Chapter 508 - 320: Miss Elsa, You Don’t Want the Boss Finding Out You’re Skipping Work for a TTRPG, Right?

Chapter 508: Chapter 320: Miss Elsa, You Don’t Want the Boss Finding Out You’re Skipping Work for a TTRPG, Right?

You could add petty, vindictive, snarky, shameless, and all that jazz to his list of traits.

With the background set, the main story began.

"The Great Prophet of Repin Academy, during a routine prophecy, witnessed a tragic sight he would never forget: the colossal figure of Zog, blotting out the sun as he swept over Twin Tower City. The flames he spewed engulfed countless innocent lives, turning the once-prosperous city into a vision of Hell."

’This was clearly a case of artistic license. When Zog first came to this area, Twin Tower City didn’t even exist.’

’Besides, he rarely breathed fire. If he did, it was usually just for the visual effect—to scare people for fun.’

Elsa was certain that, for Zog, scaring people was far more entertaining than killing them.

’But he already had more than enough stories casting him as the villain. What was one or two more?’

Sometimes Zog would even seek out stories about himself to read. In his own words, "It’s not often I get to read fanfiction about myself. It’d be a waste not to take a look."

Strangely enough, within the Zog Group, the most open piece of intellectual property—the one anyone was free to use for their creations—was Zog Benge himself.

"To prevent the doomsday vision from the prophecy from becoming reality, the entirety of Twin Tower City mobilized. As the most powerful city on the Continent, they were confident they could repel the Ancient Red Dragon’s invasion. And, fortunately, a friendly Ancient Golden Dragon would help protect the city she currently called home."

Hearing this, Elsa couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing.

’That kid Ben has a bit of a wicked sense of humor.’

"The Golden Dragon’s Magic requires a large amount of spell components. The task of searching for these components has been distributed to numerous adventurer parties through the Adventurer Guild. And you..."

Finally, it was the players’ turn to enter the scene.

"You are to head north of Twin Tower City, cross the hills inhabited by Dwarves, and reach the Dwarf Town named Orem. Rumor has it that an ancient Dragon Turtle lives in the lake near the town."

"Whoa, are we going to fight a Dragon Turtle?" Dean asked excitedly.

Anything with "Dragon" in its name was bound to be powerful, and the Dragon Turtle was no exception.

Fighting a Dragon Turtle was a quest only an elite party of adventurers could hope to accomplish.

"Your mission... is to collect Dragon Turtle dung."

PFFT— Dean slumped back in his chair. "Collecting poop? What kind of quest is that?"

"Um, feces as a spell component is actually quite common," Elsa explained, speaking as a professionally trained Illusionist. "A lot of thought went into that detail."

Dean’s eyes widened in disbelief.

The idealized image he’d had of Mages since childhood shattered in that instant.

’So those glamorous-looking Mages were always messing around with poop.’

Ewww—

Dean felt like he could smell poop. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination.

"The feces used for components are usually air-dried, so they don’t smell," Elsa explained, noticing the strange look on Dean’s face even though he hadn’t asked. "However, there are some Mages with... unique tastes. They prefer it moist, or viscous... soupy, even..."

URGH—

Dean dry-heaved. "Don’t say another word! I’m gonna be sick."

"Ahem," Ben cleared his throat, steering the... fragrant quest back on track. "This is a dangerous mission. The Dragon Turtle is not as docile as the legends claim. Furthermore, there are rumors that a Necromancer has appeared in the vicinity of Orem Town. To ensure the mission’s success, Adventurers, please introduce your classes and identities."

The starting level for this quest was Level Six, which was quite a bit higher than Elsa’s own level back in her prime.

By capping the level, even if the players leveled up, they wouldn’t be able to confront the Dragon Turtle head-on. This would keep them from derailing the plot Ben had designed.

’The machinations of the Underground City Lord!’

Dean was playing a Beastman Warrior who was skilled at cooking and kept a Deer Eagle Beast as a pet.

Craig, on the other hand, was a wealthy Elf Minstrel with an expertise in Mechanical Armor.

’Basically, they were just playing themselves with a different race and class.’

They had used the same characters in their previous adventures, so they were already quite proficient.

Elsa, however, was a first-timer and needed to create her character from scratch.

She opted for the most immersive character-building method.

A Human Illusionist from a remote village. Poor. A former student at Repin who struggled to graduate.

’If Zog hadn’t captured her back then, this might have really been her life.’

’No, that’s not right. She’d never have reached Level Six.’

Elsa was nothing if not self-aware.

Back when she was an Adventurer just trying to make a living, fighting things like goblin dog-headed men was her limit. A Dragon Turtle? She’d never have even laid eyes on one.

And now, she somehow knew a whole host of Legendary figures.

’Life really was unpredictable.’

"You need to roll dice to determine your six starting stats: Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Charisma. These will be very important for your future adventures. As a Human, you’re well-rounded, so you get a +1 bonus to each base stat," Ben explained.

According to the rules Ben had set, each stat was determined by rolling four six-sided dice and summing the three highest results.

This was a revised rule. Originally, you just had to roll one 20-sided die.

Obviously, that method produced a ton of bizarrely extreme stats.

Elsa’s final results were 18, 13, 11, 10, 9, and 9.

During the adventure, these numbers would be used to calculate a modifier by subtracting 10 and dividing by 2. This modifier would then apply to relevant ability checks.

She immediately assigned the 18 to Intelligence.

’First, Intelligence was useful for an Illusionist. Second, it was a way to compensate for her real-life shortcomings.’

’There was no way she could still struggle to graduate with a starting Intelligence of 18!’

Next came the stat increases from leveling to 6...

Elsa hadn’t paid much mind to the game at first, genuinely thinking it was just a bit of make-believe.

But as she got deeper into the game and immersed herself in her character, she got hooked. Super hooked.

There were not only all sorts of interesting choices and unknown developments, but also tense and exciting combat encounters.

’She never expected the combat to be so much fun.’

For each battle, Ben would use tiles to construct different battle maps, place enemy figures on them, and then run a confrontation with the players’ characters that felt a bit like a game of chess.

Unlike chess, however, this involved using different Skills and Magic.

It had depth without being too mentally taxing, a dash of luck, but was still primarily skill-based.

So, even though it was a "you-take-a-turn, I-take-a-turn" system, it was surprisingly fun.

Hooked.

Before she knew it, several hours had passed.

"And with that, our adventure for today is over," Ben announced.

"Why are we stopping? I thought we were going to fight Zog!" Elsa had come specifically for this. "We haven’t even seen him yet!"

"But it’s getting late, and this campaign can’t be finished in one day. We’ll continue tomorrow."

"I have to go to work tomorrow."

Another Adventurer, off to battle the forces of real life.

Awww—

Dean was very disappointed. He thought it was a lot of fun playing with Sister Elsa. They had just found a great new teammate, and now she was about to drop out.

Elsa was torn. She really, really wanted to fight Zog.

Her fingernails tapped a restless rhythm on the table.

After wrestling with her thoughts for a few minutes, she asked, "About how many days will it take to finish this campaign?"

"Hmm..." Ben considered it. "If we play for several hours at a time like we did today, it should take about three more days. It’s not a long campaign."

Ben had already realized that it was hard to see overly long campaigns through to the end. Everyone was just too busy.

"Alright, I’m taking three sick days!" Elsa declared, her mind made up.

—————————

「Deepwater City Lord’s Mansion.」

"Elsa!"

Zog called for Elsa out of habit, but for a long moment, there was no reply.

Then he remembered: Elsa had called in sick for three days. She’d made it sound quite serious—said she was bedridden and absolutely couldn’t make it in to work.

Come to think of it, he didn’t think Elsa had ever taken a sick day before.

’As her boss, shouldn’t he show a little concern?’

’Ah, what a considerate and caring leader he was.’

’If she had a cold, he’d flaunt a carton of ice cream in front of her. If she had a sore throat, he’d stuff his face with food...’

And so, Zog casually grabbed a gift with one of his claws and flew off toward Elsa’s home.