[Sherry]
[Current Character Levels & Equipment] :
[Job] :
Master Smith Lv.20
[Equipment] :
Club
Leather Helmet
Leather Jacket
Leather Gloves
Leather shoes
"So, the time has finally come."
I sat up while correcting my posture and declaring that in a solemn tone of voice.
Now that we have returned from our trip to Palmasque, we should finally be able to
do it, by which I mean, Sherry should be able to do it. I took the Green Caterpillar's
Skill Crystal from my Item Box, then removed the Misanga with an Empty Skill Slot
that I was wearing tied around my ankle and passed these two items to Sherry.
Misanga, Accessory
Skill Slot: Empty
But before I handed them over, I also secretly switched the Misanga that I was wearing,
the one without an Empty Skill Slot, with the one that had an Empty Skill Slot on it.
After all, this is too important of a matter to risk the Item Fusion ending up in failure
just because of my own forgetfulness.
"Ah, y-yes, of course! I promise to give it my all, like always!"
"Do not worry, Sherry. I am sure that you are going to show off your talent here, just
like you have been doing with the rest of your fusions up until this point."
"Uhm… I am grateful for all of your kind words, but I would like to say that I think that
the saying that the Master Smith who is going to turn their first-ever made Misanga
into a sacrificial Misanga is going to be an incredibly talented one is just one big
superstition in my opinion."
Sherry is once again trying to brush things off with being rational, perhaps in an
attempt to temper our expectations of her.
It is admirable to see that despite all of the successes that she had with fusing various
items ever since she acquired the Job of a Master Smith she is still trying to keep a
tight hold on her own reasoning, but even despite that, I could see that she was not
completely calm, because her hands were shaking ever so slightly, so for her own
comfort and mental safety, it might be a good idea not to tell her that the Misanga that
I just handed to her was not the very first one that she has made, but one of the recent
ones with Empty Skill Slots in it.
If I gave her the very first one that she has made, then the fusion process would
definitely end up in failure, and both the Misanga and the Green Caterpillar Skill
Crystal would have gone to waste, and being wasteful with precious resources is not
something that I am ever going to allow.
Not to mention that it is going to be better for Sherry's self esteem, which she can still
have some problems with, so by allowing her to believe that the Misanga that she is
going to turn into a Sacrificial Misanga is the very same one that she fused as the first
one, she should get that much-needed confidence boost that should be enough for her
to stop worrying and constantly compare herself to other Master Smiths who have
more experience in smithing and fusing items than her simply by virtue of them doing
them for a longer period of time.
After all, miracles happen to those who believe in them. It might take quite a long while
for them to come about, but as the old Japanese proverb says: "You can worship even
a sardine's head if you believe in it enough". (TL Note: a Japanese proverb that can
mean more or less the following thing: "everything that you have deep faith in can make
the thing feel all the more precious", or that "even such a trivial thing as a sardine's head
can be precious to those who believe in it." and it comes from the Japanese belief that the
heads of sardines had the power to ward off the households from the influences of evil
spirits that would avoid the house with sardine's head because of their smell during the
time of Setsubun, a demon-warding festival held before the first day of spring).
And, as I think we are all perfectly aware, a drowning man will grab even onto a straw,
a beggar who is impatient is not going to get much, and those who believe will
eventually be saved. But even so, right now Sherry is probably thinking that even
though she has been enjoying so much success with her fusions up until now, she
should still be extremely careful not to make any mistakes, which makes her similar
to a soldier who cannot declare that he has won the battle until he has successfully
returned home from the battlefield, because even though she has managed to win all
of her previous battles against the Item Fusion's chance of failure, there can never be
any guarantee that her next fusion is going to be a successful one again.
Or at least I think that is more or less what must be going on through her head right
now, because unfortunately for me, I do not possess as Skill that would allow me to
read the thoughts of the people around me. If only I had access to such a convenient
ability, then I would know exactly what I should be saying to make Sherry feel better
and more confident in herself instead of playing deception and guessing games.
Nevertheless, even if Sherry might still be wary and cautious of the fusion process and
its outcomes, I at the very least know that she is definitely going to succeed, all because
I managed to crack the code on exactly in what way are the Item Fusion and the Empty
Skill Slots on equipment related. So the way I see it now, Sherry's way on the road to
becoming an even better Master Smith should be relatively simple. Knock, and it shall
be opened for you. Ask, and it shall be given to you.
"Well, even if it is nothing more than just a folk tale or an urban legend, it would still
be nice if you managed to succeed with the turning of your very first Misanga into a
Sacrificial Misanga, because then you would have all the bragging rights in the world
as well as the ability to promote yourself to others as a successful Master Smith who
managed to accomplish a feat that not many other Master Smiths can accomplish even
though you had way less experience in the fields of smithing and item fusion than your
contemporaries. You think like that as well, right, Roxanne?"
"Right. I believe it is going to be exactly like master says. Sherry is going to succeed
because you possess an immense amount of hidden talent. After all, you have been
chosen by master, and he happens to have an excellent eye for the talented people."
I purposefully aske Roxanne what she thought about the matter of Sherry's attempt at
creating a Sacrificial Misanga in order to use her as a source of further motivation for
Sherry. It might seem like a cruel thing to be putting her under so much pressure, but
on the other hand, exactly because we are placing her under so much pressure, the
feeling of joy when she eventually succeeds is going to be that much greater, and it is
my duty as her master to put her under as much pressure as needed in order for her
to continue to challenge herself and rising into new heights as a result.
That being said, since Sherry has never failed in any fusion before, I have no idea how
is she going to take her first ever failure at fusing an item when it eventually happens.
Is she going to accept it gracefully, or is she going to throw a temper tantrum and start
cursing at everything around her as a way of coping with her own failure? If I pressure
her like I did just now, is she going to be really mad at me, or is she going to understand
that I only wanted to give her some much needed positive reinforcement that every
single one of us need at least at one point throughout our lives?
Sherry, you are going to be all right, right? You are going to succeed, just like you
always did, right? There is no way that all of your successes up to this point were
simply coincidences and flukes, right? Or maybe the chance to fail is still there, no
matter how small, even if the item that is going to be infused with a Monster Skill
Crystal does have an Empty Skill Slot in it?
.
Oh God, now even I am starting to get nervous! Is the chance to succeed if the right
conditions are met a guaranteed one hundred percent or not? Is it certain that Sherry
is going to succeed this time as well, or is that matter still in the air and yet to be
determined?
"All right then, I am going to start the Item Fusion process."
"No, Sherry, wait! On second thought, you do not need to be so hasty about it... oh
crap you are already doing it, are you? Is it too late to stop the fusion process now?
Yeah? You sure? Are you definitely, absolutely sure that there is nothing that can be
done to stop it now? Oh, o-okay, I see, I understand. In that case, keep doing what you
were doing. Yes, go ahead and fuse it."
Unfortunately, it seems that it is too late to stop the Item Fusion process, so I have no
other choice but to allow Sherry to continue on with it, it would seem. But this is quite
troubling for me. What am I going to do if this fusion really fails, and more importantly,
what is Sherry going to do? As I was thinking about all the possibilities of how this
fusion might proceed, I started looking at Sherry's hands and the items that she was
holding in them with a suspicious look.
I do not know if this fusion is definitely going to succeed, but on the other hand, there
has been nothing so far that would point to the possibility that the fusion is definitely
going to turn out a failure as well. Maybe it is going to be all right, or maybe it will not
be all right. At this point, I really do not know what it is that I should be believing and
what is right or what is wrong.
The only thing that I do know that Sherry is an intellectual and rational type of person,
so even if the fusion does end up in failure, she is probably going to accept it and
simply move on forward. After all, she must have already seen her fair share of Master
Smiths who tried to fuse something only for that fusion to end up in failure, so she
probably knows that a single failure does not mean that your life or career are going
to be over, and that this is going to be just a minor setback on the road to her success.
Yes, this is nothing but yet another trial presented to her by God that she simply has
to overcome, and she will only be able to obtain true happiness for herself after
triumphing over such challenges. If she passes it, happiness and joy will await her. If
she fails, the thing waiting for her will be sorrow instead. So go ahead, God, let Sherry
partake of your trial, and if she succeeds, open the gates of your kingdom for her.
O crescent moon, take her through The Seven Misfortunes and Eight Hardships (TL
Note: Seven Misfortunes: fire, wind, floods, wars, punishments, demons and thieves, all of
which humans can escape by reciting the name of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy,
according to the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. Eight Hardships: Eight places, states, or
circumstances wherein one is unable to see a Buddha or to listen to his teaching. They
are (1) hell; (2) the realm of hungry spirits; (3) the realm of animals; (4) the heaven of
long life (any of the eighteen heavens in the world of form or the four heavens in the
world of formlessness where beings live long; or, by another account, the Heaven of No
Thought in the fourth meditation heaven in the world of form); (5) Uttarakuru, the
continent north of Mount Sumeru where pleasures dominate; (6) obstructions of the
sense organs, such as blindness; (7) attachment to and satisfaction with secular
knowledge; and (8) the period before a Buddha's birth or after his death. Man, why does
Buddhism have to get so weirdly fucked up at times and filled to the brim with so many
esoteric themes?)
As I prayed to the God and the moon, Sherry finally began the fusion process.
She holds the Misanaga with an Empty Skill Slot in her one hand, and the Green
Caterpillar Skill Crystal in her other hand until both of them began to emit a bright
light and gets stronger and stronger, until it finally subsides and fades into nothingness,
almost as if it was never there in the first place. I held my breath and used "Identify"
on the item that Sherry created, looking at it with an even bigger anticipation than
usual. And the result of Sherry's latest fusion is…
Sacrificial Misanga, Accessory
Skill: "Sacrifice"
Ahhh, what a relief! It is yet another success from her!
"I… I did it!"
"A wonderful result as always, but I will be damned if that was not insanely bad for my
poor heart."
"As expected of Sherry. I knew Sherry is going to turn out to be a successful and capable
Master Smith, because there was no way for master to make a mistake while judging
your character and potential. Since he was not worried about your fusion, I knew there
was nothing to be worried about as well. See, I told you that master is a really good
judge of character and that he is going to help you realize exactly how talented you
are."
Roxanne says all of these things cheerfully, with a beaming smile on her face. However,
she is only half right about what she said just now, because while it is true that I knew
that Sherry was going to succeed with her fusion once more, doubts began to set in
my mind at the last possible moment, hurling my brain into panic and causing me to
start overthinking things that I should never have been dwelling on. I guess you can
say that Sherry's stress rubbed off on me, causing me to tense up as well.
But now that I know that everything has ended well, exactly like it was supposed to
from the very beginning, that means that all three of us can breathe a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Miss Roxanne. Thank you, master. I honestly do not know if I would have
been able to do anything without your support and words of encouragement."
"Do not mention it, Sherry. What is important is that you managed to succeed once
again, and while proving just how amazingly talented you are at the same time. As
expected of you."
"Yes, exactly what Roxanne said just now, Sherry. You did a great job, like always."
Roxanne and I continued to shower Sherry down with praises.
"Yes! Once again, thank you both so very much!"
Even though it caused me way more stress than was necessary, I guess I can say that
as long as the original goal of Having Sherry fuse a Sacrificial Misanga has been
accomplished, then all's well that ends well, and it would be for the better if I stop
talking about this further so that I could avoid tripping over my own words so that
neither of the girls would catch up onto my little web of lies.
"All right, I guess I will be wearing this then."
I said while I immediately put on the Sacrificial Misanga that Sherry just created a
soon as humanly possible. Oh yeah, now the lovely effect that Sacrificial Misanga has
is well within my reach, I absolutely cannot allow anyone other than me, even Roxanne
and Sherry, to be wearing that item. I am their master as well as their Party leader, and
because of that I am going to need the appropriate level of protection that I can get
myself from all of the Skills and equipment that I am going to need to keep myself alive
through the most harsh and unexpected of the enemy attacks.
Yes, that is going to be the best possible outcome to this situation. And while we are
still on the subject of Misangas and Sacrificial Misangas, I tried to do a little experiment
with the two of them, which I have conducted in the Labyrinth of Vale. I wanted to see
which one of the two Misangas would be listed as active and effective if I would be
wearing two of them at once, but no matter what I did or what combination of items I
have tried, the result was always one and the same: the result in which only the Item
that has been equipped at the first one was the one that was actually being displayed
effective, and the end result was pretty much always the same no matter how many
times I have repeated it.
.
I then tried to check the status of myself and my items, so I ended up casting "Identify"
on myself, and the results were exactly the same as I have already saw: While wearing
the two Misangas at once, only the one that has been put on first was being displayed
as an active item.
If I wear an ordinary Misanga without any Skills or Empty Skill Slots on my right ankle,
and then equip the Sacrificial Misanga on my left ankle, "Identify" will just display the
ordinary Misanga as the active one, treating the Sacrificial one as if it was never there.
If I then remove the Misanga from my right ankle, nothing will be displayed as equipped
by "Identify", which makes me think that for whatever reason, "Identify" has probably
determined that the Sacrificial Misanga on my left ankle is an invalid equipment in this
state.
And since it is not displayed as a properly working piece of equipment, I do not think
there is going to be a possibility of the effect being active.
I asked Sherry about why such a thing might be happening, and she explained to me
that the effect of the Sacrificial Misanga will probably not be registered as working
properly unless I unequip it and then equip it again, this time putting the Sacrificial
Misanga on first before that other Misanga that does not have any Skills assigned to it.
So what I gathered from all of this is the following thing: wearing two Sacrificial
Misangas at once is not going to make the second one's effect become automatically
active after the first Sacrificial Misanga has been destroyed, meaning that the strategy
that I initially wanted to go for: equipping as many sacrificial Misangas on me as
possible in order to have them negate multiple attacks that would have otherwise
killed me at once is not going to work, and in turn, that also means that it would be
useless to try and sell multiple copies of the Sacrificial Misanga at once is also not
going to work, because no one would be willing to buy more than one copy of it since
it is not going to be worth it from a financial standpoint.
I cannot say that this particular setback makes it impossible for me to continue
exploring the Labyrinths, but being able to negate not one but many deadly attacks
aimed at me would have certainly been a nice bonus to my safety while exploring the
Labyrinths, but as I said, this is nothing worth making a fuss over. It simply means that
after having one attack that would have otherwise killed me neglected, I will have to
resume my careful style of advancement instead of going in a more balls-to-the-wall
style that the Sacrificial Misanga would have allowed me for due to its "Sacrifice" Skill.
And just like that, we went to the Vale Labyrinth while I was wearing a Sacrificial
Misanga and ensured that its effect is going to be active. After hunting Slow Rabbits
for their Rabbit Furs and Rabbit Meat through most of the day while being in a pretty
good mood, we arrived at Vale Labyrinth's ninth floor, we finally arrived at its Floor
Boss's Boss Room.
Since the monsters at this floor are Slow Rabbits, it means that the Floor Boss is going
to be Rapid Rabbit. When I fought against it for the first time in the Labyrinth of
Quratar, I have to admit that I had a pretty hard time against it, but now that I had a
pretty good understanding of its attack patterns and how it operated, I was not going
to hesitate and used "Overwhelming" right from the get-go, getting rid of the Rapid
Rabbit rather quickly. Yes, here it is, the demonstration of how big of a difference
knowledge of your enemy can do in battle.
Where I struggled at first because I did not know the enemy, now that I already knew
how to fight it, we managed to beat it consistently without the fight being difficult at
all, and everything ended after a few minutes without any major problems or any of
us suffering any major damage.
"What monster is the one native to the tenth floor of Vale's Labyrinth?"
"I believe they are going to be NT Ants, master."
Sherry shares her knowledge. Oh, great, NT Ants again? Since now I know exactly how
much of an unpleasant feeling it is to be poisoned, I cannot say that I am particularly
happy about the prospects of facing these damn insects again so fast after we have
only just encountered them in Quratar's Labyrinth. But nevertheless, since we are
already here on the tenth floor of Vale's Labyrinth, it would be a shame not to explore
it, even if just for a little bit, so I swallow and give the order to advance forward while
asking Roxanne to guide us to the nearest group of monsters, as per the usual.
Thankfully, even though the NT Ants here are of Lv.10, it still takes only three shots
with "Water Ball" in order to kill them, so I guess that is some piece of good news. If
they can still be defeated with three spells, then I am not going to have as much trouble
fighting them as I initially thought. With that amount of spells, they can be easily
disposed of even before they reach us, and if they have been paired up with other
monsters, Sherry and Roxanne can easily take them out due to their superior
teamwork in the vanguard position. With the way that things were going now, I did
not even had to switch back to Durandal in order to recover my HP with its "HP
Absorption" Skill, because I ended up suffering practically no damage throughout the
entire time that we have spend exploring the tenth floor.
The only time when I actually had to whip out Durandal were the times where my MP
was running kinda low due to all the "Water Ball" spamming that I had to be doing,
but other than that, everything was proceeding rather smoothly. This proves that with
our current levels, we are more than capable of fighting against anything that the tenth
floor of Vale's Labyrinth might be throwing at us, and it makes me feel good not only
about how much progress Sherry and Roxanne have made, but also about my own
progress.
After staying in the Labyrinth until the evening, we left it and made our way to the
Imperial City in order to do some market research on mirrors and their prices. We
managed to do quite a lot in the Labyrinth and we were pretty busy throughout the
entire day, but before I go back and report my findings to Gozer, it would be best to go
and see what is the situation with the Palmasque Mirrors in the Imperial Capital,
because if there is one thing that I do not want to do, it is to incur the wrath of the
Duke of Hartz and the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy upon myself.
My first stop was a luxury goods store in the Imperial City, the one that was sure to
have at least one Palmasque Mirror available in their stock. I found one rather easily,
because it was pretty eye-catching due to the gaudy frame around the proper mirror's
surface. The frame itself, which was made out of wood, has been adorned with an
intricate geometrical pattern. Is there any reason for it to have something like that?
Some kind of deeper, hidden meaning, perhaps? Because if it is not serving any kind
of purpose, then that means that this would be something that would certainly looked
nice in the house of some noblemen or in a castle of the member of royalty, but for
somebody like me, a perfectly ordinary citizen who has a perfectly ordinary house in
Quratar, something like that would simply be a useless decoration that is probably
only there to artificially elevate the price of the mirror itself. And as for the price itself,
it was also much higher than I could have expected.
The cheapest mirror that the store had to sell, which was essentially a small table
mirror, costs eighteen thousand Nars. Eighteen. Thousand! For such a small mirror at
that! When I continued to look around, I confirmed that this luxury goods store did
not offer any big mirrors or three-sided mirrors, but it was clearly seen that the taller
mirrors were much more expensive than the small ones. In fact, their prices were set
sooo high that they nearly caused me to faint on the spot so I had no choice but to
leave the luxury goods shop because I could not take it anymore.
.
I do not know what the clerk behind the counter thought about me since I left so fast
while looking quite shocked, and to be honest, I do not care about it. He could even
sprinkle the entire floor of the shop with salt to avoid getting it contaminated with
poverty for all that I care, but that was the only thing that I could have done in this
situation, because the prices there were at least three to four times higher than what
was supposedly set up as the standard price for the mirrors in Palmasque!
"How was it, master?"
Sherry checked in with me after I went back home.
"The mirrors in Imperial City were no different than the ones in Palmasque. I think it
might be more than possible that the people in the Imperial City bought these mirrors
at lower prices and elevated them up even further when they moved the mirrors from
Palmasque to their shops, because they were way higher than what you told me the
standard prices were."
"I thought that might be the case, because increasing the price of something that you
have bought at a lower price is a standard business strategy."
"Uhm… certainly, this might be true if you only look at the price, but in truth, the
transportation of the mirrors between cities, even when using the methods available
for the Adventurers, is relatively difficult."
Transporting the mirrors is actually difficult, huh? Well, thinking about it now, there
is no way for it to not be difficult, since if you wanted to do this by using "Field Walker",
then you would have no choice but to do it by transferring the mirror through a
number of different Adventurer Guilds in a row, and if you are not an Adventurer who
has access to the "Field Walker" Skill, then such a trip is definitely going to be a costly
one, and it is going to be extremely difficult to close such a trip within one day of time,
since the teleports from Zabir to Palmasque are only carried out three times a day: in
the morning, at noon and in the evening.
So depending on your luck, circumstances and the road that you are intending to take,
the total costs of such a trip are going to be oscillating from fifteen hundred to three
thousand Nars to seven thousand Nars if we add the costs of staying the night at an
inn and eating meals in cases when you will be unable to wrap everything up in a
single day. And to top it all off, we cannot forget that "Field Walker" is only able to
transport objects that are not too big, so if you bought the mirror that is too big to fit
into that category, then you would have a whole other cost, the cost of transportation
that would bump the final price up to such a degree that it would not be worth it
anymore in my opinion. But on the other hand, those who would plan to only buy the
mirror to sell it for a profit would have a perfect argument to set the price
astronomically high.
"If you think about it that way, then it might become quite a business opportunity."
"Yes. No matter the circumstances and the road that has been chosen, if the
transportation of the mirror from Palmasque to other cities is going to be successful,
it is going to be a very big chance for the merchant who is going to be acquiring it...
but even so, the acquisition of a mirror from Palmasque is still going to be difficult.
Yes, very difficult indeed."
Why did you have to say that last thing twice though?
The next morning, we made plans to move onto Quratar's tenth floor as well to explore
it, but first, we are going to start things up by having a little warm-up in the form of
fighting against the Floor Boss of Quratar Labyrinth's ninth floor.
"The Floor Boss of the ninth floor of Quratar's Labyrinth, in other words, the higher
form of the NT Ant is called Hunt Ant. It is similar in strength to the regular NT Ant,
but its poison spit Skill is stronger, and the chances of inflicting poison with its every
attack are quite high, so we have to be careful and not allow even a single attack to hit
us."
Sherry gives us a short briefing. Yeah, of course it is going to be stronger and much
more troublesome than a regular NT Ant. It would not be a Floor Boss at all if its
strength remained exactly the same as that of the regular monsters on the floor where
it resides. That being said, since the name of the game here is not to let ourselves be
hit by its attacks at all, it means that this is going to be another perfect opponent for
Roxanne to fight against, since the encounters with the enemies who rely on fighting
mainly through physical attacks have only those who are meant against a single target
instead of multiple targets at once are the ones in which she excels the most, so she
should be able to focus the Floor Boss's attention on herself without sustaining even
a single injury while Sherry and I are going to focus on inflicting as much damage as
possible onto it for as long as it is going to remain distracted.
With the plan of action firmly formulated in my mind, we entered the Floor Boss's
Boss Room. Immediately upon the Hunt Ant appearing from within the vortex of green
smoke, Roxanne took position in front of me and Sherry, ready to evade all of its
attacks at a moment's notice, and in the meantime I was making my way towards the
Hunt Ant's backside, where I continued to slash and whack it across its oversized ass
for as long as it took it to finally fall to the ground and die while disappearing in yet
another cloud of green smoke.
Good. Even though we are on the tenth floor of the Labyrinth, it looks like the good old
strategy of "have Roxanne occupy the Floor Boss's attention while you continue to go
towards its back where you continue to molest it until the Floor Boss drops dead" is
still one that can be utilized effectively.
"What monsters are going to be waiting for us on the tenth floor?"
"I believe they are going to be Escape Goats."
"Ahh, I see."
Escape Goats, my absolutely favorite enemy to fight that does not have any bullshit
mechanics that it is going to be abusing whatsoever. So yeah, as you can clearly tell
from my very enthusiastic description, I love fighting against them and how
troublesome they are with their escape mechanic once their health drops down
sufficiently low. And now that they are going to be Lv.10, I am sure that they are going
to become an even greater nuisance than ever before.
The first Escape goat that we happened upon was hit with three shots of my magic,
and, surprising absolutely nobody, it immediately tried to turn around and make its
escape. Those three spells that I fired against it should have done the damage of
roughly around half of its total HP
It seems to still run away after it's lost half it's health, so three more spells, six of them
in total, should be enough to bring it down and defeat it. But now that it has already
started to run away, I would have to aim my spells perfectly without allowing even a
single one of them to miss their mark. If I am going to be even one millimeter off with
my aim, the Escape Goat is going to escape, taking the EXP points and potential Drop
Items with it.
Now that we are on the tenth floor of Quratar's Labyrinth and the NT Ants were on
the ninth floor, it is going to mean that they are going to be appearing more often, and
if they are going to be paired up with Escape Goats, it is going to be the worst possible
combination for us, since we will have to mix up being cautious not to allow NT Ants
to poison us with the need to chase after the Escape Goats that are going to try and
flee from the battlefield constantly. Damn it, this is exactly why I was so afraid of
fighting against mixed groups of more and more enemies. Right now, we should still
be more or less fine, but what are we going to do if we ever encounter more enemies
that are going to have escape as their main gimmick?
.
Suppose for a second that we would run into an Escape Goat or something similar on
the higher floors. If the next time we met such an opponent the number of spells
required in order to take it down would increase from six to seven, it would mean that
such an enemy would start to escape after being hit by four consecutive shots of magic,
so I could technically kill them with three more shots, but what is going to happen if
eight or more spells are going to be needed? *Sigh* Looks like Escape Goats are
shaping up to be one of the monsters that I am going to have to be especially careful
about, and that is worrying me more than a little bit, if I am to be honest.
For the time being I deemed that dealing with the Escape Goats all the time is going to
be too troublesome to be actually worth it, so instead I ordered a change of scenery,
and so we moved on to the Labyrinth of Vale, where we explored and killed monsters
until the sunrise. We then returned back to our home in Quratar, where I asked Sherry
and Roxanne to start preparing dinner and do the laundry respectively, and while they
were keeping themselves busy with their assignments, I decided to go to the city of
Bode, the capital of Hartz Duchy, alone. Since that place is literally an elven pretty boy
paradise crawling with Elven ikemen who are looking so perfectly that I cannot help
but to die a little bit inside whenever I am looking at them, I definitely do not want
Roxanne and Sherry to be anywhere near such a place.
When I arrived in Bode, I went to the same room where I was resting while I was doing
the supplied distribution mission as part of the disaster relief taskforce. This place is
a perfect room for travelling in and out of Bode, because it is the one where "Field
Walker" can be used without any major restrictions on it.
"I would like to request an audience with Gozer, the captain of the Knight Order."
I said as I passed the Hartz Duchy emblem that I have received from Gozer the other
day to a knight-looking person, who was either a member of the Knight Order of Hartz
Duchy himself or he was simply clad in the armor of the knight. Whatever the case
might be, he took the emblem from my hands and examined it carefully from both
sides.
"May I ask you for your name?"
"My name is Kaga Michio. If you tell him that an Adventurer who was helping with the
delivery of the supplies during the flood relief wishes to speak to him, he will know
who I am."
"I see. In that case, please wait here for a moment."
The knight says as he enters the depths of the castle's interior. It is exactly like Gozer
said. I showed the emblem to the knights, and everything immediately started to go
smoothly.
For the time being, I was simply standing in the lobby-like room, waiting for Gozer to
arrive. For the lobby of a castle, this room is a really bright one.
The side window is widely opened, and light is coming in through it in generous
amounts, which contrasts with how things looked here when I was here before when
everything was tightly closed up, but then again, that was in the time of the flood and
intense rain, so maybe that is why everything was kept under lock and key to avoid
the scenario in which the entire castle gets flooded because of the water that would
pour in from the opened windows, which was probably the least that they could do to
minimize the damage done to the city and its surroundings by the flood and intense
rainfall.
When I was leaving the house, the sun was still high in Quratar, but here, it is not that
high yet. I heard that this city was to the north, but maybe it is actually to the east?
"Oh, so it was the excellent Adventurer after all!"
I heard a familiar voice as I was looking through the window.
This voice… It is not the one belonging to Gozer! That one is definitely...!
When I turned around, the person who was standing there… Was the Duke of Hartz
himself! He has a smile on his face that makes it look as if it is shining brightly. Ugh,
now even a minute of our meeting in and he is already flexing his ikemen charms on
me?! Damn you, you Elven pretty boy! Why can you not just die of a curse or something
other along those lines?! I knew that leaving Roxanne and Sherry behind in order to
come here alone was a good choice to make after all!
"Uhm… What about Knight Captain Gozer, your lordship? Is he not going to come?"
"Unfortunately, Gozer is currently at the training school for the new Knight Order
recruits, so I will be the one who is going to hear you out instead. Follow me."
The Duke turned around quickly, and left the lobby almost as fast as he appeared in it.
He seems to be exactly as impatient as he was last time. If he is a noble and the head
of an entire Duchy, then you would think that he should act more refined, but with
him, it was not the case at all.
Well, he probably can get away with all sorts of increasingly odd behaviors since he is
so good-looking that all it takes for him to win people's faith over is a smile. That damn
smile of his!
"I thought it would be a good time to come after the sun had risen, but was I mistaken?"
"There is no problem with that at all. In this season, we tend to be awake as soon as
the light of the sun graces us with its brilliant presence."
"Ahhh."
I see. So it is like that, huh? The season is different here in the north. The sunrise is
earlier than in the south, so they are going from spring to summer. If this was the
arctic, they would still have sun shining even at midnight. Since this is north of Quratar,
does the sun rise earlier here?
"Thankfully, we have already made it through the period of the biggest hardships. The
rain has stopped for now, and the water levels have decreased, so we do not have to
worry about the Duchy getting flooded anytime soon for now."
"I see. That is most definitely good to hear."
The Duke opened a door, and entered a room. It is the same small office which I was
in before.
"Go ahead and have a sit. So, may I ask what business brings you here today?"
"The other day I met Lord Gozer in Quratar's merchant's guild."
"Ah, so it is about that time, huh?"
The Duke sits in his chair behind his ornate office desk. I sat myself on the edge of the
sofa that was still in the corner of the room and then turned towards him. This position
is actually convenient for me, because while I am sitting in such a way and so far away
from him, it works as a method of showing to the Duke that my intentions for him are
not ill-begotten ones and that I do not, for example, plan to assassinate him while he
is not looking my way.
"I hear that mirrors from Palmasque are being used as Gift Items given as a present
between the nobles and royalty."
"A mirror from Palmasque, you say? Well, certainly, here in this Duchy such an item
would definitely be considered a gift of the highest quality by whoever ended up
receiving it."
So this basically confirms that mirrors cab be given as an expensive but good gift
between the nobles and other members of high society. But if it is like that, then maybe
it would actually be better for it to have those intricate, fancy-pantsy decorations?
Well, whatever. There is no helping it now, and most certainly no undoing what has
already been done.
"When I went to Palmasque the other day in search of a mirror at Gozer's… I mean
Lord Gozer's request, the only ones they had were the decorated, expensive ones.
However, I learned that it would be possible for them to make the mirror with a plain
frame without any decorations which would have toned the price down significantly,
but only if it was a commission made by a noble or an aristocrat."
.
"Ohhh, I see. That way, we would only have to pay for the mirror's main body itself
without having to pay exaggerated prices for the mirror's frame."
"Uhm… and do you have access to a good wood for a frame here in your Duchy?"
"Yes, there should be a wood of exceptional quality near the Tare village."
Good, so it looks like he is going to have access to good wood. I have only thought of
this idea because while I was looking through the window I saw a thick forest outside
of it so I thought I will ask him about it. If they have forests here, then of course there
are going to be businesses such as forestry and wood processing.
"Since it is supposed to be a gift, I was thinking you could remove this decoration, and
add something from your own territories as a kind of a local flavor to spice things up
a little bit."
"Ah, I see."
The Duke nods, picks up a bell from his desk, and rings it.
"You called, my Lord?"
As soon as he rang the bell, the door opened at once and someone who looks like a
servant immediately came in. Quick, these servants are all so very quick! How are they
able to do that is beyond me though.
"Yes, I called indeed. Please go and tell Gozer to come here as soon as he can."
"Of course. It shall be done as you ask, my Lord."
He answered the Duke briefly and then promptly left. He must be one of the many
servants who serve the Duke here, or perhaps some kind of personal guard, because
throughout the short time that he was here in the room he was always bowed so that
I could not even get a good look at how his face looked like.
If you were to ask me, then I would say that appearing immediately after the Duke
rung that bell is both pretty impressive and extremely concerning, because such a feat
would not have been possible without someone following him around quite literally
all the time, because no matter how long and hard I think about it, it would be
impossible for the servants to hear the bell all the way from the servant's quarters and
then appear here in the office moments later, and it is simply not possible for that
person to be just one of the many ordinary servants tasked with doing the chores
around the castle, since they would never abandon their assigned duties just because
they heard a bell ring.
That, and if that was really the case, then we would have many more people here
instead of just this one. As I said, this is getting increasingly suspicious. Does the Duke
really have people following him around literally all the time and wherever he goes?
From what I am seeing, he seems like someone who is incredibly free-spirited and
always acts and carries himself in such a manner, so for such a man to have an escort
lurking behind in his shadows? As much as I do not want to believe it, it is also
something that might be quite possible, since it is always the free-spirited that need
to be watched closely at all times so that the potential enemies would not take
advantage of them and their free-spiritedness, be it by a kidnapping or a straight-up
assassination attempt.
Anyway, for the time being, I simply leaned on the sofa as we waited for Gozer to arrive,
while the Duke continued to scribble something with a quill on top of the pieces of
parchment that were laying on top of his desk. Since he is the lord of the entire Duchy,
then he must be a really busy person, so I actually started feeling kinda bad for
intruding upon his work.
Eventually, Gozer finally came in after knocking at the door and politely asking for the
permission to enter.
"Excuse me for taking so long. Oh, if it is not Mr. Adventurer."
"He seems to be called Michio. Kaga Michio."
Oh, so the Duke knows my name even if Gozer himself does not seem to remember it?
That is what I initially thought, but then it dawned upon me that I have never
introduced myself to him properly in person, but I gave my name to the receptionist
in the lobby when I came here, so he probably must have heard that at that time. So
maybe I should give him a little reminder by introducing myself again? Yeah, let me
just do that.
"Yes, I am Kaga Michio."
"It would seem that he has gone to Palmasque at your request. As expected of an
excellent Adventurer like him. He once again ended up exceeding my expectations."
"All the way to Palmasque, you say?"
"Yes, so the way I see it, I am clearly the winner here."
The Duke was acting all proud in front of Gozer. What? What the heck is he talking
about? He is the winner here? What kind of winner? Was there some kind of bet
between the Duke and Gozer? Were they betting if I... am going to turn out an
excellent Adventurer or not?
Well, to be honest, I can totally see that it might have been possible that Gozer might
have accused the Duke of getting too friendly with a weird Adventurer like myself who
just came to the Hartz Duchy to help with the distribution of the disaster relief
supplies because of the commission that he accepted, and the Duke argued back that
I am not weird, but excellent for how well I performed the task that was given to me
even though he did not think that of me at first, to which Gozer might have replied that
he is just being stubborn, and that is how the bet between these two might have been
made.
Of course, I have no guarantee that this is exactly how things went down between
these two, but I also feel like my shot was pretty damn near the bullseye mark here.
"Did you really travel to Palmasque all by yourself?"
"Well, it was certainly not an easy thing to do, but I said that I was going to see what I
can do about your request, and so I did."
"In that case, I must truly commend you. No Adventurer or a member of the Knight
Order of Hartz Duchy was ever able to travel from Bode to Palmasque."
To be honest, even I am not sure if I could go from Bode to Palmasque in one go, and I
do not even want to think about testing that out, because thanks to my vivid
imagination I can already see how that would have turned out. If my travels from Vale
and Quratar to Palmasque and the cities and towns that are close to it are any
indication, then I would have definitely ended up exhausting all of my MP.
I just hope that by admitting that I have gone to Palmasque personally I did not make
any serious mistakes that would cause them to think of me even more highly than they
are now, because that might bring with itself a whole new batch of unwanted trouble
for me. For the time being, I think it would be best to correct the Duke's assessment
that I could travel to Palmasque without any inconvenience, just so that I can avoid his
misunderstandings about myself and my capabilities getting so much out of hand that
no amount of damage control could possibly be able to fix them later.
"According to Mr. Michio's words, since he can go to Palmasque, it would be possible
for him to buy an undecorated Palmasque Mirror."
"An undecorated Palmasque Mirror?"
"We already talked about this for a bit before you arrived, but I think that the materials
for the frame could be made from the wood from the forest near Tare village."
"I see. Wood from the Tare village, huh? That certainly sounds like a good idea."
The Duke and Gozer had a short conversation that I did not understand much of.
However, now that the Duke explained pretty much everything to Gozer, he at least
saved me the trouble of going through the explanations myself.
"Personally, I also think that this might not be that bad of a business opportunity."
"I think so too as well. How much would such a mirror cost?"
Gozer looks back at me and asks about the price of the Palmasque Mirror. Now this
might be a troublesome question. Since he is technically in charge of this particular
business affair with me, he still cares so much about this detail?
.
In that case, I have no choice here but to answer honestly, even though I would have
loved to use this opportunity to make the price of the Palmasque mirror slightly higher
than it actually is in order to make a profit out of it for myself, but since there is a
possibility that Gozer might run a thorough check of the market prices of Palmasque
Mirrors in order to verify if what I said was indeed true or not, any attempts at
deceiving them might do me more bad then good in the long run, so I am going to give
them straight facts about the matter.
"Like I already informed the Duke, in order to even start thinking about getting a
Palmasque Mirror without a decorative frame, it would have to be done through a
special order commissioned by a noble or a member of royalty."
"I see. So, have you come here today in order to have the Duke write an official
commission for such an item to be made?"
"You do not have to worry about it, because I finished writing the necessary
paperwork just now. This should be enough to do the trick, right?"
The Duke lifted the piece of paper that he has been scribbling on for some time now
and then shook it playfully beside his face. I thought that he was simply catching up
on the administrative work that he was behind on because of my sudden visit, but he
was actually writing the undecorated Palmasque Mirror commission paperwork this
entire time?! Just how far ahead is this guy, actually?! But hey, if there is a possibility
of me obtaining the commission papers from him so fast and without any additional
explanation, then that would be all the better for me.
"As for the price of the undecorated mirror itself, the lowest would probably be
something around ten thousand Nars, but I am afraid that a mirror of a better quality
can cost up to even twenty thousand Nars, so I could technically buy it just as long as
the price will not go beyond those sums that I just mentioned. As for the number of
the frames, I think that enough wood should be supplied to the craftsmen to make at
least one test frame to see how the finished product is going to look like, but other
than that, I think it would be reasonable to have at least ten of them to be made for the
time being. I would also like to have all of them in different size variations, just to see
which ones would be the best for the purpose of our gift. If there was a need for them
to be transported, would you be willing to do this for us?"
"Yes, I could transport them, but not all of them at once."
"It does not have to be all within a single day. As long as all of them are going to be
delivered safely, I do not care how many days this is going to take."
"I understand."
And thus, the business talk with Gozer and the Duke was concluded. Now that I am
going to have the papers with the commission from the Duke of Hartz, it will finally be
possible for me to obtain the Palmasque Mirror since I have all the pieces of the puzzle
that Sherry mentioned that I was going to need. I thought that the biggest problem to
overcome was going to be the price, but as far as I can say after my visit to the luxury
goods store in the Imperial City, the prices should be pretty acceptable as long as I will
remember to keep my expectations in check.
In any case, buying the Palmasque Mirror in Palmasque is going to be much cheaper
than buying from any of the stores in Imperial City that might be offering them, and
the price of their undecorated mirrors should not exceed ten thousand Nars. Man, now
I am glad that I actually took the time to go to that store in the Imperial City and had a
look around.
"If you plan on visiting Palmasque often from now on, then I think it would be a good
idea for you to consider selling amber there."
Gozer gave me some advice on doing business in Palmasque.
"Amber?"
"Yes. It is one of our regional specialties, and although amber is quite small in and out
of itself, it is still considered as a jewel, which means that there is going to be quite a
high demand for it in Palmasque since any kind of jewel can be used as a material in
mirror decoration. Unfortunately, I do not know what is its current market price in
Palmasque, but at the very least I can tell you that it is not going to be a small amount,
of that I do not have any doubt."
"Ooooh, I see. Well, in that case, I humbly thank you for sharing that information with
me. I will be sure to put it to good use."
With that information now in my possession, I can seemingly double my earnings if I
ever go sell something in Palmasque when I go there to buy mirrors, so this is going
to be like killing to birds with one stone while actually having someone else do the
picking up and throwing for you so that you will not have to do literally anything! This
is definitely going to come in useful for us! Also, since it was translated properly from
this world's language, I also received a confirmation that Amber does exist in this
world. And since it is not as bulky and expensive as diamonds, it can easily be carried
by Adventurers who would want to use it for commercial purposes.
"Oh, I am sure that someone as excellent as you is going to put that information to
good use. To that end, allow me to introduce you to to a merchant who deals in amber
here in Bode. He is a reliable fellow as well as a long-time business partner of ours
who singlehandedly takes care of almost all of the amber related dealings and
transactions here in Bode. His store is situated right next door to the Bode's
Adventurer's Guild. I will also write a letter of recommendation for you. As long as you
are going to have it with you, you can be sure that he will not try to sell you any items
that would be of substandard value."
The Duke picked the quill up from the table and started writing something on another
piece of paper. He then folded the paper and dropped some wax from the candle on
top of it, while stamping it with the seal with his emblem engraved upon it.
Is this how a letter of introduction is actually made? By doing something so simple as
writing the introduction of a particular client on an ordinary piece of paper and then
sealing it up with a wax seal? I do not know what I actually expected, but definitely
not something so… plain and ordinary, I guess. Well, just as long as it allows me to
obtain the Palmasque Mirror without the ornamental frames by virtue of having the
commission for it from a noble, then I guess what form the letter of introduction takes
is of no consequence to me.
"Here you go. Show this to the store's owner and he is bound to do business with you
in the same way as if he was doing it with me."
Gozer took the sealed letter of introduction from the Duke's hands and placed it, along
with the written commission for the ornamentaless Palmasque Mirrors and the Hartz
Duchy Emblem on the table before me. The emblem is exactly the same one that I gave
to the Knight at the lobby when I came here. Does this mean that he does not need it
anymore? And more importantly, do I need it anymore? Because I do not think that I
need it anymore…
No, upon careful consideration, I do not think that this is going to be the case at all. I
think that this emblem is definitely going to come in handy when I will be buying and
eventually selling mirrors in Palmasque, so for the time being I should just hold onto
it and wait until the right opportunity to use it is going to present itself to me.
I then took a look at the paper where the details of the Duke's commission for the
Palmasque Mirrors were written down. It was written not on papyrus, but on a
legitimate sheet of parchment, same as with the letter of introduction, the only
difference being that the parchment with the commission's details was not sealed with
a wax seal or anything else similar to it.
.
I do not know if it holds any kind of deeper meaning or not, but maybe it is customary
among the nobles and royalty to write down all instances of official documents on a
paper of supreme quality, different from the papyrus and ordinary sheets of paper
used by the common folk?
"Thank you kindly for all you have done for me. Well then, if you will excuse me, I will
be on my way."
I took all of the items that were prepared for me and promptly left the Duke's office. I
returned to the castle's lobby and left the Bode Castle, returning back home to
Roxanne and Sherry.
"All right, I managed to get my hands on the commission order from a noble, so we
might go to Palmasque and buy the mirrors."
I said to the girls during breakfast when we were discussing everything that had
happened while I was away.
"You really managed to obtain something so important as easily as that?"
Sherry looked quite surprised, even though she was the one who told me that we were
going to need a commission order from a noble in order to get our hands on mirrors
without decorative frames.
"It would seem that the matter of obtaining a Palmasque mirror has given you a
surprisingly large amount of additional benefits, master."
"Y-Yeah, that may be so, but I am actually as surprised as Sherry is, if not even more. I
mean, I did not expect that obtaining a commission for the mirrors with nondecorative frames from a noble is going to be so easy. It almost feels as if it was too
easy."
"You should not feel surprised. You have already proven time and time again that good
things tend to happen naturally around you, master."
Putting aside the matter of whether such things really are happening around me
naturally or not, I think that most of the luck that I seem to be having lately can be
attributed to the straightforward and free-spirited disposition of the Duke of Hartz. I
would not go as far as to say that he is light-hearted or careless, but to put it another
way that will not make it seem as if I was making fun of him or insulting him: he has
this rare ability to make quick but reasonable decisions and to execute them
immediately for maximum effectiveness.
"So master, how many mirrors are we going to be buying? Two? Or just one for
ourselves this time?"
"Actually, the commission that the Duke has written is for a grand total of ten
Palmasque Mirrors with undecorated frames. The Duke also said that we do not have
to bring the mirrors to him all at once, and that as long as we manage to deliver them
to him safely, we can take as much time as we want, but the exact amount depends on
how well the talks in Palmasque are going to go, but if you asked me, it is definitely
better going with one mirror at a time so that we could be absolutely sure that none
of them are going to break accidentally. Also, for the mirror that we will be buying for
our home, I think that one is going to be more than enough. If you want, we can even
buy one that is equipped with a simple stand instead of one that would be hung upon
the wall."
"I see. That could definitely come in handy, because then we would be able to move it
around without the risk of damaging it. What great thinking of you, master!"
"What about the size of those ten mirrors though? Did the Duke of Hartz specify what
kind of mirrors he would want?"
"He said that he would not mind it if the sizes were different so that he could
experiment with them and choose the best one based on that. Like I was saying, since
the commission that the Duke wrote asks for ten mirrors in total, it is going to be
impossible to carry all of them all at once, so we will be transporting them over the
course of several trips. I also learned about a merchant associated with the Duke of
Hartz who runs a shop that deals with amber and I received a letter of introduction
thanks to which I am able to do business with that merchant as if I were the Duke
himself, then we might as well go and find out how big a demand for amber Palmasque
has at this time."
"Certainly, since we are going to be heading there again, it would be best to maximize
our profits from such a trip as much as possible. I understand."
Sherry started nodding vigorously at my suggestion. As expected of her, she really
does know what is good for our business. It looks like I again will be able to leave the
matters of making all of the purchases in her capable hands and everything will be
fine.
After finishing our meal, we warped to the Adventurer's Guild in Palmasque, where I
sent the girls to take care of the shopping after giving them the written commission,
money necessary to make the purchases and a silver coin for the City Entrance Tax. I
was a little bit worried about giving them something so important as the commission
written by the Duke of Hartz, but unfortunately, as much as I would love to go to
Palmasque and deal with everything by myself without giving my important items to
others, I simply cannot do that because I am not an Adventurer, and once that fact gets
discovered by the Knight serving under the Palmasque City Council during the
Intelligence Card inspection, they might get all suspicious of me and start asking
questions, and what is an Explorer heading out of the building that should have been
reserved for Adventurer's usage only if not extremely sus? Yeah, exactly!
Also, while Sherry did not say anything about it, I have a lingering feeling that slaves
might not like royalty and aristocrats very much, so the guards might find it suspicious
that a slave is carrying an order with a commission written by a noble, but then again,
maybe that exact fact is going to work to our advantage here? After all, since royalty
and nobles use slaves all the time, it might not actually be strange at all for them to be
sending their slaves to handle the shopping instead of going personally, because they
might see it as too much of a bother to do such a menial task themselves.
Having Roxanne and Sherry go do the shopping in my stead is a waste of the two silver
coins for the City Entrance Task in my opinion, since if I went there by myself I would
have to use only a single silver coin, but going to Palmasque is out of the question for
me right now. Well, it is not that it would be totally impossible for me, but it would
definitely be extremely hard.
Since "Warp" can only take me to the places that I have seen and been to myself, than
that leaves only Palmasque's Adventurer's Guild and what little of the city that I have
seen from within it. Of course, I could always try warping to Palmasque in the middle
of the night, when I would be pretty sure that nobody could see me warp into the city
from a place other than the Adventurer's Guild, since normally such a thing should not
be possible without having "Warp" like I do which is a Bonus Skill, but then I would
have another problem on my plate: how to spend the time in the city until the morning
throughout the night hours?
And would people not find it extra suspicious if there was a complete stranger whom
they have never seen before wandering around at even more suspicious hours from
the dead of night to the early morning? Staying at an inn might have been a good
option, but if I had to pay the City Entrance Tax just so that I could go and pay even
more money just to sit around in an inn doing absolutely nothing productive, then that
is what I would call a waste. Also, even if I were to warp to Palmasque during the
nightly hours, there is no telling that it would be one hundred percent safe for me,
because there is always a chance that someone could have been passing by at the
moment of my emergence from the warp portal, which would end up causing quite an
uproar, I am sure.
.
Now that I think about it, these are clearly the things that I should have researched
more before coming here, but on the other hand, coming here many times over means
increasing the risk of the locals remembering my face and attributing it either with
snooping around or some other suspicious activities, and if that happens to me even
once, it is going to be all over for me, since I will no longer be able to keep coming here
to Palmasque the way that I am doing now. Now I am truly beginning to see the
wisdom of Sherry's words when she said that it is going to be difficult to find a safe
place which I could warp to in Palmasque.
After sending Roxanne and Sherry to do the shopping that they have been entrusted
with, I spent some time at home and in the Labyrinth, after which I warped back to
Palmasque again, and after a short while of waiting, I saw that the two of them were
coming back, each one of them carrying a particularly big peace of baggage in front of
them. And although I am saying baggage, you know that by that I meant the mirrors,
right? Good, it would seem that they were able to purchase them successfully this time.
I am definitely glad that they manage to complete the task that I have given to them,
but at the same time, the way in which they are carrying these mirrors is making me
suffer through numerous anxiety attacks at the same time. To put this bluntly, these
mirrors look like they are quite large, and the way in which Roxanne and Sherry are
holding them is not exactly what I would call the safest one. They are holding onto
them by supporting them from below with their hands, and the mirrors rest on top of
their bodies, covering both of them from waist up entirely.
If these are the kind of mirrors that they bought, then I am guessing that they have to
be full-length mirrors, the kind that allows you to see your entire body from top to
bottom at once instead of showing just a portion of it. The method of holding that they
employed might have seem like the best possible one for them, but in truth, if they are
going to be holding the mirrors like that, then we will not be able to transport many
of them at once, just one for each of them, meaning that during one trip to Palmasque
and back from Palmasque we should be able to transport two mirrors at best.
Moreover, if the mirrors are this big, then it is more than likely that we will not be able
to go straight back home to Quratar from Palmasque, but we will probably have to
make a stop somewhere along the road so that I could hunt down a few monsters to
recover my lost MP, and that "somewhere" is definitely going to be the Labyrinth of
Zabir…
But Palmasque Mirrors, which are the mirrors made out of glass, are most likely just
as fragile as the glass mirrors that I know from my old world, and that means that we
absolutely cannot allow ourselves to take them to the Labyrinth with us or else we are
going to risk shattering them into a million pieces, which means that using the
Labyrinth as a checkpoint along the way is out of the question.
"I see that you were able to purchase the mirrors successfully."
"Yes. With the written commission from the Duke of Hartz in our hands, there was no
reason of the craftsmen to refuse us this time."
"All right, that is great to hear. So, would you like to go back home now?"
Well, if that is how it is going to be, then I guess there really is no helping it this time,
and since we would have to give this a try at some point, so we went back home from
Palmasque's Adventurer's Guild. And when we arrived back at home, it felt like the
earth has immediately become distorted the moment I placed my foot on it. It was so
distorted and uneven and it felt as if my feet were sinking into it, which made me want
to scream until my vocal cords all broke and my throat became soaked with my own
blood gushing out of it.
I do not understand what is going on, but the earth which was perfectly fine when we
were leaving for Palmasque before is all fucked up, there is darkness as far as my eyes
can see and the air feels heavy and stagnant, making the atmosphere of our cozy home
feel heavy and suffocating, almost as if my arrival here has turned every possible
element of the world hostile towards me.
The cause of me having all of those messed up hallucinations is, of course, me running
out of MP due to taking not only myself, Roxanne and Sherry, but also two big mirrors
along for the ride with us. It has been a long time since I felt like that, or rather, I think
that this is the first time where I allowed my MP to drop so much, and now it is making
me feel as if I was tripping some serious balls.
Ahhhh... no, it cannot be like that. Ahhhhh...… dear God in heaven. Ahhhhh... if
you are listening to this, then please forgive me in your infinite grace.
Why is this even happening to me? Why are you making me go through all these
tortures? Have I ever done anything to offend you? Or just the fact of my existence is
like a continuous insult to you, because you cannot bear the thought that something
like me, something worse than even the most vile and defiled of the fallen angels that
you have cast down from heaven continues to walk the earth while enjoying his new
life?
"Going from Palmasque to Quartar in a single warp, as expected of master."
"… I just barely managed to pull that shit off. Now drop these damn mirrors wherever
and let us be off to the Labyrinth already! Roxanne, as soon as we get there, find me a
group of weak monsters, okay?!"
I gave Roxanne an order without really paying attention to the praise that she has
given me right now, because to be honest, in my current state of mind, such a praise
was pretty much meaningless and awkward to me. I mean, even if I can go from
Palmasque to Quratar in one go, then what of it if such trip drains out my entire MP
bar? Such an ability is useless to if it is going to have such tremendous drawbacks!
The destination to which we have warped is the fourth floor of the Quratar's Labyrinth
because it is the closest one to our home so it should not even consume any of my MP
due to it being basically in the neighborhood, whereas even going to the Labyrinth of
Vale now might have been impossible for me without worsening my condition even
further.
Normally I would have ordered for us to go to a higher floor like ninth or tenth, but
with my current, extremely unstable condition there is no way that I am going to put
myself through such unnecessary risks. Right now, I just need to face enough monsters
with my Durandal to recover the entirety of my MP as soon as possible, and in order
to do that, there are no better enemies than the ones on the lower floors of the
Labyrinths that are going to just go and die in one hit...
Or at least that was what I thought, until I saw the group of enemies that we would
actually have to fight: a group of a Cheap Sheep and two Spi Spiders.
Oh no, of fuck, of my sweet Jesus why, just WHY?! You fucking game, why are you
throwing a group of such strong opponents at me when I am at my most vulnerable
here?! Spi Spiders are one of the enemies who have a chance to poison me with their
attacks! Do you understand what you have just done here?! I specifically went here
because I did not want to fight against NT Ants that could poison me, and what do you
do to help me with that? You throw me at yet another enemy that can poison me!
Where the fuck is any kind of logic in that?! No, I cannot do it! I cannot fight against
these monsters! I am afraid! I am just too afraid of getting my ass poisoned again if
one of their attacks is going to hit me!
.
Spi Spiders are monsters that are native to the third floor of Quratar's Labyrinth.
Because of that, they are going to appear on the fourth floor quite often. And that
means… that means... fuck, I cannot even think straight anymore. There is not
enough energy and intelligence left in my head to form such complex thoughts. And
even if I had enough of it, my small, pea-sized brain would probably not be able to
comprehend them.
I could have easily blamed the current situation on Roxanne and her choice of enemies
that she has chosen to guide us to… But I know very well that this is not her fault. She
had no way of knowing exactly which enemies we are going to be running into, and
she was simply following my command of finding an easy set of targets for us so that
I could have replenished my MP while killing them all with one blow...
But there is also a possibility that she chose such targets in order to be mean to me
and make the process of my MP recovery as long and arduous as possible. Of course…
But of course…! That much should have been obvious! That must be her way of getting
revenge on me for having her carry that heavy mirror while I myself just stood there
and watched, not even asking either her or Sherry if they wanted some help with it!
Ugh, my poor, slow, incompetent brain feels like it is going to boil over from all these
thoughts that are currently running through my head. And it makes it difficult for me
to aim my strikes with Durandal properly, but ultimately I finally managed to defeat
all three opponents with a grand total of three swings, thanks to which the haze that
has been clouding my mind gradually clears up, making it obvious that there was no
reason for me to be afraid of just two Spi Spiders Lv.4, because they are so weak and
the probability of them inflicting poison upon me is so miniscule that it is practically
non-existent.