Vol 1 Chapter 60

Kapros carefully examined Un-o. Unlike his black hair in reality, his white hair in Mist suited him well, and he had a bow slung over his back. Seeing daggers sheathed on both thighs, Kapros guessed he might have a job in the adventurer or hunter class.

A bow and daggers...

Both were weapons unrelated to kendo. In fact, Kapros had once speculated that Un-o, who seemed very accustomed to intense training despite having little talent for kendo, might have learned another sport or martial art. His fearsome concentration also contributed to that impression.

And among sports that require exceptional concentration, there was, for instance, the bow now hanging on his back. It might be an excessive assumption, but Kapros felt a strong conviction somehow.

"I'm sorry if this is meddling, but... can I ask why you're doing these item trades?"

As Kapros asked, organizing his thoughts, Un-o quietly lowered his eyes.

"Because I need money."

"Money?"

"I can't tell you anything more than that, even if it's you, Master."

Un-o's tightly closed lips exuded a venomous stubbornness.

Kapros slowly searched his memories. Needing money... Suddenly, he remembered Un-o going to visit the hospital where his younger sibling was admitted.

"Don't tell me it's related to when you were going to the hospital that time..."

Midway through speaking, Kapros lost his words upon seeing Un-o's wide-eyed stare.

"So, what is it you want to say now? I'm curious about something too. How are you able to walk normally here?"

"..."

In fact, Un-o had shown a surprised look at Kapros's legs from the moment they first met. However, he didn't seem to be asking out of genuine curiosity for the answer.

In March, a month before the game's launch, Saturn had announced that they would produce special capsules alongside regular ones. It was covered in the media as a capsule applying secret technology made for people with physical disabilities, but it was buried under the game's own hype as people who bought the capsules didn't reveal themselves. Perhaps because of this, now only the price was introduced on the webpage, and most ordinary people paid little attention to the existence of special capsules.

In Kapros's opinion, Saturn's influence was clearly involved.

Whether it was a measure to protect those who bought special capsules or if there was another intention, he couldn't understand how it had quieted down so quickly otherwise. Anyway, it wasn't a bad thing for him.

Un-o's question was tantamount to saying, 'If you try to dig into parts I don't want to reveal, I can also expose your weaknesses that you don't want known.' It probably meant he disliked others breaking through his boundaries that much.

Kapros slowly nodded.

"Alright. Let's end this conversation here."

Un-o's fierce gaze softened slightly at Kapros's answer. But still, Kapros was concerned about Un-o's circumstances and ended up adding one more thing.

"Still, you should be more careful in the future. If you get caught up in the wrong situation with this, it could become dangerous even outside the game."

Un-o said nothing. Being smart, he probably understood what Kapros meant.

"I can give you what we agreed on the next time we meet at the dojo, right?"

Un-o nodded. Kapros asked one last question.

"By the way... this is just something I was personally curious about."

"Yes."

"Did you do something else before kendo?"

A bitter smile suddenly appeared on Un-o's lips upon hearing the question.

"I used to do archery."

So it was true. It was as Kapros had expected. But Un-o's bitter smile somehow bothered him.

While Kapros was pondering what more to say, Un-o turned around as if there was nothing more to discuss and spoke.

"I'd appreciate it if you could forget seeing me like this today. Please."

And he disappeared somewhere without even a farewell promising a next meeting.

"Kap. Who was that guy?"

Kran, who approached after Un-o disappeared, asked. Kapros answered while pulling his hood back on.

"My student."

"...What exactly do you do in reality?"

"I'm a college student."

"...Huh?"

Kapros felt a bit sorry for Kran, who was bewildered by the completely unrelated answer, but he didn't want to tell them about the kendo-related part.

Leaving Kran to ponder on his own, Kapros took out the brooch and checked its information. He thought he should look at it since the quest had mentioned that the brooch's power would guide the way forward.

"Check item information."

What appeared was unexpected information.

"...Unique?"

Among the items existing in Mist, sometimes special words like 'Rare' or 'Magic' were attached before the name. Users speculated that these words indicated the item's rarity or ability grade, and items with such words often sold for much higher prices than regular items.

In some cases, these words could change to different names, but such cases were even rarer. Since this was the first time he had received an item with a grade name, Kapros decided to open the map window as instructed by the guide window while examining the options boasting surprising stats.

"Map window."

Along with his muttering, a large continental map soon appeared before his eyes. The parts he had visited were shown in detail, but for the parts he hadn't been to, only the names of a few very large cities, mountain ranges, and rivers were shown. Those were the parts he had to fill in by traveling himself. And his gaze stopped on a blinking red dot in a still white empty area in the south.

The name of the large city that appeared near that area was... 'Tolang'.

'Is this it...!'

"We need to go to Tolang."

When Kapros suddenly spoke, Yu-wan and Kran looked at him with puzzled eyes. Kapros opened his mouth again, emphasizing:

"The city called Tolang in the south seems to be the destination for my next quest."

Yu-wan said he would follow Kapros as if it were natural, and Kran also said he would leave Torelit where he had been staying until now. Torelit was the greatest metropolis in the east, and conveniently, there were port magic circles installed between major cities for travel. They flew to Tolang using one of these.