Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 21

The Girl’s Wish

「Ponsuke! Buy Nanako-chan time until her skill activate!」

The location was the grassland with bumpy ground instead of a flat one.

Ponsuke planted his shield on the ground that was slightly slanted and blocked a kobold’s hammer.

The kobold that had dog head swung down its hammer on Ponsuke many times with both hands.

Recast, cool down……after using skill or magic once, it would become  unusable for a while. Those terms meant the waiting time for that.

Knowing when to use skill or magic was important, but if the player  had comrades, they could help by giving backup during the cool down.

Mariela drew her bow and fired an arrow that pierced a kobold’s leg.

The kobold used its staff to stand up and looked around.

Around it there was Ponsuke, Alfie, and Mariela surrounding it. It had nowhere to run.

There Nanako stepped forward. Her hands were trembling in fear in front of her small chest.

「U-umm, I finished preparing the skill.」

Her right fist started shining faintly. Ponsuke opened a path for her.

The kobold couldn’t move but, it glared at the approaching Nanako while gritting its teeth and growling.

Alfie pushed her finger on her forehead with a troubled look.

「Perhaps it’ll be better if the monster doesn’t look so realistic.」

It was possible to limit the display and effect for small children.  In fact there was no blood flowing from where the kobold’s orc was  pierced.

Nanako mustered her courage and thrust her right hand.

「E-ei!」

She was backing away, her eyes were closed, and so on. Those negative factors reduced her attack’s damage calculation.

However when the right fist hit the kobold, there was red light and it vanished.

*POKO-* It was like there was such sound effect accompanying the  kobold’s disappearance after Nanako’s fist hit it. That was just how  much Ponsuke and others had whittled down its HP.

After the monster vanished, Nanako informed everyone that she leveled up.

「Ah, it goes up. I keep leveling up since some time ago.」

Nanako was surrounded by experienced players who supported her in fighting monster that normally she wouldn’t be able to defeat.

Her level up also progressed quickly.

After all it had been set up so that new player could level up until level 30 easily.

Alfie sheathed her flashy sword and looked at Nanako’s status.

「You got into level 12 in one day. You might be able to reach 15 if we keep going like this.」

She was growing stronger bit by bit.

Nanako seemed happy to see it with her own eyes. She looked shy but also happy.

Mariela looked up to the sky.

「But, it might be better if we get back soon. The sky has gotten darker.」

The sky was getting dyed red when they looked up.

Nanako looked up. She pressed her hat with both hands and spoke happily.

「It’s really pretty.」

Alfie also looked up to the sky and put her hands in her hips as she watched the scenery.

The wind felt pleasant.

「It’s like the real sky.」

Nanako whispered when she heard that.

「Real……」

A girl who couldn’t see.

Ponsuke became worried that she might felt hurt from hearing Alfie’s words, but Nanako was smiling, so he felt relieved.

Then Nanako pressed her hands on her stomach.

「E-eh?」

She was suddenly pressing her stomach in a hurry, so everyone  wondered if there was something wrong. Then Nanako’s stomach rumbled.

Nanako’s face reddened. She looked at the three tearfully.

「T-this isn’t what you think. Eh? Why? Even though this is a game!」

Nanako panicked. Ponsuke smiled at her and placed his hand on his head.

「Aa~, that huh. You got afflicted with bad status.」

A player who didn’t eat would get afflicted with bad status and  became unable to display their full power. The rumble from Nanako’s  stomach was partly caused by her hadn’t been eating, but there was also  how the other three had turned off the setting for stomach rumbling.

「Come to think of it, I’m also in a hungry state. I don’t realize it because it’s a game.」

Mariela said that and started taking out something from her item box.

Alfie who saw that reacted instantly.

「No need.」

「……Wait, I haven’t even taken it out you know?」

What Mariela took out was a brown lump.

It was placed on a plate. The only way to describe it was brown lump.

「Sweet thing is the best when your stomach is empty! I never  succeeded until now but, I thought that it would be fine if it’s sweets  and made this.」

Mariela took out the dish that she had cooked beforehand. Nanako approached seeing how happy Mariela was.

「What is this?」

「Cookie!」

Mariela answered with a smile toward Nanako’s pure gaze. But Ponsuke and Alfie’s jaws hanged open in surprise.

(No way. That’s cookie!? I thought that it might be chocolate cake but it’s beyond my imagination!)

Alfie grabbed Nanako’s shoulder and dragged her away from the cookie.

「Umm, Alfie-san?」

Alfie wordlessly turned her gaze at Ponsuke. Ponsuke understood what she wanted to say.

(This girl, she’s telling me to deal with it! No, certainly we can’t  let Nanako-chan eat that no matter what! But still, why me!)

When he looked at Mariela, she looked really confident and had no intention of backing away.

Ponsuke’s large orc hand took the whole cookie on the plate.

「Ah, hey!」

Mariela warned Ponsuke, but Ponsuke looked at the cookie on his hand.

(Strange. Why is a cookie flabby like this! What’s more it stinks! This is absolutely not a cookie!)

Even while thinking that, Ponsuke couldn’t allow Nanako to eat it and tossed it into his mouth. He swallowed it without chewing.

But, the result was the worst.

Perhaps his stomach was protesting, or perhaps the thing he ate was a  poisonous item――the end result was Ponsuke’s HP got reduced  considerably from damage.

Ponsuke pressed his hands on his stomach while Mariela was boasting at him.

「I’m confident with this one. After all I bought a cookie set as the  cookie ingredients so there’s no worry that I misjudged the amount! The  appearance is a bit bad but, the display say that it’s cookie so there’s  no problem……how’s the taste, Ponsuke?」

Mariela’s eyes sparkled, in contrast Ponsuke was desperately forming a smile but――.

「D-delicio――GEHAH!」

Frustratingly this was a VR game. Because of various reasons the  player avatar couldn’t vomit. Even though his body wanted to vomit, it  was prevented by the game’s restriction.

The damage to Ponsuke’s HP increased and he collapsed. Mariela clung on Ponsuke’s body.

「Ponsuke? PONSUKEEEEE!」

Alfie covered Nanako’s eyes and ears. She averted her gaze from the fallen Ponsuke.

「This is because you don’t properly tell her it’s bad!」

Nanako was looking worried.

「U-umm! What’s going on?」

Alfie lied to the worried Nanako, saying that nothing happened.

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.

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The inn.

It was the inn that Rook introduced them to. Currently this inn was becoming the inn that Ponsuke and others frequently used.

In the bar at the first floor of that inn, Ponsuke and the other three were sitting around a table while making racket.

「Why can’t it go well? I’m already practicing a lot.」

Mariela was lying prostrated on the table with a tankard in hand.  Alfie was looking at her while heartily holding manga meat with both  hands and eating it.

Her gracefulness at the beginning where she cut the meat with knife before eating it had vanished.

「Maan~, the only way to eat manga meat is by sinking your teeth into it like this. Ah, give us one more lobster.」

「Certainly.」

Alfie ordered additional food to a waitress NPC who was passing through. Then she heartily gulped down the drink in her tankard.

Nanako had a seafood plate in front of her. She was holding a small cup filled with juice that she was drinking in small sips.

Around them there were also other players who knew about this  little-known good restaurant partying cheerfully with their friends. The  topics of their conversation were varied.

All of these were fresh experiences for Nanako. Her gaze cutely goggled around.

Ponsuke was eating vegetable stick.

It wasn’t like he was being health conscious. He was comparing the  taste of the vegetable stick when ate with various dressings, like  mayonnaise.

The taste was more delicious than he imagined.

It was crunchy. And he could feel sweetness from the fresh vegetable.

He was chewing thoroughly on the ingredient’s taste.

「Hmm~, I want to try more variety of sauce.」

An orc who was eating vegetable stick and a beautiful human girl who  was eating manga meat. The beautiful elf girl was putting her chin on  the table while eating shishamo.

Ponsuke called out to the waitress NPC.

He had finished eating his vegetable sticks.

「Excuse me. Give me three more portions of vegetable sticks. And also all kinds of dressings that you have.」

The waitress NPC frowned at Ponsuke and clicked her tongue which was something unbecoming for a restaurant worker.

「Tsk! Yes yes. I’ll bring it to you now~」

Her unmotivated reply was very different from when she served Alfie just now.

Nanako was surprised.

「Umm, did Ponsuke-san have problem with that person?」

Mariela answered Nanako’s question by waving her hand.

「That’s not it. That girl is NPC――non player character, not a human.  And, her bad attitude toward Ponsuke is because he’s an orc.」

Yes. Orc race was called as joke race in the game Pandora’s Box Garden.

There were various reasons for that but, one of them was how the NPCs treated them badly.

It was the developer that was setting the NPC to be like that, but  their treatment to orc was so bad, it felt like there was some kind of  burning obsession in it.

Because of that orc race was greatly popular among a certain type of user.

「I didn’t know that when making my avatar. But even if I want to  remake it, I had defeated a lot of field boss and area boss. All of  those will go to waste if this avatar is remade. Besides, being an orc  is really amazing.」

An orc’s basic status was higher than the other races.

A few of the statuses were set to be low, but all of the others were high.

Although there was a demerit that orc couldn’t receive the divine protection of Goddess Pandora.

Having this demerit was no different than not being able to enjoy a  part of the game’s fun. After all here divine protection was for  customizing your character.

Your character could be customized to fix your weak status, or improve your strong status even more.

Even though the divine protection enabled something like that, being an orc excluded the player from it.

Nanako nodded intently as she listened to that explanation.

「So that’s why there are few orc players.」

Mariela glanced at Ponsuke while grinning.

「There are a lot of orc fellows with strong quirkiness though. Being orc is super popular for the guys with that kind of hobby.」

Nanako tilted her head in puzzlement. She looked like she really couldn’t understand.

「That kind of hobby?」

Ponsuke talked to Nanako to avoid the subject.

「M-more importantly, you will clear the quest tomorrow, so let’s go  to the guild together. We’ll be able to go to the shrine too. Have you  decided on the job that you want?」

Nanako slightly looked down. And then she lifted her face with a slightly serious look.

「I, I’m thinking of choosing monk.」

Alfie who was heartily devouring her food rejoiced.

「Nice. With this we will have healer in our party.」

Nanako looked slightly troubled when she heard that.

「What’s wrong?」

When Ponsuke asked her that, Nanako resolved herself and pleaded to Ponsuke with a serious look.

「Umm, there’s a quest that I want to clear no matter what!」

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.

.

The group moved from the bar at first floor to their room at the  second floor. The three other than Nanako sat on the floor so to not  wake up the sleeping Nanako.

The three of them faced each other and talked about the quest that Nanako mentioned.

「……Certainly, she kept checking that quest several times before this.」

Alfie looked at Nanako’s sleeping face with a conflicted expression.

Mariela also looked the same.

「The problem is there won’t be anything in it for us even if we clear  the quest. Well, it can’t be helped. She’ll go through surgery after  this.」

What Nanako wanted were friends to challenge a quest together.

But, Nanako said that she was going to go through a surgery after this, and so she would be unable to login for a while.

And then, the quest that Nanako asked for their help wasn’t something  that difficult. But it was a type of quest that took quite long to  complete.

Ponsuke knew about that quest.

(The Elixir of Hope, an item with the name of Capital of Hope in it. A  quest to get that item……but, it’s basically just a potion with slightly  better effect. The healing potion that any slightly advanced craftsman  can create has better performance.)

Alfie hugged her knees while looking up at the ceiling.

「Finishing the quest for good luck charm huh.」

Mariela was also hugging her knees, but she was looking down.

「She said, the surgery is difficult even with the modern technology.」

What would happen to her if her surgery failed――her life wouldn’t be  in danger even in the worst case. But, her eyes would never open again  if it failed. Her legs also wouldn’t be able to move.

Ponsuke was also hugging his knees, but an orc’s knee hugging――it really took a lot of space.

「Normally you should reject this kind of quest.」

The normal player――they definitely wouldn’t lend a hand if they were  in the three’s position, because they would prioritize progressing  ahead.

And more importantly, they should be putting in effort to search for a new party member.

Alfie stood up.

「Let’s do it!」

「Eh?」

Ponsuke looked at Alfie. There she began to make gestures with her  body and hands as she made a speech. Her red dress fluttered along with  her movements.

For some reason it suited her.

「If I can be blunt it’s a pointless endeavor. But, it’s not like we are clearer or even a middle ranked player.」

Mariela agreed with Alfie’s words, but then she raised a different issue.

「Well, I guess. But, we will waste time if we do this.」

Alfie spread her arms open and spoke to the two.

「That’s still better than feeling bothered because we abandon her  here. We won’t be able to have fun playing in the future if this matter  weighed us down.」

This wasn’t just a mere online game, but a fully immersive game. That  was why there were also things that they could feel for real here.

VR game was something like that.

This wasn’t an event that happened at the other side of the screen, but something that happened right around them.

Ponsuke also nodded.

「Then, let’s prepare for it tomorrow. As expected the level  difference is big. Let’s work a bit harder to lift her up until level  30  by force, then we’ll challenge the quest together.」

Mariela stopped hugging her knees and looked at Ponsuke.

「Agreed. We will only lose several days at most anyway even by doing  this. If it’s just that much then it’s cheap to make sure we’ll keep  being able to sleep soundly in the future.」

Like that the three decided to help Nanako.

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