I walked through the pure white space following Yena.
Even while moving, Yena kept sniffing her hands and clothes, glancing at me for some reason.
It seemed to be because of what I said, but it wasn’t due to the smell.
She already had an excellent ability to ‘sense’ something.
Yena’s stealth was remarkable, but it wasn’t enough to escape my gaze.
While this subtle standoff continued, we came across a tree sprouting pink leaves.
Yena casually walked towards the tree and passed through it, and as I followed suit, I arrived at a refreshing garden.
It was a place filled with pink flowers and trees.
“Cough, cough! We’ve arrived.”
“Things have changed a lot.”
Before, there weren’t many trees, and the boundary of the blue sky wasn’t that wide, but now it had become so vast that it couldn’t be taken in at a glance.
The vicinity was filled with cats of various colors, and someone sitting on a small rock in the center was looking at us.
A cat beastman with perked ears.
Long pink hair cascading down to her waist, and her eyes were the same color as her hair.
She wore a light pink, airy silk dress that seemed to wrap her in a warm aura.
[Oh]
[Cat, cat]
[Sigh~]
[So many cats, lol]
[So pretty]
[Is this a cat beastman with a cat?]
[Very pretty!]
[No more robe now!]
“Welcome, Yena. And Lady Lily?”
“Master~”
“It’s been a while.”
“Right, right.”
Myeosin smiled softly and waved her hand, causing two comfy-looking chairs to rise.
Yena sat down naturally as if she was familiar with it.
As I sat down in the chair next to her, a cat that was wandering nearby jumped onto my lap.
So cute.
[Pet, pet]
[Lololol]
[So adorable]
[Lily’s lap is pretty valuable though;;]
[But what are we doing today?]
[“I want to sit too!”]
[“Shall we have a round of fighting?”]
After petting the cat for a while, Yena, covered in cats, turned to me.
It seemed that as a cat beastman, she attracted a different number of them.
“By the way, Master, why did you come to see us? Of course, Kiki Island had been connected since Lady Lily cleared it, but…”
“I just found a suitable place. For you, Yena and Lady Lily, it will be perfect for training.”
“Thank you. Can we go right away?”
“Of course.”
“? Huh? Where are we going?”
“Are you going?”
“Training.”
“I’ve never heard of that before?”
Training.
It’s a high-level quest that can be received from specific autonomous NPCs, and you can obtain the ‘Training’ expedition quest if you are in a disciple relationship or equivalent.
The advantage of expedition quests is that you can gain information and rights to progress quests in completely unknown areas.
That’s why many users often become disciples of specific NPCs to proceed with their training.
Looking at just the users who are disciples, there’s Leo, a disciple of the Spirit Lord, Piarro, a disciple of the Vampire Elder, and Yena, a disciple of Myeosin, among many others.
If things went as they should, Yena would have done it alone, but I had the first contact with Myeosin.
Yena came into this place through me, and as Myeosin’s influence grew, she could collaborate with me to progress in the training together.
[Oh?]
[Training ㄷㄷㄷ]
[Is that possible for Lily too?]
[When did that get discussed?]
[What is training?]
[Does Lily know about training?]
[Wow.]
[Look at Yena being all cute.]
[? How does Lily know that?]
[Are the conditions met?]
[At this point, it wouldn’t be strange for Lily to do anything.]
[Big Lily.]
Yena cleared all the cats away with a puzzled expression.
Still, a few cats clung to Yena once again.
“Mew.”
“I talked about it briefly before. I asked if I could go with you if you ever had to go on a training expedition, and you gave me permission then.”
“Ah?”
Yena scratched her head, nodding as if to say, “Is that so?”
‘Of course, that was just a day ago.’
“But training is something that was actually used at the very beginning… If you don’t have a proper master or lack training, it’s not given.”
“Is that so? I don’t know much about it.”
“Yeah. The efficiency is just too low compared to the time and effort needed to build a relationship. Even if you complete the expedition quest, the rewards can be meager. Of course, some people still do it these days, but… how did you know?”
“I borrowed the power of the internet.”
The explanation of training sounds very ‘game-like’ because it’s a quest that was discovered 3 to 4 years before I returned.
Guides circulated when Deoen had just come out.
At that time, the levels of users and residents were not that high except for the Empire, so it was worth investing in training.
However, as time went on, hidden quests and dungeons with better rewards gradually made it forgotten.
With Leo having the Three Lords of the Empire as his master, unless one was as crazed as the Heavenly Horse, investing in training would be a loss.
It wasn’t worth training unless I was crazy enough to invest in it.
Ultimately, the purpose of training was to create a connection with the Myeosin rather than just completing a quest.
To free the Myeosin from the system, I had to intervene as a ‘user’ with the same system.
“I found out that the conditions are just right, so I thought I’d mention it. It’s been a while since we’ve dived into dungeons together, right?”
“Yeah… That’s true. So, where are we going?”
“I’ll let you know.”
As Myeosin waved their hand again, new messages appeared in front of Yena and me.
[Sub – Ore Monster]
Objective – Confirm the existence of the Ore Monster attacking the Curse User Village.
Reward – ?, Fragment of the Ore Monster.
[This quest is a training quest.]
[You need to gather the location and information of the dungeon from the NPC you received the quest from.]
[Additional rewards will be given upon completing all quests.]
“O-Ore Monster?”
“Where’s the Curse User Village?”
[?]
[Om…]
[What? This isn’t hidden.]
[Looks like a dungeon?]
[Sub-quest? Ah.]
[Not hidden, so it’s not that fun.]
[What’s an Ore Monster?]
“Recently, people in a distant continent have been suffering because of monsters. The Ore Monster attacks the village, kills people, and steals minerals.”
‘It eats ore?’
“Didn’t they say it’s a dungeon?”
Yena raised her hand and asked.
A hand still surrounded by cats.
“Of course, the monster’s habitat is in a different dimension. But for some reason, it causes harm here.”
“How did it get released?”
“Well… I’m not sure about that.”
Myeosin shook their head with a puzzled expression.
Training is part of the system.
Once specific ‘conditions’ are met, you naturally find out, so there were limits to what Myeosin could know, being unable to leave this place.
I asked about other details like its appearance, but aside from being made of ore, I couldn’t get any useful information.
‘… By the way, if it eats ore…’
“Iron Devourer?”
“Yeah?”
“Umm…”
An ancient beast that eats iron and was sealed away in the Iron Soul Sword due to its ruthless plundering in the past.
If Myeosin described the monster’s traits, the Ore Monster was highly likely to be the Iron Devourer.
But one strange point was…
‘Myeosin shouldn’t be unaware of the Iron Devourer, though?’
“So, when are we going?”
“Today’s a good day to go. Is the time okay for you?”
“Maybe we should go today. Is the time good for you?”
“Of course! Ah, then how about we rest for about an hour? I kinda overdid it earlier…”
“Yeah. Just in time, I have something to do too. Take your rest.”
“Okay!”
Yena brushed off the cat clinging to her and disappeared with a blue light.
[Lily resting too?]
[Lily, what are you doing?]
[No, right?]
“I’ll just rest for a moment too. See you in a bit.”
[Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go]
[Evander]
[Just leave the broadcast on]
[It’s only been a little while since the broadcast started]
[?????]
[Kyahyahyahyyak]
“I think I’m going to lose it, I think I’m going to lose it, my mind!”
“Please wait just a moment!”
I tried hard to ignore the chaos in the chat window and turned the camera to nature.
It might be a bit boring, but with the cats wandering around, it shouldn’t be too dull.
Once I finished muting, I turned my head, and Myeosin had gotten right up to my nose.
The tail was swaying, and the ears were perked up.
“You look excited.”
“Hehe. If I’m not excited looking at my sister, that would be weird.”
“Is it fun these days?”
“Sort of. The system really is good. Even with the convenience provided, being able to get strong without worrying about getting hurt or dying…”
“That’s the blessing the users have.”
Without blessings, humans wouldn’t be able to get that strong.
Myeosin wagged her tail even more, as if she completely agreed.
“It still seems a bit too much for now.”
“When the time comes, I’ll be able to break free. Just don’t overdo it.”
“I’m thinking that way.”
I haven’t gained enough power and rank to break off the contract with Myeosin.
I prepared a somewhat complicated path called training for that purpose.
Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to ask.
“Do you remember the Iron Devourer by any chance?”
“…Hmm? I think I’ve heard of it. Is it a monster I know?”
“It was a monster you knew.”
As expected, Myeosin doesn’t remember the Iron Devourer.
Since she’s treated as an NPC and not a user, there might be restrictions on information.
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