Chapter 108

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Episode 08 – <New World> Café

“It’s done!”

Letty and I were patiently waiting near the blacksmith area when Neva waved a hand at us.

It hadn’t been too long since we had handed her the materials and she was now heading back our way. “Well, that was fast,” I remarked.

From a distance, it had looked like she had simply been striking the materials after putting them on her anvil.

“Making one or two items doesn’t take that long,” she explained.

Without skipping a beat, she pulled out two cartridges from her inventory. “There you go! You just have to install them now.”

We both accepted our cartridge and hurriedly inserted the data in our respective [Sword].

Our new weapons were part of the FANG series, and as such, mine was called the FANG Spear.

“C’mon, c’mon! Try equipping it!”

Rushed by Neva, I hurriedly selected the new installed data.

The [Sword] smoothly transformed into its new appearance and acquired new abilities and stats.

“Oooh!”

The result was a rather unsophisticated spear, though. The wooden handle was wrapped in fur, and a sharp fang was attached at the tip.

“Ah,”—Letty activated the data for her own [Sword]—”mine has the same style, too.”

Indeed, Letty’s hammer had the same rustic vibe, too. The grip was wrapped in fur as well and several small sharp fangs protruded from the head.

“Nevermind my spear, your hammer has a serious murderous intent written all over it.”

“Basic Series weapons seem to have a more civilized style,” said Letty.

Neva, who was quietly listening to our openhearted first impressions, let out a strained laugh.

“They certainly have a ‘wild’ feeling about them, but the attack power is greater than the Basic Series’ and they come with the <Beast Slayer> bonus.

“<Beast Slayer>?”

“A slight damage bonus is applied whenever you fight beast type enemies,” she explained.

As one would expect from weapons crafted with materials dropped from wolves I suppose.

To put it simply, ‘beast type’ refers to any enemies affected by either the <Brilliance> or <Bonfire> abilities from the <Camping> skill.

Looking at the stats once again, the attack power was indeed way above the Basic Series.

“Thank you, really. I feel much more confident with it.”

“I should be the one thanking you, really. You gave me the materials for free and I even got a new recipe,” she said, puffing her chest.

I had no idea how difficult the blacksmith profession was, but she may have quite the promising future lying ahead. Successfully crafting ever-seen-before weapons with never-seen-before materials had to be worth something.

“Say Ledge, can I add you as a friend?”

I was busy admiring my new FANG Spear when Neva made a suggestion.

“Eh? Is that okay with you?”

Seeing my confusion, she nodded. “You guys brought me interesting materials and I crafted your weapons. So if you ever need to repair them, you can just TEL me!”

“Really? We’ll be counting on you then! I mean, I’d certainly feel better having a crafter in my friend list.”

“Me too… I’ll be counting on you…”

“Of course, I’m adding you both!”

And thus, we both added Neva to our friend list. She told us she planned to spend most of her time in the blacksmithing area of the <Production Square>.

“I’ll mainly raise my <Blacksmithing> and <Trading> skills but I want to try my hand at the other production skills, too. Eventually, I’d like to be able to use the <Mining> skill and go out to collect my own materials but I’ll probably lack the fighting power to do so…”

“—in that case, you can count on us! We’ll go get you the materials you’ll need,” I eagerly proposed.

“—don’t forget that I am the fighter of this party, though…”

My show of manliness was cut short by Letty’s murderous comment. As much as it hurt my feelings, it was undeniably the cold and hard truth.

I turned to Letty and bowed my head, like an animal who’d just acknowledged the Alpha of the pack. She looked me over, smiled, and nodded in a as-long-as-you-understand manner.

Looking at the theatrical display, Neva brought a hand to her mouth and laughed.

“Did you two really just meet today? I’m glad to see you’re such good friends.”

“He-he-he. I’ll have you know that Ledge and I have shared joys and sorrows and are basically partners.”

I seemed to have been promoted to the rank of Partners before I even knew it. Still, I had trouble understanding how Letty saw me.

“Now that we have our weapons, the next logical stop would be armours,” I said, looking down at my simple white clothes.

I was really not big on the idea of fighting once more without any defensive equipment. A quick glance at the surroundings and we could see players already wearing decent armours here and there.

“Armours are pretty hard to craft, you know?”

“Really?”

Neva nodded. “—If you want a complete set, that is. You’ll at least need four parts to get a set. Which are the helmet, chest, pants, and boots.”

“Hmm, that’s a lot. And I suppose we’ll need a lot of materials to craft all of this.”

“Let’s see, I used 1 [Fur] and 4 [Fangs] to craft your weapons but I’m afraid you’ll need a lot more [Furs] for the armours. Also, if you want to throw in a few accessories, there’s five other parts to consider: shoulders, belt, ring, necklace, and earrings.”

“In that case, we’ll just have to go and collect some more!” Letty, who had been passively listening, displayed a sudden surge of motivation.

I suppose she must have been dying to use her new weapon. Nevertheless, it’s always a good thing to have plenty of motivation.

“Yeah, we can go back hunting once dawn breaks.”

“Be careful, you two. I can make you new weapons but I can’t bring back your stats if you die.”

“Well then, let’s go information hunting while we wait for daybreak,”—ears standing at attention, Letty raised a finger—“he who controls information— err… well, you know what they say!”

“If you’re gonna act all high and mighty then do it properly…”

After saying goodbyes, Neva went back to leveling up her <Blacksmithing> skill and we went on our way.

“Alright, first, I’d like to find a quiet place to take a look at the Wiki.” I needed a serious break from the crowd. Truth be told, being around all those skeletons further intensified my need for respite.

Letty considered my cry for peace a moment, and a few seconds later her red bunny ears perked up.

“Ah! Should we go to a café then?”

“A café?” I tilted my head in confusion.

Her face screwed in disdain for a split second and she loudly sighed. “There’s a lot of resting places like coffee shops or restaurants here in Susanoo. Those are great to consider when you want to relax.”

“To think that there were such places…”

She must have looked that up during our breaks in the forest. Letty might look like a happy-go-lucky bunny but she actually made sure she was prepared for everything. Almost everything, anyway.

“How about here?” she said, pointing at her map.

She then went and led us to a quiet looking café in the back of an alley, a little off the main street. The café had a relaxed and calm atmosphere to it, which contrasted with the metallic and industrial impression Susanoo gave off.

“It looks so peaceful.”

“Great, let’s go in.”

We left behind the busyness of the town and entered the shop along with the ring of the bell.

As if the door was a portal to another world, the interior was lined with wooden flooring and a relaxing classical music played in the background. The seats and tables were set up in a way that created semi-private spaces, and several players were relaxing here and there.

“Good evening. Welcome to the New World café.”

We were soon greeted by a human-looking NPC girl that, compared to the skeleton from the Skin shop, was a welcomed sight. She wore a long maid skirt and held a silver tray on her left hand.

“Please, have a seat anywhere you like. You can order directly from the menu at the table.”

Guided by her fluent words, we chose to sit at a table near a window.

“Well, I didn’t expect that,” I said.

“It must be a high-grade NPC. Almost fooled me.”

According to Letty, there are different grades of NPC and, currently, an inspection team was running around town, compiling information about NPCs and posting it on the Wiki as they went.

“—both the inspection and the reconnaissance teams have it tough, huh? Susanoo is pretty big after all.”

“I think that is also one way to enjoy the game.”

To each his own, I suppose.

Speaking of which, if I recall correctly, Length said he wanted to be an editor for the Wiki if I recall correctly.

“What are you ordering, Ledge?” I was absorbed in my thoughts when Letty’s voice brought me back to reality.

I looked down at the menu and was presented with an actual physical menu. If you ask me, I’d have been fine with a holo-display but the owner was apparently set on doing it the classic way.

“Oh, I’ll just have a coffee.”

“Eeeh… What a waste. You know you can’t get fat in the game, right?”

I flipped through the menu for a moment and settled on a stable blend. By the way, my coffee was only 60 Bits. What a steal.

Letty didn’t see it that way, though. While I agree that one could eat to one’s stomach’s content, there had been cases where one could get dizzy from the false sense of satiety.

“Well, suit yourself. I’ll have a deluxe red bean custard taiyaki parfait topped with red hot mega death chilli sauce and—”

“Wait– hold on, hold on! What in oblivion are you trying to summon?!”

“Eh?”

Don’t “Eh” me.

Her cursed incantation had me lost my composure for a second.

“It’s this shop’s speciality and challenge. If you manage to eat it in under 30 minutes, it’s free.” she explained, a weird hint of pride in her voice.

Huh, I’m surprised. I wouldn’t have guessed she liked that sort of thing.

“There’s no way you can finish that. You should just order something else.”

“It’s no problem. I’m used to it!”

How does one even get used to that…

Letty ignored my advice and proceeded to order the forbidden dish.

Almost instantaneously, our respective orders appeared in front of us.

Dragged from Hell itself and threatening to meet the ceiling, the Red Mountain in front of Letty soared high. The malefic aura that radiated from the monstrosity overwhelmed my smell and sight all at once and loomed over my LP. The steam from the four huge freshly-baked taiyakis that pierced Mount Doom™ added a finishing touch to the overall ominous aura.

Next to it, the innocent and sin-free cocoa she had ordered with it looked out of place.

“—why is my coffee sweet…”

I’m pretty sure I ordered a black coffee…

I averted my eyes from the unholy sight and looked out the window.

Outside, the good folks of Susanoo went on about their merry lives under the starry night sky, oblivious to the gory episode that was about to unfold.

“Bon appétit!”

Tips

◇Coffee shop <New World>

Located in the back of a quiet alley a little off the main street of Susanoo Seed-01, <New World> prides itself on its calm and otherworldly atmosphere. Its taciturn master is intent on brewing his coffee the old-fashioned way, and has a penchant—more like a chronic disease, really—for eccentric dishes.

One of its regulars commented: “It’s a hit for 9 out of 10 of people, but for some, the off-the-wall feeling is a total miss.“

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