[Room cleared]
Esther breathed a sigh of relief. Exactly fifteen seconds, huh? By habit, she raised Requiem up and slashed down, letting the blood fly out of the blade and splatter onto the ground.
Looking around, she could see Freya moving from corpse to corpse collecting her arrows. She also saw Police and Numbers quickly rushing toward her.
The men exchanged looks. After a mutual nod, Police headed for Freya, while Numbers handled Esther.
“Are you alright?”
Esther brushed Numbers’ hand off. Not because she was uncomfortable, but because if he’d just moved a little bit to the left, he’d touch her ears.
“I’m fine. B—”
Before she could say anything else, the Operator’s mechanical voice interrupted her.
[Congratulation for fulfilling Hidden Requirement - Clearing the first room.]
[Rewards:
Coins x20
Points x1
Early Access to the Bazaar]
Bazaar?
[The Bazaar is a safe place to rest and prepare for the next levels. You will be teleported to the Bazaar at the end of each level. Each participant has their own version of the Bazaar]
Before Esther could take all the information in, Numbers called out to her. “Hey! You can your friend should go to the Bazaar!”
Esther frowned. Who was he to dictate what they did? But… Esther’s time for today was up. And she couldn’t guarantee that she’d survive another attack.
It also seemed that Freya had reached her limit.
“Fine. Freya, let’s go.”
“Wait!” Numbers addressed Esther. Again. “Let’s form a party so that we can occupy the same Bazaar!”
…That makes sense.
According to what the description said, anyways.
But the problem was how Numbers knew about it. This guy was definitely suspicious. But Esther decided to let it slide for now.
“Alright. How do I do it?”
“Just let our cubes touch.”
Esther did just that to everyone.
[Valiant Policeman has joined your party]
[082 101 103 114 101 115 115 111 114 has joined your party]
[Color Maniac has joined your party]
“Stay safe. Police and I will join you guys later,” Numbers said with a smile. “Oh, by the way, you can start calling me ‘N.’ ‘Numbers’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”
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Without anyone explaining, Esther knew that N and Police were going to clear this level by themselves. It left a bitter taste in her mouth. Sure. But there was nothing she could do about it.
But you wanna act all mysterious with your name and title? Fine!
“Call me E!”
“Alright, Master Healer E.” N chuckled. “Take care. We’ll be there in a sec.”
…
Esther and Freya were teleported to a marketplace of some sort. And it may have well been a normal marketplace if it wasn’t for the fact that the vendors were frozen until interacted with.
“Freaky…” Freya shuddered.
And Esther had to agree.
[This is the Bazaar, the Safe Haven]
[Apart from staying and eating in the only inn in this place, nothing is free. I advise you to spend your Coins wisely]
“Freya, let’s split up and map out this place.” She didn’t know if the Dryad knew any cartography, but she could at least expect her to make a rough outline of what she’d see. “Meet up at the inn after we’re done… Wherever that is. This place doesn’t seem too big anyways. It’ll be fine.”
Freya nodded. Giving Esther’s invisible ears a gentle pat, she took off running.
…
Useless, useless, and useless!
Those were the stores that Esther had passed through. Nothing here helped her! But then, a certain store caught her eye.
“Balwin’s Amor… What if….”
Esther gulped and entered the store.
What greeted her was a short Dwarf. Or a normal-height Dwarf, she should say. He was drinking a mug of ale and brushing his beard. Because of course he was!
Esther slammed her hands on the counter, making the Dwarf jolt up in surprise and spill a bit of ale on the ground. Waiting for him to recompose himself, she began speaking.
“Do. You. Have. My. Amor?”
“Now now, young lady,” the Dwarf said with a stern voice. “That’s no way to speak to your elders.”
“I don’t fucking care. You’re all fake anyways. Where’s my Armor of Fear!?”
“Oho, Armor of Fear? Why didn’t you say that earlier?”
This just affirmed her suspicion that everything was fake. The Dwarf didn’t even react to her calling him fake!
Anyways, a set of familiar armor appeared on the counter. With widened eyes, Esther picked the helmet up.
“This… This is it. My armor.”
“That’ll be 1,500 coins for everything.”
Esther nearly coughed up blood. S-So expensive! Even the Tutorial dungeon couldn’t escape the allure of Capitalism! Still, paying this much for her own armor didn’t sit right with her.
But just as she had the intention to book off with the armor, she noticed her cube slowly glowing red.
When she placed the helmet down and looked away, it returned to normal.
Esther sighed. Looks like I can’t steal. “How much for the helmet only?”
“150.”
She hissed through her teeth. It was almost all of her current Coins. But… Eh… Maybe….
“Fine. I’ll pay up.”
“Thanks for your patronage!”
…
Esther decided to end her survey early since she found the inn right after exiting Balwin’s store. As soon as she entered the inn, a raven greeted her.
“Welcome to our humble inn. Would you like a meal, a bath, or a room ready for your sleeping and… carnal needs?”
Esther shuddered at the image of the raven doing anything remotely intimate with her. Shaking her mind off such thoughts, she sat down at a nearby table. “Food. Meat. Anything delicious.”
“Right away!”
The raven disappeared deeper into the inn. Not even a second later, several birds of different species flew out while holding a plate of steak in their beaks. They gently placed it on Esther’s table.
Esther sniffed the food. Doesn’t smell poisonous. She inspected the steak some more, poking it with a fork. Medium-rare. Made from a hybrid of a Wyvern and a cow. Wow….
She salivated. Since the food wasn’t poisoned, she had no reason not to dig in. Feeling the steak melting into a flurry of flavor in her mouth, Esther slightly teared up.
“Why does it… Why does it taste so much like Mom’s cooking?”