Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 119
Chapter 119: The Sudden Stall Quest
The Dragon King Festival is a yearly event where the people express their gratitude to the heavens for providing the ?Dragon Crystal?, which suppresses volcanic activity in this land and supports the livelihood of the Dragonkin.
This festival, celebrated nationwide, lasts from morning until night, with many stalls set up each year to liven up the atmosphere.
At the end of the festival, the Dragon Princess performs a dance to harness the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd, which is then transferred to the ?Dragon Crystal? throughout the kingdom, empowering it to protect the nation for another year.
This is the essence of the Dragon King Festival, a tradition that has continued for hundreds of years, as Dragon King Otter carefully explained to me and Kuro, who knew nothing about it.
“The Dragon King Festival is an event where the living offer their gratitude and wishes to the world to live for tomorrow. However, I have no idea what my father, the previous king, thinks about participating in this event…”
Even the mighty Dragon King Otter seemed bewildered by this unusual situation.
To summarize: The previous Dragon King, who passed away long ago, appeared here as a ghost and declared that he would be opening a stall at the festival, accompanied by his skilled followers who had also died in the past.
When this muscular, bearded old dragon made his announcement, he supposedly said to Otter:
?Otter! We, the ?Suddenly Ghosts?, will also participate in the next Dragon King Festival!?
According to Kuro, the word “suddenly” translates to “all of a sudden, abruptly, or unexpectedly” in Japanese.
So, if you translate “Suddenly Ghost” directly into Japanese, it becomes something like “Sadunli Ghost,” which doesn’t make much sense.
Was this name chosen intentionally, or is it just a joke from the game’s administrators?
Either way, from my perspective, it’s just ridiculous.
At least now I understand what’s happening here. Personally, I’m just glad this isn’t an attack from the followers of the Demon Dragon King.
Sora, seeing Dragon King Otter, decided to ask one thing.
“Dragon King, is there any problem with the former king participating as a ghost?”
“Well, actually, there is no issue at all. Participation is free, and this year, many adventurers will join the festival.”
“If that’s the case, why not just leave the former king alone? If he causes any trouble, the adventurers participating in the festival can beat him up.”
“Sora, you sometimes say terrifying things so casually…”
Alice was taken aback and her cheeks twitched.
Still confused, she grabbed Satanas by the shoulders and pulled her back a bit.
From my perspective, it was a very efficient and logical suggestion. I don’t understand why I was being looked at like I said something horrifying.
Everyone around me is giving me strange looks, except for Satanas who is smiling.
How am I supposed to get through this awkward atmosphere?
At the perfect moment, the quest for ?Philophrosyne? was suddenly completed, and Sora and Kuro received experience points and El.
A window appeared in front of them, displaying the details of the next quest.
The title was ?Skeleton King Final Chapter?.
The content? ?A stall showdown with the skilled followers led by the previous Dragon King?. The quest had taken a turn so out of left field, it felt like it had shot off into space.
A food stall? Why a food stall!?
Dragon King Otter stood up and, noticing our confusion, summarized the situation.
“This is likely a challenge from the previous king. I’m sorry to ask this, but Sora, could you set up a stall and defeat my father, the former king?”
“Hey, isn’t this a bit too sudden!?”
The awkward tension from earlier had completely vanished. In response to this sudden development, I couldn’t help but react, but Otter, for some reason, looked incredibly pleased and raised his right fist, giving me a thumbs-up.
“No, no, no! You may look all happy, but I’m not falling for it! Setting up a stall isn’t something you can decide on that easily!”
“I fully understand that this is an unreasonable request. But if you manage to defeat the previous king, I will grant you one item from the royal treasury as a reward.”
“…The royal treasury?”
At those words, Sora stopped his protests immediately.
In a fantasy game, a royal treasury means a guaranteed opportunity to obtain extremely rare items that can’t be found on the market.
Missing out on this would be unforgivable as a gamer.
Sora, with a hesitant expression, confirmed with Otter whether what she heard was correct.
“Dragon King, did you say one item from the royal treasury…?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Anything inside the treasury?”
“Anything you want.”
When Otter nodded deeply, Sora took a long, deep breath.
As she slowly exhaled, she gathered her thoughts.
Honestly, there’s no way a unique quest like this could ever be abandoned halfway through.
A stall showdown may be unavoidable, but now there was a bonus reward. It was like a windfall from heaven.
To accept or decline the quest?
The answer was obvious—it didn’t even need to be considered.
“—Understood. Leave the stall showdown with the previous king to me!”
Having given her word, Sora knelt before Otter, bowing her head in a posture that looked like something straight out of a theater scene.
Kuro, who was the only one still standing beside her, couldn’t help but chuckle at how perfect her form was.
“Sora, you really can’t resist rare items, can you?”
Say whatever you want, little girl. To us gamers, rare items—especially those that can’t be bought—are a dream, a passion, and the very source of motivation.
Now that such a chance had been dangled before my eyes, even if my opponent were a ghost or whatever, I’d purify them with salt if I had to.
Dreaming of the future where I could choose from the unseen treasures of the royal vault, Sora’s determination burned hotter than ever before.
……………………
After accepting the quest, Sora and the others left the castle to take a look around the town.
Stall preparations were well underway, and the wide streets were lined with similar wooden structures, with each store’s unique banners fluttering in the wind.
At a glance, there were easily more than a dozen stalls.
They offered everything from food to useful tools for adventuring, covering a wide range of categories.
“Well, I’ve accepted the stall quest from Otter, but now what…?”
“!? ”
At my words, Alice, who was walking behind me, tripped over her toes and nearly fell forward.
She avoided face-planting by grabbing onto Sora’s clothes at the last second, preventing her fall.
Looking up at me in disbelief, she let out a gasp of surprise.
“S-Sora!?”
“Yeah, sorry, but I’ve got no plan.”
Alice seemed to think that I had some sort of strategy in mind when I accepted Otter’s quest.
But the truth is, I was just lured in by the ultimate bait “the royal treasury”, dangled right in front of me. Honestly, my mind was completely blank.
If I had to make any excuse, it’s that in a situation like that, someone like me isn’t capable of thinking ahead.
“So, Sora, what are you going to do?”
“Hmm, even though I accepted without thinking, it doesn’t mean I can’t come up with something. In this kind of situation, I think the first thing we need to do is simply organize our thoughts.”
“Organize… our thoughts?”
“Yeah, to put it simply, most stalls are set up to make money by selling things.”
“Sell things… so, as long as we have something to sell, it counts as a stall?”
“Exactly. A stall doesn’t have to stick to a particular genre. You could even sell random grass or flowers from around here if you wanted to.”
“But wouldn’t that…”
“Yeah, of course, if you build a boring shop, no customers will show up. There’s a game where the trick to achieving the sales goal was to physically crush your strongest rival’s stall first.”
“If you did that, you’d be instantly disqualified.”
Alice calmly shot down Sora’s dangerous aura as she floated this idea.
Sora, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, hesitated for a moment before waving her hand to dismiss the thought.
“Come on, like I’d actually do something like that.”
“Weren’t your eyes pretty serious just now?”
“Hahaha, just your imagination. Anyway, let’s put the jokes aside and talk seriously.”
I don’t know what kind of stall the previous kings and their followers are planning to set up, but if we’re going to participate, I want to aim for first place and beat them all. With that in mind, Sora asked Alice one simple question.
“Alice, do you know what kind of stalls took the top three spots in the last Dragon King Festival?”
“The top three stalls last time? I think they were all food stalls. I distinctly remember the first-place stall selling fried chicken.”
Of course, in any game, the higher ranks tend to attract customers to certain genres. And since fried chicken took first place, it’s easy to guess what the residents of this country like. Looking back, most of the food stalls in the towns we’ve been to seemed to focus on meat dishes.
Maybe that’s because of the influence of the dragonfolk, but it’s enough information to determine our direction. Now, the only problem left is what we can make with the ingredients we have.
“So, we’ve got about a thousand units of Lesser Dragon meat, which will spoil in about a week.”
Even if I head to the capital city, Yggdrasil, with Kuro to learn some cooking skills and come back, the best we could probably do is skewers like every other stall.
Just grilling the meat and serving it as is would be too boring, so I’d like to add some kind of twist.
As I was thinking about this, a familiar voice suddenly called out from behind, “Big broootherrr!”
Turning around, I saw a black-haired girl holding something that looked like crepe batter running toward us.
It was my little sister, Shiori, or rather, the adventurer Shio.
“Shio-chan!”
Kuro noticed her and waved energetically, and when they met, the two hugged each other without a hint of embarrassment, even in public.
Watching the heartwarming scene, Sora couldn’t help but smile slightly.
After that, Shio politely introduced herself to Alice and Satanas, and after hearing the situation, she patted her chest and offered to help.
“Leave the cooking to me! There’s nothing I fear after clearing all the cooking quests!”
This was reassuring.
With the strongest new ally joining the team, Sora and the others began brainstorming their stall’s dish together as a group of four.