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The Catacombs, Slera's Castle—Hallways [ Night ].

Soon after leaving the library, Shinto steadily made his way down towards the first floor of the castle to head back to the guest room. However, whilst walking on the carpets of the castle, a certain thought came to mind.

"...hmm. Although I said I would inform Kaisus, how exactly would I explain it to him?" Tilting his head at the question before him, he considered the options available.

If he were to tell the news of his mentor's death, it would mean being barraged by the countless questions as to how he had found out of such details. However, that was not the problem.

Instead, the issue was, Shinto did not know how to approach the topic,

"Argh... This is hard," he scruffled his hair whilst pondering on the matter. "I can't say out of nowhere that Lier had died, right? So... There has to be a better way of telling him instead of it being out of the blue."

Shinto didn't want to rudely utter out certain things due to it being rather sensitive. If Kaisus were to know of his mentor's death right now, it would be unbecoming of Shinto for he would create a rather awkward mood with no one ready for the atmosphere. Thus, he had to find the perfect opportunity, wherein—he wouldn't ruin any plans.

"...perhaps I should tell Hikari about this too?" Unlike Kaisus, Hikari was much like Shinto in the fact that they knew of Kaisus's mentor through Kaisus himself. However, wasn't at all close to Lier. Thus, it'd make for the perfect opportunity for Shinto to discuss things with Hikari. "Since she knows of Lier too... The both of us can find some time to discuss it and to tell Kaisus at a better timing than now."

Shinto nodded his head at the thought. "Right... That's a good idea, I think?" Muttering out his thoughts, the young man soon stopped at his footsteps as he reached the doorstep of the guest room. "After all... It would only be natural for Hikari to—" Suddenly cutting at his own words short, Shinto's expression turned into that of confusion upon touching the handle of the door. "...huh? Did I not close this properly?"

At the sight of the door being able to easily opened with just a slight touch, it meant that the door had not been closed properly. Thus, it made Shinto wary in caution.

"...did someone come in whilst I was away?" He thought to himself on the matter. The possibility was there. However, he somewhat doubted it. "...no, maybe it's just because I didn't close it properly."

Contrary to his thought, perhaps it was because Shinto wanted to leave the room quietly, not wanting to disturb his teammates. Consequently, he most likely had subconsciously restrained his strength when closing the door.

"...well, whatever. It's better I stay on guard than to relax just in case," shaking his head as he rid of the thought, Shinto took a deep breath whilst alert in caution. In the next moment, he slowly opened the door and entered the guest room.

...

The Catacombs, Slera's Castle—Guest Room [ Night ].

Upon entering the room, Shinto was greeted by the dimness of the area. With all of the room's lights turned off—it was only natural for the room to be in complete darkness. However, that did not hinder Shinto at all. It was all thanks to his class attribute, allowing him to see without needing a source of light.

"...hmm, everything seems to be pretty alright from when I left?" tilting his head at the sight, he noted that Raina and Ethaniel were fast asleep in their beds respectively. "Though... Where's..." However, something seemed to be amiss.

Upon scanning the room further, he noticed that Frey, who was supposed to be in front of Shinto's bed where Kon had been sleeping on, wasn't here. "—Frey?" Raising his brow in question, he continued to glance around the room in case he had missed her elsewhere.

As he turned his head towards the side of him, his eyes instantly caught sight of the figure of a woman who had been silently standing beside him the entire time. With her hands up in the air—Shinto blinked at the sight.

"Boo!" As the two made eye contact with one another, the woman—Frey, roared out in a hushed voice. "Did I scare you?"

"F-Frey...?" Shinto continued to blink. This time, in a dumbfounded manner. He had not noticed that Frey was beside him the entire time whence he entered the room. "...you're not asleep yet?"contemporary romance

"Nope!" Frey shook her head. "I couldn't sleep so... I decided to wait around for your return! What took you so long anyway? Was returning a book that long of a process to do?"

"Ah... Err," hearing the question from Frey, Shinto slightly coughed. "There was... Some slight complications here and there. So... it took quite a while."

"Hmm... Slight complications, huh?" Frey pouted as she soon seemingly shook her head. "Ahem! Anyway, did I scare you? I did, right? Surely! After all, you had that look of surprise on you! Well... I couldn't see it... But I know it's there!"

"Um... Well, it was a surprise to see you here, I guess?" Shinto said. "I expected that you were asleep... But well... that's beside the point. Did you see anyone coming in by any chance?"

"Hmm?" Frey tilted her head at the question. "Well... Nope! Why do you think so? Were we expecting visitors? But wait... it's in the middle of the night! Ethaniel would get angry... But eh," she shrugged.

"...I had some slight suspicion, but I'm glad it was debunked," shaking his head in relief as he didn't want to deal with any more sudden situations—he soon changed to a different topic. "Anyhow, you said you were waiting for me, right? Why? is there something you need?"

"Well besides wanting to scare you..." Frey thought to herself. "I wanted to ask of you for something actually! You know all that stuff about the statues and all? The one about some Warrior and Guardian?" she asked. "I still stand by my words on that! So... Um... Could you like... Help with something?"

"...my help?" Shinto tilted his head in slight confusion. "Well... I don't think I can help all as much? For convincing them... There's really not much I can do if it's to help with the revival of the statues. After all, you're the one speaking, not me. And as for language... I've already given you the necklace, right?" he stated. "Though... It's not like that's needed anymore."

"Ah, no. no!" Frey quickly interjected at Shinto's misunderstanding. "You don't need to help with me convincing them! I'll do it myself!" she stated. "But... It's just that... Err... Well... I need to get these items fixed," from her inventory, Frey took out the few pieces of equipment that the group had obtained from the statue. "So... could you help me?"

"...ah. These items?" Shinto's eyes averted towards the ground where Frey had laid out the items on the floor where a small gleaming blue light from Frey's inventory screen shone at the items. "...you want me to get a blacksmith for them, right?" he asked. The items that were obtained from their fight before Sanke all had a common dominator. Which was, the attribute—[Broken].

[ Broken ]

Items that have gone through relentless usages without maintenance will receive the debuff 'Broken'.

-Durability of the item is much easier to decrease.

-The stats and rarity of the item are greatly lowered.

-Certain effects will be blocked until further notice.

*To remove [ Broken ], one must find a suitable Blacksmith to fix this item. (Note: This only applies to standardized/created items)

...

"Yep! You said you knew a blacksmith, right?" Frey's eyes twinkled with excitement. "So I thought I'd ask you! Maybe he could fix it!"

"...well, I did say that I knew one... But," Shinto's eyes solemnly gazed over to his friend list, where he noted of the player name: [ Hideo ] was offline. "...trying to fix items like this may rather be... Time-consuming. After all, it is a dungeon's gear rather than normalized ones."

Gears were split into two categories. Equipment that was obtained from dungeons, like Frey's Centripedas Boots or Shinto's Old Wood Cloak all had a certain material requirement to fix its durability. Meanwhile, standardized equipment sold typically by NPCs or created items by blacksmiths could freely be fixed with just the use of an anvil and hammer.

The disparity between the two was because of the need to learn the concept behind the equipment. For dungeon-related ones, typical blacksmiths wouldn't know to fix it properly, thus their class attribute offered them the ability to fix said items via materials. While for standardized equipment, they would typically be far easier to learn, thus only requiring an anvil and hammer.

"I know it may be time-consuming... But could you at least ask them?" Frey questioned. "It's fine if it's a long wait... But, I just need some insurance that the items would be fixed, you know?"

"...well, even if I ask, the blacksmith that I know is quite busy as of late," he sighed. "So, it's all dependant on him really. Not only that... There's the issue of collecting the needed materials..."

"Oh... The requirements would be just materials?" Frey tilted her head. "It's no problem! I'll try to gather them! Even if I had to defeat a dragon!"

"...aha, that's quite a thing to say... But," Shinto's expression turned into that of a serious one. "...why go through the trouble of trying to revive the statues? I mean... It seems rather... Tedious, don't you think? For little to no benefits no less."

"Hmm... Well, I guess I just wanted to do it?" Frey thought to herself. "It seems fun! And I also sympathize with the statues. They have it all rough here and there... And with this situation done, I thought we might give them a second chance! They shouldn't just get destroyed like that!"

"A second chance?" he inquired. "...but, the last I recall, the statues didn't want to go on anymore."

"Yeah! But, that's because they've been through so much!" Frey nodded her head. "Which is why... I wanted to help them. Convince them to find a new purpose AND the slimes to help me with this."

"..." Shinto kept quiet at her reasoning. "...hah. Well, I'll try and ask him then. Though, I can't guarantee that he'll agree to it. So... Don't get your hopes up."

"Ahh! Thank you, Master!" Frey cheered out in a loud voice. However, upon realizing her voice had reached max volume, she hurriedly covered her mouth. "Ah, oops... I spoke too loud..."

"Mm..." Kon muttered out whilst still in sleep. "...no... Don't eat my cookie..."

"Well thankfully... You didn't seem to wake up anymore," Shinto sighed out with a sigh of relief. "But, like I said Frey. Don't keep your hopes up. He's busy as it is, so..." letting out a slight yawn, Shinto began to slowly make his way over to his bed, "...it might be hard to get him to help."

"Yeah, yeah!" Frey nodded her head with a bright smile. "There's still a chance, so I'm taking it! Ah, are you going to sleep already?"

"Well, it's better for me to catch some shut-eye instead of waiting around for nothing," Shinto said whilst finally reaching to his bed. In the next moment, he carefully carried the sleeping Kon and placed him to the side of the bed, thus making space for him to sleep in. "What about you? Are you going to sleep?"

"Ah, Nah! I'm gonna log out," Frey stated as she stood by the entrance of the guestroom. "I've had my rest earlier and uh... Well, my daily limit thingy is coming too. So, yeah!"

"Ah... I see," nodding his head, Shinto soon lied down on the bed. "Well... Good night, Frey. See you tomorrow," with his eyes tiredly closing, he drifted off into the night. Now, Frey was the only one in the room that was awake.

"..." Noting that Shinto had gone to sleep, Frey quietly sighed as she soon opened up her status menu. "...a reason, huh? Hmm... Maybe I should've said that I just like helping others find a new purpose?" she tilted her head whilst thinking about the earlier conversation. "...maybe. Yeah, maybe," biting her lips, Frey's hand moved towards the log out button on her screen. Soon after, as she pressed on it, her body began to slowly disappear away alongside the flash of blue light.

Frey had logged out.

done.co