Chapter 249: Luxurious Panel Data

Chapter 249: Chapter 249: Luxurious Panel Data

The Underground City’s Public Safety Zone.

The same simple tavern where Lance had eaten with Bazzer and his daughter the day before.

Lance led Nieve to a relatively quiet corner and sat down.

The two had just been through a great escape, so it was the perfect time to sit down, eat something, and relax.

A waiter quickly brought them the menu.

Without hesitation, Lance ordered a large portion of the signature honey-glazed grilled ribs for himself.

Nieve, sitting across from him, carefully scanned every line on the menu.

Then, she pointed a slender, pale finger and ordered two small berry tarts and a few cream puffs.

They were all small desserts with tiny portions.

It was only when the waiter brought the steaming hot dishes to the table that Lance noticed something was off.

"Aren’t you going to eat a main course?"

Lance picked up his knife, cut into the steaming roast, and looked quizzically at the desserts on the table, which were nowhere near enough to fill a stomach.

’Fought monsters all day, and this is all she’s eating?’

Nieve stared at the cream puffs on her plate and gently shook her head.

"Nieve has no sense of taste."

Paired with her placid expression, it was as if she were talking about something completely trivial.

The Snow Lady race had extremely weak senses of touch and taste. Furthermore, their race was born with an innate penalty to their Perception checks.

However, they could compensate for this lack of environmental awareness by continuously raising their Spirit Attribute and using certain Detection Spells.

The Snow Lady race was full of natural-born Casters, rivaling even the Witch Race.

Lance’s hand, holding the knife, paused for a moment.

He instantly understood.

Although he hadn’t had a chance to carefully examine the specific effects of the "Sensory Overload" Trait the system had just rewarded him with, given the name, the Trait was probably used to forcibly stimulate the dulled senses of a Snow Lady.

’This damned system really is something else.’

"If you can’t taste anything, then why did you order these desserts?" Lance stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth, unable to suppress his curiosity.

"Because Philis likes to eat them."

Nieve blinked.

When she mentioned her friend’s name, Lance seemed to detect a slight emotional flicker in her otherwise flat tone.

Philis was the Cat Girl who had been clinging to Nieve’s neck and acting cute on the street earlier.

"Every time Philis eats dessert, she gets this beautiful smile on her face. She looks so happy."

Nieve lowered her head, looking at the tempting cream puff on her plate.

"So Nieve thought that if I ate these desserts often, maybe one day, I could experience that happy feeling too."

’Damn, this girl really tugs at your heartstrings.’

Hearing this, Lance suddenly felt a pang of guilt for just sitting there enjoying his meal.

As the food settled, the atmosphere between them grew more relaxed.

Nieve seemed to feel the time was right. She put down her small silver spoon and looked at Lance with a serious expression.

"Lance, Nieve has a request."

"Go on."

"Please let Nieve follow you for the upcoming Summer Crown event."

This sudden request didn’t come as a huge surprise to Lance.

He put down his knife, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and waited quietly for her to continue.

Nieve began to earnestly sell her own value.

She recalled the battle scenes she had witnessed in the deep pit of the mine earlier that day, her tone sincere.

"Today, Nieve saw that Lance was struggling to fight in the Demon nest. There were just too many monsters; Lance couldn’t clear them all by yourself." ℴℴ𝘮

"Nieve can help deal with those Demons."

To make her case more persuasive, the Snow Lady went so far as to lay all her cards on the table.

She rattled off a series of what could only be described as luxurious personal stats, which left Lance astonished.

Nieve was currently a Level 3 Frost Knight, one of the Rare Professions.

With the stacked buffs from various Permanent Skills, her Constitution Attribute alone was a terrifying 34 points.

And her Spirit, her main casting Attribute, had reached the 37-point mark.

These two core stats were already around 3.5 times the peak level of an ordinary adult.

As for her Strength Attribute, it was on par with Lance’s normal state.

’Is this what a Level 3 Professional raised with the full resources of a Grand Guild looks like?’

’Her on-paper stats are truly powerful.’

Lance mentally estimated his own combat power.

He tallied up all the Specialties he had on him.

Without activating his Dragon Form, he figured he could probably fight and gain the upper hand against an ordinary Level 3 Professional by relying on his various Specialties.

But if he ran into one of the Rare Professions with a deep foundation like Nieve, he might be forced to reveal his trump card and activate his Dragon Form.

Nieve’s stats gave him a more concrete idea of just how tough those with Rare Professions could be.

Nieve alone was proficient in all sorts of Ice Magic.

On the battlefield, she could instantly cast a wide-area slowing Aura and even had hard control abilities to freeze enemies solid.

Most importantly, she could use Ice Spells to forcibly alter the terrain, dividing a complex battlefield into smaller, more advantageous zones.

Moreover, she possessed an enviable Profession Specialty that allowed her to convert her Spirit and Constitution Attributes into a Magic Shield Bonus at a certain ratio.

This made Nieve incredibly difficult to break through on defense.

In gaming terms, she was a perfect Magic Tank with built-in crowd control and terrain-altering abilities.

Honestly, all the conditions Nieve proposed for teaming up were very tempting to Lance.

The test at the bottom of the mine pit today had already made one fact clear to him.

The monster-aggroing Aura effect of the "Mad Slaughter Silver Crown" was simply terrifying.

The Demons swarmed in like an uncontrollable tide.

Even if he were made of iron, and even with the Unlimited Stamina from his Talent, he would still face the problem of his single-target attack frequency limit.

He simply couldn’t handle so many Demons pouring in from all directions.

If a powerful ally like Nieve, with her own crowd control and tankiness, were to join him...

...the result would definitely be greater than the sum of its parts.

The two of them could team up to exploit the Crown Buff mechanism to its absolute limit.

Not only could they consistently maintain the "Mad Slaughter Silver Crown’s" efficient monster-farming state, but they would even have the confidence to challenge the unknown Crown Buffs of the next level.

In such a state of extreme monster aggro, the drop rate for high-value rare items would definitely increase significantly.

For example, things like "Skill Distillation Fragments," which could forcibly upgrade a Specialty, and "Satori Essence," which could unlock potential Specialties.

These kinds of rare drops, unique to the Underground City, were what Lance needed most.

Compared to obtaining these precious drops, letting Nieve handle the excess mobs he couldn’t deal with was a deal with absolutely no downsides.

Tactically, the two of them were a perfect complementary pair.

The only concern now was that he had too many secrets that couldn’t see the light of day.

Just his Unlimited Stamina alone—if the two of them spent a long time together farming monsters in a high-intensity party, it would inevitably arouse the intelligent girl’s suspicions.

"You should eat first."

Lance pondered for a moment. He didn’t give an immediate answer, instead opting for a stalling tactic.

"I need some time to think about it."

Nieve nodded obediently and didn’t press the matter.

She looked down at the desserts on the table, and a strange idea suddenly popped into her head.