Since yesterday, Kanami-chan didn't leave my side, aside from the time I went to the restroom.
With her arms around my neck, she clung to my back. I don't want to say that it currently looks like a child clinging to an adult, but it's hard to describe our current appearance in another way.
Well, I can't say anything about this scenario, I can't do anything but smile with satisfaction. "Is it ok like this?" I think to myself.
I guess so, as I'm not particularly tired and I do not dislike being embraced.
Seeing Kanami-chan like this, and with Argento and Auro on both my arms, I didn't have any problems with it.
I gave up because it was some form of physical contact.
And because I'm a father as well, I can be serious in some cases. Because I normally don't have a lot of time, I really do not have any reason to complain.
Aside from that, I decided to open the collected treasure chests today.
Even though I could have done it yesterday as well, I wanted to see how much the remodeling of the store had advanced yesterday. I also wanted to see how much the training of the leader of ≪ Solitude ≫ had progressed. I also wanted to check how much Redhead and Boy Knight had grown. On top, there were a lot of other miscellaneous duties, like arranging the pricing of the items on display in the store. Because of all that, I postponed it until today.
By the way, the one thing that was most troublesome to do yesterday, was the pricing.
The items that I got from the [Age of the Gods dungeon], were similar to [Artifacts] exactly because they came from an [Age of the Gods dungeon]. In other words, they were superior articles to items that showed similar effects.
Even if you take just one recovery potion for instance, its effect was several percentages higher than something with the same quantity and same size.
So among customers there are a lot of people that want and need recovery potions, such as soldiers and adventures.
However, when it comes to [Divine's Lost Legacy], because of their heightened effect, they're used the moment they're found by the person conquering the dungeon in most of the cases. Therefore, there's a considerably low quantity that is up for sale.
Even if you put something on the market from an [Age of the Gods dungeon] because the demand is high, they're often bought by other adventurers.
For that reason, the amount that's being exported is very limited, considering the expenses can increase in various ways, by things such as tariffs and transportation fees. Even if, in the best circumstances, if I'd part way with a large amount of [Divine's Lost Legacy] that I got from the [Age of the Gods dungeon], people would need to come from the Labyrinth cities, or would need to send a subordinate to come and collect the goods. It'll be even harder if they do not possess the suitable financial assets.
These goods might not be sold straight away, even if they're highly desirable.
Regardless, if I consider the death toll of the enemies I crossed in the pathways and corridors as I advanced, I was able to collect a countless amount of treasure chests, and take their contents back home with me.
Looks like [Luck] and [Golden Rule] did their job, because the drop rate was high and there were a lot of items inside the treasure chests. It included items such as low-grade recovery potions, which I could still sell separately for a high price.
Even though the cost of acquiring them for myself was almost zero and I pretty much got them for free, the Famous Spring Eggplant is a high-value ingredient. One piece of ingredient is worth several silver coins. It's also common for magic items such as armor to reach up to value of a golden plate.
In other words, if I can sell them, I can make an easy profit. Even if I lower my prices and sell it, I'd still get a considerable profit.
However, that's what makes pricing difficult.
It'll still be difficult to collect the same amount on a regular basis in the future. Additionally, if I get carried away and rake in too much profit, more than necessary, I'll be resented by other merchants, which is troublesome.
If that resentment accumulates too much, it'll come back to bite me in the ass. Even if I could read their minds and conspire against from behind the scenes with my clones, it would still be a bit irritating.
Because I don't want to do a futile job, I better take as much time as I can.
And because Blacksmith-san wasn't sure on it, I contacted an experienced vice-manager.
The new vice-manager was the vice-manager of a corporate branch of the Farumeru company in the Fortress City ≪Trient ≫ that we came across when we first came out of the Great Forest[1]. His love of gambling robbed him of quite a few important items as well as all of his cash. This fat, bald, middle-aged man was excellent, despite his gambling problems that were giving him some worries.
Due to the cooperation of the vice-manager, we were able to save a lot of time. After that, we had some discussion on his remuneration.
After all, what you need is an able friend, with a big network. Though might they all possibly be connected through money? Anyhow, should I personally scout the vice-manager for the future? There is his unpleasant gambling habit, but I am secretly thinking of taking advantage of that.
I pull myself together and start opening the treasure chests.
I collected a treasure chest after each boss fight, making a grand total of 10 chests. They are, as listed below:
The chest from floor boss "Warpidron" [Great Whale's Storm Horn]
The chest from floor boss "Skull Lizard ・ War Salamander" [Lizard's Corpse Sticky Liquid]
The chest from floor boss "King Crab ・ Crysora" [Crystal Crab's Bubble Poetry]
The chest from floor boss "Vortex Armored Turtle" [Shell of the Vortex Mary River Turtle]
The chest from floor boss "Dominaria ・ Gillman Lord Rider" [Ancient Flower Petals of the Silvery Blue Fish]
The chest from floor boss "Grief Charybdis" [Maiden of Grief]
The chest from floor boss "Aquarium ・ Ball Golem" [Pursuer of the Fleeing Ball]
The chest from floor boss "Lethal Dead ・ Blood Eater ・ Pochi" [Behemoth's Collection of Manipulated Corpses]
The chest from floor boss "Crimson Armed Gemineuvia" [Red Armed Lady]
The chest from dungeon boss "Shark Head ・ Bolt Wyrm" [Lesser Dragon Shark's Placoid Lightning Scales ]
Each casket had particular decorations that were representative for the bosses that awarded them. Each one is something that can be considered a work of art. They're all a sort of magic item that holds a storage ability.
Seeing as I obtained a large amount of money and potions from the chests I collected before, I wonder what it'll be this time.
I thought it might be fun to suddenly open them all at once, making all the treasure spill out before me, but I was wrong.
There really was no reason to think like that.
And so I began to open the first five chests, going from [Great Whale's Storm Horn] up until [Ancient Flower Petals of the Silvery Blue Fish], because I felt it would be a waste to open them all at once.
I decided to leave the rest for tomorrow, and enjoy myself with what turns up today.
［Aporou obtained "[Weapon ・ Staff] Gold Tin Horn Stinger ・Lightning Whale"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Weapon ・ Sword] Water Shell Scaled Sword ・Water Scale"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Weapon ・ Hammer] Crushing Quake Hammer ・Crab Pincer"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Weapon ・ Spear] Cursed Four-pronged Water Spear ・Fish Fin"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Shield] Lightning Horn Whale's Meat Shield"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Shield] Water Thorn Shell Barrier"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Armor] Extremely Dense Water ・Vortex Turtle"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Back] Blue Mantle of Many Arm Bones"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Greaves] Crystal Grieves of the Conquered Crystal"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Boots] Crystal Sabatons"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Head] Horned Crystal Helm"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Armor ・ Gauntlets] Fin Bladed Blue Water Gauntlets"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Medicine] Small Bottle of Young War Salamander's Sticky Nucleus x 4"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Medicine] Powered Water of Barrier Defense x 5"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Material] Huge Bottle of High-Grade Whale Oil x 3"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Material] Vortex Turtle's Cure Disease Jelly x 10"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Material] Magic Armored Medium Ship Manufacturing Kit x 5"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Material] Blue Plant Metal Ingot x 10"!!］
［Aporou obtained "[Book] Magic Book containing the written principles of Water"!!］
Those are the 19 items that were included. Each box had three to five different kind of items.
To be honest, I expected there to be more because these came from the lowest rank of the 3 of an [Age of the Gods dungeon], a [Demigod Rank]. There were the items that I obtained for defeating the floor bosses and dungeon boss for the first time though.
"I have no base for comparison though, as I haven't done this kind of dungeon anywhere else yet. But I hope there'll be a little more?" is what I'm thinking.
But, seeing as the clearing conditions were hard, the obtained items were all useful.
[Gold Tin Horn Stinger ・Lightning Whale] was a khakkhara [2] that had six rings in its circular head. It had the shape of a golden horn attached on top. When shaken, it creates the sound of a thunderstorm.
[Water Shell Scaled Sword ・Water Scale] was a magic item that apparently closely resembled the organic sword of the Skull Lizard ・ War Salamander. It was made out of materials like scales, and it was so sharp that it could cut rock if handled properly.
[Crushing Quake Hammer ・Crab Pincer] was a hammer that looks like a huge crab's pincer and that was composed out of rainbow-colored crystals that could vibrate at high speed. It was able to crush rock merely by touching it. Because it was like a pincer, if you pulled a trigger that was close to your hand, it had a trick where its jaws started moving.
[Cursed Four-pronged Water Spear ・Fish Fin] resembled the spear Dominaria ・ Gillman Lord Rider was wielding, and had four abilities. It had a length and sharpness that was just right, and it felt familiar in my hands.
In addition, there was the [Lightning Horn Whale's Meat Shield], a bulky lump of meat shield that was halfheartedly hardened. The [Blue Mantle of Many Arm Bones] that had an outbreak of a countless amount of arm bones on the inside. [Water Thorn Shell Barrier] was a tower shield grown out of a huge shell that held a thorn which gushes out an infinite amount of high-pressured water. [Extremely Dense Water ・Vortex Turtle] was an armor that would cover your whole body like an exoskeleton armor. It was designed as a smooth blob that had many uses. Most of them were magic items of [Ancient] rank.
[Huge Bottle of High-Grade Whale Oil] and [Blue Plant Metal Ingot] could be used in a lot of different ways. And because it was an item that one would be rarely be able to buy, I planned to divide them amongst the various groups later.
For the time being, I decided to use [Cursed Four-pronged Water Spear ・Fish Fin] as a substitute for my halberd, until the former was repaired. I decided that the rest should be given to the Parabellum members that had earned it.
My war assets will definitely be increased with this.
After I finished my inspection, I decided to gift the [Magic Book containing the written principles of Water] to Supesei, who had expressed a desire in it. The [Blue Plant Metal Ingot], I entrusted to Blacksmith-san. I put the [Magic Armored Medium Ship Manufacturing Kit] in my item box for the time being. I wanted to use the [Small Bottle of Young War Salamander's Sticky Nucleus] to see what would happen.
Oniguma "Kumajirou" and Orthrus "Kurosaburou" will be my test subjects.
I could have prepared some disposable Black Undead Knights, but because there was a limited amount of small bottles, it would be a waste to let them consume it. I judged that as long as I read the information, there won't be any harm to the test subjects. And so I hesitantly chose my two pets under these circumstances.
The usage of the small bottles is easy. I applied the gooey contents, the sticky nucleus', to each of their chests. After that I poured spring water on it that I had prepared in a large bottle beforehand.
Then, the nucleus mysteriously absorbed the large amount of spring water, and immediately transformed into a viscous liquid. Now those two are wearing a slime armor just like Skull Lizard ・ War Salamander did.
Apparently, the sticky nucleus was permeated by this slime and became larger and crystallized. In addition, the form that appeared was now embedded in both chests.
The vicious liquid normally wraps around the silver nucleus to protect it, but when in combat, it covers the entire body.
Their attack power increased as well because of the tentacles. And the slime armor is a superior ability to provide simple defense. It looks like these two, that were already strong, will have their combat effectiveness improved by this.
What are they now able to do and what not? Either way, I gave them each a Warpidron leg as compensation for going through the experiment.
They ate it with great relish.
When I stroked their heads, they gave off a different feeling from what they used to before. Looks like the gloss of their hair also improved. Did the effect even take to such an extent?
Seeing as this is a safe way to quickly obtain strength, I held on to the remaining two.
Though it'll take a while to get new ones, I wonder who I'll use them on.
Even though I was a little bit worried, I already decided on who to use one of the bottles.