1st Place In The Ranking Is A Villager

Chapter 95

1st place in the ranking is the villager

– Volume 4 Episode 21

21. Pure White Princess (2)

A dark space where only candles burning straight without shaking on the table illuminate the surroundings.

There were 6 chairs there, but only 5 people were seated.

As before, Ains arrived late and the chair was not empty.

He was sitting in his chair right now.

The empty chair was Zwei and Natalie’s chair.

The chair will remain empty until a new owner is hired.

“It’s been quite some time now. Everyone already knows that Zwei did something useless before, and that I dealt with it.”

Zwei, or Natalie, disobeyed Ains’ instructions and acted alone, eventually being detained in Izbaront’s dungeon.

Ainz, who was the first among the Magyo cadres to learn that Natalie had been captured, convened a cadre meeting without hesitation and informed the other cadres that she would deal with Natalie.

Other executives did not object to his decision.

“Her Zwei’s work could have been deterred in advance of her if we had known the real her from the start.”

Main felt that in order to control the other executives in Natalie’s work, she needed to know their identities.

“I think we need to know each other’s identities to keep us safe and to solidify our unity,” she said.

If we keep each other’s identities a secret to prevent information leaks, no one knows when the same thing will happen to Natalie again.

So it was a decision I made.

It was possible to forcibly identify the person using force, but then there would be a problem in bonding.

Ain’s thought that the bond would weaken and that his will and loyalty to him would also weaken.

“……”

“……”

The executives were worried about Ains’ decision.

He was worried about whether he should reveal his identity according to his words.

“It is natural to worry.”

Reading the hesitation of the executives, Ains first took off his long cone hat with a black cloth and placed it on the table.

The executives were surprised by Ains’ actions.

It was surprising that he revealed his identity first, but what was more surprising than that was his identity.

“No one will see my face for the first time.”

Because he had a face that few people knew.

Some of the executives had actually seen him from a distance before.

“Still, let me introduce myself formally. I…”

Starting with Ains, everyone revealed their identities to each other.

It was the woman with the smallest build who finally revealed her identity.

“It’s called Poppy…”

* * *

[You have cleared the quest ‘Pure White Princess, Dark Princess’.][Experience increases.][Experience increases.]

⋮

[Level has risen.]

⋮

[Experience increases.][Level has risen.]

The only reward hidden by the question mark was experience.It was only experience, but it was a lot more than I thought, so the level went up by two again in less than a day after the level was raised.

With this, a total of 11 levels rose during the day, and the ranking also changed to 16th.

There really isn’t much left to reach the goal.

“Ah, Abama, why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

“Heh heh, heck, steria…!”

“Abama Mama, protect your body!”

Stelia hugged her and patted Jeffrey Noh’s sobbing back with her hands.

Steria didn’t know why Jeffrino was suddenly doing this.

“You can open your eyes now.”

When Steria opened her eyes at Hoya’s words, she could feel that something had changed in her.

His vision, which was blurry and unable to read people’s faces, was clearly restored.

Then her Evan pulled out her mirror and held it towards her so that her steria could see her own face.

Only then did Steria understand why Jeffrino was acting like this.

Her face, which had been stained black, had returned to pure white.

Stelia took off her glove, carefully stroking Geoffrey Noh with her hand.

Her own hands, which had maintained her black appearance for 10 years, had turned white and fine.

“Ah…….”

A thin stream of water flowed from Steria’s eyes, who understood her situation.

Stelia hugged Jeffrey Noh and she cried quietly for a long time before she smiled with her still wet eyes and she thanked Hoya for her thanks.

“I really, really appreciate it.”

Thanks to his presence, and Evan to bring him, she was able to cure her illness.

For 10 years she had a disease that had made herself and her surroundings painful and sad.

A system message appeared again for Hoya.

[Steria is infinitely grateful to you.][Steria’s favorability has increased significantly.][Steria’s favorability has increased significantly.]

⋮

[Steria’s affinity reaches a certain level, and the stat ‘Affinity’ increases by 1.]

At the thought that Hoya had cured her disease that no one else could cure, Steria’s favorability increased dramatically as much as the residents of Ordo at once.

As a result, her Affinity was raised and her Affinity reached 10.

It was an unexpected harvest.

And the unexpected harvest did not end there.

[The stat ‘Affinity’ has reached 10, so it will be a little easier to increase the favorability of NPCs in the future.][Stat ‘Affinity’ reaches 10 to acquire the skill ‘Will to approach’]

‘skill……?’

When affinity reaches 10, it becomes easier to increase the affinity of NPCs.

I don’t know exactly how easy it is, but it’s definitely a good effect.

Until now, while playing Initium, Hoya has received a lot of help from NPCs.

There are many reasons why he was able to get help from NPCs, but if I had to pick one, it was the result of applying a great deal of favorability.

Hoya was well aware of how important it is to have good feelings with NPCs.

It was understandable that this effect came from the name of affinity.

However, the creation of the skill felt a bit out of place.

I had never heard of a stat that a skill was created.

Hoya checked the information on the skill he had acquired unexpectedly.

[The will to approach]

By designating one NPC, you can raise your favorability to ‘complete trust’, and your words will come first.

This is unaffected by the target NPC’s current affinity for the player, race, affiliation, etc., and has a force.

It can be used once every time the stat ‘Affinity’ increases by 10.

Number of uses: 1/1

‘Forcibly raising the affinity…?’

If you look at the description of the skill, it means that it is possible to raise the favorability of a hostile NPC at once, or it is possible to raise the favorability of an NPC in the first encounter at once.

‘…Is this balanced?’

Depending on the use, it is possible to make a hero who was devoted to the country into a hostile relationship with the country.

And vice versa.

Hoya wondered if it was okay for this skill to just jump out of the ’10’ level.

However, there were a few things that Hoya misunderstood.

First of all, the item that generates the stat of affinity was not originally a guy that would come out this quickly.

Hoya has already been to the castle’s underground warehouse twice before, but the time the development team expected players to be able to enter the royal warehouse was four years after opening at the earliest.

It was caused by unexpected variables that raised the likes of Geoffrino earlier than expected, and further raised it too high.

As a result, players who had a good enough affinity to enter the castle’s underground warehouse were created earlier than expected.

And ‘a certain value of favorability’, which raises the level of affinity, is set to a value close to MAX.

Affinity itself was not an easy stat to raise in the first place.

The skill of ‘willingness to approach’ was a reasonable price compared to the conditions required.

Of course, there was a possibility that the game could change drastically depending on the target used, but it was prepared with that in mind.

“I’m sorry for the ugly appearance. Really, thank you very much.”

After calming down his emotions, Geoffrino improved his look and thanked Hoya.

He always felt like he was only getting help.

He gave access to the royal underground warehouse, but it was a debt he couldn’t pay off on its own.

He wanted to drop the title of nobility, but the cure for Steria’s disease was also not to be revealed like Adora’s sword.

It would be dissatisfaction of the people and the nobles for those who did not have much public achievements, even for adventurers, to receive a noble title.

Geoffrino thanked Hoya and gently stroked Stelia’s white, fine hand.

And there was someone who was smiling softly as he looked at it.

– Is it really okay if I don’t tell you that you’ve been cured?

-yes I’m okay. Without the courage to stand in front of her ……, because she was able to erase the guilt that had remained for 10 years.

At first glance, there was also a hint of sadness in this gentle smile.

It’s too late, but I’m glad that I was able to treat you, and Lee Kyeon was sincerely thinking.

* * *

“I’ll just stop here for today.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, …yes!”

Ordo’s training ground, Hoya, was being served as a punching bag named Su-ryun by Consonu there.

It’s been going on for hours, and it’s finally coming to an end.

It only ended today, but it was supposed to continue tomorrow.

If it was before, he would have been panting to die on the floor, but his stats had risen so much that it could not be compared to before, so he was able to withstand it.

Thanks to Krauss, the fact that he was already used to this type of training also played a part.

Hoya turned his wrist for nothing and left the training ground and headed for Dantals’s workshop.

Before starting training with Consonu in Ordo, he was going to find the sword he had left in repair.

In the next two days at the longest, he seemed to be able to definitely master the martial arts of Consenu.

“You bastard! If you hit it hard like that, all the ingredients will be damaged! Whose child you are, only your strength is filthy!”

“You’re a father-in-law’s son! Besides, he’s stronger than ever! And let’s not say too much about one twisted thing!”

Hoya’s hand, who was about to knock on the door, stopped in mid-air due to a loud noise from inside.’Ah……, you started again.’

In this state, even if he knocked, there was no response, so Hoya carefully opened the door and entered.

“What?! Did you just tell your father to lose? This guy doesn’t even know how to respect an adult!”

“Oh, that’s my mistake! I’m sorry! But I’m older in my physical age, buddy!”

“I’m proud of you, boy!”

Hoya sighed at the scene unfolding inside.

In Dantals’ workshop, Dantals and Vandal were arguing.

Fortunately, Hoya was relieved that he had not yet reached the state of swinging hammers at each other as before.

Master Vandal, a blacksmith belonging to the royal family, left the royal family and came to his father’s side after reuniting with his father with the help of Hoya.

After a short deliberation, Moan willingly allowed him to move.

Vandals do not stop aging like other Ordo residents.

Due to the dwarf blood, the aging rate was slow, but one day he would leave his mother’s side.

Until then, it was his wish to be with his father, Dan Thals, so Moan accepted him as a resident of Ordo on the condition that he did not leave the village.

She couldn’t say no because she knew that time with her family was precious.

And since Vandal started living together in Dan Thals’s house, he had been repeating this condition almost every day.

Not a single day was quiet.

“excuse me…….”

“And my father-in-law also made mistakes, so why is he doing it only to me! I’ve seen everything hanging on the training ground!”

“Ugh…, seeing that! After seeing that, it should disappear…!”

“Hey!”

The two of them, who were half-joking and half sincere, uttered out loud voices, finally noticed that Hoya had arrived.

“Oh, are you here?”

“Are you here to pick up the weapon? Wait a minute.”

When they noticed that Hoya had arrived, the two returned to their normal appearances as if they had gone to each other’s castles.

The tie-up was very neat.

“Are you still fighting every now and then? It’s a son I haven’t seen in a long time, so it’s better to get along as much as possible, isn’t it?”

“I’d like to, too, but it’s not going my way?”

Dan Thals also wanted to treat Vandal more kindly, but she couldn’t do it easily.

No matter how hard we tried, at some point, loud voices came and went again.

The love that had been built up for decades may have exploded in a slightly different form.

And it was a bit of fun too.

“Come on, here.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Hoya thanked Vandal and took the sword and put it around his waist.

Before today’s access time limit was over, I was going to go hunting for a short time.

– Wait a minute, everyone gather in the center of town.

At that moment, Moan’s voice was heard from the empty air.

“What was that just now?”

“Sometimes, it’s the magic that Moan uses to call the villagers. There’s no place in town where your voice can’t reach.”

Hoya understood that it was like a speaker.

“By the way, what happened all of a sudden?”

It was the first time in decades that Moan had gathered the villagers like this.

Dantals went to the center of the village with Vandal and Hoya despite being puzzled by the current situation.

All the villagers had already gathered in the center of the village.

In the meantime, I caught my eye that the girl I had never seen for the first time was hiding her body halfway behind an adult-like face.