Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! ITS TIME TO PLAY HOUSE!

ANYWAY, some more downtime in real life as well as a very important decision to be made for our main characters. That said, not much really went on this chapter, I guess? I’m sorry for being boring, okay?

ALSO, Congratulations Hacalyhd for getting the correct answer on the previous quiz! The correct answer being Gon was level four and Yuu was level TWO. Though I admit I almost mistake her for level one and gave the cookie wrongly… ANYWAY, HAVE YE COOKIE! HACA! (Close call Kuroyuki, close call…) Anyway, next question on the end of the chapter.

ALSO(2), I must say here and now, that I wait anxiously for twenty second of April. For reasons. Yeah, I’m more hyped for this than MHX right now. My childhood man! Just a random note, don’t mind me.

Have a good read!

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The elevator made the usual “Ding” sound as it reached the floor to my apartment, and after breathing in briefly, I put on back my serious face before walking down the corridor and reaching the door to my apartment. I opened it and slammed it behind me before setting the plastic bag on the table.

After doing that, it still took me a couple of minutes to finish setting up the table for myself, with things like silverware, a glass of water and so on. Pulling the chair without any ceremony, I threw myself on it before staring at the plastic bag before me.

“I usually praise dedication, but aren’t you going a bit too far boy?” I heard an elderly but energetic voice coming from the doorway.

I turned back and saw as the elder samurai stood there with an amazed expression while staring at the bag before me. Behind him a black-haired girl peeked over discreetly with a mix of surprise and guilt in her face.

Ignoring the duo, I simply turned back to the plastic bag and opened it, showing the ten buck’s worth of take-away food that I had just bought for myself. Opening the package I went on to shove a large fork’s worth of food into my mouth and chew on it grudgingly.

“Waaah… You really went and did it...” I heard Mari saying.

“Neeh, Shi… Ri-kun… Why don’t you come and have lunch with us?” Yuu asked me shyly.

“You guys know why.” I replied in a low grumble while looking down at the food before me.

“Ihn muh *Munch* difenshe… *gulp* I thought you were joking.” Maya said while the sound of her fork hitting the dish echoed.

Once again I turned back to the now bigger group and saw that only Maya was standing there with her plate full of food. When the others noticed this, they also turned to her and stared silently for a few seconds.

“What? I’m hungry!” She said pouting.

“Maya. Why don’t you leave your dish for when you are sitting on the table?” Mari asked tiredly.

“Yes, milady!” The ero-maid replied cheerfully before disappearing from my doorway with the abomination that she held in her hands.

Pleased by the sight, I once again went back to sullenly consuming my proper food made for human consumption. For a while, I could hear as an awkward silence fell upon the remaining three, and as I was taking my second fork to the mouth, I heard some footsteps and felt as someone tugged the hem of my shirt.

“Can you at least eat with us in the table…?” Yuu asked me.

I turned to her with a finger raised ready to make my point, but when confronted with the upturned eyes of hers, I flinched. That’s a really, REALLY low blow. Gritting my teeth while trying to resist the temptation. When I finally steeled myself, I took a deep breath and prepared to reject her.

“Oneg… Please?”

GODDAMIT!

I took a deep breath once again and stood up brusquely, making as much of a racket as I could with that. Yuu stared at me in shock for a moment, but before she could ask anything I simply picked my grub and started making my way to the door, grumbling angrily and how much of a unfair advantage she had when it came to persuasion.

Seeing as the girl skipped happily following me, Mari and Kotetsu made way for me as I walked over and let me pass and made my way to the neighboring house just in time to see as the maid was preparing to leave once again.

Ignoring her, I sat down before the only plate that was empty and went back to eating.

“Did you really need to do all that?” Mari asked confused as she sat down on the opposing side and besides Maya. Yuu took the seat besides me while her gramps took the edge of the table.

“Yes. Yes I had.” I said coldly.

“What did Gon do this time?” I heard Cygnas asking as the Hanbei-lookalike set her cellphone on the table.

“He just went out to buy food.” Mari said amused.

“...Huh? Didn’t Yami prepare food though?” The AI asked confused.

“That’s...” Yuu started, but I interrupted her with a sigh.

“Do you have… ANY idea of how I felt when I looked at the table, and saw that all the dishes… Were egg dishes?” I said while staring at the maid who looked away awkwardly. “ALL of them, not a SINGLE one was spared from the ATROCITY that this MONSTER… This… This… THIS BEING OF PUUUURE EEEEEEVIIIIIL COMMITTED!” I said angrily while pointing my fork at Maya. “I even had to go and buy me some clean food so I could eat!” I added finally while feeling tears fall from my eyes.

For a brief second, Cygnas simply stared blankly at me through the screen before suddenly doubling over and laughing her heart out at the situation. The others also started snickering at the scene while all I could do was sit down and grudgingly go back to eating.

While angrily munching on a piece of meat, my eyes landed on Kotetsu, seeing as he was also looking amused at the scene. Suddenly, a question appeared in my head, and feeling confused I frowned and asked.

“Aren’t you going to… You know… Say eat everything or something?” I asked the martial artist. “That kinda looks like a martial-artistsy thing to do.”

“Eh, everyone have their tastes. As long as you get proper nutrition, I couldn’t care less about what you eat or what you don’t eat.” The old man said with a shrug before going back to enjoying his own lunch.

“...Do your family have anything with building up a stereotype only to crush it later?” I asked confused.

“Haaah? What you mean?”

“I mean, Yuu here first looks like some kind of perfect princess, but after seeing her in real life, she’s actually surprisingly clumsy and don’t mind being a bit more at ease at her home. Not only that, but she literally scolded her father last time he came here. You make yourself be some kind of classical martial artist, wears kimono and all, but then you say you listen to rock ’n roll and Play games as a hobby and is surprisingly flexible with your methods.” I said a bit dubious.

“...I never noticed that...” Kotetsu replied amused before finally shrugging. “Eh, not that it makes any difference, I guess.”

I nodded in response and once again went back to eating. We chit-chatted a bit more afterwards, with the girls asking me about why I didn’t like eggs and Kotetsu talking with Cygnas with great curiosity.

I’m pretty sure I heard her accepting to be his disciple midway through their talk, but I was too distracted by having to explain how much of an abomination eating egg as a dish was to the girls to be certain.

Still, it is an amusing thought of having an AI being the apprentice of a martial artist. Should she one day go mad and decide to conquer the world with a robot army, we would have kung-fu robots running around.

“Wait, would it be Kung-fu robots or Kendo robots?” I asked my doubt out loud.

“Kendo Gon. It would be Kendo.” Cygnas replied almost instantly. I nodded in agreement before going back to eating.

“...Okay, enlighten me.” Maya said after some time.

“Gon was wondering if it would be either Kung-fu Robots or Kendo robots that would roam the world if I went mad after learning martial arts from Ronin and I decided to conquer the world.” The AI explained cheerfully.

“...And you understood from just that?” Mari asked surprised, to which Yuu also nodded confused.

“Well, yes? Didn’t you?”

“Not really…”

“Wait. Doesn’t this means that Cygnas-san actually thinks just like the Pervert?” Maya said in a surprised tone.

Then, an awkward silence followed, Cygnas smile froze on screen as she blinked a couple of times.

“...I probably should have my parents give me a check up. This might be serious.”

“OI! THAT WAS UNNEEDED!” I shouted angrily while pointing my fork at the screen. There was a couple of chuckles from the crowd while I sat down and grumbled annoyed until something came to mind. “Oh yeah. Cyg, didn’t you have something to talk with Yuu and me? About the reward or something?” I said as the memory came back to my mind.

“Me and Ri-Kun?” Yuu asked confused, while the other three also looked confused.

“What, is it an addition of a marriage system in game?” Kotetsu asked suddenly with a mischievous smile.

For a second the room went silent as everyone processed his words, before Yuu finally blushed and went “awawawawa” and started muttering things in Japanese again. Even I couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene with the others.

“Not really.” Cygnas said shaking her head, making Yuu calm down a bit. “That system is already implemented. All they need is a small ritual in any of the major cathedrals.” That AI! She’s getting really good at following jokes!

While feeling proud of the goddess wannabe for her leveling up her joking skill, Yuu once again became red faced and even fell face first into the table ashamed. Smiling amused, I couldn’t help but pat her a bit so she could calm down. Something that, as always, worked just fine.

“Anyway, no. It’s not about that.” Cyg said in a more serious tone. “It’s about the terrain and house as a payment you were offered.”

“Ah, I also heard about it.” Yuu said after recovering, before closing her eyes to enjoy the petting once more.

“Yeah, the thing is, since the rewards is split between the two of you, it would be faster to just explain when you are together like that.” The AI said while snapping her fingers and making a window share half of the screen with her. “You see, housing for players works a bit differently than how it works for Inhabitants. First off, since the players don’t need to worry about inhabitation too much, other types of benefits were added to make Housing something other than simple commodity.”

At her words, the window that shared the space with her suddenly appeared with a small image of what looked like a satellite shot from a small town/village. Atop of it came the words: County of Wichcrad.

Even then it took me a moment to link the photo with the village where we were staying.

“You see, the bonus you receive are dependent on the location of the house, and the quality of the house.” Cygnas explained in a cheerful tone. “Since the location is annexed to a village whose main forte is the mining and processing of ores, you’ll receive a ten percent bonus when it comes to smelting efficiency, and a five percent bonus to mining itself.”

At her words, the picture of the village was taken over by a bunch of small rectangles, where the small icon of what looked like an iron ingot followed by a +10% and a small piece of ore with a +5% appeared on the first top two slots. I blinked surprised and nodded while watching the presentation.

“Also, depending on the place where the house is built can also affect the bonus. Lord which mentioned a terrain on the outskirts, and while I can’t be exactly sure as it depends heavily on the location where the house is built, but we can estimate that the following bonus can also be applied.”

At her words, the symbol of a small plant, a piece of leather, fishing rod, wood-logs and berries appeared, all with the percentage bonus varying between zero and three percent. I blinked surprised at all the bonuses. Even if they were all minor, there was actually quite a bunch of them to the point that it can’t be ignored.

“These bonuses are all dependent on the position of the house. Should it be close to a plain with many monsters and far away from any large bodies of water, for example, the skinning bonus would reach its maximum value while the fishing bonus would be non-existent.”

“Booh, and here I thought I could become a master gatherer.” I said with a pout.

“But, these bonus do not look like much.” Yuu said with a frown.

“At first glance, yes. But it can stack up pretty quickly if it’s something you do with frequency. Much like how Gon is always mining and skinning.” Cygnas explained.

“Wait, do the skinning bonus also apply to the manual skinning?” I asked confused. I mean, don’t I already take everything from the monster?

“That’s...” Cygnas stopped to think for a moment, something that sincerely surprised me and the others. “That’s actually a good point. I didn’t think about that when implementing the system. I mean, what player would be insane enough to forego the looting of animals?” She said in a perfectly innocent tone while looking straight at me.

“Har, har…” I said annoyed.

“Anyway, this is somewhat of an oversight.” She said going back to serious mode. “Since this system is exclusive to players I didn’t have the chance to fix it yet.” She closed her eyes for a moment, counting up to three seconds before she was done. “There we go. Now manual gathering receive a bonus to quality instead of quantity.”

“Bonus to quality?” I asked confused.

“Yes. Now you have a small percent-based chance to earn a jump in quality after making the manual gathering.” She explained while bringing up a small animation of a golem carving out the skin of a generic-looking wolf. “Should you manage to get the upgrade, it will simply increase the rarity-rating of the piece by one. So, for example, should you manage to get a rare piece of leather by carefully skinning, AND the bonus activate, you would end up with an excellent piece of leather afterwards. That said, the bonus is individual per piece, so even if you don’t get an excellent leather, you can get an excellent claw.”

I nodded. So rather than a slight increase in overall quality, I have a bonus to simply “Boom” and upgrade. While it was a bit strange at first, after I thought how the quality of the piece is defined by how well I do the skinning process, it doesn’t sound that weird to be honest.

“I think I get it.” I said with a nod. “Say, some games give bonus for building certain facilities in their houses. Does this also apply?”

“Yes.” Cygnas nodded while bringing the animation to one of a small house with a very handsome looking golem besides it. “That said, these bonuses are a bit different from the previous two. First, they are highly and solely dependent on the facilities. So even if you upgrade the house as a whole, as long as you don’t upgrade… Say… The forge.” A small forge appeared besides the house animation, and the golem jumped cheerfully before jolting in and lit up the thing. Some cute smoke animations started popping up from the chimney. “... the bonus will stay the same. That said, you do need the facility before you even get access to the bonus.”

A plus ten appeared besides the animation, followed by the icon of a small anvil. The house changed to a bigger one, but the bonus continued the same.

“That said, the opposite is also true. Upgrade the forge without the house and you get the bonus anyway.” This time the forge became bigger and the house shrunk to the previous size, however, the bonus increased to fifteen percent. “But it should be noted that the crafting bonus is only applied to when you use the facilities in your house, that’s why they are so much more prominent than the others. Still, they can be replied in other places such as the hall of a crafting guild or something.”

I nodded in understanding. This basically meant that should I get some kind of amazing piece of material, it would be better if I managed to get back home.

“Don’t those buffs look strangely crafting-related?” Mari asked dubiously. “That means for a casual hunt-focused player, the bonus aren’t all really all that worthy.”

“That’s not the case.” Cygnas said by shaking her head. “There are also a few bonus for adventuring players too. For example, spending at least two in-game days inside your house or in the neighboring city gives you three in-game day’s worth of experience bonus. It’s also possible to build a training facility to train skills faster than simply using them in the wild, so it’s not entirely useless.”

“Then, what about teleporting spells?” Kotetsu asked making me blink surprised for a moment.

“Yes, these are also included. Players earn a property-exclusive spell that allows them to teleport back to their home once every three days.” She explained. “Also, using the spell again while at the house teleports the player back to where they were previously.” I see, so even traveling players could have some use. “However, should the player leave the house property or the neighboring village without using the spell or waiting for at least a week they earn a home-sickness debuff that decreases experience earned instead.” She explained seriously.

“Huh? How does that works?” I asked confused.

“Probably… So that people do not abuse the skill to travel around?” Yuu asked dubious. I widened my eyes and nodded, seeing as the AI agreed with the girl.

“Exactly. The point of the house isn’t so it can be used for traveling, instead it’s a place to sit down and relax.” She sighed.

“And… Correct me if I’m wrong, but this house is going to be split between Yuu and the boy?” Kotetsu asked curious, to which Cygnas nodded. “So, they are going to share the bonus or it will be split between them?”

“The bonus applies to the two of them.” Cygnas explained quickly. “However, both will also have administrative control over the house.”

“I see...” Kotetsu said with a nod. “Still, who’d guess that the little Yuu would make such a fast move.”

“Huh? What do you mean, Ojii-sama?” Yuu asked confused.

Well, Maya, Mari and me already knew what was going to happen, so we simply smiled mischievously or awkwardly. Depends on the person.

“I mean, you didn’t even marry the boy yet and already plans to move in together.” Kotetsu said with solemn nod. “I never expected you to grow up so fast.”

“O-OJII-SAMA!” Yuu said embarrassedly once again.

Is it just me, or does Kotetsu actually enjoy having Yuu angry with him? Well, it is fun to tease Yuu, so I don’t really have any right to say anything.

“Eeh… It’s kind of unfair that only Yuu and Ri-kun get the bonus.” Mari said sullenly while leaning her chin on the table. “Can’t they share it with us?”

“Yes, they can.” Cygnas replied immediately, making the little girl blink surprised for a moment.

“Wait, what?” She asked surprised.

“Well, for one, they could share the property with you. On the other hand, however, they could rent out the rooms for you. While the bonus would still be a bit smaller since the property isn’t yours, it’s still something that’s useful.” She explained with a brief nod.

“Heeh? So renting also works like that?” Mari asked surprised.

“Indeed. There are even some players who purposefully rented a house so they could enjoy the bonus.” Cygnas explained with a cheerful smile. “That said, no player owns a house as of now, and the only ones who actually have the money for that don’t really show any interest as of now.” She said with an amused smile.

“Wait, doesn’t Suppiles owns that building of his?” I asked confused, but Cyg shook her head.

“That’s a commerce. It’s… Similar, but different. While Argento was the first player to buy a commercial point, he’s certainly not alone.”

I leaned back on my chair so that I could think for a bit. Sincerely, after hearing all that, I must admit that the idea of having a house was actually surprisingly tempting. That said, I would have to deal with taxes and such.

“Well, it’s either this or money.” I said with a shrug. “So, what do you say, Yuu?” I asked the girl besides me, who suddenly blinked surprised.

“Huh? M-Me?” She asked.

“Yeah. I mean, the reward is split between us, and for me, either the money or the house is fine.” I said with a shrug. “So, what do you say?”

Huh? Throwing the responsibility on her shoulders? Who’s doing that? I’m simply taking her opinion on the matter.

However, much to my surprise, Yuu suddenly became serious and made a pensive pose while frowning slightly.

“Muu… If I were to be honest… The house would be the best choice.” She said briefly, but before I could do my usual energetic confirmation, Yuu went on. “On the plus side, we will have the increase in resource income, but even if we take it on the monetary side, it’s still a good investment. Seeing how the value of most things tend to fluctuate uncontrollably, terrain is actually surprisingly stable, and would usually tend to only grow in price as time goes one. Even more if we consider that the village seems to be flourishing and increasing.”

“...Waaaaah...” I said amused at serious-mode Yuu. She even had that slightly cold look to herself when she was serious. Looking around, the others were in a similar state. However, she wasn’t done just yet.

“Even then, should we want a more immediate income we could always receive the terrain and build a residence there ourselves. Seeing how the cost of production is actually lower than the selling costs, it would not be strange if we achieved a marginal increase in our profit by that alone.” She stopped for a moment to think. “Or, we could also rent out the room for other players at an accessible price after publicizing the benefits of having a house. This way we could use the income to expand the place and increase the bonus we receive ourselves. If we use Shishou’s name that seems to be famous, we could easily fill up our lots within a couple of days.” She took a deep breath and turned back to her calmer self, giving a bright smile. “Hnn. The house seems to be a safe option.”

All of us simply stared in shock at Yuu, not knowing exactly how to react to her sudden economic class. Well, Kotetsu was smiling amused, but otherwise we were all surprised. Noticing this, the black-haired girl started becoming embarrassed and looked down.

“I-Is that no good?”

“...Nah. I just didn’t expect you to go all Logic-fu on me like that.” I said amazed before laughing and petting her so she could calm down. “Yeah, looks like we are getting a house.”

“Ooh. That’s good.” Kotetsu said cheerfully. “That means we have a place where we can train you in martial arts all we want.” He nodded to himself. “Just you wait till I get there and we can start immediately.”

“Ermm… Ronin-san.” Cygnas called him a bit awkwardly. The old man blinked surprised and turned to her confused. “The last time you logged off, you were in Eldor, right?”

“Why, yes?” He said confused.

“...Didn’t Gon tell you where he is right now?”

“Hmm...” The old man stopped to think for a moment while I couldn’t help but look away with a snicker. Yuu smiled awkwardly as she foresaw what was about to happen. “He did say that he was traveling, if I recall correctly.”

“Yes…” Cygnas said with a wry smile, then she brought up the map of the village up again and started zooming it out. “But you see… This is where Gon is right now.” She said while the map kept on zooming and zooming out. Kotetsu’s amusement quickly became shock as the sight of the village becoming a dot and the capital finally appearing up in the map while marked in red to highlight it so it would stand out from other mountains. “And that’s where you are…”

For a few seconds, silence fell on the room as the old man looked at the map, then he looked at me with a mix of a blank and a surprised stare. Then back to the map, then back to me.

“...You are in a coastal village...” He said, I nodded while hiding my smile with my hand. “...You are going to cross the sea...” I nodded once again. “...You said that we would start once we met...” Another nod. “...You set me up...”

“I plead innocent!” I said while making my best serious face.

“OBJECTION!” The old man said while standing up and pointing at me. “You knew this was going to happen, you little fox!” He said, surprisingly sound amused.

“Wait, don’t throw the blame on Yuu now!” I said in a fake anger.

He held back a laugh before looking between me and the map. After a few seconds of hesitation, he finally turned back to me as dangerous fire burned in his eyes.

“I would love to teach you a lesson now… But you really got my blood boiling right now.” He said with a smile.

“Wa-Wait, you don’t mean...”

“See you in a few days, boy!” He said while storming out of the girl’s apartment and darting towards mine.

We simply stared at him in shock for a few seconds while I wondered what had happened.

“He isn’t… he isn’t going to run all that way by foot, is he?” I asked dubiously.

“...I think he will...” Yuu said with a wry smile.

While I started praying to the great goddess Cygnas that whatever was stopping the ships from leaving would calm down soon, I started giving second thoughts to my choices.

“Ah! I almost forgot!” Cygnas said suddenly.

“Huh? What?” I asked confused, worrying for more bad news.

“You can also set for your pets to go to the house when you log out!”

OI! THAT WAS ANTICLIMACTIC!

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Quizzer’s corner: Okay, two questions again, an easy and a hard one. Each question is worth one cookie, plus a bonus one.

Let’s go! Two more questions this time! First, an easy one. Sol taught Gon many things about alchemy in the time he stayed at Eldor, but what was the FIRST thing Gon ever saw her creating?

That was the easy one. For a more subtle one now. Gon have an arsenal of skills that are a pain to remember, varying from movement skills, forgotten crafting techniques and odd Attack ones. However, of all his skills, only one attacking skill actually ignores the enemy armor. Which one? (I’ll be surprised if someone gets this one right tbh… So, as an extra, if someone can give me the proof, you get an extra cookie. Even if someone else gets the question's cookie)