239. The Masterpiece of the Legendary Witch Bellish
239. The Masterpiece of the Legendary Witch Bellish
***
Sua soon took out an item and held it in her hand.
'This is all I have.'
She had clearly been saving it to use at her next level-up timing, but she didn't hesitate much over the choice.
Because this was the only reward she had that was not at all inferior to the ten million won Jeanne d'Arc had given her as an answer.
Slide.
Having gripped the item like that, Sua smiled and called out to Serin.
"Serin."
"Yeah?"
"Do you like honey?"
"All of a sudden... why honey?"
When Serin asked back, Sua smiled wordlessly and held out her hand.
With that, Serin's gaze fell to Sua's hand, and she soon saw something shining in it.
'What's this?'
Something glowing at about the size of a finger. It even looked like a golden candy.
Aware of Serin's gaze, Sua calmly parted her lips.
"If you don't dislike honey, would you like to try it?"
At Sua's words, Serin realized that the shining thing was honey.
But the question came before that.
"Hey, Sua. Shouldn't you at least explain what this is first?"
When she asked instead of just taking it, Sua couldn't help but let out a laugh.
'She doesn't know.'
Serin's words made her feel good at the thought that Serin had no idea what kind of item she was being handed.
"It's a special honey candy manufactured by the witch Bellish. It's also known as a honey that's sweeter and more delicious than any honey you've ever tasted in reality."
So Sua spoke as if tempting her.
Sweet and delicious honey.
"...Isn't this incredibly precious? What kind of honey glows like this?"
"It is precious, but I received a precious gift from you today too, didn't I? Please think of it as my answer to that."
When Sua said that and held out her hand again, Serin ended up taking the honey before she knew it.
*
————
You have received the gift 『Heavenly Honey Candy, Masterpiece of the Legendary Witch Bellish』.
————
*
The item name displayed along with the gift notification looked special.
Feeling Sua's expectant gaze, Serin unwrapped the honey candy.
Slide.
Then an even brighter golden candy came into view.
'Is this really edible?'
Serin hesitated for a moment at the appearance of the honey candy, which shone brightly enough to put the word luster to shame. Still, Sua had given it to her. Wondering what could happen, she raised her hand.
As the honey candy slipped between her gently parted lips.
"...!!"
Immediately after, Serin's eyes flew wide open.
The instant the honey candy touched her tongue, she felt a shock as if she had been struck in the head by a massive hammer.
'What... is this?'
Because she knew Another World's extremely limited sensory system, Serin hadn't expected much.
She had only expected it to be moderately sweet, maybe to taste like honey.
But now. The taste she felt was a heavenly flavor that seemed to soar far beyond any expectation she could have had.
Because she felt an absurdly sweet and utterly exquisite flavor.
She even wondered whether this could be called a taste at all.
Sweet, delicious, exquisite, rapturous, joyful, happy, and so on.
As if happiness itself had been materialized and injected into her, Serin couldn't help but let her expression melt in the rapture.
She was someone whose smiles were always faint even when she smiled, someone who had never worn a bright smile.
Right now, she was smiling so brightly and full of happiness that even she herself couldn't perceive it.
"...Pfft."
Sua laughed softly, pleased at the reaction she had expected, but Serin, as if nothing else was in her sight, was intoxicated by joy and couldn't manage her expression.
Her lifted corners of her lips, her eyes drawing arcs. Her appearance, as if outwardly expressing happiness itself, was going out on stream in real time.
Unlike the chat window rising steeply, Serin, having recovered a sliver of reason, blankly covered her mouth.
Then she looked at Sua with disbelieving eyes.
'...'
After that, she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth. Because she wanted to feel this thick, satisfying happiness just a little longer.
To the point where her instincts seemed to refuse to let her open her mouth.
'No, what is this... isn't this like drugs?'
It was enough to make me think of drugs I'd never even tried. No, even if it were some dangerous drug, could it really give me the feeling I was experiencing right now?
Even as her reason gradually returned, she was dumbfounded.
The corners of her lips that had risen so high slowly came down. Having calmed her excited expression at least a little, Serin let out a breathy sigh.
"..."
This was a dangerous item.
And more than anything else, the thought that it was dangerous came first. She had been unable to control herself, to the point where she felt as if she had briefly stepped into forbidden territory.
Had she felt this much happiness even when she entered the Transcendent realm in Black Ark?
Wouldn't someone who had felt such immense happiness try to obtain this again?
No matter how expensive it was, they would inevitably crave it again.
By the time all sorts of thoughts filled her head, the honey candy that had been lingering in her mouth had already completely vanished, leaving only a faint, subtle aftertaste.
Ding!
Immediately after. Along with a massive notification sound, a golden hologram filled her vision.
*
————
*By tasting the Heavenly Honey Candy, Masterpiece of the Legendary Witch Bellish, you have felt absolute happiness.
【Your senses blossom from this rare, mysterious experience!】
—Strength and Agility stats permanently increase by 2%.
————
*
Staring blankly at the hologram, Serin soon had a sense of just how tremendous the value of the item she had eaten must be.
No, actually, more than the stat increase, she felt extremely strange now that the happiness had subsided and her reason had returned.
The sense of disconnect between the happiness of feeling as if she possessed the entire world and returning to ordinary reason.
Contrary to what she had thought midway, that she would want more of the honey candy, her mind was utterly clear and calm.
It was fascinating that the happiness she had just felt seemed like a momentary dream, and she didn't feel any desire to eat it again.
Having fully come to her senses, Serin stared blankly at Sua.
"What in the world... is this?"
She absolutely had to ask.
"What do you mean? It's a special honey candy you can't taste anywhere else in the world. Serin, your stats went up just now, right?"
As if she even knew about that effect, Sua asked, and Serin nodded without thinking.
"...My Strength and Agility stats went up by 2% each."
"Wow, then it's even better. The exact stats you needed went up."
As Sua's figure, rejoicing as if it were her own business, came into view, Serin blinked.
Because it felt like an incredibly amazing kind of item, and Sua had handed it over so casually that it felt strange.
Thinking of Sua, who was so greedy in Another World, made it even harder to understand.
The taste just now was truly an experience that would be hard to forget even if she tried, and even just the permanent stat increase clearly made it an item of tremendous value.
"Isn't this an incredibly rare item?"
"Who knows? I'm not sure?"
At Sua's appearance of deliberately playing dumb and dodging the answer, Serin made a peculiar expression.
Then she soon shook her head and showed an apologetic look.
"It obviously looks like an item that's hard to get..."
On top of that, when she thought that Sua could have felt the supreme happiness she had just experienced, she felt a little sorry.
Because that was a happiness truly impossible to convert into money.
'At minimum, a Legendary-grade item?'
Consumables were said to have relatively lower value compared to equipment, but consumables related to stat increases were the exception.
"It's hard to get, so doesn't that make it more meaningful as a gift?"
When Sua said it playfully, Serin felt like she was only receiving a reward far beyond what she deserved.
Then, when the chat window belatedly caught her eye, Serin's face flushed faintly.
[Wow that's insane for real;]
[She's seriously so pretty lol]
[Rin taxidermy complete!]
[First time seeing her smile like that]
[Fr it's so weird seeing her smile like she owns the whole world]
[Rin really was so pretty...]
[But what kind of taste makes you make that face?]
[They say only people who've tried it know the taste?]
[Beauties get prettier when they smile fr; Rin proves it]
[Who's this witch Bellish?]
[Lol all the newbies get filtered out here]
[Plea, why would you give that as a gift?]
[What do you mean newbie]
[Even if you're not a newbie, very few people know that item]
[Of course, it's an item you might get once in your whole time playing]
Seeing that her disgraceful appearance just now had all gone out on stream, and seeing the chat about taxidermy, Serin couldn't even imagine how strange her expression must have been.
Blankly mumbling her lips, Serin gave up as if resigning herself.
"Ugh..."
Watching Serin as if she were fascinating, Sua inwardly felt greatly regretful, yet paradoxically just as pleased.
'Giving gifts is a more pleasant act than I thought.'
The Heavenly Honey Candy, an item she had treasured and saved, couldn't be listed on the Auction House, so its value wasn't well known, but its special taste and stat-increasing effect were quite famous among rankers.
Because for pro players who had fully equipped Mythic items, or users of comparable level, there wasn't much room left for build improvement.
Raising stats with special items like the honey candy she had just handed over, or leveling up to reduce the level gap with monsters, was one of the known ways to improve one's build.
Sua had given Serin the Heavenly Honey, one of the items she had obtained with difficulty.
Afterward, Serin, her face flushed with embarrassment, sighed and parted her lips.
"...Sua."
"Yes."
"Next time, I'll grant you one thing you want."
"Oh, that! You promised, right?"
At the unexpected words, Sua smiled brightly and asked, and Serin nodded slightly. After the thick happiness, with her emotions swinging so wildly, the fatigue she had forgotten seemed to be washing over her.
"Yeah. Then I'll be going now. Thanks for having me even though I contacted you so suddenly today."
"No, not at all. I had fun too!"
As she said that, Sua held up the ruby ring she had received as a gift. Serin smiled at that, then ended the connection with her stream-ending comments.
***
Clang! Clang! Crash!!
A vast arena space where multiple sounds rang out.
The team currently scrimming against TSJ was BS, a team firmly in the upper ranks, so none of the TSJ players showed any sign of letting their guard down.
In fact, TSJ's captain, Jeanne d'Arc, was approaching the match with her expression hardened as cold as could be, so there was no way any player could be slacking off.
And Seola, one of the players on TSJ, was also taking the scrim seriously.
"Right side."
At Eunha's voice, conveying her intent in a single short word, Seola threw herself to the right without any doubt.
Thud!
A red-haired female knight kicking off the ground and moving quickly.
Seola, whose appearance was not much different from reality, trusted Jeanne d'Arc absolutely.
Even the reason she had decided to become a pro was because she admired her.
Like that, the female knight with her red hair flying headed toward the battlefield on the right and immediately came face-to-face with a Wizard Class player.
The moment they met, Seola immediately gripped her sword and shield with force and leaped high.
—Barrier.
As a massive barrier formed around the Wizard player, Seola, striking at it, stared at her opponent with calmly sunken eyes.
Ting! Ting!
Striking the barrier produced a continuous strange repelling sound, but Seola continued her attacks indifferently.
Before long, the moment the barrier shattered under Seola's persistent attacks.
Whooosh!
Magic manifested and a massive storm swept through. Seola, who had thrown herself back to create distance as if she had expected it, glanced toward one spot.
A noble female knight with jet-black hair sharply driving into the center.
While finding it fascinating that she was boldly pushing into the enemy formation unlike usual, Seola once again felt a deep sense of disappointment.
'...She said she doesn't watch streams.'
Seola, who had been watching Rin's stream right up until the scrim, didn't show it outwardly, but she couldn't shake her disappointment toward Eunha.
When she had gone to see her, Eunha had clearly cut her off and said she didn't watch streams, yet the way she had met Rin right before the scrim was the complete opposite.
Throughout the scrim, that thought wouldn't leave Seola's head.