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 54

Chapter 54: The Secret Elixir of Antidote

 

After successfully collecting 300 ?Antidote Flower? without incident, Kuro, Aria, and I returned to the base and submitted everything to Giorl.

 

On the desk in the office now lay a massive pile of Antidote Flowers, stacked up like a mountain.

 

It almost looked like they were about to open a flower shop.

 

Giorl, with a wry smile, remarked,

 

“It’s only been 3 hours, but as always, Sora-sama is indeed Sora-sama.”

 

The Antidote Flowers come in several similar varieties, making it difficult to distinguish them even when searching normally.

 

According to Giorl, collecting 100 flowers would take at least 5 hours.

 

Given that we submitted 300 flowers, by their standards, it would have taken at least 15 hours.

 

Considering that, it’s clear how significant the initial benefit of the ?Insight? skill is.

 

After all, I could tell exactly where the ?Antidote Flower? I was looking for were just by looking.

 

“By the way, what does it mean when you say ‘Sora-sama is Sora-sama’?”

 

“We decided to express it that way after discussing it with everyone. It’s how we describe what you do.”

 

“My name isn’t a verb, though…”

 

“Recently, more children are calling you Sora-sama for doing unusual things. If you don’t like it, just show everyone ‘normal’ behavior to convince them.”

 

Being told that everything I do is unusual makes it hard for me to gauge what is considered normal.

 

Well, to begin with, my current body has cheat-level specs, so it’s no wonder things turned out this way…

 

Feeling that arguing would be futile, I gave up and kept quiet.

 

Giorl shrugged and took the flowers.

 

Then, with a notification of quest completion, she gained experience points and retrieved a treasure chest she had seen before.

 

Opening the chest, Giorl showed me three silver bracelets with purple gems embedded in them.

 

So, this is the ?Antidote Bracelet?.

 

Sora took out the three bracelets and handed one to each of Kuro and Aria.

 

Aria, who had been quite envious of the previous bracelet, seemed to be very happy this time.

 

She put the bracelet on her arm and immediately started spinning around like a child, exclaiming, “Wow!”

 

“Now we all have matching bracelets!” Aria said excitedly.

 

“Yeah, that’s right,” Sora replied.

 

When their eyes met, Kuro and Aria gave each other a cheerful high-five.

 

Wow… It looks like both of them have become quite close.

 

Compared to two days ago, the distance between Kuro’s heart and Aria’s is much closer.

 

It’s truly a heartwarming sight.

 

On the other hand, Sora’s mind was occupied with the recent news about the move that Kuro had mentioned.

 

Moving to Japan, huh…

 

According to what I heard, Shino decided it would be best to relocate the base here because the Astral Online event times are based in Asia.

 

It seems that most professional teams overseas have already moved to Japan based on upper management’s instructions, and Shino and the others got permission from the president to move as well.

 

As for why Kamisato City, it’s primarily because Kuro wanted to meet me in real life, which accounts for 80% of the reason.

 

The remaining 20% is because there happened to be a large, renovated vacant house available near us.

 

Shino looked at the layout, checked the internet environment, and bought it outright with pocket money without even visiting the place beforehand.

 

The contractor introduced by the ?Guardian? is expected to complete the renovations before the move.

 

Considering all this, they decided to move at the beginning of next month.

 

…What initiative.

 

As expected of a world champion, casually spending tens of millions with pocket money.

 

So, Shino and Kuro will be visiting the house at the beginning of next month.

 

The thought of them discovering that I’ve changed genders makes me genuinely nervous.

 

Sora, trembling slightly, glanced at Kuro who was hopping around excitedly with Aria.

 

??We’ll meet in real life.

 

Remembering her words, which were completely free of any malice and truly full of anticipation, Sora felt as though she might bleed from the mouth.

 

Recalling her words, filled with such pure, unadulterated excitement, Sora felt that it would be very cruel of her to reject Kuro.

 

There was no way he could say “I don’t want to meet you right now” to Kuro, who was smiling so cheerfully.

 

The look of happiness on Kuro’s face when she told Sora that she was also looking forward to meeting her.

 

To be honest, it made her want to bury her face in her hands.

 

Kuro knew from Shino that “she” was male.

 

What would she say if she saw Sora in this form?

 

As she struggled with these thoughts alone for a while, suddenly, a fanfare sounded from somewhere.

 

Even though she hadn’t called for it, the menu screen opened up, and a notification was displayed prominently.

 

It announced the addition of an item that adventurers had been eagerly awaiting.

 

—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–

?Emergency Notification?

Due to the completion of quests by adventurers Sora and Kuro, a new item has been unlocked at the tool shop.

?Item? Antidote Elixir

?Effect? Reduces poison level by 1. If the poison level is 1, the poison status is removed.

?Price? 4000 El.

—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–

 

Immediately, messages of thanks and complaints about the high price of 4000 El came flooding in from Shio and the others.

 

Well, it’s a bit problematic to be told about the price when there’s nothing I can do about it…

 

Complaints should be directed at the game’s administration, which may or may not exist, and there’s nothing I can do about it as a player.

 

Of course, I understand it’s a joke, so Sora replied to everyone, “Just be grateful there’s anything at all!”

 

After this trivial exchange, Sora turned back to Giorl.

 

Now, let’s get to the main topic.

 

Giorl nodded deeply, gave us a serious look, and pulled out a piece of paper.

 

“Sora-sama, Kuro-sama, Aria-sama, thank you very much for your cooperation so far. I have prepared this to assist you in entering the temple.”

 

Giorl said as he spread the paper on the desk.

 

It detailed the current structure of the temple in intricate detail.

 

Aria’s eyes widened as she looked at it.

 

“It’s completely different from when we visited before. Could it be the effect of the ring?”

 

“Yes, this is what happened before the great barrier distorted. A small temple suddenly grew to enormous size, and it became a dungeon.”

 

“Could it be that this was created by—”

 

“As you guessed, this is the legacy of ten soldiers who risked their lives and entrusted it to me before they died. We’ve filled in the details ourselves, but we were only able to explore about 70% of it as we were attacked by the Leviathan Army.”

 

“I understand. Thank you.”

 

Standing before Giorl, Aria received the document and offered a brief moment of silence.

 

Then, turning to Sora and Kuro with a resolute expression as a princess, she said:

 

“Once again, as a princess, I ask for your help. Please lend me your strength.”

 

The quest title displayed before Sora was a simple one: ?Temple of the Wind?.

 

The objective was to recover the ?Jade Ring? from the innermost part of the temple.

 

Seeing the quest reward, Sora’s eyes widened.

 

?Reward?: Jade Ring

?Effect?: Unknown

 

An item with an unknown effect is quite intriguing for a gamer.

 

It might be one of those items where the effect is revealed upon acquisition.

 

As usual, the option to accept or decline the quest appeared.

 

Sora, without hesitation, tapped ?Yes?.

 

After completing the quest acceptance, Aria’s whole body began to glow with a green light.

 

“Eh, e-eh!?”

 

What on earth is happening?

 

Aria, confused by her glowing body, and Sora and Kuro, startled by the sudden light.

 

Since Sora only accepted the quest, it’s possible that Aria might undergo some kind of transformation.

 

Kuro looked worried, so Sora placed a reassuring hand on Kuro’s shoulder.

 

The light soon subsided, and Aria stared at her hands.

 

The spirit princess muttered in a small voice, “I… I feel like I’ve become stronger.”

 

Hmm, let’s see???!?

 

When I checked Aria’s status using my ?Insight? skill, I couldn’t help but do a double-take at the numbers.

 

No way?

 

This was an unbelievable phenomenon.

 

For there, it was displayed as:

 

?Wind Princess? Aria Titania

?Level? 50