Vol. 9 - Ch. 443 - Let’s Welcome ‹Helper›!

“Muscles! Muscles!”Wearing a sash inscribed with ‘Work Hard on Muscles’ in needlessly bold and cursive strokes—along with ‘and study too’ next to them, a squadron of machos crossed the road in bunny-hopping style.

“Crude, just looking at them is like being directly exposed to the sultry summer sun.”

I took my gaze off the walking global-warming inducer and made my way to the guild room.

Ten days had passed since the curtain rose on summer vacation. The time passed just according to the schedule we had created. We saw off the members due for home visit leaving while effectively gathering the materials and leveling up in the dungeons.

A full-day dungeon dive was truly the elixir for my soul. Through my assistance, the average level of current members had increased to a new height, and they even advanced to new dungeons. Noel, Lacritta and the harmonic trio in fact had already begun their Int-low exploration. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NøvᴇlFirᴇ(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Rina, Mert, Misato and Aegis-senpai on the other hand had already cheesed through the Int-low along with my support, and were setting their foot in the Int-mid. This event had given a considerable boost to Aegis-senpai as well, considering that was what bugging her so much.

And I? I was mainly the wall that took down attacks for them—a tank. I don’t wanna come as a braggart but I would say my skills as a tank had considerably leveled up. Fufu, I might even take the role of the majority of tanks at this rate!

Honestly, I have had my fair share of my troubles as a tank until now, and even the supernova skill of Brave, “Charisma”, couldn’t be used till its full potential because of my skill. Of course, no way could I allow such inefficiency to mar my reputation and after all the training, I could finally use it continuously. Man, it sure feels incredible when you see yourself, and your skill, getting better and better. You know what, I think it’s about time I raise ‘Charisma’ to LV5. It was currently resting at LV4, but LV5 was its watershed moment that brought out its performance to a new height. Ah, well. I didn’t upgrade it until now due to my lack of skills. But I have finally conquered that shortcoming!

Rest of the members like Lulu, Celia, Rika, Karua, and Hannah were doing a ‹Advanced Job Ascension Ticket› and Material farming round in the Int-low. Hannah could hold her ground as healer in the Int-low. .And you know what? Not a single ‹Advanced Job Ascension Ticket› was dropped even after all that crazy grinding ! It was zero!? Could you believe it, zero? ...…Where did we go wrong?

Sadly, I was the only one sharing this frustration apparently, as I could tell the rest of the girls were fine with the grind as the equipment dropped could be sold for a hefty amount. This…I know, that must definitely be the work of that damned ‘Yokay - Just one more piece’ at work!

Kuh, I have not lost. I am not going to lose! Just you wait, you cursed Yokai, I will get Nico to LV40 and bash you so hard to never appear again!

I was biding my time till the member out for a long home visit came back and then I would ransack the whole dungeon to get ‹Advanced Job Ascension Ticket›. Speaking of, I also have to gather permission to use ‹Dragon’s Statue›. The ban on it is still ongoing. But upgrading the job to an advanced version should be alright I guess. Alright, I will just get permission when we are done.

Cut to chase, the days were quite fulfilling to dive into the dungeon all day long—except some unfortunate moment—and now, today, the ‹Helper› that I had been so waiting for would finally be coming to our guild.

“I hope I haven’t kept you for long, Zephyr-sama. This is the ‹Helper› that mains in handling items.”

“A-A pleasure to meet you, Brave..…cough, Zephyr-san. I’m Marianne, affiliated to ‹Commerce Department Class 1-1› of ‹Dungeon Business Major›. My job is ‹Merchant› and I can’t express my gratitude enough to have the chance to join the esteemed rank of ‹Eden›. I will make sure to handle everything! With the entirety of my soul! I will make sure this me shall not slow down ‹Eden›! I will squeeze every ounce of my strength to get it trough!”

“W-Woah, that’s quite an explosive momentum you have.”

“It’s my pleasure to receive your kind words!”

The ‹Helper› that Celestine brought in was a female student, aflame with enthusiasm like a blazing inferno. She had glittering blue eyes, whose shine couldn’t be concealed even with the glasses she was wearing. Her hair shared the same shade as her eyes, arranged in an wavy style as they softly draped over her back, and stretched downward.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but, although she gave a classical class-president vibe brimming with the intent to complete all shall there be the task, she was also radiating a-kind-of die-hard? cheering member vibe. Truly a mystical girl.

She was quite tall, much like Celia. No, not just her height, her constitution and style was quite similar to her. She was overall dressed in a neat order. The apron-style blue embroidered dress over the academy uniform she was wearing honestly made her look like a poster-girl of some fantasy style restaurant rather than a merchant.

She would be helping out in accounting and handling items mainly as a ‹Helper› from today onwards. We originally had planned to recruit at least three ‹Helper› but given the timing, we couldn’t find a second prospective candidate beside her.

Well, to quote Celestine, she had managed to reach the top after the rigorous inspection. Then again, she also had come to join us in this season of laid-backness, when she could have taken it easy for the summer vacation. I was truly grateful to have her.

“Let me introduce myself—though I guess you already know. I’m Zephyr, the guildmaster of guild ‹Eden›. You don’t know how much of a big deal to have you, Marianne-san. I will leave the management in your capable hands.”

“L-Likewise! A-and, please call me Maria. It would be great if you can remove the honorifics as well! I would be able to bring out 1000% of my motivation then!”

“What, that’s not even the limit yet!? Err, alright, Maria. Let’s work hard together?”

“A-Ahh the stars! ——I will put in every fiber of my being!!”

Maria reeled back for some reason when I called out to her as requested before pushing up her glasses and replied in a much louder voice. I think I just saw the soft sparkle behind her glasses transforming into a glaring twinkle. Huh, was that the turbo mode activation she just mentioned. Maybe?

Since we were already in dire need, Maria swiftly took over the ropes of command from Celestine regarding the work. Our pace was already alarming even when there was Celestine along with Sierra and Shizu to help out, but having been upping our game in this summer vacation—which naturally brought in another heap of materials and all, there truly was no breather for Celestine. Even more so with the absence of Sierra and Shizu. Honestly, it was getting painful to watch him any longer. So I am really glad we got another helping hand.

That said, It seems like we could just forget about having other two ‹Helper›. We, for sure, were getting the applications but apparently, there was none yet who passed Celestine’s rigorous inspection and according to him, this scene would likely continue to play out until the beginning of next semester.

“Some temporary part-timer might work, indeed, but...…I do want to recruit only the upright, honest and serious talent. Though it’s just a pipe dream for now it seems.”

Celestine murmured out his complaint. I think this was the first time I had actually heard him grumbling. Indeed, the time was just not on our side.

Well, I do appreciate that at least we have Maria joining us, who looked pepped enough to run a marathon and still be full of vigor.

Oh boy, and she truly was a bomb of ebullience. She read through the easy-to-understand-manual Celestine had put together in a heartbeat, seemingly even memorized to her heart, and started handling the task with great momentum from day 1.

I could just utter ‘amazing’ at the sight. I mean, she was a Merchant, not a scholar who had memorisation skill, which means it was purely her ability.

‹Merchant› typically have skills with correctio force behind when trading. So something that they sell would have the market value up, while the thing they could buy would be relatively cheaper. It truly used to give an amazing bargain when buying in bulk in the game. Specially items like MP potion and so on. Needless to say, it also received a huge price rise when selling items, so it was quite a trending job among players who didn’t have enough time for the grinding.

In my case, I never saw them more than accountant-like. But this instance had indeed refreshed my outlook about them—there’s more to player skill than just combat ones. I mean, the biggest living example was my side, Celestine. He was truly an all-rounder despite having ‹Butler›.

Hmm-hmm, the world is truly endless with countless things to learn huh. From next time, I need to look at candidate for who they’re than just focusing on their jobs. Well, not that I was a master of psychology or something, so it still on the shoulder of Celestine to see through. A person fitted for the job.

Anyway, my rambling stretched on, but to stuff everything in one short quote, it would have to be—

“I am truly glad to have another great addition to our guild.”