I opened my eyes to see Phildina staring down at me with sparkling eyes. Wait, this position could it be? I was lying on something soft and warm, so it could only mean one thing. A p pillow! I felt like crying tears of joy. It was one of the rare moments I was gd I became a girl.

  "Good morning, master tactician!" Phildina interrupted my useless thoughts.

  "When did I become a master tactician?" I asked, still enjoying the pleasant sensation of my head on her p.

  "Ever since I found these!" She brought out one of the Gorgon eggs for me to see, and I widened my eyes in surprise. "I wasn't just sitting around, you know? I found these while exploring and figured this was the reason you wanted us to come here. With this, I can finally accept you as our tactician."

  "I'm gd to hear that." I really was, but this was only the beginning.

  "You're also just really cute!" She said with sparkling eyes. I didn't know how to respond to that, so I blushed and turned away, which only made things worse as she kept on teasing me. I heard everything from, "Your sleeping face is the cutest thing!" to "I almost felt like your mom." Where did she come up with these? I wondered, but a sharp pain in the back of my head cut off my thoughts.

  "We should get going now that you're awake," She said as she rose without warning.

  "Ouch! You should have at least told me you'd get up first!"

  "Sorry about that," She said, sounding completely unapologetic.

  "You don't sound sorry en- You know what? Forget it. Let's go."

  "Wait," she suddenly stopped me. "Why don't we make a special deal?" She asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes. I could instantly tell she was up to no good. Ah, she's a pain...

  "What deal?" I asked, hoping it wouldn't be what I feared it would.

  "Why not give one to me? They were low-level monsters, but I gained some EXP from killing so many of them, and I'm now at level 49. I need one more level to promote, so what do you say, master tactician? Will you give one to me?"

  "No," I fired back instantly.

  "But why?! Wouldn't it greatly increase our party's strength?!" She wasn't entirely wrong there, but the problem I had with her proposition y elsewhere.

  "Phildina," I began, "Don't pretend as if you're thinking about the party. If you were, they wouldn't be where they are now with your strength and experience." That seemed to have shut her up, so I continued, "While I admit it'd help increase our overall strength, that would come at a great sacrifice. Can you guess?" I wanted her to see it for herself, so I passed the mic to her.

  "I'd become gorgeous?"

  "No, you idiot!" I bellowed with a voice I imagined could shake the very foundations of the cave. Then, I sighed and answered, "You'd be the only strong css. Everyone else would be under-leveled, weak, and forced to rely on you for everything. I've seen a few parties adopt that strategy, and none survived longer than a month." If she were an NPC, she'd probably react in fear to this statement, but if she were a pyer, she would know that those parties simply disbanded after a while.

  "I never saw it that way..." She said with fear written all over her face. Yep, she's an NPC, I concluded as I grabbed the other two Gorgon eggs.

  "For now, I'd rather have you focus on rescuing your party members than fighting." She wore a disheartened look at this, but it didn't move me to change my mind. "When we're all on the same page, we can start thinking about who to promote," I added, sealing the deal.

  "So, then, what do you intend to do with them?"

  "I want to sell them for the benefit of the party. That's how a team pyer thinks, and it'd make my job a lot easier if you learned that."

  At this, she saluted and said, "I'll try my best!" with a different sparkle in her eye this time. I'd like to think that she gained a new sense of admiration for me, but I could never tell what was going through that thick skull of hers, so I gave up pretty quickly.

  "Oh, wait," I suddenly remembered, "You've gone on a lot of solo missions and gained a lot of experience, right?"

  "Yep, if I start listing all of them. We'd be here all day!" That's not something to be proud of, I thought to myself as I asked,

  "Do you know of any auction houses around here?"

  "Yes! I could take you to one today, but..."

  "But what?"

  Her expression turned somewhat grave as she answered, "You'll have to keep your wits about you in such a pce, especially with such a valuable item in our possession."

  "Yeah, I know," I said dismissively, thinking it was going to be a cinch, but she took an unusually firm stance this time.

  "No, you seem to think everything will be fine, but that area is home to some of the worst crooks you'll ever encounter, and I don't want anything bad happening to you." For a moment there, I forgot that this was Adaptive Mode and assumed it would be like any other auction, but with different NPC behavior in a new world, one could never tell what to expect, so her warning came at the right time.

  "I'll keep that in mind moving forward," I said with a firm nod, and my answer seemed to satisfy her this time, as she didn't pursue the matter any further. She then began to lead me to where the Pegasus was outside the cave entrance, the one I entered originally, and we took off. I didn't know what to expect, but somehow, I felt like I'd be safe with Phildina.