After Sheko's meeting with GesStar, he decided to head back into town to buy supplies. He realized he would be too weak to continue farming without SP, and he couldn't just farm a tiny amount after talking a big game to GesStar. So, he needed to do some market research. The loot Sheko got from the shaman and three half-dragons was substantial, with the shaman dropping an ingredients sack and each of the half-dragons dropping the sword they used and a claw.

seems like the first guy I asked was honest, this stuff is alright for a beginner i guess. if i go to the third shop i asked i can sell everything for 6000 lir, going around selling optimally everything sounds boring anyway

the seller he went to had the second-cheapest prices for both SP and HP recovery potions from the sellers Sheko deemed trustworthy. He had paid close to the offers he received for the loot from other sellers, with the cheapest healing potion selling for 250 lir and recovering 100 HP. Sheko could fully heal drinking two potions, at least for now. The cheapest SP recovery potion was worth 500 lir to recover 50 SP. It was somewhat frustrating to end up wasting some SP because his max SP was too low. But on the other hand, it meant that SP potions were probably easy to come by, and they wouldn't be completely useless once he leveled up further. However, predictably, he had to pause and exit the game since someone outside the game had entered his room. "This isn't completely creepy, knowing the helmet knows when someone entered my room, right?" he said to no one in particular.

_Real world_

"Kai, Tsuno told me you had a new game, and she wanted to play as well. Can you give her some time with it?" Kai's mom asked.

"I did give her time, and she played a bunch before I got home. It's an online game anyway, so it's not like I can pause the game all the time," Kai replied hastily.

"Can you maybe play turns on it?"

"But it's not fair. I bought the game myself, and it wasn't cheap."

"What if I paid it back for you?"

"It's not that, really. I just want to have time to play myself. I know a place that still has the game for sale," Kai knew his mom wasn't convinced, so he added, "And with the game's time acceleration, Tsuno could finish homework, print it out, and have time to play."

"How much does the game cost?" Kai's mom then paused. "Wait, what do you mean by time acceleration?"

"The game cost $150 from the place I bought it, and it's a little hard to explain, but everyone I checked with and the game itself made it pretty clear that the game has some sort of time acceleration. You can try for yourself to confirm,"

Kai passed his mom the helmet, and after a bit of convincing and a warning from Kai not to choose a starting country yet, she put the helmet on. Kai barely finished reading about communication accessories before his mom took off the helmet.

"So, the game is just talking to the cat in the room? That is crazy. For $150, the graphics aren't worth it, even if they are very realistic."

"No, no. After you talk to the tutorial character, you choose a starting country, and then it's sort of a choose-your-own-adventure. Well, actually, from what the cat told me, you can choose to do pretty much whatever you want. So, maybe do stuff like go on trips?"

"Alright, but what about the time acceleration thing?"

"How much time were you talking to the cat?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"Well, I checked the clock, and it says five minutes have passed."

"I'm pretty sure more than 10 minutes passed."

"Exactly." kai tried to put energy into his reply to sell her on the game

Kai's mom considered for over 2 minutes before replying

"Alright, I'm fine with buying Tsuno the game, but buy me a copy as well."

my mom might be the least likely person to become a gamer what is she on about

"Okay, but please make sure not to play more than three hours a day."

"Alright." kai's mom replied evenly

she is weirdly understanding on this usually she is just conceded when tsuno wants some new thing. i gotta ask

"why did you change your opinion so quickly on the game after I told you about what it's about?"

"Well, after you explained the game, I realized it's the same game a teacher I work with was talking about, and she gave it really great praise, so I want to see it as well. oh and what country did you start in?"

knowing my mom there's almost 100% she will search me and Tsuno immediately so she could force us on some trips together. i could lie to her... but she'd be angrier for the lie than if i refuse to go on some trip "me and Tsuno both started in Legendria"

once Kai was finished with his mom he took the helmet and went back to the game it was still only about 4 pm dinner was at 7 so he had plenty of time to grind and if he did well he could simply rush back and forth to resupply and than return to fight

Legendria

"Oh, you're back. So, what can I do for you?" the merchant asked Sheko as he reappeared where he logged off before. "Yes, I want to buy 8 health potions and 3 SP potions," Sheko replied, handing over his loot. In return, the merchant gave him a sack containing the potions and his change.

After Sheko had sorted everything out and drank one of the health potions to heal himself, he set out to look for GesStar. Kai waited in the clearing where they had talked for ten minutes and got jumped by another pack of kobolds just as the headset warned him someone was at his door, the door was locked and after he dealt with the kobolds he forgot about it, Sheko decided to avoid grinding in the forest area for the rest of the day. Instead, he went back to the city and, after a short online check, he figured out that the Dendrogram Information Network, the in-game newsletter comprised of NPC posts and roleplaying masters, collected info about spawn areas and supplied that info in-game. While the information itself wasn't very expensive, costing 1000 lir, it still hurt Sheko's pockets. The newspaper listed a few grinding areas to try out, with a special note stating that thanks to the charitable actions of several masters in the area, the Crystal Mammoth cave had been culled of powerful monsters for the foreseeable future, leaving behind a large number of low-rank monsters and some more powerful ones, perfect for all masters and tians looking to start their adventuring careers.

Since I'm already here, I think it's fine if I opt for some power leveling, the journalist job trades its ability to fight at all for a powerful EXP boost to its entire party and passive EXP gain from the rest of the party Sheko thought as he walked back to the receptionist who had helped him navigate the DIN shop moments ago.

"Sorry, sir, can you tell me if you have any journalists I can go to the crystal cave to grind with?"

he asked the receptionist.

The receptionist straightened up a little to look at him, then responded with slight mirth in his tone, "Yes, certainly. Honestly, it's quite disheartening. I wish more masters like you asked.

We opened a party queuing system a month ago, but adoption is a bit slow.

The masters that promoted it told me that making other masters follow the idea might be tricky, but they took responsibility to head it themselves,and we got pretty good results at training our journalists with the program.

We, however, require at least 2 combat jobs to protect our journalists, even in a low-risk environment. Lucky for you, there's another master waiting to go out to the crystal cave.

Just join with them, and you can go out in 10 minutes."

"Thank you so much; you were very helpful. I'll make sure to leave a good comment about the program after we finish," Sheko said gratefully before heading to meet the other master in the waiting room. This girl had white silvery hair with surprisingly vibrant blue eyes, under the gentle light of the hanging crystals, her skin shone with milky hue, all of this, combined with her choice of clothes, a strange mix of a black coat and pants, gave an illusion of moonlit aura, like a detective from a fantastical mystery novel it seems whoever this master is had spent a considerable amount of time in the character creation, she sat in a chair in the corner of the building, absentmindedly staring at walls and furnishings. Accompanying her is a life-sized doll slightly taller than herself, donning a soldier attire so realistic one might think they're in a military encampment, that is, if not for its comically large head and smiling face made of sewn yarn, taking some seriousness away after a few good seconds the doll soldier prompted its master, who while a bit startled, finally turned to Sheko and beamed with a smile.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

This is kind of funny seeing a puppet prompting a grown woman to talk to someone. Wait, is she an adult or just a kid playing an adult avatar? Before Sheko could ask she spoke

"Hello there sir, my name is Mai a master and an alchemist, this cloth golem is my embryo: Raggedy Ann. Are you here for the grinding as well? anything you need?" She tilted her head, in contrast to how she first greeted him, her face was a bit more blank, but she quickly returned to smiling.

The puppet waved amiably at the two of them, smiling her thin smile. _How would she even look frowning? Her face is literally made to smile,_ Sheko thought, shaking himself from his distraction. "Yeah, nice to meet you. I'm... Sheko. You are an adult, right? The doll is giving me mixed messages, but I don't want to make a wrong guess. Don't tell me your age, just tell me if you are over 18," Sheko inquired. Mai turned to look at Ann, and the doll simply waved her hand to signal _don't mind it,_ then replied with a bit of hesitance, "Ah, yes, I'm over 18. Don't worry about it."

Sheko and Mai talked a little while Ann seemed to hover around them, giving support to Mai without saying much herself. Eventually, three journalists came to join the two masters. Two were young, about Sheko's age, maybe a year or two younger if he had to guess, though one of them seemed high enough to fool some people if she didn't reveal herself by being so energetic. Meanwhile, the third journalist was an older woman who bore a striking resemblance to the tall girl, though she had the build of a bouncer, not a journalist. Her chin even sported a noticeable scar, and frankly, she looked a little comically pressed into the journalist suit she was wearing. "Hoping not to offend, miss, but are you some sort of war journalist? You look like you could beat a professional boxer instead of interviewing one," Sheko asked with as sincere a tone as he could muster. The tall lady replied with a happy tone and a chuckle, "Ah, eh... no, no such job as War Journalist as I know of. But I'm formerly a full-time Monster Rencher. My name is Emilia." She paused to point at the other tall girl. "This is my daughter, Nue. Be polite, dear." Nue quickly replied, "Hi, I'm Nue, and this is my friend Till," then offered Mai a handshake. Mai seemed apprehensive for a second before shaking her hand. Nue then quickly shook Sheko's hand as well, and her mother spoke again, "Now, onto business talk. I'm helping as a third journalist for you today, but I will be on call with a Monster Rencher job crystal if danger arises. Just find cover and let me take care of it. Now, let's get going."

Mai retrieved Raggedy into her crest, and with that, the group set out to the crystal cave. The walk was uneventful, with a steady stream of adventurers traveling between the town and the cave.

The cave itself looked mostly mundane. However, as the group ventured further inside, larger and larger crystal clusters protruded from the stone walls. Once they entered the enormous main cavern, the constant noise of masters activating numerous skills and blowing chunks off the cave, along with the presence of several small monsters, worried Sheko.

"Miss Emilia, are you sure this is actually safe? I don’t worry about the monsters as much as the cave collapsing over our heads," Sheko asked, just as a cannonball the size of his head exploded in a giant chromatic cloud a hundred meters from them, rocking the entire cave section. "See what I mean?"

Emilia replied calmly, "I guess you are very new, right? Well, I think as long as we don’t have a dozen more people like the last one all attacking the same area simultaneously, we will be fine. This cave is a source of many types of crystals we use to make equipment. Normally, it houses much more powerful monsters. It might look mundane, but it's actually very well fortified. There are plans every several decades to try and make it a permanent mine, but there are too many areas we can’t clear of monsters to succeed. Many of the monsters are crystalline lifeforms, so controlled plagues or flooding them with toxic gas doesn’t work."

Emilia stopped for a moment, seemingly reminiscing about something. "I guess when you say 'we,' you mean it on a more personal note, right?" Mai interrupted.

Emilia answered happily, "Yes, indeed. I was a young woman when the last attempt was made some twenty years ago. I gained quite a reputation and great experience from that expedition. Even if we failed our main goal in the end, I still have the head of a great chimeric crystal scorpion we fought together."

Till interjected for the first time, her voice surprisingly strong. "I've seen it. It's huge. Its eyes are the size of large grapes. What happened with the other heads again?"

"Philip got the cockatrice head, and no one got the goat head. I remember that day vividly. We lost over ten men because of that chimera. My team alone lost two men."

Sheko listened from the sidelines of the conversation, not paying much attention. Mai whispered to him, "So they are just talking backstory right now, right? We should get prepared for the chimera then, since it’s clearly set up as a boss."

Sheko answered back, "Maybe, though I think it's just backstory. I read this game has really deep random history generation. You have anything against giant scorpions though?"

"Raggedy is really tough and can take any debuffs I have and transfer them to herself. She is a cloth golem, so she’s immune to a lot of debuffs," Mai replied.

Nue spoke up to catch the master's attention, "Are you done with your master's talk? Not that I will ever disrespect the wisdom you have to share in private, but we should get going. We are wasting daylight. Getting killed in the dark by some vampires isn't on my to-do list."

The team set up a formation and chose a less-trodden side cavern with a light tanzanite entrance to start their grinding. Till was a great help with her knowledge of monsters. The group avoided getting stunned by a group of Shrieker Bats, dodged an ambush by a lesser Crystal Naga that hid in a tiny crack in the ceiling, and even helped Sheko kite the one Giant Crystal Scorpion they found.

She was shouted at by Emilia for her recklessness and was commanded not to move to the frontlines unless given a direct order again. Mai seemed to want to say something but held her tongue. With Emilia's expertise and Sheko's reluctant following of her orders, they went deep into the cave. Sheko had almost maxed his matador level, now sitting at level 45, and had leveled his red cape ability to its cap at level 5 for the moment. Sadly, Mai had to depart for the day.

With Emilia's approval, Sheko went ahead to scout on his own since he too would have to disconnect soon to work on his homework. Sheko was almost killed when a Lesser Crystal Cockatrice jumped at him and nearly hit him with a crystallizing eye beam. He was adamant about keeping Odysseus's abilities a secret since he didn't know Mai very well, but he was alone at the moment. He sacrificed his spear to block the petrifying gaze and then ran back to the main cavern.

When he emerged from their cavern, he encountered a scene similar to what he experienced earlier as another group ran out of a ruby-lined cavern. Sheko talked to the other team of masters, confirming a similar situation but with a crystal drake instead. However, the team was able to defeat the drake, but it respawned two minutes later. This time, when they beat it, no loot was spawned, and the cavern hit a dead end. The drake continued to spawn until they were out of resources to keep killing it.

Sheko tried to call to some other masters in the cavern but couldn't be heard. The master he spoke to on the other team was quick to summon a robotic chair mounted with many computer screens—probably his embryo. A moment later, a floating screen appeared in front of Sheko. It said "Crystal Cave Puzzle Meeting" with a prompt to confirm or deny. When Sheko confirmed the invitation, he was linked to a voice chat with around 20 other masters. Hoping to keep his momentum, Sheko spoke up, letting the master who opened the chat speak out of courtesy.

Sheko explained his theory: based on how there are seven side caverns, each loosely corresponding to a color of the rainbow, and with five groups already confirming that there was a tougher mini-boss at the end of those caverns, the present groups agreed to meet in 51 hours Dendro time - 17 hours real time - and make a combined effort to kill all seven mini-bosses simultaneously. The master who initiated the meeting, calling himself Fogbank, would be the group coordinator for the effort.

Sheko agreed on behalf of Mai, and Emilia confirmed she'd be ready with her monster rancher job. She informed the group about Mai's embryo and their relatively low level. Consequently, Sheko and Mai were given the task to defeat the lesser crystal basilisk in the emerald cavern since Mai was well-equipped to deal with its poison.