Things You Can Buy with Gold Coins 5

The viewers heated up the chat as they stared at the twentieth-floor quest window alongside Han Se-ah.

At the same time, the now-familiar quest window appeared before my eyes as well. At first I'd cursed the developers for splitting rewards like some greedy game company, but I couldn't help being glad to see a quest window. The internet access pass I'd received as a reward had been far too sweet.

As Jjanhae-jwa — so committed to teasing Han Se-ah that I even used a VPN — I browsed the stream community boards. After that, free webtoons, free web novels, and videos of other streamers on video sites, all washed down with a drink. Luxury I never would have imagined enjoying in a fantasy world.

So the anticipation that welled up every time I saw a quest was only natural.

"Let's keep exploring for now. It might be for gathering materials, or it might be something the mages did."

"Right, got it."

Grace nodded at Han Se-ah's words, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rose from her seat, and took the lead. Of course, even if that was what they said out loud, the fact that this was a monster's doing was something Han Se-ah knew, the viewers knew, and I knew.

"Is the twentieth-floor quest a war quest? Orc Kingdom… doesn't sound great. The Full Moon Wolf was a raid against a large monster, but the Orc Kingdom looks like pure chaos waiting to happen."

The anomaly our party's scout had found. Faced with the suspicious traces, both Grace and Kayden kept their mouths shut and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their nerves taut — and Han Se-ah seized the opening to start chatting with her viewers.

Twentieth-floor main scenario: Orc Kingdom.

Unlike the Full Moon Wolf, just the quest name was enough to roughly guess the story. Han Se-ah and the viewers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me, tossing around rough plot predictions. There were already Orc Hunters, and now a kingdom had shown up — so maybe Orc Warriors, Orc Shamans, that kind of thing?

That perfectly reasonable guess was proven correct almost immediately.

"There's something up ahead. Looks like Orc Hunters… a lot of them. They're in a pack."

Courtesy of a bunch of snorting pig-heads.

"Roland. On the twentieth floor of the Tower, only Orc Hunters appear, right?"

"That's right. And those things always operate alone…"

Unlike the stealthy Orc Hunters that hid in the shadows, these pig-heads were noisier than a goblin village, oinking and squealing. As we approached the spot Grace had marked, the racket reached our ears long before we could see anything.

Crouched among the brush and shrubs, looking out over the noisy clearing, what we saw were big green lumps — orcs armed with rusted, chipped axes and clubs.

Outside the Tower, Orc Warriors were so common you got sick of them. The native-barbarian type, dressed in ragged leather and snorting away at the top of their lungs. Common outside, sure — but they weren't supposed to exist inside the Tower.

"Let's hunt them for now. They shouldn't be that much stronger than the orcs outside, right?"

"They don't look any different. I'll take the lead."

No ominous mana wrapping them, no oversized frames, no different skin color, no red-tinted eyes. On the surface, they were completely identical to the orcs outside. This was a game quest — they weren't about to suddenly turn stronger than ogres or anything.

Trusting my armor and my body, I headed into the clearing. No attempt to hide my presence — just stomping through, shoving branches aside and snapping them underfoot, loud enough that the noisy orcs noticed me right away.

Kweeik—?

The moment my eyes met that ugly pig face, a heavy axe came flying. A thick, fast blow that any rural farmer would claim could only be matched by goblin-tier strength. No technique to it, but powerful enough that no ordinary human could compare.

Kweeeeeek!

"A bit tougher than a Horned Wolf, but not really stronger than the orcs outside."

An axe swing powerful enough to split a human like firewood. The price was searing pain from my passive reflection damage. Still, as if to prove it was a twentieth-floor monster and not a tenth-floor one, the thing didn't die from the reflection alone.

Instead, both hands apparently shattered, it dropped the axe and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠collapsed to the ground, trembling. A kind of groggy state, I supposed.

While the viewers laughed and chattered, the remaining Orc Warriors charged me with a collective snort. Unlike the cunning, persistent Orc Hunters, they threw themselves forward with no regard for anything but the fact that their comrade had fallen — moths diving into a campfire.

One of them swung an axe into my shoulder, only for the attacker to go sprawling and howling instead. Even a shred of intelligence would have told them something was wrong… but in the end, they were just orcs.

Clang— clang— clang—!

Axes and clubs hammered obsessively at my shoulders and head. Feeble attacks that couldn't so much as scratch a body and armor reinforced with mana. For the price of scattering a few leaves across my shoulders, the orcs went tumbling across the ground in a neat row.

"Yeah, ordinary orc level."

"Is this also that… mana reinforcement thing?"

"Yeah — I reinforce the armor with mana to create a rebound force. The Horned Wolves died by slamming their heads into it; these ones hit with their hands, so they survived."

While I was roughly explaining the passive skill to Grace in fantasy-world terms, Kayden drifted over and casually sliced the throats of the orcs thrashing on the ground.

A one-handed sword moving as lightly as a broom sweeping leaves. Every flash of the blade sent the heads of orcs still rolling around, unable to collect themselves, parting company with their bodies. And in their place appeared Mana Stones and byproducts.

"Orc Warriors drop byproducts just like Orc Hunters."

"Lately it feels like a lot of strange things are happening in the Tower…"

Grace murmured quietly as she looked at the necklaces and bracelets scattered across the ground, and Han Se-ah — whose conscience was clearly pricking her — laughed with an ahaha and changed the subject.

Like murder cases clustering around a detective whose body was still in elementary school while her soul was in high school, incidents under the name of "quests" inevitably sprang up around the gamer Han Se-ah. Not just the twentieth floor — every time we hit the thirtieth, fortieth, fiftieth, there would be quests, and character quests and side quests would start popping up left and right.

So of course Han Se-ah, the main character of the "strange things" Grace had just muttered about, flinched.

"Anyway, the fact that packs of orcs like this have appeared means we should report it to the Guild and the Magic Tower, right?"

"Having byproducts as evidence will make the report easier."

Since it hadn't been said out of any actual suspicion toward Han Se-ah, the party's attention shifted to the Orc Warriors' byproducts. Similar to the Orc Hunters' drops, but decorated with animal bones in a slightly different pattern — necklaces and bracelets.

Han Se-ah gathered the byproducts into her inventory and asked the party for their opinions.

"Just because Orc Warriors showed up doesn't mean there's a major threat. But ignoring it and heading for the twenty-first floor feels off too. What should our party do?"

"Hmm…"

At Han Se-ah's question, everyone started thinking. She had probably floated the question for the sake of clearing the quest, but as a leader she was handling it well. An unexpected variable had appeared mid-commission, so as party leader it was right to ask the members' opinions.

Investigate the suspicious events on the twentieth floor and report to the Adventurer's Guild and the Magic Tower? Or decide it wasn't that dangerous, ignore it, and stick to the original goal of finding and confirming the passage to the twenty-first floor?

After some thought, the party members began speaking up one by one. First to finish deliberating was Kayden, who argued for ignoring it and finding the twenty-first-floor passage. Irene and Grace followed with their own takes.

"I believe searching for the twenty-first-floor passage would be best. A report with just the byproducts should be sufficient. Even if we investigate the anomaly with no information, I doubt we would obtain anything useful."

"If Orc Warriors have appeared, I think we should try to find out why. The reason we climb the Tower isn't simply to go up as fast as possible — it's to uncover the unknowns within it."

"I agree with Irene. We clearly sensed something strange, and just turning our backs on it would leave a bad taste."

Kayden thinking about efficiency, Irene thinking about duty, Grace speaking from a hunter's instincts. With the opinions split two to one, the corner of Han Se-ah's mouth twitched upward. The flow had already settled on progressing the quest without any need for persuasion.

Part of me wanted to side with Kayden just to watch Han Se-ah's face fall, but I had quest rewards on the line too, so I held back. While the three of them exchanged opinions, I quietly slipped over to Han Se-ah's stream community board and left a post as Jjanhae-jwa.

I wasn't hoping Han Se-ah would read it right away — I was hoping someone would spot Jjanhae-jwa's new post and start stirring things up. After finishing the post while hanging back and watching the others talk, I stepped forward with a thoughtful expression, as if I'd been deliberating the whole time.

"When opinions are split, the party leader has to take charge. What are you going to do, Hanna?"

"I… think Grace and Irene are right. Following Kayden's suggestion might be more efficient, but something unknown is happening, and skipping fact-checking just to chase efficiency feels a little too risky."

At Han Se-ah's words, Kayden — who kept hierarchy with iron discipline — nodded and fell in line at once.