Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Golden Reed Forest (4)
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Heiji's atmosphere upon her first summoning was quite cool.
The sight of Heiji, her black hair tied tightly back, holding her sword, was beautiful.
Her flawless white skin, clear and unblemished, combined with her refined features and cold expression, made her seem even more mysterious.
"Thank you for summoning me."
Heiji bowed toward me in greeting. Her politeness, contrasting with her icy image, actually made her more likable.
"Shall we get started again? Lije, Garujan—you both have enough stamina left?"
"We're fine."
"Yeah, no problem. I'm good as new!"
After hearing the two Valkyries' responses, we re-entered the hunting ground.
Perhaps because of the earlier commotion, the Reed Sparrows immediately flew straight at us.
This time, Lije activated her protective barrier, while Garujan and Heiji stood at the front and attacked.
I could see Garujan swinging her two spears and Heiji wielding her sword wreathed in blazing flames.
Heiji's attack power didn't seem inferior even compared to Garujan's rapid spear thrusts.
Despite Heiji being at a lower level than Garujan, she took down more Reed Sparrows.
In truth, Garujan was a ranged dealer. But in direct melee combat like this, she fought by swinging her spears rather than throwing them.
Ranged dealers typically had weak durability but high attack power. However, since Reed Sparrows had fairly low HP, Garujan's attacks were almost overkill.
The flames surging from Heiji's sword alone were enough to bring Reed Sparrows to the brink of death, allowing her to claim even more of them.
If we were up against orcs, Garujan probably would have taken down more.
'Hmm... The effectiveness really varies a lot depending on the type of monster that spawns.'
Details I hadn't noticed in the game were emerging in this reality-like world.
I was gradually refining my understanding, adjusting what I knew from knowledge and information.
After about an hour of hunting, Garujan started to look a bit fatigued this time.
She had been hunting since before, so she seemed worn out.
When hunting orcs, there was time to recover while moving between fights, so we could hunt all day without tiring. But here, with monsters spawning in such massive numbers, fatigue was clearly setting in.
"Fall back again."
At my command, we exited once more. I unsummoned Lije and Garujan, then summoned Holla alongside Jaira.
Lije still seemed okay, but swapping her out would help manage stamina for later.
Both Holla and Jaira were low-level, which made me a bit worried.
Without Lije's barrier, we'd be relying on healing after taking hits, so I figured sustain would drop.
But that turned out to be needless concern.
It was because the Valkyries I had were of such high rank.
Even at low levels, their base stats were strong enough to dominate this low-level hunting ground like tyrants.
Jaira swung her massive spear, generating shockwaves with each swing for area-of-effect attacks on the surroundings.
And she was sturdy enough to serve as a tank, so her sustain was excellent.
If not for Sua, she would have been solid as a main Valkyrie.
Of course, being SR rank, she showed her strength accordingly.
With Holla restoring both HP and stamina, Heiji and Jaira were able to hunt for quite a while.
This wrapped up the morning session.
We stepped out briefly for a meal, then reorganized and headed back in.
This time, I unsummoned everyone and summoned Lussera, Elastra, and Sua.
But Elastra didn't look great.
"Hm? Weren't you unsummoned and recovering?"
"Pardon? When we're unsummoned, we retain the stamina we had at that moment...?"
Elastra looked at me with confusion.
'Ah... So it's not an automatic rotation.'
I'd thought we could hunt infinitely in theory, but that wasn't the case.
"Then when does your stamina recover? It resets the next day, right?"
"When you sleep, Kai, we recover too—even if unsummoned."
I nodded at Sua's kind explanation.
"Got it completely now."
In the end, it meant my Valkyries could only rest when I did.
"But it'll be different once we have a hideout."
"Huh? Why??"
I asked Sua, puzzled. What did a hideout have to do with it?
"When summoning Valkyries registered to a hideout into battle, they move from the hideout here. Unsummoning them sends them back naturally, so they can rest and recover inside."
"Whoa..."
It was possible. Infinite energy...
A hideout had far more useful features than I'd imagined.
I'd been willing to drop 2 billion won just to deploy twenty Valkyries, but it applied to combat and other systems too.
Getting a hideout was an absolute must.
"I see... For now, unsummon Elastra and summon Holla."
"I'm sorry, Pilot."
Elastra looked apologetic at my words.
But she'd contributed so much already that even if she rested now and we did nothing today, I wouldn't mind.
"It's fine. Rest easy."
I knew unsummoning didn't mean rest, but I said it to let her go without worry.
I unsummoned Elastra and summoned Holla.
True to her non-mana-using nature, Holla wasn't fatigued at all.
She wasn't running around or anything, so she could last a long time.
I put Sua and Lussera up front to continue the fights.
When those two tired, I rotated in the ones with stamina left.
Like that, we hunted all day and raked in a whopping 8 million gold.
Once all Valkyries hit level 10+, their levels didn't rise much more, but it was plenty to hit my gold goal.
Over the week, we amassed 70 million gold.
We made 8 million the first day, even more the second as levels rose, allowing us to take down more Reed Sparrows.
By day seven, we pulled in 12 million.
At this rate, we'd hit our target in under two months.
Levels rose nearly to 20 too. Sua, originally the highest, hit 20; Lije and Lussera reached 19; the rest settled between 16 and 17.
Elastra especially jumped to 18, having hunted the most monsters. Valkyries teamed with her grew fast too.
In this hunting ground, nothing matched Elastra.
She could handle a third of our gold income alone.
Back at the mansion, I spent a lot of time with Diana.
Being around Sua made me thirsty somehow, so I preferred time with human Diana over Valkyries.
Unlike at first, Diana kept a very gentle demeanor, making our vibe surprisingly good.
"Where are you headed, Lady Diana?"
"Ah... I'm being dispatched to Ijidor in two months."
"Ijidor?"
Ijidor was the northernmost region of Hainel Kingdom.
Bordering Krantz Empire, it was classified as a frontier, considered a remote wasteland by the kingdom.
Few wanted to go there.
Hainelrune's number three heading there? I could guess why.
"Yeah. Krantz Empire's been acting suspicious lately."
Krantz Empire had overwhelming national power, checked by the five surrounding kingdoms uniting against it.
The game's protagonist, Muriel Max, was a Kairan Kingdom knight who lost his fiancée to Krantz's conquest wars and sought revenge.
Krantz's activities would ramp up soon.
"Sounds dangerous. Be careful."
"Sigh... The captain and vice-captain can't go, so they sent me as the next best... No choice. King's orders."
Diana sighed deeply, looking every bit the bureaucrat.
Not the medieval knight I'd imagined. The system wasn't like that anyway.
"How's the money coming along?"
"Great. Already at a quarter."
"Really? Impressive. You do have talent."
Heat flickered in Diana's eyes as she said it.
We lounged on a comfy sofa, sipping wine, half-reclined.
Diana's posture loosened, revealing her figure clearly.
The sight intensified my thirst, so I downed my wine in one go.
"Drinking more than usual today?"
Diana smiled teasingly.
"Ah... yeah... This wine's pretty good."
"Have more then."
I declined as she offered the bottle.
"No thanks. Got hunting tomorrow—can't overdo it."
"Hmmm... Fine. Too bad. Rest up."
Diana pouted a little.
No helping it. I didn't want to be held back until I was fully established.
Especially not by Diana.
Excluding Karuos and Jenellu, she knew the most about me, so caution was key.
Until I could protect myself completely.
Sure, I could overlook a woman like her making advances, but holding back was smarter now.
Shoving aside my regrets, I left Diana's room.
Tomorrow held something truly important.