WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Satori
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Healers Are Not Tools ◈
Chapter 16: Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!!!
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“This is seriously... so freaking awesome, Hana!”
Harin wasn't just making a fuss. She looked genuinely happy, smiling brightly and even clapping her hands.
“How do you know all this? How to level up so smoothly! This is so good I almost think everyone should know about it!”
“Wow, everyone, look at this. Just like Guts said earlier, I've got exactly two quests left. But, but! One's my class quest, so of course that's still there, and the other sends me to the next town. The route's perfect!”
Hearing praise in surround sound was seriously making my face burn.
From my point of view, how should I put it? This wasn't anything special.
The original version of Lost of Fantasy had inhuman quest routes that showed absolutely no consideration for the players...
And until a certain point in the game's history, you had to get through this section whenever you leveled an alt.
“Well, you know... You get a feel for these things when you've played a bunch of online games.”
“No. You really are amazing, Hana. The quests here are all clustered together, but the order you do them in is completely random!”
“Come on, it's not that bad.”
Even if you messed up the route here, all it meant was running back and forth to town two or three times for no reason.
Harin stared at me, then suddenly pressed her elbow into the side of my chest.
“Hana, you know that former pro gamer, right? Rice! He used to be a legendary mid laner.”
“Sure. He's really into streaming these days.”
“Right. I watched all the guide videos he posted. But even a former pro gamer like him can't map out a quest route as neatly as you.”
Well, of course he couldn't.
No one living in Jeong Hana's world had ever reached max level.
I was the lunatic who'd leveled every single class. Of course I knew the route through this section.
“...Right, that's it! Reading chat just reminded me. Earlier, when we went back to town, I wondered why we weren't turning everything in at once. So that was why! Some quests end after one turn-in, but others lead into quest chains. We went back that time on purpose!”
- Looks like it? Had her turn in the gathering stuff early because it takes up inventory space.
- That route planning is fucking insane.
- Has that person played this game before or something? Guiding her like they're leveling an alt.
- Are they an employee? lol That route's way too smart.
“No, come on...”
“See? Everyone says you're amazing.”
Please, somebody stop them from praising me over this completely obvious leveling route!!!
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「Warrior, have you turned in all your quests?」
「If you've only got two left, we'll head straight to the outpost at twelve o'clock.」
[Ssangmun-dongFireShield]
「Yes, let's hurry!」
「I've already gained 1.5 levels today. At this rate, I really think I'll hit max level today!」
“Max level's not happening...”
“Huh, really? You know that, Hana?”
I shrugged as we headed toward twelve o'clock.
I couldn't exactly tell her I knew because I'd done it before.
“Harin. Imagine you're a game developer.”
“Uh... okay.”
“You worked hard making all these quests. How many red zones did you see earlier?”
Harin started to answer, then opened her map when she couldn't remember.
“There's Mana Plains here, and Halphas Hill? Swamp of Torment? So, three.”
“Right. Then you'd have made quests for all three places. Naturally, you'd want people to do them all.”
“Ah... damn. So we have to visit all of them to hit level fifty-five?”
“Well, probably something like that? If I were the developer, I'd hate to waste all that work. I'd make people visit them all.”
That was more or less how it actually worked.
Unless they mixed in some grinding or ran a few extra dungeons, players in the original version had to finish all the quests in the red zones before they could move on to the level fifty-five zone.
“Still, I'm kind of glad, Hana.”
“Why now? What's there to be glad about all of a sudden?”
“This game doesn't tell you where to level up. Without you, I think I'd have spent a lot longer getting nowhere.”
That compliment was a little easier to accept, so I gave another shrug.
“Really? If you're that glad, you could at least buy me a strawberry smoothie.”
“Wow... Are you shaking down a fresh-faced high school girl for her money?”
“Hey, weren't you just saying everyone should know about this guide? I shared it with you alone, and you won't even buy me a drink?”
“Wow!! Seriously! She's shaking me down! She's shaking me down!”
After her playful shout, Harin grinned, clicked my character, and selected “Follow.”
That was another feature I'd taught her earlier when she'd been whining about needing the bathroom.
“Uh, hang on.”
But I hadn't expected her to actually open the drink order menu.
“Why, Hana? What do you want? Should I just get you the biggest one?”
“N-no. Wait! I was joking! You don't have to buy me anything!”
There was no way I could take a high school girl's money!
I could afford my own strawberry smoothie, you know?!
* * *
「Anon donated 1,000 won」
[Minseo~ Minseo~ Aren't you just getting carried~?]
“Yep~ I'm getting carried today! And I freaking love it!”
「SeoulPantyThiefQueenMinseo donated 1,000 won」
[Seriously, why does this bitch look so happy today? lol]
“Ah~~! Of course I'm happyyy! After all that unfair crap and criticism, I'm killing monsters in ten seconds with a party when I used to need five stacks of Sunder Armor, Revenge, and thirty auto-attacks to kill one!”
Kang Minseo was in such high spirits that this could easily have been her happiest day since she'd started playing Lost of Fantasy a few days earlier.
- She's grinning from ear to ear.
- Fuck, I'd be happy too.
- Leveling in a party is this easy? lmao
- But who is that person? How'd they know you get a 10 percent XP bonus when you grind?
- An actual godsend, for real.
「MinseoEatYourFood donated 1,000 won」
[Minseo, Minseo, shouldn't you at least gift them a month's subscription?]
“Ah, seriously... Guys! I'm not that clueless! But you've seen what she's like. She's way too cool! Won't accept friend requests~ Won't answer whispers~ Won't accept guild invites~ Even if I want to give her something, there's no way to do it!”
Even as she spoke, Minseo kept looking at her character with a pleased expression.
I'm seriously leveling at lightning speed today! When Sky and Thunder teased me last time, I just thought, “Ha... I'm a tank, so of course I'm slow.” But now that I look, I'm the highest level?!
Naturally, Minseo had added the other streamers as friends. She kept opening and closing her friends list, click, click, reminding herself that she was the highest-level streamer among them.
“But I guess you can't reach level fifty-five in this zone. It kind of feels like we're wrapping up, and I only just hit fifty-three.”
It'd be such a shame if they stopped here.
With that thought, Minseo waited for Jeong Hana's instructions.
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「Warrior.」
Jeong Hana always addressed Kang Minseo as simply “Warrior.”
Though she hadn't intended it, little things like that made a good impression on the viewers, since she didn't seem to be trying to force a friendship.
If she'd acted overly familiar, enough for people to accuse her of blatantly trying to worm her way into the streamer's inner circle, Minseo would have avoided her too.
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「You've only got your class quest left now, right?」
“Yep, yep. Just my class quest~”
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「Then follow me underground.」
“Oh, what? There was an underground cave on this map... Huh? What's this? There are NPCs here.”
The area wasn't even marked on the map. Only after trotting along behind Hana did Minseo discover the NPCs with exclamation marks over their heads.
- What's this?
- Some kind of hidden quest?
- But why didn't they do these earlier?
- Guess these quests didn't fit neatly into the route lol
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「Accept and finish everyone's quests except the one from the Sage of Darkness.」
“Oh, what... Looks like I can turn them in as soon as I accept...”
Smiling happily as she accepted a quest, Minseo's eyebrows twitched.
《Hand over Bloodnium: 23/40》
“Ah, ah... Ah, ah...”
Minseo let out a pained groan and covered her face with both hands.
「Anon donated 1,000 won」
[Is this bitch actually braindead?????????]
「FreePrincessMika donated 1,000 won」
[Didn't the Paladin tell you to mine forty of those rocks??? lmao]
「IronBronzeSilverGold donated 1,000 won」
[An actual godsend shows up to spoon-feed her and she still can't swallow it lmao]
“Oh, come oooon! Guys! It's easy to forget! It wasn't listed in my quest log! I had to collect all forty without a quest!”
Jeong Hana had told her to mine the materials ahead of time for this quest, but...
Minseo had forgotten.
- Good grief lmao
- The Paladin optimized the route and told her to gather them in advance, but she went and knocked her own plate off the table.
- You dumb bitch.
- You brought this on yourself. Go mine your rocks.
“Daaamn it... I stopped gathering the herbs halfway through too...”
Minseo pictured herself going all the way back to that secluded hill at six o'clock in Mana Plains to mine rocks, then heading to twelve o'clock to gather herbs.
“Um... Paladin...”
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「You don't have the materials, do you?」
[Ssangmun-dongFireShield]
「Gasp;;;」
「No, I forgot to gather them...」
[PissBloodAndIllRipYourGutsOut]
「I thought so.」
“Huh? H-how did she know?!”
As though it were the most natural thing in the world, Hana sent her a trade request and put up the exact quantities of every material Minseo needed.
“Wow... Who even is this Paladin?”
Despite her surprise, Minseo felt she couldn't accept them for free, so she put 100 gold into the trade window.
“She's helped me so much already. I should just give her all the gold I have!”
100 gold.
The items Hana had given her would have sold for only 20 gold at the auction house, making this an incredibly profitable deal.
But Jeong Hana was the only one who knew that.
* * *
《Swamp of Torment》
“Hana, if we finish all the quests here today, we can hit level fifty-five, right?”
Even though it had been quite a long day, Harin's voice was still cheerful.
We'd gone through Mana Plains, passed through Halphas Hill, and come all the way here. I hadn't expected her to still be so full of energy.
“Probably. I think so. We both just hit level fifty-four.”
Actually, if we were a little short on levels, we could keep this group, find two more DPS players, and run a dungeon.
We weren't wearing blue gear in every slot anyway, so we could think of it as farming gear while we were at it.
“Ah... I see why the Paladin saved this place for last.”
At the sound of Minseo's voice, Harin blinked, then looked straight at me.
“Hana, why is that?”
“Well, that's because...”
“This place is a seriously brutal PvP zone. There are tons of Allied Coalition players here.”
In a way, that was what I'd been about to say.
“She's not wrong. Both the Allied Coalition and the Demon King's Army get quests in Swamp of Torment. So if things go badly, leveling can get really slow.”
“Oh... How did you know that, Hana?”
“Foreign players are good at making wikis and stuff. I read it there.”
Even as I came up with a plausible lie, something felt strangely off.
There were lots of Allied Coalition players.
That was only natural.
But this wasn't somewhere level forty-eight or forty-nine players should be.
Unlike the Demon King's Army, whose leveling routes were complete garbage, the Allied Coalition had very neat ones.
There was no reason for more than ten of them to be grouped up, hanging around outside our town.
“...Hana, what's with these people? Aren't they stream snipers or something?”
All I could do was shrug at Harin's question.
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