Chapter 143: Minion (4)
Almond could sense that the stream was going well.
'Oh, there's quite a bit now.'
The new progression in the story mode intrigued more viewers to come and watch.
— Oh wow, it's Raina's story.
— It's been a while since I've seen it.
— Wow, unlocking Raina's story at lv 2?? envious…
— It’s currently 11 AM and New York Times says Almond and Raina are the best brunch combinations!
— It's my first time watching this LIVE. I'm so excited!!
— Is this where you pinky promised Raina to meet?
[Current Viewers: 7.6k]
Almond started in the morning with 5000 viewers, but nearing lunch hour now, he had around 7k. He was getting tired after streaming for longer than usual, but having many viewers at this time motivated him.
'Seems like I just need to focus on the game.'
He was receiving enough attention. All that was left to do was immerse himself in the gameplay. The stream would naturally be successful.
"Row 1! Get ready to attack!!!" the soldier bellowed in a booming voice.
Almond gulped and went into position.
"You. You kept your promise," Raina bumped him on the shoulder. "You're braver than you look."
"We're just starting together."
"Normally, everyone avoids the first row even though we need mana."
Raina glanced at the minions behind them.
"Pathetic."
Suddenly, the pathetic minions started shouting.
"Yuria!!"
"Mr. Bart, you have our utmost respect!"
"Yuria! We love you!"
"I want to be a summoner when I grow up too!!! Please remember me!!"
The champions were walking by them again. They seemed more tired than earlier. This time, they hurried across and didn't respond to the cheers. Almond didn't see all five of them together because, unlike before, they were in the middle of combat.
Whip!
A blue flag was raised from the base and the horseman shouted, "Row 1!! Attack!!!"
The children in row 1 rushed forward in unison.
Stomp!
"Aaaaargh!!!"
"Let's gooo!"
"Kill them all!!"
Kugugu...!
As the row charged forward, the earth shook. Raina went out of her way to get ahead of everyone else. Why did she position herself in the frontline if she was an archer?
Almond wasn't sure, but he ran beside Raina as promised. Almond kept his promise to her, thinking it'd help him achieve 'Raina's Reason' to earn three stars.
"Over there!" Raina shouted as she saw a red flag in the distance.
She sped up once more and charged forward.
Tadadak.
She was now ahead of the horseman. Nobody said anything despite the archer running ahead.
Creak...
Raina pulled on her bowstring.
Pang!
'Huh?'
Almond was shocked to learn she could already envelop her arrows with mana. The mana-filled arrow landed on an enemy minion's heart and exploded.
Boom!
Their armor shattered and the minion fell. Raina rolled backward to dodge the arrows being fired at her. The enemy lowered their guards, focusing on Raina, and became vulnerable to the spearmen.
Slam!
The allied minions successfully pushed them back over the center line. This was why Raina charged ahead.
"Alright! Raina!"
"Kya! As expected of Raina, you're the best!"
The allied minions recognized her feats and cheered her on. Raina smiled at them and pulled her bowstring again.
Bzzt.
Once again, the arrow was filled with mana.
‘How does she do it? I have mana too?!’ As he thought that…
[A new skill is about to be learned.]
A text appeared before him. A new skill? It was talking about Raina's mana arrows.
[Mana Arrow]
[Can be activated once in focus. Arrows will become faster and easily pierce through armor.]
[Mana Consumption: 1]
— ???
— What the!?
— This exists?
— Damn.
— Maybe it only comes out if you make a promise to Raina!
— Damn, this is the Almond I know!
Was this a new discovery as well? The viewers were excited.
After his promise to Raina, every scene unfolding was new.
'This is good.'
For a streamer, this was a great situation. However, he felt uneasy for some reason.
'Something is odd.'
Almond readied his mana arrow. Since this game was played in first-person mode, skills were activated by thought because there were no other players to disturb their thinking.
Bzzt!
A blue energy formed at the tip of the arrow. He could feel it even before shooting that it wasn't as powerful as when he was a summoner.
But—
Pang!!!
"Kugh!"
It was strong enough to shatter the cheap armor on a minion. Raina, who was beside him, looked at him in surprise.
"What the...!?"
"Look ahead."
Almond shot down a melee minion running toward Raina.
Pung!
The minion's head flared up in blue flames as it collapsed. Raina's face turned bright red. She felt a mixture of anger and embarrassment for being careless after seeing an archer better than herself.
"No way..."
Almond could also perform several tricks that Raina couldn't. He could ready four arrows, fire them all at once, and even bend arrows to hit enemy minions near allies.
Pabababang!
Countless minions collapsed in front of him.
"H... how..."
Raina was also shooting down minions diligently, but her pride was being shot down at the same time.
— Raina's so confused.
— It's like Rock Lee meeting Sasuke for the first time.
— Minion Raina can't compare against Almond. Maybe if she was a champion.
— Her eyes almost popped out seeing the curve shot, LOL
— Raina is one of us!
— Raina (10 mins later): Mom, I want to be Almond!
— Shocked Raina looks so cute!
She tried copying him by shooting consecutively, but missed a couple of shots. Still, she hit 90% of her shots. The only ones suffering from their battle of pride were the enemy minions.
"W-We're being pushed back!"
"Dammit! Their champion's not even here and we're being pushed back?!"
"Kugh!"
"Stop them! If we give up the turret, we're done for!"
"S-Shield soldiers!!"
The red team tried to push back with their shield soldiers, but they collapsed from Almond's serenade of arrows. He curved the shots around the shields to land them.
"What the, our minions won again today?"
He heard a girl's voice from the back. Judging from the light shining off her body, it was a summoner. She was the summoner who contracted with the current evil archer, Yuria.
Bzzzt...!
Yuria muttered as she pulled on her glowing white bow, "This turret's going to be gone soon too."
Puuung!!
She gathered energy and fired off a strong blast, knocking down several minions simultaneously.
"Argh!"
"Kugh."
The minions were swept away like a tsunami crashed into them.
"What the?! Why are our minions pushed so far back!?"
The enemy summoner came, trying to block further damage.
"Alright, everyone! Attack!"
However, the blue team's minions charged in unison toward the turret after Yuria’s command. Thanks to Yuria distracting the enemy champion, the enemy turret was easily demolished. They had no choice but to flee as the battle was over.
"Hey, you."
Yuria tapped Almond.
"Yes."
"You have a good shot."
He could feel Raina's glare.
"Thank you."
"Next, come mid. Since we pushed the tier two turrets, now we just need to destroy the next two turrets before reaching the nexus."
"... Isn't this mid?"
"This is top. Red... no, you must be a new captive of Taran seeing as you don't know much."
"Yes."
"Still, you're overflowing with talent," Yuria bent down and told him as she patted him on the head. Her golden hair tickled Almond's ear. "Make sure you don't die. Otherwise, I think I'll have a hard time."
Before he could answer…
[After some time.]
There was another time skip.
***
They were back at the fire in the base camp. It wasn't their usual home base. Instead, they were in the game's jungle where they could see the enemy's crumbled tier two turret.
"Sigh. Cleaning the corpses is harder, I swear."
"Yeah..."
Judging from the conversation, Almond and the minions had just finished cleaning up the corpses.
'Thank goodness I don't have to see that again.'
Almond was relieved that he was a player and sat near the fire. The other children made way for him because they revered him. He pretended to eat the rock-hard bread they gave him and carefully studied Raina because he felt something odd about her.
'You called them pathetic earlier.'
Raina was chopping wood and making fire for the other minions. She didn't have a blanket, just the thin garment she wore, but she was busy handing out blankets to the younger minions. The center of the fire was reserved for the younger minions.
"Tom, come over here. It's too cold over there."
"B-But Raina, what about you?"
"I'm alright since I'm bigger than you. I don't get as cold."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Come here and eat this."
She gave the smallest minion, Tom, her only bread to eat.
'You said you wanted to earn mana and turn into a champion.'
It was strange. Almond felt uneasy not only because of her actions, but because of what he learned about the mana arrow.
'What is she doing?'
Using a mana arrow consumed 1 mana, which meant it negated the mana reward if a minion was killed using it. If she continued using the mana arrow to kill minions, she would never earn enough to become a champion. But why? Why did Raina fight so hard like that?
'Is this Raina's reason?'
This seemed like a clue to achieving three stars. The viewers thought the same as Almond.
— But why's she using the mana arrow? Isn't she going to collect more? Almond's a player so it makes sense, but Raina's weird.
— She's nice to the kids because $&#(*@(
— It's Almond's first time using the mana arrow. This &*(@*@()#
— I'm so curious.
— Is he going to earn 500,000 won?
— DamienClub is probably worried now.
— It's almost 700,000 won now! Who added more?
— Damn, I just found out I said the answer because of the spoiler filter warning.
Since 9000 viewers were throwing in their guesses, there was bound to be an answer among them. He was getting more and more viewers curious to see how the story's new route was unfolding.
Almond felt that this was the best opportunity.
"I'm going to eat and come back."
The opportunity to fill his grumbling stomach.
— You mother&@#^@
— This *(@!??$ again?!
— What a streamer.
— Shudders…
That wasn't a spoiler filter. It was a harsh language filter.
— Aren't you going to do the mission!? Aren't you going to do the mission!?
— Do the mission! Do the mission! Do the mission!
Even viewers threatened him with the missions, but it was useless because he had a plan.
"The mission is good for 24 hours. Pfft."
With that as his last words, Almond paused the stream.
— Who set the mission to 24 hours?! Make it 3!!!
— DamienClub is truly ballsy. Why did he set it to 24 hours?
— Ah... this guy's going to leave us hanging again?!
— At least he's not turning on an ad.
— The worst type of cliffhanger.
They could hear something from his mic just as the chat was complaining.
"Ah, everyone, I'm going to turn on an AD before leaving."
He turned on the Lazy Soldier's first round of teasers with him appearing in it.
***
[Beginner’s Tip: Summoners stay in their respective lanes, focused on their enemies while eliminating the minions. This is called the laning phase. Once the turret in their lane is destroyed, the laning phase is over.]?