After finishing off her high octane fight, Valkjure came back to us. I too have just finished offering my sincere apologies to anyone whose feelings were hurt over me dealing irreparable harm to the environment.

If they still don't forgive me after that, then I'm not gonna let all their negativity affect me. I don't need those terrible vibes in my life.

"Hey, Valkjure!" I called out to her, noticing a sullen expression on her face. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Bahahahahahaha!" Upon my remark, Gothra burst into a fit of laughter!

"Ya think!?" Valkjure lumbered over, took out an entire bed from her inventory, and then just laid down. "I need some rest. Keep watch guys. Send frogs if something happens. Love you all Valkjurlings."

Ah, she was talking to her chat, not us. Oops.

"Why a frog?" Gothra puzzled.

"It's something that carried over from the olden days. I am surprised it's held on for over a century."

"Wow... That's amazing. I can see why you chose to have a frog face for yourself."

"Yeah-- Wait, I do not have a frog face!"

"It's a compliment! It's a compliment!"

"No way in hell it is!"

After that, Valkjure told us that she didn't need the drops, so we can just leave her share, or pick it up for ourselves.

How generous!

"Hey, Fira..." Gothra paused, "Are you sure you're not tired too? I'm willing to just collect all these corpses by myself you know?"

"You mean take all the loot for yourself!"

"Eh!? That's cruel! Baseless accusation! I demand a retrial!"

"Nope! I'm collecting corpses too, and that's final."

"Well, okay. Hahaha. But you seem incredibly insistent on moving around these corpses. You want me to look away for a minute or two? I'm sure that'll be enough time for you to do your business. Freak. Hahahahahaha!"

"Gah! No! I should be the one looking away, you fool!"

"Oh? Go on then, look away."

Her eyes had a dangerous glint, and her smile was one of a starved beast.

"N-no. But you can take Valkjure's share. That's fine."

"Oh, really!? Thank's a lot Fira!"

Whew. Target successfully distracted and disarmed.

"Oh and by the way. You're the type that likes to watch others huh? I learned something new about you today, Fira. It's so nice to build bonds like this!"

"Gah! Just get your corpses! I too wanna sleep!"

"In the same bed as Valkjure...?"

"No! W-Well... If it's you she'll probably be fine with it."

"Eh? What do you mean? Is that what you wanna watch, Fira?"

"Okay, shut the fuck up."

"I win!" Gothra laughed as I just ran away. The corpses somehow seemed more welcoming than her.

Ah, not in that way! "Fuck you Gothra!"

We collected the corpses after that short banter. Well, I and Bereo collected them.

Gothra just rode on Bereo's shoulders while keeping her inventory open.

"Hey. Isn't that unfair?"

"Will you say that same excuse if you fall in battle?"

"Fair."

...

...

After collecting the corpses and drops, we were back on the road. Oh, I got some fancier pants though that give a slight boost to my running speed, which is nice. Though well, when I say fancier, it just upgraded from common villager pants to maybe something a low-level bandit might wear. Still better than whatever the fuck I had.

"W-Wait! Fira!"

Valkjure suddenly got in front of me and spread her arms wide, as if trying to protect something.

"What...?"

"Don't burn this tree! It's a young one! Has a bright future ahead!"

"I wasn't going to..."

"Bwahahahahaha! Perfect Valkjure! Perfect!"

Oh great, Gothra's got herself an ally.

Eventually, we settled down on a location a fair distance away from the aftermath of our bloody amazing battles.

We set up a campfire as I chanted the name of a skill in my mind.

[Fireba]--

"Fira don't!" Gothra protested! "Not another part of the forest! Show some respect to the spirits!"

"Grah! Fine! No fire then! We're going dark and blind!"

"Okay!" She gave me a big thumbs up.

Wait, it's fine?

"Yeah, the food's pre-cooked anyway and our inventories keep them nice and warm." Valkjure took out several plates from a rift in space and handed each of us something.

They were on primitive wooden plates as you'd expect from a medieval setting, but they were cooked quite wonderfully.

"You made this?" I asked, taking in the wonderful aroma of boar curry.

"Nope. I just bought it from a vendor. NPC."

"Eh? Should you be wasting gold like that this early on? We made do with whatever we could forage..."

"That's when Fira burnt down another forest. He has a track record. It's a pattern, not a mistake. Hahahaha!"

"Oh shush."

Valkjure toke out some utensils and handed them out. "It's fine. This effect of my Unique Skill cannot possibly be concealed so I'll tell you. I can receive in-game donations of gold. Which, technically, everyone can get them if they meet up with other players, but it'd be such a pain to organize and maintain, even if they had someone else doing it."

"Oh, that's interesting. How does that even work? People can watch your streams while they're in-game, but most would be doing it while lounging about right?"

"They watch it mid-orgy!"

"Oi Gothra! You're not supposed to mention that part out loud! Open Secret!"

Gasp! Gothra put her fingers over her mouth in an x pattern.

Seeing our exchange, Valkjure grew flustered and asked, "Do they really-- You do!?" She was looking at her stream chat, "Uhhh... ban?"

Beep.

Gone, just like that. Streamers are gods. Scary stuff.

"Anyway," Valkjure continued, "A new donate button appears on my stream for my viewers, and they can use it to connect to their game accounts and then transfer gold over to me. I think it might work for Divine Shards too, but that's just a thing for this event, I don't wanna impose--- No really guys! Don't suddenly start sending me stuff!"

Oh wow. So our Unique Skills have effects that extend to the real world. Man, The System is going all out with this one. Had such a big push leading up to its release as well.

As we chatted along, we also dug into our meals.

It's boar just like what we "cooked" for ourselves last time, but somehow, this is far more delicious. A lot more filling. I can almost feel tears about to stream down my eyes...

"Oh, not bad," Gothra remarked, "Almost as good as what we made last time."

...

That's a total lie! Oi! What we made was just heated up meat and nothing else. It was just a warm carcass! Hell, eating something raw would be better, probably!

"Oh my, really? You think you guys can cook next time? I wanna taste it!"

And now Valkjure is asking for our cooking! Look at her, innocently wanting to touch something that no human ever should!

Well, I'm a dragonoid though.

"Ahaha..." Gothra looked uncomfortable, probably about to play it off as a joke.

But!

Not on my watch!

Hehehe...

"Oh please, Gothra. I barely helped. That was all you. All I did was make a campfire, and we all know how that turned out. But, yes. I too would love to try your cooking once again. It was lovely." I gave her a radiant and beaming smile.

"What!? Fira...!"

"Oh? Is that what happened, Fira? Getting to eat Gothra's homemade cooking. I'm jealous..."

"Ahahaha. Well, don't worry about it. She'll make it for us next time. Won't you, Gothra?"

"Huh!? I... Ah... Well... Umm... Yes! I'll boar you the best cook you've ever sheen!"

Pfft!

She bit her tongue.

And got her words mixed up.

Hahaha!

Clap, clap, clap!

Valkjure on the other hand, was absolutely moved, and seemed genuinely happy to be able to eat Gothra's cooking.

"We better catch a really good quality boar. Maybe a rare variant, I heard there were those things running around!" I heard Valkjure mutter.

We ended our little night feast on a merry and jovial tone, never mind the Gothra that seemed to be shrinking in on herself.

"Fira, how could you!"

"You brought this upon yourself!"

"I did not make you betray me!"

"You betrayed yourself!"

"Hey. What are you two talking about there? Unless you're not using the telpathy function and just making faces at each other. Hmm, that's more likely than I think, perhaps..."

"Hey! Don't lump me in--" My train of thought was then interrupted by valkjure just floating in the air. "Huh? Did you also become a ghost!? Is it contagious!?"

"No, no Fira!" Gothra answered my question, " Valkjure has become enlightened. By my presence most likely. That's what this is."

"How can that be when you can't even fly yourself?!"

"Uh, I can! In real life."

"Idiot! Everyone can!"

"Precisely! So why are you so surprised? You fucking bumpkin! Go back to the woods sticking sticks up your ass!"

"Grrr!!"

"Ummm..." Valkjure cut in, "Gothra is right. I did get enlightened by her presence."

"See Fira? All you gotta do is trust what I say. Always trust me!"

"Sigh. Valkjure, don't flatter this idiot."

"No. It's true. You know how people can learn when they are shown a really bad terrible example?"

"Hahahahaha!" I laughed, "You're right! Man I should be getting enlightenment soon myself in that case!"

"AaaahhH!! You two! So mean!" Gothra cried dramatically, materializing Bereo and jumping into his arms.

"Hnnnnggggg...!!! Almost there...!" I was gatherng all my enlightenment energies...

Prrrrttt! I farted

"Bwahahahaha! What enlightenment!? Fira, you fart! Literally!"

"Hehe... very vulgar... But... Gahahahahahahhaa!"

"Yes, yes. Laugh you two. This is the result of my Gothra enlightenment."

"Hey! Quit blaming shit on me! Look inward, that's where the fart within you comes from!"

We laughed through the night as Valkjure took out more and more wine from her inventory.

"Getting back on topic though," I said, bringing a glass to my mouth, "How are you floating, Valkjure?"

"Yeah! I wanna fly too, but I left my wings at home. They're detachable."

"Oh, this? I just spent some of the divine shards I got from my fans, so I'm trying it out. There's a float skill in the event shop, probably gonna be necessary for some biomes later on. Although maybe not the best in battle as it halves your speed."

"I only skimmed through it," I admitted, "Maybe once I can actually buy shit there. I think the 2 fast travel options are just as imprtant."

"Yeah. You can get them with gold later, but it's far more efficient to get them through this event," Gothra agreed

"Exactly. I already got those two."

"Eh?"

"What?"

Both I and Gothra did a double-take at what she revealed.

"I... got a lot of divine shards..."

Right...

I whispered loudly into Gothra's ears, "Hey, hey. She's doing a scam. Damn."

"Shh, Fira! Don't call it a scam! She might not let us in on it!"

"Gah! You're right! Absolutely right!"

I kept my mouth shut and let Gothra take the lead in the coming negotiations.

"Hey Valk... That's really interesting. Would you happen to have some you can spare? Asking for a friend. A very... industrious friend. His name is Fir...ya. Firya, the not Dragonoid."

Wow. I would definitely, totally, trust Gothra will all of my secrets.

"Pfft! Okay, Gothra. Tell your friend I'm sorry. Divine Shards normally can't be transferred."

"Eehh?? But can't you do something about it? Pretty please, Valkjure..."

"I-I really can't... Please stop giving me those cute puppy dog eyes. I really would if I could."

"Sigh. Firya, you shouldn't cause such trouble for the scammer Valkjure, okay?"

"I don't who this Firya you're talking about is."

"Eh? Come on! We both want in on Valkjure's scam!"

"Ummm..." Valkjure timidly raised her hand, "I'm not scamming, okay? I told them not to and to focus on their characters, but they gave it to me anyway... I can't give the Divine Shards back to them so..."

"Ah!" I said, "Sorry, sorry. We were joking. I don't actually think it's a scam!"

"Yeah! If it were up to Fira, he'd put it up as a tax for watching the stream, probably."

"I would not!"

"Hahaha!"