A Puppy's Resolve and Hidden Paths
Even though I was a bit of a munchkin in my own right, the reason my mind felt at ease was because I'd learned that she wasn't sticking with the White Knight Guild for any other shady reasons.
"To go traveling, I need to increase my mana capacity first!"
Hm? How did she connect those two things?
"Ilwol is fine, but maintaining Wangwang still burns through my mana!"
"So I'm going to save up money and buy an artifact that boosts mana recovery speed, or have some gear custom-made!"
Hmm… Maintaining a single mole cricket like that shouldn't consume that much mana, though.
"I saw this person on YouTube who travels around with nine Welsh corgis and it was just so cute, you know? If I want to do the same, I have to raise my mana pool!"
Clack.
At that absurdly naive idea, my jaw snapped shut without me realizing it. Nine of those yapping little Wangwangs… Just imagining it for a second brought a chaotic scene to mind.
Even if she says that, she must have some kind of plan…
Hehe~ Our Wangwang has such a chubby belly! Woof—! Hec hec hec—
…This won't do. Even I need to get a grip.
While the two of them played, completely absorbed in each other, I trained by shifting my sensory focus between different parts of my body and thought about where we should go after the Goblin Dungeon.
Next will be the Big Bore Dungeon, right? Big Bore, goblins, slimes, mole crickets…
It was a place where massive one-horned wild boars competed with goblins for territory, and like the goblin dungeon, it was also a single-floor dungeon.
If we go there, I should be able to find that thing.
Some dungeons had hidden passages, and this one was exactly like that.
There's a spot that can only be detected with a Perception stat of 15 or higher.
Perception was an incredibly rare stat to begin with. I knew there weren't even a hundred people in the entire country who had it, and aside from a few including myself, they were all early-generation Awakeners.
But back then, dungeons were bursting open and everyone was focused on stopping the monster waves, so no one had the luxury of investing in Perception. By the time people later realized how useful it was, those early Awakeners had already become monsters who surpassed human limits and could no longer enter the newly generated low-grade dungeons.
That was because hunters whose stats exceeded the dungeon's monsters by too wide a margin couldn't enter them.
Most Perception Awakeners who weren't from the early generation started with a natural value between 1 and 5. But I had over 20 Perception from the moment I awakened, so in that particular field I was considered quite talented. That let me thoroughly scour even the lowest dungeons from the very beginning, and naturally, I knew about a lot of hidden locations.
Even when I started exploring back then, there were quite a few hidden spaces. There might be even more now.
After all, the past me had awakened a year from this point in time.
The problem was how to drag Yeonhee along to that place.
Naturally, most hidden locations were far off the normal routes.
Maybe I should just force us to change direction and head there.
Wouldn't she follow along asking, 'What's over there?' I wondered if I was thinking too conveniently for myself, but seeing her sprawled out on the floor right now, it seemed entirely possible.
— Hahihit, Wangwang's tongue is so rough, hehehet.
— Woof! Hec hec— Lick lick—
What a peaceful world.
For the sake of her mental health, I really needed to find an item that could increase her mana capacity soon.
"Ah— My mana…! Wangwang, I'll call you again later, so go inside for now, okay?"
"Kiiing— Kiing—"
"Sob sob— I'm sad too."
Look at these two, straight out of Romeo and Juliet.
I'd had the title of favorite summon stolen by Wangwang in the blink of an eye, and my insides were boiling with frustration, but getting worked up over a dog was ridiculous.
Then suddenly Wangwang came running toward me and greeted me.
Did this guy finally recognize his superior?
Wait, come to think of it, why could this mutt roam around freely?
Anyway, the fellow who approached me stared at me with meaningful eyes.
Huh?! This bastard?!
Now that I could gradually sense Wangwang's intentions, I felt utterly dumbfounded.
[I'll chew up your bones someday, you mutt.]
[Hmph! You're still wet behind the ears, rookie.]
In the end, after I held Wangwang and took a few photos, the cheeky puppy's summon was released, leaving just the two of us in the room.
She stared blankly for a moment before pulling something else out of her inventory.
Whoosh.
Huh?! There was another summon scroll? And the color is different?
"Hehe~ They gave it to me for completing the 100-person battle achievement. The one from earlier was the level-up reward, but this one's a bit different. See? It's a light brown, right?"
"Clack clack clack!"
Whoa, what kind of insane class is this?! They give you a summon scroll just for an achievement?
So it seemed that no matter what kind of feat a summoner accomplished, they received additional rewards in the form of summon scrolls.
That's totally an overpowered class, isn't it? They get one extra reward compared to other classes.
If she could just find a way to protect herself, there would be nothing to worry about.
"But I'm going to use this one tomorrow."
Hm? Why?
When I tilted my head, Yeonhee smiled and continued.
"I just have this feeling that if I use them all in one day, something good won't come out."
Nod.
Creating her own little routines is a good thing.
If she thought of it like a game, that scroll would probably give at least a low-grade summon. One rank higher than me.
"And anyway, it wouldn't mean anything if I don't get stronger first, right? It doesn't seem good to rely on all of you too much. For the time being, I'm going to focus on training myself."
When I clapped at her words, Yeonhee wrinkled her nose playfully and said,
"If you react like that, it makes it sound like I'm only saying this to get praise from you, Ilwol! I'm the master, remember?"
"Clack clack clack!"
"Hehe, that's right. It might be hard to believe, but just wait and see. I'm going to become the greatest hunter, just like Mom said."
Clack…
Madam, what exactly did you tell your daughter to make her have such grand ambitions…?
What was certain was that the Lee Yeonhee I'd imagined had been the result of my own biased judgment and the world's superficial evaluation solidifying into a distorted image.
She was someone with quite lofty aspirations.
"We'll be able to complete the goblin achievement soon. The next achievements will be hard to get, but… well, we should at least test the waters, right?"
With enough time, there's nothing you couldn't do, but it will take a while.
Spending months camping in one dungeon just for an achievement would be less efficient than moving on to the next dungeon quickly. Still, the reason she didn't want to miss even the slightest possibility was probably because the achievement rewards were summon scrolls.
"Anyway, starting tomorrow let's pick up the pace, Ilwol. I want to move on to the next dungeon soon too."
"Clack clack clack!"
"Aww— I only shot a bow the whole time, so why am I so tired? Yawn—"
She pushed her mana to the limit, so of course she'd be exhausted.
She waved at me and went into her room.
Hmm— Nothing else to do, so I might as well run some simulations for fighting the hobgoblin.
In the end, I trained alone until the faint sound of crickets could be heard and the cold dawn air began to seep in.
Whoosh— Whoooosh—
If even the slightest improvement in movement came from this struggle, then it wouldn't be in vain.
And a few hours later, Yeonhee stretched as she came out of the small room.
"Good morning~ Weren't you bored being alone? Should we just sleep together starting today?"
"……"
"Why? You don't want to sleep with me?"
"Clack clack—"
"Hmph— Fine then."
Just let me practice in peace. This is all for you, you know.
Shaaaaa—
After showering, Yeonhee came out with wet hair, covering her body with a towel.
"Don't look, Ilwol. Turn your head."
Swish—
I didn't think she needed to do that even to her own summon, but my body had already turned away.
* * *
After entering and exiting the dark space, I was back in the familiar forest. I immediately began searching.
Well, this is easy now.
As long as it wasn't a large group of more than ten at once, there was nothing in this dungeon our current forces couldn't handle.
(They're up ahead—)
In just twenty minutes, I found a group of six goblins.
Thud—! Slash—!
Starting with arrows and acidic liquid, my club, which had grown even faster, now sent goblins into a near-death state with a single blow.
I took out three the moment the battle began. The remaining three charged at me, but I lightly created distance and circled around them.
Thud— Thunk—!
Of course the arrows flew without pause, and I used Heavy Strike on the last one left alone.
Wham—!
Keeek!
As a reward for reaching level 5, the growth rate of chosen stats has increased. At every 5 level interval, the amount each stat increases by 5. That meant two extra points compared to normal, which was a decent reward.
And with very rare probability, new skills or traits could be added as well.
I invested normally into Strength, Agility, and Magic Power, then set off on the road again.
Unfortunately only my stats had increased, but I didn't mind much. From the beginning, I'd always thought I'd used up all my luck as a hunter on being born with high Perception.