Golden Experience-Chapter 239: “Big Friends”

“By the way. If it were you, you could probably defeat that boss called the Archangel even without my help. Why are you bothering with such troublesome things?”

“Well, what you call troublesome is using minions to subjugate the Archangel or cooperating with other players in disguises like earlier.”

“I see.”

“It’s not like I can’t handle it alone, but if someone like me does it solo, it stands out a lot. Like you, I’m also playing the role of an NPC for certain reasons.”

“I get it. So, what’s the purpose of doing such a thing?”

“Also, there are other things I want to do. I can’t just focus on defeating the Archangel all the time.”

While understanding the need for explaining the situation to a collaborator, I’m eager to resume my journey. Walking leisurely on foot turned out to be unexpectedly enjoyable for me.

“I see. Sounds busy.”

“Is there anything else you want to know? You can ask me anytime, but we might not have that many chances to meet and talk. It would be helpful if you could ask while we’re still face to face.”

“Yeah, got it.”

Bambu takes out Zagreus’ Heart from the inventory. It’s the drop from the Archangel earlier, given to Bambu as a gesture of gratitude for cooperation.

“What’s this? It looks like the gems dropped by those angels, but the clear color and shine are different. It should be more than just a gem considering it drops from such a powerful monster…”

“Oh, that. It’s a Zagreus’ Heart. It’s a resurrection item. When you use this item near a character in a death state, it disappears, and the character returns from death. At this time, LP is also somewhat recovered, and injuries from before…”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! A resurrection item!? I’ve never heard of such a thing before! Resurrection exists…?”

“Well, it should be there. There should have been a system message when you died. Something like a one-hour wait for resurrection. It might not appear anymore now.”

Once becoming a dungeon boss, optional respawning becomes impossible. Whether the same message still appears is unknown to the speaker, as they haven’t died since then. Also, the one-hour resurrection limit was due to the time the soul remains in the corpse.

If that’s the case, for dungeon bosses where respawn is assumed, the resurrection limit might not be one hour.

To confirm, we’d need to try killing a boss in some dungeon…

“…Ah, I don’t remember. How was it? I feel like some message appeared, but as for resurrection…”

“It’s nothing big. Anyway, is there anything else?”

“There are plenty of questions I have for you, but… If it’s about cooperation, it’s awkward to ask one-sided questions when I don’t have anything to offer. So, for now, it’s fine. I don’t have any more questions about our cooperation this time.”

“I see. If there’s anything, contact me through the friend chat. Oh, and…”

I raised my waist from the golem I was using as a chair to look at the significantly improved log house since before.

“Let me ask one last thing. Regarding the last time I attacked this dungeon, do you hold any grudges? If there’s lingering resentment, it might affect our future relationship, so I’d like you to be honest about it now while we’re face to face.”

“…Honestly, when my house was burned down, I was furious to the point where my guts were boiling. I also use my subordinates to attack towns, kill NPCs and players, so it’s mutual. If we fought with mutual understanding, we should also accept the sacrifices and damages that came out of it. The fact that you beat me one-sidedly back then was because I was weak, and even if I thought I could win now, I don’t think I would either. When you think about it, it’s not weird that my previous enemy has become stronger while I was becoming stronger myself, so my thinking was a bit naïve there. Well, if you want to do it again, I’m up for it, but please, no hard feelings next time.”

A mature response indeed.

I wonder if even for me, it can be settled to this extent.

It feels like a stretch.

“…It’s good to hear you say that.

While the idea of fighting you again is tempting, there’s still a disparity in our strength. Besides, both of us are rulers of dungeons, so we need to be cautious about dying. If we ever decide to battle again, we should keep that in mind.

Now then, I should be going.

Are the Hobgoblin Mages from earlier still on that grassy plain? If possible, I would appreciate it if you could take down the Archangel a few times. The reason being…”

*

“Hey, welcome back. With this, the counter for Archangel subjugation should be turning even if we leave it for now.”

Lyra was waiting in the most luxurious room of the Silver Bear Inn, the best inn in the town of Kiefer.

“I’m back. Yeah, that’s right. Until the event ends, I plan to have Mare support the players in defeating the Archangel in Hugelcup until the end of the event. Over there, Lyrienne, was it? I guess that means you’ll be going out with the acting lord as well?”

“Of course. Oh, by the way, what about that capable beastkin girl, Kerry-chan?”

“I told her to stay. She said it’s troublesome, and she might encounter someone and end up running away. I was thinking of having her roam around as a player in a different party, but no matter how many people there are, there’s only one destination. So, if the timing coincides, we might meet each other.”

“I see. How about the monster players?”

“For the monster players, I plan to have Gaslark as the main actor. Also, I’ve asked that player, Bambu, for support. It’s no problem if they participate as NPCs like Mare and the others, but if they pretend to be players, there’s a chance of unexpected mistakes. I asked Bambu for support in that regard.”

“Oh, the third-ranked guy you mentioned. Are you sure about him? What kind of person is he?”

“He’s quite a mature guy, despite his use of language. Now that we’re friends, I believe he’ll do what I ask of him.”

“Mature…”

“Yeah. He’s a reasonable guy and has self-control.”

“Friend…”

“Yeah, I added him as a friend.”

Speaking of which, how are those players who were originally staying in this inn doing?

The fact that this inn is still safe means that they probably haven’t done anything reckless. However, there seems to be no change, and they are living peacefully.

〈Monica〉

〈Yes, Lady Rare〉

〈Bring the guestbook for a moment.〉

After a while, Monica brought the guestbook.

“Thank you. Now—”

As she flipped through the guestbook, Margaret’s name was written on a recent page.

Margaret Kuji, whether it’s a full name is unclear, but it’s written as “Margaret Kuji.” It seems that this is the player character’s name.

“Okay, so are these the party members listed here?”

Janet Yazaka.

Margaret Kuji.

Elizabeth Tsubame.

And Allison Kira.

“Three… no, it’s four of them.”

From the date in the guestbook, it’s been about a month since they started using this inn. And judging by the absence of checkmarks next to their names, they are probably still staying.

In this inn, it seems to be a rule to put a checkmark next to the names of checked-out guests.

“Have these four mentioned anything about this inn, or rather, about us?”

“They occasionally behave as if they are monitoring the former owner and peeking into our room, but other than that, nothing special. They continue to go out to the swamp for hunting and return as before. The only difference is that there are more cases where they come out of the room even though they went out.”

Respawning in the room, in other words, a death return. They are probably challenging the bear as before.

Originally, the bear was quite challenging for players who earn in ☆1 dungeons, but now it’s strengthened to the point where they can’t compete. The current Margaret Kuji and her group are not opponents who can defeat it.

However, initially, bosses in dungeons were unbeatable for players of an appropriate rank. It’s the same as other dungeons. They’ll have to endure or strive for improvement.

“But why are they keeping silent? In that situation, it’s more unnatural to think that this inn hasn’t fallen into my hands.”

“In overheard conversations, they mentioned something about waiting until the event ends…”

“Hmm…?”

Until the event ends, there’s no penalty for dying even if they can’t reach their goal, so maybe they want to investigate it themselves. Anyway, there should be some movement after the event ends. If they don’t spread the suspicion about this inn and Rare, players won’t gather, and it will be difficult for her to monitor players. But announcing the suspicion from the inn or Rare’s side is not feasible. This matter will be shelved until the end of the event.

“Well, if there’s no issue, just leave it be. Lyra, let’s continue our journey— Lyra?”

“…Alright, Rare-chan. When you meet that Bambu guy next time, bring your big sister along, okay?”

“It’s fine, but I have a Golem placed over there, so I can [Summon] myself there. How do you plan to come, Lyra?”

“With Neuschloss, right? I’ll just use some teleportation service to go somewhere, then fly from there.”

“…Okay, but make sure you don’t get noticed by players or something.”

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