The Weather Was Really Nice Today

"Hyah—"

Linton rested his head on a pillow made of straw and turned to look out the window.

The sky had yet to brighten, and stars dotted the heavens.

In the courtyard, Miss Knight was methodically swinging her knight's sword, her expression serious. If she had not been transformed into a puppet and thus unable to sweat, it might have made for quite a different sight.

Ever since the closed beta ended, they had moved somewhere else, but they were still living in Blackwater Village.

Iris seemed to prefer these peaceful days without much conflict. Though Linton was eager to save enough money to leave the Truth Society, his trait was simply too damned troublesome. If he went into business, he would definitely be arrested as a crooked merchant. And if he wanted to travel across the continent, he would have to use the teleportation arrays in major cities. Someone like him, who looked suspicious at a glance, would never be allowed to freely enter spatial arrays that were incomparably precious to everyone.

So, he had gone along with Miss Knight's wishes and temporarily settled here.

However, while Iris liked a peaceful life, that did not mean she was lazy. Every day, as soon as dawn broke, she got up early and began honing her swordsmanship.

Except—

"While diligence is important, isn't this a little excessive?"

Linton calculated the time. It was roughly two in the morning. Even if her body had been modified and she possessed stamina beyond that of an ordinary person, she ought to get more rest.

"Did she run into some kind of problem?"

Countless thoughts flowed through his mind as Linton tried to uncover the truth.

At first, Iris's training schedule had been fairly normal. It was only recently that she had begun starting earlier and earlier. Moreover, she was no longer satisfied with sparring without an opponent and wanted Linton to serve as one.

Not to mention that puppets accounted for most of a necromancer's combat power, even in hand-to-hand combat, how could a bookworm like him possibly defeat someone who had wielded a sword since childhood?

So Linton repeatedly refused, and Iris suggested going out to clear low-level monsters instead.

As a result, the villagers had spent the past few days discussing which patrolling Flower Knight was so fierce that she had wiped out every monster in the surrounding area.

Iris's actions had long surpassed the standard of merely keeping her skills from growing rusty.

After thinking for a long while, Linton felt that rather than trying to find clues among countless possibilities and piece them together into an answer, he might as well ask the person involved directly.

Of course, based on what he had learned about the girl over these past few days, if he asked her outright, she would absolutely refuse to tell him the real reason.

"Iris!"

Miss Knight's movements paused for a moment before she continued swinging her sword. Without turning around, she asked,

"What is it? Why aren't you resting this late?"

"Aren't you resting either?"

"I can't sleep."

Linton dragged a battered chair from the courtyard to a spot some distance away from Iris and sat down. Leaning against its back, he narrowed his eyes and watched the girl practice.

Under his gaze, Iris barely managed to swing her sword a few times, but the man's stare was far too piercing. For some reason, she felt the same embarrassment as performing on stage for the first time.

"Hey! Can't you go back inside? Stop disturbing my practice, okay?!"

Linton spread his hands innocently. "I haven't said anything or done anything. How am I disturbing you?"

"Just having you here is the biggest disturbance!"

"Fine, fine." Linton rose helplessly and waved a hand. "Anyway, thanks."

"Thank me?" Iris asked in confusion. "Why are you suddenly thanking me?"

"Aren't you practicing so hard to become stronger? But why do you want to become stronger? Isn't it to protect me? I still remember what you said back then."

Iris froze. Then, moonlight quietly draped a thin veil over her fair cheeks, as though concealing them.

She cried out anxiously, "W-Who wants to protect you?! God, how can someone be this full of himself?!"

"Then why are you suddenly working so hard? Wouldn't it be enough to spend a little time, like before, making sure your skills don't get rusty?"

"How could that possibly be enough?!" Iris said angrily. "I want to become strong—really, really strong! Stronger than everyone else!"

"Even so, you should balance work and rest, shouldn't you? Even an ox cart will fall apart if its wheels never stop turning." Linton spoke softly. "A person's mind has a limit. Your body may be special and won't protest against being overworked, but once you reach a certain point, even a tiny spark can become the trigger. All that pressure will burst through the valve in an instant and make you collapse."

"But..." Iris suddenly deflated. "Everything was fine before. I could feel myself getting stronger, but over the past few days, my progress has completely stalled."

"Even though I've been fighting more than ever..."

The troubled girl sighed repeatedly.

"Could it really be like you said? Did I put too much pressure on myself and overload my body, so I can't keep improving?"

Her strength had stalled? She could no longer improve?

So that was it?

Listening to Iris murmur to herself, Linton seemed to recall something, and his gaze gradually drifted.

He vaguely remembered that puppets needed materials to level up...

Before Iris noticed, Linton hurriedly opened his status panel.

Only then did he realize that the puppet's attributes had already changed.

Name: Iris Lizer

Level: Lv.10 (5700/5700)

Level cap reached. Breakthrough available.

Required materials: Ever-burning Grass Wick x10, Sturdy Bone Shard x10, Pure Spirit x1

Attributes: Strength 4, Constitution 2, Intelligence 8, Charm 9, Luck 1

If he remembered correctly, Iris's initial level should have been 8, with Strength and Intelligence at 3 and 7 respectively.

A puppet's attributes grew as its level increased. Unlike players, they could not be controlled through free attribute points, but specific training could be used to focus on improving a particular stat.

As for experience points, puppets shared them with their owner. Thus, while Linton had received a huge amount of experience and leveled up, Iris had enjoyed the same benefit, perhaps even receiving excess experience.

Seeing this, one might think that puppets were not all that different from players. However, every ten levels, puppets required materials to break through—the so-called bottleneck. Players had no such restriction, aside from needing to complete certain quests when changing classes.

"So... it was my fault?"

Linton's expression immediately became rather awkward.

Well, it was his first time being a necromancer. He was inexperienced. Forgive him, forgive him.

Sneaking a glance at the puppet girl still agonizing over herself, Linton quickly began searching for the materials needed for a puppet's level breakthrough.

Ever-burning Grass was a plant unique to the Kingdom of Blossoms. Its defining feature was the faint white glow it emitted, and it was said that before it withered, it would never dim even under eternal night. Sturdy Bone Shards, meanwhile, were silver-grade materials that could be gathered from all kinds of skeletal monsters.

Both were common materials, so Linton had quite a bit in his inventory and did not need to look for more.

Since it was the first breakthrough, simple materials were only natural.

But the final material, a Pure Spirit, could only be dropped by a boss-level monster.

As for how to find that boss...

In the Kingdom of Blossoms, was there any boss that its former top player had not found or defeated?

"Iris." Linton clapped his hands, snapping the girl out of her tangled thoughts. "Since you want to improve your strength so badly, let's go. I'll take you to fight something big. Battling it will definitely help you improve."

"Okay."

Iris answered blankly, then immediately realized something was wrong.

"Wait, didn't you just tell me to rest?"

"Did I?"

"...You bastard! My strength can't improve because of you, right?!"

"Ah! The weather is really nice today."

"It absolutely is, isn't it?!"