Whether I kept my mouth shut or not, their cheerful chatter only stopped once the dungeon’s difficulty started ramping up.
[Fior’s Cave] was a dungeon whose interior was made of glittering mineral veins.
The monsters didn’t hit that hard, but since it was our first time clearing it and we didn’t know the patterns, it was a bit tricky.
A heal landed at the last possible second right before I died. Having nearly gotten killed, I immediately sank my teeth into Straight.
[Party]kk1234: If you’re gonna die, log off.
[Party]kk1234: Don’t commit attempted murder on your tank.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Cheers to me for clutch-saving that. 🍻
[Party]kk1234: …
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: My bad lol
[Party]『rainfall』: People can make mistakes.
[Party]『rainfall』: The tank didn’t do their job properly, so you don’t need to apologize.
[Party]kk1234: ?
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: lol I’m just too nice not to apologize.
[Party]『rainfall』: Seems that way.
[Party]kk1234: …??
Those two were really in sync.
It’s not like I wanted to be on 『rainfall』’s good side. But it’s just human nature to feel like shit when someone who treats you like crap is perfectly pleasant to everyone else, right?
With those two being an eyesore the whole way, we barely managed to scrape our way through the dungeon… and finally arrived at the boss room.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Thanks to 『rainfall』, we’re making it here without any deaths lol
[Party]『rainfall』: It’s because our healer is doing a good job.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: And humble, too, damn.
[Party]kk1234: You two having fun there.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Don’t tell me you’re jea.lous?
Instead of answering Straight’s bullshit, I went straight to unlocking the boss room door.
A gigantic cavern opened up. For 『rainfall』, who seemed like the type to hate skipping story, I didn’t mash the skip button and let the cutscene play.
A [Giant Uz] shaped like a huge stone worm burst out between massive rocks and slammed its tail down. Rocks rained from the ceiling. Letting out an inhuman screech at the party, Giant Uz curled back into the pit it had emerged from.
As soon as the cutscene ended, the screen transitioned into the actual fight.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Wow, you didn’t skip for once lol
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Thanks, now I know the pattern.
[Party]kk1234: It’s obvious enough.
A monster that looks like a rocky worm in a dungeon made entirely of ore and stone—its patterns might as well have come with subtitles.
‘Giant Uz is enraged by the intruders!’
At first, Giant Uz attacked in a pretty straightforward way. With buffs up, the damage from me and 『rainfall』 melted its HP bar.
Once we shaved off a certain amount of HP, the monster switched patterns. As soon as it slammed its tail down hard, I used my skill in sync with the attack.
kk1234 [Barrier of Sanctity!]
With the skill’s distinct SFX, the attack was blocked. Aside from me, the other two had low HP and defense, so I had to be careful.
kk1234 [Charge!]
kk1234 [Chains of Judgment!]
Right after I pinned Giant Uz in place, 『rainfall』’s DPS rained down. That was when Giant Uz’s body turned bright red.
I quickly backed away from Giant Uz’s immediate vicinity.
kk1234 [Inquisitorial Trial!]
I threw out a CC skill at the same time, but since it was a boss, the stun didn’t land.
After taking a hit, Giant Uz dove underground. Soon after, red markers appeared on the ground. I immediately moved out of the marked area.
After a short delay, Giant Uz burst up from within the marked zones. It was clearly an attack that would chunk anyone who got hit.
Still, in this party, nobody was dumb enough to stand in an obvious telegraphed attack.
Once its aggro reset, Giant Uz started targeting 『rainfall』 instead of me. 『rainfall』 calmly repositioned behind me, and I used my taunt skill to pull its aggro back.
We’d never really practiced together or anything, but all three of us had enough game sense that there weren’t many mistakes.
And then…
[System] You are the first party to successfully clear [Fior’s Cave].
[System] You have obtained the title [First Clear of Fior’s Cave].
[System] You have obtained the quest item [Core of Giant Uz].
Just like that, without any weird surprises, the Giant Uz clear was done. First clear.
Judging by the difficulty, it wasn’t that hard, so if we’d taken our time, we probably would’ve lost the first clear. Good thing we rushed over.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Oh yeah.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Good work, everyone.
[Party]kk1234: Gg.
[Party]『rainfall』: Thank you for your effort.
<‘LeftSignalRightTurn’ starts dancing with wild enthusiasm.>
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Mind if I upload the video??
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: I’ll cover the names.
From Straight’s perspective, this was the first clear of Fior’s Cave, so of course he’d be itching to upload it. I was about to say no when 『rainfall』 cut in first.
[Party]『rainfall』: Sure.
…Huh?
Excuse me?
Did he just say sure?
[Party]kk1234: No.
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Thanks, thanks.
Straight completely ignored me.
Come on, why the hell was 『rainfall』 so generous to Straight?
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Thank you, Fall. ^^
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Can I add you?
[Party]『rainfall』: Go ahead.
They were basically jerking each other off at this point. 『rainfall』 was only ever stingy with me…
[Party]LeftSignalRightTurn: Take care, both of you.
Straight logged off, giggling to himself. He was probably already imagining the views and ad revenue. Powerless, I didn’t even have the energy left to complain.
Soon after, 『rainfall』 and I hopped onto his mount and headed back to Cecil.
In the meantime, having switched over to his main account, Straight immediately started running his mouth in guild chat.
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: He’s a good guy, though?
[Guild]BlueSky: Who?
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: 『rainfall』.
[Guild]kk1234: Good my ass.
[Guild]BlueSky: You just figured that out now?
[Guild]kk1234: ??
[Guild]ScamMage: Anyone who beats up K can’t be a bad person...
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: LMAO
[Guild]kk1234: All three of you, outside. Now.
[Guild]BlueSky: Please spare 『rainfall』 sir.
[Guild]kk1234: …
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: Why are you like this to innocent little meㅠ
I guess every decent person on earth has frozen to death by now.
[Guild]kk1234: Why are you suddenly all buddy-buddy with him?
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: Because I’m not a socially maladjusted shut-in like someone.
[Guild]kk1234: Wow, okay.
If we’re nominating someone for “socially maladjusted,” it’s 『rainfall』, not me.
[Guild]HealiveryService: lololol
[Guild]BlueSky: Don’t tell me..jea.lous?
[Guild]kk1234: Jealous my ass, he just only ever beats me up.
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: Personality seemed fine to me.
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: Imagine how bad you had to be for him to go that far.
[Guild]kk1234: …
Look at Straight fawning over him just because he’s a subscriber. It was so obnoxious I swapped back over to party chat.
[Party]kk1234: Straight’s talking shit about you in guild chat.
[Party]『rainfall』: Don’t stir things up.
[Party]『rainfall』: Trash.
[Party]kk1234: Trash?? Excuse me?
[Party]kk1234: Fall~
[Party]『rainfall』: What.
[Party]kk1234: Don’t be cold only to meeee.
[Party]kk1234: K is sad.
[Party]『rainfall』: I hope you die…
I mean, sure, I did beat him to death a bunch of times, but wasn’t that a little too merciless?
“What a funny bastard.”
I laughed. I might feel a little wronged, but this was all just inside a game, so it wasn’t like I was genuinely, uncontrollably pissed or anything.
It was just that his consistency was weirdly impressive… kind of entertaining… and it made me curious how far he’d take it.
While we were talking like that, we arrived at a now-familiar spot.
[Cecil Riphart] Thank you.
[Cecil Riphart] My final request is…. Please give me a moment to prepare.
Cecil said she needed to prepare… but usually, that line meant you didn’t meet the level requirement to proceed with the quest.
[System] Your level is too low.
[System] The required level to proceed with the next quest is 100.
As expected. I immediately asked 『rainfall』.
[Party]kk1234: What level are you?
[Party]『rainfall』: 94.
[Party]kk1234: Same.
We’d run almost all the dungeons together, so of course we were the same level.
[Party]kk1234: Let’s level up as fast as we can and continue.
[Party]『rainfall』: Let’s do that.
Our level wasn’t low, but it wasn’t as high as the psychos who did nothing but grind levels all day either. I immediately asked guild chat a question.
[Guild]kk1234: Recommend a dungeon for Lv.94?
[Guild]Rete: Low level lol
[Guild]shine..: I recommend [Hall of All Gods].
[Guild]kk1234: Thanks, Shine lol
No need to go trawling the general boards. Our guild of no-lifers who’d thrown their lives into this game was more accurate anyway. I switched back to party chat right away.
[Party]kk1234: Let’s go [Hall of All Gods].
[Party]『rainfall』: One of our guild members recommended that too.
[Party]kk1234: Didn’t know our Fall could get recommendations from his guild, wow.
That was the same guild whose guild master had said he’d kick 『rainfall』 without hesitation as soon as any trouble came up. But instead of that part, 『rainfall』 latched onto something else.
[Party]『rainfall』: Also, why have you been shortening my name however you want?
[Party]kk1234: Because I feel like it.
[Party]kk1234: You wanna shorten mine too? lol Try “K~”.
[Party]『rainfall』: kk1234.
[Party]kk1234: Isn’t that a pain to type every time?
[Party]『rainfall』: What do you want me to call you?
[Party]kk1234: Seojin.
[Party]『rainfall』: Seojin.
[Party]kk1234: I was kidding;;
[Party]『rainfall』: Isn’t that your real name?
[Party]kk1234: It is, but just call me K.
The idea of 『rainfall』 calling me “Seojin” made my skin crawl.
[Party]kk1234: This is bullshit. What’s your name, then?
[Party]『rainfall』: You already told me. lol
[Party]『rainfall』: What’s your last name?
[Party]kk1234: Yu Seojin.
[Party]『rainfall』: I’m Han Yesung.
“…Uh.”
Another one of these blind-date sounding conversations…
…Hadn’t I thought the same thing last time too?
I changed the contact name in my phone from “Lunatic” to “Lunatic (Han Yesung).”