She’s seriously going all out! Seems like a lot of housework on account of a human fruit fly.
I tried to get a look at the other decorations in the room: there was research equipment, stuff for her hobbies, and a lot of decorations made of bone.
“I only have one bed. Wh-what should I do? It’ll be weird if I sleep on the floor and rude if he sleeps there. What’s the most natural thing to do in this kind of situation?” Lunaère asked, still frantically shoving random items into the chest.
“Don’t ask me, Lady, I’m just a treasure *burp* mimic.”
“Then you should know a lot about human psychology by now, shouldn’t you?”
What a ridiculous argument.
“I dunno, maybe you two can share the bed?” suggested the mimic in between bites.
“Y-you idiot! How dare you?!” Lunaère’s face turned bright red, and she swept her arms in a gesture, causing a magic circle to appear.
“H-hey, now! Cool it!”
“Space-Time Magic Level 18: Gravity Bomb.”
Just before she lowered her finger to point at the chest, the two clay statues dropped their rags and grappled her to the floor.
“Let me go!”
“C’mon, Lady, relax! That spell will blow away me, the hut, and the guy you’ve got waiting outside!”
Was that powerful spell really necessary?
“I get it, I get it—he’s our first guest ever. But you’re a lich, so don’t get so worked up over…uh.”
The treasure chest’s eyes met mine. Well, to be accurate, it didn’t have eyes, but it did have a gemstone. I took the hint, nodded slightly, and quickly moved away from the door.
I’ll just act casual.
Ten minutes later, Lunaère exited the hut wearing her usual blank expression.
“There was a dangerous gas inside my hut. Dangerous to humans, not to me. I was just removing it because it would be inconvenient for me if you died. Not that I actually care if you die…”
“That was very considerate of you, Master.”
She wasn’t good at keeping up an act, but I could pretend I hadn’t heard the frenzy of sounds easily enough.
“Please enter,” she said and turned to the yurt.
“Thank you. Don’t mind if I do…”
I started to follow her inside, but she stopped in front of the door, blocking my way.
“Um, could you wait a moment? I’m a little nervou—I mean, it’s not like I care—I just…” she stammered.
“Sure, I think I get what you’re saying. I’ll wait a bit.”
It was obvious that she wasn’t emotionally ready for the first human to enter her home. I didn’t understand why she kept up the pretense—it’d be easier for both of us if she’d be open about how she felt. But I gave her a minute anyway.
The yurt was a lot neater than when I’d peeked in earlier—maybe a little too neat. The bones were all gone, along with the bed. She must have decided the solution to that problem was to toss the bed into another dimension and pretend it never existed.
I could feel the treasure chest gazing at me. It and the two golems were sitting in a corner, acting like inanimate objects.
“Are you surprised by how drab it is? I lost my taste for decoration when I became a lich,” said Lunaère.
“Ah…”
She seemed to forget that she grew flowers and carved cat statues. It made me feel a little bad. I didn’t want my presence to make her feel self-conscious about the things she liked.
I glanced back at the treasure mimic, who was giving me a tiny grin that vanished the moment Lunaère looked in its direction.
That treasure chest has charisma.
“Please, have a seat,” said Lunaère, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. It also happened to be the only chair in the hut. She’d worked so hard to make the yurt presentable for me… I didn’t want to appear ungrateful, but it also seemed wrong to leave her without a seat in her own home.
“Oh, I don’t mind standing,” I tried to decline gracefully, but it sounded lame.
“It’s all right.” She looked around the room for a moment. “I’ll sit on the chest.”
Lunaère dragged the mimic over to the desk. For a moment, I felt bad. It seemed really undignified for a living being to be used as a chair. At least that’s how I felt, until I glanced at the chest and saw that he was grinning stupidly at the prospect.
So! That’s how he gets his kicks!
“I’ll sit on the chest!” I volunteered. “Please let me sit there! You’ve done so much for me already!”
“Huh? Fine. I don’t really care either way.”
I went over to the other side of the desk. The mimic gave me a dirty look, so I stuck my tongue out at him and sat down.
Lunaère passed me a glass of water, which I accepted gratefully.
“So, back to training. As I explained, if we raise you to level 100, then I should be able to accompany you safely to the exit. It shouldn’t take much time, as long as I support you.”
Well, that confirmed my suspicion that power leveling was possible in Locklore. If we worked together, it would be easy for me to get out of Cocytus.
“Before we start, I’ll teach you some basic skills, because you only gain levels if you actually contribute to the fight. You’ll need a light weapon, but you’ll also need to learn how to use it,” she said mostly to herself. “I’ll start teaching you some basic magic right away—simple things you can master easily.”
I nodded in agreement, but I was quietly disappointed that this was beginning to sound like real work.
Naiarotop and the Higher Gods might have created this world based on games and light novels, but leveling seemed far more complicated than any MMORPG I’d ever played. Maybe it was best if we didn’t take it too fast; diving right in could have fatal consequences for me.
But how long would Lunaère’s patience last? She seemed willing enough to work with me now, but that might change if my training took longer than expected. I wasn’t even confident that we could find suitable enemies for me in a dungeon like Cocytus.
“You won’t be able to contribute to a fight against the monsters around here. I’ll make some low-level battle golems for your early training,” said Lunaère.
“Oh…” Can she read my mind?
Well, that was one concern gone. If she could make the perfect opponents for me, then this might not be so bad.
“You still have the magic bag I gave you earlier, right? Get off the chest.” I stood up, and she opened its lid. She began pulling out heavy books and random objects.
“What’s all this?”
“Things I found or things I made. I don’t need them anymore, so you can have them. Put them in your magic bag. Here, take this grimoire.”
It was a thick, ancient book with a blue cover. I could tell it was magic because there was a creepy circle drawn on the cover. I looked at Lunaère to see if it was okay to open it. She nodded slightly.
My skill at Locklorian didn’t help me. I flipped through the book, its pages full of some alien language, until finally stumbling across the one and only page I could read.