Anyone who had seen Party Godly Food battling Urum in the orc army camp would think they’d been working together for many years. Once socially awkward, Zen thought they were now brilliant communicators. If anything, he felt like the alien. They were speaking the same language, but Zen could not understand a single thing as everyone spoke over each other. Yet, their efficiency as they eliminated monsters, filled in unexpected gaps and swapped positions during battle proved how effective this strange communication method was.
“Two loose!” Sasha yelled over the call as she dumped another fire spell over a tent further from the boss’ tent.“Cover!” Damian countered immediately after hearing how Sasha could not keep all the orc warriors at bay. Switching his focus from providing the main fighters with additional buff effects and binding the boss, the cyborg cast two missile spells targeted at the loose targets.Zen watched how Urum turneAs Oritha, Sasha, and Damian joined them back at the final boss dungeon for the reward reveal, Zen wondered what it would drop. Unlike the special stage, the rewards should not be as good as the orc token.“It became easier than the first time we cleared it,” Sasha grinned at Oritha. “Do you think we’ve become stronger?”Shrugging, the giantess stretched and eyed Damian strangely. Unlike them, who had a head start with the dungeon, Damian only became acquainted with the game recently. How was he matching their pace? She expected him to miss a few when he was covering the west. However, the engineer had completely gotten used to becoming a magician. His ability to adapt spells to the situation made him a more proficient mage than Sasha or Akiko.“Is the boss not dead yet?” Oritha finally asked after a while. It had been a while since the boss was defeated. However, the portal to the ninth stage was still not available.
“Do you remember how you cleared this stage?” Zen asked Oritha after walking for what felt like an hour. The sun was moving very quickly, and evening was approaching.Grimacing, Oritha admitted how she cleared this stage with Sasha using brute force.“The Seer and Death Princess already knew where the boss was. We simply followed their directions and defeated a huge wolf that stood on two legs. It was too time-consuming to explore this stage, so none of us know what the main quest is like.”Ah, of course, they brute-forced this stage. Why would they follow the main quest? Zen should have known better than to ask. However, he was curious how the forerunners of this stage knew what to do. Akiko and Liu Feng should be the first people to clear this stage. Did they have more information?“I see something,” Damian squinted and zoomed in on the structure in the distance. “Is that a village?”It was too far for Zen or
Throughout the short night, the three pig brothers did not sleep. If anything, they talked with the travellers and provided them with plenty of useful information about this stage.According to Porky, the three brothers initially left to find employment in the big city. However, they were met with a lot of discrimination. Many employers had the stigma that pigs were lazy creatures and did not give them any chance. Unemployed and low on their savings, the three builder brothers decided it was too expensive to continue paying rent in the city. Hence, they used the last of their money to move into the countryside, intending to prove they had the skills to pay the bills. They bought materials for houses and started building them. However, it was a difficult process when a wolf kept terrorising them every month on the full moon.“We didn’t want our mother to worry,” Porky admitted. “After building the houses, we wanted to rent them out to others. However
Relaying what they learned from the three builder brothers, Zen informed them they would head into town first, where the missing sheep would most likely be.“I’ll look for the red-hooded girl and hunter in the forest,” he informed. “You should proceed to the town without me. Someone else should also find the Shady Merchant in case there are more hints.”Akiko quickly volunteered to return to the Shady Merchant. Sasha was more than happy to reunite with Zen’s party at the small village.In no time at all, the group of four reunited, and Zen waved to Sasha when he spotted her in the sky.“That was fast,” he commented. Those leathery dragon wings looked so cool!Sasha grinned. “I took the shortcut,” she shrugged. Unlike Oritha and her friends, she did not need to follow the winding path on the hills.So far, Liu Feng had no luck locating any forest dwellers. Akiko was still only halfwa
The marketplace was small. There were only five stalls in the area, and already, the shopkeepers were packing up. Splitting up with Oritha, Zen talked to the butcher to see if he had seen any lambs today.“Mary lost her kids? That’s unusual,” the butcher frowned. “It is usually Little Bo Peep who would lose them. Unlike Bo Peep’s well-trained lambs, who knew how to look for their forgetful owner, Mary’s lambs are considered pampered. They usually follow her everywhere she goes. How would they go missing?”Hearing more of the back story made Zen think this wasn’t a simple case of lost lambs. Unlike Bo Peep, Mary’s lambs seemed dependent on her. Something else must have happened. Unfortunately, that was all the butcher NPC knew. Zen thanked him and moved on to the next NPC, a cheesemonger.“Do you know what happened to Mary’s lambs?” he asked.The surly cheesemonger dressed in a white apron wit
“You found them!” Mary gushed as Oritha let Snowball down at last.Unlike earlier, the white lamb was very docile in front of its owner. Zen could hardly believe this was the violent kid from earlier. Sasha and Damian were already making themselves comfortable in Mary’s home, playing with the other lambs in her front yard.Nuzzling into Mary’s palms, Snowball gave Zen a stinky side glance that quickly disappeared as soon as Mary told them dinner was ready. Trotting inside with a waggling tail, Snowball took the lead, and the other lambs followed it inside. Zen and Oritha followed them just as the sun disappeared in the distance.Inside, Mary’s cottage was as cosy as her personality. The steaming hot tray of food was set on the table, and Zen instantly recognised it by its smell.“Is that shepherd’s pie?” he asked with drool almost trickling down the side of his mouth. The smell alone was already enough to convince Z
Ping!Checking the system notification after he had taken his first bite of the delicious lasagne shepherd’s pie, Zen noticed he had successfully learned Mary’s recipe. However, it was a unique item.===Unique Recipe: Mary’s Shepherd’s PieDescription: Warms the body, heart and soul from within. Full of Mary’s affection.*Special effects:Cold immunity for 6 hoursMental attack resistance for 2 hoursNostalgia effect (decreases fighting will by 50%)===Cold immunity for six hours? Even if it were measured in the in-game time, this was huge! The gamer remained motionless as he read on. The other effect was also decent against mental debuffs. However, the player who consumed this item must deal with a critical drawback. Zen was not someone keen on fighting enemies head-on. That 50% decrease in fighting will barely affected him. However, for the combatants, it could be a huge drawback. Logically spe
The plan was simple. The one who boys would distract the black sheep owner when he went to the market for his morning grocery trip while the girls would sneak into his property to shear his sheep. Although they had no idea why the Shady Merchant wouldn’t obtain other types of wool, it was not unusual for the odd man to seek rarities that were difficult to procure.“If he refuses to comply, can I have permission to render him unconscious?” Damian asked, raising a very valid point. Shearing sheep might take some time, and there were only limited conversation cards they could use with a disgruntled and paranoid old shepherd.Although Zen was against the idea of harming the NPC, it was likely the most effective. However, most NPCs in the game were immune to attacks from players.“How do you intend to knock him out?” he asked.Sasha quickly offered some tips on how to knock out an old man immediately with a good neck slice.“Yo