Chapter 106
“So? Which should we raid first, the materials warehouse or the Admissions Administration Headquarters, nya?”
The cat I hadn’t seen in a long time perked her ears.
“Here, take this.”
When I pinched the area around my forehead, an intangible laurel crown appeared.
“L-Laurel? You were supposed to take care of this! I don’t even know how to use it!”
Adela absentmindedly caught the object I threw at her, then jumped when she checked what she was holding.
“It’s more suitable for you to have than me.”
[Warning: Circle magic cannot be used.]
[Warning: Action Assist function disabled.]
[Warning: Scrolls cannot be used.]
[Notification: All growth stats have been temporarily reset.]
[Notification: All penalties have been temporarily deactivated.]
Then countless warnings and notification sounds that even the settings window couldn’t block flooded my vision.
-????
-How are you supposed to clear it after giving Adela the laurel?
-Adela can’t use magic
-Adela is an idiot
-ㄴAdela’s such a fucking moron that she only keeps that head on her shoulders as decoration
-ㄴThat’s too muchㅋㅋㅋ
-ㄴAdela’s corpse is actually treated as an ‘item’
-ㄴㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-Even on Normal difficulty, let alone Nightmare, she’d get instantly slaughtered if she fought bare-handed
Along with the sensation of being freed from shackles that dampened my strength, a new restriction was etched into my dantian.
As expected, there was no sign of mana—or even aura—manifesting.
“Adela, hit me as hard as you can.”
“Whaaat...? Did getting hit on the head just now make you go crazy, nya?”
Adela was horrified and furrowed her brow, but my head was still firmly attached to my neck.
“Then just slap me. I’m sleepy.”
“...You’re not joking, are you?”
“I’m always serious.”
“You won’t get revenge later, right? You really want me to hit you, nya?”
I offered her my cheek so it would be easier for her to hit me.
“Are you scared?”
I deliberately gave a derisive little laugh, and only then did her expression become worth seeing.
She even cracked her fingers before swinging her arm around in circles.
I wasn’t particularly pleased by the unnecessarily long windup, but before long, her palm slammed into my cheek.
Pow—!
Along with the sound of a bomb exploding, I felt my body float through the air.
“NoName! Are you okay?”
My frail body rolled across the ground several times before crashing into a bush, and Adela hurried over to help me up.
Maybe because this was a world inside a game, it didn’t hurt all that much. It was just extremely unpleasant.
Instead, I could only estimate how much internal damage I had taken by looking at the huge chunk of HP I had lost.
“I did hit you hard... but even so, it shouldn’t have sent you flying like that...!”
“Don’t worry. I was just checking the laurel’s effect.”
All the growth stats from the experience I had accumulated since Repi handed me the laurel had been stored in the Laurel of Reincarnation.
The source of that information was, naturally, Tree Wiki.
Since it was normally protected by being invisible, I didn’t need to worry much about it. But if we ever encountered a boss that could steal items, the laurel was the thing I had to guard most carefully.
Since all growth bonuses—including health, attack power, defense, and mana—would be stolen, I could only rely on my level and equipment.
It was only natural for this to happen when Adela, who had inherited all of the laurel’s abilities, struck me with her full strength.
‘But it’s not enough.’
It was nowhere near enough to face the demon-possessed Jin Chronicle.
Even if I funneled every experience stack into Adela, I couldn’t guarantee that she would win.
“You won’t know until you try.”
“Huh?”
“Could you give me your hand for a moment?”
“We don’t have time for this! The enemies are about to chase us!”
“Hurry.”
“Ugh, seriously...!”
It was an unexpectedly rough, clumsy hand covered in blisters.
Unlike the cat furry girl I had previously hired as a manager, there wasn’t a trace of anything resembling jelly paw pads on her palm.
[Cast: Circuit Reconstruction]
[Synchronization: NoName-Adela]
“Are there any foods you like or dislike?”
“Something I like...? I’m not really sure. I didn’t like carrots much.”
“Got it.”
With that, all the preparations were complete.
“Now let’s go deal with Valum Venaons.”
* * *
Adela’s stomach began to churn.
It wasn’t a figure of speech; her stomach trembled as if she had an upset stomach.
“Did I drink too much... Why now of all times...!”
Adela couldn’t abandon the mission over such a ridiculous reason, so she moved to the materials warehouse with NoName.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, y-yeah! Of course I’m okay! What do you take me for? A mission like this will be over in a flash, and then I can go home and rest.”
They were running with their bodies pressed tightly against the dark stone wall.
How much time had passed?
Adela kept fiddling with the invisible laurel crown as she asked NoName a question.
“I keep feeling uneasy. Are you sure it’s okay for me to use this? Don’t we have a separate plan, nya?”
“A plan? Since when have you ever acted according to plan?”
“That’s true, but...”
“Take it easy. Just do exactly as I told you.”
“What did you tell me? I haven’t heard anything at all!”
“Then I’ll teach you again from the beginning.”
Before entering the materials warehouse, NoName stood facing Adela.
“The laurel and you are connected now. Close your eyes and try to focus.”
“L-like this? I can’t see or feel anything.”
“If I do this—”
In an instant, NoName thrust out an arm and swung a fist toward Adela’s cheek.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
The attack flew at her before her eyelids could even lift, leaving her no time to prepare, but Adela’s body reflexively sprang sideways, allowing her to barely evade the Forest Keeper’s attack.
“Eek...! That was dangerous! What are you doing, nya?”
Adela planted her hands on the ground, sprang to her feet, and vehemently protested the attack that had come without warning.
“That’s a shame... No, more importantly, what flavor do you taste now?”
“Flavor? What are you talking about...? Eh? Tuna?”
Adela’s eyes went wide.
A salty tuna flavor tingled at the tip of her tongue.
Adela couldn’t come to her senses from the pleasure that poured out each time she smacked her lips.
“If you hadn’t dodged and had blocked it, your mouth would’ve tasted like carrots.”
“What are you talking about, nya!”
In simple terms, the Laurel’s Action Assist worked by putting a selection of choices into the players’ hands.
Attack1, Attack2, Attack3, Defense1, Defense2, Evade.
The Laurel made it possible to execute all the various actions a user could perform with perfect movements every time.
However, perfect movement did not guarantee the best choice.
Fighting-game characters could each perform their actions perfectly, but if you considered how one character kept pressing the attack while the other did nothing but take hits, the choice of action was entirely up to the player.
“This is already the fifth time I’ve told you this, Adela. So don’t get excited at the end. Trust your senses.”
“My senses...”
Adela swung her dagger through the air.
Whoosh—
With the Laurel’s assistance, the blade cut through the air with practiced speed and skill.
It traced the perfect trajectory she had dreamed of her entire life. If academy exam officials had been there, it would surely have been enough to cut them in half.
“It’s this easy...?”
What had she been practicing herself to death for? She felt as if she finally understood why everyone coveted the Laurel.
But Adela found herself puzzled by the Forest Keeper, who had nothing equipped.
She struck him and realized.
‘He’s incredibly weak...’
The fact that he had fought so deftly at the observatory had been impossible to explain without the Laurel’s help.
Yet before she met the observatory’s manager, NoName had handed the Laurel over to her without hesitation, and Adela had defeated him without exerting much strength at all, guided by that strange sensation.
It was certainly an incredible item, but she had just been thinking that someone like the Forest Keeper, a healer class, should carry it instead of someone like her who couldn’t cast magic.
NoName stroked Adela’s tangled hair.
“You can do it.”
When her warm voice struck Adela’s ears, Adela couldn’t shake the aching sensation in her chest.
It was happening again.
Was she still drunk?
Or was it a side effect of wearing the Laurel?
Whether she used the Laurel’s power to defeat the observatory’s manager or hit NoName as hard as she could, a surge of emotion had welled up from deep within her chest.
[Remember.]
Clutching her unsettled heart, she pressed forward and reached the materials warehouse before she knew it.
“There aren’t as many guards as I expected... No, somehow I feel like there are a huge number of them inside.”
“Yeah. Because of the alarm system, there’s no way to sneak in anyway. We’ll have to force our way in head-on.”
“But what determines whether my mouth tastes like Churu or carrots, nya?”
[Intruders! Catch those guys!]
No matter how all-purpose the Laurel was, it didn’t have eyes. How could it know whether it had made the right judgment in every situation?
Then NoName pulled a plastic stick from his pocket and bit into it with a soft chomp. It was an item purchased from the in-game item shop that had no effect on gameplay. Each stick cost 0.00003 bitcoin.
“My heart.”
[‘Isirin’ donated 1,000 won!]
-Teacher, you’re more vindictive than you look!
Name thought that if Adela defeated Valum Venaons in this round, her basic training would be complete, and it would be time to move on to advanced training.