30. Disposing The Skill Book

This is also my first time talking to a girl with a happy-go-lucky attitude.

"?" Jasmine tilted her head a bit, her face still maintaining her radiant smile.

It doesn't seem like she knew what I was about to say.

Jasmine placed her bandaged hand on top of mine, which happened to be clutching onto my knees.

"Jokes aside, I really think we should get moving now if we want to get those potions as soon as possible," she gently tightened her grip on my hand.

She might have a happy-go-lucky attitude but she can be serious when she wants to be.

I nodded and she smiled once again.

My main objective as always is to complete the quest [Don't Die.] and to do that, I'll need to make sure I'm in the best possible state to keep myself alive.

Fighting against wolves, kobolds and goblins won't be easy in our current state if we were to act on our own.

Helping and watching each other's backs is the only way we can achieve our goal of obtaining the potions.

I still do not fully trust her but I have no choice but to form a temporary alliance with Jasmine.

For now, our target aligns in the form of getting a healing potion.

___

The sound of wood crackling in the fire was heard from the fire pit with Jasmine standing right in front of it.

"You should have this," I gave Jasmine my only skill book.

In comparison to what she has done for me, this was nothing.

I've learned two skills already and I am yet to even have an experience point of 300.

I'm probably among the few players with this kind of luck.

Moreover, she provided me with clothing, food, and a place to shelter while I was recuperating.

The clothing seems to have been in the cabin initially.

A pair of men's and women's modern-day attire was found in the cabin when Jasmine first got here.

At the time, she wore a ragged tunic just like everyone else.

"Thank you," Jasmine gleefully received the skill book.

Now, she has the [Hand-to-hand combat] skill added to her list of acquired skills.

"W... What are you doing?" I asked, seeing as how Jasmine tossed her three skill books into the fire, in addition to the one I gave her just now.

"Huh? Since I've acquired the skill, the skill book is useless to me now," She shrugged.

"What?!"

"Have you ever since the number of dead bodies piling up in the labyrinth? The number of useless skill books hovering above those dead players isn't something pleasant to see either,"

"Yeah, Okay I get that but don't you think we should still hold on to it in case we might need it later in the future?"

" I highly doubt that. I've been reopening my skill books for the past two days, thinking it could improve my skills proficiency but it didn't,"

She continued. "Besides, It's better to see it burn than to know someone else will acquire my skill books the moment I die,"

Ah!! All the skill books are gone. There's not a single one remaining.

"Hold this," She offered me two Ingot bronze, a wolf claw, and a wolf fang from her inventory.

Then she sat on the log and collected all the items back.

The items turned out to be the recipe for a bronze sword.

[Crafting recipe! Bronze Sword recipe: Ingot bronze (x2); Wolf claws (x1); Wolf fang (x1).]

Jasmine crafted the weapon with relative ease and dexterity.

Later, a bronze sword materializes before her.

"Here, take this," She offered the sword to me.

"Thanks?"

"Every penny you have in your inventory is really important. You have to be careful with how you spend your funds if you want to get your hands on the healing potion,"

I nodded in understanding.

The aura surrounding her seemed different from the usual jovial kind. It changed from one talking too freely to a close friend to one who doesn't want to see someone dear to her die.

A nostalgic feeling of experiencing something similar to my mom surfaced in my mind.

Since she has all the necessary items needed to craft a bronze sword, it would be wise for me to allow Jasmine to craft the item rather than wasting fifty gold coins to buy a bronze sword recipe.

Unlike the skill books, crafting recipes can't be shared with other players.

'Hehe..... I guess having a partner in this messed up game does have its benefits,'

I instinctively smiled to myself while staring at the sharp double-edged bronze sword.

The sword looked like a Spatha used by Romans in ancient times.

"What kind of weapons do you like?"

"Um, I prefer long-range weapons. I mean, weapons that have to do with precision. It's a lot better to kill my enemies far away from me as possible,"

"Oh! I understand," She nodded, then added.

"Then we better save a lot of gold coins to get you a brand new weapon,"

She seems to be using the word 'us' and 'we' a lot lately.

Jasmine poured a bowl of water onto the burning firewood to extinguish it.

A sizzling and hissing sound was heard before a few steam flowed out of the wood.

Since we were done with our meals, we decided to head straight to the truck.

I'm getting a bit impatient myself. I can't wait to discard these bandages.

I want to get my hands on a healing potion.

"Um, what about you? What kind of weapons do you like to use?"

This time around, I was the one asking the question.

"Swords," Jasmine gave a direct response.

"Swords?"

"Yeah, swords. But not these types of swords," Jasmine pointed to the bronze sword I held.

She continued. " I prefer a katana but right now it is too expensive for me to purchase. As an alternative, I would prefer to have a crossbow or something similar to it,"

"What about you? Aside from a pistol, there must be something else you prefer to use as an alternative,"

To be honest, I haven't thought about acquiring an alternative weapon.

If I were to have one, it would probably be something similar to a pistol.

A long-range weapon that is effective from a far distance.

"Something like a Slingshot?" She inquired.

" Yeah, I guess,"

"Oh, I saw a couple of weapons similar to a slingshot, so I'm certain you'll love them as well,"

The chitchat continued a bit more as we prepared everything we'll need for our departure.

"So, how do we know exactly where we are going?" I asked.

"There's a map in the truck,"

"Oh? Okay,"

The map is part of the materials found in a kobold cave.

And each map leads to the Minotaur labyrinth and a couple of other kobold caves.

I only agreed to join her because of the potions and because the kobold caves are where we will be heading the most.

But as for the labyrinth, I still think it's a suicide mission.

And I very much value my own life.

Let all the i.d.i.o.t.s wanting to obtain the reward of the labyrinth head out there in my stead.

I'll be glad to know the mortality rate keeps increasing because of the labyrinth.

Anyway, We both entered the truck.

I took the map from the backseat and opened it to see if there were any other locations aside from the forest.

But the map only gives the precise location of where other caves were in the forest alone.

The location of the labyrinth was there as well.

Surprisingly, Jasmine was good at driving but she gave all the praise to her sister.

Come to think of it, she expressed a weird kind of love toward having a little sister.

So she had an elder sister huh?

I'm guessing she is an amazing person for Jasmine to smile upon mentioning her sister.

"So, um? You can't wait to return home to your sister too right?"

" She's dead,"

That was a surprisingly deadpan response.

She sounded unlike her usual self when she talked just now, so I didn't pry on the topic any longer.

I'm thinking it's a sensitive topic for her.

Scanning through the map, I noticed Jasmine had ticked out the remaining caves she knew were still existing on the map.

She made good use of the previous two days I used to heal myself.

"We'll be heading towards here first," Jasmine pointed at a spot on the map.

We drove and aimed toward all the caves scattered around the forest, starting with the one she pointed to.

___

Several hours passed, and I found myself standing before ten growling wolves with their intimidating fangs bared out in rage.

My left arm was still comfortably tucked in a sling while my right arm, holding a sword had droplets of crimson liquid trickling down towards the edges of my blade and dripping down to the ground.

The side of my face had a scar, caused directly by a wolf.

The thumbing beat of my heartbeat hastened in pace as I muttered in rage with gnashed teeth tinted in blood.

"F***. I can't believe Jasmine lied to me,"

_________

The total number of players currently in the game: 78,460.

The number of deceased players: 56.

The total number of deceased players: 1,540.