The Support Ate it All

Seo Ye-in’s luck sometimes exploded at the most unexpected moments, leaving me speechless, and now was exactly one of those moments.

To actually get a crystal, which might not even drop from beheader goblins or trolls, from goblins we had just encountered for the first time was truly unbelievable.

Actually, this is good.

Except for the bit about how ridiculous it was, there was nothing bad about it.

Especially since, as her partner, I could share the benefits of Seo Ye-in’s luck.

“Let’s change the route a little since it’s come to this.”

“To charge it?”

“We should.”

The original goal was to get crystals through treasure hunting, but since we unexpectedly got a lucky break, we had to postpone it a bit.

So I took Seo Ye-in and moved to the nearest sanctuary.

A windmill with a grinder. It was about three stories high.

The windmill’s blades were nothing but skeletons, and the building itself was quite worn out which indicated it had been abandoned for a long time.

I first gave Seo Ye-in some instructions.

Seo Ye-in’s magic gun disassembled and reassembled itself into a sniper rifle.

“First, try changing it to a rifle.”

I pointed to a spot on the roof of the windmill.

“Okay.”

It was a perfect spot for one person to settle in, with a clear view of the surroundings.

“I’ll lift you up there, and you can start sniping anything you see.”

“Mhmm.”

Whirr—

I created an updraft by linking Levitate Zone and Wind Force and Seo Ye-in used Feather Walk to leap up and land on the roof.

She glanced at me and then disappeared; her form flickered out of sight.

She had put on an invisible ghillie suit and hidden herself.

I turned my gaze from the roof and walked into the windmill.

The interior was just as unimpressive as the exterior.

The only notable feature was a large crystal attached to the ceiling.

Whiiiiiin—

The crystal on the ceiling began to glow brighter and it started sending a clear beam of light down towards me.

As the beam connected with the red crystal in my hand,

[Crystal: 1%]

[Crystal: 3%]

[Crystal: 4%]

The charge level began to slowly rise.

I moved towards the window while maintaining the connection and looked outside.

Let’s see how far they are.

We were inevitably advertising to the whole neighborhood.

A mill standing three stories tall.

It was already eye-catching, and now it was flashing light. This made it impossible not to draw attention.

And there was no way anyone wouldn’t realize that the light was from the crystal charging.

It hadn’t been long since we landed on a deserted island, so everyone was still in chaos and barely starting to adapt.

But already, someone had found a crystal and was charging it?

They’d want to check it out.

And they’d want to steal the crystal too.

Sure enough, two students were approaching through the forest from afar.

Not even trying to be discreet, they were just blatant about it.

I clicked my tongue inwardly.

So careless.

As if just coming here would make the crystal theirs.

And they were about to pay for their carelessness.

There was no way Seo Ye-in on the roof wouldn’t see what was so obvious to me.

Bang!

A magic bullet hit the forehead of the student leading the way.

He fell backward and twitched, then soon disappeared as if he was evaporating.

He had been deemed incapacitated and ejected from the dungeon.

“……!”

The other one was terrified. He turned around and fled.

[Crystal: 42%]

When the crystal was about halfway charged, a second team appeared.

Their fate wasn’t much different from the first.

Bang!

The difference was that the one who survived was relatively calm.

He hid behind an obstacle, observed us, and eventually left.

At least he’s not completely stupid.

One of them had been incapacitated by Seo Ye-in’s sniping shot.

Since it would be two against one if he fought now, he decided it was better to maintain the status quo rather than get greedy.

Bang! Bang!

A few more gunshots echoed.

Perhaps they became aware of the sniper because the newly arrived teams didn’t fall as easily.

Their movements were more discreet and cautious.

However, as they slowly closed the distance,

[Crystal: 100%]

Flaaash!

The charging was completed, filling the crystal with a red glow.

“It’s done. Come down.”

Bang!

Seo Ye-in fired one last warning shot before descending from the roof.

I created a headwind to sharply slow her fall and caught Seo Ye-in.

“Let’s go now.”

“Mhmm.”

With more teams approaching, this mill would soon become a battlefield.

And since we have already achieved our goal here, there was no reason to stay and get caught up in it.

I asked Seo Ye-in,

“Where’s the exit?”

“Over there.”

Seo Ye-in immediately pointed in one direction.

She had roughly identified the positions of the other teams from the roof and chosen a direction to avoid them.

After running a bit in that direction,

Crash! Crash!

Repeated sounds of collision echoed from the mill.

It seemed that several teams were engaged in a melee with the thought that someone among them had the crystal.

In reality, we had already left the area.

“Let’s not go near there for a while.”

“Mhmm.”

Our next goal was the treasure hunt we had postponed.

We were going to uncover the hidden crystal.

“Keruk.”

“Kek.”

Along the way, we encountered two more goblin groups and I let Seo Ye-in take care of them all just in case.

Ratatatatata!

The assault rifle spewed blue fire, and the goblins fell one after another.

However, even after clearing them all, nothing dropped this time.

Yeah, this is normal.

No matter how lucky you are, it’s ridiculous for goblins to drop two or three crystals at once.

Even one was already amazing.

I felt much more at ease because I had reconfirmed that this game was not yet rigged.

As Seo Ye-in and I continued to navigate the deserted island, our destination, or rather our target appeared.

A large old tree stood prominently in the middle of the forest.

Its thickness was impressive, but its height was extraordinary, making the three-story mill seem tiny in comparison.

The branches and leaves were dense and when looking up towards the top, large fruits could be seen hanging.

Among those fruits, one stood out with its particularly red color.

“Suspicious, right?”

“Suspicious.”

“I’ll lift you up again this time, so shoot them all down.”

“Okay.”

[Used ‘Amplification’.]

[The rank of ‘Wind Force’ has been increased. (C+->A+)]

Whooooosh—!

A strong updraft caused the branches and leaves to shake violently.

While maintaining Wind Force, I threw Seo Ye-in upwards and she soared to land on a branch.

She then climbed up by stepping on each branch like a ladder and ascended.

Once she got close enough to the fruits, she steadied herself on a branch and fired short bursts with her assault rifle.

Ratatatatata,

The fruits began to fall, and I used Wind Force to catch each one, making sure they didn’t break.

If they were smashed by magic bullets or hit the ground and shattered, they couldn’t be eaten, so this method was necessary.

When I cut one of the particularly red fruits in half with a knife, there was a red crystal inside instead of flesh.

“This one’s red too.”

It was only two red crystals, but it didn’t matter.

The more there were, the better. They could be used for trading or earning extra points, so the more, the merrier.

I shook the crystals at Seo Ye-in.

“Hey, Miss Seo! Come down now!”

“…….”

However, Seo Ye-in just sat there looking down at me. She didn’t show any intention of moving.

What’s up with her all of a sudden?

“What are you doing? Come down!”

“……..”

“Jump down! I’ll catch you!”

“……..”

Even so, Seo Ye-in remained silent.

Having no choice, I started climbing the old tree using Wind Force.

Kicking aside branches as I leaped up, I soon reached the top.

“Why aren’t you coming down? I said I’d catch you.”

“……..”

Seo Ye-in looked at me quietly before speaking.

“It’s high.”

“Too high?”

– Nod.

To elaborate on Seo Ye-in’s words, she meant that it was too high and she was scared to jump down.

She liked being thrown with Wind Force so much.

Still, I understood completely.

The height was no joke even from my perspective.

No matter how much she trusted me, being told to suddenly jump from this height would make anyone hesitate.

However, if we lingered here too long, we might get noticed by other students.

Having no other choice, I climbed up to the branch where Seo Ye-in was sitting and turned my back to her.

“Get on my back. Let’s go down slowly.”

“Mhmm …”

Seo Ye-in obediently climbed onto my back and wrapped her arms around my neck.

I wanted to just bungee jump down like this, but I decided to hold back because I thought it would traumatize her.

As I moved down from branch to branch,

When we reached a “not-so-scary height”, I looked over my shoulder to get her consent.

“Is it okay to jump now?”

“It’s okay.”

As soon as she agreed, I jumped down.

Even after landing, Seo Ye-in clung to my neck for a while.

“How about getting down now?”

“……”

“Are you a sloth, Kim Sloth? Get down. Quickly.”

Only then did her arms around my neck slowly loosen.

I stored a few intact tree fruits that had fallen to the ground in my space bag and neatly peeled one with a knife.

Then I cut one into apple-sized pieces and shared them with Seo Ye-in. We then took turns eating them.

It tasted like a mix of kiwi and mango.

While we were sharing the fruit, I asked her a question.

“What’s your battery percentage now?”

“…35?”

Already down to half from 70%.

As expected, the fuel efficiency isn’t great.

I held up the red crystal No. 2.

“Then let’s charge just this one and take a break. Deal?”

“Deal.”

While Seo Ye-in’s battery was draining, the sky slowly turned orange.

Since it would get dark quickly, we needed to secure a place to spend the night.

So it made sense to stop after charging the crystal No. 2.

At that moment, Seo Ye-in and I stopped at the same time and exchanged glances.

“…….?”

“Something’s coming.”

We sensed something quickly approaching from afar.

It seemed almost certain that it was targeting us.

“Go hide.”

At my command, Seo Ye-in immediately put on her invisible ghillie suit and concealed herself.

And in just a few seconds,

Swiiiiiiiishh!

A familiar, piercing sound echoed in my ears.

I quickly dodged and the arrows embedded themselves into the spot where I had just been standing.

At this point, I thought I knew who the other party was, so I greeted them cheerfully.

“Ah, it’s been a while. How have you been?”

“…….”

In response, two figures emerged from the opposite side.

One of them as I had guessed was the promising archer of the Guild Union, Cha Hyeon-joo.

She glared at me as if she wanted to kill me while grinding her teeth.

Grrrrrr