231. Library Quest (2)
231. Library Quest (2)
"Alright, check out what I brought."
I gathered the entire party at the Utopia hideout and opened the box I'd gotten from Rina.
Inside the box, on top of a piece of fine cloth, sat seven pills.
Me, Kang Do-hee, Lee Yu-ri, Shin Se-hee, Im Ga-eul, Sofia, Ichika.
Enough for everyone in Utopia.
"......What is this?"
"It's a Mana-enhancing elixir refined from the Fire Dragon by Chairwoman Rina."
As I answered Shin Se-hee's question,
I placed a single pill into each of their hands.
"A-An elixir!?"
"This is that elixir!?"
"A Mana-enhancing elixir......"
"It really is...... an elixir......?"
They all flinched in surprise at the mention of it being an elixir, but they somehow kept their hands dead still.
The elixir was a small, transparent pill containing a brilliant, blazing red flame.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on that radiant sight.
Even Shin Se-hee and Kang Do-hee, who had consumed all sorts of high-quality things by now, were reacting like this.
I nodded, feeling deeply satisfied by the party members' juicy reactions.
'Honestly, I would've been a little disappointed if they didn't react like this.'
In the world of Velvet School Life, there are three ways to raise Mana.
First: using a 'Stat Increase Coupon'.
When I first fell into this place, I used one from the Alice Box the devs packed for me to artificially inflate my garbage innate stats.
Second: an 'Elixir'.
Like the one I'd just given my party members, you can increase Mana through elixirs.
And the third and final method is 'Growth'.
Either slowly pushing the limits of your Mana through intense training, or breaking through walls to increase the number of stars.
Those are the three methods, but
The problem is there's no gacha in this world.
Meaning, getting more Stat Increase Coupons is completely impossible,
and elixirs—which you usually get by throwing money at the gacha—are so incredibly rare that ordinary people go their whole lives without ever seeing one.
So ultimately, the only real option was to grind it out through Growth,
but then I went and picked up a random Fire Dragon and got it made into elixirs. So, how about that?
"Jin Yu-ha. Sh-sh-shouldn't I... go take a shower first? I had no idea I'd actually get to eat something this precious......!"
"The Fire Dragon's Mana-enhancing elixir—even the name is extraordinary."
"You even got one for me. Is it really okay for me, just the Operator, to take this......?"
"I'd only ever heard of elixirs, this is my first time seeing one......"
So yeah, them fussing like this wasn't strange at all.
With everyone just holding the pill in their hands and not even trying to consume it,
Pop.
I was the first to toss mine into my mouth.
"Come on, everyone, get them down the hatch. Unless you're planning to display that thing at home for generations."
"......Can we actually display it?"
"What do you think?"
At that, the party members put on determined expressions, then followed my lead and tossed their elixirs into their mouths.
As soon as the pill slid down my throat,
the first thing I felt was an intense heat.
It felt like I'd swallowed fire and my insides were bubbling up, churning. The elixir's energy unraveled from the center of my body and began to spread through my whole system.
How should I put it—it felt like the Fire Dragon was racing through my Mana Circuits.
The wild energy that seemed like it would burn everything away was the Fire Dragon itself, but
leashed by Rina's Mana, it only burned away the impurities piled up inside my circuits.
Whoosh—
It felt like my entire body was being scrubbed clean with fire.
I operated my Mana and sharpened my blade of focus, letting those flames scour every inch of my body clean.
How much time passed?
Eventually,
the flames slowly began to die down.
And then, the weakened fire gradually melted into my own Mana.
Flash!
When I opened my eyes,
the party members were looking at me with worried gazes.
"......Huh? You guys already finished?"
When I asked, Lee Yu-ri answered.
"Yeah, it's more like... you took way too long......"
"Really?"
Worried something might have gone wrong, I immediately opened my Status Window.
And then I couldn't help making a complicated expression.
My Mana did go up.
Except.
It went from 79 to 80.
'Just 1......?'
"How much did your Mana increase?"
I frowned and asked the party members.
"Me? 4."
"Mine went up by 3."
"Mine went up by 3, too."
Everyone had gone up around 3 to 4.
'Am I the only one who got just 1?'
Well, it's not like there isn't a pretty obvious reason why.
I had previously consumed a Mana Increase Pill.
My master had brought me one once a while back.
You build up a resistance if you take elixirs more than once.
So I hadn't really expected a dramatic increase going in.
'Tch, still a shame, though.'
In any case, the energy radiating from the party members was no joke.
Especially Shin Se-hee and Kang Do-hee, who had great compatibility with the Fire Dragon—there was even a palpable pressure from their formless aura.
'Hmm, with this much, we should be able to clear that Library Quest Rina gave us.'
"Hoobae, something just occurred to me—didn't we have to do one more broadcast to get that? A live one."
Just then, Ga-eul sunbae posed a timely question.
"Ah, I decided not to do the second broadcast."
"......Huh? Why?"
"Building any more Fame than this wouldn't really be a good thing. So instead, I got the Fire Dragon Elixir as an advance payment and took on a different request."
"A different request......?"
I showed the party members the commission letter and explained what the request was.
"......W-Wait a second! Why only three people? Aren't we all going together?"
Lee Yu-ri, who was listening to the details, spoke up in a startled voice.
I nodded at her question.
"Yeah, three of us. So, including me, two more can go."
The original Library Quest has a headcount limit, after all.
As soon as I said that, a strange tension instantly formed among the party members.
The desire to test out their newly enhanced strength after consuming the Fire Dragon Elixir,
and the conviction that they absolutely could not miss out on a quest with Jin Yu-ha!
"First of all, we'll need one more Damage Dealer. If this is a request from Chairwoman Rina, it's no ordinary commission. If something dangerous happens, ultimately, what you need is even greater firepower to punch through it."
Kang Do-hee was the first to sell herself.
"Hmm, is that so? Wouldn't a shield to stand at the very front, break through the enemy lines, and block attacks be the top priority? No matter what, it's nonsense for a Damage Dealer to move alone without a Tank."
"I-I mean, shouldn't one slot be for a Healer to heal wounds or restore stamina when they drop?"
"This request is an investigation. I, as the Operator, can participate as well."
"Hmph, is that all you've got?"
Starting with Kang Do-hee, the party members began chiming in one by one.
But honestly, their back-and-forth didn't really mean much.
Because I had already decided who I was taking from the very start.
I turned my head toward the blue-haired girl who was staring blankly at me.
"Ichika."
"Oh—yeah."
When her name was called, Ichika, expressionless, threw both hands up in the air.
With one of the two slots filled, the tension grew even sharper.
Worried that dragging this out might lead to an actual fight, I didn't hesitate and called out the next person right away.
"Ga-eul sunbae."
At that, everyone's eyes went round as if they couldn't believe it.
Even the person whose name I'd called.
Im Ga-eul, flustered, glanced rapidly around her before pointing at her own face with her finger and asking,
"......Huh? M-Me? F-For real, hoobae?"
I smiled and nodded without hesitation.
"Yes. On this quest, your strength and Ichika's are absolutely essential, sunbae. No, honestly—if it weren't for you and Ichika, I would have turned down this quest in the first place."
Im Ga-eul's eyes went wide as saucers, her mouth dropping open.
* * *
After hearing my final words that we'd be leaving tomorrow, Im Ga-eul returned to her room, lay down on her bed, and stared blankly up at the ceiling.
"......Is this another dream?"
Pinch.
"Ow!"
It hurt.
"Huh, what's this? It's not a dream this time......?"
Jin Yu-ha had called her name as one of the party members to go with him.
From what she could remember, this was the second time Jin Yu-ha had asked her for help.
Since that time during the break when he'd asked her to absorb the power of the Black Magic Stone. This was the first time since then.
Of course, she'd heard something like this once in the middle, at Jukai Forest,
but that was her being tricked by an illusion woven by an incubus.
The truth was, even after taking the Fire Dragon Elixir this time and becoming much stronger than before, she hadn't been very confident.
Because she wasn't the only one who got stronger.
All of those monstrous hoobaes had gotten stronger together.
So the moment she found out this request had a headcount limit,
she had given up early on.
If they were picking two people from Utopia, one of those two definitely wouldn't be her.
'But... me?'
He even said that if it weren't for her, he wouldn't have accepted this request!
This wasn't an incubus illusion, either.
It was real.
"......Really. Can I... actually be helpful?"
Zing—
A thrill ran down her spine.
Her body trembled uncontrollably.
A pleasure even more intense than when she consumed the priceless Fire Dragon Elixir washed over her.
Im Ga-eul was naturally the type who felt happiness when she gave something to others.
But the people around her were just too exceptional.
Except.
— Yes. On this quest, your strength, sunbae (and Ichika's), is absolutely essential. No, honestly—if it weren't for you, sunbae (and Ichika), I would have turned down this quest in the first place.
The words Jin Yu-ha had spoken, his face serious, just moments ago replayed in her mind.
"Hehehet......"
Because Jin Yu-ha needed her,
she found herself smiling more happily than she ever had before.
"Hehe...... I wish tomorrow would come faster......"
Im Ga-eul buried her face in her pillow and chuckled to herself.