Chapter 148 "Is That So?"

"Hi, there."

She did help me get rid of the dirt on my clothes.

After I got up, I got nearer to them all, with the priestess on my side. I slightly bowed my head in apology. I was late.

The leader spoke and said it wasn't a problem. Only the damage dealer complained. Well, since he complained, I decided to apologize again, bowing my head even lower. I was at fault.

Soon, the leader complained—no, scolded the damage dealer for always complaining so much. A knowing grin climbed up my face, and the priestess whacked the back of my head, sighing. All the Party's animosity was then directed at the damage dealer; I was happy.

Anyway. They weren't that talkative, today. Weird? Do I sense some kind of nervousness floating around in the air?

The leader continued, "Well, whatever. It's fine, little man. You aren't that late. However, yup, do try and not be late next time about. All right? You're part of the team, you don't have to apologize that bad. We waited for you 'cause you're a good asset."

He spoke well and briefly. Since I was good enough, it's not like they only were doing me a favor by taking me out with them adventuring.

Indeed, the damage dealer came to me and held out that backpack from yesterday. "We're in a hurry, dude," he let me know again. "Take this. Might not help you much with the looting and stuff, today. Counting on you. You all right."

I took the backpack and slid it on my shoulders. I nodded at him and that was it, I said nothing.

My eyes then met with the Party's tank. I sensed… not fear, but uneasiness, a strong kind of uneasiness in his eyes as his eyes saw mine. Slightly bowing his head to me–he always did that to the folks–I greeted him back.

He spoke right after that. "B…but…"

"–Yeah?"

"Sh…should we be taking… Aoi with us… today, though…?"

"Oh…? Well," Leader gently pressed the giant slug's shoulder with his hand. "Aoi's strong, you know!"

And what was that about, now? Of course I wanted to come. Why should such an idea even cross anyone's mind. Should I not come? Humph.

But the mindful tank didn't intend to say anything mean. Of course, this was that soft, a little chubby, very kind, always wearing his heart on his sleeve, and calm tank-warrior.

Yes. The priestess' hand went running through my hair. Patting my head to her must have been some kind of ritual to be realized each time she wanted to address me with something more or less grave.

"Aoi, today, in the forest, we're going even deeper. Might be slightly dangerous. More dangerous than usual. Y'know. We figured you'd still want to come. Of course you would want to–"

Voicing that I still wanted to come, I also asked her why they were so nervous, naively.

"Fu-fu…" her laugh seemed a bit inconsistent, but she smiled confidently, "you got me here, mm-hm. …Nervous, right." Her answer was too wordy and complicated, so I didn't listen to it. "...That's the reason."

"Okay."

The others turned and spoke on their own. Meanwhile, the priestess continued, "We figured the deeper parts of the forest weren't so inaccessible to us anymore, so… yeah, we'll try ourselves out! There are those packs of goblins … living in some sort of barbaric … communities (if you can even call them that) deep within our usual training grounds. And well…"

While the others spoke on their own, she explained to me.

Basically, there was some village far off in the forest. The human female seemed to refuse to call it that, a village, but that was what it was. Anyway, going from there, naturally, the deeper you go into the woods, the more numerous the monsters would be.

I knew that, already. Would they hence get their hands on more loot since they'd find more of these monsters?

Yes, but not quite. When Clumsy explained some more explaining, it made sense that the deeper you got, the stronger the monsters also would get. That made sense. She seemed to be proud of her explanation.

Her eyes were only attached to the ground when she related to me all this. And when she finished, she seemed to gradually be willing to eye-contact me again.

All of this was pretty. Real, real pretty. But no.

As she peered at my face, though, the naive and wishful smile she wore faded away pretty quickly.

I did not smile at her. Quite the opposite. I looked at her with scorn and contempt. I couldn't help myself from scowling.

As she discovered my grave, harsh, and drastic expression, she said nothing; so I spoke instead, "…You figured that? …Is that so."

Really, these words were all I found to say. The "young boy" I was in the girl's eyes instantly became older than her. The fact that I grew half a foot in less than a day helped me be viewed as someone to be listened to. I clearly was scolding her.

And that human female I was telling off must have understood where I was coming from.

"I…"

And that was the end of her speech. Well, she said nothing.

We were late, so we hurried along already.

The Party departed from the safe city to the risky woods.

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❮ Party – The experience will be shared among every member of the group. The experience gained may be influenced by a given member's participation. ❯

In passing, other kinds of information were to be found in me. I mean, actually found within the System. Or rather going alongside it. Information I already knew about, somehow.

I had access to the Party from what the System called the 'Menu Tab.' And going from this little data, I could draw additional data. All of which was about the team.

My people's levels, mostly. Both the positive and negative effects they had at the moment, too. (I only could see some 'Passive Healing – Positive Effect' occasionally from time to time–most likely coming from the kind priestess–and concluded negative effects also would be shown here.)

As well as this, I could see their classes. Hm. And that would be about it, mainly.

What I could also see were my quests–from the Skill Interface, seemingly. There were many quests, surprisingly. Many, many quests, yup.

Takes me back, man. I saw some sort of window–a tab within the tab, just like with most of every other feature of my Parasite Skill System–that indicated "Completed Quests."

I interacted with it. Clicking that downward arrow just next to 'Completed Quests'; rows with the completed quests slid down.

Yup, I thought. For real. Takes me back.

I mean, it hadn't even been so long, but still. The quest I'd liked better so far was "Character's Creation – Completed (reward(s) have been obtained)."

And then there was–"Rescue the Elven Princess! – Completed (no rewards issued)"—that I had accomplished, too.

Well, anyway. This happened to be that. And that was it. Glancing through that complicated and 'ancient' technology Old Sipping taught me must've been from the distant past… I saw a bunch of things.

Not so much worth mentioning, though.

Or maybe not. Another detail was that, from this tab right there, I could "check out" my rewards. It seemed the completed quest "What lies behind the story…?" offered me some rewards after it was done.

❮ Check out your reward(s)? Y/N ❯

Ta-dah~

❮ The Player has reached level 42! ❯

That reward–increasing my level by one–going along yet another reward–this one bringing me about '+5 additional Stat Points'; I grew up again. I added the points into Strength again. So I grew up. Not by half a foot, however. The difference was little. Maybe one or two centimeters. That's all.

With each level I took, one additional stat points would be added to each of my 'Status Traits.'

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Going steadily as we were; we arrived at the usual hunting grounds.

❮ 'Learning the ropes! - 2' – Wander around in the forest and hunt the following monsters: 0/10 Goblins; 20/20 Angry wolves; 5/15 Poison-bite spiders; 3/5 Yellow slimes. ❯