Volume 4 Chapter 9 - The old man goes into the jungle (1/2)

Having bought our dolls, we returned to our inn.

As expected of the inn recommended by the guild, their service was solid.

Since this inn was going to serve as our main base of operations, it’s a great location for us to raise our levels before the succession ceremony and with the quality of the inn, we’ll be able to rest comfortably for the rest of our stay.

After organizing our luggage, I turned towards the dolls in my possession.

In the game, this was a useful item for surviving unfortunate situations. I had bought this with hopes that its ability was still in effect. However at the same time, it is also highly unlikely that this is the case.

The doll’s actual ability was to prevent any events that were deemed as *unfavourable* aka misfortune flags, breaking itself in the progress. The effects of such events included an old trauma of mine, a reduction in the victim’s status due to “old injuries”, randomly destroying an item in your possession due to “wear and tear” or reducing the amount of currency you had by half due to “counterfeit currencies”.

I often felt miserable playing this game in the past. Previously while I was deep inside the dungeon, out of all the items in my possession the one item that was broken was my magic bag. I ended up leaving most of them in the dungeon when I escaped above ground. Just that plight alone dealt enough damage to me to cause a trauma.

Since the game was now reality, the concept of having a bad flag being raised with an event didn’t exist. If it was a game, the game would merely send a system message stating that the event has occurred. In reality however, a process was required.

Using our party as an example, my old scar of lowering the status could easily be prevented by performing proper body maintenance. Having damage inflicted onto our belongings could also be prevented through proper equipment checks while you could only lose money through actual cases of fraud.

If anything, I’m looking forward to whatever ability that will replace the effect of negating a misfortune flag.

There were also a small fraction of higher monsters capable of bestowing curses onto players. Even players were capable of inflicting cursess onto other players. It isn’t an ability registered as a skill, but rather a bloodline trait. These families also offered their abilities as a service, inflicting curses given the right amount.

Just as there are ways to inflict curses, there are also items capable of preventing curses.

Thus, even if they weren’t easy to come by they were important items to have on hand. Especially for someone as prominent as Selene.

Inflicting harm without getting your hands dirty is a dream ability for people in the political world which made the necessary countermeasures necessary.

[Yuuya is so cute. Luna will be hugging Yuuya to sleep tonight.] (Luna)

Startled by the voice behind me, I turned around to see Luna lying in bed while embracing my doll tightly. I was relieved as the one Luna will be hugging to bed tonight isn’t me but my doll.

Sleeping right next to Luna was Til.

[Luna, you must really like that doll. You’ve been playing with the doll the entire time.] (Til)

[Uhn. It’s my favourite. Wasn’t Til also been grinning while caressing the doll earlier.] (Luna)

[It’s not like I was thinking of anything weird. Don’t go around saying weird things in front of Yuuya-niisan.] (Til)

[Why are you getting embarrassed? Luna wasn’t saying anything weird.] (Luna)

Unlike me, Luna and Til seemed to genuinely like the dolls as I began to blush watching them pamper my doll-look alike. I understood how they felt though since I thought that their dolls were cute too but since it’ll paint an unsightly picture I decided not to play around with the dolls in self-restraint.

[Kyu kyu!] (Erik)

Erik flew towards the two children with a loud cry as it began kicking the doll in Luna’s embrace.

[Erik, bad boy!] (Luna)

[kyu..] (Erik)

Erik looked despondent as Luna raised her voice towards Erik with genuine anger.

The unexpected sight of Erik making Luna genuinely angry was amusing as I let out a laugh.

[You got pretty angry at that. Erik must have been jealous.] (Yuuya)

[Jealous?] (Luna)

[You and Til have been all over your dolls that he must have felt threatened by them.] (Yuuya)

Thinking back to awhile ago back when Til just joined the group, Luna had felt a similar sense of jealous thinking that I was going to be taken away, resulting in her treating Til with more hostility than necessary. Erik was going through something similar to Luna in that time.

[I understand. Erik, you kicked Luna’s precious item and you are a bad boy. But Luna understands so Luna isn’t angry anymore.] (Luna)

[Kyu!] (Erik)

Luna hugged Erik as she began stroking his head causing Erik to let out a cry. The scene of the young girl playing with a faerie dragon was a therapeutic experience as I thought to myself, ‘I want it to stay like this’. However I couldn’t say that out loud as I had to prepare for tomorrow.

[Now then, let’s begin discussing about our exploration tomorrow. It’ll be our first time entering this city’s dungeon. The environment of the dungeons here are different from Flaregard’s. There are several key pointers to remember.] (Yuuya)

Everyone began to gather as I started my briefing. The dungeons in Grannel were intermediate dungeons. Compared to the Temple of the Primal Flame, the dungeons here were easier however underestimating the dungeon was dangerous. Hence the reason they are called dungeons.

Thinking about our levels alone, there shouldn’t be a reason for us to be wary of intermediate dungeons. Hence this time, I’ll be minimizing my advice to observe the girls’ abilities to respond to unexpected situations. The main objective is to gain experience mapping out uncharted territory without any information about Grannel’s dungeons.

Note: I am interpreting curses and misfortune flags as two separate things as they have different kanji in the raws although their abilities might be similar. Their effects might also be preventable by the same items at least based on my understanding.

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The next morning, we arrived at the dungeon entrance.

Since it was right after the dungeon’s reset, there were a lot of adventurers entering the dungeon. The glint in everyone’s eyes changed as they entered the dungeon.

At this rate, we’ll be left behind.

[Yuuya, it’s green everywhere!] (Luna)

[This isn’t what I expected. The wind feels stuffy and the ground feels muddy. I don’t like this place.] (Til)

[It’s much more of a jungle than a forest.] (Phil)

[I’m looking forward to the monsters that will appear in this dungeon.] (Selene)

Everyone began saying their first impression and as Phil stated, Grannel’s dungeons weren’t forests but a jungle instead. The greenery surrounding the town looks similar to Greenwood, however the rainforests here were filled with countless vines and undergrowth. The atmosphere here became even hotter as if it was agreeing with Til’s sentiments.

[Everyone, have you properly prepared your equipment?] (Yuuya)

[Perfectly!] (Luna)