Chapter 49: Showy but Useless

[Dolly]

Gender: Female

Age: Young adult

Loyalty: 70

Affection: 85

Talents: Repair (85), Sewing (70)

Skills: Novice Repairer (Bottleneck)

Traits: Timid (has a chance to become unable to act when facing fierce enemies), Sensitive (very attuned to others’ emotions, to the point it affects her own actions), Meticulous (increases the chance of successful repairs)

Introduction: [Dolly’s parents were merchants on the continent. They fell in love at first sight, and Dolly was born soon after. From a young age, she traveled all over the continent with her parents.

One day, a terrible accident occurred. To protect Dolly and her mother, Dolly’s father lost an arm. Witnessing this with her own eyes left Dolly deeply afraid of monsters.

To prevent such a tragedy from happening again, Dolly’s parents gave up their lives as wandering merchants and joined a fixed caravan.

As Dolly grew up, her talent for repairing things was discovered. Under the careful guidance of an old repair master, she became an outstanding repairer—her talent and meticulous nature making her especially skilled.

Influenced by her parents, Dolly also joined the caravan when she came of age. However, her parents disapproved. Even after reluctantly agreeing, they never allowed her to travel with other caravans alone.

That is, until one day, Dolly secretly joined another caravan without telling her parents...]

...

Su You frowned slightly as she read the half-finished backstory.

As mentioned before, an NPC’s traits are usually closely tied to their story. But in Dolly’s case, Su You could only see the origins of her “Timid” and “Meticulous” traits.

As for “Sensitive,” Su You strongly suspected it was the result of something that happened in the latter half of Dolly’s story.

Normally, unless something truly significant happens to an NPC, it’s not easy for them to develop new traits later on. Otherwise, players would have long since found ways to farm traits through various means.

...So, what exactly happened after Dolly defied her parents and joined a caravan on her own, that caused her to develop the “Sensitive” trait?

There were so many possibilities that Su You couldn’t figure it out right away. At most, she could guess it had something to do with Dolly’s parents... Otherwise, given Dolly’s personality, she wouldn’t have stayed here. She’d most likely just rest up and then find a way to go home.

But up to now, Dolly hadn’t shown any desire to return home. She was even considering joining the territory...

Since this trait was a blue (rare) trait, Su You didn’t dwell on it for long after realizing she couldn’t figure it out.

All she needed to know was that she now had a highly talented repairer who also had a high affection for her.

...

While Su You was checking the information, the white ermine in her hands started to struggle—perhaps because it was uncomfortable in this position, or maybe it was getting too warm from the city’s central fire. Either way, it was trying to wriggle free from her grasp.

But Su You’s attention was elsewhere, so she didn’t notice its struggles.

Dolly, however, saw the little creature squirming. After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke up.

“Miss Lord, would you like me to take care of the ermine for you?”

Su You closed the information panel and snapped back to reality, immediately noticing the restless little ermine twisting in her hands.

“Sure, you can take care of it. If it’s hungry, feel free to feed it something.” Since this was Doya’s treasured pet, Su You was willing to spare some food for it.

Given Doya’s serious injuries, she would have to stay in the territory for a few more days... As inappropriate as it might sound, Doya’s injury did give Su You more reason to keep her here.

Dolly nodded and gently took the ermine from Su You’s hands.

After handing over the ermine, Su You also gave Dolly the piece of animal hide. Then, glancing at the brothers Lyle and Lake, she asked, “Do either of you know how to fight?”

The brothers hadn’t expected Su You to speak to them, let alone ask such a question. After a brief moment of surprise, the older brother, Lyle, answered.

“I can fight in close combat. As for Lake... forget it. He only knows some flashy moves—couldn’t even catch a chicken.”

Lake glared at his brother, instinctively retorting, “That’s not true! Last time we sparred, you didn’t even beat me!”

Lyle: “...” If you’d just kept quiet, no one would think you were mute!

Lyle was left speechless and a little desperate by Lake’s outburst. If he could, he’d probably want to smack his brother unconscious right now.

Normally, their bickering was harmless, but since Lord Su had asked about fighting, it clearly meant she was considering having them take part in combat—which was dangerous. Naturally, Lyle didn’t want Lake to be exposed to that risk.

Claiming that neither of them could fight would have been too suspicious, so he told the truth about himself but downplayed Lake’s abilities, saying he only knew some showy moves.

But apparently, Lake didn’t catch the subtext in Su You’s question, so... Lyle glanced at the woman before him, who showed no emotional reaction to his lie, and couldn’t think of a way to cover it up.

Since Lyle had answered so seriously, Su You hadn’t suspected he was lying.

Still, no matter how good his composure was, having such a “pig teammate” meant Su You quickly realized Lyle was lying, and could even guess why from his expression.

Su You was a bit surprised by Lyle’s lie, but didn’t think much of it.

After all, anyone with a bit of sense would be cautious when asked such a question, so Lyle’s response was understandable.

“I won’t force you to do anything. If you’re unwilling, you can refuse. You can still pay to stay in the territory... But maybe you should hear me out before deciding.” Su You’s question, of course, was because of the mine she’d discovered earlier today.

To Su You, that mine was basically a gold mountain. With such a treasure before her, there was no way she wouldn’t want to dig it up.

But wanting to mine it and actually having the strength to do so were two different things.

After all, ghost skeletons were much tougher than fire demons. With 10 defense, they’d only take 5 damage from a basic arrow tower, and with 100 HP, that meant 20 arrows per skeleton... Su You simply didn’t have enough arrows to spare.

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