Character Quest - Grace's Hometown 3

Wandering monsters are cunning.

More precisely, the ones that never learned cunning ended up as beast food and vanished. This isn’t the Korean Peninsula where the big predators went extinct—this is a world crawling with wolf packs and puma-like feline predators.

That’s also why novice adventurers die most often outside the Tower: the cleverness of the wanderers. They walk around with the prejudice that “they’re just monsters” stuck in their heads, and the moment they go huh?, they’re already dead.

Thinking a hungry one will just charge if you make some noise and lure it out? That careless underestimation gets your pack stolen or your party picked off one by one. Of course, once you’re an Intermediate-grade adventurer, the gap in physical ability lets you crush them flat, so it stops mattering.

“So don’t get too complacent. They’re weaker in raw body stats than the moss wolves or helmet deer we met in the Tower, but you never know what weird tricks they’ll pull.”

Sometimes their cunning makes them scheme and run. Sometimes their higher intelligence makes them thrash and charge head-on. Just like a human on the edge of death who refuses to accept it and goes berserk, some of them, once they realize the odds are against them, will go all-in for mutual destruction without warning.

That’s another classic way novices get flustered and die. You think you can slowly corner them, then suddenly one of them foams at the mouth and lunges, determined to take at least one of you with it.

“No need to worry too much, though. At our party’s level, we can handle whatever they throw at us.”

“So they might do something unexpected and we shouldn’t let our guard down, but their actual combat power isn’t that high.”

“Kayden’s summary is spot-on. Weaker, but a lot harder to predict.”

Even our party’s weakest pair—Han Se-ah and Grace—could casually take down three or four wandering orcs each. There’s a reason the Tower is the main story and the kingdom’s outskirts are side content. In a gacha game, character story events are the easy ones you can clear without max-level characters.

At Kayden’s assessment that they were weaker, the other three visibly brightened. They seemed to understand what I really meant: as long as we don’t get careless, these things couldn’t hurt us even if they tried.

In that lighter mood, Irene rose smoothly, ladled some stew into a small bowl, and tasted it. The rich, savory smell of the thick, well-simmered stew spread, and as if on cue, every stomach in the party rumbled.

“If the explanation’s over, shall we eat? It seems nicely done.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Han Se-ah pulled a ladle and bowls from her inventory and portioned out the chunks. Soft, bursting beans, fluffy potatoes, and the occasional piece of meat warmed us from the inside. The seasoning was perfect—the stew slid down our throats without resistance.

Warmed by Irene’s cooking, we sat by the campfire. The sky darkened as the sun sank. With the sunset still lingering, one of the caravan hands approached to talk about the night watch.

“I’ll take the watch tonight. Everyone get some proper sleep.”

“You sure?”

“I can go three days and nights without blinking.”

The tents were, naturally, split by gender. Grace, Han Se-ah, and Irene were one thing, but Kayden looked a little flustered. I volunteered for the watch partly to give her time to prepare herself.

I couldn’t take every single night watch on every journey, after all. I’d rough it as the youngest in a mercenary company before—sharing a tent shouldn’t be beyond me. I gently but firmly herded the reluctant Irene into the women’s tent.

“Irene, help Grace settle down a bit. Pat her to sleep if you want.”

“…Ah!”

The truth was I wanted the watch so I could finally catch up on the flood of forum posts that had piled up while Han Se-ah paused the stream, but I needed an excuse Irene would accept. Sometimes people who are too kind become a mild headache.

I’d done the same thing in high school and college with my pathetic modern body—just one more chapter of a comic or novel, just one more… and suddenly it was past six in the morning. The foolish habit of deciding that a little sleep isn’t worth it, so you might as well stay up the whole night.

And I was a superhuman who stayed fine even after an all-nighter. Surely I could spend the night surfing an internet forum!

“You’re right. Staying awake might just make her more restless. I’ll make sure she sleeps well!”

“Exactly. Thanks.”

Kind and naïve as she was, Irene steeled herself and stuck close to Grace. Grace herself, full and warm, seemed to have forgotten any anxiety and was already drifting off. The three women disappeared into the tent, leaving one cross-dressing girl still hovering.

“Will you be all right?”

“Those three have never camped before. They need time to adjust. From tomorrow I’ll start assigning watches, so take the tent to yourself tonight and rest properly.”

“…Thank you.”

If Irene’s worry came from pure kindness, Kayden’s guilt seemed to stem from strict hierarchy. Framing it as an order with a reasonable reason made her bow her head and slip into the tent.

Around us, the other tents were settling in. Caravan hands had claimed spots, and two or three watchers sat by each properly spaced campfire. Basking in the pleasant heat and the crackle of burning wood as accompaniment, I opened the forum again.

Han Se-ah’s temporary pause had caused posts to explode, which was actually great for me. I couldn’t access the real internet—only her stream’s community board—so three days’ worth of posts felt like an unexpected gift.

Does the world freeze when Han Se-ah logs out? Is the future unstable because I’m an NPC in a game? I’d thrown those petty worries away ten years ago, when I first got dumped into this unknown world and had to scrape by like a dog. Being thrown into a game world inside someone else’s body already topped the shock scale.

I scrolled through the posts at a leisurely pace. Since Han Se-ah was taking a break for personal maintenance and condition management, most of the new threads were viewers’ personal experiences rather than stream discussion.

Viewers seemed to be moving past Horned Wolves and starting to meet ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Full-Moon Wolves; complaints about the latter were popping up here and there. Han Se-ah was around floor 15, Kim Seok-hyun floor 13, average viewer maybe floor 10. I clicked one that looked likely to get deleted for swearing.

Kim Seok-hyun, the guy who’d been skewered by Horned Wolves and battered by Full-Moon Wolves, seemed to have pulled some pretty solid companions. Reading the jealous posts, I watched a flood of self-pity comments pile up underneath. More people were still climbing the Tower than had switched to production jobs or left for the outside world, I supposed.

Under the dimming moonlight, listening ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the chirp of insects in the grass, I read through the posts at an easy pace. Then came the soft rustle of someone stepping on grass. Not approaching from outside the camp—someone quietly slipping out of our tent.

“…Roland?”

“Grace? What’s wrong?”

Grace slipped over and sat beside me. I’d thought Irene had taken her in and put her to sleep, but she’d carefully crept back out. Through the briefly parted tent flap I glimpsed Irene with her eyes quietly closed… and Han Se-ah pretending to sleep with her eyes half-open.

What is she doing?

She might have thought it was peak acting, but to an Upper-grade adventurer who could find an assassin buried underground, it was painfully obvious. The furrowed brow from squinting was one thing; her breathing was completely different from the genuinely sleeping Irene beside her.

While my gaze was briefly stolen by Han Se-ah inside the tent, Grace glanced around at the other watchers, then pressed herself right up against me.

“Just… couldn’t sleep.”

She didn’t merely sit beside me—she leaned her whole weight into me. She’d taken off the leather armor, so the warmth against my arm felt distinctly different from the campfire’s heat. If the stream had been on, the chat would have exploded with dirty jokes.

My mind wandered somewhere ridiculous, but my body moved on its own. I wrapped an arm around Grace as she leaned in, pulling her tighter against me. Soft, yielding warmth filled my embrace.

“You should still try to sleep, though.”

“It’s fine. Just a little longer like this, then I’ll go back in.”

“Okay. Tell me if it’s uncomfortable.”

Grace clung to my arm and rested her head on my shoulder. I adjusted so she could lean as comfortably as possible and gently patted her arm with the hand that held her. Whether it was the warmth of my large frame or the campfire, her breathing gradually slowed and lengthened.

The only thing that bothered me was Han Se-ah peeking at this quiet scene through the gap in the tent flap. Anyone watching would think she had a voyeurism problem.

Under the dim moonlight, time drifted by like that.