Beginner Quests 5

The Horned Wolf lure that Han Sea had mixed from an internet guide worked better than expected. As always, we'd hunted until evening, and in that stretch alone we'd managed to track down five more Horned Wolves. Whether Han Sea's luck had kicked in or not, the byproducts came in thick as well.

The rarest drop of all — Horned Wolf eyes, which almost never turned up — numbered a full four. Horns, which dropped only one apiece, came out five strong, and the hides, fangs, and claws that could drop in multiples numbered well over ten. A short hunt with a haul that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said otherwise.

"Wow, the difference in income is no joke."

"Four out of six giving us their eyes made a huge difference. Plus five horns on top of that."

If the Golden Silvergrass and Cottonfluff commissions, plus the lowest-grade Mana Stones, had netted us roughly seventy copper coins, this Horned Wolf hunt had brought in a full six silver coins and thirty-two copper — six hundred thirty-two copper if you converted it all. Nearly a ninefold jump in earnings.

A gap no one could dismiss as "just one floor." There was a reason hunting Horned Wolves was the path by which a Novice Adventurer earned recognition as an Intermediate Adventurer. Put another way, Han Sea had shed her novice badge on day three.

"Hanna! How do you shoot magic that well?"

Grace, flushed and thoroughly drunk, crushed Han Sea against that enormous chest of hers. Every time Grace cleanly stopped a charge with the palm of her hand without accidentally killing the beast, Han Sea would fire a Magic Missile and shatter the wolf's skull.

She'd also seared a Horned Wolf's nose with Spark to startle it so Grace could put an arrow through its heart, or cast Light magic straight into the eyes of a wolf charging with its head down and sent it reeling. Looking at the combat alone, her magical improvisation was nothing like a three-day-old adventurer's.

"The byproducts are pouring out too — all thanks to our lucky-charm leader!"

"Come on, you're the one who tracked the Horned Wolves, Unnie. That's all you."

"How does she even talk this sweetly!"

Once we left the Tower and settled up, Grace's cut came to two silver coins — and since I'd taken my share out before the split, her real take was closer to three silver and fifteen copper. Back when she'd been herb-gathering in a four-person party, her daily haul had topped out around forty or fifty copper no matter how good the day. Her daily wage had just sextupled.

Grace had come up to Adventurer's City from a poor slash-and-burn village just for another look at my face. Thinking about the tear-inducing state of her wallet, it was no wonder Han Sea looked more precious to her than anything in the world. Meet a new coworker and watch your pay jump sixfold because of them — anyone on earth would fall in love.

"To our genius witch, Miss Hanna—!"

"Ahh, Unnie, stop!"

The result was Grace bellowing at the top of her lungs. She planted those heavy breasts on the tabletop, empty glass dangling and swinging in the air. Even the other patrons, busy with their own noisy chatter, kept sneaking glances our way.

The waitstaff at The Lucky Scoundrel were beautiful in their own right, of course, but they couldn't hold a candle to a 3-star gacha character. With me planted solidly at the table, nobody tried to hit on them — but everyone was staring at our table all the same.

"And to our knight as well!"

"'Our knight'? Someone's going to get the wrong idea if they hear that."

"Oh, please. If I say you're my knight, you're my knight!"

This was a completely different Grace from the one who'd pretended to be drunk and fallen into my arms last time. Whether she'd truly overdone it or not, she'd gone past sly and cheerful straight into a level of energy that was almost exhausting. Still, Han Sea somehow kept fielding her — Grace clinging and grinning ear to ear didn't seem entirely unwelcome.

A delightful mess between two beautiful women that I was happy to watch and had zero desire to join. Han Sea shot me a look that begged for rescue; I pretended not to notice, turned my eyes away, and opened the broadcast station's bulletin board.

The most-discussed topic by far was some male streamer. People had been roasting him nonstop for dying to a Horned Wolf, and nobody even used his real name. He got called XXX, ???, Mmph-mmph, WolfChow, DogFood — anything but his actual handle.

Whether he was the one hot on Han Sea's heels or just someone whose usual game skill was supposed to be impressive, he'd become a massive punching bag. Not serious hate so much as a situation where the scream he'd let out dying was so funny it had turned into a full-blown meme.

Among the chaos of posts, I clicked the one that shared my exact curiosity.

With the viewership climbing, more people were using the broadcast station board too — the comments were far denser than last time. Of course, most of those extra comments were still just roasting the streamer named Kim Seokhyun.

The man they called Kim Seokhyun met a charging wolf with a one-handed sword and a round buckler. Low stance, buckler brought up dead-on against the thrusting horn. But a dinky little shield maybe thirty centimeters across was never going to stop a predator's full charge.

Horn and shield met clean. His wrist snapped sideways. The charge didn't stop, and the man went tumbling with the horn straight through his gut. Whether it was a player-protection feature or not, he vanished in a poof of dust like a monster, the screen went black, and the gif ended.

Huh. So when a player dies, the game freezes and rolls them back to that morning? That was genuinely useful information.

Skills being random, though — that was just absurd.

Whether the players simply hadn't figured out how to check an NPC's skills yet, BB Games hadn't patched it in, or they never intended to show them at all, I had no idea. What I did know was that neither I, nor Han Sea, nor any of the spectators watching had any clue ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what my skills actually were.

"Rooooland! Your glass stopped moving!"

"…Hm?"

I was resting my chin on my hand, scrolling the board, when a glass got shoved in front of my face. Having left a drained Han Sea to her own devices, Grace latched onto me this time.

Judging by the way Han Sea was muttering something about "sexual harassment, ban, lawsuit, NPC" amid the noisy crowd, the swelling viewership had flooded the chat with filthy comments about Grace. She looked busy enough that the camera had stopped moving.

"Hmmmm, or do you only drink when there's a woman next to you? Our lecherous knight."

Drunk enough to sway, she leaned into me and held up an empty glass, trying to pour me a drink. A sweet, fierce smell of liquor rolled off the empty cup. Had she trusted her newly fattened purse and ordered expensive hard liquor out of curiosity instead of the cheap, watery stuff?

Someone who'd only ever drunk beer and soju in her life, knocking back forty-proof spirits like beer — of course she was this far gone.

She'd dragged a chair over and sat beside me, but her upper body kept rocking like she was about to tip right off it. Planting those heavy breasts on the table might have stabilized her, except she was too caught up in the fun to stop lifting her glass.

Every time she hoisted the glass high, her torso tipped backward — no way a drunk person was keeping their balance like that. I wrapped an arm around Grace's waist as she started to topple again and held her upright. These backless wooden chairs were a pain at times like this.

"Hanna? If you're drunk too, how about we both head up to the rooms."

"Ah — um — yes?!"

Left arm still around Grace's waist, I snapped the fingers of my right hand hard enough to snag Han Sea's attention. Celebratory drinking was fine, but I had no interest in sitting through every last scrap of ugly drunken nonsense. If they'd been pleasantly tipsy I might have considered going up together — but this was way past that.

"Hanna…? Hanna's glass is empty too! What are the waiters even doiiing—"

Grace staggered free of my arms and made for Han Sea again. Apparently her brand of drunk was the clingy kind — a completely unhesitating hug. Han Sea's face, clearly meeting this kind of drunken antics for the first time, was pretty hilarious.

Still, the alcohol must have hit her hard all at once, because Grace went quiet with her head buried against Han Sea's arm. Watching that not-quite-spectacle of Grace's, Han Sea meekly set her own glass down.

"Even with the Horned Wolf hunt a success, we won't jump straight to the eleventh floor. For a while we'll keep hunting Horned Wolves on the tenth and delivering materials. The state Grace is in, we might as well take tomorrow as a rest-and-maintenance day."

"Is the eleventh floor that dangerous?"

"Dangerous, sure — but it's also about getting the party's name out there. Keep delivering Horned Wolf byproducts steadily and people will start to recognize us. Landing private commissions is what really means ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you've been accepted as Intermediate Adventurers, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and that's what we're aiming for."

The same way I'd casually tip a gold coin, or the way a fan who'd taken a liking to me would gift expensive gear — Han Sea's party needed its name known. Right now we were more famous as the beginner party Paladin Roland was babysitting than as Mage Hanna's party.

An adventuring party skilled enough to hunt Horned Wolves consistently was obviously more trustworthy than a beginner party that had merely caught a paladin's interest.

"Same reason I gave you lanterns good through the tenth floor. With my ability I could haul you straight to the exploration camp on the forty-third. But then there'd be no point in you becoming adventurers at all."

That was the opinion of a gamer from a past life and a warrior who'd spent ten years fighting. Dropping Han Sea on the top floors of the Tower like a boosted character and carrying her through everything was meaningless. My role stopped at skipping the lower floors — from the eleventh on, they needed to grow the way everyone else did.

When some Tower boss I'd never even heard of eventually showed up, dealing with it would be Player Han Sea's job.

"So hunt Horned Wolves, get the party's name known at the guild, and save up your pay so you can buy Intermediate Adventurer gear. Grace's equipment, of course — and what you're wearing is guild secondhand too."

"If we make a name hunting Horned Wolves… will better companions join us?"

"Obviously. The gap between people who apply to a herb-gathering party and people who apply to a Horned Wolf hunting party is enormous."

Han Sea, competitive enough to take the bait, sparkled at my words like she'd locked onto a goal and made some silent resolution. Good thing she hadn't thrown a ridiculous tantrum about starting on the forty-third floor.