Ch 19

"Smoothly seems a bit too much," Takumi thought. "Now, it appears that all of this didn't come without a cost."

Takumi hadn't suffered any harm from anyone; that was for sure. Neither the Abyss Mages nor Dvalin's frenzied attacks had caused him any harm. So, this injury must have originated from within himself.

Venti's gaze lowered, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt. As the Anemo Archon, he understood these self-inflicted wounds all too well, along with the side effects of using power. When Takumi had mentioned he might be better suited as a game hall owner, it wasn't just casual politeness; there was a reason behind it.

Jean had also realized this. Regardless of Takumi's true identity, all he wanted now was to be an ordinary shop owner. Yet, they had forcibly dragged Takumi into this vortex, causing him to use his formidable power and exacerbating his wounds. Jean couldn't help but feel selfish and made a silent vow that in the future, she would unconditionally accept any request from Takumi, in the name of the dandelion.

"Takumi... for any future needs... Dvalin the dragon... Dvalin... I'll be at your beck and call!" Venti was originally moved and guilty, thinking about how to repay Takumi. However, Dvalin's words broke his guard down completely. "At your beck and call? You could've just said you want to be Takumi's follower."

Venti sighed inwardly. Well, his heart of a god had already been taken by Rosalyne, and it was probably in the hands of the Cryo Archon now. Since he had chosen to be a bard, he should give Dvalin the blessing of freedom.

Things were resolved satisfactorily. Dvalin carried everyone back outside of Mondstadt. The storm had subsided, and the dragon's calamity had ended. There were many tasks ahead. Jean needed to organize them and inform the people of Mondstadt, while Venti planned to get some apple cider to celebrate. He had been busy with Dvalin's matters for a while, and now he could finally relax.

Lisa helped Takumi tidy up his clothes, gazing at him with eyes as gentle as water. She spoke, "In the future, you can come to me for anything. Remember, it's 'anything.'" Being the Rose Witch, she embodied this perfect blend of maturity and charm that only she could pull off.

Back at the game hall, Eula was sitting at the front desk. She was excited to see Takumi return safely. "I heard from the Knights of Favonius that you went with Captain Jean to hunt the Windborne Dragon." She continued, "I was worried, but here you are, Boss!"

Takumi wrapped his arm around Eula's waist.

"Only one hand is needed to embrace it all," he thought, and the ample curves in this figure would surely overwhelm any man. He needed to be careful; indulging further might lead to unwanted desires. Being in the lobby on the first floor during broad daylight was clearly not the right setting for such thoughts.

"Cough, cough... the matter with the Windborne Dragon has been successfully resolved. The Knights of Favonius should release an announcement shortly," Takumi said.

Eula's face turned slightly red as she poured a glass of warm water for Takumi. "By the way, boss, the neighboring shop has already begun renovations. They've hired professionals from outside the Knights of Favonius, and it should be completed by the end of this month."

"Well, that's good news. It'll save us a lot of effort," Takumi replied.

After giving some simple instructions, Takumi headed upstairs to take a bath. He had a hint of a smile on his face as he looked at his well-proportioned and powerful body in the mirror. Thinking about today's "impromptu performance," he couldn't help but smile. The extent to which he had moved his body, combined with the power of the horse talisman spell, couldn't possibly have caused him to bleed. However, he didn't want Jean and the others to think that everything he did was effortless, even though it was indeed quite easy. If he didn't show some cost for using his power, there might be trouble in the future. Plus, it helped explain his invincible strength to them, leaving the impression that although he was powerful, he couldn't use this formidable power limitlessly. It made everything seem more reasonable. Sometimes, a slight change in approach could have a subtle effect and lead to unexpected results.

.....

After dinner, Lisa arrived at the game hall. She had heard that someone was catching up to her in terms of story progress, and her status as the number one player was about to be challenged. Lisa couldn't sit still at this point.

The lobby was already crowded at this time. The seat she often occupied was now taken by a young woman in her early twenties, with two young men of similar age standing behind her, watching attentively.

When the young woman saw Lisa, she immediately stood up. "Lisa sis, come sit here!"

"We learned how to play this game thanks to Lisa sis's explanations!"

"Lisa teacher, can you tell us how to clear Dvalin's domain?"

The young people were very enthusiastic, and Lisa was in a good mood today. She started explaining like a teacher. "First, in the beginning, you can use Venti's charged attack because..."

All three of them listened attentively, with the young woman even taking out a small notebook to jot down notes.

After covering the main points, one of the young men spoke up, "Lisa sis, you can play at this station, and we want to see what happens in the story after completing Act 3."

"Huh? Didn't you all already start preparing for Dvalin's storyline?" Lisa asked in confusion.

"No, we three are playing on a single account, and we've just started Act 3... We heard that the battle against Dvalin will be very challenging, so we wanted to take this opportunity to ask for your guidance."

"Yeah, we're really curious about what other quests there will be after finishing the main storyline," another young man chimed in.

"And we also want to see Lisa sis's gameplay," the three young people said, clearly treating Lisa as their teacher. Lisa didn't mind this feeling at all, and she was also curious. After eliminating the dragon calamity and saving Mondstadt, what would happen next?

Soon, Lisa logged into her own account, and there were two missions in her task list: "Razor, Little Wolf's Chapter, Act 1: The Significance of Lupical" and "Xiangling, Long-Shafted Chapter, Act 1: The Chef from Liyue."

Regarding Razor, many players were already quite familiar. He was considered the main DPS by many casual players and was hailed as the "DPS of the People." Due to his greatsword weapon and his Elemental Skill's ability to quickly mine ore, he was also known as the "First Miner." However, this familiarity was only in terms of Razor's gameplay mechanics. As for his background and origin, players knew very little. Some speculated that Razor was the young man who roamed the wolf territory. He never lived in Mondstadt, so no one had ever seen him. In this new mission, it seemed that Razor's identity would be revealed.

The three of them thought that Lisa would choose to complete this mission first since there were rumors that Lisa had a master-disciple relationship with Razor. As a teacher, Lisa should be concerned about her disciple's performance in the game's storyline, right? However, Lisa did not choose to do this mission or the second one involving Xiangling. Instead, she opened the task interface and selected the Legendary Quest option in the lower left corner.

Upon entering, they saw that it contained legendary quests for [Diluc], [Jean], [Klee], and [Venti]. The three of them were stunned. They hadn't realized that this option could be opened, and they were surprised to find character-specific legendary quests here.

Seeing their expressions, Lisa couldn't help but find it strange. "You didn't know? After completing the daily commissions eight times, you can receive a key to unlock legendary quests, which can be used to access the legendary quests inside."

The three of them looked at each other in astonishment.

They had never heard of this before. Everyone was busy with the storyline, and the better players were researching character data and abilities. Surprisingly, no one noticed this hidden... or rather, it was just there, but many considered it a collective term for all tasks. After a moment of bewilderment, the three of them couldn't help but be overjoyed. It had just begun, and through Lisa's actions, they had learned a small piece of knowledge in the game.

"Now we have one key that can unlock one of the legendary quests," Lisa said. Jean, Diluc, Klee, Venti. Lisa's gaze passed over each of the four people and ultimately settled on Venti's interface. Compared to the others, this bard was the least familiar to Lisa, but he was the most well-known among all Mondstadt residents—Barbatos, the Anemo Archon. After choosing to take on the appearance of Venti as a bard, would his legendary quest reveal some secrets about the Wind God? Even the three young people couldn't help but feel curious about it.

Unlocking the legendary quest, [Venti's Legend]. The mission prompt directed them to go somewhere in the Statue of the Seven Plaza.

"Look over there! Look over there!" Paimon exclaimed excitedly as she jumped out and pointed ahead. "That little girl, she's standing there alone, right? But she's clearly talking to someone else! Look, look, she even smiled! It's so creepy..."

....

"When I was a child, I used to play with [imaginary friends]," the Traveler explained in response to Paimon's astonishment.

"Wow, Traveler, did you used to do that too?"

"What did your imaginary friend look like? Show me!"

"Now I can't see them anymore."

As they chatted about imaginary friends, Venti walked up to the two of them. "Traveler, what a coincidence! You're here too."

"It's the street performer again!" Paimon greeted him unceremoniously.

Venti grinned, "It's because Lisa recently did something interesting."

"What Lisa calls 'interesting' makes me feel a bit scared," one of the young players commented with a suppressed laugh. This was probably a jest directed at Boss Takumi regarding Lisa's previous endeavors.

Lisa herself didn't pay much attention to it. She had indeed been enthusiastic about creating some "interesting" things in the past. However, after discovering this game hall, Lisa had focused most of her energy on playing games. To Lisa, this game was currently the most interesting thing in her life.

"Don't judge a lady like that," Venti explained. "To create this 'interesting' thing, she specifically obtained a batch of dangerous materials from the Abyss."

In front of the Traveler and Paimon, a device resembling a monocle appeared.

"This is a detection device. Regarding what you just mentioned, [imaginary friends], perhaps we can use this to see them!"

Upon hearing this, Paimon's interest was immediately piqued. So, the three of them decided to observe the imaginary friends of the people in the city together. The plot began with a touch of childlike innocence in this mundane setting.

To be honest, this style was somewhat different from what Lisa had initially envisioned. She thought that since it was a legendary quest related to the Wind God Barbatos, the overall storyline might become serious and supernatural, involving divine beings or demigods. Lisa had even prepared to record relevant information. However, the current situation had the Traveler, Paimon, and Venti together, holding the detection device she had created, to observe the imaginary friends of the townspeople. It was a bit of a mild letdown.

However, Lisa quickly suppressed this emotion. She knew that Takumi would not design a relatively mundane legendary quest like this. According to convention, there might be many hidden details in the observation process.

First, they tried observing the little girl in the plaza. Her imaginary friend was a girl of similar age, and they were playing happily together. Then, they went to find Flora, the owner of the Mondstadt flower shop. Her imaginary friend was a Dandelion Seed. In the game, interacting with this plant would release three balloons, and when they were popped, a treasure chest would appear.

"It seems that imaginary friends are not limited to just people," Lisa remarked. Next, the three of them came to the bridge outside Mondstadt. On the bridge was a young boy named Timmie, not far from where pigeons respawned.

Currently, it was the resource gathering period, and players had a great demand for healing food. Among them, Sweet Madame was the most convenient and efficient choice, and it was highly favored by players. Sweet Flowers were easy to find in the wild, but another ingredient, poultry, was somewhat scarce. One player passing by Mondstadt Bridge happened to discover that the pigeons in front of Timmie could be killed, and they respawned quickly, yielding several pieces of poultry with each kill.

From then on, it became unstoppable. Basically, killing pigeons in front of Timmie had become a daily routine for many players. Timmie was also renowned as the "Number One Poultry Supplier in Mondstadt." And now, under the observation of the detection glasses, Timmie's imaginary friend turned out to be a Ruin Guard!

"Oh, it's so scary... Will it attack us?" Perhaps because she had killed too many pigeons on a regular basis, Paimon felt a little guilty at this moment.

"Haha, are you giving up on communicating with little Timmie?" Venti laughed.

The Traveler said, "Paimon, say what you want to say!"

"Me? What should I say?"

"Let's explore the area ahead later!"

Paimon: "..."

Seeing this, the three young players couldn't help but laugh, and Lisa also smiled. It seemed like an official inside joke.

After looking at the imaginary friends of a few children, Paimon couldn't help but sigh at the rich imagination of kids.

Since that was the case, they decided to go to the tavern to see how the adults were doing. Soon, they arrived at the "Angel's Share" tavern. Diluc, Kaeya, and two other people were drinking at a table outside the tavern. The Traveler took the opportunity to observe from a distance. However, they didn't see anything.

"Just as I told you, the adults don't have imaginary friends," Lisa remarked.

"Do people lose their dreams as they grow up? I don't want to grow up!" Paimon whined.

"In that case, how long do the imaginary friends of young boys and girls usually last? Let's go and find out!" Venti proposed.

Near the Knights of Favonius, there was a good choice. A girl named Eileen often practiced swordsmanship at the training grounds.

....

"Eileen, come take a look! You're actually in this storyline!" The female player behind Lisa called out.

It was already a common understanding that many real people or things from Mondstadt would be recreated in the game. However, it seemed that only holders of the Vision of the Sustainer or important characters had the opportunity to appear in the game. The three young players who were following Lisa and studying with her were obviously quite familiar with Eileen. Upon seeing this scene, they immediately excitedly called Eileen over to take a look.

Before, Eileen had been diligently practicing swordsmanship in her efforts to become a true knight. However, after the mobile game became popular throughout the city, she decided to give it a try. Unexpectedly, she found that she could control the character of Acting Grand Master Jean in the game. Eileen naturally became a die-hard fan of Jean. Even if she didn't do anything else, just watching Jean in the party made her smile with joy.

So, in her spare time from sword practice, she often came to the mobile game center. She logged into her account, controlling the Jean she admired and freely exploring the vast game world. Just now, upon hearing her companions' voices, Eileen was somewhat surprised. She put down her phone and walked over.

"What are you talking about? I'm just an ordinary person, not even a real knight. How could I possibly appear in the game?"

"Don't believe me? Take a look!" Following her companions' directions, Eileen saw herself on the phone screen. She couldn't help but feel a sense of disbelief and even a bit flattered. In the image, she was in the practice swordsmanship field just like in her daily life, but there was a shining figure of Acting Grand Master Jean in front of her.