What Gold Coins Can Buy 3
Walking the forest path, I talked about what had happened up north with Grace and Irene at my side. The only material I had was how I'd breezed through gathering materials as an Upper-grade adventurer and how I'd downed some ice-cold beer, so I had to pad the stories out a little.
I couldn't exactly tell them how the northern receptionist had grinned ear to ear when I pressed gold coins into her hand, looking ready to enjoy a night on the town — or how I'd gone web surfing for the first time in ages and binge-read webtoons I'd never seen before.
"Most adventurers up north are skilled hunters. The climate's cool and the mountains are rugged, so there aren't vast grain-producing regions like in the east and south. People make their living selling quality furs, so most adventurers come from hunting backgrounds."
"So there's that kind of difference…"
"That's why if you're ranking the quality of Beginner and Intermediate-grade adventurers, the northern ones come out on top. It's not like here, where every Tom, Dick, and Harry rushes to become an adventurer. On the flip side, Upper-grade adventurers are most famous around here."
"Because of the Tower?"
"Exactly. Climbing higher in the Tower means every single day is a continuous struggle. They're not taking it easy on commissions like me — they spend years in unknown spaces, so of course their skills improve."
So the only things I could talk about were the differences between the North and here that related to adventurers. Grace's eyes lit up at the mention of famous northern hunters, and Irene asked questions about the Tower.
Both of them had such clear interests that conversation came easily.
Grace, who had learned ranger techniques but wasn't a formal ranger, took an interest in her northern colleagues, while Irene the priestess was drawn to the Tower where adventurers ultimately gathered. Same with Han Se-ah — our party members tended to wear their hearts on their sleeves.
In all my previous relationships, the only one whose inner thoughts had been completely transparent was Rebecca, who acted on pure instinct like a beast, so this was actually refreshing. Everyone else — guild masters, the old man from the Magic Tower, high-ups from the information guild — had mostly been scheming types.
This is why people raise newbies.
Their hearts were an open book.
What they did was adorable.
When you told them to do something, they worked hard.
I was starting to understand why RPG veterans considered newbies more precious than gold. I was personally experiencing why weird practices like "newbie farming" and stuffing gold into their sleeves had become popular. For my party members, I wouldn't even mind gold coins pouring out of my pockets.
"If there are a lot of hunters in the North, wouldn't they be short on frontliners?"
"No. What they're short on is mages. Because of the harsh environment, most men learn how to fight. But there's so little to research that almost no mages settle in the North. More precisely, there are no mages who go on adventures."
"I've heard there are brothers and sisters who spread the Goddess's will in the North as well…"
"That's right. Still, the environment itself is so harsh that there aren't many priests who go adventuring. The Temple does care for injured adventurers, but the absolute numbers are insufficient."
We chatted as we pushed through the forest. Grace's scouting ability — improved by gaining a star and even a skill — could detect moss wolf ambushes and helmet deer charges from a great distance. As we talked, our formation naturally split into three and two.
Grace walking beside me holding a lantern and chatting, Irene a step behind listening to the northern stories. And a bit further back, Han Se-ah chatting with her viewers while looking at the three of us, with Kayden standing in the rear like her escort.
With Grace's scouting ability, the rear getting ambushed was virtually impossible — but Kayden never let her guard down.
"Danger!"
"Let me just put a bet on the viewer toto— kyaah!"
Unlike Han Se-ah, who was busy chatting.
With a paang— a sound cutting through the air, a tree branch swung like a club. At its tip, a sharply honed stone was embedded like a blade. A trap that could inflict a serious wound on an Intermediate-grade adventurer — not fatal, but enough to cripple their mobility.
The only ones who pulled this kind of crap on the twentieth floor of the Tower were, of course, orc hunters.
Normally, whether for raiding or hunting, they'd make traps with beast fangs or rusty blades — but ironically, the only ones who dropped byproducts inside the Tower were orc hunters. So they must have made booby traps out of the tree branches and stones scattered throughout the forest.
"Th-this is…?"
"It appears to be an orc hunter's trap."
"That's right. Nice reaction speed, Kayden. And Hanna, Grace… you two already know what you did wrong without me saying it, right?"
Was it because of the repeated camping on the nineteenth floor, or was it arrogance from having a 6★ standing at the front? Without Kayden, that pointed stone would have smashed into Han Se-ah's face. It was aimed at the height of a sturdy man's neck wearing armor.
Even if orc hunters were orcs, they didn't try to smash steel armor with pointed stones. That was why their traps mostly targeted ankles, joints, the nape of the neck, and eyes.
"I'm sorry, Hanna. I should have… I should have found it."
"No, Unnie. I could have blocked a bent tree branch with a shield… I must have let my guard down too much."
A thin, springy tree branch, severed by Kayden's sword, tumbled across the ground. For the first crisis faced by a total 19★ party — starting with a 6★, plus one 5★ and two 4★s — it was an utterly pathetic object.
A crudely but sharply honed stone. A rope made by thinly twisting forest vines. A tree branch pulled taut and loaded like a catapult.
Perhaps because of the fact that she'd nearly fallen for a mere booby trap like this, Han Se-ah's face flushed bright red. Not because a clip of her embarrassing moment had been captured, nor because of the viewers teasing her. It was an expression you sometimes saw on talented, ambitious people.
—Shame felt from within.
"Ha, this is… really… Grace Unnie. I'm not trying to get mad — I'm asking as the party leader. Honestly, this seems easier to find than a moss wolf. Did you miss it because we were talking? Or did you pass over it because it's not a living thing?"
"The latter is right. It's a tree branch in the forest, so there's no special presence to detect. With moss wolves I can sense their presence, but this is just… just a tied-up tree branch, so you have to examine it with your eyes."
"Then Kayden, did you see me step on the trap, or did you sense the presence of the activated trap?"
"I reacted to the sound of a string snapping. A forest doesn't make a tuk snapping sound that isn't a footstep on a branch."
Han Se-ah rubbed her face vigorously with her palms in a dry wash, then asked Grace and Kayden. Seems her pride as a gamer had cracked. I knew what kind of person Han Se-ah was — I'd thoroughly checked her out online while I was in the North.
Before playing Heroes Chronicle, the first virtual reality game, Han Se-ah had been a fairly successful female internet streamer.
She had three hundred thousand live stream followers, and over five hundred thousand subscribers on her video site. Popular game videos racked up millions of views, and even miscellaneous videos about exercise or cheat day mukbangs easily surpassed a hundred thousand views.
"There seem to be orc hunters nearby. We can find the traps if we look, but our movement speed will drop significantly. Instead of sensing presence as we go, we'll have to carefully examine the path with our naked eyes."
"Got it, Unnie. We'll need to change strategy a bit."
Looking at Han Se-ah's past game videos, you could find two commonalities regardless of genre. One was a competitive spirit unique to gamers who also exercised — a fighter's temperament that absolutely could not stand losing.
If she got hit by a skill in lane, she had to dive right back in; if she heard gunfire while walking, she had to jump into the fight to feel better — a fighting-dog personality. That created a charm completely opposite to her pretty, delicate appearance that viewers found appealing.
"Roland. I have a request… no… as the leader, I have an order."
"Hmm?"
"Stand in front of Grace Unnie and smash everything in the way — clear a path. Not just clearing small branches. Smash anything weird enough that two people can walk through."
And the other was a tendency to solve everything with brute force without using her head.
Han Se-ah's flickering eyes set the chat ablaze. Existing viewers who knew her personality started snickering that old habits die hard, while viewers who had come later for game guides threw hooks into chat asking if there wasn't a smarter method.
When it came to games, Han Se-ah always pushed forward stubbornly, paying no mind to viewer opinions.
"If there are traps, that means orc hunters are nearby anyway. Grace Unnie might not find traps, but she can find orc hunters."
"That's true…?"
"So the two of you — clear the forest."
Hunters track prey.
Thieves disarm traps and locks.
Grace failing to find the orc hunter's trap wasn't because her scouting ability was lacking. It was an innate limitation caused by the game's system. Just like how I could handle mana but couldn't use magic — a very simple yet fundamental RPG rule meant Grace couldn't detect booby traps.
Confirming that fact, Han Se-ah issued her orders without hesitation.