“Huh?! The day after tomorrow?!”
In a certain high-rise apartnt in Tokyo, a scream almost like a shriek echoed. The owner of the scream was a girl with extrely heavily lined eyes, so intense that one might question if it was makeup or sothing else. Despite appearing sleep-deprived and unhealthy, she still possessed an intense beauty that remained striking.
With her beautiful face twisted in anger, the girl confronted the person on the other end of the phone.
“Are you kidding ?! I have plans too… Huh? How do you know… Ah, wait… Damn, that woman hung up on !”
It must have been an unreasonable call. Fueled by her anger, she threw her smartphone with such force that it made a slicing sound through the air, landing in her usual stress-relief cushion.
“Makura! Where are you?!”
Unable to contain her rage, she jumped into bed after chasing her phone and called out for her roommate. She knew Makura was either preparing dinner or working on a streaming thumbnail at this ti. As expected, within thirty seconds, a woman appeared.
Tall for a woman at 175 cm, she had a sturdy build, not chubby, but well-proportioned. Though sowhat plain in appearance, she had an undeniable presence.
“What’s wrong, Rei-san? I was preparing dinner.”
“I’m so freaking irritated!”
“Oh, Okay, I understand.”
Seeing the enraged “Rei,” “Makura” guessed the situation and lay down on the bed. As her na suggested, “Makura” (Pillow) served as Rei’s pillow. When Rei called her in such a state, it was usually best to simply let her use Makura’s body to calm down.
As expected, “Rei” used Makura’s chest as a pillow, laying her upper body on the bed.
“Is it that person again?”
“Yeah! Seriously, always making unreasonable demands!”
“Calm down, Rei.”
Makura spoke soothingly while preventing Rei from thrashing around on top of her. She avoided patting her head, knowing it would only provoke more tantrums, and instead just held her shoulders to keep her from moving too much. After about five minutes of groaning and moaning, Rei finally cald down and sat up, signaling the end of Makura’s role as a pillow.
“Ahhh… Haah, I’ve agreed to do a collab the day after tomorrow.”
“But isn’t that day scheduled for the endurance tour with the Shachiku Mobile Squadron?”
“I feel bad for Tetsuya and Noel, but I’ll have to cancel on them. It’s regrettable, but they’ll understand that it’s not our fault. The other party has connections, and this is too beneficial to pass up.”
“Indeed. Given the fa and benefits involved, it’s an offer we can’t refuse.”
For their activities, the collaborator they were about to work with was soone they couldn’t, or rather, didn’t want to turn down. Despite not feeling a hierarchy between them, the difference in fa and achievents was too significant. A collaboration like this could bring substantial benefits, even worth canceling prior commitnts.
“Makura, you’re coming with this ti.”
“ too? I see, so it’s a situation where we need extra hands.”
“No, that’s not it. We only need two people at the minimum. I’m bringing you this ti.”
“That’s unusual. Not choosing another mber and just , who’s officially just staff.”
“That’s just a formality.”
Makura was indeed hired as a staff mber for Rei’s… or rather, for the agency. She had always maintained her stance as a staff mber, even though her role had beco sowhat blurred due to how extensively Rei used her services.
“And have you forgotten? The invitation is from that person, which ans ‘that girl’ will be there. You said you wanted to et her before.”
Makura was taken aback by this reminder. The one who had extended the invitation was a frequent collaborator in the past, but the situation had dramatically changed in recent months, or even the past two weeks – sothing Makura had completely forgotten.
“*sigh*… I’ll start contacting everyone. I’m tired from being angry, so add a big pudding to dinner tonight.”
“Understood.”
After Rei left the room languidly, Makura collapsed back onto the bed.
“Right… I hope I can et Nana-senpai.”
She muttered this while hugging a cushion tightly. After lingering in that position for a while, she rembered she was in the middle of preparing dinner, quickly made the bed, and left the room.
☆
“The monsters in the Volcano are mainly of five types: Magma Sli, Heat Rat, Death Fla Demon, and the Hot Roll Cabbage.”
The day after eting Kleine, I was in WLO from the morning, preparing for the assault on Dos Orca Volcano by buying items. Rin-chan had work today, and unlike , she had so task she couldn’t avoid.
“You see, there’s this monster that’s like a huge, 3-ter tall roll cabbage with arms, legs, and eyes swimming in magma.”
In fact, the second most common cause of player deaths in the Dos Orca Active Volcano is being attacked by the Hot Roll Cabbage. Despite its relaxed, mascot-like appearance, it’s ridiculously strong. The number one cause of death is dehydration due to running out of heat-resistant items. However, this seems to be half due to lack of preparation, and half because players find it easier to respawn than return to the town from the volcano.
Using the Traveler’s Wings to return to town doesn’t incur a death penalty, but they’re still quite expensive at 20,000 Iris each. For players ending their day’s play, to die with negligible penalty can be a way to save money.
“Most monsters there are either of the fla or hellfire attribute, so if you can prepare water, torrent {Ryuusui-tlnote}, or ice attribute attacks, you can hit their weak points. But no enemies are immune to physical attacks, so there’s no need for special weapons. In the worst case, just having my main weapon, Oboro, should be enough.”
“The real problem is the environntal effects, though.”
With our current levels, Rin-chan and I shouldn’t struggle too much with the enemies. The real challenge is the environnt. First of all, it’s a volcano, so it’s extrely hot. More than just hot, it’s actually scorching. For heat resistance, we’ll need level 3… Well, skipping the details, we need to buy the best heat resistance potion available in Zeronoa. It lasts for two hours per potion, so I’ll need about five for a day’s play. They’re not cheap at 10,000 Iris each, but without them, the avatar quickly becos dehydrated and dies.
And there’s another tricky feature of the Dos Orca Active Volcano.
“There are areas with high concentrations of gas scattered around. They are visible, but hard to see due to the heat and light of the magma, and getting caught in them causes severe poisoning. So we need to prepare for poison too.”
“An accessory, huh… That might be possible. I’ll check the market. Even if it’s not immunity, there might be sothing that provides resistance.”
I was thinking of collecting antidotes, but if I can deal with it through equipnt, that would be better. There tends to be spare accessory slots, and I can make room if needed.
I decided to stop by a random accessory store I saw on the upper level and ask the shop owner about poison-resistant accessories.
“Thanks for your business.”
“Thank you. By the way, do you sell accessories with poison resistance here?”
“What’s this, young lady, planning a trip to the volcano? It varies, but so shops should have them. We don’t, though.”
“Could you tell about their effectiveness and general price range?”
“Sure, no problem. A basic poison resistance accessory is around 50,000 Iris. They’re cheap, but they can reduce the damage from poison over ti. Most jewelry accessory shops usually have them. If you want an accessory that makes you immune to gas, especially for volcanic gas, you should check the comrcial buildings. There are four stores on the first floor. For volcanic gas, you should be able to get sothing for about 500,000 Iris.”
“Does the price go up for stronger poisons?”
“Yes. There are deadly poisons, and then there are cursed poisons. Those are the high-end of the spectrum, and the price can go up by an order or two of magnitude. Especially cursed poisons, which are a bit of a specialty of the Holy City, so they’re harder to co by.”
“Un, thank you very much!”
“Don’t ntion it.”
After bowing to the shop owner who waved off, I left the store.
“Antidotes for deadly poison cost 3,500 Iris each… So, it’s cheaper to buy those unless each person uses more than 140, right?”
“Let’s see… about 18 million, I think. That’s enough for accessories for a party of six, but it feels like I have more money than I thought… Oh right, I haven’t sorted out the loot from Es≠Trillia!”
I was struck by this realization. I had completely forgotten about the vast amount of loot we had gathered from the extrely tough zombies during our long battles in Es≠Trillia.
“I totally forgot about it because of the five-day sleepover and the birthday stream…”
“That’s harsh chat! But you’re right… There might be sothing sellable, and there should be so rare weapons too, so I’ll check it out. It could help fund the accessories.”
Anyway, I need to discuss with Rin-chan and whoever else is joining us as reinforcents about whether to buy these or not…
For now, since my inventory gets smaller the more items I have, I should prioritize sorting out all that loot.
It’s a curse, so decursing is essential. If an NPC gets it, they’re almost certainly dead.
Tl note:
Ryuusui is the higher tier of water, literally translated as flowing water, I cannot find the appropriate localization for it, so I use ‘torrent’
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