kscans

Chapter 419 - Skill Leveling and Titles

Parfait stood with the maid in front of the office.

The office was on the second floor of the building, near the center of the south side. The hallway itself was a perfect place with not a speck of dust, and Parfait felt it had an intimidating air, as if it would not tolerate any discourtesy.

After the maid knocked, a voice said, "Come in." The maid said, "Excuse me," then opened the door, and the two of them entered.

It was a cozy but well-organized room, a perfect space with no openings.

A low table was placed in the center of the room, surrounded by expensive-looking antique sofas. The walls on the left and right sides of the room were bookshelves, and at the back was another antique-looking desk.

The light coming in from the window was blocked by thin curtains, so it wasn't too bright. Thus, she could clearly see the face of the woman who was working at the desk.

It was Rose, with whom she was acquainted in the real world.

She was a friend of her mother, Esha, and also a neighbor living in the same Colony. She was a staff member of the AFO management, serving as the Guild Master of the Maid Guild, the Maid Chief. That's what Parfait had heard.

That Rose stood up with a smile.

"Welcome, Parfait-chan."

"Hello, Rose-san."

Rose came around the desk, approached Parfait, and took both her hands.

"I'm so happy you came. Your debut at last."

"Yeah. Diite-oneechan just introduced me to this place, so I came to say hello."

Rose nodded and nodded, then thanked the maid who had come with her and told her she would be fine now. The maid bowed and left the room, leaving only Parfait and Rose.

Rose urged her to sit on the sofa and began to prepare tea and sweets.

Parfait watched Rose as she prepared them.

Her hair, which was closer to purple than black, was styled in an updo, and every single one of her movements was beautiful. She moved in a similar way in the real world, but since she was in casual clothes, Parfait had never thought her movements were that beautiful.

But seeing her in a maid uniform, pouring tea, she was undoubtedly a veteran maid. Parfait thought she would definitely want her to work at the coffee shop after she had seized power.

Seeing her movements and appearance, Parfait found something strange.

Rose was in her early forties, the same age as her mother, but she looked to be in her late twenties at most. At a stretch, she might be around thirty.

To begin with, her mother Esha and Teacher Simon also didn't look like they were in their forties, but when she asked them, they all answered in unison, "I got a lot of sleep."

Her father, Hayato, also looked younger than his age, but it was still within a range that could be called age-appropriate.

She found it strange that many of her father's friends looked young, but she decided it was fine and stared at the cookies that had been prepared.

She had just eaten a parfait at the church, but her stomach could still go, and Parfait was fully intending to eat the cookies she was offered.

When the preparations were finished, Rose also sat on the sofa. She sat opposite her across the low table and smiled at Parfait.

"Here you go, Parfait-chan."

"Thank you for the food."

Parfait, who held the belief that it was ruder to be reserved in such situations, ate a cookie.

It was very delicious. Thinking that the food in this world was all so delicious, she put another cookie in her mouth.

Then her eyes met Rose's, and she panicked a little.

"I'm sorry, was I being too greedy...?"

"No, I think you're eating quite reservedly, actually."

"Eh? Really?"

"Esha would eat with both hands without stopping."

"Ah..."

Meals at Parfait's house were a scramble. Usually, the food was served individually, so there was no need to worry, but when they had yakiniku at home, you'd lose out if you weren't careful.

There was no need to worry about that now, so she ate slowly, savoring the taste. Since it was a virtual reality, she couldn't feel full, but she was grateful that she could enjoy the taste. Since they ran a coffee shop, she could enjoy a wide variety of tastes in the real world as well, but it was a different class here.

Parfait thought this as she ate cookies and drank tea.

And then she finally took a breath.

Rose, seeing this, thought it was a good time and opened her mouth with a smile.

"Parfait-chan, you said Diite-san introduced you to this place, but am I right in thinking you'll be joining the Maid Guild?"

"Well, when I said I was thinking of training in customer service, she said the Maid Guild does that too. But, what is a guild in the first place?"

"Oh, right, from the beginning. Then let me explain a little."

A guild is translated as something like a trade association, but here it refers to an organization run by the AFO management staff. What they do is similar, and there are guilds for each profession. Guilds issue quests that give rewards, and it's common to earn money by completing them.

In a normal RPG, you would defeat monsters to earn money, but in this overly realistic virtual reality, there are also people who can't fight monsters. For those people, various means of earning money and playing without fighting monsters are prepared.

Also, in AFO, where there is no job system, belonging to a guild means becoming that profession, so it's normal to belong to some kind of guild.

Since you could receive various benefits by belonging to one, not belonging was nothing but a self-imposed challenge, she said.

"What kind of benefits?"

"There are various things, but the biggest benefit is that it becomes easier to gain experience for specific skills."

"Skill experience?"

"Skills are like individual abilities or techniques. There are various things like swordsmanship, woodworking, and fishing, and you get stronger by raising them. Since there's no concept of LV like in a normal RPG, raising skills is effectively leveling up. Stats like HP and STR also rise in conjunction with the skills you've raised."

Parfait, who also enjoyed normal RPGs, nodded.

"And to raise your skills, you need skill experience. When you accumulate a certain amount, your skill goes up. In the past, it went up by chance, but that was unpopular with people who had no luck, so it was changed to this system. That was a tough time, there was a festival-like uproar in AFO with people shouting, 'People with no luck have rights too!'"

Combat skills were not a problem since they naturally went up as you fought, but production skills were very unpopular because they wouldn't go up unless you used rare materials.

The festival-like uproar in AFO was to the extent that people with production as their main job went on strike or rioted, and the AFO management staff had a hard time with overtime suppressing it.

Parfait thought it sounded a little fun, but she didn't say it out loud and just nodded.

"Getting back to the topic, for skills that match each guild, you get a bonus on the experience you acquire. For example, in the Maid Guild, you get a bonus on things like Cooking and Sewing skills. Well, for sewing, the Seamster Guild has a higher bonus, but the Maid Guild offers a wide range of skills, and some combat skills also get a bonus, so I recommend it."

Parfait digested Rose's explanation in her mind.

Since there was no concept of LV, the only way to get stronger was to raise her skills. She wasn't interested in getting stronger, but if she wasn't strong, it would be harder to earn money, and the elements of the game she could enjoy would decrease.

She didn't plan to stay in this safe place forever, and to go on adventures, raising her combat skills would be important, she thought.

"Oh, right, by belonging to a guild, you can also get various titles."

"Titles?"

"That's right. In the past, they were just a bonus element, something like a trophy, but now you get a status increase when you get a title. Depending on the title, you might learn a weapon skill—like a special move for a weapon—or your production recipes might increase, so it's better to get as many as you can. You can see the acquisition conditions from the system menu, so it's faster to look there."

"Um, is this it?"

Parfait displayed a holographic system menu screen in the air and pressed the "Titles" button.

A large number of titles were displayed, but all of them were displayed in gray text. Thinking they must be titles she hadn't acquired yet, she selected one of them.

'Apprentice Adventurer: Belong to the Adventurer's Guild and complete five quests. Effect: HP+10'

Parfait nodded in understanding, then found a part of the titles page that said "Filter," pressed it, and then pressed "Maid Guild."

The filtered title list screen displayed a list of titles that could be acquired in the Maid Guild.

Words like "Apprentice Maid," "Veteran Maid," and "Combat Maid" were written there. There were some titles she didn't quite understand, but there was also one she didn't understand in the slightest.

"What is this 'Goddess of Annihilation' title? It seems like a title you can get in the Maid Guild, but it has nothing to do with maids, right? And isn't the condition impossible?"

The content written was as follows.

'Goddess of Annihilation: Belong to the Maid Guild and defeat the Hero and the Demon Lord at the same time. Effect: MP+100. Unlocks the gun-type weapon skill "Destroy."

Why would you defeat the Hero was one thing, but at the same time as the Demon Lord was even more incomprehensible. You could say it was a title they had no intention of letting anyone get.

At Parfait's question, Rose put her fingers to her forehead.

"Rose-san?"

"There's only one person who has that title..."

"To meet this condition, you'd have to be some kind of maid, but is she an amazing hardcore gamer? A shut-in?"

"...She is your father's wife."

"My father's wife...? Oh."

Considering the reaction of the maid who had brought her here, she convinced herself that that must be it.

For some reason, the atmosphere was awkward, so she decided to change the subject and check a different title.

"Oh, um, the acquisition condition for this 'Useless Maid' title is interesting. 'Mooch parfaits for over a month at your dispatch destination'... oh."

Parfait realized something.

"It's just as you imagine, Parfait-chan."

"Oh, yes."

"Incidentally, I have it too."

"...Why?"

She wasn't told the details of what had happened, but apparently, her father, Hayato, was responsible. She decided to ask him directly in the real world, but she also resolved to be careful about her future actions, realizing that there were also embarrassing titles to have.