Frostfire Legacy

"You want to join us?" Aster asked once more, as if to confirm.

Lizandrea turned to face him, her expression unchanging, before nodding her head.

"Yes. Seeing how coordinated the four of you were, I believe it'll be to my benefit if I join your party." She explained. "And having only one tank is problematic, especially when you're fighting a boss. Having a backup tank is the mainstream."

"..."

Aster, of course, understood that having two tanks alternate when facing a boss was the standard. And of course, he had no problems with adding Liz to their party. However, what worried him was the one on her "back."

'The Dragonseal Family would most likely look for information about her party members. They would definitely find information about me.'

He wasn't sure if that was a bad thing or not, so he first had to ask the Mayor's view on this. Just as he was about to refuse her offer temporarily to give him time to think, his holo-tablet started to vibrate.

"Huh?"

He quickly checked it, only to see a missed call and a message. The name on both the caller and sender was... "Mayor Magnus?"

Curious, he opened the message, only to see a short message saying:

~~~

There's no problem with the Dragonseal Family. You can take her in; I'll talk to them about you to smooth things out. 👍

~~~

Aster quickly put his phone down and looked around, checking for anyone suspicious. After all, the content of the mayor's message was as if he were sitting with them at the table! 'Wiretap? Did he install something like that on my holo-phone, perhaps?!'

Of course, his doubts remained unanswered. It made him feel a little disgruntled, as if he were playing to the mayor's tune.

"... I see no problems." Aster sighed, facing Lizandrea once more. "Welcome to our party."

Hearing his positive response, the dragonkin woman heaved a sigh of relief before sitting properly on her chair. "I thought you'd reject me for a moment there. Anyway, thanks! I'll make sure you don't regret this decision!"

"Yeah, no problem."

Aster felt a little shocked that she figured out his initial intentions. 'This woman's too sharp!' he admitted.

Taking advantage of the location, they quickly finished registering her as a new member. Aster was feeling awe as he just gained two members in consecutive days!

Zena didn't take long, as she didn't want to miss the festivities. In just three minutes, she returned with their adventurer's cards, with the party names updated.

"Right, before I forget..."

Aster flipped his card, adding the newly gained point to his CON stat. Finally, he reached the average value for a normal person's CON! With a satisfied grin, he checked the values of his Adventurer's Card.

[

Name: Aster Mistral

Age: 2518

Race: Human

Purity: 100%

Level: 6

Party Members: Cassandra Bright, Kali Norma, Celestinya Zirroth, Lizandrea Von Dragonseal (Empty) (Empty) (Empty)

]

[

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 10

Constitution: 8

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 16

Charisma: 12

Luck: 0

]

His level was rising fast, but their speed at conquering floors was still too slow. It can't be helped, however, as their priority was gaining levels and proper equipment first before challenging the higher floors.

'If we continue at this pace, I doubt we'll reach the 1000th floor within five years.'

If they take their average time to conquer a floor as 1 week, they would need 20 years to reach the top floor!

'To speed up our progress, I need to get stronger... or gather more members and make a perfectly balanced party!'

Currently, the party composition is: two tanks, one healer, one scout, and one support or semi-mage. To make a balanced party, they would next need a mage, a porter, and a backline fighter. Aster wondered when they would be able to find a good one, though.

'At worst, I can just post another recruitment offer. With the number of girls increasing, adding a guy shouldn't be a problem now.'

"...ter. Aster?"

"Eh?"

After hearing his name called, he snapped back to reality. Turning to his side, Lizandrea was looking at him with a smile. "Were you thinking about something? Anyway, do you want to see my stats? I think you'd need that to understand my abilities more."

"Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought." Aster scratched his head.

"But are you sure about showing me your stats? How can you trust me that much when we haven't even known each other for long?"

"It's fine, it's fine. I don't have anything that would be troubling to be seen, after all." Lizandrea added with a handsome smile. "Then, here."

"Okay..."

[

Name: Lizandrea Von Dragonseal

Age: 20

Race: Dragonkin

Purity: 30%

Level: 6

Party Members: Aster Mistral, Cassandra Bright, Kali Norma, Celestinya Zirroth (Empty) (Empty) (Empty)]

[

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 10

Constitution: 25

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 3

Charisma: 15

Luck: 0

]

"..."

Aster rubbed his eyes before looking at her stats again. However, the values didn't change at all.

"What a perfect example of min-maxing!"

With a CON value of 25, she's practically a walking wall! It's doubtful if monsters from the second floor, other than bosses, would even be able to injure her! Hearing Aster's comment, Lizandrea scratched her cheeks awkwardly.

"A-Ahahaha... As you can see, since I increased my constitution first, my strength is a little low. I'm making up for it using equipment, but this should have its limits too."

'Low?' Aster cursed. 'I have 5 strength, goddamnit! And you call 11 LOW?!'

He felt his fragile heart crack a little from her casual comment. Of course, it was nothing but his manly pride in suffering. Anyway, he didn't let his thoughts appear on his face as he returned her card.

"With this much CON, you'd be perfect for our main tank. I'm counting on you, Lizandrea!"

Aster extended a hand, waiting for a handshake. Lizandrea folded her wings as if feeling shy before grabbing his hand.

"Just like during the battle earlier, calling me Liz is fine." She said, permitting Aster to call her using her pet name. "And I'm also looking forward to working with you, Star."

"Yesh~! Welcome sho zha parshee~!"

Without the two's notice, a drunken rabbit jumped to Liz's back. The poor dragonkin looked panicked, unsure of what to do, while their leader simply watched as they started frolicking.

After Aster returned to his seat, he took a swig of his juice... but realized that the taste was different.

His vision quickly turned blurry, and his memory was cut off from that moment. The reason Aster refused to drink was because he was someone who would get drunk with a single sip of beer!