Page 12

(Walson)

And now, the end of Autumn is near. Winter is almost at our doorstep.

The children of the Orphanage completed their final harvest of the year, with the harvest done, preparations for the next winter were in full swing.

I, along with several other [Commoners] were weaving straw into straw mats.

We were also eavesdropping on Maany the busty nun who is in a class for [Fighters] and [Mages], teaching them some common knowledge.

"... If you have someone you trust, you can reach forward with your heart and create a bond with them. This connection is what we call a [Party], and people who are in the same [Party] will share the EXP that they gain, and can converse with each other from afar through Telepathy with the flow of mana."

She then proceeded to explain further about the Telepathic connection between party members.

In order to communicate with the party members with telepathy, a small amount of mana is required. But the amount is so minuscule that even [Commoners] can afford to use it.

Although it has been noted that averagely, [Commoners] need to be at least LV7 or higher to be able to frequently communicate with telepathy, otherwise, their small mana pool would easily be exhausted.

In my own mind, I thought that this telepathic link is very much akin to trading phone numbers. You share your phone number with someone you trust, and they can communicate with you that way.

Of course I know that is not the actual case, but I just thought this would be easier to understand.

This world really is like a game despite how it's real life.

I didn't expect the class to be talking about this particular subject today, and I guess I would have been shocked to hear this if it were the first time that I heard about it.

But Melon has briefed me about this already, so I'm not surprised to hear about the party system.

According to Melon, Master and Slave are already bound by a contract, and the contract induces a sort of 'forced' party bond between the two. So currently I am already in a [Party] with Melon. We currently share our EXP, and I can talk to her from a large distance.

I did not want to force Melon into anything, and I have expressed my desire to free her frequently, but she continues to refuse to break the Master & Slave connection that we have.

... I grudgingly accepted that she probably would never want the contract to be broken. And a part of me was okay with it, since having a cute girl call me "Master~ Master" all day long feels really great.

Urk, stop it. I need to get my head out of the gutter.

Anyway, as long as the Master's party has a vacant place for a party member, the slave will automatically join the party.

And after I named her Melon Liszar, I received this strange message inside my head.

{Melon Liszar (LV5) has joined the Party}

It's still possible to disband the party, but they will immediately rejoin, so I guess there is no point to it.

I really hope everything will be alright in the mountains during winter. Will Melon really be fine all on her own?

She has been living inside the secret base for a month, and she has brewed potions under my instruction, and continued to train diligently with the wooden dummy.

I suppose she wouldn't really need to leave the secret base and be at nature's mercy, since there is an ample amount of supplies stored in the secret base, but I still can't help but worry for her.

Speaking of the wooden dummy, Melon is really scary. Her speed is so fast that I can hardly see anything when she is training with the spinning wooden dummy now.

At this rate, it's definitely going to break.

Sigh, I guess I need to make a new one soon.

"... And that is all for today's lesson. Children, please go find someone and create a [Party] with them. The classes in the future need to be done with groups, so now is a good chance to find a group for yourselves."

With Maany's lecture finished, the [Fighters] and [Mages] all started to cause a commotion.

Well, this has nothing to do with me.

I placed the straw mat that I just made to my side, and took another fistful of straws to start making another.

"Hey, we should make a [Party] too!" "Yeah, let's do that."

Oh, it seems even the [Commoners] are trying to group up now.

... The main benefit of being in a party is the shared experience. But doing manual labor such as farming yields very little EXP. There is honestly no point in sharing it.

So I just took my straws and left the church that was our Orphanage.

Wow, it's really cold. I took out my [Furry Wolf] clothing and put them on.

... Don't look at me like that, I really like the name.

"... Walson, Walson."

I took a glance at the [mini-map], and saw that there was only one person that was in the immediate vicinity.

"Hello Grace." I sneakily took out the sandwich of bread, eggs and spiced meat from my [Inventory].

"I tried making something new, and thought that you might want to be the first one to have a taste." Which is true. Despite me being the person who made this, I still haven't tried out the taste of the sandwich yet.

But it has a very wonderful smell, so I guess it should be delicious, right?

"... I really want to go to the secret base again." Grace took the sandwich with a pout.

Because she has to attend classes and lessons that teach magic most of the time, she only has a very small amount of opportunity to go out.

I snuck out with her to the secret base, two months ago. And she enjoyed her time there immensely.

"So, who are you going to group up with? You're really talented, I bet you can become famous in the future. There are a lot of people that will want to party with you."

Grace, who was already talented with magic, is making a frightening amount of progress in her classes.

Maany, the busty nun, is a [Mage], and Father Marbon can smacks enemies silly with staff imbued with holy power.

Grace is currently stronger than both of them combined when it comes to magical prowess.

I wonder what kind of [Mage] she will turn out to be in the future?

"... Grace wants to be in a party with Walson." She shyly curtsied in my direction.

{Grace has sent a request for a [Party].}

"Really? Are you fine with having a weak [Commoner] like me around?" I asked her.

I know that Grace really likes me as a friend, but I didn't expect this to happen at all.

She is a cute girl to boot.

... No no no, no naughty thoughts.

"... You are too modest." She said,

"Uhm, thanks for the compliment?"

I am actually LV25 right now. And aside from the nuns and Father Marbon, I have stats that are superior to anyone in the village.

Of course, since I regularly hunt in the mountains, I get a lot of EXP.

I can feel several heated glares on my back. The little sh*theads in our orphanage are probably jealous of me right now. Ohohohohoho.

"... Walson, don't make trouble." Grace smacked my cheeky grin off my face.

"Well, alright. Please take good care of me, Grace."

{Grace (LV10) has joined the party}

{With Three party members, you now gain 3% bonus EXP}.

#Uhm, Master? What?# Melon's voice drifted through the telepathic link.

Since the telepathic link is shared between everyone in the party, Grace heard her voice as well.

Grace scrunched up her face, into something that isn't quite a scowl for a normal person, but it is closest to what Grace can do.

... Right, Melon has only been with us for a month, so Grace who only snuck out two months ago wouldn't know about her.

It is also possible to get a 'feel' of how the party members are, whether they are injured or distressed, etc. So it's really convenient.

So naturally, it is possible to know the name of all the party members.

"... Walson, is Melon a girl?"

"She recently moved into the secret base, I will introduce you to her later."

"... Walson, you flirt."

I was then chased out of the village by Grace, who was hitting me with her small staff non-stop.

"Wait, why the hell are you attacking me!?"