290 My Mother’s New Facet
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“I’m here! Phew… that was a good exercise. Look, Sylphy, I brought you a gift!”
While we were having breakfast, Zack and Ninhursag came back from… hunting, apparently. And Zack brought a big deer with horns that were made of red and blue crystals. Checking it with my eyes showed the creature was named “Crystal-horned Deer” and each horn as the properties of fire and ice respectively. Wow, that’s a good catch, that monster is at least around Tier 2 in the level of a threat.
“A gift for me?” I wondered.
“Y-Yeah! Do you like it? The horns are pretty!” Said Zack happily. “The meat must be tasty too, and the hide!” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
“Haha, you’re pretty excited, did you had fun hunting?” I said. “I guess we had never gone hunting for real, always little monsters, but you hunted this big deer by yourself!”
“Yep, all me!” Said Zack, puffing his chest, he was shrouded with sweat and a few bruises. Ninhursag stood at his side quite proudly of her adoptive son, and seemed to nod to anything he said. Everybody else began to praise Zack, except Aquarina, who remained in silence for a bit.
“Amazing, well done, Zack! Good catch!” Said Nepheline.
“You’re growing stronger every day.” Said Shade.
…..
“Oooh! Hm, that’s a strong Crystal Horned Deer, it almost Tier 3 in magic levels of power. It is comparable to a Tier 3 Magician as those horns are infused with strong fire and ice magic, that monster can instantly conjure Fireballs and Icicle Spears, it is very dangerous for novice adventurers!” Said my father, he was like an encyclopedia for monsters. I don’t know if there was even a monster he didn’t knew about, he was really from a Hunter and Mercenaries family.
“Well done Zack.” Said my mother. “We can sell the materials in the town so you can begin having your own savings.”
“I-I kind of want to use the materials for another thing…” Said Zack. “Sylphy’s birthday is getting closer and I want to give her a pretty gift.”
“Ooh? Really? Fufu, are you trying to court her?” Asked my mother teasingly.
“C-Court her? T-There’s no way!” Said Zack, moving away his face and growing red like a tomato. He looked rather cute when he got so embarrassed.
I felt a bit flattered that he was already preparing a gift for me. I should also think of a gift for his birthday, it is not so far away from mine either. Maybe hunting a monster and making something out of it could make him happy as well.
“Fufu, my little Zack has become a nice hunter, right?” Asked Ninhursag proudly. “He’s been growing faster lately; I can’t help but think how stronger he’ll get in the future.”
“S-Stop saying that… It is a bit embarrassing…” Said Zack, as Ninhursag happily gave him pats over his head.
“Well! I can also hunt my own if I try!” Said Aquarina. “I-I’ll also bring you a nice gift, Sylphy!”
“Haha, you don’t have to rush it, it is fine if you bring something else. Or nothing at all as well, it is already a gift to have all of you with me. I really don’t need anything else in my life.”
Unexpectedly, when I said that leisurely, everybody fell silent and then smiled, caressing my head, or patting my back… I guess I said something rather touching without realizing.
“Awww, you don’t have to be so modest.” Said Nepheline.
“You’re a good girl, Sylph.” Said Shade.
“My girl is so modest… I guess I’ve really taught her well!” My mother almost began to cry.
“S-Sylphy is really an angel…” My father said.
“Haha, she’s like that, huh?” Giggled Ninhursag.
“But Sylphy, I put into the effort so I am still giving you a gift!” Said Zack.
“T-That was nice of you but yeah!” Said Aquarina. She and Zack began to look at one another with a hint of… rivalry? It was weird, they were competing for who could give me a nice gift? I guess it is a rather healthy competition in that regard then.
“I’m not gonna lose to Zack, I’ll hunt down a strong monster from the Dungeon nearby!” Said Aquarina. “So wait for it, Sylphy!”
“O-Okay… Calm down a bit, Aquarina, you’re too young to go around hunting big monsters inside dungeons… I’ve heard that monsters inside dungeons are way stronger than those in the outside, right, father?” I asked.
“Hm? Oh yeah, they are way stronger, perhaps two or three times stronger than those we found in the wild. That’s because dungeons are filled with miasma, which naturally makes monsters stronger, and even enhances their natural regeneration. You gotta go immediately for a killing blow with these, accumulating damage on dungeon monsters might sometimes be futile without something to poison them or inflict another negative ailment on them, as they’ll regenerate wounds quicker than you’ll imagine.” Said my father, very knowledgeable about the whole topic.
“I-I see. I guess we can’t lower our guards then!” I said while nodding.
“Yeah, that’s the spirit.” Said my father. “We received a letter lately that this town needs some help, so we are going there and we’ll use our authority to register you kids as Adventurers- Ninhursag too!”
“Eh? Adventurers?!” I asked. “But aren’t we too young?! And why?”
“Of course you’re too young, that’s why your father said with our authority. All four of us are S-Rank Adventurers anyways.” Said my mother. “We can bend the rules and register you kids and Ninhursag easily.”
“And why? Well, being an Adventurer has a lot of perks! One of them is that you can pick requests from the Adventurer Guilds and also get rewards, sell materials for money, and get special benefits such as discounts and the like.” My father said. “Being an adventurer is actually awesome.”
“Oohhhh! I see! So it’s all about the money!” I said while nodding happily.
“Fufu, yes! My daughter seems to have understood that well.” My mother giggled. “It is important to realize the value of money and use money to your benefit! A lot of things can be bend with money, and you can even change an entire nation’s future with money too… Everything is money.”
My mother slowly began to show a facet I had no memories of seeing before.
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