“Li… Li Si… What do we do…”
Lili Ya looked at the team channel messages and felt a moment of panic.
This was her first time seeing this kind of team setup.
The parties in the channel were all very enthusiastic, saying they looked forward to meeting at the front lines.
Li Si grabbed her hair.
She’d already been rattled by getting kicked from the party and had planned to just coast through life.
But now, the protagonist group couldn’t push the story forward.
Now the golden finger was forcing a mission with pretty good rewards—not only a Kind Mother training slot but also a talent upgrade.
What was there to say?
She had to go.
Besides, the sooner this dungeon opened, the better for her too.
At least there would be Magic Beasts above level 10 inside, which would speed up leveling.
“Let’s go. We’ll do an introductory report.”
Li Si sheathed her sword and walked toward the adventurer camp she’d seen earlier.
Lili Ya let out an “Oh” and obeyed without question.
But there was one thing she really wanted to ask—whether she still had to wear the plushie outfit.
Against Magic Beasts it was one thing, but the thought of wearing it in front of other people left her at a loss.
Like just now, when the princess was there, she kept her head down, too embarrassed to even say hello.
“Um… Li Si…” Lili Ya lowered her voice, wanting to ask the question.
But then she thought again: she was the team leader.
She couldn’t lack that sense of responsibility.
Even if it was only in name, she, Lili Ya, had been through everything.
If she felt ashamed and wanted to back out just because she had to wear a plushie outfit with Li Si, then what right did she have to stand by Li Si’s side?
If she couldn’t help in combat, at least in action she would firmly support every decision Li Si made!
Lili Ya hugged her staff, her gaze resolute, and walked decisively toward the camp.
She didn’t look back.
She knew she would be met with jeers from the whole camp, but even so, she wanted to be by Li Si’s side!
After rounding a small mountain path, the miasma ahead was as thick as night.
A row of tents was stationed before the miasma.
At the camp entrance, two adventurers on lookout spotted something rare and couldn’t help but smile, but professionally stifled their laughter.
After confirming their identities, the two adventurers opened the barricade and let them in.
“You’re the… team leader of Fairy Tail?”
A mage in the guild’s standard robe was the first to greet them.
Seeing the goblin costume, he was momentarily dazed.
The goblin head was round and puffy, stuffed with a tuft of pink hair.
Beneath the pink hair was a delicate, round face—cute, very familiar, but almost unrecognizable.
Lili Ya nodded seriously, just like every adventure before.
She brought ten percent determination and left the remaining ninety percent to luck.
She didn’t care about the sneers around her, as long as Li Si was by her side, as long as Li Si was wearing the same outfit as her…
“Huh…”
Lili Ya turned and her brain short-circuited for a moment.
Li Si was clean and crisp in a white battle skirt, calmly reading a team intelligence report in her hands.
Lili Ya felt her resolve shatter.
Her worldview crumbled.
She stammered, “Li Si, why aren’t you wearing…”
“Hm?”
Li Si looked up, puzzled, “I thought you liked wearing that outfit. Didn’t I say it’s wilderness camouflage? In the camp, there are only adventurers, right?”
Crack—
Something broke.
Lili Ya let out a waah and turned to run, shouting, “I’ll take it off! I’ll take it off!”
“Uh…”
The guild mage who came to greet them extended his hand, looking awkward.
Fortunately, he knew that the reason this team was invited into the party was definitely not because of Lili Ya.
He turned his gaze to the silver-haired girl who looked neat and sharp.
Before he could speak, his hanging hand was lightly grasped.
“Hello, I’m Li Si.”
The guild mage was startled at first, then quickly gave his name, “Hello, I’m Enya, from the guild—”
“I know. The famous receptionist of the Border Town branch, the beautiful secretary-general with a great figure. No need for formalities. I’ve read your investigation reports. Since you haven’t found the dungeon entrance, you wanted more adventurers involved, so you lowered the entry threshold.”
Li Si looked at the team intelligence on her panel.
According to the information, adventurer teams with a maximum character level of only 10 weren’t qualified to join.
But they were allowed in because of Mei Lin’s invitation.
So, did Mei Lin discover something?
Of course, that wasn’t important.
What mattered was that a full day and night had passed since the Crimson Moon’s arrival, and the adventurer team still had no clue about the dungeon entrance.
This had never happened in the original game storyline.
Was this the effect of her, the true protagonist, lying low?
Li Si pinched her chin.
According to the intel, the investigation was stuck on tracing the miasma.
The densest miasma distribution area had no signs of entry at all—not even tracking the Magic Beasts that entered the dungeon gave any clues.
Li Si remembered that this entrance wasn’t hard to find.
It should be nearby.
If she had more environmental info, she might be able to pinpoint it directly.
“If you need more information, you can attend the investigation meeting tonight. Just looking at the scattered reports probably won’t reveal anything.” Enya suddenly spoke.
Li Si nodded.
There was no rush.
It was already afternoon, and evening would come soon.
Since the golden finger gave a mission, she definitely had to do it, but there was no hurry.
This time was just a routine introductory report, and she could also collect the team benefits.
Every team had routine tasks.
Completing them earned team contribution points and experience rewards.
“Since this is a temporary team, there aren’t many tasks. Besides investigating the dungeon entrance, you’ll patrol the surrounding area to ensure camp safety.”
Enya effortlessly introduced the tasks on the board.
As the regiment commander’s secretary, this was all her duty.
Li Si didn’t hesitate and accepted both tasks.
After confirming with Enya, she only needed to wait for the team leader to click confirm.
Li Si sat on a rest bench under the task board, sipping the barley tea Enya had brought, slowly savoring it and waiting.
“Li…”
Lili Ya rushed back, saw a blur of green sitting on the bench from afar, opened her mouth to call out, then froze.
The giant goblin plush head slowly lifted.
Inside the round head was a delicate, silver-haired face, now round and plump from the costume, looking adorably dazed.
Li Si took one last sip of the steaming barley tea and slowly stood up.
“Lili Ya, let’s go out again before dark.”
“Wah!”
A frantic cry came from beside her.
Li Si turned.
A giant goblin plushie was struggling desperately to swallow someone.
In an instant, it had gobbled up Lili Ya.
“Phew… phew…”
Lili Ya panted, hating her own pointless sense of shame.
“Well then… you two, take care…”
Enya kept her head low, seeing them out of the camp.
The surrounding adventurers wanted to laugh at the two goblins, but seeing the secretary-general so serious, they forced themselves to be silent and solemn.
Seeing them all the way out of the camp, Enya stared at the two green backs and finally let out a sigh.
In 25 years of adventuring, she’d never seen such adorably dazed adventurers.
Yet they were the next Imperial Archmage’s chosen ones.
“Pfft—“
Enya couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.
The reason was that one of the two 5’3″ goblins suddenly had a drooping ear.
“Oh no, Li Si, your ear broke!”
“Yeah, must have been cut by spider silk when I was setting a trap earlier. No big deal. Goblins can be disabled too.”
“Pfft—“
The adventurers on lookout also burst out laughing.
[Border Town Area]
[Yunzhongjushou (3): Ah~ You wouldn’t believe it, but I saw the Goblin King Her Highness mentioned.]
[Bianchui Zhen Zei Wang (5): Holy crap, I saw it too! Strongly recommend anyone feeling down to come see it! It’ll make your whole year!]
[Violet: Yeah, I can confirm I was right there. One of them even had a broken ear.]
[Bianchui Zhen Zei Wang (4): That funny? Strongly recommend Boss He Zi come enjoy it!]
[Bianchui Zhen Zei Wang (3): Strongly recommend +1. Hope the boss enjoys it.]
[Sewer Thief King (3): Strongly recommend +1]
[Life Vine (4): If I don’t get a laugh when I get back to camp tonight, I’ll kill all of you.]