The so-called "Authentic Sein Dungeon Adventure" was something Melga had cooked up specifically to fund her drinking habit.
As everyone knew, Sein Dungeon had undergone numerous mutations, and a great many of its layouts had changed beyond recognition from their original forms. Combined with the endless stream of strategy guides circulating outside the dungeon, the immersive experience for newcomers had been thoroughly ruined before they even set foot inside.
Newcomers could no longer experience the joy that the first wave of victims — no, wait, the first wave of beneficiaries — had experienced. A genuine loss, by any measure.
And the veteran adventurers who had entered during Sein's earliest mutations, who had suffered through every manner of torment before a single guide existed, had developed a particular habit of looking down on newcomers who explored with documentation in hand.
"Kids these days have it too easy. They just follow the guide step by step. There's none of the spirit we had back then."
"Exactly. If you've never had a teleporting treasure chest flung into a Crucible Knight's face and gotten caught in the blast, your experience isn't complete. The quality of newcomers has really fallen."
Wherever people gather, comparison and one-upmanship will follow. None of this was particularly surprising — but the veterans' remarks genuinely got under the new adventurers' skin.
"What spirit? Isn't that just being stupid enough to trigger every trap and get chased by monsters? And you brag about it?"
"Who in their right mind wants to experience getting bisected by a Crucible Knight? Are you a masochist?"
"What's wrong with reading a guide? That's the accumulated wisdom of everyone who came before us. Even with a guide you still can't guarantee safety. You're just jealous."
Nobody had anticipated actual conflict breaking out between new and veteran adventurers.
Melga's thoughts on the matter: fight. More fighting.
The tension between old and new had genuinely improved her business. Some newer adventurers even sought her out specifically — they wanted to see firsthand what those loudmouthed veterans had actually endured in Sein, so they could go back and mock them from a position of experience.
Business got good enough that she recruited a number of elves to work alongside her. For a while things were thriving — she could even envision founding a proper company.
Then her aunt found out.
"I believe I made it very clear that everyone's priority should be promoting my magical theories above all other work. What exactly do you think you're doing, stealing my best assistants away?!"
And so Melga returned to working alone. Her ambitions of going public collapsed overnight. She was back to taking small jobs by herself.
It wasn't that she didn't want to hire help — it was that the people of Bedford City had already caught the scent of opportunity and started copying her model. Competing with humans on their own turf was more trouble than it was worth, and she couldn't be bothered.
"Alright, we're here! First stop!"
Melga put on her brightest, most energetic business voice as she lifted the hand covering Elsa's eyes.
Elsa opened them with genuine anticipation.
Before her stretched a dim scene of yellow-green viscous poison water flowing in every direction, insects swarming through the thick air, and trees standing dead and withered without exception.
The smile froze on her face.
"T-this… is it?" The scene was sufficiently shocking that her speech began to stammer.
Back in Bedford City, she had never entered the swamp section that preceded Farron Keep. After leaving the city, she had stopped following Sein's developments closely, and had only recently crammed in some basic knowledge at the last minute — by which I mean she had learned the names of Sein's various regions.
The result was that her current expression of complete blankness actually suited Melga's activity rather well.
A moment passed.
"Can I just stand here?" Elsa looked around the poison pool at a total loss. "Why are you so far away from me?"
Melga gave her a thumbs-up from a considerable distance, then tossed over a Lure Skull.
"Don't fight back! The whole point is not resisting!"
"Eh? Eh?" Elsa blinked, small confused circles spinning in her eyes.
The swamp not far away began to bubble and gurgle. One large eye after another surfaced from the depths before charging toward her at high speed.
She looked back at Melga.
The distance between them had increased in exact proportion to how close the Basilisks were getting.
The closer the frogs came, the farther away Melga became.
"Um — hello?"
Elsa wasn't entirely sure what "taking a bath with the Basilisk" was supposed to involve, but it sounded like it should be a fairly friendly activity. And those monsters called cursed frogs had very large, rather adorable eyes — perhaps she could make a good impression?
She smiled at the several dozen cursed frogs assembled before her.
"Pffft!"
They sprayed saliva directly into her face.
[Elsa died attempting to greet the Basilisk.]
Not long after, she returned to the bonfire with a glazed expression. Melga was already there, grinning.
"Well? Did you get a taste of what your predecessors went through? Basilisks are one of Sein Dungeon's original mascots. Everyone gets caught out by them at least once."
"So? How was it? Now you're also— wait. What's that expression? What are you doing?"
"Don't hit me! You agreed to this yourself! Help! Murder!"
Elsa drove the elf to her knees with practiced efficiency. She was absolutely going to make her earn the money back.
"What's next?" Elsa asked, face dark. Even mixed in among the mercenaries, she could produce a thread of killing intent when she chose to — it startled Melga badly enough to make her flinch.
"F-Farron Keep still has the randomly teleporting treasure chest, the Twin Gargoyles, and the Crucible Knight."
"What about the other regions?"
"Also, um — in the forest area there's 'getting roared at by the headless Lion Ape' and 'kicking the bonfire and challenging the Left-Bow Swift-Blade Three Avatars.' In the Catacombs there's 'shooting up the boulevard' and 'endless reincarnation hugging the Corrupted Retainers.' And finally you go to the Gourmet Zone to fish and kick Pikachu."
Elsa considered this in silence for a moment.
"Um — should I refund your money?" Melga was, if she was being honest, a little frightened. In the half-month she'd been running this business, she had never encountered a client quite like this.
"No need. I'm genuinely interested in the remaining attractions. I can even pay extra."
"What?"
"But," Elsa said, her voice dropping a register, "the remaining attractions will be experienced by you. On my behalf."
"NOOOOO!"
As it turned out, people who appeared expressionless were, when you cut them open, entirely black on the inside.
What followed was Melga's extended suffering.
She had only herself to blame for not explaining in advance what "taking a bath with the Basilisk" actually involved. The price of indulging her own small perverse desire to watch Elsa panic had come due with considerable interest.
The Ape was the only monster in Sein Dungeon that featured a dedicated Fear mechanic. Ever since some adventurer had claimed that being roared at by the headless Ape could produce genuine enlightenment and deep reflection on the nature of life, more and more people had made the deliberate journey to challenge it — apparently operating on the theory that being forcibly thrown into a state of Fear could cure depression.
"I'm sorry, Stella, don't leave me — I'm so sorry—"
After the roar struck and she descended into a terrified state, Melga went into a frenzy of frantic apologetic bowing directed at empty air. Elsa hurriedly administered a Fear-Dispelling Powder.
The Left-Bow Swift-Blade Three Avatars were a moderately famous monster group in their own right — they punished without mercy anyone who showed disrespect to the bonfire. Rumor had it that adventurers specifically came to sharpen their PvP techniques against them, and the Ash of War they dropped — Swift Blade — was considered an extraordinary treasure.
"I hate the left bow…" were Melga's dying words, delivered just before she was shot into something resembling a porcupine and crumpled to the ground.
What followed — the boulevard shooting, the endless reincarnation sequence, and the rest — were things that Melga couldn't manage even with full foreknowledge of the strategy.
By the end, she looked as though she had shed an entire layer of weight. Eyes bloodshot. Voice weak and vaguely listless.
Elsa looked at her and offered a smile that said, unmistakably, I forgive you. She had been smiling more and more lately.
"I'll take you to Liurnia of the Lakes right now."
Melga's only remaining desire was to hand this particular disaster off to someone else as quickly as possible. Driven by the will to survive, she displayed a route-clearing speed that was genuinely impressive under the circumstances — leading Elsa in a sprinting parkour run all the way to Liurnia of the Lakes, successfully depositing her at the gatefront town of the Academy through a series of maneuvers that probably didn't bear close examination.
"Repairing weapons requires souls. You probably don't have enough on you, so take these." She pressed a Large Soul of an Unnamed Warrior into Elsa's hands.
"Thank you. You really are a good person."
Receiving the good-person card made Melga's mouth twitch. She waved both hands vigorously. "That's enough of the project experience. Take your time with the repairs. I'm leaving!"
[The wild Melga fled!]
At last, Elsa came face to face with the blacksmith Andre — the one she had been working toward this entire time. When he accepted the broken greatsword and told her to return tomorrow at the same hour to collect it, she was so overwhelmed with relief that she hugged him.
Everyone nearby went completely still.
They had all seen what happened to people who got physically forward with the blacksmith. Their brains had, without exception, been punched clean out of their heads in a single blow.
Andre, however, did not appear to classify Elsa's gesture as an attack. He allowed the hug for a few seconds before calmly sending her on her way.
She walked out wrapped in a happiness so complete it made her steps slightly unsteady.
That greatsword had been with her since the day she became a Hero in childhood. It had long since crossed the line from weapon to family. For Andre to repair it was, in every meaningful sense, like bringing someone she loved back from the dead.
Along with that, her feelings toward Sein Dungeon — where Andre lived and worked — had improved considerably. She had run into a few conflicts with the dungeon along the way, but none of them had been the kind of blood feud that couldn't be moved past. Those things had grown faint with time.
And today had left a deep impression on her, especially Liurnia of the Lakes. The thin mist hanging over the surface combined with the moonlight scattered across the water made it the most beautiful scene she could remember seeing in her entire life.
The whole atmosphere of the lake district is just different from everywhere else.
Gurgle.
Her stomach spoke up, and only then did she realize the entire day had passed. She needed to find somewhere to eat.
The town by the Academy had been transformed beyond recognition by the adventurers who had settled in over time. All kinds of shops had taken root — including a large restaurant that served as the de facto gathering point for most adventurers stationed in the lake district come evening.
She pushed the door open.
The place was roaring. A continuous wall of noise and movement hit her at the threshold and she hesitated there, uncertain.
A familiar voice came from directly behind her.
"Gut, what are you doing here?"
"Eh?"
She turned.
Tami.
And behind him — Luluwo, Belto, the rest of them. The entire Skyrim Group, all at once.
"This is the person you mentioned before?" Luluwo's eyes lit up the moment she saw Elsa, and she was already moving — hooking an arm through Elsa's with the easy confidence of someone who had already decided the matter was settled. "Since we've run into each other, it's fate. Come eat with us. Tonight's our victory celebration banquet!"
Luluwo's enthusiasm was immediate enough and forceful enough to leave Elsa entirely at a loss. Before she could form a response, Tami stepped up beside her and smiled.
"We've found a way to defeat Wolnir."