022. Dragon Palace
A fairly large Hostile Gate appeared on Sol Island.
From inside it poured grotesque monsters twisted together with marine trash.
They were small.
But there were a lot of them.
The thick sea fog also made visibility terrible.
Even so...
I did not think this would be a difficult battle.
“Good. Relax and finish this quickly. Daldal. Orlan. Ready? Command Window!”
[Command Window.]
I stared at the Command Window.
Instead of Daldal and Orlan, I checked the skills belonging to Yang Suho, the Tamer.
After defeating the Poison Slime and leveling up, I had gained a new skill.
It seemed perfect for a situation like this.
“Wide-Area Command Mode.”
Flash!
A transparent interface appeared in front of me, like something used by a certain armored superhero.
[Information: Wide-Area Command Mode Lv. 1 active. Targets will lock according to the user’s gaze.]
Just as the Command Window explained, small arrow-shaped marks appeared above every monster I looked at.
And that information was immediately transmitted to Daldal and Orlan.
!!
“Oh!”
The Tamer and Partners could cover each other’s blind spots.
That allowed precise wide-area attacks.
“Go! Daldal, Sea Trash Cleanup! Orlan, Raptor Footwork!”
Flash!
Papapapap!
Daldal transformed into a gray wind and rushed through the small monsters.
His fangs sliced them apart one after another.
Without Wide-Area Command Mode, I would never have been able to follow his movement.
The monsters collapsed before they could react.
Meanwhile, Orlan elegantly toyed with enemies from the opposite side.
Whenever monsters charged at him, he lifted himself with only a tiny flap of his wings.
Then he struck the idiots staring upward with sharp tornado-like talon attacks!
Their fighting styles were completely different.
But both were incredibly effective.
The downside was that fighting so many monsters consumed a huge amount of Mana.
“Managing that is probably my job.”
I stretched out my hand and pointed at Daldal, whose Mana was running low.
Then I signaled for him to come to me.
[Tamer Skill: Attack Coordination active.]
Peeeeep!
Daldal quickly ran over and jumped into my arms.
I immediately rubbed both his cheeks and stroked his entire body.
Peeeeeh...
[Translation: Ahhh, feels good...]
Then...
[Information: Partner Daldal’s Mana rapid recharge complete.]
[Information: A portion of the Tamer’s Mana has been consumed.]
The Mana that had been sleeping uselessly inside me rushed into Daldal.
Pee-yoot! Peet-peeeep!
[Translation: Full energy!]
Now recharged, Daldal quickly ran back toward the enemies.
And...
“Ahem...”
“Come on. Hurry over, Orlan.”
“Hehehe... Peep, peep...”
I transferred Mana to Orlan too.
He looked strangely pleased.
Was it really that enjoyable?
And finally...
[Information: Hostile Gate destruction confirmed.]
At the same time the sea fog cleared, the battle ended in our victory.
Daldal and Orlan’s abilities spoke for themselves.
More importantly, I was starting to understand what I needed to do during battle as a Tamer.
That was reassuring.
If only the Status Window broadcast system had not broken, I could have edited the battle and uploaded it immediately.
What a shame!
“I’m becoming a full-on streamer.”
After finishing the battle, we headed toward the shrine on the hill of Sol Island.
But...
“Good grief. It’s practically collapsing.”
Even at a glance, the condition was terrible.
The pillars and rafters were so old they were barely avoiding collapse.
More than half of the roof tiles were already gone.
The signboard reading Dragon King Shrine was broken in half and lying on the ground.
“This is overwhelming.”
I looked around and saw many roof tiles scattered nearby.
They had probably been blown away by the strong coastal winds.
The inside was filled with dust and spiderwebs.
Most importantly...
“Haa...”
Peeeeep, peep...
[Translation: Dragon King...]
“Good grief. Even the sacred portrait of the Dragon King... Peep...”
The mural showing the Dragon King had mold in several places.
The paint was peeling too.
Could I really restore this cleanly?
Shouldn’t a professional cultural restoration expert be doing this?
I began to doubt whether I should even attempt the Quest like this.
But...
Peep... Peep...
[Translation: Sad. Sad.]
“To think the Dragon King Shrine reached this state without us knowing. Peep. Our failure... Our failure... We should have paid more attention to the mortal world...”
Seeing how heartbroken the children were made me even less willing to ignore it.
Fine.
Maybe I could not restore it perfectly.
But if I worked carefully and sincerely, maybe things would somehow work out.
Good.
I was not completely helpless with my hands.
I would figure something out.
Let’s buy useful things from the Awakened Shop.
Determined to repair the shrine during the remaining time, I began buying useful Items one by one from the Awakened Shop.
Fortunately, I had already bookmarked many things that seemed useful for repairing the farm cabin and fish farm.
A mysterious woodworking glue that restored broken wood to its original form.
A Plantain Fan, imitation version, that removed dust and spiderwebs with a single wave.
Various other repair tools.
Using them, we slowly restored the shrine.
Surprisingly, the Awakened Shop had many Items useful for building repairs.
The shrine restoration went much better than expected.
The only thing left was...
“Phew.”
The faded mural of the Dragon King.
She wore luxurious robes decorated with bright blue cloth and golden ornaments.
She looked forward gently with golden eyes.
It was very different from the image of a Dragon King I had always imagined.
It looked closer to a royal portrait of a queen.
But the sea was huge.
There could be a Dragon King like this too.
Fortunately, the original sketch was still completely visible.
It seemed like I only needed to repaint the colors.
The problem was...
“Am I really allowed to touch this?”
Peet-peeeep! Peet-peeeep!
[Translation: Let’s do it! No risk, no reward!]
“If you only repaint the damaged sections... Peep... It should... probably... be fine! Peep!”
Hmm...
I did not know a single thing about painting.
Could someone like me really repair a mural?
Still, the one who asked me to repair it was the Dragon King herself.
And the Quest timer was still moving.
That meant the painting probably did need restoration.
In that case...
Gulp.
Let’s do it.
I boldly picked up a brush.
I dipped it into paint bought from the Awakened Shop.
Then I immediately began painting over the mural!
“Agh!”
“Agh!”
Peeek!
“That came out great.”
......
