Chapter 69 — This Time Will Be Different

Chapter 69 — This Time Will Be Different

POV: Rem

"Let’s move your bed back to where it was," Sherial said.

"No, I think it’s fine where it is," Rem replied, sounding slightly irritated.

"Fine? It’s pushed right up against the wall," Sherial insisted.

"It’s fine. I like having my bed against the wall," Rem said dryly.

"Come on… I already explained it. What I told Alisar — it was a lie. I told you why," Sherial added more gently.

"But you could have warned me at least!" Rem answered angrily.

Sherial’s confession that she liked women had caught Rem completely off guard. They weren’t just best friends — damn it, they had even bathed together many times. Of course, later Sherial explained everything: she had said it only because of Alisar. Still… the fact that she hadn’t warned Rem beforehand hurt her deeply.

"If I had warned you, your reaction would have looked unnatural. And you’re a terrible actress — you can’t pretend at all," Sherial said.

Rem had nothing to argue with. She really was bad at lying or pretending.

"You remember Loran, Kaiden, and Eren, right?" Sherial said quietly. "I just wanted to eliminate that possibility," she continued.

Rem remembered those guys perfectly. Back then they were all teenagers — her, Sherial, and the three of them. They formed parties, went into dungeons, trained together… Not all three were in their team at the same time, but each of them had been part of it at some point.

And every one of them made the same mistake.

Sherial’s openness, her friendliness, her light smile and calm voice — they all took it as something special. As a hint. As feelings.

They fell in love.

But Sherial never saw them as anything more than teammates. She treated everyone the same — sincerely and kindly. Yet the guys somehow mistook her behavior for romantic interest.

When they confessed and were rejected, Loran and Kaiden simply left the team. Everything ended relatively peacefully.

But with Eren, it was different.

He didn’t leave. At first, Rem and Sherial were even glad — they thought he had decided to stay just as a comrade. But over time, his attitude toward them changed.

He became rude, irritable… and then began openly insulting Sherial. He called her a prostitute simply because she treated everyone equally kindly. He started crossing boundaries, forcing himself into her space.

In the end, Rem snapped — she beat him brutally, and after that he was expelled from the team.

But it didn’t end there.

He continued to stalk Sherial.

At that point, Rem seriously wanted to kill him. And maybe she would have, if Sherial hadn’t stopped her. Instead, Rem beat him so badly that he was left on the verge of death. He even had to be healed so he wouldn’t die.

After that, they had to leave not just the city — they left the entire country to finally escape the threat.

Yes, they could have simply killed him. After everything he had done, it would have seemed justified. But Sherial didn’t want to go that far. No matter what he had become, once they had fought side by side.

To prevent anything like that from happening again, after that incident they stopped accepting men into their team.

Of course, they weren’t against recruiting female adventurers, but it wasn’t that simple. There were far fewer female adventurers than men, and those strong enough to fight on equal footing with Rem and Sherial were already part of established teams. Finding a strong solo female adventurer was nearly impossible.

They could have recruited beginners — girls who had only recently become adventurers. But that would have slowed their own growth. They would have had to spend years training and protecting weaker members until they reached their level.

And honestly, the two of them handled their work perfectly well alone. Working as a duo was far easier and safer than taking responsibility for training a newcomer.

And now they had accepted Alisar into their team. That was why Sherial decided from the very beginning to eliminate any chance that he might misunderstand her friendly behavior — just like the other guys had in the past.

Sherial’s lie about liking women had been said for exactly that reason. Rem understood her feelings and her motives. But Sherial’s words had sounded so convincing that Rem had completely believed them. And now she was angry at herself — they had been together for more than ten years. They had gone through so much, even bathed together many times. She should have noticed if Sherial truly liked women. Yet at that moment she hadn’t thought about it at all — she simply believed her. And now she was angriest at herself for falling for the lie so easily.

"Rem, come on, let’s move your bed back closer to mine," Sherial said.

"No. Just sleep already. I’m fine like this," Rem replied.

"Fine, sleep there tonight. But tomorrow we’re moving your bed back," Sherial said.

Rem didn’t answer. She simply closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep, slightly irritated — both at Sherial and at herself.

— —

POV: Alisar

Since I had four days before our team headed into the Rank 5 dungeon, I decided to use that time as efficiently as possible — to raise the rank of my Ascensio skill and upgrade as many Origin Mushrooms as I could.

Considering how many I had accumulated… I needed to count everything first. It felt like I hadn’t even upgraded one-tenth of them to Rank 2 yet — which meant nearly ninety percent were still Rank 1.

I bought the cheapest food and spent almost all my time in the training room. But since money wasn’t my main concern right now — Rank 4 mana potions were — I decided to change my plan slightly.

I created 300 Rank 3 health potions and sold them at the Adventurers’ Guild, earning 240 gold coins. Then I immediately spent 180 gold and bought 300 Rank 4 mana potions.

And you know… it felt like people started looking at me a little suspiciously. Selling 300 Rank 3 potions wasn’t a problem, but when I began buying that many mana potions — especially considering I had bought 50 just yesterday — the looks became… strange.

So far, no one had said anything, so I think everything is still fine. But if I go there again and buy that many mana potions once more… I’m afraid they might start asking questions. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

I bought storage crates for the Origin Mushrooms made from fairly expensive wood so they wouldn’t rot too quickly — especially considering the time spent inside the training room. I’ll probably have to replace them in one or two months anyway.

As for food, I decided to spend properly. I didn’t want to keep eating dry rations and junk anymore. Besides, I had enough money right now. I bought a lot of supplies and made several trips, gradually filling my hotel room with food.

During those days I used up all 300 health potions and spent almost all my time upgrading and sorting the Origin Mushrooms. In the end, I had around 9,900 mushrooms. Well… “around,” because I could have miscounted a few, and every 24 hours I still eat one. So in reality, there were already slightly fewer than 9,900.

I managed to upgrade all of them to Rank 2, but only about 1,500 reached Rank 3.

There was good news too — my Ascensio skill finally reached Rank 3. Now I could upgrade Origin Mushrooms to Rank 4. I wonder how many free stat points they would give…

[Special Skill: Ascensio
Type: Active

Rank 1: Upgrade magical items Rank 1 → Rank 2
Cost: 10,000 mana

Rank 2: Upgrade magical items Rank 2 → Rank 3
Cost: 100,000 mana

Rank 3: Upgrade magical items Rank 3 → Rank 4
Cost: 1,000,000 mana]

Of course, I celebrated too early. To upgrade an Origin Mushroom from Rank 3 to Rank 4 required 1,000,000 mana. My maximum was only 740,890. Damn… that meant I needed to level up.

Two days remained before we entered the dungeon. I could keep upgrading mushrooms, but my mana potions were already gone. I needed to buy more… and I was almost out of money.

Well… looks like I’ll have to mass-produce health potions again and sell them through the Adventurers’ Guild. Yes, it’s a bit risky — people were already starting to look at me strangely after my last sales. But I can’t be afraid forever. Sometimes you have to take risks.

Decided. This time I’ll create a large batch of health potions and sell them all at once — to earn as much money as possible and not worry about finances for a while.