Reunion with the Wandering Merchant Lucy
What did she see, to look like that?
Jin-soo turned his head. What met his eyes were Shin Sua's former party members, beaten to a wreck.
Fewer of them than before. Caught in it when the White Drake went on a rampage? Last time he had seen them, there had been seven besides Shin Sua. Now only four remained. Lucky. If they had met the White Drake, keeping even a few of them alive instead of being wiped out to the last was fortune in itself.
Shin Sua, who had frozen for a moment, turned her head again and started toward the inn. When she moved, Jin-soo followed.
On the walk back, her thoughts were a tangle. So I really did see them back then.
When Jin-soo had hauled her along like luggage and they ran into the White Drake, there had been players teetering on the edge of annihilation. They had fled while he attacked the beast. Shin Sua had thought those fleeing backs looked strangely familiar, but she had needed to support him at once and never got a proper look. The ruin of her old party, glimpsed just now, made the familiarity obvious.
Cheol-ho, Mina, and Sang-won are dead. Those three were gone. If Jin-soo hadn't been there... The party itself would have been wiped out. Good thing he killed it. Had he not hunted the White Drake, a great many players would have lost their lives.
There was so much I wanted to show them, if we ever met again.
She had wanted to tell them she hadn't been conned—that Jin-soo really was a good person. She had wanted to show them he was a truly strong Player. And after changing class into a healer, she had wanted to boast that, even if she was no enormous help, she was at least carrying her share.
But seeing her former party in tatters, with the dead among them, she decided it would be better to pretend she hadn't noticed them at all.
If I hadn't met Jin-soo, would I have died too? The thought struck her out of nowhere. If she had faced the White Drake with her old party instead of with him, what would have become of her?
I would have died. No question. She had been the furthest behind of all of them. She was certain she would have been the first to lose her life. I'm glad I met him. That was why she was still alive.
It wasn't that she felt no gratitude toward them. There was guilt as well. But Shin Sua was no fool, and she knew exactly how they had thought of her, and how they had treated her. She had wanted to believe, right to the end, that they still considered her a comrade. The words and the conduct when she left the party had shattered even that last scrap of faith.
Forget it.
Watching how wretched they looked, the urge to show off Jin-soo and her changed self the next time they met vanished without a trace. It felt childish. I'll think only about what comes next. Once they climbed to Floor 51, they were unlikely to meet again anyway.
By the time she had finished sorting her thoughts, they had reached the inn.
When Shin Sua passed in front of them with Jin-soo, Kim So-yeon and the rest of the party startled so hard they nearly jumped.
She's alive? Don't tell me they killed that monster. That man and Sua, just the two of them?
Shock flooded their eyes.
During the encounter with the White Drake, Shin Sua had seen only her former party's backs. They, on the other hand, had watched in vivid detail as she came running, tucked against Jin-soo's side. He was the one who had saved their lives. Of course they had looked.
The White Drake was a monster they could not even hope to face. Just as they were certain they were finished, Shin Sua and Jin-soo appeared. He charged the beast, and she moved in to support him. That was how they had lived.
Watching the two fight, Kim So-yeon and the others had of course thought them insane, and fled in a blind panic. Behind them the noise of a battle fought without pause kept erupting. Savior or not, the idea of helping never crossed their minds. What mattered most was their own lives. They wanted to live. While Jin-soo and Shin Sua bought them time, they had to reach the village no matter what—and only after they arrived in a daze could they finally breathe in relief.
KWA-AANG! BOOOOM!
"KWOOOOARRGH!"
Even from inside the village the great blast was visible, and the White Drake's roar carried to them.
Guilt toward Shin Sua and Jin-soo welled up. Even so, they worked hard to justify themselves, trading excuses back and forth.
"They chose to fight."
"It's not like they did it to save us."
"We wouldn't have been any help if we'd stayed."
"He's just crazy."
The clamor of the battle faded, and the White Drake's roar came no more.
Kim So-yeon and the others naturally assumed the two of them were dead. Then Jin-soo and Shin Sua walked back into the village, entirely unharmed.
They were aghast. Only then did the regret begin to creep in. If they had lent a hand hunting the White Drake, couldn't they at least have scraped up the crumbs? If they hadn't sneered when Shin Sua left, couldn't they have gotten some kind of help? With three of them dead and no strength left to keep a proper party together, couldn't they have joined hers and lived fat off the spoils?
What they had done felt so regrettable it ached. But it was already past.
Instead they sank into worry. Had Shin Sua told the man who felled the White Drake the things they had said? Had she let him know they ran? With that came the fear that she, nursing a grudge for all the scorn she had taken inside the party, might try to take revenge. They couldn't even bring themselves to greet her. They ducked their heads and did everything they could to stay out of her sight. The dread of retaliation loomed larger than any hope of freeloading off her success.
Shin Sua, of course, had no such intention at all. Kim So-yeon and her party, however, were narrow-hearted people with small minds. A pig's eye sees nothing but pigs, as the saying went, and so they decided she must be just as petty and small as they were. Recalling everything they had done to her, they could not help but fear revenge.
Back at the inn, Jin-soo and Shin Sua met Cha Hee-soo.
"You're back."
She welcomed them with tears trembling in her eyes.
Made it back safely. It was what he had expected. When a White Drake runs wild, the other monsters hold their breath and keep their heads down. They wouldn't have suffered any trouble from monsters on the way to the village.
"These belonged to your party members, didn't they?"
From among the items he had gathered, Jin-soo held out the ones that looked like theirs.
"Huh? They did, but... why are you giving them to me?"
By custom, when a Player died during a party hunt, their items became the property of whoever had shared that party. That held only when the survivors had actually secured the dead Player's things. If you had been driven off by a monster and fled, whoever picked them up first was the owner.
"It's thanks for telling me where that thing was."
He passed the items over. They held little value for him, and it was also a kindness to Cha Hee-soo, who had lost her party. It's not as if I can keep looking after her. He liked her quick eye and her obliging manner, and her skill was above average. She simply wasn't at the level he needed.
"Thank you. Truly."
Cha Hee-soo bowed her head and accepted her party members' belongings. Having her wounds treated and her life saved was already an immense grace; she had never expected the consideration to reach this far.
Jin-soo saw that she ate her fill through dinner, and then they parted. He and Shin Sua went into the lodging, washed in warm water, and rested.
Time to look these over properly.
Jin-soo examined the items that had come from bringing down the White Drake. Quite a few skill books, too. He had picked up some worth using. Whatever he didn't need, he listed at the auction house. A lot of basic materials dropped as well. Drake teeth, claws, scales, bones, and the rest had come out in quantity.
These are awkward to put up. Even if he held the teeth back as material for Dragon Tooth Soldiers, the scales, the bones, and the other crafting stock were the problem. This one especially.
The drake's heart. An item steeped in vast mana; simply consuming it was enough to raise one's mana stat. Eating it wouldn't do me any good anyway. Giving it to Shin Sua was the best option. Still, it's a waste to have her eat it raw.
Before it was an elixir that raised mana, a drake's heart was a crafting material—and this was the heart of the drake that had granted him the feat of the first hunt on Floor 50. The weight of that feat is soaked into it. Process it properly, and it might become an incredible item. Or an incredible elixir. Left as a mere material, though, it was only a drake's heart. The value of the feat would be hard to have recognized. Turning it into an item is definitely the better play.
These were byproducts of a drake hunted for the first time on Floor 50. Selling them at the auction house as raw stock would be a tremendous loss. The problem is that this is Floor 50.
On Floor 50, people with production classes—alchemists, artisans, and the like—were hard to come by. Players don't favor crafting classes to begin with. Even those who changed into them were often short on real skill. The truly skilled artisans were usually artisans before they ever came to the Tower.
Those from other dimensions, in particular, outclassed anyone from Earth. Racial gifts, such as those of the dwarves and the elves, gave them the advantage from the start. Even among humans, an artisan from another dimension is bound to be better than one from Earth.
On a modernized Earth—nuclear weapons and missiles, tanks and fighter jets—how many artisans were there who still forged swords and armor? Even among humans, it was only natural that craftsmen from other dimensions, still living at something like a medieval level and waging war in armor with sword and spear, would be the more skilled.
Should I just hold on to them? The trouble with that was that the drake byproducts would become a nuisance, devouring an absurd amount of inventory space.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock sounded from beyond the door. Who? There was no one who ought to be looking for him.
"Who is it?"
"It's me. Lucy."
"Lucy, the wandering merchant?"
"Yes, that's right."
The door creaked open. A fox beastfolk with fluffy brown fur stood in the gap—Lucy.
"You here to buy the drake byproducts?"
Lucy nodded.
"Um... may I come in?"
No one could enter a lodging inside a safe zone without the owner's permission.
"Come in."
At his word, she stepped inside. The door clicked shut, and Shin Sua's attention snapped to her at once.
"Who's this? She's adorable."
"A wandering merchant."
Jin-soo gave her the short version of what that meant.
"Wow! There are people like that? I've never met one. If it isn't rude... could I hug you? Or pet your head?"
"Of course."
Lucy agreed without hesitation.
"Hehehe."
Wearing a wicked little smile, Shin Sua pulled her into a tight embrace and petted her without mercy.
She wants those byproducts badly. Jin-soo watched Lucy being mauled with affection in Shin Sua's arms. Her eyes were a picture of distress, yet she hauled the corners of her mouth up and held a strained smile by force—and from her rose the thick, unmistakable scent of an easy mark. No need to dump them on the auction house for a pittance.
He felt a strong certainty that Lucy would buy the lot, and pay what it was actually worth.