I Became a 6★ Gacha Character

The armor spoke!

Someone familiar with web novels, manga, and various creative works would shrug it off, thinking "Of course armor talks - protagonists get reincarnated as hot springs, vending machines, staves, slimes, dogs, cats, you name it, and they all talk!"

But in this K-medieval fantasy world where superstition ran rampant despite the Goddess's existence due to lack of education, talking armor was a massive event. If the armor's owner had been some village maiden instead of Katie, the duke's second daughter, people might have worshipped it as a spirit or demon.

And in our party, we had both a village maiden and something similar - a temple corner maiden.

"Oh my, oh my my my! Mr. Armor spoke!"

"What's this? Is it enchanted to speak? To scare enemies?"

Take the oath, child――

The oath of the snowfields――

The armor's ghost echoed eerily from inside the display box. I called it a ghost not because of its eerie voice, but because Han Se-ah's quest window labeled it 'Ghost of the Empire'.

Asking to keep the oath of the snowfields.

Given that Han Se-ah's quest window mentioned an unfulfilled oath by House Wesley's ancestor, maybe something would happen if we cleared that oath. Since the quest centered on magical armor, I suspected its capabilities might evolve.

"Oh, ohh... it's cool."

"Um, Mr. Armor? Could you tell us what kind of promise?"

While I thought about game mechanics, Grace and Irene scurried back to the armor. They started conversing with it while Katie desperately searched her memories for any mention of the snowfields oath and Han Se-ah chatted with viewers.

But how could a recording or echo answer questions? No matter how cutely they asked, the armor just kept muttering ominously about the oath.

...But could it even be worn like this?

"Katie, you okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, can you try it on? It keeps muttering, but want to at least touch it?"

I tapped Katie's shoulder as she agonized, ending her worrying. Our little runaway wouldn't know her family history thoroughly after leaving right after coming of age. Better to try touching the armor than waste time wondering.

Wouldn't touching such mysterious magical equipment trigger some realization or strange change?

It might sound childish, but this was a game world. Though incredibly close to reality, it still maintained basic game frameworks. Whether Katie found my advice reasonable or just didn't want to think anymore, she grabbed the armor without hesitation.

"Eek! Katie!"

"Your hand! Is your hand okay?!"

"Ah, um... it's fine. My hand didn't freeze - the ice became armor. No, maybe the armor became ice?"

The softly glowing armor instantly froze Katie's hand. Deep blue ice too thick to see through raced from her slender fingertips up her hand, wrist, and forearm, engulfing her.

It looked horrifying, like someone flash-frozen. But seeing Katie wave her hand around normally, it didn't seem dangerous.

Though she looked completely frozen and brittle enough to shatter at a touch, she insisted she was fine, wiggling her fingers like a baby playing peekaboo. The sight of her frozen form moving piece by piece felt quite bizarre.

How to describe it... it was like watching a beautiful ice sculpture from a winter festival walking around.

"Are, are you really okay? Nothing hurts? No headaches or voices whispering in your ear...?"

"No, I'm really fine! Look!"

Of course, only I with modern sensibilities found it beautiful - to K-medieval Grace and Irene, it looked like the talking armor had swallowed their companion whole and possessed her body.

It wasn't unreasonable to think so, seeing a deep blue ice human body creaking and moving beneath the face of a young lady who still retained traces of youth despite her sharp features.

First things first, we needed to remove the armor to calm the startled Grace and Irene.

※

With the main quest blocked, Han Se-ah had gained the 'For Elize' quest and 'Oath of the Snowfields' quest. This wasn't some mountain god giving both gold and silver axes to good children - she'd tried sampling one side quest and got another tagged along.

Seeing Han Se-ah's oddly pouty face, she probably wanted to only do the 'Oath of the Snowfields' quest to prepare for when the main quest opened, then goof off the rest of the time. But after moving millions of won through her uncle Excel broadcast, she couldn't just abandon quests.

She'd forgotten her stream had grown far beyond even the term 'global'. Apparently she'd ended up having to donate 50 million won jointly with the Middle Eastern viewer for a total of 100 million, plus distribute hundreds of pizzas and chickens to viewers.

'Come to think of it, the world's top streamers in our world also donate hundreds of millions and dig wells in Africa. Has Han Se-ah reached that level?'

A casually started side quest had somehow become a 100 million won donation project. She looked oddly pouty whenever logging in, probably from the hassle of consulting lawyers and accountants to handle complex legal matters.

Regardless, time passed and our carriage headed east in the Empire. The hero party plus Jacob, head of the archipelago's Adventurer's Guild branch, and retired mercenary Mills made for ten extra stars worth of power on the move.

With Jacob and Mills driving, we didn't need to hire coachmen, and the rest of us rode inside. I'd felt awkward being the only man inside with the women, but Jacob, somehow sensing this, had forced me in saying "Roland is the holy sword's owner and must be treated well!"

"What's the Empire's east like?"

"It's vast grasslands. But it feels different from the Kingdom's east. There are more rolling hills than expected, so you don't get that wide-open feeling."

While I leaned against the window with closed eyes, secretly checking Han Se-ah's stream on my hologram window for anything I'd missed, Irene and Elize's conversation began.

I think they called continuous low hills rolling hills. While the Kingdom's east was flat plains used as a breadbasket, the Empire's vast territory meant alternating grasslands and rolling hills.

Elize's village had been where the rolling hills ended. A peaceful village raising sheep in the hills and farming small plots on the plains. Just a few hills over from her master witch's cottage, it hadn't worried much about monsters.

"Hehe, thinking back, my master must have set up something on each hill. We never even saw wandering goblins in the village... Maybe that's how the witch found her."

"Ah... she must have been a good person. She's surely in the Goddess's embrace now."

"Thank you, Irene."

The mood inevitably grew heavy once past stories came up, but we needed to hear Elize's tale to progress the quest.

...Though the only clue would probably be the ruined village.

'Wonder if anything's left in the village.'

Even if BB Games was unfriendly, they must have left some kind of marker as a clue. The master's belongings, or something carelessly left by the mad witch.

Without that, they'd be telling us to search the Empire's vast east piece by piece - who'd play Empire quests then? Even in the Kingdom it took months to travel between east and west. The several times larger Empire could take over half a year just to search the east.

Half a year just looking for side quest clues? That'd be like telling her to quit streaming, give up on walkthroughs, and surrender her world #1 title. She'd sooner donate another 100 million and flee to the tower.

"By the way, ah, wonder if they can hear this outside the carriage?"

"We bought an expensive one, so sound won't travel out if the front window's closed. Great for private girl talk."

"Ah no, that's not it... I'm curious about those two's abilities that Elize checked out. The documents show their completed requests and success rates, but not their fighting styles."

Han Se-ah seemed completely unconcerned about such terrifying futures.

Or wait, was she just thoughtless to begin with...?

Enjoy the chappy!