Alone Against the Tower - Chapter 18

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 18: Humanity

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The Hour of the Wolf had ended, and morning broke.

After the Shepherd Girl and I had a quick meal with White Roll, we immediately set off for the village.

Thanks to wiping out every wolf in the field the day before, we only encountered one or two wolves along the way.

"The wolves are strangely quiet today. Do you think something happened?"

I could've explained that it was because I'd killed them all, but when I actually tried to speak, I couldn't get the words out.

"Flanders, what do you think happened? You couldn't smell any wolves either, right?"

-Woof! Woof!

"So maybe the wolf leader is up to some kind of strange trick?"

When I didn't respond, the Shepherd Girl started chatting with her dog instead. Was I less social than a dog?

Had talking to people always been this difficult? At this rate, I might completely forget how to speak.

"Dead."

"Pardon?"

"I said it's dead."

Trying to say something, anything, I told her about Wolf King Lobo, whom I'd defeated yesterday.

"That wolf leader. I killed it yesterday."

The Shepherd Girl, who had been chattering away just fine, suddenly fell silent with her mouth hanging open and a blank look on her face.

Then she exchanged looks with her sheepdog before turning back to me with that same vacant expression.

Maybe it was because she was a shepherd, but something about the way she acted reminded me of a sheep. Especially how slow and harmless she looked.

"Really?"

I wondered if I'd said something wrong, but it looked like she was just shocked.

"Really."

The shepherd had even forgotten her formal speech while asking if it was true, so I answered in kind.

Then she started spinning in place while making some incomprehensible sound like, "Aaaah!"

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh... Flanders, you heard that too, right? Could it really be true? It has to be true, right?"

-Woof!

"I-I can't believe it either. But why would the adventurer lie to us...? It must be true, right?"

-Woof!

"W-Who are you calling stupid? Flanders, you're way too suspicious. Sometimes you need to trust people."

Flanders the sheepdog spun in circles with the girl, barking along with her.

After spinning around for quite a while, the Shepherd Girl began grilling me about the Wolf King.

How big it was, what color its fur was, how I'd defeated it, and so on.

She gave me a suspicious look, saying that no matter how strong an adventurer was, defeating it alone made no sense.

It was hard to convince her with my poor speaking skills, but I had proof that I'd defeated the Wolf King.

-Rattle!

I took out the wolf hides that had piled up in my inventory after last night's battle, along with the Wolf King's Fang, and showed them to her.

The Shepherd Girl let out a shriek, grabbed her head, and collapsed to the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I really did believe you, but Flanders kept saying it might be a lie...!"

-Woof woof woof!

"What are you doing, Flanders? Hurry up and apologize too. This is all your fault, you mean, suspicious dog!"

I hadn't been angry in the first place, but the sight of her trembling while bickering with her dog was so funny that I watched for a while.

A little later, she even hugged her dog and started saying things like, "We're going to die here."

"Pfft."

That very human side of her made me laugh just watching it.

* * *

It didn't take long to calm the Shepherd Girl down. She'd been making a fuss from the start, after all.

"Y-You're going to spare me...?"

"Why would I kill you?"

"Well, that's... that's true...?"

Apparently, she was incredibly embarrassed. Even then, she kept bickering with her dog, her face red for quite some time.

After walking for several minutes, a small village with a pastoral atmosphere came into view.

It was the Shepherd Girl's hometown.

She had said it was a small village, and the village we arrived at truly was tiny.

Compared to the village area on the first floor, it was definitely less than half the size.

The Open Community had said the second floor's village area and Labyrinth were both very small, but I hadn't expected them to be this small.

I was surprised that even such a small village had a proper inn and shops.

Once we arrived, the Shepherd Girl suddenly composed herself and gave me a deep bow.

"Since God in heaven and the Earth Spirit have guided this shepherd safely, I offer my thanks to the kind traveler who lit the way."

[Quest Completed: Shepherd Girl's Request - Wolf Pack]

"Here and now, I declare that the traveler's torch was God's guidance, and I pray that the blessings you deserve may be upon you."

The Shepherd Girl began reciting something I couldn't understand in a quiet voice. Then, blue notification windows appeared one after another before my eyes.

[You have obtained Quest Reward: 'Experience Points', 'Gold'.]

[You have obtained Objective Completion Reward: 'Earth Spirit's Blessing'.]

[The Earth Spirit watches over you.]

The final reward for the Shepherd Girl's quest, according to the Open Community, was supposed to be a belt item, but I'd received some unknown reward instead.

Thinking it might be an item, I opened my inventory, but aside from my Gold increasing a little, nothing had changed.

Could it be a skill? Excited, I opened my skill window and found a newly registered skill called [Earth Spirit's Blessing].

[Earth Spirit's Blessing Lv.1]

A lesser earth spirit remains by your side.

The skill level increases according to your Spirit Affinity, and new effects unlock at higher levels.

- Basic Passive Effect: Defense +20

- Additional Passive Effect: (Unlocks at Level 5)

- Additional Active Effect: (Unlocks at Level 10)

It only had one passive effect for now, but additional options would be added as it leveled up.

Its basic passive effect wasn't even as good as the [Goblin Bone Necklace], but the fact that it didn't take up an equipment slot was appealing.

My eyes were naturally drawn to the active effect I could gain after leveling it up, too.

Considering the skill was called a spirit's blessing, there was a good chance the active effect would be some kind of magic skill.

Getting a magic skill as a Normal Class Warrior was a huge deal.

The only problem was that I had no idea how to level up the skill, but I could solve that by asking on the Open Community.

"This is seriously amazing."

The quest had been a fucking nightmare, so the reward was generous. Just one day after entering the second floor, I'd gained three skills.

The quest reward experience must've been stingy since I didn't level up again, but this was more than enough.

I'll clear the second-floor boss right away, too.

* * *

The Shepherd Girl politely said goodbye, then hurried off, saying she needed to gather her sheep.

"Thank you so much for today! I'll definitely repay you again someday!"

[Earth Spirit's Blessing], which I'd received as a quest reward, was more than enough repayment, but I decided to remember what she said.

Watching her chatter was entertaining, and if I spotted her later, I thought I might at least say hello.

After parting with the Shepherd Girl, I headed to the village inn first. Maybe because it was such a small village, there was only one place to stay.

"Welcome. Will you be staying the night?"

Ignoring the flat, emotionless greeting typical of NPCs, completely unlike the Shepherd Girl's lively voice, I rented a room.

Once inside, I took off the equipment I'd worn all day and opened the Open Community.

I needed to gather information about the second-floor Labyrinth Area and look into [Earth Spirit's Blessing] as well.

Finding information on a specific skill wasn't easy through a simple search. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was time to write a post on the community again after so long.

[Author: Seo Jinhyeok#2661]

[Title: how do i raise Spirit Affinity]

(Photo)

I got this skill. Is there a separate way to level it up?

It had been a long time since I'd been active, but my old terminally online habits apparently hadn't gone anywhere. Writing the post didn't feel awkward at all.

As with any internet community, it usually took a while for replies to show up on question posts in the Open Community.

If your timing was bad, a flood of useless posts could bury it quickly, so I might need to repost it a few times.

-Ding.

But what do you know, maybe I got lucky because notifications started coming in quickly. I immediately reopened the community window I'd closed.

There were a huge number of comments on my post.

The problem was that none of them were the comments I wanted.

- Wow, this bastard was alive???

- Thought Jinhyeok was dead. What the hell have you been doing all this time?

- Fuck, Jinhyeok is alive...

- Is this bastard that lucky fuck from 2661?

- └ There's only one of these bastards on the 2661 server. Yeah, that's him.

- These cliques are fucking ridiculous. So who the hell is this guy?