Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 59: Before the conquest (1)

[Stat points: (Yoo Chaerin)]

[Strength: 32]

[Intelligence: 52 (+5)]

[Agility: 24]

[Physique: 30 (+5)]

[Stat points available: 15]

My smile instantly got wide upon seeing the tremendous increase of my stats compared to when I first came here. I was probably comparable to Jeanne now, if I exclude our experience. After all, fighting monsters were different compared to fighting humans. I had little experience with the former, unlike Jeanne... And perhaps, she would have already grown stronger by now, too.

After selling today's loots, my gold totaled about 8500, which was a lot compared to yesterday's farming.

"Shop." I whispered quietly.

'Ding!'

A familiar screen appeared in front of me, and I began searching for a certain item. If there was anything I knew about games, it was that equipment were important. Since that eel said that he'd get me a gun, then my primary concern should be either a secondary, smaller weapon, or armors.

"Hmm... Most of the armors are either ugly or too heavy-looking..." I sighed. It would be nice if there was a light, flexible armor that I could use.

"Oh? This one's unique." I raised one of my eyebrows when I saw a weird item mixed among the armors section.

[Black Dragon's Gem (equip: armor)]

[A gem containing the defensive prowess of a black dragon. Attach it anywhere, activate it with mana, and the blessing of the black dragon will be with you, even if your eyes can't see it. +15 Physique]

Hmm, at first sight, this thing seemed too good to be true, and it might just be. For a mere 3000 gold, 15 physique was a blessing. But if I was to read the description carefully, it said 'activate it with mana'.

As I continued patting Luke lightly to comfort him while he sleeps, I wondered if it was worth it to drain my mana while using this armor. I mean, Elena and Luke did say that my mana pool increased by a lot, so might as well, right? Since other armors with the same stat were astronomically expensive compared to this one.

[Would you like to purchase the item 'Black Dragon's Gem' for 3000 gold?]

"Yep." I nodded, and the item popped up inside my inventory as my gold count dropped to 5500 gold.

Once I took out the item, I was so surprised by how light it was. Even though it was armor, but it was actually more like a brooch. It had this intricate golden rim around the beautiful black jewel. Upon closer inspection, there was something red glowing inside the jewel, but it wasn't very distinct, almost like a puff of glowy red smoke.

[Would you like to equip the item 'Black Dragon's Gem'?]

Of course my answer was yes. In an instant, the brooch that was inside my arm disappeared, and materialized again on my chest, right where the v-neck started.

"So how do I activate this...?" I wondered as I poked it a few times, heeding no result. I tried a different approach and flowed my mana directly into it as I did with my previous gun, and sure enough, it worked like a charm.

A dark red aura began enveloping my whole body ever so slightly that it was almost invisible to my eyes. Scales of various sizes made up the armor, and they weren't heavy nor stiff at all. Perhaps it was because they were made of mana. The best thing was, these mana scales were practically invisible unless I really tried to look. Thank god I didn't have to walk around in a silly outfit.

"Hehe." I hummed to myself as I tried to move my arm around in weird angles to try its flexibility, which heeded great results.

Just as I was about to try moving more, I felt Luke shift in his sleep, and immediately refrained from moving too much to not wake him up.

"I guess we'll really call it a day now, eh?" I smiled and closed my eyes, but not before I removed the sash Luke gave me earlier and used it to cover his little snake body.

--------

"Hey. Wake up."

Ugh... Was that Luke's voice I heard?

"Kid, wake up."

"Ah, shut up..." I rolled on my side, expecting blades of grass to touch my hand, but instead, it felt... Sturdy?

"Hey, where are your manners?"

'Smack!'

"Ow!" I yelled as I felt something hit my head.

"That's why you should respect your big bro. Now come on, wake up. You said we have to leave at dawn." He shook my shoulders roughly to snap me out of my soulless slumber.

"I get it, I get it!" I grabbed his hands to make him stop, "I'm used to waking up early, you don't have to yell!"

"Lies. You didn't wake up even though I called you a few times." He said with a frown.

"That's because you were the one calling. Go back into your snake form or something."

"You can't say that after you used my hand as a pillow this whole time." He smirked.

"I did what!?" So that was why it felt sturdy!

"Don't worry about it. Come on, I've cooked breakfast. We gotta get moving."

I didn't have time to retaliate as he shoved some roasted meat into my mouth like he did yesterday, complete with the 'chew carefully' speech, too. After I was done swallowing all of them, we started to walk towards the town's gate again to sneak in while the sky was still dark without the huge flaming shiny ball called sun up in the sky.

"Don't forget this." He abruptly said as we walked back. He draped his sash around my shoulder again to cover my entire back.

"Ah, thank you." I pulled the fabric closer and silently stared at his back. I almost forgot that I took off the sash last night to cover him. I didn't think he would notice, though.

...It kinda felt nice when someone remembered something about you. Well, it probably had to do with me overreacting yesterday too, though. That would surely leave an impression.

"Ah..." I ruffled my hair in frustration. That was so embarrassing! How could I lose my cool like that?

"What's wrong with you this time?" He stared at me with a weird expression.

"Nothing." I kicked his calf lightly, prompting him to continue walking.

He just shrugged it off as we started to inch closer towards the gate.

--------

"Elena! I'm baaack!" I happily exclaimed as I landed onto a beanbag chair right after I entered the painting that was secretly a portal.

"Oh? Right on time~" Her plump red lips curved into a smile.

"How-- WHAT!?" I shouted as I saw something, no someone, that looked exactly like me just sitting there, expressionless and without moving an inch.

"Oh, that's a fake you." Elena said as he offered me a glass of iced tea.

"My brain is pea-sized right now, could you please explain using pea-brain terms?" I asked, still confused and surprised.

"You threw in that tracking bracelet for me to take care, how mean~" She teased me and put her finger on my chin, forcing me to look up at her beautiful face, "that bracelet was skillfully made. It tracks you based on your mana flow around your body. So if I was to put it on, it would be obvious that the wearer has changed."

"Huh??" I was still trying to digest what she had just said, which was hard considering I was too busy being shocked at my doppelganger.

"That's merely my illusion, dear. You're not trained enough to escape my illusion yet, it seems." She chuckled and snapped her finger, which made the doppelganger disappear.

"Ah! Now I understand!" I clapped my hands together.

"Here, put this on again," she picked up the bracelet that fell on the floor when the doppelganger disappeared, and wrapped it around my wrist, "we don't have much time. Let's start the class."

"What class?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"I'm gonna teach you all you need to know to face those elves." She smirked.

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