Bigger Is Better 3
A new region opening meant new side quests had opened as well.
Whether a harpy nest lay beyond these walls was a secondary concern. The first priority was scraping up every side quest the newly met Stone Dwarves would hand out under the polite name of "favors." Han Se-ah, always dead serious about map completion, set out to explore Pipi's city without a moment's hesitation.
Unlike Bobo's city of near-black gray stones, Pipi's city was built of stones closer to white-gray. There were no rough pits or speckles, but the color difference was about as stark as basalt versus granite — and the city's character differed just as sharply as its palette.
"You're a softie from Bobo's city, are you? Hmm, come a long way, haven't you."
"This is an alchemical catalyst I made myself, but I'm short on materials."
"A softie who's both a mage and an alchemist? In that case, there's something I need for my experiments—"
If Bobo's city was mostly blacksmiths, Pipi's city was mostly alchemists. The side quests reflected that difference with perfect clarity.
In Bobo's city the main requests had been alloys, gear-enhancement materials, and softie equipment samples. Here, nearly every job was about gathering alchemical ingredients or field-testing finished alchemical products.
Lili's ruined city had specialized in gem-crafting, from what they'd heard — so each city really did have its own craft. It made sense. Without that kind of specialization, the multi-species merchant caravans would never have bothered visiting so many different cities.
Buildup for a boss fight, maybe?
From a fantasy perspective, it was cultural exchange with other races — and the natural result of a people born from stone developing distinct city personalities. From a game-design perspective, it was also a tutorial on item enhancement.
Clear side quests in Bobo's city on the 41st Floor, and you plastered magical effects all over the gear the Magic Tower and the royal palace had prepared for you, jacking up your specs. Clear side quests in Pipi's city on the 43rd Floor, and you learned about the various consumables a player could actually use.
Han Se-ah, as a streamer, went all-in on alchemy and threw around every kind of bomb, sticky trap, and gas grenade imaginable — but most other players probably weren't using consumables like that at all.
"Alright~ So we made it to the 43rd Floor city, but we still got one big King Earth Beetle, right? Option one: a single King Earth Beetle shows up again just like before. Option two: something else — a pack, a different species, whatever. That was the bet, yeah?"
Even so, the point-betting for viewer engagement kept rolling, and the chat erupted the moment Han Se-ah started confirming results.
The newly appeared Stone Dwarf city — a little brighter in palette thanks to the different rock composition — might as well not have existed. All anyone cared about was the points they'd lost and the free points they'd scored, and the chat was pure chaos. Whether they burned points into thin air for no reason and spammed rainbow text or not, Han Se-ah just kept grinding through stream and adventure at the same time.
"Should we tour the city together, or split up? Pipi looks fine, so the underground city doesn't seem dangerous."
"Hanna's right. Whatever wrecked the city on the 42nd Floor doesn't seem to be here. I'm not picking up any monster presence either."
"So we grab an inn here too and scatter on our own?"
"That would be the most efficient, I think. We'll need to check the inn first if we're going to prepare meals."
Whether a point-fueled riot was raging off-camera or not, the party quietly sorted out their own tasks. They could scout outside the city anytime — for now, everyone agreed, they should comb through the city itself step by step.
As always, the party split into twos and threes. Han Se-ah headed off alone, camera in hand, clearly planning to chat with her viewers. Grace and Katie said they were off to check the market for weapons again. Irene seemed content to book the inn, prepare a meal, and offer her prayers without wandering around.
"Roland, I'd like you to come with us this time. Carry our stuff for us instead of Hanna."
"Grace? We won't be buying that mu— mph?"
I'd been strolling along at an easy pace, thinking I'd book a room at the inn, dump the work on our hero, and do a little web surfing — when Grace slipped up beside me and gently wound her arm around mine.
She was still stewing over the night I'd shared a bedroom with Charlotte and Mary, no doubt. The way she beamed up at me, asking me to join their shopping trip, was thoroughly captivating. Katie, completely tone-deaf, had started to say something, and Grace casually clapped a hand over her mouth — but I couldn't just sit on the internet every single day. I ought to spend a little time with them.
I nodded and let Grace lead the way. Only then did Katie realize she'd nearly ruined the mood, and she scrambled over to grab my other arm.
…At this rate, I had no right to trash-talk the guys who blew up their parties over love triangles. Two out of four party members. Great.
Grace and Katie's interests ran in a rather vicious direction for a pair of delicate beauties — but shopping was still shopping.
Pipi's city specialized in alchemy, yet this was a world that had fought a war against the Demon King's army, so the vast majority of alchemical goods were combat-related. In the end, it was the same story as Bobo's city: gear got stronger.
A quiver that resharpened arrowheads like new when you recovered and reused them. A cleansing solution that dissolved blood, mud, and other filth off armor in seconds. A coating agent that kept boots from rotting even if you trudged through a swamp. And so on.
"This would be insanely useful in wetland terrain. Doesn't look like it'd get in the way when you're swinging a sword, either."
"Instead of disposable alchemical arrows, the expensive arrowheads could go in that quiver… but if we're fighting harpies, will we even be able to recover the arrows?"
Not cosmetics, clothes, or shoes — vicious tools for fighting monsters. Even setting aside the gear-maintenance products, the stalls were selling biochemical gas grenades, massive blue-edged greatswords, and spiked maces bristling with thorns, all loaded with various enchantments.
Watching two beauties who looked like they belonged in a photoshoot — the kind of women who'd surrender their entire bedroom to a cockroach rather than try to catch it — picking through that arsenal with shining eyes left me with a distinctly odd feeling.
Not this makeup sits so well on my skin~, but a blade like this couldn't cut through bone~ — that kind of vicious talk. Still, a man's job on a shopping trip with women boiled down to one thing: nod whenever they asked for an opinion.
……I'd always gotten by on raw physical power more than equipment, so I didn't have much of an eye for weapons anyway. The only quality I could judge was toughness — whether something would hold together when I poured mana into it and swung for the fences.
"Roland! This arrow supposedly softens metal the way a Vacuum Stone does. Think it'd be useful against those bugs?"
"There's something like that?"
"The Stone Dwarves have to protect themselves from those giant insects too, so they probably made it for that. It's not just for bugs — it looks like it's for rock- or metal-type monsters, like those golems we saw below."
"Exactly, softies. How many things out there — Demon King's army or underground — go around wrapped head to toe in armor, huh?"
A Stone Dwarf merchant, sales instincts fully engaged, chimed in as Grace held up a jet-black Obsidian Arrowhead. Katie, with no plans to buy a new sword, finished shopping after picking up a whetstone and some oil-soaked cloth. Grace, though, was examining every single arrowhead one by one.
Even with Han Se-ah's alchemy training, she was no match for Stone Dwarves who'd been in the trade for decades. That was why the merchant was already chatting Grace up so smoothly after she'd bought several kinds of arrows.
A merchant race through and through, huh?
"This little one burrows into rock and collapses the whole section into a pile of dirt. This one heats heat-weak metals until they go soft and gooey. And over here, we've got one that freezes joints solid."
If what Han Se-ah could make were simple types — sticky bombs, flashbangs, explosives — these felt more like specialized CC tools.
In game terms, it was the difference between generic consumables slapped together by a novice alchemist and counter-items crafted by an intermediate-grade one. And watching Grace scoop them up by the armful with pure delight still felt strangely endearing.
Maybe, deep down, she'd been uncomfortable always leaving the big ones to me alone.
"Obsidian tips, huh? ……Nice."
"Right? This softie has good aesthetic sense! An arrowhead isn't just about being pointy. You have to carve it like art while packing the alchemy in."
Grace's eyes sparkled with plans to counter earth beetles and harpies. Katie was deep in conversation about the artistry of arrowheads — not jewelry, not accessories, arrowheads.
We finished our date of shopping for weapons instead of ornaments and headed back to the inn. Waiting for us there, seated at a table with Irene, was a group of nuns.
…When did they follow us all the way here?