The Grind (3)

It had already been three days since I'd started farming Growth Stones in the E-rank Dungeon of the Greedy Snake.

Grinding in the real world was a completely different animal from grinding in a game. The physical and mental fatigue stacked in ways a screen never could, and the former was, without question, far worse.

When you grind in a game, you just boot up your computer or phone and let auto-hunt run. Pretty much every title has that feature these days, so grinding isn't the nightmare it used to be. You check in every now and then to make sure your character is still farming properly, and that's about it.

Reality didn't work that way. I had to move my own body and fight every monster myself, and if luck wasn't on my side, I could clear the whole place without a single Growth Stone to show for it. An E-rank dungeon held a little over thirty monsters. Wiping them all out and walking away empty-handed was enough to ruin anyone's mood.

What kept me going was the fact that my level was climbing steadily — and that Aquaril, my fairy, was right there beside me.

So this is why they call humans social animals.

I'd also learned something about myself I hadn't expected: I got lonely a lot more easily than I'd thought. The food we'd bought in Indigo had run out ages ago, which left us hunting game and foraging for fruit, and Aquaril had taken that entire job on herself. I tried to help, but she flatly refused and told me to rest, so I had no choice but to sit there alone while she went out looking for food. And when I was alone, the loneliness hit like a wall.

I'd only been apart from her for a little while. How was I this pathetic?

Anyway, the grind proceeded smoothly enough. It had been fifteen days since I'd arrived in this world, and this was where we stood.

I'd funneled every Growth Stone we pulled from the dungeon into Aquaril, and it showed — her stats had jumped by a wide margin. Seventeen points gained in total, and every last one of her seven main stats had broken out of the single digits. She'd climbed two levels, and both of her skills had gone up a rank as well.

Her class level had risen too, but because she still hadn't ranked up to 2-star, she hadn't received any of the class level-up rewards. A damn shame, and nothing I could do about it yet.

I'd grown a great deal myself. Three levels gained, and once Aquaril's Strength hit the 20-point cap, I started absorbing the Lower Growth Stones for Strength and Agility that dropped afterward. My Agility hitting 15 had also cleared one of the Beginner Quests, which coughed up an extra Lower Growth Stone (Agility). I swallowed that one on the spot.

"Is it because this is a Unique-grade class? The damn thing refuses to level."

The one disappointment was that my class level was still sitting at 1, even after everything I'd killed. Unique-grade carried the same weight as Mythic — the highest class rank there was — so the experience required to level it was enormous. Still, not budging a single level by the time I hit 14 was a bit of a shock.

"It's a great class, don't get me wrong… but eating a ten percent experience penalty stings."

If a fairy shared both an attribute and a class with their Master, you picked up a ten percent experience bonus per match — twenty percent total. The problem was that I held Uroboros's Avatar, a Unique-grade class that existed nowhere else in this world. That meant Aquaril, and every fairy I claimed from here on out, would miss out on that extra ten percent. For someone who wanted to get stronger as fast as possible, it was a genuinely painful loss.

"What's taking her so long? Is there nothing to hunt?"

I dismissed the status window and glanced at the empty space beside me. The moment we'd finished the dungeon, Aquaril had gone out to hunt down my dinner. Setting traps along the game trails would have raised her success rate, but there was no need. Her Agility was sitting at 20. No wild animal on this earth was outrunning that.

"If there's nothing out there, she could just come back."

Without her next to me, a vicious loneliness crept in. It felt like I'd been dropped into this world all by myself, and even with the fire going I could feel a chill settling over my skin.

"Maybe I should go meet her halfway."

I carefully pulled a piece of firewood from the pile, stood up, and took the torch. If I stuck to the area around camp, we wouldn't miss each other.

"Master? Where are you going?"

"…"

Turns out I didn't need to go looking after all. I'd barely gotten to my feet before Aquaril walked back into camp, a thick deer haunch gripped in each hand. She blinked at me, taking in the sight of her Master standing there with a torch like he was about to wander off into the dark.

"Nah, nothing. My body was getting stiff, so I just stood up."

"Is that so? Stretching often never hurts. You should do it regularly."

I missed you so much I was about to go looking for you. There was no way I could say that out loud. The sheer embarrassment of it made me fumble for an excuse and leave it at that. Fortunately, Aquaril didn't seem to notice anything off.

"Yeah. Took you a while, though."

"Ah — yes. I couldn't find any animals nearby, so I went farther out than usual today."

"Got it. Good work."

"Heh. This is nothing, Master. You must be hungry — I'll have the meat roasted for you right away."

"Yeah, go ahead."

I tossed the firewood back into the flames and sat down. A short while later, Aquaril handed me a deer haunch she'd roasted to a perfect, easy-to-eat finish.

"Buying salt even though it was expensive was the right call, huh?"

Salt went for a steep price in this world. A container no longer than my index finger had cost a full 50,000 gold. We hadn't been able to afford any other spices, but salt alone was enough to make roast venison taste worlds better than the unseasoned stuff.

"Indeed. As expected, Master's foresight is truly remarkable."

Foresight? Over buying salt?

Coming from anyone else, that might have sounded like a dig. But Aquaril was a fairy. Mocking her Master was not something she did.

"Master."

"Hm?"

"What do you intend to do from here?"

"From here?"

"Yes. I'll be reaching level 20 soon."

"Right."

In Fairy Masters, the number 20 carried real weight. Hit level 20 and you could rank up from 1-star to 2-star, and every multiple of 20 after that unlocked the next rank. Stats worked the same way — the cap rose by multiples of 20 with each star. Aquaril had already pushed her primary stat, Agility, to the current ceiling. The moment she hit 20, I needed to rank her up to 2-star immediately. That was the only way to stop wasting her class level-up rewards.

But how do you even rank up in this world?

In Fairy Masters, you ranked a fairy up by gathering gold and materials that only dropped in dungeons. Did the same rules apply here?

"Aquaril. How does ranking up work?"

Fortunately, I had my very own all-purpose Aquemong I could pester the moment a question popped into my head. I asked, and the answer came right back.

"We must visit a temple."

"A temple?"

"Yes. There is a temple in Indigo with no practitioners in residence. If we go there, present an offering to the statue of the Nameless God, and offer a prayer, the rank-up will be granted."

Hmm… in game terms, that would be a shrine and a priest. Temple equals shrine, practitioner equals priest.

So ranking up worked more or less the same way it did in Fairy Masters. The difference was that in the game you did it with a few clicks, and here you actually had to go find a temple.

An offering, though?

"…What kind of offering are we talking about?"

"Gold coins will suffice."

"Gold? That's it?"

"Yes."

The word "offering" had made my stomach drop — I'd been half-convinced I'd have to offer up gems the way I had with Uroboros. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

But as a general rule, you should always let a person finish talking.

"That's not so bad. Then the second you hit 20, we make a quick trip back to Indigo and visit this temple. Getting you to 2-star comes first."

"Um… Master."

"Yeah?"

"To rank up, five million gold is required."

She said it carefully, almost apologetically, and I froze solid.

"How much?"

"It's… five million gold."

"…"

I opened my inventory.

One hundred and fifty thousand gold. That was everything we'd pulled from the dungeon's treasure chests.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Ranking Aquaril up would take another 4.85 million gold. No — I'd need to rank up at 20 as well, which meant it wasn't 4.85 million. It was 9.85 million. An amount so far beyond my current means that my head actually started to spin.

"I-I'm sorry, Master. I can take my time ranking up, so you should go first—"

"No. You've got nothing to be sorry for. Ten million gold… we'll figure that out later."

I waved her off — it wasn't her fault, and the lost look on her face wasn't helping anyone — and sank into thought.

Ten million gold? Is this a joke? It's a rank-up from 1-star to 2-star. Why the hell does it cost that much?

The number was enough to make anyone's vision go white.

There's no way to get that kind of money right now… Fine. No choice. I'll just have to steal it.

And as it happened, I already had the perfect target in mind.

If I'm going to steal anyway, I might as well hit that bitch Prisia's place. The one who stabbed me in the back.

If I was going to rob someone, it might as well be Princess Prisia Lily — the woman who'd offered me and Ivan up as sacrifices and sauntered off without a scratch. I'd also lived in that mansion for a week. I knew the layout.

The problem is Prisia and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kyle…

Princess Prisia Lily had two male fairies: Kyle and Ivan. Of the two, the ones I actually had to worry about were the princess and Kyle.

Even if she'd re-summoned Ivan after Ryona's fire arrow killed him, the death penalty would have gutted his stats. He was still 1-star, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a 1-star carrying a death penalty was no match for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the two of us standing on the doorstep of 2-star.

The princess and Kyle were a different story. She was a 2-star swordsman with solid stats, and Kyle, while still 1-star, was a warrior as close to ranking up as we were. On top of that, he was a fairy who'd been sitting at level 1 with two traits.

We steal what we need and we get out. If we get caught, we run.

No need to overthink it. What I needed was money, not the princess's life. I could collect on that backstab anytime I wanted, once I was strong enough.

I sorted the plan out in my head and looked over at Aquaril, who still wore the face of someone who didn't know what to do with herself.

"Aquaril."

"Yes, Master."

"Once you hit level 20, I'll start hunting the monsters on my own from that point on."

"What? But—"

"Ah, ah. I know what you're worried about. But my stats are high for a 1-star. And I'm not talking about leaving you behind and walking into the dungeon alone. You think I'm that crazy? We go in together. You watch my back while I fight, and if it looks like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'm in trouble, you jump in. Got it?"

"Yes, Master."

Only then did she relax and nod. High stats or not, I had zero intention of getting sloppy. Dying was not on the agenda.

"And once I hit 20 as well, we go back to Indigo and scrape together ten million gold however we have to. Okay?"

"Yes, Master."

With the plan set, we washed off in a nearby lake and stretched out in the hammock we'd built three days earlier.

Four more days passed. It was the eighth day since we'd started the grind.

"Level twenty!"

I stared at the status window and clenched my fist. After all that grinding, I'd finally done it. Aquaril had gotten there ahead of me.

"Then let's head back to Indigo."

"Yes, Master!"

Those words meant our long stretch of camping was over. It was time to return to Indigo. Aquaril and I set out to rank up.

Although…

I stopped walking for a moment and looked back. The traces of our camp were still sitting there at the dungeon entrance, untouched. We'd left them on purpose. If things went south, we'd need a place to come back to.

Eight days, and he really never showed.

Uroboros had said he'd be sleeping to recover his strength, and whether he'd actually gone under or not, he hadn't appeared or spoken a single word to me in eight full days.

Maybe…

Maybe the wound ran a lot deeper than I'd thought.

Stay hurt, then.

If he really was wounded, I earnestly hoped those injuries wouldn't heal until I came back to raid him. Better to face a weakened Uroboros, after all.

"Master?"

"Hm? Ah — sorry. Let's go."

Aquaril and I turned toward Indigo.