005. Strangely Realistic.
“Yanneu decided to follow the Mage?”
“So it seems.”
“In a way, it’s a relief. Since she lost her assigned honey mushroom area, if she had stayed in the village, she would have starved to death or been caught and killed by goblins.”
“True. If she serves under a kind-hearted Mage, she should be able to survive.”
Upon hearing the news that Yanneu was leaving the village, the villagers felt more envious that things had worked out well for her than saddened by her departure.
“They say the Mage buys honey too. I heard he pays even more than the traveling merchant.”
“Really? Then I should bring out the honey I’ve saved too.”
Yanneu returned having bought 120 bottles of honey stored in rough earthenware jugs; it was 1 silver coin per bottle, amounting to 120 silver.
When I said I only had gold, I was told I needed 6 gold.
The exchange rate between silver and gold coins seemed to be 20:1.
And based on the price of honey, roughly 1 silver coin seemed to be about 20,000 Korean won.
There were also half silver coins, made by cutting a silver coin in half, and quarter silver coins, made by cutting those in half again; 1 quarter silver coin was said to be worth 5 copper coins.
After calculating, it seemed roughly correct to estimate 1 copper coin at 1,000 won, 1 silver coin at 20,000 won, and 1 gold coin at 400,000 won.
According to Yanneu, once you pass the Dyurendal Territory where honey mushrooms grow, the price of honey rises; in other regions, it trades for 4 silver coins or more.
“Mage, when do you put these honey bottles away with a whoosh? And can I use it too?”
Whether it was longing for magic, Yanneu marveled at the use of the inventory.
While putting away the honey bottles, I asked Yanneu; she said she knew mages performed magic, but she had never heard of them putting items in and out like this.
For now, it seemed I had to hide the existence of the inventory from others.
“Yanneu. This spatial magic is a secret of us mages. It wouldn’t be good if other mages found out. So you must only use this spatial magic when no one else is around. Do you understand?”
“Ah, it was a secret. I won’t speak of it from now on.”
Yanneu pretended to cover her mouth with her hand; it remained to be seen just how well she would keep the secret.
Since it took four days to reach Hilter Village, which was supposedly large enough to hold a market, I purchased plenty of bread and jerky made from some unidentifiable meat from the village chief.
I also bought oiled cloth to use as a tent, as well as rope and wooden poles.
When I set off to leave the village, those I had treated, Yanneu’s late parents, and other acquaintances saw us off.
While walking, I heard from Yanneu about edible, non-poisonous herbs, and gathered some of them.
[Dwarf Bush Clover has been registered!]
When I grasped some of the herbs in my hand, an alarm popped up saying the herb had been registered in the status window.
Once registered in the status window, I could check on the map where the herbs were located.
It seemed that if you made contact and registered it first, it would be distinguished on the map or in the status window.
After leaving the village and coming far enough that it was no longer in sight, I cast Active Buff and Luck Buff on myself.
Then, I called Yanneu over.
“Yanneu, I shall cast a magic on you so you won’t get tired even after walking a long time.”
“Huh? There’s magic like that too?”
“Yes. You won’t be tired.”
To give Yanneu the same buff as me, I placed my hand on her head; an alarm popped up saying Yanneu had been registered in the status window.
Name: Yanneu
Race: Human
Class: None
HP: 15 MP: 10
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 2
Magic: 2
Agility: 2
Harmony: 2
Charm: 1
Yanneu’s current stats totaled a mere 10; I wondered how much her stats would rise when I used the Growth Buff.
So I cast three buffs on Yanneu: Active Buff, Growth Buff, and Luck Buff.
After walking for about three hours like that, I checked on Yanneu; her Charm had risen to 1.2.
And it didn’t go down even as time passed.
The Growth Buff didn’t seem to be a buff that grew stats in a short time, but one that permanently raised stats.
‘But why did Charm rise by 0.2?’
Her Strength was also at 1, yet that hadn’t risen; I couldn’t figure out the criteria for why only Charm had gone up.
“Something particularly different after walking? Hmm. Even after walking for a long time, I don’t really feel tired at all.”
“That’s a relief. Then, let’s walk a bit more before resting.”
I cast Active Buff, Growth Buff, and Luck Buff on her again.
As it was almost lunchtime, I took out the jerky I had bought, but the foul, gamy stench of the meat was overwhelming.
The gamy smell filling my mouth was so intense it was practically inedible.
Perhaps they had made the jerky without any pepper or salt, simply drying it as-is.
Or maybe they hadn’t properly drained the blood during butchering, leaving the gaminess behind.
The fact that they made even this gamy smell feel realistic in-game was amazing, yet also annoying.
Also, I found it amazing that Yanneu was chewing and eating the jerky with its beastly gaminess so deliciously.
But I had no intention of forcing myself to endure this gamy smell and eat the jerky.
“Let’s rest here for a moment.”
When I spotted tree shade, I took out a table and chairs from my inventory, then brought out a gas burner and began charring the jerky over the flame.
I was trying to erase the beastly gaminess with the scent of fire.
On the jerky, now soft and pliable from the fire, I sprinkled pepper, salt, and sugar from my seasoning set.
And placing it back on the frying pan to grill, the salt, sugar, and pepper were heated by the flame, imbuing the jerky with a smoky flavor.
I gripped the jerky with tongs and snip! snip! cut it into thumb-sized pieces with the ultimate item, kitchen scissors.
Putting the small piece of jerky, softened by the hot heat, into my mouth, the gamy smell that had filled my mouth just moments ago was barely noticeable.
The savory taste of the jerky put me in a good mood.
‘If only I had a cold beer, this would be heaven.’
“I didn’t know why you suddenly brought out magic fire, Mage, but tasting it grilled like this, the flavor is truly like heaven and earth!”
Yanneu chewed the smoke-infused jerky with a happy expression.
“I think I’ve become a person who can no longer eat plain jerky.”
“Ah, you shouldn’t become too picky.”
After eating grilled jerky for lunch and continuing to walk for three hours, I checked Yanneu’s stats.
There was no change in her stats.
Her Charm remained at 1.2, and nothing else had changed.
I wondered if the Growth Buff applied only once, but that didn’t make sense since it had increased by 0.2.
‘Ah, perhaps the Growth Buff can only be used once a day.’
Since it was a buff that caused permanent stat changes, it might raise stats by 0.2 every day.
I decided to cast Growth Buff on her again tomorrow.
I cast Active Buff and Luck Buff on Yanneu again and walked on.
But after walking for a while, something made the back of my neck tingle.
That tingly, ominous feeling.
“Yanneu, are you good at climbing trees?”
“Of course. I’ve climbed trees more than a few times to pick fruits I couldn’t reach.”
“Then climb that tree and let’s rest a bit.”
Because I felt an ominous sensation of being chased by something, I found an easy tree to climb and boosted Yanneu up by hand.
Yanneu climbed the tree like a nimble squirrel, and once she was high up, she lowered down a rope.
Thanks to that, I too could easily climb the tree using the rope.
Resting in the tree, I saw three wolf-like creatures with reddish-brown fur approaching our direction, sniffing with their noses flared.
“Gasp! It’s the Red Mane Wolves!”
Yanneu was amazed that we had climbed the tree in preparation for the wolves, even as she was startled.
Of course, I was amazed too.
I had climbed the tree just in case because of the ominous feeling; I suspected it was thanks to the Luck Buff that I had felt that premonition.
The thought that we might have been ambushed by these things while camping without the Luck Buff made me break out in a cold sweat.
As if to say they had followed our scent, the creatures stared up at us from below the tree, their eyes flashing.
From their eyes, I could feel a savage ferocity and hunger.
They didn’t seem likely to leave their spot easily.
“Mage, what should we do now?”
“First, tie yourself to the tree so you don’t fall, and rest. I’m going to get some shut-eye for a moment.”
I said this, but I was at a loss because I didn’t have a single attack spell.
Of course, I could fight by sacrificing an arm, just like when I fought goblins.
But wolves the size of humans were far stronger than goblins.
Even sacrificing an arm didn’t guarantee victory.
And unlike with goblins, if an arm or leg were torn off, I wasn’t confident it would regenerate.
If I had a ranged weapon, I could somehow deal with them, but all I had was a dagger and wooden poles, so there was no way.
For now, I terminated the connection.
[You have played for 7 hours and 10 minutes. Your body’s reactions are normal, and everything is stable.]
As soon as he got out of the capsule, he wrote a report.
The contents stated that if the early starting point was a forest or isolated area, support Shamans basically needed ranged weapons to survive.
It was a report saying that if there was an early-game barrier, no one would choose the support Shaman class, leading to class imbalance within the game.
And because he had something he was curious about, he called the secretary.
“Secretary. I sent the tester play report. But I had a question, so I called.”
“Yes. What are you curious about?”
“It’s about what happens if you die in the game.”
“You will be resurrected. However, you won’t be resurrected right where you died, but as a different person on a different continent.”
It meant that if you died during play, you would lose everything you had and start anew.
“Mr. Bak Jinu. Are you in a life-threatening situation right now?”
“Yes. So…”
He explained in detail that he was being chased by wolves and had climbed a tree.
And he appealed that Priests or Shamans without attack magic needed ranged weapons to increase their survival odds when playing in remote places.
“Hmm. When you’re alone as a Shaman rather than a warrior class, there really is no answer. I will request feedback to the development team to provide ranged throwing weapons by default if the starting point is a remote region.”
“Yes, thank you.”
After the report and feedback were finished, he ate a meal and took a nap.
Though he had slept in the game, the fatigue of the real world didn’t seem to go away.
Afterward, he exercised to replenish his stamina.
He exercised in advance because he felt his muscles might atrophy from reduced muscular activity if he spent 8 hours at a time in the capsule.
***
“He’s surrounded by wolves and climbed a tree? And he called to ask what happens when you die?”
At the mention of talk about death coming from Bak Jinu, Illeon Beoseukeo turned his head and looked at the secretary.
“Yes. Since he isn’t a warrior class, he doesn’t fight recklessly; he seems to have a meticulous style of checking what will happen before fighting.”
“That’s better for survival. So, how is he handling the pain?”
“He asked us to create an option for it, so we made one for him as we did for the others. But since there was a phrase implying there would be related rewards, he didn’t touch the option at all.”
“Hahaha. That’s a gamer for you. I suppose we can put aside the worry that he might catch on because of the pain.”
“Yes. Asian gamers certainly seem to have something they’re fixated on. Compared to North American and European gamers, Asian gamers didn’t touch the pain settings at all.”
“They are people who take living in a competitive society as a given, so they are the ones who best practice No Pain, No Gain. But we must make sure to manage connection time. Asians tend to pour in more time to get good results one way or another.”
“Yes. If he goes over 8 hours of connection time even once, we will give him a severe warning then. And what should we do about the ranged throwing weapons?”
“What is the spare transmission energy for Bak Jinu?”
“Since we sent cooking tools, we now only have enough energy to send something about 30 centimeters in size.”
“Then send him the ranged weapon that requires the least amount of energy. Any other matters?”
“Beriang is in a life-threatening crisis.”
“That French friend? Then he must be connecting and disconnecting to buy time to think. What day is Beriang on?”
“Day 76.”
“A life-threatening crisis on day 76. Hmm. Keep a close eye on him.”
“Yes. We don’t want it to happen, but if the worst-case scenario occurs, we will handle it according to the manual and look for the next player in South America.”