Françoise elegantly bowed her head. “Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Françoise! My goal is to be this world’s greatest crafter!”
She’d led me to a private room on the third floor and was showing me some fine hospitality. I was offered a seat on a comfy couch with a table full of cakes and other treats in arm’s reach.
“Mgh, mgh, gulp. Whew. Best in the world? That’s some ambition you’ve got,” I replied while munching on the snacks. “I’m Yuri. I’m aiming to be a top player despite having the worst build ever!”
“Oh ho ho,” Françoise laughed. “Yes, Baldy told me as much. You’re just as forthright as he said you’d be. Now, I hear you’re in need of an outfit you can wear while limited to zero strength, and I must insist that you let me create it for you! I love nothing more than making cute dresses for cute clients!”
Say what now?! C-Cute dresses?!
“A badass manly outfit is more what I had in mind!” I explained.
“Oh, but that won’t do! No way no how! Not at all!” Françoise was leaning in uncomfortably close as she spoke. “You lost the right to wear anything but dresses the moment you gained that divine avatar! Nothing else will do! You’re destined to be my model! This is an opportunity to obtain equipment handmade by me—the top crafter from the days of the beta test—so you hardly have room to complain!”
I finally cracked. “F-Fine! I’ll leave the design to you, Françoise!” If I really was going to reach the top with a terrible build, I couldn’t afford any compromises when it came to my gear. Her offer was too good to turn down. “Give me something with good stats, and I won’t care how I look. All that matters is finding those lying beta testers and beating them senseless!”
“Oh ho. Then it’s settled... But defeating beta testers isn’t going to be easy. The beta lasted a full month, and the players were allowed to carry over all the money they’d made. I used mine to buy this store, but I would assume most spent it on powerful weapons.”
That explained how Françoise had her own store only two days into the game. So everyone but the crafters used their cash to gain an advantage in firepower? Yeah, that’ll make life tough. But all the same... “Heh. No one’s hungrier for the win than the downtrodden underdog! The more they’ve got going for ’em, the more humiliated they’ll be when I crush them!”
“Oh my... It’s just as Baldy said. There really is a boy behind that avatar. Very well. I’ll do all I can to support you! Would you mind showing me your item box, Yuri? I’m afraid I can’t simply create your new clothes as an act of goodwill, but if you have any items I can use for crafting, I may be able to make do with them as payment.”
“Sure. Here it is.” I opened up the contents of my item box in a menu window.
Françoise’s expression turned to one of pure shock. “Oh my goodness! A Cursed Soul Fragment from a living weapon?! That’s a rare drop from a rare encounter! And a Silver Wolf Spirit Claw?! Silver wolves barely ever drop those! You have countless rare drops tucked away in here! Is this the power of a pure luck build?!”
“What do you say, Françoise? Think you can make some good gear with this stuff?”
“Only some of the finest gear our world has seen thus far! Just allow me one day! I’ll have fabulous items ready for you tomorrow!” There was a fire burning in her eyes. She might have looked like some aristocrat’s daughter, but I could feel her deep-seated passion for crafting.
“All right! I’ll leave it to you, Françoise! Now I just need to figure out my weapon.”
“I promise I won’t disappoint you, Yuri! Oh, but if you’re looking for a bow you can use with zero strength, I think your only option is going to be the starting bow...”
“Yeah, I know that.” I’d checked out an NPC’s shop on the way and found that every other bow was so rigid it needed a high strength stat just to draw it. I’d already given up on replacing the one I had, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make it stronger!
“I’m gonna farm some living weapons! Then I’m gonna make them all possess arrows and shoot a bunch at once!”
“Whaaaaat?!”
I said goodbye to Françoise while she was still in shock and leaped out of the store. All right! I’ll head for the Tomb of the Death God! That dungeon’s full of ghost-type monsters! I’m gonna make a whole gang of living weapons with Puffster keeping ’em all in line!
✦ ✦ ✦
⬧⬨⬧
The online guide told me I’d find the Tomb of the Death God beneath the ground in a remote corner of the Starting Plain. It said the tomb would be filled with monsters far higher in level than in the surrounding region.
The plan had been to defeat a ton of living weapons there, but I started having major problems after getting a little way into the place.
“Guguuurgh!”
“Whoa?! Zombies are spawning right outta the ground! Puffster, get back here!” I’d just shot Puffster at an enemy some distance away, but I needed him back by my side, and fast!
I was left vulnerable to the monsters randomly popping out of the dungeon’s floor whenever Puffster wasn’t near—using my only means of attack was leaving me totally defenseless. But my situation was about to get a whole lot worse.
“Guguurgh! Dieeeee!”
“Eek?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
A single scratch from a zombie was enough to reduce me from full health down to just 1 HP. Without Last Stand, I would’ve been one-shotted.
I leaped back as Puffster came rushing in and caved in the monster’s skull! But it wasn’t enough.
“Guhgugh?! Guguurgh...!”
“H-How’s it still alive?!”
Even with my pure luck build, not every shot was a critical hit with a bunch of damage boosts, and that was a problem. My base firepower was way too low for a basic arrow with Puffster’s strength behind it to deal with tougher enemies—my skills needed to trigger, or else.
Put simply, my stats weren’t cutting it. Brute force had carried me through the Starting Plain, but getting through this dungeon with a pure luck build was virtually impossible.
“Guhguurrgh!”
“Kiiiiilll!”
“Guhguurgh!”
Uh-oh! I’m gonna get swarmed by these things! “Gah! Puffster, let’s go! We’ve gotta get out of here now!”
Seeing no hope of victory, I sprinted for the exit. But of course, agility was yet another thing I lacked. I was just barely capable of shaking off the slowest zombies in the dungeon.
✦ ✦ ✦
⬧⬨⬧
I sat by the tomb’s entrance and took a deep breath. “Whew... What a mess I got myself into.”
It was easy to take out enemies one by one from a distance here on the open plain, but when monsters emerged from the ground in the tomb’s narrow corridors, I couldn’t avoid getting surrounded. Unless I somehow got lucky with constant one-hit kills, I’d quickly get overwhelmed.
“I didn’t beat a single living weapon. All I did was kill a few zombies... It was enough to gain two levels, but still...”
I’d earned 20 more attribute points, and I had to decide what to do with them.
Guess I’d better start spending them on strength and agility, I decided. Once my stats are higher, it’ll fix all my problems. I’ll be able to run faster, my arrows will hit harder... I’ll be better off all around.
It was a shame to give up on the pure luck build, but I was still going to prove that summoner and bow were a viable combo. The last thing I wanted was to have people telling me, “Yeah, but you never made it past the Starting Plain.”
“Hnnnngh...” I stared at my stats in the menu window, my teeth gritted and my thoughts racing. Then I felt a rush of determination. “Nnnnnghhaaaarrghh! A man’s gotta have guts! Sticking with all three joke options is gonna be way cooler!” I faced the status menu like a man and dumped every single point into luck! No settling for half measures here! Whew! That felt good!
“All right! I’m sticking to this play style no matter what! But I still need a plan for clearing this tomb. It’s looking hopeless right now...”
I racked my brain while staring at the menu window, and then something occurred to me. I’d gotten some items that weren’t crafting materials while fighting my way through the zombies, but I hadn’t had time to look at them.
I opened up the item menu and I saw two new accessories: Cursed Ring and Evil God’s Covenant Necklace. I materialized them both in my hands and examined them closely. “These look so eerie! I bet some punk would love them! The names are creepy too. But what do they— What the heck?!”
Their effects were both so dumb I couldn’t believe it!