Chapter 18
Together? As in… go together?
I stared at Eleanor, feeling a little dazed. Her expression, however, was completely serious.
“I know the Crag Forest better than anyone. It’s dangerous for first-timers to go in alone.”
“I mean, I’d be happy, but… are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“I was the one who gave you permission. That makes it my responsibility too.”
Honestly—noblesse oblige in human form.
Eleanor’s nickname, ‘The Warrior with Blue Blood,’ wasn’t for nothing. Among the protagonist’s companions, she was the most aristocratic aristocrat of them all.
“Thank you, Eleanor.”
“Well, y-you said we’re friends… right?”
As she said that, Eleanor’s ears turned red despite her otherwise calm expression. That somehow made me feel awkward.
I’d only meant “friends” as in people who attend the same academy together…
‘That C-rank item really is doing work.’
I mean, she’s even calling someone who literally just threatened her a “friend.”
If this were a dating sim, I’d have cleared Eleanor’s affection event just now.
I’ll repay this debt someday—trust me, okay?
Anyway, we decided to leave for Crag Forest tomorrow and parted ways. Since we had to depart at dawn, I had plenty to prepare on my end too.
‘And there’s one more person I need to meet.’
I immediately headed toward my next “target.”
* * *
“Ughhh……”
The moment I entered the dorm, I collapsed flat on the floor. Honestly, it felt like this happened every time I came back.
‘Did I really run around too much since morning…?’
Before possessing this body, I barely left the house unless it was a school day. Yet here I was, living an unusually busy life.
Today alone, I’d already “cleared” two people, then visited the library and a private training room as well. There were things I needed to check.
‘It was more useful than I expected.’
The suppressive fire skill.
Since it barely depended on accuracy, it performed far better than I’d anticipated. And because it was only C-rank, it didn’t guzzle mana like the S-rank skill Sharpshooter. That was probably helped by my increased mana rank too.
“Too bad I couldn’t practice it on actual monsters.”
Just like our homeroom teacher had done, I wanted to practice by summoning monsters—but training rooms equipped with illusion magic circles had to be reserved in advance. If I’d known, I would’ve applied earlier.
Clicking my tongue in regret, I opened the quest window.
[Sub Quest]
Defeat one monster on your own! (Grade 4 or higher)
Reward on success: Level System activated
Penalty on failure: World destruction
So it was a sub quest, not a sudden one.
Which meant it was probably a preparatory quest for the main quest. In other words, the failure penalty was the same as the main quest’s.
But that wasn’t why I checked the quest window again.
“The level system……”
In the original story, this system only activated once the protagonist achieved A-rank or higher in all stats.
‘It’s Blooming (開花).’
There was a clear limit to how much an awakener could raise their stats through effort alone—at most, one or two ranks above their innate abilities.
But talent exists everywhere.
Among those who would’ve had all stats at A-rank or higher (even though there was no status window), a select few underwent something called Blooming.
‘From that point on, they can exert power beyond their base stats.’
Even with identical stats, an awakener who had bloomed was on a completely different level from one who hadn’t. Even near the end of the original story, only a handful—including the protagonist—were confirmed to have bloomed.
In the status window, this phenomenon was represented as the Level System.
In short: you level up, you get stronger.
“But you’re activating something like this already?”
I hadn’t even raised all of Lucy’s stats to D yet!
Just in case, I tapped the reward description, but nothing changed. Yeah—figures. No way the system would be that kind.
What was clear, though, was that this system wasn’t trying to grind me down. If anything, it seemed desperate to make me stronger.
Sure, the penalty was world destruction—but paradoxically, the system itself seemed to want to prevent exactly that.
“No, seriously—if you want to stop the apocalypse, shouldn’t you not hand out quests this insane?”
Ha. I thought I’d calmed down, but I guess the mental shock was still lingering. Damn countdown.
Feeling myself get irritated, I deliberately shifted my attention elsewhere—to a book I’d picked up at the library earlier.
《The World’s Easiest Monster Encyclopedia》
Yes. I brought it because it said easy.
I knew most common monsters already, but anything that didn’t appear in the original story was a mystery to me. And those were obviously the ones the system would fill in.
Just like Eleanor said, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down just because they were Grade 4 monsters. Awakening had given me an instinctive sense of how to move my body—but I was still a complete rookie who’d never actually killed a real monster.
And since the quest condition was to defeat a monster alone, I couldn’t rely on Eleanor either.
‘For now, I’ll just focus on Grade 4 monsters.’
I opened the book with determination.
And that was the day I learned that there were way more Grade 4 monsters than I’d ever imagined.
* * *
I was standing near the back gate with half-lidded eyes.
Because of that “easy” monster encyclopedia, I’d only slept three hours last night.
‘Easy… and plentiful…’
I tried recalling the Grade 4 monsters—half of them already fuzzy—but quickly gave up. Yeah. Trusting our top student was probably the smarter move.
As I waited for Eleanor, I sensed someone nearby. Was that her? Still half-asleep, I turned my head—
—and immediately forced my eyes wide open.
“Theodor?”
Standing there was not Eleanor, but Theodor.
“Lucy, am I invisible or something?”
Oh. Hayden was there too.
…But that’s not the point!
“Why are you two together?”
For the record, the one I’d called was Hayden—only Hayden.
“Misunderstanding, Lucy. We didn’t come together—he followed me on his own.”
“Theodor did?”
Naturally, I looked at Theodor. He avoided my gaze and muttered softly.
“Sorry… I overheard you by accident……”
“Overheard what?”
“The thing we talked about yesterday. Our private date.”
Hayden answered instead. Casually, he slung an arm over my shoulder and winked with one eye.
Seriously—he never changes.
‘So he heard that we’re going to Crag Forest…’
I’d brought Hayden into the plan because of the travel distance. One of his skills was Teleport.
If we took one or two breaks, we could reach Crag Forest in under an hour.
‘If I help you, Lucy, what do I get in return?’
‘What do you want?’
‘Hmm…’
After dragging it out for a bit, Hayden suddenly grinned—
‘A date coupon with you?’
—an absolutely ridiculous condition. Still, it wasn’t exactly hard to fulfill, so I accepted without much thought.
So after Eleanor, I’d “cleared” Hayden too… and Theodor had apparently overheard the whole thing.
With a voice full of concern, Theodor said to me,
“Sorry for butting in. I was just worried……”
Had we gotten too close without realizing it?
Our kind-hearted, fragile protagonist was now trying to follow me into a monster-infested area. What was I supposed to do with this?
While I was agonizing, a familiar voice spoke from behind.
“Let’s get going first.”
Eleanor—the center of today’s operation.
She walked up beside me and brushed Hayden’s arm off my shoulder. Then she continued,
“We’re only going to the edge of the forest today anyway. That much is within what I can handle.”
“Really?”
“At the very least, everyone here can take care of themselves. Especially that one.”
Eleanor’s gleaming golden eyes locked squarely onto Hayden. But he just shrugged, completely unfazed.
‘Isn’t this group forming way earlier than in the original story?’
Normally, this combination wouldn’t appear until their second year. Slick Hayden, wary Eleanor, and Theodor stuck awkwardly between them.
‘Not that I’m complaining.’
Seeing their dynamic in real life instead of just text was—honestly—fascinating. And besides, I’ve always liked this kind of chemistry!
“During today’s monster hunt, unnecessary physical contact is prohibited.”
“What about necessary physical contact? Like if Lucy’s in danger—”
“That won’t happen. I’ve taken responsibility for Lucy’s safety.”
“Or if Lucy gets scared and clings to me—”
“That’s an even more ridiculous example.”
Crunch, crunch—
I munched on some imaginary popcorn while enjoying their verbal sparring. Theodor seemed amused too, watching quietly.
In the end, we finally set out—several dozen minutes later.
