“I’ll get a strong skill and become your personal guard!”
“What would I do with someone as troublesome as you protecting me? Thanks, but no.”
“Sheesh! Anyway, no matter what unique skills we get, we’re friends forever, right?”
Vampy shouldn’t have those memories.
I, too, had a good friend once…?
She couldn’t remember his name or what he looked like, but the faint memory was there, and it was none other than Misaki who had triggered it to come to surface.
“…Let’s be friends, Misaki.”
“Oh gosh. This…feels like such an honor…”
“You sound more reserved again. Has our friendship ended already?”
“What? No! No! I didn’t—”
“It was a joke.”
Misaki widened her eyes, finding it hard to believe the monster girl had just joked with her. When Vampy looked away self-consciously, Misaki giggled.
“Well, I’ll be! You two are fast friends!” said Makoto, lifting his head off the ground heavily to grin at the girls. “Want to be friends with me, too?”
“No,” Vampy answered immediately.
Makoto’s sunken expression made Misaki giggle again.
“Are you sure you want a monster-killing quest?”
“Hmm… You think they’re too difficult for me?”
Lumia looked MagNe up and down, taking note of the woman’s gothic equipment, which had evidently been put together as a fashion statement rather than battle gear; and her low-spec sword, which was equippable by level-1 players. MagNe was level nine, which was quite high for a noncombatant, but she didn’t seem to have much experience fighting monsters.
“May I ask if you have any combat experience?”
“After the game trapped us, I did a quest that involved a battle, and I killed some monsters in the forest…”
“Was the quest a monster-killing one?”
“Um, no, it was about getting treasure back from a cat, but then in the middle of it, I got attacked by this weird dude…”
“The thieving-cat quest?!”
Lumia was flabbergasted. The infamous thieving-cat quest had claimed at least twelve lives that they knew of. The guild used to have someone stationed outside the fish market to intercept any inexperienced players doing that quest before they got into the battle.
While everything’s been thrown into disarray here, more people have been attempting that dangerous quest… It’s a miracle this lady survived it with her current gear.
Lumia had to reassess MagNe’s readiness for battle.
“It must have been terrifying for you… I see I don’t need to warn you that fighting monsters can be very scary. You know what you’ll be getting into.”
“Yeah, I’ve learned my painful lesson…”
The memory of being cleaved by an ax would probably remain with MagNe for the rest of her life.
“I’d be less worried about you if you took part in one of our regular seminars about transitioning to independence…”
“Hmm. Might check it out at some point, thanks.”
Judging from MagNe’s unconcerned smile, she wasn’t going to check it out. Lumia had to remind herself not to become too involved with unaffiliated players, since she had plenty to worry about in her own guild. Nonetheless, she decided to at least caution MagNe about some things that were discussed in more detail at the seminars.
“You got some levels, but I would still advise you not to take on quests that require going deep into the woods or to the Ilyana Tunnel. I see you don’t have battle equipment yet. Please rent a beginner’s armor set from us. Please also make sure not to go out to the field maps at night, and if you see an unusual monster, run away at once. This is for your safety.”
Lumia was speaking fast, but her advice was very easy to understand. MagNe thought the receptionist had probably briefed a lot of noobs like this. She looked at Lumia with respect.
“One more thing. It will be some time before you reach the Ur Sluice, but when you do, make sure to visit the church.”
“Why?”
After the Liberator incident, there was some ill feeling among the Crest members about the in-game places of worship, but the buffs they offered weren’t to be passed up.
“At churches, you can get a buff boosting your experience-point gain and stats by praying to the angels. It will give you a huge advantage. You will notice battles getting significantly easier with the buff.”
Having said all she had to say, Lumia smiled at MagNe, who thought that Crest was really helpful.
MagNe went to rent very uncute armor, and then she left the Crest headquarters. Gallarus had been waiting for her outside. She relayed to him what Lumia had told her, and she got changed into the ugly armor.
“Now I have a road map for becoming an independent player. Thinking back, I should’ve just asked Crest for help instead of bugging you for advice…”
“She told you to visit a church, eh?” Gallarus cut in.
She gazed up at him. The giant was lost in thought, with a very serious look on his face.
“I might want to take a look at that church, too.”
Gallarus picked up MagNe indelicately and started running with her toward the city gate.
“Wait, what’s gotten into you?!”
Ignoring her, Gallarus ran even faster out of the city and through the field map and dungeons, trampling any monsters in his way without slowing down. Finally, he stopped…
“Is this the church?”
“Gallarus, I don’t understand why you suddenly got the zoomies…”
They were standing in front of the Ur Sluice church, which Lumia had told MagNe about. When Misaki passed it by a long time ago, it had just been an abandoned ruin, but it wasn’t looking so dilapidated now. Monsters didn’t come near it, so the church seemed to be active.
“Yowch!”
MagNe got dropped on the ground, and she wanted to make sure Gallarus knew she didn’t appreciate that, but he wasn’t listening. He pointed at the church.
“Go there and get the blessing.”
“Huh? Did we need to hurry here for that…?”
“Sorry, but this may be important to my master. Make haste.”
The change in Gallarus’s attitude made MagNe feel like it would be a bad idea to argue with him, so she reluctantly entered the church. Inside, it looked just like the real-world church in the city where she lived, with long pews facing an altar.
Seems like a perfectly ordinary church…
Monsters didn’t spawn in churches, but MagNe kept her hand on the hilt of her sword as she walked farther in.
Several nuns were praying at the altar. Their name tags were all the same—UR NUN.
“Welcome, adventurer,” one of the NPCs greeted MagNe; only her name tag was different—TRIA.
“H-hello, um, Sister,” MagNe said awkwardly.
The nun smiled at her softly. “My name is Tria. Have you come here to receive a divine blessing, adventurer?”
“I guess I did…”
MagNe had been brought there by Gallarus kind of against her will, but the nun didn’t need to know that.
Tria didn’t seem bothered by MagNe’s ambivalent reply.
“Very well, then,” she said, folding her hands in prayer.
It wasn’t long before MagNe returned from the church to Gallarus, who was just outside.
“Will you now explain why we’re here?” she said with a pout.
“It’s something very important. Takes priority over anything else.”
“Right. You’re a monster, serving some master.”
It crossed MagNe’s mind that maybe it wasn’t safe to be walking outside together with a monster, but she assuaged her fears by telling herself that Gallarus was to be trusted.
“Did you get the blessing?”
“Yep, got it. It’s amazing! A twenty-four-hour buff to stats and EXP gain!”
MagNe spun around like a dancer. Gallarus still had that grave look on his face.
“So receiving the blessing doesn’t kill…”
“…What did you just say?”
“Never mind.”
Gallarus was visibly disappointed. He’d been hoping to find a clue to help with Shuutarou’s investigation, but it had come to nothing.
“My master is investigating a mysterious mass killing in one monastery, and he’s looking for a girl who’s gone missing. I thought there might be a connection between the church and that monastery.”
He picked up MagNe again. She really wanted to repay him for his help, so she did her best to describe everything she’d seen in the church.
“Monasteries and churches are a bit different. In the church, there was an altar, rows of pews, and nuns. One of them gave me the blessing… Her name was… Huh, you know what?”
All the information was the same as Gallarus heard from Shuutarou, but MagNe got his hopes up. He stopped walking.
“Her name kind of doesn’t fit.”