Chương 62: Scarfs To Blankets

"Ahem, anyways, what's up?" Luna asked as I was giggling.

"Ah, just came to tell you that I was about to make dinner." I said, hiding the scarf behind my back. Thinking about it, it'd probably be good to wait until I finished my scarf to give her hers, wouldn't it? That way I could say it's a set…

"Oh! Thank you, what're you making?" She curiously tilted her head.

"Rigatoni, it'll be done in about half an hour."

"Yay." She smiled and turned back to her game. … The next day I was laying on my bed knitting my raccoon scarf. The reason I was here instead of the living room was because Luna was playing games again. She was playing with that same girl from yesterday, whom I've learned is a semi-popular streamer and VTuber. That did give me a chuckle. It reminded me of old days, the days before I awakened where I'd have to draw to pay rent.

There were quite a few commissions I received from VTubers, unfortunately, this Rumi fellow wasn't one of them.

"No, there's literally a monster over there." Luna said dryly. [I don't believe you! Nuh-uh!] Glancing at the screen, I chuckled. Rumi's character was adamantly shaking left and right to simulate a head shake. Yet, this time, Luna actually wasn't lying, there was, in fact, a monster charging at Rumi from behind. [You can't trick me-WAAAAAH! HELP!] Her character went down.

"Pfft." Luna chuckled. I smiled and continued to knit. … Time continued to tick by and I got closer and closer to the completion of the 'raccoon scarf'. It matched the color scheme of a raccoon and I made the head of it as cute as possible. To be honest, throughout my knitting journey, there's been several questions lingering on my mind. Like, just how will this help my mana manipulation? Or what's the point of this? But, the biggest and most prominent question I had was: Just when in the heck would I wear a scarf?

I live in Florida, the sunshine state. The coldest it gets here is like 60 degrees Farenheit (15 celcius). I mean, I guess it's for when I travel, but until then I guess Luna and I will just have some pretty scarves for decoration. Anyways, after a lot of hours purely focused on knitting, my scarf was finished. Unfurling it, I nodded with pride. From rags to riches—literally. If I sold this, I bet I could get at least $20. Seeing that Luna was still locked in on her game, I laid both scarves on the bed.

On the left was a primarily white scarf with pink accents to make it look like a cute mouse. On the right was my raccoon scarf, which matched the black and gray color scheme of one and looked similar to a cute raccoon. There was one more scarf I wanted to make, but that was low priority. I could do that after I finished my training, for now, I wanted to move on to the next stage. I feel like I've been here for too long—even if it's only been just over a week. But for now! It's time for my favorite part!

Showing Luna her gift. Hehe. I smiled thinking about it. Looking at her screen, I saw that she was nearing the end of the match. I'll show it to her when she dies. If you're asking why I don't believe she'll win this match? Well, Rumi has already died and it's looking like the final showdown will be in a graveyard—in other words, in a place where skeletons will spawn. Quickly purchasing a small box from the exchange, I placed her scarf inside before shutting it.

As expected from a box worth 1, 000 points, it automatically seals it so that I don't have to do anything. Glancing back at Luna's screen, I saw the 'You Died!' message and internally chuckled. Luna's fist was clenched tightly and she was glaring at the skeleton that killed her. [Pfft! So close, so close!] Rumi said. Tapping Luna on the shoulder, her body jumped as she turned to me with wide eyes. So cute, just like a real mouse. I thought with a smile.

"Could I borrow you for a moment?" I asked. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Of course." She immediately replied, nodding. I leaned into the mic and spoke,"Foolish Rumi, I'm gonna borrow Mouse for a minute or two~" [Okay! Wait-I'm not a fool!] Her reply came immediately. Luna followed me to the bed—which was only a few feet away from the desk. She had a curious expression on her face.

"Do you need me for something?" She asked.

"Mm." I nodded, "I got you something."

"Oh!" Her eyes widened and I could see her lips start to curl, "Is it food?"

"…" I rolled my eyes. Just what am I going to do with this foodie?

"No, it's something else." Climbing onto the bed, I lifted a pillow. Hidden behind the pillow was a cute box with a ribbon tied to it.

"What is it?" She asked excitedly. I pushed the box towards her, "A comfy gift."

"Hm…A comfy gift…" She pondered for a moment before continuing, "I can open it, right?" When I nodded, she immediately undid the ribbon and lifted the top.

"Woah!" Her eyes widened as she pulled out the scarf.

"Wow! So soft? It's way softer than your other ones."

"Mm," I nodded, "I used some expensive yarn for this." To be exact, I used C grade yarn I found on the exchange. It was the most cost-efficient one I could find. She unfurled the scarf and laid it on the bed, this time, a look of pure surprise and happiness appeared on her face,"A mouse scarf!" She said, "Thank you!"

"Hehe, also," I unfurled my raccoon scarf and laid it next to hers, "It's a set!" I smiled.

"Wow!" She said excitedly and quickly leaned over to hug me, "Thank you so much! I love it!" I don't think I've ever seen her this excited except for when it comes to food? In any case, it feels good. I smiled as I returned the hug,"Of course. These probably won't have much use for now, but, when we travel in the future, they'll be good."

"Hm? I could see plenty of uses for them now." She tilted her head, "There's plenty of gates and floors where it gets really cold. If we bring them to an enchanter, they'll be even better in those scenarios."

"Ah." I didn't even think of that. Plus, because I used graded yarn, the scarves themselves came out as an item. [Mouse's Comfy Scarf] Grade D Creator: Raccoon A scarf knitted by an amateur filled with love and effort. This scarf was made for ElectricTypeMouse and resembles a white mouse. * Part of the Animal Scarf set. (Mouse's Comfy Scarf; Raccoon's Comfy Scarf) [Raccoon's Comfy Scarf] Grade D Creator: Raccoon A scarf knitted by an amateur filled with love and effort.

This scarf was made for Raccoon and resembles a raccoon. * Part of the Animal Scarf set. (Mouse's Comfy Scarf; Raccoon's Comfy Scarf)"Do you know any enchanters? Or, I could look for one myself." I said. With my fame, I'm sure I could ask some enchanter class ranker to make these the best D grade scarves in existence.

"Hm…Let's talk about it later. If we just give these to anyone, they'll see that Raccoon created them." Luna said. I shrugged, "Alright, go back to your game, I have some more knitting to do."

"…More knitting? You're a machine…" Luna sighed.

"Hehe." I giggled. Luna took the scarf with her to the desk before unmuting her mic and continuing to play as normal. Taking a deep breath and stretching, I flopped back onto the bed and laid spread eagle. Next is… Knitting a blanket? Isn't this just a scarf but bigger? Couldn't I just skip this one and go straight to mana itself? … No, last time I skipped something, I ended up nearly dying. Ugh, alright. I'll at least knit one blanket, if it's not any different than scarfs, I'll move onto mana. …

If there was one obvious difference between knitting scarfs and blankets, it'd be the time it takes. When I was knitting scarfs, I could pop out one about every 2-3 hours, but, for blankets? Even after three days, I hadn't finished my first. That could just be because I decided on knitting something cute but complex though. Shrugging, I continued to calmly knit while watching Luna play with Rumi. Instead of the usual battle royale game, they were playing some moba.

Luna popped a strawberry in her mouth as she farmed minions.

"I'm getting ganked." She said dryly. But, I could tell her mood was low; Her arms were slightly trembling with anger. She had died 6 times now, each of them being from getting ganked. Hehe… I internally giggled. She's getting tilted.

'You Died!' that message appeared on her screen and I could audibly hear her taking a deep breath to calm herself. Even Rumi was quiet at this point. Of course, I wouldn't be!

"Oof! You suck! How have you died 7 times in 20 minutes!" I loudly exclaimed, failing to hide the teasing smile on my face. Luna immediately turned and shot me a death glare, her fists trembling with rage. [Pfft!] My teasing was all that Rumi needed to burst out laughing. Luna didn't say anything, just silently pushing out her chair and standing up. I watch nervously as she approached where I was sitting.

"Hehe?" I tried to act cute and tilted my head at her. Luna raised her hand and moments later I was met with repeated palm smacks to the forehead.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow." I repeated with every light smack.

"Haah, that feels a little better." She let out, returning to the desk. I rubbed my forehead and giggled. Noticing the 'You Died!' message appeared back on screen, I went to speak but held my tongue. Next time it'll probably be knuckles instead of her palm. But after thinking about it for a moment, I let it rip anyway.

"You suck! Hahahahha!" …

"Owie…" I let out pitifully as I looked at the girl who was happily eating dinner.

"Hmph," Luna let out, shooting me a glare, "You knew it was going to happen and you did it anyways."

"I'll have my vengeance." I retorted, puffing my lip at her.

"Good, I'll be waiting then." She scoffed. After a moment, a smile appeared on both of our faces.

"You seem to like gaming recently." I commented.

"Mhm." Luna nodded, "It's been a lot of fun. I'd like to play with you but…"

"Hehe, I'm a limited-time character. You'll have to wait until the next patch to play with me." I joked.

"Haah…Damned gacha system." Luna clicked her tongue and shook her head. As the comfortable silence settled in, I looked at my phone and my eyes widened in surprise a bit.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.

"Ah, nothing's wrong." I replied, "But, do you remember hearing about that dragonkin girl?"

"Her? Vaguely. What about her?"

"Well, she's officially started climbing the tower. Apparently she's planning to be a solo climber and make the solo leaderboards. People are hyping her up quite a bit online."

"Oh I see. That doesn't surprise me; The government have been steadily training her and announcing that she's been practicing in gates to prepare for her tower climb. I'd imagine they're trying to make another famous solo ranker to be a face of the government." Luna nodded.

"Mm? Really?" I tilted my head.

"Yeah, it's common when they have prominent rookies. If you weren't anonymous, there'd probably be people hyping you up as well to become a icon for whatever place obtained you."

"Hmph, I'm already an icon." I smugly retorted, "But, dragon girl has been in gates? Why? It's not like you can get tower rewards from it."

"For experience." Luna explained, "So that she won't fall on her butt when monsters charge at her like a certain someone."

"…Ahem." I looked away.

"Also, with people behind her, she doesn't exactly need the tower itself to give her rewards at this point. People will buy her skills and equipment. She just needs to learn how to use them so that she can reach the leaderboards on her first clear."

"Mm…Interesting. Then, why doesn't everyone do that? If you can practice as much as you want before clearing a floor, shouldn't the leaderboard change like everyday or something?"

"First, the cost investment is high." Luna held up a finger, "It'll cost millions at least. Second, it's a risk. There's a reason why not much people climb the tower alone; You have to do everything by yourself. One mistake and it could be your death, which will lose all the money the investors put in. Three, there's a ton of pressure on the climber. They know how much is relying on them which can increase the likelyhood of mistakes.

Plus, the public isn't stupid, they'll know just how much aid the climber has gotten. If the climber makes obvious mistakes or is lacking in any way, they'll be criticized harshley. Four, what happens if the people behind the climber invests all of that and then the climber just leaves or betrays them. They lose out on everything. In other words, there has to be a lot of trust. Five, this is one of the most obvious reasons, the climber still has to clear the floor in time.

You've seen the leaderboard, you know that you only have seconds to kill all the monsters if you want to rank on it. With how much people have optimized and cut the time, people basically have to clear it perfectly to rank. There's more reasons, but those are just the basic ones off the top of my head."

"Mm." I nodded, listening attentively(lie) to teacher Luna. Yeah, no, the only thing I really took in from that explanation is that I'm the best and no one else can come close to my level. I mean, no practice, no combat skills, no people behind me, and I still hit the leaderboards? Yeah, I'm amazing.

"…What're you thinking right now?" Luna asked.

"That I'm the best." I smugly replied.