First Gate (2)
Chae Yujeong, the beauty with light blue hair, spouted nonsense even though she had clearly seen me arrive.
I almost furrowed my brow, but superhuman patience kept my expression in check. Then I arranged a suitably startled look and spoke to her.
“Wow! You’re that Potion Princess Chae Yujeong, right?! Wow! That’s amazing!”
The nickname Potion Princess had stuck because she was the heiress of a potion brand.
Naturally, Chae Yujeong loathed it—cringy, tacky, and utterly beneath her.
“You—”
She looked ready to fire something back, but my words, starting a half-beat late, cut her off completely.
“I was kind of unsure at first because you look a little different from the photos online, but the second I heard you talking about potions I knew it was you! I’m a huge fan! Wanna be friends?”
You heavily edited those pictures you posted online, didn’t you?
And true to form for a potion merchant’s daughter—why bother with a healer when you can push potions packed with side effects?
Do you really have to treat a classmate like that much of a personality disaster?
“What the hell are you—”
“Oh! There’s something I’ve always wondered! Is it true? That Asis VIPs get potions with no side effects?”
Potions without side effects? Of course no such thing existed.
The rumor that Asis sold side-effect-free potions exclusively to VIPs was just another absurd conspiracy theory that had sunk without a trace. I only brought it up to needle her for suggesting we use those side-effect-laden potions instead of a healer.
“…There’s no such thing. What are you even—”
“Aww, really? Too bad. But don’t worry! I’m here this time, so you won’t need to chug potions at all!”
I smiled sweetly, took hold of Chae Yujeong’s shoulders, and locked eyes with her.
“……”
“……”
She was mid-160s; I was nearly 170. The height difference left me looking slightly down at her.
We held the stare for a moment before she looked away first.
I let the smile drop and cast a quick glance around.
Yeon Hajin wore a blank, clueless expression, completely missing the subtext of the conversation.
And then…
“I-I’m scared…”
Yoon Chae-ah trembled, slowly edging away from me.
I released Chae Yujeong’s shoulders and stepped toward Yoon Chae-ah, smile already back in place.
This time it was real.
“Hi hi, Yoon Chae-ah, right? We’re in the same class.”
“Uh, uh…”
She tried to put more distance between us, but the moment I openly stared at her legs she froze solid.
Still beaming, I held out my hand.
“This is fate, so let’s get along!”
“……”
After a wary pause she extended a trembling hand and took mine.
I pulled her straight into a hug.
Okay. From now on, you’re my emotional-support doll.
Still holding the vibrating Yoon Chae-ah tight, I looked over at Yeon Hajin.
“Thanks for letting me tag along! Shall we get going?”
Yeon Hajin had been staring at the girl in my arms with a dumbfounded look; my prodding snapped him out of it.
“…Follow me.”
Yeon Hajin led the group toward the subway station in the academy’s central plaza.
Just like in the original, he planned to take public transit.
Cheapskate…
By now he should’ve made bank off the original plot knowledge. Just use a portal already.
Inatium Academy occupied an entire artificial island reclaimed off Incheon’s western coast. There was a subway line to the mainland and a bridge for cars, but the campus even had portal facilities.
If you had the money, you didn’t need the subway at all—portals would get you there in no time.
“We’re taking the subway?”
Yeon Hajin nodded at my question.
“Portals are pretty expensive.”
For the record, everyone here except me was loaded.
Yeon Hajin was busy money-printing with original-novel info, Yoon Chae-ah was the Sword Star’s granddaughter, and Chae Yujeong was the pampered treasure of a famous potion house.
“How long does it take?”
“Mm, about an hour?”
And none of them is even suggesting portals…
Do these kids have time to burn or what?
I fixed a pointed stare on Yoon Chae-ah, who was walking stiffly at my side.
“Chae-ah.”
“…Y-yeah?”
“Should we take a portal?”
“Huh? P-portal…?”
“Yeah. Let’s just portal it.”
Thanks to magic engineering, public transit was decently comfortable and fast—but it still couldn’t compare to a portal.
Two hours round-trip? Factor in the gate clear and we’d be crawling back to the dorms in the middle of the night.
“Chae-ah and I are taking the portal. What about you two?”
Chae-ah hadn’t actually answered yet, but that was a minor detail.
She’d rather ride a portal with me than take public transit, right?
Otherwise she would’ve objected by now.
Silence equals consent. I was counting it.
Yeon Hajin looked between me and Chae-ah, thinking it over.
“I’ll take the portal too.”
Chae Yujeong agreed immediately.
She hadn’t wanted the subway either.
With three out of four voting for the portal, Yeon Hajin had no choice left.
Insisting on the subway now would just prove his social skills had completely evaporated.
“…Fine. Portal it is.”
Fortunately our cool-loner transmigrator wasn’t that uneducated.
We turned around and reached the portal facility in no time.
While Yeon Hajin and Chae Yujeong operated the kiosk for tickets, I slipped up behind Yoon Chae-ah and gently hugged her from behind. Resting my chin on her shoulder, I whispered,
“To celebrate becoming friends, how about you cover my portal fare?”
“…Huh?”
“Please? Just this once~”
“O-okay… f-fine…”
“Really really?! Thank you, Chae-ah! We’re friends for life!”
I’ll treat you so well, Chae-ah!
Yu Haneul’s emotional-support doll? Your life just hit the jackpot, kid!
If you ever start liking Yeon Hajin, just tell this big sister. I’ll push you hard!
Thanks to Yoon Chae-ah’s kindness I protected my thin wallet, cheerfully bought my ticket, and headed for the portal.
Woooong—
A brief wave of dizziness; I closed my eyes and opened them again to find we had already arrived.
A swallow later and the muffled ears cleared up just as fast.
Stepping out of the portal facility, a bustling downtown stretched before us.
“Where to now?”
“Not far from here. Five minutes by taxi.”
The word “taxi” made Chae-ah flinch in my arms, but I ignored it.
Friends help each other. That’s just how it works.
We got out of the taxi and walked a short way until we reached a deserted mountain trail.
Following Yeon Hajin at the front, I looked around.
Trees dressed in fresh spring green. Soft earth and weeds yielding underfoot. Unnamed mountain birds chirping overhead.
Leaving real footprints through an event that had only been mentioned in the original novel felt strangely surreal.
We walked for a while.
Wooooong—
A sound similar to the earlier portal rose as a shimmering crack appeared in the air before us.
“We’re here. This is it.”
“…This is actually safe, right?”
Chae Yujeong asked anxiously after Yeon Hajin’s words.
“If you don’t trust me, I’ll go in first.”
With that, Yeon Hajin stepped into the gate.
Chae Yujeong startled and hurried after him; Chae-ah and I followed.
Whoosh—
The scenery flipped in an instant.
We were standing atop a rampart.
A system window floated up before our eyes at the same time.
A timer appeared next.
Time Remaining — 29:58
“Like I roughly explained on the way here, it’s a D-Class gate but there’s no boss, so only E-Class beasts show up. No need to stress too much. Just keep the ones climbing the wall from reaching us and we’re done.”
Yeon Hajin waited until everyone finished reading the system window before adding the explanation.
What is he going to do if someone asks how he knows all this and just dumps information like that?
He was right, though.
Soon monsters would pour in like a swarm of bees, but they wouldn’t be able to break this rampart in thirty minutes. The ones scaling the walls could be stopped easily enough with skills or the defensive equipment mounted up here.
As a D-Class gate the clear difficulty was low, yet the endless monster numbers made it excellent for experience farming.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
At the edge of vision, beyond the horizon, dust clouds began to rise.
“From here on, just farm EXP however you like.”
Contributing to a magical beast’s death granted experience based on contribution.
Landing the last hit even gave a bonus.
But that contribution was decided purely by damage dealt, so for a healer without attack skills, stacking experience was never easy.
If simply standing nearby and clicking heals let a healer level up, the big guilds would’ve long since gathered healers and bused them through content.
Even when someone offered to power-level them, healers only received experience equal to the pitiful damage their little hands managed to scratch out. The numbers never made sense, so the major guilds simply never bothered raising healers.
Of course the same rules applied to me…
But at least inside this gate I had nothing to worry about.
After all…
KRA-BOOOOM—!
Defensive weapons were scattered everywhere, and simply using them to kill beasts yielded massive experience.
I grunted again as I reloaded the cannon and fired.
KRA-BOOOOM—!
The cannonball landed square in the middle of the charging pack and pulverized dozens on the spot.
System windows cascaded every time the cannon fired.
This place was a healer’s paradise.
