Chapter 27
After breakfast at the dining hall,
I headed to the Hero Corps office’s request board to start today’s routine.
Today, I was finally going to the lumberyard to cut down some trees.
I’d been meaning to go for a while but always ended up turning back halfway for one reason or another.
And since I was already going, it’d be better to pick up another request nearby and finish both at once.
Efficiency was everything. In games, efficiency was key.
I wasn’t particularly gifted in the physical side of gaming,
but when it came to calculations like this, I was pretty good.
Understanding the basic principles of a game and planning the most efficient course of action from there —
that was my strength.
If you’re bad with your body, then you’d better use your brain.
They say that those with strong bodies don’t need to think much,
but since I wasn’t blessed physically, I had to make up for it mentally.
Anyway, with that resolve in mind, I walked toward the request board —
and unexpectedly ran into some familiar faces.
“Hey, what about this one, Lena?”
“…Hmm, no. That’s too far. Just going there and back will take the whole day.”
Two yellow-haired heads were huddled in front of the board, talking seriously.
“…?”
Why were they here?
Wait—no way. Did our talk yesterday inspire them to take action like this?
No, no, impossible… That’d be way too self-centered of me to think.
It’s not like one little comment from me could change a girl who’s lived her whole life as a noble heir…
I tried to shove down my ego,
but the timing just screamed that our conversation had influenced her after all.
“Oh, Lady Elaine!”
Leo spotted me and waved.
Up until yesterday, he’d always called me by my full seven-syllable name starting with “Choi,”
but after our slightly embarrassing chat last night, it seemed he’d switched to just “Elaine.”
The memory made me want to flee again,
but I steeled myself and walked up to the board.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, my sister said maybe it’s time we start gaining some real combat experience,
so we’re thinking of taking on a request—”
“Hey! You don’t have to say that out loud!”
Lena snapped, her face turning red, right as Leo finished explaining.
Well, I’d already guessed as much anyway.
“Don’t misunderstand, okay? It’s not like I’m trying to show off or anything.
I just thought it’d be good to get some real-world practice too, that’s all.”
“Mm, sure.”
Who said anything otherwise?
Her flustered defensiveness was honestly kind of cute.
“Lady Elaine, are you also here to pick a request? Maybe… the three of us could go together?”
Leo’s eyes sparkled with hope,
and at that moment, Lena shot her twin brother a glare sharp enough to kill.
“…Ah, no. It’s fine. I think it’s better if we move separately.”
If multiple people completed a quest together, the reward would be… divided evenly, right?
Just thinking about my potential earnings shrinking to one-third made me instinctively shake my head.
It wasn’t that I disliked Lena or Leo —
I just didn’t want to split my reward.
‘…Uh, your sister looks like she’d rather die than go together, you know.’
She was now pinching and twisting her brother’s arm viciously.
Seriously, what was with that?
She’d come here inspired to take a request after talking to me,
yet now she didn’t want to do it with me.
“Ah, that’s too bad,”
Leo sighed, looking crestfallen.
He looked so adorable that I almost reached out to ruffle his golden hair — but held back.
Maybe because I was the youngest in my family,
I always felt a little envious of friends with younger siblings.
I would’ve loved to have a little brother like Leo.
Sure, in reality, brothers and sisters often bicker — I’d seen enough of that from friends and media —
but still, Leo seemed like the ideal younger brother.
Of course, even if he was younger, he technically joined the Hero Corps before me,
so it’d be rude to treat him like a kid and pat his head.
“Then, um, would you like to go first? We haven’t decided which request to take yet.”
Leo gently pulled his twin sister aside to make room for me at the board.
Wouldn’t he get in trouble later for that? I wondered briefly,
but it wasn’t my problem.
I thanked him for his thoughtfulness and turned to the board.
As expected, none of the side quests offered Rainbow Stones as rewards — only main quests did.
Still…
‘It’s getting risky. If I push the main story too far, I might get forced into the next region before I can finish renaming.’
With that thought, I decided to focus on regular requests.
After scanning the densely written sheets listing tasks, locations, and rewards,
I finally found one that fit my needs perfectly.
Coincidentally, the requester was Dioscorides — the eccentric old man from the apothecary.
The job was to collect a rare mushroom called Soulshade Mushroom
that grew deep within the forest near the lumberyard —
a dark, uninhabited area.
The only problem?
Undead monsters like zombies or skeletons might appear nearby.
It looked like a simple gathering quest,
but could easily turn into a combat one if things went south.
Perfect location.
And since my gathering skill was level 5, I should be able to collect even rare mushrooms.
Alright, I’ll take this one.
I tore off the request note and headed out of town.
I decided to stop by the lumberyard first,
and since I’d been there a few times before, the path was now somewhat familiar.
I wore my gatherer’s work outfit again —
and this time, even put on a safety helmet.
It would be my first time actually chopping trees,
and I couldn’t help but feel a little excited.
After all, how often does a modern city dweller get to swing an axe at a tree?
I’d seen my older brother do it during camping trips with Dad —
splitting firewood with a small hatchet for the campfire —
but I’d never done it myself.
Of course, I had done it in digital worlds.
In that blocky, pixelated survival world I mentioned before,
you had to chop wood to survive.
Although in that world, even after cutting the tree’s base,
the rest of the tree would just float in the air —
because the physics engine was completely insane.
Oh, and there was that other survival game —
where you crash-land on an island and fight cannibals to survive —
that one had realistic trees.
I even remember once helping chop a tree with a group,
only for it to fall and crush me to death.
Good times.
Thinking of all that, I stepped into the forest and checked my minimap, heading toward the lumberyard.
Technically, I could just chop any tree in the forest,
but I preferred to use designated gathering spots.
This world was blessed by the Goddess, after all.
Even if I chopped down a few trees, they’d grow back quickly.
It’s not like I’d destroy the ecosystem.
Still, if someone went through the trouble of marking a specific lumberyard,
there must’ve been a good reason for it.
So I went there — and what I found made me pause.
‘What in the world…?’
Normally, climate and vegetation are tightly linked.
Cold regions have conifers; dry ones have cacti or palms.
But here, in this single lumberyard,
trees from all sorts of climates grew side by side.
It seemed someone had used magic to create different climate zones around the trees.
When I approached the conifer area,
the air instantly turned icy cold —
harsh enough that, in my short sleeves and shorts, I was shivering.
Unfortunately…
‘So with my current woodcutting level, I can only chop these… spruce trees.’
Of course.
The only trees available for level 1 lumberjacks were soft, light conifers.
I sighed and took out my axe from my inventory.
No helping it. I’ll level up quickly and move on to the warmer zones.
I swung the axe in quiet determination —
but staying calm and empty-minded was impossible.
‘S-so cold! It’s freezing!’
The chill bit into my skin.
Suddenly, I felt sorry for every single game character I’d ever dressed in shorts.
I always liked short pants myself,
so all my avatars wore them too —
even when wandering through snowy, blizzard-filled maps.
In games, the cold never drained your HP… usually.
Well, except in survival games.
In those, you needed proper winter gear or you’d die fast.
But otherwise, my characters always wore shorts, no matter what.
And now I was paying for it.
This wasn’t even that cold — more like late autumn weather —
but it still chilled me to the bone.
After a while of chopping down spruce after spruce…
“Haah… haa… Woodcutting skill, level 5… finally!”
By the time I’d eaten my packed lunch and cut down almost every spruce tree in the cold zone,
I’d finally reached the level I wanted.
Faster than expected.
Though that was probably thanks to my equipment.
When I put on the safety helmet, a message appeared:
[Sturdy Gatherer’s Gear Set Effect]
Gathering skill experience +5%
Not as good as the Sea Bream Sushi buff,
but still a handy magic bonus that increased skill gain.
Normally, the more pieces of the set you wore, the greater the bonus,
but I only had two — the work outfit and helmet — so the effect was modest.
Still, thanks to that—
I’d earned my eighth Rainbow Stone.
“Yesss! Only twelve more to go…!”
I shouted with triumph into the empty forest.
Startled birds took off in a flutter of wings,
the only witnesses to my victory cry.
