I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Level Up With In-app Purchases – 78

EP.78 An Escape of Love(?) with the Duke’s Daughter (5)

[ Name: Vine (SSR) ]

[ Rank: A-class ]

[ Skills: ]

[ Stats: Power (A) Stamina (B) Agility (D) Magic (B) Charm (B) ]

[ Name: Marsha (SSR) ]

[ Rank: B-class ]

[ Skills: ]

[ Stats: Power (B) Stamina (B) Agility (C) Magic (C) Charm (C) ]

[ Name: Solar (SSR) ]

[ Rank: A-class ]

[ Skills: ]

[ Stats: Power (A) Stamina (A) Agility (D) Magic (D) Charm (D) ]

[ Name: Gabriel (SSR) ]

[ Rank: A-class ]

[ Skills: ]

[ Stats: Power (A) Stamina (A) Agility (A) Magic (A) Charm (A) ]

[ Name: Kahori (SSR) ]

[ Rank: B-class ]

[ Skills: ]

[ Stats: Power (C) Stamina (C) Agility (A) Magic (A) Charm (D) ]

These are the new characters I’ve just summoned.

Out of a total of 8, there are five unique ones, excluding duplicate orbs.

If I were to pick the standout ones among the newly summoned characters…

‘Of course, it’s Gabriel. Just look at those stats. All A-rank!’

Gabriel was a female knight character, a broken character that could be expected to have decent defense and damage output.

I think I was just as happy when Gabriel appeared as I was when I summoned Ariane.

‘The other characters aren’t bad either, even if they’re not as good as Gabriel.’

Vine was a water attribute character with a wide-range skill called ‘I’ll Create a Storm’, which had decent performance when used in a field matching its attribute.

Solar was a defensive character who could uniquely absorb received damage.

“I was in a bind without a tank, but this came at just the right time.”

The absorbed damage could later increase the effects of two skills: ‘Crunch’ and ‘Crush’.

In particular, the ‘Crunch’ skill was perfect for adding some spice, as it could deal decent single-target damage and apply a stun effect.

In other words, it was a character worth developing.

‘The remaining two, Marsha and Kahori, are SSR characters with poor performance, so there’s no need to worry about them.’

The gacha went so well that I seem to have fallen into a happy dilemma.

“Hmm…”

In other words, I now had too many people to pay attention to.

Vine, Gabriel, Solar.

In a situation where there wasn’t a proper defensive character in the party, the appearance of a tank that could apply debuffs, even if not top-tier, was more than welcome.

‘And now it’s time to decide on the main party.’

The truth is, although I had worked hard to develop Shine, there were too many other high-performance characters to give her a spot in the main party.

‘When the other characters have gone through the scenario well and grown, they’re likely to show greater potential than Shine.’

So, coldly speaking, I couldn’t put Shine in the main party.

Instead…

‘She’s decent enough to use until the other characters grow.’

The reason for thinking separately about the main party and sub-party.

It’s because there’s a line that determines how much I’ll invest.

‘For the main party, I can invest even in resurrection stones.’

It’s almost unlimited investment.

And for the sub-party…

‘Resurrection stones are not possible. Unlimited investment is possible only for consumable items.’

And from the second sub-party down, if the price is right, I can provide consumables.

Being human, I can’t completely ignore personal relationships.

So I put Shine and Rebecca in the sub-party.

‘Fran is the first priority for the main party, and of course, I have to include Gabriel who I just summoned.’

This secures a main healer and a fusion dealer, and if I put Vine as a temporary ranged dealer who can do area attacks with decent damage, the balance should be good.

And for the remaining spots…

‘One tank and either a supporter or a sorcerer character.’

A supporter is a character who can provide auxiliary healing in addition to the main healer, and a sorcerer is a character who can spice things up for monsters with powerful debuffs.

After arranging the main party like this, I felt at ease.

‘It was worth running around so busily.’

Rebecca and Shine were holding down the dealer positions solidly, and I had secured a tank for the empty spot that had been giving me a headache.

Although it was a shame not to have a sorcerer character who could apply powerful debuffs, sorcerer and supporter characters weren’t absolutely necessary.

Who starts with a perfect main party from the beginning anyway?

I can fill the empty spots with Rebecca or Shine.

‘With a party like this, we should be able to push through the contaminated zones smoothly.’

I took out the unique equipment of the summoned characters from the item window.

“I need to sell this… I wonder who I should ask to connect me with a buyer.”

Rebecca? Shine? Ariane?

All that difficult moving around had paid off.

I already had a network of three people.

And with Fran coming back soon…

“Hmm~? There was a general store here?”

“…..”

This is my store, which would be stranger to find if you weren’t deliberately looking for it.

But it’s not like there aren’t people who stumble upon it by pure chance and enter out of curiosity.

Some people look around the general store indifferently, then end up buying something saying it’s unexpectedly good, while others leave without buying anything, doubting the quality of our products.

“Are you the owner here, mister?”

“……”

She was a woman whose profession was obvious at a glance.

“But.”

“Wow, what kind of person are you to run a shop like this at such a young age? An illegitimate noble?”

“No.”

“I may not look it, but I’m a customer. Don’t you think your attitude towards customers is a bit much?”

The woman pouted her red lips.

Indeed, as a woman who deals with men, her coquettish behavior was subtly infused in her everyday actions.

“To my eyes, you look more like a woman here to promote something rather than a customer. Am I wrong?”

“Hehe, you got it right. Here’s my business card, honey.”

The woman took a business card from her chest and placed it on my hand.

It was absurd that the business card came from her cleavage, not a pocket.

She probably put it there deliberately to seduce men.

It was likely a tactic to draw men’s attention to her chest and arouse them.

In fact, I was aroused by seeing that too.

“You seem to be the face of the business. If I take this card and go, will you be the one to entertain me?”

Usually, when the face of the business goes around promoting like this, if you go to the establishment, a different woman there serves you.

After all, those women were usually of lower quality than the one doing the promotion.

“I’m expensive, you know? Hmm~ But I guess someone who runs a shop like this wouldn’t be short on money, right?”

“Of course not.”

It didn’t seem like a bad idea to relieve some stress for one night after a long time.

Just as I was about to put the business card in my pocket.

“Mister!”

A familiar person entered the general store.

“You…?”

It was Fran.

I had heard she would be back from the battlefield soon, but she returned faster than I expected.

“Wow~ Seeing you, Mister, really makes it hit home that I’m back.”

Fran entered the store with a bright smile and stood in front of me.

“Hmm~ What’s your relationship with this cute little lady, honey? I thought you weren’t popular, but it seems you’re quite the type.”

“???”

It was unexpected for the woman, who should have left after finishing her promotion, to suddenly address Fran.

“Who are you?”

Fran asked the woman in confusion, and the woman gave an astounding answer.

“I’m about to get intimate with this guy?”

“….”

“!!!!”

If Fran hadn’t come, I would have planned to visit the address on the business card, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.

Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t readily deny it.

And.

‘Why am I being so cautious?’

Even if I had really done such a thing with that woman, there was no reason for me to be mindful of Fran’s reaction.

It’s not like Fran and I are emotionally involved, right?

‘Should I not have asked her to be my wife in the first place?’

It was an excuse I had to make because it was obvious she would have been completely taken in by that cult otherwise.

It’s not like she would actually become my wife just because I insist, right?

Still, I thought I couldn’t completely ignore her since I owed her a favor.

“…Ah!”

Fran tilted her head at the woman’s words, then belatedly understood and opened her eyes wide.

“I’m sorry. Did I come at a bad time? I didn’t mean to interrupt…”

Then Fran apologized neatly to the woman.

The woman, seeing Fran’s innocent reaction even to the suggestion of getting intimate, spoke as if disappointed.

“What’s this, how boring. Looks like you’re not that kind of relationship with this guy after all.”

“She’s a minor. And if you’re done promoting your business, why don’t you leave now?”

“Alright, honey. I’ll be waiting~?”

After giving me a wink, she blew a kiss into the air with a ‘mwah!’ and left the store.

Left alone with Fran, a slightly awkward atmosphere settled in.

“…..”

“Ahem, I heard you worked hard. Any injuries?”

“It was tough, but I’m fine. Many people helped me.”

The soldiers who directly experienced her power on the battlefield must have become Fran’s strong supporters.

“Can you attend the remaining semester?”

“I’m not sure myself.”

“What’s the situation on the front lines?”

“I was in the rear, so I don’t know the details. But from what I heard from the soldiers I treated, we’re slowly pushing the front line. They’ve called in reservists and deployed them to the battlefield.”

Listening to Fran’s explanation, I could roughly guess the situation.

‘With the reservists coming in, they couldn’t keep holding onto the students anymore.’

If the dean had moved on behalf of the academy for the students, and if the addition of reservists had eased the pressure on the front lines, I think a situation like this could easily occur.

After all, there are only a few months left in the semester, right?

Rather than forcibly holding onto the students and increasing their resentment, it might be more beneficial to let them go as if doing them a favor and then officially bring them into the military a few months later.

They must know how important soldiers’ morale is on the battlefield.

“Tell me more about what happened on the battlefield.”

I’ve been sending people to the front lines to hear about what’s going on there.

But Fran, who hears information directly from soldiers fighting monsters, might have better information than what I know.

“Sure, I can tell you anything. But about that woman from earlier…”

“…Why bring her up?”

I don’t understand why she’s bringing up this uncomfortable topic that’s already over.

“I’m not saying this out of any personal interest, but if you were getting close to her because you needed an outlet, now that I’m here…”

Now that you’re here?

“Rather than going to her, you could use my body…!”

“Shh! Stop.”

I hurriedly covered Fran’s mouth with my palm.

“Is this some high-level strategy to get me thrown in jail?”

Shake shake!

Fran shook her head as if wronged.

“Or have you suddenly decided to repay kindness with enmity?”

Shake shake!!!

Fran shook her head desperately as if to deny any misunderstanding.

“Then why do you keep saying such dangerous things? If you don’t want me to end up in the guard’s custody, never say anything like that again.”