Chapter Five
Half the Size, Twice the Personality
I stepped into the portal of the boss room to begin the next step of my adventure.
[Exiting Dungeon]
[You have successfully completed Cave of New Beginnings]
[Rewards received for completion: New Adventure’s Ring | Completion Badge (Cave of New Beginnings)]
The ring was nice to have since it gave a stat boost to basically everything, and the completion badge was purely for show and only showed up on the shareable status card to show off progress.
I still made sure to check the ring, though.
//New Adventure’s Ring
//Type: Accessory [Ring] (Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 1
//5 Vitality | 5 Intelligence | 5 Strength | 5 Wisdom | 5 Dexterity | 5 Charisma | 5 Luck
//Proof that you have taken the first step as an adventurer.
They were rewards I received over two hundred times before.
But I still couldn’t stop smiling from getting them.
Then, after just a few seconds of standing in the portal, the scenery of the cave was replaced by the sight of a bustling city of fantasy filled with people, a bright blue sky overhead, and the sun’s warmth that felt better than I knew was possible to bask in.
[Hero’s Legacy]
The name of the city popped up in my vision. It was a fitting name for a city founded in honor of legendary heroes from centuries ago.
There was a time when I had something that I could call a home, but I had no good memories of it. Then all I had after my childhood was the hospital and nursing home.
That was a prison, not a home.
But now, for the first time that I could remember, I truly felt home.
“Hey!” Rosie shouted, running up to me. “People are going to get the wrong idea if you start crying right after getting back!”
“Sorry, sorry,” I said, wiping the back of my right hand over my eyes. “I’m just… unbelievably happy.”
“Well… I won’t stop you from crying. Heh. You look like someone who just made it home after a long journey.”
“That’s exactly how it feels. I have to wonder if it’s even alright for me to feel this happy.”
“There’s no laws against happiness. And if there are, we’ll go punish whoever made them and make them change the laws.” Rosie stood at my side and gave me a pat on my back.
“Sounds good to—”
“Rosie!” shouted an unfamiliar voice coming from an older man who was running straight for Rosie.
My first thought was to get in the way, but Rosie left my side to charge toward him with equal speed. “Dad!” she shouted.
The commotion attracted plenty of eyes toward them, and the attention on the duo only grew once Rosie crashed into the guy who was even shorter than her, knocking him over and landing on top of him for a hug.
Fortunately, her plaid skirt was just long enough to stop her from flashing everyone.
“I’ve been waiting this whole time! Are you alright? Did you get hurt? If you’re here, that means you cleared the dungeon, right? Did you beat it on your first try?!”
“Hehe, I did! And I’m fine, I’m fine!”
“Oh, thank the goddess!”
The two of them were clearly having a happy moment together that I didn’t want to interrupt, so I figured I’d leave and find Rosie later or—
“Oh! I want you to meet my new partner!” Rosie shouted, dragging her dad up off the ground to bring him over to me.
Now that he was closer, I could see just how short her dad was. Rosie was probably around 5’2” which meant her dad must have been around… 4’7”? Maybe less? His ears were also slightly elongated to set him apart from a human.
He must have been a halfling. He was tall for a halfling, but still a halfling. If it wasn’t for the mustache hanging over his upper lip, I could have mistaken him for someone even younger than Rosie.
Huh, thinking about it… aside from Rosie, every single other holstaur in the game was at least six feet tall.
If Rosie’s dad was a halfling, then her mom had to be the holstaur, which meant…
The older, short man in front of me was a true mountain climber.
“Dad, this is Sev,” Rosie said. “We met in the dungeon. He saved me and then we beat the boss together!”
Her dad let go of her to quickly grab onto my hand with both of his for an excited shake. “Thank you for taking care of my daughter!”
Even with both of his hands, he wasn’t close to covering my one hand.
Still, I did my best to shake back, though I felt like I was shaking a little kid’s hand instead of an older man’s.
“She helped me out, too, so thanks for raising her to be so cool.” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say, so I went with the first thing that came to mind.
“My Rosie really is the coolest, isn’t she?! Ah, of course, Sophie—my other daughter—is just as incredible!” He was clearly a man who didn’t want to put one daughter above the other. I respected that.
I really, really did.
“Geez, c’mon,” Rosie told him. “You look like you’re about to cry, Dad.”
“Of course I am!” her dad shouted. “My little Rosie is all grown up! And now she’s finished her first dungeon and already brought home a potential husband!”
“Hu-husband?! This isn’t one of your romance novels!”
“But you said it yourself that he saved you! It’s a classic girl-meets-boy setup in a dungeon! I don’t want to live in a reality where a handsome man can save a cute girl and not end up married to her!”
Rosie, rather than try to talk any sense into her dad, shoved her hand against his mouth to shut him up before bowing her head to me. “Please forget everything you heard this romance-addicted old man say.”
“There are worse things to be addicted to,” I said. “Besides.” It was time to tease. “After that dip in the water we shared while in the dungeon…”
Rosie went pure red and reflexively let go of her dad’s mouth to try and cover up mine instead, but it was harder for her to silence me given our height difference.
“You two shared a bath in the dungeon?!” her dad shouted while pulling out a notepad and pencil from his pockets. “I need the details! I can put this in my next novel!”
“It’s not like that!” Rosie whined. “He’s making it sound weird! All we did was fight the boss in a puddle! It was barely ankle deep!”
My turn. “It’s not about how deep it went,” I said. “It’s about how our bodies connected during it.”
Her dad must have taken some emotional damage from that one as he stumbled backward.
“My—my youngest daughter… to think that she has already matured so much as a woman… that she would even engage in such an advanced scene during her first dungeon dive… as a father, I feel the need to protect her, but as a romance novelist… I feel so unbelievably inspired!”
“I’m so done with both of you!” Rosie shouted before storming off, pure red as she did so.
Her dad let out a soft, satisfied sigh. “There’s nothing quite as fulfilling as messing with your daughter.
By the way, Sev, was it? If you lay a hand on my daughter without the intent to marry her, I’ll call up my old colleagues and make sure that you never touch a girl again.
” He went from acting like an overly dramatic and excited child to glaring at me with murderous intent.
Even his voice dropped to come off as more intimidating, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated.
“Don’t—don’t worry, I’m working on that,” I replied.
He went back to normal. “Good! Ah, right. My manners. Please, call me Frolin.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Frolin.”
“If you don’t have any plans, would you like to come over for dinner with us? I’m sure my wife is just as eager as I am to hear all about how the dungeon went.”
“A-ah, I… wouldn’t want to impose. I—”
Frolin tilted his head to the side and looked at me with eyes of genuine confusion. “You’re not imposing if I’m the one inviting you? Besides, if you’re going to marry my daughter someday, you need to learn how to make her favorite pasta. The sooner the better.”
It was starting to make sense how Rosie was one of the easiest girls in the game to romance.
Her entire family loved to speedrun romance.
“Then I’ll take you up on that,” I said. “But I want to do some things around town first, if that’s alright.”
“Of course!” Frolin replied. “I’m sure you’ve got business to take care of. Here,” he paused to pull out his cellphone, “what’s your number? I’ll text you our address.”
“I—uh, I don’t have a phone yet.”
Frolin looked at me like I was some sort of impossible existence. “Someone doesn’t have a phone in this day and age? Even kids have phones now!”
“I’ll… explain that later.”
“Well… how’s your memory? Will you remember the address if—”
“I’ve got every single street, alley, and underground tunnel in this city memorized!”
“Ri-right. Well, our place is 4022 Knight Street, alright?”
“Got it! When should I be there by?”
“As long as you’re there by four, you’ll be able to help me in the kitchen.”
“Sounds good. I’ll make sure to drop over by then.”
Frolin nodded and offered me his hand for another shake. “You seem like a good lad, but until you prove yourself in the kitchen, I can’t hand my Rosie over to you. That girl is a big eater who needs a man who’ll keep her properly fed.”
“I’ll do my best.” I accepted his hand for another shake, and then the two of us went our ways.
I had no idea where Rosie went off to, but I was sure I’d see her later.
Also, as soon as I was left alone, some of the merchants who were waiting in the plaza rushed over to pester me for my loot from the dungeon.
I had to apologize and break out from the encirclement of merchants, though, since there was somebody I already planned on being the number one customer of.
She was my favorite merchant from the game and it was clear from how much more writing she had put into her that she was Seth’s favorite, too.
And now, I found myself standing in front of her shop after a decent walk.
“Strism’s Workshop” was etched into the wooden plaque above the door to the shop. The shop itself was in one of the rougher parts of the city that suffered from increased crime of all sorts, and one would probably judge the shop by its entrance as a shady place with poor work quality.
But I knew better than that.