Beginner Quest 4
Han Sea stared at me with eyes that held more emotions than I could count.
More precisely, she was staring at the low-grade mana stone resting quietly in my palm. It was a touch larger and more vividly colored than the lowest-grade stones goblins dropped. Where those looked like defective glass marbles with murky, indeterminate hues, this one clearly glowed with a soft blue light.
She'd been distracted accepting missions from her viewers when my shout had startled her into a slightly cowed state. The scolding was already over, and with praise for her magic following right after, she finally blinked and let out a sheepish little laugh. I'd considered lecturing her a bit more, but her shield spell had been incredibly fast — fast enough that she wouldn't have needed to block at all.
"Wow, so this was the tenth-floor boss…"
"It's been so long since I've been on the lower floors that I used too much force. Guess I'll have to find another one."
"You said you'd die if you blocked wrong with a shield? But you blocked it barehanded and it still died?"
"Because my grip strength is stronger than a shield's rebound."
Han Sea had known intellectually that my stats were incomparably higher than other NPCs, but it hadn't felt real until now. She blinked, thinking something over, then finally snapped back to her senses after overhearing my conversation with Grace.
"You die even if you block with a shield?"
"You didn't catch that earlier? Last time, when someone blocked with a shield — just a light, glancing deflection — the Horned Wolf's neck snapped and it died. Let's grab the byproducts first."
After giving Han Sea a rough explanation, I pocketed the mana stone while Grace gathered the byproducts scattered on the ground. Watching the two of them, I looked down at my own palm, clenching and unclenching it to check the sensation.
I'd clearly held back as much strength as possible when I blocked it. So why did it die?
No matter how exceptional my grip strength was, it shouldn't matter if I wasn't actually squeezing. If that weren't the case, every woman I'd ever met would already have a broken waist or shattered limbs. A monster's skull shattering from nothing more than the rebound of a simple block was clearly abnormal.
I'd been grinding for ten years — was I really supposed to not even have a feel for physical enhancement through mana? I might not know how to use skills, but when it came to reinforcing my body with mana like a knight in any ordinary fantasy, I was confident.
Which left only one possibility. Just as Grace had been blessed with a beautiful appearance, and just as the star-ranked women among novice adventurers had received skin-whitening effects—
"All gathered!"
"Then let's start searching again. I'll try not to kill the next Horned Wolf."
After ten years, my passive skill had activated.
To be honest, I didn't remember Roland's skills very well. Unlike the usual pre-release of character information, the Six Brilliantly Shining Stars event hadn't disclosed any character details.
Which was why I'd spent 850,000 won pulling a male character without knowing anything about him, then flooded the comments with toxic macros, and ended up born into this world. I'd only briefly glanced at the stat window shown during his entrance cutscene after realizing he was male — I never even checked the skill window.
But then again, what was so special about a tank in an RPG? Defense-type character, equipment was a large shield and a mace, highest stats in HP and defense with the rest still considerable. A classic HP-tank type, so probably had attack skills that scaled with defense stats and something like ally protection abilities. It wasn't like he was an HP-type mage who called down meteors while swinging a mace.
So was the passive reflective damage? Pretty tank-like skill, at least.
"We're lucky today, aren't we? Finding a Horned Wolf right away, and the Horned Wolf's eye dropping immediately too."
Grace, who'd been stuffing the byproducts into Han Sea's inventory, gently rolled a fist-sized gem around in her palm. The Horned Wolf's eyeball wasn't a real, fluid-dripping eyeball but a round red gem that looked similar to a mana stone.
Han Sea, having received the Horned Wolf's eye, didn't put it in her inventory. Instead she held it up to the sunlight the way you'd check a banknote. The claws and fangs looked like jade carvings, and the hide wasn't raw leather but something you could use as a blanket or cloak — no wonder she found it fascinating.
"This is an eye?"
"Yeah. It's my first Horned Wolf too, so this is my first time seeing the real thing."
Having gathered all the other byproducts, Grace and Han Sea examined the Horned Wolf's eyeball before turning their gazes toward me. Their eyes sparkled with curiosity, then slid sideways — the viewers must have been pretty curious too.
Well, they'd just watched the first player ever hunt a boss… so of course they'd want something for the stream.
"It's material that holds mana, so it ends up looking like a mana stone. Most byproducts from the Tower look like that. If they didn't, adventurers coming out of the Tower would be covered head to toe in every kind of filthy fluid."
"Ahh, I see. Are the byproducts from other boss monsters higher up the same way?"
"That's right. The Orc Hunter on the twentieth floor, the Blind Snake on the thirtieth — their byproducts look like gems too."
After giving a rough explanation, I opened the chat window under the pretense of scanning the surroundings. Sure enough, it was chaos — scrolling so fast it was hard to even read. Word must have spread quite a bit; there were tons of English and foreign-language chats mixed in.
What caught my attention was the talk about a streamer who'd died to a wolf. Someone familiar enough with the game had already climbed to the tenth floor and challenged a Horned Wolf, apparently. Judging by the mocking chats, the result had been a miserable death.
Of course, a novice adventurer dying to a Horned Wolf was only natural. Like the one that had just ambushed us, they lay low in the brush for surprise attacks, and if they caught the scent of being tracked, they'd circle wide around and hit from behind.
And when they charged and rammed with that horn, leather armor got punched through like nothing — so if the frontliner didn't notice the ambush and block with a shield, the fight started with one party member already dead. They never charged the tank head-on like some RPG game boss, all fair and square.
"We've got everything except the hide, so two more should more than complete the commission. I'll scout the area again. Hanna, how much potency is left on this?"
"Hmm… about three hours or so. You have to factor in that the effect drops off as the scent fades."
After confirming the byproduct count and packing everything into the inventory, the two women stood up and started walking. Grace's voice, saying they'd gathered everything but the hide, was so bright it practically soared. Well, byproducts dropped randomly, so getting a bunch of them would put anyone in a good mood.
Han Sea seemed abnormally lucky.
The instructor NPC was 6-star, and her first companion was 3-star. Both Grace and I were the highest grades Han Sea could encounter, and our classes didn't even overlap. On top of that, every rare byproduct needed for the commission had dropped right on cue — how lucky could one person be?
"I really think we picked a great party leader. Let's stick together for sure, okay?"
"Ack! Sis! The lure scent on your armor!"
Grace must have been thinking something similar, because she tried to hug Han Sea only to be blocked by desperate flailing. Coming from a poor slash-and-burn farming village, Han Sea must have felt like a once-in-a-lifetime lucky break. Especially since right before meeting her, Grace had been partied up with that 2-star swordswoman Cora.
Han Sea edged away, more worried about getting lure scent on her leather armor — which she seemed quite attached to, even if it was secondhand — than about the hug itself. Sensing that classic novice adventurer attachment to their gear rather than any dislike of hugs, Grace smirked and teased her.
Of course, having been ambushed by a Horned Wolf once and having heard my shouting, both of them were diligently scanning their surroundings.
I hope Han Sea checks my skills and posts something about them on the boards.
Regardless, while the camera filmed the two of them bantering, I was behind them secretly reading the forums and chat. There were plenty of viewers marveling at my grip strength and posts mocking the other streamer who'd died to a Horned Wolf, but nobody analyzing my skills.
Last time I looked, people were posting stat windows openly — were skills private?
I could only see the chat window, not Han Sea's actual stream screen, so I couldn't tell for sure and was feeling a bit frustrated when—
Expand Adventurer 'Hanna's Party'
3 / 5
The quest that had paused after Han Sea learned five spells had updated. The target party size of five was probably influence from Heroines Chronicle. Two more members — following the plan, one sub-frontliner and one priest should do it. But why did it only update now…? Did killing a Horned Wolf count as officially recognizing 'Hanna's Party'?
"Hmm, does this lure scent attract goblins too?"
"Probably. Looking at how they charge straight at you…"
We wandered the plains looking for the next Horned Wolf for quite a while. Grace, a little flustered by the clearly larger-than-usual numbers of goblins, stuffed sling stones into her pocket and asked Han Sea. Given that the lure was made to mimic rotting meat and the stench of blood, it made sense that it worked on goblins too.
Of course, this wasn't a party that would struggle against mere goblins, so every one we met simply became mana stones that went into Han Sea's inventory.