
She nodded as if satisfied.
"Then let's head back."
If Vivian judged so, the remaining two of the 3 No would be the same.
The thickness would make movement a bit awkward, but they'd have to put up with that much.
"But."
As they were about to return to The Tale of Blooming Frost Flowers, Vivian spoke up.
"What is it we need to prepare?"
"Prepare? Ah…."
It seemed to be a continuation of their earlier conversation.
"We need to get one item."
"An item?"
"Something called an Ice Crystal [B]."
A full B-grade item.
The method of obtaining it was correspondingly brutal.
"There's a hidden boss on the twenty-first floor, too."
Its name was the Glacier Dragon.
Master of a snow mountain a week's journey north from Frost Veil.
"If you fight it and win without taking a single hit, it drops this item at a random chance."
Travel a week through this cold, fight the thing without taking even one blow, win—and even then the drop was random.
It wasn't for nothing that people said it was hard to get.
Without heavenly luck, it was practically impossible.
…For ordinary players, that is.
"If luck's a little on our side, we should get it soon enough."
Glacier Dragon or whatever.
There was no way Yujin would get hit fighting the likes of that.
"That's the only condition we can fulfill on the twenty-first floor. The twenty-second is a bit harder."
Smiling, Yujin moved his feet.
He wanted to climb higher as soon as possible.
Before the Administrators started their dogshit games.