Chapter 16
It was only natural that Lena’s words made me feel a little hurt.
To be honest, before I faced the slime myself, I also thought of it as just a weak, low-level monster. But in actual combat, it was a completely different story.
That sticky, acidic slime had been so vividly terrifying that I worried it might even haunt my nightmares.
Still, I didn’t want to bring that up and end up on bad terms with my roommate.
She wasn’t a bad person at all—in fact, she was a righteous one who had joined the Hero’s Order to protect the world from evil.
I want to get along with her… sigh.
Lena was actually my very first roommate.
It might be too much to hope that we’d become best friends like Sohyeon and I were, but at the very least, I hoped we wouldn’t have fights that left us red-faced.
Well, it was only the second day of being roommates. You can’t expect to be full after just one spoonful—or even two.
Thinking that way, I lined up and got my dinner tray.
“Oh, tonight’s dinner is beef steak.”
The old sages said: when you’re feeling down, head straight for meat.
So I devoured my steak like it was a battlefield.
* * *
The next morning.
I stretched after getting out of bed and solemnly set out my plan for the day.
Yesterday, the fight with the slime had been tougher than expected, so I hadn’t gotten much done. But today, I was determined to stick tightly to my schedule.
Looks like the mana I used yesterday has fully recovered.
It would’ve been nice if my status window displayed exactly how much MP I had regained, but sadly, no such function seemed to exist.
At least I had confirmed that my mana naturally recovered when I rested—that was good news.
I pulled out the dark green jumpsuit I had stored in my inventory last night and put it on again. Fresh and crisp, as if it had just come out of a clothes steamer—it lifted my mood.
“Something-or-other work uniform for Gatherers.”
The name was long and pretentious, too hard to memorize.
Anyway, I wore it because my plan today included quite a bit of gathering.
For combat, it would be better to wear combat gear, but none of the shooter equipment I had drawn was usable yet. That kind of thing was still a luxury for me.
Leaving my room, I first headed to the dining hall.
Before starting a busy day, I needed a good meal—after all, Koreans are serious about food.
It felt almost like, after being thrown into this game world, all I did was focus on eating every meal, like filming a mukbang.
As I entered the cafeteria, the smell of white fish steaming wafted through the air.
It wasn’t seasoned with soy sauce and red pepper flakes like in Korea. Instead, it had a light buttery aroma—more like a Western-style steamed fish dish.
But whatever, Korean or Western, Beth’s cooking was always delicious.
“Mmm, so good!”
I gave Chef Beth a big thumbs-up.
Maybe because it was fish I had caught myself, it tasted even better.
Just then, with a strange sound effect, a popup window appeared in front of me.
[Meal Effect: Movement Speed +5%]
Remaining Time: 11 hours 59 minutes
“…? What the heck?”
Startled, I dropped my fork with a clatter onto my tray.
As I’d mentioned before, the game did have food items.
They granted temporary buffs—that is, stat-boosting effects.
But until now, I had never seen a status effect pop up from eating a meal here. So why was it suddenly happening now?
The only difference between last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast was obvious: today’s meal had been made from ingredients I had gathered.
Could it be that only dishes made from ingredients I personally gather—or meals I cook myself—count as game items with effects?
Realizing something new, I apologized to Beth, who had come running at the sound of my fork dropping, saying my hand slipped. Then I calmly finished my meal.
When I went to return my tray, Beth called out.
“Here, Hero. I saved the tastiest part just for you and packed it into a lunchbox. You’ll be needing it for lunch today, right?”
I hadn’t even asked for it, but Beth had gone ahead and packed a lunchbox for me. Looked like I’d really earned some points with her.
In Edafocia, there wasn’t an NPC affinity system. But if there had been, last night’s red seabream gift event would’ve definitely triggered a popup like: ‘Beth’s affection +10.’
I thanked her and put the lunchbox into my inventory.
Then I headed toward my next destination: the training grounds.
Whoa, why do my legs feel so light?
My steps were buoyant, almost like I was flying.
Even walking normally, my strides were long and springy. And if I picked up the pace, my breathing stayed completely steady.
Wow—the meal effect was incredible. And it lasted a whole 12 hours from just one meal!
With this, I felt like I could sprint at full speed until sunset without breaking a sweat.
At that pace, I quickly reached the training grounds.
At the entrance, there was a sign: No entry except authorized personnel.
But the gate, which had been firmly shut, opened automatically as I approached.
Oh, this must be what Belinda meant about the ID card working like a passkey.
I stepped inside and read the notice posted on the fence.
Members of the Hero’s Order could use the grounds at any time, but instructors were only on duty from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
So, the training grounds opened two hours earlier than the Order’s office.
Looking around, I spotted a huge man standing under a big tree in the corner.
He was nearly two meters tall, with tanned skin, broad Pacific-like shoulders, and a muscular build. His face looked like he was in his 40s. That was Craig.
On the opposite side, sitting cross-legged on a rock, was a woman whose age was impossible to guess.
At a glance, she looked like she could be a teenager, but on closer inspection, she might easily be in her 30s. A strange, ageless face.
Just like in the game, the two of them were always here. It was as if that spot had honey smeared on it.
Anyway, those two were the NPC trainers you could meet here in the game. But now, there were other people training here as well.
“Yaaah! Come on, come at me!”
That was Darren, swinging an axe as big as himself at a life-sized wooden dummy.
“Damn, it broke already?”
That was Lena, dusting off her hands after smashing a stone golem to pieces.
“Lena, your hand is bleeding.”
And that was Leo, casting healing magic on her.
All of them were already hard at training early in the morning.
“Master, the golem broke again.”
“…Child, go easy, will you? How many times are you going to smash my poor golems today?”
At Lena’s words, Johanna—who had been sitting on the rock—landed gracefully on the ground as if she had floated down.
Then she waved her hand gently at the broken golem, and with a roar, it reassembled itself and stood back up.
“Alright, round two.”
Lena cast a body-strengthening spell on her arms and legs and hurled herself at the golem again.
It was quite a sight.
Darren was clearly a Warrior class—a tank using a giant axe. Leo was a Healer class, using a spellbook.
Both were player-selectable classes.
But Lena was different.
She wasn’t a mage, wasn’t a fighter—her combat style was a strange hybrid. In the game, she alone had fought that way.
I watched for a moment, then coughed awkwardly and stepped farther inside the training grounds.
That was when Craig and Johanna finally acknowledged me.
“Hm? Haven’t seen your face before.”
Craig widened his slightly yellow-brown eyes at me.
“So you’re the new recruit! What was your name again?”
“It’s ‘Ultimate Shooter Elaine,’ you fool.”
Johanna answered before I could.
Ugh. That hit me right in the pride. I really needed to change my name soon.
“Pleased to meet you. Please, just call me Elaine.”
After all, once I changed my name, that’s what they’d call me anyway.
I bowed politely to the people who would be my instructors.
In the game, Darren had called Craig “Master,” so I figured he would end up being mine too.
“I actually like ‘Ultimate Shooter Elaine.’ It’s a fun name.”
Johanna chuckled behind her hand, almost teasingly.
I hadn’t talked much with her before, since she wasn’t my trainer in the game, but hearing her actual voice now, I realized she spoke in a very peculiar tone.
In the game, NPC dialogue had voice acting for important storylines, but minor lines like this often weren’t voiced.
So this was my first time hearing her speak “for real.”
“Good name, good name.”
Craig laughed heartily and clapped me on the shoulder.
…Maybe my name wasn’t as bad as I thought? At least, Craig didn’t seem to be mocking me. He just came across as a clueless, good-natured uncle type.
“Anyway, how many days has it been since you joined? And only now do we finally see your face. What a rare sight.”
Johanna brushed her short-cropped hair aside with a languid motion and spoke in a drowsy voice.
First, she laughed at my name. Now, she was basically scolding me for showing up late.
Honestly, it felt unfair.
I had waited until I hit level 5 before coming here, because that’s when you could start learning new skills. I thought I was being efficient, following the game’s natural progression.
But from her perspective, I guess I looked like a rookie too lazy to even introduce myself before focusing on my own thing.
Still, it wasn’t that late—I’d only been here three days.
This woman was… hard to deal with.
“Uh, well, that’s…”
“Come now, Elder. This child is my disciple. Don’t be too harsh. Besides, didn’t you hear? Just yesterday, they defeated a monster that attacked people. Our Hero here is very busy with urgent matters.”
“Hmph. Shielding your disciple already, and so shamelessly, too.”
Johanna waved her hand dismissively and floated back onto the rock as if gravity didn’t apply to her.
Really, what was she?
Craig was clearly older, yet he respectfully called her “Elder” and treated her with deference.
Johanna was a very suspicious character indeed.
Wait… could she be the backstabbing NPC Sohyeon warned me about?
It seemed very possible. She definitely looked like she was hiding something.
I narrowed my eyes and fixed them on the woman sitting atop the rock.
