Chapter 18
#18. Humanity
The wolves' time had ended, and morning dawned.
The shepherd girl and I quickly ate a simple meal of White Rolls, then set off toward the village.
Thanks to having wiped out every wolf in the field the day before, only one or two wolves appeared during our trip.
“The wolves are strangely quiet today. I wonder if something happened?”
I could have explained that it was because I'd killed them all, but once I tried to speak, it was hard to get the first word out.
“Flanders, what is it? You didn't smell any wolves either, did you?”
-Woof! Woof!
“So maybe the wolf leader is up to some kind of trick?”
When the shepherd girl saw that I wasn't giving much of a reply, she started talking to her dog instead. Am I less social than a dog?
Was talking to people always this difficult? At this rate, I feel like I’ll forget how to talk altogether.
“He's dead.”
“Huh?”
“I said he's dead.”
Wanting to say something, I told her about Wolf King Robo, whom I'd brought down yesterday.
“That wolf leader? I killed him yesterday.”
The shepherd girl, who had been chattering away nonstop, suddenly went silent, her mouth hanging open and a stupid look on her face.
She then exchanged a glance with her sheepdog and, with that same stupid expression, looked back up at me.
Maybe because she's a shepherd, the way she acts also somehow makes me think of a sheep. Especially in how slow and harmless she looks.
“Really?”
I thought I might have misspoken, but now it seemed she was just shocked.
“Really.”
To the shepherd girl, who had even forgotten honorifics and was asking if it was really true, I gave the answer back in the same way.
Then the shepherd girl let out some incomprehensible cry—something like “Waaah!”—and started spinning around in place.
“My gosh, my gosh, my gosh... Flanders, you heard that too, right? Is it true? It has to be true, right?”
-Woof!
“I, I can’t believe it either. But why would the adventurer lie to us...? It has to be true, right?”
-Woof!
“W-Who are you calling stupid? Flanders is way too suspicious. Sometimes you should try trusting people.”
The sheepdog Flanders spun around with her, barking along.
After spinning around for quite a while, the shepherd girl soon started peppering me with questions about the Wolf King.
How big was the Wolf King, what color was its fur, how had I dealt with it, and so on.
She gave me a suspicious look, saying that no matter how strong an adventurer was, taking one down alone made no sense.
It was hard to convince the girl with my poor speaking skills, but I had proof that I had taken down the Wolf King.
-Thud-thud!
I took out and showed her the wolf pelts piled high in my inventory from last night's battle, along with the Wolf King's tooth.
Then the shepherd girl let out an “Eek!” and screamed, clutching her head as she sat down.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I actually believed you, but Flanders kept saying it might be a lie...!”
-Woof woof woof!
“What are you doing, Flanders! Hurry up and apologize too—it’s all your fault, you mean, suspicious dog!”
I wasn't really angry, but her trembling bickering with the dog was amusing enough that I watched for a while.
Before long, she was even hugging her dog and saying things like, “We’re going to die here.”
“Pfft.”
That very human display was enough to make me laugh just by watching.
**
It didn't take long to calm the shepherd girl down. She'd been making a fuss from the start, after all.
“A-Are you going to let me live...?”
“Why would I kill you?”
“W-Well, uh, I guess so...?”
She must have been terribly embarrassed, because even after that she kept her face red and continued bickering with her dog for a while.
After walking for a few minutes, a small village with a pastoral feel came into view.
It was the shepherd girl's hometown.
As the girl herself had said it was a small village, the one we arrived at was indeed tiny.
Compared to the first-floor village area, it was clearly less than half the size.
Even on the Open Community, I'd heard that the second-floor village area and labyrinth were very small, but I hadn't expected them to be this small.
I was surprised that even a village this small still had things like an inn and shops properly set up.
Once we arrived, the shepherd girl suddenly straightened up and bowed her head.
“Since the god in the heavens and the earth spirit safely guided the shepherd, I offer my thanks to the benevolent traveler who lit the way.”
[Quest Complete : Shepherd Girl's Request - Wolf Pack]
“Declaring here and now that the traveler’s torch was the guidance of the gods, I pray that blessings may rest upon you.”
The shepherd girl began chanting some incomprehensible words in a small voice. Then a series of blue notification windows appeared before my eyes.
[Quest Reward : You have obtained ‘Experience’ and ‘Gold’.]
[Objective Completion Reward : You have obtained ‘Earth Spirit's Blessing’.]
[The earth spirit guards you.]
I'd heard that the shepherd quest's final reward, as known on the Open Community, was supposed to be a belt item, but an incomprehensible reward had come instead.
Thinking it might be an item, I opened my inventory, but nothing had changed except that the amount of gold I was carrying had gone up a little.
Then could it be a skill? I excitedly opened the skill window, and a new skill called [Earth Spirit's Blessing] had been added.
[Earth Spirit's Blessing Lv.1]
A small earth spirit remains by your side.
The skill level rises according to your affinity with the spirit, and new effects are unlocked as the level increases.
- Basic passive effect : Defense + 20
- Additional passive effect : (Unlocked at level 5)
- Additional active effect : (Unlocked at level 10)
By default, it only had one passive effect, but it was a skill that gained additional options as it leveled up.
Its basic passive effect wasn't even as good as the [Goblin Bone Necklace], but the fact that it didn't take up an equipment slot was attractive.
On top of that, I couldn't help but look forward to the active effect I'd get once its level went up.
Given the skill's name, Earth Spirit's Blessing, the active effect was likely some kind of magic skill.
For me, a normal-class Warrior, being given a magic skill was hugely significant.
The only problem was that I had no idea how to raise the skill level, but that was something I could solve by asking the Open Community.
“This is seriously awesome.”
As brutal as the quest difficulty had been, the reward was seriously generous. With this, I'd gained three skills just one day after entering the second floor.
The quest experience was stingy, so my level didn't go up, but this was enough.
I’ll clear the second-floor boss right away too.
**
The shepherd girl politely said goodbye to me, then dashed off somewhere, saying she'd round up the sheep.
“Thank you so much for today. I’ll definitely repay you next time!”
One [Earth Spirit's Blessing] from the quest reward was enough repayment already, but I decided to keep the girl's words in mind.
Watching her chatter away was entertaining, and I thought I'd say hello if I happened to see her again later.
After parting with the shepherd girl, the first place I headed was the village inn; since it was a small village, there was only one place to stay.
“Welcome. Are you here for a room?”
I ignored the NPC's dry, emotionless greeting, so unlike the shepherd girl's lively voice, and took a room.
Once I was in the room, I took off the gear I'd worn all day and opened the Open Community.
I needed to gather information on the second-floor labyrinth area, and I also had to look into the [Earth Spirit's Blessing] skill.
Finding information on a specific skill isn't easy with just a simple search. I didn't like it, but it was time to post on the community for the first time in a while.
[Author : Seo Jinhyuk#2661]
[Title : How do I raise spirit affinity?]
(Photo)
I got this skill. Is there a separate way to level it up?
It had been a long time since I'd been active, but my forum-ghoul habits apparently hadn't gone anywhere, because writing the post didn't feel awkward at all.
As is typical of internet communities, it takes quite a while for replies to appear on the Open Community after you post a question.
If the timing is bad, it can get buried in no time under a flood of pointless posts, so I might need to repost it a few times.
-Ding.
But look at that, I must have been lucky because notifications started going off quickly. I immediately reopened the community window I'd closed.
When I opened it again, my post had already gathered a huge number of comments.
The problem was that not a single one of them was the comment I wanted.
- Wow, this bastard was alive???
- I thought Jinhyuk was dead, what the hell have you been doing all this time?
- Holy shit, Jinhyuk was alive...
- Is this that 2661 show-off bastard?
- ㄴ There's only this bastard on server 2661, for sure.
- Damn, this cliquey bullshit. You assholes. So who the hell is this bastard?
- ㄴ There's someone on the forum who doesn't know Jinhyuk, lol
- ㄴ You're a newbie? You don't know 2661?
- ㄴ Open communities are supposed to allow cliques, asshole... there has to be someone to deliver the obituary.
Apparently, cutting myself off from the community without saying a word and focusing on growth had created a strange misunderstanding.
- Breaking) Beloved regular Jinhyuk has returned from the dead
My forum-ghoul antics seemed to have left a deeper impression on the other challengers than I'd expected.