" Master, are you sure this is okay ? "
" ... What are you talking about ? "
The voice of Stella coming from behind him, she allowed herself to call him that way because there was no one around at that hour.
Adventurer's exiting the city and walking towards the labyrinth would happen much earlier than one would think, which explained how they, after leaving the inn somewhat late in the morning, came to walk alone on the singular road leading them here as well, and why he could answer her question without having to ask her to call him Arthur in public.
" I mean, you and the innkeeper.. She also seemed pretty sad, right ? "
" She just got the hope that I will do it with her again, that's all there is to it, also, you don't know about it yet, but I don't intend to stay here. "
Explaining his thoughts and how he intended to leave the city at one point or another, he didn't wish to settle down yet, especially not in such a fantasy setting where there was so much more to see.
" Really ? Where do you wish to go, master ? "
" I plan on travelling the world first, the end destination doesn't really matter, and that's also why I can't take her with us, I don't want to ruin someone's life and opportunities just for a few nights, like I explained earlier. "
Surely, it was a saddening ending, and maybe they won't see each other again once he will leave the city for good, but unlike Mariane or Stella, who showed real feelings of love to him, she, the innkeeper, just harbored an insatiable lust, though most of it was because of him.
" Mhm, is that so ? Then now, I'm even more glad to be a card summoned by master hehehe.. "
Smiling at the innocence of the priest Stella, he turned around to take a glance at Mariane, and even she had a somewhat prideful face, though mostly hidden behind the expressionless mask, but maybe it was because he was used to her presence, he could see the emotions deeply hidden inside of her eyes.
' Well, besides being with me at all time for them, being a card sure have it's advantages.. '
Not having the need to sleep, eat or drink, you could get unsummoned and summoned again to be cleaned up if you wanted to, you wouldn't really die no matter what happen and injuries would heal without leaving a scar, though you would still feel the pain, and most importantly, there was the possibility of leveling up properly..
Compared to him, who still had those basic needs, but also asked of him five more experience points just to reach the level four, at least, since the system had already reset on his way to the dungeon, signaling the start of a new week, he got to finally be able to focus on the weekly quests and more now, just like how he grabbed his weekly rewards from the shop.
' I'm also impatient to see what the creator of the game came with for a reward.. '
Such a thought, however, didn't stay for long in his mind as they reached the dungeon and easily went inside, with the goal to have the girls level up by hunting, but also to accomplish the given quests by the guild.
Accompanied with his silver wolf maid, and the shadow rabbit priest, Arthur stepped first inside the dungeon, before letting the two of them take the lead, with a certain hope to accomplish the quests from the system as well as maybe obtaining shards for new cards.
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' Motherfu-.. Was I just lucky before ? '
No matter how hard he tried, or to be precise, how much he waited while Mariane hunted monsters for them, he didn't receive much rewards.
Surely, the poor items from the monsters weren't his top priority here, as those would just fill his inventory a bit more, but the shards he got this time were far less than the ones he obtained the previous day.
One golden and two white, the result was exactly divided by two, as if yesterday was really his lucky day, or maybe it happened because Mariane hunted more high leveled monsters ?
Since they were doing the quests given by the guild, they didn't go down directly to the seven floor, but slowly explored the dungeon instead, which brought them there far later.
' Well, at least, I still got enough to make a new card.. '
To be more exact, he would have enough even if he didn't grab the weekly bundle inside of the shop, even though this one gave three white shards.
' What should I go for this time ? '
Since he previously summoned a priest class, which was one of his priorities, he could say with ease that anything else wouldn't be of much importance, though he kept the idea to summon the mage class later, as he would slowly get enough golden shards for a four star.
" .. Arthur, what are you thinking about ? "
His thought process being interrupted by Mariane, since she called him that way, he knew that there would be no one around, so he could speak freely.
" Nothing much, it's just that I can summon another card, though I don't know what I should go for yet. "
To assist Mariane in a fight, which was a five star, he would need either a somewhat good three star, which were rare, or someone with compatible abilities, to which only two class would correspond to, archer and support.
" Master, you can already summon someone else ? That's incredible ! Does that mean I wasn't summoned that far from Mariane ? "
To Stella's excitation, Arthur could only shake his head as he started to explain slowly the way his summoning ability worked.
" That's not it, Mariane was summoned a bit less than a week before you, because I was still exploring my abilities, and that there were nowhere near enough monsters to defeat before reaching the city of Litheria and the dungeon, I couldn't get any shards to form a card. "
" So the more monsters we hunt, the more people will accompany us ? "
Her question, which could be able to make Mariane frown at the idea of ten more girls around him, was also dispelled by Arthur's proper explaining.
" Yes and no, even if I want it, I can't just bring out ten people from my pocket everywhere I go, it would just appear suspicious no matter how I think about it, that's why I plan to only form somewhat of a proper party and then to use the cards to get inscriptions, which could help you grow stronger more easily. "
Well, to be more precise, inscriptions didn't show much value from the start, surely, they would give a stat boost, which was equivalent by two percent of the current stats per inscriptions, so it could go up till ten percent.
But the real value of it, was that each inscriptions raised the level cap of the characters, a precious end game feature.
Since every card could reach the level 100, though the more star one had, the higher the experience needed for the next level was, cards could reach the level 120 with five inscriptions, with each of them giving four more precious levels.
Yet, now that he started from scratch again, he quickly realized a problem with such an option.
' .. Aren't I fucked ? '
Because after the level 100, the evolution of a character, which should be every ten levels, would drop to every four levels, and by then, even one star characters would need some sort of raid monsters loot, making him afraid of the time he would spend searching for the monsters Mariane would need.
" Master, does Mariane needs inscriptions as well ? "
Quickly getting out of his thoughts again under Stella's voice, he was glad that he wasn't given the opportunity to think too much, otherwise he would have started an infernal loop where he could only think about where to obtain such materials.
" Actually, she doesn't need them, because my ability to summon cards isn't the only thing I have, luckily, I also have another ability that gives me inscriptions depending on the number of stars of a character. "
Not being able to reveal the truth about the affinity being raised to the max from the start, as it would only bring shame upon him for forcing a 'seduction spell' on them, he could only put it that way.
" Mmm.. Then, how many inscriptions do I need master ? "
" Out of five, you already got four, while a three star card would only give me three inscriptions usually, since I had another one, I used it on you already. "
Apparently thinking hard about something before asking such a question, Stella received his answer, but maybe he said something he shouldn't have, as she kept a smile and would sometime laugh happily to herself like a girl in love...
.. Wait, she actually was.